Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you and made you whole.” Luke 17:11-19.
“And I will go about Your altar, O LORD, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and declare all Your wonders.” Psalm 26:6-7.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
There is another miracle of Jesus that we have not covered yet and it has a very important lesson in it for living days of Heaven on earth. It is the healing of the ten lepers when Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and was close to the border of Samaria in Galilee. This miracle is only found in the gospel account of Luke, the physician. This miracle was amazing to him for he knew the devastation that the unclean spirit of leprosy could cause it allowed to remain unchecked.
Jesus and His disciples were known for cleansing lepers. Jesus would reach out and touch them and cleanse them and He had given His disciples that authority as well. “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” Matthew 10:7-8. And He had made it very clear that My Will was to heal leprosy, as well as every other work of the devil. I sent Jesus to undo the works of the devil. And leprosy was one of them.
I had given Moses regulations with respect to leprosy among the people and I had given instructions for their cleansing. “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look, and if the infection of leprosy has been healed in the leper, then the priest shall give orders” for certain sacrifices and offerings, including the unblemished lamb. Leviticus 14:1-4. But “As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’” Leviticus 13:45.
And there were miraculous healings of leprosy as well, such as the cleansing of Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, at the prayers of Elisha, and Miriam after leprosy came upon her when she was gossiping about and criticizing Moses behind his back. And her healing came by the intercessory prayers of the one of whom she had spoken evil, that is, Moses himself.
But in the miracle we are studying today, Jesus cleansed ten lepers at the same time. All ten had united together in agreement to be healed, they went seeking Him and when they found Him, they would not keep silent, they cried out to Jesus in faith for healing.
“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matthew 18:19-20.
And when they cried out in faith to Jesus and relied on His power to heal, they were not disappointed. All ten were cleansed but only one was made whole. He was not only cleansed of the disease, but all the damage it had done to his body and life was completely restored as if it had never been but even better than before.
You would be wise to learn from him if you want to see days of Heaven upon the earth in your life. I call it the “voice of thanksgiving,” and it is one of the most, if not the most, powerful faith connector and conductor, a super conductor, that is known to man.
David sang that he would go around My altar proclaiming with the voice of thanksgiving and declaring all My wonders. Jonah vowed that he would sacrifice to Me with a voice of thanksgiving. “But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.” Jonah 2:9. And it pulled Jonah out of the depths of the sea right to the place he was supposed to be. There is a lot for you to ponder here.
The word “wonders” is the Hebrew word pala (verb) from pele (noun) which means something so surpassing and extraordinary, so amazingly wonderful, that it is hard to understand—a wonder.
It is the same Word I use to describe Jesus come in the flesh in the book of My prophet Isaiah. I tell you that the name of the child to be born to you, the Son given to you, shall be called Wonderful. And Jeremiah the prophet tells you that nothing is too surpassing and extraordinary, too wonderful, for Me to do. Jeremiah 32:17, 27. I am the God of wonders.
For you, My people, I work wonders. Strangely wonderful occurrences in your lives. Unfathomable. I told Moses, “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do wonders such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.” Exodus 34:10.
And what did David do before he declared My wonders? He proclaimed with the voice of thanksgiving as he went about My altar. And when Jonah was about to drown in the depths of a stormy sea he called out to Me with the voice of thanksgiving, and I sent him salvation and brought him out of the depths by a wonder, a huge fish that swallowed him whole and spit him out right near the destination of Nineveh, where I had sent him in the first place.
What is THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING? I should think you would like to know if it brings forth wonders. And I will show you that it does.
And that is what took place with the tenth leper. So let us go to that miracle now for a demonstration of the voice of thanksgiving and you will see it resulted from a wonder.
While Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you and made you whole.” Luke 17:11-19.
The cleansed leper who returned shows you what the voice of thanksgiving is. But to get the true meaning, you will have to look at it in the original language in which it was written, and that is Greek. One of the healed lepers returned to give thanks. But I want you to see how he gave thanks. I tell you that this one, when he saw that he had been healed, returned glorifying Me with a loud voice. That is an understatement. In the Greek, the word used there is “megas,” which means large or great in the widest sense, like a megaphone. This was shouting praise, this was amplified with his loudest voice. And what had happened to him was a wonder, strangely wonderful. He was cleansed and made whole. He had been cleansed but the thanksgiving took him all the way to wholeness—to the shalom plans I have for each of you.
But he did not stop there with his mega voice. He fell on his face at the feet of Jesus, giving thanks to Him. Luke 17:16.
This man was so grateful that he did not just fall to his knees, he fell prostrate before Jesus and with face to the ground thanked Him with all his heart. Do you show that kind of gratitude for all I have done for you in Jesus? And he did this before he saw the manifestation of his full redemption.
The word you see translated as “thanks,” is eucharisteó, it is from the words “eú”, which means “good” and “xaris,” which means “grace,” in other words, acknowledging that My grace works well, i.e. for your eternal gain and My glory; to give thanks is literally, “thankful for God’s good grace.” This word is only used two times in the Gospel of Matthew and the same in the Gospel of Mark. And let Me show you where, and you will see they always proceed a wonder.
“Eucharisteó” is used for the first time in the New Testament in Matthew 15:36 and it occurs before a wonder takes place. Take a look: A large crowd had come to hear Jesus teach and preach and to be healed. After three days of teaching them and healing them, Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.” The disciples said to Him, “Where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?” And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks (i.e., eucharisteó), He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. Matthew 15:32-38. The voice of thanksgiving brought forth a wonder.
The second time it is used in the New Testament, and the only other time in the Gospel of Matthew, is in chapter 26 on the night before Jesus died for you. Take a look: While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks (i.e., eucharisteó), He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:26-27. My grace is enough. Nothing is too wonderful for Me. The wine became the blood of My Son, and it still does, just from one voice of thanksgiving.
These are the same two incidents you will see in Mark, Luke and John. Luke and John add a few more circumstances in which it was used, but still has the two the same.
And back to the voice of thanksgiving as expressed by the cleansed leper in the Gospel of Luke. You will note that he came back glorifying Me in a loud (mega) voice. And Jesus remarked, “Was there no one to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?”
The work glorify in Greek is “doxazo,” which is to render or esteem glorious in a wide application. Glory is “doksa,” which is equal in meaning to the Hebrew word, “kavode” which is also translated “glory,” but literally means “heavy,” weighing in at great weight, in other words considered valuable in your opinion, exercising your personal opinion to determine value and finding this splendid, exceedingly great and worthy of all praise. Greatly esteemed.
So what is the voice of thanksgiving? It is a loud (mega) shout declaring My glory and praise as you throw yourself face down at the feet of Jesus declaring the abundance of My grace that moves mountains and creates miracles. With enough grace you can do anything.
When you need a wonder, remember that nothing is too wonderful for Me to do, and then proclaim praise with the voice of thanksgiving as you walk about My altar. As your voice goes up the walls come down. Like Jericho. Like Jehoshaphat and the three enemy armies attacking Jerusalem. When they loudly proclaimed, “Give thanks to the LORD for He is good, His love endures forever,” in the face of what looked like certain defeat, the enemy was vanquished and all ended peacefully with a blessing of much booty.
I love you. Learn how to proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving. Jesus did it and it caused wonders to manifest. It will with you too.