I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. Psalm 9:1.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
If you are not thankful for your life, renewal of youth will not happen for you. A lack of gratitude is a destroyer of what you have. A cheerful heart does good like a medicine, but a thankful heart draws in every blessing. A grateful heart brings increase, an ungrateful heart loses the little you thought you had.
“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore you shall serve your enemy whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and the enemy will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. Deuteronomy 28:47-48.
And there is only one thing that destroys the yoke, and that is the anointing. And the anointing comes with praise and thanksgiving. You enter My courts with thanksgiving. I do not give you another option.
If you are not thankful for something you will treat it with disrespect, you will not increase it, and that has to do with your life and who you are as well.
Cultivate gratitude and you will find your life become one of wonders.
The voice of thanksgiving brings wonders, especially healing, which has to do with renewal of youth.
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. 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.
I will take you to an incident in the life of My Son among you in the flesh on earth that is 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. His youth was renewed.
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. 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.