I shall wash my hands in innocence 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:
If you have not been receiving your healing it is time for you to see what is getting in the way of you seizing the opportunity I give you to take healing.
Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars; she has prepared her food, she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table; she has sent out her maidens, she calls from the tops of the heights of the city: “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks understanding she says, “Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake your folly and live, and proceed in the way of understanding.” Proverbs 9:1-5.
In the last Life Lesson we spoke about the way in which you receive healing according to My Word and it is My Word that I sent to heal you and deliver you from your destructions. So to be healed, which is a Covenant promise, you must do it according to My Word and not draw back.
“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.” Isaiah 59:21.
You must be like the wise man that built his house on a solid rock foundation and no storm could take his house down, it was still standing there strong when the raging storm past, like a city set on a mountain, like a fortress, a beacon light to all. A memorial, like My Covenant Names.
God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD (יהוה), the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. Exodus 3:15.
I AM the One who is, who was, and who will always be your rock, your everlasting rock (tsur olam). And I am My Word and when you hear, obey and do My Word you have built your life on the Rock that is higher than you where you will find refuge from the storms of life and healing for all your flesh.
From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength against the enemy. Psalm 61:2-3.
My Name is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe, lifted inaccessibly high. Proverbs 18:10. Every one of My Covenant Names is a strong tower of the promise it holds for you. And in these lessons we have been looking at My Covenant Name of the LORD your healer. And that Name is a strong tower against the onslaughts of sickness and disease. A strong tower set high on the everlasting rock.
And what do you do in a fortified city? Rejoice and give thanks.
For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD. Psalm 27:5-6.
My joy is your strength and joy is your song.
The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. The right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the LORD. Psalm 118:14-17.
There is only one way you can have joy and peace and quiet your mind to all else in every situation that comes, whether smooth sailing or a tossing sea, and that is summed up in one word: TRUST, absolute, fully persuaded, non-changeable trust in My Word, but more than that, trust in Me based on the personal relationship you have with Me.
“We have a strong city; He sets up walls and ramparts for security. Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter, the one that remains faithful. Those who have their minds stayed on you, You will keep in perfect peace (shalom, shalom), because they trust in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in God the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock. Isaiah 26:2-4.
It was not until Abraham was fully persuaded that what I said would come to pass if he just focused on that and nothing else that seemed to contradict it, and it was than at about one hundred years old My promise came to pass in his life. The promise was always sure but it was waiting for his faith to show up so he could take it.
And trust gives you joy and joy breaks out in praise and thanksgiving and it is then that I can come and dwell in your praises and bring miracles to pass. It is then I will fight with and for you and bring down so many blessings that they chase you down and overwhelm you.
When all looks lost and you are about to give up and do a lot of crying and complaining, you must not give in to this. You must straighten up and lift up your head and sing with your understanding and also with your spirit. You must shout joyfully as you sing out praises for things I have done for you in your past and now promise for your future and especially for the healing you are seeking at that moment.
Thanksgiving is the catalyst that brings about the awesome igniting of the promise in My Word with your faith—your fully persuaded faith, which is trust in who I am to you and who you are to Me.
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.
What is THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING? I 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.
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. And we will talk more about this in our next Life Lesson.
I love you. Learn how to proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving. You will see it in many places in My Word and it is always followed by a wonder. Yes, even the Israelites did it before I brought them out of Egypt before they had seen even one wonder. Exodus 4:31. The voice of thanksgiving brings wonders. Jesus did it and it caused wonders to manifest. It will with you too.