Greetings in the name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night bible Fellowship!

                                                                                                                                              

Scripture shows that learning to be genuinely GRATEFUL for the presence of God's FAVOR in our lives can develop into a powerful spiritual FORCE. In fact THANKSGIVING was specially designed by our loving Creator God to help the New Testament Church connect to His prosperity, success and victory. Unfortunately though, many of us have pretty much overlooked its potential as a proactive part of Christian life even though there's a LOT of Scripture about it and even though it's really NOT all that hard to do.  

 

So tonight as we continue delving into this subject, let's start once again by reviewing a few of the main scriptures from the New Testament that speak to it and I recommend that you resist the temptation to let your eyes skip down to the next paragraph until you've taken a moment to let the Word speak to you personally through each of these scriptures so that by your understanding you can take ownership of them:

 

1 Corinthians 15:57 - Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:14 - Thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ.

Ephesians 5:20 - Give thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:12 - Give thanks to the Father for the inheritance we have received.

Colossians 2:7 - We are to be firmly rooted in Christ, established in our faith and overflowing with thanksgiving.

Colossians 3:17 - In all that we do we are to do it in the name of Jesus giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Colossians 4:2 - We are to devote ourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 - It is God's WILL for us who are in Christ that we give thanks for everything.

1 Timothy 4:4 - Everything created by God is good and should be received with thanksgiving.

Hebrews 13:15 - Let us continually give thanks to the name of Jesus.

 

Now I also recommend that you refer to these 10 scriptures on a regular basis in your favorite translations to keep them fresh in your mind because if you want it to, this could turn out to be a real important part of your Christian walk. Also, because of space limitations here in this newsletter format, the above wording is a summarization to just capture the key thoughts with a minimum number of words and you'll want to review the full text that contains all the richness and depth and revelation you would expect from the actual living Scripture (Hebrews 4:12) as originally inspired by the Holy Spirit. In any event most of us have had a tendency to just gloss over this subject without understanding God's intentions for it. And of course the enemy is only too glad to help us do that gloss-over because he wants to stop us from connecting to the VICTORY that Jesus died for us to take possession of, NOW.

 

The Purpose of Giving Thanks

 

God deserves our THANKSGIVING and surely there can be no question about it. In fact, there's a long list of things we could be THANKING Him for starting with the gift of Jesus who He sent in payment for ALL the sins (1 Corinthians 15:3) of ALL mankind (1 John 2:2) for ALL time (Hebrews 10:12, 14). Most Believers are at least aware of how much He's done for them and for the most part we're glad we're not like we used to be before we accepted Christ. Indeed He deserves our THANKSGIVING, but if that's as far as we let out thinking go then we'll tend to see all these scriptures in sort of a religious context as just INSTRUCTIONS for giving HONOR to a well-deserving God. It's a good thing to give HONOR to God; but friend when He inspired all these INSTRUCTIONS to be put down on paper, He had WAY more in mind than just attracting honor and glory to Himself. He doesn't need our THANKSGIVING; His ego doesn't require the continuous GRATITUDE encouraged by all these scriptures. Anyway, He loved all us human beings before we had ever even heard of Him and He'll continue to love us whether we THANK Him for anything or not. You see, the "agape" kind of love God gives is unconditional.

 

What is it then that the Lord has for the people of THANKSGIVING who're genuinely and continuously GRATEFUL? We can start to answer that question by recalling that almost all the Israelites who were delivered from bondage in Egypt had to die in the wilderness instead of going into the Promised Land. Why? According to Scripture it was because their complaining and ingratitude demonstrated their HARDNESS OF HEART (Hebrews 3:13-19). People with hardness of heart are unable to perceive spiritual things (Mark 8:17-18) because their hardness springs from unbelief (Hebrews 3:19) which cuts them off from the blessings and the power of God's GRACE. Remember that GRACE is defined as the undeserved FAVOR AND EMPOWERMENT of God and there're a couple of additional scriptures you should check out tonight to see this principle clearly confirmed:

 

1 Corinthians 10:10 - Grumbling and complaining (being unthankful) opens the door to the destroyer.

Romans 1:21-22 - People who are not thankful become darkened (hardened) and foolish which leads to futility in life.

 

Friend, God had a better way for those original Israelites and He has a better way tonight for New Testament Believers. That better way comes through living a lifestyle of Thanksgiving because the Lord sees to it that Believers who're TRULY grateful not only INHERIT the Promised Land, they also learn how to receive the benefits from it NOW. Are there trials in the Promised Land? Yes, of course. But God causes us to triumph every single time (2 Corinthians 2:14). If there were no trials, there would be no triumphs! So, what the Lord has for each of us who're full of THANKSGIVING is His GRACE, His empowerment to overcome every trial, every tribulation, every storm, every attack, every shortage, and everything else the enemy can throw in our direction. THANKSGIVING overcomes every problem and moves every mountain by His GRACE and through FAITH in the name of Jesus! 

 

God's actual purpose for THANKSGIVING is to benefit us. It's not for Him, it's for us. The fact is, every INSTRUCTION from God we can find in our Bibles is for our own good. It's there to bless us. Somewhere behind every INSTRUCTION there's a blessing for Believers, there's GRACE for the Body of Christ, there's something special to be discovered far beyond what it first seems like. The Holy Spirit wants to disclose all these things to us (John 16:13). No one can teach us like He can (John 14:26). But we have to open our spiritual ears to hear what He's saying. We have to overcome our hardness of heart by entering into GRATITUDE so that then we can open up our ears and actually hear.

 

My suggestion is to put a list of these scriptures (and there are many others) somewhere prominent near your Prayer Closet to remind you to proactively pursue an attitude of THANKSGIVING. And by the way, it doesn't make any difference what's going on in your life; the Bible doesn't say to be THANKFUL only when everything is great. No, we must learn to be genuinely THANKFUL no matter what's going on. And, if you think about it we're either thankful or we're unthankful; there's no in-between. If we're never THANKFUL then by default we're unthankful and if we're unthankful we open the door to spiritual HARDNESS which is something to avoid at all costs. So CHOOSE to be THANKFUL!

 

We all want more empowerment, more of God's favor in our lives, right? I've never met anyone who already has all they can use, which is to say that we want more of God's GRACE. God's GRACE became available to Believers when Jesus shed His blood on the Cross to usher in a New Covenant, a better covenant with better promises (Hebrews 8:6). Now all we have to do is CONNECT to that GRACE. We have to attract it, take it, embrace it, take ownership of it, in order to accomplish the purposes God has for our lives. The GRACE of God produces ABUNDANCE and VICTORY and tonight I want to make it clear that THANKSGIVING is the gateway, the entranceway into the GREATER GRACE you've been waiting and asking for. We can THANK our way out of defeat, we can THANK our way out of lack and insufficiency, we can THANK our way out of illness and disease. And we can THANK our way out of ignorance and confusion and into the revelation that comes by being spiritually sensitive to the Holy Spirit. THANKSGIVING can do way more than we've ever thought possible and as I said at the outset, it's not all that hard to do.      

 

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on February 9. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing, compelling you to PROSPER in every area of life!

 

Sinners' Prayer

 

If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:

 

Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.

 

If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

 

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

 

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

 

Prayer Requests

 

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

 

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx

 

Donations

 

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.

 

http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1

 

About Prosperous Life Newsletter

 

PLN is an outreach ministry of Make A Way Ministries domiciled in Miami, Florida. It is in its 17th year of distribution and has been published continuously since January 1998. It's an e-publication primarily about finances in the Kingdom of God and is sent ONLY to our email list of MINISTRY MEMBERS. If you're reading this and aren't yet on our growing email list, please let us know and we'll be so very happy to add you to the list.

 

� Make A Way Ministries, Inc.

204 Turner Circle

Granbury, Texas 76048