Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!

 

Thanks for joining us again and let's start out this evening by reiterating a few key points straight out of our Bibles that we've looked at so far in our studies over these last eighteen weeks that relate specifically to our topic of developing a lifestyle of THANKSGIVING. We hope you've been following along with us but if you missed some of the previous articles or have questions about how we came to these conclusions please feel free to email us and we'll try to answer your questions. But for tonight, let's just look over the following summary:  

 

1.  There're many scriptures especially in the New Testament instructing us to be THANKFUL.

2.  Those INSTRUCTIONS are there primarily for our own good, not to initiate some religious exercise for pleasing God.

3.  Being THANKFUL connects us to God's GRACE which represents His favor and empowerment to overcome our trials.

4.  We're either GRATEFUL or UN-grateful in life; there's no in-between place.

5.  Being UN-grateful opens the door to the Destroyer to come into our lives exactly as happened to the Israelites.

6.  New Testament THANKSGIVING requires us to walk by FAITH believing for God to fulfill His promises.

7.  We have to learn to be THANKFUL by pursuing it because it doesn't come naturally.

8.  We have to put our focus on God's BLESSING instead of on our self-generated and Adversary-produced trials.

9.  THANKSGIVING by connecting us to God's GRACE will produce VICTORY in every area of a Believer's life, NOW.

10. Developing a lifestyle of GRATITUDE and connecting to God's GRACE are relatively EASY to understand and pursue.

 

Now the focus of these key points is this: GRATITUDE for the presence of God's goodness in our lives has to become a prevailing, ongoing way of thinking that characterizes who we are as Believers. That's what a "lifestyle" is. Why? It needs to be that way because GRATITUDE is grounded in LOVE and Jesus COMMANDED us to LOVE the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37). How can we LOVE God if we're grumbling and complaining all the time about what He's doing? Unfortunately MOST Christians DO grumble and complain a LOT which explains why so many of us are in the wilderness most the time wandering around, weak and defeated, unable to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and trying to find our way out in our own strength.

 

The Greek word translated LOVE in this scripture is agape which is a special, unconditional kind of LOVE. It's the way God LOVES and we're supposed to learn from the Holy Spirit how to LOVE Him unconditionally in return. Why is that important? LOVE keeps us close to Him where we can hear His voice and see what He's doing the way Jesus did (John 5:19) so we can rely on Him to lead us out of our wildernesses. But grumbling and complaining all the time opens the door to the Destroyer the way it did for the Israelites (1 Corinthians 10:10) and the tragedy for them was that because of their lack of GRATITUDE most of them never got out of the wilderness to experience the Promised Land. In sum, focusing on being GRATEFUL will help teach us how to LOVE unconditionally the way GOD loves.

 

Taking the Seed

 

Now, the Bible says that the Word of God is an imperishable SEED (1 Peter 1:23). It's not similar to a SEED; it IS a SEED and this particular SEED is eternal. God is offering His eternal SEED to anyone who wants it enough to simply receive it. It's ours for the TAKING. When any person finally decides to receive the SEED he/she is immediately born again; and after that happens, Christian life is supposed to be about cultivating the SEED so it takes root firmly and grows into maturity. In this series of articles, the SEED we're receiving is that a relatively simple way to achieve VICTORY in Christian life is by developing a lifestyle of THANKSGIVING. How do we know this? It's because the SEED says so and here again are a couple of scriptures we've looked at before that confirm it:

 

Psalm 50:23 - He who offers a sacrifice of THANKSGIVING, honors Me.

1 Samuel 2:30 - Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed.

 

Under the New Covenant, Believers have access to God's GRACE by FAITH. In other words, by GRACE through FAITH we can receive EVERYTHING in His Kingdom. God's GRACE has already been released to HONOR Jesus for what He accomplished on the Cross. All we have to do is connect to it in order to receive salvation and everything the Kingdom has to offer through FAITH. And so, we can see from Scripture that one of the main ways we connect to His GRACE is by developing a prevailing attitude of THANKSGIVING. Friend that's why it's mentioned so many times in the New Testament: God wants you connected to His GRACE.

 

If you have ears to hear tonight you can hear from this article that the SEED God wants to plant in the heart of the Believer is to be GRATEFUL. You can TAKE that SEED by agreeing with the Word, asking the Holy Spirit to help you get the UNDERSTANDING of it for yourself and then working to engraft it into your life. GRATITUDE starts with REMEMBERING all the great things God has done for you and then releasing your FAITH that at the right time He'll show up again to fulfill every promise He's made to you including leading you out of every trial.

 

There is though a problem to overcome: we Christians are notoriously FORGETFUL.

 

Protecting the Seed

 

How many times when we're in our local church services do we hear something preached from the Word that sounds really great but by the time we get home we've forgotten it? Most of the time that's the end of it and in order to finally get that important point to where we can use it, we may have to hear it 20 more times until we can finally remember it. Why does that happen? The Bible says that when we hear the Word Satan comes immediately to try to steal it (Mark 4:15). The enemy does not want us to remember the Word because if we don't remember it, we can't use it in our lives to RESIST him the way Jesus did (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10).

 

Most of the time when we first hear the Word, when we first notice some new aspect of the SEED we don't fully UNDERSTAND it. We have to ponder it and study it and meditate on it and examine it, etc. until it becomes a personal REVELATION. The truth is we'll forget what we don't UNDERSTAND. That's the way we are and the enemy is determined to keep us from cultivating a new SEED so we can eventually harvest fruit from it. Yes, the SEED is eternal but it won't necessarily be eternally YOUR SEED unless you work to UNDERSTAND it, receive it as personal REVELATION and then apply it in your life so it can work on your behalf.

 

On a personal note, I consider the REVELATION of being GRATEFUL to be a key scriptural means for achieving VICTORY in every area of my life. Since I've chosen to write articles about it every week, it's fresh in my mind and I give it a lot of attention. I have a list of ten New Testament THANKSGIVING scriptures taped to our refrigerator door so I can see them several (many?) times a day. I am serious about not letting this personal REVELATION get away from me. I refuse to forget it and I use it almost every day to help me remember.

 

The point is we'll tend to PROTECT what we consider to be valuable. Are you hearing and seeing THANKSGIVING to God as just another nice little bible idea to think more about someday in the future or as a fundamental key to Christian VICTORY that needs your attention now? If it's the latter then you'll want to take the necessary steps to PROTECT your valuables from the thief. It's guaranteed that he's determined to separate you from those valuables if you allow him to; you have to protect your own valuables. Yes, the Bible clearly says we are the ones who have the responsibility to RESIST the devil ourselves (James 4:7 and 1 Peter 5:8-9). Jesus has ALREADY defeated him and now it's up to us to enforce the victory in His Name. We have all the authority and GRACE we need to do that and if we make an effort the Holy Spirit will help us REMEMBER what we need to know to get the VICTORY every single time (2 Corinthians 2:14). He won't do the work for us but He WILL help us remember if we put proper value on His SEED.       

 

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on May 18. 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