We have now been pursuing our theme of thanksgiving for two months, and what is becoming clearer and clearer is that as we respond in all the various situations of life with thanksgiving, we are in fact choosing to respond to everything with faith in our hearts. As we thank God for the opportunities that come every day to trust Him, and to know Him in all the different circumstance that life throws up for us, we are in fact partnering with the Holy Spirit. Through setting our hearts to thank Him we are getting to see Gods’ perspective on what is happening in our lives, and we are also expressing and growing our faith in who He wants to be for us in those situations.
Our thanksgiving opens us up to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then enables us to receive the love of God, to understand His ways, to appropriate His promises and to walk with Him in faith and confidence. Thanksgiving allows God to be to us all that He promises to be in and for us, and to let Him always ‘lead us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him’. 2 Corinthians 2:14.
This is a journey of growing in faith, and I hope you are enjoying it. I believe the Lord wants us to know today that three big things are happening on this journey of thanksgiving. Firstly we are blessing Him and causing His face to shine on us because He is enjoying this journey with us. Secondly we are growing in our faith in who He is for us and who He is within us and thirdly, something we might not have quite realized, we are robbing the enemy of any free parking in our minds. In fact we are giving him a headache in the sense that we are causing him a problem as to how he can get to us!
We are also giving him a headache because he can’t stand us believing God and thanking Him and honouring Him with our praise, and because we are, at the same time, shutting out the lies and half truths that feed our doubts and fears. If we don’t listen to him he has no power over us. His power depends on us entertaining, then believing, and then even acting, on his lies.
Our thanksgiving raises our faith in the Lord and drowns out the enemy. I think that deserves a spiritual ‘high five’. So let us continue to pursue thanksgiving as our lifestyle and see what encouragements the Lord has for us over the next few months, and what He will do in our lives as we travel this road with Him.
