Thanksgiving

Pr Julius Suubi

19-09-2018

Psalm 47:1 New King James Version (NKJV)

Praise to God, the Ruler of the Earth

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

47 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!

Shout to God with the voice of triumph!

Clapping in Hebrew is taqa. It means to smash your enemies in your fist.

We are living in a time where God is on a global level. The Lord is doing things that were impossible.

We have entered into an atmosphere of hostility.

Trump becoming the President of the United States. God brought him in.

The President of North Korea meeting Trump in Singapore.

As prophetic people, we have to read the signs of the times.

Australia has a Prime Minister who is born again and a Pentecostal Christian.

Zimbabwe saw a regime change. 

The lady who married the Prince of England is a woman of colour. 

Malaysia came out with a wonder of wonders and gave us a Prime Minister who is 93 years old.

We give God praise and glory because it is the finger of God that is working.

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Nehemiah 8:13-18 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Feast of Tabernacles

13 Now on the second day the heads of the fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law. 14 And they found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths[a] during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

16 Then the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim. 17 So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made [b]booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. 18 Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner.

God gave the children of Israel instructions to celebrate the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.

The Feast of Tabernacles remind the children of Israel to continue to have a thankful heart and to share stories of how their fathers lived in the wilderness and now they are in the land of milk and honey. 

From the days of Joshua to Nehemiah, they forgot the good things that God had done in their lives.

You have to be grateful and thank the Lord for what He has done in your nation and in your life. 

God brought you out of the furnace of affliction and corruption. He brought you a new government. There is a force of oppression that has been lifted off.

We must give God the thanksgiving that is in line with the level of breakthrough that the Lord gave to you.

To move to the next level, we must, first of all, thank Him for what He has done.

There is something that has taken place in the realm of the spirit. There was a demonic prince that was ruling over the land. That demonic prince was overthrown and we see change in the physical land.

Matthew 18:18 New King James Version (NKJV)

18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

This is not the time to relax.

You have to go all the way to take complete advantage.

David and his men pursued the Amalekites all the way and surprised them in battle. (1 Samuel 30)

After Haman was hung, Esther instituted a constitutional amendment that granted the Jews in every city the right "to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children, and to plunder the property of their enemies. (Esther 8:11) The original command from Haman was "to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day." (Esther 3:13) She went out all the way to get total victory.

It is not time to go back and sleep and celebrate. It is now time to continue in prayer until the forces of darkness have been pushed out of this nation and we see revival in this land.

On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua commanded the sun to stand still upon Gibeon. (Joshua 10)

This is the time to continue to press on for a toral breakthough.

He who began a good work in Malaysia will bring it to completion.

In Uganda, when change came, people stopped praying and an approximately 100,000 to 500,000 people were killed in the Ugandan Bush War. Then HIV came and took even more lives.

Church of Malaysia, don't relax. Don't draw back. Let's continue in prayer.

It is not about the change of  government. It is about the destiny of the nation.

1) Thanksgiving opens the gates of heaven and the doors of our heart. 

Psalm 100:4 New King James Version (NKJV)

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

For us to enter into the gates of the presence of God, we do not enter them by spiritual warfare. You enter by thanking the Lord of what He has done. When we give thanks, the door of our hearts open up. We need to have a thankful heart.

Satan had tabrets (timbrels) and pipes (flute or horn, or organ) built into his body. He was anointed as a guardian cherub. He walked among the stones of fire. But pride led to Satan's fall. Rather than give God the glory for creating him so beautifully, iniquity was found in him. His heart became proud on account of his beauty, and he corrupted his wisdom because of his splendour. (Ezekiel 28:11-19) 

As a result of this heinous sin against God, Lucifer was banished from living in heaven (Isaiah 14:12). He became corrupt, and his name changed from Lucifer (“morning star”) to Satan (“adversary”). His power became completely perverted (Isaiah 14:12,16,17).

Lucifer was never grateful. He wanted more. He was so ambitious.

People who are not thankful are always looking at what God had not done in their lives.

It is not the time for us to murmur and complain.

All we have to say is, "Lord, thank You for what You have done."

Ingratitude is the mindset of the devil.

I was so discouraged and felt that the past was better than now.

The devil is very smart to make you forget what God had done in your life.

I came across a letter by a woman that was given to me on the day I was ordained but I did not read it.

That day, my shoes were torn all over. She was coming down and I was going up. I looked so miserable. I had no wife or children then. I had no house. Now I have a wife and children.

Immediately I began to thank the Lord. Now I have better shoes. I have a house.

The entire atmosphere in the room changed. I cried for hours.

Always remember where the Lord has brought you from. Remember the small things that God had done in your life and things will begin to change.

When I went to Kenya, I was living in a slump. At night it was very cold. During the day it was too hot. There's always a long queue to take a shower.

I used to sleep on the floor.

One day I prayed and thanked the Lord. I began to cry and weep for hours. God reminded me of His faithfulness.

One week later, this young man wanted to visit me. He said, "God was rebuking me for not knowing where your pastor was staying." 

The lady who brought him entered the house and she began to cry.

Be grateful. Give thanks to God. 

2) Thanksgiving is one of the highest forms of supplication you can offer. 

Philippians 4:6 New King James Version (NKJV)

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

The sowing prayer is a supplication prayer. "Lord, change my nation and my children/family."

Genesis 8:22 New King James Version (NKJV)

22 “While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

Cold and heat,

Winter and summer,

And day and night

Shall not cease.”

The spiritual realm runs in cycles. Sowing prayer leads you to a cycle of harvesting.

Thanksgiving prayer converts to harvest.

"O God, thank You for the revival that is coming. Thank You for the economy that is coming again."

That is harvesting prayer.

Never finish a prayer without thanksgiving. 

Amos 9:13 New King James Version (NKJV)

13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,

“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,

And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;

The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,

And all the hills shall flow with it.

The plowman signifies sowing. The reaper represents harvesting.

The days are coming. The plowman will overtake the reaper. He who breaks up the ground, and prepares it for the seed, shall be ready to tread on the heels of the reaper; who shall have a harvest so large, that before he can gather it all in, it shall be time to plough the ground again. 

Many times we get little breakthroughs when we pray. We pray so much but we see little answers. We invest so much but the harvest is so little.

With little prayer, the harvest is so much.

3) Thanksgiving gives multiplication.

Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven, gave thanks, broke them and handed them to the disciples who in turn fed the 5,000. (Matthew 14:13-21)

Thank God for the little things.

4) Thanksgiving creates a platform to go back to God to deliver once again. 

Psalm 50:14-15 New King James Version (NKJV)

14 Offer to God thanksgiving,

And pay your vows to the Most High.

15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

The day of trouble will come for everyone.

You'll enjoy the season. But a day of trouble will come and you call Him and He will answer.

5) Thanksgiving draws the glory of God. 

1 Chronicles 16:7-36

It was thanksgiving and praising that brings the glory of God in the days of Solomon. 

The Jews can really praise the Lord.

We want the glory of God to fall on Malaysia.

We want the glory of God to fall on the leadership of Malaysia.

We want the glory of God to fall over everything in Malaysia.

This nation belongs to God. He loves Malaysia.

There is going to be a revival of praise and worship. The land is also rejoicing.

"Thank You, O God, that Malaysia becomes a praise among the nations of the world."