Thanksgiving a Mighty Weapon:

This morning I want to speak to you on the very important subject entitled, “Thanksgiving a mighty weapon.”

In Psalm 95:2, Psalm 100:4 and Psalm 95:6 we have God’s order as to how we come into God’s presence . The order is first thanksgiving, then praise, then worship.

In Psalm 100:4 we read, “Let us enter His gates with thanksgiving.” (Psalm 100:4) Through the sacrifice of thanksgiving we thank our Wonderful Father for all His wonderful provision and goodness, for example we thank Him for food, shelter, health, clothing, for our family, our friends, for our church family, for His precious Word, for His wonderful promises, for His great salvation, for healing us, for sending us Jesus, for the Holy Spirit, for the precious blood of Jesus, for the forgiveness of sins and for all His wonderful blessings etc.

We read in Psalm 50:23 that our sacrifice of thanksgiving honors God and prepares the way for God to answer our prayers: and I quote,

“Anyone who sacrifices thank offerings to me honors me. He makes it possible for me to show him that I am the God who saves.” (Psalm 50:23 NIRV)

We read in 2Cor. 2:14

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

A triumph is the celebration of a victory that has already been won.

Instead of bringing before God again and again our needs and praying that God would please hear our prayers we begin to thank Him in faith for the victory already won for from the above verse we see that God our Father always leads us in triumph in Christ.

Paul writing to the Colossians emphasizes in Col 3:15-17 the great need of being thankful

Notice that the words, be thankful, gratitude, and giving of thanks is mentioned three times in these two verses.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Colossians 3:15-17 NIV

Let us see that one of Satan’s most effective tactics against God’s children is discouragement causing them to murmur and complain. One of of the most effective weapons we can use against him is to have a grateful heart that expresses itself in thankfulness and in praise.

In Romans 1 we see the downward steps that led the human race far from God and into deep degradation and rebellion!

In Rom. 1:20-21 we have the first two steps: and I quote,

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” NIV

The first two steps therefore that started their journey away from God were:

1.For although they knew God they didn’t glorify Him as God 2. Nor did they give thanks to him!

From these two verses we see how important it is to always give glory to God for all that we do or say and to always be thankful!

In closing I will proclaim these important verses found in Ps. 107:21-22, “Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare His works with rejoicing.”

We see here that the psalmist really wants us to see the importance of this Word, “Oh”that men would give thanks… “Let us see the importance of proclaiming God’s living and powerful word that is appropriate for our particular request! Then let us begin to thank Him in faith for the victory already accomplished! Even though we do not see or feel the tangible results, great things are taking place in the spirit world that are bringing about the answer to our every need.

The following true story was narrated by Kenneth W. Hagin and I quote:

“Many years ago there was a missionary to China who was living in constant defeat because of the overwhelming struggles he faced on the mission field. He prayed and prayed and prayed about his situation, and he repeatedly asked God why he wasn’t seeing any results to his missionary efforts. But no answer came. It seemed that depression and discouragement flanked him on every side. Everything he touched seemed to turn to defeat. No answer seemed to come from heaven.

Finally, he decided to leave his mission station and go further into the interior of the country to another mission station so he could seek God without distraction. He determined to get on his face before God and pray until he got an answer.

When this missionary arrived at the mission station in China’s interior, he walked into the mission station, and the first thing he noticed was a sign hanging on the wall that immediately caught his attention. It said, “Try thanksgiving.”

Immediately the Spirit of God spoke to his heart and told him that had been his problem; he had continually prayed over and over about the same situation, never thanking God for the answer! He had really been praying in doubt and unbelief. God knew thanksgiving would get him into faith and keep him in faith.

The missionary realized he’d been praying and praying and asking and asking, but he hadn’t been thanking God at all. In other words, he hadn’t even acknowledged that God had heard him, let alone answered him. All that time he had been praying in unbelief — not in faith.

The missionary immediately returned to his own mission station, thrilled with what God had revealed to his heart. He didn’t even spend the night in the interior at that mission station because he had received his answer from heaven!

All the way back home, in simple faith he praised God that God had heard and answered his prayers. As he did, every bit of depression, disappointment, discouragement, and defeat lifted from him. By the time he reached his mission station, he had such revival in his own heart that God used him mightily to bring a major revival to that entire area!”-end of quote.

Dear friend perhaps are you confronted with difficulties and trials and you have been praying without any results! Could it be that you have failed to be thankful! If so, then like the missionary in the above story will you also repent because of your lack of thankfulness and begin to offer unto God continually the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

The Precious Blood of Jesus Christ is a powerful weapon against the Enemy of our souls, the devil:

The Precious Blood of Jesus Christ is a powerful weapon against the Enemy of our souls, the devil:

We quoted the following words in our last message entitled, “God has given us mighty spiritual weapons with which to fight our enemy” found in 2Cor. 10:4-5, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

We mentioned two powerful weapons in that message, the Name of Jesus, and the Word of God. Today we will be speaking about another very powerful weapon, the precious Blood of Jesus Christ:

The portion of Scripture where we find this weapon mentioned is found in Rev. 12:10-11, “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

Revelation 12:10-11 NIV

We see in the above verse that the devil is called the accuser of the brethren! We see from his name that one of the main dirty works of the devil is to accuse God’s children or in other words to make them feel guilty! When God’s children feel guilty they have no power with God, they feel ashamed to come into God’s presence with boldness! They feel that God does not love them anymore! Because of guilt in their hearts they feel that God has rejected them! Therefore you can see how subtle and vile it is to be accused by the enemy of our souls! But in verse 11 we see that God’s people have discovered a wonderful way to overcome the devil, “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

In the above verse three principles of truth are given in order for us to overcome the devil.1. The blood of the Lamb, 2. The Word of our testimony, 3. Total commitment. Total commitment is very important. We know that it it will not take half hearted commitment on our part but a total surrender of our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Below The first two principles are explained in more detail:

In Heb. 3:1, we read that Jesus is the High priest of our confession and I quote:

“Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.” End of quote.

In the above verse Jesus is described as the High Priest of our confession or of our testimony! Before we can activate Jesus as High Priest to intercede on our behalf we must confess or testify!To confess means, “to say the same thing as!” The word “confess” simply means to agree with God. The word in Greek means according to Strong’s Concordance, homologeō, is to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent. For us who are Christian believers, we say the same thing as God says in His Word, it means agreeing with God, it is proclaiming His Word, His promises and claiming them as our very own! Because God promises it in His Word we can confess and affirm it with our mouth and declare, “it is my mine!”

We see in the above two verses the believers overcame the devil through the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their testimony!

It is not enough to know that the blood of Jesus was shed for us so that we might be delivered but we must confess it or testify with our mouth what the Word of God says the blood of Jesus has done for us! Remember the word confess means to say the same thing as God says in His Word! Therefore according to the above verses we overcome Satan by personally testifying with our mouth what the Word of God says the blood of Jesus Christ has done for us:

Let us now discover:

What the Word of God says the blood of Jesus Christ has done for us:

We read in Col. 1:13-14 that

(a) Through the blood we have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil! And I quote, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14 NKJV)

To redeem means, “to buy back”, we were slaves of Satan hopelessly bound in his prison, in the kingdom of darkness bound by sickness, depression, evil habits, guilt and fear! The good news is that God in His great love for us sent His Son to be our our Savior and Redeemer and through Him and His precious blood that was shed for us redeemed us out of the hand of the devil and thereby bringing us into a new kingdom, the kingdom of His Son, a kingdom of love, joy, peace, freedom and victory.

( b) Through the blood of Jesus all our sins have been forgiven!

We read in Eph. 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”

We read also in Col.1:20, “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Peace is a wonderful word.

Peace comes when our guilt is removed, when we are forgiven and our conscience is made clean. Therefore because our conscience is clean we have now harmony and peace with God which results in sweet fellowship and communion!

(c) Through the blood we Have been cleansed and are being cleansed continually. 1John 1:7. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

What does it mean to walk in the light? Light in the Bible symbolizes that which is good for example righteousness and holiness! To walk in the light means that we are not walking in darkness! Darkness in the Bible symbolizes sin and evil, that which is separated from God! Therefore when we are walking in the light we are not hiding our sins but when the Holy Spirit shows us that we have done wrong we immediately bring our sin to the light or to the open, confess it, repent of it, not make any excuses for it and then in faith bring it to the blood for cleansing! If your sin has wronged or offended anyone else then you must ask their forgiveness as well! Therefore cleansing is not a once and for all experience but a continual walking in the light!

(d) Through the blood we have been justified, we read this in Rom.5:9, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” When we are justified we are made righteous with the righteousness of Jesus Christ just as if we never sinned. When we are justified our past record is made legally clean. In the record books of the world a criminal’s record is never wiped away but not in the record books of Heaven!

We read also in Is. 61:10, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,…” Think that we are now covered with God’s righteousness, a righteousness that is without stain, without spot, therefore the enemy can no longer condemn us or accuse us! No wonder the prophet said, “ I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,”

(d) Through the blood we have been sanctified, we read this in Heb. 13:12, “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.”

Hebrews 13:12 NKJV. The Word means to make holy and to make holy is to set something or someone apart to God! Through the blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God. My body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Satan has no place in me, no power over me and no unsettled claim against me! Therefore through the blood of Jesus. I renounce him, loose myself from him, and command him to leave me in the name of Jesus, declaring that he is no longer welcome in my live!

(e) Through the blood we have boldness to come into the presence of God, into the holy of holies, the holiest place in the universe to make our petitions known. We read this in Heb. 10:19, ““Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,” what a joy! What a privilege! We can now come without fear, without condemnation and without guilt into the wonderful presence of our loving Heavenly Father

Oh thank God for the precious, precious blood of Jesus and as we confess or declare the above scriptures in the face of the Accuser, our arch enemy the devil, whose main weapon of attack against us is to endeavor to make us feel guilty and shameful we thus can overcome him even by declaring what the Word of God says the blood of Jesus Christ has done for us! Therefore we can maintain a victorious Christian life. Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free! (John 8:32).