What is thanksgiving?
It’s a time to give thanks, it’s right in the name of the holiday!
It’s a national observance, which began with our ancestors, the European settlers sailing from Europe and coming over here and the States. These Europeans, who of course were farmers, lived on the rich fertile land of the Americas and at the completion of the harvest seasons they gave thanks to God. And they celebrated with prayer, and feasting enjoying the rich blessings God provided them.
How appropriate this is, after bringing in a big blessing that they bring thanks back to God, recognizing it is all from His kind hand!
Thanksgiving, is rooted in the lifestyle and practice of Christians, people who believed God! This cultural custom which became a nation-wide observance was to not to keep the country from being ungrateful, it began because of many who were already grateful! They were already in the practice of giving thanks and glory to God, they just made a big deal when they were really blessed! They were already thankful Christians, and thanksgiving just demonstrated that. I believe a state of thankfulness is a byproduct of the Spirit of God permeating a person’s life more. They had more of the indwelt Spirit of God influencing them.
I am here to bring an inspirational teaching and to inspire each of you to have more of God’s Spirit, who is Thee true Spirit of Thanksgiving! The world has one spirit in them, their own spirits which draw them to themselves, living for themselves and their own desires, but the Christian has another spirit, God’s Spirit in them, which compels them to live for Jesus, which takes their focus off themselves and upon another—God, so thankfulness is natural to those house the Spirit of Thanksgiving, the Holy Spirit of God!
This message (or blog) is intended to make us thankful to God, in making us more thankful, more happy, resulting in a true spirit of thanksgiving within, one in which we may say, ‘My life, as I yield to the Spirit, is a big happy thanksgiving to God’!
THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE IS DISTINGUISHED BY THANKSGIVING
The prominence of this attitude in the Christian life:
I want to show you how prominent this characteristic as the ideal model Christian that we are to become. Typically, thankfulness comes in only at thanksgiving because we view it as something forgotten and so to be added to our lives. But, let me take you through a few Scriptures that show that it’s not just a small part, but quite a prominent part of our lives as Christians.
Turn to Colossians with me, chapter 2:6-7,
6 “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
To Paul, he wants the new Christian to sink their roots so deep in knowing, loving, being illuminated with a sight of Christ, understanding His teaching, and doing them, so that fruit grows—which is this overflowing with thankfulness!
This is a fruit of maturity, it’s a fruit that indicates how Christ-centered a Christian is. Overflowing with thanksgiving, overflowing indicates someone who is full, not just a filling of thanksgiving during the holiday, but they walkaround full and spill thanksgiving throughout the year. What a picture! Don’t you want that? To be so full of joy, thankfulness that you exude and spill it everywhere you go and with everyone you speak?
Turn a little further to Colossians chapter 3; it lays out the teaching of identity for the Christian, a Christian isn’t someone who just believes Jesus, they inwardly have a different spiritual nature, and they’re instructed to lay aside their old nature and put on this new nature they received when they became born-again. Paul says, “Assume the new nature, your new Christian self, that’s you, so act like you!” Well, “What’s the new us, Paul?”
Verse 14, “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.”
There it is—thankfulness distinguishes the new nature we received when we became Christians, thankfulness expresses the new creation within us, created after Christ’s image.
Thankfulness is an attitude, and the Spirit is in charge of helping us display the right attitudes in our lives…and gratitude, we know is an attitude.
Ephesians 4:22,
22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes..”
The Spirit renews our attitudes! He’s the attitude-changer.
So, thanksgiving is not just a part of the Christian, it’s a takes a prominent place and it’s a distinguishing mark of someone who is being worked on by the Spirit as He reforms their attitudes.
Now turn once more a passage which ties it all together. Ephesians 5:18-20,
18 “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. 20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
To be filled with the Spirit, means there is praise and thanksgiving to God!
It overflows, it spills out! Now there is a sense that are commanded to give thanks, and that is a regular duty of the believer, but todays’ message will not trace out that duty and how it is to be performed, I will describe rather the life of someone who allows the Spirit to fill them and fill them with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving distinguishes a spirit-filled Christian.
Now, in this passage Paul speaks of drunkenness. He says, “Don’t be controlled and influenced by wine”, we may say, any substance for that matter, any substance that directly influences your behavior—but instead, be heavily influenced by the Spirit! How?
How To Be Filled With Thanksgiving From The Spirit?
Be filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s a command! It’s something we do—so we must focus on this and the Spirit influences us heavily to thanksgiving, and we are carried away to render heartfelt- joyful thanks, to be under the influence of the Spirit indicates ease—we desire to do it, are drawn to it and find comfort and ease in the activity, that’s what thanksgiving can be to a person filled of the Spirit!
More Than Sheer Will To Say Thanks
You know the child after hearing the parents “Say thank you!”, turns around and says begrudgingly, “Thank you…” This is sometimes us when we don’t feel it, but we obey still. God gets glory when we obey Him and say thank you this way. However, God wants this bubbling up–can’t contain it—type of thanksgiving from the heart! That comes when His Spirit in us begins to permeate us and fill us!
How do we be filled? The command is passive, the Spirit does it to us, so it’s “Let or allow the Spirit to fill you!” What does that mean? It means He is trying to and desiring to, and we must learn to yield and let Him do it!
Breathing as An Illustration
I want to bring your attention to this illustration to help us grasp this idea. Think of the lungs. Did you know our lungs are not just two bags that heave in air? Each lung is like a sponge, lots of holes and openings and pockets, and when it’s opened the air travels through each small crevice, nook and cranny.
When we take shallow breaths, the top part of the lungs are taking in air and the top part is full of air, but the bottom part is not. Are the lungs full? Yes, and no. Yes, the top part, no the bottom part. So, the idea here is that we must have our whole selves filled with the Spirit. We may have given Him the top part of our lives, but the bottom part, we keep to ourselves. So, we are not filled, we’re getting by spiritually, but not full of Him!
Now, imagine a doctor telling a patient that he or she isn’t using their lungs properly, “Take deeper breaths!” Imagine the patient, “No, you take the air pump and hook it up to me and pump the air all the way down.” The patient must do this, not the doctor. The doctor says, “No, you must use these breathing exercises and learn to take in more air, and your deeper tissue pockets in the lungs will eventually open up more, so you can hold more air!”
I think this is the sense of being filled with the Spirit, that Paul speaks of in this passage. There are baptisms and empowerings, but there are also fillings, and this filling, in this context, is when the Spirit is allowed to have more of us, so He can fill more spaces in us and our lives.
Transition: And so, it’s imperative we learn how to allow or let the Spirit fill us more to max capacity. How do we do this so that we overflow with thanksgiving to the Father?
ALLOWING THE SPIRIT TO FILL US WITH THANKSGIVING
Some of what I will tell you is life-experience. I speak from what I know, I will follow the Word when it applies, I believe they all follow the spirit of biblical principles and the ways of God.
Renounce and Re-surrender: We renounce living for ourselves and say, “I give my life to you Jesus, all the decisions after your Bible for your glory, Spirit help me!” You’re so thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that you sacrifice yourself to live for Him! This prepared sacrifice, if you prepare each day, will be the place where the fire from Heaven will come down and ignite you, and the flame of the Spirit will be in you. He can only fill what is empty, be sure to empty yourself of yourself and your sins.
Sense of dependency, unworthiness: If we read the Bible about how Christians become more like Jesus Christ, they to grow in the love for righteousness and their hate for unrighteous or sin. When sin is noticed in them, they—overtime if they’ve become more like Christ—will hate their sins more, and love Christ more and love righteous and more living more. And so, they come to say Paul’s words in Romans 7:18, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” Somebody who is growing in their awareness of their sins and how wrong they are, will treasure Jesus’ Cross more and it will result in a thankful attitude—but that will carry over into the temporal blessings—when they’re given earthly blessings, they’ll feel they are not deserving and that it’s due to the working and kindness of God and so they’ll give thanks and will be happier for it!
I know we live in an age of self-esteem, and that is important for us to know we are loved, but we cannot ignore our sins and our sinfulness. Has the Spirit shown you your sinfulness over the years? Have you hated it more, and has that made you thankful for Christ’s forgiveness and every blessing given down here on Earth? Let the Spirit foster a feeling of unworthiness or undeserved-ness in your heart, that’s the foundation for the house of gratitude. If we don’t feel deep conviction and remorse for sin, we will be proud people and proud people don’t say, ‘Thank you’.
He changes our minds over time: The Spirit knows how integrated our minds to our attitudes, if we are to change our minds must change, we need new thinking. His tool for this is of course you know the Bible. The more teaching, the more Bible reading, the more Bible reflection and mediation, and memorization—the more the mind changes resulting in a thanksgiving attitude. It happens this way, you go about your day and every circumstance is interpreted and seen through the lens of spiritual mind. You can trace the hand of God and get a good idea of His will, you can see His goodness in all circumstances to give thanks for, you can take daily challenges and even begin thanking God for them—the Word trains the mind to see and identify things to give thanks for it, that’s the spiritual mind—all believers have it, however, the word-saturated ones have it more.
Colossians 3:15, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” If you’re pessimistic and a worry-wort, and you envy the grateful ones, increase your Bible intake! Don’t miss a Sunday, and don’t miss a morning with God in His Word and let the Spirit rewire your mind so you may become a thankful Christian!
Yielding to Him in real time: Responding to his whispers, prods, promptings, if He brings anything to mind out of the blue or weighs something on your heart repeatedly.
If the Spirit is trying to help us become a thankful believer, it would make sense He would be whispering to us occasionally. Listen for those, be sensitive to the inward motions of the heart, watch what happens on the screen of your mind, see how the Spirit might steer your heart one way or another.
I think of lot of His pokes throughout the day, “Hey, give your Father glory, I’ve brought this to you today under the good command of your Father, look up and say thanks!” I think these pokes are just that, pokes, I don’t think it takes much for the Spirit to slowly bring us to give thanks to the Father because it’s within our nature to do that. It’s instinctual, we are children of God and everything that comes to us is from His hand and we see it by faith and give thanks the instant we see His hand. And so, the Spirit, I think, just brings our attention to a blessing that we’ve come into or brings our attention to God’s hand involved and reveals the Father’s sovereign power in bringing it to you—and you say, “Wow this is from God because look how it came to me! Thanks God!” The Spirit demands no credit, He wants us to glorify our Father and He is happy if we yield to His ways.
A Warning
I feel it’s important to mention a warning.
If the Spirit wants to make us thankful people, and we ignore Him in this, then we grieve Him, we quench Him in us.
1 Thessalonians 5:18-19, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit.”
There is the will or desire of the Spirit, to give thanks to God, and then Paul says, “Don’t quench him!” Don’t ignore His attempts to make you thankful don’t do the opposite of gratitude either (grumbling, complaining), He’s got a little flame going for thanksgiving in you, if you ignore His ways then you quench that flame and you will have nothing. We don’t want to be Christians there the flame is quench and drenched, that’s scary, where there’s no prompting, no whispers, no feeling led by Him, none of His presence filling and welling up in us with thanksgiving. Ignoring and not yielding to the Spirit may have devastating consequences on His work in us, following His desires in you, don’t shut them out.
Good News For Those Who Struggle To Be thankful People To God!
Last, allow me to speak to those here who aren’t regular church-goers, they have some faith in something about Christianity but are mainly here because it’s thanksgiving.
Good job for coming here today! That was a decision which the Creator is delighted with and it’s good for your heart.
You know how ingratitude comes natural to everyone right? We must teach kids this because they’re not born to be thankful. “Say thank you!” we say. Well, God’s Spirit is at work in all the world, and your own heart saying the same, “Say thanks to your Creator!” “But, I earned it! And plus, it’s too much work and what do I get out of it anyway!” You are expressing your true spiritual nature—for you to change—which is spiritual ungratefulness, I am not singling you out because Christians still have this part of us too. But you need God’s Spirit to come and live in your heart, He will reform you and make it so that you are as you should be, a happy person, a hopeful person, a person who give thanks to God always. You know that is the ideal and higher way to be, so transcend this worldly way of living and step into divine living this thanksgiving.
God sent His only Son into the world to bear the sins of ungrateful people everywhere, and He paid a great price to extinguish and erase our sins so that we can be forgiven with God! Jesus died, our sins and the consequences killed the perfect, pure Son of God…however, after three days, He rose again, He resurrected Himself thereby proving to the world that there is now no sin that needs to be paid for, otherwise He’d still remain dead, but He didn’t, He came back to life!
And now, we receive Jesus’s offer of the work He did for us on the Cross by faith, and we will find that His Spirit is suddenly in us, we will notice a new force and Person within us, reforming us inwardly and outwardly and we will begin to be as we were originally made, people filled with the Spirit, who is the Spirit of Thanksgiving Himself!
Then you will say with the Spirit in you, about Jesus, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”