Having a thankful heart does more than keep our hearts and minds healthy; being thankful actually sanctifies the very things we are thanking God for. In this sermon clip, Bill Johnson teaches on the power of being thankful, and how our relationships and the situations we face are impacted and sanctified by our thanksgiving.

thankfulness sanctifies so when you’re

in the middle of a horrific situation

thankfulness in the middle of that it’s

not about Chasing the Devil it’s simply

about turning our heart towards the

celebration of who God is in every

situation

and it anchors our soul into that that

absolute Victory that’s been promised to

to each one of us

now if ever there was a weird metaphor

in the Bible it’s got to be that a pearl

is a gate

a pearl is a gate so we’ve got this

gigantic Pearl 12 of them to the city of

Jerusalem

those pearls are Gates

so now you have to stop and think all

right now how are pearls formed

they’re formed out of irritation

ah so the Gate of praise the gate isn’t

formed because I gave praise for a raise

at work

is that in the middle of difficulty I

gave praise

then you start pondering about this

nature of this gate first of all we’re

talking about safety now so we’ve got

these a walled City we’ve got these

Gates that are now in place they’re

called Gates of praise

those Gates of praise

are two things number one they provide

protection from the onslaught of the

enemy that what he intends to use

against us is now removed from his hands

the weapons of the enemies are destroyed

through thankfulness

it actually removes the tool that he was

going to use to destroy it removes it

from him because now you’re playing with

God’s tools

now we’re playing with God’s instruments

that gate

Psalms 24 lift up your heads or ye gates

that the king of glory May entren so

here’s a gate that the Lord can come in

through and the enemy can’t

the same gate invites one and repels the

other

praise

go with me to Thessalonians first

Thessalonians 5 and we’ll

spend the rest of our time in this

chapter

that last statement I made about

Thanksgiving thankfulness

I kind of butchered it and I’m going to

butcher it just a little bit more

foreign

but I I want to I want to give it give

the statement of context because if you

understand this

I I didn’t prepare to have these

scriptures ready so you can you can look

them up on your own but there’s this

interesting dialogue that Paul has on

two occasions about food and what we’re

to eat in one of those occasions he says

he says hey if your neighbor is uh

sacrificing some animal to this demon

god and you know that they sacrificed

that meat to the demon god and they know

that you know don’t eat the meat and he

says it’s not because it will harm you

it’s because it’ll violate their

conscience

but then he goes on and says but if they

don’t know then eat it

else for Paul says all foods that you

receive with prayer and thankfulness

is sanctified

follow the logic here so here’s this big

chunk of meat

my neighbor just offered it to some God

he doesn’t know that I know but I

watched

and then he invited me over for dinner

and I saw these demon powers surround

him as he offered this offering and I

know that the enemy wants to destroy me

through this that I’m about to eat

and I receive it into my life

and I give thanks

my thankfulness just sanctified

what was previously empowered by the

enemy to bring destruction to my life

did that make sense

thankfulness sanctifies so when you’re

in the middle of a horrific situation

thankfulness in the middle of that it’s

not about Chasing the Devil around it’s

simply about turning our heart towards

the celebration of who God is in every

situation

and it anchors our soul into that that

absolute victory that has been promised

to to each one of us

thankfulness so here we’ve got this

portion of scripture that

um I remember in fact just look at verse

16 Rejoice always

pray without ceasing and everything give

thanks

I remember reading that as young Pastor

in Weaverville days I remember reading

that verse like man I could spend the

rest of my life every day the rest of my

life on those three verses and I would

have my hands full I would have a

full-time job just learning those three

simple statements

say it with me Rejoice always

pray without ceasing

and everything give thanks

let’s say it together Rejoice always

pray without ceasing in everything give

thanks say it again Rejoice always pray

without ceasing and everything give

thanks

I’m I’m not sure that

that we

see the effect

of thankfulness on the human heart

or thankfulness on this spiritual

atmosphere or surroundings around our

life

there there is a sanctifying a cleansing

a purifying work that takes place simply

by thankfulness why number one

thankfulness is automatically a position

of humility

thankfulness is not us dictating

something to God or to somebody else

it’s coming in low and honoring him

for what he has done

thankfulness is uh

is connected to the acts of God the

works of God

uh says of of Israel and Moses it says

Israel was acquainted with the acts of

God but Moses was acquainted with his

ways

Israel were the acts of God Moses with

his ways

there’s an interesting graduation in in

perception and experience in those two

areas many people experience The Works

of God but they don’t know anything

about his nature about his person

and all the Revelation or experiences of

the works of God are invitations to

discover who he is

Moses prayed this prayer in Exodus he

said let me know

let me know your ways let me know your

your Works your ways that I might know

you in other words God I want to see

what you’re like because I want to

follow that invitation into relationship

into encounter

in other words we’re not gathering

information for a test

we’re not we’re not gathering

information to pass the quiz

we’re we’re seeing glimpses of what he’s

like

so that we can take each Glimpse as the

invitation or Open Door opportunity to

come into a relationship when he

revealed himself to Abraham

as the provider Jehovah Jireh it wasn’t

to make him more well-rounded in his

theological approach to God’s resource

he was revealing himself as the one he

was about to provide for him instead of

him sacrificing Isaac there was a ram

caught in the thicket the point was God

has provided us revealed himself that

provision was to be experienced

foreign

Thanksgiving will take you places

nothing else can take you

we’ll take your places in God

so here he says Rejoice always

pray without ceasing everything give

thanks

yeah I’m so glad that you watched this

video I do pray that it’s a great great

strength and encouragement to you and

I’ve got a verse that it really is My

Cry for all of us and it’s Psalms 20

it’s verse 4. may he grant you your

heart’s desire and fulfill all your

plans

that’s my prayer that’s my prayers that

this would be the season of rich rich

fulfillment

thanks for joining us