We are in the midst of days in which many troubles stalk the land. We are in the days of persecution and bigotry. But we are also in the days of great revelation from the Lord, which is unique to this transition period of ages that we are in. In the midst of it, we can focus on the negative, or on the positive, and still miss what God is trying to teach us. The issue is not whether you are positively thinking or negatively thinking; it is whether your thinking is focused on God.
Psalm 100 has some wonderful words for us to hear: Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:1–5.
This Psalm exalts the Lord. Verse 4 tells us: Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. We could apply this to the Old Testament saints who sang these psalms, which made up the songbooks of the Old Testament. These saints went through the gates and into the Temple and into the courts of the Lord with praise and thanksgiving. But this passage has a meaning for us, too. Just as in the Old Testament times, when they came into the presence of the Lord as they entered the Temple, so also there is a way in which we enter His presence.
To enter His presence can be defined simply as to be aware of Him, to be aware of His relationship to our lives, to be aware of the fact that He is present in all things and that He has everything to do with our lives.
This becomes very important for us in this day, for we are entering His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. The praise and thanksgiving that we give to the Lord is not something that we muster up as a duty to be grateful for the blessings we are aware of. It is an awareness of the Lord that causes us to be thankful for all the input that He has in our lives.
As we live our lives, we tend to become bitter or critical because we do not see God in what is happening to us. If we could only see the Lord in all of it, then we would come before Him to give Him thanks and worship Him.
Even when we come into His courts with praise and into His presence with thanksgiving, I doubt that any of us are completely aware of all of the things that we should be thankful for.
Our thanksgiving to God should be viewed as a sacrifice. Many times the Old Testament sacrifices to the Lord were made as an appeasement. Trespass offerings or sin offerings were given to the Lord for that purpose.
People in the New Testament also made sacrifices to the Lord; but after the death of Christ, they no longer made sacrifices of animals to the Lord. But they were told to give thanks to the Lord as a sacrifice—to be thankful.
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. Hebrews 13:15.
If you come before the Lord and say, “I’m thankful, Lord. I don’t understand everything, but I’m thankful,” then you are following this Scripture in the New Testament: In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5:18, KJV.
To be thankful is to be aware of the Lord in everything. Even beyond your understanding, this awareness is very real to you.
In Psalm 107, we see this awareness described in the Old Testament, where people had come so close to devastation and destruction. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. (The margin reads, “He delivered them from their pits.” These are the holes that you dig when you are really oppressed.) Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of His works with joyful singing. Psalm 107:19–22.
This short portion from Psalm 107 gives us something beautiful; it is telling us that we come to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to God for giving us victories, for digging us out of our pits, for saving us out of our distresses and our troubles. Unbelieving hearts cannot do this. They do not give thanksgiving to the Lord for what He has brought them through. They tend to be rebellious against Him for their troubles in the first place; or if they can’t conveniently blame Him, they look for some other person to blame for the rigors of the way.
The children of Israel murmured because of the difficulties in the wilderness, so they murmured against the Lord and against Moses (Numbers 14:2, 27). It is human nature to look for a “whipping boy,” when you go through something that you do not want to accept.
If you have gone through destructions, devastations, and distresses, but you have not learned to walk close to God in them—you have not learned His voice and you have not become more and more aware of His presence with you every day—then you have not learned what God intended for you to learn. You have shut your heart, saying, “I’m not going to be thankful for what I’ve been through; it has been too devastating. I think it was wrong; it was the devil.”
Even Job could have blamed the devil, and rightly so, because Satan was the immediate agent of all of his troubles (Job 1:12; 2:7). But the primary governing force of Job’s life was God Himself. Job recognized the hand of God in everything that happened to him, and so he refused his wife’s admonition to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9). Rather, he bowed down and worshiped when all of his troubles first began to befall him (Job 1:20). This is what God is teaching us to do now. This is the time for us to give thanks, and worship the Lord.
If we are unthankful, we are refusing the revelation that God would bring to us. But if we have revelation, we will come into His courts with praise. We will enter His gates with thanksgiving. We will say, “Thank You, Lord, for what You’re doing for my life. I praise You for it.” The New Testament brings this out even more clearly.
Through Him then (through Christ), let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. Hebrews 13:15.
This is an excellent passage for us to lay hold of because earlier, in verse 13, it tells the believers to go outside the camp and bear His reproach with Him. In other words, these are the people who are going through difficulties; but they offer up sacrifices to God, which is the fruit of lips that are thankful, that are voicing praises to the Lord. So we see that in everything we should give thanks to the Lord.
Let us go a little further with this and look at the opposite side of the coin. To be unthankful means that you are refusing any revelation of what God is doing. In fact, you refuse to even see God in the situation. This becomes very serious.
We receive the truth from God, and as a result we begin to go through various problems and trials. We receive the Word, and then the dealings of God follow. But we do not seem to be able to see that the Word is connected to the dealings until we come up to a fresh, beautiful revelation of the Lord that we have never known before. It is dangerous to have a heart that is not grateful and thankful to God.
I am always mindful of a passage in the first chapter of Romans, which tells about some people, who even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks … Verse 21. They did not honor Him as God. How dangerous this is! There are people today who are professing to have a walk with God, but they are not honoring Him as God. They are Christians, but they do not know how to give thanks. Romans 1:21–22 tells us, For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.
The deadly thing that happens to a person who is unthankful is that his heart darkens, and the light that was in his heart by the Word disappears. But usually he professes that he is very wise and that he can understand everything. At the hour of his defecting, it is surprising how much a Judas thinks he knows. But after betrayal, it is also surprising how he really sees what he has done; and he says, “I have betrayed innocent blood.”
Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. Matthew 27:3–5.
In this hour, we must be very careful that we do not suddenly turn against the Word that we have heard for many years, and against the channels that have brought us that Word, by our saying, “I was wrong all these years. Now I’m suddenly wise, and I realize that what I had heard is all wrong.” It is strange how this happens. For instance, some critics have said, “I can’t find life in the Word.” That is a tragedy. If they had been listening to the Word for the past ten years, they would know that this very hour was prophesied almost to every detail. We wonder if they were ever really listening to the Word.
Those who are taking exception to the Word are generally those who were not addicted to it in the first place. If they had listened to the Word, they would recognize that now the Word is describing the things that were prophesied only a short time ago. If the Word is not anointed now, then it never was—because the anointed Word now describes what the anointed Word prophesied in years past. If the Word were wrong then, it could be wrong now. But because that Word was right in the past, the Word coming now is anointed because it confirms the Word of years past.
What happened that some became critical of this Word? Why didn’t they hear? They refused to hear it! The Word then became like an explosion that deafened them. They became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21b.
They thought they were very wise, but they became fools (Romans 1:22). Verse 25 tells us, For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie … They couldn’t do that unless they would say, “Well, the Word that I had heard was a lie, and what I believe now is the truth.” But they exchanged the truth for a lie.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper. Romans 1:28. The unthankful end up with a depraved mind. They end up exchanging the glory of God for an image in the form of corruptible man (Romans 1:23). It is amazing how they shift to serve their own interests and their own desires. The arrogance of the apostate is always there.
People who never had courage to stand up for the Lord, when they were following along, can become vicious enough to kiss the Son of man to His cross (Mark 14:43–46).
At the final moment, I don’t think that Judas would have betrayed Christ if he had still believed in Him. It was only after he saw what he had done that he realized he had betrayed innocent blood (Matthew 27:3–4). The Word says that Satan entered his heart (John 13:27).
The transformation of someone who is unthankful—who does not enter in to find the truth and the revelation of what is going on and what is happening to his own life—usually culminates in this deadly state.
The takers and the grabbers are usually those who are unthankful, because they have no revelation. They feel that they are entitled to receive all of the bounty, all of the abundance of everything that comes along.
But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii, and given to poor people?” Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. John 12:4–6.
They think that everyone else can sacrifice, so that they can have plenty. I have never felt that pastors should live in a financial status that is far above their people. I have never felt that they should preach sacrifice and not do it themselves.
Now we are coming to the place where God is saying, “You are going to walk with Me as My disciples, and you are going to praise Me and give thanks to Me in all things. And I will teach you and show you what is happening.” The viciousness and the wickedness of those who are unthankful—who have lost their revelation and their vision—is a tragedy. They are entering into the greatest delusions of their lives. What a tragedy!
Let’s look again at the sacrifice of praise and the wonderful things that God wants us to enter into as a result of just having faith in Him—faith that in itself becomes a revelation. It becomes an evidence of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1). It becomes something beyond anything that the human mind can explain, as far as circumstances are concerned.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:15–17.
This passage shows us that the Word of Christ is to keep coming forth; but the Word is not to come out of bitter hearts, nor can it be heard by bitter hearts. A Word is rarely received by someone who is in the gall of bitterness (Acts 8:21–23). When the Word of Christ dwells in us richly, we sing with thankfulness in our hearts to the Lord. And everything we do in word or deed, we do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
In Colossians 2:7, Paul uses this phrase: overflowing with gratitude, just thanking God for the way that things work out.
Do you say, “I’m going through something that I’ll never be able to thank God for”? If you have faith, He will reveal Himself to you in it. And one revelation of the Lord is worth everything that you go through.
I positively believe that what God has been doing in my life is worth every devastation I have gone through. I have never before known my walk with God to be so dear and so precious. I have never before been so completely released in my spirit to worship and give thanks to Him. As a result of standing in His presence so continually, I have never before known the depth of impartation of which I have become a channel. I have never before walked in so much in all of my life. For every persecutor, there are a hundred believers who can say, “We have never received so much. We have never before found our walk with God so rich and so dear as now.” This is exactly what God wants us to see in everything that we go through.
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving (in all our intercession and prayer, we must be very alert with an attitude of thanksgiving); praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Colossians 4:2–4.
We can understand exactly what Paul meant. He wanted to continue to speak a Living Word. He wanted that Word to be the way it should be, spoken as clearly as he could possibly bring it in the Holy Spirit. He was concerned that they pray for him, so that the door would be open for the Word. And that, of course, is what we are praying for now.
The battles and the struggles that come against us, as individuals or as channels of the Word, are real, but they are only significant inasmuch as they are a part of the war over the Word, part of Satan’s attack against this Living Word and revelation that has come forth in this time. It becomes important for us to escape delusions of Satan by keeping our heart open to the time that we are going through and to what is happening to us.
If you have a revelation, you can “rejoice and be exceedingly glad when they persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely” (Matthew 5:11–12). But if you do not have that revelation of God in what is happening to you while you are walking with Him, you do not rejoice; instead, you react. You react to persecutions. You react to things people say which you know are blatant lies. You react to the way that they skillfully twist the words that have been spoken, taking them out of context with some shrewd satanic cunning. They use their own arrogant unbelief as a ruler by which they judge everything that God is bringing forth in the earth. But read through the Scriptures, and see if any generation has ever done otherwise.
From the beginning of the book of Genesis, right on through the book of Revelation, we see the story of generation after generation of men who spoke the Word of God, and of those in high places who stood against it. Position does not lend itself to revelation. This is why the Lord wants us to be like little children (Mark 10:14–15; Matthew 18:3). He confounds the wise. But He chooses the foolish, the little children, the weak; and out of them He brings forth the excellence of His revelation and His power.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are. I Corinthians 1:26–28.
This is why Christ lifted up His hands to heaven and said, “Father, I thank Thee that You have revealed unto babes.”
At that time Jesus answered and said, “I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in Thy sight.” Matthew 11:25–26.
We do not want to be among those who are so blind that they are unthankful. Through the years, many among us were unthankful. They were takers and grabbers. They wanted to use us. They wanted anything that they could get out of us, but there was no thanksgiving in their hearts. They did not say, “Thank you that God blessed me through you,” because they thought it was their natural right. Usually they did not want much of the spiritual blessings. They wanted the material blessings—financial security, comforts, and position. But humility was not there; instead there was deep arrogance behind it. And when that which they thought they were entitled to could no longer be supplied, they turned, saying, “How dare you not give me what I want!”
That cannot be our portion anymore. We no longer live with that, because God has drawn the line. There are those who are bitter with their persecutions, and there are those who offer a sacrifice of thankfulness to God because of their inner revelation of what the Word is all about. They are as different as darkness and light.
Thank God for the day that has come upon us in which the Lord is bringing forth people to walk in His very presence. They walk in His presence with thankfulness. They are aware of His presence in everything that has happened in their lives, and they are thankful. Those who are not aware of the presence of God in their lives are generally unthankful. They generally are soon given over to some delusion, or some satanic oppression, that overtakes them very easily.
Our attitude toward our circumstances is not as important as our awareness of and focus on the Lord.
Bitterness comes from not seeing God in our lives.
The unthankful have rejected the revelation of the Lord to their heart.
To be unthankful means that we refuse the revelation of what God is doing.
A Judas will open his heart to Satan and kiss his Lord to the Cross.
To be unthankful is to become a fool with a darkened heart.
One real revelation of the Lord makes you truly thankful for all He has led you through.
You cannot believe without being thankful.
Only the thankful will walk in His presence; the blindness of the unthankful prevents their seeing Him.