We Americans observe a special day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was established by President Abraham Lincoln, on October 3, 1863, proclaiming the last Thursday in November as a day of thanks. Later on, in 1941, Congress set the fourth Thursday to be a national public holiday.
God gave Moses seven feasts for the nation of Israel to celebrate each year. Several of these were for the purpose of remembering and giving thanks to God.
The Feast of the Passover celebrated Salvation from Egypt by the Blood of the Lamb.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrated a week of separation unto God in thankfulness for their provision and deliverance.
The Feast of the First Fruits celebrated their thankfulness for the fertility of the land which the Lord had given to them. They took the sheaves of the First Fruits of the land and waved them before the Lord in thanksgiving. This feast was also called the Feast of Harvest, Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Pentecost.
The Feast of Tabernacles required them to dwell in booths for seven days remembering how God had provided shelter and provision for them in the wilderness journey.
David appointed singers for songs of praise and worship to God, as recorded in Nehemiah 12:46-47. Psalm 95:2-3 says we should come before the Lord with Thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. Psalm 100:4 says to enter into His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with Praise; give thanks to Him and praise His Name. Colossians 3:17 says 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.
Thanksgiving was around a long time before Lincoln thought of it, and is a natural tendency of the human heart to be grateful for good things (the devil makes us selfish and unthankful). God set special times aside to express thanks for all His good things for the Nation of Israel, which they still honor to this day.
What are you thankful for this year?
I am thankful for the following:
My personal experience with the Lord Jesus Christ in 1964, involving repentance of my sins, baptism in His Name, and the infilling of His Holy Spirit.
All the years of ministry that I have enjoyed pastoring churches, teaching Bible Studies, witnessing to souls one-on-one, but especially for the mission years in Africa.
The members of my family, especially the love of my children and grandchildren; a real heritage of the Lord.
God’s faithfulness in providing for me down through the years, whether I was living with little or much, He was always there making sure I had shelter and provisions.
God’s protection from sickness, disease, danger and harm on many different occasions; especially those times when He sent His angels to miraculously intervene for me and mine.
God’s times of visitation, with His gentle love and presence, even in dark times of doubt and confusion.
God’s visiting me in visions and dreams, several times down through my life, to encourage and direct me.
God’s gift to pray intercessory prayers for others around the globe, and hearing testimonies of those who are many miles away being touched by God during my time of prayer.
All the times that God has shown up when I have prayed for others in the hospital, at funeral homes, or wherever the need arose for a heart to be touched and blessed.
The hunger that I have in my heart for His Word, and more of His Presence in my life and the lives of my children, grandchildren and others.
The gift to expound His Word to others with conviction and anointing, allowing me to see instantaneous results on the faces of the hearers in faith and blessing.
I can go on about my dog, my truck, and my books, etc., but I want to express this year’s blessing before I close.
The year, 2013, has been a year of re-dedication for me, to the Lord. When I returned from Africa I was exhausted; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I was even told that I had a dark cloud hanging over my head, and that I had a set of manacles on my legs that someone else had placed there. I went many years going through the motions of preaching and teaching, but with a confusion as to correct doctrine, and seeking God for why Christians are so prone to hypocrisy. Needless to say, this weakened my passion and conviction of my message; as it is difficult to preach passionately about something you are not sure of as being totally correct.
I had had different preachers tell me that they had gone through a dry spell of several years without feeling the conviction or anointing from God. Mine seemed to last for a good while longer than theirs. God would always visit me, from time to time, to let me know that He was still there and hearing me; but there wasn’t any direct revelation from Him for directions with His Voice in my spirit, as before. However, He would cause different scriptures to jump off the pages of the Bible, from time to time, directing me and encouraging me. The whole time was like I was walking in a slumber; not fully awake, not fully asleep, aware of what was going on in the world and church around me, yet not fully aware of the darkness that had crept into the world, as well as into the church.
Then some circumstances happened, regarding my children, causing my eyes to open; and I began to see darkness encroaching upon what is rightfully mine. I became angry, and spent many weeks in prayer and research about the demonic world that wars against the church. The best way to understand the enemy is to listen to the testimonies of those who once were enslaved by him, and have since been delivered from his strongholds. So I read many books and articles by former New Age believers, former Satan worshipers, former Mediums, former Psychics, former Spiritualists, former Atheists, former cult members, former Witchcraft practitioners, etc.
The whole experience was eyeopening, to say the least. Even though I had personally prayed evil spirits out of people and seen miracles and healings, and had spent many hours in intercessory prayer against the evil spirit world, I never fully appreciated the deceitfulness and subtlety by which the enemy was working in the church and the world, gearing things up for his reign on the earth for seven years as the Antichrist!
I went on a one-week fast in January and spent the time in intercessory prayer and study of His Word. I then went on a three-week fast in March, shutting myself in my office, spending many hours in intercessory prayer and seeking God for a new outpouring of His Spirit into my family, His church and the world. He showed me things about the demonic world that I had never understood before; and about how He is using all these things to raise up a worldwide group of intercessory prayer warriors to usher in one last revival of His Holy Spirit, before the devil leads people to worship him, through the Antichrist, as their god.
Since that three-week fast, I have heard more preachers preach about the power of the Cross than ever before! I have received prophetic words from preachers about the restoration of family members and a world outpouring of His Power in America and around the world. I have had the Lord give me a vision of how He is using individual believers around the world, from every nation, to pray intercessory prayers that go up to God’s throne as little streams of water and combine with the prayers of others to form rushing rivers of water that then fall down onto the earth to soak the hearts and souls of mankind to turn to Him in repentance and salvation.
The Lord revisited me with a vision that He gave me in 1974, while I was standing on the platform at church; showing me a golden escalator carrying souls from earth to Heaven, while angels floated up and down both sides of the escalator and Jesus Christ receiving them at the top. Combining these two visions together, I believe that words of the prophet Joel will come to pass before the last 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation. His Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh and the old men shall dream dreams and the young men shall see visions, ushering in a revival of souls to be saved and delivered, unlike any that this world has ever known.
I have seen a new hunger in the hearts of my children and others toward God. I have seen answers to prayers that have been prayed for many years. I have personally received a healing of my hearing.
I have had 80% hearing loss in my right ear and 40% loss in my left ear since childhood. Part of it was genetics and part from painful earaches as a little boy. I have tried several different hearing aids; which only made things worse. In October, I went to hear a healing evangelist; and when he asked for people with hearing problems to come to the altar, I went and was the third one to be prayed over. When he laid his hands on me I felt a tingling in both ears and then fell out, under the power of the Spirit, to the floor. He prayed for me a second time and I fell to the floor again, both times praying strongly in the Holy Spirit. I testified that I had been healed. Since that time I have felt both ears pop and some itching and have seen that I can now hear individual words at a lower volume than before. The words always ran together for me before my healing, especially at the beginning of the sentence. I would be trying to figure out what the first few words were, and then missed a lot of what else had been said. A frustrating experience for me, as well as those trying to communicate with me, leaving me embarrassed on more than one occasion. The boys and grandchildren had fun with my hearing problem, making a game out of it to see how I would answer them, many times being completely off the subject! They had their laughs…..Now God has taken the fun away….
These are just a few of the things that I am thankful for this year. The list could go on and on, but the important thing with God is what He was teaching Israel with the feasts; to always pause and humbly acknowledge that all our blessings come from Him and to open our hearts and our mouths and Be Ye Thankful!