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To Give Thanks is to Love God
Episode #538
March 26, 2017
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Carole Nelson
This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #536.
We don’t know how foundational to our walk with the Lord it is to give thanks to Him in every situation—nor do we see it as the key to an open heaven.
(Carole) You know, we want to ‘do.’ Everything mankind wants to do is ‘do.’ I want to ‘do’ something. If you see a problem, I’m going to go fix the problem. I’m going to tell you how to change. I’m going to tell you what to do. But when we give thanks, that is a prayer. That is a prayer. That is the beginning and the opening of prayer, when we give God thanks and we give Him glory. And it opens the door to His working.
(Martha) Well, and I said in the beginning, “You can now know what is wrong with the murderer, how he got there.” But the same is true. Oh, this is awesome. “Because they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer,” in Romans 1:28 as response, failing to be thankful and acknowledge Him. “Because they didn’t acknowledge Him as God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.” I wonder, and I have heard stories in the past about mentally ill people beginning to say, “thank you,” and writing letters of gratitude, and their whole lives changed, opened the door to God and health and healing and sanity. So, if you look at this list, which I haven’t even gone over it. It’s a terrific, sobering, terrible list of the downward spiral we choose when we reject God as God, and we reject what He brings into our lives, we set ourselves on a course we have chosen, and it’s a terrible, downward spiral through mental illness and down to the bottom of agreeing with murderers.
(Carole) In Psalm 107, it’s like the Lord is pleading with His people. And He says it over and over again. He says, “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” He says it again in verse 15. “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.” Verse 21. “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.” Verse 31 again. He says, “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the company elders.”
(John) Wow.
(Carole) And in verse 1, John says. “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good for His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”
(Martha) Your translation is not naming in those ‘love.’ Yours is naming mercy and kindness, but this NIV is, “Give thanks to the Lord for good…” Every verse that you’ve named had ‘love’ in it. “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds to men.” “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever.” “Let them give thanks to the Lord…” Oh, He repeats it, he repeats it. The Psalmist repeats it. It’s all about love. To say, “Thank You” to Him – I haven’t seen this before, but to say, “Thank You” to Him is to believe and acknowledge that everything is love.
(Carole) And it causes… Thanksgiving and worship and praise cause us to love Him. It leads us, the fruit of it leads us to…
(Martha) It’s to me, it is the greatest surrender you can give Him, because you’re not surrendering. You’re leaping over that. You’re simply thanking Him and receiving whatever He gives you in life. And that is the amazing… It’s one thing to say, “Ok, I surrender to Your will.” It’s quite another to say, “Thank You,” and receive it. To surrender is a work of, “Well, ok, that’s what I have to live through. Ok.” That’s surrender, but that’s not the leap into the heavens of saying, “Thank You for this very thing and in this very thing.”
(Carole) That’s what I was trying to say. We are so bent on ‘doing’ something, and thanksgiving is totally different from ‘doing’ anything. It is a choice of speaking. It is a choice of the heart. It is a choice to say, “Thank You.” But it’s not trying to perform. It’s not trying to do an act of something. It is simply saying, “Thank You,” and being grateful.
(Martha) And it goes back a long time ago. I saw this. It goes back to the garden, that what Satan comes at you with is, “You don’t have enough. You don’t have what you need. You don’t have enough spirituality. You don’t have enough time. You don’t have enough of love or whatever. You don’t have enough.” See, that leaves you with a conclusion that God is not good. So the original sin is the believing the lie of the devil that God is not giving me what I need. And so, to say, “Thank You,” is to receive and break that curse over us of our own nature, which is suspicious of God. It’s why many years ago He said, “I want you to live one verse. I want you to live it.” And the verse was, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” meaning I have everything I need. And if I didn’t have it, if I didn’t have something, He would say to me, “If you don’t have something, and you think you need it, tell Me. If you need it, I’ll give it to you. If you don’t need it, You’ll see that I don’t give it to you.” And He was faithful to the smallest thing to supply for me what I felt I needed. And then it was perfectly peace. If I didn’t receive it – I can’t think of an instance – but if I didn’t get it, then I was at peace, because I didn’t need it. I could believe I didn’t need it. So, I could live in that. And it was a discipline of my mind to think that way. “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and it’s not possible for me to go lacking. And when John took care of our sheep, they certainly didn’t go lacking. He was there to see to it they lacked nothing. And it was just a picture of our Shepherd that He is going to undertake everything for us, supply every need for us. We are the ones who block it.
(Carole) And you said recently, you quoted scripture where the disciples said, “Lord, what is the work that we need to do.” And Jesus said, “The work is to believe.” Thanksgiving is the doorway to believing. It is absolutely the doorway to believe. It is the key. It’s the foundation, it’s the key.
(Martha) You know, God could endure Israel in the wilderness if they worshipped the calf, but when they murmured against Him, they died, because murmuring is an attack on His character. And to worship the golden calf is simply choosing another god. He’s much more enraged when we slur or slander His character. So, imagine the difference between the punishment. The golden calf, they had to drink the gold, but they lived. But with the murmuring, they perished by the millions in the wilderness. So, murmuring and ingratitude are deadly to your body, soul and spirit. It’s calling for death. It’s a life and death matter how you respond to God in situations. God help us all. It’s so crucial and so wonderful.
(Carole) It truly opens up a whole new world, a whole new realm to see what that perspective…and it truly is an impartation of the Spirit to have that.
To Give Thanks is to Love God – Episode #538 – Shulamite Podcast
It’s one thing to surrender to God’s will. It’s quite another to say, “Thank You, God!” and simply receive it. We don’t know how foundational to our walk with the Lord it is to give thanks to Him in every situation—nor do we see it as the key to an open heaven.
Martha, Carole, Sandy, Tammy, and John, I, as you do, see that giving thanks to God is the key.
Please follow me through this:
What do you say is the greatest event since the creation to God, that is, what do you say is the greatest event from the creation up through the birth of Jesus to God in his eyes that he had done in that he took everything that he had done before the birth of Jesus off the table and left only Jesus on it.
I say to Him that event is His sending Jesus to the world.
I believe you agree with that.
If we all agree on that, then I say that we all believe in Jesus.
Now, since we agree that His sending Jesus is the greatest event to Him since the creation, we can agree that God considers it worshiping him in spirit and in truth when sometime everyday when each of us is alone, we say directly to Him, “Thank you, God, for sending Jesus”.
In giving thanks to God, we need to keep in mind that the devil will use everything in his power to keep us from thanking him for sending Jesus.
As long as we thank God and do not thank him for sending Jesus, we haven’t worshipped God as true worshipers.
I say that the devil does not mind if we thank God and we leave out Jesus.
The devil knows that he is defeated in our lives if we thank God for sending him.
I tell everyone that my Christian life consists of thanking God for sending him, and I add, “I leave my Christian life there”.
Very thought provoking John, thank you for sharing this. Jesus is my one and only gift in life, for this I am eternally grateful. Amazingly all my other gifts comes from Him too. He is the source of all my blessing.
Because He is I AM,
John
Crucial INDEED…
To thank Him in any circumstance because He is good is to truely love Him.
But how could we thank Him for the death of a child, a sickness, or the lack of a parent?
I think it must be tied to hating our family at the same time…
To be utterly unattached to this life is to be free to love Him!
God bless you all
Sandy,
I’m praying as I type that only His words will be shared. You asked, “But how could we thank Him for the death of a child, a sickness, or the lack of a parent?” I have experienced each of these events, more than once. I didn’t know Jesus as a child, and even as difficult as things sometimes were, He instilled in me a gratefulness for my circumstances still.
I resided within minutes of both of my parents from the time I was 7 years old until I left for college (they were very young when I was born). They were not “bad” people. In fact quite the opposite. As I grew I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I was thankful even though I lacked parents or parenting.
I have lost two children now. One many years ago. Even though it was still a time when I had no relationship with Jesus, I somehow clung to the thought that He knew what was best and through my grieving was able to thank Him.
Over the years I’ve been relatively healthy with only minor sickness. However, there has been more than once that suddenly I was taken ill or physically limited. These happened after I began my walk with Him. I understood to ask Him about the health issues as I sought medical advice. Even though His answers weren’t what I’d hoped for, I trusted Him. He had proved Himself multiple times that He was Lord in my life even before I realized it. I thanked Him for the difficulties, accepted His gift of repentance, and have experienced miraculous healing from both illness and physical limitations more than once…healings that even astounded the Dr.s and surgeons (you and I know Who provided those healings).
Three weeks ago I received a call about the death of another child. He was 43 years old and my stepson. I was present the day he was born and have loved him from that moment. The only thing we know about his passing so far is that he was asleep. When the call came I was home alone. As I listened to the man on the other end all I could seem to think of was, “Oh my, this has to be the peace that passes all understanding.” My heart was breaking but there was this overwhelming peace and calm. I don’t know why he passed. But I don’t have to. I know Who holds his right hand. And I give Him all the Thanks, and Praise, and Glory for the life of my son that He shared with us for 43 years.
So Sandy, I guess what I’m trying to express is…the circumstances may be horrific, but because we know who is sovereignly in control we trust that He knows best and we give thanks in all things for He is good. A thankful heart is transforming. Sometimes you say it even if you don’t “feel” it and then suddenly you feel it during times you could never imagine you would.
Romans 8:28 NKJV (emphasis mine)
“And we know that ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God,…”
Thank you for your answer Tammy! I didn’t know about your stepson, I am so sorry! We love you BIG and stand for you all in this time!
Oddly Sandy, thanking God IN our hardship and suffering declares Him as Lord of the circumstance. It goes beyond reason and logic and says, “Thank you God for being God, and though I don’t understand, I trust you beyond my understanding.” I learned this lesson as I witnessed Martha fall to the floor to thank God when she received the news that her son’s wife had died in a car major accident. It was so powerful to see. It was holy! It changed everything for me and since that day I haven’t been the same. Martha’s transaction was a proclamation of who she put her trust in because He was her God. It literally set the precedent for how the entire event would play out for everyone involved. I will see if I can find the articles written about the time. They were in the original E-zine on Shulamite.com but in the update they were achieved.
Believing God is Good…realizing that His thoughts are not my thoughts nor are His ways my ways…what is Good is up to God and not for me to decide. It brings me to a place of Thanksgiving IN and FOR ALL that is my story. It’s His story for me. He designed it. He orchestrates it.
Not that He ever had to, but over the years He has graciously shown me the blessings that have resulted in part (I believe) from giving thanks in what seemed to be some of the most dreadfully dark circumstances. He proves Himself faithful over and over again. If we are His, in-dwelt by His Holy Spirit, how could we possibly NOT give Him praise and thanksgiving?
Miraculously it does open “…up a whole new realm…” It’s a place that exists within, that “truly is an impartation of the Spirit…”
Awesomely said! Our faith in our opinions of “how it should be” are disastrous. His ways are not my ways but I choose His ways as my perfect way. Been looking just this week at how my resistance to His ways is just self-saving death to my spiritual life and destiny. Love you Tammy! Thanking Him for this revelation and for you dear sister!