Thanksgiving
A Powerful Force In The Kingdom
Roy Blizzard III © 2014
Text: Psalms 100:4, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; give thanks unto Him, and bless His name.
This is the season of Thanksgiving. Most of us here in America gather around our tables and celebrate…abundance. We used to celebrate the somewhat fictional accounts of what happened back at the first Thanksgiving celebration here in America, but even that now has been changed to simply thanks for the rather mundane concept of abundance. Abundance especially when it comes to food. We seem to actually give thanks for being able to eat ourselves under the table just so we can feel guilty about those 5 extra pounds we gained with all the stuffing and pie.
But in reality is that what we are supposed to be giving thanks for… even on Thanksgiving Day? What is it that God wants from us and what is the benefit for us in giving Him what He wants? The Jews have a sort of Thanksgiving, and that is called Passover, the time when the Jews Celebrated and gave thanks for being delivered from bondage. But again, I have to ask the question, What is this Thanksgiving?
Psalms 100:4 tells us that we are supposed to Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving. What gates do we enter into? Where are these gates located? Are they Heavenly Gates? Pearly Gates? What is it talking about? Also, what kind of Thankgiving are we bringing? Thanks for all the pie and Turkey and our bellyaches? Well, in Psalms, it originally meant that we were to enter into the gates of the Tabernacle of David, but once that was gone then it went for the Temple of Solomon, then the Temple of Ezra, then the Temple rededicated by the Maccabees, then the Herodian Temple. Now, since all these Temples are gone, where is it that we can go to enter into God’s gates with our Thanksgiving?
1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
Galatians 4:6
Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
So now we can see that we don’t have to go anywhere to find God, He has come and found us. But here is the critical part of this question, if God has come to us and is now residing in our body as a Temple, how do we enter into this holy area of the Temple of the Holy Spirit? We enter by way of the gate to our Temple just as David the King went into his Temple. Do you know where your gate to your Temple is?
Ephesians 4:17-24, “ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 19 who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Vanity of their mind = futility of their understanding. Their mind is closed to understanding the spiritual nature of God. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” We have to enter into the Temple of God by renewing our mind as to the spiritual nature by which we are created and thereby allow God to rule in our lives.
Colossians 3:15 states, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
Here is that word thankful again. So now we know that our mind is the gate to our temple and it is time to see what we are to do once we get there.
Thanksgiving in English comes from the Hebrew word TODAH. This word which is translated thanksgiving is itself from the root Yadah which means to cast or throw down, but what is it we are supposed to cast down or throw down when we come into the Temple of God? Our sinful nature, that’s what. Do you have an inkling now of what is happening here.
The word thanksgiving means we are to come into the presence of God and cast down our sins before Him. In other words we are to repent, repent, repent of all our sins continually before God so that our minds are renewed continually in His spiritual nature and we are no longer fixated on the futility of trying to understand God and His purposes, but that we would fully be aware of what God has for us to do at all times.
When we do so what does the second part of verse 100:4 tell us? We are to fill God’s courts with praise! Why, because God was righteous and has cleansed us from our sins! Praise the Lord!
Let’s Read Psalms 100 again and see if it now makes even more sense to you!
1) A Psalm of thanksgiving, (of repentance!) Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. (Shout aloud to everyone that you have been forgiven and set free from your sins) 2) Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. (In all that you do and say do it without the futility and anger of the fleshly mind and you will unify with God with a song in your heart and be gladdened into it) 3) Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.( By unifying with God in gladness we will know that God is real and that we are made in His image and for His purpose and we will find rest and peace within Him) 4) Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. We come before God in repentance and shout praises for His love and mighty work in saving us from our sins) 5) For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. (For God is not evil and purposeless but God for us and His mercy to forgive us when we fall lasts for an eternity and His Truth of His Saving Word it stands firm before all onslaughts of the devil for all times.
Isn’t this the real message of Thanksgiving that we should be proclaiming to all men and our families? We don’t have to feel guilty or ashamed about our eating, but we should be overjoyed to be unified with God in the salvation of our souls!
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” In all that we do and say we should be casting our sins away and coming to the Lord in repentance and praise. Judges 1:2 says, “And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.” Judah means Praise! We are to praise God for our being forgiven as we lay our sins before God before we go out into the world to proclaim God’s Kingdom. This is the Authority of the Believer and God goes before us as we do His work sowing the seeds for His harvest of souls and defeats our enemies before us.
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