THANKSGIVING STRATEGIES

Dear One,
   My advice to My children to be thankful for their blessings does not come from My need for affirmation.  Your verbal words of thanks are not to merely tickle My ears so that I will be attentive to your needs.  I am not that kind of a father, not a human father who is easily manipulated by grateful words.  The giving of thanks to Me from My children is a strategic maneuver on their part to let the principalities and powers of the air and My angels know that you are grateful to Me and that I am your source of all blessings.  Thankfulness is an affirmation of your faith in Me and your statement that you are grateful to me for My Fatherly gifts to you. 
    Another strategic effect from your giving thanks to Me is that thanksgiving from your heart is a statement of your faith that what I promised I will deliver.  Remember that Abraham thanked Me that he would be the father of many nations when he was well past the age of fathering children.  Yet, he praised Me and thanked Me that My promise to him would come true even though his wife Sarah had no youthful functioning physical organs that would allow her to conceive a child.  They thanked me before they saw the product of their faith.  They spoke statements of faith by speaking the things that were not reality at the time as though they were already reality. (Hebrews 11:8-12)  They were able to have faith because they believed My promise to them.  They thanked Me that they would be parents of many children before they were parents in reality in their later years.
     Because faith is simply the spiritual substance of things hoped for, the spiritual evidence of things that are not yet seen, thanksgiving for the future appearance of the answer to prayers is a statement of faith.  (Hebrews 11:1)  It is speaking your confidence in Me to all the spiritual world that exists around you.  (Philippians 4:6-8)   As you hear yourself speak thankfulness to Me, you are also reminded that I am your source of all good things, your loving Father who wants the best things for you and your thanks says that I am able to do what you ask of Me.
     When I told you to make your requests known to Me with prayers and thanksgiving, I also told you to never be anxious for anything; but, instead, to think only of things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, praiseworthy, to think of those things.  In other words, keep your mind on things that come from faith in Me instead of things that come from fear that your prayers will not be answered.  When you are fretting and anxious that I am not going to answer your prayers, you are allowing the devil's fear to consume you instead of allowing My faith to consume your mind.  When you speak thanks to Me for bringing the answer to your prayers into reality, your mind switches from a negative channel to a positive, faith filled channel, switch from the hell channel to My heavenly channel.
     Thanksgiving is a powerful action, producing more than you ever imagined.  When you are announcing your needs to Me in prayer, make it an automatic choice to also thank Me before you see the answers to prayers become reality. (Ezra 3:11; Psalm 69:30; Psalm 95:2 ) Thanking Me says to yourself, to My kingdom and to the demonic kingdom that you have faith in Me to supply your needs according to My riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 4:19) 
     David, the song writer, said that praise and thanksgiving causes you to enter into My gates. (Psalm 100:4-5)  Isaiah said that My promise to Abraham and Sarah would produce comfort and compassion for My children and that I would make the desert places like Eden and the wastelands like a garden, that joy and gladness would be in you and that thanksgiving and the sound of singing would be found in all of My children. (Isaiah 51:3-4)  He said that My words would go forth into all of the world and produce justice for all. That feat was accomplished by My Holy Spirit coming into the earth to live in My children by which My words became available for all people to hear them because I make My home in them and they become My children.  I became the Father of many children in whom I make my home.   That is reason for celebration and the giving of thanks. 
      All of the spiritual beings in the heavens pay attention to your words of thanksgiving to Me, marveling at your loyalty and devotion.  Your words of gratitude empower My angels and they are deafening roars in the ears of your spiritual enemies.  I often told people to shout their thanksgiving.  That was instructing you to shout your independence from despair and your dependence upon Me. 
      Thanksgiving is for your benefit.  Praise and thanksgiving go together just like prayers and thanksgiving go together.  They make statements of your confidence in Me.  That is My thrill, hearing your thanksgiving statements announce your confidence in Me. (Ephesians 5:1-5)  
      Your Father of Wonderful Gifts