I want to talk to you, and it might sound traditional, because that's what it
sounded like when the Lord said, I want you to speak on Thanksgiving, you know,
because I had this cool thing I wanted to speak on it. And he said Thanksgiving, and
you know, it sounds traditional. It's like speaking on Mother's Day about mothers,
right? And I'll warn you, ahead of time in this church, we usually don't follow
tradition. So you might have to get that message somewhere else. So that's why
I was like, that sounds traditional or whatever. But he wants me to release the
power of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not or thanks is not just a word that, you
know, like you say, oh, thank you. It doesn't really mean much, but you're gonna
come being kind and you move on. It's a power packed word that's full of God's
energy. And if it's used right and done right, it opens the heavens. It
changes how your mind functions. I will tell you as a person who has studied
the brain a lot, that, you know, God knows all about the brain before
psychology did. So don't get it in your head, oh, she's into psychology only and
all this kind of stuff. It's just they just found out what he knew, right? He
created us a certain way and they're excited about it. So I get excited
about it too. If you spec scan the brain on your most depressed day, you
know, spec scan is like beyond MRI. It's like an entire to be how your
nervous system lights up. And all sudden I start talking to you about good
things of God and you receive that, your brain chemistry will change right
there on the scan. Same way, if I say everybody smile, it's changing
hormones in your brain. It's changing chemicals just by you smiling. So
sometimes you'll see me smile at odd times. Something's coming against
the church. I'll be like, all right. I see what's happened here because it
keeps you more grounded into reality than if you go with it because your
chemicals and the physiological part of you will go there. So it's really
interesting that especially for people who've been through a lot of trauma, we
only see the things that were traumatic first. If you say, you know, what
happened with you in fifth grade, you know, talk about how you went to
the fair and you spent time with grandma. The thing that hurts you comes up
first. You know why that is? It's because it's unresolved. It's unresolved.
So things that are unresolved need closure. And when you have closure,
you might be able to recall it, but you don't relive it. And so what
happens is you become in a state of like an anger state or a hurt
state, and you talk about those things with a bitter root. Many times
in the fifth grade, you know, our whole tone changes, everything
changes. So does our chemicals. They line up with what's happening. So it
shoots a whole feeling through your body. This is why Romans says to set
your mind on the things of God or set your mind like you'd set your
faith. It also says that, set your faith. Hard to set your faith and be
faithful, full of faith towards something if there's a negative root to
it. Then we try to pull ourselves up to set a higher bar and it just
ain't happening. We're just kind of down here. And so what will come
out our mouth will be opposite of thankfulness. Yeah. Right. And then
we got this thing called Thanksgiving that some people get
excited about and others are like, because we might be getting
together with people, we actually shouldn't be. We actually should have
fixed something or broke it all the way, you know, or something. Did
something that we feel forced to and we haven't, we don't have the
skill to talk it through or others don't have the skill to talk it
through. But you feel forced because of a tradition like this is
what we have to do. And it's just like, oh man. And just that
thought will cause us not to be thankful, which means we're not
really there to give thanks at all. We're there to eat. I can eat
at any time. I don't care. You know, it's like, what's a
turkey, right? By this time of year, if there's all the
different churches, I've been turkeyed out. I just, I'm done.
I don't need any more turkey. But, but the thing about it
is, it'll become the focus is more of like what we're
presenting. And the heart doesn't line up with it. So
there's not a genuine happiness. There's not a genuine joy. So
it makes it open to the demonic realm to set up strife where
there's strife, they're dwell at every evil and wicked thing.
In case you didn't know. So somebody comes in and everybody's
just happy and thankful. All you have to do is have one
person that if you're not careful can change the whole
atmosphere of the meal. Amen. Or of the church, or of whatever
group you're a part of, if you allow that influence to happen.
But this is what I know, thankfulness can overtake just
like darkness gets overtaken by light. Thankfulness will drive
that out. Amen. And so we have to understand. I really
want you to understand the words thankful. And it might
be like, I know this already or whatever. But this is how
important it is. All words count. I'm just gonna start out
with that rule. All words count. Because if God was going
around saying stuff that didn't count, you know, that would
kind of change things, wouldn't it? Or if all words
count, and he just said whatever he wanted to say,
just flippantly like we do. It's like, oh, we probably
wouldn't be here. The world would be blown up or
something. I don't know. And so our words count because out
of the heart, the mouth speaks. In fact, it says Romans 10
eight says, but what sayeth the word is nigh thee even in
thy mouth and in thy heart? Who is the word? Jesus. That is
the word of faith, which we preach. So we know where
this portal is that's going to bring out good things or
it's going to bring out bad things, right? And Romans
three thirteen and fourteen says their throat is an open
grave. What? That gets pretty blunt. Their throat is
describing a people that aren't speaking the words of
faith. Their throat is all is all open. It's all like an
open grave. They use their tongues to deceive that the
venom of asps is under their lips like a poison. Their
mouth is full of curses and bitterness. So God takes
the time in his word to separate out, you know, light
from darkness, goodness from hatefulness. I mean, there
is those different things and he just did it with these
two verses. The word of faith is nigh thee even in thy
mouth. If Christ is in the heart and you're making
that your focus, that's what's going to come out
your mouth. It's creative power. But your throat
might be an open grave. If we have a bitter
root. Because what comes out of your heart, it's like
it's just open. Dead stuff comes out. Dead stuff
comes out. They use their tongues to deceive the
venom of the asps under their lips. So it's like a
poison that happens. This is why we get the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the
main reasons because James says the most wicked
part of our body is what? Sky right here.
It's the most wicked part. And so it has to be
sanctified with fire. It has to come under the
fire of God, which is the Holy Spirit. He brings
the fire. Amen? And so that's what causes a
purification. But that doesn't mean like say you
get the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you're fired up
for a week and then you just don't pray in tongues
and you don't really participate in any of the
good things he's given you. Is your tongue
being purified? No. It doesn't happen just when
you're sleeping all of a sudden. It's cleaned up.
It's you're coming alongside of the Holy Spirit.
You're working together with the Holy Spirit. And
this is the rudder of your ship. Where are we
going today, Lord? It's the rudder of the
ship. And he'll tell us what to say. We'll
call things that are not as if they were.
He'll talk to us and talk through us and
that will move that rudder of the ship. So
Thanksgiving is very much like that. Any
time you here put the full word on the backside
of something like faithful, that means
you're full of faith. Thankful, that means
you're full of thankfulness. But it doesn't
just mean you're a kind person. So the word
thanks means thoughts of gratitude.
Thoughts of gratitude. So then we have to
understand gratitude. Gratitude is ready
to show appreciation for and to return
kindness. So can we be high or do we have
to go low to be able to be thankful?
Now I could be full of pride in
everything and do the dance. You know, I
could do the dirge. I can I can say
thank you. People do that with us all
the time. And they're like thinking I
hate her. You know what I mean? And
it'll come out and the words sound
right, but the emanation of the heart
is all wrong. So to be full of thanks
there's so much appreciation. Well
here's the thing with your salvation. If
you don't know what you're
appreciating then what's going to come
out your mouth? Right? Where's the
praise going to come out? Enter his
courts with thanksgiving and his gates
with praise. So we're supposed to be
bringing this, right? But we're used to
and we're trained all around us to be
like thank you, thank you, and we don't
really, we're not full of thanks. If
the spiritual part of it, the umph of
it is not there. All right? So here
we gratitude ready. I'm ready to
show appreciation for and to return
kindness. Well I need to, if I'm
gonna appreciate something, I need to
know what I'm appreciating. So I
felt so good about last Sunday's sermon.
Anybody was here for that? Because the
way the Lord used Pastor Igor to lay
that puppy out. Like how do you walk
away from that and go, meh. I mean
it's just like you're frozen in this
like I owe him everything. I am so
thankful. I appreciate, but if you
don't know the fullness of who he
is and that part of beholding him, you
haven't taken a look at it, then it's
like let's praise. Thank you Lord Jesus.
Thank you. Right? It comes out
shallow. It's just like a thing we do.
And the praise can be the same way.
But that was the power of teaching
us how to go low is really looking at
who he is. So we know what we can be
grateful for and we know what we can
appreciate. And it causes us to humble
ourselves. And we're so full of thanks.
We just can't wait to talk about it.
Evangelism comes out of that.
The power of God operates in
Thanksgiving. So here's what's while
somebody says, you know, I'm going to
have an operation this week. Would you
pray for me? And we come up and we
don't really have a thankful heart
for nothing. We're not really
appreciating what God did. We're just
up there and we're like, sure, we'll
pray for you. How much power is going
to flow? It might flow on their
faith, on their behalf. Thank God. He
covers us sometimes where we're jacked
in an area. He'll cover us and he'll
be like, oh, get out the way. Let me
help this person. You know? And we're
doing a thing. When you get caught
into doing a thing, that means
something has sucked the life out of
you where you're not seeing what
you should appreciate and you're
actually so full of what he's done
you can't wait to unleash that on
somebody. Just, ah, you want to
unleash that on somebody. And so
thank you is an acknowledgement of
what you have received. Thank you,
Lord. Thank you. Thank you. It is
you that gives us the power to get
wealth. It's not us. Thank you that
you're the healer of my body. Thank
you, Lord God, that you're the
changer of my mind, that you give
me a sound mind. I'm so thankful.
See, but if we don't know what's in
here, then we don't know what to
appreciate, then we can't be truly
thankful. Because to fill that
tank full of thanks, we have to
understand what it is we've
received. Amen? That's why I
don't like, you know, I love street
evangelism. I do a lot of it or
whatever. But always try to follow
up. Sometimes people are like
slippery fish. You just, ah, they
give a number of whatever. You
can't get a hold of them.
Because I feel like I want you to
know that you're born again, but now
you need to know what to appreciate.
You don't know the King of Glory
yet. The work of God, Scripture says,
is to get to know Him. And so this
is where discipleship comes in. We're
getting to know Him. We're getting
to know what we should appreciate.
And as we grow in that, it gets
wild. How much we're full of
thankfulness. And we're operating in
this. Changes are very chemicals in
our body. Now, there's a person that
got born again in Wisconsin. I got
saved in revival. Over 100 people
in three months got saved. And
little church was not ready for it.
So that's why we keep saying,
warning, get ready. You know,
they weren't ready for it. But it
was wild. She came to my school.
So everybody knew her a certain
way. And she always came with
her. She was just dark under her
eyes. She looked sickly and pale
and just very depressed, all of
this type of stuff. And Salvation
got explained to her when we
invited her to Sunday, excuse me,
Sunday morning service. And her
everything changed. First it was
like this, like, what? You know,
like, that's for me? What? And then
when we ended up praying with her
and then talking to her and then
calling her and just being a part
of that, she couldn't wait to get
back to church to find out what
else was done for her. But we
didn't recognize her when she
came in. It was crazy. We're all
looking for her like, where is
she? She had done her hair up a
little bit different, but her
whole countenance was changed.
So we do live in a physical
body. So the physical body does
get affected by the spiritual
things. And thankfulness is one
of them. Gratitude,
gratefulness. You know, recovery
one of the things to help people
recover from anything is you tell
them, write down five things you're
thankful for. I'm telling you when
you're first in that, you're like,
there's a, let's see. I
have to have something. And then
you have to tell them something
like, you're breathing. Okay, I am
breathing. I'm thankful that I'm
breathing. It becomes like that
because they're so taken over
by the trauma that they went through
and then traumatized their
self with a drug to overcome
the trauma that they went through.
Now the brain's like, you know,
and so we have to reboot it
and you think you got to tell them
something so psychological or cast
some demon or whatever, but you start
with thankfulness, gratitude.
That's how powerful it is.
That is how powerful it is.
So thankful is
full of thoughts about gratitude.
Useful of thanks.
When that happens to me, when I'm in
the best of thankfulness,
I already have
a brain that operates in 20
different directions. It's a very
hyper, I don't drink coffee for that reason
I never have because I don't like
myself when I do. If I do
ingest caffeine, I can't shut up.
It's probably why I can preach
and then go preach again. Sometimes I preach 10
times in a week. Then
I'm like, okay, I said enough now.
And the next week starts, right?
And so I can't afford caffeine,
but I will tell you when I'm at the best
of thankfulness,
the most creative ideas of how to
minister comes up in my heart.
Like I'll be
I'll be over there praising and then
I'm like, how can I write? I got a
same thing happens to Passover and sometimes
it looks like he's ignoring the service. Have you
ever noticed that he's like on his iPad
and you're like, how come you're not
wearing something? Because God's downloading stuff to
him. And he's writing it down.
He's pulling up scriptures. And he's tying
it all together. He might share it
here. He might take it home and pray over it.
But he's full of Thanksgiving.
I did never know
fake thankfulness is easy
to read because it gets way too giddy.
Oh my goodness,
Cam, I'm so happy you're here.
Okay, stop. It's
not really real.
But sometimes people will do that
as a way of shifting subjects or getting
the uncomfortableness off of them and
putting it on you. And you're standing there
going like, okay, all right, stop. Okay.
It's totally
different that if I come up and say, Kim
I remember when you were in the modular and we
were believing God together, face
to face.
I'm so thankful you're still here.
And it's genuine.
That's the part we get
scared of with our relatives and
with people we're scared
to take that level
and unleash it at them.
I just did this with a relative
this last week and I didn't do it as it wrote.
The Holy Spirit said, just go over
and thank that person for who they are.
Like, all right,
as we want me to do.
You know, but then I took it serious
and I'm like, well, I need to know
what I'm appreciating.
I didn't really think about what I'm appreciating.
I really need to think about
the gratitude that's going to come up.
So as I do this, I'm actually
unleashing the power of God on them.
And if that's all I say, give me a hug
and leave, they're like,
it sends
shock waves through their system,
especially if they're in a spot
where they're hurting,
where they're in a negative mode
and there is no thanks.
And all of a sudden you come with thanks
and you're full of thanks
and gratitude, appreciation
what God has done
and you just want the best for them
and you unleash that.
That's evangelism.
That'll change hearts.
That'll cause deliverance.
See, this is why
prayer lines of deliverance is happening
or it could be that somebody's crying
something out or whatever and many times a friend will be like,
oh, fellas, and then we'll go over
and hug them. That's not the time
to be hugging them, that kind of hug.
That's an I feel sorry for you, hug.
Don't give them
an I feel sorry for you, hug.
Stand there in faith and be
full of thankfulness as to what
God is about to do.
Put your hand toward them like, oh, Jesus, you're so good.
See, that's what they need in that moment
for deliverance.
And sometimes someone's coming
with a prayer
that's coming out of how thankful
and appreciative they are that they got set free
and now I'm going to launch that puppy
on this demon.
Right? And then someone
will run in or fear and something like, oh,
we don't need, oh, it's at that time.
Right?
So,
gratefulness
comes from the Latin word gratis.
There, now we learned something big, huh?
It means to be
pleasing or thankful.
It actually has a root word that goes back
to grace.
Right? It's not the fullness of it,
but it has
that same thing of like grace
beyond to you.
I'm so thankful for you.
Grace beyond to you.
There's power
in his grace. That's what changed our lives, right?
And so then Thanksgiving
is the expression of the gratitude.
So we have to go back
and figure out what's thanks.
What am I appreciative of?
What am I returning kindness for?
What has changed my life?
It's kind of like getting a thank you card
from your boss or something. It says, hey, thanks.
Okay, there might be some depth to that.
I don't know your boss. But, man,
I got to thank you card the other day. I asked in the kitchen, just cried.
I put it on my window sill. It was like,
thank you so much.
And it wasn't like a praise to me.
It wasn't like, you're the most
best. You know,
I've never seen anyone preach.
I've had people just say these things.
Like you ever before. And I'm like, really?
Out of the millions of people
who have preached, you've seen very little.
Then apparently, you know, but
they'll give a praise. It's almost like a worship.
I don't want that.
But in a thank you card, they wrote a whole
thing about, here's what I see.
And this is how you've touched my life.
And I want you to know this.
How much I care.
It was a whole different level.
I just stood there and I was like
whoosh.
Went through my heart.
And I tell you, it put a kick in
my walk that day.
Put a kick in my walk.
Now, if you get, if you get a bunch
of praise, somebody's like halfway
worshiping you. Like, sorry, you have the
best voice ever. And I've never heard anyone
sing like you. And you're amazing.
Oh my goodness, Sarah.
You know, and you do that, there's a
part where you go, okay.
But then there's a thing that says, I don't
trust you.
It comes up and goes, I don't trust you
because you can feel, this ain't
the real deal, baby. This is like,
whew. And then
the first thing that'll happen is your brain
will say, your subconscious will say,
what does Pastor Mary want of me?
Where
true thankfulness is, I'm
not asking anything of you.
I'm placing
a value on you.
And I'm letting you know, I love
you to the best of my ability.
I love you.
And my ability falls short.
But I know somebody
who loves greater than me.
And I want you to know him. See, there's a whole
different level of thankfulness.
I don't know.
I've had
experiences with Thanksgiving where
there's knock down, drag out fights
over who's going to cut the turkey.
In
our house, they're like, let's just get
it. It's food. I mean, who cares who cuts
the turkey? I don't care if it's perfect.
It might be attrition that you
look at. You're like, oh, I like
this. And if you can build
around that and it makes everybody feel comfortable, great.
But those are the
things that we'll take. The devil always takes
something that's highly spiritual.
And then he slowly
decays it so it means less
over time. Like
Christmass.
Christmass is a mass of people getting
together to celebrate the anointed one
and his anointing. How many
Christmases look like that?
Right? And sometimes
even the pageants and the shows
and whatever we put on is really for us.
You know, who's going to get what
part and all that? It's
not that it's wrong. It's the approach.
It's the heart approach
when we do anything, whether we give or
whatever. And so Thanksgiving
is the expression of gratitude, but I
got to know what I'm appreciating.
And I have to understand the level
of this.
I'll tell you hard times
hitting America where
all of a sudden the grocery stores are shut down.
First people get mad
about what they don't have.
But then you start looking through what little you got in
your cupboard and you're like, I'm so thankful I saved
this tuna.
Right? Right?
It would sweat, but we're not used to that.
We're not, some of us are.
But some of us don't have
that. It's the craziest thing when
I do street evangelism or I work
with a lot of homeless people. They are
the first ones to give you the coat off their back.
It's wild.
You're like, but you need that coat. And they're like, oh, it's okay.
I can get another one. And they'll give
that to you because they're so
thankful for having it
and that they now have shoes and
they got a place to stay or whatever it is.
And you're just like, okay, I need to learn
something from this.
I need to learn something from this.
Because when we've gone without
it really shows us
we pay more attention to like, hold on
a second, hold on. What was it
that I was supposed to be grateful for?
It'll make you pay attention.
We paid a little bit more attention didn't we
after
2020
and all the baloney.
With the whole thing, we're going to shut the church down
and we're like, wait a minute.
A lot of people were in fear or whatever
because you began to realize
in a way we have to have that.
And you appreciate it a whole lot more.
I would like to learn how to appreciate
without lack being involved.
But I know when
I approach God
I'm not
I'm not fully sanctified.
I'm not all
the everything. So when I come
and he's absolute holy and he has everything
and I come to him and I'm like
oh man
you feel that you're without some things
but then that should make
you so grateful that you're
allowed in his office.
You can boldly approach the throne
of grace in your hour of need.
Me, little oh me
can go right before him
and say God I'm coming in my
hour of need and I know that you will hear me.
You hear the prayers
of the righteous man and woman.
And the only reason I'm
righteous is because of you.
But if I don't know that
you can get born again
and stay out of church enough to not know that
not read your word or be able to understand it
or have someone explain it to you
and then what happens
is you're still praying the same prayers
of the end of the world.
The victim prayers, oh God
Jesus where are you?
If you're real.
I thought you're born again.
Yeah, but you're born again just enough to be
dangerous. You might get to heaven off of that.
But to live this life
against this wicked world
we gotta know what we're appreciating.
We gotta know.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Complaining comes out
of a lack of Thanksgiving.
I used to when I first got born again
I started reading about the children of Israel.
Sometimes I'd had a little like judgy thing in my heart
like I can't see how they didn't know.
I mean, God
he's right there. He's the cloud.
He's the fire. How could they be
whining and complaining?
I'm just whining and complaining we do
and the fire is here.
He's not only on us
and where we can see. He is in us.
We have the fire
on our tongue. If you're
baptized in the Holy Spirit
it's perspective.
It's us looking at it from a way of like
well, he still hasn't done this yet.
That's a victim, remember?
And if you look like a victim to yourself
that makes everything else a bully.
Everything else a bully.
Psalms 101 through 5
is a great
scripture
on being thankful.
And then Psalms 50, 14 and 15
says, offer to God the sacrifice
of thanksgiving.
I think when we go low
sometimes to be thankful
we have to go low
and it's like sacrificing
stuff like, no, I really
want this and this, but I am going to appreciate
what I already have. It feels like a sacrifice.
It's
this is
cry worthy. I'm kind of mad about it.
But I'm going to be thankful
for what I already have. It's a test
of the heart many times
with God. Our giving
is a test of the heart out of thankfulness.
So if you don't understand
gratitude, thanksgiving
and all that, you're going to be more opposed
to giving.
Just saying.
And it isn't that anyone's evil, we just have lack
of knowledge. And then if we
get the knowledge and we choose not to be
thankful for the knowledge, then it's,
that's on you. That's
the wickedness of the heart.
Yeah? Yeah.
So first Timothy 2
1 says, first of all, then I
admonish and urge
that petitions, prayers and intercessions
and thanksgiving
be offered on behalf of all men.
So always
they're supposed to be thanksgiving.
That doesn't mean we sit down and have turkey every day.
Some of us would like that.
But there is a like,
I'm coming before you God
and a prayer of thanksgiving
can sound like this father,
our father who art in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name.
I am so thankful that you are
Jehovah Jire to my family.
I have never seen the righteous
forsaken nor their seed
begging bread.
We're not going to beg bread, Lord God.
I'm so thankful that you provided
a way out, that you are Adonai
and you'll create a way where there seems
to be no way. You are holy.
Hallowed be thy name.
I'm so thankful. I appreciate.
And then you start naming the times
he saved you.
I remember the time, Lord God
in 1982
when I could have died in that car accident
and yet you, Jehovah
Seboleth, wore it on my behalf.
You're the God of war in the
appointed time. You did that for me.
See, you start doing that.
And what happens
the little thing you're crying about over here
seems really insignificant.
I was like, ah, well,
yeah, and then I had this thing.
It's kind of what you want to bring up to them, right?
Whatever you want to do, God.
They just move on because it seems so insignificant
alongside of that
thankfulness.
And so, if you're
suffering labeled
by a doctor, depression, it could be
actual physiological depression.
For instance, pain can do that
over time. Your pain receptors have had
about enough.
You get a pain in your big toe even
and it's there and so much of your
concentration goes big toe, big toe.
All day you're trying to do dishes or whatever
it is, it's a wearing of the
soul when that happens.
And any form of thankfulness
starts to wane down.
Gratitude starts to go down
because you're focused on your big toe.
And you're trying not to be.
You try to ignore it. You try to do whatever.
But it's a drain. This is why the devil's
tactics are to wear
you down.
Where your mind's
thinking about too many things.
This is where praise and worship always comes
in as warfare. You know the song
this is how I fight my battles.
So true.
So true.
Got pain in the body.
Got something in your head that somebody told
you that you're not able to get out.
You just reverse that and be like, you know,
shut your pie hole and come over here.
And start praising him.
It sounds
to a person who hasn't experienced it.
They're like, yeah, just that's what's really
going to take care of this problem. You're just going to go praise him.
These people are so religious.
I know
the argument, right.
But the spiritual side of it
once you've experienced it, you're like, oh, this
is warfare.
This is how I can change
everything
by getting to know what he's done
for me
and appreciating it.
And I'm coming into an alliance
with what he's done with me
and for me. And I'm appreciating
it. And then when I come
into the gates of praise
when I enter
in where I'm headed to the most
holy place in him
I'm coming with Thanksgiving.
Do we have a picture of the temple? I think she was going to try
to find one.
It's kind of archaic, but you know
everything was focused here, right?
And so you're on the outside
people had animals. There was all kinds of stench
and smell from things being sacrificed.
It probably wasn't a pretty
it wasn't like our churches now.
You're like, look at our church. It looks
like a mall and they had this.
And so, so you're going
through, you can see the animals are being
brought in. You had to bring your best
and then there was a way
to enter. You couldn't just
pop on in.
You can change the whole service sometimes
just by entering these
gates wrong.
It changes mostly
for you.
How much you can receive. You just enter
that wrong. You're like, oh, God does
today. I don't even know if I want to go to church.
You sit here. You shall receive nothing.
Thank you for coming though.
Go back
out the doors and repost yourself and come
in and be like, well, things aren't going
as well as they should be. I don't
understand it, but I know a God who does.
And he is faithful.
He's full of faith toward me.
And so he's not a man that he can lie.
So when I go in there to praise, I'm going to praise
out of that behalf.
He's not a man that he can lie.
So when you look at the temple
they had to go through different
processes in there. You went
through those gates and you came with
Thanksgiving.
And that's what made it easier
to bring the best to be
sacrificed.
Because you were so thankful. If you weren't
thankful, it's like, I'm not, I don't want to
get, that's my best sheep.
You know how much a sheep like that costs
on the market? This one's got
papers and everything, you know?
It's like, you'll complain about it,
but you come with Thanksgiving and I ain't
entering those gates until Thanksgiving
happens to me.
See, it's a choice of the heart.
And then like I said,
we got this thing called Thanksgiving.
People are tired.
They've been up cooking.
People get crabby.
You know, if Aunt Sarah comes, you know,
if she says that one thing, she'll help me.
I'm just going to get up and leave.
That's what I'm going to do. I don't see where we should have.
Why does mom always take us as this person's
house? I don't want to be here.
I don't want to be here.
What's interesting, even in the most
crabby places, if a person dies,
you regret you said that.
Because now you're missing something.
We don't want to wait for that.
We need to be thankful for what we have
and who we have, you know?
Don't skip boundaries.
If you need to have boundaries and not take
your children and expose them to
people drinking and doing all that,
just have a boundary.
But be thankful for the people.
Thankful that you have a boundary.
Because you can't make one on your own.
It'll be fleshly and it'll sound horrible.
It'll hurt people and they'll label you
and be like, you're the one.
And so you got to go to God even to get
that kind of love.
To be able to say it in the most loving
way. Love you so much.
You know, but we're choosing this year.
We're really going to build on our family.
And that's the priority God's
put on it. Okay.
Alright.
And maybe we can get together some other time.
But we're going to focus on our family
and really try to establish
something with them.
That's good verbal judo, isn't it?
Depending on the person, you got to
say the right thing to the right person.
Don't make stuff up.
Don't sound all schmoozy.
Because schmoozy means stupid talk
when you look that up in the dictionary.
That's just stupid talk.
You're kind of doing something.
Right? And then you
want to have an excuse
to be doing this.
But you don't make an excuse.
I like when you want a day off.
You don't make an excuse to get a day off.
But if you're not feeling well,
you take a day off.
You don't make something up though to pull that off.
We do that because we feel
we're 100% responsible for the other
person's emotional state.
And if they get crushed, I'll be
crushed.
If they get crushed, that's on them.
Maybe you can be there to help it out.
Yeah?
But you do what the Lord told you to do.
You do what the Lord told you to do
and love all people
and have some good boundaries.
And I'm saying this
in Thanksgiving.
In Thanksgiving.
Some of us have been
given new families.
It doesn't mean to hate the old,
but the Lord literally said
I want you in this family.
I want you hanging out with these people.
Because you have nobody
there.
Be thankful
for that though.
Be thankful.
I had a guy come up to me last night.
He said, can I call you mom?
I said sure.
Right?
And I usually say sure. Does this anybody?
But I've known him for a while.
And he said, I need a mom in my life.
He said, I like when you say what I should do
and do those stuff.
And I said, well, I'm just preaching the word.
He said, yeah, but I feel like it's more than that.
I feel like your mom.
Right? But he doesn't have a mom
to go home to.
He doesn't have that figure
in his life that he could feel
thankful for.
God will arrange that.
He's the father to the fatherless.
He'll take care of the mom thing too.
Amen?
But if you get stuck in it,
your brain actually rots.
Like I went through such trauma
in certain areas when I was a kid
that I was not born
with dyslexia.
I wasn't born with that.
But when I went to resolve that trauma
as I got to be in my 20s,
I started focusing on that area again
because I was running from it.
And then I got to look at it.
I got to feel it.
I got to unpack it.
I got to throw some of it out.
I got to... I don't want to look at it.
I don't want to even see it, right?
So when I did that, it was the craziest thing.
My brain would let me
read a map.
If I was going down to Minneapolis Teen Challenge,
I would look at the map.
I can see how to get down there, right?
We have GPS now.
So I flipped that a different way.
But when you have a map,
I'd literally take the map and go like this.
I'm headed that direction.
But then when I go to come home,
I couldn't flip it in my mind.
It wouldn't do it. It's a form of dyslexia.
It's leaving
over time.
So sometimes you'll get a diagnosis
like that's dyslexia.
How are you born now?
That's damaged through the brain
because the chemicals got switched.
So let's just switch them back.
Yeah?
I don't take those diagnosis
so serious like that's depressing.
Yeah?
You don't think Paul got depressed?
He had no medication.
Poor guy.
I'm not saying if your chemicals
are so off that you have to take something
in between, yes.
But even as you stabilize,
we have to enter into the things
that will heal your brain.
It's important.
It's important.
We can't count on the medication to heal your brain.
It doesn't do it. It's just a stabilizer.
It's just something, it's a filler
that's sitting there going, I'm filling this right now
till we get this other thing filled.
Then your body has to,
like if you wean off a medication,
you don't just go off a medication, you do that over time.
But what happens
is as you wean off of it,
your brain has to remember now
I don't remember how this works.
It has to literally
come to a place where it remembers
how to do something without the medication.
So if you're going through that,
super on the natural God to you,
right? He wants to heal you,
but at the same time,
no, there's a process.
That process can be there,
and you're still headed in the direction for healing.
But it's how we're made.
It's how we're made.
So we work with the body, how we're made.
I love when God does just absolute miraculous,
like done, over, healed.
And you know,
neurons just grew in your brain overnight
kind of thing. But just in the natural,
it's time. It takes time
for those things to happen.
So if I'm entering
the gates with Thanksgiving
and the courts
with praise,
I better know what I'm there for.
So when I grew up in a very religious church,
you've heard me talk about this.
You know, we did the amans,
amen, amen.
Okay?
I know why we were doing that.
They just said stuff. And then
the person would say
something and you had to repeat it back
through song.
I don't know what we're talking about.
There was no thankfulness in me
at all. I wasn't even sure
why Jesus was on the cross. Like, what kind of
God just goes and dies? And then we're
supposed to... I don't get this.
And no one explained it through all
the sermons. Nobody explained it.
You didn't hear the salvation message, but we did
amen,
amen, amen.
And our big thing in our family,
you know, because we're a lot of singers,
right? So then we just work on
harmony. Because you're bored in church,
right? So like, all right, when he does this,
I'm going to try to do the bass part.
Or whatever, you know. That's what we concentrated
on. And not falling asleep.
So
if someone would have said to me,
are you a Christian? Yes, I go
to that church.
See how deception can happen
that quick?
It's on the outside of things, we're
reciting things on the outside of the heart
and calling it
God.
It's when God starts working on the inside
of your heart
that everything changes.
That the tears flow.
Crying in church?
That's just if you got the belt or something
because you're messing around.
Parents take you outside and whoop, you're a little
heiny and you come back in and sit down
and say,
that's what crying in church was about.
I don't remember
much other than that.
I remember getting flicked if I turned around.
Anyone here got flicked because you turned
around? People could have died
Don. You don't turn around.
That's the feeling, it's like
respect.
You can learn some things through that,
but it's not going to bring thankfulness.
That's why there's no healing in the
house.
No one's getting delivered
by that.
No one's getting
delivered.
We were at a
conference one time.
My husband was speaking
and the demonic realm just manifested
through this young person.
And they were crying so hard
they were hyperventilating.
And in the church
many times we do because we don't know what else to do.
Right, so we'll stand around
and pointing at him. In the name of
and you've got to.
And it was just getting worse and worse.
Was there something probably
demonic there? Yes, there was.
But this young person just needed a hug. Not the
I feel sorry for you hug.
Like, aww, we're not doing
the aww hug.
It just kept ramping up.
So I said, okay, hold on, move it.
Right?
So they thought I was going to be like, in the name of Jesus!
And doing this whole thing.
But I said, come here, come here, come here.
And hugged him.
That person just fell in a heap.
And wept in a different way.
Right?
Then we got to pray together.
I wasn't coming with
the like, I'm coming with power
and I'm, let me show you what I've learned.
I'm the demon hunter.
And I wasn't, I wasn't coming like, aww.
That guy's crying.
I feel sorry.
You come in power.
But you have to know what you've appreciated.
You have to know what's inside of you
that it's like, I'm so thankful God set me free.
I was that person.
You know, when Pastor Vern taught
on deliverance,
I'm just going to go back.
I only share certain parts of my story
because people can't handle it.
I'll just be truthful about it. It gets pretty intense.
But I was that person that
the demonic came up
and he came walking in the room and the whole room was ripped apart.
I have no memory of it.
A copier on the floor, everything.
That was me.
I know what it's like to be neonized.
I am so thankful that I have been set free.
So when I see a person suffering like that,
I know that suffering.
And I bring the thankfulness
and the gratitude
of how he set me free
to that person.
I'm not bringing my power.
I got nothing.
I'm bringing his love
that I'm so thankful for.
See, you don't have to experience
every sin to have compassion
over every person who's sinned that sin.
But when you've been delivered of something,
you've been delivered.
Right? You get it.
You're like, I get that.
I get that.
I feel that.
And there's empathy
and compassion that comes out of that.
But I haven't dabbled in everything.
I never was part of the satanic church.
But I should still have the same thankfulness,
the same
thing inside of me that comes up and goes,
man, you're bound.
We gotta get you set free.
And your mind thinks differently.
You think differently.
It's looking for a solution
to free that person.
Compassion comes up and you're like,
I'm looking for a solution.
I'm not trying to shut it down
because it's taking up space and time.
We gotta get this taken care of.
One pastor said, why?
Because it's bothering you.
What about the person?
I'm blunt about these things
because I've been delivered
and I don't like
the play
many times that happens at churches
or in groups.
We have to understand this stuff.
We have to understand to be moved
by compassion is supernatural.
To be moved in thankfulness
is supernatural.
No, I can give my best thanks to you right now.
Yeah, that's all you got, that little sliver.
Go for it.
That's like us giving our best righteousness
when the Bible says our righteousness
is as filthy rags.
That's what I got.
Here's my righteousness.
I don't really have anything,
but I am the righteousness of God
in Christ Jesus.
Now I got something that he gave me.
Whoo!
And he gave me something I can be appreciative of.
Thank you, God.
I'm still alive.
Thank you, Lord.
You delivered me.
Thank you.
You just start thanking him.
It will change how you approach
thanksgiving as a day.
How you approach your family members.
Thank you, Lord, that you
give my contankerous auntie
another year to live.
God, give me a way
to reach her.
See, it's a different
than, oh, man,
I got a ha, you know.
I'm not thankful
or have gratitude.
I've forgotten what he did for me.
Do you know why there's not a lot
of evangelism in churches?
One is because we don't know what he did for us.
We just want to know
that we're in. I got the ticket up.
Whoo, yeah. Said the prayer summer camp.
All right, I'm good.
You know, 72. I remember it.
I said it. Then they baptized me and I got it.
I got my whole line up.
Here's the paperwork.
But when we really
understand what he did for us,
you don't forget that.
My husband's asked me several times, honey,
you've been working different
100-hour weeks and things like that.
And it has to be
the grace of God that allows me to do it
because we're plowing through something.
And I know what it's like to go,
you poke into that air and you get through it
and then he'll release me from that many hours
or whatever it is.
And so whatever it tells me to start,
I start whenever it tells me to stop by stop.
But I have always told him
the day of my salvation
when I was at the altar.
I told God,
thank you
for what you've done for me.
I owe you my life.
That's every moment
of my life.
I owe him that
because he gave me everything
he has.
If I didn't know that
I wouldn't feel like I owe him anything.
He's just, thanks for providing
so I don't have to go to hell. Thank you.
I'm going to go over here and live.
The gospel message is a good news
is about getting that understanding
of what he really did for us.
And we become full
of thanks.
Gratitude and grace start moving in us
and out of our belly
comes rivers of living
water.
Living water, water is the word.
The water of the word is what
washes us.
It's a simple gospel, but sometimes we forget
this. And so for that to come
out of me, I have to be washed
by the blood of Jesus. And he puts
his word in there to do
that, which means I gain an understanding
which means I appreciate that.
Every year
I'm learning more about what I need
to appreciate.
I want to say this
too, as an apostle
and I travel and stuff. I see this
thing where there's
truth on one side and a false on the other
where, you know, there's classes on
anyone can prophesy. Alright, come to my class
and I'll teach you how to prophesy.
Let's think
about this.
You might learn the stuff
but for you
to
appropriate it and get it out
you better know
what you're appreciating.
Not only about prophesy
because here's the thing, people will prophesy
and if I came up and said I'm
unsaved, I'm going to be saved right now, they wouldn't
know how to do it. But they're
out there prophesying. So we're
using the big gifts and we're missing
this over here. Don't you think something's
wrong with that? Doesn't that ever make you go, hmm
something just not right?
Yet
the church needs to get up
and learn these things. We need to get up
and learn about healing and deliverance
and ask God, the Bible says to ask him
to crave the good gifts.
I crave
the good gifts
all the way up to Red Lake. I'm like Lord Jesus
I crave your healing gift.
I crave deliverance.
I crave the Lord.
I appreciate what you did for me but increase
it in me so that I can deliver
that out so they get set free.
See it?
But there's something
kind of funky about
anyone can heal, anyone
we can do whatever might be
two days saved. We'll got to honor some of those
prayers sometimes. Sometimes
it's the faith of the person asking.
Right?
Sometimes
you'll give us something to make us hungry for more
but we got to mature
and even understanding
his word.
Or we're not full of what we need to be full
of when we're out there prophesying.
You need to be full of God. You're speaking
on his behalf.
Anybody can cold read.
I'm really good at cold reading.
You know
what that comes out of? Trauma.
Anybody who's been through trauma
you've had to read people. You're like
I don't trust that person.
And you notice little things
like a flinch on their face. Everything
where other people don't notice it.
So I've had to separate that out. So sometimes
I'll have somebody in the prayer line
and I'll separate it out where I'll say
this is not a word from the Lord. I'll tell him right now
this is not. I just see that this is
what's happening with you and they'll go yeah
how did you know? It's all over you.
It's easy to
read.
Right?
And then people if they don't know I'm saying that
they'll walk away like she just knows
God just really moved. Now I don't always
know. Sometimes I can just
read the person sad or they're happy
or they're whatever. But if I'm
really going to go to speak on God's behalf
I better know what
I've appreciate and what he's
done for me and be operating
in that first.
It's like giving the keys
to the car to your four-year-old.
Can they pray for you? I've had
results. I remember when I was real sick
Ari prayed for me. I think she was three or four years old.
She said something amazing.
Jesus, name Heal.
It's just amazing, right? And I was like all right
I got that. Got up. Everything left.
Right? So that's cool.
But I'm not going to give her the keys
to that whole thing and send her out. Now she's
going to be running the prayer lines. That word of life
now.
You want to destroy a person just do that.
Peter talks about that.
You'll put yourself
behind a pulpit before your time either.
I'm sharing this with you
as an apostle
because an apostle establishes
I might, if I was more pastory
talk about Thanksgiving in a more
fluffy way that gathers people.
I'm not that.
I'm operating as an apostle
and I'm putting some things in order so that
when you go this week and you think
I got to approach this thing
oh Jesus
what would you have me do? Go low
and find out. And when you go low
and you find out, if you don't know
how to handle it, go back to them again.
Take the time
more time to figure it out whether or not
you're going to cook cranberry bread.
Take more time on this.
This other stuff doesn't matter as much.
It's this that
matters. Let's stand.
Jesus
Jesus
Now some of us have been taught
to suppress our emotions and that's why
we don't like to be
exuding thankfulness
because tears might come.
I get all mushy.
Sometimes guys are taught
you know
I'll just say thanks Bill
and you walk off or whatever
but there is a difference
when you look at your wife
husbands and you look and you say
I'm so thankful for you
and you lock
eyes and look right into her soul
and tell her how thankful
you're so full of things. I wouldn't
want to be without you.
It will change
the chemistry and even how
her body operates.
You have the power to do
that.
No words changes nothing.
In fact, it puts
a doubt that causes fear.
See that's
by the spirit just telling you.
Thank you. Thank you
Lord. Thank you.
Help us to enter your gates
and your courts where things
get settled are in the courts
where things get sacrificed
are in the courts where things
get changed are in the courts
help us to come full
and appreciate what already
you have given us
erase all forms of judgment
and and wickedness
of the heart
come with your word
and your spirit
and bring about change
bring about change
hallelujah
hallelujah
now the Lord says you know
when you come to someone's house
You bring peace. That's shalom. That means nothing's lacking. Nothing's broken.
You're coming full of God and you release your peace into that home and it comes back to you.
That is a... I'll see you guys later and you walk out.
You should understand the peace of God enough to know how to release it and when you take it back.
Don't have to be mean to people. Don't have to be rude or whatever.
But you have to make a decision. Crystal, you just made a decision the other night.
And it was kind. It was like, hey, doing that. Just not going to participate in that. So no peace.
You have permission to do that too. Take the all of the word and be balanced when you approach
these things. Loving people, appreciating what God has done. Let's just take a couple minutes
here without any music or anything. Name, name five things. Name five things and try to make
some depth to it because you can go my jacket and my shoes. I'm thankful yet. Well, that's nice.
But try to pull some depth. Get some real relational stuff and just speak it to him.
I'm thankful Lord for this. I'm thankful for my family, my husband. I'm thankful.
I'm thankful for this church. I am so thankful Lord God.
For your mercy and your grace that saw us through so many times. You're so full of faith
toward us. We're so thankful that those suffering in their bodies Lord, we just pray for them now
out of that thankfulness of what you've done for us Lord, that you would bring that same joy
to them. Be healed. Be healed. Be delivered. Be changed. Holy is the Lord. Holy is the Lord.
Thank you for positioning your angels around every person. Every person that comes to this
church in TBO and up at Red Lake Lord and the men as they're traveling back. We're thankful you do that.
Warring angels. Angels that bring new body parts. Angels that do the work of the ministry.
Angels that bring in the anointing on their wings. Angels that bring healing in their wings.
We're thankful Lord. You surround us with this great host of witnesses and this great
army of angels. We're so thankful for that. We receive it all in the name of Jesus.