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Psa 138:2; I will bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name. for your unfailing love and your doctrine; for you have magnified your doctrine above your name.
Since this week is the national celebration of Thanksgiving it is appropriate to briefly discuss the holiday and it's greater meaning for believers in client nation USA.
The first Thanksgiving is considered to have occurred in 1621 one year after the Pilgrims arrival at Plymouth on the Mayflower when, Governor William Bradford in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, stated:
Therefore, I, William Bradford by the Grace of God today, and the franchise of this good people, governor of Plymouth, say' through virtue of vested power 'ye shall gather with one accord, and hold in the month of November, thanksgiving unto the Lord.'
On October 3, 1863 during the war between the states President Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday for the fourth Thursday of November.
Even in war, Lincoln said, we can count our blessings: 'They are gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."
Thanksgiving is a national holiday that is celebrated by both the believer and the unbeliever but for believer's thanksgiving is not only a holiday it is an integral component of the spiritual life so today we will briefly consider the Doctrine of Thanksgiving as it relates to the spiritual life of church age believers.
Thanksgiving is a form of worship whereby Church Age believers acknowledge the benefits related to the divine initiative of antecedent grace from eternity past that extend into time.
The divine initiative of antecedent grace in eternity past is the provision of a portfolio of invisible assets for every believer. Eph 1:3;
These assets are conveyed to the believer by Jesus Christ and deployed by the believer in through the function of the three spiritual skills in time. The three spiritual skills are:
The filling of the Holy Spirit; that is not only the energy and the power for the spiritual life, but it is also a spiritual skill that the believer learns.
Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness is not only a power option but is also a spiritual skill.
The filling of the Spirit and metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness are the basis for the formation of the third spiritual skill that is the problem solving devices on the defensive perimeter of the soul.
The ten problem solving devices are:
Acknowledgement of known sin.
The filling of the Holy Spirit.
The faith-rest drill.
Grace orientation.
Doctrinal orientation.
A personal sense of destiny.
Personal love for God the Father.
Impersonal love for all mankind.
Sharing the happiness of God.
Occupation with Christ.
The ten problem solving devices become operational as believers utilize the two power options and function under three spiritual skills that the believer learns the doctrines from God's Word.
Thanksgiving is an indication of passing the prosperity test.
Prosperity + Humility =Grace orientation = thanksgiving
Prosperity +Arrogance=Entitlement attitude = being unthankful
The biblical definition of worship is the basis for the true function of thanksgiving. This definition is given in John 4:24, "God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship by means of the Spirit (filling of the Spirit) and by means of (truth) doctrine."
Thanksgiving is worship and is a response to God for the provision and the function of the problem solving devices as they become a defensive perimeter in the believer's soul.
All true worship in the Church Age is based on the two power options for the believer's life: the filling of the Holy Spirit and metabolized of Bible doctrine.
The filling of the Holy Spirit plus the metabolization of doctrine plus the problem solving devices on the defensive perimeter of the soul becomes the capacity for and the basis of thanksgiving to God for what He has done for us.
Thanksgiving therefore is the reflection of the application of Bible doctrine to the believer's experience through the function of the problem solving devices.
Believers do not properly understand thanksgiving until they are consistently functioning in the three spiritual skills. Thanksgiving is a part of the daily function of the ten problem solving devices that are deployed on the defensive perimeter of the soul.
Thanksgiving as worship is a part of the spiritual life, therefore, thanksgiving must be related to the function of the three spiritual skills.
For the believer, thanksgiving is not simply some shallow, transient system of gratitude for something.
For the believer thanksgiving is a system of worship of God; it is capacity for worship; it is capacity for life; it is the reflection of the believer's love for God through the function of the three spiritual skills.
Thanksgiving is a moment by moment mental attitude that is produced by the spiritual skills in the soul. It is a part of the believer's divine viewpoint of life. Thanksgiving comes from the function of the spiritual skills and becomes the the basis of the believer's mental attitude in life.
This attitude is a part of capacity for life, and is based on maximum Bible doctrine that is resident and circulating in the stream of consciousness under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
Thanksgiving as a mental attitude that is forged from persistent cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine that results in the believer having capacity for life from metabolized doctrine that is available for application to experience from it's launching pad in the right lobe of the soul.
Col 2:7, "Having been rooted and having been built up in Him (TLJC), and being stabilized by means of the doctrine that you have been taught (his thinking), overflowing with thanksgiving."
We see there that there is a relationship between the believer's consistent perception of Bible doctrine and the believer's attitude of thanksgiving toward God because Bible doctrine gives capacity for gratitude.
Col 1:12, "Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us for a share in the endowment of the saints in the light."
"In the light" is the instrumental of means, an idiom that states that the means whereby the believer is qualified for a share in the inheritance that God established for the saints in eternity past in is through the illumination provided by the infallible word of God.
The only way that a believers can participate in this endowment is by having perception that is made possible by metabolized doctrine circulating in their stream of consciousness
Thanksgiving is a response to God that is based on the believer's attainment of spiritual capacity righteousness that results in the conveyance of God's blessings from the inheritance to the believer day by day.
Thanksgiving is both an expression of the spiritual skills as well as and indication of capacity for divine blessing. Thanksgiving is an expression from capacity of the believer's appreciation for God that is based on a mental attitude of gratitude for God who is the source of every perfect grace gift.
The believer's daily attitude toward God is the expression of thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is an act of giving thanks it is a grateful acknowledgement of the benefits of the grace of God. Hence, it is an expression of gratitude toward God based on the believer's doctrinal capacity to appreciate who and what God is in addition to what He has done.