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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.
Last time we noted that the national celebration of Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November so it is appropriate to briefly discuss the holiday and it's greater meaning for believers in client nation USA.
We noted that 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 to God who is the source of every perfect grace gift.
The believer's daily attitude toward God is reflected in the expression of thanksgiving. The only believers who have capacity for this type of thanksgiving are those who are advancing in God's pre-designed plan for their life.
This means that for the believer, thanksgiving is more than simply an outward expression of gratitude it is more than appreciation in a human sense. It is appreciation for God that cannot exist apart from the function of the spiritual skills.
Eph 5:20, "always be thankful with reference to all things toward God, even the Father, through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Obedience to this command requires the filling of the Spirit, metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness, and the function of the advanced problem solving devices of personal love for God, the happiness of God and occupation with Christ.
Thanksgiving is first of all directed toward God, and as an overflow of gratitude it indicates capacity and appreciation for life.
Thanksgiving is therefore an index, gauge or indicator that reveals the spiritual status of the believer.
During the advance in doctrine spiritual believers become more thankful on the other hand the more a believer functions in the cosmic system the more unthankful they become.
The greater the content of metabolized doctrine in the believer's soul, the greater is the believer's gratitude and the capacity for the mental attitude of thanksgiving.
The more the believer uses the problem solving devices of the PPOG the more the believer has capacity for thanksgiving toward God. Thanksgiving to God is therefore an indicator the function of the spiritual skills.
In Eph 5:18b; we have the filling of the Spirit that results in the happiness and contentment of soul that is demonstrated in verse 19 and leads to the giving of thanks in verse 20.
Thanksgiving accompanies the acknowledgement of known sin as an expression of gratitude for the forgiveness of sins, restoration to fellowship with God, and the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
Thanksgiving is related to metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness. The greater the content of metabolized doctrine in the believer's stream of consciousness, the greater the capacity for the mental attitude of thanksgiving.
Col 1:10, "That you might walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to all, bearing fruit in every good work; in fact, constantly growing up by means of epignosis knowledge of God (metabolized or spirit taught doctrine)."
Once the believer begins to understand God's grace provision for restoration to fellowship through the application of the doctrine of acknowledgement of any known sin, the believer inevitably comes to a point where they express gratitude to God for his grace provision for the forgiveness of sins and restoration to fellowship with God.
The filling of the Holy Spirit causes the believer to express their appreciation to God.
Without the filling of the Spirit believers have no capacity to even express true thanksgiving to God.
The faith-rest drill results in capacity and expression of thanksgiving.
Grace orientation becomes a continuous basis for the expression of thanksgiving to God.
Doctrinal orientation provides greater and greater capacity for thanksgiving until the capacity is so great that the believer shares the happiness of God.
A personal sense of destiny is a source of thanksgiving for the believer who understands and is oriented to the attainment of the objectives and purpose of God's plan and will for their life.
Personal love for God the Father adds motivational virtue to thanksgiving.
Impersonal love for all mankind connects relationships with people to the believer's mental attitude of thanksgiving toward God.
Believers who have Impersonal love have capacity for and are thankful to God in all circumstances even when it involves unjust or unfair treatment because the believer understands that God has their back and knows that God will always use the suffering of injustice as a basis for blessing. Gen 50:20;
Joseph had to get to Egypt to fulfill his destiny. Jesus had to be put on the cross to fulfill His destiny. We have to suffer injustice to fulfill our destiny. Phil 1:29;
Sharing the happiness of God provides tremendous contentment in life. Soul tranquility becomes the capacity for thanksgiving in every circumstance in life.
The ultimate in mental attitude thanksgiving and the overt expression of gratitude toward God comes from occupation with Christ.
Without occupation with Christ, capacity for life, or Bible doctrine in the soul, thanksgiving cannot be sustained under the pressures of life in the devil's world. Heb 12:2-3;