TO BE THANKLESS IS A CRIME.
WE HAVE NO CREDIT FOR ANY GOOD THING. IF IT IS GOOD, IT IS GOD
THE REASON I AM PURSUING GOD SO HARD IS THAT HE DOESN’T NEED ME FOR ANYTHING.
WE ARE VERY USED TO PRAYER AND FASTING. WE SHOULD START THANKSGIVING AND FASTING
WHAT WE DON’T APPRECIATE WILL KEEP DEPRECIATING NO MATTER HOW HARD WE PRAY.
WE NEED TO GET TO A POINT OF HUMILITY WHERE WE UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS NOTHING WE HAVE THAT WE GOT BY OURSELVES
THERE IS NO HOST FOR SHILOH, GOD HOSTED IT. NO ONE CAN CALL ME THE CHIEF HOST.
I HAVE BEEN SHEDDING TEARS OF AWE IN HIS PRESENCE BECAUSE WE ARE NOT WORTHY OF ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE SEEING.
IF I AM NOT HERE, YOU WON’T SEE ANYTHING MISSING. THE ONE MAKING IT HAPPEN IS GOD.
I ONCE SAID AND I MEANT IT FROM MY HEART THAT EVERY GOOD THING HERE GOD DID, EVERY BAD THING I MUST BE TO BLAME.
WE ARE WHO WE ARE AT WHATEVER LEVEL WE ARE, ALL BY THE GRACE OF GOD.
IN THE EARLY DAYS OF OUR MINISTRY, PEOPLE MOCKED ME FOR THE CAR I HAD. I WAS GRATEFUL TO GOD FOR IT.
WE HAVE LEFT CARS NOW. WE ARE FLYING.
IN THE YEAR 2O24, YOU WILL BE FLYING BY LIGHT!
ACCESS TO LIGHT FROM THE WORD OF GOD IS THE GREATEST TREASURE.
THANKFUL PEOPLE DON’T KNOW DEPRESSION.
ADDICTION TO THANKSGIVING MAKES GREAT
IT IS MEN WHO BELIEVE THEY HAVE NOTHING THAT GOD TURNS TO EXPERTS.
– Bishop David Oyedepo on ENGAGING THE WONDERS OF THANKSGIVING at SHILOH 2023 Thanksgiving Sunday Service || Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland|| First Sunday Service || 10th December 2023 ||
🎶 Unto the Lord be the glory, great things He has done. 🎶
We have no credit for any good thing. If it is good, it is God. If it is marvellous then it is the Lord’s doing. Every good gift or every good thing, every perfect thing comes from the Father of Light in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning. No one has credit for any good thing in his life. You have no credit for any marvellous thing in your life. They are all the Lord’s doing. Our salvation is all the Lord’s doing. Our access to light is all the Lord’s doing. Psalm 118:27. To be thankless is a crime. Our arrival here on the earth, we didn’t play any part. Church Gist. Our preservation since we were born, we didn’t play any part. When we didn’t know anywhere He kept us. When we couldn’t define our environment, He kept us. When we were babies left at home and mothers went somewhere, the devil couldn’t smite you there. He was the one at work.
Lift your two hands and on a personal note: “I thank you Jesus”. Don’t toy with that, let it come from your heart.
No one is worthy of all His goodness, He is just being the good God that He is. We are something now because He made us something. He called people that are not, so we were nothing and He made something out of us. We owe him thanks and forever. Church Gist. When we assume His grace as a right or an achievement, it turns into disgrace. My prayer is that we will come out of here today addicted to thanksgiving as a lifestyle and it won’t stop adding value to your life.
As a Commission, we owe God thanks. We are not where we are because we are smarter or wiser than anybody else. It is grace speaking nothing else. We don’t have the wherewithal, we don’t have the background, grace speaking. I want to wonder what I was doing with the Book of Lamentations as a new believer. It was God showing me light. Church Gist. Did you put in any effort? I can’t remember. What are you doing with the Book of Lamentations as a new believer? Do you want to lament? God just showing you light by His grace preparing you for life without you knowing. The same goes for you, You have seen grace over and again in your life. May you not despise it.
Being filled with awe, I told our pastors after Jesus completed this building that if anybody goes around and says we built It, God will kill him. Church Gist. We had no capacity, we had no resources, we had no speed in our hand, we had no technicality. If you go around and say we built this, God will kill you. We didn’t. We owe God thanks. He won’t stop doing His marvellous deeds until we stop acknowledging Him as the one at work. Church Gist. He will stop when we stop. We are not worthy of all the goodness that we see as a Commission. It is His grace!
ENGAGING THE WONDERS OF THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving is the will of God that commits Him to fulfil His Word. When you pray according to His Will, He hears you and thanksgiving is His Will. When you pray according to thanksgiving, He hears you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18. 1 John 5:14-15. Church Gist. If thanksgiving is His Will, when we pray according to thanksgiving, He hears us. We are very used to prayer and fasting. We should better start thanksgiving and fasting. Amen!
He hears thanksgiving faster than He hears prayers. What we don’t appreciate will keep depreciating no matter how hard we pray. Malachi 2:2-3. Thanksgiving is the way up. We gave God thanks to move from 6 to 10, membership or attendance in Church. Then 10 to 15. It is a spiritual yeast that keeps enlarging your coast. If you find bread without yeast, it is flat. When you add yeast to it, it gives it shape. Everybody’s destiny will start taking shape now. If you don’t thank God for the light you have seen you won’t see brighter light. Jesus said, “Father, I thank you because you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to babes”. We thank God for light. Church Gist. Light from the Word is the greatest treasure in the Kingdom. It can make a nation out of a nobody. Isaiah 60:22. By access to light. You don’t go to kings, they come to you. Yet we don’t thank God for light, we thank God for lands, thank God for cars, you can lose lands any time. The people who sold to you can say they are not selling to you again and take you to court. The court can be forever.
Thank God for light, it is our greatest asset in the adventure of life. You find Paul saying I thank you God. I am not worthy of this light. I am the least of all saints, this is you. 1 Corinthians 15:9. It is not effort, it is not exertion, it is not the study, it is the Shower of the Light that shows up. Church Gist. For instance, during this glorious event, we heard that testimonies are not happenstances, they are not things that happen by chance or stories of luck, testimonies are products of applied insights from the Word. Isn’t that enough to be jumping about? That you are not at the mercy of any anointed man to secure a miracle. When you apply the insight gained from the Word of God you have already set the stage for the supernatural. They are not a product of prayers. Whatever He tells you to do, do it. If you don’t do what He tells you to do, good luck. When you know it and you do it, well done! Isn’t that enough to be jumping? Somebody is now bothered that the business he was thinking would happen during Shiloh has not happened. He didn’t get anything we have been saying.
They went for outreach in Secondary Schools and then a sound came from abroad “Now, you are representing us in 18 nations.” They reject you in one state here and then 18 nations, don’t play with God. Applied revelation! They said let’s carry the gospel to those children. Church Gist. We want their lives better and God saw the sincerity of their heart. Everybody who has a testimony did something. You sit down there, you sit down there. Everybody who ever had a testimony applied insight gained to have it.
Supernatural manifestations are products of applied revelations. Luke 5:1-7. Applied revelation brings people out of frustration. It is our greatest treasure. Proverbs 3:13-15. His Word is the wisdom bank of heaven in print for those of us to gain access. Luke 11:49. That is the wisdom bank of heaven on a mission to bail everybody out on the earth. Applied revelation will bail anybody out of frustration. Psalm 92:1-2,10-14. All came out of thanksgiving in verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 92. Instead of thanking God, you are grumbling. “Our time is not hard and I am not flourishing, so what happened?” People just turn their backs as if God needs them. Church Gist. Can I tell you why I am pursuing God so hard? He doesn’t need me for anything. I don’t know whether He needs you but God doesn’t need me for anything. He said if I call you and you don’t answer, stones will take your place. God doesn’t need you for anything. So don’t think when you are coming to Church “If I don’t go, how will God feel?” God won’t feel anything. You are the one to feel everything. We need to get to a point of humility where we get to understand that there is nothing in our hands that we got there by ourselves. There is nothing around our lives that we made happen ourselves.
Are there not folks who did their thesis on the New Testament and they are not born again? They devoured it. They went through all forms of analytics yet they couldn’t find life. You cannot sit and say “I thank you Jesus for saving my soul.” Do you think it is that cheap? Grace got you there. Grace got me there. Grace got us there. If you have anything to complain about you are creating problems for yourself. Complete problem! When our Church was 10 people, I wasn’t perturbed. Church Gist. The time I said if I were invited to be the President, I would consider it an insult. It wasn’t arrogance. I wouldn’t be invited to be even the Local Government Chairman. There was nothing about me that was worth inviting but I caught the light, that there is a place on the topmost top of life by doing only what God tells you to do. Applied insight keeps changing people’s levels.
I have been shedding tears of awe in His presence because we are not worthy of all these things you are seeing. We don’t have the background for it. Please understand that we are who we are at whatever level we are, all by the grace of God.
There is no Host for Shiloh, God hosted it. So you can’t talk of a Chief Host. There is no Host, talk more of a Chief Host. Can I tell you something? Putting the Word to work is the working of miracles. You work miracles by putting the Word to work. When you talk about the working of miracles, there are people putting the Word to work to work miracles. Philippians 2:11. John 9:7. Putting the Word to work is the working of miracles. You do what He says then you have committed Him to do something. Church Gist. Doing what the Word says is what makes miracles happen. Luke 6:46. Psalm 81:11. How are you now? “Well, well, well, after leaving this kind of meeting.” After leaving this kind of meeting what did you hear? “How is your business going?” “Well, you know the time that we are in now. Everybody is seeing something.” “But I heard in your Church that there is an exemption.” “That is what we say there.” You just remove your name from the list. You will be struggling and swimming against the tide all your life. What I tell you is what He shows me and it is working. If you despise the truth, you have trapped your testimony. Church Gist. There is nothing there. You get to your bed with your wife, “Do you think that what they are saying is okay? When that Pastor came I was even surprised. What was he talking about?” The wife laughs. You are laughing at the truth that sets you free?
I did something at the Ministers’ Conference, I called it The Trap of Spiritual Carelessness. Everybody needs to hear it. You just careless your way to the prison without knowing. People need to know where they are. This God is so humourous. If I am gone out of here, you won’t see anything missing. The one making it happen is there. In the precious name of Jesus, you will no longer be an ingrate. Everything good about your life is God. I once said and I meant it from my heart, everything good thing here God did, every bad thing I must be responsible. Church Gist. Every good and marvellous thing God did. Whatever is out of order, I am to blame. It is time to thank your way out of the pit and find your way to where God has ordained you that cannot be hidden. Finally, you are out of the pit. They only pity men in the pit. No one will have reason to pity you anymore.
Psalm 81:10-14. Whatever you can’t say openly, God won’t confirm openly. So don’t be talking God inside your room, talk it on the streets. What I show you in secret, shout it on the housetop. I have been saying I cannot be poor, am I now poor? Because I kept doing what does not make a man poor. So can I be poor? If I say it and I don’t water with my mouth, it is gone. You are not part of the hard times so do what brings people out of it. Thanksgiving is one of the lifelines for flourishing in hard times. You won’t miss that forever. Church Gist. Dance with your heart in place. Let every issue of “Is God working?” leave you. It is a thought of ignorance. If He is not working will you wake up this morning? Don’t say “Tomorrow I am going somewhere.” You better say “If God permits.” If you don’t wake up, can you go somewhere? We need to get this thing right and get it on time.
Light is in degrees. He is the Father of Light. There is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and the glory of the stars. One star exceeds another in glory. When you thank God for the level of glory of the light you are in, He shows you greater light. Church Gist. You thank Him for that one and He shows you the next one. John 5:17-20. How many of us have God as our Father here? The devil is very mad that you are saying so. How can you have God as your Father? He is very mad.
John 5:19,20. Greater light results in great marvels. Luke 10:21. He shows Himself to babes, not to mature who already know everything. They know everything. Church Gist. Before you say one word, they say ‘We already know it’ You say the next one, they say ‘That one, I knew it some 20 years ago’ Babes…Except you are converted and become as a child, a baby, you cannot make the most of the Kingdom. It’s time to come down. 1 Corinthians 8:2.
– Brighter lights are ahead of you.
– (In) the year 2024, you will be flying by flight! You will be flying by light!
Isaiah 60:8. Heat cannot affect anything flying. So, when you begin, when you take off in the air by light, you are not affected by the happenings on the ground.
– You are changing level.
Access to light from the Word is the greatest treasure of all the treasures one can ever desire.
Moreover, thanksgiving triggers the supernatural naturally. Things start happening in their own accord. Church Gist. That man never prayed for fresh oil. Fresh oil came through the mystery of Thanksgiving. Psalm 92:1,2,10-14. ‘The righteous shall flourish like the Palm Tree’ On that light, he will flourish.
– Thank you, Jesus.
‘Father, I thank you’ Your 5 loaves and 2 fishes multiply supernaturally. ‘I thank you Jesus that I have 5 loaves and 2 fishes. Church Gist. This can only be you. I thank you’ So, you’ll find the fish multiplying. You’ll find the bread multiplying. You are flourishing when others are dying. That’s the way it works.
– May you remain genuinely thankful.
– Thank you, Jesus.
We rush to round up.
We have a list of thanksgiving made giants in scriptures. Among them:
Abraham. Genesis 22:5. ‘and worship’ Because he was used to that, they were not apprehensive. He wasn’t crying and sobbing as though he was going to lose a son. ‘Let’s go and worship’ If he looked gray, they won’t allow him go, sir. Church Gist. ‘Maybe he wants to go and commit suicide and kill himself’ No, he was cheerful like ever. The son said, ‘Here is the wood, here is the fire, where is the Lamb?’ He said ‘The Lord will provide’ You can’t stay there and say no. Genesis 14:19. Luke 16:23.
Now, we are redeemed to be plugged into the blessings of Abraham to tell you how seriously the blessing works. Galatians 3:13-14. Romans 4:19,20. You can’t be thankful and be depressive. Church Gist. Thankful people don’t know depression. Thankful people can’t know depression. Thankful people never know depression. It is ingrates that suffer depression.
I’ve had quite some days of my share of challenges. You’ll find it in my autobiography that is coming on. My share of challenges including the dying state of my wife. Church Gist. Thankfully thankful, for that she’s sick? For that she’s well. Thankfully thankful that she’s well. Not, ‘God,You know I’m a minister. I’ve been serving you all my life. (Crying)’ She will just die for free. I’ve seen my share.
You (Bishop Abioye) reminded me how I was giving God thanks for…’You mean, God bless me with 1000 naira a week’ I’ll be honoured, 3, 4 weeks running. Have you heard that before? 1000 naira a week (singing). You look gray for 1000 seen. Church Gist. You won’t see 5 naira tomorrow. You see 100,000 naira profit in your business. ‘You know, in our Church, what is 100,000? I saw a young lady that gave testimony of millions of dollars’ Go and collect it. (Laughing)
In our early days in ministry, they invited me to come and dedicate one Government House and he didn’t want to tell me to come with my car because he knew that my car is very wonderful. Church Gist. He said ‘They are coming to pick you’ I said ‘No, I’m coming by myself’ Because that car, you don’t need any announcement. When it arrives, you know. It is self announcing. I took it there because I will leave at my time, not when you are saying the driver is gone somewhere when it’s my time to leave.
Life, gratitude…someone said to me, ‘Brother David, I learnt you got a car’ One of my senior colleagues in ministry. I said ‘Yes, God blessed me with a fantastic car’ He said ‘Did I hear it’s a Volkswagen Beetle?’ I said ‘Yes’ He said (God forbid). What did I call Beetle? Fantastic. Church Gist. You know, with the way they advertised it, you can’t kill the Beetle. God gave me a fantastic car. It was infantastic to him. We have left Beetle, we have left cars, we are now flying. You now ask, where is that man that (said God forbid) to beetle? I won’t tell you.
Don’t ground your life, be grateful. You are wearing coat, ‘Who dash Monkey banana?’ Be grateful. You are not under the bridge. You came out of a house this morning. Be grateful. You are seated among dignified people. Church Gist. Be grateful. You have not lost your mind, your mind is still working today, be grateful. Arrows have been shot at you in the day, in the night, yet, they can’t get you down, be grateful.
– Come on, give the Lord a big hand of praise.
Romans 4:21. No room for depression.
Daniel came and you find him after God revealed to him the secret, his spontaneous response. Daniel 2:19. The word ‘blessed’ connotes thanksgiving. Psalm 100:4.
Now, let’s see how he blessed Him. Daniel 2:20-23,27,28. ‘There is a God in Heaven that revealeth secrets. Not that I was very good in class, I was 10 times better than the other colleagues, that’s why I got it’ Daniel 2:30. ‘I’m not there because I’m smarter than anybody else. This is you, God’ Daniel had a stainless history in the Bible. Stainless history. ‘This is God, this is not me’ Experts don’t fly in the Kingdom. It is men who believe they don’t have it that He turns to experts.
– You are the next one!
Now, number 3: David. You read all the Psalms. ‘I thank thee, I bless thee, I praise thee’ That was his addiction. Church Gist. Now, ‘Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me’ That was his greatness. Addiction to thanksgiving makes great. That was David’s greatness. Psalm 22:30. Serving a generation, one man, through addiction to thanksgiving.
– Somebody’s story has just changed now because, through thanksgiving, you are scaling unusual heights!
Now, look at Paul, a thanksgiving addict. A generational Gospel giant. ‘I thank Christ, my Lord, who counted my faithful, putting me into the Ministry’ You find ‘I thank you, I thank you’ You go down there, ‘I thank you, I thank you’. He was a Thanksgiving addict. ‘I thank you’ everywhere.
– May thanksgiving become our own new addiction in the name of Jesus.
To rejoice always, like Paul talked (said), is to be thankful always. You don’t say ‘Thank you’ meaningfully, with frowning faces. To be grateful is to be joyful. Church Gist. So, if you are ever grateful, you will be ever joyful. When you stop being grateful, your joy ceases, your face looks the other way round, your beauty disappears. 1 Thessalonians 5:1. Philippians 4:4. That was Paul’s addiction.
Moreover, thanksgiving triggers the supernatural naturally. You are not looking…as you are thankful, things begin to happen on their own accord. They are just happening. I said in those days, I said ‘As we give God all the glory for this Tabernacle, He will do the next’ That was 1999. ‘He will do the next’ Has He done the next or not? He will do what? The next. Has he not done the next? Now, listen to me. As we give God thanks madly for this next (the Ark), He will do the next. You say ‘What will it look like?’ I don’t know. Church Gist. But thanksgiving never leaves you at the same spot. It keeps changing your level. The next maybe we plan this kind of next to various nations. Amen. The next could mean anything. It could now be 200,000. It can be 200,000 and He will give you the technology to do it. What we have there now, it’s not the next ordinarily. It’s the largest in the World of all stadia with 18 metre square above the highest on the roof. Were we competing with anybody? No. It’s just God’s next.
– God’s next for you will be an amazement.
Be thankful. Colossians 3:15. Be thankful. Thanklessness is a crime, crime against oneself. You get to your car, ‘I’ve been using this car for God’s sake for the past 3 years’ and the car is still moving and you are not thanking God. You want to use your leg?
— Singing —
You better dance round that car with joy. Amen. Church Gist. ‘This my car is fantastic. I thank you God for this car’ He says ‘See how he is thanking me. Okay, I will daze you, my son’ But when you say ‘God, what have you done?’ The tyres will go flat. The gearbox will go into disarray. The steering will start making noise. There is no devil there oo, it is just the thanklessness, because of thanklessness. Anything you don’t thank God for, crumbles. Make your choice.
– The good news is that we are all changing levels!
– We are all changing levels today.
– You believe that is your portion, let me hear your loudest Amen!
Now, I’d like to repeat this. God hears thanksgiving faster than he hears prayers. John 6:11. In Matthew 14, It said ‘He blessed it’ The ‘blessed’ means, He gave thanks because, in John 6, ‘He gave thanks’. Church Gist. In Matthew 14, ‘He blessed it’ and then, why I’m looking at Matthew 14 is that he named how many people ate, 5000 men minus women and children.
– Can I hear your Amen?
By giving thanks, on the spot response. He answers thanksgiving faster than He answers prayers. You better take note of that. Don’t make thanksgiving an appendage, make it a subject in prayer. ‘Father, I thank you’ They say ‘What have you prayed?’ ‘I just thanked God’. Many years ago, they said, ‘Brother David, what’s your prayer request?’ I said ‘Just thank God for me’ Many years ago. I didn’t have this insight then, but to be going, bombarding God with requests every day, that’s not the way to live. Because, when we sit down in those days, ‘What’s your prayer request?’ Somebody will mention about 5. Church Gist. Another person, ‘I have many prayer requests today’ They will start listening to him. After saying it, nobody will even know what to pray about. The prayer requests are so many. ‘Father, thank you. Father, thank you. You have answered him’. Colossians 3:16. Be thankful. He hears thanksgiving faster than He hears prayers. He got to where Lazarus was ‘Father, I thank you. Lazarus, come forth’ On the spot.
– He will hear you!
– May your sound of thanksgiving never go dry!
– May every reason for complain and murmuring die in everyone’s life!
– We are making it together o!
– Nobody will suffer dryness this time as we engage in this.
– Well, the good news is, we are in for the best of times.
That’s Matthew 14:15-21. John 6:6-13.
Now, the children of Judah only gave thanks and praise and God gave them supernatural victory over their enemies. Give thanks. It will silence your enemies. Church Gist. Psalm 8:2. Give God thanks, He will silence them forever. Give God thanks, intense thanks, for keeping you from their reach.
– Thank you, Jesus.
– As we give thanks today, God will hear.
– He will preserve our blessing delivered at Shiloh.
-As we give thanks, He will multiply the blessings received.
– As we give thanks, He will perfect the blessings received.
– As we give thanks, He will deliver the balance of our expectations.
– There shall be no carry over to 2024.
Lift up your right hand everybody and bless the name of the Lord.
— Altar Call —
Declarations:
– The good news is, you will never know dry seasons again!
– Thanks givers never get stranded. You will never get stranded again!
– Thanks givers never suffer lack. You will never suffer lack again!
– And so shall it be.
– All your seeds that are dying in the ground will come back to life in Jesus precious name.
You are blessed!
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