PROUD PEOPLE DON’T HAVE A FUTURE
THE STABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF YOUR CURRENT BLESSING ARE GUARANTEED BY APPRECIATION
WHAT A MAN IS PROUD OF TODAY WILL NOT BE THERE TOMORROW IF HE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO THANK
THE FUTURE OF THE BLESSING IS NOT GUARANTEED IF THE BLESSER IS NOT GIVEN RECOGNITION AND APPRECIATION
WHAT YOU DO ABOUT YOUR CURRENT BLESSING DETERMINES WHAT GOD WILL DO ABOUT YOUR FUTURE BLESSING
FUTURE BLESSINGS ARE NOT IN VIEW UNTIL CURRENT BLESSINGS ARE APPRECIATED
ONE SPIRITUAL THERAPY THAT DOES NOT HAVE OVERDOSE IS PRAISE
WE LIVED SIX IN ONE ROOM FOR 13 MONTHS WHEN WE MOVED TO ABUJA TO START MINISTRY
MY FAMILY AND I LIVED IN A RENTED APARTMENT FOR 13 YEARS WHILE CHURCH BUILDINGS WERE BEING ERECTED EVERYWHERE
IF A PERSON CANNOT THANK GOD FOR THE FINGER OF GOD, YOU WON’T SEE HIS HAND
THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING FOR BECAUSE THEY ARE DESPISING WHERE THEY ARE
- Dr. Pastor Paul Enenche on “VALUES OF THANKSGIVING” || June Testimonies and Thanksgiving Service || Dunamis International Gospel Centre || The Glory Dome, Abuja.
Welcome to the thanksgiving and testimonies services of the month of June, which is actually the very last day of the sixth month, the last day of the second quarter and the last day of the first half. Church Gist. Like we have said, this year shall not just rush like that. We have already seen many miracles but as we step into the seventh month, we shall see far more.
- somebody say a loud Amen.
So, we are going to be looking at the “VALUE OF THANKSGIVING”. Church Gist. It’s going to be strictly Thanksgiving and we are going to see the value thereof. Our objective is to understand the values and also the virtues of thanksgiving. Jeremiah 30:19.
In our world and in life today, thanksgiving is a scarce virtue as far as human experience and human vocabulary are concerned. Church Gist. Last week, we saw how that we are in the endtime and a major sign and symptom of the endtime is that people will be ungrateful according to 2 Timothy 3:1-2. So, the endtime is characterized by unthankfulness. Church Gist. People will be unthankful to people and they’ll be unthankful to God but this must be overcome as we look at the values and the virtue of thanksgiving.
What are the values? What virtue? What do we expect and experience from thanksgiving?
- Thanksgiving guarantees the stability and sustainability of current blessings.
Malachi 2:2. That is, “to give me thanks. If you won’t thank me, if you won’t appreciate me for what I have done, what you claim to have does not have a future”. Church Gist. The stability of your current situation and the sustainability are guaranteed by appreciation. No miracle is guaranteed a future for the ungrateful. The breakthrough of the ungrateful is not guaranteed. Church Gist. What the man is proud of today will not be there tomorrow if he doesn’t know how to thank. “Because you laid it not to heart to give thanks to my name, it’s not the devil that will destroy the blessing, it is me myself”. This is very important. Church Gist. If you’re in health today and you don’t know that that health is a privilege, if you have supplies today and you don’t know it’s a privilege, if you have favour today and you don’t know it’s the mercy of God and you’re arrogant about it, the future of it cannot be guaranteed. That is why proud people don’t have a future. Lucifer became Satan, Nebuchadnezzar became an animal. “If you laid it not to heart to give thanks to my name”. Church Gist. Thanksgiving guarantees the stability and sustainability of current blessings. The future of the blessing is not guaranteed if the blesser is not given recognition and appreciation. You recognize the blesser, you appreciate the blesser. That was number one and this I think is very important. Church Gist. Thank God for your health, it establishes the health. Thank God for your resources, it establishes your resources. Thank God for your finances, it establishes your finances. Thank God for your favour, it stabilizes that favour. - Thanksgiving guarantees the possibility of future blessings.
That is, you’re blessed today, not only are you stabilizing the blessing of today, you’re establishing the possibility of future ones. Psalm 50:23. 1 Samuel 17:34-37. Church Gist. I’ll like you to note this, what you do about your current blessing determines what God will do about your future blessing. Whatever you do regarding your current blessing is the determinant of what God will do about your future blessing. If you give God thanks concerning the current blessing, then God will ensure that future blessings are released. Church Gist. If I’m to say it this way, that future blessings are not in view until current blessings are appreciated. Church Gist. You’ll never be able to bring down Goliath until you have appreciated God for deliverance from the lion and the bear.
There are so many people who are wondering why they’re not seeing any new thing in their lives because they’re not thanking God for anything in their life. Church Gist. I know a man many years ago, he was very far ahead in the ministry of healings, signs and wonders, very far off, clearly. When we are in a crusade and after every miracle, testimony, I will dance and sing and do everything. At that time, he will say we are wasting too much time, “time is being wasted per miracle, let’s rush on” and I didn’t know how to do it otherwise. Church Gist. Headache is healed, we’ll stop and dance for it, this is how we know how to do it and God shifted the things and began to shift things. Cancers are healed, all manner of things. You may thank too little but you can never thank too much. It is possible that you didn’t thank enough but it’s impossible that you’re thanking too much. Church Gist. It is possible that you didn’t praise enough but it’s impossible that you’re praising too much. One spiritual therapy that does not have overdose is praise, no side effects, no overdose symptoms. Hallelujah!
- somebody say a loud Amen.
If a person cannot thank God for the finger of God, you won’t see His hand. If you cannot thank God for the one bedroom apartment you’re in, you won’t see the duplex and even if you see it, you can’t keep it. Church Gist. There are many people who have not seen what they’re looking for because they are despising where they are.
- somebody say a loud Amen.
We have passed through phases of our lives. Church Gist. When we stepped into ministry, we have stayed in one room boys quarter. At our 25th anniversary, we went to that room to look at it, in Abuja here. Church Gist. Our first child was in that room, we were about five or six in that room. Myself, my wife, our daughter, the relations of my wife plus one young man who was a worker in the Church. Six of us in one room. I didn’t know we were in room, I was not aware. If you saw me outside, nothing has reduced. The forcefulness, the sharpness, the excitement, the everything, nothing. Church Gist. When it was time to pray, I’ll come out of the room into the bus, we had a Church bus then and I’ll stay inside and blast, when I’m through, I’ll return back. That’s after living in 2-3 bedroom houses in Jos. In the Doctor’s Quarters, I had a house, she had a house, we had two houses that we left to come into this one, to one room. Do you understand what I’m saying? Church Gist. That was the sacrifice form the beginning. Some don’t know that. We were in that one room for 13 months. Then, moved to a rented house for 13 years. While the house renting was on, Church buildings were being built. Churches were being built but we forgot that we didn’t have a house. You can’t trace nothing, no downcastness, nothing both on myself and my wife, infact, we were not aware. Church Gist. For us, we were living life at its best. What we didn’t have, we didn’t notice. There’s no way that house is a testimony to me. Church Gist. Nothing is a testimony now by God’s grace. Nothing can be ” okay. this is too strange” because God is doing everything, every strange thing. Hallelujah.
So, please, don’t despise the days of small beginnings, don’t despise where you are, don’t despise what you have, it is the seed for what God will do. Church Gist. What to do with your current blessings will determine what God will do with the future.
- somebody say Amen.
I see some of us here very surprised at what I was saying, you’re not aware. (Laughs). Church Gist. Hallelujah! Thanksgiving guarantees the possibility of future blessings.
- Thanksgiving guarantees the multiplicity of available resources.
What is available becomes multipliable by Thanksgiving. It guarantees the multiplicity, the multiplication of available resources. John 6:11-12. Church Gist. He carried the five loaves, two fishes and gave thanks. Jeremiah 30:19. What you have at hand multiplies with appreciation. It may not have been enough before you started thanking but it multiplies with appreciation. Church Gist. Appreciation is fertilization for multiplication. It’s a law of the spirit. Everything dries up around the murmurer and the grumbler.
- somebody say a loud Amen.
- I see things multiply around your life!
- Can somebody who is saying Amen shout the loudest Amen.
Very very important.
When the Children of Israel said, “what is this?” as they saw the manna, they were sentenced to it for 40 years. There are many people who kill their salary the moment it entered their hands. Church Gist. The salary just enter, they say, “what is this? What can this do?”, not knowing there are some people who have no salary. “Lord, thank you for these five loaves and two fishes. I’m appreciative. At least this is something”. Church Gist. And you begin practicing your covenant practices, tithing and so forth and then mysteriously, the things, it’s just there. Appreciation. Very profuse appreciation.
My children were talking among themselves yesterday and I bursted into them. Church Gist. One among them, they were just talking, she said, “they’ll give us the same pocket money but at the end of the month, the money is still there in this one’s hand. Plenty. How?” They were trying to unravel various mysteries why that is so. I can tell you one of the mysteries that can make your resources to thrive in your hands, the same that everybody has. Church Gist. One of the mysteries is the mystery of appreciation. When men say they’re cast down…
In our finance department here, in the sorting out of service givings, it is in the climate of appreciation. It was a spiritual principle taught to them. Church Gist. We are not depending on what is coming inside offering basket, we are depending on the supplies of God. So, appreciate God. When this construction was on, the expenditure per month was far in excess of offering. It’s impossible for offering to account. I don’t know if the offering of one year, maybe the accountant can tell me whether the offering of one year was able to handle what was being spent a month. Church Gist. Yet, what was coming was mysterious. You couldn’t even trace, “okay, this is the man responsible or this is the person that is behind the supplies” because we taught ourselves, our God shall not supply all our needs according to money in offering baskets or supply all our needs, I’m talking about the Church, but according to His riches in glory. Church Gist. And it didn’t say my God shall supply all your needs according to your salary from your office but according to His riches in glory. So, by the time we begin to appreciate this God, you begin to see supplies from quarters you can’t explain. What others pay for will be given to you free of charge. Church Gist. That’s how our own life and ministry has been. What others pay for, there are some testimonies that you’ll share that will cause some people to be angry, pay heavily for.
We traveled all the way to America the other time and returned back and the account office here said, “what is going to be the bill of your traveling to Canada? What is the bill of it?” I said, “there’s no need for any bill, that was handled already”. Church Gist. That is, Church is free from paying anything. Handled neatly, tidily. In the way where you arrived straight, you flew 11 and a half hours and arrived straight and went straight to the meeting to preach.
- somebody say Amen.
That is needs being met, supplies from diverse resources, from diverse quarters without stress. - that shall be your portion!
- I prophesy to somebody here, your season of shortage, scarcity and begging is over forever!
I have more to say but I’ll continue in the second service. Please, pick the second service message or listen to it online. Church Gist. We have the impact of the thanksgiving on divine presence and what that does to the life of a person and the resources. We also see how thanksgiving is a fertilizer of greatness. I’ve seen it, I’ve witnessed it first hand. We are also going to be seeing how thanksgiving is a defense against adversity. Church Gist. Your life of thanks. We are going to see that also in the second service.
Very quickly, how and when do we thank God? Psalm 34:1.
- We bless God and thank Him at all times.
That is, “thank you Lord, Hallelujah! I’m appreciative. You’re faithful, blessed be your name”. That is, in the middle of traffic, in the middle of a hectic work day, “thank you Jesus, thank you Master”. Church Gist. David said it’s continuously in his mouth and if we practice scriptural principles, we will experience scriptural products, scriptural results. - Bless God morning and night.
When you wake up in the morning, find something to thank God for and before you retire at night, find something to thank God for no matter how it is. Psalm 92:1-2. Church Gist. That is, in the morning, find something to thank God for, thank God for the gift of life for example and then, at night, by the time you’re retiring in the night, of all your experiences through the day, look for something to appreciate God for. - Thank God in the midst of everything.
In everything, give thanks. 1 Thessalonians 5:18. What is the meaning of that? Somebody had an accident, they broke the windscreen, broke the headlamps, bashed the side by the roadside on coming towards Lugbe and he came out of that car as if he wants to die. Church Gist. “Hey, my car, hmm. But why?” Now, I’m sure there’s nobody who has never had a car incidence in one way or the other, at least whether you’re wrong or not. You know you don’t don’t have to be wrong, somebody just ran into you. I have never stood on any road for two minutes because car jammed. I’m on my way straight, “thank you Jesus. See you, God bless you”, straight. Not today oh. Church Gist. Because they broke the car headlamp, would you have been happier if it was your eye that broke? The tyre punctured, would you be happier if it was your leg that broke? You came out of the car, whole, you’re still quarreling. Some people had accident, they took their dead body from there. Church Gist. Some people had accident, straight from there, unconscious to the hospital. They’re there for the next two months. You, you came out with your legs and you’re still quarreling, three hours on the road. “Let’s wait for police”. There’s a way to live your life.
Papa Oyedepo said one day his driver came home, shivering and shaking. He said, “what happened?” He said, “the car just caught fire. I don’t know. I was just coming, an accident or something and the whole car just..” He said, “are you okay? Nothing scratched you? Alright, see you tomorrow”. Church Gist. Not, “what did you do to make the car catch fire? Your salary”. “Are you okay? Are you in shape? Alright. See you tomorrow”. There’s a way to live life to punish the devil. There’s a way to make the devil to be the one crying. He wanted you to cry. If you have ever lost anything, God was the reason why you didn’t lose everything. Or let me say it, if you have ever lost anything, God was the reason why it was not your life you lost. Church Gist. It could have been your life. Car jammed car, say, “you’re the one that is wrong but be on your way. Don’t jam anybody next time, you hear?”. “Thank you sir” “No challenge. Be on your way” and you just face your front. There’s too much to do with time. That time you’re wasting there, use it to calculate progress, use it to calculate your next level, use it to calculate your destiny. Church Gist. Do you understand what I’m saying? That thing you’re trying to cry over is too little to stop you.
- stand on your feet with a loud shout of praise.
I am trusting God to raise a people with a different kind of mentality. Somebody jilted you, thank the Lord that he didn’t kill you with the jilting. Church Gist. Somebody duped you, some people, they dupe them, they still kill them. Heard the story of the man whose car in those days, Lagos-Ibadan express, I believe, very terrible den but not now. Car was stolen and on the road, he started dancing. They said, “ah! This man, they stole his car and he has ran mad on top”. Church Gist. They said, “why are you dancing?” He said, “I’m dancing because it was my car they took, not my life. Some people, they took their car and also took their life”. “Why are you dancing?” “Number 2, I am dancing because I have something that thief can steal. There are some people, except you steal them, themselves”. Why are you dancing? “Number 3. I am dancing because I am not the one who stole. Church Gist. I can’t be called a thief, I am at a higher level than the thief”. When you do like that, God changes your life, changes your story, changes your situation.
This morning, I want you to celebrate. I don’t know what is not working but they that be for us are more than they that be for them. Church Gist. What is working for you is more than what is working against you. We are going to celebrate aggressively for the next 10 minutes. Celebrate aggressively. In everything, give thanks.
- Give thanks in situations of drastic intervention. That is when God has done something drastic. So, there’s a thanksgiving you give continually, there’s thanksgiving you give morning and evening, first thing in the morning, last thing at night. Church Gist. Then, there’s a thanksgiving you give in all things. That is, it doesn’t matter what happened. Inside every situation, you find something to thank God for. That is, in the midst of every situation, there’s something inside it to thank for. And then, following drastic intervention. 1 Chronicles 15:26. The Levites carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Uzzah carried the Ark, touched the Ark and Uzzah died. Obed-Edom carried the Ark to his house, everybody became afraid to touch the Ark. The Levites, then, it was their duty to go and carry the Ark. When they successfully brought the Ark home and nobody died. Church Gist. 1 Chronicles 15:26. “Lord, we are grateful. What killed person, this time around has not killed me”. So, whenever you have a drastic intervention, pause, give thanks and you can give thanks also with your resources. “Lord, I just want to use this amount to thank you”.
I think that was 17 years ago, my wife had a confrontation, it was a life and death confrontation, I will say. Church Gist. And at the end of the day, after appreciating God and all of that, I laid down an offering in six zeroes at that time and said, “Lord, this is to appreciate you. I don’t want to say thank you in mouth, I want to say thank you in resources”. I didn’t want to take it for granted, “I deserve for God to help me”, no, no. It is done. Church Gist. So, you do that kind of thing at times of drastic intervention. You pause your schedule, you give thanks in all the ways you can, you give thanks in resources.
- somebody say a loud Amen.
Right now, we are going to celebrate and say thank God for the next 10 minutes but before the 10 minutes, take two minutes and just appreciate God.
—-PRAYER—-
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