Thanksgiving—A Key to your Breakthrough

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Ps. 100:4-5

Thanksgiving is not just a holiday, it’s something we need to learn as a principle in our lives. Many years ago, when I, Mahesh, was just starting ministry, I was invited to hold a revival service in a small southwestern town. They told me that they were spiritually barren and had never had a breakthrough; there were seldom, if any, decisions for Christ throughout the year in any of the local churches. With some trepidation I agreed to come, but I prayed to the Lord and said, “Lord, give me an answer,” and He said, “Start giving thanks before Me for this city, because someone put a curse on it.” So I went on a 21-day fast for that city, and began to release praise and thanksgiving over that region. The first night of the meetings we had a harvest of more than 100 souls! God taught me then and lesson that Bonnie and I have experienced over and over since, the key to breakthrough is in giving thanks for that city. The power of darkness was broken by simply learning how to give thanks to the Lord for those people and for that city.

During this Thanksgiving season it’s important to learn the foundation of giving thanks in America. It’s an important spiritual and practical key for our nation, as well as for our personal lives and for our families. In the book of Ephesians it says, “Make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father, for everything.” It also says in 1 Thessalonians 5, “Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances.” So you can see in Scripture how joy and grace are coupled with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a two-way street. It’s vertical from us to God, and it’s horizontal from person to person. This forms the cross which is the symbol of Jesus’ redemption for all of mankind.

In Hebrew, the terminology for the United States is “the Lands of the Covenant.” This is very striking because in thinking about thanksgiving and thankfulness and our particular history, it points back to the godly heritage of this nation. Our nation is founded not just on the horizontal plane of covenants between men based on advantageous alliances. Our nation is founded on Covenants that are foremost between God and man. From the first Pilgrims through our Founding Fathers, they were acutely aware of our dependence on the hand of God in our nation's survival and future destiny. Our founding documents testify to the relationship between God and the people whose highest calling was to carry the redemption and blessing of the New Covenant to all mankind through their civil and spiritual unions together. The Mayflower Compact drafted and signed by 41 persons says, “In the name of God, amen. We whose names are underwritten, by the grace of God, having undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia.” After weeks on board a cramped ship on rough seas, before a single family set foot on shore to make preparation for their new life on the cold New England coast, the first order of business of this new community was to spend three days in humbling fasting and prayer and to make their covenant with God and with one another. It is astounding that in the beginning, the vision for this nation was for the advancement of the Christian faith!

We have a wonderfully unique civil and spiritual history in America. With the exception of Israel, there is no other nation in the world that has this kind of a specifically Judeo-Christian heritage with covenants and proclamations by the civil government because of the faith of the people in the community. One of the Thanksgiving proclamations from 1676 says, “The holy God, having by a long and continual series, has remembered mercy with many singular intimations of His Fatherly compassion. If it be the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed, it certainly bespeaks our positive thankfulness, that the Lord should take notice under so many intimations of His returning mercy, and we should be found and in sensible people as not standing before Him with thanksgiving, as well as offering up our prayers.” In other words, they made this Thanksgiving proclamation saying, “We shouldn’t just pray to God for all of the things we need, or for all of our difficulties, but, we should set aside a public day where the community can say, ‘Lord, thank You.’” It’s important that we teach these principles to our children, because our history and our foundations are a key to our joy and our ongoing blessings as individuals, families and as a nation.

Our spiritual father and mentor, Brother Derek Prince was from Britain, and he didn’t learn American history until he had come to America to begin his ministry. While ministering in Plymouth, Massachusetts, he came across William Bradford’s book Plymouth Plantation. In 1623 there was a terrible drought that came upon their crops suddenly, and they found themselves in a situation of near starvation. They were allotted only five kernels of corn a person per day, so they decided to humble themselves and turn back to the Lord. They prayed and fasted and gave thanks to Him for His mercy, and it’s recorded that at the end of that day of corporate prayer and fasting, that “a gentle rain began to fall. It came without either wind or thunder or any violence and by degrees in abundance as the earth was thoroughly soaked therewith.” A downpour would have washed away the withered harvest, but it was a supernatural answer from heaven that preserved their crops. The key was being thankful. Many people are looking at our nation, and seeing a dismal forecast, much like the Pilgrims of 1623. But when things are darkest, that’s when it is time to open the windows of heaven with lavish praise and thanksgiving! “Lord, thank You for all of Your goodness in the past and all of Your mercies that You have shown in bringing us to this point.” He is faithful to ALL generations. Let us enter into His promises afresh for awakening and renewal as we aggressively praise His name!

Colossians 3:15-17, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda, 11/17/2011

Feedback:

	Rosemay (rosemayla@msn.com) (Guest)	11/17/2011 20:32
Thank You Jesus. Excellent article! Thanksgiving turns things around,& literally releases God's grace into the situation.Got a call today from an oppportunistic person; she is selfish & only calls when she needs something. Was so irritated. Talked to the Lord & asked Him to remove this prson from my life! After I prayed, the thought came to me: "You should be thankful that she sees you as an opportunity. That means you are successful in her eyes." Wow. So, I began to thank God; ended up writing her a letter of encouragement, full of what the Lord has been longing to say to her. Praise God. Thanksgiving unleashes God's favor into the situation.
	Prophet Lafayette Booker (Guest)	11/17/2011 21:42
This is an very excellent testimony. God has been dealing with me on this type of topic. He has instructed me to direct the body of Christ in a way of worship because when you are thanking him for who he is you are in worship mode and thats when you see the blessings of the Lord So you are right on point!!!!!!!!!!
	Hungary, Judit (Guest)	11/18/2011 11:12
It is a blessing to our town to my birthplace also. To Ózd (Hungary). God bless you all!
	Janet	11/18/2011 16:26
Thank you once again for this article, it is such a refreshing word to my heart. I remember a while back you also said in one of your articles, to thank Him for the flies (Corrie Ten Boom) and so I started doing that and He showed me the many good things that came actually came into our lives because of the "flies" in our lives! He is so, so good! Thank you for underlining the principles of a grateful heart to me again today, love you both. Janet xx
	Shirleythiel@aol.com (Guest)	11/19/2011 14:02
Thanks so much for the excellent reminder! A grateful heart is so precious to God and those around us. As a family I will bring this scripture and ask for our individual praises to God during this holiday season! Thanks again for your consistent ministry! Shirley
	smorales321@hotmail.com (Guest)	11/19/2011 22:20
Thank you for this wonderful article and for opening our minds and spirits to the Word of God. It is so refreshing to see things from a positive perspective and to learn the history of our Nation and forefathers. God's blessings, peace and joy to you and those you love, Sonia
	cathy (Guest)	11/22/2011 07:31
we need to be reminded everyday of this precious pearl of a grateful heart of which comes praises of thanksgiving....THANK YOU BOTH that you have laid down your life for the body of christ...for your example of a life HABITATION OF THANKSGIVING!
	Shelly (Guest)	11/27/2011 18:25
Thank you so much for this word on thanksgiving. Last Friday the compressor in my fridge shut down. I started praying for it to start working again because I don't have the money to go out and buy another. Saturday morning and afternoon it was still down. I asked God about it, and He said I should start thanking Him for it having been already restored. I started doing that. On Saturday night, late, just before getting into bed, I went into the kitchen and just as I stepped through the door I heard the compressor kick in. I blessed God. This morning I reminded God of something that I have been praying about for some time and haven't seen it manifest as yet. The word I received from Him is that just like I gave thanks for my fridge's compressor working again, I should begin to thank Him for this other request having been done. I asked Him to confirm this, as I wondered if it was just me thinking that in desperation. Then this afternoon I saw your message about thanksgiving being a key to breakthrough. Thank you Almighty God for confirming your word!!! And thank you Pastors Chavda for your obedience in writing it under the unction of the Holy Spirit!
	Victoria A,Nigeria. (Guest)	12/13/2011 02:43
Thelord gave me this word 'Enter His Gate With Thankgiving' when i wanted to pray for something.So, since then i have being thanking and praising Him continually.But again,my country Nigeria is going through a challenging time presently.Insecurity,corruption in every facet,underdevelopment and so on.But after reading this article,i believe i should begin to thank God for my country as well.Moreover,your book Praying and Fasting has really blessed me.I pray the lord will make me enter that ministry fully.Shalom.