MANY BELIEVERS ARE EXTREMELY COMMITTED TO THE PROCESS OF PRAYER BUT ARE VERY CASUAL ABOUT THE PROTOCOL OF THANKSGIVING.
WHILE PRAYER IS MAKING REQUEST, THANKSGIVING IS TAKING DELIVERY.

WHILE SOMETHING STILL LOOKS LIKE A WILDERNESS, GIVE THANKS.
IN THE PROCESS OF THANKSGIVING, THE RIVERS OF GOD WILL BEGIN TO FLOW IN THE WILDERNESS.

AS YOU GIVE GOD THANKS, GOD KEEPS, PERFECTS AND MULTIPLIES THE BLESSINGS.
NO ONE THAT GIVES THANKS MAINTAINS AN AVERAGE BLESSING. EVERY THANKSGIVER ENJOYS PERFECTED BLESSINGS.

IT IS NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT THANKSGIVING, BUT OFFERING THANKSGIVING, THEREBY ENSURING THAT THE ACTION OF THANKSGIVING IS CONTINUOUSLY FLOWING FROM US UNTO GOD.

WHATEVER YOU RECEIVED IN PART AT SHILOH 2021, GOD WILL MAKE IT COMPLETE.

-Pastor David Oyedepo Jr at CHoP

Our Father, this morning, we have come to give glory and praise to you for all that You have done. Thank You for your mighty hand upon each one of us, particularly all through Shiloh: the diverse encounters, the unusual visitations, the supernatural transformations that each one of us enjoyed, the new name that you bestowed upon us; we give glory unto You. Accept our thanksgiving in the name of Jesus.
Now this morning, our eyes are upon you again, we ask that You will speak to us again and let Your Word transform each one of our lives. We give praise and glory to you, in Jesus precious name we have prayed.

This morning and particularly in this week, we are going to be examining God’s Word in an exhortation that is captioned:
THANKSGIVING: GATEWAY TO OUR NEXT LEVELS OF BLESSING
According to the Word of the Lord, we are redeemed for Next Levels experience in life – Proverbs 4:18
It means that progress and continuous advancement is the heritage of the Redeemed. You are not created to have a better yesterday. You are not ordained to have a better last year. As far as God is concerned, every day is ordained to be an improvement on the last and God’s ordination is that no child of God should be a victim of stagnation.
Deuteronomy 2:3 – “…Go forward”; that is God’s standard for every redeemed child of God.
Isaiah 43:18-19
“I will do a new thing” – You used to know particular paths of your life that were like deserts and like wildernesses, but He says, “He will cause rivers to flow in the places you used to know as wilderness.”
-I see that becoming somebody’s experience here.
What God is simply saying is that you might have seen old things but He says, “get set, I will do a new thing.”
-For somebody here, that shall be your own experience.
-As an aftermath of the mountain of Shiloh from which you have emerged, the mighty hand of God will do a new thing.

But we discover from scriptures that thanksgiving is a vital key to our next levels in life. If change of levels will be our experience, then thanksgiving is a vital key to it.
1 Thessalonians 5:18, Hebrews 10:36
What is the promise? A new thing
What is the promise? Continuous change of levels
What is the promise? Continuous advancement
But for you to experience it, there is a required protocol and what is that protocol? Thanksgiving.
In everything, give thanks. While something still looks like a wilderness, give thanks. In the process of thanksgiving, the rivers of God will begin to flow in the wilderness.
So every change of level that anyone desires demands the engagement of the mystery of thanksgiving. No one ever changes level without the engagement of this simple Kingdom mystery.
What God is simply saying is this: Thanksgiving is a must if next levels is our choice.

Let’s take note of this from scriptures:
God will not do the next until we acknowledge Him for the last. Until you are grateful for the last, you are not qualified for the next. What thanksgiving is, is your certificate of qualification for the next blessing that you desire. Until an individual offers gratitude to God, that individual does not qualify for what God has next.
Luke 17:14-19
Out of 10 lepers, 1 returned and with a loud voice, he began to give glory to God – Luke 17:15
Jesus said, “were there not 10 cleansed? Were are the 9?” – Luke 17:18
“Go, your faith has made you whole” – Luke 17:19
In other words, he was cleansed before but by the time he was departing from the point of thanksgiving, he departed with completion.

There is no doubt you and I have been visited at Shiloh. Is that true? Does somebody here have an encounter with God at Shiloh, did somebody here receive definite from God at Shiloh? If you are the one, say a louder Amen.

But God says, “even from the encounters at Shiloh, I have not yet finished delivering to you the testimonies within it, but for you to qualify for the next testimony from that encounter, you must first give Me thanks. For what you have seen already in order to qualify for what is available next.”
Hear this and hear this very well this morning, until thanksgiving has been offered to God, your reception of what God has delivered is not registered in Heaven. Nobody sends the next package until he is aware that you have received the first one. Until you give thanks, God has not registered your collection of the first arrival.
Thanksgiving is when you register the fact in Heaven that you have received what God has released and until you receive what God has released and register acknowledgement in Heaven, you are not qualified for what God will release next.

Is somebody getting what God is saying?
If you are sending a package to an address and the person you sent it to says he has not gotten it yet, will you send the next one to the same address? No
God will not send the next blessing until there is a registration in Heaven that what He sent first has arrived. It is that registration that qualifies you for what He has next.
Many of us have the next package still in God’s hand because we have not registered our acknowledgement of the first package.

Jesus met a man that was blind and He touched him; said to him, “what do you see?”
The man said, “I see men walking like trees.” Then He touched him again.
What did Jesus require for the final touch? The acknowledgement of the first touch.
There is no doubt you and I have received the first touch, what God is saying, “I still have the next touch, but it requires your appreciation of the first touch.”

That is why all through this week, we are going to be committing ourselves to this necessary protocol of thanksgiving. It is amazing how you find believers are extremely committed to the process of prayer but they are very casual about the protocol of thanksgiving. They negate and neglect the protocol of thanksgiving.
When you say pray: People pray with all their hearts for what it is that they desire
When you say thank: You begin to see the tempo go down.

Why? As far as they are concerned, when it comes to prayer, that request they are making, they make with all intensity, but then they don’t see the necessity of gratitude.
But please hear this: while prayer is making request, thanksgiving is taking delivery.
You and I must understand that no matter how effective your request is, it is the receptiveness of your reception in taking delivery that determines the effect of your prayer.
-I pray for each one of us, from this day onward, thanksgiving will become a lifestyle.

Let’s take note of this, this morning: When we will respond on time in thanksgiving for His wondrous works; God in turn preserves, perfects and multiplies our blessings. So no one giving thanks remains at the same level.
First of all, he never loses the blessings released because God preserves it.
Second of all, God perfects it: He moves the blessing to the next level.
Third of all, God multiplies it, so that the blessing is not one but it is multiple delivery of perfected blessings.
-I see that becoming somebody’s experience.

Hannah went to Shiloh and asked of the Lord, “Lord if you will give me a man child, I will give him unto you” – 1 Samuel 1:11
She made one request and demanded passionately in prayer. The Bible tells us that after that her countenance was no more sad, she went rejoicing and they went and worshipped the Lord like we heard during the Personal Supplication time – 1 Samuel 1:18
What happened? Not only did Hannah have the man child, that man child was called Samuel – 1 Samuel 1:20
But then, Hannah had 5 other children: that is multiple deliveries of perfected blessings. She came with a demand for one but you can’t thank God and remain at the same level. So she not only had a child but she had multiple children and she didn’t have an ordinary child, she had a unique child.

The Bible says, concerning that child Samuel, that none of his words fell to the ground. He became a man of renown. So no one that gives thanks maintains an average blessing. Every thanksgiver enjoys perfected blessings.
As we are giving thanks, understand that what you have received, God keeps it. What you have received, God perfects it and what you have received, God multiplies it.
-For somebody that will be your experience from all the blessings of Shiloh 2021.

What is left to do is not to talk about thanksgiving, it is to offer thanksgiving. It is to ensure that this action of thanksgiving is continuously flowing from us unto God.
Therefore, this morning, we are going to have yet another opportunity to say, “Lord, I thank You. I will not take your doing in my life for granted. You have given me Words of prophecy; you have given me encounters upon the mountain of Shiloh. You have touched my life in various dimensions; I refuse to take it for granted.”

Source: Opera News