Is This Breakthrough Key Untapped?

“Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psalms 107:8 NKJV).

In this verse, I hear an expression of yearning from the Holy Spirit’s heart. He is longing that we would experience the powerful breakthroughs that result when we develop a lifestyle of thanksgiving.

In the famous story where Jesus fed a multitude, we see this powerful principle at play. Our Savior looked out at a sea of faces and had compassion on them. His heart was stirred because He knew they were hungry. (Now, just as back then, He cares about every one of our needs. He cares when our glucose levels drop because we haven’t eaten. He cares about nourishing us. Taking real good care of us is a fierce passion of His heart.)

In that moment with the multitude, though, He had limited himself to a human body. In His humanity, He did not have the resources to feed all those masses of hungry people looking at Him with anticipation.

However, He knew the power of the Holy Spirit that was available to Him. He knew that the Spirit’s power could be accessed through thanksgiving. He understood that giving thanks to the Father shifts atmospheres. He knew that doing so moves things out of the realm of lack and into the supernatural realm of unlimited provision.

Knowing this, He took what was offered Him, a lunch only big enough to feed a child. He lifted His eyes up to heaven. He locked eyes with His Abba. He lifted up the burden of immense need and entrusted it into His Father‘s hands. In that moment, He gave wholehearted thanks. As He thanked His Father in the midst of this vast host of empty stomachs, the impossible became possible. Lack supernaturally turned into overabundant supply.

Holy Spirit understands this principle. He knows that you and I too, in our own way, are surrounded by immense needs and demands that pull on us each day. He also knows that if we will take our eyes off the lack and turn them on heaven, it will shift us.

He understands that if we will wholeheartedly thank our Father for His infinite provision, it will also pull heaven into our circumstances. So He cries out, “Oh, that My sons and daughters would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! Oh, that they would in this way discover My power available to change their hearts and transform their world!”

My friend, intentional thanksgiving pulls our attention off of lack, and sets it onto the Provider who is infinite and lacks nothing. Thanksgiving looks into the gaze of Him who has His eyes set on us even now. When we do, we perceive in His expression that He wants to provide for us, and that He will. Through persistent thanksgiving, what right now looks like impossible deficiency will shift into an overabundant provision. God will meet not only our own needs, but the needs of those in our lives that He has sent across our path to encounter Him.

Oh, that we would give thanks to the Lord! Oh, that we would discover what happens when we choose to thank God, even when it looks like profound needs are currently unmet! Oh, that we would connect into the infinite supplies of Heaven by learning to look to Jesus, instead of fixating on the pressures and pulls around us!

“He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. He gave them to his disciples to serve the people, and he divided the two fish among them all” (Mark 6:41, NET).

******************************

Do you have a story to share, of an occasion when intentional thanksgiving helped change things in an important way?