Jennifer Eivaz: "A Thanksgiving Message: The Grateful are Great-Full"

From the desk of Steve Shultz:

We asked one of our beloved authors, Jennifer Eivaz, to write a Thanksgiving message to you, our dear readers, on this special day as we "give thanks" to the Lord...and celebrate Thanksgiving Day in our great nation.

Jennifer starts out by sharing this revelation:

When I thought about the Thanksgiving holiday this year, a phrase dropped in my heart from the Holy Spirit in regards to "gratefulness." He said, "The grateful are great-full."

You'll have to read on to find out how cleverly Jennifer shares this revelation in her word!

From all of our staff at the Elijah List, we want to say a hearty "Happy Thanksgiving" to you and yours this day!

Enjoy and let's all give thanks to the Lord for what He has done. (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.)

When I thought about the Thanksgiving holiday this year, a phrase dropped in my heart from the Holy Spirit in regards to "gratefulness." He said, "The grateful are great-full."

I thought immediately about the story in Luke 17, where a group of 10 lepers called out to Jesus from a distance for their healing. Jesus didn't touch them or even come near to them, but instead gave them the Word. He said, "Go show yourself to the priest" (v. 14). As the 10 went on their way to the priest, they were all instantly healed. Strangely, only one of the 10 stopped and returned back to Jesus with thanksgiving.

"And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan." (Luke 17:15-16)

You probably know that the Samaritan people were despised by the Jews. They were hated and looked upon as "outsiders" and "unclean." Through one act of gratefulness, I believe this foreigner, not only received physical healing, but also spiritual healing as well. His passionate response shows us that he stepped into something much more intimate and greater than the other nine.

Giving Life to the Dead

Passionate and overflowing gratitude from the heart is an expected response to being touched by the greatness of God. I find it strange when someone receives a miracle, yet it doesn't illicit much response or testimony, nor does it bring a deeper surrender of heart. There is no gratefulness because God's greatness hasn't yet been understood or become a part of them. You can't give what you don't have, and in this case you can't be grateful unless you, yourself, are great-full. (Photo via The Elijah List)

And then there are those who take it a step further:

"...He gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did." (Romans 4:17)

Because God calls things before they are so, it takes a certain kind of person to have the gumption and audacity to believe and sincerely thank God for a miracle before it has ever happened. To me, that's a much higher category of being great-full. You are so full of the reality of His greatness, that you can verbalize and demonstrate gratefulness well before anything has even changed. You are so aligned to His thoughts, character, and greatness, that you too can call something that doesn't exist as though it did and express sincere gratitude to God as if its already done.

How Great are You?

When God created us, He created us in His image. That's something that didn't change with the fall of mankind. James makes an interesting argument that we are not to use our tongue to curse people because we are all created in God's likeness (James 3:9). There's something very powerful in knowing that to degrade someone with your mouth is akin to degrading God. His greatness, by default, is attached to every living person because they are in His likeness and are potential sons and daughters.

Have you ever deeply thought about this? That you are someone great? That there is greatness attached to you? Consider this: when Lucifer was forced to leave his domain in Heaven by attempting to exalt himself above God, he began to perpetuate a lie into the minds of God's men and women. The lie goes like this, "If I, Lucifer, can't be great, then no one is going to be great. And if you believe that you are great then I will accuse you of pride." This is a perverted truth intended to diminish us out of our greatness and thus greatly reduce our worship and gratitude towards God. God-bestowed greatness and pride are not the same thing. Our greatness is attached to being in His likeness, whereas pride is elevating ourselves above His likeness and thus becoming our own god.

I cherish these words from King David:

"For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well." (Psalms 139:13-14)

Here we see King David supernaturally enter into a revelation about himself. He finally understood that He was fearfully and wonderfully made...by God! That was a redefining moment for him, considering he was most likely born out of wedlock and his family never considered his worth. He even went so far as to call himself a "marvelous work." Was that a statement of pride? No! This was a securing truth in his life and an occasion for him to praise the Lord.

You see, David finally got it. He finally understood that just like you and me, he was made by God to be awesome. And out of this God-bestowed greatness, he demonstrated extreme gratefulness. He went so far as to create 24-7 worship to God because the truly grateful are those that are great-full.

I'll finish off with this. Romans 3:23 describes how all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Too often we camp out on this verse while neglecting the next verse that describes us as "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (v. 24). We may have fallen short of glory, but in Christ we've been restored to glory. Because we've been restored to glory, we can now give glory to God! We can now be extravagantly grateful because we are undeniably great-full.

My heartfelt prayer for you this Thanksgiving Holiday: Heavenly Father, in the name of Your glorious Son Jesus Christ, I pray that You would give each person reading this today a revelation of greatness. That they would truly be partakers of Your divine nature through Your precious promises and live out the glory that You gave back to them through the Cross and resurrection. (Photo via Unsplash)

I pray for a whole new level of gratitude to spring forth from their hearts and mouths in response to knowing they are marvelous works—awesomely made in Your image and full of Your greatness. Amen. (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.)

Jennifer Eivaz, Executive Pastor
Harvest Christian Center, Turlock, CA
Email: Asst2jeneivaz@harvestturlock.org
Website: www.jennifereivaz.com
Blog: www.jennifereivazblog.com

Jennifer Eivaz is the founder of Harvest Ministries International and is Executive Pastor with Harvest Christian Center in Turlock, California. She is the bestselling author of both The Intercessors Handbook and the newly released Seeing the Supernatural. She is also a featured writer for several online publications including the Elijah List and Charisma Magazine. Jennifer is a vibrant minister and conference speaker who carries the wisdom and fire of the Holy Spirit. Jennifer loves the presence of God and is a prophetic voice to her church and to many others. Jennifer is married to HCC's Senior Pastor Ron Eivaz, and they have two wonderful children. She is a graduate of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.

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