Below is a word full of Thanksgiving from ElijahList Founder and Publisher, Steve Shultz. We've also included a couple of his very own popular, prophetic resources.
We want to wish you and your family a most Happy Thanksgiving this day.
Many blessings,
The ElijahList Staff
Steve Shultz:
I Asked the Lord If He had a Word for Thanksgiving. He Did!
I recently asked the Lord to give me a heart of thanksgiving. I wanted to ask for it during this season of time—the season many of us call THANKSGIVING. Of course, it should be a daily thing, and it's becoming more of that all the time I think for much of the worldwide Church.
This is what HE, the Lord said to me:
"Steve, that heart has been in you before you were born. And I see you working on living it out. That means something, not just to the Godhead but to ALL the angels and all heavenly creatures and beings in the spiritual realm. Whenever you work toward a heart of gratitude, HEAVEN sees it for what it is—the very thing I put inside of you as part of your identity before you were born. You are just now beginning to see its outworking. That's because true THANKSGIVING can only happen when there is something to be thankful for.
"You've gone through much more than most in the Church know, but so has everyone else who has or will come to Me. I never stop thinking about you or those who I know will accept Me. I don't even stop thinking about those who will be lost. I still bear with them, with much patience. Don't try to make sense of it because it never will make sense to you...never, never, never and NEVER!"
He reminded me of when the 10 lepers came to Christ for healing and only one of them came back to thank Jesus (Yeshua). How odd that Jesus expected to be thanked out loud. He said at the time, "Were there not TEN lepers cleansed? But where are the nine?" (Luke 17:17). In other words, "Why are THEY not thanking Me right now?"
God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit expect to be thanked when we are "cleansed" or make progress in anything at any time for any reason—because not even one of us deserves that thanks but God. "No one is good, but ONE" (Matthew 19:17, Luke 18:19). Perhaps, that's why Jesus hung out with the least of the least. They knew their need and it was easier or more common for them to show it. They were a "mess" and at least that bunch knew it.
Another example is the woman at the well. Where was the condemnation she "deserved?" No, there was no condemnation given. Instead, a whole city was changed because SHE went and said, "Come, see a Man who told me ALL THINGS I EVER DID" (John 4:29). Apparently, Jesus told her a lot more than was recorded in the Word, because she said that He "told me all things I ever did!" It changed her life. It changed a village. It has changed you and me, and it will continue to change the world.
"Follow Me"
Now, Matthew was one of the most hated in all of Israel. He was a sellout to his own people. He was a Jewish man who took bribes and enriched himself out of the pockets of his own people. But one day, the Creator of the world, simply and right on schedule, walked up to him and said, "Follow Me" (Matthew 9:9). End of story. The next thing we know, Matthew is writing the most complete Gospel account of anyone. And, he focused on HYPOCRISY more than anyone else who wrote the Gospel story too. He had turned against his own, because he could see hypocrisy for what it was.
You would think he would have been at least in the top three on the Mount of Transfiguration. But it was not to be. Yet he saw his Creator for who He was—Jesus was THE MAN Matthew had always heard spoken of, but Whom had never found. The moment Jesus said, "Follow Me" (and Jesus didn't even say, I'll make you fishers of men!), Matthew knew the SAVIOUR was HIMSELF TRUTH—that is, God with skin on.
Matthew didn't need to be in the top three. Sure, he was among the group who fell asleep in the Garden just before the crucifixion—oh, and surely he cried out in fear in the storm—but nevertheless, he figured out that Truth was a person, Jesus—God with skin on.
There are so many examples. God could have preached the whole Gospel through the stories of the woman at the well and Matthew as far as I'm concerned. Matthew wasn't put off that we are shown he was not invited to the Transfiguration Mount. He was just glad to be in the top twelve it seems. Matthew was the one who said the most times, "This happened to fulfill what was spoken of by..." Isaiah or Jeremiah or whoever.
Matthew was apparently a gentleman and a scholar before he saw what his education had taught him. Matthew became a turncoat (a renegade against his old ways) when he had a date set with destiny—the day that Christ would walk up to him and simply said, "Follow Me." No promises! No healings! Just, "Follow Me." Matthew's response demonstrates the act of THANKSGIVING.
Matthew is MY HERO, because he knew what he knew and he needed no promises from Jesus. He didn't ask Him, "Why should I?" Sure, maybe Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" but the next minute, Matthew didn't have to be told, "Get behind me satan, you have your priorities all wrong." That was Peter.
So be thankful for at least two of my heroes of faith—the woman at the well and Matthew. And, as I've heard said many times before, "If that isn't faith, it'll do until faith comes along!"
Happy Thanksgiving. We may think we are thankful for being American, or for freedom or food, or our government, safety or whatever, but our gratitude is for the Truth—the Person, Jesus. Again, God with skin on.
That'll preach!
Blessings,
Steve Shultz, Founder and Publisher
The ElijahList and Breaking Christian News
http://www.elijahlist.com
