By Jannie Linney
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.” [Ps. 100:4]. This scripture is our standby for the Thanksgiving season. As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, this gives us our standard process of coming into His presences.
Enter His Gates; When we really get serious about contacting Him, we need to be willing to make our move toward where He is. He is in the “Holy of Hollies” So we first come into the outer court, representing the Temple setting in the Old Testament. In our time it is a type of getting “Born Again.” We cannot move into the Holy of Hollies until we become His child. Yes, He is the creator of every person, but after Adam caused mankind to fall, we are not His child until we are born of His Spirit. “Born Again” a spiritual birth. We enter those outer court gates with “Thanksgiving.”
Into His Courts; With Praise. Praise is not just singing a hymn or two on Sunday, Music is a part of praise. Telling Him who He is and how wonderful He is and what great things He has done is praise. Oh, not for His benefit, but for us. As we praise Him we are reminded of His Magnificent person. He loves for us to remind Him of His word, because He knew how that builds up our spirit in the faith of what He can do. This prepares us to receive from Him. And develops us into the disciples He has called us to be. Add praise to that “Thanksgiving.”
And Bless His Name; Now we are getting close enough to Him to love on Him. Our thanksgiving and praise takes on a new depth. Our whole being begins to reach out from within our innermost being. The praise becomes adoration, Worship and sometimes becomes a sweet smelling aroma to His nostrils. We have interred a place that is not attained in five minute prayer times. As disciples we have matured to a place of experiencing the “Holy of Hollies.” We have come from the place that praying ten minutes seems like an hour, —to the place that praying hours seems like ten minutes. We are adding “Worship” to that “Praise and Thanksgiving.”
What is a Disciple; I have mentioned disciple in each above subject. We can be Born Again and not be an active disciple. What is a disciple? One who accepts and assist in spreading the doctrine of another; a convinced adherent of a school or individual. Jesus! [Web. Dict.].
If we are Christians, this is what we are doing. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be My Disciple” [Luke 14:26]. Now we know He does not mean hate like we use it. If we put family before Him we are not worthy of being His disciple. He is to be first in our life and He will cause our family relations to be better. “And whoever does not bare his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” [v.27].
The cross is a symbol of death, so we must die to our will and live His will to be His disciple. The cross is a symbol of death and persecution. So we as Christians and disciples, we find living with and for Him, is not always our plan, yet the most exciting life we can live. He will see us through anything as long as we put Him first. As we actually live this we will see miracles and grow into the knowledge that “Thanksgiving is a lifestyle.”
