Understanding Power Of Thanksgiving: Bishop Oyedepo Continues Teaching Series

Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners’ Chapel on Sunday continued his teaching series on understanding the power of thanksgiving. 

In his message on Sunday, May 23rd, 2021, Bishop Oyedepo explained that people should not allow themselves to say negative things in spite of situations.

While preaching on the message tagged “Understanding the Power of Thanksgiving,” the cleric explained that thanksgiving opens the pathway to moving out of any predicament.

Below is his message and teaching on Sunday: 

*You are just finishing it, by yourself, because you shall HAVE whatsoever you say.
* I am so ‘guest-full’ that one of my friends got married and came to my house, one room, for honeymoon,
*I had to borrow another room to stay.
*People are not in your house, not because your house is not big, but because your heart is not big.
*Thanksgiving gives you access to God’s presence for the way out of your predicament, the way forward from your stagnation and the way upward from everything that is holding you down.
UNDERSTANDING THE WONDERS OF THANKSGIVING
It’s been our Teaching series and again:
What are we thanking God for? (Part 3)
1. For His faithfulness in our lives. Has God been faithful to you?
Lamentation 3:22-23
His faithfulness has kept you and I on our feet today. Not by power nor by might, but God watching over His Word to perform it (Zechariah 4:6). We celebrate His faithfulness.
Psalm 89:1-2
All testimonies are just the expressions of God’s faithfulness in keeping His Word. We serve a faithful God, we must acknowledge His faithfulness with thanksgiving.
2. For keeping the anointing fresh on our lives and that destroys yokes day in day out, without you seeing them or knowing them.
As you give Him thanks, the Word says, “He will exalt your head like the horn of a unicorn. You shall be anointed with fresh oil” and that renders your enemies helpless (Psalm 92:10).
3. For rendering our enemies helpless. Your eyes will see your desires upon your enemies and your ears will hear your desire upon the wicked risen up against you (Psalm 92:11).
He does it: you just watch it and see it.
-You will never have to struggle anymore.
When you engage the mystery of thanksgiving, He fights your battle for you.
-I see that today, God is taking over the battles of many people here.
As you begin to sing and to praise Him, from a heart of gratitude, He takes over your battles and renders your enemies helpless. He has done that before, He is still doing it today.
BENEFITS OF THANKSGIVING
1. Thanksgiving engenders access to divine presence.
Next to salvation, divine presence is the greatest asset of a believer because it makes you more than a conqueror. If God be for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31). God was in the midst of Israel, the sea saw them, it fled (Psalm 114:3). I mean, God with you is your greatest asset in the Kingdom. Doing all that you need to do according to the Word, to keep God with you is the wisest thing to engage with.
In his presence among other things, we access the path of life: that is the Way Out, the Way Forward and the Way Upward.
Psalm 16:11
No temptation has ever come your way and my way but such that is common to man, but God is faithful, He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able but with the temptation also make a way to escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).
There is always a Way Out. There is always a Way Forward and there is always a Way Upward.
All we need is to gain access into His presence where He unveils those ways to us.
Every time you say, “thank You Jesus”, He says, “this is the way out.”
“Lord, I know you know what You are doing”: This is the way out.
You don’t lack the way out with a lifestyle of thanksgiving which ushers you into His presence where you locate the way out: the path of life, the way out of your predicament, the way forward from your stagnation and the way upward from everything that is holding you down.
Say with me, “there is always a way out.”
You can’t get at that way out with murmuring and complaining. You are farther and farther away from His gate and you have to be in His presence to access the way out.
Psalm 100:4
…then we are out there in His presence where He shows us the way out.
That’s why thanksgivers are never stranded. Genuine thanksgivers will always find the way out from God’s presence.
I had an experience in 1997. Our last daughter was attacked by the spirit of death. I saw them carry my daughter out to the hospital and I was going to the office. After a wonderful time of devotion with the staff, I got to my office and sat down on the chair and rocked the chair, “Jesus, thank You because there is always a way out.” 4 scriptures: uhh bah bah bah, they were like arrows. That terminated the siege of death. They were so strong, I didn’t need to go to the hospital. I said, “go and read it on her.” The place caught fire.
My friend, there is always a way out. Or I would have done, “O God, I am serving You, what is happening?”
Relaxed: Jesus, there must be a way out. Thank You. With a smile, not with a grin on the face. With a smile that is genuine because you know who you are talking about, you know what He is up to, you are not guessing. Church Gist. You better get out of religion and walk in the reality of the Kingdom. If you are not thankful, you are bound to be stranded any day because you lack access to the path of life that will get you out of it.
Praise God.
Not “O God, You said You will dedicate this place September 18. See where we are.”
Thank You Jesus. Blessed be your name.
God’s response: It took me 6 days to create the world, I will not need 2 months to finish an ordinary building. 2 months too much.
He shows you the path of life when you maintain a heart of gratitude and you allow your gratitude to graduate into praise and praise into worship from the depth of your spirit, you are up in His presence.
‘E wo ni mo wa gbe ga, E wo ni mow a fiyin fun, Olorun mi to gbe ni bi giga, e wo ni mo wa gbe ga’ (I am here to lift You high, I am here to honour You. My God that stays in the Highest place, I here to lift You high).
E ba mi gbe Oluwa ga, e ba mi gbe Jesus ga, e ko rin iyin re, e ba mi gbe Oluwa ga.
Otega Oghene tega
That becomes your lifestyle, you are not guessing.
I wrote a whole notebook on praise. You say, “when?” 1975.
If your life is not praiseful, you are imprisoning yourself without knowing. Praise your way out of that prison. You have what it takes to do it by just celebrating Him. Church Gist. No one can manage your life better than God, so there is no point seeking for an alternative. If Teaching Hospital rejects you, don’t go to the dispensary in your village, it doesn’t make sense. Dispensaries only have iodine and plasters. No lab, no test, no nothing.
They say, “what is happening?”
You need cough syrup. You say you are coughing, take cough syrup. He doesn’t know anything.
Take your case off God to a man: you have lost it. There is no way one man under heaven, no matter his expertise can handle what God cannot handle and God will only handle it by His Word, by showing you what to do and then it is done.
-Your battle is over.
Give the Lord a big hand of praise everybody. Glory to God.
Wonderful benefits: access to the way out, the way forward, the way upwards.
2. When thanksgiving becomes our lifestyle, breakthrough becomes our new identity.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
Down, deep in the valley, He puts His everlasting arms down there and brings me out to the mountain top: high places.
When thanksgiving becomes our new lifestyle, noiseless breakthroughs become our identity. Noiseless breakthroughs!
Psalm 67:5-7
Supernatural breakthroughs always attend to men and women with an addiction of thanksgiving.
Psalm 34:1, Psalm 119:164
When that becomes an addiction, you find breakthroughs without sweat and that is your new realm.
-No one will see your sweat again, but they will not be able to deny your proofs.
-You will never know breakdown anymore in your life.
You want to know the will of God, He said, “look, in everything give thanks for that is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
And when you have done the will of God, you will obtain the promise – Hebrews 10:36.
You invoke God’s integrity with thanksgiving when it is coming from the heart. Church Gist.
If you thank God for the sale of 10 Naira in your shop on Monday, He will turn it to 20 on Tuesday.
“I thank You Lord. ‘Ta lo da bi’re, ta lo da bi’re oo Jesu, ta lo da bi’re alagbara’ (Who is like You Jesus, who is like You Mighty God).”
You just celebrate Him and He says, “look at the way He is celebrating Me. Okay 50 Naira, the next time.
“O Lord, I thank You”. O Lord, I praise You. You start dancing and then while they are mocking you in the next shop, you are going up. They only want to sell the shop, you buy it and you buy the ones for the ones who are mocking you too. That is the way it works.
There is no stopping the way forward for a Thanksgiver. Every praising saint ends up a giant in the Kingdom because of divine presence with them.
-You are on your way somewhere.
-Again today, I curse everything that murmurs and grumbles in anyone here, robbing you of your best in God, in the name of Jesus.
3. We are all aware of this, thanksgiving multiplies God’s blessings upon our lives.
Thanksgiving is a covenant multiplier of God’s blessings.
Jeremiah 30:19
Now watch: when you are not merry, your thanksgiving is a disturbance.
James 5:12 – it comes from inside.
Jesus gave thanks and the 5 loaves and 2 fishes multiplied supernaturally (John 6:11).
Sir, thanking God will not allow empty tanks in your life. Things will just keep multiplying and multiplying. It is a powerful covenant mystery: Thanksgiving.
Well if they show records in Heaven, maybe I may know it but I cannot put my finger till now on how we were supplied for as a family. I can’t put my finger on it sir. I can’t. I knew we were not on 300 Naira expenditure a month and I knew we didn’t steal, but we didn’t lack. I have never been without guests in my life. Guests: me and guests, we live together. I am so ‘guest-full’
Even when I was in one room, I had guests. My God. Glory to God. I am so ‘guest-full’ that one of my friends got married and they came to my house, one room, for honeymoon, so I had to borrow another room to stay. That is how ‘guest-full’ I am. Church Gist. People are not in your house, not because your house is not big, your heart is not big.
We had one toilet and one bath room and you line up. When you are wasting it, “are you a fish, come out!” You know fish live in water. So if you don’t want trouble, you get up around 1 am, have your bath, they are all sleeping that time, there is no shouting on you. Otherwise, you will wash your face and walk out, just stay in motion.
My God, but ever joyful, ever thankful. You will never run dry of supplies being thankful. You will never run out of supplies being thankful.
But when you say every day, “it is finished.” What of fish? It is finished.
Hehnn, soap? It is finished.
You are just finishing it, by yourself, because you shall have whatsoever you say. So God tells the Angel who supplies, “don’t go there, he said it is finished. Go somewhere else. He has finished it, go somewhere else.”
One of my beloved sons, who is now a General Overseer of one of the vibrant denominations in Nigeria, he said to me that I said to him one day, “go to the motor park, find out what it takes to get our luggage to Kaduna.”
He said: I didn’t even ask him whether we had money in that office or not. He said that is my character. So he went there and checked; came back and somebody came in, brought a seed that was more than what is needed.
You said, “we should go” and we are now going. So go get a vehicle, the One who said we should go knows what to do. Glory to God.
-You will never be stranded again.
Don’t ever say again, “it is finished” because you can’t tell how much damage you are causing yourself
“This car is not good. I mean, this car can’t work. This car is overdue for change”; it begins to show you that it is overdue. You are coming to Church, you get to a point where there is no taxi, nothing, the car says, “I am due for change.” Praise God.
-Every good thing will keep multiplying in your life. You are not missing it anymore.
Give God thanks for the Word.`