The Dunamis of Gratitude

It is a magic question: What has Jesus done for you? Got a new car? A job? A promotion? Catch a bus you thought you were going to miss? Make a new friend? Lead someone to the Lord? Pastor Rod Wilson of YWAM asked us this one morning at the House of Praise in Kaimuki. I had just gotten saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit myself. As the concept of Jesus guiding us through life and working all things together for good was new to me, I didn't know what to say. Hadn't been watching. No one else offered anything, either. Rod had us think again.

What had Jesus done for me? I fantasized. In my mind's eye, I saw Jesus being scourged in my place. I watched him from then until the stakes were being driven into his hands. I heard the logic in my mind: I owed a perfect life to God, and did not have one. He gave me His. I cried in gratitude; after all, it was my sins He was suffering for. I saw Him on the cross, on His torn up back. He turned His face toward mine and said audibly in my hearing, "Come unto Me."

How? By gratitude. My heart's gratitude for His sacrifice for me had gotten me there - with Him. In God's forgiveness, "Remember this, and it is all right," gratitude had gotten me to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Gratitude for His intervention had sent me to the House of Praise in the first place. Heartfelt gratitude has such power.

I heard Ernest Holmes say the other night, "There is a power for good in the universe." He was right, but that is not what I am talking about. He was speaking of a vibration. A vibration toward good. I am speaking of a Person. I find it easier to be grateful to the actions of deliberate cognition than to an incidental, neutral force. Neutral forces of any frequency do not talk very much, anyway. It occurs to me that what the Divine Intelligence becomes in manifestation is grateful to the Becomer. Gratitude is just right. And God has become everything. Everything should be grateful to God all of the time.

"To me, prayer is thanksgiving; it is praise," said Neville. Exactamundo. T. L. Osborn, following William M. Branham's lead, preached the goodness of man. The spoilt goodness. Spoilt by Satan (Ignorance). And how Jesus had healed that spoiling by giving Himself for us. In God's eyes, we are back to Adam's state BEFORE the fall. And people, tens of thousands of people filled with gratitude, were healed. I think of my friend Janice at Melodyland School of Theology in her private devotions, "I was caught up; I felt as though I was THERE, actually before God." Ecstatic with adoration, praise, and gratitude, she heard the words, "You are healed." Her tuberculosis was gone.

Recount what you are grateful to Jesus for. If it isn't good, thank Him for it; for He knows it, and it is the place from which He will take you to the heights. He knows how. Thank Him for your books, for your phone, for your parents, for gasoline in the tank, for the flavor of your food, for your good looks, for sight if you have it, and even if you don't. Thank Him for intending you to eternal life, that you might be with Him forever in Heaven. "In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV).

What has Christ Jesus done for you?