Welcome Happy Advent (Four Weeks of Preparing)

Welcome Happy Advent (Four Weeks of Preparing)
Thanksgiving Casts Out the Stronghold of Familiarity

Today begins the four weeks of Advent, which means "to Come." Thanksgiving not only looks back on our history but helps prepare for God's presence to be manifested (incarnated) both among us and through us in the world. The Kingdom of heaven is begun - heaven is where God fully manifests his presence to bless. Joy to the world.... He comes to make his blessings known. His presence brings blessing which gives purpose and momentum in life. His purpose sharpens our spiritual focus the sharpened spiritual focus leads to accomplishment and that accomplishment leads to contentment and contentment must be expressed with Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is not only response but also a great weapon. As we give thanks for God’s grace in our nation and our personal history, we become even more thankful for looking ahead for God’s coming in new ways to us. God came again and again in American history bringing revival and awakening, and we need Him again-not to take us away but to restore. One of the ways we get ready for his coming is to use thanksgiving as a weapon against an enemy called Familiarity. Familiarity breeds contempt because we take one another and God for granted. It is a stronghold for demonic lies, division, sin and pain.

A stronghold is a thought that has a strong hold on your life. Thoughts are like seeds. If received and nurtured they produce fruit in our life after their own kind. Fear, self-pity, envy, resentment, etc… cannot produce love, joy, peace or righteousness. In this Year of Proper Planting we must block negative and familiar seeds that rob us of a full life in God’s presence.

Use the weapons of Thanksgiving to break down the strongholds of familiarity being thankful for God's history in saving us and our nation and looking ahead to God coming to us and giving us purpose and sharpened spiritual focus that will lead to new accomplishment vision and faith and hope for the coming year.

Although we live with mixture and imperfection of God incarnate in our weak, human condition, remember that “we have this treasure in jars of clay,” 2 Cor 4:7. In Matt 13:53-58 people devalued Jesus’ ministry because of familiarity, but when we honor God and one another we receive and give blessings. God have mercy on us and help us to be thankful and fruitful.