The
Key of Thankfulness
In
Matthew 16:19 Jesus says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom…” The Greek
word used here for kingdom is basileia. Translated in English it means rulership or authority not a
geographical territory. Jesus goes on to say, “…the things you don’t allow on
earth will be the things that God does not allow, and the things you allow on
earth will be the things that God allows.”
Jesus said these things right after Simon Peter had
the revelation that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said I
give you these “keys” and these keys give you access to the authority of
heaven. I believe that one of the keys that allow us to access the authority of
heaven is thankfulness.
A few chapters before in Matthew 14 we see the
story of the feeding of the five thousand. It says in verses 19-20, “Then he
told the people to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two
fish and, looking to heaven, he thanked God for the food. Jesus divided the
bread and gave it to his followers, who gave it to the people. All the
people ate and were satisfied. Then the followers filled twelve baskets with
the leftover pieces of food.”
Jesus thanked God before the miracle took place.
His thankfulness gave access to the supernatural. This is the principle that
Jesus was teaching us. David said in Psalm 100 that we enter “His gates with
thanksgiving”. Access to the glory and presence of God is thanksgiving.
Thankfulness is a form of praise. We see in the
book of Joshua that the Israelites shouts of praise brought down the Jericho
wall. Our thankfulness gives us access to the supernatural power of the kingdom
of heaven. In adverse form, the opposite like complaining, bitterness and
ungrateful takes us out of the realm of the Holy Spirit. It puts a barrier
between us and the supernatural.
Too often we wait until we receive something to say
thank you. Jesus gave thanks before the miracle, and to the observer of the day
that may have seemed odd or maybe even crazy to thank God for five loaves and
two fish when there were 5,000 men not including the women and children that
needed to eat.
I challenge you for the next twenty one days keep a
gratitude journal. Daily write down ten things that you are thankful for. A
friend told me that a study showed that people who daily wrote down things they
were thankful for had better health than the people in the study who wrote down
their complaints. See if being thankful will improve your quality of life and
give you access to the power of kingdom.
In His service,
Kendy Ward
Kingdom Ambassador
