“My declaration over you this Thanksgiving”

I declare that (Eph 1:4) long before God laid down earth’s foundations, He had you in mind, had settled on you as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. (vs.5) Long, long ago God decided to adopt you into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure He took in planning this!) (vs.6) God wanted you to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved Son. (vs.7) Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, His blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, you are free ”” free of penalties and punishments chalked up by your misdeeds. And you are not just barely free, either. You are abundantly free! (vs.8) God thought of everything, and provided for everything you could possibly need, (vs.9) letting you in on the plans He took such delight in making. He set it all out before you in-Christ, (vs.10) a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in Christ, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. I pray that (vs.11) you clearly understand that it’s in-Christ that you find out who you are and what you are living for. Long before you first heard of Christ and got your hopes up, God had His eye on you, had designs on you for glorious living! I declare that (Jn 9:25) you were once blind, but now you see, and (2Cor 4:4) you know that Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe and they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. I pray that (vs.5) you don’t go around preaching about yourself. Instead, you preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and you are a servant for Jesus’ sake. (vs.6) I declare that God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in your heart so you could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. And now, I declare that (Lu 4:18) the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because He has anointed you to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent you to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, (vs.19) to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. In Jesus’ name, amen!