Come Back to Say Thank You and Walk in the Ancient Paths

Introduction

There are Sundays when the service isn't a starting point, but a point of return. After a revival camp, the congregation of Impact Centre Chrétien gathered in Montreal for a Thanksgiving service. Not to add one more experience, but to come back. To come back to the One who touched them, healed them, transformed them. Apostle Yvan Castanou recalled the account of the ten lepers in Luke 17: nine went off to live out their healing, only one came back to bow down. The camp is over; the question that remains is simple. Are you one of the one, or are you one of the nine?

This service opened up a word you can receive today, even if you weren't at the camp. A word in three parts: come back to say thank you, rediscover the ancient paths, let God work on your heart before anything else.

Article Outline

1. Come Back to Say Thank You: The Principle of the Leper Who Returns

Pastor Célestin summed it up in a sentence that struck the whole congregation: "When you set yourself to give thanks, you receive another word." Thanksgiving is not spiritual politeness. It's a channel. When you take the time to stop, to name what God has done, to say thank you out loud, heaven answers you by releasing a new word, a new grace.

Psalm 89 already proclaims this: "I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations." Gratitude is not a one-time event, it's a way of life. And this way of life activates what God still wants to accomplish.

In Luke 17, ten lepers are healed. Only one comes back. Jesus is amazed: "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?" That day, Jesus adds something for the leper who came back: "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." The nine received healing for their bodies. The one received, in addition, the word of salvation. That is the difference returning makes.

2. Don't Rush Ahead: The Principle of Deuteronomy

After a powerful moment with God, the temptation is to move on to something else. The Lord, on the contrary, invites us to stop, to listen again, to repeat. The word Deuteronomy, in Greek, literally means "second law," a repetition of the law. Before the people of Israel entered their inheritance, God told Moses: "Repeat to them what I told you."

What you heard at the camp, in a time of worship, during a sermon or a prayer, don't let it evaporate. Hold on to that word. Turn it into meditation. Listen to it again. Write it down. What God said once, he loves to say again, and it's often on the second or third hearing that a word becomes a root.

3. Three Days Are Enough: The Logic of the Resurrection

"Three days isn't a lot, that's true. But three days are enough for resurrection." That's the decree the apostle laid on the congregation. Three days were enough for Christ to walk out of the tomb. Three days are enough for God to raise up a destiny, a health, a mindset, a character, a household.

You don't need a miracle that takes years. You need a God who, in three days, can turn a situation around. Psalm 126 describes it: "When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream." The difference is that at the end of these three days, you won't say "it was like a dream" anymore. You'll say: "It was a dream that became reality."

4. Return to the Ancient Paths (Jeremiah 6:16)

"Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls." (Jeremiah 6:16)

This word is burning with relevance today. Everyone is looking for a path. Everyone is asking "how do I do this?" Deep inside, you know there is something greater than what you're living. But when you don't know the ancient paths, you end up copying the new ones: Instagram, TikTok, fleeting patterns, people who appear to be something without actually being it.

The ancient paths are the paths taken by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Deborah, David, Paul, Peter, James, John. We call them ancient because they existed long before social media. They are paths of consecration, faith, humility, holiness. Walk in them, and you will find rest for your soul.

5. Being Before Doing, Doing Before Having

Our generation wants to prophesy before it exists. It wants to accomplish great feats before having character. But the Bible imposes an order: be, then do, then have. What we truly admire in people is not what they have. It's what they have become.

"You must be before you do; you must do before you have." Identity comes before action, action comes before possession. And it all starts with your heart.

6. The Heart, the Only True Foundation (1 Samuel 16:7 and Proverbs 4:23)

"For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)

"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." (Proverbs 4:23)

If God is going to build your life, he will build it on that foundation. You can build a great church, heal the sick, prophesy: God still always looks at the motive of the heart. A simple, humble, obedient, serving heart, that gives the best of who it is and what it has. That's what God is looking for.

7. A Heart Thirsty for God: What David Understood

"I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will." (Acts 13:22)

David did not say himself that he was the man after God's own heart. It was God who said it about him. Yet David was a mistreated child, despised by his brothers, forgotten by his father. A kid who today would probably be placed in child protective services. And yet God sees him and declares: here is the man after my own heart.

How? Because David, thrown out into the wild to keep sheep, instead of grumbling, told himself: "Lord, I want to know you." That was his motto. He was not perfect. But he longed for God. A heart thirsty for God is not a perfect heart. It's a determined heart, ready to crucify its flesh to honor its Lord.

Joseph had no church in Egypt. No pastor. No worship team. How was he able to resist Potiphar's wife? "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9). He had an awareness of God, a desire to honor God. That was enough.

8. The Desire for God Produces Transformation, Not Just Prayer

"It's the desire for God that brings about conversion, transformation. It's not prayer alone." Many people pray without desiring God. They ask for the anointing without seeking the heart of God. But you can find the anointing without finding the heart of God, and that's when disasters begin: powerful ministries with characters disfigured by money, greed, immorality.

So the question isn't first "how do I receive more?" The question is "how much do I desire him?" A thirsty heart naturally takes hold of everything else.

Key Takeaways

• After a powerful time with God, come back to say thank you. The leper who returns receives a word the other nine will not.
• Don't bury what you have heard. Apply the Deuteronomy principle: listen again, repeat, meditate, let it take root.
• Three days are enough for God to raise up a situation, a health, a household, a destiny.
• Walk in the ancient paths (Jeremiah 6:16). Biblical role models remain more reliable than Instagram role models.
• Work on your heart before chasing after visibility. It's the only foundation God considers.
• Become a heart thirsty for God. That's what made David "the man after God's own heart," even though he wasn't perfect.

Personal Application

• What was the last powerful moment you experienced with God? Did you take the time to come back and thank him, or did you move on like the nine lepers?
• What has God been drawing your attention to these past few months? Have you agreed to hear that word a second, a third time, or have you buried it?
• What situation in your life needs a "resurrection in three days"? Are you ready to believe God can turn it around?
• What role models are shaping your life right now? Instagram figures, or the "ancient paths" of Abraham, Joseph, David, Paul?
• On which specific point is God inviting you to let your heart be worked on this week: humility, obedience, holiness, service?

Verses Cited

• Psalm 122:1 · I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"
• Psalm 89:2-3 · I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD forever.
• Psalm 126 · When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion.
• Jeremiah 6:16 · Ask for the ancient paths.
• 1 Samuel 16:7 · The LORD looks on the heart.
• Proverbs 4:23 · Keep your heart with all vigilance.
• Genesis 39:9 · How could I do this great evil?
• Luke 17:11-19 · The ten lepers.
• Acts 13:22 · I have found David, a man after my own heart.
• 2 Timothy 4:7 · I have fought the good fight.
• 2 Corinthians 9:7 · God loves a cheerful giver.

FAQ

Why say thank you to God if I'm still asking him for many things?

Because thanksgiving isn't the end of the conversation, it's its opening. The leper who returns in Luke 17 asks for nothing, he says thank you, and Jesus then gives him a word of salvation that goes beyond healing. Saying thank you doesn't block what comes next: it releases it.

What does "walking in the ancient paths" mean today?

It doesn't mean rejecting modernity. It means consciously choosing to let biblical figures (Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, David, Paul, Peter) shape your character, rather than figures who are mainly building an online image. The ancient paths produced deep, consistent, lasting lives. That's what Jeremiah 6:16 invites you to rediscover.

How do I become a "heart thirsty for God" when I don't naturally have that thirst?

Thirst isn't decreed, it's cultivated. It begins with a simple decision: "Lord, I want to know you." Then it grows through the Word read every day, regular prayer, service, times of worship where you become quiet and let God touch you. Joseph, without a church or a pastor in Egypt, held on because he desired God. That thirst is available to every believer who sincerely asks for it.