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7 Ingredients For Strong Faith, Part One | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Turn with me, if you would, this morning. We're going to start this morning in Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four. And we're going to go this morning ministering about the subject of faith. How many of you know faith is thrilling? I love teaching on faith. I love someone teaching faith to me. For over, well, about 35 years, we've been feeding and emphasizing the truth of faith in our life. And I never go, oh, this is boring, or, oh, I've got it. No, the more I hear it, the more I want to hear it. The important thing about faith is that is our part. When you're faced with a situation, you need God's part and your part to arrive at victory. God's part is power, but your part is faith. And so every time you hear faith being taught, you're hearing how to better do your part. Now, that's why it's so valuable. Never get tired of hearing faith. Never get too casual toward the subject of faith, because you have to become skillful in the flow of faith so that you're skillful at bringing your part. When you're skillful at bringing your part, God's part is always easier for you to cooperate with. God will always bring his part, but it's faith that is called for, for us to cooperate with what God's part and supply is to our lives. So the more skillful we are at faith, the better life we'll be. Amen. How many of you are all for the better life? Yeah. If you look at someone who is a leader in their field of study, you look at someone who's a leader in their business world. You can even look at teams who are highest ranking in sports, this sports arena. When you find those teams that are highest ranking in the sports arena, what you have just found are the teams that are most skillful at the fundamentals. Amen. It's the same thing with a business. It's the same thing with any endeavor. If you're going to be successful, you have to be skillful at the fundamentals, the basics, the foundations of that business, of that sport, and with us, with the word of God, foundational truths. And faith is one of those foundational truths we have to become skillful in if we're going to have the success God authored for us. How many of you know success is not automatic? Victory is not automatic. He's provided it for us. But the victory that he's provided for us is waiting for our faith to show up. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our Father faith. So our victory is waiting for our faith to show up. When our faith shows up, victory goes into operation. Amen. So that's why we make sure that we're skillful in faith. Because faith is a fundamental foundational truth of our life, of the life of every believer who is going to experience God's best. That means we have to examine our faith, inspect our faith, make sure it's in good working order, make sure it's strong, make sure that it's. If I could say this, not corrupted, that it's free from error, that it's free from anything that's damaging to faith. What could damage faith? Well, what about this thing of fear? What about worry? What about unforgiveness? What about all these things that you have to you encounter during the day they come and they come to everyone's life. So we have to know what to let in and what not to let in. Because it's all about protecting our faith. I cannot allow offense in, because if I do, my faith is damaged. And one day I'm going to need my faith to work. Every day I need my faith to work, but one day I'm going to especially need a miracle. And I'm going to need my faith working. So the best thing to do to always be ready with your victory is to always have your faith strong and free from corruption, free from error. Amen. So another thing that means that we're going to have to always keep our faith fed. We're going to always have to keep it strong. But another thing is stay away from anything that diminishes the importance of faith. Stay away from any teaching that downplays, diminishes, or dismisses the need for faith. That is a strategy of the enemy. Any doctrine that would rob you of your faith is going to be a strategy the enemy likes. Because when your faith is weakened, he has a place of entrance. And so guard your spirit, guard your hearing. Amen. Against anything that would diminish the need for faith in your life. And Jude made this statement in Jude 1:3. He said, I exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith. Notice the activity of those words. Earnestly contend. This is not an apathetic approach. This is an aggressive decision you make that earnestly I'm contending to lay hold of what? Greater faith, more faith, more skill in faith. Why? Because evidently something's opposing and trying to take our faith from us. So we have to earnestly contend so that what is against our faith does not win. And so we have to earnestly contend for this faith. And then the Word says, the just shall live by faith. We don't even know how to conduct daily life the way God authored it. Without faith, without the Word says in Hebrews, it says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. We can't please God without faith. And I don't know about you, I want God pleased with my life. God loves everyone. But I don't just want him to love me, I want him to be pleased with me. And this is what is an often overlooked factor, a believer's life. It's not just about does God love me? Is he pleased with me? I love all my children, but my children have not always been pleasing to me. Even though if they didn't please me, my love didn't change, but my pleasure in them was affected. I don't want God's pleasure in me affecting negatively. How can I always make sure he's pleased? Without faith, it's impossible to please him. So being in faith, you please him. Amen. Another thing, without faith, it's impossible to please God because without faith, you can't receive all that God has for you. And if you don't receive what he has for you, he's not pleased that you're doing without. And so he's not pleased when there's not faith because he can't bless you the way he wants to bless you. God's not a withholder. But we're unable to receive whenever our faith is not expressed as it needs to be. If it's not operative and moving, then God is robbed from blessing us and it doesn't please us. It doesn't please him when he can't bless us the way he wants to. Amen. Another thing is the Word tells us over in Hebrews talking about when God delivered His people out of Egypt, it said that the Word preached did not profit them. Isn't that an amazing statement? The Word preached did not profit them. Why it wasn't mixed with faith in them that heard it. So for you to even profit from the Word, you have to have faith. You can sit under the faith, you can sit under the teaching of the Word all your life, but if you don't mix faith with that, it will be no profit to you. So you can understand, there is never a time that we can dismiss faith from our life. You can't even sit in a church service and under the Teaching of the Word and receive what God has for you. Unless you bring your faith to it. Amen. Faith has to be mixed with the Word or it doesn't work right. Faith turns the Word into power. God's Word is just recorded in a book. But when faith is mixed with that word that's written down, it transforms that word into power. Amen. And as we said, this is the victory that overcomes the world. Even our faith. We cannot even receive victory in our life without faith. I'm going to keep feeding my faith. What about you? So now we know why faith thrills us. The teaching of faith. Amen. So the Word tells us that those who are of faith, that we're children of Abraham. Where the Bible calls us children of Abraham. Why? Not by bloodline, but by faith line. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And that those who believe God are also children of Abraham. Why? Not by bloodline, but by faith line. And so because the New Testament calls us children of Abraham. Then we need to look as children of Abraham. What father Abraham did, How did his faith operate? So we're going to do that this morning. Romans, chapter four. I'm going to start reading in verse 17. We're going to read down through verse 21. And this is regarding Abraham. You know, Abraham did not have a child. Him and his wife were well up in years. And the word of the Lord came to him and says, I have made you a father of many nations. He said that to a man who was childless. He said that to a man who was 90 years old. Amen. How many of you say God's a faith God? And so because God is a faith God, he speaks faith words. It takes faith ears to hear it and to not disconnect it. Dismiss takes faith to even hear what a faith God says. So he said to Abraham. And it's recorded in Romans 4, verse 17. As it is written, I have made thee. Notice the wording here. I have made it. I have already made you. That's faith talk, isn't it? I have already made thee a father of many nations. Before him whom he believed even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. Notice this. God said, I have made you the father of many nations. But it says that Abraham, he hoped against hope what that he might become. Notice God's already made you to be something. But when you add your faith to it, you become what he's made you to be, he's already made you the healed, right? And when you add your faith to it, you become what he made you to be. The healed, he's already made you the prosperous. But when you add your faith to it, you become what he's made you to be. Don't live this life not becoming what he made you to be. Always become what he made you to be. And you say, I don't understand that. Pastor Nancy, what do you mean by that? Well, children can be born with an inborn talent, an inborn ability. Maybe one that is they're talented in sports or another is talented in music. Just because you're born with that talent doesn't mean you're going to be skillful in that talent. You have to become the singer you were born to be. You have to become the carpenter you were born to be. You have to become that right. Even in natural, we understand that having the talent does not mean automatic success. That talent has to be developed. Even so, God has made you the saved. He's made you the healed. He's made you the prosperous. He's made you the victorious. He's made you the peaceful. He's made you the joyful. Now become that. How do you become that? Add your faith to it and demand of your life. This is what he authored for me. This is how I shall live. And I won't settle for anything less than what he made me to be. I don't want to get to heaven and him show me what I could have been. I want to become that now. And how do you become that? You believe what he says. You add your faith to it. Amen. So it says that Abraham called those things which be not as though they were, who against hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was also able to perform. So this is a checklist of the ingredients that were in Abraham's faith. Since he is our Father to us in the faith, then we as children of that faith need to do exactly what he did. So how about we look at some of the ingredients of his faith that we see here? Amen. The first ingredient we see Is this. Is that what Abraham did? He called those things which be not as though they were. Notice this big word called faith has a behavior. Faith has a command. What does faith do? Faith calls. Calls. You call something that hasn't shown up yet. Amen. We can be confident that we are the victorious. We can be confident we are the healed. We are the prophetess. Why? Because that's not something our imagination conjured up. That's something God said about us. So we're to add our call to that. So since he called me healed, I. I call myself healed. That's what faith does. It calls. It has a call to it. It calls those things which have not yet manifested to come into manifestation. How long do you have to call? Till it shows up. Amen. Now the important thing is you can't call yourself something unless you know what God's called you. So you add your calling to what he called you. So you have to know what the Word says. That's why you need a pastor. That's why you need a local church. Because they're teaching you what God has already called you to be. What he's already authorized and blessed your life with. So you have to add your faith to that. You have to add your calling to that. You have to add your words and your saying to that so that you become what he's already called you to be. It's not that he called you that. You have to agree with it. You won't become that because he called you that. You become that because your faith believed what he calls you. And your faith agrees and says the same thing. Amen. So this is the first ingredient we see in Abraham's faith. He called those things which be not as though they were so. Notice this. You have to find out what does the Word say? When you were raised, they might have called you poor. They might have called you unable to learn. People around you and your past might have called you all kinds of different things. You've got to quit calling yourself what God doesn't call you. Leave off what God doesn't call you. If God doesn't call you that, it's because that's not what you are. God calls you what you are in his definition. Amen. Well, I just have a bad self image. That's not what God calls you. Don't call yourself that. You call yourself what God calls you. And he does not not back you up. If you call yourself something different than he calls you, he'll back up what he calls you. But you can't say I'm sick. He won't back that up. He won't work with that. He calls you healed. You have to call yourself healed when it looks like you're not healed, when it feels like you're not healed. Why? Because faith calls it because it knows I need it in manifestation. And the only way it's going to come in a manifestation is if I call it. It's not enough for your pastor to call it. It's not enough for your spouse to call it. It's not enough for another Christian to call it. You will only become what you call yourself. Amen. But how can you be bold to call yourself that? If God. God called me that first, that's what I am. And symptoms may show up in your body to call you sick, but don't you call. Don't call your body what symptoms call you. Amen. Make sure your calling always agrees with what God has already called you. Well, I just never have enough money. God can't back that up. God did not call you never having enough. He called more than enough for your life. So your calling always has to be in agreement with what he's already called you. And you don't have to figure out what he's called you. Find it out in the Word. Amen. Be a student of the Word to find that out. Matthew 8:17 says Himself took my infirmities and bare my sicknesses. 1st Peter 2:24. By his stripes ye were healed. So he calls me healed. My body might call me in pain. The voice of pain might say, you're not healed. But don't call yourself that. Call yourself what God calls you. And that's what faith does. In the face of something that is contrary or contradictory, face to face. I call myself healed, not because my body's healed. I call myself healed because God calls me healed. Therefore my body must become what God has already called it. When you sit down to pay your bills, when it looks like you don't have enough, say, I call myself prosperous. God has already said he shall supply. Philippians 4:19. My God shall supply all, all, all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He doesn't supply my need according to my income. He supplies my needs according to what his provision is. And his provision is more than enough for all I face. That's what I call myself. That's what I call myself. I'm supplied. That's what I call myself. And when your spouse says, I, honey, do we have enough money? Just say, I just know this. God said. God said he'd supply it all. So I call us supplied. I call us supplied. Amen. This is the first ingredient that we see in Abraham's faith. Being children of Abraham, this needs to be in our faith life. Amen. The Bible is showing us this great, great truth. What you call is what comes to you. Amen. If what you need isn't showing up, do more calling. If what God has made you to be is not manifesting in your life, it's waiting for your call. You call by the words of your mouth. Amen. Call it, call it, call it. Many times people think God's not meeting their needs when basically they're not doing their calling. They're not calling things. Amen. If you've seen a little bit of change in your situation, increase the calling and you'll see an increase of the change. The measure you call it is the measure. It will manifest if you just call it once a month. It can only move toward you once a month. But if you will call it all throughout the day, all day long. Thank God I'm healed. I call myself healed. Thank God I'm supplied. Thank God I'm prosperous. Father, you said I'm prosperous. I don't look to my income. I don't look to my paycheck. I don't look to my employer. I don't go in and demand a raise because, bless God, he better give me a raise because I'm a child of God. God will prosper you. You don't have to get upset with a man. You don't have to dishonor your employer. Amen. By fighting with him over your salary. Put your call out there on God. Don't put the call on men, put the call on God. Amen. Hallelujah. And this is a great truth. You become what you call Amen. The more you need it, call it more. Amen. The second thing it says, abraham. This is a second ingredient that we see in his faith. Abraham believed according to what was spoken. Notice this. He didn't believe according to what he felt. He did not attach his faith to his feelings. He didn't attach his faith to his emotions. He attached his faith to what God said. And he believed according to what was spoken. He didn't believe according to what was, what was seen. He didn't believe according to what was felt. He didn't believe according to what other people would say about him. He believed in line with what God said. So that means if what others say, or even what your feelings say, or even what your own reasoning says, if it does not agree with what God says. Don't believe it. Amen. Faith believes for one reason. Because God said it. What did God say? That's what you always. If you're going to have strong faith and you're going to have victory in your life, you always have to go back to this question. What did God say about this? What did God already tell me about this? Amen. If God says it, that's enough for me to believe it. God delights when his people believe him without any proof. They believe it because he said it. And when you believe it simply because he said it, the proof of it will show up. Amen. Everything that is different than what God says must change. It must change. But you're going to have to demand that it change. By the way you call. If you don't call, things will the way they've always been. I said things will stay the way they've always been. So we have Abraham's faith as an example for our lives, don't we? The first thing, the first ingredient to Abraham's faith is what it calls those things which be not as though they were. That describes you. You're a caller. Amen. I'm a caller. I'm calling every day. Every day. Not just once a week, every day. I'm calling. And then second thing. What are you doing? I'm believing based on what God said. Not believing based on what my body said. Not believing based on what my finances say. I'm believing based on what God says. Why? Because I live by faith. The just shall live by faith. This is the way I live. And I won't settle for anything less than the faith, faith life. The faith life is the best life. Amen. How many of you say, I believe that it's the best life? Amen.
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God's word speaks about the different measures of faith. Little faith, weak faith, dead faith, increasing faith and great faith. We need to understand that faith is measurable. Get your copy of Nancy Dufresne's book, Knowing your measure of Faith.
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If you need prayer, please call our prayer line. We have trained ministers on staff who are ready to agree with you.
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For your miracle, Jesus called healing the children's bread. Nancy Dufresne's book, Daily Healing Bread From God's Table, contains daily portions of healing bread for you to feast on and meditate on in your thought life throughout the day. Order this book now at Deferred.
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If you would like to share a testimony or let us know how this ministry has blessed you, we would love to hear from you, please visit our.
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Website@Dufresneministries.Org In Nancy Dufresne's book, A Supernatural Prayer Life, you will learn how prayer moves the plan of God forward. As we take time to pray in the spirit clarity of his plan for our lives comes. Order this book now@DefrainMinistries.org we trust you've enjoyed this message.
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Visit us@DefrainMinistries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings, share your testimony, become a partner or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of defrain Ministries.