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7 Ingredients For Strong Faith, Part Two | 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. Tell me again, what are the two things that we've already talked about that are ingredients in Abraham's faith? Number one is what faith calls those things which be not as though they were. Second of all, faith believes. Believes it simply because God says it. No other reason. It's not because my finances say it. It's not even because other people say it. It's not because of what the doctor says. It's because God says it. That's enough for me to believe it. Amen. I want to read to you something that Dr. Lester Sumrall made this statement. When you walk in the faith realm, you remove yourself from this world. You. You remove yourself from what the eyes see, the ears hear, and the fingers touch. You place yourself in a whole other world, the world of faith. In that world, you must accept the word of God. If God says it, it's just that way. That's where real faith is. God said it. That's all I need to know. When I'm faced with situations that are contrary, this is what I ask myself. What did God say about this? What did God tell me? Now, see, God can tell you in two ways, in his Word. And he can tell you things specifically for your life, by the Spirit of God. The spirit of God may say, that's the home I have for you. That's the direction I want your life to go. I want you to take that job. This is the provision I have for you. When God says that to you, that is the word of God to your life. And you hold to it. Will the devil challenge it? Yes. That's why you have to contend for the faith. Yeah, but you said. No, God said it, but it doesn't look like it's coming to pass. It doesn't matter. God said it. It comes to pass because of what God says. Don't believe anything more than you believe what God says. People are believing their own reasonings more than they believe what God says. People are believing what they can figure out and what they can calculate more than they believe what God says. But that's not what Abraham did. Believe anything more than you believe what God says. Amen. Aren't you glad to know you don't have to spend the rest of your life trying to figure it out? You are free. Jesus redeemed you. He redeemed you from having to figure it out. You know now what your life is to look like. Calling it out, call it out. Call it out. Not figure it out, call it out. Amen. The third ingredient that we see in Abraham's faith is this. Abraham being not weak in faith. Ah, so now he's telling us how not to have weak faith. Because you can have faith that's weak. But why, when you can have faith that's strong? Abraham being not weak in faith, consider not his own body now dead. What it means is that his body could no longer produce a child. It was dead. That season of his life was dead to him. But God said, you're going to. So when God says something different than what natural things tell you, you don't consider what they tell you. What does it mean not to consider it? Don't entertain it. Don't let it turn over in your thought lives. Don't let it into your conversation. Don't consider it. Do not take it into your calculations. That means that when God said to him, you're going to be the father of many nations, he knew that his body was unable to produce a child at that point. But what he didn't do, he did not take counsel from his body. Too many times people are counseling with the wrong thing. They're counseling with their reasonings. They're counseling with what they have figured out. They're counseling with their past. They're counseling with their body. They're counseling with their finances. They're counseling with the price of something. If God says you can have it, it doesn't matter what the price is. If God says that you're home, it doesn't matter what the price is. Quit counseling with the price to determine whether or not you can have it. Faith only takes counsel with God and anything that agrees with God. So if you're going to have a strong faith life, you're going to have to know who to quit listening to. And you're going to have to know who to listen to. Amen. Praise God. So it says, abraham being not weak in faith, consider not his own body now dead. This means weak faith considers the wrong thing. Strong faith won't consider the wrong thing. So how many of you know it matters what you consider? Hallelujah. It said this. He didn't consider his own body. His own body was talking to him, said, you cannot produce a child he didn't even listen to. It doesn't even matter. Doesn't even matter. You have to know what to ignore if you're going to have strong faith. And you're going to have to know who to ignore just because you love someone doesn't mean you have to listen. If their counsel is not in agreement with God's word, you can be honorable toward them still. But you have to know, who am I going to receive counsel and input from? Amen. The fourth ingredient that we find in Abraham's faith is Abraham, consider not his own body now dead now here we come. Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. So if you're going to have strong faith, not only can you not consider what comes to you personally, you can't consider what's happening in someone else's life that's close to you. He did not even consider her body. Her body was unable to produce a child, but he didn't consider that. That means they didn't lay in bed and talk about, honey, we've tried for all these years to have a child. How are we going to have. They didn't. That's called considering the wrong thing. Wrong conversations will teach you out of your destiny. Wrong conversations laying in bed at night talking. Wrong conversations over the dinner table. Wrong conversations with people on the job who are not taught the word you're taught. All of these things will rob you of your destiny. So Abraham didn't even consider someone else's body. What about you? If you're believing for healing, haven't you ever noticed this? You go to belief for healing and the devil will remind you. Or just your own mind will remind you of three people you used to know who died of that. Faith does not consider how someone else failed. Faith doesn't consider how someone else didn't receive their answer. That's not my problem. When I sit down, if I sit down to pay my bills, and let's say I have more than enough money to pay my bills, and then all of a sudden I see that there's, oh, well, I remember that I talked yesterday to my neighbor and they're losing their house because they're in bankruptcy. I don't sit down at my bills and say, maybe I can't pay my bills. Maybe I'm in bankruptcy. Isn't that unsound thinking to think you can't pay yours just because they couldn't pay theirs? Then why would you look at someone else's body that didn't get healed to decide whether or not you could be healed? Why do you look at someone else's family to decide what direction your family is going to take? Faith doesn't look at other people to determine if it can have victory or not. Amen. Abraham didn't even consider the body of the Person closest to him. Amen. You are authorized to ignore anyone else's condition that's not in agreement with the word of God. You're authorized to ignore their situation, their condition, any failure they may have. The devil is quick to parade other people's fear failures in front of your need for a miracle, isn't he? He will remind you. He will parade all these failures and make sure you hear testimony would be just as quick to parade the successes. Well, devil, I know of many people who receive what they need from God. Not only that, let me tell you about all the miracles I've received in my life. Let me remind you, you have to be so quick to parade the faith victories when the devil is trying to show you the failures. Amen. So Abraham did not consider what was none of his business. You don't know how God has dealt with someone. Stay out of someone else's business. You don't know why they did or did not receive from God. And the devil wants to try to get you to answer someone else's failure. Why? Because that will weaken your faith. He wants you to figure out why did someone else that believed God. Why did they not get their bills paid? Why did they not get their healing? Not my business, devil. Not my business. I'm not accountable for that. And he always wants to get your faith tied up with someone else's business so he can weaken it. Your faith is between you and God. You and God. You and God. Amen. The fifth thing that we see, Abraham. This is the fifth ingredient to Abraham's faith. Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. Notice this unbelief will cause you to stagger. What does it mean to stagger? Stagger means to waver, to falter, or even to move unsteadily. That means this. They believe on Monday, they don't believe on Tuesday. They believe on Wednesday. They don't believe on Thursday. That's called unbelief. That's called staggering. So faith works. Faith has to be a consistent flow. You can't stop and start what you believe God will do for you. Now, if you recognize you have stopped it, pick it back up. Amen. Pick it back up. But you cannot allow yourself to be inconsistent in what you're calling in your conversation and what you're saying. Because Abraham was consistent in what he believed. He didn't change from day to day based on what he was faced with. Let me tell you how to stagger so you'll know not to do it. You stagger by getting into the mental arena and trying to figure out when is my answer going to show up? How come it hasn't come? Who is God going to use? How's he going to get the money to me? None of that is any of your business because that's all God's part. You are not qualified or anointed or even capable of fulfilling God's part. So since you're not qualified for it, just stay out of it. He is the only one great enough to do his great part. And let me tell you, he is faithful to do his part. You don't have to question whether or not he'll come through. He always comes through. Say that with me. God always comes through. Amen. God is not the variable. We are the variable. Amen. So if you get in the mental arena and you try to figure out how to, how come it's taking so long? When is it going to show up? When you start asking questions, that's how you know you're in the mental arena. How come it's taking so long? What avenue is God going to use? Where is he going to get the money from? All questions are of the mental arena. It's not your job to get in that arena. Listen, there is no faith in your mind. Your faith is in your spirit, in your heart. Amen. Your faith is in your spirit. You can't believe God with the mind. That's why the mind starts going on tilt, gets overwhelmed. If you ever sense yourself feeling overwhelmed or grasping to believe God, now you know you're in the mental arena. That's why you're feeling that grasping sensation. Because you're trying to believe with the mind. And the mind is not built to believe. The mind is to agree, not believe. That's called the renewing of the mind. The renewing of the mind means we find out God's thoughts. We take God's thoughts. We believe God's thoughts when they are different than our own thoughts. Right. If our past tells us we could never succeed in life, well, that's not what God says. So we lay down what we've been taught. That maybe we could never have certain things. We could never succeed. That's not what God says. The Bible says God gives us richly all things to enjoy. He has all things for my future. He has all things for my today, right now. He has planned all things for me. I'm not going to dismiss myself from all things by thinking wrong. So renewing the mind means you get rid of wrong thinking and you replace it with God's thinking. When you do that, your thoughts will agree with the word and. And it will agree with the faith in your heart. Instead of kicking against the faith in your heart. Instead of arguing with the faith in your heart. This is what we know. That Abraham, he didn't do. He did not get in the mental arena and try to figure out, how am I going to become the father of many nations? How is God going to do it? When is he going to do it? How is he going to make that happen? We know he did not get into that arena because it says he didn't stagger. Amen. So how. How many of you know you have to practice staying out of the mental arena? Why? Because the mind naturally wants to be in charge. Naturally wants to figure it out. And the devil will certainly energize thoughts, won't he? There may be a thought that would trouble your faith. The devil will just poke on that thought and just keep bringing it back. Bringing it back. How do you get past that? You answer it. You say, no, you don't. No, you don't. That's not my thought. That it's not my business how God's going to do that. It's my business to call it. My business to call it. My business to believe it and call it. That's my only. God gave us such an easy part. Believe and call. Believe it. You don't have to do it. You don't have to work it. You don't have to have the power for it. He does the work. We do the work of believing. And the work of believing means saying the right thing and thinking faith thoughts. Strong faith doesn't just have faith words, it has faith thoughts. That means when you're laying in bed at night, you're not imagining the worst, you're imagining the best. You're not envisioning the worst, you're envisioning the best. My life is getting better every day from this moment on. My life gets better from this. You can say that every day from this moment on, my life gets better. Amen. So stay out of the mental arena to keep from staggering. Listen. The mental arena is Satan's arena. If he can get you in that mental arena, he'll rob you of your faith. You hold him in the faith arena because he can never defeat you in the faith arena. Amen. He wants to get you in the mental arena because he can. Out. Thank you. But if you'll hold him in the faith arena, you'll overcome him every single time. Every single time. So the sixth ingredient. Let's look at the next one of Abraham's faith. The sixth ingredient of Abraham's faith. Abraham was strong in faith. How was he strong in faith? Then it tells us how. Giving glory to God. Oh, what an easy thing for us to have strong faith. Just keep giving glory to God. When you. When the mind wants to figure it out, say, no, no, God's working on it. Thank you, Father. You're working on it. Thank you, Father. You're working on it. That's called giving glory. Oh, God, don't give your mind glory. Give him glory. Don't give your circumstances. Glory. Give him glory. What is getting your attention is getting glory from you. If your need is getting your attention, you're giving it your glory. Give him your glory. Amen. That means you hold your attention. The devil would love to get your attention on the wrong thing because then he can rob from you. But now we know how to have strong faith. Keep our attention on God. Keep your attention on what God says. Amen. Strong faith gives glory to God. So as you give glory to God, your faith will be strengthened. Notice that faith doesn't come by giving glory to God. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Isn't that right? Faith comes by hearing. By hearing the word. But the faith you have is strengthened by giving glory to God. So there's faith in you. If you're a believer, there's faith in you. Strengthen it. Strengthen it. Strengthen it. We can increase it, but we can also strengthen it. How do we make it stronger? Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God. That means you're going to have to be good at praising. If you're not much praising during the day, you're not strengthening your faith. You're missing the opportunity to strengthen your faith. Give yourself the spiritual habit of saying praise the Lord, Praise the Lord all throughout the day. Praise the Lord. Praise you, Father. You're working on that. Thank you, Father. You're working on that. When you're tempted to worry about it. How do you know if you're worrying about it? If you're thinking about it, when you're tempted to worry about it, instead, praise about it. Praise your father. You're working on that. I don't have to figure it out. You're working on that. Praise the Lord. You're doing it. You're doing it. You're doing it. Paul and Silas, remember they got beat, thrown in prison. Their feet were in irons. Their hands weren't irons. They had been beaten. They're in the inner prison. It said they prayed and what? Prayed and sang praises? What were they doing? They were strengthening their faith. At a time that something was trying to get their faith out of them. They on purpose strengthened their faith. What did they do? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And the Bible says they were praising so loud, the prisoners heard them. So they weren't just doing this. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. That might be appropriate when you're in a place that it's not appropriate to be loud, but let me just tell you, in this setting, it's appropriate to be loud. And when you're in your home, you ought to be able to say praise the Lord out loud. And if you're afraid to, you need to change the way the atmosphere of your home because your faith needs your praise. Your faith gets expressed as you praise. That is one way and really a primary way to release faith is through praising. The more you release it, the stronger it gets. So Abraham was strong in faith, gave giving glory to God. Amen. So notice this. Paul and Silas, they were in the prison. It said they prayed and sang praises. The church world loves the praying part. But many Christians are held into difficulty not because they haven't prayed, but because they haven't praised. Once you pray, God heard you. Now don't keep praying and asking him to do the same thing over and over and over and over. Now you need to praise him that he did hear you when you asked. Amen. So we see this, that when Paul and Silas, they prayed and they sang praises, after they did, what happened? A great earthquake came. The prison doors fell open, the metal irons fell off, fell off their hands, fell off their feet. Looks like their great escape. Praise was their escape. This earthquake did not show up while they were praying. It showed up while they were praising. If things aren't showing up yet, hurry up and get to the praising. Praise is not just moments of praise. It's to be a lifestyle of praise. You get up in the morning, praise the Lord. Father, I thank you that your power is flowing in my life today. I thank you that your answers are showing up in my life. And you start praising God. That's the best way to keep your mind out of conflict. Start talking before your mind starts talking to you. And the best way to talk is speak the word and praise the Lord. Amen. Many are suffering because they haven't taken time to worship God. That's why they're suffering. Many are suffering with sickness, they're suffering with lack, they're suffering with depression, they're suffering with torments. All Kinds of things. Just because they haven't taken time to praise God. If they would do that. Praise brings the anointing. Now, you understand that this is why it's so important. Praise brings the anointing. And it's the anointing that destroys the yoke, is what Isaiah tells us. So when you praise, the anointing shows up. And when the anointing shows up, it starts busting things off. Amen. And if things are staying on you because you haven't brought the anointing yet, bring the anointing how? By praising. Praising invites God's power to come into manifestation. Why? Because praise is a faith act. It's a faith act. Amen. Many times people think they're behind in faith when they're really behind in praising. If they would just start praising more, their faith would rise up on the inside of them, lay hold of what God has for them. Amen. Hallelujah. I will say some of the greatest tests I faced in my life. I came out on the other side of them by praising. And the pastor couldn't praise for me, and my spouse couldn't praise for me, and my fellow believers couldn't praise for me. I had to do my own praising. Well, I'm embarrassed. Well. Well, I'm not embarrassed to get my miracle. I'm not embarrassed to get my supply and my healing. So that has nothing to do with praising for me. Amen. Now, the last ingredient that we see in Abraham's faith is this. Abraham was fully persuaded that God was able to perform what he had promised. That means he knew God's going to do what he said he's going to do. That's really what faith is. God's going to do it. God's going to do it. God's doing it. And the thing is, faith is not believing God can. Unbelievers believe God can. The Bible said demons also believe and tremble. They know God can do some things. It's not enough to believe God can. You have to believe. God's doing it for me now, right now. Right now. God's doing this for me now, right now. My answer, he's moving toward my life right now. Right now. He's working on it. And you say, well, what do you mean, now? It hasn't shown up. Yeah. You believe even though it hasn't shown up. You know that in the unseen, he's working on it right now. He's working on the side you don't see. Amen. He's working on it right now. That's what Faith believes. It doesn't believe. God can. It believes God's working on it right now and it'll manifest. It'll manifest. Well, when's it going to manifest? I don't really care because I just. It's enough to me to know he's working on it right now. That's enough for me to go to bed peaceful. That's enough for me to sleep well at night. Amen. So it says this. Abraham was fully persuaded. This is an important key. Abraham was not partially persuaded. He was fully persuaded. An important thing of faith is you have to get full of the word you're believing. When will it show up? When will my healing show up? When you're full of healing scriptures, when those healing scriptures are fully in your mouth, when it's fully in your thought life, when thoughts of healing are so full in your thought life that thoughts of sickness are pushed out. It's when you get full of the truths that promise you what you need. Amen. So we know this. Abraham was fully persuaded. Be easy for God to persuade. Don't be hard to be persuaded. Be quick to believe. Be quick to say, if that's what God says, that's enough for me. I don't have to go in and talk to a private counseling session with my pastor for two hours for him to convince me. I'm going to be quick to be persuaded. When I hear it's the Word, I'm jumping on. I'm not asking for three proofs and, you know, 14 testimonies. If the Word says it and I see it in two or three places in the Word, because let every word be established by two or three witnesses. When I see it in more than one place in the Word and I see it's the Word, I'm quick to believe that. Amen. Quick to believe it. Now, what are we going to say? We've looked at the seven different ingredients of Abraham's faith. Number one, it calls those things which be not as though they were. Number two, Abraham believed according to what was spoken. He believed what God said. He didn't believe what anything else said. Number three, he considered not his own body. He didn't consider natural circumstances. Number four, he considered not Sarah's body. He didn't consider other people in their situations. Number five, he did not stagger at the promise of God. He was consistent in his faith. Number six, he was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Number seven, he was fully persuaded that God's going to do what God said he's going to do. Amen can't you say it? God's doing for me what God said he would do for me. And he's doing it right now. I said, he's doing it right now. You know what? You got strong faith. That's all that qualifies for strong faith. You've got it. Amen. I've got strong faith. You've got strong faith. Hallelujah. This is your faith checklist. This is your faith inspection list. Amen. We trust you've enjoyed this message. 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 Dufresne Ministries.