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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, and let's go to Psalms chapter 103, Psalms chapter 103. And we're going to start reading in verse one. It's such a thrilling passage, a passage that you need to get well acquainted with because it will bless your life to walk in the light of what these verses reveal to us. Psalms 103, verse 1 says this. Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Notice this. One way to keep from forgetting what belongs to you is keep blessing him and thanking him for it. That's what he's telling us. If we will continue to thank him and show gratitude, it will keep us from being forgetful. It will help our remembrance at a time of need. It matters what you remember when you're faced with the emergencies of life. And it matters that we don't forget what we should remember. And he's telling us, by being continually grateful, bless the Lord, O my soul, forget not that. As we praise, it keeps us remembering what he's provided for us and what belongs to us. So it says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. It's not enough for us just to remember most of them. He wants us to not forget any of them. Amen. Because what we forget about, the enemy will be able to see steal from us. So he's saying, don't forget any of it, because it all belongs to you. It says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Then he begins to list the benefits. Number one, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Amen. Hallelujah. All of them. I love the next one, too, who heals all thy diseases. Amen. Then another he redeems thy life from destruction. Anything that would destroy your life, your home, your finances, your health, your mind, your family, your marriage, you're redeemed from that. Anything that would be destructive to any facet or arena of your life, he has already provided for from that. And then it goes on. Who crowns thee with loving kindness and tender mercies? You might not have been treated well in your younger years. People might not have acknowledged you, treated you as you ought. But God crowns you. He notices you. Amen. And he crowns us your worthy. Something you matter to Him. He crowns us with what? Loving kindness and tender mercies and Then the next benefit. He satisfies thy mouth with good things. What's that mean? That means he teaches us the right words to say because the words we say determines how much good he can do in our life. There's nothing better than knowing the right thing to say at a wrong circumstance. There's nothing better than knowing that you have the help of heaven in your mouth when there's attacks and tests and strategies against your life. Amen. He satisfies our mouth with good things. When others don't know what to say, we know what to say. When others don't know what to do, we know what to say. Amen. And there's nothing more satisfying than I don't know everything. But I do know I'll just say what he tells me to say. And when I do that, it will direct my life right into the victory that belongs to me. And I like this one. He satisfies our mouth with good things or good words. Why? So that our youth is renewed like the eagles. Amen. You're not getting older, you're getting better. Right? Think of all these wonderful benefits. How do they operate for you? You bless him. When you bless him, they go into operation. Father, I bless you. Thank you so much for all that you provided. All that you said is mine. I agree with it. I bless you for it. Thank you. Thank you. To bless him is to show gratitude. Amen. If somebody ran an errand for you and you turn around and you go, you know, I want to just give them a little bit of money. I want to bless them. What are you doing? You're showing gratitude for what they did. It's an exchange. I recognize you did something for me. I want to bless you for doing that. But then also, sometimes somebody doesn't even have to do something for you before you say, you know what? I just want to be a blessing. Right? Amen. But God has done so much for us that we ought to show gratitude by blessing Him. Thank you, Father. I acknowledge that I walk in the light of that. Amen. Now, notice the phrase, who forgives all thine iniquities, who heals all thy diseases? We see this. His healing power is as far reaching as. As his power to forgive. It reaches all. His healing power reaches all sickness. His forgiveness reaches all sin. There's no sin you can't be forgiven from. That means there's also no disease you can't be healed of because it reaches all. Amen. When Jesus paid the price for our sins, he paid the price for our healing. He didn't just pay the price for part of our sins, but for all of it. Therefore, he didn't pay the price for just part of healing or just certain situations. He paid the price for all of it. Amen. And you say, well, if he paid the price for it, how come I don't have it? Because it's not automatic. These things that he's provided calls for our faith. What's that mean? It calls for our recognition and our agreement with what he's done. And say, father, we receive that. Now let me say this. People may ask why, if he's provided it for us, how come it's not automatic to us? Because God will never insert himself anywhere uninvited. Dad Hagin, Kenneth E. Hagin, used to make this statement, God is a perfect gentleman. What's that mean? He won't violate your will. If you don't will to be forgiven. You don't have to receive forgiveness. If you don't will to be healed, you don't have to receive healing. He will not insert even what belongs to you upon yourself until you invite him to an agree. And how do you do that? By faith. And faith is you agreeing. Father, I see you provided for that. I receive it. I receive all my sins forgiven. I receive all my healing. Amen. That's why God is looking for our faith. Because it is our invitation to him to do what he wants to do for us. Amen. Do you know God's provided salvation? Salvation belongs to everyone. It's waiting for them to receive it. So why doesn't everyone in the world, why aren't they born again and a child of God? Because they haven't yet received it. He won't come in uninvited. He's a perfect gentleman. He's not forcing himself upon anyone. Your faith is your invitation for him to work in your life. That's why faith is so important. And Jesus said, when ministering to the sick when he was on the earth, he said, so be it done unto you. But according to your faith, could we not say this? So be it done unto you. According to your invitation to my Father to come in and do his work, you invite Him. Amen. Hallelujah. So faith is simply believing what God says and acting like it's true. Now see the natural man, before we were saved, we just believed what we saw and and what we felt. And now that we're born again, God says, I give you a higher way to live. What you see and what you feel is so temporal, it can change. So I'm going to give you something to attach your faith to that is unchanging. It's called my word. If I say it, I say it. It's unchanging. So he says that he authorizes us that we don't just have to attach what we believe to something changeable. We get to attach ourself to what He. He says that's unchangeable. Isn't that gives us the best life. So when we see it written in the Word, we say, okay, I attach my faith to that. If that's what you say, Father, I believe that I cooperate with that. I receive that and anything else that I may see or feel that is in opposition to what you say. I say I won't believe it. I'll only believe what you say in the sense of what you say is unchangeable. Amen. So faith is simply believing what God says in His Word and then acting like it's true. Now that's the big thing. Every day, believing this is what he said. And I'm going to act like this is true. Amen. Then once we say, I believe what God says, regardless of what I feel, regardless of what I see, I believe what God says. Then that, you know what that does, that delivers us to a place of rest. We're resting because he provided. He said he provided. And so I believe that and it's working in my life. Amen. Hallelujah. Even if circumstances and situations all around us say something different, because circumstances will talk to you, situations will talk to you. And even if they something different than what God says, you're authorized to ignore them. You're authorized to dismiss them, you're authorized to turn your back on them and not put your attention there. Amen. If your body or what you feel says something different than what God says, you're authorized to say, thank you, Father, for giving me something higher to hold to. His Word is higher than what you feel. His Word is higher than what you're facing. His Word is higher than any pressure that comes. Amen. And he gives us a better place to look. His Word is the best place to look when we're faced with things we don't want to see. Amen. If thoughts bombard our minds, we're authorized to turn our attention to what he says and away from thoughts that come against us. Amen. Now, Abraham's faith was spoken of in the Word, and his faith pleased God. And I want us to go back and look especially at one ingredient of Abraham's faith that is so critical because we we must become skillful in this for our faith to flourish. And if we'll do what he did, we'll get what he got. What did he get? He got fulfillment of God's word in his life. That's what he got. So Romans, chapter 4 and verse 17. Of course we know God was speaking to Abraham and telling him that he said, you're going to become father of not just a nation, but of many nations. And when you looked at Abraham's circumstances at the time God said this, he was 90 years old. And it was like the natural mind would kick in and say, well, why didn't you say this to me when I was 30? Right? But God wanted to make sure he said it at a time when everybody knew it would be nothing but God that could fulfill this. And so he said at 90 years old to Abraham, he said, I'm going to make you a father of many nations. And Abraham did not have a child. And he recognized at 90 years old, his body is not during the season of life where it's producing. And he recognized his wife's body is not really producing. And not too many women around 90 years old want to be having children, right? And so the natural circumstances look like this is not the ideal time to be embarking on this. How many of you know God will tell you to do things at a time when it does not look like it's an ideal opportune time? Isn't that right? Why? Because if it were opportune time, you possibly could fulfill something of it in your own flesh and own ability to. So he gets it outside the setting to where you couldn't have possibly fulfilled this. Therefore everyone knows God did this. Amen. And so In Romans chapter 4, verse 17, it says this as it is written. And God was speaking to Abraham. I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed. Even God who, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were right? There is the definition of faith. Faith calls those things which be not as though they were. When healing is not, you call yourself healed. When the provision is not there, you call yourself provided for. That's what it means. You call what you want. You don't call what you have, you call what you want. You call those things things that are not there. And you tell them get there. Now that's the definition of faith. And without faith, it's impossible to please God without calling those things which be not as though they were. It's impossible to please God. So it says that Abraham called those things which be not as though they were. God does that also. Who against hope. Abraham believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. Look at this. According to that which was spoken, God. How is he going to arrive at. How is he going to arrive at being the father of many nations? God gave him something to hold to his words. It's my words that are going to take you from where you're at to where I have planned for you to be. I'm going to speak words. And if you will hold to those words, those words will bring you into what my words are author for you. If you give up on his words. If we give up on his words, what do we have to take us into what he said? Nothing. Our own flesh, our own ability cannot fulfill it. It's going to be his words bringing it to pass. So our only job, the only job of faith is hold to what God says, in what you say, in what you think, and in what you so he said that you might become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken. So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith. Aren't you glad for that phrase, being not weak in faith? We don't have to be weak in faith. If we're not weak in faith, it means we're strong in faith. And being not weak in faith, he can save. Consider not his own body now dead. What's that mean? His body was unable to produce what God said. But it says here that Abraham did not consider that 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. What does strong faith do? The next phrase tells us giving glory to God. Amen. People may come and say, I don't understand why as a congregation, y' all sit and worship God. Because that's what strong faith does. Strong faith says, praise the Lord. Strong faith says, I give you glory, Father. I give you honor. I glorify you. I glorify your word. That's the behavior of strong faith. He was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded, not partially persuaded. When will your answer show up? When you're fully persuaded. Partial persuasion cannot receive all that God's provided. You have to be fully persuaded. Amen. How do you get fully persuaded? Well, feed on what hold to what his Word says and give him glory. And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Listen what God says God will bring to pass. God, it's not us having to bring it to pass. God will bring it to pass. He does the doing, we do the believing. He does the doing. Amen. That's why we can rest knowing he's doing the work. What is our work? The work of believing. What does believing do? It holds to what God says. When everything is trying to pull you off of what God says, you say, I'm not letting go of this. I am not letting go of what God says. But look, your finances are going down. I'm not letting go of what God said. God said he would supply all my needs according to his riches and glory. I'm not letting go of that. And when things bombard your mind to try to get you to pay attention to the wrong thing, no, I'm not letting go of what God said. Amen. Hallelujah. So when Abraham's body told him something different than what God said about him, he had a choice. He had to make a choice. What was his choice? He believed according to what was spoken. He believed according to what was spoken. He held on to what God says. There have been times in my life and times of situations when my mind was bombarded and I just kept holding on to what God said. My body was bombarded, and I just kept holding on to what God said. I don't have to answer, how's it gonna come to pass. I don't have to answer, when's it gonna come to pass? All my job is to is to hold to what God said with the hand of faith. Now, how do you know you're holding to a what God said with the hand of faith? By what you say, by what you allow your mind to think on, and by how you act. Those three things will reveal what the hand of faith is doing, what you say, what you're allowing yourself to think on, and then the actions you take. Amen. So just as Abraham had to choose to hold to God's word when his body told him something different. When we need something from God, we have to choose to hold to God's word. When everything around us is telling us something different, one of the biggest things that we have to become skillful with is this phrase that we see about abraham in verse 19. And it says, and Abraham being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body. You have to practice this. You have to practice not paying attention to what you can see, not paying attention to what you can feel, not paying attention to what you may hear in the natural. Why? Because Your attention is holding on to what God said. What God said is what counts. It's not my job to figure it out. It's not my job to find out, to figure out how's God going to do it, when's he going to do it, who's he going to use? That's not my job. My only job is hold to what he said. Hold to what he said. Now, for you to hold to what he said, you have to know what he said. That's why before I go to believe God for something I want to hear from him, the Spirit of God will direct me toward a scripture. The Spirit of God will prompt something in my heart in line with the Word. And that will help me to hold to. It'll know what to hold to. The Word is vast. The Word contains and says so much. It's not to us to randomly pick something out of the Word and decide we're going to hold to that. We have a counselor and a helper called the Holy Ghost. He will counsel us which verse. He will counsel us which direction to believe. First of all, before I go to believe God for something, I take time to find out how the Spirit is leading me. How is the Spirit Spirit not leading me through my mind, but leading me through my own spirit. What seems in my heart, what seems in my spirit that the Spirit of God is prompting to me about this situation. That's what I'm going to hold to. Amen. And so, being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead. How does someone weaken their faith? They consider what they ought not consider. If we put our attention to consider something means to take it into your calculations. To consider something means to mull it over, to think about it. Right? When our attention goes to and stays on the wrong thing, it weakens our faith. You can't just touch anything you want and think your faith will get get stronger for it. If our faith is to be protected and kept strong, it can only touch on the Word of God and get stronger. If our attention touches on circumstances, our faith will suffer for it. So Abraham was practiced at considering not what was obvious. Amen. Hallelujah. Where our attention goes affects our faith. We cannot just let our mind go in any direction, think on anything, just lay in bed and worry. Just get into the mental arena. Getting entrenched in the mental arena, trying to figure it out what God has for our life our minds cannot figure out because our minds aren't assigned to doing it. He's going to do it. That's why Many times we get overwhelmed at the thought when we try to figure it out. Because it's not our mind that can accomplish it. That's why it overwhelms the mind. This is a God action. This is a faith action. This is a faith transaction. This is a spirit transaction. That your spirit can believe what your mind can't figure out. Amen. And this is what Abraham realized. I cannot try to figure out how God's going to make me the father of many nations when I don't even have a child and my body can't produce a child at this age. It made no sense to the natural mind. And then when it didn't make sense, it told us what he did. He ignored it. He did not even let his mind go there. To conceive, to consider not listen to this. To consider not means don't think about it. That's what it means. It means not to turn it over and over in the mental arena. Because the mind cannot figure out what only God can accomplish. The mind is not built for that. That's the wrong function of the mind. There is no faith in our minds. Our faith is in our spirits. So we should not try to employ our mind when we're needing to believe God for something. Our mind is to agree with the Word, but it's not the mind that we believe with. The mind is to be renewed to take on God's way of thinking so that our spirits can be unhindered in the action of believing. When your mind is renewed with the Word of God, meaning this, that. That when you take on God's way of thinking, then your mind won't get in the way when your spirit goes to believe. But if your mind isn't renewed when your spirit goes and your heart goes to believe for something, your mind will stand up and say, nope, can't do that. Nope, can't do that. Amen. So Abraham did not let his mind get involved in this divine transaction. He considered not. If we're to have strong faith, we have to become skillful at considering not what we ought not consider to keep our attention only on the right thing. If you're believing God for finances and you just sit and pour over your financial situation day in and day out and you talk about it around the dinner table and you keep having conversations with it. What you're doing is you're letting go of what God said about it. If you talk about the lack of money, it will keep it from coming in. If you talk about the body and what it's hurting and what it's feeling, it will keep those symptoms ingrained in your body. What you talk about is what you're focused on, and what you're focused on is what will get movement in your life. So Abraham learned this. Don't even focus on, don't consider, consider anything about my body. Because this isn't going to come to pass by the power of my body. This is going to come to pass by the power of God. This is a faith transaction. Amen. This is a word of God transaction. Only God's word can bring this to pass. Amen. God has a plan for your life and it's not your money or your own ability that's going to be the power to bring it to pass. It's going to be his power. What he said to you about it. Hold to what God said. Because what God said about it is what's going to bring you to the fulfillment of what he said. As long as we hold to what he said. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. 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