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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. Ephesians chapter 2 in verse 10. And I'm going to read out of the Amplified translation. So if you have a device there that lets you go to that, you may want to do that. Ephesians chapter 2. And we'll look at verse 10. The amplified translation reads, for we are God's own handiwork. Think of that. God made you his personal project. God's handiwork. He put his hand to it. For we are God's own handiwork. His workmanship. And then he tells what that workmanship was. He recreated us in Christ Jesus, born anew. Now, that's his part. Now he's going to state our part that we may do those good things which God predestined planned beforehand for us, taking paths which he prepared ahead of time that we should walk in them. Notice this. He prepared them. But it's our joy and privilege to walk them that we should walk in them, living the good life. Notice this. All he prepared was the good life. He didn't prepare the life of struggle. He didn't prepare a life of hardship. He didn't prepare a life of tragedy. He only prepared one life, the good life. The good life. Living the good life, which he prearranged and made ready for us to live. That good life is just waiting for our faith to arrive, waiting for our obedience to arrive. Amen. Hallelujah. So the good life is on the paths that he prepared ahead of time, before time ever started being measured. He prepared the paths for us. And I've said this before, but the thing is, as I so appreciate that the word paths is plural, because his plan is not so fragile, that if you get off, there's another path to get you back on. There's not just one path. And if you get off, you fail, but there's paths, just like on the freeways. You miss your exit, there's other paths. Take a turn, follow him. He'll lead you back on to get you back on course. Amen. No, we're not looking to miss it. But the devil will always accuse you that if you missed it, that that's it, that you can't fulfill it. And that's not true, because there's paths. Amen. Hallelujah. When I was writing the book, God, the revealer of secrets, God spoke to me and said, make my people to know that long life is connected to my Plan meaning this. You can have a great exercise program, a great eating program, and I don't belittle that, but that will never keep you alive when the plan of God is neglected. Amen. Long life is connected to his plan. Prosperity is connected to his plan. And I love the way that Brother Copeland states it. He says, the plan of God is your wealthy place. Can I say this? The plan of God is your healthy place. Amen. Value the plan. I've learned to not pay attention to the cost of the plan. And I'll take any amount of money I have to to fulfill the plan. So many people are trying to save money at the expense of the plan, but we value the plan and we'll spend whatever we have to spend to fulfill that plan. Amen. His plan is blessed. So just stay with the plan. I said just stay with the plan. When you value the plan of God, when you stay with the plan of God, there's something that belongs to you called the blessing. And no amount of laboring, extra hours and overtime can ever bring into your life the richness and the abundance of obedience to the plan. Because that's the place where the blessing flows unhindered. And you heard it on, I believe, Friday night when Brother Copeland was here. The correction and the direction is to keep us in the flow of the blessing. Well, where's the blessing with the plan, the plan that he prepared ahead of time. Amen. When a man, an unsaved man, works, works at a bank, works as an electrician, whatever his profession may be, that when he works, the only compensation he has coming to him is a paycheck. But when you're fulfilling the plan of God, there is a divine compensation that belongs to your life. Amen. Praise the Lord. When I think about God, my husband was raised in the Catholic Church. He even said that of his own admission, that he was a bad Catholic. He only went once a year, like to Easter and Christmas, and then lied on his income tax to say how much he donated. But he recognized his life was going the way of his parents and his grandparents, and that is alcoholism and mental illness. And he said he was as squirrely as a, you know, a three dollar bill, pretty squirrely. And he went to the priest one day and he said, I need help. And he said, well, you need to get involved in the men's bake sale. Well, you know, when that's all, you know, it's all you got to offer. And Ed said it was not just a bake sale. It was a rag sale with it so they were having a rag sale and a bake sale, like on a Saturday. And the priest told him. He said, we don't have anyone to man the Budweiser booth. And Ed said, that's what I'm trying to tell you. That's my problem. He's been manning those booths. And so the priest handed him some catechism information, and he put it in his pocket, and he said, you need to go through catechism again. And Ed walked out of that place. Hopeless feeling. And he walked out and went down to the bar to man the Budweiser booth down there. And he's sitting on the bar stool, and while he's sitting there, no hope, no direction, where's the path? Where is the path for my life? Because he recognized that the path that he was on would ruin him just like it had his previous generations. And while he's sitting there, a voice speaks to him and said, you're going to go all over the world and preach the gospel. And he told Joe, you heard him say, I don't know why. Every bartender's named Joe. And he said. I said, joe set everybody up with a beer. I'm going to be a priest. And he started handing out those catechism information to people in the bar. But Billy Frazier had been inviting into church for a year and a half, and that was on a Friday night. And on that next Sunday morning, he agreed to go with Billy Frazier to the Full Gospel Church. And he got born again. There was a little Filipino couple that stood up in the middle of that service and. And started moving with the Holy Ghost. And she spoke in tongues. And he interpreted it and said, today is the day of salvation. And he got born again. And the story of his life was rewritten. And he rewrote the story of the generations that had gone the way of mental illness and alcoholism. It was all rewritten. And he asked the pastor in that morning service, he says, I've done everything I could. I've lived my life for the devil. And he said, now I want to live it for God. What can I do for God? And he said, we don't have anyone to clean the restrooms, the toilets. And Ed said, I'm your man. And he signed up. And he thought nothing was beneath him. Listen, as David said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. There is nothing that God has any attachment to that is beneath us.
