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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Faith And Joy, Part One | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus The Healer Broadcast
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Hi, I'm Grant Dufresne, and welcome to Dufresne Ministries podcast channel. We believe that as you listen to this message, your faith will be stirred and you will be encouraged in whatever you are believing God for today. Stay tuned at the end of this message to find out more information about our ministry.
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Turn with me this morning, if you would. Let's go to Romans chapter 15, Romans chapter 15, And the last several services. I've been ministering along the lines of faith, how important faith is. Faith is how we conduct business with God. Without faith, we cannot conduct business with heaven. Faith is the currency of heaven. Whenever you release your faith, then what you need is received. Just like if you go into a store, you release the money that you have in your hand and you're able to walk out with goods and services and products. It's the same thing with heaven. When you release your faith, you can lay hold of what you need for your life. So there are some things about faith that we have to be aware of so that our faith works properly. And we see here in Romans chapter 15 and verse 13, and it says, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So we see here that this word believing is really also faith, isn't it? Believing is faith in action. So believing in this passage we see is accompanied with something called joy and peace. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So we could say it this way. When you're in faith, there's evidence. And the evidence that you're in faith is you're full of joy and peace. So if you say I'm in faith but you're not joyful, then you're not in Bible faith. Because Bible faith has something that is joined to it called joy and peace. The greater the faith level, the greater the joy and peace level. You can have a small measure of faith, and you'll have a small measure of joy, a small measure of peace. And you can always measure your. Your faith level by measuring how much joy and peace you have. Amen. And I'm not talking about. I'm not talking about a mental peace. I'm talking about a peace in here. Because when you're going through difficulties and you're going through tests and opposition, you can be in faith in your spirit, faith is in your spirit, and you can be releasing faith. But the devil will try to bombard your mind, won't he? So I'm not talking about the peace of the mind. Just ignore that. Answer that with the word Answer those thoughts that bombard and trouble you with the word, but you can still have total peace in your spirit. No, this is the right thing to do. This is the right direction to go. So whenever you're in faith, there is peace and there is joy. Amen. When Christians aren't peace, it's a faith issue. People are trying to. If you would pray for me. I'm just harassed in my mind. I'm troubled in my mind. Well, I understand that because the devil will oppose you. But it's not about getting you in joy, it's getting you in faith. When you're in faith, joy and peace will flow because God will fill you with joy and peace when you. When you're believing. Amen. Now, how many of you know joy and peace are fruits of the spirit? They are in your spirit once you're born again. The fruits. There are nine fruits of the spirit, and they are fruits that are already resident in you. They came in you at the new birth. It's not about you getting joy and getting peace. It's about you feeding it, cultivating it, drawing on it and allowing it to flow. You can plant a garden, you can plant, say, a tomato plant. And you've got to cultivate that, though. You've got to take care of it and tend to it so it will grow and produce something. If people aren't enjoying peace, it's because they're not cultivating it. You have to tend to it and allow it to grow, yield to joy and peace instead of yielding to fear, to worry. Dad Hagin taught us the best definition for how do you know if you're worrying? Can you tell me if you're thinking about it? And people say, no, I'm not worried, I'm just concerned. That's what I said. If you're thinking about it, that's worry. If you are in worry, you are not in faith. Or let's say this, you're letting something else flow rather than your faith. So the temptation to worry comes to all of us. Worry is nothing but a symptom of fear. If you weren't afraid that something wasn't going to turn out right, you wouldn't be worried about it. Worry is a response to fear. It's a wrong response, but it is a response to fear. So when people are worried, they're afraid the money's not going to be there, they're afraid their body's going to get worse, they're afraid they're going to lose their home, they're afraid they're going to lose their business. They're afraid of flying, they're afraid of driving on freeways, all different kinds of things. The medical field puts all these names on it, but the root of is just basic old demonic fear. And the good thing is you have total authority over it. So take your faith and talk to that. Feelings of fear will come, thoughts of fear will come. And just because, see, now we have such a, I guess, expressing about medically. Well, there's anxiety and there's panic attacks. It's nothing but fear. All of that is nothing but fear. And there's different medical names put to it. And I'm not saying they're wrong. I'm just saying the root of it's fear. And as Christians, you never have to yield to it again for the rest of your life. But you have to take charge of it. You have to by faith, talk to that thing and listen. Whenever symptoms or feelings of fear come, the body will pick up the feeling of that. You're not a body. Don't worry what your body's picking up. You are a spirit that lives in a body. So the heart may speed up, the adrenaline may start rushing, the hands may start shaking. In the midst of all of those feelings of fear, talk to it, say fear. You take your hands off me, you leave this place in Jesus name. You leave me in Jesus name and then you start worshiping God. Don't sit and deal with that fear again and just deal with it and then walk off rejoicing. Well, my hands are still shaking or my heart still. My heart's still beating. So what? So what? Haven't you ever been driving down the road in the car and somebody slammed on the brakes in front of you and you slammed on the brakes and you didn't even hit them. But for about five or ten minutes after that, there was no accident, there was no hitting. But it takes a while for the body to settle back down after it's had an encounter like that. It's the same thing. It takes a while for the body maybe to settle back down. Don't worry about it. Don't be occupied with it, be concerned about it. Just release your faith and start rejoicing and everything else will calm back down. Amen. Praise the Lord. Why? Because when you're in faith, joy and peace will start flowing. Amen. So aren't you glad to know that you can measure your faith by measuring how, how much you're rejoicing, how much peace? And if you say, I don't seem like I'm struggling so it seems like my faith isn't working. If you'll start rejoicing, it'll get your faith going. Because joy is an expression of faith and it will help you get into faith. Amen. When you wake up in the middle of the night and something's trying to sit heavy on your head and cause you to be worried, you're authorized right then to start rejoicing. What that will do, that will call up the faith that's on the inside of you. Amen. God will fill you with all joy and peace in believing, not in worry, not in fear. If you yield to worry, you yield to fear. Then you've also let go of the joy and peace you could have experienced. Amen. So we have to, in developing our faith, in feeding our faith, in releasing our faith, we cannot overlook this wonderful force called joy. Because faith is not flowing unless joy is flowing. And if we say I'm a person of faith, then you also have to couple with that I'm a person of joy. Because you can't say I'm a person of faith and have the sad looking countenance. Amen. There needs to be a lightness about your countenance. There needs to be an expression of I'm not under it, I'm on top. Well, I feel under it. Doesn't matter what you feel like. You go by the faith that's in you. Your faith is for when you don't feel what you want to feel. Amen. If you will start rejoicing, even your feelings and your emotions will change. If you'll rejoice when you feel like crying, if you'll rejoice when you feel like worrying, if you'll rejoice when you feel like erring to others, sharing with others what you're going through, looking for sympathy will always weaken your faith walk. The word talks about comfort, the word talks about encouragement. The word does not talk about sympathy. Because sympathy will not ever cause you to stand up on the inside and get back up on your faith. Amen. Praise the Lord. Now let's talk about being skillful with faith. We also have to be skillful with joy and peace. My husband went home to be with the Lord in 2013. As you know, rather suddenly, the Holy Ghost prepared me for that. And the way he prepared me is he said, two years before the event, all I want you doing is practicing peace. Notice the phrase practicing peace. I knew what that meant. That meant kicking out every thought that did not lead to peace. If a thought was troubling, I would not let it turn over in my thought life. It says in First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. If Christ wouldn't think it, don't you think it, bring it in obedience to the Word? If Jesus didn't give it to you, give you that thought, you got no business having it if it's troubling you. Jesus is never going to give you a thought that troubles you. Now he will warn you and show you things to come, but when he does, it doesn't trouble you. So God said to me, the Holy Spirit said to me, all I want you doing is practicing peace. So the day my husband went home to be with the Lord, that's what I knew I cannot do. Don't get out of peace. And I practiced for two years, getting there and staying there every day. Now notice. That's why the family did not lose momentum, the ministry did not lose momentum. That's why you as a congregation, we all kept rising. That's why we didn't lose our faith. That's why we didn't lay down our faith. Faith is for the difficulties that show up as well as for everyday life. And it's because I had practiced and I had taught you for four years before that. I taught on the mind. Why did I do that? Because that's what God was teaching us, to practice peace. When you practice peace, you're practicing staying in faith. When you practice joy, you're practicing staying in faith because joy and peace are measurements of your faith life. Amen. So it's important that we understand, to practice faith, these other things must be practiced. And you'll never become skillful without practice. A sports person never becomes skillful without practice. A musician never becomes skillful without practice. A carpenter never becomes skillful. No one ever gets good at their profession until they practice it. Amen. Spiritually, you'll never be good at faith without practicing faith and the things connected to faith. So we want to focus in this message on joy, because we I've referred, of course, to peace. Don't let anything steal your peace. Fear and worry comes to steal your peace. Keep it off of your peace. You don't lose your peace. It's still in you. But you've got to yield to that peace instead of yielding to the wrong flow. Listen, the wrong flow is all around us in this world. The right flow is in us. Too many times people are waiting to feel the right Flow around them. It's the wrong flow around them. I mean, in the spirit of this world. It's a flow. It's a flow of torment, It's a flow of worry. It's a flow of fear. So don't look to the outside to draw your strength. It's from inside. Amen. So it doesn't matter what you fill out here. Draw on what's inside. How do you draw on it? By what you yield to, what you respond to. Amen. And recognizing that all the wealth that is in you, in the nine fruits of the Spirit that are in you as well as the Holy Ghost, the Word Amen. In this last days, there's going to be a last day revival. And we're in the early stages of it. I said we're in the early stages of it. My husband said some things as well as other ministers by the Spirit. They said some things about the last day revival. One of the things that my husband said as well as others, that the last day revival will be all the previous revivals wrapped up in one. Think about it. All the revivals of church history all wrapped up into one. Then he also said all the nine gifts of the Spirit, that they will be operating at 100% potential power. He said all the fivefold gift ministries, the apostle, the prophet, the pastor, the teacher, the evangelist, all five fold. All of those will be operating at their full potential power. Now that's what we're headed toward. That's what we're headed toward, having all of those things operating at full potential power. That means we're going to have miracles to a degree we've never had before. We're going to have healings to the degree we've never had before. There's going to be revelation of the Word like we've never had before. There's going to be activity of angels like we've never seen before. But also there's going to be opposition to the level we've never seen before because of what is going to flow. Amen. But that's nothing to be frightened of. Why? Because he's telling us ahead of time. Accompanying your faith is joy and peace. And to be untroubled by the opposition, you stay in peace. How do you stay in peace? Joy. Amen. So we have to realize joy is not simply a good attitude. It's not simply having a happy moment. Joy is a force. Joy is a weapon that when fear comes. No, you don't. No, you don't. You're not stealing my joy from me. You're not stealing my peace from me. You use it as a weapon. If you will create around you and for the flow of your life, if you will yield to a lifestyle of rejoicing, a lifestyle, joy, then no matter what comes, it can't get near you. It'll come, but it can't get, it cannot get anywhere in you. When you are operating in joy, no test can enter in. Now, tests will come, but tests can't get in you. You can have someone come knock on your door, and it doesn't matter how long they knock. If you don't want them in, you don't have to open the door. It doesn't matter how long a week, a month, six months, a year, that the devil knocks on your head, bangs on you, it does not matter how long he does. You do not have to open the door to him. You can't stop him from coming, but you can stop him from getting in. How do you stop him from getting in? Don't let him in your thought life. Let him in your conversation. Amen. So what are you going to do? You're going to rejoice instead. That will hold you in faith. Joy and peace will help you walk firmly in your faith life. Amen. Now, because there's going to be opposition against the church like we've never seen in the last days. We're going to have to be skillful in our faith, but skillful with joy, skillful with peace. And I'm not just referring to services where people are rejoicing. I'm not just referring to rejoicing during a part of the service. I'm talking about what do you decide will be the flow of your life once you leave this building, if you don't live it once you walk out the doors, you haven't gone very far yet. It's not enough to attend church and walk out and do the exact same thing you did before you came in. It's not enough to attend church, still go out, talk the same way, believe the same way, behave the same way. Amen. It's got to govern your lifestyle. So I'm talking about becoming skillful with the flow of joy. In a way, it governs your lifestyle every day, every day, every day. Joyful every day, you say? Well, Pastor Nancy, that doesn't make sense. A person can't be joyful every day. Well, I've seen people depressed every day. I've seen people in strife every day. I've seen people in unforgiveness every day. I've seen them in fear Every day. I've seen them bitter every day. Amen. So don't tell me that you can't be something every day because you are something every day. And God authorizes you to choose. Choose flow. So I'm talking about if you're going to be a faith person, you're going to have to choose the joy flow because you can't choose the worry flow, the offense flow, the fear flow, the unforgiveness flow, and say, I'm going to be in faith. Can't do it. Because faith is very particular in who it runs around with. Faith doesn't hang out offense. Faith doesn't hang out with unforgiveness. Faith doesn't hang out with fear. Faith hangs out with joy and peace and all the other fruits of the spirit. Amen. Hallelujah. If we say we're faith people, then we have to say we're joy people. You don't want. How many of you know you don't enjoy being around somebody, that every time you see them, you don't. You don't know what version of them you're getting because they're moody, mad today, glad tomorrow. People do not enjoy being around someone inconsistent. The word says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. You always know what version you're getting. Faith will make you consistent. Circumstances around you are not consistent, but faith makes you consistent. So I'm talking about consistent joy. But you don't understand. I have financial problems. Then you need it more than anybody. Amen. You don't understand. I have marital problems. Then you better make sure you're in joy and not tearing up your marriage. Amen. But you don't understand. I've got physical problems. Well, you for sure are hearing all kinds of reports. And you better make sure I'm talking about from the doctor or from your own body. And you better make sure you're hearing the joy report. Amen. Joy is not an emotion. It's a decision. It's choice. It is a force and a flow of faith life. Amen. So we have to become skillful with our faith. And one way we do that is we become skillful with joy. That means on purpose, we rejoice. There are expressions of joy. What are they? Just how about. How about a good old lighted up countenance instead of all sad, all moody, all grumpy, all grouchy. That should never be the countenance of anybody in a local church. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Other expressions of joy, Laughter. Well, you know, they just laugh at that church. That's ridiculous. Well, you can go to the hospital and cry. There's a lot of crying going on there. Not much laughing. Amen. Another expression of joy. I mean, you just do a jig. Mm, mm, mm. Why not? Cause you're trying to show out. But because it's hard to contain it. It's gotta come out through. Huh? I don't know about you. I have stood by my mother's pies, taking a bite, and go, oh, mmm, mmm. Do a little jig right there over the dish. What is that? Oh, I enjoy that. I enjoy my father. I enjoy my salvation. I enjoy my health. I enjoy the prosperity. Amen. How about just walking around singing? They just sing all the time. Well, others complain all the time. All of these are simply expressions of faith, expressions of joy. So you decide. And if you're a faith person, then people know what they're going to get when they get around you. You'll be the same all the time. No circumstances around you will never be the same all the time. But they're not governing you. You are independent of them. Amen. That means every time somebody sees you, you've always got the good word in your mouth. You've always got a happy countenance. You've always got a joyful countenance. Because it is a choice. Young people, learn this now so that you get a good spouse. Praise the Lord. If you'll learn this now, that means you won't be marrying someone sad and dejected and bring your life down. Keep your life around faith people. Keep your life around joy people. Keep your life around peace people. And if you want to be around that person, you're going to have to be that person. Amen. Because it's about being skillful in the flow of joy. Hallelujah.
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