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Faith And The Seven Companions, 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, to First Thessalonians, chapter three. Praise the Lord. First Thessalonians, chapter 3. And Paul is writing. And this is verse 10 that I'm going to start with. First Thessalonians, Chapter 3. And verse 10, it reads, Night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. So you see, they have faith, but he's letting them know there's something lacking in their faith. So if faith is lacking something, our life will be lacking something. Imperfect faith gets imperfect results. And God intends that our faith receives every time, every time. And we need the help sometimes of a man of God showing up and him seeing our face, because many times when you get in proximity, God will speak something specifically to a minister that's just for your life. And so thank God for this era and this time that we live in, that we have the Internet and all of these social media things. They're a blessing to us to get the word out on. But for those who can get out, those who. And especially for people confined at home, but for those who can get out, I tell you, those things will never take the place of the man of God seeing your face. And Paul said, I want to see your face. I'm praying that I might see your face. Why? Because something's going to come into you when you get around the man of God. We conduct business with God on the basis of faith. And if our faith is lacking something, our business, the business we conduct with God may be lacking something. That's why Jude told us, earnestly contend for the faith. How many of you know this is not a passive approach that we take toward faith. These are aggressive words. Earnestly contend for the faith. And if we're to earnestly contend for the faith, we have to realize that the Word lets us know that faith doesn't live alone. Faith has companions, and faith has. Has something it runs around with, if we could put it that way. Faith doesn't run around with worry. Faith doesn't run around with fear, offense, bitterness, unforgiveness. But we do have a divine list of what faith runs around with, and we need to make sure that we find out what faith runs around with and put those things in place. We're not to just be skillful with our faith, but we need to be skillful with the companions of faith, because that's going to enhance, and it's going to support our faith. So if you will turn with me to two Peter in chapter one, and we're going to see the Divine list, a divine checklist given us of the companions of faith. Second Peter, Chapter one. And I'm going to start reading in the second verse, and we'll just give a nod to those verses as we're heading to the verse that we're looking to arrive at. Second Peter 1, 2. It reads, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So as our knowledge of God grows, our grace and peace levels grow. Verse 3. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. And I so appreciate this word exceeding, because every opposition that we're going to face with, we have something that exceeds that opposition. These divine promises, these great and precious promises will exceed any need that's going to crop up in your life. And it goes on and says that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. See, the divine nature of God is in you. We're to partake of that nature. That nature is to dominate us. That nature is to get full expression through our lives, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now look at verse five. And beside this, giving all diligence. Notice this. We're going to have to apply something of ourselves to this. We won't just float into this. We get there on purpose, giving all diligence. Add to your faith. See, faith needs something added to it. What does it say to add to it? Virtue. And to virtue Knowledge. And to knowledge? Temperance. And to temperance? Patience. And to patience? Godliness. And to godliness? Brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, Charity. For if these things. What things? Faith. And these seven companions. If these things be in you and abound, that means that you're making progress in these. It doesn't mean you're perfect in everything of these, but you're making progress. These things are developing and growing in your life. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that means that we're going to produce fruit in line with what's in us. Verse 9. But he that lacks these things, Faith. Along with the seven companions. If he lacks these things, he's blind. And cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. So you can't live accurately when you're blind. You're bumping into the wrong things. You're going wrong directions. These things will hold us true to our course. They'll help hold us true. Verse 10. Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things. What things? Faith and the seven companions. If you do these things, you shall never fall. Victory. Right there. Amen. These things have to be added to faith. Why? Because faith is not a substitute for these things. These things are additives that enhance our faith and cause our faith to work and not be lacking of anything. So I was telling the class at chapel this week, I'm not fluent in the kitchen. If you ever watch me in a kitchen, I'm not graceful there. I mean, I just. I just have to really labor to make something good come out of there. But at least I'm sober about it. I don't try to poke bad stuff down my family, you know, and if I go to makin, I go to make a cake. And you know, they have all kinds of different recipes with cake today. With what? The gluten free and stuff. I'm not talking about the imitation cake. I'm talking about the real stuff we grew up on, right? Yeah. And you have in a space, standard cake recipe, you have the flour. Flour's the main ingredient. If you don't have that in that standard recipe, they tell you add eggs, they tell you add oil, you can add flavorings, you can add other stuff. And you say, I ran out of eggs, I don't have any eggs. But I tell you what, I do have a lot of flour. So I'll just double up on the flour. I'll throw a bunch of flour in there to make up for not having eggs. Because it does call for flour, so. So more is better. So let's throw extra flour in there. How many of you know it's not gonna turn out right? Why? Because you can't eat when you got multiples of flour loads that are supposed to be eggs in there. Right. It doesn't turn out right. Likewise, when the situations of life call for one of these seven companions, you just can't throw faith at it because you don't have one of these seven companions in your life. You can't just double up on faith, double up on your confession. Because faith is not meant to substitute for these wonderful things that are a support and A help to the faith life. And so I see it this way. I see it because in looking at this wonderful force of faith, I see faith as a pipeline. That faith is a conduit, that the power of God, the grace of God, flows through the pipeline of faith. And if a pipeline of faith isn't in place, then God's power has no way of reaching someone's need. That's why faith is so important, because that's what gives God access to the needs of our life. And so faith is a pipeline. It's not faith that heals you, it's God's power that heals you. But that power flows through the pipeline of faith to reach your need. Faith is the open door. Faith is the pipeline. But we could also say it this way. Faith is a bridge that with a bridge you have. A bridge connects one piece of land to another piece of land. And without that bridge, there's no passing over. Faith is what connects God's ability to your need. And faith is that bridge. And so in having a bridge, it's not just suspicion in midair. It's got supports under it, and it's structured in such a way and engineered in such a way that that bridge is not to collapse, that when you get on that bridge that supports, you're safe. And that if that bridge is lacking supports, you're going to be unsafe getting on that bridge. Some people try to exercise a faith that is not supported as it ought to be, and then they wonder why things aren't working right. A bridge that's unsupported is unsafe. You're not assured that you'll reach the other side when you're going across a bridge that isn't properly supported. And we want to know that our faith will work every time, every time, every time. So God tells us there's things to add to this bridge of faith. And to me, the way it helps me to understand it is that these are supports to the bridge of faith. Why? Because the more supports under your bridge and the stronger the supports, the wider the bridge can be, the greater that the wider that faith bridge can be, the more supports there are, the more fortified that bridge is, the broader that bridge can be. And the broader the bridge, the broader the pipeline of faith, the more can flow across that. Amen. Hallelujah. So we see here, and I love something Pastor Terry said to me on the phone. We were talking about this message, and she said, would I be right? Absolutely. She's right in saying this, that faith cannot support or faith cannot substitute Rather, for any of these seven companions of faith. But she said, could we not also say that these seven companions of faith cannot develop without faith? Absolutely. Absolutely. These things we develop in our life by faith. Why, we live by faith, we walk by faith. We apply our faith in the development of these things in our life. Right. So I want to look again at verse five of two Peter, chapter one. And we're going to see again what he says. Giving all diligence and to your faith. Virtue. To virtue. Knowledge. To knowledge. Temperance. And to temperance. Patience. To patience. Godliness. And to godliness. Brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, Charity. So we're going to look at the first support or the first ingredient that's got to be added into our faith life. And this first one, it says virtue. Now, when you look through Scriptures in the Word and you find the word virtue in other places, it's translated power. But in this verse, the word virtue is translated moral excellence. So add to your faith the first thing that Peter lists. In this list of divine additives, you're going to add this flow of moral excellence. Because you have to understand God is a moral God. Amen. And the world mocks morality. The world makes fun of morality. But you mock morality, and you're gonna suffer in this life. And if you mock morality, you'll suffer in the next life because God is a moral God. Amen. And just because government may legislate some things as being acceptable legislatively, if God doesn't call it moral, I don't care who else calls it moral. Amen. Amen. That's it. You can legislate sin all you want, but it's still sin. So we go to the Word to find our standard of moral excellence. We don't go to society and we don't go to legislation to find our standard. The Word is our standard.
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Amen.
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Amen. So we know this. We call Jesus is Lord. Amen. He's Lord. But since he's Lord, he's going to want to have something to say about your life. If he's the Lord of our life, and he is, he's going to want to have something to say about how we live that life, where we go, what we say, what we allow in our thought lives, what we do, who we companion with, who we fellowship with, it's going to matter to him, since he's our Lord. Amen. So many times people say, jesus, I give you my heart. Well, that's good. But he wants your life, too. He wants your daily life. He wants every. All of you is his. Amen. And I'll just read to you for time's sake. Hebrews chapter one and verse nine. You may want to note it. Hebrews, chapter one and verse nine. It said about Jesus. Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness. What's that mean? Jesus wasn't sad as he was walking around every day. No matter how many religious leaders were persecuting him, no matter how much opposition from the demonic kingdom, he was still glad. He wasn't sad. He wasn't burdened down in this great life he was living. Amen. This great example life he left us. It said he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his brethren. He was more joyful than any man you ever saw. Let's be like him. Amen. Amen. So it says, Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness because he loved righteousness. And he hated iniquity. He didn't hate anyone, but he hated the wrong flows that bound people, that made them prisoner and that held them captive, and he came to make them free. Don't ever willingly participate in anything that's going to hold you captive. Habits, addictions. Because Jesus made you free. And sometimes people really struggle. They say, well, I like doing. I like this flow. Can I tell you how to get free from anything? Decide to hate. Said he hated iniquity. You can't be okay with it. You'll have everything you're okay with. So if you decide to take his mindset, I hate that flow because it's not of God and you choose to hate it. And I tell you, you can say that by faith, even when your flesh likes that flow. By faith you can say, I choose to hate anything that binds me, that holds me captive, that demeans me, that pushes me down. By faith, you can choose to break habits not just by willpower, but by faith. Amen. The grace of God is in us and with us and available to us. And it breaks off things in our life when we apply our faith to that grace. And listen, grace is God's part, but faith is our part. And it's by faith that we receive the grace to walk this life of moral excellence. Amen. We're empowered. We are empowered. This isn't just by a good discipline system. This isn't just by having, you know, strong willpower. We have divine help to enable us to live where the nature of God and the life of God, it's in us and it dominates us. And we allow it to take the lead that we are new Creatures in Christ. And every day we're to stand up and say, I put on the new man. I put on the new man. I put on the new man. And if we don't put on the new man, we'll end up wearing the old man. But we don't have to, because by grace and his power, he's made it possible that we can live the life of moral excellence that will enhance our faith and support our faith. Amen. Hallelujah. So it said, Jesus loved righteousness, but he hated iniquity. So I would say this. If you love living clean and being clean, joy will be your flow. But if you hang out and you hang out and stay around and mess with and what's not clean, you'll become depressed and oppressed. You say, well, that's not a good confession. It's not a confession, it's a warning. Amen. Because those things that are not clean, that's the devil's territory. And when we're on the devil's territory, he has a right to attack us. So we have to stay off his territory. And staying off his territory means stay off certain things on the computer. Don't go just because no one else sees. I mean, this is where moral excellence comes in to help us in our daily life. Because what we are is what we really are when no one's looking. Amen. And I know this. I want God pleased. I want to please my Father. And he has graced me and empowered me to live the life that pleases him. And by faith, I take that. Amen. Hallelujah. The God nature is in us, and it's a nature of moral excellence and leads us into that. And we choose to live out of our spirits with our spirits taking the lead. And when our spirit is taking the lead, it always leads us into moral excellence. Always. Always. And if Christians are not living a morally excellent life, they're not being true to the real them. The real you doesn't want to do wrong. The real you doesn't want to participate and be bound by things. The new you, the God life in you, the new nature in you, it wants to have this life that pleases God. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Not only this, the Word tells us in Romans 8, mortify the deeds of the flesh through the spirit. The more you pray in the Holy Ghost, the more your spirit will rise up and be strengthened and fortified to take the lead. So that your flesh isn't taking the lead, praying in other tongues will help you with walk free from what Jesus Made you free from. Amen. Then we, no doubt we have the word pouring in. The word will flush out what's wrong. And I will say this to you, I learned years ago, quit trying to remove what's wrong. Just pour in what's right and let it flush it out. It's not about getting rid. I got to get rid of this. I got to get rid of this. I got to get rid of this. Because when your heart is. When your heart is sincere and you want to please God, the devil will point to all the things in your life that aren't right and try to get you occupied with what you've got to get rid of. You don't get rid of it by handling it. You don't get rid of it by handling it in your thought life and struggling with it in your own ability. You get rid of it by pouring in the water of the word that washes out. I was telling the students and the staff this example because I'm a dog lover. I like dogs and they like the more the better type thing. And so I. At one time we had five dogs. And I don't now I just have three. I'm down a little bit, but I had five. And I would go out and at night their food and water bowl was under the garage light. And so you would go out there and I'd fill up their water bowl and their food bowl. And there's all these moths hanging around that light at night. But when I would go out in the morning, all those moths that were down at the light are now in their water floating, dead. I love my dogs, but I'm not touching that. I'm not touching that. I'm not going to reach into their water and pick out a moth. What happens if you pick out a moth that's dead in the water? It crumbles and it becomes worse. It becomes multiplied. And you can't handle it anymore because it just disperses in all the water. That's what happens if you try to pick out what's wrong in your life. It gets worse at your handling because you're handling it in your thought life and you're handling. I gotta get free. No, you don't gotta get free. You are free. Pour in the free word. All right. And I just. I'm not picking out those things because like I said, one wing will go here, one wing will go there, one body part will go over here. Right? So what do I do? I just turn on the water hose and stand there and let the water wash it Out. I don't care what's been troubling you. I don't care what's been harassing you. And it doesn't matter how long. Just because it's something you might have struggled with a long time, it has no more right to stay just because it's been there a length of time. Pour in the water of the Word. The word works. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And just Note this. James 1:4, and this is the Phillips translation. It says, be men of integrity with no weak spots. What is this? This moral excellence includes honor. It includes integrity. And the Word tells us that when integrity is in place, there's no weak spots. What are weak spots? There are entrances and opportunities for the devil. When we walk in integrity, we close the door to the devil. He's got no access. When you're living in moral excellence, he cannot find a place of entrance. So every time you obey God, you're slamming doors to the devil. You're just walking around slamming the doors of your life to where the devil cannot get in. Amen. Hallelujah. So if we say that we're faithful people, and we love saying that we should but be loved. We should love saying that, but we also have to say, we're moral excellence people. Amen. The second thing to add to that moral excellence is knowledge. So we know this faith is not compatible with ignorance. God is not working through ignorance. Ignorance doesn't mean stupid. Ignorance means untaught. Amen. Or to not be a good student. Someone can be taught, and they're just not being a good student and still end up in ignorance. But faith isn't compatible with ignorance. It's only compatible with knowledge. And so the devil works through ignorance. He's counting on our ignorance to work his plan. So when we run out ignorance, we run out his opportunity, the devil's opportunity to work against our lives. God doesn't work through ignorance. He only works through knowledge. And so faith only works where the will of God is known. You have to know the will of God. The knowledge of the will of God is a support beam to your faith under that bridge of faith. It's an important support to this wonderful bridge of faith that we're constructing to make it even broader in our life. Amen. But to know this, to have knowledge, it goes Back to Romans 12, verse 2. Don't be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind. When you start talking about the knowledge of the Word, you also are talking about the renewing of the mind. Amen. And the more you renew your mind, the further you renew your mind, the sooner life will be.
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In Nancy Dufresne's classic book, the Greatness of God's Power, she teaches how God wants us to know his power that is in our direction. It belongs to us. We cannot live the life God authored for us without his power. Order this book now at dufresneministries.org God's.
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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 youg Measure of Faith.
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God offers you his thoughts. Take them. This life changing book by Nancy Dufresne. A sound, disciplined mind will instruct you on how to do that. It will lift you from the commonplace into the spirit supernatural. Order this book now@dufresneministries.org we trust you've enjoyed this message.
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Visit us at dufresneministries.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.