← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Faith For Revelation Knowledge | Edwin Anderson | Holy Ghost Meetings 2020 | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
01:16:20
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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Hallelujah. We are blessed, aren't we? I. I know the times in which we live naturally are some troubled times, but in the spirit realm, the time in which we live is the best of all times so far because we haven't seen anything yet. Glory to God. Scripture we read yesterday, Jesus said, blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For many prophets and righteous men have desired to see what you see and to hear what you hear, and never saw it, never heard it, but we have it. Oh, glory to God. Thank God for the time in which we live in this age in the church. And when you consider all the church age, this is the best time. Glory to God. Oh, we're so privileged. Let's just lift our hands and thank him for privilege, for opportunity, for the grace to live and flourish in the church, to walk in the fullness, the fullness of the stature of everything Christ is. That's what he's calling us up into, and he's giving us the ability to walk in it. Glory to God. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Father. Praise the Lord. Well, shake hands with somebody and you can be seated. Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise God. I want you to turn again with me to Matthew, chapter 13. We didn't look a whole lot in this yesterday, but today we are. And like I said, I'm going to make some references to the parables and to the different soil, you know, and that sort of thing. Primarily just one. One of those four conditions. But I want to talk mainly about what Jesus said kind of in between these things. In Matthew, chapter 13, verse number 10, the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered and said to them, because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in him the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, hearing you will hear and shall not understand. And seeing, you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes. And hear with their ears lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you heard and did not hear it. Father, we thank you today for your word. We thank you Father for the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are spirit and they are life. And there's so much light, there's so much illumination in this word. Father, the entrance, your word into our heart gives light. And we expect that today. We expect to have understanding that we didn't come in here with today. We want more clarity, we want a better grasp of those things that we do have. And we thank you for that. We believe we receive that in Jesus name, Amen. He said the hearts of this people have grown dull. And then lest they should understand with their hearts. Faith. This is one of the most fundamental concepts and one of the most fundamental truths you'll ever understand about faith. And it's so simple, but it's so fundamental and so powerful. Faith is of the heart, it's of the spirit of man. And the reason that's so important is because it's so easy to get in the mental realm. And I've had people and you other ministers have experienced the same thing. I'm sure you have people standing up in front of you in a ministry line and you can see it all over them. They're doing their best to lay hold of it mentally. They're just trying so hard to believe mentally and missing the whole thing. Because faith is not of the mind, it's of the heart. Like I said yesterday, the renewing of the mind is an essential contributing component to that. But you don't believe God with the renewed mind, you believe with your spirit. And we renew our minds so that our minds don't battle us. And like I said yesterday, the battle, we don't fight the devil, but we fight the fight of faith. And that battle is in the mind, it's not in the heart. There's nothing wrong with our heart. If you're born again, your spirit was recreated in Christ Jesus and there's nothing wrong with your heart. You, you are a believer. That's what we do, that's what we were created to do. It is natural for us to believe. It is easy for the recreated human spirit to believe. It has to be informed, it has to be fed, but it's easy to Believe and. But the battle is in our mind, but it's for our heart. It's not. The battle's not in our heart, the battle's in our mind. But that battle is to protect our heart. And so when I'm talking about faith, faith comes by hearing, but it doesn't come by natural hearing. It comes by hearing down in here. Now, it has to come through your natural ears. I understand that, but ordinarily. But you have to hear it in here. You have to hear it with your spiritual ears. And they're located on the inside of you. They're not natural. And when you hear in your spirit, then you're informed and you'll receive more understanding. Now, yesterday when I talked about revelation knowledge, I want to talk about it more today, but I was just sort of laying some ground rules. When I talk about revelation knowledge, I'm not just talking about revelation about the Word, more understanding of, of the Scriptures per se. That's part of it. That's an important part of revelation knowledge, but revelation. And that's primarily what we're going to be looking at here because that's primarily what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about understanding the Word. But revelation knowledge goes beyond just understanding the Word. Revelation knowledge involves understanding God. Like Pastor Nancy, the scriptures you read last night from Philippians, chapter three, that I might know him. You know him by revelation knowledge. Revelation knowledge involves. It's about knowing the Scriptures, it's about knowing God. It's also about knowing the Holy Spirit, the things of the Spirit and the Spirit realm, because we are spirits and our walk is really supposed to be in the spirit. Revelation knowledge has to do with understanding the what is next, what now.
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Amen.
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Most of you have witnessed people who had crazy faith, which a lot of times is not faith at all. You've heard people say that they were believing for the most outrageous things that weren't scriptural, or you knew they were trying to lay hold of something that they weren't capable of laying hold of. They're believing for million dollars and they're not paying their rent. And as ministers, you know, I do everything I can. I'm sure all of you pastors do the same thing. You do everything you can to encourage people. You don't want to discourage people, but sometimes you want to just tell people, oh, stop it. You're not going to get that. You're not. But the reason I don't do that is because I don't always. Been surprised sometimes. And I think, wow, did I sit under your Ministry for a while. But a lot of times, you know, the things that are coming out of people's mouths, it's not coming out of their heart. And so they have crazy faith. And a lot of times it brings a reproach on the truth. Not to people who know the truth, but to people who don't know the truth. It gives them more fodder for their, you know, criticism. But we want to have wise faith. And so often in our faith life it requires more wisdom in order to, to, to go the distance and receive the full blessing, the full manifestation of what we're believing God for. We need some more wisdom beyond what we had when we first started in this faith venture, whatever it might be. I pointed out that when Brother Hagin was on the bed of affliction as a 16 year old, you know, he had three organic incurable heart diseases, blood diseases, rather. He had a deformed heart. All of his lungs, his chest cavity was deformed. He was paralyzed. He was a mess. And he would read Mark 11:24 and he would try to believe and he would think, I've got it this time, I've believed. I'm just sure I'm healed now. But then he would start feeling of his heart and looking at his legs and he. And he'd get discouraged and he'd give up and he couldn't understand what, where he was missing it. And so he cried out to the Lord, he said, lord Jesus, he said, if you were, if you were to manifest in the flesh, and I could see you with my natural eyes, and you took me by the hand and said, your problem, son, is you don't believe. He said, dear Lord Jesus, I would have to say you're lying about it. I do believe. And Jesus said, yes, you believe all right, as far as you know. And then of course, this was the Holy Spirit representing Jesus. The Holy Spirit was speaking. And he said, but the next, he said, the last part of that verse goes with the first part. And then the Holy Spirit spoke those words. He said, and you shall have them. And when he spoke that, he gave further revelation to Brother Hagin. And he saw it. We have to go from where we are. Very often where we start in faith. We have to go to another level of understanding to complete what God's called us to lay hold of. So in this passage, we pointed out the fact that anybody could have been in this crowd. This wasn't. Jesus wasn't saying that only you 12 are privileged to understand the mysteries of the kingdom, the hidden secrets like the margin of my Bible says, that just refers to revelation. And it can be revelation about the Scripture or it can be just revelation about the person of God or the move of the Spirit or, or how to walk this life out, how to live by faith. But he said, he didn't say, it's just been reserved for you. 12. It was to that company that was assembled with them, those who were assembled around the disciples, they asked jesus wasn't just the 12, there were more disciples than the 12. And all of them asked Jesus, what do you mean by this parable? Give us more information. And he said, well, since you want to know, it's been given to you, but to the others who don't care enough, it's not been given. You know, Paul made the statement one time in one of the cities where he was ministering. He said, since you have judged yourselves talking to the Jews, since you have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, then I'm turning to the Gentiles, it wasn't God who judged them unworthy, they judged themselves unworthy. And we have people sitting in our congregation sometimes who judge themselves unworthy of going further with God because they think they've heard it all. Well, the pastor's preaching another faith series. Oh, I've heard this before. Can't you preach on something else? Well, without faith, nothing else you preach on is going to do them any good. Let's go on here. He said, because it's been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Now here's where it really gets interesting. For whoever has, has what? Revelation. Understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom. For whoever has to him more will be given. And he who does not have. Now it goes on to say, he will have an abundance, but he who does not have even what he has or will be taken away from him. The more revelation. I often don't even like to use the word revelation knowledge, because people misunderstand. The more enlightenment you have from the Spirit of God, the more you have, the more you will have. And he goes on to say, when? Well, let's read it. He says, but he who does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. Now how do you take something away from somebody that they don't have? He says, even what they have, he says, if they don't have it, then what they have will be taken away from them. Luke's Gospel, you don't have to turn over there. But in the eighth chapter of Luke we have the same parable. And Jesus Luke recorded it this way. He said, he who does not have even what he seems to have. And the margin of my Bible says even what he thinks he has. Why would somebody. Now, some people seem to have. They talk a good talk. Oh, Pastor, I just know that I'm healed and I'm going to be fine, Pastor, don't worry about me. I'm going to be fine. Next week they're dead. I mean, I've had people that I could not minister to because every time I would try to encourage. Oh, Pastor, I know that. I got that, brother. Don't be concerned about me. I know I'm healed, Pastor, I'm going. They're on stage four cancer. I'm going to be fine, Pastor. I've learned that when people say, I'm going to be fine, Pastor, you might as well be picking out the stone because I'm not going to be fine. I am fine. But see, they've managed to parrot certain sayings and they seem to have. And then that other. The margin says even he who thinks that he. What he. What he thinks he has will be taken. Why would somebody think they have it? A lot of times it's because they once had it. You once had faith and you think you still have faith, but faith has slipped out. It's drained out. And he said, and it drained out because you stopped hearing. He who heard, hears. More will be given. He who doesn't hear, he who once heard notice. He said, their hearts have grown dull. They didn't start out dull. The hearts of these people have grown dull. You know, I like to look at definitions. It just helps me sometimes. The word dull means slow in perception or sensibility, lacking zest or vivacity, listless, slow in action, sluggish. He said, the hearts of this. Of this people has grown. The hearts, they've grown sluggish. They've become inactive, slow to act. But they don't know that they've stopped hearing. And Jesus said that they have. That they think they have will be taken away from them. Well, who takes it? God doesn't take it. The thief. The enemy comes. The devil comes. We have it right here in this parable when the. Anytime, if the word's being taken from somebody, God's not taking it, the devil's taking it. The enemy will come and take that seed. Take that word out of you, and you can be confessing it. He can be taking it from you while you're confessing it. If it's not in here, if it's not down in here. An empty confession is an awkward. It's a hollow sounding thing. And if you're discerning, you can be around people and you can hear them make confessions of faith. You say, that's hollow. There's not life in that. Now. Just want to see where I started at. I always forget to look when I start. You got to help me with that, sweetheart. He who is not receiving more spiritual understanding is losing what he did have. He who is not hearing more is losing what he did have. Now he goes on to say, their ears. After he said, the hearts of this people have grown dull. He said, their ears are hard of hearing. That's it. Sounds like an old expression. We used to talk about people who were hard of hearing. And usually they were old people, but now I be an old people. But it seems like when we were younger, we referred to people who were hard of hearing and the older people were hard of hearing. And they'd say, hey, hey, what'd you say? People who are hard of hearing are not completely deaf. They hear some things. Do you still have that train horn that your dad had? How many of you heard that horn? Now, if you can't hear that train horn when it goes off, you are stone cold deaf. There are a lot of people who can hear the train horn, but they can't hear the sparrows. And spiritually, I don't want to live in that condition. Or I only hear when God's hollering at me. Pastor Debbie talked about being in the pool with the girls, and the cows got out and Pastor Johnny's out in the field and he's hollering at them to come help him. And they're just playing in the pool. They didn't know. Finally he comes around the bend, hey, the cows are out. I need some help. If they had heard him earlier, the cows wouldn't have been as far out and it had been easier to get them back into the corral. If you don't have ears to hear, you'll hear God sometimes in his mercy, he'll shout, you won't get hit by the train, but you might got. You might get hit by the car. Because he's not always going to yell at us. He said, their ears are hard of hearing because they close them and their eyes they have closed. They're not blind. They're not blind. They're capable of seeing. We're all spirit beings and we're capable of seeing and we're capable of hearing in our hearts. But our hearts can become calloused, and our hearts can grow dull by not being attentive to hear. It's hearing. Hearing is an ability that has to be nurtured. It has to be practiced. It has to be engaged or it'll slack. That's right.
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That's good.
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Amen. He who has more will be given. He who does not have, who's not hearing, even what he thinks he had, what he used to have, what he's preaching, what he's still preaching, he's not walking in. Amen. But he said this in verse 12, he said, but blessed. Was it verse 12, 16. Yeah, but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. What I wanted to see in. In the other verse, verse 12, it says, whoever has to him more will be given, and he will have an abundance in. In these last days. We need that abundance. We need the abundance of understanding of the Scriptures, of the. Of the move of the Spirit, the ways of the Spirit. Knowledge, like Pastor Nancy was exhorting us so powerful last night, not intimate knowledge of God. You know her, her housekeeper didn't know the principles. She was not mentally capable. She could not have told you how she was believing. But because she had an intimate relationship with God, she knew God, she was actually acting on the principles. When she raised her mother up off that, out from the dead. She raised her mother from the dead. That's how many of you here has done. That. Little toothless woman that most people would dismiss is walking in some real tall cotton, and she was acting on principles that she had no idea she was acting on. She was acting out of here because of a knowledge that she had gained by just fellowshipping with God. Now, you don't do that apart from the Scriptures. I'm not saying that. But God has a way to reach all of us, and he's not withholding revelation knowledge from us. He said, those who heard more will be given to them, and they will have abundance. That's what I want. And like I said, in the time in which we live, we need this abundance. Now, In Matthew, chapter four, this is Mark 16 or 13. Mark chapter four is the same parable. Mark is just telling the story. And in the fourth chapter, let's look at verse number 21 again. These are the remarks Jesus made while he was teaching the parable, and it all goes together. Verse 21, he said to them, is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear well. I wish I had ears to. Well, you can have ears to hear if you'll just open them. Then he said to them, take heed what you hear with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you, and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has to him more will be given. But whoever does not have, like Luke's account says, even what he seems to have or thinks that he has will be taken from him. Now, the topic under discussion in this entire parable, if you go back, hold your place here and turn back to Matthew real quick to 13, Matthew 13, and we're going to come right back to mark. But Matthew 13, look in verse number 13. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. The topic is understanding. The 14th verse, hearing you will hear and shall not understand. 15th verse. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, and I should heal them. So we have. And then verse 19. Verse 19 is very important. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, doesn't have Revelation knowledge. The wicked one comes and snatches this away. And then go down to the 23rd verse. Whoever receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it. So this, this entire parable has to do with understanding in your heart. This is what he's talking about. So go back to Mark, chapter four. And he says in verse, well, verse 21, we'll go read it and we'll go on down to verse 22. But verse 21 he says, is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed, is it not to be set on a lamp stand? God is not bringing forth revelation for nobody. He's bringing forth Revelation for the Church, for us. Like I said, we live in, spiritually speaking, we live in probably the most enlightened era of the Church that's ever existed. A lot of times I'm convinced this is just my opinion. You might differ. But I think a lot of times we look at the first century and we look at. Well, now we know the disciples didn't understand a lot of things. And they were with the Master. There was a lot of things they didn't know. And Jesus said, there are things I can't even share with you. Now you're not able to receive it because they weren't born again. And the Spirit had to come and enlighten them. But I think a lot of times we read the Book of Acts, we read the Epistles, and we think that the early church, I don't like that term either, but the first century church, we have the idea that they were fully enlightened on everything because they had these epistles. But, you know, they had to get it the same way we do. So I'm not convinced that they were the most enlightened. Certainly the Apostle Paul had understanding, but I'm talking about the rank and file church member. They had the Scriptures just like we do. And they had to get it by revelation just like we do. I believe we're living in a time right now in the church, in this particular part of the church age where we have the most illumination, the most light that I believe has ever existed in the church. And it makes sense because we're approaching the end of the age, that we'd have more. Not because God's been waiting until now, but because we're growing and maturing. He is, he has brought the church to a place, at least a portion of the church. I'm so glad. I'm so, I'm so thankful that when I got back into fellowship with the Lord, I was a, I was a, you know, I was a mess. And by the grace of God, God led me to a church and I had been there maybe a week or two and an old friend of mine who was a. We were both druggies and he was, he was an ex drug. The last time I'd seen him in high school, he was so burned out on drugs, all of the other druggies laughed at him behind his back. They said they called him zero. You know, the old Beetle Bailey character because he was so burned out. I started going back to church and he's into, he's in the church I'm going to and he gave me a Kenneth Hagin book. You know what a lot of people get. Gotten back into fellowship with the Lord and started going to some other kind of church and didn't get that. Oh, I'm so thankful that God put me in a place where I could, where I could get the enlightenment, begin to get the enlightenment that I'm still receiving more today. Well, God didn't, God hasn't brought this to the church to hide it. He's not hiding revelation from us. He has hidden it for us. I was telling our congregation and Morgan like this, I guess she, she mentioned it to me the other day. I was telling our congregation back A couple weeks ago when she was there and during Christmas. So when I was a young believer and I got back into fellowship, the Lord got filled with the Holy Spirit. And I'm reading everything Kenneth Hagin had in print. Everything he had in print, listening. There was another church in town. I wasn't going to this church, but I met this man, and he was a rhema grad. He was a 1976 Rhema grad. And it was the only Word of Faith church in town. And even though I was a committed member of this other church, I'd go over there and fellowship with this pastor. And he conveniently had services on other nights. And so I would go to my church, then I'd go to his church. And he had a tape lending library, cassette tape. And he had hundreds and hundreds of cassette tapes. Had all of Brother Hagin's tapes and all of Brother Copeland's tapes and all of Fred Price's tapes and all of Charles Capps's tapes and all of John Osteen's tapes and all of. All of Norville Hayes tapes. And we would borrow them, you know, and listen to them. I was listening to tapes everything I could, every free minute. And I struggled physically. And sometimes I would get so frustrated. God, why are you being so hard on me? I mean, I'm. I'm listening to these tapes and I'm. I'm. I wanted God to cut me some slack. So why don't you cut me some slack, you know? And it's like I've got to have. It's not even enough that I say it right. I have to have the right tone of voice. I mean, I've got the principles. I've got this guy in my immaturity. I thought I had it come on, sir. Because I'd read all of Brothers Hagen's Matrix tears. I'd listen Kenneth Copeland. I'd listen Brother Hagin have one message, you know, in his faith classics, you know, redeemed from the Curse. Kenneth copeland. Have a 95 tape series on that, on that one, on that one topic. And I'd listen to all of them. So I got this, God, I'm doing what you said. Why is it that you're so hard on me that I've just got to have everything just lined up perfectly? When I matured a little bit, I understood. Because God is not slack. I don't cut God any slack. And we expect God to be true to his word 100%. I mean, we expect God to be. We expect God to be awake in the middle of the night, we expected him to be on tap. Whatever we need, we don't cut God any slack. And he said, I'm not slack concerning my promises. Well, if I'm going to walk in that, I can't be slack either. He was trying to train me. He was trying to train me. And for this reason, for this reason, if I could get it right, if I could, because I just. I was immature. But he was training me and bringing me to a place where I could come to maturity finally and get these things done. Deeply rooted enough in my heart and hear enough. So I thought I'd heard enough. I hadn't heard nearly enough. I couldn't understand why Brother Hagin didn't understand anything. And in 15 minutes, he's on his feet. He had a deformed heart and lungs and paralyzed and blood diseases. And in 15 minutes after the Lord spoke to him, he's on his feet. I'm three years into this. I would get hit with asthma and I'd have asthma attacks, particularly in the spring, I guess, something about the pollen, you know, in Florida. And it would trigger asthma. It's a terrible thing to happen. I'd make my confessions. I believe I'm healed in the name of Jesus. And I remember one time, I was almost in tears, I told this, the same thing that given me this Brother Hagen book. We were driving someplace, I said, you know, I am a pitiful mess. I took one Primatene tablet and Primatene tablet back, there was a little tiny pill. I take one Primatene tablet and in 15 minutes I cough up, just one cough, just a little bit of phlegm, and I'm pretty fine. I said, there's more power in that little pill than in all of my faith that I've been feeding for three years. What's wrong with me? What God was wanting me to practice and perfect was to know how to believe so that I could do it every time. See, if God is variant, if he varies in how he responds to us, and one minute we can get by with this, and another minute he requires more and the next time. It's a guessing game all the time. But faith always works. If we'll get the principles in our heart and get sufficient understanding, that's that revelation I'm talking about. If we'll get sufficient revelation of it and understanding of it, then it'll work 100 out of 100 times. That's what he was trying to turn. And I just thought he was being hard on me. I thought, man, there's more there's more faith, there's more power in that little pill. It was discouraging. I haven't had asthma in years. And I don't mind telling you I'll live and die and I'll never have another asthma attack. I mean, it's been several decades, but I had to. I had to get it right. I know my wife thought I was a complete idiot because she didn't know what to think about all this stuff that I'd got into. And I'm saying all this stuff and it's not working. Praise the Lord. God didn't bring revelation of the Word in order to obscure it from us or obscure it or hide it from us. Then in verse 22, he says, for there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. Now, I don't know about you, maybe this is just unique. Maybe this is just unique to me. I'm the only one that thinks this way, but I think maybe there's other people. I always read that scripture and thought that it was talking about sin. There's nothing hidden which will not be revealed, Nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light. It's going to be blabbered on the rooftops. Come on now. How many sin consciousness will make you think that way? I always thought that happened had to do with sin. And you know, surely your sins will find you out. Well, there's some truth in that. Paul said some men's sins go before them to judgment, some trail behind. And so sin that's not repented of and forsaken. Yeah, it can come to light. There's nothing in the entire parable sequence here that if this. Of this teaching. There's nothing. He's not talking about sin. Sin wasn't on the. On the, on the agenda here at all. He's talking about understanding. He said there's nothing hidden. God's not hiding anything from us. I'm telling you, church, in these last days, there's nothing hidden except that will not be revealed. There's nothing hidden that will not be revealed. We're going to lay hold of it, friend. We're going to lay hold of all of it. Before Jesus comes back, we're going to lay hold of the full thing. There's nothing hidden which will not be revealed. And nothing's been kept secret except in order that it should come to light. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. There's nothing you need that will not be revealed or kept Secret. If you will have an understanding heart, if you'll keep your heart right. If I'll keep my heart right, There is nothing I need. Let me say it that way. There's nothing I need that will not be revealed. I'm not saying you or I, either one will know everything. But there's nothing we will need that we need to know or will ever need to know that God will hide from us. Why would he hide it? Now, here's. Here's the. Here's the kicker. Are you in Mark, chapter four? Am I in Mark, chapter four? Yes. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then he said, take heed what you hear. Take heed what you hear. Gonna have to hurry up here. Take heed what you hear. There are a lot of voices out there. Lot of things you can hear. The wuest translation says, keep a watchful eye on what you hear. We ought to be. We ought to be in these last days, we ought to be scrutinizing everything that we hear, keeping a watchful eye on everything we hear. Because he said, here's why. Because with the same measure you use, that is, in hearing the same measure you use in hearing, the same degree that you hear, to that same degree, it will be measured to you again. So the more truth you hear, the more truth you will hear. Amen. But the more deception you hear, the more deception you will hear. Have you ever noticed the more gossip you listen to, the more people will gossip to you. And the more you shut your ears to gossip, people will stop gossiping to you. Because of this principle right here. With the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And to you who hear more gossip, more will be given. See, this works either way. Be careful what you hear. The more offense you hear, the more offense will be measured to you. So that's why we have to watch what we hear. If we don't want to have more offense, we have to stop listening to offense if we want to. If we want to have truth, we need to stop listening to deception. And we have to judge what we hear so that we know to reject what we shouldn't hear. Because I don't want any more of that. I want to make sure I'm hearing what the spirit of God is saying out of this book. And the more that I hear. He already said it, Matthew. To him who has more will be given, and he will have abundance. I don't want. I don't want an abundance of wrong thinking. I don't. I can't. I can't. I can't afford an abundance. I can't afford any offense because it leads to an abundance. That's right. A little root of bitterness will spring up, and it'll be a tree of bitterness. For whoever has to him more will be given. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from you. I want to hear more and more and more what I need to hear. That's why the apostle Paul said, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever is of good report. If there's anything virtuous, anything praiseworthy, think on these things. Now let's quickly look at this. Go to Luke, chapter eight. Luke, chapter eight, so we can wrap this up. Hallelujah. Verse 16. No one when he has lit a lamp, aren't you grateful that God lit your lamp? Amen. No one when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand that those who enter may see the light. Isn't that what we're really after? It's not just about us. It's about letting people see the light. For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. Now, Mark's gospel said, take. Take heed what you hear. Luke said it this way. He said, therefore, take heed how you hear. Take heed how you hear. For whoever has to him more will be given. Whoever does not have even what he seems to have or thinks that he has will be taken from him. Take heed how you hear. Like I said, you pastors have probably heard this, and maybe some of you traveling ministers. Well, here he goes again, preaching another healing series, another faith series, Closing your eyes, closing your ears. I've already heard this. I already know all of this. We have to stay hungry for more understanding and revelation. And again, when I'm talking about revelation, I'm not talking about just revelation for the sake of revelation. You know, just to have something new to preach, having something deep, having something that you can write a book on because nobody else has said it before. It's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about having more understanding. And. And for most of us, it's. It's just more understanding of what we already understand a portion of. We have a measure of understanding. We need more. When Brother Hagin was on that deathbed, He said, lord Jesus, if you stood by me today and said, your problem is you don't have faith. I'd have to say you're lying about it. Lord Jesus and the Spirit said, yes, you believe as far as you know, but the rest of that goes with that verse and you shall have them. And when the Spirit said that to him, he imparted revelation knowledge. And he saw it. What he saw was a scriptural principle. He saw something from the Word. It had been there all the time, right in front of him. But then he saw it with his spiritual eyes. He said, I got it. I've got it now. I see it now. I understand that I have to believe that I'm healed. I have to believe I've received a healing from my incurable blood diseases and my heart and my paralysis. I have to believe I've received it even while I'm laying on this bed. And I will have it. That's sometime later. He said, but I have to believe I receive it now. He saw it now. That was a revelation from the Word. That was. That's what we would call a revelation in the Scriptures. Because that truth everybody has to have, that wasn't peculiar to Brother Hagin. Those words of Jesus apply to all of us. Any and every operation of faith you'll ever have outside the gift of faith, you're going to have to believe you receive it, and then you're going to have it later. So he received revelation from the World Word. So thank God for that. He said that, that he started to feel his heart because he had been so accustomed to doing that. And when he started to, he said he knocked his hand away. He said, no, I'm not doing that. I believe I've received. And he said, he, he, he lifted his hands. He said, I don't know why I did this, because I'd never seen anybody lift their hands before the church he went to. No one had ever lift his hand that lifted their hands that he knew of. But he was just unconscious of lead. He was laying in bed. He said, he lifted his hands and started, oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you for healing me. Thank you, God. Thank you, Father, for healing. I'm just so glad I'm healed and just begin to thank God. He said, for about 10 minutes. That's why I said 15 minutes earlier, because he had that conversation before. But he's laying there and he said for about 10 minutes he just thanked God. But then he got wisdom. He got another revelation. And that's where we miss it sometimes. We don't stay. We don't keep an open ear. That's what I was doing as a young Christian. I just knew I had it all. I mean, I'd listen to all the. Brother Copeland's tapes on faith, Brother Hagin's books. I'd read his books. I thought I had. I wasn't hearing more. There was wisdom I needed. There was more wisdom. Revelation, he said he thanked God for about 10 minutes. And then the Spirit said to him, well, you're healed now. Healed people ought to be out of bed this time of the day. That was revelation. It wasn't revelation of the Scriptures. It wasn't revelation about the Bible. It was revelation he needed for acting on what he had in his heart. He said, that's right. Ordinarily, I would be out of bed. So he. You remember the story? Pushed his legs off of the bed and they fell on the floor. And the only reason he knew they were on the floor is because he couldn't feel them. He could just see they were down there. Grabbed a hold of the bedpost and pulled himself off that bed. Well, praise the lord. Let's. Let me see what verse I want to look at. Yeah. Verse 18. Therefore, take heed how you hear. For whoever has to him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have, will be taken from. From him. Jesus talked about the four different kinds of soil, different kinds of people. And he said the first one was those who received the Word by the wayside, you know, have any understanding. The reason they didn't have any understanding is they didn't act on. On what they had. If they had acted on that, they'd have gotten more understanding, but they just. They let it go. But then the next type, he said, are those who receive the Word with gladness and with joy, but they have no root in themselves. And so they endure for a short period of time. So they had the Word, they received it, and they had some revelation of it, and that Word got into their heart.
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But.
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But one version, one of the of the three says that there was not enough earth. It was not because of the shallowness of the earth. And see, that's a heart problem. A lot of times people have gotten the Word into them, and that's kind of the condition I was in. Even though I was sincere, I thought I had it all. That word wasn't deeply rooted in me. That's why I would go, you know, in this. In this battle with asthma, I'd go a few hours, and then I'd turn in and just cash in my faith. Well, I guess it didn't work. I don't know why it didn't work. There was. I hadn't. The word hadn't taken a deep enough root in me. See, I always thought having not. When Jesus said they have no root in themselves, I always took that to mean there was something wrong with them. And I'm not saying this is wrong necessarily, but the way I saw it, I don't think that's the only way to see it. I thought that root was lack of perseverance. They have no root in themselves. They just don't have that stick to it, Ness, you know, to stay with it. And I'm sure that's not a completely wrong interpretation. But that root, when you think of a root, what do you think of. Of a plant that comes from a seed? When he said they have no. If he had been talking specifically maybe about perseverance, he would have probably used another term. He said, they have no root. He's talking about the seed, what the seed does. That word did not root deeply enough in me. And the reason it didn't root deeply enough in me was twofold. Number one, there was not enough soil. I didn't let it get down in my heart because of my blinded, blinded ear. Blinded eyes and deaf ears. I had closed my ears. Think I know this. God. So there was a heart problem in there. There was. There was not enough soil for it to get into. But also the word has to be watered. You're never going to put. A tree is never going to put down roots unless it's watered water deeply. If you, if you water any kind of a plant just on the. You got a little seedling and you just put moisture about a quarter of an ounce, a quarter of an inch deep into the soil, it. It will start developing roots near the surface and the first storm will blow that thing down. If you want it to take a really good deep root, you got to water it deeply. You got to get a lot of water. Water on it. Now, all of us, I think I mentioned this last night, all of us have it sometime probably. I know I have. I've had faith, my faith out for something like, like my healing of. From asthma or other things. And I started out in faith, got the word in me, acting on my faith. Thank you. Thanking God for it, giving God the praise, doing all of the steps. And the steps are wonderful because they're scriptural steps. And after a while, when nothing changed, I grew weary and I gave it up. Why does that happen? Why does that happen? I Believe I know why. It's because I. In my case, I didn't know I needed to hear more. I was. I was satisfied with going over what I already knew I had heard. Brother Hagin. Yes, sir. But you know, Brother Hagin's not the Holy Ghost. And Brother Hagin could give us the principles, but it's going to take the spirit of God leading us to show us how to put those principles into operation and how to take the next step and the following step, if there are other steps, adjustments we need to make, and that comes by hearing. The Holy Spirit doesn't work independently of the Word. He works in harmony with the Word. He works in concert with the Word. The reason you've given up and I've given up in the past on things is because I stopped hearing. You stopped hearing. And he who does not have. He who has stopped hearing even what he thinks he has, the Devil will come and take it away. And I'm in here, you know, beating my brains out with asthma, trying to get delivered, and the devil's taking stuff out of me the whole time because I'd stopped hearing, I'd stopped searching, I'd stopped seeking. God, what, instead of saying, I would just send, there must be something wrong with me. But that's not the right thing. I should have said, God, what is it that I need to see? What is it? Where is the application? What's the next move? What's the next move? Lillian B. Yeoman said it like this. She said, if I ever pray about anything and I don't get an answer, what she meant was, I'm believing. I'm putting words in her mouth. But what I'm assuming she meant is if I don't get a manifestation, she said, I changed the way I'm praying. And dad Hagin said. He said, I read that from Lillian B. Yeomans. And he said, I started practicing that in my life, and that's what I do. And it works for me, too. If we think, if we are in faith, we might be genuinely in faith, but we might not have that next little nuance, that little nuance of understanding that's going to turn the tide. And so we have to stay hungry. Stay hungry, Church. We have to stay hungry. And like I said yesterday, remember, nothing in your daily schedule of all the things you do will produce an faith other than the Word. And we need faith every day. We need it all the times of the day. Now, in Florida, I know it's not like this in California, but in Florida, we have the rights well, let me say it this way. The state of Florida recognizes the rights of its citizens to carry weapons. And so they will license you and anybody. They're not restrictive like they are in some places. I mean, if. Unless you have a criminal history, you have a mental disorder or something, any citizen in Florida has a presumed right to carry a weapon. They just license them. And other states don't even require license, but Florida does. But they'll license anyone to carry a weapon. If you go through the, you know, get your training and so forth. And. But one of the things that people. And Brother Graves here, Pastor Graves, he'll. He'll bear witness to what I'm talking about. A lot of people have the idea, well, now I have my concealed carry permit, and I have the ability to carry a weapon. And so when I need it, I'm going to carry it. Well, when are you going to need it? How would you know when you're going to need it? If I thought going to a certain part of town that I would need a weapon, I'd best stay out of that part of town, Isn't that right? But it could happen. I might need a weapon on the good side of town. Well, which day of the week, at what place of business? So people who carry, carry all the time, if they know what they're doing, they carry all the time, all the time. Never leave the house, courthouse. And it gets to be just now I've come to, you know, I forget I have a pistol, and I'll go. I'll go into the courthouse and go, well, wait a minute. I back out here. Let me go back to the car or to the high school or something to see a kid. I'm like, wait a minute, let me. I don't want to end up in chains here. I forget a lot of times that I can't because I carry one all the time now. I'm not afraid. So why do you. You're a minister. Why do you carry a gun? Because I can. Just because I can. I like it, that's all. I just like it. But I've read reports of people that have been in McDonald's or someplace, and a gunman comes in and slaughters a bunch of people. This one woman gave her testimony before Congress, and she said the law in this particular state wouldn't allow me to carry my gun. It was in the car, and this guy's in the McDonald's that I'm in and slaughtering people and killed her parents. And her pistol was in her car. Because the state Wouldn't allow her to carry it. And so that's why people who carry, they say if you got the. If you got a permit, carry all the time. My point about that is this. You never know when the enemy's going to attack because he's either attacking you or he's planning his attack. I don't mean to be discouraging or to be a, you know, Bad News Bears or anything like that, you know, but he's either attacking you or he's strategizing. He's scheming to attack you at all the time. And you never know when that. When that train's going to come or when that. I want to. I want to hear God if I need to. It's good that I can hear the train, but I want to. I want to know about those pigeons that are flying overhead. I want to know about the little attacks. And in order to do that, I have to be hearing all the time. And my faith needs to be in. It needs to be in top form every day. Well, that's only going to come by continually hearing the Word. And so, yes, we should carve out however you have to do it. Whatever your schedule, whatever fits for you, you have to carve. We have to carve out some time to get in God's presence in the Word and in prayer. Prayer and the Word go together. Brother Hagin received enlightenment while he was praying, and then more enlightenment while he was praising. And so we have to stay in a place where we're. Where we're conscious of the Word. We need to feed our faith every day. Every day, every day, every day. I have. I have certain core scriptures that. And I have to be honest, nearly every day, once in a while, I let my schedule slip in and interrupt that, but not very often. Not very often because I've. I've learned that I can't allow myself to not be fresh in the Word because faith is of the heart. It has to be a. It has to be a fresh word. It has to be. I can't live on yesterday's manna. I can't live on. On. On what I knew last week. Because if you're doing that, you don't have what you had last week. Well, praise the Lord. I'm saying the same thing over and over again in. Let's stand up. Praise God. Thank you, Father. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Oh, we bless you, Lord. You know, the Lord dealt with me earlier this year. Maybe sometime, I don't know, August September, somewhere in that time frame. That. Huh? Well, that was last year. Because this year. Yeah. Still trying to make the transition last year. That we need to be. We need to give thanks for what we hear, when we get. When we receive insight. And enlightenment. And enlightenment. We need to stop and give thanks. And so there have been times. I'll be preaching, you know, and I'll go along for a little while. Preaching. Let's just wait a minute. We've heard a lot today. Let's just stand up and give thanks before we go. And it might be midway. I may have 30 minutes into my message. To me, that's early, you know.
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Stand.
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Up and give God thanks. Well, let's do that today. Let's thank God for what we've heard. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. That the entrance of your word brings light. Oh, glory to God. And to those of us who have more will be given and we'll have an abundance. Hallelujah. Whatever we need to know, perceive, understand. It's given to us. It's given to us. Amen. We can know the ways of the spirit. Hallelujah. We can cooperate. We can cooperate with the spirit. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Thank you, Father. Oh, hallelujah.
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Just.
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Just begin to worship the Lord in other tongues for a moment. Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Now, you know, I can. I'm human. I can miss it. But it seems to me there's somebody here that you've got a nasal problem, and it's a growth of some sort in your nose. Is there anybody like that in here? Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Father. You've got something, a blockage in your. In your nasal passages somewhere. It's causing you grief. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Anybody like that? Okay, come. Come down here. Praise the Lord. If you don't mind, just come down here. The Lord wants to heal you. Hallelujah. Thank you, Father. Just come this way. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you. Praise God. You know, God loves you. He wants you. Step up just a little bit closer, I'll fall over on you. He wants you to be completely well. Glory to God. You know, Brother Hagin said one time, I was listening to a series not long ago, and he said that the Lord dealt with him about his ministry lines. This really helped me. He said that the Lord dealt with.
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Him.
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From the standpoint that he was making it too difficult for people to receive. And the Lord told Brother Hagin, he said, just tell them to expect. Just tell them to expect. Just expect God to heal you right now. Expect him to. Right now. That's all you have to do. Just expect it. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Thank you, Lord. Glory. Glory. Glory. Glory. Glory. Glory. Glory. Glory. Glory. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Take a deep breath in right now. Through your nose. Just take a deep breath in. Huh? It's what?
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It's good.
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It's good. Is there a change? Praise the Lord. That look just like Jesus. Isn't that just like Jesus? Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
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I appreciate what he just said about just tell the people to expect. I was listening to the testimony of a man who had had the experience of going to heaven. And when he came back, some. Somebody asked him and said, do the people, our loved ones in heaven, miss us there? And I love what he said. He said, they don't miss you. They're expecting you. So don't miss them. Expect them when you expect to see them. Well, it's the same thing when you need something from God. Expect, because you're not missing it. Just expect it. Amen. Don't think about. I'm missing a body part. Expect your body part. Don't think I'm. Expect I'm missing out on the ability in a limb. Expect the ability in the limb. Amen. Heaven is a place of expectation. Amen.
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Hallelujah.
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They're expecting us. And I like that. I like that. Hallelujah. That was wonderful this morning. I tell you what, you're going to have to hear it again. Hear it again. Hear it again. Hear it again. One minister, a precious minister, friend of mine, he has a sermon called the Sin of Familiarity. If we're not careful, we can have. We can carry that sin toward the word being familiar, toward the word. He talked about if you. If you have the sin of familiarity toward your pastor, something you'll stop receiving because you stop honoring, you stop reverencing because they're just your pastor. You see them every Sunday. You. You get to hear them. So you almost treat church as optional because you know it'll always be there. That's part of the sin of familiarity. Well, it's the same thing. We can carry that that wrong attitude and thinking toward the word Amen and we all have to check ourselves. Why? Because the devil would love to keep you busy with something good so that you miss the best. Dad Hagin used to tell us all the time, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. And it is a full time job to keep the busy purged out so that you can have the fruitful, not just what's busy. Amen. Everything that's busy busy isn't fruitful, but the word is Amen. Hallelujah. You're we're blessed. Blessed, Blessed. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at 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.