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Faith In The Power Of God, 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 tonight, if you would, in your Bibles. Let's go to Jude. And of course, just the one chapter in Jude. But I had one phrase. I'll read couple of verses, but it's really just one phrase that the Spirit of God spoke to me several days ago. That will be our jumping off point, and then we'll see where we land. How's that? You got to jump with me, though, so that we can land together. Jude in verse 3 and 4. Says, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. Why does he call it common salvation? It's a salvation that belongs to the Jew and the Gentile alike. He says, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you. The Amplified says something to the effect of. Do you have the Amplified? Right there? Read it to me what it says and I'll repeat it to them. Yes, beloved, my whole concern was to write to you in regard to our common salvation. So basically, he intended to do one thing when he started the letter, but then he switched. But I found it necessary and was impelled to write you and urgently appeal to and exhort. I found it necessary and it was, no, it's urgent, this appeal. There's an urgency of the Spirit that overtook him in this process of communicating with them, that the Spirit piped up and said, wait a minute, there's something more urgent that needs to be said than what you were getting ready to write. And he says, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So basically he's saying this. The original faith of the Gospel, which is being destroyed by false teachers. And so he says, because there's false teaching. And the false teaching is aimed at destroying your faith. That's the purpose of it. The devil is putting words in men's mouths who are ungodly, unlike God in their motive, unlike God in their intent and purpose. And he's aiming it at your faith. So it is most needful and urgent for me to write to you to earnestly contend for the faith notice that was once delivered unto the saints. Why is the devil after our faith? Because without faith, we cannot conduct business with heaven. With faith, we can conduct business with heaven. And not only that, Jesus made this proclamation before he left the earth, and he made this grand statement and really a question that really was a statement and said in the amplified says, when the Son of man comes, will he find persistence in faith on the earth? So the devil knows what is needed for the end times? A faith that won't quit. A faith that won't quit, that's what. Persistence of faith that will not quit. Because it's a faith that is unaffected and has no regard for the clock and the calendar. As long as the clock and the calendar has our attention, we're not there yet. Amen. Because real faith does not care by what is ticking and how much time is passing, because the word is truth, no matter what the clock or the calendar is saying. And it shall come to pass, and it shall come to pass. And so Jesus made this statement, when the Son of man comes, will he find a faith that won't quit? And so this is what is being written in this chapter. Jude is earnestly contend. Earnestly contend for. For the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. So notice this. The faith that's been entrusted to us, it's already been entrusted to us. It has to be contended for. Every believer has to contend for the faith that won't quit in their own lives. It's not enough that your pastor has it. You must be a contender for the faith that never gives up, never backslid down, unaffected by what's pushing on it, unaffected by what it sees, what it feels. Why? We're contenders. And as I heard brother Joel Siegel one day say, he said, you're either a contender or a pretender. But a contender will end up living in the spirit of faith, not just knowing the steps of faith. Thank God, to know the steps of faith. I don't belittle that, but the principles of faith are not the spirit of faith. And too many times we don't want to just say we know the principles of faith. We need to have the spirit of the thing, and it has to be contended for notice. Contended? Yeah. When it says the word earnestly, earnestly contend for the faith, it's adding the intense force, an intense force of contending. It's not just an apathetic hope. It comes. Whatever will be will be. No, it's. It shall be. Because God said it shall be. And I'm here to see to it that it shall be. Not Because I can make it be, but because I can be the channel it can be through. Amen. And how many of you know we must conduct or. We must develop our faith for every arena of life, we have to have faith for our finances, faith for our health, faith to follow the plan of God, faith to receive our deliverance. At times of opposition, we have to develop faith in every arena. But faith works the same in every arena. So we have to contend for faith that is in charge of every arena. Amen. If there's some arena that's falling behind, we have more contending to do. And we'll be contending the rest of our life on this earth. We never arrive. It's a life of contending. Amen. So we see this, that the devil would love for us to get a wrong version of faith. Why? That's why he was sending false teachers, ungodly men, men that were responding to the wrong influence coming in and perverting through what they were saying, diminishing the faith of people. And wrong versions of faith come through wrong thinking and wrong teaching. The version that we're to have, Jesus said, of course, in Mark 11:22, have the faith, have faith in God. Or as the Greek says, have the faith of God. Or we could say, have the God kind of faith. So that's the version of faith, the God kind of faith. What's the God kind of faith? It talks to things. It knows that things will obey it, so it talks to it. Amen. If we aren't receiving what the Word says is ours, then in some way we have the wrong version of faith. Because the God kind of faith always receives. There's no risk to the God kind of faith. Amen. So if we are not receiving what God says is already made ours. But with our faith, we lay hold of it and we're. And we're not receiving it the way it's been made available to us, then we have the opportunity to check our version. Am I going by the way I was raised? Am I going by the hardships I've faced in the past? Am I allowing the fear that I saw dominate my parents, dominate the way I raised my family? You see, we have to check what is our version. Yeah, What's a wrong version? A head faith. Trying to believe mentally. There's no faith in your mind. The faith is in your heart. And it takes skill through practice and through the help of the Holy Ghost and the Word to put this in neutral, put the mind in neutral so that you can sink down into. Settle down and rest on what's in your heart and draw out of that place. Faith is the diligent effort to rest in God. It is an effort. It's a diligent effort to rest. And until we're resting, we're not at the right version of faith. Now, don't misunderstand me. I said resting, not inactive. I like what Morgan preached. She preached a sermon. She has a series on it out there. She said, cast your care, but not your expectation. And so many people think casting the care on the Lord means applying anything. No, you still have to. You still have to hold to your expectation, which is the God kind of faith. That we're resting, but we're not inactive in that rest. We're reclining on his word and filling our mouth and thoughts with it. Amen. I think it's interesting that in this writing that he said, earnestly contend for. He didn't say earnestly contend against. Amen. Because what we're for will put us on the right side of the issue. We are to be for something. We're contending for what is genuine. That's what he said. Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. Not what they're trying to push today. What these teachers that. These false teachers that were showing up in this day that Jude was referring to. There's false teachers that are pushing something else. Don't contend for that. Contend for the genuine. What was the genuine? It was once delivered to the saints. It came through our spiritual forefathers. It came through our spiritual lineage. It came through Paul, and it came through all these men of faith. And it came through John 1 Wesley, and it came through Martin Luther, and it came through smith Wigglesworth and Dr. Sumrall and brother Hagin and Oral Robertson, all of these men of faith that they were passing on the genuine, the genuine version of faith. And that has to be contended for. Because if not, people who are unknowledgeable will rise up and start trying to take a place, take a voice of teaching what they know nothing about. And we have to say, wait a minute. That's not the real thing. That's not the real thing. How do you know? By the fruit. By the fruit, the fruit of the life. I tell you what, when you're operating in the genuine flow of faith, the cleaner you live, the purer you live, your consecration matures. It doesn't stand on the verse, the world and the verge of the church. We have to contend that. I'm not letting in what might Be loud or popular. Because I'm contending force. I'm not against them. I'm for the genuine. I'm for what was once delivered to the saints. Why? Because we're stewards of that. So that that message. Message isn't lost. When the message grows dim, the wrong teachers sound right. And the devil is seeking to pervert faith. That's his pervert the faith. Why? Because if their faith has error in it, if they had the wrong version of faith, they're done. They're done receiving no healings, no no miracles, no deliverance, no revelation with the wrong version of faith. Have a version. That's what the devil wants. Have a version. He doesn't care what country it comes out of. He doesn't care who it. Who on television promotes it. Just have any old version of faith. That's not right. There's only one version. It's the God kind of faith. The God kind of faith. And we have to earnestly contend for it. Amen. Notice Jude instructed us to contend for the faith. He didn't say contend for power. He didn't say contend for the anointing. He didn't say contend for authority. He didn't say contend for preeminence. So many people are contending for the wrong thing. They're contending but for the wrong thing. Some are contending for their money. I'm not called to contend for money. He told us. Contend for one thing. Why? Because that's the door that everything else flows in through. When the door of faith is open wide, there's no shutting down the flow what heaven has provided. Faith is not going to meet your needs. Faith is not going to heal your body. Faith is not going to set you free. Faith is simply a pipeline through which God's grace, God's power, God's healing power, the flow of prosperity flows through. Faith is simply a pipeline. We are saved by grace. We're not saved by faith. We're saved by grace through the pipeline of faith. That when that pipeline of faith is in place, then grace can reach your life and salvation is the result. So now you know why Jude said, earnestly contend for the faith. Could we say this? Earnestly contend to protect your pipeline. Have the right pipeline. Because as long as your pipeline is in place, then God has access to your life. There's a flow of healing power, delivering power, the power to prosper that can flow without hindrance when there's a pipeline. And my goodness, you can have the right version of faith, but don't let it get Damaged. We came up here to the church. I don't know. Well, it's several years ago. And they had called Stephen because Stephen, my son, he oversees all the buildings and the properties and he's the know it all guy about it. And there was a pipeline, a sewage line that got broken out here in the parking lot. The pipeline was there, but because it was damaged, what was flowing through it came to wrong places. And so it was on a Sunday morning. And so it's like, text everybody and say, use your facilities before you come to the church because the pipeline is damaged. Just having faith, we have to constantly examine, not with the idea of accusing ourselves, but with the idea of keeping it sound so that it doesn't get injured. With what? Well, what would injure it? Offense, unforgiveness, fear, doubt. All these different things that can injure the pipeline. Faith is simply a pipeline. So you know this. In time of war, when one country is fighting another, you know what they start attacking? Pipelines, accesses, bridges. You cut off access, you can starve a city into submission. Yeah, that's what has happened at many times during war. We were in St. Petersburg, Russia, and they were telling us of it. When Hitler tried to isolate, he cut off everything and I forgot. A year and a half or something. No, nothing coming in. What cut the access? This is what Jude is warning by the Holy Ghost. Contend for your access. Your faith is your access. Your faith is your pipeline. Amen. So notice this. The devil, if I could say this, he really doesn't have to attack your finances. He just attacks the pipeline. He doesn't have to attack your health, so to speak, in the sentence, attack the pipeline, get your thinking wrong, get your believing wrong, get your saying wrong. Amen. Hallelujah. So we are to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Why? Because we're stewards of that. It is our responsibility to pass to the next generation the genuine. The genuine version of faith, which is the God kind of faith. Amen. One way to contend for the faith is become skillful in faith. We should have faith, but we have to be skillful in the way that faith is fed, in the way that faith is exercised, in the way that it's expressed. Amen. I tell these visions that have happened with dad Hagin and my husband because I don't want to let them slip. We need the revelation that's contained in them. But although it happened to them, it was for our benefit as well. So I take personal possession of them. I refer to them often, even in my own life, when I'm needing to have some clarity on something, I go back to what did God say, say through these experiences and from credible sources? And we were doing a meeting years ago in the 90s in Anaheim, California. And it was a two day meeting. And the second day of the meeting, Ed could not. He didn't know quite what direction to take the service. So he kept having the musicians to keep going and going. And finally he had a gal to get on the B3 organ. And when she did, there's the Leslie, which is the speaker the sound comes out of for the organ that was by the organ. And when she started playing it, Ed saw into the Spirit and saw a cloud come rolling out. And that cloud got more and more dense and more and more dense. And when it got completely dense, Jesus stepped out of the cloud and stood in front of him. And then fire shot out of his eyes at Ed and said, you're not being skillful with the healing anointing. And then he stepped back in the cloud. Now he was speaking to Ed specifically about skill regarding the healing anointing, but generally he was speaking about skill. Lack of skill displeases the Father. Why? Because when someone's not skillful, someone's not going to receive. People that should receive and could receive won't due to lack of skill. Amen. Skill matters. Lack of skill displeased him. Ed said, you don't. He said, people say they want to see Jesus. You don't want to see him when fire is shooting out of his eyes at you. He said, that was not a pleasant experience. But the lack of skill. Because what happened then? People who should have been healed weren't people who could have been healed weren't people. Jesus paid such a price for them to be healed, didn't receive it. Why? Lack of skill, not lack of power. Lack of skill. Remember the passage and we quoted that we want to. Jesus wants to say to us, when we all get to heaven, well done, thou good and faithful servant. So many times we say, I just want to be faithful. But notice before listed faithful was good. If you're good, if you're good at your job, you're skillful. We could say it this way, well done, thou skillful and faithful servant. It doesn't matter so much that you're faithful if you don't have skill at what you're faithful with. You're faithfully doing it wrong. Without skill, faithfully doing it wrong. He wants to say, well done, bow good, skillful, skillful, without skill. Power is hindered. Without skill, God cannot manifest the way he wants to. We must not only have these, have faith, we must be skillful with it. That's part of contending for the faith. Amen. Wouldn't we say this if you are an employee of a company that if you're not good at your position, don't expect promotion? Right? Amen. What do we know? Just naturally in a business, if we want to be promoted, what has to happen? We have to be skillful. But yet people all the time want to be promoted financially. They want to be promoted with their health, they want to be promoted in different things. Not that we're earning it, but we have to become skillful with what promotes us. Amen. Praise the Lord. I start off by saying this tonight because God said to me, I was, I just came back from a five and a half week tour on Friday and it was. I had a great time and I, I found out something. There's a momentum that happens when you don't come home. Seriously, on that long a time. There is a momentum that happens of the anointing. And in the middle of that, not at the first of it, but at the middle of it, I started the first night at a certain church, at the Clarksville church where you were at. And the first night that was to start in my hotel room, the spirit of God kept saying, it's time for miracles. It's time for miracles. It's time for miracles. Now know this. It's always been time for miracles. But what is he saying? The Spirit is saying, he's emphasizing that we need to emphasize that it's always been time for miracles. So that's not like there's a time when it's not time for miracles. But he's saying, when he says it's time for miracles, it's not just. So we say, oh, good, it's time for miracles. It's time to become skin skillful. That's what he's saying. You're going to have to become skillful because it's time for these things to happen. And without skill, they won't happen. You say, well, I'm not a preacher. Lay hands on the sick and they shall recover is written to every believer. I'm not talking to preachers either. I'm talking to the whole body. Don't dismiss yourself because you're a layman in the local church. You are a part of something great and it puts a demand on us to be skillful with what has this great flow that belongs to us. Amen we trust you've enjoyed this message. 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