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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Faith Is A Discipline, Part 1 | Nancy Dufresne | Mississauga, Canada | JTH Crusades 2024 | Sunday PM
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. We glorify you. We glorify you. We magnify you. Father, we thank you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We praise you, Father. You know, you think about it, people say, thank God for the power of God. Thank God for the power of God. That your face should stand in the power of God. But can I tell you, this power is God's part. He gave us his part power. We have access to his part power that we can assign that power whenever need arises. But what governs that power is faith. And he also gave us his faith to govern his power with. It's amazing that he has gifted us the measure of faith that we can be a custodian of that faith that came out of Him. It's his own faith. You have a measure of God's own faith. Faith in you. And then however we've treated that, what kind of attention that has gotten determines the measure of it. But whatever the measure of it is, it came out of God Himself. Think of it. Because by giving us his own faith, we can move with Him. We can receive from Him. We can lay hold of everything that is ours because we belong to Him. Amen. You can be seated, if you would. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I want us to look tonight. Hebrews chapter 11. We'll start here and see where we end up. Hebrews, chapter 11. And I'm just going to read the last portion of verse six. Well, we could just read verse six. Without faith. Without faith it's impossible. We say, without faith it's impossible to please him is what the Word says. But we could just stop and say this. Without faith, it's impossible. Can I tell you this? God's not hard to please. God's not hard to please because he let us know what pleases Him. Faith. You know what's hard is when someone wants you to please them and you don't know how to please them. You know what's rough in a marriage is when one of you, one of them, marriage, thinks the other one ought to read your mind. That's pretty rough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Marriage counseling, 101. That's pretty rough. That they're miffed. And you know they're miffed and you don't know why they're miffed. And you ought to know why they're miffed and they're more miffed because you don't know why they're miffed. God isn't that way. He lets us know what pleases him and it's faith. Can I tell you why it's faith that pleases him? It's because when we release faith, faith is the currency of heaven. When we release faith, then God can work for us. When we don't release faith, he can't work for us. And that doesn't plan please him because he wants to work for us. Does that make sense? Yes. Amen. Amen. So when it says without faith it's impossible to please him, it's not because he's looking for somebody didn't have faith and I'm going to take it out on them, you know. No. He so wants to help and supply and move and restore. That faith gives him permission to do that. And without faith, he doesn't have permission to do what he longs to do for humanity. And it displeases him when he cannot be to humanity all he can be to humanity. Amen. So God is not hard to please. Faith pleases him, since faith pleases him. Then we should make faith an emphasis. We need to be interested in the condition of our faith. We need to be interested in the health of our faith, the well being of our faith. Amen. The measure of our faith, as Pastor Craig was talking about this morning, that it should be growing, it should be growing. But it says for without faith it's impossible to please him. But this, it tells us he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. God said something to me over this verse I'd never heard of before. On one occasion he talked to me in 2000. That he was going to give me Sister Amy Semple McPherson's house. As we were talking, he would talk to me about that. It was almost daily he would talk to me about that. And even as I had agreed at first, you know, my mind goes on tilt. I'm rebuking devils because there's a lot connected with it. Because when I buy the house, I didn't just buy a house, I bought a renovation. So the cheapest part of the house was the purchase and multiplied times purchase price. Will it take to renovate? So God was talking to me about the house. Different layers of this conversation about it. And he said one of the things he said to me, he said that home is a reward for how you handled your husband's homegoing. He appreciated that I was an example he could point to. Because it wasn't just me that was affected, it was our congregation that that was Affected. It was fof ministers who called my husband dad. It affected them. It affected really what I'm doing today, teaching every day on Jesus the healer. We're going into over half a billion homes every day. So it does matter that we think, right? It does matter. So God said to me that home is a reward for how you handled your husband's homegoing. Meaning this. I didn't handle it in such a way to gain attention. Yeah, amen. Amen. Because some people do handle things so that it points back to them, and many times that's just due to not being taught right. But he said it is a reward. Handled that. So if I could say this, when we employ our faith instead of flipping back to the flesh when the emergencies of life come, Heaven appreciates when we employ our faith instead of laying down and acting like the pastor hadn't taught us anything. Because a lot of people, they've sat under teaching for years, and then when crisis comes, they act like they haven't been sitting and hearing things. And God appreciates when somebody acts like he's been having his word sown in them to bear fruit. He appreciates that God needs examples to point to of someone who will do the word. I'm not the only one. I don't mean to say that, and I don't mean to. I'm not pointing to take credit. I'm just saying these are things that are important to him. Yes, Amen. Amen. So he said to me, it is a reward for how you handled your husband's homegoing. In this conversation back and forth that we had for over, over months about this, about this home. He talked to me about it frequently. He would bring it up, not me. He would bring it up. And I said to him one day, I said, God, it's seems to me that this home is important to you, that I have it. Am I perceiving that right? Because, you know, I'm the one living in it. You know, why would it be important to you? It seems like you're just wanting to bless me because, you know, it would be a blessing to me. It's important to me. But I said, I don't know if I'm perceiving this right, but I said, it just seems like for some reason it's important to you that I receive the home. Why would that be? Why would it be important to you that I receive the home? And he said, because I am a rewarder of those who diligently seek me. Now listen to what he said. I'd never Thought of this. He said, I don't just give rewards. I am a rewarder. And he said, if you won't receive this with your faith, then you rob from me that I cannot be the rewarder to you that I am. It's important to me that I be received as a rewarder. Not just that I give rewards, but when you receive that, you receive who I am. I am a rewarder. That's what the verse says. It doesn't say he gives rewards yet because he is a rewarder. It does show up as rewards he gives, but it also is who he is, is a rewarder. So this, this rewarder doesn't happen with every believer. He can't be a rewarder with every believer. That's right. Amen. Amen. He can only be a rewarder with those who diligently seek him. There are rewards that maybe I should have received that I didn't receive in times past just because I didn't seek him. Enough about something, something. Amen. So he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Look at this word diligent. Wouldn't we say consistently, persistently, regardless of what circumstances? People don't start dismissing him just because pressures come and they start flipping back to the natural. But they keep pressing to diligently seek him in the face of opposition, to not go back to the way they would have handled it before their mind was renewed. So what's this mean? He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. He's a rewarder of those with faith. Disciplines. There are disciplines of faith, and it plays out as someone who has disciplines of faith. They diligently seek him. This is an outflow of someone who is moving with the disciplines of faith. Faith is a discipline. Faith is a discipline. It's not a feeling. It's a discipline. It's something you choose, and it's something that you have to discipline your thought life. You have to discipline your words, you have to discipline your actions. You have to discipline your time about how you spend your time. I mean, when God. I'm not a huge social media person. I've never. I don't even have a Facebook account. So anyone that you see that's out there, a personal Nancy Dufresne Facebook account, you know it's a hoax. I don't even know how to do it. Grant said, mom, my mother, her name was Muck, her grandma name. And he said, muck, Muck died when she was 87 and says muck can outdo you on Facebook. And she's 87. She knows Facebook. I said I don't know Facebook. I'm just not a social media. I just don't thrive on it. I'll just read, you know, a few headlines. I might look at Instagram to see what our ministry's posting or something. That's it. And I mean, God has dealt with me about cutting even that away. Cut away, cut away, cut away. Because I have to develop disciplines. And there are natural things that will rob us of the discipline of faith. Not that they're sinful, but what do they hold us out of? What advancement are they holding us back from? Faith is a discipline. So that means that we're going to have to, on purpose, employ some things. Amen. We have to, on purpose, renew our minds. We have to, on purpose, feed on the word. We have to on purpose, meditate. We have to on purpose confess. We have to on purpose, cast down imaginations on purpose. And people will say, well, God's not into work. Can I tell you this? We're not saved by works because Jesus worked it all. He worked our redemption. We're not saved by works. But once we're saved, works are everything. It's called bearing the fruits of righteousness. Because now we're right with God. He expects us to bear the fruit of that righteousness. Righteousness is not a feeling, it's a position. That's right. And there should be evidence of that in our lives. Yet then people can get into the wrong side of works, of trying to earn something from God rather than by faith receiving it. And you can have all kinds of good works, but if you don't employ your faith, you're still not pleasing to God no matter how many good works you got. So with your good works, it needs to be faith that's moving them forward. Don't just do good works of showing up for church and just saying, you know, well, I showed up at church, so now God owes me. I've clocked in, I've pleased him. No, you have to bring your faith how you come to church. Well, I serve in the ministry of help. But how do you serve? Are you complaining as you got on, as you got put on the list, or are you glad to be there? We're doing these things by faith. Because whatsoever is not of faith is sin. If there's no faith attached to it, it's not pleasing to me, God. So faith is a discipline. It is a discipline. Amen. If the disciplines of faith falter, faith will falter. If the disciplines of faith are neglected. Faith will falter. People with few natural disciplines. Let's talk about just in their natural daily life, they have very few disciplines. Those people don't do well in life. They can't get anywhere on time. They can't get up, clean the house. They don't take care of their car. They let their car run down. They don't keep the mechanical side of it up. They just run things and run it and run it and run it. Never put anything back into it. Why? Lack of discipline? They say it's lack of money. No, it's not lack of money. It's like a discipline. And if people have very few disciplines in the natural life, they will struggle in life at advancing. Well, if that's true for natural things, how much more with spiritual things, with our faith, we have to employ disciplines. Amen. For he is a rewarder of those who. That's speaking of discipline. That's speaking of the discipline of faith. Amen. Sister Gloria Copeland has made this statement over the years. With consistency lies victory. Many times people are trying to get victory, and they go, I don't know why I'm not laying hold of my answer. I don't know why things aren't changing. Because it takes consistency, consistency to arrive at the victory that's yours. You get there by doing the right thing every day. God said this to me one day. He said, look at each day as its own individual container. And he said, you cannot take yesterday's container and fill up today's container with what you did yesterday. Every day has to be filled with its own faith. Every day has to be filled with its own confessions. You say, well, why do I have to do it every day? Well, aren't we glad that we can stand up and say that God's mercies are new? Why didn't he just say, well, hey, I did that about 10 years ago. I've refreshed your mercy button. No, we expect to be met with mercies every day because God fills our life daily. The Word says that he loads us daily with benefits. Aren't we thankful for his consistency? God is consistent. And because we're in his image, we cannot fully represent him without employing consistency. We can't partake of the flow of him until we have some disciplines in place. And people will look and say, well, you know, these people, you know, they're in the ministry. That's why they flourish. No, no, there's a lot of ministers that don't flourish. It's attached to disciplines. You say, well, it's you're trying to earn something by works. No, it's just that power requires skill. If you're going to move with God in his power, you can't handle it without skill. And to be skillful, you have to be taught, trained, and you have to employ some disciplines. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Consistency in the word builds a foundation in us. Consistency in the word builds a foundation of the word in us. I remember not just consistent to read it, consistent to do it. To do it. To do it. It's surprising how many times you've taught and poured yourself into people for years, and then a crisis hits and they just act like the unsaved neighbor. And you're going to. Do you know how many hours I've studied and read and sought to hear from God and fed you? And you just set it all aside. When the. When the difficulties of life came. But that's when your faith is most called for. There was someone that was. That I know of, that was. They got toward the end of their life and they were endeavoring to release their faith because they were facing suffering. And I said to God, I said, God, I know they don't know the things we've been taught, and you will allow us to be a blessing to others with what we know. When they don't know it, you will allow others. And he. And I said to him, I said, how could I have helped them more? And he said this. He said, they tried to exercise their faith only at the end of their life, and they had no foundation of use of their authority throughout their life. So when they came to the end, and they needed it in a very dramatic way, they had no skill. Why, no disciplines. I was called to minister years ago to someone who was dying, a minister's wife that was dying. And I walked in the room, God said, she's going to die. I said, why is that? He said, there's something missing in their foundations. Talking about the husband and wife, there's something missing. And when something is missing in a foundation, a structure can only go so high before it starts being compromised. Your foundation is everything. Your foundation is everything. Consistently address your foundation. Consistently go back and say, what have I let in that might compromise my foundation? Have you ever. I don't know. I'm sure it's this way in Canada. In the United States, if you go to get a loan to purchase a home, they will not loan you the money without a. What do they call it? Not a credit report. No, without a home inspection, a home Inspection. You can't just say, I want it. They say there has to be a home inspection done on it. It doesn't matter that you want it. If there's something wrong with the home, we won't fund it. Yes. And if they go and one of the first things they inspect, they don't just inspect the paint color. Girls are only interested in the paint color. We're only interested in the finishes. The appraiser, the appraiser and the home inspector, he really, he does not even notice those surface things. He's going after the foundation, he's going after the plumbing, he's going after the electrical, he's going after the roof. He's going after the spots that nobody sees. That's the value of the home, is the invisible part. Whenever I was, whenever I was going to buy the castle, I paid cash so I didn't have to have a home inspection. That wasn't a requirement. I'm paying cash if I want to put my money in a place that needs a lot of money. Here we go. And the seller said to me, said, Nancy said, you know, I don't know if you want to do an earthquake inspection. I said, pastor, that home has been there for 90 years in Southern California. It has endured many earthquakes. I'm assuming it's earthquake worthy. So we have to realize that our foundation matters. And when people need something from God, it's going to matter how you've been treating your foundation, how you've been investing in your foundation. There was, I love this story of Pastor John Osteen. He had built a two story building, I don't know if it was an office building or what, years ago, and their ministry was growing. And he called out the architect and he says, I want to add some more stories onto this building. He says, you're not going to do that. He said, don't tell me I'm not going to do it. I'm the pastor. I, we own this building. I can put more on if I want. He said, I'm the builder. And he said, I built this building and the foundation will not support multiple stories added to it. Just because Pastor John Osteen wanted more didn't mean he could have more. It had to go back and look at the inspection of that foundation to see how far that building could be taken. It matters. Your foundation and faith is so critical in this foundation of our spiritual life. Amen. First Thessalonians, Chapter three. Turn with me if you would. First Thessalonians, chapter three. It reads this way. Night and day. Paul is writing, he said, night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. So notice this. You can have faith, but something's lacking in it. Paul recognized that these were people who were receiving letters from him. Letters rich and abundant with revelation. But yet he recognized, although you've been receiving my letters, there's something still lacking in your faith. I'm going to have to show up in person to address what's lacking. Notice this. Letters won't do it here. I'm going to have to show up and you're going to have to see my face. He didn't say notice. He said that we might see your fate. Might see your face. What's this mean? Proximity matters. I think this verse is so important especially. Especially for our digital age. Why is that? Because people think that they can just do what's convenient and just watch on a screen. Thank God. Listen, I'm not against the digital age. It's been a blessing to a lot of people. But you can only go so far. Just like Paul said, I can only go so far with letters. Going to have to show up and you're going to have to. I'm going to have to see your face. Now notice the wording. Night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face. Not you see my face. I have to see your face. When people watch their pastor from home on the screen, the pastor can't see your face. You can see his face, but. But just because you can see his, he can't see yours. And Paul didn't say, I want you to see my face. He says, I want to see yours. Why? Because when you get in proximity, you can diagnose the condition of people's foundation. You can diagnose the condition of their faith. And now you can know the outcome of their life based on what you're perceiving about their foundation. So he said that we might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. It's not unusual to be lacking something in our faith. We have to tend to our faith all the time. Why? Because our faith can always grow further if our faith is lacking something. Now notice, he said, what is lacking in your faith. If our faith is lacking something, our life will be lacking something. Now turn with me, if you would, to Romans, chapter three. Are you still with me? You said, well, we thought this was a miracle crusade. It surely is going to. We're going to give you something that you can receive miracles on. Once you leave the building. Too. Amen. So Romans, chapter three, verse 26. Romans, chapter three, verse 26 dot And I just want us to see this phrase to declare. Paul's writing, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting? Then it is excluded. By what? Law of works? No, but by the law of faith. So we see this, that faith is called a law. And you better be glad it's called a law. Because a law doesn't discriminate. It doesn't care your education. I'm talking about laws that men don't govern. Men will change laws to suit their tomb, but we're talking about things that are unchangeable. Laws like the law of gravity or the law of lift, those are unchangeable. It doesn't matter that you feel like a superhero today, you know, you just can't go and violate the laws of gravity and, you know, leap from the tallest building. You know, all these things. The law of gravity will take charge of you. Right? The law of faith is not under the control of man. It's as sure as God himself. So it's a law. Why does he call it the law of faith? Because laws govern something. What does the law of faith govern? It governs the power of God. The law of faith governs the power of God. Now, the law of faith is spelled out in Mark 11:24. It's spelled out also in Romans 10:10. Believe it with your heart and say it with your mouth. That's the law of faith, how it operates. You believe it in your heart, you say it with your mouth. And the thing about the laws is it works for everyone. It doesn't care what country you're in. It doesn't care what kind of home you were born into. It doesn't care your iq. It doesn't care about your education. It doesn't care about your social standing. It doesn't care what kind of home. If you were raised in a difficult home, my husband was born into a home of alcoholism and mental illness. And there were all kinds of other moral issues in that home. It did not matter to God. It didn't matter to the law of faith. If you will employ the disciplines of the law of faith, then you can arrive at the fullness of what the faith of God can bring to pass in your life. Don't dismiss yourself out of what God's already included you in on. Amen. Then don't think this is a Canadian law or an American law. It is a law that works in every nation for every man who will work it. Amen. And the thing about this law is it works by love. If love is stepped outside of the law no longer works. Love. God is love. He doesn't just have love, he is love. Every movement of God is a love movement. Every word of God is a love word. Even though it may be corrective in nature, it's a love word. One flow of the love of God is correction. Because love doesn't leave us like it found us. Amen. So the love of God, everything that comes out of God is nothing but love, right? His realm, his kingdom is a love kingdom. His realm is a love realm. The spirit realm of God is a love realm. If we step off of love's property, we're no longer in line to receive manifestations of love. Healing is a manifestation of the love of God. Prosperity is a manifestation of the love of God. Deliverance is a manifestation of the love of God. As long as we are on love's property, all of those flows can be easily received by faith. As long as we're standing on love's domain. You understand that I have property, you have property. You know what farmers say about property? They say we don't want much, we only want what's ours. And we want all the land that comes up to our property line. What's that mean? There's no end to how much land we want. If you butt up against my property, I want it. That's kind of the way we are in my family. We just want more and more and more and more. And so the thing with the love property, there's always a line when it's no longer love's property. I can go, I can stand. I have a neighbor in the home I live in right now. I have a neighbor and it's very definite. His proximity or his property line. When I stand right next to his property line, I'm still on my property and I'm still boss. And my authority will work on my property. I take one step over and I'm no longer on my property. One step, one step, and my authority no longer works there. I step back and my authority works. I step off. My authority doesn't work. This is what love does. If we're on love's property, all the blessings of God are flowing on love's property. All that God has made ours, our inheritance. But step, take one step off his property and God's not flowing over there because it's not his property. When we Take a step out of love. We stepped into sin. God's not flowing on sin's property. To get what we need, we have to get back onto love's property and God's. God's what he's provided for us will meet us on love's property. Amen. Dad Hagin used to say it to us this way. One step outside of love is a step into sin. You're either on love's property or sin's property. One of the two. You're either on love's property or you're on sin's property. You can't stand on sin's property and say, father, I'm believing you for healing. It can't reach you there. It's not flowing there. Because that's not God's property. He's not manifesting on something that's not his property. I'm not out mowing the lawn of the neighbor. I'm not. Why? It's not my responsibility. Sin's property is not God's responsibility. If you're going to get on sin's property, it's not his responsibility. Over there. He'll help you as far as he can. But get back over on love's property if you want his help, if you want to get in his flow. Amen. This matters. It matters. This means when you think you won an argument, what property did you have to get on to win that? Did you win? It depends on what property you ended up on after that argument was finished. So what we call winning is not always winning. We're only winning as long as we're still on love's property. Love's domain. Why? Because as long as we're on love's domain, on love's property, we're within reach of what his power can do for us. If we release our faith, we can stand on love's property and not release our faith and not benefit from being on love's property. It still takes faith to receive everything that is on love's property. Does that make sense to you? That's why it's important that we use our faith. That's why it's important that God is pleased when we exercise faith. Because he wants us to receive all that love purchased for us. It cost heaven everything for us to have the benefits of love's property. Amen. Now it's like you have a car and it's sitting in the yard, but there's no engine in it. Who wants it? Nobody. Why? It won't go anywhere. It doesn't matter that you've got the components. Car with no engine, it's not moving. It's the same thing. If we're not walking in love, it doesn't matter that we have faith because the engine of love is the only thing that moves the vehicle of faith forward. And there are a lot of people who are proud of their vehicle of faith. They shine it, they wash it, they shine it, they put the latest chrome on it. But if it's missing the engine of love, all you've got is a monument. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Another thing now, see, we're talking about here the foundation of faith here. We're talking about it. That means if we're faith people, we have to be love people. We can't call ourselves faith people and not make love. A major emphasis in our life because it's the way faith moves ahead is with love. God said something to me a couple of years ago when I was at Southwest Believers and we're on the daily broadcast there on Victory Channel and so many people that watch it and they appreciate the word, you know, and they stop us to us, well, when they see us, we're very familiar to them because they watch us every day. And so it's very personal. It's like to them, they pray like they're your friend, your family member that I haven't seen in a while, you know, because it's so personal, yet I might not have ever seen their face. But they're so welcoming and ready to treat you like a family member. And it's such a joy to meet these people because all the walls are down. You know, there's no unfamiliarity there because they're very acquainted with us. And so it's such a joy to just go out and meet the people and hear their testimony. And I went back to the, and I went back to the hotel room and I'm just stunned that, you know, when you walk through airports and people recognize you, I mean, I was in the airport at Johannesburg, Africa, and I'm going through security and there was a 19, like looked to be 19 year old kid and he said, are you a pastor? And I said, yes, I am. And he said, my mother knows you, she loves you, she watches you every day. She's over there waving at you. And I'm going, Africa. It's just precious that these people love what you love, they honor what you honor. And you're on the same territory. It's a joy. But I went back to the hotel room after walking through and meeting so many people that watch Our broadcast. And when I walked into the hotel room, I said, God, that just. It's such a blessing to get to meet these people who are receiving of your word and they honor you and they value your word and, and I'm just so amazed that I get to even be a part of any of this, you know, because we all have a part to play. And he said this to me. He said, if you love me, love them. In other words, how you love them is how you're loving me. How you're treating them is how you're treating me. We're talking about the disciplines of faith, that we develop our love walk, that we prize one another. It matters another thing. Turn with me to Mark 11, we'll start reading in verse. Well, you know, verse 22, Mark 11:22, Jesus Christ said unto them, have the faith, have faith in God. The Greek originally says, have the faith of God. What's that mean? It's not even your own faith. God gives you his faith and then rewards you for having his. What a system. I didn't have to come up with my own faith. He took of his own measure of faith, said, here, take it, use it and I'll meet it, I'll bless it, I'll answer it. It's a great system. So he said, have the faith of God. And then in verse 23, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he saith shall come to pass. He shall have whatsoever he saith. Verse 23 is telling you that how to remove things out of your life. Talk to them when something is in your way, when something stops your advancement, when there's something you don't want in your life, talk to it, it will obey you. That's what verse 23 is telling you. Talk to things, they will obey you. Talk to things, they will obey you. Talk to things, they will obey you. Yeah. Verse 24 is not. It's telling us how to get something met. But now it's a different thing. Verse 24, what things? Soever you desire. So now he's telling us how to get our desires met. What things? Soever you desire. If you have a desire, this is how to get it met. He wants you to have your desires met. What things ever you desire. When you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Amen. Many times people think they have faith problems. When they really have desire problems. They don't really want it that bad. Your desires have to be robust. Why? Because there's an enemy to your desires. And the devil wants you to not receive your desires met. So he's going to oppose you regarding your desires. But Jesus is telling you how to get past opposition that would rob you of your desires being met in life. What things ever you desire. It didn't say what things God desires. Whatsoever things you desire. But can I tell you this? If you have the faith of God and your faith is growing, then you're going to be in communion with God. You're going to be feeding on his word and your desires are going to be in line with his best. You're not going to just be doing something random on your own, going rogue with your desires. What things ever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Verse 25 and, and verse 24 is not done. He's not done telling you about this skill of faith and this foundation of faith, what to address. Verse 25. And when you stand praying, forgive, forgive if you have ought against any, that your Father also which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. So we see this. For faith to work, we have to have a forgiving heart. Some people have a grudge heart, they just get a grudge. They have a list. And if you get on their list, you don't come off their list. You don't come off their list. Cause I remember what you did. You're on my list. I made a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice. You know, walking in love turns you into a poor accountant. You're not good at keeping records. You're not good at keeping records. Yeah, yeah. You're terrible at addition, terrible at multiplication. Amen. You don't add up how somebody did you wrong and start keeping score against them. Why? Because we're talking about the discipline of faith. And in the discipline of faith, you have to have the discipline of a forgiving heart. It's a discipline. I choose to forgive. I choose to forgive. I don't have to feel like it, I just choose it well. I just can't get past what they've done. You can, because you're not using your forgiveness, you're using his forgiveness. He supplies you with the faith that it takes to forgive someone. He doesn't expect you to conjure up a feeling of forgiveness. But we have received his forgiveness for our own life, our own sins, our own failures, our own shortcomings. We've received it. Then when we are violated by someone Else we take of that forgiveness that we have received from him and now we spend it in their direction. By choice. By choice. One of, I think, one of the most telling testimonies of the forgiveness of God. Amazing. Corrie Ten Boom, you've heard of her testimony. Her and her family lived in Holland. They helped hide Nazi. They helped hide Jews from the Nazis. It was against the law, you understand, to hide Jews, it was of the law. You had to turn them in. So just know this. Not all laws are righteous. And just because it's on the law book doesn't make it righteous. And God expects us to live by righteousness. I'm not talking about being a law breaker. I'm talking about we live by a higher law. And so her and her family would take Jews and they would hide them. They would get them transported to other places. They would get provision for them because Jews weren't allowed. They couldn't even purchase. They couldn't do anything. They would just basically take care of them. Of course, it was found out that they were helping the Jews and they themselves, the Ten Boom family was thrown into a concentration camp. Her father died there, her sister died there. I don't remember about her brother. Her mother had already died years prior. Prior, but it devastated the family. She's the one that got out after 11 months. She was in three months in solitary confinement. She basically said the solitary confinement was easier than the other because she said in solitary confinement, Jesus was in there. She said he was more present and tangible in that place of solitude. And so after her sister would tell her, her sister would tell, had visions and dreams and said, corrie, God is going to send us all over the world to tell people, no matter how deep your darkness, God is deeper still. And they were in deep darkness. You can imagine they watched the people being ruined, you know, killed every day, put in incinerators. I mean, it was just horrific what they saw. And so she, by a clerical error, was accidentally dismissed from the concentration camp. The week following, they had every one of her age group killed. So God moved and moved by clerical error and got her out of that concentration camp. From then on, she went for the next 30 to 35 years, traveling the world, going to the most, the darkest prisons, the worst places in the world. She sought out humanity to find someone who was in deep darkness. Because she said, I've been there and I want you to know God is deeper than all of this. He's deeper to meet your needs. And so she's preaching in a church one day. She's giving a salvation message. And she stands with the pastor after the service, back at the door to greet people as they're leaving the building. And a man comes up to her and he's weeping. And he said, it has changed my life. When you gave the salvation call, I received Jesus into my heart, and now I'm a Christian. I'm your brother in Christ. And she's going, I recognize him somewhere. Where do I recognize him from? And it dawned on her he was one of the guards who almost beat her sister to death on several occasions in that concentration camp. And her sister died there because she was not able to do the work. And when they. She couldn't do physically the work, they would beat her to where she could. She was basically beat within inches of death. So he's telling her his wonderful praise, testimony of salvation, and he's weeping under the blessing of God. And it dawns on her where he's from. And she said, there came such a hate, a feeling of hate that came over me. And she said, jesus, now listen to this faith to do the Word. She said, jesus, in myself, I don't have enough forgiveness for him. So I take your forgiveness and I let your forgiveness flow out of me, and I choose to forgive him with your forgiveness. Because everything we are using in this life is his. I'm talking about in this eternal life, this divine life. It's his. It's his faith, his joy, his fruits of the Spirit. It's his. And this is part of the disciplines of faith. It's quit going back to your human weak imitation of these flows and drawing on the humanity. When you've got the divine in you to draw on, you've got his life, his ability to draw on. And these disciplines of faith, you have to go back to who's in you and draw on who's in you and what the one in you can accomplish if you'll yield to him. So she said, in my own self, she says, I cannot in my own self, I don't have forgiveness to forgive him for what he did to my sister. Because she watched him beat her. She watched how he destroyed her body time and time again, beating her. And you can imagine the replay of the mind, the replay of those feelings. And she said, but, Jesus, I choose to use your forgiveness. I yield to it. And she said, when she said those words, she said over an overwhelming flow of love came up from her inner being. And she said, I saw him. And it was just all the memory, all the hard feelings that I would have had were Completely swallowed up with this flow, this flow that came out. And she said, and we hugged and we wept together. And know this, she never told him who he was in her life, why she's not trying to make him feel bad once he leaves that place to remind him what he did to her son. Sister, she never mentioned it. And when you stand praying, forgive, you say, I can't forgive him. If you choose to use his forgiveness, you can. If you're waiting for a feeling of forgiveness from your own flesh, from your own sin soul, you're going to falter. It's a discipline of faith to choose to forgive. No matter what people have done. I don't make light. We're not calling what they did right. We're calling ourselves free from what they did. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Are you still with me? Hallelujah. So we see this law of faith governs the flow of the power of God. But we have to stay. We can't break the law. We have to stay within these laws of faith. I want to. In the upcoming services, if God allows us to keep going this way, we're going to talk about the disciplines of faith, the discipline of feeding faith, the discipline of releasing faith, the discipline of receiving, then the discipline of holding fast. So we're going to talk about this. If the Holy Ghost allows us to keep going this way, why? Because we came to see you face to face that we might perfect what's lacking in our faith. All of us, all of us need something tweaked, addressed, touched, elevated, junk knocked off. Amen. Stand with me to your feet tonight. Father, we thank you for your word. We glorify you. We magnify you. Your word is a lamp to our feet. It's a light to our path. We're so, so grateful that your word doesn't leave us like it found us. But it has to have our cooperation. We're here to learn how to better cooperate, to be better doers of the Word. And Father, we say that especially during this week, we're coming aside. We're expecting from heaven, and we're expecting revelation. We're expecting light, and we're expecting to receive of all that your plan holds for us during the meetings this week. And we say, Father, that when we leave this place that we'll say, I'm different. Something more has been added to me. And now I can not only produce greater fruit in my life, but I can be greater blessing to other people. And not only that, I can walk as free as you made me. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be any less free than he made me to be. I want to live as rich as I am. I want to live as healed as I am. I want to live as peaceful as I am, as joyful as I am. Why? Because he made us to be those things. Now let's partake this week, learning to be greater partakers of the divine nature that's in us, greater partakers of the inheritance that is made ours. Amen. Hallelujah. We trust you've enjoyed this message. 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