Dufresne Ministries Podcast

Episode: Faith Is A Discipline, Part 2 | Nancy Dufresne
Date: August 28, 2024
Location: Mississauga, Canada | JTH Crusades 2024 | Tuesday PM
Speaker: Pastor Nancy Dufresne

Overview

This episode continues the series “Faith Is A Discipline,” with Pastor Nancy Dufresne teaching on the essential nature of faith and its practical disciplines. Speaking candidly, she shares personal experiences and biblical principles to emphasize that faith is not passive or automatic; it must be intentionally cultivated, expressed, and maintained—especially through praise, mindset, and practical actions. Pastor Nancy also addresses common misconceptions, the importance of diligence, and the vital relationship between faith, love, repentance, and spiritual growth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Power of Praise in Spiritual Battles

• Praise as the Key to Victory, Not Just Prayer

  • Nancy recounts a lesson from Brother Copeland:

    “When you pray, you lay hold of things, but when you praise, you win battles... You don't pray your way through a battle. You praise your way through a battle.” (00:18)

  • Personal testimony: Spent a year and a half “trying to pray myself through a battle and got nowhere,” until the Holy Spirit directed her to “the praise cure.”
  • For three days, persistent praise brought intense mental opposition, but steadfastness eventually broke the pressure.
  • Explains that praise employs the mind and spirit, occupying your thoughts and shutting out the enemy’s harassment:

    “Praising keeps the... It occupies the mind. And sometimes your greatest help is get that mind so occupied with the right flow so that you quit entertaining the wrong flow...” (22:50)

• Praise as a Place of Hearing

  • While praying is declaring your need to God, praising is declaring His answer to your opposition:

    “After they prayed, we're done talking to God... now we're informing opposition through our praise.” (14:34)

  • Praising positions you in faith, creating a channel to hear God’s direction.

• Experience of Victory through Praise

  • After eight days of committed praise during heavy oppression, a breakthrough occurred—transitioning from “mental arena to the spirit arena.” (31:00)
  • Deliverance came not from striving, but from “opening the door” for God to work:

    “It’s not my job to feel better ... it’s my job to draw on the one who has the power.” (35:24)

Handling Mental Opposition and the Role of the Mind

• Attacks on the Mind, Especially Against Spiritual Offices

  • Prophets and leaders often face unique oppression in the mind.
  • Skill in ignoring mental assault is critical:

    “Because if the devil can get you thinking wrong, he shuts down the mouthpiece you are to be in the earth...” (09:51)

• Testimonies about Enduring and Learning Victory

  • Personal seasons of mental attack prepared Nancy for future ministry.
  • Victory came from developing skills, not quick fixes:

    “I would have loved to have my husband just lay hands on me and it’s over. But I would not have gained what I know.” (12:52)

On Faith, Diligence, and Spiritual Discipline

• Faith Is a Discipline, Not a Side Issue

  • Faith is the means for all heavenly business:

    “Your faith is so important because it's the only way we can conduct business with heaven. So we don't ever treat faith like it's a side issue. The just shall live—this is how you live. It's not a side issue.” (1:26:24)

  • Genuine faith requires persistent, disciplined pursuit (Hebrews 11 & 2 Peter 1 referenced).

• Diligence in Growing Faith

  • God gives us great promises, but “we have to on purpose partake of that nature.” (1:32:20)
  • Faith must be fed, exercised, and confessed—both aloud and inwardly.

• Law of Faith: Believe and Say

  • Foundational discipline:

    “Believe in your heart and say with your mouth... Believing is to lead you to the saying. The believing cycle is not complete until the saying is employed.” (1:38:29)

  • It’s not enough to believe internally; action and confession complete faith.

The Discipline of Love and Repentance

• Faith Works by Love

  • God told Nancy that without walking in love at home, believers “don’t qualify for Bible prosperity.” (1:43:22)
  • True measure of love is at home, not just in public manners.
  • Love and good manners are spiritual as much as natural:

    “If we're not exercising manners in our home, we've stepped outside of love.” (1:45:37)

• Repentance and Humility as Keys to Growth

  • Strong faith requires humility and a repentant heart:

    “God rewards repentance. Many people think that if I repent, it shows me weak. No, it does not show you weak, because only a strong one will repent.” (1:49:01)

  • God can only promote the honest and humble.

The Role of the Flesh and Responding to the Spirit

• Don’t Let the Flesh Rob Spiritual Progress

  • Cites personal and others’ examples where discomfort with certain spiritual “flows,” like praise and rejoicing, limited breakthrough.
  • Obeying the Spirit may move you beyond comfort (“run” in worship, even if others aren’t):

    “Obedience creates an atmosphere for miracles. Not calculating, not figuring it out, just obeying.” (1:13:25)

• Catering to the Flesh Limits Results

  • Habitual comfort leads to spiritual deadness. Churches that do not press past the flesh see fewer results in healing/miracles.

Faith Must Be Personal and Persistent

• Faith Is Not Inherited or Automatic

  • Illustrated through light-hearted family stories—everyone must “have their own faith” and cannot depend on another’s supply. (1:58:15)

• Avoiding Mental Assent

  • Warning against substituting head-belief for true faith (“mental assent”), which produces no results unless acted upon.

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Praise vs. Prayer (Nancy Dufresne, 00:20):

  “You don't pray your way through a battle. You praise your way through a battle.”

• On Enduring Mental Attack (Nancy Dufresne, 13:40):

  “I'm just here to tell you, praising always, always, always is the answer to every battle.”

• On Spiritual Skill (15:11):

  “The greatest thing God can do for you is let you become skillful. We want now, instantaneous. But I had no idea... I would be having a daily broadcast teaching the world... Not many teach how to handle the mind.”

• On Love at Home (1:43:50):

  “Until you teach people to walk in love in their home, they don’t qualify for Bible prosperity. The home is where the real them is seen.”

• On Humility and Repentance (1:49:28):

  “God rewards repentance. Only a strong one will repent. Weakness will not humble itself. You’ll never have strong faith until you humble yourself.”

• On the Role of the Flesh in Moving Forward (1:19:33):

  “If you let your flesh have the final word, it will talk you out of moving forward in the things of God.”

• On Feeding Faith (2:03:18):

  “How we treat the Word determines how sweet our life will be. If we value the Word highly, we will receive a harvest on what we value.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–05:00 – Opening illustration: The "praise cure" and the difference between prayer and praise
• 13:00–18:00 – Skill in enduring mental attack; God allows training for spiritual growth
• 31:00–37:00 – Testimony: shift from mental to spiritual breakthrough via persistent praise
• 1:13:00–1:16:00 – The role of obedience and stepping past the flesh in worship
• 1:26:00–1:38:00 – Faith as a discipline; necessity for diligence and aligning both belief and confession
• 1:43:00–1:48:00 – The primacy of love and manners at home; how faith and prosperity are affected
• 1:49:00–1:55:00 – Importance of quick repentance and humility; God’s blessing on the submitted
• 2:03:00–2:06:00 – Feeding your faith; practical encouragement for daily spiritual discipline

Structure of Faith Discipline Outlined

1. Understand the Law of Faith:
   • Believe in the heart and confess with the mouth
2. Walk in Love:
   • Especially at home; love is foundational for faith to work
3. Live with a Forgiving and Repentant Heart:
   • Quick to repent and quick to forgive
4. Keep Faith Personal and Practiced:
   • Each believer must maintain their own faith discipline
5. Feed Your Faith:
   • Regular, focused attention to God’s Word—not just reliance on secondhand sources
6. Don’t Settle for Mental Assent:
   • Faith requires action, not just agreement or knowledge
7. Contend for Genuine Faith:
   • Reject diluted, socially-acceptable “faith”—act on the Word

Conclusion and Closing Encouragement

Nancy Dufresne closes by urging listeners not to treat God’s Word—or invitation to His presence—as disposable, but to value it as the source of true victory, transformation, and sweetness in life.

“Always treat God’s word like it’s Him talking to you… You’ll run to it to feed on it, not treat it as disposable.” (2:06:31)

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