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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Faith Is A Discipline, Part 2 | Nancy Dufresne | Mississauga, Canada | JTH Crusades 2024 | Tuesday PM
01:21:58
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Brother Copeland said something that I thought I wished I'd have heard this 30 years ago. It would have helped me through a lot of seasons of opposition. He said this. When you pray, you lay hold of things, but when you praise, you win battles. Now listen, you don't pray your way through a battle. You don't pray your way through a battle. You praise your way through a battle. I spent a year and a half trying to pray myself through a battle and got nowhere. And I said to the Holy Ghost, I should have if prayer was it, I should have made advancement. And it's not advancing. So I'm looking to you. What am I leaving out? He said to me three words, the praise cure. He let me know I was behind on my praise. So he just said, the praise cure. So I quit focusing on spending hours reading the Bible. I'm not saying don't read the Bible, but I was spending hours reading the Bible, hours praying in tongues, hours listening to other preachers, and I laid all that down. I did a minimal amount of that because I'm behind, I'm praising. So I just spent every day emphasize, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. The first three days, there was greater opposition on my mind. Why? Because the devil wanted me to think I was on the wrong road. Because he knew I was on the right road now. So he was saying to me, that's not going to get you on the other side of this. Just saying praise the Lord is not enough to deal with this. So I just ignored his counsel. It doesn't work to take counsel from a failure. It doesn't. And he's always trying to insert counsel, trying to counsel you. You're not part of his household. You got no business taking his counsel. Even if what he says was true about your situation, it comes out of the wrong household condemnation. He'll pull up and tell you where you missed it. That may be true. You might have missed it there. But you don't take any counsel out of his household. Therefore, the place it came from makes it invalid in your life when it comes from him, even though the event he's reminding you of may have happened. So for three days, I tell you what, just mental bombardment increasing of this isn't going to get you on their side. You're losing ground. You're losing ground. You haven't been praying. You haven't been reading the Bible enough. You're Losing ground. You better realize you're losing ground. So I just ignored him. Even though there was pressure. I mean, you could feel it on the mind. You. The greatest thing God can do for you is let you become skillful. We want now instantaneous. But I had no idea there were times when I would go through seasons of opposition on my mind. You've heard me talk about it. Because part of it has to do with the office. There are things that attack the office. Dad Hagin said a prophet will have depression to come against him. That just comes after the office. Why? Because if the devil can get you thinking wrong, he shuts down the mouthpiece. You are to be in the earth if he gets you so troubled in your mind, that's his strategy. That's his device. So I remember. I mean, I was in my 20s, early 30s, and I was going through different seasons of opposition. And Ed said to God, let me pray for her and get that off of her. He said, no, she's got to learn it. I had no idea that 40 years later, 30 years later, I would be having a daily broadcast teaching the world. Because not many teach how to handle the mind. Why do they not teach it, know it? And I'm so glad that during that season, when the devil meant it to be an undoing, it became an equipping place. The undoing place that the. That the enemy brought against me became the equipping place. So, because we're in six. Over half a billion homes in 185 nations out of 186 nations, out of the 195 nations of the world, I had no idea why God was allowing me to take this route of skill. 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. I would not have been able to articulate and say, I know exactly before you even tell me the problem. I've been there. So I'm not impressed with what you're feeling, because I've already been there. And I'm just here to tell you, praising always, always, always is the answer to every battle. It' answer to every battle. And you say, well, what if somebody is missing something that God's telling them to do while you're praising? If you need to know more, the praising posture is the place of hearing what you may need to hear to correct. Praising is the place of hearing. Why? Because you're in faith, and faith can hear. So I'm just telling you, if you're trying to pray, your Way out. Prayer plays a part. But praise. Remember Paul and Silas? They prayed, then they sang praises. What's that mean? After they prayed. We're done with talking to God to let him know what we're talking to him about this situation. We're done informing him, now we're informing opposition through our praise. The bulk of my spiritual life is praising. The bulk of my prayer life is praising, worshiping, praising, worshiping. Why? That's the place of hearing. I don't have to beg him to say something. Because when I'm praising and worshiping, I'm in the place where he's heard. I'm in the flow where he's heard. So I'm just telling you for three days, all I did. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I didn't try to get creative with my words. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Thousands and thousands of times, times every day. And if I was awake and I was around anybody, I was saying it within, I was mindfully saying it. And I purpose to be, not be around people as much during that. I gotta catch up. I'm behind on praise. What is praise? The release of faith. I was praying in worry. I was reading my Bible in panic. I gotta find my answer. I gotta get it in me. I've been there. None of that works. None of that works. It short circuits it. The devil loves you doing religious actions that don't work. And so three days, that pressure left. Why? Because the devil realized I can't get her off that road. I'm on that road. You're not getting me off that road. That pressure to not do that left yet the opposition of the test was still there. But the pressure to stop doing that left. That started on a Wednesday night that God said that to me. The very next Wednesday night, I'm sitting at home, there's people in the house, we're in the den. And I'm just. I'm tuning them out and I'm tuning in my praise just under my. Within myself. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Why? It occupies the mind so that the mind quits following the threats and the troubles. Whenever your mind is being harassed, you need to not just speak in tongues because the mind, it's too available. 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 while you're speaking in tongues. The devil's favorite strategy is to try to trouble you in your mind. Why? Because speaking in tongues bypasses the mind. It does not involve the mind. And most people aren't skilled enough. And when you're going through a test, most struggle with quieting the mind enough to even hear what their spirit is saying to them while they're speaking in tongues. Because when you're speaking in tongues, to receive the greatest benefit, you have to pay attention to your spirit, focus on your spirit. But most people, when they're troubled in their mind, they're not. They can't do that because their mind is so bombarded and pressured that it's dragging their attention upward. So that's why praising, in your known language, it employs the mind and the spirit so that the mind is not available to the threats of the enemy and the bombardment of fear and torment. The greatest thing I can do for you tonight is not lay hands on you about this, but tell you this. It's this. It's this. Luke 4:18, When Jesus said to preach deliverance to the captives. If you're being held captive by something, you need to hear preaching. You need to hear that. What? You need to hear the truth preached to you so that you'll exit that place of captivity, because you're not. We're set free. We are free. But we should not be duped by something that's trying to hold us captive. So at the end of a week, eight days later, I'm sitting in my den, saying within me, silently, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And I can't tell you how dead it felt. The first three days, it felt dead. It felt like. No unction. Why? Because the devil wants you to go by what you feel to decide whether or not the word works. Why do we. Why is confession so important? I was confessing. I was through praising. That's a confession. It's a confession. Why is it so important? Because feelings and circumstances many times look like it's not working. It looks like it's not working. That's why we're told, hold fast to your computer confession. Hold fast. Why? Because if you're going to hold fast to your circumstances, it's going to look like confession is not working. So you'll quit confessing. That's what the devil's intent is, to manipulate the circumstances and the feelings around you and the threats against you so that you will think, this isn't working for me, and you'll lay down doing the Word. So at the end of eight days of doing this, praise the Lord, and for eight days, I'M telling you, I wasn't sleeping. Maybe three hours of broken sleep every night. Maybe three broken sleep, not solid. Three hours broken sleep. And when I'd wake up, because that torment was there, that torment was there to greet me, and I just say, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And it stopped my mind so that the devil could not just take advantage the same way. So at the end of that eight days, I'm sitting on the couch, people in the room, and I said, praise the Lord. And one time I was basically. I could tell that my spirit was grabbing hold of things, but nothing dramatically different. And I said, praise the Lord one time, and the next time I said it, the very next time I said it, it was like a coin dropping. A vending machine clicked. Something clicked. What was it? I had. By saying praise the Lord, I had navigated from the mental arena to the spirit arena. And when I clicked into my spirit arena, the word of the Lord came to me. Why? Because in praising, that's the place of hearing. He said, now tell that devil that's been harassing your mind to desist in his maneuvers against your life. Now, can I tell you, I did that multitudes of times prior to your. To praising. Prior to praising. But the thing is, I was saying it from a place of I got to get help. I got to get this checked. I got so much of the time with the mental arena. We're endeavoring to change things. We're endeavoring to. If I could say this, endeavoring to make it happen ourselves, not realizing it, but that's what we're doing. When you just say praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. You have now employed the only one who can make it work. It's not my job to feel better. It's not my job to run out pain. It's not my job for my mind to go peaceful. It's not my job. It's my job to draw on the one who has the power. It's just giving. It's just my job to open the door to him. That's it. He comes in and does the work. Jesus said, my Father in me. He does the work. He does the work. Praising by all those hours of praying in other tongues, reading the Bible from a place of mental. I'm not. I'm not despairing, speaking disparagingly of reading the Bible, all of that. All of that was from the wrong place. Praising put me in the right place. It put me in the right place. And I just got up and I walked into the one of our restrooms. I shut the door because there were people in the house. And just like this, I said, now that spirit that has been harassing my mind, you desist in your maneuvers. And I felt relief. It did not leave the room. I felt relief. And it said, I'm not gone, I'm not gone, I'm not gone, I'm not gone, I'm not gone. And I knew enough about this, is that you see the old westerns where there's an emergency in town, maybe a fire breaks out, Their only way of notifying the townspeople, people was ring the church bell. They pull on that. Once they've rung that, whoever is ringing it lets go of the rope. But it still rings for a while. No one's on the rope. No one's on the rope. This is, what is it. There's a momentum of a test. But once the devil is dealt with, he's off the rope. He's off the rope. And just because the momentum is there of the test that you have been in, because it doesn't always just boom, everything stops and everything's in place. No, it starts dying down. The symptoms die down, the opposition dies down, the threat, it just dies down. I knew you're off the rope, buddy. You're off the rope. You're off the rope. You're off the rope. And within days, I was back to where I was on full footed on victory ground. But see, it was all about thinking, praising God put you in the place to where you can hear God and he will help you address your thinking. You'll hear him say, change this, correct this. I'm just telling you, when Brother Copeland said, when you pray, pray you lay hold of things. But when you praise, you win battles. You don't win battles just by praying. And I would dare to say most people are behind on praising. Most people are. Most people are. Amen. So this song, do it. Realizing I'm employing that which wins battles. Amen. I'm so grateful that I faced these things because now when that shows up, what took me in the past three years to get past three years, within 30 seconds I've got that thing shut down. Why? Not because I'm great, but because I know how to employ the greater one in me. And those seasons are a thing of the past. Those seasons are a thing of the past. And I was thinking about this. You know, you better know something, you better know something about this. When someone like Brother Copeland invites you to Southwest believers, because the devil's not going to stand back and go, congratulations, there came great opposition just at the door. Just at the door of promotion or increase, there's opposition. You better know something when you come to that door. People want advancement, but you better know something to advance. You better know something to advance. And some people say, well, you know, I remember we were in a meeting and Dr. Sumrall was there and dad Hagin was there, and dad Hagin was telling the testimony of the great opposition against the his mind. And somebody said, well, you know, Dr. Sumrall seems so much more stable than brother, Brother Hagin. I said, wait, wait, wait a minute. What you don't understand. Dr. Sumrall stood in the office of an apostle. Brother Hagin stands in the office of prophet. There are. There are demons against the prophet's office that don't come against any other office. So don't stand back and say, I don't know why he's going through that. That's why you don't stand back over anybody and say, I don't know why they're struggling because you're not in their shoes. And just because it's not something may not be a struggle to you does not mean you're skillful. Right? That's basically what that other was telling. Brother Hagin doesn't have the skill even I have. When you are the leading voice in the body of Christ at the prophet's office, the skill called for is tremendous, but God prepares you all along the way. But what I'm saying is this. You don't know. You can't say to a family member, why, you snap out of that. No, you don't help people by telling them they should be doing better. There were times that my husband would turn to me and he would say, I don't see any cloud over you because I guarantee you I felt like there was one. And he would say to me, you're going to be all right. Just saying you're going to be. He didn't say, why aren't you doing better? Why don't you stand on the word? Why don't you just be a doer? Why don't you just be a doer? I'm doing the work more than you and you and you and you. That's the way I felt. I'm spending hours daily, but doing it in the flesh, doing it from the wrong place. And it takes practice to know how to navigate from the mental arena to the spiritual arena when a demon's involved. See, the thing Is naturally. I didn't mean to get into a sermon right here, but the song just rocked. My natural temperament. I'm not a worrier. I'm not a people pleaser. You know, some people, it matters. You've heard my club. I don't give a royal ring. I just. I'm not trying to be unkind. It's just that what people have thought of me just didn't weigh. It didn't land in me. That's just my natural bend, the way I process something. That's not faith. That's just the natural bend I have in my own human makeup. I'm not a worrier. I've never been a worrier. That's why it took. It rattled me so much when demons came and I was something different up here than I had ever been acquainted with before. It's easy to say not a worrier when no demon is sitting on your head, but when a demon is sitting on your head. It takes skill to completely ignore. And that's what our victory in Christ puts us in a place that we know how to completely ignore. We don't wait for the devil to leave us alone before we're peaceful. We learn to be peaceful no matter what the opposition, no matter what the threat, no matter what mental pressure. We're not going there. We're not entertaining this, we're not trying to out think this. And I'm so glad that God allowed me the equipping through facing these things. The long road. I went the long road. I went the long road. Why? So that I could tell you that tonight the number one thing of phone calls. Because we get thousands of phone calls into our offices praying for people. The number one thing is I didn't know that I could control my mind. I've never heard things on the mind. I'm just saying there's a famine in the body of Christ, of people knowing how to be skillful in their peace. But that's the place God authored for us and Jesus Christ purchase and Jesus demonstrated it. But I guarantee you, you don't arrive there by being half hearted. Praise has to become a lifestyle for every believer. Every believer. If you'll do that, it'll keep the doors closed to things. But I'm just telling you, no matter what you're facing, if it's troubling your mind, praise is how you win battles. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Worship team. Boy, they got a workout tonight. That's okay. That's okay. Can I tell you this, pastors, if you want to have a flow of the spirit, you got to have drinking songs. You got to have drinking songs. Thank God for worship songs and those. There is absolutely a place. But there are certain flows that you can only have with drinking songs. You know, whenever people are in a bar, they play music the whole time because it's drinking songs. They do. They play drinking songs in their place. Well, I'm not used to drinking songs or I don't like drinking songs. Well, you won't have the same fullness then. Yes, amen. Because we can't be say, I'll take this part, but I won't take that part. No. All that the spirit wants to do, we prefer that. Amen. And I love what David was talking about. Your flesh. The Bible says that the flesh is at enmity with God. What's that mean? Your flesh will say, I'm not comfortable with that. And your flesh can rob you of a flow that's trying to bring you into the flow of healing, into prosperity. I remember we were in a meeting, actually in pastor Laketic's church in Fredonia, New York, years ago. And I think I was teaching in a morning service, wasn't I, Pastor Amy? And it was before the. It was during praise and worship. And the spirit of God said to you, run. Right? Was it praised during praise and worship? And she said, nobody else is running. But God said to her, run. See, the flesh doesn't want to do something. I'm not trying to say do something that draws attention to yourself. If the spirit says to do it, it will enhance the service. It won't detract and distract by bringing attention this way. But the spirit of God said it to her. And so everybody was. It's not like everybody was seated and she just took off running. Everyone was standing and they were lifting their voice and praising, but nobody else was running. The spirit of God said to her, run. And so she did it and she ran. She just came around, ran. Why do I have to run? My husband used to say this obedience creates an atmosphere for miracles. Obedience, not calculating, not figuring it out, just obeying. Just obeying. Because God will use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise or what makes sense to man's intellect. So she just ran around. She came back to her seat, didn't make a big display of it. And when she came back to her seat, the spirit of God spoke to her and said, you just ran in your new house. And that was exactly. Wasn't like within seven days they got a house that they should not have in the natural, been able to acquire. So that's what I'm saying. You can't decide, I don't like this flow or I don't like that flow. If she hadn't have run, they would not have gotten that. Why God's training us to operate beyond our flesh, past your flesh. If you let your flesh have the final word, it will talk you out of moving forward in the things of God. Because the flesh is at enmity with God. Listen, I was raised in a denominational church, precious people. But we knew nothing about going against our flesh. In fact, our flesh just wanted to sit there. We were the deadest flesh that was living. Seriously, we sat there just like lumps on a log. And we, you know, you feel so bad, you think about how we. How we tortured our pastor because we didn't help. We didn't know to help. We didn't know. We didn't know that to help draw on something that was in our. We didn't know to draw on what God had for that service. We didn't know. So we just sat there. And because we were not, we catered to our flesh. No one ever got healed in that church. I never saw anyone get saved. No one ever had any kind of financial miracles that I ever heard about. Nothing happened. Why? Because people spread flesh. And you don't lay hold of things by the flesh. But I'm just saying flesh will talk you out of moving forward with some things of God. And people will say, you know, well, people don't like that. Well, can I tell you what people do like knowing that when they need a miracle, that that happens in their church. They like that. They like that. Yeah, they like that. And when people might say, well, I don't like running. Well, if the doctor gave you a no hope report, all of a sudden you might like something that you didn't like before you needed a miracle, right? Yeah. And I'm just saying these things. Services are places that help us get past our flesh because I had to learn to get past my flesh. I'm not talking about. I'm not talking about being weird and odd, because let me tell you something. These are flows and expressions that we release our faith through. It won't do you a thing in the world to just stand up and rejoice before God. If you're not releasing faith, it's not the movement of the body, it's not allowing the body to hinder the flow of faith. But you can release your faith as you rejoice, as you Laugh as you dance, as you sing. It's the release of faith with these actions. Amen. It's not the working up of someone's flesh because you can go into places and they're trying to have something, but it's just a replication. And so it's not just about trying to work up a flow of the spirit. It's teaching people to hook on with their spirits, releasing their faith and stepping past their flesh. Because the flesh is at enmity with God. You know, my mother called me when I was little, she called me Ms. Touch Me. Not because I didn't like you touching me. I didn't like you touching me. You're in my space. Like, you're in my space. Get back. Mother would go to hug me, and I'd go, I'm talking about three years old. I'm talking about little. I remember. And I would just recoil because it's like, I need my space. I need my space. And you're in it right now. Anybody that came up to hug me, I'm not interested. So when I got married to Ed and they all wanted to greet Ed's new wife, it was like. And the best things that ever happened to me were go to churches that were hugging churches. Because it did. It violated my flesh. And I learned to step past it. Now I don't even think about it, but I mean, I was entrenched in my flesh, didn't like certain things, and I'm not moving past certain things now. It's not an issue. But you have to learn to step past your flesh because it will keep you out of some things, you know? And I'm not saying act weird, act odd. I'm saying obey what the spirit is leading you to do. Whatever that looks like, like. And it won't do it in a way that detracts from what's happening in the room. It will add to what's happening in the room. So just so we, you know, because we all have flesh, we all have to. We all have to keep it in its proper place so that the flesh doesn't rob us. But I know this, that because we were untaught in our church, the pastor never taught us about our flesh, that it would get in the way. He didn't know. So we didn't have it. We didn't have flows. If people aren't taught that you're going to have to step beyond your flesh, they will not have the flows available to them that their life is going to need. Amen. I'm certain David was So grateful. He was a praiser when he was with sheep, because when he faced Goliath, he already knew how to be a praise. You understand that when he was praising, when there was nothing threatening around him, just sheep, he was acquiring a skill beyond his flesh. Because I guarantee you, when he faced Goliath, his flesh felt something. But he had learned how to step past his flesh to win things. So good, simple, important. It's important. Amen. And so you have to teach people why. You have to teach people why. You can't just shove them into something. You have to teach people why. That's why we appreciate what Brother Joel, like, taught this morning. You're teaching people why. You know, instead, just do what I do. Just do what I say. Well, there has to be some revelation behind so people can really see faith, because faith comes by hearing they have to be taught something. You know, I learned this about. I was also this type. And I'm still this way in the sense of I don't insert myself uninvited into certain things because there is etiquette, right? There's an etiquette. But I noticed this, that those people who got the most common out of my husband were the ones who, when he. When they had the opportunity to be around him, they took advantage of it. They didn't take advantage of him. They took advantage of the opportunity to be around him. And they would call him and say, hi, Dad. I just want to call and say hi. There became a rapport and an exchange that happened that. And I'm talking to ministers, too. And I learned that because there were Rachel Tifa Tiller. I don't know if you've ever heard of her. A woman that just knew she walked with God. I was 27. She was. I don't know how old at that time, but older. This woman walked with God. And she said, nancy, she said, I invite you to come to my house and pray with me. What I did, though, is I didn't do any. Anything to pursue it. I didn't know. Well, is she going to contact? Because we were just in a meeting. She said, I invite you come to my house and pray with me. I didn't know to take initiative. And she went to heaven without me ever. And I cannot tell you the times I faced things in prayer. And I thought I needed what she knew to get through this. And I don't have it because I did not insert myself where I was invited to insert myself in services. You're being invited to insert yourself into flows and you're Going to need to insert yourself. And I decided when Brother Copeland gave me his phone number, I'm going to contact him without fear of. He gets so much, you know, I don't overuse it. I don't abuse it. But I'll text him and say, just want you to know how much I appreciate you. Why? Because I want to keep myself available to him. I'm not trying to get recognized by him, but available to. To him. And because I look back and I say, there were so many people that had access to my husband and never took advantage of it. Never took advantage. And he left without them getting what they could have gotten by being in proximity. When you're invited into proximity, don't treat that lightly and say, oh, no, I don't think so. In services, when you're invited into proximity, further places with take. Take advantage of that when it's offered you. Not inappropriately, not stepping past etiquette, not ever stepping past etiquette, because the Holy Ghost will not bless something that's out of line of that. But I'm just saying, when you have opportunity, you need to insert yourself where you've been given invitation to insert yourself. Amen. Praise the Lord. So these are things that our flesh. I'm just talking about. I appreciate when Dave was talking about that, because our flesh will cause us to stand back from what our life needs. And then when we need it, it arises and we don't have it. We're going to be very aware of what we did not take advantage of. Amen. Praise the Lord. What we started the other night, we were talking about on. What was it? Sunday night. Faith is a discipline. 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. Because the just shall live. This is how you live. It's not a side issue. Now, as pastors, you should always teach your congregation faith. Yet that's not the only message. But you know what? When I was teaching marriage and when I pastored and I was teaching finances and I was teaching walking in love, there's no way to keep the flow of faith out of those teachings. Because you do all this by faith, you give by faith, you believe God for a harvest by faith, you walk in love by faith, not by feeling. And so there was always an alluding to the need for faith, because we're developing and growing in these things and drawing on these things that are in us. It's all by faith. The fruits of the spirit, every one of them, they get, if I could say this, nurtured and drawn on by faith. And so faith is so critical. Jesus said, when I come back, will I find faith on the earth? The Amplified said, will I find persistence in faith? So there's a certain kind of faith he's looking for. What is that? A faith that knows how not to quit. So we live by faith. We need to be interested in our faith life. Pastors, you have to. If you do not teach your congregation's faith, they'll be sick and they'll have financial problems. Period. Period. They will. They will. Because you can only walk in health by faith. You can only prosper by faith. You can only walk in love by faith. You'll have all kinds of marriage issues if you don't teach your people faith. Amen. So you have to make sure that faith is given its proper place in your. Because without faith, it's impossible to please God. Years ago, a pastor said to me, they were raised up under dad Hagin, and they got away from, if I could say this, the emphasis of faith in their life. Now, don't misunderstand me, they believed it, but they didn't emphasize it. Well, they died way prematurely. Why? Because they said to me, they said, God told me not to really emphasize faith in my church. And I thought, well, I don't know what devil talked to you, but it was not God. Because the just live by faith. And you're telling people, you're telling me that God told you not to teach your people how to live the way he lives. See, something might have said that, but it wasn't the Holy Ghost. And of course, they went home to be with the Lord way prematurely. Why? Because it takes faith to live out the plan. Takes faith to live long. It takes faith to live healed. Amen. And the good thing is, God gave us his own faith. He gave us a measure of his own faith. He didn't even say, without faith, it's impossible. Please me hope you get some. Hope you got you some of your own. No, he gave us his own. Imagine. So what his faith can accomplish, your faith can accomplish because it's the same spring. It's the same source. Amen. You say, well, his faith formed worlds. Your faith forms your world. It's the exact same same thing. Amen. Hallelujah. Because why? Jesus said, have the faith of God, Mark 11:22, that the Greek originally says, have the faith of God. Not just have faith in God, but have the faith of God. So then we looked at Hebrews 11, verse 6, the other night. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe. Must believe. What are we to believe that he is? When people say, I don't believe in God. See, they can't even come to Him. They can't even come. Those that come to God must believe that he is. And you need to believe this, that he is a rewarder. He doesn't just give rewards. He is a rewarder. That's his nature. He is a rewarder of those who. Who look at this diligently seek Him. Diligently seek him. You know what that is? That's the discipline of faith. Diligently seeking Him. That's a discipline of faith. You say, well, I'm not saved by works. We're not talking about being saved by works. We're talking about diligently seeking Him. To learn him, to grow in Him. You have to employ some effort on your part. Amen. And then I want you to see Second Peter, chapter one. Second Peter, chapter one. And verse 4, 2nd Peter, chapter 1, verse 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great precious promises. When you see the word exceeding and great, it's talking about, it exceeds every other force, it exceeds every other opposition, it exceeds every other enemy that these are exceeding and they're great, meaning everything that comes up against this is lesser, this is greater. But God has given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. The promises far exceed the opposition. The promises are far greater than the lesser one who opposes you. Can I say this? Build in your inner consciousness, build in your spirit and build in your thinking. Always in every encounter with the devil, always remember he is a defeated foe. He's already defeated. Quit giving him credibility. He is completely defeated. So it says, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. The divine nature is in us. But we need to partake the divine nature that's in us or we will live like the unsaved world with the divine nature in us. We have to become a partaker of the nature of God that's in us. The life of God, the eternal life of God that is in us. We have to on purpose partake of that nature because it's in us. Let it govern us. Let it dominate situations so that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Look at this, verse 5. And beside this, giving all diligence. Add to your faith with diligence add with diligence. You add with diligence. You add with lack of diligence. We don't have added to us what our life is going to need to be a partaker of that divine nature. What's this show? We have to employ some diligence on our side. We have to. Faith is a discipline. If the disciplines of faith falter, faith will falter. Amen. Praise the Lord. We looked at on Monday night, real quickly, we touched on the foundational disciplines of faith that just have to be present. Number one, you have to know the law of faith. What is the law of faith? Believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth. Believe in your heart, say with your mouth. Mark 11:24, believe it in your heart. Say it with your mouth. Romans 10 talks about it that. Believe in your heart and say confess with your mouth. That's the law of faith. Faith. Why is it called a law? Because it governs something. What does the law of faith govern? The power of God. It governs the power of God. When we employ the law of faith, the power of God comes into operation, comes into play. So foundational disciplines of faith. Number one, we have to understand or know about the law of faith. What is it, everybody? What is the law of faith? Believe in your heart, Say with your mouth. What is it? Believe with your heart, say it with your mouth. It's not enough to believe it. Jesus did not say, he shall have whatsoever he believeth, said he shall have whatsoever he saith. Mark 11:23, Mark 11:24, both end with the same phrase, he shall have whatsoever he he saith. He's not going to have whatsoever he believes. Demons also believe and tremble, but they don't have the life of God, the nature of God. They don't have right. Because believing is not enough. Believing is to lead you to the saying. The believing cycle is not complete until the saying is employed. Now, I've had people that would write us, because I'll teach on our broadcast, about saying. And they say, pastor Nancy, you know, somebody writes on their behalf for us. Or maybe they're able to type something and they say, I'm not able to speak. I don't have a voice. I'm not able to say something. What do I do in that case? And I said, you're still saying it from within. It doesn't matter. It's not volume. It's not volume. Because there are a lot of people who, with volume, are saying the right thing, but silently to their self. They're saying something different. That's called double minded. You can know and be schooled and practiced in what faith lingo is. And you can make right faith confessions from a place of My pastor's hearing me, and I know what he's taught. I know I should be saying this, but then when you're off by yourself, you're saying something different within you. So it matters. When we talk about believe with your heart and say with your mouth, it's that you're saying the same thing verbally, out with volume. But the big thing is what are you saying to yourself? What you're thinking on is what you're saying to yourself. What you're thinking on is what you're saying to yourself. What you're thinking on, what you're entertaining in your thought life is what you're saying to yourself. The devil offers us know this. Every thought that comes to you did not come from you. So just because a thought comes, that is not right. That doesn't mean you have to take it into your thought life and put it on the hamster wheel in there and just rotate it and say it over and over. No, no, no. You decide what plays and replays in your thought life. So what you are thinking on is what you are saying to yourself. That's why we have to guard our thought life. Praise the Lord. So operating the law of faith, which is what? Yes, thank you. The second thing we referred to discipline of faith. Walking in love. God said to me years ago, I was teaching on prosperity in our church. I taught on it for about four Sundays, three to four Sundays in a row. I was getting ready to teach on it again. And that morning the spirit of God spoke to me and said, you need to back up. And I said, what do you mean, back up? I know prosperity is part of our inheritance in Christ. And he said, until you teach these people how to walk in love, they don't qualify in their home. Till you teach them how to walk in love in their home, they don't qualify for Bible prosperity. That's what he said. Notice he said, until you teach them to walk in love in their home. Why? Because the home is where the real them is seen the most. When we're out greeting the clerk in the store, we can use good manners and we can look like we've got everything in place. And but what you're doing at home, what you're saying at home, how you're thinking at home, what you allow yourself to meditate on about your spouse at home, it's the home life that is seeing the real version of you. It's not the public life, it's the home life. So it's no wonder God said to me, until you teach these people to walk in love in their home, what's that mean? Your home sees you the most, right? Your home is with you the most. And, you know, relatively. I mean, some people work long work hours. I understand, but I'm talking about the home is the place where your life centers from, right? So because of that, home should get the best version of the you. Because they have to see you the most. That store clerk gets to see you maybe 30 seconds, five minutes tops, and then you're done. You don't want to spend your best on someone you'll never see again. You spend your best on those who see you every day. The discipline of faith. Well, it's my home, you know, I'm acting the way I want. Your home should get the best manners. Do you know that there's one translation talking about First Corinthians 13, verses 4 through 8. You know what we would call that? Love. Chapter there, one translation says, love has good manners. Meaning this. If we're not exercising manners in our home, we stepped outside of. If we think we can just say anything we want, aside from manners, and not be mannerly toward our spouse, oh, my gosh, why do I have to open their door? Because your love life depends upon it. And your faith is affected by you walking in love with your spouse. If Jesus watched you help your walk out and you walked out in front of your wife, just let the door slam on her, hope she. She catches it. You go out and get in your car. If Jesus watched all of this, how would you treat one another? You understand it. That's what we use as our gauge. If Jesus is watching because he knows, he knows. So he said, until you teach these people how to walk in love in their home, they don't qualify for Bible prosperity. Do we have to earn it? No, it belongs to us. But when we're outside of love, we're not in position to receive the prosperity that belongs to us. Because stepping outside of love took us out of prosperity's flow. Praise the Lord. So walking in love is critical to the discipline of faith. If we say we're faith people, we have to say we're loved people have to. We have to make it the same focus and emphasis. When people would say, about dad Hagin, I mean, he was at the helm of the Word of Faith revival. He was the man at the helm of that. But everyone knew it was his love life that stood out as a shining example because he knew this. My faith doesn't work without me, my love. Amen. Because faith is no substitute for the lack of love. That's not faith's job, is to substitute for the lack of love. Another thing is a discipline of faith that we referred to is a forgiving heart. Meaning you're quick to forgive. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick to forgive. Amen. And in keeping with being quick to forgive, you need to be quick to rep. Repent. Quick to repent. Quick to repent. I made this statement the other night, and it's true. God rewards repentance. I said 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. It's weak people who won't repent. It was a spiritual strength that came into that prodigal son who said, I'm going to go back to my father's house. I'm going to tell my father, I have violated you. I have violated heaven. That strength to go back and humble yourself, that's a strength. That's not weakness. Weakness will not humble itself. And I tell you what, to have strong faith, there has to be a humility, not a I know it all. You can't tell me anything. You'll never have strong faith until you humble yourself. What's that mean? Don't think you're all that. None of us are all that. I said none of us are all that. If we were all that, why would God have to give us the helper of the Holy Ghost? We could just do it all ourself, if we were all that. But he gave us a helper to live in us and with us. Because we weren't all that. The word tells about Moses. It says this phrase, he was the most meek man on the face of the earth. That's what heaven recorded about him. What's that mean? Meek is not weak. It means the strong to say, I humble myself, I submit. Easy to be led. Easy. You can tell them and they'll listen to you. I love talking to people that really listen. They don't just give me head nod service like the doggie on the dashboard doing this, and then go out and do what they're going to do anyway. They really listened. It's a blessing. It's a skill to learn. Because there's nothing like the arrogance of ignorance. Ignorance is so arrogant because it thinks it knows it all right? And it says that Moses was the Most meek man. Most meek man. Most meek man on the face of the earth. Would we not also say he was the most used man of his generation by God? So to be used, submit, humble. Listen, I'm not all that. It's not about me and my plan. It's not about me and my success, me getting. It's not about. I got to lay hold of. No, you don't. If you will lay hold of saying, God, I can't do anything with, without you. I need everything. People like that can be trusted with power. And doing that to be quick to repent puts us in the flow of meekness. Being humble. I'm quick to replace. To repent if I'm wrong. You know what I don't love is people who shift blame. They don't take responsibility. They are quick to blame. Well, you should have done that. Why didn't you get that? I know I left that behind. Why didn't you pick it up? That's such a wrong mental pattern to get into. But someone who says I did that wrong, even if they didn't do that wrong, I appreciate that they were willing to step up and take responsibility. God can promote someone who calls themself wrong when they're wrong. But if they try to shift out from under blame, God can't trust them. Why? They're dishonest. When we have a measure of blame that even if it wasn't all us, but if we even had a measure of blame and something going wrong and we don't, we try to shift it on somewhere, we're dishonest. Dishonest. That's dishonest. I mean, in here it's dishonest. Others might know that you had a part in helping it go wrong and they might let somebody else, they might lay that blame on somebody else. But you know, wait a minute. I kind of, I had some input into that and I was wrong. If you're, if you'll shift blame if you're dishonest. God loves truth. God loves truth. He can only bless truth. So when you say I did that wrong, be quick to take that. Don't try to bolster a poor self image by shifting blame to someone else. Because usually it's a self image problem connected with that. When you know who you are in Christ, you're not shifting so something off on someone else because you can take, you can take your place in Christ and know I get better from taking responsibility for what I did. I'm telling you something. When we do it wrong, we need help more than Ever. Right. When we miss God, when we do it wrong, we need help more than ever. So we have to make sure we repent because repentance invites God to help us out of what we messed up. But when we don't repent, God can't help someone who's dishonest. He loves them, but he can't help them. There was somebody years ago, years and years ago, that I'm acquainted with, my husband and I knew. And they got into very different, serious trouble. Very serious trouble. And a family member got up and basically acknowledged the wrong. They didn't. A family member did. Basically took the hit for them. Parents, you don't help your children by taking the hit for them. You keep them weak by taking the hit for them. You can help them out, but you can't call them. You can't take the blame that lies on them. And God said to me, he said, I want to intervene in that situation, but because the person involved let a family member basically take the hit, I can't intervene. And it went poorly. Oh, my, my, my. It was a heartbreaking thing. God wants to help. God rewards repentance. That prodigal son had the ring put back on him, the robe put on, and had a big party. Why? Because God rewards repentance. And he can He. When he finds someone who will be quick to repent, he found someone he can easily promote. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Pastor Nancy. We just wanted a faith message, huh? This is it. I was so. I'm sorry. Filming before I came up here, I had three days home, so I just went in the studio and filmed. And I was telling the studio audience, I said, you know something? I've gotten to be around some precious, precious generals in the body of Christ, Dr. Sumrall, T.L. osborne and dad Hagin and Norval Hayes and all these precious, precious men. I said one thing I noticed about them, none of them had glaring folks. I didn't say they were faultless. None of them had glaring faults. Their faults were kept at a minimum in that they were kept under. Kept under. Kept under. I noticed. Why? Because God, it's not. It's not perfect men that God is looking for, but perfectly submitted men. And perfectly submitted men don't have glaring faults because they're submitting to the Holy Ghost who's helping them to keep those faults from dominating their life. They're not faultless. Don't misunderstand me. I don't mean to paint these men as being perfect, but I'm just saying there was nothing Glaring. No. Glaring fault. Unbridled anger. Unbridled tongue. Unbridled thought. Life. Unbridled way they treated their spouse. None of that. None of that. No doubt they had to deal with their flesh on little things like that, but nothing glaring. What's this mean? They were quick to repent. Why? Because when you're quick to repent, the blessing of God is now it's free to flow. Free to flow. Free to flow. God doesn't bless you because you're perfect. God blesses you because you submit to him who is perfect. And repentance is you submitting to Him. Amen. Praise the Lord. You ready to move along? Or is that one just like I won't keep you long. Oh, it's almost time to quit. Okay, let me say this. And then we've got what, Two more nights? How many more nights? Two more nights. So we don't have to get to it all tonight. Jude, chapter one. There's just one chapter with Jude, but verse three. I just want to read the last phrase of verse 3. Earnestly contend for the faith. Which faith? The faith which was once delivered unto the saints. What's this mean? The original version? The original version of faith. Not the watered down, diluted faith that society appreciates or society is okay with hosting. They'll put up with you, you know. Well, I don't want to say anything to offend people. Then you probably won't be having the original version of faith. Amen. Because to obey God, faith has to say some things sometimes. If a pastor, his whole intent is don't offend people. Listen. Speak the truth in love. Absolutely. Ephesians, chapter 5. Speaking the Truth in love that they may grow up. I tell you, the way it's said means everything to people. But sometimes things have to be said in a loving way. And people who don't want to confront, don't want to deal with things. The people won't grow up. And we want people to grow up. Amen. Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Notice this. Sometimes people, people have drifted away from the original version of faith. They have a form, but not the original form. They have a version, but not the original version. Hebrews, and I'll just read this to you. Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 1. The Amplified Classic said, since all this is true, we ought to pay much closer attention than ever to the truths that we have heard, lest in any way we drift past them and slip away. See, the devil doesn't want to rob you of your faith overnight. He Just wants you to drift from it, drift real slow so you never notice how far you have veered. And then before long, you've slipped away and you don't even recognize, you don't even embrace what God had authored in you to begin with. Amen. How do we know if we have the original version of faith? We're acting on the word. We're acting on the word. Mental assent is what John Wesley called it. He said some have a version of faith that's. So it imitates faith, but it's not. It's an imitation of faith. It's not the real genuine article. And he called it mental assent. What's this mean? They believe it with their head, but they never put into their daily actions mental assent. So how do we know that we're really believing? We're doing the word. We're doing the word. To say I believe it but don't act on it is mental assent. So we have to make sure that we're not settling for the imitation of faith called mental assent. But we're employing. I'm a doer of the word, regardless of whether I feel like it or not, whether it looks like it's working or not. I'm a doer of the word. Amen. We'll start the first one just moments. We're going to look at the discipline of feeding faith. Because we're talking about faith as a discipline, the discipline of feeding our faith, the discipline of releasing our faith, the discipline of receiving from God, the discipline of holding fast once we have received, because the devil always wants to steal everything from you that God's blessed you with. So we don't just want to have faith to receive. It's like a kid comes and says, I have enough money to buy the car. Would you have enough money for the insurance? Insurance? What's insurance? Yeah, it lets you drive the car you just bought, or gas, you know, or. It's like these kids that want to move on their own and they don't realize that the apartments don't come with toilet paper. Our house always had toilet paper. They thought that that just comes with the facility. No, you have to buy toilet paper. I remember when Stephen and Morgan got married and Ed and Steven and different. They had built suites in the back of our property because we had five acres. And Ed built another house, suites in the back. And they lived in it for a while. And I would have. They were neighboring suites. So they lived on one side and then we could have guests and another side. So when we were going to have a guest, the gal that helps me at the house, I'd tell her, such and such is going to be coming and staying. Go stock the bathroom, stock the kitchen, put food in it. Because it was a whole. It was a whole house, basically a whole setup. And so she came to me one day and she said, pastor Nancy, she said, I bought all the stuff, put food in there, and stocked the bathroom and stuff. But when I went right before the people came to double check, make sure everything's in place, that's all that's gone. No. She's got a rebuttal, but it's not true. So I come home, I realize, oh, Stephen's gone over. While she's at the office, he's there at the house, and he's collecting. Because I guess he thought, I need it. They got it. It's right here. I come home on a different occasion, and we had a closet. Our bedroom had an extra closet. I didn't use for clothing. It was situated kind of in an odd place. So I kept all of my extras, all my items that I would ever need for my bathroom, for my bedroom in there. So I don't have to go to any place, part of the house and get it. It's all there. And I came and Stephen was holding a shopping bag, loading it up, loading it. And I said, what are you doing? I have it. I need it. You have it. I said, the key words are, I have it, I have it, I have it. And Morgan, we were in the church, and I was telling about this. She said, he didn't do that. I said, morgan, that's where he gets. That's the stuff when you come home, he's taking it from us. Yeah, You need your own faith. I said, you need your own faith. You have to employ your own disciplines of faith. It's not enough that your parents have it or that your pastor has the disciplines of faith. You have to have. She's doing a lot of talking on this front row. This front row needs to go quiet. This front row needs to go quiet. The rebuttal is argument. She is. Who is her. She is telling you it's her. I'll take the hit. You didn't know. It's Steven's hit, Stephen's. You have to take the hit over your husband sitting off the alarm in the middle of the day. Remember that? Yes. Okay, we won't go there. But the alarm's going on for a long time because he thought it was the thermostat to control the air, and he's sitting there purging. Don't touch anything. You and Grant had to drive up to turn it on. We couldn't get it off. Praise the Lord. Just a family moment here. Just a family moment. Just a family moment. Number one, real quick. Then we'll send you out the door. Number one, real quick. We're not going to get to all of number one, but part of it. Number one. The discipline of feeding our faith. The discipline of feeding our faith. How we treat the Word determines how sweet our life will be. If we value the Word highly, we will be value. We will receive a harvest on what we value. If we are dismissive toward the Word, our life will show it. Amen. So how we treat the Word will determine how sweet life is for us. It begins with not just being a doer, but treating it, approaching it. How we look upon the Word. Amen. That we honor the Word enough to feed on it. Amen. That means we give the Word first place. We get to know God through His Word, not through through feelings, not through sensing something. Will we sense his presence? Yes. But his presence doesn't explain him. The Word explains him. So we have to know him through the Word. I love something Pastor Craig preached on Sunday morning when God said, don't love my presence more than you love my Word. That dispensation pleases me. That means I want to be with mom and dad, but I'm not going to listen to what they tell me to do. That's what that means. I like being present with them because I feel safe when I'm with them. But if they tell me to do something, I'm not going to do it. There was somebody I know of that they had to. Basically a grown child. Grown. They were not a teenager. They were well out of their teen years and they were living at home. But they were completely dishonoring the parent. So the parent did what they should have done. They came out and they said, you're done living in my home. And so that child moved out, found their own place. But they were coming back on the weekends and spending time with the family, eating, watching the children tv. And I said, wait a minute. I said, let me help you with something. You missed the whole thing. They've moved out because they don't like your rules. But they're coming back to partake of fellowship. If you leave it, you leave it all. You don't get to pick fellowship. But I'm not going to do or abide by the laws of the home. No, you leave it all. You Leave it all. You leave it all. And I said, you're going to not. You're not going to get the right result if you let them disregard your directions in the home. But come back and partake of the food, the fellowship, and the fun times. They don't have a clean house. They got it better being out of the house. You're missing the whole point. This is what God is saying is that don't love my presence more than you love my word, because you just want the feeling of safety, of everything I am. But when I say something to you, you want to treat it, whether it's disposable or not. And we don't intend to do that. Right. But that's really what it becomes. I love what he says because what he says is safe as his presence. What he says to me is as safe as his presence. And I know how safe I feel in his presence. When his presence is so apparent. I know what I mean. It feels like nothing can overcome me. Right. But his words are that to us also, not just the feeling of his presence. Amen. And I love something else that God said to Pastor Craig. The presence of God refreshes us, which is right. Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. He said, the presence of God refreshes us, but the doing of the Word transforms us. Romans 1017. You know this. So then faith cometh by hearing. Notice this word cometh. It's a present state. It's a present state. Tense word, not a past tense word. Not faith came, not faith is going to come. Faith comes, faith comes. So we always need faith in the coming action, in the coming motion. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Hearing the word of God is hearing what God's saying to us. He speaks to us through His Word and by His Spirit. Those words need to mean something, something to us. If God said to me, do this or don't do that, that has to mean something to me. And just because it doesn't come with a threat in the voice doesn't mean it's not important. Sometimes we're in the habit of dealing with God how we dealt with our parents. We probably moved on the fourth or fifth time they told us to do it. And if we're not careful, we do the same thing with God, that we wait for him to really mean it. Once he says it, he really means it. Amen. And it's our safety to hear what he says and employ it, not treat it like, I'll get around to it. I'VE done that. We've all done that. But how we treat the Word is going to determine how sweet life is. Amen. Hallelujah. Faith is not bottomless pit. Once you spend your faith, you have to replenish your faith. When you take money out of your wallet, more money does not automatically appear. Boy, we do wish that would happen, right? I take out 100, 200 comes, I just. Boom, there it is back. We would love that. No, it's not a bottom pit, is it? We have to replenish financially our faith. Once we spend it and release it, we have to replenish it. It's not a bottomless pit. Amen. So what's that mean? We have to be feeding on the word. Can I tell you this? Take advantage of every moment to feed on the word. How do you do that? Have. Have sermons going on your devotion. When you're getting dressed in the morning, when you're riding in the car, look for opportunities to hear the word you love. Look for opportunities to hear the word you love. Because people will say, you don't understand. Pastor Nancy, I leave so early in the morning from the house. I just don't have time. No, look for opportunities to fill your moments with the Word. And in this technology age, oh, my goodness. We are so blessed with the ease of hearing, but sometimes because it's so easy to hear, we so quickly dismiss the opportunity to hear it. Well, praise the Lord. We'll stop right there tonight that we're not finished even with that one. But the discipline of feeding, it's not enough that the pastor feeds on the word. Word. It's not enough that your spouse feeds on the word. Amen. We have the privilege. We have the privilege of hearing what God says. Always treat God's word like it's him talking to you. And when you treat it that way, you'll run to it to feed on it, not treat it as disposable. Right? Stand with me if you would, tonight. Father, we thank you for your word. It is a lamp to our feet. We love your word. We love your word. We love your word. We love your Word. In it, we find how to think. We find how to respond. In life, we find what your best holds for us. We love your word. We honor your word. Hallelujah. 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 defrain Ministries.