← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Faith Is An Act, Part One | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
00:28:02
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
A
Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Amen. Turn with me, if you would, in your Bibles to James, chapter two. James, chapter two. And we're going to start reading in verse 17. There's so many verses there that I'd like to read, but we're just going to look at James chapter 2 and verse 17. The King James translation says this even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. The Weymouth translation says faith without corresponding actions. He's not talking about works that earn something. He's saying he's talking about works that demonstrate faith. So he's saying that when you have faith, there should be a demonstration of that faith that's going to show up. And it's going to show up in the work you do and the actions you take and the steps you make and the words you speak, that if there's faith, it will affect every outflow of your life. So it says here that faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. So notice this. Dead things don't produce. Without works, your faith won't produce. Dead things get no results. Without works or without corresponding actions, your faith will get no results. You can have faith that doesn't get results. How? By not having corresponding actions joined with your faith. The NIV translation says this in the same way. Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. So notice this. It's not just enough to tote faith around. It has to be accompanied with movement. Faith is a movement. Faith causes you to make moves. Faith won't leave you idle. If your faith is idle, you're not getting results and you're not producing anything. So we want to have a faith that produces something. Now, another translation says it is the same with faith. If it doesn't cause us to do something, it's dead. So notice this word, that faith will cause you to do something. It'll cause you to do something. It'll cause you to do something. So many times people think they have faith issues when they really have doing issues. They lack doing. They don't lack faith. They lack the doing to demonstrate faith. So, yes, we're faith people. But know this. Faith means you're moving. Faith means you're acting. Faith means you're making motion. Faith means you're demonstrating something on the inside of you. Faith will not leave you silent when it's moving. Faith will turn you into someone who speaks the word. And now in verse 22, the common English Bible says, see, Abraham's faith was at work along with his actions. Notice this. What was working? His faith and his actions. His faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. So notice, faith isn't complete until it's acted upon. And I like what this translation says. It was made complete by his faithful actions. What's that let you know? One act won't complete your faith. Repeated actions. It's a lifestyle of acting every single day. Acting every single day. Since we have faith, we should be acting. Amen. Dead faith is a useless faith. I mean, people can be proud of their faith, but if it's not making action, it's useless. It's actions that make our faith a living thing. Otherwise it's a dead thing. And James warns us that it not be a dead thing. It's actions that take your faith from something immobile and makes it mobile. Amen. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, right? So when you're, when you're feeding on the Word, when you're sitting in a service like this and hear, hearing the Word taught, hearing it preached, faith is coming to you. But you have to take it in. But you have to take it in. But you have to take it in. It comes. Faith comes, faith comes, but it's up to you to give it entrance. Somebody can come to your front door, but that doesn't mean they get in. Faith comes by hearing. You can sit in a service and hear the Word and faith will come, but it's with the heart. You have to open up and receive it. That's how come people can sit in a church for long time and lives be unchanged. Because they were in a place where faith come, but they didn't let it have entrance. It just came and they just, they just let it. They just left it outside their heart. So we take it in, but it's still not enough. Just take it in. Then when it comes in, it gets you producing something. It should cause you to start making movement. That's a sign it entered Amen at the new birth. As Pastor Morgan was saying during the offering, you have a measure of the God faith in you at the new birth. So everyone has enough faith to cause them to act. I don't care what your measure of faith is, you got a beginning measure of faith at the new birth. Now it's up to us to feed that faith, nurture it, cause it to grow, cause it to develop, cause it to thrive. But because you're born again, you have faith in you. That means every day there should be some action or demonstration with that faith. Amen. Faith never comes by praying for it. So don't pray for it. It only comes by getting more of the Word in you. And not just even just hearing it. Because if you can hear it, if you hear it, but it doesn't get in you, it doesn't matter that you heard it. Faith comes, but you have to allow it entrance. Faith comes by hearing. Remember this the rest of your life. Faith comes by hearing. Faith does not operate by hearing. Faith comes by hearing the Word, but it does not function by hearing. It does not function. So it's not when you have a need, it's not just hear more word, hear more word, hear more word. It's hear, word, act, hear, word, act, hear word, act. It's not just hear, hear, hear. Because faith does not function by hearing. Faith comes by hearing. But it functions by acting. Acting. It's released by acting. It won't do you any good to have faith that is not released. Amen. We know this. We can take in a lot of food and never exercise. And we can be good at eating, good at it, good at taking it in, but not good at spending any of it, not spending any the energy of that. And we can tell. We can look at ourselves. You keep your eyes on yourself, okay? But we can tell how much we've been spending of what we're taking in. Well, your life will show how much you're spending of the faith you've been taking in. Amen. So know this. Faith is come to come. To come, to come. But it only comes so that you're empowered to have greater acts. Greater acts. Greater acts. Greater acts. Your actions should be bolder than they were last year. Your acts should not be the same as they were when your faith was smaller in measure. As the measure of your faith grows, your acts should be more bolder. Amen. Praise the Lord. So faith comes by hearing. It does not function by hearing. So do not fall into the trap as word people that we do. I just got to hear the word. I just got to hear the Word. It won't matter that you hear it if you don't hear it and act. Hear it and act. Hear it and act. Hear it and act. Every day, as Morgan was saying, take in the word every day. That means act every day. Consider the word incomplete until it's acted upon. It's incomplete. And that's what it said about Abraham's faith in James 2:22, that his faith was incomplete until he acted. The hearing is not the completion of faith, it's the action. You hear for the purpose of acting. And if you just take it in and hear, you miss the whole purpose of faith. The purpose of faith is for action. It's for doing, for making a difference. Amen. Dad Hagin used to tell people who would get up in his ministry line and he would lay hands on them and he could tell that anointing, that healing anointing didn't go in them. Why? Because although it's there, they didn't know how to receive it. See, there's a lot of people who sit in a service where the word is preached and faith comes, but they don't know how to let that faith that comes in. They don't know how to let it come into them. Well, it's the same thing with healing power. You can lay hands on someone and then not know how to receive it. You receive it with your spirit, not with your mind, not with your feelings and not with your emotions. You receive it with your spirit. And if people don't know how to receive and lay hold of that with the hand of faith that's in their spirit, then you can lay hands on somebody and there's no fruit from, has no effect. So dad Hagin, when he would lay hands on someone, and most of the time as a minister, you can tell when some, when that anointing goes in or when it doesn't. And you don't have the heart to tell people because you don't have the time to sit and work with people. So the cure is, let them sit more under the word. And as they sit, as they sit, things begin to dawn on them. And as it dawns on them, then they open up their hearts and receive. But dad Hagin, when he would lay hands on people and he knew that healing anointing didn't go in him, he would say this. You can school yourself into faith. And he would say this, don't get in the healing line again this week on Friday, I'm going to lay hands again on the sick from now until next Friday. He would say, say, the next time Brother Hagin lays hands on me, the healing anointing will go in me and I shall be whole. You hear that? He's saying that's how you school yourself into faith. What's he doing? How many of you know by having them to say something, he's getting them to act. Saying is one form of acting, but it's not the only form. And if we're not careful, we. We can just stop at the saying and never go on to the doing. But there are people who are not receiving and they need to school themselves into faith. Begins with the mouth, say, will help direct you in your doing. So he would say, between now and next Friday, school yourself into faith. Every day, all throughout the day. Every time you think of it, say, the next time Brother Hagin lays hands on me, the healing anointing will go into my body and I shall be whole. What's he doing? He's telling them just start acting even he said. And people would say to him, well, Brother Hagin, I've never heard this healing message. You know, this is new to me. What if I don't believe it? He said, it doesn't matter if you don't believe it, just start saying it. Why? Because as you say, your spirit will hear truth and you'll start believing truth. Because faith comes by hearing. It's not necessarily another sermon you may need to hear. Sometimes it's your own mouth. You need to hear your own mouth speaking the word that you need to hear. And that's what he's saying. You're just counting on what you're hearing out of my mouth, but you need to hear out of your mouth. And so he would tell them, school yourself into faith. Even if you say you don't believe it, see, their heart is looking to believe. But see, when they say they don't believe it, they're talking about their mind. Their mind doesn't understand, so the mind kicks it out. So he's getting them to bypass their mind. Say it, say it. That's how you say it. And you say it and you say it and you'll begin bypassing your mind. And that's what he was saying. He was getting them to act through the place of saying, right. And so he said every time people would do that, he said, only two times in my whole ministry that I told people to do that. Only two times of those people that came back, did they not receive their healing. He said every other person received their healing. He said the other two never came back. That's why they never received. They never came back on that Friday night. He said every person that I told to do that to. And they did it. Every one of them were healed the next time I laid hands on them. How was that? Did their faith grow? Their acting grew? They began to act. So you don't only have to act in a service, you can act at home before A service. He got them acting in between services. When you say something, you are acting. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. What was he doing? He was getting their faith moving. If they were born again, there was faith, but their head was overpowering and dominating them and leading them by them saying, well, what if I don't believe it? He was just. Just get your faith moving by saying it. That's what he meant. School it. School yourself into faith. If you will start saying it, it will get the faith in you moving and the faith in you will start overriding the wrong thinking. Amen. It's not enough to hear, then you have to act. You have to hear and act, hear and act. And the hearing doesn't always have to be through a preacher. It can be hearing your own mouth. Amen. For faith to work, it has to be in two places. It has to be in your heart and in your mouth. If you don't ever speak the word, you have a faith that's dead. Now listen to what I said. You have a faith, you have a faith, but it's dead. But God quickens the dead. Your dead faith can be quickened. Amen. Even dead, faith is still present. If you were to have a funeral, and in some cases people will bring the casket in into the service, that person there is dead. They don't cease to exist. They're still there. They're still present. Just because they're not moving doesn't mean it's not present. Just because your faith is dead doesn't mean it's not present. It's present, still present. Quicken that stuff. Quicken that faith. How do you quicken it? Give it movement. You act. You act. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Faith is an act. Faith is not just something you have. Faith is something you do. Remember that. Faith is not just something you have. Faith is something, something you do. To believe is to act. To have faith is to act. For faith is an act. It's not just a possession, it's an act. It's a possession that causes you to act. Well, that you should be acting on it won't make you act. It's up to your choice. Now, we don't act to try to get faith. Now, this is where some have missed it is they act trying to get faith. Faith doesn't come by acting. Faith is released by acting. Faith does not come by acting. Faith is released by acting. So some they act trying to get faith or trying to prove to others they have faith or trying to keep up with somebody else's faith. But that's not going to be successful acting. The action that you make has to demonstrate your faith. Not faith you wish you had. Not faith that somebody else has, but faith that you currently have. Not even faith you used to have last year. Because sometimes you might say, you know what? I've had stronger faith in the past. Yeah, you might recognize my faith was stronger in some areas in the past. But you still can't act on the faith you used to have. You can only act on the faith you currently possess. So we don't act to try to get faith. We act to release the faith we do have. That means don't try to act beyond what you can believe. Because if you do, then you're trying to act to get faith. And that's not how faith comes. Faith comes by hearing. Faith is released by acting. Have you ever tried to spend money you don't have? It's called an overdraft. Right? It's called a hop check. Right. It's illegal. People do it, but you know, they'll let you catch up. And if you keep doing it long enough and with large enough amounts, you can go to prison for overdrawing and spending what you don't have. Right. You can go to all kinds of difficulty in your life by trying to spend faith you don't have, by throwing out medicine when you don't have faith to throw out medicine, by not going to the doctor when just use the faith you have. Listen, you can't decide what you want to do and call that faith. Some people say, I don't want to have an operation. No one wants to have one. But just because you don't want one doesn't mean that's faith for not having it. Or somebody say, I don't want medication. Nobody wants to take medication. But just not wanting to take medication does not equal faith to not take the medication. Listen, it's not withholding medicine that pleases God. It's not not going to the doctor. It's not not having the operation that pleases God. It's you releasing the faith you have that pleases God. And God will never condemn you for your medical faith. Never, never, Never. You never saw Jesus rebuke someone for the size of their faith. He rebuked them for not using the size they had. He rebuked them for not acting. He didn't rebuke them for not having it. He rebuked them for not acting. Amen. Hallelujah. Now the important thing is to act within the measure of faith you have Regardless of how much that is, just use every ounce of faith you got. Spend it to the end every day. Treat your faith like manna that it's going to rot by the end of the day if you don't spend it. Because faith has to come every day. Faith has to be reborn every day. Now faith does have a very short shelf life. So just go ahead and spend it all every day. Spend everything you got for that day and you know what's going to happen. It's going to enlarge your capacity for more faith. And next day you're going to be more skillful with taking it in and spending it. Taking it in and spending. Brother, I can take it in. I can take that money in and spend it. Oh, I can take it in and spend it. Why I grew in my ability to spend right things you used to choke over. Oh, I'd never spend that much. Boy, I just woke up and buy two today. You know why? Because you grew in your capacity of your appetite for something and you go, ah, what I used to stumble over and choke at buying. I freely do it now. Same thing with faith. The more you take in and spend it, the greater the capacity for your faith grows. And you can spend it, you can take it in in a larger quantities and spend it in larger quantities. Amen. Hallelujah. Now, I love this statement. This statement was in a book and I'll tell you where it was. I'm not certain if it came from the person, but let me tell you. You remember John G. Lake had healing rooms. The materials he used in training the ministers or the people who worked with him in those healing rooms was in a manual. This statement was in that manual by John G. Lake. I can act myself into believing faster than I can believe myself into acting. Let me say it again. I can act myself into believing faster than I can believe myself into acting. Now let me explain what that means. That means some won't act till they feel like they're full of faith. They want to feel like they're full and then they'll oh, now I believe I can act. And he said, that's the wrong order. Go ahead and act. That's what dad Hagin told those people to do. You go ahead and even if it's more than what you can believe, go ahead and say it. Go ahead and say it and let your believing catch up to what you're saying. He said you can school yourself into faith if you'll just say it even if you don't believe it. He said, say the next time Brother Hagin lays hands on me, I'll be healed. What were they doing? They were. They were doing exactly this. They were acting themselves into believing rather than trying to believe for healing before they acted. Does that make sense to you? So let me read the statement again. I can act myself into believing faster than I can believe myself into acting. So many times people don't act because they don't feel like they have a lot of faith, so they withhold their actions. And that's what he's saying. Just go ahead and act. Don't worry about whether you feel full enough. Just go ahead and act, but act in a way that's not going to injure your life. Don't go and say, I'm going to just throw out all my meds. Why don't you just maybe. Why don't you just maybe just say, you know what, I'm just going to believe for less pain today. Right? You don't have to. Don't act yourself into a complication. Don't go out and put a down payment on a house or a car and order a car. Put a car on order and then they call you and say, you need to come down and purchase this. Oh, I was doing that by faith. Well, we're going to press charges by faith, you know. No, don't do something that's going to commit you. But there are ways you can act. Even if you know it's beyond what you believe. Even if you know, at least acting will draw up your desire and your hunger to take in more faith. But don't act in a way that's going to injure yourself or injure you financially, injure your family, put yourself at risk. Just do something more than you did yesterday. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Some won't act, and until they feel like they got a lot of faith, those are the people who are trying to believe mentally. They want to feel like they're just robust in faith. Then their actions will work. Just take little actions every day. Just take little. Little actions are better than big actions. Hardly taken. Little actions taken every day are far better than big actions taken once a year. Right? Hallelujah. Acting stirs up the faith you have and gets it moving. And that's what this statement was, that you can act yourself into believing easier than you can believe yourself into acting. If you'll just go ahead and act some, you can always make some small act and it'll get your faith moving and get it stirring. Amen. Trying to believe God without acting is like trying to steer a car that's parked. Go ahead. See how. See how you run down the rubber on the tires real good just sitting there steering a parked car. You don't go in. It doesn't matter that you're steering. It doesn't matter that you have faith. If things aren't moving, if there's no action, it doesn't matter that you got a car. You can go out and you can sit in your car and you can sit. The boss say, how come we haven't seen you at work? Well, I don't know. I'm in my car. Well, are you driving it to work? No, I haven't turned it on. But I've got a car and I'm in it. You got faith. It won't carry you anywhere till you act. Your life won't travel anywhere. It's like having a car you never turn on. It's like having a car that never starts. Consider your faith not started until something turns it on. You're the one that turns it on by action. Amen. Hallelujah. Just having faith won't get you somewhere. You have to act on the faith you have, and it will carry you into the fullness of what God has for your life. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 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.