Podcast Summary: Fervency—Burning With The Spirit, Part Four

Podcast: Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Host: Nancy Dufresne
Episode Title: Fervency: Burning With The Spirit, Part Four | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
Date: December 10, 2020

Episode Overview

In this teaching episode, Pastor Nancy Dufresne focuses on the spiritual principle of fervency—living “burning and hot” for God and His kingdom. Drawing from various scriptures, she elaborates on practical ways to maintain and ignite spiritual zeal in every area of Christian life: love, prayer, service, and ministry. Nancy’s message encourages believers to stir themselves up, not to settle into lukewarmness, and to serve God and others with passionate devotion.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Fervency Defined and Commanded

• Jesus’s call to fervency: Nancy opens with Revelation 3:15–16, emphasizing Jesus’ distaste for lukewarmness:

  “He wants us to be fervent and hot.” (00:12)

• Paul’s exhortation: She quotes Romans 12:11 in the Amplified:

  “Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor... be aglow and burning with the spirit, serving the Lord.” (00:49)

• Fullness produces fervency:

  “If our spiritual temperature starts cooling down, we can apply the heat of the Word again... The fire of the Holy Ghost.” (01:34)

2. Fervency in Attitude and Approach

• Joy is a product of fervency:

  “When you're fervent, you're bringing your own party to the scene... You’ve got your own joy.” (02:18)

• Fervency is not about personality:

  “It’s not the personality leading you. The word has to lead you.” (05:08)
  Nancy shares her own experience as a non-confrontational person, who has had to step past her personality to fulfill her pastoral responsibilities.

3. Fervency Amid Opposition

• Matthew 11:12’s principle of ardent zeal:

  “To lay hold of what God has provided calls for fervency, so that you reach past opposition... Fervency is what gets you past that which opposes and tries to block or hinder your progress.” (03:45)

• Faith and fervent calling:

  “Faith has a fervency in its call... It's a fervent call that keeps calling, keeps calling, keeps calling.” (09:47)

  • Nancy uses the story of a wife demanding her husband to pray for her with authority, not half-heartedness (08:26).

4. Stirring Up the Inner Fire

• Responsibility to maintain spiritual fire:

  “Everything God’s put in you has to be stirred... It’s up to you how high and how hot that fire burns. It’s not up to God.” (11:30)

• Fervency overcomes fear:

  “Stir yourself up spiritually and that fear won’t harass you and torment you. Because fear can’t stay where fervency lives. Why, it burns it out.” (13:16)

• Analogy: Nancy compares fervency to the fire under a vehicle—greater fire, greater power and assignment (12:45).

5. Fervency in Love for God and Others

• Love should be ardent and demonstrative:

  “Talking to God, I love you fervently and devotedly, O Lord, my strength.” (14:10, quoting Psalm 18:1)

• Gratitude as a measure of spiritual temperature:

  “The way you show gratitude shows your spiritual temperature.” (15:06)

• Obedience reflects fervency:

  “Our obedience shows our fervency of love for God.” (16:05)

6. Fervency in Prayer

• Persistent, fervent prayer brings results:

  “But fervent prayer for him was persistently made to God by the church.” (Acts 12:5, quoted at 17:07)

• Fervent prayer means not quitting:

  “Fervent prayer is a prayer that doesn’t cease till the answer is seen. That means fervency turns you into someone who doesn’t quit. You don’t give up till the answer shows up.” (19:58)

• Fervency requires interest in others:

  “You don’t wait until you feel feelings of interest. You choose feelings of interest.” (21:01)
  Nancy describes the necessity of praying fervently for others regardless of personal feelings.

7. Fervency in Love for Others

• Divine love as the root of fervency:

  “You’re not loving people with flesh, you’re loving them from a born-again spirit with the life of God in it.” (23:04)

• Fervency shuts down gossip:

  “When gossip encounters divine love, it goes silent. It’s not repeated.” (24:07)

• Covering rather than exposing sin:

  “Above all things have fervent love among yourselves, for [love] will cover the multitude of sins.” (25:09, referencing 1 Peter 4:8)

• Stretching oneself to serve:

  “You’ll put yourself on the line to be a blessing to someone else... Love will consider helping someone else even when it puts a stretch on you.” (26:00)

8. Fervency in Ministry and Service

• Ministering and serving with fervency:

  “Ministering to someone else by the Spirit... there is a fervency in that. That we’re to minister fervently, not half-heartedly.” (27:10)

• Serving God passionately:

  “He wants you to be excited to get to church, excited to be at your post... I’m fervent. Why? Because I remember what he did for me.” (28:56)

• Quoting Dake:

  “‘Maintain zeal to the boiling point.’ If you’re having a hard time obeying what God has for your life, get fervent. Fervency throws you into full agreement.” (29:40)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On sustaining fervency:

  “Fullness breeds fervency. Fullness produces fervency.” (01:21)

• On fervency and faith:

  “Faith calls. Faith has a fervency in its call.” (09:50)

• On responsibility:

  “Our spiritual progress is up to us, not up to God. Our progress is up to us.” (13:58)

• On loving from the spirit:

  “You’re loving them from a born-again spirit with the life of God in it... There should be a fervency in that love.” (23:09)

• On serving with zeal:

  “Maintain zeal to the boiling point.” (29:40)

Key Timestamps

• 00:12: Opening focus on Revelation 3 and Jesus’ call for hot, not lukewarm, believers
• 01:21: The link between fullness and fervency
• 02:18: Joy as a sign of spiritual fervency
• 03:45: Taking the kingdom by force with zeal (Matthew 11:12)
• 05:08: Fervency is not about personality
• 09:47: The importance of fervency in “calling” by faith
• 11:30: Stirring up the inner fire (2 Timothy 1:6)
• 13:16: Fervency drives out fear
• 14:10: Loving God fervently (Psalm 18:1)
• 17:07: Fervent prayer in the church leads to deliverance (Acts 12:5)
• 19:58: Fervent prayer perseveres
• 21:01: Choosing to be interested in others in prayer
• 23:04: Loving others with divine love, not emotions
• 24:07: Fervency of love silences gossip
• 25:09: Fervent love covers sin (1 Peter 4:8)
• 26:00: Stretching self for others
• 27:10: Fervency in ministering to others
• 28:56: Serving God with excitement and remembrance
• 29:40: Dake’s statement—maintaining zeal at boiling point

Conclusion

Pastor Nancy Dufresne’s message is a passionate call to live every aspect of the Christian life with spiritual fervency—not out of mere personality or emotion, but because of fullness in the Word and Spirit. She exhorts believers to stir themselves, bring their own joy, serve God energetically, pray and love others zealously, and maintain that holy fire. The episode is filled with scriptural references, practical analogies, and inspiring exhortations to help listeners recognize and rekindle genuine fervency on every level.