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Fervency: Burning With the Spirit, Part Two | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Romans 12, verse 10. The King James, verse 11. Actually not slothful in business, fervent in spirit. And that word fervent means to be hot and to boil. The amplified says, never lag in zeal. And in. Look at that. Never lag. Just don't even fall behind if someone's lagging, they're just behind somebody else. Don't ever get behind somebody else. Ever let your fervor be lower than anyone else's. Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor. Be aglow and burning with the spirit, serving the Lord again, someone who's full of the Word and the spirit is going to be aglow and burning with the Spirit. To be fervent, you have to be full of the Word and full of the Spirit. Now, there are things, and we were saying previously, that just as your body temperature is an indicator of your health, your spiritual temperature is an indicator of your spiritual health. And God expects us to be hot, not lukewarm. Jesus said, I'll spew you out of my mouth if you're lukewarm. I don't want you cold. I don't want you lukewarm. I want you hot. Because that's an indicator of your spiritual health. Now, things that can lower our spiritual temperature, we want to stay away from those things, Right? Being in wrong relationships will lower your spiritual temperature. And especially I say to you young people, and as you're looking and growing and growing toward a married life, maybe you're not married yet, you're dating or something, you. If someone that you're dating or someone that you're in a relationship with doesn't make you burn hotter spiritually, guess what? Guess what? They will lower your spiritual temperature. Being in a wrong relationship, then just being in fellowship with people who aren't hot for God, you get around them and it will lower your spiritual temperature. I mean, you'll come away drained. Something's been. Something's been drained out of you. Haven't you ever just been in settings and you come away and you go, that drained me. Just. They pulled on your emotions. They drug you into the mental arena, whatever. So if you want to be someone full of the word, full of the spirit, fervent in serving the Lord, you can't be around people who are warm. You find your fellowship with those who are interested, interested in the things of God, who are reaching and who are building that spiritual bonfire. So to speak in their lives. They're becoming fervent. The right people for your life. Enhance your spiritual hotness. If your fellowship with God grows colder, you're in the wrong relationships by being around certain people. If your spiritual relationship with God grows colder, that's an indication of spiritual health. Another thing that can lower your spiritual temperature to where you're not hot and fervent for God is going to wrong locations. You know what happens at wrong locations? Wrong things. You go to wrong locations, you hang out with wrong people and wrong things will start happening to you. People say, well, I don't know why that happened. There have been times that people got into cars, riding with people they shouldn't have had car wreck and got killed. Wrong car, wrong person, wrong things happened. Why did God let that happen? God didn't let that happen. When, when you go to the wrong, wrong happens. Amen. There's a danger going to wrong locations where wrong things are happening at that place. Because wrong things will begin happening to your home, your marriage, your health, your mind. Amen. Wrong locations will lower your spiritual fervency. Another thing that will lower your spiritual temperature. Too much recreation. Too much recreation. Yes, God intends for you had times of fellowship and recreation, but too much, too much will start injuring your spiritual life. Recreation is fine with imbalance. But if every weekend all you do is you just make it through the week so you and your family can go hang out and do all the party stuff, you're training your children in recreation and not in the word. So many Christian families have been trained in recreation, not around the Word. I've had people say, well, you know, we won't be coming to this because this event at the church, because we're going to have family time. Your family time should be around the word. Your family time should be around the local church. Because people, when they say that, they, they're going to sit and they're going to go to a movie together. Nothing wrong going to a movie as long as it's appropriate. But they're talking about going and doing natural things. That's fine to do natural things, but don't ever treat spiritual things as not being family time. That is the highest flow of family time. Serving the Lord together. Amen. And so people identify. And like I said, it's fine to have recreation. It's fine to draw back and go to a place where you're not taken up with the business of daily life, but not so you can become colder. And if you get colder in your recreation, you're doing the wrong recreation. Well, praise the Lord. Then working at your profession too much can lower your spiritual temperature that you don't have time for God because your profession is getting the best of you. It's getting all of your strength, all of your energy. Smith Wigglesworth was a man who owned his own business. He was, as you know, an English preacher, phenomenal healing ministry, a man of faith. And in his younger years as an owner of his own plumbing company, he got so busy that he quit attending his own church. His wife was the pastor. Now, when you don't even attend your own family's church, your own spouse's church, it's a good indication something's cooling. But he got so wrapped up in his profession that he backslidden. And he even got to the point to where his wife was pastoring the church and he was forbidding her to go. Now, you're not lukewarm, baby. You just cold. You just cold. And he was backslid. And overworking at his profession almost cost him his salvation. You can let me. And let me just say this. Even if you are in the ministry full time, you can overwork the business of the ministry and neglect the spiritual side of the ministry and go and go lukewarm. You can lose your fervor and your hotness because any business can become a profession that steals from your spiritual life and your spiritual temperature. And don't just think because it's in the work of the ministry that your fellowship with God is hot. Don't confuse the two. Work of the ministry does not equal fervor in your spiritual fellowship with God. Praise the Lord. The devil would love to increase you so much in your business and so much financially that you have no time to tend to your spiritual life. The devil will enhance you enough to rob your best from you. And people think that they're really succeeding when the devil is stealing from their spiritual life by loading them up in the natural. You're only safe being loaded up in the natural when you're spiritually hot. And God will. This is why many times people are wanting to be loaded up financially. They're wanting their business to increase. They're wanting their business to flourish. And if God did that while you're lukewarm, he's condoning things out of order. If you want your business to grow, get hot, get hot, get hot. That's the spiritual temperature. God blesses because he knows if you're not spiritually hot, you're not safe with financial increase. You're not safe with increased business because you'll get things out of order. Amen. Then just. This goes in line with recreation, participating in worldly indulgences. Wrong movies, wrong websites, wrong things that you're looking at on the computer that will zap your spiritual hotness in seconds. What about this? And don't, please don't misunderstand me. Kids ought to be able to play video games. But I've seen grown men playing video games for hours, trading their destiny for a video game, selling off their destiny for the worldly indulgences that just robbed from you and robbed from you. You know, Paul talked about, when I was a child, I did things as a child, but as a man, I set aside childish things. Some people in the body of Christ, I'm saying, some grown men, you're no longer teenagers. You need to set aside some of that stuff or do it very limitedly. Know how limitedly. Because we have a society of grown men sitting by the hour when they should be working, should be feeding their spiritual life. And they're sitting on a video game because they grew up with a video thing in their hand, a video controller in their hand. And they got this habit. That's right. Amen. The only time you're safe to pick one of those up for a few moments is if you're already hot. But if you're not hot, put the thing down and get hot. And I'm not saying you can't enjoy those things. I'm saying we have a society and a lot of people that are overindulging. And I mean, when you sit by an hour or two as a grown man and play that stuff, you're selling off your future. Future. You're selling off your destiny. And at some time you have to set it aside and it can be your phone, it can be an iPad, it can be. I'm going to tell you, this generation has things to address that previous generations didn't have to deal with. Every generation, every age has its own things that try to rob from it. And you better master those things so they, so they don't master you. But all these things will make. They will, they will. They will diminish your spiritual hotness. Another thing that will diminish your spiritual hotness is just simply this. No time in the Word, not spending enough time in the Word and in prayer, not spending enough time praying in the Holy Ghost. And then another thing. Neglecting your local church, neglecting services, going and doing other things when you have the opportunity to be doing something with your church family. Amen. Just know this church attendance is no substitute for a daily walk with God. It's not a substitute. It is to enhance your walk with God, but it's no substitute. Amen. Then what about things that increase our spiritual fervor? Well, number one, feeding on the word, feeding on time, the prayer with God, of course, fellowshiping with God, speaking in tongues. And then Jude said this. Building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. When you are praying in the Holy Ghost, you're building up. You're building up. You're stoking. You're stoking that fire that's on the inside of you. Then being active, of course, in your local church helps affect your spiritual temperature because it keeps you around. People who are interested in what you're interested in. At the grocery store, they're not interested in your spiritual temperature. At the mall, they're not interested. Spiritual temperature. This is the only location you can come in the earth. And they're interested in your spiritual temperature. And it will enhance your spiritual temperature to get around right fellowship. It matters. So that goes into the next thing, just attending church services and being all there in there in the moment, I'm all in. And then right fellowship and right relationship. So the next thing that's going to enhance your spiritual fervor when you. You need to choose people for your life, that you get stirred up by being around them, they stir you to want more of God. Those are the people, and you seek them out. You seek those people out. What was it? How come Elisha ended up with a double portion? Because he stayed with a man who had it. You can't separate yourself from people who have it and have it. If you get away from people who have it, you can't have it. You get yourself around people who have it, and then you pay whatever cost you have to to be near them. If it costs you money, so be it. If it costs you other things, so be it. I mean, my husband and I would spend thousands of dollars to go be in dad Hagin's meetings because we wanted what he had. Find people who have what you want and pay the price to get as near them. I'm not saying to be a buddy to them, you can't always be a buddy to them. But be in proximity, be listening, feeding on, getting around. Amen. Mark, chapter 12. Go with me. Mark 12, 30. Mark chapter 12 and verse 30. Jesus was speaking and he said this. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. Listen to this with all thy heart. Means your heart's not divided. It's not half in one direction, half in another direction. You're all in. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul. What? Your soul, your mind and your will and your emotions. You are absorbed in your thinking with God and his ways. Amen. You love him with all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind. Look at this with all your strength. Ah, he's talking about your body. So many times people say, and I've had this over the, over the years, you know, I'm just, after I'm at work, I just don't, I'm just too tired to do anything else. Well, I understand you need to work, you should work. But don't. All your strength should not go to your profession. God has a call for your strength. Do not spend all your strength on something that will not keep you hot. How about this? How about worshiping God with our strength, not holding down the chair in front of of us and just standing there and meaning worship. No strength, no strength being, no strength being spent. Jesus said we're to love him with all of our strength. I mean we lift our hands, we lift our, you know, we're not just standing there half hearted, just making an indention in the carpet. So we see this what Jesus is telling us. God, when it's all out, it's our heart, it's our soul, it's our mind, it's our strength. There's none of our being withheld. There's none of our being withheld. We bring our entire being into this flow and fervency puts a demand on your whole being. If you're not bringing your strength to it, you're not fervent. If your mind is worrying, you're not fervent. Because he gets all your mind. See if worry got it. He's not, you're not worshiping him with all of it. If fear is plaguing you, then that's the part he's not getting. That's the part of your being and your attention that's on fear, is the part that is not on him. And no wonder we struggle because he gets it all. He gets it all. Amen. Full people are fervent people. There's nothing of our being that's to be held on reserve or withheld. When he says we love him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength, that means no room for half heartedness. That's why so many people in the Christian life don't receive they're half hearted. Half hearted. They don't. We have to put out an all out effort. This is what receives all of you being in the moment in church, all of you being in the moment, not distracted and then wondering why you come out no different than when you went into the service. It's because of what you did with your being in that service. Were you wholehearted? Were you whole? Was your, was your soul involved? Was your mind involved? Was your strength involved in that service? Amen. Praise the Lord. Go with me to second Timothy chapter two. Second Timothy, chapter two. Paul is writing to Timothy young minister, and he says to him in 2nd Timothy chapter 2, verse 3, Thou therefore endure hardness. Look at this as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Don't just endure, endure as a good soldier. So bad soldiers can endure, but they endure in a totally different way than a good soldier endures. A bad soldier will complain their way through the assignment, but not a good soldier. A good soldier is glad to do what his commanding officer instructs of him. He's good at listening, he's good at following instructions. He's good at what he puts in his mouth about it. He's not off complaining behind the mess tent about what the commanding soldier, commanding officer told him to do. Amen. Now there's going to come difficult circumstances, but the way you endure as a good soldier, you endure with fervency. You're going to need fervency to get you past hardness, to endure. Hardness calls for fervency. And this is why some people, they might get fervent through a hardness, but not. They didn't get through skillfully, they barely got through. They crawled through that situation, so to speak. They got through and they looked like they'd gone through a keyhole backwards, you know, everything just stripped out of them. Why, when you're fervent, you blast through stuff. You blast through things. When my husband went home to be with the Lord, you understand, the greatest tragedy in my life was my husband's homegoing. It was not the hardest thing I've ever faced. Why? Because I knew something of the word and I was fervently living it. And that put me over. It turns fervency turns hard things easy. I mean, when you got a big engine and you put that vehicle with that big engine at the bottom of a hill, it can't wait to get to that. It can't wait to take on that hill because that's when it gets to show its stuff. But if you just got a little putt putt with a little rubber band type engine and it starts up that hill. It's June. It might get up there, but it was not an example. But I'm telling you, people with these off road vehicles, they take them off road, they go up rocks, they go up mountainsides because they want to show off what this, the guts of this thing, right? They enjoy the guts of this. This is what fervor is. It's the guts of your climb. You can't wait that when you see something, a hill, a mountain that gets in front of you, you don't sit there and sit at the bottom and weep and tried to find a way to go around. You just can't wait to get up there because fervency, you just shoot over that thing. Fervency puts you on top of things. It turns hard things easy. If you've been worrying and struggling about something, it's because you need to increase your spiritual fervency. Amen. Hallelujah. I love a minister who has the largest church in the world. And you can imagine how he would be a spotlight on in Satan's kingdom. Devils would make him a target. And somebody said to him, don't you have a lot of difficulties and challenges? He says, I guess I do. I just haven't noticed. That's why he's on top, because he doesn't notice, because spiritual fervor keeps propelling him past and forward. He's not struggling to get past. There's something in his spiritual engine, in his spirit. Amen. There's a fire burning in his engine. Amen. And let me tell you what, if you're spiritually fervent, you're happy, you're joyful, you got a song in your heart. No matter what's going on, you got a song in your heart. Amen. Praise the Lord. Now can I say this? Morgan was referring to it during the offering. Faith calls those things which be not as though they were speaking of Abraham. Faith calls those things. Let me tell you why some people's calling doesn't work. There's no fervency in it. They're calling half hearted. They're calling on empty. Yeah. So good. You got to get full fill up and your calling will work. Can I tell you this? Calling will help your spiritual fervency. It will increase your spiritual fervency. It'll increase it. Amen. So if we want to get on the other side of stuff, we're going to have to call from a fervent, a fervent. Full place. That's what gets that's what's going to bring these things you're believing for into your life and you're calling fervently. You're not calling half heartedly out of duty because I'm checking off my list. Praise the Lord. Remember what Paul told Timothy Stir up the gift that's on the inside of you. The Amplified says that is why I would remind you to stir up, rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of and keep burning the gracious gift of God, the inner fire which is in you. Doesn't that sound like fervency? That's what fervor is. It's boil over. Amen. So fervency must be stirred. The Word talks about being fervent in our love for God. The Word talks about being fervent in our worship of God. It talks about being fervent in our prayer lives, in praying for one another. It talks about in being fervent in our love for other people. It talks about being fervent in ministering to others. It talks about being fervent in ministering the Word. It talks about being fervent in serving God. And I want to read to you the Amplified says of Romans 12:11 never lag in zeal in earnest endeavor be aglow and burning with the Spirit serving the Lord. The Lexham English translation says not lagging in diligence, being enthusiastic in spirit, serving the Lord. God's Word Translation Translation says don't be lazy in showing your devotion. Use your energy to serve the Lord. Now they're talking about a spiritual energy that will feed over into your physical energy. The Good News translation says work hard, do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a full heart of devotion. The common English Bible says don't hesitate to be enthusiastic. Enthusiastic Be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord. The new living translation says never be lazy but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. The NIV says never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. The NIRV says never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive. Serve the Lord. The new century version says do not be lazy but work hard serving the Lord with all your heart and dakes in his Bible in his notes he says maintain zeal to the boiling point. Amen. Hallelujah. There's nothing that's more that's going to help you more in life than to be fervent and hot for God in your spiritual walk. Amen. Hallelujah Hallelujah. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at dufresneministries.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 Dufresne Ministries.