← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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I wanted to read to you Romans 8:14. It says, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So God is letting us know this, that he has committed that those who belong to him will be led by Him. It's not for Him. It's not enough that we just belong to Him. He wants us to also be led by Him. So he has committed that by His Spirit he will lead us. And how's he going to do that? Verse 16 tells us that he bear the Spirit of God, will bear witness with our spirit. That doesn't mean necessarily that you'll hear a voice from heaven. It doesn't necessarily mean that God will deal with you in a dramatic way, but he bears witness with your spirit. That when the Spirit of God is leading you to do something, it seems right on the inside, not just to the mind, because sometimes he'll lead you to do things that seem right in your spirit, but it gives your head fits. And so you always follow your spirit because the Spirit of God is leading you through your spirit, not leading you through your mind. We know this, that God may speak to us. I mean, I've had maybe two times in my life where I heard what seemed to me to be an audible voice. I turned around in the car to see who was speaking to me, and that was God speaking to me and leading me. But that is the exception. It's not the rule. And God does not promise us that we'll hear a voice. God does not promise us a prophecy. God does not promise us a vision or something spectacular. But his word does declare that we can be confident that he'll lead us by that inward witness. And I would say this always value how you're being led by your spirit, by the Holy Spirit, in your spirit. Value that. Don't be looking for something more spectacular. I think so much of the time people are wanting to. Wanting to have something more spectacular in their leading, whether it's a dream or vision. Well, you know, if God uses those, that's fine, but we don't have the word that promises us that. He may use something like that. But the reason it's safest to be led by the inward witness is because you have to know this. The devil can speak and give a voice. The devil can give you a dream, the devil can give you a vision. But there's one thing he cannot do and he cannot reproduce the inward witness, because he's not in the believer. And so it's always best to be led by. By the Spirit of God, by the inward witness, because then that is the safest leading. And I tell you what, if we'll learn how to be led and listen and acknowledge and pay attention to that inward witness, then he will lead us in every affair of life. And so I want you to know this, that God doesn't put us into victory. He leads us into victory. So, so much of the time, people are waiting for God to do something that brings them the victory. And we have to be led. He will give us direct directions. He will give us instructions. He will give us commands, something to do. And as we follow those leadings of his, we'll arrive at victory. But so many times people want God to just pick them up and put them in a place of victory. But he doesn't put us in victory. He leads us, us into that victory. And so we have to take time to become skillful at following his leading. And one of the ways to make yourself sensitive to the Holy Spirit, to the way he's leading you, is to take time to pray in the Spirit, pray in other tongues. And what that does is that makes your spirit sensitive to the Holy Spirit. And so you feed on His Word and you pray in the Holy Spirit. And you'll begin to grow more and more sensitive to how the Spirit of God is leading you. When you live full of the Word and you live full of the Holy Ghost through speaking in other tongues, it's easier to recognize the leading of the Spirit. And so God. God doesn't put us in victory. He leads us there. And the better we follow his lead, the more we'll experience victory in our life. Our greatest victories come from these leadings, following the inward witness of the Spirit. Now let me tell you what the inward witness, as I said earlier, can seem like. It just seems good to your spirit. It's not necessarily. You heard a voice, it just seemed. It just seemed right. It seems to fit on the inside. When you consider something, it sets well with your spirit. And dad Hagen used to describe it this way. A good velvety feeling on the inside. Whenever on the inside you sense a hesitation, you sense a red light. Don't. A caution, then that is the spirit bearing witness that you shouldn't go a certain direction. But if you have a green light, nothing seems. There's no. There's no hesitation, there's no. If I could say this, there's no check in your spirit, then just go with what seems good to you. And when you, when you learn to recognize that sometimes on the inside you go, I don't know why, but it seems like I shouldn't do this. Well then follow that even if you don't know why. And, and if you. Because some of the times people won't change what they're planning to do unless they know why. But I tell you what, don't wait for the why. Just follow the leading of the spirit. I remember years ago, there was a little gal in our church. She was probably in her early 20s and from what I remember about her, she wasn't raised in a local church. But she, as she got in her latter teen years, she got born again and she started coming to our church and she was planning on making a trip with some of her friends and it was going to be a long drive. They were going across like several states to get where they were going and they were looking forward to going. They're looking forward to this event. They've been planning it for months. They had put a lot of money into it. And when she woke up that morning when her friends were going to come pick her up, she had a check on the inside. It just a caution, a warning on the inside. Don't make the trip. And the thing is, is that she really had to go against her own plans. She had to go against what she had, what she was planning and deciding to do because she had put money into it, they'd been planning on it and she knew her friends would be disappointed. But whoever you have to disappoint, don't, don't please people and grieve the spirit. You want to be able to follow the spirit. And again, she did not know why she had that check and that hesitation about not going. So when her friends got there, she said, I'm sorry, I know we've made this, we planned this trip. But I woke up this morning and God began dealing with me about not going. And I'm not going to be, I'm not going to go. And so of course they tried to talk her into it and she held, she held to her, she held firm and she says, no, I'm not going. And so they made the trip without her and they drove to that event they were going to. They attended the event and on the way back they got hit head on by a big 18 wheel rig and everyone in the car was killed. Well, see what was it is that she followed the spirit. And you know, you think, well, why didn't the spirit of God Deal with the others. Well, the thing is, I will say this. It's not that the spirit doesn't deal with people. People don't recognize it. And not only that, if someone says, you know, God is dealing with me about not making the trip you met, you better check your own spirit and say, wait a minute, do I need to pay attention to that also? Because you can know in your own spirit whether, hey, that seems to fit me too. And so by listening to her spirit, her life was spared. She did not understand why, and the spirit didn't tell her why. The thing is, we're to be led. And what we're to be led by is, what do we know? She didn't know why not to go. She just knew not to go. And she followed that leading. It's dangerous to override your spirit. I know this, that the spirit isn't leading you headfirst into provision and answers. He's leading you spirit first. He's leading you through your spirit. And if people want to understand everything in their head before they'll follow that leading, they're going to. They're going to override their spirit and they're going to run into some difficulties. Follow your spirit and don't let your head lead you away from following your spirit. Because as I said, the spirit isn't leading you head first. He's leading you heart first or spirit first. And I just know this is so much of the time there's leadings that he gives and I do not understand it. I know that God told my husband and I, oh my goodness, years ago, in the late 1990s, God said, I have another house for you. We had purchased a home. We were living in a nice home. But he said, I have another home for you. And it was eight years before we moved into that home. And we found that home, we moved into it. And really I had the sense about this, that it could be our lifelong home, so to speak, that we would be pleased and our joy would be full living in that home for the rest of our lives. And so we expected that we would be there for a long time. About four years after buying that home, I had a leading on the inside of me about selling the home. And I tell you what, I did not understand it because for eight years God had been dealing with us about another home and we've been believing for it. And then now that we're in the home, we're only in it four years and now God's redirecting us. I did not understand that. And it really wasn't my husband who had that leading. It was me. But God was the one who talked to me about that home. And so I went to my husband, I said, I don't understand why, but it seems to me that God's leading me about selling the home. And he said, well, honey, he said, God, you've taken the lead on this problem project. He says, my faith is on other ministry projects. And I told you that I'm going to let your faith take the lead on this house. So whatever God deals with you about, he said, if it seems good to you and it seems good to me, we'll do it. And so I said, well, I seem to be led to do that. And I will say this, and I want to tell you about this experience simply because God told me tell more of these experiences to the people. And so I, I had that sense that God, are you dealing with me about selling this home? But it didn't make, it did not make sense. And I tell you what, you talk about mental harassment because then all these thoughts, oh, God got you in this home. And if you sell this home, you're not ever going to get, be able to get back into it if you miss God. And I mean, you know how the devil works. He works over time to keep you occupied mentally so that he can distract, distract you from your spirit. And so I, I remember sitting down after several weeks of this battling because my head was giving me fits of, don't, don't do this. And I said to God, and this was, oh, my goodness, this was what back in, this was over 10, about 13 years ago now. And I said to God, I said, God, I said, my head has given me fits about selling this home. But I said, but I have peace in my spirit about doing it. So I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm just going to take time to pray in the spirit until I get clarity. So that sounds real spiritual, it sounds real good. But let me tell you what God said to me. About two weeks later, I was sitting in a certain location. I said, God, I'm just going to lift up about, before you, about this, about selling the home and get it clear in my spirit. And I started praying in the spirit. And the moment I did, God spoke to me and he said, you said that you had, that you had mental harassment about, in the mind about selling the home. But he said, but you had peace in your spirit about selling the home? And I said, yes. And he said, the peace is the clarity. Now listen to that. The peace is the clarity, not peace in the mind, peace in my spirit. Because the devil, when you have peace in your spirit, the devil doesn't want you to recognize that peace. He doesn't want you to follow that peace. But what's the Word tell us over in Isaiah, they shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. So if you have peace in your heart, peace in your spirit about doing something, that is the clarity you need. You don't need a voice because the peace is a safe guide. The Holy Spirit will lead us through that inward witness by peace. And so God said to me, he said, you said you had peace in your spirit about selling the home. I said, yes. He said, then the peace is the clarity. So I, I said, okay, I get it. I don't need to take time to pray more about this in the spirit. Listen, prayer is right. But when you already know, when you already have a leading of the spirit, you don't have to keep praying about that specific thing. He. It's our job just to follow that leading. And so I, I settled that, that I recognized that all the, all the mental activity, harassment, and it got to a place of even almost torture, spirit mentally. And I told my husband, I said, it's right for us to sell it. So we sold it. And I'm so glad we sold it, because about six months after we sold it, my husband went home to be with the Lord and we were already in a different place. That home that God told me to sell, it was a large home. It was on five acres. It was extremely large. And I would have been, I would have left, been there with that large home all by myself. And God moved us into another home. And the day my husband went home to be with the Lord, I said, now I see why you led us to sell the home. Because what a better place this is for me to be now that I'm alone, rather than in that home that was out in the country on five acres and quite isolated. And see, there's reasons why God doesn't tell us everything about a situation. But whether he tells us or not, it is safe to follow your spirit. And I guarantee you, praying and reading your Bible does not earn the leading of the Spirit because it belongs to that leading of the Spirit, belongs to you because you're a child of God. But as you pray and as you feed on the Word, it helps you to recognize the leading of the Spirit. So whatever God is leading you to do, don't override that leading, because your safety is in follow that leading. And when you have peace about something, do it. I'm talking about peace in your spirit because as I said, you can have harassment in the mind, but peace in your spirit. Follow the peace in your spirit. And when you do, that mind will settle back down. And when the when the devil tries to tries to unsettle you mentally answer those thoughts. And don't allow yourself to live under a time frame of being unsettled mentally. But follow the peace in your spirit. Whether I mean you can just have gotten born again an hour ago and you can recognize whether you had peace in your spirit about something or not. And so I just encourage you learn to look to your spirit. Learn to look to the leading of the spirit. Because I tell you what, he'll lead you into victory. There is a divine genius on the inside of you and he is there to lead you and guide you. And he'll lead you into victory. But he can't put us into victory if we don't follow that leading. Victory belongs to us. But he wants to lead us there by following step by step step his direction for our life. So I'm so glad you took the time to join me tonight. I love talking about these things and sharing them with you because if I can spare you difficulty by listening to some of the things I've gone through, I would love to spare you that difficulty. And so I thank you for taking the time. As I said, we'll be on 9:30 Pacific Time on Victory Channel and then we also have our midweek service to tonight at 7 o'. Clock. So we would love to have you join us. If you can't be here in person, join us on Livestream. We love you and we look forward to seeing you. And remember, Holy Ghost meeting starts Friday night, so we'll see you soon. God bless you. We love you.
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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 DeFresne Ministries.