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Give Time To Prayer, Part One | 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. I'm believing that we're going to have revelation by the spirit of God that's going to come into our hearts, and it's going to elevate us and bring us to the next level in prayer. So before we go further into the teaching, let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for those that are watching. Father, I pray that every ear be a listening ear, that every eye be an open eye, that every heart be open and receptive to receive the revelation. We're looking to you, Father, to cause my tongue to be as the pen of a ready writer, writing on the people's hearts the truth of your word. And, Father, we're expecting things that that which we hear will enhance our prayer life. Father, we want to better know how to respond to you, cooperate with you in this wonderful divine work of prayer. And we're so grateful for the privilege. And I thank you, Father, for the life that comes in Jesus name, Amen. Before I get into my sermon, and I don't know how much of the service time tonight, I'll be doing this one thing, but there's some passages that I wanted to read to you out of Brother E.W. kenyon's book. This is taken from his book in his presence. Now, if you don't have any of Brother Kenyon's materials, my goodness, you need to get some. One minister after dad Hagin went home to be with the Lord, one minister had the presence of mind and had such an idea that I thought was so great. He went into dad Hagin's office there at the ministry headquarters, and he took pictures of his desk and pictures of what was around his desk. And he just wanted to see what was going on around Brother Hagin at the time of his homegoing. And he recognized that behind Brother Hagin's desk were a lineup of particular books, and on his desk were a lineup of some books, and they were E.W. kenyon books. So to realize that E.W. kenyon is somebody that dad Hagin fed on and that fed Brother Hagin's spiritual life. Because, you know, you think about it, when you've walked with God as long as dad Hagin had, you're going to really need somebody that feeds you at a whole different level. And EW Kenyon certainly was that. Dad Hagin made a statement about E.W. kenyon. He said he was 100 years ahead of his time in Revelation, and So in the past several weeks, I've been feeding especially on some of his materials, and I wanted to read some excerpts from his book and take time to do that tonight before we get into the sermon over the next couple of nights. But I read this because it stirs us. You know, when you hear some things, it's good to know the principles of prayer. But. But if I could say this, to read some things of the place of prayer in the life of the believer keeps us stirred. And so I wanted to read some things about that written by E.W. kenyon. He makes these statements. He said, some have said that prayer is the greatest opportunity ever afforded to a man in Christ. If this is true, then you can understand why there would be enemies that to stand in the way of a prayer life. Let me just say this. The devil hates your prayer life because he's the one who suffers from it the most. He's going to do everything he can to divert you, to distract you from an effective prayer life. And EW Kenyon goes on and says this. You can understand why the adversary would make it his business to see that the prayer life of an individual, the prayer life of a church, should be ineffective. Satan would not be a good general, he would not be a good strategist, unless the prayer life should be attacked and destroyed. So he's letting us know that the devil is not gonna congratulate you for advancements you make. In fact, he'll do everything he can. He'll use everything in the natural, he'll use everything in the flesh to try to distract you things of the mind to try to distract you from an effective prayer life. Kenyon goes on and says this. A church is as powerful as its prayer life. The men and women who learn the secret of reaching the throne, getting the ear of God, they become dangerous to the hosts of darkness. Martin Luther's prayers gave birth to the Reformation. His knowledge and experience of the new birth would not have given birth to that mighty upheaval in Germany unless that man had had a prayer life. When John Knox cried, give me Scotland or I die, and when Martin Luther said, I will not let go of you, God, until you give me Germany, God heard them, and God is as easily reached now as he ever was. It is not a problem of education, but it's a problem of us knowing our rights and privileges in Christ and then daring to enter the throne room facing God with the needs of the world. Kenyon goes on and brings it down to this individual basis. He said, every one of us has A place in the prayer life. God has no unused members. There isn't a useless member in the physical body. Now just think about it, your own body, there's not part of your body you don't need. Every single part of your body has a function and it has a place. And if that part isn't functioning, then what's going to happen is that body is going to be lacking. And so this is what E.W. kenyon states. There isn't a useless member in the physical body, neither is there a useless member in the spiritual body of Christ. God has planned with divine wisdom the body of Christ. And the moment that you are born into that body, you have a place in which to function. If anyone thinks that because of lack of training or because of a lack of this or lack of that, he hasn't a place, he is deluded by the enemy. You know, I want to share a personal testimony with this statement that Kenyon makes that the devil wants to delude you into thinking that your place in prayer, your place in the body of Christ is not as important or as needful as someone else's. When my husband and I got married, of course I was straight out of a denominational church. I had not been taught the things that I've gotten to be taught, of course, in the past decades. But I, he, my husband was my Bible school, so I made advancements. But I tell you, whenever we got married, I tell you I knew nothing. I had never even heard of the first five fold ministry. Not only that, my husband was 20 years older than I was, so he had already been in the ministry almost 20 years by the time I married him. So you can understand how far behind I felt spiritually. I had not been taught the Word. I had never heard of the fivefold ministry. Not only the age difference put me behind just in the opportunity of development. And so I, I felt that I was so behind. And because of that I approached my marriage and I approached my spiritual life like I was the one needing to be helped, being caught up. And so I had this sense of, you know, I don't have much to bring. I'm the one who has so much that I need. And I remember after a couple of years of marriage, I had a dream one night. And in that dream I saw myself dying prematurely. And when I woke up from that dream, I knew that that wasn't the enemy, because, you know, the enemy can certainly give you a dream to try to frighten you. But I knew that that dream was from God, that he was showing me something that if I kept going the way I was going, that the enemy would be able to shorten my life. And when I woke up, God began to talk to me about where I was missing it. And one of the primary things that he brought up to me was this. He said, you have approached the ministry and approached your spiritual life as one who needs to hurry up and catch up, but you have not. In that sense, you've neglected that you have a supply to bring. You're just looking for the supply that you need instead of the supply that you're to bring. And so he said, because of that, you're not obeying me in the prayer life. And he said, your husband's ministry, for some things to be fulfilled, he has to have someone praying for him. And he said, and if you're not going to do it, I have someone else who will. Well, that's kind of a sobering thought. And so I saw that, because it wasn't that I was intentionally trying to leave out my part. I just thought because of my own spiritual immaturity, that my part was not to be on the forefront yet because I needed so much. Well, this is what E.W. kenyon states here. He said, if anyone thinks that because of lack of training or for lack of this or that, he hasn't a place, he's deluded by the enemy. See, the enemy was using my own lack of spiritual knowledge to, if I could say, tripped me up in my prayer life so that I would not take the steps and the strides that I needed to make. So EW King goes on and says this. With that place comes responsibility. And with responsibility comes a reward or demerit. If you do not take your place in the family of God, if you do not take your place in the body of Christ and in the church and begin to function, the body of Christ is weakened because of it. Until your business is to find your place and fill it. Until you do, you will pay the price. I want you to know, my brother, my sister, that the price you pay for staying out of the will of God is expensive. You may pay it in sickness, in loss of money, or in unhappiness with your loved ones. For you cannot be the protected one, the cared for one, as long as you're standing outside of the Lord's will. For you take your place. Now, when Brother Kenyon made this statement, listen to what he says, that it's expensive to be outside the will of God, that you can pay for it in sickness, you can pay for it financially, you can pay for it with family members, loved ones. I had something else that happened to me years ago. This is probably about 30 years ago. I was having some nagging physical symptoms in my body. And one day the spirit of God spoke to me and he made this statement, if you will take time to pray, you will be healed. Now, I knew this. I knew that he wasn't referring to me taking time to pray about my physical situation. I knew he was talking to me about taking more time with him in prayer to pray about others, to pray about the body of Christ, to pray about different needs. So when he said that to me, it still confused me because I thought, well, so you're basically saying to me that if I pray, I get healed. And it dawned on me because, you see, understand I was a spiritual baby. I didn't understand some things. But it dawned on me later. And I later realized that God had been dealing with me about spending time in prayer. And because I wasn't spending as much time as he was leading me to in prayer, I. I was neglecting that. And I was getting out of the will of God. And because I was out of the will of God, then the devil was able to attack my body. So I want you to see, this is what EW Kenyon is talking about. If we're not in the will of God in our prayer lives, that it is an open door for the enemy to attack us in other arenas. So when God said to me, if you will take time to pray, you'll be healed, what he was saying was not. It wasn't the act of praying that healed me. It was me becoming obedient to the will of God to pray that brought the healing. And so that's what closed the door to the devil and closed the door to sickness. So it wasn't, like I said, the act of praying. It's not like we earn healing if we pray enough. But there is an obedience that we have to walk out in our prayer life. What is God dealing with us about? Are we praying for our local church? Are we praying for our pastor? Are we. Are we praying for the body of Christ? Because if we're not, that disobedience in prayer becomes an open door to the enemy. And he can attack your finances, he can attack your family, he can attack your body. He can cause all kinds of difficulties simply because of disobedience. But when we pray, it's not that prayer earns things, but we begin to move into a place of obedience. And obedience to the will of God is always the Safe place. Place. It's the healed place. It's the place where you receive from God. So some may be having physical issues, you may be having marital issues, you may be having financial issues, you may be having issues with your children. And sometimes people are just. What they do is they take the Word and they take authority over the devil, which is right to do. But we have to go back and we have to examine ourselves and say, are we taking our place in the body of Christ in. In prayer? Are we taking our place with prayer for our local church? Are we taking our place and praying for our nation and praying for these other things? Because it's the will of God that every believer develop in their prayer life. And if they don't develop in their prayer life, then they're going to be in disobedience. And then of course, the devil can attack them. Going on with what E.W. kenyon said. Give yourself to meditation, prayer and study of the Word. Don't allow anything to stand in the way of you finding your place. Life will not mean much to you outside the will of God. The big thing of life is to be in the will of God. There are only two ways of getting acquainted with God, and that's through the Word and through prayer. If you don't take time to pray, you're losing out. You can't say that you have no responsibility in the prayer life, because you do. To see a need is to have a call to pray. We can't plead that we have too much work to do because we can pray while we work. We can't put up the plea that we do not know how. Because if we want to learn, we will. To disobey the prayer call is to disobey the call of the Father. The prayer responsibility today is the most important thing thing of our lives. Now think about that statement that he says that prayer responsibility is the most important thing of our lives. Dad Hagin made this statement and he said the greatest thing you can ever learn to do is pray. Because if you know how to pray, there's nothing you can't receive from God. Now think of that. If you know how to pray, there's nothing you can't receive. But also what a help you are to someone else who needs to. To know how to receive. Then Kenyon goes on and says this. Did you ever realize that there are men and women who are defeated and breaking down in their businesses, in their homes and their spiritual lives because we haven't prayed for them? We have been too occupied with our own Pleasures, our own dreams. And men and women staggering under the burdens we should help carry. They're breaking down. Do not let this simply awaken you for a moment, but let prayer become like you're eating or like your business or your home. If you are a mother or a wife and you live at home, there are certain duties which you perform every day for your family. But the greatest duty you will ever perform for your family will be the prayer duty. Prayer should be as natural as breathing and as enjoyable as eating well. We know we're glad to be breathing and we know we enjoy our eating. And he said, prayer is to be every bit or more than that. To us, prayer should be as unconscious as our communication with each other. It should not be simply the child of need, but should be based on a spiritual fellowship with the Father and with the Master. So he's just saying this, that we have to be interested enough that we want to have fellowship with our Father. It's not not just needs that compel us to talk to him, but it's a love for him and a desire to have fellowship with him that we spend time with Him. So he says that. He says this, that our needs are not our own. In fellowship with him, our needs become his needs. For we are not our own. We are part of Him. Our body is not our own. The property we control is not our own. Our abilities are not our own. They are all his, because we belong to Him. So we are laboring together with him and what we have considered personal needs. He has really made his needs. The work that we are doing is his work. So that the prayer is not what we have thought it was. But it is a fellowship. It's a sharing. It is a community interest between Heaven and us. We are one in this. Just as the vine and the branch are one. The branch cannot bear fruit alone and the vine cannot bear fruit without the branch. So prayer is simply talking it over with him, getting God's views, his will, his plans, and our carrying out those plans with his grace, his ability and his wisdom. Now Kenyon goes on to state something so important. He said, habits are a children of our choice. We are what we make ourselves. This prayer habit will be born of your own will. Notice this, that people's prayer habits are reflection of how much they will to have a prayer life. This prayer habit is hard for some people to form. It should never be a duty. For just as we do not enjoy those who come and visit us just because it's their duty, so it is with the Father, we want those who love us to come visit us because they can't help it. They want to be with us. Prayer is a visit with our Father. We should think of it as a rare opportunity. The names that are familiar in God's Westminster Abbey of the Church are the names of those who pray. Men and women who have climbed the mountains of usefulness in the struggle with circumstances. Circumstances through prayer. Jesus was a man of prayer. He taught prayer not as a slavish duty, but as a glorious privilege. The more that I study the life of Jesus, I'm convinced that he did not exercise his divine power in excess of what every child of God possesses today. So he's saying that Jesus did not conduct his life simply on this earth and conduct his prayer life simply on the basis of, well, he was the Son of God, so he could do things we couldn't eat. He was limited to the same flesh. He was limited to the same things that we're limited to. But he just drew on divine ability. So he's saying, just as Jesus drew on divine ability, we have the same right to draw on divine ability. The difference is that Jesus knew what belonged to him and Jesus knew his rights. We do not know what belongs to us as we ought to. Not knowing what is ours, we cannot use our rights. So when Jesus cast out demons, when he healed the sick, when he worked miracles, he used authority that he has now delegated to the church. So he's saying this. When we look at Jesus prayer life in Jesus ministry, we can say we have available to us the same things. It's a thing of knowing our rights. I want to read to you something that God said to dad Seymour. Now, dad Seymour was the man who was at the helm of the Azusa Street Revival. That was in the early part of the 1900s. God said to dad Seymour, he said, pray more. There are better things to be had in the spiritual life, but they must be sought out with faith and prayer. Notice this. They have to be sought out. The spirit of God said to me, probably about 15 years ago, he said, there are revelations that belong to this era, but you will have to labor in prayer to receive them. Now, listen, that wording. He didn't say you have to labor in prayer to earn them. He said, you have to labor in prayer to receive them. What's he mean? The more we pray, the more we get in position. Position. Or we come into a position where we can hear what he's speaking to us, we can see what he's trying to show to us. And this is what God was saying to dad Seymour. He said, there are better things to be had in the spiritual life, but they must be sought out with faith and prayer. So for us to fulfill what God has in this era as the body of Christ, it's not just up to pastors or ministers. It's up to the body of Christ to pray for the revelations that belong to this era to come. Now think about it. In the Azusa street revival, the revelation that God was emphasizing was the infilling of the Holy Ghost. Because men prayed and moved into that revelation, it changed the earth. I mean, the entire world heard that message. That message was carried to every nation. And that was because people prayed and learn. What was God wanting to emphasize in that hour? Well, in our era, it's the same thing. God is wanting to emphasize some things and we have to make sure that we are receiving the revelations of what he wants to emphasize in this era. Because we're in a last day era. We have to have these revelations so that we can move with God into what this era holds. Because Jesus is coming back. And what we do in the last days days determines and plays a role in his return. Now, Dr. Lester Sumrall, he wrote in his book, he said prayer is actually the council chamber where divine commands are issued, where the believer receives solutions to his problems and receives the divine infilling of divine energy. Every outstanding person of God in history has been a person who prayer. It is not possible to possess great dominion without constantly returning to the Master to receive instructions from him. Now listen to that. It's not possible to possess great dominion without constantly returning to the Master to receive instructions from him. Yes, authority belongs to us. Yes, dominion belongs to us. But it's in his presence and in prayer that we become. That's one way we become skillful. Of course, we have to know the Word to make us skillful. But I tell you what you have to know. Through fellowship you begin to learn your skill. Remember what Jesus said about his own earthly ministry. He said, I only hear. Only say what I hear my Father say. Well, when did he hear it? In his time of fellowship, he said, I only do what I see my Father do. So when did he see it? In his time of prayer, in his time of private fellowship with the Father. And this is what Dr. Cermal is pointing out. There is a dominion, there's an authority that belongs to us. But we won't know how to properly execute that and fully without hearing from the Father and seeing the things that he's showing us. And that comes because we we constantly spend time going back to the Father in prayer. Then Dr. Sumrall went on and made this statement. He said the act of praying generates omnipotence. Continual communion with the commander assures victory. Now this is a man who walked with God and I mean had such a raw faith that was such a help and assist in the body of Christ and made an impact on this world. And he says we have to spend time with our commander to get our commands. So I wanted to read some of those statements to stir you. I wanted you to realize that prayer is not just something we do because we have an emergency in life. It's something that is a privilege that's offered to every one of God's people 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 Dufresne Ministries.