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How To Measure Your Faith, 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. Go with me to Romans. Are you there in Romans 12? Go back to Romans 12, verse 3. Romans 12, verse 3. Paul is writing, and he. He says this. Romans 12. 3. Not to think of himself. Just let me start reading there. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. What's he talking about? About being sober. About the measure of faith. Don't think you have more faith than you do, because if you think you have more faith than you do, you're going to get out beyond your faith. My husband was called years ago. There was a teenager that grew up in our church, but he was like every other teenager that was. So much of the time, you find that they're in church because their mom and daddy brought them. They're not there because, you know, they have any spiritual development of their own, and they're used. They know the faith lingo, they know the faith statements, and they have a measure of faith. Absolutely. But they called and my husband and they said, well, he's, you know, injured his leg. They're wanting to put a rod down his leg, or if they don't allow him put a rod, it's going to take over a year for that leg to mend, and it will mend crooked. So Ed went in to visit this young man and said, what do you want? And the young man said, I don't want the operation. I don't want the operation. I want to believe God for my healing. Ed said, just because you want to believe God for your healing doesn't mean you have faith to believe God for your healing. He said, no one wants an operation, but just wanting something doesn't mean we have the faith for it. We have to check our faith. Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to. See, people normally don't get into trouble by thinking too low of themselves. They think too much of themselves. They usually don't mismeasure their faith on the low end. They mismeasure it on the high end. And Ed said to the young man, he said, God already told me before I walked in here what you need to do. And he said, God told me to tell you to have the surgery. And he had blessed the healing of that thing. They told him it'd be six weeks before he'd be out on his leg. And in two weeks he was up and out. Why? Because he stayed within his measure of faith and didn't think more highly of himself than he ought of what he could believe for. See, being led by the Holy Ghost. I said, led by the Holy Ghost. My husband, years ago, he started a church in Torrance, California. That church grew to about 1000 people. God told him to move to Tulsa. They had just moved into a building. Ed put a new pastor in because he's going to be moving. And the best thing he ever did for that church is they had just moved into a new building. But Ed took that congregation and put them in a smaller building before he left. Why? He said, that pastor doesn't have the faith for that building. I do. And I'm not going to put what my faith could handle on that man and set him up for failure. So he put them in a smaller building and let his faith grow. And as his faith grew, then he could move them back into a bigger building. That's why it's so important you don't counsel people based on your measure of faith. Just because you can believe God for something doesn't mean somebody else can. The thing you have to do to help people is find out, what can you believe for? What do you have? What. What seems right in your spirit? What is the spirit of God telling you to do instead? Saying, well, I believe for this. And I've had to pull congregation members off of other congregation members because they'd say, you shouldn't be doing this with your child. You shouldn't be doing that. And I'd say, listen, the way you raise your children is fine, and you ought to do it based on how your heart directs you. But your heart can't direct them. They need to be guided by the faith that's in their heart. And the Holy Ghost is going to direct them based on the faith that's in their heart. Amen. Now know this. The devil would love for you to get out beyond your measure of faith. You know what's out beyond your measure of faith? One thing. Failure. Every time you fail, when you get out beyond your measure of faith, the Holy Ghost will never lead you beyond your measure of faith. Never. Because he's not going to lead anyone into failure. The Holy Spirit always leads you into success. That's why you can have two people sitting, sitting in the same church in the same service, and the Holy Spirit will tell one, go to the doctor and get help. He'll tell another one, believe my word. Well, the other one's believing his word. If that's what the Spirit of God said to them. But why will he do that? He's directing them based on their measure of faith. How many times have you heard God say something to you and he directed someone else in your same congregation in a completely different way? Why? Because the Holy Spirit is going to lead you based on your measure of faith. Not where you want to be, but where you are today and not where you're going to be in 10 years. He's not going to lead you based on where you're going to be. He's going to lead you today based on your measure of faith. Today. What can you believe for and succeed at? Amen. Now you say, okay, Pastor Nancy, how do I know my measure of faith? Because the devil will try to guilt trip you and he'll say, you've been in this church so long, you should be able to believe God for more. He'll guilt trip you into getting you beyond your measure of faith. Well, they paid off their house. How come you don't have yours? Paid off. And he'll try to condemn you with your measure of faith. How do you know your measure of faith? Go with me to Romans chapter 15. Anybody being helped tonight? We're talking about becoming skillful with our faith. When you understand these things, you don't make decisions from a worried place. You don't make decisions from a fearful place afraid of missing it. Romans chapter 15, verse 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. Just stop right there. Look at this. Joy, peace, believing. When you're believing, you're in joy and peace. When you're not in joy. When you're not in peace, you're not in faith. Because when you're believing, God will fill you with joy and peace in the measure of your believing. Amen. How do you know if you're out beyond your measure of faith? Did you lose joy when you were trying to believe? For that, did you start losing peace and start getting harassed, overwhelmed? You're out beyond your measure of faith. Back up a little bit. It's not faith to back up, to get within your measure of faith. It's failure to get out beyond it. Amen. Because the devil say, see, you're backing up. No, I'm not backing up. I'm getting within my measure. Amen. Because the Holy Spirit will never lead you beyond your measure. There was a precious family in our church. They were looking to buy a new home. And they walked into a home, and the husband said, I want this home. She said, honey, we don't have the measure of faith for this home. I'm just telling you, in here. In here, I don't have peace about it. I'm overwhelmed at the thought of this home. He said, well, it's a home I want. And other people in the church have a home just in this neighborhood. She says, honey, I don't have peace about it. Well, they found. They looked at another home, and she said, I have peace about this one. This is not too much for our faith. Yes, it'll put us. Listen, faith will always put a stretch on you. Faith is not bad. To feel the stretch is not wrong. To have the stretch on your resources. That doesn't mean you're out beyond your measure of faith. Because whenever you're going to be using your faith, there's going to be a stretch on that. But you can tell when you're stretching without joy, and you can tell when you're stretching without peace. I've had my son take me in the. I live in a gated community, and they have a. I don't know what the thing. I don't know what the word is. They have a workout room. Yeah. They have a gym there, you know, for that entire. So I told my. Yeah, it's kind of like the kitchen, and they're like terms, you know. And so I went. I went. I told my son, I want you to go over there and show me how some of this equipment works. Cause this is like foreign stuff, you know, this looks like torture pieces to me. And he said to me, he said, okay, get on this. And he said, I'm going to put that at £150. You know, some kind of leg press. I said, baby, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's your measure? Yeah, you can do £150. You have to realize these legs haven't seen anything but holding me up. You better lower it down. Am I saying I won't ever get to 150? No, I'm saying you better know I'm not where you're at. Right. Right. Back it down to about 40. And if I can go beyond that, it'll be easy. And there will be a stretch, but it's still easy. I have peace when I'm doing right. I'm not busting a gut over here trying to do what you can do, because I'm not at that pace yet. So he put me at 4. I go, oh, that's easy. Put me up to 60 before I was done. I was up there at 120 before I walked out yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But see, I got there peacefully. I didn't get there by him throwing me in over my head. I backed down and went up by degree. Why? Because I want to stay within my measure of ability and not injure myself. So many people have injured their faith trying to put it on something their faith could not lift. Amen. Listen, God wants you at the fullness of everything you want. But you're going to get there by process and by degree and by soundness. You say. Pastor Nancy. Okay, tell me how to measure if you get a bill for $5,000. You weren't expecting, you know, you had no clue this was coming, and you go, oh, I need to pay that bill. I'm going to believe God for 5,000. You know, this bill showed up. I'm going to believe God for 5,000. And you start panicking and you start breathing hard. You're out beyond peace. Now, understand where I'm talking about peace. I'm not talking about mental peace. I'm talking about in here. Your mind can give you fits even though you have peace in your heart. You're going by the peace in your spirit, not by the peace of your mind. Because you start acting on the peace that's in your spirit and the devil accuse you. You can't do it. Your faith can't do it. Oh, yeah, devil. And you have to turn this off. Cause he's gonna attack you in that mental arena. You can't listen to him in that mental arena. You go by the peace in your heart, but you can tell whether or not you have peace in your heart. Do you know someone could get saved today, just this morning, come to service tonight, and I could say to them, do you have peace in your spirit or do you have joy in your spirit about a certain thing? And they could tell you right then, even though they haven't been born again long, that people know whether they have peace in here or joy in here. So you go to say, I'm going to believe God for that 5,000, but you don't have peace in here. I mean, you're just back up, back up. Can you believe God for 500? Oh, yeah, I'm not. See the anxiety left. Oh, see, I'm breathing. I can put down my paper bag. I'm not hyperventilating anymore. Okay, can you believe for a thousand? Yeah, I can. Okay, believe for 1,005 times. You see what I'm saying? Get back within your measure. But let me tell you something. If this line. If this line right here denoted your Measure of faith. God doesn't want you back here. You'll displease him and get in trouble with God being back here. Because you want to do what's comfortable for your flesh and your mind. As your faith is growing, there's going to be a God's going to do what's best for your faith and he's going to put you at the stretch. The stretch doesn't mean you lost your joy and peace. God wants your faith toes right up to the edge and reaching this way over it. But don't you dare get out here because now you're off God's territory. Faith is God's territory. Amen. Does that help you tonight? Check your joy level, check your peace level and those will guide you onto what measure of faith you're to operate in. What does the Word say In Isaiah chapter 55, verse 12, we shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. Amen. God's going to lead you through your joy and peace level. That is one way the spirit leads is you knowing I have peace about this, I have joy about this, then that means it's within your measure of faith. Do it and do it without hesitation. Jump in both feet. Don't be doing dismiss. One foot in, one foot out. One foot in, one foot out. When my husband went home to be with the Lord that day I sat on the back porch with my children and I coveted with God. And I said I purpose that I will never again moving forward. I will not hesitate when I have peace in my spirit, I'm jumping in both feet. I will not hesitate and sit and then jump in and go. Should I not, should I, oh I don't know if I and torment myself. Once I have peace in my spirit, I'm jumping in. And I don't care what this thing does, this thing will not lead me. I will not sit in bed and go through the mental Rolodex. Should I, should I not, should I, should I not follow peace and follow joy? And you know in an instant whether you've got peace and joy. And once you've got peace and joy, jump in both feet and keep going. And ignore everything that comes against this and you will grow in the skill of the operation of your faith. Amen. I have made multiple million dollar decisions on nothing but the flow of peace. I had peace about that, had peace and the devil said where's that money going to come from? Not my problem. I'm following peace, I'm not following calculations and I've got peace Amen. But see, I had to develop. You have to develop, and it is a joyous process. It's not a hard process. It is a fun process. Faith is fun. And if you're not in fun, you're out beyond your faith. Amen. I tell you, you've seen these bodybuilders that they got these muscles that's like, wow. And they delight to go to the gym. I mean, it's like, really like, you plan that for your day. Why? Because to them, that stretch is fun, that pressure on those muscles. Why? Because they know what they can accomplish. They have skill at that process. And so it's fun for them. They just thrive. They love the sweat, you know, sweating like a gorilla when they come out of there, and they just love it. And they. Oh, that felt so good. That's the way faith is when you're walking in peace and joy. Amen. You don't hesitate. You don't hesitate. But I want you to know if you will follow peace and joy every time, you'll never get out beyond your measure of faith. And you'll get results every single time. Your faith will work. Amen. That couple, the husband wanted this particular house. The wife said, honey, I don't have peace about that. She found a different one. It was a little bit smaller, but no, he had to have it. Well, they got it. And for eight years, they struggled and they struggled and they struggled. They never again captured their peace and joy. And it ended up. They ended up. They ended up in the divorce court. Why? Because the pressure of being out beyond the peace and joy worked down on their marriage. And I'll tell you this as a wife, never encourage your husband to give him what to get you what you want if he doesn't have the faith to go there with you, because it'll work against your marriage. Don't put that kind of pressure on your family. Don't put that peace and joy. Stay in peace and joy and encourage each other. Honey, what do you have peace about? What do you have joy about? Well, I have peace about this. Well, honey, okay, then let's start there. But we don't have to stay there. Let's feed our faith. Let's grow our faith, and then we can arrive at. At the home God has for us. But let's get there through a sound process and not through throwing ourself in the deep end where we don't have peace and joy to go. Amen. Before you make a decision, check your peace level. Check your joy level. I remember I had a Big decision, that home. God had talked to me, the one I was referring to, that Ed said, your faith is going to take the lead. God talked to me about that home eight years prior. We found that home, we ended up living in it. I thought it would be our forever home, so to speak. I could have lived there the rest of my life. Why? My joy was full there. God will. Wherever your joy is full. And we were only in it for four years. One day I woke up and God said, sell the house. And I go, what, are you kidding me? It was an eight year journey to get my faith to this place. And now you're telling me to sell it. Satan, I bind you. I rebuke you. You know why? Because it did not fit with my plan. Well, it was a larger home. It was about 8,000 square feet. Then Ed built on another 8,000. So it was. And then it was on five acres. So it was a big spread. The Holy Ghost said, sell it. I said, God, I don't understand that. Did I even miss it, buying it? I said, I don't understand it. And I tell you what, because I got in the mental arena over it, I was harassed and I said, God, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to pray in the spirit until I get clarity over this. I said to him, I said, I have peace about selling it, but my head is giving me fits. But I'm going to pray in the spirit till I get clarity. Now, doesn't that sound smart? Doesn't that sound spiritual? It's wrong. It's wrong. I started praying in the spirit and God said to me, he said, you don't need to keep praying in the spirit over this. You know what he said? The peace is the clarity. In other words, you're wanting a different leading than the peace I've already given you. The primary way he's going to lead us is through joy and peace. That is the witness of the spirit. He bears witness with our spirit and he bears witness with us. Through peace and joy, you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. And he said, you're wanting a different leading is what you're wanting. You're calling it clarity, but you want a different manifestation, something more spectacular than peace and joy. But peace and joy is the safest leading you can ever have. Let me tell you why. Because if you're waiting for a voice, the devil can give you one. You're waiting for a dream God to speak to you in a dream. The devil can give you One you're waiting for a vision. The devil can empty. He can duplicate everything of those outward leadings. But one thing he cannot duplicate is the peace and joy in your spirit. I do not look for dramatic leadings. If they come, that's fine. I don't look for spectacular leadings. I am so safe with peace and joy because the devil cannot conjure that up. He cannot duplicate that and mislead me every time I follow. Peace and joy. That is my safest leading. Amen. Are you helped tonight? Hallelujah. I was teaching this and one of my staff members said, pastor Nancy, if I'd have heard this, I would have avoided so much financial pressure and problems I put myself under. He said, we lost houses, we lost cars, he said, because I was out thinking I needed to do what others were doing and I didn't have the faith for it. Amen. Jesus never rebuked anyone for their measure of faith. Never. He rebuked him for not using measure of faith. It doesn't matter what your measure of faith is. Use it, use it, use it, feed it, use it, feed it, use it. Now, faith comes by hearing. That's the way faith comes. But faith doesn't operate by hearing. Faith operates by saying and acting. You understand that? So you can have a measure of faith and not even be using it. Faith comes by hearing. It does not operate by hearing. It is put into use through what you say and through what you do. And I want you to know, if you're born again, you got a measure of faith in you. Use it, feed it, use it, feed it, use it. But use it skillfully. Know where you're at in your measure of faith. Don't think more highly of yourself and don't let the devil get you prodded into a place to where he guilt trips you beyond your measure of faith. Amen. He'll the devil will say, you should be further along and say, well, just know this, you're not along anywhere. Yeah, come on. That's right. You lost everything you ever had and anything you got now, you stole. Seriously, you have to learn to answer him because he will try to guilt trip you. You should be further along. Don't take your counsel from someone that you don't belong to. Come on. That's right. You stay with your peace and your joy level. And you say, you know, you may be married to someone who is really not developing themselves spiritually. That's okay. They can still check their joy and peace. I said they can still check their joy and peace even if they're a spiritual baby, they can still check their joy and peace level. Amen. Hallelujah. Skill with our faith why? Because when we're skillful, we get results every time. Amen. Hallelujah. And then we need to keep feeding it, keep growing. Don't be content with where you're at, because you will not arrive at full faith. You will not arrive at robust faith by floating there. We're going to get there by earnestly contending for the faith. Amen. 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.