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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Identify Yourself In Christ | Morgan Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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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 want to continue with where we were last week and just, just to make sure we've squeezed all the goody out of what we were talking about. Go to. We were in Colossians chapter one. Go to Colossians chapter one. We, we started here. Colossians chapter one. Do you believe God's word is true? Okay, that's where we start. If we believe, that's why how you got got born again. That's how you receive Jesus as your Savior. Very simply, you believed he died for you. Amen. Didn't you believe he died for you? You believe that God wanted you a part of his family. You believed his words. And so in times of trouble and in facing needs, this is where we go. We believe His Word is true. We believe that what he said is true. We believe not only is it true, but we believe it's for us. It's for me, it's not for my neighbor. As good looking as the person is sitting next to you, the Word of God is for them and you the Word of God. And we're going to talk about this morning. The Word of God and receiving the Word of God, it cannot be received on the basis of flesh. It has to be received on the basis of your salvation. Salvation. Your born again spirit. And many times we find ourselves, we don't realize it, but we're trying to receive on the basis of flesh. And I'll explain this morning what I'm talking about and what the Spirit of God gave me. So Colossians 1, verse 13. Look at this. The amplified reads, the Father has delivered and drawn us. If the Father has delivered you and drawn you out of darkness, he is delivering you out of your situation right now. Okay, so number one, we'll just start with this. I wouldn't even get into it right yet. The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself, out of the control in the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, whom we have our redemption through his blood, which means the forgiveness of our sins. It's not your flesh that paid the price. It is not your flesh. It was Christ's flesh. It was Christ's blood. It was Jesus blood. The Father delivered. So the moment you start trying to work an angle and make it happen for you and trying to deliver yourself, we've stepped away from the foundation of how we came to know God. To begin with, the Father has delivered and drawn us to himself. He brought you out, you say, well, if he brought me out, how did I get back into some things? Because we still live in a natural world. We're still here as good soldiers, as believers, as establishing the kingdom of God on this earth for his name's sake. We still have an assignment and we still have an enemy that's opposing that assignment. So once you settle that, I still have an enemy, there's still an enemy who's opposing the assignment of God on my life, the assignment that has been given for my life. And not only is there an enemy that I don't want you to be scared of, that we don't need to be afraid of, but oftentimes the greatest enemy that we face is our own selves. It's our own flesh. And that's what I want to talk about this morning, is your own flesh. And not in a condemnation kind of way, or beat yourself up. Many of you understand that religion, some religions have felt that they have to in order to become worthy for God. They, they have beat themselves. They think that it's right that they suffer physically. Much of religion teaches that you have to suffer some form of sickness, some sort of, sort of penalty. We talked about last week, on Tuesday night, you make a mistake, you must suffer some sort of consequence. God is not a God of consequence. Amen. He's a God only of victory. And this is one thing that's important for your children to understand, that they suffer consequences. There's consequences to their actions, but God is not the God of that consequence. That there is an enemy, there is a flesh nature that is opposing them, that is trying to work against this, that does not want to agree with the word of God. You have to show them and teach them their flesh does not want to agree with God's word. And so when you think the devil's after me all week and he's coming after me, when what you don't realize is your flesh is also coming after you, the real you on the inside. Amen. The recreated, the one. This body has not been drawn out, but this spirit man has been drawn out. Amen. I've been drawn out of the darkness. Darkness isn't in me. Darkness may be around me. I may not know in the flesh and in the natural which way to go, but the illumination in my spirit. The Holy Ghost is bearing witness, as the scripture says, with my spirit. Spirit, his answers, his direction. But if I live by the flesh, I can't receive those answers. And this is oftentimes we think the devil has hurt our lives and we think that somebody's out to get us. And that's why I struggle with, you know, quotes and teachings and, you know, inspirational type quotes of, you know, people. You always thinking people are out to get you. And the haters and this, listen, I don't even need to focus on people if they don't like me because I'm just dealing with liking myself, you know what I mean? And we look at ourselves so oftentimes by the flesh, I mean, just getting dressed in the morning, you look at yourself by the flesh, I mean my pants. I mean, if you looked at my pants, they're like five inches too long, you know, so what am I looking at? I'm short. I'm short and I'm knowing myself continually by what I see when I look at myself, what I hear, what's coming out of my mouth. And oftentimes we get so consumed with the way we look and the way we see sound and what we don't like about ourselves, we forget we've been drawn out. I've been drawn out. I don't have to live. You know, this is why, why, why we see, you know, and why it's so easy oftentimes to get our eyes, you know, this is for the young single people. Why it can be so easy to get your eyes on the wrong person to marry is because you are so accustomed and so trained to see people and to know people by the flesh. And you like the flesh that you see, and their flesh talks to your flesh and you like it and it feels good to the flesh and it feels good to have somebody say, I love you. The flesh likes that. What the flesh doesn't like is when you're in the right marriage and your spouse tells you something you need to fix and you need to work on. My flesh doesn't like that, you know, the flesh doesn't like when you wake up for the, you know, 2000th day in a row and they're still doing that same annoying thing they did on day one that you woke up next to them. But see, if we live and abide and try to function together by the flesh, we'll handle each other by the flesh. When you marry, right, you'll learn to see each other by the spirit, how God sees them. That means no matter what irks me and what bugs me, that somebody around me, be it my spouse, a family member, no matter what they do, I know this, that by the spirit they've been drawn out just like I have the plan of God on their life is so important and I can see them by the Spirit and not by the natural. This is really what we're facing today. Turn with me if you would, go to Galatians and let's just put our eyes on this. And I'm wanting to get somewhere this morning that you understand if you have a habit of judging yourself by the natural, judging others by the natural, that you're going to struggle to judge your circumstance based off of the natural. And you'll be less than an overcomer in that circumstance, in that situation. Because every time we evaluate a situation by the flesh, we will always come up short. We will never put ourselves in our own mind. We will always come up with a reason and a way why we can't make it out. We'll judge ourselves because we're sick. We'll judge ourselves based on the house we live. We'll judge ourselves based off the education we didn't have. We'll judge ourselves based off of, off of our family, off of the mistakes we've made. We're judging and looking at ourselves by the flesh. And this was one thing that Paul writes. He if any man had to get over his own flesh, flesh and get over what he had done and get over where he had been and get over really what he believed. And we talked about this, that he truly believed he was doing the work of the Lord, that the believers, that the Christians were the ones in the wrong, they were the ones that were upsetting the flow of God. And really they, they in. In their preaching and teaching of the Word. And Paul persecuting them that day on the road to Damascus when that light shone and said, paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Who was that? That was Christ. He was appearing to him by the Spirit and he was bearing witness. He needed Paul. Once Paul got out of the flesh and got out of the natural and got born again, recreated in his spirit that same fervency that he had in the law, the same fervency he had believed, believing he was truly doing the work of God, he carried that fervency over into now a born again believer. And God was able to reveal to him the very revelation that we have our foundation built on, which is who we are in Christ. And so oftentimes you have to take. And that same fervency that we look at ourselves in the mirror and we criticize and we come up short, we don't talk right, we struggle with the way we look, we struggle with how smart we think we are, how critical we are of ourselves. If you would take that same fervency of knowing yourself and others by the natural and apply that to the word of God, that determination. Because let me tell you, we can think of at least 10 critical things of ourselves and in less than 30 seconds and we can name them off. And the things why we don't deserve, what the word of God says, why we still need to. Well, you know, my faith just isn't developed yet. Stop criticizing even your own faith. Amen. You need to talk highly. That's a seed put in there by God. God put that seed in there. Amen. And yes, we can all be further along, we can all be more developed, all of us can. But that doesn't give us a reason to criticize ourselves. Amen. But look at Galatians 3, verse 26. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male or female. For all are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. What is Paul saying here? There's no distinction by the flesh. There's no distinction. So for my life, if I realize there's no distinction by the flesh. And we live in a society because of the way media can get out there, social media, the news. We, I mean, we still got good old fashioned radio folks, in case you didn't know. We still got every. As Brother Copeland, they say, every available voice, they're getting the word of God preached. There are so many available voices for us to know one another and us to see life by the natural. You have to make sure you're not filling your eyes and renewing your mind to natural things more than you are spiritual things, because it's very easy to do. You know, there's something to be said for, you know, at least back. At least back we could say in pioneer days. Well, my gosh, even in the day when I was a kid, you know, there's those jokes and those memes that you see of. We didn't have video games, we didn't have little things to put our hand. If you didn't have a coloring book and crayons and you had your hand out the window and you were just hoping that you would be where you were your arrival place in the next couple, I mean, there was nothing to occupy the flesh and keep the flesh busy. You see that so much today is available to keep the flesh busy, and it holds us in that natural arena. So much do we have available to hold us in the natural arena. Does that make sense? And again, I'm not being critical of that. I'm just saying you got to be aware, you know, those of US I turned 35 this week, I'm grateful to be getting older. It's an honor to get older. It's an honor to get older and be in the will of God. And so with that, I realized, recognize some things, okay? There was a lot more than 30, 25 years ago that can keep the flesh busy and occupied and hold me in this natural arena. And that's what Paul is saying here. Stop looking at each other in the natural. If even defining male and female now, God created us male and female. But if you define yourself based off of. That's why. That's the danger of feminism is the defining of somebody by their genetics, their natural makeup. It takes your eyes off the DNA of Christ and who you are in Christ. It's in very. It's in direct opposition. Feminism is in direct opposition. Ladies, you help your daughters to understand feminism. Don't be proud to be a woman. Be proud to be who you are in Christ. Be proud to be a child of God, because you're teaching them to evaluate everything from the stance of a woman. Oh, I'm greater than a woman. I'm in Christ. I'm a new creature. It says here, we are children of the One who created the heavens and the earth. You know, my XX means nothing. You know what I'm talking about? My chromosomes mean nothing to the power of God. Because what happens is when I have a need, physical, financial, my chromosomes can't deliver me. That's what Paul's saying here. Your gender can't deliver you. So don't define yourself by the flesh. Define yourself by the natural. He said, neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond or free. Talk about defining. I don't care what you think you're in bondage to today. That doesn't define you. That's in the natural. That's why we say, I'm not sick, trying to get healed. This is how often we are reaching. And it's very easy to do again, because we're talking about living by the flesh, living by the natural. How easy it is for us to slip into that mentality. And as we assess everything based off of our natural makeup, our mind, our flesh tells our mind what we need to think, what we need to believe when it should be, that the word of God is telling our mind. We have the capabilities to renew our mind to the very way God thinks. You can think about yourself and your situation exactly the way God thinks about it. Do you understand that? You can see yourself the way God sees you. You have the capabilities as a child of God. You have the capabilities to see your finances the way God does, to see your body the way God does. But you have to. Again, it takes discipline for us to stop living according to the natural. You know, and really, I. I'm not you. We don't talk about politics much here, but sometimes that's. Even the danger of politics is. You're assessing everything based on politics, based on a natural realm. When we die, we're neither blue nor red. I was not born into a political affiliation. And that's why you'll never hear us become political here. We're not defined by that. We define how we vote based off of the spiritual. Amen. And so we have to remember we are tempted, we will be tempted in every way to believe based on our situation, based off something in the natural, based off this flesh, how we feel, what we were brought up with, what society says. And so oftentimes, when we're believing, let's just say you're believing for healing. You need healing in your body. You've got something that the doctor says is incurable. Maybe it's something hereditary. And an unrenewed mind will be reaching out to God for healing. The unrenewed mind. When you. When you're. You're. You're still living based off of. Male, female, Jew, Greek. This is what my family had. You know what? I brought this on myself. You're reaching out to God. The unrenewed mind reaches out from the flesh to receive healing. You understand? We're stretching. We're reaching. You know, the unrenewed mind reaches out to God in need based off of a financial need or a bill or something that you're. You're believing for and you're reaching out to God for prosperity. I'm reaching out. And we say we're believing. And there may be a measure of us that is believing, but we're still defining ourselves and we're still reaching from a place of the flesh, the renewed mind. When your mind is renewed. I'm neither Jew nor Greek. I'm neither bond nor free. This thing doesn't have me bound. I'm. It's not based off where I'm from. It's not based off Of. Of even where I'm going, it is based solely off of what did God say about me? I am a child of God. I'm a child of God. Then that. What happens is when we renew our minds to who we are in Christ and where we sit, we're not reaching to God for what we need. We are addressing our need from the place of where we are. And we're dealing with the natural. I don't want to be in the natural and reaching out for the spiritual. I want to be in the spiritual and be dealing with the natural. Does that make sense? Two different positions. That's why when I said last week, you are not your situation, Remember? I am not my situation. I am not the symptoms. I am not the need. I am not the debt I am not without. Amen. I am not my mistake. So the renewed mind, when you get in the word of God, you begin to deal and address the flesh. You begin, instead of reaching out from the flesh, you begin to reach out and deal with from a different position and handle the natural. You can't handle the natural from the natural. To be successful, you've got to handle the natural from the spirit. Amen. Go with me, if you would. Philippians 4. Go to Philippians, chapter 4. If you say, I've been confessing, I've been believing, I've been declaring, and nothing seems to work for me, and it's a struggle. Faith should not be hard. Faith is not difficult. Faith is simply believing what God said. But it isn't. Isn't it a lot easier to believe what God said and to agree with his word when you're walking more closely to him? God is not flesh. He's a spirit. So the further I walk and you say, well, Pastor, what does it mean to walk in the spirit? It means to say, keep your mind in the Word. It means to be filled with the Spirit. If you've ever been filled with the Spirit, praying with the Holy Ghost, you're drawing up the power that's on the inside of you. God didn't just want us to get born again. He wanted us to have the power to live born again. Amen. So I'm not living according to the knowledge of the flesh. I'm living by the power in the Spirit. Okay, look at. Look at Philippians, chapter 4, verse 11. Not that I'm implying Paul's talking to the church here at Philippi. Not that I'm implying that it was in any personal want. For I have learned how to be content, satisfied, to the point where I'M not disturbed or disquieted. In whatever state I am, this man's in prison. I know how to be a base. I know how to live humbly and straighten circumstances. And I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of. Of facing every situation. Whether well fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough despair, or going without being in want. I have strength for all things. What is that in Christ who empowers me. I am ready for anything and equal to anything. Through him who infuses inner strength into me, I am self sufficient in Christ sufficiency. You don't have to be sufficient in your own sufficiency. Because this just in, you're never sufficient. You'll never listen without Christ. You'll never be a sufficient spouse. You'll never be a sufficient parent. Humility recognizes I'm insufficient. Humility recognizes I without being in Christ. Living in Christ, dwelling in Christ. Amen. Just because you're in your home doesn't mean you're resting. Just because you're born again doesn't mean you're dwelling in him and doing what Paul says. Resting, learning to be satisfied. He didn't say, you know that. That being satisfied doesn't mean you should always be hungry. For more dissatisfaction should lead to hunger. Hunger should lead to getting in the Word. Getting in the Word leads to knowing how to receive and draw on more power, more of God. But it doesn't mean you're bothered and upset. What he's talking about is, I've learned that no matter where I'm at, I'm in peace. And we can look at the previous verse. He said, do not fret or have any anxiety about anything. But in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition, definite request with thanksgiving, continue. Make your wants known to God and God's peace shall be yours. That peace he's talking about is one that guards the mind. It guards your mind. What are we talking about? I've got to get my mind from complying, agreeing and processing everything according to. According to the flesh into the natural. And I need to stay in Christ, processing and receiving every answer and addressing the natural from the place in the Spirit. Two different places to live. One is a real struggle, one's a real difficulty. It's very difficult to believe God is meeting your needs when you're still in your own mind, defining yourself by your needs. Does that make sense? When you're still in your mind, seeing yourself as sick, trying to get the Healing power of God to work in your body. Does that make sense? When Paul said, I'm content because all. Always I'm in Christ, always I'm in Him, always I'm living by the Spirit, always. I can cast any care over on God. I don't have any fretting or any anxiety about anything because even my own situation doesn't define me. Remember what we said last week? Why do we fret and have anxiety? It's because things are out of our control. You see yourself as having lost control over your life and your situation, your finances, your body, your family. You don't have control, so you're anxious because you can't do anything about it. Amen. Look at what go to Psalms, chapter four. I love what David said, Psalms, chapter four. And boy, this just jumped out at me. I was reading this last night, Remember? We're talking about living out of our spirit, who God made us, you know. Have you ever had money transferred into like, your bank account and you see it in there, but it still says pending or it still says only you don't have that available to use. You know what I mean? So you get, you know, $100 from your account, but really you can't use that hundred dollars until the bank releases those funds. You know what I'm saying? The funds have to be released to you. Many times people think that their healing is just pending. They think that the money is pending. It's not pending because all power has been given unto me for my own life. I have the authority to release the funds and release, you know, but if I'm thinking of it by the natural, then I'm going to be thinking, I'm waiting on God. Remember, if you live by the flesh, you're going to reach out to him from the flesh. If you live by the spirit. I'm going to deal with my situation. This natural on this natural earth. I'm going to deal with it. And I understand, understand that everything has been made available to me in Christ. I am no longer bound to sickness. I've been redeemed from poverty, from lack. And so I can say right now, funds are no longer pending. They're released into my life. Healing power is working in my body. It's not pending anymore. It's released. But look at, look at. I love what David said. This is him. And of course, he had many enemies. And one of them was his own son. And this was when his own son Absalom had been had kind of wooed the people and convinced the people to follow him and wanted to overthrow his Father. And so he was dealing with this, and the people had turned on him. And look at this in verse 7. For Psalms 4, verse 7. You have put more joy and rejoicing in my heart then they know when their wheat and new wine have yielded abundantly. What is he saying? You have put more joy and rejoicing in my spirit than those who think they have all the money, all the food, all the things in the natural. Even this man who is not in Christ, understood? God has put into my spirit all the joy, all the rejoicing. I am so full in him. I'm so satisfied with him. And if we had time, we could see that David was a man of great victories in battle. Why? Because he knew God has put great joy in my heart. My joy and my rejoicing is in God. And their joy and their pleasure is in only the natural things. That's why I say you are not your situation. He's saying, even though my own child is coming against me to take over my. His own flesh and blood, his own son has turned against him. And the people are loving his son more than they're loving and honoring him. And he said, but God has put more joy in me. I don't think any one of you, I'm assuming none of your children are out to kill you at this moment. So what you're facing is even lesser than amen. He didn't know God as his father. He only knew God by the words that they had from the prophets and from what God had done. God also, look at this. When the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt, God was so good to them, to help them not define themselves by their slavery that he by his own power, persuaded. It wasn't that Pharaoh was having a tender moment. It was the influence of the spirit of God that demanded that Pharaoh, Pharaoh and the people give all of their riches back to God's people just so they wouldn't still define themselves by their situation and what they're coming out of. I'm gonna send them out to let them know you're rich. I'm gonna give everything back. Pharaoh's gonna give every. The man who is looking to kill the firstborns is now giving back riches, gold, money, stuff, jewels. He's giving it all back just so I can help my people to understand they're not defined by their situation. We're not slaves that got set free. We're now free people that are rich. And then to go above and beyond, he's going to take and every single body, every single bruised body that had been whipped, beaten, drugged, you understand? Anybody who was of any age had been free through a difficult life, physically difficult. And what did he do? He said, I'm going to restore all health. Just so they don't see themselves as beaten, bruised and battered down bodies. I'm going to restore all their healing. Well, what was this? The children of Israel getting delivered. This was an example, a type and a shadow of exactly what Christ did for us. Just so they don't see themselves in the flesh, by the flesh and where they came out of. I'm gonna heal them, I'm gonna provide for them, I'm gonna deliver them. Amen. You're not where you came from, you're not what. Listen, you're not even what you said last week, you know that? You're not even what you said about yourself last week. But we live again, we live in a world and in an age where everything keeps us in the natural, draws us back to the natural. Young people, please, if I can encourage you in anything. Don't look when you're looking to get married, don't look at somebody by the natural, look at somebody by how God sees them. Learn to love those around you. That's why we, the church family is so important in the believer's life. Because we're learning to love one another the way God loves us. And that's why it's a safe place for people to come. Because they've been judged by their flesh, by their past, by what they don't have, by what shoes they wear, by what they put on. They've been judged out there in the world so harshly that when they come in here, they realize it's not about the natural, it's not about the flesh. We're all equal in the body of Christ. We're all the same. We can't let these natural definitions creep into a spiritual life. Amen. You were born again into the family of God. The real you on the inside has been made in his image. Stop looking at the image that you see in the mirror. Stop looking at the image that somebody has given you about yourself. Stop looking at each other based off of the image that society has put in front of us. Because one day you're going to have a situation that's going to need to be addressed from a place above. Amen. And I get tired. Oftentimes we easily slip into trying to deal with the natural from the natural, trying to figure out what does it say. Casting down imaginations, which is reasonings which is the mind, which is the natural. I get exhausted and thank God for His mercy. How many of you get exhausted trying to figure out in your mind how we're gonna make it happen? It's not about how we're gonna make it happen. It's about what he's already made happen. I'm going to deal with it from the place in the Spirit. I'm gonna talk to my body if it's not lined up with the Word. I'm gonna talk to it from above, not right at it, not beneath. I'm gonna talk to. To my finances from where I'm sitting in Christ, and not from my natural knowledge. Amen. God is so good to us to give us answers before a need even arises. You may not be facing anything today, but tomorrow. So you say, then what do I do? I don't want to. I don't want to be a victim of my own mind today. Find out what God's Word says. This is the importance. It's not. God doesn't need you to read His Word for His sake. He needs you to read His Word for your sake. Amen. He needs you to renew your mind for your sake. And that's why it's important for us to take time to get full of the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit, Rejoicing. If David, who was not born again, says, God has put more joy and rejoicing in my heart than all their partying, all their wheat, all the stuff that they have, then how much more can we be in joy? You are not your job. You are not your situation. You are not your home. You are not your apartment. You are not your car. You are not your body. Amen. You're not taking that body with you to heaven. I'm bringing heaven and putting it in my body. Amen. You're not even your own mind. You're a child of God. You have been brought into the kingdom and the family of God. Amen. Amen. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@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.