A (0:00)

Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. In thinking about the Last Day revival, and I stated it in the previous service, three things that my husband stated. Number one, it'll be all previous revivals wrapped up into one. Now think about what that holds. My, my, my, my. Think about it all wrapped up into one. All the power of those revivals in one. All the manifestations of those revivals in one. Everything. Then he said the fivefold offices operating at full potential power. Then the nine manifestations of the spirit flowing at full potential power. But the thing that keeps coming up to me and has been since the turn of the year several days ago, is that we hunger for that and flow in that from the right place now. But the thing that keeps coming up to me is that we present healing to the people based on, not healing principles, but based on the healer. You know what I'm talking about, not presenting miracles from a place of knowing steps to take to receive a miracle. Listen, thank God for the principles that puts handles on these things so that we can hand these truths to people. But miracles are not. We're not just presenting miracles to people. We're presenting the miracle worker to people. And if we're not careful in this revival, we can say we want healing, we want miracles. Yes, we do. But we want to always keep as the nucleus of that thing, the center of that thing is the healer, the miracle worker, the provider. It's him we're bringing. It's him we're bringing to the forefront. It's not what he does to the forefront, it's who he is. And that's what's been moving in me, that we make sure that we move in this revival from that place, not from a place of principles of the Word, but a place from the person of the Word. Because if we're not careful and you know, we can all easily do that, we can get so moving so quickly and so busily with the work of the ministry and not make time for the one who is the author of all this. You know, there's. I read a passage in a book about some students that were traveling, Bible school students rather, that were traveling to another country. And when they got on there, of course, this was the late 1800s, early 1900s, somewhere around there where travel was primarily by boat. And they got on their boat to take them there and they realized that there was a leading man in the church world on that boat. I mean, he was. I don't even remember the name, but he was. He had a large voice in the body of Christ. And they were so thrilled to find out that this man of this caliber of ministry and anointing was on the boat because they thought, we are going to get us some time with this man. We're going to seek out opportunity to talk to him. And so when they would go out of their, you know, of their cabins, he would be on deck at times and he would be, they said for hours he would sit in a chair and just stare. And no one dared go up because it was like, you know, you could tell he was occupied, preoccupied, absorbed with something. And they didn't want to intrude into that. And so they said day after day, you know, he'd have his Bible there, but he was just looking. And finally one of them got up enough nerve and went up and said to him and said, tell us, doctor, such and such, what do you see out there? And he said, nothing but God. And they said for hours and days he just sat and looked. What was it? No doubt he was just centering his attention, centering his focus. And part of this run that we're the. This race that we're running, we have to make sure that it's not all legs. We have to make sure that it's taking time to sit and slow down enough to hear the stillness. And that's what keeps coming up in me for this era. That we make sure that in all the greatness of the plan, that we don't leave the greatness of the author of the plan, that we take time with him and not just time with learning the principles. Does that make sense? I made a statement. Not a statement, a prayer, a consecration coming into the new year. And I wrote it down and I said, coming into this year, I long not to only bring God's word, the sermons to the people, but to bring the experience of God to the people. That they experience. Not just sermons, but they experience love, they sense it. Compassion, mercy. That they sense it in the sermons, that it's not just words of the sermon, it's the experience of him in the sermon. That they experience his care and listen to this, they experience his interest in them, that they walk out going, even though I messed up, he's not lost interest in me. His blood takes care of what I did wrong and where I've missed it, that when they are with me, it's Him. They sense this can only be done by living, walking in the spirit and living, mindful of him continuously. That we emit him and not us. That we. That I may know him, so they will know Him. Amen. And that's the center of this revival. It's Him. Miracles aren't the center. They're the outflow of Him. Healings aren't the center, they're the outflow of Him. Can I say this? It's based on fellowship. It's not based on power. It's based on fellowship with the one of power. And so if I could say it's okay for us to slow down this week. And if I could say center, back up. Center back up. He is the center in all of our running and all of our doing and all of our preaching, which is right. Let's not stray from the center of it, because it's so easy to get occupied with what we're believing for. But there's no difficulty in believing when he's the center of what you're looking at and what you're focused on. Believing is easy when he's all you see. It's not about trying to get rid of something. It's trying to center our focus more fully on the One who is the author of all these things that humanity needs. If they get him, they get it all. Amen. Let's not just present or be mindful and live mindful of attributes or outflows of Him. They're all part of Him. Absolutely. And I don't diminish that. But if we get him, we get it all. And I'm talking about him in our focus and him in our attention. And it's him we wake up mindful of instead of. I need healing. Waking up mindful of, or I need money. Waking up mindful, wake up mindful. I have a provider. I have a healer. I have a miracle worker. There's no need for me to struggle for these things, because in knowing Him, I'll know the outflow of Him. And the outflow of him is all these things we need. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I mean, you think about it. When Paul, of course, he's had these phenomenal revelations. He had miracles and healings, people raised from the dead in his ministry. I mean, whole revival cities turned upside down, regions turned upside down. I'm talking about this man walked in with power. But at the end of it all, or in the midst of it all, he said this, that I may know Him. That's it. And if we're not careful, we can become so skilled in principles and not know him very well. You can read marriage books to help your marriage. But if you don't know your spouse, it doesn't matter what the book says. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter what the book said. It doesn't matter about the five things that please her, the five things that please him. If you don't know them. You know this parents. I mean, as a parent, I ask this question of God. Why couldn't there just be one formula of raising children? Why can't with the first child, you learn it and then repeat it all the way through? But every child is so different that if you don't learn it, that child, you're going to struggle because you have to know the child and how they process things so that you can help them best and parent them best. Because they are just not all the same in the way they come out and the way they live and the way they think and the way they compute and the temperaments and the personalities and how they process things. It's like, what is this? And you can read all the parenting books, but if you don't know that child, your book just needs to probably be put up in the shelf somewhere. And it's the same thing. You can know all the principles of faith that dad Hagin teaches and that these men of God, God and I don't diminish them. Like I said, we need these things. But if we're not careful, we just know steps and not Him. And that's been my thing, that's been moving in me. Amen. For this revival. Because the one thing we don't want to have happen is God use us to have to set us aside. And there have been many men of God, precious men of God that went halfway and didn't finish. Amen. And thank God for all that was work. But we don't want to just. We don't want to just get in the flow. We want to finish. Amen. And he is the beginning. He is the end. Amen. It's all about Him. I said it's all about Him. And in our quest for believing God for what we're believing God, don't leave out knowing him, knowing him, knowing him, knowing Him. And it's not knowing him just by emotions. Please don't. We know him by the Word and we love him by the doing of the Word. But there are so many times that you have to remember your prayer life is not complete. If it's all just stating what you're believing for, that's only part of it. But don't cheat yourself by getting answers but not knowing the answer giver, because he's the reward, he's the joy. It's him. That's what the psalmist said. God, my exceeding joy. Amen. Because there's a lot of people that get the house they were believing for, and they don't know him that well. Amen. I'm so grateful that when my husband went home to be with the Lord, he wasn't the only one in my house I knew. Amen. Because people are going to shift around in your life. Some move in, some move out, but the constant is the one you can know all the time. And whoever thinks your life isn't worth being around God never takes that approach with you. Be interested in the One who never dismisses your life. Know him and you can have a marriage, you can enter a covenant and never really care to learn the one you're in covenant with. And can I say this about God? He lets us determine how well we know Him. It's not like he only reveals so much of Himself. He reveals as much as we seek to know. We're the One who determines how far we know him, how well we know him, and when we know Him. Faith is not a struggle. Amen. I've been through those seasons of tests and trials when you're just struggling to keep with the principles of faith, right? And nothing wrong with that. I mean, you fight the good fight of faith. There are principles to it. But I believe part of fighting the good fight of faith is knowing the One who. Who is the carrier of the faith that's in you, who's the originator of that faith. Amen. God did not go outside of Himself to put faith in you. The faith is his own. So know the one the faith flowed out of. Amen. That's the real reward of this Christian life. Amen. John, chapter 17, verse three. And the amplified translation. John, chapter 17, verse 3. The amplified translation. Verse 3. And this Jesus is speaking, and this is eternal life. It means to know, to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with and understand him, the only true and real God. And likewise to know Him, Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah whom you have sent. And he said, this is life. This is eternal life, knowing him and Jesus knowing the Father and knowing the Son. This is life. It's not. Let's not be proud of our answered prayers above our quest in knowing the One who answered them. And I just say this. Don't cheat yourself in your prayer life by not spending time just sometimes just quiet, just quiet, looking at him and you know, I'm talking about thoughts of the word and thoughts and just focusing on him. And it doesn't have to be. Have all the activity around it. There's times it's right to be active. But what. What does. What does the word say? Be still and know. Be still and know. Be still and know. Some people don't know some things as they ought in here because they're not still enough to know. There are some things that only become known in stillness. Be still and know. Amen. Be still and know him. So the fruit we bear, even, I'm talking about even out of this revival, is to come from fellowship. John Osteen, who was precious pastor, he made this statement when young men asked him about him preparing for services. He said, I just spend the week filling up and then go out and pour out. I don't. In other words, he says, I'm not trying to write sermons. I just fill up with him and then go out and pour him out. Because the one thing we want is not people to be impressed with what comes out of a pulpit or what comes out of a ministry per se. We want people to want more of him when they walk out of our buildings. Want more of him, not be awed by the people he used. Amen. And if someone walks out talking more, wanting to know you better than knowing him better, that sermon was amiss. That sermon was a fail. Amen. Praise the Lord. John, chapter five. John, chapter five. And I'll set up the passage that I want to read to you just to show you what the setting of this is. Jesus had seen the man at the pool of Bethesda, the lame man. Remember, he said, take up your bed and walk. And he did. It was on the Sabbath day. And the Jews saw him walking, carrying his bed, which was unlawful to do, and said, why are you carrying your bed? It's unlawful. He said, the man that told me to rise and walk, you know, he told me to carry my bed. Who is the man? I don't know his name. I don't know who it is. And then later, Jesus found the man in the temple. That gives us an idea that when a gift of the Spirit went into operation for this man's healing, there was something in that man's heart. You saw a hunger for God, because he ended up at the temple. He didn't end up hanging out at the social event now that he could walk, he was at the temple where people go after they receive healing. Shows a lot of their heart, shows a lot of what matters to Them. And this lame man was found in the temple because it said Jesus found him later in the temple and said, go and sin no more lest a worse thing. Come on, you now think of this. If he hadn't shown up at the temple, he would have never known why that came on him and he would have never known how to keep it from coming back on him. And so because he went to church again, sometimes God will give you part of your answer in one service. Don't think, oh, I got it all, you better get to the next service, because there could be part two of what you didn't know you were missing. He thought all he needed was a miracle. He thought all he needed was legs that worked. And Jesus knew he needed a remedy for not getting back to the situation or keeping the door closed to something like that coming back on him. He didn't know he needed something more. But because he went to the church, the temple, he. He was in a place where he could hear what he needed to know. There's so much of the time we think we're doing okay in a certain realm or certain arena of life. And the preacher gets up and says something, we go, wait a minute, and you start checking things that you didn't know were out of place. Amen. So Jesus said to him, go and send no more, lest a worse thing come on you. And he was telling them how to keep what he received. And then he recognized then he knew who it was and told the Jews, when they asked again, who is this? Then he was able to tell them because now he knew who he was. And so then the Jews began to come after Jesus for that. And Jesus answer to these Jews, was this in John 5, 39, the Amplified. He said to them in verse 39, you search, you investigate, and you pour over the scriptures diligently. So they're not negligent people towards spiritual things, are they? Because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life by all your searching, all your investigating, all your studies, you think that's what's going to carrying out the letter of the law. You do all of that meticulously. But then he makes the clincher statement. The scriptures, they testify of me, they're pointing to me. These scriptures that you're poring over and studying over and debating over in the temple, they're talking about me. And you reject me because you like the scripture work, you like the act of studying, the act of carrying out principles, the act of doing in the natural. And you left me out of it and you missed me. You missed the whole thing. They were talking about me. And if we're not careful, we can be using our faith for things. And listen, things are right. God wants us richly blessed, but it's all about him as a center of everything, of why we do and believe what we believe. If you're not careful, you can have. You can be in pursuit of faith and miss him. Be in pursuit of power and miss him. Be in pursuit of miracles and healings, be in pursuit of your ministry and miss him. Because they were in pursuit of the Word and missed Him. But they liked the legalism. They liked what they could as a man fulfill academically. And this is not about academic approach to the Bible points to Him. Amen. It doesn't matter how meticulously they knew the Scriptures without knowing him, they missed it all. Doesn't matter what we can quote, what we can confess and how long we serve, if he's not the center of our affection, all of it is amiss and as living. Listen, we have to put these things fortified in place because once this revival is up and going, there's going to be a momentum and we may not. If I could say this, have. It might not be at that quicker pace, as easy to fortify ourselves in some of these things as it is now. Amen. Remember whenever the. The apostles after Jesus, death, burial and resurrection and they were working, there were miracles being worked through them. And they were being called before the religious leaders and they were threatening them. And notice what they said. They said they couldn't argue with the fruit because they recognized that they had been with Jesus. They didn't argue with. They couldn't argue and debate the fruit because they had been with Jesus. It wasn't, it wasn't because of who they had been with. The fruit lasted and they couldn't argue with that. If we're not careful, all we want is fruit. But he's divine. He's the vine. And the branch cannot get impressed with itself for producing fruit without recognizing if it weren't for the vine and if we're not careful, we're all about the fruit of a miracle, the fruit of prosperity. These things are right, but it's all because the center of that thing is the vine. We trust. You've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defresheministries.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.