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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Well, turn with me, if you would, in your Bibles, if you have them. I'm just going to take one statement that Paul made, one phrase, and I'm going to adapt it to this setting and to this time in the life of the students and really for everyone. Because anything we preach in here, it's not just applicable to graduates. It is the word that belongs to every single one of us. So hear it for yourself. Amen. If you would bring the house back a little for me. Romans, chapter 11 and verse 13. And Paul wrote, and he said, I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle, I the Gentiles. And this phrase is what I wanted to start with today. He says this four words, I magnify mine office. Well, Paul was called to the office of the apostle that he spoke of. And not everyone is called to a fivefold office, but everyone is called. You're called to a place in the body. You're called to occupy a place in the body. You are called to responsibilities of that place. You're called to the privileges of that place, you're called to the fellowship of that place, and you're called to advance in that place that you don't just occupy it without advancing and becoming more skillful in that place. And so this lets us know, every single person in the body of Christ has a place to fulfill in the body, and we are to magnify that place. Well, and I would say this, you occupy a place in the body, and you're going to occupy that place in the body through the local church. Amen. Amen. You have to understand that because you cannot fulfill your place in the body being independent of the local church, because this is the place where your life comes, your family comes, and you begin to take your place in the body. And Paul said, I magnify my office, you too are to magnify your place. Amen. First Corinthians, and I'll just read it to you. First Corinthians 12:18 says, but now hath God set the members, every one of them. Every one of them meaning this? You're not left out. And not only that, you can't cancel yourself out. Not only that, you can't choose to be out of a place, because it says God set the members, every one of them. So no matter your age, young people, you still have a place. You're responsible for before God. People that have been around a long time in the body of Christ, you still have a responsibility of functioning in the body of Christ that God has set you in. And it says God set. Now, that ought to mean something to you, that God thought of you. That God chose you for a chosen place that needs to matter to you. That God did not think of four people when he thought of a place. He thought of you when he thought of that place. How personal he is and that needs to be received personally. That God thought of me and he set me in a place. And since he set us in a place, we need to be pleased to be set in the place. Because it says that God hath set members, meaning this. You can't let family talk you out of the place you're set in. Because when God sets you, no one else is authorized to remove you. God. Amen. Amen. You can't decide, well, I'm too busy. We can't be too busy to be in the place that God set us in. We can't say, well, my schedule's too full. Dump some things. Dump what God didn't set. Dump what man set. But don't dump ever from your life what God set in your life. We're not authorized because one day we will all be accountable before him and stand accountable before him, before that place that he set every one of us in. Amen. For God has set the members, every one of them. Look at this. In the body, in the body of Christ. And as I said, that's going to be fulfilled by taking your place through the local church. You cannot be fulfilling your place in the body sitting at home apart from a local church. Why is that? That's God's system of bringing his whole family into unity. It's through the local church. Think of this. The genius of God is you can look at big companies, big corporations, big organizations. Let's just look, for example, at some place that we all may be aware of here in Southern California, Disneyland. When I watch something on that, if I were to watch something online, what I'm most interested in is the backside, the operational side of something that large. How does that get organized and administrated so that everyone is effectively fulfilling their job and it's making increase of the vision of that organization. Well, we can look at that and we understand that there's lot of money that goes into that, lot of planning that goes into that, a lot of schooling, a lot of training, a lot of, if I could say this, genius behind it behind the system. Well, think of God. His organization is worldwide. It's not just statewide, it's not just nationwide. It is in every place in the earth. And God brings us all together to be one. The genius of God to make that happen. And in God's genius, the organization system, the body of Christ is fulfilled through the local church, that the local church is placed in every region where God will call someone, to every region where he has people and where he's looking to win people. Amen. It's an amazing system. It's such a great honor to be a part of the local church. It's God's way all throughout the earth, making his body one. It's amazing. God set you here. God set you in the place. God set you under a pastor. God set you in a local church. God set you in a congregational family, and that is honorable. If we aren't there, we cannot be trained. And we're hindering the advancement of the body, just as the local church is the training for God's people. We could look at an education system is how we send our children to school, to homeschool, to some kind of organized setting so that our children can be academically educated. Well, God wants his people spiritually educated. He wants your whole life developed in his direction. That only takes place through the local church. And if a child does not show up for their academic training in school, they're going to fail in life or they're going to struggle unnecessarily in life. Well, even so many Christians fail or struggle unnecessarily when they're not where God set them in the local church. I magnify my place. I magnify that God set me as a member in the body, and I need to be trained to function in there. And that training is going to happen in the local church. I magnify that place. I won't dishonor it. I will magnify it. Amen. Know this. It says in First Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 18. But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it hath pleased him so. Notice this. If he's pleased to set us there, we need to be pleased to be there. And not wishing he didn't assign us to something, or not wishing we didn't have to carry it out. But we're pleased. And we're pleased not by feeling, but by choice. I choose to be pleased. Amen. Hallelujah. Know this. Where he sets you is where you fit. That's why he didn't leave it up to us to choose for ourselves the plan for our life or where we're to be set. Because he knows we don't just fit anywhere. We fit where he sets us. What an honor to find your fit. What an honor to function in your fit. Amen. Have you ever put together some kind of a puzzle? All the pieces, well, supposedly, let's say a new box. All the pieces are supposed to be there, and some pieces look so similar and they seem to fit in a measure. But when you run your finger over the edge, there's a bit of a gap or there's a bit of an overhang. There's a bit of a misfit, although it looks close. God doesn't just put you in a place that looks like an almost. He puts you where every single facet of your life fits. And you are perfectly suited for the place he sets you in. You say, well, you know, my. My temperament, my personality is this and that. God took all of that into calculations. He built you for your place. Don't wish you were different. We should all become the best version of ourselves. But we should not wish we were different than we are. Because you're perfectly suited for the fit of the place where he has for you. Amen. So I want to take just those four words. I magnify my office, and I'm going to change this. I magnify my place, and I'm going to look at each one of those individually when he says, I magnify my place. The fulfilling of my place in the body of Christ begins with how I treat it. Amen. I magnify my place in the body by magnifying that God has included me. He's not left you out. And if we feel left out, we need to renew our mind to what he's already set us in a place and we need to show up. If we feel left out, we're not showing up as we ought to. It's not optional for me to be where he sets me. Amen. Why is that? Because you have a supply to receive from the body, but you also have a supply to bring to the body. God knows nothing of a plan for your life that just involves you showing up on Sunday and leaving right after the service. And that's fulfilled. There is an intricate supply that you receive from the word you. You receive from that fellowship of that congregation, and you also bring to the congregation. Amen. And the thing is, sometimes our lives can look, if I could say this, so needy because there are seasons when Things seem to go off the rail in people's lives. And the need for the word, the need for their local church is pronounced. The need for divine help is pronounced. Well, receive your supply during that time, but never forget you have a supply to bring. Don't let the needs of your life cause you to overlook the supply you're to bring to someone else's life. Very good. Amen. Amen. I honor that God had me in mind for this place. You are to honor that God had you in mind for the place he set you. That needs to matter to you. You need to, if I could say this, build that in you. That God chose me for this place. God set me here. I belong here. And I'm going to bless the place I belong. I'm not gonna tear up the place I belong. I'm not gonna be critical of the place I belong. I'm going to add to and bless the place I belong. That means this is in this church. We love one another, we honor one another. No one in here is perfect. So we don't look for perfect eyes. And with perfect eyes. Cause we don't hold them. We don't have them. But with grateful eyes. That God sent me here. That God gave me a family. That you might have grown up without a family. But no more. You might have grown up missing some family members. No more. You had multiples around you. When you will recognize that I have a place that I belong. I have a place where I'm to function. I have a place that I'm to receive from my family. But I also have a flow that I'm to bring to my family. Amen. And what an honor. Since he is the one. Since God is the one who sets us in that place. I'm not authorized to not occupy that place skillfully. I'm not authorized to be unskillful in that place. I have to occupy it rightly and occupy it skillfully. Because the place will be no better than my advancement. Just because I'm in my place doesn't mean my place is flourishing. I don't want it to fall behind. I don't want it to be a less than flow coming out of my place. You know, when a man hires you on the job, he expects you to not only fulfill a job, he expects you to cause that to advance and flourish. Just to show up for work is not faithful. Because we think sometimes just showing up is faithfulness. No, if we're not advancing, we're not being faithful. We should cause increase everywhere we go. What's that mean everything should bloom because we showed up. Nothing gets torn up because we showed up. Nothing gets neglected because we showed up. Nothing gets diminished because we showed up. Nothing gets overlooked because we showed up. Because we're skillful and we're interested in everything connected to us doing better because we showed up. Amen. Hallelujah. I remember one time in particular when God gave me sister Amy Silver McPherson vacation home. I said to God, I said, God, I know that there are many that tried to purchase that place through the years. I've even had conversations with people who knew those who tried to purchase. And I said, but you held it for me even when it wasn't for sale. You told me, it's yours. And I said, I so appreciate that you earmarked something for me that others would have desired to have. And I said, I recognize. Not that I'm favored over them, but you had me in mind. And I said, I appreciate that you had me in mind. Think of that. The job that you have. God had you in mind. The home you live in, even if it's not your dream home, it just might even be an apartment. God still had you in mind. Honor that. Be grateful. Be grateful God had you in mind. And so I said to him, I said, I'm just thankful you had me in mind when others would have liked to have been in that place. And he said this to me. He said, it's because of your honor for faith generals of the past. And he said this statement to me, what you honor, you get to participate in. Know this. The more you honor something, the more participation you'll have. Amen. The more God will call on you, the more God will use you. Can I tell you what the reward of being faithful is? It's more responsibility. Yeah. Yeah. When God rewards you, he doesn't just give you things. When he rewards you for your faithfulness, he gives you more to be responsible with. Remember, there was the man who was going on a trip, and the word tells us that he called his servants. He gave 1:1 talent. He gave 1:5 talents, 1:10 talents. The 1 with 10 caused it to increase. The 1 with 5 caused it to increase. The one with 1 just sat on it, didn't lose it, did nothing with it. And God called him unfaithful. The master of the house said, you're unfaithful. Just occupying is not faithfulness in making increase of the place. Making increase of the place you occupy, making increase of those around your life, making increase that which you're connected to the body of Christ. That's faithfulness. And so whenever the one was unfaithful, didn't even lose what he had, but just didn't cause it to do better, he said, take it from the one and give that talent to the one with 10. What did he give him? More responsibility. So God, it's a reward when God brings more responsibility. Don't go, oh, I can't believe the pastor asked me to do that. Or the department had. No, that's the reward of faithfulness. Very good. Amen. Amen. Judas was given a place. What was his problem? He didn't honor it. He had no honor for the place he was given, and he was replaced. Amen. Honor, Place. God's not looking to replace any of us. But what happens in that place depends on how we treat that place. Amen. And if I could say this, don't get your ambition. How many of you know ambition is not a spiritual word, It's a carnal word. Ambition is, I want something for myself. God's already got something for you. And you won't have to step on anybody to get it. You won't have to belittle or put somebody else down to get it. Get rid of ambition. Have a hunger for the plan of God. So don't let ambition or preference set you on something in a direction that would cause you to diminish that God offers you a place. These staff members, when God brings them, he's offering them a place, and they honor that and they bring their supply, and they don't wish they were somewhere else. As a congregation member, God offers you a pastor. He offers you a church family. Don't wish you were somewhere else. That's to diminish and devalue the place that God set you. Amen. Praise the Lord. How we treat the place determines how God can promote us. God doesn't promote us because he's a promoter. He promotes us because we're ready to go further. The second word here, I magnify my office. When we magnify something, it appears larger, it's enhanced. To magnify it is to spotlight it. To magnify it is to make it a highlight of your life. Local church services are the highlight of my week. Nothing I do during the week is equal to getting to come together in the local church to be with the body and bring my supply to the body. I'm grateful for my job, but it is secondary to my place in the body. And I won't take on more work hours that cause me to abandon the place. God set me in the body. Now, don't misunderstand me. We don't become rigid or legalistic. There may be times that something shows up that calls for your attention, but it cannot be a pattern or a way of life that we choose. And we're okay with setting aside our place in the body because of something natural in our. In our weekly life is calling for attention. Amen. Praise the Lord. When we magnify that place, we don't let something else be equal to it. We don't let something else compete with it. We keep it in its proper place. Nothing is as important as my place, where God set me. Not my job, not my fellowship with people at work, not my vacation time. Nothing is as equal. Amen. Hallelujah. That means if we magnify it, we're wholehearted toward it. We're not just half interested. We're both feet in. We're running full tilt. Both feet in. You don't want to be the one that the Bible speaks of that. A man went out and there were people standing on the corner in the public area. And he'd say, what are you doing here? Go to work in my field. And he'd say, I'll pay you at the end of the day. And then later in the day he goes, finds others and they're just standing around, and he says, what are you doing here? Go work in my field and I'll pay you. And he does that throughout the day. The problem is they're just standing around. Don't be one to stand around waiting for God to send you somewhere. Notice the man who owns something was the one who was helping people find their place. Be in your place and help others find their place. But don't just stand back inactive, waiting for somebody to come and invite you into the activity of your place. Be wholehearted. Jump in. That when God sets you somewhere, you say, how can I do it? Where can I be? What do you want me to do? Don't just sit back inactive and hope nobody knows your number. Be wholehearted. Amen. We don't succeed at anything unless we're wholehearted toward it. Any business owner, he better be wholehearted toward his business if he wants it to succeed. Because there's so much opposition in this life, even so towards your place in the body. The devil would love for you to be less than effective. So the only thing that will cause you to be effective is being wholehearted toward it. Amen. We don't diminish our place by treating it lightly. That's right. That's right. We're sober and responsible toward our place. Amen. I magnify my place in the body. I don't dishonor it, meaning how I treat it, that I live right while I'm occupying that place. To live less than clean, to live less than right, to live an unrighteous lifestyle is to dishonor the place that he has set me. I bring honor to the place by how I live, who I fellowship with, places I go, what I watch, what I call entertainment, what I call recreation. Amen. I have my place in mind. I honor that place by the way I live every day. Not just by the way I act when I show up at church, but how I live every single day. I represent my place by being an example so that others can look at me and say, that place got better when they arrived. God needs examples that he can point his younger family members toward and say, that's how you run a marriage. That's how you run a home. That's how you serve. That's how you love. That's how you give. That's how you pray. That's how you serve in your local church. Amen. We are to occupy our place with dignity. And can I tell you this? The world is becoming less and less dignified, less and less honorable. It is a reproach to humanity of what some people will make public. They will post things freely that really are. If I could say this, demeaning. Why would you do that? There needs to be a life you live indignity. Because what people call funny or what they call entertaining is really demeaning. Paul was writing to Timothy, who was a young minister, and in the Amplified Classic translation, just one phrase that he said in First Timothy, chapter three, verse two. He was talking about the qualifications to stand in a ministry office, to be a leader in the body of Christ. Well, can I ask you this? Does God expect something of the leaders that he doesn't expect of the people? It's all the same. His word is the same. Amen. Yet he spells it out specifically for leaders because we must emphasize it so that we can be an example in it. But we're to be an example so others in the body know how to live every day, not so that we have a standard that they are not that the body isn't held to. The leaders do not have a standard that the body is not also held to. So Paul said to Timothy, you must be sensible and well behaved. That matters that you don't embarrass your family, your church. Family, those who are today blessing you and giving you a certificate. And I don't ever want to say I wish they weren't a graduate because they're associated with me. You need to be mindful of that. When I leave this place, it's not just how I am in School. It's 10 years down the road and I've got something hanging on my wall that associates me with this ministry. My life needs to be representing that. Right. That's right. You don't just live for the moment. The Bible in Proverbs talks about two men, the wise man and the foolish man. It's real easy in a nutshell. The fool lives for the moment. The wise man thinks of the future. How will this affect my children that are yet unborn? How does this affect my parents who did the best they could in raising me and spent a lot of money and I'm out just doing what. Whatever I want to do in the moment. So good. Oh, we might should have invited a happy commencement speaker. This is happy. I'm telling you how to succeed. After today, I get to talk more frankly with you. I don't know that I'd preach this in another place, but I will for you. You're welcome. I get to talk very frank to my own family, right? Why? Because I'm most interested in your success. I want everyone in the body to succeed, but mostly you. So Paul said to Timothy, you must be sensible, well behaved. Look at this. Dignified. Dignified. And lead an orderly, disciplined life. Honor is ever diminishing in today's society. You better make sure it doesn't catch you in that flow. You have to be honorable on purpose when no one else is. You have to demand it of your home, demand it of your children, demand it of your marriage and quit equaling the world. They're failing. They're tormented, they're harassed. And it's our job to go tell them, you have a savior. You don't have to live this way. So don't join them in their flow. Amen. We are not dismissed from the flow of honor because of one reason. We belong to the honorable one. He's honorable and we're honorable because he's honorable and he's in us. We honor him by honoring first and foremost the place he set us to be. Amen. So let's go to the third word of this phrase, I magnify my office. As I said, you are perfectly suited for the office and the place God has called you to be. It fits you like a glove. It fits you quit running around trying to say I don't know where I belong. Yes, you do. You belong in the body, serving, being a blessing in your local church. It fits you. Let me just say this church has been here since 1991. I pastored for 25 years of those years. And let me just say this. Those who made the local church the priority of their life, their family were on a safe course. Those who didn't. Children struggled as they got older. They just struggled and struggled. If sometimes people didn't know to put the local church first, they weren't taught these things. Things. God will help you, but you got to get in your place. But for those who've been taught in this, just know this. To veer from the local church is to veer from a highest flow. We don't want to live this life with self inflicted difficulties and then calling it the devil. When we are where we're to be. Listen, I bleed the local church. You cut me, I bleed the local church. Why? Because that's the body of Christ. And Jesus died so God could have a family, Not a homeless family. It's wrong for any member to act like they're homeless. You have a home in the local church and God will lead you to it. I didn't really mean to bear down on this the way but he's helping us. He's reminding us. Because you don't succeed because you went to Bible school. Can I tell you this? You don't succeed because you're called called does not equal success call equals responsibility. How you handle that responsibility equals success is to equal success. Amen. Hallelujah. What God called someone else to does not fit me. So I'm not going there. I'm not going to get bored with what I'm called to and think mine is less than and try to go someplace where I don't fit. But I'm going to stay where I fit. When someone is out of place, they're unsettled, they're struggling. Nothing pleases them, nothing at home pleases them, nothing in their marriage pleases them. Nothing at their job pleases them. Nothing in their house pleases them. And they try to fix all these outward things. If you would just fix the place, get in the place where God called you and occupy that, everything else will then fall into place. Amen. Meaning this. We're not going to struggle against what we know God wants for our lives. We're going to agree with it. We agree. And I found out this. The struggle was far worse than just agreeing. If I would have just agreed early on. Just agreed early on. I could have avoided all the struggle that led me back to the agreement. Maturity quickly agrees. Immaturity struggles. The renewed mind quickly agrees. The unrenewed mind struggles against what they know God is commanding of their life. Amen. This is one of my favorite stories that dad Hagin, Kenneth Hagin, was our spiritual father and one that he told in his own personal life. He woke up one night in the middle of the night, because there was an urgency in his spirit. He sensed tragedy. He sensed. Sensed an urgent leading of the spirit to pray. And so he woke up and just laying in bed quietly, just began searching with his spirit, God, who is this for? He sensed someone's life was in danger. And so he basically, if I could say this, took his family members one at a time and lifted them up to God. Is it over? This one? No, it's not that one. Is it this one? No, it's not that one. And so finally he got to his son Ken Jr. Who was part of the Vietnam War. And he was stationed overseas at the time that brother Hagin waked up and prayed. And he got hold of that by the spirit, prayed that thing through until he sensed peace, that sense of emergency gone. And in contacting and having communication with his son come to find out at the exact same time his son on the other side of the world. It was daytime, and he was riding a motorcycle with a troop of other soldiers on motorcycle going around a mountainside, and it was dirt roads. And he began going around a curve and the dirt started. Of course, it was loose under the tires. And so he lost control and started over the cliff. His bike went out, started over the cliff. He's in midair over the cliff. And those riding with him saw that bike flipped from midair. To some. It's as though somebody took it. No doubt an angel flipped that thing back to the exact opposite side and he landed there unhurt. Change the trajectory, the direction of that motorcycle that was already in midair over the cliff and flipped it back to safety. And those men said to Ken Jr, Someone up there likes you. And he said, no, my daddy prayed. Then God spoke to dad Hagin and said this. If you hadn't obeyed me in what I called you to, I could not have intervened in behalf of your son. What is this? Obedience opens the door to God. Disobedience opens the door to the enemy. Honor your place, Know your place, because it affects more than just you. Us staying in our place and occupying our place doesn't just bless us us. It blesses everyone connected to us. Amen. It's not our place to allow dissatisfaction to come in. Getting bored. I want something more than what my place is showing me. If you'll just stay with the place. If you'll just stay with the place, you'll open up into a broad area. You won't be living a less than life. There is so much richness. Can I tell you this? There are things that my husband prophesied to me over 30 years ago that I'm just now moving into. I didn't try to pursue it. I didn't try to make it happen. I just. I stayed in my place when it became routine. I just stayed in my place when it became, if I could say this, nothing new on the horizon. I. I just stayed in my place. I just stayed in my place. Because when I'm in my place, when promotion time comes, God knows where to find me. God can't promote us while we're on the wrong territory because he's not promoting wrongness. Praise the Lord. Choose to love your place. And. And I don't care how bored you get or don't let ambition or zeal or excitement about a fresh new idea pull you out of your place. Can God put you back? Yes. But time will be lost. Amen. We've all stepped out of place at some time. You can step back in, but you can't step back in doing what you want. You have to honor the place he set you. Amen. Hallelujah. I magnify my office by staying in it. I magnify my place by staying in it. It's my. I magnify my office. It's personal to you. As I said, one day we will all stand before God and give an account. Don't let well meaning loved ones sway you from what you've got to give an account on. They won't be giving an account, but you will. And just because they love you doesn't mean they know what God is saying to you. Now. I'm not talking to young people. God uses parents to help you stay on course. I'm talking about when you come into your own to where you're accountable now. And you've got to hear God. And you can't let your best buddy at work sway you from your place. You can't let well meaning relatives tell you, well, you need to go where I grew up and go to this school and do what I. You'll have to account. You'll have to give an account for what God has said to you. So don't let well meaning loved ones who love you sway you from the place they don't have to give an account on. Very good. And know this. Don't think that you have to be in a big place to be prepared for big things. It's not big places that prepare you for big things. It's doing the little right things every day that bring advancement. Jesus was a carpenter for 30 years. Not a big plan, just an ordinary course of life. But God was building the man. Amen. God will use the ordinary places and ordinary things of everyday life to build you. What's that mean? Live right every day? Because God's watching that. He's watching how you talk to your spouse. He's listening for how you handle your children, what you say in the lunchroom about your boss. All of these things are playing into advancement. Well, it doesn't really matter. He knows what you're watching. He knows where you're going. And I don't say this to make you afraid. I say it to make us sober. That God wants us to succeed. And all of these things play into the success of us in that place. Amen. Your daily life is your qualifying ground. God calls you to a place, but you're the one that has to qualify to be a success in that place. Success doesn't belong to you because he loves you. It's because we took our place. We walked as he made us to be. Amen. I don't even allow. I don't even get to define my own place. We don't get to define our own place. I don't even consult with me about my place. I consult with Him. Amen. Let me just say this. The more carnal, if we yield to what's carnal, it makes us ineffective. But if we'll be yield to what's spiritual, it puts us in line for promotion. What's this mean? Don't put up with any carnality in your life, in your marriage. It's not all about you. It's not all about you. When it's like, what are you doing for me? What about me? You've missed the whole thing because Jesus did nothing for himself. It was all about someone else making being a blessing to them, being a blessing to them, helping others go faster. It's not about me and getting my attention. Renew the mind out of that state of carnality. Because the life of spirituality is the life God promotes. Amen. Know this. Don't ever just take your place and decide you'll just coast. Don't live on neutral because neutral is never staying at the same place. It's always regressing. It's always going backwards. In the life of faith, you're either moving forward or you're going backwards. There's no such thing as I'm stationary. You can't live on autopilot. You can't live in neutral. You have to be. As Paul said, I press toward the mark. I press. I press. You reach past your flesh, you reach past your soul. You reach past bad habits. You reach past your past and quit making others dance to the bad tune of your past and controlling your marriage and running lies based on how somebody treated you in the past. Making everyone dance to that old song. It's graduation time. And I don't just mean graduation day. I'm talking about graduating out of a life of carnality into spirituality. Leave your past under the blood and don't bring it up again. People get tired of living with. Absolutely. You're welcome. Marriage counseling 101. I magnify my place. Why? Because that place is anointed. I'm anointed to be in that place. Amen. It's wrong to bring attention to you. You bring attention to the place because the help is in the place. Let's say this. The place God sets you carries the authority with that place to bless someone. So when you're in that place, you're authorized to bless from that place. I don't preach, preach from the place of Nancy Dufresne. I preach from the place of pastor or teacher because the office carries the equipment that blesses the people. I draw it out of the office and feed the people with the office. I don't draw it out of my personality. I don't draw it out of the person of me. I draw it out of what he's endowed me with. You're endowed in that place. That place is meant to bless people. Amen. The office of the President holds more authority than the man. Who occupies the office. You know, when. When we change administration every four years. In the presidency, any gift that was given to the president while he was in office stays with the office. He does not get to take that home and put it in his house. When other dignitaries from other countries present him with gifts, it stays with the office. The only way they get to remove it is if they set up their own library. Then it goes and it's placed in a library in a public place for the public to be able to enjoy it. But it's Never given to the man privately for his own enjoyment, because it was given to the office. And the man can come and go out of the office, but the office is where the blessing and the authority is. You are in the body of Christ. Function from that place. That place is what hosts the blessing, the ability to bless as well. The blessing is on you as you are in that place. Amen. Hallelujah. It was interesting. We were talking to someone recently who years ago, they had the experience of going to heaven. And I've never heard this. They said, I got to see the place called being a blessing in heaven. You went there to learn how to be a blessing. And they said it wasn't just to give a blessing, it was to be the blessing. And they said, the way that you operated it is in. It wasn't you blessing someone. It was you being a channel, an empty channel. And God flowed through you to be the blessing to them. It wasn't you taking it out of yourself and blessing someone. It was what God poured through you. And you became the channel. You became the conduit. You became the pipeline. Being a blessing that heaven poured through you. God assigned it to Abraham. Thou art blessed to be a blessing, not to give blessing. To be every part of your being is a blessing. Live that way. Live with the awareness I'm to be a blessing. I love this. That dad Hagin, before he would go out and pray, before he would go out and preach in a service, he said, I'll stand in the back and say, God, make me a blessing to the people. Not God, give me great anointing. God, I want great miracles. Just make me a blessing. Because in the blessing, people receive miracles. In the blessing, people receive revelation. In the blessing, people are brought into God's wisdom. Amen. Be a blessing. And the best way to do that is be in your place. Amen. The place will do the work. Amen. The place will do the work. And that's why when God starts dealing with you about something he has for you in the future, and your mind goes on till it says, oh, no, I could never do that. He didn't intend for you to do that. He meant the place to do that. Get in the place and the place will do that. When I'm in the pulpit, it's not Nancy in the pulpit, it's the office in the pulpit. Because the office carries. The office carries the equipment that blesses the people. And I just yield and let that which is flowing come out and bless the people. You have a same place, just like I Have a place in the fivefold. You have a place in the body. I have a place in the body. Every one of us do rely on the equipment of that place to do the heavy lifting. God brings us into great. There's greater financial demands that this ministry is facing, just part of it. But when I'm in my place, the place funds it. I just agree with it. I just agree and say, God is funding this through me. When you're where God told you to be, you'll just. It's an easy flow. It's an easy flow. If everything is a struggle, look at where you're standing. Double check it. Amen. The place God sets you can only be fulfilled by the Spirit. Not by might, not by power, but by the spirit. Amen. Psalm 127, verse 1. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. God will build you by being in the place he told you to be. Amen. Notice in this verse. Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Notice. A house can be built, but God calls it vain. I don't want anything God didn't build. I don't want to put my family and my life in a building God didn't build in a place God didn't assign me. I only want what God built for my life because it's already fully furnished. I don't want to live in an unfurnished place I built. Amen. Magnify the place God set you. Many people magnify their education. They'll get off course. Many people magnify their. If I could say this, their ability, their natural talents. You'll get off course. Many magnify their charisma. You'll get off course. That won't set people free. Magnify the place. It's fully equipped to bless people through you. Amen. Depend on the Holy Ghost, because He's the one that helps you in that place. It's his power, his ability. The divine place. When God sets you in a place, it's a divine place because he's the one that did it. You understand? Anything that comes out of God is divine. The place in the body that God has for you is divine. And it takes divine help to occupy it rightly. And you have that in the Holy Ghost. And you have a divine word. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord a little. I wouldn't call it a charge to the students. I might charge you for it, but no one can. I wouldn't call it a charge to the students, but Being aware of the greatness of the plan that awaits you. Because it's. This is. This is all part of the place. Did you know there's preparation in the place? You have to prepare in that place. Why? So you can advance. What am I saying? This today is just another step forward in advancement for you. It's not the total arrival. Just keep advancing. Just keep advancing. Letting that go further and further. In that place, we look at mine of God who had blessed the earth. How did they bless the earth? They didn't leave their place. They just kept advancing in their place. Amen. They just kept every one of us enter if I could say this, at the beginning stages of our place. But that place has levels of promotion, levels of advancement. And we can look at the dad hagens and the Dr. Sumralls and the Smith Wigglesworth. What is that that they did? They stayed in their place, but they kept advancing in their place. They kept going up to higher flows and higher flows and higher flows. What's this mean? You can't congratulate yourself being born into a ministry family and think that's success. Nothing's automatic in God's family. Nobody owes you something. My children, they all have to live by faith. Sure. Yeah. Why? Because I don't need someone leaning on me that can't believe God walking with me. They got to have their own faith. That's called treating them right. Amen. Every one of you have your own faith. I don't care what family you're born into, ministry family or not ministry family, you can't live off another man faith. You got to have your own. And you have it best by being in your place. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 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.
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Host: Nancy Dufresne
Date: May 12, 2024 (Published May 13, 2024)
Occasion: WHBTC Graduation
This episode, delivered by Pastor Nancy Dufresne at the World Harvest Bible Training Center (WHBTC) graduation, centers on the biblical charge to "magnify your place" in the body of Christ. Drawing inspiration from Romans 11:13, Pastor Nancy encourages listeners—graduates and the greater congregation alike—to recognize, honor, and skillfully occupy their God-given place in the church. The message is practical, candid, and full of personal anecdotes and scriptural insight, challenging everyone to be faithful and productive members of the local church community.
Quote:
“God did not think of four people when He thought of a place. He thought of you when He thought of that place. How personal He is, and that needs to be received personally.” (04:26, Nancy Dufresne)
Quote:
“You cannot be fulfilling your place in the body sitting at home apart from a local church... This is the place where your life comes, your family comes, and you begin to take your place in the body.” (02:37)
Quote:
"Just showing up for work is not faithful. Because we think sometimes just showing up is faithfulness. No, if we're not advancing, we're not being faithful. We should cause increase everywhere we go. What's that mean? Everything should bloom because we showed up." (16:39)
Warning Against Ambition:
Stability vs. Restlessness:
Quote:
“You need to be mindful of that... it’s 10 years down the road and I’ve got something hanging on my wall that associates me with this ministry. My life needs to be representing that.” (41:10)
Quote:
“It wasn’t you blessing someone. It was what God poured through you. And you became the channel. You became the pipeline.” (01:23:17)
On God’s Personal Call:
"God thought of me, and He set me in a place. And since He set us in a place, we need to be pleased to be set in the place." (04:19)
Value of the Local Church:
"It’s such a great honor to be a part of the local church. It’s God’s way all throughout the earth, making his body one. It’s amazing." (07:47)
Faithfulness Defined:
"When God rewards you, He doesn’t just give you things. When He rewards you for your faithfulness, He gives you more to be responsible with." (21:57)
On Dignity and Example:
“Paul said to Timothy, you must be sensible and well behaved. That matters, that you don’t embarrass your family, your church family, those who are today blessing you and giving you a certificate.” (40:50)
Personal Testimony:
"I said, God, I know that there are many that tried to purchase that place through the years… but you held it for me even when it wasn’t for sale. You told me, it’s yours… He said, it’s because of your honor for faith generals of the past. What you honor, you get to participate in." (15:17)
Obedience Story – Kenneth Hagin:
“If you hadn’t obeyed me in what I called you to, I could not have intervened in behalf of your son. Obedience opens the door to God. Disobedience opens the door to the enemy.” (01:09:26)
The message is both pastoral and familial—affectionate yet frank, practical, and purpose-driven. Nancy Dufresne uses vivid analogies, stories, and biblical examples, often pausing for “amens” or candid encouragements to the graduates and general audience.
Pastor Nancy Dufresne’s message is a clarion call to every believer: honor your God-given place, make the local church central, and live in a way that brings increase and blessing to the body of Christ. The episode is filled with practical wisdom, personal stories, and biblical truths that encourage every listener to magnify their place, live with honor, and continuously advance in God’s plan.
For more teachings and resources, visit dufresneministries.org.