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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 had a scripture that I had marked. It so blessed me, if you'll remember, when Abraham sent his servant in the way to go and find a spouse, a wife for Isaac. And he said, Abraham said to him that the angel, my angel, will prosper your way. And so he was letting him know, hey, you're not doing this on your own ability. You're not going on your own on this divine assignment. But I want to read a particular phrase that when his servant came to where Abraham told him to go, and as soon as he got there, he met with this little gal, and she was God's plan for, for Abraham's son, Isaac. And I love the wording that we find in Genesis chapter 24. Genesis chapter 24, verse 27. And this is the amplified translation. And it reads that the servant said, as for me going on the way of obedience and faith, the Lord led me. I so appreciate that wording. Listen to that. As for me going on the way of obedience and faith, the Lord led me. It's easy to know. It's easier to know the leading of the Lord when we're obeying him. It's easier to know the leading of the Lord when we're in the flow of faith. If we're in the flow of worry, we're in the flow of fear, in the flow of doubt. It's very difficult to know the leading of the Lord. But when we stay in the flow of faith, in, it's easier to know the leading of the Lord. But also he said, when I was going on the way of obedience and faith, so he was obeying his master, the assignment that he gave him to do. And in his obedience, God led him. So I wanted to really refer tonight to that. Obedience puts us in a place to. To where we're more easily led. And I wanted to read a few things that have been, that I've written in connection with obedience notes that I took of myself or from someone else. We know this, and this is what a lot of people don't really realize. The promises of God and the blessings of God, they're conditional. They're not automatic. Just because they're available to us does not mean that we're automatically going to walk in those. But they are conditional. And the conditions are obedience and faith. You know, when we're obeying God, it's going to take faith to obey God because you have to step past your Flesh to obey God, you also have to step past your flesh to step into the unknown. It's going to take faith. As you obey God, you obey that he's leading you this direction, but you don't know all the particulars and details about where he's leading you. And it takes faith. So the blessings and promises of God are conditional, and the conditions are obedience and Faith. Deuteronomy, chapter 28, verses 1 and 2. You know it. I want to read it to you. It says, if you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do. Well, isn't that to obey? Absolutely. It is being watchful to do all his commandments, which I command you this day. The Lord your God will set you high above all. Then he goes on and he says to this nation of Israel, I'll set you high above all the nations of the earth. But let's take it down to a personal level, that when we obey just individually in our personal lives, he will set us high above all the opposing circumstances of life. Anything that comes to challenge us, that he will set us above that. Verse 2 said, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed or if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God. Listen. You have to know this obedience involves listening. The better you listen, the more you set yourself up to obey. People who don't listen, they're not going to hear the same things they need to hear. I want to just read a few quotes. My husband made this years ago. He said, if nothing is working for you, go back to the last thing that God told you to do, and do it. Nothing will work right for you until you do. What's he saying? That obedience is a huge key to how things play out in your life. And so many people struggle because they're struggling against what God's told them to do. I made this statement, I wrote this statement down. Don't struggle with anything God tells you to do. For the struggle is far more difficult than the obedience. Listen, I've been there to where, you know you have some things in your heart, and for whatever reason, you're just kicking against it and kicking against it. Mentally, you're struggling with, oh, I don't want to do that. Oh, I don't want to do that. And then once you do it, you realize, oh, my gosh, the struggle was so much, far difficult than if I would. Far more difficult than if I would have just obeyed to begin with. Because once you step into the Obedience of God, the grace and the ability of God meets you and makes it easy and causes it to be a joyful flow. And so just know this. Don't struggle with anything God tells you to do. Just obey it. For the struggle is far more difficult than the obedience. And then my husband made this statement. Longevity is not automatic. You have to obey God. So for us to reach the end of our races, for us to have longevity of life on this earth, we don't get there, just we walking any old direction we want to. We have to go the way of obedience. And then another minister made this statement. My health is in obeying God. So in the way of obedience, everything that God's provided for us can easily be accessed and received. And so obedience is such a huge key to us moving into what God has for us. I love something here that dad Hagin made this statement. He said, obeying God is greater than anything else that man calls success. Listen to that. Obeying God is greater than anything else that man calls success. You know, people will measure their bank account. They'll measure how far they have advanced in their profession. They will measure. They'll measure how many people they're in authority over, or they'll measure how large their company has grown. And they'll call that success. But listen, all those things that we can achieve in the natural, if the obedience to God is overlooked, all of those things are unsuccessful. And they are not the highest flow of success that God offers us. It's the plan of God that makes a man's life great. It's a plan of God that brings us into greatness. And so obeying God is greater than anything else that man calls success. I love this by Sister Pat Harrison. Now this, of course, is dad Hagin's daughter. She made this statement. It's one thing to hear the voice of the Spirit, and it's another thing to obey what he says. Sometimes we don't fully obey what he says to do. So this is what we have to understand is that it's not enough to say, oh, I heard God say that he's looking for our obedience. And it's not just hearing what he says that puts us at the top. It's obeying what we hear that puts us at the top. So I love that statement. Statement. Then I love this, that Pastor David Oyedepo, he makes this statement. Now, he quoted Deuteronomy, chapter 28, verses 1 and 2. And that's what we were just quoting, that if we listen diligently to the voice of The Lord our God, and we're watchful to do all his commandments, which he commands us. This day the Lord will set us on high above all, and the blessings shall come on you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God. He said one day he was meditating on this passage, and God said to him, there's a place for you at the top. If you're interested in that place, that is so key, you know, God has so much for us, but we have to be interested in what he makes available to us. And Pastor David Oyedepo told him. He said, God, I'm interested. God then answered and said, then follow the conditions. Obey everything. I command you. How many of you know that to obey him? We're obeying his word, but we're also obeying what his Spirit tells us specifically to do. Then God went on and said to him, your obedience is your lift to the top. When you're tired of obeying, then you're tired of going up. As long as you're obedient, then your way to the stop, to the top and cannot be stopped. And then Pastor David Oyedepo said, when he said this to me years ago, he said, I was at the bottom with everyone else. And so we would definitely say he's got the largest church now in the world. And we would say that his obedience to the word of God elevated him and brought him up into what God made available. How many of you know if it'll do it for him, it'll do it for us. It'll bring us to the top. And then I love something Sister Lindsay Roberts said when she was here preaching a couple of years ago. She said, persecution is so much better than disobedience. Oh, my goodness. Why? Persecution comes from man. But the penalty of disobedience opens the door to the devil, that the devil now has access when we disobey. And so I wanted to remind you of some of these things. Things. And again, I want to read to you. The jumping off point of all this tonight for me was Genesis, chapter 24, verse 27. The amplified translation says, as for me going on the way of obedience and faith, the Lord led me so much of the time. We're wanting God to lead us, but we have to follow him into where he's leading us to go. You know, I was telling when I was doing the Miracle Crusade in Fredonia, New York, I was telling them about a story that my mother read to me. And I don't know if this Is someone that. That it happened there in her hometown or if it was just from a newspaper from somewhere else. But this woman had attended a funeral. And you know, much of the time that after a funeral there will be a funeral processional where the cars get in line and they all travel to the grave site together. And if you've ever seen that, you'll a row of cars with their headlights on. And many times a policeman or. Or the funeral hearse is leading that processional. And this woman, she got in line to go to the grave site for the gravesite portion of the service. And so she got in line with all the other cars and she had. I guess it was more of a. It seems to be more of a populated area that she was at. So they got on a highway and she realizes that this graveyard that they're going to is quite a distance away. And she realizes, hey, I'm going to be pressed for time. So she decided that she would not go ahead and go to the grave site and that she would just go on home. And so she was on the highway and there came the next exit where she could get off and get to her home more easily. So she took that exit off the highway. The only thing is, because she was in a processional, everyone after her exited with her. And so in that processional, you follow the car in front of you. And she realizes, oh my goodness, I misled these people because they weren't watching all the cars in front of me, they were watching me. And she got off. And so all the cars, the train of cars just followed her off. So she realizes and sees them following her. So she gets down at the bottom of the exit. Then she parks her car, she jumps out and she points them no get back on the exit. She's trying to let them know I got off the course. And I tell you what, there's a path and there's a course of obedience. And if we get off, it affects other people, it affects the blessings of God that are to accompany company us on this race that we're running. And so I tell you, it's not just enough to say, I want what God has for me. We have to obey where he leads us to go. So I love this in Genesis 24:27, as for me going on the way of obedience and faith, the Lord led me when we're obeying God and when we're walking by faith, it's easier to know the leading of the Lord. And so how many of you know he'll always lead you into his best. He'll always lead you into success. So I encourage you with those things tonight. Again, we want to remind you to join us for our midweek service, and that is at 7:00 o' clock Pacific time. And I'm so thankful for the time that you've taken to spend with me tonight. And know this, I don't take it lightly that you take of your time to be with me tonight. And so I trust that you were encouraged and I hope to see you either in our church or on the road somewhere. So God bless you. Thank you for being with us. We love you. God bless you. 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 defrain Ministries.