← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Our Greatest Weapon | Morgan Dufresne | Tuesday Night's Online Service | | 4.7.2020
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our midweek service. We're so glad you could join us. I sure miss being with everybody. I miss seeing your faces. I miss seeing all the kids and the families. But I know shortly we're gonna be back together very, very soon. So tonight, let's go and get into the Word. We want to go ahead and receive our tithes and offerings. If you'll me in your Bibles to Psalms chapter 52, I want us to look at something here in. In Psalms chapter 52 in verse 7, it reads, See, this is the man who made not God his strength, his stronghold and high tower, but trusted him and confidently, confidently relied on the abundance of his riches, seeking refuge and security for himself through. Through his wickedness. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in and confidently rely on the loving kindness and the mercy of God forever and ever. He's making a comparison here of two different men. One who relied in riches and the abundance that he could take for himself. He sought refuge and security and in himself and through the money he had. And there was another man himself who he said trusted and relied on God's loving kindness. It's not riches and money that's bad or that's evil. It's how we use it and why we look to it. If you're looking to money and to your job, into your income, as security, as your peace, if you're looking to it, to run to it at every opportunity and to take unto yourself all enough for you and your family and. And being unwilling to give and to share, you have forgotten that God's loving kindness is so much greater than any need you have and any amount of money you can ever receive. And so when we look at God's word, when we look at this passage, there was a man who made God not his strength. When we make God our strength, that's because we're focused on one thing, his loving kindness and his mercy. That it's God's mercy that we are where we are today. It's God's mercy that called us out of a life of sin. It was God's mercy that brought us into the kingdom. It was God's mercy that forgave us, that healed us, that redeemed us, that delivered us. We can look back and we see God's mercy all through our walk with him. And there's things we don't even know about. We can look back and go, you know, at this time in my life, I know God was working for me, but I couldn't even tell you what he was doing, but I knew his mercy and his goodness and his faithfulness was working for me. That is making God your refuge and your strength when we continue to reflect and look back and look to him and his loving kindness. So if we look to our jobs, if we're looking to the money that we can store up, if we're looking to riches and to seek refuge and have security in a bank account, in a savings account, in a 401k an investment in, if that's your refuge, you have forgotten one thing, that God's loving kindness is so much greater than anything money can buy. Because God's loving kindness provided all that you would ever need. There are things in this life that money can't buy. There's things in this life that your savings account can't buy for you, that your investments cannot provide for you. But God's loving kindness through sending his son. For God so loved the world that he gave his son through. Through that one gift, we have been provided all, everything that we would ever need. So we can run to God through every need, through every circumstance, through every situation. If we will go back to God and remember his loving kindness, his tender mercies, everything flows from that. I will not. And we. You have to consecrate yourself and say, I will not look to my bank account, my checkbook, my savings and my investments. I will not look to that for my security. That is a high tower that has chronic stumbled and failed many a time. But God is my refuge, My high tower. And he never fails. He is always standing and he is always sure. So as we give our tithes and offerings, what we're doing is we're telling God, we're showing God with our actions that we trust in his loving kindness, we trust in his mercy, we trust in his goodness, in our lives, that he is our source. And not only is he our source for meeting all of our needs, but he is our source for every desire of our heart, everything we long to do and have. He is the source we don't have to heap unto ourselves to try to get something and make something happen for ourselves. God, he rewards those who diligently seek him, pursue Him. And he is rewarding me right now. So we want to trust in him. But trust is shown. Trust is not just in words. Only trust is demonstrated through action. And so right now, if you want to give. If you're on our website, there's a link right there. You can also give via text. To give. You can also bring your offering. Send an offering. You can bring it by and put it in the mailbox. Send it to the church if you have our address. But we want to invite you right now to go ahead. And this week we'll give during our midweek tithes and offerings. Don't forget congregation offerings are so important. Don't think that you have to, have to heap and save up in this hour. Because if you're looking to heap and save up every little dime with what you know, if you, you had a habit and a pattern of giving and sowing, see or you understand this, that many a times as we sow seed, we need a harvest. We need more than what we have right now. And so if I need more than, what I'm going to do is I'm going to sow a seed so I can plant into the kingdom and receive a harvest of more. So we want to not neglect in this season, in this time when things for others look bleak, when things for others, they have no hope or we have a hope. And so we're going to stay diligent and stay faithful in bringing our tithes and offerings and honoring God and showing God we trust in his loving kindness. So let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the instruction in your word. Father, we want to be like the man who trusts in your loving kindness, who trusts in your words that your words are true. Your words are life. Your words are our. Our only help. And Father, we look to you this week. We look to you as our source. We look to you as our great reward. We thank you, Father. You're working on the behalf of every giver. Your power is working. Your spirit is working. We thank you, Father, that as they give their tithes, as they bring their offerings. Father, we say for the people of World Harvest Church and for those watching, those partners and friends that are watching, that are faithful to give. Father, we believe an abundant harvest coming back to them quickly. Father, we believe that as we sow, there is a harvest that has our name and we will not let go of it until it is manifest. Father, this is the time that our faith should shine the brightest. Where you are going to get so much glory because your provision, your rewards, your favorite, is going to be demonstrated in ways we have never seen. And we thank you, Father, for it. In Jesus name, Amen. Well, let's get into the word into our. Let's see here, our passage for this evening. There's a main passage I want us to take a look at. And then we're going to turn to some places. As I was preparing for tonight's message, there was one thing that kept coming back me. And it was on the subject of praise and getting rid of that heaviness that tries to get on us. And so I want us to turn to Isaiah. Isaiah, chapter 61. Because in the life of the believer, really in the life of every human being, heaviness tries to come to all of us. And here in Isaiah we see what the scripture has to say about heaviness. The verse 60 or verse 1 in chapter 61, the amplified reads, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor and afflicted. He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the physical and spiritual captives and the opening of the prison and the end of the eyes to those who are bound. We know this. This was the first message Jesus got up and preached. This is talking about Jesus. This is a really a prophecy that is foretelling what it is, what he. Who he is and what he's going to do when he comes and what we can be looking, what they could have been looking for and expecting. And verse two to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. We're in the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of his favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in Zion, to give them an ornament, a garland of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment expressive of praise instead of a heavy burden and failing spirit. And I like this next part, that they may be called oaks of righteousness. Lofty, strong, magnificent, distinguish for uprightness, justice and right standing with God, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. This passage is talking about those who receive of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus came and he was God's gift to this earth, to mankind. And then he said, I have to go so that another may come. And that other one is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we know this, that now it is the year of the Lord. His favor has been poured out. His favor has been provided. I don't have to wait for God's favor when I cooperate with God's word, when I'm Walking in His plan. Then I can call on his favor. When I'm in God's presence, I can call on his favor. But we see here he's given us favor, and he has. It says in the beginning of verse three to grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in Zion and give them an ornament of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning. We have been given the spirit of God, the joy, the life of God on the inside of us. We're no longer separated by sin from God. This is talking about bringing us back together, reconciling us back to God, and that he fills us with his spirit. I want us to talk about tonight, though. That praise is what we do and what we put on and what we've been given as a weapon against heaviness. As many of you know, of course, the situation that we're in in this nation and around the world, we don't have to be afraid. This fear is a spirit, and that spirit is not a spirit that we've been born of. That spirit is hard. It's foul, it's harsh. The spirit of fear looks to destroy man. It looks to tear up families and relationships and people's bodies. And fear comes to torment people's minds. That spirit has come to terrify and terrorize people's thought, life and their minds. And we've been delivered from that. We've been delivered from the spirit of fear. We've been translated from there into the kingdom of light. The devil is the author of fear. He's the author of that spirit. And I don't live according to the book he writes for my life anymore. I live according to this book. The devil wanted to author some things in my life and author a plan for my life. But I don't live to what he has written. I live according to what God has written. What the word says says about me, what the Word has spoken over me. And so I have to agree with that. In order for that to come to pass, I have to agree and speak out of my mouth. But there's going to be times where the devil's going to come and he's going to try to see if you believe that the word of God is true, if you believe that joy is really yours, if you really are excited about the promises of God, if you really are thinking, thrilled with the word of God. He's going to come. And what he's going to do is he's going to bring thoughts that are going to try to bring a heaviness and a weight and praise is the weapon that allows God, that it allows God's power to fight for me during that time of heaviness. Maybe you're facing a situation right now and you say, you know what, Pastor? It seems right that I would be down. It seems right because this is my natural circumstance. Maybe you're facing symptoms in your body. Maybe you're facing a financial need and common sense. The natural man says, well, I've got every reason to be discouraged. I've got every reason to be depressed. I've got every reason. There's nothing that seems to be working right for me. Nothing seems to be going right. I'm trying to make progress in the things of God. And there just keeps seeming. Seems like there just keeps being hindrances and, and things that come up in my way. Listen, the devil, he doesn't just lay down. The moment you speak faith and the moment you declare what you believe is yours in Christ, he doesn't just back up. He's going to try to see if you believe it do. Is is your faith of the heart? Are you mentally assenting to something that you heard? But faith of the heart understands that there's going to be actions to our faith. And when you have faith in your heart, you decide that nothing is going to stand in your way and nothing is going to come in the way of your manifestation because you believe according to the Word, what you hope for is going to come to pass. Faith is the substance. It's what says it is mine. It's that substance that won't let go. It's that substance that rejoices every time it hears the promise that has been given. It's the substance that, that rises up on the inside. And when, when everything is contrary to what you're believing for faith is the substance that keeps hold of in the unseen realm and won't let go of what has been promised and what you're hoping for. And so praise though, is a weapon that we've been given in order to let God praise. Well, let me say it this way. Praise is the weapon that allows God's power to fight for me and it allows my shield of faith to be held high. You know, I don't want to. When it talks about the armor of God and we won't take time to turn there, but it talks about in Ephesians, the armor of God. We don't want to take God's armor that he's given us and wear it sloppily. That's the best Word I can think of to wear it where it's hanging down. We want everything pulled tight, firm. We want to have our shield of faith. We don't want it sitting on the ground. We want it right here, guarding our heart, guarding our mind. We want to be able to speak the word with boldness and be aggressive towards the opposition. And praise though is a weapon. We know that with our armor we have the sword of the spirit. That's what the spirit is to cooperate with our praise, with the fruit of our lips giving praise. And so we have our shield of faith, but we have our sword of the spirit. And praise is what we're able to wield when it comes to the opposition that comes into our situation. And I know this for my life. There's been times. I know that, I know that. I know God's promises for me that it's true. And I've been speaking God's word, confessing. I've been making mention every day of what I believe is mine. I know that my heart has laid hold of God's promises. I know that my heart is not going to be moved based off circumstances. But the devil is still going to try to, to shake me off of my firm foundation in the Word. And he does that. One of the ways he does that is through this spirit of heaviness. And it says here actually in the King James, it just simply says the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Heaviness is a spirit that begins or is the beginning of the spirit of fear. It's an offshoot of the spirit of fear. They work hand in hand. That spirit, spirit of heaviness comes and it can kind of begin to weigh on you as situations maybe get worse or as, as they linger. We can't allow this situation that we're in, the circumstance that we're in with this coronavirus and the, the condition of our nation. No matter what happens in the financial arena, no matter what happens in, in people's lives, we have to, to be sure and firm footed on the word of God. But as time goes on, that heaviness can sometimes try to come on us. Sometimes even for people it's because just getting out of routine and you've got maybe more moms, you've got more responsibilities on your, on your plate with homeschooling kids and there's a temptation to get overwhelmed. That overwhelming feeling is part of that spirit of heaviness. But if we yield to the heaviness, if we yield and yield up our joy to the time and the circumstance and the weight of what we're having to take on, the extra things we're having to take on, or maybe not even being able to get out of the house and have a normal routine and go do normal things. The weight of that, if we use yield to that, it swings the door wide open to the spirit of fear for that spirit of fear to come in. And so we want to understand that that spirit of heaviness oftentimes is not just there. If you yield to it through your feelings and emotions, it's going to lead into and segue into that spirit of fear having an open door, and you'll start becoming worried and fearful. Well, why haven't things changed? Well. Well, when is this going to happen? Well, I'm, you know, I was believing this and now I'm wondering if that's even. If that's even possible, if that's able even to come to pass in my life. Because that heaviness came in to try to steal the one thing that brings victory, and that is our joy. The word of God and our faith operates through. We know this by the love of God, but also joy and rejoicing and praise. And all these things lead back to our peace and our foundation on God's Word. And so we want to be able to stay in peace. We want to be able to stay in that place of rest, in that place of faith. And heaviness comes to move us out of that place. But God has given us praise as a weapon. Now we know this. Like I said, praise is the weapon that allows God's power to work for me. You don't have to try to get rid of that heaviness. You don't have to try to change your situation. If you have a need, it is not your job and your responsibility to change it. It's your. Your job and my job to trust God's word and that he's changing it, that he's working, that he's moving. And so praise is a weapon that allows God's power to keep moving for me to keep working. So heaviness comes to try to get us to put down our weapon. Don't put down your weapon of praise. Don't put down that sword of the Spirit that keeps us moving forward. And the spirit of fear is right on that tail of the spirit of heaviness. It's right behind it. And so if we even yield but for a moment to the heaviness and the weight and the discouragement or the frustration of a situation, if but For a moment, we give in to those emotions. What we do is we open ourselves up for the spirit of fear to come in and begin to bringing other thoughts, greater thoughts, thoughts of failure, thoughts of, you know what? This may, maybe this isn't my best here yet. Maybe this isn't gonna. Gonna turn out the way I've been believing, the way I've been speaking. That's the spirit of fear, that's worry, that's doubt, that's trying to get in. So we must guard against the spirit of heaviness. Many times when heaviness is trying to come on us, it will show up first in other ways. How do we know if I. If that spirit of heaviness is trying to come on me? Well, the spirit of God showed me three different ways that I know for my life that I've recognized and had to give attention to. When these things try to happen, or when these maybe certain attitudes or attributes start showing up that are outside of my nature, my character, outside the character and nature of the word of God. And one of them, the first one, is impatience. We can look at impatience and we think we're just trying to get things done. We're just trying to make things happen. I'm just a go getter, or I'm just trying to keep things moving. But we need to watch and be mindful that maybe that impatience is stemming from a heaviness trying to come on us. We're trying to make things happen. We're trying to outrun and outperform that heaviness and trying to get out from underneath it in a very natural way. So if we start becoming impatient with people around us and patient with our family, because that's who we're going to be with the most. Don't just say, well, we've been together a lot. Watch those words, watch that deception. Well, we've just been together a lot. We've just had to spend a lot more time than we normally do. If you're getting impatient with the blessings and the gifts that God has given you, which is your family, first make sure that you're guarding. You've got your guard up, you've got your antenna. Is this heaviness trying to come on me? Am I getting impatient? Am I getting short with those around me? Because something else is trying to come on me? Sometimes when we get aside and we step aside and we begin to praise and worship God and get back into the spirit, we find ourselves far more patient and less irritable with those around us. And that leads me to my, my number two, when if we're getting impatient or we begin to see things differently, maybe as the weeks go by, you, you're, you start putting on, if I could say it this way, different glasses and you start looking through a different lens and looking at things differently. You were in faith at the beginning of this. You were excited about what God was doing in your home, in your family, in the body of Christ. And as time passes, you begin to come discouraged and you lose sight of the truth of God's word. And there becomes a distortion of the reality and the truth of God's word. What seems to be reality in life. And, and, and when are we, this is going to change. When are we going to get out of this? And you forget you, your, your reality is distorted because the truth of God is not being illuminated. Praise always illuminates and takes us back to the truth of God's word. So if you begin to start seeing things differently than you did last week and the week before and it's not in the positive direction, the spirit of heaviness may be trying to come on you, which again leads to fear, leads to doubt and leads to worry. Also this if you, you continue or you, you're continuing on in your day to day life, but you seem to have more, be more in touch or in tune with your emotions and your feelings. You have breakdowns or you know, for, for no reason. It's the. These times can be very different or everything our routine is different. There's different pressures, there's different responsibilities, there's different things that we even may be believing for. We've had to change things, some things and, and get into the word and believe for things that we've never had to believe for. And if you find yourself getting emotional about it and having lots of all these feelings and you just want to talk about feelings and your emotions and your crying. This is the spirit of heaviness. This isn't okay. Society says it's okay. It's not okay. Your emotions and your feelings swing the door wide open, open for other things to get in. Because feelings and emotions are the expressions of the body and the mind. Praise is the expression of the heart in the spirit. We want to express our heart. We want to be expressing always from our spirit man that our spirit man has the number one expression in our life. So parents, make sure that your children, you're, you're showing them and you're being a good example to them and you're helping them that if they're tempted and they. They want to cry and get emotional about something that we don't. We don't allow them to stay in that place because that's not a place of the spirit man, of the new creature. That's a place of this flesh and of this mind. And if we live out of our mind and we live out of our flesh, that's where we start feeling that heaviness. We feel it in our body, we feel it in our mind. We feel that pressure on our mind. We feel the weight and the responsibility of the time that we're in, in our mind. You watch too much news. Heaviness will try to come on you. You. You gather too much information and, and you. You will sit heaviness trying to come on you. And you'll want to get emotional, you'll want to have feelings about it. You'll want to experience, express some things. So it's not even just crying or, or getting sad. It can be being upset, mad. Watch how your words make sure that they're kind words that you're speaking. No, things may not be happening the way you think they should be done. But you know what? We're people of faith. We live according to another kingdom. And so we're going to keep a positive outlook. We're going to keep a faith, faith outlook. We're going to continue to speak faith, talk faith and praise from a place of faith. Because every time we yield to anger and resentment or bitterness, frustration, these things, these emotions, these feelings, they open up the door to that spirit of heaviness again, which leads to fear and doubt. And we heard Pastor Nancy on Sunday. Those doubt, fear and worry are the open doors to sickness into our lives. Those. Those are one of the ways that we open up. Yielding to those is one of the ways we open the door to sickness and disease. And so this all goes together. We are keeping. Remember what I said at the beginning. The devil is not just going to let you move forward in faith unhindered or without him making a good effort. He would be a sad foe and a poor. A poor enemy if he didn't try to oppose every word of faith that you spoke out of your mouth, every move of faith, every time you sowed seed, every time you rejoice, every time. If he didn't come to try to see if he can take away the word that's been sown into your heart, then he would be a poor enemy. But I tell you what, greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. The one who's in me is great. Greater than the enemy that's opposing me. I'm not afraid of him. I'm not afraid of his tactics. When he shows up, like we talked about last week, I will run at him with the word of God, just as David did. But tonight I want us to talk about this garment of praise, this weapon of praise that we can put on and that we can have. Heaviness is the enemy's attempt to keep us from living out of our hearts. He doesn't want you. He wants you living in your emotions. He wants you living out of your mind. Turn with me, if you would, to Psalms. Let's go to Psalms 57. And in Psalms 57, in verse 7, we see here we want to look at what the scripture says. Psalms 57, verse 7. My heart. David says my heart is fixed. Oh, God. My heart is steadfast and confident. That's what we want to be. We want to be living out of our spirit man. We're spirit beings. We are a spirit being. When we leave this earth, our spirit man is the part of us that is living for eternity. This body that we have as a house is just a home. It's our earth suit. It's dying. And we'll take our minds with us. But right now it's our job to renew our minds. Our minds are not automatically renewed. Our minds are not born again. Our minds have not been made new. They have to be renewed. We have to renew our mind according to what God has said about us and remind ourselves our mind. I have to go back to the Word on a daily basis. Because on a daily basis my mind wants to wander. It wants to veer. It maybe is feeling pressure, it's feeling heaviness. It senses the circumstance. But I want to live out of my spirit, man. And I'm going to tell my mind what it's going to think according to the Word of God. When I read God's Word and I speak God's Word, and it's telling my mind how to think and to think like God thinks. And so Psalms 57, verse 7, My heart is fixed, oh God. My heart is steadfast and confident. So heaviness is the enemy's attempt. He brings heaviness to get into our feelings, our emotions, and to keep us from living out of our heart. When you feel heaviness, maybe a life change, maybe a job change, and you're unsure, sure. Or heaviness tries to come at circumstances and situations, it's the enemy's attempt to keep you from living out of the life of God that's on the inside of you. So it says, my heart is fixed. We need to fix our heart. We need to decide. We're living out of our spirit, man. We're living out of our spirit being the real us on the inside. And it says, I will sing and make melody. Here's just in line with the garment of praise. He says, I will sing. Sing and make melody. This is how we live out of our heart. We sing and make melody from our heart. What is complaining? What is griping? That is a melody that comes from the mind. That is the expression of discouragement from the mind and doubt and unbelief and expression of what the body is feeling. Maybe that's what we said impatience is. If you've been impatient, you've been irritable. That is an expression of your mind and your body feeling the pressure. But I want to be fixed and living out of my heart. So I decide I'm going to sing and make melody. You've got to decide when you sense that you're going to sing and make melody from your heart, you're going to praise and rejoice from your heart. We must not let the devil or the spirit of fear get any ground in our lives. Look, if. Go with me, if you would. Let's see here. Turn. Turn with me to Exodus. I want us to look at a passage that the Spirit of God reminded me of. Exodus chapter 17. And you may remember this situation after the children of Israel had come. They were. They were coming out of captivity. They had been delivered out of captivity. And they came to a place where the says in. In chapter 17, Exodus chapter 17 and verse 8. Then came Amalek descendant descendants of Esau and fought with Israel. They. They had come to oppose the progress that Israel was making. And notice this. We. If we go back and we look, we. We see that God had provided for the children of Israel. God was looking to bring them into the promised land. They were. He was looking to continue to bring them into a progress in their deliverance. God, deliverance is a progression. We got delivered. One day when we got born again, we called on the name of Jesus. We got delivered. But we have to walk out that deliverance. And so here they are walking out their deliverance and wanting to come into the promised land. Of course we know they didn't have faith when they heard about the giants and the Lamb. But here in verse, in chapter 17, they had opposition come to them. And in verse 10 it says so Joshua did as Moses said and fought with Amalek. So Joshua and the men went down to fight that battle. And Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the hilltop. When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. And when he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were heavy and grew weary. So the other men took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. Joshua mowed down and disabled Amalek and his people with the sword. And the Lord said to Moses, write this for a memorial in the book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens. Isn't that interesting that God said to Moses to remind Joshua of that. Well, Joshua fought. It was needed that Joshua and his men fought, fought that battle. But they were only winning when Moses kept his hands up. And Moses that rep. That's a representation of the direction we're to be looking. We're to be looking at God. We're not to be looking down at circumstances, and we're not to let circumstances bring us down. But we're to keep our hands and our eyes set on God's blessings, set on his word, set on his promises, set on his loving kindness and tender mercy. When we keep our hands up, when we keep our eyes on him. God's that. That's what the spirit of God said to me. Praise is the weapon that allows God's power to fight. For me, God was working with those men. Now how does God. How does God work with us and for us? Through our words? So if we just try to make confession and out confess heavy out confess that heaviness, that's not going to work. You can't confess your way out of pressure. You can't confess your way out of circumstances. In situations we have to praise our way in conjunction with confession. That's not laying aside our confession. That's not neglecting and negating our confession. But what that's doing is those two work hand in hand. Remember, remember this. There was a point where Moses had to put down that rod, where he went to touch. He was using the rod, he touched the rock, he touched the sea. But at one point, God says, you've got to put down the rod and speak out of your mouth. So we're not neglecting and negating our confession because that is how we step into and. And we draw from that unsafe, unseen realm into the seen realm, those things that we're believing for. But what goes hand in hand with confession is our praise. It's putting on that garment of praise when heaviness tries to come. That confession's not working. You're speaking it and it's not working. You still haven't seen it yet. You've been confessing. You've been speaking the word. When's it going to come to pass? When's it going to come to pass? When are you going to see it? You've never seen this before. You've never had to walk through this before. You've never had to face this before. Look at this situation. It's not changing. And that heaviness tries to come on you because circumstances don't look as though they're making any movement. And we put on that garment of praise and we say, no, I believe God's word is true. And I worship you, Father. I praise you. I glorify you. And what does that do? It allows God's power to fight for me. I don't have to fight the devil. I don't have to fight my opponent. My. My weapons, the weapons of my warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty through God. And I walk in my place with God by. By staying in his presence. If I want God's power, I've got to get in his presence. If I want God's power to keep flowing and working for me, I've got to. To stay in his presence. When I praise, what praise does is it magnifies God. It magnifies his goodness and his presence and his mercy and his favor and his provision. It magnifies the one who's delivered me and set me free. It keeps my eyes set in the right direction. And so what it does is because I'm magnifying Him, his power is able to work for me. And that's what. What happened here. As long as Moses kept his hands up, God's power was able to work. It was able to manifest as far as being helped to Joshua and the other men. But if Moses hands came down, this is a symbol. This is a sign and a wonder to us that if we keep our eyes and our attention on God, that He, his power will and shall begin to work for us and keep working for us. I need. I don't need power one day and try to do it myself the next. I want God's power every day to be in manifestation for me. I need to get in his presence every Day, turn with me, if you would. Back to psalms, Psalms chapter 63. Psalms chapter 63. And we want to look at what the Scripture says here. It says in verse one. Oh, God, you are my God. Earnestly I will seek you. My inner self thirsts for you. My flesh longs and is faint for you in a dry and weary land where no water is. I have looked upon you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Because your loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise you, so I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My whole being shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. And my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips. He's saying here, I will rejoice, I will praise you. I will be satisfied as my lips praise, as my mouth rejoices. I continue to say, as it was in the sanctuary where I sensed your glory. If I can stay in that place of glory, if I stay day. Now, listen. This isn't saying that we neglect our daily duties. But we can have God's presence in our daily duties instead of trying to go to God with our daily duties that seem to weigh us down. Bring God into your daily duties. Bring God into your situation. Bring God when you pay your bills, when you begin to make confession, when you begin to do the dishes and change diapers. Moms dad says you can go to work if you're still working or you're working from home. Bring God into that. How do we do that? With praise, with worship, with rejoicing. Let's bring God into our homes on a daily basis instead of waiting to come together. We don't have to wait to go to the sanctuary. We don't have to wait any longer for us to be together. The same spirit that raised Christ from Jesus from the dead dwells on the inside of us. And we can draw on that spirit anytime, day or night. We should be coming together. When we come together as a body, when we meet together, we should be coming full of the Spirit and from a place of praise and worship. That God has been with us all during the week. His presence has been with us. So that when we come together, oh my goodness, that presence and that glory, it's multiplied power. It's multiplied in and among the people. And those who don't know how to get in the presence of God, they begin to receive immediately answers and healings and manifestations in their lives. Because those of us who know, we know how to get into his presence. We know how to keep that Power flowing and working on our behalf. And let's go to one more Scripture, Psalms 1:19. If there's one thing that David understood, that was the importance of praise in the presence of God. In Psalms 119, in verse 164, he said, Seven times a day and all day long. Do I praise you because of your righteous decree. Decrees. He's just saying, I praise you because your Word is righteous. Your righteous word. I can praise God because of His Word. I don't need to praise him because of a manifestation. I don't need to praise him because he's done something for me. I don't need to praise him because I've seen something in the natural. I praise him because His Word has promised me that I can have all that Jesus promise, provided I praise him because of His Word. I magnify him because of His Word. I glorify him because he is His Word. Him and His Word are one. And when I read the Scriptures. So this is the point I want to make. You can't just praise and neglect time in the Word. Praise and the Word go hand in hand. He said, I praise you seven times a day, all day long. If you don't have something to praise for and to praise about, get in God's Word. We've got to be full. When you're full of God's Word, when you know what God has said about your life, it's easy to praise. It's easy to step aside and give glory and honor and magnify Him. When you know who you are in Christ. And the only way you know is by hearing and reading about who you are in Christ. This book is how we know who we are, what we have, and what we can do in Him. And when we get into God's Word, we can't help but praise him for it. So it says here, I praise him seven, seven times a day. If that heaviness has come on you, I'm gonna give you some homework, make sure you're stepping aside at least seven times. It doesn't have to be for long. But I tell you what, I will not let the devil get any foothold into my life. I will not let him have any, any bit of access, any progress. I don't want the enemy to be able to take any ground into my emotions, into my feelings. But I will stand firm on God's Word. I will praise God because of His Word. I will keep my hands lifted. And as I do, God's power, it's working for me. God's Word is working for me. God's word is first place in my life. And that's the grounds that I pray praise him on. That's where I start in my praise. Life is with God's Word. And so I would encourage you, don't let heaviness come in, because right behind it is fear. It's worry, it's doubt, it's regret. You know, fear is often in heaviness. The. The seed thought that starts that, that it starts with is failure. Maybe you feel like you have failed in some way. Maybe moms, you had a day where you didn't get as far with homeschooling, or you didn't get as far with things around the home. Or maybe those of you who have had setbacks, what seems like in the natural, and you want to have that, yield to those thoughts of failure, that maybe somehow you missed it. That's a seed of a thought that will grow into heaviness, fear, worry and doubt. Cut it off at that seed thought of failure. Don't yield to failure in any way. You are not failure in Christ. His mercy and his loving kindness is so rich in our direction. So even if you did miss it, don't yield to those thoughts of failure. Don't yield to those thoughts of missing it all. Only yield to the thoughts of the word of God. And so we're gonna not let the enemy have any, take any ground, no matter what we're facing. He will not have ground in my life. I will not yield to that heaviness. I will praise. I will rejoice. Even if it's seven times a day or more. I will put on that garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. I will exchange my yoke and I pick up Christ's yoke, which is light and easy. Everything in every season can be light and easy for you. It can be light and easy for me if I choose for it to be. And so I choose. How do I choose? I choose praise over worrying. I choose praise over thinking about it. I choose praise over reasoning. I choose praise over trying to figure things out and do things things myself. I choose praise above all else. I choose worship. And I choose to keep my hands lifted. So we make that decision together. I hope you were helped this evening. I believe that this right here is, is this one subject, praise being the weapon that keeps God's power working for us. It's a huge key in this season that we're in right now. And so again, our praise is founded on the word of God and what God says, we want to remind you that next week is the prayer conference. We're doing a virtual prayer conference. It has already been recorded. So in case you're wondering how are we going to do a prayer conference, Pastor Nancy has already preached messages from heaven revelation that God has given her for this conference. And we want you to tune in next week. Service times are Tuesday at 7am and Wednesday and Thursday 10am and 7pm and this next Sunday is Easter Sunday. Praise God. We can celebrate with our families together. And really we're there's no time or distance in the spirit. We can celebrate together, but we're going to have communion together this Sunday. So make sure you have your communion elements ready for your family, your entire family. Family. And we're going to receive communion with Pastor Nancy this Sunday and we want to let you know about that. So again, we look forward to seeing everyone. We love you and the times that we are together so precious. And so we will soon be together again. We love you. We'll see you soon.
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