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Peace For The Mind, Part Two | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. So again, let's read Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 5. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God or says something different than the knowledge God gives. Anything that says something different to you than what God has already said to you. The Bible says you cast it down, you get rid of it. You don't accept it. You don't entertain it. You don't let it run around in your head. You don't lay in bed and think about the what ifs. You don't sit and lay in bed and go, I wonder about next week. If this happens, what am I going to do? Quit playing that mental game. The devil will gain an entrance through that undisciplined mind. We are to renew our minds. That's the only way our lives will be transformed. You understand that being born again is what translates us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. But it's not what transforms us. Our transformation takes place through only accepting God's thoughts. Thoughts and getting rid of any thought that's contrary to what God says, refusing to act on any thought that that is different than what God says. Amen. That's the renewing of the mind. So we see that we are to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Every thought. Every thought. That means you just can't lay in bed and let your mind race. Just for 20 minutes. But for 23 hours and 40 minutes, it's disciplined. No. All the time, for the rest of our lives, we must take this aggressive action of renewing our minds with the word of God. No one can do it for you. You can live with a parent who walks with God, but that doesn't mean your mind's renewed. You can go to and attend a church that teaches and preaches the Word, but that doesn't mean your mind is renewed. The renewing of the mind takes place what you do at home, what you implement on the job, what you allow in your life, what you allow yourself to think about. Amen. I want to read again before we go any further, what it says in 2nd Timothy, chapter 1 and verse 7. God has given us, has not given us the spirit of fear, but a power, love, and of sound mind. The Amplified says, God has given us a calm well balanced, disciplined and self controlled mind. Why has he done this? This is our defense against the spirit of fear. When we discipline and control our thought life, the spirit of fear can't come in. Depression, oppression, panic attacks, anxiety, all this comes from the spirit of fear. Been here trying to deal with the devil. And they've left their mind undisciplined. They've left their mind uncontrolled. You cannot cast the devil out of a mind that is undisciplined in the sense it's going to come back. Amen. The cure, the defense is do something with the mind. On one occasion, years ago, God had me. And I've done this many, many times over the years of ministry. But I'm just thinking, one occasion in particular, God had me to minister to a person who was being mentally harassed. He told me, even when I was in my prayer time, what the devil was telling this person. And I knew that they were being harassed and tormented and it was weakening their mind. And God told me to minister to them. So in the next service when they were there, I called them out and I didn't say, oh, God told me this about you, or God told me that. I just said to them, I said, when the devil tells you this, this is how you answer him. What I did is I told them how to answer those thoughts that were troubling them. And when I said that, the person said, pastor Nancy, that's exactly what the devil's been telling me, what you said. And I said, well, here's the help. Here's your defense against it. Here's, here's the answer of what to tell him. So later, there had been a minister that was present in the service, a traveling minister had been present in the service. And after the service they said to me, don't you know that there was a devil on that person's mind and you should have cast it out cause you didn't help that person. I said, yes, I knew there was a devil. I did not help them by getting the devil off of them. I helped them by giving the answer so that no matter when the devil shows back up, the problem was not that the devil was there. The problem was they weren't having a renewed mind and answering the devil. See, this is what happens. And that minister looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about. They had never heard this thing about renewing the mind. Too many times people are running around wanting the power of God and a minister to do something with their mind when no one can do with Your mind, what only you can do with your mind and which is renew it with the word of God. If you will renew your mind with the word of God, you will never have to have someone minister to you about your mind. You understand that? You will never have to have someone minister to you about your mind. If you will daily do the process of renewing your mind with the word. That means take on God's thoughts and reject any thought that isn't God's. Amen. Praise the Lord. The problem was not the devil. The problem with that person was not the devil. The problem was the unrenewed mind. If I would have, so to speak, taken the authority and cast the devil off of their mind, you know what? When they walk out the door, the devil's coming back and the person still won't be helped. The help is to give people the answer. Are there times that God will have you to minister to somebody who is weakened mentally? Absolutely. But if you minister to somebody who's weak in their mind and you help them take authority over the devil, you still better tell them how to answer when you're not around or you've not helped them. Amen. Prayer and laying on of hands in a mystery line will never take the place of renewing your mind. Never. Amen. Pastors need to teach their people to renew their minds. Amen. That's the only way you're ever going to have victory. That's the only way you're going to ever have a transformed life and live out the victory God has provided. An unrenewed mind never lays hold of the victory that God made theirs. Now go with me, if you would, to Joshua, chapter 1, verse 8. Joshua, chapter 1, verse 8. Think of the position Joshua is in at this time. At this time, Moses had just died. Joshua is now the new leader of the Hebrews. They have been in the wilderness for 40 years. He now got the. He now became the head and the pastor of millions of people who. Who were rebellious against God. Not too many people were putting their names in to take over that pastorate. They've wandered for 40 years. They have practiced being out of the will of God for 40 years. How did they get out of the will of God? God's will was that they travel from Egypt and go into the promised land. That was God's will. But the place they were only meant to pass through, they camped in. And they stayed there for 40 years in disobedience to God. How come they didn't just continue on? How come they disobeyed God. Their minds were not renewed whenever they heard report of who was in the promised land. Because remember, the spies were sent to spy out. They said, there's giants in the land. Okay, so we heard that report. There's giants in the land. But two Joshua and Caleb said, we can go up at once. Let's take them. We can do it. The renewed mind heard the same report, but it took on what God said about the report. The unrenewed mind hears what the devil says and believes it more than it believes God, what God says. So because they had unrenewed minds, they wandered for 40 years. Now, Joshua and Caleb had faith to go in, but it was not God's plan that just two men go in and leave everybody out. That's not God's plan. So now, at the onset of Joshua's ministry as a leader, he's got to get the people from their unrenewed state and their disobedient role to coming over to believing what God says. And what God says is in Joshua 1:8, he says this to Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That means every day you're going to have to have what God says. That's what's going to have me coming out of your mouth. He's not talking about speaking in scripture. Every time you open your mouth, he's talking about that the way you speak reflects that you're taking God's thoughts. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. Now he's telling him how to keep it from leaving his mouth, that it's always in his mouth. It's not absent from his mouth. You meditate. You meditate in it. You meditate in it. To meditate into something means to speak it to yourself, to mutter it, to think deeply into it. You go, I still don't understand what you mean by meditation. If you've ever worried, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Meditation. Worry is meditation in the negative direction. And you know what it's like to worry that you lay in bed at night and you play out a scenario, or you rehearse a threat, or you rehearse something fearful, or you rehearse what could go wrong, then that's meditation. But it's in the negative direction. So God's saying, you have to meditate, Joshua. But it's my word, my law. What I'm saying has to go around and around in your thought life. It has to go around and around in what you say to yourself. And we're talking to ourself all the time. Whether you know it or not, you're talking to yourself all the time, right? Just driving down the road, you'll be talking to yourself. Get out of my lane. Why did you get over my lane? They can't hear you. But what are you doing? You're just conversing, saying what you think about a situation, right? God says you're going to have to make my word be what's in your mouth. And notice how often, day and night. Now he knows this. You're not going to be speaking what God says 24 hours. He's talking about a lifestyle throughout the day, throughout the night. That word has to be. It has to be present in your thoughts when you're driving to work. Instead of thinking about how am I going to get enough money to meet the bills, think about My God said he'll supply. My God said he'll supply. What about this meditation is taking the word and emphasizing it. For example, My God shall supply. We could say it this word. Take every word. My God. Thank God. He's my pastor's God. But he's my God. He's my God. My God. Then you can go to the next word and emphasize the next word. My God. Not my job, not my parents, not my family members. My God shall supply. That means I'm going to quit running to people for the supply only God has for me. I'm going to quit falling back on leaning on people just so I don't have to use my faith. See? My God shall supply. Then go to the next word. My God shall. There's no question in that. He's immovable in being my provider. My God shall. There's no doubt about it. And when the devil says, you're not going to have enough money, say, too late. God already told me he shall. My God shall supply. Amen. Not withhold, supply. God's not mad at me. He's not withholding. My God shall supply. And then go to the next word and emphasize that My God shall supply all. Not part, not half, not 11 months of mortgage. 12 months of mortgage out of the year. My God shall supply all. And I won't deplete the supply with the mortgage. He'll supply my car. He'll supply my insurance. He'll supply every single aspect of my need. My God shall supply all my needs. Ah, he doesn't just love me less than somebody else. He'll do it for me just like he'll do it for anyone else. If he'll do it for someone else. He'll do it for me. My God shall supply all my Amen. This is called meditation. You take the word and you dissect it in your thought life and in your speech, and you preach it to yourself and. And you talk it to yourself and you rehearse it in your own mind and you roll it around in your thinking and in your words. Amen. So he's telling God is telling Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. But you're going to have to meditate day and night. What's that mean? He's telling Joshua you're going to have to put another habit in place. The habit you're going to have to put in place, this spiritual habit is you're going to have to draw on my word and you're going to have to put. Put it in your mouth all the time. Speak it to yourself. Why? So that it gets into the way you think. Can I tell you why? They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They thought wrong. He's got to get them thinking right. Meditate in it day and night. That thou mayest observe to what do. Ah. You're not just thinking it so you can think it. You can think it so you can do it. The renewing of the mind doesn't happen until what you're thinking becomes your actions. You're meditating so that you may observe to do according to all that's written in what he says. Now, this is the outcome or this is the fruit of what meditation does. For then not before meditation, after meditating, after doing the Word. Then you will make your way prosperous. Notice he didn't say I'm going to make your way prosperous. He said you're making your way prosperous. Your meditation of the Word, your doing of the Word, is turning your way prosperous. And then you shall have good success. Amen. So this verse is telling us how to experience success in life. Because I don't know about you. I'm done with failure in this verse. God is not mentioned in this verse. The devil is not mentioned in this verse. The only thing mentioned is the Word is mentioned three times. We are mentioned five times. This means this. Our success is connected. What are we going to do with the Word? What are we gonna do with the Word that determines our success in life, that determines whether or not our lives are transformed, that determines whether or not our minds are renewed. That determines whether or not we enjoy what God's provided. It's not because God loves one more or God one has More anointing or one has a call that I don't have. It's determined. What are you doing with the word? What are you doing with the Word? Now notice this. What are you doing with the Word every day? Not just periodically. Because he said meditate day and night. Every day, Every day. Prosperous people are word people every day. They're not just word people. On Sunday, it's a head scratcher. How people will sit in a service like this and say amen, then go out in the foyer and talk doubt and unbelief. I don't know where I'm going to get money. My gosh, it's so hard. It's such a struggle. What? What's up with you? Pay attention. But people go back, they don't even pay attention to what they're thinking. They have thought for so long in the negative direction, they don't even pay attention. If you want to prosper and be blessed in this life, you have to pay attention to what you allow yourself to think about and repeat. Because we're not just here so we can save the. We attended church. We're here so your life can be transformed. But I can't transform that. You're the one who transforms it as you do the Word. Amen. So the only thing mentioned in this verse that God told Joshua is what you do with the words. It's not just going to affect you. Listen, it's going to affect a whole nation under you. What you do with the Word doesn't just affect you. It's going to affect your family. Family, Your children, your grandchildren, your business, your whole future. If we neglect the Word, it'll show up in everything, every aspect of our life. But if we renew our minds, it will show up in every aspect of our lives. Well, Pastor Nancy, you know I'm just hot headed. That's just the way my whole family has changed the way you is. Well, you know what? Somebody makes me mad. I can't help it if they quit making me mad. You, you need to quit thinking that somebody else is your problem. The renewed mind takes responsibility for its own actions and quits blaming somebody else. You don't fix any part of you when you think someone else is to blame. God doesn't play that game. You might trick other people into thinking they're your problem, but God's not tricked. Amen. Quit giving ourselves permission to be the way we used to be. Amen. He's telling us in this verse how to have success every day. The Word has to govern you every day. You have to make the Word important in your thought life every day. You have to make sure that what's governing you and what you agree with is what God says instead of what circumstances say. But, Pastor Nancy, the pressure's so bad. Yeah, you can feel it, but you don't. You're not. You're not lining yourself with what you feel. You're aligning yourself with words. Words. What does God say? When you align yourself with what God says, feelings change. So this verse in Joshua, chapter one, verse eight, he's telling us how to have good success. What about success in walking out God's plan? We can't walk out God's plan until we do the. Until we meditate in the Word and get our minds renewed? How about success in our homes, marriages, and with our children? How about success in our prayer lives? How about successfully receiving from God what he's provided for us? How about success in our businesses and finances? How about success in receiving, healing? How about success against opposition and tests and trials? Amen. Success in every aspect of life is attached to what we're going to do with the Word. Our life is a picture of what we are currently doing with the Word. Well, let's do more with it, because we want to experience even more success. So God was telling Joshua that if he's going to lead them into the promised land, he's going to have to do this verse. Notice this? Whether or not the leader got it in and determined whether the people could go in. Why? Because now he's got to bring this thing thinking into the people. Now he's telling Joshua, this is how you renew your mind. You meditate on the Word and you do it. You meditate on the Word, and you do it every day. You meditate on the Word. If you wake up in the middle of the night, just because it's dark doesn't mean you're entitled to worry. Well, it's dark outside. That's why he said, you meditate day and night in the light and in the dark, when it's easy and when it's hard, when it's bright and when it's not so bright. Amen. Now, them getting into the promised land was not an issue of God's power. It was an issue of thinking. It wasn't God's failure or power that kept them from going in. It was their wrong thinking that kept them from going in. God said, I got to get the mind changed or you'll never get in. Did Joshua get his mind renewed? Absolutely. We can talk about not Only just because they got in. Let's look at some circumstances that he had to address so they could get in. They were in a battle with their enemies at one point. The land is new terrain to them, but the residents had lived there for generations. They knew the terrain, they knew the hiding places, they knew the low places, they knew the high places of that terrain. They knew how to gain the advantage in the battle because they knew the terrain. They were ready raised in that land. But God's people, this is now just their first time coming in. They don't know the lay of the land, so to speak. So it starts growing dark. They're winning. God's people are winning in the battle. But now it's starting to grow dark. Joshua knows if it gets dark, we lose advantage because they know the terrain better than we do. See, normally you just pick up and do the battle the next day. But now he says, well, we're at an advantage. We can't lose the advantage. It can't go dark. So he stops and it says in the hearing of Israel, he said, sun, you stay there, and moon, you stay there. An unrenewed mind won't do that. A mind that has not been meditating would not be so bold as to dare to tell the sun and the moon where to be. He said, sun, moon, you stay there. What did he do about Venus? What did he do about Saturn? It all, the whole entire solar system had to stay put. He only knew about the sun and the moon. But God knew about every other planet. You only know. God only expects you to speak to what you know about. He'll deal with what you don't know about. But if you, you're not going to speak to what you already know about, he cannot even help you in what you don't know about. That was the renewed mind. Amen. That dared to speak to things that great. Why? Because the renewed mind, nothing is too hard for God in the renewed mind, nothing is too hard for God with the unknown, unrenewed mind. They say that's impossible. Your mind's unrenewed. It's not a power with God problem, it's a thinking with man problem. Amen. Well, praise the Lord under Moses, because the people thought wrong. For for 40 years they wandered and that generation never arrived. How many Christians never arrive at what God has prepared provided for them. They never experience all that God has. The only way to arrive and enjoy is to renew the mind. It's not God's power that causes you to arrive. It's the Renewed mind that will yield to God's power. Well, praise the Lord. I said praise the Lord. Again. What we're going to have to do is say this. What does God's word say about this situation? Then go with me if you would. Isaiah, chapter 26 and verse 3. We started out talking about God's not given us a spirit of fear, but he's given us a spirit of power. Loving, a sound, calm, well balanced, disciplined, self controlled mind. Isaiah chapter 26, verse 3. It says this. Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee. Notice this. It says God will keep the man in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God because the man whose mind stays on God is trusting God. Now notice what's God's part. God's part is to keep us in perfect peace. He says God will keep him in perfect peace. God's part is he'll keep us in perfect peace. How can he keep us in perfect peace when we do our part? What's our part? We have to keep our minds stayed on him. How do we keep our mind stayed on God? Well, God and his Word are one. We have to keep our mind on the Word. On the Word. When circumstances try to tell us something different, we say, no, I'm on the Word. If we will do our part, God has already done his part of providing the Word that will keep us in peace. Amen. I have a couple of dogs and in the mornings they get treats and in the night they get treats. So they come and they line up to get their treats, but they don't get the treat until they sit and stay. They show up in the room and they're dancing all around and they're going all around. No, you don't get the treat until you stay. You have to sit and stay. And if one sits, uh, you got both got to be sitting. So if you got one running around, the other one can't get his treatment. So one of them has a problem staying and it slows down them getting their treats. If you have a problem staying your mind on the word, you're going to have a hard time getting your treats. God will keep him in perfect peace. You have to practice staying when something's trying to move you. You have to practice not being distracted by circumstances. Because the one who mind is stayed his peace will be perfect. That means it will be uninterrupted. You won't be tormented and harassed for a few few days. And then in peace. Another how do we live in peace? Renew our minds with the Word of God and keep them on the Word. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. How many of you know our peace is not up to God. It's up to what we're going to do with the Word 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 defrain Ministries.