← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Praying From Your Position In Christ | Joel & Amy Siegel | Paducah, KY | JTH Crusades 2024 | Thursday AM
01:09:39
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A
Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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Glory. You know, we're all learning the flow of God. I don't know that you ever get to the place where you're not learning because you know, God doesn't run out. And you know, you can think when you know there is cause and effect in the spiritual realm. Meaning when this happens, a lot of times this happens, we can, we, we can make provision for things and. Right. I mean, just like Jesus talked about, he said you can see a cloud forming in the sky and say, well, this will be very relevant this week. You see a cloud in the sky and you're like, take the laundry in off the clothesline because it's going to rain. And spiritually, it's the same way. There's times where, you know, you can sense things coming and you can sense things happening, but there's also places you haven't necessarily been before, you haven't been in a while. And when you just, when you think, well, this is what happens when this happens, God's got more, you know, and, and he'll. He'll lead you. Well, go, go this way or go this way. And. And so as the waters of the spirit rise beyond, you know, when, when they're ankle deep, when you're in ankle deep water, you can make all the movement you want in the kiddie pool, right? If you, in little splash pool, you're basically, you're basically, your flesh is, can do everything your flesh does in that little kiddie pool. But when things get knee deep and then they get waist deep and then they get a little higher than that, you're very aware of that. You're in at least partially in a different realm, right? You're in the water realm. You're in the water and every movement you make is interactive with that water. The good thing about it is that when you get in water, you can do things you couldn't do. You could lift things that you couldn't normally lift. I mean, you know, things you couldn't do because of the presence of that other substance. Well, that. But the other thing is your flesh is, you know, your, your flesh is confronted with that water. And so your movements aren't the same, are they? Right? And so, you know, it's the same with the substance of God. And when the waters of the spirit rise, sometimes, sometimes it's to actually minister the wor in that glory, but sometimes you're in that place where, okay, Is it this or is it this? You know, and you're, and you're trying to, you want to obey God. I know, I know. We want to do that. Right. And so we're going to endeavor to, we're going to endeavor to open the Bible and look in it from this place. And if we get taken over somewhere else, we do. And praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And thank you so much. If I may, thank you for being so willing to flow in these services. You know, sometimes you minister places and you sense all kinds of people, we could say, sitting on their hands, you know, just, just not wanting to go the direction that maybe the Lord wants to go. But I haven't felt that at all here, have you? I mean, it's, it seems like it's just been such good flow. So thank, thank you to the ministers and then pastors for getting this, having your people learn these things and been wonderful. We made a statement to you on, I think it was the first day, Monday out of the sixth chapter of Matthew in the, in the Message Bible, the seventh verse, I'll just quote it because we don't, you know, everybody doesn't have a copy of that, but in the message Bible, Matthew 6, verse 7 says the world is full of so called prayer warriors who are really prayer ignorant. That's, it's a little bit of an indictment, you know, and of course that's a paraphrase of something Jesus was saying. The world is full of so called prayer warriors who are really prayer ignorant. And how many know that there are people who can think they understand some of, some of the points of prayer, but really not have a full understanding. And if that's the case, as we've said in almost every one of these morning services, you'll end up being ineffective rather than effective. Effective means there's an effect. It means your prayer life has an effect. An effect means something happens. Something happens, you get results, you get results. I don't know about you. In our day, it just seems more so and more so that time is a premium and we don't have time to not be real effective. Right? Do we? We don't have time to be spinning our wheels or be like the proverbial hamster on the hamster wheel. You know, that hamster can run slow or that hamster can run fast and he gets the same, he gets to the same destination, which is nowhere. Nowhere. I'm not into going nowhere. So much of the busyness of our world is a bunch of people going nowhere and doing it busy. Doing it all, going nowhere. But praise God, we got somewhere to go. We read to you out of the Amplified translation of also. The second text we used was 1st Peter 4, 7 in the Amplified, which we will read to you in the King James. It talks about being sober. Well, let me just read it in the amplified here. First Peter 4, 7 says the end and culmination of all things has now come near. How many know it's true? It's true. We're in the last days, we're in the end times. If they were in the end times in New Testament days when Peter was writing, I think we're safe to say we're in the end times today. And there's a, there's a lot of reason to believe that we're in the end times. But no, no better reason than the that the Bible says so. Amen. The end and culmination of all things has now come near. So what are you supposed to do? Be afraid? Huh? Move to an underground bunker? What are you supposed to do? Keep sound minded. I love that. Keep sound minded and self restrained and alert. Therefore, for the practice of prayer. This verse implies several things. One of the things it implies or teaches we should say. It teaches that the prayer life of the believer is key to progress in the last days. Or we could just say the progress of the plan of God is dependent upon the prayer life of his people. Do you see that the end of all things is at hand. Be sober therefore, and watch unto prayer. Prayer is highlighted as a necessary element for the end times. And it's a responsibility. What I love about this subject is it's a responsibility that's shared by every member of the body of Christ. It's not something just that so called prayer warriors do. We're not making fun of anybody. I just was quoting that message translation. But it's not just for somebody who feels like they have a special gifting for prayer. Prayer is a common call. It's a common call. It's not a fivefold ministry, you know, because we've met many people of course over the years you may have too. They say, well, I'm an intercessor. And so much of the time that's their way of excluding and excusing themselves from doing anything else at the local church. I didn't mean to get into that, but yes I did. Sorry, not sorry, No, I'm a prayer. Sorry, sorry, can't. Can't do anything else. Certainly can't greet and you probably don't want them to, but anyhow. And Then we've met intercessors, professional intercessors, professional prophetic intercessors. They're the really good ones. You know what I mean? No. Everybody, everybody say everybody, everybody has the responsibility and the privilege to take their place in prayer. But there's a couple things you need to learn. And I like how it also said in 1st Peter 4, 7, be sound minded. Be sound minded. If you don't think right, you won't pray right. If you don't think right, you won't pray right. And there's, you could say a whole lot about that. There's a lot of ways that one can think incorrectly. But you want your thinking, if we could just focus on this part of this. You want to think in line or aligned with New Testament realities. You want your thinking to align with New Testament realities. Meaning what you think about prayer or your understanding about the subject of prayer. It needs to be based on and informed by what the New Testament teaches. And I keep saying New Testament because people have always prayed in the Old Testament. They prayed. And there's some good prayers in the Old Testament and we're not diminishing any of it. But things were not the same in the Old Testament as they are under the New Covenant. The New Covenant, a radical transformation. It is a radical transformation where we are now God indwelt and born again. And we can do things and partake of things and even commune with God in more of a two way fashion than they ever could in the Old Testament. The Old Testament saints, because, you know, there were a people of God in the Old Testament, they would have been thrilled, many of them, to have what we have available. Amen. I mean, the privileges that we have should never go untapped by any believer. You can engage with God personally. Moses had to go up on a mountain to do that and the rest of the children of Israel couldn't. And you know, God started to invite them one time and they came, they drew near the mountain caught on fire. The mountain on fire. And it's. And it was the presence of God. It was the fire of God. And it scared him so bad that they said, oh my God. They said, moses, you go and whatever he tells you, we'll just do it. Which they didn't. But, you know, good intentions just all showed why we needed a better system, why we needed a better day. And so then Jesus. Glory to God. Jesus came. God sent his son to earth. He so loved the world that he gave and gave his Son. And Jesus came to this earth and he began to demonstrate something called the Kingdom of God. He demonstrated a new system, new laws, new government, and he was preparing us to be able to live a new life. Glory to God. But. And the Gospels document that. But, you know, the Gospels are very much a transitional document, if you want, if you want to be technical about it. Before Jesus died, buried, resurrected and ascended, we weren't just quite in the New Testament yet, but we were transitioning. Jesus was showing us some things. And really the Gospels, as valuable as they are, we don't diminish anything from the Gospels. I already quoted Matthew. Praise the Lord. We appreciate the Gospels, but the Gospels, the teaching of prayer in the Gospels, the very much still emphasize the distance between us and God. Case in point, our Father who art in heaven. Well, you couldn't say, you couldn't say what you could say today. Our Father who's in heaven along with us, seated. That wasn't the case yet. So there was still distance. God wasn't in them and they weren't in him and they weren't raised up together with him yet. Yet. But so Jesus gave them a way to function during this interim period. And so if you just get your theology on prayer from the Gospels, you'll emphasize things like getting God to do things, getting God to answer, and you'll always be, you'll always be aware of the great distance. But then if you come into the New Testament, where we're going to look, the New Testament doesn't emphasize distance. It emphasizes oneness. Oneness, union, Glory to God. I just might get excited. Could you turn to the first chapter of Ephesians with me? So we're interested in having really, if I could say, a New Testament mentality, a New Testament mentality. Prayer under the old covenant. Prayer in the Gospels very much is people trying to get God to do. The focus of prayer in the New Testament is not trying to get God to do. I'm going to say it again. The focus of prayer in the New Testament is not trying to get God to do. Prayer in the New Testament is for the purpose, for us to see and know. Amen. If you don't fully understand that, I probably don't either. But we're on our way, aren't we? We're on our way. We're going to look in Ephesians here now in Ephesians, chapter one. Of course, we, many of us know what we call the Ephesian prayers. There's not, of course, Ephesians is not the only place where in the letters, remember I said to you the other day, that there's a couple groups of people in the Bible. There's the. There's the Jews, there's Gentiles, there's the church. And we want to focus on the parts. We want to focus the most on the parts of the Bible that are written to us, to the church. That would be. That would be the letters. Amen. And here. Oh, my goodness. The fact that we have the letter to the Ephesians. Do you understand what a miracle it is? Do you know what a miracle it is that we have the letter to Ephesians? Ephesians is one of the prison letters. Prison epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, four of them that they call the prison epistles. Paul wrote it during his first Roman imprisonment. Wrote all these from prison. But now, I don't know that you can prove this, but historians speak of this. Philemon is one of those. Philemon was a member of the church at Colossae. And Philemon had a slave servant named Onesimus. Y' all heard of him? You ever read. Read that? The Book of Philemon talks about that because Paul's writing. Philip, Philemon was a leader in the Church. Paul knew him. And what happened was Onesimus ran away from his master. He bolted along the way. He encounters Paul, likely at Rome, gets saved. And Paul said, listen, you're saved, you're free, but you still ain't free in terms of, you know, you left your master. Now, what I'm saying here is not an endorsement of slavery. It's not actually. It's no comment. No, Everybody say no comment. No comment on that. Okay? I'm just saying this is what it was back then. So Paul said, you need to go back. And so he wrote back to Philemon and he said, listen, I'm sending him back. You can set him free if you want, whatever you want, but we're sending him back. Well, on the way back, he had to go. Onesimus, to get back from Rome to Colossae, had to go through Philippi and Ephesus and Colossae. Historians say Paul gave all those letters to an escaped slave, hoping that he would go back to his master and deliver these letters on the way. And we have it. Somehow. Somehow we have it. The miracle. It's amazing that we have these things. That was all kind of off topic. Not totally off topic, but a little bit off topic. I'll give you that. I'll give you that one. So Paul's writing to the church at Ephesus, and we have these prayers and the prayers kind of in this first verse, in the 16th verse, well, 15th verse. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love to all the saints, I cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers. Isn't that a wonderful instruction on prayer? You know, he says making mention, didn't always say laboring for six hours just making mention. And really, how did he do it through Thanksgiving? Thank you, Lord, for the church at Ephesus. And probably, probably said, you know, thank you that they're steadfast. Thank you that they resist the persecution. Thank you just giving thanks. Thank you that they stay with what we taught them when we were there. Amen. You know, that's a great way to pray. Not all prayer needs to be. Not all prayer needs to be in your closet, so to speak, or, you know, in a special designated place of prayer. When we say things like we have a responsibility toward prayer, right? And we want you to take your place. And we say that every believer has a place of prayer that they can take. When we say those things, don't get the idea that it's some kind of labor that you're going to have to quit your job to do. You know what I mean? No, no, no. This is why we teach constant communion with God. It's a walk with him. It's not just special times. You don't just, you don't have to always designate a special time. I mean, we have very little time right now, this time of year, because in Denver, our team is in the NBA playoffs and our hockey team, the Avalanche, is in the Stanley cup playoffs. And my wife, my wife is a big sports fan during the playoffs. That's it. We don't even watch it before. So, I mean, we have a lot on our plate. You understand that. We got the. We don't have time. But yet, but yet, with all of that. And I've been humorous, right? So. But with all of that, still, you can be walking with God in all of it, right? We. You can be walking with God during, during all of that and taking time and just being in fellowship with him, and as you're prompted, you say, thank you, Lord, that my pastor is filled with wisdom and knowledge. Amen. And, you know, thanking God for these individuals that you're connected to and thanking God for the different brothers and sisters in your church, praying one for another. You can do this all the time, and it doesn't have to take hours. Now, don't misunderstand me, there are Times where every believer needs to take time to pray. Amen. To get yourself. Because it takes time, first of all, to get yourself to the place where you're sensing God. And I don't mean sensing God in the way. Maybe when there's an outpouring of the Spirit and we're, you know, like if somebody tried to get up and receive an offering last night and was little bit overcome, you don't live there all the time. You can't live there all the time. Amen. That's why the Bible talks about times of refreshing. Is anybody helping me preach this morning? Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Seasons. Seasons. Amen. Hallelujah. But you can always live full of God. You can always live in communion of with God. But then there's also times regularly where just like you regularly need to read your scripture, right, you need to regularly take time and what we call sow to the Spirit and pray. So Paul Paul said, I cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has he been that this week to us, the Father of glory, The Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That's a fancy way of saying that God might show you things about him. Amen. That God might show you that you might cease. That you might know some things, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened. What do you do with eyes? You see some things. You see some things, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. That you might know. That you might know. See, if you're going to take your place in prayer, you have to know your place. You have to know your place that you might know what is the hope of his calling. And we just say this, the place to which you've been called. And what the rich riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. What do you have in Christ? What has he given you? And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe? My goodness. What can you do as an in Christ believer? What do you have? Who are you? What place have you been called to and what you can do? Paul's prayer. Paul's prayer for the New Testament believers was that you might know these things. And if you know those things, you will pray very differently. And you won't be asking when it comes to praying for other people, like my wife was ministering some on that yesterday. When it comes to praying for other people, you won't just be Asking God, oh, God, heal them now. Like we were. Pastor Nancy was ministering on that. Remember Miriam, who decided to run her mouth? I know I won't look at anybody in the eyes here today, but you know how many know that some people can run their mouth? Huh? You need to run your mouth, meaning you need to control. I need to. I need to control my. I need to run what comes, not let it run. I'm running this here outfit. I'm running. I'm running what happens here. I am not just letting it run. Say amen if you can. Amen, Miriam. Thank you. She let her mouth run. She got herself in trouble. She got leprosy. You know what leprosy was? Old Testament acne. Really bad, Really bad stuff. Sorry. Got to have some fun as you go along. If you were looking at what I'm looking at, you'd understand what I'm talking about. And so Moses prays. Moses prays. Oh, God, heal her now. Heal her now. Well, we've heard about that. You know, he's asking, what's he doing? God, do something. Friends, we're in the New Testament. We're in the New Testament. You're like, what are we talking about? Why we. I still. We still can't get leper leprosy healed. Why? Why? Because it's contagious, communicable. No, no, no, no, no. Did Jesus not say, go preach the gospel, lay hands on the sick? Did he not tell his disciples. His disciples, huh? As you go freely, you received, freely give. And he said what? To freely give? Didn't he heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out? Yeah, he told. He said, well, that was his disciples. And what are you? And what are you? They weren't apostles yet in the sense that they came to be. I just pray that God do it. What if God authorized you to do it? What if God. You might say, this is a different way of thinking, which will lead to a different way of praying. Listen, I'm saying all this this morning to renew my mind. And if yours gets renewed in the process, I'm very happy. But as you know, most of this is all about me. For me, I'm playing. I'm playing. But listen. No, I need to get this. I need to remind myself this. Jesus say you heal him. Might say, well, the show's called Jesus the Healer. Yes. It's not your power. It's not your power. It's his power. And if we get there, we'll show you. We'll show you about the Exceeding greatness of this power. But you carry it. You carry it. You carry it. I carry. It's not just the ministers. Now, ministers will be specially anointed because their ministry office houses and has the capacity for measures of anointing that most, most individual believers don't have that capacity. There'll be special anointings. That's what I'm saying. But that doesn't mean you have nothing. That don't mean you have nothing. Come on, stick your elbow in somebody and say, you can heal. You can heal. His power. It's his power. But you can heal. You can heal. Next T shirt will say, jesus the Healer. And you. Jesus and sons. Jesus and sons. Jesus and Sons the healer. I'm not trying to rework your ministry. Sorry about that. I think it's pretty great just as it is. By the way. By the way, can I stop and just. Commercial. This week on Jesus the Healer, I've been listening to reverence. Thank you. Miracles and reverence. Oh, my God. Boom. Ever say it with me? Oh, my God. Boom. Boom. Top shelf now in west western New York is where we live for a long time. They would say, top shelf. Where mama hides the cookies. Top shelf stuff. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And by the way, I actually. I actually have only seen the broadcast a few times because just for time when it's on actual tv, but I listen to the podcast all the time. Did you know that there's a Jesus? Is this okay? Did you know that there's a Jesus the Healer podcast? It's got right now just about 500 episodes on it. And you can feed and feed and feed. And what will that do? That will help align your thinking to New Testament truths. The podcast. The podcast. Now, I would never. I would never contradict somebody else's doctrine when I'm a guest at their meetings, but let me address this whole cassette thing from last night. Since neither of your sons would do it, I will come. I will fly out this weekend and hook your car to Bluetooth. I will. I will. I will hook you to Bluetooth. For the last 20 years, they've had Bluetooth and it will pick up right where you left off. It will. Yes, yes, I will.
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Connected it and I'm going to come fix it.
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No, I'm going to come fix it. Yes, I'm coming to fix it. So just forget all that about cassettes. That's Old Covenant. That's Old Covenant. Yes, that is Old Covenant. Because, brothers and sisters, we're in Dolby Atmos days. Yes, we are. All right. Do you mind if we get back to our business? The business at hand. So, my sacrifice sacrophone, Dr. Dufresne's very last, very last service. I watched the recording of it. He was preaching in Wichita, Kansas, and we had actually given him a couple days before a couple cases of our book. It's called what Happened to Honor. He liked it. And so he got up and was talking about the book. He said, this is written by one of my sons, and I gladly bear that title as one of his sons, spiritual sons, you know. And he said, this is written by Joel Siegel. He said he worked for Brother Hagin. He played the sacrophone and was the rearranger. So Dr. Dufresne had a vocabulary. Amen. We won't do it now. We won't do it now, but what's that? Yeah, you know, we always think back to the good old days, huh? We always think back to the good old days, but we forget what it's like when you had a rat's nest coming out of the cassette player. Okay. Come on. So in the New Testament, prayer is not so much asking God, God, do it, but really, if God, if we can. If we can get people to see who they are and know what they have, they'll realize that most of what they're praying for God to do has already been done. Most of what they're asking God to give, they already have. I'm preaching to me today. I'm preaching to me. Most of what they're saying God do. He's done. Most of what they're asking him to give, they have. And so how valuable is it if you want to pray for somebody or even pray for you? Pray prayers like this, Father, open the eyes of their understanding. Help them see, help them know. Now, I believe one of the reasons Paul was praying this right here was because he had just spoken several, several statements about what we have in Christ. And I think he might have read over what he wrote. And he said, oh, my God, help them to see. I gotta pray for y' all to get this. I gotta pray for you all to get this. So some of what he said really starts in verse three. He said this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. In Christ. I just like to say this way, not to change anything, but because sometimes the Lord will prompt me to say it this way. I like to say it this way. He's blessed us with all spiritually accessed blessings, because they're not just spiritual Blessings in the sense that they don't affect or include anything in the natural realm, but they're spiritually accessed. They come to your life and they come into your life through spiritual means, spiritual methods, not natural. Okay? But he's blessed us with all. All the blessings of heaven. All the blessings of heaven. And you can see why he said, oh, God, help them see this. Help them see this. Because if you believe this, if you understand that you're not trying to get a blessing, but you're already blessed, huh? Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being, making a curse for us, right? For it's written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree that the blessing of Abraham or the blessing like Abraham had, it might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive spiritual promises through faith. Say, now blessed, not bless. Thank you. Not bless me now. Not bless. Oh, bless me now. Not bless me now. I'm now blessed. I'm now blessed. And you might say, well, how can you say that when there's people who aren't blessed? How can you say that there's people who aren't blessed? There's people who don't see, there's people who don't know, but there's no one from whom God has withheld his blessing. I might clear the room this morning. I don't know. There's no one. Listen, you might say, there's all God. There's so many people dying and going to hell. It's not his fault. It's not his fault. He hasn't withheld heaven. Has God withheld salvation? Huh? He's not willing that. Help me. He's not willing that any, any, any should perish, but that all should come from God's standpoint. From God's standpoint. Careful how you hear what I say. And I'll be careful how I say. All are saved in the sense. In the sense of salvation having been made available. All are already saved from the standpoint of salvation being made available. Meaning God's not going to. God doesn't need to give salvation to anybody. It's not. We've heard it at night. It's thrilled me every time I've heard it. We've heard it at night. What's been given must simply be received. It's not a matter of getting God to do. It's getting us to see and know. That's why we preach the gospel to the lost right. Because the God of this world has blinded the minds of those that believe not lest the Glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them. Yes, we preach the gospel. Why? Because if they can, if we can get them to hear the gospel, and if we can get those words to get down in, past their reasoning, past their objections, past their arguing and analyzing, and if we can just get them to hear the gospel, then the eyes of their understanding will be enlightened. It will flood them with light and they'll see, just like you did. You'll see. Wait a second. Wait a second. This doesn't make all the sense in the world mentally to me yet. I don't understand it all yet, but I just know that this is my answer. This is my answer. I don't know how I know. I just know. Revelation came. God didn't need to give anything that he hasn't already given. All the blood that needed to be shed was shed. Jesus said, it is finished, right? Once and for all, he entered in the holy place. I'm starting to find a gear. If you keep helping me, we'll do good. He entered into this holy place, secured for us an eternal redemption. Glory to God. And so we're. Now we're blessed. Now we're saved. Did you know now we're healed. Did you know that too, that we. So can we. Did we get back to Miriam? Did we finish off Miriam? Lord, heal her now. Well, because of what Jesus did in redemption, when he shed his blood for sins, he also bore our sickness, carried our pains with his wounds. You see, we are or were healed. We're healed. The same redemption that accomplished forgiveness of sin brought the cure because sin brought everything associated with sin into this world. Right? There was no. There was no. There was no day in the creation account where God created cancer or created diabetes or created deformity. No, no, no, never. That all came when sin came. It wasn't the. The fifth day God created Lack. No, that came with sin. And the cure for every one of those things, the cure for sin and everything associated with sin came at redemption. Yes, it did. And these things are perpetually available to us now. But not everybody knows it. Not everybody sees it. And so there. People will pray at the level they see and at the level they know. They'll pray according to their understanding. And so if they don't understand that this is ours, they'll pray well, God heal me now. God bless me. God do this. Well, see, there's a higher. There's a higher understanding and a higher way to pray. Amen. And so if we can just look at a little Bit more. You good today? You got a few minutes. All right. So. Blessed be the Verse three is where we were. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. In Christ. Hallelujah. According as he has chosen us in Him. Oh. Before the foundation of the world. He blessed us when he chose us. When did he choose us? He blessed us. He blessed us before he created the place, before the foundation of the. Your blessing. The fullness of the blessing of the Lord for your life was ordained for you before any of the support system for your life was in place.
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Whoo.
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Amen. That we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have. We have. Say it with me. We have. We have. Preach it to the person next to you for a second. Say, we have. We have redemption. We have. We have been blessed because we have redemption. We have been blessed because we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins and everything associated with sin according to the riches of his grace and wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will. Glory to God. And we could really just go on and on. But then it talks about verse 11, in whom we also have obtained an inheritance. You have an inheritance. You have an eternal inheritance. Amen. Listen, a lot of it is reserved in heaven, but we have the first fruits, we have the earnest. It goes on to say we have the Holy Spirit. Who is the earnest or the down payment of our inheritance. How much is a down payment? You go to buy a house. What do they like to see for a down payment? They like to say it again. Yeah. 10%, 20%. Listen, don't split hairs here. Compared to all of heaven, how many know 10 or 20% of what you have? Of what? What's waiting for you in heaven that's going to get you through in as much style as you can get through. And you know what I'm talking about. That's good inheritance. That's just good inheritance. We're not saying that everything that is in heaven is ours to experience here on earth. The earth cannot support the earth under the curse. The earth cannot support all that heaven is. Otherwise there'd be no heaven. Glory to God. But a renovation is coming, I hear. Yeah, HGTV going To be filming it all. Amen. So it's at this point, Paul's writing. He said, listen, we got to pray for these people to see this. I pray that the eyes of your understanding are enlightened. That you might know the hope to which you've been called, that you might understand how rich is the glory filled inheritance in the saints that you have and that you might. And that you might come to understand the exceeding greatness of the power to us who believe. The power to us. A lot of translations say the power toward us. That doesn't sit well with me for one reason. It's not really the true translation. It really means power to us. And you might say, what's the difference? Well, how many know power toward this building is different than power to this building. Yay. Power to the building. What does power to the building mean? It means. It means we have. Present tense. We have all the power we need to run the lights, to run the air conditioning, to run the media, even to run those monitors, man. Run all these sound, all that sound. That all takes power. That all takes power to run all that. And because there's power to the building, it's not very difficult. Not difficult, is it? Huh? It's just switching the flip. Flipping the switch, right? Just turn the, turn the switch on. And I mean, you're there. You're there. Why? There's power to the building, you know, there's power to the people. Remember that? Wasn't that a slogan way back in the day, way back in the day. Way, way, way, way back, back, back in the day day. Power to the people. There's power to the people that you might know. You might say, I didn't know that. That's the problem. That's a problem in the lives of many people just like me who aren't always aware of the fact that I have the power of heaven connected to me. There's power to me. Hardwired. Hardwired. Came into your life when the spirit of God came into your life. According to the working of his mighty power. Verse 20 says, which he wrought or worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Hang on a second. Are you telling me. Are you telling me that the power that's connected to me. Is the same? There was a song number. The very same power that raised Christ from the dead. You all remember that is alive in me. The. I guess you didn't do it here, but the very same power, the very same power that raised Christ from the dead. I'm going to start closing it up here, that doesn't mean anything. But it's what we say about this time. Nobody has ever been dead like Jesus was dead. He was the deadest person not ever to live. He was the deadest person ever to die. He wasn't dead like a normal person was dead. He was dead with the sin of the world, past, present, future upon him, the wages of which are death. He was mega dead. He was Megadeth. Megadeth. He was not dead like a normal person was dead. He was. He had death piled upon death. All the sin, all the sickness, all the poverty of the world was on him, placed on him. On him was laid the iniquity of us all. Isaiah said, come on. It was all on him, and he was dead with it. And power still raised him up. Power still raised him up. And it's that very same power that raised Christ from the dead. That power, that power that. The power that busted the sin of the world off of him and raised him is in you now. What are your prayer requests? Let's take prayer requests. What does that not cover? What situation does that power? Because we didn't go on. And honestly, we could go on, and it even gets more exciting and more exciting and more exciting into the second chapter, but, you know, we gotta leave for we can come back. As we say, yes. My goodness. The power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. So if we see this and we know this glory to God, it changes everything and all of them. Well, you know, really, there is one more, one more little, teensy, weensy little thing that we might need to know before we finish up today. And it's found in the second chapter, around the sixth verse, where it talks about the fact. Remember I told you that the New Testament emphasizes our oneness with Christ, our union with Christ, rather than the distance between us and God, where it talks about how we. We've been raised up together with him. And that means we came out of the grave, right? Galatians 2 says we were crucified with Christ. Romans 6 says we were buried with him in baptism. Ephesians says we were. We were quickened together with Him. Made. In other words, made alive. When he was made alive. We were raised up when he was raised up. And we've been made to sit together. Together, together in heavenly places. In Christ. That's now. That's now. I understand. You're not there physically. You're there positionally. You might say, well, how is that possible? How is it possible to have. What do they call an ambassador how is it possible to have an ambassador from the United States in another country? Physically, they're not here, but positionally, they have all the rights and privileges of this country. Same thing. Same thing. Philippians 3 says, Your citizenship is in heaven from where you look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are raised up together with him, and right now we are seated with Him. If you think right, you'll pray. Right. If you think right, you'll think. You'll think according to who he's made you in Christ. You'll think of who you are in your union with him. You'll think of who you are in oneness with Him. You'll realize, Wait a second. He was the healer when he walked on the earth as an example. Now I can. Now I can be his hands. Now I can transmit his power. Yes, it's still his power. It's still his power. But. But glory to God. Jesus can be the healer through me and you. And you realize where you're seated. And now your perspective. I'm not looking at. I'm not looking up at the need. I'm looking down from a place of perpetual victory where, I don't know, defeat, it doesn't exist. And from that place, we pray.
- [55:53]
A
Hallelujah. A few years ago, we were shopping, found something that we were going to buy for my husband, but they didn't have his size. So we ordered it. It was a pair of shoes, and we ordered it. And we live in Colorado, and Colorado has some fun weather. You all have fun weather, too, but ours is a little different. It must have been springtime or around that time. So we ordered it. They said, it'll be there in two, three days.
- [56:24]
B
Great.
- [56:24]
A
That's awesome. When two or three days came, we actually had a snowstorm. Our snowstorms can be fun. We can get. Especially in the springtime, we can get 18 inches of snow in a day. And so I got an email saying, your package was delivered. But I went outside, I looked on my doorstep. There was no package. I looked out where sometimes they put it by the garage. I looked out there. There's no package. There's nothing there. All I see is snow. So I'm looking around, you know, do they have this? So a couple days go by, finally call the shoe store and say, they said the package was delivered, but it is not here. It is not on my doorstep. It did not come. And they're like, we're so sorry, ma'.
- [57:20]
B
Am.
- [57:21]
A
We'll have FedEx send it out again. So another. Another package comes this One is at my door. I could go get it. We get the shoes. A week later, the snow melted, And whoever delivered the first package decided they didn't want to walk to my doorstep in the snow. So they just left it out at the end of the driveway by the road where the. Where the mailbox was. They just put it in the snow bank on the ground, and it got covered.
- [57:59]
B
The plow came by.
- [58:00]
A
The plow came? Yeah, the plow came. And. And, I mean, it was a good seven to ten days before we found that very soggy pair of shoes.
- [58:12]
B
So we got two for the price of one.
- [58:14]
A
No, I did bring the other one back. I'm like, I'm sorry, but what are we saying? Things can be delivered to people's doorstep or to their life. It can be. You can even get something in the Word that says it's been delivered. But because we just kind of take a quick glance, say, well, I don't see. Doesn't seem to be right here. I don't feel. Must not be here. That's why Paul said, pray. We need the spirit's help to see. Yes, to have the circumstances. To have us. Have us change our circumstances. Meaning see where we're seated. See what belongs to us. See what we can partake of in that spirit realm, to bring it into us. Praise the Lord.
- [59:24]
B
Hallelujah.
- [59:24]
A
Glory to God.
- [59:25]
B
We're going to pray some. Y' all want to change your position? At least start out standing, just to. Just to stretch up a little bit. Thank you, Father. You've been here a little bit, but not too bad.
- [59:35]
A
Not too bad.
- [59:36]
B
And then you can. You can sit down after. Whatever's. Whatever's comfy for you. We're just going to. From our place. From our place. We're just going to pray. I see some really concerned looks. I hope it's. I hope it's nothing. She said, hallelujah. Yeah. You good? You good? The word's good, isn't it?
- [60:01]
A
The word is good.
- [60:02]
B
The word is good. Good, good, good. You want to take us out?
- [60:08]
A
Praise the Lord.
- [60:08]
B
Let's pray, everybody.
- [60:10]
A
Hallelujah. We are so grateful today.
- [60:12]
B
Thank you.
- [60:12]
A
We are so grateful for all that's been provided for us in Christ. We are so thankful today for your word that enlightens us and shows us things. And, Father, today, just like Paul prayed, we pray that we might see that we might know what we have, that we might partake of our redemption the way Jesus provided it, that we might understand that our spirit would be enlightened to know these Things in greater measures than we've known before. And father, we don't just pray for us, but we pray for all of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
- [60:56]
B
Yes, yes.
- [61:18]
A
That they. Easy access, easy access.
- [62:46]
B
For the next wave. For the next wave. For the healing waves. The waves reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching. Yes, yes, yes. The miracle. You confirm now. Miracles now. Feelings now. Prosperity now. Angels go. Angels go. Yes.
- [63:46]
A
The word. The word would have to.
- [64:42]
B
The restoration in lives. The restoration of lives.
- [65:14]
A
And.
- [65:36]
B
The receipt.
- [65:38]
A
Yes, yes, yes.
- [65:39]
B
Receiving is easy when you see and the receiving is easy when you see.
- [65:44]
A
Because I see. Oh, I see and I receive. I see and I receive. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, my.
- [66:47]
B
Yes, we thank you. Yes, we praise you. Yes, we thank you. We thank you. We thank you. Oh my my. For your plans. For your plan. For your plan. For your plan. Oh my my. You plan. The progress of your plan. The progress of your plan. Send off and send. Le. And send. So we. So we say thank you. So we say thank you. Thank you for the rising of the waters. Thank you for the continuation of the. Of the outpouring. And we say. Flood. Flood stage. Flood stage. Terra. Oh. Worship you. Worship you. Worship you.
- [68:13]
A
Worship.
- [68:14]
B
Worship you.
- [68:15]
A
Magnify your father. Worship your name. Worship your name.
- [68:19]
B
Worship you.
- [68:19]
A
Praise you, Jesus.
- [68:20]
B
Worship you today.
- [68:21]
A
Praise you, Jesus.
- [68:23]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Done. You're done.
- [68:28]
A
Can I just say that our prayer life will help melt that snow in someone else's life so that they can see what belongs to them?
- [68:41]
B
Yes. Yes. Yes.
- [68:44]
A
Our prayer life can affect the whole body. It can affect our church members, our friends, our fellow Christians. It affects the nations.
- [68:56]
B
Yes.
- [68:58]
A
Because it. It removes blinders and allows them to easily see what they didn't see before. It's amazing.
- [69:12]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- [69:13]
A
It's amazing. Praise God.
- [69:15]
B
Absolutely.
- [69:15]
A
Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
- [69:17]
B
Glory. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity, Pastor.
- [69:22]
A
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