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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Qualified To Be Followed | Debra Simons | Campmeeting 2019 | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
00:50:45
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Hi, I'm Grant Dufresne and welcome to Dufresne Ministries podcast channel. We believe that as you listen to this message, your faith will be stirred and you will be encouraged in whatever you are believing God for today. Stay tuned at the end of this message to find out more information about our ministry this morning, turn with me.
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To Hebrews chapter six. And starting in verse 12.
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It says, well, he.
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Well, let me get you to 11 here it says Hebrews 6 and 11.
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It says, and we desire that every.
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One of you do show the same.
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Diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise or promises in the amplified. I believe it's the amplified.
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If not the amplified. It's living that it says, be imitators.
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I like that word, be an imitator. But how many of you know, you gotta be somebody that somebody can imitate. You gotta have a life that's inheriting something, that's producing something, or you disqualify yourself from being someone that someone else can follow or someone else can imitate your life and end up where they're supposed to end up. And when you have someone to follow, you should be diligent about that and put a premium on it. There were a group of us talking.
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In my office before we left. And, you know, of course all the staff comes in if there's anything, any last things, you know, you need from us before you leave or there's something you want us to do. And, you know, as we start talking, I started saying, you know, we've been going to these meetings since 1998.
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That was our first, and it was fresh oil. And we have gone every year. And every year we go because we are expecting more. More of what we know, more of what God wants to impart to us. But every time that we are getting ready to go. Although in my heart I'm expectant of what God's going to do and what he's going to say, my answers that I'm going to get. Also very aware that I'm going to get everything. But also with this in mind, I am an example to my church. And I go with the mindset that they see that when God's put something or someone in my life, I'm going to keep on with it, sometimes when it's convenient and sometimes when it's not convenient. How many of you know that it's not always convenient financially? Some years have been more convenient than Others. But when you put a premium on being where you're supposed to be.
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Then.
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It doesn't matter about convenience, because you know that what you're gonna get is gonna override anything that's telling you not to go. When you get there and you get what you're supposed to get, you know that what was trying to keep you from going was just a tactic. I love. I was telling that. I was telling them in my office. I said, you know, Dr. Frank used to say, don't let anything keep you.
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From where you're supposed to be.
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He said, I don't care if somebody.
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In your church dies.
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Put them on ice. You can come back and do the funeral later. And of course, everybody started laughing. I said, but, you know, that's what doctor Taught us. He taught us, know where you're supposed to be and then be there at all costs because you won't be able to get back what you missed if you didn't get there. And I appreciate people that, that God put in my life to teach me these things and to be an example.
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Of them in my life.
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Because now that Dr. F.R. has gone on to get his reward, I have in me what he put in me. And that's put a premium on what God's put in your life. It said, be a follower of them, them there. So there's a particular people that you follow. You don't just follow anybody. You know, right now there are a lot of people following a lot of.
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People that don't qualify to be followed.
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They shouldn't be followed. Why? Because they're not inheriting the promises through faith and patience. They're getting something, but it's through gimmicks. They're getting, you know, they're getting people, but it's through the gimmick tree or the natural things.
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When we were still under our pastor, we were the associate pastors.
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Dr. Dufresne came.
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The. The pastor knew him from word of faith circles. And so he invited him to come. This was not his first time he came that he invited him to come in this one particular meeting. And this was about going to be one of the last meetings that our pastor had with our church because he was going on to pioneer another church. And he had some other pastors that had come in the area to do some pioneering. And so there was a pretty, pretty good little group there. And Dr. Frank came in and I don't know if you remember this.
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Some of you, what people, what some people thought they were going to build.
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Their churches with.
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Phone Cards, I think phone cards went through.
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And then there was some kind of, like, insulation. Some kind of stainless steel. I don't know. I don't even remember what.
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Eagle.
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Something. I don't remember.
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And some of these people that were.
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Kind of, you know, peddling this stuff were in the meeting.
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And, you know, when they began to talk about it, just something before Dr. Frank got there.
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Something inside said to me, we have to. We have to have a pyramid system.
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To build the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Something inside just in my immature, unexperienced knowledge, something said, that doesn't sound right. But you understand, we had. Had people like Dr. Sumrall in our church and, you know, follow these people.
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You know, we had all the, you.
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Know, our bookstore had all of, you know, Brother Hagin and, you know, Marilyn Higgin. All these people that were in the.
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Forefront back in the, you know, from. For. When I got saved the early 80s.
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And so now here comes this other idea of how your church is going.
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To get built, how financially it's going to become, you know, take place.
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And just something inside just thought, gee, we're going to have to wait a long time for everybody, you know, to find somebody to sell to. I mean, you know, this whole pyramid.
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Thing, I just, you know.
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But I've never been in to get rich quick.
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That just has just never been a part of me. So Dr. Frank comes in and he.
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Says, you know, just like he does, you invite him to your church. And he's a Holy Ghost man.
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And you just love the way he flowed in the Holy Ghost. But first thing he gets out there.
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And he says, you know, some preachers think that it's gonna take gizzard cleaners and phone cards to build your church.
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And listen, you love to be in one of those meetings.
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Cause it's like the cartoons.
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You go.
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You start looking at that phone card guy and he goes, preachers are putting them on the back of tables and they think that's what they're gonna do, that that's how God's gonna build the church. What about faith? What about trusting in God? What about believing what he told you to do and then letting God do his part? Man has a part and God has a part. And I mean, I'm telling you what, listen, it was on. And you know, you try.
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You think you can fool the congregation, but you can't.
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They all knew who the gizzard cleaner, you know, propeller was. And so you're just looking and you're.
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Like going, did he really just Say that.
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And then you go, yes, he did. And of course, you know, these people are all tight.
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You know, they're just, they're tight because, you know, they had just told us that our church is going to be.
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Wonderfully built through, you know, phone cards.
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And gizzard cleaners and everybody should buy one. And, you know, not all that stuff.
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But you know what?
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There was no faith in it.
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How many of you know, they didn't have anything worth following, they didn't have anything worth imitating. And there's a lot of things out there nowadays that people are, are endeavoring to follow. But when they get to the end of what they're following, it's not gonna produce what they want in their lives. It's not gonna produce the power of God, it's not gonna produce the promises of God, it's not gonna produce the inheritance in their life. And so we need to understand that it's important that we are following who we are supposed to be following because we recognize the fruit that's there, the inheritance that they're laying hold of.
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But it's equally as important for us to be someone that can be followed. And that is everybody.
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That is not just five fold ministry. There is somebody watching your life every day. Your children are watching your, if you, you know, if you're saved and your spouse is not safe, they're watching. People that you work with are watching. There's someone that is watching your life every day. You need to be living a life that can be followed and imitated. Because I have found that if you keep your standard of the word, even the unsaved who do not believe in your lifestyle, when they hit a crisis, they will believe what's in you because.
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Of the way you have handled yourself.
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And when they have no other hope, they go to someone that they believe is the real deal. Why? Because they've seen you at work every day and they saw that you weren't.
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Acting like everybody else.
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They saw that you didn't take the.
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Approach of everybody else.
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Listen, we, whether they agreed with it or not, they saw you. And when they get into trouble, they come looking for someone that they believe has the real deal. I had a young woman at a.
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Boutique, a clothing store that I shop in, in our very teeny tiny town. And she knew who I was and what I did. A lot of our people go there and so some of the girls would refer to me because if my congregation member would see me there, you know, hey, Pastor Debbie.
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So some of the girls would start saying, oh, hey, Pastor Debbie.
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And of course, they wanted to call me Pastor Debbie. You know, it's kind of like, you.
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Know, but that's how they heard people call me.
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So they kind of like going, you don't have to call me Pastor Debbie. Obviously, I'm not your pastor.
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But, you know, But I didn't correct them, and they were doing it out of respect.
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And so this one girl, the owner actually, she said, I'd like to talk to you sometime. Could I have your phone number? Would that be okay? I said, sure. You know, and so she got my phone number and she called me. And I knew. I knew how this girl lived. I knew her lifestyle. But I was in there to shop for clothes and, you know, my whole demeanor and everything. Cause unless God really puts it on my heart to talk to someone, I'm gonna wait till they're ready. Cause I have a relationship with a person in a natural way. So I wait till God opens the door for me, and then I say something. But you see, my life, you hear my conversation, you know, I'm not shucking and jiving, you know, really. And so she called me and she said, I have a friend, and it was a guy she was dating. And she said, he has been diagnosed with this certain disease, and we can't get him into a place of treatment. And she was very, very concerned for him. And so I waited a minute, and then I was prompted by the Holy Ghost. I said, we didn't get into. We didn't get into anything, any type of spiritual conversation, because this is the way the spirit of God led me. I said, called her by name. I said, look, because I knew why she called me, because she felt like I could help her spiritually. She wasn't looking for me for some hospital contact. She wanted some supernatural help. I said, tell me exactly 1, 2, 3, what you want. I need somebody to accept, to take his case, and then I need for him to get a room in Stanford. Because it wasn't just about finding the doctor. It was about finding that room in this, you know, very, very, very skilled hospital. You know, I need this. I need this. I need this. I said, all right. I said, you understand that I'm going to pray about this? And as God does them all, 1, 2, 3, I want you to write them on a list, and I want you to mark them off that God did this. I said, you get it? She said, yes. I said, now, when I get off the phone, my husband and I are going to get into agreement, and God's going to do These things. I said, you know, the only thing that I would appreciate, and I left it up to her, is that you'd let me know when he gets them done. There was no doubt in my heart or mind that God wasn't going to do that for her. And I knew that that might be the only opportunity that I got for her to see the power God moving on somebody that she cared about. Now she said to me, I'm very private, and I don't really like to talk about any of my business anywhere. And I knew what that meant. Don't ask me about it when you come in shopping. I knew the code, you know, and.
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Oh, and they're, hey, how are you?
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Oh, hey, we got this in. We got that. Okay. So I never had another conversation with her about it publicly, but. But she called me. She said, I just want you to know they just called us. The doctor's gonna take him, he's gonna get the room. And I think there was a third thing, you know, he's gonna get the treatment. She goes, I just wanted you to know that everything you prayed about came to pass. And I said, thank you. And I knew that just the way she lived and how she thought and her whole makeup, that might be the only opportunity that she got at that.
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Point for there to be a good seed to be sown. But what if I didn't believe in.
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The power of God?
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What if I didn't believe in the unction of the Spirit that was guiding me? What if I was going to try to lead her to the Lord first? She had to know I was the real deal. Don't be wrong. God's not done with her. But you got to know how to follow the Spirit when you're dealing. But you got to be able to produce something. I am so thankful for the people that I get to follow. But I am becoming more aware of.
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How important it is for me to be someone.
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Now, don't get me wrong, it's not like I neglected that. I'm just seeing the older I get.
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The more value that you are in.
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The kingdom of God. When you can be someone, that your faith can be followed.
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Turn with me to first Timothy.
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First.
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Timothy in chapter six. Now, you know, the apostle is encouraging Timothy and he says here in Let me go ahead and start with 11. I was going to start with 12, but let me start with 11. It says, but thou, O man of.
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God, flee these things and follow after.
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Righteousness, Godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
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Now you understand, he was talking about.
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The love of money and what you need to stay away from and all that.
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And then he's telling you, this is what you follow after.
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Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Verse 12.
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Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. You have lived and said and done some things in front of witnesses. And so what does he say? He tells him, flee, first of all, flee some things. Stay away from some things. They're going to short circuit your race. And then he says, follow after. So if we're going to qualify to be people that can be followed, we've got to get some things out of our life, and then we got to follow some things. Then he says, fight the good fight of faith. What is that? Standing your ground believing that this word works. Believing that if God has given me something to accomplish, that he has all the resources that will come to me when it's time to get them accomplished. Stand my ground on what he has told me to do. I've got to find out what he's told me to do. But then once I'm sure, I've got to stand my ground.
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It's so important to be connected properly.
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So important.
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How many of you, you don't have to raise your hands, but, you know, like myself, we know what's going on here in this church because we're always.
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Watching the next service. You know, I'm talking about what God's saying here. And I so appreciate a place of.
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Resource for me.
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Our church is going.
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After land to purchase some land. And, you know, we're going to. We want to build a building and school and resources, all that. And, you know, for years, my husband was the one that would always take the lead, you know, I mean, he could hear so accurately from the spirit of God how to make deals, how to buy something, how to sell something. He just had an anointing. And, you know, my husband's gonna be 80 years old this year. And I said, honey, do you wanna.
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Take the lead on this? And he said, no.
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Okay.
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Which of course, you know, really, he's just, you know, and it's not like he's not connected.
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It's just like, you know, hey, we've.
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Got younger people in here, you know, they gotta learn how to do all this, you know. So every time I go and meet with a man, I go, honey, you.
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Don'T wanna go and meet with him. And he goes, no, I'll be here praying for you. I go thanks. Thanks, Pop. Appreciate.
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So, you know, when I go and.
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You know, I'm in these meetings, and I always, you know, my flesh and my mind, all that, doesn't want to do that. That's just not my makeup. I want someone else to do it.
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Because my husband's done it all his.
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Life for me, you know, in the ministry.
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And so you go and you put.
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Yourself under, and then you just go, no, this is where I'm supposed to be. So we're moving towards the vision of our church. And I get on YouTube and I see a service with Happy Caldwell, and he starts ministering and he starts talking about the vision. I go, no, you didn't.
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You did not talk about a vision and going after it. I was so thrilled to hear what he had to say.
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He said, the vision has power within itself. To accomplish itself, you just have to follow God. And the vision has power. And I went, oh, my God.
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Well, of course, you know, next thing, when I get to church, I go.
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Has anybody heard the next. The service, Tuesday night, pastor nights?
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They're all going, yeah. I go, that was for us. Yes. We're gonna take the vision. The vision has power. Why can I do that? Because I'm following someone.
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That knows how to lay hold of some things, that.
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Knows how to fight the good fight of faith and knows how to bring in the resources that we need. Listen, I tell you, I said that was for me. That was for our church. If that man only came in to preach that message so that we would get on YouTube, God did that for me. How many of you know you should.
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Take things personal.
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Because he starts walking all this out and all the miracles that happen when he went after what God told him to do, and, you know, boy, that just stirs you.
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You just go, you know what?
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There are so many miracles that God has for us, but they're not gonna.
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Happen if we don't step out and.
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Move out after what God's told us to do. I don't wanna miss anything that God's already got prepared because I decided to stay back. I wanna move forward and get every door that God's gonna open for me, but it's gonna take me going, but what is gonna help me going following the ones that have gone ahead and they've already done it, and thank God for modern technology and people can abuse it in any way. But let's not be foolish enough to think that God didn't let this type of technology come on the earth for us. When I think of how many times that I can listen to Dr. Summerall with a click of a button and hear him, watch him. I go, oh, my God. All of these treasures that are really at our fingertips, let's not abuse them and use them in a way that's not going to benefit us running our race, because we have a race to run. And one thing we better understand is that God, he so believed in what he wanted us to do that he.
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Put people in front of us that we could follow their faith.
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But guess what?
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There are people that are following us.
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And that's what we have to be sober about. Someone is following my life. Someone is looking at me. I need to be producing at the level that I'm at so that they can see that there's something else for them and that we don't have to be doing, you know, just outlandish things to get people. You know, I told my congregation the other day, I said, you know what? God's leading us to buy land and.
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To build a building. But I just want you to understand that I'm not a politician and I'm.
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Not stroking you to get you to follow the plan of God. I'm not going to change the way I preach. I'm not going to preach some petting message so that I can get your support so that you bring the money you're supposed to bring to be a part of this. What you need to understand is that this is a privilege for you to get to be a part of what we're doing, moving in the plan of God. Because Dr. Frank said God has the precious fruit of the earth that he's going to bring into the real church. And he kept telling us, listen, God's got what you need for your buildings because you're going to have to all have bigger buildings for the precious fruit of the earth to come in. He told us this day was coming. And he said, those that are in the false church that want the real, they're going to come out and they're going to be looking for someplace to go, and we better be ready to have a place to bring them in because they're hungry for the real deal. And, you know, with everything that's out there, it will try to make you.
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Think that there aren't hungry people for the real plan of God.
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But that's a lie. There are people that want the real deal. So he tells his spiritual son, he tells him, you know, flee some things, follow after. And then he says, fight the good fight of faith. Stand your ground. He says, lay hold on eternal Life whereunto thou are also called and professed as a good profession before many witnesses. He says, I give the charge in.
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The sight of God.
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I charge you with this flee, follow after that which produces stand your ground. When you know it produces stand your ground. By standing your ground, you're going to lay hold of some things.
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Our pastor that we served for 16 years had a vision from God. And in that vision, it included building a building. And some things transpired. And we did not get to build that building.
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So we did not get to follow.
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His faith in that. But God brought us somebody that we could follow their faith in building a building, and that was Dr. Dufresne.
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And I can't tell you how many.
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Times that we get on these grounds. And. And I remember being in the tent, and I remember the stories that Dr. Dufresne would tell where he would just go on the property. And he would say, you know, nobody wanted to touch us financially. Nobody wanted to touch us. Nobody wanted to touch us. But God kept telling me I needed to build that building.
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Nobody wanted to touch us, but God.
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Told me to build that building. So he'd come out here and he said the wind was blowing and the tumbleweeds, you know, it seems like they were talking to me. And they were saying to me, you know, stupid, stupid, stupid, you know, and.
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He said, I just thought, you know what?
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I'm gonna answer that.
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And he got somebody on his cell phone and said, you know, bring the bush hog down. We're gonna just chop all these tumbleweeds down. Cause I'm tired of them trying to mock me. Cause we're gonna build a building. And we were in those meetings when he said that. And we were in those meetings when the building started to take shape. And we were here when it was gutted out, and they were putting this and that in, and we were following a man's foot faith that laid hold of something, that produced something. Our first mentoring class that we had.
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We called it what the. The Eternal. The eternal mentoring doctor forever.
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Dr. Frank didn't believe in one year of Bible college, two years of Bible college.
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It was life Bible College. And. And we were fine with that. You know, we thought. When we graduated the second year, we thought, well, that'd be it. But then he just said.
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Then he said, at the end of.
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The year, I don't know if anybody remember, he said, you know, there were just so many things I wanted to get into this year that I just couldn't get into. I'm going to get into Them next year.
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Well, my God, if we didn't get them this year, we're going to have to come back. And then at the end of the.
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Third year, he'd say, man, there were some things I really wanted to get into about the prophet's office and the.
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Anointing and his mantles.
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We'd go, well, we don't want to miss that.
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So we're coming back the next year. And then again, we brought some staff.
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And we brought two sets that graduated, like four years. And then we were starting on the third set.
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But then by that, then there was.
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A switch and doctor did something else. So we came just one year. I mean, one. Just at the beginning, so many months. And then he said, you know, we're going to do something else, you know. But, you know, I told my children, I said, as long as he's having.
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C
It, we're getting here. I don't know how long he's gonna do it. But he keeps telling us there's more. So who wants to miss? Especially when he said, we're gonna get into that. We want to get that. Why would you keep doing that?
- [29:27]
B
Because you put a value on what was in that, man.
- [29:31]
C
And if he said he didn't get out what he needed this year and he's gonna get out next year, well, then we're gonna come. And, you know, we had to. There were times that we could fly, and flying was about 50 minutes, but when we didn't fly, we had to drive five and a half, six hours on a Saturday, get here and do our classes and drive back. That's a full day. And it was every other weekend. But we got something. We were able to follow a man's faith and see the end of his faith. We're in a building and, you know.
- [30:05]
B
When I think about now moving towards land in a building, you know whose voice I hear? I hear doctors.
- [30:13]
C
Every time I go to a meeting.
- [30:14]
B
And I don't know what they're going to say to me. I hear doctor's voice that no matter what anybody said, he stood and he stood because he knew it was the plan of God. And it didn't matter how many hindrances came in his way. If he knew it was the plan of God, he.
- [30:35]
C
He locked onto it like a bulldog.
- [30:37]
B
And he did not let it go. And I'm going to tell you something I appreciate about that, because there are times in ministry that you're going to have to stand against adverse things that are coming at you and just stand.
- [30:51]
C
And stand and stand and not let go. Because you know that this is what God has told you to do. And guess what? As you're standing, standing, you're making a way for someone else. You're paving the way for someone else. When you stand, you're paving the way for someone else. When you lay hold.
- [31:17]
B
He said, I charge you. He said, I charge you. This is how you got to live. You got to walk in love, you.
- [31:24]
C
Got to seek after righteousness, lay hold of eternal things. But you're going to have to fight the good fight of faith. Why? Because someone needs to follow your faith. Someone needs the impartations of what you've received from others and what you have received because you have stood in faith and seen the promise come to pass.
- [31:49]
B
Like I said, our pastor didn't get the building built. So we didn't see. We didn't see his faith accomplish that, but we got to see someone else's faith accomplish that. And Dr. Dufresne used to tell us all the time about Pastor Nancy being on television. Those of us that were around, he talked to us all about that. Guess what? He saw some things in the spirit. And guess what? We get to be here to see that we're following someone that's laid hold of some things. But guess what? You and I have to be people that can be followed. We have to understand that what we do is so important because it's gonna.
- [32:29]
C
Affect other people's lives.
- [32:31]
B
And I'm not putting the big eye on us. You understand what I'm saying? I'm saying, let's be sober about what we're called to do. One thing I appreciated about Dr. Dufresne, he was always so appreciative of the honor that God had placed on his life. Counting him faithful, putting him in the ministry. And he used to say, honor your office.
- [32:58]
C
Honor the office that you are in.
- [33:02]
B
Put a premium on it.
- [33:05]
C
Don't mistreat it. Understand that God's put a responsibility on you, so you have a responsibility to respond correctly. He put that in us. I was listening to Dr. Sumrall just this morning.
- [33:19]
B
He said, the world needs men and women. Let me. I don't want to misquote it. The world needs. No, I'm sorry. God needs men and women who will live out of their spirit.
- [33:32]
C
God needs men and women who will.
- [33:35]
B
Live out of their spirit. Do you understand that?
- [33:38]
C
These that are laying hold, these that are standing their ground, fighting the good.
- [33:41]
B
Fight of faith, they. They're people that are living out of their spirit. And God needs people to live out of their spirit.
- [33:49]
C
Because I don't know if you've noticed.
- [33:51]
B
Or not, but there's a lot of.
- [33:52]
C
People that are, they call themselves believers.
- [33:55]
B
And they are not living out of their spirit. They're living out of their head and they're living contemporary. They're fashioning themselves to this age and this trend and whatever.
- [34:10]
C
So how much more important is it for us to live out of our spirit? And do you understand that when we get here, we're learning more how to.
- [34:17]
B
Live out of our spirit? I was, you know, double edged sword, you know, when people start talking to me, it's like, you know, I'm talking, but I'm talking in code too. I'm talking, but you need to hear this. You know, when I've got somebody and I say, you know, it's funny, a lot of our people used to come in June. They would literally redo their schedule to be there since 98. I go, I understand, I'm talking to a group. I said, I understand in, you know, 06 and 07, there was the housing market crash. And it really did some things financially.
- [34:52]
C
And I understand people, you know, with.
- [34:54]
B
Their measure of faith. I go, but you know what? People have recapped. Why did they lose the importance of being somewhere where corporately, the faith of all of us together can cooperate with the spirit and see some wonderful things happen? I said, we were taught that showing up matters and it will add to the service.
- [35:25]
C
All of us coming and believing that.
- [35:26]
B
God's going to do something. A desire for God to do something adds to the atmosphere, making it more.
- [35:33]
C
Conducive for the spirit of God to flow. And people need to be taught that.
- [35:38]
B
River Knight came Tuesday night to our church and he taught a wonderful message. I just wanted you to know, in case anybody tells you, I taught it again Sunday morning. And I just went right off my notes, I said, this was too good for just one eatin'. We're eating it again. Of course you understand when he did it, how pleasant it was. It was like dessert. You know, everybody's like going, oh my God, this was such a wonderful service.
- [36:16]
C
I went over the very same points.
- [36:25]
B
My grandmother monthly would give you a tiny chocolate square of XLAX monthly, because.
- [36:35]
C
She said if you keep the inside.
- [36:38]
B
Clean, keep all the bugs off you, you know, you wouldn't get sick as much. That's what they believe. So once a month, grandma gave me this. I don't know if anybody ever remember.
- [36:46]
C
If you're old enough to remember.
- [36:47]
B
Ex Lax came in little Tiny chocolate squares and it tastes terrible. But it did something.
- [36:55]
C
And if you keep the inside clean, we didn't get sick as much. My grandmother believed that it could have been old Indian wives tale.
- [37:04]
B
I don't know what. But grandma monthly, she gave us. Pastor Ike was feeding dessert. I said, step up here and get your tiny pieces of chocolate square.
- [37:23]
C
Cause I'm gonna take these same points out, and you gonna get cleaned out. But you won't be as susceptible to infection when I'm done. It was a miracle. I took every point from his.
- [37:39]
B
I wrote him down.
- [37:40]
C
I just took every point and I went to every point.
- [37:44]
B
But my point was, the atmosphere in there was so conducive. He began to operate. Oh, my God. In the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. And it was so accurate. I mean, he just went on and on and on. And there was a young man and he came up to our table. We had taken him to lunch. When he got there, he came up to our table. And he is a man that works in farming. And this is a busy season for getting the ground ready. There's a lot of things to prepare the ground that have to be done at night. If you live in a rural area, you know, all of those machinery is at at night. That's his busiest time. And it's during the season. And we know that. So he came up. I'm sure he felt bad, but he was at the restaurant we were at, and he came up and he said, well, you know, I'm not going to be in service tonight. And we know that this is his season.
- [38:28]
C
And he is.
- [38:29]
B
He is not only the boss, he's one of the workers, you know, so it's not like you delegate. So he says, but, you know, if.
- [38:35]
C
God's got something for me, you know, my son's going to be there.
- [38:39]
B
He was teasing, but I know he felt bad he wasn't going to be there. But, you know, well, Pastor Ike starts operating the word of wisdom, word of knowledge. And all of a sudden, man, he says something and he goes, does this mean anything to anybody? I don't want to see this business lost. I don't want to see this business lost. I don't know if you remember that. I looked around, I knew exactly who it was for the man at the table that came up to the table. It was for him because he's had a real struggle in that business. And really to the point where he felt like they were going to lose it. That's kind of like the cry of his heart I don't want this business. But the word of the Lord was, do what God told you to do. Do what God told you to do. What an atmosphere. Sunday morning, I said, you know, brother, I called him out. I said, you know, brother, remember? I think you might have been a little bit joking, but you said, if God's got something for me, hey, my.
- [39:28]
C
Son will be there, you know? Meaning, like, you know, and he was just talking.
- [39:32]
B
I know that. I go, well, you know what? God did have something for you. And I repeated the word to him and I thought, you know, what a blessing that hungry people can come together and we create an atmosphere for the.
- [39:48]
C
Gifts of the Spirit to flow and.
- [39:49]
B
To move and for people to get help.
- [39:52]
C
People were getting help. Yes, it is the spirit of God doing it, and he does it at his will.
- [39:58]
B
But let's not, you know, dismiss ourselves from coming and being hungry and being.
- [40:06]
C
Ready and responding so that the Spirit.
- [40:09]
B
Can have his way in a service.
- [40:11]
C
That's another thing with following, being someone that you can follow. Come to church ready to cooperate with the Spirit so he can move however he wants. Don't come to church. And we used to call it sitting on the anointing. You know, you're there with an attitude.
- [40:30]
B
And you're just daring nothing to happen because you don't want anything to happen.
- [40:33]
C
You don't want any help.
- [40:36]
B
Doesn't make it conducive. You got to come hungry.
- [40:41]
C
But that's all part of flee. Get things away that are going to hinder you. Follow after. Fight the good fight of faith. Stand your ground. Why?
- [40:51]
B
Because it's important that we lay hold of things the way the scripture says that we should lay hold of them. Because in this generation, there are people that are saying that they're laying hold of some things, but it's not by the Spirit. And people are following them, but it's not going to produce what they want. It's not going to produce the power they want. How many of you know, no one is going to get out of an insane asylum by the power of God if there's nobody that really believes in the power of God to heal. This is the things that we're looking forward to. The movement. Dr. Fran said this era was going to have all of the movements together in one. But it's going to happen for people that are hungry and that recognize though God's given me wonderful people to follow, and I'm still following them. I have to be sober because if I see them laying hold, I gotta be imitators of the way that they laid hold. And the common denominator that all of the generals in our lives have taught us is know the spirit, follow his direction. Don't veer from what he told you to do. Have people around you that can impart to you.
- [42:14]
C
This is so important. And you know what?
- [42:16]
B
If we don't remind ourselves of these things, we could let them slip. And I don't want them to slip because I'm looking at another generation. And they need to have some experiences with God that you and I have had. They have to have some moments where with God that you and I have had. But if we don't talk about them and we don't tell them about them, how will they even know that they're possible? I'm going to tell you something. I got. I got in trouble as a baby Christian and had art with someone. And immediately it affects your joy level, it affects the ability to receive all that. And of course you understand that was all a plan of the devil to, you know, to short circuit, you know, my place and my plan. And I remember one time, you know, as a routine, I would spend time with God. But I could tell, you know what, I'm not making that connection with the Father. And then one day I got down on my knees and I mean, I'm telling you, when I looked at this person at church, I just wanted to turn and go the other way, you know, just. You're just something inside, you know? You know, you dirty dog, you know, and, you know, we come out of the world, that's not right, you know, but you're struggling, you know, and you're a baby. I think I've been saved maybe two years.
- [43:37]
C
In a word, church, one, one and.
- [43:39]
B
A half, something like that. Hadn't been saved that long. But I could just. I could tell. It's like, man, I'm just not. I'm not getting what I used to get in fellowship with God. And then finally one day I just said, God, I am so sorry. I'm just so full of terrible thoughts. I know it's wrong. It's getting against your word, you know? And then God, it's almost like he just invaded that place and spoke to me. And he said, trust me, Debbie. When you meet me face to face, you won't have enough breath in you to blame someone else for not doing what the Word tells you to do. And he said, nowhere do I give you the right to respond this way when someone hurts you. There's nowhere in the scripture that you can Find that I say, it's okay if someone hurts you. Doesn't my word say, love your enemies, pray for them, do good, so you have no excuse.
- [44:45]
C
And God said it very lovingly, but.
- [44:47]
B
When he did that, something just broke. And I just said, God, I am so, so sorry. Forgive me. But more than that, Father, I forgive them. I just let this thing go. And I'm telling you, it was like night and day. When I got up, I was free. I mean, not like, oh, no, like, love you, brother. I mean, I was free. I was free. All that junk that was trying to get on me was completely broken.
- [45:31]
C
Do you know there's a lot of.
- [45:32]
B
People that don't know how to get things off of them in God's presence. How we lay hold of things is so important to teach others. People are looking for other things when most things must be done in your prayer closet and your time with God. Now I realize God wants help for everyone. And so if people don't have that revelation or they never. They've never spent that much time to press in like that, then there's so many other ways God wants to help people. But do you understand? We need to teach people how to really lay hold of some things that will absolutely change their life.
- [46:11]
C
We used to call them altars.
- [46:13]
B
Just times where you're just marked by God invading you and just. I mean, just so sweetly told you.
- [46:21]
C
How dumb you are.
- [46:23]
B
And you just need to change what you're doing.
- [46:25]
C
It's going to be bad for you. But the power was there, the anointing was there, and you could yield to it and say yes to it and then be done with it.
- [46:35]
B
You know, from that day to this, I have never had any kind of hook in me to be offended anybody else again. It's like I learned my lesson one time. I don't let a thought get in. Now if the devil wants to bring me a thought, I just go, nope, not messing with that. That's not mine. I'm not going to dwell on it. I'm not going to get my feelings involved. But I learned that by spending time with God. Now you understand there's people that are following us, that are watching us, that they need to know how to do that. So it's important that as much as we regard God putting somebody in our life to follow, we have to take what we've received and be people that can be followed. The scripture the apostle told Timothy says, I am persuaded that the faith that was in your grandmother and the faith that was in your mother is in you. That's one of the first scriptures that I thought I want that said about me. I want someone to see faith in me that can be handed down to my children and my grandchildren and my great grandchildren. How many of you know everybody can have that? The faith that was in your grandmother and your mother is in you. How's that going to happen? Because we're going to stay in what we've been taught and we're going to understand that if we stay with it, it will produce. And as it produces, we make a way for others to come and to come by that way. So they're not looking for other things. So they're not looking for gizzard cleaners to build their church. They're looking for faith in God and knowing his plan and knowing that if he gave you a plan, he has provision for it. Amen. Amen. Thank you.
- [48:38]
D
One of the things I so appreciate that Pastor Debbie did today was she repeated what she knew and what she heard from my husband. And our success is being able to repeat what's been put in us and not only repeat it privately, but as ministers repeat it, repreach it, re preach it, re preach it, re preach it. And quit thinking that we have to constantly come up some with something that originated with us because that's not, not safe if it originated with us because this is going to be the first hearing, you know, and that's not safe. But I so appreciate what God said when he said, I'll cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, he followed it with this. He said, and I will feed you with the heritage of your father. Amen. And today we got refed with a heritage message message and it's working out to be part of the future of where we're headed. Amen. When she talks about the spiritual heritage through my husband and her previous pastor and it helps, it helps them head where they're going. I want you to know we need to learn to connect the dots and not just treat things as independent from one another another. And I just encourage you, wherever God has hooked you up, know what is being said and know not how just to apply it, but know how to live it and tell it to others and repeat it and peed it and repeat it and Pete it and repeat it. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, Pastor Debbie. Wonderful.
- [50:29]
A
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