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Steps Of Faith, Part One | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Faith is not hard. I said faith is not hard. But you do have to have knowledge about what's involved. Amen. And like I said, for us to receive it requires faith. And if we're missing some of the components of faith, we'll struggle. And like I said, my concern is that we don't want to ever get just hooked on one component or one step of faith and stay there and get ready and go, why isn't it working? So I want to vocalize and articulate some things just to. Just to stir you up by way of remembrance. One of the things that you where faith begins is faith hears. Faith hears. And if you don't hear, faith doesn't come. Faith comes by hearing. Faith comes not just by hearing anything the Word says. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. He's telling you what to hear the Word of God. So the Word of God. And you always need to think of the Word as this. It's God speaking to you. Always when you pick up your Bible, God's speaking to me when I'm reading this is God speaking to me. Don't just treat it as a book. It is God speaking to me. And so when we quote, when we think of the Word in that term, we could quote this verse. Faith comes by hearing, in hearing what God is speaking to me. Now, the only what God speaks to you primarily and first and foremost is through His Word. But that's not the only way he's heard. The Spirit of God speaks, and he will speak to you. Specifics that the Word does not articulate for you. The Word gives God's general instructions and directions to all people. But there are specifics about your life that you need to hear, and that is God speaking when the Spirit speaks to you. And when the Spirit speaks to you, he always follows the blueprint of the Word. The Word is the blueprint of how the Spirit will speak and move and what he will say to you. So we could say it this way. Faith comes by hearing and hearing what God says to you in His Word and hearing what God says to you through His Spirit. Because you have to hear both of that. Amen. Without hearing, you've got no basis to believe God for anything. Why? Because in hearing, you gain knowledge of what God will say and gain knowledge of how God will bring it to pass for you. Amen. So faith hears. Without hearing, you're going to make a mistake by. By facing a need and just picking a Bible verse and throwing that at your need. This is a mistake many in the faith life make. They just think, well, I know scriptures, and they just start throwing scriptures. Faith comes by hearing. You've got to hear from God. How is God telling me to approach this need? Because God has more than one avenue to victory. And he may lead one person on one avenue and another person down another avenue. And you have to know which is your avenue. Can I put it that way? But all of it will arrive us at God's best if we follow the way he leads. Because one time you say, I don't know what you mean by that. Doesn't he, for example, doesn't healing belong to all of us? Certainly the victory of healing is ours. But God will lead us down different avenues sometimes of how we arrive there. Sometimes he used to, maybe in the past he's told you to have somebody to pray for you, lay hands on you, and you received healing when somebody laid hands on you. The next time something shows up, you could go back to having them laid hands on you. And nothing happens. And you go, well, doesn't the word work? You, you're, you're getting rutted. You got stuck on one avenue. The next time he may have somebody to pray the prayer of agreement with you, he may direct you that way. Another way, he may just have you stand on the word. Another time he may say, you need to correct something. You see, there's different things that different needs call for. And you have to hear, what is my prescription? What does he prescribe for me and this need. Because he will not rut you into only one way of receiving. Receiving. It's all receiving. But there's avenues of receiving. Why does he use different avenues? Because as we grow up and mature spiritually, he puts a greater demand on our faith. And he's not going to keep using one flow of one avenue with you every time because you would never develop spiritually in a balanced manner. Another thing is because you wouldn't walk by faith if every time you just knew what avenue he was going to use, you would not walk by faith. I mean, in the same way, needing to hear from God keeps our fellowship with God vital and it keeps it hot. So faith hears number one. When you're faced with a need, do not just start picking up Bible verses of your own liking and throwing them at your need. Your first action should be looking inward. What's the spirit saying to me about this need? How is he telling me to address this need. If he doesn't say anything specifically, then do what you know. But many times people just do what they know without even asking him. And that's the difficulty. That's why people just keep doing what they know, do what they know, do what they know. And many times they don't know enough. And then they start saying, well, this doesn't work, or they just keep doing it and getting no results. If you're keeping on doing something over a period of time and getting no results, mm, something's missing. You're hopping on one foot and not arriving. Praise the Lord. Number one, faith hears. Number two. Do you understand? I'm kind of slow about getting off number one, because this is what makes the faith life easy. You heard him. You don't even have grounds for believing regarding your need until you hear. Well, I know healing belongs to me. Yes, but how is he telling you to approach this need? What verse? Don't just pick a verse. Let the spirit of God enlighten one. Because you know what David would. He prayed. And it's written all throughout the Psalms. God, quicken thou me, O Lord, according to your word, Quicken me according to your word. So the word has to be quickened to you for the word to quicken you. And the measure of word that's in you is going to be. Is only the measure he can use to quicken you. The greater the measure of the word in you, the more he's got to quicken. But this is what I'm telling you is you want to hear from God because your faith will be quickened, your spirit will be quickened, everything will come alive because you know what he said. And when you know what he says. No demon in hell can sway you if you will stand on what he says. Number one, faith hears. Always make that your first action. When faced with a need. Turn to your spirit. Say, Holy Ghost, you are my guide. You are my teacher. Amen. You're my counselor. Many times people pick up a Bible verse and throw it out at their need while they have ignored their counsel and ignored the counselor. And this is where many people miss it. The first thing I do is I start. What do I need to do? What do I need to correct? What do I need to change? What do I need to stand on? What do I just need to hold fast to? When he hear. When you hear what he says, it settles you. No matter what opposition comes against your mind, it anchors you. Why? Because faith comes by hearing. And many are trying to believe before they've heard. Praise the Lord. The next thing faith does is faith meditates on what it hears. You can't just say, oh, God said that, and then just drop what he said and not give it your attention. You have to anchor and settle yourself down on that word. You say, well, we know that. Mm. Because this is a process. And many times people are just wanting to throw a quick verse at it and get a quick reply back, a quick victory back. And meditation is a process. It's our lifestyle. So you take what God says and you meditate on it. Why? Because that which God said is impossible to you until you get it in you. Meditation turns the impossible into possible only as long as that word finds its home in your heart. Jesus said this in John 15:7. If you abide in me, if you abide in me now, if you're born again, you do abide in him. But the next phrase is the catch all here. And my word abides in you. See what he said to you? And when you faced that need, that need showed up and you heard from him now what he said to you. You're going to have to get that abiding in you. Because until it abides in you, it won't spend. It won't spend. And people are trying to spend what does not yet what they yet they don't yet abide in. Amen. You meditate on it. What's that mean? You think about it. You speak about it. You turn it over in your thought life, you put it in your mouth and you speak it to yourself. You've heard me talk about when God gave me Sister, he told me he was going to give me Sister Amy's castle. That was impossible for me. For me, it was impossible. It was impossible financially. It was impossible in the way that it was not available. People had tried to buy it, people who had more money than me at that time tried to buy it, offered them larger prices than what I ended up paying for it. But because I heard God say, I'm going to give you that house, I meditated on it. You know how I meditated on it? I drove to it. And I would sit across, across the road from that house and I would look at it. What am I doing? I'm looking at God's, at God's words. God said, that house is mine. So when I look at that house, I'm seeing God's words in front of me. And then I would sit there and I would imagine what I'm going to do. I planned out the whole thing. You know, I've got hundreds and hundreds of photos and I've got hundreds and hundreds of design photos that are going to be implemented in that. So what did I do? That's a form of meditation. If you're believing for a house, get out and look for one. Let the spirit prompt you in a region or direction. And then you go, when you're driving through there, that's a form of meditation. You're putting that in front of you. God, do you know, even if you don't know what house, just getting out and looking at houses as a form of meditating. You're meditating. I have a house out here. I have a house out here and I'm going to go find it. Right. And so I would imagine, you know, God gave you your imagination. Not all imaginations are to be cast down. No, he gave you your imaginations to help you meditate. Now what the devil does is he gives you wrong imaginations. And if you take in those, you meditate in the direction of fear instead of the direction of faith. So it says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. But any imagination that exalts, that doesn't exalt itself. It agrees with the knowledge of God. Those you hold to. That's what meditation is. You see yourself well, you see yourself up and walking. You see yourself without pain. You see yourself without that condition. You use your imagination. That's a form of meditation. Amen. Confession is a form of meditation. Many times people think that confession is the end all to faith. Confession is an important thing of faith. But confession is meditation. You're speaking that over and over and over. You're driving that word into your spirit and into your thought life through confession. It's a form of meditation. Amen. The third thing of faith. Faith. Number one, what does it do? Number two, what does it do? Number three, faith acts. Many times people try to act when they haven't done number one. What's number one here? They try to act and they haven't heard yet. Then number two. Then the next thing is people try to go straight to acting and they haven't done number two. Which is what? Meditate. Well, I heard. But did you meditate? Did you drive that into you to where nothing can separate you from that. That's how you take ownership of what he said to you is through meditation. And you really are. That's when you're going to get results with your actions, is when you heard and you drove what God said to you. Your spirit and into your thought life, then it shows up in your doing. And then when it shows up in your doing, manifestation is on its way, baby. Amen. After faith acts, faith continues to act through standing your ground. That is part of acting, is standing your ground. Do you know that confession is part of acting also? Confession is part of meditation, but plus it's part of acting. But you have to learn to stand your ground. Because when you know what God said and you anchor that on the inside of you, something's going to come to try to push you off that. And you're going to have to decide whether or not you're going to be swayed. And this is where many times people stop at the confession of meditation. Now, well, before I even say that, let me go on to this faith also praises. So acting, standing on the word and praising are all forms of acting. Really. Confession is an act, right? Praising is an act. Standing, standing your ground. When opposition comes, all of those are acting on the word. But you can't just do one of those and arrive. It has to be all these steps that are involved and they blend one, they bleed one into another, don't they? Now, what God has been dealing with me about for us is something we need to check ourself on, and that is this, that you're. I want you to be careful that you don't just get hold of certain scriptures that promise you all and sit back and confess that. And that's all you're doing. Many of you think that confession is the totality of your part. Your part is hearing, Your part is meditating. Your part includes confessing. But confessing is the lazy man's way that some take. They don't want to hear, they don't take time to hear, they don't take time to meditate. They're just going to sit and while they're in the car, oh, thank you, Father, that you make me rich. I thank you, Father, that I'm healed. And they don't give any more effort than that. They don't engage their heart. They just think, I fulfilled it, I confessed it. And this is coming up for me, for this congregation, that we have to make sure we don't fall into that rut of one avenue. Confession is important. I am not downplaying it. But when all you're doing is confessing, it's a crippled flow. Because confession has to be joined to other things to work, has to be joined to what did you hear from God? It has to be joined to what are you? What are you Meditating on years ago. And, you know, we'll have healing lines or we'll minister to people. And a man came up, part of the congregation years ago, and I knew he had had ongoing issues with his certain joints in his body. And I went to lay hands on him. And God said to me, because I knew, you know, you can tell the spiritual condition many times when you're a pastor, you can tell where people are at spiritually. And God lets you know that so you can help them. And so I went to lay my hands on him, and God stopped me. And he said, ask him what verses he studied standing on. What verses is he standing on for his healing? And I said to him, I said, brother, what verses are you standing on for your healing? None. I don't know any verses. Now, see, he had been in this church years, years. What's that mean? He wants victory without hearing, without meditating, without acting. What is it? He got himself fixed on one avenue and decided, I'm going to have hands laid on me. And that's what God's going to do. Unless you heard that, you don't know. And nothing happened for him until he took these steps. Because faith is not just a healing line. Thank God for healing lines. Faith is not just a confession. Faith is hearing. Faith is meditating. If you're meditating and I were to ask you, what verses are you standing on? You could tell me because you've been meditating on them. So if you can't, if someone were to ask you today, what verses are you standing on for your need, and you would not have some like this at the tip of your tongue. You're not meditating. Now, another thing that we have to make sure we're not just good at throwing out faith lingo because we know faith talk. I appreciate this one precious lady, a minister. Years ago, I knew her, but not intimately, not closely. And I knew they didn't have any children, and her and her husband were getting older. And I said to her, because I didn't see her that often, and I said to her, I said, you know, I didn't even know. Do you and your husband even want children? She said, yes, we do. And I said, oh, okay. I didn't know, you know, because they're older. And she said, yeah. She said, we're believing for children. And then we go on with our conversation. And then she stepped. And I so appreciated this. She stepped back and she stopped me. She said, wait a minute. I just said, I'm believing for children. She said, I had to Be honest. I haven't been believing. I just want them. What's she saying? She was saying faith lingo, but there was none of these other actions. And she checked herself. See, the word says, examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. You can have faith and not be in it. And you can have faith lingo and not be in it. You can know all the proper responses, you can know all the proper confessions. But without step number one, which is what? Without step number two, which is, it doesn't matter what, you can talk. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. So I appreciated that she caught herself. She judged herself right there because she. This is where we dupe ourselves many times is we just. We say the right faith words but there's no guts behind it. What's that mean? There's no heart invested in it. There's no meditation invested in it. There's no hearing invested in it. Can I tell you this? You really need to pay attention to what I'm talking about this morning because this is your failing place or your victory place. So don't treat this as casual. Amen. Now this is my concern and I'm concerned about this because for evidently this is what the spirit is concerned about for you. That is that some are sitting back and just making confession. Confession, Confession, confession and thinking their part is done and things aren't changing and increase isn't happening and prosperity isn't happening the way you're confessing. But. But you think you've done all your part. Let's not be okay with nothing changing. If nothing is changing, we gotta change. Many have a very vague idea about this flow of faith, this life of faith. They think it just. They think that the climax of all this thing is my confession. I've got it in my mouth and like you're strong, arming God into manifesting what you're saying. And the more, the more I say it, the more I say it, the more he's got to do it. And you sit back. I'm not saying you. I'm just saying in general, people sit back, some sit back and confess money and wait for money to show up. You're duped, you are limit. Many are just limiting God to. Somebody's going to give me money, money's just going to be mailed in. Somebody's just going to give me. And they've got it fixed in their head that money is just going to drop in their lap. That's not faith. Faith is an act. Faith is an act. And confession is not the totality of that act, The longer you just wait for it to show up. The devil is content to let you just keep confessing because an avenue of increase may be somebody hands you something, but that is not the rule. And what verse do you stand on that somebody's going to hand me something. What verse? Well, God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory. Yes, but who told you that he would only use a man's hand? If you'll remember, God said to us years ago that there are three things especially he named out. And he says, believe me for number one, divine ideas, number two, believe me for open doors of financial opportunity. Number three, believe me for lost funds restored in multiplied fashion. None of that is somebody handing you something. And many are just sitting thinking that probably prosperity means somebody's going to walk up and hand you money. This is what I'm stirred about for many and using it really. The devil's using that way of thinking to turn them lazy. And they think they're in faith, but they're lazy. I'm going to tell you, faith will turn you into the hardest worker on the job. Faith will turn you into the best giver. Faith will turn you into you using everything you've got. Faith will make you all in. And people who sit back and just want to confess in their victory, confess in their prosperity, confess in money they're missing because they're missing it because they're trying to hop around on an insufficient application. Confession is part of it, but it is not all of it. And this is my concern of why some are not advancing as they should or as they could. Amen. And while they're confessing, they just sit and they're just waiting. And they're waiting. And they're waiting. They're waiting for their house to show up. They're waiting for the money for their house to show up. They're just waiting for somebody to give them money. And they're waiting and waiting and waiting themselves up past the blessings of God. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. When are you going to go for that house? When are you going to go for starting that job? When are. When are you? Well, I'm waiting. Faith is an act. Listen, if God has spoken to you that a house, he has a house for you. You have to hear from him, hear from him, you know, don't just decide, but you have peace in your spirit about things. You know, you have to know what is God saying? But once he said something, now he's waiting on you. Once you know what he has said, he's waiting on you. Praise the Lord. You can find this message and others by Nancy Dufresne on the dufresne Ministries Podcast channel, available wherever you listen to podcasts. God's Word speaks about the different measures of faith little faith, weak faith, dead faith, increasing faith, and great faith. We need to understand that faith is measurable. Get your copy of Nancy Dufresne's book, Knowing your Measure of Faith. If you need prayer, please call our prayer line. We have trained ministers on staff who are ready to agree with you for your miracle. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defrainministries. Org to learn of our upcoming meetings, share your testimony, become a partner, or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of defrain Ministries.