← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
The Importance Of Ministry Offices | Joel & Amy Siegel | Fredonia, NY | Wednesday AM | Miracle Crusade 2022
01:16:54
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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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B
Man, it's been good. And boy, I want to say again what an honor it is for me to be part of these meetings and I think maybe a special honor because of where these are located here in western New York. My wife and I, I can just tell you we put our whole heart into the 11 years that God privileged us to pastor just north of here in Buffalo and believe there's good seed in this region. And of course, we've, we've gotten to watch the evolution of the family churches over the years. I mean, we remember when it was Bible Christian Fellowship and everybody in one little building that y' all been delivered from. And, but, but now, now it's, we've just, just so appreciate all this. Do you know that where we're, where we're sitting right now, this region is within a 500 mile radius of 50% of the population of North America. Right here, you draw a circle around it, you catch half of the population of North America. Very strategic place. And so it matters what happens here. It matters that we're here. We're not here just because, you know, Pastor Nancy went fishing for meeting places and only three and you know, this won't respond. It wasn't that. It's not that. It's, you know, these are, as she said last night, these are God appointed God ordained times. And so, and we believe even what we're doing now is really in seed form as we believe we'll look back in the future and say, wow, remember when we could all fit in the building? And you know, do you believe that? You believe that? And you know, we're singing Honor and Glory Forever. And I was just thinking about what a place the honor of God plays in what God does, and what a hindrance it can be when it's absent. Amen. And you know, it's a miracle crusade. You understand when Jesus went to Nazareth, which you could say that was a strategic location, but that was his hometown and you know, he could do no mighty work. Well, what's that mean? He could do no mighty work. Means he went there planning to do mighty works. It was a miracle. It was his the Nazareth Miracle Crusade. And not a lot happened there. Well, actually a lot happened, but it wasn't good. Not a lot that you'd want to happen happened. And Jesus explained why it happened and said it was a lack of honor among the people that hamstrung as we'd say cut the legs out from under his ministry, kept him from ministering. You know, I was. Over the years, I've tried to be a student of that subject and have observed at different places where things could happen and where things couldn't happen. And it is true, what I heard when I was traveling with Brother Hagin for those seven years, I would hear him say. And he wouldn't just say it once. I heard him say it repeatedly because God had dealt with him. You know, he had the. That revelation that ended up being a book called Plans, Purposes and Pursuits. God spoke to him about restoring reverence to our worship and the effect that would have. Well, that was in 1987. Well, in 1997, 10 years later, I was traveling with him and he started emphasizing that in his meetings because the Lord dealt with him. They didn't get it the first time. You're going to have to go over it all again. And he did. So he was in those meetings. And I heard him say when. That the Lord dealt with him, that when reverence and honor are restored, that there'd be a restoration and a multiplication of the miraculous power of God. Well, you know, God's never withholding his power in the sense that he gets hurt feelings and just says, I'm taking my toys and going home today. Right? You remember when you were a kid, whoever had the football, if they didn't get it enough, they'd say, well, I'm taking my ball going home. That's not God. You understand? That's not God. He's. He's so. He's so accommodating, really. And he'll meet us where we are. But there's times where you have to come up higher. You have to come up higher. And so I'm, you know, heard Brother Hagin minister on that. And. And then I've been at places, like I was saying, where. Where you could see it and then wonder why nothing's happening or not much is happening. And I'm reminded of a place I went in recent times, and it's a good church, man. This is a. I mean, the pastor is. You couldn't get a better preacher than the pastor. And I'd get all anointed in the hotel to minister. You know, just feel like, okay, I'm God's man of faith and power. And then you come out and you feel like you just. You come out and like, okay, where did it all go? And the Lord dealt with me one particular service because I'm praying, you know, do I need to pray more while I was praying. And the Lord dealt with me. Just had. When I say he dealt with me, I don't mean a big writing in the sky type thing. I just meant it was on my heart. Don't go out in the service during praise and worship, or don't go out and sit on. Because you sit on the front row is where they put you. And you can't. You don't know who's there. You don't know what's going on. But I just said, pastor, is it okay if I stay in the back just a little bit? And he said, sure, of course. That's fine. And. But. But then as soon as praise and worship started, it was in my heart. They had. They had like, some seats out in the hallway where I could see into their foyer. And so I just sat there. That way I could enjoy praise and worship. Just kind of stay in the spirit. So as I'm sitting there, I'm seeing what's going on in the hallway, in the foyer, rather, all during worship. And I'll tell you what was going on. Many, not all, many, not a few. Many of the gentlemen in the church were out there visiting. And all through praise and worship, visiting and chit chatting and hanging out. And the Lord ministered to me. There's the problem. Now, you understand, as a visiting minister, it's not my place to. Maybe somebody like Dr. Dufresne would have a voice to bring that correction. I recognize that I'm just not necessarily there. You know, if God dealt with me and it was a church where maybe I had that. That kind of voice, well, I could deal with it. But you deal with that as he leads. I wasn't led to deal with it, but a conversation worked around later with the pastor, and I was able to bring it up very gently. I said, you know, you might be interested to know something. And one of the pastor's kids was actually in the children's ministry, which was facing that. And I started telling the pastor, and the kid said, he's telling the truth. I was there. I saw it all because he was working. So I had a witness. And the pastor said, well, thank you very much. That will change immediately. I said, I'm not trying to cause no trouble. You know what I mean? He didn't know. Didn't know. And again, it's not that God's touchy, but that's dishonor. And dishonor doesn't conduct the flow of God. It repels it, you see? And so it's these Things that we have to. Well, it matters what we do. Along these lines. There was. Now there was another church I went to, Gloria, and I could tell more about this because I know I won't ever be back there. Pretty sure. Not because I wouldn't go. And this is a long time ago, actually. So, you know, you got to be careful. You don't know who's watching live stream or anything like that. But. But anyhow, this church, same deal, but this was all of the leaders, the deacons. This church had deacons, and this. All the deacons, during praise and worship were out, were in the back in the sanctuary. They didn't even take it to. They didn't even take it to the hall in the sanctuary. Just chatting it up. You can see them laughing, just being casual. Just being casual. I didn't say they were dressed casual. Just being casual all during worship. And I didn't plan to do it. Honest to God, I didn't plan to do it. I got up to minister, you know, they invited me up and this was, you know, I was their guest. I'd never been to this church before. Like, I said I would go back maybe if they invited me, but I don't think that's going to happen. But I got up and I just said, okay. I said, I'd like to apologize to the praise and worship leaders and the praise and worship team on behalf of the men in the church. I didn't mean to say it. I just said on behalf of the men in the church who were oblivious to what was going on, I'd just like to apologize to the praise and worship team because you guys did your best to bring it. You might say, why are you saying that? I don't know. They sang the song about honor and it blessed me. But I'm just remind, you know, I'm reminded of some of these things, you know, you don't have to be doing something that blatant to get familiar. You know, if you're in church two, three, four times a week, whatever it is, you can just get routine with it. If you're in these meetings, you know, the first one, the second one, you're there, and then it's possible to disengage and disengage. Well, while we're thinking of it, I'm reminded of another place. Hallelujah. I'm reminded of another place where we were. And I wasn't ministering at this place. I was attending this service. And we were in the back of a very large auditorium and I hadn't been in this church in a long time. We were there attending this church, and I'm looking and all the kids in the church are on their phones playing games. Now, you gotta forgive me. See, this is shortly after we pastored up here and Pastor Michael, I think, would agree, we are in a bubble, in a good sense up here that, you know, if you're a member of this church, you probably don't know what's going on at a lot of the other churches in Christian culture. Christian Dom. And it was the same thing. We were up here and we were pastoring and minding our own business. I didn't know what was going on other places, but I'm seeing. We'd never seen kids play games, video games on their phone. But that wasn't the most interesting part. The interesting part is they were competing with their parents. You know, you. Because you can have two player games, you know, you can have two player. And so the parents were playing the same games with the kids. No. You think I'm lying? I'm not lying. I'm not lying because it's a big church and I'm far enough away. You know, you ever ask yourself, why am I saying any of this today? Is it. I don't know. Why does the anointing diminish the further back you get sometimes? Half time. Can I give you this? Would you. No. Oh, yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. Now, listen, there might be people whose job it is to do some. To post some things. Oh, yeah, but scrolling through Facebook. Right, right, right. Just texting, whatever, taking care of business. And in a bigger auditorium, I didn't know this, but I learned that in a bigger auditorium you can actually have a conversation at volume and they won't hear you from the pulpit. So just go ahead. Well, I had to ask myself, why are you coming? Because why go through the effort to get here? Because you could do that more comfortably without the interruption of what's going on over the loudspeakers. You could do that without. And all that racket of the music. And so it's never a wasted. It's never a wasted thing to make mention of some of these things because all you gotta do is not make the effort. And you could slip into familiarity. Right. And with your marriage, you could do that if you, you know. But you don't want to. You don't want to. You want to keep honor. Well, what is honor? It is, among other things, it is a recognition of the value and the importance and the weight of a certain person or a certain thing. And when we're talking about the Lord, we're talking about God and his things. Well, is he present with us when we come? Then that's why we act like he is. That's why we remind ourselves. That's why they do things with excellence in a building like this. Because we're mindful of who we're endeavoring to accommodate. And really, if I can say it, I mean, that's why we dress like we're at an important thing. Because it's not that I can't experience God at home in my shorts. And so I can't. You can. You can. It's not that God doesn't know what you look like, but it's. It's an awareness. It's an awareness of him and his presence. And that. Because if you're like me, and maybe you are, maybe you're not, I do not like to dress up unless the occasion warrants it. You know what I mean? If I can be in sweats, first thing I do when I go home, I've learned I know how to chill. And I got that. You know, some people wear a suit to mow the lawn. Whatever. You do you. You do you, as the Bible says. No, the Bible doesn't say. But. No, I mean, when it's okay to. Well, I got that from Dr. Dufresne. He come in off the road and he had his flannel PJs. He put them flannel PJs. He barely hit the house before he'd get them. Amen. But when it's something important, it's something important. I'll tell you what's important. When we come to meet with him. Matthew, I believe the 18th chapter, talks about where two or three are gathered in his name. He said, there am I in their midst. Well, you might say, isn't that always the case? He lives in us. Yeah, but it's not always there am I to manifest when we come together. He endeavors to manifest himself in our midst. So all that was free had nothing to do with what we would necessarily. You know, but there it is. There it is. Take it or leave it. But I tell you, if you take it, it's going to bless your life. Many have left it. You don't want to leave it. There's things. Friends, I'm saying this by the. By the direction of the Lord, by the unction of the Lord. There's things God desires to do that won't happen unless we have an awareness and a recognition of Him. All through the service on the way to the service. Come on. When you're getting ready for the service at the house and these things. It's not some harsh. It's not some harsh task that's imposed upon us. How many know that? First John says the commandments. His commandments are not grievous. They're not burdens. This isn't a burden. Amen. But you can't treat the things of God like some side issue, like something. Or like some obligation, you know? Well, they're making us come. All these meetings. Well, just stay home. I'm sorry. You know what? No, no, I shouldn't say that. These aren't my meetings. They're not my meetings. I got to remember my place. I got to honor whose meetings they are. They can say stay home if they want to say, stay home. Not for me to say, but if they were my meetings, I'm not fussing at anybody. You understand? I'm not mad at anybody. Just. Just good to say these things. Now, let me share with you, if I can, what God wants to do if honor is in place. Can I share that with you? Go to the second book of Thessalonians, the third chapter. Hallelujah. Oh, the Lord is good. He's good. Good, good, good, good, good, good. You know, if he says something corrective, you know, that's still his goodness towards you. Very much so. Very much so. And you ought to get to where if something hits you crossways, that instead of getting offended about it, you ought to say, oh, thank you, Lord, for bringing that to me. Thank you for helping me see that. I didn't see that. I have to say that all the time. Sometimes I have to say it to my wife. I have to say, thank you for showing. I didn't realize that. She'll say, you know, what you said and how that could be taken. And I'd say, oh, glory, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. In second Thessalonians, the third chapter and the first verse, It says, finally, brethren, pray. Everybody say pray. Pray for us that the word the Lord may have free course and be glorified. I'll point out to you here that the word glory or glorified and the word honor, both New Testament and Old Testament are the same word. In the Greek language, it's the word doxa. Translated, glory. Translated, honor. In the Old Testament, I think it's kadosh or something. In the Hebrew, I forget. But in the Old Testament, same Greek word, same Hebrew word. Sorry. Translated, glory. Translated, honor. And it means heaviness, heaviness, weightiness. And it's talking here about the Word of the Lord being glorified. Other translations actually say that the Word may speed ahead and be honored. And beyond that, we don't just want it to speed ahead and be missed. We want it to have enough weight to where? In people's. In people's thinking that it lands as it's supposed to land, that it does all that it's supposed to do, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead, have free course, and be glorified even as it is with you. And other translations say even as it happened among you. Praise the Lord. And then, of course, if I could read it in the message translation once again, because it was just. Mm, mm, Good. All right. Paul says, pray for us. Pray that the Master's word will simply take off and race through the country to a groundswell of response just as it did among you. And I'm just persuaded and stirred that it's God's desire, just as has happened in years past, decades past, for His Word and the accompanying signs that would follow and the move of the Spirit that would follow. It's God's plan for His Word to speed ahead faster than what we've seen at speeding ahead. Praise the. Did I activate Siri on somebody? One sec. I've done that. I've done that. When? Right up here in the microphone. She said, I didn't understand, so I just repeated myself. But, you know, should the best responder in the church really be. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. It's all good. It's all good. I've done it. At least you get some feedback. No, I'm playing. Anybody remember what we were talking about? The word of the Lord speeding ahead. It's God's desire for things to speed faster than the enemy can stop it. And in the last couple of decades, just my observation, I haven't been around for, you know, centuries, but for the last couple of decades, it hasn't seemed like we've kept pace with what God wants to do. And it seems like we've been in a bit of a, you know, I don't believe it's the case now, but especially, Especially in the last 15, 20 years, really. The body of Christ rejected some of what God was wanting to do during the last time he did visit us. And what is that? That's dishonor. I said. That's dishonorable. What was God endeavoring to do? God. God had brought we. And we said talk some of it about Some of it yesterday, the teaching wave. And God had brought a teaching wave that where the word ran its course and circled the globe. And it was just amazing, the groundswell of response. And I just tell you, you want to tell people who pioneer churches today, which is a need. It's necessary. There needs to be churches, but for God to put his harvest in. But you want to tell people that pioneer churches today, you want to say, listen, God will help you out. God will take care of you. But we remember the days when if you took the message of faith to a town to start a church, first of all, you'd have a congregation that was already waiting for you, that had been praying that a pastor would show up and you'd come and. And they'd all have. All Brother Hagin's books, and they'd say, do you know this? Cause we need somebody that'll preach this. And you'd start a church. And we call it like just adding water. You know, you just add water, and it just seems like you could grow these churches. I mean, I could think of many, many, many instances. But I know a pastor started a church in Central Florida 1985, and he said, well, we were in this building for a couple months, and then we were in an empty piano warehouse. How many know if you're storing pianos, it's got to sit more than the seagull room in this church here, which you can't fit a lot of people in that room. But we start small, and if you have faith, even something small can grow bigger, you know, but. So it was sizable. So we were in that piano warehouse, and we were there for a couple. Couple months. Couple months. Then we were in this building, and then we bought this building, and all within a period of a year or two. Well, now you can go 10, 15 years staring at empty seats, but we still need to stay true to what we're doing. What's important is not the number of people that show up. What's important is that you obey God and you listen to me. I'm telling you from experience after experience after experience. God knows how to take care of you while you're obeying him. And your prosperity and your blessing does not depend on the number of rear ends that park themselves in the seats of your church or the number that walk out of your church. That does not determine your blessing and your prosperity. Obedience determines those things. Faithfulness determines those things. You trust me, you ain't never seen anybody be so blessed in proportion to the numbers of people in a church. So God Will take care of you. But anyhow, anyhow. The word speeding ahead, the word being glorified. The word running its course and speeding like it ought to. Well, we saw that. That has happened over the years. Well, it's God's desire for that to happen today in our era with this message and this move, what we call. I don't know if Dr. Dufresne invented the phrase. He's the one I first heard use it. The word and spirit. The word and spirit circling the globe, spreading rapidly, going viral, viral, viral. Amen. That's God's plan. That's God's desire. But it's not going to happen without prayer. And I pointed out yesterday, and I'll say it again, Paul said, pray for us. Us. He's talking about him and his ministry team. Pray for us that the Word would speed ahead and be glorified. And we talked about the importance just a little bit. I think I opened a lot of cans of worms yesterday, trying to close up some of them or at least contain them. We have worms everywhere. But we talked about the importance of the ministry offices in the spread that we want to fuel. Now, you can get in a ditch on one side of the road or a ditch on the other side of the road. And it's important to understand this. Everything that happens in our time is not going to just be through the ministry offices. For the main reason that the main purpose of the ministry offices is to train the saints for the work of ministry. Amen. And it's so you can do what you thought it was their job to do. I used to tell folk when I pastored up in Orchard Park, I'd tell people, my job is to train you to do what you thought it was my job to do. Yeah, including being a carrier of the flow of God. Including being a carrier of the miraculous. You know, the work of the ministry includes sweeping and vacuuming. But that's not all of. That's not all that God wants to use us for. And so he wants to use. But then the ditch on the other side of the road is that, well, we don't need. We don't need the ministry offices. I know of a church that up, really that was up in the area where we pastored in New York here. And this was a large church for the region up there. And in this church, they were so thrilled to tell me. When I was talking to this pastor, said, we don't have any services, corporate services anymore. I said, say what? He said, we've gone all to small groups he said, I just oversee the small groups and then once a month we will have a service with everybody. It's the greatest thing. It's what God's doing today. And so it's all body led ministry. Well, you're never going to talk somebody out of, you know, what they're so thrilled about. So I didn't try to do that. Wasn't my place to do that wasn't my. He doesn't answer to me. He was just a, just a fellow pastor. And I said, well, that's interesting because it was interesting. And, and I mean, you know, I was just getting started myself pastoring, but I knew that that doesn't add up to everything I've seen in the Word. And well, you know, the proof, proof of the pudding is in the. Some things you just got to wait and see how they pan out. And I can tell you today how that will pan out. I don't need to wait to see a lot of things. Now I can just tell you, save your energy, it's not going to work. But how many are shocked to hear that that church isn't there anymore? I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of people in this church. I don't think thousands, but many hundreds of people in this church and it's not there. Well, how come without a shepherd you're scattered, you faint, you give out, you give up. And so because they didn't have that, the people fainted, huh? If you faint, how far do you get? No further. Wherever you drop, there you lay. So that's the ditch on the other side of the road that it's all going to be. No, it's going to be a combination. But at the forefront in leadership are going to be ministers walking in the fullness of their place, walking in the full potential of their offices. Glory to God. Now those offices, as I said yesterday, need to be supplied through prayer. Now I'm talking about this and going over it again. Number one, because it's on my heart, but number two, because there needs to be an awareness among the body of Christ of just what it is standing up there, These ministry gifts. And I think over the years that's been a subject of particular interest to me and I actually have a book on it called the Office. And it's just, I see the importance of it and especially for the further we go, the importance of ministers being in the right place and being in the fullness of their place and praise the Lord. So we need to have a recognition of just what that is and the fact that the office is bigger than the individual occupying it. The office is bigger than the person, what I stand in and what I walk in. I'm not exalting me, but I'm just saying, just as an example, I do have a five fold place. I mean you can judge it. Maybe you think I don't. I feel like I do. And I didn't give it to me. I didn't give it to me. I did say yes to it and. But I'm aware that my place is bigger than me, me in the flesh, me in my humanity. And it is an awesome thing. As a matter of fact, the office and the gift on my life often amazes me because I can be aware that that wasn't me. That wasn't me. I tried to find out what to do ahead of time. I wished I knew what to happen and what to preach ahead of time. And I get. And at the end of the service I'm like, oh my Lord, that was my office. You know, it's interesting, when I was first starting in ministry, I'd prepare for a sermon. I prepare for 10 or 12 hours. I mean just hours and hours and hours preparing and praying and. And that's right. Cause it was necessary during that phase, if I can say it this way, during that phase of my ministry that was necessary preparation for me to minister. And when you're able to spend time preparing, you need to spend time preparing. And God would help and God would bless and we'd minister and the people would be blessed and things like that. But in more recent years, it's funny, my wife can, because we have a church we lead in Castle Rock, Colorado where we live. My wife really leads it. And what I mean by that is probably 9 out of 10 Sunday mornings she's the one preaching. But there are occasions where she'll come to me on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning even, and she'll say, listen, I've been in my heart for X number of hours on this. Said if I have anything for the service, I can't tell it. Do you? And it might be Sunday morning or Saturday night. And I'll just check my heart. I'll say, well, yeah, actually. And if it's a Saturday night, sometimes, if it's late, sometimes I feel like, you know what if I stay up now and really meditate on this, I'll kind of get into it too much and the juice will start flowing and I'll be up all night. I said, yeah, don't worry about it, I'll take the service. I'll deal with it in the morning. And with sometimes, honest to God, 10 minutes preparation. Now, I don't mean I'm living carnal the whole time. You can't. That doesn't. That doesn't work. I don't mean I'm watching Saturday Night Live and then what? I don't even know what's on after that. I don't mean I'm staying up doing all that kind of stuff, but I mean, with very little preparation. And sometimes one verse, I'll come in and minister and I'll think to myself afterwards, you know, that was better than when I would. That was better. Well, why. My office has expanded. My office has developed over the years. Amen. So these ministry offices now, preachers, I'm not saying don't prepare anymore or you can try it, see what happens, experiment. I mean, not on me, hopefully. I'm just saying you learn to live in a flow of the things of God. Amen. And if you'll just always follow him, you'll always be ready. Amen. Now, there are some times where God starts dealing with me a day or two ahead of time. About that. There's something. And I wonder, well, okay, I don't have a meeting scheduled in the next little bit here. I wonder what that's for. And then I might get asked to minister at our church. And I'm like, well, yeah, already been there, already on it. You know what I mean? Sometimes. And then sometimes the other happens. But anyhow, these offices are bigger than the individual that occupies them. And, and what makes it an office? You understand, when we talk about an office, we're not talking about a room with a door like, I like. I go, no, what is. What is that room? That's a place where business is conducted. Right? The boardroom or the. Or the. The CEO's office on the top floor. What. What is that? What is that office represent? It represents a place and a place of great importance. Yeah. So for the minister, the office is the anointing. The office is the anointing. And the anointing for that place, that's not something that's constantly on or constantly available. It's potentially there, meaning it's a place I regularly occupy or another minister would regularly occupy. But how a minister, How a person's humanity fits into this supernatural thing on any given Sunday or Wednesday or whatever day. Well, there's variables there. That's not a constant thing. And how that person functions in that office is up to some of those variables, and they're controllable. Meaning if we'll do the right things, we can get the maximum result. Now, I have a friend. We'll call his name, Pastor Michael. And if you attend his church here, it's okay if I share about you? I know, not asking. If you attend his church here or any other place he ministers you, you'll probably hear him say there's three parts to every servant. How many? You've heard him say there's three parts. Okay, that's a few of you. How many have never heard him say there's three parts to every service? Okay. Well, you've said it, haven't. Am I quoting you right so far? There's three parts to every service. There's God's part, there's the preacher's part, and then there's the part of those who are attending. Did I get it close? How many know God's part's the most? The one we should have the most confidence in. Because, I mean, all God has to do is not show. Everybody would know. It just be trouble. But he is the most dependable, the most reliable, and you can almost cut his part off the equation as a given that God's going to do what God does. And then the preacher's part, well, the preacher has to make preparation to occupy his place. Yes. Or at least 10 minutes in my case. No, I'm just joking. No, you're making preparation all along. Like I said, if you're obeying God all along, you'll be ready. You'll be ready. But. And then. But then the congregation has to do their part. And the deception is that my part is to show up twice a month. And I don't know why I'm preaching this today. I don't know why I'm saying these things, but when the twice a monthers show up, I'm being careful how I say as people are watching. Like I said before, these aren't my meetings. But when the twice a monthers show up, sometimes you wish they wouldn't because their lack of preparation can actually hinder the meeting and keep somebody else from receiving what they need to receive. You need to testify, Sister. Come on. No, no, no. It's not just a matter that you show up. It's how you show up. Amen. And there's. See, you have a part, all of us have a part in supplying and bringing a spiritual supply. One of the big ways you do that is through prayer. You have a part in supplying the place that this person has to step into. And if we'll learn that responsibility Your personal ministry will become so much more fulfilling when you. Because there will be times when the minister is ministering and you'll sense, I've been to this part in their ministry already, in the Spirit. I've been there already. I've helped supply this. And you'll get the benefit of it, but you'll also be so fulfilled. Well, this is not just a pastor and their congregation thing, although that's a huge application of it. But what about those who occupy places and voices in the body of Christ? I told you where we are geographically in relation to North America. I mean, we could pull from all the way down to, you know, up into Canada and all the way around Chicago and the D.C. metro area and all that huge population center, all of doing right here. What about voices that come here that can speak and reach, and not just with the voice, but with the intensity of the power and the flow that set the place. These things have to be supplied. Have to be supplied. Amen. And so we find ourselves just almost all the time when we're having our times of prayer, we find ourselves calling and making, not just making mention, but endeavoring to make available the power and the supply necessary for those who stand in places of ministry. Amen. As we're praying, we just continually find ourselves going there because it's necessary. It's necessary. Amen. You know, whether a minister fulfills his. Fulfills all that God had ordained for them, it's not just up to them. Amen. Whether you're, whether you're, you know. And sometimes ministers miss it. Sometimes ministers make mistakes. Sometimes ministers yield to things they shouldn't and say things they shouldn't. Ask me how I know about that. And you ought not to always put the mistake on them. Amen. And so one of the great desires. Matter of fact, do you want to turn to a verse that shows you this? Looking at the time, First Corinthians 14. I started late because we were talking about other things. Glory, glory, everybody. Right. In the first verse, 1 Corinthians 14, it says, Follow after charity. That's talking about the agape, the love of God and desire, spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. Well, the word gifts actually is not present in the original language. It means this desire the things of the Spirit. And really other translations say earnestly desire. Earnestly desire. How many have ever earnestly desired a cup of coffee, huh? Or you earnestly desired a particular food? What do you get when you're earnestly desiring that? What do we call it? It's A craving. Well, this word, spiritual gifts, the word spiritual, it means the things of the Spirit. And if we had time, which we don't this morning, but I could prove to you out of First Corinthians, chapter 12, that the things of the Spirit that they're talking about include what we call the gifts of the Spirit, include what we would call different flows or demonstrations of God's power. Like we saw. Well, not last night. The night before, I think, was when Pastor Luckett administered some different flows. And there were demonstrations, manifestations. Right. Other wild things you see in church. That's part of it. And the third part of it is the ministry offices. The ministry offices. When it's talking about earnestly desiring the things of the Spirit. Did you know that? It's not just talking about earnestly desiring visible fire to appear above the building, although we're okay with that. And it's not just talking about the fire falling in the building, though I'm okay with that. Hopefully most are. And it's not just talking about the gifts of the Spirit manifesting, but when it's talking about earnestly desiring the things of the Spirit, it's talking about earnestly desiring the pastor, it's talking about earnestly desiring the evangelist. Don't look at me that way. I told you, I can flat prove it to you beyond a shadow of a doubt. Just don't have that kind of time today. When we get more excited. Come on. We get more excited about the gift sometimes than we do the pastor standing in the fullness of their place. But if you saw the full manifestation of the minister in their place, you'd get plenty excited about it. You'd get plenty excited about it. We need the. We need the teacher in full manifestation. Full manifestation. We need the prophet. I told you yesterday about Brother Hagin when he would stand in that office, but he. He had that office potentially all the time. It was his place, as it were, but he wasn't full time standing in the fullness of it. Now, it's not always God's plan. There's certain times he was just teaching a lesson. Amen. But there was other times, particularly in his road meetings, that he was to stand in that place. And I'll tell you, it took prayer to supply that place. It took. I can tell you from experience, it took much prayer. The place he stood in was so grand, it was so big, he could say something. And in 15 minutes, it would be around the country. Before Internet, before cell phones, before texting, people would Go. Would leave this. Go out in the hall in the service and grab a phone and pick up the phone and start calling people. I promise you, I've seen it. Did you hear what Brother Hagin said? That's how big his place was. That place needed to be supplied. Prophets today, those who stand genuinely, genuinely now, now you have three quarters of the body of Christ that says there is no such thing today. Well, they're mistaken. They're mistaken because God gave these fivefold offices until, huh, until the body of Christ reaches maturity. Ephesians, chapter four. You tell me we're all there yet. Then we'll start talking about whether these offices exist right now. We ain't there yet, huh? Until. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry. He didn't say. And he gave some apostle. He gave, you know, some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. And the pastors and teachers will remain for the perfecting of the saints. No, it didn't say that. Didn't say that. You need them all. And we need the prophet standing in the fullness of his or her place. Because if. If that's not the case, there are things that need to be spoken that won't be spoken because they can't just come up with it. And there are things that need to be ministered supernaturally that won't be ministered because you can't just fabricate these things and you can't always schedule them out. And that means that there's people whose needs will go unmet unless these offices are supplied. And you're not going to supply what you don't desire. You're not going to supply what you're never thinking about. You're not going to pray towards what you think is insignificant. And I'll tell you, we need those who occupy the place of an apostle standing in the fullness of their place. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. I'm thankful for all the. Are you thankful for these offices? Huh? You thankful for these places of ministry? Glory to God. Well, we got to almost none of what I thought we'd do today. Why don't you come up with us? Don't know if you have anything to say or we just want to pray. Hallelujah.
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A
I'll just remind us of what Dr. Dufresne would say frequently as. As people that stand in a ministry office, we must be careful not to be enamored or start to look into other offices and start to desire and float. And I mean, I've made a habit of studying Past revivals, past moves. And. And you wonder sometimes why certain ministers. I wonder. I do try to study out why certain ones, their ministry ended so quickly.
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B
Because many, many did.
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A
Many.
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B
An inordinate number of them in times past.
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A
Yeah. And so often it was because someone who. I'm thinking of one in the 50s who stood amazingly in the office of a prophet, and yet he saw his heart was right. He saw that the body of Christ was so deficient in teaching, in their knowledge of the Word, and instead of. And he had ministers around him that were wonderful teachers. And instead of helping those teachers get into their place, he decided he'd take it upon himself. He was enamored with that. It was the right heart. But he wandered into the wrong office. And it ended his ministry. It ended his life. And the body of Christ was cut off from what he was supposed to be bringing. What would have helped is if the people around him, instead of venerating him, would have been supplying the correct office with their prayer.
- [54:54]
B
Yeah.
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A
Praise the Lord.
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B
Well, that's a subject now, isn't it? Another subject of longevity. Dr. Dufresne has such great material, you could probably still find a lot of it. Do they still have the book on longevity in ministry? Yeah. Precious, precious thing. There's things you can do to shorten your ministry and shorten your life or lengthen it. But anyhow, let's spend a little bit of time today if we can. Hope this was okay. You know, there's some things you preach that. That just make you want to run around the building, but there's other things you preach that are a little more sobering. But if you take them and you do them, you do a lot more running around the building afterwards because of where you were at. And glory to God. And so, yeah, God has us ministered some of these things because of where we are and what he's already released for us to walk in. Amen. We're not waiting for him to pull the boat, to pull the boa back. Nah. Glory to God. We're all. We're already riding the arrow, and we just want to make sure we stay straight on it. Hello. Can we pray today? Let's start if you want. Let's start standing up. If you want to sit down, you're welcome to sit down. And if you want to kneel at your seat or whatever, whatever you can do that. Praise the Lord. Doesn't hurt to change your position anyhow, does it? Get some blood flowing where blood needs to flow. But let's tap into God's flow. Glory to God. I want you to pray this after me, Father. God, we are so grateful for all you've given. Thank you, Master, for our place of authority, for the dominion you've given us, for enlightening our eyes in these meetings as to how best to walk in that. Thank you, Father, also for your power and your flow and that which will cause the word of the Lord to speed ahead. Thank you for the gifts of the Spirit, the different ways you manifest, for those revelation, gifts of the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, discerning of spirit, for those vocal gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, for prophecy and those other gifts, the power, gifts, faith, working of miracles, gifts of healings. Thank you, Father, for the fullness of all of those. Thank you, Father, for the other ways that your spirit moves and manifests. For demonstrations of the spirit and of power, physical manifestations, other manifestations. If it's you, we want it. If it's you, we desire it. But we thank you also, Father, for the ministry offices through whom many of these things flow. Thank you, Father, for the apostle in the full measure of his place. Thank you for the prophet's ministry in its fullness. Thank you for the evangelists roaming with fire in his belly. Thank you for the pastors giving the people the spiritual food they need. Thank you, Master, for the teacher skillfully unfolding the word of righteousness, bringing revelation. We thank you for all of these in the fullness of their place. Now, Father, we've prayed in our known language for just a little bit. But for those things that go beyond our understanding, we still can bring a supply by yielding to the greater one, yielding to his utterance, receiving his help. And we do that right now. Yes, yes, yes, yes, now thank you, thank you for the rain of the spirit. Yes, yes. Thank you for the fullness of the outpouring yeah oh, my, my, my yes. For the rising of the water for the rising of the waters. Yes, yes, yes oh my yeah, yeah, yeah oh, yeah oh yeah oh, yeah oh, yeah oh yeah. The morose in the red oh, the morose in the red the morose in the round. Yeah for the month for the rain for the rain, for the rain yeah, yeah oh my oh my oh my oh my oh my, my, my yes, yes, yes, yes. Gina, paulo. Gina rapolokis machina singer. Enjoy the retainer Rejoicing, Rejoice. Oh, yes, sir. Yes, sir yes, sir in the political in the political arena. In the political arena. Ha ha ha ha. Shifts and change, Shift and change Shift and change. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Oh, my, my, my, my. Raising up the raising up. Yeah. The enemy's plans are sidetracked Sidetracked God's plans so mightily grew the word and prevailed God's plan, God's choice Prevail Prevail, prevail, Prevail. Oh, my, my. Yeah. The right ones, right ones, Right ones, right ones, right ones, right voice. Right ones, right voice, right ones.
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A
And callings. For the angelic activity. Oh.
- [67:45]
B
Oh, oh.
- [67:46]
A
Great, great, great angelic activity. Arena. Thank you.
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B
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Brain. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, glory, glory, glory. Yes. Glory, glory, glory. Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. We receive. We receive. We receive. I know. We turn the corner. We've turned the corner. We've turned the corner. Yeah. We turned the corner. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Yes. Yes. Yes. My, my, my. Yes. Greater. Greater places. Greater places. Greater places. Greater place. Greater. Greater utterance. Greater utterance. Greater utterance. Greater utterance. Yes. Greater. Greater flow. Yeah. Oh, my, my, my, my. Oh, my, my, my, my. Greater. Greater. Greater. Thank you. Thank you for the greater. Thank you, thank you. We're grateful. We're grateful. We're grateful. We're grateful. We're grateful. Oh, we're grateful. We're grateful. Oh, my, my, my. Yes. Yes. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That nothing you said goes unfulfilled thank you. That nothing you've given goes unpossessed. Of all you've given, we lose nothing. Of all you've given, we lose nothing. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you, thank you for second chances and more chances and more chances. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your best. Thank you for your best. Your best. Your best. Your best. Your. Your best. Ah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my, my, my, my, my, my, my. Thank you, thank you for the fullness, for the fullness, for the fullness, for your best. For your best. Your best. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I. I see. I see. I see it. I see that. I see that. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, my mama. Yeah. Yes, sir. We're doing our we're doing. We're doing the best. We're doing the best. We know. Ha. And with your help. With your help. We'll do it. We'll do it. We'll do it. We'll do it. Ah. And we thank you. Oh, we thank you for the cloud of witnesses. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, and. And even they bring. A supply. They bring. I don't understand it all, really, but I see. I see them. I see them. Yes. Yeah. I. I see them. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for the. My, My, my. Oh. Oh, oh. Ghana.
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A
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