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The Pipeline Of Faith | 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. Welcome. We're so glad you joined us for today's episode of Jesus the Healer. Why don't you let somebody know we're on? We'd love to have them join us also. Usually I'm ministering from our sanctuary there in California at our home church there, but we thought it would be special to bring you along with us because I came to my ranch in Colorado, and so I have a home here on the ranch, and my son built me an additional cabin that you see right behind me. That's the one you see behind me. And it's a real special place to me. And so we're glad to bring you along with us on this trip for this intimate time with the Word. We've been ministering on many different subjects, but today I want us to minister on this subject of faith. And I will tell you that I love ministering on the subject of faith. I love hearing faith preached. I love studying on faith because faith is my part, faith is man's part, power is God's part. But when I better learn about faith and become more skillful with faith and better learn how to do my part of faith, then it positions me to receive more and cooperate more with God's part, which is power. So. So when my faith is skillful, then I can receive and be blessed by greater measures of power that flow toward me and toward my need. And so I trust that faith is thrilling to you as it is to me. I want you to get your Bibles with me, if you would, and turn to Jude. And there's only one chapter in Jude, and we're going to look there before we read that passage. We have to understand that when we need to receive a miracle, a healing, an answer from God, guidance from God, clarity from God, or any kind of help we need from God. We have to gain knowledge of how he works. And God is a faith God, and the way he works is in response to faith. We receive from God by faith. So we must have faith. We must exercise faith. And then God in His power will always respond to faith. To try to get God to. To meet your need apart from exercising faith is going to mean failure. And so we want to make sure that we get results. So we have to exercise faith. You know, sometimes situations that we face can be difficult on the mind, difficult on the flesh, and sometimes people can fall into more of emotional flow and. And so they'll go to God from that place of their emotions. But although God knows and wants to meet our needs, we can't just get in that emotional arena and expect to have power meet us. We have to be in the faith arena. And so we want to remind you of that, that when you're believing God for something, it's from a place of faith that you can cooperate with the power that God makes available to us. In Jude, in that one chapter in Jude, and I want to look at a portion of verse three, and it says this. Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. So notice the activity of these words in this verse. Earnestly contend for the faith. That does not denote a passive, laid back approach, but an aggressive, an undeniable approach toward faith. Power is God's part, but faith is our part. And faith has to be contended for because there are enemies that oppose faith. And there the flow of the world is against the faith of God. And it's so easy to just step into the flow of the world and just coast with the direction of the world is going. When we're contending for the faith, we're going in an opposite flow of the world, but we're going in God's flow. Not only do we have to contend for faith because there's enemies. The devil is an enemy to faith. Doubt is an enemy to faith. Fear is an enemy. Human reasoning, just getting in that mental arena and reasoning out your answers, that's an enemy to your faith. But the greatest enemy to your faith is ignorance of the Word. When we gain light of what God says, it gets rid of ignorance. It runs ignorance out. The Bible says that my people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge. So ignorance is very costly. Ignorance doesn't mean that someone is unable to learn. Ignorance means that someone is untaught. And so we have to be taught the Word. We can't just approach God on the basis of our feelings of how we feel about God or how we think God ought to be handled and approached. We have to go to the Word and find out and gain knowledge of what the Word says about how to receive from God and how to cooperate with God his power so that we can receive the help that we need, that we need from Him. Faith is an open door through which God enters. Without faith, he has no entrance into our lives. In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8, it says, for by grace are you saved through faith. So notice this, you're saved by grace. You're not saved by faith, you're saved by grace through faith. And the way that it seems to help me grasp this concept and this force of faith is this, is that faith is as a pipeline. So we are saved by grace through the pipeline of faith. So basically, when we have faith in place, God's grace, God's power can flow through that pipeline of faith and meet our needs. And that's how we're saved by, we are saved by grace. It's grace that saved us. But there had to be the faith pipeline in place that that grace could flow through to reach our lives. So faith doesn't save, faith doesn't heal, faith doesn't deliver. God in his power heals, saves and delivers. But faith is the pipeline which gives God's power access to our need. So without the pipeline of faith in place, God has no access in our lives. And that's why faith is so important. It simply gives God access to our life. It gives him permission to reach our life and reach our need. Everything God has for our lives, grace, power, wisdom, healing, provision, anointing it all, is going to reach us through this wonderful conduit or this wonderful pipe of faith. Without the pipeline of faith in place, none of these things that he has for us can reach us, although they belong to us. So it's our job to make sure that our pipeline of faith is in place and in good working order so that it's not damaged, but it's in good working order so that God's power can flow through that pipeline unhindered. Let's look at the edit this way. When you go to bit, when someone goes to have a building built, the contractor will make sure that all the pipes are on site for the construction workers to lay that pipe for the water line. And if a water line is to reach a certain room of that building, the construction workers have to lay pipeline so that room can be so that that room can receive a flow of water. The more rooms you have, the more pipes you're going to need to lay. So the contractor makes sure that that pipeline is supplied. But it's the job of the construction worker to lay the pipe. And if I could say it this way, we are the construction workers of our own faith. We are the ones who have to take the word of God that where all faith issues from. And we have to lay that word in our heart. As we do, we're laying a pipeline of faith in our heart. And what happens is then the power of God, the anointing of God, the grace of God, the ability of God can flow through that pipeline and reach our life and reach our needs. But God is the one. Now think of this. God is the one who supplies the pipeline. I mean, he is the source of faith. His Word is a source of faith. So he supplies the faith pipeline. But we have to lay that pipeline. We're the ones who have to get that word in our heart. We have to feed on it, we have to confess it, and we have to put that word in our mouth. We have to put that word in our thought lives. And we are, so to speak, the construction workers of our own life, laying that wonderful force of faith into our lives. In Romans chapter 12. You can read with me, if you would. In Romans chapter 12, in verse 3, it says, God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Well, what does that mean? It means at the new birth, when someone gets born, God deposits and makes available to them the same measure of faith for every single believer. So everyone starts with the same measure of faith available to them. But then it's up to us to take that beginning measure of faith and cause it to grow, cause it to develop, cause it to be enlarged. How do we do that? Well, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You do not enlarge or grow or develop your faith by praying for faith. God gave you a beginning measure of faith at the new birth. So I will say this. If you're born again, you've got faith in you. The devil will try to make you think you don't have any faith, but you have a beginning measure of faith in you. And so the more that you cause that faith to grow and to be developed and mature, then you'll be able to cooperate with a greater measure of God's power. It's then up to us to make sure that we are the ones who determine the size of our faith. God is not the one who determines the measure of our faith. We are the ones who determine the measure of our faith. That's why some people have a greater measure of faith than others, is because some fed their faith more. They fed on the Word, they heard the Word, they acted on the Word, and as a result, their faith grew. Even though we all start with the same beginning measure of faith, we don't all end up with the same measure of faith. It's based on what we're going to do with the Word. So it's our job to increase our faith. It is not God's job to do that. Now, I will say this. Dad Hagin. Dad Kenneth Hagin was our spiritual father. And he would make this statement. He said, faith works the same in every arena of life, but you must develop faith in every arena of life. So we could say it this way. We must lay the faith pipeline to every arena of our lives. And what I mean is the different arenas regarding health, regarding provision, regarding your marriage, regarding your home life, regarding your business, that you have to develop faith in each of those arenas. Faith works the same in every arena, but you still have to develop faith in each arena. Sometimes you can find in the life of a believer that they easily believe God for healing, but they struggle with believing God for finances. Well, faith works the same for, for finances as it does for healing. But many times people have developed their faith, they have fed their faith more in the arena of healing and not so much in the arena of finances. So they struggle so in. We have to feed every arena of our life and make sure that our faith line is growing toward every arena of our life. As you enlarge your faith pipeline, a greater measure of God's power can flow through it. You think of it this way. If you have a pipe that's only as maybe, maybe it's of an eighth of an inch pipe, then you can only have that measure of power flowing through it. But if you got yourself a two foot pipe, then that met, then that measure of power can flow through that pipe. So that's why it's important that we don't want to be okay with having a small measure of faith. We don't want to be okay with having a small faith pipeline. We want to enlarge it. How do we enlarge it? By feeding on the word, by acting on the word, by confessing the word. Think of it this way. If someone were to build a swimming pool in their backyard and the construction workers get it done, and then they say, okay, all you need to do is fill it up with water. If you walked to your yard and you got your garden hose and you hooked it up and you put the end of that garden hose in the pool, turn on the water, it will eventually fill up that pool. But because a garden hose is small in diameter, it's going to take quite a while for that swimming pool to fill up. Because there's just a small measure of flow that that water can go through. But if you were to go to a store and get hold of a hose that maybe a fireman would use, a water company would use, and you get a big one, it's not going to take long at all for that water hose to fill that to fill that pool up. It's the same way with faith. If you have a small measure of faith, a small pipeline, God's power can still flow through it, but it's going to take longer for your, if I could say that, for your faith level to be full, it's going to take a while. It's going to take longer for things to manifest because you're dealing with a small measure of power. So if you will grow your faith, if I could say it this way, because it allows for a greater measure of power, things will come into manifestation quicker. Greater faith will see quicker manifestations. Smaller faith, we'll see slower manifestations happen. So why do some answers healings provisions take longer to manifest? It depends on the size of your faith pipeline. The larger the pipeline, the greater the degree of power can flow and the quicker things will come into manifestation. Even if not. Remember though, even if all you ever have is the beginning measure of faith that God gives to you at the new birth, you can still receive answers. It will just take longer for things to manifest because you've only got a smaller measure of a pipeline for that faith to flow, for that power to flow through. So how do we enlarge it? As I said, we keep feeding on the word, release our faith every day through confessing, speaking the word and acting on the word. The more you confess the word, and I'm talking about confessing it from your heart, not just confessing it mentally, mental confessions really don't bear much fruit. But it's when you say it from your heart that you're going to get results. So you have to feed on the word and drive that word into your heart so that it becomes a living thing to you, a real thing to you. And when you confess that word from your heart, the larger the pipeline of faith becomes and the more power will begin to flow in your life and toward your need. Now if someone is trying to fill up a pool, let's say they built that pool and they put some hose in there to fill that up. What if somebody walks over and turns off the water? What if they pull that hose out of the pool, that even though there's water lines available, if you turn that flow of water off, things stop being, they stop being watered. And, and so we have to make sure that even though we have a faith pipeline, we keep our faith flowing, we don't turn off the faith. Dad Hagin used to say this. He would say, keep the switch of faith turned on. You can turn your faith off, so to speak, to where you're not speaking faith, you're not even releasing your faith. And even though you have a pipeline, there is faith there. You have to have faith flowing. That faith pipeline, you have to have it. You have to have that faith being released. So turn your faith loose, don't turn it off. Keep the switch of faith turned on. And faith has to be released every day. So every day, just make it a lifestyle. When you're going about your daily life, say, father, I thank you that your power is working in my life, it's working in my family, working in my body, working in my finances. Just as simply as that releases the faith that's in your heart. And so we want to make sure that we're releasing the faith that we have. Another thing is that you want to protect your faith pipeline. If the devil can't keep you from having faith, he would love for you to injure your faith pipeline. And so we have to make sure it's not damaged and it stays in good working order. Let me give you an example. Several years ago, I had bought another home, and I recognized that when I would turn on the kitchen sink faucet, when I would turn on the kitchen faucet, very little amount of water would flow out. So we checked there at the faucet, and there was nothing, nothing hindering it there. And so I called my son to come out and look at it, and he said, mom, he says, this is a bigger problem than I can handle. We're going to have to call a plumber. So he called a plumber, and a plumber took a camera, and he just. It was on a long cable, and he ran that camera on that cable down through my water line. What was he doing? He was checking to see if there was any damage in the pipeline. Well, he got about partway down and he saw that there was a tree that was in the yard, that the roots had invaded that water line. And so roots had grown all up into that line and was all congested up there. And what did it do? It hindered the flow. Now, listen, I still had a pipeline. There was still water flowing, but it was greatly hindered because it was being impeded and damaged by the tree, the tree roots. So this, this plumber said to me, he said, well, we can do one of two things. He says, I can dig up your pipeline and put, you know, move your pipeline to where it avoids the tree, or we can dig up the tree. Because he says, I can clean out the roots, but that tree is stuck still there. And so roots are going to continue to invade that pipeline. Can I tell you what that there are things that will try to damage our pipeline of faith. Just to list a few. What about unforgiveness? What about bitterness? What about offense? What about having ill will towards someone? What about doubt, fear? What about this worry? Wrong thinking, wrong believing. What about this wrong speaking? Speaking wrong will damage your faith pipeline. Disobeying God will damage your faith pipeline. All of these things will damage the faith pipeline. It's not enough to ask for more power. We've got to get rid of what's hindering the flow of power in our lives. And the Holy Ghost is our helper. Sometimes we don't recognize that we're causing our own faith to be damaged by something that we're doing, something that we're saying, something that we're believing in a way that we're acting. And just as I called that plumber out, he said, nancy, he said, I can. I've got a device here that will clean all the roots out. And I'm going to do that today. But he said, if you leave that tree there, that tree is going to continue to invade those that pipeline. And it will come to a point where the pipeline will be completely demolished. It won't even work anymore. Or even I can't even keep cleaning, cleaning it. So I said, my pipeline is more important to me than that tree. Get rid of that tree. I need my water, I need my house watered more than I need that tree. I want you to know you need your faith more than you need your offense. You need your faith more than you need your unforgiveness. You need your faith more than you need winning your way. Get rid of anything. Because sometimes you might just bypass the something temporarily, Just like that plumber that dug those roots out of that pipeline. But it was a temporary fix. If we don't address the real problem, the problem is going to grow back and invade into our faith life again. So we have to guard against these things if they have been present in our life, These things that damage our faith. Get rid of those things. Because it will cost you much. You know, you're going to need your faith ready at a moment's notice. You need your faith working every day. What if you wake up in the middle of the night and all of a sudden your child is ill right in the middle of the night? When you went to bed, they were perfectly fine, but in the middle of the night, there came that attack. You need your faith ready. But what if you've Been harboring offense against a relative or against a boss or something, it's going to impede the degree of power that can flow through your faith pipeline. So you want to not only have a faith pipeline, you want to keep that pipeline healthy, you want to keep it clean, cleaned out. And I will tell you this, that the devil cannot injure your faith pipeline. He doesn't have access to it. He only has access to your mind and your body. And your faith pipeline is not in your mind and your body. Your faith pipeline is really in your spirit. That faith flows out of your spirit. The devil doesn't have access to your spirit, but what he does, he gives you thoughts so that you can put those thoughts and get them running over and turning them over and over in your mind to where they begin to affect the faith in your heart. The devil has no access to your faith. You're the only one who has access to your faith. But the devil wants to offer you things that will injure your faith. Don't take them. When he offers you offense, when he offers you business, bitterness, when he offers you unforgiveness, don't take what he offers because he's trying to get you to injure your faith. And we are the only ones who can protect the health of our faith pipeline. So we're to resist and we're to forbid anything that we recognize that can injure our faith pipeline. Thoughts, words, actions, anything that would damage the faith pipeline. And the word tells us this is the big thing to know about the health of your faith. Faith works by love. So we have to make sure that we're staying in the flow of love. To step out of love is to also step out of faith. To step out of love is to step into sin. And so we have to make sure that we're living faith, not only living faith, but we're living a life of love towards people, towards others. And that will keep our faith line healthy and keep it working. Stay in the flow of love. Nothing is worth you exchanging or losing or hindering your love flow because it will affect the faith flow. You're going to need your faith every single day. I know this, that in a time of war, there are enemies. When they go to attack a country, you know, one of the main things they target, pipelines. They know this, that if they can attack a gas pipeline or a water pipeline, that they can cut off the resources of those they're fighting against. And that's why the enemy offers us all kinds of devices to try to get us to injure our faith pipeline because he knows that the resources of heaven are cut off from flowing into our lives. So the devil has a strategy. He wants to cut off the power of God from flowing in your life. Don't fall prey to that strategy. Keep your faith healthy. Keep yourself walking in love. Guard your love walk. Feed your faith. Amen. And so we want to make sure that we not only are feeding our faith, but we're protecting our faith, guarding our faith because it's so imperative. God is not the one responsible to guard our faith. But I will say this. The Holy Ghost will help us guard our faith. He'll prompt us and say, you need to deal with this or you need to deal with that in your life. He's not putting you down. He's helping your faith life to flourish. He's helping your love walk to flourish because he knows that your faith is so important to conducting the business with heaven. We're just so glad that we get to share about some of these things, teach you about some of these things, because they're so important for every believer to learn. These are foundational things to our faith life and to our fellowship with God. We're so glad you joined us today for Jesus the Healer, and we look forward to seeing you next time. God bless you. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defreshministries.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 Dufresne Ministries.