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The Seven Companions of Faith, Part Five | 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. Turn with me, if you would. This morning, we're going to go to Second Peter, Chapter one. Second Peter, chapter one. We have been there the last couple of services, and we've decided. I've decided to take some real time and spend time on each of these things that we find in this passage, because it's so important to the life of faith. Paul, in his writings, he wrote, and he says, I long to see you face to face that I might perfect what's lacking in your faith. And so there's so many things connected to our life of faith. The just shall live by faith. Faith is not just a message, it's a life. It's the way we live. And so we want to make sure that we are knowledgeable and skillful with everything that's connected to this life of faith that pleases God. Amen. And so many times people think of the one word faith that it lives alone. But faith, faith doesn't live alone. If you're going to understand the flow of faith, you have to address every single arena of your life. If you're going to be a faith person, you have to address your marriage. If you're going to be a faith person, you have to address your finances. If you're gonna be a faith person, you have to address your love walk. If you're gonna be a faith person, you have to address what you're doing with your mouth. If you're gonna be a faith person, you have to have a discipline over your thought life. Faith is connected and tied to every single aspect of our lives because the just shall live by faith. Amen. And so we don't want you to think that this word faith is a singular thing. It is not just a singular flow or singular force. It is a par to so many other things. And so we want to see what is written in Second Peter chapter one and starting in verse five. And Peter says this by the Holy Ghost, he says, beside this giving all diligence, add to your faith. Notice this. We have to have the right components, the right ingredients added with our faith for our faith to work. Faith is part of the recipe of success, but it's not the only ingredient in the recipe of success. There are other things that faith has that has to be mixed with faith for faith to have its pleasing flow and to have results. Amen. And so Peter said, besides this giving all diligence, add to your faith and Then he gives us seven things that must be added to our faith. Add to your faith, number one, virtue. And to virtue, knowledge. And to knowledge, temperance. And to temperance, patience. And to patience, godliness. And to godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, if faith be in you and abound, and these other seven attributes characteristics of the Christian's life, if they be in you and they abound, that means that they're getting movement. That means that you're giving them a place in your life. They're not just in you, but they're taking actions. They're moving in your day to day life. If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That means you're gonna get results. That's what it means. That you won't pray and not get your answer. That's unfruitful. That means you won't believe for something and not show up. That's unfruitful. But he said, if you add these seven things to your faith, you'll be fruitful. You'll get results every time. And that's what we're after. We're not okay for a hit and miss situation. Every prayer getting answered, every time we release our faith, we get an answer. That's what we need to be pressing for. That every time we get results, and if we don't get a result, we check up and say, wait a minute, I'm not okay with not getting what I'm believing. For I'm not okay with not receiving the answer that I've been praying about. Amen. Hallelujah. Find out why. Verse 9. But he that lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. That means if you're not living this way, you're going back to the old way you were living. If you're not yielding to these seven things, you're you're going back to the old way of life. Amen. And he says, if you're not going to live in the direction of these seven things added to your faith, the only thing left is the old way you used to live. Don't forget, God delivered you from the old way so you could live in line with these things that he listed here. Verse 10. Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Notice this, you have to add some diligence on your part. It's not just all up to God to dump something on you. It's diligently yielding and drawing on what he has put in us. Notice this last phrase of verse 10. For if you do these things. What things? If you will add these seven things to your life of faith. He says, this is what's going to happen. You will never fall. Think of it. You'll never miss it again. You'll never go the wrong direction again. You'll never put your life in a direction that isn't in line with God's plan for your life. If you do these things, you will live on course. You will live with your target in view. You will live right in line with what God's plan is for your life isn't that important to us. So notice this. He says the first thing that we're to add to our faith, the next word right up next to that faith, giving all diligence. Add to your faith virtue. We looked at this in the past services. That word virtue means moral excellence. And we quoted this that Jesus, Hebrews chapter one, verse nine tells us that Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness above his brethren because he loved righteousness. He loved what was right. He loved what was clean. He loved what was pure. And it says. And he hated iniquity. Anything that was against God, anything that was unlike God, anything that was in opposition to the flow of God, he hated it. But he loved everything that was in the flow of God. This is how to live the best life. This is how to live a moral life. Love what is right and hate what isn't right. You don't hate people, but you hate things that aren't right. You hate lifestyles that aren't right. How come people would say, well, I'm trying to get free from this habit, or I'm trying to get free from this addiction. I can't get free from it. Why not? You haven't decided to hate it yet. I'm not living that way anymore. That's what you do. You get up and say, not anymore. I don't love that anymore. I don't enjoy that anymore. I don't find pleasure in that anymore. I. I love what is right. I love what is clean. And let me tell you, if you're born again, the righteousness of God is in you. Therefore you have righteousness in you. To love. Love that flow, yield to that flow. Letting what is right, letting what is in line with the plan of God, the mind of God, the word of God, allowing That to be what flows in your life. And know this, it doesn't matter how called you are, it doesn't matter how anointed you may be. Anointing and a calling to the five fold ministry will never substitute for moral excellence. No one is dismissed from a life of moral excellence if they're going to have a strong faith life. If your faith is going to work, we have to live clean. I said if our faith is going to work, we have to live clean. Because we've talked about that faith is a bridge. And these seven things are seven supports under that bridge of faith. And if one of these supports is missing, our faith isn't going to work. Right. Because the faith bridge will be compromised. And moral excellence is one of the supports under the faith bridge. If that support is missing, faith will not work as it ought to because faith is no substitute for the lack of moral excellence. Amen. So we talked about that in previous services. If you missed that, you need to go back and view those because it's so important for us to get a clear understanding on that. But he said we add number one, we add virtue or moral excellence to our faith. The next thing that we add to our faith is knowledge. How many of you know faith is not compatible with ignorance? Faith doesn't run around with ignorance. We have to gain knowledge. Now see, ignorance means that you're untaught, unlearned about something. It doesn't mean you're unable to learn. Amen. So if someone says you're ignorant about something, they're not telling you you're unable to learn, they're saying you don't have understanding about this certain thing. And it's the same thing is that if we ignorant, if we're untaught in certain things concerning the word of God, that our faith is going to be hindered because faith is not compatible with ignorance. Amen. When ignorant of what the Word says, we can't just double up on our faith and substitute it for the lack of knowledge. Amen. Faith only works where the will of God is known. You have to know what the word of God says pertaining to a certain situation before you can have faith for it. Amen. Faith works and is a companion to knowledge. It is not able to function with ignorance. So if your faith isn't working in some arena, maybe you just need to gain more knowledge. People will say this, I'm doing everything I know to do and it's not working. I'm believing everything I know to believe. I'm believing as much as I can. I'm believing as far as I know, I'm doing everything I know and it's not working. That's because you're ignorant. There's some ignorance, you say, well, I'm not completely ignorant. No. But all of us can still grow getting rid of ignorance in our life. Amen. You might have a measure of knowledge, but that doesn't mean you have full knowledge. Amen. If you're doing everything you know to do and you're still not getting results, that means you just need to know more. So what's that mean? Gain more knowledge. Gain more knowledge. Where do you get that knowledge? From the Word. From sitting under those who teach the Word. From reading good word books, things that teach the Word, listening to sermons on the Word. But you can't just sit at home and pray and keep praying and praying and praying when you're sitting in a seat of lack of knowledge. Amen. Gain knowledge. If you're doing everything you know to do and it's not working, it's just because you don't know enough yet. And every one of us are always having to get rid of ignorance out of our lives. Amen. No one is completely ignorant, free. Amen. We're always pushing ignorance out of our life, pushing ignorance out. Why? How? By gaining knowledge. The devil is killing, counting on ignorance to work his plan. Know this, the devil cannot work through knowledge he can work through. He only works through ignorance. As long as you're ignorant, he has access to something. God does not work through ignorance. There is nothing of ignorance in him. He is all knowledge. He is all wisdom. And that's the only way he can operate. He cannot find ignorance and go, oh, I'll work there. He finds someone who has knowledge of what he says, and now he knows there I have access to work. Amen. And so we have to make sure that we gain knowledge of God's will. Not just gain knowledge of the way you were raised, not just have more knowledge of what you were taught in church. If what you were taught in church was in line with the Word, hold to it. But so much of the time, we're just taught what men think. We were just raised to think a certain way after whoever fed us spiritually, whoever fed us. And we just take on their way of thinking. But the thing is, is that as we come into the light of the Word, it gets rid of what men taught and it helps us to know what God really says about things. Amen. So to gain knowledge, remember Peter said, we have to add knowledge to faith to gain Knowledge means to renew the mind. That's really what it's talking about. To renew the mind means to take on God's way of thinking. Romans chapter 12 and verse 2. The word says, be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed. How? By the renewing of the mind. The renewing of the mind means the that you take any. Anytime you have a thought that is in opposition to the word, you cast that thought down and you pick up the thoughts of the word. It means you take on God's way of thinking, you take on what God's definitions are. Amen. And that is found in the word. So if we want our faith to work, we can't just believe any old way. We can't just think any old way. We have to have word for thoughts to have our faith to work. So we have to make sure that we're renewing our mind. And can I tell you this, you never on this earth will arrive at a completely renewed mind. For the rest of your life, you will be accomplishing this divine profession of renewing your mind. Amen. Always having to renew your mind. And just when you think got it renewed, all of a sudden, some wrong way, some ignorant thought comes back and tries to trouble your life. And you've got to keep that mind in place all the time. You've got to keep it in place. I love what dad Hagin said. Dad Hagin said this. Your mind doesn't stay renewed any more than your hair stays combed. So just like every day, hopefully, you get up and put your hair in place. Please tell me you do. Every day you get up, you put your hair in place. Every day you have to put your mind back in place. You have to keep renewing the mind, making sure that you're thinking right. The devil can never work through someone who thinks right. He can only work through those who think wrong. Amen. That's why the devil wants to keep people ignorant or unknowledgeable about things. Because he can only work through ignorance. He can only work where people don't think right. When you think right, the Devil's done pushing you around. When you think right, the Devil is done pushing your life around. Amen. A worried thought is not thinking right. A fearful thought is not thinking right. Now see, the Devil will bring those kind of thoughts to us. But it's our job to reject them and recognize that that's ignorance working. That's not knowledge working. Amen. Worry is a flow of ignorance. Because when you have knowledge of what God will do for you and how he takes of care care of you and how he'll provide for you. You don't get worried. And notice this. Every time the devil attacks some arena of your life, whether it's financially, whether it's with your business, whether it's with your body, whether it's with your marriage, every time he attacks some arena of your life, it's always connected. He's always going to also have an attack on your mind at the same time. Every attack comes with an attack on the mind. Why? Because if you think wrong, then that. Then you're going to. You're going to struggle with what he's attacking you with. But if you think right, anything he attacks you with is not a struggle to you because you think right about it. So he's going to oppose your mind. I said he's going to oppose your mind. He's going to offer you wrong thoughts. He's going to offer you thoughts of fear, thoughts of worry, thoughts against your spirit spouse, thoughts against your boss thoughts, thoughts against your pastor, thoughts against fellow believers. He's going to offer you those thoughts. Why? Because he's trying to attack some arena of your life. Amen. But the renewed mind catches wrong thinking. It recognizes that when thoughts try to trouble you about a loved one, about your husband or your wife, you go, wait a minute. Wait a minute. This isn't just me. This isn't just me the devil's trying to attack somewhere. No, no, no. See, the renewed mind recognizes thoughts that are not from God. So it says, don't. In Romans, chapter 12, verse 2, it says, Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. When you got born again, you got a brand new spirit. The life of God came in on the inside of you. But I want you to know, if we don't renew our minds, our lives will look like we're unsaved. It's the renewed mind that gives you a transformed life. That means it transforms the way you respond. It transforms the way you handle situations. The renewing of the mind will transform your life. So once you get born again, it's not enough to be born again. It's enough to get you to heaven, enough to get the life of God in you. But to get your life transformed, your mind has to be renewed. And this is what Peter said. You're going to have to have knowledge. And you're going to have to add that knowledge to your faith or your faith won't work right. Faith will not work with wrong thinking. Run Wrong thinking out. And so getting the word in is how we run that out. It's wonderful. And it's a blessing for somebody to lay hands on you. Let's say if a minister or a pastor calls for a ministry line and you go up and they lay hands on you, and the anointing can come on you, I don't diminish that absolutely. But once you go sit back down, your life didn't get transformed in that ministry line. Your life got blessed, something got blessed. You might have even received an impartation. But it's only the renewing of the mind that transforms the life. A ministry line will never transform you. It will never do for you what the Word will do for your life. Amen. Thank God for all of it. We need it all. But don't just think because you're born again and you got the faith of God in you that everything's just going to work automatically. We have to add knowledge. We have to get rid of ignorance and wrong thinking. That means we have to get rid of even religious thinking. Dad Hagin talked about the time that he was spending, just time before God. And he says, I was taking everything that was in my spirit and laying it out before the Lord. He said, I was just laying out everything. You know, it's right to do an examination of things. Not to condemn yourself with, but to evaluate. And he said, I was just laying out everything. And he said one day, he says, as I'm praying, he said, something like an old shoe came up out of my spirit. He says, you know how if you go fishing and there's been an old shoe that's fallen into the water and it's been down there for, you know, several years, and you pull it up and how dirty it would look? And he said, when I was praying, something like that came up out of my spirit. And he says, I looked at it and go, oh, my goodness, what is that? And he said, God spoke to him and said, that is your Baptist tradition. See, he was raised Baptist. What do they mean by Baptist tradition? Well, there's nothing wrong tradition as long as it's right. But you can just be taught something out of tradition, you see, because different denominations, we can all have our own traditions. It's not just one denomination. We can all have our own traditions. And then he says, I go praying a little bit further. And he said, something else comes up. And he said, it looks worse than that shoe did. And he says, I go, what is that? And God said, that's your full Gospel traditions. Amen what's that mean? We can take on ways of thinking and believing and allow things in us that do not resemble what the Word has said. And he said he was just allowing the Holy Ghost to shine a spotlight on things that were in him. What was it? Wrong ways of thinking, wrong ways of believing. Amen. Now if we want our faith to work, we've got to get those wrong ways out. Amen. I'm so grateful. I was raised in a denominational church. Precious people. We weren't taught the Bible though. We weren't even taught salvation. The good thing is they didn't teach us wrong. They just didn't teach much. So I was just grateful at least wrong teaching didn't get in me. The one scripture that was taught often was this. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do you know you can live a good long time on that one? That one? If you can get that one, you can live a good long time on that one. But we weren't taught anything wrongfully about the Word simply because we weren't taught the Word. But some people sat for years under wrong teaching of the Word, thinking that the Word said this, thinking that the Word said that. I remember one kind of comical, but this one lady, she worked for my husband and I for a period of time in the home. She would come and she'd help us in the home. And she was a precious lady. And she told different stories. You know, she was born again, precious lady. But she said you could tell she didn't have much knowledge of the Word. And I said to her one day, I said, you do such a great job. Thank you for helping us. And she said, well, just like the Bible say, a little soap and water go a long way. Well, I loved her, but the Bible didn't say a little soap and water go a long way. But you know what? We might laugh at that. But there are just other things that are laughable too that we just thought was just exactly what God said. And if you want your faith to work perfectly, we have to get rid of wrong thinking, wrong believing, things that would oppose the flow of what the Word says in our lives. Amen. Then Peter in writing, he said, you need to add to your faith moral excellence. Add to your faith knowledge. And the third thing he said to add to your faith is this thing of temperance. Temperance is self possession, control and restraint. We have to have temperance developed in every single arena of our lives. Can I tell you what temperance means? Temperance involves having balance in every single arena of life. Faith Will not substitute for the lack of balance. This is the one thing that I sort of desire in my life is God help me stay in the middle of the road. The middle of the road is where the blessings of God flow the richest. I don't want to get in a ditch on this side and I don't want to get in a ditch on that side. Help me stay in the middle of the road. How many of you know, as a parent, one of your number one jobs with your children is get them out of the ditches of life, get them in the road. Middle of the road. You can have one child that's real high strung. Well, that'll work for you in certain situations, but you're going to have to bring it back to the middle of the road. Bring it down out of the rafters. Just bring it down out of the rafters. We don't need you living up in the rafters. Come on down and live with the rest of us here. Then you have other people who it's hard to get them going. You got to come out of the ditch on this other side. All of this is about temperance. All of this is about, about bringing balance, self restraint and control so that things don't run off with your life. Without proper restraint on your life, your life will go quickly in the wrong direction. Very quickly in the wrong direction. Amen. And so faith will not substitute for the lack of balance. Now we have to make sure that we have temperance and several arenas with temperance with our bodies, temperance with our mouths. Oh, that's a good one right there, isn't it? And then temperance with our minds, isn't that right that we have some restraint and self control. What about this temperance? Temperance and how we treat our bodies? Yeah, temperance and how treat the body. So there's so much of this that temperance is a part of. It's not just in one arena, it affects every arena. Now Paul said this. I keep my body under. What's he mean? I keep my body under control. What's he keeping under the control of? Of his spirit. I keep my body under lest after having preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. One translation said, set aside is unusable without our. Without having restraint and control in our lives. We don't lose value with God, we lose usability with God. I don't care who you are, you are of great value to God. But I don't want to just be of great value. I want to be of great value, great use to God. Amen. So temperance is one of the things that we have to make sure that we have in our lives so that we can be of great use to God. Amen. Praise the Lord. 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 Dufresne Ministries.