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The Seven Companions of Faith, Part Seven | 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. We've been teaching along the lines of faith, but we've come from a little bit different angle, because in First Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 10, Paul wrote, and he made this statement night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face. Now notice this. Paul, of course, wrote these wonderful epistles to the church, but he recognized things that I have for you and things that God has for you through me can't come through a letter. I'm going to need to see you in person. That's why it's so important that you have a pastor, because thank God for the Word and it's right to feed and read the Word. We should. It is the word of God. But God puts people in the church that can see your face and help diagnose what. What is needed in your personal life. And so Paul recognized all the letter writing that I do. It will never take the place of me seeing your face. And so he said, I pray exceedingly that we might see your face. That means show up. When the man of God's face is there, he needs to see your face. Praying exceedingly that we might see your face. And why is it that he wanted to see them in person? Because he was interested in what their faith was like. That I might that and might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. How many of you know, we can all have our faith more and more perfected, more and more developed, more and more matured, growing faith. Amen. That we have to become more skillful and developed in our faith. And this is why Paul had the great desire to see them, because the condition of their faith meant everything to him. Why is that? Because it's by faith we conduct business with God. Without faith, we can no longer conduct business with heaven, but with faith, we can conduct business with the throne. Amen. And so he said, I want to see your face. That I might recognize and see the condition of your faith and might add to and. And properly diagnose what it is you need. So we've been talking about the last several services about this passage, because then we got pointed over to Second Peter, chapter one. Second Peter, chapter one. And I won't read the whole passage, but I want to start in verse five. Second Peter, chapter one. In verse five, Peter makes a very important thing. And a divine checklist is what Peter gives us, a divine checklist. And how many times do we see such a thorough divine checklist in the word not, not many like this. That shows the importance of what God is emphasizing. The Holy Spirit was emphasizing through Peter. And he says, besides this verse five, giving all diligence, how many of you know it's going to take some, going to take some application on your part, some effort on your part, giving all diligence, add to your faith. Isn't that something Faith doesn't live alone. The recipe of faith is not a one ingredient recipe. That faith has to have something added to it for it to work effectively and work right. So he says, add to your faith virtue. And we've been studying and looking at this word virtue in this situation and passage means moral excellence. Add to your faith moral excellence. How many of you know if Christians don't live a moral life, they can't just double up on their faith to substitute for the lack of morality, because these things must be added to faith, because faith is no substitute for any of these, any of the things in this list. So he says, add to your faith moral excellence. God is a moral God. And if we're going to have a faith that is working, that faith that receives every time we release it, a faith that works, then we have to make sure that moral excellence is fortified in our life. So it does matter where you go, it does matter what you look at, it does matter your conversations, it does matter what jokes you laugh at, it does matter what you say to other people, it does matter what you let your thought life go on and you say, well, how is my thought life in part of my moral excellence. You know what Jesus said? He said if a man looks upon a woman, to lust upon her in his heart without even committing any act of immorality, just his thoughts are immoral. He's guilty. So a disciplined thought life is part of a moral life. Amen. And notice the first thing that he bumps up in this list, right up to this word faith, is morality. So that shows us how important it is. And one of the things that we liken this to is faith is a bridge. And these seven things in the list are the seven supports under the bridge of faith. If the bridge of faith is compromised, it's not. Your faith is not going to be as effective as it could be. So if one of these seven things that Peter lists for us is missing, then one of the seven supports under the bridge of faith is missing. That bridge is compromised and it will not, it is not guaranteed to work. Amen. And if we're interested in being Faith people, well, it pleases God. Faith is what pleases God. So we are interested in living a faith life. The just shall live by faith. Why? Because the faith life gives us the best life. Amen. And so we are faith people. Then we have to be interested in these other things that must be added to our faith for our faith to be effective. And we have to make sure that these seven supports are firmly in place and fortified under our bridge of faith. Now, let's say this. Haven't you ever seen a bridge that the broader and wider the support, the larger the bridge can be. So the more these seven supports, these seven things that are added to our faith, the, the broader they are, the stronger they are, the more developed they are, then it can support a broader faith flow. Amen. So we don't just want these things present, we want them developed in us. Amen. And so he says, giving all diligence, add to your faith. Notice he's telling us to add, God's not going to add this to our faith. It's up to us to add these things to our faith. So we add to our faith virtue or moral excellence. And then how many of you know? It says. Then we, it says, add to virtue knowledge. How many of you know that God can't bless ignorance. God has no companionship with ignorance. There's nothing of ignorance in heaven. And if we're going to have a strong faith, we have to drive ignorance out of our lives. Ignorance and stupid are two different things. You know, if someone says you're stupid, which your mama taught you not to say that, right? That means you're incapable of learning. But ignorance means you have not been exposed to the knowledge. Or if you have, you did not take that knowledge in. And so the Word tells us God spoke and said, my people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge. Ignorance will destroy you. It will destroy your faith. Because every one of us have a measure of faith. That's how we got saved. We believe something. God gave us the measure of faith or the beginning measure of faith. And when he did, every single one of us have faith. But if we keep ignorance in place and allow it to live with us, that ignorance will eat away at that measure of faith even that God's given us. So for our faith to grow, our knowledge has to grow. For our faith to be safe, our knowledge has to be safe. So he said, add knowledge to your faith. Because faith doesn't live alone. Faith needs knowledge. Amen. And so we have to make sure that we are adding knowledge. How many of you know that when he says add knowledge, he's talking really here about renewing your mind. Take on God's thoughts, take on God's way of thinking. And that's something that for the rest of our lives we have to be renewing our minds. And in verse six, it says, and add to knowledge, temperance. Temperance is this restraint and self control, restraint and self control. How many of you know if you let your body run off with your life, it'll destroy your life. If you don't have restraint and control on your body, on your mind, it will run off with your life and ruin your life. And if we look at this word temperance, to me I also see this thought of balance, that if we're temperate, if we're keeping things in control and keeping things under restraint, we're keeping things in balance. When things get out of balance, our faith gets injured. Amen. I've seen people get out of balance with certain things, and when they do, it starts affecting the way they believe and it affects their faith life. Balance is important. I so appreciate something I heard dad Hagin say. He said, every day of my life I say, lord, help keep me balanced. So many people might pray, God help me have power. But he knew power was with balance. So it's something you need to always prize is the flow of balance. Amen. And so to me, this is part of this word temperance, that there's proper restraint and proper control so that things don't get out of balance. Dad Hagin told us about a story that years ago there was a leading minister who had a powerful anointing, a powerful ministry, a large ministry. If you're not careful, you can become so accustomed to success with God that you don't pay attention to the little foxes. And make sure that just because you maybe know a lot of scriptures can confess things, have a certain level of knowledge and skill. Little foxes still spoil vines. Amen. And this one man who had a leading ministry during the healing revival and marvelous miracles, marvelous healings that took place under his ministry, but he was unrestrained in his diet, had no restraint. Brother Hagin said, if you saw that man eat, he absolutely had no restraint whatsoever. He overindulged month after month, you year after year and became morbidly obese. And the word of the Lord came to Brother Hagin and said, go warn him that if he doesn't judge himself on diet. He said, also warn him that if he doesn't judge himself on how he handles money. See, if you don't handle money right, if you're not above board or honest, it'll take your life out of balance and your faith won't work right. And he said also warn him about walking in love toward his fellow ministers because those who did not have the understanding he had, the doctrines he had or came from different denominations. I came out of a denominational church. Precious people. Precious people. But we weren't taught. Well, that's nothing to attack. You don't attack people who aren't taught what you know. And he would attack people. And God told Dad Hagin, go warn him that if he doesn't judge himself on those three areas, he's going to die prematurely. Brother Hagin said, I did not warn him because he said, when God said that, I said to him, God, don't you know if somebody corrects him, he'll just haul off and hit them. You talk about not walking in love. A leading minister, and you'll be popping people, you know. Brother Hagin was so afraid of this man's response because he could be aggressive. And in that he didn't go warn him. But it was interesting in the back room, Brother Richard said his dad warned him that Oral Roberts went and warned him. And so I want you to see that in those three things, one was how he handled money. Another was how he treated the brethren. Number three was his diet. So evidently, just throwing faith at a bad diet won't work. You understand that just throwing faith at mishandling of finances won't work. Just not walking in love and then throwing faith at it won't work. Why? Because faith has its appropriate place, but so do these other things. And temperance is part of this. And so they were in a. They were in a conference about a year or so after that and a minister's conference, and there came a report that this certain minister was on his deathbed. And they asked the ministers to stand and join in prayer. Praying for this minister, actually, they asked him to come forward. And Brother Hagin said, I came forward. I got up to come forward to go down and pray. And he said, the spirit of God says, don't. He said, I told you, he's going to die. He didn't judge himself in those areas. Now, I've noticed this and I, you know, some things, they aren't spelled out in the word, but life spells it out for you if you pay attention. I'm one that I connect the dots. If you'll connect the dots, you'll learn some things. Amen. If things don't work in your life, go back at the last time they did work. What were you doing when it was working? And what have you stopped doing or what did you start doing that arrived you at not working? I call it connecting the dots. I very often do that. I connect the dots. And by doing that, I can associate things that look like they're unassociated. See, you can do something. You can do something that's wrong or damaging for your life at one point, and the repercussions of that not show up instantly, and it not show up for a year or two, and then people don't make the connection because they're not paying attention to connect the dots. But if we see that something is out of place, we want to put it back in place because our faith will work better. And if that support of temperance is missing under our bridge of faith, our faith isn't going to be. Our faith is going to be compromised. Compromised faith doesn't get results. So temperance in every area, in how you handle yourself physically, how you handle yourself mentally, how you handle yourself spiritually, like you say, well, how can you get intemperate spiritually? Well, for example, years ago, there was a woman that had a position with us, and she was supposed to show up to fulfill a very important role in the ministry. And she didn't feel. She didn't show up that day. And so she was an older woman. And I said, well, go check on her. We called and she wasn't answering. I said, go to her door. They went to her door. They knocked on her door. She didn't answer. And I said, you know, she could have had an injury or something inside the home. She's an older woman. She could be there. Nobody can reach her. So they got the apartment manager to open up her apartment. And she was in there and just wouldn't open the door. And I said, you're expecting this one position. She said, well, God's called me to just pray. And I said, well, if God called everybody to do what he just told you to do, nothing would get done on the earth. See, she got out of balance. She didn't serve anymore. She's just going to pray. See, you get intemperate, you get out of balance. Amen. Prayer is right, but there's a work to do. We are called co laborers. Laborers with God. Amen. And if people aren't laboring in their place, there's going to be things missing in the body of Christ. And when there's something missing in the body of Christ and you caused it, something's going to be missing in Your life, because what you sow, you reap. Amen. So you don't want to get out of balance in any respect of your life. Amen. Temperance helps keep us in the middle of the road. And how many of you know in the middle of the road you're not in danger of falling in a ditch? Amen. So temperance is so important. And that's one of the things that I so prized about dad Hagin and Dr. Sumrall, getting to be around these people. They were so balanced. And you felt safe because when you went to the their services, you knew what you were going to hear. You weren't going to hear something that was way out in left field because of the balance. The temperance that was joined into their spiritual life made them safe. Amen. So temperance is part of this flow that we have to add to our faith. And the lack of balance cannot. You just can't double up on your faith and throw it at the lack of balance. Praise the Lord. Verse 6. Again. So add and to knowledge, add temperance. And to temperance, look at this, Add patience. Oh, praise the Lord, the happy word. If you're not patient, you'll get out in front. You'll get out ahead of God. Being patient. Also, you're not patient unless you're glad to be where you're waiting. You're waiting joyfully. You're preparing joyfully. Do you know that so many of the Bible school students, some of them may be called the fivefold ministry. Do you know that by being in the school, their preparation is also building their patience? Because you have to take time to prepare. And when you have a call on the inside of you, it can stir you. But don't let the stirring remove you from your preparation. You have to be patient long enough to be prepared. And you have to value preparation enough to be patient. God, listen, we were in my bedroom at home. 20. It would be now 20 years ago. How old am I? Yeah, 20 years ago. 20 years ago. And my husband turned to me and said, one day you'll be on TBN. 20. Well, 20 years later, TBN, Russia contacts us. 20 years. What if I had gone out and tried to make it happen? I mean, because I just waited for God to put it together. Just because God said it doesn't mean tomorrow's the day. Can I tell you, God has shown me things from 40 years ago that still have not come to pass. If you're not patient, you'll marry the wrong person. If you're not patient, you'll get out of the path. God Authored. Because you want your plan now. You want to hurry up and have a profession. You want to hurry up and have a career. You want to hurry up and have a wedding ring. Baby, once that wedding ring dirt gets on that, it don't sparkle so good anymore. It's exciting to get that engagement ring early on. But I tell you what, when it's the wrong one, it quits sparkling early. Come on. Patience, Patience, Patience. Deciding that God's plan is worth waiting for. That's faith. God's best is worth waiting for. I don't care how long it takes. I'm not going to settle for second best. I'm not going to. If without patience, you'll buy the wrong home. Without patience, you'll buy the wrong car. Cause you gotta hurry up and have this one. And you ended up getting a lemon because you weren't patient and nobody could tell you anything. If I were you, I wouldn't get that. No, no, no. I'm gonna get it. Well, you just go ahead and pay the bill. Because Jesus doesn't pay what he doesn't author. I'm just saying patience. When you are patient, wait for the flow to come and lift you up into what God said is his plan. When God put together that TBN Russia precious people contacted us. When they did that, everything just fell into place. We didn't have to labor as a staff. I mean, everything. The finances fell into place, the equipment, equipment. Everything that was a vital component to that was already in place. Why? Because patience arrives you at an easy flow. If you're not going to be patient, life will be hard for you. Patience will cause you to live an easy flow life because you wait for God to put it together. You don't get in a rush and step out ahead of God and you don't get behind. Amen. Listen, we've all messed up at this place, at this place of patience. We've all missed it. Let's decide. I'm not going to step outside of patience to try to get my plan to come to pass. I'm going to wait for his plan. Remember this? Jesus was a carpenter for 30 years. He did for 30 years what he was doing not born to do. He was not born to be a carpenter. But patiently. He did what he was not born to do. Because God was building a man. Amen. Get rid of this thing. I gotta be rich by the time I'm 30. Get rid of this thing, of the clock and the calendar and the age. Get rid of of that because it will cheat you. It will cause you to cheat yourself. It will cause you to put a false definition of what success looks like. Somebody may be a millionaire by the time they're 30 and completely out of the will of God. And in God's eyes, it equals total failure. God is not just building a ministry, he's building a life. God's not just building your business or building your home. He's building a man. He's building a woman. Give him that time. Listen, creation only took six days. But you gonna take longer than six days. Amen. You need to value that time. If things that God has said to you about your life hasn't come to pass, it's because he's giving you the privilege of preparation. Preparation is a privilege. Treat it as a privilege, not an inconvenience. Take the time to study. Take the time to prepare. Take the time to pray it out. Amen. Take the time to feed on the word and let God work things in you before he launches you into what you you were born for. Amen. You will only succeed as far as your preparation goes. And so many times people that really have graces and abilities and calls on them from God to do something don't arrive because they lacked preparation. How come they lacked preparation? They lacked patience. Amen. Patience is your friend. I am a slow moving creature. The staff will tell you that I don't make a decision till I know what God says. And in that patience is my safety. Patience keeps you safe in the plan of God. Amen. Praise the Lord. We trust you've enjoyed this message. 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