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The Seven Companions of Faith, Part Six | 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. Let me read again. I want to read again because we want to. Those who are joining us, we want to give a recap real quickly. We're reading in Second Peter, chapter one and verse five, it says, giving all diligence, add to your faith. So things have to be added to your faith for your faith to work right? Add to your faith virtue. When virtue is simply this. Moral excellence. Add to virtue knowledge. Add to knowledge temperance. Add to temperance, patience. And to patience, godliness. And to godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, charity. So, as we said, we have to add the moral excellence to our faith, because faith is no substitute for moral excellence. The next thing we've already talked about is adding knowledge to it. Now we're talking about temperance that we have to add temperance. Temperance means we stay balanced, we stay in the middle of the road. Everyone is born with certain bends in their personalities, right? Some people are real high strung, some people are real low key. You can't just say, well, that's just the way I'm born, and leave it at that. You can't just dismiss yourself because of certain temperaments that you have. I'm talking about just in your natural makeup. Because the word is a leveler. The word brings balance to everything. And so as we sit under the word, that which is that which needs to be reined in can be brought into balance. That which needs to be brought up can be brought into balance. That which we maybe are lax in or we struggle with. Every single one of us have weaknesses that we have to deal with. But if we will be temperate, if we will apply the word, our weaknesses don't become weak spots. They don't become an access place for the enemy to gain entrance into our life, that we should fortify those things in our lives that try to act as weak spots. And so as we become temperate, as we put self control and restraint, that it brings us to the middle of the road. The middle of the road is the safe place. Now, at certain times, I understand this. Sometimes you have to get in a ditch over here to get somebody else that's in a ditch over here out. For example, I have Deneen, of course, she's our administrator, but she's been head of the ministry of Helps here for years. She is so thrilled about the Ministry of Helps. I have had people say, and I don't know if they've ever told her, just say she's too excessive about it. They would imply she's in a ditch. No, she's not in a ditch. She has to be so excited to pull people who have no interest, pull them out of their ditch of. Not interest. Of lack of interest. Of disinterest. She has to, with her enthusiasm, make up for their lack of it. Yes, ma'. Am. That's the truth. Amen. Because now my dad being a farmer, every year, if he would take us down to look at his farms, it was so funny, because he never wanted to look at his farms from a distance. He always wanted to look at them up close. And so he would just drive right down the middle of the field sometimes to look at something. Well, so many of the times it'd be wet and he didn't realize it was so wet. And we'd get so not. It wasn't unusual for us to get stuck. And so he would sometimes drive down the bar ditch. You know, he'd just drive right down the ditch wherever he could to get close. Well, when he would get into a ditch over here and get stuck, he'd have to get his tractor over on this side of the ditch. He couldn't pull the one out of the ditch just by being in the middle of the road. He had to get in the other ditch on the other side to get enough leverage to pull that truck out of the ditch on that side. Amen. Well, so there are times that you might. Your life might seem like it's in a ditch, but sometimes God will have you to be, if I could say this, very enthusiastic about something because he's trying to get somebody else out of a ditch. That is balance. That is balance. Amen. But just talk now. That's referring to other people, but referring to yourself. You can't live in the ditch all the time. You're gonna have to bring your life to the middle of the road. Amen. To keep balance in every single arena of life. Now, Paul said in his writing, he said, I keep under my body. So he's talking about his body has to be kept under control lest after having preached to others. Just because you can preach it doesn't mean you're living it. Just because you know it doesn't mean you're living it. He said, I have to keep my body under less after I preach to others. See, he knows it, he understands it, and he's telling others. But just being able to preach it to others doesn't mean that you're living that way. So he says, I keep my body under Less after I've told other people about it. I myself should be set aside as unusable. So just because we get excited, that won't ever substitute for living it right. Notice this wonderful, this apostle of great faith. Notice what he said his body still wanted to do wrong. Just because you know God. Just because God uses you in a mighty way doesn't mean your body's going to quit wanting to do wrong. You have to put restraint on that. You have to put discipline on that. You have to say, no, you don't. You have to put your foot to the neck of your flesh. Because if your. If you let your body run off with your life, it will ruin your life. Your body will lead your life completely out of the will of God if it's left without temperance. Faith won't make up for somebody who's allowed their body just to run off with their life. Faith is no substitute for that. So we have to make sure that we keep our bodies under. Amen. That means you don't. As you were young, your parents would help keep your body under. When you were being raised at home and your body was getting a little bit too much. I know with Morgan and Steven, when they deal with the kids, they will say, your body is too out of control. You bring it down right now. Bring it down. See, they were there. They're there to check. But there comes a time when you don't live with mom and Daddy, and you're going to have to. You're going to have to be sober about. I'm not going to let my body do this anymore. I'm not putting up with what. What I allowed myself to do with my body when I was 16 and 18 and even 12. I'm not letting my body do that anymore. And you don't do that by willpower. You do it by the word. You have the help of the Holy Ghost and the word to keep your body under. So Paul said, I keep my body under. What did he keep it under? He kept it under the dominion of his spirit. He had his spirit taking the lead. His spirit was in charge. He didn't let his body be in charge. His spirit was going to be in charge. And that's part of temperance, is that you make sure that the right feature of your life is in charge. And that should be your spirit, man. Not your mind, not your body, not your feelings, not your emotions. If you let the wrong thing in the lead of your life, it'll lead your life off you. Your spirit is the only thing qualified to lead Your life in the right direction because it has the life of God in. Has the ability of God in it. Amen. So this mighty man of God, although his body wanted to do wrong, he kept it under. He kept it under the dominion of his spirit. Romans 8:13 says this. Through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body. What's that mean by the Spirit? You keep the body under, not just by willpower. What's this mean? That you have divine help. One of the things, if you will take time to pray in the Holy Ghost, what will happen? It will fortify your spirit and build up your spirit so that it takes the lead in your life. So that you say yes with your spirit instead of yes with your body. And your spirit will be fortified to keep your body in check. Because the body wants to do wrong by praying in tongues. By spending time every day praying in tongues, it keeps your body from running off with your life. Amen. My husband told about years ago, you've heard the testimony of when he was born again. He was working on the construction job, and a fellow there that worked with him every day invited him to church. Go to church. Go to church. For a year and a half, he invited him to go to church. And Ed would use some very colorful ways to tell him no. And so finally, of course, he did go with him and got born again. And then of course, entered the ministry. But Ed said to this guy after he got. He said, you know when you were inviting me to church all those times? And he says, I noticed that you went to the outhouse a lot there at the construction site. He said, is something wrong with you physically? He said, no. He said, but you would talk so harsh to me that I'd have to go in the bathroom in there and start praying in tongues to keep from killing you. What was he doing? He learned something. He had learned that as you pray in the spirit, it keeps your body under. When your body wants to do wrong, take off praying in the Holy Ghost. It'll cause your spirit to rise up and take the lead and keep dominion over what your body wants to do. So when we talk about this temperance flow, we're not talking about you doing something by willpower. We're talking about by divine power that you keep the body under. Amen. We have hands, divine help, keeping the body under. If you're trying to break bad habits of the flesh, take time to pray every day in the spirit. It will help you say no to those situations. You say, well, I tried that once. No, keep trying. It just Keep doing it, keep doing it, keep doing it. And there will come a day when that desire of the flesh will fall slave to that spirit. Amen. Now the next thing, as we said, your body, you have to keep your body under. But another thing that you have to keep under is your mouth. We know that your mouth is part of your body, but let's treat it a little differently. Let's treat it as separate. That means we can't say anything we want, anytime we want and think our faith is going to work. Well, I'm a faith person. That means you better do something with your mouth. Amen. We can't just talk any way we want toward our spouse, toward fellow believers, toward relatives, towards co workers, towards our boss. Talk about somebody behind their back. Remember when Jesus was with his disciples in a certain location, Word came to him and said. He said, lazarus, whom thou lovest, is sick. And Jesus made this statement. He said, this is unto the glory of God, meaning this God's going to get glory out of this. What the devil meant to ruin, God's going to end up. It's going to end up being a place of glorifying God. But it said, but he said, he shall live and not die. You know he will not. This is unto God's glory. And he stayed there a few more days and finally came to where Lazarus was. And the family was not happy with him because they thought he showed up too late. So he went to the tomb and of course spoke for Lazarus to come out. And Lazarus came forth, remember? But when he stood at Lazarus tomb, Jesus said, father, I thank you that you hear me notice the next phrase and that you hear me always. He didn't just hear him when he was standing in front of the tomb praying. He heard him whenever he received word about Lazarus. And Jesus said, this sickness is not unto death, but unto the glory of God. Notice this. Your faith doesn't. It doesn't just matter what you say at the time you pray a faith prayer. It matters what you said when you were on the job. Because God doesn't just hear you when you're praying. He hears you when you're talking to others. That's what I'm trying to say. God doesn't just hear you when you're directing your speech toward him. He also hears when you're directing your speech towards your spouse, towards other believers, towards co workers. He heard all that. Can I tell you this? Your faith heard it too. So it's going to be difficult for your faith to work when you just say anything you want, anytime you want, to anybody you want, and then go to God's presence and then try to just have words of faith. See the mouth? The Bible says you can't have bitter and pure waters flowing out of the same spring. What's that mean? If we want our faith to work, we can't speak words that would injure our faith. Before you say that, before you say something, think of this. How much do I need my faith? I've said this to our congregation for you years. Before you get into the fight with that spouse, ask yourself, do you have enough money to fund that? You have enough money to fund that fight. And I tell you, I don't care how much money you have, you don't have enough money to fund strife. Before you say unlovely words, do you have enough that. Do you not have any needs to where you're not going to need your faith? No, you're going to need your faith. So make sure you don't say words that are going to injure you faith. You're going to need your faith. Amen. Well, I just got to say my peace. I just got to say my mind. Why don't you say your faith? Amen. Because I tell you what, if we're going to be faith people, that means we're going to have to put a watch over our mouths. And we have divine help with this too. The Holy Ghost will check us. He will help us. But you know what? You can have something on the inside of you scratching you, saying, don't say that, don't say that from the inside of you. You knew you shouldn't have gotten into that argument. You knew you shouldn't have said your little piece. You knew you shouldn't have gotten that last word on the inside of you. What was that? That was the Holy Ghost, the love of God trying to restrain you. But even though he's in there trying to restrain us, we still have to yield to him because he can try to restrain. But if we just step over him and we're just going to say it anyway, just going to do it anyway, we're rejecting the help that heaven's trying to offer us. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. There's a situation that dad Hagin talked about. Well, actually we were in the camp meeting when it happened. Week long camp meeting. And at the end of the week he was in the last service getting up, ready to dismiss the congregation. And we've got our Bibles, we've got our stuff, you know, we're getting ready to walk out he's having us to stand and dismiss us. And all of a sudden he begins to prophesy. And he said, there's three men in here that he said, you won't be with us this time next year, he said, because you're going to die prematurely. Now, was God sentencing that to someone? No, he's just letting them know, the way you're going, the way you're going, you're going to end up. Not. You're going to end up shortening your life. And then he followed it up with this. He said, it's because of the way you've treated your wife. It matters how you treat one another. You can't just go on and keep on just saying you after year, time after time. Anything you want and think that it's going to. It's going to be overlooked. And so by the time we came back next year, dad Hagin. The exact same thing happened. We were in the last service of that camp meeting, the last few moments of the service, and dad Hagin had us all standing. And we're standing there and he says, as I prophesied last year, that there would be three who wouldn't be with us again this year. He said, they're not. They're in heaven now. And he said, but there's another three. Well, what's he doing? He's letting us know that there is a penalty when we don't have restraint on our mouths. Amen. It'll cost you something. Well, God loves me. Yes, he does love you, but there's still a penalty. And it's not from God, it's from the devil. When we have no restraint on our mouths, it puts us on the Devil's territory. And when we get on the devil's territory, he can attack us. So just know this, that whether or not we have temperance with our mouth will affect our faith life. Amen. The more you want to have faith that pleases God, the more you watch what comes out of your mouth. Amen. Proverbs 13, verse 3. Proverbs 3. 13, verse 3 says this. He that keeps his mouth keeps his life. But he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction. Well, what's that mean? That if you will make sure put a guard over your mouth that you think before you speak. He said, it's going to protect your life. But he said, but if you open. What's that mean? Same thing you want. Just let it. Just let it go. Without restraint. He said this. He said, you'll have destruction. Some people don't realize but because of the way they've talked to others, destruction has showed up in their lives of their own family. Destruction has shown up in their finances. Destruction has shown up with their children because of what they did with their mouth. I tell you what, it's a serious thing. I said it's a serious thing. That's why Peter said, make sure you're adding temperance to this life of faith. Amen. And these things we have to have guard against. Proverbs, chapter 30 and verse 32, the Amplified says this. Proverbs 30, verse 32, the Amplified says this. If you have thought evil, lay your hand upon your mouth. What's that mean? If there's a wrong way of thinking in you, you better make sure it doesn't come out your mouth. Because once it comes out your mouth, it takes you to a whole other arena. It's one thing for it to be in your thought life, it's another thing for you to speak it out. Why? Because words are a force. And there's a penalty with speaking words that isn't with just a thought. Now, don't misunderstand me. Any thought that isn't right, we need to cast it down. But when you allow a wrong thought to leave the thought arena and come into your mouth and move into words, now there's a whole nother arena you moved into. And so he warns us, if you have thought evil, lay your hand upon your mouth. Now, I want to talk to you then about. We have to have temperance with our bodies. We have to have temperance with our mouth. But we have to have temperance with our minds controlling what we let our minds think on. We must discipline our thought lives. God is not going to discipline your thought life for you. He gives you the word will, whereby you are to discipline your thought life. Because what you do with your thought life determines how peaceful you are. It determines how joyful you are. The devil's going to attack the thought life. The mind is Satan's arena. That's the arena he's going to come after. But if you know how to not take a wrong thought, if you know how to bring every thought into captivity to make it to the obedience of Christ, then you know how to keep the door to the devil closed. Amen. One of the greatest things you have to learn is how to control your thought life. Don't just lay in bed and let your mind just think any old thing it wants. Have any old worried thought it wants. Have any old fearful thought it wants. I know. Years ago this gal came. She was part of the church, years ago when we first started the church. Church. And she came to me and she said, pastor Nancy, she said, I'm just so afraid that somebody's going to break into my house. I'm just so afraid. I'm just so afraid. And she kept. She kept coming to me, wanting me to pray for her. And I said, honey, you need to. You need to cast down those thoughts. You need to cast down those thoughts. About a year or so of her saying that to me repeatedly, she came, said, see, I told you somebody broke into my house. And I said, they didn't break any into your house because you were being warned. They broke into your house because you were afraid. You didn't deal and control those thoughts of fear. What you feared came on you because you wouldn't control it. It came on you. God wasn't warning you. You were opening the door to what? The devil. The thought the devil gave you. See, she thought she was being perceptive when she wasn't. She was working with the wrong thought. And see, things happen to people's lives because they don't control their thoughts. And when they don't control their thoughts, they start speaking it. And all the devil needs is wrong words. Your wrong words give him permission. Amen. So she had an uncontrolled mind in that arena, and it showed up. Well, worry is an uncontrolled mind. I said, worry is an uncontrolled mind. Can I tell you this? Bitterness, offense, unforgiveness is an uncontrolled thought life. Well, you know, they hurt my feelings. That's what I said. It's an uncontrolled thought life. Amen. Your feelings follow your thoughts. I said your feelings will follow your thoughts. So don't let your feelings define your thoughts. Amen. Well, I got my feelings hurt. Well, talk to your feelings. Amen. Don't be led by your feelings. You take charge of your feelings because offense. To get offended and to become bitter and have ill will against somebody is an uncontrolled thought life. Well, I have a right. They hurt me. Well, the thing is, Jesus forgave us when we hurt him. I mean, before the foundation of the world, God forgive gave us. If I could say this, he already had a plan for our redemption before the foundation of the world. Jesus paid the price for our sin before we committed it. Amen. So you can't hold anything against anybody. Amen. We have to do what our Father does, and he forgave and we forgive. Why not in our own ability, but his life is in us. To help us do that. Amen. So to hold on to ill will and unforgiveness and wrong thoughts is just an uncontrolled thought life. And to bring things up of the past, to rehearse how somebody treated you. Can I tell you this? Somebody may have treated you bad. I don't make light of it, but can I tell you, somewhere along the line, you've treated somebody else bad and they had to overlook you. No. You might not have done what others have done, but if you've ever. If you. If you're a human on this earth, you've violated somebody at some time and you want forgiveness. Amen. Forgiveness is a renewed mind. You understand that? Unforgiveness is an unrenewed mind. It's an uncontrolled thought life. Now, in James, chapter three and verse two, the amplified says, if anyone does not offend in speech, never says the wrong thing. He is a fully developed character, a perfect man. And the word perfect here doesn't mean without flaw. It means a mature man. Look at this. He's able to control his whole body and curb his entire nature. If you'll control your thought life, you can control your mouth. And if you control your mouth, you'll curb and keep under control of every part of your nature. Amen. Hallelujah. You don't want to allow yourself to just nurse wrong thoughts against somebody. Lay in bed and rehearse, go to the dinner table and talk and rehearse and repeat what somebody did to you. You have to let it go. If you don't, your faith won't work. Remember what Peter said, that we're going to have to add temperance to our faith, and this is part of it, to have a controlled thought life. Now, also temperance toward how we treat our bodies. If we don't handle our bodies right, I've had to make changes with my body. Anybody had to make changes with your body. Amen. And the thing is, is that if we don't. If we don't treat our bodies right, it'll show up and lack of faith. And you can't blame it on lack of faith if the body starts breaking down when you've been treating the body wrong. I remember that one of the things that my husband had to deal with is he just did not rest his body. And there came a time that he was diagnosed with cancer and God told him there's two causes. One of them was that he hadn't obeyed God in the prophet's office. The other one was God said, you're not resting. Rest in your body. Nobody died from overwork. They die from lack of rest. You can work hard as long as you had rest with it. Amen. And so Ed said, okay, I judge myself. I repent of that. And when he did, God said, okay, that cancer will be gone in 30 days. And it was why. But see, he couldn't just keep throwing faith at it. He had to find out, where am I not temperate? Where am I missing? And when he found out where he was missing it and made the change, then his faith worked. But see, he couldn't fail to make the change and have his faith work. He's going to have to make the change and judge himself in that. And then his faith would work. Amen. Faith for healing won't work when you refuse to correct what you're doing wrong. You understand that? If you want healing for your body and you want your faith to work for healing, find out, is there somewhere where I've been mishandling my body? You have to be tempered in that for your faith to work. Amen. Hallelujah. We have to add temperance to our faith. Hallelujah. Well, are you helped this morning? We trust you've enjoyed this message. 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