← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
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Hi, I'm Grant Dufresne, and welcome to Dufresne Ministries podcast channel. We believe that as you listen to this message, your faith will be stirred and you will be encouraged in whatever you are believing God for today. Stay tuned at the end of this message to find out more information about our ministry.
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We were in St. Petersburg, Russia, and I had preached one night. That building holds around 900 or so, and they pack it out every service, morning, night. And my husband had been there. He had been preaching. Some other ministers had been preaching. And it was my night to preach. And after I finished my sermon, there was just like when Jesus comes into a service, it's like a stillness. There's a reverence. Everything went silent in that auditorium that night. And Ed said as we were walking out, he said, jesus came in the service. We're going back downstairs where they have a hospitality room for the ministers. And I don't remember how many of us there were probably about. Do you remember? Maybe 12 or something like that. And one of the ministers that was there with us as we were walking down those stairs, he comes back into the minister's room and he's weeping profusely. And he said as we were coming down the stairs, right at the landing, Jesus was there. And he said, jesus was weeping. And he said this to this minister, this is the reason. Now, when he was referring to. This is the reason, he was referring to what I preached on that night. This is the reason why my people are not receiving what's been provided for them. That Jesus was weeping shows his longing that people receive what's been provided. It's not us trying to coerce something out of him. He is longing for us to receive what has been provided. But he said that night, this is the reason my people are not receiving what's been provided for them. Do you want to know what I preached on the sin of worry? The sin of worry. Go with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 6 in verse 25. And when you make this statement, the sin of worry. People never threw worry into the category of sin. But worry is a sin. And you go, why is worry a sin? Because the word says not to do it. Anything the word says not to do, and we do. It's called disobedience. What is disobedience? A sin. So when we look at this, Matthew 6. Did I tell you Matthew 6? Okay. Jesus was speaking in verse 25, therefore I say unto you, look at this. Take no thought. Take no thought for your life. I've taught for four Years in here, Several years back. For four years I taught on the mind. Why is that? Because the mind is Satan's battleground. That's where he launches attacks. If we're not skillful regarding what we do with our mind, with our thought life, then he will gain the upper hand through our minds because our spirits are born again. You never can get a devil in your spirit as a Christian. Not possible. Why? Because the Holy Ghost is in you. The Holy Ghost and the devil do not dwell together. A Christian cannot have a demon in their spirit. Can a Christian get a demon in their body? Yes. What is that? The devil can attach itself to it, cause all kinds of sickness, all kinds of disease. Now, is every sickness and every disease a devil? No. But sometimes he will try to attach himself to people's bodies. People will have operations. Sometimes he will cause some kind of condition in the body. People will go and have a part of the body that's been attacked. Let's say they operate it and remove a part of the body. People say, well, you can't cut out a demon because a demon is a spirit, so you can't cut it out of a body, which is true. But once you cut out the part he's attached to, he's got nothing else to attach to. You see what I'm saying? So can a Christian get a demon in their body? Sure, but we don't have to. We can stand our ground and say, you're not doing that to my body. How does he get a hold. An entrance into people's bodies is because they don't take their stand against him. They open the door to him. Amen. Remember what it said, Paul? That he was anointed, that special, special works would be done. Handkerchiefs that were on his body could be taken to somebody that was sick. And it says it would heal the sick. And it would. If there was a presence of an evil spirit, it would drive it out. Now he's talking about people that are saved. He's not talking about people that are lost. So that shows that an evil spirit can attach itself to someone's body. Now, that's not what I'm preaching on tonight, but I wanted to say that, to say the next thing. Can a Christian get a demon in their mind? Yeah. How can they get a demon in their mind? Listening to him. Listening, listening. That's what I mean to say, is that the mind is Satan's battleground. You listen to him long enough, he'll get a grip on your mind and your mind will feel like it's not your mind. You have to guard your mind. It's up to you to do something with your mind. Jesus did something with your spirit. He gave us a new one. But it's up to us to do something with our minds and our bodies. Amen. The more skillful you are at disciplining the thought life and taking charge of your thoughts, the better your life is going to be. The more unskilled and undisciplined you are toward your thoughts and toward your mind. The devil's going to beat your brains out and you can live hell on earth. You say, how can I live hell on earth belonging to God if we're not doing what the Word says? No, we can't have the life God intended for us to have because the life he intended for us to have comes by us doing, doing what the Word says. We can't do something different than what the Word says and have peace in our minds. Can't do it. That's why Jesus said, take no thought. Notice this. Thoughts are offered. You don't have to take them just because they're offered. How do you take them? By turning them over in your mind over and over by speaking those thoughts. Amen. To be spiritual, you have to guard your thought life and not be permissive towards troubling thoughts. When the devil speaks something to your mind that didn't originate with you, this is the way the devil will work. If you were standing, talking with somebody and they had maybe some cigarettes on them, and without you knowing, they dropped them in your pocket and then they turn around and accuse you. You got cigarettes in your pocket, but they're the one that dropped it in there. That's what the devil does with your thought life. He will present a thought and drop it in, drop it around your head to see if you go now, see somebody who knew those weren't their cigarettes. That's not my cigarettes. I know that's in my pocket, but those aren't mine. Somebody put them there. We would recognize that, wouldn't we? We wouldn't assume, oh my gosh, I must be your smoker. That would be absurd for us to think, oh my gosh, those cigarettes were in my pocket. Oh my gosh, I didn't know I was a smoker. Well, I better go smoke. No, that would be absurd for us to assume that that's ours. The devil will endeavor to drop wrong thoughts into your mind. But so many people go, oh my gosh, when they hear, oh my gosh, I must not be going to have enough money Pay my mortgage. Why? Because the devil said it. And people hear that. Why don't you recognize that's not my thought. I'm not letting that thought drop in my mind. Don't turn it over. In your thought life, how do you stop thoughts from gaining entrance that the devil presents to you? He'll present thoughts to your mind. He suggests something. And the thing is, most people don't recognize. The devil does not want recognition. He just wants movement. He wants entrance. He wants to be able to get you to act on the thoughts he presents. But you need to learn to recognize any thought that doesn't bring you peace, joy, that doesn't encourage you. It didn't come from God. Any thought that troubles you, puts you down, makes you afraid, worries you. Not only are authorized, resist it, you're instructed to resist it. The word says resist. The devil doesn't say, sit and listen to him and go to bed with him. Laying those thoughts on your head, on your pillow at night and going to bed, oh, my gosh. Where am I going to get. Oh, my gosh. You better stop that. Stop that. You're authorized to stop that. You are not the devil's victim, that he can punch on anytime he wants. But if you don't watch what his movement is and forbid it, he'll take advantage of you. Amen. So Jesus said, take no thought for your life. What's that mean? Don't worry about anything in your life. That's what he means. Don't worry about anything in your life. Don't worry about anything. When God said to me, two years before my husband went home to be with the Lord, he said to me, all I want you doing is practicing peace. Did he mean I wasn't to read the Bible? I wasn't to pray? No, he meant the emphasis for you at this season in your life. Because God will emphasize something. He will have something for you to emphasize in your life, won't he? Yes. He's not telling you reject it or disregard everything else he's saying. Emphasize this because this is your. This is the artillery for what you're going to face. So he said, all I want you doing is practicing peace. I knew this. What he was instructing me. Pay attention to every thought and every thought that doesn't lead to peace. Kick it out, forbid it. Take no thought for your life. Anything about your life. But, Pastor, you don't understand. How big and important doesn't matter. Jesus said, take no thought for your life. Notice he says, take no thought. He didn't say that. The thought wouldn't be offered, he said, when it's off, basically, he's saying this. When thoughts of worry are offered, you don't take them. How do you take them through taking them into your mind? Through turning them over, turning it over, turning it over, turning it over and then talking about it, speaking it to somebody. Sometimes we have learned not to talk, doubt, fear, but we haven't learned to not turn it over. Just because you're not saying it doesn't mean you're not turning it over. Dad Hagin has taught us and our other faith teachers have taught us the importance of not saying the wrong thing. But sometimes people are good at not saying the wrong thing, but they're not good at not taking the wrong thought. If someone stands at your door and knocks on your front door, and repeatedly they knocked. Just because they knock longer doesn't mean they're more authorized to get in, right? It doesn't matter. If they just knock three times on your door and you never open it and they walk off, then that's because you didn't open it. What if they stand there for 30 minutes and knock? You still don't have to open. What if they stand there half the day and knock? What if they come every day for an hour, for two weeks and knock on that door? You're still authorized to keep the door closed. You don't have to open the door. That's what Jesus is saying. Don't open the door. Even when the devil presents and knocks on your head, don't open the door to it. How do you not open the door? Don't turn it over in your thought life. Don't repeat it. Don't take it into your consideration and calculation. Answer it and say, not opening the door to you. That's not my thought. Not taking it. If you don't do that, you're going to end up with a troubled mind. And then you're going to say, God, do something. He did do something. He told you what not to do. As a pastor, I cannot get the devil to leave you alone. Can't get him to leave me alone. Leave anybody alone. My job as a pastor is tell you what to do when he shows up. If you're waiting for the devil to leave you alone so you can be peaceful, you're failing. You don't have the skill you need. You understand that devil's going to show up. You learn to be skillful in the face of his presence and be untroubled by it. Just untroubled. Now that's what ticks him off royally when he can't get you troubled. If you're troubled, it's because something of you is believing what he's suggesting. If you're a bit worried, just a little bit, that's all he needs is a bit. That's all he needs. I was in my great room at my house, and all of a sudden I'm in the great room, and I go, I feel a breeze. Well, in all honesty, you can stand by any of my doors and feel a breeze. Not after the house is renovated, you won't. You can go in the bathroom and your hair will blow a little bit from the back. So I'll be honest about that. But aside from that gentle breeze that can be felt by my doors, I'm in the great room and I feel an unusually strong draft. I'm at one end of my great room. My great room's, what, about 30ft long? So I walk down the other end to the other side. I walked down in my dining room, walk into the kitchen, and the door in the kitchen is just open a little bit. I could feel it all the way to the other end, several rooms away. The devil doesn't need a big entrance. Your life will feel a little bit of opening, a little bit of worry, a little bit of entertaining. And you'll feel the effect of it in many arenas, many arenas, many rooms of your life. So Jesus tells us by saying to you, take no thought for your life. Then he goes on and he gets very specific and he says, take no thought for your life what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is the life not more than meat, and the body more than raiment. Okay, you say okay. So he's talking about Pastor Nancy. He's talking about, don't worry about what you're going to drink. Don't worry about what you're going to eat. Don't worry about your clothes. That's all he's talking about. Okay, let's clean that up for you. He's not just referring to what you eat, what you drink and what you put on. The thing you do. Most common every day is drink, eat, and wear clothes, right? That is the routine and the smallest thing, the least important thing every day of what you do. Everybody does it. Everybody does it. If he's saying to the most routine, small thing of your life, which is eating and drinking and putting on clothes, and if I tell him you're not to worry about those least important things, that means Everything that's important, all the way down to the least important. Don't worry about your life. All the way down to what you would drink, what you would eat, the clothes you put on. If he doesn't want you worrying about if you're going to have your proper soda, your preferred soda. He certainly doesn't want you to worry about if you're going to have your mortgage. So when he says, take no thought for your life down to what you're going to eat, drink or put on, to the least of those things. Those things are the cheapest part of your life, right? If you don't do what he says, he can't keep you from being troubled. He can't keep you from being troubled. He can only help you by telling you what to do. If you won't do it, he doesn't have plan B for you. Because Plan A works. Just do this. It works. When he told me, all I want you doing is practicing peace, what I did, I paid attention to every thought. Every thought, every thought, every thought. Now listen to this. You'll never be spiritual until you pay attention to every thought. The devil is counting on you not paying attention so he can get in unobserved. Pay attention to every thought. What are you thinking on when you're getting dressed? What are you thinking on when you're driving your car? You better pay attention to every thought and say, if it didn't come from God, I'm not taking it. And I'm not talking about a scripture. I'm talking about a thought that's in line with the word. That's right, Pastor. Amen. Sitting there rehearsing. Bless God. That person I work with, they gave me an ugly look. I'm going to straighten them out today. Yesterday I saw them looking at me. You better stop that business. Take control of that immature thinking, petty stuff. Playing out scenarios in your mind. I tell you what. If they say this to me today because they've said stuff in the past. If they say this, I'm going to say this. And then if they say that, I'm going to say that you know exactly what I'm talking about. Living out scenarios. Then when you arrive, you're already mad and nobody said a word to you because you have already fantasized and built up a whole scenario. Why your mind is undisciplined. That is the action of an undisciplined mind. People are wanting to blame the devil for their troubled minds. It's because you're undisciplined in your thought. Life. You must discipline your thought life. Undisciplined children are. Because the parents didn't pay attention to everything they were doing. You can't hit 40% of what they're doing and think that you're going to have disciplined children. You got to pay attention to everything. Everything. Every day. Every day. Everything they do, everywhere they go, what they say, how they treat people. And once you relax, your children go off the wrong direction. It's the same thing with your thought life. Once you relax your watch on your thoughts, it'll go off the wrong direction. Why? Because that's what natural thinking does to hold that mind in check. You got to pay attention all the time. All the time. Pay attention to what you're thinking about when you're going to sleep at night. Pay attention to what you start out. Wait when you. As soon as your eyes open up, what you thinking about? You better pay attention to what you're allowing yourself to join in on. Co workers at lunch time. And what. Who you talking about? What you talking about? About your boss. They don't pay me enough. That's an uncontrolled thought life. It's not a money issue. It's an uncontrolled thought life. Amen. If it's going to be. If that thought won't lead you to peace, if that thought won't lead you to joy, if that thought won't lead you to thinking right towards someone, you better get rid of it. You better forbid it in your thought life. Praise the Lord. Because of the sin of worry, people aren't supplied for financially. You can give tithes, you can give offerings, which is right. But then go home and worry about money. That's the open drain in a bathtub. Everything that's poured in will drain right out. Worry is an open drain that things that God has through life just leak out through. Can I tell you why people worry? Fear. Worry is an expression of fear. It is a manifestation of fear. Understand that even if you didn't have a fearful feeling with that thought, you don't have to have a fearful feeling. Sometimes fear strikes like a fiery dart. Sometimes it's a subtle suggestion. Just slip in under the radar. Amen. Well, stand with me to your feet. Father, we're so grateful for your word. I don't know about you, but this stuff thrills me. This stuff thrills me to know I don't have to have a troubled mind. Yes, troubling thoughts can come. But now I know what to do not taking them. What's the first thing you do when troubling thoughts come, answer them. Say, no, you don't. That's not my thought. And then you say what the word says. Amen. Hallelujah. Worried prayers don't work just because people pray. Just because you worry under a spiritual guise of prayer doesn't mean it's prayer. Worried prayers don't work. You got to get all the worry. Cast it over, Father. I cast my care over on you. Yes, this is a problem. Yes, this is something that needs resolving in my life. Yes, this needs fixing, but I can't fix it. So I'm going to put it in your care and let you fix it. And then you'll give me back the solution. You'll give it back to me in fixed form. Amen. Hallelujah. Aren't you glad to know that you don't have to do it? You don't have to fix everything. You just get it in his hands. Amen. Well, Pastor, I tried. And I wake up the next morning, there it is again. Then give it back. Give it every. Nope. Not taking that. I left that with him. Devil, I'm not taking it back. I left it with him. He's working on it. He's working on it. He's working on it. Well, I need an answer. He'll let me know what I need to know. He'll let me know what I need to know. When he's working on it, he'll tell me my part, but I can't worry and know my part. Have you ever noticed when you're worrying, you can't hear God? You ever notice that when you're worrying, you can't hear? Yeah. Amen. You got to be in faith to hear, not worry. Faith hears, not fear. Fear doesn't hear. That's why people panic when they're fearful, because they know they can't hear. They can't hear what God's saying. Hallelujah. We're faith people. Amen. I have a calm, peaceful, disciplined mind. I pay attention. Amen.
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