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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
The Spirit Of Faith, Part One | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
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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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Turn with me this morning, if you would, in your Bibles. Let's go to First Thessalonians, chapter 3, First Thessalonians, chapter three and verse 10. We're going to minister along the lines of faith, because faith is our part. We always need to become more skillful at doing our part. When we do our part, God is always faithful to do his part. Our part is faith. God's part is power. When our faith is in place and operating as it should, it will always be met by power. Always. Our job is not power. Our job is not to make symptoms leave. Our job is not to make money show up. Our job is not to make victory evident. Our job is to release our faith and God's power will make the symptoms leave, cause the money to come, and bring victory into manifestation. Amen. So what we have to do in learning to do our part is learning to quit touching into God's part, or let me say this, trying to touch into God's part. We can never do God's part, but people weaken their faith by touching or trying to touch into God's part. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that this morning. But there in 1st Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 10. Paul was writing to the church in Thessalonica, and he said this, and this is the King James translation. Night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. The amplified translation says, and we continue to pray especially and with most intense earnestness, night and day, that we may see your face and mend and make good whatever may be imperfect and lacking in your faith. So although Paul was writing letters to this church in Thessalonica and other churches that no doubt they were able to benefit from previous letters and other letters that Paul had written. The revelation that was contained in these letters they needed. But Paul recognized, you can't get everything I have for you in a letter. You need me to be present. I need you to be where I'm at, he said. Notice, he said, night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face. Well, if a letter could do it all, why would he need to see their face? And if they could get all they needed through a letter, why would they need to see his face? It's because there are portions of flows and revelations and things that God has for us that can be received through other avenues. But there are some things that can only be received when you're sitting in the presence of a man of God. Amen. And thank God for television. Thank God for, you know, preaching that we see on television, good preaching that we see over the Internet, books that we're able to read, CDs that we're able to listen to, preaching sermons, DVDs where we can watch a minister. But that will never take the place of you being where a man of God knows you can see your face, know that you're part of his church family. You must be part of a local church to receive all that God has for you. You cannot sit at home and have your own private Bible study and think you're going to receive all because Jesus gave gifts to the body. People will say, well, Jesus is all I need. Well, you have to qualify that. Jesus is all you need for your redemption, but for your spiritual growth and development and for your faith to work right and for you to become skillful in the Word, you need a man. And you say that's not quite right for you to say, I need something more than Jesus for your development. You need something more than Jesus who is not in front of you physically talking to you. So what he did, he gave gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to stand in front of us so that our eyes could see them and they could see us and they could say to us what they had learned of the word of God themselves. It is risky for you to try to be a Christian without a pastor. You're going to get into error if you're self taught. Self taught Christians are Christians that have error in their life. Amen. Anyone who is going to excel in any profession is going to have to find somebody who knows more than them and listen to them. That's what your pastor is, someone who is learning God and has an anointing to speak what he has learned about God and the Word into the life of others. Amen. So thank God for other avenues that we can receive teaching and ministry. But they will never take the place of us finding our pastor who has God joined us to. Amen. And the key is you can't just go anywhere to any pastor. You have to find the one that God has anointed to speak into your life. Therefore, you cannot on your own remove yourself from that place because Although there are many pastors in the world, not many are anointed to speak into your life. Amen. That's why you need to protect the place where the man of God can see your face. Never become offended with the man of God. Well, he said something that offended me. Will grow up. Quit being touchy. Even if what he said was inappropriate, when you know their heart is right, you can overlook something that was stuck maybe a bit inappropriately. Amen. What if everybody left every family they were a part of just when they got offended? No one would be married, no one would be living in the same house together. Because offense is offered. And part of being a family is you overlook things that aren't worth anything. Things that don't matter, you overlook them. Don't let the devil get you in offense and cause you to leave the place where God is trying perfect your faith. And that's when a man of God sees your face. Amen. When a man of God sees your face. When your pastor sees your face, then he can diagnose many times by looking at your face. And I'm not talking about something natural. I'm saying the spirit of God will prompt him the moment he sees your face of what your need is. I remember years ago, I was prepared and actually got up in the pulpit on a Sunday morning ready to preach the sermon that I had prepared. And when I looked out, I saw a minister, a woman that had. Was in the full time ministry. And I had. She had talked with me previously and let me know that she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Well, she didn't regularly attend our church. She would visit for special meetings. But this Sunday morning when I looked out, she was sitting there and I saw the worry on her face, I saw the fear on her face of this situation she was facing. So because I was able to see that and diagnose that by the Spirit, what it was I was seeing on her face, I changed my sermon and I preached healing and faith hard and fast. Why? To give her the answers that she needed. If she would shown up, I could not have seen her face. To know what her need was calling for in her life. Amen. A man of God needs to see your face. No preacher, no television minister, no. No. Nobody that has a public ministry can ever replace the ministry of the pastor in your life. And if you try to dispose of the pastoral office in your life, your faith will suffer for it. Because Paul said, I want to see you face to face so that I may perfect what is lacking in your faith. Every one of us needs something more to our faith. Every one of us can have our faith matured. Every one of us needs our faith to have greater development. Amen. And so Paul said, the things that your faith lack, I need to stop, I need to see your face, so that I can properly diagnose by the Spirit what your life needs. Amen. I have had in times past of pastoring. I remember one time in particular, for several weeks around service time, there was a certain congregation member and I would see them before a service and after the service, and every time they would walk past me, the word of the Lord would come to me and tell me what they were going through. Well, I didn't at that moment stop and tell them because it was not an opportune time. But for three weeks that happened. Every time they walked past me, God would let me know the answer that they needed to help them through what they were facing. Why was he doing that? Because that's part of the equipment of the pastoral office. Another office won't have that equipment. An apostle won't have that. Always. A prophet won't have that. Evangelist won't have that. A teacher won't have it like the pastor does, because he will be equipped to help the sheep on a very specific particular way. And so after several weeks of every time that person walked by me, God would deal with me and let me know what they needed. So after several weeks, I had the opportunity to call them in and I gave them the answer. I didn't tell them, I know what your problem is. I just said, there was a time I went through a difficulty and this is what I did to get out of it. What I was doing was telling them my answer, which was really their answer. And they said, pastor, thank you. I've been struggling. I said, yeah, I understand. I've been there. And I said, if you'll do what? I said, this is how you get out of it. Well, a week later, the next time I saw them, see, they've been struggling with this for months. The next time I saw them, that thing was gone off their face. Why? Because I was able to see their face. She could not have gotten at home sitting and watching the livestream because if I don't see her face, God's not going to speak to me about her. God has answers for you, but he can't speak to a pastor about absent sheep. He's got to see their face. And notice this. Paul connected me seeing your face with the wealth, excuse me, with the health of your faith. Your faith is Connected to where your face goes, your faith. Whether or not if your face is never seen in the local church, you're going to have faith problems because your faith can't get any better than where your face is at. Amen. You're not going to get stronger faith having going to the movie theater all the time. Nothing wrong with going to the movie theater. But there's something wrong when you have time to go to the movie theater but you don't have time to go to church, then you're going to have problems because your face is at a place where there's no faith being offered. There's no instruction, no knowledge being offered. It matters where your body shows up. Amen. And if we're interested in our faith growing, we will make sure our bodies are in a place where we can have our faith to grow. Amen. Well, praise the Lord anyway. Thank God for pastors. Thank God for the local church. And people will say, well, you know, I just can't find a church I want or that I like. Maybe you need to make sure that it's not that you just don't fit. Instead of it. Somebody else isn't doing it right. Maybe if they're. You don't want to be critical because you don't eat well at a place where you're critical of. Amen. You need to be accepted, accepting of who God puts in your life and just receive from them. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. So that's why we have to have a church that we're faithful to attend, because nothing else will substitute for nourishing our faith. Amen. So not only is it important for our faith, it's dangerous to have imperfect faith or flawed faith at a time of emergency. Emergencies will show up. I don't care who you are, I don't care how long you've been saved. The emergencies of life will come to all of us. And if our faith is so flawed that it is at such a state of underdevelopment, then we are in a dangerous position. Smith Wigglesworth made a statement years ago when he was ministering, and he said many times people wait until it's too late to try to get faith. Well, is he saying it's too late for God? No, it's not too late for God. Is it too late for the Word? No, it's not too late for the Word, but it's too late many times to get people's minds renewed. It's a process and it takes time to get our minds renewed so that we believe right. You're not believing with your mind. You're believing with the faith that's in your heart. But your mind can short circuit the faith that's in your heart. If you think wrong, it will hinder you from believing. Right. If you have an unrenewed mind. And so that's what Smith Wigglesworth was referring to. It's a process, and it takes time to renew the mind. And if people are waiting till a time of crisis to renew the mind, it's like trying to take a swimming lesson while you're drowning. Very difficult to get the drowning person to listen. Amen. So we want to make sure that our faith is growing and being protected, developing before the emergencies of life show up. Amen. So Paul said that he wanted to see their faith so that he could perfect what was lacking in their faith. Well, imperfect faith gets imperfect results. And he knows if your faith stays at a stage of imperfection, you're not going to get the results that your faith could get if it were developed. Right. Amen. But perfected faith gets perfected results. And when we talk about perfected faith, we're talking about matured faith, faith that's growing and faith that's developing. In my home, I have a safe. And there are, you know, different items that I keep in the safe. And on the front of the door of that safe, there's a handle that you would, you know, turn to open the safe. But you don't even have to try to turn that handle. Don't even try to touch the handle. You have entered the proper combination. On the keypad for my safe, there's a keypad that has numbers, and you have to enter a combination. After you enter the combination, then you can pull the handle and the door will open. Well, when my husband was alive, we had the same safe in the house. He never knew the combination. I knew the combination, but he didn't know the combination. And it wasn't that I was trying to keep him out of the safe. I would tell him the combination, but he didn't listen. And so he'd say, I need in the safe today. What's the combination? So I'd tell him, and I'd come back later that day, and he said, I need you to go open the door in the safe for me. And I said, well, love, I told you the combination. Yeah, but I forgot it. What if I'd have forgotten it, the household would be in a whole heap of trouble. I tell you what, there are combinations to faith. If I could say this, there are Steps. And there are ingredients to faith. There's laws of faith that we have to learn so that when we touch the right combination, the door always opens. Always opens. So before, when Ed would need something, he would say, I'm going to need in the safe later today, and I know you're not going to be there, so just go ahead and open the door right now. And then the safe door would be left open all day long because he didn't know the combination. And again, I'd tell him the combination and he'd say, yeah. He said, just do it. Just do it. That's the way a lot of Christians are. They just want to come up and let the pastor or somebody else use their skill with faith. And they want the door open on their behalf because they haven't listened to learn what are the steps of faith? What are the principles of faith? What are the things that govern the law of faith? Because faith is a law. Amen. It's a law. And so he always had to rely on me to open. And if I wasn't there, he had to do without. If we don't have a strong developing faith for ourselves, we're going to have to do without some things, and God doesn't want us to do without. And Paul did not want the church in Thessalonica to do without. He said, that's why I'm going to come and I'm going to be able to prescribe by the Spirit what your faith needs, where is it lacking? And then I will be able to properly diagnose and help you by the Spirit and by the Word with what your faith needs so that you're not left at a disadvantage. And so Ed was always left at a disadvantage. And I don't know if you. If you were ever in one of the services when we talk about this. And I would say, as an example, I'd say I'd have to input the code because Ed didn't know the code. And Ed would call out, I do know the code. And I said, then what is it? He didn't know the code. He just didn't like people thinking he didn't know the code. But there's a lot of Christians who don't know the law of faith, but they don't want other Christians thinking they don't know the law of faith. It doesn't work to pretend when it comes to faith. You can't pretend you have it. You can't pretend you know how to believe God. You need to be sober about it and say. Say Teach me. And I'm going to listen and remember what Jesus said. He would warn. He said, be careful what you're hearing, the measure. And the amplified says this in Romans. In Romans. Anyways, Romans, Romans 4, 16, I believe it is. And he would say, the Amplified says. He would say, be careful to the measure of thought and sense study you give to the Word because that is the measure of virtue and power that will come back to you. So. And then he says to those who hear, more will be given to those who don't hear, what they have will be taken away from them. It's all in listening. My husband did not remember the code to the SAP because he didn't listen. And I'm talking about listening with the intent of remembering. Anybody ever have a habit that when somebody's introduced to you, you don't listen to their name and you're just shaking their hand? Hi, nice to meet you. And say, what's your name? Didn't listen. Right. We can get in that habit. You can do that with the word if you're not careful that you go to church and you don't even really listen. Because I'm just at church and I'm taking my notes, but you're not really listening. With the idea of this going in my heart. Praise the Lord. So when I have to input that code into the safe, let's say there's eight numbers that have to be inputted. It's not enough to input seven correct ones and one wrong one. The door won't open unless it's all correct. Amen. And you can't even stand in front of that safe and say, bless God, I'm the owner. Open. I own you. I bought you. You own the wealth of Christ. It's yours. But you can't just say, well, I own it. It's just going to come. No, you have to input. The laws of faith have to be operating. And let's say this, let's say if the combination was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, you can go, faith, faith, faith, faith, faith. And it'll open. You go, faith, faith, worry. Faith, faith. It won't open. Faith, faith, faith, faith. Complain. Won't open. Faith, faith, faith, faith. Offense. No open, right. Faith, faith, faith, faith. Unforgiveness. Won't open. And then they say, why doesn't faith work? Faith works. You're putting in the wrong codes. It's got to be faith, faith, faith, faith, faith. Every day you have to use faith. You can't decide, I'm in faith. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But Thursday is loaded with doubt and unbelief. It's not going to open. And things. Things aren't going to work right. And evidently Paul was recognizing there are things that are not working right because you're trying to mix the wrong thing in with faith. Can I tell you what has to be mixed with faith? Faith. You can't mix worry with faith and get a faith result. You can't mix fear with faith and get a faith result. You can't mix complaining with faith and get a faith in result. You can't mix offense, which is a huge one, robbing from so many Christians lives they're offended at somebody. You can't mix offense with your pastor, with fellow believers and think that your faith for your finances is going to work because you're inputting wrong combination. What mixes with faith? Faith. You can't mix disobedience with faith and think that faith is going to work right. And this is what Paul said, your faith is imperfect. What's that mean? You're mixing things in with your faith and your faith is not working. And then you. Then what happens? People start accusing faith if the combination doesn't work. Don't accuse the safe. But that's what people do. The word is the safe, full of all the wealth of Christ that belongs to us. And then people will say this word stuff doesn't work. This faith stuff doesn't work. This confession stuff doesn't work. Yes it does. If you don't keep putting the wrong combination in. You got to get rid of the offense. You got to get rid of the fear. You got to get rid of the worry and the doubt and the unbelief and the bitterness and the complaining and the murmuring. And you have to get rid of everything that isn't faith. Amen. You can't go to bed praising and worshiping God for your answer, showing up and wake up and then talk doubt and unbelief to your spouse about that need. Amen. To have perfected faith, you have to purify what faith hangs out with. That's why it matters who you hang out with. Because if someone is living carnal and living as close to the world as they can, even though they may be Christians living as close as they can to the world, their conversation will start seeping into your thought life and into your words. That's. That's why you can't just go any old worldly place. Now I'm not against you going to a place that is a good time, but go where there's Really a good time. Not what the world calls a good time, but I'm talking about if you want your faith to be pure, you have to hang out with those who are hungry for the same thing you're hungry for. You can't hang out with offended people and think that you're going to have pure faith. You can't hang out with people that have no regard for the Word and think your faith is gonna grow stronger because of it. That's why your highest fellowship should be found in the local church. Because in your local church body is where we're all reaching and going the same direction. No, we haven't arrived, but at least we all honor the same thing. And at least we're reaching for the same thing and we're believing for the same thing. If you. If you really admire and really want to have a faith that's strong and robust, it'll affect who you hang out with and where you go. Because you know, you cannot pollute your faith by contaminating it with things that are not faith. For faith to work, faith must be mixed with faith. Where is faith, the word? Amen. You can't mix it with offense. You can't mix it with your emotions. You can't. I tell you what. If you want to have strong faith, quit living out of your emotions. There's no faith in your emotions. Amen. So how about this? How about 2019 this year we say we're walking by faith. We're going to quit inputting fear. Well, you know, you know, Pastor Nancy, I've just been afraid all my life. Well, delete that. Delete that. Push the delete button on that thing. You know, you can reset a keypad if you forget the combination. If you have the right instructions, there are steps to reset the keypad. Some people need to reset, get that fear out that they've been pushing in their whole life. On the keypad of their life, they've been pushing in fear, offense, Unbelief. Quit. Quit inputting that into your children, into your home, into your marriage, into your life. Why? Because what awaits us is perfected faith. And when we have perfect faith, there's nothing we can't receive from God. When our faith is growing and developing and healthy, there's nothing we can't receive from God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. How about this? I'm growing in faith. Say this with me. I'm growing in faith.
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Faith.
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I live by faith. It's the way I live. Hallelujah. Amen.
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Well, praise the Lord we trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defrayministries.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 Defray Ministries.