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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
The Strong Spirit Of A Man, Part 2 | Morgan Dufresne | Collinsville, Oklahoma | JTH Crusades 2025 | Thursday AM
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Well, are you awake this morning? And do you already have the victory? Are you trying to get it? No, I've already got it. Why? Because the word says so. Amen. Because God says so. Because the one who has already seen what my outcome is and the victory that's on the other side of anything I'm facing, he's already seen my total and complete victory. Amen. I would rather walk by what he sees than what I see. How about you? Amen. Turn to somebody before you're seated and say, it is good to be with you this morning. Thank you. Amen. Well, thank you, Brother David. It's been so good this week, the music, everybody. As my husband said yesterday, the rebas said. The rebas come up here. Yes. And Grant, everybody has been so good and thank you. Thank you. It's been great. Yeah, I want us this morning. I know you're so full not of the food, of natural. Maybe you are, but we're so full of the word. But I just want to go back to. To a couple of things that we make sure that we walk out of here really clear on some things that the Holy Ghost was saying to us. Amen. On Tuesday morning, I taught on about the strong spirit of a man. I want to go back to a couple of things there, but continue that forward. And it really just kind of connects all connects and ties in all with what has been said this week. But if you would go with me to Proverbs 18. Can we look at that again? Amen. Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18, verse 14. The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble. But a weak and broken spirit, who can raise up or bear. Now, weak spirit. We really didn't talk about the other morning what weakness looks like. We talked about what strength looks like. Correct. Something's on up here, like a hum. I can hear a hum. So I think some one of these guys is going or something. They shouldn't be going. A weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear what the world would call weak or broken is really not what the word would call weak or broken. You know, we would look at somebody who's been through. How about this? A great tragedy, you know, and they say, and maybe they're struggling with the grief of something or, you know, they've been through something difficult and they're showing, you know, some of the emotion of that. Or they've been through hardship, they've been through tough times. And you know, the world would say I was broken. You know, it broke me. Well, that's not what. When I look at the scripture or when I even look at my own life that I can see represents weakness and brokenness. And I want to look at what, what does a weak spirit look and sound like really? What does it sound like? Because that's where you're going to hear it first. It's not about what you go through, it's how you go through what you go through. Because all of us can go through difficult times and some come out on the other side victorious, as the Word says, more than a conqueror. And we see the evidence of that conquering. So we, we look at David and we look at his brothers. We talked about him. He was strong, right in spirit because he was spent time. He took time with God. He was alone. That's a huge, that's a big part of having strength within your own spirit. If you're always active and busy and around people and filling your day and fil. Your mind and filling your flesh with carnal things and you say that's. I don't understand how that would make, you know, David, he was under a covenant. Not born again, we would say, not recreated in the image. He did not have the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, really the help and the strong one himself was not within him. But David took time and he was alone with God. Weak weakness has to fill itself with activity and outward strength all day. Something to keep it distracted from facing and dealing and confronting. Not, not confronting in an emotional and mental way, but confronting with the help of the Holy Ghost. Avoidance is not strength. We heard that last night. Pretending like something isn't there, isn't faith. Amen. Faith people, those who are strong in their spirit, strong in faith, are not afraid. You know, a solid sports team, one that's really sober about their, their capabilities and where they're at. They recognize their own weaknesses and they train and they practice not according to what they're doing, right. But where they're coming up short. Right. They don't deny. You know what? This is a weakness in my area. Weak people avoid adjustments and fixing. They only we can't be so. And I'm talking about. So we can't be so insecure and self conscious that we can't say, you know what? This is a weakness. In my area. This, in my life, this area. I seem to continually fail in line with the word of God. Amen. Because any good team, any team that wants to get better, recognize where he's not better. They recognize and they train. Not according to, we are so good on film. Look at us. Every time our past game is perfect. They look and they say, well, our past game is good, but our running game is so poor. You know, I don't want to live one dimensional. Right. That every weapon I have in the word of God, every resource, everything that he's given me that pertains to life and godliness, I am skillful at using all of those things. Amen. So David spent time with God. And I believe even in those times alone with God out in the field, when you see God. And he would visit with God and worship God and take time worshiping alone God because he wasn't around others, he had time to even gain strength. God's strength became his strength. So all those weaknesses, instead of picking them apart, he gained strength through times of fellowship. God's not asking you, you can recognize weaknesses, but he's not asking you to pick yourself apart and try to fix those. He's saying, come aside, come alone. This is why he had to pull Abraham away from everyone, so he could see himself in God. Amen. He Young people, if you only see yourself through how well your social media does, you will struggle to see yourself in God. Amen. There's so many ways now to get outward confirmation of who you are. And we see the world seeks that all the time. They want to be affirmed. And because of media, because of, you know, you can get your marketing, you can get your name out there. You know, you can get your image out there, you can make your image whatever it is you want, whatever you want people to see. And it can be a portion of the truth, or it could be none of the truth. And so we, when we take time and we set time alone with God, away from all the distraction, all the busyness, what we do is we are saying, God, we. I've got to see how I see myself in you is the most important the way I see myself. And so we see God pulling these men. God pulled Daniel. He would go aside, he would go into prayer. When they said, don't do it, and he said, no, that's where my strength comes from. I've got to go aside and get alone. And Daniel's strength didn't come from his position. He didn't use his position. He could have. He could have rested on his position in government, but he didn't. He rested on his place and he kept going back to his place with God, his time with God. David, the same thing. So we see weakness in his brothers and strength in David, right? Yes. What did his brothers do? They. They complained like everybody else that they were in this difficult position. So the number one, the sound of weakness, the first sound of weakness is complaint. The first sound of weakness is complaint. It's not doubt, it's complaint. Because faith, as faith, people, we can get real good at covering up doubt, masking doubt, because we know scripture and we know what not to say and what not to do, Right? But the first. And I'm talking about. We're examining ourselves this morning, right? Because we don't want to be doing what Pastor Nancy said last night and getting up every day, celebrating, declaring what is ours, not not calling. We were going to call those things that be not as though they are. We're going to call our bodies whole, even in the face of symptoms. We don't want to do all that. And then as we go throughout our day, the weakness of our spirit. We gain strength through scripture, and then the weakness of our spirit shows up as we complain the rest of the day. You know, complain about our spouse, complain about the job, complain about the boss, complain about this, complain about the government, complain about politics, complain about. The greatest sign to me, number one is complaint with the sign of a weak spirit of a man. Because you never saw. You never heard the three Hebrew boys complain. You never heard Daniel complain. You never heard Paul complain. Right. You never heard Jesus complain. When you look at strong men and women in the scripture, you never saw complaints. You never heard words of griping and grumbling and complaining. Amen. So strong. The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble. But a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear. How about those around you who can bear your complaint? I mean, really, who wants to hear that over and over again? Nobody can. We just complain and complain and complain and complain. You know, my husband say, you're just not that when he's complaining. But, you know, he'll be talking and, you know, my mind's on something else. And he goes, you're just saying okay to get me to hurry up and be quiet. Right? You know, do you find yourself that people are just hoping you'll hurry up and be quiet because you're circling the wagons over the same complaint over and over and over and over? That's wilderness talk. That's wilderness talk. That's not promise promised land victory on the other side, full of The Holy Ghost. What did the Promised Land represent? It represented healing and being full of the Holy Ghost. Amen. That was its. That. That was its representation. So that does not. When you complain, you are declaring, I am empty and I am weak. Amen. Complaining is the conversation of the cripple. What does that mean? Not physically cripple, spiritually cripple. Complaining is the conversation of the cripple, the weak. Number two. The next sign our lives of weakness, spiritual weakness that will make our lives difficult to bear is disobedience. Disobedience. If complaining is the conversation of the weak, then disobedience is the demonstration of the weak. Complaining is what a weak man sounds like. Disobedience is what a weak man's life looks like. Constantly bucking against the plan of God, the will of God, trying to do things. Well, we can do it this way and I can do it my way. And how about even? Well, God didn't tell me to do that. Well, did your boss tell you to do that? Did your pastor give you that instruction? Did your leader in your ministry of help's position tell you to do that? Because disobedience is the sign of a weak. A weak man we see all throughout. And for time's sake, we won't go there. But we see all throughout the Scripture. And those men that I just referenced, the three Hebrew boys, Daniel, David, they all submitted and were obedient to those in leadership who were ungodly. Even Jesus said when they came to get some more taxes, he said, you know what? I'm going to pay it. Go down and get out, because I'm going to honor, I'm honorable, and it's going to be apparent that I obey in front of obedience meant something to Jesus in front of others. He wasn't going to fight his own way and sit there and argue over this tax. Why? Because disobedience is weakness. Defiance is weakness. There's something I love to say over my children. That they have a heart to serve, a mind and a will that's submitted unto God. It goes along with Colossians, chapter one. They desire to please him in all things. I want them to have more. So I don't. I don't pray for strong anointings. I don't pray for them to preach. I don't pray for them to have a healing anointing and raise up the dead and lay hands on. I don't pray for any of that. I just know this. If they have a heart that's submitted unto God and a Will that's submitted unto God and they want to serve that everything else will come in line in their life with God, in their walk, with God, in their home, in their marriage, wherever God calls them. If they are submitted unto God, they're kept by the power of God. God's power can watch over those who are submitted to his will. Amen. So what we do and what we say on the outside shows either strength or weakness on the inside. You know, my husband, he said I had taught a couple, I don't know in this. I think it was in June at our church. And I. When my husband said, you know, do me a favor. We all know that now. Do me a favor and shut up. Do me a favor. If you were not here Tuesday or Monday, you won't get the reference. But I can't tell you how many times I say within myself. Cause I don't want to be weak. Morgan, shut up. I'm telling with my own thoughts. Morgan, do yourself a favor and shut up. Stop turning over those same thoughts. Just shut up. If you can't tell yourself to shut up, well, that's not very nice. Well, I'm sometimes not dealing with very nice thoughts. You know what I mean? Paul said I buff it. That doesn't sound very nice. I buffet my body. Not I pet it. Not I talk to it. He didn't reason with it. Conspiracy. Console it. You know, comfort. He did not say, I comfort my body. I handle it roughly. Morgan, do yourself a favor and shut up. I know he's being annoying, and I know you're about to lose. Do yourself a favor and shut up. Somebody sent me a meme the other day, and it said, when you've gone, haven't shown my husband yet. When you've gone two days without sassing back to your husband and you think nobody noticed. And it shows a man up in the thing and he tips his hat and says, and the Holy Spirit notices. That's right. He notices. I sat here quiet all week. But do yourself a favor and tell yourself, tell your mind, tell your body to shut up. And then do what Pastor Nancy taught us and answer with the word of God. Amen. No one's going to make you strong. You decide I can't walk into the gym. Okay. And say, I went to the gym today and I never lifted a weight. Going to the gym doesn't make you strong, does it? We would laugh. I went. I'm so strong. What'd you do? I went to the gym. Well, what'd you do at the gym? I Went to the gym. I went to the gym. Well, what'd you do? No, I went. But how often do we look at ourselves and we go. I went to church. I go to church. I serve at church. I was listening to Jesus, a healer. Okay, you went, but what did you do? When did you use that? How did you. Did you turn around and exercise that. Which you learned. Why? Because we've got to do something and say something to get things to be different. I can't walk into the gym and call myself strong. I've got to pick something, something up, and you've got to have some resistance. Strength comes from resistance. Don't cower down when symptoms show up or circumstances. That's your resistance to exercise strength. Amen. And you don't want to do what my husband says and get to the end of your life and realize I had so much within me and I never. I never exercise. I am zero. I am just as weak in my 80s, standing with my cup of coffee on the front porch as I was in my 40s. Why? Because I just showed up and thought that was enough to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. I thought I was going to have a strong spirit. Just because I came to church. Just because I came to a glorious church. Right? A church with the Holy Ghost. A church that preached strength. Preaching strength and hearing strength is not becoming strength. Amen. Amen. Go with me, if you would, to Romans 10:8. And we. We've heard this scripture, Romans 10:8, but what does it say? The amplified classic, the Word, God's message in Christ is near you, on your lips and in your heart. That is the Word, the message, the basis and object of faith which we preach. So it's got to be in two places. Amen. You know, when going back to what I had just said about telling yourself to shut up, I wrote this down. Weak thoughts are felt to be strong when the spirit of man is in a weakened condition. Weak thoughts are felt to be strong when the spirit of man. So really, the devil's weak thoughts feel strong when I'm in a weakened condition. So when a thought seems to overwhelm and kind of beat upon, you know, and come over and over and over, and it feels. I recognize if that feels like a strong thought, then I need to go back to the Word. I'm not exercising my strength. There's a weakness there. Because even the enemy's thoughts, when they come, when we're developed and who we are in Christ and we have spent time in the what are our four things we'll go back to? We are obeying God. We are praying in the spirit, praising and giving Thanksgiving and meditating in the Word. When we're doing those things, if a thought comes and all of a sudden that thought feels so strong, yes, it will have feelings with it. But if it seems to overtake us in stress, strength, that means something within us. There's a weakness that we need to fortify. We need to fortify ourselves. Because the devil, he's not strong, he's a defeated foe. How can he bring strength when he has no strength when he's been stripped, right? Amen. So it goes back to me. It comes back to how I'm handling myself. Amen. So it says here, the word. I want to give a quick. Chelsea, you got those things. I want to give a quick illustration. Where is Bear? I know he was back there. Is Bear here? Come here, honey. I know you. You look so tired. I saw you earlier. I said, my gosh, Stephen goes. He can't wait for Saturday morning football. Yes. Come here, Bear. Let's show them. Remember the illustration that we did? So we did this for kids in faith. And I just want us to get. I like illustrations. My father in law liked illustrations and I always liked when he did it. Look at you. You get a Coke this morning. I don't even give you a Coke for lunch. So here, here it is. We filled this cup up, right? This is what happens every week. We come to church. We fill up on the word, right? And we're taking and we filled up this week. How many of you say, I am getting full, right? I am filled. And so we take and we fill up on the Word. And the scripture says the word of God is nigh the even in thy mouth and in thy heart. And this represents the word of God. We've just filled up. But what most people do is they walk around with their heart full and they've just got their heart full of the Word, full of the Word, full of the Word. And they're so satisfied because they just filled up. Remember, we came to a strong church, a glorious church, right? A Holy Ghost church. We saw, we heard good testimony, and they just keep filling up, filling up, filling up. But it says that the word of God's got to be in two places, right? So how do we take the strength that's in our spirit? We were talking about this Tuesday and it's been been talked about all week. How do we take the strength and what's been put in us and draw it out of us. Go ahead, look at this now. What. What happens? What's in our spirit? It's going to come up through our mouths. It's got to be drawn up. The word of God is nigh thee, even in thy heart. Don't be okay with just cruising around with a cup full. My cup runneth over. Well, does it? Because if it's running over, then that tells me you're not pulling enough out every day, you know what I mean? To empty that sucker out and fill it up the next day. And we wonder why we're thirsty and we're hungry because we're just so satisfied with being faith people, filling up with what's on the inside of us. And we're so full with our Coke, you know, our Coke word, our bubbly word here. And so we showed the kids on Kids in Faith. What does this mean? That means when you're taught the word, take it. And you're going to have to use your mouth to draw it out of your spirit. You have to use your mouth to draw it up. So go ahead and show them again. This is what we do. We dip down, we put that straw of the word, the straw of faith in our hearts, and we say, by his stripes. Oh, it was by his stripes. By his stripes, Right. We heard that last night. By his stripes. Do I believe I'm prosperous? Do I believe he has made me an overcomer? That every situation, every servant, then I've got to take and draw that strength up out of my spirit. We just can't be okay cruising around with our cup. My cup runneth over. I'm so full. Yes, it's good to have your cup running, running over, but is it spilling out? Because you're not pulling anything out of it. Amen. She said we're supposed to be spending every day, spending every day, every day drawing out of our spirit. Amen. So we can. Thank you. You can take that back to your seat. Don't spend. But don't drink that in sanctuary, though. Thank you. Makes me nervous. We were, you know, we were taught no food or gum in the sanctuary. Yes. No food or gum in the sanctuary. No. I tell this story. I remember one time, Pastor Anderson, he was just loving. We were having a Holy Ghost service and he just started spilling water on the. I'll never forget this. Off the platform. And she's got this eyebrow raised him and he just laugh. And spilling his water on the. On the. Off the platform. I don't know if you remember that. Oh, my gosh. I will. It, like, marked me. I was like, you can do that? He can. Yeah. So strength. It's not okay. It's not okay for us. And we don't gain and develop. We should say is we don't develop our strength by simply coming and sitting where strength is. Oh, yeah, gotcha. Are you sharing? Sharing is caring. So we want to take and draw out of our spirits. We draw out of our spirits the strength that's in there. And what happens when he drew out? There wasn't. He didn't draw out orange juice. He didn't draw out Sprite. He drew out what was put. What was put in. What was put in. Get. Get off the Internet, get off the doctor's report. Get off of looking over and over again of what's not enough, because what are you doing? You're simply pouring in. And what's going to come out? Complaints. Complaints, Griping, grumbling. How long do we have to eat this manna? How long do we have to be in this house? How long do I have to have this car? How long do I have to deal with these symptoms? How long? How long? How long? What did they do? Every day they just kept pouring in something other than what God had said to them. You know who spent 40 years pouring in and drawing out was Caleb. 40 years poured in over and over again. My mountain. My mountain. My mountain. My mountain. I'm going to get my mountain. My Mountain. For 40 years, he had no problem talking about one thing, his mountain. He never tired of talking about his mountain. And yet we get tired of talking about, you know, and handling with our words the same symptoms. Yeah. Amen. I'm not going to get tired. We're not going to get to the end of our life and go. We. We wish we should have. We could have drawn out something else from the inside of us. Amen. And we sat under being poured into all these years, and we never drew anything else out. Amen. Now, my last point that I want to make because we've talked so much and this is just. I would call it a side quest, but I really want to emphasize this. And we've. I've been teaching on some of these things in the school, the Bible school back home. But when I married my husband, I didn't just. If I would have come to you and said, oh, I met, you know, this great guy, and he, you know, I didn't know what he did for work. He did this and he's done that and he's done all these things, and it's all about what he did and what he's done. Right. And what he's accomplished. We'd say, well, that sounds pretty shallow, right? You didn't tell me about who he is. You just told me. You look like you're seeking after somebody for what they've done and what they've accomplished. Accomplish. Right. In the same way, we want to hold fast and it's true and it's right that the healings and miracles are the dinner bell and we should be pressing forward to see those things that past generations saw. But if we're the bride of Christ and Jesus is coming back for glorious church, wouldn't it matter to him not just what we do, but who we are, who we are so we can reach and press for miracles and for signs and wonders and healing. But if there's no strength in our character, would he be coming back for his glorious church? He's interested in who you're becoming. So I want to encourage you today, on top of everything we've heard this week, also seek that you be not only strong in spirit in what you're going to go and do for God, but who you're becoming in God. Does that make sense? Because Jesus is not just wanting to come back and say, look at all the things my church did. We wouldn't be okay with marrying somebody or hearing somebody. Pastor Davis came to you in your church, said, look at the list of accolades and I want to marry this guy or I want to marry this woman. You go, okay, well, you didn't tell me anything about, you know, do they pay their bills and how do they treat somebody? How, how did they treat their mother? How did they treat their father? How do they, you know, talk to people? How do they, you know, where's their integrity? How about this? Can we be strong not only in the works of the spirit, but the fruit of the spirit? The fruit of the spirit, because he's coming back for a glorious bride and he's not just interested in what we do, but who we are becoming. Be interested in being strong in character, strong in love, strong in patience, strong in kindness, long suffering. How about strong in self control? So we could say the third weakness can be seen in the lack of the development of the fruit of the spirit weakness. So when we lose our patience, when we step outside that place of love, when we step outside the development we're just interested in, I'm a bless God. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to, you know, raise up the dead, lay hands on the sick go to Walmart, but we go home. And we are an absolute pill in our own household. We're rude, we have no manners, we're selfish. Bless God, I'm going to show strength. I'm going to do a brother Stephen says, I'm going to get down in my life and say, look at all the things. Look at all the people I laid hands on. Well, he's not coming back for a bride that's just, you know, so focused on what we can do for him. He's coming back for a bride because he. We have become like him. We have wanted to match ourselves and pair ourselves with his character and his likeness. So he's not just interested in what you do from this week on. He's interested also in who you're becoming. Let us be strong in spirit. Strong, not weak, but also strong in the fruit of this spirit. Not in the works, just the works only. So I just wanted to encourage us this morning that we're not strong. What are signs of weakness? Number one, but number two, that we're not only strong in the works of the Holy Ghost and the works of faith, but we're strong in the character of God, strong in the fruit of the spirit that we are developing ourselves. Because I truly probably would rather be made sure that I'm seen to be strong in the character of God and not just what I can do for Him. Amen. No one wants to be married to somebody that just goes out, works hard, makes a lot of money, but comes home and is really ugly within their household. Well, God doesn't want that either. He doesn't want you going out and in his name, casting out devils, laying hands on the sick, you know, believing for miracles. But our insides and those things that are that. That he is asking us to develop that fruit that he would like for us to grow. He's not going to let us get by with those things. Amen. So I know it seems very simple, but I've been talking even to our Bible school students about these things. You want to come to Bible school and you want to do great, great exploits for God. That's great. But how about becoming great like Him? Not just great for him for his, you know, to do the works, but great like Him. Amen. Jesus is not just going to return because of what we do. He wants to return because of who we've become. Amen. Who we've become. So we'll close with that. And I want to go ahead this morning and we'll receive the offering tonight, even if you're coming and you're not going to have hands laid on you and you're not coming. Maybe you came just to get full of the Word, but you don't need to come. In healing, I would encourage you to please be believing with us. All of our expectation goes every night. It goes to those who have come to have hands laid on them, come to receive. They've come to fill up on the Word. They have come that this is their point of contact with their miracle. So be believing with us. Releasing your faith this afternoon. That when hands, you know, when she says, congregation, say this with me, when hands are laid on me, I always like to say when hands are laid on them. So when I'm at my seat, I always say when hands are laid on them because I'm not having hands laid on me, they're having hands laid. When hands are laid on them, the power of God is going into their body. It's driving out pain, symptoms, sickness and disease. Amen. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@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.