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The Work of Believing, Part One | 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.
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God said to me just a couple of weeks ago, he said it's time for miracles. And as I said on Tuesday night, it's always been time for miracles. He's not stating something that he hasn't always been endeavoring to work, but he states it so that we will know what he's looking for us to give ourselves to so that we can become skillful in this and so that we can cooperate with him during this time of what he's wanting to emphasize for us. So he, I think it was Sister Linda Turner said this to the Bible school students. Help me in the wording or something to the effect God put something in or says something to you, then watches to see what you're going to do with what he said. Is that correct? Exodus 3 Sister, I was getting ready to read that passage even, hey, we will. I'm glad to know and but listen to the wording that she gave. God says something, then waits to see what are we going to do about it. And so much of the Christian world is waiting for what God says and then what God's going to do. And God does what we do. Now, the religious world twists over a statement like that, but the truth of the matter is, is God goes where faith puts him. And when we operate in faith in a certain arena, God always manifests himself in the face of Faith. Amen. Exodus 3 that she's referring to. In verse one, it says this. Now, Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father, in his father in law, the priest of Midian. So notice this. He's a spiritual man, and his father in law, Jethro is. And it says, and Moses led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God. And in verse two, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire. And the bush was not consumed. In verse three. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush. Verse three is so important. Moses said, I will now turn aside. Look at the next word and see. Notice this, that Moses had to make a step away from daily life. What was daily life? He was tending to the sheep. He was there for the reason of tending to the sheep. But a movement of God caught his attention. And he said, you don't hear anything else about the sheep in this passage. Why? Because he turned aside from what was natural. That's what we've done in these three days we've come aside from what is natural to see what has God got to say to us? What is he showing? What is he saying? And it says in verse four, and when the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see God is waiting for people who are interested enough to know what he has to show. And when he said, it's time for miracles, now he's waiting for who will turn aside to that. And that's why we started on Tuesday night talking about what we did, about the flow of miracles, about the power of God and how to cooperate with the power of God. And we were talking about gaining skills with the power of God. I love something that Brother Richard Roberts said the first time he came to our came to the church and he quoted his dad and said that Brother Oral Roberts said, every day miracles are coming to you or going past you every day. So what determines whether they stop with you or go past you, whether or not you turn aside to see? Amen. If you are going to set aside. If we're going to set aside the ordinary and the unimportant so that we can see what he's wanting to do. And how do we get that miracle power to stop with us and not bypass us as blind Bartimaeus did Jesus on that road. Blind Bartimaeus was just on the side of the road and he heard that Jesus was passing that way. Notice he couldn't see it. He could just hear report. And what did he do? He started calling. And he was so loud that he. Of course the people around him were aggravated at his volume. But a blind man can't see how much volume he needs. So because he cannot see Jesus proximity, he wants to make sure he's heard. He didn't know if Jesus was 3ft away, 20ft away. He didn't know. So he gave awe. And it so irritated those around him. And I've said this before, of course they told him to be quiet, but don't let people who aren't calling tell you to quit calling. If they would have been calling themselves, they wouldn't have even heard. The only reason they heard him and were irritated because they weren't calling. And when they weren't doing it, they didn't like others that were doing it because they thought it unnecessary. But the one with the need knows Only God can do this for me. And Jesus was not headed to. He was not en route just to go to blind Bartimaeus. Blind Bartimaeus faith arrested. Jesus stopped him. What's that mean? God goes where faith puts him. If blind Bartimaeus would have been silent, Jesus would have kept walking by because it was blind Bartimaeus faith that put him there to stop on his progress, on his journey, just for him. So what's that mean? If miracle power is always moving and flowing, we what's gonna cause it to stop with us, what we're calling for, what we're saying? And it's not just a moment of calling. It's a lifestyle. Amen. Every day, miracles belong to us. And sometimes people think because it's not spectacular, it's not a miracle. If it's supernatural, it's a miracle. Meaning this. If $10 came to you that you didn't earn or work for, that's a miracle. No, it might not look spectacular in quantity, but if it was something beyond your ability to produce, it's a miracle. And we need to recognize the miracles that are available and really coming every single day. But because they don't look so spectacular, some people don't have regard for them. And what you don't have regard for, in its small form, God will not see, he won't waste. Waste it on ingratitude. Amen. And so we see here that when Moses turned aside, then God said, the voice didn't tell the bush, the voice didn't come out of the bush and tell him to turn aside. He initiated whether God continued to speak to him or not. Meaning this. We hear as much as we have time to hear, as much as we give place to hearing. God's not silent. He's always speaking. And then we have in Second Chronicles, chapter 16, in verse 9, where it says, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. I like this next phrase. To show himself. He's wanting to show himself. Amen. The devil's always showing himself in the earth, but God is looking to show himself. And what's the next word? Strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. And so notice this, God has not already, if I could say this, determined, well, I'm going to show myself strong for this one. I'm going to show myself strong for that one. Because if he already chose who he's going to show himself strong for, then why are his eyes looking? Why? Because he's not the one that determines where he shows Himself strong. He's there to. He is here present by the power of the Holy Ghost to show Himself strong. Where will that happen? Where someone's believing, where someone is calling when he says it's time for miracles? Where are those going to happen with those who are turning aside to see those who are calling, those who are making time to be with the One so he can show Himself strong? Amen. Hallelujah. I don't want to be left out of that. I don't want to be left out of that. I was reading, some of you may have read the book My Time in Heaven by Richard Sigmund. And in that he gave an account that there were angels that would come into the services, that God allowed him to see an operation in the spirit realm, that the angels would come into the service and they would be carrying body parts for people who needed new body parts. And then he would watch and the people, the angels would go and stand by the people that needed them. Why? He's there to show Himself strong. Show himself strong in behalf. What is that? Why did the angels come with the body parts? They were already prepared to, if I could say this, deposit into the people's bodies the parts they needed. Why? Because God's a faith God. He's always got the answer there. He's always got the answer there before people make the call. And he saw in this. In this experience, he saw that the angels came to the service with everything that people in the service needed. But then he saw that the people wouldn't respond. And in not responding, the angels took what they had and went back to heaven with it. Why was he there? He was ready to show himself strong. He was looking. Who in the service. Who in the service. Who in the service is going to put a demand on what I'm here to show? Amen. And like Pastor Debbie said, this plays into our motive, our attitude, our interest in a service. It matters. It matters how we attend. I said it matters how we attend. Not just that we attend. You remember when in the passage, when it talks about Jesus was in the synagogue and it said. And he set himself over, across from the treasury to see how the people cast money in. He didn't say to see what the people cast in. He said to see how. How they cast. It matters how we come. It matters how we come. Hungry, believing, reaching. Not bored, disinterested. Thinking of something else. Because I want you to know there is nothing else higher in your life today than what's going on here. Nothing. Nothing else of our day is Equal to the Word, to being among the believers. Nothing, nothing, nothing is equal to that. And I'm not talking. It's a close second. There's a close second. There's not even a close second. Everything else is so far beneath what we're doing here. Other things are to be done, but they're nowhere near the importance of what is being here. And so when we come, we need to come with that mind. There is nothing outside this building more important than what's going on in this building. Because if I do the right thing in the building, it's going to affect everything in my life that's outside the building. If I don't handle what is going on here, it will rob my life of what God has for it. Amen. Then go with me, if you would, to Jude, chapter one. Of course, only one chapter, but verse three, because this is what the Spirit of God said to me several days before we started this conference of what he wanted. Basically something emphasized. And so we want to do that Jude in verse three, we'll read verses three and four. When Jude said, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write to you, write unto you of the common salvation. A common salvation means the salvation that belongs to both to the Jew and the Gentile, like it's common to both. He said, I was going to write to you about your salvation. But he said in doing this, there was something more urgent that the Spirit wanted said. And this is what I'm writing to you of what that urgency of the Spirit is. And it was more needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Meaning this. The original faith of the Gospel was being destroyed by false teachers. People were teaching falsely, and it was injuring the faith of those who were hearing. The devil hates faith, the God kind of faith. He wants you to have the wrong version of faith. Have a faith, but just have the wrong version of it. Amen. And so we talked about that on Tuesday night. What version is that? Well, one of the ver. Well, we know this. Jesus said in Mark 11:22, have the God kind of faith. The faith that functions and operates like God. It's in you is the God kind of faith. Now use that faith. Don't use human faith. Don't use mental faith. That's not the kind of faith that's going to be the right version. And the devil tries to draw us in the mental arena so that we'll keep trying to believe God with our minds where there is no faith. Amen. And so we know, of course, in Luke 18, verse 8, the Amplified, that when Jesus made this, when the Son of man comes, will he find persistence in faith on the earth? So what kind of faith is he looking for? The God kind of faith that won't quit. Amen. Then go with me, if you would, to John, chapter six. And there was more that we said about that which you need to go back if you weren't able to be with us on Tuesday night, and you can. We said much along those lines. But tonight I want us to look at John, chapter 6, verse 28 and 29. We'll read. The disciples were speaking unto Jesus, and they asked him a question. Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God. Now notice this. They asked him this question because they saw that the works of God, although they were the works of God, they involved man. And they were saying, what is our part? What must we do when he's going to work a miracle for man? He involves man. He does not bypass man to get man the miracle, he involves man. And this is where did the disciples get this understanding? They saw Jesus work. They saw him as a man working with the power of God that brought about the miracles. They didn't just say, well, you know, God's just going to do it. No, they said, what must we do? Because we saw you do speaking to Jesus, they said, we saw you do. What do we do to do what you did so that God can do what he does? Because miracles involve man and God, not just God, God. Well, let me say the next verse. In verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe. Listen to this is the work of God that you believe. When you believe, the work of God goes into manifestation. This is the work of God you believe. Now notice this. They're saying, what is our part to do this? Believe this is your part. And notice he calls it a work. It's not play, it's work. It is work. That when something is assaulting your soul and you say, don't care, it is a work. When you're sitting in a service and there's a corporate anointing and it's an easy thing to say, amen, I believe it just that way, when you hear the Word preached and you hear that all things are possible with God, and you hear all the wonderful things that God will do, it is so easy while we're sitting in that corporate anointing to say, yes, that's right. But when you're off on your own and there's all kinds of pressure and all kinds of things to be felt, it's a work to keep believing what you believed in the service. Because so many change what they believe when they feel something different than what they want to feel. And as Pastor Debbie was referring on Wednesday morning to the passage that I preached on in the past, when Jesus said, let's go to the other side, they got in the boat because they believed that they didn't. He didn't say, let's go part way, there's going to come a storm, and then we get to bail, boys. He did not. Do you know when Jesus started thinking about the other side and referring to it, he did not even mention the opposition. Didn't he mention it? Had no regard for the opposition. And then they got in the boat with him because they believe they're going to the other side. Jesus falls asleep. The storm comes. He refuses to come out of rest to deal with the storm because he's still at rest even though things around him are not at rest. What's that mean? We are authorized to be at rest when everything around us is in turmoil. We're authorized and he was our example of it. And that's when you know you're in faith. When you don't get up and run as. Remember how Ed used to say, like a siren goes off over here and you ra. And you try to deal with Sister Bucketmouth over here. Raa. And then you know, somebody else screaming over there, and you just run back and forth. Faith doesn't do that. Amen. And so Jesus is asleep. Peter comes and wakes him up with an accusation. Carest thou not? My gosh. I'm just sleeping, brother. I'm just sleeping. That's all I'm doing. And now I get accused. I don't care. What's Peter saying? Because you're not troubled like us. You don't care. Ah, people don't like it when you don't respond like them, but you're authorized to not respond like people who don't know. He says, don't you care? So now Jesus is getting blamed because he's not up in the rafters, right? Carest thou not? I mean, Jesus didn't send the storm, but yet he's getting accused of not caring. And people will say, you don't care about me because I care about you. That's why I don't act like you. Because I can't help you. Acting like you. Right? That's what Jesus. He acted completely different. Now, notice what Peter said to him. Carest thou not listen to the next phrase that we perish. Notice this. He used to believe they were going to the other side. Who told him he was perishing? Who told him he was perishing? Who told him he believed something different than what Jesus said. And now he's mad because Jesus didn't change what he said. You know? So Peter used to believe they were getting to the other side. He got wet and then no longer believes that he's getting to the other side. Now he says we're perishing. Okay. Drama. Okay. Drama. Right. Faith. People have no room for drama.
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No room.
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No room. You cannot give in to drama. Feed drama, run to drama. It will weaken faith. Amen. Amen. Why? Because we determine the outcome. Circumstances can come, but the outcome of those circumstances rests with us. My mother used to say to us kids, you can start anything. You're big enough to let me finish. Meaning, if you want to talk back, go ahead, start that. But I'm going to finish it. Disobey me, go ahead, start that. But I'm going to finish it. Praise God. The devil can start something. But we say the finish. We say the finish. We say the finish. Amen. So Peter said, carest thou not that we perish. What's the problem? He changed what he believed because he felt something. This is the work of faith. Don't change what you believe simply because you feel something, simply because you hear something, simply because something is bombarded, bombarding your flesh, bombarding your mind. This is the work of faith. This is the work of believing. And it's a work to hold your mind. It's a work to hold your attention on the Word. But let me tell you, when it's an easy work, when you get full, when you're full of the Word, it is. It anchors you. It anchors you. It's when we're less than full that this becomes a struggle. It's not notice. Jesus said, this is the. This is the work of God that you believe. He didn't say, this is the hard work of God. It's not hard. It's not hard unless you're empty.
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Amen. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defresheministries.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.