← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Things Prepared For Us | Edwin Anderson | Holy Ghost Meetings 2022 | Tuesday AM
01:16:23
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Precious Jesus, wonderful Savior, deliverer, healer, provider. Glory to God. You've been a good savior to me, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. You know, in Romans it said, whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, delivered, preserved, healed, made safe, made whole, made complete. And it just comes from calling on the Lord. Hallelujah. I was, I was driving my Explorer a number of years ago, and I had gone and picked up a load of mulch, pine bark, to put in my beds, flower beds, not in my bed, in the house. And I had a makeshift trailer that I had bought off the side of the road for sale. Somebody had built it. They had put an axle out of a truck, I guess, pickup truck, maybe a car for the, you know, for the two wheels, and then they'd, you know, fashion this trailer. Anyway, I had it just loaded down, and I was driving down the highway at a respectable speed, if you're a NASCAR driver. And all of a sudden, that trailer started pitching, and I could, I could. And first thing you do is you speed up, try to pull out of that, you know, I sped up. It didn't get any better. And I could, I could feel the back of the truck beginning to move around. And I, I, I could have had a, A terrible crash. And it all happened so quickly. And I just said, Jesus. And as God is my witness, that trailer just slammed flat just, just like that. And, and, and started skidding it, and it was dragging the truck, slowed the truck down. So I finally got off the highway into a little turn lane there. Got out the wheel on one side. Instead of being two wheels like this. Wheel was like this. It was completely broken. It was broken off. It was still hanging, hanging on, but it was broken. And that thing had gouged the highway. But when I said Jesus, when I called on Jesus, I mean, his power came in and just straight, just like that, instantly. What a savior. What a savior. He's ever ready. When we call on him, he's right there. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Well, you can be seated. Seated. Thank you, Pastor Nancy. Glory to God. Hallelujah. It's so good to be here in these meetings. All the presence of the Lord has been so rich. Haven't you appreciated just the presence of God? Glory to God. It's good to be with Pastor Nancy and the rest of the Dufresne family, but I haven't seen a whole lot of them this time. Everybody's so busy. I mean, there's like 19 irons in the fire going on around here, but it's been good. And we've gotten so much out of these services. I tell you, we are so blessed. Amen. Glory to God. Well, just believe God with me today for utterance, and the Lord will have his way. Amen. Glory to God and boldness. Amen. Paul told the church, pray for me that I may open my mouth, boldly proclaim the word of God. Amen. Hallelujah. Father, we thank you today for your goodness. We thank you, Father, for the blessed presence of your Holy Spirit that manifests itself in us as individuals, but it manifests. He manifests himself among us as a corporate body. Your glory fills us. Your presence fills us. Glory to God. And we're so grateful, Father. There. We know by experience that there's nothing like the touch of God in our lives. It changes everything. Glory to God. It quickens us, Father. It revives us, Imparts strength to the inner man and refreshing to the inner man that flows out into the outer man, to the body and into the mind and just restores everything. Father, we're grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for utterance today in Jesus name. Amen. Praise the Lord. What I want to do today is I just want to sort of piggyback off of some things that have already been said before I came out here. We came last Thursday. So over the weekend we were here, but the previous weekend at home, I took these passages that are this main text that I'm going to take today. I had taken it last Sunday a week ago, and we were getting ready to come out, and my wife, she said, well, you know, if Pastor Nancy asked you to minister and you never know, you know, she'll wait, you know, yesterday afternoon, she asked my wife to. To ask me. And then I got into service last night and I was leaving, I thought, you know, I never answered Pastor Nancy, but it's a. It's, it's an obvious answer. There's, you know, there's no way you got to say no. You know, it's a privilege. And. But she. My wife said, what are you going to minister? I said, I don't know. She said, you need to minister what you ministered last Sunday. And I thought, nah, nah, that wouldn't fit anything. Well, that's the theme that we've been building off of out here. So I want to just go back and make some comments that the Lord has shared with me. Amen. Turn with me in your Bible to First Corinthians, chapter two. Pastor Nancy was ministering along these lines. Praise the Lord. Also in the third chapter as well. And for context, we'll start up in the fourth verse. But really, I want to start paying attention. My main focus to begin with will be the ninth verse, but let's start in the fourth verse just to give some context. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Notice he's talking about the ineffectiveness, the weakness of human wisdom. Then in verse six, he says, however, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man. The things which God has prepared for those who love him. How many people do we have in here today that love God? Now, I'm not talking about just religiously. I mean, you really love God. This scripture says God has prepared things for those who love him. Now, some people would have us believe that if you do. Matter of fact, I heard a preacher, I actually heard him say this. And the man is of such reputation. I know he knows better. But he actually said, if you do anything, if you have any action, you take any action for which you expect God to respond, that's law. And I thought, well, then, faith is law and faith is not law. You know, this scripture says that he prepares things for those who love him. That means he responds to people. We respond to love, and we respond greater to people who love us greater or more. Isn't that right? Well, God is no different. He, in fact, that love, that tendency, that response that's in us, came from the Father. All of family relations all came from the Father above. So he has prepared things for those who love him. Glory to God. That excites me to know that there are some things prepared. They're not just afterthoughts. God has purposed. He has brooded over, he has arranged, he has laid in store some things for those who love him. Not everybody loves God. Some Christians, you wonder how much they love him. Suppose they do to some degree. But God has taken time. These things were prepared for us. The Bible says before the foundation of the world, before there was a heaven and earth, before there were stars, before our present solar system was even created, God prepared, He purposed to give us certain things, to provide certain things for us. And he waited down through the ages to this age to reveal those things we read there that eye has not seen nor ear has heard. Of course that's a loose sort of a paraphrase from the Old Testament, but it's an Old Testament concept or precept that those in the Old Testament, they didn't have access to what we have access. There were things that they couldn't see, they couldn't know. It wasn't given, it was hidden from them. And most of you may ministers know that. The good commentaries will say, you know, these things were not hidden from us, they were hidden for us. Well, they were hidden from different in previous generations, in previous ages, but they were hidden for our edification. God intends that we have them. He intends that we know them. I was thinking last night, Pastor Angela, I was thinking last night when our 25th wedding anniversary came around. Now when my wife and I were married, we were married very quickly. I was 17 years old and she was 16 years old. And the situation came up very quickly. There were no weapons involved because we were willing, but we didn't, you know, we were just kids. And when we got married on a Friday night and we went to a local hotel at Jacksonville Beach, a Holiday Inn, and she borrowed her, if I remember right, she borrowed. You borrowed your mother's wedding band? Because I hadn't even had time to buy her a wedding band or anything. So she, she, she borrows her mother's wedding band to make us look official. I can only imagine the laughs and the winking as we walked away from that, from that check in desk. They probably elbowed each other. You're right, sure. And so there we were, you know, we were married. And it, it wasn't the most romantic weekend in a lot of ways because I was a high school senior and I was not a good student and it was questionable whether I was going to graduate just based on my grades. In fact, I had nightmares 20 years later, I would dream in the nighttime that I was in high school and I didn't have, have that credit that I needed and I wasn't going to graduate. I was in the ministry and I would have these dreams now. Back then, in our school system, you couldn't go to school and be married. If you got married, you had to quit school. Well, that was. You know, it was a couple weeks before graduation, so we had to keep it all quiet. And so that weekend, I had to finish the term paper. On Saturday, we. We spent a little bit of time at the beach. And then we went to my sister's house, who. Who. She and her husband had gone out of town. So we stayed in their mobile home. And their dog had gotten hit by an automobile. And we got there, we found him dead in the street. So I had to dig. And it was a big dog. I don't remember what it was. It was a big dog. So I had to dig this big hole and bury their dog. And then that evening, our church had arranged a banquet for all of the graduating seniors. And I had to show up because we had to keep up the, you know, the appearance. We couldn't let anybody know we were married. So we had to go to that banquet that night. Had my mom's car. So Sunday morning we get up, and I had to go pick up my mom and bring her to church. Angela and I. And my mom came. We had to go to church. Had to go to the high school class. Graduation was, you know, a couple weeks away. So we sat in our high school class, you know, the youth department. And then that afternoon, we went back to my sister's house, took my mother home, took her out to eat. Took Mama out to eat, or she took us out to eat. I don't remember. Went back to the mobile home. I wrote my term paper and just said, you're staying away from me until you finish this term paper. So I finished the term paper. Then I went back and picked up my mom and took her to church. We had to go to church. Sunday night, took her to church. We were in service. And then I took my mom out. She had something to eat. Took her home. Then I took my sweetheart out. And we, I guess, got something to eat for ourselves. I don't remember feeding her, my mom. But anyway, we drove around, did something, maybe got something neat. And then I took Angela home to her home on the south side of Jacksonville. And I went home to my house on the north side of Jacksonville. So we had to live separate, you know, for those two weeks. So, needless I said all that to say that we. We hadn't really arranged our marriage very well. So she didn't have a decent ring. I think within a few weeks, we Went down. There was a. A discount jeweler, surface merchandise. Somebody of you remember that we bought a couple of 14 karat gold bands and they were nice. I think they're like $25. Huh. She has all the facts. $19 for hers. And mine was $24, not carrot dollars and. But you know, that's the only ring she had. So at our 25th anniversary, I, I determined I'm going to get my sweetheart a suitable wedding ring, right? So I started searching around and I found a 1 carat white, internally flawless diamond. Very. Like I said, white diamond. Very. I forget the, the letter, but it was considered a white diamond. One of those low numbers or letters. Like I said, it was internally flawless. What was the cut? Was it a. What's on your hand? What is it? Princess cut? I'm not sure. Anyway, very nice, nicely cut diamond. So I bought the stone and then I let my wife pick out a setting. And so we had one made. The reason I did that is because I had already learned that I am a terrible choice of jewelry. Where my wife's. Cause she doesn't like anything. I don't think I've ever bought you but one or two things that you really liked. I just. So I just let her buy her own stuff. Takes all the pressure out of me, off of me. So I really wanted to buy her the whole deal, the whole ring and everything. But I knew I better check. So I went down to one of the local jewelers. This is. I think I had the stone at this point, but I just wanted to see. So I picked out a beautiful wedding band, a ring, you know, with a nice diamond. It was a Lazar diamond, which was a very nice cut, you know, so had good, good facets, you know, and I thought it was a beautiful ring. So I invite. I said I want you to come to the mall with me and I want you to look at. I just want to. What do you think? No, I don't like it. I said, okay, well then we're going to hire somebody to custom make the setting. So we went to a local jeweler who had quite a reputation. He was quite an artist and did tremendous work. And Angela designed. She and him worked together and designed her wedding ring. And then he. How many small diamonds did he put around there? Do you remember? He found. He said they were white diamonds, but they were so small, you know, who knows? But supposedly I bought white diamonds to put around the main stone. And so he built her a custom setting, custom ring. And then the stone that I bought. How many of you can believe that I wanted her to have that. We had designed that together. I had purposed that it was something that I'd done. I'd put some thought into. I wanted her to have it. I wanted her to enjoy it. And she did. And she has 27 years. And she used to clean it all the time. I don't know the last time you cleaned it, but anyway. Might not have all the sparkle it's supposed to have, but it could. The point is God wants us to have what he has custom designed for us. That, that he has searched out that. That he has built that. That he has provided that. That he has laid his life down for. He wants us to have. Have it. Oh, glory to God that ministers to me to know that. That God before I was. Was ever known. God prepared a salvation for me and. And a salvation that's so rich and so good previous generations could not even understand it. They couldn't see it. They were incapable of seeing. Took a new creation. God had to. God had to create a new kind of man, a new species. One translation said, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creator, a new species of being. God had to create a new person, a new race, a new species just for the things that. Just so that we would be able to have them and see them. We couldn't have even handled it. Oh, glory to God. God is prepared. But how many of you are aware that prepared doesn't automatically mean possessed? Some things have been prepared, but that doesn't mean we'll possess them. They're available to us, but we have to, we have to lay hold of some things. Amen. It wouldn't have done. It wouldn't have satisfied my heart if my wife had taken that ring and said, oh, it's nice, I might wear this if. If it matches my outfit. That wouldn't have satisfied my heart. That's why I didn't buy the ring myself. I wanted her to fashion. Well, God knows more than we know about ourselves. Thank God. The salvation that he has provided. It's a beautiful. It's beyond words. Well, praise the Lord. But we've been given some words, so let's keep on reading. Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. Now God has prepared some things for those who love him. But it's not just one big package. There are some things that are prepared for all of us, but there are some things prepared for you. You and you and You God has prepared some things just for each one of us. Paul, he made this statement. He said, I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. The Lord Jesus laid hold of each one of us for specific purposes to accomplish certain things in us and through us. And he laid hold of us for purposes. And just because he's purposed it doesn't mean that we will lay hold of it. He's laid hold of us for those things. Paul said, I want to lay hold of those things for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. And that really is the walk of. That really is the Christian walk. The life in God, the life in faith is the pressing on and the pressing into those things that God has prepared. And if we don't. If we don't press, we won't walk in them. If we're casual about it, we won't walk in them. You read that passage over in Philippians. There's nothing casual about it. He said, I don't even the apostle Paul, he said, I don't consider myself to have laid hold of them, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward to those things which are ahead. He said, I press. That word literally means, we said, I reach forward. That word means to stretch or to strain, to strain every nerve, to strain all of your strength. I strain that I might lay hold of these things because there's opposition. There's opposition. And so a casual approach to our life, a casual approach to Christ, a casual approach to ministry, a casual approach to the things of God will not get us there. We won't lay hold of things if we're not. If we're not. If we don't press, if we don't strain, if we don't reach. What was it that Paul said about epiphrasis? Says he labors fervently for you that you might fulfill. Fulfill all the will of God. There's. There's some. There's some laboring involved. Amen. Amen. Now let's continue reading. Verse 10 says, God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. These things that he has prepared. Prepared for us. In, in. In my Bible, I said even those things. I just wrote this. Even those things especially perpetuate. Prepared for me. But God has revealed them and I scratched through us and I wrote me. God has revealed them to me through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. Now, when you start talking about deep things, people can get squirrely. This isn't talking about trying to be deep, trying to sound deep, trying to impress people with our depth. I don't know. I don't know if some of you had this experience, but when I first started reading after Brother Hagin, dad Hagin, right after I got back in fellowship with the Lord, and this was in 1973, early in 73, I didn't go to Rhema until the fall of 79. And there was this narrative about Brother Hagin that was. It was widely expressed that Brother Hagin was such a keenly spiritual man. He was so the spirit all the time, that this was the narrative. I heard this over and over again. Maybe some of you heard it too, that it was said of him that you could walk up and be having a conversation with him and he would be so far out in this, he just walk off and not even answer. He'd just walk away. Wow. Wow. Other side of me said, what a rude man. But no, that couldn't be true. Wow, what a spiritual man. You know, I found out later that wasn't true at all. Wasn't true at all. What happened was sometimes, and this was mostly ministers, mostly ministers who had gotten. Had an opportunity to get, you know, to be in his presence and talk to him in order to impress him. They would ask ridiculously unspiritual questions that they thought were spiritual. And I remember recently listening to some messages from back in the 80s. And dad talked about the time that he and Aretha bought a motorhome. He said, because going to churches, staying in people's homes, staying with pastor. He said after church, people would come around. He said they would ask you questions that even Solomon couldn't answer. And he said, this way we could just get away. Well, people would come up and they would try to impress him. You know what I'm talking about. When somebody just asks something and you can tell they're just searching for something to ask that sounds. That's what he didn't like. So this isn't talking about this kind of superficial, deep things. I like an expression that brother Randy Greer uses. He says, spiritual, but not spooky. Natural, spooky. Now, instead, some people are after the supernatural, but they just get into spooky, natural. That's not what we're talking about. God is very deep, obviously. But it says here that the spirit searches all these things that God has prepared, and he searches the deep things of God. Well, the deep things are just these hidden things. That's all the deep things are. They're not spooky. They're just these things that he said. We speak the verse 7. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages. Pardon me. For our glory. For our glory. God prepared some things for our glory before the ages. And the Spirit is. Is constantly searching. Now, the Spirit isn't searching these things because he doesn't know what they are. This word searches, if you look it up, it means to investigate. He's constantly searching out and investigating these things. Well, you know what? There's another scripture that comes to mind. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Searching, searching all the innermost parts of the inner man. Our spirit searches by the help of the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit in us is constantly plumbing the depth, so to speak. A couple of weeks ago, I didn't think about this till I was ministering and I was in the pulpit. And we have a man in our church who retired recently, and he was professional fisherman for years. Go out in the Gulf two weeks at a time, catch five to eight pounds of £1,000, rather, of grouper, and bring it back. And so that's what he did for a living. So I asked Captain Kirby, I said, cappy, I said, what is this Plumbing? I've used that expression. Is that the right expression? He said, yeah. He said what they would do is they would. In days of old, old mariners, they would tie these. They had these very long ropes, and they would tie knots in them at precise distances apart, and they would drop these, put an anchor on the end of it, a weight on the end of it, and they drop it. And they could see how deep the water is when they're approaching land so that they don't end up on the rock. So they would. They would plumb the depths was what it was called. And I asked him, I said, now, when they were plumbing the depths, did they do that in order to find out what was on the bottom? He said, not really. They just. They wanted to find how deep the bottom is, but they had no way of knowing what all was down there. It wasn't until modern imaging became possible, sonar, and especially in even more modern times in technology, they can, with instruments, they can see everything that's down there in vivid color. I mean, they can see it. Well, the Holy Spirit is constantly searching the things, the hidden things that God has prepared for us because he wants us to know them, he wants us to have them. There's a cooperation. It's not all God's responsibility. And it certainly couldn't be all our responsibility. We have to have his help, but we have to participate. We have to. We have to. We have to have a desire. We have to have a desire to know what his plan is for our lives. If we just go through life just going to say through the motions. That's not what I mean. If we just go through life enjoying what is easy and maybe even what we hear preach to us, we won't ever, we won't ever accomplish our purpose because no man can preach and reveal your purpose. That can't come from preaching. It can't come because we are all, we all have been uniquely created for purposes. There are some things that are common, obviously, but if we're going to get in, if we're going to find that place, if we're going to. If we're going to run our race and reach that goal and accomplish what God has for us, we, we're going to have to search for ourselves. And the Holy Spirit has been sent to reveal these things. He's there to search with us, to plumb the depth, to show us. Jesus told his disciples, you know this. Jesus told his disciples before he left. He said, I have many things to tell you. Many things. I have many things. Go, go with me over to the 16th chapter of the John. Let's just look at it. John 16, Verse12 says, said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Well, that's because they weren't born again. These are the things that he's talking about. Here are, are the very things that the Spirit is searching out, that the Holy Spirit is constantly, if you will listen and if you will cooperate with him, and if you'll be hungry, the Holy Spirit is always searching out. He's always plumbing the things that Jesus couldn't reveal that he couldn't say that, that we were not able, would not have been able in that condition. We are able to now, but we have to go after them. He said, I. He said, I have many things. I wonder, I wonder how much is in that many. I wonder how many things. I wonder how, how big is many. I wonder how much there is. It makes me wonder how much we're missing. How much, how much are we really laying hold of for our own purpose, for our own ministry, for our own lives, for our own family, for our own edification. He said, I have many things to say, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of Truth has come, he will guide you now. That's Interesting. He doesn't just throw you overboard, into the depths, put some spiritual goggles on you, spiritual snorkel and just say, go after it, boy. He guides us because we, we have to, we have to approach these deep things by the leading of the Spirit. We have to have his involvement. We have to follow his plan. That's why you can't listen to somebody else's vision. And we can learn things from one another. Certainly that's not what I mean. But we cannot just try to pattern our lives after the other guy. Because each person is to be led by the Spirit into those things that God has. And even the things that are common that all of us share to together, we still have to be personally led into that by the Spirit of God. So that it's not just word, it's revelation. And when I, when I was first exposed to this movement, it really, it. I guess it was called Word of Faith because dad Hagin had a magazine called the Word of Faith. But I remember that it was called the Word Movement. Does anybody remember that we had Word churches? It was the, or the Faith movement. Now I remember that dad Hagin always bristled a little bit over that, of that expression, the faith movement. He said, I don't really like that. He said, it's the Word of God movement. So the Word of God, everything. The Word, the Word, the Word, it was, it was all important. And that's good because that foundation had to be laid. But in the latter years of his life, he emphasized the Spirit and the Word together. He never left the importance of the Word, but he put special emphasis on the Spirit. Not just. And a lot on manifestations and demonstrations of the Spirit. Yes, but also a lot about being led of the Spirit. If you haven't read his book Tongues beyond the Upper Room. Oh my goodness. Oh my good. Particularly that last third, probably or fourth of the book. It's just phenomenal. Teaching us about how to follow the Spirit into the things that he has for us. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Yeah, go with me to Deuteronomy 29. We all know this passage, 29:29. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. Too many people are just satisfied with dismissing a lot. Well, the deep things belong to the Lord, the secret things belong to the Lord. There's just a lot of things we'll never know. Well, that is an obvious statement, but we're not supposed to live with that kind of attitude that we can just leave it on the, on on the playing field and just leave it there. Yes, the secret things do belong to the Lord, but those things which are revealed belong to us. Those things that the Spirit is. The Spirit searches these things. He says the Spirit has revealed them. He has revealed them. Well, that challenges me because sometimes I don't know all those things that he has revealed, whereas he revealed them. The potential is there. But I have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. I have to have a hunger. I have to have that searching in my own life, in my own heart. We cannot just. We cannot just drift through life. Sort of like when I was a kid, we had pinball machines. I don't know if young people don't have those, but, you know, a lot of people live life sort of like a pinball. They just. They just bounce off things all of their life and then. And then every now and then they settle back in a place where God can pop them back out there again, you know, and they soar for a while, but it's not very long before they're just bouncing off of everything, reacting to everything. That's not the way we're supposed to live. There's supposed to be a searching and a hungering. If we're going to walk in these things that God has in these last days, especially these. These things go. God has prepared for us for this time. The things that he has prepared for us, that we read about, are they. Are they for heaven? No, they're for now. Otherwise the Spirit wouldn't be searching those things out. It says God has now. God has revealed them. Well, he's doing his part. He's done his part. But he reveals them in measure by measure, guiding us. Because we're not in a position to know everything just now. They're for us. But until we're developed, until we come to a place of enough maturity, we can't walk in certain things. But other people would dismiss any searching at all. Well, we can't know these things. And so they're hidden from us. So, la la la. We'll just do our best and. No, that's, that's. That won't work. The things that are revealed belong to us now. Notice that we may do all the Word. That we may do all the Word. God in His. In his mercy and his providence, he raised up the Word movement. Like I said, in the 70s and 80s, it was the Word. The Word. The Word Movement. The Word Movement. We have. We have been privileged to hear things that no other generation has heard. Now a few men here and there have discovered These things. Things. But the church body at large. And even. Even if you just talk about our part of the Body of Christ, because you know that there are a lot of different people in the body of Christ that don't know any of these things. But for a segment of the church as large as we are, to know the things that have been taught us in the last 40 years, 50 years, is phenomenal. There's been nothing like it before. But what about the doing of it? What about the doing? What about the actual laying hold of it? The actual putting your hands to it and actually working and actually being, participating with that word and accomplishing the things that God has given? That's the work of the Spirit in connection with our hunger, with our pressing, our straining. Glory to God that we might do all. All the Word. Thank God for the. For the word we're doing. But what about all that we might do all the Word. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Go with me to Mark chapter four. I'll try to wind this down here. I don't have Leroy with me, so pray. We are very familiar with the parable of the Sower. But right after that, Jesus said this in verse 21. This is Mark 4:21. He also, also, also, also he said to them, is a lamp brought to be put under a basket under a bed, is it not, to be set on a lamp stand? The Spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. But too many of us have that lamp just stuck in a corner. We have a little bit of light on healing, little bit of light on the authority of the believer. We have a little light on faith. We have a little light on the Holy Ghost. Have a little light on prosperity. This little light of mine. Little light, little light. He said, no. A lamp is designed to give off all of its life, and it needs to be set in a place where it can illuminate everything, illuminate our entire lives. For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret. Well, some things have been kept secret in. For from other ages they were hidden. From other times and ages, he said, but nothing, nothing has been hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. And he goes on to say, if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then he said to them, take heed what you hear. The wuest translation, if that's how you wiest or wiest is the way I say it. The wiest translation says here, keep a watchful eye on what you hear. If any man has ears to hear, let him hear. There are hidden things that. That God is wanting to reveal. There are secret things that should come to light. But when we hear a little, we need to give heed to what we hear. We need to have a watchful eye on what we hear. Pastor Nancy, she brings out a lot of hidden things because of the office she's in, the anointing on her life. And we sit here. We need to give heed. We need to keep a watchful eye on the things that. That those who have been placed in our lives to bring revelation to us. Because it's not just. It's not just something we do personally. There's a personal part, but thank God, he raises people up who have been given insight, they've been given a place in the Spirit for us to usher us in. And he says we need to. We need to keep a watchful eye on what we hear. For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. The measure you. The measure that you use in hearing the amount. How watchful is our eye, how attentive is our earth. We. We need to. We need to pay attention and we need to esteem every revelation, every truth, every facet of the gem that. That Pastor Nancy or others might reveal to us and show. Flash. It's just like that diamond. Every ever. Every facet has a. Has a unique flash, flash of color, and they're all. And they're all beautiful and stunning. Every time the Spirit uses somebody to expose another facet, we need to be listening. We need to have a watchful eye, because that's how more comes. Not being watchful, just sitting here, Even saying, not talking about you people. I can't find a place where people aren't amen. Just amening and being in agreement isn't the same thing as going home and turning it over and feeding on it again and going to the Spirit of God and saying, now, Lord, this is what has been shown me. I want to understand this. I want to have more, a greater revelation, a greater perception of what's been revealed. It's been revealed to me through. He reveals things to us directly from the Spirit, but he also uses other people. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. He does. He said, with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you and to those who hear, more will be given. For whoever has to him, more will be given. But whoever does not have even what he has, or Luke's version says even that. That he thinks he has a lot of Times we think we have something, you know, we have a certain grasp, but because we're not valuing it, we might get excited in a service, you know, and it's like the. It's like the. The person who received the seed, you know, among the rocky places, they get excited for a season, come to church. I mean, who can't get excited about the spirit of God when it's being so eloquently presented by Pastor Nancy and some of the others who can't. I mean, you'd have to be dense not to get something. But if we go home and we don't feed on it, we don't say, now, God, digest. Help me digest this into my inward man. So that becomes a part of my life, a part of my doing. Then we deceive ourselves, and then we will appear to have. We will think with. That's what Luke says, even that which he thinks he has. A lot of times we think we have something because we can quote it. But when the enemy comes, realize maybe we don't have it. Well, praise the Lord. That's not to discourage anybody. That's just. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, let's wrap this up. My goodness. Let's go back to First Corinthians again, chapter two. Now, these things we have received. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which. Who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things are not. They don't come by merit. You're not good enough, nor have you been. Too bad. They've been freely given. We have divinely granted rights. I'm so thankful that our founding fathers, in developing the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they recognize that God is the one who gives rights. Our government doesn't give us rights. God has given us rights. And we have rights and privileges that most men know not nothing about. They're freely given. Glory to God. Another. Another area of laying hold of these things is. Is the speaking of them. We know this. We. This is a. This is a standard truth that we all know. Axiom, I guess you call it, that you don't possess anything that you don't confess. And we know all, we all know that right. You don't possess anything that you don't confess. Well, wouldn't that apply to some of these things that we're talking about here? Things that are. That are. He says he has revealed them to us. Part of that is confessing these things. Well, how do you confess them when you don't even know what they are? Well, there's a way to do that. These things we also speak not in words, which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now, I'm a cautious expositor. I don't like to dismiss the obvious meaning of Scripture, you know, in the realm of logistics, logical analysis, which I know very little about. But in that realm, in that realm, there's something called. Some of you will know this, Occam's Razor. You ever heard of that phrase? Occam's Razor? Yeah. And it was a principle that. That was established. Actually, a man, a Franciscan monk by the name of Occam is the one who's most associated with it. But it was around before then. And it basically says that the simplest explanation for a phenomenon is most likely the right explanation. And it says, don't proliferate. Don't add additional processes to an analysis, because you're just confusing things. And the most. So it's been watered down and kind of goes like this. The most likely explanation is the most likely explanation. And that's true across the board in just life. And so it's true where scriptures are concerned. So when he says these things, we also speak not in words, which man's wisdom teaches, which the Holy Spirit. I know that's talking about the Bible. I know that's talking about the Word. But there can be another explanation of this. That there can be, because we also speak not in words, which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches. Praying in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit. There's an application here to praying in the Spirit. We have to speak the things that have been revealed before we fully understand them. And that's part of the process of searching them out and bringing them up on the inside, is we begin to speak those things. You. I know you. Most of you, at least, if not all of you, have had times in prayer where you were so excited about and you couldn't frame with your mind what it was that you were laying hold of. There was just. You saw something in the scripture. You wanted to jump up and run around the room. Somebody asked you what it was. You couldn't even say. You couldn't even describe it. But there's just a depth, a fascination. I don't know what the Word is, but there's something that comes up on the inside of you, and it's life from the Word of God. And you give expression to that in other tongues. And what are you doing you're speaking those things. Hallelujah. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now, I'm not a Greek anything. I'm not a Greek person and I don't know Greek. I did go to one Greek seminar and it might have been at a Holiday Inn. It was at a hotel, but I don't remember what hotel it was. And so I went to a one day or maybe a two day Greek seminar and I came away. I knew the Alphabet. That's what I knew after. After two days. And that took some effort because I don't use it very often. I've now forgotten that. But. So I'm not. I'm not a Greek scholar, but I've read this, that when it says here, spirit conspiracy, comparing spiritual things to spiritual, that in the Greek these things are in the neuter, is how you say that instead of the masculine. But this, this Greek scholar that I was reading after at least this one, he said that. That it. Even though it's neuter, he said the laws of Greek language, it can be translated in the masculine, which would mean it's a person. Has to do with people. He said it can be. Most translators just translate it spiritual. Comparing spiritual things with spirituals. They don't do anything to personalize it. This particular writer, he said it could be written this way. Explaining spiritual things to spiritual men. Explaining spiritual. And if you read the passage here, that fits very well because the next verse talks. The natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness to him. There's, if I can say it nicely, there's too many naturals. There's too many natural people. There's too much of the time we live in the natural. We are supernatural people. Not, not spooky natural. We're supernatural people. We're supernatural people. But if we live in the natural realm when it comes to these things, it says the natural man cannot receive them. It's not possible. It's not possible to stay in the flesh and receive these things. It's not possible. It's not possible to live after the. Pursue the natural realm all the time and know these things. It's not possible. Amen. The natural man, he says, cannot, cannot receive. Pastor Fields was talking about the importance of agreement. You're right. Yeah. Agreement. Well, you have to agree with some things. Yeah. In order to receive them. You have to agree with them. But. But there has to be some revelation for you to agree and before you even know them. Like I said, in the spirit, praying in the spirit, you can get an agreement With God's plan before you even know what it is. You can receive these things before it floats up into your natural mind and you begin to, it begins to take shape in your mental process. You can put agreement with it by following the leading of the Spirit. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So that makes me think that that wording of the last part of verse 13 is probably correct. He who is spiritual judges all things. In the latter part of verse 14 it says they're spiritually discerned, examined, investigated, understood. But he who is spiritual examines, investigate, investigates, understands all things. Yet he himself is rightly the same word as you, same Greek word. Yet he himself is not understood, examined or investigated by anybody else. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ now. We have the mind of Christ. That verse is usually used wrong. People usually apply it to their natural mind. You know, if you're getting a little forgetful, you say, well, I have the mind of Christ. That's not what that's talking about. We have the mind of Christ by the Spirit, by the Spirit. Those deep things of God, we have them revealed to us. That's how we lay hold of the mind of Christ. We have it, but we have to plummet. We have to search it out. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Well, glory to God. I've done long enough. Amen. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God. I'm going to just close by saying this. This seems a little disjointed, but I just had it. So I'm. What I'm about to say just doesn't seem to necessarily fit, but this is what was in my spirit. I was talking to a pastor recently about outreach. A lot of times we have people who are, who want to talk a lot about outreach in local churches. What are you doing for outreach? What are you doing to reach community? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? I'm not, I don't know. I can't answer for you. But I know a lot of so called outreach, nothing but busyness and it's not producing spiritual results. I'm not, I hope I'm not, I'm not picking on anybody. This is just an illustration. The next time there's a 10k race or some kind of a race in your community and you go out and stand along the road and you've got water bottles with your church name and you're passing about. You're not going to. To win people to Jesus that way. Okay, Those things, we do these things. And so we were talking about that, and I said, you know, in all these years, we've done. We've done all kinds of stuff. We've canvassed the town, we've knocked on doors, we've sent flyers, we did mass mail outs. We. We've done all sorts of things. And I've determined that the most important, important thing we can do as a church is when we gather together, when we're called together by the Lord Jesus Christ. When we come together, we give God an opportunity to manifest his presence. We have seen it over and over, and countless times people have come into our church that unsaved, backslidden, or just been out of church and been religiously taught. They come in and tears flowing down their face because of the presence of God. It's better than sermons. It's better than my preaching. It's better than my preaching. I don't know about yours, but it's better than mine. Just the presence of God settling in melts hearts and opens people's hearts that God can begin to deal with them. Oh, my goodness. That's the most important thing we can do as a local church, is provide a place for the presence of God to be the temple. We know that the local church is the temple. We read that. Pastor Nancy read it from chapter three here, verse 16. Do you not know that you, the whole church at Corinth, you're God's temple sanctuary. The most outstanding feature of the temple, first of all, the tabernacle and the old covenant. You know, when Moses brought the children of Israel out, what was it? It was either solid gold or overlaid with gold, everything in it. But on the outside, it was just a tent of badger skin, which is a type of Christian. On the outside, he was human, just human flesh. But on the inside, gold of divinity. And the reason for that was when the children of Israel, while they were en route, going in circles, you know, getting unbelief out of the camp, they would encounter some of these Bedouin tribes. If they had known the value of the stuff inside that badger's tent, they would have raided it. But on the outside, it just looked like a. Just a smelly tent, animal skin stitched together. The world did not appreciate when Jesus was here. They had the Jews, had the covenant God of Abraham in their midst. They Said, who is this man? Son of Joseph? Yeah. On the inside, he was solid gold. Well, the. The tabernacle and the temple are types of Christ. But the most. The most important thing in that tabernacle was tabernacle or in the temple is not the gold. It's not the golden artifacts. It's not the architecture. The most important thing was not the mercy seat overlaid with gold. It wasn't the solid gold cherubim overshadowing the mercy seat. It wasn't even the. The tablets and the. And the Aaron's rod that budded and the man inside. That wasn't what was important. That wasn't. It was important. Don't misunderstand me. That. That wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was the Shekinah glory of God, the presence, the divine presence of God. That's what made the temple the temple. And it's no different today. God's divine holy presence in manifestation. Oh, glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I was telling. I was telling somebody at lunch, I think, yesterday, we. I remember in the early days, we would sing in the Spirit back in the 1980s when we first started church, that was real common. And I remember times where. Now, I never heard this, but I had more than one or two people, several people over the years. They told me that while we were. We were in an old Baptist church we had bought, and the ceilings were probably higher than this. They were about 20ft tall, I'm not sure that is. But anyway, 20ft high. And the ceilings were covered with acoustic tiles, so there was no bouncing sound up there. People would tell me from time to time that when we were singing in the Spirit, they'd say, pastor, while we were singing, I heard voices overhead that were above us. And there were many voices, and it was this beautiful singing. They were singing along with us. Us. Well, you know, Paul talked about if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. So evidently there are times when we're. When we're speaking in tongues. We're speaking in the language of angels. Well, it would make sense for them to join us. It's their language. They know the song. You know, if. If you're driving down the car and a song comes on the radio or you put a. A. A, you know, device, you know, plug it into your car. If it's a song, you know, you'll. You'll join in. Well, the angels know the songs, so we shouldn't be surprised. And, And. But then we got out of that Habit. We got out of the habit of singing in the spirit, so we've reintroduced that in our church. We just. We take time. We sing in the spirit. And not to. Just. Just a two weeks or maybe three weeks ago, a man in our church, he didn't tell me, but he told our worship leader. He said while we were singing, he said, I heard these voices above. It was like a choir overhead. And our ceiling is now. Is about this high. And it's like this, you know, See, it's got shapes and everything, you know, to diffuse the sound. And he said there was somebody else singing besides us. I could hear it. Glory to God. Oh, thank God. And we've. We've. We've had times. Now, don't get nervous. We're not going to do it today. But we've had times where we just. I'd get up to minister after the worship, and the presence of God was so strong, I get in the pulpit and I would have to violate the spirit to speak. I couldn't speak. I mean, I physically could have spoken, but it would have been. It would have. It would have just broken the presence of God and just stand there and the entire church stand for 35 to 40 minutes. Nobody say, now if. That. If the presence of God isn't in the room, that'll make people pull the hair out. I mean, we're used to having. From the very first moment we got cranking music and somebody's talking. There's got to be something going on all the time. And to get a church to stand there for that long, if it's not the Holy Ghost, people would be just going crazy. You can't do it. You just can't do it. And we were there for 35, 40 minutes. And as God is my witness, I look down to watch. I thought It'd been like 10 minutes. I looked down and it had been almost 40 minutes. And everybody in the congregation that I talked to after said, we look. We couldn't believe it had been that long. Just in the presence of God. Glory to God. Oh, we need. We need more. We need more. And we're getting there. We're getting there. Amen. Give place to the presence of God. Why don't we stand? Glory to God. So you're not going to do that today, Pastor? I have to go to the bathroom. But you know what? That day, nothing mattered. Nothing mattered. I'm not saying nobody moved, but nobody got up and left. And we're just caught up in the glory of God. And we had. We had another session like that recently for a little less. Less time, length, but still the presence of God. Oh, hallelujah. You come away from. From times when you're collectively. Now we. We. We have to have a private prayer life. We've talked about that, and that's essential. But, boy, there's something about the corporate anointing. When we come together, we. We need these times. I wait. I wait on the Lord in prayer, but we need to wait on the Lord as a congregation and just wait, not get nervous. And you have to. It has to be the spirit. You can't just decide we're going to do this, because again, people just go start pulling the hair out because you can't do it. But when the spirit moves that way, oh, my goodness. What glory. What glory. Let's just lift our hands and thank him for his goodness, his presence. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Oh, we love you, Lord. We love you, Lord. We love you. Oh, you've been so good to us, Father. You are so good to us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. 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.