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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. We have been so privileged to get to spend this time with you, and we appreciate you taking the time to be with us. It's been a blessing for us. And I want us to pray before we go any further. Father, we thank you so much that you still have a plan for these meetings. And we're so grateful for that plan being carried out. Father, that revelation and light and understanding, understanding and clarity comes so that we can learn to be better doers of the Word. You said it's not just the hearer that's blessed, but the doer that's blessed. And so that which we've heard during this conference, we purpose to put it into action to be doers. And Father, we thank you for the divine privilege of being invited into your presence. What a wonderful. What a wonderful invitation. When your word says, come boldly to the throne of grace that you may obtain. Father, we thank you that we are children of the throne. We belong to the throne. And we're so grateful that we can have fellowship as a lifestyle with you, our Father. We're so grateful. And everybody said, amen. The last few services, I've been ministering along the lines of something that God had been doing, dealing with me about. And it's just this one word, time, that is giving time to the things of the Spirit, giving time to prayer, giving time to the Word, giving time to renew our minds, just giving ourselves time in the Spirit so that we can become skillful. It's a whole other world. And, you know, the Word of God is the only thing, thing that we have as a directive to teach us about that realm. And the Holy Spirit is the divine teacher teaching us about the Word that teaches us about the Spirit realm. Because as we know more about God's realm, we can become more effective in this realm. And it takes time to learn that. You know, there is absolutely no athlete, there's no musician, there's no carpenter or electrician or artist or anybody that ever became skillful unless they gave time to their craft. You know, someone may have a talent, they may have an inborn talent or grace upon their life, but if they don't develop it, it won't be useful or beneficial to anyone in Christ. Belongs to us. All the privileges, all the benefits. But if we don't become skillful with those, we're not going to benefit from those even though they belong to us. How do we become skillful? With what's ours in Christ and the benefits. We give time. We give time to learning and understanding. You know, the Word says, work out your own salvation. You know, we have to learn how to put our salvation to work for us. All the things that belong to us in our salvation, healing, deliverance, preservation, prosperity, all these things that belong to us, we have to learn how to put those things to work in our lives. That takes time. And it's not enough that your pastor knows it, it's not enough that other ministers know it. You are to know it for your own life. And so that's what God's been dealing with me about, is that we give time to the things of the Spirit, Time in the. In prayer time in fellowship with God, time in the word, time to renew our minds. Because things of the Spirit take time. You know, you can't rush growth. You know, you have children that when they're born, infants, there is a predictable span of time it takes for them to come into adulthood. And spiritual things, you can't rush growth. Now, I will say this. The more time you give to spiritual things, the quicker you will develop, the quicker you will grow. But even though you may give all your time and give full effort to growing up spiritually, then there's still time involved that has to happen to grow up. And so God's been pressing upon me about this Word time because in the last days there's going to be strategies from the enemy to rob us of our time so that we're ineffective. You know, the first night on Tuesday night, I read some excerpts from E.W. kenyon's book out of the book title is called In His Presence. I want to again just repeat a short excerpt that I read on Tuesday night. E.W. kenyon writes this. Some have said that prayer is the greatest opportunity ever afforded to a man in Christ. If this is true, then you can understand why there would be enemies to stand in the way of a prayer life. You can understand why the adversary would make it his business to see that the prayer life of an individual, the prayer life of a church, should be ineffective. Satan would not be a good general. He would not be a strategist unless the prayer life should be destroyed. You know, that's the enemy's goal. He wants to make your prayer life completely ineffective. EW Kenyon goes on and says this. A church is as powerful as its prayer life. The men and women who learn the secret of reaching the throne, getting the ear of God become dangerous to the hosts of darkness. Well, that's what God wants for us. He wants us to become so skillful that hell fears us. And so that's going to take time to learn that. That's going to take time to develop in that. One of the things that the strategies or the devices the devil uses against Christians to cause them to not develop is to rob them of their time through distractions. And last night we began talking in depth more about freeing ourselves from the distractions that rob us of what God has for us. I want us to read In Mark chapter 10, in verse 21, we'll read Mark chapter. Actually, I'm going to back up to verse 17. Mark chapter 10. And verse 17 it says this. And when Jesus was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, and that is God. Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said unto him, one thing, thou go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And come, take up the cross and follow me. And this rich young ruler, he was sad at that saying, and he went away, grieved, for he had great possessions. So I want you to see something here. This young man's actions show that he's completely sincere towards God. He's completely sincere towards Jesus. He's completely sincere towards spiritual things. He displays a hunger. I mean, his approach to Jesus was not just casually walking up to him. He ran to him, it said, and he knelt down before him. So he's taking a posture of worship. He's taking a posture of reverence and honor before Jesus. So his actions depict him as being sincere. And what does he do? He asks, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus told him, obey all the commandments. The young man answered this way. He says, well, I've been doing that all my life from the time I was a youth. Notice this. The young man says, the commandments are something that I've observed all my life. But notice, he recognized that still something was off in his life. He recognized that something was missing. What was it? Eternal life. And so he didn't. He came up and said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? So Living right and doing right is good, but that won't take the place of receiving eternal life. What is eternal life? It's the life and nature of God that comes in you at the new birth and causes you to become a new creature in Christ. It's the very life of God himself becoming your life. That that's why your spirit is made brand new, because it now has the new nature in it. It has God's nature in it. It no longer has the nature of the devil in it. And this young man recognized, my nature's all wrong. I'm obeying commandments, but I can tell that I don't have life. So this is what he's asking. What do I do to inherit eternal life? Even though he obeyed the commandments. Now, see, he said. Jesus said, obey all the commandments. The rich young ruler says, I've done that from my youth. But notice what Jesus said. He addressed something. He addressed. He said, one thing you lack. The one thing that was holding him back spiritually was that he trusted in his possessions. So notice this. It only takes one thing left unaddressed to rob us of the best that God has for us. This man was this young man. He was, if I could say this, he had a spiritual bend toward God. He was interested in pleasing God. He wanted to do right. He wanted to be pleasing to God. But evidently there was this one area. Now, see, if he's obeying all the commandments. Can I tell you this? If he's obeying all the commandments, then Jesus wouldn't have said, one thing you lack. Because the commandments will help deal with those things that would trip us up. So verse 21, it says this. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest. So I think it's so interesting that the word describes it this way. He describes Jesus love for this young man. And then it tells exactly what Jesus said. You're lacking something, I tell you, out of God's love. He tells us what we're lacking. That is a flow of his love, and that's showing. It's a manifestation of his love to point out what is distracting us and what's robbing from us, what God's best is for us. Jesus loved him so much that he was not willing to let the one thing that was robbing from this young man go without being acknowledged. He was pointing it out. He says, you lack one thing. And then he told him what it was. He loved his possessions. So, Jesus, what was he doing? The possessions? This young man had were a distraction in his life. They were distracting from his spiritual development. So what did Jesus do as a remedy so. So that this distraction wouldn't keep robbing him. Get rid of what's distracting you. Now. When Jesus told him, go sell all you have and give it to the poor, it wasn't because Jesus is against people having possessions. He's not against people having money. He was trying to point out to this young man, your love for your possessions is robbing you of your love for God. It's distracting you and keeping you out of God's beloved. So let's deal with that. Let's address that. I want you to know the more you give, it keeps greed out of your life. That's why it's so important that believers become givers. Because not only is that the nature of God, that's in us. God is a giver, and his nature is in us. To be true to the nature of God that's in us, we have to be givers. And so this is what this young man lacked. He. He was greedy in the sense of. He wanted to hold on to everything that he had. And Jesus was letting him know the way to break greed off of your life, to break that distraction of your possessions off your life. Give it away. Because Jesus wasn't trying to get it back. Get it away from him. Let me tell you, if this young man would have done what Jesus said, given everything he had to the poor, what's the Bible say? That he who gives to the poor, lends to the Lord and God will repay him. God would have repaid him more than he ever possessed before if he would have just done what Jesus said. But he saw what Jesus said as a subtraction from his life and not as Jesus trying to get more into his life. Listen, it said Jesus loved him. When you love someone, you're not trying to take something from them. And so he only pointed out what was distracting this young man and what was taking. Taking this young man's love for God off course was that he was holding and putting possessions in front of God. And that was going to keep him out of God's best. Now, notice this. The young man said that he had obeyed all the commandments from his youth. But I want to point out this to you. He's in violation of the first commandment. What's the first commandment? I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods but before me. So this young man was treating his possessions as a God. Why? Because he was serving them, he would not give up those possessions. So although he says, I've been doing the commandments from my youth, he has bypassed the very first commandment he has violated and in violation of that because he's putting something else in front of God. So what we see is this. What you're serving is what is your Lord. And this young man was serving his possessions. He showed himself to be serving his possessions because he refused to part with them to receive eternal life. Jesus is telling him this must be addressed. Your love, your misplacement, giving possessions the wrong placement in your life is robbing you of God's best. So we have to address this. This has to be changed if you want to go on further with God and have a fellowship with him. But his wealth was distracting him from his eternal salvation. Now, this is. This is a major distraction. But this is what the devil was using to keep this man out of God's best. After the young man left, Jesus called his disciples to him. And he used this situation to instruct his disciples. He said, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? So basically, Jesus was trying to help this young man enter into the kingdom of God, enter into what God was offering him, but he refused to let go. Now why did he refuse to let go? Because his possessions were his Lord. That's what he was serving. You know, so many times people will think, well, I have no other gods before me. They're thinking of a false God as some idol somewhere. You know, sometimes people's family is their Lord in the sense that they will obey family before they'll obey God. Whatever you're serving, whatever you're putting first is your Lord. Some people put their business. They have spent years and years building this personal business, and they're going to put that business first. They would not. If they have to miss church, attend to their business, they'll do that. That's called putting, having an idol. Anything that you put in front of God and obeying God is an idol and it will rob from your life. And it's one way that God, excuse me, that the devil distracts you from obeying God and having all that God has for you. Now, I want you to know there's a difference between Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord. Because Jesus Savior, he saves us from going to hell. But Jesus as Lord means that he's first in every aspect of our lives. And so if Jesus is Lord, he's going to want to have something to say about how we live. Our lives. Now there are people who, they want to miss hell. They want to go to heaven. And listen, I do too. Everyone ought to want to miss hell and go to heaven, but not everyone wants Jesus as their Lord because they want to give Jesus their heart, but they want to keep their life for their own use. They want to give him their heart, so to speak, but they want him to come into their heart and they want to go to heaven, but they still want to live life the way according to their own plan and according to their own purpose. And this is what this young man ran into. He wanted Jesus to save him. He wanted to receive eternal life, but he didn't want to make any changes to move God into the position of lordship. He wasn't willing to remove the possessions from the position of lordship. And so because of that, he walked away without what he needed. Now, the Bible doesn't record, maybe later he changed his mind. Maybe later he saw the futility of that bad decision. But I would say this. When he walked away from Jesus without making the change Jesus called for, I can't imagine that he ever enjoyed his possessions quite the same again, that he could look at those possessions and say, wow, they would preach to him of how he walked away from Jesus that day. But there are people who, when Jesus is Lord, they don't understand that he's going to want to have something to say about their lives. When Jesus is Lord, he's going to want to have something to say about where you go, what you do, who you hang out with, how you use your mouth, what kind of activities you participate in. He's going to want to have something to say about those things if he is Lord. So this young man wanted to receive eternal life, but he didn't want to change what needed to be changed. I tell you what it says in verse 22. It said this young man was sad at what Jesus said to him and he went away grieved for he had great possessions. Well, we really know he didn't have great possessions. Great possessions had him. And we know he didn't receive eternal life that day because he went away grieved. People who will change and come into agreement with what God tells them to do, they don't walk away grieved, they walk away joyful. So Jesus wasn't telling him, as we said, to get rid of wealth. Wealth is not the problem. What's the problem is the wrong thing we put in front of God the wrong thing, saying that we make Lord instead of God. And so this is what Jesus was trying to get this man to correct. You know, when we obey God and lay aside what distracts us, he's able to bring us into the best that he has for us. But we have to be willing to lay aside what's distracting us. I remember when I first got saved, I. God began dealing with me about relationships in my life and fellowship that was in my life. And he basically began dealing with me about stepping away from those relationships. Well, those relationships were. I mean, I lived by myself. I was single. You know, I didn't have family there. And those relationships that I had from forged, they were my only, if I could say, this social life. And so God began dealing with me about separating from that. And I'm thinking, well, I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't have these people. Who do I have to socialize with? So basically, I put what God said to me on the back burner. And I didn't do anything about it. I didn't act on it. Well, I want you to know this. My spiritual life didn't progress any further. I could not just keep disobeying what God was dealing with me about and going further. Because wherever we won't make a change, that's our stopping place. That's the place we don't grow past. You know, I remember something that dad Hagin told a story about a woman. He was in a church and he was holding a. He had been there for several weeks. And he said it was some of the most difficult meetings he had been in. He said it was hard preaching. There was no move of the Spirit. There had been no outbreak of the gifts of the Spirit in manifestation. He said it was just very difficult going. And he said, so I decided one day that I was going to spend extra time praying so that we could have, so to speak, a revival or an outpouring to happen. And so he said that night he went to the service and he said a young man stood up at the beginning of the service and gave a prophecy. And he said, when that young man gave that prophecy, he said the anointing of God fell and a revival was on. They were in the middle of an outpouring. After the service that night, dad Hagin went back to his room where he was staying, and there was something bothering him. And he said, God, he said, okay. He says, I need to have it out. He said, because I need to talk with you about something. He said, today when I was driving downtown, I saw that young man that was in the service that prophesied tonight, I saw him go into a dark dive. Now that's the phrase dad Hagin said. Now I don't know what a dark dive. I mean to different people and different times and different seasons, cities, that phrase means something different. But it was just a place he shouldn't have been in, a place that was obviously wrong for a Christian to go into. And he said, I have a problem because I saw this young man go into that dark dive. Yet you used him to cause really the outbreak of a revival in these meetings. And I don't understand that. He, he said, there's dear old sister so and so. And he named, you know, Sister Smith or whatever her name was, that she is, you know, a 80 year old woman who's been part of this church ever since its beginning. She's here for every service. She's a praying woman, she's a giving woman. I mean she's a centerpiece. And you know, she's a pillar in this church. You could have used her, but you didn't. You used this young man that I saw go into a dark dive. And he says, I'm bothered by that. And he said when he said that to God, God said, okay, I'll tell you about dear Sister smith. He said, 50 years ago I called her to go as a missionary to the foreign field. And she told me no. He said, she's been sitting in that church for 50 years in disobedience to me. He said, now let me tell you about the young man today. You saw him go into that dark dive. But what you, you didn't see after you drove by, he caught himself as soon as he got in the door and he said he repented before me. Father, I repent. I have no business being in this place. He turned around and walked out and he said, you didn't see him walk out of that place, but you just assumed because you saw Sister Smith there that she was the one that I should use. And he says, you just don't know. You don't know all the things that were, that were involved in that. Well, course when God told him that, then he understood. What did I tell you that reason for notice this dear Sister Smith, because she told God no, 50 years ago, even though she's in church, she still didn't develop in his eyes where she should have been and could have been because she did not make changes to come into agreement with what God told her to do or what God's plan was for her life. So this is what happens with this young man, he did not come into agreement with the change that Jesus offered him. God was trying to point him into more. Jesus was trying to bring him into more. He was trying to bring him into eternal life. But this young man did not. He was not willing to make the change. I tell you what, for this young man, the change was, you're going to have to quit giving possessions the first place in your life you need to get rid of your possessions. But like I said, God would have loaded him back up with possessions, more than he had ever had before if he'd obeyed. But for somebody else, it may be get out of relationship. That's what it was for me. And I know this, that I didn't progress spiritually further until I got out of the relationship and I made the change that God was telling me to make for someone else. Maybe someone else is an offense. Until they change that, it's going to hinder their spiritual progress. It's going to hinder their prayer life. And so the devil will use all these kinds of things to distract us and hold us out of God's best. Now notice this. Jesus gave a call to this young man. He said, go sell all you have. Give it to the poor. He said, take up your cross and follow me. Do you know that is the exact same words, follow me that he said to Peter and to the other disciples that became the 12 apostles around him. Notice this young man just wasn't treated like one of the crowd. He was extended by Jesus an invitation to come into his inner circle. And the young man declined that invitation because he was holding on possessions. Let me say this. He refused to make changes. He refused to change what was distracting him from God's best. But notice this. Even though Jesus loved him, it did not change the fact that he still required changes in his life. God loves us, but he's still going to call for changes in our life. You know, people will say and get this idea, well, God loves me no matter what. Yes, he loves you. But to take you for further into what he has, there has to be change. And the Word says we are changed from glory to glory. So God's telling us this, if you will make the changes, My Word shows you and my spirit speaks to you. You will come into more glory. If you will do that, more glory awaits us. And so the Word tells us this. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. He corrects. God doesn't chasten us through difficulty, sickness, hardship. He chastens us through His Word and by his spirit. So I Don't know about you, but I want to make the changes necessary because I want to go on with God. I want to go further with Him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Well, I want you to see something we've been talking about, of course, making time in our lives so that we can prepare, progress spiritually so that we can go further with the things of God. God has so much for us and he offers us so much. But it's going to take time to become skillful in what he has made ours. As we said, the Word tells us, work out your own salvation. It takes time for us to learn how to work the salvation that belongs to us. It takes time for us to become skillful with the benefits and privileges. You know, healing belongs to us, but it takes time for us to learn how to become skillful with healing power. Prosperity belongs to us, but it takes time for us to become skillful in prosperity. Truths. Wisdom belongs to us, but it takes time for us to renew our minds with the word of God so that we can walk in the wisdom of God, so that we can have minds that think like he thinks. One of the things that we've been talking about is that one of the primary ways or things that the devil uses to rob us of our time is to bring distractions into our lives. We have to learn to recognize what is distracting me, what's keeping me from moving forward spiritually, because I must give time to my prayer life, time to the Word, so that I can move forward spiritually. What is it that is distracting me because I want to change that. I want to cut that out of my life. If you would go with me to Acts, chapter 15. And we're going to start reading in verse 36, Acts, chapter 15, verse 36. And we'll read through verse 40. And it reads this. And some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought it not good to take him with them because he had departed from them previously and went not with them on the work. And the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed, and Paul chose Silas and departed. So the setting is, is that Paul is saying, we, we need to go back to all the places that we've ministered to, to the different congregations, and we need to encourage them. We need to see how they're doing, we need to check up on the fruit of our, of our vineyard. And so Barnabas and I want you to see the word here because some people would think that Paul was the one that was wrong. But we see where the contention and the problem arise. In verse 37 it says and Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. So what was the problem? When Barnabas got determined that something was going to be done his way, that became a stumbling block, that became a distraction to keep him from going further. Now you have to know this. God is the one that put Paul and Barnabas together. By divine assistance the Spirit of God spoke and in Acts chapter 13 and he said, separate unto me, Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them. So God called Paul and Barnabas together and they served together, they ministered together, they were a mighty team together. But notice what happened along the way. Paul Barnabas got determined that something was going to go his way and he put his determination in front of what God said. God said that they were to go together and Barnabas was trying to insert Mark and people it stated that Mark was a relative of Barnabas. So we see this, that Barnabas sailed off the pages of history that day because he was distracted by his determination he determined was going to be his way. He determined to bring his family member into this divine union of Paul and Barnabas. This, this divine team working together. Barnabas determined I'm going to get my family involved in on this. And Paul said no because on a previous trip when we ran into persecution, Mark fled. Well you can imagine that Mark, Mark fled. There would be a couple of reasons. He wasn't prepared for that kind of persecution. Another thing is you can know that that was a distraction for Paul So Paul declined to take Mark on the trip. Paul wasn't just trying to get his way, but Barnabas was trying to add something different other than what God said. And because he did, he set off the pages of history that day. The Holy Ghost never saw fit to record another thing that Barnabas did. Now we know this. Barnabas wouldn't have backslidden and gone into the world and gone into a life of sin. He probably went on in ministry but the Holy Ghost didn't record any more ministry that he accomplished because he did not stay with what God instructed him to do. He got distracted by his own determination. He determined something else was going to be his way. You know how many times people in a marriage, God puts a marriage together and Somebody in that marriage determines that they're going to get their way and they end up destroying that marriage. Well, that's a distraction from God's best. That is something that keeps people from going as far as God wants them to go because they determine something's going to be their way. And look at this. Barnabas was a spiritual man. I tell you, we have have to watch ourselves. No matter how far we grow spiritually, we have to keep the flesh under. We have to keep personal preferences under. We have to put first and hold first. What did God instruct us to do and stay faithful to what God told us to do so that we don't veer from that. As I said, we never hear from Barnabas again. Although he probably went on to do more ministry, it was never really recorded about him again. As I said, there were two reasons that Paul did not want to take Mark with him. Number one, he recognized Mark is not prepared to face the kind of persecution we face. So if I could say it this way, he was trying to protect Mark. He wasn't trying to keep Barnabas from winning his way. He was trying to protect Mark. Because Mark had been on that previous journey and fled when persecution arose. He knew that spiritually he was not ready to face what Paul and Barnabas faced on a regular basis. So he was protecting him. I remember when I married my husband back in 1984. We had only been married two weeks and we were down in Florida holding meetings. And one night we were in the hotel room, we'd gone to sleep that night. And I was awakened five times that night with a dream. And in all five of those dreams, Satan appeared to me and made threats against me. And I won't go into all of that, but I thought, something's the matter with me. I mean, as a Methodist girl, I never had Satan to appear to me. But within two weeks after marrying this man, I've had Satan appear to me five times in one night. And I remember because, you see, you have to understand, I didn't even know what the fivefold ministry was. I never even heard of the five fold ministry. I was young in spiritual things. I was not developed. I did not know even a fraction of what my husband had experienced in the ministry. I was spiritually immature. And that night Satan appeared to me. The fifth time he appeared to me and I could see him at a distance. All of a sudden, there's a face of my brother that appeared nose to nose with me and said, intercession has been made. It's broken. Notice this Jesus ever liveth to make intercession. Because I was a spiritual baby, because my mind was not renewed with the Word. I didn't know how to take authority over that thing. When Satan appeared to me, I should have spoken to that in the name of Jesus and told him to stop and desist in his maneuvers against me. But being a spiritual baby, I didn't know my authority. I didn't know to speak to it. So Jesus, whoever liveth to make intercession, he interceded for me. He stepped in and dealt with that situation for me. What was he doing? He was protecting me because he knew I was in. If I could say this, I was out beyond my own knowledge. I was in a setting that was beyond my ability to succeed on my own. Notice this I told my husband. Well afterwards, you know, when my husband and I were talking about it, I told him what happened. And he said, well honey, he said that happened to you because I stand in the prophets office and you married a prophet and so you're going to get attacked. So I, of course I didn't understand even at that time quite what that meant to say he stood in the prophet's office. But I will say this. When I joined to my husband, I got tested at his level. I wasn't getting tested at my level anymore. I was getting tested at the level of the one I joined with. Paul recognized this. If Barnabas causes Mark to be joined to us, Mark is going to get tested at Paul and Barnabas level. He's not going to get tested at his own level anymore. And he might not be able to withstand that degree of a test. So really Paul was trying to protect Mark because Paul, evidently Mark needed to do more growing and developing even though he, he was probably a minister and a preacher. You know, as a pastor, it's important not to put novices or spiritually young people in positions of leadership that they aren't ready for because they're going to get attacked by the enemy when they move into positions of authority. And they need to have some spiritual growth and development and some renewing of the mind and some spiritual skill to withstand those attacks, attacks and overcome them. You know, just because someone can sing well doesn't mean they're ready to be on the front platform. Just because someone can administrate doesn't mean they're ready to take the lead in your ministry. They must be given time to grow. They must be given time to develop spiritually so they don't get tripped up and taken off course. I mean, There are people that are on my staff right now that 20 years ago I knew that they would occupy occupy a leadership position, but I knew that it wasn't time for them to be put in that position until they had time to grow and develop just like everyone else. Why? Because I'm more interested in their success than I am in getting my position filled. This is what Paul was. This is his mindset toward Mark. He was more interested in Mark not getting taken off course or Mark not being overcome than just having another traveling companion with them. To put someone in a position they aren't ready for is to put them at risk and contribute to their downfall. Paul was protecting Mark. And being a relative to Barnabas didn't mean that Mark was going to get to spiritually bypass the proper steps to grow and to develop and to mature. He still needed to develop and grow and mature. You know, I met, married my husband. He was almost 20 years in the ministry, a precious man of God. I mean, he was a bold man of God. He had a developed faith. He had a developed walk with God. But just because my husband was developed didn't mean I was developed. I still had to take the time to develop, and I'm still taking the time to develop. And just because someone is a relative of a minister doesn't mean. Mean that they get to bypass the development process. You know, success isn't automatic. No matter who you're related to, you're not going to succeed just because you're related to someone or have an acquaintance or you're friends with someone who's a leader in a church or in a ministry that doesn't ensure your success. There were ministers who are around Paul that failed. I mean, there were different ones that Paul listed in his letters that walked away from him and left him because they loved the world and they left him to go back into the world. And so just being around ministers and people that are successful in ministry doesn't ensure our success. We have to spiritually grow and develop. You know, my family serves with me in the ministry, but they have to go through the exact same steps of spiritual growth and faithfulness like everyone else. I put a demand on them that they have to that if I'm to contribute to their success, I put a demand on them that they grow up spiritually and that they develop spiritually. If I just treat them like they don't have to develop their prayer life, they don't have to develop their faith life. They don't have to develop, you know, their life in the Word they don't have to renew their mind. I'm contributing to their downfall and I'm not going to do that to my family. This is what Jesus when he was dealing with this rich young ruler, he wasn't going to contribute to that young man's downfall by saying, yeah, you can follow me, even though you love possessions more than me. Jesus knew that that would be a downfall for him and he wasn't going to contribute to that man's downfall. And you know, my husband being the man of God, he was my kids, my sons, my daughter in law, my grandchildren was succeed just because their dad was so spiritual. He was a precious spiritual man of God. But they have to be doers of the Word for themselves. And this is what we have to understand. It takes time to develop as doers of the Word. Now the second reason, of course, Paul was protecting Mark. That was the first reason that he wasn't going to take them, take Mark with them. And really it played out, didn't it? Because the next place that Paul and Silas go, they're beaten and thrown in prison. Now that's what would have happened to Mark. And so Paul was protecting Mark from that setting. And really we can tell that Paul didn't have anything against Mark specifically because later in his travels he called for Mark to come and accompany him. So we see he didn't have anything against Mark. He just knew that Mark wasn't ready for what they would be facing. The second reason that Paul would not allow Mark to be taken on the journey with him and Barnabas was that Mark would become a distraction because they were making this trip to encourage and strengthen believers. So they needed some, they needed to take someone with, with them that was strong enough to strengthen others. They didn't need to take someone that they had to strengthen. And so Mark would have been a distraction. Although he was a preacher, he was not ready for the persecution they would face and they would be having to, so to speak, hold him up. Mark was, Paul was right in not taking Mark. Because I tell you, when they were sitting in that prison, we don't know if Mark would have known to pray and sing praises after he had been beaten and thrown in prison. This is what Paul and Silas did. They were thrown in prison, they were beaten and the Word didn't say, they complained, The Word didn't say, they said, that's it, I'm quitting the ministry. This is too hard. No, the Word says they prayed and sang praises. When you're in a setting like that, you need a companion who knows how to praise. You don't want a companion that would get frustrated, frightened and run from that scene. Not everyone has the faith or knows how to praise after they've been beaten and thrown in prison. And so this was what Paul was protecting Mark from. What am I saying all that for is to say this is. We have to keep from our lives those people who would be distractions from our spiritual progress. We love everybody. But you cannot have close fellowship and let someone speak into your life if they are going to be a distraction for your life. You know, there are some people who, they love the flow of the world. They're going to keep one foot, you know, supposedly in the church and one foot in the world that'll be hindrance to you. You need to find different fellowship because that will slow you down and become a distraction to you now because the devil will use distractions to slow us down and to hinder us in our prayer life, in our spiritual development. How do we keep from being distracted? Well, one way is we need to simplify our lives. How do we simplify our lives? Well, dad Hagin used to always say so many times we heard him in sermons, services especially when there were a lot of ministers present. He would always say this, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. What was he saying? He's saying you are too busy with natural things and because of that it's affecting your, it's having an effect on your ministry and how far reaching your ministry can be. Many times we're too busy to study, too busy to pray, too busy even with the work of the ministry. I remember something that I heard years ago. A precious man of God, Billy Graham, when he was celebrating his 80th birthday, he was on a talk show and the talk show host said something to Billy Graham. He said, you know, there are a lot of men who get toward the end of their life and regret that the way they lived, they have wasted their life, they've wasted so much time. And he said, you must be so pleased at the closing years of your life, how you've lived your life. And I'll never forget it. Because Billy Graham as an 80 year old man made a statement. He said, I am the greatest failure of all men. He said, because I was in too many meetings, I was with too many people when I should have been more with God. If I would have been more with God, people would have sensed more of God about me when they were with me. So here it was, an 80 year old man looking back and saying, I did too many meetings I was doing too much of the work of the ministry. This is what dad Hagin would warn us about. Busy, busy, busy. Yes, there's a work of the ministry. Yes, it's a joy. Yes, it's a privilege. But the work of the ministry is no substitute for time with God. It's no substitute for time in prayer. It's no substitute for time in the Word. Remember what it says in Acts, chapter 6. The apostles said, we will not leave prayer in the ministry of the Word to serve tables. They weren't saying that they were too good to serve tables. They were saying that. That we can't do all the natural business of the ministry and also fulfill our place in prayer and the Word. So this is what dad Hagin would warn us about so often when he would say busy, busy, busy. We must remember to never let the work of the ministry distract us from time with the Lord of the Ministry. Because this is where we get off course as we start preparing, putting the work first instead of putting the Lord of the work first. Now, In Psalms chapter 46 and verse 10, it says this. Be still and know that I am God. Look at the words, Be still and know that I am God. If we're to know him as we ought, we must be still enough to spend time with Him. We can be so busy running around trying to do that. We are doing it apart from Him. We're leaving him out of it. We're trying to do it ourselves. What only he can really accomplish through us. Yes, he works through us. But our doing will only be effective after we have been still enough to spend time with Him. So it says, be still and know that I am God. Let me put it to you this way. There are some things that can only be learned in the stillness. The stillness of feeding on the Word, the stillness of prayer, the stillness of praying in the Spirit, the stillness of getting away from distractions. There are some things that you'll only hear in the stillness. And the Word talks about how when God speaks, it's as a still, small voice. Some people live their lives so loudly that they can't hear that stillness. They can't hear his voice in the stillness. Some people live their lives at such a pace that they are running past his voice. They don't hear it anymore because they're not still enough to hear. So the Word warns us and encourages us and instructs us, be still and know that I am God. It's a bad habit of the flesh to always be running. Everything has to be at turbo speed. Everything is so highly accelerated because that ends up costing us much. And this is what God began dealing with me about some time ago is about time, how important it is that we give God the time to be still so that we can know him. You know, Jesus said, I only say what I hear my Father say. Now, you think of all the multitudes pulling on Jesus. You think of all the multitudes wanting his attention. But notice this. He still took time to hear what God had to say. Even though he was a son of God, he still needed to take time to hear, what do I say to the people? Because Jesus said, I only say what I hear my Father say. He said, I only do what I see my Father do. Jesus had those times of stillness so that he could hear and so that he could see. And in that, that's where he knew. That's how he knew what miracles were to happen throughout that day. Who was he to minister to, what city was he to travel to, what approach was he to take? He heard that in the stillness. And there are some things you'll never learn about your life, you'll never learn about your ministry, until you get still enough to know it, still enough to hear what God would say to you about it. I want to close with this. In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1, the Amplified says, In verse 1 and 2, of course, this passage is preceded by talking about all these wonderful, great heroes of faith. And he says this in Hebrews 12. 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance, unnecessary weight, and that sin which so readily and cleverly clings to and entangles us. And let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us. Looking away from all that will distract to Jesus. Now listen to the wording of what the Amplified says. Looking away from all that will distract. There is so much that will distract. Distractions come in so many forms and in so many places and so many times of our day that we need to learn. Wait a minute. This is a distraction to hold me out, you know, I know this. I'm so grateful for the times we got to be in dad Hagin's meetings. We were so grateful, had the privilege to be there, but we spent time. We spent money to travel there, to stay there in hotels for the meals. It cost us something, but it was worth something to us. So many people, many times miss being where they should be because they're distracted by the cost of how much would it cost us to go to that conference? And so they don't come. You know, there were many that could have come but didn't because they were saving money. Saving money is a distraction from the plan of God. When that money is there to help you fulfill the plan of God, help you gain more of what you need to fulfill the plan of God. It's not to be used as a distraction. It's not to be used that you're serving it. And so we're to lay aside, we have to lay these things aside. We have to take charge of our flesh. And I tell you, this last Day era, we're going to see full measure of the fivefold offices, full measure, full potential power of the nine manifestations of the Spirit. But we're going to have to be so skillful with that degree of power. That degree of skill will only come as we take time to be in the presence of God. I'm so grateful for these times, the last several days that we've gotten to spend with you and just talk about these things and minister about these things. And I want to pray with you before we close tonight. Father, I'm so grateful for the greatness of your plan. Every plan that you form is great. You've never planned anything but greatness. And so we're so thankful that we have been a part of these meetings to get to hear these things. And Father, we purpose to be doers of that which we hear. We purpose to make changes that are needed. We purpose to lay aside. It's not God removing them from us, it's us choosing to lay them aside. And God will help us do that. But it's our choice. So we choose that you are not only our Savior, Jesus, you are our Lord. We put you first time with you, time to hear, time to be with you. And everybody said 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.