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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Walking In Our Authority | Nancy Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Turn with me to Psalms chapter 8 this morning. Psalms chapter 8. For those of you who weren't here on Tuesday night, Pastor Ike came and he preached on Dominion. God had had me studying on it for the last month or so, and so I was going to teach on that and go in that same direction. But Psalm chapter 8 and verse 4, when we talk about our inheritance in Christ, how many of you know? Because we belong to Christ, all of heaven's best is ours. What's in our inheritance? Well, healing is in our inheritance. Fellowship with the Father is in our inheritance. Prosperity is in our inheritance. Peace for our minds is part of our inheritance. Joy. All these things are part of our inheritance. But another thing that is so large, such a large part of our inheritance is authority over the works of darkness. That's part of our inheritance, that. That we have authority over the God of this world. And First Corinthians 4, 4 calls Satan the God of this world. No, he's not the creator of it. Our Heavenly Father is the creator of it. And God turned the earth over to Adam, and then Adam, when he sinned, turned that authority over to the devil. And that's how he became the God of this world. And that's how come we see all the hurt, all the harm, all the crisis, all the tragedy, all the heartbreak in the earth is because of the God of, not because our Heavenly Father, who created this place, people will say, oh, God's in control. Don't say things like that. In the earth, God's in control of heaven, but the earth has he given to the children of men. And so people will say, God's in control. Well, if he's in control, he's doing a mighty poor job with all the death, all the suffering. Why? Because God's not in control of the world. He handed that authority over to man. Amen. So we have to think rightly and know that in Christ we have an authority restored to us that was even really greater than Adam. Because he didn't have the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus. He did not have the infilling of the Holy Ghost. He did not have what we have. God came and talked to Adam in the cool of the day. You think, well, that's better than what we got. Are you kidding? We've been raised and seated at the right hand of the Father. God doesn't just come to where we're at. He raised Us to his level, to his place of occupying. So we have been given more than what Adam had. We are in Christ, one with him. Amen. So our authority is part of that inheritance that has been made ours because we belong to Christ. Those who do not use their authority in this life will live a beat up life. I'm talking about Christians. I'm not talking about the world. Those in Christ who do not exercise their authority will live whipped in this world. Yes, they'll go to heaven when they leave this earth, but they will suffer all the way there until they use their authority. Parents will have a home they don't enjoy when they don't use their authority in the home. Right. If you let kids run the home, parents are going to hate their life. They're going to not enjoy their life. My mother used to say to us 4 kids, my life is too short to live with 4 kids I can't live with. Meaning this. You're not gonna ruin my life. You're not running this rodeo. And parents who do not stand up and take their parental voice and exercise their parental authority will have children that talk back to them, disrespect them, dishonor the home, dishonor the parents, dishonor relatives, dishonor the items in the. And why is it for one reason the parent did not use their authority. They handed their authority over to their children. You say, well, I didn't hand it to my authority to my children. When you laid down your authority, they picked it up. Authority does not lie inactive. Somebody's gonna take. Might as well be the one paying the bills. If you don't pay the mortgage, you don't vote, baby. There's one thing I so appreciated about my mother. She understood who wore the authority in the home. And because of that, the children were raised soundly and safely and with right thinking. Well, even so, now that you belong to God, he restores back to you the authority. But don't get used to being pushed around by the devil. It's a different life for you now. You're a new creature in Christ. And all things are made new. All things are made new. That means I'm not pushed around in life anymore. I'm doing the one that's. I'm in the mastery seat. Amen. Psalms, chapter 8 and verse 4, it says this. What is man that thou art mindful of him. God is mindful of us. We're in his thoughts. Everything he does is with us in mind. Thou art mindful of him. And the Son of Man that Thou visitest him. For thou hast made man a little lower than the angels. Now the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the word for in Hebrew is not the word angels. The word is Elohim. So it's the name of God himself. So it should read this. For thou has made him a little lower than God. Well, how can we be even in the same class of being as God? Because he's a spirit and he made us a spirit. He said let us make man in our image. What is the image of us that is like God? Our spirits. He's a spirit being. He made us a spirit being. Just cause you can see your flesh, that's not all you are. That's the only part that can be seen with the naked eye. But you have a spirit and that's the part of you that is like God. And that is what? Because. Because you have that, it throws you into the category of being a little lower than God. You have a spirit like him. Amen, Verse five. Thou hast made him a little lower than God and has crowned him with glory and honor. God made man to have dominion. Look at that phrase. God made man to have dominion. Dominion fits you authority. A God given divine authority fits you. And when you're not using your authority, you're not wearing the fit. Well, things aren't working in life when we don't wear our authority and exercise the dominion that he made us to exercise. Well, Pastor Nancy, I'm just kind of a quiet person. I'm not talking about your personality. I'm talking about a divine authority that is part of your spiritual inheritance. That authority has been delegated to you as a spirit being, as a child of God. And this is not about your personality. And you better not live your life and conduct your home and conduct your business just based on your personality. You better do it based on the word. If I pastored based on my personality, this church wouldn't be here today. Because I am not naturally in myself confrontational. But I had to become and put on the authority of the pastoral office to protect this church family to keep wrong things out. If you're going to obey God, you're going to have to go against your flesh. Now listen to me on that statement. If you're going to obey God, you're going to have to go against your flesh. And if you let your flesh determine how far you obey God, you'll always have a lesson flow than what God authored for you. God made you for dominion. He made you to be in charge of the scope of your realm, not in charge of the neighbor, not in charge of all your relatives down there, in charge of your domain. God made you for dominion. Thou hast made man to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet. Ephesians Chapter one. Go with us. Ephesians Chapter one. And this is a prayer that Paul of course prayed and we should be praying this. Ephesians chapter one and verse 19. And we won't read the whole passage, but it says that God would give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the knowledge of him, the eyes of our spirits being enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us would who believed according to the working of his mighty power. Verse 20. Which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places where far above. Far above. Far above. Not barely above. Far above. All principality, all power, all might, all dominion. He's letting us know. All of these evil powers tried to hinder and hold back Jesus being raised from the dead. They all opposed him being raised from the dead. But he was raised past every principality, every power that tried to hold him back and hold him down and abort that. He was raised far above. All principality and power and might and dominion. And every name that is named, every name of sickness, every name of disease tried to oppose him being raised, but it was too late. He bore it and he went down to hell. And he overcame in that location. And God raised him by his power past all of those hindrances. All of that opposition raised him far above him, far above him. And that power not only raised him, it seated him at the highest seat in the universe next to God, the right hand, the father. Amazing. Verse 22. And God hath put all things under Jesus feet, gave Jesus to be the head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all, in all. Jesus is the head. The body of Christ is his body. Everything your head has, your body has. It's a shared. It's a shared flow from the head to the body. If you want to get up and you want to leave this room after the service and walk out those doors, your head decides that, but your body fulfills it. Your head does not fulfill it. People are wanting God to fulfill things, Jesus to fulfill things. He directs things for the body to fulfill. We were made for the dominion that flows from the head. It is a shared authority, a shared dominion. If he wants the body to fulfill what the head instructs, then the body has to have the same authority as the head. And the body has to use the authority that it has. And religious thinking is sitting back waiting for Jesus to do everything when he has made us one in authority so that we can carry out what the head instructs. The doing is done by the body. Amen. So Jesus was raised far above these things. In Ephesians chapter 2, just look down a few verses. Ephesians 2, 4 says, But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. That mean made us alive together with Christ by grace ye are saved. And hath raised us together and made us sit together in heavenly places. In Christ Jesus, when the head was raised, the body wasn't left below. When the head was raised far above, the body was raised far above. We were raised with him. Why? Because the head and the body moved together. When people don't walk in their authority, they don't understand who's their head. They don't understand that they are. They are the body that carries out the directive of the head. So you can't just go anywhere you want. What if my arm decided it just wanted to go somewhere else? Maybe go sit at Starbucks during church? My arm can't just pick up and go anywhere it wants. We are part of the body of Christ. We can't just pick up and go anywhere we want. We have to follow where the head tells us to be and when we're where. And this is what Grant was talking about during the offering. When we are where God told us to be, then we can exercise. And there is a flow of authority that happens. And when we exercise our faith, it works because the body is where it's supposed to be, with the head, following the head, obeying the head, moving with the head. Amen. So verse 6. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is a seat of authority we occupy. Listen, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. We are seated with him. This is not his chair. And then millions and billions of chairs along by him. The body sits where the head sits. Your body sits in one chair and so does your head sit in that same chair. You don't have your head sitting back on row 14 with your body on row 2. They sit, they Occupy the same. When God sees the head, Jesus, he sees the body. When we are approaching the Father's throne, no wonder it says in Hebrews 4:16, come boldly to the throne of grace. Why? Because you have a seat here. You belong in this seat of authority. You belong in the Father's presence. Don't draw back because of something you failed. You're under what the head did for you. Amen. Praise the Lord. We have a shared authority, Jesus. The authority entrusted to Jesus is shared with the body. And if the body doesn't do it, he can't get it done. The devil does not want you to know the authority you have. Why? Because when you know the authority, he's done pushing you around. When you know the authority and you exercise the authority, and just because you have the authority doesn't mean you're exercising it. You can see parents all around in the world that have the authority saved or unsaved because they gave birth to a child. They are automatically in the position of parental authority. And if they don't use that authority, the authority still belongs to them. And they cannot even be watchful over their own children. Their own children being younger can go out, commit a crime, and the law goes after the parent. Why? Because the parent had a responsibility with the parental authority. And if they're not using that authority, they get themselves at risk. I mean, even with the law of the land, how much more so spiritually if a parent does not exercise their authority, just not using it doesn't mean you're not responsible for. Does not release you from the responsibility of it. Praise the Lord. The devil wants you ignorant of the authority that's yours. Because he wants to keep pushing the buttons in your life. He wants to determine the steps you take and the directions you go. He wants to determine what the circumstances, outcome is in your life. But you have to take and occupy that seat of authority. Exercise your authority. Can I say this? Every day you need to be resisting something. Yeah. Every day, exercise yourself in authority. Every day, exercise yourself in authority. You need to be resisting symptoms, you need to be resisting lack, you need to be resisting worry, you need to be resisting thoughts, you need to be ever mindful that you're resisting something. You're not trying to win it, you've already won it. You're just refusing what God's doing, what Jesus has won for you from being stolen from you. So you have to resist it. You know, the lottery winners in this world have all kinds of people that approach them, relatives, all of a sudden, love them, and they have to constantly resist someone trying to take that money because it's publicized, who won to $54 million. And you get all these people after it. Why? From then on, it's a watchful thing. When you have something now, you're responsible. Responsible to protect something. When you have a marriage covenant now, you're responsible to protect it. When you have children, you're responsible to protect it. When you have a church family, you're responsible to protect it. When you have a position in the body of Christ, you're responsible to protect it. It is a life of resisting to keep things from being stolen from us. And if you don't exercise yourself in authority, every day, something's going to take from you that day. Every day. It is a lifestyle of resisting, not of fighting. Resisting. Amen. It's not an ongoing fight. We're just fighting. No, we're fighting the good fight of faith, but we're resisting the devil. Amen. So the devil does not want you to know that you have a right to resist everything that opposes your inheritance. He wants you. He wants you relying on somebody else to resist. He wants you to rely on God resisting. God's not going to resist what you're authorized to resist. Amen. People say, well, if it's God's will, it'll happen. That doesn't work. I don't know what scripture you're basing that on. Jesus said, so be it done unto you according to your faith. It doesn't say, so be it done unto you according to the plan of God. You're going to have to. You've got a part to play. You've got a part to play. And faith is your part. And the flow of faith. One flow of faith is resisting. Faith will resist the wrong thing. It doesn't just receive the right thing. It will resist the wrong thing. Amen. And you better be good at resisting. And if you're not good at resisting as parents, your house is going to be tore up. I mean, my mother, she said, with us growing up, there was the living room and that was kept for guests. She had all of her glass and all her fine wares and all her little ditties that were laid out. And, brother, we didn't touch them. And if we even walked in the room, she resisted us. If we went to touch something that was breakable, that was hers, she resisted us. She handled us. And this is the way that we have to live life. I'm handling something that tries to resist and steal from me. I'm exercising My authority. Amen. And it's not a human, just natural authority, it's a shared authority with Jesus. He gave you that authority and he expects you to use it. Amen. Jesus said, you'll know the truth and the truth will make you free. Why are so many people's lives in a mess? They don't know the truth of their authority. They're just waiting for the devil to leave them alone and cross their fingers and hope he sees their little. Their little, you know. Well, I'm sending up good vibes. I remember. Remember the story of Ed said that somebody told him that years ago. He was asking him, well, what are you believing about God? He said, well, I just believe if you hook your wagon to a lucky star, everything will turn out all right. Well, where's the wagon and where's the star? But that's really the way a lot. And as a Christian, hook your wagon up to a lucky star. You better know something. You know the truth and the truth will make you free. What you know determines how free you live and how you exercise what you know determines how free you live. Remember what Hosea said, my people are destroyed. Destroyed for what? Lack of knowledge? When you don't know, the destroyer knows something. And the destroyer will take advantage of your ignorance. Praise the Lord. Christians will sometimes say, why God let this happen to me? And if we could hear God's response, he'd say, why are you letting that happen to you? And people blame God for how the things that went wrong, their bad upbringing, their hardships and in life, how people have treated them, how their marriage turned out, how their kids turned out, and they're blaming God when we have to say, why are we not using our authority to change those things? God gave you authority. Change it if you want it changed. But a lot of people are just looking for someone to blame. They're not looking for something to change. But God given authority and dominion puts a demand on you that you use it and you grow skillful in using your dominion and authority. Matthew 18:18. Jesus made this statement. He said, verily I say unto you, whatsoever you bind on earth, whatsoever you bind, whatsoever. This is how the verse starts. Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Heaven makes no movement until you do something. In other words, it's up to you to initiate the use of authority. It's not up to heaven to tell you, hey, do this, hey, do that, hey, take authority over this, hey, take authority over that. When you see something out of place, take authority. And when you do, what's this mean? That whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. It means heaven will back you up. Heaven's power is back of your authority. So that when you exercise your authority, his power will meet that to make sure that what you said is fulfilled. That's what he means. So don't hesitate and stand back from exercising your authority just because you don't feel God or see God. Power will be there to make sure that what you. The authority you exercise works. When it says whatsoever you bind, it means this. Whatsoever you forbid. Why are things going on in people's lives? Because they haven't forbid them yet. No, I don't want that to happen. That's not forbidding. I was watching the testimony or the account of a woman who was. Who survived Hitler's concentration camps. A Jewish woman. She was a teenager at the time that she was taken. And she was taken to the 3. 3 of the absolute worst concentration camps. She was moved to three different ones. And she said the third one and the last one, she said there was a woman there and she was in bad physical condition, as they all were. And she was laying there saying, I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. And this girl said, if you don't want to die, shut up yelling because you're using all your strength to say you don't want to die. She said, I'm not dying. And she said, by the end of that day, that woman was dead. Why? Because she laid there and hollered, I don't want to. It's not what you want. It's what are you going to do? You don't get just what you want. You get what you act on. And this girl, it was amazing. It showed how when others were being killed, they would pull her out of line and wouldn't kill her. When others had their heads shaved, they pull her out of line and wouldn't shave her head. When other things were happening to others, they would rescue her because she said every day, I'm not dying this way. She didn't say, oh, I hope I don't die. She said, I'm not dying this way. She didn't even mention God. She didn't mention being a Christian. But she had authority as a human being with the spirit of God, with her own spirit, like God's spirit. She was exercising her human authority. And she came out whenever all the family members, I think there was one or two other Family members that came out and others that didn't. But everyone around her was dying and not her. She said, I'm not dying this way. She took her authority. She didn't just lay there and say, I don't want to die. I don't want to die. She said, I'm not. Authority is not just saying what you want. It's saying what you will have, and it's saying what you won't have. Whatsoever you bind or whatsoever you forbid on earth, heaven will back you up. And whatsoever you loose, whatsoever you allow, whatsoever you permit, heaven will back you up. If you allow kids that talk back to you, heaven will let you have it. He'll let you have kids that talk back to you. But when you forbid it, heaven will back you up. Amen. You remember there are some things that are tied up in other locations and they had to be loosed. Remember what Jesus told Dad Hagin about finances? Claim how much money you need. Tell Satan to take his hands off of it. Why? Because he's got it bound up somewhere. Tell the angels to go, cause the money to come, and then worship God until it shows up. You know what he's telling you? Whatsoever you loose shall be loosed. Heaven will back you up. And if heaven has to employ angels to back you up, it'll employ angels to back you up. Amen. Remember when the prophet said that the Messiah would come into Jerusalem triumphantly riding the colt. Remember this? Jesus is making his final entry into Jerusalem and he needs a colt. And he tells his disciples, there's a colt tied up at such and such a location. Go loose it and bring it to me. And if they ask you, why are you loosening the colt? Say, the Master has need of it. You see, that thing was tied up somewhere. He had to get it loosed. With his authority, he loosed it. He didn't just say, well, if God wants me to ride a colt into Jerusalem, he'll send one. No, he loosed. He loosed it. He didn't wait for God to send the colt. He loosed it. Whatsoever you loose. And then when they got there to unloosen the colt, when somebody said, what do you need it for? The Master needs it. What was it? Heaven backed him up. Heaven let the supply flow to him. Amen. The reason you don't have what you're wanting is because you haven't loosed it yet to come to you. Somebody else has been using it. Got it tied up somewhere. Praise the Lord. Well, praise the Lord. Every encounter that you have with the enemy, you say. Well, I haven't seen the enemy. Listen, circumstances are of the enemy. Bad circumstances, wrong circumstances are of the enemy. Wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, all these things are of the enemy. Every encounter with the enemy, this is huge. For you to know this, you need to encounter it with the consciousness that you have complete and total authority over him because he has already been defeated. You are not fighting against something or standing against something that has authority. He's already been stripped of his authority over your life. And when he acts like he's got authority, you better have the right answer in your mouth because he's bluffing you when he says, you're going to lose your home. Oh, no, I'm not going to lose my home, and you don't have the power to take it. I remember one pastor said, he said, for a year and a half, I was tormented with the thought. The thought kept coming to me over and over. I'm going to kill you prematurely. You're going to die prematurely. He said, that went over my head. And he said I wasn't sick. But he said, it doesn't matter whether you're sick or not when there's a devil speaking to you. I mean, it has an effect on the mind and the body. And he said, for a year and a half, he said, I dealt with that thought, just coming to me and coming to me. He said, it dawned on me one time, wait a minute. If he could, why hadn't he already? If you got the authority, you don't have to. You don't have to try deceive people in different. You just do it. Why does he do so much talking? Because he doesn't have the authority to make it come to pass unless you believe him. Anytime the devil shows up, you always think of him as already defeated, already stripped. Jesus spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly. And you say, well, if he's already defeated, how come there's so much going on in the world and we have to stand against him? How come if he's already defeated because he's not yet been imprisoned, one day he'll be imprisoned and lose all human contact. But until then, he's out in human contact trying to deceive people into thinking that they don't have authority, and they do. Jesus has made you master. Now be masterful. Be masterful, be skillful. Walk in your authority. Amen. Hallelujah. We're authorized to live like we have no enemy. I said, we are authorized to live. Conduct thinking, conduct life as though we have no enemy. Because when something shows up, we've got the authority to push it back. Therefore, it's no contest. Jesus has made you master, Be master. One pastor tells the story. I believe he's told it here. But when he got hooked up with my husband, he had all kinds of problems in his church. All kinds of problems. And basically due to him not walking in his authority as a pastor, he was letting everybody else do what they wanted. Well, what they wanted to do with the music department, what they wanted to do do with the youth department, what they wanted to do with the children's. And nothing of what was in his heart was being fulfilled because everyone was just running the show around him. And he had all kinds of problems, all kinds of problems. Disrespect, all kinds of things. Staff causing him problems, dividing his church, trying to get their own congregation out of his congregation. It was a heartbreak to him. And Ed began to teach him. And one day, after having been several years under Ed's instruction, he called Ed and he said, doctor, he said, you know, this is going on. This guy's trying to split my church and all this stuff. And Ed said, I didn't have time to deal with that moment. He said, I've been teaching him. And he said. I just said, be the pastor, and hung up on him. You say, well, I'm not a pastor. Be the master and hang up on you. Jesus made you master. Be master. Satan doesn't want you to know that your authority mastered him. You say, well, how did I do it? Jesus did it for you. It's a shared authority. You're not out trying to beat the devil. It's your job to keep him off of what Jesus made yours. You're the occupying army. You're not out there trying to win the battle. Jesus won it. And the devil's trying to take back the advantage, keep him off of it. That's why I say every day you're gonna have to exercise yourself in authority. If you don't, symptoms will pile up on you. If you don't, problems will pile up on you. If your life feels like you've been piled up on by circumstances, refresh yourself in your authority. That's where the problem is. It's not always a faith issue. It's you're not exercising your authority. Authority. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. If parents aren't using their authority, kids will pick up that authority, like I said earlier, because somebody going to be boss. Somebody's going to be boss. If you're not boss of your life. The devil would love to be the boss of your life for you. He'd love to do your thinking for you. Tell you what to feel, tell you what to do in your marriage, Tell you what to do, do with your body. He'd love to do your thinking for you. He can only do your thinking for you when you're not being boss. And if kids have spent their whole life, and I mean it just kind of infuriates you when you go out in public and you see a child throw themselves down and make a big scene in a store. It's like, first of all, I want to whip the child. Then I'm going to go whip the child. Parent, come here, come here, come here, come here. Parent, let me help. Come here, baby. Come here, baby. That child is begging you for some wisdom. Come here, come here, come here. That child is saying, you don't know nothing, Mama. You don't know nothing, Mama. Don't you let your kids get out in public and embarrass you and hit at you and tell you off and. Oh, you. No, no, no. You better make sure. No, no, no. And if those kids have been running the house for too long and they get about 13, 14, 15, and you try to take that back, they rebel against that. But you know what? Merry Christmas. You're still the parent. It doesn't matter how much they rebel. And even if you laid your authority down, it's still yours. You better get it back. Praise the Lord. If you've been letting the devil run your body and run your finances and run your marriage, you better get that authority back. It's still yours. And he'll steal your authority from you if you let him because he's a thief. Praise the Lord. And if that kids don't want to give you that authority back, what do you do? You outlast them. You outlast them. They keep kicking against. Let them kick against. That's why the word says, be sober, be vigilant. Why? Because if you keep yielding to them. I'm trying to keep peace. You're not keeping peace. You're being a sucker. Devil just walking all over you. That's not peace. That's not peace. You're not happy. You're not even surviving. Well, true peace is when everything's in place. The devil wants you to think your authority doesn't work. That's why kids, when they you try to take the authority back in your household, they'll rebel and throw all these fits and do all this kind of stuff. Why, they're Trying to make you think you don't have authority, but you do have authority. Take it back. Take it back. Show me a little bit of authority. Well, you know, don't fall into this mess. I talk with my children. Some people trying to talk. Their kids have run those parents tongues down to the ground there so long. Oh, they trying to talk to them. Talk to. I mean, talk to them. That kid wants. They'll sit there and give you lip service all day long thinking you made a change. And they're going to go out and do exactly what they want to do because you talk to them. It's fine to talk when it's time to talk, but there's times when talking won't work. You're going to have to do some authority. And it's not begging. I don't beg my. I never beg my kids to do what I said. See, some of you went quiet. You've been listening to too much YouTube trash, haven't you? You've been watching all this other secular parenting stuff. Been listening to some media. Don't go to the world to learn how to walk with God. They don't know what they're doing. I'm not talking about abuse. I'm talking about authority. God made you for dominion. He made you for authority. Be the boss. Well, that. You know, that child will get mad at me. Let them get mad. Just let them get mad. My mother used to say, I love you enough to let you hate me. Because, you know, sometimes some kid, they get all cocky in their mind, I hate my mama. I hate my mama. They're cocky in their mind. They don't dare say it. Somebody's going to come up with that. The devil will tell them, you hate your mama. You. You hate your mom. I don't care. I don't care. I'm boss. You're not wrecking my life. You're not wrecking your life. I didn't bring you in here to wreck things. The devil wants to make you think your authority doesn't work, and so does that child that's trying to hold onto that authority. They're wanting to make you think they won't fall in line. I had somebody that called me and said, I've got a child that is, you know, they're out of control. You know, they're older and they say they'll call the authorities on me, and I'm abusing them. I said, every time they say that, say, give me the phone, I'm going to call the authorities on you. They'll take you off to juvenile court, baby. Don't you threaten me. We'll talk threats. I'm not the victim of a child. You start threatening that, you're going to call the police on me. I will call them on you, and I'll tell them what you're doing to this home. And you don't want to go live in the home of your choice because the homes of your choice do all kinds of things. They choose. Praise the Lord. I don't know why I'm helping somebody. I hope. Children want to make you think the authority isn't yours. So they kick back. Just stay with it. Just stay with it. Just say, honey, I was wrong by letting you be boss. You're not equipped to be boss. I'm equipped to be boss. So I'm going to keep you safe and I'm going to be boss. Amen. And if they kick against it, Be sober. Be vigilant. The devil has a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Stand fast, immovable. Be the parent. One minister that taught in Rhema healing school. They said you would teach on healing, you'd teach on faith. But said invariably when you started teaching them on their authority in Christ, they said most of them ended up in the hospital within a week. He said, because the devil's trying to challenge them and make them think authority doesn't work for them. So he's pushing on them. And he said, we knew we had to just keep preaching it and keep teaching it and get them exercising that authority, because what would happen? All the circumstances would start flaring up to try to deceive you into thinking that your authority doesn't work, work over this situation. What did they do with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? They said, we're not bowing, King. We are not bowing. So what did the kings say? Heat the furnace seven times hotter. Why? Increase the circumstances. Increase what they feel, increase what they see. How did they get past that? They just stayed doing what they were doing. They just kept saying, we're not bowing. They didn't have a crisis prayer meeting. They just kept doing what they were doing. Their authority worked. And just because circumstances heightened and elevated did not mean that their authority wasn't working. They just stood with their authority and God backed them up. And Jesus showed up. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And then we'll close with this verse. Turn with me to James chapter four and verse seven. You've gotten two sermons today, so congratulations, you've sat through two. But James four, seven Says this, submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. We see a chain of authority for your authority to work. Number one, submit to God, then resist the devil. You can't be in disobedience to God. Then take a stand against the devil and think things are going to leave you alone. You can't be disobeying God. What is God dealing with you about? What has the Word instructed you? What has God been dealing with you about? Address what he's dealing with you about. That's called submitting to God. The Word is vast. It deals with so much. Does it? And at the season of your life, where you're at in your spiritual growth and development, the Holy Ghost will deal with certain things during one season. Then he deals with other things in the next season. Then he deals with more things the next season. God's not telling you. Deal with everything all at once. What is he dealing with you about in this season? Submit to God in those things specifically that he is dealing with you about. And things you know that the Word says that are not beyond your spiritual development. When you obey God now, you can use your authority in your work. This is why, if you're using your authority and nothing's changing, what do you need to adjust? What are you leaving unaddressed? What has God been dealing with you about? You have to go back and make sure those things are being addressed. And then when you resist the devil, it'll work. Amen. You're not just out there randomly trying to exercise your authority. You're doing it as one who's listening to the one in authority. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, are you helped today. Thank God for His Word. If it weren't for His Word, we would think that our life has to look like everybody else's in the world. And it doesn't. Our homes don't have to. I tell you what, your home can be heaven on earth. Pastoring this church for the 25 years of pastoring that I did was absolutely complete joy. Absolute, complete joy. Why? Because in walking in the authority of the pastoral office, it blessed me, it blessed people. And it's just been a place to grow. What if I hadn't have used my authority? What if the things that tried to come were permitted to come? Things would look different. In the body of Christ was the same thing in your home. It has been days of heaven on earth for me and pastoring. I have loved every. There's never a day I didn't love it. And the thing is, you'd say, well, what about when difficult situations showed up I was graced for was part of my authority to deal with the difficulties. Difficulties. If all you want to deal with in life is the things that are easy, you'll never make progress. After Ed went home to be with the Lord every single day, there were great challenges that showed up. Legal challenges, banking challenges, city challenges. All kinds of challenges showed up. I could have, if I wanted, gotten up griping about what I was going to have to face that day. But I decided I would start every day saying, what do I get to win in today? Today I'm going to win over some things. And I got addicted to the flow of winning. When you walk in your authority, you get addicted to the flow of winning. When you don't walk in the authority, you get used to the flow of being kicked around every day of your life. Exercise yourself in authority. Exercise your authority over something. Amen. Hallelujah. Normally, we would receive a second offering, but because the preacher preached two sermons to you today, we'll pass on that. But next Sunday, remember what we're going to do. Bring something every Sunday, putting it toward that building payoff. Amen. And believe God. Believe God. What am I going to believe for this week? For the building, every week? What am I believing God for this week? For the building? And call out to God, say, this is what I'm believing for. And then be looking for it. Amen. Hallelujah. And when he gives it to you, don't consume it. Make sure you deliver it to where he sent it for. For. Amen. Hallelujah. Stand with me to your feet this morning. Father, we're so grateful for the word of God. We're so grateful for the blessings of God. Father, we purpose to be doers of the Word, not hearers only, but doers of the Word. And Father, we thank you that as we walk in the light of the Word, as we obey you, and as we obey you in what you're dealing with us about, our authority can flow uninterrupted. And, Father, we thank you for that authority. Jesus, you are the delightful head of this body. What an honor to flow with you, to obey you, to move with you. It is a joy for your will to be done as we move in obedience to your Word, we give you thanks and praise for it. And everybody said, amen. Turn around to somebody before you're dismissed and say, I'm going to use my authority every day and you can be dismissed. God bless you. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at dufresneministries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings, share your testimony, become a partner, or visit our online store. 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