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What’s Your Attention On? Part Two | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. I want to again read this passage. This is one of my favorite passages because it got me through one of the most difficult times of my life. Whenever I was going through a season of testing that lasted for a period of time, God brought me to Philippians 4, verse 11, the Amplified, where Paul. Paul was sitting in a prison. And he writes, he says, I have learned how to be content, satisfied, to the point where I'm not disturbed or disquieted in whatever state I am. So he said I had to practice putting my attention on the right thing and taking it off the wrong thing. Do you know that if you're ever going to have strong faith, you're going to have to know what to do with your attention? Anybody remember growing up in school and you had a class that was your favorite, and you put your attention in on the classes you didn't care for, you didn't even pay attention, and that's why you struggled? It's not that your brain power went down. Your attention went down. Amen. Your attention went down. If you come to church and don't pay attention, it's. You're not gonna gain the benefit that's offered you. It's not enough to be present. You have to bring your attention to it. That means we're not counting ceiling tiles or counting how many lights are in the room. That means we discipline ourselves. If we're gonna have faith, we have to discipline ourselves. Discipline our thought lives, discipline our words, discipline our actions, because your faith is connected to your attention. Amen. How could Paul say, I've learned how to be content. I'm sitting in a prison. He said, I'm not disturbed. I'm not disquieted. How could he learn that? Well, go with me, if you would, to Psalms 23. And this is something that we need to get understanding of. If we're struggling. It's not that we need more victory, it's that we need more understanding of our victory. You understand that people are trying to get victory. You already got victory. You just don't understand everything that's connected to your victory. And I want you to see in Psalm 23, verse 4 and 5, the Psalmist David is writing. And he said, yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. How many of you know the valley of the shadow of death is not just the moment you leave this earth and go to hell. The valley of the shadow of death is the earth. It's the earth. It's your Earth, life. While you're on this earth, we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. You say, how can that be? God created the Earth. Yes, he turned it over to Adam, but Adam turned it over to Satan. And in 2nd Corinthians 4. 4, the word says, call Satan the God of this world. God did not intend that Satan be the God of this world. It used to be Adam was the God of the world. Cause God turned all the dominion over to Adam when he put him in the garden. But then Adam took that, committed high treason, and turned it over to Satan. So now he's the God of this world. So that's why all the heartbreak, all the heartache, all the tragedy, all the difficulties of humanity, it's not because God led it. It's because the God of this world is working. He's called the God of this world. But. But for those who are Christians, he's not the God of us. We are out from under the lordship of the God of this world. We have a new Lord. And Jesus put our authority back to us. He said, behold, I got the keys of hell and death. Amen. So now he gave us back the authority over our own lives that Adam lost over the earth. So when it says here, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it's talking about the world situation. All that goes on around us is of the valley of the shadow of death. But that's not describing us. Amen. That's around us, but I'm not in that. Though I walk through the valley, I don't lay in it. I don't crawl through it. I don't beg my way. I just walk right on past it. I just walk right on past everything the flow of this world offers. No, none of it is for me. Amen. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, look at this. I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil. Why? Because that's the flow of the world. And I'm not of this world. What did we read over there previously? That the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, its righteousness, peace and joy. And the Holy Ghost. That's my flow. Righteousness, peace and joy. There's no fear in that flow. The kingdom of God is within you is what Jesus said. And then that passage in Romans says that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy. So that's our flow. That's why we have no fear. Because God didn't put fear in our flow. There's no fear in his kingdom. And we are to draw out of the kingdom that's in us and not out of the flow that's around us in this world. And that's why David, when he wrote, he said, yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Why? Because none of it's mine. None of the fear is mine. It doesn't belong to me. My father didn't give it to me. He's not assigning it to me. He's not leading me by fear. He's not driving me by fear. I will fear no evil. Why is that? Then? He says, for you are with me now. See, in the Old Testament, God was with them. But in the New Testament, God's in us. So now we don't just say, for thou art with me. We say, now Thou art in me. Amen. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Now notice this. Thou preparest a table before me. Look at the phrase in the presence of mine enemies. We could take this two ways. There's always enemies around the flow of us. I mean, just because you're in the world, there's enemies all around. But right while they're present, God gave us a table. Amen. But it also means this. When your enemies show themselves present, when your enemies attack you in a particular way, now you know what to do. Make sure you're at the table. Because there are seasons and times that the devil may try to attack you. At those times, the presence of those enemies, make sure you're at the table. What's the table? God's word, God's supply. God's provision, God's blessing. Amen. It's not a coincidence that Jesus called healing the children's bread. You put bread on the table. It's not a coincidence. It's called the Fruit of the Spirit. Amen. Called the honey of the Word. Amen. I've not quite yet found anything for vegetables, but. I'm not really looking either. It's called the Water of the Spirit, the New Wine of the Spirit. All these things depict what's on our table. There's a table before us, but can I say this? There's a table in us. Why? Because healing is in us. The fruit of the Spirit is in us. The Word is in us. Under the old covenant, God could only be with them. But in the New Testament, he's in us. The table is in us. Stay at the table. What's that mean? Keep your Attention on what's in you instead of getting your attention on what's around you. Depressed people. I'm talking about Christians that are depressed. Quit looking at what was in them. That's really true. And they started giving their attention to what was around them, around their head, around those thoughts. Amen. Oppressed people, offended people, bitter people. They quit eating off the table that was in them and started eating off the table that the world had set. Amen. But God says that he prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Notice this, right in the midst of our enemies, God's prepared a feast for us. No enemies are at the table. They can't. None of this portion is for them. The devil can't have it, but what the devil knows he can't have it. But what he tries to do is pull you away from getting yours. He tries to get your attention away from the table. Amen. But we just stay seated with our attention. Full on the word. Full on the word. Pains come, symptoms come, problems come. And they get loud. Nope, not turn around. Look at you. My help isn't there. My supply isn't there. My supply is on the table in front of me. It's on the table that's in me. It's on the table of the word. It's at the table that's coming out of my pastor's pulpit. I'm not paying attention to anything else that the rest of the world's eating off of. Amen. Amen. God's prepared a table, and the devil's business is to try to pull your attention away from that table. Pull your attention. Pull your attention. Pull your attention. Faith is connected to your attention. If you're going to have strong faith, you better have a strong discipline over your attention. You never find anyone with strong faith and an undisciplined attention. We have to discipline our attention. Why? To what we allow ourselves to think on. What we allow ourselves to listen to about someone else. Amen. Hallelujah. Our enemies are present. But we're to be so occupied with what God has provided for us that we say, like Paul, I'm content. No matter where I'm at, I'm content. I'm not disturbed. I'm not disquieted. Why? Because I take the table with me. I take the table of God's provision, his blessing with me. And no matter what dark, hard place that's put in front of me by my attention, I can choose to eat off the rock table. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Right in the Presence of our enemies. And people will say, but the devil said this. So what? He's telling me this. He wakes me up telling me this. I go to bed. He's telling me that. So what? The Bible told you he's present. All that shows is that he's present. It doesn't mean he's greater and it doesn't mean he's winning. Just because he's heard doesn't mean he's winning. Do you know this? If you go to a big. If we call it super bowl game, a big football game that's in a stadium, you know, there's more participators, more spectators than participators. I mean, you have I don't know how many on each team playing, but there's thousands in the arena right as spectators. Just because they're present doesn't mean they're winning. That's good. Amen. It doesn't mean that the Devil's. It doesn't matter that he's present. It doesn't mean that he's winning. Just because he shows up doesn't mean an automatic win. And just because you show up in church doesn't mean an automatic win. It's what you do. It's what you do and what your attention is on. Amen. But people think because the devil is so loud he's winning. Loud doesn't mean win. And people get frightened because they say, well, the devil said this, so that frightens them. The only reason you heard him is because he's present. Not because he's powerful, but because he's present. You know, I never walked in and got real disturbed about. You can see the television lights hanging in here. I never once walked in and go, oh, my gosh, what if that fall? Oh, my goodness, what could that do? My attention doesn't even go there. They're there and I don't even notice. This is what we are. This is how we treat the devil. Yeah, he's present. I. But who cares? I'm not looking. I'm not looking. I'm not looking. I'm not looking. Faith knows where to look and it knows where not to look. Amen. Hallelujah. Whatever you put your attention on is what's going to move in your life. Whatever you put your attention on is what's going to gain an entrance into your life. You are in total charge of your attention, Not God and not the devil. Amen. If you talk about the lack of money, it'll keep it from coming in. You talk about sickness and your body will Grow weaker. You talk about sickness and all your medical stuff and get your children to the doctor every time they feel a little bit of something, this or that, and you'll have all kinds of physical problems running through your family. I'm not saying be neglectful. I'm saying know where your attention goes. I'm not saying you shouldn't go to the doctor. I'm saying this and that. You'll never get healed talking about how sick you are. Amen. So what are we to do in the face of pain, we say, jesus is my healer. We turn our attention on purpose to the right direction. Amen. I so love the story, and it shows what men of faith, what they do and how they respond to things. When Smith Wigglesworth went to bed one night, fell off to sleep, and was awakened in the middle of the night because he felt an evil presence in the. And when he woke up, he turned over and saw Satan in manifested form sitting on his bed. You know, he felt something in that room. Smith Wigglesworth felt something in that room, and he wasn't impressed by what he felt. People have to quit being impressed with what the devil says and what they feel. They're impressed by it. They're impressed by him. We're impressed with God. He's the impressive one. Amen. So Smith Wigglesworth rolls over, sees Satan in manifested form sitting on his bed. And I love his response, said, oh, it's just you, and rolled back over and went to sleep. That's called answering it. Amen. He didn't sit up and think, oh, I've got to get somebody to pray. Oh, I got to run him out just same way he came in. He can get out. Amen. Hallelujah. But most people, if the devil showed up like that, they'd be testifying to everybody they know and call them. They'd be sending out all kinds of texts to everybody to let them know. And. I love what one preacher talked about years ago, he had never heard the divine healing message. He was a pastor, and he had some of his people going to a certain church that preached on divine healing, and his people were coming back healed. So he knew he was exposed to divine healing in that way, but not personally. In his late 40s, the doctor said to him, you've got six months to live. Your heart's in such bad shape. Because he overworked himself. And he said, your heart's in such bad shape, you don't have another six months to live. He couldn't walk up two or three steps without Just pain shooting through his chest. So he went off. This caused him to start looking at the Word a whole different way. So he went off to, like, a cabin out in the wilderness area by himself. And for two weeks he shut himself away with the Word to see what the Word had to say about healing. And at the end of two weeks, he wrote in the fly leaf of his Bible and says, I do see that healing is provided as simply as salvation is provided. So just the same way I received salvation, I received my healing, and I receive it by faith. And he dated it that day. Nothing changed in his body that he could tell. But he was invited to go and preach for a group of Bible school students. And they found out that he was there in the area visiting. And so they came over and they asked him, while he was off on this retreat of his own, if he would come and preach to them in the Bible school. So he did, and he went and Preached on Matthew 8:17 himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses, and he preached on this Word himself. He did it himself to make sure it was done right. Amen. And so then he testified to those students about how he had been given six months to live. But he said, but now I have received Jesus as my healer, so I believe that my heart is healed. Right after that, a couple of students came up to him after class and said, we're going to go mountain climbing this afternoon. Would you like to go with us? And he said, all of a sudden, he said, the thoughts came. Well, you know, you can't even climb up a couple steps without your heart giving you pain. And he said, but then another voice came and said, a healed man can. And he decided which voice he's going to listen to, you see? And he said, yes, I'll go with you. So they start walking toward this area that they're going to be climbing. And as they start climbing up the mountain, his head starts swimming, his heart starts. He has all kinds of sharp pains going through his chest, and he's getting dizzy and lightheaded, and his heart's not working right, and he's about to pass out. And all of a sudden he turns his attention. See, his body's feeling it, but he turns his attention from what he's feeling, and he starts saying, himself took my infirmity. See what he did? What did he do? He picked up his attention and put it on something different than what he felt. This is what faith is. It's taking your attention off of what is obvious and putting on. On what you choose. And so he started feeding and reminding himself. Himself took my infirmities. Jesus, I thank you that you took it, no matter what I'm feeling. See, you're not denying that you're feeling it, but you're saying, in the face of what I feel, I'm not changing what I believe. And in the face of what he was feeling, he said, jesus, I believe you took it. Thank you that you took sickness for me. And he said, all of a sudden, the pain in his heart stopped and his head is perfectly fine. His head's not swimming. And so he starts climbing up the mountain. And some of the young men that are walking come up and start talking to him. And while he's talking with them, see, his attention gets off the Word. And because he's talking with them, his attention gets off the Word. All of a sudden, his symptoms come right back into his body. And so he realizes, I've got to give attention to the Word right now. And so he stops talking to the young man and he puts his attention back on the Word. He said, all the way up the mountain, it was exactly that, back and forth. Every time someone would come and talk to him and get his attention off the Word, the symptoms would escalate. But when he would get his attention back on the Word and the symptoms would diminish. And he said, as I walked up that mountain, it seemed to me as though a lion was walking on one side and a lamb was walking on the other. And the one I touched is the one that possessed me. If I touched the lion of the symptoms, that's what possessed me. If I touched the lamb of my healer, he said, that's what possessed me. In other words, what I put my mind on and what I put my focus and my attention on. His faith. And he said, by the time I got to the mountain, to the top of the mountain, he said, it was a struggle all the way up. By the time I got to the mountain, he said, every single symptom was gone. And he said, I'm in my 70s now as I write this, and I've never had another heart problem. Why his healing was connected to his attention. Why? Because your attention's connected to your face. Amen. Hallelujah. Turn with me, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 20. Let's find some scripture that makes it so clear to us that your faith is connected to your attention and what you receive from God is connected to your attention. Proverbs 4, verse 20. My son attend to my words. You know this word attend comes from this word attention. If you're going to attend to something, you're going to put your attention on it. So we could read this way, my son, put your attention on my words. Amen. That's huge. You know what that means? That means half of us today going to have to walk out here and do something different than what we were doing. Put your attention on my words. That means we're going to have to take it off our problems. That means we're going to have to take it off what we feel. That means we're going to have to take it off of our feelings and our emotions and how somebody's not doing me right. You're free from that. Just want you to know you're free from all that. We put our attention where on here. He knows this. If you'll put your attention on my words, everything else gets fixed. My son, attend to my words or put your attention on my words. Then he tells us what that looks like. How do we put our attention on his words? He tells us in the next phrase. Number one. Incline your ear to what I say. That means this. Your ears are going to hear a lot of things, but you're going to have to choose what you're going to let your ear listen to. You're going to have to turn your ear from wrong things you hear and turn it towards what God is saying. To incline means to turn. So turn your ear unto what I'm saying. That means you're going to have to quit turning it to your feelings. Quit turning it to what other people say. Quit turning it to what people who haven't been taught what you've been taught from their counsel. Amen. To put our attention on the right thing, we're going to have to do something with what we're listening to. We can't listen to the wrong thing and say we're giving him our attention. The next phrase in verse 21, let them let my words not depart from your eyes. That means that we're going to have to make his word important to where we look. There's other places we could look, but we're gonna have to look at his word. When we're paying our bills and we see not enough money, we're gonna have to decide, wait a minute. I'm gonna look at his word while I pay my bills. I'm gonna look at what he says. He said he'd supply all my needs. So while I'm sitting down paying my bills, I'm Writing a check or I'm writing out my bills. But I'm looking at His Word. You know what I mean by that? My attention is on what his word says. And then he says this in verse 22, keep them. Keep my words in the midst of your heart, for they are life unto those that find them in health to all their flesh. So to have your attention, it involves your ears, your eyes, and your heart. What do you meditate on? What you meditate on gets in your heart. Amen. To keep them in the midst of your heart, the word has to get into your heart for it to bear fruit. It's not enough for the word to get in your mind. Your mind needs the word, but it's got to reach your heart for it to bear any fruit. I remember a. And I'll. I want to share a bit of a testimony of a man who was teaching in a healing school years ago. A lot of people would come to this healing school, and he was an instructor in this healing school. And there were so many people out there. I mean, we're talking, like, terminal conditions, very difficult situations. And while he's in that healing school, he said he had a vision and he saw all the people just like this, with their arms wrapped tight around them. And he said, God, what does that mean? I see they've got their arms wrapped, tied around them. And God said to him, he said, they're holding on to their sickness. And this minister said to God, he said, what do you mean they're holding onto their sickness? They came here to receive healing. They didn't come here to hold onto it. He said, they came here to receive their healing. And God said to him, what they've got their minds on is what they're tending to. And what they're tending to is what they're embracing. So what is he saying? They're embracing their sickness. Why? Because that's what they're thinking about. If you think about it, that's how you hold to it. If you quit thinking about it, that's how you let go of it. Did you get that huge. If you think about it, you hold it, you embrace it. If you quit thinking about it, you let go of it. Can I tell you how to quit being depressed? Let go of it now, you say. I try to, but I can't stop the thoughts. Yes, you can. Talk to them. So many find their minds entrenched in wrong thinking because they've heard fearful thoughts, they've heard troubling thoughts, they've heard sorrowful thoughts. They've heard worrisome thoughts and they're entrenched and they try to get their mind back. And it's like, I can't get my mind back. Yes, you can. And I'm going to tell you how to get your mind back. You say, no, I'm not thinking that thought anymore. I will not be afraid. God's not given me the spirit of fear, but a power, love and a sound mind. No, I will not be addicted to that anymore. I'm free from that. I'm not going to go that way. I. I refuse it. In Jesus name. You answer it. Then you say, now, satan, you leave me. Satan, you leave me. Satan, you leave me. Number one, you answer it. Number two, you tell the devil to leave. And number three, you say, thank you, father, that I'm free. Thank you, Father, that your word. It is a table that I eat off of. I thank you that my healing. I eat of it right now. My peace, I eat of it right now. My joy, I eat of it right now. It is up to you to take off the table what he's provided. You have to eat it. Amen. Your victory is as easy as let go of what you don't want. Let it go out of your thought life. Quit talking about it. Quit rehearsing it. Amen. Hallelujah. I'm going to pray this. I'm going to pray for you right now. Amen. Just reach up your hands and I speak to those who may be watching. You be free right now in Jesus name. You be free right now in Jesus name. Satan, you take your hand off their minds. You take your hand off their bodies in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Just lift up your hands and lift up your voice. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. 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 defrain Ministries.