← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
When All You Have Is God | Morgan Dufresne | Holy Ghost Meetings 2020 | 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. Good morning, everyone. Happy Wednesday. Turn with me, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 3. I'm so grateful for what's been preached here. It's been answers for my life, for our family. And I was thinking of what Pastor Debbie was preaching on, on foundations. And one of the things in my foundation, when I got to meditating on that, and I thought, what in my foundation have I built upon? Obviously the Word and knowing what church I come from. But one of the things that I always stands out to me, I should say, and I said this earlier in the week, that God's goodness to me was my pastors and their obedience to come to our town and do something that they both said they wouldn't ever do, that they didn't feel like God had called them to do, which was be pastors. And they just stayed faithful. And so because they stayed faithful and they are faithful, then my life looks different and my family looks different, and the Word changed my parents. And so I'm grateful. And in that foundation, I got to thinking about this morning how I. With where I am today, what are some of the components? And one of the biggest things I kept going, going back to was hunger. My pastors have always been hungry. My parents were never satisfied. They were hungry as the example of my pastors. And so their hunger and, and thinking back of the times are of ministry and watching them and knowing when they would go to dad Hagin's meetings and spend a week or two at dad Hagin's meetings and how important that was, they were hungry. And the Word was always alive to them and it was always real. And remembering how they. During our prayer services, we're always so hungry, even in times of prayer. I. We have prayer service here. And I've told our congregation, I said, I, I now pastoring, I always think of my pastor. And I can see them in our Monday night and our Sunday, Sunday night, we gather around the altar and he'd have us pray. And those scriptures that he taught us, they stay with you. And, and seeing him, you know, on his knees and seeing the two of them just so hungry for the things of God. After all these years, praying and seeking God and never letting go of the revival, the miracles, the signs, the wonders, praying for boldness, it was hunger. And with that hunger in my own life, I can now say in my foundation, that's one of the greatest components. I'm always Hungry. I always desire the greater. I want more revelation. I'm not satisfied because they taught that. Not because anything I figured out on my own, but they demonstrated that. And so because of the things God has brought my husband and I into, it's in that foundation of hunger that we've been able to see some victories simply because hunger was demonstrated. Never quitting, never giving in, never calling it quits, never saying we can't do something, never too discouraged to keep going, because the hunger is in the foundation. There's always more of God. There's always more. And as he taught this week, there's the roots can always go deeper. The roots can always go deeper. And I'm not going to be satisfied with shallow and saying, I know that because growing up in the Word, you know the scriptures, as she said, you know some things, you have some knowledge just from memorization. I'm not okay with that. Young people, you have to be not okay with that. You have to be not okay to quote the Word, but you got to. You got to still hunger to read it. I've got to see it with my own eyes. Amen. I've got to hear it out of my own mouth. And so in that foundation, you know, the boys, when I was at the Anderson's church recently over Christmas, and Pastor Anderson asked me to minister on a Sunday night, and both my boys, before we got to the service said, how long are you going to preach tonight? I said, be quiet. You got nothing to show me. Got nothing to show me. But I laugh because they, you know, they had cousins that they were gonna go spend the night with. And so they got me on this timeline, you know, I said, you are 6 and 9. This is too early. And not only that, you know, in our household, it's, you know, give you $5 if you cut it short. That's our running joke. Give you $5. I said, you don't even have any money to pay me to keep it short, so just zip it. But how often with that mindset do we with God? All right, how long, how long is it going to take? The natural human nature wants to speed things along, to go on to the next thing. That's human nature. I got to go to the next thing. Let's get to the next thing. I've been human here for X amount of time. And you miss in that season, you miss the foundation building on that foundation, you miss your roots going a little deeper because you're so ready to move on to the next thing, the next faith project. I've been believing for so long for this. We just get in a hurry. And sometimes you have to tell yourself the way I told my children, no, we're not going to be in a hurry. I sat through enough of my pastor's sermons. You gonna sit through mine? So look here. You know, there are facets of God and revelations. There are revelations and facets of God. With my fellowship with him, that will only come from times where all I have is nothing but Him. And so this morning I want to talk about in those times where all you have is God, what do you do when all you have is Him. You know what I mean? When you don't have the money, when the healing hasn't manifest, when things haven't changed, that you're believing for what's going to happen in that time. One of the elements that we want to. One of the things in our foundation that we want to lay this morning. But there are revelations and facets of God that I've realized in my fellowship. Him. It only comes from times when that he's all I have. And if you're willing to go with him and move with him, he will bring you to places where all you will have is Him. But there are sides of him, there are views of him, and there are revelations that can only come in those times. And if you avoid those times, if you avoid the hard places, if you always have to have everything figured out, understood in the next thing planned, then you're going to miss these wonderful sides of God and facets of God. And we'll look in the Word this morning and we'll see how the Word explains that I want all of Him. And so when all you have is him, you start looking at him differently. Amen. What's on the other side isn't always what's most important to God. It's most important to us. The manifestation of what's on the other side of a test is most important to us. But that's not what's most important to Him. I need to know what's most important to Him. What's most important to him is the revelation of His Word. My fellowship with him, my relationship with him. And that I'm moving with Him. I'm in his will. And so oftentimes what's most important to us is the manifestation. We have to go back. What is most important to God? It's His Word. It's his will, it's his plan. It's what he wants to get on the inside of us. It's the time he wants to spend with us that is more important to God than the manifestation. But if all we care about is the manifestation, we will miss the most wonderful facets of our Father, the most wonderful times with Him. And so he has brought us in the last four years to a place where all that's all we had. All we had was him, was to look to him in a whole nother way. Because there wasn't enough to plan, there wasn't enough to prepare. Even when you don't have anything to even prepare with, you look at the One who authored where you're at. You go back, okay, now that I don't have anything, let me go back to the One who brought me to where I don't have anything, because obviously he's got it and I don't. Amen. Ephesians, chapter 3 and verse starting in verse 14. For this reason, seeing the greatness of this plan, I'm going to read out the amplified by which you are built together in Christ. I bow my knee, knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. That that Father from whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name. May he grant you out of the rich treasury of his glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit himself, indwelling your innermost being and personality. And remember, he's talking to believers. He's not praying this for those who are unsaved, that God fill them. He's talking about believers, that they be filled. That means a believer can be unfilled with God. Empty. Jesus is their Savior, but they're empty of God. I don't ever want to live where I know my salvation, but I'm empty of my Father. I know my Savior, but I don't have my father. And verse 17, May Christian through your faith. If you don't have that underlined or highlighted if you want to do so, may Christ through your faith. So that means everything after this is going to come through my faith, everything from here. Because we, we love praying this passage, but we don't realize that the fullness of it's going to come to pass through your faith. So if you're not in faith for anything, if you're not in a position believing God for anything, it might be a little bit difficult for you to fully remember what I said. There's going to be revelations and facets of God that you won't fully come into and understand until your faith is on the line. And this Says, through your faith. May Christ through your faith actually dwell, settle down, abide, make his permanent home in your hearts. May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love. We're talking about through our faith. That's why what Pastor Nancy's been ministering on in the night service, fellowship with God and what Pastor Anderson's been ministering on, this scripture brings the two together. It is the through our faith that we are going to experience a flow with Him. It will bring us. It almost could say, and I don't like to use this, but it forces you and brings you into a flow with him that you would have never otherwise reached out to him because you would have had your own understanding, your own knowledge, your own resources. When your resources are emptied out, just as the woman with the issue of blood, her resources were emptied out, her strength was emptied out, and all she had was the knowledge that Jesus Christ is healing people of their terminal diseases. So what did she do? She pressed in to reach him. She pressed in to reach for more of Him. She didn't sit at home and ask for more stories. She didn't sit at home and hope he passed by her house. Maybe he'll come. She showed up and pressed in. If you don't show up and press in during a service, did you really show up? But see, all of this comes, May Christ, through your faith, actually dwell, settle down, make his permanent home in your hearts. May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love that you may have the power to be strong, to apprehend and grasp with all the saints, God's devoted people, the experience of that love, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of it that you may really come to know practically through experience for yourself? What is this? Through your faith, you want to experience God's love. What is he telling you to do that your flesh doesn't want to do? He's trying to get you into a deeper fellowship with his love, a deeper flow of his love. It's not about the manifestation. It's about knowing through my faith the love of Christ that He may actually dwell in me. Amen. He may actually, as I said with my foundation, I saw Christ actually dwelling in my pastors. He was real, we could say it that way. He was real to them. The word of God, they lived by faith. So faith through that, faith, through obedience, obedience to God, through making those sacrifices, believing God that what His Word says is true, my life was made richer. I got to see it demonstrated, and I said, I want that love. For myself, other people are looking to you and at you family, your children, parents, your children are seeing. Does Christ actually dwell? Because saying to them, honey, I love God, I love Jesus. And then we wring our hands and we don't know where the things are going to come from. And we, you know, we look to our job as our source and we continue to talk about our physical situations and complain about how long things are taking. As Pastor Debbie said, she heard it around the dinner table. They hear your conversation, they see your manner of living. So the scripture talks about they see your manner of living. If I want my kids to come to know Christ and actually have Christ dwelling in them, then what I'm going to do is through my faith, follow after God's word and flow with him in a way that's going to have the love of God in demonstrated, not just in word, but a manifestation. The manifestation of what you're believing for is a demonstration of God's love, that is his love in manifestation. So I'm not looking for something that my senses can touch and can understand. I'm looking for something that my heart can receive when I've received. When I recognize his love for me. My heart has received my manifestation first. Amen. Let's keep reading. That you may really come to know practically through experience for yourself. The love of Christ which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience. Mere knowledge without experience. Isn't that what we've heard this week? That we have to be aware that we don't have mere knowledge without experience. That you may be filled through all your being unto the fullness of God, may have the richest measure of the Divine Presence and become a body holy, filled and flooded with God himself. All of this is through our faith. You want to be filled with God? You got to learn to trust God. You got to learn to step out when you don't have an understanding. We're going to look at that verse 20 now. To him who by, in consequence of the action of his power that is at work within us, is able to carry out his power, purpose and to do super abundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes and dreams, hopes or dreams. To him be the be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever. There's so much in this, but I want to move on. But in, in this one prayer there is so much that goes with what the Spirit of God is saying to us this week. A body wholly filled and flooded. He's able to carry out his purpose. Everybody likes to do. Likes to go and look at now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all, we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. It's through our faith. Through our faith. Are you putting. Are you giving God? Are you obeying God to put yourself in a position where he can do something exceedingly, abundantly, above all, we can ask or think. We just want to claim it, but we don't want to obey it. We just want to get excited about. As Pastor Anderson said, the excitement of faith takes you halfway. But when we look and gain knowledge, we realize that we have got to step out in faith before we can ever see super abundantly. Above all, we could ask or think. Sometimes you got to go to a place that you didn't ask to be in order to ask for the above. God's going to ask of you first before you can ask of of Him. That's what we realize. He's going to ask of me first. He's going to ask for my obedience first. And oftentimes we look at the scripture and we want to claim the promises. Claim the promises. When he's asked us to fulfill our promise to him, which is, I'll obey you. I'll serve you when I got born again, you say, I'll serve you the rest of my life, all the days of my life. He's waiting on that promise. You're part of the covenant to be fulfilled. Then when that's fulfilled, you go ahead and you ask. Because he'll bring you through your obedience to a place where all you have is him, all you have. Amen. Until you go to a place where all you have is the substance of faith, to live on experience in God's fellowship and love is going to be limited. I'll say that again. Till you go to a place where all you have is the substance of faith. What is the substance of faith? That measure that he gave me, that originates with him, that was his faith. That's not my faith. That's tapping into the divine faith that he put on the inside of me. I'm fellowshipping with his faith. That's in me. That's what faith is. A part of Him. I'm taking a part of him and I'm developing and I'm getting in his word with his faith and speaking out what his will is into my life. It all goes back to Him. So until we do that, experience in God's fellowship and love is limited. It's like being stranded on a desert island with one other person. What are you going to do? You're going to get to know each other real well. When God told us to buy our home, we were stranded on a desert island with only God and very, very limited resources. And to obey that through our faith has come an experience that only through faith could have brought. Amen. And it's like being stranded on a desert island and you don't know how to fish. You have no tools, and the guy you're stranded with has a home, a house, you know, all the tools. They can fish, they've got a garden, and you realize, I need what they have. I better go get to know them. And so God will bring us to these places if you'll let him, if you'll agree, if you want to be a body wholly filled and flooded with God himself, if that's truly the desire of your heart, if you want Christ rooted in you and his love grounded, if you want that. Because we all want to pray it. We all want the over and above super bundling, above all we can ask or think, but are we willing to go back to an experience through our own faith? Let's look here. Go with me if you would. And now that was kind of a foundation for what I want to really look at and just bringing another element to what's been ministered already this week. This, this last year, 2019, was one of the most trying years for my husband and I personally, in every aspect. You take a test, bring one up, and we probably faced it, you know, just. It seemed like every month was something fresh and new. Just, just bring it, I guess if you're going to go through it, just, if we're gonna go, let's go all out. If you're gonna go all the way with God, then you might as well say, come on, devil. Because he said, you know, pastor said, it's gonna come. We know that. But I guess if we're gonna do it all, let's why not do it all at once? And as we got towards the end of the year and just pressing in, pressing in, pressing in with revelation God, I can see I went through a time of being mad at God and that doesn't work. You know, why us? Why? You know, you go through all the questions and then, you know, every time you got to pay a bill or you got to do something and you don't see what you want to see, and it's not moving the way and it's taking so much time and you just Say to yourself, oh, Within yourself. And you can't talk to your spouse because they're struggling, too. And so you're. You know what I mean? So after I got through being mad at God and upset about things, and then I realized I don't like that place. So I'm never, You know, I said, I'm never going back there again. You know, you get under the weight and the pressure. It's just intense. It's so intense. And it's so you don't see a way out. And everybody, it feels like from, you know, everything's against you. The government, everybody, everybody, everybody. Every avenue of money, like. And everything is shut down. You know, the lights were. Went dark. Have you ever been there? Felt like everything just went dark. You get so and so you have a decision. Are you going to press in with your faith? And again, that hunger and seeing my pastors go through things, and my parents, I said, I'm. I'm hungry, then I want more. I don't want to go back there. Once I got out of the dark place, I'm never. And I told God, I am never going back there. Revelation came. I'm not going back, but I know I've not arrived. And so you start living off the fresh, the revelation you keep getting. I said, father, I see some things. I'm. I'm getting some things. I've. I've got some things in you. I see things in youn Word that I haven't seen. As you begin to press with my faith and experiencing things in God. And I. About October, things had not moved. Nothing's changed. And I'm going, God, I've gotten revelation. Is this not enough? So you understand when Pastor Anderson described his earlier years, I'm going, oh, thank God. I am not the only one that feels this way. He is being hard, difficult. I am serving. I am doing everything. I never argue with what she says to do. I'm always the one saying, yes, ma'. Am. Yes, ma'. Am. Okay, we'll do it. Is there no relief for even me? And I kept having this sense, you know, ask her, call her. I go, no. Because then the devil brings this thought, and this is a lie. Oh, you're pastoring. You should know some of these things. You know what? You're the place you need to be figuring these things out. You're not pressing in enough. And, and, and the devil even brings uses. God's, your own hunger and God's word against you to try to get you off what the Spirit is leading you to. Do. She's on the road. You don't need to call her and bother her with this. She's dealing with, you know, the response, other responsibilities. You would be putting your. All these thoughts, you know, in the meantime, instead of answering, no, I have a pastor. I'm going to call my pastor. I'm going to talk to my pastor. You, you start getting under that, oh, my gosh, now I'm not a help, I'm a burden. Oh, you know, you self destruct. Oh, my gosh, I now, God, now she's really in for it because I'm so I finally said, no, I'm going to call and I'm going to ask and I'm going to explain. Explain. She knows a little bit of our situation. But I'm going to, I'm going to ask and I'm going to see because I want to know. I want to know. And she made a statement to me. And I said, I keep coming up to this place. I've got the revelation that I'm walking in with faith. I see things that I had never seen. I'm laying hold. I can tell my faith is actually beyond. My measure of faith was frustrating because my measure of faith was beyond what I was even believing for. I could tell that. I said, why is this thing just. Just the monthly expenses and our daily living has not changed, But I know my measure of faith is even beyond that. Then what is it? And she made one statement. And I've been living off this preaching office the last three months. She said, well, faith comes. And what she was saying was, faith has come to me. But she said, peace grows. I had been focusing on the faith coming, and I hadn't been focusing on the peace growing. And from there, that was it after that one conversation. And so this morning. Can I just share a couple nuggets with you and my congregation? We, We've been, we've been talking about this when I've been ministering. Philippians, chapter 4. In verse 6, it says, do not fret or have any anxiety about anything. But in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition, definite requests with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God, and God's peace shall. Shall be yours. That tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Notice it says in Christ Jesus. That's going to be a big Key here. God's peace shall be yours. Faith comes, but peace grows. Peace is a fruit of the spirit. And if we're focused. I was so focused on faith coming, why have I not got enough faith? Have I not developed my faith? And I realized after that I have been trying to with my faith develop and instead God was asking me to, to settle back, be in peace and let my faith do the work instead of me working my faith. Peace allows faith to do the work instead of me trying to work the faith. That's where I was, working the faith. Okay, I got to work the faith. The principles were there and they were very alive, you understand? The principles of faith have to be alive to you. You. Because it's not confession for confession sake. It's not sewing and giving for giving sake. You cannot manipulate God. It still has to be alive to you. But see, the reason I confess is because God is so alive in me that his word can't help. His love is so rooted and grounded in me. I love him much. He loves, loves me. I know I'm a child of God and so I love to speak his word. Amen. But he said this to me, if you want to have peace that passes all understanding, you have to give up the habit of wanting to understand everything. I wanted to understand. Why was this happening? Listen, folks, it was so bad. And I'll just share this little personal. Because all I know is my personal life. The IRS owed us thousands of dollars. Thousands. We did our taxes when we were supposed to do our taxes. When I say no money came to us. We didn't get that money till December and we weren't even audited. I'm telling you, every avenue that the devil could have stopped, you know, Do I believe God allowed some of that? Yes, I do. Because he was going to see if I was going to be filled with him or filled with worry. Where was I going to go when all I had was him? When everything else was off the table, he took every avenue, he took every opportunity. He took it all off the table. And sitting at that table was me, my father. Are you willing to go there? Are you willing? I want to be a body, holy, filled and flooded through your faith you will be. Why have faith in Jesus? Do you? Do we? I had to. I had to self evaluate. Do I. Do I have faith in Jesus? Do I believe? See, I believed he was my savior. You know, it's salvation. Salvation is. And I told this to the congregation. I said, my salvation is found, you know, at the cross when he saved me. But my authority is found at the resurrection. Oftentimes we just celebrate our salvation. I've been healed. I've been, you know, set free. I've been. But we don't go over and say, wait a second, he has raised me with him. Go over to who we are in Christ, where I'm seated with my father. So Brother Copeland was talking to us. That's why he has what he has, because he has revelation in such a way, such a capacity, capacity of where he's sitting, who he's really in fellowship with. And everything is beneath that. So I had to stop trying to understand, give up that habit. Are you willing to let some habits go in order to walk closer with God? What you understand, comprehend, and reason cannot bring you peace. So if you want to find peace through understanding your situation, you will never have it. You'll never have it. Well, if I get a little information about this, or if I can, you know, if we could just have this one thing break for us, then I know you're looking for peace in natural circumstance. This says, peace that passeth all understanding comes through not fretting or having any anger, anxiety, but in every circumstance through prayer and thanksgiving. What is prayer? Fellowship with God. I told my congregation, I said, you're too busy thinking. I'm too busy thinking about my situation instead of talking to God through fellowship. Fellow, when was the last time we. If you're thinking about your circumstance more than you're talking to God about it, you're off. Now, we know this. We've heard this week. We don't talk to God only. We need to be worshiping him, fellowshipping. But you understand, I'm bringing a different element to this because we find ourselves. I told him, if you get up in the morning, you know, for me, I was realizing what Pastor said when she was thinking about that situation. And God said, you'd have to give up felt, give up fellowship with me every morning as habits I take. And if I'm going to be standing, doing something, putting on my makeup, getting ready, then instead of thinking, I'm listening. That means the word is going. If there is an opportunity I have for my mind to run wild, I will set the word on. I will put it on. That is a habit. You can easily with technology today, you take that phone, you take that iPad, you. You turn on YouTube, you turn on teaching. Because instead of thinking about your situation, you could be feeding and fellowshipping and talking with God. So instead of thinking about it, when was the last time you talked to him and sought him about says through thanksgiving and prayer. So even if I'm going to God and I'm just worshiping him in the midst of, of my situation, that's still praying about it. Do you know that you don't even have to bring it up. And so the day I realized I just need to go my faith, if it's going to work, his measure of faith in me is going to work. I need to start fellowshipping with him so that I will be holy, filled and flooded. And the power is going to work through me, in me. And so what happened? From that it comes a greater understanding of his love. Prayer is talking with God, it's fellowshipping with Him. So casting, do not fret or have any anxiety about, about anything. But in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer petition, definite quest with thanksgiving, God's peace shall be yours. The peace of God. We heard it this week. He is the vine, we are the branch. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit. It must. Fruit must be grown. You have to grow fruit. That's what she was saying, you have to grow fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. You understand? All of these fruits of the Spirit are the great attributes of Jesus. They're the great. That's what people. Yes, the miracles drew people to Jesus, but when they met him, they saw love, patience, kindness. What is it? It's all through your faith. People think, well, I'm going to be a person of faith. That means I'm going to be real bold and I'm going to be real out there and I'm going to be. No. When you begin to grow and develop as a person of faith, you recognize the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus being wholly filled and flooded with him. Christ, I've got to develop his characteristics, his qualities. That is the fruit of the Spirit. So that fruit must be grown. The more you look at the vine, the more you pay attention to the vine, the more fruit grows from the branch. The fruit comes off the branch. So I as the branch must focus on my connection with the vine. Does that make sense? The branch is nothing without the vine. So if I'm going to grow the fruit of peace, then all my attention is it's not going on. Trying to understand my situation. I can't. We see here, I can't gain through understanding. I can't gain peace that way. My senses will be settled, but my heart will not. People want to settle their senses. I don't need my senses settled. I want my heart settled. If my heart is settled, if my mind is in agreement with my Heart through renewing it with the word of God. That's it. My attention is on the vine and peace and love. Why are people so irritable and frustrated, uneasy to be around? It's a faith issue. It's a faith issue. You got to check. It's not because the other person. Check yourself. I have to check all the time. I'm checking. Am I being touchy because I'm struggling with something God's asked me to do? My heart, my own heart is unsettled. Amen. God said to me, if you're going to believe God, then believe. He didn't just give all of what he had from heaven for us to give half of what we have in believing it. He gave all. He gave all. So it takes all of my believing, it takes all of my attention to be set on him. I've got to set all my affection, all my attention on him and his Word. When your faith is to a measure of stepping out beyond your resources and your sensible and mental knowledge, that's when the spirit of fear, or what we call anxiety and worry begins to try and take hold and to stop movement. God said this to me, if the devil can't stop faith from coming, he will bring tangible thoughts to keep peace from growing. He couldn't stop my faith, the word from coming that I was doing. The word was coming. But if he couldn't stop the word from coming, he was trying to stop my peace from growing. And he was doing an awfully good job at it. He wants to stop your peace from growing. He wants to stop. He wants to get you so focused on the act of faith and that you get your eyes off the vine and developing the greatest faith man that ever walked this earth, Jesus had the full measure. If I focus on the vine, then the fruit to succeed will begin to grow. Amen. So if the devil can't stop, if you're in a place and you say, I have been believing, I have been feeding, I have been developing, I have. I would ask us this morning, why don't we look at is our peace growing? Is the fruit growing? Amen. Because if the devil cannot stop faith from coming, he'll keep the peace that's already in there. Peace is already in there. Love is already in there. Kindness, gentleness, self control. Maybe it's self control. You have asked God to help you. You have prayed about a habit that you have. But see, when we go back to the vine, all the life we need begins to flow to us to develop that fruit. I need the fruit of Peace that's in here to grow up and to keep my mind. So it talks about that peace of God will garrison. It will come. So it's in your heart. I. I can't have it stay in my heart. I need it here. Amen. I need it to come to my mind. I. So what am I? My focus now is growing my peace. So it protects my mind. Amen. Peace is grow. Peace has grown. The Holy Spirit said this to me. Peace is grown by resting on. On what God says, not on what he does. Faith is encouraged and strengthened by hearing about what God does. When we hear a testimony, what happens, faith comes, we get excited, we go. God can do that for me. Maybe it bears witness with your situation. So when you hear of what God does, you've heard of what he's doing, what he has done, and you say, if I could just see a manifestation. Yes, faith will be strengthened by that, but it doesn't bring peace. Peace only comes from what God says, not by what he does. Faith comes by knowing who he is, not what he does. So we must differentiate. Faith is right. Faith is our pleasing to God. But as Pastor Anderson says, if you're not in faith, in peace, if you're not pursuing peace in faith, everything is done in faith. Peace is grown by resting on what God says. And that's what we've been hearing this week, who he is, who I am. Amen. If you're mine, go with me to Romans 8. Romans 8. Remember what we said. We want the peace of God coming up. Our minds, our minds need the peace of God. I need it to grow that fruit, to grow that at any moment I can pick what I need. Romans 8 and verse 6. Now the mind of the flesh is going to tell us what our. You know, your flesh has its own agenda. If you haven't realized that yet, You are a spirit. You have a soul and you live in a body. And your body has its own agenda. The plan of God bears witness. His spirit in this passage, talks about his spirit bears. Bears witness with our spirit. That's where the plan of God bears witness with you is in your spirit, man. But your natural carnal man, this body has its own agenda. Now, the mind of the flesh, which is sense, and there's that word reason, without the Holy Spirit is death. Death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter. But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life. And what is that soul? Peace, both now and forever. That is because the mind of the flesh with its carnal Thoughts and purposes is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's law. Indeed it cannot. Your flesh does not want to submit itself to God's law. Now I want to bring out a different aspect of this passage. The mind of the flesh, which is its sense and reason. We often read this and we all the miseries of sin, sin, you know, the mind of the flesh. We're thinking of these, these out there sins, these real bad things that people can do that we don't do because we're sanctified. We're sanctified, right? We've been taught, you know, we. We live holy lives. I live, you know, but it's saying here, it doesn't name any of those things. Yes, that's sin. But what does it name the mind of the flesh, which is sense and reason? So what is it calling out as a carnal mind? What is this? Because if you go on, it's talking about the spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit. He's trying to get us to pay attention to the difference between the mind and the spirit. What does my mind want? It wants to understand. When, how long? How's it gonna happen? I am carnal. That's carnality. Carnality is not just the horrible things you see on TV and your neighbors doing out drinking a Budweiser in the front yard. And then you go in and close the door and you wonder, oh, gosh, when is the money going to come? Who's more carnal? Now I'm saying to myself, you understand, I've already had this conversation over and over again with myself. So if you're now just gonna have it with you, just jump on a train. It's already. That ship has sailed, carnal. You have to tell yourself, I've been carnal. I've been carnal. My mind has been carnal. Asking and reasoning and understanding. I want to understand. I want to understand. I want to understand. That is because the mind of the flesh with. With its carnal thoughts and purposes is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's law. When you have a carnal mind, you have forgotten God's law. What is God's law for us now? The law of love. It all goes back to the law of love. You need further revelation of the law of love. How do we get revelation? Spending time with him, fellowshipping with him. You want to grow in God's law, you got to grow in your fellowship with him. How do you grow in love with someone else? We've Heard it. You fellowship, you get to know them. How do you overcome a carnal mind? Through the law of love. God's law. So that means the action we take. How does peace grow? By focusing on the vine. How do I focus on the vine? Through fellowship with him. It all goes back to him. Amen. Revelation. Knowledge of who you are in Christ, which is the law of love. It casts out fear because it's revelation of what his love did for you. The law of love always goes back to what did he do for me? What did he do for me? Where did he put me? He seated me at the right hand of the Father. Amen. That's the law of love. That's what brother Copeland was emphasizing to us. Our covenant love, the law of love. It. It always brings us back to our covenant with God. Don't let a lack of peace derail the measure of faith that you have. You can have all the measure of faith you need in you. And because the fruit of peace has not been developed, it will derail even the measure that you've. Why? Because faith comes, but peace grows. You've got to do both. What was Pastor Anderson talking about? Developing our faith. What is Pastor Nancy been talking about? Developing our peace. Our walk with God, our fellowship with him. Now go with me and I believe we'll. We'll close here. Go with me. If you would go to Ephesians first. We have two more scriptures that I just want to look at. Hello, Ephesians, real quick. Ephesians, Ephesians 6:15. And we will go through these next three points quickly. Ephesians 6:15. Look here, it says, and having shod your feet. This is talking about the armor of God. Remember what I said to Pastor. Why can't I move forward? Why are we not moving? For faith is coming. Why are we not moving forward? Why have things not changed? Not. I didn't need to know how they were going to change. I just needed to have revelation. And I said, I'm tired of going around this rat wheel. There are things in me that are not coming out. And I don't understand why. What's in me is not changing what's outside. But look here. Having shod your feet in preparation to face the enemy, with the firm footed stability, the promptness and the readiness produced by the good news of the gospel of peace. Where is peace? It gives the the peace. What did we have? The shield of faith to quench the fiery darts, the belt of truth. But pieces on your feet. How do you move forward? How do you move Forward with my feet. I don't move forward with my shield. My belt doesn't walk me to. You know what I'm saying? I walk with my feet. When I asked her, why have things not been moving forward? And she gave that one statement. This was one of the first scriptures the Holy Ghost brought to me. You walk forward with your feet. If you'll develop the peace, you'll start moving forward, you'll start making progress. Amen. You've got the faith, you've quenched the fiery darts you've answered, but you're not moving forward because the peace is not intact. The fellowship has not been developed to where it needs to be. And boy, you, me, I developed that real quick. Quick. It didn't take long. Why? Because peace is in there. I'm not trying to get it. I just need to water it and water it and water it through my fellowship, through my worship. Look here. Romans. Romans 15, Romans 15, Romans 15, verse 13. May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing through the experience of your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound and be overflowing and bubbling over with hope. It says, fill you when joy and peace. I thought joy and peace were already on the inside of me. They are. But, see, it's not necessarily filling you. What does it do? It grows. So when something grows, when a tree is full of fruit, or tree could be empty of fruit. Amen. The seeds are in there. But it says, when the God filled you. Let me read that. May the God of your hopes fulfill you with all joy and peace in believing. The Holy Ghost said to me, joy comes at the revelation of the Word, but peace comes at the revelation of the Word. Giver. Peace comes when you know him. Joy. Joy comes at our faith when the Word. So I was excited. I was joyful about what? I wasn't down. I was out of that place. I was so thrilled and had so much expectation. But I forgot to go back to the one that my expectation was in. Right. Joy comes when we see what God has for us as believers. But peace grows when we see who we are as believers. We see that. I'm gonna say that again. Joy comes when we see what God has for us. Joy comes when you see God is my provider. God is my source. No matter what I'm facing, God is my source. What happens? Joy starts to develop. The joy was in there, but there was peace missing. Peace grows when we see who we are as believers. I went back. Wait a second. Who Am I? Who am I really? I am a child of God. I have been raised to be seated with Him. God is my father said that in the first passage that we will understand him as a real father, being rooted and grounded in love. You won't know his love until you know him as your Father. You won't know his peace until you know him as your Father. What is that? That's our covenant together. Peace grows as our understanding of him develops. Ephesians. I told you, go to Ephesians, if you would. Ephesians, go back. Well, we won't. Time to take time. Turn their Ephesians. We all know this. Chapter one, verse 17 through 19. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him that the eyes of our under every. Say it. Understanding. What understanding is he talking about here or here? You want to understand some things? Start going after revelation. Knowledge that you will grow in who you are, in Christ. What you have and what you can do. I was pursuing. Your mind wants to pursue. What is it? The carnal mind. The flesh wants to pursue natural understanding. The senses want to have natural understanding. But when we know who we are in Christ, we know our covenant. We know who he's made us to be. I know my fellowship with him. Then I start gaining understanding that I should have not the understanding. My flesh wants the understanding of who I am, what I have and what I can do. That is my covenant with my Lord and Savior, with my God. That is who I am. Finding out who I am in Christ. Faith knows there's provision. Peace knows the provider. Faith believes it's healed. Peace fellowships with the healer Peter. We won't take time to turn there. Peter walked on water. Yes, he had faith. But Peter knew Jesus. That's why he said Jesus. If it you, he didn't say Jesus. Do I have enough faith? Jesus, you know, can I do this? Jesus, based on that miracle you just performed, can I walk on water? He said, if it's you. If it's you. Do you know him well enough? Do I know him well enough to say if it's you? And that was the question I had to ask myself. If it's you. And it was that brought us here. I will walk on the water. I will stand on the Word with nothing under my feet. If it's you. Not because I saw a miracle. Not because you did it for somebody else. Not because you know something of my senses. If it's you that told me to be Here. And it was then that's enough for me if it's you. So what did he. What did he do? If it's you, tell me to come. He knew Jesus. It all went back to. His attention was on Jesus. Wasn't about what had happened after what was going to happen. You know what happened before what was going to happen. It was right there in that moment. That's my Jesus. That's him. That's him. And I know him. What is that scripture that we may know him. Peter said, I know him. Tell me to come. Tell me to come. And so he get out, got out on that water and he started walking. But then what happened? Where did he take his eyes? He took his eyes off of him. He didn't sink. We want to. We don't want to focus on the fact that. Because it says there. And yes, this is a different element of this. But he says, oh, ye of little faith. But you understand, he had little faith. He walked on water with little faith. What are you doing with the measure of faith you have? Because I know you have more than a little faith. It wasn't a faith issue. He got his eyes off of him. He lost his peace. That was, wasn't faith. Stop thinking you don't have enough faith. Stop holding back because you're not sure if you got enough faith. Look at him. If you get revelation of the law of love, God's law, who I am in Christ, who my covenant. All the things that we have been taught this week, all the components, you put them all together and you go, I'm speaking about these principles of faith. I can only live by faith. Listen, just be grateful that God, you heard from God to go and step out in faith. I'm just grateful I heard that. That's what Pastor Anderson is teaching us. That's everything. That's how we please God is. Everything we do is by faith. But Peter did not sink because he had little faith. He walked on water with little faith. He sunk because the moment he got his eyes off him, peace left. I was sinking. I kept telling, I feel like I'm not making pro. I'm the term dead in the water. You ever heard that? I don't know if that stemmed from Peter's story, but you know, he was dead in the water. That's who. I feel like I'm dead in the water. I walked on it. I obeyed God. Now. Now what? Now what? Get my eyes back on him. It was peace that was carrying him in conjunction, in agreement with his measure of faith. Peace moves you forward. The moment he got out of peace, he stopped moving forward. Amen. Well, I hope that was able to help this morning. Just, you know, just a little bit different. God is. The holy Spirit's so good because we're all at different places, we're all facing different things. But these truths and these foundations are the same for all of us. I love something Schambach Rwambach said. He said, show me. People. Some people say, show me and I'll believe it. But he's saying brother Shambach said, believe it. God's saying, believe it and I'll show you. Believe it and I'll show you. He tells the story of this woman. They were setting up a tent in Sacramento as the like the tent revivals. And this woman had come all the way from San Francisco with her daughter and she was cross eyed. And they would do it where you had to come get a card, you know, in the evenings afternoon service to be able to be ministered to in the night service. And how many of you remember hearing about that? That's how they would operate in that healing value. You'd have to get your card, come here teaching. Well, I guess that afternoon either she'd miss it or there was no service. And she came in and she'd come such a long distance. And of course you can't ever tell a story like Shambaugh can tell a story. So I'm doing my best, but if you ever get to hear him tell this one. But this woman came and she brought her daughter and there was no service and she began to weep. She was in the tent, she just began to weep and weep and weep. And she said, I came all this way and there's no service. And I just knew if I got here to the tent, my daughter would be healed. And Schambach was in the tent and he had come back. He saw her so distraught. And he comes back and she's telling him, I just knew if I could get here to this tent, she would be healed. And there's no service and I don't have a card. And he kneels and he said, oh, come, come down, calm down. And he kneels down and he said, is this your daughter? And he kneels to look at her and he said, is this your daughter? She said, yes, she's cross eyed. And I've come and I just knew if I could get her under this tent. He said, well, ma', am, this girl's not cross eyed. What had happened? She got the little girl in the tent. Her faith, she had so much peace that if she just got to the tent, what she didn't realize was her words got her to the tent. The peace knowing he is my healer. She knew God so well. It was so simple and so she got there and she didn't realize she got her daughter under the tent and her words made her daughter whole. Said she was completely healed and the little girl's crying no more cross eyed. Amen. What is your faith been saying? Let peace move you forward this morning. Let the peace of God move you forward. Rest in the measure that you have. If God needs to get you more revelation when you're focused on him, he'll get it to you. He'll get it to you. You'll know what you need to know when it's time to know it. Amen. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@DefrainMinistries.org to learn of our upcoming 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.