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Hi, I'm Grant Dufresne, and welcome to Dufresne Ministries podcast channel. We believe that as you listen to this message, your faith will be stirred and you will be encouraged in whatever you are believing God for today. Stay tuned at the end of this message to find out more information about our ministry.

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How many of you know worship is one type of prayer? There are nine different types of prayer that are listed in the Word for us. And we would have to say that the prayer of praise and worship is the highest form of prayer because it must accompany every other type of prayer. There's the prayer of agreement, there's united prayer. There's a prayer of faith, the prayer of supplication, the prayer of consecration, the prayer of commitment, prayer of intercession. But there's also the prayer of praise and worship. And no other prayer will work without this prayer of praise and worship. The reason is, is because there is a approach to God. And the Word says, come into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. So the approach to God is one of worship and praise and gratitude. Amen. Without even a proper approach, you don't even get the audience you're looking for with God. Amen. And so we must realize that worship is an important part of our fellowship with God. And it's not so much. Too many times people think, well, it's just so that is it so he can feel good about what he's doing for us. Listen, we don't worship him so he can feel good about something. We worship him because it holds our attention on the one who is worthy of attention. Your circumstances may need you to take action toward them, but they're not worthy of the attention he's worthy of. If we're not careful, we give the wrong thing our attention. And if we're not careful, we start putting confidence in the wrong thing. And so worship and praise helps hold our attention on the right thing. What is the right thing? The greater one. Amen. The one who is able to change every situation, answer every need, supply every need in our life. And so worship is a proper approach. It's a proper respect and gratitude we showed for God. Amen. Worship is an act of faith. Why is it? Because faith is dealing with the unseen and we do not see the God we worship. So when we worship him, we're bringing our faith because we are worshiping a God we do not see. Worship is an act of faith. Amen. And the best and the quickest way to tap into the flow of faith is to begin to worship God. Amen. If you're struggling in your effort to believe God for something, that's because when there's struggle, it's because we're in the mental arena. So the way to shift from the mental arena to the faith arena. How many of you know the spirit arena is the faith arena? The way to shift from the mental arena to the faith arena, one of the quickest ways is to worship God because you have to be in faith to worship him from your heart. Amen. So worship is an act of faith. And another great benefit. My goodness. There's so many great benefits, but just articulating a few of them. Another great benefit is worship gets your faith going. It's not enough to have faith if it's not moving. Inactive faith gets you the same results as no faith. Faith that's not moving gets you exactly the same thing that no faith gets you. So just having faith does not get the result. It's faith that's acted on faith that's moving. And one of the great things about worshiping God is it gets your faith going. It stirs up your faith. Why? Because you're worshiping someone you don't see, which is an act of faith. And it gets your faith going. If we could say this, it keeps momentum to your faith. One of the most dangerous things that can happen for a believer is to lose the momentum of faith. Amen. The devil opposes with the idea of hindering, slowing down, stopping your progress of faith. But if we just keep worshiping God and make it a flow of life every single day, as Psalms 34, verse 1, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Couldn't we say it this way? With his praise in my mouth continually, my faith is continuing. Yeah. It's a prescription for strong faith. Now, worshiping God doesn't give you faith. Faith comes by the word. But worshiping God keeps the faith that is in you moving. And it's dangerous to let your faith stop moving. We can't congratulate ourselves for having a faith that's inactive. It's only faith that moves, that receives what God has for us. And so this is one of the great benefits of worshiping God. It keeps our faith moving. Amen. Keeps us reaching for what's in front of us and for what he has for us. When Brother Norville Hayes went home to be with the Lord just recently, we don't want to let slip something that God said to him. And so I want to be as a steward to the revelations that God gave through him and pick that revelation up. And I go back through some of his materials. And one of the things that I see is I'm not trying to repeat his sermons. I'm trying to repeat the revelations, the message that God gave. And we don't want to let it slip. And this is what God said to brother Norval Hayes years ago. He said, my children basically love me, but they live in poverty and sickness and defeat. They don't live in heaven's blessings because they don't worship me enough. Now, that's not what a preacher said. That's what God said. Notice he didn't say they don't worship him. They said they don't worship him enough. And he said, teach my people to worship me more. I'm their God and they're my children. If you'll teach my children to worship me more, I'll do great and mighty things for them. Think of it. God is offering himself his ability to the flow of worship. Amen. That the flow of worship will see something more come into the lives of those who worship. He will do great and mighty things. When God calls something great and mighty, it's great and mighty. And so God is offering a flow of greatness, a flow of mighty power for those. And it's for those who worship, not just for those who love him, it's for those who worship him. Why? Because worship is an act of faith. Amen. I want to read to you out of John, chapter 4, verse 23. Jesus was speaking, and it says this, but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers. True worshipers. Well, is there something that's not true worship? Yeah, somebody who has the stance of worship, they lift their hands. They might sing along with a praise and worship song during a church service, but they don't live clean outside the building. They're not true worshipers. Their lifestyle doesn't line up with raised hands and. Or what about this? Have it at the top of a bulletin in a church service, hour of worship, and nobody worships. That's not true worship. Just to say we're at the hour of worship. I'm not trying to belittle that. I'm saying that what happens is people use words without the action, the Bible action behind it. If it's worship, God's looking for true worship. He's not looking for a form of it. He's not looking for man's idea. He's not looking for a religious definition of worship. And so Jesus is making it clear, he says this, that true worshipers shall worship The Father. Look at this. In spirit and in truth. Not just any old way you want, but in spirit and in truth. There's a right way to worship. They worship him in spirit and in truth. Not emotions and in truth, not in feelings and in truth, but they worship him in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. What's he mean? It's he seeketh such. He seeks those who know how to worship Him. Not everyone knows how to worship Him. Amen. To worship him, you have to worship in spirit and in truth. There's not many who know how to do that. Many know how to worship God when things are in place. But true worshipers know how to worship when things look to be out of place. Because we're not worshiping based on circumstances. Most worship God based on how intact their life looks. But true worshipers know how to worship God when things are out of place. They're still worshiping God when things are not as they wish to be. They don't change where their attention goes. They don't change where their gratitude goes. Amen. And Jesus said, the Father is seeking. He's looking. He's looking meaning it must not be everywhere or you wouldn't have to seek it out. He's seeking those who worship him in spirit and in truth. They know how. The only way you know how to worship God is you practice it. Amen. You make it a flow of your life. And you practice it not just during the song service of church, but you practice it in your car. And you practice it when you sit down to pay your bills. And you practice it in the way you conduct your marriage. You practice it as a flow of your life. And Jesus said, the Father is seeking those who know how to worship Him. Why? Because when he finds someone who knows how to worship him, he finds faith. And when he finds faith, he finds an entrance into humanity's needs. He wants to meet people's needs. And when he finds someone who knows how to worship him, he goes, good, I've got me an entrance into somebody's life. Amen. It's not just about God trying to grab attention for himself. He's trying to put people, bring people to a place of faith so that he can return his greatness and goodness into their situations. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So when God spoke to Brother Norval and said, my children don't live in heaven's blessings because they don't worship me enough, worship being an act of faith, couldn't we say this, My children Don't live in heaven's blessings because their faith isn't acting. We could say the same thing. Amen. And then he said, if you'll teach my children to worship me more, I'll do great and mighty things for them. So the measure of faith, the measure of worship matters to God because he said, they don't worship me enough. To understand that, we have to go back to something that dad Hagin used to teach us. And he said, praise brings the anointing, and the anointing destroys the yoke. So we can know this, that the more we worship, what will happen? The anointing will start flowing. And the anointing destroys the yoke. Can you understand why the enemy might distract or encourage us to make little of worship? Why? Because worship brings the anointing and the anointing undoes everything the devil works in people's lives. Can you imagine Florida from the time a child is born? And sometimes even before a child is born, the devil will work to attack a family, attack a home to weaken that home, weaken that marriage. Why? Because he knows children are going to be born into that weak thing. And when a home is weakened and a marriage is weakened, he's automatically weakened the children. So he attacks homes and marriages. Why? Because he wants to affect generations. The devil wants to affect generations. And so he endeavors to weaken. Even before children are born. He tries to damage things around their lives. And then once they're born, he breathes things into their ears, says things to them, accuses them, finds fault with them, points at things that are not the best in their life. Why? To further weaken them. And then they start. If I could say this, when somebody doesn't think right, their faith won't work right, you see? And he starts trying to bind them up with things. And they try to go to wrong places to find fulfillment. And they try to go to wrong places to find a better self image. Your self image comes from inside, not outside. You go to try to get hold of things so you can feel better about yourself and run around with people who might tell you right things or people that like you. Listen, the devil wants you to have to go to outside things because he can mess with outside things. But I want you to know who we are comes from who we belong to. And for those who are born again, our self image is in him. Amen. But the devil spends a lifetime working against people, getting them into habits and bad devices to try to bring self fulfillment and get a better self image and gain a better self image. And then all Of a sudden, they come into one service where the anointing is after decades of the devil working his schemes and strategies to weaken people's lives. And they come in, in one place and people are worshiping God. And the anointing starts moving. And even someone who doesn't even understand and know worship, just by getting in the atmosphere, that anointing that's present starts working and breaking things off people. And you can understand the devil works a lifetime to bind people. And the anointing only takes a moment and destroys it all. Just a moment. So you can understand why people would not gain. The devil would work to diminish the importance of worship in lives. Because worship brings the anointing. Amen. And the anointing destroys the yoke. So now we can tell why the word emphasizes it, such as in Psalm 34:1, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Why? Because if his praise is continually in our mouths, that then we are keeping a continual flow of the anointing around our lives. And when there's a continual flow of the anointing, any strategy the devil launches against us is repelled. Because that anointing is a barrier against the strategies and the devices of the enemy. Amen. Hallelujah. When you're going through a great difficulty that claws at your mind trying to drag you into that mental arena and trouble you, that's the time that you emphasize and that you, if I could say this, double up on your worship because it will be a barrier against that strategy the enemy's trying to work against you. In 2013, when my husband went home to be with the Lord suddenly and unexpectedly for weeks and weeks and weeks, my emphasis was praise the Lord. Praise, Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. What am I doing? I'm not praising him because my husband left. I'm praising him because of he's still here. My Father is still here. The plan of God is still here. The purpose of God is still here. No matter who leaves your life, God's plan doesn't. God's purpose for your life doesn't. And no matter what it looks like is subtracted. The Great One, the one who is our joy, he doesn't leave. So we worship him. Amen. And by worshiping God, sorrow couldn't get in. Grief couldn't get in. Sadness couldn't get in. Defeat couldn't get in. Why? It was a barricade. Worship produced the anointing around my life that barricaded out the enemy from working his plan. That works for you. For any spirit situation, you May face if you'll do it. Amen. So no matter what you're facing, double up on the. On worship. Hallelujah. So when God spoke to brother Norval Hayes and said, my people don't live in heaven's blessings because they don't worship me enough, we could say it this way. My people don't live in heaven's blessings because they don't worship me long enough for the anointing to come. Amen. How long is long enough till the anointing comes? Till the anointing comes. Amen. Depending on what you're facing, it may take a while for your heart to connect to your worship. But if you'll just keep at it. Just start. Just start out in the natural. Just start worshiping God. Even if you don't feel like it. If you'll worship long enough, you'll slip over into your spirit, step over into your spirit getting engaged, your spirit hooking up with that. And when you do, then you step into that place where the anointing comes. Why, there's an anointing within you. And that anointing will start flowing. And then the anointing will come upon you. And then you have the anointing within. And the anointing that comes upon. And the devil's done with that strategy and that device, it starts breaking off what the enemy will launches against you. Amen. Isn't that what Paul and Silas did in Acts chapter 16? They were beaten. They were thrown in prison. It says they prayed and they didn't stop there. Why? Because they had experience with God. They knew it's not enough to pray. Why? Every prayer must be accompanied with praise and worship. And it says they prayed and they sang praises.