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Nancy Dufresne
Thank you to Kenneth Copeland Ministries for sowing the airtime for this broadcast.
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Kenneth Copeland
There's enough power in every sick room and in every hospital room to raise up that sick one that may be describing you. You may be in a sick room, you may be in a hospital room. And I want to remind you, power is present. That power is there to do a work, believe in what's not. Try to get something, but notice that he's already made it yours. It's present right where you're at. Say, I receive that power. I receive that power. I receive it right now. I receive it right now. From the top of my head. From the top of my head. The soles of my feet. The soles of my feet. We're so glad you joined us today for Jesus the Healer. Become a student. We want to hear with the idea of not just saying we watch the broadcast, but with the idea of implementing it into our daily lives. The Bible says it's the doer that's blessed. So we want to be doers of the Word. So get your Bible and a notepad, pen and paper and follow along with us. We've been talking about something that God told me to minister on, and that is on the renewed mind. And what. What we allow in our thought life shows up in our life. And so we want to make sure that we are disciplining our thought life, that we're renewing our minds with the Word of God. Because a renew is a disciplined mind, and a disciplined mind is a renewed mind. And we've said it in the previous episodes is that no one can renew your mind for you. No matter how much momma and daddy love you, they cannot renew your mind for you. No matter how much your pastor loves you, they cannot renew your mind for you. How you treat the Word is going to determine what happens with your thought life. The place you give the word in your life is going to determine the quality of your thought life. And when we give the word first place, what's that mean, Pastor Nancy, to give the word first place? Well, when something shows up, our first thought is, what's the Word say about this? What does the Word instruct me to do at a circumstance like this? And so we can train ourselves mentally. We can train the thought life to go, wait a minute. What's the word say? And so that's what a renewed mind does, is it first considers what does God say? And if the way I think is in opposition to what God says, I change not so much of the time. People are wanting the Word to adapt to the way they think. But the renewed mind adapts to how God thinks. And no matter how much you want God to think like you, the blessing is in you thinking like God. And there's so much that belongs to us in Christ. The health, prosperity, victory. All these things that belong to us in Christ. But they can only be experienced as we renew our minds with the Word. And let me say this. The further we renew our minds, the sweeter life will be. Amen. And you know something? When you know the right answer, when you know what to answer. When circumstances show up, when you know the Word, it makes challenges and oppositions easier to face. Because when you know the right answer. I remember growing up and I was doing my homework one time and I was saying to mother, I was about in junior high or something, and so I was taking on a new subject and I said to mother, I said, this is so hard. She said, that is not hard. The problem is you don't know it yet. When you learn it, it'll be easy. So the Word, when we learn the Word, it turns hard things easy. When you know what the answer is, you don't fear what's ahead. You know, when I was in school and I didn't study, didn't do my homework, then test time came. It's like, oh, that test was so hard. But when I studied and did my homework, oh, that test was nothing to be even, you know, unsettled about. That test was easy. Why it's all in. Do you know the answer or not? The Word is the answer. And the more we know the answer, the easier circumstances look. And not only that, it makes life sweeter. You know, my husband and I, we were married for right under 30 years before he went home to be with the Lord. And I tell you what, our marriage was heaven on earth. And the reason is, is both of us were renewing our minds. It was the will of God that we marry. It was the plan of God. But that's not what made life sweet. Because you can know the will of God, but not do right, not think right. You know, when God put Adam in the garden, God put Adam in the right place. He was in the right place, but he did the wrong thing in the right place. And the same God that put him there removed him. So it's not just being in the will of God. You have to do the right thing in the will of God. And the right thing is renew your mind so that you think right. What brings difficulty in a home is when people are not renewing Their minds. And even though they're born again and it's probably the plan of God, you know, that they're married, that they're together, you still have to do right, you still have to think right. And it's only the renewed mind that's going to think right and do right. And that's why it is so important that we renew our minds with the word of God. And renewing the mind is one of the lifelong professions of the believer for the rest of your life is to continually renew the mind further and further and further. Amen. Amen. So we were looking at in past episodes, 2 Timothy chapter 1, in verse 7 it says, For God's not given us a spirit of fear, but a power, love and a sound mind. Look at those words, power, love and a sound mind. A sound mind is what God gave us, an unsound mind. God had nothing to do with a mind with worry and fear and torment and doubt. God had nothing to do with that. That's not what he gave us. He gave us a sound mind. A sound mind belongs to us in Christ. It's part of our inheritance. The Amplified says that God has given us a spirit of power, love and of a calm, well balanced mind and disciplined and self controlled. Amen. That's the mind God authored for you. So don't be okay with anything less than that. Don't be okay with a harassed mind. Don't be okay with a troubled mind, a mind that's devoid of peace. Don't be okay with that. Because if you're okay with it, then that's what you'll have. If you decide I'm not okay with that, I'm going to do something about that. What am I going to do? I'm going to renew my mind. I'm going to get God's thoughts and make them mine. Amen. I remember years ago I had been having some physical problems with my back. This was probably, oh my goodness, it's probably about 35 years ago or so now. And I remember, you know, I was a young Christian and when you're a young Christian, you're pretty bold to say some things to God, you know. And I had been giving what I would call a half hearted attempt toward the Word. And so I didn't get full results from the Word. When you give half heartedness to the Word, you don't get full results. When you give wholeheartedly toward the Word, you get results, wholehearted results, right? And I remember I said to God, why don't you just go ahead and heal me. Well, how many of you know that stupidity talking? And God said something to me was real interesting. He said, you're not hurting bad enough because if you were hurting bad enough, you'd do something about this. See, I was saying, why don't you do something about it, God? And he was saying, if it was important enough to you, you'd do something about it. What's the problem is sometimes we don't want to get to the point where we're hurting bad enough before we do something about it. Let's just say I want God's best and I'm going to do something about it. I want a life of peace. I'm not gonna wait till my mind derails. I want a life mind that's disciplined. I'm not gonna wait till it's fallen apart. Amen. Want what God offers bad enough to do something, Give an all out effort. You know, I know this. When we give an all out effort to what God says, it doesn't take long for answers to start showing up. It won't take long. What takes long is when we're half hearted, when we're casual and we just give a nod to the word instead of giving an all out, wholehearted effort toward the word. Romans 12:1. I want to read it with you. It says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, or which another translation said, which is your spiritual worship. So it's a form of worship of how we conduct our lives with our bodies, how we conduct what we allow our bodies to do, how we allow our bodies to be used by God. It's a form of worship to him. But notice he said that you present your bodies. God's not going to do something with your body. You have to do something with your body. We are the custodians of our body. What goes on in our body is permitted by us. You can't say, well, God permitted that. No, God didn't permit it. We're the custodian of the body. God did something with our spirits at the new birth. He gave us a new one, and that happened instantaneously. But for the rest of our life, we present our body to God. And then verse two says, about the mind, don't be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind. So verse one tells us, do something with the body. Verse two tells us, do something with the mind. So that is our Privilege, not just our responsibility, but our privilege to do something with our body and our mind. And this is where so many in the world are suffering. They don't know what to do with their bodies and their minds. Their bodies are running them into addictions and bondages. And we know what to do with our body. We quit submitting it to wrongdoing. We answer things that try to hold us into bad habits and bondages. We say, no, you don't. And we take our bodies and we submit it to God, for we yield it to him for his use. But we renew our minds also with the word of God. And I made this on this statement on a previous episode, but it's so important for you to understand is God knows that submitting our bodies to him and renewing our minds with the Word is our greatest defense against the Devil. I had somebody that came to my heart one day when I was praying, and God began to, you know, kind of, if I could say this, he would show me how to pray for them. And so I knew that they were having. That they were being dominated by wrong thoughts in their thought life. So I started praying for them. Well, the next time I was in a service and they were in that service, the spirit of God prompted me to minister to them. So I called him out and I just said, you know, God put you on my heart and he had me to pray for you. Now, I didn't tell I knew what, what was, what the devil was harassing their mind with. But I didn't tell that publicly. It wasn't necessary. God told me that so I could know how to pray more effectively, not so I could broadcast it. And so I just told him. I said, let me tell you, in times of past in my life when my mind was harassed or troubled, let me tell you what I did. Let me tell you what the word says about that. And so I just told them how to answer wrong thoughts. I just stood there, just me and them in that service, and I talked to them about how to answer troubling thoughts, what to do with it. When wrong thoughts come, you answer them. You don't turn them over in your mind and try to figure it out. You don't let it take course you and run its course in your. In your mind. You talk to it. You answer it and say, that's not my thought. I refuse that thought. The Bible says, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. So they were so precious, just they were young spiritually. And so because of that, the devil was taking advantage of their lack of knowledge of the Word to dominate their thought life. And so I stood there for maybe 10 minutes and just taught them what the Word said. I didn't lay hands on them. I didn't pray for them. I believe in the laying on of hands. I believe in praying for them. But the best thing I could give them was the knowledge of the Word telling them what to do. So after that service, someone said to me, they said, well, don't you know that there's a devil harassing their mind? I said, yep, I know that. I knew that. Said, don't you know you didn't cast that devil off of them? I said, them answering with the word is what will run the devil out out of their thoughts. Now, the devil wasn't in their spirit, but those wrong thoughts had gotten in their mind and they were thinking the devil's thoughts after him. Listen, the devil wants to do your thinking for you, and if you let him, he will. But I knew that she was letting the devil do her thinking for her. So I stood there and taught her how to deal with those thoughts. Her help was not in me running off the devil. Her help was me teaching her how to answer. What is that? That's called. I was helping her renew her mind. Now, I can't answer the devil for her. Now, see, in that service, what if I would have laid hands on her and addressed that devil, told him, take his hands off of her mind. If she doesn't know the right thing, as soon as she walks out that door, he's going to take advantage of what she doesn't know and jump back on her and start troubling her again with those thoughts. Those thoughts just troubling her mind. So the best thing you can do is find out how to answer things for yourself. Now, a renewed mind agrees with God. An unrenewed mind argues with him. Now that's the difference. When God tells you to do something or you see something in the Word and you say, I know that I can't do that. Well, see, that's an unrenewed mind. If he says that my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory to the giver, to those who are generous in their giving. He says he'll supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. But the thought comes to you from the enemy that says, you're going to lose your house, you're not going to have enough money, well, the unrenewed mind argues and says, well, I know the Word says That God supplies my needs, but I don't have the money. See, that's arguing. If you practice arguing, you get good at it. If you practice agreeing, you get good at it. So the renewed mind agrees with God that regardless of circumstances, even if it looks like I don't have enough money, I agree with God and say, you supply all my needs. See, that's what the renewed mind does. It agrees regardless of what circumstances are telling it. The unrenewed mind sides in with the circumstances and argues against the word because it's believing the circumstances. So the faith of God, you're born again. There's faith in you. It's in your spirit, it's not in your mind. You cannot believe God with your mind, you believe God with your heart, you believe God with your spirit. So the faith of God is in your spirit. It's not in your mind, but the mind, although that's not the place where faith lives. The mind is to be brought into agreement with faith. There's faith in your spirit. You've got. As you renew your mind, your faith will agree. Excuse me. Your mind will agree with the faith that's in your spirit. The unrenewed mind, it will argue with the faith that's in your spirit, your heart. You go, I know God will. God's going to give me that. I know God's going to supply that for me. Let's say you're believing for a house. And you go, I know that God will supply me with the house. An unrenewed mind will say, but you don't have enough money. But you don't make enough money. But where's the down payment going to come from? But it'll always come up with reasons why it won't work. That's an unrenewed mind. The renewed mind comes up with word reasons why it will work. Well, God said, I'm a tither, I'm a giver. And because I've sown my seed, because I believe God and I believe his word, it's going to come to pass. Amen. Amen. So you have to make sure that the mind is agreeing with the faith that's in your heart and not arguing with the faith in your heart. When your mind is renewed, the faith in your heart can flow unhindered and you'll get results. But when the mind is unrenewed, it hinders the faith that's in your spirit from flowing. It shuts down your faith. And so a spiritual giant, and I tell you what we all want to be spiritual giants. What's that mean? We want to be fortified. We want to be stalwart spiritually, not just physically or financially. We want to be spiritually stalwart. And a spiritual giant is one whose heart and their mind agree. When your heart agrees with the Word and your mind agrees with the Word, that's when you're going to get results. I will say this, and it's important for you to understand this. Any Christian who is in bondage is not in bondage to the devil. They're in bondage to an unrenewed mind. If they'll renew their mind and agree with God, nothing is withheld. You see, the unrenewed mind talks your way out of the blessings of God, but the renewed mind talks your way in to where those blessings flow. And they flow unhindered. Turn with me, if you would, real quick. Let's go to Job, chapter 22. Job, chapter 22. And I'm going to start reading in verse 21. And this is the amplified classic translation. So if you have a Bible there, pull it up. It'll be a blessing to you to follow along with us. But Job 22:21, it says, acquaint now yourself with God. And then it says, agree with God. Now look at that. When you're acquainted with God, you're agreeing with Him. People who are disagreeing with God are not acquainted with him as they ought to be. When you're acquainted with God, you agree with him because you know he's right. If there's anything you need to learn in life, God's always right. I mean, get that straight. So it says, acquaint now yourself with God. Now notice it doesn't say, he'll be acquainted with you. He said you get acquainted with Him. He knows you. It's about us knowing Him. Now, acquaint now yourself with Him. Agree with God so we can know how much we're acquainted with him by how far we're agreeing with Him. So acquaint now yourself with God. Agree with God. And the next phrase says, and show yourself to be conformed to his will. Well, what's that mean? How do you show yourself that you're conformed to his will? That means you're doing it. You're acting. So when you agree with God, now you're acting in line with what he says. That's how you show yourself. You're a doer of the Word, So agree with God and do it. That's what this verse means. Those who are acquainted with God, they Agree with God. And they do the Word, they're conformed to his will. And then it says, and be at peace. Look at that. This is why so many people are not enjoying the peace that Jesus made. Theirs is because they're arguing with God instead of agreeing with Him. Why do they argue? Their mind's not renewed. So to agree, agreement flows. When your mind is renewed, it's not trying to make yourself agree, just get your mind renewed. Just renew your mind and you'll come into agreement. Amen. So acquaint now yourself with God, agree with him, show yourself to be conformed to his will. Be a doer of the Word, in other words, and be at peace. Then it says, and by that. By what? By you agreeing with God and being a doer of the Word, it says, you shall prosper and great good shall come to you. Notice this. Great good shall come. You won't have to chase it, you won't have to pursue it. It'll just come. Amen. When you agree with the Word, when you think like the Word, when you act in line with the Word, it attracts all good things. Good things. Come, now, that's in agreement with Matthew 6:33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And. And all these things will be added. What? They just come. They'll be added to you. They come to you. How do things just come to you? Because you renew your mind with the Word, you agree with God, you act on the Word, and you're at peace. And things you need show up in your life. Amen. You won't. So many times people are occupied with trying to get things they need from God. If you'll be occupied with just renewing your mind, bringing yourself into agreement with him, that's what attracts all the things that you need. Why? Because then there's nothing hindering or holding out the flow of God's best into your life. You're not arguing with Him. You're not. Have you ever noticed this? Because, listen, we've all done it. We've all been bullheaded. We've all argued at different times of our spiritual development. But have you ever noticed that when God's dealing with you about doing something and you're arguing with him, inwardly you might not even be verbalizing it, but inwardly you're not agreeing. Inwardly you're not agreeing. And then finally you just wrestle and wrestle and wrestle with that thing. And then after you just, finally yield, just agree, you go, oh, my goodness. Disagreeing was harder than the obeying. It was just Easier just to obey it rather than. It's all the disagreeing, arguing with God that unsettled me. You go, how do you know that, Pastor Nancy? Because I've done that. I remember when we started the church, World Harvest Church in Murrieta, California. We started it in 1991. My husband had a traveling ministry, and I loved to travel. And he said to me, he said, you're the pastor. I said, I'm not the pastor. God didn't tell me I'm the pastor. And it's not that I had anything against pastoring. I just thought that I was to travel with him. And so he said, you're the pastor. I said, I'm not the pastor. And of course, I didn't pray and ask God about it because I wasn't open to hearing that I was the pastor. But because he was on the road, I did the job of the pastor. I preached all the services. I led the praise and worship. I, you know, gave the announcements. I preached the offering. I passed the offering buckets, sang the offering special, got up, preached the service, and then, you know, dismissed the people and greeted them on the way out. I did that for four years. Four years. And all the while, I'm telling him, you need to get a pastor in this church. You need to get a pastor in this church. Why? Because although I was fulfilling the function of a pastor, inwardly I wasn't agreeing. I did not recognize that I was the pastor. And one day we were in a conference, and I got. God spoke to me and he said, do you love me? Now, listen, I should have known where this was headed. He asked that. Jesus asked that of Peter, do you love me? And Jesus said, do you love me? And I said, well, you know, I do. He said, then feed my sheep, Pastor. And I was stunned. I mean, I just jumped. It's like, oh, my goodness, I'm the pastor now. See, I've been doing it for four years but not agreeing. What was it? My mind wasn't renewed. It wasn't renewed to the fact that it was God's will that I. Pastor. So God said to me, the next service, I want you to stand up and announce to the congregation that you're the pastor. So I thought, oh, my gosh, they're going to be so shocked. They are just going to be stunned. I'm stunned. They're going to be stunned. So I got up and I said to the congregation, I have a big announcement to make. And I made the announcement. God spoke to me and told me that I'm the pastor, and they just kind of sit there like, when are you going to announce something? Why? Because I was the only one in the room who didn't know it. Why? Because I was arguing with that. You see, the renewed mind argues against the plan of God, the word of God, the will of God. But the renewed mind agrees with it. Oh my goodness. And when you agree with it, you're at peace and great good comes to you. Amen. I tell you, we've been teaching about the mind and there's so much to that needs to be taught. And we invite you. I've been teaching some out of this book, a sound, disciplined mind. We invite you to get hold of it. It'll be a blessing to you. You can read it and soak in it and just let the Word do its work in your thought life. So you can contact us@DefrainMinistries.org and get hold of it. Or you can call us. We'll get it to you. But I tell you what, a renewed mind is a peaceful mind. And remember, Jesus is the healer.
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Nancy Dufresne
To watch or listen to today's message and other messages by Nancy Dufresne, visit dufresneministries.org Please join us for our Dufresne Ministries Miracle Crusade in Georgetown, Texas at Church on the Rock, September 4th through the 8th. Come expecting your miracle. For more information, visit our website at DeFresne Ministries.
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Kenneth Copeland
Nancy Dufresne's book Daily Healing Bread from God's Table contains daily portions of healing bread for you to feast on and meditate on in your thought life throughout the day. Order this book now@dufresneministries.org we trust you've enjoyed this message.
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Nancy Dufresne
Visit us at DefrayMinistries or to learn of our upcoming meetings, share your testimony, submit a prayer request, or visit our online store. Thank you to the friends and partners of defrain Ministries for making this production possible.