← Jesus the Healer w/ Nancy Dufresne Audio Podcast
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Nancy Dufresne
Thank you to Kenneth Copeland Ministries for sowing the airtime for this broadcast.
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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. Welcome. We are so glad you're with us today for Jesus the heater. We invite you to get your Bible, get a notepad and pen or pencil, follow along with us because there's so much that God's been dealing with us about, and we're just grateful to be students of the Word today. Why? Because we want to be better doers of the Word. Amen. It's the doer that's blessed. Amen. Health, healing and long life belongs to us. All of that belongs to us. Jesus paid for it. Jesus purchased it. But we have to cooperate with that which he purchased for us. Amen. We've been looking at a bit of a different direction regarding healing for the body, how to walk in health and long life. That belongs to us. We've been looking at a passage that really starts out dealing with communion. And so go with us, if you would, to First Corinthians chapter 11, and we'll start reading in verse 23. We invite you go back and watch the previous episodes that deal with this topic. I believe this is part five. So go back if you've missed any of the others and watch it because it'll help you to grab have a further grasp of what we've been teaching. So First Corinthians 11:23 says, For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread and and when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me, not in memory of him, but remembering what he paid for, what he purchased for us. Verse 25, after the same manner also he took the cup and when he had supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of. Of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, or as the Greek said, irreverently shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Now look at verse 29. This is where we've been camping the last several episodes. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily or irreverently eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. And here we go. Not discerning the Lord's body for this cause. For the cause of not discerning the Lord's body. Many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep or die prematurely. Now, notice this. He's telling us that this is a cause in the body of Christ. Not in the unsaved, not among the lost, not among those who aren't born again, but among the believers. Among Christians, a primary cause why many are weak, sickly and dying prematurely is they're not discerning the Lord's body. Well, what does it mean to discern the Lord's body? It means it's a twofold application here. The first is not discerning that sickness and disease was laid on his body, that his blood paid the price for our sins. So we have dominion over sin. When we don't realize that and exercise our faith for it, we'll put up with what we shouldn't put up with. We'll permit symptoms in our body because we're not discerning and remembering as he told us to. He told us to remember that it was laid on his body. His body was broken so ours could be whole. Remember that. And if we don't use our faith for that, this is a cause why many are weak, sickly, and many die prematurely. Now, that's the first application. But the second application of not discerning the Lord's body means not discerning the body of Christ. The whole body of Christ, which is made up of every Christian, every believer, every child of God comprises the body of Christ. Jesus is the head and we are the body. The head can't do anything without the body. If I were to get. If I were to say to my head, if my head were to say, rather, I'm going to get up and walk out of this room, I got to have my body to do that.
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That's right.
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My head can't get up independent of my body and go somewhere. Jesus is the head. He can't do anything in the earth independent from his body. That's good. The body has to function and cooperate with the head. And every single member of the body of Christ is a member of his body. And he counts on the members of the body to fulfill the desires of the head. And Jesus is the head. Amen. For his desires to be fulfilled, we must cooperate with him. If we don't discern that we have a part to play in fulfilling the desires of the head of the body. Who is Jesus? If we don't discern that we have a part for this cause, many are weak, sickly, and many die prematurely. Why? Because they're not occupying the place that God has set them in. They're not functioning in that place. They're not cooperating with the head from that place. And for this cause, many are weak and sickly and die prematurely. Now, the Norley translation of verse 30 says this. Because of this indifference, meaning indifference toward the body, many are feeble and sickly, and some have died. Well, see, we can't be indifferent to what's important to Jesus. The body of Christ is important. The whole body, not just us. The whole body of Christ is important. Why? Because it's God's plan that the body is his family. His family is important to him. We need to treat his family like it's important. Amen. So that means we're not gonna do anything to injure the family. We're not gonna do anything to harm the family. To take. To harm a brother in the body of Christ is like taking a. It's like taking a stick against your own body and beating it. We're all one body. Don't do anything to damage the body, to hinder the body. Hold back the body. Amen. Now, I want us to look at. This is going to be in Ephesians, chapter 4 and verse 16. I want us to see how the new living translation of this verse reads. It says, God makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Now let me read it again. Verse 16. God makes the whole body fit together perfectly. Meaning this. Where God sets you in the body, you fit there, and it's a perfect fit. Don't try to be in a place where you don't fit. Don't try to function in a position you don't fit fit in. Because God makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow. What's this mean? You need to be mindful. Am I helping the other parts or am I just concerned about me? Amen. It's not just about us. We are to be body minded, not self minded, body, Christ minded. The whole body is our interest and our concern. It's important to us. It needs to matter to us. If one of one of another is suffering, another doesn't have what they need, another needs assist. That needs to matter to us. So it says in the new living translation of verse 16, as each part does its own special work, it helps the the other parts grow. Now see, God wants us all to grow, spiritually develop. Amen. You don't want your body to stop growing because when it stops growing, it hinders what it can do. The more a body grows, the more it can do things, the more fruit it can bear. Even so, with the body of Christ, God wants us to grow because we'll bear more fruit, we'll be able to accomplish more. So as each part does its own work, is what verse 6. It helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. How can you be. How can it be full of love when that one. One part is concerned about the other part interested in the other part helping the other part, assisting the other part. Now, when every member of the body of Christ is occupying and functioning in the place that we fit in, we bring a supply to the body. But not only do we bring a supply, guess what? We receive a supply. If our life is not receiving what it needs, are we bringing what we should be bringing? Because we will not reap what we do not sow. Amen. I want to read of First Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 17. And this again is the Norley translation. Listen to this. First Corinthians 7, verse 17 says, each one should fill the place that God has assigned to him and to which the Lord has called him. This is the rule I laid down in all the churches. This is what? This is Paul speaking. Let me read it to you again. Each one should fill the place that God has assigned to him and to which the Lord has called him. Listen to this. Every single person, every child of God, every person born again, has a call. What is that call? To be where God set you to bring the supply God authored for you to bring to fill the place that God has assigned to you. That's your call. And really that's the call of every person. Whether you're pastor, whether you're an evangelist, if you're a layman in the church, whatever. Whatever role is in the church. We all have a call. What is it to be in the place God sent us. Don't try to be in a different place. And while we're there, function, function. Don't just know where you're supposed to be, but you're not functioning and bringing apart. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Now, we also realize that this is walking in love. Here. It says in verse 16 that we had read in Ephesians 4:16. It says then as we, the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Listen, We, Ephesians 4:16 says, Building up yourself in love. When we are doing our part, we're walking in love. When we're not doing our part, we're not walking in love toward the body. Now listen to that. When we're bringing our supply, when we're where we should be, that's walking in love. When we're not bringing our part, we're not walking in love. And if we aren't bringing our supply and bringing our part to the body of Christ, we've stepped out of love. And one step out of love is step into sin. Amen. Sin opens the door to the devil. To not walk in love is to step into sin. Amen. And this is no doubt when it says, Paul said, for this cause, many are weak, sickly, and many are dying prematurely. Why, when they don't discern that they have a part to play and they're not bringing their part, they're not walking in love with the body because the other the body is affected. You know, I appreciate something. My mother was so balanced in the way she parented. She was sound thinking, clear thinking. And she would say to us, we were part of our local church and we had a youth group and different things, and we would have different functions and activities. And if we said, well, I'm not going to go to that youth function tonight. She said, oh, yes, you are. You're part of the group. You're part of the group. When you signed up, you're going to be there for the events of that group because you're part of the group. There's no such thing as I'm not going to go and be a part of what I'm signed up in. And mother would say this to us. You know, Mother would say, well, how was youth group tonight? Or whatever. Oh, it was good. Good turnout. Yeah. Well, there were three people that weren't there. Well, why weren't they? Well, they were in trouble with their parents, so their parents held them out of church. You know, their parents said they couldn't go to the youth function. Mother would say this, don't punish the group, punishing the child. She would say she would, and she would say it to different parents. Why are you holding your children out of the youth group? They're a part of. That's a fact. Affecting the youth group. It's affecting the whole. If you're going to deal with your child, correct them. Correct them in a way that doesn't affect everyone else. Right? Yeah. Why? Because Mother recognized when we weren't where we were supposed to be, the whole group was affected. It wasn't just about us. It was about the whole group. When we decide that we're not going to fulfill the place, our call in the body of Christ, we're affecting the whole body. And that needs to matter to us. If we want to walk in love, we can't leave out walking in love with the body of Christ. We want to walk in love with our brethren, but we want to walk in love with the whole body, meaning bringing our part, bringing our supply. Amen. Because then we'll keep the door closed to the devil when we're bringing our part, when we're not bringing our part and walking in love. One step out of love is a step into sin. And when you sin, you're on the devil's territory. That opens the door to the devil. And he can attack you when you get on his territory. Amen. I cannot overemphasize and overestimate how important us bringing our supply is that we're in our place. We're functioning and doing what we ought to do to fulfill our call. That's part of fulfilling our call. It's a matter of life and death. I said it's a matter of life and death. You say, well, Pastor Nancy, that's a little bit strong. But Paul said for this cause, many are weak, sickly, and dying premature. What? Not discerning the Lord's body, they're not discerning how their actions are affecting the body of Christ.
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That's right.
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And when other people in our group, when we had a youth group, we were doing a function with somebody not showing up, the other kids would have to take on double the tasks to fulfill that function because someone didn't show up. If half of the people in the body of Christ don't Show up, guess what? It puts a strain on the rest of the body. And that's not how to treat the brethren. It's not walking in love to pass our responsibility off to someone else. Amen. Now listen, Jesus, he was telling us what his job description. Now remember In Luke chapter 4, verse, verse 18, in his earthly ministry, he said, the Spirit of the Lord's upon me because he's anointing me to preach the gospel to the poor. And then he goes on and lists the job description of the anointing upon him. Then right before he left the earth, when he was offered up, right before he left, he gave also an additional job description for him. And it's in Matthew 6:18. He says, I will build my church. That's what he's doing now. I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's what Jesus is doing right now. Building the church, maturing the church, growing the church, increasing the church. Amen. His affections are in the direction of the church. Amen. And God loves the world. He gave Jesus to the world. Jesus is the gift that belongs to the whole world. But primarily, God is moving, building the church. Jesus is building the church. Now, when we join him by building the church, then we're cooperating with what the head is doing. And the body must cooperate with the head. Jesus is the head. Amen. So we are the body of Christ. And it is our great privilege to play a role. It's not a hardship. Amen. We must only ever do that which would increase the body, never harm, injure it or weaken the body in any way. So how we live our daily life affects the rest of the body because we are either spiritually growing or. Or we are hindering our spiritual growth every day by what we do. Right. And if we are weakening spiritually in our own lives, then we're not strengthening the body. Amen. It matters that we keep individually maturing because that brings maturity to the whole body. It helps the whole body grow up and mature. Amen. Now, how does every believer bring a supply to the body of Christ? How do you do that? Because we said the Word tells us God has set us as it pleases him and we are to occupy and bring our supply. Well, how do we do that? You do that through a role in the local church. Amen. You do it through being a part of a local church. In a local church, we're able to have a vital, functioning role in the body of Christ. We are part of the other bodies in that community, part of the rest of the body in that community. As we come together in our local churches, it's in that local church that we are to bring a supply. We can't sit at home and bring a full supply to the body of Christ because the rest of the body's not in our home. You might have a large family, but there's still a larger body. Amen. So we're all. We come together out of our individual settings, and we come together and we function and we flow together. And that's the importance of a local church. Amen. Hallelujah. The local church needs to be important to us because that's the place where we can connect and bring a supply to the body of Christ that's in that region of the earth. Now we have to show up. Showing up is the first part of fulfilling the call in the Body of Christ. You have to show up. Thank God for the Victory Channel and other Christian networks that bring the Word to you. We're bringing a supply to you, and we receive a supply from you. When you pray for us, when you're generous with your gifts and offerings to Victory Channel and to the ministry, then that's a measure of supply. But also there is a place where we're to be set, and that's in the body of Christ, and that's fulfilled in a local church. Amen. Praise the Lord. In that local church, you will receive a supply. So many people, when they come and they find a local church where they begin attending sometimes their lives are in such disarray. Their lives are in great need. Maybe their marriage, their family, their children, their health, you know, their business. They have all of these needs that their own personal life needs. Well, I tell you what. You go to the local church and you sit under the Word and you feed on the Word, you're going to receive something that's going to nourish you at those places of need and going to change the whole complete reflection of what's going on in your life. Right. You'll receive a supply. But if we're not careful, all we do is think about all the needs we have and we just. We go to church with the idea, I need, I need, I need, I need. But once we start growing and the Word starts taking its place in our life, we give the Word its place in our life, then we start receiving those needs met and we start bringing. I have. I have something to bring, a supply. So notice this. In the local church, we receive a supply, but we are to bring a supply. I Said we're to bring a supply. To receive a supply, we have to be teachable. Amen. And we have to be a doer of the word. I remember years ago, my goodness, It'd be about 35 years ago or so now, closer to 30 years ago. I had a dream one night, and in the dream, I saw myself dying prematurely. And you think, well, did you resist the devil? No, because it wasn't the devil showing me that. God was showing me that if you keep going the way you're going, this is where it's going to end up. No, God wouldn't be causing a premature death. He was revealing the steps I was taking would lead me that way. Well, I had no idea, really, that I was missing it the way I was missing it. I had started pastoring. I was pastoring along with my husband. I was traveling with my husband as he ministered on the road. I was administrating our offices. I was raising our children. I was busy with a full schedule of doing the work of the ministry. I had no idea I was leaving some things undone. And he began to show me some things that I was leaving undone. I was praying, but not the place of prayer, not the degree of prayer that I needed to be bringing. And it was mainly to my husband's ministry. I was so busy doing all the other that I was leaving things undone. If we're not careful, we're doing things that are good and right. But are we leaving stuff undone? Because then if we're not, what we're leaving undone is going to rob the body of what it needs. Amen. Amen. And God showed me, if you don't start bringing your supply, it's going to end up in a premature death for you. Well, that's what. It's in line with what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:30, that this cause, this is the cause. Many are weak, sickly, and die prematurely. Yeah, so I made that correction real quick. I made that correction real quick. Just because we're doing things for God, don't assume we need to always ask God, what am I doing that I need to be doing further? You know, just don't assume that everything I'm doing is all there is to do. And sometimes we're doing things that we probably might need to drop off, you know, that are subtracting from what God is expecting of us to do. Well, praise the Lord. Oh, my goodness. There's so much to learn on this. Amen. One of the reasons, the primary reason. Well, let me. Yes. The primary reason why we're able to come to you at the Victory Channel is because Kenneth Copeland Ministries has sowed this airtime to us. And so we invite you, if you're not already already, pray about becoming a partner with Kenneth Copeland Ministries. It keeps my ministry, this voice, this teaching, as well as other ministers coming into your home and blessing your life. And I know it's a blessing to your Life. Go to kcm.org and you can sign up to be a partner there. But we ask you to pray about it. And until next time that we see you, remember this Jesus is the healer. God bless you.
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To watch or listen to today's message and other messages by Nancy Dufresne, visit dufresneministries.org.
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In Nancy Dufresne's book, A Supernatural Prayer Life, you will learn how prayer moves the plan of God forward. Order this book now@dufresneministries.org.
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Please join us for our annual Holy Ghost Meetings in Marietta, California, January 6th through the 11th, 2023 with Nancy Dufresne. We are also excited to welcome Kenneth Copeland and Richard Roberts as our special guests. For more information, please visit our website@DefrainMinistries.org we trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@DefrainMinistries.org 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 Dufresne Ministries for making this production possible.