← Jesus the Healer w/ Nancy Dufresne Audio Podcast
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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.
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I receive it right now.
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From the top of my head. From the top of my head. The soles of my feet. The soles of my feet. We are so glad to have you with us today for Jesus the healer. Welcome. We're so glad to be invited into your home or wherever you're watching this. It's a blessing to come in with the Word and feed these precious truths that take our lives and set them on course. Amen. And I have a precious studio audience here with me today, and we're all hungry for what the Word says because we want to learn to be better doers of the Word. It's in the doing that we're blessed, not just in knowing what the Bible says, but in the doing of it. And we have had the wonderful privilege of teaching along a line that is so connected to healing that maybe people don't always recognize the divine connection, but healing, health, long life, it belongs to us. It belongs to us. But we have to find out what that flow looks like and what is our part in that flow. And we've been studying, I don't know, we've done about 10 or so previous episodes on this subject, and we're going to keep going for a couple more episodes on because it's so critical and so important that we understand the things that we're going to be addressing today in the broadcast. We invite you. Get your Bible. Get a notepad, follow along with us. We're looking at First Corinthians, chapter 11. This entire passage has been our golden text. And we're reading through about, oh, nine different nine scriptures or so. But we have to read through this passage to get the full. The full meaning of what is being said. So first Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 23. Paul is writing and he says, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. So Jesus himself brought this revelation to him, and he says that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was Betrayed, took bread, 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. So know this Jesus body was broken so that ours could be whole. Sickness, disease, pain, symptoms was laid on his body. And he says, now remember that verse 25. After the same manner also Jesus took the cup and when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new Testament in my blood. And this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. So we know this, that the new covenant is activated by the blood. Amen. The blood of Jesus made it possible. Why? Because Jesus took the sin, the penalty that belonged to humanity and bore it himself with his blood. He paid that price. And now the new covenant belongs to us. We are one with the Father. We are part of the family of God. God is our Father. Jesus is our Savior and our big brother. Amen. Remember, that is what he's telling us in verse 25. Now, verse 26 says, for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he comes. Verse 27. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, or as the Greek says, irreverently shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and we could say it this way. And then let him eat of the bread and drink of that cup. Verse 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily or irreverently eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body for this cause. For what cause? For not discerning the Lord's body. Many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep or die prematurely. Now look at verse 30. There is a cause of why many in the body of Christ are weak, sickly and dying prematurely. This is not talking to the unsaved. This is not talking to the world. This is talking to God's people. There's a cause. There's a cause. When there's weak, sickly and dying premature, we see this. There's a progression from weakness to sickly to premature death. We can stop it in that progression if we will examine ourselves. We can stop it. If we will discern the Lord's body as we ought, we can stop that progression from happening. Amen. So I will say this. The things we're teaching today, we don't understand these things unless we're taught. And so many have not been taught these things. And they are so important to us because our health is connected to it. Our longevity, our long life is connected to how we treat and discern the body, the body of Christ. Now, when we look at verse 29:30, again, not discerning the Lord's body for this cause, for the cause of not discerning the Lord's body. This is why there's sickness, weakness and premature death in the life of believers. Now, that shows you how important discerning the Lord's body is. Now we need to understand, what does it mean to discern the Lord's body? Well, it has a twofold application. The first application is this. If we will discern that Jesus took in his body the penalty for our sickness, our disease, the stripes that were laid on him paid the price for us to be free from sickness and disease, pain, symptoms. Now we need to discern that he took it, discern that it was laid on him and his body was broken so that ours could be whole. Amen. And when people fail to, when they fail to discern that Jesus already paid the price, they won't take their stand against sickness and disease as they ought. And so when people don't recognize the price was already paid, they'll end up accepting what they ought not accept, put up with what they ought not put up up with. Amen. And they'll fail to exercise their faith. So these things, Jesus bore it for us, but we have to exercise our faith in agreement to what he bore for us. Amen. And when people don't properly discern this, this is the cause why many are weak, sickly, and die prematurely. Now, that's the first application of what it means to discern the Lord's body. Now the second. Now, because that was on his own body, his personal body, that he took that. But the second application of discerning the Lord's body is to discern the body of Christ, which is God's people, God's children, God's our Father, and we as his children make up the body of Christ. When we don't discern that we are members of the body. When we don't discern that we have a part to play in the body of Christ. We have responsibilities within the body to fulfill. When we don't discern that, that's one of the causes why many are weak, sickly and dying, premature, because they're not taking their place and bringing their part to the body of Christ at large. Now, we have to understand this. What is so important, have to Become not just me minded, but body of Christ minded. We are one body, many members, one body. And our interest and our affection has to be toward the whole body, not just toward me as one member of the body, not just self as one member of the body. Spiritual maturity thinks about the whole, not just the individual. Spiritual maturity is always interested in the whole. Why? Because Jesus paid with his blood for the whole body, not just us. And so we know this. We are God's family. And it's important to God how we treat his family. It matters to God how we bring our supply to the family. You know this just in a natural family, your own household, there are members in that one family. You make up one family, but there's members and every member has responsibilities within that family. And it's not appropriate for some members to do their part in the family and others not do their part in the family. It's not appropriate. I mean, kids will have knockdown drag outs over this, won't they? One kid will say, I'm doing all the work and you're sitting and watching tv. I'm doing all the work and you're sitting, playing your video game. That's. And even children know it's not appropriate for people to not do their part in the family. Well, we're a family. The body of Christ is a family. And we all have a part. And it's not appropriate for us not to do our part. So we have looked at and we invite you go back and watch these previous episodes where I'm teaching on this because this is directly affected to your health and your long life. It's connected. Amen. First Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse 18 it says, but now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it has pleased him? God set us in a place we belong in the body. You belong in the body. You are valuable, you are needed, you are important. Your part is vital and critical. Don't ever diminish your role or your part in the body of Christ. God set you in a place in the body. Amen. Now, Ephesians, chapter four, in verse 16, I'm going to read out of the new living translation. And it says this. God makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow. See, we need to be interested that our other brothers and sisters, the rest of the body, are growing. And whether or not we're doing our part is going to affect how they grow. It helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing. Look at this. And full of love. How we treat the body is part of our love walk. How we treat the brethren is part of our love walk. If we withhold our part, we're not walking in love with the body. When we do our part, we're walking in love toward the body of Christ. So we all have a part to play. First Corinthians, chapter 7 in verse 17, the Norli translation. That verse says this. Each one should fill the place that God has assigned to him and to which the Lord has called him. You're all called. We're all called to a place in the body to bring a supply, bring a function, play a part, do a work. Then Paul goes on and writes, this is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Look at this. All the churches. He's talking about the local churches. So we cannot do our part if we're not part of a local church. There's a measure that, you know, we can sit at home and pray. That's right. We can sit at home and have fellowship with God. That's right. Because we can bring a part to the body of Christ through prayer. But when we're absent from a local church, then that local body is not receiving a supply that we could be bringing. Now, I want to focus now for the next couple of episodes on discerning your part in the local church, but really discerning the gifts that Jesus gave the body. The gift of a pastor. Jesus gave gifts to the church, an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. But the most important office in the life of the sheep is a pastor, because the pastor is the shepherd that lives with the sheep. These other offices don't always live with the sheep. An apostle may start a work, a local church in a city, and he may be there for a time, and he may live with the sheep for a time, but many times they go on and they start other work. So they'll put a pastor in. The pastor is the one that stays with the sheep. Right. So important. If we don't discern the importance of a pastor in our life, then we are not properly discerning the Lord's body. And for this cause, many are weak, sickly and die prematurely. Some in the body of Christ are weak, sickly and dying prematurely because they don't have a pastor. You say, well, Jesus is my pastor. He has under shepherds. He is the great shepherd, but he has under shepherds. I want you to look with me at Ephesians, chapter 4 and verse 11 Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, it says, and Jesus gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Look at this. He gave it. He gave these as gifts to his body to help his body grow and mature. Now if he gives something and we won't receive it, we won't accept it, what do you think that's going to mean for us spiritually? Not something good. He gave it because we need it. I said we need it. We need it. So if we don't receive what he gave, something is going to be lacking in our life. To lack a shepherd in our life, a pastor in our life can be akin to a child lacking a parent in their life. Amen. We need to discern our need of a pastor. Amen. And since we need them, we're not ever going to do anything that's against them. We'll not speaking against our pastor that God gives us. Now look, we read over here, in 1st Corinthians 12:18, it said, now God has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased him. He's going to set us under a pastor in the body. He's going to give us a pastor. Now we go on, and we read In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, we read there that Jesus gave gifts. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Look at verse 12. Why did he give them? For the perfecting or the maturing saints. Now look at the next phrase. Why? So that the saints can do the work of the ministry. There's a work for every member in the body of Christ to fulfill. There is a work. Now look at the next phrase. For the edifying of the body of Christ. When we do our work, the body's edified, the body's built up. Now, Jesus wants his body built up, not hindered, not held back, not handicapped, not limited. If we're not doing our work, we're limiting the body. We're hindering the body. And for this cause, many are weak, sickly, and dying premature because they're not discerning properly the Lord's body. Sometimes they're doing something that is beneficial for them but not beneficial for the whole body. And we have to think of the whole body. Amen. Now people will say, why is it important that I go to church? Why is it important that I have a pastor? Well, why is it important for us to have our children sent to a school to be educated? Why? Why academically? Education. So that life is better for them. Life is easier when you know something so we don't keep our children at home, away from academic instruments, instruction, away from being taught, because we know that if they lack proper teaching and training and instruction, life is harder. Jesus doesn't want our life hard, so he gives us that help through the five fold ministry gifts. And primarily. Now listen, all of these gifts help the body grow up. We all need all five fold offices, but those are going to primarily reach our life through the office of the pastor. Because when we're part of a local church, a pastor will bring in apostles and prophets and evangelists and teachers. And so we're exposed to all these five fold offices that help us mature and grow up. And it blesses our life and makes it easier for us to live the victory that belongs to us. Amen. Jesus went to church. We can read. In Luke chapter 4, verse 16, it says, and Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue. As his custom was, Jesus had the custom or the habit of going to church. And if the Son of God needed to go to church, the rest of the sons of God need to go to church. Why? Because we're part of a functioning body. He went to bring his supply and to receive a supply. We are part of a local church to bring a supply to that local body and to receive a supply. Amen. Psalms chapter 92, verse 13 says, those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish. Amen. Shall flourish in the courts of our God. We can't be outside of the house of God, the local church, and flourish as we could in the local church. They shall look at those that are planted in the house of the Lord where God's people gather. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. What's that mean? As you get older, life gets better. You're producing more and more and more. Why? Because in that local church, you're bringing something to that local body. And not only that, you're receiving something from that local body. And this last phrase says, and they shall be fat and flourishing. One translation says, fat with the anointing, meaning the anointing will ever be increasing on their life. The power of God, the ability of God will always be increasing in their life and their flourishing. Listen, that happens in the local church. That doesn't happen outside the local church. Amen. And then Hebrews chapter 10 tells us this. In verse 24 and 25 it says, and let us consider. This is the amplified translation. And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over One another. We can't watch over one another if we're sitting at home and not being part of a local body. How do we watch over one another? Amen. We're to watch over one another, studying how we may stir up, stimulate and incite to love and helpful deeds and noble activities. What's that mean? We're to bring an encouragement to the body. Verse 25 says this. Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some people. Look at that. It's a habit. You have a good habit in your life, it blesses your life. You have bad habits, it damages your life. Being part of a local church is a good spiritual habit. Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some people, but admonishing, warning, urging and encouraging one another and all the more faithfully. As you see the day approaching. Look at that. As you see the day approaching. What is the day approaching? That he's talking about. He's talking about as Jesus return. We're closer now to that time than we've ever been. So how critical the assembling together of the body of Christ is. Amen. We know over. And we won't take time to turn over there. But in the passage in Luke 19:42, 44, somewhere around in there, Jesus stretched out his arms over Jerusalem and wept. Because they did not recognize their time of visitation. What was their time of visitation? A God filled man sent to their midst. They did not receive him. What is a pastor? A God filled man sent to your midst. Amen. And God visits us as we get under a pastor. We're receiving a visitation from God through a man of God. I said, through a man of God. How important this is. Some time ago a pastor friend of ours was telling me about a little bit about his history. I didn't know this part about him previously, but he was an orphan. He said he was without a mother and a father. And I didn't recognize that. And he said, Pastor Nancy, he said, life was so difficult for me growing up. He said, I made so many poor decisions. I went in so many wrong directions. He said, for one reason, I didn't have parents. I didn't have parents, he said. So when I got born again, he said, I knew this God was not leaving me an orphan. God was my father and he was going to give me spiritual parents, so to speak, to speak into my life. He's a pastor now, pastors a fabulous church now. But he said, I recognize that as my Natural life was hard without a parent. I didn't want my spiritual life to be hard without a parent. So he said. So he calls us his pastor because he recognizes I'm saved and rescued from all kinds of difficulty having a parent. Now, listen, pastors are not. And believe me this, pastors are not dictators. They are not to tell you how to live your life. All they do is they offer, just like a teacher at school, all they can do is offer you knowledge, offer you light, offer you understanding. It's up to the student to take it. Pastors don't run the lives of the sheep. That's not the responsibility, the role, or the place of a pastor. But it is our privilege to listen to a pastor. Amen. And the better we listen, the better we finish, the better we live. A student that listens well in class does better in class, and they do better in life when they listen. So a pastor's not there to force us into something, but they offer us something, and we'll be blessed to take it. Blessed to take the word that they bring. Amen. But we must discern that we need to listen to somebody. I don't care how old we get, we need to listen to somebody. Amen. My husband and I, of course, we. He was in the ministry almost 50 years before. He went home to be with the Lord, and we served in the ministry together. But we always had a spiritual father that spoke into our lives. Amen. And then the day he went home to be. The day our spiritual father went home to be with the Lord, I had someone else speaking into our. We had someone else speaking into our life. And then when my husband went home to be with the Lord, I still have someone today that speaks into my life, that I go sit and listen to and get instruction. Because when I'm where God sets me, I'm under the pastor. God sets me under. I'm under the spiritual parent, so to speak. Because really, that's what a pastor is. There is a spiritual parent. That's where I hear God and receive impartations like no other place. I appreciate and value the other ministers that I hear speak the word and I learn something. But there's something special that happens that I receive when I'm under the person where God sets me. When you're under the pastor that God sets you under, there's something that God has for your life there that you won't receive in other locations. Just like in a family. I don't just drive. Growing up, I didn't just drive down the road and pick any house to go into, pick any family to go into. At the end of the day, at the end of the day when I got up, I went back to my house, my family, because there was something prepared for me in that house that was not prepared for me in another house. There was a bedroom, there was meals, there was parenting prepared in the house where I was set. Amen. Well, we're so glad to be able to teach you these things. So glad you could be with us. You don't want to miss next time. And until then, remember, 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 classic book, the Greatness of God's Power, she teaches how God wants us to know his power that is in our direction. It belongs to us. We cannot live the life God authored for us without his power. Order Order this book now@DefrainMinistries.org if you need prayer, please call our prayer line. We have trained ministers on staff who are ready to agree with you for your miracle.
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We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@DefrainMinistries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings, share your testimony, submit a prayer request requests or visit our online store. Thank you to the friends and partners of Dufresne Ministries for making this production possible.