← Promise of Life Church Podcasts
Promise of Life Church Podcasts
"A Skillful Thought Life" - Pastor Nancy Dufresne - May 28. 2024
01:23:03
"A Skillful Thought Life" - Pastor Nancy Dufresne…
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
I was standing there and I just had this scripture come up in my heart. I love this scripture. It brings you back to center. You know, there's some of those scriptures that just jerk you out of a ditch, Jerk you out of the wrong way of thinking, into the right way of thinking. And this is Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8. And I'm going to read it out of the amplified classic translation. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8. I love this. It reads, urged on by faith. Urged on by faith. Amen. There are divine urges, and it takes faith to follow them. Urged on by faith. Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance. Now know this. Just because he was destined to receive it, if he didn't bring his faith, he wouldn't have received what he was destined for. So don't think the word destined to receive means it's automatic. He was destined to receive as an inheritance. I love this. And he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go. He did not trouble his mind. He didn't say the devil didn't trouble his mind. It said he didn't. Too many times we're blaming some mental troubling on the devil when it's really us troubling our own minds. Troubling our own minds. Why? Because we went to the mental arena and tried to conduct spiritual business from there. And we ended up troubling our mind because the mind's not equipped for that. It's almost like when somebody runs out of gas, and so they go, I'm out of gas, so I'll just get the water hose here. And you troubled your own vehicle by pouring in the wrong thing. Right. And too many times we end up troubling ourselves because we poured in the wrong thing into our attention, into our thought life. But it says that he did not trouble his own mind about where he was to go. We're all going somewhere. I said, we're all going somewhere. And if we're not going somewhere, we're stuck in a rut. So there's always advancement with God. There's always moving ahead with God. So make sure that in the going, there's no troubling. You're authorized to be untroubled by moving into what you don't know. If we're moving ahead into what we don't know and we're troubled, we're doing it wrong. Let me. I want to read to you this verse, Psalm 91. You'll recognize it? But I especially love the way it says it in the Amplified classic translation. Verse 7. Psalm 91, verse 7. The Amplified Classic says, a thousand may fall at your side. Notice this. They got close. They're close enough to be at your side and 10,000 at your right hand. It came close, but it shall not come near you. That which you see happen around you is not for you. And just because it happens close to you doesn't mean it's yours to partake of. If you see some. If you see a thousand fall at one side and 10,000 at the other side, don't you think you'll notice it? Just because you noticed it doesn't mean it's yours. Right? Don't take the definition for your future from those who are around. I love verse 8. Only a spectator shall you be yourself. Inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High as you witness the reward of the wicked. Yeah. You, yourself, you. Look at this. Only a spectator shall you be yourself. Inaccessible. I'm inaccessible. And if I'm troubled by something, it's my fault for being accessible to what's trying to trouble me. It's not about getting what's trying to trouble me away from me. This is where many people miss it. Something is troubling them and they're trying to get it to leave them alone. You need to leave. You need to leave so I won't be troubled? No, don't be accessible. And I've said to God, because anytime you go to make advancement, the devil is going to throw all kinds of thoughts at the mind to get you to think you don't qualify for advancement by painting and reminding in your memory all the places you missed it. Just know one of the number one strategies of the enemy is that at a time of advancement, the devil is going to accuse you with your faults, your failures, your weaknesses, your past. Why? Because if you get entrenched in that, it's going to affect your forward advancement. Not that God can't advance you, but you won't advance because of the thinking. So the devil constantly tries to recall to you what either you did or what someone did to you. Because offense with yourself or someone else still has the same effect. He doesn't care whether he can use offense with yourself, that you're offended at yourself, disgusted with yourself, displeased with yourself, or with somebody else who treated you, who treated you badly. You can be inaccessible, though. And there. Anytime I go to advance and I recognize a barrage of thoughts coming at me, I don't turn around and Just say devil. You leave me alone. I've gotten to the place. There is a thing of resisting. Absolutely. It's the word. But there is such a place as you're so far above it, you don't even need to resist it. The place you're in resists it. Glory to God. You're inaccessible. Amen. And I said to God, I said, this was months ago. I said, God, I'm noticing just thought after thought, not, I'm not troubled by it, I notice it, I can hear it, and I'm having to stand against it. And I said to God, I said, God, I repent to you. Not because I'm hearing it, but because I'm too accessible. It's too loud. If something is loud, you're too close to it, too accessible to it. And there is such a place that we're not living our life just in a battle all the time. There is a place of protection. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Do you think the Almighty has a barrage of accusations being heard? No, there's no. The devil's not going to go silent. But you can move the. You can move the place you're occupying so that you are inaccessible. This is what God intends, that you don't live your life just battling against constant thoughts, constant accusations that you come to a place where you're just inaccessible. I see the activity, I hear the activity. I'm just out of reach, Just out of reach. And one of the best illustrations of this is when a young Bible school student asked a minister, has one of the largest churches in the world. And this Bible school student asked him, he said, with your position and your voice in the body of Christ, I can imagine that there's a lot of opposition against you and has been for years because he's been in a leading role for decades. And I love what the minister said. He stopped and he goes, I guess I have. Talking about being opposed. I guess I have. I just haven't noticed. There it is. We notice what we should ignore. But too many are troubled by what they hear because they believe the accuser too much. They say, well, I'm not believing the accuser. I just know that what he's saying is true about my past. I did do this, I did do that. Well, if the blood cleansed it, it's not true about your past. It's not true. You see. And so our job is to become, not trying to get the devil to be quiet and leave us Alone. But for us to occupy the place we're invited to, the place we've been raised to, our seat of authority is there. Now our thought life needs to go there. You're welcome. Now going back here to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8. Urged on by faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place. Now, think about it. Abraham was 75 when this happened. 75 years he's been in his hometown. He's been with his relatives. And you know this. The society back then, you didn't travel great distances. It was very common to never leave or relocate from the place you were born in. And families lived close and families were tight. There are some cultures that the family is a very tight unit. And he was in that culture. And he was a man in line for an inheritance. We know this, that he's raising his nephew. What's that tell us? It means that evidently he's the oldest in line because he's taking on the children of family members. And you take that on. And he took on his nephew Lot. What's this mean? Abraham's in line to receive inheritance. He picks up and leaves it. So when it says he obeyed and went, he's leaving his entire history of how he's been raised. He's going against the culture. He's going against the culture of his family. And he's willing to walk off and leave his inheritance by birthright. Walk off and leave it. So there's a lot in these words. It says that when Abraham was called, he obeyed and went. There is a lot that went on in the inside of that man for that to happen. Those are a few short words, a short phrase, but it speaks volumes of the man. When he was called, he obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance. What's he saying? I'll take God's inheritance over my family's inheritance. I'll take what God offers me. When he didn't even know all that that contained. And it says here, he went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance. And he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind. He didn't trouble his mind. He didn't trouble his mind. Too many times we think that the devil's troubling our mind, and it's us troubling our mind. Oh, why you have to. I saw this through an experience I had years ago. I was working on a project, a ministry project, and about two weeks before it was completed, I heard this statement. And I Knew it was the devil. No, excuse me, I knew it was the Holy Ghost when he said this. He said, you don't think anything with the anointing on it is going to go unchallenged, do you? And I thought, oh, oh, wow. Meaning a challenge is coming to that. The Holy Ghost, thank God one way, he. He comforts us as he prepares us. He lets you know what's ahead. Then you're not troubled by it, you're comforted by having your heads up. And so a couple of days later, the Holy Ghost again said, you don't think anything with the anointing on it is going to go unchallenged, do you? Meaning this. The devil's not going to congratulate you. And so the day we finished that project, I drove up, I went back home, drove up in my driveway, parked my car, and the moment the car was parked, an evil spirit came. I walked into the house. I could feel it, you could feel it present. And I walked in. It was probably, I don't know, 10 or 11 o' clock at night. I walked in and I said, spirit of fear, no you don't. Because I knew it came to trouble because of the project. And when I said that, well, the spirit of fear spoke to me. How do you know it was a spirit of fear? The devil's always. It's always fear. It's always fear. Know this. The devil is a tormented being. He can't show up and fear not show up. He is the author of it. And so when I walked into the house, that spirit spoke to me and said, this project will fail. This project will bring embarrassment to the family, and this project will bring financial difficulty to the ministry. Said those three things. I turned around to the spirit that spoke and I said, spirit of fear, you leave me. I recognize it's the devil. And I said this to myself, because I've resisted you. I'm going to bed. I'm not going to stay up and fight you. You're not robbing my sleep. But I know that thing was, if I could say this here, and when I spoke to it, it stood back, but it didn't leave the room, didn't leave the room. I walked down the hallway, went to bed. And I tell you what, those words, you ever seen a cartoon and they hit somebody on a character on the head with a hammer, a mallet, a club or something, and there's stars that just circle around. That's exactly those words just kept circling. They just kept circling. I'm not letting them in. I Refuse to turn it over. But I tell you. And it's like they get tighter and tighter around the mind. And that spirit walked into the bedroom with me and stood off at the corner. I knew where he was standing. And I go, I'm going to sleep. Why? Because thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Meaning I'm authorized to sleep even though you're present. Because I already talked to it. Not staying up and fussing with you, not staying up and fighting with you. But I had difficulty falling off to sleep because of the words. I fell off to sleep. And I'd keep waking up, and those words are right there, just going around in a circle around. They have movement. They're moving. And I would make myself fall back to sleep. And I'd be wakened about an hour later, same thing. And my eyes popped open. 5:30 in the morning. You know that's God, because that ain't this girl. And God said to me, because I'm wondering, how come that spirit's not leaving the room. I answered it, I talked to it, I told it to leave. How come it's not leaving the room? And that's what I'm thinking before I'm falling off to sleep. And when I woke up, the Holy Ghost said, because you didn't answer the words. You answered the spirit. You didn't answer the words. So the words keep moving. You have to stop the movement of the words by answering them. And then he said this. That's why that spirit is still in the room. Because if you don't stop the words, he's got permission to stay and see what they do. What is that? He's just sowing a seed. He just spoke it one time. And those words go out and move. And he stands back and sees if it will produce a harvest. He stands back. He doesn't have to keep speaking it. The words keep moving on their own. He spoke them and they will move until somebody stops them. And the one who stops them should be the one that was being spoken to. Can you get someone else to stop them? If you're a baby Christian, God will allow your pastor or somebody else to come and help that. But you better learn how to talk to it yourself because the words are coming back. Know this. Anytime someone prays for you, lays hands on you, that is only temporary help. Temporary. That is God's goodness and God's blessing and God's greatness giving you space to learn, giving you space to gain skill, giving you space to feed your faith. It is not giving you space so you can go back and neglect your spiritual life and rely on someone else's faith. It is giving you space to grow up because that thing is going to come back to see if you learned anything. And God will not allow us to become spiritual cripples relying on someone else running to someone else's faith all the time. God expects us to grow up. Amen. And God is being kind and good to us when he says their faith won't work for you anymore. You have to become skillful with your own faith. That is what a parent does. I'm not carrying your dishes to the sink anymore. You're 15. Get yourself carry your own dishes to the sink. Right? Something is wrong. When a mama gets up and treats a grown child like they are a young child and doing everything for them, you're making them a social cripple. God's not making cripples out of his children that they have to lean and hobble around waiting for somebody to do their believing for them, their speaking for them. So God said to me, that spirit is still in the room because you left the words moving. And he's waiting to see if you are going to deal with those words or not. As long as his words keep moving, he has permission to stay here and watch what those words accomplish. So I spoke to the spirit of fear. I didn't speak to the words. I spoke to that spirit that spoke them, but I didn't speak to what he released when he spoke. Does that make sense to you? So how was I to answer it? Those three things he said, this project will be a failure. So I said, this project will not fail. Number two, this project will not embarrass the ministry. Number three, it will not cause the financial hardship for the ministry. Now you leave the room. And the moment I said that those words stopped moving, the troubling stopped against the mind. And the spirit left the room because he had no more words to harvest on. It says about Jesus, he said, the devil has come, but he found nothing in me. Jesus had words spoken to him by the devil. And the devil left the words with Jesus. And then he came back at a later date to see what those words produced. And Jesus said, and he came back and he found nothing in me. Why he dealt with those words. When you start regurgitating words that someone has spoken to you or about you, you are keeping. You're keeping something sown around your life that's going to produce a harvest. And it's your right and privilege and you are authorized to stop those words. Amen. And let me tell you this. What somebody says about you is not near as important as what you say about you. So quit giving what somebody has said against you or about you credibility. How do you give it credibility? A measure of you believes it, a measure of you believes it, or it would not even be anywhere in your thought life. When you talk about, well, my dad said I'd never amount to anything. Why do you believe that? My teacher said I was stupid. Why do you believe that? And people live with those words. And those words just circle around their life and circle around their mind and holds them back because they take counsel from those words. They believe the words. And so you're authorized to stop the words. Words are living things and they're conductors, they're carriers of something. They will produce in your life what they say. If you believe them. If you believe them. There was a minister's wife, years ago, in the 80s, she was. She went to the doctor one time and she had pancreatic cancer, one of the worst quick working kinds of cancers. The doctor said to her when she went in for her first appointment, he said, you have three weeks to live. Now that's pretty aggressive diagnosis. She's still alive today. She's still alive today. Just in case you didn't realize that she's still alive today. But I was listening to her testimony in 1984. I was listening to it on a cassette tape. Minister's wife. And I'm listening to her tell her testimony she had. In telling it, I thought to myself, I wonder where the open door was. Because know this, the devil cannot do to you anything he wants, anytime he wants. If he could, why would he have to deceive you first? He's got to deceive you. He's called the deceiver. He has to deceive you first. What's he going to deceive you with? Words. He's going to speak words. And if those words are believed, you become deceived. And then those words bring it to pass. And so I thought to myself, I wonder what opened the door to that upon her. I hadn't even just thought that to myself when on the next statement on her testimony cassette was this. I don't know how this came on me because I prayed against cancer every day for 10 years. I go ringy dingy, we got a winner. It's what Job did. What he feared came on him. Okay, she told us later in the back room. My husband and I knew her, met her later. She said, this I don't tell people this because she said, I don't want to discourage people, but she said it took 15 years for every symptom to leave something that was supposed to kill her in three weeks. So you know, she was getting hold of divine power. Divine power was sustaining her. And you say, why did it take 15 years for it to leave? I know why. Because she spoke against it in fear for 10 years. And she never even realized how she opened the door. So when you don't know what opened the door, you don't close it all the way. You don't know where the open door is. So she said the greatest thing she had to battle was fear, which you can understand that. But what happened? Fear suggested something to her. The devil said something to her and she started repeating it in the form of a prayerful confession. Speaking wrong words under the guise of prayer does not make them God's word. Amen. Just because you put that threat into a form of a prayer did not make it have, if I could say this, faith in it. She is taking fear thoughts and praying them. I don't know why we're going this way. I've got two different sermons up here. Two different. And this is neither either. Neither either. There's neither and there's either. So the devil suggests something, and if you don't, if you don't resist it by speaking to that thought, that thought, if you don't recognize it's wrong, will be believed. And then you speak it out your own mouth. And now the devil can fulfill it, because your words. He's always trying to get you to adopt his words. It's not what he says that matters in your life. It's what you say. Just because he said it means nothing. It's what are you going to say? But because she took the threat of the fear of that coming on her, now she is giving permission. She's sending forth those words. She's sending them forth, you see? And God can't fulfill those words because there's not life in that. So who is it that the enemy can fulfill what's not life? So that's why it took her 15 years to get rid of it, because she didn't know where the door was open. You know, if you can realize, my goodness, it's cold in here. But you don't know where the open door is. You can know it's cold and not change any of it. So the devil will suggest something to you. It is your job to answer those words. It's not your job to go to a counselor and talk it out. Because when you talk it out, you're letting it in. You are not talking it out. You are letting it in. Psychology will tell you talk it out. That's not scriptural. That's not scriptural. That's not how you deal with thoughts that came from the enemy. Talking it out is letting it in. Remind me, pastor, about a story with Dr. Sumrall and a girl. Remind me that. Talking it out is letting it in. Every time you talk about the past, you update it. You brought the past to the present. Every time you said it, you validated brought it out of the past, brought it into your present. And it keeps troubling and moving in your life. Praise the Lord. So another thing. Do not pray against things unless God speaks something to you. I pray for things. You've got to stay on the positive side because the word is always on the light side. It's not on the dark side. It's always on the positive. It's not on the negative. You don't say, my children will never have this. You say my children are kept by the power of God. You see, I don't pray against things. It troubles me when I hear ministers say, I declare this won't happen. And that won't happen. And this won't happen. And that won't happen. No, no, no. You're on the negative side. And you are believing the news. You're believing the news. You're believing kidnapping. You're believing. You know, all of these things that are so prevalent in the children of darkness know this. The news is the report for the unsaved. The word is the report for God's people. And so people listen to the news, get frightened by it, and then start saying, this won't happen in my family. This won't happen. You're already speaking by fear. Why did she not, this minister's wife, why did she not say, I pray against tuberculosis or against leprosy? She singled out. When you start singling out something that's fixed fear. That's fear you're believing fear. Well, my father died of this. My grandfather died of that. My uncles died of that. There's a generational curse on me. And you're basing that on what scripture? What's your scripture for that? What's your scripture? Well, the Bible says that the sin of the father is passed down generation to generation. But you have to remember Galatians. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. That generational problem is of the curse of the law. It's the curse of the law. You're not under the curse of the law. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Well, Pastor Nancy, I know that that thing has happened in my grandfather, my great grandfather, my father, my unc. That might have been happening, but that's not because you're under a curse. If they were unsaved, it happened because they were under a curse. But when you're born again, you're no longer under any curse. I don't care what kind of curse, From what country, from what voodoo, from what, which doctor. Not me, not me. I love something. A witch doctor ran up to Dr. Sumrall when he landed in a certain country one time and did all that hooga majooga, you know, right in his face, you know, shaking his stick and all that. Have you ever noticed they're just not prosperous? I mean, they look like they're living in the dirt. I mean, if you got so much power, get in the nicest house in town, right? But they always look like they're the least prosperous. Ever seen those buildings? Fortune tellers. And they're always some rinky dink trailer by the side of the road. Trailer. Yes. Yes, they are. I saw one parked outside in California. I'm not talking about Canada. I don't know anything about Canada, but I'm talking about California. There was one, one parked on the side of the road, a little dump of a trailer, and said, we'll read you your future and show you your future. I go, well, you need to see something about yours because yours can't even get you out of a trailer and you're parked up by luxury homes. Gonna tell. See how the devil dupes people into such stupidity, dehumanizing them, degrading humanity. And this little voodoo doctor ran up to Dr. Sumrall and what did it. Well, if you all that, why you have to do all this, Why you gotta throw gymnastics in it? I mean, right? And did all this in front of his face and pronounced a curse on him and said, and you will die at the end of it. You know, da, da, da da. And Dr. Sumrall said, none of that means anything to me because I don't believe a word you say. But because you believe it, double back on you. And he said, that witch doctor ran off in utter terror, screaming, why? Because those were words Dr. Sumrall said, they can't land on me. So double back to you. That's a man in charge Can I tell you? You're in charge. You're in charge. You're in charge. And every time you take words of the past and repeat them, you're doubling back the past on you. Well, my dad said this and my mom said this and the devil said this, and I had a bad dream about this. Who gives a royal rip? So what? So what? Just know this. You're going to have to get skillful in the face of words because your entire Christian life is based on words. So learn the right words and learn your dominion over the wrong words. Don't repeat them, don't entertain them, don't. And let. Wrong words will come with great pressure on the mind. That's how you know they're wrong. That's one way you know they're wrong. Because God's words don't pressure anyone. He offers something, he doesn't pressure you. So how do I know if God's speaking to me or the devil? Does it bring pressure to the mind? That's one way to recognize it. Amen. Praise the Lord. So what is it? Dr. Sumrall and the girl. I wonder what I was going to say about that. You did. You were so faithful. Oh, now I remember. Thank you. There was years ago, this would have been in the 80s, early to mid-80s. There was in a certain city a ring of people who were just going up and down streets, just randomly. They would look through windows at night. They could see people in their homes and they just pull out a gun and shoot them through the window. Just go up and down streets and just shooting people through the window. And then they would go in the houses, rob them and all kinds of base things. And they caught up with this ring. They in. This was a girl. She had gotten involved in this and she was in. She was about a teenager. So because of her age, they did not handle her as an adult. And they got the others in prison. They tried and put them in prison. She did not go to prison. Although she had been involved. She had not been the one pulling the trigger and stuff, but she had been involved. She came then later to a church and she got born again. And the pastor had to cast the devil out of her because you can imagine what kind of entrance she had given a place. She had given the devil in her mind. So she was completely on fire for God. Completely on fire for God. And about 10 to 15 years after this event in her life, my husband and I are there at the church and I have a dream one night while we're there. And in the dream, I see those demons coming back to her. So I said to the pastors mother, who she was the administrator of the ministry. I said, because I wasn't preaching. And I said to her, I had a dream about that gal in your church and I saw those demons coming back to her. And the mother of the pastor said, you're absolutely right because she's now having mental problems again. And we pulled in Dr. Sumrall to deal with her. And Dr. Sumrall said this. What are you doing? What are you doing? Because see, the devil can't come back anytime he wants. What are you doing? If we're having trouble that you have to sometimes. Are we doing something? Because the devil can't do anything he wants, anytime he wants. Dr. Sumrall said, what are you doing? And she goes, I don't know what you mean. He said, in regards to that event, those events in your life, what are you doing? She said, I just sold the movie rights. So she's sitting down with movie writers and retelling the story so they can make it into a movie. And he said, if you want money rather than freedom, you can't have freedom. Why she's selling it. She wants to make money off of this demonic thing in her life. And by her talking about it, thinking about it is an open door. What's that mean? Words of the past can come to the present. That's a very dramatic example. But I'm trying to show you that when you take what an ex spouse said to you or you take what an abusive parent said to you, or you take what an unkind relative said and you keep replaying that either in your thought life or in your conversation. You are opening the door and you're troubling your own mind. And it wasn't the devil. You did it. What's this mean? Sanctify your thought life. Consecrate your thought life. Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God. She could not tell that story to the glory of God. She couldn't sell that movie to the glory of God and she couldn't make that money to the glory of God off of that. And the devil will give. He'll pay you all kinds of attention, pay you all kinds of attention just so he can have an entrance. Amen. Abraham could have troubled his mind. He could have. He could have. But he wouldn't. Faith people won't. I don't really mean to be so sober because I had neither or either up here, but evidently we need this. We need this. Why? Because we must leave the past where it belongs. Under the blood. And it's your tension that gives life to something of the past. It's your tension that causes it to revive. You don't realize. You can't just touch anything you want in your thought life and think you're going to live peaceful. You can't let your mind just think anything, let it go anywhere, let it rehearse anything of the past and then think, I'm going to live peacefully, peaceful. No, you're not. You know what gives peaceful life? Peaceful thoughts. What's that mean? We have to pay attention to our thought life. What are we allowing ourselves to think on? Accusing the church, accusing the pastor, accusing the parent, accusing the boss. Those aren't accusations, did not come from God. You're listening to a devil. You're listening to a devil. The thing is, he doesn't want you to know you're listening to a devil. He wants you to think it's your thought. Every thought that comes to you did not come from you. You better learn it. It's interesting because when I started the daily broadcast on Jesus the Healer, I always looked to the Holy Ghost of what do I minister on? I don't just pick up a notebook and just start preaching. I mean, I have volumes and volumes of sermons. But there are needs out there. And it matters to me that I'm not just preaching a sermon. I want the people helped. And I said to God, what should I start with? This is called Jesus the Healer. You know what I intended to start with? Healing. Isn't that a fresh thought? That's deep, right? I thought I'd teach on healing. And he said, teach on the mind. The first 80 episodes were on the mind. The first 80 episodes, you go back and if you ever need something on the mind in there, I address that. You can't imagine the people who contact us and say, I did not know. I did not know that I was to have control over my mind. I did not know that I could have control over the thoughts of my mind. They just thought they had to just learn to deal with whatever came up. You have control over your house, who comes in your mind. You have control over what feels thought comes in. You can't keep people off of your porch from knocking on the door, but you can keep them out of your house. You can't keep wrong thoughts from coming to your mind, but you can keep them out of your mind. Amen. People will accuse their parents, people accuse the school teachers, people accuse the boss, people Will accuse relatives and in laws for ruining their life. No one can ruin your life without your permission. You're in charge. You are the custodian of your mind. God did not call us to cope with a troubled mind. He called us to rule and reign. And if we're coping, we're being pushed around. If we're coping, we're being pushed around. And God did not call us to be pushed around. We're to be in charge of our life, of our thought life, of what goes on in our home. And parents, you need to recognize this. You're in charge of your home. You're in charge of your home. Well, my son, he doesn't like this. My son, he doesn't like that. Who gives a royal rip? You're in charge. Joshua said, as for me and my house, as for me and my house, as for me, real men talk for their house. Real men don't just talk for their life. They talk for their house. As for me and my house, we will. We will. I'm not asking you. We will serve the Lord. You need to start this when they're young, right? You need to start this when they're young. And if they kick against it when they're older yet, put your foot down so that they realize they're not running the house, Some will try to kick against that. Why? Because the devil's troubling them and they don't know how to deal with their mind. But you better can. I tell you, I remember I was 13 at the age of accountability. The devil's going to attack every kid at the age of accountability. At the age of accountability. The age of accountability comes different for different people based on their own maturity. And I was praying probably about 12 or 13, and I recognized I was spending the night with one of my. There was three girls of us that we were just best friends in junior high. And we just. Every weekend we rotated what house we spent the night with. You know, they were precious gals, great families, really great gals. And I was spending the night with one of them, and in the middle of the night, a demon walked in. Not because their house was bad. It came to trouble me. I wasn't saved, but I recognized a demon. Why? My mind all of a sudden didn't seem like my mind. And I thought, I don't know what this is. And I was too young and too, if I could say this, non thinking to the know anything about sin consciousness. I didn't feel like, well, I'm a sinner. And that's why No, I wasn't deep enough to even measure that. But I knew this. My mother didn't put up with stuff. She would not put up. She didn't put up with emotionalism. If you would. If she was going to spank you before she spanked you, she would tell you how many spankings you're going to get. And she said, and when you're done, you're not crying because you're not throwing a fit in this house. And if you start that business, I'll put you back down there and we'll start all over again. I'm in charge of you. You're not going to jump up and down and do a. I mean, she was just in charge. And there had been relatives who had mental issues. And my mother got put out with it. She said, that depression mess tries to come to me and I don't have time for it. I got four kids I'm raising. I don't have time for that mess. She said, I kick against that stuff. They lay down to it, they take it. She said, I can't. I don't put up with that stuff. She didn't say that because she knew the word she put up. She said that because she knew she was in charge of her own life. And every sinner is. This isn't just a Christian thing. Every sinner can say no. Every sinner can. And when this started, this troubling tried to come to my mind, I thought, oh, no, I will get in big trouble with mother if I show any kind of mental weakness, start falling apart. I said, I was afraid of Mother. I wasn't afraid of no devil. I was afraid of Mother. She wouldn't put up with it. She wasn't gonna pet it. She wasn't gonna sit and let you talk out your feelings. I'll deal with your feelings. She didn't put up with it. And I said. I said, without knowing any scripture, without knowing anything about faith, I said, I cannot have this, and I will not have this. I didn't even know what it was. And within three weeks, it was all gone, not even a trace of it as a child, 12, 13 years old. See, the devil comes at certain strategic crossroads in people's lives to try to force them onto the wrong path. But I don't care what that is. You can deal with it and say, I'm not going that way. I'm not going that way in my thought life. I'm not going that way in my accusations against my family, against my boss. Not going that way. You're the custodian of your mind. Amen. You. Your mind is still your mind. Even if it doesn't feel like it's your mind. Take it back. Amen. Praise the Lord. What do you think Joseph felt like? What do you think? He's about 17 when he sold. 17. Sold by his brothers. And you think you got issues. You think you got family problems? You think you've had a hard childhood? Sold by his brothers to be a slave. They didn't care about him. But can I tell you the problem with that? The daddy's to blame. Why is the daddy to blame? He treated him different. He favored this young one. You can sense something on particular child. That's true. You can sense something on. But you're not authorized to treat them different, to favor them in the face of the others. And you bring division to your own family. God had to get Joseph ready to run a nation by the time he's 30. And he couldn't do it with that daddy. He had to get him away from that daddy. Are you saying God sold him into slavery? I'm saying God permitted it. Why? He had to get this man ready for the plan. He had to. So he sold the brothers, sold their brother. What kind of a reprobate do you have to be to sell your sibling and be able to go sleep at night? How do you do that? You have to understand there's no life of God in them. They weren't born again. There's not the same consciousness of God. We understand that, but God permitted that because the daddy was not going to raise a man that God needed. So he sold to Potiphar. Potiphar is a military man. You think I love the story of Joseph. I love the story of Joseph. I love it. God put him on the fast track of spiritual growth and development. Man, that's fast. And he is sold and Potiphar buys him. And there's something so outstanding about Joseph, he said, don't put this one in the field. Put him in my house. There's something that sets him apart. What is that? His insides. His insides were apparent to even this military man. There's something different about this young man. Joseph didn't handle him with offense or he would have never put him in his house. Joseph wasn't in there kicking against him. Him mad at his brothers, hating his brothers. Spitting, fuming against his brothers, sending out words against his family. Offense and building a wall on the inside of him because of what was done to him. If he would have stayed with his daddy, he's going to get educated in being a good shepherd. Nothing wrong with being a good shepherd. Except if God has a throne in mind for you. He's going to get educated by country people. If he stays with his daddy. God put him under the leading military man in the greatest nation on earth. In Egypt. Put him with the military man. What's a military man? He's not making lilies out of you. He's making men. He's making men. He's around a man of iron, a man of war. A man of military. A man of command. And Joseph recognized. Don't kick against this education. Potiphar trained him in how to run his house. A military man has an excellent system in his household. It's about order. Everything's on command. Everything's about order. Joseph is getting a first rate education for free. He's not having to pay for it well. He's being a slave. Do you understand? What's a slave is paying money for a system of education. That's not going to help you. That's not very good. You're paying money for that poor education. He's getting a first rate education. He's getting an education from one of the highest ranking men in the nation. Private tutoring. Private tutoring. Matters how you look at this. Most would read it and be offended. For Joseph. I'm jealous. First rate tutoring by one of the greatest military minds in the nation. Think about it. He put him, it says in Potiphar's house. There was nothing that wasn't under Joseph's command. He put everything in Joseph's hands. What is it? He put it how to run the servants of the house. How to keep the house in order. How to keep it in excellence. Training in systems. Not only that. It says he didn't leave anything of his house that wasn't in his command. What's that mean? His money. He's training him in the economy. Daddy couldn't teach him that. He's dealing with sheep with his daddy. He's dealing now with military money. How a military man handles his finances. Look at the education of this. It's all in how you look at it. It's all in how you look at it. Well, I just don't like this job. Why don't you get private tutoring? Why don't you get around the boss and be his buddy. Learn something that the others don't even notice. It's worth learning. Instead of going there and working as little as you can, getting there as late as you can, leave as early as you can just sayin'. God watches how you take advantage of the setting he offers you. Joseph is forced into a setting and benefited from it. You chose a setting of where to work. How do you treat it? Amen. So Potiphar had one problem. His wife. Can I tell you what she had A self image issue. How do we know? She wanted to be appealing to someone younger than her. And she ain't it. She got it. She wanted to feel like she had it. She's got a self image issue. People who have self image issues, if they're not careful, sabotage their life. It's one of the hardest things to help people with. If they won't renew their minds to who they are in Christ and they just take a poor self image of themselves, find out who you are in Christ and come up to that. That's who you are. She had a poor self image and she's trying to but boost her self image by thinking herself to be desirable to a young man. You understand? That's where she's getting her value from. Her self worth from. She accuses him falsely. They set up a mock trial. Potiphar doesn't know it's a mock trial. She knows it's a mock trial. Joseph knows there's a mock trial. And. And he's accused as being a rapist of a leading man in the nation. How you think that's going to work out in your mock trial? Throw him in prison. Joseph. You thought being a slave was bad. Ah, wait a minute. You're going to a different place. You're going lower in the echelon of society. So he goes down there. You know what they do down there to prisoners? They forget him. He's in a forgotten place for a crime he didn't commit. Don't you think he could have been offended? Don't you think he could have sat and rehearsed and rehearsed what his brothers did to him, What Potiphar's wife did to him. Don't you think? He had food for offense. He had a banquet table of offense offered to him and he wouldn't take it. He kept his insides clean. He kept himself right toward God. Yeah, 12 years down. Think of it. 12 years. But he kept rising to the top. Even there he became in command. The genius of God. Put him in a prison. God didn't put him there. He permitted him to be there. Who are the hardest people to function in society? People who can't comply with society rules. They just can't comply. And he's amongst a Collection of them. These people violate society. Society. These people are the hardest to deal with. You can't get them to agree with what's right. There are tormented people. They're troubled for whatever reasons. And God puts them down there and says, lead them. Lead the unleadable. You talk about training, you talk about education. He had to lead the unleadable. Why? Because God's got a throne in mind. He didn't put him around the upper crust of society, around those kids and put them in the elite prep schools of the day. He put them down in the prison with the unleadable and said, now lead them. Make something of these men. David had the exact same education, didn't he? 400 men that couldn't live in society, out living in the caves because they could not comply with society. They were hiding from society. And David took them and turned them into men of valor. Amazing stories, right? But it would have been different if Joseph would have gone there with a mindset of offense, rehearsing, regurgitating his past, how he's been mistreated. God can't promote offense. He can't advance someone in offense. He can't advance someone who doesn't recognize that demons are doing their thinking for him. The devil wants to do your thinking for you. What is the devil doing your thinking for? You look like sin consciousness. Reminded of my past. Reminded of my failures. The devil's doing you thinking for you because the blood's cleansed you from that and made you righteous before God. Made you right before God. It's an amazing story with Joseph. Twelve years, he goes. He wakes up one morning in a prison. That night, he goes to bed in the palace. Second in command of a nation. Second in command of a nation. In one day. In one day, the change comes about. But you think about it. It wasn't one day. It wasn't one day. It showed up one day. But every day was his training day. Can I tell you this? Every day of what you do with your mind is your training, training day. So it does matter what you say to your wife. Would you say it in front of your pastor? It doesn't matter what you say to your husband. Would you say it in front of your pastor? You see, because the way you behave every day is going to determine advancement. It's not. Notice this. There were no big moments in Joseph's 13 to 14 years as a slave and as a prisoner. There were no big moments. There were daily moments. God's not training big men in big moments. He's training big men in daily moments, what you do every day, what you allow your mind to touch on, what you allow in your mouth, what you allow yourself to think about others, what you do with your covenant of marriage, how you treat that covenant. I've told our congregation, so I'm not saying it to you first, so don't think I'm picking on you. I know I'm sounding a little rough tonight, but I've said it to my congregation first. Hey, they put up with it for 25 years. You can put up with it for one night. But I've told the men in my congregation that are married. I said, remember this? She said yes to you. That needs to mean something. She's got one life to live. And she said yes, that she would spend her one life with you. That needs to be honored. That yes needs to be valued. That yes needs to be appreciated. Because there weren't a bunch of women lined up behind her. You're welcome. Think about it. Think about it. I don't care that it happened years ago. Years ago. She said yes and she's still there. That needs to be honored and not mistreated, not talked down to and not devalued and not diminished and not talked hateful to. She didn't say yes so you could mistreat her. She said yes because Jesus gave a command that you're to treat her the way he treats his church. Can I tell you this? I'm going to. Yes. I have gone now, 73 minutes, and we're not done yet. I was in a camp meeting with dad Hagin. At the end of the camp meeting, the last night, we're getting up, we're being dismissed. We've got our purses, we got our Bibles. We're ready to walk out because he's getting ready to dismiss us. And he says. He starts prophesying and he says, heir comes next year. Three of you men won't be here because of the way you've treated your wife. And he said, and the space to repent is over. You will not be here. Because of the way you treated your wife. Because of the way you treated your wife. Not because the way you treated Jesus. But Jesus took it personal. Why? Because that's a covenant. That's a covenant. The way you talk to your wife. And he said, we came back the next year. Can I tell you the exact same thing? Last night of the camp meeting, we got our purses and our Bibles. We're ready to close this thing down tonight and walk out. And he starts prophesying he said, last year, I prophesied that there would be three men that would not be here this year. And he said, and they're not. He knew who they were. And he said, and next year there's another three that you will not be here either. Well, Pastor Nancy, you don't understand. That's the way I was raised. You don't understand. God's raising you now. It doesn't matter how you were raised. It matters how God's raising you, because God will not let your culture trump his word. And every home has its own culture. I said, every home has its own culture. God will not let the culture of your home trump his word. But, ladies, he only had one life, too. Your husband only has one life, too. And he asked you. And there might not have been a line of men behind him either. And he asked you. And he didn't ask you to nag him and trouble his life. He asked you to help him. You're the help meet. You're the help meet. Well, you know, I should have my own. You do have your own. You have a covenant. You have your own covenant with this man, and you're to see to his success. In our marriage, my husband was so gracious. It's so great being married to a spiritual person. Be that. So that you can be that great one to be married, to be spiritual. Right. And it's so. We just had. It was a joy. Marriage was a joy. But we had a system. He put me first, and I put him first. Then everybody in the marriage got put first. If you put yourself first, you're going to have to push down the other one to do that. But if you'll put him first and she'll put. And he'll put her first, everyone gets to be first. It's real easy. Amen. I don't know why I'm off on that, but. And I'm gonna say this for somebody, young people, young people, unmarried people, if you be a player, you won't like what you end up with. Come on. If you're dating and touching everything that's walking, you're not going to. To like what you're going to end up with. It doesn't make you more attractive to have touched everything, everywhere, every person. That does not make you something more successful in manhood. It makes you susceptible to the wrong one like never before. You are more susceptible to the wrong one than someone who. Not a player who's genuine and sincere. And you're not just trying to be admired and trying to get all the girls liking you, young people, boys, boys, girls. Because there's, you know what a player wants. They want everybody to like them without them having to return any affection. I want to be liked. I want everyone to think I'm all it. But they don't intend to be sincere. You're in the house. Thank you. You better watch it. I'll turn pastor Laketic loose on you. He won't have any mercy. I've heard that man. He'll talk it, Frank. On down to the. On down to the floor, baby. Yeah. You be a place and you think it turns you cool. You are more susceptible to the devil's strategies than anybody else. Yeah. And the thing is, when someone's a player, they're the only ones deceived. They're deceived into thinking they're all it. You ain't all it, baby. You ain't all it. You ain't all it. Cause like I can tell you, you this, you broke. You broke. You broke. You broke. I'm just saying, if you ain't got lots of money, I guarantee you you ain't it. I'm talking young people thinking it's all about I'm so cool. You ain't got any money to back up. Your cool. Mom is still paying your bills. You're not cool. And the thing is, people who are players, they think that they've duped everybody. I love being in a church where I can talk like this. We might ought to cut live stream, but. Praise the Lord. Why am I talking to you like this? God's building a man, God's building a woman. And if you're going to be carnal, you're going to build the wrong kind of life. And being built right involves what you do with your mind. When someone's a player, their mind's wrong. Their mind is not sound. When someone doesn't treat their spouse right, their mind's not sound. Their mind's not sound. And it's going to show up in a lot of different ways. It's going to show up in a lot of different ways. Well, praise the lord. Hallelujah. There's neither. Neither. But we're just grateful that God. God is helping us all. He's helping us all. He's helping us all. I would just encourage you pay attention to thought life. Marriage troubles come out of an undisciplined thought life. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's true. Yeah. They're not guarding their thoughts about their spouse, about their home. And the devil wants to do your thinking for You. But thank God. God's helped us tonight. I hope you've recognized what to do with these words. Words. Because we all have them. Come. But when you know what to do with them, it doesn't matter that they come. Because we can be inaccessible, Accessible to them. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Stand with me to your feet. Father, we thank you tonight. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you. Thank you for the rescue for us. The rescue for us. The rescue for us. Praise the Lord. Praise. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. We glorify you, Father. We glorify you. We glorify you. Thank you for not leaving us like you found us. And we want to be right in every respect. Our heart's right. Let me ask you this. Do you think that God could have, at year 12, brought Joseph out of prison in one day if there was offense stored up? He was in a dark, hard place, put there by someone else for 12 years. All the opportunities he could have just sit and festered, but he kept his heart clean. He kept his heart tender. He wouldn't believe all the accusations. You think the devil was inactive then. He was in a place where the devil would have had much ammunition to offer him. But he wouldn't take it. He wouldn't take it to enter into God's best. Guard your thought life and kick out anything of the past. Refuse to bring up the past. Kick it out of your thought life. Don't allow the devil to hold you back by him putting on the repeat cycle of your past. The blood of Jesus cleanses it. The blood cleanses your past, but the blood also cleanses other people's past so that you can't spend it against them. Don't spend it against them if you don't want yours spent against you. Amen. You got to forgive people. You got to forgive people. It doesn't make what they did right. You're not calling them right when you forgive them. You're just saying, it's just not worth it in my life because something else of greater value. Amen. So, so grateful, Father. This congregation is especially precious to me. These pastors especially precious to me. And I'm just so grateful for this place. And may it ever grow and abound in the blessing of God. And we're so thankful for that divine anointing that just keeps increasing and increasing and reaching out to the hurting people of this region and drawing them into this place of divine help, this place where the Word has dominion. And we thank you for giving us this place. Aren't you thankful to have a local church? You can't go anywhere else in the earth and be taught these things. The mall's not teaching it. The theaters aren't teaching it. Your workplace is a blessing, but it's not teaching it. But to come and hear what. Hear what God says. Hallelujah. We thank you, Father. We thank you. We thank. Thank you for our local church. Thank you for our pastors. Thank you for our church family. Thank you for the body of Christ. We're so grateful. We're so, so grateful. We give you thanks. We give you thanks. Hallelujah.