"Miracles & Reverence" by Nancy Dufresne

One of the things that God put on my heart to minister on in our recent Miracle Crusade is “Miracles and Reverence.” Brother Hagin had stated, “When reverence and honor are restored, there will be a restoration and multiplication of the miraculous power of God.” There is so much connected to our reverence and honor for the Lord.

    Not only is miracle power connected to our reverence and honor for God, but so is receiving the wisdom of God. We need His wisdom to fulfill His plan for our lives. Proverbs 9:10 (AMPC) reads, “The REVERENT and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of WISDOM, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding.” 

    The GNT translation reads, “To be wise you must first have REVERENCE for the Lord….”

    The NCV translation reads, “Wisdom begins with RESPECT for the Lord, and understanding begins with knowing the Holy One.”

    The NLT reads, “Fear of the Lord is the FOUNDATION of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.”

    “Fear of the Lord” is a wholesome dread of displeasing Him. Because of our love and reverence for Him, we want to please Him and live lives that are pleasing to Him.

    God is always dealing with us about something because He is faithfully working to bring us into full spiritual maturity. When we reverence God and “fear the Lord,” we listen to Him and we obey Him in His dealings with us. When we listen to Him and obey Him, we will operate in the wisdom He gives. Proverbs 15:31-33 (AMPC) reads, “The ear that LISTENS to the reproof [that leads to or gives] life will remain among the wise. He who refuses and ignores instruction and correction despises himself, but he who HEEDS reproof gets understanding. The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord brings instruction in Wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” 

    Reverence will bring you into wisdom, because reverence for God shows you are trustworthy to handle wisdom rightly.

     In Ephesians 1:16-19, Paul tells us a Spirit-inspired prayer he prayed for those in Ephesus. “Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the SPIRIT OF WISDOM and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe….”

​Paul prayed that they would be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation, which would cause them to come into the knowledge of Christ — who we are in Him, what we have because we are in Him, and what we can do because we are in Him. 

​Reverence holds a proper regard for the things of God. Reverence won’t treat the wisdom and revelation God gives lightly. Because having reverence for the Lord is connected to wisdom, the measure of reverence we walk in will affect the measure of the “spirit of wisdom” we will receive.

Rewards of Reverence

    There are rewards of reverence. Proverbs 22:4 (AMPC) tells us of those rewards. “The REWARD of humility and the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is RICHES AND HONOR AND LIFE.” Riches, honor, and life are connected to our reverence for God. Reverence brings the Presence of God, and the Presence of God prospers us.

    Jeremiah 5:22-25 (AMPC) reads, “Do you not fear and reverence Me? says the Lord…. But these people have hearts that draw back from God and wills that rebel against Him; they have revolted and quit His service and have gone away [into idolatry]. Nor do they say in their hearts, Let us now reverently fear and worship the Lord our God…. Your iniquities have turned these blessings away, and your sins have kept good [harvests] from you.”

    In this passage, their failure wasn’t due to the devil, but because of their lack of reverence for God. He was speaking to His people that had gone wayward, which laid them open to defeat. He was letting them know that their lack of reverence for Him put them in this wayward condition and laid them open to defeat by their enemies. So, if lack of reverence opened them up to defeat, then being reverent toward God is a safety to our lives — safeguarding us from defeat. It holds us in the flow where God can bless us and manifest Himself.

We Need Miracles

    Every man needs miracles! We want to conduct our lives in such a way that we are always positioned to receive the miracles we need. Reverence positions us for miracles.

    God and His Word are one, so to have a reverence for God is to have a reverence for His Word — for His written Word and His spoken Word — and for what He would say to us by His Spirit.

    We don’t want to displease the Lord — we want to please Him. Let’s continue to grow in our reverence and honor for God, which is expressed through our worship and our obedience to Him and His Word.

     As Proverbs tells us, there are rewards that come with reverence of God — riches, honor, and life. That’s the flow that we will live in when we reverence and honor God.

"Prepare For Your Purpose" by Nancy Dufresne

  In our Campmeeting 2021, different ministers taught wonderful messages in the morning services that helped us all so much. During the service taught by Pastor Chris Cody, he made the following statements. (I’m probably paraphrasing.)

What kind of end do you want? We should want one that is peaceful and glorifying. What we do every day is going to determine what kind of end we will have. Think about it and pay attention to what you do every day with the end in mind. 

We can’t live our life out of order and have the kind of results God has for us. Part of order is preparing for what’s ahead. Even if we are being faithful at the place we are today, we still have to save time today to prepare for what is ahead, or we won’t qualify for where we are headed. Lack of preparation will disqualify us. We shouldn’t just be trying to get to the “end of the day,” without preparing for where we are headed. You can’t let life happen – you have to make life happen. 

     One of these statements has stuck with me, so I want to spotlight it. “Part of order is preparing for what’s ahead.” 

     It is so easy for us to get to the place where we are just dealing with the things that arise that day instead of designing our day and our life with our God-given purpose in mind. Are we making certain that what we are giving ourselves to every day is going to help us arrive at God’s best? Are we prepared to go where God wants to take us?

     No matter where we are in the plan of God, He always wants to take us further, and before He can do that, we must BE PREPARED to go further! With that in mind, we have to order our day so that we make time to prepare.

     Dad Hagin would tell us, “Preparation time is never lost time.” Some things seem to press on our schedules so much, but we are to evaluate whether or not those things are preparing us to move forward.

     I love something one great faith pioneer of the past stated in his writings: “Before I take on a task, I ask myself, Is this going to help me in my race?” He was showing how mindful he was of the plan and purpose God had for his life, and he wasn’t willing to sell that off to distractions and unnecessary activities.

     We won’t just float into fulfilling the plan of God for our lives – we will only arrive there on purpose – as we make very purposeful steps. Paul warns us about this. “Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil. Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:15-17, AMPC).

     Time is short. We don’t have time to wander and waste. We must live accurately and with clarity of purpose – ordering our lives and our days so that we are preparing to advance into all that God’s plan holds for us.

     For 30 years, Jesus did what He wasn’t born for. He worked as a carpenter, but the entire time He was preparing for the final three years of His earthly life so He could fulfill all. Yes, there are preparation seasons in our life, but during that time, we want to make sure we are being faithful to prepare for where we are headed and not just stay where we are at. We do that by responding to God and being obedient to Him.

     Make life’s decisions with your purpose in mind – and not just your profession or job in mind. The life choices Jesus was making every day as a carpenter weren’t just with the carpentry business in mind – He was making choices that would prepare Him for what He was born for.

He came to be the Savior of mankind, and even though He was the Son of God, He still had to order His life and His days so that He would be prepared for His purpose. 

     We too must order our lives and our days with our purpose in mind – not with just our income, professions, or life’s responsibilities in mind. 

     God has a purpose for us all, and we have a part to play so that purpose can be fulfilled. Let us order our days so that we will be prepared to move with God and lay hold of all He has planned for us.

"Right Thinking Brings Promotion, Part 2" by Nancy Dufresne

As I stated in Part 1 of this message, everything in God is increase, advancement, and promotion. There’s nothing in God that’s in the backward direction. So we shouldn’t be okay if we are not increasing. Things in our life shouldn’t stay the same year after year. There should be increase, because faith in God’s Word will promote us – it won’t leave us where we are at. It would help us to evaluate the fruit in each arena of our lives to make sure we are advancing.​

    For us to advance and be promoted, our thinking must advance. Right thinking positions us for promotion and increase. We can’t be promoted if we have wrong thinking. Wrong thinking hinders us and robs from us.

    We must be TEACHABLE if our thinking is to change. Proverbs 21:2 tells us, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes….” We aren’t safe just being self-taught. That’s why God gave us a pastor and the other fivefold offices.

    People that are teachable will listen. If we think wrong and refuse to listen, the mind will keep truth from entering into our spirit. We must listen if the Word is to help our thinking.

    Romans 12:2 instructs us, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The Amplified Classic translation reads, “Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect[in His sight for you].”

    As we renew our minds by feeding and acting on the Word of God, our lives are transformed into something we’ve never been before. Miracles, the gifts of the Spirit, and healing lines bless you, but it’s the Word and being a doer of it that transforms your life into something that it has never been before. A renewed mind is not just mentally agreeing with God, but it includes acting in line with the Word. The mind is only renewed in a particular arena once we are acting and conducting our lives in line with the Word in that arena. We must renew our minds to what the Word says in every arena. In the Amplified translation, notice the word “entire” renewal – every arena addressed – notjust some of the arenas of life. This is a life-long process that must happen every day for the rest of our lives.

    Third John 1:2 reads, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers” (AMPC). Notice, this verse connects our physical prosperity and our financial prosperity to the prosperity of our soul – the renewing of the mind. Our prosperity doesn’t begin with money, but with a renewed mind. “Beloved, I pray that you prosper and be in health even as your SOUL prospers” – not as your FAITH prospers – but as your SOUL. Faith is important, but it won’t take the place of having a renewed mind and right thinking. In all your getting of faith, don’t overlook getting right thinking, which comes from renewing the mind. Your mind will either shut down the flow of faith or cooperate with the faith in your heart. 

A Renewed Mind — Our Greatest Defense

    Our greatest defense against the enemy is a renewed mind. The mind is Satan’s chief battleground. The reason that Satan attacks the mind is because he knows if the thinking is wrong, the believing and speaking will be wrong. By attacking the mind, he can automatically affect every other arena of our lives. Every attack that comes will also be accompanied by an attack on the mind – to try to get us to think wrong. His whole intent is to get us thinking wrong because then our believing and speaking will be wrong. 

    The Word calls the devil, the “old deceiver.” That deception happens in the mind. The devil can’t do anything to you anytime he wants – if he could, he would just go ahead and do it. But he can’t – that’s why he has to try to deceive you first. He has to get someone thinking wrong to gain entrance. When someone thinks right, the devil has no place of entry.

    Isaiah 26:3 tells us, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,whose MIND is stayed on thee....” Faith isn’t mentioned here in connection with peace – the mind is. How do we know that we’re thinking right regarding a particular arena of life? Two ways: 1) if we are advancing in that arena, and 2) if we have total peace and joy regarding that arena. A lack of peace and joy is due to wrong thinking. Wrong thinking leads us to wrong believing, wrong speaking, and wrong actions – which rob us of peace and joy. Right thinking removes all struggle from life. Ourlives today are a picture of how we think.

    We need to realize that thoughts come to our minds from two different sources; the thoughts that come to our minds do not always originate in our minds. The devil brings thoughts against our minds from the outside. That's one source. The thoughts from God come from within us; they come up from within our spirits into our minds. As we renew our minds with the Word, we are able to distinguish which source a thought flows from.

97% Are Living Beneath

    Thinking right will enlarge what we reach for. Some don’t think they deserve much – that’s wrong thinking. We don’t want to be satisfied with too little when God offers us so much. God told my husband, “97% of My people are living beneath what I’ve provided for them. You ought to be able to live a whole year without touching your savings, just living out of your cash flow. If a pastor needed to build a new building, a congregation of 200 ought to be able to give $1M in one service without touching their savings” (that’s 100 people giving $10,000).

    Giving is a struggle for some, not because of money, but because of wrong thinking. There are Christians that are good givers, but they aren’t prospering; they don’t think right toward money, and that wrong thinking is hindering their increase. Many times, their motive and intent are wrong.

    If an arena of your life is not increasing and prospering, address that arena with the Word – further renewing of the mind in that arena is called for – that will bring advancement. Those who take the Word, renew their minds, meditate on it, let it govern their thoughts and actions, and become doers of it are the ones that will rise to the top.

    Right thinking doesn’t just promote us, but it helps usmaintain what’s laid hold of. Everything we receive from God, the enemy is busy trying to steal it from us. It’s wrong thinking that opens the door for him to steal from us. Wrong thoughts include: doubt, fear, unforgiveness, offense, etc. But he can’t steal from us if we are thinking and speaking right, and it’s the Word of God that offers us right thinking. 

    Let’s take the thoughts of the Word and make them ours – forthe Word will bring promotion, advancement, and increase in every arena of our lives.