"Steps of Faith" by Nancy Dufresne

There are steps that faith takes to receive from God and to become a partaker of what we possess.

     First, faith hears from God. That’s the only basis for faith – knowing what God said to you.

     Second, faith meditates on the Word. That’s how you build in you what God says to you. That’s how you turn the impossible to the possible in your own thinking. Meditation is part of the renewing of the mind, to think like God thinks.

     Third, faith acts on the Word. Confessing the Word is part of acting on the Word. Standing on the Word in the face of opposition and being unswayed by circumstances is a part of acting on the Word. Faith praises, which is also acting on the Word.

     If we aren’t careful, we can get rutted in only one step of faith and not make all the steps necessary to receive what God has provided for us. Some think, “I have a list of confessions I make – my part’s done!” They think that once they have confessed the Word over their need, that is all there is to do, so they sit back and wait for God to do the rest. Some sit back and wait for money to show up. They are waiting for someone to hand them money. If it doesn’t show up, they keep waiting. Then much time passes and nothing has changed. All the while, they think they’re in faith, so they keep waiting, and nothing keeps happening. But faith is a work. Faith is an act. Faith is an action we take.

     Confession is important. Faith does confess the Word, but there are other steps that faith takes. Faith is an act! And confessing the Word is not the totality of faith. Actions must be joined to our confession.

     At one point, God spoke to me that we are to believe Him for: (1) divine ideas, (2) open doors of financial opportunities, and (3) lost funds restored in multiplied fashion. These first two things, especially, are actions we take, not only confessions we make.

     Years ago, I heard the testimony of a single mother who was attending the services of a guest minister at her church. When they received an offering for him, the Spirit of God directed her to give him $1,000. She didn’t have the money, but she put an envelope in the offering and wrote on it that she was pledging to send the money to the minister within 30 days. 

     Afterwards, she didn’t go home and just confess that she would have the money. She began to act. The first action she made was to seek God on what she was to do – what further action she was to take. She had heard from God to give the money, but now she needed to hear further. 

     Just because we have heard one instruction from God doesn’t mean that we have heard all we need to know about that. This woman made a pledge at the leading of the Spirit, but she didn’t just sit and try to confess the money in. She went home and began to seek God about her part. She had made the pledge, but what did she need to do further? As she was seeking God, He reminded her of barrettes she had decorated as gifts for her friends and family at Christmas. She was impressed to make more to sell, so she did. 

     She asked her friend who owned a boutique if she could set up a table in her store and sell them the next weekend, and her friend agreed. The following Saturday she had her table set up in the boutique. Within 30 minutes, a woman walked up to her table and picked up each of the 25 barrettes one at a time and inspected them thoroughly.

     She asked the single mom, “Did you make these?”

     “Yes, ma’am,” she answered.

     “I’ll take 50,000 of them!” She was a buyer for a nationwide luxury department store.

     Now this single mom not only had her $1,000 to meet her pledge, but she also had a new business. God gave her a divine idea, and when she implemented it, an open door of financial opportunity was opened to her. God not only gave her seed to sow, but also bread to eat. In blessing someone else, her own need was supplied.

     I want you to see that she didn’t just camp on one step of faith – just sitting at home confessing the Word. She took time to seek God so that she knew what actions to take.

     Some are trying to confess in money without seeking God – they think that God will only work by someone handing them the money they need. Don’t limit God to one avenue of meeting your need. God is vast, and He has vast ways of meeting your need.

     Confession is good and it’s right – I’m not belittling confession. But some just park themselves on confession and never act further. Faith is an act! Confession is an act, but many times, we need to take further action than confessing. Seek God for divine ideas and open doors of financial opportunities. What more do we need to do?

     Faith will SEEK GOD at every step along the way to receive wisdom of what needs to be done. Hearing one thing from God about a situation is not always enough to arrive at fulfillment. 

     Just because we may know what belongs to us in Christ doesn’t dismiss us from the need to seek God. No, we don’t need to seek Him for things that already belong to us in Christ, but we may need to seek Him for wisdom to know what to do so that we can partake of what belongs to us in Christ. Sometimes we may need to make changes or adjust something. Sometimes we need greater knowledge. We may need to seek God on how to carry out our part. 

     Many act and keep acting without seeking God first and then just get worn out. Seek God, then act and keep acting. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently SEEK Him.

     Matthew 7:7 & 8 (AMPC) instructs us, “Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.”

     Ask, seek, knock – this is the action faith will take. We aren’t doing that to get God to give us what He already made ours, but for greater wisdom in how to cooperate with what He made ours.

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     When faced with a need, don’t just look for relief – look to use your faith. If we bypass the opportunities to practice using our faith, we end up robbing ourselves of having strong faith – and that’s dangerous – for one day we will need a miracle, and that’s going to call for faith. Let’s take every opportunity we can to develop our faith.

     Everything that God said He’s given you is still yours, but it won’t come to pass automatically. If there are things God has said to you that still haven’t come to pass, sometimes it’s because you haven’t gotten it big enough in you through meditation to ACT on it.

     What is your current faith project? What do you actively have your faith on? Believing is ACTING on the Word. Confession is a part, but it is not the totality of believing – faith is an act!

"2022: Days of Heaven on Earth" by Nancy Dufresne

What 2022 holds for us is “Days of Heaven on Earth!” 

Deuteronomy 11:21 reads, “That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.”

Days of heaven on earth is what God has planned and provided for His children, but we won’t just automatically float into that. The way to live “days of heaven upon the earth” is stated in the previous verses, starting with verse 18: “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth” (Deut. 11:18-21).

How we treat the Word, giving the Word its rightful place in our lives and in our homes, and being doers of the Word, is how we experience “days of heaven upon the earth.” The more we renew our minds with God’s Word, taking on His way of thinking, speaking, and acting, the more we move into heaven’s flow — we move into how heaven operates. As we give the Word first place in our lives, life becomes sweeter and sweeter.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. When we make the Word the centerpiece of our lives and homes, we come into a living faith, and it’s by that faith that we lay hold of, receive, and experience all that Heaven provided for us — which brings us into “days of heaven upon the earth.”

This is the kind of life God authored for His children. He did not put us here to live lives that would be full of heartache, tragedy, fear, depression, and hardship. No! He has provided for every need we will ever face in this life, and when we partake of what He has already provided for us, we will live days of heaven on earth.

Again, verse 21 tells us, “That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.”

When we give the Word first place in our lives and home, our days on this earth will be multiplied — not shortened. Not only that, our children’s days will be multiplied. The blessing of that Word governing us will bless the next generation.

Verse 21 also reads, “…IN THE LAND which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them….” In this passage, God was referring to them occupying the land He gave them — the Promised Land. That’s where He told them to be. That’s where their days could be multiplied. 

The Promised Land for us is being where He told us to be — in the place He leads us to — in the right local church, under the right pastor, and serving in that church — that is where our days can be multiplied. Be where God told you to be, and don’t exchange that place for anything else.

Ephesians 1:3 tells us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Another translation reads, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with everything that Heaven itself enjoys.” I like that! Nothing that heaven enjoys has been withheld from us while we are on the earth.

Romans 14:17 says, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Righteousness, peace, and joy — that is the flow of heaven, and that flow is offered to us while we are on the earth – a life of righteousness (Jesus has made us righteous) that lives in peace and joy. There’s no sadness, depression, fear, or torment in heaven, therefore, we can walk free from those things while we are on the earth, for the flow of heaven — righteousness, joy, and peace — is available to us NOW! We have already been blessed with everything that heaven is enjoying, and that’s what heaven is enjoying! No matter what circumstances show up in this life, they cannot remove the flow that heaven has already bestowed upon us — peace and joy. Choose heaven’s flow, a flow of peace and joy, right in the midst of opposing circumstances, and you will experience heaven on earth, no matter what the opposition!

Look at what Colossians 3:1-3 tells us: “If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God” (AMPC).

We don’t live days of heaven on earth by having our attention and focus fixed on earth and what’s happening here, but we are to be fixed on heaven. We are to live mindful of who He has made us to be in Christ. 

Days of heaven on earth have always belonged to God’s people, but in 2022, we are to emphasize living with Him in that flow — heaven’s flow.

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