"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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dufresne Ministries (@dufresneministries)

     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!

“All-In With The Word" By Nancy Dufresne

  Mark 4:23-25 in the Amplified Classic translation reads, “If any man has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend. And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue (power) and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear. For to him who has (ears to hear) will more be given; and from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away [by force].”

     We are the ones who determine how much power and knowledge flows in our lives – not God. The greater the place we give the Word in our life, the greater the degree of power that will flow. In other words, how we treat the Word will determine how much we receive from God. How we treat the Word will determine whether or not we will receive our answer and our miracle.

     No matter what belongs to us in Christ, we will only partake of it to the measure we are interested in it. None of us want to fail simply because we aren’t interested enough to give the Word first place in our lives. 

     Esau wasn’t interested in the birthright that belonged to him and traded it off for a bowl of soup – for something natural. Sometimes, we are robbed from simply due to our lack of interest in that area. We get distracted by the natural things of life and neglect the spiritual inheritance that is ours to possess. We must stir ourselves up toward what is ours in Christ and toward the plan God has for our life. 

     Caleb was interested in what God had for him and his nation. His interest showed in that he was whole-hearted toward God and His Word – he was “all-in.” When his whole generation died prematurely, he didn’t because he was wholehearted toward God’s Word.

     The Word is not a common book. When people treat the Word as a common book, their life will break down and the adversary will have no trouble overthrowing them in a crisis. If people treat the Word as common, they don’t receive what they need – healing, prosperity, victory, etc. Lightly esteeming the Word is dangerous because God meets our needs and delivers us by the Word.

     First Samuel 2:30 reads, “…For those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (AMPC). God and His Word are one – how we treat the Word is how we’re treating God. When we show honor for it, we are honored by it. Some are suffering because they don’t give the Word first place in their life. When the Word is important to us, it will direct what we fill our days with. We are to be interested enough in receiving our help and answers to give the Word first place in our life.

     When we are believing God for a miracle, there can be no room in our thought life or our words for anything else but what HE says.

     Especially when faced with a need, we are to give an “all-out” effort toward the Word – be “ALL-IN” with the Word. Give it your all, give it your best. Put the Word first in your life. In every situation of life, ask yourself, What does the Word say about this?

     Proverbs 4:20-22 tells us, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.”

     We can’t let our attention go to anything else but what God says when we need a miracle. We must be interested enough in what God provided for us to give it our full attention. When we need a miracle, we don’t have time for the unimportant. We must put the Word first.

     Lillian B. Yeomans was a medical doctor who ended up on her death bed. She got back into fellowship with God and began believing Him for healing. Even though she had troubling symptoms, she would sit day after day and feed on healing scriptures. She filled up with the healing Word. After a short time of doing this, she realized that every symptom was gone and she didn’t even know when they left, for her attention was on the Word and off of her symptoms. 

     Victory comes when the Word gains our full attention – when we get FULL of the Word. Be interested enough in your victory to give the Word your full attention – get full of the Word. When we give the Word our full attention and are “all-in” toward the Word, it won’t take long for our answer to show up!

     As we feed on the Word, God can show us the remedy for our situation. Sometimes, the remedy for us is just to give the Word its proper place in our life and in our attention – that would remedy many situations.

     What has God been dealing with you about? That’s His Word to you! To not address what God is dealing with you about can be costly. 

     There have been times when God has said to me, “The window for you to make that correction is closing.” The opportunity to make changes was closing. It’s dangerous not to make changes when the opportunity to make them is there.

     As Jesus stated in Mark 4:24 (AMPC), “…The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue (power) and knowledge] that comes back to you….” As we give the Word first place in our lives, we increase the measure of power and knowledge that flows in our lives – so let’s be “all-in” with the Word!

"The Renewed Mind" by Nancy Dufresne

Because we are “in Christ,” all the blessings of God already belong to us – healing, health, prosperity, victory, etc. But whether or not we will experience them is connected to right thinking – us thinking in line with God’s Word. When we think right, then we will believe right, speak right, and do right – then we will receive right things.

     A vital part of our inheritance “in Christ” is a sound mind. Second Timothy 1:7 reads, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The Amplified translation reads, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.” This is the kind of mind God has authored for us – a sound mind, a mind that’s “calm, well-balanced, disciplined, and controlled” – no matter what test comes against us.

     First Corinthians 2:16 reads,  “…we have the MIND of Christ.” The Amplified translation reads, “…But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.” To enjoy a sound mind, we must “hold” HIS WAY of thinking.

     The Word is the thoughts of God. God offers us His thoughts – let’s take them. The Bible is the “thoughts of God” written down – God had them written down so that we would make His thoughts our thoughts.

     Our lives are a picture of our thought life. To improve our lives, we must improve our thought lives – that’s where all change begins. God has given us His Word so that we can “come up” in our thought lives – so the responsibility rests with us, not God, to renew our minds. We must take God’s Word and renew our minds, disciplining our minds to think in line with His Word. 

“Our lives are a picture of our thought life.”

— Nancy Dufresne

     A renewed mind is a disciplined mind – disciplined to accept only the thoughts of the Word – not accepting opposing thoughts.

     If someone brings undisciplined children to your home, they touch what they shouldn’t touch and go where they shouldn’t go, and it causes problems. To have a peaceful home, you have to discipline your children. Undisciplined children rob a home of peace.

     Likewise, an undisciplined mind will rob a life of peace. An undisciplined mind will touch things it shouldn’t touch and go in directions it shouldn’t go. 

     Many think that the devil is their problem – when the real problem lies with an undisciplined thought life. Any Christian who is in bondage is not in bondage to the devil – they are in bondage to an unrenewed mind. We must discipline our mind and thought life to not take the thoughts the devil offers us and not follow wrong thoughts into wrong ways of thinking.

     How do we DISCIPLINE our minds and thought life? Romans 12:2 tells us, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind….” When you “renew your mind” with the Word of God, this verse says that it will transform your life – your life won’t look the same or be the same. 

     When the kids were young, I took them to see a movie called The Transformer. In it, a vehicle transformed into a weapon. In its “transformed” state, it could do what it couldn’t do before. 

     Likewise, a transformed life will be able to experience and accomplish what it couldn’t before it was transformed. Renewing the mind gives you access to a transformed life. Every believer has the potential to live a transformed life, but only those who “renew their minds” will experience it.

     Having someone pray for you will bless you, having someone lay hands on you will bless you, but it’s only the renewing of the mind that will TRANSFORM you. 

     If believers don’t renew their minds, their lives won’t change much. Their life will look like it did before they were saved – they will still have all kinds of crises and problems dominating them and pushing them around. Being saved doesn’t mean that problems don’t arise – it means that the outcome can be different.

     What does it mean to “renew your mind”? It means to take on God’s way of thinking. If your thoughts contradict or are opposed to God’s thoughts, you replace those wrong thoughts with God’s thoughts. When someone is renewing their mind, it will show up in their thoughts, their words, and their actions – it will affect how they live their daily life. If it’s not showing up in their daily life and their actions, their minds aren’t being renewed – no matter how much they confess it. It’s good and right to confess the Word, but it’s DOING what we confess that renews the mind. 

     To develop and mature spiritually, we must renew our minds. The more we renew our minds, the sweeter life will be.