"Consider Not" by Nancy Dufresne
When Jesus ministered to the sick, He said, “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matt. 9:29). Faith is simply believing what God says in His Word and acting like it’s true. Faith means acting on the Word!
Even if circumstances and situations around us tell us something different than what God says, we choose to still believe what God says about it. If our body and what we feel tell us something different than what God’s Word says, we still choose to believe what God says. If thoughts bombard our mind against what God says, we still choose to believe what He says.
When Jesus ministered to the sick, He said, “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matt. 9:29). Faith is simply believing what God says in His Word and acting like it’s true. Faith means acting on the Word!
Even if circumstances and situations around us tell us something different than what God says, we choose to still believe what God says about it. If our body and what we feel tell us something different than what God’s Word says, we still choose to believe what God says. If thoughts bombard our mind against what God says, we still choose to believe what He says.
Abraham’s faith pleased God, so we can look at what he did and know what we are to do to have faith that pleases God.
Romans 4:17-21 reads, “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he CONSIDERED NOT his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”
God told Abraham that he was going to be the father of nations, but Abraham was childless and 90 years old. His body’s ability to produce a child was dead.
When Abraham’s body told him something different than what God said, he had a choice to make. He chose to believe what God told him rather than what his body told him. If we are going to receive healing and walk in health, we must choose right – we must believe what God’s Word says over what our body says.
Verse 19 reads, “And being not weak in faith, he CONSIDERED NOT his own body now dead.…”
How does someone weaken their faith? They consider what they ought not to consider. When our attention goes to and stays on the wrong thing, it weakens our faith. To keep our faith strong, we have to keep our attention on the right thing – on what God says. Where our attention goes affects our faith. Abraham protected the strength of his faith by keeping his attention off the wrong thing and keeping it on what God said.
To “consider not” means to not think about it, don’t touch it in our thought life – don’t turn it over in our thought life. We must discipline our thought life to not allow our mind to consider, entertain, or turn over wrong thoughts – thoughts against the Word.
We can’t keep wrong thoughts from coming to us, but we can refuse to entertain them – not turning them over and over in our mind. We can’t keep birds from flying over our head, but we can keep them from building a nest in our hair.
We are going to have to answer every circumstance, every symptom, and every thought that says something different than what God’s Word says – not just once – but every time the thought comes! When we answer wrong thoughts with what the Word says, it stops the movement of those thoughts around our head.
After we answer, then we are to continuously praise God for His Word coming to pass in our life.
“Consider not” doesn’t release us from exercising our faith. We must still release our faith, even though we refuse to focus our attention on opposing circumstances.
Abraham “considered not” his own body – he didn’t touch in his mind and in his thought life what his body told him. His body told him something, but he refused to focus or put his attention on that. Although he didn’t consider his body, he still released his faith – he believed what God said. Verse 18 tells us, “He believed according to what was spoken.” Faith holds to what God says, despite all opposition!
Abraham didn’t consider his own body, but he also didn’t consider the body of anyone else – including his own wife. “…He considered not his own body now dead…neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”
If we touch in our thought life the condition of someone else’s body, or why someone else failed to receive healing, it will weaken our faith. “Consider not” the body of another.
Lilian B. Yeomans, a teacher of divine healing, had previously been a medical doctor who God raised up off her death bed. She wrote, "Consider not – blessed words – an unfailing refuge from the fiery darts. Heavenly atmosphere where no germ or disease can survive for the fraction of a second. Consider not. Do not accord to the physical symptoms a passing thought. Refuse to take them into your calculations. If you consider your own body, paying attention to the symptoms, that is why they persist. As long as you consider them, they will persist."
If we are not to consider our body, what are we to consider? Consider the Word! Fill your thoughts, mouth, and heart with what God says.
Answer every thought that’s in opposition to the Word. Answer troubling thoughts, pain, and sickness with the Word. Walking in real victory means learning to “consider not” our body or what the enemy suggests and threatens us with.
If we believe we’re not healed because symptoms come, then we’re believing our body more than we’re believing God’s Word. Don’t believe anything more than you believe what God says!
It’s not our job “to not feel the test,” but it is our job not to change what we believe because of what we may feel or see. We are not to believe anything more than we believe the Word.
Yes, we may feel the test, but that feeling doesn’t mean our faith isn’t working or that the Word isn’t working.
As Sister Yeomans stated, “Consider not – blessed words – an unfailing refuge from the fiery darts. Heavenly atmosphere where no germ or disease can survive for the fraction of a second.” When fiery darts come against the mind, we are authorized to not consider them, to not be moved by them, and therefore, to be completely untroubled, living days of Heaven on earth.
"His Great Supply" by Nancy Dufresne
God’s plan for us is as great as He is because it came out of Him – it carries His greatness! But the plan that comes out of Him also calls for His supply – that’s why He gives us a divine supply! (Philippians 4:19)
What we could earn on our own isn’t enough to fund what comes out of Him – it isn’t great enough for God’s great plan and the greatness of what He’s doing. He is the Source and the Provider of His great plan.
We are not to see ourselves as a SPONSOR of what He’s doing. (A sponsor is responsible to pay for something.) God just allows us to participate and hook up to the greatness of His plan through our giving, but we certainly could not financially sponsor all that He is doing.
God involves us, but He’s not limited to us and our resources. The more that people get involved financially, the more they are blessed by the greatness of the plan they are participating in.
We have to think right. We are not to think that God is limited to what we can do ourselves financially, for we have God’s supply. He knows how to bring the needed resources into our hands.
Anytime God tells us to do something, He also gives us the grace to accomplish it. Contained in that grace are the wisdom, the ability, and all the resources we will need to accomplish it. That’s why we can start with “nothing” when God tells us to do something – because the supply is not of us, but it’s of the grace that comes with the greatness of that plan. God will tell us to do things we ourselves don’t have the money for because He is the Provider and our great Source – He intends to fund it!
Everything God has told my husband or me to do, we never had the money ourselves to do it – we always started with nothing. God didn’t ask us to PAY for it – He just wanted us to BELIEVE for it!
God has wonderful and great things for your local church to accomplish, but you’re not sponsoring it. God only invites you to give so that you can financially attach yourself to the greatness of the plan He has for the church, then that greatness will bless your life.
We have to think right about money so that we don’t rob from ourselves by thinking that if we don’t have the money for it we can’t have it. Anything God has told you to do is too great for your own resources. That’s why the Word says that “My God shall supply...” – not your resources. Don’t dismiss yourself from the greatness of God just because you looked at your resources. God is not looking for your sponsorship – He is looking for your faith and your obedience to His plan.
It’s so good to know what God has for our lives isn’t limited to our wallets. Our giving brings blessing to our lives because it involves us financially in what God is doing – but the greatness of His plan isn’t limited to our wallet. His plan is formed independent of our resources.
Our own natural resources are not glorious enough to fund the greatness of His plan, but when we hook up to His plan with the resources we do have, the greatness of His glory spills over onto us and draws us into the flow of His glory, the flow of His resources and supply.
The greatness of His plan calls for His greatness, so let’s put a demand on His greatness to supply and fulfill His great plan.
"The Prescription for Success" by Nancy Dufresne
A few months ago, I wrote about how on one particular occasion, I had been talking to God, repenting about some things — not things I had done wrong, but things I had failed to do — things I could have done better. Afterwards, I began to study, and while studying, I had the sense to get on my knees. When I did, Jesus stood in front of me. I didn’t see Him, but by the word of knowledge, I knew He was there. Jesus said to me, “You have failed many, many times, but I NEVER have. So, I share My success with you.”
As new creatures in Christ, the life of God, the power of God, and the ability of God are in us. But also, the success of God is in us. We share in His success because we are made in His image, and God has never failed at anything!
The success of God is in us, so we don’t have to try to achieve success on our own with our natural ability, but we can draw on the divine success that is within us.
The Word instructs us how to draw on that success and put it to work for us. “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success” (Joshua 1:8, AMP).
This verse gives us the three-step prescription for success:
This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth. We must have a lifestyle of speaking the Word, no matter what the circumstances look like.
Meditate on the Word day and night. Meditating on the Word deals with our thought lives and what we are holding our attention on every day. Meditation is also how we drive the Word down into our spirits, and it’s when the Word flows from our spirits that it becomes effective.
We are to DO according to the Word — act on the Word. We are not to endeavor to act on the Word until we have taken time to do steps 1 & 2 — that’s when we will get results.
One of the best ways to illustrate these three steps that we are to take is by looking at how an old-time musket rifle works. To make one of those rifles work, the first step is to pour gun powder down the barrel, load it with a bullet, and then put in a wad of paper. The second step to take is to pack it all down with a long rod. By packing it down, you improve the musket’s accuracy. The third step is to fire the musket.
When we speak the Word, that’s like loading the rifle with gunpowder, the bullet, and the paper wad. To meditate on the Word day and night is like packing it all down, which ensures accuracy. To act on the Word is like firing the rifle. It won’t do any good to pull the trigger until it’s been loaded and packed down.
It won’t do any good to try to act on the Word without taking the time to speak the Word and meditate on it — that would be like pulling the trigger on a rifle that hasn’t been loaded. This is where many misunderstand faith. They think if they take actions of faith that it will work, but actions of faith must be backed up by words of faith and thoughts of faith. That’s how we arrive at success.
Success belongs to us, but it won’t automatically show up — we have to take the steps prescribed in the Word. That’s what will activate the success of God in us.