"Right Thinking" by Nancy Dufresne
When Brother Hagin was younger in ministry, he had an accident and injured his arm. It was while staying in the hospital that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and said:
“My best is that My people never even be sick or have an accident. But very few people ever walk in My best.
Now, there’s a number of reasons why My people get sick, have accidents, have to go to the hospital, have to be operated on, and have to go to doctors. The number one reason is because most of them don’t know what belongs to them. The number two reason is if they do know these truths, so many of them are weak in faith. The number three reason is because they are in disobedience.”
When Brother Hagin was younger in ministry, he had an accident and injured his arm. It was while staying in the hospital that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and said:
“My best is that My people never even be sick or have an accident. But very few people ever walk in My best.
Now, there’s a number of reasons why My people get sick, have accidents, have to go to the hospital, have to be operated on, and have to go to doctors. The number one reason is because most of them don’t know what belongs to them. The number two reason is if they do know these truths, so many of them are weak in faith. The number three reason is because they are in disobedience.”
(Jesus then told Dad Hagin that the reason he had this accident was because he was in disobedience, so he had gotten on the devil’s territory, and the devil attacked him.)
It’s sobering that Jesus said, “…very few ever walk in My best.” I want to walk in His best, and I know you do too!
I want to focus on what Jesus listed as cause number two. “Even if people do know what belongs to them, so many of them are weak in faith.”
Renewing the Mind
If we are to have strong faith, we have to think right. If we think right, then we will believe right and speak right – then we will receive right. If we think wrong, we will believe wrong and speak wrong – then we will have wrong things happening.
God can only work through right thinking, but the devil can only work through wrong thinking. That’s why he seeks to interject wrong thoughts into our thought life. Wrong thinking opens the door to the devil and closes it to God. But right thinking opens the door to God and closes it to the devil.
What is right thinking? God’s thoughts – thinking in line with the Word of God. Wrong thinking is thoughts that aren’t in line with the Word of God.
Romans 12:2 instructs us, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye TRANSFORMED by the RENEWING OF YOUR MIND….”
What’s the remedy for wrong thinking? Renewing the mind with the Word of God – taking on God’s way of thinking.
Our greatest defense against the devil is a renewed mind. Any Christian who is in bondage is not in bondage to the devil – they are in bondage to an unrenewed mind.
Christians who fail to renew their mind with the Word of God will live harassed, troubled, and mentally beat up. But we don’t have to live that way. We are not supposed to live in mental torment and harassment while on this earth. Our lives can be transformed as we renew our minds.
Learn that every thought that comes TO you doesn’t come FROM you. The devil will speak thoughts to the mind, and we must recognize them when he does.
Fear and doubt have an offspring called worry. Recognize that worry is a flow of fear and take a stand against it. We must learn to recognize wrong thoughts – like thoughts of fear, worry, and doubt – and resist them by refusing to entertain them – refusing to turn them over and over in our thought lives.
We can’t fight thoughts with thoughts – we fight them with words. We must cast them down by answering them with the Word of God, then spending time worshipping God to help hold our attention on God and off any wrong thoughts!
We can’t make the devil leave us alone, but we can learn how to be completely untroubled by him – by not listening to him and not giving his thoughts our attention.
In a recent interview, I was asked, “What was your darkest hour?” No event has been my darkest hour. The hardest time of my life was when my mind wasn’t renewed – when I hadn’t yet developed skill at disciplining my thought life. Permitting wrong thoughts of worry and fear made life hard.
A renewed mind still gets opposed, but it just refuses to open the door to opposition and let it in. It refuses to give it attention and a place in the thought life.
Any troubling of the mind we experience is an invitation to further renew the mind and to gain greater skill at disciplining our thought lives and holding our attention on God and His Word.
Just knowing scriptures and being able to quote them does not mean the mind is renewed. The mind is not renewed until you are DOING that Word in your everyday life – casting down every wrong, troubling, worrisome, fearful, doubtful thought by answering it with God’s Word, then holding our attention on Him and His Word through worshipping Him.
Many have learned “faith lingo” and won’t confess wrong things to others – but what do you SAY TO YOURSELF? Saying it to yourself is still saying it! Pay attention to what you are saying to yourself and thinking about. Discipline your thought life. If a thought doesn’t lead you to peace, resist it, then turn your attention away from it.
The devil imitates how God works. When God speaks to you, there’s an influence you sense called the anointing – that anointing helps you to receive what God is saying. When the devil speaks, he also sends an influence – you can feel what he suggests – feelings of fear and thoughts that try to race. They can seem real and true, but don’t believe what you feel.
Your thinking affects your faith. You can’t develop strong faith without renewing your mind. A renewed mind AGREES with the faith in your heart instead of arguing with it.
Right thinking closes the door to the devil and opens the door to God. So, keep renewing your mind, keep growing your faith, and live days of Heaven on this earth.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace (uninterrupted peace), whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3).
"Faith & Righteousness" by Nancy Dufresne
To receive miracles, to receive healing, and to minister that flow to others calls for faith – the God-kind of faith. Romans 12:3 tells us, “…God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” At the new birth, God put in every man the beginning measure of faith – we have a measure of the God-kind of faith. But we are the custodians of that faith – we determine what happens to it – whether it grows or not. We are to cause it to grow by feeding and meditating on the Word, then release that faith through our words and actions. Faith comes by hearing, but it’s not released by hearing – it’s released through words and actions.
“Our greatest defense against the enemy is a renewed mind, including renewing our mind that we are righteous.”
To receive miracles, to receive healing, and to minister that flow to others calls for faith – the God-kind of faith. Romans 12:3 tells us, “…God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” At the new birth, God put in every man the beginning measure of faith – we have a measure of the God-kind of faith. But we are the custodians of that faith – we determine what happens to it – whether it grows or not. We are to cause it to grow by feeding and meditating on the Word, then release that faith through our words and actions. Faith comes by hearing, but it’s not released by hearing – it’s released through words and actions.
Faith is how we conduct business with God. Faith is the great conductor of God’s power. Faith converts the Word to power. Faith is the pipeline that God’s power flows through to reach our need. We must protect our faith so that we can keep moving with God and receive from God what He has already made ours. It’s only by faith that we can “live as rich as we are.” So, we must deal with things that try to hinder or rob us of faith.
Jesus asked, “When I come back will I find persistence in faith?” That’s what He’s looking for, for that’s what He needs so He can work.
One of the things that hinders faith is CONDEMNATION. Sin-consciousness – living conscious of past sins, faults, failures, and weaknesses – produces condemnation. It focuses on the flesh and the natural side of man, instead of focusing on who we are in Christ and on our spirit and all that’s contained in our spirit.
Any sense of condemnation shows us that further renewing of the mind is called for. The receiving of miracles and healing power is hindered where there is condemnation. Condemnation doesn't just destroy someone’s self-image – how they see themselves – but it destroys their ability to receive from God. Condemnation turns us sin-conscious instead of being righteousness-conscious.
Condemnation hinders faith; therefore, it hinders us from receiving miracles, healing, and answers for our life. It causes us to draw back; it hinders the flow of our faith – and it takes faith to conduct business with God.
But Romans 8:1 tells us, “There is therefore NOW no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The timeline to the end of condemnation in your life is NOW!
Romans 14:17 tells us, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Righteousness, peace, and joy is the flow of the Holy Ghost. This is the flow of God, and this is the flow God moves in. God doesn’t move in the flow of fear, worry, doubt, or condemnation.
We won’t walk in peace and joy unless we renew our minds to the truth that Jesus has made us righteous – right with God. Jesus made us righteous. We aren’t righteous because WE did everything right – we are righteous because JESUS did everything right.
First John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we sin, we are to immediately confess it so that our own heart won’t condemn us and so we keep the door closed to the devil. When we confess it, the Blood cleanses us. The Blood makes it as though we never missed it. How bold would we live if we knew we had never missed it? That’s where the Blood puts us.
Condemnation comes to rob us of that boldness of faith. To live under sin-consciousness and condemnation, we have to FORGET the Blood.
For condemnation to work against us, we have to fail to forgive ourselves – not having faith in I John 1:9.
Mark 11:25 instructs us, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any…,” because unforgiveness will keep your faith from working (vs. 23 & 24). Condemnation comes from not forgiving yourself or forgetting that you were forgiven when you confessed your sin.
Romans 5:17 (AMPC) reads, “For if because of one man’s (Adam’s) trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the FREE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS [putting them into right standing with Himself] REIGN AS KINGS IN LIFE through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).” No wonder the devil attacks our righteousness through condemnation – for walking in our righteousness is how we REIGN IN LIFE over him and over all opposing circumstances.
Isaiah 54:13-15 reads, “And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake” (because you are righteous and you forbid it).
We are to be established in righteousness. That means that we are to build in our spirits and into our thought lives that we are righteous. We are to reject and cast down accusing thoughts, believing that the Blood has cleansed us from all unrighteousness when we confessed it. When we are established in our righteousness, we will be far from oppression, fear, and terror – we will forbid their entrance into our thought life and into our heart. When we are established in righteousness, peace and joy will be our flow because being righteousness-minded closes the door to fear.
Our greatest defense against the enemy is a renewed mind, including renewing our mind that we are righteous.
Righteous, peace, and joy is the flow of God’s kingdom (Rom. 14:17). That’s the flow that belongs to us, even while we are on this earth.
"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.
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!