"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.

     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.

"Faith Is Specific, Part 2" by Nancy Dufresne

In last month’s letter, I told of a particular test I faced. There was a threat the enemy kept making. I didn’t know the specific answer to it, so I would answer it generally with the truths of the Word, and it would just stand off. But after a few weeks, that same opposition would return. I would again give a general answer and it would again back off, but it didn’t leave.

     The last time it came, God said to me, “Ask Me about that opposition.” I hadn’t talked to God about it because I didn’t want to touch that threat in my thought life – I didn’t want to turn it over in my mind. But when God told me to ask Him about it, I did. He told me why it was coming. God gave me the specific answer to give to that threat, and when I answered that threat specifically, that devil left and didn’t come back. The enemy’s strategy failed because the wisdom of God came.

     When you resist an attack, but it keeps recurring, it’s because you aren’t yet giving the right specific answer.

     Specifics given by the Spirit of God are the wisdom of God for your need, and wisdom is the principal thing that gets results every time when we add our faith and obedience to it.

     The wisdom God gives can come through His Word or by His Spirit. But His wisdom is our specific answer and help.

     For me to overcome that opposition I faced, my faith needed to be more specific. When I received God’s wisdom, my faith became more specific and I got results!

God Is Specific

     The God-kind of faith is in every believer (Rom. 12:3), and the God-kind of faith is specific! The more specific we are with our faith, the more results we will get.

     In Creation, God was specific – He wasn’t general. God didn’t say, “Everything be created.” Every day of Creation, there were specific things God spoke and specific things God’s Spirit performed.

     In daily life, we are specific. We can’t get dressed without being specific. We choose specific clothes to wear each day, and we are specific in how we put them on. We can’t get to work without taking a specific route. We can’t buy anything at the store without selecting specific items. We can’t purchase anything in a store without specific amounts and specific payment. We can’t buy or sell a home without being specific.

     However, when it comes to dealing with spiritual things and with God, we sometimes become general in our faith, then wonder why we don’t receive specific results.

     We need to be specific in what we are believing God for.

     What kind of job do you want? What pay do you want? We must be specific in our faith because God is specific in meeting our needs and supplying our wants.

Specific Answers

     When one pastor pioneered his church, he lived in a nation where travel was difficult. The traffic in his city was so congested that it would be easier for him to navigate through traffic on a bicycle than on a car. He was just learning about faith, so he decided to believe God for a bicycle. He prayed and released his faith for a bicycle. Three months later, he still had no bicycle. When he asked God why it was taking so long, God said, “You never told Me what kind or color you wanted.”

     The minister then got specific. “I want a red Schwinn bicycle.” Within days, he was given a red Schwinn bicycle. His specific faith got specific results.

     Being more specific doesn’t make it harder for God; it causes the answer to come quicker.

The Spirit Will Lead Us

      Look to the Word and to the Spirit for specifics you may need – don’t look to human reasoning. Specifics can also come from your own desires, for the Word tells us that God will give us the desires of our heart.

     If we are too general with our faith, sometimes it’s a sign we aren’t believing for anything specific. We are to have a faith that is specific, and we are to look to the Spirit of God to lead us in those specifics.

     Colossians 1:9 reads, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (NIV).

     In the late 1980s, God directed me to do tent crusades in some inner cities. There were great results in those tents with many salvations and healings.

     In one of my first crusades, there were 200 people present the first night and 50 answered the altar call to be born again. When I got back to my hotel room, I told God I didn’t like that percentage; I thought it was too low.

     He answered me, “You didn’t say how many you were believing for.”

     I said, “How do I know how many to believe for? I don’t know how many will be there.”

     He replied, “The Holy Spirit knows. Why don’t you ask Him?”

     So I said, “Alright, Holy Spirit, how many should I believe for to be born again tomorrow night?”

     The Spirit of God answered, “Believe for 200.”

     I said, “Alright, I believe for 200 salvations tomorrow night.”

     I arrived at the meeting the next night, and 250 people were present. Since there were 50 saved out of the 200 present the night before, based on that percentage, it seemed to be a stretch to think that 200 out of 250 people present on the second night would answer the altar call, but they did! There were 200 people that answered the altar call.

     The more specific we are with our faith, the more results we will get.

     Look to the Spirit of God to give you the specifics you may need, for He will make known to you the wisdom of God for the situations of your daily life – and God’s wisdom is the principal thing!

"Faith Is Specific, Part 1" by Nancy Dufresne

Proverbs 4:5-8 instructs us, “Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.”

     This passage tells us what wisdom will do: preserve, keep, (AMPC – defend, protect), promote you, and bring you to honor.

     To walk in God’s wisdom is one way God protects and defends us. Sometimes people do things that aren’t wise, get into difficulty, then wonder why God didn’t warn them. Wisdom warns us!

     God’s wisdom is God’s mind and thoughts.

     When faced with a need or a test, find out God’s thinking and what He says pertaining to your situation. God’s wisdom will promote us. Having God’s wisdom will promote us into God’s best and into God’s plan for our life, but God’s wisdom will also promote us out of tests.

     If you are doing all you know to do and nothing is changing, you need God’s wisdom – ask Him.

     One minister tells of a time years ago when nearly everyone in the family was sick. They were standing in faith, but nothing was changing. This minister called their dad, who was a seasoned minister, and asked, “Why aren’t we receiving?”

     He said, “I don’t know. But wisdom is the principal thing. Get God’s wisdom. Ask Him why you aren’t receiving.” They did, and God gave them the specific answer of what to do, and when they did what He said, everything changed.

     James 1:2-6 instructs us, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering….”

     This passage starts off talking about tests and temptations we’re facing. Then it tells us what to do if we lack wisdom in the face of tests – ask God! Wisdom isn’t given automatically – we must ask – ask in faith!

God’s Wisdom in a Test

     Recently, there was a threat the enemy kept making. I didn’t know the specific answer to it, so I would answer it generally with the truths of the Word, and it would just stand off. But after a few weeks, that same opposition would return. I would again give a general answer and it would again back off, but it didn’t leave.

     The last time it came, God said to me, “Ask Me about that opposition.” I hadn’t talked to God about it because I didn’t want to touch that threat in my thought life – I didn’t want to turn it over in my mind. But when God told me to ask Him about it, I did. He told me why it was coming. God gave me the specific answer to give to that threat, and when I answered that threat specifically, that devil left and didn’t come back. The enemy’s strategy failed because the wisdom of God came.

     Colossians 1:9 reads, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (NIV).

     When you resist an attack, but it keeps recurring, it’s because you aren’t yet giving the right specific answer. Specifics given by the Spirit of God are the wisdom of God for your need, and wisdom is the principal thing that gets results every time when we add our faith and obedience to it.

Wisdom Is Specific

     Mark 5:6-9 tells us about how Jesus dealt with the madman of Gadera: “But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.”

     Notice, Jesus had commanded the devil to come out once, and he didn’t, so Jesus asked him his name. When Jesus called the demons out by name, the specific name (the specific thing to say), the demons came out – He got results.

     (In one vision Kenneth E. Hagin had of Jesus, Jesus taught him about evil spirits, and stated that sometimes – not every time – you need to know the name of the demon to cast it out.)

     This shows us that when faced with opposition, we sometimes need to answer opposition with more specific answers and not just general answers, in order to get results.

     If you are having to deal with the same opposition repeatedly, you need God’s wisdom to know the specific answer to give.

     We are to live “Days of Heaven on Earth.” We aren’t to live troubled and harassed by ongoing opposition. Troubling is not to last; it is not to be a way of life for the believer. 

     Ephesians 6:13-14 tells us, “…having done all, to stand. Stand therefore....” We haven’t “done all to stand” if we lack God’s wisdom regarding our situation. We are to ask God for His wisdom regarding a lingering test. To “stand” doesn't mean to just cope. To “stand” involves being fully suited in the armor of God, and it involves standing on the Word with the specific answer of God’s wisdom in our mouth.

     Ask God for His wisdom, which is your specific answer to the test – then when you stand on that Word, you’ll get results!