Knowing Your Measure of Faith
ISBN: 0-940763-36-2
ISBN: 9780940763364
Copyright © 2013 by Ed Dufresne Ministries
Published by:
EDM Publishing
P.O. Box 1010
Murrieta, CA 92564
www.eddufresne.org
1st Printing: 5,000
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scriptural quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express consent of the publisher.
Cover design: Nancy Dufresne & Grant Wilson
Front Cover Photo: © Jim Barber/shutterstock.com
Back Cover Photo: © Reinhold Leitner/shutterstock.com
Nancy Dufresne’s Photo: Morgan Dufresne/© EDM Publishing
Praying God’s Word
Devil, Don’t Touch My Stuff!
There’s a Healer in the House
Faithfulness: The Road to Divine Promotion
The Footsteps of a Prophet
Golden Nuggets for Longevity
Things that Pertain to the Spirit
How to be Rich God’s Way
How to Flow with Anointings & Mantles
Daily Healing Bread from God’s Table
His Presence Shall be My Dwelling Place
Victory in the Name
There Came a Sound From Heaven: The Life Story of Dr. Ed Dufresne
The Healer Divine
Visitations from God
Responding to the Holy Spirit
God: The Revealer of Secrets
A Supernatural Prayer Life
Causes
I Have a Supply
Fit for the Master’s Use: A Handbook for Raising Godly Children
A Sound, Disciplined Mind
Introduction
1. The Measure of Faith
2. How to Know Your Measure of Faith
3. What Can You Believe For?
4. Be Sober About Your Measure of Faith
5. The Faith of the Minister & Congregation
6. The Prayer of Agreement
7. Faith that Continues
8. Stretch Your Faith
9. Heros of Faith
Sinner’s Prayer
How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and THIS IS THE VICTORY THAT OVERCOMETH THE WORLD, EVEN OUR FAITH.
– I John 5:4
This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Your victory is waiting on your faith! Jesus won the victory for us over the flesh, the enemy and the world, and gave us the victory; His victory is our victory. But to walk in the victory that Jesus won for us requires our faith; we must add our faith to the victory He won for us. That’s how we become partakers of that victory. When we release our faith in God’s Word and act on that Word, victory is the result.
Your faith is so important, for with your faith you conduct business with God. Without faith you can’t conduct business with God. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “But without faith it is impossible to please him (God): for HE THAT COMETH TO GOD MUST BELIEVE that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” If you lose your faith, you’ve lost everything. So, you must protect your faith, increase your faith by feeding it on God’s Word, and release or exercise your faith, for your victory is waiting on your faith.
HEBREWS 10:38 & 39
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back (from living by faith), my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
God has no pleasure in him who draws back from living by faith because then God can’t undertake in his behalf, and it is His pleasure to undertake for us. When we don’t exercise faith, God is robbed of the pleasure of undertaking for us.
We are not to just have moments of faith, but a lifestyle of faith – it is to be how we live.
Faith is not just something that operates in a healing line or prayer line. It’s not just something that’s exercised only during a church service, but it’s to be a way of life for every child of God.
Many don’t recognize that their faith is active and moving when they make decisions in line with the Word of God. It’s faith moving within a person when they conduct their home life in line with God’s Word. It’s faith moving within a person when they raise their children in line with God’s Word. It’s faith moving within a person when they raise their children to be faithful to their local church. It’s faith moving in a person when they refuse to let their children fellowship with and partake of the lifestyle of the godless. It’s faith moving within a person when they live faithful to their spouse. Faith is the way we live – it’s a life of faith.
Faith is a living, moving force that refuses to be stationary. It’s always reaching ahead – never looking behind! Doubt is in the backward direction, but never faith! Faith is not willing to be the same tomorrow as it is today – it’s ever looking to take new ground. Faith won’t waste life on the unimportant, for it’s reaching further into God’s power and doing the impossible, working that which can’t be done. It is “…always abounding in the work of the Lord…” (I Corinthians 15:58).
Faith is rich, faith is life altering, faith is moving ahead in God and leaving the past in the forgotten.
God has made His faith ours. We must learn it, live it and pass it on to others. We must have a sincere faith, a faith that’s accurate and sound in understanding, and a faith that’s ever on the increase. We’re to contend for the faith, never backing up one nch, but boldly laying hold of all that God has made ours.
Let’s move ahead in our understanding and exercising of this dynamic, undeniable, and surpassing force called faith – this force that will not be denied.
God is looking for faith to give His answer to – will you take it?
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man THE MEASURE OF FAITH.
– Romans 12:3
At the time a person receives salvation, God deals to them “the measure of faith.” Every person receives the same measure of faith at the new birth; no one receives more than any other person – they all receive the same measure. But once a person receives that measure of faith from God, that faith is now under their stewardship, not God’s. It’s up to each person to feed, increase, and release their faith. Our faith shouldn’t stay at the same measure, but it should always be increasing.
How do we grow and increase our faith? Romans 10:17 tells us, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” When you hear the Word, faith comes. You don’t have to try to get faith; it comes with the hearing of the Word. Hear the Word, and faith will be there.
If I were to go to the grocery store to get some beans, I would go to the aisle where the canned beans are. When I find them and put them in my cart, I’ve got the beans. I can’t see the beans but they’re in the can, for when I picked up the can, I automatically got the beans.
Likewise, the faith of God is in the Word of God, and when I hear the Word, I get the faith the Word contains – it comes with the hearing of the Word.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You can hear the Word of God two ways. When you feed on the Word of God in your own private devotional time with the Lord, you’re hearing the Word and faith comes. But when you hear the Word taught or preached, you are also hearing the Word, and faith comes.
Now faith comes by hearing, but faith doesn’t operate by hearing; faith operates or is released by speaking and acting on the Word.
When you hear the Word, faith comes into your heart, but to benefit from the faith in your heart, you must release that faith.
You may have money in your wallet, but until you take the money out of your wallet and spend it, you can’t purchase anything. Likewise, faith in your heart must be released so that you can benefit from that faith. You release or spend the faith in your heart by saying what you believe and by acting in line with the Word of God.
It’s not enough to believe. You have to get what you believe out of your heart and into circulation, and that’s done by speaking. The faith in your heart can’t be heard until you speak.
Direct your faith in God’s Word toward your need. Find scriptures that promise the answer to you, and speak the Word over it.
Jesus stated in Mark 11:23, … he shall have whatsoever he SAITH.” He’s letting us know that we have what we say – not just what we believe. We can believe, but if we don’t say what we believe, we won’t have what we believe. The more we say it, the more we will have it. The less we say it, the less we will have it.
When you hear the Word, you believe. But when you speak