Ed Dufresne - Fresh oil from heaven

Contents

Foreword

For a number of years I have personally known Ed Dufresne . I first knew him as a pastor in California. Later I came to know him as an evangelist and teacher of the Word of God.

I deeply appreciate Ed Dufresne's humility before the Lord; and his compassion for lost souls and for sick and suffering humanity is exciting to me.

This new volume, Fresh Oil From Heaven, is a message for this hour. God is giving the fresh oil of the Holy Ghost. There is revival on planet earth. The oil is flowing and God is moving.

May the contents of this book both inspire you and challenge you. These are the last days and Jesus is coming soon. Let us labor for the Master, "for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh."

Chapter 1

Fresh Oil From Heaven

The Bible says that God will show His children things to come (John 16:13); and before God does anything on this earth, He'll show it to His prophets: Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). Then the prophets, as the Spirit wills, are to speak out what is about to happen.

The year 1987 marked the beginning of the next great move of God. I believe this with every fiber of my being.

I got saved in 1966, and the day I got saved is the day I began working in the ministry, although I began in the ministry of helps. (The ministry of helps, whether you know it or not, is found in First Corinthians 12:28.)

The day I got saved is the day I went to the pastor and told him, "I must be involved. My heart is burning with love for God, and I want to work for Him." And from that day forward, I've been busy for God.

This is my 20th year of ministry. In the Word of God, 20 is an important number. You'll find that some very important things happened in 20-year intervals.

I don't know what's in your heart right now, but I know about mine: I am hungry for the perfect will of God in my life. I don't want to miss it; I don't want to miss this wave of God.

God's Times of Refreshing

Let's look at Acts 3:19:

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

Acts 3:19

What does it say? Repent! I don't know about you, but I've been doing a lot of repenting during the last three years. It seems that every time I turn around, the Holy Spirit is dealing with my attitude. And I believe that's what God has been doing to the Church in the last three years. I've made the decision that I'm going to repent of my ways.

Now notice the word "times" in this verse. "Times" means time is measured by numbers, and it's by the clock. "Times" means there are specific times in God's plans, such as "times of refreshing." Did you know that the Church has times of refreshing? God just showed that to me. I believe 1987 was the beginning of a time of refreshing from God : .. .when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of God.

Right now the Church needs a visitation from God! People are running all over the country looking for methods and formulas to make their church or ministry grow. They're looking to men's plans.

They need to get on their knees, find out what God's plan is, get the fresh oil of anointing from God, and then do the plan that God has given them.

When a refreshing comes from the presence of God, the Holy Spirit starts moving, people are drawn to the meetings, and they don't even want to leave afterwards, because the power of God is so strong. This time of refreshingwith its miraclesis starting to happen all over this nation. It's coming from the presence of the Lord!

Another translation of Acts 3:19 reads, "And when the times of recovery of breath come from the presence of the Lord...." Recovery of breath! The Church needs a recovery of breath!

Seasons of refreshing have been experienced throughout the history of the Church. Lately, God's been dealing with me along this line, and I've been studying about revivals and waves of God in the past.

How many of you know what happened in 1907? The Azusa Street Revival broke out then. Actually, it broke out a little earlier in Topeka, Kansas, and other places, but the wave really got going in 1907. That's when it started spreading across the nation and around the world.

The Assemblies of God denomination came out of that 1907 revival. The Pentecostal Holiness denomination also came out of that move. However, that move of God started waning in 1944, 1945, and 1946.

The Importance of 40-Year Cycles

Then came 1947 (the year Smith Wigglesworth died)40 years after Azusa Street. As I studied, I found that a recovery of breath has come to the Church every 40 years!

One reason we need these times of refreshing is because after a wave hits and everyone has been floating on that wave for a while, they don't want to get on the new wave when it comes along.

When the Holy Spirit starts doing something else, they say, "No, this is the way we've been doing it, and we're going to keep doing it this way," and they ride that old wave all the way in to the beach. Then they start pitching their little tents there. It always has happened that way.

During the fiery Methodist movement, when there was such a flow of the Holy Ghost, people spoke in tongues. Now you can hardly find a Methodist church where the people speak in tongues. You can hardly find a Methodist church where they preach the Word. They read out of Reader's Digest.

I'd say that 80 percent of the denominations that came out of the 1907 revival are dead. Why? Because they wouldn't move with the Holy Ghost. They wouldn't move with the plan of God.

Then, in 1947, a healing revival hit planet Earth! It originated in the United States. This is the revival Oral Roberts, Kenneth E. Hagin , and T. L. Osborn came out of. At the end of World War II, God spoke to Brother Hagin and told him a wave of healing would soon spread across this nation, so Brother Hagin got ready for it.

One thing I learned from Brother Hagin , Lester Sumrall, Brother Roberts and Brother Osborn is to flow with every move of God that comes along. They flow with each move and prosper from it. They don't get their "surfboards" out and ride back on the old wave with their gift. They don't join the crowd that's up on the beach, saying, "We did this in 1907, and this is the way it's going to be forever!" (That's the attitude that causes your church to dry up.)

My brother and sister, you've got to be on the edge of the new wave. That's what I'm praying for. I don't want to miss God in this next wave. I want to be in the right positionin God's perfect willto be in this next move of God.

When the 1947 wave came, the 1907 people said, "That ain't of God! They're fanatics!" And what happened? The people riding the new wave had to go out of the churches and hold their healing meetings in tents. (Even many of the Full Gospel people who came out of the 1907 wave didn't want to flow with the new wave of God that started in 1947.)

Even so, revival broke out. Healings took place. God raised up healing ministries to go to the nations. Many of these men and women of God are not alive today, and that's really tragic. Among the few who are left are Brother Hagin , Brother Roberts, Brother Sumrall, and T. L. Osborn.

I don't believe it was the perfect plan of God for the healing meetings to be held in tents, but they had to do it because of the people who had camped up on the beach, saying, "God can only move like He did in 1907. And that's the way it is." No, God can't be placed in a box.