Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

How To Be A Christian Part 3

God’s Word is the only evidence you have that you are saved, but that is all the evidence you need!

Several days or weeks from now, you might not feel saved. You may begin to wonder if you were ever really saved to start with. You will have doubts—Satan will see to that! But when those thoughts and feelings come, just go back to the Word of God. You will see that it still says the same thing. God never changes and His Word never changes. It is still just as true today as when it was first spoken. People may try to convince you that it doesn’t work. Temptations may come to convince you that it didn’t work. Doubts will come to your mind. But all those things do not alter the fact that God’s Word is true.

Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The moment you make Jesus the Lord of your life will be the moment you have a desire to live, instead of a desire to die. I can testify to that fact in my own life.

Before I accepted Jesus as my Lord, I was headed straight to hell. Everything I liked to do was bad for me. The habits I had formed for 25 years were destructive to my body and my mind. But when I made Jesus the Lord of my life, all those desires were changed. I suddenly had a desire to get rid of my filthy habits. I had a desire to get rid of tobacco, alcohol, immoral thoughts and behavior, profanity, etc. My desires had been changed. Why? Because I was changed. The real me, my spirit, was reborn. The change in my spirit brought changes to my mind and body.

 

These changes are available to you, too. God is right there, ready to accept you, ready to change you. You don’t have to live in sin any longer. You don’t have to live a defeated life any longer. You don’t have to be anything except God’s child. You can walk the road of life victoriously with Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You won’t have to take a back seat to Satan again. You can be the head and not the tail!

I want you to join me now in praying this prayer for salvation. Don’t just read it; make a conscious effort to speak these words from the very depths of your being. When you finish this prayer, you will be born gain:

Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus, I present myself to You.

I pray and ask Jesus to be Lord over my life. I believe it in my heart, so I say it with my mouth: “Jesus has been raised from the dead.” This moment, I make Him the Lord over my life.

Jesus, come into my heart. I believe this moment that I am saved, I say it now: “I am reborn. I am a Christian. I am a child of Almighty God.”

Now, thank God for making you His child. Colossians 1:12 says, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” You have just been made a partaker of an inheritance from God. You have just inherited the kingdom of God!

Speaking of God, the next verse says, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have the redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

You don’t have to wait until you die to receive your inheritance. You are a child of God right this very moment, and you can receive all that belongs to you right now! First John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” You have been delivered from the darkness into the kingdom of God.

Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

I welcome you into the family of God!

 

 

 

-Welcome to the family (Kenneth Copeland)

How To Be A Christian Part 3

How To Become A Christian Pt 2

When you become a Christian—when you become born again—you take on the nature of God, your heavenly Father. The nature of sin and Satan is death; the nature of God is life.

Jesus spoke to the people of His day and said, “Ye are of your father the devil” (John 8:44). To accept Jesus as your Lord causes you to turn your back on your father the devil, or on “the god of this world” as Satan is called (2 Corinthians 4:4). You take on a new Father, a heavenly Father; and you are born again—not physically, but spiritually.

 

Your spirit is reborn in the likeness of God.

You see, you are a threefold being:

You are a spirit,

you have a soul (mind, will, emotions), and

you live in a body.

Jesus referred to this in a conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:3-7).
Jesus said to him, “You must be born again.”
Nicodemus replied, “What do you mean? Do I have to go back again into my mother’s womb?”
Jesus answered, “No. What is born of the flesh is flesh. What is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Being born again is a spiritual rebirth. You are born of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit was sent into the earth to carry out the new birth. When you make Jesus the Lord of your life, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell you and causes your spirit to be re-created. According to 2 Corinthians 5:17, when you accept Jesus as your Lord, you become a new creature, or new creation; old things pass away and all things become new. As far as God is concerned, at that moment, you stand before Him as a brand-new person. You are reborn from sin and death to righteousness and new life. That is a fact.

First John 5:1-4 says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

I want you to realize what happens the moment a person makes Jesus Christ the Lord of his life. In the eyes of God, he becomes a world overcomer. Sin no longer reigns over his life. Sin is no longer his lord. Jesus is His Lord and he can live above the satanic forces in the world.

After Jesus was raised from the dead, He stood before His disciples and said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). Then He delegated that power to His people. He said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). What is the gospel? The good news that God is no longer holding your sins and trespasses against you.

The Bible gives some specific instructions that you are to follow in order to become a Christian, or in order to be born again. Look at Romans 10:8-11:
…The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Jesus said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

No matter what kind of sinner you are, no matter what you have done, you can go to Jesus and He will accept you. Once you go to Him, then He will cause you to be born again. He will re-create you, and that sin which has been plaguing you will be a thing of the past. It will be gone. You will be accepted before God as if you have never sinned!

To be born again, you use your mouth and you use your heart.

First, you believe in your heart that God’s Word is true; then you confess it with your mouth because you believe it.

I want you to realize one very important fact: You don’t confess you are saved because you feel saved. Feelings have absolutely nothing to do with salvation.

Let me give you an example:

Suppose someone says to you, “I went to the bank this morning and deposited $1,000 in your account.” How do you know they actually did what they said? You don’t believe they did it because you feel $1,000 richer, and you don’t doubt them just because you don’t feel any different. Your feelings really have nothing to do with it. If that person’s word is good, you will believe him. If his word is bad, you won’t.

When your salvation is involved, you are relying on God’s Word—and God doesn’t lie. He means what He says. If He said it, then you can believe it. He has said that if you believe in your heart and confess with your month that Jesus is

Lord, you will be saved. You don’t base your salvation on the way you feel. You base it on the pure, unadulterated Word of Almighty God.

 

 

 

-Welcome to the Family by Kenneth copeland

How To Become A Christian Pt 2

POWER PERVERTED - Kenneth Copeland

It was not until Satan entered the picture that the power of words was perverted to bring death and destruction.

Satan is not a god. He is a fallen angel. He is not in the God class. Consequently, there is no creative power in him. As an angel of God, Satan (or Lucifer) was forbidden to act by his own will; but he chose to exalt himself over God. He tried to use the power of words against God when he said, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High (Is. 14:13, 14).

By choosing his own words, Satan broke a cardinal law in the spirit world. He violated the limits of His authority and chose to stand against God. He said, “I will be like the Most High. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God!” But God would not stand for it. He answered, Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit (Is. 14:15).

At that point, their words clashed and God’s Word—the Word of a free Spirit, a Spirit with authority—reigned victoriously over the word of an angelic power. Immediately, Satan was expelled from heaven. By using cunning and deception, Satan approached Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis, chapter 3, we see how he very subtly used the words God had spoken to them as a challenge to their faith and obedience. God had said, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen. 2:16,17). But Satan came in the form of a serpent and said to them, Yea, hath God said…? The Amplified Bible translates it: Can it really be that God has said…?

First Timothy 2:14 says the woman was deceived, but the man was not. Adam had his eyes wide open. He knew what he was doing when he disobeyed God’s command and took the forbidden fruit. Through that disobedience, Satan was able to obtain authority in the earth. He became man’s god, or as 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls him, the god of this world.

Though he has no creative power of his own, Satan uses the creative power in man’s words to manipulate the circumstances of the world. Everything he produces is only a counterfeit of the real. He takes what God has already created and perverts it to his own use.

James 3:6 tells us that the tongue is set on fire of hell. Satan desires the use of men’s tongues. Tongues of creatures in the God class are much more powerful. Man was created in God’s image.

-The Power of the Tongue

POWER PERVERTED - Kenneth Copeland

Jesus Is an Easy Touch By Gloria Copeland

Jesus Healed Bartimaeus in an unusual way.

Someone might say, “Now wait a minute. The healing of Bartimaeus alone doesn’t prove Jesus always responded like that. It’s just one incident.”

I know it, but if I had time and space here I could give you many, many others. I could tell you about the leper in Matthew 8 who came to Jesus and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean” (verse 2).

Do you know what Jesus’ response was to him? “I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (verse 3). I could tell you about the centurion who had a sick servant and came to Jesus, saying, “Lord…speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed” (verse 8).

Jesus didn’t say to that man, “Now, listen here. I’m the One Who decides what needs to happen in these situations and I think I need to go lay My hands on that servant.” No, he simply did what the centurion asked Him to do. He said, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour”(verse 13).

I could tell you about Jairus, who fell at Jesus ‘feet “And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live” (Mark 5:23).

Even though that little girl died before Jesus arrived, He still did exactly what that man said. He took her by the hand, healed her and raised her from the dead!

I could tell you about the woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years and said to herself, “If I may touch but [Jesus’] clothes, I shall be whole“(verse 28). No doubt by now, even if you haven’t read the story, you can guess what happened to that woman. She was healed when she touched Jesus’ clothes, just like she said she’d be! And He said to her, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague” (verse 34).

Do you see how easy Jesus was to deal with back then? He’s just as easy to deal with now! He is easily touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). Whatever they said that’s what Jesus said and did. And whatever you say with your mouth and believe with your heart, He’ll do for you! How do I know? Because He’s the same Jesus.

Whatever you need from Him today—whether it’s healing in your body, deliverance from oppression, devils, drugs, pornography or anything else that has attached itself to your life—Jesus is saying, What can I do for you? What is it that you want from Me?

If you need money in your bank account, Jesus can handle it. He knows how to get you money. If you’ll give Him faith, and you’ll give Him words to work with, He’ll get you whatever you need. If you need your children to come into the kingdom of God, Jesus knows how to rescue them. He knows how to bring in your children. He’s saying, What can I do for you today?

Whatever you want, ask for it. Believe you receive it, and put it in your mouth! Start saying what you want Jesus to bring to pass. This same Jesus! Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, the same yesterday, today and forever, wants to move in your life. He wants to remove the burdens and destroy the yokes the devil has used to oppress you. He wants to bless you and deliver to you the profusely abounding favors of the Lord.

That was His ministry 2,000 years ago. It’s still His ministry today. That’s what He does everyday, 24 hours a day.

Call on Him in faith and let Him do it for you. He is the same, wonderful Jesus!

-This Same Jesus

Jesus Is an Easy Touch By Gloria Copeland

Count It All What? - Gloria Copeland

It’s only fair to warn you that patience is not always as easy as it may sound because patience is developed during tests and trials. You need it most when you want it least. Let’s look  at what James has to say about it: “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” (James 1:2-4).

Usually, when you’re in the midst of a trial, the last thing you feel like doing is counting it all joy. Naturally speaking, you’re not in the mood to jump and sing and rejoice over this opportunity to develop patience. But the truth is, you should. Why? Because if you’ll let patience have her perfect work, you’ll be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Think about what that means! It means that if you’re battling illness and you let patience have her perfect work, you’ll end up in perfect health. If you’re in financial trouble, you’ll end up with all your needs perfectly met. It means you’ll end up with whatever the Word of God has promised you!

Hebrews 10 confirms that. Addressing a group of people who had been through an extremely fiery trial, it says:

Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; Partly, whilst ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise (verses 32-36).

Read that last verse again: “Ye have need of patience, that…ye might receive the promise.”

You might as well know right now that if you want to enjoy the health, deliverance and prosperity God has promised you, you’ll have to let patience work. You’ll have to believe God when it’s hard to do. You’ll have to keep walking in faith when your flesh just wants to quit. That may sound negative, but it’s not. It’s just the truth. And if you know that truth, you can prepare yourself in advance for those hard times by deciding that when they come, you won’t give up.

You can train yourself for victory by starting right now to develop the force of patience you’ll need to make it through when the going gets tough.

-Well Worth the Wait

Count It All What? - Gloria Copeland

A Supernatural Choice - Kenneth Copeland

One of the best examples I’ve ever seen of the Word determining someone’s choice was in my dad’s life. When I was just a teenager, he was called to testify in a lawsuit his company had brought against a man who had broken contract with them to begin his own company.

There was a great deal of money on the line and the man had already offered my dad millions of dollars’ worth of stock in his company if he would testify in his favor. All my dad had to give was a yes or no answer. If he said no, he walked out of the courtroom a multimillionaire. If he said yes, he walked out with his job intact and a pat on the back.

He didn’t even have to think about it. He just walked in the courtroom, answered yes and ended the lawsuit. Afterward, I said, “Dad, how could you say that and just walk away from all that money?” He answered simply, “Because to say anything else would have been a lie.” My dad didn’t experience any pressure in that situation. As far as he was concerned there was only one thing to do. His choice had been made by the Word of God long before he ever stepped into the courtroom. He’d already made a decision that lying was not in his lifestyle and his choice flowed out of that decision.

Somebody might say, “Boy, that would be a tough choice to make.” No, it would be harder than tough, it would be supernatural. You have to be living above this natural realm to turn down an “easy” multimillion dollars. But you can do it if the Word of God is abiding in you. Notice I said “abiding.” That’s the term Jesus used when referring to His Word.

He said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). The word abide means to live. God’s Words are living forces. Powerful forces that, if you allow them to take up residence in you, will produce holiness in your life.

To be holy is to be separated to God’s use. Therefore, if you’ll allow your choices to be bathed in the anointing of God’s Word, those choices will separate you from the destructive bent of this natural world and take you into the blessings of the SUPERnatural realm.

Just think how far-reaching the consequences of such a change would be. Your choices can affect an entire generation. You can make certain choices that can either damage or enrich lives all around you.

What may not seem like a very important decision to you, may ultimately make vital differences in your own future and that of your family. But God sees the whole picture. He knows what’s around the corner that you can’t see. So when you are walking in His choices, your life starts to fit.

Things start working. All the pieces of the puzzle start coming together. You can save yourself so much heartache and headache it isn’t even funny, just by spending some quality time in God’s presence and in His Word.

If you’ll let Him, He will help you with every choice you make.

 

 

-A Matter of Choice

A Supernatural Choice - Kenneth Copeland

From the Desert to the River By: Gloria Copeland

How do you go about yielding to supernatural flow?

First, you must hear and obey the Word of God.

You must put that Word in your heart and bring it out of your mouth, not just once or twice, but consistently. You must follow the instructions God gives in Proverbs 4:20-23:

My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life (amp).

If you’re attending to God’s Word, when you have a problem, you won’t think of going to the world first. You’ll go to the Word. You’ll find out what God has promised to do for you.

Once you’ve found that promise, you’ll put it in your heart. You’ll believe it. You’ll speak it.

Then faith will come alive inside you. Once faith comes alive concerning that situation, the power of God will explode in your heart and you’ll start walking in victory. Everything in the natural world may look just as dark as it ever did. Everyone in the world may still be telling you how impossible your situation is. But that won’t matter because you’ll know you’ve stepped out of the stream of circumstances and into the river of God.

And once God’s river starts to flow from within you, the whole natural realm has to yield to it. Bad situations, poverty, sickness and lack of any kind must bow their knees to His supernatural supply!

I’ll never forget how desperate Ken and I were when we first tapped into the supernatural flow. We were so broke and so in debt that it seemed we would never get out. Ken was a student at Oral Roberts University, and the only regular income we had was the $100 a month he received for co-piloting Brother Roberts’ airplane. We lived in a dumpy, old house furnished in early Goodwill. People were threatening to sue us, and we had a history of failing financially at everything we tried to do.

How had we gotten in that terrible shape?

Just by flowing with the natural forces of this world. We hadn’t set out to mess things up. We had done the best we could, but the defeat and lack (what the Bible calls the “curses”) of the world had overtaken us.

Then one day, the Word of God came to me. He didn’t speak to me in an audible voice. He just quickened a scripture to my heart as I was reading the Bible. The scripture was 2 Corinthians 9:8:

And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation] (amp).

At that moment, there appeared to be no way Ken and I would ever have an abundance of anything except needs. Yet in the face of that impossible-looking situation, I chose to believe God’s Word. I began to say, “God is able to make every earthly blessing come to me in abundance! God is able!” Ken believed it too, and together we began to tap into the flow of the Spirit.

We started talking prosperity instead of poverty. We stopped borrowing money. And we started obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit where our finances were concerned. Eleven months later, we were completely debt free.

Financially speaking, we had been total failures. Yet simply because we believed God and obeyed His Word, He was able to turn that failure around.

He was able to supply us not according to the shortages of this world, but according to His riches in glory.

 

 

– Go With the Flow!

From the Desert to the River By: Gloria Copeland

God Never Changes His Plans (Compassion Has A Plan) - Kenneth Copeland

One thing I’ve discovered about God: When He makes a plan, He never changes it. Therefore, though Adam and Eve bowed their knee to the devil, threw away God’s blessing, and opened the door to the curse, God refused to give up His original intent. He kept on declaring His will would eventually be done. He kept on telling His people they were destined to be a blessing and fill the earth with His love.

He told Abraham, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing…and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3).

He spoke through the psalmist and said, “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous” (Psalms 112:1, 4).

He spoke through the prophet Isaiah of One to come who would be anointed with God’s own Spirit “to preach good tidings unto the meek; to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:1, 3).

Of course, every one of those declarations pointed to the coming of Jesus. He was Compassion’s plan—ordained before the foundation of the world to come into this painfully messed-up planet and set things straight again. He was the One destined to take upon Himself the sin, sickness, weakness and pain that had robbed mankind—and all the earth—of the blessing of God.

Jesus came to restore God’s original plan.

Do you realize what that means? It means those of us who have believed on Him have been restored to the spiritual position Adam and Eve occupied in the Garden of Eden. Through Jesus, we have received the same blessing and divine commission they did. We’ve been called to perpetuate God’s love in the earth, to fill it up with His compassion, to be a blessing everywhere we go, to everyone we meet!

That’s God’s plan for every New Testament believer.

God said it to Adam and Eve. He said it to Abraham. He said it to Jesus. And now He has said it to us. You are called to be a blessing! So wives, bless your husbands. Husbands, bless your wives. Love one another as I have loved you. Do good to all men. Bless, bless, bless!

Can you see now why walking in love is so important to God? It’s the reason He created us!

You may never have thought about it in just that way before but, the truth is, you already knew that. Every born-again believer does. I could stop a Christian on the street anywhere in the world and ask him if we, as believers, are supposed to love one another, and I’d get the right answer every time. Everyone knows Christians are called to live by the law of love.

Are we all doing it? No, we’re not. So, clearly there must be a problem. II Peter 3:1-2 tells us what it is. There the Apostle Peter wrote to people just like us—people who knew full well they were called by Jesus Himself to live by the law of love—and said: “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour.”

If Christians in Peter’s day needed to be reminded to keep the commandment of love, we do too. Just like those first-century believers, sometimes we just plain forget to walk in love toward one another. We forget to make compassion our priority because we don’t keep it in the forefront of our thinking. We get our lives out of line with love because mentally we neglect to put first things first.

But, according to the Bible, we can correct that problem. We can stir up our pure minds by way of remembrance. We can build love into our memory so that we think of it before we get dressed in the morning. We can so renew our minds to it that we think of it when we leave the house every day, or sit down at the table to eat, and even before we go to bed at night.

When we keep love on our minds like that, it changes how we interact with people. No matter what they say or do to us, our first thought is to respond in love. If we disregard that thought by yielding to the flesh and acting in a way that’s unloving, we’ll immediately be aware that we’ve been disobedient, and we’ll repent. Then we’ll get right back on track.

God Never Changes His Plans (Compassion Has A Plan) - Kenneth Copeland

Expect the Impossible By Gloria Copeland

I am fully expecting to see miracles in the days and months to come. In times past, we’ve had people who were very small in stature because of disease or abnormality come to Healing School and ask us to pray for them that they might grow. Naturally, their DNA had patterned their body to be very small. But that’s not their heavenly DNA. That’s not how God designed them to be. That’s just something that happened as a result of the devil’s work in this world. Through thousands of years of getting people to sin, he’s been able to mess up God’s perfect plan for people-not only spiritually but physically.

Well, what do you think God did when He saw that the devil’s work had perverted His divine plan and made that person abnormally small? Do you think He said, “Oh, my. I guess the devil won this time. I’d better go back to My book, scratch out My perfect physical plan for this person and write in ‘midget-size,’ instead.”

Certainly not. God never changes. He just kept the original entry in His book which says that person’s DNA is perfect. Now He’s waiting for somebody to agree with Him and believe for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

If faith in the Word of God is spoken and released without wavering, I believe we can see that small person G-R-O-W up and become normal right before our eyes.

You might think that would be impossible and, naturally speaking you’d be right. “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). “All things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23) so we need to start believing.

We need to start expecting the impossible!

Expect the Impossible By Gloria Copeland

Immersed in the Word By Kenneth Copeland

I’ll never forget when that transformation began in me. I had just begun to learn what the Word of God and faith can do. I was so hungry for it and so desperate to change my life that I completely immersed myself in it.

I kept teaching and preaching tapes going all the time. I’d get up in the morning and put on a tape while I was shaving. I’d carry the recorder to the table and listen while I ate breakfast. Then I’d haul it out to the car (that was back in the days of the big reel-to-reel recorders so “haul” is a fairly accurate term) and listen to it while I drove to school. When I got back home at night, I listened to the Word again until I fell asleep. I was 30 years old at that time and I’d pretty much thought the same way all my life. A way that had maneuvered me into more messes than I could find any natural way out.

But after just a few days of constantly feeding on the Word, I began to notice a change. My mind started working differently. I found myself comparing everything I heard, whether it came out of my mouth or someone else’s, with the Word of God. When I’d hear something that was out of line with the Word, it would be glaringly apparent to me. Somebody would ask me how I was feeling. Instead of saying those old things I used to say…”Well, you know this old football injury has really been acting up lately. It’s giving me this shooting pain right up my leg”…I would just explode with the Word of God. I’d say, “What difference does it make how I feel? I am not moved by what I feel. I am not moved by what I see. I am moved by what I believe and I believe the Word of God!” I just jumped on people like a chicken on a bug. (I didn’t know any better back then. Thank God, He’s mellowed me some over the years.)

What was happening? The anointing, the influence of God and His Word, was on my mind. It was teaching me things.

The Bible says if you’ll meditate on the Word day and night, it will talk to you when you wake up in the morning and visit with you all day long. That’s exactly what it began to do with me all those years ago. I’d make choices with ease that other people struggled over. The Word made it clear for me which route I should take. I didn’t have to agonize or debate over what I should do, the Word working in me caused me to make the right choice.

 

– A Matter of Choice

Immersed in the Word By Kenneth Copeland

The Laws that Govern Wealth and Prosperity

The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. God wants believers to prosper in all they do.

Join Pastor George Pearsons as he breaks down the laws that govern wealth and prosperity.

The Laws that Govern Wealth and Prosperity

I Want You To Prosper: Who Receives the Tithe? By Kenneth Copeland

Jesus is the High Priest over the house of God in the New Testament. In the spirit, He receives our tithes and presents them to the Father in heaven. But who receives them here on earth?

Second Chronicles 31:4,5 says that the priests and Levites, or the ministry, received the tithe that they might be encouraged. This is not an issue that we can handle lightly. As the Head of the church, Jesus is the One who should be directing where the tithe should go. The proper way to handle it is to pray and ask Him where to put it.

Under the Old Covenant, the tithe was brought mainly into the temple in Jerusalem and the local synagogue. In the New Testament, the local church is the backbone of the body of Christ. Malachi 3:10 tells us, Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Meat is spiritual revelation. Wherever you are receiving revelation, that is where your tithe should go. You receive mostly from your own church, that is, if it is preaching the uncompromised Word.

But let us also notice that Paul said that the church at Philippi supported him. As an apostle, he traveled extensively ministering the Word. If there is a ministry which has fed you spiritual meat and you want part of your tithe to go there, you ought to be able to make note of that when you bring your tithe check into the local church.

I received a check from a church in Houston, Texas, one day and I thought, “I wonder why they’re sending me a check?” Later, I found out that the pastor had told the congregation, “If you are bringing your tithe today and there is a specific ministry which has fed you spiritually outside this church, just make a note of it and we will see that they receive a check.” That pastor is receiving the tithe in love and faith and righteousness. The people are giving it that way as well.

God is looking for a people who will handle their tithing as holy. He is seeking those who will ask Jesus where He wants His money to go. Are you one whom the Father can trust? Will you allow Jesus to direct your giving? If you are, God will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so rich, so abundant that you will not be able to contain it!

Let me provide you with a sample confession for your tithe based on Deuteronomy 26. First read that entire chapter. Then relate it to the New Testament and hold your tithe before the Lord as you say out loud:

“We profess this day unto the Lord God that we have come into the inheritance which the Lord swore to give us. We are in the land which You have provided for us in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of Almighty God (Col. 1:13). We were sinners serving Satan; he was our god, but we called upon the name of Jesus and You heard our cry and delivered us from the power and authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of Your dear Son.”

“Jesus, as our Lord and High Priest, we bring the firstfruits of our income to You and worship the Lord our God with it. We rejoice in all the good which You have given to us and our household. We have hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God and have done according to all that He has commanded us. Now look down from Your holy habitation from heaven and bless us as You said in Deuteronomy 26:14,15 and Malachi 3:10,11.”

I Want You To Prosper: Who Receives the Tithe? By Kenneth Copeland

Standard Equipment - Gloria Copeland

Most Christians have no idea how powerful patience actually is. They think it’s just a nice quality. But, the fact is, patience is the overcoming force that keeps us going in situations that otherwise would stop us cold. It’s patience, for example, that will see you through from the time you pray and release your faith for your healing…to the time when that healing is a manifested reality in your body. It’s patience that will take you from the moment you believe and confess by faith that your bills are paid…to the time when the money is finally in your account and you’re writing the checks.

Contrary to popular belief, however, patience isn’t simply putting up with a situation. It isn’t hanging on by your fingernails until the bitter end. No, biblical patience is much greater than that. Patience is the force that keeps you from fainting under pressure. It is the quality that does not surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial. Patience girds up your faith when it’s under pressure. It refuses despondency even when conditions are dark, and holds to hope instead.

Patience suffers long and remains steadfast when distress and trouble come. It endures ill treatment without anger or thought of revenge. Patience keeps your faith from folding up when the going gets tough.

No matter what, patience just won’t quit.

“That sounds great, Gloria,” you may say. “But I don’t have that kind of patience!”

If you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life you do! It’s a fruit of the Spirit and God equipped you with it the moment you were born again. He placed it into your recreated human spirit right along with the other fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23).

God didn’t just give you any old type of patience, either. He imparted to you His very own patience, and The Amplified Bible says He is extraordinarily patient. God has what it takes to get through hard times. He has the power to persevere until circumstances line up with His Word. And because you’re born of His Spirit, you have that power too!

You may be thinking, Where is all this wonderful patience I’m supposed to have? I certainly haven’t seen much evidence of it in my life!

It’s waiting inside you for you to yield to it.

You see, just as water won’t flow from a faucet unless you open the valve and let it through, the reservoir of patience God has put within you won’t flow unless you release it by an act of your will. As James 1:4 says you must “let patience have her perfect work.” In other words, the force of patience won’t go to work until you let it!

-Well Worth the Wait

Standard Equipment - Gloria Copeland

Living in Divine Prosperity

God wants all His children to prosper. He wants the best for us.

Struggling in Life? Living from hand to mouth? Watch Kenneth Copeland as he teaches you how to receive God’s best and live the prosperous life God wants you to live.

Living in Divine Prosperity

He Went About Doing Good - Gloria Copeland

With that in mind, we can take a fresh look at what Jesus said and did during His time on earth. Let’s start with Luke 4, where we see the foundational message Jesus preached everywhere He went:
The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to send forth delivered those who are oppressed—who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed and broken down by calamity; To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord—the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound (verses 18-19, The Amplified Bible).

Now remember, Jesus is still preaching that message today. So if you fall into any of the categories He listed there—if you’re blind, if you’re oppressed by sickness, if you’re depressed, in bondage to drugs or alcohol, or simply beaten down by the calamity of this world—Jesus is here to deliver you. Today is the day of your salvation! This is the day when the free favors of God profusely abound. Those favors haven’t abated. They’re still flowing today as freely as they were when Jesus first spoke those words.

If you want to see just how freely those divine favors flow, and how easy it is to obtain them, just read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and watch Jesus in action. Acts 10:38 says of Him, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

Jesus just went about doing good. He would simply go from one place to another blessing people and healing them and delivering them. It wasn’t hard to get Jesus to work miracles. It was easy! Look at one day in Jesus’ life, as recorded in Mark 1, and you can see that for yourself:
On the Sabbath day he (Jesus) entered into the synagogue, and taught….And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out…And Jesus rebuked him (the unclean spirit), saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this?…for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him (verses 21, 23, 25-27).

Notice what Jesus did there. He came across a man who needed a burden removed and a devil cast out of him, so He simply did it. He didn’t stop there, either. The Scripture tells us He went on that day “…into the house of Simon…But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her” (verses 29-31). Isn’t that something? The very next place He went, Jesus ran into another need. What did Jesus do about it? He took care of it! He ministered healing. But His day wasn’t over yet.

The next verses tell us that “at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils…” (verses 32-34).

I love to see Jesus with the eye of my heart, walking around, loving people and ministering to them. I love to see Him go about His day casting out devils, bringing healing and working miracles! What’s more, I love to think about the fact that Jesus still wants to spend His day that way. He’s still the same Jesus!

-this Same Jesus

He Went About Doing Good - Gloria Copeland

I Want You to Prosper: Tithing Righteously by Kenneth Copeland

Tithing Righteously

The next illustration is tithing with judgment or justice. The story is from Genesis, chapter 14.

A group of kings joined forces and trapped the king of Sodom to exploit him, his goods and the goods of all of his subjects. Among the people who were taken captive was Abram’s nephew.

When Abram heard the news, he armed 318 trained servants and pursued the kings’ armies to the death. They slaughtered them and took the spoils. The first thing Abram did was tithe the spoils. Melchizedek, the priest, blessed Abram and said; “Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.”

The king whose goods had been stolen greedily watched Abram, thinking that he was going to keep all of the spoil. He wanted some of it back. After all, it belonged to him before those armies came in and stole it.

He went to Abram and said; “Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up mind hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth. That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.”

What was Abram saying? Permit me to paraphrase it to make it easier to understand. I believe he was saying, “I’ve lifted my hand to God; I have made a covenant with Him. I promised when I tithed the spoils that I wouldn’t even take one of your shoestrings, lest you say that you are the one that made me rich.” Abram judged himself according to his covenant with God. He made sure he did “the right thing”–not just the easy or convenient thing.

The next time you approach the tithing altar, realize that Jesus your High Priest is standing there. Judge yourself according to the Word of God. Test your heart and your motives. Don’t just tithe and neglect the weightier matter of justice. Abram did what was right and just. He tithed righteously, not selfishly. Abram is our example.

I Want You to Prosper: Tithing Righteously by Kenneth Copeland

I Want You to Prosper: Tithing in Faith, Love and Righteousness by Kenneth Copeland

What does it mean to tithe according to the Word? Let me refresh your thinking concerning the statement Jesus made on this subject. He said;”Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment (righteousness), mercy (love), and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone (Matt. 23:23).”

Addressing the religious people of the day, Jesus said that they tithed their money but they neglected the important matters of the heart. With this thought in mind, we can expand our definition and say that tithing is bringing the first tenth to Jesus, according to His Word, by faith, in love, through righteousness.

Righteousness, love and faith are directly related to one another. Faith works by love (Gal. 5:6), and righteousness is by faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:22). Therefore, these three cannot be separated. When we tithe, we need to be mindful of all these areas.

 

Tithing by Faith

Let’s look at tithing from the level of “faith first” by studying Genesis 4:1-8; “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

“And in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.” (vs. 3)

“And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

This incident in Genesis, chapter four occurred at the time of harvest which also coincided with the birth of the lambs. For years, I heard that God would not receive Cain’s offering because he didn’t bring a lamb. But, that isn’t so. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground unto the Lord. It wasn’t the offering that was the problem. It is impossible to please God without faith. Notice verse three, God had no respect for Cain. When God rebuked him, instead of changing, he got mad and his countenance fell. Cain was out of line with the Word. A man and his offering are one. The offering is nothing without the man.

Hebrews 11:4 tells us that Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice by faith. Faith is a product of the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Obviously, both Cain and Abel had heard the Word. Their own father received it personally from the Creator Himself. I’m satisfied that the revelation which they received was the knowledge that the whole earth belonged to God and they (who were given the use of the earth) were to tithe a tenth of it back to God (Lev. 27:30; Ps. 24:1; Hag. 2:8). Abel was eager to see that God received His. Cain was not. That’s why God couldn’t accept Cain and his offering.

The New King James Version says it much more plainly;“But (God) did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

How could he do well? By staying with the Word. Satan was at the door, lying in wait to steal the Word from his heart. Cain only needed to resist the devil so that his faith would not fail.

Do you remember what Jesus told Peter? He said, “Satan has tried to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” Sin was at Cain’s door. The King James Version calls sin “him.” Sin and Satan are the same.

The scripture tells us to give Satan “no place.” Cain would have done well not to have given the devil place through his disobedience and anger. But he did and the result was the death of his brother. No wonder the church has fought over the tithe–the first murder was committed over it.

As the New Testament church, we cannot afford disobedience either. But sin and the hundredfold blessing of God lie at the door. We are the only ones with the authority to let one or the other in. This is one of the reasons that we have been robbed financially.

I Want You to Prosper: Tithing in Faith, Love and Righteousness by Kenneth Copeland

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