Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

GOD"S WORD SENT FORTH

God places a high priority on words.

He has never done anything without saying it first, as we have seen from chapter one of Genesis. God’s faith-filled Word was the original force in the universe. At creation, God set into motion what I call the law of Genesis, dictating that every living thing would produce after its own kind. God’s plan was for man to live eternally, producing a race that would be in close fellowship and communion with Him; but once Adam disobeyed God, that plan was altered. The authority that had been delegated to man was suddenly in the hands of Satan. At that point, God was forced back to the original source—His Word. He couldn’t make another man from the dust of the earth because the ground was cursed. He had to revert back to speaking His Word, filled with faith.

Immediately, God began to search for a man who would teach his children and live uprightly before Him. Finally, he found that man, Abram. He made a covenant with Abram—a covenant that was to last forever. As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee… And I will make thee exceeding fruitful… And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee (Gen. 17:4,6,7).

Once that covenant was established, God began to release His Word into the earth. He began to paint a picture of a Redeemer, a man who would be the manifestation of His Word in the earth. The only avenue God had to get His words into the earth was through men. As He would speak life-filled words in relation to His covenant with Abraham, His prophets would repeat those words in the earth. It was a very tedious and difficult process since the Old Testament prophets were not born-again men. Because they lived under the Abrahamic Covenant, they were able to receive instruction from God and righteousness was imputed, or counted, unto them (Rom. 4:22).

So before Jesus came to the earth, God spoke His Word and then spoke His Word again. How many times did He say the Messiah was coming? It was prophesied over hundreds, even thousands, of years. He kept saying, “He is coming. He is coming.” The circumstances in the earth made it look as if there was no way He could accomplish it; but He just kept saying it. He would not be moved by what He saw. Once that Word was received into the earth by a man, it was here to stay. In Isaiah 55:11, God said, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. God would not relent. Through the mouths of His prophets, He kept sending His Word and sending His Word.

Finally, the great moment came when that Word was brought forth in human form: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:14). The Word, which existed before the foundations of the earth, lived for 33 years as a man. His name was Jesus. He ministered for three years as a prophet under the Abrahamic Covenant; then He gave Himself to be the last sacrifice of the Old Covenant. He became the sacrificial lamb, offered upon the altar of the cross for one reason: to defeat Satan.

Jesus was the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), and He passed the test that the first Adam failed. He paid the price for Adam’s transgression. He took Adam’s punishment, his sinfulness, his sickness and disease, his infirmities, and his shame. Jesus bore all of this just as if He Himself had committed treason against God.

Jesus defeated Satan by going to the cross, dying a horrible death, and spending three days and nights in the heart of the earth, hell itself (Matt. 12:40). The second chapter of Acts says Jesus was raised up, loosed from the pains of death. Jesus was called the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18). He was the first man to be born again from death unto life. When he appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos, He said, Fear not: I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death (Rev. 1:17, 18). Jesus defeated Satan in awful combat in full view of all Satan’s cohorts. He took from Satan the keys of hell. He took back the authority that Satan had stolen from Adam in the Garden of Eden. He made an open show of principalities and powers, lording it over them in their own domain (Col. 2:15).

– The Power of the Tongue (Kenneth Copeland)

GOD"S WORD SENT FORTH

God Wants You Free - Gloria Copeland

I believe every believer who loves God wants to be holy. But not every believer is actually living holy. Many times we have old habits we’ve never overcome, even though we’ve lived with them for years. If you’ve struggled like this, even for years, I know you can be free. God wants you free, and the Scripture says the truth will make you free. If you continue in the Word of God, it will make you free so you can live holy. Jesus said in His prayer to the Father, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). I don’t care if what’s holding you back is the strongest addiction there is, God will set you free. All He needs is your choice, your quality decision that, “No matter what, this is it. I’m leaving bondage behind.”

God is faithful. He’s just waiting on the opportunity to help you. He is a merciful and loving Father. Jeremiah 15:19 says, “Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” “If thou return….” As a believer, that’s what God’s asking you to do—to draw near to Him and He’ll draw near to you with every deliverance, every blessing, every prosperity that you need. If you’re a person who’s moved away from God, He’s asking you to return. If you’ve never been saved, He’s asking you to come to Him and make Jesus your Lord and Savior.

“The precious from the vile….” He wants us to learn, in our lives, to separate the precious things that are His from the vile things of this world. God won’t force you to do that. He doesn’t require you to live a life separated to Him because He wants to be a dictator. No, that’s not God’s way at all. God wants you to do what He says and walk in His ways because those things produce freedom. They produce the best for you. You can’t walk in the ways of the world and be free. God loves you. He wants you to be able to wake up every morning happy, full of joy, with your needs met, your family around you, and no trouble on any side. And He wants you to be free of all those things you’ve struggled with for years.

-Be a Vessel of Honor

God Wants You Free - Gloria Copeland

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

How to Become a Christian

Do you know where you stand with God?

If you have never made Jesus the Lord of your life, then you are separated from God by sin. You are the reason God sent Jesus to the cross. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God loved you so much that He gave His only begotten Son for you.

Second Corinthians 5:21 says that God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. Sin was the reason Jesus came to earth. He died on the cross and went to hell for one reason: to pay the price for sin. Once that price was paid, Jesus was raised from the dead, triumphant over Satan; and the sin problem was taken care of.

God does not hold your sin against you. The only thing keeping you from becoming a child of God is failure to turn from your present world and your present god, which is Satan, and make Jesus the Lord over your life.

When Jesus paid the sin price for you, He was your substitute. Heaven has it recorded that you have been set free. It is as if you yourself died on the cross 2,000 years ago. But that doesn’t mean you will automatically go to heaven. Even though God sent Jesus to pay for your sin—even though He holds nothing against you—you can still go straight to hell. Why? Because you have not made the choice to receive Jesus as your own personal Lord and Savior, to accept His sacrifice as yours. You have a free will. You have the right to choose your own destiny, God will not force you to receive salvation. The choice is yours. You can go straight to hell and God will not lift a finger to stop you. He did all He is going to do when He sent Jesus into the world.

Your choice is set before you.

If you do choose to make Jesus your Lord, God will receive you as His very own child. You will become a part of God’s family. He will be your Father and you will be His child. This is not just a theological idea; this is a fact. It actually happens. Jesus actually walked the earth as a man. He actually went to the cross, died there, was raised from the dead, and is alive today, seated at the right hand of God in heaven.

 

 

-Welcome to the Family by Kenneth Copeland

 

How to Become a Christian

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

One Word From God Can Change Your Family By Kenneth Copeland

Planting Hope in Our Kids 

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

—Malachi 4:5-6

Have you thought about the amount and kinds of imagery our children are having implanted into them by the world today? They are getting it on television and everywhere else—slick, high-tech, high-cost images of death and despair. They can’t even walk up and down the streets today without having some kind of picture fed to them. But that’s changing. The time of “Rachel weeping for her children” (Jeremiah 31:15) is giving way to the time of hope: “…for thy work shall be rewarded…and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border” (verses 16-17).

Head to Head With Hollywood

I’ve been in faith, praying and standing in expectancy for more than 20 years concerning revival among our children, and thank God, it’s here. In early 1992, an outpouring of the Holy Ghost began on children and young people in this nation, and around the world.

This ministry is throwing its entire weight, effort, faith and strength into ministry to children just the same as we do our calling to teach adults. To accomplish this calling will take a lot. God told me it would. He said His people have been trying to use 29-cent quarterlies to compete with the technology of Disney, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, ABC, CBS and NBC.

Maybe you’ve heard people talking about Christian material and products for children say something like, “Well that’s good enough for kids.” If so, think about this: The devil will spend $50 million on some horror movie every chance he gets—just to get our kids. He has spent the last 40 years, in particular, doing everything he can to totally destroy our children.

Hope Implants

But the kids need something the movie and entertainment industries are not giving them. They need what I call “hope implants.” God implanted hope in Abraham by showing him the stars of the heavens to help him see how many children God was going to give him. Like Abraham, children need a vision of hope. Hope is the image inside our hearts for which faith becomes the substance. Right now this is so far removed from the thinking of the children of this generation, that they could never grasp it if God didn’t start it with a video or something powerfully graphic.

Children and young people of this day and time are totally immersed in imagery technology—high-tech sin, unbelief and ungodly material of every kind. Reading doesn’t impress them much. In the younger ones, almost not at all. They are all image-dependent. Even their games are TV images. With God’s power and wisdom, we can fill their hungry hearts and minds with images of God’s grace, love and glory.

Malachi 4:5-6 says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

It is significant that these are the last two verses of the Old Covenant.

One Word From God Can Change Your Family By Kenneth Copeland

Become a Candidate for Increase - Gloria Copeland

It’s easy to see how following God’s instructions to get out of debt affected our prosperity. But the fact is, our decision to obey other, seemingly unrelated commands we saw in the Word also had an impact on our finances.

That’s because you can’t separate God’s financial principles from the rest of His principles. They all work together. So you have to take the whole Bible to have a good foundation for godly prosperity.

The primary commandment Jesus gave us, for example, is to “love one another” (John 15:12). To the casual observer that commandment may seem to have nothing to do with money, yet to have true prosperity love must be the guiding force of your life. You must be quick to apply scriptural principles for living like these found in 1 Peter 3:

Finally, all [of you] should be of one and the same mind (united in spirit), sympathizing [with one another], loving [each other] as brethren (of one household), compassionate and courteous (tenderhearted and humble). Never return evil for evil or insult for insult (scolding, tongue-lashing, berating), but on the contrary blessing [praying for their welfare, happiness and protection, and truly pitying and loving them]. For know that to this you have been called, that you may yourselves inherit a blessing…For let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days…keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from guile (treachery, deceit). Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right … (verses 8-11, The Amplified Bible).

Think of it this way. Every right action you take, every godly decision you make, every time you go love’s way instead of the selfish way, you’re putting another block on your foundation of prosperity.

When you pray for your enemies instead of hating them, you become a candidate for increase. When you turn away from immorality, you’re turning toward blessing. When you see things in your life that you know aren’t right and you correct them according to the Word of God, you’re preparing yourself to handle greater financial abundance.

The book of Proverbs is full of God’s wisdom about everyday things and decisions. It will help you learn how to handle your affairs in a way that is pleasing to God. And since it has 31 chapters, by reading a chapter a day along with your other Bible reading, you can finish it in just a month. It will increase you to read Proverbs over and over.

In Proverbs you’ll find out, for example, that the quality of faithfulness and the blessing of prosperity are tied together very closely. Wherever you find one, you’ll find the other. For as Proverbs 28:20 says, “A faithful man shall abound with blessings … ” According to Webster’s dictionary, a faithful man is one who “adheres to duty, of true fidelity, loyal, true to allegiance, and constant in the performance of duties or services.”

Luke 16:10 says, “He who is faithful in a very little [thing], is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing], is dishonest and unjust also in much” (The Amplified Bible). So if you want to be trusted with more and be promoted to a better job, be faithful and honest in the job you have right now.

You may think Christian people don’t need to hear about honesty and faithfulness, but they do. I know personally of cases where Christians have stolen money from their employers.

They may not have intended to “steal” anything. They may have just thought, Well, I’ll borrow this money for a couple of weeks and then I’ll put it back and no harm will be done. The problem is, you can’t borrow something from someone without their permission. That’s stealing and you can’t be blessed and steal.

Taking that money may have seemed all right to those people when they did it. They may have made excuses and justified it in their own mind. But if they’d been studying and obeying the Word of God, they wouldn’t have fallen for those excuses. That’s because the Word discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). It teaches you what is right and what isn’t.

It reveals not man’s way, but God’s way of doing and being right. It enables you to lay a firm foundation for godly prosperity.

Become a Candidate for Increase - Gloria Copeland

Prepare To Prosper: Seek First Things First Pt 2 By Gloria Copeland

It is God’s will for us to believe Him to care for us. I also learned that as believers, we’re not to seek after material riches. We’re not to pursue money like people do who are without God. They have to pursue it. They don’t have a covenant with God, so if they don’t seek material goods, they won’t get them!

But we’re not like those people. We’re not in the world without God and without a covenant (Ephesians 2:12-13). We have God’s promise of provision. He has assured us in His Word that He will not only meet our needs, but give us an abundance.

It’s important for us to remember, however, that a covenant is always between two parties. It has two sides to it. A covenant says, If you do this, then I’ll do that.

God’s part of the covenant is to prosper us—spirit, soul and body as well as financially. What is our part of the covenant? It’s not to seek after that prosperity. If we do that, we’ll get sidetracked. Our part of the covenant is to seek first His kingdom, His way of doing and being right!

Our part is to say, “Lord, I’ll do whatever You tell me to do. I’ll obey Your Word and do what is right in Your sight—even if it looks like it will cost me.”

Of course, obeying God’s Word never costs in the long run. It pays! You always put yourself in a position for increase when you seek after God and do things His way.

I’ll be honest with you though, there will be times when you can’t see how that increase is going to come. Ken and I know about those times. We’ve been through them.

When we saw in the Word of God that we were to “Keep out of debt and owe no man anything, except to love one another…” (Romans 13:8, The Amplified Bible), we weren’t too excited about it. At that time in our lives, it looked to us like we’d never be able to do anything financially without borrowing money.

We thought, How will we ever get a car? How will we get a home? How will we finance our ministry? We’re doomed!

But we had already decided to obey God no matter what the cost, so we committed to Him to get out of debt even though we thought it would be to our disadvantage. Of course, that decision has since turned out to be one of the wisest financial decisions we’ve ever made.

That’s the way it always is. Obeying God always works to your advantage in the end!

Prepare To Prosper: Seek First Things First Pt 2 By Gloria Copeland

God"s Covenant Of Healing Pt 2 - Kenneth Copeland

God called Abraham and made a covenant with him.

The covenant made between God and Abraham was sealed through the act of circumcision. “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; And it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you” (Genesis 17:10-11).

The shedding of blood was the most vital act of the Old Testament. Through circumcision, it stood as a sign of agreement, a token of the covenant between God and man. El Shaddai agreed to bless Abraham and his descendants exceedingly. In return, He required them to live uprightly before Him.

But man continually sinned against God, failing to hold to the terms of the agreement. Again, the shedding of blood held the answer. The Levitical priesthood was instituted to offer blood sacrifices that would atone (or cover) for sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). By offering a lamb on the altar, the priests could purchase forgiveness for one year. God accepted these sacrifices in order to keep the Abrahamic covenant in force. This was the only way to bridge the gap between sin and righteousness.

Then centuries later, the supreme blood sacrifice was made. Jesus of Nazareth came into the world, born of a virgin. When John the Baptist first saw Jesus he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Jesus was the sacrificial lamb offered upon the altar of the cross. He was the last sacrifice of the Levitical priesthood. The blood He shed on the cross washed away forever the spot of sin. The Old Testament sacrifices only covered sin; the New Testament sacrifice—Jesus, the spotless Son of God—completely did away with sin. “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12).

By accepting His sacrifice, you stand before God clean and pure—just as if you had never sinned.

Jesus died for sin and, at the same time, did away with all the effects of sin. When sin entered the world, it brought with it the forces of destruction: death, sickness, poverty, fear. The price Jesus paid at Calvary was the full price, covering every area of human life: spiritual, mental, physical, financial and social. Our redemption is complete.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13-14).

“The curse of the Law” was the penalty for any person who disobeyed the statutes of the Levitical Law. Though Jesus lived a life without sin, He gave Himself to bear that curse as if He had sinned and disobeyed the Law. He took the punishment for the sin of mankind. He bore the curse so that we could receive the blessing. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).

Deuteronomy 28 sets out the stipulations of this blessing and curse:
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God (verses 1-2).

Then verses 3-14 list all the blessings of the Law, describing prosperity in every area of life.

“The curse of the Law” begins in verse 15. Here is found every kind of curse that could possibly come on mankind: sickness, disease, poverty, lack, pain, suffering, etc. Then verse 61 says, “Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law…”

Jesus bore the curse of the Law. He bore every sickness and every plague known to man. He bore pain and suffering. Why? So that the blessing could come on us when we accept His sacrifice as our own. Because we are in Christ, we are Abraham’s seed and heirs to the blessing.

-You Are Healed

God"s Covenant Of Healing Pt 2 - Kenneth Copeland

God"s Covenant of Healing Pt 1- Kenneth Copeland

Healing is not a new provision brought into being with the ministry of Jesus. Healing was provided for under the Abrahamic covenant. This is how that covenant came into existence:

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee…And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee (Genesis 17:1-5, 7).

When God appeared to Abram He said, “I am the Almighty God.” The original Hebrew says, “I am El Shaddai.” El means “supreme.” Shaddai means “the Breasty One.” He said, “I will be a God to you.” In other words, “I will be all you need—your father, your mother, your nurse, your provider.”

I want you to realize the full significance of what took place between God and Abraham. They entered into a contract together. They made covenant together—an everlasting covenant, an absolute agreement. God said, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee.” Then He sealed His side of the agreement by swearing an oath. In Genesis 22:16 God said, “By myself have I sworn.” There was no higher power to swear by, so He swore by Himself. He gave His own Word that He would bless Abraham and his seed. “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed….And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed…” (Genesis 22:17-18).

The Hebrew word covenant means “to cut,” implying “where blood flows.” A blood covenant is the strongest form of agreement on earth. Two parties agree to certain terms and then seal their agreement by the shedding of blood. The covenant made between God and Abraham was sealed through the act of circumcision. “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; And it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you” (Genesis 17:10-11).

The shedding of blood was the most vital act of the Old Testament. Through circumcision, it stood as a sign of agreement, a token of the covenant between God and man. El Shaddai agreed to bless Abraham and his descendants exceedingly. In return, He required them to live uprightly before Him.

God"s Covenant of Healing Pt 1- Kenneth Copeland

Growing in the Grocery Store : Gloria Copeland

You see, you don’t have to wait for a major trial to hit before you let patience have her perfect work. You can practice patience in those small but irritating situations you encounter every day.

I ran into one such situation just the other day in the grocery store. I was in a hurry when I went to check out so I chose the express line. There were only a couple of people in it and they just had a few items to buy so I didn’t think it would take long.

But that clerk was so slow! As my frustration mounted I thought, They ought to put a sign here that says Slow Motion Line!

What was that? An opportunity to exercise patience.

Such opportunities are important because when you exercise patience, it grows. If you’ll use it in small things, it will be strong enough to handle the bigger things when they come along. Every fruit of the Spirit increases in you as you exercise it.

Remember that the next time some little aggravation is about to make you lose your temper. Instead of saying, “I’ve had it,” say, “No, in Jesus’ Name, I choose to yield to the force of patience God has put within me. I believe I’ll just count this slow grocery store line to be a joy and use it as an opportunity to grow!”

-Well Worth the Wait

Growing in the Grocery Store : Gloria Copeland

Can You Imagine? By Kenneth Copeland

When Abraham finally received by faith that he was, indeed, the father of many nations, it still wasn’t something he could see with his physical eyes. So how did he see it?

In Psalm 2:1 (The Amplified Bible), we find that the word meditate can also mean “to imagine.” The idea is, as we go about like Abraham, Joshua and Peter, constantly speaking God’s WORD—calling those things that be not as though they were—The WORD will spark an inner image within us. That inner image in turn becomes hope, and hope is where Abraham saw himself as “father of many nations.”

I remember in the early days of this ministry when Gloria and I reached the point where we needed a station wagon to get us and our children from one place to the next so I could preach. Like anything else we needed, we went to God’s promises concerning our need, then we prayed, sowed seed, believed God and started speaking The WORD. That’s what we did for that car.

After we had taken The WORD and agreed as a family in faith, we went around saying, “Glory to God for our new car!” “That new car is ours!” “Thank God for our new car!” We continued to meditate The WORD. At the time, our children were young, but still old enough to grab hold of our station wagon with their faith, too.

One day our son, John, asked, “Daddy, is that new car ours?”

“You bet it is,” I replied.

“Well, let’s go get it,” he said.

This new car idea had become so real and so big inside him that he didn’t see why we shouldn’t just go get it. I didn’t tell him that the reason we didn’t go get the car was because we were $3,000 short of what we needed to buy it. In fact, I started to say, “Now, you know, John, we do have to….” But then I stopped, because I realized I was about to head down the road of doubt and unbelief. Instead, I said, “Yeah, praise God! Let’s do, John. Let’s just go get it!” Immediately we all started saying it to each other: “Let’s go get it!”

In less than a week, a man called me, crying. “Oh, Brother Copeland, I’m so ashamed of myself. God told me to send you $3,000 a few days ago and I didn’t do it. I’ve hung on to it until I cannot stand it anymore.” The first time that man heard God tell him to send us the money was the same time John came to me and said, “Let’s go get it!”

So we went and got it.

-Dream Big, Talk Big, and Turn Your Faith Loose!

Can You Imagine? By 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

Take the Plunge! By: Gloria Copeland

Can we live like Jesus? Yes, we can! We have been born of God and filled with His Holy Spirit.

After all, the same Spirit Who descended on Jesus when He was baptized in the Jordan River comes upon us when we’re baptized in the Holy Spirit. And that Spirit gives us power to do the same works He did. If you doubt it, go back and read the book of Acts again. All the way through that book you’ll see miraculous, amazing things occurring. You’ll see miracles performed, people healed, devils cast out—not by Jesus Himself, but by people like Peter, John, Phillip, Stephen and Paul.

Acts 9 tells of a time when Peter even raised a woman named Dorcas from the dead. Verse 42 says because of that miracle “many believed in the Lord.” Of course, they did! That’s the way God meant for His gospel to be preached. He never meant for people to believe His Word is true just because we say so. He wants manifestations of the Spirit to accompany and confirm it. In this last, great move of God on the earth, people are going to start seeing those manifestations again. Signs and wonders are going to follow the Word just like they did in the book of Acts. That’s exciting, isn’t it? But what’s even more exciting is this: If you’re preaching the Word of God, those signs are going to follow you!

You and I don’t have to be bystanders who just watch what God is doing. We can be part of it if we want to be, and I’m telling you right now—I want to be! I want to be right in the middle of it. I want to be under the spout where the glory comes out! I don’t want to be tangled up with natural endeavors that won’t even matter to me a year from now.

God didn’t put me in this end-time generation so I could fritter away my time on the temporal things of the world. He didn’t baptize me with the Holy Spirit so I could give all my time and attention to some silly thing that I won’t even remember next year. He equipped me with His power so I could flow in the spirit and accomplish eternal things for Him that will last forever!

He sent me here to show forth His mighty deeds and display His love (1 Peter 2:9). That might shock some people, but it is true nevertheless. After all, Jesus Himself said, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21).

How did the Father send Jesus? He sent Him anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power (Acts 10:38). And that’s how He is sending us! He is sending us to live like Jesus lived. To do that, we must get out of the world’s flow. We must stop being limited by its sickness, poverty and lack of power. We must start living in the flow of the Spirit. We must start living a life of abundance, blessing, health and increase. A life that acts like the Word of God is true—that lets the Holy Spirit lead, and lets love light the way.

That kind of life is available now to every believer who is willing to step into it. It is ready to flow from within you and provide you with everything you need to become all that Jesus has called you to be. So if you’re still on the bank of this mighty Holy Ghost river, watching and wondering whether you should take the plunge, let me encourage you to go for it. Don’t wait another minute. Jump on in…the water’s fine!

-Go With the Flow!

Take the Plunge! By: Gloria Copeland

New Identity—New Destiny - Kenneth Copeland

From the moment God first told Abram that He would make him a great nation, Abram could have said, “OK, from now on I’m going to call myself Abraham, because God has said I will be the father of many nations. And if God said it—and I agree with it—then it is!”

Abram could have done that and saved himself a lot of trouble. But he didn’t. Remember, Abram was not born again or spiritually alive like us, and there was no written WORD for him to keep before his eyes. Consequently, all he was seeing was, “I am childless and have no seed.” God fixed that, too, by changing his name.

When Abram became Abraham, he literally took on the new identity of “father of many nations”—which was what his new name meant. Every time he said his name, he was saying, “Hello, I’m the father of many nations.” What’s more, every time someone called his name, they were saying, “Hey, father of many nations!”

What was happening? Abraham and everyone around him was calling “those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). In effect, Abraham was speaking the same WORD God had spoken, and he was hearing it spoken as well. Jesus did the same thing with Peter. When Jesus first met Peter, his name was Simon Barjona. Later, however, Jesus changed it to Peter, the Rock. And if there were anyone among the disciples who was not a “rock,” it was Peter.

Jesus knew what He was doing. He called Peter Rock until he became one. Meanwhile, by receiving his new name and speaking it and responding to it, Peter was actually agreeing with The WORD of God. He was agreeing with The WORD that Jesus had spoken to him.

So, we see that the process behind these name changes, and men fulfilling their destinies by agreeing with what God said they would be and do, was actually meditating The WORD—speaking it and hearing it, over and over and over.

Meditating The WORD was also the plan for success that God laid out for Joshua when he stepped into the role of leading all of Israel after Moses died. “This book of [My WORD] shall not depart out of thy mouth,” God told him, “but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou [may be able to see] to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

The Hebrew word we translate as meditate actually means “to mutter or to go around talking to yourself.” In short, Joshua was promised good success if he went through life constantly talking God’s WORD—speaking it to himself, speaking it to others, and speaking it in every situation.

-Dream Big, Talk Big, and Turn Your Faith Loose!

New Identity—New Destiny - Kenneth 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