Kenneth Copeland - Precious Faith Works By Love
—Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland and this is the Believer's Voice Of Victory broadcast. I know you know that. And that's Greg Stephens. I know you know that. Now let's get down into this.
—Amen.
—I'll just tell you in between the broadcast and we do it, there's so much that's been coming out and Gloria said I talk enough for everybody, but things keep coming out that have to do with the Word.
—Yeah. Revelation happens in between them.
—And one of the things that has come up and because of my aviation background now for 60 years, things just come and this is a book of checklists.
—Yes, sir.
—And people have died in airplanes because they didn't follow the checklist. And a very, very, very close friend of mine came out of the Marine Corps as fighter pilot and he went to work for the airlines. Well, he's a first officer. He's not a captain yet. He never made captain and they're going through checklist and his captain stopped. The first officer is calling out items on the checklist and then the captain has said that, and then he confirms it and all that. And he stopped and called him by his name and said, "Would you go back to the back of the cabin and make, just look at all of the people and make sure their seat belts are fastened and speak to them"? And so he did that. He came back and he very politely called him by his name again. And he said, "I wanted to impress upon you that all of those people back there, their lives are in your hand. Now let's go back over this checklist again and let's actually do what the checklist said do," because he had a habit of memorizing things, he's military, and he memorized, had memory items galore as a fighter pilot, but not on an airliner. He was the only one in that airplane or his backseater was with him. And now he's got an airplane full of people that are depending on him. This is a book of checklists. "Though I speak with a tongue of men and angels and have not love, it won't work". It won't work. Now, go ahead, Greg, with what you were going to say.
—I never had the privilege of flying in the Air Force. I was on a flight crew, but we had a checklist in the back of the plane back there where we... It was a no go item. If I showed up without the checklist, I'm not going on the plane. It's not happening. And I can't borrow one from somebody else because mine had my name and number on it.
—It's your responsibility.
—My responsibility to have that and we go over it and thank God I had an old Vietnam master Sergeant that I don't care how long it takes, we're going over this. We're going to check everything. We're going to check that oxygen. We're going to check the hydraulics back here. We're going to report it up the front, all the things we're supposed to do. And that's the way we going to be. We had so many people that got dust all over their Bible that just never crack it open...
—And never pray according to it.
—Right. We talked about the colors, that we were red naturally, heavenly nature came us blue. We became purple. I'm going to show you an example of that. Jesus is in the boat, asleep, tired. He's tired. Been ministering all day. Red. He's physically tired. When they wake him up because they're in trouble, he spoke from here. He didn't speak from here. "Why don't you guys wake me up? Why can't you take care of it"? He said some comments like that afterward, but he spoke this and when he spoke to the storm, he got the authority of the purple.
—Oh yes.
—And that's what that centurion recognized authority because he's speaking the Word in faith. He's mixing faith with it. And all of these attributes where you just started with the love chapter are in us. The moment heaven came into me, I have the love of God shed abroad in my heart. I now have to train. Notice all these bottles didn't change. The outside never changed.
—Yeah.
—These never changed. It's what was inside changed. And you were talking about grief and sorrow yesterday. You're grieving about the outside of this thing. The inside is gone. The spirit man, the real you is in heaven. And so what all these checklists do is they line us up. Now in I Corinthians 13, we know the Greek words for love. The original Hebrew word. I'll remind you of this is the word ahava and the root word is ahav. Ahav means to give. For God so loved that he gave. So when love is part of you, it's going to cause you to give, and I'm not talking about just your money here, but that's where most people's treasure is. It will cause you to give. I had a darling saint in my church years ago informed me I preached too much on love and not enough on sin. That's my problem. That's why the church not doing what it ought to be doing. And so I begin to think, "Well, if that's true, what benefit is it if I preach too much on love"? And so I made a top 10 list of what would happen if I preach too much on love. Number 10, the world will know they belong to Jesus because of their love for one another...
—That's right.
—From John 13. Number nine. Wives will be extravagantly loved because their husbands will love them as Christ loved the church.
—Yep.
—And so number eight, "If they will be extravagantly generous because love is giving by nature". John 3:16. They will accurately communicate the gospel because the gospel's a revelation of God's love for man. That's what will happen if I preach too much on love. They'll have more confidence in God because they believe in love that he has for them. Number five, people will fall in love with God and will fall out of love with sin if I'll preach more on love, because you want to preach the desired result. Number four, they will perfectly reflect and accurately the true nature of God's character because He is love. And number three, they'll be free from fear because perfect love drives out all fear. Number two, "They will be spiritually mature". Ephesians 4:15 says that. Number one, "They'll never fail," I Corinthians 13, "because love never fails". That's my love top 10. That's what's going to happen if I preach on love too much. And that's what we got to do. That's the checklist that we've got to go through and start looking at this.
—All of that. Everything you're talking about is all part of the fruit of the Spirit.
—Yes, sir.
—It's born into the human spirit at the time of the new birth.
—Yes sir.
—And it's no accident that there are nine fruit of the Spirit and nine manifestations of the Holy Spirit, what's called the gifts of the Spirit.
—Which are in chapter 12 of Corinthians. It's not an accident that that's mentioned and then we go right into love. And if you look right before it in chapter 11, Paul gives us information about the communion.
—Yes. And then you go into 12 and you talk about, "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all," but it starts off, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away under these dumb idols, even as you were led, wherefore I gave you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say Jesus is Lord, but by the holy ghost".
—Yes, sir.
—That's where the Jesus is Lord came from in my life.
—Amen.
—I saw that while I was a student at Oral Roberts University and I started saying it. Jesus is Lord, he's Lord over me. He's Lord over Gloria. He's Lord over our children. He's Lord over our ministry. He's Lord over our lives. And I just wrote it all over everything. And I made up a little business card and I drew a little circle that said, "Jesus is Lord" with a little airplane going all the way around the middle because of what I've heard the Lord say. To preach that of Jesus is Lord from the top of the world to the bottom and all the way around the middle. This Uncompromised Word of Faith.
—Now these gifts operate as the spirit wills, but not the fruit. The fruit's in you.
—That's right. But you got to have that fruit right, that checklist in order then to move forward. Now I have a book here and I jokingly because I love her. We all love her here. I've become Billye Brim.
—You got little stickies. Sticky notes over...
—All over it. This is a book. And if you don't have it, you didn't tell me to do this, but you need to get it. It's Walking in the Fruit of the Spirit by Gloria Copeland. Releasing the Nature and Power of God in Your Life. If anybody that I know on the Earth, no offense exemplifies the fruit of the Spirit, it's Gloria Copeland.
—Yeah. And she's the one that taught me.
—I mean, she exemplifies it and I have just devoured this book and I'm going back through it. And as I was looking at it, I've highlighted some things in here and Brother Copeland, guess where she opens this entire thing. She opens it in II Peter chapter one...
—The divine nature.
—The divine nature, because that's where it all begins. That's where it comes from. This is probably the finest book I've ever seen. Saying that again. And I encourage you to get it, feed on it. Get your Bible out. Have a Bible study with Gloria.
—See one, even in the early...
—But she's lived that and walked that.
—...in the early days there, and I've said this before publicly. I don't even remember now what started it. I just leveled on her. That's the last time that I ever raised my voice to her and in April we'll be married 60 years. And I realized, and I was just going on and I said, I just stopped. I apologized to her. I said, "Oh, oh, Glo, I am so sorry". And I just stumbled over on this couch. That would've ended most marriages right there. She'd have slapped my jaws and walked out the door. "I'm going home". She didn't do that. And I just fell over on this couch. It was a little house that we had rented and I fell over on this couch and I went into a deep sleep. And when I woke up, I was over on my side here. Her face was that close to mine. And she was just sitting there looking at me, praying. I said, "Oh, Gloria, I have to preach". She said, "I know it". That was the fruit of love. Just, she just would not allow any manifestation of the devil to get in the way. She would not do it. The only time that I ever saw her really, well twice, I mean, John got on her last nerve one time. She's supernatural. She just flat-footed the couch over the top of the couch and over back down behind the couch where he was and just landed on him. His eyes were that big, but she didn't scream and holler at him. She just said, "You are not going to do that anymore". And he said, "No, ma'am, I'm not". And the other time we came home just going night and day preaching here and preaching there and preaching hard. We got in and I was so tired and I went to bed and then, and there came all the symptoms of the flu. The hot behind the eyes. And I said, "Oh, God". I said, "I am so tired and I am so worn out And now these flu symptoms," and I'm just going on like that. She's over here. The lights are out. All of a sudden she landed on me. She came down on top of me, grabbed me by the head, and she screamed at the devil, "In the name of Jesus, you take your hands off of my husband and get out of this house".
—Amen.
—And she jumped up and I rolled out of the bed and hit on my back on the floor completely healed.
—Praise God. Hallelujah.
—She attacked, brother.
—Yeah.
—Not you. No.
—She's attacking...
—She attacked the devil. She attacked the devil that was pushing John. And she attacked the devil to tried to make me sick.
—Men would be smart to release their wives to do that in their house, do spiritual warfare in their house.
—Yes, amen.
—Can we look at this love chapter and have you break that down?
—Yes. Glory to God. Now remember this now. This is a letter. It's been broken down in chapters and verses and it's well done in this case. There's one thing that's problem is old English words. The Greek word is agape, but it was translated in the King James as charity. And what they were trying to say, I'm convinced is, excuse me, is love is charitable and it's giving all the time. But even then it comes, it's flowing down. "Covet earnestly the best gifts". Well, what is the best gifts? My spiritual father said the best one is the one you need at the time.
—Yes, sir.
—And if you need healing, that's one you need. If you need a word of wisdom, then the one you need at the time is the best one. So then you come right on down into chapter 13 and it says, "I show unto you a more excellent way". Excellent. Now, remember Peter said, "We heard a voice from the excellent glory".
—Yes.
—This is an excellent way. "Though I speak with a tongue of men and angels and have not loved, I'm become as a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol". Well, turn that around. What if I do walk in love?
—Yes.
—And it's activated by precious faith, but now I want you to notice something here. This is amazing. He goes through all of these spiritual manifestations of the Holy Spirit, all nine of them. Now, if you notice he comes into this 13th chapter and cancels all of them out and he cancels out Mark 11:23. Notice this. "Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels and have not love, I'm become as a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I'm nothing".
—There it is.
—"Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. Oh, I've learned to sow. I've learned to give and though I give my body to be burned and have not loved, it doesn't profit me anything". You just wiped out all of what he just preached in the gifts of the Spirit, these marvelous things. And he said, "Those gifts are manifested according to the will of God". Well, without love, you've canceled it out.
—Right. Faith works by love.
—Love.
—Yes, sir.
—And I wrote down here, "It profits me nothing," and I wrote down there beside that, "Your seed is dead".
—Oh my.
—Financial seed, it's dead. The things you've been doing to help in the church, a pastor, you've been pastoring and working hard and you're mad at to people. And I had the Lord say this to me one time back when I was Oral Roberts assistant. We were in a very large meeting and I was standing there. It was the last service and I had his overcoat over my arm. And we'd been there a week. And something like 2000 people or a little more had answered the altar calls.
—Amen.
—I'm standing there. And I heard the Lord say this on the inside of me. He said, "You are doing what I told you to do. I called you to hold his coat. Now because you're holding his coat you have a part in all 2000 people that came to me in these meetings". And listen to what he said to me, and all of this is based on love. He said, "If I call you to carry out one can of trash and you obey me, I can make your trip from the back door to the alley of the greatest adventure you have ever had".
—Amen.
—But he said, "If you chose not to hold that coat and you went somewhere else and 2000 people came into my kingdom, you don't get credit for a one of them because of your disobedience".
—Wow.
—That's what this is about.
—Yeah. Yes.
—And all of these gifts, and here again, here's your checklist. This is where you check this off. So before you ever leave this 12th chapter, before you ever leave that, you just make sure, because you've got to remember now precious faith works by love. And the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost. This same apostle said that in the book of Romans.
—That's right.
—So you could very easily call the apostle Paul an apostle of love.
—Yes, absolutely.
—Oh my, and he gave his body to be burned. He wore it completely out. I mean, he was killed a couple of times.
—Yes.
—And liked to drown in the ocean and he wouldn't quit. They couldn't kill him.
—He had a word. He stayed on that word.
—Yes.
—And it stayed on his assignment.
—Yes.
—And wouldn't deviate from it.
—He wouldn't turn from it at all. Now let me switch over here, Greg, to the Classic Amplified. "Even if I dole out all I have to the poor in providing food and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory," see there, they add that. "If I may glory, but have not loved, God's love in me I gain nothing. Love endures long and is patient and kind". Now you're back to a fruit of the Spirit, which is patience. "Love never is envious or boils over with jealousy. Love is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited, arrogant or inflated with pride. It is not rude, unmannerly and does not act unbecomingly. Now, if I touch on one and they say, "Oh". Well, don't go, "Oh, oh," just repent and say, "Lord, I repent of that and I receive my forgiveness for the sin of that".
—Yes.
—Love. "God's love in us does not insist on its own rights or its own way for it is not self seeking. It is not touchy". Uh, oh. It's not touchy. The Syrophoenician woman was not touchy.
—No.
—Jesus literally called her a dog. She said, "Well, I don't care. Even the dogs get the crumbs". And that did it.
—That's right.
—He said, "Great is your faith. Go your way. Your daughter's all right".
—Right.
—So she wasn't touchy. "It's not touchy or threatful or resentful". Now this one gets a lot of people. "It takes no account of the evil done to it. It pays no attention to a suffered wrong". I heard someone say, "Well, there goes my whole list". Of all the ones that did me wrong. Get rid of the list.
—Yeah. Amen.
—And pray for every one of them. "Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, ever ready to believe the best of every person. Its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances. And it endures everything without weakening. Love never fails".
—Yes. Amen.
—"Never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end as for prophecy and then so forth". Now here's, well, we're out of time but now when you go back, you say, "I endure long. I am patient. I am kind, I am never envious. I don't boil over with jealousy". And you get down to the end where you can honestly say, "I never fail".
—Amen.
—Praise God.
—Amen. Glory to God.
—Come on. Glory. Brother Greg and I'll be back in just a moment.