Kenneth Copeland - God's Love Stops Depression and Grief
—Hello, everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. And you ought to be in this studio sometime between doing takes. This is a wonderfully anointed place and a lot of fun. It's just wonderful. And one of the things that makes it so much more lovely is because we love you so much. And it's such a thrill to be able to teach the word of God and teach and preach the gospel to you wherever you are in the world. It's just a marvelous thing. Greg, we were talking about the fruit of the Spirit and discussing, and you were talking about Gloria's book on the fruit of the Spirit and each chapter in this, and I'm not out to sell the book and you can't have this one here because she dedicated it to me, and I keep it right there next to the bed. You just open it up, and clearly if we want to enjoy God's manifested blessings, we must keep love at the forefront of our thinking.
—That's right.
—That's her.
—Yes.
—She literally changed my life.
—You're not exaggerating. You mean that.
—We had been on a long, hard trip and we came back through Hawaii for rest and man, I was so tired. And we were staying there at the Hilton at the Lee Towers and I was just out of it. And we went down for the little continental breakfast and I was ... I got my napkin and threw it back down on the table. I don't care, obviously. I don't know. Yeah. Go back out the room again. And I stood up and when I turned around, she was standing right in front of me. And of course, I had an aloha shirt on. She caught me by the lapel and this little tear was coming down. I didn't realize it. I didn't say anything. My gruffness, I was not love aware at all. I was body aware, completely. This little tear coming down her face. I didn't realize that I had hurt her. And she just simply said, I'm going to be a blessing to you some way.
—Praise God.
—It just literally changed me. There was another time and I had depression horribly before I went near the Lord and it would get back on me, just get, I mean, just, and I'd get and I'd to snap out of it. And then when I'd preach, I'd get out. It didn't come back on me again. And one day I went upstairs and just, I didn't lie down across the bed, just length wise. I just flopped back on that bed and it seemed like I had this knot right here in my, and I couldn't swallow it and I couldn't ... Couldn't spit it up. Just hurt, it physically hurt right here. She just sat down there next to me. She didn't say a word, but she could tell it. She sat down next to me and just began to pray in the spirit softly. And she just picked up her hand and put it, she put her hand right over the top of that, where that hurt was. I had to put my legs on top of my hands to keep from moving her hand away. And she prayed in the Spirit and prayed in the Spirit. And prayed in the Spirit and just quietly rebuked the devil and it left and did not come back.
—Praise God.
—Now, then we moved over into the home that was built on the ministry property that belongs to the ministry. Well, that home did too.
—Right.
—The ministry owned it. And then we were in her study one day, and I could sense that depression coming back on me and I wouldn't yield to it. She put her hands, she stood behind the chair and put her hands on my shoulders. She said, "Kenneth, I'm quite sure Jesus finds no fault in you and neither do I".
—Oh, praise God.
—It was over. Never come back.
—Knowing the love he has.
—Yes.
—When you know the love he has...
—and she just said it all very quietly. I'm quite sure that Jesus finds no fault in you...
—Praise God.
—...and neither do I. Well, I found a lot of faults in me. That's what depression does. Depression is really grieving over something you haven't lost. And so...
—Well, wait a minute. I thought we were supposed to have good, good grief?
—You say that around me for real, you better duck.
—I know.
—Good grief. There's no such thing as good grief. Now because the scripture is vehemently against it. God is the God of life. And he is not the God of grief. Jesus said, "my words are Spirit...
—And life.
—...and they are life". His word is life. This is life giving words. And all of the correction in these covenants are to bring you life. I'll remind you now of Deuteronomy. You move over into that. The 30th chapter of, you've come out of the blessing and the curse and you moved over there. And then the Lord finishes it. He said, "I place before you life and death, blessing and cursing. You choose life that you and your seed after you may live and love the Lord thy God". You choose it! You choose not to grieve! You choose not to be depressed! Depression is a spirit and then, and I, and then by the way, when she put her hand on that right there, I physically felt it leave.
—Praise God.
—So there was a Spirit enforcing that. It's grief. Depression is grief. Well, I was in a terrible place spiritually before I met her. And depression was just a way of life for me. But when I met her, I had made the stupid statement, I don't believe love is real. If it is I'm incapable of it. That was a depression filled statement. I met her and fell in love with her the day I met her. And it blew that revelation right out of the tub, you know?
—Right.
—Amen.
—Amen. So when she's speaking to you, she's really doing, she's ministering Jesus to you because he said, the words I speak are Spirit and life. She's speaking to your spirit, she's not speaking to your flesh.
—That's the way she spoke to me and still does.
—If she spoke to your flesh, you'd had a fight.
—Yeah.
—But she spoke to your spirit, man. And Jesus would preach to your spirit.
—And very with very precious tones. And she never tried to boss me around.
—Praise God.
—I was in the shower one day and she was in another part of the room there. And here again, I was so tired and I don't remember what she said. She hollered something at me and of the time she calls me Ken, and she Ken something. I said, I was grumbling around. I said, oh, she doesn't care anything about me. The word of the Lord hit me so hard. He said, "who do you think you are"? I jerked up. I stood there trembling in my own shower. Who do you think you are? It's none of your business whether she cares anything about you or not. It is your business to care for her. And after all she is my daughter and I want you to see to it. And he let me go. That changed.
—Yes, sir.
—That changed me. And as I began to study all of these things and all of that is right here.
—Yes.
—And in this, God is love.
—Absolutely.
—He has faith, but he is love. He's a faith God. And he is a covenant making God. And he keeps covenant.
—Right. Even with his commandments, to the children of Israel, they seem burdensome. They see them hard. They were love to keep them out of trouble.
—If you go back and read those commandments, you come right down to, then he begins to say, "I bless you". Greg, why do you think the Lord said, "read those through with different eyes. Have no other God before me". Why would I want another God?
—No.
—I don't want another God before me. Thus shall not covet another man's wife. Don't be doing that. I'll get you one better looking than she is. Thou shall not murder. Don't no, no, don't do that. Turn it over to me. Vengeance is mine says the Lord. Turn it over to me. I'll take care of it. That's what he's saying to them. You turn this thing over to me. You just do what I tell you to do, and I'll take care of everything else.
—Absolutely.
—Because he had a plan and he's going way, way, way, way, way into the future and he has to have a road to get there. And it's a faith road. Jesus said it's a narrow way. And he has to have that faith road and obedience to it to get a baby born in Bethlehem because Micah said so 715 years before that had to come, and it had to come at a certain time, at a certain day, at a certain time of the night in a certain place. So that it could take place.
—His second coming will be no different.
—That's right.
—He's using the exact same pattern when the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. So COVID all this stuff that's been going on in our world. Don't get depressed about that or anxious about that. Take this checklist that you mentioned yesterday.
—Yes.
—Set your course. He'll give you course corrections, your pilot on this.
—Yes.
—And just make the course correction. And then, because you're going to land where you set out to go.
—Yeah.
—If you'll follow it.
—If you take the computer, the only computer we had until now you've got the FMS Flight Management System that is computer driven in the avionics of the airplane. But back there then is the only one you had. It's called an E6B computer and people call it a whiz wheel. And it makes altitude corrections, heading corrections. The word correction is on there. It's a constant series. Every flight is a series of minute corrections. Wind causes differences. You have to go around storm. You're fool if you fly through a storm and or to get caught in one. That's because you didn't do proper flight planning. Proper planning to stay away from the storms of life. This is your checklist. This is your flight plan. This is everything. This is the manufacturer's handbook. So with that thing in hand, and I've said this before, it's just a simple problem. Flying a 200 mile an hour airplane and you take off and you fly four hours. So 200 miles an hour and four hours. I mean, how far is that?
—But I'm 10 degrees off course. And I never correct it. And I'm not talking about winds. I'm just, this simple problem. 10 degrees off and in four hours I'll be over 133 miles off course. Now. I've got a problem. Do I go back over here and get on course and then go to the destination. Do I try to go from my present position to the destination? And if I haven't been paying any attention to this thing, I really don't know what that is. I have an off course problem. And you get off course where this is concerned. And if you got a love problem, you are off course, big time.
—Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I love what Gloria Copeland said in here. It's so good in this Walking in the Fruit of the Spirit book, she says it right here, "the fruit plus the gifts equals maximum power".
—Oh yeah.
—Maximum power. She says this, "the maximum manifestation of spiritual power is achieved in our lives only when the gifts and the fruit are working together". So value both the gifts and the fruit, desire to move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as he wills, but develop your faith to walk constantly in the fruit. Walk constantly in the fruit.
—Praise, God.
—Develop your precious faith...
—Yes.
—...to do that.
—Well now you've introduced, she's introduced a question here. How do you develop your faith? Jesus 12th Chapter of Hebrews...
—Yes, sir.
—...is the author of our faith. The King James says he is the finisher, but that word means developer. So you received him as savior. You received him as your healer. You received him as the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Now you receive him as the developer of your faith.
—That's Good.
—You receive him as such. He is the developer. And now by the Spirit of God, Father, what do I do here? Where am I lacking development in my faith? Now, there was a man talked to me one time back in the Full Gospel Fellowship Businessmen...
—Yes, sir.
—And he said, "Now Copeland now wait a minute". He said, now of this woman, he said, she didn't have much. And she was really very poor and a sick woman, but she prayed a lot of people into the Kingdom of God. Well, at first, I didn't know how to answer that, but the Spirit of God gave it to me.
—Yes.
—I said now, and I don't know this woman, but I know a lot of cases. She could have been healed, but her faith is not developed in that. She could have had money. Her faith is not developed in that, but her faith was developed and she prayed. She loved to get people saved and she prayed them into the Kingdom of God. But she did it from a sick bed. Her faith could have been developed in prosperity. That's part of the blessing. Most people don't know that. She could have been developed in healing. Too many Christians don't know that. Their faith is not developed in that area. But excuse me, my background, my dad was a very positive man. So was my mother. They were very positive. They weren't negative about anything, but they had to learn how to do that because most of the people around them, there were things they were negative about. And when my dad began to prosper financially, then they were a little suspicious of them.
—Right.
—But then when he began to prosper financially, then his brothers did. Now, one of them was very successful. The oldest one. He always wanted to own a service station. A full service station and he did that and it was the best one in town. So he's a success, very positive man. And then my dad's other brother, the one that they were the closest. So my dad is in insurance business. So he went in the insurance business and they were, and they'd get together. And they were really funny together, but he began to learn because he looked to my dad, my dad was older than he. And so he looked to him and he got positive about everything.
—Amen.
—And it was just, of course faith is very contagious. Even when people don't know what it is.
—You know, I remember Keith Moore were talking and I believe it was Brother Moore, correct me if I get it wrong. He taught Healing School all those years. He had great faith for healing, but he was lacking in prosperity.
—He said that.
—And he be... yeah. And he began then to develop his faith in that area.
—You go to the word and the exceeding, great and precious promises that promise you healing. That promise you financial prosperity. That promise you these things. And then you take them by faith. Let's go back again to the definition of faith in the Classic Amplified. And we will go to Hebrews Chapter 11, Verse 1. Now listen to this very, very carefully. Now faith is. Now faith, faith is now.
—Yes.
—Is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for. Hope is future tense. It's not wish.
—Yes.
—Well you think you're going to get you. Are you going to get healed in the meeting tonight? Well, Brother Copeland, I sure hope so.
—That's my wish.
—That's not hope that's not, that's not expectancy. I sure wish it would. The proof. This is it. The proof, the proof of the things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving as real fact, what is not revealed to the senses! And you spend time in those exceeding great and precious promises. I mean, you listen to people that preach it. You get their CDs. I went back to my cassette tapes. I got tired of those CDs. I can't control them. I just dug out my, I found one of my old Sony cassette players got a speaker in it. God Brother Hagin talking to me again. Like I got it in the first place. Amen.
—Amen.
—And just keep feeding on it and feeding on it and feeding on it. And it starts rising. It starts rising. It starts rising. Faith comes.
—Yes.
—It can't help, but come... by hearing. That's talking to that blue nature talking about, she ended up with this, listen to this, "we're called to be a living revelation of God's love, life, and to divine character". That's what we're called.
—A fine character.
—His character. My goal is for his character to become my character.
—And we're out of time,
—Hallelujah.
—Glory to God. Come on praise God. We'll be back in just a minute.