Kenneth Copeland - When You Pray, Believe
Let's go from now to the book of John. Thank You, Jesus. Let me remind you now, we'll go back to covenant. This is the most precious moment in the history of heaven and earth. We're now in the covenant meal that changed everything. And Jesus is giving exceeding great and precious promises. There's so many people that take these chapters in John and break them apart and everything, never realizing that it's in that covenant meal that this happened, and the meat of it and the preciousness of it all took place after Jesus got Judas out of the room. Because the Bible said, the moment he took that sop, Satan entered him, so he had to be removed from the room. And Jesus simply said, what you must do, do quickly, so he left. And Jesus said now, and that's when the precious promises came forth.
Oh, there's just so much here. But look in the 15th chapter at the fifth verse. I am the vine and you men are the branches. And he that abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without me, you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If You abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. If you abide in me, that's one step. But now here's the big one. If my word abides in you. The Word has to live in you.
Here's another one. If you abide in the secret place of the Most High, the Most High God, under the shadow of Shaddai. Glory to God. And I will say of the Lord... There it is. I will say of the Lord, you are my refuge, you are my God, you are my fortress. In you do I trust. And surely He will... What? Deliver you from the snare. Don't go a step further till you settle that. That's a promise. The snare of the fowler. A snare is a hidden trap. People used to, years ago when they didn't have any way of doing anything else, they would snare animals and catch them for food. Big old bear traps. Bear stick his foot in that trap. But if he saw it, he wouldn't go near it. They would use wire traps to trap deer and so forth and catch a deer in a snare and sometimes a deer would work that and work that till he cuts his foot off.
And if you get caught in the state of Texas using a snare, you're in really deep trouble. A snare. The snare of the fowler. And we know who fouls up everything. He has hidden traps. Beware. But If we abide in him and his Word abides in us and we know Psalm 91:16, glory to God, with long life he satisfies us and shows us his salvation. That's exceedingly great. That's exceedingly precious. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Long life. Satisfied life.
Brother Hagin always said, "When you hear that I've gone, you know I was satisfied". Without sickness and disease. Now he was born, for those of you that don't know, he was born prematurely. They induced labor because of his mother. And the doctors told him he had to die. He asked the doctors one thing, he said, "Why is my blood orange"? So he had a fatal blood disease. And he asked the doctor, he said, "Doctor, why is it when I drink something hot or cold it feels like it goes way over here like this"? And he said, "Son, let me put it to you like this. We would have to give you a new heart, which we can't do. We would have to give you new lungs, which we can't do". He said, "You are so underdeveloped... your whole chest cavity is out of place and nobody has ever survived past 16 years old with that". And he said, and sure enough, he said, "I was bed fast at 16 years old". But he found the precious Word and Mark 11:22, 23, 24 and 25, and he just stayed with it, and he just stayed with it, and wouldn't let it go.
And finally, finally, one morning, The Lord spoke to him in his Spirit and he said, "So, you believe you're well now"? He said, "Yes, I do". He said, "Well men ought to be up this time of day". His legs were completely paralyzed, but in that, let's turn there, Mark 11, there is a precious prayer. Don't lose your place there in John. We're coming back to that. In fact, when you get over to John, turn to the 16th chapter. Mark 11. Here is a precious, precious prayer promise. Jesus answering, saith unto them, how faith in God. Now, here's why it's precious faith. My cross reference says have the faith of God. So this is God's faith. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith should come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith, therefore I say unto you.
Now Jesus just used his own principle right then. Whosoever shall say, therefore, I say, I say, Jesus said this. Copeland, I don't believe anything you said. Well, that doesn't make any difference, but you need to believe this. I say this, but I'm repeating Jesus. Therefore, I say unto you, what things so ever you desire. When you pray, believe. Now he just got through talking about faith. By faith, have the faith of God. That happened when you were born again, the faith of God entered into you. That faith brought about the greatest miracle of the ages. You and I became a new creature in Christ Jesus. I didn't know that when I got born again. I was a scriptural illiterate. I didn't know that. Gloria didn't know about, she had never heard the word born again. She was raised in a church that didn't use that terminology at all ever. But she read in a Bible that my mother had sent me, and we didn't have anything, on account of me.
So I was out looking for a job. And so she found, "Ken precious, seek ye first the Kingdom of God in his righteousness and all these things will be added to you". She said, "Well, I certainly do need things". She said, "Lord, take my life and do something with it". That's a little longer prayer than Saul of Tarsus prayed. he just said, "Lord"! That was it. Glory to God. Thank You, Lord Jesus. There's that exceeding great and precious prayer promise. What things so ever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Now here comes the correction. And when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any so your Father, which also in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. There's a great promise, but it comes with instruction. And there's a correction there. And if you don't take that correction, the prayer doesn't work. It's all part of it. That's exceedingly great.
Now, let's go back over there now to the gospel of John right here in this covenant meal in the night. First, I want to read in the 16th chapter, 13th verse. How be it when he, the spirit of truth is come. Now, Jesus was looking forward to the day of Pentecost. That's where the Spirit of God was headed after the resurrection. When the Spirit of Jesus would come. They didn't understand that at the time. When he, the spirit of truth is come, he will. Say he will. He will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak and he will show you things to come. He will glorify me. He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you all things that the Father has are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and show it unto you. A little while and you shall not see me.
Again, a little while and you shall see me because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, "What is this that he saith unto us? A little while and you'll not see me. Whoa, what is this? And saith therefore... What is it he saith a little while? Oh". Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him and said unto them, "Do you inquire among yourselves of that that I said"? Now, wait a minute. It's not what you think the promise said. You can look at it and read it and get a hold of it and just keep quoting it long enough and you'll mess it up. You'll leave little part out or you'll twist it over a little bit and you'll think, "Oh, yeah I said it just exactly right". Go back and read it. Put your eyes on it. Live in that promise by living in the promise book, not the promise box.
Now, that's all right, there's nothing wrong with that promise box. But you pull a card out of that promise box, that's a great promise. Go get your Bible and read all of the verses before and after it. It's probably conditional. Amen. Stay with me now. A woman, when she is in travel has sorrow because her hour has come, but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. And you now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy, no man takes away from you, and in that day, we're in that day, in that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto, have you asked nothing in my name, ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full.. That's exceedingly great. Prayer promises. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Father.
These great, exceeding great, and precious promises that your joy might be full. Your joy. But here again, without faith, it's a futile exercise. Without enough information, so many things don't work. Now, there are times when things do work because of the mercy and the goodness of God. And early on, the Lord directed me, now there's only been one time in my life that I heard the audible voice of God and it had to do with this property. If I hadn't, I would not have even thought about owning this place. I was flying in late one evening, and you've heard me say before, I'm not a preacher that flies. I started as a commercial pilot and I am still, I am now a preacher that flies, but I started this... I fully intended, when I didn't know any better, that was going to be my future and that's the way I was going to make my living.
So I'm all business when I fly and I still am today. And those of you that do fly, you know you have an audio panel. There is low frequency beacons, and you can navigate on those low frequency beacons. And there are people, God bless them, that will use that low frequency and go out of the aviation frequencies and go all the way over to the radio frequencies and listen to the radio, maybe listen to a ball game or something while you fly. No, no, no. No. And I was flying in, I didn't know it at the time, but I flew right over this property headed to meet some people and I heard it. Coming to you from the Revival Capital of the World. I immediately looked down at that audio panel to make sure I hadn't left this... because I heard it audibly. And I thought, "The Revival of Capital of the World"?
I know where the political capital of the world is, Washington DC. I know where the entertainment capital of the world is. That's Hollywood, California. I know where the country music capital of the world is. That's Nashville, Tennessee. Where's the Revival Capital of the World? I don't know. And then, not too long after that, a member of our board said, "There's some property out in Northwest part of town there, out in the county, I think you need to see". Well it was this place. And so I walked up to that fence and opened it up and Gloria crawled through it and I stepped over it. The moment my feet touched it, now I didn't hear this audibly, but I heard this. "This is the Revival Capital of the World and you're going to build it". And I thought, "What on earth with"? But now you're sitting in it.
But now, I want to point this out to you, by hearing that audibly, it dropped the Word down inside me and when I heard it, it brought faith. And I didn't know it at the time, but when I heard it in my spirit, I thought, "Well, all right. Here we go". Praise God. Now. Thank You, Jesus. Look with me now. Thank You, Lord. I receive that. Verse 13 again. How be it when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he does not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He will. But it takes faith and it takes time. But he will show you things to come. I fully expect him to show me things to come as I pray about them and pray about them and pray about them concerning the coming year.
And I heard that about this year months ago. A year of correction. This year, there will be corrections among governments. There will be corrections in households. Good stuff. There will be corrections for those that insist on not paying attention. But now, let's go back. Something else I want to show you now. I want to look at John 16:23 from the Classic Amplified please. And when that time comes, you will ask nothing of me. You will need to ask me no questions. I assure you most solemnly, I tell you that my Father will grant... Now, hey, this is a heavenly grant. My Father will grant you whatever you ask in my name as presenting all that I am. Up to this time, you've not asked a single thing in my name as presenting all that I am, but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive so that your joy, your gladness, your delight may be full and complete.