Kenneth Copeland - Prayers Work in Response to Correction
Mark 11. Here is a precious, precious prayer promise. "Jesus answering saith unto them, 'Have 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 said 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". Now, Jesus said this. "Ah, Copeland, I don't believe anything you said".
Well, that doesn't make a difference, but you need to believe this. I say this, but I'm repeating Jesus. "What things soever 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. "Howbeit 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. For 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 not see me... Whoa, what is this? And said, therefore, what does He say? 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 ahold of it and just keep quoting it long enough and you'll mess it up. You leave a little part out or you twist it over a little bit and you think, "Oh, y'all 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.
So stay with me now. "A woman when she is in travail 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 here. 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. Now, let's look at Mark 11:24 in the Classic Amplified, please. "For this reason I'm telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe, trust, and be confident that it is granted to you and you will get it".
Here is a guarantee on heavenly grants. My dad handed me a little... These people with $5,000 in the red. So. I walked into his office, turned his desk chair around and I had my King James and I had my Amplified. Back there then, the Amplified was only in the New Testament. So I had my King James in my Amplified right there together. And I went through those scriptures. I believe this is granted to this ministry. I believe it's granted. If I believe it's granted, I have it. "So Father, in the name of Jesus, I'm asking you to grant this ministry $5,000". And if I believe it is granted, I have it. And I forgive if I have ought against any. And I thank you for forgiving me my sins. In that precious name, I have asked it and I believe it. Amen. It was shockingly amazing how rapidly all that came in. I believed it was granted. And, of course, Gloria was right there with me. We believed it was granted. So these were exceeding and great precious prayer promises.
Now, as we come on down in this whole thing, the 17th chapter, Jesus began to pray. And in the 20th verse, He said, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word". Well, that takes us all in. Peter, John were both there that night. Amen. We started this on his letters that, "They may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou have sent me and the glory, which thou gave me I've given them that they may be one even as we were one. I and them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one. That the world may know that you have sent me and has loved them as you have loved me".
The first time I read that I was a student there at Oral Roberts University. And I just learned about agreement, prayer. Agreement prayer. So I said, "I'm going to agree with this". And I got down to that. "You mean to tell me that God loves me just as much as He does Jesus"? Well, now back there then I said, "Well, it's red so I believe it". In the first few minutes I prayed that, I shook all over, that I would dare say such a thing that God loved me just as much as He loved Jesus. And then I realized, "Well, of course He did. He so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son". And I proved I was part of the world. Thank God His mercy endures forever. "Father, I will that they also whom has given me be with me where I am".
Now, come on over here to that last verse. "And I have declared unto them your name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them and I in them". Oh, Glory be to God. What a prayer. That's the most precious prayer ever prayed. The most precious prayer ever prayed. Hallelujah. And there are even more prayer promises. We'll talk about those tomorrow night. And we will get into what Jesus taught when He said any two of you agree on earth. We're on earth and we qualify. Asking anything that they, they shall ask. Not just one. But if they agree, if they agree together in prayer, it shall be done of my Father, which is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. That means He is here in the midst of us, but He was specifically talking about the prayer of agreement.
And He is there by His Spirit to carry out that agreement. And His angels are available to back it up. Because He said whatever you bind on earth is bound in the heaven. Where you bind the devil, every principality, every power, every ruler of the darkness of this world, every wicked spirit in the heavenly and loose the angel power of God to get it done. We'll talk about that tomorrow night. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Praise You, Lord Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Praise You Lord. It's time to quit. Oh, thank You, Lord Jesus.
Would you stand with me? This is a marvelous day. The day of faith. The day of miracles. The day of joy. Even when things look their worst, count it joy. You can't do that except by faith. You can't waver. "Well, I don't know..". A double-minded man, a man of two minds. "Well, I thought so yesterday, but today I don't know. Well, I just don't know". Now, Peter demonstrated that in the middle of that storm. "Master, don't you care we're about to die"? He called Him master And he pretty well accused Him of letting us all die here because He was asleep in the storm. That's the reason night tornadoes kill so many people. They hit when they're asleep. That's a snare.
So you better be prayed up before you go to bed. No evil can befall this household. They start forecasting tornadoes, I mean, you take authority over them right then. Just go up and get up and walk outside. Before it ever gets there, just get up and go outside and start hollering at it. "What would the neighbors think"? They'll be glad the next morning when... I don't care what the neighbors think. I care what this book thinks. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Father, the prayer that we prayed before we begin, I believe has been answered. I know I have been touched by your power and I have seen things this morning that struck my spirit. And I believe every person and the sound of my voice is in a healing place. I believe every person and those of you that have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, then this is the time. Do it right now. Just do what Gloria did. Just say, "Jesus, take my life and do something with it".
Well, He took her life and He certainly did something with it. Glory to God. And those of you if there should be any person right now contemplating suicide, don't do that. No, you don't end anything when you do that. You just begin something. You don't end anything. You begin something. Don't take your life, give it away. Give it to Jesus right now. "Ah, but Brother Copeland". No, don't start that ah, Brother Copeland. No, no. "Ah, Brother Copeland, you don't know what I've done". No I don't, but I know what Jesus did. And He said, "anyone". Listen to me. "Anyone that comes to me, I will for no reason cast him out". No reason. This moment, straight up 12 o'clock Central Standard Time. This moment, you accept Jesus as your Lord and savior. Your past is wiped out.
That is an exceeding great and precious promise. Now, the reason I can make that promise to you is because as a minister of the gospel, I have been authorized to give you His promise in His name. Amen. I have preached in prisons. Oh my. And I have seen the most miraculous changes. Oh, glory to God. I remember one time here, there here was a man that he hated everybody. He hated everybody. You know why? He hated himself, but if you were black or brown, he'd just kill you. You didn't have to even say anything to him, he'd just kill you. He had that much hate in him.
Now, I had preached there before and then when I came back to this prison there he sat and He made a point of having a black man on one side and a brown man on the other and he had him around the neck, he said, "Oh, glory to God. Ain't this something"? Ain't this something. See what happened? The moment he accepted Jesus as Lord, that old nasty spirit was gone. He was a new creature in Christ.
Now, Jesus did for no reason cast him out. Had another man walk me to the gate there at the Huntsville unit. And the only Bible he had was a big white coffee table Bible. And he had his Bible with him and He walked up there to the gate with me and he said, "Brother Copeland, I'm freer now that I ever was when I was on the street". Not too long after that, I'd forgotten he hadn't, I don't know something like a 100-year sentence or whatever it was. And later I asked the warden about him. "Oh," he said. "He's out". And said, "He's out preaching". Well, I didn't ask, but I suppose he got a smaller Bible. Let's lift our hands and give the Lord praise.