Kenneth Copeland - Conquering the Fear of Death
Now, let's look at this. "...for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage".
So, death is the master fear. That's where it starts. It is the fear of death. And it is bondage. Now, if you don't know Jesus as your Lord, you've got a lot to be afraid of. You better hope you don't die. But now, when Gloria and I accepted Jesus, both of us were scriptural illiterates. I said, "Gloria, did you notice that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell the same story"? She said, "Isn't that wonderful"? T.L. Osborn said, "Kenneth," he said, "you're born free, brother. You didn't have any religion to unlearn". Well, I didn't. And so, I had a different take on everything that I saw. And then, I got over to the 11th chapter of Hebrews and I said, "Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria. I found the Hall of Faith". Good Lord. "I found the Hall of Faith. If we could get this faith. If we could get a handle on this, there ain't anything we can't do".
This is it. And we can go to church. "Oh, we want this faith". And somebody to say, "Well, you need faith. And this is what you need. This is what will happen. This is what will happen if you don't". And then they'd preach on Paul's thorn and Job's turkey. If Job had any turkeys, they weren't poor. And start back over again. And so, my mother gave us our first tape of Kenneth E Hagin's. Now, I carried my New Testament, right here, all the time. I put it in my pocket when I got up. And I take it out at night, because that's where my cigarettes were before. They are about the same size. And that's where that New Testament went. Oh, my. Lord have mercy. And I found out faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And my lightning-fast mind figured out fear comes the same way.
Fear comes by hearing, and hearing by the lies of the devil. And if you just get on television and watch all the reports... I'm telling you, when this thing first started, I could have given the news report. How many died this week? How many died last week? Well, we think some of them didn't die. Well, some of them did. Some of them died with something else, and COVID got the credit for it. They did that. So, Gloria said, "You have to learn to talk back to that TV". Well, I knew something better than that. I just turned it off. I don't watch much of. I have an iPad. Glory to God. I can watch Healing School anytime I want to. Glory to God. Fear of death.
Now, again, I'll close with this, that "made a little lower than the angel for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for everybody". And we know, "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord". And you can't taste it, when you die. You can't smell it when you die. You can't see it when you die. And you can't hear it.
Now, the man, Bob Deweese, he was Oral Robert's manager, and he was captain of the airplane. And so, I flew co-pilot to him. Bob Deweese had a heart attack on the handball court. And he said, the next thing he knew, he was in the most beautiful spot he'd ever seen in his life. He said, "Kenneth, I've never had such life going through me in my life". And he said, "I walked over", and he said, "on this road. And there was a fence on each side". And he said, "As close as I could tell, it was hand-carved mahogany". He said, "It was magnificent". "But", he said, "then I saw the lights of the city". And here's what he said, "Oh, my God, I'm home". He said, "I started running".
See, he wasn't aware he didn't have a body. He said, "I started running". He was telling this to Gloria and me. And he said, "All of a sudden, I began bogged down". And he said, "I came to myself". And he said, "There I was in the City of Faith, and Charlotte hollering, 'In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus.'" And Charlotte just butted in. She said, "Kenneth, you want me to tell you what he said"? I said, "well, yeah". Did he say, "Thank you, Charlotte, for saving my life"? No. No. He said, "Charlotte, what'd you do that for"? He didn't want to come back. Don't ever feel sorry for somebody who goes to Heaven. But I'm not done yet. And neither are you. And we're going to live out our lives here. Amen. And the Lord dealt with me some years ago, as most of you know, about living to be 120 years old. And that's the only year that God said.
Now, in the 90th Psalm, Moses wrote the 90th and the 91st Psalm. And he was lamenting because they were dying in the desert 70 or 80 years. Well, when you go look it up, the Lord did that to get them out of there before they destroyed themselves. 70 or 80. Because there came a time when the Lord wouldn't allow anybody older than 20 to stay. But God is the one that said, in Genesis 6:3, the days a man shall be 120 years. And the Lord asked me if I'd do it. And I said, "Of course I will". I couldn't figure out why. And then he began to talk to me about the anointing. Now, there are people that live a long time. I just signed a Bible, a birthday gift for a partner in Alabama that has been our partner since 1977, and she's celebrating her 100th birthday the 14th of this month. Amen. So now, here is one that has lived a long time on the Word of Faith.
Now, that's the difference. And that's what the Lord talked to me about. There's been a lot of people live a long time, but to live a long time with a specific assignment to preach a specific message. And he said it's because of the anointing. Now, he said there, he said, I have anointings in the earth. Well, when he started talking to me about this, I wasn't 85 years old. Of course I wasn't. But He said, "Now, when you get up to 80, 85, 90," he said, "When it gets to be 90, there are not many because of the Word of Faith". But now, Pat Robertson and I are very good friends. And I got a note from him the other day on his birthday. And he said, "I'm planning to live 120. And I'm asking you to do the funeral". Because there's just that much difference between the two us. I said, "I'll be there. I'll do it". Glory to God. "I'll be there". But he's serious. And so am I. Unless the Lord returns before then. Amen. And he may well do it. I hope he does.
But then, here's what the Lord said to me. He said, "When you get up to 100," he said, "very, very few are still preaching a specific message on the Word of faith. 115," he said, "I don't have any. 110, 115," he said, "those anointings are not in the earth". And so the prophets anointing has never had the opportunity to completely mature. People are dying too soon. Kenneth Hagin was 86. Well, that's too young. Now, in his case, he was supposed to have died when he was 17. So, that's a whole different thing. He used to tell, he said, "You just know that when I go, I'll be satisfied". And his heart was a supernatural heart. And he just dropped his head over after breakfast one morning.
And Ken Junior called me, he said, "Kenneth," he said, "I know he is gone, but what do we do"? And I said, "Ken, the only thing I know is that's a supernatural heart. Because it was healed supernaturally, in a moment's time, on Mark 11:22,23,24, and 25". I said, "You and the family and your team are going to have to go back down there at that hospital and turn it off". "Well," he said, "I knew that. I just didn't want that do it". And so they went down there, and took the same Scriptures where Brother Hagin found it, in Mark 11, on faith, used the same Scripture and the same faith, spoke to the heart, and it quit. And I've spoken to my heart and it's time for me to quit today. Praise the Lord.
So, stand up, please. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord Jesus. We give You praise tonight, Lord. And anyone in the sound of my voice that has never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, this is the time. Don't put it off another second. Not one more second. Oh, there are so many things I could tell you. One young man was in his car, and there was a car wreck with a butane truck. And it exploded. And then his car caught fire. And he just said, "In the name of Jesus," and then he was standing out there by the side of the car, watching his car burn. What if he had not heard us preach on the authority of the name? And then, the only thing that survived was his Bible and the book, The Laws of Prosperity. And it was singed all the way around the end. And that book was up there on his dashboard. And the book survived. The car didn't. Huh?
What about that terror at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. I've landed there. But now, they changed that airport. They built a new airport there on the island of Tenerife. Absolutely the worst air tragedy in the history of aviation happened right there. Two 747s, both of them full of fuel. This happens a lot. The captain of the KLM, he's the one that nobody knows really how he got confused. And he started his takeoff road when he wasn't cleared to. And it was foggy. And that's the reason they built that airport on another part. And then, he saw that other airplane and the cockpit voice recorder recorded him using God's name in vain. "We're going to die". And the next second, he left his body. But another man that wrote a book, he's a big man.
Now, he had prayed and told his mother, I'm coming back. And then he wrote in his book, The Terror at Tenerife, I believe is the name of it. And he saw people's flesh melting off of their bones. And there was a hole in the top of that 747. And he just hollered the name of Jesus. Now, you know how tall inside of a 747 is? And the next thing he knew his head was sticking out that hole. He hollered the name of Jesus again, and he was outside the hole, and he just ran and jumped off the wing. Thank God he knew the name, and he had already said, "I'm coming home".
If you believe with all your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Tenth chapter of Roman says it like this. "If you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and you confess him as Lord of your life, then you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes unto righteousness," or right standing with God. "And with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation". Amen. So, wherever you are in this country or around the world, watching this meeting tonight, let's just all lead them. Put your hand over your heart. And pray this:
Oh God in heaven, I believe with all my heart that You raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus, come into my heart. I receive You as my Lord and my Savior. I receive You as the forgiver of my sins. And I thank You. I believe that. So, by faith I am saved. I am born again. I am born from above. I believe it in my heart. And that's why I said it with my mouth. And now then, Lord Jesus, since I know You as my Savior I'm asking You, fill me, please with Your precious Holy Spirit. I receive him. You, Jesus, are a gift to the world, but the Holy Spirit is a gift to the Church. So, I want both gifts. And I receive him. And I believe I'm filled now to overflowing. I fully expect to speak with other tongues just like they did on the Day of Pentecost. So, by faith I'm saved. So, by faith I'm filled with the Holy Spirit.
Those of you that have never done that, don't frown. It's a gift. It's a gift. Amen. You step over into the realm of the supernatural. And you get into an area of praying, where the power of fear cannot take you over, unless you allow it. Because you build yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. It is your most holy faith, because your mind can't foul it up. So, just believe God and take it, and go with it, and pray in the Spirit, saith the Lord. Hallelujah.