Kenneth Copeland - Renew Your Mind to Who He Is
— Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Don't you just love the Word of God? I mean, just get in there and dig and just have a good time at it. Now... oh, excuse me. Let's go back to the book of Philippians, class. This book took... in my life and study, this has been a pivotal book. And it's only four chapters long. But it's just... It's a compact revelation of Jesus, faith, deliverance, redemption, all of these things. Now in the first chapter, look at the last part of that 27th verse, that you stand fast in one spirit. Stand fast in one spirit. Now he wrote to the book at... the church at Ephesus having done all the stand. Stand therefore.
— Yes.
— Stand on something. Be for something.
— Yes. Amen.
— Having done all the stand. Stand, therefore having on the full armor of God. And then you come on down, you find out it's prayer armor. So, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries.
— That's big.
— Now, chapter two, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of Spirit, if any depth of compassion and mercies. That's the way that should have been translated there. Fulfill ye my joy that you be reminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Now everything's leading here toward getting rid of the strife.
— Yes. Yeah.
— Get strife out. Notice how many times it says it. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowness of mine, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind...
— Yes, sir.
— Now this is not going to just happen. You have to let this mind be in you. This is the way you have to think. You have to begin to think as a born again, spirit-filled believer and...
— Renew your mind.
— Renew your mind. How do you renew your mind? Well, you take a scripture here. Well, I'll show you just as we read this. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Okay, I'm in Christ Jesus and he's in me and I have the mind of Christ.
— Now you're going to have to do that by faith because everything around you is going to try to convince you you're not.
— That's right.
— He's not in you. You're not in Him.
— And I have to... But I have to renew my mind.
— Yes, sir.
— And the way you do that is you go back and you read this and you say, I take that thought. I let my mind think this way. And I do it. And I say, you just keep thinking it and saying it. Thinking it and saying it, until eventually the time will come every time you think about it, you think glory to God. This is the way I think.
— Yes.
— Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought... How do you think? With your mind.
— He renewed his mind.
— Yeah.
— Himself.
— Yes. Before he ever wrote this.
— Yeah.
— Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Well now wait a minute, Copeland. I'm not equal with God. You are if Jesus is your Lord. Because he said in Him. In Him, we are the same, apostle wrote. We are joint heirs with Christ. We're talking about the covenant.
— Yes sir.
— Because we are covenanted to Him, Jesus. We entered into a covenant with God when we accepted Jesus as God's representative. And you have to remember Jesus Christ. Well, he's Jesus of Nazareth.
— A born again man.
— Yes. He's Jesus of Nazareth. Christ means anointed one.
— Yeah.
— Translation of Greek for Messiah. So on the earth facing earthly things. So now who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Took upon him the form of a servant or a slave and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man. Now, if you're going to think that this is what you had to do. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also exalted him, and given him a name... That's not right. If you can find another translation. Yeah. He gave him his name.
— His name. Yes.
— Which is above every name. We just got through reading all these names. He gave him, I Am. Where? In the garden of Gethsemane.
— Yes, sir.
— They came up, are you?
— Are you? And he said, I Am.
— He said, I Am. And they fell flat.
— He said it in faith...
— Yes he did. -... with authority.
— Yes he did. I Am the one you seek. And when he said it, they all fell down and that young man was raised up from the dead. The King James said his garment came off. If you look it up, it was grave clothes.
— Grave clothes, yeah. Right. Because I am is the resurrection. I mean, that's who he is.
— Yes.
— And when he spoke it... See, he called Lazarus by name. He didn't call a name that time. He just said, I Am and the power was there. The power of God was present to heal them all that day at his house when they opened the roof up. But only one person got healed. Why did only one person get healed, not everybody? Because they didn't have faith for it.
— Yeah.
— Power of God was present from wall to wall to wall.
— They actually were not a hostile crowd.
— No.
— Because they came to his house to hear him.
— That's right.
— They thought. They didn't say it. This man blasphemy. They thought it. He perceived what they thought and said, which is easier?
— Because he's got a revelation who being in the form of God thought it robbery to be equal to God he's renewed his... Jesus has renewed his mind through the Word of who he is. And he's speaking of authority in that moment. Is it easier for me to save this man? Or is it easier for me to heal this man? I Am will be whatever I need to be. I can be Jehovah-Rapha or I can be the savior. I could... Which is easier? They're both easy.
— They're the same thing.
— They're the same thing.
— Now, and it just to clarify this, when I first saw that and this was years ago, and I began to renew my mind to that through the covenant of the blood and through Chesed, the larger becomes equal to the smaller through the covenant. You're brought... And we are joined heirs through the blood of Jesus with him.
— That's right.
— And so I began to say that. Thank God, thank God. In my mind, I let this mind be in me that I am a joint heir with God, through the blood of Jesus Christ and through the covenant that brought me, that had me recreated in my spirit. And then that same spirit came upon me.
— Yes.
— And I began to speak in a language that I did not know. And then moved into the ministry. And realized that speaking in tongues became the gateway to the supernatural. And all the time, this is growing in me.
— And your teaching and preaching began to grow.
— Yes.
— In anointing and in levels.
— Did Jesus ever speak in tongues? No, but he spoke in the spirit. When? At the tomb of Lazarus. He groaned in the spirit.
— Yep.
— And then he groaned in the spirit again and then he said, I know you hear me.
— If you remember when Lazarus was raised... No, no, no. Not Lazarus. When the 70 were sent out...
— Yes.
— And they came back, it says he rejoiced in spirit.
— Yes he did. And hadn't picked that up, but he did. He rejoiced.
— It's the same thing. This time it was groaning. But that's why I was thinking Lazarus. This time it was groaning with Lazarus. But the other time it was, he rejoiced in spirit. That's not casual. It's in there. Look at this. As you were reading this in Philippians 2. Now, going down here to verse 13, for it is God which worketh in...
— Yes.
— You both to will and do of his good pleasure. Now look at verse 14, right after that, do all things without murmuring and disputing. Got to get that strife out.
— Yes.
— Of your mind and in your ministry. That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. This is a Shmita year. This is a sabbatical year. You can be blameless in a crooked and perverse generation, but do not allow murmuring and complaining and strife in your house.
— It'll kill it. It'll kill your faith.
— That fast.
— And praying about that. I was working through all of those areas. Why could not we cast him out and all these things.
— Matthew.
— But you put all the pieces together from the gospels, especially Mark 16. He upbraided them because of their hardness of heart and unbelief. Now you go into all the world and you preach this gospel to every creature.
— It's Mark 16:14. Here it is. Later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table, he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
— Yes. He didn't like that.
— He didn't like that at all. So how do I get rid of it? Jesus said this kind come out not out but by fasting and prayer. Not the demon, the unbelief.
— The unbelief.
— I have to put my flesh under. That's what fasting is. There's no demon that's not subject to the name of Jesus. Luke 10 tells us that Ephesians chapter one verse 21 and 22 tells us that they're all subject to his name. There's two types of unbelief that I found in scripture. A rebellious unbelief.
— Yes.
— Which is just, I'm not going to believe this.
— That's Thomas.
— Okay. Yeah.
— Yeah. He said, I will not believe it. I will not.
— It openly defies the Word of God.
— Jesus called him faithless. Be not faithless.
— Well, that would be sin.
— Yes.
— Because whatever's not a...
— Doesn't proceed from faith is sin.
— That's right. Rebellious unbelief comes from sin. I don't know how... The Exodus generation, they were guilty of that type of unbelief. They just would not believe it. We're going to believe what these ten said over what you guys said.
— I'm remembering. Oh, this is back in the very, very, very beginning of this ministry. And we had driven back from Tulsa. I was still a student there at ORU. I was preaching in our home church at the time here in Fort Worth, which was Grace Temple and Harold and Lou Nichols. And he baptized Gloria and me and John and Kellie in water. Well that I'd been baptized as a little boy. Gloria had been baptized a little girl. But we just, no, no we're going to do this right. Anyway, I came down to Romans 13:8, owe no man anything, but to love one another. And I looked at that and then I got the Amplified and it says, stay out of debt. Well, you can't build a doctrine on one verse.
— Right.
— But I want you to hear what Gloria said. I still had my Bible in my hand, back in the bedroom where I was when I was when I was living at home in high school. And I said, Gloria. She looked at it. She said, well, now here's what I'm talking about. She said, well, whatever the book says, that's what we're going to do.
— Amen.
— Then I had to learn that. Then I just began to search the scripture. The borrower is servant of the lender. That's not exactly what it says. It says the borrower is connected to the lender in covenant. And then it's part of the curse.
— Wow.
— You'll borrow for many.
— So you're trying to live your life in the blessing, but you've connected yourself.
— You've connected.
— Connected that to the curse.
— Yeah.
— You're double minded.
— So, and you don't realize that in covenant, you became part of whatever's in the life of the banker or from whom you borrowed the money.
— Wow.
— So, and then I found out in the curse, talking about the same thing, you will be the tail and not the head.
— Wow.
— So there it all was. And then as you began to search covenant and so forth. I am El Shaddai. I'm all you ever need.
— That's right.
— And then you come over into the first Corinthians and then... just in the second Corinthians where all of these financial things are talked about. So anyway, what I'm pointing out here is that you can get in strife and just kill it all.
— That's right.
— Because that's what they were doing.
— I heard the Lord say to me one time we were, oh Brother Copeland, we were up against it financially: ourselves, the church, everything. And I got mad at my kids. They were little at the time. They were out playing on the swing set and I'm laying on the floor whining to God. I wasn't praying. I wasn't in faith. I was just whining, doing religious things. And here's what I heard. I've not forgot how to make manna. If I have to, I can make manna for you. So stop it. And he said, if you'd act... And I was getting mad at the kids for having a good time while I'm in here interceding for this family and for this church. And he said, maybe you should be more like them. Because really what doing is I was in strife and I thought I was in faith and I wasn't. See, it was another form of unbelief. See, there's that rebellious unbelief, which comes from sin. There's a passive unbelief. That's what the disciples were in when they couldn't cast that out. That boy, they were passive unbelief. And it comes from a preoccupation, an overoccupation of things in life. That's what fasting gets rid of.
— Yes, it does it.
— It's in Mark 4:7, Jesus warns of the thorns that will choke the Word, the cares of this life. And that's what was affecting their belief. They were aware of the scribes and the Pharisees around them and people watching what they would do. And their struggle.
— Now out of all of this, the Pharisees, out of all of it. The only one that said anything about covenant was Jesus.
— That's right.
— And he talked about the blessing of the covenant, not the curse of the law.
— That's correct.
— And the people just flocked around him. And then it talks about the fact that the Pharisees were envious of his big crowds.
— Right.
— Then the same bunch was envious of Paul's big crowds. The Gentiles flocked to him because he's talking about the blessing instead of the curse. This is a blessing book, not a curse book.
— And that's what he went teaching. He said the words I speak to you, they are spirit and life. He's speaking to their spirit man. Pharisees tried, and I said this before to you, Pharisees tried to control people. He came to restore people. And when you find yourself, even in God you're trying to control things, you can't control the spirits as the spirit wills in situations. When I'm trying to control it, I'm really getting over... I'm getting out of faith is what I'm doing. And that's what the Pharisees did. They tried to control people by tradition rather than operating in faith by the blessing. That's how they missed him. He's standing right in front of them and they miss him.
— Yeah.
— Is because they're not looking through the eye of faith through that. They're looking at their tradition. They're looking at their power. They didn't walk in faith. Everything was rules and regulation rather than relationship.
— The major problem then is the same now. People are not looking for him. It'll change your life. It will purify your life. They were not looking for Messiah. Ah, well, you know, wait till one of these days, he'll be here. And it... but you know, one of these days... Tomorrow never comes when you walk by side.
— Mm, that's good.
— And they were not expecting him then and there's too many people not expecting him now. And the Christian people are not saying enough about it.
— That's right.
— Not thinking about it.
— That's right.
— And the scripture tells you very frankly, it'll come as a thief in the night.
— That's right. And catch them unaware of it.
— Catch them unaware.
— Let me read you this in Matthew 23, where Jesus didn't... He recognized the authority of the Pharisees and who they were, but he also rebuked them in this. He said in Matthew chapter 23, verse one, then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that you observed to do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and they do not. In other words, they sit in a seat of authority, respect the authority. Jesus was a man authority. Faith works by authority. And so, For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and they lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. In other words, they've made these rules and regulations for you, and how we have to operate, how we have to heal people. Can't do it on that day. Can't do it on this. And Jesus said, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. It's a Sabbath year. He will be whatever he needs to be and you can have faith in that. The thing we can't do is get into strife with one another.
— Oh no.
— And so he wouldn't. Even when he rebukes the Pharisees right here...
— That's right.
— He's not getting into strife with them, Brother Copeland. He said they sat in Moses' seat. They're the natural heirs of Moses. And that authority. You understand, they had special seating, places of honor in the synagogues. There would've been somebody in the synagogue of Capernaum that had a special seat that Jesus wouldn't have been able to sit in. Same thing in Chorazin. Same thing as Bethsaida. And I remember the first time it was in Israel and I saw one of those seats that they had found. And I thought, my Lord and Savior who died for me would not have been able to sit in this. Would I be sitting in that seat or would I have been sitting with him in the service? And that's what came to me that day.
— Yes.
— Do I have to have that special seat in that place?
— Or would you have gotten up and allowed...
— Allowed him to sit there?
— Sit there. Yes.
— And that's part of that... That's what the...
— And he taught that.
— He taught that and that's what the disciples, who's going to sit next to you.
— Yeah. And, but he said, now don't take the high seat. Lest someone come in and say, no, there's one more important than you would you get up and let him have... He's referring to himself.
— Absolutely right. He says right here, verse five. But all their works they do to be seen men; that they make broad their phylacteries, which is what they wrap around their arm, and enlarge the borders of the garments. That's the prayer shawl.
— Make it a little longer for everybody to be sure and see them.
— Right. And they love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the markets, and to be called Rabbi, Rabbi. No, we need to be seen of our Father. We need to be using his name. We need to be not in strive with one another and be like him. Amen.
— Thank You, Jesus.
— Amen. And that's where we are. That's the Sabbath year that we are right now. This is the time to get so close to him, to renew your mind to what he says about you, to receive your healing this year. Right now. It's so simple. Just renew your mind to who he is. You have one master, you have one rabbi and walk in him.
— When you look in the book of Ephesians...
— Oh yeah.
— Now, class, these are born again, spirit-filled people. You remember over there, there was, what was it? 12 Baptists? We've not even heard there was a Holy Spirit.
— Yeah. Right.
— And they all got filled for the spirit. That's the way that started there. And you come over here in the fourth chapter. Well, verse 22, you put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. So what do you have to, you have to put him off. And we're out of time. But let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, be ye kind one another and so forth, rather the giving of thanks. This should be a year of praise like we have never praised God in our lives. And we'll be back in a few moments.