Kenneth Copeland - The Prayer of Faith for Healing
Welcome everybody to Kenneth Copeland Bible College this morning. We're talking about Jesus' healing ministry and how important that ministry was then and is now because He's the same yesterday, today and forever according to Hebrews the 13:8. Now, I want to introduce Dr. David Weeter to you. David, would you come up please? And I want you to give them that testimony about being ready all the time, wherever you are, to ministry healing.
— Absolutely. Well, the last couple weeks you've been teaching about the healing ministry of Jesus and how important it is for you, for you, for us to go out and minister that healing, and given us tools the whole way along. And one of the things that you said last week, you said, "I always keep my bottle of anointing oil".
— Yes, I do.
— "...with me all the time in my Bible case". You remember him saying that? Well, he said that for years and years and years. Well, when I hear that to me, that means, "Aha, I need to do the same thing". And so, when you're out and about in your neighborhood, people know that you're the salt and the light, and there's a local car wash that we like to get our car washed all the time. And they have a dear, dear man who is a shoe shine man. He's good too, Richard. Well, I walk in one day, and I walk around the counter, and Richard spots me. He says, "Hey preacher"! I said, "Yes, sir". He said, "You got any of that blessing oil with you"? He knew blessing oil. I said, "Well, yes, sir. I do". He said, "Good". He said, "I was reading over there in the Book of James the other day, and I saw where the elders of the church can lay hands on people, anoint them with oil, and they'd get healed. Well, I've been having this head congestion in my head for days and I need healing. And that book says that I can have it. You're not getting out of here today until you"...
— "Until you put that blessing oil on me and pray, because I'm going to get my healing"! Well, that's where his faith was, was in that oil. What if I hadn't had it with me? So, as Brother Hagin used to say, "I did, he did, and God did," and he was healed on the spot just completely clear.
— Yes, amen! Glory to God!
— And that's what this looks like. That's the way these things work.
— Amen. Thank you, David, for giving that. And we're going into the Book of James, so I wanted you to hear that. So, being ready all time, always being prepared so that your instant, in-season, and out to preach the work. So, let's go back to the Book of James now. And as we said yesterday, I don't care if you're ministering healing or need healing. You don't start in chapter five. You start in chapter one. I mean, it's a little short book. You ought read it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. And then again, and then over.
This is the book where we get the phrase, "corresponding action to faith". The King James says, "without works". The Weymouth translation uses the word, "corresponding action". Without corresponding action, faith is dead. It's dead. He said... Well, praise God. This one, in the fourth chapter, I tell you, I have had the privilege and honor of using this thousands upon thousands upon thousands of times. It doesn't say, "Resist the devil and he'll flee from you". Oh, Brother Copeland. I thought it did. That's what you get for thinking instead of reading. Let's look at it. 4:7. No. Read six. "But he gives more grace wherefore he sayeth God resists the proud but gives grace to the humbled. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you".
I tell you what, boys and girls, that'll preach. If you don't have a Weymouth translation of the New Testament, get one. It was out of print, and so, years ago, we put it back in print. We hold the printing copyrights of it now. Kenneth Copeland Publications. And I'll tell you what, it works. And we were talking about the Gifts of the Spirit, and "He that speaks in other tongues speaks not onto men, but onto God, albeit he speaks mysteries". Weymouth said, "Divine secrets". Woo! Divine secrets. You're going to find that in, of course, 1 Corinthians 14th chapter where the Spirit of God, through the Apostle of Paul, devoted a whole chapter to the ministry of tongues and of speaking with tongues. And let me let you in on this little bit of information. It's good. He said, "When you bless," he's talking about praying at the table. "When you bless your food, don't do it in other tongues if there are people there that don't understand".
Howbeit you give thanks well, but if there are people there that don't understand, do it in English, so you can sit down to the table and before you take the first bite Now, every meal I pray, first of all, you move over in there... I do it in this order. I pray for my partners all over the world. And I have been standing firmly for our partners in the Ukraine. The Ukrainian office is the only international office, and it's been years, that our ministry here has never had to support them financially. They moved over into the black and remained there all of this time. We have a lot of partners in the Ukraine. Amen. Thank You, Jesus. Well, thank You, Father. I pray for my partners. And I pray for my country. Amen. And for kings and all that are in authority. Thank You, Jesus.
Now, come on over to this fifth chapter. Oh, there's so much in this little book. Yeah. I have to go here, in the third chapter. Oh. James 3. "In many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect, a mature, man, and able also to bridle the whole body". Are you listening to me? Are you listening out there? Amen. Watching online? "Behold we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm or rudder, whithersoever the governor listeth". Or, the governor or the captain.
Well, you're the captain of your body. "Even so the tongue is a little member, and boast great things. Behold, how great a matter, how great a fire, a little fire kindleth"! "The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course or the wheel of nature". It's like a snowball going downhill. "And is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind". The cross reference says, "Or by natural man," by the nature of man. "But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therefore, bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God".
Now, wait a minute. It says, "No man can tame". What does that mean? Well, if no man can tame it, why put it in here? "No man can tame it with natural power". You're a creature of habit, and you start out eating whatever your parents ate, saying whatever your parents said, talking the way they talk. That may need to change, and it may be hard to do. But he didn't stop there. He comes on down, verse 14. "If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above", now, look at Luke 11:49, Jesus called the written Word, "The wisdom of God". Amen?
These are covenant words. These are guarantees. "But the wisdom," the Word of God, "that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy, good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy". What does the word, "hypocrite," mean? A mask. It denotes the old actors of the stage, who were considered really low-life. Well, it doesn't consider all of them low-life because there's a whole lot of them now that are. Not all of them. But in a play, you put on a mask. You're playing a part. But if you do that all the time, that's what Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You hypocrites". And He said it. What? "You wear this mask, but you don't help anybody". Amen. And so forth and so on. It's easily intreated, and it's without hypocrisy.
Well, what does that mean? I can stand up and confess I am healed and say, "I'm healed, in the name of Jesus," and I'm not a hypocrite for saying it, and I don't care whether you believe it or not. I did it to receive it. I've had it happen way more than few times. I'll tell you right now, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. I said, in the name of Jesus, I'm healed. "How can you say that Brother Copeland"? It's not hard. In the name of Jesus, I'm healed. "Wow. You're a hypocrite". No. I'm not. No. "Well, you're not going to get your healing this time".
I didn't say I was going to get my healing. Jesus got it for me. I just received it. But He got it for me and gave it to me by grace. Grace gives it to you. Faith takes it. And when you study and meditate those healing scriptures in both covenants until they become so real, glory to God, and you begin to say, "He did that for Kenneth. He loves Kenneth. Kenneth is healed by His stripes," glory to God! And faith rises and comes up, well, all the lies of the devil just don't have any strength in them anymore. No. They just fall under the shadow of the words of Jesus. By His stripes I was and I am healed now.
My daughter, Kellie, came home from school one day in high school. She came home. She said, "Daddy, I have had the symptoms of the flu in my body all day long". And I said, "Well, Kellie," it just came out of my mouth, this was a word of knowledge. Just came out of me. I said, "Kellie, you are not the sick trying to get healed. You are the healed, and the devil's trying to take your health away from you". She looked at me, she said, "Okay". And she just went right straight into her room. Well, I didn't say anything to her, and it wasn't all that long, she came home from school, but it wasn't all that long. She stayed in there for quite a while. And she came out, ready to eat supper, and she came out, not one symptom. No fever. No anything. She came out and she said, "Daddy. I'm healed. That's it". Amen.
That word of knowledge brought faith. Faith comes. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, hearing by the anointed Word of the Christ. Amen. And you just swim through this little book and you come all the way to the fifth chapter. "But," in the 12th verse, "above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest you fall into condemnation. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith".
Faith in what? The name of the Lord. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much". This is healing all over this book! "Pray for one another that you may be healed". Do this! But it needs to be taught. It needs to be taught all the time. This is a healing book. Sickness and disease is a mark of the devil, and it came in with the Fall of Adam, and Jesus defeated it. He destroyed it. It has no hold on us any longer.
Now then. This situation, you can't see it now, the way it was sewed up, it just looks like a small scar, I had, right about here, it was about the size of a grain of rice, and it was just there. I really didn't pay much attention to it. And I can go back to different tapes and so forth, and I can see it. I really didn't pay any attention to it. It was just a white spot. And it began to irritate me. And it didn't hurt. It just kind of itched a little bit, and then I scratched it, and then it began to puff up a little bit, and then it got a little sore. And I said, "Well, maybe I ought to look at that". So, I got to Dr. Weeter, and he set up an appointment for me, and I went to see this man. I'll tell you. God is so good.
And I've had people tell me, "Now, Brother Copeland, you should not point out that a person is a person of color or white". Why? To me, it's important because of something the Lord said to me way, way back in the very beginning, and I realized then, it was there, in my life, before that. He said, "A large part of your destiny is in the black community". Well, it's been an excitement for me ever since then. So many things, down through the years, have happened. That partner meeting, the first partner meeting, I needed $10. Well, a young black woman sitting right back there in Macon, Georgia, "Hey! Hey, you"!
I had point my pencil in that little envelope because I wanted to be a partner for $10 a month with Oral Roberts Ministry. I'm driving the car and he's leading. I got to hustle. I said, "Hey! Hey, you"! "Me"? "Yeah, you! The Lord been worry-warting me this whole meeting to give you 10 dollars". Now, those that don't know what a worry wart is has never had a three year old child. Anyway. "He been worry-warting me"! I said, "Give it here, lady". And put that $10 in that envelope, and Jessie Duplantis said, "Kenneth, your ministry literally started with a wooden pencil". Because I didn't have 10 dollars. When I got home, and I was so thrilled, I said, "Gloria, we're partners with Oral Roberts for 10 dollars a month". She said, "Kenneth, where on earth are we ever going to get 10 dollars"?
Can you imagine we were ever that broke? But you see what I'm talking about? Anyway. Good looking man of color. Had a dark voice, kind of like that. I said, "Well, I'm Kenneth Copeland," and he said, "I know who you are". He said, "My folks been partners with you for a long time". Yes! And he's my doctor! Glory to God. And so, he looked at it, and they tested it. He said, "It's malignant". And so, they sent me then to another doctor, but in the meantime... Now, I called my pastor, Pastor George. He came over to the house, and Kellie was out of town, John was out of town, but we had them on the phone. And of course, Terri was there, Gloria, and Gloria's so-close personal friend, Bebe. And we're just about out of time. George touched that with all... and there was a shock went through my hand, and I said, "Oh! Glory to God"! I knew it. And tomorrow, I'll tell you what happened. We'll be back in just a moment.