Kenneth Copeland - Obey God’s Healing WORD
Hello, everybody. Welcome once again to Friday, Friday's class, Kenneth Copeland Bible College right here in Fort Worth, Texas. Glory to God. And we're so glad that you've been able to spend last week and this week in class with us. And we're talking about the importance of the ministry of divine healing and divine health in the gospel ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Everyone that He ordained into His ministry. The first thing He said to them, "Where you go, heal the sick, heal the sick, cast out devils and raise the dead". "You mean raise the dead"? Yes. I had that happen twice in this ministry. Now, it's important. I wouldn't have even attempted had I not known that, but I believed it and it was important.
Now, there are other times, there was another situation where I did what the Lord said to do over a child. It didn't work. I found out later that the mother strong, strong believer. I mean, a believer in this ministry. But her husband, he didn't believe in me, he didn't believe in that, he didn't believe in God. Well, there's no way it's going to happen there. Anyway, let's go back to the Book of James. The topic of this entire two weeks, Jesus has set the church of Jesus Christ against sickness and disease. "Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. These signs will follow them that believe. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover". He said, "They will recover". Not they might, they will.
So go back now to the Book of James, the fifth chapter and the 12th verse. "Above all things, my brethren, above all things, swear not". In other words, above all things, get your tongue right. He started in on that in the third chapter. Do something with your mouth. Above all things, straighten out your mouth. "Let your yay be yay and your no be no". What does that mean? Don't go into a bunch of excuses. "Are you going to church tomorrow night"? "No". "Why"? "I don't want to". People don't know what to do with that. What they want to hear is, "Well, you know, we'll sure try". You are lying like a hound. You didn't intend to go, you are not going to go and the reason is you don't want to. So don't start lying now.
I had a guy one time called me and said, "Brother Copeland. I sure would like for you to come preach for us. Would you pray about it"? I said, "Well, yeah, I'll pray about it. Sure". So I prayed about it and Lord said, "No, I don't want you to go there". Well, He didn't give me any reason. He just said, "I don't want you to go there". So later on the man called me back. He said, "Did you pray about it"? And I said, "Yes, sir". He said, "When are you coming"? I said, "I'm not". I didn't give any excuses. There's a big silence there for a reason. "Why"? "Well, why not"? "Because the Lord said He didn't want me to go there". "Well, why"? I said, "I don't know. Ask Him". "Well, are you planning to ever come"? "No". And no use for me making up a bunch of stories. "I'm not going to go". "Well, why are you not going go"? "Well, first of all, is it any your business why I'm not going"?
Now, not that I shouldn't tell you why. If I don't have any reason other than I don't want to, I'm going to say I don't want to go. "Well, why don't you want to go"? "Well, that's none of your business. I just don't want to". And if it gets right down to it. "Well, why"? "Well, because I don't like you very much". "What does that"? "I don't like you" "What does that mean"? "I don't want to be like you". "I like you. I want to be like you". I had the Lord say to me one time, "Kenneth, I love you, but I don't like you very much". Well, I had some getting straight to do. I spent a considerable amount of time on that and He likes me just find that. Why? You walk by faith and walk in love. Get rid of your high temper.
Now, let's go back to this. "Is there any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you"? Inferring there shouldn't be any. Now, you have to remember, this is Jesus' brother, His half brother James. So he was raised in the house with Jesus. "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 shall save the sick". That word save is sozo. It's translated in other places healed. Amen. It's the same word. "And the Lord shall raise him up and if he had committed sins they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much".
Now, for those of you that weren't with us yesterday, I had a little spot about the size of a grain of rice right here on my left hand right in that spot right about there. And it looked like rice. The skin was just discolored there. I looked at that and they'd been on there for some time. And then it began to itch a little bit and I scratched it and then it puffed up. So went to the doctor and as I said yesterday, a man of color and I said, "My name's Kenneth Copeland". "I know you". He said, "My parents have been partners of yours for a long time". Well, that tickled me and he and I laughed and talked about faith and so forth. And so then when he came out with a diagnosis, he said, "Yeah, it's malignant".
So what'd I do? I called on the elders of the church. I called on my pastor George Pearsons, my daughter Terri, my wife Gloria, her close friend Bebe all there in the kitchen except John and Kellie were on the phone. Both of them were out of town. And pastor had his oil bottle with him. And so he just dipped his finger in that oil according to Acts the 19th chapter in the name of Jesus and had our Bibles open here to the fifth chapter of James. He touched that and a shock and a fire went through me and I laughed and I knew it. I knew it. It's over. But anyway, Dr. Williams referred us to another man, I went over to see him. They said, "Maybe you want to bring lunch and be prepared to stay from two to four hours or so".
Now, his ministry has a doctor, they said, "Now, he is going to take a sample of that little shaving of it and analyze it. And he will continue to do that until there are no more cancer cells". So, we said, "Okay". Dr. Weeter and I were sitting there in the waiting room. They came in there and they did their thing. We sat there about 30 minutes. They came in and said, well, Mr. Copeland, there are no more cancer cells. Of course there were no more cancer cells. Of course there were not, they died the minute that oil touched my hand. Now, now listen, the healing is not in the oil. The healing is in the obedience. This is extremely important to those that are young Christian that need that oil. It's important. But hey, obeying the scripture, I don't care how long even those of us that know a little bit. We don't know much, but we know more than most people do. The more I learned, the more I figure out how much I don't know. Anyway, obey it, obey it. Amen.
I was preaching in the city where I was born, Lubbock, Texas. And we had a three week meeting there out at the fairground in the summer. And people were staying away in crowds, because I had gone there ahead of time and I talked to some of the Full Gospel pastors there about having a meeting there. And all of them, 100% of them told me, "It was just not time, Brother Copeland". In other words, we don't want you here. So I went to the Lord about it. He said, "Did I tell you to go ask them"? I said, "No". He said, "Did I tell you to go"? I said, "Yes". And that's all He said about it. So we went. Well, there was some Baptist people started coming and then that little old tan building was full, but it was right at the last of it. But the Lord said, "I want you to have a healing service, the very last service the last Saturday, I want you to have a healing service Outside. And before you do that, you call a realtor and you have Him take you to the poorest section of Lubbock, Texas".
Well, I did that and he couldn't figure out why, but he took us out there and showed us where it was. So here was our direction. The Lord said, "You and Joe Mulford and Gloria and Joe's wife and others of the team, you pair off and you go to houses knocking on the doors and you ask, 'Is there anyone in this house sick that needs prayer in any way?'" He said, "Don't you mention your meeting until after you pray for the people, then you tell them you're having a meeting on Saturday morning". We went into one house, I knocked on the door, the door opened about this way. Yes, little woman. Yes. And I told her, I said, "My name's Kenneth Copeland, this is Joe Mulford and we're having a meeting here in town. And we're just going about seeing if there's anyone in this house that needs prayer". She said, "Y'all Pentecost"? I said, "Yes, ma'am". "Yeah, come on".
So, we didn't go in her house. We went to Sister's house. We walked into Sister's house and she was just sitting there in her rocking chair. She said, "Now, now, now sister some years ago". She said, "This old neighborhood got so bad, I just don't go to church anymore". But she said, "I was asking God, 'Please send me somebody who can pray the prayer of faith. Please send me somebody.'" I said, "Well, we're here". So she took us over to Sister's house. And she was just sitting in that rocking chair with kind of this blank look on her face. And she said, "Sister lost her mind".
So Joe was on one side, I was on the other, took my oil bottle, I said, "In the name of Jesus" and I put my hands on her, just very tendering sweetly. And I said, "Devil, you just have to take your hands off of her right now". And she opened her eyes. She said, "Where'd you boys come from"? And I told her, I started telling her and her sister said, "Sister, can you see"? "Well, of course I can see. What's the matter with you"? She said, "This diabetes thing took her eyesight too". She said, "Of course, I can see, look over there in the ice box and get these boys a Dr. Pepper". And we prayed over those two sisters and they were so excited and Gloria and what was Joe's wife's name?
Anyway, they walked up on this porch, knocked on the door and this woman looked out there and she said, "Don't go away. Don't go away. I'll be right back". So she went in the house and changed clothes and opened the door. And so Gloria did the talking and went in there and laid hands on that woman. She was healed, filled with the Spirit, but no one was ever turned down. And finally, there were just people following us down the street. Now, Saturday morning, we had a whole batch of people. It was hot in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday. I had my oil bottle standing on the platform. Glory to God. I didn't think about it being that hot. I just laid hands on people. And this woman came up there and she came up there, she said, "Oh, I still do need healing".
Her stomach went out like this. And so I just picked that oil bottle up. It's about 105 degree oil. I didn't think about it. And she danced. Whoa, wow, whoa and that stomach went... She had a tumor in her stomach. It was gone, but there was one, I'll never forget it. And I don't know where he is. I never did know his name, but when I get to heaven, I'm going to look him up. Big man. I'd say he's probably 6'4", black man, had on a pair of overalls, overhauls. We in Texas. That's all he had on was overhauls, no shirt. He had a scar that came down across him like this. I mean, it looked like somebody hit him in the head with a hatchet. He walked up there just looking at me. He said, "Copeland, I want to be saved". I said, "Okay".
I stood there and listened to the Lord a little while and laid my hands on him and the Lord filled Him with the Holy Spirit. And he's a big man and He stood there and he shook for a few moments and he just turned around and walked away. Sometime later, I don't remember how long, it was, I don't know, a year or two or so. This good looking young man walked up to me well-dressed. He walked up to me and he said, "Brother Copeland, you don't recognize me, do you"? I said, "Well, no, to tell you truth I don't". He said, "You laid hands on me that morning in Lubbock, Texas". I could still see that scar. But you know it was not noticeable anymore. And it's a big angry looking thing. Come here. You wouldn't really have noticed it had you just walked up and speak to him. Just the shine of God all over his face. I said, "What are you doing"? "Oh, you know what I'm doing. I'm preaching, Brother. I'm preaching, Brother".
That's what this is all about, purpose of gifts of healings to deliver the sick and destroy the works of the devil in the human body. Jesus came to do the works of Jesus and to destroy the works of the devil. And I'll take just a moment to go back over here to the Book of John, the 14th chapter there at the Seder meal. "Let not your heart be trouble, you believe in God, believe also in me". And that's when He said, "Believe now that I'm in the Father and the Father in me. The words I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwells in me. He does the works".
Verse 12, "Verily, verily, I'll say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall He do also; and greater works than these shall He do because I go to my Father. Whatsoever you shall ask in my name that will I do that my Father may be glorified. If you shall ask anything in my name, I'll do it. If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray the Father and He'll give you another comforter or a spirit that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it sees Him not, neither knows Him, that you know Him where He dwelleth in you and shall be in you".
Well, we're doing the works. Preaching and teaching is the works of Jesus. That's what He did most of, preaching and teaching healing are the works of Jesus. Greater works than these, well, you'll find that in the third chapter of the Book of Ephesians And you just start reading with the 14th verse and you get right down to the end of it. Well, third chapter of the Book of Ephesians. Thank You, Lord Jesus. "For this cause I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". Of whom? "Of the Father, the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend or have working knowledge with all the saints what is the breath, the length, the depth, the height, and to know the love of Christ, the love of the anointing, which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God".
All the fullness of God. "Now, unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the dunamis that works in us". There it is. That's the greater works. "More than you can ask or think". More that you can ask or think that's working in you. Glory to God. Working in you. And the more than you can ask or think, what you can ask or think that happens and then you go to more and then more and then more and then more and then more and then more and then more, and we're out of time. Glory to god. Hallelujah.