Kenneth Copeland - Pray Believing God's Love for You
— Hello, everybody. We're Kenneth and Gloria Copeland. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank You today and we give You praise and thanksgiving. Rise up within us big with utterance, insight, and revelation from Your Word.
— Amen.
— And, I pray over all of the people in the sound of my voice, wherever they may be, all over the world, watching this broadcast. We thank You for it, and we praise You for it in the name of Jesus, and that we ascribe all of the glory in all the praise to Your matchless name, sir. And, it's in Your name, we pray and believe we receive it. Amen.
— Amen. Take it.
— Somebody tune in, where in the world are you? Well, we're right here on the shores of Eagle Mountain Lake in Fort Worth, Texas on the ministry property here. And, we do this every year at our prayer cabin in Southwest Arkansas. Excuse me. But, they've done a lot of badly needed work up there, and we've replaced all of the wood. Now, we started that place, putting it together, in the 70s, and now all of that wooden stuff rotted out. Well, they replaced it with steel. We'll never have to do that again. And, the little fence and gate around behind it, well in the back deck, it's now pretty and white, just like it used to be, except it's steel. It'll never rot out again. They painted it with automotive paint. So, it's pretty white. You can get out there and take some polish and shine it. And, she can do that. She likes to shine things anyway. So, no. Anyway, I just wanted you to know why we're not there. So, we're right here in Fort Worth, and it's windy, and it's cool. And, let's get started. So, we're talking about prayer, and let's go back to the Book of Numbers. I really do like this scripture. In Numbers 23:19, God is not a man that he should lie. Neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? This is his Word. The apostle Peter said, "He's given us exceeding great and precious promises". These are covenant promises. This first covenant was in the blood of animals, then in the blood of a man by circumcision. And, God changed his name by putting his name in the middle of his. And from Abram, he became Abraham, and the H in the middle of that name is in Hebrew, Hashem, the name. Glory to God. So, he was a covenant friend of God from that point on. Now, and we go into this in what's been called The Last Supper. It was the last Seder meal before Jesus went to the cross, went to hell, and paid the price for all of our sins. Glory to God. Wiped him out. And, all we needed to do was receive him. Somebody said, "You make it too easy". I didn't do that. He's the one that made it easy.
— Yes, he did.
— He suffered like no man ever suffered before or will since. But, he could not and will not pray your prayer or mine. Gloria and I were married 60 years ago this week, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Well, now 60 years ago, neither one of us had accepted the Lord. But, now I'm going to tell you something. It was her precious love and her unconditional love that softened my heart. I'd had a very bitter nature about me until the day I met her. I had made the dumb statement, "I don't believe love is real. If it is, I'm incapable of it". Well, I want to tell you something in October, 1961, that all blew right out of the tub. Because the first time I saw her, the first day I met her, all of that went away, and I just, I fell in love with her.
— Thank you.
— And, then on our first date, glory to God, my boss took over the fixed base operation in Camden. And so, I went over there, and I asked her out on a date. And all of you've heard this before, but went back to her dad's house, and walked up on the porch. I said, "Gloria, will you marry me"? She said, "Okay". And, just walked in the house. That is it.
— I asked him what he wanted, a movie or something?
— And, if you got your Believer's Voice of Victory magazine for April, that whole story is in there. And, she got in the house. She said, "What have I done? I don't even know this guy. I don't want to get married. I want to get a job, and make some money. Oh, well, I'll get out of it later". Well, we just had our 60th anniversary.
— It's later, but I'm not out of it.
— No, and we're going for 70. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, now that is so good. Now, one of the reasons I brought that up, Gloria's love for me was so strong in the hard spots, and she never wavered. I don't care if I just got mad, and blew up. No, she just never wavered. In all of these 60 years, plus the six months that we knew one another before we were married, we have never, ever had an argument. We don't have time for that. And somebody said, "Well, you must have perfected the phrase. 'Yes, dear.'" Well, yeah. I did because she's right all the time. But, no. That just never was required. We just never wasted any time arguing with each other. We just loved one another. And, I learned to do this. I learned that if I ever got irritated or something like that, I'd just catch hold of her and love her, and say something like, "Well, could we talk about that"? She said, "Yeah". That's just the way it's always been. But, it's the love of God that's been shed and brought in our hearts. But then six months later, we both accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And, three months after that, we were filled with the Spirit. So, I want you to see this teaching of Jesus. For those that haven't been with us, the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th chapters of John are all in this Last Supper it's called. You could call it The Last Supper. You could call it the first supper. It was the first time that our commandment as Christians came about. Right there, it is in the 13th chapter. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men, men is in italics, or all people know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another. Then, John would write that in his first letter. As we said, I believe it was yesterday, that we have known and believed the love that he has for us. Amen. And, we believe it. I realized it, and I'll just turn over there and do this right now. In the 17th chapter, Jesus began to pray, and his closing prayer right before the 33rd verse of the 16th, these things have I spoken unto you, that in me, you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. But be a good cheer. I have overcome the world. And, I remember a woman. I don't remember where we were. She just said, "Well, I know that Jesus said that". Obviously, I just read this. She said, "I know that Jesus said that, but listen to what he said. In the world, you're going to have tribulation. And, I'm going to tribulate". I don't know whether she even knew what tribulation was or not.
— She will.
— But, she made a decision that she's going to tribulate. And, Jesus said, "No, don't do that".
— Now, where are you reading?
— Let's come on over here in the 17th Chapter of John.
— Okay.
— Jesus began to pray. And, I realized, I was still a student at Oral Roberts University, and I was home studying, in that little house we had there, that was rented by the University. Of course, we paid to rent on it, but they found it for us, just a little project house. I was walking around the room there, and I said, "I just learned about the prayer of agreement". I said, "I'm going to agree. Jesus prayed right here". I didn't know about what all of this was all about back then. I was just finding out, because when I was a scripture illiterate, and Gloria was too. I said, "Gloria, had you noticed that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell the same story"? She said, "Yes, isn't that wonderful"? I mean, yeah. And, T.L. Osborn said, "Copeland, you were born free". I said, "Free of what"? He said, "Free of any religious background". And, we were. The first messages we ever heard were about faith. First, Oral Roberts talked about faith. He talked about releasing your faith. He talked about, send your faith up to God. And, he said things like, "Don't touch them until you're ready to release your faith". And then, we got our first tape of Kenneth Hagin, and he began to tell us what faith is, how faith is. And so, I decided I'm going to agree with all this. So, I came in, and here and, "Oh, I agree. Oh, yes. Oh, I agree on all this life eternal that we might know thee and only, oh, I agree. Oh, glory the Father. Yes. Oh, I've given them words, which you gave me, and they've received. Oh, look at that glory in the eighth verse. I have given unto them the words that thou gavest me, and they have received them. And, have known surely that I came out from thee, and that they believe that thou did send me. I pray for them". And then, I kept reading and it came on down. "Oh, isn't this good? I just agree. I've given them thy Word. And the world has hated them because they're not of this world. Even as I'm not of this world, I pray that thou should take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil. Oh, I agree. They're not of this world. Even as I'm not of this world, sanctify them. Oh, I agree. And, as thou has sent me in, even so I send them for their sakes, not for mine, be sanctified. And, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word". I said, "Look at that. He was praying for me. Look at that. 'They all may be one that thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that the world may believe this in me, and the glory was that.'" What? The glory? "The glory, which you gave me, I've given them". Well, well, I don't know. Well, anyway, yeah. I receive that. And, through the 23rd verse, I in them, and now in me that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou has sent me, and has loved them as thou has loved me. What? And, you love him as much as you love me. And, I just dropped my Bible down, and I said it out loud. I said, "You mean to tell me that God loves me as much as he loves Jesus? I just don't know. I just don't know whether I can accept that or not". But I said, "It's in the book, and it's in red. I have to believe this". And, I was trembling when I said it. I was walking around that little room. God loves me as much as he does Jesus. And, I was shaking all over. Just God loves me. God loves Kenneth as much as he loves Jesus. God loves Kenneth as much as he loves Jesus. And, I just walked through that room, and around that room, and run through the house saying it, "God loves me as much as he does Jesus. God loves Kenneth. God loves Kenneth. God loves Kenneth. What? God loves me. Glory to God". And then, I just stopped and thought, "Well, certainly. Number one, he is love". And I thought, "Well now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. What did he say back over here? What did he say in the 14th chapter"? He that has my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loves me. And, he that loves me, but loved my father. I will love him. And I'll manifest myself to him. And, I thought, "Yeah, but God loves everybody equally". Yeah. But, now wait a minute. He just got through telling them, "I give you a new commandment that you love one another". That's the commandment he's talking about. And, it all came around together. God loves me, and I believe it.
— Amen.
— We got it. We got it. God loves me, and I believe it. God loves me, and I love him. And, I do my best to walk in his commandments of love, and anything else he's tells you to do in here. And the moment, the moment I have any sense that I've missed it, that actually when you look up the word sin, it just simply means to miss the mark. You missed it. Well, we missed it. Jesus never missed it, and God can't miss it. But, we missed it. Well, that's taken care of in the covenant. It's part of this great covenant, these exceeding great and precious promises. Praise God. And, it's all right here. As you get over into the first letter of John, the same one that was there that night, and understood this, and he's called the apostle of love. And, he outlived all of them. John was the one they couldn't kill. They tried and couldn't. So, they threw him away. They exiled him to the Isle of Patmos, and what happened there? He wrote the Book of Revelation. So, it was John to the very end. Glory to God. And, he's the man hanging on the cross. Jesus' mother was right there. And from the cross, he said, "Behold, your mother and behold your son". And, it was Peter, James, and John. James, being the brother of John, the sons of Zebedee, says a lot for their dad, doesn't it? Oh, glory to God. And here it is, right in here. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, or righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When? When we feel better about it? No, when we confess it. I was in a particular situation in a meeting years ago. And, it was a hard meeting to start with. And, I won't go into all that, but I got mad, and I was supposed to be in my prayer time. Well, I wasn't mad. I was hurt, and I was mad, too. And now, I didn't cuss. Don't get the idea that I did, but I said some things I shouldn't have said. I judged a man. And, the Lord woke me up right then. And, I just said it out loud. I said, "Lord, I'm not going back over there tonight. I'm not going to stick up my index finger and say, thus, sayeth the Lord". I said, "Not after what I did and said today. No, sir. I'm not going over there. Get you another boy". And, right here on the inside of me, he said, "Why"? I said, "What do you mean why? You know exactly why"? And on the inside, I heard him again. "Didn't you confess that sin"? I said, "Yes, I did". He said, "Kenneth, when you confessed it, is not when I found out about it". Now, that came as a big revelation to me. And, this changed my life forever. He said, "When you confessed it, you got rid of it". It just lifted off me. And, I began to praise God, and thank him for forgiving me and cleansing me from all unrighteousness. And, I learned right then, and I'm still that way today, that I'm not forgiven when I feel better about it. I'm forgiven when I pray that in faith, and I believe it. I believe he loves me. And because of this right here, I just hold this up to him and say, "Look here, Lord. Look here. This is what you said. And, this is what I did. And, I believe I received my forgiveness by faith, because you said you're faithful and just to do it. And, you've just cleansed me of that unrighteousness". Still feel like a dog, but thank God I'm forgiven. Thank God I'm free of it. And, every time that feeling comes up on the inside of me, I say, "No. No. No. No. No, that's not me. I didn't do that". What? You know good and well, you did it. "No. No, I'm innocent. No, I'm innocent of that". Why are you innocent? "Because it's been written off the books. Well, what if I did it again"? Well, just get on your face in the floor and do it again. And, you just stay there, and stay there, and stay there, and whack that thing out of your life. And, realize that it's the devil. And then, you go over here. Hang on just a second here. II Corinthians Chapter 10, Verse 4, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down on strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exhaust itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience of thought, when your obedience is fulfilled. Don't think about it anymore. I don't touch that in my thought life. That is over. I confessed it. I received my forgiveness. No. No, I don't. No. No, I don't touch that. What did Jesus say? "Let not your heart be troubled". No. No, heart. You're not going to be troubled over that. No, that's over. That's done. I don't touch that in my thought life. Here it comes again. I said, I don't touch that in my thought life. And, you just keep doing that. Just keep doing that. And, it'll get to where after a while it just goes away because the devil realizes you made it captive. You've put it in prison. Amen. And, we're out of time. We'll be back in just a moment.