Kenneth Copeland - Operating In the Delegated Power of the Spirit
— Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast. This is my preaching buddy, Greg Stephens. Praise God, Professor Greg Stephens. I've been directed by the Spirit of God to talk about the Spirit of power. We'll introduce him from book number one, verse number one.
— Yes, sir.
— In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God... There He is. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said, "let there be light" and there was light. Now I want you to notice something here class, the Spirit of God was moving. He's always moving. But nothing happened until God said.
— That's right.
— The power release was there once He said it. Now notice, and God saw the light that it was good. Now that was not sunshine because that happened... What? Four days later?
— That's correct. That's correct.
— So now...
— The sunshine's temporary. He made that for us. So we would know times and seasons.
— But he released light because darkness was on the face of...
— That's right.
— Now. I want you to notice something. Light travels 186,000 miles a second. The first 24 hours, 16,94,764,800 miles a universe. And no wonder he's called the king of the universe.
— It's still expanding.
— It's still y'all at the speed of light.
— My, my.
— And it's to the place now nobody can search the end of it, but there were 16 billion miles, the first 24 hours. Glory to God.
— Praise the Lord.
— Now that's book one. Let's go to book last, the beginning, He was there in the 10th chapter of the book of Revelation, the angel, in the fifth verse, the angel, which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven and swear by him that liveth forever and ever who created heaven and the things that are therein are, and the earth and the things therein are and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time, no longer. He's in the first book. And He is in the last book. the beginning and the end.
— He created time for us. Like it just said so that we would know the seasons and the hours and the days. But at the end of this, when he's creating a new heaven and a new earth, the one who was worthy to take the book, because there was no one worthy to take the book. This messenger, this angel comes down and he is undoing all of that. And now there is no more need for the temporary because we're in the reality of this, we'll have spiritual, physical bodies as well as our spirit.
— That's right.
— And we'll be like it originally was. So when you say that he was hovering, the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the earth, Genesis one that's the Ruach Elohim in Hebrew or the Ruach Ha-kodesh, the Holy Spirit. The spirit is a Hebrew word. The Hebrew tongue is a bottomless pit of treasure, Brother Copeland. If you really want to talk about power, the power, it's as big as God Himself. Matter of fact, his name El is part of power. And so when you break this thing down, it would take us a month of programs to even scratch it. To when we talk about it...
— I Don't think you could ever do it.
— No, probably not.
— It would just, He would keep revealing himself over and over and over and over. Jesus said in the last Seder in the 14th chapter.
— Yes. John.
— Of John let's turn over there and look at that. John, the 14th chapter and I want to remind you once again, 13th and 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th chapters of John are all it. It's that last Seder meal. It's the last Passover meal. Before the new covenant, he introduced the new covenant there in that meal and then went right straight from that meal to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the cross.
— To the grave, to hell...
— And back. Yeah. Now notice, I want you to notice what he said, John 14. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. And then he came down to the 10th verse. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father, listen, the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. The one that dwells in him now in the fourth chapter of Luke, he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He had just been baptized in the Jordan by John.
— That's right.
— 30 years old, entered into his ministry. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach. So now notice this in the 21st verse, I have it circled. I mean, I drew a red box around it. He that has my commandments. Now he just got through in the 13th chapter introducing the new commandment of love. and then remember when they asked him what's the greatest commandment, tempting him?
— Right.
— He said, love the Lord thy God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, love your neighbor as yourself fulfilling all the law and the prophets. He that has my commandments in keep of them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved to my father and I will love him. And I will manifest myself to him.
— There it is. See, Jesus was smart enough to know that the power he's operating in is delegated power from the Father.
— Yes.
— Any power that we operate in is delegated power. Now that goes to this, people often say that seeing is believing, but did you know the Bible teaches just the opposite that.
— Yes.
— It says that hearing is more important than seeing and I'll show you. Deuteronomy 6:4, it's the most famous prayer in Israel. It's called the Shema. It's "Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one". So "hear, O Israel," not see, hear. How does faith come? By hearing. So it is more important than seeing it. So the earth was out without form void in Genesis one until God said something, the earth heard what he said.
— Now that's what Jesus was quoting.
— That's what he's quoting.
— Right there. Hear, O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shall love the Lord our God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and these words, which I commended this day shall be in your heart. And you shall teach them diligently onto your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. That's being God inside-minded.
— That's right. So now notice hearing caused to action.
— Yes it did.
— You can't just hear the Word of God and there not be action. When the earth heard Him speak light be. The universe had action took place. So we can't just hear the Word. And that's why so many Christians are weak and anemic. They hear it and don't ever do anything.
— That's right.
— Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the words of God. So the book of Isaiah says something very interesting. In Isaiah 59 and 19, he talks about, well, let me just let... like a rushing tide. Let me just show it to you. Isaiah 59, it's a very familiar passage and I'm going to get it right. Isaiah 59 verse 19 says, halfway down the verse, when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And you read that in the original Hebrew. It alludes to like a flood, like a river, like a wash in the desert or like a tide.
— People have read that with the wrong emphasis. The people read when the enemy comes in like a flood, a flood is an uncontainable force. When the enemy comes in, like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
— That's the way God moves. It's like a flood. There's nothing. It's like the tide. You cannot stop the tide from rising and lowering.
— I just had this thought. That's the difference between God inside-minded people and power of the devil-minded people. Oh like a flood the devil comes in well, but the Lord will raise a standard up against him. No. Praise God. When the enemy shall come in, put a comma there, like a flood. The Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Now the cross reference says, put him to flight.
— Mm-hmm. So here's that word, the Spirit of the Lord.
— Yes.
— That's the Ruach, that's the Spirit of God. Now Paul had great insight into this new inside-mindedness that we walk in when he said the same spirit.
— Oh yeah.
— That raised Jesus...
— Romans 8:11.
— ...from the dead, now dwells in you. He will quicken your mortal body,
— But he put an if in front of that, if the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, dwell means live. Alive in you... If you don't even know he is there, don't pay any attention to him... Pay a little or no. Or you don't ever listen, then he's not dwelling. He's just hanging around.
— Well, it's like him hovering over the face of the deep now, Brother Copeland, I have to put my mouth over my body aligned with the same spirit that dwells in me. Over in... You're looking up a verse. I got one here for you in John chapter six, probably one of the most important questions the disciples ever asked. Every now and then you get a good one yet. You get it right. And here we go in Mark, or I'm sorry, in John, let me find it here. John six verses 28 and 29 "then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God"? In other words, how do we do the power that you have? How do we do this? Jesus answered and said to them, "this is the work of God" or the power of God, "that you believe on Him, whom He sent". Jesus didn't tell them something to do. He said the truth is and what you're going to believe, because you're going to say what you believe. You'll do what you believe. And he said, you got to believe on him, who they sent. Over there in Revelation 10, we got an angel who's been sent. We have the Holy Spirit being sent in chapter one. It's all delegated power from the throne of God, Himself. Doing the works of God comes up from a foundation of what you believe. If you want to do the power of God, it comes from a foundation of what do I really believe? What's really in me? Because that's what inside-mindedness comes from.
— Yes it is.
— What do I believe? Do I believe that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in me? Or do I not? And it'll be revealed in my mouth.
— Sure. It always is.
— Yeah, absolutely true. Today many preachers teach that you got to do this or you got to do that or you got to do the other thing, but we really don't. We teach that revival will happen when we begin to do this. No. When we begin to believe correctly, it's when we'll see the power of God manifested in our lives.
— Praise God.
— Amen.
— That's right here in this eighth chapter of Romans. Now where he said back up now he said that in the 11th verse, if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwells within you. But now back up, verse... Let's go back all the way to the first verse. There is therefore now no condemnation to them, which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. There He is.
— There He is.
— That's the reason he referred to him here.
— That's right.
— Cause he brought him in. He brought him in here. in the very first. And you come down for the law of the Spirit... Glory to God. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Come down to the fifth verse, "for they that are after flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit for to be carnally minded as death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is imminent against God or the Spirit for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God". Look at the ninth verse.
— Yes.
— But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of His.
— You got to believe that. I mean, you have to use your faith to believe that that that is the reality in my life. And then I'm going to start talking like that. And I'm going to start thinking like that because you've got to, you've got to by faith grab that. Nobody's going to tell you know, let me remind you who you are. Know you're going to have to remind yourself especially in times like this...
— and stir it up.
— And stir that gift up...
— Keep it up it stirred up.
— The power is the inherent characteristic of God.
— Yes it is.
— And once he released power, Brother Copeland, into the earth, once he released power into the universe, it keeps going. There's no end it.
— God anointed...
— Yes.
— Let's look at it. Acts chapter 10.
— Jesus of Nazareth. Oh this is good.
— Thank You, Jesus.
— Amen.
— Praise You Lord. Thank You, Jesus.
— 38, verse 38.
— How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.
— Power.
— Who went about doing good in healing all that were oppressed to the devil for God... The power was God dwelling in him.
— That's right. Well, Brother Copeland, that's Jesus. We couldn't do that.
— No, it's God.
— That's right.
— That's right. It was God.
— But he can't do that through you and I.
— Well, when he was 29... God couldn't have done it through him.
— That's exactly right.
— He wasn't old enough.
— That's exactly right.
— The Levitical law determined that he had to be 30 years old. When Joseph was in prison and the guy forgot him for two years... Two years later, Joseph was 30.
— That's right.
— And became prime minister.
— That's absolutely right. But now here's how we have a better covenant.
— I was 30 when I went to Oral Roberts University.
— Praise God, that's not a coincidence.
— No, I didn't know it at the time. I just thought, well... But when I look back on it and saw it, that was when I was supposed to be there.
— Now Peter's going to get up in acts chapter two with this new covenant, when the church was born and he is going to say, this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel, in the last days, your sons and daughters. See now the Holy Spirit can reside in somebody younger than 30.
— That's right.
— And now see, we have a new covenant on better promise. What did Jesus tell him, go back to Jerusalem and tarry you there until you learn how to dance in the Holy Ghost. Until you learn how to get goosebumps. He said, no, go back until you're endued with...
— Power. And stay there until it happens.
— Stay there until you get it. Amen. That is what's happened to us. Let me show you a verse in Romans one, Romans chapter one. Man, I'm telling you what... verse 17... For therein is the righteous of God revealed from faith to faith as written the just shall live by faith. We know that. Go on down now and look at verse 20 here, for the invisible things of him taking it back to creation.
— Yeah, sir.
— This is one... for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even the eternal power of and Godhead so that they are without excuse. We now have tapped into that initial power, through the power of God resident on the inside of us. Paul's telling us, you now have tapped into the very power that allowed Jesus to do all the miracles he did. You've tapped into the power that was in creation. And you've tapped into the power that's in Revelation 10 in the future.
— Right.
— ... when he creates a new heaven and a new earth. What we were talking about. When we were born again in Christ, because we're in Christ, we now walk in this delegated power, Brother Copeland, the same power that was from the very beginning. It's the power of God.
— Yes, it is.
— Elohim inside us. El is a construct of the many names of God. By construct that's a theological term in Hebrew. That means you add things. You construct things to it. El Shaddai, El Elyon, El itself the Spirit of God, EL Ruach, El means power mind strength. It's two letters. It's in Hebrew. We would say a and l if you want to, in English. It's in the ancient paleo Hebrew, they all were pictures. So here's the ancient paleo Hebrew. The Aleph is a bull meaning strong. It's the first, it's the strength. It's the power. And the Lamed looks like a shepherd's staff.
— Praise God. So the authority...
— Authority. That's exactly what it is. The authority of the shepherd's staff to rescue, to guide, to do whatever he needs to do. So the strong one with authority that's El.
— Yes.
— He is the Supreme ruler with authority.
— Greg, I have noticed that Jewish people do that... They won't say, like if I mention John, I just say, my son, they'll say my son, the doctor.
— Absolutely.
— My son, the teacher.
— Absolutely. Absolutely. My son, the rabbi.
— Yeah. They, they follow the suit of that.
— They absolutely do. And we've kind of missed that. That's part of the blessing.
— Yes, it is.
— Part of the covenant blessing. The kids are expected. They were born Jewish. They'll be Jewish. They'll marry Jewish. Their children will be Jewish. You know, they have that expectation of their children. They don't let them decide on their own, as a whole. I'm painting with a broad paintbrush here. But as part of the covenant, and this is part of our covenant, we have been given power, full supreme authority because that, El word has authority with it. This is the authority of the believer. Brother Copeland, what I think is so sad and I've seen so many of it, when I was a pastor, people trying to walk in the authority without having any understanding of how it operates. Without having any understanding of God inside-mindedness. Really what they're trying to do is a self-help type thing. It's all what Brother Hagin used to call mental ascent.
— Yes.
— And it's not coming from their spirit man.
— It sounds like faith.
— Yeah.
— It looks like faith, but it's coming out of the mind out of the soul-ish realm. But when it comes out of the Spirit,
— Oh, that has the breath, because He breathed into him and man became a speaking spirit.
— That's right.
— Because when it comes out of the breath of God at that point.
— But the way He breathed in him was by speaking words.
— Absolutely right.
— Into his face.
— Yes. You saw that.
— Yes I did, very plainly. I had a vision of it and I had gone along with the things that I saw where he just, God just formed him up out of the dust, but we're out of time. We'll talk about that tomorrow. We'll be back in just a moment. Glory to God.