Kenneth Copeland - God's Love Enables Me To Walk In Love
— Welcome everyone to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Father, we thank You today for the anointing of God. We thank You for the Spirit of God, which is the anointing of God, which is the blessing of God, and we praise You and thank You today that we have the privilege of preaching and teaching Your Word, and we invite You, especially today, to manifest Yourself any way You see fit, and we give all of the glory to the matchless name of Jesus, and in that name, we say, Amen. Glory to God. We are talking about the Spirit of power, the Spirit of love, the Spirit of goodness, Amen, and the full armor of God. This, in the book of Ephesians, talking about the full armor of God. Now we went through that, but you can't just park one little neighborhood there. Let's back up to 5:28. "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He, that loves his wife, loves himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. Even as the Lord, the church, for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bone".
— That's right.
— Glory to God. Isn't that marvelous?
— That's marvelous. Let me flip you over here to verse one of chapter five.
— Oh yeah.
— "Be therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ has also loved us, has given himself for us as an offering. The sacrifice to God's sweet smelling savior". Be followers or imitators of God.
— Yeah. That Greek word is M-I-M-E-T-E-S. Mimic.
— Yeah. So this is your Father. This is how he dresses for battle. This is what he wears. This is how you speak to him. Do that.
— And he is love. Greg, let's go over there to 1 John.
— 1 John. 5?
— Yes.
— Yeah. Thought so.
— For quite a while, I don't remember now, weeks, I just read 1 John every day. It's just short. It's just five little chapters, but I'll tell you what, in that length of time, I marked it up until I can hardly read it. I got red lines all over everything and it just messed it up. "Faith filled love casts out fear". And there's a lot of whosesoevers in here, and I wanted us to see in the fourth chapter here: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether of God because there are many false prophets go out in the world here, but while we know the Spirit of God for every spirit confesses Jesus is the Christ is come in the flesh and is of God". And we're talking about spirits here. Every spirit and so forth. The spirit of the antichrist, verse four, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them". What them spirits. Terrible grammar, but that's what the spirits of the evil spirits. You have overcome them. So now the Apostle Paul said, "Dress up the Spirit of God through him," said, "put your fighting clothes on". Well here says "You're of God, little children and have overcome them because..". Read it out loud. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world and the world hears them. We are of God. He that knows God hears us. He that is not of God heareth not us, whereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error". Greater. The greater one. Now where did John get that? He was there when Jesus said "It's expedient. It's better for you that I go away because I'm going to send him".
— That's right.
— "I'm going to send him". The Father. He just got through saying, "It's the Father within me. He does the works".
— That's right.
— Same Spirit.
— And this is the baptism of Jesus.
— Yes, it is.
— The other was the baptism of John, but the baptism of Jesus is with fire.
— Yes.
— It's with the Holy Spirit. I like 1 John 3, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth us not because he knew him not. So beloved, you are now the sons of God".
— Yes.
— That's the moment this happened. When he by faith believed. Now it's very interesting. This is the disciple whom the Lord loved.
— Yes. He had such a revelation of that.
— He had. Peter boasted of his love for Jesus, and what happened at the trial? He took off running. John stayed all the way through the cross, and all the way through, because love sustained him. Love was in him. He was confident.
— And at that Passover meal...
— Absolutely.
— He was the one, and this is a painting of it. He's leaned over on Jesus. Jesus is talking about wanting to betray him. Peter comes to John and said, "Ask him who it is". He didn't want to do that. So John said, "Who is it"? And he answered him, but the biggest thing of all, and I'll point this out, especially for those of you in the radio and television audience. Now listen to this, on the cross, Jesus said, "Woman, behold thy son, behold your mother". He placed the care of his mother in the hands of John.
— Right.
— Now, she was there 50 days later.
— In the upper room.
— She saw him hang on that cross, and you know all of the things that were said the day he was circumcised, all of that when the prophet Simeon said what he said, and Anna said what she said, all of that came back because he said it would pierce her soul, and it did, but the Lord had provided faith for her.
— That's right.
— Because she already knew it was coming, and then she knew he's raised from the dead.
— Right.
— She knew all is well. She was there on the day of Pentecost and she spoke with tongues just like everybody else.
— That's right.
— Mary the mother of Jesus.
— She's listed in that list of people that were in the upper room.
— Yes.
— She's there, and she'll be with John when John will be in church and Ephesus. Timothy will be pastoring. She's there.
— How'd you like to pastor.
— Well now you understand why Paul instructed Timothy, "Stick with the Word".
— Stick with the Word.
— It'll be okay.
— Don't be worried about it, you're young.
— So John...
— Yeah, but you've never had to preach with John and...
— Mary his mom. I get it a little bit. I've had to with you sitting on the front row.
— Yeah, but then no, that don't qualify.
— All right.
— Not like that. Whoa. Oh my.
— Look at this with John in chapter four. Here's how he knew that he had already overcometh. Verse 17: "Herein is our love made perfect". "That we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There's no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear because fear hath torment. He, that feareth has not made perfect love". We love him because he first loved us. It's when I know his love for me, that I have boldness.
— You're aware of it. You depend on it.
— That's how I can walk in love with people, Brother Copeland.
— Yes.
— I tried to approach walking in love, because I heard that all the time. My faith won't work, if I don't walk in love. So I'm going to love, I am going to love that person, and I'm gritting my teeth and I'm doing everything in my power to love somebody, and I'm thinking of them right now, but back in the day and I was doing everything, I was focusing on walking in love, but that's when I realized walking in love is not based on my performance.
— That's right.
— It's not based on me at all. It's based on knowing his love for me, which enables me to walk in love with them. It's a total opposite thing. If I'm focused on this love for me, I'm able to walk in love because that's where my love comes from because he first loved me.
— Yes.
— John got that and he understood it. Paul will tell us the same thing in Ephesians chapter three, "Get your heart grounded and rooted in love that God has for us". He'll say the same thing in Romans 8:34 through 39. "Nothing can separate me from God's love". He'll say the same thing to Titus in Titus 3 about knowing the love was poured out. Titus was a tough guy. Titus was the fixer. He wasn't a pastor. Titus would go into a problem church and fix it. That's what Paul used him for, but Titus had to understand that love. Paul had to learn that love because Paul had a past he had to get past, and so he had to rely on that love.
— And you can see it in his writings especially in the book of Ephesians.
— Oh absolutely.
— And the things that he went through and he still lived into his 70s after being beat nearly to death and dying and coming back and floating around out in the ocean for days.
— Right. Hanging onto the words that the angel told him. "This is what's going to happen. It's not your fault". And then he gets out of the ocean and he goes, and they start a fire and he gets hit by a viper. At what point do you say, "Okay".
— He had to have a revival on that island.
— That's exactly what it was for.
— Changed that island forever.
— Yeah. They saw it. So you mentioned what he wrote. Ephesians 5:1 and 2, "Be therefore imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ has loved us". That's how you do it.
— Praise God.
— It's not about, "I'm gritting my teeth and walking in love". It's realizing his love for me and enables me to walk in love.
— Back in the very beginning days of this ministry I was in Hereford, Texas. It's just little place in the panhandle of Texas. Reason it's named that is because the Hereford cattle, the white faced red bodied cattle, came from England, and came from Hereford, England, and nobody wanted it. It didn't have any horns.
— Right.
— And nobody wanted the thing. They just called it a muley bull, but the man that did and began to raise them, right there, and that's the reason it's called Hereford, Texas. I was there and working on my outlines, and the way I do my outlines is I do the blue is the topic and then red is scriptures. I had my outlines, I was on my knees with my outlines laid up on the foot of the bed, and I was on my knees praying about what should I do? What should I preach tonight and in the morning? And so and so on. And I had all that laid out in front of me and I heard this in my spirit "preach victory". All right. He said, "Was there not victory in the new birth? Because it's victory over the grave. Victory over death". He said, "Was there not victory and in the infilling of power of the Holy Spirit"? I said, "Yes, sir". He said, "Victory is the subject". So I started putting down victory and everywhere I found there's victory in healing. Oh victory, and it's Jesus provided victory, and it became the subject of the flow.
— Victory and prosperity.
— Victory and prosperity, victory over poverty, and victory over the devil.
— Yes.
— Victory in the name.
— Yeah, and the blood.
— And you find it in different places, and so that's the Believer's Voice of Victory, and that started with the little pamphlet that became the Voice of Victory magazine. The believer's voice, the voice of faith.
— That's right.
— But it's the believers, every believer has a voice, and it is the voice of victory if you use it. So, and it just began to grow, but the background is important. We have victory in Christ, "victory in Jesus", and there's so many victory songs. Amen.
— Amen.
— And you remember the sports' channel that said the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. God says it all right there. Defeat is agony
— That's Satan's. That's not mine. "For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith".
— And that's the reason I wanted to explain where that came from and that verse had a great deal to do with it, that I just, I got hung up on it, and what whoever's born of... I said, "Well, I'm born of God. I am born of God and glory to God". I'm a world overcomer. I am a world overcomer. Why? Because I have the victory. All over the world, and there it is for who's whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. We are world overcomers. Everything that the world has to throw at us, praise God, we have the victory in Christ Jesus,
— and it happened the moment you were born again.
— It did.
— It was accounted unto you as you've already gotten the victory. Now we're walking this out, but that's what Abraham did. He saw. Jesus said he saw my day rejoiced. He saw down the line. It's not going to be Isaac, but there's coming one. I met him. I've met him and he's coming, and he kept his eyes on that, kept his faith on that. So that's the hope, future tense. Faith always past tense. It's always, it's always...
— But the Spirit of God said that through the Apostle Paul. So now there is faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love, but why did he mention faith first? Because faith is the catalyst. Without faith, you can't walk in love.
— That's right.
— And without love, you can't walk in faith.
— That's right. I have to believe I'm loved...
— ...and because God is love and he has faith. Jesus said, "Have the faith of God. Have his faith". Amen.
— If I might, Romans chapter four.
— Oh please.
— Romans chapter four, verse 17 and 18. I think this is exactly what you're talking about right here.
— Yes, it is.
— "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations". Now that's a quote from Genesis 17. "As is written, I've made you a father of many nations before him, who he believed even God who quickeneth the dead and call off those things, which be not as though they were," verse 18, "who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that, which was spoken so shall thy seed be not being weak in faith".
— Not being weak in faith. He considered not his own body. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.
— So these two verses 17, 18 to go together. They express the idea that faith and hope work together.
— Okay. Well look, back up now, go to that 16th verse, and that says it. "Therefore it is of faith so that it might be by grace". So without faith there's no grace, and without grace, there's no faith.
— So faith is always attached to something. It always is partnered with something. Faith and love, faith and patience, faith and grace, it's always attached to something. It always comes in twos.
— The Lord said to me one time that faith and patience are endurance. Those are the power twins.
— He said, verse 17, "I have made you a father of many nations. I have made you," is that past, present, or future tense? That's past tense, it's already done. I already did it. So it's always based on what God's already said. It's already done. You were born again because Jesus went to the cross. You're filled with the Spirit because the Holy Spirit's already been poured out. That's where my faith is. I'm healed because by his stripes, you were healed. Those are all past tense things. So it's a reality in the now. Hope is always future. The rapture is called the great hope of the church, but in God, it already is, and so this is why I'm looking down that line of hope, but I've got my faith attached to...
— And today I'm one day closer to it.
— Absolutely right.
— To just stay quickened all the time. I'm looking for him every day.
— Absolutely. So you got to attach your faith to patience. Well, what if He doesn't come today? Well then tomorrow. I'm one day closer. It doesn't change my faith.
— No, not at all.
— Doesn't damage my faith, and so faith is now attached to love.
— I'm like Gloria, I would like to be right in the middle of something like this and that horn go off. Wouldn't that be just the oh... And for a long time there was a major airline that would not allow two Christians to be in the cockpit at the same time
— for that reason.
— God is not going to crash a whole airliner full of people. They land, taxi up to the gate, and all of a sudden they're gone, but the airplane's not going to fall out of the sky. That's stupid. Even angels would even hold it up.
— So we have faith inside of us the moment we were born again, he gave us the measure of faith to his faith in us. I have to put it into action by believing it. I have to believe the love. I have to believe during the patience. I have to believe. I have to believe. I have to believe. And then I got to start saying it. That's when the power...
— Well, now you're back over in 1 John.
— I know it.
— So let's go back over there again. In believing the love in that 16th verse of the fourth chapter, let's come down from the ninth verse, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him". Here in his love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us, and he sent his Son to be the propitiation of the sacrifice for our sins. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we are also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby, know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us his Spirit. We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God. God dwells in him". We've known and believed the love that God has to us, and we're out of time. Woo. We've known and believed it. Amen. We'll talk about that tomorrow. Believing the love. We'll be back in just a moment.