Kenneth Copeland - Faith in Your Heart and Mouth
The fundamentals of faith, basic fundamentals. What are the fundamentals of math? When you have a child in school, you don't start with the number three. You start with the number one, two, three, four, five. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve... Si ta bueno. Basics, basic fundamentals. You can't build the roof first. You start with the foundation, then the walls, then the roof. Basic fundamentals. Number one, believe it in your heart. Believe it in here, not in your head. Believe it in your heart. How did the creator God create the universe? He believed it and he spoke it. And God said, and it was. God said, and it is. And he saw all that he had made and it was good. It was good. He's a good God. Believe it in your heart and then say it with your mouth.
So you know where we have to go first. Most of you, your Bible will open up to Mark chapter 11. When you read through this 11th chapter, it is a sweet chapter. And read the whole book of Mark. It's only 16 little small chapters. Read the whole thing and study and listen to it. Make notes. "They came to Jerusalem. Jesus went into the temple and began to cast them out that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught saying unto them, 'Is it not written my house should be called of all nations the house of prayer? But you've made it a den of thieves.'"
If you brought your lamb in, they would declare that your lamb was blemished some way and go back and get another one, and you bought that one. Then they would take your lamb and sell it to somebody else. And Jesus knew it. He said, "You're a den of thieves". "So the scribes and the chief priest heard it and sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him because all of the people was astonished at his doctrine. And when evening was come, he went out of the city". So hey, "on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if happily he might find anything there on. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet".
Now wait a minute. Don't you think Jesus knew when there's supposed to be figs on a tree? When a fig tree has leaves, it should have figs. Read it in the Classic Amplified and it'll explain it to you. Well, it had leaves, so the tree was ahead of time. Anyway. "So now on the morrow, he answered and said to it, 'No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever.'" Nine words. His disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem. Jesus went into the temple. Now, that was in the morning. And when evening was come, he preached all day. I'm pretty long winded, but there's only been a few times, and I was asked to do it one time in Shreveport. People invited me over there. They said, "We want to have a day apart with you, and we've rented a room in a hotel and we want you to teach faith". And I said, "Okay". And they said, "We'll have lunch brought in".
And I literally did preach all day. And when they got through, they said, "We have a meeting over at the Citadel. We want you come preach there, too". I found out what it's like to preach all day. But Jesus, he did that more than once. "In the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. Peter, calling to remember, sayeth unto him, 'Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursed is withered away.'" How did Jesus answer that? He said to them, "Have faith in God". The cross reference says, "Have the faith of God". Have faith in God. Have faith in God. I don't care what it is, have faith in God. You're having trouble at home? Have faith in God. You have sickness in your body? Have faith in God. You're having financial troubles? Have faith in God. You're having trouble at the business? Have faith in God. Problems in the church? Have faith in God. I don't care what it, have faith in God.
But all of this came, all of these things we had to learn, Gloria and I had to learn. Finally wound up at Oral Roberts University, and just I met Brother Hagin at a Full Gospel Business Men's meeting, but I never had heard him preach. We came back from Fort Worth, staying there at mother's house, and where it'd been my house when I was in high school. And we walked in there, and of course, she just grabbed Gloria and headed the other end of the house. I said, "Mother, you have any tapes to listen to"? She said, "Yeah, look in there on top of that tape recorder. And it was just a white box in there". And so I looked at that, so I just put it on. Oh, on one side "You Can Write Your Own Ticket With God", Mark 11:22, 23, 24, and 25. And on the other side, Paul's Revelation.
The revelation of all of the things about, and I hear him in my mind right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to do it. Open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews. So I had my New Testament. I got my... Hebrews, first chapter of Hebrews... Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those that are heirs under salvation? Now then have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, whosoever. Now, when I heard Brother Hagin say that, he read that, whosoever. That faith is a whosoever thing. Whosoever, whosoever shall say unto this mountain. Not a mountain, this mountain. I learned from Pastor George that he's referring to a specific mountain, the mountain of corruption. This mountain. It's, "Whosoever shall say to this mountain be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says".
Now, I want you to notice here. Then Jesus himself used that very principle. "Therefore I say unto you, whatever you say, therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any, that your father, also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses". Forgive if you have ought against any. That includes politicians. Well, I don't care which politics are. That's between you and God. The woman with the issue of blood, she had to forgive all of those physicians. She had to. Jesus said so. She had to have forgiven all of those physicians and everybody that had misused her. Amen. "So when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any. Believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth".
II Corinthians 4:13 says this again. Oh, that's telling you the gospel according to the apostle Paul. Oh. "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. But by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. If our gospel be hid, it is hidden to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world have blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine under them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness have also shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have this treasure in earthen vessels".
Don't read that wrong. "To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have this treasure in earthen vessels". What treasure? "God who commands the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have this treasure in earthen vessels". That's in us, if we'll draw it out by faith, by reading these exceeding great and precious promises. You get out of that 13th verse. "We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken? We also believe, and therefore we speak".
Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever your background is. I don't care if you're a believer or not, whatever you are and whoever you are, what you say is your faith speaking. What you say is your fear speaking. Whatever's coming out of your heart, coming out of your spirit. It's not talking about your blood pump. The reason that's called your heart is because it's the heart of the body. That stops, you stop. I was praying and I said, "Lord, which direction do I go here"?
And on the inside... I've only heard the audible voice of God in my life one time. I'm open, and I will hear it again, but not since then. But I heard it. So just plainly just, just so plain inside me. He said, "You are a faith specialist". He said, "There are other preachers that are glory specialists. There are other preachers that are healing specialists. You're a faith specialist". He said, "That's the reason I've had you study it all these years in so many different ways and looked at it in so many different ways. You are a faith specialist, and your faith has sustained for these many years and will continue to do so". Praise God. Thank You, Jesus.
I think you better stand up and turn this clock back off. I didn't get done. What was it Brother Hagin used to say? He said, "I never get finished". He said, "I'm kind of like a freight train. I just unhook". And we'll just hook up back here and again in the morning. Thank You, Lord. Yes, I'll do that, Lord. Thank You. And for those watching online... Come on up, Pastor. Those of you watching online, if you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, this is your moment. Jesus did all the hard part. I've heard people say, "Copeland, you just make it too easy".
Now, I didn't do that. Our Father made it easy. It was hard on God, even harder on Jesus. He hung on that cross. They beat him. By the time he got to the cross, look at the 52nd chapter of the book of Isaiah, his visage, his form didn't even look human. He didn't even look like a man anymore. They pulled his beard out. She jammed those thorns down over his head, and he's the one that said, "As Jonah, the son of man, three days and three nights in the belly of the earth". It did not start on Friday. I want you to remember that, because it's coming up here in just a few days. It didn't start on Friday.
Now, there's nothing wrong with celebrating it that way. It did wind up on Sunday. That's good. But here was the thing. It was a High Sabbath and it started on Wednesday. John says that. So it started Wednesday night, Thursday, Thursday night, Friday, Friday night. You just do the timeline and you can figure it out. And early, early, early Sunday. Well, people say, "Yeah, but he said, 'You'll be with me this day in paradise.'" Well, so what? Now, wait a minute, wait a minute. The minute those two men stepped out of their bodies, they stepped into the spirit where there is no time. Jesus said, "This day you'll be with me in paradise".
Well, if he said it, then he was. But they stepped out of time and stepped over into that world where there is no time. Hallelujah. And to straighten me out on that, I had the Lord say to me, George, he said, "Stop thinking so linear". Now, listen to what he said. Dwayne was driving me to the airport in Steamboat Springs, and he and I were discussing this and we're just talking back and forth. And I just stopped there for a minute and I heard it on the inside of me. He said, "Kenneth, I could put the whole state of Texas in your closet in the spirit". He said, "You could walk in your closet, and suddenly you could see the entire state of Texas right there in your closet and never leave your closet".
I have a large closet, but it isn't that big. But once he stepped into the realm of the spirit and once that other man on that cross stepped into the realm of the spirit, amen. But here's the thing. Jesus did all the hard part. He went into hell and he suffered as no man ever suffered before. No man suffered that way later. The 22nd Psalm. Read it in the Classic Amplified. It begins, "My God, my God. Why has thou forsaken me"? They heard him on the cross say that.
So that was the Psalm speaking and prophesying of Jesus. I could feel all my bones. And then it gets down to the end of it. He said, "It is finished". No, redemption wasn't finished. There were still three days and three nights to finish that. What was finished? The first covenant. It was done. The blood had been shed. It was over. The beginning of the new covenant was born right then and there. Give God praise. Hallelujah. So all you need to do is just say, "Jesus, come into my heart, take my life, and do something with it". So let's leave them and go along with me, "Oh, God in heaven". Now just pray this wherever you are:
God in heaven. I believe with all my heart that You raised Jesus from the dead. Come into my heart. Take my life and do something with it. I believe now according to Your Word that I am saved. I believe that.