Kenneth Copeland - The Many Benefits of Living By Faith
We are talking about the basic fundamentals of faith. Let's go to Hebrews 11. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear". I have heard people say that God created the world out of nothing. No, he created out of something you can't see, which is faith. "By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it, being dead yet speaketh. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that comes to God must believe that he is. And that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him".
It's impossible to please him without it. Impossible. Why? That's the divine connection. And he is out to bless. That's his big thing. He started this whole thing, blessing everything he created. And then he blessed his man and his woman. And they messed up. He started right then to get that blessing back. What did he do with Abram? He blessed him. Well, he really blessed him when he became Abraham and he got into covenant with God. He blessed him coming in and he blessed him going out and he blessed him and he said, "I'll bless those that bless you. And I'll curse him that curses you". Glory to God.
Just bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless. That's what he does. And that's the divine connection to that blessing is the covenant promises of God. It is faith that receives it. It's faith that holds on to it. It's faith that passes it on down the line. Amen? Faith receives healing. Faith receives miracles. Faith receives finances. Faith is the connector. That's the reason it is so important to teach it and preach it. Amen? So I'll give you these, and I'll give you their verses, but we won't take time to go back through and read them all. Ephesians 2:8. You can't be saved without faith. And Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, Habakkuk 2:4. You can't live the Christian life without faith because the just shall live by faith. Second Corinthians 5:6-7. You can't walk the Christian walk without it. Amen? Or at First Timothy 6:12, Second Timothy 4:7.
You can't fight the Christian fight without faith. Fight the good fight of faith. What is the good fight of faith? It's a fight you've already won. You win before you ever get in it. Amen. If you're conscious of faith all the time. So First John 5:1-4. Can't overcome the world without faith. Romans 14:23. Whatever's not of faith is sin. Second Corinthians 1:24. You can't stand without faith. Romans 11:20. You can't quench the fiery darts of the enemy without it. Ephesians 6:16. You can't be blessed without it. Galatians 3:13 and 14. In the full armor of God, the Spirit of God said through the great apostle Paul, "Above all taking the shield of faith". Above all. And he was describing the armor of a Roman soldier.
And the Roman soldiers had what they called... And I'm not talking about a little shield like this. Their shield stood taller than their heads. Had a point on the bottom and it had hooks on each side and they had what they called the turtle maneuver. And they would get together and hook those shields together and do this and the arrows of the enemy couldn't get down through that shield. And they'd just keep coming. You'd quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And they were so tough and they were so well trained that their enemy would just throw everything down and run. The shield of faith. You can be wrapped up in it. And it's amazing how you and I, and I mean, all people are this way, we see things linear. God doesn't. He sees things like this.
How many times do you suppose the devil had things going and the Lord just blocked it before it'd ever happened to you? On two different occasions that I remember, I remember the Lord saying, "You thought you didn't do well in that, but you have no idea what was arrayed against you. And I say you were victorious all the way through". Amen. Because it... I'm telling you, if God just opened our eyes and let us see all this mess. Whoa, it'd be tough to even get out of the house in the morning. Thank God he doesn't do that. But we just keep fighting the good fight of faith. Stay on the God side of everything. Stay on the faith side of everything. Believe God. Stand, stand all the time. Forgive all the time. Be in a forgiving mood all the time. All the time, all the time, all the time.
I had to learn this, that before I go into a restaurant, before I go into any place, forgive everybody in there. When you get up in the morning, before you leave to go to work, leave there forgiving so that no matter what anybody does or said all day long, they're already forgiven, and you don't have to... Say something nasty to me. What's the matter with you? Well, glory to God. Just be ready to forgive all the time. And you practice it. Practice the presence of God. Talk to him all the time. You get in the car, visit with him, talk to him. So now then, in looking through the eyes of faith...
We'd been to one of Brother Hagin's meetings. John was little. He was in the backseat and we were driving home. He said, "Daddy"? I said, "What, John"? He said, "Isn't it wonderful we have three eyes"? I said, "What are you talking about"? "Well," he said, "Brother Hagin's talking about seeing through the eye of faith". He said, "I got these two eyes and I got a third eye. I have a third eye". That's not too bad for a five year old. He had three eyes. Praise God. So now I want us to look in James chapter 1, or right here in the book of Hebrews. One through seven. "James, a servant or slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes, which are scattered abroad, greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations". Or actually it says temptations, tests, and trials. Knowing, you have to know something to do this.
You have to know things. "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience". The trying of your faith works patience. Now look. "But let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing". Don't get down into money grubs about it. I don't care how you would like to frown and go on terrible about it. I had to learn to get over into joy and Keith Moore helped me do it. Amen. He was at my house. I don't know whether he remembers it or not, but he said something. And I heard myself say, I don't know something like, "There's just not any joy," or something like that. And when I heard it, I thought, "That's a lie. That joy is one of the fruit of the spirit. It is in me. And I'll never say it again. And I'm going to be joyous about things. I don't care whether I like it or not. I'm going to count it all joy. I have joy. Glory to God. Ha ha ha. I have the joy of the Lord and the joy of the Lord's my strength".
You need to go look that scripture up and look what was happening. The people were grieving. They were grieving. They were grieving and a message was preached. And the joy of the Lord is your strength so stop that grieving. While I'm thinking about that, you remember when the great apostle said, "Sorrow not for we're not a people without hope"? Go check that out. The Greek word wasn't sorrow. It's grief. Grieve not. Now if God says grieve not you can grieve not. Grief is a killer. Grief is a sense of loss. And there are people that have the idea that is perfectly all right to just cry your insides out. No it isn't. No. Study what God taught his people to do. There was a time to come together, and once that time was up, it was over. Just get over it. But I have seen it when you purposely take authority over it, I didn't say it was easy. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. But faith people need to do this because it is a commandment whether we like it or feel like it or not.
I was in a certain position one time and I had the Lord say, "I want you to watch it". And I... "Well, okay". And people kept coming in the house and they kept walking up to this poor dear and saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry," and she'd just erupt. "Oh, I'm so sorry". Oh, and she'd erupt again. "Oh, I'm so sorry," and here, bless her heart, she'd go again. And the Lord said, "You just keep watching". So I did. Kept watching, kept watching. And the Lord began to teach me. He said, "They're passing the sorrow around. They're passing the grief around". And then I learned something. And I've checked it out since and learned that it is true. Here's what the Lord said to me. He said, "This is not a bad feeling emotion. Because when the weeping comes without trying, just gushes and just flows from deep within". He said, "It is in the emotional area that is very much kin to sexual satisfaction because it just flows". But he said, "It can be pumped dry".
And this is what he said to me, he said, "When all the potato salads gone and people have cleaned up all the dishes and they've said their goodbyes, you leave that dear soul there by herself. And she's cried till she can cry no more. And then people tell her, 'Well, time will take care of it.'" He said, "Time won't take care of that. It has to be cast out. It's a spirit". He said, "It's a spirit of grief. And grief is the first cousin of the spirit of death. And that spirit of grief will open the door for more death". And he said, "I have churches full of it because of the way they act at home going services". He said, "Make it a joyful time". And then on the other hand, I've witnessed this and been able to be a part of this myself, where you go in and you just don't do that. You keep the joy up all the time.
Now on several occasions, one I'm thinking about... Unexpected death, very close friend of mine. And so I walked in there and what the... And I was doing the service that day. And so I walked in the back room of the church there. He was pastor of the church. And I just walked in there, and when I did, she just came over there to me. And I walked over there with a smile on my face. And all of a sudden I slapped my hands on her. And I yelled at the top of my voice, "You spirit of grief, by God, you get your hands off of this woman of God". And she looked at me and just stood there and shook a little bit. And she said, "It's gone. It's gone". She could tell when it left.
Now since then, I've seen that happen more than once. It is a spirit. So count it all joy, and then do what's necessary. Count it all joy. I'm telling you, James is a faith book. "Count it all joy. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways". A double-minded man. Faith one time and something else. And here is my illustration of that. In the storm, Peter said, "Master". He called him Master. Then he said, "Don't you care that we perish"?
On one hand, Jesus is Master. That's one mind. On the other hand, he doesn't care if we die. That's a double-minded man. You can't serve God and money at the same time. That's a double-minded man or woman. You don't know which one to serve. Have you ever been on the phone sometimes and somebody else trying to talk to you? You can't talk to both of them at once. And you're trying and you, "Oh, what'd you say? What? What'd you... What'd you? What, what"? And you're trying to listen to God and the devil's talking to you at the same time through somebody else. Amen. So what does faith do? Faith says, "Okay, hush, I'll get to you in a minute. Now I need to talk to you. What did you say, Lord? All right, now that's what I'm going to do because that's what the book says".
So, and you notice what he said now. "Let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways". Now this little book. Oh, I'll tell you this little book of James is just absolutely magnificent in its strength and power. And in the second chapter, verse 14, "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith and has not works? Can faith save him"?
Now Weymouth's translation. It went out of print a long time ago and Kenneth Copeland Publications put it back into print. If you would like to have a Weymouth translation, we have them. I strongly suggest that you own one. Here's what Weymouth said. "What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith and has not corresponding action? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto him, 'Depart in peace. Be you warmed and filled,' notwithstanding, you give them not those things which are needful to the body. What does it profit? Even so, faith if it has not corresponding action is dead being alone or by itself. Yea a man may say, 'Thou has faith. I have corresponding action. Show me your faith without your works. I will show you my faith because my action corresponds to it.'"
Now that clears that up. Just using the Word works. And people come. Some gets confused. I thought we weren't supposed to get into works? No, we're supposed to get into action. That is the man that's not double-minded. He believes God. He gets on the promises and he believes God. And then he acts in stuff. Acts as though he does. He acts. I like what I like Brother Hagin's term. He said, "Act like the New Testament's true". Act like it's true. Amen. Just act like it's true. Praise God. Now then receiving from God. And we read Hebrews 11:6. "It's impossible to please God without faith".
Now thy faith... Jesus said this again and again. Thy faith has made you whole. Be it done unto you as you have believed. Believing was absolutely necessary for Jesus to do anything. Now he preached. He preached and he taught and he healed, but he did the preaching and the teaching, or actually the teaching. Teaching, preaching, and healing. He did more teaching than anything else. Just go check it out. Everywhere he went, he taught. "And in that area in Nazareth, his own hometown, he could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief save he laid his hands on a few people with minor ailments," W.E. Vine says, "and healed them".
Now notice how important the laying on of hands is? When nothing else worked that did. So what did he do? He went around all their villages teaching. I don't believe they all stayed in unbelief. He went around teaching in their villages. And even those that knew him from a child, they had to have begun to see that, hey, there's something to this. Look at this. Amen. So we know that action, action, action is absolutely necessary before the fact, during the fact, and after the fact.