Kenneth Copeland - Recognize the Spirit of Power
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Now we began this what Professor Greg and I thought would be two weeks on introducing the spirit of power. Well, he's on page one. And let's just open our Bibles there for a moment, and then we'll pick up Genesis, which means beginning, chapter one. That's pretty well at the first. In the beginning, God. Oh, now you've said something. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And I want to say it like this now, and the Spirit of God. Now the spirit of Greg Stephens is Greg Stephens.
— Yeah.
— And Greg Stephens lives in a body.
— That's right. That's right. If my spirit leaves this body...
— It still Greg Stephens.
— It still is, but this body falls to the ground. The real me is the spirit.
— That's right.
— Right.
— Spirit, soul, and body.
— Yeah. That verse and the Hebrew would say (in Hebrew language) And Elohim is that plural for God.
— Yes.
— So, the spirit's in there.
— Oh yes.
— The son's in there.
— Yes.
— They're all together in this beginning.
— They're all there. Now the Spirit of God. So, God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said. Here's the entire fundamental laws of faith right there. And God said. Nothing happened until He said it. We know from the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews that He did it by faith. Well, of course He did, because F-A-I-T-H is the name that has been put upon the creative power of Almighty God. And for those that are new folks, and it finally happened to me, Greg. I got up this morning. I pulled my iPad out of my Bible case. Had 12% battery power. So, I just went to the real deal. Okay, Hebrews 11:1. Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality. Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. That's the definition of this creative power. So, He said it, and in 24 hours, 16,074,704,800 miles of universe. Wow. Light be, light was. That's light energy. Four days later, sunshine.
— It creates a natural light.
— Yes.
— But this light, it's not that little ball we all see.
— No, no. We can see the power of light in a laser. That's just simply light amplified. That's what laser stands for, amplified light, and amplified light will cut steel.
— That's right.
— It'll do it.
— That's right. I asked the Lord one time. I said, "Help me understand the three of You in this, how this works, how you guys work together". And He made it very simple because it needed to be simple for me to understand it. The Father is the architect. He's the guy who came up with the plan.
— He designed it.
— He designed the blueprint. Jesus is the executor of that plan. He's the one that... The architect drew it. The contractor built it. That's Jesus. He's the executor of the plan. And the Holy Spirit is the revealer of the plan who reveals it to me what the plan is.
— Yes, amen.
— And that's the way I learned to understand how they are. And then you'll learn that each of them have a different voice, and your human spirit has a voice. And this is why it's so important to learn what you were talking about a while ago, the real me is the spirit, and begin to learn to listen to what's my spirit voice talking and what's them talking, and the different ones. But it all began right there when he created that.
— And I was preparing for this, and the Lord dropped this in my heart. It began here. Now let's go over to the book of Acts. I'm totally convinced that the body of Christ has never put the urgency on this that Jesus did. Here in the book of Acts, the first chapter, the former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after he through the Holy Ghost... Huh?
— Through the Holy Ghost.
— Through the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit that we're talking about, that we're discussing. Had given commandments under the apostles whom he had chosen to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion with many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, being assembled together with them commanded them. This is a commandment of Jesus to the church. Now we get the impact of that, they should not depart from Jerusalem. Don't leave here. But wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, not many days hence. You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses under me both in Jerusalem and Judea and in Samaria and unto the utmost parts of the earth. This is a commandment.
— Not a suggestion at all.
— No, not a suggestion at all. Don't even try to go into the ministry without this. Now he just got through telling them in the last Passover meal. He said, "It's the Father that dwells within me, He does the work". And he promised it during that meal.
— Right.
— He's coming. I will send Him to you. I will not leave you as orphans.
— Matter of fact, he said, "It's good that I go away, because if I don't go away..."
— Yeah, he said it's expedient.
— "I have to go away".
— For Him to come.
— Because Jesus is limited to a... It's glorified body now, but he's limited to a physical body. He is in a body you have prepared for me, he wrote, or it was written in the gospels here or in the scripture. So, a body was prepared for him. See, he's limited to a spiritual body like you and I. The Holy Spirit's not. He can be with me and with you and with you and with you all over the world. It's better that he's here because he's within you, instead of me... I can only be one place at one time.
— That's right. And this is him. He is the ancient of days. No beginning.
— And no end.
— And no end. Now then you follow that. Since that commandment was made, it begins to flow through the book of Acts. And then in the 10th chapter, the Centurion Cornelius who built synagogue in Capernaum.
— I believe so.
— His servant was sick. Now he is a field grade officer in the Roman army and come up through the ranks. He said so. And he said, "I'm not important enough that you come under my roof. Say the word, my servant will be healed". Jesus said, "I've not found such great faith in all of Israel. Found what?
— Faith.
— Faith. Say the word, faith. In all of Israel. Well, all right. Now since that happened, then you flow through here in the book of Acts, and all of these wonderful things began to happen. And then he sent for Peter. Well, he knew Peter.
— Sure.
— I mean, he's the biggest one in the whole crowd, and he just stood out. He was right up front. Peter, James, and John were right up front in everything they did.
— Right. He would've known about him trying to kill that man with a sword that night. Being a Roman officer, he would've known that...
— Well, absolutely he would've known that. He was there.
— Yeah. Yeah, he would've known that.
— But then the angel told him, "Send for Peter". "Okay, I know him. I'll get him down here". He came in. And I like that 10:39, we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jew in Jerusalem and so forth. It was published throughout all Judea how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.
— There it is.
— It's the same power that created the universe, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed to the devil for God was with him.
— Well, that's how Jesus was able to do what he did as a man.
— Sure, yeah.
— Because he's anointed with the Holy Ghost and power. That's why he said, "Don't leave Jerusalem until you have the power source I have".
— Amen.
— You won't be able to do what I do.
— Now where do you find Phillip's revival?
— Acts...
— I should have looked that up already, but the Lord dropped this in my heart this morning. Anyway, what was the first thing they did? Do you remember? Great revival, preaching Jesus. Philip the evangelist, and he's preaching Jesus. But up until that time, the spirit had not fallen on any of them. So, they want to make sure this happened. So, the apostles go down there. See, it's a commandment, and they're adamant about it that every believer, every believer must have this. And then you remember what happened at Ephesus. 10 Baptists. Well, they said, "We didn't know there was a Holy Spirit". "Well, under what were you baptized"? Yeah, baptized in water.
— Right.
— And so, the apostle Paul laid hands on them and they spoke in tongues.
— Right. There wasn't any more tearing that needed to happen because he's already come. That's what I grew up with. He had to tarry. He had to hang on and hold on and...
— Well, that was in the beginning. He said, "Stay there and wait". But he came.
— Yeah. Right. He's here now.
— Made a lot of noise when he got here.
— Yeah, absolutely. Well, Peter changes. Because if you think about it, Peter just a few weeks before had denied Jesus in that same city, and now he's out preaching Acts chapter two and chapter three.
— Yes.
— I say this, that the Holy Spirit will take the chicken out of you. I mean, he had a boldness about him then that he wasn't afraid to stand up and to speak up at this point. That's what that spirit of power and boldness does to you.
— Now the book of James. And when I picked this up this morning and then the Lord spoke to me, I didn't think of this right off the bat. Well, I did, but then the Lord spoke to me and energized it in my spirit. He said, "I want you to look now where wavering is". James, this first chapter of James, a servant or slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. Greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into different temptations and tests and trials, knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience or endurance. But let endurance have her perfect work that you may be perfect, complete, and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, or doesn't find fault. 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 from the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable.
— Look at the end of that, in all his ways.
— In all his ways. They were unstable. Wavering back and forth. He's dead or is he not dead? Oh, woe is us. What are we going to do? But then they had joy that he was raised. But when the power of God came on them for service, and they began to speak in a language they had not learned, but there were men from all over the different parts.
— 70 different nations.
— And they heard them speak in their own languages. Now that's not the norm, but it does happen. Amen.
— There were churches born out of that. Paul will go speak at churches that he didn't establish, but those people were at Jerusalem when that happened, and they took it home with them. So, it's a wildfire is what it is.
— Yes, it is.
— It just begins to spread. Now one of the things that stops it is what you just read here in James. A double-minded man's unstable in all his ways. Now Brother Copeland... I had the Lord talk to me about that with my own life and my own family, and I had to renew my mind to it. Our family couldn't make a decision about anything growing up. I mean, it's just the way it was. From where do you want to go eat? I don't care. I don't know where I want to go eat. Well, somebody decide. Well, let's go here. No, we don't want to go there. And it was just this thing, but that crept into everything. Do we hold church today? Do we not hold church today because of the storm? Do we do this? Do we not do that? And I watched that happen. And the Lord said, "We need to break this in your family. We got to break this, because you've learned this pattern". I've learned to be that way. And so, I had one of my boys one time tell me, "Dad, you always tell us where we're going to eat". And I said, "Yes sir, I do. I'll give you three choices. It's one of these three. But we're not going to play unstable". Because I had to get rid of it because a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
— Yes.
— It creeps into every single... I can't make a decision whether I should buy this or not buy that. I can't make a decision if it's God's will or if it's not His will. And so, then I get into the hamster wheel of trying to pray and get God to tell me what His will is. And all the whole time He's like, "If you'll go in, inward, to the Holy Spirit, I've already told you. You just can't make the decision". And so, I had to learn to count it all joy. I had to learn to be decisive. We should be the most decisive people on the planet because we have that power in us.
— I'd say, "Gloria, where you want to eat then"? Well, I enjoyed going to a cafeteria where I'd stay as close to my food regimen as I possibly could. And she'd say, "Oh, I don't care". I said, "Now where you want to go eat"? "I don't care". And Gloria said, "I know good and well he's going to go up to cafeteria". And now that's in my mind, I can see it. We'd drive up there at Luby's and drive around here. And she'd say, "Are we going to eat here again"? I said, "Why didn't you say something"?
— Right.
— Well, Gloria was preaching on that one time, and she said, "You really have to say something, because this is the way faith is released".
— Yes. Yes.
— And she said, "I know what he's going to say. He's going to say, 'Let's go to the cafeteria.'" And she said, "I'm going to go, 'okay. Okay.'" I said, "Well, why didn't you say something"? And she began to talk about it and she said, "You need to say something". And she said, "The thing about this is I've become so much like him, I like to go to the cafeteria, too".
— Well, see, in our life, in our marriage, there are certain things, I don't want to be involved in that decision. I don't want to decorate. I don't want to pick color and look at five different shades of blue. I don't care. Pick it. But that was the hardest thing for us to learn to do, because really that's not my expertise. It's your house. God did this. I want you to do it. And that makes me happy. But it's a learning, though, to be decisive in that. I need you to decide which couch, because I don't know whether that one, this one, or this one, or this. I'm not doing it. I don't care. You know what I mean? But it's that way of learning to communicate. But we have to learn to communicate with the Holy Spirit that way.
— Yes, you do.
— Because He is not indecisive.
— No.
— That was a command of Jesus.
— Yes, it was.
— You go to Jerusalem.
— If it was ever a command, it still is.
— Oh yeah. Oh absolutely.
— Absolutely so.
— Can you imagine trying to preach, even in America, let alone in a third world country, without the power of the spirit in you?
— I don't want to think about it. Well, just like what happened in Healing School in Sacramento.
— Yes.
— The young woman came in a wheelchair, and she had people helping her. Of course, we didn't know anything about her testimony. And several testimonies had gone before. And so, I was in a chair sitting there on the platform. And all good testimonies, and then they pushed her up there and talked about some things that were wrong with her. Well, I stepped down off of the platform, and then I talked about the first day in Healing School with my father in the faith, Oral Roberts, and the first person that we laid hands on. He said, "You're going to do the praying, but don't touch them until you're ready to release your faith". Well, anyway. So, I now told her about that. And just walking right around in front of her in that wheelchair. And she still would look up at me like this. And so, then finally I walked over there and I put my hand on her head and did essentially the same thing that Brother Roberts did in that situation. And the power of God hit her. And the woman that pushed her up there in the chair, knocked her in the floor. Well, and there was some other things happening, but anyway. But all of that came up in my mind and so forth. And I walked around there for a little bit. But this just flew out of my mouth, "And it won't be long till that chair will be a thing of the past". She just up out of that chair she came, and began to walk all up and down across there. And she's stumbling around a little bit. And then she got sassy about it. And she just kept going and kept going and kept going until it changed her entire countenance. And she said, "Drive me". She pleaded for somebody to drive her there and said, "I'll be healed when I get there".
— Amen.
— And we're out of time. Hallelujah. The spirit of power.