Kenneth Copeland - Living In the Spirit of Power
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. And this is Professor Greg Stephens. I didn't introduce him to you yesterday, but everybody knows him now. But his working knowledge of the Hebrew language. And he teaches a First Covenant Survey in Kenneth Copeland Bible College.
— And Old Testament Truths.
— And so, because Jesus, He's from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. I mean, he's there. And you can say it this way: This book is all about Him and He's all about us and we're all about Him. Amen.
— And the book then is about me and what's available to me in Him.
— And I can have what it says I have while we put the Word first place and final authority. So now let's go to the book of Acts, which was, as most of you know, and for those of you don't realize this, the gospel that is under the name of Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Luke was a Gentile physician. He's a doctor. He wrote the book of Acts also because he was Paul's constant companion. They worked together, they traveled together, and there's so much he got firsthand.
— It's a history. If you look at the book of Acts and think of it as a trial brief, it's Paul's defense for the trial about everything that happened. And here's what I said and here's what they said. And here's what happened here and here's what happened here. And Paul will use this book, with Luke's help, in his trial when he stands before...
— Well, he says so, right there in the first chapter of the book of Acts. He establishes it: "The former treaty, have I made, O Theopolis, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach until the day in which he was taken up". So it's a documentary. Very accurate documentary because he was there and had association with all of them. So now let's look over here in the eighth chapter. And Brother Hagin made the comment: It says the acts of the apostles. No, it was the acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, the sent ones. In the eighth chapter, Saul was consenting unto his death and at the time, there was a great persecution against the church and so forth. And that devout men carried Stephen to his burial, that as for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, haling men and women, committed them into prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went every where, preaching the Word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ. What'd he preach? He preached...
— Jesus.
— ...he preached Jesus, the anointing, onto them. And the people with one accord gave heed onto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits and so forth came out. There was a certain man named... And you go on and find now, then, when the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, they were coming that they might what? That they might receive the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus commanded it. We have to do this now. Go down there now. The Samaritans, hey, they're in it, too. And then, give me also this power on whomsoever I lay hands may receive the Holy Ghost. And we see and know all then they had testified and preached the Word of the Lord and so forth. And you come over here to the ninth chapter and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went under the high priest and inside all of that. And he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined around about him a light from heaven. He fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, "Saul, Saul. Why persecutest thou me? Why persecutest thou me"? Jesus took that personally.
— Yes, He did.
— He's persecuting the Christians, but they're His body.
— Genesis 1, "light be". Paul runs into light be.
— Yes he did. And the light knocked him to his...
— Knocked him to his...
— And he couldn't see.
— And Jesus is saying this now over in chapter seven, when they stoned Stephen, and Paul was part of this, or Saul at the time. Stephen lifts up his eyes and he says, "I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Father". Not seated. He was standing. The next time you see Jesus standing, it happens again in The Revelation 3. He's standing as the church is being persecuted. You pick on His church, you pick on His bride...
— You get Him to His feet.
— He will stand to His feet.
— "And He stood up". It was tantamount to a standing ovation, this martyr of the church. And He stood up to receive him. "And he said, 'Who are you, Lord?' 'I am Jesus, whom thou persecuted. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.' He, trembling and astonished said, 'Lord, what will you have me do?' 'Arise and go into the city, and you shall be told what to do.' There was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias and to him said the Lord in a vision, 'Ananias', and he said, 'Behold, I'm here, Lord.' And the Lord said unto him, 'Arise, go into the street, which is called straight, inquire the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prays. And he has seen in a vision, a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.'" Now the 15th verse, the Lord said unto him, "Go your way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Kings and before Gentiles and the Kings and the children of Israel. I will show him how great things he must suffer from my namesake".
— It took faith for that man...
— "Now Ananias went his way and entered into the house, putting his hands on him, said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared under thee, in the way thou came has sent me that thou might receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.' And immediately, there fell from his eyes which had been scales and he received sight forthwith, arose, and was baptized. And when he received meat, he was strengthened". Now, it started there. Now Romans. Spirit of God. He's no longer called Saul. He had a covenant name change and he became Paul, the apostle. So here you have the Holy Spirit. And in the eighth chapter: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death". And it's the Spirit of God in 1 Corinthians. Oh my, my, my, and it just so much. And the 12th chapter: "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you be ignorant". Here's manifestations of the Holy Spirit in power. It's on every page and... 2 Corinthians. Oh, glory to God, hallelujah. Look at that 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians: "Follow after charity and love". More spiritual gifts. And you come on to, "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifies himself". Here we go.
— There it is.
— Here we are.
— He ran into that power. And he preached that power everywhere he went.
— Yes he did.
— And if you want to have... If you look at Acts 2, you look at Acts 4, you look at Acts 10, you follow the pattern. The Holy Spirit speaks not of Himself, but only of Jesus. If you want to have a Holy Ghost service, preach Jesus and the Holy Spirit will be there.
— That's right.
— Because He's inspiring that. You get to looking over here. You were at Romans, where was that? Romans 8? "There's therefore now no condemnation". He had to know that after all he had done.
— There's so much of this. If you read it between the lines, he had a really hard time getting away from who he used to be.
— Well people in congregations are probably sitting there that he had persecuted and their family. But listen, we're talking about the spirit of power. I don't know if it's wrong to do this or not. I just substituted it: "Therefore there's now no condemnation to them, which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after a flesh, but after the power".
— After the power.
— Spirit of power. "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law sin of death, for what the law could not do". See the law of the power of life in Christ Jesus. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in me. All I did was separate substitute spirit with power. Verse 4 of Romans 8: "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walked not after the flesh, but we walk after the power". Cause that spirit is the power that we walk in. It's what we live in. It's what we breathe in. Paul got that revelation of it.
— The full armor of God. Our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Well, it's also the gospel of power. So you're supposed to be walking in power of God.
— But you can't do it if you deny the most vital part of who you are. Now, you're born again. Every person that calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You're born again. But you've never flipped the switch to that power. Your iPad has all the resident power available to it, it's just not been charged and you had to put it on a charger.
— I had to leave it at the house.
— But we have to do that.
— So go stay at a house until you get baptized in the Holy Ghost.
— That's what we're saying. That's what your iPad just learned. But this is why Jesus pulled away at times, to recharge that power in his own life.
— Oh Jesus.
— To follow after that rather than after the carnal...
— Greg, here is a good example in the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
— Oh boy, yes.
— Now when you find something like this, read the whole 11th chapter. This was a letter, and the numbers and verses were put in there for the sake of reference, and that's a good thing. But now look at this, verse 23: "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered onto you". He wrote... Now people have misunderstood this and said he stayed in Arabia three years. It didn't say that. He said, "I went to Arabia. Then afterword, I went to Jerusalem three years". Nobody knows how long he was out there in that desert fasting and praying, seeking God. But here, look, listen to this: "For I have"... This is 1 Corinthians 11. "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. When He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me' or for a remembrance of me. When did He receive that of the Lord? Now He also said that during that time, whether in the body or out, I could not tell, "And received utterances unlawful to speak". Well, obviously it was not time to reveal that. I'm completely convinced that this is when this happened.
— Absolutely.
— He said, but he'd get called up and the Lord Jesus. He said, "I will show him all he must suffer for my namesake". And I believe that's when he found out about it.
— Absolutely. If he wasn't there three years in Arabia, which I'm fine with that. Based on the pattern, if I were to guess. I haven't studied it out I'm going to go study out now. I bet he's there 40 days.
— Could have been.
— Like Moses was on the mountain. Cause that's... Like Jesus was.
— That's where he went, he was in the desert.
— That's where he went. And that's part of this revelation. And he would've understood manna, how the children of Israel were fed manna, which goes back to Jesus and John 6, when the power was available, happening, the miracles happening in the disciples hands. And they didn't realize it.
— He also said, "I have faced beasts". I had never connected that together. That could have very well been when that happened. Cause he's out in the middle of a wilderness someplace.
— He's in Midian. He's in Arabia. He's in where Sinai was, where the burning bush was. He's having his own training on Paul: "You studied this. You are a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Let me show you". Like he saw. He saw heavenly tabernacle like Moses did. Moses made a copy for the earth and all of that. I think, if anything, and I like to say it this way and I've said it to KCBC students: Paul is our Moses. That he is explaining to this Gentile who had no covenant, who were strangers and aliens to the promise, exactly what the promise is for us. And so this is why he talks about the communion. You guys don't understand Passover, you didn't do this, but here's what it is. And I perceive that the Lord, that night, He fulfilled this. This is fulfillment of what I studied my entire life. And so Paul, to his credit now, Saul was only trying to do what they should do. Not allow the nation to follow after false idols. And he believes that these Christians are false idols. And so he's doing everything for them not to go back into bondage. Cause what happened, Brother Copeland, every time they would follow after a false god, what would happen?
— Yeah, they'd go right back.
— They'd go into bondage to some foreign land. And he was determined that was not going to happen again.
— When he said, "I did it ignorantly". And so he said, "God gave me mercy".
— So there's a difference in all of these things that we've read. And for example, I just mentioned it's over in John 6, where the feast of the Jews was nine and Jesus sees the multitude and they come to Him and He asks a question about taking care of these people and feeding these people, knowing what the answer was going to be.
— Sixth chapter of John.
— Sixth chapter of John.
— That's where it is.
— I've heard you teach on this. And he puts them in ranks. So how they were supposed to set. I like this. "After these things, Jesus went out of the Sea of Galilee," verse one, "which is the sea of Tiberius". That gives us a location on the map where they were. "And a great multitude followed them because they saw His miracles, which He did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into the mountain and there He set with His disciples and the Passover, or the feast, of the Jews was nigh". It was near when Jesus... So I'm guessing this one is the year before that final Passover. It's the one before or it's close. "The Passover, the feast of Jews, was nigh. When Jesus lifted up His eyes, He saw a great company coming to Him. He said onto Phillip, 'When shall we buy bread that these may eat?' And this He said to prove Him for He Himself knew what He would do. Phillip answered, '200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.' One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 'There's a lad over here, which has five barley loaves, two small fishes. What's that amongst so many?' Jesus said, 'Make the men set down.' Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, in number about 5000". So it's another indicator where it was. "Jesus took the loaves and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples, the disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the fish, as much as they would. When they were filled, He said to disciples, 'Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost.'" And you've taught so excellently on this, that the miracle didn't happen with Jesus. The power happened...
— In the hands of the... When he handed it to them and he gave them credit for feeding them. He didn't take the credit for it.
— But the people want to give Him credit for it. They're ready right then to make Him the Messiah. Why? Because God had fed them in the wilderness. They know this story. They're in the wilderness. He's fulfilling all of...
— And he had been preaching to them. Faith was on a high level by this time and something like 40,000 people out there. And so He said just, "There's a lot of grass here. Just sit down and divide them up. And you give them to eat". And they said, "What? You feed them". So He gave them... Now remember what He said. He said, "The spirit"... This is the last Passover meal right before the cross. "The Spirit has been with you, but He shall be in you. Well, the Spirit was with Him because the Spirit of God, according to the fourth chapter of the book of Luke. He went out six weeks into the desert, stood the test, came back, but He had just been baptized by John in the Jordan. And John saw the Holy Spirit land on Him like a dove. He saw the Spirit of God. And in my mind, the way I see it, he saw the Spirit of God come like this, not on this shoulder, but saw the Spirit of God come like this.
— Developing.
— And he saw that in the Spirit. Then He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to preach". Same spirit that created the universe. Then at the tomb of Lazarus. He'd grown in the Spirit and said, "I know you always hear me".
— But for their sake.
— Yeah, for their sake.
— Praise God. I wondered why these guys didn't understand. Why they didn't understand what was happening. Matter of fact, they'll be in the boat and He'll talk about this, the whole food thing. They didn't have the Spirit.
— No, they didn't. Not until after their...
— They're natural men at that point. They don't have that ability to tap into. See, Jesus knew what he was going to do by the Spirit of God. They don't have that.
— We're out of time already.
— Goes quick.
— Thank You, Jesus. Well, we'll be back here in just a moment.