Kenneth Copeland - Live By Faith and Walk In Love
Look at Mark 11:22. So now have faith in God. So if you put the Word of God first place, final authority, now you know what to do. Because it's in the book. Pat Robertson, 700 Club. We go way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way back. I was on The 700 Club one day and, oh, this is back, back back. And he said, "You got time to hang around a little bit after the thing"? I said, "Well, yeah, I don't have anything else to do except go home". So after The 700 Club, he said, "I want you to go fly with me". Okay. He said, "I'm having trouble".
Okay. So he was flying a little Piper Cherokee 6, and we went out to the airport there and got in it. And I was in the right seat, of course. And he was flying. We took off, he did a great job and we just flew out there over the bay and got out of the way of traffic. And this was back before there was so much congestion and so forth. And of course I had already, I called and let them know that what we were doing, called them on the radio. And I said, "Now what's your problem"? And I looked over there at him and I mean, he had a grip on that yoke. His knuckles were white and it was a little bumpy. It was in the afternoon and a little bumpy. And he's trying to fix the bumps. I said, "Pat, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute".
Now there's a life lesson in this. I knew this because my instructor told me this. I said, "Pat, this airplane knows more about flying than you do. It'll fly. It was built to fly. Now don't let it fly you. You fly it". I said, "Turn loose that. You know what that represents? Worry. This thing's not going to fall out of the air". Jesus said, "Why take thought for tomorrow? Tomorrow's got trouble enough of its own. Why take ye thought saying"? How do you take a thought? By saying it? And so we flew around out there a little ways and just letting that little airplane fly. And so he began to relax a little bit and I said, "Okay". I said, "Let's trim this up a little bit". And so he trimmed up nose just a little bit high.
Now listen. I said, "Take your hands off that yoke". I said, "I got it. Okay. Take your hands off the yoke". I said, "Now sit on your hands". So he did. And so I took that right hand off. I took the left hand off. Little airplane just, it didn't bump anymore. He was more of a bump. I trimmed the nose up just a little bit and it'd climb a little bit and then it'd slow down a little bit and it just flew itself around. I said, "Now fly it with your fingertips like this. Put your hand back on that, not the right hand, just the left one. Put the hand on the... Now put your feet back on the rudders". And he did. I said, "Now let's fly around a little while". And the airplane smoothed out. And so when he wrote the book of his life, he signed it in the front, my favorite flight instructor. God is the flight instructor. He knows more about everything than we do. He knows stuff.
Now we walk in love. I'm about to get ahead of myself. We live by faith. Romans 1:17. The just shall live by faith. Galatians 3:11, the just shall live by faith. Starts in the back. The just have their lives sustained by their faith in God. So faith, the Word without faith is dead. We find that in the book of Hebrews. But faith without the Word is dead. Huh? So how can we say this? Faith is the catalyst. It activates. Faith is the activator. Well, I'll go ahead and read Ephesians 5:1 from the Classic Amplified. "Therefore be imitators of God. Copy him and follow his example as well-beloved children imitate their father. Walk in love, esteeming and delighting in one another as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God for you so that it became a sweet fragrance".
Now I'll go to Hebrews chapter 11:1. "Now faith is the assurance, here we are, 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. For by faith trust and holy fervor born of faith, the men of old had divined testimony borne to them and obtained a good report. By faith we understand the worlds during the success of ages were framed, fashioned, put in order and equipped in their intended purpose, by the Word of God so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible".
Now the Word. All Christians in every language that I know anything about call this the Word of God. But what does that mean? Covenant now. Exceeding great and precious promises. This is his bond. The Word will bring itself to pass. It's a seed. I heard the Lord say it to me this way one time. He said, "Let the Word fight its own fight". He said, "You're trying to defeat the devil". He said, "I've already defeated him. Not your job to defeat him. It's your job to cast him out. So let the Word fight its own fight". Jesus called the Word seed. Amen. These are heavenly principles. Seed time and harvest, glory to God. So Hebrews 10:38, the just live by faith.
Now you know how to do it. First when you put the Word of God first place, you found out what to do. Now you know how to do it. Faith makes prayer work. You would be surprised how many people think that prayer makes faith work. No, it doesn't, because faith without prayer doesn't work. But we have been instructed to ask and we shall receive. Knock and it will be open unto you. Ask, knock, A-S-K. Ask, seek, knock. You getting anything out of this? I am too. We walk in love. Galatians 5:6. Faith works by love. Well, of course it does. It's God's faith and he is love. Now think about this. The Bible doesn't say God is power. Never says that. It says God is love and he has power. And it's faith power. He is love and he has faith. And faith is his creative power. Praise God.
So let's look at Mark 11:20 again. I want to go on with this. In the 11th chapter, "and on the morrow when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came," hang on a sec. And I'll go... 11, 12. On the day following when they had come away from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree covered with leaves, he went to see if he could find any fruit on it, for in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves. But when he came up to it, he found nothing but leaves for the fig season had not yet come. And he said to it, "No one ever again shall eat fruit of you". And his disciples were listening to what he said.
So that fig tree messed up. It got ahead of things. He walked up there to it. Jesus answered and said to it. He what? That fig tree was talking to him. He answered and said to it. He didn't say about it. He didn't pray about it. He talked to it. And this was an astonishing revelation to the people that were standing around him there. And it was far enough away that he shouted at it. "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever". Count them, nine words. And his disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem. Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves. And he would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught saying under them, "Is it not written my house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves".
Now what they were doing, if you brought your lamb and they would find a blemish on it, sell you another one, take your lamb in the back. Somebody else would come up and they'd find a blemish on them and then sell that one to them. It was a con game. And it was all being done in the back room. Now people think and take the idea that this is why he went to the temple. No, no. The Word is why he went to the temple. Now get this. And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him because the people were astonished at his doctrine. When evening was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. Peter calling to remember, and saith unto him, "Master, behold the fig tree which you cursed is withered away". Jesus answering said unto them, "Have faith in God or have the faith of God, for verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea".
Nine words. "And shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things, those words which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say". Then Jesus used the very same principle. Therefore I say unto you, whatsoever thing you desire when you pray, believe you receive and you'll have it. And when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any. That is all one statement. Forgive, forgive if you have any... ought against any, that your Father in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Well, what about when they ask Jesus to teach them to pray? But Jesus said that in that prayer.
Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed means sacred. Sacred, holy is your name. It's the name above every name that's named. It's the name of the creator of the universe. Hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that have trespassed against us. That is so simple. I like what Charles Capps said. He said, "The Bible is so simple. You have to have help to misunderstand it". And like he said, we've had some pretty high priced help over the year. But see, Gloria and I were so blessed, both of us got saved within a couple of weeks of one another. And so all of a sudden we wanted to read the Bible.
I said, "Gloria, did you notice Matthew, Mark and Luke and John tell the same story"? She said, "Yes, isn't that wonderful". We just a couple of scripture illiterates going somewhere to happen. Faith makes prayer work. Now here's another thing. Turn with me to John's gospel please. Beginning the 13th chapter. Now before the feast of Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. The 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th chapters of John are all in that last Passover meal. That's the reason, it is the meal that changed heaven and earth forever. Now study that and realize that Jesus didn't get into anything until he got Judas out of that room, had to get him out of there. What you do, do quickly. Get out of there. It was in a Seder meal. I won't go into all that, but that's a teaching you really need to know and understand.
So you come all the way through this. Oh, it's precious, that 14th chapter. Look in that 13th chapter. I pray this every night before I shut my eyes. I start off with, "I love the Lord, my God with all of my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength. I love my neighbor as myself, fulfilling all the law and the prophets". And then from the 13th chapter of John, the 34th and 35th verses. Look at it. A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples. They were not apostles yet. They hadn't been sent anywhere. If you have love for one another. Now going through all of this, he begins to talk about prayer in this 14th chapter. Verily, verily I say unto you he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also greater work than he shall he do. Because I go to my Father and whatsoever you ask in my name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
That Greek word is translated ask, is translated demand. Big discourse and say my name. If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray the Father and he'll give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because he sees him not, neither knows him, but you know him before he dwells with you and shall be in you. Now look at that 21st verse. He that has my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loves me. And he just got through saying the new commandment is to love one another. He did hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loves me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I love him and will manifest myself to him. Well, you could say, "Well, Brother Copeland, God loves everybody". Well, of course he does. We already know that, he is love. But who is it that loves him? The ones that do what he says.