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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Kenneth Copeland » Kenneth Copeland - Faith Is the Gift of God

Kenneth Copeland - Faith Is the Gift of God


Kenneth Copeland - Faith Is the Gift of God
TOPICS: Faith, Spiritual Gifts

In the book of Mark, chapter 11. "And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. People calling remembrance unto it said, 'Master, behold the fig tree which you cursed is withered away.' Jesus, answering, saith unto them 'Have faith in God.'" My cross reference says "Have the faith of God". Well, of course it's God's faith, because it was his faith imparted into you and to me the moment you accepted Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, because by faith you were saved through grace. It is the gift of God. And somebody asked me, "Well, which one was the gift of God? The grace or the faith"? Both of them, sweetheart.

If we got what we deserved, I do not want anything I deserve. Let's don't be talking like that. I've had people come and say, "Well, you deserve this". "No, don't go there. I just work here and I enjoy my job". It's by grace, man. By grace, by faith, so that it might be by grace. And here's the classic teaching on it right here. The fundamentals are all right here. I want you to notice something. "For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say under this mountain, 'Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea,'" nine words. That's what he spoke to that fig tree. Who-so-ever. This a whosoever thing. "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain".

Now he was referring to a particular mountain that was there. He pointed to it. "Whosoever shall say onto this mountain, 'Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says should come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says.'" Brother Hagin, he was in the sanctuary of his church and he'd been over there and he read through the whole book of Mark. Well, these verses right here is what got him off the bed of affliction instantly one day, but he had to stay with these in order to stay healed. The devil tried to kill him several times after that. But anyway, while he was just lying there, the Spirit of God said on the inside of him, "Did you notice that in those verses I used 'say' in one form of another three times and 'believe' only once"?

Well, he went back and read it. He said, "My people are not falling behind in the believing, they're falling behind in the saying". Because he said, "You're going to have to preach three times more on the saying than on the believing". So, look at it. Count them. "I say unto you, whosoever say unto this mountain, 'Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,' and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Whosoever shall say". Believe is only mentioned once. It's the saying part. Jesus could have believed that and walked right past that tree, and I don't care how hard he believed it, it would not have affected it because it takes words to release the power. The words have to release the power.

So, "Therefore I say," so can you see, he put it into motion? Whosoever shall have what they say. "Therefore I say unto you, whatsoever thing you desire". Now look at it. "Whatsoever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them". Them is in italics. "Believe that you receive and you shall have when you pray". You believe it when you pray. What do you believe? What you said. Now, the problem is not having any grounds upon which to base that prayer. This is good. Now we can start there. "Well, I need healing". "Well, what are you going to say"? "Well, I don't know". "Well, go find healing scriptures". Did you ever notice it's script, but you add T-U-R-E on it and becomes holy. It's just script till you put it in that book and God's the author, then it's a holy thing. It's scripture.

Now, what do you have to have to be scriptural? Scriptures. Huh? I heard this one day out dealing around with that same kind of thing. And it came up on the inside of me, "Let the Word fight its own fight". You don't have to fight it. Let the Word fight it. Let that sword of the Spirit fight it. And you finally get to where the devil's concerned, an you just rattle it a little bit and he'll get out of your way. Just pull that out and say, "Here, devil, hold this," a few times, and stick those scriptures in him. It doesn't say, "Resist the devil, he will flee". It says, "Submit yourself to God and resist the devil and he will flee". You submit to you that book. You fight with those words. You find the scripture that covers your situation, meditate on that and put it up before you. And those are the words that you speak, glory to God, hallelujah.

You don't walk up and say, "Tree, I'm speaking to you. I'm just about to curse you". You've already lost. You know why? Jesus had already heard from the Father. He knew what he was going to do. That fig tree paid the price. Amen. Don't just fly off the handle. Go get the scriptures, go get the healing scriptures, go get the finance scriptures. Get somebody to sit in agreement with you. You don't do all the asking. "Anything that they shall ask". Both of you ask. Both of you believe. Get in agreement. A lot of people pray that, that are not in agreement. What is an agreement? Well, I mean there were contracts signed by this ministry concerning this room and concerning the room of our staff and so forth, all of our rooms and so forth. And there were contracts signed over that. Somebody had to agree.

And if we get ready to come here and they say, "Okay, now we're going to provide this and this and this and this and this and this and the other". "I understand that". "And this amount of money is going to be here on this date". "Yeah, I sure do hope so". No agreement. But when Jesus said, "Any two of you on earth shall agree, anything that they shall ask..." And the Classic Amplified says, "Make a symphony together". Do you ever hear a symphony orchestra warm up? That's chaos. And for somebody that has a musical ear, it hurts. But once that director says... something beautiful happens. It would've been terrible if any of those instruments had been out of tune. That's what this is about. These are just fundamentals of faith. We have to be in agreement together. And Jesus is about to tell us how.

"I say unto you what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe you receive them, 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. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive you your trespasses". He can't. He can't get through to you. And Jesus talked about that. He talked about the man that was forgiven a huge multimillion dollar debt and went out and would not forgive someone else of a $25 debt. And he got thrown into the debtor's prison because of it. He wouldn't forgive. This is a faith killer, unforgiveness. Forgiveness is an act of love and an act of grace. We have different words for love, but in the Greek, it's very distinct. Agape is love that loves by decision. I love you. I love you. Not because I feel one way or the other, but he said, "Love one another". And faith depends on it.

Now I want to show you. I want you to get this. He spoke the desired end result. He spoke it and left. It's over. As far as he's concerned, that tree will never bear fruit again here after forever. I was having trouble with my elbows. I'd pray over it, and then they would hurt. And I drank way too much coffee. I abused it. And then the Lord said, "If you want my will for you, don't ever drink another cup of coffee". I thought, "Okay". Because he said, "That's what's happening to your joints. You abused it". He said, "Go get your stuff". We had an ugly old green bag, had a can of Folgers in it. A Farberware coffee pot, just wagged it everywhere. That thing was part of the luggage. Gloria and I both drank too much of it. This is when I learned this. He said, "Put it on a plate".

So, I got a plate and put it down there. He said, "Speak to it and say, 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I have no need of you in my life again hereafter, forever.'" Then he said, "Now take communion". And I did. Instantly, no withdrawal, no headache. Then I said, "Do you want me to preach that to everybody"? He said, "No, that's none of your business". But he said, "I do want you to tell them how he got rid of it". He said, "You can do it with drugs, you can do it with cigarettes, you can do it with anything". I wish I'd have known that when I was getting rid of the cigarettes. Oh man, I'd throw them away and go back and get them. I've been smoking since about this tall. And anyway, so I said, well, I'm going to a meeting down here in Houston, Texas, with some good friends of mine and I didn't have money to take Gloria down there.

And so I called her and I was working for my dad then, and I called my dad. I said, "Dad, I can't do this anymore. You know I'm called to preach. And I need to go to a meeting down there at Hilton Sutton's church in Houston. And I'm here in Tyler, I don't have money enough to go back and get Gloria, so I'm just going to go on down there". And I told Gloria that. So, I just headed on down there. And so I just stuck that pack of cigarettes over the sun visor and got inside that meeting and I forgot about it. Just forgot about it. And this man walked up to me and handed me some money, said, "Copeland, go get your wife". So, I'm glad to get that.

So, I went out there and I looked up there and I said, "Well, look at you". That's it. Amen. So, how come that to happen? I got in that meeting and faith came. The cigarette left me. He's just gone. Amen. Never had any problem with it again. But now take that, "I have no need of you again in my life hereafter, forever". Then take communion. Once you have received communion, now you're going to have to go across that to get a cup of coffee. Now these are the fundamentals of faith. So, all through the Bible, these fundamentals operate, but this forgiveness situation, I mean in the model prayer, that is a healing prayer, "Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name". Then what? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done". Where? Is there any sickness in heaven?

Oh, that's a healing scripture, brother. Amen. And what? As what? As we forgive. You forgive us as we forgive. You forgive us as we forgive. Because if you don't, it doesn't work. And that's the key to faith, because faith works by love, and love works. So, in the areas, it is the faith of God, the same faith with which he created heaven and earth. Romans 10:17, "Faith comes". It cannot not come. It comes. It does come. Faith is a spiritual force, right there in Mark 11:23, "For verily I say unto you whosoever shall say unto this mountain, 'Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says should come to pass, he will have whatsoever he says".

And I have seen it and done it, and there's times that I've flopped at it, and immediately you just go back and check up and find out where the strife is. I got so mad in one meeting, three weeks I was there. Three weeks I was there. And every night they took up Brother Copeland's offering and it was just wonderful. And during that meeting, and it was a rough meeting, there was some real problems in it but I'm not going to go into that. And came the last day, the last day. They're going to present Brother Copeland with his check. Brother Copeland had this check, I mean it's a large thing, like big deal, big deal. Handed it to me. I went in a whole $40.

So, I got up very, very early the next morning, before the pastor ever woke up, because I didn't want to talk to him. Not right now. And his paper was out there in the yard and I just went out there and got the paper. Gloria said, "Put that paper back". I said, "Gloria, I want to spank him". She said, "No, you just go on". So, we drove on to Prescott and got in there and I was tired. And Gloria's mother said, "The sheriff called looking for you". She said, "He wants you to call this number". So, I called it. It was my friend from Monroe, Louisiana. He said, "Brother Kenneth, I had it in my heart to sow some seed into you when we were having lunch, and I didn't do it". But he said, "I wanted you to know that I'm sending you some money, went way over my budget".

That church got bills paid that they really needed to pay. That's what the meeting was all about. But they didn't tell me that. Had they tell me that, it would've been different. But had I gotten mad, he never would've remembered it. Thank God for my wife, and I put that newspaper back. And that wasn't the end of it. I listened to Brother Hagin's tapes all the way to Prescott. Amen. Settled it in my heart and went way over the budget. It works. I was believing God all the way through that. And in the middle of that meeting, it was tough. I got mad during prayer time one day, and now I didn't cuss now. No sir. I don't do that, but I got close. And I carried on there and I learned something that day.

And so it came time to start getting ready to go over there for the evening service in the tent. And I said, "I'm not going". The Lord said, "Why not"? I said, "I'm not going over there". I learned there's no use trying to hide things from God. He knows anyway. I just talk to him like I talk to you. And I said, "I'm not going". I said, "No, not after what I did. I'm not going to go over there and say, 'Thus sayeth the Lord' you can just get you another boy. I'm not going". He said, "Didn't you confess that sin"? I said, "Yes, I did". He said, "Kenneth, when you confessed that sin, is not when I found out about it". He said, "That's when you got rid of it". And it changed my life forever. He said, "That's not when I found out about it".

He knew the problem I was having all the time. And he knew that church was in dire financial situation. I found that out later after the meeting was already over with. Now, and I'm going to close with this, but by staying on the love side of everything, God already had that in hand, he already had those bills paid, I just didn't know it yet. I had to continue to walk in faith and continue to walk in love. Thank God for a wife that wouldn't bend when it comes to the love walk. She never has yet. Amen. And she would tell me, "You better just calm down and stay on your faith".
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