Kenneth Copeland - Faith Believes Without Seeing
Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. And we thank you today for being here. Oh, we're going to have a fun time this week. We're going into the fundamentals of faith. Now, last week in talking about God and His names are one, His name can do anything He can do. But remember, the sermon that Peter preached in the third chapter of the Book of Acts, what did he say? Faith in His name. There are vital revelations. I'm not talking about the Book of Revelation, but you could include the Book of Revelation. There are vital revelations from the Word of God by the Holy Spirit that every Christian believer should know.
The first revelation that every born again Christian, not just Christian in name, should know and have a revelation concerning is what Jesus said: Go to Jerusalem and don't leave until what I promised comes. He was talking about the Spirit of God. And after His resurrection, 50 days later, Pentecost... Pentateuch is five. The first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. Pentecost was when that promise came to pass. And it is must. It is vital that every believer come to that place of receiving the infilling of the Holy Spirit and speaking with other tongues. Now, there are prayer fundamentals. All prayer's not the same. There's the prayer of salvation, there's the prayer of dedication, there's the prayer of faith, prayer of intercession, prayer of supplication, praying in tongues, but it's all prayer. But there's fundamental differences in them.
Now, I brought these two models in here. In World War II, if you were a flight cadet, you would walk up in front of an airplane, much like this. Actually, this would be the second airplane you would get into. The first one is just a little yellow Piper J-3 Cub. But they would walk you up there and they would say, "Gentlemen, this is an airplane". And this, what is that? Yeah. But now, people called it a prop. It's not a prop. That's its nickname. It is a propeller because it propels, and it goes around in that direction. And now everybody knows that's an airplane. Everybody knows that's an airplane. But they're fundamentally the same thing, but there's vast difference in the two. Vast difference.
Now, and everybody in here understood that this is an airplane and that is a propeller. So you walk down this way. And so, what is that? You fundamentally don't know. Why? You have not been trained. That is the left aileron. The what-a-ron? If I want to make a left turn, in this position, this is going to be up and this one will be down. The Wright brothers figured that out. There's the same thing on this one, only a lot fancier. But fundamentally, they're the same to make a turn. Now, this is what? That's the rudder. Well, it's the vertical stabilizer, but it is the rudder. Now, to make a coordinated turn to keep the airplane from skidding this way, then this has to be coordinated also. Then this... Yeah. But it isn't. The tail is the empennage.
So what do you need when you go up or down? An elevator. This part, this is a vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer. But this part here, if I go up, can you guess what has to happen? That nose has to come up? Well, you're going to have to deflect with this. To come down, this is going to have to go up. So flying is a discipline. Safety is an attitude. This one just has all kinds of different things. You got these little jobbers on the end, and what are they? They're winglets. And when they're needed to get the wing longer, they just kept getting it, but they finally figured out you can crank it up on the end and it does the same thing. But fundamentally, they are the same. So what is its propulsion? Here. But they're fundamentally the same. Both of them have a vertical stabilizer, but look at the difference.
Now, this one has two rudders. You can see a little crease right here, a little small one up here. The rudder on this is moved by hydraulic force. This is just cables. But you could lose all of your hydraulic fluid in this one and still have a rudder left. This is an emergency rudder. So you can see how much more sophisticated this is than this. But fundamentally, they have to do the same thing to do this, they have to do the same thing to do that, the same thing to do that. This one, you can stick it straight down and you probably might get, oh, who knows? A 135, 40 miles an hour out of it. Only difference is you can stick this one straight down and it won't tear up. You stick this one straight down, and it'll go super sonic. That is the Citation X. This is the Boeing-Stearman. Originally, Mr. Stearman designed this airplane, but then during World War II, this became the secondary trainer. And this one is rigged up like a sprayer, but the one that I have, doesn't.
And the look at the difference in the engines. Of course, this is a gasoline engine, and this one burns Jet A, which is a very highly refined diesel fuel. But this show and tell, they are fundamentally the same. They are fundamentally what the Wright brothers discovered. And when they tried to turn it, for a while they'd just fly straight and level. But you can't do that forever. Then they kept watching birds, and the birds just do this, but their little feathers do exactly the same thing. And if you could take pictures of them in slow motion, their little feathers do the same thing that we do mechanically. They have to because of physics. So what do we say about physics? What are they called? The laws of physics. This is called the law of flight, which is lift over drag.
Now, open your Bibles to the third chapter of the Book of Romans, verse 26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No: but by the law of faith. Ah, that's the fundamental thing about faith, it functions by spiritual law. These are the laws of physics. These are the laws of the Spirit. The reason they're called law, these are called laws because they are predictable. Once you know the science, then it's predictable. Once you know the spiritual law, understanding and have insight into it, it's predictable. This works the same way every time. This works the same way every time. This is the reason we have this.
Do you see what I mean by that? Because the God of the Bible is the God of all invention. He knew all of this. I want you to know that airplane would've flown in the Garden of Eden. Probably better. The atmosphere was a whole lot nicer in the Garden of Eden. But nobody understood the laws. It would've always worked. That jet engine would've always worked. In fact, it always did. There are fish that use it, and they propel themselves through the water. Then he thinks, "Brother Copeland, that is so basic". Yeah, but you needed to be thinking about it. Amen. People say that necessity is the mother of invention. Well, if it is, faith is the father. Well, show now. Father, we thank You. We open our hearts and our minds to receive revelation from You today. We give You the praise and the honor for it. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Now, we're talking about the fundamentals of faith. Let me give you these fundamentals and then we'll go back through the week. The fundamentals of faith. Number one, believe it in your heart, then say it with your mouth. Number two, faith will not work in an unforgiving heart. Number three, it's impossible to receive Abraham's blessing with Thomas's faith. Number four, faith calls things that be not as though they were. One translation said, "Faith calls things that do not exist as though they already exist". That's really... well, the first one is the King James translation, but it's saying the same thing. Number five, faith demands corresponding action. And we will go through all of those.
Now, let's turn, to get a strong working definition of faith right from Jesus, to John, chapter 20. Before we go on there, which one of the disciples was a twin? Hmm. It's an open book test. Okay. Verse 24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called...what? The twin. It's right there. You should have known that. Now you do. "Was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, 'We've seen the Lord.' But he said unto them, now listen to what he said, 'Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side,'" an act of his will, "'I will not believe.'"
And after eight days again his disciples were within, Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side," now, let's get this, "and be not faithless". Another way that that can be called, unbelief. Because he made a decision, "I will not believe it". Thomas answered and said unto him, "My Lord and my God". Jesus saith unto him, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed". Now look at this. I want you to get this, class, and all the class around the world, get this. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed". That's the law of faith.
So again, I'm not moved by what I see. Or I can say I'm not moved by what I don't see. I'm not moved by what I feel. Most of the time, I'm talking about people that understand these things and live by faith. But the feeling part is, because sometimes there can be a lot of hurt involved or a loved one that you're in intercession, different kind of prayer, but it still is prayer, or supplication. What does intercession mean? Standing in the place of? And you just have to stay with it. Just stay with it. And of course, we're going to get over to Romans 10:17 here in a few minutes. And with many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. What did we learn last week? Many other signatures. Signs. Many other signatures of Jesus, signatures of God. Hallelujah.
So now then, let's go back to fundamental number one. Which, of course, we'll go to Mark 11, as Jesus teaching on this. Mark 11:22-25. Back up to the 20th verse. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. dried up from the roots. Now, Jesus said... Now, here, let me paint the situation because people get disturbed about this. Verse 12. "In the morning, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves", underline that, having leaves. "He came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet".
Now, just a moment here. And 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. That's from the Amplified Translation, so by amplifying that. But now, this King James version kind of just stumbled around at it. Hang on. Because we really want to get what this says. He found nothing but leaves, for the fig season had not yet come. But it had leaves. Now, here in this country, the fig trees that I've seen are usually about that tall. Not in the Middle East; they're huge trees. You can research that and find pictures of them. Big trees, lot of leaves on them. Figs in the Garden of Eden, and you know they were big and lush. Oh, I like figs. But anyway, he saw that. You think he didn't know when it... but he's a busy man. And that tree was full of leaves. And he got up to it.
And I want you to notice something here. Look in the 14th verse. Believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth. Jesus answered it. He said something. He answered it and said unto it, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever". His disciples heard it. He saw a fig tree afar off. I mean, he cut down on that tree. No man eat fruit of you again hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. And they went to Jerusalem. He just turned around and walked off. Now, I'm adding that. That's a dead tree. He didn't point out. Now, remember, I only say what I hear my Father say. Lightning could have killed it, but it would not have killed it to the root. You need to go to the root of the problem. And many times we talked about last week, the wisdom of God is available to us. So many times it is that wisdom. The wisdom, the ability to use knowledge with God's wisdom. Oh, praise God. Amen. And we're out of time. Wow. Praise God. Come on. Show the Lord a praise here. Thank You, Jesus.