Kenneth Copeland - Faith That Prospers
Now let's go to the fifth chapter of the Book of Mark. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Now, here we just found out "They came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes". Now, if you look at the Galilee, Capernaum is over here, Magdala is down here. and the Gadarenes is over here on this side of the lake, in this part, it's over across the lake from Capernaum. So now, "They came out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit..."
Now we won't turn there, but in fact, we could put it up, the six chapter of Ephesians, please, and start with the 10th verse. Thank You, Jesus. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places". Rulers of the darkness of this world are the ones that possess people. One devil, and I've had considerable experience at this "...Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters or shackles and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the shackles broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him".
Well he had an unclean spirit. He was possessed with this thing. "Always, night and day. He was in the mountains, in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stone". He was a cutter and he didn't sleep night and day. So you could imagine in what kind of condition he was in. He's naked. Well, that devil is in him, controlling him. Now, everybody heard this. Everybody that was there heard this. Well, if there wasn't anybody there but his men, they heard every bit of this. They were right there with him. So now, notice this. He had an unclean spirit, one. So he was an unclean man, living among those tombs. No man could bind him. When he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him.
Now, if there had been anybody that the devil could have stopped from worshiping, it had been him cause he completely controlled him. But he worshiped him. He couldn't stop him from worshiping him. And I will point out that Jesus delivered him just like that. Amen. So now notice this and I'm going to attempt to do this. It's hard to imitate this, but I've had devils to talk to me more than once "And cried with a loud voice. What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For Jesus had already said to him, 'Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.' And he asked him, 'What is thy name?' And he answered, saying, 'My name is Legion: for we are many.'"
My name is Legion for we are many. Sure, there's 3 to 6000 devils involved in this thing. I have no earthly idea how he first yielded to it. I don't know. But now it's completely done in him. "And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of that country". They were there on assignment. Now, there were 2000 hogs or more. They were food for the Roman army. There sure weren't any Jews having anything to do with them. But that's what frightened the people there. "Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils..."
Now, the people didn't hear this, but Jesus did. They didn't hear this. "Send us in to the swine that we may enter into them. Forthwith Jesus gave them leave. The unclean spirits went out, entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea," and they were drowned. About 2000 of them. All spirit beings desire a body. Those devils lost their bodies, fallen spirits. There are fallen devils. I wish I had time to go into all that, but I don't. But every spirit desires a physical body through which they have a wide range of expression. The Holy Spirit needed your and my body to have a wider range of expression. Amen. I had the Lord say to me one time. This is Memphis, Tennessee, and first meeting I was on with Brother Roberts. This the second time my feet stuck to the ground. I walked in there and there's over 2000 sick people in there and I could smell it, it frightened me so. I just walked out the exit door in that big auditorium in Memphis and I got out the door. My feet stuck to the sidewalk.
I said, "All right, what is it"? He's on the inside here. Where are you going? I said, "I'm going home". I said, "I'm going back to Tulsa". How are you going to get there? I said, "I am gonna catch a Greyhound bus or something, then get that airplane home any way they want to". Why? I said, "I can't stand that". He said inside me. He said, "Kenneth, I could have filled you with an angel". I'm standing right out there on that sidewalk, I'm talking out loud. And I'm just glad there wasn't anybody walking along there. I said, "You could what"? He said, "Well, what do you think a demon possessed man is, full of a fallen angel, the devil himself". I said, "My feet are still stuck now". Cause in a minute he's going to give me my choice. He said, "I didn't fill you with an angel, I wouldn't trust you to an angel. I filled you with myself and I have anointed you to do something about this. Now what are you going to do"? And my feet came unstuck.
Now I said, "Praise God. I'm going back in there". And I found out right then. That's why I'd been baptized in the Holy Ghost. Up to then, I knew I speak in tongues real hard-n-fast. But I didn't know I mean, what it's all about? This is great, you know, and all that. But now I found that why. Hallelujah. So now this is happening to this man. "Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, they were about two thousand; and they drowned. And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid".
Where did they get the clothes? Faith prepares. He knew what he was going to do, and he knew he's going to call this man to preach. "He's clothed and in his right mind... And they began to pray him to get out of here. And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil, prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel".
Now check it out. Check it out. The next time Jesus came through Decapolis that crowd was there. He just didn't give us his name. So here's what must have happened. Jesus must have said, Terry. He must have said, "Now, look, before we go over there, I want to warn you about something. There's a man over there and he's completely possessed with the devil. And he's going to be nasty looking and he's going to be running around out there naked. And he's a cutter. He's going to be bleeding". Looks terrible, nasty. But my Father has directed me to go over there and deliver him of that devil because my Father wants to call him to preach. So, Judas, come up with some money here. Go buy some nice clothes.
Now I don't want him going home naked. No, the man is going to be a preacher, he needs to look good. He needs to go home looking good. And they're going to say, "Where in the world have you been"? Well, let me tell you. So then he would have gone all the way back and told his story then of how it got started. Now, I was in Jamaica and we were headed to church one night and the man that was driving for me said, "Brother Copeland, before we go preach in New Hope, can we stop by and pray for a woman"? I said, "Sure". He started to get in the car and he said, "Oh, yeah, she's mad". I said, "Why"? She's crazy... Okay. Well I had a former Marine with me and he was helping me and in a lot of different ways. Well, there was Earl and the pastor and me.
So we went into this house, no electricity, just, you know, oil lamps. We were up in the mountains. That's what the Lord directed me to do and got up there and walked into this house. And we walked in there. It looked like some kind of Halloween thing. It was spooky. I mean, we went through a couple of rooms and it looked like to me anybody in there could qualify. I mean, it was a bad looking place. And they kind of laughed at me as I walked by and some of them, I was the first light skinned man they'd ever seen in the first place. I'm up in the hills, walked all the way back, and there was a young woman up in the middle of a bed. Just an old cotton mattress. Just squatted on a haunches. An old kerosene lantern hanging on the wall or light, you know, globe over it. And it wasn't a lantern but it was a wall light so it was kind of dim in the first place.
I walked up there and she was just like this. If that's me standing there, she was about like this. And when we walked in there, she turned around and ducked down like this. She looked over there at that pastor and said, "You must be Oral Roberts". He said, "No, ma'am. Looked over there at Earl and said, 'You must be Brother Weber.'" Well, Brother Weber was a radio teacher and a good one. He said, "No, ma'am". "I know who you are and you're afraid of anything that isn't flesh and blood". I looked at and then she looked down. Then I said, "You know, look at me baby. Look at me. I fear neither man nor beast. Look at me. Now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose I am and whom I serve, you let her go. You come out of her right now" and she ducked her head and I said, "No. Now listen to me, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus sent me here to tell you that He loves you".
She ducked down, I said, "Look, look, look, look at me". She looked up there at me. I said, "The Lord sent me here to tell you that he loves you". Well, I didn't have time to hang around. She just looked at me. You could see it in her eyes. That spirit was gone. Well, we got in the car and I asked the pastor, I said, "Do you know this family"? Oh, yeah. I'm known them, I said, "What happened"? Well, Brother Kenneth, she was 18 years old and she was a waitress. And there was a group came to town and preaching and she got saved and she was so thrilled. So she bought her a new dress and she went and had her hair fixed and cleaned up and, you know, and, you know, powdered up and everything and went to church. And she walked up on the front door of the church and they said, "You can't come in here". Why? "You have cut your hair. Look, what's that on your fingernails? Jesus does not love women that cut their hair, paint their face and paint their fingernails".
They wouldn't let her in the church. Well she didn't know anything. And she tried her best to keep working, but she got that on her mind and she couldn't get it off. Didn't know how to get it off. And nobody up there in those hills could tell her anything. Well, the pastor really didn't know how to handle it. And she dwelt on it and dwelt on it and dwelt on it and dwelt on it until that devil took over her mind. He didn't take over her spirit. She's born again. I didn't know I kept telling her that Jesus sent me to tell her he loved her and that's what snapped it. And that thing left. Hallelujah. This is what this is all about. Don't ever be afraid of them. Not ever, not ever. But you listen in here. Amen. What do you think? You get anything out of this tonight? Faith works and the basic fundamentals of faith. Brother Hagin would say it over and over and over and over again.
Now be careful cause you'll start where you are. And then you'll have new people come in and they don't have any idea what you're talking about. He said, from time to time, I mean, go to the fundamentals of faith, the basic fundamentals, he'd call it the ABCs of faith. Amen. So you go back to the woman with the issue of blood and you start over again.
Now, this is the way faith works. Number one, faith is the product of the spirit, not the mind. It's born out of and in the born again human spirit. We were in a seminar one Sunday afternoon and Brother Hagin finished up what he was saying and got over there in Thessalonians and he said, "I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body". I turned to Gloria. I said, "That is the key right there. That is it. The soul and the spirit are not the same thing". And you go to the Book of Hebrews and it says it again, dividing the soul and the spirit with the Word. That's it. We are spirit beings, and our words are filled with either faith or something else. And I'll say it to you again. Let me get up there so I can quit. I'll say it to you again while you stand up. In fact, you can say it with me and say it boldly:
Faith-filled words dominate the laws of sin and death. I'm a believer. I am a spirit being like God. I speak like God. I speak his words and his words become my words. And then my Father God and me are one. We are one together. We are one spirit together. I love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul and all my strength. I love my neighbor as myself for filling all the laws of the prophets. And Jesus said, I gave you a new commandment that you love one another and all people will know you're my disciples the way you love one another. So rejoice and be glad for I have developed a way to see to it that you're always well all the time.