Kenneth Copeland - The Heart of the Father
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast and all of you know Kellie. I mean, she's been around this ministry all of her life. Oh, and you know John.. of course you know he came back to Texas from Florida. And so John is back home again, glory to God. And he had good real estate business there in Florida. But he said, "Dad I want to come home". So we're going to have a lot of fun with him.
— It's going to be a good Christmas. He's usually home for Christmas, but it's been nice having him around here.
— He's so funny. He would say, "Well, you know, forgive me, but I just didn't have time to get to the store". So he... I said, "Yeah, right John".
— He does all right now...
— He does, but now the man I was talking to you about wound up being a three star general in the United States Army. He came up through the ranks and talking about and we've visited together. And I said, "Well, you know, what was it like a young, young black man like you just joined the army as a private and just come all the way up through the ranks and become a general". And he said, "Well, the Holy Ghost, My mama's a holy Ghost woman. She raised us, we praise God". And he said, "I went in the army but the Lord bless me", and then he said, "Then I wanted to tell you a story". Now, we were talking yesterday about the fact that Micah prophesied, so that prophecy about Bethlehem, Ephratah, 715 years had to come into being so that that star was in the right place at the right time.
And so and I was discussing this with him and talking about all these things, and he said, "Let me tell you something. I wasn't but a captain". Then he said, "This is in Vietnam. I had this artillery unit. I had a patrol out". But he said, "My patrol leader" who would be a platoon leader in the army. He radioed and he said, "Captain, I know I'm surrounded and there's not too much I can say because I know they're listening to me, but how are we going to get back"? And he said, "Well, just wait a minute and I'll tell you". He said, "Copeland, I went outside and it was a beautiful night". He said, "I just start praying in the Holy Ghost. How am I going to get these guys back? I need to lay down and a barrage of artillery. I don't know what to tell him," but he said, "I prayed and prayed and prayed. And finally the Lord told me and I went back in there and I said, Captain, I said, Lieutenant, are you a Christian"?
— Yes, sir. He said, "Do you know the direction of the star"? And he said, he stood there a little bit and said, "Oh, yes, sir. I will start my artillery barrage at a certain time and I will leave that direction open". So he knew from his directions that that star was in the East. So he laid that barrage around and left a gate open to the east. And his whole platoon came out without a scratch... Isn't that amazing. So there it is. I mean, it pays to be a believer and pay attention. And now that we know the rest of the story,
— Like Paul Harvey.
— Yes, like Paul Harvey. I used to listen to Paul Harvey, anyway. Paul Harvey would say... And that's the rest of the story. Good day. Now, here's the rest of the rest of the story. Let's come back over here to the second chapter of Luke once again. Now, Jesus has been born in Bethlehem. And as we pointed out, it's 90 miles. That was quite a trip. Now then we also learn that Joseph was a magnificent human being. So then now in the 14th verse, "Glory to God in the highest on earth, peace, good will toward men". We talked about that, "And it came to pass as the angels were going away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even to Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord has made known unto us. They came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in that feeding trough and when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told to them concerning this child and all they had heard, wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart".
How do we know that? Well, Luke had interviewed her in Ephesus, where Jesus said to John, behold your mother. And he said to Mary, behold your son. So he took care of her. This is the reason he had to live longer than any of the other apostles. And he was the apostle of love, that made a difference also. Amen. Lived to be an old man in order to take care of her and Timothy... Now no wonder the Apostle Paul had to write to him twice and say, "Don't let anybody despise your youth". Well, yeah, but you know, I used to think, Brother Hagin's listening to me preach. This is the apostle John and the mother of Jesus. Oh, sitting here in my congregation, I'll just preach to these other people over here.
— Try being Kenneth and Gloria's daughter.
— Okay.
— Y'all are always gracious to us.
— Glory to God. That's good. Now where was I?
— Sorry I was one upping you...
— "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;" He's the firstborn. "And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, 'A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.' And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel:" Or the Messiah... "and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ". So here is another one. He had to live long enough to testify. It couldn't just be hearsay evidence. He lived long enough. And he literally said, I can die now. I've seen him. So he had to supernaturally know this baby.
— He was looking for that baby.
— Yes, he was. "He took him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy Word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple," She stayed there, she was a prayer. "She stayed there night and day, served God with fasting and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant..."
She came in in that instance, out of the mouth of two witnesses. "She came in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve..." So I doesn't say anything about it then. So there was 12 years there and there's really terrible things written. Oh, how he healed a little child, something... He healed little birds and all that. No, this book is right. He did no miracles till the wedding feast at Cana... and he just went to the wedding.
And so he came in there and somebody came up there and said, "We don't have any wine". She turned to him and said, they don't have any wine, he said, "What does that have to do with me? My time hadn't come yet" and she said, "You do whatever he says to". So he said, "All right, mother, I'll do it, you know for you. Go fill the water pots and when you get them full, bring them to me". So he prayed and blessed them. Now he said, "Go pour to the lord of the feast". They had to have a certain amount of faith about that too, because they just filled those pots full of water. There's something like 30 gallons of water. So they went in, oh I hope so. Look at this.
— They had to serve it too.
— So there was faith involved in all of that. And she knew I mean, here we have him. And he said, "You should have known I would have been about my Father's business". And his questions amazed the doctors and the lawyers at his questions and answers.
— The Word says he listened too. He was not just questioning. He was listening. He was learning. He probably learned that from his daddy.
— Well, I'm sure he did.
— You know what strikes me, dad about Simeon and Anna. First of all, I just every time I read that, I just marvel at their consistent faithfulness to go to the temple, to be there, to get up and know that this is the day, that would be... That is really akin to us waking up one morning and going, Today's the day Jesus is coming. Today's the day we're going... You know, it's really the same type of awareness in the spirit and two things struck me about that is as we're sitting here, I'm thinking Mary and Joseph had had words from heaven, angelic confirmation. They had had people come see because of a star. But this is the first two people that said, you know, it wasn't something they saw so much. It wasn't something that Mary said. It wasn't something... it was God told them.
And this was the first real confirmation to Mary and Joseph from another person, not heaven, that this really was. That had to impact them when they went in there like, oh, because I know you've had this too, when, when I've heard something from the Lord, and there's been times when I'd be like, Lord, I've never heard that before. Are you sure? Am I hearing you right? But when you hear somebody else is preaching that and you hear the revelation coming out of somebody else's mouth, it just is very affirming. And I thought that about these two, that that had to do something in Mary and Joseph, had to settle something like, okay, it's been said by somebody else.
— But now here's this aged prophet saying to her that you're really going to be tried, that it's going to pierce your heart. And she said she pondered these in her heart. So she was telling Luke, you know, I didn't know what that meant at the time. I had at that moment I was disturbed by it, but I knew... I remember we would say, I remember what the angel said. So I go back and I remember that. So now I know some more things to pray about and think about. Said she pondered it in her heart.
— To me, that means that when it actually came to him being on the cross, that that was hard. You don't ponder those things in your heart by yourself. The Lord was all the time walking with her and preparing her, and I believe she was. It was hard but...
— Then she's there...
— ...Able to go through that.
— All during his ministry and there were times he wouldn't have anything to do with them. They came to him and said, your family's out and, you know, and he just wouldn't go out there. Well, that's pretty obvious. Then why not? The less they knew as a family, then the less they're responsible for. And his brothers did not believe on him even after. He had to appear them later for them to even believe it.
— Well, that instance, when they stayed outside, they weren't ready to hear it. They wouldn't come in... they could have come in, but they weren't ready to hear. And I heard... I think it was Bill Johnson explain like about the parables and why Jesus said he said it that way and only certain people would discern it... he said, I remember him pointing out the fact that then they weren't responsible to keep what was being said when they weren't ready to hear the depth of what was being said.
— That's right. And because they thought he was crazy, I mean, you don't promote yourself at all. If you're going to be a prophet, why don't you act like one? You just go around doing all this other stuff. And I mean, here they were a wealthy family being raised by a man that taught them a lot of things and they knew the laws of prosperity and so forth. The curse and the blessing of Abraham and had been taught all of these thing. And he just didn't seem like he fit the mold anywhere and then go all the way up through that horrible crucifixion. Well, I guess maybe they were all right in the first place. Maybe so. But he had to appear to them to straighten it out.
— You know, Dad, I believe that this season, this Christmas, I just really get it in my heart that there are people who feel cast out. They feel outside of their family or they are believing God. But their family members are... they're concerned about their family members. And, you know, I wanted to point out, Jesus did not lose one of his family members and he doesn't intend for you to lose. It feels so much like we're just getting right there where we are at the time when the decisions have to be made. And I want to comfort you with you ponder with Jesus over your family members. That got real strong in my heart. You ponder with him. Jesus, is my son going to be okay? And then listen to what he says and then begin to ease into a rest with him and what he says do, do. Roll the cares. Roll the fear. Get rid of the fear. And I believe there's going to be testimonies that come in before 2023 rolls in that you will have communication and that you will see family members turned. This is a word from the Lord. You just accept it right now. And yes, Lord, I received my family saved and healed and whole and with me in this kingdom.
— Kellie, I'm glad you said that, because the spirit of God prompted me to go over, let's go to the third chapter of the Book of John. Now Jesus is in his ministry. "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi," now here you have... Now he's a rabbi. And this man highly respected him. But he came to him at night. It could be a lot of reasons for this dangerous be seen talking to this man, you're about to lose your job and he was one of the Pharisees. "No man can do these miracles thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". Or born from above.
But now that's where that phrase originated, right there, being born again. "Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit". That's what he's getting at... "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again". Or born from above. And then now... And he just kept teaching this man. He came on down in the 13th verse, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:"
He told him right then, he's going to the cross... "that whosoever" this is a whosoever thing and I don't care what you've done in the past, I don't care what you did today. This is whosoever... "believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life". for God... Oh, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world," you are part of that world... that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
— Yes, thank You Lord.
— Jesus was and is a gift to the whole world. Then the Apostle Paul, by the Spirit of God, began to write about it. And He's a gift to the whole world. And then in the 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th chapters of John, that last Passover meal, and Jesus said to them, I'm going to send a comforter, another comforter. And then he told them what to do and so forth. And then 50 days later, the Spirit of God came. He's the gift to the believer. And the devil fought that trying to keep people from speaking in tongues, well, of course he did. That's the gateway to the gateway to the supernatural power of God through his supernatural Son and his supernatural birth. And this supernatural Christmas. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Glory. Give the Lord God a praise. Thank You Lord Jesus. We praise You. We thank You, Father. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father.