Kenneth Copeland - God's Plan Is Right on Time
Hello, everybody I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is the student body of Kenneth Copeland Bible College. And that still my name on a Bible College. Yes, it took me a while, I just really was, you know, holding back there a little bit and because I really hadn't heard anything about this and we were in a meeting and discussing this and with people who are now instructors. But anyway and I just still was... I hadn't heard anything yet. And my daughter Terri said, "Dad, what about every available voice". I said, "Do it, that settled it". Because every born again believer is called as a witness and is called to teach. Amen.
So that was the way it began. And it is such an honor to me to have my name under God's name, for him to trust me enough to found a Bible college. And the day will come as it goes and get larger and so forth. According to God's time and according to his will. This is his decision, not mine. Father, we thank You again today for Your Word. And we prayed in the first part of this week about divine insights, concepts and ideas and You've granted that, and we thank You for it, because that's who You are. You are our God and we are Your people and we praise You for that in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now we're here in the Book of Ephesians in the fourth chapter. Let's continue here in the fourth chapter. And let's go to the 29th verse. Now, isn't this amazing, the Spirit of God through the apostle Paul is teaching born again, Holy Spirit baptized Christians. "Put on the new man after God created righteousness and true holiness. Put away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down on your wrath. Neither give place to the devil". That's all one statement, neither give a place to the devil. "Let him the stole, steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give".
That is huge, well, you know Brother Copeland, I got to make a living. That's the reason I'm working with my hands. That's the reason you ain't worked much. You got the wrong concept. Let him work with his hands that he may have to give to the one that needs. It said, "Don't steal it, quit the stealing". You need to read the Ten Commandments like this. Have no other gods before you. I mean, he's it. He's the best there is. Don't steal. Hey, don't be stealing, quit that. I'll bless you to the point where you'll have to give to others. Don't covet what belongs to somebody else. Don't covet another man's wife. Listen, I can find one better than she looks. I'm telling you, I've got one all picked out.
And let me remind you that a little girl born in 1942, on the 12th of February in Center Point, Arkansas, out there in the country, and a little boy born December the 6, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, moved to Abilene, Texas. And then I look back on it now. My dad worked for Johns Business College, but then he went to work for National Online Insurance Company, which was in Little Rock, Arkansas, and TCU played Arkansas in 1961 for the Southwest Conference Championship. A man by the name of Wes Pension chartered the airplane. My boss was also in the car business where I worked for him. I didn't have a multi-engine rating yet. I was working on it.
Well, they had an after game party. My dad didn't care anything about going to that after game party, but I did. Yes I did. And a man walked up to me and said, "My daughter's best looking girl in state of Arkansas". I said, "Is that right"? Yeah. Came back a little later and he said, "You don't believe me do you". "I believe you, man". "No, you don't. My daughter's best looking girl in the state of Arkansas. How are you going to airport in the morning"? "Cab, I guess". "No, I'm gonna come and pick you up, I'm gonna prove it to you". I ask Bill, I said, "Bill can my dad go, we had an empty seat". Well, he knew my dad. He was in the car business. My dad bought cars from him. He said, "Yeah, but you can't find a room there".
Well, my dad had been working for a national oil and line insurance company for a number of years, so he called one of the executive vice presidents that he knew and told him the story. He said that Kenneth and I would like to stay in the penthouse. Well, yeah, he said ain't nobody, we all gone ahead, we're going to the ball game. So I explained to Mr. Niece, I didn't even know his name then. National Oil & Line Insurance Company. I know where that is. That penthouse, the elevator on the outside goes up. I know where all that is. I'll pick you up the morning. Well, about 10:00 the next morning, Sunday, the 8th of October, 1961. And that elevator opened up and there was Babe and Mary and Gloria and I thought... man... He wasn't kidding.
I said, "Gloria, would you like to walk out on the deck and look at the city"? She said, "Sure". We walked out there and we're standing there and she put her arm around my waist and patted me on the back and I was gone. I fell so deeply in love with her, I couldn't think about anything else. A few days later, the boss said, "I have taken over the FBO in Camden, Arkansas". I'm sending Mack and Martha Tate over there and I'm wondering if you want to go? "Yeah, I'll go". "Don't you want to think about"? I said, "No I thought about it. Cause that girl is over there somewhere, and I'm gonna find her".
Well, I did and she did. And then we went on our first date and I always said, you know, I'll never danced and sing with a woman at the same time. Hollywood makes it look so easy. But then Johnny Mathis on a Wurlitzer one more time jukebox, "Look at me". I said, "Gloria, would you like to dance"? So I stomped around on her toes for the length of that record. Walked up on her dad's porch and I said, "Gloria will you marry me"? She said, "Okay", and just went in the house. She said later she said, "What have I done? I don't even know this guy. Oh, well, I'll get out of it later". 60 years and eight months, and she's still in it. Glory to God. Hallelujah.
Now, I brought that up for a reason. God made that plan before the foundation of the world. National oil line agent came by and made a presentation to my dad. And then my dad went to my mother and said, "I see a real future in this company". That's when we moved to Fort Worth from Abilene. He had to work for a national oil line insurance company in Little Rock, Arkansas, and we had Wes Pension had to charter that Cessna 310 that Bill Golightly was flying and his car business and his aviation business. I had to be in the right seat, I had to be in that penthouse. I had to go to that after game party. I had to act like a fool. I'd just done a crazy comedy routine.
Nothing ugly, I didn't do that. And her dad had to come up to me because God had already planned that she would be my lifelong partner in this ministry. And in her life. And she changed my life in more ways than one. And I love her more than my own life. She changed my life. God did through her more than once. After saying all of that, never underestimate a delay, never. Never underestimate a delay. Don't get all shook up cause you couldn't just go at the time. Very, very close friend of mine about ready to board an airplane and a man with a born-again Spirit-filled man. He said, "I don't feel right about this airplane, I'm not going to go on it". And his friend said something like, "Oh, now, come on, man". "No".
Well, airplane crash, man went to heaven, but he didn't fulfill his days. Become covenant-minded all the time. Be world of the Spirit-minded all the time. Things are happening in the Spirit. No one. Let's talk about 9/11. God spoke to everybody there, some of them listen and some of them did not. Now in Dan and Anne Stratton's church where Dan was teaching on hearing the voice of God and most of his congregation worked in the World Trade Center. Nobody was even injured. One man came walking out of there with his suit on, came walking out of that mess. And he didn't even have any soot on his clothes. Another man heard the Word "run" and he just took off into the subway.
Another man was on his way and his daughter said, "Daddy, let's stop and have something. You always have to go early and I don't ever get any time with you". He stopped off just long enough, now he's a member of that church now. He stopped off just long enough with his daughter. When Dan saw it from where he was, and he grabbed a cab and had him take him into it. Well, now all of the firemen and everyone else knew him, he's the pastor of the church there, but they weren't paying any attention to him. So when Dan prayed about it, the Lord said, "Dan, go get a collar and put it on".
Most of the firemen and most of the policemen were Catholic, and Dan knew a lot of them, born again people. So he put the collar on and he walked right in the middle and they say, "Oh, yes, Father Dan, would you pray for this one. Yes, Father Dan, would you pray for them. Yes, Father Dan, thank you Father Dan. Oh, Father Dan, Oh, thank you for the ministry".
Now, the little chapel that survived it right there in the midst of all that mess was where George Washington... there was no Washington DC. Our first president, George Washington, entered covenant with God, on the 17th chapter of Genesis and took his Bible and made a covenant with God for this nation. Look it up. It's all a matter of history and record today. He was so aware of the Living God and the weight and the honor of being the first president of this nation. So this nation belongs to God and the devil has been trying to take it away from him all these years, but he can't have it.
Now go with me right here in this book of Ephesians, I want you to look here in the 29th verse. Let no, hey, no, no, no, no, no, no. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying," or building up. that it may minister grace unto the hearers. "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God" for the sake of the Anointed One, and his anointed has forgiven you.
Now let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth. I drew a line in my Bible right to the fourth verse of Chapter five. "Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks". Fill your mouth with Thanksgiving and gratitude. Every meal in our household. Every meal. We are so grateful. I have a grateful attitude. Develop a life of gratitude and thanksgiving. So grateful to You, Father for this food in the name of Jesus. So grateful that our family is to this place now where this kind of inflation doesn't hit us as hard as it does other people. But we learned that from being sowers and without debt and so forth, and we're teaching others no corrupt communication. And we ask You to bless our partners all over the world, wherever they may be. Bless them beyond measure. Bless this nation, amen. Every meal, no corrupt communicate.
I tell you... I'd much affirm Washington. Give me a Tums. Did you vote? No I don't vote for them. Then shut your mouth. You have no right. Voting in this country, in this nation is a sacred honor. I offered my life for this nation. It was with great honor in the middle of the night, January 1957, I took the oath of the United States Army and my allegiance to the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And it didn't change just because I got to be 86 years old. I'm very serious about it. I held my hand up and entered covenant with the United States Army and the United States government. Hallelujah.
So now rather the givings of thanks. "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience"... Or the children of unbelief. What is unbelief? It's just no faith at all. You know, there's no such thing as non belief because we are of the human race. We were built to believe, that's what we do and your words reveal your faith.
"Well I want to tell you something Brother Copeland, that you have and what you say don't work for me". It just did... You said what you believe. Well, what's the difference? Well the difference is, I think I'll go to the store. I believe I'll go to the store. I'm going to the store. I'm going. One was I think I am, the other one's I believe I am. Now when you say something like, you know what, I believe I'm going to fast here for a few days. Uh oh, you're going to get hungry. You're gonna eat three of the biggest meals you have ever eaten in your life. You just let the devil know you're thinking about it. No, I learned this from the Lord. When the Lord says fast, then do it. Don't play around the edges of it and drink your coffee and put three scoops of cream in it. No, no, write it down.
Take the Scriptures 58th chapter of Isaiah and write down the scriptures and so forth. I will not allow food to enter my mouth for the next three days. The next five days. Water only. Write it down, put it in front of you, read it every morning, go to the breakfast table, sit down there with everybody else and have your water and your supplements, right there with everybody else, smile and read to them. Let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth but walk in love. Be lovely about it to all people. Now next week we will get on over into the full armor of God. Oh, yes. We're going to suit up. We're going to suit up for battle next week. Did you enjoy this today? Give the Lord praise, would you. We'll be back in just a moment.