Kenneth Copeland - Endure as a Soldier in the Army of The Lord
Hello everybody, welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast. And we're here in class today with Kenneth Copeland Bible college student body. And you know what day it is? No, it's one day closer to the resurrection. Ha ha, yes, hallelujah, thank You Jesus. It's our receiving day. And like little Willie Phelps said, of course he grew up to be a mighty man of God. But Oral Roberts had just laid hands on many, many, many, many people. He came out of the meeting and he was waiting for him, he and his mother, he said, "Are you Oral Roberts"? And he had problems with his legs. "Yes, I am". "I'm supposed to be healed today". Well, he said, "Son, I'm tired. I've laid hands on a lot of people, the anointing is lifted". He said, "I don't know about all that, but I know I'm supposed to be healed today". He said, "Well, okay, I'll do the praying if you'll do the believing".
And of course, his mother was there and he laid hands on him. He was instantly healed and grew up to be a powerful man of God. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Isn't that wonderful? So now we'll go back to the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians and reading the full armor of God. Put on the whole armour of God. You put it on, it's there, but you have to put it on. So in order to do it you search the scriptures for the righteousness of God, the word, the truth, all of those things, but against principalities.
Now, this is from the bottom up against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. Now we know who that is. That pre-Adamic civilization, the one that was there during the dinosaur reign, they all died out. So God flooded this thing. There was darkness on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters. So now we see all of these devils and we see them in their place. Political devils, wicked spirits in the heavenlies. This is a reason people run on one thing while they're at home. They go to Washington, they do something exactly opposite, have no idea what kind of devils they're up against, and a lot of them don't know there are devils. If you said the word, they'd laugh at you.
But there it is. Just read the 10th chapter of the book of Daniel. Daniel went on a partial fast ate no pleasant bread. It wind up being three weeks long, 21 days. But then the angel of God, the messenger came in and said, Fear not, Daniel, we heard you from the first day, but the spirit of Persia bound me. That's Iran. That same devil's there, they've proven it. He never left. The spirit of Persia came, fought me, and Michael, the archangel of war had to come fight with them to get me in. Now, when I leave, the spirit of Greece will come.
Do you need any more evidence than that of wicked spirits in the heavenlies? And we found out about that pre-Adamic civilization. It had to be flooded out. Because class, I'm going to tell you again, that fossil record does not lie. This Earth had to be redone. The devil was here. We read it. So there you have it. Now "Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness. Your feet shod..." Now what are you doing? Where are your feet taking you? "With the preparation of the Gospel of Peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the wicked. Take that helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying always with all manner of prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me".
So you're supposed to be praying for the ministry as well as yourself, your family, and everything else. So now there you have that. Now let's go over here. The same Spirit writing a letter to Timothy, his son in the Spirit in II Timothy chapter two. "You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus". Oh, be strong in the grace, "And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses. The same commit you to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also". Oh, come on, now. Oh, this is a message to pastors. If you're just hanging on, you're doing everything. I was walking down the hall behind a pastor one time and headed into the sanctuary to preach. And he reached down, picking up things off the floor. And I thought, he's the janitor of this church. Either that or he won't trust anybody, he won't delegate any authority.
Have you ever noticed how Pastor George trains other people? He trains people to the point where he is well-assured that he doesn't have to oversee everything. And as the congregation gets larger, you can't babysit the young ones. But you have people that are responsible for that and our intercessory prayer staff. It's not just people that just volunteered. They just get on there and just pray any old thing they can think of. No, no, no, no, no, no. Had to be trained in prayer and certified that they know how to pray the prayer of faith. They know how to instruct people that are in trouble. One young man, this was years ago... He's not here anymore. He's in his own ministry now.
There was a woman called middle of the night. I want you to pray with me that I get my husband back. He said, "Well, now you pray with me right now. Get him back". "Well, is he a believer, nonbeliever"? "Well, I don't care, I just want him back". And he said, "Well now the Scripture said..." "I don't care what the Scripture said, I just want him back". He said, "I'm pretty well sure why he's gone". You don't even want to hear what the Bible has to say about it and just hung up. Well then he called me he said, "I think maybe I might have done wrong". I said, "No, you're probably nicer to it than I would of been".
You need someone there that's trained to do that. She's obviously hurting just to just listen to her say, "Well, ma'am, what happened between the two of you, and be a listener. She'll tell you if you keep asking the question. And in addition to that and in addition to that and in addition to that, you get down to that third or fourth, you get the reason why... all the others are excuses because she's hurt. Well, do you suppose you had any part to play in that"? "Well, yeah, I know I did". "Well, are you ready now to find out what the word has to say about it? Don't you think that's where we better go? Because that's where the answers are. And God is a God of love. And he's not happy with all of this strife between the two of you". Amen.
But you have to be trained to do that because you hear some nasty stuff that people are going to call in there, you know, threatening all kinds of different things. So you have to come to that place where you answer with your spirit, your heart, not your mind, because the devil first thing he's going to do is try to make you mad. And if he can make you mad, I mean, he takes over the conversation. I've told this many times, Gloria's unconditional love is the thing that softened my spirit. We came back to Fort Worth in Tulsa and we're living in a little rental house there. I don't even remember what caused it. It was up in the day, and I just took off against her. I'm just going on. I thought, it was just the devil. And I thought she didn't deserve this.
What is just going on... I never use foul language, that stopped the night I was born again. Second day of November of 1962. We were married in April. That ended. But I just... and I just stopped and I said, "Oh Gloria, I'm so sorry". And I just fell over there on the couch and went into a deep sleep. When I opened my eyes, I thought I'd slept around the clock when it happened. What do you think would... I'll ask one of these lovely women here. Somebody just got in your face and just screaming at the top of their voice, just leveling you with it. If you're not rooted and grounded in love and anger comes up probably end that marriage or put it in jeopardy. Just slap the fire out of him. I deserved it. Just slap you and walk out the door. "Where are you going"? "I'm going home to mama".
When I woke up, I was lying on my side. She was right up there in my face, praying. Now listen I said, "Oh Gloria I got to preach". She said, "I know it". And that is where we started. Can you see it? Unconditional love... she loved me. She knew better than to think that that's really me. She refused to do that. She changed my life more than once. We came into Hawaii on a long, long three week trip, tired and had the little complimentary breakfast downstairs. We were at the Ali'i Towers Hotel and there in Honolulu. I was so tired and so had changed and put on aloha shirt be comfortable. We went downstairs and we had the little menu there, ate a little bit. I threw the napkin back down on the table and put the tip on the table, you know.
I turned around, she had walked around behind me. I turned around and she caught me by the collar of that shirt, and a little tear. She said, "I'm going to be a blessing to you some way". I said, "No, sweetheart you are blessing to me". I just grabbed her, and in the old days, depression was a way of life for me. Well, in the first place, anyway I won't go through the whole story, but it tried to come back on me again and we were in her study. There's two large chairs in there. She just walked over behind me and put her hands on my shoulder. She said, "Kenneth, Jesus finds no fault in you, and neither do I". That did it forever. It was over. Love never fails, glory to God. So all of this armor is love based. Thank You, Jesus.
Now notice here, "Know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. From men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents... Without natural affection, trucebreakers..." Praise God. Oh, I'm in three. I need to be in two. Well, that's good anyway, that's where we are now. I need to be over here in the second chapter. Forgive me. "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ". By the grace, a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Well, when I was in the Army, I was way out of shape when I got in there and like ole Top said, Top Soldier, I'm telling you, he was a typical United States Army walked up there in front of me. And I'm standing there like this. He walked up there. I'm telling you, his waist is about this big around. I would say he was 6'4, had on that campaign hat, sergeant major, three rockers up, three rockers down and a diamond in the middle. One more rank and he's a second lieutenant. He walked up and I'm telling you, a black man, career soldier. I get chills just thinking about him. What a man he walked up and pulled me in and he said, "Oh, we're going to let the wind out of you". And he did. Oh, man... I'm dragging all that fat around on me.
Oh, here I go. A soldier in the Army of the Lord. I'll never forget those days in the Army. I don't want to do them again. I'll never forget it. Not ever. 18476975, my serial number, not ever forget it. It's just in embroidered and just stamped on my spirit and my mind. In those days I learned so much. It was amazing. And then it carried over as a soldier in the army of the Lord. And that night praying, I was about to register for school at Oral Roberts University the next day. I don't know what are we going to do. No money. And I just went in there and just started praying in tongues as loud as I could. Just fell on the floor. I said, "Gloria, I got to find out what to do. I'm going to pray if it takes all night long".
I went in and fell on the floor and I thought, I wonder if I'd be quiet he'd say something... rose up inside me, well it's about time I couldn't get a word in edgewise. Get up on your feet. Man I hit it right there, I was shaking all over. He said, "I called you here and I'll take care of you here. Your ministry doesn't begin after you get out of school. It begins now". I came out and Gloria said, "What happened to all night long"? I said, "Gloria I got my answer. He called us here and he'll take care of us here. And our ministry starts when I register".
That was the 24th of January of 1967. That's when it started. Had no idea what we're going to do. Mrs. Campbell is typing out my bill for the first quarter. No money, but he'll take care of me. I said, "Mrs. Campbell, may I make a collect call". She said, "Sure, dial nine". Well my dad knew where I was, but I called him. He said, "Where are you"? I said, "I'm in the registrar's office at Oral Roberts University". He said, "Eddie Matthew," who's in a construction business "came by and dropped a check off and said it's for your ministry". He didn't have any idea where I was. I said, "Oh, how much is it"? And he told me and I figured it out. After I took my tithe out I had $0.15 left, so I thought, glory to God, we'll just get a candy bar and go broke again.
But it didn't end there. I walked out of the LRC and my feet stuck. You've heard me tell this story. And I said, "What is it, Lord"? "Go up to the sixth floor". Well, in orientation, they said that's where Oral's office is and Dean Messick and Ron Smith and so forth, the students are not allowed on that sixth floor. And the Lord said, "Go up to the sixth floor". I said, "I can't go up there. That's the Vatican". I don't know where that came from, it just out with it. He said, "They work for me, go up there" and my feet came loose.
I had to make a choice. Obey, again. I got in trouble with that, had the worst car wreck I've ever had in my life running from going to school there. So I went up to the sixth floor and I told them I'm a commercial pilot, you know, and so forth and so on. I'm a student here and I need all the help I can get. And then as Ruth Rooke, she said, "Well, tell Dr. Messick and I told him, and he just grunted". I asked Richard, I said, "Did he ever smile"? And he said, "No, not that I knew". Well he was all business and a lovely man. He's just busy. He didn't care to be hearing that.
Well I said it twice, so turn around to leave and Oral Roberts had walked up behind me, and that's when it all started. He said, "I started to hire a new copilot two weeks ago, but the Spirit of God said, No, I have a student coming that I want to have the job and you're my man". There it was all the time. It was not what the university would teach me, which was very valuable and powerful. It was that union with him. And then once that started, then I was introduced to the tapes of Kenneth E. Hagin. That's where I learned faith. That's why the Lord wanted me in Tulsa in the first place. I had to do it by faith. And it began a lifelong association with both those men and their families. Praise God and the Word of the Living God and we're out of time again today. Glory to God, but give the Lord a praise. We'll be back in just a moment.