Kenneth Copeland - Choose Life and Healing
We need to settle the fact that we're healed. Turn to the 27th chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, please. Hallelujah. Deuteronomy 27. Now this is a people that had been in Egypt and they knew who they were, but they had lost sight of how to live because they had to eat anything they can get their hands on in order to live. So there had to be Levitical laws set up and just make it a law. Don't eat certain thing. Don't do that. And we'll get over that in a moment. So here in the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy, verse nine, "Moses and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; This day thou art become the people of the Lord your God".
Today. In other words, it's going to be show and tell. Now, there's a lot of people involved in this. There's a couple of million people out there. They make a lot of noise. They can become very impressive to one another. "Moses charged the people the same day, saying, These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, when ye are come over Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah," Judah. That Jesus' tribe, "and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin:" That's the Apostle Paul's tribe. "And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali". So they split six and six on two mountains. "And then the Levites shall speak, and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image", so, all that. This is what was going on.
Now, I want to show you pictures here. Look at this. There's the mountains. There's the blessing mountain. That's Shechem and Shechem valley right there. And there's Mount Ebal. Look at the difference between the two mountains. Mount Ebal is mostly alkali. The whole face of the thing won't grow anything. So about a million people over here on this mountain and about a million over here on this mountain. And the Levites are shouting back and forth across there to demonstrate the difference between the curse and the blessing. So now by understanding that and seeing this picture that was demonstrated to them, there's certain things that you do that will bring the devil's curse on you. And of course the King James uses the word, God will curse you. But let me show you something now.
So you come across here to the 28th and then it continues to divide the blessing and the curse. "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake you," if you listen. So can you see that? It's not God specifically blessing any one person. It was available for every person. But he said, "If you just do what you're supposed to do, just come on you". So now let's go to the 14th verse. "Thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken", hear Ken, hearken, okay... "unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you".
That is not hard to understand, but then it begins to go into individual things. Now look at the 22nd verse. "You'll be smitten with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, extreme burning, the sword, the blasting mildew, and pursue you until you perish". So now let's go... Hold your place there. Let's go over to Galatians chapter three, and then we get the answer. And I learned from Brother Hagin, and I've learned now over 50 year period of time that it's true. If you ask most Christian, just walk up to them and say, "Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior"? "Oh, yes". "Are you baptized in the Holy Ghost"? "Yes. Amen". "What are you redeemed from"? "Sin, I guess".
Well, yes, indirectly. But now here it is in the third chapter of the Book of Galatians, which is a faith book in the eighth verse, "The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham," So the Word preached right. The Word's preaching to us right now, before and so forth and so on... "So then they which be of faith, are blessed with Abraham". So we go to the blessing, that's us. Now look at the 13th verse. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit or what the Spirit promised through faith".
So, John was about four. Kellie was about six. And I called them in. And in that little house, we had a great large green ottoman, I called it a footstool, I kicked it one night and broke my toe. It was that big. Oh, it hurt. It really did hurt. But then I was healed the next day. I mean it popped like a pistol and all swelled up, but I just kept, you know, confessing my healing. And when I woke up the next morning and the devil said, "Your toe is broken. Look at it. It's black and blue". So I wouldn't look at it. And I said, "Devil, some of my very best friends, their toes are black all the time".
So don't be talking to me about my toes being black and blue. That's just what came out so anyway, don't sit there and shake your head at me. I don't blame you, amen, but I wouldn't look at it. I put my socks on with my eyes shut and said, when it happened, I didn't say, "Oh, I broke my toe, broke my toe," you would if it's not in you. I said, "Oh, Jesus, glory be to God, I'm healed. Hallelujah". Ah ah ah! So I put my socks on without looking at my feet. I'm not going to be moved by what I see or what I feel. Anyway, I just tell you truth. So I called the family in, gathered around that big stool. I said, "We're going to take our flu shot this morning".
John's eyes got about that big and I was... Come on here, John get over here and we're going to get on our knees, Kellie and Gloria, here we go. So I said it says here in the curse that there's fever and consumption. All of that is, all of those are symptoms of the flu, but we've been redeemed from the curse, so we don't have the flu. Here's the flu under the curse. But we've been redeemed from the flu. Here's the flu under the curse, we've been redeemed from the flu. Here's the flu under the curse, we've been redeemed. And then I had them to repeat it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, you ought to do the same thing and never have it again. I mean, don't ever have it again. Thank You Jesus. And so we did that and they didn't have it anymore until they got up grown, Kellie or John never were sick.
Now, whatever, you know, we have the things that had to happen. You know, the smallpox thing and go to school. But long as they were under our roof, they were never sick. Kellie came home from high school one day. She said, "Daddy, I've had the symptoms of the flu all day long". Well this came out of my spirit, but we've used it since. I said, "Kellie, you are not the sick trying to get healed. You are the healed and the devil's trying to take your health away from you". She said, "I'll be right back". She went to her room and she just stayed in there till it was time for supper. And she came out. No symptoms, but they started right there. Now, since we're over there in Deuteronomy, let's go... Now this goes on 27, 28, 29 and 30. So let's get the bottom line in 30:19. "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you..."
Now, here is the deal, see right here. "Now, I've set it before you. I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, you choose life. You choose life that both you and your seed may live, that you may love the Lord thy God, and thou mayest obey his voice and may cleave unto Him. For he is your life and the length of your days that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore under that fathers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them". That was the bottom line of the whole thing. He got them out there where they could see it and he showed them, I've put before you life and death, blessing and cursing. You choose. You know what I get from that? He'd already chosen. He chose them. He picked them. You know why God picked them? You know why they were called the chosen people?
The scripture said he chose Abraham because he would teach his children. That was his requirement. He would teach his children, glory to God. We need to teach our children. And it's never too late. Oh Brother Copeland, you don't know my children. Well, Jesus does. Just start loving them anyway. Well, yes, sir, I will. I was on a meeting one time, and I had John on my heart and I was praying for him. And he said, in my spirit he said, "John thinks that you think that he's a bad boy". I said, "Why"? He said, "Because you magnify his sin". Well, I got home and John worked for the ministry back then. He was a ditch digger and whatever else. And I said, "John, when's the last time I bought you a tank of gas"? Well, he said, "It's been a while". I said, "Come on, let's get your truck".
So we got in there driving down the highway, headed toward the service station. I said, "John, the Lord spoke to me while I was gone and said that you think that I think you're a bad boy". He teared up. He said, "Well, Daddy, I've done enough to make you think I'm a bad boy". Let me tell you something, boy, I need to apologize to you. I have been magnifying your sin and I'll never do it again. From this day forward, we are brothers in the Lord, not just dad and son. We're just really, really good friends. And then I had a beautiful Bowie sized knife and Sam Hawkins, a good friend, and he makes these things. And I said, Sam put John's initial on the silver cap, JC right there on the cap, put it in a nice case. So I did what the Lord told me to do. I called him in. I said, "I need you to meet me in your mother's office".
Okay. So he did. And I said, "John, this is a token of the covenant between the two of us". I said, "When you were young, you couldn't take care of yourself. And so your mother and your dad had to take care of you. And now this stage of our lives together, we are brothers in Christ Jesus. You're a man. I'll never magnify your sin again. If the Lord tells me to mention something to you about something, I will, but I'll never magnify your sin. Never. Not one more time". And I said, "Now there's coming a day when the third stage of this relationship comes to pass. And, boy, you're going to take care of me". And he grinned real big. He took that knife out and looked at that thing. He said, "Oh, I'll get back to you". So he waited a few days and he want me to meet him outside, down close to the hangar. So I did. He said, "Daddy I want to clean the slate," and he started confessing to me. Well, some of it, I already knew about, but it was over. And he and I are very best of friends. Amen.
So consider that. And it works between mother and daughter, too. Thank You, Jesus. So now we have the bottom line of this. Let's continue. Let's go now to Proverbs and we'll go to chapter three. "My son, forget not my law or teaching. Let your heart keep my commandments". Now we can stop right there and spend a lot of time, do it. You know the old thing, if you tell your son you be about to spank him. This hurts me more than it does you, he don't believe that. But that's the case.
"Keep my commandments with your heart for length of days and years of a life worth living, tranquility inward and outward. And continuing through old age until death. These shall they add to you. Let not mercy and kindness, shutting out all hatred and selfishness and truth, shutting out all hypocrisy in falsehood, forsake you. Bind them about your neck. Write them upon the tablet of your heart. So shall you find favor, good understanding and high esteem in the sight or judgment of God and man. Lean on, trust in and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind. And do not rely on your own insight or understanding".
I'm telling you, there's life in that. I mean, you know, keep his commandments cause they work. My dad said to me one time, he said, "Kenneth, if I found out there was no God and there wasn't any Jesus, I'd live this way any way because it works". But he said then, "because it works. I know there is a God and there's a Jesus and heaven is real, it works. The Commandments work".