Kenneth Copeland - Encourage Yourself in the Lord
The anointing is manifestation of the blessing that began on Adam. The blessing of the Lord, which is the blessing of Abraham, which is on us. So let's turn now to I Samuel, chapter 30. "It came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captives. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God".
Now, that's the first thing you need to know. Excuse me. Things just hit your household hard. Encourage yourself in the Lord before you just take some knee jerk reaction to it. Encourage yourself in the Lord. You could do that in the first chapter of Joshua and verse eight. "David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them"? Two questions. Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? Now, he had no idea where they went. So this is going to take a miracle right there of some kind. "And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all". Now the Commander in Chief had given him his orders. You go now. You will overtake them and you'll get it all. So now... So David went. He and his 600 men. So now that's a lot of people.
Well, here's something else you have to realize. This is not a mechanized army. Their food walks with them. Their meat is on four feet. Wherever they go, that's a job now... "600 men with him and came to the brook Besor". Don't let that word brook fool you. It's anything but a brook. Now we have pictures of that very area. If we could put those up on the screen, please. Now there it is. Now that's Besor. That's Besor. Would you want to bring a herd of cattle down through that thing? Well, now, what about this? There it is, full of water. That look like a brook? They didn't have any business bringing all that cattle through there and running the risk of losing their whole quartermaster, "Where those that were left behind stayed. David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook" or the river.
They had pushed so hard that it be dangerous for them personally to even go through there. But they were part of this army. I'm telling you, there are times on the field of combat when a cook is a real, real important guy. You get tired of eating the same old C-ration or K-ration you've been eating for weeks and weeks and weeks. They found... Look at me. "They found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him bread. And he did eat. And they made him drink water. They gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins or grapes. When he had eaten, his spirit came again to him". He was about to starve to death, "for he had eaten no bread or drank any water three days and three nights". Listen, you can't go that long without drinking water. You just can't function that long without anything to drink. He was about dead. "David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and where do you come from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick".
So since he was sick, he wasn't worth anything to his master. He just left him to die. That's the kind of people we're after here. "We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me," nor make me go back to that guy. I'm not telling you anything. You swear to me you won't kill me or put me back in the hands of that guy. And I will bring you down to this company.
"When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day:" Look at that... from twilight even to the evening of the next day. All night long and all day long after a forced march. And we'll see the answer to that in just a moment, "and there escaped not a man of them, except four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and ran off". So the cavalry ran out of town. "David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: rescued his wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all". Why? Because he encouraged himself in the Lord. And he had a word from God and God told him he would and he fully planned to do so.
So he believed what God said. "And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil. And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them. Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away," and get out of here. Well, that was a great attitude. "David said, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand".
Now, that's the reason they had the strength. That's the reason that battle was won. And they fought all night long and all day the next day. That's the reason they had the strength to do it. Does this thrill you like it does me? I mean, you can carry this into a hospital room, encourage yourself in the Lord and don't just run in there. Encourage yourself in God. Spend some time before God and tell him, "Sir, I'm going in there, but I'm not going in there without you. And you're going to rise up within me and we're going to take care of business. And you through me, he's going to do the same thing to this sickness and this disease, to the devil that you did out there that day. You're the same God and the devil is the same devil.
And those servants of who? Who were the ones that didn't want to give? Who was that"? That's a devil of religion. They fought under God's flag. So they had the same battle anointing as David did. But David rebuked them and said, "No, no, God did this". Praise God. I mean, if we didn't go any further, this is a scripture for life if we'll engage. Your faith is sitting there all the time. It's there when you get up, when you go to bed. But you have to engage it. You go to the book, you find the scripture, put it in your heart, in your eyes, your ears and put it out your mouth. Amen. "Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day".
Unto this day. Well that day is still this day. Now, we'll read this first, in that fourth chapter. This is where he went out into the wilderness and he stayed there. Being full of the Holy Ghost... See now, he's been baptized in the Jordan and the Spirit of God has come on him for service. "Being forty days tempted..." You know that six weeks. "Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered". That means starvation had set in. And that's when the devil came up and said, "Turn these stones into bread". But Jesus said, "It is written". It is written. It is also written. Amen. We need to be doing the same thing. "And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. And he returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place".
So he turned to what you and I know as the 61st chapter of the Book of Isaiah. He took a specific text. Did you ever notice how many times he quoted he found himself in the prophet Esaias. It was Esaias that prophesied the cross in the 53rd chapter. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and to preach recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord". which is supernatural debt cancellation, glory to God. That's the Jubilee. Now, the first time I heard this really preached, I heard Oral Roberts preach that and he said, "Jesus is now your Jubilee. Blind man you don't have to be blind anymore, poor man you don't have to be poor anymore. Broken hearted you don't have to be broken hearted anymore. No, no. The Jubilee himself is here".
Glory to God and he preached an entire message on that. And then he said, "Sick people you don't have to be sick anymore because he's here". "And he closed the book, gave it again to the minister and he sat down". Can't you just see him? Now what are you going to do with this? Because there's old sister bucket mouth over there. I'm telling you, I've heard that woman run down everybody in this little old town. What do you suppose they're going to do with this? And he began to say unto them. So we don't know how long he preached, this was his text. He found the place in the book of Isaiah. "And he began to say unto them," this is what he preach.
"Today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian".
I mean he laid it down in front of them, made them mad. He said God was not able to send Elijah to anybody but a foreigner because nobody in Israel would believe. Elisha, only sent to Naaman, who is a Syrian soldier. Well, they wanted to kill him, tried to... "And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way, And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days". So he was essentially kicked out of Nazareth, but it was prophesied earlier that he would leave Nazareth and go to Capernaum. And so his headquarters were in Capernaum and he spent the rest of his time here on Earth. That was his headquarters and Cornelius built the synagogue in Capernaum, and Jairus was leader of the synagogue in Capernaum. Hallelujah.
So now we go over here to the eighth chapter. Now, what we're seeing here is the statue that David put in all of them shared on an equal basis because God gave the increase. "And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him". But not just the twelve. "And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene," That was not her last name. She was from Magdala. Do you know that... We do now. "Mary Magdalene out of whom went seven devils, And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance". They were partners traveling around with him and paying the bills. And if you notice, they didn't receive financial offerings. They fed everybody.
Well our way today because of our currency and so forth. That's what is so important about calling money a seed, because the seed is in the Spirit, the money is the husk of the seed, and once it's released then it becomes a seed in the Spirit realm of ministry. "And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold".
There's that hundredfold again. "And when he had said these things, he cried," he shouted. That's the reason we do the same thing today. You get excited, you get loud about it. "And he shouted, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand". But now the parable is this, the seed is the Word of God. So he had partners with him and what did he say? He said, "I preached all of that". Well, he wasn't just talking to the 12 here. Luke explained that, this team was with him, but he said, "To you it is given to understand". Now the seed is the Word. His partners had revelation knowledge because they were his partners.