Kenneth Copeland - Jesus Is Your Identity
Kenneth Copeland: Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland and let's remember now that God, an infinite God, we have finite minds. We have, I know the day I started, I know what day it was. And I started nine months before that. But that's my life. And I know then I know what my age is. I know what my destiny is. I know where I'm going from here because the Lord has allowed me and called me according to his purpose. And I fell in love with his Book, this Book of blood, blood covenants, eternal covenants, so that I understand things really, I can go back into the history of my family only so far, and the history of my mother's family is because it's tied up in Native Americans. Uh, I don't know where to look anymore, but God knows. And I did find through my dad's youngest sister, baby of the family of one circuit rider preacher, George Washington McDonald in Kenney, Texas. Glory to God. But God knows why. He knows the whole plan and he knows how many of them followed it. I have and you have kinfolks in heaven that we have no knowledge of, but God knows them all. And planned them all. I'm thinking now, now my Aunt Barbara and my mother, same age. And one of my mother's aunts was young. So they prayed. And Barbara said, "Sometimes we get up on the windmill". And for you folks up north, that's not a cow fan. Yeah, a windmill, a big fan looking thing. And it had a rotor with vane into the wind and it was a pump. He had a well on it and it would pump water out for cattle and so forth. And you had a ladder. She said, "Sometimes we just climb up there and just shout it loud as we could. Or we'd go down in the storm cellar". She said, "We weren't baptized in the Holy Ghost, but we love to pray". And she said, "We just..." I didn't know that till she told me that. But it was in her memory.
Greg Stephens: Mm hmm.
Kenneth Copeland: Well, because of that, she said, "We go down in that storm shelter and shout and shout". She said, "But Kenneth, we're all Baptists". And she said, you know, they think you crazy girls, ain't no telling what they'd done to us. But that saved my mother's life.
Greg Stephens: That's right.
Kenneth Copeland: At sixteen years old...
Greg Stephens: She's the seed of that and you're the seed of that.
Kenneth Copeland: And her appendix, as you've heard me tell the story, her appendix ruptured on the basketball court. Well she's born in 1911? She rode a horse to school. So, you know how medical technology was, they got in there and found out it ruptured, but it's a death sentence. And they told her she wouldn't live ten years, but she learned how to pray when she's a little girl
Greg Stephens: because there was a plan and a purpose that the contradiction to that plan and purpose of God was that appendix.
Kenneth Copeland: Yes, sir. Now that wasn't in the plan.
Greg Stephens: That was not in the plan.
Kenneth Copeland: And the reason it happened was because they didn't know how to eat. Just farm people. And they worked hard. They didn't understand how the physical diet would cause things like that. They didn't know that. My mother later learned that that was one thing that pressured her to learn those kind of things. But my point is that she and my dad now are in heaven along with that whole family.
Greg Stephens: That's right.
Kenneth Copeland: The whole family. They're going to find out how far back into the past and how the family came here. But before there was any knowledge that this part of the continent even existed and that our family that came across the straits. And then it's an established fact that the Cherokee people came from the Middle East. They had when they did in the Cherokee burial grounds, they found this with Middle Eastern allies and they found Paleo-Hebrew.
— Yeah. Those exact letters. Yeah. Very close to that. That lettering goes all the way back to Abraham and beyond.
— Well, that's what they found. And they didn't know what it was. They took it to a man that was a... well, of course, he's a Jew and he'd studied all that. No, he said, "This is ancient Hebrew. Cherokee people are original. There were two missionaries that lived among the Cherokees, learned the language, lived among them. One was named Bishop, one of them named Mooney. And they wrote back and forth". Well, all of this fits into what we're talking about here, because in the Cherokee language, our prophet's name, Moses. So...
— He sowed his people all throughout the world. That's what we were supposed to do. Be fruitful and multiply. Told Noah to do it. He told them all to do it?
— Look at that in our family.
— Yes, sir. All of those seeds sown to get you to this point right here today, to sit in that chair and to tell those people about God's goodness.
— Now, this is what the Lord dropped in my heart. And I discussed it with Greg days ago from an article that Billye Brim wrote me, to realize these things and have it come to the knowledge, an intimate... the knowledge of the truth. So that we see what a privilege it is to know and understand the laws of faith, and to understand that God has all of this plan. And he said, "I know my plans for you, they're for good, not bad, for prosperity and not the curse". Hallelujah. Go ahead, Professor.
— Okay. We were going to Romans chapter eight.
— Yes. I want to look at this. and look here. Oh, this eighth chapter of Romans is just magnificent. Verse 28. "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose" and parentheses, that he planned before the foundation of this world, "for whom he did foreknow". Now get ready to shout. Brother Hagin would call this a morsel. Oh, a sweet bit in the Spirit. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren". Glory to God. Conformed to his image. Now what does that mean? What does conform mean? Pressure. You take a piece of sheet metal and you have a dye and you have a press. It comes down and then when it's released, that piece of sheet metal has conformed to an image that was on that press. So that began for me in November of 62, and it's been working ever since because he puts the pressure on me to conform to that image.
— Scripture talks about Paul writes about it that we don't know.... I believe it's Paul. We don't know what we shall be able... when we see him, we will be like him. That's in the future. I have faith in that.
— Was it First John?
— I believe it is, First John. I have faith in that in the now, but that's in my future being conformed to his image is part of that every single day, every moment that I study this Word, that is what's happening. That's why I start every day with "Wash me in the Word today and reveal yourself to me".
— Here it is, the third chapter, "What matter of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Beloved," now ha ha ha. Now, every time you read that it's now. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure".
— I asked the Lord about that one time. The now and now faith is. Now, now, now, now. Well, I said, "Well, what about in the future"? In the future is now. What about the past? In the past is now. He's not in time. The linear time like we use. Wherever he is, past, present or future is now. And so I've got to renew my mind to the fact that to get something in him out there is now, as much as today is now. Today is Tuesday. This just as much as that is. And so I was struggling with that concerning my father, who went to heaven too early. And he said, "Do you understand? He's in my time now. He's not in your timeline, which means he can go to where I'm there".
— That's true.
— Tilt my head. What? I mean. But wait, Lord, what did you just say? He can go to where you're already there. Because in me is now. Now Faith is. He's always now. So getting something from the future like this Syrophoenician woman ahead of her covenant it's not hard, it's done by faith. It's an easy thing. Is it easier for me to heal him, or is it easier for me to save him?
— That's right.
— It's not hard. And but he is the object of my faith. Another verse we're talking about is in First Corinthians chapter two, First Corinthians chapter two, beginning with verse five. This talks about our faith again now, see my faith... Verse five says that, "your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world or the princes of this world, that come to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory:" You see that? It was before the world. "That wisdom, which none of the princes this world knew for, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God".
— Here in his conversations, Spirit of God through this great apostle. If you notice his pattern, he'll go from the Spirit world to the natural world back to the Spirit world, back to the natural world. This man was living there. He had been blessed to the place, to be in a place with God and heard words that he couldn't pronounce. He couldn't reveal words that are out there beyond. And he said, "Whether in the body or out of the body, I can't tell". But God knows. And God took him to a place... Greg, I questioned the Lord about that. And the Lord said, "I established My covenant I established this new covenant through my 12, but I had to have a man that would prove that it worked".
— That's right.
— And this man had to be highly educated. He had to spend time with me. The way it's worded, people think he was in the desert three years. No, he said after that. I don't know how long he was in the Arabian Desert. I'm convinced that that's when all of these things took place. When he said it's been revealed to me that the Lord revealed this to me...
— I truly believe. he went to the place where the burning bush was. I truly believe he went to Sinai when he was in that Arabian desert, and God downloaded.
— I hadn't thought about that. You know good and well that's what it is.
— Yeah. He downloaded him the entire Word. See, Paul will tell you he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. So who are these Pharisee people? I study a lot about them. They would have been the Word people of the day. They were tasked to keep the Word, to watch over the Word. Now they had added things to it and made the Word of God of none effect through traditions and a lot of things. But he's a Word guy. And so he took him to the place, I believe the Lord took him to the place where the Word was written. Word was downloaded to Moses...
— And he's on the blessing side of the mountain.
— Yes, he is.
— So he's on the blessing side of the mountain.
— And he says that Jesus taught him.
— Yes. And so when you begin to understand all of Paul's writings are the only sustained writings we have or lasting writings that I'm aware of of a Pharisee,
— I never thought about that.
— Those are the writings of a born again Spirit-filled Pharisee, and they're for us to understand our relationship in his covenant. He teaches us how to walk by faith with a holy God, and he would say things like, in writing to the Gentile world, he would say, "Peace". Well, that's a Jewish...
— He's reunited with his bride.
— He would say peace and grace. He covered both world. So when he's talking, if he's talking to the Jews among the midst, he's addressing both the Jews...
— Shalom, Charis.
— Yeah. And well, let me show you, if I could, a verse. And he wrote again. And in Ephesians chapter five, verse 31. Speaking of this mystery. "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery:" He's just been talking about mystery. "But I speak concerning Christ and the church". So he's talking about the Godhead was modified before the foundation of the world, before the Earth began. The son. If he's talking about marriage, but the coming, the Christ in the church, he's saying that the Son left the Father to cleave to us. And that was done before they ever created everything. So the mystery, in order to redeem you, their relationship changed. That's before Adam was even created that he had already decided to join himself. John says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Well, that was just a little over 2000 years ago. Jesus was born of the Father, and Mary, in the flesh, a body, was prepared for him. But he says, "This day I have begotten thee..." Well, why did he say that? That was his resurrection day. See, our identification... We've had so many people in churches, and this is a good thing to do that by identifying with his death... But you need to also identify with his resurrection because your righteousness is from the resurrection. Had he never risen from the dead, we could have still been healed because the blood would have been shed for that. We could still been saved, but we wouldn't stand in righteousness. It had been accounted to us. But the fact that he came out of the grave, he became one of us. And now he's seated at the right hand of the Father. There's future for us positionally, where they are right now. Physically, we're still here. But he gave us a down payment...
— Raise up with him, to sit with him in heavenly places.
— So the down payment of our covenant of the future is back to their everlasting state, where we're being conformed back to this beginning, conformed to that image that we will have a glorified spiritual, physical body just like him.
— Keith Moore right now... This is their Week Of Increase in Sarasota. So and we normally go to that, but this year we weren't able to go so we're watching it online. And he was talking about Moses' meekness. Meeknest man on the planet. And Jesus said, "Learn of me for I am". And to learn of his meekness, his gentleness, his kindness. Now, this didn't mean that he wasn't stern, and but got angry in the temple.
— When Moses was on the mountain, he was being conformed into that meekness. His face shone when he came down.
— And so Keith led people in prayer. I'll tell you, I jumped in the middle of that, that meekness, the kindness and gentleness. You can say a very firm word, very kindly and very gentle. And there are people that mistake that for weakness. It's not weak, it's meek. But that's Jesus.
— That's him.
— That's what he did when he knocked Peter or not, Paul off that horse that day. That was meekness and love.
— Yes.
— Because he had a calling for him. He had a position for him. He had something for him to do to teach us how to walk in this blessing.
— Shortest salvation prayer on record.
— That's it.
— Lord! But the first thing he did is call him Lord.
— That's right. Because he's a Word man. He recognized it the moment it happened. He thought he was doing God's will but he was actually fighting...
— And he was... He was already on his way where God wanted him. He was already on his way to Damascus.
— That's right.
— And that's where God wanted him. He just waited. He got up there close, knocked him off his horse. He certainly wouldn't have as far to go.
— That's right.
— That's his preciousness too. And here we are, at the end of another day that was already planned. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Let's give the Lord a praise.