Kenneth Copeland - Let God's Love Take Over
Let's turn over there at the 13th Chapter of John. Just moments before Jesus was to go to the cross. These are his final moments. And of course, we read this last night and Jesus saw to it, you know the scripture said he knew who would betray him, but that scripture should be fulfilled. Anyway, he got Judas out of the room and then verse 34, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men", and you notice man is in italics, so that leaves the pronoun up to you, "all people know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love for one another".
Now if you look up the words, there are two Greek words. One is Agape, the unconditional love of God, the other is Phileo. Phileo is sometimes translated as kiss. It's natural human love. Now, in the 21st chapter of John, Peter said, "Well I'm going fishing". The others said, "We're going with you". Well, and then they noticed somebody there on the... Now it was on the Galilee on the Tiberius side of the Galilee. There was.. anyway I won't go and explain all that. But then they said, it's the Lord. Anyway, he said... now Peter denied him three times. He didn't call him Peter. Jesus is the one that changed his name. He was Simon Bar Jonah.
Jesus said, "Who do people say that I am"? "Well, some say, you know, you're the John the Baptist come back". Peter jumped up and said, "You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but by my Father in heaven and you shall be called Peter", a rock a stone. In this case, he didn't call him Peter. Let's look at it, the 21st chapter of John. Verse 7. "That disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord". Of course, this is John.
"Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship; for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, or 300 feet, dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. So after they ate, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, agape me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I phileo thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, agape me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I phileo thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. The third time, he said, Simon, son of Jonas, phileo thou me"?
Came down to his level. He was grieving and he said, "You know all things and you know that I phileo thee. Jesus said, Feed my sheep". This was before Pentecost. This is still a few days away. And who jumped up and preached first, bold, he was never called Simon again. He was Peter the apostle. In his letters... he signed them, I Peter an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah is right. Amen. So that's how important love is. Now we have that. You know, there are people who say, "Don't you just love pizza"? No, I don't love pizza. I just love my new car. Just throw love around so much. There's another word. I enjoy it. That's a Bible word. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "For he gives us all things richly to enjoy," not just to meet your needs, but enjoy.
And Jesus said in John 16:23, right there in that same setting, he said, "Up to now I'm paraphrasing... Up to now you've asked me nothing. But in that day whatsoever you asked the Father in my name, he'll give it you that your joy may be made full", Hallelujah. That's what love does. Love enjoys. Now I love my children, I love my grandchildren. I love my great grandchildren. I'm looking forward to some great, great grandchildren. And there's some of them I'm trying to... come on here. So thank You, Lord Jesus.
Now let's go, you come right over into the Acts of the Apostles and Luke wrote the book of Acts also and verse five. "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, dunamis after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth". That's what changed everything. Amen. Glory to God. So now let's go.
Now we know that the Scripture says God is love, right? That was revealed through the Apostle John. Then he also wrote, we read first John and then first John, then third John two, this is the same apostle, spent his life with Jesus. He said, well, let's look at it. "The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved". Now notice I have a little two by the word wish, and it says, "Pray. Beloved, I pray above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth". What is a prosperous soul? Now your soul is made up of your mind, your will and your emotions. A prosperous soul. Now we know what a prosperous spirit is. A prosperous spirit is born-again, filled with the Holy Ghost and walking in the living Word of God. But what is a prosperous mind, a prosperous will?
If you check out God's instructions, he said, "When you go over your olives trees, leave a little, let others come behind you that they may have. When you cut your wheat leave a little so the poor can come and garner". Leave a little, leave a little. That's a prosperous soul, we must now go to guess where? Mark Chapter 11. We have to go there. And it's good if you read that whole chapter. And anyway verse seven. "And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest. Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve".
That's the first act of wisdom. Now he made them mad when they did that in the street, but he just went in there and looked and didn't do anything because he said, I only say what I hear my Father say and I only do what I see my Father do. He went in that temple and just looked around, went back and slept on it all night, went back in there the next day. "And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not".
Now, let's put that up, please in the Amplified. She knew I was going to do that. "And seeing in the distance a fig tree covered with leaves, He went to see if He could find any fruit on it for in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves. But when He came up to it, He found nothing but leaves, for the fig season had not yet come". Well, that tree was early. What was the fruit in the garden? Artist paint it as an apple. Doesn't saying anything about an apple in the garden, but they covered themselves with fig leaves. It was the fruit of the fig tree. And in the Middle East they are huge, they are large trees and it is a very, very special fruit.
I want you to notice a couple of things about this now, Seeing that Jesus answered, he answered that fig tree and it was a far off. So he left the rest of them and walked over there to it. "Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever". Count them: nine words. And his disciples heard it. And they come to Jerusalem: He didn't miss a lick, he didn't pay any attention to that tree. He spoke to it and as far as he's concerned, it's over with. He didn't care if it stood there the rest of his life and had leaves all over it. It would never have another fig on it. He said it. Did you hear me? He said it. So then he went to the temple and he came in there, began to cast them out, money changers and so forth. That was not the reason he was in there. He went in there to clean it up and he taught. He got it cleaned up. This is what his father pointed out to him. He got it cleaned up and then he could teach there and he taught on prayer.
Now, the thing that they were doing, if you brought your lambs in for sacrifice, it always had a blemish and they would sell you another one. Take your lamb in the back and then sell your lamb to somebody else. It was a con game. And man, I mean, he tore that place up, turned all the money changers tables over. Just ripped into that whole group and then he preached all day, my kind of guy, till evening. Let's go home. I mean, like Jesse said, "Well, it's still dark. We're not leaving yet". On the morrow in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots, not the leaves.
Faith, the Word of God will go to the root of the problem. Look for it. My spiritual father, Oral Roberts, said this to me. He said, "When your finances dry up, there's a key issue someplace. And people that don't live by faith will never... they'll never know what it is". But he said, you stay in prayer and you listen and you listen and you listen. He said the first thing you check are you walking in love or are you not? But he said, "There's a key issue in there someplace, and the Lord will show it to you". And then he said, "When he shows it to you, you cast him out and it'll free up the ministry's income". That's good. Key issue. Say it, "Key".
There's a key issue. It's like a Chinese puzzle and you look for that one thing that solves it. Now the person that designed the puzzle is the only one that knows what the key is. Well, the devil will do his best to hide it, but the Lord will shine a light on it. And some of the things that I've told you already about all that those were key issues in my life. They had to be changed over a long period of time. So now notice this. "And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away".
Now you know Peter well enough to know that when they walked back past that tree he took a good look at it. Nothing happened. It still had leaves. But then over that 24 hour period of time, it withered away because it died at the roots. "Jesus answering saith unto them, 'Have faith in God'". The cross reference says, "Have the faith of God". Well, of course it's God's faith. Now Brother Hagin and the people that instructed him that another way to translate that is have the God kind of faith. Well, if you study the book of Ephesians, you know that when you were born again, it was by faith and by grace and by faith. It is the gift of God. Somebody asked me, was the faith the gift or the grace the gift? Well, both of them. It is by faith so that it might be by grace.
So now if you look at that, he answered that tree. He spoke to the tree. He didn't pray about the tree. He just spoke to it and left. Spoke, the end result. "For verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith".
Now watch this; Immediately he uses it. "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses". He can't get to you. If you don't forgive someone else, then you're in a state of unforgiveness. And now the devil has access to your innermost counsel. And God can't even get in there. You can find it again over in the Book of Hebrews. It's impossible to call them to repentance. Amen. But can you see what love has to do here? This is where love takes over. This is part of living the love life. And finally, when you finally come up to that place and you realize my faith's not working here, I better check this out.
There's something off here, some place, I can tell it, I don't like this. So you just get on your knees. You believe God and you pray and roll the care of it over on the Lord and say, "Now, Lord, let me know. I'm not gonna worry about this. I just turn over there first Peter five. And I just cast all the care of so and so this thing here over on you and you show me, you show me". And I've had it to come up in the most unexpected time and unexpected way. That person, whoever it was, their face would just come up before me and I would think so... I didn't think there was anything to it much, but there was. So you just start in, Oh, Lord, I love her. I love him. Amen. Because you love them and I can do this, that's Agape instead of Phileo, you make a love decision. God is Agape lover.