Kenneth Copeland - Always Stay in Faith
Turn with me to the Book of Colossians. We're not done with talking about faith. First chapter, Colossians 1. Now this, partners, this is a scripture that you are prayed every day by our staff and this is one of them and you'll see it on the bottom of the letter there. Colossians 1:9, 10, 11. "For this cause, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all dunamis, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son".
Look it up... Into the Kingdom of his agape Son, the Son of his love. It is his kingdom. This is the kingdom of love. And love never fails. So here we are now the kingdom of love. There's an old story about Livingstone's love for the African people. He had a difficult time even getting into the interior, and they just wouldn't let him in there. They didn't trust him, he's white and they didn't trust him. Make it worse. He's from England and they, you know, they had colonies and all that, but they just wasn't gonna let him in there. But he kept praying and someone said, "You're going to have to cut a blood covenant with a king or you're not going to get in there". He said, "Well, what is that"?
Then he explained all that was he's tribal. And if you're a blood brother then... so... a king. And they actually make blood of each one into a cup and drank it. He had a little lamb cause he drank goat's milk all the time. The king wanted that lamb and he gave him his staff. He said, "This is not a good trade". He said, "Yes, it is". "Do you want in there or not"? "Okay".
So he started carrying this staff that had copper wiring come up. And every time he would walk someplace they'd bow down to him, he was in covenant with a king. He went into the interior and he began to preach and teach the love of God. They fell in love with him. He lost his health there, lived out his life there. And when they came from England and Stanley finally found him. But then he died there and they said, "Please, you can take his body, leave us his heart". And they buried his heart and erected a monument to him because he loved them beyond his own life with the love of God. He opened the continent of Africa for the Gospel of Jesus Christ with that stick, a covenant brother to a king. We are in covenant with a covenant brother who is King of kings and Lord of lords.
Someone handed me the little book by E. W. Kenyon on the Blood Covenant... Little red book. I just stuck it in my pocket and I went to Houston. Our airplane was in the shop so I went on... You know, back in the day, you just show up over there at Love Field and buy a shuttle ticket to Houston. So I did that, went down there, I actually went down to see Hilton Sutton. And then I got back on the airplane, headed back. So I thought, I'll just read this. I got all the way up to the front and get everybody behind me. They carpeted those bulkheads back in those days. And so I just sat back there and put my feet up on that bulkhead. And I thought, I'll read this. What! And reading that little book, I found out I was a blood brother to Jesus Christ.
I tell you, I got so excited and here came the woman with the booze cart. She came up there she said, "Oh, no, you've had too much already". I guess my eyes were glazed over. Yeah, I'd had too much to drink. I was drunk in the Spirit. I found out that day that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is my blood brother. And being part Cherokee Indian, that meant a whole lot to me. Hallelujah. You're getting anything out of this? Well, so there it is. "Who hath delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us", translated, took us out of one kingdom and put us in another... into the kingdom, the agape kingdom, son of his love. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature".
You want to get excited? Read these things sometimes. "The firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight".
If you continue in the faith. Amen. So what is faith? Well, you know where I'm going with this. Hebrews 11:1. The Book of Hebrews. I was doing television one day with David Barton, and I had my Bible opened there to the Book of Hebrews, and it was just laying there where you could see it. And he said, you know, David is real dry. He can look right at you and not smile. Where do you get a white highlighter? What? Where do you get a white... And then I realized what he's saying and I said, I only highlight the good part, this is just a marvelous book. Here in the 10th chapter 38 verse. "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul".
Now faith is. Well, you can stop right there and preach on it. Now is... Faith is, hope is future. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear". It was not made out of nothing. It was made out of something you can't see, which was faith. Now let's get the Classic Amplified on faith when it says, "Now faith". Now look at this. "Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses".
Now that's what... it is an invisible force. But it is the creative force. God said... Now we were having a meeting and we didn't have any place to have the morning service. So the person who was setting up for it talked to the local rabbi and he said, "Absolutely, you can have the morning service in the synagogue". So I went over there and was introduced to him and he shook my hand and he said, "Now Brother Copeland, you just come right in here", in my study, and he said, "Here it is, whatever you want". Oh, and I found in his study this translation, God said, "Light be, light was," light energy. Sunshine didn't come till four days later, but in the beginning God.
Now, that's a statement right there. In the beginning God and he's my Father. By faith he said it and it was good. So it is the confirmation. It is the title deed. You own It. If you stay in the Word, whatever it is, if it's healing, you stay there and you stay there and you stay there. The way Oral Roberts put it, he said, "Now Kenneth, you stay there, you just stay with faith and you stay in the Word". He said, "Faith, there comes a place where faith climaxes. It has to come there. It has to come to that place for it to produce". Gloria said it like this, It has to boil over. Amen. That force comes boiling up out of there. And she and I've seen it so many times in our own lives. We just live this way for so many years. But the key to it is to stay there all the time. Stay in the Word, stay there, stay in that Book, look at it, read it, study it, and I think I told you this while I'm here, I'm going back through the Book of Revelation again.
Oh, it's exciting. And I'm going through it this time in the new King James and just, you know, just smooth out some of the wrinkles and I underline stuff, you know, I'll go back and double underline things and go down and then go back and then highlight them with that, you know, that yellow highlighter. And when I go back the second time, they read it again in the highlight and then go back then and go back over it two or three times in the study of it. Then there's time, which is hard for me to do, but there's time you just go there and just read. I have to admit, that's hard for me to do. And I had the Lord get after me one time, when that disk ruptured in my back in 2004 and he said, "You don't read the Word for yourself, you just read the Word to get things to preach". He said, "You don't read the Word for your own healing".
And I went back to studying, you know, and I'm just going away. I'm just studying, marking stuff up. And the Lord became up on the inside of me and he said, "What are you doing"? I said, "I'm studying the Word," he said, "What for"? And I said, "Well, I want to preach..." He said, "Read it for your own healing for a change". That was difficult because I love it so much. Well, anyway, I've spent enough of your time tonight. But when you come to this place, "Through faith we understand... By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain", come on down. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, was not found because God had translated it for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him".
God is a rewarder. He is a rewarder, it's impossible to please him without faith because he can't get your attention, you're not connected to him. That's the reason Jesus said what he did. Have faith in God. Have the faith of God, have the God kind of faith for whosoever shall say... Then go back through the Bible and watch it work. Did it work with David? Oh, yeah. He spoke and said, "I come at you in the name of the Lord of Hosts". He said it and just go see how many times he said it and every time it's there. If it isn't there, it isn't faith, but it's there. Look at the life of Jesus. Jairus just fell at his feet. He was the leader of the synagogue. He said, "I beseech you, come lay your hands on her and she will live". She will live. He never said another word.
Now the woman with the issue of blood stopped him. Now, the reason we know it was 12 years, we reason we know it was many physicians, because she said so. And he pretty well had to know her because that had been 12 years and he's just standing there. He stood there until the death messenger came and said, "Your daughter's dead. Don't trouble the Master anymore". But Jesus answered, Jairus still didn't say anything. He said, "Fear not, only believe, fear not only believe she'll live".
He said it. Then he got there. He took her by the hand. And that's the only thing Jairus ask him to do. He took her by the hand and said, "Daughter I say unto you arise". And she did. He said, "Feed her, she's hungry". Just go check it through and see how many times he did it, used his words. He used his words. He spoke. He spoke to the wind. He spoke to the waves using his faith. He spoke with faith. How do we know that? How can we scripturally prove that. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, it's impossible to please him without faith, amen.