Kenneth Copeland - Jesus Does God's Will
We thank You and praise You that we're one day closer to the resurrection. Ha ha ha ha. Hallelujah. We're one day closer to peace on earth. Hallelujah. And all of the wonderful things. Yes. Oh, glory to God, yes. The Lord reminded me of this... What the angels said Peace on earth, good will toward men. God's will is good toward men. It's that devil that messes it up. But he's a defeated foe. Hallelujah. And in the book of Hebrews, it says he has been brought to naught. That's zero. Nothing. Glory to God.
So let's take a look at the will of God in Mark, Chapter 1. Let's begin with verse 32. "And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day... a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there he prayed".
Why? Well, the synopsis of his ministry is this. I only say what I hear my Father say. And I only do what I see my father do. Amen. Isn't that good? Well, he's here this morning to do the will of the Father and see to it that you leave here this morning healed and everyone online to see to it that you're healed this morning. Amen. And you do what we do. You shout when we shout. You jump when we jump... Ah, like that. "And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. And when they had found him..." They had to hunt him, they had to go find him, he hid out so he could pray and hear from his Father. Yes, and plan his day... early. "And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth. And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils".
Don't you know that was a happy bunch of synagogues, the people yeah. But we find in other places they accused him of catching out the devil by the devil. "And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, if it's your will, you canst make me clean". Well, it was obvious he could do it. But now, remember, now this is a leper. He's an untouchable. Is it your will to heal an outcast like me? A worthless, thrown away human being? Could it possibly be your will for somebody like me? "Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him, and saith unto him, I will, be thou clean". Now, look at this. "As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him. Then he was cleansed".
His words. What are words? Words are spiritual containers. The first recorded words we have in the Bible: And God said and it was so, he's a faith God. Well, you can go to the Book of Hebrews, and it literally says that he created the worlds out of something that does not appear. Well, of course it doesn't appear, it's an invisible force, but the name of it is faith. Faith is the connector. Faith is the catalyst. Words mixed with faith dominate, words of love. Think about this. Spiritual containers, words carry faith. Words carry fear. Fear is faith in reverse. Fear is faith in a storm. Fear is faith in a poisonous snake. Fear is faith. Coming from an aviation background, I like to talk about reciprocals. North is a reciprocal of South.
So they are exact opposites. But in another way, they're the same because both of them are directions of a compass. Both of these are spiritual forces. Adam's faith became fear. When he heard the voice of God, he was afraid and hid himself. That's the first record of fear. But God always... But God. But God. But God. Amen. Now watch this now, notice this. "And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house". Now, that was his home in Capernaum. "And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the Word unto them". This was in his home, not a synagogue.
Now notice, "And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, or paralysis which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy..." Now there's two apps you need to get. One, of course, is the Holy Bible app, and it has all different kinds of translations in it. The other is the BLB, the Blue Bible app. It will give you the root and basis of Hebrew words and Greek words. Amen. And we'll see that in just a moment. But hallelujah. And that's where palsy. And you look that up in the BLB and it says a paralysis on one side. He had a stroke, isn't that good, he had a stroke. Now the stroke wasn't good but now you know, palsy is an old English word. He had a stroke, so he couldn't get around. This is very telling right here. Thank You, Jesus. Praise You Lord Jesus.
"When Jesus saw their faith..." Now, wait a minute. It was the roof of his house... when he saw their faith. Saw their what? Faith. He said. He said, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee". So sin was something in this situation. "But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his Spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power, has authority on earth to forgive sins, he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them".
Praise God. It is so easy to receive from Jesus. He said, "That's why I'm here". Now we'd say it like this. This is what I do. This is what I do. You'll hear a professional baseball player. This is what I do. In other words, this is my what? No, no, no. Profession. It's also translated confession. This is my profession. I profess to do this. This is my profession. I don't have a career. I had a flying career. This is not a career. With me, this is a mandate, a joyful mandate. This is what I must do to live and be in the will of God. Hallelujah. And he's a good God. If you don't believe that, turn to the 145th Psalm. Now I know you enjoy the iPad and all this, but the batteries have never run down in this. And I've said this before. You know, one day they're roaming around in the attic or something and they said, we found PawPaw's iPad. You kidding me... But we found PawPaw's Bible. We found one of PawPaw's Bibles. We found three or four or five of them and they're all marked up till you can hardly read them. Glory to God, Amen. Thank You Jesus.
So I want to read this to you from this translation. So the 145th Psalm, and they can put it up there if they like, but I like to do this. And I'd rather you just listen to it. "I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever with grateful, affectionate praise. Every day with its new reasons will I bless You affectionately and gratefully praise You; yes, I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised; and His greatness is so vast and deep as to be unsearchable. One generation shall laud Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wondrous works I will meditate. Men shall speak of the might of Your tremendous and terrible acts, or awesome acts. I will declare Your greatness. They shall pour forth like a fountain the fame of Your great and abundant goodness..." What? "Your great and abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of Your rightness and justice. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion"...
And as you've heard Gloria talk about gracious, means he's disposed to show favors. I mean, that's what he does. "He is disposed to show favors, full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works the entirety of things created. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your loving ones shall bless You affectionately and gratefully shall Your saints confess and praise You! They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power, To make known to the sons of men God's mighty deeds and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," And Jesus would say, "The Kingdom of God is at hand, be healed".
Glory to God. "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. The Lord upholds all those of His own who are falling and raises up all those who are bowed down", I like the 16th verse, "You open your hand and satisfy every living thing with favor". Now you just heard my favorite Psalm, but then that's... Praise God. Thank You, Lord Jesus. So let's go to the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews, Hebrews Chapter 11, 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". Now, that's talking about... the Apostle Paul wrote this. And so that's talking... he's saying that... that's not God saying that... my soul. "We are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul".
There it is again. Now, faith is the substance of the thing, the saving of the soul, the saving, the sozo of the soul, the psyche, the mind, the will and the emotion. He's talking, he writing this to born again people, Spirit-filled people. "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 by faith".
Now, in the Classic Amplified, Now faith... When? Now. We're talking about faith versus hope. Hope is in the future. "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". As real fact. That woman with the issue of blood came to the place, she said it, it belonged to her. It became so real in her. She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made whole". Now one says the hem of his garment, that's more accurate. What garment? He's dressed as a rabbi and the garment that hangs below is the hem of his shawl. That's where the anointing of the rabbi was in the prayer shawl. If I just touch that, it's guaranteed. I have it. That's all I have to do, that's all that's left.
Now Oral Roberts called that the point of contact. That was her point of contact. When I touch that, my faith is released. Jesus said, "Your faith made you whole". Praise God. So here it is. It became her title deed, I own it, I have it. The thing I hope for, the proof of the things we do not see. Proof. I can't see it, but I can prove it. She didn't have the written Word to go by. God put that in there so we would see that and that proves it. I don't need any more evidence. That's what Cornelius said to Jesus. I'm not important enough to even come under my roof. I'm a commander. I give commands. I say to one go and he goes. I say to one come and he comes. I say to another, do this and he does it. Speak the Word only, my servant will be healed. Jesus said, "I've not found such great faith in all of Israel".
Now then, the 11th chapter of the Book of Mark, Mark Chapter 11. Look at verse 11. "And 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". He just went in there and looked around, didn't do anything, didn't say anything. I'm not so sure they realized he was there. I only do what I see my Father do, and I only say what I hear my Father say. I came to do the will of my Father. What is your will in here? Hmm... That's one of the first wisdoms and musts of faith, particularly at a time of calamity and disaster.