Kenneth Copeland - Secure Your Identity in Christ
— Hello, everybody, let's get with it. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, We thank You. Oh, we thank You and praise You, this wonderful Book that you have written and put into our hands. It is alive. It is You and we praise You and we thank You for the revealing of it to us and showing us inside and ideas and concepts of heaven's economy and heaven's life that's been brought to the earth through the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, praise God forevermore. Thank You. I had spent considerable amount of time in praying and over a period of time. But it was pretty well compact together, over the book of Genesis there at the beginning. And I saw it. I saw it in the Spirit just plain as I'm looking at you. I saw God holding this gray creature, and he's speaking to him, and he was exactly the same size. So it was Jesus. And he's speaking to him and he's speaking to him. And he became a living and what the Chumash says, a living speaking spirit like God. And the first thing he heard was being blessed. The blessing was the first thing any human ear heard. Well, I said, "Lord, Your power". And he said, "In your opinion, what's the most powerful thing I ever did"? So I sat there and prayed and thought for a little while and then I said out load, "Well, when you created the universe". No, he said, "That was easy". Easy? He said, "I had no one against me". But he said, "When I raised Jesus from the dead, everybody was against me, the devil was against me. My own people were against me". And he said, "No one had ever gone into hell and come out. And Jesus had to have faith for that". Now, what most people don't realize when he said, "It is finished", then he talked about what's finished and all that. No, he was on the 22nd Psalm. "And my God, My God, why has thou forsaken me". And if you read it in the Classic Amplified that 22nd Psalm in the King James it doesn't, but it's there. It is finished. So he just locked onto the Word and he went into hell with that Psalm just praising that Psalm, that's where his faith was and that's why he got out of there.
— That's why this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith and the ingredients that are in our faith, from what Jesus, who's the author and the finisher of our faith. And so the ingredients, that's why you see the highest kind of faith would be to know what happened in Christ and who you are in Christ and your identification with Christ. And so let that supersede every other. The Lord told me one time, he said, "Never let your struggle become your identity". In other words, your identification with Christ, and don't let your struggling know what you're going through. And you start saying, "I am this and I am that". No, that's not what you am. You may be having a struggle, but you are a new creature in Christ.
— Professor Greg Stephens says, you really need to be careful with "I am".
— With I am, Yeah.
— That's true.
— I am tired.
— Watch your I ams.
— I am sick. Oh, is that who you are? God said I am that I am.
— I am made you who I am.
— Oh, my Lord. Thank You, Jesus. To the intent... Ephesians chapter 3. And the reason I want to mention that is this magnificent authority in the name that's been transferred to us. The name that's above every name that's named, every name in heaven, earth and under the earth has to bow its knee to the name of Jesus. He has exalted him and given him his name. To the intent, verse 10, 3rd chapter. That now... So what has happened? The reason that's come to now. Jacob's ladder ceased to exist on the day of Pentecost. And the angels came back into this planet. I'm satisfied that that's the noise they heard. It didn't say it was a mighty wind. It said it sounded like a mighty wind. The gushing, roaring sound that I'm telling you, trillions of angels can come into this planet all at one time. I'm convinced you could have heard it on this side of the world just the same as in Jerusalem. Anyway, "Now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord".
— In Christ...
— And that's the wisdom that Ephesians 1 says to ask God the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of all this what God has accomplished through Christ.
— Well, in James 1. Any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God.
— God will give it liberally.
— Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
— But the greatest demonstration of the wisdom of God is in the death, burial and resurrection. And the impartation of eternal life to a person.
— Now, here's something about that eternal life. Now John said in first John 5. "I've written these things to you so you can know you have eternal life. He that hath the Son have this life", one translation says. So this life... the Lord said to me this way. He said, "Every religion offers lessons, but only Jesus Christ gives life". In other words, the crowning achievement of the plan of redemption was to get the life of God. This life, the life of Christ, back into the spirit of a man. Once that life, the devil cannot dominate any man or woman that has this life. It is the same life that raised Christ from the dead. And that it is a spiritual substance and that life is in the spirit of every believer. It makes you more than a conqueror. It's the same identical life that raised Christ from the dead. It is that life that makes you a new kind of creature that never existed before, a new kind of human, a new kind of man. And so when you receive the gift of eternal life, most people don't even know what they got.
— That's right. You have the life of God on the inside of you, and that life on the inside of us is overcoming life, resurrection life.
— The Prophet Hosea said, "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge". Well, don't just take that verse out. Go there and read Hosea. It was a preacher problem.
— Preachers weren't telling them or didn't know.
— The priest were not giving the knowledge to his people. They were doing religious activity. But they were not giving his knowledge to the people. And they're destroyed because of lack knowledge.
— So the angel came from heaven in Acts chapter five. And the angel comes and says, "Now you go in the temple and stand there and tell them all the words of this life. So you go tell them about this life. You tell them how man lost it, and you tell them how God brought it back through the death and resurrection of Christ". He gave us eternal life, it's the very life of God, same life that's in you.
— And we're in it now.
— We have it now.
— Not after you leave and go to heaven.
— That's right. That's right.
— We're in it now. That was a revelation that... the Lord said to me one time... He said, "My people are preaching about the sweet by and by," he said, "I want you to talk about the nasty here and now".
— We need some help now.
— We need eternal life now it's in you.
— We know we have I mean, that's like first John 5:4, which is one of your favorite scriptures. It says that, "Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world. And then this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith". Other translations say, "Anyone who has the life of God, this new life overcome". One translates says, "Anyone who's been re-fathered by God". Man, you've been re-fathered.
— You can't help but have victory. It runs in the family.
— I told somebody one time, I said, "You know, when I was a young boy, I had a drug problem".
— Really? I said, "Yeah, it was pretty bad too".
— What happened? I said, "My mother drug me to church". Oh, but now my father, he was not a pastor or a preacher. But he was a godly man. And, Mark, Trina, he'd go to the bank, I'd go to the bank with him, and he's down there making out his deposit, taking his deposit slips and so forth. And so he had two deposit books and two of everything. He had his tithe account, and his account. He wouldn't even put the money in the same account and I'd ask him about things like this, cause it's not mine.
— I like that.
— It isn't mine. So he's the one that taught me to tithe.
— A part of the tithe in Hebrews 7, which is the New Testament last I checked, Hebrews chapter 7 says, "Here men that die receive tithes. But there he receiveth them, of whom it witnesses that he liveth". So your tithe actually is a witness, of the resurrection of Christ.
— Because he is the high priest of these days.
— And he's alive.
— You go back to the first covenant. The high priest of those days had something to say. We have the high priest of these days, and we have something to say.
— Yeah, it's a part of your confession is tithing that Jesus is alive and he's my Lord. Wow, amen. So now the resurrection of Christ, the power, the greatest display of power in the history of the universe was the resurrection of Christ. Why did God use such tremendous power to raise Christ from the dead?
— He had to. There was tremendous resistance to the resurrection.
— Now we know the true purpose of covenant, not testament covenant. His covenant partner only had one son. And that was a miracle. He said, "You offered your son". And Hollywood has it all... He said, "The lad, I'll be back".
— Yeah, that's what he said.
— And you look at it in the book of Hebrews, he received him raised up in a figure... by faith. And he raised the knife fully intending... He's the father of many nations, this is the only one he has and he fully intended to see that boy raised up from the ashes. And an angel stayed his hand. So if he was willing to offer his only begotten son, then he had to. He bound himself back, blood covenant to this man that was willing to offer his only begotten son. So when the time would come, Jesus said, "If it be your will, take this cup from me". He had to turn his back. It had to be done. It took blood to get him there. There had to be covenants so serious you couldn't put them on paper. You put them on paper after the fact. There's not a paper agreement. This is a Book, talking about... "But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die". That had to be written. Otherwise, how would you know it? Write the vision that others may run with it.
— It is written. Then all of this first covenant was a picture of Jesus.
— "The volume of the book", he says, "is written about me".
— In every book. And then when the fullness of time came... Now, to God, this doesn't seem like a long time. But he's very... He could not leave one, not one thing loose that Satan could take advantage of, not one, not one. And all of the very intricate parts of the covenants and every word that was written was put down so Jesus would say, "It is written". And the devil left for a season. We can do the same thing. We can let the Word fight it's own fight.
— The same identical authority.
— And this scripture in Philemon 6...
— Yeah, Philemon 6 is phenomenal.
— It just keeps coming to me here it says, "And I pray that the participation in and sharing of your faith may produce and promote full recognition and appreciation and understanding and precise knowledge of every good thing that is ours in our identification with Christ Jesus and unto his glory". His precise knowledge, this wisdom brings forth so that we can lay hold on and speak like Jesus overcame as our example. He spoke who he was. It is written. And with that, there comes such...
— Now notice this, every good thing that's ours in our identification with Christ Jesus and unto his glory. Not ours, his. But it took us to get it to him. Without us, he has no glory. Without us being overcomers he has no glory.
— That's why the devil fights you.
— Oh in every way he can.
— Every way he can.
— He's a liar.
— And he wants to steal your confession... Close your mouth.
— Now he says, "That the communication of your faith may become effectual". So one translation says, "I pray that everyone who meets you will catch your faith and learn from you how wonderful it is to live in Christ". Your faith is contagious.
— So is joy.
— Your joy is contagious because of your identification with Christ. Here's one of the things the Lord said to me. He said, "God did in Christ what he wanted to do in every person. God put in Christ what he wanted every human to have".
— Bill Winston put it this way. Jesus was the sample Son.
— He's the prototype.
— He's the sample... of a great product.
— He's the prototype.
— Did you ever have somebody offer you a sample in a grocery store?
— Yeah just taste it.
— Jesus is the sample Son.
— That's right.
— And once we were born again, we're like him.
— He's the prototype. So you build the prototype, and then you put the same identical equipment in every other vehicle. And so God put in Christ what he wanted all of us to have. Same life, same righteousness, same authority, same blessing.
— The things that he did while he was on the earth then are the same things we should be doing.
— We can do. They said, "What kind of man is this? What kind of man? What kind of man is this"? Well, that's the kind of man you are. Whatever kind he was is the kind you are.
— He was a faith man. And when he said, "Oh, ye of little faith, you have no faith". And people called Thomas a doubting Thomas. No, he wasn't doubting. He wasn't believing at all. He made a very firm statement. Unless I see it. He refused to believe. Jesus said, "You're faithless". He wasn't doubting anything. He was faithless. Until I put my finger in the holes of his hand and thrust my hand in his side. And Jesus said, "Thomas, quit being faithless". There's a difference in doubt and just refuse, I will not believe it. I will not. But there's a lot of folks who say it like that.
— There he says, "If you want your faith to be effective, you need to know precise knowledge". Acknowledge every good thing that is in you because you're in Christ. The subject of confession is so misunderstood in the church. Dad Hagin said, "The confession of your faith", Hebrews 4:14, which is, "Hold fast to your faith, hold fast to the confession of your faith".
— Because he is the apostle of our confession.
— He is the high priest. So here you are, the Amplified says, "Hold fast the confession of your faith". Then he says, "Without wavering", in Hebrews 10:23. So he says that confession, the initial confession that Jesus is Lord.
— That started it.
— And everything that Lordship has produced, that he is the undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion of the universe. He is Master. He is Lord. Your confession either brings you into agreement with his Lordship or says something different than who he is. So he says, "Hold tight. Every good thing that's in you because you're in Christ. Hold on to that confession of faith. Keep agreeing with God. Never let your struggle become your identity. Let your confession come out of your identification".
— You can apply that identification with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection unseating, praise God to any situation you go through in life. You know, whether it's a family situation, whether it's your physical situation, financial. I was crucified with Christ. The old person died. Christ redeemed me from the curse. And I'm raised up and I'm blessed. So your identification is going into play every time you speak the Word and you overcome. This is the victory.
— That's the one that got into our family, we being redeemed from the curse. And back when the children were small, I said, "Okay, come on in here". And we had... in the living room, that little small house, and we had a mantel and fireplace here, and we had a large cushion there in that room. I said, "Okay, come on, we're going to take our flu shot". John's eyes got about that big. I don't know whether I like this or not. Anyway, we did it with Deuteronomy, for the fever and so forth. In Galatians 3, we've been redeemed from that. So we don't have the flu. We don't get sick. Praise God, we're out of time again. Well, okay, bye. We'll be back in just a moment, give the Lord a praise, hallelujah, glory to God.