Kenneth Copeland - God's WORD Promises Long Life
Thank You, Lord Jesus. Father, we praise You today. And we thank You that the healer's in the House by Your Holy Spirit. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, is present here today. And we thank You and praise You. We praise You that You're the healer and that it's always been Your will for Your people to be well. And we thank You for it and we bless You for it in Jesus' precious name, Amen.
We have several scriptures we want right at the very beginning. And I made a new outline, man. It just kept growing and growing and growing and it came out of it. And the Lord dropped it in my heart to do a healing, a healing meeting. Healing seminar, where that's where we just deal with that because there is enough right now to go for at least a week or ten days. And for the very beginning we want to look at the 103rd Psalm and you, partners know where you've seen that because that's on our prayer list. Psalm 103, a Psalm of David of course. "Bless the Lord, O my soul..." Now, have you ever done that? Well you just bless the Lord and you go to him and say, "Lord, what can I do for you today"? But what would it take to bless you today? I want to be a blessing to you instead of just the other way around all the time. Bless the Lord.
And now notice, he's speaking to his will, his mind and his emotions. And you can see where in this he's renewing his mind. "Bless his holy name, O my soul. And forget not all his benefits". Now I think it's the 69th Psalm, he said, "He loads us with benefits daily", benefits, "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases". How many? All of them. "...All your diseases, redeemeth your life from destruction, crowns you with loving kindness". Now loving kindness in Hebrew is "hesed". Hesed, it is the way it's pronounced. And it's difficult to put into the English language. It is a covenant term that says that the lesser is blessed of the greater on an equal standing because the blood that brought the Father and his people together, the blood of the covenants and the sacrifices made each time, then the covenant partner is equal with the covenant Father. What is that? Well, God is our Father.
Now my father, A.W. Copeland... When I was a little boy, I was no where equal to him. But he took care of me and blessed me on the same level. I mean, he taught me everything I was... I was the only one he had. And I can remember things like we went swimming, we went swimming all the time. And I said, "Daddy, I can't dry my back". Little simple thing like that. He said, "Well, look, boy, it's easy. Take it by this corner and take it with that corner and do that. Oh, whoa. That'll work". He didn't say, "Ah, grow up on your own, boy". Now, guess your dad did that, mine didn't. Not my father. And he disciplined me and I became his disciple. And there was a time he became my hero. And he still is. Praise God. So that's our Heavenly Father.
Now, notice this. "Forgiveth all your iniquities; healeth all your diseases; redeemeth your life from destruction; crowneth you... crowned with lovingkindness or covenant protection and tender mercies;" Crowned not this, but crowned with tender mercies and heavenly kindness. Praise God. Keep reading. "The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed". Anyone in here oppressed this morning? You got it made. Amen. "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy". What is gracious? Disposed to show favors. Have you been listening Brother Jerry? If you want to find out about favorite, talk to him. I've never seen anything like that in my life. And back in the day, he didn't have any clothes.
Well, Jerry's Paint and Body Shop. That was it. So when he gets some clothes, he just started showing it. And it was a truck rolled into his place one day with 1500 pair of pants. What's he going to do with 1500 pair of britches? Just giving to everybody. Praise God. And he started getting suits to his students that graduated from his school. And there was one young man that, what Jerry? He looked like he's about six two in his arms about... And he had on one of Jerry's suit. And oh, he was proud, man. And had his Bible. Amen, glory to God. "He will not always chide:" He doesn't hold a grudge. "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us". Think about that.
Now, if you're having a problem this morning and there's something just on your heart, you just did it and you wish you hadn't, and hey, for God's concern, just repent of it. That's what First John, the first chapter's all about. Just say, "I repent". Praise God. "I receive my forgiveness and my cleansing from that unrighteousness and just watch it go as far as the East is from the West". Praise God. Thank You, Lord Jesus. "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more".
But here again is hesed. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord," listen now. "Bless the Lord, you angels, that excel in strength, and do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his Word". And the only time they can hearken unto the voice of his Word is when it comes out of our mouths. Amen. And it's amazing that our angelic forces are so ignored. They're right there in the tithing scriptures because in the name of the Lord of Hosts, that's the Lord of the angelic armies of God.
And you see a lot about that in the first covenant. But that Psalm, "Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul". Hallelujah. Praise God. Now we want to go to the 90th Psalm. "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night".
And so forth and so, verse seven, "For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be seventy or eighty year, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath". Now, if you just take out 70 or 80 and people have done that, I've heard people say it, "Well, God promised us 70 or 80 years". I didn't hear a promise in there.
Now this is one place that it would have done us well to have known the tone of the music on this Psalm, because it's a very, very sad thing. And people have picked up on that. And my mother did, and when she was younger, I mean, my mother was born in 1911 and her appendix ruptured on the basketball court. And in Union, Texas, which is in Lubbock County there in the Panhandle. And when she came in, they brought her into the hospital and they said where she had to die. They found that it had ruptured and so the doctor didn't even sew her up. He just used cadaver clamps. And then my grandfather encouraged him and he sewed it up. I mean, he did, he told him, "If she dies, you die". So but he didn't... My grandfather was a full blooded Cherokee Indian and he was a happy guy until you mess with his oldest daughter, but he didn't straighten her out inside. And they kept telling her, "You're only going to live ten more years".
Well, they had been married nine years when I was born. And then they tried to have another, but they stopped it. Well, she had that ten-year death sentence on her. She called me one day shouting over the phone. "I made it. I made it". I said, "What"? Threescore and ten, bless God. Well, if she had taken hold of Genesis 6:3 is 120. But right then she began to go down hill. She had reached her goal. She lived seven more years. I didn't know any better back there then. But anyway, there you have it. But however I'm going to turn in the Classic Amplified. There's a footnote at the 90th Psalm, but I'm just going to go ahead and read... I'm just going to go on to Numbers 14:26.
Now, listen, these are God's covenant people. He is in covenant with them through Abraham. So you have to realize when you have a covenant with someone, particularly the Almighty God, and he introduced himself to Abraham as El Shaddai, the God who's more than enough. I mean, that's everything, spirit, soul, body, financially, everything. And he made him very wealthy. So when you come down to it, what he expected them to do, what he said. On the other hand, he expects to do what they say. That's the reason for the prophets. That's the reason for Moses to tell them what to say. But they weren't listening. They said, "The land's no good, it has giants in it". Well, so what? They're not bigger than God but they continually said, "He brought us out here to kill us. He brought us out here. We're going to die in this desert".
So now they kept saying that and kept saying that. And he kept hearing that and hearing that. He said okay. Doesn't mean they went to hell, but they just kept saying it and kept saying it and kept saying it. So, "And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, How long will this evil congregation murmur against Me? I have heard the complaints the Israelites murmur against Me. Tell them, As I live, says the Lord, what you have said in My hearing I will do to you: Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness-of all who were numbered of you, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me, Surely none shall come into the land in which I swore to make you dwell, except Caleb and Joshua. But your little ones whom you said would be a prey, them will I bring in and they shall know the land which you have despised and rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness".
Well, the ones that... Well, these were the ones that were born there, 20 years old. They were born there. They knew how to live there. They had seen all the miracles and all that. So that became the military age, 20. And then when David came along, he was less than 20. Or he would have been in the army at that time and his brothers were. But now David wasn't like that. And the fear of Goliath was his size. He was huge. Something like nine feet, seven or something like that, nearly ten feet tall. And but he didn't pay any attention to that. What did he say? What did he say? I commit you in the name of the Lord of Hosts. Oh, oh, glory. Somebody shout amen.
So I don't know any of you men have ever done it. I made slings, and I'm telling you, those things are dangerous. They're like bullets. The longer you get the lash, the more of this you get it... But the angels were behind that stone. And put it right where it needed to be. And down the big boy went. Mark Hankins said, "Don't ever face your giant with your mouth shut". That's good. All right. Now, we settled that almost. We go back to Genesis and find out what God said. Moses was crying out to God. Moses said that not God. Moses said 70 or 80, but in Genesis six.
Now that's just right close to the front. "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said," Who? The Lord. The Lord Jehovah. "The Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh:" The New Living says, "He is flesh only". "Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years".
Now, God said that one. So that should be our life's goal. Amen. You don't have to live that long if you don't want to, but whatever you do, do it well. Did you ever have this thought? Let's say after I became a grown man, full size and I only had one suit for the rest of my life. Do you think I would take care of it? Well, I only have one body for the rest of my life, and I didn't have sense enough to take care of it. I do now. But I didn't back there a lot before. Now I live in divine health and I'll show you in a minute how that came. Now then, let's go to the 145th Psalm, and I want to read that of the Classic Amplified, Psalm 145. Thank You, Lord.
"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 or awesome acts, and I will declare Your righteousness. They shall pour forth [like a fountain] the fame of Your great and abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of Your rightness and justice. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness".
That's hesed again. "The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works [the entirety of things created]". He is a good God and he is good to all. That was Oral Roberts theme song: "God is a good God". Steward Hamblen wrote that. Isn't that good? Yeah, it's good. He's a good God. And then the 16th verse, "You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with favor". Grace and kindness. Hallelujah, that's our God. He's a good God.