Kenneth Copeland - Prayer Must Be Based on the Word of God
Open your Bibles with me. First Timothy, chapter two. Now there are... There are prayers. You know, there's the prayer of faith and the prayers that change things. But there are prayers of responsibility. And this needs to be understood. Look at the 19th verse of chapter one. "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom..."
And he talks about that. "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time".
First of all, that is a prayer of obligation. This needs to be first of all, this needs to be prayed. So now let's go back over here to the prayer of agreement. Praise God. My eyes just fell on this. Thessalonians Chapter four. Verse 4 "That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God..."
Now you see what he's saying here? Spiritual things are reciprocal. This is just not one sided anyway... Anyway you go ahead. "He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit. But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more in love; And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not..."
Now, that's where I picked that up on sorrow not. But it is the Greek word "grieve not". "Grieve not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words". Glory to God.
So I just comforted you. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. So be comforted, Well, I'm coming down there anyway. I need to pack up. So now these different prayers and we could go through a number, a number of these. But let's go to the 18th chapter of the book of Matthew, not just a few verses. We need to read the 18th chapter of the book of Matthew because Jesus is speaking "At the same time..." let's back up... "And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house," He said yes, but now what are we going to do? "He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him..."
In other words, he knew what was happening. So he didn't let him say anything. I love it. "What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee". He said the first fish. The first fish.
Don't get so excited over the miracle tax money that you don't keep fishing while they are biting. There's supper on the table if you just keep fishing. You see where the Lord was going with this? That you don't get so excited over the miracles that you forget the other things of weighty matter and you get home, you think, well we paid our taxes, now we don't have any supper. Well, it's supper in Texas. It's dinner here, the evening meal, so that you don't get excited over a miracle that takes place and you lose sight of what's around that miracle. I mean, why just stop with the first fish just because that fish had money in his mouth? You get all excited about that. Just load the boat again.
There's small instructions in all of the teachings of Jesus that if you pay attention and listen to the Spirit of God and let him talk to you about these thing, I didn't learn that in a few minutes, that came up over a period of time, and then I really got excited about it and I go back and just read it and read it and read it. It's like that rotten net. and you go back over in the very ending and they had so many fish in that net, they couldn't drag it and did break. That was the only one on record that broke. Jesus said nets, he said net. Amen. So we don't want to be the same way.
Now notice this. "At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me".
And I wrote out here and take care of Children Ministries. Willie George in the United States. Powerful preacher, powerful man of God. But the Lord instructed him to do these children movies. And then I became involved in it, and I was Wichita Slim and all that but it always had a bottom line. And so I've forgotten which scripture it was. And that man wrote me or called me. He said, "Copeland, I want to tell you what happened to my grandson, I was over at his house and I got some of those movies from my grandson. And he was upstairs, he said, and he hollered. He said it frightened his dad. 'I found it. I found it, I found it.'"
And he ran up there. You found one? And he had his Bible. He said, "I found the scripture that say Wichita Slim". "Where is it"? He said, "Well, I read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and Acts. And I kept reading till I got down to Second Corinthians five and I found it". That little guy read that whole thing to find that one scripture. Amen, isn't that amazing? And then someone came up and went to church and heard it. She said, "Willie, when are you going to get into the real ministry"?
Ministering to a child is not real? That's not what the Master said. Because you start when they're children, hallelujah. And you begin to teach The children are my future prophets. The children are the light of my eyes. The children are... Do you not remember that I was once a child? And then when I got circumcised I cried and squalled just like all the rest of them. I never thought of that in my life. Hallelujah. But he grew in wisdom and stature before men and God. Hallelujah. And he turned out to be the Savior of the world...
Anyway, let's get back to this prayer of agreement. "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray".
Now he's talking about kingdom things here, he's talking about people. You've got one like, like Babe Niece. I mean here's one. I mean Ma Dear's born again and baptized in the Holy Ghost. Gloria and then, of course, she was the only one. She was born in February of 12, 1942. So both of us went through World War II and went through all of that. And her daddy's gone and she didn't have any idea where he is. And he only has one. And he's thinking about her and all that training. There were people that were killed in that training before the invasion and all of the battles through the hedgerows and all of that, all the way through the Battle of the Bulge. I mean, he went through the whole war and I have a picture of him, and he's a sergeant major.
One more rank and he's a second lieutenant. He's a good looking man, isn't he? The hash marks. That means four years. And to get that kind of rank three rockers up and three rockers down with a diamond in the middle of it means you're a commander of men. And you don't get that easy. You don't get that in training, you get that in combat. In a lot of cases, the sergeant major is more important than a replacement second lieutenant, because the second lieutenant listens to the sergeant major because he has more combat experience than this younger one.
That'll tell you something and it is important to know these thing so... "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone:" now listen. "If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen..." It didn't say it was one. "An heathen man and a publican".
What you're saying? Get him out of your prayer life. My Classic Amplified, thank you. Listen to what this says and then we're going to talk about it. "Again I tell you, if two of you on earth"... Now you have to be on Earth to do this. Well, yeah. If you're in heaven, you don't need anything. You have to be an earthling. "Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree, listen, harmonize together, make a symphony together about whatever anything and everything they may ask, it shall come to pass and be done for them by my Father, which is in heaven. For wherever two or three are gathered together in my name".
Let's finish this up. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven"... And he went ahead. Now I want to go to Second Corinthians chapter ten. We hear a lot about the renewing of the mind... through a series of things over a period of time. We were $6 million behind in the television department, and I waited until the night before the board meeting.
I did not want... George would bring in the board report and all of the different departments. I didn't want to see this thing and I didn't want to know about it. We're supposed to be debt free and I've let this thing get $6 million behind. I was mad at myself, so, Gloria's already gone to bed. So this thing... this department, best year we've ever had. The best year we've ever had, the best year we've ever had. TV department, $6 million in the red. Best year... See there? He said, "The only department you tried to carry is $6 million in the hole. I told you to roll the care..." Gloria! She came later. I said, "Baby, look at this. I've been wrong here. Look what I've done".
So we set ourselves an agreement. I mean, we just sat down right then and we laid hold of that $6 million. And, you know, they kept telling us, they said, "Look, there's $6 million in the rear". And when your television bills is $1,000,000 a month and even more like that, I mean, you've got to be really picking to get ahead that much. Leroy's here. So we agreed and I told George about it. We agreed. And I'd think six, six, 6 million. I'm going to have to do something about this. I get this off my mind. Are you there?
Chapter ten. "Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty..." Right there, dunamis.
"...mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled". So I said, "Oh, Father, I do that. I will not touch that in my thought life again". Now say this. My mind is my mind. I tell my mind. what to think. My mind does not tell me what to think. And if it comes across I said, "No, you're in jail. You shut up. No, no, I do not touch that in my thought life, I refuse to touch it".
Week went by... now and then. A couple of weeks went by... It just kind of faded away and I forgot about it. Just totally forgot. Didn't care because we went to First Peter 5 and we rolled that care over on God and he is my caretaker. Well, of course, the whole ministry went into the whole thing. It not only was paid in record time, the next month was the first time we paid the TV bill in one check simply because we all refused to touch it with our thought lives.