Kenneth Copeland - Consider Jesus, Hear His Voice Today!
Begin the application of faith confession before you have it. Believe you receive when you pray. Hebrews 4:11 Hebrews, in my opinion, other than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is the most important book in the Bible. 4:11 "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword," Now we're going to see something here. "The Word of God is quick, it's alive, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight:"
His Word is his sight. And we're blessed to have him on the inside. And if you don't ask him to come in your heart we will go on with a message. It's that simple and that easy because he did all the hard part. It's alive and sharper than any two edged sword. Look here in this third, "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider..." Say "consider"... I had to consider Jesus rather than to consider the pain in my leg. I learned that from Kenneth Hagin. I had to consider that, I consider him, glory to God. He's the author and finisher of my faith. Glory to God. And I'll never have the pain in the name of Jesus. Pain doesn't belong to me. Healing belongs to me. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Praise God, I said, Praise God.
So that consider the apostle, "the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in his house". That word "profession" is also translated confession. What is a confession of faith? Jesus said, "If you confess me before men, I confess you before my Father. If you're ashamed of me, before men... I won't even go there. You confess me". Confess your sins. You don't... It's not all a sin confession. There are different confessions in the Bible. I made a confession and made him Lord of my life. With the mouth, I said it. We have a confession. My daughter Terri calls George, "Captain confession".
Well, just write up confession cards and just put them all over the place. That's what I do in my bathroom. We were down in South Florida during the Jesus revolution. I was telling about, Jerry was there. What was Dennis name? You remember his name? Him and his wife? Anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so he had us in his home and we'd finished and she came up, you know... She came around there and had a swimming pool out back and John had just barely learned how to swim. So you know how young they were. And so she said, "Now, Brother Copeland, I hope that what you're preaching is real because I've been so busy with these meetings and I was hoping to have some food for you guys".
And I looked there and she had a little sticks all over her cabinet... We need this and we need that on the refrigerator and everywhere. She just had these little sticky notes everyplace. Her confessions were on those sticky notes. And she said, "We spent night and day in the meetings". There was a knock on the door. She opened it and it was this woman, this huge tray of steaks. She said, "The Lord just impressed me that you might need these". She said, "Bring them on in, please". Praise God. But this again, David to say after so long a time, as it is said, "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts".
Today if you'll hear his voice, today. If you'll hear his voice, today. If you'll hear his voice, today. If you'll hear his voice today, today, today. You have to practice his presence and listen to him. Listen to what he has to say. And when the day time comes, he just decides to just chew you out real good, be very, very quiet and listen. I got up real early one morning and I really was headed out of the back to pray, and it hit me right in here. "My Word has no place in you". I tell you, it felt like somebody hit me and just hit me below the belt. I said, "Lord", and I just fell back over in the bed. It brought me to tears and I began to pray about it again and pray about it. He said, "You've done it again. You're not spending any time in it. It didn't have its real place there. You've gone back to memorizing your scriptures again".
I was in Shreveport and I had some kind of a clot in my leg and I don't... I went in early on Sunday evening and scheduled to be there in Jack's church, I think another three weeks like we had before. And I felt it right in here, kind of tied. Next morning I woke up and it was a little more painful. All right, by his stripes I'm healed, glory to God. And it really got bad. And it was one time I just as I walked up on the platform, that thing hit me and I screamed before I could stop it. But then I'd get out there and preaching, it go away.
So I fell across the bed. I said, "Lord, what is it? And you can't miss it. I've missed it somehow". He said, "The memory of a potato never nourished anyone. You have to put it in the system. You've done it again. You're just quoting scriptures instead of going to the Book". I said, "I repent, I repent". Well, I finished up that night and we were going on the airline. Our plane was in the shop or something, whatever... And anyway we were on the airline... got on there and I heard the devil say, "It's about a mile".
This is Love Field in Dallas to the baggage area and you're fool enough to walk it and I'm going to kill you. That's a blood clot and it's going to hit you hard. And I'm going to kill you. I said, "No, you won't kill anybody". I went down the stairs. There was a man there with a wheelchair and said, "You need this". Oh, that look good. I have no idea, except the devil just arranged it. I said, "No, thank you, sir. Healed people don't need wheeled chairs". Well, there's about a mile to walk this thing on feet... and I got there and... Oh, well, to go home, we had to go by my dad's house to get to where we live.
So of course she can't pick us up. I said, "Let's just stop at your house. This is bad. I'm really in pain". So I went in there and I got in the bed and lay down like that. And the pain was still there. But I just said in the name of Jesus, I'm going to sleep by faith. I'm sound asleep right now. Well, I did. I went to sleep and my mother came in there and she just sit down there at the end of the bed and just started praying in the Spirit. Her favorite term was "Hit it in tongues, honey, hit it in tongues". That was her thing. Hit it and tongues.
Now, that's what I did in Stroud, Oklahoma... Went the backside of my trousers. Oh, Lord, I'm glad those days are over. You do a lot of back and up, anyway, 3:00 in the morning, I woke straight up, just sat straight up in the bed. Mother said, "That did it. Goodnight". And it was gone. It was over. I would have ruined that whole thing had I sat down in that wheelchair. That was the key. You remember used to be blind Bartimaeus? When you read that. You remember what he cried? Son of David. He was calling him Messiah. Son of David. Have mercy on me. Son of David. They said, "Oh, shut up, old blind man". He just shouted louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me. Have hesed on me. Do hesed for me".
And Jesus sent for him. And they said, "Oh, he's calling you". Yeah, yeah, right. He cast away his garment and that garment proved from the priest that he was actually blind. And Jesus, seeing his faith, he said now he had to have him say it. He said, "What shall I do for you"? He said, "Lord, that I might receive my sight". He could have come up there said, "Lord, I have the worst back pain you can imagine. And I put up now I mean, I've been that way since they're born. Get this back pain off me".
He said, "Go your way. Your faith has made you whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed him. And that's the key. He knew who he was and he would not give down. He would not turn lose of it. So believe you receive it when you pray. Act as though it's already done. You don't wait until you see it. So here again, let's go back over to Mark 11 and excuse me, let's go to Mark chapter five. Praise God. Now, he came over to the Gadarenes and you know the story. Here's a man with an unclean spirit, always night and day in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said..."
Now this is the devil speaking... "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains... And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid".
Where did he get the clothes? Faith prepares beforehand. So it's obvious that Jesus had a staff meeting and he said, "There's a man over there, I'm going to deliver him and I'm going to call him to preach". And now he's in terrible condition. He doesn't have any clothes. So now, Judas, I want you to go buy some nice clothes for him. I don't send him home naked. He's a mess. So go get some clothes because I'm going to call him to preach. I'm going to get him some nice looking suits. I don't call him to preach naked, so I'm going to take it over there with me and you guys will learn a lesson here.
So he clothed him and called him to preach. He wanted to stay with me. Say no. You go tell what compassion God has had on you. So he did. And he preached throughout the Decapolis, the ten cities in the area. And the next time Jesus was there in that same spot, they covered him up listening to this man preach. We get to heaven, we get to meet these people. Now, the woman with the issue of blood comes right in here. "And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had..."
Now Jairus, the leader of the synagogue met him coming across the Galilee right there at Capernaum. This is his home and he just fell at his feet right there on the edge of the water. "My daughter's at the point of death. Come lay your hands on her. Pray then and she'll live". That's the last thing he said. "Then Jesus went with him; and people followed him, and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus..."
What had she heard? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me. She heard it. People are coming back to her and they're telling her about these miracles. And this man that is anointed and we believe he's the Christ. He's doing these marvelous things and he's so lovely and he's just a thrill just to be around. So she's a shut in. Go to the book of Leviticus. She far passed her normal time, 12 years. She could have been stoned for going out in public. And there's Jairus, leader of the synagogue. She knows it. She crawled out there, she's bleeding. She crawled out there, but she said something.
"When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway or immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague". She felt it after she believed it. She felt it after she believed it. That corresponding action to what she believed. It's obvious she forgave the physicians because faith will not work in an unforgiving heart. "And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes"? Now that word actually comes from the Greek word dynamin or dunamis. We get our word dynamite from it. The healing power...
"Immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him... But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead now: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe".
In the book of Luke he said, He said, "Fear not". Now notice how he dealt with death. Fear not believe only you. She shall be made whole. Fear not believe only, you will be made whole. Fear's not acceptable. I heard this one time: fear tolerated is faith contaminated.