Kenneth Copeland - Covenants Govern Our Lives
— Welcome again to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Let's open our Bibles today from the 14th chapter of John. Now, I want to remind all of our radio and television audience the 13th chapter... "Now, before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew this hour would come"... 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 is all what is traditionally called the Last Supper. It's that last Passover meal that changed heaven and earth, because right there in that meal, Jesus stepped over into the second covenant.
— Yes, he did. He went from old covenant to new covenant right there. It's a transition...
— ...and now we go over here...
— ...being led by the law versus being led by the Spirit now.
— And if you come over here and it's so well done, the way John recorded it, he had to get Judas out of that room.
— Yes, sir.
— He had to get that devil out of there. "He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night. Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come;" He's going to hell. They'd have no clue. But he's going there so they don't have to.
— That's right.
— "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". Now from there on, that is established. "Let not your heart be troubled". Well, that'll answer a lot of questions right there. But those two things go together. Well, now, what came up in my spirit is this 21st verse. I have it bracketed in red. "He that hath my commandments..." We just got to see the new commandment is love, well, love covers the ten. And the book says that. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him". That is huge. Keeping the commandment is honoring God.
— That's right.
— To honor him and obey him. So honor is not taught in schools anymore? Well, it is. And the ones like Lake Country and so forth. Did you know the Marine Corp is the only branch of service that at least that I know anything about that still has class on honor? And let me touch on this. I've made mention before. I've talked about with Professor Stephens. Both of us are former military. We took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. So help me God. And when I said it, I'm telling you, it just seemed like to me I was standing at attention when I did it. And it just seemed like to me every hair on my head is standing up. And it made me mad right then that anybody that had come against this country but during the Gulf War, there were people said, "I just joined the Army to get an education. I didn't join the Army to go to war". That oath didn't mean a hill of beans to them. It was a lie when they held her hand up and they had no covenant with the government. They lied when they said that. So help me God. So help you nothing... go school somewhere else. Like one said, get out of my foxhole. You don't belong here. Going back to class. This is a book of sworn oath.
— As far as I'm concerned, I'm still under that covenant.
— I am too.
— To defend the Constitution.
— Oh yes, sir.
— That never went away.
— No.
— Never went away. I raised my hand, swore before God that I would do that.
— A tear up when I see that flag. I fell in love with that flag when I was a little boy. And I wanted to be a soldier. I wanted to be a fighter pilot. I just wanted in the war any way I could get there, during World War II, and I offered my dog to the canine corps. Now, Judas was... He was a dandy. He was half German Shepherd and half Scotty.
— Here we go.
— He was a German shepherd with legs about that... And I took him. I had him in my arm, and I handed into the guy and he said, "Son, I know this is a fine dog. This is a fine animal, but he's a little short for military service".
— How old were you?
— Oh, probably... I was already in school. I was seven, eight, something like that.
— Wow.
— Boy, I wanted my dog to go to war instead of somebody poisoning so that it tore me up so bad. And my folks, I mean, another red Springer Spaniel, and someone poisoned him, never had a dog since. And anyway. But he's my point and I haven't talk about this before... but somebody dishonored me in murdering my dogs because neither of those dogs were disobedient. I don't know. Jeter might whip some dog. He'd fight anything that move. But here's my point. My desire, even at that young age, was to serve my country. Is still is my heavenly vision, to put it in a nutshell, the word of the Lord came to me and said, "In your teaching faith, in your teaching being redeemed from the curse of the law, in your teaching about what blood agreements mean... through that you will win many more souls through the people and the pastors and the people in the field that you teach". Now that doesn't mean we don't give invitations. We do. But the biggest part of them come from the reports of the people that are in the field. And because I am sent to do certain things, they are sent to do certain things, anyway...
— Yesterday you mentioned something about Judas, and Judas failed in honor, had the same mentor that John had, but he failed in his honor of that mentor. So it's not so much about the mentor, it's about how you hear the mentor, how you honor.
— He had to be kicked out of the meeting.
— He did. And you know why? We've done Passover on this table, you and I, and there's more than one time that you dip. The time that he dipped with him was dipping into the curse. When Jesus dipped into the curse that he was going to become the curse. He said the bitter herbs. This is when Judas dipped in with him, and so he aligned himself with that. How Jesus die? On a tree. How did Judas die?
— On a tree. He dipped himself in that curse. So the point of this is covenants govern our lives, whether you realize it or not, whether you believe it or not, they're still governing your life. Going to honor... Jesus said some very interesting things about honor. Let me show you in Matthew Chapter 15. He's talking to the hypocrites and he talks about there's a prophecy about you in verse eight, Matthew 15:8: "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me".
— Yes, yes, yes, yes.
— And he says the same thing basically in Mark chapter seven, Mark chapter seven, and verse six, he says, "Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me". Once again, you can say all the right words, from your heart, if you're not operating in faith in your covenant, it's just talk. God framed this world with his words. He governs the universe with his words. We govern the planet by our words. We govern our lives by our words. But it has to be attached in faith to who I honor.
— "My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee". The Classic Amplified said, "Long live worth living, shall they add to you". But you have to do it with your heart. That's what Jesus said. Here it is. "Forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to you".
— That's right. That's part of the blessing of your covenant. That's why I said covenant governs your lives.
— Now that is a covenant promise.
— Yes, sir. Yes, sir. The entire book is. Six months after your first date with Gloria Jean Neece you enter the covenant with her, and that covenant forever changed your life. But it also forever changed every one of our lives in here.
— And then six months after that, both of us accepted Jesus.
— That's exactly right. And who knows how many tens of thousands, millions as a result of the decision.
— And then in January, both of us baptized in the Holy Ghost. I still didn't have any heavenly vision, but I had a heavenly tongue. I didn't know what to do with it.
— And some people don't understand speaking in tongues because they believe what somebody taught them. They don't honor the Word as much as they honor teaching of a man in that. So, your honor of the war and the fighting prepared you for your father in law and honoring him. God will use the exact same pattern all throughout the Bible. You'll have the pattern with Noah. He'll follow with Abraham and Sarah. He'll go with Jesse's youngest shepherd son, David. And then he'll come over to two people that are engaged to each other, Joseph and Mary. He'll follow that same pattern that you and Gloria followed. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And all of those are covenants. The first hints of these covenants were found in the Garden of Eden. Matter of fact, let me just show you something... We go to the book now and page 17, the first step... Page 17 of God, The Covenant And The Contradiction.
— I'll be glad we get the real one. It's not that big. But this is it.
— Well, it's out.
— The text is the same size but...
— Okay, the first step. Page 17. The first step in the covenant process is the calling to the covenant. God, the Father takes the step by graciously inviting us to join ourselves to him. Then he in turn can join himself to us, bringing all of us, all of who he is and all of what he has into our life. This is why Paul will liken this to a marriage.
— Yes, it is a marriage. And that's when the name changes. Nehemiah 9 tells us that God chose Abraham. God chose you. God chose you just as well. This is why I say you're part of a covenant, whether you realize it or not. Now, if you're of the natural seed of Abraham, you can not believe in God whatsoever, but you're part of the covenant. If you're born again, you're part of the covenant. You just may not be living in all the benefits of the covenant, but it's yours.
— Greg, it became an extreme thing to Gloria and me when we found out who we are in Christ. Now, notice I said that not who I am in Jesus, but who I am in Christ, the Messiah.
— The one who went to hell for you.
— Yes. Who I am in him, in him, I can do all things.
— In him, in Christ, I can do all things. I am the righteousness of God in Christ, not in Jesus, in Christ, the Anointed One and his anointing. Now that happened after six weeks of fasting in the wilderness and then I mean, John baptized him in the Jordan and in the Spirit, he saw the Holy Spirit land on him like a dove would land on someone. And it's perfectly fine to use the dove as the analogy there. But then in the wilderness he had to be tested.
— That's right.
— When he came back, he said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach". Glory to God.
— And I began to do it.
— Yes, he did. Everywhere, he's walking now in a new boldness of well, he's operating in faith of this that he's received that, we received... kind of offered us what he offered Abraham, which takes us all the way back to the Garden. He offered us the blessing. We had a lot of people trying to live in the blessing, but they don't understand how it came. And you said it a moment ago, by the righteousness in Christ
— in Christ
— Not Jesus.
— Brother Hagin did a teaching in Christ, in whom, in him.
— Yes. Yes, sir.
— ...In the letters.
— So God has offered this to us. He took the first step. He loved me before I even knew he was. He was slain before the foundation of the world. He's the one who took the shame and the contradiction of sin upon himself. He's the one that gave up the ghost. He's the one resurrected. He's the one that took his blood to the... And he offered all of it to me, just like this. This plate of fruit right here, that's all yours. Oh, I don't know if I you know... Well, I don't know Brother Copeland. It's not, not much in the apples. Wish there wasn't apples on there. But we do that with God. Well, I don't know. Maybe there should not be healing part of this. Maybe that Holy Spirit part is not really for me. I'm not into that. We take the whole thing.
— You think all that passed away, have you? Well, I'll tell you what. You sit there and look at it long enough, it'll pass away because it'll all rot right there on the plate. And you're getting no benefit from it but all of that fruit is paid for, that was not donated to this ministry. It is paid for even the little weeds on top of the strawberries belong to me. And I'm offering it to you. You can have all those green apples you want, because I don't like the green but I know what to do with them when I don't like them. Put a little dab of something on them.
— That's right. But we have people that have the whole counsel of God available to them. They have the entirety of the blessing available to them.
— You mentioned this to me. This is written in red. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Your heavenly Father feedeth the fowls of the air or you not much better than they". Some people don't think they are. But you just keep on reading this. Take no thought saying, well that's a clue. But then seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, not just seek ye first the Kingdom, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. The Classic Amplified says, "His right way of doing things". Righteousness is an old English word, and it's turned into a religious word. But it means right standing with God. And our right standing is in him. We have no place to stand and we stand on this. So we honor him. See, you have to keep reading. "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again". That's seed time and harvest. That's the law sowing and reaping.
— "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample..." Now, let me ask you something. Would a hog know what to do with a pearl? They'll try to eat it and just swallow it, they'd swallow cans, if they, you know. But this is precious, more precious than pearl. So it's what you honor. I brought it up. Say this. That swine, that hog doesn't know the difference. But we should. We know the difference between gold and dirt. And the reason we know the difference between gold and dirt is God said what gold was in the first book of the Bible. The gold was good. So now we know gold is good. Otherwise it's just a weak metal. But why does everybody on earth now know that gold is good? They don't realize it, but they got it out of the Bible. But everybody knows gold is good.
— That's good. And a $20 gold piece, when that gold piece was minted of course they're not in circulation anymore, you could buy a suit of clothes, a pair of shoes and a hat. Not with $20, but $20 in gold. You still can, cause it's worth now somewhere around 1800 to $2000. Pretty sassy suit of clothes and had if you wear one and we're out of time again. We'll be back.