Kenneth Copeland - Applying the Fundamentals of Faith
The fundamental laws of faith. Faith is a spiritual force. It is not mental. It's a spiritual force. Oh I love this book. And they can put it up on the screen. Now faith... "Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. For by faith-trust and holy fervor born of faith the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report. By faith we understand that the worlds during the successive ages were framed fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose by the Word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible. Prompted, actuated by faith Abel brought God a better and more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, because of which it was testified of him that he was righteous that he was upright and in right standing with God, and God bore witness by accepting and acknowledging his gifts. And though he died, yet through the incident he is still speaking".
My spiritual father preached a message. He said the blood of Cain cried out to God. He said the blood of Jesus cries out and when you speak an ugly word about or to someone, the blood of Jesus cries out and said, "It's your fault". He said the blood still cries, only it's the pure, sinless blood of Jesus by which we're sanctified and made whole. Now, let's go over here to Second Corinthians chapter 5. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: For we walk by faith, not by sight: We walk and live by faith, not by sight:"
So Smith Wigglesworth coined the term. I'm not moved by what I see. I'm not moved by what I feel. I'm moved only by what I believe. And then I learned that from Brother Hagin, and then Psalms were written about it. Amen. and it became in the Word of Faith, which we preach from the 10th chapter of the book of Romans. Then that began that invisible, powerful force. I began to learn to pray about everything. We walk by faith and not by sight.
In the fourth chapter, verse 13, "We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you". And so forth. "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal".
And I'll close with this. Faith will not work in an unforgiving heart. Abraham's blessing cannot be received with Thomas's faith. He made a decision in the 20th chapter of John. I will not unless I can see the holes in his hands and put my hand in his side, I will not believe. Then Jesus came in there without opening the door and he said, "Peace be with you. Thomas..." I'm paraphrasing. "Give me a hand. Feel the holes in my hands, in my sight". And he said, "My Lord, my God". He said, "Thomas, you have believed because you've seen it. Blessed are those that have believed and not seen".
Don't call him doubting Thomas anymore. Amen. And so we have to learn from that. There's another aviation term that I want to share with you. Something happens in the air, engine starts messing up, stop and wind your watch. This thing is not going to fall out of the sky. Take a moment, get the checklist. What does the checklist say? What am I supposed to do first? Just take a moment. And something disastrous happened. Wait a minute. Stop and win your watch.
Gloria and I drove from Tulsa back home, and I was preaching in Grace Temple the next day, and so we got in and I said, "Mother, I'm hungry. Can you scramble me some eggs, maybe..." She said okay. The phone rang. She said, "Kenneth, that was a call from the hospital". She said, in fact... She said Eiley is on her deathbed and she's dying. They said, if we want to see her, better get there quick. Come on. I said, "No, ma'am, I'm sweaty..." Kenneth, come on. "I need to go back to the bedroom". Changed my shirt, and I went back there. I changed my shirt and I prayed. He said, "Don't ever let the devil see you sweat. You get over there. I'll tell you what to do". I said, "Mother, you drive and drive slowly, please". "Kenneth..." She drove Gloria in the backseat, drove to the hospital. When we got there...
Now, Aubrey Pearsons, her oldest daughter is named Eiley. This is my mother's aunt, my great aunt. So we got over there to the hospital, and there was Lois Riggins standing there making funeral arrangements because they had put her... The doctor had not come back to sign the death certificate yet. I walked in there and I said, "Lois, put down the phone. Lois, put the phone down". So I walked over there to do what the Lord said. Gloria's standing there and Gloria was here. My mother was here. And I walked over there. I said, "Aunt Eiley, open your eyes". She said, "Kenneth, what are you doing here"? I said, "I came to pray for you". And mother said, "Look at that thing. And that's just choking her to death". I said, "Well, no, not anymore".
So Lois put the phone down. Of course. And they went ahead and took her to her home. And she had lived there by herself for some years. She was with her. And so one day mother was... this was two years later. My mother was over there close and the word of the Lord came to her and she said, "Go see Eiley". She drove over there and she was sitting in her favorite chair in the living room. She was just sitting there. And my mother went in there and she said, "Eiley, you think it's about time to go"? She said, "Oh, yeah". She said, "He's been right there for the last couple of days. And I just told him, you know, I'm about ready to go". So mother said, "Come on in here, let me tuck you in". So she put her in the bed.
Now, this Southern Baptist woman... She took her hand and she laid hands on her. She said, "I had to just lay her head back, let it go". She said, "Thank you, Vinita". And she just left speaking in tongues. Isn't that good? Amen. Hallelujah. This is the way faith works. Don't ever let the devil see you sweat.
"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The end. We win".
Hallelujah. Well, stand up with me, please. I never close a service without giving someone the opportunity to receive Jesus. Those of you in the sound of my voice, the easiest thing you've ever done is to ask Jesus to come into your heart. Second day of November, 1962. I thought it was a day like every other day. I flew an executive of the Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company. from Little Rock to Shreveport and back, man by the name of Weir. And came back, our little nice apartment. Gloria was over there at the stove. She waited on me. It's about 8:00 in the evening. I changed clothes and came in and I put on a pair of khakis and a sport shirt, came in the kitchen and all of a sudden I heard it in my spirit. "Kenneth, son, if you don't get right with me, you're headed to a devil's hell". I said, "I know it. I know it. What do I do now"?
I heard my Sunday school teacher in the University Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas. Her name was Taggart. She was about that tall. She was a widow. And she taught boys in Sunday school. And her class, of which I was a part, told the Sunday school superintendent that if we can't have Mrs. Taggart for our teacher, we're just not coming back. So they promoted her along with us. I heard her voice, "Boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart". I thought this is old lady Taggart and that sound just... well she called herself Old Lady Taggart. She was in her eighties, I thought that's old lady Taggart. And that sounds just as dumb as it did the first time I heard it. But here it goes. "Jesus, come into my heart".
Profanity was gone from that day to this. And I didn't know I was a new creature. I never heard of it. I was scripturally illiterate. Well, Gloria came out of the Church of Christ, I came out of the Baptist church. We just didn't talk about it. And now I got to tell her and I said, "Gloria, what?... Uh... Come here, baby. Oh, well, you know, if I were to, you know, give my testimony or talk for God or something", she said, "Hallelujah"! I said, "What"? She said later, "What testimony"? I had messed up the job... Well, I didn't really messed it up. It was just the way it turned out. But anyway, I had to find a different job. And when I was out there looking for that, I had a coffee table I had made in shop class and high school. She puts that table down, but it was pretty nice I thought.
There was a Bible on it that my mother sent me. I didn't even open it up. "Ken Precious. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all of these things will be added to you". Gloria had never read that. She said, "Lord, take my life and do something with it". In January 1963, meeting over in East Texas, both of us were baptized in the Holy Ghost speaking with other tongues, that's the first time she ever heard the word "born again". Well, he took her life and he did something with it. Don't ever even think about committing suicide.
Don't take your life. Give it away. Give it to Jesus. He'll do something with it. It is that simple. He did all the hard part. He went to the cross where they beat him nearly to death with a cat of nine tails. It ripped the flesh out of his back. By those stripes we're healed, and then they shoved a crown of thorns down on his head and he bled from his head and then nailed him to that cross. And he bled here. And he bled. But they didn't kill him. He gave up the Ghost. You can find it in the 22nd Psalm. He went to hell. So you and I don't have to go. So just put one hand over your heart and just look up towards heaven and say:
Oh, Heavenly Father, come into my heart, Lord Jesus, I receive You now as my Lord and my Savior. I receive it by faith. Thank You, Jesus. You are now my Lord and Savior. And now I fully expect to speak with a new tongue, a new prayer language according to the second chapter of the book of Acts. I thank You for that.
Now, just take a deep breath. Thank You Jesus "I bore all these things for you", saith the Lord, "so that you do not have to bear them. I went to that cross for you, knowing beforehand what it would be, and I prayed to my Father and I said, 'Lord, if it be your will, take this cup from me, but nevertheless not my will but thine be done.'" And so I went to that cross. And if you remember, the Scripture says in the eighth chapter of Romans that the glory of God raised me from the dead. So the glory of God came into hell itself and embarrassed the devil and made him bow his knee. And Jesus took his keys away from him, Glory to God. And after three days and three nights, he came up out of that grave early in the morning. Thank You, Jesus and Father, we praise You for it.