Kenneth Copeland - Pray Your Petition on Purpose
Let's go to John 13:34. "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him; Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded".
Now, as you flow down and through here and read these things and you come to verse 22. "Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly". He had to get him out of there. He had to get that spirit out of there.
"Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor". What a giving reputation that it must have happened before. Most, maybe more than once. That he just wake him up. And there's a poor widow down here. We know before he went to Gadara that he made arrangements for clothes. His garment was sewn without seams. Very costly. So then they saw him clothed and in his right mind. So faith prepares before it goes. He had the clothes with him. Can you imagine that?
When he said, "All right, there's man over there. I'm going to deliver him. He's in a mess. He's been possessed of the devil and it's an unclean spirit. So it started with the sexual thing. But then the Father called him to preach, and I need to dress him. He's in a mess. He doesn't have any clothes. And I've called him to preach. So let's take some clothes...", the Master, He said, "And I will not leave him in that condition". And he did. And he preached compassion throughout Decapolis, the Ten Cities. Praise God. So here we are. Would you call that a form of a petition? Oh, sure. It was a word of knowledge from the Father to start with. I want you to go over there and do this.
Now, I've called this one to preach. So get some clothes and we're going to set him free. We're going to send him home to his family and his friends. Can't you see Miss Legion? Whatever their name, she runs out there and says, "We thought you were dead. Where did you get those fine looking clothes"? "My Lord and my Savior called me to preach his compassion". We'll meet him one day. So now, here we go. "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 for one to another". John 14:21. "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".
It didn't say anything about the one that cried and prayed the longest or the loudest. It was the one that practices his love and practices that commandment and is aware of it all the time... acutely aware of it all the time. Not too long ago I said something. We were there in the garden room. We were watching television together. I said something I can tell Gloria didn't like it much, and so she just turned around and walked out and she came back in and she said, "I started to get mad and decided I wouldn't". That's about the worst fuss we ever had. I started to get mad, but I decided... I decided I wouldn't. Hallelujah. So John, 15. All of this was on my petition.
John 15:4. "If you abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing". Oh oh... You should have said amen to that. Without me you can do nothing and you can do nothing. Without him, if you're not abiding in that Word and that Word is not abiding and you and the only way is going to abide there is to read it and read it and read it and believe it and believe it and believe it. And listen and listen and listen. It was 3:54 in the afternoon.
So I was listening to Brother Hagin... Well Brother Hagin has been in glory so has been my mother. This is the reason why we don't have any excuse in our day and age. And I was listening to him and talking about prayer and so forth and so on. And he was just going to the different kinds of prayer and so forth and so on. And so then he began to talk about the prayer of petition, the prayer of faith and the prayer of dedication and the prayer of "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". And he brought up the prayer of petition. So I had my little tablet right there next to my bed, and I started writing things down. Glory to God. I wrote down the date. I wrote down the time, I wrote down right where I was when I heard it. Praise God.
Then I went back and looked up all of those scriptures and wrote them all down, and I have a little note of it. I have sleep scriptures and I read those just before I go to bed so I made a little note of it right at the top of my sleep scriptures. I date it, the date and the hour, the moment. And I said, "Okay, that petition is before the throne of God. I made my part. Now it's up to him. I have this confidence that he heard me. I didn't use anything but scriptures to write the thing in the first place".
So let me say this to you. Prayer does not make faith work. Faith makes prayer work. And now my spiritual father, Oral Roberts, praying man, Bible reading man, he stuttered so badly when he was in school that he could hardly say his name, but he remembered one morning before he got on a school bus that he had not read his Bible. So he ran back in and read and he read. I pray above all things that you prosper and being healthy even as your soul prospers. He thought... Well, that changed his entire life. He personally said this to me. He said, "Kenneth, in most cases, for most Christians, their failure is a prayer failure not knowing how to pray, when to pray it. How to ask it, or how to receive it". He said, "You have to pray on purpose. You don't just scattershot. You pray on purpose for purpose petitions".
And his example of this was this. He said, "We were itinerant preachers" and in other words, we didn't have any place to live. And he said, "We just traveled from one place to the other. And my wife got tired of that. We were living in the home of a deacon. And she said, 'Oral, if you don't get us a place to live, I'm going home.'" He said, "You wouldn't do that". She said, "You just try me". So it was on a Wednesday night and he was pastoring that little church there in Oklahoma. And so Wednesday night. So he said, "We're going to get a parsonage and I'm going to begin it with my paycheck. $50". And he said the piano player just jumped up, grabbed the hat, and started receiving that offering and then he said, "I remembered I had to tell Evelyn".
So he said, "I got back... Well, let me tell you what I did". She said, "Oral, you didn't do that". He said, "Yes, I did. It's cold air in January in Oklahoma. It's a whole lot colder in that bedroom". He said there went by $50 for the month and it got to about 4:00 in the morning. He said it was the wealthiest farmer in the county. And he came and he said, "Oral, I'm ashamed of myself for not putting something in that offering tonight. I was there," but he said, "I've had these in a can buried out in my backyard. And I'm a farmer and I know if you want a harvest, you have to plant a seed". 4 $100 bills. He had never seen $100 bill and neither had Evelyn. And he said, "I just fanned those hundred dollar bills".
And she was there. And she said, "Who was that"? He said, "Well, it's Brother so-and-so". And he said, "This is the harvest of our $50". She said, "Let me see that", she'd never seen $100 bill. And she said something like, "We're on our way". God had a plan. God had a plan. And the healing miracle ministry hadn't come yet, but he had a plan. So he received seed time and harvest before he was ever in the miracle ministry. Oh, hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Okay, let's go to the 11th chapter of Mark's gospel. Thank You, Lord. Oh, this is just to unpack this. I don't know how many times I've read this over the years. Even the trip... "And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany..." It was a mile and a half from Bethany to Jerusalem. That in itself is good information. "And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if he might... he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet".
Now, hang on a minute. Leroy is here... "On the day following, when they had come away from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree [covered] with leaves, He went to see if He could find any [fruit] on it [for in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. But when He came up to it, He found nothing but leaves, for the fig season had not yet come. And He said to it, No one ever again shall eat fruit from you again". So what is going on here? Go back to the garden. Artists don't ever read the Bible. They take an apple. Doesn't say a thing in the world about apple leaves. They clothed themselves with fig leaves. That fruit was a fig and this one paid the price. Hallelujah.
Now he just simply said, he answered and said, the fig tree said, you're not getting anything to eat here. "He answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever". Nine words. He turned his back on it and walked. He spoke the end result and went on Jerusalem. It wasn't a mile and a half, he just spoke to it, left. Now in closing this, anyone shall say "Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, when you pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them". That was also nine words.
So which is bigger? A fig tree or a mountain? We have authority over mountains. Hallelujah. Here's the whole bottom line. Count how many times he went to that temple. Just your assignment. Count how many times he went there. Just mark them down. Just go through how many times they went to the temple. I dare you. I double dog Texas dare you. Now you have to. Peter and John went through the Beautiful Gate. The man of looking up, expecting to receive something up there. Well, of course he did. How many times did Jesus go through there? How many times did he say to Judas, Put something in this man's hand, put it in his hand, put it in his hand, put it in his hand.
Of course he said, here's my boys. Of course they're going to put something in my hand, looked up, expecting to receive from them. Hallelujah. He's expecting to receive from them. They'd been there again and again and again and again. Jesus walked right by there and didn't do a thing. It wasn't the plan. The assignment was for his name. He said, "In that day you will ask me nothing but whosoever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Whatever you demand in my name, I will do it". He said. "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk". He demanded it in his name and he lifted his up, lifted his ankles, were made strong, and he went leaping and praising God into the temple. Hallelujah.