Kenneth Copeland - The Power of Faith-Filled Prayers
Go ahead and open up to Matthew the 18th chapter, and we will pick up there. Let's start with the prayer agreement. This is a number of years ago. This was back when our meetings were longer and very simple. There was a woman came up to me, she said, "Brother Copeland, I have something that I don't know what to think about it, and I've come to get my answers. Can you help me"? I said, "Well, you know, of course I will if I can I... but we'll have to pray and see". She said, "Now my whole family, there was a car broadsided us with such force that it broke our car in half and we were scattered out all over this whole area". She said, "Nearly every bone in my body was broken. My children were all injured, but my husband had no injury. But he's the only one who died. Why"? Well, I said, "I don't know but we'll get the answer to that".
So we went ahead and so I began talk and teach about the first words that come out of your mouth. Now, let me give you an example. Now, you've heard me tell about that first little airplane in 1959, and we got it back. Here's the back story. We had been out for days and I was so tired and Gloria and the kids had already gone to bed and I was just sitting up. I was just oh, I was just so glad to be home. I didn't even want to go to bed. But finally I gave up and I made a very dumb move. We had a big... they call them Ottomans. It's a big green footstool and it was heavy. This thing was big and it really it was even hard to pick up and move. And I made a mistake. I turned the light out and then crossed the room. I just dropped kicked that thing. My toe went pow. What's coming out.
You know what would have come out the most? I broke my... toe. Yeah, you did, dummy. No, you're not a dummy. You're empty. It just rolled out of my mouth. Praise God. Thank You, Jesus. I'm healed. Hallelujah. I give You, oh, oh, oh I give You... Oh, oh it hurt. Oh, Sister it hurt. Well, the next morning I had an appointment over there at the airport. I already knew that airplane. I'd flown it before and I knew where it was and I knew about what it was. Here's a 1959 Skylane. Good looking, low time, 2618 Golf. And so, oh oh dear lord. I got up that morning. I close my eyes and would not look at my toes and the devil say, now... I've got to tell you the truth, this is what came out. Are you my friend? Yes, you are.
So the devil said, "Look at your toes. They're black and blue". I said, "I'm not going to do it. Some of the best friends I have, their feet are black all the time". And I said, I mean, you got to get in his face. And I didn't intend to say that, it just came out. But he didn't say nothing anymore, so I didn't look at it. Oh, I tell you, it hurt and I put my socks on. So I got in the car and went over there. It's just about a 15 minute drive. I walked up to the desk and this girl said, I said, "I'm Kenneth Copeland, I want to see Pappy Spink". She said, "What happened to you"? I said, "Oh, you know, about 3:00 this morning I broke my toe. But, you know, Jesus said when he was on earth, whatsoever thing you desire when you pray, believe you receive it, you have it and I believe I have my healing".
By the time I said that, she's about five steps back. Okay, Okay, I tell Mr. Spink you're here. Well, he invited me in the office and so I said, "What about 2618 Golf"? "Ah, Kenneth, that's a good airplane". I said, "Yes sir I know, I remember, I flew it, you know". And he said, "Yeah, you did". I said, "Yeah, and I've laid hold of it. I claimed it. I believe it's mine". He said, "Well, I'm glad to see you're getting that airplane". So we sat down, are they showing a picture of it? Yeah, there it is right there, 2618 Golf. And that's the airport. Anyway, so we sat down there and he said, "You know, I carry my own paper, Kenneth". I said, "You know, Pappy, there's one thing about it. That airplane belong to Jesus and we're not going to mortgage it, so we'll just pay cash. And here's the thing. I have $5,000 and the Lord will get me the other".
So he turned around there to his secretary and he said, "Okay, fill it out like this, he don't borrow money, you know". So I just sat there and watched him fill it out. And I said, "Now I'd like go out there and look at the airplane where is it"? He said, "You know, where the T hangers around over there"? I said, "Yes, sir". He said, "Right over there behind that T hangar and it's parked over there and tied down". And I said, "Good, I'm going to go over there and look at it". And he said, "When do you think the Lord will get that money for you"? I said, "He will get it for me. I just don't know when yet". Okay. So I got in the car and drove around there.
Now, here's my point. I drove around there and when I opened the door, instead of just getting up this way I turn like this and got out, well... Well, what do you know? And I got home and they were black and blue, but they didn't hurt, you see my point? Well, the bottom line of this story is, I got home 15 minutes, and Carolyn Savelle's dad called me. I got over there and Gloria said, "Olin wants you to call him". So I called him and I said, "Olin, what's going on"? And he said, "You know, Kenneth, Mary and I were praying. And the Lord said something to us about an airplane you're interested in. And so we just went ahead and wrote a check and send it to you". I said, "Olin, how much is it"? He said $3500.
Well, I knew where 500 was. I got right in the car and drove back over there. And I walked in there. I said, "I got the money". He said, "You did not". I said, "Yeah, I got the money". He said, "Well, don't that beat all. Well, then the next time I flew it and I was in the fuel office and I was sitting there and he walked in the corner over there", he said, "You see that man over there, he got money coming into his operation in wheelbarrow loads". And the Lord said, "Agree with him". I said, "Thank you, thank you, Mr. Spink. Yes, sir".
So I got my toe healed and a wheelbarrow load of money. First words. Now the more I taught on what I just said, what are the first words that come out of your mouth? Because whatever's in there in abundance, Jesus said it's coming out and it may be something you wish you had not said. I walked into a hangar. Now the 310 Cessna has tipped tanks, fuel tanks on the end of each wing, and here was a mechanic in there working on my airplane, ministries' airplane. And just as I walked up, he was coming around and he banged his head into one of those tip tanks. And you can pretty well figure what he said. He said just what you thought he said. And he looked up and he said, "Oh, preacher, forgive me, forgive me". I said, "No, man, don't let me cramp your style. You know what Jesus said? We just now know what your full of".
Oh he said, Oh... Well, I was able to minister to him. So I kept going on like this. She came up to me and she said, "I got it. We were there in the infield between those two highways. And he went around", and she's talking about her husband now, he went around and he looked at all the kids. And like she said, "Now he's the only one that was not injured. And I was laying there on my back all broken up and he checked all the children and saw that they were alive. And he got right down over me and he said, 'I am a dead man.'" He was the only one that died. But now see he was under the pressure of that wreck and it came right out of his deep most inside and he died. First words.
Tomorrow is the 19th anniversary, Southwest Believers' Convention 2004. Unusually stressful convention. Do you remember the Big Band live album? Those have... we did that in 2004. So there was all of the rehearsal of that, and then there were some tragic things that happened, very unexpected things that happened. Well, during that meeting and Dr. Weeter, you know, we take one of those spongy chiropractor tables and of course, during a meeting, 3:00 or 4:00 in afternoon, I come in there and he just, you know, works out my back and he remarked, he said, "Your muscles are like steel bands". Well, I got home.
Now, if you can imagine this, there's a towel rack right here with a towel and wash cloth. There's an opening. The shower points down like this. So you step in here, here's the shower and there's a bench right here. And the whole thing is not very big. And oh, man, I just stepped in there, the night before, I just took the TV makeup off and just went to bed. And I got up the next morning and I walked in there and I just let that hot water run over my back. Well, I stepped in there. I took that washcloth. My aim was to throw it on that bench. I had never done it before, and I sure not have done it since. Usually I just kind of push it over there this way. But that day I didn't, I did this and it went in the corner and I was just standing here...
Instead of doing this, I did that and my back exploded. I screamed. It knocked me down in the floor of that shower and I crawled out and my first words were glory be to God, I'll never be operated on a day in my life. I'm not against it. But there's way too much failure in that back surgery. But I didn't have stop and think. That's what was in my heart. That's the first thing I said. I'm on the floor, but I said it with boldness. That's reason I told you there's first words, first words out of my mouth when I broke my toe and my toe was healed in a matter of moments.
So I crawled out of that shower. I couldn't stand up and I called and David and Lynn Weeter came over and they started working on my back. And now here's what I want to tell you. We found out about a machine back in those days that had been invented by Doctor Cox in Indiana and Lynn had heard about it. It's a decompression machine and that's muscle spasms is what does it. Now in years past, they would try to put people in traction and pull that loose. But when you take it off the muscle would jerked it right back in there anyway. And the MRI showed that the substance inside that disk, the muscle spasm was so hard that it blew it up my spine this way. And there was a big chunk of that got down inside there and got on a nerve.
So, Bebe had found out about that doctor over in Arlington that had that machine. He took the MRI in there. That doctor looked at that and said, "Did he come in here in a wheelchair or did he walk". "No, he walked". He said, "I don't know how". So he put me up against a range of motion chart and I almost had none. But with that machine, one exercise on that thing, and he increased my range of motion 35%. I was in an enormous amount of pain. Well, I just started saying it then. Thank God I'm pain free. I'm pain free. And then I've told you the things that happened.
Well, I went to Florida with Dr. Colbert and they started using a laser on me. And I mean everything else you can think of, but, man, it hurt me, I just lye down and go to bed. It hurt. It hurt all the time. All the time. And I just kept praising God. Well, thank God I had learned that from Kenneth Hagin and from my peers. Praise God forevermore that I had somebody to teach me that. And that's the reason I'm teaching you. You don't... but what comes out of your mouth the first time... So put enough in there, amen. The written Word, look at it, read it and say it out loud. That's mine. Amen. So I just kept saying that and kept saying that.
Well, of course they, you know, they kept working on me and I can watch those Healing Schools in times when I see it particularly, when they'd say what year it was. And I can watch myself walk across that platform and I can tell that because I know what I felt like when I was walking across there. But I never say anything about it except the fact that I'm pain free. Well, tonight I'm pain free. And the first thing I did, I said, "David, you call those people over there in Indiana, you get me one of these things in my house". And he did. And he still puts me on it a couple of times a week. But now it just feels good. But it's a mighty invention and he's the first chiropractor in history that ever got any more than a $500 grant, a medical grant from the government.
But he changed medicine's idea of lower back pain and how to work on it. And it got to the place where they were asking him, how much do you want? Because the medical community needed the research. That's the biggest problem in the United States today is people sitting at computers and everything else and their backs give out. Now, if I obeyed God in first place, it never would happen because he told me years ago, start walking and don't quit. I started walking and I quit and I paid the price. So the next best thing is to get healed. But I could have been without it in first place. And that's an important thing. So I want you to see that, you build in here these first words and you have to go to what Jesus said. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
And that's the reason so much of the time, whether Christian or not, whatever is in there in abundance, it's going to come out. And like that man said, I mean, he was under so much pressure and under so much fear. And what I discerned from her at that time is that he had, for some reason or other, he had dying on his mind and it just came out, I am a dead man. And he died, I mean, within days. Now, let me tell you another one. In Brother Hagin's office, there was a young man that had done work for them and worked there on the place. And had been a friend of the family to the Hagins and so forth. This was before Rhema. This is when they were on North Utica Street and he just all of a sudden just fell into a coma and the doctors couldn't figure out why. It didn't seem to be anything wrong with him.
Now, Brother Hagin was praying over him, and then the word of the Lord came to him saying, "Certain spiritual laws have been put into place and cannot be changed at this time". Well, the more he prayed over him, and just young man, the more that he prayed over him, the more he got that. And the doctors could not come to any conclusion. Certain spiritual laws have been put into place that cannot be changed at this time. And finally, they just came to the place where they had a discussion with the family and Brother Hagin said, "I think we should just release him because the doctors are baffled. They can't find anything wrong with him".
And so the family agreed. And they just gathered around his bed and just pray and said, "Jim, we release you". And he just had this kind of smile on his face. And I mean, in moments he was gone. So at the homegoing Brother Hagin told his brother what he said: "Brother Hagin, I know, I know what it is. We're so close. We're so close together. A lot of people thought we were twins. But we weren't. But ever since we were young, he'd get serious. He said, 'You know, I'll never live to be 40 years ago.' And I'd tell him. Oh, come on, Jim... No. No, I'll never live to be 40.'" And he said, "Wait a minute, let me get Mama".
And he went over there and got his mother and came over there and said, "Now tell my mom what's the Lord told you". And he did. Oh, she said, "He said that all his life he had never lived being 40 years old. And I used to get on him about that and he'd just smile and say, 'No, I won't live to be forty.' And he died a couple of months before he was forty". Now, here's what came out of that. If you say something long enough for it to get down in your spirit, it will control your life.