Kenneth Copeland - How the Prayer of Agreement Works
James 4:7. Submit yourself to the Lord. You draw closer to God and he'll draw closer to you. Resist the devil and he'll flee. Alright. I resist you Satan. And in the name of Jesus, you're fleed. Glory to God. It is done. Satan... Now, this is a very positive negative. I told you to flee and bless God you're going to have to do it. No, you just lost him right there. So what do you do? The corresponding action. Ha ha ha. Glory to God, you don't think you're not gone do you? No you are fleed. You are out of here. You are gone. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care what it feels like. Thank God for the "he's gone". I'm close to you and you are close to me. And he's gone. He is gone. I'm so glad he's gone. And all the symptoms are still there. I am so glad he's gone. Glory to God.
And the Lord told me one time he said, "Let my Word fight it's own fight". He said, "Once you get in there on the Word of God, just rattle the sword a little bit". He said, "Get nasty with him". Say, "Here devil, hold this". Let him up with it. You hear what the Bible said. You hear what the blood covenant said. You're gone, hoss. You're out of here. And just rattle that whole armor at him instead of, I told you to leave and you're going to have to go. I know I told you to leave.
Now Jesus spoke to that fig tree and turn and just walked off. No man eat food from you again here and after forever. And he didn't care how it happened. It could be still standing there, full of leaves, never a fig grow on it for another thousand years. But it went to the root, it dried up from the root. It didn't hit the leaves. It went to the guts. It went to the root of the problem and dried the thing completely up. And he never even turned around and looked at it and hadn't Peter not said anything about it they never would of heard it again. They just see the thing. There's just no fig tree anymore. He didn't care one way or the other. He just walked off. But Peter brought it up.
So hears Jesus answer. Have faith in God. He didn't say anything about the fig tree he started talking about mountains. Have faith in God. Have the faith of God. Forget the fig tree. But he told you right then how he did it. He talked to it. The Bible said, "He answered that tree". Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. And whatsoever thing you desire... when you pray, huh? Whatsoever thing you desire, whatsoever you... When?
When you pray, believe you receive it. When you pray, believe you receive it, you'll have it. When you stand praying forgive if you have aught against any. And he'll turn around and walked off again and expected them to do it. And my household's been doing it a long time. The Pearsons' household been doing it a long time. And I like what Jeremy said. He said, "I was raised in the household of faith. I thought this was it". And I got so tickled at him, he was talking about, we have a different vocabulary than other people. And a friend of his had a small boy and they stopped on a road trip. He had a little potty emergency. So they went in one of those old roadside things, you know, and the little boy walked in there and said, "Oh, daddy, it smells like the curse of the law in here".
Isn't that wonderful. I've been there, yeah, some of them... Glory to God. But listen to his vocabulary. He already knows about the curse of the law. 99% of the Christians never heard of it. These things work. now Isaiah 43, 43rd chapter of the book of Isaiah. Now, I want to read you something here to mark your mind and memory with this so you can watch for it. "But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel..." What's going on here? Genesis 35:10, Jacob, for you will no longer be called Jacob but Israel. But then there's so many times the Lord will say, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but go only to the House of Israel. But now you need to know why and when that took place.
Go over there and read about Jacob and Esau. And you have to remember, folks, this was back in the day when Satan was the God of this world because he had Adam's lease on this thing. And it was that way until Jesus pulled him down from his place and he's still here, but he doesn't have the authority he used to have. Thank God he's a defeated foe. But you need to know how those things came to pass. So you read one and you think one, Jacob and Israel. This one day and this time and another this time. 35:10 so you can read all of that. And I'll tell you where it happened. I'll tell you when Jacob won the fight. Esau sold his birthright. He sold it for a bowl of deer meat. And then he got all mad and hated his brother and wanted to kill him for it.
Well he didn't have anything to do with it. Anyway there's a lot of stuff going on there. But if you read through that, Jacob fell before him and he said, "Everything you give me I will tithe it, I will give you the first ten of whatever you do for me. That's when he stepped in closer". He made that covenant agreement with God and he became a patriarch. And it's not the state of Jacob today. It's the state of Israel. These are important things. Anyway, I wanted you to see that. Well we're here now, so let's continue to go with this.
In this 43rd chapter and you can read all of that. But we want to come down here and we'll start here at the 22nd. "But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices:" Who is he talking here? The covenant partner. The chief partner of the covenant. The covenant is with whom? Israel. But Jacob is getting in on this thing.
So this is important and you'll see it here in a minute, "wearied me with thine iniquities". This is the reason why we don't start with the 25th verse. "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins". I had trouble with that. I said no, no, no. For my sake. No he said, "If I remember your sins, I can't bless you. It's for my sake. Now I blotted them out, now you have a clean sheet. You tell me what to go put on there". Well, I struggled with that until I realized what he wanted. He wanted to hear some exceedingly great and precious promises. I said, "Yes sir. I'm healed and well, thank you very much".
So now you're fixing to see this. And whatever the situation is you're up against it and you're here. And listen to what he said. Glory to God, "I will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified". You declare. Declare your case. Plead your case. Well, the first plea on my case is the blood. But then I have my petition laid out on Scripture. I plead my case before the courts of heaven and I have this petition. If it please the court. I have John 16:23, I have John 14:4, I have Mark 11:24-25. This is my articles of my case, and these are articles of the Covenant.
And I go over to First John chapter 1 and I cover it with this, in the name of Jesus by faith, I walk in the light as you are in the light and his blood cleanses me from all sin. And if I say I haven't sin, it makes him out a liar and me too. So I repent, glory to God and take some time. This is serious business. This is not the Word of Faith. This is a petition. This is something that goes before the courts. We have to agree together here. But it has to be something the court can agree on. Well, I have this petition up before you. Well, what is it we're agreeing about, son? Well, there's a great big cabin cruiser out there in the ocean, and I want that. "What do you want with it"? "Well, I want that". "Is it for sell"? "No, but I want it. I like that one".
You're out of line. You're coveting somebody else's boat. You get out of my courtroom till you can come back with a better deal than that. I'm telling you, this is serious stuff. This is life stuff. And the worst thing you can do is forget about it and no plea at all. Just go bumping through life, tripping up on everything... it just seems like nothing works out for me, all I agree... Now you're in real trouble. That's what happens. Now I'll show you something that the Lord... and this will close the case on this. Here's a man that owns his own garage, he's a mechanic. And while I'm doing this, turn over to the first chapter of Isaiah and he's a mechanic and he has a good customer, the man that he takes care of is his car and so forth. He's good customer.
And he comes in and he said, "Hey, Eddie, you know, I really don't have anything wrong with car much. But it's time to tune this thing up. And it's a nice car, but it's, you know, it's three years old and I haven't had anything done to it". "Sure. Let's put it in here and I'll take care of it and I'll call you when it's ready". So he goes through and he changes the filters, changes everything. I mean, cleans all of the filters and so forth. And he puts the thing up on the rack, checks everything. And you know, greases everything, just services his entire car and he takes all eight spark plugs out and they look good. So he cleans them and gaps them, puts them back in and he makes up the bill, but he charges him for all new spark plugs. Well, nobody's going to know this, right? Because it's going to drive great. But he charged him for them.
ow what's a set of sparkplugs cost now? What? Eight and a half a piece. Something like that. Well, I mean, just call it $10 and make it easier to figure. There's eight of them. That's $80, we'll say it's $100. And he puts a little labor in there on it. He comes back home. His wife said, "What's the matter with you". "I just don't understand it. Business is good. But that big fine air compressor that I bought, I mean, that thing is broken down twice. And it seems like the more business I do, I can't get ahead of it". Why? The hundredfold is working. That is a spiritual principle. Not just because Jesus said it, it's because it is in the Spirit and it's in the book that hundredfold is working and the devil is seeing to it. Cause he's not just altogether truthful.
Now take the same situation. He does everything, and then he turns around to me and said, "Mr. Copeland, I took those plugs out and cleaned them. They look like they will probably make it another time and I won't charge you anything for that, I just enjoy your business". Now that would have been a whole lot better and he wouldn't have skimmed 100 bucks. That didn't make him anything. It cost him a thousand. Now, if he did this to five different customers. Now he's paid for that whole compressor. Nothing works out for me. No and it's not going to. Particularly if he's a Christian. No now if he's got any sense at all and he's believing for a new compressor. And I come back in there, he'd say, "Brother Copeland, I'll tell you what I did. I put you some new spark plugs in there, I'm believing God. I put some new spark plugs in there and I did a few other stuff, no use bringing it up, but I'm believing God for a new air compressor. Will you agree with me"?
You know what I'd do? I'd say, I tell you what I'll do. Here's $200. I'd like put it into your air compressor. That's the difference in the two businesses. It's not going to be long. Because he's going to be the biggest guy on the block. Instead of being broken down all the time. Now, have you found the first chapter of Isaiah? Here is the key to the whole thing. Verse 16, "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it".
He said it didn't he? Well, I brought that up to him. He said, "You don't qualify". Well, I should have remembered because Brother Hagin went through this. But I said, "We've got TV bills and everything else. And you said if I was willing and obedient, we need to go to the land". I know that but he said, "No, you don't qualify". Why? He said, "You haven't had anything good to say about daily television since the day I told you to do it. You were obedient, but you were anything but willing. This curse is upon you, because you did not serve the Lord God with gladness of heart and joyfulness of heart, for the abundance of all things. And you've been griping and bellyaching about daily television". And it wasn't a few days. I hated every minute of it. The Lord told me to do it when I was so busy already, I didn't have time and I griped and begged him all the way back from overseas.
Well, he's not going to... He said, "I'm telling you to do it when you get home". Well, I did it when I got home. I called Terri and she changed everything and we did it. And I tell you, I didn't want any part of it. And I got so tired and beat up. And I went in there one day and I sit there and looked at that camera and I said, "I quit". I meant for good. And Gloria said, "I'll do it". Bless her heart. Now, you don't know how hard that was for her. When I met her, she was so withdrawn and so shy. She didn't even want to talk to people. Then we were in a church and the pastor said, "Sister Gloria, would you just greet the people when we go"? She said, "No, sir, I don't do that". Well, he was sitting with his wife and he said, "Sister Gloria, would you just greet the people"? She stood up and she said, "I told you I don't do that". And she sat down then she just, Oh, then she told me she said this, I'll never do that again. It's hard for her, but she just stepped up.
So I said, "Well, I'll tell you what, I love it," didn't take me long. You know what that is? That's less than a New York Minute. That's a New York minute right there. You know why that's a New York minute? Light turns green, beep... They don't wait to see if you're going to move. The light goes green, weah, weah, weah, that's a New York minute. I said I love it. I'll tell you, I love daily television. I didn't feel any better about it. I didn't feel any better about doing it than it did. I was already tired and I was tired when I said it, but I tell you what, I love daily television. I am willing and obedient. I am a willing servant. And I'll tell you right now, I love daily television. I love daily television. Oh, glory to God. I love daily television. Yes, I love daily television.
Well, it came to the next TV day and I was by myself, had that little table out there. And I just sat down there and you know, I felt about it about like I do right now. I'm ready to go home. And I said, "Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland, and I want you to know something, I love daily television" and I want you to know the joy of the Lord hit me. I got up and I ran around that table and I said, "I love daily television" and I've been in love with it ever since. Now I get tired. And there's a lot of times I get the schedule a lot but I have to go in there. But I'm telling you the moment I walk in there, and particularly when we're doing things on the Covenant, like Professor Stephens and I've done all this time, and we go to digging and I don't care how tired you were when you came in there. Whoa! Oh, man, I tell you, it's as sweet as honey. When the Lord begins to talk and the things begin, Hallelujah. The prayer of agreement won't work unless Jesus is partner in the agreement.