Kenneth Copeland - The Consistency of Faith
Friday's edition of the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. And all of us here in class here in Fort Worth, glory to God, Kenneth Copeland Bible College, and in Canada. Hey, Canada, praise God. So come on.
So, Father, we do thank You and praise You. We're learning so much about Your powerful, creative force by the name of faith. And we thank You for it. Yes, I will. Thank You. We receive the anointing today to deliver this message the way You dropped it in my spirit, not only over the years, but this morning and yesterday evening. We praise You and thank You for it. We honor You above all things. We honor Your Word and put it first place in our lives. This book is final authority on every subject. And when we understand and know what it's saying to us, we act on it deliberately. You called it in your book, the perfect law of freedom. Jesus said, "You'll know the truth and the truth will make you free". This is it. We pray it in the name of Your Son, Jesus and our Lord. Amen.
So now, back to the book of Romans, over here to this 16th verse. "Therefore, it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed". We establish that now. If you're in Christ Jesus, then you are the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise. We've been redeemed from the curse of the law. That curse is threefold, spiritual death, sickness and disease, and poverty. The blessing of Abraham is spiritual life. That happened when you made Jesus the Lord of your life. Healing and miracles, actually divine health and prosperity. I read in Exodus 23, you need to read the 20th verse first because it talks about your angel. And I will take sickness from the midst of you and he, your angel will bless your bread and water and you will not be barren. You'll have no miscarriages in your land. And I will what? Nobody knows? What? That's what he said. And I will guarantee the length of your days. I saw that.
I was driving out of my home over here and got out by the little pond. I stopped and got out of the car. It went off in me and I shouted, "I'll never be sick another day in my life hereafter forever". Now that's the base of it. But then you have corresponding action. You're going to have to do the things that correspond to that. You're going to have to do something about what you put in your mouth and what comes out of your mouth. Heart disease is the biggest killer in the United States because people just eat what tastes good and way too much of it. Ask me how I know. Now, January, 2019, COVID-19, Ministers Conference, all the symptoms of the flu came on me. I was sitting on the front row and I just sit there and smile. I said, "You can't put that on me. You know, you can't put that on me. In the name of Jesus, just take your hands off my body".
And get right now. 15 minutes it was gone. During that whole period, not only me, but the team, I tested negative for COVID five times. The extra two times was because of the children coming over. Because it was the flu, but the government gotten involved in it. Well, I refuse to have it. Somebody said, you're in denial. Yes, I am. I don't... well, you know, they said, well, that, you know, that sounds like mind over matter. I said, "No, no. No, I deny that things right to exist in my body. Because my body has been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus". Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. All of those blood covenants in the first covenant have been ratified by the sinless blood of Jesus.
Now, it is a faith that it might be by grace to the end. "The promise might be sure to all the seed, not only that of the law, but also the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations before him or like him, whom he believed even God, who quickeneth the dead and calls those things that be not as though they were, who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead... when he was about a hundred years old, neither the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform. Therefore, it was imputed," that's an accounting term.
"It was imputed unto him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone, but that it was imputed, but for us also to whom shall be imputed that we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification, therefore being justified by faith". Now, what did I say? Abraham's blessing cannot be received with Thomas' faith. Let's go back to John's gospel. 20... are you there? "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene," and I've said this before, but for the benefit of the radio and television audience, that was not her last name. She was from Magdal. So she was Mary from Magdal, whom Jesus had cast seven devils out of.
"...Unto the sepulchre and seeth... the same taken away from the sepulchre, the stone taken away. She runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and said to the other disciple whom Jesus loves, saith unto them, they've taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. And they ran both together. The other disciple did outrun Peter and first came into the sepulchre. Stooping down and looking, he saw the linen clothes lying".
The Jews learned mummification in Egypt. And Lazarus, when he called him up out of the tomb, he said, He was still in that cocoon kind of thing. And they had to get him out of that. They knew that, but they came in there and it wasn't like that. Can you tell me why? No blood in his veins. All of his blood is on the heavenly mercy seat. Remember what the other gospel says, don't touch me, talking to Mary. I have not yet ascended to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. Go tell my disciples. That's the book of Hebrews will tell you what happened. The heavenly utensils of worship had to be cleansed with the blood of Jesus all up to, but not including the throne of God. And he is now seated at the right hand of majesty on high. For right here in the gospel, he said, "Handle me, a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have".
And he sat down with him and he ate. So his physical body is still working. It just doesn't have, doesn't need blood to live because the scripture says the life is in the blood. He doesn't have any blood. He has a glorified body and everything he gets, we get. We're joint heirs. "And the napkin that was about his head was lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a safe place". Now I want to, I want to go down here to the 24th verse and get to the point. You see the little paragraph change there at verse 24. "But Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus or twin, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, we've seen the Lord, but he said unto them," now don't put him down for this. He wasn't there. "Except I shall see in his hands, the print of the nails, put my finger in the print of the nails, thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe".
He made a decision. Why would he not believe Peter and John? Because he didn't see it. Now remember Abraham's blessing cannot be received with Thomas' faith. And you'll see how Jesus answered him. Thank You, Jesus. "After eight days again, his disciples were within and Thomas was with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut". That's a glorified body. It's not subject to physical matter on the earth. Glorified, but yet it is a physical body. But the doors were shut. He just walked through the wall. He just appeared there. Thank You, Jesus. "And he said unto him, Simon, son of Jonas," oh, wait a minute. I need verse 24. Yeah. "Thomas, the other disciples therefore said to him, we've seen the Lord" and so forth.
"After eight days again, his disciples were within, the doors being shut. Peace be unto you. And saith he to Thomas, Reach here your finger and behold my hands. Reach here your hand, thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, yet have believed". He had no way. See, he was the seed of Abraham, just like all the rest of them. He had no way of receiving Abraham's blessing.
Jesus said, "Blessed are they that have believed and not seen". That's us. Absolutely. I had to train to this. They had... the university had picked this little house for us to come there and live. And it was a mess. And just this little small project house. In fact, these houses were built in World War II. And my landlord was a lawyer. He owned two of them. And so I went to see him. He was an attorney. And told him what happened. He said, "Oh yeah. Copeland, I'll take care of that. I just hadn't been in the house".
And well, really the walls were really a mess. That wallpaper was just a mess. So he paid for the paint that matched it. It was kind of a little browner than tan. And I had a couple of buckets full of that. And we're just beginning to start. We've just listened to Brother Hagin. And I'm in there painting. I said, "Gloria, this paintbrush is coming all to pieces. Every bristle in the brush came out and all the rest of them just hanging there in that paint". And she came in there and said, "You said it. And I believe every word of it". We learn that to believe those things which you say. Gloria said when I came home to school, she said, "Kenneth, I've been reading that".
And I heard the Spirit of God say that the power is in the consistency. There is power in consistently saying what you believe and believing that it will come to pass. In other words, every day, all the time, night and day. Well, I learned the lesson right there. And she would say, "That's your confession. I believe every word of it". So the confession of faith, how did we get saved? You believed it in your heart and you said it with your mouth. So the power of faith is in your heart and your mouth. We've learned that. The Word of faith, which we preach. The Word of faith. Thank You, Jesus. And we have to renew our minds.
That's the 12th chapter of the book of Romans. We have just a few moments here. Let's turn over there and look at that. Concerning spiritual gifts. No, Romans, that's 1 Corinthians. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service". You should be doing that. "Being not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God".
Well, the night I got born again, November the 2nd, 1962. I was still in airplanes and that wasn't a perfect will of God for me, flying airplanes, flying charter and all that. It was acceptable because the Lord knew I didn't know anything. He put up with me. Then in 1963, Gloria and I both were baptized in the Holy Ghost, speaking with other tongue and still didn't know what we were doing. I'm telling you, we lived in some dumps.
January the 24th, 1967, I became a student at Oral Roberts University, flying co-pilot for Oral Roberts. I learned faith from Kenneth E. Hagin. The two of them became very special to Gloria and our lives, they're families. That was the perfect will of God. I wasn't in the airplane business anymore, but knowing how to fly got me in because I became co-pilot on his airplane. I walked up there. You've heard me tell the story, but he turned around. He was standing behind me. He said, "Did I understand that you're a commercially rated pilot"? I said, "Yes, sir".
Now listen, he said, and I'm fighting this thing and fussing with it because I didn't want to go back to school. He said, "Two weeks ago, I started to hire a new co-pilot, but the Spirit of God said, 'No, I have a student coming that's supposed to have the job.'" He already opened the door for me, and I'm too dumb to preach... Then I'm walking around with Romans books, says Roaming Through Romans, and I thought, well, maybe I better read Romans before I roam through it. Well, I've read it considerably number of times in the last 57 years. That wasn't just acceptable. It wasn't good. It was perfect. It was the perfect will of God. I was 30 years old and Gloria was 25. As they say, the rest is history. Praise God. So now, "I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you," make a special note of that. "Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith". Thank You, Jesus.
"For as we have many members in one body", all members, and he goes on, oh, glory to God. Let's go down to the 13th chapter. "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power or authority, but of God". The powers that be are ordained of God. "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resists the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves condemnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good. Thou shalt have praise of the same, for he..." the police officer. Did you hear that? The police officer, the first responder, "For he is a minister of God for you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. He is a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath on him that does evil".
The stupidest thing anybody ever did is to say, "Defund the police". Our forefathers knew that that second amendment had to be in place. Oh, people fight that and fight that. Well, people have abused it. But if you take that away, nobody but the bad guys that have guns. And I'll close with this. They talked to the emperor of Japan. They had threatened to invade the United States. He said, "Oh, no". He said, "You think we're stupid? We know that there's a gun behind every blade of grass". They knew better. We'll be back in just a moment. Give the Lord a praise.