Kenneth Copeland - Receive What the Spirit Promised Through Faith
"Now, the book of Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus..." Well, the faithful in Christ Jesus in Omaha and Texas is no different. Amen. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ". We're already blessed. We're already blessed. With what? The blessing of Abraham. It's not just any blessing. "He's chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestined us the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace".
There's a lot of red underlining in my Bible right here. "Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times that He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance". Now, all of this is going somewhere. "We have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted after that you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after you have believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise".
That just whistles by people, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Oh, oowee. That's huge. He is the Spirit of the promise. It is the Spirit. In Genesis 1:1, the Spirit of God was moving. He always is. He's the power. Praise God. "Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers".
Now here's his prayer. "That the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance is in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe. According to the working of his mighty power," according to the working of his dunamis power, mighty there is dunamis, the Greek word from which we get our word dynamite, dynamin, dynamo, exceeding power, self-sustaining power, "which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, far above all power, far above all might and dominion, every name that's named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all".
That means all that's under our feet. He's the head, we're the body. "You have he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation or our manner of life in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, but God, who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, has made us alive together with Christ by grace ye are saved and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them".
There's the plan. Glory to God. We're his workmanship. "It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore, remember, here we are. Remember, you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh by hand. At that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, not having no hope and without God in the world". No hope, strangers to the covenants of promise. No hope and without God in the world. Years and years and years, I'm talking about 45, close to 50 years ago, the Word of the Lord came to me. He said, "My people are strangers to the covenants of promise. They don't know how to use a covenant. They don't even know it's there. The problem has been Old Testament and New Testament. Get that Classic Amplified and begin to read it".
This, right there in that last Passover meal, communion, Jesus was serving it. He said, "Take and drink. This is the New Testament in my blood". He didn't say that. He said, "This is the new covenant in my blood". The new one, the new covenant and the last one in his blood. All of those blood sacrifices, don't kill the man, kill an animal. God is not in the death business. He's the God of life. That's the reason he entered covenant with these people and he did it in blood so they could remember it. In the blood of animals, started in the garden of Eden, an animal, they tried to clothe themselves. Don't you know God said, "Look at that fig leaf suit". They sewed themselves clothes out of a fig leaf and he clothed them with the skin of an animal. An animal died. So the first two people on this earth could have clothes. That, it began right there. Adam, red. That's what his name means. It was Ish and Ishah.
Now it's Adam and Eve, the father and mother of Saul. It started out in blood in the garden of Eden. Blood of animals, sacrificial animals, the animals of atonement. Read the book of Hebrews, had to be done every year and redone. People said, "Oh, that's just awful". What? "Well, what did when they do that"? Six years ago. Oh, six years ago. Don't think anything's happened over the last six years? They're still in the same case they were six years ago. Well, they probably are that bunch of nuts. So you're the judge now, huh? Well, Jesus did not say, give and it'll be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give unto you bosom. But he didn't say that. But Copeland, he did. No, he didn't. He said, "Judge not that you'd be not judged. For the way you judge, it will be judged unto you. Give and it shall be..."
You have to read the articles of this covenant the way you read the articles of a contract, because that's what it is. It's a blood, it's a contract signed in the blood of Jesus that's called a blood covenant. And you have to read it carefully and you read every article of it because it's a covenant now. It's not, you can't break this covenant now. It is between God and a raised immortal man, Jesus. In his blood, it ratified all of the others. He's not, he didn't atone for sin. His blood remitted it. Read the book of Hebrews. You don't have to, you don't have to go in every year. Our high priest is at the right hand of Almighty God. And we go in in the first chapter of John. Amen. His blood cleanses us from all sin. If we say we haven't sinned, we lie. So when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Still talking about blood. Amen.
In the 17th chapter of Genesis. Let's turn there. "When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am El Shaddai. Walk before me, be that perfect or blameless. I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying, As for me..." Now I tell you, so Abram had a choice to make. As for me, behold, or as for me. Now you look and you listen. Look at this now. "As for me, my covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name anymore be called Abram. Thy name shall be Abraham for a father of many nations have I made thee and I will make thee exceeding fruitful. I will make nations of thee and king shall come out of thee. I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee the seed after thee, the land wherein you are a stranger".
I'll do it. But you walk, you walk blameless before me. We're going into this together. In the book of James, it calls Abraham the friend of God and capitalized the word friend. That's proper. Well, he didn't stop there. "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee and the generations who are an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. I will give unto you the seed after thee and the land where you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. I will be their God. And God said to Abraham, thou shall keep my covenant and therefore thou and thy seed after thee and their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your seed after you. Every man child among you shall be circumcised". Up until then it had been the blood of animals.
Now it is the blood of men. 90 years old and nine. How's he going to do this? Sarah is barren and he's 100. I make my covenant with you and your seed after you. This means for him to have seed after him, he is going to have to have a son child. And we have the beginning, Abraham, Isaac. And then God said, I want you to sacrifice him to me. So one thing's big about Abraham. He went and did. He went and did it that day. I mean, before the day's off. I mean, this is a hundred year old man was circumcised. Said he was fully persuaded. I guess he was. He shed blood in the presence of God in behalf of that covenant and set a precedence, Abraham. So he took Isaac, took him up to the mountain, took all the wood and everything. And then he told his helper, "The lad and I will be back". Abraham, man of faith took him up there. Well, what do you think? What kind of love would it take for young Isaac? It said, where's our sacrifice? And he just literally said, "Well, you know, you are, get up here".
So he just got up there. He was willing to be a sacrifice. I mean, he went through it. He raised the knife because how could he be the father of many nations and this boy be dead? There was no way. But he is to sacrifice his only begotten son, the God of heaven knew that one day his only begotten son would say, "If there is any way, take this cup from me". He could not because his covenant partner, his covenant friend was willing to sacrifice his only begotten son. He couldn't do it. That's the way this Book works. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. And most of the time, churches all over the world are just preaching all kinds of things, and that never even occurs to anybody. Well, how come he asked him to do that? I just don't understand how you could be a good God and do that. Well, read the book of Hebrews. It said, he did it by faith because he received him in a figure. He received it. He fully intended to burn him and watch God raise him up out of those ashes because of his promise, his blood promise, his blood partner that said, I will make nations of you.
And this is the only seed he had. And he believed it. And that's the reason it's called Abraham is the father of our faith. Hallelujah. That kind of uncommon faith, praise God is available to us. And we'll close over here in the book of Galatians. We have to go over here to the second covenant to find out what that meant. Thank You, Jesus. Now, this little book of Galatians, oh, this is a faith book. Thank You, Jesus. Third chapter, verse eight, "The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached". "The scripture preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, in you shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith and blessed with faithful Abraham for as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse". Here we're back to the curse on the covenant again. It's the blessing we're after.
"No man is justified by the law on the side of God. It's evident for the just shall live by faith". What faith? The faith of Abraham. "The law is not of faith, but the man that does them shall live in them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit". We might receive what the promise, what the Spirit promised through faith. "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulls or adds there unto. Now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made, he saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one to thy seed, which is Christ".
Then and he is our Lord. We are in Christ Jesus. One seed, but it belongs to us and we are firstborn. Jesus, the firstborn male to open the womb has firstborn rights and we are joint heirs with him. I'm telling you, we're getting into some shouting ground here now. Dear Lord. That's what it means to name it and claim it. Faith, because it belongs to us. We're joint heirs, not sub-heirs, joint. Firstborn status. I'll close with this. Look at this. Verse 26, "You are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus". Verse 26, "For as many as you have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ or if you be in Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise".