Kenneth Copeland - How to Receive the Promises of God by Faith
Let's go to 2 Corinthians 4. We're going to talk about calling things that be not as though they were. 2 Corinthians 4, "Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not". I've got... look, look how this is marked up in my Bible. That's over a period of years. I learned so much right there about this ministry. He said about this... he's talking about his. "Having renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully," there are some that will do their best to prophesy your money out of your pocket into theirs, even if they just hint at it.
"Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light, listen, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servant for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light," oh God, I love this, "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory".
Get that. To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us". What? The knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's in the Word and it's in our spirit inside our bodies. That's a treasure. Glory to God, that's a treasure. Sometimes go and see how many times it uses the word glory and, thank You Jesus.
"We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you". He went through all that stuff to get this message to them. "We, having the same Spirit of faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality. Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses".
It's the title deed. It's the title deed to your healing. It's the title deed to your finances. We live by faith and not by sight or reason. No, faith is in the spirit, not in the mind. It's the title deed of the things we hope for, the evidence, the reality of things. Now look at that. "We having the same Spirit of faith as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore we speak. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up also by Jesus and shall present us with you for all things or for your sakes that the abundant grace might through thanksgiving of many abound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not. Listen, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day".
Every day I get one day older. Every day my spirit gets one day younger. It is renewed every day. Hallelujah. You see how many times he's talking about saying it and believing it. Now listen, "our inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction"... He called all this light affliction. "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment works for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory". Listen now, I'm going to read this the way I heard Jerry Savelle preach it a long time ago. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary or subject to change.
I heard Jerry preach that and I've preached it ever since. They're subject to change. They're temporary. The soreness in my body on a treadmill is temporary. And I'm glad. It's temporary, but what if it isn't? Well, so what? I have a job to do. I mean, over a long period of time, the Lord started talking to me about living 120 years and I agreed to do it. I had some conditions and some of them have come to pass, but I'm going there. I really tell you the truth. Just from what I'm reading in the Word and so forth and what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing in the Spirit, everything is in place, particularly since those satellites are out there. You have no idea what that did to airplanes. You used to, you get off somewhere to go direct to a waypoint. I won't go into all that, but now you just punch the direct button and there it is. You just turn and go there.
In World War II, you had off-course problems, particularly going across the oceans and they hadn't learned yet about the Gulf Stream. That's when they found out about it because they'd get up high and then the bombs would get off. They didn't hit anything and they found out there was a river of air up there that they didn't even know existed. But of course, now we do and take advantage of it. An off-course problem. You can get an off-course problem in your own life. The way that works, I'm going there and I don't make my corrections and I head here and I've got drift going this way and I'm sitting there fat, dumb and happy and I look up and oh, now what do I do? Well, do I have enough fuel to go back here and get on course and then go? I don't know. Or do I attempt to go here and keep drifting until I get off out there and run out of fuel and fall in the ocean? When you get off course with God, you get before him. I mean, you know what they tell you in aviation?
Confess, aviate, communicate and aviate. Call somebody quick. Call God quickly. Something is not right here. It isn't working right and I haven't made my connection. I got a dead spot in my spirit, but I call myself on course. I'm calling things that be not as though they were. Now, here we are. Let's go back. "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary or subject to change, but the things which are not seen are eternal". Praise God.
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed, you shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened, not for that which we've been unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up in life. Now, he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit, the down payment. Therefore, we are always confident knowing that while we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight".
Look back to 4:18. Yeah, there it is. "Therefore, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that which he has done, whether it be good or bad, knowing, knowing, knowing". Let me talk about the word know, K-N-O-W. In the Greek word, it's konosko. It's a very intimate word. Mary knew not her husband until after her firstborn came. It's that intimate, to have intimate knowledge, intimate knowledge with the love of God. Hallelujah. That place where he's so real in you, hallelujah. And on the inside of you, it has given birth to knowledge revealed by the Spirit, revelation knowledge. You've had it, you've received it. I know good and well you have, there's been times you see something, you say, glory to God, did you see that? What? I didn't see that.
Suddenly there was a snap of revelation, just went through your spirit and you said, "I see it". What'd you see? You didn't see anything with your eye, you saw it with your spirit. This is the new creature chapter. "For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all are dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth, we know no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh". How did that come to pass? Well, you know good and well how it came to pass. It started on the road to Damascus, and that bright light hit him and blinded him.
Shortest salvation prayer on record. Lord, who are you? I'm Jesus, who now persecute. He didn't say you're persecuting my people, he said you're persecuting me. That's something to learn. We bad mouth another Christian, you're bad mouthing Jesus. So, God was in Christ, here's that word, "reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing, not holding against them their trespasses, and hath committed unto us the world of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, you be reconciled to God. For he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him". Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus.
Now then, back up over here to the letter to the Romans, fourth chapter. Verse one, "What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? For if Abraham are justified by works, he hath wherefore to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness". He believed him. And that very same day he went and did. Here's a man 100 years old, as I mentioned it before. That same day he was circumcised. He bled into that covenant. It doesn't say how long it was before he could walk, but Isaac was born. And that was the contradiction, the covenant and the contradiction. No way, that old man, old man you don't count, old woman you don't either. But only that which God has said. Changed his name, changed hers. Added A-I to Sarah. Hallelujah. "Now to him that works, the reward is not of grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works saying..."
Now here's what David said, "blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered". And now watch this, we're not done yet. "He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised". See, he believed God before he was circumcised, then circumcision was part of it. He believed him all the time, "not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised. That he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, but righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of Abraham, the father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised".
That was when it was more important. He walked by faith. "For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of none effect, because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there's no transgression. Therefore..." Brother Hagin say, when you see a therefore, see what it's there for. "Therefore, it is of faith so that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also, which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written," Genesis 17 and five was cross-referenced. "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him," it's a little number there, or like unto him, so he did this like him in front of him.
"Even God, who quickeneth makes alive the dead and calleth those things which 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. Being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet 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 it. Therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed, if 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". Calling things that be not as though they were.