Kenneth Copeland - How To Access the Power of God Through Prayer
Father, we thank You again today. We praise You for the honor and the privilege of having You to invite us to approach You on the throne of grace, to approach You in prayer and communicate with You. And we thank You and praise You for it again today. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
It's, once again, after having spent 57 years in the ministry, I've realized what I used to hear Brother Hagin say. The more I learn about this book, and the more I learn about Jesus, and the more revelation insight that I have makes me realize how little I know, and it makes me hungry for more. And then the field of prayer, it's not only talking with God, it's listening. And I must go back and refer to the time that I was asked to enroll at Oral Roberts University. The situation that was bothering me was the fact that over a period of years, you know, trying to make it in the entertainment business and all that, and I wasn't even called to do it in the first place. But that's what I thought I was supposed to do. And you can get into real trouble following your passions and making your own decisions in any kind of a field like that.
And that had happened over a long period of years. Anyway, $24,000 worth. And I was in the first place, I was a scriptural illiterate, and I didn't know what I was going to do. So I just fell on the floor the night before that I was to register and started praying in the Spirit just as hard and fast as I could. I could have still been there and not received anything because I was doing all the talking. Rufus Moseley said one time, here lies a fool that knows nothing doing all the talking to somebody that knows everything. Well, that was me. And I stopped, and I just whispered it a little bit. If I stop here, I wonder if He'd say anything to me. Right in here, almost audible. It was so powerful.
Well, it's about time. I couldn't get a word in edgewise. Get up on your feet. I was shaking and trembling. I called you here, and I'll take care of you here. They can't make a minister out of you. I've already made a minister out of you. All they can do is train you. Your ministry starts now, not after you get out of school. I had no idea that before the morning was up, I would be co-pilot on the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association's airplane. That's how little I knew. But God already had all that planned. But you have to take time to listen. And sometimes it takes more time than you think it might. So Ephesians 6 is the base of our study on prayer. I like to start with the eighth verse, "Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man does, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. You masters, do the same things unto them forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might". Whew.
So we have access to the power of His might, "That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil". Now, this is the way you stand on the Word of God. "For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world". Now, that's the one that possesses people. You could go over to Mark 5 and see how Jesus dealt with a man with an unclean spirit. One. And he asked him what his name was. He said, "My name is Legion, for we are many". So he was the boss over all these devils that had possessed this man. So, "Stand, having your loins girded about with truth". Jesus said, "I am the truth, the way and the life". This book is truth. "And having on the breastplate of righteousness".
We are in right standing with Him. We are being invited to come to the throne. "And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace". Well, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. "And above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying". This is prayer armor. And there are times when you just need to suit up, just go through and say, "Lord, I'll settle this". So now, "And take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying. With all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for the saints".
Now, from the Classic Amplified, we'll take a look at that same scripture there. And this is very, very interesting. In 13th verse, "Put on God's complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day of danger, having done all the crisis demands, and stand firmly on your place. Stand therefore, hold your ground". Oh, hold your ground. I mean, you take that stand, and you hold the ground, and just don't let the devil have it. Just stand there, just having done all. Brother Hagin used to say, "If you're willing to stand forever, you won't be there very long". Now, listen. "Hold your ground, having tightened the belt," and so forth. "Pray at all times, on every occasion, in every season, in the Spirit, with all manner of prayer and entreaty". All manner, all different kinds. So that's our golden text in this study of prayer.
Now, in communicating with God concerning healing, there's two places I want to go. Well, one place, but in two different translations. So let's turn to John 4 and Verse 46. "So, Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum". Now, it's very important to get inside this man's mind. Verse 46, "Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official..." royal official. This is important. "A royal official whose son was lying ill in Capernaum". Now, notice how Jesus handled this situation. "When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him and besought him". So he's praying. He's beseeching him. Now, it doesn't tell us whether he was, you know, was he walking?
Now, listen. "And he besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except you see signs and wonders you will not believe". So Jesus went right to the heart of the problem. He's desperate. But now, what happened right there? A Word of knowledge. The Spirit of God revealed that to him. "Except you see signs and wonders you will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, Sir..." Boy, this is getting stronger by the second. Sir. He didn't say, Hey, you. He's royalty. "Sir, come down, ere my child die". Jesus saith unto him, "Go your way, your son lives". And the man believed the Word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. He believed it. So Jesus touched on his situation, and it changed him because it was a Word of knowledge. And when it hit him, he'd say he believed it.
Now, it was 17 miles from where they were, where that boy was. How long does it take to go 17 miles? He most likely would have died before he got there. Well, yeah, but there's Jairus. Jairus is a different situation. Now, here's what Jairus said. My daughter is lying at the point of death. You come lay your hand on her, and she will live. He made a faith statement. This man didn't. Jesus had to minister. Jesus had to get inside of him. Now, if he had gone with him, this situation had to be dealt with immediately. And the Lord had that Word of knowledge, and when he said it, he believed it. Well, when he believed it, he released his faith, and that's when the boy was healed. Can you see that?
All right. Now, and praise God. Now, as he was going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Your son lives. His servants. Ah, we get to heaven. We'll find out who this man was. I mean, he's a man of God. He's... well, he's a nobleman. He's royalty. And he came to Jesus. "His servants said, 'Your son lives.' Then he inquired of them the hour when he began to amend, and they said unto him, 'Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.' So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus had said unto him, 'Your son lives.' And himself believed, and his whole house".
So here we've established this. Healing is a process. Physical healing is built into the human body. And Dr. Avery Jackson said something about this, and he talks about killer cells, that we have cells in our body that keep this thing cleaned up. A cancer cell is a disobedient cell. It's a mutant cell. And from what I understand from different medical doctors, particularly Dr. Colbert and Dr. Jackson and others I've spoken to, that there's constantly cells that are not working right because we're aging. I heard Billy Graham say on Billy Graham Classic, he said, "The day you were born, you started dying". Well, that's right. And the job is to keep going. Well, once anyone ages, each time a cell reproduces itself, it produces a little less. And then the cells in our bodies begin to decrease. Adam was an eternal man, an eternal man. God created him where he'd live forever, but sin got in the way.
What did the Lord say? You eat of that tree, you will surely die. Well, he wasn't talking about just dropping dead on the scene. But their spirit died to God. So that's when the plan began. Amen. To get us back and regenerate our spirit man so that the spirit man experiences the new birth. He's born again, as Jesus called it. Born from above. And then we learn that anyone that is in Christ Jesus is a new creature, a new creation. So the body's going this way and the spirit's going this way. And the more you stay in this book, and particularly in the praise of God, and as you worship God, these things begin to turn around. Now, in talking about that, I wanted to point out that this boy began to amend the moment Jesus said what he said, and the moment he believed it. That's important. Because that Word of knowledge tapped that spot. Whatever it was, he's in an area that he was over into this. He had to see something. He had to see something to believe it.
Well, that's not going to work. But so the Word of knowledge touched that spot, and the minute Jesus said he lives, he believed it. And at that moment, his recovery began. Healing always comes. Like I said, healing is in the natural body. And oh, it's a good thing. Because when I was a little boy, I was always getting into something. And I got snake bit one time. And thank God I had a praying mother. Now, without her, I doubt I would have lived over that. During the time when polio was happening, my second cousin had polio. And she had scars on her feet. Her feet rolled up, and they had to operate here to get her feet back out where she could walk. That very same time, I was... We thought I had a really, really, really terrible cold. That's the symptoms that it took. And I had my magazines on my bed, and I was propped up there in my bed. And I told my body to get those magazines, and I didn't move.
Well, of course, I hollered for my mother. She came in there and got down on her knees right next to my bed and put her hands on me. And this was before she was baptized in the Holy Ghost. She didn't know that yet. She hadn't stepped that far into prayer yet. But she prayed all the time anyway. So she was very strong. She laid her hands on me and she stayed right there, and she prayed until I came loose in the lower part of my body. Now, Darlene's mother could have done that, but she didn't know how. She's part of the Owens family, but she didn't know how to pray like that. But my mother was a prayer warrior.
So now here, as we move on into these things and how they work, let's go to I Corinthians. And we'll look first here in this 11th chapter, and we'll move into the 12th because I want to show you something about how this works. This is what the Lord Jesus taught the apostle Paul about receiving communion right here. Now, notice chapter 12. Now, obviously, we've changed the subject. That doesn't happen again. You go all the way through the 14th chapter down to the 15th chapter, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel," chapter 16. Now, that's when it changes. And there are people that have built doctrines concerning the gifts of the Spirit back in here and just fouled up everything. You don't break in there. You don't change the subject until the Spirit of God does. And if you just keep reading, he will explain himself. And we're out of time, but we know where to start tomorrow. Praise God. We'll be back in a little bit.