Kenneth Copeland - Prayer That Receives Answers From God
Welcome, everybody, to Friday's edition of the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. I'm Kenneth Copeland. And here's where I've been working all week. We'll get through this today. Now, notice here, I want you to go to the 14th verse of the 14th chapter of the book of I Corinthians. Now, here, let me remind the radio and television audience, by not breaking in and staying with this letter, where other people have broken in and let the devil just steal from the church and steal these precious manifestations of Jesus. If it's a manifestation of the Spirit, it's a manifestation of Jesus. Amen.
Notice, Verse 14, "For if I pray," and let's back up, 12th verse, "even so you, forasmuch as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church", or building it up, "wherefore, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the Spirit, I'll pray with the understanding".
Now, listen to the Classic Amplified, and particularly in the 13th verse. "Therefore, the person who speaks in an unknown tongue should pray for the power to interpret, explain what he says". Now, here's what I want you to get. "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit by the Holy Spirit within me prays, but my mind is unproductive, it bears no fruit, and helps nobody. What then am I to do? I will pray with my spirit by the Holy Spirit that is within me. I will also pray intelligently with my mind and understanding. I will sing with my spirit by the Holy Spirit that's within me, but I will sing intelligently with my mind and understanding also. Otherwise, if you bless and render thanks with your spirit, thoroughly aroused by the Holy Spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider..."
Well, see, he's teaching proper etiquette. There are people that I know and are like-minded. We sit down to pray over a meal and just soon pray about it, and the Spirit is not. Now, it takes me a little while to pray over a meal because I have a faith claim before God for a million partners in the United States before the end of 2024. Hallelujah. One in a million. Glory to God. Now, the Lord gave us that from the fourth chapter of Ephesians a number of years ago. And just recently, He said, it's time. So it's part of my prayer time for my partners, and I pray for my partners all over the world. Then I pray for this nation. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven concerning this election, school board elections, sheriff elections, judge elections, and of course, president and vice president elections, Congress, everything that's... We must be involved. But we're involved in prayer before vote time comes. I've been praying this for a long time. Amen. So, I will pray with the Spirit.
Now, in the church, I'd rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice, I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Well, now, wait a minute. I get up to preach on Sunday morning or at a Victory Campaign. I yield myself every time before ever going to a service. I give myself to the ministry of the prophet and all the gifts necessary to do what You want done in this service tonight. Then walk in that and be aware of it all the time. So, I could stand there and just speak in tongues for an hour and turn around and leave. Nobody's edified. It will create confusion and open the door for spirits that don't belong in there.
Now, there have been people over the years, particularly back 1950, Billy Graham's ministry started in 1949. So did Oral Roberts. So did Kenneth E. Hagin. The three of them are all about the same age. Billy Graham dedicated Oral Roberts University while I was there. So I was standing in the elevator with those two and kind of shaking all over to be in the presence. They were very good friends. But he dedicated Oral Roberts University knowing full well, knowing full well that Oral Roberts University is a charismatic, tongue-talking, healing- believing university. But Billy Graham was called to do one thing and do it exceptionally well as an evangelist. But he and Oral Roberts were good friends. So the point is, in a church service, in a place where it's an evangelistic outreach like in a tent, I don't remember one time in the time that I was with Brother Roberts in the tent or anywhere else, he was an evangelist. And that's what he did in that tent. He talked about Christ, the healer. I like to say it like this, he stayed in his lane.
Now, otherwise, I've already shared with you the fact that he prayed in the Spirit and interpreted and designed that university. I never did hear him do it under the tent or in big auditoriums. He preached. But then when he would teach the supporting pastors in that meeting, he would go into all of these things. And he would go into it with such detail that you'd... I just sat there. I didn't want him to quit. Let's just keep doing this. Because it was feeding my spirit. But he did exactly what he was called to do. At least at the time that I was there, I never, ever heard him at any time speak in tongues and interpret it. He operated as an evangelist all the time.
Now, he did in his prayer time, all the time. Because that's the way he listened to God to get what he was supposed to preach. And he would lock in so tightly that before a service, there was a cutoff time. He wouldn't visit with anybody. He's listening. Listening. Listening. Listening. Not talking. Listening. Listening. Before the Lord. Listening. Listening. Pray in the Spirit and interpret. But by the time he came out of that hotel room, I want you to know he was a spiritual bomb going somewhere to explode. It seemed like in those meetings, it seemed like 15, 20 minutes, he preached on Samson and Delilah. And I'm telling you, I was so put out with her by the time we got to the end of this message. And I was put out with him too for putting up with it. I'm talking about Samson. But it was so alive. That was his job. He's an evangelist, to paint a Word picture out of the Bible. And then he did the fourth man. Oh, from Genesis to Revelation.
And two or three hours would seem like 15 or 20 minutes. Well, at the end of that, oh, the miracles happened. Oh, I mean, just miraculous things took place. And he did those things. Now, in his own private time, huge giver. Oh, he's the one that told me it's worth more as a seed than a sale. And the first thing he said about giving, he said, talked about excellence of ministry. For God so loved the world that he gave. He so loved that he gave. So all of that is reflected here in the written Word. Because all of this is talking about a manifestation of Jesus. He said, "I will pray the Father, he will send you another comforter, another standby, another intercessor. It's more expedient for you if I go away". Well, they couldn't understand that. They didn't know that the next day he's going to the cross.
So that established all of this in these letters. So now, what is it then? I will pray with the Spirit and so forth. Now, I want you to see this. "For verily you give thanks well, but other is not edified. I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all". Let's look at that in 14:18. "I thank God I speak in strange tongues and languages more than all of you or all of you put together". Well, this Corinthian church got in trouble because of misuse of tongues. And they just stand up and just start screaming out across the church. So he had to straighten all that out. Now, let the prophet speak to you. Two or three let another judge and so forth. Chapter 15, "Moreover brethren I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which also you have received and wherein you stand".
Can you see he changed the subject? Finished all that. "Let all things be done decently in order. Covet to prophesy and forbid not to speak the tongues. By which you also saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I received that how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried, he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And that he is seen of Cephas then of 12. After that he was seen above 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some fallen asleep". Excuse-me. "After that he was seen of James then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles that I'm not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And this grace was bestowed upon me was not in vain. I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God was with me".
Listen to that. It wasn't me. It was grace all the time. "Therefore, whether I were or they, so we preach and so you believe. Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there's no resurrection of the dead? If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. Christ not be risen, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith is in vain". Verse 13, "If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, yet you're in your sins. Then they also fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men are most miserable. But now in Christ risen from the dead," there's an in Christ right there.
"But now in Christ risen from the dead, becoming the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man also came resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Then yet every man be in his own order. Verse 25, for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet, and the last enemy shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet, but then he saith all things under him. It is manifest that he is accepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him. Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things, that God may be one in all. I fought with beasts at Ephesus" and so forth. Come on over here. You have to read that whole chapter. "The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. He that was not first is spiritual". In 47, "the first man is earth and the second man is the Lord from heaven".
Come on down. So then when is, verse 54, "corruptible shall be put on incorruption, this mortal shall be have put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory over death and hell and the grave through our Lord Jesus Christ". That's what that whole thing was all about. Now concerning the collection, you don't change subject till he does. That's the way, and people have fought small wars over tongues. Well, if I was the devil, I'd do everything I could to stop it too because of divine secrets. Hallelujah. Develop this kind of prayer life. Read these things. Read them in the Amplified. Study it. Develop it. Let your spirit just absorb these things so that you rightly divide the Word of truth. Don't stop and make a small doctrine out of something right down in the middle of that.
Well, see there, tongues passed away. Tongues passed away now, so what difference does it make? I read that on somebody posted. It was on the woman question. They said, well, he was actually talking about tongues. So since tongues have passed away, then what difference does it make? Well, there's somebody that is grossly uninformed, and the devil is stealing and robbing everything he can from them. Amen. So what do we do? We just keep preaching it. When you teach and preach these things, when you preach this book, what did Jesus say? There are people that are going to hate you for my sake. How could that possibly be? I'll tell you what. He stepped on some toes.
Well, you just teach this like this. The people that don't like to hear it, particularly if someone has taught differently, but then I have had certain ones that came to me. One man, well, a man that is on our board of directors, and he's one of the broadcasters, called me. He said, "I have a man here that wants to talk to you". He began to cry. Brother Copeland, he said, "Those people out there that were picketing your meeting, I want to apologize to you. I was misinformed. I'd never heard you preach. I just believed what somebody else said about you. And those people were out of my church". And he just began to weep.
You see what he did? Somebody told him what somebody said that somebody else said. And the most outstanding one I can remember is this woman went around preaching that I was having many sexual affairs. And it got back to us. And somebody sent her name and phone number. So Gloria called her. She answered the phone. She said, "This is Gloria Copeland. And I understand you've been telling people that my husband has had many sexual affairs. And I want to tell you something. He doesn't have time because he's with me all the time". She said, "Well, that's what so-and-so told me". And Gloria said, "I don't care what so-and-so told you. I'm telling you the truth". And then it dawned on her what she'd done. And we're out of time again today. Did you get anything out of this today? Woo, I did just talking about it. Praise God.