Kenneth Copeland - Take Your Stand of Faith
I want to read this from the Classic Amplified. We'll go back over to the book of Ephesians, please. And the 6th chapter. In this chapter, he's talking about taking a stand. Take your stand. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord as his representatives, for this is just and right. Honor, esteem, and value as precious, your father and your mother. First commandment with promise".
Now, you come all the way down here. Look at the 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. And having done all the crisis demands to stand firmly in your place. Stand, therefore, hold your ground, having tightened the belt of truth around your loins, having put on the breastplate of integrity and moral rectitude, and right standing with God, having shod your feet with preparation to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability and promptness, readiness produced by the good news of the gospel of peace. Lift up over all covering shield of saving faith upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked one. Take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit wields under the Word of God. Pray at all times, on every occasion, in every season, in the Spirit, with all manner of prayer and entreaty. To that end, keep alert and watch strong purpose, and pray for me".
All manner of prayer. It's not all the same thing. And we talked about the fact that there is the prayer of faith, but faith is involved in everything. Prayer does not make faith work. Faith makes prayer work. Now, one of the first things that I learned early on from Brother Roberts, don't ever compromise. Never. Pat Boone introduced me to his pastor, Jack Hayford. Well, I knew who he was because through Pat, and we were in his office, and he said, "Copeland, I don't think you're balanced". I thought, here we go. He said, "But you're not supposed to be. You're a faith specialist, and don't ever let anybody take you out of that track".
Well, I hadn't thought about it like that. Well, somewhere down the line, you're going to have to learn to apply faith to these different forms, different kinds of prayer. Of course, there is the prayer of faith. Now, let's go to the book of James. There is one thing from the Francis Weymouth translation. I intended to bring mine tonight. Our ministry put that one back into print, so it's part of Kenneth Copeland Publications. Two things that he said, where the King James says, praying in the Spirit, a man prays in the Spirit, edifies himself, and prays mysteries. He said, divine secrets. Don't you like that? He said, faith needs corresponding action instead of works. Say it, corresponding action to faith.
You can go through the book of James and find these places, but this is the one I'm interested in, chapter five. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborer who has reaped down your fields, which of you is kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them have reaped into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth". Not Sabbath, the Lord of Sabaoth.
"You lived in pleasure on the earth, you've been wanton, you've nourished your hearts as a day of slaughter, you have condemned and killed the just. He doth not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draws nigh. Grudge not against one another, brethren, unless you be condemned. Behold, the judge stands before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example for suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy, which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven nor of the earth, neither by any other oath. Let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay, lest you fall into condemnation. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing songs. Is any sick among you"?
Now, this refers to the fact there should not be any sick among us. Shouldn't be. It's not God's will for any of his people to be sick. "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let him pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick". Well, faith in what? In the name of the Lord. Faith in the name of the Lord. Faith in that name. All right.
Hold your place there, because we're coming back, and let's go to the third chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter three. "Now, Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, three o'clock in the afternoon. A certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, upon whom they laid daily in the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asking alms, Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. He gave heed to them, expecting to receive something of them. Peter said, Silver and gold have I none".
Actually, that's a little erroneous in the King James translation. It's more like, I don't have anything on me right now. He was not broke. They caught enough fish on that one day to ruin the fishing market on the Galilee. Amen. But now listen to what he said. "'But such as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' He took him by the right hand, lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. He leaping up, stood and walked, entered with them into the temple, having leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God. They knew it was he that was at the Beautiful gate. They were filled with wonder and amazement".
That miracle did not cause faith. It was a sign and a wonder. Now this is important. "And as the lame man, which was healed, held Peter and John, the people ran together into the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. Peter saw it. He answered unto the people, You are the men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Why look you so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness, we made this man to walk"? And people will come up and say, Oh yeah, but they were apostles. That didn't have anything to do with it. They're believers. Amen.
"The God of Abraham and of Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, have glorified his son, Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the just, desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God has raised up from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. The faith which is by him has given him this perfect soundness".
It was faith in the name. Why and how did that take place? What did he do? What did Jesus do in that last Passover meal? They didn't know that in hours from now, he's going to the cross and be raised from the dead. They didn't know that. But he said, "If my words abide in you and you abide in me, ask what you will and it will be done unto you. And whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. It's expedient that I go away, for if I don't go away, the comforter, the Holy Spirit can't come. But when he comes, he won't speak of himself. But all that the Father has is mine. He will take what is mine and show it unto you. And he kept talking, in that day, you'll ask me nothing. But my name, whatever you ask in my, whatever you demand in my name, I'll do it". They demanded that that man walk. They put a faith demand on that name and he got up and walked off.
Well, he just kept preaching. And then faith came. He was preaching the name and he preached the fact that Jesus went to hell and paid the price for this thing. But the name made the difference. That's what the power of the name, faith in the name made this man strong. Not because we walked with Jesus, not because we're apostles, not our holiness, but faith in the name. Because that's what Jesus told them over and over and over and over. They came back when he ordained the other 70 and said, even the devils are subject in your name.
So now let's go back over there to the book of James. The prayer of faith shall save the sick. Now that brings me to the word save. And the prayer that is of faith will save him who is sick. Now that is the same word translated healed. In the Classic Amplified, it's called soundness. So if you have your Blue Letter Bible, look it up and it goes through all of those different words. Soundness, salvation, healing, and deliverance from sickness and disease and so forth and so on, "shall save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your false one to another, pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much".
Okay, now I want to read this. So that would be 5:16. "Confess to one another therefore your false, your slips, your false steps, your offenses and sins. Pray also for one another that you also may be healed and restored to a spiritual tone of mind and heart. The earnest," listen, "the earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working". Isn't that good? Dynamite. Dunamis power. Dynamic in its working. Go over to Mark 11 and I can show you from the scripture more easily than I can explain it. "In the morning as they passed by and saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God".
Have the faith of God, the cross reference says. Well, in the book of Ephesians, it is by grace we are saved by faith through grace, which is the gift of God. Which one? The grace and the faith. Cause it's by grace we got the faith. And the moment we believed what he said, that faith came and we were made new creatures. That is the faith of God. So faith in the Word, faith in the blood and faith in that faith, even though it's living in me, it isn't faith in me, it's faith in his faith that lives in me. And it comes by hearing this. So I had to learn that it's his faith working in me.
"And therefore it is faith that it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who's the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed even God, who quickeneth the dead and calls those things that be not as though they were". El Shaddai said, "I have made you". He didn't say you're going to be. I have, as for me, my covenant is between me and thee and I have made you the father of many nations. Your name is no longer Abram, but Abraham. So he was Abraham from that day forward. Nobody ever called him anything else. God had the authority to do that.