Kenneth Copeland - Vision Connects You to Your Calling by Faith
Open your Bible to Proverbs, Chapter 29, please. Verse 18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish". Now, that's serious. Where there is no vision, the people die spiritually. You perish. You finally come to a place where you just live day by day and get bored with faith and everything else, without something to look forward to. Well, I don't have any vision. Well, this book is full of them. Now, in the book of Habakkuk, in the second chapter, "I will stand upon my watch, and set me room, and set upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say".
Now, they see here, see what? To "watch to see what he will say to me, 'And that I shall answer when I'm reproved.' And the Lord answered me and said, 'Write the vision, make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it, for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry.'"
It's time to write some things down. I'm going to come down there where I can talk to you. When I was a young boy, I wanted to fly. I couldn't see why everybody didn't want to fly. That was a vision of mine. And I drew airplanes on my school books, and I'd use a straight edge to make sure I got the wings straight. I wanted to do that. Well, the very first time I ever had the opportunity, a man in Abilene, Texas, by the name of Wooten, he owned the Wooten Hotel and the Wooten Furniture Company, and he had a little Lockheed 12. Well, the war wasn't over, but it was so close that they released civil aviation again. And somebody invited, called my dad. I don't remember who it was, but said, "Would you and your son like to go"?
So the pilot for Mr. Wooten put me up in front, and I was in the right seat. He looked over there at me, and he said, "Don't you touch anything". I guess my eyes were glazed over. Don't you touch anything. So I sat on my hands, And in a few moments, I was finally off of the ground for the first time. And we were walking away from that airplane, and I stopped. I didn't know anything about March 11th, 23. What are you talking about? Neither did my dad. I turned around and said, "Daddy, I'm going to do that". He said, "What"? I said, "I'm going to fly airplanes". He said, "Boy, you can do it". Hey, Brian. You can do it.
Well, I made up my little heart and mind right there. Somehow or another, I'm going to get this done. I was on my way towards solo flight. And that's what I wanted to do, at that point, more than anything in the world, I wanted to fly an airplane with nobody in there but me. And I got to do it. And now, and I want to explain a little something here to you. On the instrument landing system, the ILS, there is an outer marker. And it has a little blue light that'll light it up out there, but it's the point where you start down on the system. I never heard of it.
Well, we'd been training in August of 1961. No DFW, it was Meacham Field. It was either Meacham or Love in Dallas. But I soloed at four o'clock in the afternoon. Traffic... took off. Turned that little 150 around on a base leg, five, five, two, three echoes. It's a touch and go. Roger that, two, three echo. You follow a DC3 just outside the outer marker. What? They got something painted on a barn? I had no vision of that. I'd never heard of that. I said, "This is my first solo". All right, two, three echo. Can you hold a heading? I said, "Yes, sir". "Can you maintain your altitude?" I said, "Yes, sir".
So I just, in my mind, I just got to fly a little further. I was not bothered about it. Had no fear of it at all because I had envisioned it since I was about five. Never did have any fear of it. I envisioned it. Trained it. My dad said, "Kenneth, if I'd zip your head, airplanes and motorcycles would come out". I said, "That's right". And I have both today. Nice ones. The vision, the vision was there. And I found out later cause that the Lord implanted that vision in me in order to further his ministry and the capability of this ministry. So I just flew along there, just happy as a pig in the sunshine. And he said, "Two, three echo. You see that DC three on final there just off your left wing"? And I turned around and looked. I said, "Yes, sir". He said, "When he passes under your wing, turn base," which meant go this way.
And I thought, hmm, I couldn't hit him if I tried. The point is that had been a vision in my heart and in my mind since I was old enough to know what an airplane was. I wanted to fly one. Anything too hard for God? Now I'm going to remind you of something again now. Elohim chose Abram because he would teach his children. George Washington could have done anything he wanted to do. He was the first elected president in this nation. Number one, he chose to go to his Bible at the same place in the 17th chapter of Genesis. He chose to go to that same place and enter into covenant. He designed the American flag and said, "You will be our God and we will be your people".
Now God chose Abram. We chose God. That's huge. 1787, covenant number one. And then he shocked all of them and he leaned over and he kissed the Bible. First president. So it's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and George. In God time, 15, 20 minutes ago. And you got all of this hoorah going on. Well, the devil is just being the devil and God is just being God. And neither one of them like one another. But the devil has to obey when his people charge him to. He's stuck with it. So use the book. Pray those covenants. And sometimes just go down through it and create a vision of it. Then go to the Lord and say, well, let me go back to another thing.
I found out early on that in World War II in Monterey, California, they had a total immersion language school because they needed translators and interpreters that they could trust. It was called total immersion. And you went into that school and you didn't speak any more English. I did it in Spanish for a little while. It worked. And I thought, how can I do that with faith? How can we do that with faith? And I envisioned, I thought, well, maybe like my buddy, Jimmy Swaggart, that bought a bunch of radio stations. So I just went on radio stations. And well, at first I didn't want to do that. I said, "Lord, I'm too busy to go on radio. Speak me out of a burning bush".
Well, I got a call and said, "It's Jimmy Swaggart". I answered the phone. He said, "Why ain't you on the radio"? The Lord said, "There's your burning bush. Now listen to the man". He said, "Now listen, I don't want you to fool around with a bunch of stations. It's not any good". He said, "My media buyer, Michael Ellison, will help you with that. And we'll pick out the best stations". So we started picking out, we finally wound up on 700 radio stations. And I didn't want to, I didn't want a post office box. I thought, Brother Roberts doesn't use one, so I just called the post office. I didn't know you couldn't do that. And I told the man who it was and what I want to do.
And I said, "Now, my spiritual father, Oral Roberts, doesn't use one. I don't want one either. I'm going on nationwide radio". He said, "Mr. Copeland, I don't know. I'll ask and see". He came back and said, "Yeah, but you do need the zip code". So it's Kenneth Copeland, Fort Worth, Texas 76192. That's all the address you need. The only reason I had that is because I asked for it. And I could envision it because people could remember that. And they did, but I wasn't satisfied with that. I had this totally immersion idea. This thing to get faith. How can I do this? Well, we went on and never... Well, I'll give you the dates of it. And things began to happen. And KCM began January 24, 1967.
Now, how did that work out? Because I could fly. That was what that whole flying thing was all about. I didn't have any money. $24,000 in debt. Gloria said, "You must have borrowed money on your tricycle". I had a lot of junk over the years. But it was there. And that's one reason I didn't want to go back. I was afraid of that debt. Well, I didn't have anything else. And the night before, I just hit the floor, just praying in the Spirit. I said, "Gloria, I don't know what to do. I've been to orientation and all that. And I'm going to pray in here till it takes all night long".
Well, I just fell on the floor in that little house and praying in the Spirit just hard and fast as I could. And I thought, I wonder if I'd be quiet, he'd say something to me. And I heard it. I tell you, it was really... I heard the audible voice of God one time, but it was so close. I mean, my hair heard it. It was so powerful. "Well, it's about time. I hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise. Get on your feet". Man, I hit it here. I'm standing there shaking all over. "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 doesn't start after you get out of school. It starts now".
I was trembling all over. She said, "What happened all night long"? I said, "Well, I got my direction". I told her. She said, okay. So, Mrs. Campbell, you've heard me tell this story, but I want you to see where vision came in. Because that put a vision in my heart and mind. I sent you here and I'll take care of you here. And it is so powerful. There ain't no way I'm going home. No, no. So, I said, I mean, Mrs. Campbell is typing out one quarter of my bill. But I have a vision. I sent you here and I'll take care of you here. They can't make a minister out of you. All they can do is train you. Your ministry starts now. And I registered the next morning, January 24th.
Anyway, 1967. So, I called my dad. I don't know what else to do. I said, "Mrs. Campbell, may I make a collect call"? "Yeah, dial nine". She's just hammering away. He said, "Where are you"? I said, "I'm in the registrar's office in Oral Roberts University". He said, "Eddie Matthews..." Now, Eddie Matthews was in the construction business. And my dad knew him through the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship years ago. Eddie Matthews came by and dropped off a check and said, it's for your ministry. Eddie Matthews didn't know where on the planet I was. I said, "How much is it"? And he told me 375, whatever it was. Paid the first quarter.
I thought Gloria and I would eat a candy bar and go broke again and just see what's going to happen. The point is, the vision began. Well, I got out there and the Lord just stopped me out there in front of the LRC. Just stopped me out there. Go to the sixth floor. I said, "No, I can't go up there. That's the Vatican". That's just what came out. Oral Roberts office, Dean Messick's office, and Ron Smith's office. He said, "Oh, they work for me". I couldn't do it. I pressed the fifth floor. Well, it was the first year of ORU. I found out later it was the library. I didn't know. And right in here, "I said the sixth floor". So I didn't know what else to do.
I just walked up there and I said, "My name's Kenneth Copeland". I was 30 years old now. I didn't know the significance of that. I'm a commercially rated pilot. I understand this ministry uses aircraft and I need all the help I can get. She said, well, it's Ruth Rooks, but I didn't know who it was. Tell Dean Messick. I told him, he just went, well, I said it twice. I turned around and Granville Oral Roberts had walked up behind me. I understand you're a commercially rated pilot. Well, he said, "I'm Oral Roberts". And I stuttered. Cause I didn't know he was standing there. My vision to fly as a little boy. And I remember the first time I ever got up above the clouds, I thought, hmm, I had this figured out pretty good. My dream to fly for all those years.
I understand you're a commercially rated pilot. I said, yes sir. Can you handle our airplane? Well, yeah, it's going to be from the right seat. I said, yes sir. Listen what he said. Are you listening? Listen to what happened to my vision. All those years. Two weeks ago, I started to hire a new co-pilot and the Spirit of God said, no, I have a student coming that's supposed to have the job and you're my man. Tell Brother DeWeese I found our co-pilot. All that dreaming of all those years of wanting to fly. It was to connect me with him because he began to teach me and strengthen me.
Well, then we had all that debt to deal with, but then ran across a man by the name of Kenneth E. Hagin and we began to learn. I was working with one, listening to the other and faith came and came and came and the vision increased and I could see things in the Spirit. Started out as a teacher, 1967 camp meeting, separated me to the office of the prophet. Williams Center, Saturday night, 9,000 people giving the invitation and stopped. I'd been teaching there that week and I was on the platform.
I heard in my spirit, get on your knees. I said, "No Lord, I don't want to change, draw attention". He said, "Get on your knees now". On my knees. "Ken Copeland..." he began to talk to me about the prophet's ministry. He put it like this, whether you want to or not, you're going to operate in the ministry of the prophet, the seer. The seer standing right in the pulpit, you'll see it run off in front of you just like on a TV screen, you'll be able to minister to the people. 1967, the vision changed.