Kenneth Copeland - Healing Is God's Will for You
So, you're supposed to be healed today. Now then, faith begins where the will of God is known. Let's turn to John. Let's see what Jesus said over here in the book of John in chapter 5. In the 30th verse, "I can of mine own self do nothing. As I hear I judge, my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me". So everything Jesus did was the will of the Father. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And people say, "Well, I just wonder if it's God's will for me". Are you breathing? Are you still alive? Is your body still moving around? Those bodies were moving around then, and they're no different then than they are now. They just were not speaking English. Amen. They were people.
God has never changed, the devil has never changed, and people have never changed. And people have needed God ever since the garden of Eden. And they still do. But it always comes up in one form or another, is it God's will for me? Yes. But now it's conditional. The biggest hindrance is an unforgiving spirit. A large hindrance is a worried spirit, worried about it. Well, has your worrying done anything about it up to now? Well, what makes you think it's going to work tomorrow? That's the definition of insanity. Saying the same thing day after day and expecting to get a change. You're going to have to change what you've been saying. You have to change what you've been thinking, and change your attitude about it, and do what the Bible says to do.
The apostle Peter brought it out, and you know where he learned it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Well, how do you do that? Casting all your care over on him. That means your worries, your anxieties. In the classic Amplified... Well, I'll tell you how, since I just happened to have one that says KCM Amplified, that ought to work. Let's go over here to I Peter chapter five. I want you to see something about what this says. Now, you can read it in the King James Version, but listen to this.
In verse five, "Likewise you who are younger and lesser rank, be subject to the elders, the ministers and spiritual guides of the church, giving them due respect and yielding to their counsel. Clothe, apron yourselves, all of you..." Listen to that. "With humility as the garb of a servant, so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and arrogance toward one another. For God sets himself against the proud, the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, presumptuous and boastful, and he opposes, frustrates and defeats them, but gives grace, favor, blessing to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves..."
Look at this. "Demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you, casting the whole of your care, all of your anxieties, all of your worries, all of your concerns once and for all on him. For he cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. Be well balanced, temperate, sober of mind. Be vigilant and cautious at all times, for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion, roaring in fierce hunger, seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him, be firm in faith against his onset, rooted, established, strong, immovable, determined, knowing that..." Ha ha ha... He said it better than I can. Once and for all. Well, how do you do that? I'm glad you asked.
Second Corinthians chapter 10, verse 3. "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal". They're not human, but mighty. That Greek word there, dunamis, power. "Through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations," and the note is reasonings, "And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God," or the Word of God and what you know about it. "Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled".
Do you look at things on the outward appearance? No, you tell your mind what to think. I'm not going to touch that in my thought life anymore. Oh, over the years, if there's anything that has been such huge dividend for Gloria and me, and for our family, is learning how to do that. Don't touch that in thought life. Like, one way, this is one of the reasons music is so powerful, but it needs to be music that doesn't saw crosswise against the Word of God. Have you ever noticed this? You can be thinking and doing something else, and there's music in the background, and you're doing that? It will bypass your mental capacity and go into your spirit, and that's the reason you need to shut that unbelieving music off. Don't listen to things that are damaging to your spirit. It'll get in there, and if you don't know any better, you won't cast it out. And the spirit that's behind it will get in there.
Now, I hear other music. Of course, it's around you all the time, but even secular music. I'm extremely careful. I don't listen to my radio. When I want to drive down the street listening to, I don't even turn it on. I have things in my phone, thank you very much. Amen. And I like my CDs, but I've loaded my phone with things. I get on my motorcycle, and I still have Brother Hagin, even though he's in heaven. And as I told you already, I've been listening to my mother teach on the Lord's Prayer, and she's been gone since 1988. But her teaching is still here. And you don't think that's a thrill to hear my mama teach again? And anything she says is no longer a threat to me.
I told somebody, I said, "Do you know I had a drug problem by the time I was six years old"? They said, "What"? I said, "Yeah. My mama drugged me to church". I mean, Sunday morning, Sunday night, you had to go to that training union on Sunday night. And that Sunday, that old training union thing, that floor stunk in there, and I didn't like it. But she drug me in there. Thank God she did. Amen. You see, we're in the Spirit. Once a word is released, it never goes away. All the things you have ever said, all the things you and I have ever said, and where's Dr. Jackson this morning? Right in front of me. Yes, sir. I'm going to come down there. I need to pack up here.
This is scientifically proven that this magnificent thing inside your skull, that right now, as I look across your faces, my brain is recording that. And those thoughts are in there from now on, unless I get rid of them. And when you walk outside and birds fly through there, your brain catches it and records it. And I'm satisfied when the time comes, because I can see it in the Scripture, when the time comes, all of those, except the ones that have been wiped out, those magnificent thoughts and pictures that are in there. And it's like plugging into this quantum computer and just downloads all of the wonderful things.
All those little blue birds and the little red birds are flying around. They're all in there. And all of the things that my children said when they were little, and they come back. And I'm thinking right now of something that Kellie said. She's just little. And she crawled up in my lap, and I was looking at something else. She caught me by the hands and turned me around, and she said, "I love you". I said, "What do you want? What would you have me do"? And I had things. There was particularly, someone right then turned loose of words that were spoken by your children that were ugly and hurting.
Now, you cast that imagination down, and you take authority over it, and you rebuke it. I don't touch that in my thought life anymore. No. That's the way you do that. And I'm remembering a time we were in a meeting. I don't even remember. Terri may remember where it was. But we had gathered up before, and we were all getting in there and ready to pray. And we were ... Well, you know what? It was one of these conventions over the years. Anyway, we would gather up and pray about what was all going to happen and everything. And I walked into the morning area, the time we had, in a place where we were having a morning service. And there were some people sitting over here.
And I just walked over there. I was just preaching, you know? Kind of like what I'm doing right now, morning service in Lompoc, California. And I just walked over there, and I said... I was talking to everybody, but I was standing right over there. And I said, "You know, there's some people that just don't like us at all. And then they have set out to stop us having a meeting in this room. But it didn't work because I've already told my staff," which was Gloria and Terri, and they're out looking for a place. I was standing right in front of the people that did it. Don't you know they're thinking, who told him? The Holy Ghost told on them. So they began to realize they can't get away with that kind of thing.
Now, the Spirit of God did that kind of thing in William Branham's ministry. But that's part of the prophet's ministry. That's the way it worked. Now then, the Lord wanted me sharing these things with you to prepare ourselves, to prepare our thinking, because I prepare myself to come in here. But it would behoove you to prepare yourself to come in here. And when you go to church, prepare yourself. You are not serving God when you go to church. The pastor is. But now, if you want to serve God when you go to church, you begin to intercede for that pastor. You started the night before, and you intercede for the pastor and the staff, and you prepare yourself. You get in an area of forgiveness.
And maybe you and your husband and family need to be very quiet in the car and listen to the Holy Ghost on the way to church, because you're a part of that congregation. You are the Body of Christ that day. Amen. That's serving God in church. Too many church-going people, this is not wrong, but too many people are doing this. Well, let's see what the old boy's got today. See if he's got it today. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. Why don't you just go home? Stay there. Well, I've been wanting to stay home for church Sunday and it may be you just need to stay there for good, as long as you're going to be a thorn in his side, a messenger of Satan's sent. I didn't plan on being this. But this is part of healing. This is part of healing.
Now, what was Jesus preaching out there? Well, we know one thing he preached, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he's anointed me to preach. We know something else that he said, and when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any. Because that wasn't a one-time message. All of that was in the first covenant. And he took things, he said, I only say what I hear my Father say. Well, when he heard what his Father said, he just said it over and over and over again because faith came. Anyway, now, let's go back now to the plan.
In Matthew 10, no, I'm going to do the 9th chapter first. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. The 9th chapter, well, yeah, of course. Let's look at the 32nd verse. "As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. 33 And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils". Oh, I'm telling you. Mm. Jesus, now listen, "Jesus went about all the cities and villages," that means just little towns.
Nazareth really was a village. Never was over 120, 150 people there. Now, within eyesight of there was a very large city. Anyway, but this, look at this. He went through out the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. That's his job. Well, it's our job.
"But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, that the Lord of the harvest, that he will send laborers into his field. And when he had called unto him the 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the 12 apostles, Simon, who is called Peter, Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the publican, James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite, Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely you have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purse, neither scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves. For the workman is worthy of his meat, his hire".
Did you catch that? Well now, the poor-minded, thinking Jesus was poor Jesus, what does a poor man need with a treasure? What'd he say? You're working for me now. Don't take a bunch of clothes. I will provide it. Then he proved it with the madman of Gadara, because he had clothes ready for him. And the scripture said he had a garment that had no seams. That's expensive stuff. But see, the people that see him poor thought he was poor. What it said, he was made poor. No, don't read something else into that. He was made a curse. He became poor that we might become rich. That was the exchange. He became sick so we might be well. It's the same exchange. So now notice that. So what was, I came to do the will of the Father. What was the will of the Father? He became sick so we might be well.