Kenneth Copeland - Love Is On Your Side
— Hello, everybody. We're Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Let's have a word of prayer. We'll get right into today's Bible lesson. Father, we just praise You and thank You. We worship You. We lift our praise, our hearts, our faith to You. We are Yours to command, Sir. And we receive Your presence on this broadcast today. We receive insight, ideas, concepts, revelation from heaven about Jesus and living this life of faith. We pray it in Jesus' name and believe we receive it. Amen.
— Amen.
— Glory, glory, glory to God. I want you to know God is good.
— He is good.
— And His mercy endures forever.
— Oh, aren't we?
— Isn't it wonderful? You know, welcome to our place here in southwest Arkansas. This began just as four acres enroute, just in this area where we're sitting here. Of course, this house wasn't here, and the pond wasn't there. It was just really just a bare hill full of rocks out here in the beginning.
— An abundance of rocks.
— Abundance of rocks. We picked up rocks and picked up rocks and picked up rocks. And, you know, you think this place is growing rocks. And the kids, they rode their little Z50 Hondas out here all over this place back before we had anything. And it was just raw like it is in the picture that...
— Rock and dirt.
— Yeah. Then in the picture that you've seen on when the place was originally set in here, that was this house here before Gloria got her and her mother got her hands on it. And they just rebuilt this thing and restored it just into the beautiful place it is now. Back there then, they're out riding around all over, banging in the rocks and stuff. We just had an enormous amount of fun out here. But the big thing about this place, God provided the vision and the provision for the house, the log cabins, the pond. I was standing over there by a tree and just praising and worshiping the Lord over this place when your grandmother and granddaddy gave it to us. And I just heard it on the inside of me, just like any Christian can hear God speak if you listen. He said, "See that little dry creek bed"? I said, "Yes, Sir". And my eyes were following that creek bed. And God, and He pointed out a tree over there to me. He said, "If you'll build a levee, a dam right there and bring it all the way across there, you'll dam up that water. You'll have a nice pond there".
— Well, we had a lot of it dug out too, didn't we?
— Well, yeah, it was just a creek bed. But then we found out that the state of Arkansas had a conservation thing going and the state was providing money to help people build ponds and lakes and things around to conserve water.
— That's right. Just in time.
— And they paid for, it cost us, I think, $600 to get the thing dug out and all that went with it. And God just blessed.
— It's a blessing.
— That's just the way He is, Gloria.
— I know it.
— He wants you blessed.
— He's got ideas. If you'll get His ideas, you'll do good.
— Oh, yes, the blessed one. Amen. Let's go back to our place in I John where we've been reading, what Brother Hagin used to call our golden text. Amen. In I John 4, Verse 8, "He that loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love". And what we're talking about all last week and all this week is renewing our minds to the fact that God is love. And love does no ill to its neighbor. We read that yesterday in 13th chapter of Romans. Well, how about God? He is love. Well, He does no ill to anybody, ever, anybody, any time, except the devil. He'll do him bad. Glory to God. And that's good. Love stands up for its own. Now, let's go down now and read the 16th, 17th, and 18th verses. "We have known and believed, had faith. We're going to have to learn to believe, believe the love, and have faith, learn to trust His love". The scripture says, "Lean not to your own understanding, but trust God with all your heart". Well, if you're trusting God, you're trusting love because He is love. But love has been so misused. Love is a slang word in the English language. And so is God, and so is Lord, and all of that, and too much so in the Christian community. I'm born again. People ought not be using God's name in any form, in any way like that, except to praise Him. But I love my, you know, I love this. I love that. Oh, don't you love it. I love pizza. I love, you know, just a slang word. And by doing that, you have no real concept of and give the word love, the reverence, and the honor that it deserves, the honor that is right alongside with the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, and the Word of God. Hallelujah. Because it is God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Well, in the beginning was love, the Word was with love, and love was, and the Word was love. Now, in the beginning love created the heavens and the earth. Well, on what day did love create cancer? He didn't.
— That's right.
— And would never. Amen. The devil brought that. There was no sickness. There was no disease. There was no disaster. There were no storms until the devil got his hands on this place. Amen. Now, look at this. God is love. To have faith in love, then you must, you and I and everybody else. We must use the laws, the spiritual laws that govern faith in order to develop and renew our minds concerning this. Then we have to do it the faith way. So let's go over to the 11th chapter of Mark's Gospel, Verse 12, "On the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves, He came, if happily he might find anything thereon. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not. And Jesus answered and said unto it," or said to the tree, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it. And they came to Jerusalem. And Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold, and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves. Would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple? And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations a house of prayer? You've made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine. And when even, or evening, was come, he went out of the city". So, Gloria, they left here in the morning. He stopped at the fig tree, spoke to it. They left in the evening. So there's about 12 hours there, roughly. And they went back to Bethany. Well, now, they had to walk right by that tree. It was either one of two things. It was either dark, which probably not, because they wouldn't have waited until dark to walk back to Bethany.
— Yeah.
— So they had to walk right past that tree. And if you could have seen anything on the outside of that tree that looked like any change in it, Peter would have said something then instead of waiting till the next morning. So sometime between 12 and 24 hours, that tree died and withered. Now, it's one thing just for the tree to die. Had it just killed that tree, it still would have taken a while for it to wither.
— Yeah.
— That meant all the leaves had to die. All the leaves fell off of it. The tree itself withered. So a powerful force hit this thing. I mean, you know, it wasn't just time passing. It didn't just kill the tree. I mean, it stopped that tree right then.
— He spoke to it. The roots died. It died from the bottom.
— The roots died, and then the force of his faith, it dried up from the roots, and the force of his faith withered it.
— You know, that happens in our own personal lives when we're believing for a situation or problem to be stopped. And we speak to it, command it to quit, stop, die, whatever we do. You can't tell just immediately sometime that something happens. But from the time you release your faith, whatever that sickness was, whatever the problem was, the money problem, whatever, it begins to wither up at the root. You talk to the root of it. And if you won't undo your faith that you've spoken, it'll come to pass.
— It'll wither up. It'll die and wither up. That's good.
— But so many times people quit before it happens.
— And I believe one of the reasons for that, Gloria, is not realizing that God is in this with you because He loves you. Love is in it with you. Love Himself is on the inside of you. And when faith worketh by love, we're talking about God here. And when the stronger that concept gets, that He is in me, He is in there to wither the tree. He is in there to wither that cancer. He is in there to wither that sickness and disease. He is in there to totally and completely destroy any and everything Satan has ever been able to do to you.
— You know, but they couldn't see it from the outside for a while.
— At least 24 hours.
— Yeah. But the thing died. Just like the sickness and the disease, if you release faith on it, it'll die.
— You know, I never had had this thought before in my life until right then, just as you said that. The tree died in the dark.
— Yeah.
— Now, that sickness, that tumor, or whatever you're dealing with, you're dealing with things in the Spirit realm you can't see. You're dealing with spirits that you can't see with your physical eye. So they're in the dark as far as that goes, because you can't physically see. But you can't, that disease is hidden on the inside. Even if it's come out somewhere on your body where you can see it, or even if it's some situation in the family that you can see, you're dealing with unseen forces here, and you're releasing an unseen force. The most powerful unseen force that exists is God, who is love. And He hates Satan. He hates sickness and disease, because He loves people. And He hates poverty. And He loves people. Praise God. Amen.
— Praise God. So the key to that story is, stay with it. Don't quit and call it finished. Jesus spoke the desired end result.
— Yeah, that's right.
— So that's what we're supposed to do.
— That's right.
— Amen.
— Praise God. It works.
— Let patience have her perfect Word, that we be entire, wanting nothing. Jesus is my shepherd. I do not want. I do not want for healing. I do not want for money and the things I need. I do not want for these things. They're all on the inside of me, because the kingdom of God's on the inside of me, because God's who is love is on the inside of me.
— Praise God.
— Glory to God. And as I seek first, if I seek first God, as I seek first love, then all these things be added to me.
— Praise God.
— Praise God.
— Well, we've lived that way. We know it works.
— We believe the love.
— Yes, we do.
— I believe He loves me. I believe it beyond anything that I believe. Spirit, soul, body, brain, any. I believe God loves me. I believe God loves me. I believe God loves Kenneth. Glory to God.
— I believe He does, too.
— I got an insight into that 50 years ago, and I haven't turned loose of it, and it's been growing in me. But here lately, it's growing even more rapid and more powerful. "Now, when they brought this up, in the morning they passed by and saw that fig tree dried up from the roots, Peter calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which you cursed is withered away". Now, then Jesus immediately began to talk about faith. So the reason He took the time to kill that fig tree with His faith was to use it to teach them.
— An example.
— Now, He immediately said, "Have faith in love". Well, now, wait a minute here. Have faith in who? Have faith in love. No, wait a minute, Brother Copeland. No, he said, "Have faith in God". No, he said, "Have faith in love". Brother Copeland, it doesn't say love. It says God, G-O-D. No, it said love.
— God is love.
— Come on. Every time you hear the word "God" from now on, just let your mind just click over there and grab ahold of love. Anytime somebody says love, that's God. And if they're talking about, you know, using love in a strange way, it needs to become where it gets your attention. It doesn't sit well with you anymore. And, "for verily I say unto you, whosoever", Gloria, whosoever can do this. All you have to be is a human being and be able to do this.
— That's right, whosoever.
— Monkeys can't do it because they can't talk.
— That's right.
— Amen.
— If they could, they'd be ruling the world. It's a good thing they can't.
— For I say, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart. That's not talking about your physical organ of the heart. It's talking about the spirit of man. The spirit is the heart of man. This is a heart. This is not mind. It's not mind over matter. No, no. Mentally, people can mentally believe something, but there's no power in the mind. Now, there is willpower, but that's different from the mind. You use your mind to exercise your will. Oh, that's part of your soul. And it's powerful. Will, boy, I will do this. I will not do that. That's powerful.
— Will power has to do with you.
— Well, it does.
— Not whether it doesn't change a tree, or a body, or anybody. It's what it has to do with changing you. You see what I'm saying?
— And controlling you. It'll control you because if God can say something to you, you can just not believe it. I mean, your will is stronger than God's until you yield your will to his. You don't become weak willed. You're strong willed. I'm a very strong willed man. But I strongly will to obey God's will, and I have accepted his will as my will, and put my will subject to his, and that's what makes you strong.
— You mostly use willpower on yourself.
— You better.
— That's what you should do.
— Now, notice this. Believe that those things which he saith, or things which he says, shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Now, that's the way faith is released. "Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive". You see, this is so intertwined with love that without love, it can't work because faith worketh by love. God is love. Of course, faith works by him. It's his faith. Amen. It was the faith that was in the seed of his Word that got you born again. I get so excited about this, I can hardly stay in this chair. I want to just jump and jump over this whole thing.
— That's not much of a chair. You better control yourself.
— Boy, she's got a thing about that chair. She don't like that hillbilly chair at all. But I want you to see this. You're going to have to begin to talk love. You're going to have to be saying, "God loves me, and I love God". I love him with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength. And I believe he loves me with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and all his strength.
— I love God, so I do what he says.
— I love God and do what he says. That's faith.
— Yeah, that's right.
— Amen. If he says, love, I love. I don't care if I feel like loving or not. I'm going to do what God in his love tells me to do because I'm just like him. And to be just like him, praise God, I'm going to have to act like him. And I'm going to do it whether I feel like it. My feelings just get in line.
— That's right.
— And we're out of time. My, my, my, Gloria and I'll be back in just a moment. And by the way, we love you.