Kenneth Copeland - The Authority to Command THE BLESSING
Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. I'm telling you, I'm so stirred up today. I am stirred up. I'll tell you about daily television. I'm stirred up about Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Most everybody knows, but you in the radio or television probably don't, maybe not know this, but I'll just go ahead and tell you. Last May, I was headed to the treadmill, and all of a sudden, this terrible pain knocked me in the floor. But anyway, my appendix ruptured. I needed a merry heart does good like a medicine, because I've never had an extended hospital stay.
I've been living in divine health for so long. They had me all prepped and got ready to get in there. I said, "Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it". I mean, they're just ready to push me in and knock me out. I said, "Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it". I said, "You call this a what"? An appendectomy. I said, "What do you call it when you take your tonsils out"? They said a tonsillectomy. I said, "What do you call it when you take a growth off your head"? A haircut. And the surgeon said, "He got me on that one". It wasn't for him, it was for me. I needed a merry heart like a medicine. Glory to God. But I'm so stirred up over all this, as you can tell.
Father, we thank You this morning. Oh my, my. We thank You for this book. And we praise You for our Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, we humble ourselves before You this morning for the anointing to teach, preach, and heal like Jesus from Your Word. Thank You for it in Jesus' name. Amen.
And I just want to let everybody know I can't heal anybody, but the Spirit of God through me can and will. So let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 26, please. And I want to start with the 16th verse. This day, say, "This day". "This day, the Lord thy God hath commanded", and notice, we're talking about the command authority of a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ. "This day, the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgment. Thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart and with all your soul".
I mean, put your heart into this thing, not just because I said so. Now the 10 Commandments, I have no other God before me. I make no engraving image. I don't carry his name in vain. I keep the Sabbath to keep it holy. I've honored my father and mother all the day of my life. Praise God. I do not steal. I do not kill. I do not steal. I do not commit adultery. I do not bear false witness and I do not covet. Except for those things, the great apostle Paul, who was a Benjamite, by the way, this is more than what we're going to see here. He's from the tribe of Benjamin, except he said, "Covet those nine manifestations of the Spirit of God".
That excites me. I just got cold bumps all over me today. My goose bumps got goose bumps. I'm so excited and turned on, but with all your heart. Now, "Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his ways, keep his statutes and his commandments and his judgments and to hearken unto his voice. And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people. He hath promised thee and thou should keep all his commandments to make thee high above all nations, which he hath made in praise, in name and in honor that thou mayest be a holy people under the Lord, thy God, as he has spoken. And Moses with the elders of Israel..."
Now, listen, here we have approximately 2 million people by this time. One is on one mountain, one's on the cursed mountain, one on the blessing mountain. And we'll look at those in just a moment. "And when you shall pass over Jordan under the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shall set up the great stones and plaster them with plaster and thou shall write upon them". They didn't have any paper. That wasn't invented for centuries and centuries and centuries, but it's the same. Hallelujah.
"Write them up the words of this law when you're passed over that you may go into the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee a land that flows with milk and honey, as the Lord God of thy fathers has promised thee. Therefore, it'll be when you're gone over Jordan that you should set up those stones, which I command you this day and Mount Ebal, that thou plaister them with plaister and thou shall build an altar to the Lord God, an altar of stones. And you'll not lift up any iron tool upon them. Then thou shall build the altar of the Lord thy God with whole stones and burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God and thou shall offer peace offerings and you'll eat there".
I mean, they're spending time, there's a lot of people. They're going to have to eat on those mountains. "You'll eat there and rejoice before the Lord thy God. And you'll write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. Now, Moses and the priest and the Levites spoken to all Israel saying, Take heed and hearken, O Israel". I put a little corner there for a purpose. "O Israel, this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. And obey the voice of the Lord thy God and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command this day. Moses charged the people the same day saying, These shall stand up on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you come over Jordan, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin".
Now, this is the blessing mountain. We are of the tribe of Judah. The apostle Paul was a Benjamite. Both on the blessing mountain. Now, God arranged that purposely. Well, he arranged everything purposely because he's perfect. Now, stand up on Mount Ebal to curse Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. Now, I want to show you those mountains. So that you can see these. There they are. Now, notice on the blessing mountain, if you could get up close to it, there's vegetation. And this Ebal, see that whole right side of it? It's alkaline. I mean, they're still there today, of course. It's alkaline.
"Now, and the Levites shall speak and say unto all men of Israel with a loud voice, Cursed be the man that makes any graven or molten image". Well, I just quoted the 10 Commandments to you. "an abomination unto the Lord, the work of your hands of the craftsmen, and put in a secret place. And all the people shall say, Amen". Now, he's talking about a million people shouting "Amen". Or so be it. "Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people say, Amen. Cursed be he that removes his neighbor's landmark". See what's happening?
Now, there's civil obedience. You don't move another man's landmark so you can scout over there. And people are still trying to do that today. But these are laws and curses that go with them if you break them. Well, he had to get that over to them. And they're shouting and crying. I'm talking about God. And a million people on each mountain or so shouting back and forth, having to live on these mountains. And it's marking their thinking.
"And the Levites shall speak and say unto all men of Israel with a loud voice, Cursed be the man that marks any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of craftsmen, and put it in a secret place. And all the people shall shout, Amen. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father and mother. And all the people shout, Amen. Cursed be he that removes his neighbor's landmark. Amen. Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out in the way".
You're going to take care of the blind people. There's coming a man that'll fix that. But this is the whole idea. And you can read all those. Now, come over here to chapter 28. I want you to notice how this is worded.
"It shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all of his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, if you shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed you be in the city and the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, the fruit of thy cattle, and the increase of thy kine. K-I-N-E, not K-I-N-D. People just kind of, peep, by that. And say kind. And it didn't say kind, it said kine. K-I-N-E. Your equipment. They're farming people. Your oxen. Your equipment. Today it would be whatever God has called you to do. The equipment to do it is under the blessings. But now you have to believe for it. The Lord will cause thine enemies that rise up against you to be smitten before your face. They'll come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways".
I want you to notice there's no mention of the devil here. I'm mentioning this over and over again, because we already know about the devil, so we have to put ourselves in their mindset. They had never heard of him. And Malachi, he's called the destroyer. Now, at the Exodus, he's not mentioned. Ever. The only time you'll find any reference to him is in the book of Isaiah. But he's not called the devil, he's called Lucifer. And he was perfect in the day that he was created and iniquity was found in him. So there's no redemption for him.
So let's continue. The Lord shall establish the... Now listen, did you hear that? The Lord shall establish... You don't have to do it. He'll do it. He will establish thee a holy people unto himself as he has sworn unto thee if you shall keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk in his ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord and be afraid of thee. Now there you have a clue. There you have a clue. Jacob... name was changed to Israel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who became Israel. They do this and they prosper when no one else does.
Well, the devil tries to put a bad light on them when this ministry began to prosper financially. I mean, they wrote bad books about me. I have better sense than to read that because Gloria and I have kept this ministry pure. Amen. I mean, we've kept it pure all these years on the Word of God. There have been no scandals about this ministry. They just got mad because we prospered. And they think that I own the airplanes. I don't. Well, I own one. And that's a cute story, but it's just a little small single engine Beechcraft Bonanza. But now here's what the people don't know and the world needs to know this.
There is a formula that if the ministry takes me or Gloria someplace in a ministry airplane that's a personal trip, then the IRS has a formula for that. And you work that formula which takes care of all the expenses. And then it is added to my income tax and I pay taxes on it. So I just want the world to know that. Amen. You need to find these things out. And I'm, you know, I know it all and I forget about it, but it needs to be mentioned that our partners know that and the world knows that. Praise God. So, and I might talk about that little V-tail Bonanza sometimes, but anyway, I did that to honor my wife, Gloria.
So, now notice, "Plenteous in goods and the fruit of your body and the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your ground and the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord shall open unto you..." Oh, the Lord. Oh, read it again. I'm excited. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure. What is that? The heaven to give rain to your land. People think, oh, here comes the money. No, the rain and the rain produces crops and the crops produce your living and your money. And you'll not... Oh, and you shall lend to many nations and shall not borrow. The United States has borrowed itself into a hole. He did it for them and made them the head, not the tail. It's easy for God to do it for this nation because it belongs to him, but just like them, they had to remind God of that covenant. They had to remind him of it. The Covenant and the Contradiction.
Okay, I marked it right here. In response, all the people said, Amen. Cursed is he who dishonors his father and mother, the priest continued. Again, in response, all the people said, Amen. And the priest finished reading the curses recorded in the law from Mount Gerizim. Then the Levites loudly declared their blessing, continuing down the list of blessings until all of them, they read all that they begun. If you will listen diligently to the Lord thy God. A clear voice. These are covenant words. These are covenant people from the 17th chapter of the book of Genesis. Thank You, Lord. Well, yeah, let's turn over there. We need to see that.
"And when Abram was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God". I am El Shaddai. I am the God who's more than enough. "Walk before me and be thou perfect or blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee and thou shall be the father of many nations. Neither shall your name be any more called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham for a father of many nations have I made thee and I will make thee exceeding fruitful and I will make nations of thee and the king shall come out of thee".
Hey, now we're over here in Deuteronomy. This has happened, but look at it. Abraham, Hashem, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, the H, he changed his name. That's the first recorded covenant name change in history. Gloria became Gloria Jean Copeland. She did not insist on keeping her maiden name. I just leave that hang there, but this is where it started. I will make thee exceeding fruitful. I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and now wait a minute, wait, wait, wait. Just hold on here a second.
Our first president, George Washington could have turned anywhere in his Bible, but he went right there and then he shocked everyone. He kneeled down and kissed his Bible and he said, "You will be our God and we will be your people". They walked arm in arm to St. Paul's Chapel in New York City that survived 9-11 and there they dedicated this land and Leviticus 25:10, let that freedom ring throughout the land and I'll remind you they ring it until they broke it.
Now, for the people that want to fuss about it and say, well, they were just deitists. Well, I don't care what you say. Records... just go check out, you just go check Act number one in Congress. Number one. Yes, but Abraham, I mean, but George Washington had slaves. Well, tell the rest of the story. He did have, but he paid them a living wage and they were treated like family and he left in his will, now he's president. He could have done anything he wanted to do as far as that goes. He left in his will that they would be freed forever and I'll be back in just a moment.