Kenneth Copeland - Where Does the Believer's Authority Come From?
Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is Professor Greg Stephens. We want to welcome you to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Many, many years ago, the Lord said to me, every believer has a voice, and it is the Voice of Victory. And back in those days, I had no earthly dream that we'd ever have our own channel. And anyway, we do. So let's turn in our Bibles to Mark chapter five. "And they came over unto the other side of the sea or the lake of Galilee, the country of the Gadarenes". So it was over by Gadara. "And he came out of the ship. Immediately they met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs".
Now, this is an account. We're reading this account. It's the setup. So we know what's happening here. "Who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters or shackles and chains. And the chains had been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken, the shackles broken in pieces, and neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying, cutting himself". He was a cutter, "Cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him".
Now, most guys, whoa, I'm getting out of here. Look at this. This guy's crazy. He's naked and he's running. Whoa, no, I'm out of here. I had an experience, one, back in the day. Charles Rogers, a very precious friend. And in fact, I saw him not long ago and we talked a little while. But anyway, I was ministering with him and I was singing in this church and this woman said, "Brother Rogers, would you go with me to the hospital? I don't know whether my mother's even saved or not". And he said, "Well, sure". And he said, "You want to go"? I said, "Sure, I'll go with you". So, you have to imagine this, went into the hospital room and she was just lying there out of it like this. They were up here discussing her. All of a sudden, she raised up and said, "Sick, boy, sick".
And I went out the door, I went. What in the world was that? Oh, I'll never run from another one. Boy, she chased me. It was the spirit. And I said, yeah, lady, you are. There's no question about that. I said, I will never, ever run from another one. That situation right there, the people that get into this ministry of deliverance and don't understand it, this guy's screeching and howling and just running towards him like this. Well, let's get in the boat and get out of here. He's crazy. Well, they knew he was crazy in the first place. That's what I wanted to point out. It didn't bother Jesus at all. He cried with a loud voice. He's screaming, screaming. This devil in him is screaming.
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, you torment me not. Well, that was the tormentor speaking. "For it said unto him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is your name? He answered, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of that country". They were assigned there by the devil.
Now there were nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him. Now the people didn't hear this. This was spoken in the Spirit, but Jesus did. "And the devils besought him saying, Send us into the swine that we may enter into them". Any spirit, the Holy Spirit especially, but any spirit being Any spirit, the Holy Spirit especially, but any spirit being cannot express itself unless it has a flesh, blood, and bone body in which to live. And that is the reason Jesus kept saying, "You go to Jerusalem till the gift of my Father comes. You go there and get this. You go there. He's coming. I'm telling you, he's coming now. I'm telling you, he's coming".
— Jesus said, "A body thou hast prepared for me". Because he was Spirit prior to that. Now he has a body.
— Now why? In this earth, a spirit has no command authority...
— That's correct.
— ...unless it has a man or a woman in which to abide.
— That's correct.
— Or upon which to abide.
— Satan is an alien to this planet. He's not from here and he's illegal.
— That's right.
— And this is why he has to use people to get his will done. Resist the devil. Your driver's license gives you more authority than he has. Now I'm not minimizing his power or his influence by any means.
— Well, let's just go over there at the book of James. Praise God. Then we can back up in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is the gospel of Jesus.
— Absolutely true.
— Chapter four, verse six. Are you there? "But he gives more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to you". So there are qualifications when it comes to resisting the devil. This is the operator's handbook. I have a P.O.H., Pilots Operating Handbook, to a restored 1973 V-tail Bonanza. I have the P.O.H., the operator's handbook, on a Beechcraft B.E. model Baron. Beech doesn't build those airplanes anymore, but I have the operator's handbook. May I present to you, Heaven's operation handbook, and it needs to be followed explicitly. But you don't take one little snatch of scripture, like a little snatch of scripture, and say that women can't preach. Then you turn around and send them to Africa and it's fine. Bring them back to the United States, sit down and be quiet. Well, my criticism comes from this, because it's a chain of command. When you read that, and you stop there, women don't do anything. Well, what do their husbands think about it? That's what it goes down to. What do the husbands say about it? Remember Brother Hagin did a series one time, The Woman Question? And he said, "Well, what's the question"? But you take all of the scriptures, because the same scripture refers to Abraham and Sarah. And then you go to Hebrews 11, and Sarah is in the hall of fame of faith as well.
— That's right. Rahab is in the line of David and Jesus. And all of them. You want to go to Ephesians chapter one.
— Yes, I do. I'm still doing good, thank you.
— Something really, side note, Mark chapter five, those demons are speaking. Nowadays, there's this whole thing that's a trend, that person's pronouns, you can't call me he or him. If you'll notice the demons in there, it was us, and we, and they, showing you the spirit that's behind that.
— Yep.
— Ephesians one. That's the reason he's a professor. Ephesians chapter one, my partners are familiar with this, because it's on every partner letter I write, and you'll see why. Chapter one, 16 through 23. So, let's go there to the 16th verse. 1:16, "I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers". Now, here's what he's praying, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom". Father, we stop right here, and we take on the Spirit of wisdom. We receive it. It's a promise right here. It's in your book right here. Thank you. The Spirit of wisdom. Well, then immediately, it seems like I go over to James chapter one. Any man that lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not. So, there's a, I make my own cross-reference, "And revelation in the knowledge of him". Oh, glory to God. Whew. This gets so strong, I can hardly read it over a sentence at a time. "That the eyes of my understanding, being enlightened, that I may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance is in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, his dunamis power, in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head of all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness, the fullness", glory to God.
— In the body.
— Yeah. And I just, I can just hear Brother Hagin right now, and he said, "You know, I don't say here comes Brother Copeland and his body". And everybody said, yeah. I said, oh yeah. No, he said his head and his body are one. There comes Brother Copeland. How do I know? I recognize his face. If I didn't recognize your face, someone would have to introduce me to you. I had never met Jesus. I sure knew about him. Because my mama and my daddy talked about him all the time, but I didn't know him. And I flew that trip that evening from Little Rock to Shreveport, a man by the name of Weir, who was an executive, the natural Arkansas, Arkley Gas, the Arkansas, Louisiana natural gas company, came back in that evening. Gloria had waited up for me. And so I thought it's just like any other. I walked in there and I just see this. And I had changed clothes, put on a pair of khakis and a sports shirt to have dinner with her. One shoe on, one shoe off. And suddenly he introduced Himself. He said, "Kenneth, if you don't get right with me, you're headed to a devil's hell, boy". Then in here, I said, "I know it". I did know it, but I had not acted on it.
— On what you knew. Yeah.
— I was raised to know that. And I had an encounter that I won't go into now that cut me deeply. And I stayed away on purpose for about 13 years. I know it. What do I do now? And I've said this before. In my spirit, I heard my Sunday school teacher from the University of Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas. "Boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart". Now, here's how. And I said, that's old lady Taggart. That's what she called herself. She's a widow woman, a little short. Anyway, I said, "That's old lady Taggart". And it sounded just as dumb as it did the first time I heard it. But here it goes. Jesus, come into my heart. For about 30 or 40 seconds there, I couldn't shut my mouth. He'd just given me evidence that I was a new creature and profanity was gone forever.
— The reason you heard her is he speaks through lines of authority. That was your biblical authority that taught you. And it was still in here.
— It was still in my spirit.
— Absolutely. That's what the point I wanted to get over.
— That seed had gone in there.
— It's still in there.
— That's right. I would submit to you, you've heard God speak to you before because you heard, you know, this is your spiritual father. You may have heard Brother Copeland's voice before in a situation in your life. I'll submit to you what you heard was authority. You heard him, but you heard his voice. But that was the Father speaking. If you want proof, Samuel with Eli. Samuel goes to Eli. That's his authority. That's why you better pay attention to your pastors and the prophets and the evangelists.
— And she went with a specific petition. I want a man child.
— Yeah, that's right.
— And she went with a specific petition before God. I want a man child and I'll give him to you. Well, that man child became Samuel the prophet that anointed David to be king.
— Because Eli's own kids were messing things up in the ministry. But going on with that, he heard Eli's voice. And then finally, Eli said, "No, next time you hear it..."
— He's just a young boy. But the promise of his mother was working.
— That's right. That's right. All those years later. What you're talking about in Ephesians 1:17 through 23, that's your commission and your authority. You keep going. See, you're talking about authority that wasn't available in the first covenant when you read this. Wasn't available. Jesus hadn't come. Ephesians chapter two. And now KC Bible school students, you amen on this one. And you have the quickest because I preach it all the time. That's all they hear from me. "Who were dead and trespasses in sin, where in time past, you walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we had our conversation in times past, the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, whereby nature children of wrath, even as this, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead to sins has quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and has raised us up together and has made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus". It's vital, Brother Copeland that people know their position. That's my position. Like you said, with Brother Hagin, with the body. You don't see just your head or just your body. We're in the body of Christ. And I have to keep my faith, for me I'm talking about Greg person. I have to keep my faith in that position that that's where my authority comes from is that I'm seated with him.
— That didn't happen just in order... You know, this wasn't written in chapters, in verses. That was just for study purposes. Just keep on into the third chapter and you go back to the grace of God. How that by revelation, he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote a four and few words. Well, you did. Maybe we'll check that out. Okay. "Whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, the anointed One and his anointing, which abides in me, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel". Are you good and awake here? Carol, how much time do I have? Perfect. Verse 10, "To the intent that now under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God". Hallelujah. The church is in command authority. We command angels and they learn from us. Glory to God. But if we don't know it, my angel, if I don't know it, then he has a problem with me. And we talk about that tomorrow. We'll be back in a few moments.