Kenneth Copeland - Command Authority Must Be Spoken
Are you stirred up about this? I am stirred up, I'm telling you! January 24th, January the 24th, I will have been doing this 58 years! And I'm more stirred up about it now than I ever have been in my whole life! December the 6th, I'll be 88 years old, and I am stirred up! This book has me stirred up! And the author of it, he didn't stir me up, I stirred up myself! Glory to God. Thank You, Jesus. Let me settle down here.
— No, keep going. Hallelujah.
— Okay, yeah, I'm Kenneth Copeland.
— Welcome.
— And this is the Believer's Voice of Victory, and that's my voice for today, I'm just stirred up. Back in the book of Hebrews, please.
— They may have fallen out of their chair.
— Now, the sixth chapter is very, very, very important. And it's very sacred words here. The principle doctrines of Christ. And the laying on of hands is right in the middle of it. Now, as you come on down. Oh, I want to read the whole thing, but I don't have time. Okay. Verse 13. "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself". You can't get any greater than that. That's El Shaddai, the Most High God. Saying. Saying. Not thinking,
— Commanding it.
— Saying. A thought, a command thought, thought, but not issued, either in writing or by the human voice. It's stillborn. It doesn't do anything. On the other hand, something that's critical, let that one die. Stay with this book. Look at this. "Saying. Surely blessing, I will bless thee. Multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife". That's where the Lord showed me what a quality decision is. It's the end of it. It's the end of all strife. A quality decision is based on this book. That is a decision about which there's no more argument, and from which there is no backing up. It's in the book, "willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul", the will, the mind, and the emotions, "both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that veil whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus, made a high priest after the order of Melchizedek". Immutable, unchangeable oaths. Blood-backed promises.
— Right there.
— Acts chapter three. What has happened here? Well, they did exactly what he said, don't leave Jerusalem until the promise of my Father comes. "And on the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in accord in one place. Immediately, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as like a fire, and he sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance". Whoa, really? All right, what happened? Peter standing up to the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them. To whom? "All of these that had come in, the Cretes and the Arabians, heard them speak in tongues the wonderful works of God. Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them, You men of Judea and all of you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken as you suppose, seeing that it is but the third hour of the day, it's nine o'clock in the morning. But this is that which was spoken of the prophet Joel". See, that's the way this book works. "It had to be spoken into existence. that it might be fulfilled that which Isaiah the prophet said, He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses".
— That hadn't changed.
— No.
— We still have to speak things into the earth.
— And we still have record of it here. Accurate record of it.
— Yes, sir. Now, you men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth. Now, come on down here. Verse 24. "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible he be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. But therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover also, my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One". Oh, what? "Not leave my soul in hell, neither suffer thine Holy One to seek corruption". Oh. Whoa. Jesus went to hell? Oh, yeah, the book says so. "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him", God had sworn an oath to him. Now, each of these statements open up study. Where did he swear an oath to him? Well, look at the 22nd Psalm. Or just study the Psalms of David. Psalms, songs, hymns. Well, David was a psalmist, and a prophet, and the apple of God's eye. He was quick to repent, quick to use his covenant when others did not. And he would do what God said. And the same day Abraham, and the same day Abraham, and the same day Abraham. Well, the same day Kenneth. Same day. My spiritual father, we were in Oklahoma City. I was driving. And suddenly he said, "Kenneth..." and I jumped. He said, "People will always tell you you can't do it. Find out the perfect will of God. Confer no longer with flesh and blood. Do these three things and you'll be successful". Find out the will of God. He was talking about in the Word. Find out the will of God. Confer no longer with flesh and blood. And get your job done at any cost. Well, back in those days, as Gloria and I grew in this ministry, find out the will of God. So, I said all of that in order to get down to this. Not this, but. And, man, that is hot lemon and it is really good. I learned to use these words. Father, I am yours to command, according to your Word. I am yours to command. And I walk under the anointing of the teacher. And maybe we might get down to when the Lord added that to my life in ministry. In fact, I was in Houston to preach for Hilton Sutton. Anyway. Over the weekend, that lasted 21 days. So, anyway. I am yours to command. Then, in 1977, the last day of June, at the Wilson Center in Tulsa, Brother Hagin was giving an invitation. I had spoken there during the week. So, I was up on the platform, Gloria and I, and we're sitting here, and I heard, "Get on your knees". I said, "No. I'll call attention to him". Okay, he said, "Get on your knees now. Get on your knees here. Yeah, I'll tell him. Ken Copeland. You're going to have to get over there in that healing ministry a little sooner than you thought you would. You're not getting ahead of God. You're keeping step with God. And whether you want to or not, you're going to operate in the office of the prophet, the seer, the seer. You'll see it run off in front of your eyes, just like on a TV screen, and you'll be able to minister to the people. And in that day, you'll have much reason for much rejoicing, because many will say they saw the light" and I've seen the light. I was not expecting that. Back years ago, there in Hereford, Texas, where I got the Believer's Voice of Victory thing, preaching in an abandoned drugstore, but I did that twice. The second one was nicer than the first one. But anyway, so, back there then, I heard it, the office of the prophet. I said, "Oh, don't bring that up. Just don't bring it up". I said, "I'm not going to announce that. There's no way in the world. I am a teacher of the Word of Faith". I said, "You have to make the announcement". And I left that auditorium that night. I was still shaking a bit. And I got to the hotel and I heard it in my spirit. The Lord said, "How'd I do"? Well, there were 9,000 people there. And it was televised. This is the command authority, this book. And we are commanded to love one another.
— Yes, sir.
— We're not commanded to like one another. To say, I like you, literally means I like to be like you. Well, there are people that I do not want to be like at all, but I do love them in the name of Jesus. And I just say, "Lord, I love them because you love them. And the commandment of love, I walk in it and keep it. I do not abandon that commandment, but I am yours to command". I have ministered through prophetic dreams twice. And one of them was so extensive, I saw the inflation that was coming. And I wrote it all down and kept it. I still have it. But every night, I'm yours to command. And should you desire for me to minister to someone through a prophetic dream, I plead the blood of Jesus over my dreams, therefore. My dreams are off limits to the devil. Now, because of that, I don't dream very much. And I don't use anything except scripture to go to sleep. I used to some because I didn't sleep very much. But I just have sleep scriptures by my bed. And I took communion over that because I didn't sleep at night much. I took communion over it so I don't have to do that anymore. And of course, that worked. But here it is. Now, I was right there in Hereford, Texas. And there was a pastor of a Methodist church there. Well, I went through and preached all these things and people were receiving the infilling of the Holy Spirit. And it was an exciting time. And he came, big man. And the steps on that, of course, they just had to put together something. And the step on it was about that high. And he just came through the back door and I could see, I mean he was that big. And he walked up there and I'm standing up on this thing here and he wasn't but that much shorter than me. I just thought, Lord, here he comes. I'm looking at him and the look he had on his face and he walked up there to me and he said... Turned around and walked out. So the next night he came early. He said, "Well, Brother Copeland, my people came back and said you preached Jesus went to hell. That made me mad. No righteous person goes to hell. And some of them got baptized in the Holy Ghost, and I didn't like that much. But you saw what happened to me last night. God baptized me in the Holy Ghost before I tell you what I was mad about". He said, "I went home. And finally, I went over there to the sanctuary, and I just got down on my knees. I said, Lord, oh, Lord, did you go to hell"? And he said, "Brother Copeland, right in here, he said, 'Yeah, you better believe it, big boy, because if I hadn't, you would have.'" But there it is. Don't skip by that. And some, there are certain scriptures, I had a young man tell me one time, he said, "There are certain scriptures that my denomination didn't believe. And it was like this invisible hand, I just didn't see it. It's like it wasn't even written in there".
— Can I show you something in Hebrews 6?
— Please do.
— Where we started. It's where we started, Hebrews 6. And I get the privilege of teaching this book, Hebrews, in your Bible college. Thank you for that. And we go line by line through it, word by word.
— Well, all right, let's go through your credentials.
— Well, I have a doctorate in theology. And I studied Old Testament primarily and then draw a big arrow on my Bible to the New Testament when I realized it's all talking about this one person. So I studied Hebrew and Israel, and I have rabbi friends that I sat and break bread with and we read scriptures together. And I'd listen to them talk. And so I studied from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. So, but that's all commentary. I'm a disciple of Jesus. And that's what I ask Him for. I want to be a disciple. And that's what He began to teach me how to do, and travel with Brother Hagin, serve with you.
— Well, I'm going to pump this out of him. He reads Palaean Hebrew. And then, and studied until he got a certificate that he is a Hebrew scholar.
— It's not even hanging on the wall, Brother Copeland. It's in a drawer. But anyway, let me show you.
— Well, that's your blanket fault, ain't it?
— Yes, sir. It is. It is my fault. But it's part of my assignment. So in the book of Hebrews, it says this really quickly. "For God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater. He swore by himself, saying, 'Surely blessing, I will bless thee. I will multiply thee.'" That's the covenant. He took him back to Adam's covenant when he said, "Be fruitful and multiply". He brought that part over here and gave it to Abraham because Abraham will have to bring the second Adam into the world through Isaac. So that same blessing came on Abraham. And that same blessing's on us.
— "Now the Lord had said to Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land I will show you. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make your name great. And thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abraham departed". And we're out of time. Praise God. We'll be back in just a moment.