Kenneth Copeland - God Gives You Authority In the Place He's Prepared for You
— Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is Professor Greg Stephens in Kenneth Copeland Bible College and all of our class here welcoming you. Now, you're ready to get even more stirred up? Scripture says stir yourself up. So I stirred up, glory to God. Now Hebrews chapter three verse 19, so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Unbelief is not non-belief, it is unbelief. It is, well go right up, "Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word 'preached' did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it", glory to God. They didn't mix any faith with it. I don't believe that or what. That's what happened at his hometown in Nazareth.
— Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me, preached the Gospel and then he went on and he talked about this day this has been fulfilled in your ears. They were fulfilled.
— And what shook him up so? He came off that temptation and he said, "The Lord has messiahed me".
— Yes he did.
— Who does he think he is? He knew who he was and he knew his Father. Praise God. So not being mixed with faith, I said not being mixed with faith... Well then you begin to really get into some things. And chapter 5, every high priest, no man takes his honor unto himself. Oh no, no, no, no, no. You don't say well I'll tell you what I am. I'm an officer. Now churches, I'm thinking of one or two right now, they'd get together and appoint themselves an apostle. Then that self-appointed apostle, I mean where's he been or where's he going? That self-appointed apostle takes out a prophet and evangelist and teachers and so forth in the church. No, no. A self-appointed apostle and have prayer meetings and don't pray just prophesy over one another. A lot of trouble has come up. A lot of people have suffered because of it.
— The Holy Ghost said separate Barnabas and Saul. The Spirit wills in there. Brother Copeland, four times I tried to become an officer in the United States Air Force. Went before the board, went before, interviewed for specific things and all four times was denied. Some of them I didn't expect to get it. The fourth one I thought I was going to get it. And my commanding officer is the one that said, "Sit down I want to talk to you". He said, "I'm the one that put you down and said no". I was mad at him and he said, "I need you more doing what you're doing right now". See, he fitly joins us into the body where we belong. Now here's the thing, looking back on it now, I understand that the NCO Academy, non-commissioned officers, prepared me more to be a pastor than an officer would have. Because the NCO takes care of their troops. One of their troops. That man was one of his troops. And so you eat with them, you run with them, you suffer with them, you cheer with them. And it trained me in better serving to take care of my troops than an officer would have. I know there was a labor among you. My sheep know my voice. And so when the NCO gives the order, they know me. And that's what Jesus is. He was a pastor. If I would have tried to run that church like I was an officer, nope. That church was a broken church when I took it. And I needed to be an NCO. And so that's what you're talking about now. I can't appoint myself to some other office. You taught me years ago, the first time I was ever with you side by side, it was Brother Hagin's 80th birthday at the Convention Center in Tulsa. And we were having technical problems with the transmission of the signal out of there. And it was a LeSEA's television truck inside there. We couldn't get the signal and these union guys were all there.
— LeSEA, that's Lester Sumrall.
— Lester Sumrall, that's right. And so you came back to the rest of them, you said, "How's it going"? And I said, "Well, we still haven't gotten a signal". And you walked around, you turned, walked straight over to me with that look. I know that look now. And said, "Put your hands on that truck". And I said, "Yes, sir". And you said, "The authority". And you commanded that signal to work for that birthday celebration. I had plan B. Plan B is, we'll record it and then we'll re-air it. And then you said something to me, I forgot. You said, "Now get away from this place". In other words, separate myself from all those guys, all these people... Well, we got it the last few seconds. You and I were about ready to go live cause we were going to tape. And then they said, "No, we got it". And so we just went live. And you and I never did do that night live together. I don't know if you recall that or not. But the next morning you came in to teach and said to me about last night, you said, "You got to see what you do the way heaven sees what you do". And I said, "Sir". And you said, "Sit down right there". And there wasn't anybody that bothered us. And you taught me for about, I don't know, 15 minutes. And you said, "If I take the anointing in me, took it up with the anointing in you, I'll preach long after I'm in heaven. Cause you'll record it and it'll go around the world. But the people in this room will forget half of what I've said by the time they go to lunch". You were that morning session. And, you said to me, "You've got to see what you do the way heaven sees what you do". And I realized when I went into five-fold ministry from the ministry of helps, I took my anointing to record, do the television with your anointing to preach that day. And now that message, we can still watch that message all these years later, when I became a pastor, I took it to motion. I became a servant of a bunch of sheep that weren't mine. They're His. And so when you realize that goes to what you're telling, and I think it's a serious thing. This is why I'm taking time here. And I didn't mean to take so much time, but I think it's a serious thing. People appointing themselves to be things they're not.
— It is. It's dangerous.
— That's why I wanted to mention that.
— It is dangerous.
— It's not authority.
— No, it's self-given authority.
— Oh, you know what it is? It just rose up. That's stolen valor, stolen honor.
— That's what it is. That's what it is. And the reason I said what I said to him, we've made the command, turn you back on this thing.
— Right.
— Let's walk away from it.
— Because I was the only one that could give away the authority. I had the authority over that television department and truck. I was in charge of that for the man, for Brother Hagin. And I almost did it. The engineer came to me. His name was Dale. He said, "We still don't have it". He was frazzled. And a bunch of union guys standing around. And I said, and I looked down. Hallelujah. I remember this now. I looked down and your handprints were on that truck. I could see them. You know how you get your hands on them. And I said, "No, Brother Copeland prayed". Now, I didn't have faith in me. I had faith in you. I didn't know any better. And you said, "No, you hooked your authority with my authority". And I looked down and saw those handprints. And I said, "Try one more time". And we got it.
— So he and I established spiritual law of agreement. We established spiritual law of agreement that "any two of you shall agree as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, who is in heaven. For when two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst". To do what? To carry out the agreement by his Spirit. So you believe God, you turn your back and say, "That's done. I don't need to pray about that anymore". So what did I do? And I think about it. Oh, glory to God. I just want to thank You. Praise You. It worked. I just want to thank You and praise You. It worked. I said, "I just want to thank You and praise You that it worked". Amen. And just rejoice and be happy in it and get stirred up. I stayed pretty well stirred up all the time. But I'm especially stirred up right now in the nation and in the things that we're facing. And thank God the weather's cooled off in Texas.
— Amen. And one fellow said about climate change, all the years of my life, and which have been many, in the summer it gets hot, in the winter it gets cold, depending on where you live. Well, we don't need a government grant to study that. Everybody knows that. But if we can siphon a little money off of the government.
— Brother Copeland, I'll submit to you, to the class, the reason that all is a prominent thing, that the government and climate change and Green New Deal and all that's a big deal, is because we didn't, as a church, the body, walk in our authority as stewards that were given to us on this planet. We should be the ones preaching the climate, not them. We have the greater one on the inside of us. We have the answer. The one who created all of this is resident on the inside of us. But we kind of let that go. And so they picked up that void and began to run with it in the only way they know how to run with it. And that's with a godless mindset. But we still, he never rescinded that order to be fruitful, multiply and to take care of this earth and be stewards. He never rescinded it. And Jesus gave orders as well. And he never rescinded a single one of them and said this is over. He said, "Go heal the sick, lay hands on the sick. Cast out devils". These signs, these are signs that you're walking in your authority. It's a signature.
— Rick Renner, Rick and Denise, such personal close friends of Gloria and mine. Now this is a true apostle. God sent him, Denise and the boys to Russia back in the day. Amen. And we won't go into all of that, but he is a true apostle. God sent him there. He has an assignment to the Russian people. And he has been granted TV privileges.
— Right, his favor has gone to the governmental level. Because he's got an assignment.
— I heard the Lord say, "Don't get out of your lane. Don't bounce over here and try to pastor a while. And then flop back over here and be an evangelist a while". My father in the faith, Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. That's proper. I didn't know any better. Had the Kenneth Copeland Evangelistic Association in the state of Oklahoma. Because I thought I was going to spend the whole time there. But in May, school was out. I got dressed and came into the living room of that little project house, Aaron Tulsa, right close to Riverside Drive. And got dressed in my legal pad and my Bible. I heard it on the inside of me. I'm ready for you now.
— There you go. The Oral Roberts, the Kenneth Copeland Evangelistic, I'm ready for you now. I want you to go back to Fort Worth for the greatest amount of your destiny is there. I said out loud, "Lord, you know what happened to you and your hometown. I don't want to do that". But the phone rang. Pastor Harold Nichols, Grace Temple Church. Well, that was our home church. And Brother Harold had baptized Gloria, me, John, and Kellie. And the phone rang. Gloria answered it. She said, "It's Brother Nichols. He wants to speak with you". Well, when can you come preach for me? I said, "Brother Nichols, I'd like to say, I need to check my schedule, but I don't have one. When do you want me"? He said, "How about next weekend"? Well, okay. That one went three weeks long. He and I were sitting out in the car, in one of my parents' car. We had an old banged up Oldsmobile. Anyway, he said, "Where are you going from here"? I said, "Sir, I don't have any idea". He said, "Let's agree. Let's set ourselves in agreement". So we caught hands, went to the 18th chapter of the book of Matthew for the wisdom and what to do and where we're going. Now, here's a man far more advanced in the kingdom than me. I was younger in years, but I was a lot younger. This man had seen it back in some very early days. So we set ourselves in agreement. And in a few days, Hilton Sutton called. When can you come preach for me? How about next weekend? Okay. Now see, God is developing. He's developing my lane.
— That's right. That's why he says time now.
— Yeah. God said to Jesus through his mother, they don't have any wine. He said, "What does that have to do with me, woman? My time has not come". She just turned around and said, "Whatever he says for you to do, do it". He said, "Oh, mama".
— But God honored what she said.
— Yes, of course he did.
— Because that's agreement happening.
— Of course he did.
— Can I show you a verse, if you wouldn't mind? Mark chapter 13. And it goes, I think, to what you were just saying right there. In Mark 13, verse 33, "Take ye heed and watch and pray for ye know not what the time is". Talk about timing of things. Look at 34 though. "For the son of man is a man taken a far journey, who left his house and gave..". What does it say? "Left his house and gave authority to his servants. And to every man his work and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore, for you know not when the master of the house cometh, or even at the midnight, or the cockcrowing, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say to you all, Watch". He gave authority. He left and gave authority.
— When he left and gave authority, he fully intended to happen exactly what he said.
— Acts chapter 1, all that Jesus began to do. You're still supposed to be doing the works of Jesus today. And you gotta be in your place. You can't call yourself to it. You gotta line up with what he says to do.
— I want to remind you of something. You're not serving God when you go to church. No, you're not serving him by going to church. We go to church because the book says, "Don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together. For some have done that and have become shipwrecked".
— That's right. As you see the day approach, forsake the assembling of yourselves.
— I never, ever take authority over Pastor George. No, wouldn't be right. No, if I have something to say, you've seen me do it. If I have something to say, or I just walk up there and I'll ask him, may I? He's authority in that church.
— That's exactly right.
— I'm not.
— That's exactly right.
— I founded it, but the founding privileges don't go here.
— Well, you're a prophet. You wouldn't put a prophet in a pastor role.
— And I did it because the Lord said for me to do it. But he's pastor.
— Absolutely.
— And we had some other fine men that came in there. And the others went to different places. But when George Pearsons stepped in there, he's the pastor of the church.
— Absolutely.
— So, I'll maybe text him something and ask him. Or I would like to say this or say that. And let him know beforehand. I don't want to get out of my lane.
— That's it. That's it.
— And get over there in someone else's lane and have a wreck. The apostle Paul said, so and so and so and so. I have turned over to Satan for the destruction of their flesh. They learn not to blaspheme the way they did. You're talking about command authority.
— That's absolutely command authority. And Jesus will say, "Whoever sins you remit shall be forgiven". That's command authority.
— That's command authority.
— Now that one, I'm still renewing my mind to that one. I'm going to be honest. I'm still renewing my mind. Wait, whoever sins I forgive? Because that's renewing. When you learn something new, you see something new, you experience something new, you're going to have to take some time in this Word to renew your mind to what just happened.
— But you have to go to 1 John if they've not sinned a sin unto death.
— There it is.
— Now that's not just, that is a serious full grown believer. It's in the book of Hebrews. Anyway, I've done it many times. Father, I forgive them. I don't walk up to them and tell them, "Well I take that back". I did once that I remember. I forgive you of that in the name of Jesus. I forgive you of that in the name of Jesus. But I pray it. I forgive them in the name of Jesus. And I'm asking you to send laborers across their path with the word of their salvation. The word of their healing.
— And I bind every voice not of the Holy Spirit that would speak into their lives. Because I have the power to bind and to loose. We're out of time.
— Oh my. I'm stirred up. You got me stirred up.
— We're stirred up. We are stirred up. We'll be back here in just a moment. Thank You, Jesus.