Kenneth Copeland - Jesus' Promise to You
Hello, everybody. I’m Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer’s Voice of Victory broadcast. And we are here at Kenneth Copeland Bible College. That still astounds me. Kenneth Copeland Bible College. And I have it in my spirit from the Word of God that we are working towards now to this becoming a university. But right now, right now, it is an accredited Bible college. Praise God. That’s good, isn’t it? And we have found out that it is impossible to please God without faith. Impossible, Hebrews 11 says. Romans chapter 4, well, verse 13, «For the promise…» When you see that, you know it’s blood backed. The promise. The blood-backed promise. It was backed by first the blood of animals, then the blood through circumcision, and then through the blood of Jesus, the sinless blood of Jesus, who spent three days and three nights in hell so that you and I don’t have to go. My God. He suffered more than any man before and more than any man after.
Verse 16, «Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him, alike him, whom he believed even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth though things would be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when he was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it is not written for his sake alone that it was imputed unto him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offense and raised again for our justification».
Now, the book of Galatians chapter three, verse nine. «For they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as by many as are one of the works of the law are under the curse of written, cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them». They’re written in the book of the law, written, written. Blood-backed promises. Written, it is written. Jesus said to the devil, «It is written». It is written. It is written. It is written. Glory to God. We can do the same thing. It is written. Verse 11, «but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident for the just shall live by faith. For the law is not of faith, but the man that does them must live by them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law».
Now, I am sad to say that Christian people don’t know that we’re redeemed from the curse of the law because they don’t know what the curse of the law is and pastors that preach the curse. Well, God, I heard the man. I was personally there. I could tell you his name. I won’t. He said, «God will break your leg and heal it just to prove to you that he can heal it». No, he doesn’t have to prove anything to me. It is written. Whether I believe it or not, he doesn’t have to prove anything to me. He does not have to prove his divinity. The book declares his divinity. He is divinely my Lord and my Savior. I know the day, the second day of November, about eight o’clock in the evening in North Little Rock, Arkansas. He arrested me and said, «Kenneth, if you don’t get right with me, you’re headed to a devil’s hell». I heard it in my spirit. I said, «I know it. What do I do now»?
I heard my Sunday school teacher’s voice from the University Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas. Mrs. Taggart. She was a widow woman and in a Baptist Church, they promote you just like school. Some of us boys went to Sunday school superintendent and told him, «If you promote Mrs. Taggart away from us, there’s some of us just not coming back anymore». He said, «Well, all right». I heard her, «Boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart». I said, «That’s old lady Taggart». She’s in heaven. She got the credit for winning me to the Lord. You have to ask Jesus to come into your heart. I thought, well, that sounds just as dumb as it did the first time she said it, but here it goes. Jesus, come into my heart. For about 30 or 40 seconds, I couldn’t close my mouth. Profanity was gone from that day until this. I became a new creature. I never heard of a new creature. I didn’t know I was one. I found it out that day. The Lord knew it. He had to give me tangible evidence.
Well, then Gloria, you know, I was raised in a Baptist church. She was raised in the Church of Christ. We just didn’t talk about it. I thought, how am I going to tell Gloria? She waited up for me. I said, «Gloria, what if I were to talk for God or give my testimony»? She said, «Hallelujah» I said, «Halle, what»? Well, she said, «Two weeks ago, I read the Bible that your mother sent you that you never read. It said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.' I certainly do need some things. I just said, 'Lord, take my life and do something with it.'»
That is November 62, 1963. Both of us baptized in the Holy Ghost. Still didn’t know anything, but then 1967, it changed our world forever. I was 30 and she was 25 when we married. Then, no, I was 25 and she was 20 when we married. When we started at ORU, I was 30 and she was 25. We started this ministry together, praise God. Now, I pointed that out to point this out. We learned together that we had been redeemed from the curse of the law. Deuteronomy 27, 28, 29, and 30. We learned that from Brother Hagin, but we’ve been redeemed from the curse of the law. Jesus being made a curse for us. «Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, that the blessing of Abraham might come on us through Christ Jesus».
My note down here is Deuteronomy 28:61, praise God, «that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuls or adds thereto». Well, you just read on down. Verse 26, «For you’re all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ or if you be in Christ, then are you Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise,» glory to God.
And the Bible said God made Abraham very rich. Abraham very rich indeed. Gloria and I never did try to get rich. We just believe we’re redeemed from the curse of the law. And it happened a little at a time. What does rich mean? More than enough to do what you’re called to do. For he is the Elohim God. Amen. And our home. Now, she started out with magazines, Southern Living Architecture’s ideas. I said, «Gloria, just cut out the pictures and put them in a folder» because those magazines get heavy in the airplane. So she did that. And then she just unrolled this and go to work on it and move things around. Then she got some graph paper and she moved some things around on that. And she said, «This house is getting big»? I said, «Well, it’s a dream. Dream on, girl».
And so finally she said, «Well, I need to know whether it’s God’s will to build this or not. And if it isn’t, I’ve enjoyed the 30 years I’ve spent fooling with it». And she said, «We have a nice home now». And we did. And so I said, «Well, you know, we’ll go pray». So we went to our prayer cabin and the weekend, got up the next morning, Sunday morning, and I had it in my spirit. I said, «Gloria, the Lord instructed me to turn to the 54th chapter of the book of Isaiah and read the first three scriptures there». And she began to cry. I said, «Gloria, what’s the matter, babe»? Now listen, she said, those are the… now listen, «Those are the scriptures that I wrote down while we were still in Tulsa from Brother Roberts' book, 'Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Dream.'» And the Lord said, «You stay out of it».
It didn’t say a virtuous man builds his nest. You just tell her what you want in the place and stay away. I did. And the day, listen now, I didn’t mention it to any partners or anything. The day we poured the foundation, it was paid for. And we were getting things like, I’m sending an extra hundred for Gloria’s house, whatever that means. And the man that did the architecture did, well, Mac Hammond’s wife’s twin sister, her husband was an architect and built large things. But he had another one employed that did residential. So he came, now listen to this, and there’s all that graph paper. He said, «This is the easiest I have ever done because it’s all here». The Lord said, «Her dream took upon itself faith and had to be born».
That’s what I want you to get. Her dream took upon itself faith and it had to be born. Now the first airplane in this ministry was a little 1959 Cessna Skylane, a little fixed gear airplane. And it wound up in Redding, California, belonging to our partners. I had preached there the week before and he heard me. The tail number 2618G, 2618Gulf… Last year at my birthday, Pastor George called me and said, «What if we had one of our first airplanes, we put it on a pole»? I said, «George, put an airplane on a pole. What’s the matter with you»? Well, he’s just leading me on. I walked in there and there were pictures of 2618Gulf. And John and Kellie were small.
Our partners in Bill Johnson’s church wound up with 2618G. Several other owners had owned it. They had already stripped it to repaint it. He handed me the keys to it. Well, our guys took it apart and put it in a semi trailer and brought it to our hangar and they are restoring it right today. The engine has been overhauled, but it’s not active, no fluids or anything in it. It found its way home. I traded it on a Cessna 310 and forgot about it. So it winds up in Redding, California in the hands of partners. I had lunch with him and he said, «My mother never would fly with me. I walked in there one day and I said, 'Mother, one more time.'» She said, «Okay, let’s go».
Now listen, what changed your mind? I heard Kenneth Copeland say, you’re not afraid of flying, you’re afraid of dying. I’m not afraid of dying. Let’s go fly. I am totally convinced that the angels of God saw to it that that 1959 Skylane found its way into the hands of partners. It had already been stripped. It’s already ready to repaint and it is in our hangar and it is being restored as we speak. It’s not going on a pole, I’m going to fly it. Oh, glory to God. Oh, hallelujah. After all these years, the faithfulness of God, I’m telling you, the faithfulness of God. That little airplane was a milestone in this ministry and it flew back home. Hallelujah. And it won’t be all that very long, but it’ll be in the air again as a testimony to the living God. Well, we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
«Now I say that the heir, as long as he’s a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of this world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father».
Now my granddaughter, Jenny, her name now is Jenny Papapostolou. She started an orphanage called Abba House. They don’t have to have it translated. They’re Greek. And when I married Jenny and Elias, I had to practice the name Papapostolou. Amen. And she has two little boys. One was born in Greece. The other one was born in Dallas. And we’re out of time. Glory to God. Are you having fun? Well, give the Lord praise. We’ll be back in just a moment.