Kenneth Copeland - Following the Command Authority of God's WORD
Hello everybody, I’m Kenneth Copeland and on this Tuesday, we’re still talking about the Christian Chain of Command. Chain of command is to keep things decently and in order. And it comes to honor and respect. Praise God. So we don’t come to a place where we are committing sin and don’t even realize it. And those are the ones that the devil and just run roughshod over you with. Now, yesterday I started to make this illustration. The military is established for one reason, and the oath that I took, «I Kenneth Max Copeland do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to the regulations in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God».
That still lives big in me. Did you notice there’s no time limit on it, but that is to keep things in proper order. And the United States military is the best at it of anybody in the world. So take this as an illustration. How many have been in the military? Okay, good. So you know where the sergeant is. What manner of service were you in, okay. Nobody just walks into the company commander says, Say, «Hey Cap…» Not hardly. So there is a rank of at least Sergeant, when you walk in the company area. He’s there for a reason. The chain of command. So we go down to company D and anyway, and a three star walks in, tell you that sergeant jumps to attention… Sir general on deck, ten-hut. Everybody in that room comes to attention. He doesn’t just say, «I’m going in here and see…» No, no, sir. If he has a prior appointment, he’s recognized by that sergeant, not just by every rank. He wants to know who he is before he lets him in there to see the captain.
Uniform Code of Justice… say that General walks in there and walks up to that desk. That sergeant standing there like this. Sergeant Jones. «Sir yes, sir». «My quarters, 1800 hours». «Sir, yes sir». So 6:00 that evening, the sergeant standing at the general’s quarters, knocking on the door. The door opens, the sergeant steps back, staying at attention. Sergeant Jones. «Sir, yes sir». «You may enter». Boy, you haven’t called your mother in a month. There was a time when I learned the difference between my daddy and my father. Most of the time he was daddy, but there were times he was father. And I’m talking about when I was full grown. I didn’t sass my mother, I just talked to her with a grump, after I had come home from the army. And he walked around and pick me up with my robe and shove me up against the refrigerator. And he said, «Boy, you and I are going to have a fight and I going to win».
I said, «No, sir, huh uh, you put me down, no, you already won this». He demanded authority respect and he had it. He disciplined me. I became his disciple and before it was over, he was my hero. So much that I learned, I learned from him. Amen. Now my mother was second in command and he let me know it. And my mother was a switcher, peel off a little switch, just whip me across the back of my legs. It worked, I mean she had me dancing up and down. We had a luncheon. We. She had a luncheon with my teachers and here was her report. If you have to spank him or give him licks, you let me know because he’s going to get another one when he gets home. Now, I was watching Nancy Dufresne. I thought I had it rough. Her mother said, «You get double when you get home».
Oh, don’t mess up that little darlings self-esteem. I didn’t… I messed up his hind end, his rear esteem will take care of his self-esteem. And a lack of discipline is a problem today in schools and because, well, for all the different reasons. But it’s the devil that’s behind it, not the people. Now let’s go back then First Corinthians 14:40, but let’s read verse 39. Is this the Gospel? All right? «Wherefore, brethren covet to prophesy, forbid not to speak with tongues,» if you have a Bible, I don’t care if you’re Catholic. I don’t care if you’re Baptist. I don’t care who you are and where you are. You do not dare forbid anybody to speak with tongues. Praise God.
A man that I knew quite well he’s in heaven today. He said, «I started preaching on this» and he said, «I realize right in the middle of it, I don’t know what I’m talking about». He said, «He came up on inside of me: you better shut this up». And he said, «Folks, I’m out of line here. I don’t know what I’m talking about». He’s Southern Baptist. Well, he later found out what he was talking about and founded a church called Lakewood. It was John Osteen, he said, «I didn’t know what I was talking about and I just needed to shut that up». What… that’s James, just be quiet about it. But it says, «Don’t you dare forbid that. Let all things be done decently and in order».
Now, let’s go back to Matthew 7 where we were 7:1. «Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye measure, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye»? What about judging yourself first, Judge not that you be not judged. The same measure that you measure it, you will be judged that same way. The moment you judge a brother or a sister… The moment you do that and then you put that judgment out and you begin to talk about it, then it begins to grow in the church. Now the chain of command is all messed up. It never stays exactly the same.
If you talk to Oral Roberts, I’ve been the beneficiary of this. He’d tell me to do something. He’d say, «Now, what did I say? No, that isn’t what I said. Now, listen carefully. What did I say»? Well, after a little while, you catch on and you bring something to write on. Claude Holbert, my boss at Central Flying Service in Little Rock, Arkansas demanded… He’s the founder of the company. He demanded that we carry a little spiral notebook in your shirt pocket. And if you came to work without it, go home and get it. Because he didn’t want to have to go over this two or three times and you get it wrong cause you misunderstood what was said. Write it down. This has been written down for our purpose, our benefit. This Book is command authority.
This is written by the Commander in Chief, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, seated at the right hand of God the Father, the right hand denotes complete authority. Well, you and I have been raised up and said to sit there, in Him. Amen. Now notice this. In that last precious moment before Jesus was about to change everything, he was about to change total history forever. Heaven and earth. Until now, you have asked me nothing. But in that day, which they couldn’t figure out what day it was. In that day you will ask me nothing, listen… chain of command. But whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, he’ll give it to you. Ask that you receive that your joy may be made full. That’s the rest of that… decent and in order, according to the laws of faith.
So now we brought another element into this chain of command. Nobody that has a Bible is excused from these things. There are people that own Bibles that are not saved. That’s not God fault. I was well brought up, but I didn’t pay attention until November the second, 1962, I changed gods about 8:00 in the evening, it was just suddenly, I’ve just flown a trip and come back from… a man by the name of Weere, he was an executive of the Arkansas, Louisiana gas company. I flew him from Little Rock to Shreveport and back, got in late, and Gloria had waited supper on me. I had never heard of being a new creature. I was a scriptural illiterate, never heard of that. But the Spirit of God arrested me. He stopped me right where I was, and I just… all of a sudden I heard it on the inside of me. «Kenneth, son, if you don’t get right with me, you’re going to… no… Kenneth, if you don’t get right with me, you’re going to a devil’s hell. son».
And I quietly said, «I know it, I know it. What do I do now»? I heard my Sunday school teacher’s voice, Mrs. Taggert, she was a widow woman. She wore black all the time. Little black straw hat, little artificial flower. About that tall. «Boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart». Now listen how stupid I was. It sounds just as dumb as it did the first time I heard it, but I don’t know anything else to do. But I wasn’t but 12 when I heard it first time, so I just said, «Jesus, come into my heart». He did and for a few seconds there I couldn’t shut my mouth. From that moment on, profanity was gone out of my mouth forever.
I was a new creature and didn’t know it, of course I know it now. I don’t know much now, but I knew a whole lot more than I knew back there in 1962. Then in 67 everything’s changed. So the chain of command is vital information. The way you measure it. So he is saying, «Judge yourself first». The Lord showed me that one time, that beam, that plank in your eye is your upbringing. That’s what you learned coming up. We come from different environments, different ethnic backgrounds and there was a man, of course, I met him later that was raised in a criminal family. That was his way of life.
Well, when he was 14 years old, they put him in prison without the possibility of parole. He’s an incorrigible criminal. So he’s just going to be there forever at 14, because he’s juvenile and then he went on up in the prisons of Arkansas. But that changed because back at that time, this ministry put satellite receivers and all of the units in the state of Texas. Then once that happened, then Arkansas wanted them and so we did that. Well, they had to watch what we did and said, you couldn’t change it. The TV was behind a wire, and then he accepted Jesus as his Lord and savior watching that. And he started praying and speaking faith and he got an early release.
So since he had an early release, he found out where we were going to have a meeting. He would go there and just get a local job washing dishes or anything, and then he’d get in the meeting and he had our schedule for a while and he just stayed ahead of them and then later he shared this with me, but he just stayed ahead and he studied and then worked hard at it. Became dean of a Bible college. Thank You, Jesus. What did that? The command authority of the Word of God. Why?.. Faith came. Faith has to obey. It has to. It comes by hearing and hearing and hearing. You can put it this way, it comes by hearing the Word of God. It comes by hearing the Word of Christ, the anointed one. The Word is anointed.
Since I’m teaching what the Lord directed me to teach and the Lord woke me up about well, it was about 3:00 or 4:00 this morning. I don’t know whether I was going to get back to sleep or not, but he’d get started talking to me about these things, so that that anointing could take place. So faith is coming stronger and stronger and putting in your heart a desire to know more about the Christian chain of command and how it works, what your responsibility is to it. But now let me tell you this. It goes to the home.
In fact, we’ll talk about that tomorrow. We don’t have time right now. But we will find that chain of command right here in the Bible where our homes are concerned. And you better not violate it… Oh, it causes trouble. But the Commander knew in the first place, he already had all of this planned out. His battle plan was laid before the foundation of the world. He’s in the future right now. Yes, he’s in the future right now, planning and laying out things for our lives. Hallelujah. I want to be there on time and finish my course. Amen. So we’ll take this up tomorrow. So give the Lord a praise right now, will you do that?