Kenneth Copeland - Holding Steady and Believing God In Faith
It is time to go back to fundamentals. Turn to Romans 3:26 verse, «To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith». It is governed by certain laws. So it’s predictable. The law of faith. Now that we understand aeronautics, it’s predictable, but back when the Wright brothers were doing it, now they went to England to show off. It’s the Wright Seminary in Dayton. They sent a telegram to their dad, we have an audience with the queen. He sent back another one, «Good, don’t drink her wine». They had to learn the law of lift is always the same. The camber of the wing.
The law of physics says that the relative wind going over that wing, this must exit here exactly at the same time. You create a high pressure system underneath the way, if you ever watched the newscaster, you got a low pressure and a high pressure, and the high pressure is pushing on the low pressure. That’s what happens to the wing of an airplane. And at a certain speed, the pressure, the high pressure trying to get to the low will push that thing up off the ground. And when you already know what that speed is, and you anticipate it, and you can set the airplane up where it will just fly itself off the ground. Then you have a vertical speed indicator. You don’t want to pull it green because you get out of ground cushion effect and it’ll slam back down.
So that’s your first flying lesson right there. Flying is a discipline and safety is an attitude. Amen. Glory to God. And you work at it and you live it, you think it. And back before they had the simulators, I had to be my own simulator. There were no simulators. When Dwayne and I went through that training on that airplane, we got the type rating in the airplane before we ever flew it, in the simulator. Now I’m going somewhere with this. So that, but that simulator is really jittery. And then you have somebody that they’re controlling it that’s causing problems. And then you go back for recurrent training and you think, man, I’m sure glad I came back because I let that slip. I’m glad I went back to training because I got lazy. And some guys don’t use checklists, I won’t fly with them.
There was a man going to fly Jerry Savelle someplace and Jerry knew how to fly. And Jerry knew what a, I mean, I just will not fly without a checklist, I’m not going to do it. Every item, emergency items, all that. And he said, Jerry, I’ll just fly you over in my barren, my Beachcraft Baron. And he said, okay. So he got up in the run-up area and he did all of his run-up and everything, never pulled out a checklist. And Jerry said, «Where’s your checklist»? Oh, he said, «I don’t need it». He said, «Take me back to the ramp, I’m not going to fly with you. I will not fly with you».
One of my very, very best friends in aviation came out of the Marine Corps flying F-4s. And then he went with the airline for a while. And they were running the checklist. And the captain said, «Mr. Hyde…» Glen Hyde is his name. He said, «Mr. Hyde, would you go back to the very back of the airplane and make certain that everyone has their seatbelt fastened, please. And check each passenger, please». Well, okay. So then he got up front, he said, «Mr. Hyde, now we will rerun the checklist and we will do it with this on your mind». You don’t memorize. You don’t check. All of those people have their lives in our hands. You will run this checklist again. I have a checklist right here. And I have to go back to recurrent training.
Now, my Bible in previous to this, like I told you, I wore it completely out. Now, going back through this new one, I realized how much I was depending on my own notes that I had made in here. And then I was kind of stumbling around. This is one of the best things that happened to me in a long time because I had to dig. Amen. Go back to my concordance. Even though it’s the same Bible, it’s just a different color. But I’d had that other one so long that I was to the place where I was depending on my own notes where everything is located. So even though I’ve been studying this book now in January, it’ll be 58 years. I don’t have any right whatsoever, any reason to stumble around trying to find something and get irritated. And now I wish I had my other Bible. No, you don’t. You get in there and dig in this one. You dig in this one. Amen.
And take the time to separate the little thin pages that’s called patience. And now I’m going through and remarking everything, taking the time. And as I do, as I remark, I’m restudying the same book, the same book. And I have a number of them in my bookcase that I’ve worn out before. Hallelujah. And I intend to keep on wearing them out. And take the time to study it and listen to it and renew my mind continually, constantly. And it came back up again. It is the law of faith. Therefore, it is predictable. Certain things make it work and certain things will foul it up. So the fundamentals of faith.
Now, I never had thought of this until I heard my grandson, Jeremy, say it. And I don’t see any way to improve it. Rick, what are you watching when you watch the Super Bowl? Masters of the Fundamentals, the World Series, Masters of the Fundamentals. It’s still the same game. But somebody has played it and worked at it and played it and worked at it. Mike Barber, Houston Oilers, Bum Phillips. Mike finally got Bum Phillips saved. And now Mike Barber’s in the prison ministry along with us. And that’s when you see him on the Victory Channel on the inside. And that’s his son that works with him. And these are big men. Make me look like a runt. I played a little high school football. I didn’t master anything. A little baseball. I just played enough to know I liked it. But I didn’t care anything in the world about going pro with that. I got beat up enough that I didn’t care anything about that anymore. That wasn’t my calling. Flying was.
Every time I went to school, I’d sign up for ROTC. Every time. But I would get this kind of a sick feeling and I’d leave. I couldn’t figure it out. So I went to my dad. I said, «Dad, you said you’d see to it I got an education». He said, «Yes, I did». I said, «I want to fly». He said, «All right. I’ll back you till you get your commercial rating. You’re on your own». I said, «That’s fair enough». And went to work at it. And I realized then it had become my God. And I got to the place… Knowing I’m in excellent health, but still go over there and take that physical. Oh, man, I can’t afford to bust a physical. I realized that flying that thing was my God. And I got on my face and fell down before Him. And I said, «Sir, I don’t care if I never, ever get in an airplane again. You’re my God. Not aviation».
So I said, «I’m done with it». I didn’t hear anything. So I just quit. And then I was praying about some other things. And I heard it on the inside of me. «I’m going to give you your flying back to you. But you keep it in the proper place. Because you’re going to fly for me now. I want you to clean up that cockpit. I don’t want to see any dirt and stuff around in the cockpit. You’re flying for me. And don’t you let it get out of hand». Keep it in its proper place. You can fall in love with race cars, fast motorcycles. But they must be kept in their proper place.
So that they don’t in no way become your God. Anything you just can’t walk away from. And for Jesus, I’ll walk away from everything. All of it. I don’t hold anything in this natural world dear to me. I love my wife more than my own life. She’s dear to me. I love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, and all my strength. I don’t love motorcycles. I don’t love my clothes. I enjoy it. These things are super important. And our children must recognize that. And when the Lord says, «Give that thing». Boy, I mean, it’s gone. Do you know how much that costs? Well, so what? When you have no debt.
Now, I talked to you about that earlier today. So let’s take a look. Let’s go to the book of Deuteronomy. Now, we’re talking about the law of faith. Well, it’s always there. God used it to create the universe. And we go there. But now let’s go to the book of Deuteronomy. In the 28th, «It shall come to pass, that thou shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day. The Lord thy God will set you on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if you hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed will you be in the city» and so forth.
Now, I want you to look at the 12th verse. «The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven, to give the rain unto the land in his season and to bless all the work of your hand. And you will lend unto many nations and shall not borrow. And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail». Verse 43, under the curse. «The stranger that is within you shall get up above high, very high, and come down low. He shall lend to thee and thou shall not lend to him. He shall be the head and you will be the tail». So it pays to be out of debt and stay there. And you don’t try to sneak around it like I did and start leasing stuff and all that. But I am not your judge. This book is.
So if you have a considerable amount of debt in your life, I mean, don’t get all bent out of shape over it. Just go before the Lord and say, «I see it in the book. So with your help, I’m gonna be debt free. And I’ll be the head and not the tail. I will be above only and not beneath». Now we struggle through all those things to come to that place. But I noticed that there were some things that I was very impulsive about. Tom, I say, «Boy, we need to do that. We need to do that. We need to do that». I mean, right now. Right now. Not no mousy rat. Right now. Yeah. How much money are you gonna take? I don’t have the money to do that. Can’t do it. Until I get the money to pay for it. And then I begin to pray over it. And the Lord said, «I didn’t tell you to do that. Now let that alone».
Now before I’d have just borrowed the money and gone on and done it. And bottlenecked the ministry and couldn’t figure out why. Oh, what a safeguard. You just hold steady and believe God. Inquire of the Lord the way David inquired of God. You’ve heard me say this before. Now he wasn’t even old enough to be in the army. But the moment David said, «That uncircumcised Philistine is…» that giant was dead right then. Because he used his covenant with God. The giant was dead. Because the moment he used the name, the Lord God of hosts, now God’s involved. The angelic forces of God are involved. That giant was dead already and didn’t even know it. So we use our covenant as well. And realize this is a book of blood covenants. And blood back promises. First animals, then circumcision. And then the blood of Jesus. Glory to God.
«And so 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». He redeemed me from the curse of poverty. Hallelujah. He redeemed me. Hallelujah. And back in the early days, Gloria and I just sit around and laugh about it. We are redeemed from the curse of the law. And we have inherited the blessing of Abraham. And if you be in Christ, then are you Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. We are redeemed from the curse of the law. And we can’t be redeemed from something without being redeemed into something. So we’ve been redeemed from the curse of the law. And we’ve become the seed of Abraham.