Kenneth Copeland - The Joy of The LORD Is Your Strength for Victory
Let’s open our Bibles to James chapter 1, please. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad: greetings. My brethren, count it all joy. Now, what does that mean? Joy is one of the fruit of the Spirit. It’s in you. Now, when you were born again, you were made the righteousness of God in Christ. That’s not holiness; that’s who you became. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He had the authority to do that, but He said, «You be holy, like I’m holy.» Yeah, well, when I got born again, you know the word said God died for, that Jesus died for the ungodly, and I thought, «Well, I sure qualify.» But He said, «Be holy.»
I didn’t know how to do that; I was scripturally illiterate. Thank God T.L. Osborne said I was born free; I didn’t have any religion to unlearn. I sure didn’t—a little Baptist stuff in there a little bit. But if you walk in the fruit of the Spirit, you’re walking in love, peace, and joy. And then you go over to the 13th chapter of the book of Corinthians: count no wrong done to you. Praise, amen! That produces holiness, and it produces real Bible hope. Yes, it does! Yes, it does! And faith is the substance, the title deed to the things we hope for. Yes! So count it all joy when you fall into different temptations, tests, and trials, knowing this: that the trying of your faith works patience. That’s not just putting up with; it’s endurance.
Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect or blameless, wanting nothing. Now wait! If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. Well, we know from the scripture that wisdom is the principal thing. That’s right! Wisdom is the principal thing: the wisdom of God! Hallelujah! I could not understand it; it just didn’t compute for me. I knew two things about myself: once I was old enough to remember anything, I remembered I wanted to fly. I mean, I wasn’t interested in anything else much; and I could sing. I couldn’t figure out why I could sing and other people couldn’t.
I thought I… I was in elementary school. Now, there were two women; one of them was Alene Free, and the other her name was Pete Webb, and they were sisters. They were good friends with my mother. My mother would give a luncheon for my teachers, and she would say, «If you have to spank him, send him home; I’ll spank him.» I was under double jeopardy all the time; there wasn’t any justice in this house at all. Well, we were upstairs in the music room, and I don’t remember; we were all singing something. She was walking by, stopped next to me, and said, «Come with me.» What did I do? We walked past Mr. Anony’s office; he’s the principal. «Where are we going?» she said, «Get in the car.» We got in her car. I said, «She’s taking me home; I’m dead. I can’t figure out what is about to happen to me.» Went in there, walked next up to the piano; she said, «Now sing.» Wow! So I did. Wow! She said, «Vanetta, did you know he could do this?» She said, «He’s been doing it all his life.»
What I found out is that I can get anything I want if somebody will get me around a piano, and I can have it—whatever it is. My little jerk mind figured out right then that I had a tool I could use, and she didn’t know she did me one of the worst favors that ever happened to me in my life. We’ll talk about that some more later. Then I just had a drive inside me to learn how to fly. The day I soloed at Meech Field was 12 years before DFW in a 5523 Echo Cessna 150. I took off and did my thing, and I remember the controller’s voice: «5523 Echo, you’re number eight in the pattern.» This was in August. We had been going early in the morning. «You’re number eight in the pattern; follow a DC3 just outside the outer marker.»
The outer marker is part of the instrument landing system, and I had never heard of it. I thought they had something painted on a barn out there or something. He said, «Can you hold your heading?» I said, «Yes, sir.» «Can you hold your altitude?» «Yes, sir.» «Hold your heading and your altitude, and I’ll tell you when to turn base.» My first thought was that I got to fly a little bit further— I was that committed to it. I didn’t get scared when I should have been, except for one time in my life over all these years. He said, «You see that DC3 on final?» I said, «Yes, sir.» He said, «Okay, turn left, and when he passes under your wing, then you can continue with your base leg.»
I thought I couldn’t hit him if I tried; I was in my element. I found out that somehow I could work my singing into my life and my ability to fly, and maybe I would just support the body of Christ. Well, I was singing in a church when it came up on the inside of me. The Lord said, «You’re singing; you’re selling the song. Shut up.» I said, «Folks, back when I was in the music business, I tried to sell the song. I don’t have to sell that song to you; you already know it. Forget about it.» I didn’t sing for almost a year in a service because I found something I could do to sell myself. That was point number two. Pride was working on me, and it caught up with me and did its dirty work. So, I stopped singing, and finally, I got on my knees and went before the Lord. I said, «I’m done with flying until you say so. I don’t care if I never fly again; serving you is more important than my singing, my flying, or anything else. I don’t want any more of it.»
Now, what are we talking about? The wisdom of God—I didn’t know that’s what it was. He said, «Okay.» So, I forgot about it and went right on preaching and teaching. I was praying, really not paying much attention to it, and it rose up on the inside of me. He said, «I’m giving your aviation back to you. I’m giving your ministry music back to you on this condition: I don’t care if you just fly the airplane across town to reposition it. You plan that flight. A 15-mile flight will kill you just the same as a thousand-mile flight; plan it. Do it right and clean up the cockpit. Get some chart holders and clean it up in there.» So, I did. Then he said something like, «If you think you can handle it, go ahead and sing now. It’ll be fine.»
Now, how does that tie into this? Well, listen to what he said: «My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into different temptations, testings, and trials.» Some of it I didn’t know was a test, but it turned out to be. I never thought I’d hear myself say, «I don’t care if I never turn another prop or if I ever fly a jet in my life. I don’t care; I can serve him the rest of my life and never open my mouth on another song again. All I need is him and to please him.» Then he straightened me up in those areas.
Now let’s go on. «If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and does not upbraid, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.» And that, my brother and sister, is the first sermon I ever preached in Asel, Texas, about the double-minded man long before ORU. And here was my example: They were in the boat. The storm hit. They had to wake him up. Listen to what Peter said: «Rabbi,» he called him, «Master, Teacher, do you not care that we perish?» That’s a double-minded man. Well, Jesus didn’t correct him; he just got up and stopped the storm. And then they said, «What kind of a man is this?» A faith man. He believed in his words. Amen! He’s a faith man.
Now let’s go to the 18th chapter of Matthew, verse 16: «If he will hear thee, take it to one or two more. In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church. If the church neglects to hear, let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publican.» Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And again, this is not the first time he told them this. Again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst. Why? To carry out the agreement. So, anytime you go into agreement with someone, remember the angels, because they are the agents that get it done. They’re the agents, and they’re there to carry it out, and that agreement will work.
Now, this goes way back, and Andre Crouch and I were at a Full Gospel Businessmen’s convention. We were going to Hawaii for the first one over there, and I had been talking along these lines. So, he said, «Will you meet me for breakfast in the morning?» I said, «Sure.» He said, «Now, you were talking about writing out a petition according to 1 John, chapter 5.» I said, «Yeah.» He asked, «Why do we write it down?» Well, I heard the Lord say, «If you write it down, you can say it is written. If you use my word to build the petition…» He said, «I need a bus.» I said, «I don’t only need a bus; I need $4,000 a month because it was Andre Crouch and the group.»
Well, of course, Sandra was with him, and they had other musicians with them. He asked, «Do you believe this will work?» I said, «No, I know it will, because the Master said it.» We talked about it. He had his legal pad with him, and we wrote out this petition with all the «whereas» and «wherefores» I could think of, you know, and I’ll tell you where I got that in a moment. So, he signed it, and I signed it. We went on to Hawaii, came back, and he called me not long after. He said, «I got it.» I asked, «What?» He said, «I got my bus.» Oh, he said, «It’s nice, man.» I mean, it’s nice! He said, «It’s new, and it’s good.» It cost $50,000. That same bus today would cost half a million. He said, «My income’s gone up,» and he added, «We’re just doing fine.»
So, these agreement prayers—don’t forget the devil and don’t forget the angels. People misread that in Exodus. Let’s turn over there and look at it. We quoted it properly, but it’s most of the time misquoted. Now, before you read that, read it down in here. This is the way most people read it: «You shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless your bread and water; I will take sickness from the midst of thee.» It’s read like that, and «he"—who’s the «he»? They read it like it is God. But that doesn’t make sense.
Back up to the 20th verse: «Behold, I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and bring you into the place where I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. You shall indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak; I will be an enemy to your enemy and an adversary to your adversary, for my angels go before you. You shall serve the Lord your God.» Now, I got in trouble with the curse of the law, and I said some things.
The Lord said, «You don’t qualify for that.» I asked, «Why?» He said, «When’s the last time you gave me praise for the abundance of all things? You just head on in there and go to claiming this and claiming that.» And He said, «I can’t do it.» Well, in the curse, it says, «You don’t serve your God with gladness of heart for the abundance of all your labors, so all of these curses come on you.» So, I just wrote that in here: «Praise God that I serve the Lord my God with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things. The length of my days He will fulfill.» Well, when I did that, I could just sense the joy of the Lord. Amen! So, count it all joy when you fall into temptations, testings, and trials, for it works endurance. Count it all joy! Now, you know what it says in Nehemiah 8:10: «The joy of the Lord is my strength.»