Kenneth Copeland - Faith for Your Family: Instill Faith In Your Children
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. And this is Kellie Copeland, and this is John Copeland. Now, let us know if the Victory broadcast has encouraged you to believe God and live by faith. Share your testimony, kcm.org/story. In 2019, I was a KCM partner living in Georgia. Pastor Greg Stephens was a guest on the BVOV broadcast, and Brother Copeland called him Professor. Then mentioned that he, Pastor Greg, was one of the instructors at KCBC. Prior to that, I was aware of KCBC, but had no desire to be a student there. But when I realized that what I was learning from Pastor Greg on the broadcast, I could learn on a weekly basis as a student, it caught my attention. Two years later, I moved to Texas, attended KCBC. I've since graduated, and now I'm on staff at KCM in the communications department. I'm extremely grateful the Lord used the BVOV broadcast to finally get my attention so that Kenneth Copeland Bible College could help equip me for all that God's called me to do. Thank you, Sarah. I want to mention to the audience, it is an accredited college, and so the credits will go and we'll be honored by... Immediately, we had letters from Oral Roberts University and another... Tell your students they will go ahead and come on here. We'll take all their credits. That's important. Anyway, let's go now to the second Corinthians chapter five. Now, I want to say something to you that I thought of back there a moment ago. Of course, I'm not bragging on my children. I'm bragging on this book. I want you to notice.
— You can brag on us, too, if you want.
— Yeah, well, I am. Glory to God. It's not bragging when it's true.
— It's the Lord. Kellie knew it said that. I knew where it said that, but here's the thing. January the 24th, 1967, this ministry began, and they were there, just very, very, very young. John was just a baby, and Kellie was what, three? Yeah. Yeah.
— Right out.
— We drove in there, and she said, Jesus lives here. Day one.
— Are you talking about at Oral Roberts?
— Yes. I'm in an old beat up car. We wrecked that other one, but both of them aware, and they've been here all the time since. So all of the things that we're saying comes from hands-on experience. Well, Kellie came home from school one day, and she said, "Daddy, I've just had the symptoms of the flu". That's when this phrase came out of my spirit. I didn't think it in my mind. I said, "Kellie, you're the healed, and the devil's trying to take your health away from you".
— You said you're not the sick.
— You're not the sick. You are the healed, and the devil's trying to take your health away from you. She said, all right. She went in her bedroom, and by the time we had supper that night, all the symptoms were gone.
— You know, when you know, your heart knows when you get a rhema word. It's funny, because those words you remember later, I always picture myself right where we were standing. It was a core moment in my life when you said it, it went straight into my soul as a rhema, and it exploded in me. I just remember going, oh yeah. I went to my room, and I just spent some time with the Lord about that.
— Gloria and I included them in everything we did. We had fun. They had fun. It's very important that I mean right from the very beginning. We went to ORU. They went to ORU. Well, and I was just thinking back there, December of this year, I'll be 89 years old, and January the 24th will be the 59th year of this ministry. They've been there the whole 59 years. That's my point. Now, I know a lot of parents don't have that in their lives, but it can be. Faith. Faith. I was in a... I don't remember where it was. It was a partner service, and I was talking about children. I started saying, I said, "Some of you, your children are going to call you today". Today? But that came out of my spirit as in the prophet's ministry, and I knew it. I don't know. Someone said it. I don't remember now who. You need to be careful about saying things like that. You give people false hope. No. I give them hope. Well, you don't want to get their hopes. That's exactly what you want. Well, they might... Listen, get to jack their hope up as high as they can get it. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. That comes with... That's the people telling you, better not do that. That girl called them that day.
— Daddy, I heard in my spirit that when you first said it, that you said what you said about your girl's going to call you, that went off and on the inside of somebody, maybe more than one, that was Rhema. When it exploded, it's like a bubble burst in you of yes, and you grabbed it even before you realized he was telling a story about something in the past because the Word of the Lord never returns void. It's still, that Word you spoke then is still active today.
— Sure. Absolutely.
— And you put it out there and somebody grabbed it, so don't let go of that. Hold that. Believe it today. And you'll see it. We want to hear your testimony. Email us at that testimony email because we want to hear that. It's coming.
— It's very important. We were in another store, I was with John, and I kind of barked back at him. He was something, he went on and said, "Ah, you don't need that". I really wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, and I saw it didn't set too well with him. I went back around there and I said, "Son, come here". I got down on my knees in front of him and apologized. He said, "Oh, daddy, that's okay". I said, "No, it was not okay what I did and said. That's not okay". And so he just called me and helped me. He helped me up. Now, train up a child in the way... . When he gets old, he won't turn from it. It says training, instruct him, train him. I found out later about my dad. He would wait several days before he would whip me because...
— That's torture.
— Well, he didn't want to do it angry. He did not want to do that angry. And it wasn't just a spanking. There was a good talking went with it and remind me of the first covenant of promise, honor your father and your mother, which I did. And, uh, my little sore rear end, I wrote, uh, Hey, do I remember it today? Absolutely.
— You know, they've gotten away in parenting today from that. And even to the point of considered child abuse to spank your children. But I think it's the way in what you say it as well.
— It can be...
— It can be if it's done out of anger. It's done in love. And you used to tell me this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you. And I was like...
— Let's talk about that. Now here was the difference between the two. John would say, all right, let's get it over with. Kellie would turn into a lawyer. Now you don't want to do something you're going to regret now. Come on, daddy. Now, come on, come on. Come on. Listen, let's don't do that. I'd say Kellie Dean. I get tickled, but you have to do it anyway. She had plead her case every which way she could think of. But if I said it, you do it.
— But it's biblical, but it's the do it in love is the key. You know, some people do it out of anger. Some people take it too far, obviously. But I'm going to say it is a, it is effective done the right way. And my children remember Courtney, Courtney will be the first to tell you that she was... she was older. She was maybe 16 and she got a really good whooping. And she said it was a turning point for her, but it was a sit down, let's discuss it. And this is why we're doing it. And so nowadays you can see, I don't know, you're out in public like me. It's like, man, that kid needs a whooping. You know, there's no discipline in that child's life, but here's it is scientific facts that children desire and want discipline. They don't know it right. They don't really consciously understand that... people, adults also want accountability and discipline. And you know, it's like when there's no... structure... structure is good. You know, and if you just, dad was preaching the other day and it's like a child's nature is selfish. You know, they come out of, you know, they're two years old, they fight over toys. It's a child's nature is naturally where all of our natures are selfish. But it's not until that you have, you get Jesus in you that you become outward serving rather than inward serving. And so I don't, you know, we may get letters and all this about that, don't really care because for me, it's the truth from the way I was raised. I needed, I didn't get spanked enough. You didn't know all the stuff I did, right? I deserved every one I got plus, but if I hadn't had the discipline, it would have not turned out... It wouldn't have turned out the way it did, you know, because I knew right and wrong. I was taught right and wrong. I knew it. And there are consequences. And you learn this, this is a fact for the rest of your life. There are consequences for your actions. And if you never face a consequence for your action as a child, how are you going to know it as an adult until you do it? Now you have consequences and it could be prison, you know, jail, your health. I mean, there's consequences for all of our actions. And so I just want to encourage people to study it out. Um, but discipline... your children need to be disciplined. Otherwise they're just, they're lost and they need that structure.
— I was under double jeopardy. My mother would find out who my teachers are going to be the next year. And she'd invite him over to the house. And she said, now, if you have to spank him, you do it. And you let me know. Cause when he gets home, he's going to get another one. Well, uh, that had, that went a long ways for toward me behaving in school. Now, and it's the words... you can't get away from words.
— That's the way the Lord disciplines us. It's His Word.
— Now let's go here to second Corinthians chapter four. Look at the 13th verse. We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed therefore have I spoken. Therefore we speak. Fear is the exact opposite of faith. I heard the Lord say this one time, fear tolerated is faith contaminated. You don't tolerate fear. So in knowing that, and I think I mentioned this before, I took the, both of them before they were old enough to have a car and took them out and showed it to them. This is wonderful. One of these days you're going to want one of them and you're going to have them.
— Daddy, you're going to get run over. No, no, no, no, no. Don't instill fear in them. But look at the size of this thing. It'd squish you like a bug, but they're wonderful. They're wonderful piece of machinery. We walked all the way around it. I said, now... And, anyway, I said, now children, now listen, this means that you really need to be watching and looking where you're going. When you start across the street or something like that, you look both ways.
— You taught us to respect it. Not fear it. You taught me to respect heights because I was walking along a wall that was pretty tall. And you're like, John, come here a minute. And you taught me to respect the fact that this is how if you fall, you can get hurt. But you didn't teach me to fear it.
— No. Uh, the book will tell you the proper way to raise a child. The Bible said God chose Abraham because he would teach his children. Amen. Now we come on over here. Let's go to chapter five because this is a key chapter on faith. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this, we grown earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. He's telling the truth because he'd been to heaven. Caught up in the third heaven. He wanted to go back. My captain was Bob DeWeese. And, when we were flying together, he had a massive heart attack on a handball court, massive. And, he and Charlotte were telling this. He said, suddenly I was in the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life. And he said, there was a fence over here and over here. And he said, this is a small road. He said, it wasn't a path. It was a road. And he said, "Far as I could tell, it was hand carved mahogany. It was absolutely beautiful. And I saw the lights and Bob's an athlete all of his life. And, he said, "Kenneth, all of a sudden, I never felt so much power in my legs. He was not aware that he was out of his body. He said, "All I wanted to do was run. And I'm home. And I started running. And all of a sudden I was being pulled back". And, uh, and Charlotte said, and all of a sudden he was in the hospital. And, uh, and Charlotte said, you want me to tell you what he said? This is big. Did he say, Charlotte, thank you for saving my life. He said, "Charlotte, what did you do that for"? He didn't want to come back. Later, whenever there was a gathering going on there, I don't remember that. He said, "Kenneth, come on outside with me. Heaven's pulling on me. It's pulling on me". That's what made me think of it. It was pulling on him. He wanted to go back. He said, it's pulling on me. I don't know how long I can stay. Well, it wasn't long. It's pulling on me. Now, you know why, and I know why there's not more people that get anything more out of heaven than what they see in the book of Revelation and what this great apostle talked to about it, because it'll start pulling on you and pulling on you. You want to go, you want to go back. So now here we go. Therefore, we are always confident knowing that while we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord, wherefore we labor. The crossreference says, we endeavor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. And I wrote out here, faith explanation for it. We've already found that out. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive of the things done in his body according to that which he had done, whether it be good or bad. We were driving home one night from Southwest and I was tired and John was driving and he just reached over there and got me by the hand. All of a sudden I felt better. Faith and energy came out of him. Depression was just almost a way of life for me. The last time Gloria walked up behind me and put her hands on my shoulder, she said, Kenneth, she never said anything. I didn't say anything about it being there. She sensed it. She and I are one. She put her hands on my shoulder. She said, "Jesus finds no fault in you and neither do I". Instead of finding fault with one another and fussing with one another all the time. Well, you can change it with love and faith. Read the life story of Smith Wigglesworth. He told Polly if she went to church again, just not come back. He put her stuff out on the porch. She just slept out there on the porch and he went and got her. She said, Smith, you ready for breakfast? After I just shoved her out, it broke him. Love never fails. Now, as we continue to read this, this is a pivotal chapter in the Bible. We only have 30 seconds and we'll finish it tomorrow, but this is the one that tells us we're new creatures. Glory to God. We'll be back in just a moment.