Kenneth Copeland - God Promises You Wisdom and Understanding
Welcome, everybody, to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Let's have a word of prayer, we'll get right into today's Bible lesson.
Father, we praise You. Oh, we worship You, and we honor the name of Jesus. Oh, how we love Jesus. And we thank You for your Word. We open our hearts, and we open our minds for revelation from heaven. And we thank You that the Greater One that lives within me today will equip me and anoint me to teach this Word accurately. And we believe we receive gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit today throughout this radio and television audience. There's no time nor distance in the realm of the Spirit. And we thank You for it. Gifts of healings, working of miracles, special faith, discerning of spirits, glory to God, word of knowledge, word of wisdom. Ho-ho-ho, ah ha, glory to God. We thank You, and we praise You and give You all the praise and glory in Jesus' name. Amen.
Don't forget the downloads. Ha-ha. Amen. Free study notes. Now, of course, if you're a regular watcher on BVOV, BVOVN, and watching us on the Internet or wherever you get us, you're aware of that now, but I want to encourage you to continue to do that. This is so important, particularly those of you watching on the Believer's Voice of Victory Network, either on 265 on a Dish receiver, or kcm.org, or wherever you get us. You've got a Roku set, you can get it. A lot of different ways. But let me tell you this: These downloads are study notes that, if you will download these notes, like if you just downloaded them right now, just right, "prrrppp," and download these notes, you can follow right along.
I mean, you've got every Scripture. And not only that, you can teach from these. And, of course, they're like everything else you receive off of this broadcast; doesn't cost you anything. No expense, no excuse, right? Thank you, Keith Moore, for that. That's good. Amen. All right. The ways of faith and the ways of love equal the ways of Jesus. Say that with me. "The ways of faith, the ways of love equal the ways of Jesus". Huh? Oh, yeah, praise God. Now, let's go over to Isaiah 55. This is our golden text for again this week. Verse 8, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord".
Now, you can see where that came from. The ways of faith and the ways of love equal the ways of Jesus. Those are the ways. "Your thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord". "Well, what are we gonna do"? Ah-hah. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts your thoughts. As the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth bud, that it," the Word, "may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth". His Word is His will.
See, God wouldn't promise you something in His Word that was not His will for you to have. Now, you know, that wouldn't even make any sense. But it's not knowing the Word, not knowing the promises, you don't know the will, and therefore your faith can't function where you don't know the will of God concerning it. Okay, now, I'm ahead of myself. So what are we talking about? The natural way of thinking, the Lord spoke this to me earlier, and I wrote it down. We talked about it last week. The natural way of thinking is to look and see, feel and see, or put an "if it be Thy will" on the end of every prayer.
"Well, what's wrong with that, Brother Copeland"? Well, now, you see, there's different kinds of prayer. It's not just "prayer is prayer". There's different kinds of prayer, and different kinds of prayer are prayed with different rules. You can't pray, "if it be thy will" on every prayer because it will negate the prayer. "I just don't understand that". I know it, so hush and listen because I'm telling you. (Laughs) I'm just messing with you. You know that. No, I used to think that. But, well, now think about this dilemma. "Well, Father, Lord Jesus, heal me if it be Your will". Well, you're not going to receive your healing. No, you are not going to receive it. So now you go away thinking, and the devil will absolutely prove to you, "See there, it's not God's will to heal everyone now, and you are".
Have you ever heard someone say, "Well, I know it's not God's will to heal everyone, but He's going to heal me". No. You're always the one that He won't. "Well, He may heal somebody else, but He sure never healed me". How do you know? "Well, I prayed and asked Him to, and He wouldn't do it". See, all of that is just religion, just religious brainwashing. It actually comes from not being New Testament taught. Well, I won't go any further than that. Now, how do I know if it's God's will? The Scripture says that "in him," in Jesus, "his promises", the promises. Say, "promises". "The promises in him are yea," or yes, "and Amen". "Amen" means "so be it". That's it, that's settled, so be it.
When I find the promise that covers my situation, and I base my prayer on that promise right there, then I know it's His will, or He wouldn't have promised it to me. I've heard people say this, and they say it honestly. I mean, you know, it's because of trying to answer spiritual problems with the carnal mind, which it ain't going to work. You can't answer, spiritual problems have to be discerned in the Spirit by the Holy Spirit, which is where we're going in this today, "By my Spirit, saith the Lord". He lead you to promises, and that promise that covers your situation.
Proverbs 4:7 says, let's turn over there. I want you to see that. Turn over there in your Bible right now, Proverbs 4:7. Let's start reading Verse 5. "Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth". Now, that's a command. "Forsake her not, and she will preserve you: love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing". Not, "a" principal thing, "the" principal thing. "Therefore get wisdom: and with all your getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you: she will bring you to honor, when you do embrace her".
Wow. Listen to that. Now, let's put that in perspective here now. I had the Lord say to me one time, He said, "You're too quick to pray". I said, "I mean, come on, Lord". "No," He said, "You just jump out and start confessing Scriptures and everything". He said, "I said in my Word wisdom is the principal thing". "Well, yeah, it does say that, yes, Sir". And we had a million-dollar problem in the ministry, and we were running a million dollars behind all the time. Well, in this ministry, from day one, because Gloria and I took communion, and we gave our promise before God we would never ask anybody to meet our needs, that we would never write appeal letters.
Now, I'm not judging somebody else that does that. There's actually nothing wrong with that unless you abuse it. But this is what God dealt with us, I mean first day in this ministry. And we took communion over it and gave, anyway... so we've never done that. And so when He said, "Wisdom is the principal thing," and I said, "Okay". But here's what I did. I wasn't searching at the time for wisdom. I was searching at the time for a million dollars, you understand? And I went up to the prayer cabin, and I stayed up there for several days, and just to pray and seek the Lord over this million dollars. And I said out loud, I said, "Lord, we need a million dollars".
And I heard it right in here, that same place where He speaks to every Christian that'll listen, that small voice right in here. He said, "No, you don't". I said, "What"? He said, "You don't need a million dollars". And I remember, I said, "Well, you could have fooled me"! I said it about that loud, "You could have fooled me"! "No," He said, "You don't need a million dollars". He said, "You have a spiritual problem in your ministry that has caused that million-dollar shortfall". He said, "I told you to do such and such where this ministry is concerned, and you just touched it with your mental line and said, 'Well, yeah, yeah.'" But He said, "You just dropped it and went on and didn't pay any more attention to it. Now, that problem has caused this, If I gave you a million dollars today, the problem, the spirit, see, it's a spiritual problem. The spiritual problem in your ministry would eat that million dollars up, too, and you'd still be a million dollars behind". I said, "Well, yeah. Yeah, I can see that".
Well, see, I needed the wisdom of God. I didn't need a million dollars, I needed the wisdom of God. "Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir, I can do that". Let's go over here and look in the book of James, Chapter 1. Now, I'm just demonstrating to you how the promise of God is the will of God and that becomes the answer to the prayer, therefore you can release your faith and receive that answer. Are you with me now? Okay, James 1, "James, a servant of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting". And that's to those of us in Fort Worth and those of you wherever you are, greeting. "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into different temptations".
The word translated "temptation" means temptations or testings or trials. "Well, I know God sure tested me". No, He didn't. Huh-uh. "Really"? No, that's just some more religious thinking. Right now that's not our subject, but just put enough confidence in me and the Holy Ghost that I know what I'm, you know I wouldn't tell you that if I didn't have absolute Scripture to back me up on it. It's not God testing you. Now, "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience".
Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. It's translated, in Galatians 5, as "long-suffering". Now look at Verse 4. "Let patience," long-suffering, "have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing". All right. So I know that it's God's will for me to be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, right? Because He said right here that those two fruits of the Spirit, joy and patience, will produce this. Oh, okay. "If any of you lack wisdom". Well, now you're in a problem. I was in a million-dollar problem, and I thought I needed money when I needed wisdom. When I got the wisdom, I obeyed God, and that million dollars just come a'jumping in there. Praise God.
Now then, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally". This wisdom, it's for everybody! Hey! Some sinners say, "I need the wisdom of God". Yeah, "Jesus" is His name! Ha-ha-ha. Glory to God. Now listen to this, "...and upbraideth not". "To upbraid" means to find fault. No, Your faults are not going to keep Him from giving you His wisdom because you need wisdom about the fault. Huh? Ha-ha. That's good, isn't it? Glory to God. "But let Him ask in faith, nothing wavering. He that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind. Let not that man think he'll receive anything from the Lord".
So we're going to have to work in faith or we can't receive that or anything else. Now we're back to "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". Amen. So now follow me now. Stay right here with me. So now, I need a million dollars, and I'm seeking God, and now the wisdom of God. "Well, uh-huh, but it said, 'Let him ask in faith.' And 'Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.' Oh. You know what? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Lord, I remember that, Lord. I Corinthians 1. I Corinthians, the first chapter, 'But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us'". This is every born-again child of God. Hoo, I get excited just reading this. "But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption".
Hey! That wisdom is on the inside of me. What happened to your faith right there? Whoa. Yeah, it's in me now. He's in me now. If I can find what the Scripture says here about how to get that wisdom out of here and into here, whoa. Whew. Yeah, amen, amen. You know, I've arrived at something here. Glory to God. "Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah, now, Lord, where do I go from here? Um, mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Uh, let's see, oh, yeah, that was the 18th chapter of Proverbs, oh, yeah, the 4th verse, 'The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom, "as a flowing brook". "Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water," Jesus said.
Hey. Now, I'm seeing something here, words. Yeah, words. Yeah, but if I don't know the words to pray, what am I going to do here? How am I going to pray that? But yeah, well, you said to ask, and I'm saying, yeah, give me that wisdom, Sir. I'm asking for it, and I believe I receive it. I mean, I, I". Oh, now, what did we read last week? The love way, the Word way, the faith way. But Zechariah 4:6 says, "Not by power, not by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord". Yeah, "by my spirit". Okay. Yeah, let me look over here. Let's see what that said over here in I Corinthians. Uh-huh. "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God".
Well, that's praying, isn't it? Yeah. He speaks unto God. Isn't that something? Words. Now, I don't understand these words, but God does, and He supernaturally gives me to that when I'm baptized with the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit of God is in me, and I'm in Him. And you know, I remember, when He said, over in the book of Ephesians, that 6th chapter, where he said, praying perseveringly "for all saints," all saints in the Spirit. Well, he must have been talking about speaking in tongues because the same apostle Paul that wrote that, that wrote this, "howbeit in the Spirit", in the Spirit, praying in the Spirit; wisdom as a flowing river, coming up and out.
This happened to Gloria and me just recently. Hebrews 4:1 said, "Never let a promise slip". Never let it slip. Why would you let it slip? You forget it. And we're praying about something, and all of a sudden, it just jumped across my mind, and I started praying in a certain direction. And I thought, "Oh, glory to God, hallelujah! Hallelujah! Oh, thank You, Lord, for reminding me of that. Thank You for, ho"! And I just suddenly took off praying that way.
Now, what happened there? Well, it said when I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but mind is unfruitful. I pray that I may interpret. I had been praying that out in tongues, the Lord showed me. I had let that promise slip. But as that wisdom began to come up through me, because I pray a lot in other tongues. I'm talking about a lot. Amen. And Gloria and I are praying, I'm standing there laying hands on her, and out it came. I thought, "Ho-ho-ho, glory to God"! What happened? I needed that right at that moment. And we're out of time. And I'll be back in just a moment.