Kenneth Copeland - When the Holy Spirit Comes to Live in You
Welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory. Today, Kenneth Copeland reveals God's plan to communicate and connect with you through the Holy Spirit. He is the Greater One in you. Now let's join Kenneth for today's lesson.
Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast.
Father, we thank You today. We give You praise and we honor You. We thank You and honor You for Your presence here. And we give forth our faith. We release our faith. And we invite You to manifest Yourself, Holy Spirit, in us and among us as You please, Sir, as You will. And we bring all the praise and all the worship for every word that's said and every deed that's done to the wonderful, marvelous name of Jesus. And it's in that name that we pray. Amen.
Praise God. Remember, download the free broadcast study notes, kcm.org/notes, because we've got these prepared for you and it includes Scriptures and the Words of the Lord that come forth or you just get in there and stay right with us all the time that we're studying the Word. Praise God. Let's open our Bibles again today to the 11th chapter of Mark's Gospel. And let's go back to what Jesus said in Mark 11:22-24. "Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in God," or as we have noticed, the cross-reference says, "Have the faith of God". And we know, from what we've studied now, that the moment you're born again, the faith of God is imparted into your spirit. Praise God. That's what caused the miracle of the new birth, was the faith of God. It's not human faith.
Well, yeah, thank You, Lord. I want to comment on that just a moment. All human beings have natural faith. It's not saving faith, it's natural faith. When you walk into a place, you have certain confidences in things. There's certain things you believe. And you know, you start to step off the curb into the street, you see a car coming, and you believe that that car will kill you if you don't get back. But see, it's natural faith in things that you see and things you feel and so forth. That's not saving faith. But, "He has dealt unto every believer", 12th chapter of the book of Romans, "the measure of faith," not, "a" measure. "The measure of faith," every born-again child of God has exactly the same new birth, has exactly the same amount of faith, and it's God's faith, it's not human faith. That saving faith is the same faith that heals. It's the same faith you use for finances. It's the same faith.
Now, the difference, maybe, in my faith and yours, I don't have any more faith than you do. Look at it like this: A little baby is born. I mean, you know, he's got fingers and toes and legs and, but development has to come. And it's the same thing spiritual. In fact, the Scripture says, "As new-born babies, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby". So my faith over the last 50 years that Gloria and I have been living and walking by faith, I mean, we learned this 50 years ago. And we're walking in it every day since then. We've learned a lot. I learned at the very beginning, from my spiritual father, Oral Roberts, from Kenneth E. Hagin, my teacher, and I was studying under Brother Hagin and working with Brother Roberts all at the same time. And I'm going to remind you of this, too. I heard both of them teach on the Holy Spirit. Whew-ee, glory to God. Hallelujah.
How blessed can one man get? But the thing of it is, your faith and my faith are the same. You know, you may be further developed in faith than I am. I hope you are, praise God, but I'm catching up with you. And I'm still hungry for it. I'm still working out. I still work out physically. I have to. To keep this body in physical shape to preach the Word of God, I have to. I have a good diet. And I have no prescription drugs, neither does Gloria, never have had. And we walk in good health because we follow the Word of God in the way we eat. So I feed my physical body and I exercise it. I feed my mind properly on the Word of God. I don't feed on trash, no. But then I feed my spirit on the Word of God, and I exercise it by praying in the spirit, in other tongues.
So I wanted you to see that and capture that in your thinking so that the devil doesn't come along saying, "Yeah, but, you know, I mean, these guys are, you know, he's super Christian". Yeah, you know, we in Texas, we have a saying for that. "Bull". Amen. No, no. Jesus is the super man, and He's living right in here. Glory to God. Whoo! I done preached myself happy. Let's go back now. "Have the faith of God. For verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea; shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says".
Now as we talked about all last week, Jesus used the word "say" three different times in that Scripture and "believing" only once. Now, we consequently, I mean, everybody that's ever accepted Jesus as Lord, and even those that don't, if they've even heard any religion, they know you're supposed to believe something. But the "saying" part, now, most Christian people have never heard what I'm talking to you about. And so you have to spend at least three times as much time talking about the "saying" part as you do the "believing" part. But I'm telling you, the "saying" part, you get back to, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same in the beginning with God".
And so you start with words in Genesis 1, and words are predominant all the way, all the way through, all the way through, all the way through to the end, ha-ha, the 22nd chapter of Revelations. The end, see that? You know what you ought to do? You ought to read the back of the book. "We win". Hallelujah. Glory to God. So, now notice what He said here in the 24th verse. "Therefore I say", see what He did? He said, "whosoever". Now, you notice "whosoever" is whosoever. That covers every born human being because that's the way you get born again. Amen. You believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth according to the 10th chapter of the book of Romans.
Now, "whosoever shall say unto this mountain... he shall have whatsoever he says. Therefore I say unto you". He just did what He's talking to them about doing. He just did it. "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive". Notice the word "them" is in italics. "...believe that you receive, and you shall have". "Believe that you receive them," "them" what? Them things you desire. Ha-ha. I know the grammar's off, but I'm making a point here. Now, "believe that you receive them, and you shall have them". Why do I believe I receive? Because Jesus said, first believe it in my heart, say it with my mouth, and believe that those things which I say comes to pass and now I believe I receive the results of those words and continue to walk in it. This is big. Continue to walk in it, continue to walk in it, continue to walk in it. Praise God.
I've seen it come to pass instantly. I've had some things come to pass, you know, in a few hours. I've had some things that have taken a long time to come to pass. That's not God's fault. If it is up to Him, then all of it would come to pass at once. Isn't that the way it was in Jesus' ministry? Then that's His perfect will. However, people are at different levels of the development of their faith. There's people that have learned more as I was saying before. But we're going to spend some time now looking into Mark 11:24. "Whatsoever thing you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them". Well, then you can't separate that from Verse 25. "And when you stand praying," or right there while you're doing that, right there while you're doing that, "if you have ought against any, forgive". Faith works by love. No love, no faith. "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace". And grace is what's provided all this 2,000 years ago.
So it's all, "How do I forgive? I don't feel like forgiving. I didn't have anything to do with it". You know, maybe you don't feel like you're healed, but the Scripture says you are. And you believe you've received. And it isn't based on what you feel, this is a command. The commander-in-chief of the Body of Christ, Jesus Christ of Nazareth at the right hand of the Father, said, "When you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any". Amen. So you do it. "Well, I don't know. You don't know what they did to me". Well, until you forgive them, they're still doing it. But the moment you forgive, by faith, see, it, "whatever doesn't proceed from faith is sin," the Scripture says. So by faith, you forgive. It is the same thing. You go to the Scripture, you believe it in your heart, you say it with your mouth. "In the name of Jesus, as an act of obedience of my will, I forgive So-and-so, and. As far as I am concerned, they are forgiven. Next time I see them, I'm going to smile. I don't care if... na-na".
Oh, Keith Moore was talking about that and, bless his heart, I tell you what, I got so tickled. He said, you know, that Thanksgiving dinner you've got to go to every year. And, "Oh, man," and then there's just politics and religion and, you know, and all that. And before it's over with, everybody's just, you know. And they've been talking about you ugly all year long, and you know it. But he said, "Forgive by faith. And in the name of Jesus, you walk in there and you", you know? But you put that smile on your face, and you say, "It's so good to see you! Amen! It's so wonderful to see you". Now, what are you doing? Listen to me. I John 4:4, turn over there with me. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Jesus.
I John 4:2, let's read that. "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God: every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard it should come; and even now already is in the world. You are of God", you can say it like this, "You're born of God". "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them". "Have". You're not trying to overcome it. You "have" overcome them. "Them" what? Them spirits, that spirit of antichrist and all those demons that are involved. That's the devil and principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world. Praise God. And that's all of them. "You have overcome them". Well, what did I do to overcome them?
You accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. See, Jesus went to the cross, died, went to hell, suffered Adam's treason there, but He was born again. The Scripture said, "He was manifested in the flesh". That's when He was born of Mary in Bethlehem. But He was made alive in the spirit that was in the pit of hell. He was the first man to ever be born again. Glory to God. He defeated hell. He put Satan on his knees. And He overcame every demon of hell, every sickness, every disease, all poverty, all debt. He overcame all the curse, amen, and then gave us His name. I want you to see this. Oh, you have to see this. Jesus defeated hell. Jesus defeated Satan. Jesus defeated the entire realm of death, hell. "O grave, where is your sting"? He defeated it and gave us the victory over it. Heaven has it written down that you call yourself out loud by your name. "Kenneth Copeland defeated the devil, defeated hell".
See, He did it, but heaven has it written down that we did it. He didn't need to do it for Himself, he did it for you and He did it for me. And the moment, the moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, whew, glory to God, you're of God. That means you are in covenant with God. You are of God. "Therefore you have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world". Look at it again. "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world". Oh, hallelujah. Come on now. Come on now. You need to learn to depend on the Spirit of God that's dwelling within you, the Greater One, the Greater One. You need to speak of Him that way. "The Greater One lives within me. Oh, the Greater One, He is my Lord". Glory to God. "He's my comforter. He's my counselor, he's my standby, he's my advocate, he's my teacher, he's my strengthener, he's my healer", glory to God.
You see it? Can you see it? And just boldly declare, "I boldly declare the Greater One lives in me today. And I'm strong. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me". Hallelujah. Amen. That kind of talk, the devil has no defense for. What did we find out last week the Scripture said in the book of Joel? "Let the weak say, I am strong". Amen. And that puts the Greater One to work on the inside of you.
Now, what Brother Keith was talking about, what I'm talking about, you walk into that situation where they usually just beat you up every time you walk in there. What you're doing, what you're saying is putting the Greater One to work. He is love. You're putting love to work. And it confuses the devil. Amen. I mean, I've had it to work while I'm standing there looking at people. Amen. I mean, they come in there, you know, just all huffed up and all mad. And on the inside, I'm just saying, "Lord, I forgive them". Glory to God. "The Greater One lives in me. I just forgive them". I'm not saying it out loud. I'm just saying it on the inside. "Lord, they can't help being that way. They don't know any better, and they're under a lot of pressure".
I was with my riding buddies, and we were on a motorcycle ride up in Colorado. Happy and Jeanne Caldwell and Carol and Jerry Savelle and Dennis and Vikki Burke and Gloria and me, and, oh my, we were having a wonderful time. We went into this restaurant together, and of course, you know, we're a table full there. Let's see, was Jesse and Cathy with us that year? No. He was scheduled, didn't come that year. Well, this woman that came over, she seated us and then she was our waitress. And, I mean, she was mad when we got there. And, "Now, sit down there"! throw the menus on the table. And I don't remember, somebody asked for something else, and, you know, you'd have thought we just stomped her big toe or something. Instead of doing that back, we all got together. I said, "Come on, let's pray for her". I said, "Something's wrong here. Something's wrong here". And so we just prayed for her. "In the name of Jesus, we pray for her, Father".
Well, she came back over there to the table. I said, "Baby, come here". She looked at me. I stuck my hands out there. I said, "Come on, we're going to pray for you". I said, "There's something bothering you, something's hurting you, and God loves you and we love you, sweetheart. We want to help". "Oh, yeah. Oh, God, oh, God". What happened? The Lovely One went to work. You put the Greater One to work. And now He's moving, see, instead of the devil. She said, "You just don't have any idea". And she talked about all of this, "na-na-na". And all this family fussing is going on. We said, "Sweetheart, let me tell you something. God loves you and we love you". And, we just prayed. And we all prayed in tongues and prayed. And we were able to minister to her, praise God, and get her born again right there. Oh, she fell in love with the whole crowd. She wanted to hug everybody. And we left the biggest tip that she'd probably ever seen in her life. And that's the way the Body of Christ should function instead of joining in on the strife. Put the Greater One to work. He is love.