Kenneth Copeland - With the Wisdom of God, You Can Do Anything
KENNETH: Welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Let's have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank You today for Your Word. We thank You in the name of Jesus that You are our God. Thank You, Jesus. We praise You and thank You. And today, Father, we lean not to our own understanding, but we trust in You with all of our hearts. We receive Your wisdom, we receive Your understanding today. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
GLORIA: Amen.
KENNETH: Hallelujah. Gloria?
GLORIA: Yes, sir.
KENNETH: We've got the best partners of any ministry in the whole world.
GLORIA: Well, that's for sure.
KENNETH: You know that?
GLORIA: I know.
KENNETH: We've known that all these years. Praise God.
GLORIA: We're blessed.
KENNETH: Amen. We love and appreciate you, praise God. This week, we're sharing partner testimonies.
GLORIA: Oh, that'll be good.
KENNETH: It's good to testify of the good things God has done. Now, testimonies don't usually bring faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God". But testimonies give you capacity for faith. You hear what's happened to somebody else, and it excites you.
GLORIA: It inspires. They inspire you.
KENNETH: And on the inside, you just get bigger. Ha-ha-ha-ha.
GLORIA: That's right.
KENNETH: Praise God. So we want, and particularly this one. Oh, my. Our dear friends and partners, Alan and Terri Crider. We've known them for years.
GLORIA: Yes.
KENNETH: We were directly involved in this miracle, and we want you to watch this. This is good.
ALAN CRIDER: Listen, I'm a little dizzy right now.
MALE: Well, sit down and say this.
ALAN: And I'm going to show you a demonstration of faithfulness here in a minute. God's with me.
NARRATOR: While delivering the Resurrection Sunday message to his church, Pastor Alan Crider had a stroke. Following a successful surgery to repair the brain bleed, he suffered another stroke, this one worse than the first. He was given no hope of recovery.
TERRI CRIDER: I had no fear. I had no emotion. It was like I was in a cocoon. I couldn't have explained it to you. There was a strength. It was just supernatural.
ALAN: I heard Kenneth's voice, that he talked to me. And he said, "Alan Crider"...
KENNETH: "Alan Crider, your faith has made you whole".
TERRI: I had called Brother Copeland, and he said, "You march into that room, and you tell that man he's not going anywhere. I need him, and the Body of Christ needs him, and to get back in his body. But, I mean, if you looked at his body and you looked at the signs and you looked at the MRIs and, you know, it was a no-go. Well, you can receive that or not. For three days, we waited.
ALAN: I seen the Lord. He said, "You cannot stay. They're calling you back".
TERRI: They called us to the door. But the little nurse was grinning. I said, "He woke up". And she said, "Yes, he did".
NARRATOR: Every day of the next 45 was a constant fight for Alan's life. He received a tracheotomy and a feeding tube. Hemorrhaging caused by hospital negligence and an allergic reaction to medication nearly killed him.
TERRI: It was overwhelming the support, the support of the Copelands, the support of the ministries, the support of covenant friends. His room looked like a kindergarten room because everybody who sent us a Scripture, we would write it on a poster. And he had post boards all over his room with Scripture, because I wanted him, when he opened his eyes, to see the Word of the living God, because the Word is life and health to his flesh. We had the Word going in his room 24/7. We'd go in there, and if the nurse had turned it off, we'd say, "You leave this Word on all the time".
NARRATOR: Through favor with the neurosurgeon, Alan was accepted and transferred into a rehab hospital. However, with no insurance and the hospital and surgery bills already mounting, the Criders were required to pay $6,000 a week up front in cash.
TERRI: I want you to know, my God, through the Body of Christ, provided every single day.
NARRATOR: After a total of 90 days in hospitals, Alan Crider was released to go home.
TERRI: Brother Copeland said, "You need to come to Southwest," which that was going to be a challenge because he was in a wheelchair. He couldn't walk, he couldn't dress himself, he couldn't bathe himself. So his precious armor bearer came with us and helped me. And we came.
ALAN: I experienced the working of miracles and the gift of healing for the first time in a long time. And I knew I had it.
TERRI: And within three months of being here, in 2010 at the Southwest, he was back in the pulpit. And he may have had some help, but he preached. And each week, it got stronger and stronger and stronger. I knew, as I walked through this, I had to have His Word in order to walk this whole thing out.
ALAN: I always get a word.
TERRI: Always.
ALAN: And it keeps me moving. And I go from faith to faith.
NARRATOR: Alan has progressed from a wheelchair to walking competently on his own. His voice and dexterity continue to improve.
TERRI: When we faced what we faced six years ago, where would I have been had I not been taught how to walk by faith and not by sight? That's all I do, is I watch the Word. When I go to bed, I put my earphones in, and I listen to the Word, because the Word's my life, the Word's my strength, the Word's my hope. It's my everything. And I don't know how people live without it. These two won't take anything less than wholeness, soundness, nothing missing, nothing broken.
ALAN: Stay tuned.
TERRI: We're not done yet.
KENNETH: Stay tuned.
GLORIA: Isn't that great?
KENNETH: Glory. Hey, we were right in the middle of that...
GLORIA: Yes, we were.
KENNETH: ...all the time. Now, I want to point out something. This is the reason for BVOVN Network.
GLORIA: Yeah.
KENNETH: Total immersion. Terri Crider, she didn't take off time and watch a little television out in the waiting room of the hospital or nothing like that. Nothing but the Word. 100 percent Bible, 100 percent Word all the time, total immersion. You and I learned this back there 50 years ago...
GLORIA: Yeah.
KENNETH: ...when we first got into this. When we heard our first Kenneth Hagin tape, both of us were essentially scriptural illiterates. We didn't know anything. We'd just read the Bible. We didn't know anything about it much. January, February, March, April, May, total immersion in the Word of God. We didn't look at anything else. We didn't read anything else. There wasn't anything else in our house. In five months, we were ready to move out in this ministry. It was that powerful. I had found out some years earlier that the government had a total immersion language school. And I always wanted to go to that because in four to six weeks, you can be conversationally fluent in another language. I always wanted to do that. Because I wanted to learn the Spanish language so bad. And I thought, "Hey, it'll work with this". And it works. That's the way it's designed to work, the Word of God. So, that worked here, it works there, it'll work anywhere anybody will work it, because it is the Word...
GLORIA: Amen.
KENNETH: ...of the living God.
GLORIA: Glory to God.
KENNETH: And in the beginning, Alan couldn't even talk straight. You couldn't understand a word he said. Things just didn't work right. But he just kept talking anyway. He kept preaching anyway. They kept the Word of God coming into him night and day anyway. He just kept on, kept on, kept on, kept on, wouldn't quit. He's still doing it. When he first started attempting to text me on his phone, man, he'd get all jumbled up, but he just stayed at it and finally got his thumbs or fingers or whatever he uses to text, he got it working.
GLORIA: Praise God.
KENNETH: And now his texts come through just plain and clear. Well, see, that's the Word at work.
GLORIA: That's right. That's right.
KENNETH: "This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith". There is nothing in the world order, sickness, diseases, I don't care what it is. There is nothing in this world order that faith in God won't overcome. Ha-ha-ha!
GLORIA: Praise God.
KENNETH: And I'm thrilled about it. Glory to God!
GLORIA: Amen.
KENNETH: Gloria, isn't that good?
GLORIA: It's awesome.
KENNETH: Oh, that's wonderful. Praise God.
GLORIA: It's supernatural. Glory to God.
KENNETH: Amen. Sherri Sharpe. Let's watch this.
SHERRI: My name is Sherri Sharpe, and I live in Queens, New York. Back in the '80s, when I was a member of Redeeming Love Christian Center in Nanuet, New York, Brother Copeland was one of the speakers. I began to watch their Believer's Voice of Victory program on television, and it was as a result of watching the Believer's Voice of Victory that the Lord put in my heart that He wanted me to partner with Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Back in around March or April of 2015, I began to notice, as I was walking, especially if I had my knapsack on my back full of books, I started to notice slight sensations in my chest area. And, of course, having a lot of faith for divine healing, I just began to quote healing Scriptures and pretty much assumed that I could just deal with the situation through faith.
However, I noticed that the chest pains, instead of going away, began to increase and become more severe. And when I tried to jog, I could only go for about five minutes, and the pain would be so severe I would have to stop jogging and change to a walk. So I actually told my doctor that I wanted to have a stress test and an echocardiogram. I had those procedures done, and I ended up failing those tests, the stress tests, and was diagnosed with a condition called coronary artery disease. What it is, it's a blockage in the coronary arteries that block the proper amount of oxygen from getting to the heart, and that's what causes the weakness.
Through prayer and seeking the Lord, I felt very strong in my heart that God was saying to me that if I would come to the Southwest Believers' Conventions 2015, there I would receive my healing. And after seeking the Lord long enough to feel that this was definitely coming from the Lord, and it wasn't just something in my own head, I realized that I had a choice either to go the route of faith and trust in God and what He had put in my heart, or to go the way of the flesh or the way of sight, walking by sight. So I made the choice, I'm going to trust God, and I'm going to come to the Believers' Convention, and I'm going to believe that God is going to heal me. Before you add corresponding actions to your faith, you must take the time to seek the Lord and find out what He wants you to do, because if I had felt the Lord saying to me, "I want you to take the medication," I would have done that, and it still would have been God's divine healing. But when we take the time to pray and seek what God wants us to do in this situation, then our faith has an anchor.
So I came to the Southwest Believers' Convention 2015 thinking that sometime during that week I would receive my healing. But God had a surprise for me. That Sunday, I attended EMIC, Eagle Mountain International Church. After the service, Pastor George called people up to the front who wanted to receive healing. As I was walking through his healing line, I fell out under the power. I did not experience a miraculous healing where automatically the pain went away. So I continued to confess those healing Scriptures every day, at least once a day.
Over the coming weeks, and I'd say over about the following two months, the chest pains began to subside, to get less and less and less. And I was noticing that I could begin to walk more with less pain. And finally, I realized that there was no more chest pains at all and I could walk. I could walk briskly. And eventually, after a few months, I even resumed my jogging. As a result of being able to jog for the full 30 minutes with absolutely no pain, I came to the conclusion that I had received my complete, total healing. So, I had a cardio catheterization, which is a procedure where the doctors, they go in and they're able to see if there's any blockages in the coronary arteries. And the doctor cleared me. And I must say this, that it's my partnership with Kenneth Copeland Ministries, along with my partnership with Kenneth Hagin Ministries, that cause me to have faith, strong faith for divine healing.
KENNETH: Now, isn't that exciting?
GLORIA: It is.
KENNETH: That is...
GLORIA: God bless her.
KENNETH: ...a classic example of standing on the Word of God, standing on the Word of faith. And I want to take a few minutes here. Sherri said something that is vitally important. We are not opposed to medical science. They're fighting the same devil as we are, glory to God, and particularly strong Christian doctors. I'll tell you what, thank God for them. Now, she pointed out something here. You don't just make up your mind, "Well, I'm just going to believe God". That's a good way to die. Now, you go before the Lord, and you inquire of Him. See, the Bible says, "Wisdom is the principal thing," Proverbs 4:7. Any man that comes into a test, temptation, or trial, "count it all joy". And "Any man that lacks wisdom". Wisdom of who? Wisdom of the test, temptation, and trial. That's James 1. So you inquire of the Lord. He gives liberally his wisdom to all men. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering".
GLORIA: Mm-hmm.
KENNETH: Amen. So that's what Sherri did. She went before the Lord. She inquired of Him. If the Lord had said, "I want you to go have surgery, I want you", You know, whatever the doctors say, then that's what she should have done. And, Jesus appeared to Kenneth Hagin, you notice she's a partner of Brother Hagin's ministry, and appeared to him and said, "When people get on their level, and if they go into surgery or something, pray". Jesus said, "Give me an open door. Pray that they're a witness. Pray that they heal faster than anybody the doctors have ever seen". And we've done that, praise God, and we've seen every kind of miracle you can think of. That's what happened to Alan and Terri Crider. They were inside the hospital. They were being operated on. But the doctors were saying, "Why is this? How do you do that"? Can you see the difference between the two? I think this is just magnificent to show these two together.
GLORIA: Yeah.
KENNETH: And you don't ever attempt to do anything without the wisdom of God. Don't attempt to do it without the promises of God in His Word. Don't pray prayers that are not based on His living promises and the Word that's in this Book.
GLORIA: Amen.
KENNETH: Amen. That is essential information. Don't do it. Hear what I'm telling you? Don't do it. Now, when you've got an emergency that something just jumps in front of you, you just cry out to God. "My God, hallelujah! I believe I receive my deliverance in this! The victory is ours! Glory be to Jesus that always gives us the victory, always causes us to triumph"! Yes. That's the reason you need the Word stored away in your heart all the time, so that's the first thing that jumps out of your mouth. But in a situation like this, you notice...
GLORIA: That's called a quick draw.
KENNETH: Yeah, it is. Amen. But I'm going to tell you, if it isn't in there, it ain't going to come out. Now, that's another part of all this. But I want to reiterate this again. Hands were laid on her. "Well, why didn't that work"? What's the matter with you? It did work. It did work. "Well, she wasn't healed". Yes, she was. That she released her faith the moment that Pastor George laid his hands on her, she released her faith right then, and she never turned loose. She was right where God told her to be. And on that day, she released her faith. Glory to God. That's the way this works, see? That's Mark 11:23, 24, and 25.
GLORIA: "Believe you receive when you pray".
KENNETH: And she did.
GLORIA: Yeah.
KENNETH: So what did she do? She added corresponding action. She began to walk, but always confessing, "Thank God I'm healed by His stripes," always believing God. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever say, "God didn't heal me". Don't ever say, "I don't know why He won't heal me". Don't you ever utter that out your mouth, not ever, not ever. Stay on the God side of everything.
GLORIA: Amen.
KENNETH: And as she continued to do that, she continued to improve. She continued to improve. Jesus said, "You'll have whatsoever you say. When you pray, believe you receive it, and you will have it". And she just says, "I got it. Glory to God".
GLORIA: Praise God.
KENNETH: And, you know, hey, she began to jog a little bit. Man, she began to jog a little bit more. And, hallelujah, made whole, perfectly made whole.
GLORIA: Praise God.
KENNETH: Ho-ho! That's good, isn't it?
GLORIA: Isn't that awesome?
KENNETH: Glory to God. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Gloria and I'll be back in just a moment.