Kenneth Copeland - God's Will Is Always to Heal
Let's open our Bibles this morning to Matthew, chapter eight, verse two, please. We're gonna look at this. Three different accounts. If you search Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there are 19 individual healings. Now, of course, there's a lot... Multitudes of people were healed in the ministry of Jesus. Now it looks like more than that. But this one. This was recorded three different times. But there are 19 individual healings. And it's ... Oh. What a marvelous study to see people receive from Jesus. And I want you to see this morning just how easy it is to receive from him. And the second verse, Matthew eight. There came a leper and worshiped him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean".
Now there are millions upon millions upon millions of Christian people today that have this same problem. They know He can but is it His will? Well, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen! Look what Jesus said. I will! I will! He's no respecter of persons. If he ever said that to anybody, then he says that to everybody. Because he is the will of God in action for all men for all time. Glory to God. You missed a place to shout right there. Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, "I will. Be thou clean". And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Now Mark, chapter one. And we'll look at the 40th verse. There came a leper to him, beseeching him and kneeling down to him. And saying unto him, "If you will, you can make me clean".
Now Mark adds this comment: Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him and sayeth unto him, "I will. Be thou clean". As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he was cleansed. Now, we'll look in Luke, chapter five. In the 12th verse, Luke 5:12. It came to pass when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy. Now Luke being a physician, he gives more detail in several places about sick people. So Dr. Luke let us know he's in stage four. He's full of leprosy. In other words, he's dying. It's all over him. My God. My, my, my.
Now, who seeing Jesus fell on his face. Now we see something. We see from these accounts that he kneeled and worshiped him, and then at some moment there he just fell on his face. Because you see, those two writers don't contradict one another. Both of them are right. He kneeled, and then he just fell on his face worshiping him. This sounds like it only took 10 seconds. We don't know how long this went on. We don't know how long. He just worshiped him and just worshiped him and worshiped him. Moved with compassion. Jesus moved with compassion. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He put forth his hand and touched him, saying, "I will. Be thou clean". And immediately, the leprosy departed from him.
Now, let's take a look at this. A man in stage four leprosy. Can you imagine how nasty and filthy those old leprous sores, all over him, probably open, running sores. Nobody's had anything to do with this man for years except another leper. Nobody would dare touch him. But compassion did. Does that same something to you? Oh, it does to me. How dare you, the compassion of God. The compassion of Jesus himself. Glory to God. And now the man's on his face. So Jesus, I just see him. I can just see him just get down there right in the dirt with him. And just get right in his face, and say, one translation says, "Of course I will". Isn't that good? Of course I will.
That what he said to you this morning. Of course I will. And now you and I are on this side of the cross. Amen. He bore our sickness. He carried our pain. Amen. And he's saying the same thing to you and me this morning. Of course I will! What's he saying? Of course it's my will. Absolutely my will. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be to have the idea that Jesus bore our sicknesses and carried our pains in his own body on the tree. And then say it's not God's will to heal today? Let me ask you something. Does God ever change? Did you know his name's not God? That came out of German theology. Gott. He's got a lot of names. And in the English Bible, it's just God this and God that and God this. But he is Jehova Rapha. I am the lord that healeth thee. His name is healing. So when did he change his name? He didn't. He didn't. He had theologians take care of that for him. And they really screwed it up! Because he's never changed. He is the Lord that healeth thee.
Well, yes, Brother Copeland, but you see that was in the Old Testament, and that was for the Jews. Well, what about the other 11 tribes? Huh? I like that. Huh? Yeah. Jew is just short for Judith. No, it's not the Jews. It's the seed of Abraham. And if the new covenant is a better covenant with better promises, we didn't get cut out. We got more of it. Amen! Hallelujah! Somebody got healed of asthma right then, just while I was talking. Praise God! Thank you Jesus. I'll suck some good, clean air down in those healed lungs right now. Hallelujah! Oh, I got healed of that when I was a little boy. I now what that's like when I was just a little guy. For short time. Praise God! But thank God. I thank God for mothers that pray.
Now my daddy was a praying man, but you know, mama was serious. Now I mean, while dad's at work and she's praying. And she prayed polio off of me when I was a little kid. I tell you, that's amazing. And this is back during the time when polio was just... And I had a good friend. She was a few years older than me. And that horrible disease attacked her. Well, I was in bed with what they thought was the flu. And I had a stack of magazines laying on my bed there. I was 12, probably. I don't think it was any older than that. 10 to 12, something like that. But I was feeling better. And my magazines were stacked down there, and so I decided, well, I'm gonna get one of my magazines. And I couldn't.
And why can't I? Why can't I make my body move? I'm propped up in the bed, but I'm wanting to reach over there and get my magazines. But my body not working. And I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, well, you know, I hollered mama. She came running in there. And I told her. Well, it never occurred to me. Polio never occurred to me. I just couldn't figure out what was happening to me. Man, I tell you, she hit her knees. And she didn't get up. She stayed right there until I could pick up that magazine. Amen! We were preaching in Shreveport, Louisiana. Glory me. This is back in the very early days of our ministry. And I had... Holding meeting in Life Tabernacle. And Life Tabernacle was Carolyn Savelle's home church. And it was at the same time that Jerry Savelle got saved. In the meeting. It wasn't this particular meeting, but it was in the same church.
And let's see. Jerry had accepted the Lord, the next time I was there, I believe. Anyway. I checked in there on Sunday night, and the meeting started on Monday morning. And I felt a tightness that night in church, Sunday night. And we were just sitting there in the pew. Particularly during the worship service. They had one of the greatest piano players I've ever heard in my life. Anna Jean Price, tell you, she's something. And I'm just enjoying the music. And I felt this thing kinda tighten inside my leg. But I didn't pay any attention to it much.
And the next morning, when I got up, oh man. I had pain. It was, oh. And it just kept on getting worse. And it started moving down my leg. And lodged in there somewhere inside my leg there above my knee. And it got so bad. I'd walk out on the platform under the anointing, and the pain would leave. I'd step off that platform, and there was one time I stepped off a platform, and I screamed out loud before I could stop it. It just slammed me with the worst pain that I'd ever had up to that time.
Well, I won't go through all the things, but that happened day after day after day and got worse and worse and worse. Well, this is during the days. We didn't have an airplane yet, and so we were still riding airlines. And this is back when Love Field was the airport; DFW didn't exist. So we got to the gate, and oh man, sitting in that airline seat. I'll tell you, you know that leg is sitting there thum, thum, thum, thum, thum. Man, I'm hurting. And I'm quoting every scripture I can think of. And just, you know, believe in God. Believe in God. Standing on the Word of God. You're not doing this to me, Satan, in the name of Jesus. And I just took my stand, just bit down on it, what Glory called bulldog faith. The mascot at KCBC is the bulldogs. We got bulldog face. Amen!
So, and the devil said it's a mile from that gate up to the terminal to get your luggage. And I'm gonna kill you. He said, "I'm gonna kill you with that". I said, "No, you ain't. You ain't killing anybody". We got off of the airplane. There was a guy standing there, nobody called him. He was standing there with a wheelchair. He said, "You need this". That wheelchair looks so good. Oh, man. I said, "No thank you. Healed men don't need wheelchairs". And it was just about a mile walk on that... It was the furtherest gate from the terminal where that airplane parked. And I said, "Oh Jesus, here we go".
So my dad and mom picked us up at the airport. And I said, we had to go past their house to get out to our house. I said, "Daddy". I said, "Let's go home. Let's go to your house. I don't wanna stay in this car for long enough to get to my house". He said, "Okay". So they just stopped there at the house. And I went back to that back bedroom, which was my bedroom for when I lived at home. And by this time, it's about, oh, you know, it's about midnight, I guess, by the time I got to bed. And I got in bed, and fell off to sleep.
Now mama set down in a chair right there at the end of my bed. Praying in tongue. Praying in tongue. Like I told you last night, mama'd say, "Hit it in tongue, boy. Hit it in tongue". Man, I mean, she sounded like a machine. Praying in the spirit, praying in the spirit, praying in the spirit. And I went off to sleep. About three o'clock, I set straight up in bed. I mean, just sat straight up in bed. Mother said, "That did it! Good night". Every symptom gone.
Now I'm talking to somebody. I'm talking to somebody. Somebody in here that God's been dealing with you to do that. And you haven't been doing it. My grandfather had malignant tumors across the back of his shoulders. And he'd been in the hospital, but they sent him home. And she's sitting up with him. Guess what she's doing? Oh, she's praying. And she fell off to sleep. He woke her up. It frightened her at first. She felt she'd let him die. And she woke up, and he was out of the bed. And he's doing this. She said, "Papa, what are you doing"? He said, "I'm getting rid of this cancer". She said, "You're getting rid of the cancer"? He said, "Yeah". And he said, "This is what Jesus told me to do". And he's doing this. She said, "why"? He said, "I don't know! He's standing right there. Ask him"! Totally healed. Totally healed. Praise God. It is the perfect will of God to heal the sick.