Kenneth Copeland - What Ever You Say Will Be
We're talking about the fundamentals of faith. Let's open our bibles once again. Mark chapter 11. It ought to just fall open there now. Hallelujah. And we will begin reading tonight again with the 22nd verse, "Jesus answering sayeth unto them, 'Have faith in God or have the faith of God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever'," so this is a word for anybody. This works for anybody. In fact, it works for everybody all the time. It's either working by faith or it's working by fear, but it works all the time. It's the law of words.
"'Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea and not doubt in his heart, but shall believe.'" Believe what? Jesus. "'Believe that those things, those words which he sayeth shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he sayeth. Therefore, I say unto you what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.'" And joined it together, right? It's a conjunction. This is all one statement. "'When you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.'"
Now, we talked about the fundamentals of faith and I'll remind you again what you are watching when you watch champions of their game, champions of what they do. When you're watching the world series, you're watching the masters of the fundamentals, masters. Amen. Now, how do you become a master of the fundamentals? How does an Olympic athlete? I think an Olympic athlete, and looking at that, an Olympian really is a picture of what I'm saying. Particularly a long distance runner. A long distance swimmer. A marathonist. Oh my goodness, so many times you want to quit. But you just don't quit. You just keep on and you press and you press and you press and you press and you press until you get the breakthrough. You press until the first time you get into that second wind area. And the body is ever changing and getting stronger and stronger and stronger. You don't quit. The ones that quit?
Now, faith is simple and it's easy once you get, you receive revelation of it, and that fact that it is just simply taking God at his word. Believing what he has said and what he has done. But since it deals with words, it deals with what you say and words are the most common thing in your and my life. You've been doing it since you were one. But now here's the problem. You did not teach yourself to talk. No. You learned by what you saw. And then here you come along like I was, you come along and you get 30 years old and you find out you've been killing yourself with your mouth. It's hard for somebody to believe that that even works. I can't see it. Why in the world, what difference does it make what I say? I don't see that.
Well, but then you go to the book of Hebrews chapter three, and you find out that Jesus is the high priest of our profession. Same words as confession. And it says, "Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus". So, that means he is anointed for that office. That's what he does. He watches over what we say. Now, the literal meaning, the literal translation, "He watches over his word in our mouths". Amen. Hallelujah. But when you don't know that, "Ah, Copeland, I don't see it, what difference does it make what I say"? That's hard. It's a very difficult thing because it challenges every thought you have ever had all your life. Even if you've raised in it, like my grandson Jeremy said, he thought his house was actually the household of faith. He really thought that's what the Bible is talking about. And so, but even then, the devil is going to challenge it because it just becomes a tradition of your parents.
Ah, well, you know, that's all that say and stuff and this that. Well, that's what the Bible said. Yeah, I know. The Bible says that, but you know, it don't work for everybody. Well, then I guess Jesus Christ just lied. There's no way. That's the reason the Bible said, "Let every man be a liar". Not God. And what is in the book is truth. It's not a truth. The truth. It is truth. You have what you say and you will never rise above your confession. What you say with your mouth. You'll never get above that. Amen. So your words are the carriers. Words, according to Jesus, faith your words are the carriers. Words, according to Jesus, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
It took words for you to get saved. Human beings are saved by hearing words. They're healed hearing words. They receive miracles by hearing words of faith. Turn with me to Matthew, chapter 12. This is one of the most startling, I remember back when I first saw this, I was still a student of faith. And words. I remember Gloria was hanging clothes out one afternoon. We were listening to Brother Hagen. I was a student at ORU and she was at home with the children and she had a tape. Boy, she was playing those tapes and we're listening to him every night. And we got a little Martel battery-operated tape player from Brother Hagen's ministry and oh, we just listened. We just listened to it night and day. We turned the television off. Didn't turn it back on for several years.
And I came home one day, she said, "Kenneth, I saw something while I was hanging out the clothes". And I said, "What, sweetheart"? She said, "Look at this now. Believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass". She said, "I saw it. I have to believe that everything I say is coming to pass". I said, "Wow. I got the same thing at school a while ago". We heard it at the same. You have to believe. You have to be aware that everything you say is coming to pass. "Ah, Copeland, I don't," nah, see? All of what you're about to say is fear-based because you don't want to watch your words that close. But I'm telling you right now, if you're going to be a faith Olympian... This is for life, brother. You don't watch your words a little while and then go sloppy. No, no, no, no, no. We're in training. We're in constant training. The military has a saying. We have a saying in the aviation world. "You fight like you train and you train like you fight".
Now, when we go to training, go get a type rating on an on a jet airplane.I was typed in the citation 10, 1969. I was 69. Forgive me. And I was thinking, "What in the world am I doing, going to school on this thing"? Oh, man. And at the time it was most intensive type rating in the jet world. It isn't anymore, but it was then. Anyway. This was back in '05. Anyway. And you could do this now. Used to, you couldn't, you had to train in the airplane. But you can't practice wheels up landings. Has it not dawned on you lightning fast? Mind what I just said. No, no, no. You can't do that in the airplane. But in a simulator you can. And now, the simulator is so good. A Class D simulator. I took all of my type rating and everything in a Class D simulator for the Citation 10 and had never flown the airplane, but it is on the registry, that simulator is on the FAA registry as an airplane.
Now if there is, let's say an airport anywhere, for some reason or other than there's runway a closed at an airport in Phoenix, then you're in the simulator. The airport, the same runway, is closed in the simulator. It's exact. So, you can crash. I have crashed before. And it ain't funny, either. Boy, the screen goes. Crash, bang, making all kinds of noise. But that's better than being in the airplane. But what I'm saying to you, we fly like we train, we train like we fly. And particularly you going into combat, amen. You train like you fight and then you fight like you train. And when you're watching your words and you're believing God and you're standing here and you've got to watch over your mouth and you have a faith buddy, like Gloria and I were, and of course I talked all the time. She didn't say anything. I got caught all the time, just scared me to death. She said, "Well, that's a lie. You didn't die".
When you're training and training and training and you're praying in the spirit and you're very intense about your words. And you let the Lord correct you without getting all huffy about it. Keith and Phyllis Moore would say, one of them would say something, the other one would say, "If you say so". That's a good one. "Man, I am so tired". "If you say so". "Man, I'm telling you, I tell you, oh, my feet are killing me". "If you say so". Gloria would say, "That's your confession. I believe it's coming to pass". Hey, come on. When the pressure gets on and the devil coming after you, I want you to know glory to God, you don't cave in and start saying what he's saying. No, no, no. You flight like you train and you train like you fight. Thank you, Lord. Because we do have what we say. And I am determined to stay in that place and increase in that place that when I say something, it happens right now.
When I say receive your healing, I want the anointing to hit like a bomb. And I don't stop and think, "God, I hope that comes to pass". Hoping won't get it. You need hope. Hope is the blueprint that faith brings to pass. It's the inner image that's filled with faith and then it happens. The hope is in the future. "Well, are you gonna get healed"? "Oh yeah, you know. I know God's gonna heal me". No, he's not. No. "But Copeland, you said he's not going to heal me". "I didn't say he wasn't going to heal you". "Yeah, you did". "No. "Well, I tell you, he is going to heal me someday". "No, he isn't". "What is the matter with you"? He already has, sweetheart. It's not what he's doing; it's our receiving. I mean, healing is everybody. I heard the Lord say one time, just as plain, he said, "Kenneth, healing always comes". And it startled me. I thought, well yeah. Of course it does. Because he's here. Healing is here. But that's where the foolish ideas and religious traditions come because somebody prayed and didn't get anything. "Well, I guess it wasn't his will".
Now when you think that through a little bit, as you look at it and analyze it, it becomes very foolish, because by his stripes ye were healed. He's done his part. Listen, in his own hometown because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any mighty work, didn't say he wouldn't. It said he couldn't. He couldn't do anything about it, but he went ahead and laid hands on some of them anyway. Hallelujah. That would be just tantamount as saying, "Well, you know, I said, Jesus saved me and I didn't feel a thing. I guess it just wasn't his will".
People used to think that way. I'm old enough to come from, I got in right on the tail end of when people actually thought that. And they actually thought there were some people destined to be saved and others that were not destined to be saved, so if you're not destined to be saved? Forget it. Go on to hell. Have my fun. Get it going to hell. Brother, that may be the answer to the question: how dumb can you get? That's because of scriptural illiteracy and religious brainwashing instead of New Testament training and talk. And good people. Understand, I'm not talking about bad people. I'm talking about people that had been taught bad and get into these foolish ideas and notice this: you always, you can always tell when someone is believing an error. Because when you say anything different, they immediately get mad at you. They get mad at you. "What are you mad about? Can we talk"? Put your gun up.
Remember the rich young rule? He didn't have to leave. He didn't have to walk off. He could have said, "Jesus, I don't believe a word of that. That bothers me, sir. I got a lot of money and I believe God blessed me with that money. Now, what are you telling me go sell all I have for? But I'll tell you what, you're the one with the words of life and I'm not leaving your side until I find out". Because when Jesus looked at him, he loved him. Amen? He was sad at that saying, it grieved him. Grief comes from a spirit of loss. Amen. A sense of loss. Giving is not loss. I don't care if you give it all. Jesus said give it all and you're guaranteed the hundredfold, with persecution. Oh, yeah. They're going to persecute you.
Those same people are going to get so mad at you. Family people won't have nothing to do with you anymore. "Who does he think he is"? I don't think who I am; I know who I am. I know who I am in Christ Jesus. I know; I'm not guessing. I know and I trust him with my life. I trust him with my very being. I certainly trust him with my money. Hallelujah. Oh, glory to God. I done preaching me happy. Glory be to Jesus, I tell you what. Hey, can I just take you folks with me on the road? Man, you could pull the preacher out of a turnip. Oh, I mean, glory to God, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God for the fundamentals of faith. Stick with the fundamentals of faith and just stay with it and work it and work it and train.