Kenneth Copeland - Open Your Gift of Life

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Father, we praise You today. And we thank You with all of our hearts for sending, giving Jesus as the heavenly gift. And we praise You and we worship You. And we ask You for revelation and insight into the fact that healing belongs to us, salvation belongs to us. All of these marvelous, wonderful things are ours already. They're there for the receiving. They are there for the opening of the gift. And we thank You for it in Jesus' name, amen.

Hallelujah. Let's get right back into where we were yesterday. And that would be right here in the 3rd chapter of the book of Galatians. "And Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on the tree," or a cross, "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith". Glory to God. Now, if we've been redeemed from the curse of the law, let's go back to the book of the law where the curse is written. And we've spent some time with this.

I will remind you of this: That in Robert Young's book, the "Hints to Bible Interpretation," which is out of print, and I have got, by faith, out there I will have that book. In the name of Jesus, I receive it by faith. Dr. Young said the words "put" and "brought" are from the same Hebrew word used in the permissive sense and not the causative sense. And we see here, under the curse, Verse 22, "The Lord shall smite you with a consumption, with fever, inflammation, extreme burning, the sword, blasting, mildew," and so forth and so on. It says, "The Lord will smite you". Well, no. That's that same verb. But the Lord has to permit it because He's already told you what's going to happen. In this case, the penalty for breaking the law, especially not coming back into repentance.

Now, that's serious business. This, the blessing of Abraham, well, it says, "if you will hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God," all these blessings "come on you, and overtake you", if you're not, "if you'll hearken to the voice of the Lord". Over here, it says if you don't, "it will come to pass, if you don't hearken to the voice of the Lord, these curses will come on you, and overtake you". So now, it's very obvious that God said, "If you do what I tell you to do, the blessing is there and you walk in it. If you don't, the curse is there and it's going to come on you". Well, Jesus was made the curse for us so that we have authority, now, in the name of Jesus, over that curse. And we can stand on the fact that we've been redeemed. We've been redeemed from consumption, we've been redeemed from fever, we've been redeemed from inflammation, we've been redeemed from mildew and drought and all of these things that are under the curse. Now we'll just take us a shortcut here.

Verse 61, "And every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in this book of the law, them will the Lord bring upon you," or them that "every sickness, every plague, which is not written in this book of the law, will come on you, and overtake you". That is under the curse. Now, then, we have been redeemed from all of these things. So now let's go over to the New Testament, and let's read some Scriptures here. First of all, we've quoted this, but I want you to put your eyes on it. 10th chapter. Yeah, okay. I need to go back over, thank You, Lord. Amen. Oh. In Verse 29 of the curse, "you will grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, you will not prosper in your ways: you will be only oppressed and spoiled for evermore". Only oppressed, make a note of that, "oppression". God doesn't oppress people. Oppression is under the curse.

Now, then, let's look at John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come," said Jesus, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: and the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep". The good shepherd doesn't make the sheep sick. The good shepherd doesn't burn the grass. No. It's the good shepherd that leads you beside still waters and green pastures. Hallelujah. Can you see it now? All right. Let me give you something else. Let's go to Acts 10:38. This is concerning the ministry of Jesus. And you remember it, but let's put our eyes on it. Verse 38, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil". Ah! Glory to God. Hallelujah. Everybody Jesus healed was oppressed by the devil. Sickness, disease, weakness, pain, poverty, all of that curse is satanic oppression. And Jesus came and bore that whole curse, hallelujah, so that we can walk in the light of His power in the Holy Ghost. Amen. Oh, glory be to God.

Now I done preached me happy. Now, I want you to look over here in the book of Luke, in the 13th chapter of Luke. Now remember, we said, "And if you be in Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise". Now, then, "there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, bowed together, and could in no wise lift herself up". Now think about this: "when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said, Woman, thou art loosed to thine infirmity. He laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God".

Now remember, she had this spirit of infirmity. A spirit of infirmity, okay? Bowed over. This thing had her crippled for 18 years. "The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus healed on the sabbath day, and said to the people, six days which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed", Well, she'd been there 18 years. What'd He been doing? "And not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered, You hypocrite, does not each one of you on the Sabbath day loose his ox or his donkey from the stall, and leads him away to watering? Ought not this women, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound". Satan put her in there. Satan is the spirit of infirmity. Satan did it. God didn't put that on her. It was a manifestation of the curse of the law. She hadn't been hearing the blessing of Abraham where she had been delivered of this thing. All she'd been hearing was the curse. And it was a manifestation of the curse, the foolish hypocrite, that got mad because the woman got healed.

"Ought not this daughter of Abraham, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day"? "Ought not this child of Abraham," whomever I'm speaking to right now, you ought to be loosed today! You ought to be loosed from poverty, you ought to be loosed from debt, you ought to be loosed from sickness, you ought to be loosed from disease and pain! Right now, get up out of that chair and run across the room. Write and tell me about it. Glory to God! Say it, "Jesus is my Lord! I ought to be healed today"! Hallelujah. Hey, you know what? That's not all. Let's take us a look here at Psalm 91. If you're shouting, yeah, I know you're shouting now. But sit back down, let me show you something else.

The 91st Psalm, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he will deliver me from the snare of the fowler, from the noisome pestilence. He will cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shall you trust: his truth shall be your shield and buckler. You will not be afraid of terror by night; nor the arrow that flies by day; nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand shall fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come nigh thee. Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, your habitation; There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come nigh your dwelling. For he will give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all of your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion, the adder: the young lion and the dragon you'll trample under feet. Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he's known my name. He'll call on me, and I'll answer him: I'll be with him in trouble; I'll deliver, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation".

Long life! Whoo-hoo! Glory to God! Glory be to God. Let's look at Isaiah 35, 35th chapter of Isaiah. Now, Isaiah prophesied this. This is another one of those situations, now, where Isaiah said, "by his stripes you are healed". And on the other side of the cross, Peter said, "by whose stripes ye were healed". All right, Isaiah 35, and let's look in the 3rd verse, "Strengthen ye the weak hands, confirm the feeble knees," or "make firm the feeble knees". Remember that, "You'll be smitten in the knees"? Well, look at this. "Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he'll come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. And the lame man shall leap as a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert". Glory to God. Glory to God. What's happened? Jesus has come. Amen.

Let's read it again. "Strengthen you the weak hands, and make firm your feeble knees," because your knees are redeemed. Glory to God. "Say to them of a fearful heart, Be strong, and fear not: behold, your God has come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he has come and has saved you. And the eyes of the blind are being opened, and the ears of the deaf are being unstopped. And the lame are leaping like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb is singing: for in the wilderness shall the waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground is becoming a pool, the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation". Glory to God! We are redeemed from the curse! Hallelujah! Long life! Amen!

Now, let's go to the book of Genesis. Let's go right to the start. All right. In the book of Genesis 6:3, "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also flesh". Now, the New Living Testament translates that, it's, in my opinion, a better translation of it. He is only flesh. Now, when you get over in the New Testament, the new birth, the new creature, the new creation in Christ Jesus, being made the righteousness of God. You and I are no longer only flesh. We are now born-again spirits. We are children of God. Hallelujah. Been redeemed from the curse, and been redeemed from the curse of short life. Now then, "yet his days shall be 120 years".

Well, let's go over here to the 90th Psalm. We were there in the 91st Psalm, now let's go up to the 90th Psalm. "With long life," do you remember now in the 91st Psalm? Now, what does that mean? When God says, "With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation," what does that mean? Well, what's "long life" to you? "Well, Brother Copeland, you know, I know he's promised us 70 or 80 years. And, you know, that's a pretty long time, but, you know, 70, 80, 90 years, that's a long time". Well, what did God say was long life? 120 years, that's what He said was long life. "I thought he gave us 70 or 80". So did a lot of other people. So did I, for a long time.

Let's go take a look at that. In the 90th Psalm, look at Verse 7, "We are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in your wrath: we spend our years as a tale that's told. The days of our years are threescore and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off".

Does that sound like a blessing to you? Does that sound like they're praising God because they've been given 70 or 80 years? No. This was a part of the curse, sweetheart. You notice they're out in the desert? You notice they're bringing up the anger? You notice they're bringing up the wrath and all of that? What happened to them out there in that desert? Do you remember? Well, check it out. It was declared on them because of their disobedience, because of their absolute refusal to do what God had said. Finally, it came down to it. They kept saying it. They kept saying it. "We're going to die in the desert. We're going to die in the desert. We're going to die. Oh, we're going to die. We're going to die. He brought us out here to kill us".

How blasphemous can you get? He brought us out there to get them out from under the slavery and the dogged life they were living. It finally said, because they'd been saying that over that, over there, well, what's God going to do? Principle law says you have what you say, that your words are the seeds that bring things to pass in your life. So what's going to happen? They kept saying, "We're going to die in the desert". And finally God said, "What's been coming in My ears has come on you". And their bones fell in the desert, anybody older than 20 years old. They fell dead in the desert. And that's what that's talking about. Anytime you come across those verses of Scripture, read the verses on the wisdom of God. Oh, it's just wonderful. Length of days in one hand, and wealth and riches in the other hand from the wisdom of God.

Well, what does "length of days" mean? God has a very exact standard, because once He's spoken it, that is the standard. And He said, "All right, 120, that's the lifespan of man". Now, people might live over 120, but that's what all of these long life Scriptures are based on. 120 is not your limit in the New Testament, but neither is 80, you understand? The standard became 120 years. And science will tell you today that the physical body is built, they analyze it, the thing is built to last 120 years if you just take care of it.

"Well, how do I know how to take care of it? I don't know what to do". You would if you'd get you one of these books that on the front of it, it says, "Holy Bible," because everything in it is so that you can live that 120 years. And when God said in there, "There are certain things you don't need to be eating, you understand that? It's an abomination to me, and you don't need to be eating that". "Well, that's under the law". Now, let me ask you something. Has food changed all that much since then? The animals haven't. The same animals that He said was an abomination for you to eat was because they'll make you sick. And He's pointing you the way to what you think, what you eat, how you act, what you say, and all of these things are so that you can live 120 years in good health with long life, and be satisfied. Hallelujah. Amen. We're out of time.