Kenneth Copeland - The Natural Way Of Doing Things
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Wednesday's edition of the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Let's have a word of prayer... hey, hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. Yeah, yeah, thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Don't forget those downloads. The Lord just had me just inject that in there for some reason, whatever the reason of it was. Don't forget to do the downloads, okay?
Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank You for this broadcast today. Oh, Father, we open our hearts, we open our minds to renew our minds to Your way of thinking, to Your way of doing things. And we thank You for it. We give You praise and honor and glory for it, for revelation from heaven. In Jesus' name, amen.
Now, don't forget the downloads, okay? Just go to kcm.org and, of course, we'll send you those outlines free, and you can use them to teach and whatever you need to do with them. I don't know why the Lord just had me, you know, maybe I missed it, I don't know. But anyway, get the downloads. Amen? Isaiah 55, we're talking about God's ways of doing things. Isaiah 55:7, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: let him return unto the Lord, and he'll have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down".
Now, get the picture of this. God is in heaven, and rain is falling. "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not up there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater". So now God's way is the Word way, right? His way is the love way, the Word way, the faith way, "by my Spirit," saith the Lord, and the blood covenant way. All right. "So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth," which we have, right? We have His Word, His promises and so forth, right here in front of us. This is His will. "So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It," My word, "shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing where unto I sent it". Why, that would be me, that would be you. And His Word works in us to produce what His Word says in faith.
One of my partners contacted me and said, "Brother Copeland, would you go by and pray for my dad"? I believe it was her dad. It was either her dad or a brother. I mean, this was like, oh, 40 years ago. And I hadn't thought of it in a long time. And I believe it was her dad, though. I'm pretty sure it was. Anyway, he was living in a... it was an apartment kind of structure. And so he knew I was coming, and so he went down to the large lobby area they had down there, to meet me. And he had something wrong with his arm, and so. She wanted me to go by and pray for his healing and so forth. And she told me, she said, "Now, Brother Copeland, you know, I'm not so sure he's ever been born again". I said, "Okay". And I didn't go in there to pray for his arm, I went in there to see to it that he's born again. If we ever got down to praying for his arm, well, that's fine.
Well, we sat down in there, and I opened my Bible, and you know, of course, we visited there a few minutes. And all he knew was that his daughter wanted me to come by there. She contacted him, and there I was, and so, you know, courtesy, he saw me. And I opened up the Bible to Romans 10 and said, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved". I just read that out of my little pocket New Testament. And all of a sudden, he just got up, and he said, "It's really nice to meet you, Reverend Copeland," and got up. I mean, he left. I was just sitting there. And I thought, "Okay". You know, I thought, "What I said? I don't know".
Well, I got out in the car, and I got to thinking about it, and I got to thinking about that Scripture, "My Word will not return unto me void". And I said, "Lord, he has heard Your Word. He's heard the words of his salvation. And I'm asking You, Sir, to cause that Word"... I stood on His promise, see? "Your Word will not return unto You void. And I'm asking You, Sir, to cause this to come up on the inside of him". I heard Brother Hagin talking about it when he prayed for it one time. He said, "I'm asking you, Father, to cause that man to dream about that Word. I'm asking you that when he goes to bed at night, that Word just be standing there at the foot of his bed".
And so I prayed something like that. And so later on, she called me. She said, "Brother Copeland, I'm sorry, he acted the way he did". I said, "That didn't bother me any. I just hope I didn't offend him some way or another". She said, "No. He was afraid you was going to pray for him right out there in front of everybody". There was other people in that lobby, you know. He was afraid you was going to pray for his arm right out there in front of everybody in that lobby, and he didn't want to be embarrassed. "But, Brother Copeland, he said when he got up to his room, he said, 'Sister, I got to thinking about that, and the more I thought about that and the more I wondered about that,' he said, 'the more I realized, you know, I don't think I've ever done that. And, you know, maybe I ought to do that.' So he said, 'I just got down there by my bedside, and I just prayed that'. I said, 'Well, you know, I believe with all my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and I just confessed with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord'".
And he said to his daughter, he said, "Sister, you know, something happened to me". The Word didn't return, see? It got in him. See how the Word works? The sower sows the Word, and it goes right into the heart. Amen. Okay. Amen. Glory to God. Now, let me get back here to where I was. "So shall my word be"... Now, here is what I wanted you to get: "My thoughts are not your thoughts". See, His thoughts are on a spiritual plane. Our thought's on a carnal, natural plane. Even people that have been born again, of course, the New Testament talks about carnal-minded believers, the church there at Corinth and so forth, you know, you're carnal minded. What does that mean? You're just natural minded. And instead of having your mind renewed, the renewed mind to the Word of God to think like God thinks, how do you do that? Well, He tells you right here: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways... but my word that goes forth". So His word is His thoughts.
Now, let's go back over here, I want to go back, we read this yesterday, but I want to read it again from the 6th chapter of the book of Matthew and that 33rd verse. Let me bring up my Amplified here. And I want to go to here and right there. Let's read what Jesus said. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God". Now, He was talking about the difference between worrying and believing God, believing the promises of God. Let me go back up here. Let's pick up back here, so I want you to see that. Verse 28, "Why take ye thought for raiment"? or for what you wear, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith"? How does faith come? "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God".
Now listen carefully. See, He's talking about these people worrying about it. "Why take ye thought, saying" or why do you worry about it and then say this, "What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things". That's why He put it in our covenant. Amen. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you". Now, listen to this in the Amplified translation. "But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right)". Huh?
See, He's right 100 percent of the time. We're not. But if we get on His way, His thoughts, and His words, and His ways, which are higher than our ways, but hey, we've been born again. We spiritually live on His level. We've already been raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That happened to you the moment you was born again. Hallelujah. And we have the Spirit of God living within us. So, we should be thinking on His level because we can think on that level. But the spirit man, the inner man, the real you, was born again. Your mind was not. Your mind is part of your soul. And you and your soul live in your physical body. This flesh is just flesh. It don't have any mind of its own. It just does whatever it's trained to do.
So think about this now, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his right way of doing things, and all these things will be added to you". Now, the natural way of thinking, whether you're born again or not, the natural which the natural mind cannot discern the things of God. The mind doesn't know what's going on. It just follows your spirit, and whenever the spirit is in ascendancy, if it isn't, then it's got your spirit bound down. You're just thinking and talking like everybody else. But when the mind is renewed, according to the 12th chapter of the book of Romans, the mind is renewed, it'll transform you, and it'll transform you and conform you to the image of God's dear Son. And that's what we're after.
So now listen to this carefully. The natural way of thinking is to look and see, feel and see, or to put "if it be Thy will" on the end of every prayer. You love me, and I love you; you spit on me, I spit on you. Well, see, that's not the way God thinks at all. Jesus said to love your enemies and pray for those that despitefully use and persecute you. That's His way of doing things. "Oh, brother. You know, I just never could get the hang of this: 'The meek shall inherit the earth' and turning the other cheek". You read "meek" like it meant "weak". No, it's not "weak," it's "meek". And you go back and you check out the word translated "meek". Go over and check out Moses. You think he was a weak man? The Bible says he was a meek man, which means he was an humble man, but strong. "Meek" literally means subjected to authority. Doesn't mean weak. And when you subject to God's authority, it makes you strong, not weak. Amen.
But see the difference? The only way I know that is because my mind has been renewed to it. So you're walking more like Jesus every day. Was anybody able to get to Him until He allowed them to? No. He made Himself obedient to death. Well, the blessing of the Lord is on you. It'll come up out of you and dwell all around you if you'll learn to walk in it by faith. I'm telling you, unless you, by fear, unless I, by fear, let that wall break down like Job did, that's the reason the devil was so hacked at God. He said, "He's got a wall around him. You've blessed him and everything he has"! He couldn't get in there until, by fear, Job let him in. But that only lasted about nine or 10 months. Job had a bad year. People think like it was for a lifetime. No. He had a bad year. God got him back twice, double everything. And the Scripture declares the devil under us. Oh, that's another lesson, but I'm telling you, that's powerful.
Now, the natural way, look and see. "Well, Father, in the name of Jesus, I'm asking You to heal me, and I would appreciate it, if it be Your will, I'm asking You to heal me". And something in here says, "Why don't you look and see if you're healed"? Now, no, I'm not. But see, that's the natural, carnal way. No idea that healing belongs to you, no idea that Jesus bore it on the same day He bore your sins. Amen. Healing belongs to everybody. Healing belongs to the world. I mean, Jesus will heal you while you're a sinner and then get saved. Amen. I know that messes some of you up, but that's because you've been religiously brainwashed. Heh-heh-heh. Oh, forgive me. New Testament talk. That's better, ain't it? Oh, glory to God. Thank You, Lord, for helping me. But see, "Well, I don't guess it was God's will to heal me".
Now, what's the faith way? Okay, let's see here. If I look over here at the 13th chapter of Matthew, and Jesus said, "This people's hearts wax gross, their ears are dull of hearing, their eyes they've closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, I should heal them". That's a promise. Hey, that's a blood-backed promise. Thank You, Lord. I Peter 2:24, "By his stripes you were healed". Isaiah 53:4, "By his stripes you are healed". Whoa, there's a promise and two facts. Now I've got the will of God on me. It belongs to me. It belongs to me just like salvation belonged to me and Jesus because it was done the same day. So now I can come to Jesus and I can say, "Father, I see in your Word right here, Jesus said, 'I should heal them,' or 'I will heal them.' And you said, right here, 'By his stripes you are healed.' Then you said, in I Peter 2:24, 'By his stripes you were healed.' 'Himself bore our sicknesses and carried our diseases.'" Whoa.
There's no use of me having this, and I receive it. I believe I receive it according to Mark 11:23, 24, and 25. And when I pray, I believe I receive when I pray. And I say it in the name of Jesus, "My hand is healed, and I receive the healing and the miracle that I need in my hand. And I forgive if I have ought against any". What am I doing? I am doing it the faith way. And then Satan comes along and says, "Well, you can very well see you're not healed". Well, let me tell you something, Satan, let me read you... you know, sometimes I wonder if you can read or not, devil. But let me read something to you here. And go back and read those healing Scriptures. "No. Now, see, Jesus bought and paid that, that belonged to me 2.000 years ago. And five minutes after 1:00 on this date I received it. I released my faith, and it's mine. I will not change my confession. I will not change what I believe. I believe the Word of God".
Now listen to this. I want to turn over here to II Corinthians, and I'm going to read in the 5th chapter... well, let's read in the 4th chapter first. We will read in the 18th, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporary," or subject to change, "but the things which are not seen are eternal". I'm looking in the Spirit realm. I'm going by faith. I'm going God's way, you understand? Not the natural way, God's way. And the devil says, "Why don't you look and see? Why don't you feel and see"? I don't have to look. I don't have to feel. No. I believe I receive it.
Well, I've seen it happen on the spot. I've seen it happen two or three days later. I've seen it happen a month later. I've had it happen to me where it was over a considerable amount of time and the, "Well, why, Brother". I don't run the church. I'm not head of the church. I just work here, you understand? But it wasn't His fault, it's mine. And I had to get in there and straighten out some things and walk in it and walk in it. And glory to God, I'm 80 years old, and I'm in good health. I'm not in good health, I'm in perfect health. Praise God. I have no prescription drugs. I'm not bragging on me, you understand. No, glory. I'd have been dead a long time ago, been left up to me. No, no, no. It's the pure grace of God and doing what the Scripture said do. I let it convert me. It changed my diet, it changed my thought, it changed my routine. I exercise. All of those things are my part. But I'm staying in the Word of God. And Gloria and I both are getting better instead of worse. And we're out of time.