Kenneth Copeland - The Word Of God Produces Faith In Your Heart
Mark 4. How does it grow? All right. Jesus said, in Mark 4:30... now, we're talking about faith. How do you make faith grow? How do spiritual things grow? Faith is a spiritual force, now, remember. Faith is of the spirit. It is of the heart not the head. It's not part of the mind. It is part of your born-again spirit. Okay. Now, Jesus said, "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground". Did you get that, "cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, the seed should spring and grow up, he don't know how".
You don't have to know how. You just have to obey and it'll do what Jesus said it would do. "For the earth," or your spirit, "brings forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn of the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest is come". "Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it"? Listen now. It is the whole kingdom of God. Everything in the Spirit realm. Well, it's really true of the whole creation because God created everything out of a seed. But I wanted you to see about your faith. Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, longsuffering, faith, meekness, temperance, that's the fruit of the Spirit. They all grow this way.
Now listen, "Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but when it is sown, it grows up, and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it". That's the way spiritual things grow. If you need your faith to grow, sow it, use it. Go to the Word, find promises that cover your situation, believe those promises. You just look at it and talk about it. Amen. "I believe this". And in your head you're saying, "I don't know whether I believe it or not".
Now, quit paying any attention to your head and look at your heart. Go down in your spirit, say, "No, no. Jesus said this, and I believe this. The Bible said this, and I believe this. The Word of God says this, I believe that. I believe that. I confess this with my mouth". What's happening? Okay, I'll show you what's happening. Go back over to the book of Romans again. Praise God. Amen. See, that's the reason you need your outlines. Amen. You go back over to the book of Romans in that 10th chapter where we read the 17th verse. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God".
But now, let's back up and prove what we just said in Verse 9. Well, let's back up here a little bit. "The righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down from above". "Oh, Jesus, if you could just come lay your hand on my fevered brow". Well, He's not coming, okay. Why? Because He's already there. I knew you'd like that. "Or, Who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring Christ again from the dead". He's already been raised from the dead. What does faith say? Faith says, "The word is nigh thee, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach". And that's what I'm teaching and preaching right now to you.
Now, here it is: "If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus," or Jesus is Lord, "and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved". Now, let me just drop something in right here. That same word translated "save" is also translated "healed". For with the heart, the spirit man, not the blood pump, I already mentioned this to you. I'm going to tell you again now. You can't believe God with your blood pump no more than you can your liver. Oh, man believeth with the heart. Huh? "Oh, oh, excuse me. I missed that". With the kidney? No, no, no. With the liver? Not with the nose? No, no, no, no. With your spirit, the heart of the... see, that's the reason it calls the spirit the heart, because that's the core, it's the most important part of spirit, soul, and body.
We use that in different ways. We talk about the heart of a tree because it's the center. It's the place where the life of a tree is. And we use it a lot, "the heart of the matter". That means it's the most important part of what we're talking about, see? Amen. The heart of the matter we are talking about today is that faith is of the heart and not the mind. That's the heart of this situation. Now then, I believe you got that. Okay. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation". Now you come on back down to 17. "So then faith cometh". There is no such thing as faith that won't come. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God".
Now, it comes by hearing the Word of God, not some imaginary doctrine or something that somebody's got about it. It is the Word of faith. Amen. Now, I wanted you to see this: That everything in the kingdom of God starts with the seed of the Word. And then you take that seed and you plant it. Okay. Now, go back over here again to the book of Ephesians. We need to just keep putting our eyes on these things over and over and over again and build them into your spirit. Change the way you think, change the way... the common world doesn't know anything about faith. They may know a lot of religion. That don't work.
Chapter 2 of Ephesians, "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened," or made us alive, "together with Christ, by grace are you saved; and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith, it is the gift of God". It's His faith, and through Jesus being crucified, He went to hell. He died spiritually.
"Oh, Brother Copeland"? Well, now, wait a minute, wait a minute. Back up. Erkk! Stop. Back up. "Even when we were dead in sins," that's spiritual death. "Well, Jesus never sinned". No, but He took your and my sin, see. What is spiritual death? Spiritual death is to be separated from God. He is the source of our life, the God kind of life, the God faith, the God love, the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit. Whoa! Glory to God. Amen. When I do that, it means I preached myself happy right then. Now, what goes on there is He... well, I Peter 2:24. "Himself bore". Now, listen to me. "Himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree," or on the cross, "that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed".
Hoo! That's some Gospel news right there. Glory to God, that's good news. You was healed 2,000 years ago. You might just now be finding out about it. Take it, it belongs to you. Glory to God. It belongs to you. Faith is your title deed to it. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Now stay up with me now because I'm like Creflo Dollar, "I'm a'workin' on something here". Glory to God. Now, well, yeah, thank You, Lord, I appreciate that. Let's go back to the book of Romans again. And let's look in the 4th chapter of Romans. We're saved by grace. The grace did it. Faith received it. Let me say it again. Grace did it, the power of his grace did it. Faith made the connection.
Now, 4th chapter of Romans 16th verse, "Therefore it is of faith". Now I want you to notice the "faith" word here is first. "Therefore it is of faith," so "that it might be by grace". No faith, no grace. What is grace? Grace is God's overwhelming desire to treat you and me like sin never existed. Hallelujah. It is His unmerited favor. It was a gift of God. His Faith is a gift. His grace is a gift. His healing is a gift. Hallelujah! Jesus, the great gift. God, the Father, the great gift giver! Glory to God. Somebody shout "Amen"! Hallelujah.
Now, then, "to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed". Hallelujah. Amen. "The promise might be sure". I'm telling you, we were talking there a minute ago, let me remind you of this. We were talking about... well, what if there was a knock on your door, and you went and opened the door, and there stood an angel? "I have a message from the most High God". You say, "Uh, uh, uh, okay". "The most High God sent me to tell you, 'By the stripes of Jesus you are healed,'" pssht, and he's gone. Whoa! Or what if you opened the door and there stood Jesus, "I just came by this morning to tell you that by My stripes you were healed".
Boy, every hair on your body would be sticking straight out. I mean, even if you're bald-headed, brother, where your hair used to be would be trying to jump up and down. And you'd say, "Oh, brother, what would you do? What would you do if that happened"? "My, what would I do? Brother Copeland, what's the matter with you? What would I do? Dear God, I'd probably just go absolutely wild. I'd be shouting and dancing all over this house". "What are you shouting and dancing for"? "Well, my God, I'm healed. Looky-look here. He told me, 'by His stripes I am healed.' Whoo! Glory be to God". This will bring more faith than that. "Oh, I don't believe that". Figured you'd probably say that.
So let's go over to the gospel of John. Are you getting anything out of this? I am. I am going to keep doing it whether you are or not. It's helping me. Let's go over to the 20th chapter of the gospel of John. And you remember Thomas. "Oh, yeah, doubting Thomas". Don't call the man that. I mean, he just doubted for about an hour. He's not a doubting Thomas. He's a believing Thomas. I don't think I'd talk that way about the apostles of the Lamb. I mean, though, you can do what you want to do. That's what you're going to do anyhow. 20th chapter of John's gospel, "And after eight days", this is the 26th verse, "his disciples were within, and Thomas was with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger".
Let's back up to that 24th there, 25th verses. "But Thomas, one of the twelve... was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will". Now I want you to get that now. "I will". Huh? "I will not believe". Now, that is a decision. But see, anyway, let's get on there. Now "After eight days again the disciples within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you". Now listen. "Then he said to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and behold my hands", in other words, "touch me", "reach here your hand, thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, believing. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord, my God".
Well, now, listen. "Oh, Brother Copeland, whoa! If, I mean, Jesus had come walking up to me and just told me that, I'd... You got to be wrong, brother. That'd cause more faith and". No, no. That would cause mental ascent, not faith. Huh? Okay. You still love me, don't you? Okay. I knew you did. "Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because you have seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believed". He made a decision. Now, listen to me now. He made the decision to not believe. Hmm? He made the conscious decision to not believe because he couldn't see it and he couldn't feel it.
Jesus said, "If you believe it in your heart, and say it with your mouth". The Word of God says, "Faith cometh by hearing," not by touching, not by seeing. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". Do you remember the faith that Jesus marveled at? What is it? I'll tell you. You remember the centurion had a sick servant? And he said to Jesus, "I'm unworthy that you come into my house. I'm a man of authority. I tell a man to go, I tell a man to come. They go, they come". In other words, they obey me. "You speak the word only and my servant will be healed. In other words, I recognize where your power is. I recognize that it is in authority over sickness, over disease, over devils, over death". Hallelujah. And he said, "You say the word and my servant will be healed". Whoa! What is that? That is faith that needs no evidence other than the written Word of God.
Now, that's the most powerful faith there is. And, I mean, you can receive your healing just by spending more time in the Word of God. Jesus just said it. Let's go back over to Mark 11 again. He said it. And this is the key to it. "I say unto you, whosoever say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea; not doubt in his heart and believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he said". Faith is of the spirit, the core, the heart, not the head. The head wants to see something, like Thomas. His head wanted to see something. And he made a conscious decision. I'm going to say it again. He made a conscious decision to not believe it. Jesus said, "Thomas, you're faithless. Blessed are those who have believed and not seen". Now, see that's what the centurion did when he said to Jesus, "Speak the word only, my servant will be healed". He didn't require any physical evidence.
"Oh, Brother Copeland, how am I going to do this"? "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". If you ever catch yourself doing this, I come up and I announce, "Well, we're going to talk about faith today". "Oh, man, I've already heard that". No, you haven't heard it. Faith doesn't come by hearing once no more than physical health comes from eating one meal a week. No, man, you're going to die. F.F. Bosworth said, "Ah, some of you wonder how come your faith doesn't work any better than it does'" He says, "You feed your body three hot meals a day, and you feed your spirit one cold snack a week". Boy, that pretty well says it, doesn't it? Yeah.