Kenneth Copeland - Faith Works When You Are God-Inside Minded
This is a faith convention, right? So open your Bibles to Mark chapter... Oh, absolutely, so. You didn't think I'd go anywhere else, did you? Thank the Lord Jesus. Thank you Lord Jesus. Mark chapter 11, we'll read the words of Jesus. And verse 22, "Jesus answering saith unto them, have faith in God". The cross reference, if you have a King James cross reference, it says, "Have the faith of God". And I like to quote what brother Hagan said when he was here on the earth. "Have the God kind of faith". I really do like that. "Have the God kind of faith". Hallelujah. And this is the way God's faith works. This is the way it works. We have His faith, it is the gift of God. Not a works, lest any man should boast. Amen.
So that faith, the same faith with which God created the heavens and the earth, mountain moving, planet creating faith. And every one of us, according to the 12th chapter of Romans, every born again child of God starts off with exactly the same measure of faith. Amen. Now, depending on what you do with it. Let me illustrate this like this. It is so graphic, and the Bible compares spiritual growth with the growth of a child to an adult. Desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. But after you're 35 years old and you need something other than milk, dear heart. Amen. So a little baby starts out, you know, the same number of fingers, everything, same muscles, bones, everything. But then it grows and develops and grows.
Now, it's not left up to God how much we grow spiritually, or the quality of the spiritual food that you eat. "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God". Matthew 4:4, isn't that correct? That's what Jesus said. Amen. So just exactly like in the natural, he provides food for your spirit, food for your mind, and food for your body. Now it's our choice. I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, you choose. You'd think that's a no brainer. Amen. But then the flesh rises up and it needs to be put back down. Amen. And just because you're in your 80s doesn't excuse you from daily exercise. Amen.
And since I finally got it straight now I can talk about it. I was disobedient in that for a long time, and I paid a price for it. But thank God for his mercy and his grace that endures forever. And I'm in the best physical condition I've been in, in my life. So praise God for it. Amen. So the choice is ours. Let's go to what Jesus said. "Jesus answering sayeth unto them, have faith in God". Now that's the answer. Well, what about my children? Have faith in God. Oh Lord, what about the economy? Well, have faith in God. Well, brother Copeland, I mean, what would my faith do to the economy of the United States? Well, if you're obeying God and praying, first of all, for all men, Kings and all that are in authority, you don't have to, you're not required to like somebody's politics. But you are required to pray for them. And you don't have any business hating a man just because you don't like anything about it. Amen?
So you need just get that fixed right off the bat. Because faith doesn't work in an unforgiving heart, or a judgmental heart, or an unwilling heart. So, every born again child of God, everyone that's accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, has this faith born into their inner man. All of us start out with exactly the same measure. And it is the same measure. You remember what the apostle Peter's wrote his letter to those of like precious faith with him? Oh brother Copeland, I ain't got as much faith as the apostle Peter. But if you say so. Legally you do. But it's going to work now according to what you say. According to what you think. According to what word you take. According to how you hear it and measure the word. According to how you act on it. Amen?
All right. Have faith in God. Well, back to what I was saying there, your economy. You can prosper right in the middle of the worst times financially. In fact, you want me to tell you something? The man, the woman, the family that lives and walks by faith never has to change their lifestyle because of the times. Time go up and times go down, but we're like Jesus, and we are the same yesterday, today and forever. And we live and walk by heaven's economy. And all of our needs are met abundantly so that we have to help other people, and can do whatever the Lord Jesus commands us to do. We're soldiers in the army of the Lord, and no soldier has ever gone to war having to buy his own weapons. What kind of an air force would we have if the pilots had to pay for a... We wouldn't have any air force. If a fighter pilot had to pay for an F-16, and the F-16 is cheap. Wait until you pay for it F-35, you don't even want to know how much that thing cost. Amen.
Well, we're not supposed to be paying our way. Let him that stole, steal no more. Let him work with his hands that which is good in order that he may have to give to those that need. Give and it shall be given unto you. Huh? You see the flow of it? So our own lifestyle and our own personal economy should pray... We should be blessed and moving in the good things of God all the time. Day in, day out, day in, day out, giving God the praise for every moment of it, and enjoying life to the fullest. Healed and well and strong. Amen.
All right. Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, whosoever. So this is spiritual law, it works for whoever will say it, good or bad. It works on both sides of the spectrum. "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things", or, "but shall believe that those words which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says". Amen. And then Jesus immediately puts that very principle into action. See the word therefore? Always stop and see what it's there for. Therefore, I say, now he gave the principle, the way the faith of God works. Then he said it. Oh, glory. "Therefore I say unto you, what things so ever you desire". He has made with that statement The way, not a way. The way to receive all our desires met.
I had a fellow stop me in a parking lot, years ago. And he's one of those fellows who started out with a frown on his face. And he said, now I want you to know, God will meet your needs but he never promised us our wants. And I said, well, then I guess we're just get rid of the 23rd Psalm. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want". And he will give you desires. No, no, no. Just your needs. Well, we need to forget Mark 11:24 then. Amen. Desire and want's the same thing. "Therefore, what things so ever you desire, believe that you receive them when you pray, and you will have them".
Well now brother Copeland, now that doesn't work for everybody. No, it doesn't. It works for those that believe they receive when they pray. Now pastor George and Gloria on television together, got to talking about, Gloria got to talking about bulldog faith. Well that just spread all over. Amen, it's the mascot of Kenneth Copeland Bible College now, praise God. And a bulldog, one of the reasons they look like they do, and that pug nose. If you look at that, a bulldog is made that way on purpose. A bulldog can take hold of something and grab down on it and breathe at the same time. That little nose is tucked down in there where it can just breathe and breathe and breathe all the time it wants to. And you're not going to get him off you. Amen. In some cases you'll have to kill him first.
Well that's bulldog faith. Mark 11:23 and 24 and 25 is true. And I refuse to quit. We're not quitting. I'm not quitting. Glory to God. I can't be defeated and I will not quit. Satan has been defeated, he's been brought to naught. He's been brought to nothing. He's been put down. Glory to God. Wiped out. Amen. Totally, completely defeated. All he has left, he doesn't have the power of death anymore. All he has left is the threat.
Well you know, brother Copeland, oh brother Copeland, I might die. Let me help you, baby. You're going to die. You should have known that by the time you was four. Your momma told you, baby, you better watch out that car will kill you. A very close immediate member of our Gloria and, my immediate family, just a few days ago. Far as he knew, in good health. And all of a sudden he was gone, just that quickly. And I don't have time to go into all of the details, it just, very miraculous things that happened during that.
I know you're ready to go. And you stay ready to go. But this is part of life. If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've done all the dying you're ever going to do. But now you need to prepare yourself. You need to prepare your family. So when do you get blindsided like that you don't just come apart. No. No, you have to take hold. You have to take hold with the rest of the family and whomever else is involved in this thing. You have to take hold. And you do not allow grief. Grief is the spirit of death. Amen. And you have to be ready for that all the time. Amen. Because it's coming. And quit Just trying to just hang on to this old body. You'd be surprised.
You think, well, I've got to fight to live. Why? You'd be surprised how much stronger your faith is... Now I didn't say not resist. We resist everything that Satan is. I didn't say you don't resist. But when you get to fighting, you'd be surprised how strong your faith gets when you just roll all the care of that over on Jesus.
I remember a man telling me years ago, he pastored a church in Hawaii. He founded a church in Hawaii, and had ministry there, and was diagnosed with cancer. And they told him, you know this doesn't look good at all. And so they set an appointment for a time when he was to come back and go through a bunch of tests and all of that. And he said, you know, I'm not even going back for those tests. He said, I'm where... They had already planned, they had already turned the church over to another pastor. And they were coming back to the mainland, and they had plans and God had led them to do certain things. And he said, I'm just going to continue with my plans.
So he just handed the whole thing over to God, and just continued with his plans. And it was pretty rough. But he never even called that doctor. He said, I guess he thought I'd died. And he said, I just kept on going, just like I didn't even know I'd been diagnosed with it. Said I just believe God just stood on his word and just kept going. Just kept going. And he said it just kept getting a little better and a little better and a little better. He said, I refuse to fuss about it. I refuse to do anything other than just go on with, just like I'd been told to do before I even got diagnosed with this thing. And he said, over a period of time, praise God, it left. And I'm enjoying life.
See, the care will kill you. Because you're not the healer. The care will kill you. Why? Well, because there is command in first Peter five to not carry the care. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, casting the whole of your care over on him, for he cares for you. Amen. Hallelujah. You don't fight the good fight of faith like this. No, you fight the good fight of faith like... that.
How can you laugh and smile when you're hurting so bad? Let me tell you something. Dr. Avery Jackson, one of the leading neurosurgeons in the United States, raised from eight years old in Bishop Keith Butler's church in Detroit. And I've had the very distinct pleasure of meeting Dr. Jackson. And they have laughing classes for cancer patients.
Medical science, I'm quoting Dr. Jackson right now. Medical science has learned and proven that your physical body does not know the difference between a put on laugh and a belly laugh. It doesn't know the difference. Well, I don't understand that. May I be a little bit vulgar and prove it to you? Will you permit me to do that? Your body doesn't know the difference between sex and pornography. Now that's a terribly base way to have to describe it, but it's the way the thing is made. Shouldn't be like that, but it is. Amen. So they have laughing classes that begin with, ha, ha, ha. But you just do it anyway. Why? Because a merry heart does good like a medicine.