Kenneth Copeland - Release Your Faith With Action
We've been talking about the fundamentals of faith. Now tonight, well, let just a little rehearsal, the basic fundamentals of faith. Now here are the very basics. Number one, believe it in your heart then say it with your mouth. Number two, faith will not work in an unforgiving heart. Number three, you cannot receive Abraham's blessing with Thomas's faith. Then faith calls things that be not as though they were and faith always requires corresponding action, from the book of James. In fact, let's turn over there right now. We hadn't touched this, but we're going to see it tonight. We're going to go then tonight over into the old covenant and see if it holds true there.
Now James is the oldest book in the New Testament and James, of course, is Jesus half brother, same mother, different father. Now in the book of James, the first chapter, look at the 22nd verse. Be he doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. Be a doer of the word. So you believe what? You believe the word of God. That's just primary, faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. So all faith is based on the word. This book is the word of faith, Amen. It produces faith. This book is full of God's faith. Words are containers.
Do you ever notice that? They are containers. They carry fear. Oh, do they ever. They carry hate, words can kill you. You can cut somebody so deep. If they don't know how, now you and I know how, because we've learned to just cast all the care of that over on the Lord and not even let it put a frown on our face. Just Ha ha ha ha ha. But you don't know what they said. Well that's their problem, not mine. Years ago, I mean, way back there, the Lord said, "Kenneth, I can't expose your ministry any further". I said, "Oh why, Lord". He said, "You're too high temper". And he said, "Somebody just says least little thing about you and you just fly off the handle".
Well, I mean, he had me pegged pretty good. And he said "From this day forward, don't ever read anything about yourself in print again, good or bad". He said, "Advise your staff to never ever bring you a newspaper, never to bring you news of what anybody said about you at any time, whether it's good or bad". And he said... And I had experienced this, where somebody would walk up to me. I remember there's this one guy that walked up and he walked up looking like he's going to have something nice to say. And he said, "I have never heard anybody in my life rape the scriptures like you did tonight".
And I just turned around and walked off. Now see, that one still sticks out in my mind. It took a long time and I didn't know how back then to really roll the care of and not to touch it in my thought life. I learned that then from Brother Hagan and I didn't know how to get rid of that and it just haunted me. It just went over and over and then you know what happens? You start thinking about what you wish you'd have said to that jerk. And in my mind, I am just chewing him out. I'm just cutting him to pieces and that guy's gone. He ain't even thinking about me anymore. And then I saw it. I said, "Yes sir. Yes sir". But I said, "What's wrong with the good stuff"? He said, "Kenneth, you don't even try to get rid of that". And he said, "If you're not careful, you start believing that brother". He said, "Now, you cut that out too". He said, "You just listened to me".
And you have no idea how much wonderful time and years and years and years and all the dirty, nasty books that people have written and all the nasty newspaper articles. And I've never seen any of them. I didn't even know they happened. Glory to God. Like I told you yesterday or whenever it was, that a newspaper, that tell you that don't last but a day, but you read it and it'll last for years. And besides that, it'll be at the bottom of a birdcage tomorrow. Let the bird to take care of it, but anyway. Be a doer of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hear of the word and not to doer, he's liken to a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself and goes his way and straightway forgets what manner of man he was or what he saw. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of Liberty.
Do you see what he called the word? The perfect law. Perfect. Say perfect law of Liberty. And you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free. I like that word make. That's a more powerful word than set you free. It generally means the same thing, but if you think about make you free, you were made a new creature in Christ Jesus. Amen. You were created, Glory to God, in the holiness of God and in the goodness of God and made the righteousness of God and knowing the truth about the situation. What is the truth? I mentioned this this morning in the healing school.
When Jimmy Hester came to my mother's prayer group. And for the benefit of those of you that were not here, Jimmy Hester was Southern Baptist preacher and he was a little older than me, a few years older than me. So he graduated Poly High School before I even started the Poly High School. We graduated from the same high school there in Fort worth. Anyway, and a fine Southern Baptist preacher and his mother told him, now is what Jimmy told me later, he said his mother had told him, warned him all the time, said, "Now Jimmy, now you take care of yourself son. Because you know, Hester men don't live very long because of have bad hearts". Said your grandfather died young. He died in his 50s. His dad died in his 50s.
And here he is, and now his heart is acting up. So someone took him over to my mother's prayer group. Now my momma's prayer group, she would start a prayer group in her home and that thing would grow her Monday night prayer group. You just ask a Pastor George. I mean he was there, he had a lot of them that helped her in her prayer group. And that it would get so big that the house wouldn't hold it. So she would turn it over to a pastor and it would become a church. And she'd wait about a year, maybe two years, and started another one.
And there were two or three churches that came out to her prayer groups because her Monday night prayer group, take just a few days, it would just get some big, you couldn't even park around my dad's house on Monday. And I was walking up the front porch. I had come in late and I was walking up the front porch, because I knew it was Monday night and I couldn't even get my car around in the driveway to park behind my dad's house. And there were two young preachers walking out the front door and we did just past one another. Of course it was rather late and dark, and one of them said, "Oh, I'll tell you, that beats all I ever saw in my life". And the other one said, "Yeah, I'll tell you what. That's the first time in my life I ever felt sorry for the devil". And the other one said, "Yeah, I'm telling you, when that woman got through with him". He said, "I'd left too".
Anyway, somebody took Jimmy over there and for healing. And she said, "What is this"? Well, he said, "My grandfather died of heart trouble. My dad died of heart trouble and I've got a bad heart now". She said, "Tell me the truth about that". He said, "I told you the truth". "My granddad died young of a bad heart. My dad died of heart trouble and I've got a bad heart". She said, "I told you to tell me the truth about that". Well, he got mad. He said, "Lady, I told you the truth about it. My granddad died with a bad heart. My daddy died with a bad heart and I've got a bad heart now". And she took both her hands... Now he told me this story later. And she boxed his ears. She said, "Isaiah 53:4 and 5. That's the truth about this".
Now I walked into a small motorcycle store and Jimmy was sitting in there at the county and he had phone. I'm thinking, come in here, come in here. And so of course, by this time I knew Jimmy well, and he was sitting there and the telephone he got through. He just got this big smile on his face and he said, "Kenneth", he said, "I just got the report from my doctor, just took my physical". He said, "I've got the heart of a 16 year old boy". And he said, "Today is my 61st birthday".
Then he told me that story. He said, "Kenneth, I know your mother saw death on me". And he said, "She flat had to get my attention". He said, "She boxed my ears and just roared at me and cast that devil out on me and off me". And he said, "I've been healed ever since". And then just not all that long ago, Jerry and I both were at our dear Brother Hester's home going service in his mid to late eighties, still a perfect heart. Somebody ought to shout Amen. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you Lord Jesus.
Well, what we saw here, well he became a hearer the word first, then he became a doer of the word, Jimmy Hester did. And praise God, came right on through. God baptized him and baptized Joann, both in the Holy Ghost and power and he raised up a powerful, powerful, full gospel church, man. Hallelujah. Man of faith and one of my heroes. Now notice what he said. Who soever looketh into the perfect law of Liberty and continues there in, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word. This man shall be blessed in his deed. This is the blessed man, not just a hearer, but a doer.
What is a doer? The woman with the issue of blood, believed with all of her heart and she kept saying it with a mouth. If I just but touch the hem of his garment, I will be made whole. But that wasn't good enough. That's faith. She believed it in her heart and said it with her mouth. Where's the action? Where's the corresponding action? I remember back when I was believing for the very first airplane, very first airplane and... I lived just few minutes from a little airport, in fact I used to work on that airport, KCVC. And I knew the people out there and everything, a little small neighborhood airport. It's quite a large airport now. In fact, Jerry's airplane is based there now, really nice airport. Back then it was just a little family on the airport and a few hangers. And so I didn't have an airplane and so I bought my flight case for my navigational charts.
Now you'll notice I'm very particular about saying navigation charts. Okay. Because one time I said, I bought this case for my a charts and a woman wrote me and said, "What's so special about a case for your shorts"? And every time I've told it since, I say my navigational chart. You understand? Not my shorts. Oh, come on. Praise God. Oh man, I've got... The joys all over this place up here, I'm telling you. But anyway, I bought the case. I went ahead and put in my subscription for the chart service and I'm getting my charts. I don't have an airplane, but I'm getting my charts and I'm doing my revisions as they come through. I don't have anything to fly, but I'm keeping up with them. So when it comes, I'm ready.
And you know, that little airplane just come and jumping in there. And so I moved it up here and I knew that they didn't have any hanger space much, but I'm believing now for a twin engine airplane because the single engine was already too small when I got it. But it got it started. And so just make sure everybody on that airport knew, I said, "What about hangar space"? And he laughed. He said, "Copeland, now you know better than that". He said, "You've worked out here". He said, "These people leave these hangers in their will, man".
Well, I'd already picked out one, not for a single engine, but for a Cessna 310, twin engine airplane. I knew that very hanger I wanted because it was a little bit bigger than the others and I said, "Can I have any tie down I want"? "Yeah", he said. "I don't care where you tie it down". I said, "Okay, I want this tie down right here". "Why there". I said, "Well, I want it right here". "Why"? I said, "Because when that hanger comes open, I'm going to just push my airplane in there". He said, "Copeland, I don't what's the matter with you. I don't care where you put your airplane, what airplane"?
I said, "Well you know, it'll be here". And it wasn't, I mean just... I'm talking about weeks, we had it and I had him park it right there. I said, "Now you call me when that hanger comes open". He said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah". Well I don't need to tell you the rest of the story, do I? Well, it came open and he said, "That beats all I have ever seen". And of course, it just swallowed my little single engine airplane, but I didn't tell him what I got on my mind. So he just pushed it in that hanger.
Now I flew my little red single engine airplane to Shreveport and I'm having a meeting over there. So Ollen and I we're driving and we were coming just right close to were the airport and I saw this little twin engine Cessna. A little Brown one just flew over and I heard the word of the Lord, "That's your airplane". I said, "Ollen look, that's my airplane right there". And I saw it go over and I knew where the airport was. I mean, and so I just drove around there and followed it and I saw him pull up to a hanger over there and I drove up to it and I said, "Sir, is this 310 for sale"? He said, "Well, it's not my airplane". He said, "But my boss", he said, "Knowing my boss, anythings for sale". And so to make a long story short as I can, now I already...
Now see, I came out of the airplane business. I was in the airplane sales. That's what I was doing when I met Gloria and so... I was sales manager at a Beechcraft dealership in Little Rock, Arkansas. Not when I met her, but after she and I got married. Boy, that's a good story, I wish I had time to tell that. I will tell you this, the guy that was general manager of it was an ordained Southern Baptist preacher. His dad-in-law owned the place and I wasn't even born again, but I just thought I need to go back over and see them. I'd been to see everybody on the airport and...
Oh, already met and fell in love with Gloria and asked her to marry me on the first date. And she said, okay, and just went in the house. She got in the house, she said, "What have I done? I don't even know this man. That's all right. I'll get out of it later". It'd be 58 years in April. She ain't got out of it yet. Anyway, so I went back, he said, "You know Kenneth", he said, "Really". And at this time, I didn't know he was a preacher. He said, "I really don't know why I'm doing this". But he said, "You put on your resume that you have sales experience". He said, "You're a low time pilot, but we need somebody in the sales experience", and so he hired me.
And so Gloria was going to school in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. So she moved to Little Rock and moved in with her grandmother there in Little Rock. And then later on she got an apartment with a friend of hers. And we were just inseparable, just night and day. And man, I found out Joe was a preacher. I said, "Joe, will you marry Gloria and me"? He said, "Kenneth, I would be thrilled to".
And my boss was my best man and I borrowed $100 from him and went to Hot Springs over the weekend for the honeymoon. Yeah. Amen. Just added that to the debt. But I got that one paid back, Glory to God. And then six months later, both of us got born again. Glory to God. Three months after that, both of us baptized with the Holy Spirit speaking with other tongues and it's been a marvelous life ever since then. So now, corresponding action. Believe it in your heart, say it with your mouth, corresponding action.