Kenneth Copeland - Faith Says, Then Does
Farther, we thank you. My, we've had a marvelous week last week and a wonderful week this week. What a way to start a new year. Glory to God. Hallelujah. 2020 praise God it's here and I love it. Hallelujah and Lord we thank you and we praise you.
We're talking about the fundamentals of faith and, believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth. The first basic fundamental. Faith will not work in an unforgiving heart. Abraham's blessing cannot be received with Thomas's faith. And then number four, faith calls things that be not as though they were. And as I said to you yesterday, that's the most difficult for people. And after the time we spend in it you can see why. Because you go with that mentally. I mean, how could I be doing this? But when you, when you consider not your own body, but only that which God, only the covenant I, here I go again. I know, I can hardly just stay out of that cause I love it so much. But now the fifth one, faith demands, corresponding action. Faith without following it with action, it's dead. It doesn't have anything to do.
So, let's go back to what we talked about yesterday in God, the covenant and the contradiction. Abraham considered not his own body now dead, neither the deadness of Sarah's womb. a hundred years old. Well, it's impossible for them to have child. What he do? He immediately began to act on that. He immediately began to say that absolutely considered not his own body considered not the symptoms of the contradiction at all, but only that which God had promised. Yes. And he just kept doing that until, and after Sarah died, he remarried and had six more children. So she, he didn't quit doing that. He kept acting on that work. He kept calling himself that. He kept doing that. He kept doing everything God told him to do and he lived to be 75 more years after his body was dead. He was done at a hundred amen. So thank you Jesus.
Mark chapter five verse 25, "A certain woman..". No, the Lord won't let me start there. Verse 21, "When Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side", he was across the Galilee from Capernaum. His home and ministry was in Capernaum. That was home. So he headed straight from there back home. Well, you and I both know he had lookouts. You know, they're looking for him. They want to know when he's there. And so verse 22, "Behold, there cometh with one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and when he saw him, he fell at his feet and besought him greatly saying, 'My little daughter lieth at the point of death, I pray thee come and lay their hands on her that she may be healed and she shall live'".
Now Jesus is easy to receive from. He's El Shaddai in the flesh. That's what he's here for! Amen! "Jesus went with him, much people followed him and thronged him. And a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years, had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had", She spent all that she had. She's financially broke and destitute. "Was nothing bettered but rather grew worse. When she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment. For she said, 'If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole'". I will be whole. She didn't shall be healed. She said, I will be whole. That included her finances, that included everything in her life. I'll be whole of this thing.
Now, "And straightway", immediately, "The fountain of her blood was dried up and then she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. Jesus immediately knowing in himself that dunamis", power, the Greek word dunamis, we get our word dynamite from it, "had gone out of him, turned him about in the press and said, 'Who touched my clothes?' His disciples said unto him, 'Thou seest the multitudes thronging thee and sayest thou, "Who touched me"?' He looked around about to see her that had done this thing, but the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, 'Daughter, thy faith has made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy plauge.' And yet while he yet spaked, there came the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, 'Your daughter's dead. Why trouble is the master any further'"?
Even in the face of the death messenger, Jairus never said anything else. Stood there and listened to her tell her whole story. Never said a word, not one word. Spoke his faith. And that's all he had to say. He had all kinds of opportunities to blow this thing. Somebody come up and tell you your daughter's already dead and make it want to just swing around and hit first person you see that he already had... Where did he get that kind of faith? By hearing. Yeah. But when did he hear it? When Jesus was teaching in the synagogue. You got it! That synagogue that he was president of was the same synagogue in Capernam that the Centurion built. So he's president of the synagogue. He's not hostile to Jesus. The rest of them were, but he's sitting there listening to Jesus preach in his own hometown synagogue, and he's preaching on the blessing, not the curse. And then he said, "Daughter, your faith made you whole".
I want you to see something. Jesus just came to town, got out of the boat, and Jairus just fell on his face. I mean, right there at his feet. I think he got his clothes muddy and didn't care. He didn't care who saw him with this man. If it cost him his job, fell at his feet, never said another word. So he's headed to Jairus' house and a woman stopped him. God didn't tell Jesus to go to Jairus' house. God didn't tell Jesus to stop in the middle of the street. Jairus' faith told him to go to his house. The woman's faith stopped him. Come on. Oh yeah. Amen.
Now let's go from here to the book... We need you to hold your place there and let's go over to the book of James. Now, we're talking about corresponding action. And in the first chapter of the book of James, verse 22, "Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves". Chapter two verse 14, "what doth it profit my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and has not worked, can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled not withstanding, you give them not those things which are need for the body". What does it profit? "Even so faith if it has not corresponding action is dead, being alone". being by itself. Are you following me?
All right now, then let's go back over there now. First you said it. She kept saying it. Now, she could have kept saying that and believed that with all of her heart... Now let's go back to yesterday. Had she considered the contradictory evidence? She's bleeding, she was bleeding at the time. She's skin and bone. She's, this woman is dying. She is absolutely destitute. She has no money. Everything she has is gone. She could have said, "If I, but touch the hem of his garment, I'll be whole. If I could just touch the hem of his garment. I'll be whole. If I could just touch the hem of his... I believe this with all my heart. I believe it. Oh, glory to God. I believe it in my heart, and I say it with my mouth. If I could just touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole", and set right there and said it 'til she died. "I can't go out there. I'm unclean. They could stone me for being in public". That's the reason... She actually believed, "I'm going to touch his garment and I'm going to just, Imma get my healing and just skinny back out of here before anybody sees me".
And, and I, I've, I can read into that, that, that she's saying I'm a going back inside and when I'm stronger and then I'm going to go show myself to the priest and I'm going to show him that I'm well and healed and, and then, then I'll come out in public. She didn't get away with it. Amen. That that was her plan, but cause fearing and trembling, she was afraid. Can you see it? Get an image of her. I mean, she is really, really, really sick. 12 years she's been bleeding. 12 years, my my my. So she said it, and actually the word there is Lego. She kept saying, she kept saying, she kept saying it, she kept saying it, she kept saying it.
What's she doing? Well anyone can begin to say the word of God and school yourself into faith. You start saying it and you just, Wow man. Uh, like, like what I'm talking about yesterday, um, I, uh, heard the testimony of a man that I knew quite well back, like the kids say back in the olden days and he was ministering in a full gospel businessmen's fellowship. He was a businessman and um, Norvel Hayes and Norvell was ministering and there was a lot of people in there and they were, they were praising God and shouting around and, and there was a man sitting down there and his legs all tucked around and, and the Lord said to him, "Tell him to call his legs straight and they'll straighten out".
Now that's where I got some, I'm not smart enough to think this stuff up. You understand? Hey man, I got all this from brother Hagin. I didn't... I... Did you know, you've never had an original thought. Nobody has. Somebody thought it before you did. Amen. Most people think, well, there's God, then there's the devil, then there's me. Come on. Really? You're the agreeing witness. Just depends on which words you put in your heart and your mouth. There's God's words, There's the devil's words. You're the witness. Out of the mouth of two witnesses, you're the number two. Amen.
Well, and so he finally, he said, "Call your legs, 'Well'. Call your legs untangled'". And he just sat there. "Call your legs on untangled". "I call my legs untangled". "Nah, that don't work". And he finally got down there and got right in his face. "Call your legs untangled. The Lord said, I'll straighten them out. Call your legs untangled". "I call my legs untangled". "Yeah, that won't work. Call your legs". And it took a while and got right in his face and began to holler at him and holler at him just, just to get his attention. Then he finally got him to do it. What's he doing? He began to say it. "I call him my legs straight. I call my leg straight". And he began to shout it. "I call my legs straight! I call my leg straight"! Then he shouted it and he shouted it as loud as he could and as fast as he could for about 10 minutes, got up, walked off out of that chair. Amen. Thank you Lord Jesus. Praise God.
So this, this is really what she's doing in our little shut in place. And she just kept saying it and she just kept saying it, and what happened? Faith came, faith came, she heard, she heard the word, somebody's relaying the word to her because Romans 10:17 said, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And we know that faith does not work in an unforgiving heart. So we know she forgave those physicians. She could have blamed us whole mess on them. Well, the devil's to blame for it. Amen. He's uh, he's the author of sickness and disease. Amen. So first she said it and she said, and she said it and she said it. And faith is coming, and faith is coming, and faith is coming, and faith is coming, you know, and faith because faith comes. Faith always come. You can't always feel it, but it always comes. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
Now for the sake of illustration, things happen when faith boils over. My father in the faith Oral Roberts used to call it that moment, that moment when faith erupts and a miracle takes place. But this thing was in the, in the making over a period of time, time in the word. Time listening. That's the reason hearing, seeing without reading it, hearing it preached with your ears coming out of your mouth and going back into your ears. Glory to God. Amen. Coming out of your mouth and going back into your ears and getting past your mind, your soul, and getting down in your inner man where faith is, Glory to God. Hallelujah. All the time, the mind is being renewed and the spirit is being charged or built up.
Now, Okay. She said it. She believed it. She saw herself with it. She saw herself up walking around. She saw herself and in her old clothes instead of this, this, this, this rag that no longer fits her cause she's so skinny and frail. She saw herself back in the synagogue. She saw herself going to the priest. She saw herself with it. She didn't see herself without it. Glory to God. She believed. She saw herself with it. Then she did it. She crawled out of that place, took her life in her own hands because it moved her to action, glory to God, and got ahold of that garment. Boom. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!
And Jesus said, "Who did dad who touched my clothes"? She was aware of the power going in. He's aware of the power going out. Yeah, the anointing! Glory to god. That tangible power. Oh, thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord, Jesus. And she told it. She testified to Jesus. In 1950 in Rockwall, Texas. Jesus appeared to brother Hagin and he said, I've got this Sermon and I'm asking you is this the final point? And he said that, yeah, this is the fourth point and it was those four points and here we're out of time, but I'm going to finish it with this. He said, anybody that will do these four things can receive anything from me.