Kenneth Copeland - Jesus Came to Teach, Preach and Heal
Turn with me, Matthew chapter four. So I am going to be talking about healing all this week. This has been a healing ministry ever since day one. I didn't want to go to school. I didn't want to go to Oral Roberts University, and finally, I obeyed God, and first thing He did was put me with a healing man. And he became my father in the faith, and we became very, very, very close, all the way up until he went home to be with the Lord at 90 plus years old. And there are so many things that I learned. Finally wound up, I started out flying for him, and then wound up driving his car, and then just one thing after another.
And then just immediately after I went to ORU, and my mother gave me my first Kenneth E. Hagin tape. Oh oh oh oh oh oh. And my quest was faith. And I'm watching Oral Roberts, and I said, "Lord, look at him, look at him". He uses his faith like a mechanic uses a tool. He doesn't just scatter a shot, and it's like slinging mud, and maybe some of it'll somewhere, you know? Oh, God, do something, please. No, he's very specific about it. And then he said to me in my first experience in the invalid room. And I stepped back, and he walked in there, and he caught me by the coat and pulled me over there and said, "You're gonna do the praying".
Oh. I really could feel all the color going away from my face. And he laughed, and he said, "Don't worry about it. If you make a mistake, I'll fix it". He said, "I'll be right here next to you". And he did, but listen to what he said. He said, Mark, he said, "Don't touch them until you're ready to release your faith". You see, he used it on purpose. That's what got my attention. I didn't know what made it work, I didn't know where it came from, but, and then, I began to listen to Brother Hagin.
Now, I'm learning from Brother Hagin where it comes from, it comes out of your spirit, not out of your brain or your head. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. It's fed on the Word, released in the Word, in your heart, out your mouth, and I'm watching Oral Roberts do it. My, my, my. I just felt like this gotta be heaven. That's all it can be. This has just got to be heaven, amen. Healing ministry, the life of Jesus, teaching preaching and healing. Thank you, Lord. Now, Mark, or excuse me, Matthew chapter four. I mentioned this a moment ago, but I want you to put your eyes on it.
Matthew 4:13. The 12th verse, "Now, when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, He departed into Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet". So He had to move to Capernaum. It was spoken by the prophet. Those words moved Him to Capernaum. It was not that He got kicked out of Nazareth, it's that He was supposed to live and preach from Capernaum. Say Capernaum. Home. Capernaum. Praise God. Now, then, let's look at Matthew chapter eight. We're going to be talking about the healings of Jesus.
Now, there are 19 examples that the Spirit of God has chosen for our learning in how to receive healing, how to minister healing, how it is affected by people's own faith, and so forth, in the ministry of Jesus. We won't have time in these meetings to cover the whole thing, I don't think, so I'm covering the ones that the Lord specifically talked to me about. Matthew 8:2, "When He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And, behold", or it said, "Now, look, look". So look, "there comes a leper and worshiped Him, saying, he worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, if you will, if it's your will, you can make me clean'".
Now there are people today, still today suffering with that. "I know you can. I don't have any doubt about the fact that you can, but is it your will"? I always liked to go at it from the other side. Why would He not? Why would it not be His will? What's so special about you? Huh? Really, why would it not be His will? Now, you know, somebody said, "Brother Copeland, what was your background"? Sin. I didn't have any religious training. I always figured if He healed anybody, He'd heal me. Why not, Hank? I mean, come on. He's Jesus, He's Lord. I mean, you know, He's my Savior. Why wouldn't He heal me? Yeah. Oh, I don't know.
But one translation I really do like. He said, "Of course I will". He said, now, now, now look at it. Jesus, now He not only said, "I will". This is big. This is huge. And if you've never had a terrible, untouchable disease, you don't really get this. Nobody has touched this man. No one but another leper. Nobody could touch him, nobody could get close to him. Those old oozing sores. And we find out from Luke, the doctor, he said he was full of leprosy. He's fourth stage. I mean, those old sores are oozing and he's nasty, and he smells bad. Before Jesus said it, He touched him. Oh. Oh, that's my Lord. That's my Savior. Mark, He touched him, man. He touched him.
Somebody said, "Oh, I wouldn't want to touch him". Well, you see, it didn't stay on there long enough to bother Jesus. This man is a carrier of leprosy. Jesus is a carrier of healing. Because He said, "It's the Father that dwells within me. He's the one that does the work". He's a carrier of the Great Healer on the inside of Him. You're a carrier. You're filled with the Spirit of the Living God. You are a carrier. You're very contagious. You're very contagious. You have healing on the inside of you. Hallelujah, and the devil knows it, and he can see it, and that's the reason he'll do just about anything to keep you off the street. Amen. Thank you, Jesus.
Now, He said, "'I will; be thou clean'. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed". Now, let's look at it in Mark chapter one. Same case, but through different eyes. Verse 40, "There came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him". Now, we see something a little bit different. He kneeled down to Him, and saying unto Him, "If you will, you can make me clean". And Jesus, moved with compassion. So it was compassion that moved Him to touch him and to speak to him and to love him. Moved with compassion. Oh, praise God. Thank you, Jesus. "Put forth His hand, and touched him, and said to him, 'I will; be thou clean'. And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed". Praise God.
Now, Luke chapter five. We have another viewpoint. The 12th verse. Luke chapter five, verse 12. "And it came to pass, when He was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought Him". Now, which is right? Both of them, all three of them. He came to Him and he first hit his knees, and then he just fell over on his face. Now, I want you to see Jesus. Oh God, I love Him. He fell on his face, Jesus fell on His face. And He's right down there, Mark, in the dirt with him. Right there in His face. And He said, "Of course I will". And He touched him. And the leprosy departed. Isn't that, oh? Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
But, "He charged him to tell no man, but go, and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony. But so much the more went there a fame". Why? Because he disobeyed that. Read those other accounts. He didn't pay any attention to that. He just started telling it everywhere he went. And he disrupted the ministry of Jesus. Jesus said, "I must go into the other towns and villages and preach". But after this man scattered that abroad, so He couldn't get into the other towns. And the priests did not get the testimony. That's dangerous to your healing.
"Well, I just believe that if Jesus ever did it, well, it's just done for good". No, that's not necessarily true. Because I guarantee you the devil's gonna look for a way to stick it back to you. And if you don't know to resist it, that attack to get you to receive that again, if you fall for it, in most, well, in all the cases that I've seen in ministry, too, it was harder to get it back the second time than it was to get it first time. But now you can do it, but you're gonna have to take a stand of faith and say, "No, you're not putting that on me. I'm not taking that. No, in the name of Jesus".
One person that I ministered to, this woman, but I had taught that, see. And she just, it was her heart, she was completely healed, but the heart symptoms started coming back. She said, "No, no, devil, you're not putting that on me. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm healed, praise God. He healed me 2000 years ago and I took it by faith. I took it, I took it, it's mine. Brother Copeland and Sister Copeland laid hands on me. And I took it, glory to God, it's mine. You're not putting that back on me". So you know what she did? She just went to the hospital, started to find somebody that had, she said, "I want to go where they have heart patients".
And she may be just having pain of the same symptoms she had before, and she'd go in there and say, now, what did the woman with the issue of blood do? She believed it, she said it, she received it, but then she told it. She testified to it. And she said, "I'm gonna to tell you", and she'd just tell them the whole story. "But God has healed me, and if you'd like me to, I'll pray with you". "Oh, yeah". Amen, and she said the symptoms would go away.
And she said if they started coming back, she'd go right back to the hospital, and just start testifying. And she just kept telling the devil, "If you just want to get more people healed of heart disease, you just keep messing with me because I'll just keep doing it". She just kept doing it, and kept doing it. It didn't take all that long, never did come back anymore. Well, every time she said it, and it's easier to say it when you're testifying and preaching to somebody else, amen. Glory to God, you understand?
So now, then, this one is particularly interesting to me. This is the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. And, Matthew 8:14. Now, the order of these, I'm not just going down through them. I went through them as the Lord directed me to, and to take in the order that I'm giving them to you. Matthew 8:14. Now, this has a lot of very pertinent information in it. "When Jesus was come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And He touched her hand, and the fever left her and she arose, and ministered unto them. And when evening was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils, and He cast out", I mean, right there at Peter's house.
There's a move of God started in the man's house, was just 'cause Jesus walked in there. And saw his wife sick, touched her and got her up. And she started cooking supper, brother, and whatever else needed to happen around there. Don't you know that was one more shouting, happy household? Amen. Now, let's go to Mark one, again. Mark chapter one, verse 30. Verse 29, "They were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they told Him about it".
So put the two together. He walked in there, they told Him about it, and He saw her. See, one's not right and the other one isn't. They're both right. They told Him about it and He saw her. So, "He took her by the hand, lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them". Now, let's see what the doctor has to say about it, in Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four, verse 38. "He arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever", this woman was sick. "A great fever, and they besought Him for her".
Now you have the whole picture. They not only told Him about it. Listen, this woman is sick, and they were talking to Him. I see in this that she maybe had had this before and she's about to die, and they're frightened. She's just collapsed in the floor of this great fever. Who knows? It might've been typhoid or something like that. I'm mean, she's about to die. She is just about gone. Great fever. So, "He stood over her", now, He stood over her, He caught her by the hand, "and He rebuked the fever; and it left her". Now, you see the whole picture. He began to speak to that fever. He rebuked it, and the fever heard Him, and got out of there in a hurry. Amen.
I was very blessed to hear Brother Hagin tell the story that he went into this woman's home. She lived not directly across the street, but a kind of catty-corner across the street from his church. And her husband worked two jobs a day, and never did meet him. She came to church just occasionally, but boy, I'm telling you, those children would get sick, and here she'd come. Brother Hagin, now, I know I'm not much in myself. You've heard him tell this, Mark. And, you know, I'm not much, but God doesn't want those little children sick. And I know you just come put your hand on them, and they'll be all right. And he said, "It's such an amazing thing". And he'd had it happen with his own children that you go in there and you begin to praise God. And he said you just praise and worship God and put your hands over there on their little heads. And you just praise God and worship, and just feel it go cool right under your hand. The fever is gone.
And he said, you know, it was kind of disappointing, you wanted to rebuke it and holler at it, but it just left while you were praising. Now, can you see where we're going with this? Jesus. Why did He come? Did He come to save? Yes. Then He come to heal? Yes. He came to "Sozo". He came to "Sozo". He came to deliver you from calamity. He came to deliver you from the curse of the law. He came to deliver you from hell. He came to cause you to be a new creature. He came to deliver your body from sickness. He came to deliver your mind of worry and brain disease of any kind. He just came to make you well and whole, hallelujah, spirit, soul, body, financially and socially.