Kenneth Copeland - People Are Not Your Enemies
This is the "Believer's Voice of Victory" broadcast. How are you this morning? I'm doing quite well. I was doing good and got better, glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, let's give the Lord praise this morning. He's right here, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. And of course, you know, this is the student body of Kenneth Copeland Bible College. Kenneth Copeland Bible... Oh, glory to God, a Bible college that's three years old. Little baby fella. And he's growing. Amen, thank you, Lord Jesus. We praise you, we thank you for your presence today. Let's open our Bibles once again to the Book of Mark.
Now, yesterday we went to the sixth chapter of the Book of Ephesians and found there, well, let's look at that quickly. We won't take a lot of time with it, but to bring us back to the place where we are right now. "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles," or the strategies, "of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood". Don't you ever forget that. I don't care how long you live, don't ever forget that, you're not fighting people. It's not people. It isn't people. Well, I must tell you this.
One of my all time heroes, James Johnson, Under Secretary of the Navy to Richard Nixon, and Norie, his background, his dad was Watusi. Son, you talk about some long, tall folks. And Johnny Johnson, he was a tall man. He wasn't as tall as Norie, but he was a tall man. And man, I got to go to the Philippines with him. I met President Marcos of the Philippines and prayed for him and all that. Johnny Johnson, he's in heaven today. I wanted to tell you this because Johnny understood this and he was a preacher of love. He wrote his autobiography, "Beyond Defeat," that love is beyond defeat.
You get online, you get somewhere, and you get that book. And if you turn to the last page, Johnny Johnson, first black man to do this, first black man to do that, first black man to do this, first black man to do this, first black man to do this. I mean, it took two pages. This man's worth knowing. So is his dad. Now, they went into a, Johnny was just a little guy and his first integrated school. And he was just about the only black kid there. And you can imagine that. I mean, man, this is way back there. And if I remember right, it was in Chicago. And those little white guys are just out there tearing him up. He came home crying, he said, "Dad, why? I didn't do anything wrong".
Now, listen to this. He said, "Johnny, now you have pity on those little boys, you love them. Because you see, that white skin lets too much sun through and their brains overheat". And he said, some of these little boys, he said, "Boy, that little, his brain about to explode as nasty as he is". So he just began to treat them all in sympathy. By the end of the year he was the most popular boy in school. When they were having the race riots in the Seventh Fleet, back when Mr. Nixon was president, and he's Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and they sent him there into the middle of that.
Now, we're still talking about spirits involved, not people. So he landed in, well, in the Philippines. How many in the military? All right, don't we know, Professor, that on a military airplane, the one in command comes off first, not everybody else, and then the one in command of that ship. I don't care if it's a ship, I don't care if it's an airplane, if it's a rowboat. And as a master chief on that rowboat, he's off first. Well, the Admiral was standing there, and to just let you know and add this to the mix, and we're still talking about spirits, not people, he was from the deep South. Well, he's standing there and this black man got off. He didn't pay any attention to him. And you know what he's thinking. "Well, I don't understand why that guy got off. Where's the Secretary"? Everybody got off the airplane.
Well, Johnny just walked off, he just walked right by him, looked at him and smiled, and the guy didn't salute. So he didn't dress him down, he just walked by him and then turned back around and just stood there. Very politely. So the Admiral turns around and said, "Have you seen anything of the Secretary of the Navy, Secretary Johnson"? He said, "Sir, I'm Secretary Johnson". "You're what?"! "Oh," he still had no courtesy for him, "oh well, come on". Now, the worst problem was on the USS Forrestal, so that's the first place they took Secretary Johnson. And they asked him, said, "Mr. Johnson, what do you want to say these"? He said, "I'm not gonna say anything to them, I'm gonna preach to them, if that's all right". "They don't need preaching".
So he went around to the fantail of the ship. That's the back end of the ship, just in case you wondered where the fantail, anyway. And all this group of sailors are here in front of him. And guess what his text was? The Book of First John. And he talked about loving one another, and he taught love to those sailors. And this one young sailor just broke down and just began to weep. "Oh, Mr. Johnson, please forgive me". He said, "What's the matter with you, son"? He said, "I hit that white boy in the head with a pipe and he's in the dispensary and I don't want him to die". In fact, it just got all on me right then. He said, "I don't want him to die. Please, could we go down there, could we go down there and pray for him"?
So a handful of them, a whole lot of them, couldn't a whole lot of them at one time get in there, Secretary Johnson and this young boy, this young sailor, stood there around that other young sailor's bed, and he was in bad shape. I mean, he hit him in the head with a pipe. And that young man's just crying his eyes out. "God, don't let him die, don't let him die".
Johnny Johnson had more miracles in his life than any preacher I know. And I know a lot of preachers. Now, I'm not talking about in volume, I'm talking about in outright absolute impossible situations, things just make you just shake your head. That young man, they laid hands on this young man, and God healed him. That began the revival in the Seventh Fleet, and it spread throughout the Seventh Fleet, and the calmness and the peace of God came. Now, he had to go right back, the final dinner, at the Admiral's table. Admiral is always at the head of the table, as he should be. Secretary Johnson to his right. Go around the corner of the table, Secretary Johnson's here. They had dinner, the Admiral is very pleased because things worked out right. Hadn't paid a bit of attention to Secretary Johnson til right at the end of it. Are you ready for this?
He got up, put his chair under the table, walked around to Secretary Johnson, got down on his knees, and said, "Please, sir, forgive me". Love never fails. I said love never fails. He had the authority to dress that Admiral down. He had the authority to put him in his place and put him on his knees, but had he done so, the Admiral would have hated him for life, and it certainly wouldn't have done the Admiral any good, and it wouldn't have done Johnny any good, and they would have lost that riot. Maybe lost the ship. There's more at stake here than one man's reputation. Because Johnny Johnson, I knew him personally, talked to him on the phone, and spent time with the man, and he just amazed me every time I was in contact with him. Understood the law of love. And he used it as a weapon. Hallelujah.
So now let's go back where we were in the Book of Daniel. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Forgive me for not marking that. I got excited and I'm wasting your time. Daniel, chapter 10. Now, verse 12, "He said unto me, 'Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you did set your heart to understand,'" and we went through all of this. And now notice he said in verse 20, "Lo, the prince of Grecia shall come". I wanted you to see the activity of these high-ranking spirits.
So now, back to the Book of Mark, chapter five. Now, you have all of this in your thinking right now. All right, now, here we are again. "They came over the other side of the sea to the country of the Gadarenes," or the other side of the Galilee. "When He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out of the tomb a man," one man, "with an unclean spirit," one unclean spirit, "who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no man could bind him, no, not with chains".
Now listen, he wasn't a big man, he's emaciated. He's a cutter, he doesn't sleep. Remember Samson. We studied Samson. Samson wasn't a big man, it wasn't because of his size. It was the size of his God. "No, not with chains, because that he had been often bound in fetters," or shackles, "and chains. The chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the shackles broken in pieces". It didn't just break them, it tore them up. Broken in pieces. "Neither could any man tame him. Always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones". He was a cutter.
Anyone watching today, your child, or maybe you yourself, you're a cutter, you have to cover up your sleeves because you cut yourself, hey, there's deliverance for you today. There's deliverance right now. Maybe you have tracks in your arm where you've been shooting up. Listen, those can disappear while we're talking. Those are chains and fetters. Free today in the name of Jesus. Did you say, did you say? "When he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped Him". If there was any man that the devil could have kept from worshiping Jesus would have been this one, but he couldn't control him. He couldn't do anything about it. He fell on his face and Jesus delivered him just like that. And He'll deliver you today, just like that. Just like that. Just like that.
Well, Brother Copeland, what about when Jesus said this devil comes out by prayer and fasting? That's not what He said. He said, "This kind comes out," what kind? That kind of unbelief. Why couldn't you cast him out, we couldn't cast him out? Because of your unbelief. This kind comes out but by prayer and fasting.
Now, Jesus always prayed, He's already fasted, He's prayed up. No devil responds to fasting. If that devil had responded to fasting, Daniel wouldn't have had any trouble. It's not the fasting that does it. Fasting doesn't change God, He doesn't change. Fasting changes you, fasting prepares your spirit. Actually what it does, it puts your flesh under where you can hear your spirit. It's that simple. And you're just, when you get over into that place, ooh, I've been there, where God can whisper at you and it sounds like He's blowing a horn. Hallelujah. You just come up from there ready to do whatever it takes.
So now I want you to see this, "Always, night and day, he was in the mountains, in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus," whoo, now listen, when they saw the giant, when that devil saw Jesus... Ohhh, when they saw the giant, when they saw the giant they ran and it stopped them. When that devil saw Jesus, he just fell on his face and worshiped Jesus. He saw the man. He saw my man, Jesus. My man Jesus. I have a question for you. Was Jesus a white man? No, He was not, He's a Middle Eastern Jew. He's a dark-skinned man.
So in your mind, when you see Jesus, don't be looking at white Jesus. He's a dark-skinned man. And a Jew to beat. And would have a very difficult time being a member in good standing in most Pentecostal churches. No, not most, I can't say that, but a lot of them. He's dark-skinned, He's a Jew and He casts out devils. And really has this thing about healing. And He believes it hasn't passed away, because He hasn't passed away and He is healing. It's shouting time on Wednesday.
My brother used to say, "If you can't shout over this, don't shout over some old unbelieving song". Like, spare me nothing that you bore for me on the cross if it'll make me closer to you, halleluyer. That is actually a song. Embalmed with unbelief. And there was a guy back in the olden days that every time I came to the church, he'd stand up and sing that. And the pastor said, "I've been trying to tell that fool not to sing that anymore". So the next time I came and he started up there, "Spare me not," I just walked up there, I said, "Go on, brother, sit down". "What"? "I said sit down! Spare me nothing, you're not qualified". "Huh"? I said, "You're not qualified to bear what He bore. Now, shut your mouth and sit down". He probably didn't sing that anymore, I hope. I didn't say it that loud, but I was meaner looking when I said it. Meant every word of it.
Imagine those days, sometimes, the Lord said to me back then, He said, "I have a sleeping giant in the land". And I knew He was talking about the Pentecostal church. And He said, "I'm gonna wake them up". I said, "Glory to God". I did just like you did, and He said, "You're the needle". I said, "What, why do I..".? That needle and anointing, it's all right when it was on, but brother, you walk out and you say, "Dear Lord". And some people said, "You know, he has mellowed over the years". No, you woke up.
Now, you may have to use your needle anointing, but you use it in love. When you're pastoring a church, don't chew out the people that are there because there are people that are not there. Don't chew them out, chew the ones out that didn't come. Well, how am I gonna do that? You mean you don't have a staff? What do you mean, Brother Copeland? There is such thing called visitation.
Now, how many are interested in being pastors? Okay, hold your hands up there. You're not the counselor, you're not the visitor. You're the boss. You don't have any business running around all over town begging people to come to church. You can put your hands down. Don't be doing that. Unless you start the church and you're the only one. No, you win you somebody to the Lord and you anoint them, put your hands on them, and you go out and teach them how to visit. And you do it in faith and you do it in love. If you take over, you're called into a church that's already established, you may have some, it could possibly be a deacon-possessed church. Well now, I said that kindly, but there are those churches that are just deacon-possessed. The pastor's not allowed to have any thought on his own. I just don't understand it. I just don't understand you, Pastor.
Now, I'm deacon and Sunday school superintendent. Really? I don't understand it! What is it you don't understand? Our other pastor used to go out there all the time. Used to go out there, and you done visit brother so-and-so five times. Five times, how come you don't ever come visit me? Shut up, baby! You go visit him! I said you go visit him, right now. That's the needle. Wake up, you baby. Don't you ever put anybody, I'm out of time, don't you ever put anybody on the deacon board because they got a good financial rating. We're out of time, see you tomorrow. Jeremy, help us.