Kenneth Copeland - Why We Preach the Word of Faith
Now, it is necessary from time to time to go back to the fundamentals of faith. The ABCs, the fundamental of faith. Fundamentals, I am going to open my Bible to the 11th chapter of the gospel of Mark, you do realize that, don't you? If yours is like mine, it kinda falls open there. Why, why is God so interested? Why is Jesus so interested, in teaching, preaching, talking about faith? Faith is a spiritual force. We've talked about this a lot of times, many times but I'm gonna take a moment and touch on it again because it is the basic fundamental of it. Fear is a spiritual force, fear, Adam's faith, he was disconnected from God and spiritually connected to the devil. His faith became fear.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. We know that, but fear comes by hearing and hearing by the words of the devil. When he realized what he had done the King James is, it's really not good here. The King James said, "Where are you"? That's not what he said. And Professor Stephens pointed this out to me what the Hebrew says, why are you where you are? He was, he hid himself. The fear came by hearing, hearing God's voice. It frightened him. Well, he didn't know what was happening to him.
So fear and faith are actually the same thing. Fear is faith in something dangerous. It's, of course my being a pilot all these years, that compass rose comes up in my thinking every time I think about this. So I'm going one direction. The reciprocal of that is just the opposite direction. So if I'm going North and I turn around, I'm going South. They are both directions of the same compass but one is exactly opposite the other. Faith is exact opposite of fear. So, that's vital information when it comes to talking about faith. But now that's not all of it. Think about this now, and here too. Once you know the fundamentals of faith you know the fundamentals of fear. I mean, you already know because they work exactly the same. Exactly, 180 degrees opposed to one another.
So Hebrew 11:6. "It is impossible to please God, without faith". It's impossible to please anyone without faith. You've heard me say it before. I'm gonna say it again. I walk up to Gloria and say, "Gloria, I love you so much. I just don't believe anything you say". "What"? Well, you better duck when you say it. That is very displeasing. I love you, but I don't believe anything you say. Now, I met, I used to be one. I lied for fun, to see if I could get somebody to believe it 'cause I wanted to be an actor. It's just stupid, I look back on it now, and people say, "Well, you can't look somebody in the eye".
So I got in front of the mirror and practiced it. So I could just lie and look you right in the face. What is that? Actually, that's a singe to conscience, conscience. And, I'm like that little boy in Sunday school and the teacher said, "What is a lie"? He says, "It's an abomination to God and an ever present help in a time of need". So it's impossible to please him without faith. You can't live the Christian life without it, because the just live by faith.
And you heard, Brother Hagin, Brother Jerry say that today. Faith is not a movement, it is a lifestyle. Faith people, people that live by faith, walk by faith and know it all the time, conscious of it all the time, we never have to change our lifestyle because of the times. Because we were believing God when it got here, and we were believing God when it left. It's just like we were talking about those years that weren't so hot, and those that were, we're believing God the whole time. Amen.
We were in Steamboat Springs, right when that really raunchy recession hit '83, oh it was, man it was, it was just awful and I had my partner letter on my mind I'm thinking about my partner letter now. And we had gone skiing that morning and all it's just gorgeous up there in the mountains and the lift stopped, and particularly when it stops out there hanging over a high valley, I really like that and all of the mountains and all of that.
And I heard it so plain, the word of the Lord came to me and I'm praying in the Spirit the whole time I'm up there about my partner letter because it's coming up and I'm gonna write this thing. I'm like, "What am I gonna say to my partner"? And they said, "Tell your partners to don't, not to join in on the recession, it doesn't belong to them". Don't join in. Just don't join in, in other words, stay on your faith. So you can't fight the Christian fight. We fight the good fight, of faith. You can't get saved without it.
In the second chapter of the book of Ephesians, we're saved... by faith through grace. And somebody said to me one time, it is the gift of God, and they said, "Brother Copeland, which one of those were the gift of God"? I said, "Both of them, you..". You gotta pick? Now, listen to this, listen to this one. "Therefore it is of faith," fourth chapter of the book of Romans. "Therefore it is of faith so that it might be by grace". So that it might be by grace. On one airplane that I'd trained on, one jet airplane that I'd trained on. You had, DC direct current generators, but there was a converter in there that had to do with the de-icing system and so forth. And one of the ways you learn this particular system was no DC, no AC. Because you had to have that direct current to start with, you had to have something to convert to AC or you don't get there.
No faith, no grace. You don't wanna get caught without grace, ever! No faith, no grace. Hallelujah. Well, what else? What else can you think of? You can't overcome the world without it. This is the victory that overcometh the world. Who's faith? Our faith, my faith. My faith. Now, you know why we're the Victory Channel, years and years I'm talking about, And, I don't know, this was so far back. Just right at the very, very beginning. And I had all my outlines, did my outlines, just like I do 'em now. And I had 'em all out on the bed in the motel.
And I remember having each one of 'em out here like this. And I said, "Now, Lord". He said, this is, he said, "What does my Word say"? This is the victory that overcometh the world. He said, "Doesn't my Word say that I gave you victory over death? I gave you victory over grave. I gave you victory over hell". He said, "Didn't my Word say that"? I said, "Yes sir, yes, sir". Well, he said, "There's victory in the new birth, there's victory in the baptism of the Holy Ghost, speaking with other tongues, there's victory". Right then he said, "Every believer has a voice, and it is the voice of victory". He said, "I want you to teach victory in the new birth. You overcame, you teach victory, just you teach faith. You teach victory, victory, victory, victory".
That's when this got started. And I might as well just take up this whole package. Where did this, from the top of the world to the bottom and all the way around the middle. Where did that came from? Came from, that sounds good, doesn't it? He haven't came yet, well you know, that's all right. I get excited talking about faith. Brother Hagin, I keep coming over here 'cause these are Haginites and Oral Robertsites and... He started saying, he learned, I have what I say. And he said I'm gonna preach that Jesus saves, that Jesus heals, Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and he is the soon coming King. And I'm gonna preach it from El Paso to Texarkana and from Amarilla to Brownsville.
He said if I covered Texas, I'll think I'm doing something here. But then he said, I'll begin to expand. I'm gonna preach it. That Jesus saves, Jesus heals, Jesus baptizes with the Holy Ghost, and he's our soon coming King. And I'm gonna preach it from the Northwest to the Northeast from the top of the United States to the bottom. And then he said I'll spread out and I'm gonna preach it to Canada, glory to God. And I took hold of that. I said, "Well, glory to God, I'm gonna start saying that". And I was sitting, I had a little table. Oh, it was so little. The whole little house was so little. And so I had this little table I was using for a desk.
Now, when I was a boy, particularly in grade school, you had book covers. Well, I drew airplanes all over my book covers. I mean, just, my daddy said, "If I could break your head open there'll just be motorcycles and airplanes jump out". And I said, "Yeah, that's right". And I found out later I was called to fly. And I've told you that story but, and I just doodling and just doodling. And I read, yeah, yeah, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, yes. Whosoever so confesses that Jesus is Lord, no man says, Jesus is Lord, except for the Holy Ghost. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord, I just doodling all over all over my scrap paper and just Jesus is Lord.
Jesus is Lord Jesus, my Jesus is Lord, he's Lord from the top of the world, the bottom he's Lord, he's Lord, he's Lord. And I drew this little globe and I put Jesus is Lord. And I had this little airplane flying around right around the equator all the way around the middle. So I started saying it, I'm gonna preach this gospel. I'm gonna preach that Jesus saves. I'm gonna preach that Jesus heals. I'm gonna preach that Jesus is our soon coming King. I'm gonna preach that Jesus is our financier, glory to God, that he is our Melchizedek, I'm gonna preach it from the top of this world to the bottom. And I'm gonna preach it all the way around the middle and by the grace and glory of God we've been able to do that.
We've been able to do that. Amen. Preached it so far North in Canada, we did a couple-of-weeks tour in Canada and just preaching the Word of faith. And there was a woman that called and wanted to talk to me. So they gave, anyway, they put me on a phone with them the cell phone, are you kidding, what's a cell phone? That's a phone in a jail or something? No, there was no cell phone. And so anyway, got her on the phone. She said, "Brother Copeland, I've been a partner for a long time, would you come up to our village and preach"? I said, "Well, we're on this tour". She said, "Listen, we really need you to come". I said, "Okay, where are you"? She said, "We're in village," what was it Lord? 58 I think. It was a number on a map. Actually, it was part of the lat-long. She was so far North.
Now, we were, back in the day, we had an airplane called a Jetstar, Lockheed Jetstar. And to go direct across, like to go to Hawaii you just had to get certain winds, headwinds just right, or you just couldn't get there. They're just too much headwind. But we found out from medical people that you could just go a little bit North up to Seattle, and then right on up to the Aleutian islands, right there at the tip of the Aleutian islands to Cold Bay, which was a refueling stop during World War II, and it still is today.
And so we were actually headed on, we were, we went up there and then going due South, and then we were going on to the Pacific, central Pacific. And we preached on a little Island called Ebeye. Anyway, we walked and it was cold there. And so we walked through the back of the hanger to get in the fuel office, get out of the wind. And so we were just standing there at the fuel desk waiting so I could sign the credit card. And this woman walked in there and she went, and turned around and ran out.
Jesse, standing there, I turned around and said, "What'd you say"? He said, "I didn't say anything". And she came back in there. She said, "Oh, please forgive me, you guys. Nobody told me you were coming here". She said, "We watch you on television all the time". And she said, "You know, it's dark up here about half of the year and it's daylight half of the year". She said, "We just pick out of whatever time we want. Whether it's night or day, we go in and we watch the broadcast". In Cold Bay, Alaska. I started saying it.
Well, last year, glory to God, Jerry and Jesse and I preached on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, hallelujah, dream of mine. I'm a student of World War II. And particularly the Guadalcanal Campaign, 'cause that was a big turning point for American forces. And then here I am in Honiara and Guadalcanal preaching the Word of faith, hallelujah. And preached it in Colombia, which is right on the equator preached it in Venezuela and preached it in Australia and New Zealand, glory to God. So God has blessed us to be able to do that from the top of the world to the bottom and all the way around the middle to preach the Word of faith. Amen. The very fundamentals of faith.