Kenneth Copeland - Faith Believes It and Says It To Receive It
The ABC's is the fundamentals of faith. Fundamentals, I am going to open my Bible to the 11th chapter of the gospel of Mark. You do realize that that don't you? If yours is like mine it kinda folds open there and now. 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.
Let me give you these so you can write them down 'cause we won't be able to cover them all tonight. Number one, the number one fundamental of faith. You believe it in your heart, then you say it with your mouth. Now, the phrase, the Word of faith, which we preach is in the 10th chapter of the book of Romans. With the heart man believes and with the mouth, let's just turn there 10th chapter of the book of Romans. Don't lose your place there in Mark 11.
Verse six, "The righteousness, which is of faith speaketh". The righteousness, which is of faith speaks on this wise. "Say not in your heart who shall ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep That is to bring Christ again from the dead". What does it say? "the Word is nigh thee even in your mouth and in your heart. That is the Word of faith, which we preach, in your heart and in your mouth, in your heart and in your mouth", the Word of faith, which we preach "That if you shall confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus or Jesus as Lord and shall believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved".
Actually the word is "sozo". You shall be saved, you shall be healed. Same word means exactly the same thing. That's an interesting word study sometimes. Just read through particularly the the letters and find that word "sozo", it's an eye-opener in the healing ministry. It would have stopped small wars And people just know well, healing passed away. Well, "sozo" passed away, think of that Anyway, for here it is, "With the heart, with the spirit, the inner man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto 'sozo'". Unto salvation, heart and mouth. You believe it in your heart then say it with your mouth.
Now then, let's go to the book of Mathew, have, let me finish reading this in Mark 11:23. "Have the faith of God, have the God kind of faith. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, shall not doubt in his heart, but believe that those things which he sayeth," those words that he says will come to pass. "He shall have whatsoever he sayeth, therefore, I say," so he put it into operation immediately. Therefore I say unto you, "What things soever you desire when you pray, when you pray, believe that you receive and you will have". And you've heard Gloria say this many many, many, many times that word translated receive is exactly the word that means to take. Well, of course it does. The only time people don't understand that is in church Receive, take same thing. Every pastor needs a good receiver.
My son, Jonathan is a quarterback and a good one but he's no better than the receiver. Now, Jonathan is one of those young men and the his eye-hand coordination is just really good, I'm not just 'cause he's my grandson. I mean, I'm quoting his press. He's just one of those guys and he's totally committed himself to that game. And he believes God has called him and he has, has called him into that field to coach and to be a part of young men and their spiritual growth. So he was just as good a basketball player as he was a football player. And he but he's just walked away from it. His coach cried when he quit basketball, So did his mother. No, he said, I must concentrate on this. This is what God called me to do. I must concentrate on this on this, this is what I must do. So he and his receiver have to practice together because when that ball is anywhere close that receiver has to take that thing. He has to take it.
Take this, Gloria said it isn't yours til you to take it. Believe you take it. Believe you have it, believe you've received it. And when you stand pray and forgive, if you have ought against any, all of that is one statement, this is fundamentals of faith. And I've had, I've had people say this to me, not in a long time but particularly back in the early days when so many people had never heard anything like this. About, well now Brother Copeland that was a spiritual mountain and a spiritual fig tree.
Really, well let's check that out in the Matthew 21:21. "Jesus answered and said unto them 'Verily, I saying to you, If you have faith and doubt not you shall not only do that, which is done to this fig tree. But you say to that mountain'". Praise God, that settled that question. Now, then, and of course we've already covered some of these other places in the book of Romans and so forth. Faith now, then Mark chapter five. Now, I'll go ahead and give you background on this. Those of you that are not familiar if there is anybody that's not. Kenneth Hagin was born in August of 1917 Extremely prematurely. They were frightened for the life of his mother And that's obvious they induced labor thinking that she's gonna die and we're gonna lose her and the baby too.
So, and he was born and his grandmother, his grandfather was a doctor on the other side of the family. And so she had worked with him so much and been a nurse to him that she was, you know she really knew what she was doing. And thank you, excuse me. He was so small when he was born, fully dressed. He weighed less than two pounds, just supernaturally that he lived. And it went to suggest the route that they said it would. They said, then you'll get paralyzed, you'll get to where he can't see, and then you you'll die.
And he said, "I knew somehow, some way that it was right there in that little chapter Mark. I knew that that my healing was there". He said, "I dealt with that for 17 months". Oh excuse me, 16 months on that bed. And he said, "I finally saw it, I finally saw it. I have to believe it before I have it. I have to believe that it's mine. I have to believe when I pray that I'm healed. Not after I feel something that I'm healed. Anybody can believe that I have to believe it now while I'm paralyzed, I have to believe it now while I can just barely see".
And finally that morning, that morning in 1934 the Lord said, "So you believe you're healed". He said, "I sure do". He said it out loud, "I sure do". He said, "Healed people ought to be up this time of day". So he said, "I started getting up". And he said, "I couldn't feel anything from the waist down". And so he said, "I've worked myself over onto the side of the bed". And he said, "My hands were partially paralyzed". And he said, "I just threw my legs out in the floor".
Now, he's just skin and bones. Now, fully dressed, he only weighed 89 pounds. And but he just threw his legs out. He said, "I couldn't feel it when they hit the floor just like two chunks of wood". And he said, "I slid off of there". And he said, "I grabbed around the bed post". And he said, "I want announce to almighty God to the Lord Jesus Christ, all angels in this room and every devil in hell. I'm a healed, praise God. I'm healed, I'm healed".
And he said, all of a sudden, I began to get feeling in my legs. And he said it, he said it. He said it hurt so bad, He said, "It felt like 10,000 needles being stuck in me, said Those nerves are coming back alive". And he said, "I began to cry". And he said, "I'm crying 'cause I can feel it. I'm crying 'cause I can feel it". Not cause it, he said it hurt good. And his heart that just didn't beat right at all. His doctor told him for you to live we would have to replace everything in your chest, your heart, your lungs, all your plumbing. He asked him, he said, "Why is it, if I drank something cold, it goes in". But he said, "I feel it coming all the way over here before it goes to my stomach". He said, "You didn't completely you're so deformed on the inside".
Think about what a miracle that was and he believed it in his heart, and he said it with his mouth. And in a moment's time, he was standing up with his arms up, praising God, walking around that room. Walking around the room, Now, he was in a meeting and there was, it was after the service and the pastor and his wife and their family and all of them, all faith people and they had been in the meeting and all of them together there. And he said just the strongest, just the urge, just that almost a burden to pray. And he told them, he said "I've got to pray and I've got to pray now". They said, "All right, we'll just pray with you". And he said, "Wait, just everybody just hit the floor and started praying in the Spirit".
And he said, "I know," he said, "My knees hit that floor and there was Jesus in the Spirit. And he started talking to me and he talked to me about some things". And then he, then I said, "Lord, Jesus I want to ask you about a couple of my messages". They started, he said, "The woman with the issue of blood I got a message here about her and her saying it and so forth. And seems like I'm missing part of that message". He said, "You are". And he said something like my Spirit's been trying to get this over to you for quite some time. And he said, "Write this down". when he said "I had to," he said, "I went into my bedroom, I was staying in the parsonage there with the pastor". And he said, "I went in the bedroom".
And he said I got pencil in and just a card there and he said, "I still have it". But he said, "I got back there and got on my knees and there was Jesus". And he said, "Now write down these four things". And he said, "It's amazing how well you can write with your eyes shut when you're in the Spirit". One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. She, number one, the Lord said, number one she said it Number two, she did it. Weymouth translation of the New Testament in the book of James calls for corresponding action. She did it. She said it, she believed it, she did it. And she told it. He said, "Anybody, any of my children at any time that will do these things can receive anything they want or anything they need from me".
Just those four things. She said it, she believed it, she did it and she told it, she testified to it, those four things. So, let's go there now. And faith will not work in an unforgiving heart, in the fifth chapter of the book of Mark. Verse 25, "A certain woman, which had an issue of blood for 12 years", she's been shut in for 12 years, "and had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. When she had heard of Jesus came in the press behind and touched his garment". She touched his prayer shawl. She touched his garment for, she said "If I may touch his clothes, I shall be whole" 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.
Amen, so now she heard of Jesus. Well, like said this morning in our partner service, he preached that summon, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. And so, and so on, poor man you don't have to be poor anymore I'm here. Blind, man you don't have to be blind anymore I'm here, captive man, drug addict, you don't have to be bound up and captive anymore, I'm here. And he preached the acceptable year of the Lord which was supernatural debt cancellation so there you have it. Teach, preach and heal. Amen she heard that, she's got someone relaying messages because he lives right down the street. He lives in Capernaum and this was in Capernaum. And he's, you know, they just had scouts out looking for him and he's gotta come home sometime and when he does, we love him so.
So Spencer, she must have forgiven those doctors. 12 years, 12 years, she's been shut in. Check it out in the book of the Leviticus, fifth, six, seven chapters of the book of Leviticus. She was unclean a woman with an issue of blood beyond her normal time she was a shut in. You couldn't go out in public. And you were considered really in the same category with a leper. You were unclean and you just stay inside, you just don't come out here. So they, she just couldn't go out. Don't you know that got her old 12 long years. She's skin and bones bleeding all the time. Had all that time to think about all those doctors and I used to have money and now I don't, bunch of quacks. Obviously she didn't, she had heard enough about hearing about Jesus to forgive.