Kenneth Copeland - Faith Refuses To Speak Words of Death
Let's open our Bibles to Isaiah 43:25. Now, I really had, I had trouble with this verse of scripture. And when I first began reading it, have you found it yet? Okay. "I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember your sins". What? I said, "No, no, Lord, no, no, you did that for my sake". "No," He said, "I did it for my sake". I don't get it. I don't understand. He said, "Do you like to remember bad things on your children"? I said, "Of course not". He said, "Well, neither do I". He said, "Besides that, if I remember your sins, I can't bless you".
Now, look at this, "Put me in remembrance". "Put me in remembrance, let us plead together. You declare that you may be justified". In other words, let's have a conversation about this. I need to talk to you about this. You come talk to me. See, you don't get all upset over your sins and then don't talk to Him. No, no, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't run from Him when your sin run to Him. But when you confess that sin was not when I found out about it. In fact, in all of our praying, in all of our going on, we have never informed Him of anything. But it's necessary that we inform Him. Because He doesn't interfere with our affairs. He has the supernatural power to completely, totally, absolutely forget. And He won't touch it unless you bring it up. I mean, it, He can wipe his memory. We can get close. Amen?
So, we do not need and must not be remembering our sins. No, no, no, no, no, don't do that. II Corinthians, Chapter 10. Now, "I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent and bold towards you". Look in the third verse, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, mighty dunamis power". Same word we get dynamite from. "Are powerful through God to the pulling-down of strongholds".
Now, all strongholds are not bad strongholds. We are strong people and there are certain strongholds in my life that have been built there over a period of a lot of years. And in January, it'll be 54 years in this ministry. So, there's a lot of strongholds. But now the mental strongholds, notice this one, "Casting down imaginations or reasonings". "Casting down imagination, reasonings, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God". Everything that exalts itself against your knowledge of the Word of God. But then the devil starts putting some kind of pressure on you, trying to wiggle into your thinking there, well, "Bringing into captivity every thought". How can you do that? With these mighty weapons.
Now, what did Jesus say? When he said, "Seek ye first, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness". He said, "Why take ye thought, saying, 'what shall we eat, what shall we wear,' and so forth, why take ye thought saying"? I mentioned this earlier, but what, why, why do we, what? Don't be saying that. Well, I wonder, it's time to shut up. Now, back there in '04, when that disc just exploded in my back, I started saying that, "I do not take the pain saying. I do not take the pain saying". That's one of the reasons I'm pain-free now. Not, not the only reason, but it, it had a great deal to do with it. That I do not take the pain saying. I don't care if you have to stuff a rag in your mouth, which I did, in fact. Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. I don't take the thought.
Now, this is the way you renew your mind. The renewal of the mind. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Chapter 12 of the Book of Romans. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy", holy, holy. "But, Brother Copeland, I don't think my body's so holy". That was time to shut up right there. Holy, yes, holy. "Acceptable under God, which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but you be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God," prove it. How do you renew your mind? That's a good question, isn't it? How do you do that?
Now, if we were to turn back to the Book of Isaiah again, he said, "My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways". But then what did he say? "My word," oh, Isaiah 55, let's turn over there, look at it. You put your eyes on it. Thank you, Lord Jesus. In the seventh verse, "Let the wicked," where does the word wicked come from? It's twisted. You know wicker furniture? It's to twist, it's twisted thinking. The wicked. Twisted-up thinking. Twisted-up ways of acting. Climb a tree to lie when you can tell the truth standing on the ground, you know. "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy. He will have hesed upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon".
I like the sound of abundantly pardon, amen, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways, sayeth the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and returns not there but waters the earth and maketh it bring forth bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth, it will not return unto me void but it'll accomplish that which I please and prosper in the thing whereto I sent it".
So we go to the Word and we take His thoughts, and we thank Him. Take that thought and think it. And I go, I go, why, yeah, sure. Well, all right, that, well, yeah, I see that. So I think that thought, I don't just believe I'm healed. Now, because of God's Word, I know I'm healed. Yes, yes. So I think that and meditate on that and say it, and I think it, and meditate on it and say it. And think it and meditate on it and say it. And there's coming a time when it's gonna come out of my mouth without my having to think about it. And it gets to the place where you're just standing in people's presence and you hear them say things and your mind is thinking, "Why in the world do you suppose they wanna say that"? But it's none of my business. And you know, unless they ask me or unless it's someone close to me.
Now, in the beginning days, you need a faith partner when you first begin this kinda thing. And Gloria was my faith partner. And so she'd just keep her mouth shut. I talked all the time, you know, and all of them habitual things that I say and I finally realized I'm using words of death to express myself and I'll never do it again. "Scared me to death," "thrilled me to death," "I'm dying to go," come on. "My feet are killing me". Well, you lied about it, your feet didn't kill you. And so I'd say something, she'd say, "Well, that's your confession and I believe every word of it". And we moved into the little project house that the university had found for us, and oh, oh, it was sad. Gloria just decided she wasn't gonna stay there, but we did. We hadn't everywhere else to go.
So I went to my landlord and I said, and what a neat guy. He was Mormon, and he was a lawyer. And so I said, and I hadn't, he said, "Kenneth," now there are people that don't think we're saved. He said, "I want you to know something. Jesus Christ of Nazareth is my Lord and Savior". And I said, "Praise God, man, yes". We're gonna paint the walls, "Sure"! So he, 'course the cheapest paintbrush in existence. And it was the same old muckally brown that it was to start with, but it, at least, it covered up the cracks. Oh, Lord, have mercy. Gloria's in one room painting and I'm in the other room painting.
So I tiped the brush in there and I made a stroke and there's just, there's three or four bristles came out of that brush, and just stuck there in that paint. And I said it. I said, "Gloria, this paintbrush is coming all to pieces"! And I stuck it in there and I made one more swipe, every bristle came out of that brush and the whole thing was stuck. I said, "Gloria, come here and look at this"! "Come here and look at this, this whole wad is," and we, both of us just cracked up. I mean, we fell in the floor laughing at that wad. Boy, there goes another 30 cents down the drain. Oh, me.
Now then, go with me to John's Gospel Chapter 10. The 10th chapter of the Book of John is the dividing line of the Bible. It's the dividing line between the covenants, right there. Now... Listen to it first from the King James and just listen here. Verse seven, "Then Jesus said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door, by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep".
Now, notice this 14th verse. "I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father and I laid down my life for the sheep," 16th verse, here's the dividing line, "and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and be one fold and one shepherd," that's us. That's us. That's the Gentiles. "And then they'll be one". Now, The New Living, "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to make them, to give them rich and satisfying life," don't you like that? "I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep".
Verse 14, "I'm the good shepherd, I know my own sheep and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father, so I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep too that are not in this sheep fold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice and there'll be one flock and one shepherd. The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me". No one, "No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily for I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again for this is what my Father has commanded".
Ooh, if that don't set you on fire, your wood's wet, brother. Glory to God, hallelujah. Now, Classic Amplified, "The thief comes only in order to steal and to kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows". Whoa, look at that, "Until it overflows," and we ought to be living out of the overflow. I've heard you preach it again and again, Spencer. Nordyke, I've heard you talking. We're living out of the overflow. I remember when I didn't have any overflow. Oh! Oh, my Lord, my Lord, my Lord. Thank God those days are gone forever, and ever, and ever, and ever and ever, and ever, and ever and ever.
That 16th verse. "I have other sheep besides these that are not of this fold. I must bring and impel those also that they will listen to my voice and heed my call. And so there will be when they become one flock under one shepherd. But this is the reason the Father loves me because I lay down my own life to take it back again. No one takes it away from me. On the contrary, I lay it down voluntarily. I put it from myself, I am authorized and have power to lay it down, to resign it and I'm authorized and have power to take it back again".
I recall the first times that I ever read that and I thought, that even makes his sacrifice even more precious. Even more precious, no man can take it away from him. You can't kill me. You can't kill me. You can't do it. Pilate didn't kill him. The Romans didn't kill him. They were just the instruments. Just let that kinda just soak in that a little bit because it is the richness, that's the reason that this is the dividing line.