Kenneth Copeland - Faith Prepares for What It Believes
Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is The Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast and we're thrilled today that you're here. Praise God. I'm thrilled today that you're here. And so the Word of the Living God. It's the Living God, the Word of the Living God. Right in the very beginning now, well, let's go back and do some fundamentals here about faith. "Copeland, is that all you talk about"? "Yes". Everything in this book is by faith. You don't believe that? You just hang on to your seat there a little bit.
Hebrews chapter 11, "Now faith is"... Well, now faith is... Faith is now. If it's not now, it's something else. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear". Didn't say God made it out of nothing. No, it said, "By faith, He did it". Glory to God. He believed it and He said it and it was. God's Word is. God's Word is. It was, it is, it always will be. It is what?
First of all, it's Him. Second of all, His Word is whatever you need it to be. Amen. Because faith and because of faith, which is a spiritual force, it is a spiritual, unseen force, yet can be very tangible because the result of it, in many cases, can be felt. It doesn't depend on feelings to work, but it does depend on the Word to work. How do we know that? Well, Romans 10:17, "For faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God". By hearing, hearing. Men and women are won by the hearing of words. We were saved by words. We were saved, we heard words, believed them in our heart and said it with our mouth, "I receive Jesus as my Lord and my Savior".
I remember 1962 like it was last night. I had just flown up... Trip. I messed my job up and... Anyway, I was out hunting another job. Gloria wasn't at home. And we wound up... I won't go into the story. It's a good story, but anyway, we wound up in a three-bedroom home with nothing in it. No appliances, nothing. A friend of mine, close friend of mine, had an opportunity to go into this business and it proved to be a very lucrative thing, but I wasn't supposed to be there. It was an insulation product that was just phenomenal and the demonstration of it was phenomenal. Anyway, man alive, I quit my job. He quit his. He had savings. I didn't have any money, but the reason he brought me in, because I knew something about selling stuff.
So I just got out and man, just sold that. I mean, it was extremely good product. And I sold a whole, just a bunch of it. And at that time, you know there's a Kenneth BC, you understand? The product, we couldn't get the product! Now, we had the number on the freight car. It was a freight car full of it. And we had sold, I had sold a bunch of this stuff. So Gloria and I, we've got to let the money coming here. And so we just bought a house on a lease-purchase deal. She quit her job, went to work for this great company coming. Anyway. I saw the car headed out of town and I ran to a phone booth. Where's your cell phone? Well, it's about 95 years in the future. And so I called, I said, "Harvey, there goes to the car out of town"!
Well, I had to quit. He went ahead and got a hold of it and had the equipment and so forth and did very well at it. Anyway. So Gloria was in that house. My mother had sent us a 25-pound sack of potatoes. We were not about to tell my parents or hers where we were in this. We made a pact together, Gloria and I did. We would never go to our parents, we would never go home and we'd never get mad and go home. That never happened. I got a new job and Gloria found us a brand new unfurnished... I mean, brand-new, furnished apartment. Never been lived in. I had a trip that day, executive with the Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company. His name was Weir, I'll never forget it. And came back then.
I was so glad, man, we've got this new apartment. Came in, and of course I went in and took my suit off. It was about eight o'clock, something like that. Came in and took... I had about one shoe on and I went into the kitchen. Gloria's at the stove fixing supper. And to me, the room filled up with the glory of God. Oh, I shut my eyes. And I heard the Lord say, "Kenneth, if you don't get right with me, you go into a devil's hell". I said, "I know it".
See, I was raised right. Wasn't my parents' fault I turned like this. And I said, "I know it. What do I do now"? I heard my Sunday school teacher. Now, she was a widow woman. She was a little short lady and she wore a little black straw hat. And she wore a black dress and a little artificial flower sticking out of that hat. I could just see her today. Her name was Mrs. Tagard We called her Old Lady Tagard. She called herself Old Lady Tagard. Now, I don't know if she was, but she was Old Lady Tagard. We were in Southern Baptist Sunday school. Well, the Southern Baptists, their Sunday schools are like school. They have grades and so forth. And all of us boys told, "Nope, nope. We're not promoting. If Ms. Tagard doesn't go, we're not going".
So she was promoted up with us. Anyway, I said, and I heard her voice, "Boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart". And I did. To me, the roar and the bitterness just left. Faith came into my heart. How? I heard what words? I heard her say that. Now, I don't know. I don't remember how many times she said that, but I recognized her voice. She went, met up the Lord. I'm satisfied well after she's in Heaven. Amen, praise God. Words, words. Words in here, words from here. Faith came that night. I received it and was born again, changed my life and my future forever. Praise God. Amen. All right.
Now, faith, from the book of James in the Weymouth translation. Richard Francis Weymouth, also known as The New Testament Modern Speech. Now I want to read this just... Yeah, and you've heard me use this phrase. This is where I got it. Amen. This New Testament was out of print and so our ministry put it back into print. I am so glad. Amen. And you've heard me use this. Now, in James 2:14, "What good is it, my brethren, if a man professed to have faith and yet his actions do not correspond? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother and sister are poorly clad or lack daily food. One of you says to them, 'Fare you well, keep yourselves warm and well fed,' and yet you do not supply their bodily needs. What is the use of that? So also faith, if it is unaccompanied by obedience, if that unseen force of faith"...
Every born again believer has it because you got saved by faith. Read the second chapter of the book of Ephesians. Faith and grace, glory to God. But it is by faith so that it might be by grace. Ain't that right? Okay. "You have faith, I have actions. Prove to me your faith apart from corresponding action". I've used that phrase over and over. I heard Brother Hagin use it over and over. And that's where it came from: Richard Francis Weymouth, praise God. Amen. So, corresponding action. Faith has to have action or it's dead. And you go ahead and read there. The body is dead without the spirit. Faith is dead without corresponding action.
Now, the King James says "works". And particularly people that some, long ago, "Ah, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not right. We're not saved by works". Well, of course we're not saved by works. You're saved by faith, but the faith has to have action. It has to have action to it. So faith prepares for what it expects or what it believes will happen ahead of time. You believe it, you find covenant words, covenant promises, covenant facts, like "By His stripes, you were healed". That's not a promise, that's a fact. That's already happened.
Now, when Isaiah prophesied it ahead of time, that was a promise that was fulfilled when Jesus went to Peter's house, it was on the Shabbat, after coming out of the synagogue where he had set a man free in that synagogue. And then when evening was come, he went right to Peter's house. Well, they followed Him there. It was evening time, "Hey, we're out of church. Who is He? Let's go after Him". It was fulfilled that which Isaiah spoke, saying Himself took our infirmities and carried out and bore our sicknesses.
And then Peter. I go through this routine every morning and there's just such wonderful things. Revelation has come through this. And Peter, thinking back, I remember that so well. He healed whatever his mother-in-law's name was. I'll use Gloria's mother's name. He healed Ma Dear That's what the kids call Gloria's mother, Ma Dear. He healed Ma Dear. He rebuked that fever.
I remember running into that tomb, John right in front of me, and He was gone. And I remember Him appearing to us. I remember how He forgave me for the terrible thing that I did, yeah, Himself bore. And he's thinking, Himself bore my sins in His own body. And he's writing at Laodicea, "Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live". Should live, under righteousness, by whose stripes? By who? By His stripes, you were healed. He didn't know he was writing a book in the New Testament. He's writing to somebody. That's the reason the letters are so powerful. Amen.
So every day I go through it. I did it this morning and just give God praise. I thank Him for healing my heart. I thank Him for healing my back. I thank Him, glory to God. I thank God that I can sit here this morning, look right at that camera, and I have no pain in my body. And there was some time that it was... It is tough. But thank God it's over. Because of faith in God, in His Word. "In the beginning was the Word". Holy Bible. Well, very few people, you and I don't ever call this the Bible, do we? To me, it's not the Bible, but it's holy, but it's His Word, it's His bond.
There's two covenants here. First one and the second one. All of them are in blood, began with the blood of animals, began in the garden of Eden with the blood of an animal, with which God made clothes for His people, for His man and His woman, glory to God. Amen? Right there, it began. Adam's name is blood: Adam, red, blood. The blood of animals then the blood of a man through circumcision and then the blood of God at the cross. Ain't that magnificent, glory to God? And I've preached nearly everything I know in the first... No, that's not right. But to me, I like the King James translation of something that was said by David concerning the temple. His temple must be "magnifical".
And I just thought, just for kicks, I'd put that in the dictionary. They said, "No such word". I said, "Uh-uh. Yes there is". Magnifical, His temple should be magnifical. Well, there's a lot of people in this world, they get mad if anything we have is magnifical. A long time ago, I quit paying any attention to that because we're going to be magnifical whether they like it. Magnificent. Amen. He is magnificent. Praise God and worthy to be praised.
Tim, how much time we've got? Okay, good. And back to this, faith prepares and praises ahead of time for what it expects, what it believes will happen. Amen. And let's begin reading with Mark chapter five, "They came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit".
Now stop right there because we don't have time to go through this, but turn quickly to the Book of Ephesians and look at the sixth chapter, verse 11, "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities". Now this starts from the bottom up: "principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world". Those are the devils that possess people in this world, spirit, soul, and body, and the madman of Gadara had an unclean spirit. We're out of time and I'll be back in just a moment. Hallelujah! Oh, we love You Jesus. Glory to God! Thank You Lord, Jesus.