Kenneth Copeland - Faith Prepares Ahead of Time
Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Let's get into this thing this morning. Are you ready? Yeah, I was born ready for it. Let's go back over here to the fifth chapter of the Book of Mark, please. "Faith prepares ahead of time". Now we read from Weymouth translation, "Faith must have corresponding action". Now that corresponding action, most of the time would come after you have exercised your faith and believed, but now you're standing on the Word of God. Well, the King James said, "Faith without works is dead," but Richard Francis Weymouth, thank you very much said, "Corresponding action".
Now I had heard Brother Hagin say that over and over again. I didn't know where it came from, until number of years ago, I'm in this New Testament. The New Testament in Modern Speech was out of print. And so, Kenneth Copeland Publications, we put it back into print and it is a marvelous, marvelous translation of the New Testament. Corresponding action. That corresponding action can and should come before as easily as after, because you're expecting something to happen, but yet that something is in the future, but you're expecting it to happen, so you're preparing for it. We had testimony, this one that I remember so well. Her son was in prison. And so she was going to do this, she's preparing, preparing ahead of time and she's praying for him. He's unsaved and she's praying for him and he's in prison. She set a place for him at the table at breakfast.
Now listen, I wouldn't have done this. I would've set the table, but after and she would sit there and talk to him, but then she got up and washed the dishes. They were clean. Every time she had a meal, she set a place for him and she talked to him the whole time. And I don't remember the time, but it wasn't all that long. It was nowhere near the sentence he got in the first place. He came home and he came home born again and filled with the Spirit of God. Got saved in prison. Amen? That she prepared ahead of time. She had corresponding action going. But it was before instead of after. He wasn't home yet. Yeah, but he's coming home and so she prepared.
Now, I know people that did the same thing that had been told they could never, ever have children. And they said, "Well, yes, we will". And went to the nursery store and set up a nursery and all of that, preparing for the baby. Preparing for the baby. What is that? That's corresponding action ahead of time. Amen? And well, you know the answer, of course, they had a child. Now, the doctors all said what they had to say, but the Word of God said what it had to say. They had to say what they had to say, but then they put action to it. They didn't just cry and pray and cry and pray and pray and cry and pray and pray and cry and pray. They set up a nursery right there in the house and everything and got ready. Got it all ready.
And let me say this to you. "Well Brother Copeland, I need a new car". "Well why don't you get you one"? "I don't have any money". You're a prime candidate for corresponding action ahead of time. And praise ahead of time. That's huge. I like to call praise the big gun of faith, because when all seems lost, you just begin to worship and praise and praise and worship, and praise and worship like Paul and Silas in the middle of that dungeon in the middle of the night in stocks and they sang songs and what else? They praised God at midnight and they weren't, "Well I have a praise in my heart" Oh, come on. If you've got a praise in your heart, it'll come out your mouth. The prisoners heard them. They were shouting, they beat nearly to death and they were in stock. You talk about a supernatural thing, and hey, earthquakes don't cause the shackles to come off your hands. What do you think? Angels. Yeah, angels. Glory be to God.
Let's go back to Gadara. Now, for those of us that haven't been here before now, Jesus and His whole team went across the Galilee, where this mad man of Gadara on the other side of the Galilee there. And this man was demon possessed with an unclean spirit. Now we went over to the sixth chapter of the Book of Ephesians and you need to do the same thing. For the Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul laid this out, "For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with".
Now, this is from the lower ranks of principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world. Rulers, those are the ones that demon possessed people. Then wicked spirits in the heavenlies. Those are the highest ranking devils other than Satan himself. Amen. They're the ones that, and you find this over in the Book of Daniel, that the Prince of Persia fought against Gabriel for 21 days. And he finally had to call in Michael, the Prince of War to come in and help him and defeat that Prince of Persia and then he told Daniel, "When the Prince of Persia leaves, the Prince of Greece will come". Political devils. That's the reason politicians get elected and then once they get in authority and power, they do things that you think, what in the world would cause somebody to do something stupid like that? Hey, don't judge him or her. They're under the influence of those very, very high ranking devils and they don't know anything about it. 99% of them don't.
Anyway, now that's what's happening here. Then there was Legion, that one ruling devil had authority over from three to 6,000 devils, which were coming and going in this man's life. And we talked about the fact that Satan didn't come up with that. He's a fallen angel. All of these are fallen spirits. God has rank and file in his angelic forces. And I learned then later, we read from the first chapter of the Book of Hebrews, that the angels are all ministering spirits sent forth. When did they get sent forth?
Now, think back. Think back to the day of Pentecost. No longer think about Jacob's ladder, angels coming to in full. No, not anymore. Not anymore. Jesus broke the devil's power and He at that time, had Adam's authority over this world. He broke his power in hell itself and left him begging at His feet and gave us authority in His name. Hallelujah. What about the 91st psalm? Ministering angels all through that 91st psalm. Go back and read it and study it.
We get in the airplane every time, whether I'm flying or I'm back in the cabin, every single flight, whether we do three flights in the day, we do it three times. And too, my spiritual father Oral Roberts, the names of his partners were on microfiche, mine are on a USB. And I just carried my partners around in my pocket with me all the time. And I have a solid gold piece, there it's a South African Krugerrand because my partners are, they're precious like gold to me and I carry them around in my pocket. And I lay hands on that airplane and Father, we plead the blood over this airplane today for protection against every evil spirit, every evil person, every wicked plan of the devil is bound and stopped then thwarted. Ministering angels, from the 91st Psalm, ministering angels lift us up in your hands, lest we dash our foot against a stone and keep us in all of our ways and bless our partners beyond measure all over the world. Every flight.
Gloria and I do it in the car. Ministering spirits, ministering angels sent forth on the day of Pentecost. It didn't say there was a rushing, mighty wind. Said there was the sound of a rushing, mighty wind. I'm totally convinced. Absolutely totally irreversibly convinced that that's when the spirit of the Living God and all of these angels that had been locked out as long as the devil had Adam's authority and Jesus broke him and put him on his knees and took his keys away from him. Glory to God, hallelujah. And that's when all, trillions, trillions, innumerable numbers of angels came into this atmosphere. I'm convinced of it. Glory to God. I may not be right. Yeah, I am because I know where I got my information. But anyway, now I want to read this. Let's take it up here.
Verse 12, "All the devils besought him saying, 'Send us into the swine that we may enter into them.' And forthwith Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirit," there was one unclean spirit had him possessed. Now all of these unclean spirits that were working for the ruler and with the ruler using this man. That's the reason he didn't sleep. That's the reason he cried night and day. That's the reason he cut himself. That's the reason politicians do things that you can't understand why on earth they would do such a thing as that because they don't know how to resist. Amen. That here it scared all these people out there. They heard what the devil said through the man, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, O son of the most high God? I abjure you".
Well, that man would have never said that to Jesus, but that devil would because he knew who He was. And Jesus just shut him down. Then all those devils, three to 6,000 devils in 2,000 pigs, there's no way to imagine what kind of scream and what kind of a sound 2,000 animals suddenly bolt and run at the same time. That'd scare anybody that those hogs were just out there feeding and all of a sudden they just jumped, run, run off the cliff. Scared everybody in the place.
Let's continue to read. Verse 14, "They that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country and they went out to see what it was that was done. They come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the Legion sitting and clothed in his right mind and they were afraid. And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine and they began to pray him, 'Get out of here, go, go, go, go. Get away.' And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil, prayed him, that he might be with him. How be it Jesus suffered him not but said unto him, 'Go home to your friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for the and has had compassion on thee.'"
Now, wait a minute, Go home to thy friends. Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee. Tell them. Tell them. And has had compassion on thee. That love message is what cast out fear. The Lord who is love, had compassion on him and cast out the devil. Heehaw. "He departed and began to publish in Decapolis or the 10 surrounding cities how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel". Now, so he called this man to preach. Do you think, do you imagine, do you think Jesus had any idea why He was going across the Galilee? He said, "I only say what I hear my father say and I only do what I see my father do". He already knew what He was going to do. He already knew what He was about to be confronted, with which He was about to be confronted.
Faith prepares for what it expects, what it believes will happen ahead of time. Verse 15, "They come to see Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the Legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind". Where did they get the clothes? Where Did they get the clothes? Like the man said, "If that doesn't set you on fire, your wood's wet, brother". This is a faith statement that has gone hidden from so many. He didn't say, "One of you boys take your clothes off and give it to him".
Now he got the same problem. He got a naked man going home in the boat. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. I can see Jesus saying, "All right guys, we're going across the lake over here and we're going to be confronted with a man here. I'm going to call him to preach. He is in, you're going to have to see him to believe what a mess he's really in. He is skin and bones. He doesn't have any clothes. Now I want you to go get some clothes. Judas, you come up with the money here, come on, come on, boy. You go get him some nice clothes. I'm going to call him to preach and I'm going to send him home. And I don't want him going home to his family, looking like a dog with nothing to wear. I'm calling him to preach and he's going to go preach compassion and his family hasn't seen him. They may not even know where he is".
It obviously wasn't there. It was a ways away from there, in the 10 surrounding cities, not all that far, but he was back there then, they may have not had any idea where, they may have thought he was dead. But he comes home dressed. Man, the guy's skin and bones but yet he looks good. Boy, he looks nice. And his wife runs up to him and grabs him and says, "We thought you were dead". And he said, "Well, for all practical purposes, I was, I've been out of it. I don't remember anything. All I remember is back when such and such happened and I just got worse, worse. And then there's a whole time there that is gone from my thinking. But I met this man and he came and he had compassion on me".
"And I found out later, His name is Jesus. And He called me to preach, had such compassion on me and look at the new clothes He bought for me. He only got me out of my trouble. Look at my clothes. I've never owned clothes these nice before. And I'm going to go tell everybody I know. I'm telling you, I'm telling all my friends in this whole area, I'm going to go tell him about the compassion this man had on me. Then look at my clothes. Will you look at my clothes? He prospered me". There you go talking about prosperity. Yeah and I'll be talking about it the next time you see me too. Because the same man prospered me. The same man. Hallelujah.
Now one of the worst things you can do absolutely is believe everything you read on Wikipedia. I found out, I didn't know this. I found out anybody can put that stuff on there in order to slur me and this ministry. Somebody put on there that I'm the billionaire preacher from Texas. Well, I agree, but no, they say that that's my net worth. And you just Wikipedia anybody they don't come up first with your net worth. And the whole thing is a lie. And we're in the process of changing it right now. That's a lie from Hell. Amen. And put the right stuff in there. Praise God.
And we're out of time again today. Now He has furnished me quite well. I have nice clothes. Thank you, PawPaw Listen, let me remind you. Faith takes action before the answer comes. And as Brother Copeland said, faith must have corresponding action because faith moves toward that promise of God, when you fully trust and believe God's Word is the truth. Faith goes to work, preparing ahead of time, for what it expects to receive.