Kenneth Copeland - The Motive of Faith Is Always Love
Well, here it is Friday and praise God, Jesus is still Lord. I'm Kenneth Copeland and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad I'm here. And I'm glad you're here. Praise God. Amen. I know you've enjoyed this week. And when the scripture and faith comes and then you begin to see things. I read that fifth chapter of Mark for over 50 years before I saw that. Where did he get those clothes? And there it was, all the time.
Now, excuse me, let's go back over there to the fifth chapter once again. I want to show you something here. Now, here he is. He's in the boat with Jesus and his dad. He's got on brand new clothes and he's never met anybody like this in his entire life. He not only delivered him, not only set him free, he's sending him home well dressed. So, what are we talking about? Faith always prepares ahead of time for what it believes is going to happen. Jesus prepared ahead of time. Obviously He did. "Clothed and in his right mind" in the 15th verse.
But look at his message. "How be it Jesus suffered him not". He wanted to go with him. "I want to go with you, man. I want to travel with you. Hey, I've never met anybody like you and this group with you. Let me go with you". "No, no, no, no, no". Jesus said, "No, no, no. Go home to your friends. Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee". He departed and began to preach. Preach what? Compassion. Love. The love message. He went everywhere preaching the love of God and the love of Jesus.
Now then, faith's motive. We've found out here that faith prepares and faith praises. Amen. One woman, in fact, I called Billye Brim. I said, "Billye, do you remember this woman's name"? She said, "No". She said, "I don't". Anyway, they told her she would never, ever walk again. She said, "No, you're wrong. I will". And her grandsons took her to the hospital. She took her shoes with her. And her and her grandson said "Why are you taking your shoes"? "I'm going to walk out of this place". No, no. She said, "Yes, I will". She told the doctor, she told everybody, and she had her shoes. And they thought, "Well, she's a religious nut".
She was, amen. Yeah, no, she's a faith woman. Corresponding action ahead of time. Jesus came to her, came to her in the night and healed her and visited with her and the next morning she got up, got dressed, and put her shoes on, and walked into her doctor. He said, "No, no. I don't believe this". She said, "Look at me". Seemed like her name was Gertrude or something. I almost got it. Anyway, "No, you cannot walk and I don't believe it". And he turned around and faced the wall. He wouldn't face her. And she walked in there and she walked out of that hospital. But she took her shoes with her. She took her shoes with her. Hallelujah. Praise God. Action. Believe it. Receive it. And act on it.
Now, faith's motive is always love. He told him, "Go preach compassion. Go preach love". And just do your research and so forth, Jesus went back into that same area where that man had preached just right there close. And they just overwhelmed him because of that man's ministry. And I believe it had to do with how well he was dressed. They said, "Look at him". He come in there in them old rag tags he had on, they said, "Dear God, who wants to believe anything this guy like this says"? But here's a man comes in well-dressed and then he says, "That man, I found out His name is Jesus. He's the one that gave me the clothes. He's the one that prospered me. He's the one. And now I know His name. And now I can preach in His name. And I can tell you how He loved me and had compassion on me. And now I know there's a God in Israel and His name is Jesus". Hallelujah. Preaching love.
Now go with me to the book of Ephesians. Faith's motive is always love, right? Always. Faith works by love. So now, "Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and has given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour". Now, just listen. This is Ephesians five in the Classic Amplified. Therefore, now that Greek word is M-I-N-E-T-E-S. We get our word mimic from that. The English word mimic comes from that. "Therefore be imitators of God, copy him, and follow his example as well beloved children imitate their father and walk in love".
Walk in love. Imitate Him. Well, He is your Father. He's your very own Father. Jesus is your blood Brother. And one day I was... About Jesus going to the cross and you can't imagine how much trouble I got in back in the old days when I began to preach that He went to Hell. Come on. Can you read? "Well, no". Yes He did. Anyway, He went into Hell and was there for three days and three nights, Jesus said, "Like Jonah was in the whale so shall the son of man be".
Now in order to make that work, if you go the traditional route of Friday, it doesn't work, but this was a high Sabbath and started on Wednesday, not Friday. It just pays to know what the Bible is saying. And it's in the book of Job. Instead of going by tradition and you just figure it out. It's just exactly like Jesus said. Anyway, well, of course it was. Now, "Therefore be imitators of God, copy Him, follow His example as well beloved children imitate their father and walk in love esteeming and delighting in one another as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God for you so that it became a sweet fragrance".
Now Jesus did that for you and He did that for me. And one day it just came all over me. Oh, love did that for me. And I remember when the Lord really put it to me. And of course I spent the rest of my ministry life asking the same question. Did God heal me because I had faith? Well, I needed faith. Yes, but no, He healed me because He loved me. He prospered me because He loved me. He's my Father and Jesus is my blood Brother. Now my having a Native American background on my mother's side, that really excited me because I was a little boy, I wanted a blood brother and I got E. W. Kenyon's little book, The Blood Covenant. I'll tell you what happened. Tim, how much time do I have? I got time? Oh yeah, I do.
This was back in the day. And there was a shuttle that ran from Dallas Love to Houston and then over to Fort Worth. And you can just go to the gate and buy a ticket for it. And so, our plane was in the shop or something, whatever. So I needed to go to Houston. And so I just went on that brand new shuttle. Well, I done walked into the back end of the airplane. And most people want a window. I don't care about looking out the window. I look out the front window. Why do I want to look out the side window for? So, I just head for the front of the airplane. And they had the floor up there was carpeted.
And so I thought, "I'm going to read that book that somebody gave me". I hadn't looked at it. Back then it was small enough I had it in my coat pocket. I got it out. Oh, E. W. Kenyon. The man wrote with such an annoying, you could hardly read more than a sentence at a time. Jesus Christ by covenant is my blood Brother, in His blood. Dear God, I didn't have a brother. I didn't have a sister. I always wanted a brother. And, but I just, I just wanted a blood brother. And now, here came the lady with the booze cart. She walked up there with this big smile on her face. She said, "Oh no, you've had too much already". I said, "Yeah, I guess my eyes are glazed over". I said, "Yeah, lady, I'm drunk. But not on your stuff". My blood Brother.
And the other thing that hit me was in the 17th chapter of John, He's praying that final prayer. He's going to the cross here in hours. Well, back when I first began to read this, I didn't understand all that. And I had just learned about agreement prayer. I was still a little ornery. And I thought, "I just learned about the prayer of agreement from Brother Hagin and the power in this thing. And then Brother Roberts would talk about it, and it's the most amazing thing I've ever heard in my life".
And so I had my Bible and I'm just walking around the room there. And I thought, now here, Jesus prayed this prayer in the 17th chapter of John. And so, "He prayed this, so I'm going to pray it. And I'm going to agree with him". And so, I said, "Oh, yeah. Oh Jesus, I agree with that. And our father glorify that. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, I agree. Glory to God. They're not of this world, either. I'm not of this world. Sanctify them through that truth. That word is truth. Oh, yes. Thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word".
I thought, "Dear God, that's me. That is me. Oh Jesus, Jesus, oh yes". "That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I am thee that they also may be one with us". Oh, yes. I agree with that. "That the world may believe that thou has sent me". Oh, I believe that. "And the glory, which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and thou in me that they may make me perfect in us. That the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them as much as you loved"... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. "That love them as much as thou hast loved me". And it frightened me and I'm just standing there and I said, "How could that possibly be? That God loves me as much as He did Jesus. And does Jesus".
I didn't know I was a new creature. All right? I hadn't found that out yet. And I said, "But, I said I was going to agree with this and it's written in red so I have to agree with it". And I was shaking. I was literally trembling and I had my Bible up here like this and I said, "Oh, God. I believe that You love Kenneth as much as You love Jesus". I was shaking. "I believe it. I believe that God loves me as much as He loves You, Jesus". And I want You to know my insides were jumping up and down. I just began to walk around that little room. "God loves Kenneth. God loves Kenneth. God loves Kenneth".
At first, all I could think about was Kenneth BC. I thought, "God loves Kenneth. God loves Kenneth". And I just walked around, "God loves Kenneth. God loves Kenneth. God loves Kenneth. God loves me as much as He loves Jesus". Well, of course He does. Of course He does. He is love. He doesn't have love. He is love. He has faith, but He is love. And Jesus is the Son of love. It was love on the cross. It was love that raised Him from the dead. It was love. It was love that put our sicknesses and our diseases and our poverty, the whole curse, all of it, on Him. Amen. The curse of the law. He was made a curse for us. That the blessing of Abraham might come on all of us, that we might receive the promise of the spirit that we might receive what the spirit promised. And we receive it by faith, through faith. Hallelujah. That's the blessing of Abraham.
Now let me give you just a little nugget that you can take home this weekend and think about. The apostle Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin, right? Then why are the Jews not called Bens? They are called Jews, which is short for Judah. And Jesus is from the tribe of Judah. Thought you might enjoy that. Amen? He has marked all of Israel and all the world. He is the God of our salvation. He is the God that came to make us free. And because of Him, we are free. Because of Him, this book is real. "When one is willing and obedient," Isaiah 1:18 and 19, "He will eat the good of the land". Why? Because He loves you. If you're willing and obedient. Now those two go together.
I got in trouble with that. I said, "Lord," we were in trouble and financially and I said, "But you said in Your Word, if you're willing and obedient, you eat the good of the land. And I'd heard Brother Hagin talked about that. He wants you to drive the good. And he said you don't qualify for that". What? He said you haven't had anything good to say about daily television since the day I told you to do it. And He right. And He took me over to the curse. Isaiah 28:47. How much time do we have? I can do it one minute. I know I can. You all pray. Stop the clock.
"Because you serve not the Lord, your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things". And He said, that's what He said. That's the reason you've had certain problems. I've changed that. And ever since then, I serve the Lord, my God with joyfulness and gladness of heart. And I love daily television. I fell in love with it, glory to God. I can't wait to get here. And the first time I was glad and I sat down and I told a little bit of that story and it hit me and I jumped up and ran around the table, just shouting. I love it. I absolutely love it. Of course, and we're done again.