Kenneth Copeland - The Goodness of God Overcomes the Curse
If you'll turn with me to Matthew chapter 8. Now, I will give you my personal routine. I get up early and as a normal routine in my house, I get up, I put on my exercise clothes and I go to bed. I haven't used an alarm clock in so many years, I don't remember. But I go to bed at night, I say, "Lord, with your help, I will get up in the morning and I will be on that treadmill at 7:30". And most of the time I'll wake up somewhere around 6:00, 6:15 and I'll just lay there and pray in the spirit a little while and then get up.
And here's my routine. I get dressed for the treadmill and I'm standing there in front of my mirror in my bathroom. And I have my supplements, 1,000 milligram capsule of vitamin C in my hand. These are just a few supplements which are actually a detox, a little cocktail. And I put my vitamin C in there, 1,000 milligrams. Oh Father, thank You. I want to thank You that You said through the prophet Isaiah that You bore my sicknesses and carried my pains. They did esteem you stricken and smitten of God and afflicted, but you were wounded for our transgressions. You were bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our Shalom, which is translated, tranquility, prosperity. The Hebrew word Shalom, it's translated healing. It's translated nothing missing, nothing broken. For me and for Gloria, glory to God. And I receive that.
And then Lord, thank God many years later at Peter's house that was fulfilled. Right after synagogue. Amen. And let's read it. Matthew chapter 8, verse 14, "When Jesus was coming to Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her. She arose and ministered under them and when evening was come, they brought onto him many that were possessed with devils and he cast out the spirits with his word and he healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying himself, took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses". Oh, glory to God. And then I'm standing there and by this time I'm thrilled and happy, ready to get on that treadmill. And right then I say, "Oh, but Jesus, that was at Peter's house and she had a great fever".
Flu, whatever it was, this woman was sick. Very sick, great fever. I don't know, typhoid? I don't know. But she had a great fever and that's listed under the curse of the law, Fever. He spoke to it and touched her hand. She got up and said, "Okay. You folks hungry? Sit down, let's eat". And the people rushed up around his house and Peter saw it all. He was there. They rushed up around his house and he healed. He laid hands on everybody that needed. And he cast the devil out of everybody that needed and healed his mother-in-law. I need to know her name.
And then later, this is all still a part of my routine. And then later, Peter's remembering all that. He's remembering what happened there. He's remembering the cross. He's remembering the empty tomb. He's remembering all of that. He's remembering that he went back fishing again and he saw the master out there on the shore. Terry, I've always wondered where he got those fish that he'd already cooked. Huh? I can tell you how he got them. With his faith. They obeyed Him before and they obeyed Him then.
Now that would have been worth seeing. We get to heaven, all of this is archives. We get to see all this and we get to see Him standing out there just praying and the little fish just swam up on them. They just swam up there on the beach and just laid there and said, "Me master, I didn't get in the first boat. I want to go. I want to go". They just swam up there and just flopped over sideways. He's so good. Glory, glory, glory, glory to God. Thank You, Jesus.
Now Mark chapter 1, the 30th verse and we'll take another look at this. Each one of them have recorded it and a little bit differently and add different things to it. Verse 27 "And they were all amazed in so much that they questioned among them saying, 'What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commands he even the unclean spirits and they obey him' and immediately his fame spread throughout all the region around about Galilee and forthwith when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John".
Now there, we have some more information. Peter, James and John, the top three. Now John, the apostle of love. Well, this speaks well for Mr. Zebedee. This was John Zebedee and James Zebedee. Amen. Praise God. They were the sons of thunder, but they became the men of love. Oh, they became a healing team. They became a deliverance team. They became a vision team. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Oh, thank You, Jesus.
Now "Simon's wife's mother lay sick of the fever and immediately they tell him of her and he came and took her by the hand, lifted her up and immediately the fever left her and she ministered to them. And at evening the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased and them that possessed with devils and all the city was gathered together at the door and he healed many that were sick of different diseases and cast out many devils and suffered not the devils to speak because they knew him and in the morning rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there he prayed".
Wow. What a man, and He's my Lord. Oh, and He's your Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Luke 4:38... Now this is after He preached that mighty sermon in Nazareth.
Verse 33, "In the synagogue, there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil and cried out with a loud voice saying, 'Let us alone. What have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth. Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God.' Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Hold your peace and come out of him.' And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him and heard him not. They were all amazed and spoke among themselves saying, 'What a word is this? For with authority and power he command the unclean spirit and they come out.' And the fame of him went out into every place of the country roundabout and he arose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon's house and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever and they besought him for her. He stood over her".
Now this is what the other two accounts didn't say. "He rebuked the fever and it left her. And immediately she got up". Immediately. I like immediates. I like suddenlies and we're having some suddenlies and some immediates in here this morning. Glory to God. It's already taking place. Check yourself out. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hey, this is Healing School. This is Miracle School. Glory be to God. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Immediately. Say immediately. Immediately the fever left. Immediately the fever left. Yes, I will Lord.
Now I'm going to clear something up for you. Been a lot said about this. Turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy. I've been guilty of just starting in on a scripture and try to explain it and didn't read the chapter before it. Lot of explanation. Oh, why this? Why did they say that? How come? It would have been good, should we have read the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 28 says, "And it shall come to pass". Well now you don't start just staying stuff, and it shall come to pass. You don't start there.
That's like there was a comedian that now there's a whole lot of you in here that are not even old enough to know who Johnny Carson was much less watching the program. But there are those of us that did. And this little guy was hilarious. And he'd dress crazy and all that. And so he came in there and I thought, hey, this guy must've gotten this from the Bible. And he came in and just sat down, this big smile on his face and said, "However," where do you go from there? Well that's like coming to a first that starts however, a new chapter that starts however. However what? Well read the other chapter before that. None of these were written in chapter and verse. The numbers were added in there for reference sake. Amen.
And another time, this same guy, and you never knew what this guy was going to say. And he sat down there and he said, "Therefore," now you know this guy's been reading the Bible because that sounds like King James doesn't it? Therefore. Brother Hagin said, "When you find therefore, stop and see what it's there for". Let's go to the 27th chapter. "And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people saying, 'Keep all the commandments which I command you this day'".
Now, remember these people knew nothing about the covenant. They're all new. They came out of Egypt. They've been captured in there and know so little. "It shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan into the land of the Lord thy God giveth thee that thou shall set thee up great stones and plaster them the plaster". "And so forth and so on". At bottom of that third verse, "as the Lord God of thy fathers has promised thee, therefore it shall be when you've gone over Jordan and so forth, build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones. Thou shall lift up any iron tool upon them and you'll build an altar to the Lord and the whole stones and offer burnt offerings" and so forth and so on. "And thou shall offer peace offerings and shall eat there and rejoice and Moses and the priests and the Levites spake unto all Israel saying, 'Take heed and hearken O Israel. This day that thou art become the people of the Lord thy God today'".
You're entering into covenant relationship today with God. "Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day. And Moses charged the people the same day saying, 'These shall stand up on Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you're come over Jordan, Simeon, Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin. Thee shall stand upon Mt. Ebal to curse Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali". He divided them up by tribes and one side stood on one side and one side stood on the other.
Now God wasn't cursing these people. He was not cursing anybody. He is doing an illustrated message. Half of the tribe of Israel was on one mountain, the other half on the other and they were shouting back and forth. It was communion reading. Some churches still do this, particularly the Methodist church. Yeah, we did that. And it was good, man. Yeah it was good. And the pastor say something and you respond. We did that in the Baptist church. I was too young to know what they were doing, but it was good. We read this and they read that and we read this and they read that. And one of them said, "You break that and God will curse you". And the other one said, "Yeah, but you do this and He'll bless you".
All you had to do is read the 27th chapter and it explained the 28th. It was an illustration of the covenant of God, who is a good God and He's illustrating to them where they could hear it and see it and it was huge because there was a lot of people out there shouting back and forth across that valley. Do you know that was impressive? And they're hearing it and seeing it. Oh, I get it. I want to keep this. I want to keep His commandments because these curses come on me if I don't. I get it. Yee haw. I get it.
And there it was, "It'll come to pass, if you will not harken, this is Moses. It'll will come to pass if you will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe, to do all his commandments and his statutes and command thee this day, all these curses will come on you and overtake you". And one of them says, you'll be cursed in the city. Oh, you'll be cursed in the field. Oh, back and forth. Verse 22, "The Lord will smite you with a consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation, with a strong burning and with a short and blasting mildew and they'll pursue you until you perish". There's your flu shot right there. Glory to God. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord Jesus.
I want to bring that to the forefront so that you'll understand where that came from. And that's where a lot of bad preaching came from. Well, now see there? God will smite you with the fever and He'll strike you in the legs. I sat in a congregation one time and I actually heard a man that I knew stand in that pulpit and say, He will break your leg just to get to heal it and prove something to you. I wouldn't serve a God that'd do that. That's child abuse. He's not out to break anybody's legs ever. Now I'm His child and He doesn't abuse me. I've abused me, but I'm unabused now. And my weight's where it's supposed to be. Isn't that wonderful? That's kind of magical, isn't it. No, it's what He's trying to get me to do in the first place. Amen. And I've been well and strong. Thank You, Lord Jesus.