Kenneth Copeland - Rest In the Goodness of God
Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is Tuesday's edition of the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast, and we are right here this morning in Kenneth Copeland Bible College, praise God. And in a few days, only in a few days, we will graduate our second class. Yes, hallelujah. Glory to God. I'm looking forward, greatly to the day when this room here will not hold us all, and it's coming, it's coming praise God. Just as sure as the turning of the earth, it's coming. Glory to God. Our text this morning is in Philippians 4:19, the 18th verse, the apostle Paul said, "By the spirit of God, I have all and abound. I am full, having received of Epaphroditus, the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory, because He is so good".
Now all last week, now, we talked about the goodness of God, that He is a good God, and everything He created was good. Amen. Everything He created was good. And then Lucifer went bad. But we studied that. He was perfect in the day that he was created. Then inequity was found in him. Amen. So it's good to understand, and to know that God is a good God. And we separate the Bible in John 10:10. "I have come, Jesus, representing the good God, I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly". Now, in the Classic Amplified, it says, "Until it overflows". Just more abundantly, until it overflows. And we should be living out of the overflow because we're helping people, and we have more than take care of our needs. Our needs just get swallowed up in all that. Hallelujah, thank You, Jesus.
Because we're meeting the needs of God, and we're meeting the needs of Jesus. We're meeting the needs of the Holy Spirit. We're meeting the needs of people, glory to God. And whatever office of ministry that your called, you're there to meet the needs. There to meet the needs. When you realize that, and understand what Jesus meant when He said, "I didn't come to be served. I came to serve". Something that startled me, shook me up, and thrilled me beyond words. A very, very close friend of mine wrote many of the songs that I recorded. Janny Grein. And Janny, very, very, very, very sick. In fact, she died. She went to heaven, and the Lord Jesus let her know that it wasn't time for her to be here. She had more to do. And she agreed with it.
Now, can you imagine this, now? He knew what was on her mind, of course. He was, now picture this in your mind, He was walking away, and He turned around with a smile on His face, and He said, "Janny, you don't owe me anything". I was a gift. I gave myself for you, and to you. You don't owe me anything. Well, I owe Him my life. But He's a gift. So I want to meet His needs. That's my job. That's what I was born to do, glory to God. The airline pilot, he meets people's needs. Now, if he has the idea that he's in that business just to meet his needs, he's not ever going to have any fun at it.
Another very, very, very close friend of mine, and he flew in the airlines for a while, because he is a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps that came out, and then he and I have flown together, Glen Hyde. Anyway, Glen was a brand new First Officer, and they were going through the checklist. And during that checklist, Glen was just kind of by rote, just calling it off, because Glen is the kind of guy, you hand him a checklist, first thing he's going to do is memorize it. But you don't depend on your memory. You go to the book, item by item. He said, "Mr. Hyde, would you go back through the cabin, and take a good look at all the people, and look at all of them, and then come back and sit down"? So he did that. He walked, it changed his entire life. He came back, and sat down in that right seat, and this old Captain told him, he said, "Tell me what you saw". "Well, you know, he's... et cetera, I just told him". He said, "Mr. Hyde, you saw people that depend on you with their life. Their lives are in your hand. Now let's redo that checklist, and do it right".
See what his job is? He's not flying for a living. He gets a living out of what he's doing. Meet the needs of the people. Now, I need to get over into this area that has to do with the goodness of God. There's the minister, and there's the worker. Do you remember that Jesus made this remark? "Man was not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man". What do you mean by that? God said, "Let the land rest". He said, "Let the animals rest. And you rest, at least one day of the year, a week, one day of the week. You rest". Yeah, that's what I used to do, and that life can kill me. I was exhausted, hurting all over. And then that thing happened in my back, and I screamed with pain. I told you the story, when that disc ruptured in my back, and I'm hurting, and I'm praying over this. I said, "Lord, where did I miss it"? And He said, "I missed it someplace. You can't miss it. It's not you that did this. I did it".
God is good. He's not ever your problem. Just get that out of the way. He's never your problem. I don't know why God let that happen to me. Do you think there is any possibility that it could have been you that let it happen to you? I'm crying out to God. I said, "Oh God". And I'm telling you, I'm in a lot of pain. He said, "I created you, and commanded you in my Word, to rest 52 days a year". And He said, "You don't rest 52 days in five years. And that's one of the things that this is a result of". He said, "When you study the Word, why do you study it"? Now this looks like we're going crosswise with what we just said and talked about yesterday, but it isn't. I said, "Well, the reason I study it is to preach it". "Well, is that right"? I said, "Yes, Sir. That's what I do. I study it to preach it". He said, "Do you ever study it"?
And He talked about studying healing. "Yes, I do. I study it to preach it". He said, "Had it ever occurred to you to study it to receive healing, to rest"? Well, I was recovering from this thing, and I was still having a lot of pain. I said, "Yes, Sir. I correct myself right now". And so I'm preparing to get back at it and everything. And I'm sitting there, and I'm studying the Word and going through scriptures and so forth, and He just stopped me. He said, "Stop right now. Stop". He said, "What are you doing"? I said, "I'm studying the Word". He said, "What for"? I said, "I have to preach. Uh-oh. I'm studying for a Partner Letter. I'm studying something to preach".
I needed to be studying to receive healing, to keep this body going, so I can minister to your body. And then this 120-year mandate came, which changed my entire life. And this revelation, it still just simply staggers me. I was in the 12th chapter of Romans, reading in there, "And to offer my body a living sacrifice". And going through that, now I have a kind of a peculiar way of renewing my mind of something, and so I began to renew my mind, to the fact that my body is a sacrifice.
So for several years, I did not call this my body. I called it my sacrifice. This is my sacrifice. And it really helped me. And that day, so sweetly, He said, "Kenneth, I sacrificed my body for yours. Now you're sacrificing your body for mine". The strength that came from that was phenomenal. "You're sacrificing your body for mine". It changed everything. It still is changing everything. And a lot of good and wonderful things have happened since then. And that put me on that treadmill with a smile on my face, and still does. I remind Him of it, and I dedicate this workout to Him and to His body. Amen. And I find more time to rest.
Now, I won't take time to turn there, but what did the Spirit of God say through the prophet, Isaiah? With a stammering lip and another tongue, while I speak to this people, and in there is the rest. You can gain rest for your spirit. There's going to be times when it just floods in on you, and there's a job you just have to do. You just have to get it done. Because there is such a thing as spiritual war, and there's times that it just comes down, but you can find rest. You can find it.
Thomas Edison used to just lay down on his desk and sleep for 15, 20 minutes, and then get up and go on. And he'd lay down to sleep for 35, 40 minutes. He slept a little all the time, instead of a whole bunch at once. I don't suggest that. I'm not Thomas Edison, you understand? No. So what we're saying here, is rest your spirit. Now you can get into a place where you can sleep for hours and hours and hours and hours, and wake up tired, because your spirit is exhausted. You've just preached and preached and preached and preached, and prayed for people, and prayed for people, and all that with no rest. Take the time.
Now last night, I just woke up. And I was sleeping good, but I woke up about, oh, four, a little after that. So I got up and went in my... I have a large closet, and so to get out of the bedroom, I just went in my closet, and in there is where I keep my Bible and everything when I'm not studying, not in the study. And so had this day on my mind, and I got up and just went in there and sat down, and looked over those notes and just prayed in the Spirit, prayed in the Spirit, just ask the Lord the order in which it should come, and what I should do, and just prayed in the Spirit. I was just wide awake. Just prayed in the Spirit a while, and went back and went to bed, fell right asleep. But to rest my spirit and settle my heart and mind about this week. Amen. And how it should flow, and the order of it, and so forth. Take the time to rest. Praise God. Take it, take it.
A very good friend of mine, he exhausted himself, like to die. And the Lord got on him about this. "You're not resting". He said, and of course, he's a pastor, pastors of a very large church. Well, that's a big job. And He said, "Schedule a day of rest, and don't violate it. Put on your calendar for that day, 'Nothing'. Write nothing in there, nothing". And then he realized later why the Lord told him to do this, particularly with his golfing buddies. "What do you have scheduled for tomorrow"? Nothing. "Good. We can go play golf". "No, I can't go. I'm scheduled". "What do you mean you're scheduled? What do you have scheduled"? "Nothing".
See, his buddy didn't know what that meant either. He said, "I have scheduled nothing, and I'm not going to violate it. I am going to rest". You have to force yourself to rest. There are times it takes a while to shut yourself down. And you have to, "I'm not going. I'm not, not going. I'm not going. Well, just a little? No, not even a little bit". Turn out the lights and go back to bed, something. Shut down. For me, read airplane magazines or something on that day. My Bible reading, of course, but just shut down. "Why don't I go out and play"? No, don't go play. Don't run around. Quit. Stop it. Just shut down. Give this whole system an opportunity to quit for a while. And after a while, you get to where you really can do it. Before it shuts you down.
That's what happened to me. It shut me down, and caused me more pain than I have ever experienced in my life. Now I had experienced pain. A number of years ago, I was preaching in the church where Carolyn Savelle was raised, and I had been called there to come preach for a week, so I got there on Sunday night. And I noticed I had this pain, right in here. I didn't pay much attention to it. And it's Sunday evening service, and we were just praying and singing, worshiping the Lord, and it bothered me.
And I got up the next morning. As long as I was in the bed, I was all right, but I got up, and when I stepped out of that bed, oh man, that hurt. Oh, that hurt, just this burning, this awful, terrible pain inside my leg here. And I'd just go lie down on my back, and be all right. But when I got up, oh. It finally got to the point that when I step out on that platform, it would hit me. It hit me so hard, that once or twice I screamed before I could catch it. Oh, that thing hurt. Oh, it was awful. And so, we're headed back home after that meeting, and we're flying on the airlines, and I heard it. I heard the devil say, "You're fool enough". And he went, It was Love Field, back then, there wasn't any DFW. And then he reminded me, it's just about a mile from the gate, down that ramp, to get to the luggage area. And sure enough, it was. "And you're fool enough to walk it". I said, "I absolutely will. I absolutely will".
When we stepped off of that... Now sitting there in that chair, in that airline seat, when I stood up, boy, it hit me. And now see, all this is temporary. This other thing lasted for years. There was somebody standing there with a wheelchair, and said, "You need this". I said, "Healed men don't need wheelchairs". And to get to our house, we had to drive by my dad's house. And I said, "Dad, take me home". And so we got in there, and I went back in my old bedroom, and went to bed, and mother's sitting right at the end of the bed praying in tongues. About three o'clock in the morning, I sat straight up, and she said, "That did it". And it was over for good. So the point of that was, that didn't last but a few days. This other thing took years to get that pain where it was gone, pain free. But that was my confession that whole time.