Kenneth Copeland - Walking In God's Goodness
— Hello, everybody, welcome to Funnyville. We have more fun in this studio, just having fun talking about the things of God. Amen. This is the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast, and I'm Kenneth Copeland. And this is Professor Greg Stephens, Professor at Kenneth Copeland Bible College, and I'm glad he's here, and I'm glad you're here, Jesus is here. Let's do this thing.
— Let's go.
— You ready to do that?
— Let's do it.
— I'll pray. Father, we thank you.
— Amen.
— You're so good to us, and we bless your name. We started yesterday talking about growing up spiritually. Well, that's part of faith. Now, and this 11th... Actually, the book of Hebrews is about covenant faith: the difference between the blood of animals and the blood of God. And as the apostle Paul wrote this, this apostle, the educated one. I mean, this is a brilliant, brilliant, man. I can hardly wait to meet him. Jesse met him. Jesse was called up into heaven, and he met him. Oh, oh. Anyway, let's go to the fifth chapter of the book of Hebrews. Now this became the, how can you... the mission statement of what Gloria and I were called to do, that we had learned from our spiritual fathers, Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin, and the instruction of faith. And like I was saying yesterday, the first time I went back to teach it at ORU, and so when I went to the City of Faith and prayed, and all spirit-filled doctors and nurses.
— Amen.
— Easiest place to pray for the sick I've ever known in my life. Anyway, we went to his home for lunch, and we had just finished lunch, and went into his study. And he had some easy chairs in there, but he just went in there and took his shoes off, and sat down on the floor. He said, "Now Kenneth, take your shoes off, and sit right there". "Okay. Yes, sir". "Gloria, take your shoes off, and sit right there. Evelyn, take your shoes off". I said, "Oral, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to sit in this chair, and I'm going to keep my shoes on". And he said, "Okay". And I thought, "Boy, this is going to be wonderful". And he said, "All right". And he looked right straight at me, and he said, "Teach me faith". I said, "You have to be kidding me". "No. No. You boys have learned things about faith that I don't know. And you're looking at the hungriest man for God on this planet". I'm the student.
— Right.
— And he's asking me about faith. And so I just started at Mark 11:23, 24, and 25. He said, "That's the part I needed to get, is the saying part. I needed that". And he said, "I want to appreciate that, but I'm not going to give you any credit for it". No, he said... And he said, "I'll say, 'Now, Kenneth Copeland said...'" And then he said, "Then I'll say, 'Somebody said...' And then from then on it's mine". I said, "You can have it".
— Amen.
— Now here's a man been in ministry longer than I was old, and he wants faith. He's hungry for it. I preached at Sheridan Assembly, largest church I had ever preached in at that time. And it was full. And I preached in those, and the annoying, as it does sometimes, settle down in my legs. And somebody helped me out of the car. I got in my car and I was... "Is everything okay"? I said, "Yes, sir. Everything's okay". And I turned around and looked, and it was Brother Hagin. Amen.
— Amen.
— Now look at this, in the fifth chapter of the book of Hebrews, verse 12. "For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the Oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he's a baby. Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of the use of practice, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil".
— Good and evil.
— Good and evil. "Therefore, leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ..". This is the Faith Hall of Fame chapter.
— Yeah. Wow.
— Faith and goodness.
— Yes.
— Faith and goodness.
— I don't think you can have faith, Brother Copeland, if you don't fully understand He's good.
— No, you can't. Because faith begins where the will of God is known.
— That's right.
— And like we've talked about before in this study, the devil sold lies out of the First Covenant, and preached on them over in the Second or the New Covenant. You really have to be careful about that, because you to bring things over into the New Covenant, particularly the Letters; you will bring things over in there that don't belong there. The Curse of the Law. That doesn't have anything to do with us.
— That's right.
— But a lack of understanding of that, and preaching that, like this man said to me, "I wish Oral wouldn't say that". "What"? "God is a good God". "What do you want him to say? God's a bad God"? "No, no, no, no. But he'll give people the wrong idea about God". Well, I was a scriptural illiterate. I thought he was good all the time. And then, the first man I ever met said, "God is a good God". And he got in trouble for having that theme song. But he got in trouble for a lot of stuff. Why? He's changing the minds and hearts of people concerning healing and miracles, because they all thought that the day of miracles was gone.
— That's right.
— He changed the spiritual complexion of the United States.
— That's right.
— He really did.
— He really did. He really did. Part of our assignment is to present the Father correctly.
— Yes, it is.
— And because that's what Jesus' assignment was. And He gave us His ministry. And that's part of Paul's Revelation from Dad Hagin, and all that, is to present the Father correctly. See, God took man from the earth. Remember, and we talked about it a week or two ago... Genesis, the second day, He didn't say "good," because earth and heaven were separated from one another. But He took man, made of the earth, and man's going to be that re-connector between the two. Man is going to replenish the earth, he's going to do all the things that need to happen. Jesus will be the guy that'll come do that. And He plants in the middle of the garden, two trees: the tree of life; knowledge of good and evil. All these verses, we just read it in Hebrews, knowledge of good and evil. That's a discernment. Now, full of the Holy Spirit, we have the gift of discernment, to discern between good and evil, because it's a judgment. For 2,000 years, for 2,000 years after Adam's fall, God dealt with man through hesed mercy, and his goodness.
— Yes. Yes.
— For instance, the very first murderer, God protected him. Didn't kill him.
— Yes, he did.
— The Law commanded that you kill him. You're talking about bringing bad things over to the New Testament. Abraham marries his half sister. The Law will not allow that to happen. Jacob will marry two sisters. The Law says you can't do that. But God, in His goodness, all through 2,000 years of history until the Law comes, is operating out of His goodness toward men. He's not imputing their sins.
— Well, yeah. And he said, and David said, "Blessed is the man that God does not impute sin unto him".
— So we've lived 2,000 years since Jesus, right at about 2,000 years now, of Him in the Grace Age, the Church Age, doing the exact same thing. And that's the way He's dealt with us. When the Law came, His wrath was against sin, and we were caught in the middle. And then that's why Jesus came. And we just really have, that's why I have a big arrow in my Bible, to remind me that this Age is different, and I need to represent Him for who He truly is. Amen. That He's good. And He wants to heal you, and He wants to prosper you. And the way He's going to do that, is you to have faith in His goodness. It's like this. If you've ever seen a dog that's been mistreated by somebody, or roughed up by somebody; even in your presence, they're trying to do something nice for the dog. The dog is still like, he's like, "I want that treat you've got for me. But every time I'd get a treat before, you whacked me". Well, that's the way we've treated our Father. And that's not who He is at all. Jesus said, "You being evil or carnal, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more, your Heavenly Father".
— Yes.
— That's who He is.
— And the way Dr. Luke translated it, or said it, he said, "How much more"? He said, "It gives your Father great pleasure to give you the kingdom". Now they didn't understand that. But now we know that the kingdom of God resides within us, because the King is in here. The kingdom is wherever the King has domain.
— That's correct.
— And then he said, "How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him". Why? That is God.
— That's right.
— But, of course, you have to ask in faith. But that is God. He wanted in here. Then He wanted on here, so that you'd be immersed in His Spirit, and then step out by faith into that area of speaking a language you never learned. And continue to do that continually and constantly, which went all the way back to the Tower of Babel, and "Straighten that deal out".
— That's right. That's right. That's correct.
— Where He had to separate their ability to understand one another. Now, they didn't suddenly... Now, the Lord really dealt with me about this. One of them didn't suddenly start speaking German, and another one, Chinese. It didn't work that way. It began where they couldn't understand one another, and they couldn't understand, "Well, what? What do you mean by that"? And so they began to separate from one another, and then as separated, and then other languages developed out of that. And then as they moved into different locations, and that's when all that, what we know now. But they just, they became people of two minds. "I just don't understand what you're saying to me". "Well, you should, you dummy, you understood it yesterday. What's the matter with you? Just get out of my face. Just get out of here". And they began to separate, and just move out all over the world.
— They weren't able to communicate with understanding.
— That's right.
— And that's one of the greatest arguments in favor of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues for a believer. It's an ability to communicate at a level that's beyond understanding.
— In the military.
— Yes, sir.
— Particularly in combat, you are severely hindered if you can't communicate.
— That's exactly right.
— And not all that long ago, we celebrated the 77th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Europe. Well, there's a movie, The Longest Day, that explores that whole thing. So I brought it up on television, so Gloria and Jan could watch what their dad went through. So they had a concept of the hell he went through. But one of their strongest problems was communicating with one another.
— With one another.
— And one of the scenes in there, and this is huge. They had an opportunity, once they got in on the beach, and they got the maps out. And the commander said, "As far as I can tell, we landed on the wrong beach". So what happened? Whoever's driving that landing craft got it wrong, because he missed, his communications were wrong. So this general said, "Well, we just have start the war from here".
— That's right.
— Communications, man. And how strong is communication between us and God and the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of darkness. And thank God, and you say, "I need your wisdom. And I believe And I'm not going to do anything until this wisdom becomes clear to me. I'm not making a move one way or another. I don't care what the rest of them want to do".
— Amen.
— They can push me, but I'm not going until I hear from you. Amen. Amen. And those of you that have not stepped into that, if you're born again, it's the easiest thing you ever did in your life. You qualify.
— By faith.
— And don't start frowning and, "Oh..". Nah. Just say, "Glory to God". Take a deep breath. I believe I receive the overflowing of your Spirit within me, in the name of Jesus. And I fully expect to speak in my prayer language, my supernatural praise language, just like they did on the day of Pentecost, because you're the same good God you were then.
— Yeah, that's right. Amen.
— It's that easy.
— It's by faith.
— You probably know as well as I do.
— Well, since Gloria and I were scriptural illiterates, we didn't struggle with it. We didn't have anything to unlearn.
— That's right. That's right.
— They gave an invitation, we ran to the front.
— Amen.
— I turned around to mother, I said, "Is this is something we ought to have"? She said, "You ought to have that". Well, I just, I ran. I grabbed Gloria by the hand.
— Let's go.
— I've received that night, and she did the next morning.
— Hallelujah.
— We couldn't figure why not.
— Sure.
— The gift of the Holy Spirit.
— Because He's good.
— He's good.
— And you had a revelation to that, so you want everything that's good that's from Him.
— Yes.
— Because there's nothing bad from Him.
— He went about doing good and healing.
— All.
— Because God was with him.
— And God's with you; therefore, you can pray in that, because He's with you.
— Yes, and I need to communicate with Him.
— Yes, sir. At a level that the enemy can't understand.
— And I pray for my partners, because I pray for them all the time, at every meal. But then I can get in my study, and begin to pray and start praying in the Spirit. And that's when you're really being covered ground. And then, "Lord, is there anything that you need? Ask". Brother Hagin would say, "There's just something about God, that He already knows what you need, but you need to ask".
— That's right.
— He said, "Ask. Seek. Knock". What other words? Let's get into this together. So you go to the Covenant, you find the answer to the prayer. You pray it. And then you move over in the Spirit, and finish it.
— That's right. And you don't ask in fear, you ask in faith. "Lord, I know that you're already on this. You already know this". Can I show you something in Romans 11?
— Please.
— Romans, chapter 11. "2,000 years, He did not impute their wrongs against them". Because they were people of faith. Noah was in faith. Abraham was in faith. Jacob was in faith. We read that in Hebrews 11. Look at Romans 11. Paul is writing. Verse 20, And boy, this will make it plain. "Well, because of unbelief, they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness" There it is. "And severity of God on them which fell. Severity, but toward thee goodness. If thou continue in His goodness, otherwise thou shall also be cast off, be cut off". We continue in His goodness because He's in us.
— Isn't that something?
— One of the fruit of the Spirit is goodness.
— His goodness is in us.
— Absolutely. The moment you were born again.
— Yes.
— And now through maturity, by faith, you're growing and developing in it, to where it comes out of you.
— Now, let's take a look at the fruit of the Spirit.
— Yes.
— What does the nine fruit of the Spirit produce? Holiness.
— That's right.
— That's His job, to be holy, as He is holy.
— And that's the only way you're going to do it. That's the only way.
— Now, the Law was to curb sin.
— Yes.
— But, now that the Law is in us.
— That's right.
— And the Spirit of God is in us at the time of the new birth, which you receive by faith. But now, that fruit is in there. But fruit has to be nourished so that it can grow. So you nourish it by praise, you nourish it through thanksgiving, "Oh, I want to thank you for your goodness that's in me". And something arises that just, you just, yeah, well right. Now, wait a minute. His goodness is in me. And He doesn't count that against them, so neither do I. So I think, "Well, they didn't really understand what they're talking about".
— That's right.
— So I'll just forget about it. God has forgiven them, glory to God, because He's good. And His goodness is in me. And I just want to be like Him.
— That's right.
— So I don't account any wrong done to me.
— You understand Adam and Eve knew God, but not to the level we do?
— Absolutely.
— You can find that over in I Peter 1:15-21. The Word. We have the Word.
— Let's look at that. That is such a marvelous place. The two letters of Peter don't get... I don't think they get the attention that they should. It's one thing to read and understand what James said, because of his relationship with Jesus as his brother. But, Peter had a relationship with Jesus that was so powerful. Jesus ministered in his home.
— Yes.
— And he and Andrew were there together that night when Peter's mother-in-law was healed. She was really, that woman was about to die. The Great Fever, something like typhoid or something like that. And Peter was right there, saw at all.
— On the Mount of Transfiguration, saw it.
— Yes. He saw it all. Anyway, then go into that.
— Let's go down here, I Peter 1:15. "But as he, which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in manner of conversation. Because it's written, 'Be holy as I am holy.' And if you call on the Father, who without respect or persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold for your vain conversation, receive it by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ". There it is. "As of the lamb without blemish and without spot, who rarely was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him, do you believe God, that raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God". Our faith is in this Word. In Him.
— Yes. Amen.
— The goodness of God has come back into man. And I have that ability. See, 2,000 years, He did not impute the wrongdoings, because they were in faith. And we've been around for about 2,000 years right now, since Jesus. There's a parallel there, a timeline for him who has ears to hear.
— And we're out of time.
— And we're out of time.
— Let's give the Lord a praise. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, and help us, son. Thank you, Papa. God's goodness is always flowing towards you. Before you can have faith in the goodness of God, you have to fully understand and trust that God is good. And you grow spiritually by believing and walking in God's goodness, and His goodness becomes a witness to the world.