Kenneth Copeland - Defining Your Reality
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. And God is a good God. He is goodness.
— Yes, sir.
— He doesn't have goodness, he is goodness. He is love. Love is good, love is kind, love is gracious. He is love and he has faith.
— Yes.
— I want to get over there, Greg, in Isaiah 45 and we'll go there. But before we do that, let's go to Mark chapter 11.
— Amen.
— There something there that I want to point out about. Let me mark this... in the life and ministry of Jesus in two places. In the 10th chapter where the rich young ruler came to him and then 21st verse Jesus beholding him, loved him.
— Yes.
— He loved him. There wasn't anybody that he didn't love. He loved Judas. He gave Judas every opportunity to repent all the way through that thing knowing he wouldn't, but he did. He called him friend. He reminded him and Judas knew of that man. Western people don't. Your friend is you become friends when you enter into covenant together.
— Brother Copeland, he covered him.
— Yes, he did.
— The disciples ask because he said one of you will betray me and they ask who is it? He didn't say that guy right there.
— No, he wouldn't do that. He covered him. He's just too good for that.
— Yes.
— Look at this in the 11th chapter. "And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, master, behold, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away". Now, this is what just thrills me so. That fig tree didn't mean anything to Jesus. He used it as an example, of course, he's about to here, but faith did. He didn't even talk about the fig tree. He said, "Have faith in God". Now, I have a cross reference here. Have the faith of God.
— That's right.
— Well, Ephesians 2:8 we are saved by faith, by the grace of God. Then the Holy Spirit by the apostle Paul said it is a gift of God. Faith is a gift. Faith is a gift.
— That's right.
— Think about it and I want to say this to the television audience, Jesus was and is a gift to the world. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". Now, the Holy Spirit is the gift to the church.
— From Jesus.
— Yes. From Jesus. He is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit and it's a good gift. That's the reason it's fun to receive it, that's the reason you don't frown it up, "I might get the wrong thing". Jesus took care of that. You being a father...
— You know how to give
— Would you give that ask for bread, would you give him a serpent?
— No.
— He took care of that right there. You're not going to get the wrong thing. "Yes, but what if I say the wrong thing"? He didn't knock in the head when he was talking ugly. And when that little boy I thought he was going to kill me if I cursed and I wonder. Well, I won't get into all that, but he didn't. He didn't hurt me, he never hurt me. When I did stupid stuff and still do stupid stuff, he takes time to teach me. And I get my seven on jamming in a mess, he doesn't reprimand me for it, but he'll teach me from it. The problem is never inquiring of it and just go and just do your thing and then get in a mess. God bless my plan. Well, get his plan, it's already blessed. Anyway, go ahead.
— So, the goodness of God in that whole thing they ask. He came to reveal the goodness of the Father.
— What I wanted to quote is...
— One of the disciples said to him, "Show us the Father". He goes, "Guys, look here. If you've seen me"...
— "You've seen the Father".
— So, if you want to know what God is like, this is why we can so confidently say God is good, because if you know anything about Jesus, you know then what the Father is like.
— Now, when Jesus was reprimanding the Pharisees and the Sadducees and so forth, he was hard on them, but he did it out of love. There was time my daddy was hard on me. Thank God he was. He didn't just let me just run loose and do my own thing and get hurt and maybe killed.
— I'll tell you why he was hard on him. The same reason he was hard on Moses for misrepresenting God. He said the Pharisees, they sat in Moses' seat to listen to them, but they're misrepresenting the Father just like their... God is good. What you do with those three words will define your reality. It really will.
— Say it again.
— What you do with those three words, "God is good," will define your reality.
— Praise God, Greg.
— Because you can't have faith in things of God if you don't know he's good, if the Holy Spirit is good. You won't want to receive Jesus' gift. Can you imagine Jesus sending a gift to your house? "Oh, who's that from? Gee, I don't want that. That's not for today". Are you kidding me? But that's his goodness. So, why would he curse that fig tree? I've said this before. He's fulfilling prophecy when he cursed the fig tree. The first Adam covered himself in sin with fig leaves, and Jesus is basically making a statement because that's the last week of his life on earth in his human form. He's making a statement, "I'm not going to cover anymore. And if you'll have faith, I won't be covering your sins. Your sins will be removed". So that goes right to that, have faith in God. Once you have faith in what I'm about to do...
— And Brother Hagin would say Greek scholars had taught him this, have the God kind of faith.
— God kind of faith.
— Think about that. It's his faith in us. He trusts us with his faith. Now, for us to just pass that off and say, "Well, yes, I have the faith of God, but nothing works for me". Now wait a minute, he believes what he says will come to pass. He shall have whatsoever he says. Well, yes, but that saying stuff doesn't work for me. It just did. It just did. That's the one I wanted to point out. The love of God is what provided our faith, the love of God provided our healing, the love of God provided our prosperity. Now, the devil gets really pressed hard with a preacher that has money enough to do what God's called him or her to do. That's the reason they just scream and holler at people that preach prosperity. "Oh, that prosperity gospel. We don't preach anything but salvation". You don't preach salvation.
— Right.
— Anyway...
— Yes. Well, at the very beginning of that whole faith thing, verse 18 tells you the heart and the scribes and the chief priests heard it and they saw how they might destroy him for they feared him.
— They feared him.
— Faith will not allow me to fear him. I'll reverence him. That's a different word.
— Yes. That's true. The fear of God there, the awesome reverence of his presence. Yes, but I don't fear him like this. The only time that I did that, and this is worth looking into in John, the 17th chapter of John. And all of this, I didn't know it at the time because I was just beginning as a student at Oral Roberts University and I learned some things about agreement prayer from Brother Hagin and the power of setting an agreement. And I thought, well, now Jesus is praying here, so I'm just going to agree with everything he says. I didn't realize that the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th chapter of John was all in that last covenant meal.
— That's right.
— I didn't know that.
— All the instructions.
— And I got down here in the 20th verse when he said, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word". I thought that's me. And I had my Bible in my hand, then I'm in that little living room there where I studied and I was walking around and I'm agreeing with this and I'm just so thrilled with it. And the glory which now gives me, I've given them while I had a little trouble with that. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them as you do me". What? You mean God loves me as much as he does Jesus?
— Yes.
— I don't know, but I thought I said I was going to agree with every word you prayed, Lord. But this is written in red or I wouldn't believe this.
— Right.
— If God loves me as much as he does Jesus, but I'm going to say it. I said I'd say it and I'm going to say it. And I was shaking. I was trembling. That's not fear of the Lord, that's just being scared.
— Right.
— And I said it like that. I said, "God loves me as much as he does Jesus". And I'm telling you, my spirit jumped on the inside of me. Well, of course.
— You spoke life to it, the Spirit.
— Yes. Of course. Of course. Of course. He came, he died because he loved me. He loves me. God loves Kenneth. God loves Kenneth. I started walking around and I believe the love. Ah, ah, hah, God loves Kenneth. Oh, God loves Kenneth. And I walked around and run up on my tiptoes just bouncing around the room. God loves Kenneth as much as he does Jesus. My face bounded into a place where it had never been before. Glory to God.
— It defined your reality, your reality change.
— Yes. The goodness of God to love a mess like me. Wow. But he changed that mess.
— Yes.
— The day I accepted him as my Lord and Savior.
— Absolutely right. He's no longer the only begotten Son of God, he's the first born from the dead. The first born of many brethren.
— Quickens your mortal body. He's in you.
— Look at what he said there. You were referencing John 17. Look at verse 25. "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I've known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name". His name is not separate from his goodness...
— That's right.
— ...Because his name is that good. His name is not separate from love. To clear this, "and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me be in them, and I in them". That's the way I finished that prayer.
— Yes.
— I thought, look at that. The love wherewith God loved Jesus is in me.
— Is in you.
— I can love like that. And so the world should understand the goodness of God because of us. We ought to be spilling out goodness. Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him. There it is in John that he's praying that he's with us. The world should not have a hard time understanding that God is good because they've experienced Christians. Sadly, that hadn't been the case.
— No. And too many times.
— Because we just really haven't renewed our mind to this, of the goodness of God because you'll have people argue, "Well, God said in his Word that I make peace and create evil. So, what are you going to do with that"? That's Isaiah 45.
— Well, let's go there and look at it.
— The Spirit to slap comes on me sometimes, Kenneth.
— Yes. I know it's in the Bible. This is before the death, burial and resurrection. It's in this fabulous passages of Isaiah, but you're taking one thing out of context when you look at this whole thing.
— You have to look at the neighborhood. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. I said verses seven. "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do these things". Then he goes on down. Look at verse 11. "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, the maker asked me of things to come concerning my sons and concerning the works of my hands command ye me". Now, he's talking about ask me about future things. That's our age is what he's talking about. Skip over to verse 19. "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek me in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right". So, when you look at all this and you understand the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a tree of judgment brought you knowledge to discern judgment, now we have the Holy Spirit which allows us to discern correctly with these things. Then you go over, let me show you 1st Samuel. If you would flip to 1st Samuel because this is where I've heard it taught growing up as a Pentecostal kid that God sent an evil spirit on king Saul. It's taken from 1st Samuel chapter 18. This is after they were singing that Saul had killed his thousands and David ten thousands...
— Made him mad.
— Made him mad. All right. So, his emotions are involved here.
— Yes.
— "And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house and David played with his hand, as other times, and there was a javelin in Saul's hand. And Saul cast the javelin, for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice". Okay.
— Now, why? Saul was afraid of David.
— Yes. Same thing...
— Because the Lord was with him and was deported from Saul.
— Same thing back over there in Mark.
— He's talking about the anointing.
— That's exactly right.
— So, there are two Hebrew words for evil. There's two different words that are used. One is ra'a', which means a sense of calamity, it means wickedness. Not wickedness, it means a disaster, misfortune, hardship. You see God using that form of evil in Sodom and Gomorrah. That was a calamity on those people. Now, it's not evil. The other word is a rasha', which means a moral wickedness. No, no, no, no. That's going back to iniquity. God's not the author there. So, when he said this about Saul, he said ra'a', and it's used... Let me just read it to you where he says I am the one that creates peace and creates equal calamity. In 1st John 1:5, the apostle John writes, "And in him, there is no darkness at all".
— That's right.
— So, this is not God doing this whatsoever. There's a Hebrew... Here's what I was looking for... And what that means is the Spirit. The Spirit is the Spirit of God. The Spirit will convict you of unrighteousness. What's happening is he's the king. So, the Holy Spirit would come upon the king from time to time. This is why he would prophesy. The Spirit would come upon Saul and convict him of what you're doing. "This is not right. This is not the way we do things. This is not"... He didn't condemn him, but he convicted him. So, this is really not a great translation of really what was happening. God in his mercy, in his Hesed, in his goodness is sending the Holy Spirit to Saul to convict him of the way he's acting and the way he's behaving.
— Yes.
— That's all that is. It's not an evil spirit. When you say evil spirits, you think about a being, but this is not a being.
— No.
— This would be the thing that comes to my mind is a winning spirit. Well, we both came out of the military.
— Yes, sir.
— The morale of the troops can get down to a place where it's a losing spirit, but if it's affecting the whole bunch because of certain things. The spirit of this thing, not a being, but the spirit of conviction.
— Right. That's what it was.
— Spirit of conviction is coming upon Saul because it says in Hebrew... The spirit of convicting from the Spirit of God was convicting him because of the status that he's in right there. And so that conviction...
— He didn't have any beneath acting like that, he's king.
— That's right. Act like it. And so the Holy Spirit will never condemn you. Well, the thing that helped me Brother Copeland the most overcoming my raising, the way I was raised was learning the difference between conviction and condemnation because I always thought they were the same thing and they're not.
— No. No, they're not.
— Condemnation is your...
— There is no condemnation.
— Right. Condemnation is you're bad. You're just a bad person. You, and it's pointing to you. Conviction is you're better than that. You know you're better than that. That's not the way you were raised and it will bring you up.
— You bring that up. I suffered with condemnation because as a young man, I was out of the will of God and it seemed like everything I did failed, and because I had planned one thing and I was doing something else trying to make that plan come to pass. I looked at myself as a failure. I just condemned myself all the time, just all the time. All the time, all the time. And it looked good and then crash and so I had a lot of depression from it. I remember, Greg, when I show that in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus". No, but it's a different thing than judging yourself.
— That's right. Now, faith is.
— Now faith is.
— Same thing as now there's therefore now.
— Now. Right now.
— So, born in faith, there's no condemnation at all.
— And this is the thing, Saul is not in faith. Now, When I finally stepped across the line...
— Yes, sir.
— Walked away from my aviation dream and stepped over and went to ORU in 1967. Well, the Lord wasn't about to tell me I was about to fly the best airplane I'd ever seen in my life. No, no, no. I'm going to have to do this thing by faith. I told the Lord, I said, "Well, my flying has come between you and me, I just lay it right here. I'll never turn another propeller again. If that's your will, I'll walk away from it". And walked right into the best airplane I've ever been up close to, much less flown.
— That's the rich young ruler who loved him. He's not taking things away from him, he's going to take him up to another level. He's about to travel with the man.
— Well, then, like we said he said, "Sell what you have and come follow me". What a replacement for Judas because he said, "All of these I've kept for my years". He was a rich man and he obviously had handled his money well. Jesus said, "You come follow me". And he walked away from apostleship. Jesus always, he always, he always has a redemptive solution.
— Yes, he does because that's what he does.
— That's what he does.
— Even if you can't see it, he has a redemptive solution. Stay in faith and watch it happen in your life.
— And don't become offended.
— No. That's Saul. That's what he did.
— John the Baptist got offended at him. Jesus said so, but then John the Baptist had no idea what his calling was. Amen. We're out of time.
— Seeing his goodness changes your countenance.
— Yes, it does. Say it again.
— Seeing his goodness changes your countenance.
— Praise God. Oh, glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, Jeremy, help us here boy.