Kenneth Copeland - Walking the Love Line
2 Corinthians 4. Man, this fourth chapter is just... Let's go through it just line by line and devour it. But you get down to the 13th verse, "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore we speak knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you". There's the law. I believe therefore I speak, then I know. I believe and therefore I speak. And once I say it, it's been said.
Now, go back and re-say it. That's when you start praising God. See this carpet row here? I'm going to use this to demonstrate two things. One, let's call that the line of faith. I have all my scriptures. Don't start this without the scriptures. You go to the verses, you go to the scriptures, you find the what? This is a covenant. This is the new one, the second one. It's in the blood of Jesus. And you go there and you find the scriptures that cover your situation, and that's the answer to your prayer. You don't pray until you have the answer, then pray it. That's the answer to the prayer, so you start there. Out of the mouth are two or three witnesses. You can't build it all on one verse. Don't even try that. The principle is there. The first principle I saw in Romans 13:8, "Owe no man anything but to love him" that arrested me. But that's not enough because actually He was not referring to money there.
I thought, "Well, I'll go to the Amplified. It'll get me out of this". And it said, "Stay out of debt". I'm stuck. Gloria and I had been in a service where Brother Hagin said, "Now, out all of those that will do this with me, that whatever you see in the Word and you understand what it's saying to you, then you will take that Word as final authority in your life and you will not try to change it". You don't alter the Word to fit your lifestyle. You alter your lifestyle to fit the Word. That's where the victory is. And I thought, "Well, yeah". But then, I got over into the curse from which we have been redeemed. Most Christian people don't know what they've been redeemed from. "Well, sin"? Well, yeah. But we've been redeemed from the curse which includes sin, which includes debt. I didn't say you're in sin because you're in debt.
Now, don't go or I've had people go off and say I said that, and that's a lie. I didn't say that. It's not a sin to be in debt, but you ought to start now heading out. Just believe in God, "Oh, yeah. Here I go," and God will help me. In fact, we were discussing that in the Speaker's Room before we came out. Jerry and pastor, we were back there talking about it. And Jerry mentioned this, "Everything you own is a potential seed. But if you owe money on it, you can't sow it until you get it paid for". You get it paid for and God says to you, "You don't do it just for kicks". It is fun, man, and that's not bad sometimes but I'm going to tell him I'm on a major thing. But God says "sow it". He has something bigger in mind. But He says sow it, and you say, "Uhh". You can't do that. I said you can't honestly do that because you don't own it. So you believe God and you pay it off and you sow it and believe for something bigger, where you just keep doing that until you own everything. Even my house? Especially your house. Yes. Glory to God.
You see, we were blessed because we learned it early. We were already in debt. But you find verses that say under the curse, the borrower is servant of the lender. The borrower is never the head, but only the tail. But on the blessing, you become the head and not the tail. And in the blessing, you are the one who lends. Or the goat you give. These are the laws of faith, spiritual laws. I wish we had a lot of time we could spend with this. I believe it, therefore I say it. That's the way it works. I believe it in my heart and I say it with my mouth. Now, once I step across that lot of faith, it's done. I believe in my heart. Based on these words, I believe I receive my healing. I believe it. When I pray, I believe I receive it. I'm healed. Now, that's what I did in that crisis. Even though it was my fault, I repented. Amen. And it took a long time.
Now, I am not against surgery. Are you hearing me now? But I made a determination. I said I'm not going that route. I'm going this route. I'm going this route, and I stepped over that faith line. As far as I'm concerned, I'm healed. Now, let's go to work. Confess it every morning. Glory to God. I want to thank You that I'm healed from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet. What am I doing? I'm calling things that be not as though they were. That's what Abraham did. He got him a son. Only, he was 100. And he wouldn't quit. He wouldn't quit. He had a covenant with God and he knew it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. You put that H in the middle of his name, the covenant name change, and that name is HaShem. He was no longer the father of nations. He is now the father of many nations. He's our father. He fathered the faith, calling things that be not as though they were. I began to say it. I began to believe it. Glory to God. I'm healed from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. I'm healed.
And then, just quit speaking English. "When you no longer have understanding and your mind no longer has words, switch over into My land," sayeth the Lord. "Come over into the spirit with Me and begin to speak My language. I will give you the utterance and you speak it out. And as you do so and as you call things in the spirit, and the devil hears you and he understands certain things that you say, and you'll stand up and say, 'It's finished. It's over,' and I'll back you up," sayeth the Lord. That's what I said in tongues. Glory to God. I speak in the spirit by faith as much as I do in my natural language. Even more. Jesus said when you pray, believe that you receive as long as you understand the words. No. You're still praying. I sing in the spirit.
You remember what the Holy Spirit said through the apostle Paul? "I pray with my understanding, I pray with my spirit. I sing with my understanding, I sing with my spirit and then I can minister in the spirit". That's the gift, the supernatural ministry gift of tongues. That's different from speaking in tongues. It's all right there in 13, 14th chapters of 1 Corinthian. Anyway, so I began to pray in the Spirit. What am I doing? I'm just speaking divine secrets and mysteries, whether my mysteries. I just don't know them yet. But the Word says pray on so that you interpret, not that you'd be an interpreter. That's a different role of ministry. But it's your tongue and you just keep praying and you begin to... Yeah. I believe I know what that's about, and you just keep praying and it'll come up and you're satisfied with it, and that's fine. Sometimes it'll come out in words. I believe I received it. I believe I received that. And I pray for my partners that way. And I pray for all of that. I pray for the nation. I pray for all that.
And then I come down to the end of it and I said, "Lord, in case I forgot anything, and if there's anything that you need praying and I don't know what it was, I thank You. And in the name of Jesus right now, I'll pray in tongues and you go ahead and you pray what you like. You give me the utterance and I'll use my faith and pray it, and together we will get it". And then, I finished all that. Have I forgotten anything? In the name of Jesus, and right now, I believe I receive whatever I prayed in the spirit for my partners. I believe I received that. You know every one of them, you know all of them all over the world. You know exactly what they need, you know what they need to understand. And I'm asking you to take care of it and put it into their spirit and do it, in Jesus' name.
Now, that's the way you minister in the spirit by faith. You can do that just the same. "Well, I don't speak with other tongues". That's your fault. That's the easiest thing you ever did in your life. And it amazes me, people come up to be baptized in the spirit and then suddenly, they start praying. "Oh, oh". Quit frowning. "I'm going to get baptized in the Holy Ghost". Aah. I'm glad I said the Word. That's joy unspeakable. That's what makes it so easy. Jesus is easy. He said, "My burdens are light". Why are they so light? He's going to carry them for you. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Well, like we read this morning, this is a life worth living. And of course, we dealt with faith will not work in an unforgiving heart. It can't. It can't. And it isn't that He won't forgive you. We've stepped over into the new covenant. Actually... are you listening to me now?
In this covenant, forgiveness is already bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus, so that forgiveness is there for the taking. But if you won't forgive someone else, He can't forgive you. You're asking for forgiveness here and you won't forgive someone else. It's what Jerry calls a blessing blocker. He just can't get through to you. It's already there. Dump this other deal and forgive. "Well, you don't know what they did to me". I know what they're doing to you now. They've probably already forgotten it. And everyday you get up there, they're doing it again because you keep remembering it. You don't remember it the way it was. You embellish it every time you think about it because you think about all the stuff you wish you would have said, and you just get nastier every day. "I wish I just give you a piece of my mind. You better watch out. You hadn't got a whole lot of it left," and you keep giving people a piece of it.
You're in trouble, amen, because we have the mind of Christ. That's the one you need to hook into. And He said, "Anyone that comes under Me, I will, for no reason, cast him out". You know why? He already bought and paid for your forgiveness. He forgave you a long time ago. Before you were ever born, He forgave you. Amen. God said, "I, even I, am he who blotteth out your transgressions for my own sake". I said, "No, you did that from my sake". You said, "No, I didn't. I did it for my sake". I don't get it. He said, you want to remember bad things about your children? I said, "Well, of course not". He said, "Well, I don't either". He said, "Besides that, I'll remember your sin. I can't bless you". And then, He said this to me not too often. I'll bring this part of it up. He said, "Kenneth boy, you're starting with a clean slate, brother. Now, tell me about yourself".
Suddenly, in that moment, I'm sin-free. That forgiving moment, I just accepted that forgiveness and it's there. And I just started saying, "Okay, Father, let me tell you this. First thing, I'm healed". He'll agree with that. "The next thing, I've got the best ministry and the biggest ministry. Glory to God". He'll agree with that. "And by the way, I have a brand new car. You understand that"? And he'll agree with that. Don't' mess it up. Stay in faith and stay on that edge of repentance all the time. I learned a lot of that from Creflo Dollar. I forgive. Now, I told you I'd use this stripe and I think this all the time we have. No kidding. Narrow is the way. That's the love walk. That curse is out here and the devil and his whole bunch is right here. I'm walking in love, I'm staying in forgiveness. Yeah, boom. I can do better than that.
And then suddenly, I realize this armor is fitting me better. You've seen pictures or you've seen it in the movies, that armor. You notice it never has a pot belly on it. I mean, it may be gutting that old boy on the inside, but that metal... Boy, he's got abs. He's got a six pack. And on the inside, this thing is sure tight, but this is God's suit. So I'm suited up. Above all, taking the shield of faith and quench all the foreign missiles of the devil. Oh but... Shut up and put the face plate down. I'm walking in love. I'm in the full armor of God. He can't tell whether it's God or me. So don't smart-off and let him find it out. You walk in love, you're talking in faith, you're walking in faith, and he gets a little nasty. You just pull that sword on him and tell him, "Here, Satan, hold this". Instead of, "Where is my shield? It was around here somewhere. Where is my sword? I don't know where. God help me".
Suit up. That's prayer armor, a full armor of God praying always in the spirit perseveringly for all of our sins. Faith demands corresponding action. The woman that was healed of the issue of blood, she said it, she believed it. Then, she did it and she received it. We'll read one thing from her in that fifth chapter of Mark and I'm through. This certain woman had an issue of blood 12 years. She'd been shut in. Read the fifth chapter of Leviticus. She was shut in. She was not allowed to get outside as long as she had an issue of blood beyond her normal time. "Suffered many things of many physicians". She must have forgiven the physicians. Huh? "Spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, 'If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.' Straightway or immediately, the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague".
Now, wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. Look, look. "If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole". She believed it and she said it and she did it before she felt it. That's huge. She believed it, she said it, and she did it before she felt it. And that brings me to this. I'm not moved by what I feel. I'm not moved by what I see. I'm moved only by what I believe, and I believe the Word of God.