Kenneth Copeland - God's Open Hand of Blessing
The main thing we're looking at here is the fact that God is absolutely good. There's no bad in Him, at all. Now, look at Matthew 25:41. Thank you, Lord. God has never created anything that was bad. Verse 40, "And the king shall answer and say unto them verily I say unto you in as much as you have done it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me. Then shall he also say unto them then the left hand depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire. You cursed into ever lasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels". It was never prepared for man. Never, never, ever. It was prepared for the devil and that whole bunch.
So He is absolute good, He is absolute light, and hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. The sad part of it is that God has never sent anyone to hell, but the devil. That was prepared for him, it's a jail. It still is. Now this old... Well, it's just pure hogwash that somebody that's died and their spirits still floating around and you're trying to contact the dead. Well, they told me exactly what I wore last night. Come on, dumb, dumb. Excuse me, sweetheart. Those are familiar spirits. What would it be like with Adolf Hitler still just floating around in the atmosphere somewhere, get on. Now, I do have some information for you. I don't know this, except these three. The Japanese that really are the leaders of the whole military mess in Japan. There was a little red headed Irish missionary.
Now they had to be very careful with these people because the people would come in to visit and rub poison on the bars or something that they had done. It's hard doing anything with people that worship death. That's like other communities that worship death, and you threaten them with death. And they say, "Help me out here". But Christian people don't worship death. We worship the God of life. But she wanted permission to go in there and testify. And they allowed her in there. She testified to more but I do know about these three. And she kept telling them that Jesus loved them and so forth and so on. Just pure, simple gospel. And they said, "Well, you don't have any idea". "Oh yeah". She said, "I do have an idea. I know exactly. I know who you are. I know what you did, but you don't know what Jesus has done". And she just kept on testifying to them and they hung these three. Their final request was to be baptized in water.
So, you will get to meet these people, one of these days. Glory to God. I've had experiences over the years. I baptized a serial killer in the Bexar County jail, San Antonio, Steven Moran in March the 13th, 1985. I became well-acquainted with him. And of course he went to death row and he didn't want any... He was turned down on all of his appeals and everything. He said, "No, man, no, no, no, no". He said, "I don't have anybody left and my family won't have anything to do with me". And it's a great story. I wish I had time to tell you the whole thing. A woman that had a cassette tape of mine. In fact, she left that morning. She went back and got the tape, in San Antonio. And she got out of the car and he kidnapped her. The police had him surrounded. And so she just kept telling him, he said, "Lady, if you don't shut up, I'm going to kill you". She said, "No, you don't want to kill me. You're not going to kill the only person that loves you". She's about to drive him out of his mind. So she said, "Well, if I can't talk, may I listened to my tape"? He said, "Well, of course".
Well, I was preaching on this tape. He finally got her on out in the country. Then he was headed out. And all of a sudden he slammed on the brakes. He said, "Who said that"? She said, "What, Steven"? And he looked in the backseat, nobody there. "Who said that"? She said, "What"? Somebody said, "Steven, this is your last chance". She said, "That was the spirit of God". He sat right there and accepted Jesus as his Lord. And then later on, I went to the Bexar County jail in San Antonio and baptized him in water. Man, I mean, those guys came in there, they were so ready for him. He was dangerous. He killed 21 women. Anyway. I was there the night they executed him and I was the last one to spend any time with him. I said, "Steven, let me know if grace is enough". "Yeah. I will, I'll let you know". They came and got him and he was in this cage looking affair, he was up here and I was down here, looking up at him like this. And so we went out there and the crowd was blacked out. You couldn't see them, but we could all see him and I'm not up on the front row.
Listen, this lethal injection, don't get the idea that that's any kind of an easy thing. Because when they start that thing, it makes a loud bang. You know you're going to be dead in seconds. It's not all that easy. And so Wharton Lawrence Harvey, great friend of mine and Lawrence Harvey's spirit filled man. They had him on a gurney and he's strapped down on this gurney. He could just get his head up like this. And they got the IVs in both arms. And its got him strapped down like this. And he said, "Steven, you have any last words"? "Yes, if you can imagine what the Holy Ghost has done for me, can you imagine what he could do for you"? And he just started preaching. And finally Warden Harvest said, "Steven, Steven, son. Come on, now. That's enough. We've got to take care of business". He said, "Yeah, I know it". Got this big smile on his face. And here was his final prayer.
Heavenly Father. I give thanks for this time. For the time that we've been together. The fellowship in your Word, the Christian family presented to me. And he called the names of personal witnesses. Allow your Holy Spirit to flow as I know your love has been showered upon me. Forgive them, for they know not what they do, is I know that you've forgiven me as I have forgiven them. There were people in that room who wanted to kill him. Worse than the state of Texas. They hated him. Well, who's the murderer here. Jesus, I commit my soul to you. I praise you. And I thank you.
And they hit that thing. Bow! And I'm this close. And he looked over there, he's like this, two thumbs up. More than enough. So you couldn't kill him. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. You couldn't kill him. Amen. Because heaven has it written down that he never murdered anybody. That man died on that road there that day, right outside of San Antonio, Texas. Isn't this a wonderful life. Isn't this a wonderful thing. Now, why did that happen? Because God is so good. God is a good God.
Now, John 10, we're just about here. Our good God. What I called the dividing point of the Bible. Verse nine. "I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, to kill and to destroy". Don't change that order. It's not kill, steal and destroy. It's steal, kill and destroy. What does he steal? The Word. That's what he comes to do, to steal that Word. If he can steal the Word out of you, then he can kill you. Then he can destroy everything you have. He is the destroyer in the book of Malachi. Hallelujah. So, I am the good shepherd. Hallelujah. I am the good shepherd. Give us life, He gives His life, for the sheep.
And now Acts 10:38. And as I've said many times, if this doesn't set you on fire, your woods wet. Praise you Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Acts 10:37. "That word I say you know which was published throughout all Judea, began From Galilee after the baptism which John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good, who went about doing good and healing, all that were oppressed of the devil". And I've had people say, "Well now brother Copeland, that was Jesus". No, it was God. How God anointed Jesus who went about doing good and healing. Healing good. Sickness is a satanic oppression. Glory to God. Amen. Glory to God.
Psalm 145. Don't get your Bible out, I'm going to read it out of here. And we'll do this again in Healing School. This is my favorite Psalm, 145th Psalm. I have favorites and this is on top of the list. And it'd just do you good to read the whole thing, but I'm going to read it to you from the Classic Amplified. "I will extol you my God, oh king, and I will bless your name forever and ever with grateful, affectionate praise. Every day with this new reasons, I will bless you affectionately and gratefully, praise you. Yes, I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised. And His greatness is so vast and deep as to be unsearchable". Verse six, "Men shall speak of the might of your tremendous and terrible or awesome acts".
The complete Jewish Bible says, "Your awesome acts and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth like a fountain, the fame of your great and abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your rightness and justice. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving kindness. The Lord is good to all. And his tender mercies are overall all. He is good to all". The 103rd Psalm is one of my favorites. "Bless the Lord. All my soul, all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases. To make known to the sons of men, the mighty deeds".
Now listen, "The eyes of all wait for you, looking, watching, expecting to give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy every living thing with favor". Our God is not tight fisted. He has an open hand for all that will look to Him in His goodness. He feeds everything. He feeds everything. He is a good God. So many times the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever. If we had time, I'd take you over... You remember the battle where the victory is yours and the battle is the Lord's. You remember that? And Jehosaphat called all the people and... You can go back and read it later. It's very interesting, but you need to read it carefully. For years, I thought God told Jehosaphat to put singers out front. He didn't. Jehosaphat conferred with the people and they decided to put the singers out front.
Now here came the bad guys. What were the singers singing? God is good and his mercy endures forever. And when they said that, when they sang that, the war was over. God was just waiting for them to sing that. They sang that and he immediately set ambushments, they started fighting one another and they killed one another off. Now, what I never could understand is when you carry all your money to war. That may be the answer to the question, how dumb can you get? But hey had it all. Of course, they're just going to whip this little bunch and go on down and take everything they have and go. No more. When they began to shout God is good, and His hesed endures for whatever. That covenant hesed, that's the big one blessing the little one.
One man explained that to me one time, he said, "The best way I know how to describe hesed is a big mama elephant and that's God and a little baby elephant and that's me". And he spent a lot of time in Africa. He said, "You start getting too close to little me and big mama's ears come out there, like that. And the little elephant gets around behind and maybe underneath her". That's hesed. When God makes a blood covenant with a man or a woman. And He's good. And His mercy hesed endures forever. Endures forever. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Praise you, Lord Jesus.