Kenneth Copeland - Submit Yourself To God's WORD
The healer's in the house today. Now this is an opportunity for you to learn. This is Healing School. We're going to take our benefits this morning. So, Psalm 103, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul". Now listen, he's speaking to his soul. He's speaking to his mind, and his will, and his emotions. He's talking to himself. Now when some of us are around our Jewish friends and we talk about now this is what David said. They say, "Well, now, we're not like you, Christians. I mean, we sing these". I'm glad I don't know the tune, because the song can get in the way. These are the words of God. I'll put it this way, God wrote the lyrics. These are perfect songs.
Now I sing some songs, and have ever since I've been in the ministry, that are scripture. I did a recording called The Word. But my words are not anointed unless his words are coming out my mouth, whether I'm singing them. But when I'm singing them, I'm not thinking about what they say. I'm thinking about performing it. I have to have my mind on that unless I'm singing in tongues. Amen. So bless the Lord, soul, mind, will, emotions. Bless the Lord. Bless what? Bless his holy name. Well, I can go along with that. Woo, glory to God. Bless his holy name. All that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all my inequities, who healeth all my diseases, who redeemeth my life from destruction, who crowns me with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Benefits. Who satisfies my mouth with good.
Notice the word things in the King James translation is in italics. It was added there. But that's a good word. He fills my mouth, satisfies my mouth with good things so that my youth is renewed like the eagles. Satisfies my mouth with good words. Good words. Good words. Where's my book? This little book, I've had it for a long time. Don't give up! Jesus will give you that miracle you need, by Oral Roberts. Now, I mean, I've had it so long, some of the pages have turned brown. Just take it out and read it. But I was reading it again here just a few days ago. You heard me speak about Bob Dewis, my captain of the airplane under which I flew copilot. Knew him very well, became very close. I mean, you fly with somebody in that same cockpit with him. A lot of experience. He taught me some things about prayer that I never heard of, and how to pray. He asked me to come over to his hotel room.
We were on a meeting. He asked me to come to his hotel. He said, "I want you to pray with me". I said, "Yeah". And I'm a novice, man. I mean, I'm greener than a gourd here. Like I said, I came into this, I was scripture illiterate. I turned to Gloria. I said, "Do you know that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell the same story? Can you be that? Yeah". Now mother kept sending me Bibles but I didn't read them. I was out to lunch in Sunday school. I didn't care anything about it. Now always, even in my terrible days I'd pray, "Oh God," because I knew I wasn't doing right. Anyway. And so, I went over to Bob's room, and I prayed like this. And man, I mean, he hit the floor. I won't go into all that. I mean, some people, including some of the family and so forth, he had invested in some of their business or something, and they just squandered it and got him into debt, and he needed out now. He just fell in the floor. And I'm telling you, he's praying in tongues so loud that... Let me do this, too. I just fell down there on the floor with him, glory to God.
And Jesus broke that thing for him, and that business prospered, glory to God. Oh, I learned from these men. Precious brother. I miss him. I spent a lot of time with him over the years, even after I left Oral Roberts University and a long time I was on the board of regents and so forth. And Bob and I had a lot of fun. Listen. But now listen, I talked about the fact that he had a massive heart attack on a handball court. And then I shared what he shared with Gloria and me, he and his wife Charlotte, Gloria and me, parts of this story. And how he died, went to heaven, and was on this road, gorgeous place. He said, "Kenneth," and he mentioned a little bit of it here. But he said there was a fence on each side of the road. And I walked over to that fence, and he said, it looked like it was hand carved mahogany. Hand polished. That doesn't sound like any Texas barbed wire fence I ever saw. Don't need barbed wires. Nothing up there has got a barb on it. Amen. But then he said, "I began to run". He was not aware that he didn't have a body. "I began to run". And he said, "I saw the lights of the city," and he said, "I know where I am".
And he just headed toward it as fast as he can run. Then he began to bog down, and he woke up there in the hospital in the City of Faith. And Charlotte said, "Kenneth, you want me to tell you what the first thing he said to me? Did he say, 'Charlotte, thank you for saving my life'? No, he said, 'Charlotte, what did you do that for?'" What did you do that for? Oh, now I'm talking about words. Now, let me go back here. Now this is in the hospital in the City of Faith. When I died, when my heart stopped and my breathing stopped, so he jumped on my chest and began pounding it. Nothing they did could get me to respond. I was gone. So, they brought in the electrodes that stopped the fibrillation, that stopped the quivering of the heart and let it try to get started all over again. They got it going.
And when I started to come to, I heard this awful noise. I couldn't figure out what the terrible noise was. It was the breathing machine. It was covering my face breathing for me. Then I came to a little more. They finally took the breathing machine off. The room was full of doctors and nurses. And I looked over at Dr. Basta and said, "Why did you bring me back to this mess? I didn't want to be here in the first place. Why didn't you bring me back to this mess? If you only knew where I've been, what I felt, what I saw. The battle was over. Victory was mine. Never another test or trial or problem of any kind. And now you brought me back to this and I've got to start all over again". Don't ever feel sorry for anybody. I don't care what age they died. No, no, no, no, no, no. And don't grieve over it. Don't ever grieve over it. Praise God.
Pretty soon they let Charlotte come in, and I saw her in motion. Anyway, I want to go on over here. You're right there with the doctors, the nurses, the patients and people all around you. Prayer is urgently needed, but in all due respect, it's not always a place where you can pray... When Brother Roberts prayed, I had lapsed partly back into unconsciousness, but was aware of his prayer which was in a very low voice. Charlotte was in the waiting room with Bob and Donna along with my granddaughter, Cindy. Oral walked by and said, "I don't know. I don't know. I don't have the answer. I'll go home. I'm going to think and pray about this. I don't have the answer". He went over to the elevator with Colin Steele. Now that was my boss when were on the meetings. He was over all of the tent meetings, the auditorium meetings.
And so, when all of a sudden, Cindy, my granddaughter, who was now 22, felt something happened to her. The spirit of God came on her. Tears started bursting from her eyes and the Holy Spirit took over in her life. She ran up to Brother Roberts just as she was getting on the elevator, grabbed his arms and said, "Brother Roberts, Brother Roberts, you didn't pray a miracle prayer for my grandfather. You didn't pray the kind of prayer you used to pray in the tent crusades when the cripple were healed and the blind saw and miracles happen. I want you to go back in there and pray a tent prayer. Pray a tent miracle prayer for my grandfather". Oral was standing there, his eyes wide looking at Cindy as she was pumping his arms up and down.
Well, Brother Roberts got the answer. He said, "All right, Cindy, let's go". And he had that look of an eagle on his face. He came back in the room and looked down at me. He got my attention. He said, "Bob, do you think God's through with you"? I said, "Well, no, I guess not". He still didn't want to stay here. He wanted to die. Get your hands off of me. Will you get out of my way and let me out of here? I love it, don't you? And he said, "Well, I guess not". "All right," he said. I can just hear him. I'm telling you, when that anointing would come over Oral. Oral was a very quiet man. And when you would be with him in a room and he's just discussing things, he was very quiet. Originally he was a very, very timid man. He stuttered so badly that in front of the class he couldn't say his name.
So, he withdrew. He withdrew. He almost died of tuberculosis. He had it so bad. This was back in those days. But not only that, the Cherokee people had a lot of problem with tuberculosis. And his mother, blood Cherokee like my grandfather. Now that I know of, we never did have any tuberculosis in our family. Could have and I didn't know it. But he had TB so bad, he was laying in the bed, and they had to repaper wall next to his bed. He blew blood on it. He was skin and bones. But a tent preacher by the name of Moncey was having a meeting. And Oral's brother came in and said, "We're going to take you to that meeting". So, his brother and his sister. And can you imagine this? Oral Roberts, a man in his stocking feet six foot three. And he picked him up and carried him to the car like a little baby, and put him in the backseat of that old car, and drove to where that tent meeting was. On the way, the spirit of God said, "I'm going to heal you, and you're going to take my Word where my voice is dim". They got out there and they took the backseat out that old car and set it up there close to the platform, and he's just laying there on that old seat.
And Brother Moncey, this is night now and it is outside there. And called him up on the platform and put his hands on him and told him to breathe down deep. And he did, and his lungs were clear, and he never stuttered again. So, because of those early... When you're seated with him, he's very quiet. But when that anointing came on him, I want you to know he was a roaring lion. So, since I've been there, I know what he sounded like in there. He was not speaking softly. I can just see him. "All right, Cindy. Let's go". And he had that look of an eagle on his face. He came back into that room and looked down at me and got my attention. "Bob, do you think God's through with you"? I said, "Well, no, I guess not". "All right. I'll pray for you if you don't think God's through with you. If you think He's through with you, I will not pray for you. If you think God's through with you, and I can't change your thinking, not a bit of use in the world me praying, or anybody else, because of what you think. Because of what you think, that's what you've been saying".
Now get this. Remember, he fills my mouth with good words. Are you listening to me now? He fills my mouth with good words. Good words. Words and things in the Hebrew language are tied together, because words created all things. Words, faith, things, creation. "If you think God has something left for you to do, I will pray for you". And I said, "Yes, I do". Get your catchers on. He fills my mouth with good words. "All right," he said, "I want to ask you a question. Listen, you always said you would die about the same time your dad did". I'm two years older than that was when he died. "You always said you would die about the same time your dad did". And he had a heart attack about the same time his dad did. Dear Lord God. It matters what you say all the time. And the reason you say something all the time is because it matters what you think.
Now Brother Keith told the story. I heard Brother Hagin tell that story myself. This young man said he had a brother, almost twins but they were apart. And he always said, "I'll never reach 20 or 40. I'll never reach it". He died two months before that birthday. And the Lord said to Brother Hagin, certain spiritual laws have been put into motion which cannot be changed at this time. How? With the mouth. Even had he known the difference, he probably didn't have time to change it. And when Brother Hagin said that to his brother, his brother said, "Why, he always said that to me". And he called his mother over there and said, "Brother Hagin, tell her". And she said, "Oh yeah, he always said that. He said that all of his life". He died two months before that birthday. And when they realized that they couldn't get him back, Brother Hagin just laid hands on him and said, "Jim".
You remember that, Nancy? You remember these stories. He said, "Jim, we're releasing you, son. Go on home". And Jim smiled. And he was in a coma, but he smiled. Don't ever get the idea that someone's in a coma they can't hear you. I've had personal experience with that. He smiled and he was gone. Well, ask Bob Dewis, if he wanted to come back. No, Jim wouldn't have come back if he could. What he said was what he thought, and what he thought all the time is what he said. So, examine your thinking and examine your thoughts and your words. And realize the devil's going to put every kind of a bad, sick thought in your mind that he possibly can because he needs your words. He needs your words.
You remember what Jesus said? The sower shows the Word. Satan comes immediately to steal the Word. He's a thief. If he can steal God's Word, if he can steal the Word, then he can kill and destroy. But Jesus said the thief cometh but for to steal, kill, and destroy. Don't mix that order up. Jesus said it proper. It's in proper order. But also Jesus said, talk back to him. No, don't let him have it. Don't let him have it. Don't let the devil steal the Word. Don't let the devil think your thoughts for you. No, I mean, you have him. Resist him and he'll flee. Right? No, the Bible said submit yourself to God and resist the devil and he'll flee. How do you submit yourself to God? I refuse to think that. I'm not thinking that, devil. I'm thinking these words. I'm thinking healing words. I'm thinking love words. I'm thinking love thoughts. I'm thinking faith thoughts. I'm thinking faith words.