Kenneth Copeland - The Kingdom of Love
I'm the way, I'm the truth and I'm the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. If you had known me, you should have known my Father also; and from henceforth know him and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us". Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet you've not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, 'Show us the Father?' You believe now not that I'm in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not on myself; but the Father that dwells in me he does the works. Believe me that I'm in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to my Father". I'm doing the works in Jesus right now.
Now what did Jesus say? The crowds were just overwhelming and his family thought, he's absolutely crazy. He doesn't do anything like he's supposed to. He doesn't qualify to be a prophet. He doesn't come from the tribe of Levi or of the tribe of Judah. Who is he? He's crazy. That's what his family thought. The scripture says lunatic. That means moonstruck. He didn't do what a prophet's supposed to do yet he acts like one. And they said, "Would you send him out here? We'd like to talk to him please". He wouldn't answer. And the people he was talking to, he said, "Who are those that do the will of my Father"? Those that do the will of my Father are the ones that listen to me. We're doing the works of Jesus. We're in the will of God. Amen. And all that very large household that's watching, wish we had room for you in here. We do. Come on in. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Let's go down here. I bordered this in my Bible in red, the 21st verse. The 20th verse, "At that day, you shall know that I'm in the Father and you and me and I in you". What day? Just a few days from now.
When did they know it? 50 days, Pentecost. That's when they found it out. That's when he came in them. He foretold it right there. Well, you'd see it there. If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray the Father, he shall give you another comforter that he might abide with you for ever; even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you in just a few days. At that point, they had no concept of what he was saying because they had a few hours of really tough going here. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loves me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him". Oh I will manifest myself to him. Well Jesus, you know how much I love you. You don't ever manifest yourself to me. Oh really? I love you Jesus. Then why won't you do what I tell you to do? Well, we'll talk.
Now, I've been guilty of this. I don't get on you over anything I hadn't already. My toes have already been stepped on. I've said this a lot of times, the Lord gets on me, then I come get on you. He woke me up, then it's my responsibility to share with you what happened to me and how thank God, he fixed it. And the things that cost me dearly, disobedience, just because I thought I had a better idea. And I answered for myself why bad things happen to good people. It is so simple because good people make bad choices. This is just a simple matter of the love of God, the goodness of God and faith in God with corresponding action to that faith. And it's because of the love commandment.
13th chapter, "Let every soul will be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. Now you come down... Oh the book of Romans is just this magnificent book. I'll close it with this. Colossians chapter one. Oh I can just see it in my mind, the first time I really stopped to study this small letter. These are letters. Take the time. That's not but four chapters long. You can read that in a few minutes. Read it every day. You partners, know that Colossians 1:9, 10 and 11 is on the bottom of that letter. I pray this for you. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might". All dunamis, all power. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and dunamis. That Greek word is the same word from which we received dynamite. Dunamin, dynamite, dunamis. "Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us able to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the authority of darkness".
One of the things about the English Bible is having words that actually mean different things. Well, we have the same thing in English but just don't pay enough attention to it. Thou shalt not kill. That actually said, you shall do no murder but we have the same thing in English. We have murder, self defense, justifiable homicide. All of that is killing. Some accidental and some premeditated. But this one, "delivered us from the authority of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of", the word there, dear son, the son of his love, look it up. The son of his agape. It is the love kingdom. It is the kingdom of love and God is king wherever love is primary.
Now, oh, I talked about a warrior going to war with love. Now last week I was on a Navajo Indian reservation. My name is, Good Eagle Speaks. And my spiritual son, Jerry Savelle and I, well his name is Elson Bennett in English and his name in Navajo since he's a pastor is Thunder Speaks and I'm telling you, you know what? He texted me today. David, do you have my phone? Oh, that's all right. Here it is. Thank you, sir. A dishonored warrior is a warrior that fights without love. Dan Akee, Navajo code talker, United States Marine Corps. You understand what the code talkers were? The Japanese listening in couldn't understand Navajo. Not only is that a very difficult language to learn but they even had code inside. A tank was a turtle in Navajo where you'd have to, they never heard anything like Navajo to start with because when someone speaks Navajo rapidly, it sounds like a bunch of grunts and groans, particularly if they're really rattling it off. I had to practice my name because of the accents and so forth. I had a little bit of edge because of what amount of Spanish that I speak.
"An unworthy warrior goes to war without. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, in earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things and by him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead". He's no longer the only begotten Son of God. He is the firstborn from the dead. And we are joint heirs with him. We have firstborn status. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Praise You, Father. Thank you, sir. There's someone in the sound of my voice that's having heart pains right now, AFib. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. Jesus sacrificed his body for yours. The very sac around his heart, that spear went right up in there and the blood and water flowed out of him so your heart could be healed.
Oh, thank You. Burning ulcers being healed and the peace coming in there. Check yourself, check your love life first. Repent, if necessary because Jesus, do you know, that's the only thing Jesus pointed out. There are many hindrances to faith that that's the only one. Just take a red pencil and mark them. The only thing he ever said, he said, "When you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any". Faith won't work in an unforgiving heart. You love your neighbor as yourself, fulfilling the law and the prophets. And then he said, what's your name, brother? Then he said a new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Now, well, I'm not through. The prayer that he prayed in the 17th chapter of John. Oh, I remember praying this. And he began to pray. This is right there that night.
And so I thought, I just learned about the prayer of agreement and I thought, I'm student there at ORU. I thought I'm going to agree with every word of this. I didn't know it was the right book. I didn't know anything yet much. And so I just started agreeing and I just agreed and agreed and agreed. And I came on down and I thought, oh, this is so good. And then verse 20, "Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which I believe on me through their word". And I thought, right there he prayed for me. Oh. "That they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I am thee in thee. Also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me". Oh, I agree with that. "And the glory, which thou gives me, I've given them". I thought, oh no, wait a minute, wait a minute. The glory. Well yeah, but it's written in red. "I in them, thou in me that they made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them as much as you love me". And I said, "No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no".
I was standing up in our little living room, our whole house wasn't as big as that platform. And just about that wide, had a little living room there. Just little project house, the old kind, the little hallway that had a floor furnish in the floor. Is built World War II. "No," I said, "Lord, there's no way that you love me as much as you love Jesus. No". I was trembling all over but I said, "Lord, I said it. I said I was going to agree with this". And I said, "The world, I know you sent me, love them as you love me". And yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Verse 26, "I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thy has loved me may be in them and I in them". Romans 5:5, "The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit". Because it's the same spirit. The same spirit.