Kenneth Copeland - Love-Fueled Faith Brings Success
Let's go now to Galatians 5. "Stand fast". Are we standing fast this morning? "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty". What is this country? It is a nation of liberty, freedom. Stand fast in that liberty. Praise God. "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold I, Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, you're fallen from grace. For we, through the spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith".
Well, to get the full impact of that, read what the apostle wrote to the church at Rome. Particularly third, fourth, fifth, sixth verses of the fifth chapter, then the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters on the righteousness of God. By faith. "For in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision", in Christ. Let me share something with you quickly. Go through the letters. Look for in him, in Christ, in whom. And every time you see one of those, that's me, because I'm in Christ. And since I am in Christ, then I am the seed of Abraham. I am an heir. It's an amazing study. There's a number of them. Something like 134 times you find it. Faith, which works by love.
Now, go with me to the book of James. What a powerful book. There's so much I'd like to talk to you from that, but I have a specific assignment. Verse 12. "So speak ye and so do as they"... No, thank You, Lord, for arresting me. Go back to verse seven. "Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called? If you fulfill the royal law, oh, I like that. The royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you'll do well. But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convinced of the law as a transgressor. For whosoever should keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all". Excuse me. "For he that said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not kill.' Now, if you commit adultery yet thou killed, thou become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Glory to God. For he shall have judgment without mercy and show no mercy, and so forth and so on".
Verse 15. "If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and you just say, 'Be warm, brother,'" what's happening here? Okay, back up. "What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith and have not works? Can faith save him"? That works is misleading there. Now, in the Weymouth translation, it's also called the New Testament in Modern Speech, and if you have a hard time finding one, KCM put it back into print and you would enjoy having one of those. You know how he put that? Faith without corresponding action is dead. Well, of course it is. Acting, action. The woman that had the issue of blood, I'm looking forward to finding out her name. I'm tired of calling her a woman. She heard. King James says she heard of Jesus. Well, what did she hear? You want me to tell you? She heard what he preached everywhere. He took that text from the book of Isaiah and that was his golden text, and he preached that everywhere he went. "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach". Had he not preached that, there would've been no way to know he's anointed. Amen.
Now, that was his text everywhere he went. She heard that, and so she started saying it. "If I may touch the hem of his garment..". What hem of what garment? Now, Jesus, a rabbi, and he wore the clothing of a rabbi, and he wore his prayer shawl all the time. And the edges of that garment came down below his top garment. Right down low, and she had been taught that that was where that anointing is, because of that prayer shawl. If I can just touch that. It wasn't the tail of his coat. If I can just touch that, just touch it. Now, you go back to Leviticus five and find out she had an issue of blood that was not normal for a woman. So she was a shut-in. It was illegal for her to be in contact with the public. She could be stoned for this. And there's Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, right behind her, right behind him.
Now, faith is the one that caused all this. In Capernaum, they had everybody out looking for him, and so he just pushed his way out front and just fell right there in the water. "My little daughter lies sick at home at the point of death, come lay your hands on her and she'll live". Jesus said, "Okay, let's go to your house". Then the woman with the issue of blood touched him and he said, "Somebody touched my clothes". So faith put him on the move and faith stopped him. So what'd she do? She said it, but then she did it. She could have sat there in that room until she bled to death before and not ever have gone out there and get in that crowd, pushing her way in there to touch him. All she had to do to touch him, she put a demand on that power. Faith puts a demand on the power of God. Jesus was aware that that power flowed. She was aware that it went into her.
Now, she received it and then she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. But she already released her faith. She released her faith before she got out of that house. She just crawled out there, fearing and trembling. She intended to scoot right back in there. Can you imagine what she looked like? Skin and bones. No woman wants to be seen like that. Hadn't been out of the house in 12 years. You got to look scrawny, sick. "I'm going to touch it, I'm going to get my healing, and I'm going to get back in there, and then I'm going to build up. I'm going to get strong". But she got it. She said it, she did it, she received it, then she told it. That is the basic fundamental of faith. Anybody. Brother Hagin, after a meeting, he was at home with some very close friends and a spirit of prayer came on him and he said, "I have to pray, and I have to pray now". And they said, "Well, let's just get on our knees and pray with Brother Hagin". And the minute his knees touched the floor, there was Jesus standing right in front of him. And he said, "Lord".
I know he talked to him about some other things, but he said, "I want to ask you something". He said, "My message on the woman with the issue of blood," he said, "I'm missing it here someplace". So the Lord said, "Go get your pad and pencil, something to write with". So he went in and around in his luggage, but he said, "I always keep a pad and I always keep something to write with in case I hear from the Lord". Now, that's a good idea. So, he said, "Now put down point one, two, three, and four". He says, "It's amazing how good you can write with your eyes closed when you're in the spirit". And he gave him those four points and he said, "Anyone that will do those four things can receive anything that they want, anything that they need from our Father". That is the basic fundamental of faith.
Now, the strong thing is the corresponding action. Now, go with me to Mark chapter five. Read the 41st verse of chapter four. And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, "What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him"? What manner of man is that? That is a faith man. He's a man of faith. How do we know? Because the apostle Paul wrote in the book of Hebrews, "It is impossible to please God without faith, for he that comes to God must believe that he is". But that's only half of it. "And that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him". How do you diligently seek him in his covenants? In prayer, amen, and in action. "So, they came over unto the other side of the sea, or the Galilee, unto the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately, immediately, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit". Hold your place there and go to the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians.
Verse 10. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on," now, look. He cannot put the armor on you. Is anybody in here that God dressed you this morning? No, you had to do it yourself. Now, I have to tell you this. It amazes me at some of the clothes people make for little children and they don't have to wear them, particularly in the olden days. I was a little boy and so, Michael, what would it be like if your trousers buttoned to your shirt? It ain't going to work, brother. There's something wrong with this picture. And I got up and my mother, our house was just here and it was just a couple of houses down, there was this little neighborhood grocery store on the corner. And I thought, "I want to surprise my mother. I want to dress myself this morning". And I had to button these buttons and I got them buttoned wrong. And I wondered what my mother was laughing at. I thought she just must be really proud of me. The only thing of it was I couldn't track straight.
Oh, Lord. "You put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but," now, this is the rank and file of Satan's authority from the bottom up. "But against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places or heavenly places". The rulers of the darkness of this world are the ones that possess people. I mean spirit, soul, body, financially, everything.
Now, the wicked spirits in the heavenlies, and you can prove this out. You can go to the book of Daniel and prove this out. In other places, also, but we don't have time to do that. But these are the highest ranking demons right under Satan himself. And these are the ones that we elect politicians and they go to Washington and then they get to Washington and they do just opposite of what they said. They're facing devils they never faced before. And if they don't know anything about that, they just fall for every lie the devil tells them. And they say strange and stupid stuff and do stranger than that. But I'm not their judge, but I am judge of who I'm going to vote for, and I do know enough to use this in my prayer time. And as you know as well as I do, the mess that's going on in Afghanistan and all that, this is not the time to get mad at the president.
This is the time to pray for him like you have never prayed for him before in your life and go to that scripture right there and bind those things and say, "Look, whether you voted for him or not, that doesn't have anything to do with it". We have a higher mandate. In 1 Timothy chapter two, "I exhort you therefore brethren that prayers, first of all prayers, thanksgiving, supplication be made for all men, kings and for all that are in authority that we might live a quiet and peaceful life, for this is good in the sight of God our savior, who would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge that there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, to be testified of in due time". Praise God. All right.
Now, you'll see that right here. Come back over there now. "So, when he was come out of the ship, immediately they met him, out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit". One devil had possessed him. One. Now, that fits right there, right? A ruler of the darkness of this world. One. "Who had his dwelling among the tombs. No man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been off and bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him and the shackles broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him". Now, this man doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep. There's no way that he's strong physically. Samson was not a great big, powerful man. People couldn't understand how he was so powerful.
Well, this is Samson in reverse. That demon, they'd put chains on him, and that demon's power would just flow through him and tear chains, just rip them off. "Because he'd been often bound, neither could any man tame him, and always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying, cutting himself with stones". If there's any cutters watching or listening to me right now, you listen up, you listen up. This is your day of deliverance. This is your day of deliverance. "But when he saw Jesus, when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him". If there could have ever been any man that the devil could have kept him from worshiping Jesus, it would've been this one. No. No, couldn't do it. Just saw him and he ran and he worshiped him.