Kenneth Copeland - How To Live In an Atmosphere of Love
Kenneth Copeland: Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. That's Greg Stephens, Professor Greg... Let me back up. This is Dr. Professor Greg Stephens, who is an instructor at Kenneth Copeland Bible college.
Greg Stephens: That's right.
Kenneth Copeland: Amen. I'm glad. It's an honor to do it.
Kenneth Copeland: Yeah. Praise God. Amen. And we're talking about the love of God. Not the love of people. Not human love. Human natural love will fail, but God's love never fails because he never fails. And when you love with his love, which, that's what the covenants are about.
Greg Stephens: Yes.
Kenneth Copeland: We must never ever allow ourselves to get away from the fact that this book is a book of covenants and a covenant, and I'll just quote, what scripture says is the lesser being blessed by the higher.
Greg Stephens: That's correct.
Kenneth Copeland: And when you go to the 91st Psalm, "He that dwells..". and there's a secret place, abides where?
Greg Stephens: Under the shadow.
Kenneth Copeland: Of what? Of who?
Greg Stephens: The Almighty. Of the Almighty.
Kenneth Copeland: Of the Almighty, the Most High God.
Greg Stephens: Yes.
Kenneth Copeland: You can't get any higher than that. The Most High God. Amen.
Greg Stephens: So every time God gave something, he did it out of love, even when he gave the law, which seems like it's not love at all.
Kenneth Copeland: Oh. But it is.
Greg Stephens: It was love because it's showing you, "You need me".
Kenneth Copeland: Yes. Not only that you're killing yourself.
Greg Stephens: Yes. Right. You're eating the wrong things. You're doing the wrong things. And let me show you my standard. And so, no man can do that standard except Jesus. And he is love personified and the fulfillment of that.
Kenneth Copeland: Oh man. Yeah.
Greg Stephens: Praise God.
Kenneth Copeland: All right. First Corinthians chapter 13 and you read it.
Greg Stephens: Verse 13, "But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three. And the greatest of these is love".
Kenneth Copeland: Now let's read that from the Classic Amplified. "And so faith, hope, love abide. Faith, conviction, and belief, respecting man's relation to God and divine things. Hope, joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation". Ah, oh, "Love, true affection for God and man growing out of God's love for and in us. These three, but the greatest of these is love".
Greg Stephens: Okay. So let me show you in Mark Gospel chapter one, a guy, did he come in faith or did he come in hope? But he experienced love in chapter one of Mark and verse 30. Jesus has been preaching all over the Galilee and in the synagogues. Verse 40, "There came a leper to him beseeching him and kneeling down to him and saying unto him, 'if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.'" Here it is verse 41, "And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him and said, 'I will, be thou clean.'" The moment he did that the man was clean from that moment forth.
—As soon as he had spoken, immediately.
—Yes.
—The leprosy departed. It didn't say it was healed. It said the leprosy got out.
—Yeah.
—I mean that the leprosy couldn't stand.
—No. So here's Jesus. A holy man. Not allowed to touch a leper.
—I love it.
—Or break the law, but he's moved with compassion. Love, the root word of it, is to give. Whatever he's seeing with this man caused him, what was missing? What was missing was a touch. This man hadn't been touched in years.
—And Jesus touches him, which he can't do according to the law, but love compelled him to give what was needed.
—And a leper beseeching him and kneeling down to him.
—Yes.
—And Greg, I see him. I see Jesus. He didn't stand up here like this. I don't think.
—Now this man would have had bloody rags on him.
—I think he got right down there with him. He's kneeling down. And, I see him down here and he says, one translation says, "Of course I will". And, I see him down here, the smile on his face, "Of course I will" and touched him and the leprosy left.
—Praise God.
—Love, compassion.
—Faith and hope need love to function as they were intended to. And that's exactly what happened. Compassion is making God's love real to people. That's all it is. It's making God's love real to people.
—That is really good.
—Because they don't know whether they can really believe it or not. They don't know if they really... They want it to be true. But when they see compassion, when they see love-
—Well, this man said that, "I know you can".
—Yeah, but will you? Of course, I will. He was moved with compassion. He wasn't afraid to touch him because it's his touch that changes everything. And that's what he wants to do through you. That's what he wants to do through all of us is to be that touch for somebody. There's some leper out there.
—You know what just occurred to me? My father in the faith, Oral Roberts. Now, he had surgery in his shoulder and rotator cuffs. He laid his hands on 2 million people, 2 million of them. And somebody said, "Well, I just don't understand that. I mean, why would he have to have surgery on his... He's bringing healing to all these people". Healing is not a reward.
—That's good.
—That was his job. And he did it out of compassion. He did it when he was so tired, he couldn't stand up. He did it when he could hardly move his shoulders. He did it anyway. And he said this and he talked to me about it about not ever, don't ever be afraid to lay hands on anybody. Don't ever, don't have any fear of that. He said on all the people... He said, "I have laid my hands on every conceivable disease, all of them leprosy included". And he said, "I have never so much as caught a cold off anybody".
—Praise God.
—Now, can you see now the damage to his physical shoulders was one thing, but there's a lot of stuff there the devil would've really liked to put on him.
—That's right. In First John chapter three, verse 18, it says, "Dear children, let us not merely say we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions".
—Yeah.
—You show love. You don't just believe love or may say love. You show love.
—You know in First John four there, he said, "And we've known and believed the love". And there's, there's so many people that don't believe it. If you ask them, does God love you? Well, of course.
—Yes.
—But then get under pressure. What was it? Peter said to Jesus, "Don't you care"? He called him Master this, a double minded man.
—Right?
—What did James say?
—He's unstable in all his ways.
—He's unstable. So now he called him Master. They're in that storm, "Master, don't you care that we're about to die". Accused Jesus of not caring. A lot of baby Christians do that. And a lot of Christians that have been Christians for 50, 60 years, and they're still babies.
—Right.
—"I don't see why you let this come on me? What did I do deserve that"? Well, you really want to know? No, you don't really want to know what you deserve.
—Don't ask question. Think of what the answer is.
—If we got what we deserve, all of us are being hell right now.
—Absolutely.
—It's his grace.
—Yeah.
—But, not understanding the laws of love and the responsibility of love on his side and the responsibility of love on our side starts with believing the love.
—Yes.
—I believe it. I trust it.
—Especially when I don't feel it when I don't feel like it. That's when I have to believe it the most.
—That's when you really need to believe.
—That's why I really need to confess it. This is the atmosphere we live in. Faith, hope, and love. That's to a fish is water. This should be as natural as the air around us.
—That's good.
—That's our atmosphere. And we ought to be able to recognize when we get out of our atmosphere. I mean-
—You've got faith, hope, and love. That is it.
—Yes.
—Yeah.
—God is love he's in our atmosphere. It'd be like me trying to live in water. That's not my natural environment, but love is my natural environment. Faith is my natural environment. That's where I operate and I ought to be able, so in tune to it, so in tune my Father, that when I'm not in the atmosphere, I know it and say, "Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I got out here somewhere. This is not the atmosphere I walk in".
—"Oh, I don't have any business here".
—"I don't need to be here. I got to figure out how to get back right there". And that's what First John is, in chapter one, verse nine. He's faithful to forgive us of all unrighteousness. That's when I say, "Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm in the water. And I need to be back over here".
—You know, Greg, those two verses of Scripture there? Right in that little area there, Gloria and I were, I mean, we were living and walking by faith and well, I mean, we were doing the best we could do. And that was kind of a strange meeting. We were there for three weeks down in Florida and in Pensacola area. Back there, then everything was on tape and people were buying so many tapes. I had to reorder. And so I went to the post office to get the tapes and they shipped them in big wax covered boxes. All was left of my tapes was this box with tire marks over the top of it. And it's some torn up tapes on the end. They were reel to reel tapes on the inside. And then it started raining and it was raining and it was raining. Like I say, in Texas is a frog strangler. I mean, it was raining. Came by the little tent where we were and the water, the tent was sagging down and the water was getting down in and I got underneath there and I got this, I got this bomb box in the trunk of my car. And I got a broom inside there. And I was trying to push that water out. And the tent fell in on me and I came out, I came out under the thing, laughing and Gloria looked at me laughing. I'm just soaking wet. And when she said, "Why are you laughing"? I said, "I'm thrilled. The devil thinks I'm such a threat".
—Yeah, amen. Amen.
—Yeah. But, you know what?
—You didn't let that overwhelm you.
—Oh, right then, I just, and I got mad at the way the guy that's receiving the offerings and took these, "Oh, this is for Brother Copeland". And "Oh, this is for Brother Copeland". "Oh, this is for Brother Copeland". Three weeks of this. "This is for Brother Copeland. This is for Brother Copeland. This is for Brother Copeland. This is for Brother Copeland". And at the end of the meeting he presented me this check for $200. And I saw some of those offerings. Well, they had to take a few expenses out.
—Right, yeah.
—Well, okay. But, had they mentioned that to me, I would've, I would have said, "Okay, let's go for it".
—And don't get up and advertise it as something else.
—Yeah. As something else. So I got mad at him. I mean, I really got... I was so mad at him and I was in my hotel room praying and I just really got mad at him. And then I, well, I felt like a dog about what I'd said about him. And I thought, "Oh, God," and so I said, "God, Lord. I'm not going back over tonight. I'm not going preach over there. No, I'm not going". And just right in here, he said, "Why not"?
—Yeah. Yeah.
—What do you mean, "why not? I am not going back over there".
—Right. I'm going to dust the dust off my feet.
—Yeah. Yeah. Well, so I started to go back over it again that he said, "Didn't you confess that sin"? Then getting mad and all bad things about him. And I didn't cuss, but I got close.
—Yeah.
—I said, "well, yes". And this great and marvelous revelation came. He said, "Kenneth, when you confessed that sin, was not when I found out about it". I thought, "Uh oh".
—Right, yeah.
—He said, "You better get on up over there and go". He said, "I didn't forgive you because you felt better about it. I forgave you because you acted on First John. My Word says to confess that sin and believe it, believe you are forgiven and then believe you are cleansed". That's believing the love.
—From all in righteousness. You were doing Jude 21, we talked about last week.
—Yes.
—"Keep yourselves in God's love".
—Yes.
—You were keeping yourself in that. Brother Hagin used to talk about, "It just doesn't sit right. Something's scratchy". He talked about taking a shower with your socks on.
—Yeah. Washing your feet with socks. It just seems like there's something not right.
—You know what? I had to do it. I actually did it. I said, "I need to know what that feels like". And I put my socks on and I got in the shower and did the whole shower washed my hair, the whole thing and got out. Michelle happened to be walking in. I had wrapped the towel around myself about the time. And she's, "My Lord God, what are you doing"? I said, "I had to see what that felt like to take a shower with your socks on". Because, you wash your feet with your socks on. You don't have to be that hardheaded. You just need to believe the Word, Brother Copeland. You don't have to walk it out because somebody else said it. We can learn from one another and move on into these things and not have to... not have to do it. You taught us faith so we wouldn't have to do those hard things.
—And we invited him in here.
—I know it.
—Maybe that's true.
—It's been great to be with you all these times on the broadcast, sir. (laughs)
—I just believed it. But well, anyway, maybe I ought to try it now since you-
—No, don't try it. I can recommend it. It's as bad as you would imagine it to be. But see, we bypass that feeling that we're in the wrong atmosphere.
—Yes.
—And we stay over that atmosphere. And then that's when we start to say, "I don't know why you let this happen to me". No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're a fish out of water. If you've ever watched a fish out of water try to breathe and flopping around. That's what you're doing. You're flopping around. You're flailing around, you need love. Love is probably what's missing in the miracle you've been believing for.
—Most likely it is.
—Most likely it is.
—I heard Brother Hagin say this, let's look over. We're in book of Mark, let's open to the 11th chapter. And this Classic, the Classic teaching on faith. Of all. This is mentioned in the other gospels. But in this, Mark goes into some surprising details. Excuse me, "Have faith in God". Or have the God kind of faith. Have the faith of God, "for fairly I say into you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he sayeth. Therefore..". Or he, he put it into motion right there. "Therefore, I say unto you..". Now when Jesus said that he set in motion as spiritual law forever. "Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any.
—Yeah.
—He tied all of that together, right there. Now there are a lot of hindrances to faith. We know we can find those. It won't work on an unforgiving heart and other things. But that's the only one Jesus said anything about, was on forgiveness.
—And he ties it... That's all tied, that's all the last week of his life. He ties that in. That came right after the fig tree, he had gotten to the root of the problem.
—And he, I mean-
—And that's when this statement came out.
—He is setting things in motion here for those that were right around him. They said, what about the fig tree? He didn't even mention the fig tree. He said, have faith in God.
—Right. Yeah. No. They're asking the question about it. And what that was, Adam, he's the second Adam, the first Adam tried to cover his sin, tried to cover, tried to cover this forgiveness thing. Tried to retain forgiveness, cover himself with fig leaves. The second Adam said no more covering. I'm going to do away with this, this week.
—Yeah, and he did.
—And this is why he said, "have the faith of God, you'll be able to speak to the mountain". And then that's why forgiveness is tied to that. The second Adam is undoing what the first Adam did to turn to...
—And John was there.
—Yeah.
—So he comes over then and First John.
—Yes.
—And he says, you're going to have to say it.
—Yes.
—You're going to have to confess it. You're going to have to believe it because he is just, and he's righteous to forgive you your sins. When? When you confess them and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. And then he said, I'm writing this to you that you sin not.
—Right.
—But if you do sin, we have an advocate with him. We have a lawyer standing in our place.
—Right. And that is proof that of my righteousness because he's there and I am in him. I had the Lord say that to me one time, "I don't need to convince the Father concerning you, Greg. The fact that I'm here convinces the Father. We're in agreement".
—I love it.
—"We're in agreement where you're concerned. Now you need to get an agreement with us".
—Yes.
—Because I was not in agreement. He goes, "We're in agreement where you're concerned. You need to get there".
—Well, that's that goes back to when he said to me later, he said, "I love you, Kenneth. I don't like you very much.
—Right. Now, you may not like hearing this, but you're going to have to say it. You're going to have to say, "I was ugly".
—Yes.
—"To that member of my family, I was ugly to my pastor. And I'm going to have to go say it".
—Too many Christian people trying to get away from having to repeat this nasty thing. Well, I have this problem. It's not a problem. You just sin, brother. So call it by its filthy name. Because, when you called it is when you got rid of it. And we're out of time.
—Amen.
—Come on Jeremy.