Kenneth Copeland - Jesus Said, It Is Written
Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is my lovely wife, Gloria.
— Hey.
— This is The Believer's Voice of Victory' broadcast and this is almost New Year's Eve. You need to listen to this because you don't want to do something stupid. All right. I know you're not going to... Father, we thank You today for this broadcast and all of our partners all over the world. We're so grateful to You.
— Thank You Lord.
— We praise You and thank You for the marvelous things in this marvelous book that we're studying, Your Holy Word.
— Reveal it to us.
— Yes, Jesus. Yes, do reveal it to us.
— Thank You, Jesus.
— The depth of it in insight, ideas and concepts of heaven's life, heaven's economy and all these things with which heaven has to do.
— Yes.
— In Jesus' name. Amen.
— Amen. Praise the Lord.
— Luke chapter four, verse one, "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan". Now wait a minute. The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape. Now people have used in the bodily shape, 'like a dove upon him.' Now using the dove... It says, like a dove. He descended in bodily shape, like a dove. Now, that's fine. That's wonderful. Of course the dove, is a very timid little bird and beautiful, particularly a white dove. They're just beautiful. We use that as a symbol of peace and we rightfully should. But, I saw it in the Spirit. The Lord blessed me to see that. He blessed me to see the creation of man and the way that looked instead of his just... I won't go into all that. But, in the Spirit I saw it, the Holy Spirit. I was up in a tree stand one time, and high up in an Oak tree. I was hunting and I went to the stand early and it was way up in this tree. At my level, this gorgeous golden eagle, they're the same bird as a bald eagle, except their feathers don't turn white on their head and tail. I watched him, and of course my being a pilot and I understood there, the aerodynamics of what he was doing. He flew in there into those branches of that big tree and he began to break. He put out his speed breaks like this. He began to break and those strong talons, he caught that tree limb and just pulled it up under him and relaxed.
What I saw in the Spirit was the Holy Spirit coming like this. And did this and went on him. He was already in him and he landed on him. Oh, it was... Then he went. "He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being 40 days tempted of the devil. And, in those days he did eat nothing. And, when they were ended afterward, he hungered". Now, those of us that have fasted any length of time. I've never been on a 40 day fast, but I've been on an extended fast. In January of 1983, I just set aside that whole month. Went to the prayer cabin in Arkansas and fasted and prayed about the things that were coming. I was disturbed about some things and, and thank God I got my answers. Well now, the first seven days, there was just nothing but water. And then, let's see. No, it was longer than that. Anyway, I was on a complete fast, nothing but water, for a number of days there. And then, just very light for the rest of the month. But, hunger went away that first week. In fact, when I went back to eating solid food, I didn't want to eat. I had no desire to eat.
Now, here is Jesus, 40 days tempted by the devil and those days, he did eat nothing. When they were ended, he afterward hungered. Starvation began. So, he was at his most vulnerable place. Starvation had begun. The last thing to die is the brain. The body begins to feed upon itself. It's trying to stay alive. So at that point, he's in this raging ravaging hunger, and the devil said unto him, "If you be the son of God, command this stone to be made bread". So, what did he come to him first? Something to eat. That's what got Eve. Something to eat. That's what got me. I was addicted to food and I did foolish things with that. I had to make a quality decision. A quality decision is a decision based on the written Word of God, taking it as a covenant. A decision about which there is no more argument and from which there is no retreat. A quality decision. This is my decision. I had to make that decision concerning food. I had to make that decision concerning exercise.
I remember saying this to Gloria. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to look up all the scriptures that have to do with gluttony and I'm going to use those and I'm going to stand on them. Well, I did. And in every scripture there was also the drunkard. Every one of them. And I thought, this is an addiction. I was addicted to sugar more than anything else. So, I had to make that decision. I wrote it down. I entered a covenant and wrote down and signed my name to it. In fact, years ago, I wrote this little book 'The Decision is Yours.' Only you can make that decision. Nobody, but you can do it. Whatever it is. Whatever can kind of an addiction. I never was addicted to alcohol. I didn't like it in the first place. I really had a blessing happen to me.
I was in high school and a good friend of mine got me a job at Tarrant Distributing Company here in Fort worth, which was a beer distributing company. And they handled several different brands of beer. They would back the freight cars up, when they opened them up. Twenty two hundred and fifty-six cases of beer. Well, they would bring the bottles in there first. And then, the cans later. Because, once they turned off the refrigeration in those cars, you need to get those bottles out of there first. We got in to work that morning and we went out there and opened the first car. Oh. It was labeled cans and it was a freight car full of quarts of Schlitz beer and the fumes in there. And this young man, they called us over there and put us in there to clean up that car. It was nasty. And I am sweeping all that out. You go in there and just breathe those fumes and just come out there, drunk.
It didn't last very long. He'd breathe, I'd come out and the boss drove in there and saw one of us or the other stagger out that car. And he told him to fire us for drinking on the job. They said, "No". We should have gotten a raise. But I'm telling you, I mean it. For years, if someone had just opened up a... In fact, just smell beer. It just nearly turned my stomach. So, I have a tremendous blessing, concerning that. But, I learned from this, that food is an addiction. And so, I had to deal with it like that. I dealt with it by renewing my mind, first of all. I sat down at first and took communion over this. Gloria and I did. And I received my deliverance from a food addiction, but especially sugar. And the Lord said that about me. Sugar. Okay. And after that, I had people think I'm strange. Well, it's because I am, I guess. And the way I go about renewing my mind. So, if anybody offered me a piece of cake or something like that, I said, "No, thank you. I don't drink".
— I'm sure you made a lot of friends that way too.
— What is he talking about? And some of them would ask me and I'd tell them. "Oh, well. Okay Brother Copeland, I see what you mean". But, I had to do that to get it over into my mind. And so that the resistance was there until it no longer bothered me. And it's gone forever. "So now, Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit, into the wilderness 40 days, tempted by the devil and in those days, he didn't eat nothing. And when they were ended, he hungered. And the devil said unto him, 'If you be the son of God, command this stone, that it be made bread'". Now listen to how Jesus answered him. Jesus answered him saying, "It is written". Glory to God. Now, that's the weapon right there. He didn't say, "I'm the son of God". He said, "If you be". He knew good and well he was. Or, he suspected he was, because it hadn't come up all these years, he thought... Because of what he had been told in the Garden of Eden. But now this one, huh? And he had heard. "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased".
So, that means he walked by faith. It's impossible to please God, without faith. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God. And the devil... Now listen, it's the devil taking him up. It's the devil taking him up, supernaturally. Taking him up into a high mountain. Showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world, in a moment of time. He, just in the Spirit... He raised him up on this high mountain and they were there and they could see all the kingdoms of the world, in a moment's time. Listen to what he's said. The devil said unto him. "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will, I give it".
Now I've had people say, "Oh yeah, but now Brother Copeland, he's a liar". It had to be true, or it would not have been a temptation. It had to have been true. It had been given to him by Adam. Now, when you take a look at that, Adam had the authority of God over heaven and earth. Adam should have stopped him in the Garden of Eden because he went to his wife first in the form of a serpent. He went to her first and she ate of that. Then, gave to her husband to eat there with her. He saw and heard the whole thing. What if he had said, "Wait a minute", and just reached over there and slapped that out of her hand and said the same thing to that devil that God said to him. He knew better. He knew better. He was the one responsible. And even then God gave him the chance to repent. There's a huge lesson in this. God always gives everyone time and over and over to repent. Go back to the last thing that God told you to do, that you haven't done and fix it. Don't go into this coming year and still have that hanging over your head. The very last thing that God instructed you to do by the Spirit of God, fix it. Just repent of it. You possibly are ashamed of it and don't want to admit it.
Well, I'll tell you what he told me one time. He said, Kenneth, when you confessed that sin was not when I found out about it. Well, of course not. And you think about it. All of the praying that we've done over the years, we never did inform him of anything. But, he's the one that said, "Come ask, come seek, come knock". "Ask, it'll be answered. Seek and you'll find. Knock and it will be opened unto you". Why? Because, well we're family. And he wants you to come to him. He wants us to come to him. Because, he is our Heavenly Father. He's our Abba. Our daddy, our Father. Gloria and my granddaughter, Jenny started an orphanage in Thessaloniki and she had a little boy Andrew earlier this year, her first child. So, we have a little Thessalonian for a great great-grandson and pray and we're very glad. He's a beautiful young boy. His father's desire. A father's a loving father and he's a good father. He is love... Desires his children to come to him. Gloria and I always dealt with John and Kellie together. And they, one of them would go to Gloria and then come to me.
— I was the soft touch.
— And I'd say, "What did your mother say"? "Well"... And then Gloria would say, "What did your daddy say"? "Well"... So, Gloria and I never did cross one another about it. And we had discussed things, like that. But, it thrilled us when they came to us. That was the whole thing. And with a father, that's what's so huge and so important. Get thee behind me, Satan. So, "Worship me. All shall be thine". Jesus answered and said, "Get the behind me, Satan for it is written, thou shall worship the Lord, thy God and him only shalt thou serve". He brought him to Jerusalem and set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If that'll be the son of God, cast thyself down from hence. For it is written, 'He shall give his angels charge over thee and keep thee'". Well, he's quoting at the 91st Psalm. But that's tempting God to just jump off and prove something.
— You probably wouldn't do it. But wants in other words.
— Well, and that's what he wanted him to do that, because, well... But this was a temptation. It was a temptation. Because, Jesus had a lot of insight into what was going to happen to him. He already knew he already had found himself in the book of Isaiah. He already knew his death was going to be terrible. He already knew that what was coming. For it is written, "He should give his angels charge over thee, and in their hands, they shall bear thee up. Lest at any time, thou dash that foot against a stone". Jesus answering said unto him, "It is said". Now, he changed things here a bit. He didn't say, "It is written". He said, "It is said". So, he is pointing out here, that God said this. It's written. It's written, but this is God speaking to me.
— In the Amplified it says, "The scripture says, you shall not tempt or try".
— Oh yeah. That's good.
— Test exceedingly the Lord your God.
— That's good. The scripture said it. So, if the scripture said it, God said it. It is said. "The scripture said, 'Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God'. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of him through all the region round about". How much time we got, Tim? 30 seconds. That's not much.
— Listen, this is what Amplified translates 14. "Then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the Holy Spirit into Galilee and the fame of him spread through the whole region roundabout".
— Full of power. Glory to God.
— Praise God.
— Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Come on Jeremy, help us here, boy. Thank You, Jesus.