Kenneth Copeland - Don't Despise a Delay
— Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast. My grandson, Jeremy is here. And we're talking about the wisdom of God. That wisdom is the principle thing. Father, we thank You today for Your wisdom. And by faith, we receive it, and we say it. We call ourselves wise in God, not wise unto ourselves. And we thank You, and we praise You. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for first Corinthians, the very first chapter, and the 30th verse. The great apostle, by his wisdom and the fact that he saw You in the spirit more than once; and You taught him things personally of Your wisdom. And You, Jesus, are our wisdom, and You live within us; that make wisdom and knowledge available through God, the Holy Spirit. We pray it in the name of Jesus today, and thank You for it. Amen.
— Amen.
— Let's open today in the New Testament, to the book of Colossians, the epistles of Paul, the apostle, to the Colossians, which would be at Colossae, right? Which is not all that far from Thessalonica.
— We got kinfolks, there.
— Yes. We got kinfolks there. And we have a little Thessalonian.
— That's right.
— Praise God. Oh, thank you, Jeremy. That's right. Now. Listen to this. Now, read the whole book of Colossians sometime. It's just a little bitty book. It's a letter. It's not a book; it's a letter. Verse nine, no verse eight. "Who also declared unto us your love in the spirit for this cause". Listen. Listen to me carefully, class here, and this whole radio and television audience, listen to me carefully. The wisdom of God is the wisdom of love. You teach faith, you preach faith and all that; but you keep one hand on the love of God all the time. His banner over us is love. We believe; and we've known and believe the love that God has for us. "Perfected love casteth out fear". Well, of course, God is love. Now, "And for this cause, we also, since the day we heard, 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, so that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing; being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God". Hallelujah, I got it out. The wisdom is no good without the knowledge. The knowledge is no good without the wisdom. Look it up for yourself. The statistics prove it. A huge percentage of college graduates are failures in life.
— A lot of knowledge.
— No wisdom. Don't know what to do with it. Maybe took the wrong courses, miserable at what they did. Maybe they did that just because their mother told them to. Or just because, just because. There is a pipeline in this country; well, you go straight from high school into college, and then you go to work, and then you're supposed to make a good living, because you got all this education and you're broke. Now, what's the matter? No wisdom.
— It's a way that seems right.
— Right.
— Why does it seem right? Well, somebody else did it. And that's somebody else's daddy's daddy's daddy did that, so that's what I'm doing. It seems like the right thing to do.
— And no revelation of the Word. You might have gone to seminary, but do you know the teachers in the seminary? Do you know them? Do you know what kind of life are they living? Well, they're teaching... Maybe they're teaching... I remember at Oral Roberts University, I was walking across campus, and I had a book here, Roaming through Romans. Now, I was scripturally illiterate. So was Gloria. She went to a church that... Well, thank God her grandmother and granddaddy believed something, most of them. Well, it was like this: "When you die, you find out". Uh-uh. No, no. No. But neither she nor I, either one knew. And we were shocked that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all told the same story. I thought, "How wonderful that is". But now... Their teaching, I saw that. I thought, "The thing for me to do is read the book of Romans". I had never read it. Here is roaming through Romans; what somebody else wrote about Romans. I had never read the book of Romans. It doesn't take all that long to read it. So, my first assignment that I gave myself was to read the book of Romans, instead of what somebody else said about it. That's my point. This is what astounded people about Jesus' ministry. Did you ever notice how many times through the gospels they marveled because He spoke as one with authority?
— Yes.
— What they were used to hearing from religious teachers was commentary, based on what this teacher said, which was based on what this teacher said, which was based on what this Pharisee and this scribe said. Jesus said, "My Father says".
— Yes.
— This was authority like they had never heard.
— Right.
— And it's the same thing you and I can have. We can speak with the same authority. But there's people, we've seen it, we know; that read the Word, and they only hear it or see it through the lens of somebody else's experience, or somebody else's idea. This is why you got to go for yourself. This is why we've been filled with the same spirit that wrote the book. You can read it with authority, and you can speak it with authority. Because you're filled with that same spirit of wisdom and revelation. Now look at what else he said in that same verse that you just read. He's praying here that these people would be filled with the knowledge of His will, "in all wisdom and spiritual"...
— Spiritual understanding.
— Understanding.
— Revelation of it.
— Have you found out there's a difference between spiritual understanding and natural understanding?
— Dear Lord, I love this. Do you love this as much as I do?
— This is what you're talking about.
— Yes.
— Understanding something naturally. Well, this is the way that seems, right. It's the way I've been going. It's the way other people have gone. Well, that guy went that way, and look at all the money he got. Be watchful. You've got to be careful over whose story you let inspire you.
— Oh, you really do.
— Because you don't know what sorrow has been added along the way. There's a bunch of ways to get rich. A bunch of ways. There's only one way to do it that'll add no sorrow. So be watchful over just watching somebody else going, "Well, that's what they did, so that's what I'm going to do. "That's natural understanding. Spiritual understanding will come up in you, and it'll be so strong in you that you think, "I got to move. I got to move my family. I got to move my ministry to the mountains of Colorado". "Well, who do you know there"? "Nobody". "You buying a building"? "Uh-huh". "How many people you got in your church"? "None". But spiritual understanding will go "That's right. That's our answer".
— Led you right directly to that property. Now describe that property in...
— Oh, in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado.
— Green Mountain Falls, Colorado.
— Green Mountain Falls, Colorado.
— That's where you need to go to church, and in Green Mountain Falls.
— Yeah. We had, like I had said before, we had been looking for years in Colorado. And when all of that came back up on the inside of us, we had seen a piece of property, a building that was for sale, in Colorado Springs. Actually, it belonged to Andrew Wommack Ministries.
— Yes.
— And they were selling it. And we got to go looking at it. And you know what? It seemed good. There was an auditorium in it, and a TV studio in it, and all the things we needed and wanted. And we looked at it several times; but Brother Andrew and I talked, and something wasn't all the way right about it. So we've learned enough, thank You, Lord, thank you, Mimi and Pawpaw, thank you, mom and dad, to know that don't force it. Don't force it. So Sarah and I...
— And never, ever underestimate a delay.
— Mm. Yeah.
— Check it out.
— Yeah.
— But don't ever underestimate it.
— Yeah.
— If I had listened to God. Anyway, time and again.
— Yeah.
— And, "Well, now just, just hang on here. Just hang on here".
— Yeah.
— I don't even need to be doing this at midnight on Halloween night, and going... Why don't I just wait until in the morning, and we'll go to Marshall.
— Yeah.
— And we'll go over to Blevins, and we'll... But the whole thing would have been out of the will of God, but it wouldn't have likely killed everybody. Go ahead. Jeremy and
— So we did what Mimi and Pawpaw taught us to do. We took three days. And we pulled up some chairs to the fireplace, and got cozy. And we just began to seek the Lord. And I had seen a piece of property online several days before that, didn't pay enough attention to it. And I showed it to Sarah, and I said, "I found this. Do you think it could be it"? She saw it. She said, "That is it". And we both got so excited about it, because here it is. It was 150 acres in the mountains, on the highway. Go figure. Right? And it's a beautiful piece of property. And now, this building needed a lot of love, a lot of love. But it had all these cabins on it, which is what we had come up to Colorado all those years before with you guys, looking at places where we could bring people in, and give them a place to rest and get refreshed. And without realizing it, man, it checked every box. It was exactly what we had had on our hearts for all those years. And the Lord, He led us to put in an offer on it sight unseen. We hadn't been to look at it. And we did. We finally got up there a few weeks after that, took a look at it. It seemed good to us. It settled well in our hearts, and they accepted our offer. And from October of '18, when all this thing about Colorado just woke back up inside of us, to June of '19, we had moved. And it was in one way, it was quick; but it was 10 years in the making.
— Sure it was.
— And what you're talking about, not... What did you say? Don't...
— Never underestimate...
— Underestimate a delay.
— ...a delay.
— Don't despise a delay. I mentioned this to you yesterday. Why do people miss their turn? Well, think about it why you might miss your turn just out here on these roads driving. One reason, moving too quickly. It's hard to make a 90 degree right turn, doing 90 miles an hour. Moving too quickly. And Jesus is a good example, of course, of what it means, and how to demonstrate. You know what I'm thinking? Low and slow.
— Low and slow.
— Tell us about low and slow. This is another Paw Paw-ism that has stuck with me my whole life. And I'm going to look for this in the scripture. John, chapter eleven.
— People have this idea, and then people have actually said this. "Now you be careful in that airplane. You fly low and you fly slow". That'll kill you. High and fast is safe. An emergency when you're low and slow, you had really better know what you're doing. Because Merlot and slow is what kills people. You get on up, and get out of there. Think about this: the faster you get, the easier it is to go faster. Now, depending on the situation, that can be bad; but in an airplane, that's excellent. It takes all the power you have to get it off the ground. But once you leave the ground, once you're in the will of God, and once the wheels are up on this thing, now you have to pull the power back. Why? Because you have the airplane... First, you don't want to over-speed. You don't want to run out away from your instruction, which is ATC, air traffic control. You don't know anybody in that tower. All you can do is hear their voices; but you know exactly what they're saying, it's right. And there, you pull up, and get out of there. And then, you have your initial instruction on the clearance; turn left, climb and maintain 3,000. Expect 10,000 at eight after the hour.
— Now, what if you just said, "Well, if I'm going to 10,000, why don't I just go to 10,000"?
— You're just going up there.
— What would happen? You put your life in danger.
— Yes, you do.
— Yeah.
— I was climbing out of here. Beautiful day. And this is a very... Fort Worth, Dallas area, is one of the... Very high density air traffic in the nation; one of the highest. And I'm just sitting there; by this time I had the autopilot on, and I'm listening to ATC. And the controller said, "Turn left, and climb to one-one thousand. And I just called back. I said, "Roger that. We turn left, climb to one-one thousand". I'm now to seven for 11. And set up the climb. And here we were going. Right in here, the Lord said, "Why are you not upset"? "What"? He said, "Why are you not upset"? "About what"? He said, "Why are you just doing exactly what he said? You filed for 41,000 feet. Why are you not upset that they didn't just give you 41,000"? Now listen to this. I said, "Because he can see things I can't see, because he has a radar. He sees traffic that I cannot see. And he'll hand me off to another controller that can see things on radar that I cannot see. And there's traffic out there". And that's when the Lord said to me, "Would you please give me that much reverence"? He said, "I can see things you cannot see. I can see traffic you cannot see. I have preachers selling shoes. I have shoe salesmen I've called to preach. And thank you very much for doing what I've called you to do, and stay in your own lane".
— In 2022, you'll know what to do. And this just hit me as you're talking about it. You're talking about somebody being able to see what you can't see. When you don't know what to do, the next best thing is trusting somebody who does.
— Yes, it is.
— Because if you'll do that, then you will know. And talking about moving too quickly, making assumptions about where you're headed, and trying to get there in a hurry. There is a time in life to go into that low and slow; that time to slow it down. And Jesus is an example of this. You remember in John chapter 11, when they came and told him, "Lazarus, whom you love is sick". Now, you stop right here and think, what happens to you on the inside? Say you're away from home, and word gets to you, your child, your spouse, somebody you love, it's serious. They're sick. If you'll take a minute, and look on the inside, you'll probably recognize some panic, some frenzy, "Oh man. What are we going to do? We got to get home. We got to get there right now". But I want you to notice what Jesus did. It says in verse six of John, chapter 11, "So when He heard that he was sick". Now, it just talked about how much he loved him, just in the verse before it. "And when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two days". What did Jesus do when He got this word that Lazarus is sick? Stayed still.
— Jeremy, when do you fly low and slow? When you're on approach, you'd better slow down; because if you don't, you're going to stick this thing up like a dart. You're going too fast. You're going to overrun the approach system. You're coming up in there too fast. There may be icing conditions in there. If that's reported, you'd better slow this thing down. But you'd better fly it at the proper speed, at the proper place. Jesus was on approach.
— And they call that time when you're coming in to approach, they call it a critical phase.
— Yes, it is. Critical phase of flight.
— Critical phase of flight. And I have it in my heart, Pawpaw, that many people in this studio audience, those watching, right here at the beginning of this year, we're in a critical phase of flight right now.
— Yes, we are.
— We're in an intersection. We've got a bunch of analogies going here, but you know what I'm talking about. It's the time to know what to do, with confidence and clarity, and hear this voice of wisdom. This is what Jesus is waiting on, right here. He did the exact same thing. When He was standing there preaching to those people, and those religious leaders interrupted Him, threw that woman they said they'd caught an adultery, down in the midst, and said, "The law says stone her. What do you say"? And this, they said to test Him. And they kept asking Him, and pressing Him, and pressing Him and pressing Him. And you know what He did? Nothing. He just kneeled down and started playing in the dirt. What's He doing?
— You know what I think?
— Slowing down.
— You know what I think He did? I think He just started writing the Ten Commandments.
— I think it does say He wrote on stone, which would be the law. But what's He doing down there while they press Him? And this is good to me, because this is your example, which says you don't have to answer. You can wait.
— Yes, you can.
— You can slow down. Now, listen to this, in the minute we have left. This is what He's waiting on. I believe there's three things. Waiting on a word.
— Yes.
— Waiting on a witness. And waiting on the wisdom. Yes. Always.
— Slow down. Wait for the Word. Wait for the witness of the Spirit.
— Now, people still don't understand the life and ministry of Jesus. The moment they brought Him that information, He didn't automatically know what was going to happen. We'll just be still here.
— Yep. Slow down.
— I'm not going there until I know what to do when I get there. So He just waited. Gloria and I drove in from Tulsa; and I was preaching at Grace Temple Church. And we drove in early; and the telephone rang while we were standing there in mother's kitchen. She answered it. Now, first, we had got in there, and we went... Well, just when we arrived, I said, "Mother, I'm hungry. Would you scramble me some eggs or something"? "Okay". She said she'd do that. And Gloria said, "I'm not hungry. I'll eat a little later". The telephone rang. And we're out of time.
— Ooh.
— And we will finish what the telephone call was sometime tomorrow.
— Don't miss it; it's a good story. You don't want to miss it.
— Amen. Jeremy and I'll be back in just a moment. Come on.