Kenneth Copeland - Freedom From All Grief
— Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland. Father, thank You for this beautiful day today and the Word of God today. We thank You and praise You for the wisdom of God. It is ours because we're born of God and the spirit of God lives within us. Therefore, Your wisdom is alive and well in us. And we explore it more today in the name of Jesus and we thank You and praise You for it. Amen. Glory to God. And would you welcome Jeremy and Sarah back to the broadcast today, please. Thank You, Lord. Let's go back to the book of James and we're asking by faith. Let's go down to the 16th verse. Do not err my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning. Now, what does that mean? That term was taken from the sun dial. That's the only way they had of keeping time was the shadow as the sun passed by. Well, I don't care what time of day it is. I don't care what time of night is. I don't care on what part of the earth you're in, He's absolutely the same. He wanted you to have his wisdom then, he wants you to have his wisdom now. Amen.
— So good.
— Of his own will, he begot us with the Word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. We should be the people that walk in the wisdom of God. It's easy when the economy is great and everybody's just really swinging, but when you've got COVID going on and everybody has gone nuts with fear, fear will wipe the wisdom of God completely out. And then people start doing things that are strange, that they would never do any other time. That's when you really need the wisdom of God, the patience of God, and be ready to testify to whomever will listen, because when they hear the wisdom, then they see. How did your church get through this without a bunch of people dying and all of them da da da? Well, the wisdom of God and the faith of God. And, well, what about those that did have, EMIC, we had some people go to heaven through this thing, but the church didn't come apart and think, well, it doesn't work. Everybody in that church knew good and well it worked. Amen. I mean, it's a strong faith church, well-taught church that operates under the influence of the wisdom of God and all of us together can minister to the people that just want to know why all the time. Why, why, why this, why that? I learned many, many, many years ago, long time ago, in ministering to people that a death has occurred, particularly unexpectedly, as if just hold it. Put why Lord out of your thinking and put that care over on the Lord expecting to hear from him in the future. I remember this. There was a woman came up to me. She said, "Brother Copeland," she said, "We were in a terrible, terrible, terrible car wreck". And she told me that nearly killed the whole family. And she said, "I was banged up". But she said, "The only one that died was my husband. And he wasn't even injured". So at first I didn't know how to answer her. So I looked inward for the wisdom and that was what was on my mind. I said, "Lord, I need your wisdom with which to answer her". And I just stood there and prayed in the spirit for a moment and it came upon the inside of me. I said, "I'll tell you what. Let's don't ask the Lord why now. Let's agree together that before these meetings are over, we will have the wisdom of God and why this happened to him. And even though the rest of the family was banged up and so forth, he was the one that died". We needed that wisdom. I didn't know why. So we just went on with the meeting and we began to talk about faith and you have what you say and so forth. And about two services, she came up to me. She said, "I've got it. I know exactly why". She said, "I was lying there on my back. I had some broken bones and a lot of pain. And he was going around looking after everybody". And she said, "He leaned right down over me and said, 'I am a dead man.'" He was grieving over the injury of his family, but in a moment of high intensive action, high fear, a lot going on, you're really speaking out of his spirit. And he's the one that died. And when you get right down to the bottom line, it has everything in the world to do with what you say. The wisdom of God is in Mark 11:22, 23, 24 and 25. That is the wisdom. Oh God. And I heard Brother Hagin say this. If you say something long enough that it gets down in your spirit, in your heart, it will control your life. I experienced that. I told you this last week, I think I mentioned it over exercise. Because I had said it so often that I was always overweight and tired and everything else. And I just said, "I don't want to do that. I just hate that". And I'm all energized over this whole thing about exercising and had a smile on my face. And I went into the exercise room there at the house and walked up to that A-frame and caught those two little ropes and had a smile on my face. And I said, "God, I hate this". I said, "No". But it came. It was in me. Jesus said it. What is in you in abundance is going to come out of your mouth. I said it so many times. I said, "No, no, God forgive me. I love this". I physically felt that spirit leave my body. Now he wasn't on the inside of me, but it was on me, it was a spirit of fear of exercise because I had a lot of pain and I didn't like it because of that. And I'd try to work out and it hurt. And man, I hate this and you know, and I didn't think all that much better, but the bottom line is somebody is saying the wrong things. Amen. So we have to walk in for faith all the time and guard this.
— Even a fool seems wise when he keeps his mouth shut.
— Yeah. That's what the book said.
— Yeah. So if you don't know what wisdom would say yet, then just start with not saying. Don't speak fear, don't speak the hatred of something. Even a fool seems wise just by shutting that stuff off.
— Yeah.
— Yeah.
— My dad, when he'd be in a sales presentation or something and he'd get in that presentation, he wouldn't talk much. He let you talk. And someone would say, "Well, no, I don't think so Mr. Copeland," he'd say, "Why"? And just sit there. "Well, I..." And he'd say in addition to that, "Well, I don't know," in addition to that. "Well, now let me tell you," now you get down to the reason. Now that's a man of wisdom. My dad was a very wise man and he gave God the credit for it. But you get down to the reason, you get down to the real reason in witnessing with someone. You get down to the real reason, you can deal with it. Well, because wisdom can't do anything without knowing the heart.
— You touched on something a moment ago and it keeps coming back to me because Sarah and I experienced a bit of this this past year. You talked about folks going home to be with the Lord and the questions that come as the result of that. Sarah's mom went home to be with the Lord.
— Yes.
— This past year.
— What a sweet lady.
— Just a hero, a champion. And I'm telling you, a woman of faith. I watched her for how long, babe? Seven years, eight years, fight and win and fight and win and fight and win.
— I had the joy of being a part of that.
— Yeah, absolutely wonderful. And when Jesus said the spirit of the Lord's on me there in Luke chapter four, he was quoting from the prophet Isaiah. And of course we know the things Jesus said, he's on me to preach the gospel to the poor, he's on me to heal the blind and heal the brokenhearted and set at liberty them that are oppressed and in prison. One of the things that Isaiah says though, specifically, is bringing joy to those who mourn. And I've turned their mourning, what is it? I've given them the oil of joy and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. We are not to respond to death the way the rest of this world responds to it. There is no wisdom in continuing to mourn and grieve. And man, the Lord showed you some good things in the days, following mom going home. Is there anything you would minister to us about that in regards to putting on that garment of praise and rejoicing?
— Oh, I know that what you said is exactly right. When these things happen, if you know God, you know he's faithful. And you don't question whether or not that's true. You know that you know that you know that he's faithful. And I know in that moment, it came suddenly. And it was a bit of a surprise, although I believe the Lord prepared me for it. I told you about this. I got to spend her last few days with her. And I waited to hear from the Lord right after she went to heaven. And I waited. And the first thing Lord said to me was, "Sarah, you know I said in my Word, rejoice with those who rejoice. I didn't say weep with those who rejoice. I said rejoice with those who rejoice". And all I could think about was my mom, how happy rejoicing in heaven. And I thought I ought to obey him in the Word and rejoice. And I could not mourn. I could not grieve like the world grieves. Now it touches your soul. I mean, even here today, you think about it and it touches your soul, but no, I've never known grief when she went to heaven. I've never known it. To rejoice with those who rejoice, that is the response. That's how we are to respond.
— Yes, it is.
— I believe that that's a word for somebody watching this broadcast right now, who has endured some of these things over these last several years, and maybe you had a similar experience where somebody left this world in a hurry and you were left going, "How do I respond to this"? If they're a believer, listen, they're not hurting. They are rejoicing in a way that I don't know that you or I on this side of it have ever rejoiced. But what the Lord told Sarah was, "You rejoice with that one". And when you start thinking about it that way, you realize that what Jesus did on the cross, what he did through his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, let me sum it up. He ruined death.
— Yes he did.
— He just ruined it because until him, death was the man, I mean, death was it. And mourning was the only response there was, because that was the end. It was over. When they died, that was it. You don't see them again. There's no more fellowship and mourning would be the response to that. But because Jesus came and ruined that forever, he ruined death. When I say ruined, I'm winking at you at the same time, because what he did was he ruined it for death, but he made it so good for us. And if we've already died once in him and it was glorious, why would we be afraid to do it again? And I believe, Pawpaw, I think that this is, I can sense the Lord wanting to cover this because I didn't have this in heart and mind, I don't think you did either. But there are people that have been asking that question right there. Why? Why? Why?
— Long time.
— And what you said was if you'll learn how to access the wisdom of God, by praying in other tongues, praying in the Holy Ghost, the answer's in there. And if you will give the Lord some time, it'll come to you. And like that woman, she'll see it in an instant, but in the meantime, rejoice. And again, I say rejoice.
— Well, when the apostle Paul wrote that to the church of the Thessalonians, well right here, I will not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
— Yep.
— Well now wait a minute. That's really not a good translation of that. The Greek word lupeo is grieve not. Don't be doing that. Now that is a commandment to a believer. Grief comes from a sense of loss. Now Sarah's mother, Mrs. Hart is not lost.
— We know right where she is.
— We know exactly where she is. She knows exactly where we are. We did not lose her. And when the scripture says grieve not, he means that, don't be doing that because that's a spirit of death. The spirit of grief, the spirit of loss comes from the spirit of death and he's the killer.
— It also comes from being too aware of self. It's selfish.
— Yes.
— Because if I was thinking about her rejoicing, I would be...
— Well, Sarah, that's good, because depression is grieving when you hadn't lost anything. Grieving it. I suffered with that and Gloria hit it right on the head. In Healing School one day she said, and she was talking about grief and depression and so forth, and she said, "Now think about it. Just thinking about yourself all the time would depress anybody".
— It really does.
— And that's it.
— It's a miserable...
— Grief is a very selfish thing. But the scripture commands it, don't do it. You fight that. I mean, you fight that spirit of grief. You fight it with everything you have. And I remember when, I knew it was time for mother to go and I mean, she had been, and my mother was so funny. She wanted out of that hospital so bad. And I was down there to get her and she said, "Got to get me out of here". So I was trying to divert her attention and I should have known better, that never did work with her. But I said, "Mother, while you've been in here, have you been seeing things from the Lord"? Now I knew she had, because I was with her when I could tell it. She said, "Yes". She said, "Kenneth, He spoke to me". I said, "Mother, what did he say"? He said, "Vinita, go home". I said, "Okay. As soon as they get by here, I'll take you home". Well, I knew the time was there. And I was praying about her and thinking back over the years and how she prayed for me unceasingly until I got saved. And I was just driving along the freeway and I could feel it, here it came, coming up in here. And I said, "No, no. You're not going to do that". And the Spirit of the Lord came on me and the joy of the Lord came on me. And while I was driving down the freeway, it came out of me in a shout, "Fly little bird, fly". And then Southwest, Monday morning, she went home during the night Sunday night. And I missed her. So I didn't get to be there. But the Lord gave me the joy before it happened. And of course I preached the going home service. They said, "How are you going to do that with joy"? And now this is just me. You understand? But I don't like, I just personally don't like an open coffin. They're gone.
— Not there.
— I don't want to go through that. So I just put a picture of her. And back in the day, they didn't have color film. So they took this portrait and then they colored it. Gorgeous. It was, oh, I remember it. I was a little boy when they, and I have a picture of the two of us together there. And I was just little short britches, but oh, she had her head back like that. And I had her picture up there and I'm sitting next to my dad and I poked him. I said, "Daddy, look, that's who you're looking for. That's who you're looking for". And he got happy. And he was just so thrilled. I don't think it would've been good for him to look at her in that condition. But he saw what she's going to look like the next time he saw her. Amen.
— So good.
— Thank You Lord.
— And I considered that the wisdom of God, because I didn't think that up on my own. I don't think it's wrong to do that, but I really, it just depends on how you look at it, but I don't want to see that person in this condition. No, I don't want to, I don't that. Get a good picture because that's who you're looking for. Glory of God. We are not looking at things with a natural eye. We look at things through the eye of faith. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
— Including eternity.
— Including eternity. Yes, sir. Do you like this broadcast today? Well, we're out on time. Give the Lord a praise. Glory to God. Yeah. Thank You, Jesus. We'll be back in just a moment.