by Gloria Copeland
In 1977, Kenneth Hagin Sr. gave a prophecy that changed my life. It painted a picture of the end-time Church and helped me grasp the magnitude of God’s will for the Body of Christ.
Brother Hagin prophesied that the Church “will rise up as a spiritual giant, and there shall be a release of power in our day and in our age that man has not seen before…. Men upon this earth shall walk and talk and act like God…. And those who know their God in these days will be strong and do exploits. There is an army of the Lord being raised up…who will know and do their rights and privileges in Christ Jesus…and appropriate unto themselves that which has already been given.”
When I heard that prophecy, I made a decision to do whatever it took to be part of that army and do exploits for God. What I learned and put into practice as a result of that decision has allowed me to walk in victory and do things I never dreamed possible! First Corinthians 2:9 says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” God had tremendous things prepared for my life-things beyond my wildest imagination. And praise God! I’m seeing them and enjoying them. It’s been a wonderful journey, and God isn’t finished with my life yet. He desires for me to continue to grow in Him and fulfill His plan in my life.
God has marvelous things planned not just for me, but for you and every other believer. He is a great planner. He plans His work and works His plan!
Brother Hagin and others have also prophesied that the Church would progress from a time of fullness into a time of overflow. I believe overflow is the time we are in right now! Our lives can and should be overflowing in the presence and power of God. As believers, the supernatural should be our natural! We ought to be doing “exploits” for God. And we can! There is, however, a condition. Daniel 11:32 tells us: “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”
#1 – Know Your Power Source
If you have a desire to do big things, impossible things for God-the things He calls “exploits”-then you have to fully understand the prerequisites.
To start with, you must know God. That doesn’t mean you just know about Him. Knowing Him means having an intimate relationship with Him. It means He is the first thing you think of when you open your eyes in the morning, and the last you think of when you go to bed at night. Listening to Him all day, every day, and letting Him talk to you through His written Word and by His Spirit is how you get to know Him. You come to really know the Lord by actively seeking Him above everything else and recognizing Him as your source (Matthew 6:31-33). And, as you begin to know Him-you will begin to know His power.
The Apostle Paul said having an intimate, living connection with Jesus was worth more than everything he had previously considered valuable. He said his determined purpose was to know Him. This is a purpose I’ve made my own, and it can be yours too.
“[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him…], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10, The Amplified Bible).
#2 – Be Filled with the Spirit of “Greater Works”
In this passage of Scripture, you can hear how deeply Paul desired the Lord and the power of His resurrection. Jesus told His disciples He wanted them to receive this power, to be “endued with power from on high.” He gave them instructions to wait in Jerusalem until He sent the Holy Spirit for this purpose. And, before being crucified He said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
Greater works-exploits! That’s what Jesus expects us to do. And we can when we yield to the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Jesus knew His disciples had to have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit to do the mighty works God planned for them. That hasn’t changed. Knowing Jesus as our Savior and being filled with the Spirit are still the first steps toward doing the impossible.
#3 – Believe That With God, All Things Are Possible
The fact is, God has a purpose for your life that’s exciting and beyond anything you can imagine without the Holy Spirit revealing it. You may not feel able to do great things, but you can. Just realize God never intended you to do them on your own. God knows what He put in you and what He can do in you. Ephesians 3:20 says He is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
We in the Body of Christ are vessels that God works through to accomplish His will. We have been “recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us…” (Ephesians 2:10, The Amplified Bible).
Exploits should not be unusual for us. Remember we are working with God Himself. We should expect miracles!
Scripture reveals that truth over and over:
- “With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
- “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).
- “…with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26)
- “…all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).
We have a vital relationship with the One who makes the impossible possible. The heroes of faith recorded in the Bible knew God, and they did impossible things. They believed God when He said, “I will be with you.” (See Exodus 3:12; Isaiah 41:10.) Their faith was anchored on that promise. And because God was with them, they weren’t limited to the natural realm.
The giants didn’t matter to David-God was with him. The Flood didn’t matter to Noah-God was with him. Age didn’t matter to Abraham-God was with him.
He is still the God of the impossible! And God is still with us. He has planned to do great things through each of us. When we truly get to know Him, we will trust Him, believe His Word and not be afraid to act on it. That’s called walking by faith. And faith is where all exploits in God begin.
#4 – Become a Faith Giant
Faith-believing what God has said-is the foundation for a supernatural life. In John 6:28, the disciples asked Him, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Jesus answered in the next verse, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
The faith giants listed in Hebrews 11 accomplished great things by faith-by believing God. Verse 1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It is only by faith that what you’re hoping for will manifest.
Today, your body may be sick or diseased, your finances may be in shambles, or your mind may be tormented by fear and worry. If so, I want you to know I understand what that feels like. And I also want you to know that you don’t have to stay in that condition.
Before Ken and I began to know and believe the Word of God, we were imprisoned by those things-but we came out of it! And so can you, if you will get in the Word and learn the truth about all the great things that already belong to you in Christ.
We learned to stand on God’s promises and appropriate them in our lives. Ken and I believed we received what God said was already ours, and we talked like it and acted like it. And, the truth of the Word made us free.
Never will you find in the Bible where God wanted His people to be poor, sick or defeated. Never! Never! Never! It didn’t happen. The only reason God’s people have been broke, disgusted, sorry and sick is because they didn’t do what He said-they didn’t do things His way.
It’s easy to coast along and be like everybody else. But if you truly desire to be a faith giant and do exploits for God, you have to believe His Word. If you’ll believe His Word and do things His way, the supernatural can be your natural.
#5 – Attend to God’s Word
All it takes is one flash of light from the Word to change your life forever. One flash of faith and you will realize, God said I can have that! As you speak that promise, it will become more real to you than anything else. That’s when you have the victory on the inside-that’s when the natural realm must respond. That’s when the supernatural becomes natural.
None of us can afford to be lazy about the Word of God. Our future is tied up in how much Word we have in our hearts.
That’s why God said, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:20-23).
It’s up to us how much of the power of God we experience. As we feed on the Word, speak it and act on it, the Word will become a reality to us and the power in God’s Word will drive out fear, failure and sickness!
At one point in my Christian life I let my hunger for the Word of God decrease instead of increase. Too much of my attention was going toward natural things. The truth is, I had gotten comfortable in life. We had nice cars, a decent house, a little money in the bank-we just weren’t as desperate as we once had been. But, after I heard that prophecy Brother Hagin gave in 1977, I refocused my attention! He said: “Purpose in your heart that you’ll not be lazy, that you’ll not draw back, hold back or sit down, but purpose in your heart that you’ll rise up and march forward and become on fire.”
I’m glad I quit being lazy about the Word back in 1977. It would have been sad to have missed out on all the wonderful things God had planned for us. Now, Ken and I are pursuing God’s will more fervently than ever! We are determined to be strong and do His exploits.
#6 -Soar in the Spirit!
We know too that “doing exploits” also requires laying aside every weight and sin that can hinder us (Hebrews 12:1). Weights are things that hold us down in the natural realm-things that crowd our hearts and take our focus and energy away from the things of God. Mark 4 gives a good list of those things. Although cares, distractions and desire for other things are not necessarily sin, they are things that will hold us down to the natural realm. And, when the natural man, “the flesh,” is in control, faith loses its aggressiveness.
But why would anyone choose to live in the natural realm, on a low, low level, when we can live in the supernatural realm and soar in the spirit?
With the help of the Holy Spirit you can “crucify” the flesh (Galatians 5:24) and renew your mind to the Word (Romans 12:2). You can be “spiritually minded” and experience life and peace. Or you can be “naturally” or “carnally minded” and think like the world thinks, and get what the world gets-death (see Romans 8:6).
Your spirit-the part of you that is connected to God-can always be in command. When that’s the case, it isn’t difficult to receive the wisdom or help you need to overcome any situation. When you are vitally connected to the God of the impossible, it becomes easy for the supernatural to thrive.
You can live a limited life in the earth-limited to your natural ability and circumstances-or you can live unlimited. It’s your choice, just like it was Israel’s choice. They had to decide if they were going to follow after God, or settle for the natural things in the world and live like the heathen people around them.
#7 – Put Your Foot on the Promise
At one point in particular, they chose wrong. When God told the children of Israel to take the Promised Land, they forgot who was with them and saw only their own inabilities. That generation did not take the land God said He had given to them. They refused to possess-or put their foot on-the land God had promised them.
But in Joshua 1:3, when God told Joshua, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you,” Joshua believed Him. Notice God didn’t say, I’m going to give it to you. He said, every place you put your foot, I have given to you-past tense. If Joshua hadn’t picked up his foot and put it down on that property-on that promise-he wouldn’t have received it.
But Joshua did! The people were with him, and together they took the land. Joshua did what God told him, when He told him.
March around the walls seven times and then shout, God said.
And, they did. If their hearts had been hardened like the previous generation, they would not have obeyed God. It took God-inspired courage to do that, and they had hearts toward God. What happened? God took action, and suddenly they weren’t limited to the natural realm. Miraculously the walls fell flat. The Israelites possessed their land.
When a miracle was needed, God performed a miracle.
That’s the way God desires the Church to live-believing Him for the supernatural. Today we’re at the same place Joshua was. God had already given him the land, but he had to act on what God said. God has told us things in His Word that belong to us. We have to put our foot on them and possess them. We have to walk out on the Word.
I believe we’re at the place and the hour where Brother Hagin’s prophecy is being fulfilled. The Lord is recruiting an army of believers to do what He wants done in the earth. But He isn’t looking for lukewarm Christians.
He is looking for those who will purpose in their hearts not to be lazy, draw back, hold back or sit down. He is looking for those who will rise up, march forward, be on fire!
He is looking for you and me to make a determination to know our God and do exploits! He is waiting to make the supernatural our natural.
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