4 Truths that Can Make or Break Your Faith

Posted on April 28, 2016 - 10:38 am by kcmblogsite

Kenneth Copeland

If you’ve been around faith teaching at all, you know what Jesus said in Mark 11:22-24—and you know it well. You’ve read it many times. You’ve heard sermons about it. You may even be able to quote by heart Jesus’ earthshaking, mountain-moving words:

Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Those powerful words are foundational to the life of faith. But many believers forget that those verses do not stand alone. Mark 11 doesn’t begin with verse 22 and end with verse 24.

All too often, we read verses 22 through 24 as if Jesus just rattled them off out of the blue. But that’s not what happened. He set an example that, if we’ll pay proper attention to it, will enable us to get the same results with our faith that He got with His.

Below are four truths we can learn in this passage—the whole passage. These truths can make the difference between our faith working or not. These four truths will make or break our faith. They can make the difference between us getting our financial breakthrough, our manifested healing, our restored relationships and our divine direction

Truth #1: We must go to the Word for direction.

Jesus had to receive direction the same way you and I do. He had to go to the Word of God which says that wisdom is the principal thing (Proverbs 4:7) and believe for it. Then, once He knew what He was supposed to do, He headed back to the Temple to clean house.

If we want to operate in faith like Jesus did, it’s important for us to realize Jesus had to pray and receive the wisdom of God before He operated in faith. And if He had to do that, so do we. We can’t just jump up with no preparation and start commanding mountains to be removed and get results. We can’t just pile up the problems that have been dogging us and, without praying and seeking God’s counsel, blast the whole mess out of our lives at once.

Instead, we have to press in to the Lord in prayer and in the Word and say, “Lord, open the eyes of my understanding where this is concerned. Give me Your wisdom.”

If you’ll pray that prayer in faith without wavering, James 1:5 says God will give you His wisdom liberally. He’ll deal with you in grace, and great mercy. So as soon as you ask, you can start rejoicing and say, “The wisdom of God is mine! He is revealing to me what I need to know to cast this mountain into the sea!”

Truth #2: Don’t confuse enthusiasm with faith.

Don’t just fly off the handle and start shouting scriptures at the mountain in your life as if by sheer volume and repetition you can make those scriptures come to pass. Mountains aren’t impressed by how many times you can holler Bible verses at them. They cannot be blown away by your much speaking. That’s not the way the command of faith works. Jesus spoke to the fig tree in Mark 11 just once and it withered away within 24 hours, because when He spoke to it, He believed what He said would come to pass.

Speak to the mountains in your life when you know you can do it with unwavering faith. Take time to meditate on the Word God has quickened to you. Settle in your heart what He has said about the situation. Fellowship with the Lord over the Scriptures and strengthen your spirit and your mind with them.

That’s what Jesus did the night before He cursed the fig tree and drove the money-changers out of the temple. He spent the night in the Word and in fellowship with His Father, getting God’s wisdom and strengthening His spirit. As a result, the next day He was ready to operate in faith.

Truth #3: You must speak the Word.

According to Jesus, we take thoughts not just by thinking them but by saying them (Matthew 6:31). God’s thoughts are expressed in His Word, so we take His thoughts by putting His faith-generating Word into our mouths, feeding it back into our spirits, then bringing it back out of our mouths again.

That’s the process we use to renew our minds. We choose the Word then decide to think it. We think the Word, then say it. Think it, then say it. Think it, then say it…until eventually we’re speaking that Word without even thinking about it. When that happens, the Word is in our hearts in abundance (Luke 6:45) and we’re ready to speak to the mountain.

We’re ready to say, “Be removed and cast into the sea!”

“Brother Copeland, why do I have to command the mountain to be cast into the sea?” you might ask, “That doesn’t make sense to me.”

It doesn’t matter whether it makes sense to you or not. It’s not supposed to make sense—it makes faith. You’re using God’s faith and following Jesus’ example. Those are the words He used, and when you use His words, He backs them with His own power.

Truth #4: You must forgive.

Because faith works by love, if we don’t obey the command to forgive, verses 22 through 24 won’t work for us. So, before we finish the prayer of faith we must forgive (not two months later after we’ve worked through our emotions, but immediately, while we stand praying). We must do it on purpose as an act of our will, not because we feel like it but because Jesus told us to do it. We don’t need any other reason than that. Then immediately receive your own forgiveness which is included in verse 25.

If you have unforgiveness in your life, deal with it! Call it what it is. Don’t tell the Lord you have a problem with some hurt feelings. Acknowledge it as the sin of unforgiveness. Then go to 1 John 1:9, confess it, repent of it, spew it out of your life and get rid of it.

Start today putting these truths into practice. Then you can step out in faith with boldness on Mark 11:22-24, say to the mountain that’s been standing in your way, “May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,” and that mountain will respond to you just like it would to Jesus.

The Secret Everyone’s Searching For

Posted on April 14, 2016 - 8:46 am by kcmblogsite

by Kenneth Copeland

The supernatural power to touch a bitter life and make it sweet.

That’s the secret people have been searching for almost since time began. Every human heart cries it out. Every person ever born longs for the power to turn sickness into health, loneliness into love, bondage into freedom and failure into victory. All mankind yearns to taste the full sweetness of abundant life…and to bring that sweetness to others whose lives have become little more than one bitter pill to swallow.

But does such power really exist? Is there truly a secret that can make any life an abundant life?

Absolutely. And, if you’ve made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, you’ve already discovered that secret.

It’s the secret of the Cross.

“What do you mean, Brother Copeland?” you might ask. “The Cross is no secret. Lots of people know about the Cross.”

Well, they may know some basic facts about the Cross, but they don’t understand the true power of it. If they did, then they’d know why the New Testament tells us quite plainly “…the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Notice that verse doesn’t tell us the Cross was the power of God in the past, in days gone by. It says the Cross is the power of God that brings us salvation (which means deliverance from all temporal and eternal evil) now, today, in the present—and every single day of our lives!

Everything good comes from the Cross. It changed the entire future of humanity and all of heaven forever.

The Cross affected everything. The problem is, most of us don’t even begin to understand the fullness of what happened there. We simply think of it as the place where Jesus paid the penalty for sin so we could go to heaven and escape hell. That kind of thinking is right, as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough. There’s much more to it.

Looking Back to the Good Old Days

To see just how much more actually happened at the Cross, we have to go back to the beginning, to the creation of man, to see how this all began. We have to go back and find out how bitterness got into the life stream of humanity in the first place. God certainly didn’t put it there.

The book of Genesis tells us again and again everything God created on the earth was good. He created the land and the water and “it was good” (Genesis 1:10). He created all vegetation and “it was good” (verse 12). He created the sun, moon and stars; He created the animals and every other living thing and saw that they were good (verse 25).

Once all that was done, God made the body of man from the dust of the earth and breathed His own life into him after saying, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion…” (Genesis 1:26). At that moment, man became a living soul. He was clothed with God’s own glory. God Himself empowered Adam (and later, his wife, Eve) to bring blessing and prosperity to the whole earth.

And when it was all finished, the Bible says “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (verse 31). Those truly were the good old days.

The Touch of Death

In those days, Adam and Eve were free to enjoy God’s good creation and reign in Eden as His representatives in the earth. They were free to enjoy nothing but sweetness and light forever—on one condition: They were to keep God’s command.

Everything depended on that. If they obeyed God’s command, life would be glorious and wonderful. If they disobeyed His command, they would die.

Sadly, they made the wrong choice. They disobeyed…and the light of God’s glory that once radiated from them was snuffed out by the spiritual darkness of sin. Satan, whom they had obeyed, became their overlord. His deadly nature invaded their spirits, and everything beautiful God had breathed into Adam and Eve was instantly twisted and marred.

The fruit of God’s Spirit that once filled their souls—qualities like love, joy, peace and faith—were suddenly corrupted. Love became hate. Joy became sorrow. Peace became turmoil. Faith became fear.

The anointing of God that had once empowered them to bless the earth was transformed into a touch of death that cursed the entire planet. The very ground itself was cursed because of what happened to them. Every molecule was infected by it. The earth, and everything in it, was cursed.

That, in itself, would have been bad enough. But the horror didn’t stop there. Because God had ordained that every seed produce after its own kind, Adam and Eve were destined to reproduce children infected by the curse of sin. So the more they multiplied, the more the effects of the curse increased!

Under the curse of sin, life on earth which had once been so sweet became indescribably bitter. In fact, “bitterness” is the definition of the Hebrew root of the word curse.

I doubt if Adam realized the full extent of what had happened right away, but as time passed the magnitude of it must have dawned on him. He must have thought, Dear Lord, the seed of everything in the earth is bitter! My own seed is bitter! How will anything on earth ever be pure again? God, how can I ever be Your friend again?

Adam didn’t have a clue. He didn’t know what God’s plan was. It was a mystery hidden in God before the world began (1 Corinthians 2:7). Yet from the very first moment the curse hit the earth, God began to talk about redemption. Right there in the Garden of Eden after Adam sinned, God spoke to the devil and said, There is One coming, the son of a woman, and He will crush your head…. (See Genesis 3:15.)

God Did the Impossible

The devil himself must have wondered how God was ever going to find such a man. After all, the entire race of man was under demonic lordship. They were all sinners. They couldn’t defeat the devil. They were his slaves. And through their sin, they’d all earned the same wages: bitterness and eternal death.

Of course, according to God’s system of covenant justice, if God could find one pure man, the blood of that man could be shed for the rest of mankind. He could become their substitute and take their punishment. But God had no pure seed on the earth to work with. He couldn’t even start again from scratch to form a new Adam from the dust of the earth, because the dust itself was cursed and impure. How could God ever find human blood that was not already cursed with bitterness? It was impossible! Or so it seemed.

But God made a way. He visited a young woman named Mary and spoke His Word to her. She believed it and that Word went into her. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Jesus, the Word Himself, was born as the pure, sinless Son of Man and Son of God. There was no bitterness in Him. No trace of the curse. He passed every test of temptation Adam had failed. He lived as a free man. Death could not touch Him.

But then He did the unthinkable.

“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).

Jesus was already free. He didn’t have to do that. But He chose to do it so “…that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Living in Heaven’s Sweetness

That’s what happened on the Cross! Jesus redeemed us from the bondage of the curse by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). He not only paid the awful price for what Adam did, He broke the power of the curse and destroyed Satan’s authority to use it on any believer who, by faith, will walk in their purchased redemption.

Jesus took away the authority of bitterness and released the blessing—heaven’s sweetness—back into the earth! He bore our bitterness and gave us His sweet abundant life.

He opened Eden’s goodness to us again.

How do we live in that goodness? The same way Adam and Eve were supposed to do it—by obeying God’s commandment. If we’ll do that, the curse will be helpless to function in our lives and God’s good blessings will overtake us (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). The saving power of the Cross itself is released in every area of our lives—spirit, soul and body—when we keep God’s commands.

And as 1 John 5:3 says, “His commandments are not grievous.” In fact, they are delightfully simple. “This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another” (1 John 3:23).

Or, as Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Believe and love. That’s all we have to do to live free.

There’s no need for us to suffer the effects of the curse any longer. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has not only made it possible for us to taste the sweet life of God, He’s put a well of it inside us (John 4:14). He’s given us rivers of it, rivers that will never run dry (John 7:38).

The supernatural power to touch a bitter life and make it sweet has already been given to you. So release your faith and let that sweetness flood not only your own life, but the lives of countless others as well. Step into the overflow through the power of the Cross!

Is America on the Lord’s Side?

Posted on March 31, 2016 - 3:59 pm by kcmblogsite

by Billye Brim

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln heard someone say he hoped the Lord was on the Union’s side. Lincoln replied, “I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”

At this critical time, that must be our prayer as well.

The Lord has a side. It’s in the Bible, exactly as it is written.

The Bible is the plan of the ages, and it’s not subject to change. Jesus said to look at the fig tree—which represents Israel—to see where we are in God’s timetable (Luke 21:29-31). Through Abraham, God chose Israel, blessed them, and gave them the land.

God’s original plan was to reveal Himself to the nations and demonstrate His blessings through Israel. “And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee” (Deuteronomy 28:10).

The Jews were literally scattered to the four corners of the earth (verse 64). But just before the coming of the Messiah, God promised to gather them back to their land. The Jewish people began to return to their homeland in 1948 when Israel was declared a state. Even today, we see that happening. “For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it” (Jeremiah 30:3).

America’s Untold Foundation

God also clearly declared the outcome of those who bless Israel and those who curse Israel.

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).

From our beginnings, America has blessed Israel. As a result, we have had a chuppah (canopy) of blessing over us. But if we stray from God’s plan, we damage our covering and become exposed to the storms.

Judgment of the Nations

I believe we are now in a time called the “judgment of the nations.” Although every nation will be judged, the Bible tells us how, as a nation, we can pass that judgment. It also tells what will happen to the nations that don’t go with God’s plan.

Joel 3:2 says, “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” The Hebrew says, “I will bring all nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat and will indict them there.”

So the Bible tells us that God will bring all nations to the valley of judgment (Jehoshaphat means “Jehovah shall judge”). At that time, He will indict those who scattered the Jewish people and divided up the land of Israel. What that judgment will be was revealed through the prophet Jeremiah. Through him, God said to Israel, “Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey” (Jeremiah 30:16).

In this crucial hour, the United States of America needs prayer. Our leaders are involved in great discussions and pressures to part the land God gave His people. Those in government and in spiritual authority need our prayers of intercession that they will understand God’s will and His plan for Israel, and act accordingly.

First Timothy 2:1-2 is the prayer platform of the Church and gives us authority to pray for our leaders. “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”

Leading a quiet and peaceable life depends on our prayers for those in authority. The future of the United States is not in the hands of politicians…it is in our hands.

Pray that America will be on the Lord’s side. We must have our canopy of blessing intact. We must continue to bless Israel.

Billye Brim is the president and founder of Billye Brim Ministries. For ministry materials and information write to Billye Brim Ministries, P.O. Box 40, Branson, MO 65615, call 1-417-336-4877 or visit her Web site www.billyebrim.org

L-O-V-E

Posted on March 17, 2016 - 4:47 pm by kcmblogsite

The Rod On Which Every Blessing Hangs

By Kenneth Copeland

Imagine someone trying to hang curtains over a window without first putting up the curtain rod. It would be impossible, right? The guy would try to put up one set of curtains only to have them fall down just as fast as he could reach for the next set. If he continued in this way, he would soon be hopelessly tangled in a pile of curtains.

If we looked a little closer at this pile of fallen curtains, we would see written on each a name. One would be the curtain of faith. Another, the curtain of deliverance. Others might be curtains of healing, prosperity, righteousness and gifts of the spirit.

Next we would hear the poor fellow crying out: “Oh God, why is this happening to me? I’m serving You. It seems as though my faith doesn’t work right. I’m sick, though I believe in healing. I believe in abundance, yet I’m behind in my bills. Only debt and lack are abundant in my life. What’s wrong??!!”

Our attention is then drawn to a corner of the room. There, standing all the time just waiting to be hung is a tremendously strong, golden curtain rod. It’s as massive and stout as a bridge girder. Written on it in huge red letters we see Matthew 22:37-40:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

The second is like unto it,

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these hang all the law and the prophets.

The Lord flashed that vision across my spirit recently as I was praying about overflow and why the Church has had such a hard time with promises such as Ephesians 3:14-21. The Ephesians passage was the Apostle Paul’s prayer that we would have a working knowledge of the love of Christ and such intimacy with Jesus and His Anointing that we would be “filled with all the fulness of God.” For 2000 years the Church has really had difficulty believing that could ever happen.

As I prayed, the Lord showed me that curtain-hanging scene. My first thought was, This is hilarious! I am a big fan of the old, silent-era movie comedies of Buster Keaton. It was amazing how his character could become so tangled up in all kinds of stuff and still come out of it all right. So as this vision unfolded, it tickled me. I laughed out loud.

That is, until I heard that man’s cry: “Oh God, why is this happening to me? I’m serving You. It seems as though my faith doesn’t work right. I’m sick, though I believe in healing. I believe in abundance, yet I’m behind in my bills. The only abundance I have is debt and lack. What’s wrong??!!”

When I heard that prayer, it pierced my heart.

That cry is the same cry I am hearing everywhere. It’s something that has been far too common in the lives of believers everywhere. As the Lord concluded the curtain-hanging vision He had given me, He spoke these final words:

Don’t hang the curtains.

Hang the rod!

The curtains are already on the rod.

Doing the Greater Works

The writing on those curtains represents every blessing and manifestation of God’s love to meet man’s need. Each of them is a law of the spirit. And they all hang on the law of love.

Two things believers must clearly establish in their thinking are (1) everything works by spiritual law, and (2) no law of God works correctly unless it is first tied to the law of love. These things are vitally important to comprehend and apply, especially as we walk in days of overflow—days of increasingly great displays of God’s abundance and love, but also days of unusual devastation, whether the result of man’s activities or catastrophic eruptions of the physical elements of the earth buckling under the weight of sin.

What we are seeing is not the result of two different sets of spiritual laws, one created by God and the other created by Satan. We are seeing the result of one law set in motion at Creation and reaffirmed in God’s promise after the Flood: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest…shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). And every word and action of man is included in that planting and harvesting process: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:7-9).

Sin’s harvest is the same as it has been since the Garden of Eden. Romans 6:23 tells us: “For the wages of sin is death.” But the overflow of the fruit of righteousness—the seeds of repentance, love and compassion—is the abundance of everything good. Overflow is fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that “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 than what Jesus did on earth? Is that possible? Not only is it possible, but the Church already saw a glimpse of the “greater works” on the Day of Pentecost. Thousands of people were spirit-born and baptized that day. Not only that, people were healed by the power of God without being touched—they only had to come within a shadow’s distance of Peter.

But those kinds of occurrences over time became fewer and fewer and farther between. What happened? Did God just stop doing those things? No. The Church stopped making love a priority above every other pursuit. As a result, operations of the nine gifts, or manifestations of Jesus, faded to almost nothing. Revelation of God’s Word also grew increasingly dim. Then one day revelation of Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith,” came alive in the spirit of a young, German priest named Martin Luther. And God patiently began restoring truth to the Body of Christ. The new birth, the revelation that the just shall live by faith, the baptism in the Holy Ghost, gifts of the Spirit, healing, faith, prosperity—all of these things have been restored.

Restoration has come.

It’s time for overflow.

Know and Apply the Elements

God has never changed His plan which is for Jesus to manifest Himself in us as “his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). His plan is still for believers to comprehend (have a working knowledge of) and know (intimately) the love of Christ and His Anointing (Ephesians 3:19). It is still that we would walk so consistently full of His love that wherever we go, we would confidently hear and obey the voice of the Holy Ghost telling us how to minister to the needs of those we meet.

For instance, if you were filled with the fullness of Him and walking in the love of God you could be in the grocery store when you’d hear the Holy Spirit whisper: See that woman over there. Her heart is broken. Her teenager is in a whole lot of trouble. If you’ll just walk over to her, I’ll give you words to say that will deliver her from fear and grief and sorrow.

As you were obedient to the prompting and instruction of the Holy Spirit, that woman would be set free!

We enter into God’s plan for our lives as we discover and apply the elements of His laws that let His love be put on full display. The laws of God control the blessings of God.

There are no accidents, and there is no such thing as luck. Spiritual law governs all of life.

God’s laws, or promises, in every realm of human existence were given for a purpose. That purpose is stated in 2 Peter 1:4 which tells us we have been given “exceeding great and precious promises: that by these [we] might be partakers of the divine nature.”

Perhaps you’ve heard someone who does not understand that faith is a law say something like, “Well, you know, faith comes through trial and tribulation and temptation.”

What they’re saying is just guesswork. That’s not what the Word says at all. And it just plain doesn’t work. If hard times made your faith strong, everyone would be a faith giant!

Romans 3:27 tells us faith is a law: “By what law? of works? [No]: but by the law of faith.” And by a little digging in the Word, we find the elements of that law. Romans 10:17 says: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Another element of spiritual law is found in James 2:20: “Faith without works is dead (or incomplete).” Jesus said, “Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23).

As we continue reading, we also find that Jesus said, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (verse 25). Once again we see that every law hangs on the law of love. “Faith worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6).

Every promise of God is released the same way. God is no respecter of persons. Find the elements and apply them in the order He gave. Begin by walking in the greatest law—love. Then faith, prosperity, healing, wisdom, gifts of the spirit, salvation—whatever is needed to manifest the love of God in that situation—will manifest every time.

No Longer Mere Men and Women

You can apply this same process to every promise of God—His blessings work by spiritual law. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). We need to know these things because we are no longer mere men and women. We are new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). The same Father who did the works that manifest in Jesus now lives in us to do those same works and greater works:

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works…. 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…. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him…. If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:10-23).

Can you see what is bursting forth in the Body of Christ in 2005? Let’s look again at that post-Pentecost report of what happened in the life of Peter. Acts 5 tells us there was a huge outpouring, so much so that people were bringing the sick into the streets on their beds “that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them” (verse 15). This wasn’t about his shadow. It was about a manifestation of the power of God so strong that neither sickness nor disease nor any other work of death and darkness could stay in those who got within shadow distance of him.

Now, are you ready to shout? That same thing has begun to manifest again in parts of the world. There are churches in Nigeria in which this is happening all the time. As soon as people walk through the door, they start speaking in tongues and getting healed!

Taking Love to the Streets

As love becomes our greatest pursuit, manifestations of that love are going to make the multitudes wake up and take notice. The world is hoping that what we believe is real. And they’ll see it is true as we begin to get an intimate, working knowledge of how Love operates. When that happens, we’ll stop identifying with the woman with the issue of blood straining to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. Instead we’ll begin identifying with the One whom she touched.

“Oh Brother Copeland, that sounds like blasphemy!”

I’m not talking about being Jesus. I am talking about being His joint heirs, anointed and authorized by Him and indwelt by the Father who does the work.

When you begin to walk in love, love will flush the fear out until you are no longer afraid to impose your authority on sin, sickness, demons and fear. You’ll become a vessel through whom the love of Jesus will be put on full display.

You’ll begin to walk so close to God that you tell Him about 500 times a day how much you love Him and He’ll tell you 505 times a day how much He loves you. You’ll learn to recognize the voice of Love and hear Him talk to you.

That’s the true depth of meaning in this life. It’s not just preaching for an hour. It’s having God stop you on the street somewhere and say, That woman needs healing. Minister to her now.

Be ready. Develop a working knowledge of the love of God and intimacy with His Anointing. Make love your greatest pursuit.

Don’t hang the curtains…hang the rod.

Leaving the Low Life Behind

Posted on March 10, 2016 - 3:56 pm by kcmblogsite

by Kenneth Copeland

Far too many believers are struggling with sin these days—and it’s time for us to end that struggle. The Lord Jesus Christ did not live His life on earth, shed His precious blood, defeat the devil in the pit of hell and rise again in glorious victory so that you and I could spend the rest of our natural lives struggling against (and falling into) sin.

Jesus whipped sin once and for all so that we wouldn’t have to. Hebrews 9:26 says that through His work of redemption “now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

To struggle and fight with sin is like getting back into a boxing ring with an opponent who has already been defeated. Sin has already been knocked down and out by the Lord Jesus Himself. The count is over and we’ve been declared the victor in Him. The fight with sin is finished. So we might as well stop struggling and enjoy the victory.

“Oh, Brother Copeland,” you might say, “are you getting soft on sin? Are you suggesting I just give up and give in to it?”

Absolutely not! On the contrary, I’m suggesting you rise up by faith in the Word of God and put sin under your feet where it belongs. Start acting like the Bible is true. Start believing that God meant it when He said, “Sin shall not have dominion over you” (Romans 6:14).

Sin Stops the Anointing

No real Christian should ever be soft on sin. It is an absolutely horrible thing. It blocks the blessings of God from coming into our lives. In fact, sin is a manifestation of the antichrist. Here’s why I say that. The word Christ is the Greek word for anointing. The anointing is God’s burden-removing, yoke-destroying power that came to mankind through Jesus. It is still flowing on the earth today through His Body which is the Church.

The devil is anti-Christ. He is in the business of putting people in bondage so he is against that anointing. He would like to stop its operation in the earth because it sets people free. Obviously, he can’t stop the anointing at the Head because Jesus is beyond the devil’s reach. He is in heaven, seated at the right hand of God. So the devil focuses his attacks on us.

After all, we are the Body of the Anointing. We represent Jesus in the earth and we are where His burden-removing power resides. So if the devil is going to stop that power, somehow he has to keep it from flowing through us.

That’s why the devil works so hard to get believers into sin. He doesn’t really care that much about the good or bad things we do. His goal is to stop the anointing and he knows sin will do the job. So he goes to work trying to blind our eyes to the victory we have in Jesus. He tries to drag us back into a battle that has already been won and convince us to expend our energies grappling with sin instead of simply grasping by faith the victory over it that has already been given.

In light of the Word of God, the very idea of believers being overcome by sin is ridiculous. We ought to not be walking in sin any more than Jesus did when He was here on the earth! We’ve been made free from the law of sin and death. We’ve been handed a law that supercedes it and it is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. When it is applied, sin must bow its knee. Then we can stop struggling with it and start living above it like we should!

Activate a Higher Law

I realize that thought is foreign to the minds of many religiously trained believers. They’re like the fellow who decided the only way he could ever live above sin would be to rent an apartment over a bar! If that’s the way you feel, take heart. You can activate the sin-dominating power of God in your life. All you need is some faith. And since faith comes by hearing the Word of God, let’s look at what it has to say about this issue.

In Romans, we find the Apostle Paul describing a miserable condition many believers are all too familiar with. He is writing about a time in his life when he tried not to sin, yet found himself falling into it against his will again…and again…and again. He says:

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!… There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 7:24-25, 8:1-4, New King James Version).

If you’ve found yourself in the condition Paul described, repeatedly stumbling into sin, you might have a question about these verses. You might think, If I’ve already been made free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, why didn’t I automatically start living sin-free the moment I got saved?

Because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus only works when it is put to work!

Think in terms of natural, physical laws and you’ll easily see what I mean. The law of gravity, like the law of sin and death, is functioning continually on the earth. It works all the time. No matter who you are—sinner or saint—if you jump off the house you’re going to hit the ground. Isn’t that correct? You can struggle against that law. You can come up with new and better ways to jump off the house. You can flap your arms hard and fast but you’ll still fall. You simply can’t win a fight with the law of gravity.

What you can do, however, is activate a higher law known as the law of lift. If you apply that law directly, you can supercede the law of gravity and fly.

Of course mankind has only put that law to work for themselves in recent years. But the law was there all the time. Birds have been using it for ages. Actually the law of lift existed back in Noah’s day. He could have built an airplane instead of an ark if God had given him the materials and the revelation.

The law of divine lift is called the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It always supercedes the law of sin and death and it has been in operation on the earth for more than 2,000 years. It was introduced into this atmosphere the moment the Holy Ghost came at Pentecost bringing the message of the resurrected Jesus. The only reason Christians still sin is because they don’t know how to exercise that law.

Two Plus Two Is Four—No Matter How You Feel

“How do we exercise it?” you ask.

To answer that question, let’s stick with the analogy of gravity versus lift. In the natural realm, there are certain principles that must be applied to put the law of lift into operation. Using thrust over drag, you have to manipulate high and low pressure systems in a certain way in order to rise above the law of gravity and fly.

In the same way, there are principles that if applied will always activate the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The first of those is the principle of faith. Acts 16:31 says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” So, as I’ve already stated, our very first order of business is to believe in the saving power of Jesus—not just in His power to save us from hell in the hereafter but in His power to save us from sin in the here-and-now.

We must dare to believe that despite all previous evidence to the contrary, what the Bible says is true: Sin has no more dominion over us! We must dare to believe that through Jesus we have already been made victorious over it.

“But Brother Copeland,” you might say, “I don’t feel very victorious. I feel weak and helpless when temptation comes my way.”

It doesn’t matter how you feel about it. The devil will always come along and do his best to draw you off the truth of the Word and into your feelings. But don’t let him. Remember that just like natural laws, spiritual laws are true no matter how you feel.

Take the laws of mathematics, for example. They’re true all the time for all people in every circumstance. You might get up some morning and say, “I just don’t feel like numbers will work today. I know they worked yesterday and they’re in the math book and all…but today I just feel like two plus two is six.”

You know as well as I do that how you feel about numbers is irrelevant. Two plus two will always be four no matter how you feel.

The Word of God is the same way. It’s always true no matter how you feel. So base your thoughts and actions on the Word, not on your feelings. The Word says Jesus has put sin away. It says sin is a defeated foe and has no place in your life, so believe and act on that Word regardless of your emotions.

The Second Key

To find the second principle that activates the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, let’s focus on the last three words of that phrase—in Christ Jesus. Keeping that phrase in mind, let me ask you this: If the law of the Spirit of life resides in Christ Jesus, isn’t it reasonable to assume that to use that law we must be abiding in Him?

Certainly it is! And we can find out how to abide in Him by reading the words Jesus gave us in John 15. There, He said:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me…As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love…This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (verses 4, 9-10, 12, New King James Version).

Walking in love is the second key to activating the law of spiritual lift!

If you think about it, that makes perfect sense. After all Jesus is the “express image” (Hebrews 1:3) of God…and the Bible tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Therefore, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus could also be called the law of the Spirit of love!

Love is what enabled Jesus to defeat sin when He walked the earth. He didn’t spend His time studying and concentrating on all the sins he shouldn’t commit and all the things He shouldn’t do. He just walked in love which lifted Him above those things. Walking in love guaranteed He wouldn’t do any harm to His neighbor. It guaranteed that He wouldn’t break God’s commandments. Love fulfills those commands by its very nature!

So when He commanded us to walk in love, He was actually saying, “I have defeated sin for you. I have given you My own Spirit to dwell within you. Now you go out and live like I lived. Live above sin by walking and talking in love!”

I See Jesus in You

Exactly what does it mean to walk in love toward one another? We find a perfect picture of it in Matthew 25. There, Jesus described the judgment day to come and said:

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me (verses 31-40).

That last verse is one of the most important verses in the Bible. It tells us that if we’re acting in love toward our fellow man, we’ll treat him just like we’d treat the Lord Jesus Himself. If I’m truly abiding in love, when I look at you, I’ll think of Jesus. I’ll remember that He suffered for you. He died for you. He went to hell for you. He was raised again for you.

I’ll be aware that Jesus loves you just as much as He loves me. As far as He is concerned, if you don’t have clothes, He doesn’t either. If you don’t have shelter over your head, He doesn’t either. He totally identifies with you.

What would you do if I called you and said, “I need you to go to the prison with me? They’ve put Jesus in there! Somebody beat Him up, shot Him up with heroin and got Him addicted to it and now He’s almost dead. We have to go visit Him. We have to do something to help Him!”

How would you answer me? What would you say? I’m fairly sure you wouldn’t say, “Well it’s fine for you to go down there to the prison but that’s not my calling. I have more important things to do…”

Riding High in Jesus

No, you wouldn’t say that! You’d say, “Just hang on, I’ll be there as quick as I can.” If you didn’t have enough money to meet the need, you’d cry out to God for it. You’d say, “Father, I have to have a few thousand dollars right away. Jesus needs help! He needs food. He needs clothes. He needs a house.” You’d start tapping into the resources of heaven—not just to meet your own little needs but in order to take care of the Lord!

I’m telling you, the windows of heaven would open in response and pour you out so much you’d hardly have room to receive it. Why? Because there wouldn’t be any sin and selfishness there to block the blessing! You’d go charging out into the world to meet the needs of “the least of these My brethren” armed with the provision of heaven and clothed in the anointing of Jesus Himself.

That’s the way we ought to be living! We shouldn’t be messing around in the spiritual lowlands stumbling around in sin. Jesus has called us to a higher way of life. He has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness.

If we’ll just step out in faith and love, we’ll take off into that life like a spiritual jet and leave sin far below us. Riding high on the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, we won’t be struggling with sin anymore. We’ll be abiding in Jesus. We’ll be flying free.

Free KCM product now offered via the BVOV broadcast!

Posted on March 10, 2016 - 3:11 pm by kcmblogsite

“When the seed gets bigger, the harvest gets bigger!” – Kenneth Copeland

Do you wish you had FREE access to consistent, biblically based study materials and tools that would help you live the victorious life God has planned for you? Do you ever find yourself wishing you could purchase product offers that accompany the Believer’s Voice of Victory (BVOV) broadcasts each week?

Well, we have GREAT news! The Lord recently spoke to Kenneth saying, You have sold the last television product you’ll ever sell.

In the video above, Kenneth makes this huge announcement concerning FREE weekly product offers from KCM:

Effective Sunday, March 13, 2016, Kenneth Copeland Ministries (KCM) will be sowing all KCM products offered on the BVOV broadcast absolutely FREE!

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland are delighted to be sowing this product into your life! In this video, Kenneth explains why he’s doing it and how he is expecting not only a huge harvest in your life, but also in the ministry.

To find each week’s free product offer, go to kcm.org and look for “This Week’s Product Offer” on the home page. Go there now and get this week’s offer!

Note: Free product offers apply only to Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ products offered on the BVOV broadcast and featured on the KCM website as “This Week’s Product Offer.” When we host guest ministers on the broadcast, their products may or may not be included in the week’s free offer.

Kenneth and Gloria love you, and we all pray for you every day! Remember…Jesus Is Lord!

-Team KCM

P.S. Go get your FREE product offer this week at kcm.org, and tell a friend!

You Can Stop Living Defeated!

Posted on March 3, 2016 - 2:54 pm by kcmblogsite

Sure-fire ways to live a victorious life.

by Gloria Copeland

“In this world you will have trouble…”

Those may not be our favorite words in the Bible. But, like it or not, Jesus said them.

Some people think faith preachers don’t believe that. They think we teach that if you walk by faith you won’t have any problems at all. But we don’t. We are well aware of the fact that this world is full of trouble. And as long as we live in it, we’re going to face trouble too.

The difference however, between us and some other folks is this: We don’t stop there. We preach the rest of the story. We preach the other things Jesus said in that verse. He said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But, take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, New International Version).

Glory to God! Jesus said we could have peace in the midst of the troubles of this world. He said that in Him, we could overcome it!

Ken and I know from experience how true those words are. We’ve been walking with the Lord for a lot of years and we’ve faced some serious trouble during that time. We’ve faced financial trouble, sickness and disease, and challenges with our children.

We’ve encountered problems that, naturally speaking, we didn’t know the answer to.

But you know what? We found out that if we stuck with God and trusted what He said in His Word, He’d see us through. We found out that Jesus has defeated every foe that comes against us and when we follow Him, He leads us out of trouble and into victory every time.

We found out that in Him we truly do have peace.

A few years ago, I learned that the word peace (which is the word shalom in Hebrew) literally means “to be whole, or perfectly intact with nothing missing and nothing broken.” And the Bible tells us that in the Name of Jesus, we have a covenant of peace with God.

Think of it! Almighty God has made a blood covenant with us, promising to keep us whole and intact with nothing missing and nothing broken—right in the middle of this messed up, dangerous world.

A Case of Neglect

Why then, if we have this wonderful covenant of peace, are so many Christians living defeated, broken lives? Why do so many good, born-again believers fall prey to the destructions of this world when God has promised to deliver them?

I believe Hebrews 2 tells us. There we, as heirs of this covenant of salvation, are given some instructions.

Since all this is true, we ought to pay much closer attention than ever to the truths that we have heard, lest in any way we drift past [them] and slip away. For if the message given through angels [the Law spoken by them to Moses] was authentic and proved sure, and every violation and disobedience received an appropriate (just and adequate) penalty, How shall we escape…if we neglect and refuse to pay attention to such a great salvation [as is now offered to us, letting it drift past us forever]?… (verses 1-3, The Amplified Bible).

We don’t have to do something terrible to find ourselves trapped in some kind of trouble with no way of escape. We don’t have to be in some kind of sin and rebellion against God. All we have to do is neglect what He has done for us.

According to Webster’s dictionary, the word neglect means “to ignore or disregard; to fail to care for or attend to sufficiently or properly; to fail to carry out through carelessness or by intention; leave undone.”

It’s easy to let spiritual things get away from you. Even though you may have been on fire and excited about the truths of God, they’ll slip away from you if you stop paying attention to them. If you don’t keep them in your eyes and in your ears, you can drift right back into unbelief.

As born-again children of God, we have a great salvation. But if we just get up in the morning, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch television and go to bed like natural people do, we’re going to suffer defeat and calamity right along with the rest of the world. If we get too busy with other things to pay proper attention to the things of God, we’ll miss out on the benefits of our salvation that are available to us while we are still in the earth. There are covenant benefits here as well hereafter!

They’re Not Automatic

Exactly what are those benefits?

If you don’t know that answer, you won’t be able to experience the fullness of your salvation. After all, you can’t lay hold of the things God has provided if you don’t know what they are or that they belong to you.

To fully understand the benefits of your salvation, you need to continually read and study the Word of God. You’re not going to walk in victory without knowing what the Word says. Jesus said, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).

A good place to begin your understanding of salvation is by learning the meaning of the word. Most believers think the word salvation simply means “to be saved from eternal damnation.” But it means much more than that.

The word salvation refers to deliverance from all kinds of evil—both temporal and eternal. It refers to spiritual and material preservation, deliverance from the fear of danger as well as pardon, restoration, healing, wholeness, and soundness in spirit, soul and body.

It’s true that when we are born again we are saved from the penalty of sin (Romans 5:9). Hallelujah, we’ve been delivered from hell and we’re headed for heaven!

But, that’s not all that’s included in our covenant of salvation. It also provides a life of freedom while we’re still here on earth.

It provides deliverance from the dominion of sin in this life (Romans 6:14). Thank God, we don’t have to sin any more! We have been born of God and we have the power to live holy lives.

Psalm 91 tells us that God also promises to protect us from earthly dangers. It says we’ll be delivered from pestilence, which includes serious sickness and disease, famine, earthquakes and other calamities. It says we’ll be protected from sudden death that comes by the weapons of men. It promises us a long, satisfying life and deliverance from every kind of trouble that comes our way.

Those are wonderful promises, but they don’t operate in our lives automatically just because we’re Christians. They operate under specific conditions and verses 1-2 tell us what those conditions are:

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and relay, and in Him I [confidently] trust! (The Amplified Bible).

Your Abiding Place

The first condition we see there is that of abiding in the Lord or staying consistently close to Him. If you aren’t consistent in your walk with the Lord, you won’t consistently see the promises in Psalm 91 coming to pass for you.

That’s not God’s fault. He always wants to deliver you, and be merciful and kind to you. He is willing. And He has the wonderful capacity to keep up with and to bless all of us. We don’t have to look Him up when we need Him because He’s always with us.

But He’s not like the devil who comes in and forces things on you. God won’t take over and make you do things His way. He won’t force His blessings on you.

He’ll do everything He can to get you to turn toward Him, but He won’t dominate you. He will reach out to you and wait for you to open the door of faith for Him.

How do you keep that door open? By giving God first place in your life. And you can’t do that and be a lazy Christian. Over and over again, the Bible tells us we must seek God first and foremost if we want His blessing in our lives. Seek is a scriptural word that means “to go after with intense effort.”

If you want to experience the fullness of this great salvation Jesus purchased for you, you have to exert consistent effort. Not just when it’s convenient. You can’t live a life of sin, neglecting the things you know to do, and then expect to turn to God when you need help.

Some people do that. They think, God took care of me last time when I wasn’t living right. So next time He’ll do the same thing.

That’s a dangerous attitude.

If you keep going in rebellion and stubbornness, you’ll get a hard heart. One of these days, you may find yourself unable to turn to God when you need help. Even if you can turn to Him, you may find you’re under so much condemnation in your own mind and heart that your faith won’t work.

“But I’m not rebelling,” you might say. “I’ve just been too busy lately to spend time in the Word or in prayer.”

Then you’d better simplify your life because you can’t spend your time on other things, filling your heart and your life with natural concerns, and expect to be strong in faith when trouble comes.

“Oh, but things are going fine right now.”

That may be true, but, as Jesus said, trouble is coming. When it does, it better find you doing what Psalm 91:1 says, “abiding in the secret place of the Most High.”

The word abide means “to dwell, remain fixed in a certain place.” If you abide somewhere, that’s where you live. I might stay at a hotel while I’m preaching a meeting, but I don’t abide there. I’m just there for a few days.

In John 15:7, Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” I’ve found that if I’ll spend time every day in the Word of God, that Word will begin to abide in me. It will come alive in me and begin to speak to my heart continually.

I’m telling you, that’s a good thing. When you run into trouble and that abiding Word of God rises up to tell you what to do, you’ll be glad you weren’t a lazy Christian. You’ll be glad you made the Word your dwelling place.

Open Your Mouth and Shut the Devil Out

Look back at Psalm 91:2 and you’ll see the second way to keep yourself in condition to experience the fullness of your salvation. “I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!”

You give God authority to act in your life by trusting Him with your heart and speaking words of faith with your mouth. Jesus taught us that principle in Mark 11:22-23 when He said, “…Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

The devil knows that truth so he tries to turn it around to work in his favor. He can’t come in and force things on you the way he can those who are unsaved and outside God’s covenant of protection. So he has to deceive you into giving him a place with your words—speaking words of fear and doubt.

Have you ever noticed that when you feel sick the first thing you want to do is tell someone about it? If you have a problem, you want to talk about it. Somehow you think if you can say it, you’ll feel better.

That’s exactly what the devil wants you to do. But don’t do it!

Instead, when trouble comes, zip your lips. Don’t say anything about that situation until you’re centered on the Word of God and it’s in your heart in abundance.

Then when you open your mouth, you’ll be able speak the Word. You’ll be able to say what God says about your situation—not just to yourself and your friends, but to the situation itself.

That’s right! Mark 11:23 says we speak to the mountain. That means we don’t talk about the problem. We talk to the problem!

We tell it what we want it to do. We tell it to be removed according to the Word of God.

It may sound strange, but it’s scriptural and it is a vital part of attending to our covenant salvation. Remember: When we speak the Word of God, we shut the devil out and he doesn’t have any place to work.

It’s Not Too Late

You might be reading this and thinking, Gloria, all this is wonderful, but it’s too late for me. I’m already in trouble. I haven’t been walking with God, and there’s no way out.

If that’s your situation, let me encourage you. God is good. He is merciful.

Many times I’ve seen people call out to Him in situations that have gone so far there seems to be no solution. It looked like it was too late for those people. But it wasn’t. God still turned things around. He is kind and He is good!

If you will take your stand on the Word of God, and make a quality decision to give your life to Him, He can make a way where there seems to be no way. He’ll deliver you not because of what you’ve done, but because of what Jesus already did for you.

I’m not saying your problems will instantly disappear. But there can be an instant change. It will start on the inside of you—in your heart. If you’ll trust the Lord, you can have joy and peace on the inside even when things on the outside are challenging.

When you stick with Him, keep listening to His Word and obeying it, attending to this great covenant of salvation He has given you, day by day your life will change. If you’ll keep the door of faith open to God and give Him time to work, He will restore what the devil has stolen from you and repair what’s been broken. He wants you whole.

“Oh, but I’m not worthy!” you might say.

No, on your own you’re not. Neither am I. But Jesus is and we are in Him. Our righteousness is in Him. He lived and died and rose again so that we could be blessed with a covenant of peace.

Don’t let it slip away by neglecting it, and don’t let the trouble of this world overwhelm you. Instead, take heart…He has overcome the world. And in Him we have too!

Feeling Like the Underdog? Don’t Stay Under…Go Over!

Posted on February 25, 2016 - 11:16 am by kcmblogsite

by Gloria Copeland

“We having the same spirit of faith,

according as it is written,

I believed, and therefore have I spoken;

we also believe, and therefore speak.”

(2 Corinthians 4:13)

In almost 50 years of ministry, I cannot tell you how many opportunities Ken and I have had to fail…and fail big!

There have been times when our circumstances looked dark and impossible. Times we didn’t have enough money to pay the bills in the ministry. Times we let ourselves become discouraged by not acting on what we knew and what we were supposed to do. During those times, we would fail to say the right things…the things God’s Word says about our situation.

But then we would hear a message preached at a meeting or listen to a faith-filled tape that would throw us right back into faith. As a result, we would rise up, take authority over our words, repent for unbelief and any other mistakes we had made in the process, and get our thinking and our words straight.

Each time, God brought us to a place of victory. Each time, we came out of trouble after we returned to saying not just familiar words, not just accurate words, but words of faith from the heart.

If you’re going through a difficult time right now, I want you to know that speaking words of faith makes all the difference between staying under and going over.

It’s often the missing step for believers who are doing a lot of things right. They could be walking in truth and living lives of faithfulness and diligence. They may be tithing and sowing and still not prospering as much as they should or could. The truth is, they won’t receive all God desires for them until they check what is going on right under their noses—literally!

Our Words Are a Sickle

We will never be able to skip the step of saying words of faith from the heart if we are going to see the fullness of God manifest in our lives.

It’s believing and saying that causes things to come to pass. It’s believing and saying that causes us to increase. The believing part is the faith part. Our words must have faith behind them for them to be faith words.

Mark 11:22-23 says, “Have faith in God. For whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

That is faith in a nutshell.

Years ago, Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin said that in this scripture Jesus mentioned “believing” one time and “saying” three times. The first time I heard his tape, You Can Have What You Say, I was listening and busily taking notes when I heard these words in my spirit:

In consistency lies the power.

I received light on Mark 11:23 that changed my life: All my words are important! Not just what I say when I pray, but all the time. Our words are our faith speaking—either good or bad. I realized all my words are vital to my future. Not just when I pray, but those things I say all the time are opening or closing doors for God to work in my life. Everything I say should be in line with God’s Word and my desires. In consistently speaking faith words lies the power of an overcoming life.

If you’re saying “nothing’s happening,” then nothing’s happening.

If you’re feeling sorry for yourself and saying, “This always happens to me,” and “I don’t know why God’s not doing something about it,”…then it will and He will not.

What you really believe is what you say when the pressure is on. If you want to find out if you are in faith or not, listen to what you are saying in the privacy of your own home. And know this: Even behind closed doors in the dark of the night, what you say matters.

Malachi 3:13-15 tells us God was listening when His people said, “What good does it do to serve God? You know, those rich folks down the road, they don’t have any trouble.” And God confronted them about their grumbling. He said, “Your words have been stout against me.”

Don’t let your words be stout against God. He isn’t your problem—He’s your answer! Release faith with your words and give Him something to work with.

Don’t do what the children of Israel did in Deuteronomy 1:27 either. At the report of giants in the land, they allowed fear to enter into their hearts and they began murmuring in their tents. They grumbled: “Oh, the Lord must really hate us to bring us out of Egypt only to be killed by giants in the land He promised us.”

God heard the words they were saying in the privacy of their dwelling places, and they were evil in His sight. They didn’t have faith in what God had promised them and because of that, a whole generation missed out on the blessing of entering the Promised Land.

If you’re not getting results, don’t murmur and complain. Instead, come to grips with the fact you may need to change what you’re believing and saying. You are not going to say one thing and reap another. So don’t say, “Nothing’s happening.” Instead, say “I have it and I’ll not be moved until it manifests, in Jesus’ Name.”

You cannot talk decrease and expect increase. Your words are your sickle. They bring to you what you say.

What’s in Your Heart?

Matthew 12:34-35 says: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”

Here Jesus is telling us that our words reveal what we have been consistently filling our hearts with. As we fill our hearts with the Word of God and believe it, faith will overflow into our words. Those words filled with faith have power and will affect our circumstances.

Out of the good treasure of our hearts, good things will come forth.

If you don’t have good treasure stored in your heart—if you’re not believing the right things—you can change what you believe. Simply go to the Word, see what God says about your situation and declare, “That’s the way it is. I’m honoring that word and doing it.” That’s how you take the Word into your heart.

Filling your heart with God’s Word establishes God’s kingdom in your heart. It gives you His words of dominion.

In Matthew 6:22-23, Jesus said: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your entire body will be full of light. But if your eye is unsound, your whole body will be full of darkness” (The Amplified Bible).

In other words, what you give your attention to is critical.

The entrance to your heart is through your eyes and ears. The “eye” of faith looks at the Word of God instead of the circumstances. You can have a sound “eye” by following God’s instruction: “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).

Verse 23 in The Amplified Bible says, “Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.” What we allow into our hearts affects every part of our lives.

If we spend time in the Word allowing it to flood our hearts, Psalm 119:105 says it will be a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths. But if we are filling our hearts and minds with worldly information—watching worldly television and movies, reading worldly books and magazines—our hearts will not be filled with light. Only by renewing our minds with the Word of God (Romans 12:2) will our hearts be flooded with light.

As you renew your mind with the Word, you learn to think like God thinks and you’ll make right decisions—you’ll be blessed. That is what Matthew 6:33 is talking about when it says, “But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides” (The Amplified Bible).

If God truly rules in your heart, if He is Lord of your life and you do what He says, then the kingdom of God (His dominion, presence, power, glory and anointing) will continually flow out of you and take authority over the things coming against you. That’s God’s plan of dominion. Words of authority are words of faith from the heart.

Faith—the Believer’s Lifestyle

A lifestyle of faith is the lifestyle of a true believer. Romans 1:17 declares, “The just shall live by faith.” That passage in The Amplified Bible says, “The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.”

Faith pleases God because it makes a way for Him to work in our lives. It connects us to His supernatural anointing. Look at Abraham. God promised to bless him saying, “A father of many nations have I made thee” (Genesis 17:5). Though it seemed impossible, Abraham believed God who “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (verse 20).

When he agreed with what God said, he saw the promise come to pass. He received the promise because he believed God.

Believers today can walk in the same favor Abraham enjoyed. Galatians 3:29 declares that “if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Verses 7 and 9 say, “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.”

It takes faith for the blessings of God to manifest in our lives.

Hebrews 6:12 instructs us: “Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” God’s Word will come to pass in your life if you will put it in your heart and in your mouth. Be patient. Don’t dig up your seed with words of unbelief.

Satan comes to steal the Word that has been planted in you. He’ll try to make you quit. But when pressure comes, recognize the source and the reason. Persecutions and afflictions arise for the Word’s sake (Mark 4:15-17). The enemy tries to get you to believe something other than what God has said in His Word.

But don’t quit believing! Don’t quit confessing the Word. Don’t let pressure cause you to speak negative, unbelieving words that give the enemy license to operate in your life. And don’t focus on the circumstances or talk about them. Instead, talk to them.

Be a faith person—someone who not only says the right things in church on Sunday, but who consistently says the right things all the time. Even in challenging circumstances, a person of faith believes God’s Word is true. Even when it looks hopeless, talk the Word.

The things you continually say are the things that come to pass in your life.

God’s Book of Remembrance

God hears all of our words. And He loves to hear words of faith—words that release the provision He so earnestly desires to shower on us. Malachi 3:16-17 says:

Then those who feared the Lord talked often one to another; and the Lord listened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who reverenced and worshipfully feared the Lord and who thought on His name. And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I publicly recognize and openly declare them to be My jewels (My special possession, My peculiar treasure)” (The Amplified Bible).

Not only is God listening. He is making note of those who believe Him and speak about His goodness. God calls them His jewels, His treasure.

That’s the group you and I can belong to if we speak words of faith from our hearts and obey those words with our actions!

In each of the challenges Ken and I have faced, something would happen as we listened to a tape or attended a meeting. The Word of God would correct us, drive out the disobedience or unbelief and destroy what was holding us down. Hearing the Word would bring us out of discouragement. It would cause us to stir up our faith again. We would stop seeing ourselves in the hole or in trouble. We would start believing and saying that we had the victory.

Although nothing in the natural changed immediately, something happened in the supernatural. Something happened in our hearts. God saw it too—He looked at our hearts. He heard our words. He knew faith was there. The turnaround came! The mountain was moved! Whether it was a $6 million television bill or some other kind of trouble—each time we came out.

God helped us. Even when we got under it and acted defeated and murmured in our tent, He restored us to that place where we had enough faith to quit saying and doing the wrong things and to begin saying the right words. We discovered it pays to speak words that please God.

So, if wrong words come out of your mouth, repent and get back on the truth of the Word. When you speak words that are crosswise to what you’re believing for, repent and say, “I break the power of that in the Name of Jesus. I’m believing the Word of God, and I’ll not accept that opposing word coming out my mouth. Father, forgive me.”

Make all your words agree with the Word of God. Speak faith words that give your heavenly Father the freedom to do what pleases Him most—to bless you with the abundance of His life and provision. Give God the pleasure of entering your words of faith in His book of remembrance. Let Him note you are one of those who believe Him and speak about His goodness.

Fulfill His joy of calling you His jewel…His special possession…His peculiar treasure.

Give Him words of faith from your heart.

3 Steps to Living Healthy Now

Posted on February 18, 2016 - 9:55 am by kcmblogsite

by Marty Copeland

I once read that “commitment is the igniter of momentum.”

That’s especially true in obtaining health and fitness goals. And, Psalm 37:5 tells us essentially the same thing when it says: “Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass” (The Amplified Bible).

When you and I commit our way—our goals, our desires—to the Lord, He will bring them to pass. In other words, He provides the momentum.

One definition of the word commit is: “To give in trust; to put into the hands or power of another; to entrust.” That is so fitting when it comes to achieving success in your health and fitness goals. The first step is to put your goals into God’s hands.

That’s the spiritual step in making a commitment, and it provides momentum!

A Course of Conduct

Another definition of the word commit gives us insight into the practical steps of commitment. Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language says to commit means, “…to commit one’s self is to do some act, or make some declaration which may bind the person in honor, good faith, or consistency, to pursue a certain course of conduct, or to adhere to the tenor of that declaration.”

Commitment means having a plan of action that you stick to with honor and in good faith. That plan should include: Making a binding declaration (firmly establishing your goal); and adhering in good faith to a consistent course of conduct (following specific objectives) to achieve the declaration (or goal).

Making a Declaration

Let’s talk about what it takes to formulate and make a binding declaration.

For one thing, it means writing down goals and praying over them with the sincere intention of reaching them. It also means investing the time to come up with a specific course of action to help achieve those goals.

Habakkuk 2:2 instructs us to “write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” A written plan of action will help you stay focused and moving toward your goal. When you associate God’s Word with your goals, that makes success a sure thing, because His Word and presence have the power to change you.

Now, making a declaration also means declaring or speaking your goal. As you hear yourself declaring your goal, you’ll become more persuaded and determined to reach that goal.

Let’s talk a moment about what your health and fitness goals might be.

Living a healthy lifestyle is a goal every person should have. This goal should include a healthy eating plan and a fitness plan. The best strategy for you depends on many factors such as: your present weight, how much weight you need to lose, your activity level, the condition of your health, etc.

If weight loss needs to be part of your goal to live healthy, a realistic weight-loss goal would be to lose one to two pounds a week. While we each have a unique body type and metabolism, a great way for most people to begin losing weight is for them to subtract 250 calories from their daily calorie intake and begin burning an extra 250-500 calories per day through exercise.

How many calories you need to consume is dependent on those many factors I mentioned previously. Fewer than 1200 calories a day for women and 1400 calories for men is not typically recommended. And not eating enough not only will deprive your body of needed nutrition, it also can cause your body to go into “starvation mode” which slows down your metabolism. This in turn slows your ability to lose weight. So, please visit your doctor before beginning any weight-loss program or fitness routine. He or she can help you decide on a plan that will work best for you.

Healthy Eating Tips

One thing I’ve discovered is that making small yet significant adjustments can make all the difference in our goal to live healthy.

Let’s face it, most of us would be hard-pressed to make all the dietary changes we should make at one time. But, we can begin “doing the dos” and the “don’ts” will eventually disappear. For instance, the more healthy foods we eat, the healthier we’ll want to eat—eventually. Then, before we know it, the do of eating healthy becomes a lifestyle change.

Hebrews 5:14 says it this way “…even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” By reason of use, our senses are trained to prefer what is good.

Making simple adjustments in our diets can help us train our senses and yield big results. Here are a few “healthy eating” suggestions that are easy to do!

Begin each day with a healthy breakfast.

Among other things it is proven to help with weight loss. Adding a high-fiber cereal to your diet is a great diet strategy. It will help you eat about 130 fewer calories per day. If you don’t like high-fiber cereals, add a little of a high-fiber variety to your regular cereal. Add berries and you’ve included a portion of your fruit for the day!

Drink water.

It is vital to good health! At least 64 ounces of water each day is recommended. That may seem like a lot if you usually drink four colas each day and no water. Trying to omit all colas from your diet might set you up for failure. However, if the first week you determine to drink only two 12-ounce colas per day rather than four and drink water to replace those two colas, you’ve accomplished two things: You’ve reduced your calorie intake by 280 calories (140 calories per cola) and you’ve also added 24 ounces of water to your diet. The next week, drink three 12-ounce glasses of water and omit one more cola. As you begin drinking water, your body will develop a thirst for it. By “doing the do” of drinking water, eventually colas and the calories that go along with them will be omitted from your diet.

Add fruits and vegetables to your diet.

The USDA recommends eating five servings, so if presently you are eating only two pieces of fruit per day, add one vegetable serving per day this week, and perhaps an additional piece of fruit per day the next.

Fast the fast food.

If you are eating fast food four times a week, cut back to once or twice a week. Most fast food is high in fat, sodium and calories and low in nutrition. For instance, according to the McDonald’s U.S.A. Web site, a Big Mac has 560 calories and 30 grams of fat! Add to that a large order of fries (520 calories with 25 grams of fat) and a large cola (210 calories), and you may have exceeded your daily recommended calorie and fat intake in one meal.

Remember if you want to reach your goals, you must write them down with a specific course of action to help you reach those goals. Taking the above suggestions into account, your “week-one eating plan” to support healthy living and a weight-loss goal might include specifics such as, I will:

Eat a healthy breakfast.
Drink two 12-ounce glasses of water and omit two colas.
Eat two to four servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Run fast, run far when I am tempted to drive through for fast food!

Add to Healthy Eating… Exercise!

Next, consider a specific exercise plan to help you achieve your fitness goal. Write that down as well. Keep in mind the best fitness plan includes both aerobic exercise such as walking, jogging, swimming, biking, etc., and anaerobic exercise which is weight or resistance training. Aerobic exercise burns fat. And building muscle not only helps you look toned and fit, one pound of muscle also burns about 35 calories a day, whereas one pound of fat burns only two calories. When you do the math it’s easy to see how beneficial it is to gain muscle.

A generic plan such as “I will exercise this week” won’t be sufficient. You must have a specific plan. It could be something like: Monday, Wednesday, Friday—walk 30 minutes; Tuesday, Thursday—30-minute gym workout.

Exercising actually can be fun when you find something you like to do, and at the very least it is rewarding and will help you feel better emotionally, mentally and physically.

Now Do It!

As we’ve discussed, three main elements necessary for you to achieve a healthy lifestyle are to:

Commit your plan to the Lord.
Write down your health and fitness goals in the form of a binding declaration.
Develop a plan to achieve those goals.

Making and keeping a commitment to achieve a healthier lifestyle is not the impossible dream, but rather a very achievable goal.

So, why not make this the week you get started? “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed” (Proverbs 16:3, New International Version). Why not make this the week you gain momentum to begin living a healthier lifestyle?

Don’t Get Fleeced!

Posted on February 11, 2016 - 5:09 pm by kcmblogsite

The devil is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of believers concerning their right-standing with God.

by Kenneth Copeland

The Lord spoke to my heart one day and said, How much confidence are you placing in the God within you? At the time, I had no confidence in Him whatsoever! I was merely hoping God would do something when I prayed—obviously with little or no results!

Then I grasped the reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit began to reveal to my heart the truths about the new birth, and being the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. He showed me the power of the Holy Spirit (God’s muscle, God’s mind, God’s everything), and how this part of the Godhead was living inside every born-again, Spirit-filled believer!

One by one, these truths became deeply rooted in my spirit. Rather than being conscious of myself as a sinner, I became conscious of the righteousness within me.

You can develop that kind of righteousness-consciousness too. How? By focusing on spiritual truth instead of natural circumstances. Romans 8:5 says, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.”

We have occupied ourselves much of the time with the fleshly things. Even though the Word of God teaches us that we have been given victory over the flesh, we’ve by and large ignored that Word and thought sickness instead of healing, weakness instead of strength, trouble instead of victory, poverty instead of prosperity, and sin instead of righteousness. Instead of attending to God’s Word (Proverbs 4:20), we’ve attended to these other things almost completely ignoring the power of the Word of God to deliver us from them.

I can speak from experience here because I was once very overweight and hooked on cigarettes among other things. For several years, I fought against my body with little success. But when I grew in the Word of God and began to walk in the spirit, I no longer fulfilled the lusts of the flesh.

I began to think righteousness, to focus on the power of God instead of the weakness of the flesh. As a result, my weight came down to normal and the smoking habit was broken! I still must keep my body under dominion of the Word and walk in the spirit, but it’s much easier when we realize daily: “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Take Authority

As you begin to think righteousness instead of sin, you’ll become more useful to God, to yourself and to the people around you. You’ll become a vessel through which God’s power can flow. You’ll be able to stand firmly on your right-standing with God—opposing sickness, poverty, sin and anything else Satan tries to bring your way.

When Satan threatens to kill, steal and destroy you, you’ll say, “Look here, I’m a child of God. I’ve been delivered from the authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. You’re not going to put your evil stuff on me or my household. I don’t have to put up with it. I’m the righteousness of God!” Take authority!

In addition to freeing you from personal sin and circumstances, a righteousness-consciousness will also give you the courage to obey God’s commands and attack the forces of darkness. It will give you the power to become the fearsome spiritual warrior God always intended you to be.

In Mark 16:15-18, for example, Jesus gave us the Great Commission. He said:

Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

As the righteousness of God in Christ, you have the Name of Jesus, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God to enable you to stand and minister in Jesus’ stead. Once you awake to righteousness you’ll find yourself not only having the boldness to dominate sin, Satan and circumstances in your own life, but also having a new boldness to minister to the needs of others.

This is not true of the sin- and defeat-minded Christian. The sin-minded believer says, “Well, we’re praying about going to minister in this situation, and if the doors are open, then it’s God’s will for us to go. But if they’re not, then it must not be God’s will.”

If the “open door” were evidence of the will of God, then the Apostle Paul was never in God’s will. He faced obstacles throughout his entire ministry, but he took the Word of God and knocked the doors open in order to get the job done!

Sin-consciousness will look for an excuse not to obey God: “We might not have enough money to go…I might not be able to take off work.” Righteousness-consciousness, however, always finds a way to obey! Being a vessel able to be used by the Master is one of our rights and privileges in Christ. But a “closed door” has deceived many a believer and kept them from fulfilling the perfect will of God.

Believers Have Rights

An area in which many people have tried to open a door, but have been deceived is in “putting out a fleece.” The person who uses a fleece is depending on a physical sign of God’s will in a situation. He is not depending on his right-standing with God.

But don’t get fleeced! The natural, physical world is Satan’s field of operation. When you put out a fleece, you are giving the devil a chance to intercept God’s perfect will for you.

In Judges 6:37, the Bible says Gideon used a fleece. But let’s analyze his situation for a moment. In the first place, Gideon was not a reborn man. Consequently, he was forced to rely on physical evidence. He had no knowledge of God whatsoever because his entire family were followers of Baal.

Second, there was no prophet in the land to give him the Word of God. And the prophet was the only source of revealed knowledge in those days.

Third, Gideon was dealing with an angel which was completely foreign to him. Therefore, in his position, he had no choice except to put out a fleece to get a physical sign of what to do.

But as believers, you and I are not in Gideon’s position. We have been born again and have rights and privileges in God’s kingdom. One of those rights is to be led by the Spirit of God. We have access to the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God to use as a guide in finding God’s will for our lives.

We don’t have to depend on a sign from the natural, physical world to lead us. We can simply ask God and expect Him to let us know what His will is through His Spirit dwelling within us. Our right-standing with God has given us access to leadership…from Almighty God Himself.

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