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.
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