While I was in prayer one afternoon during a meeting in
Dayton, Ohio, the Lord drew me to this portion of scripture
about laying up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor
rust corrupts. As I read this, the Lord said, “This rust and corruption
is inflation and depression.” If you will let heaven be
your financial reservoir—your bank and depository where you
place your trust—regardless of what happens to the world’s system,
you will always have more than enough! Then the Lord
said, “I did not say this treasure could not be used until you get
to heaven.” First Timothy 6:19 says to lay up for yourselves a
good foundation for the time to come when you will need it. A
heavenly bank is not subject to theft and ruin; it will always be
there when you need it.
Up to this time I was under the impression that when I
gave, I could expect the entire amount plus the hundredfold
return on it immediately, but there were times when it didn’t
work like that. I was confused, so I asked the Lord about it. My
needs were always abundantly met, but I didn’t fully understand
what was happening. The Lord explained it this way:
“There was no use in My transferring money which you
had laid up in heaven to an earthly bank when you didn’t need
all of it at the time. When money is on earth, it is vulnerable to
Satan and to the world’s system of finance. If I gave you $1,000
today, in nine months’ time, it probably wouldn’t be worth
more than $750. You need to learn to exercise your faith in the
fact that you have this money on deposit, and when you need
it, all you have to do is call for it. Make your deposits with Me
according to the rate of exchange which My Word guarantees
and operate under My system of finance instead of the world’s
system. We can make it work at the current rate of exchange at
that time. It won’t matter if it takes a billion dollars to buy a
loaf of bread—I [God] can afford it!” If God can afford it, so
can I. He’s my Father!
Posts Tagged ‘prayer’
Kenneth Copeland — Ready To Sow Part 1
Kenneth Copeland — Putting Prayer to Work!
Prayer based on the Word is already in line with the will of
God. First John 5:14-15 tells us that we know God hears us
and answers our prayer when we ask according to His will.
I have included some very brief instruction for making
Jesus your Lord and for receiving the Baptism in the Holy
Spirit. Of course, there is much more but these will get you
started. God will honor your prayers and give you direction.
Some of these prayers are confessions of the Word of
God, not petitions. Psalm 103:20 says, “Bless the Lord, ye
his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments,
hearkening unto the voice of his word.” The angels
hearken or listen to God’s Word and cooperate with Him in
bringing it to pass in your behalf. God is alert and active,
watching over His Word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12). The
speaking or confessing of the Word by the believer activates
the power of God. He has said, “So shall My word be that
goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void
[without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish
that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper
in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11, The Amplified
Bible). As you speak God’s Word over situations and circumstances,
it will produce a positive effect and prosper in
those areas.
Do you know where you stand with God?
If you have never made Jesus the Lord of your life, then you
are separated from God through sin. You are the reason God
sent Jesus to the cross. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God loved you so much He gave His only begotten Son for you.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says God made Jesus, who knew
no sin, to be sin for us. Jesus is the spotless Son of God. He
knew no sin, but God made Him to be sin for us. Sin was the
reason Jesus came to earth. He died on the Cross and went to
hell for one reason: to pay the price for sin. Once that price
was paid, Jesus was raised from the dead, triumphant over
Satan, and the sin problem was taken care of.
God is not holding your sin against you. He sent Jesus as
your substitute. He paid the debt. Now you can receive the
credit for what He did in your place (Isaiah 53:3-5).
The price has been paid, but it’s not an automatic thing.
You must choose to accept what He did for you and receive
Him as your personal Savior. If you have never done so,
choose Him now. Repent of your sin (turn totally from it) and
pray this prayer. When you do, the power of God will make
you a new creature in Christ Jesus. Say:
Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus, I present myself
to You. I pray and ask Jesus to be Lord over my life. I
believe it in my heart, so I say it with my mouth: Jesus
has been raised from the dead. This moment, I make
Him the Lord over my life. Jesus, come into my heart. I
believe this moment that I am saved. I say it now: I am
reborn. I am a Christian. I am a child of Almighty God.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Kenneth Copeland — Unforgiveness and Strife
Another hindrance to prayer is found in Mark 11:25-26. It
says, “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. But if ye do not forgive, neither will
your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” This is
vital. Prayer will not work without forgiveness. I cannot overemphasize
its importance. Jesus prayed, “Our Father which art
in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will
be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that
is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver
us from evil” (Luke 11:2-4). Spiritual principles are involved
here. You can keep these hindrances from stopping the results
of your prayers. Harmony makes the prayer system work.
This attitude of forgiveness begins at home. Jesus said if
any two of you will agree on earth, He will be in your midst.
A man and his wife should be the strongest agreement force
there is. Satan goes to great lengths to separate a man from
his wife and family. He wants them out of agreement.
First Peter 3:7 says, “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them
[your wives] according to knowledge [according to the Word of
God], giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel,
and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers
be not hindered.” If a husband is not honoring his wife as he
should, his prayers are hindered. The burden of harmony is not
on the wife. The husband is the authority in his household. The
power of God is available to the man and wife who purpose to
stay in harmony.
As you come against unforgiveness and reach for harmony,
you will experience Jesus in your midst! He said, “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 14:23).
You cannot say you are pleasing God and hold something
against someone. First John 4:20 says, “If a man say, I love
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not
his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen?” This includes family members as well.
Strife and unforgiveness hinder your prayer life. Strife
is merely acting on unforgiveness. James 3:16 says, “For
where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil
work.” When you take confusion and add it to Satan’s work,
problems arise. You will have a disaster in the making. Jesus
is not in the midst of that. Determine you are not going to
respond in strife. The next time someone says something
rude, unmannerly or unkind to you, or about someone else,
make the decision not to join in. Don’t carry strife any further.
Second Timothy 2:24-26 says that because of strife, Satan can
capture Christians at his will. Jesus said the thief comes to steal,
kill and destroy (John 10:10). That is the only reason he gets
involved in your life. The believer belongs to God and has every
right to walk free, but wholeness—spirit, soul, body, financially
and socially—is only achieved through peace and harmony.
The absence of strife is the key to getting rid of confusion
and evil. It is the predominant, primary prerequisite for
answered prayer. Stop Satan from working in your life. You
do not want him in your home or your prayer life. So the first
thing to do is begin to forgive. Get strife out of your life. Jesus
said to ask and you will receive, that your joy may be made
full. Your joy will be strong.
Matthew 18:19-20 will not work just because two people
say the same thing. The prayer of agreement is effective
because of its motivating force—love!
As you read this, take the opportunity right now to rid
yourself of strife, disharmony or unforgiveness. Confess
it. Jesus is faithful to forgive you (1 John 1:9). Give God the
opportunity to create a system of harmony around you and
your prayer life will begin to work.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Kenneth Copeland — Your Thinking Is Keeping You From Receiving
What would you say if I asked you to tell me the biggest problem you’re facing right now?
Would you say your finances? Family problems? Sickness? Job frustrations? Your weight?
If you said any of those in fact, if you listed any circumstance at all I have some startling news for you.
You’re mistaken. That’s right, you’re mistaken! I can tell you without even knowing the details of your life that, if you’re a born-again believer, money is not your problem. Sickness is not your problem. Your family, weight, job, background, lack of education…none of those things is your problem.
Your problem is the way you’ve been thinking about those things.
“Oh now, Brother Copeland, be realistic. These are hard times. The economy is bad. The government is a mess. Everything is going downhill. Those things aren’t just figments of my imagination. They’re real. What difference could it possibly make how I think about them?!”
I’ll show you. Look at 2 Kings 6, beginning in verse 24. God gives us a dramatic illustration of what a difference your thought patterns can make even in the worst of situations. He tells us of a time when the city of Samaria was in deep trouble. An enemy king had surrounded it with fortified troops and put it under total siege. No one could go into the city and no one could go out.
“And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver” (verse 25).
(That’s worse than a recession, folks! It’s worse than any economic depression any of us have ever seen!)
“And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?” (verses 26-27).
This king was saying, “Look, lady, the government is just as broke as you are. What do you expect us to do?”
“And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes” (verses 28-30).
This situation had gone way beyond serious. It was pathetic,and tragically hopeless. Listen to what the king said next: “He said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day…. Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?” (verses 31-33).
All he knew to do was get mad at the preacher and blame the problem on God. Have you ever had thoughts like that? Well, sure you have! We all have!
But when the king sent someone to cut off Elisha’s head, Elisha delivered a surprising message from the Lord. “Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria” (2 Kings 7:1).
Don’t you know those words were a shock to those who heard them? Here they are in the midst of the most desperate situation they’ve ever seen. There’s no sign of hope anywhere and the prophet of God says, “Hey, good news! This is all going to be over by tomorrow and we’ll all be enjoying prosperity!”
God wasn’t the one creating the disaster. He was the One with the solution to it. Yet, instead of rejoicing over this thrilling word of hope, “A lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he [Elisha] said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof” (verse 2).
This man, who actually served as the “vice president” of Samaria, didn’t respond to God’s Word in faith. He responded to it with skepticism. He thought, Even if God got involved, this situation is too bad to be turned
around now! His thinking was so geared toward the negative that he couldn’t even imagine a positive turn of events.
As all this was going on, there were four lepers sitting outside the city’s gates. They’d been thinking negative, fear-filled thoughts just like everyone else. But then, something happened.
When Elisha spoke God’s plan, the Holy Spirit moved on these men. Suddenly, their thinking changed. They didn’t know it—but they began thinking the thoughts of God. “…and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die” (verses 3-4).
Do you see the change in their thought pattern? Up to that time, they had been famine thinkers and leprosy thinkers. But now they were saying, “Why are we just sitting here waiting to die? Let’s do something!”
When their thinking changed, their actions changed. Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for themselves, they jumped up and headed toward the Syrian camp. Do you know what they discovered when they arrived? No one was there!
The camp was abandoned. It was filled with an abundance of food and clothing and supplies but all the soldiers were gone. These lepers had stumbled onto a spiritual law. It’s this: When hard times come, they’re
never as hard as they look. That’s so important, I’m going to say it again. Hard times are not as hard as they look—unless you’re looking in the wrong place, through the wrong eyes, thinking the wrong thoughts, and imitating the wrong people.
You may say, “But Brother Copeland, the lepers’ thinking patterns didn’t change that situation. God changed the situation. He made the Syrian army hear the sound of warriors coming and it scared them away!”
Exactly. But that miracle of God would never have been a blessing to those lepers or anyone else for that matter if they hadn’t changed their thinking.
As a born-again believer, you’re in much the same situation. God has already moved on your behalf. He sent Jesus to the cross to bear your sickness, weakness and pain (Isaiah 53:4-5). He healed you by His stripes
(1 Peter 2:24). He became poor so you could be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). He covenanted with you to meet all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
He has given you “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). The only thing powerful enough to keep you from receiving those things is your own thinking.
Wrong thoughts will paint the wrong pictures in your mind. They’ll tell you things are worse than they are. They’ll tell you that you can’t do what it takes to succeed in life. But I’m here to tell you, you can succeed!
It doesn’t matter how bad the economy is. People who understand money aren’t afraid of hard times. In fact, it’s the ungodly people who are money-minded who actually wish for hard times. Such people made great fortunes back during the Depression years. They bought up goods at about 10 cents on the dollar and ended up rich while others went broke.
But, of course, as believers, that’s not our motive for prospering during hard times. We want to prosper in order to help others get back on top.
We want to say, “Hey friend, let me teach you how to prosper with me. Come on over here in the kingdom of God. Get over here in my house. No flood of recession or depression is going to tear it up. It’s built on the
Rock!” (See Matthew 7:24-25.)
If people are sick, we can say to them, “Don’t let sickness and disease knock your feet out from under you, friend. Come on over here to my house. It’s a healing house. By the power of God, we can show you how
to be well!”
That’s what the good news is really about. If we’d preach it that way instead of preaching it as some kind of religious club people need to join, they’d come running to us. If we’d preach the gospel to the poor and let them know they don’t have to be poor anymore because of Jesus, they would beat down the church door just to get in there with us.
But we aren’t preaching that way because we aren’t thinking that way! So, how do we change our way of thinking? God tells us in Isaiah 55: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (verses 6-11).
If we want to live the kind of life God has in mind for us, we must trade our thoughts for His thoughts. We must lay down the perspectives we’ve gained through past experiences and instead, pick up the wisdom of God.
Just look at what Proverbs 4 says about the importance of that wisdom: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee…. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee” (verses 7-9).
Acquiring the wisdom of God is the number one priority in our lives. Some people think prayer is top priority. But prayer without wisdom won’t get you anywhere.
How many times have you prayed and failed to receive your answer? It wasn’t because God missed it! The Word of God says you ask and receive not, because you ask amiss (James 4:3). You need wisdom. You need God’s thoughts about the situation before you can pray effectively.
Many times you may be crying out to God for healing when what you actually need is a miracle. You may be praying about a money shortage when what you have is a giving shortage. You may even be causing the problem yourself without knowing it.
You need God’s wisdom!
How do you get it?
Jesus shows us in Luke 11:49. There, He says, “Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute.” Think about this for a moment. Jesus said, “Therefore…said the wisdom of God…” then He began to quote Scripture. He called the written Word of God the wisdom of God.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Kenneth Copeland — The Battlefield of Prayer
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…
(Ephesians 6:10-18).
Every believer is involved in spiritual warfare. The problems we face are brought about by satanic forces principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world and wicked spirits in heavenly places. Our responsibility is to use the weapons of our warfare to fight the good fight of faith. What are those weapons? The Name of Jesus, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.
Prayer is the battlefield. The time spent in the Word is the base of supply. The armor described in Ephesians 6 is prayer armor and serves one vital purpose: to combat Satan and win! Your enemy is not other people. Satan is the source of all your trouble. He is the troublemaker! Not God. Not your neighbor. Not your co-worker. Some people believe God sends tribulation and trials. But He has provided the weapons and armor to get us out of trouble!
In combat, a good strategist knows the importance of cutting the enemy’s supply and dividing his troops. Defeat is inevitable. Without food, water and ammunition, it will be only a matter of time until the enemy is in his hands. In fact, all he has to do is sit back and wait. In the same way, if we’re not keeping supplied by spending time in the Word and prayer, actively combating Satan, then he can easily overtake us.
Much of our failure in the past has been because of Satan’s success in dividing the Church. But thank God, the Body of Christ is coming together throughout the earth. People of all denominational backgrounds are uniting in the power of the Holy Spirit. Denominational barriers are crumbling like the walls of Jericho! Believers are daily discovering, more and more, the power of God available to them. They are putting on their prayer armor, preparing to do battle in the realm of the spirit.
Thank God, we have authority over Satan and his cohorts! We are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, mastering our weapons and using them effectively. If we expect to win the war, we must spend time reinforcing our troops through prayer.