Kenneth Copeland Ministries » sowing

Kenneth Copeland — The Power of Standing on the Word Part 4

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:01:28 +0000

Here is an example of prayer based on these six steps:

“Father, in the Name of Jesus, we ask you for $_______.

“We have this money in our heavenly account and we
are withdrawing this amount now. We believe we receive
$________. As in Mark 11:23-24, we believe it in our hearts
and confess now that it is ours in the Name of Jesus. We agree
that we have $______ according to Matthew 18:19. From this
day forward, we roll the care of this over on You and thank You
for it. Satan, in the Name of Jesus, we take authority over
you; we bind your operation now and render you helpless.
Ministering spirits, we charge you to go forth and cause this
amount to come to us according to Hebrews 1:14. Father, we
praise Your Name for meeting our needs according to Your
riches in glory by Christ Jesus and for multiplying our seed
for sowing in the Name of Jesus.”

When I entered the ministry and enrolled in Oral Roberts
University, my wife and I lived in an old house in Tulsa, Okla.,
and because of business failures, we owed money in every
direction. Then, as we began to grasp the principle of seed-faith
giving and believing God to supply our needs, we decided to
believe God to pay these debts. One night we sat down and figured
what we owed. I got my checkbook and wrote out the
checks that would pay these debts. We laid hands on them and
prayed according to Romans 13:8. “Owe no man any thing, but
to love one another.” I said, “Father, in the Name of Jesus, I am
putting these checks in this desk drawer and am believing You
to get us out of this mess. I am looking to You for the money to
pay all these debts, in the Name of Jesus.” I was not so foolish
as to mail those checks before the money was in the bank. That
is against the law. God will not bless fraud!

We figured to the last penny how much it would take to
operate our household abundantly, even allowing for unexpected
things. We wrote it down and prayed over it in the Name of
Jesus. I made up my mind to be single-minded from that day
forward, and in less than 12 months from that night, we did
not owe anything and haven’t owed a penny since. God did
some miraculous things during that time, and He is still doing
them today! Praise God!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Gloria Copeland — The Power of Praise and Tithing

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:01:45 +0000

“Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send
now prosperity.” Again, as in Deuteronomy 26, you are saying to
the Lord, “Send us prosperity.”

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we
have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. God is
the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice
with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art
my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will
exalt thee. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good:
for his mercy endureth for ever.

When you start giving this way, just as a praise to God, things
will begin to happen in your financial life. Praise is a tremendous
tool in releasing the power of God. Combined with the law of
giving, it is unbeatable! There is no standard return on giving as
a praise to God, and it took David from sheepherder to king of
Israel. Do you think God loves poverty? Read a literal Hebrew
translation or The Amplified Bible and see the vast amount of
money David put into building the temple. It was millions of
dollars! David was a prosperous man. The Bible says he was a
man after God’s own heart. Where do you suppose he got all his
wealth? From the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who gave
him the power to get wealth.

Now we have discussed these different areas of making
deposits, but there are times when you can combine some of
them and be even more blessed by it. I remember when I was
preaching a meeting that God had said would be a turning
point in my ministry. I wondered if He meant it to be a turning
point the wrong way! The first evening service we had eight
people. My first offering was $4.25. Naturally, I was stumped,
so I went before the Lord and asked, “What in the world am I
going to do?” He said, “You are going to believe Me!” Then He
showed me some things from His Word and circumstances
began to pick up. The offering got all the way up to $33 one
night! I decided to send it home to my wife and the Lord said,
“$33 won’t pay your bills. If you believe My Word about tithing,
if you believe that Jesus will take your money and worship
Me with it, why don’t you tithe now on the amount you are
needing and expecting in the future offerings of this meeting?
In fact, your $33 will do just fine.” That’s all He said. From
then on it was up to me; it involved faith on my part. You see,
the money belonged to me. The Lord didn’t demand that I
tithe beforehand. All I actually owed in tithes was $3.30; He
wanted me to give as a praise to Him for what I expected Him
to do, and that is exactly what I did. I combined tithing with
giving as a praise to God and the Lord blessed the meeting in
every way. It started with eight people, but by Friday night
people were literally sitting in the windows because there
wasn’t enough room to seat everyone. That meeting turned out
to be the best meeting I had ever had financially up to that
time. Praise the Lord! Can you see the blessings that are available
in these things?

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Kenneth Copeland — Giving, A Form Of Praise

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:01:31 +0000

Just as Israel made sacrificial offerings of praise to God,
believers today can use giving as an instrument of praise. It is
interesting to note that Israel never gave a blemished animal
as a sacrifice. In light of this, if you give a secondhand pair of
shoes, then that is what you will get in return. Don’t give your
old worn-out things; give your good things and you’ll never
lack good things. This is what I did by giving my airplane; it
was the best thing I had at the time.

A few years ago an evangelist came to me and said, “I don’t
understand it, but my income has completely stopped. I haven’t
had a dime come in for weeks!” Since I had just preached that
morning on Luke 6:38, I told him that the key was giving and
that he should give whatever he had; if not money, then something
else. He went home and gathered up all his clothes
(except one suit, one sport coat and one pair of slacks), passed
them out to the men at the unemployment office, and preached
the Word to them. When he came to the meeting that night, he
was beaming. He had given as a praise to God and was really
high because of it! Well, before the service was over, people had
handed him nearly $200 in cash! No one in that service said
anything about what he had done; he was merely seated in the
congregation. The people sought him out and gave to him as
God directed them. This thing really works!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Kenneth Copeland — Giving To The Poor Part 1

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:01:51 +0000

The second form of depositing is giving to the poor.
Proverbs 19:17 says, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth
unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him
again.” When you give to the poor, you can expect back what
you gave. You can’t give away your money by giving to the
poor. You are actually lending to the Lord, and He will repay
you. He considers it a loan, and since He teaches us not to owe
money, He won’t owe money either. As soon as you lend it to
Him, He will pay it back. If Jesus walked up to you and asked
to borrow $100, don’t you think He would repay you?

It is important for you to realize that all material wealth is
in the earth. It will not be rained down on us from heaven. It is
already here, and there is more than enough for everyone. The
Bible says that we will suck of the abundance of the seas and of
the treasures hid in the sand (see Deuteronomy 33:19). The
problem is that we don’t know how to reach it. However, by
giving to the poor we are giving God an opportunity not only
to work with us financially and bless us, but also to help the
man in need.

There are some things you need to understand about this
form of giving. I remember when a close friend of mine was
telling me about taking some things to a poor woman. She said,
“You know, before I could even get out the door, the woman
was asking if I had any pots and pans or anything else she
could have.” This attitude of the poor woman disturbed her, so
we prayed about it. The Lord spoke to me and said, “That’s the
way you do Me. I give you one thing, and before long you’re
jerking My coattail over something else. Now that’s all right
with Me, but you must realize that you are the only hope a poor
person has. You represent supply to them and they have never
had that before.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Kenneth Copeland — Ready To Sow Part 2

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:01:47 +0000

While I was in Ohio, God dealt with me about the television
ministry. At that time I could not understand, or see, with
my own mind how it would work financially, but I had learned
long before not to back off for this reason. I knew the Lord
could work it out. It didn’t matter how it operated or what the
financial details were, I knew there was only one way to succeed—
by giving. Then the thought flashed across my mind,
“No man has given until he has given all he has,” and the first
thing I saw was my twin-engine airplane. Well, cold chills ran
up and down my spine! That little plane was my pride and joy.
I had tithed and believed God for it, and He had given it to me
as a tool of this ministry. Because of this, it really meant a lot to
me. Then I realized that I had to get rid of it. I couldn’t afford
to let it come between God and me, so I went into prayer and
the Lord said, “If you will realize what I am leading you into,
you will make an agreement with Me so that I can help you
financially. Make Me Lord over your finances.” That is exactly
what I did. I wrote out an agreement about the airplane and
used it to lay up a treasure in heaven for the time to come when
I would need it. I didn’t want to release that airplane, but I
knew that God would not take it without giving more in return.
My faith dictated that God’s Word was true, so I disciplined my
thinking to get in line with my faith (instead of my fear) and I
wrote out this agreement: “On the fourth day of October 1971,
I give my airplane to the Lord to be sold and the money put
into preaching the Word of God on television and in any other
manner possible.”

I made this covenant with the Lord according to Luke 6:38,
“Give, and it shall be given unto you…again,” and Mark 10:30,
“But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time.” The agreement
also contained this statement: “I freely give this money
from the sale of the airplane, and I expect the return on it.”

Then I had the engines overhauled, had some maintenance
done, ran an annual inspection on it, and altogether spent about
$8,000 on a piece of equipment that technically didn’t belong to
me any longer. Since God is love, it follows that the laws governing
the power of God are the giving laws. You can’t stop
these laws and still make God’s power operate. It just will not
work that way! God’s system is really unique. He takes a person
who is absolutely destitute, provides the seed to start his giving,
then gives him the hundredfold return on what he gives. Only
God could manage or afford a financial operation like that!

I made the agreement to release my airplane in October
1971. Then on February 11, 1972, while we were holding a
meeting in Birmingham, Ala., the Lord instructed me to give it
to a particular evangelist. So that is what I did. This is the point
I want you to grasp: When God told me to give it away, I didn’t
hesitate for one moment. You see, God had set up this deal
almost four months before, and there had been time for me
to be healed of a possessive spirit where that plane was concerned.
Therefore, when God spoke, I acted and was thrilled
to do it! We flew it home and gave it away.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries