Through listening to Him and communicating with Him, in living communion with Him, grace and peace are multiplied to us.

What is the wisest thing for you to do? Go after more of God. Pray in the Spirit. Pray with your understanding. Spend time with your Father. Read the Word and meditate on it. Think about it. Ask Him to teach you the truth. Ask Him to lead you. If you need to know something, ask Him about it. He is the teacher.

If you were a student in school and did not know what to do, you would ask your teacher. In the same way, the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds directly from God, is living in you, and He is your own private tutor—your teacher. I know it is a difficult thing to fathom. You have to receive grace to believe it. You have to allow the Spirit of God to reveal it to you. Why would you walk in the dark or live in confusion when the Spirit of God is in you? There is only one reason—failure to listen to Him and do what He says.

The Spirit of God ministers grace to us on a day-to-day basis. That makes us want to be obedient so He can manifest His blessings in our lives. The obedient are blessed of God. It always has been that way. The Apostle James wrote:

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:4-7).

Very often, people quote this scripture only partially. They say, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” First it says, “Submit yourselves to God.” Then it says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Satan flees from the obedient.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

As we obey the Holy Spirit, those gifts of grace will become profuse in our midst. Miracles will come to pass constantly because grace operates unhindered as we obey Him. As the Holy Spirit ministers grace, people are miraculously healed and delivered.

There are different areas of healing. Not all healing results from a gift of the Spirit. As believers, we have authority over sickness and disease. We also receive from God just because we believe and act on God’s Word.

But through the gifts of healings, God personally takes care of a matter. He comes on the scene and gets the job done. He says, “Let Me take over on this one.” This is the way He wants to operate in our midst. He wants us to become so obedient to Him, that He can do as He desires in the whole earth through us—and not just to the Church, but through the Church to those who sit in darkness.

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.... Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:25, 28-29).

It is only through the favor of God given to us by the Holy Spirit that we are able to come to a place of obedience with Him.

You may think, I would love to live for God. I would love to live in obedience to Him. But I know I could never do it.

You are right. You could never do it—by yourself. But you won’t have to do it alone. You have the Spirit of God to help you. Remember, He is the Great Enabler. Just take the instructions of the Lord one step at a time. Prepare your heart. Feed on the Word. Pray in the Spirit. Do as you are told, and He will work in your behalf.

Jesus said He could of Himself do nothing (John 5:19). But with the Holy Ghost’s power in Him and on Him, He could do anything! He was not alone. “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10:38).

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

We do not want to fail the grace of God. We do not want to frustrate the grace of God by not obeying the Holy Spirit.

What good is it to have a Counselor if we fail to do what He says?

What good is it to have a Strengthener if we will not receive His strength?

What good is it to have a Helper if we give Him nothing to help?

The only way He can do anything for us on a continual basis is through our obedience in following Him because we each have a will. He never imposes His will over ours. He gives us direction. He prompts us. He provides that inward witness. But we are never forced to obey. We can always go our own way and then pay the price for disobedience.

It is wonderful to know that the Spirit of God is within us. May we always be willing to hear His voice and obey Him in full measure.

Second Corinthians 9:8 in the The Amplified Bible says, “And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance....” This would encompass every area of life. Since we first received Him, God has been ready to minister grace to us, to set us apart, to bring us to a place where He can give His blessings to us without restraint. When this happens, others know we are His special people. They see the blessings of God. They see the manifestation of His presence in our lives. It is a witness to them of His goodness.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Let’s look now at 1 Corinthians 2:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-12).

God’s Spirit is in us to reveal the wonderful things that God has already prepared for us. The treasure house of heaven is open to us. God’s communion and grace, His divine favor and blessing, is to be continually enjoyed in our lives. That is walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). He wants His Church—the glorious Church, His special people—to repossess this place spiritually. It does not belong to the devil. It belongs to God. Satan stole it from God through Adam’s sin and disobedience. God wants us to take it back by His Spirit in obedience to Him.

Remember, by one man’s trespass, death reigned. By one man’s disobedience, sin reigned. But I want to announce this:

For if, because of one man’s trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness (putting them into right standing with Himself) reign as kings in life through the One, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One (Romans 5:17, The Amplified Bible).

God by His Spirit is teaching us to walk with Him here so the kingdom of God can be manifested and the earth filled with His glory. We take the people of this earth from the hands of the devil as we are controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Then had the churches rest throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied (Acts 9:31).

Notice the churches were multiplied when they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit is walking obedient to the promptings of your newborn spirit indwelt and illuminated by the Holy Spirit. It’s walking in His divine favor and blessing continually. It’s having God’s grace (divine favor and blessing) manifested in your life every day.

You cannot walk in the comfort of the Holy Ghost without first walking in the fear of the Lord.

Walking in the fear of the Lord is obeying Him, honoring Him, living your life according to what He says. It does not mean to be afraid of Him. It means to have such confidence in Him and respect and honor for Him that you follow Him. It means to walk in all the light you have while you look for more light.

If you walk in the fear of God, you will not do things that you know are against His will. You will not habitually sin. Proverbs 3:7 says, “...fear the Lord, and depart from evil.” You won’t say, “I’ll just commit this sin, and repent later.” That is having no fear of God. If you truly fear God, you will honor Him and reverence Him above everything and everyone else.

God must have priority in our lives. He should be given first place before ourselves, our families or anything else. The fear of God can never be second place. If God is second place, then we cannot be walking in the fear of Him. And if we walk in the fear of Him, giving Him the reverence, honor and respect He deserves, every area of our lives will be satisfied and multiplied. Jesus said it in Matthew 6:33: “But seek for (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).

All we have to do is live before our Father like little children. We must do whatever He tells us to do: “My child, let go of this thing. Make this change in your life. Put this away from you. I will help you do it. Let Me work in you.”

Do you know what we need to do? Just get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit work on our behalf. When He gives us a leading or prompts us to do something, we should just obey Him like little children. We are learning to walk in a new realm—the realm of the spirit.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

In the days to come you will see a great
deal of trouble in the world around you. The
reason is, there are two groups of people on
the earth. There are the people of God and
there are the people who still live in the devil’s
kingdom of darkness.

The Word of God tells us that these two
groups, even though they may live side by side
on the earth, will experience very different
kinds of lives. We can see this in Isaiah 3:10-11
where the Lord tells Isaiah to “say ye to the
righteous, that it shall be well with him…. Woe
unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him….”

Take two groups of people living in the
same space, in the same earth, in the same
city, even in the same family, and one can live
well and the other can live in woe. One can live
in security and the other in constant peril. The
difference is that one of these two groups has
a covenant with God, and the other does not.
God is a God of covenant, and God’s covenant
is a covenant of protection.

We see this in the preservation from their
enemies that belonged to Israel, even before
Jesus came and paid the price for man’s sin. God
made a way for His people to be secure. He
said, “If you’ll serve Me, if you’ll obey Me, I’ll be
an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to
your adversaries.” And as long as Israel obeyed
God no enemy could stand before them. No
enemy could overrun them. No sickness or
disease was in their midst. No catastrophe
would come upon them if they lived with God,
obeyed Him and did what He said.

If the Israelites under the old covenant
had that much protection, think how much
protection belongs to those who are in Christ—
who are in the One anointed to defeat Satan
and restore to man the glory lost in the Fall. As
good as those covenants were, God has made
a new and better covenant with you through
Jesus Christ, His Son. God has offered all He
has—His Son, His Word, His Name, His Spirit,
His Love—to you. Actually, you and I can walk
in the comfort of the Holy Ghost every day.
Think about that. The comfort, the protection,
the counsel of the Spirit of God.

Don’t let God’s covenant sit on a shelf
and gather dust. Use it for the peace and
protection you and your family need in these
troubled times.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries