Gloria Copeland — Go Ahead, Assert Yourself! Part 1

How do you get the kind of spiritual aggressiveness, the urgency it takes to lay hold of that opportunity?

First, you must determine your focus and spend time with God. The Apostle Paul said, “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him...” (Philippians 3:10, The Amplified Bible).

Notice Paul didn’t say, “One of my purposes is....” He said very specifically, “My determined purpose is....” I can promise you this: You won’t be spiritually aggressive unless you determine to be. You’ll let “...the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things” get in your way (Mark 4:19).

I need to warn you, that determination to spend time with God will run headlong into a busy life. To stay on course, you will have to bring your flesh under the rule of your spirit and be willing to simplify your life.

I discovered this as I was honoring a prophecy the Lord gave through Kenneth E. Hagin on the importance of communing with the Father:

Don’t take up all your time with natural things...give your spirit opportunity to feed upon the Word of God...to commune with the Father above and build yourself up on your most holy faith. It doesn’t take a lot of time, just an hour or two out of 24. Just pay a tithe of your time unto Me, saith the Lord, and all will be well. Your life will be changed. It will be empowered and you will be a mighty force for God.

I never was a great person of prayer. I’m really still not like some people I know. But some years ago I decided I’d pray at least an hour a day.

Can I tell you what you probably already know? When my alarm went off, I’d get up...sometimes. Other times, I’d think—and I know it was the devil—Look how dark it is outside. It’s so cold this morning. You don’t want to get up.

Sometimes in those first few weeks, I’d agree with the devil: “That’s right, I don’t,” and I’d go back to sleep. But I kept at it, and kept at it and kept at it. Eventually it became a habit with me. Now I don’t turn over and go back to sleep anymore.

You see, your body must be trained by your spirit. It will get up. My body never says to me anymore, “It’s so cold outside. It’s so dark....” My body is so used to getting up in the dark, it doesn’t even think about it.

The tithe of my time to the Lord changed my life because I purposed in my heart to not be lazy, draw back, hold back or sit down. I purposed not to spend my life wasting time on natural things. I set goals that I was going to do every day.

It wasn’t easy. When I started I could hardly pray for even five minutes—that was a long time for me. But I stayed with it. Seizing the kingdom isn’t easy. God doesn’t say it will be easy, but He does say it will be worth it.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries