Gloria Copeland — Obeying the Spirit Part 3
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
Gloria Copeland — Obeying the Spirit Part 2
Jesus was anointed with the same Holy Spirit Who anoints the Church, the same One Who lives in us. God expects us to obey His Spirit, then He will do the work. Everything we are told to do, we can do. We have the easy part. If we give Him place, He will do the rest.
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3).
The knowledge of God will bring us everything that His divine power has already provided for us. “All things that pertain unto life and godliness” are wrapped up in the Holy Spirit (see 2 Peter 1:3). As we listen to Him, hear His voice and obey, the things pertaining to life and godliness become ours in the earth.
Look at 2 Peter 1:2: “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.” How are grace and peace multiplied? Through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. We receive that knowledge from the Holy Spirit as we listen and obey Him in the written Word and obey His prompting inside us. Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee....” As we keep our minds on God, we will think about the right things, such as the Father, Jesus, the Word of God, faith, obedience, the glory of God.
We learn about God by reading and studying the written Word. We are enlightened and illuminated by the Spirit of Truth. He leads and guides us. Not only does He teach us the Word, He also reveals God’s will for our personal lives. He gives us the full knowledge of God because He is God’s Spirit sent to live in us and teach us the things of God.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Gloria Copeland — Obeying the Spirit Part 1
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
Gloria Copeland — His Divine Favor Part 4
Galatians 5:4 in Wuest reads: “You are without effect from Christ, such of you as in the sphere of the law are seeking your justification. You have lost your hold upon [sanctifying] grace.”
They were no longer seeking after the Spirit; they were seeking after keeping the law for their justification. They had lost their hold upon sanctifying grace.
What does the word sanctify mean? “To set apart.” Paul was saying to them, “You have lost your hold upon the grace of God by the Spirit of God that sets you apart from the world.”
Most Christians have never entered into the fullness of grace in daily life because their understanding and expectation of grace stops at the new birth. They only have known enough to get born again. Most Christians do not even know enough to walk in divine health. But when they die, they will go to be with the Lord.
Galatians 5:5 in Wuest reads: “For, as for us, through the agency of the Spirit, on the ground of faith, a hoped-for righteousness we are eagerly awaiting....”
We allow the Spirit of God to minister grace to us on the ground of faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith gives us access into the grace of God. “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
What is faith? Hearing and obeying God’s Word—the written Word and His Word in our hearts. Faith demands action. We must hear the guidance of the Spirit and obey it, and that obedience opens the door and gives us access to grace—the wonderful favor of God. To walk in the grace and favor of God is to walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
As we cooperate with His Spirit and be obedient, grace overtakes us and we walk in the goodness of God. The moment we begin to seek Him, the Holy Spirit begins to minister grace in our lives. We would never be able to become mature sons and daughters of God without the grace of God. He could have given up on us, but His grace continued after us. He lovingly waits for us to receive that grace. He wants to bring to pass in our lives everything Jesus bought and paid for on the cross. Jesus destroyed the works of the devil. He destroyed Satan’s kingdom. We have already absolutely been made free in every area of life.
Our obedience to God—obeying His voice and keeping His commandments—causes us to live in the earth like we were already in heaven. How can that be? Because heaven is in us. The Holy Spirit is in us. He is the earnest of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:14). Wherever the Holy Spirit is given dominion in the life of a believer, the kingdom of God—the dominion of God—is manifested.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Kenneth Copeland — Exposing the Deadly Nature of Grief Pt 4
Webster defines grief as “a heavy emotional weight resulting from loss.” That’s how it feels, isn’t it? Like a heavy weight on your heart that’s aching for release. When you give in to it, there’s a rush, a wave of emotion that rolls over you and the tears overflow. It feels good. Your friends nod, pat your back and say, “Go ahead...just let it all out.” So you do, and the pressure lets up for a while.
Then later, when all the mourners and the back patters have gone home, that grief comes rising up in you again. This time it comes with an overwhelming pain of loneliness that is almost unbearable.
That’s the agony that woman in Oklahoma had been through for years. People had probably told her that time would help. But it didn’t, because once she allowed these spirits of grief and sorrow to get inside her, they just kept on doing their deadly work.
Contrary to popular belief, grief and sorrow don’t come to help you. They come to hurt you. They’re deceivers sent for one purpose: to choke the Word of God out of your heart.
In Mark 4:18-20, Jesus warned us about that. He told us that the devil would come to steal the Word from our hearts, and one way would be through the lusts of other things entering in. Most of us have assumed that phrase referred only to sex and pleasure. But the Holy Spirit has shown me plainly that the spirits of grief and sorrow fall in this category.
If you’ll look up the word lust in the dictionary, you’ll find that it literally means “applied pressure.” Sorrow comes when the devil applies pressure to our emotions. He pressures us to give in to the fleshly tendency to grieve—to lust after and long for that emotional flood and release that sorrow initially provides.
So what should we do about all this? If grief and sorrow are not inevitable—if, in fact, they’re part of the devil’s bag of misery and death—how do we get rid of them?
Isaiah 51:11 says, “The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and [grief] shall flee away.” Did you hear that? It said sorrow and grief will run from us!
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
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Recent Posts
- Practice Makes Perfect
- Gloria Copeland — Obeying the Spirit Part 3
- Gloria Copeland — Obeying the Spirit Part 2
- Gloria Copeland — Obeying the Spirit Part 1
- Kenneth Copeland — Our Commandment Is Love
- Gloria Copeland — His Divine Favor Part 6
- Gloria Copeland — His Divine Favor Part 5
- Gloria Copeland — His Divine Favor Part 4
- Gloria Copeland — His Divine Favor Part 3
- Gloria Copeland — His Divine Favor Part 2
- Gloria Copeland — His Divine Favor Part 1
- Gloria Copeland — The Comfort of the Holy Ghost
- Gloria Copeland — Go Ahead, Assert Yourself! Part 2
- Gloria Copeland — Go Ahead, Assert Yourself! Part 1
- Gloria Copeland — Finish Your Race
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