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

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

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

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

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

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” You must believe you are healed before you see the results in your body. You can’t wait until your body looks and feels healed before you believe it. If you do, you’ll never receive by faith. You can’t get faith’s results without exerting the force of faith. Faith is believing you receive whatever you ask before it can be seen or felt. Your evidence is the Word of God, not the sought-after result. The Word is your evidence that you have it now.

You have exercised your faith in God’s Word. Now let patience have its perfect work. The force of faith is at work, undergirded by the power of patience. Your faith connected with the Father the very moment you took His Word as the evidence of your healing. Now, confess with your mouth that it’s yours, and by your actions show that it’s yours. You must talk healing and act healing. Patience began to work from the time you believed you received, and it must be allowed to work until the last symptom leaves your body. The voice of patience says, “I know God’s Word is true. I will not be moved by what I see or feel. I will only be moved by the Word of God. I patiently rest on the truth of God’s mighty Word!”

The experience of the answer is inevitable.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Then, “having done all to stand, stand” until your healing is fully manifest (see Ephesians 6 6:12-14). Steadfastly hold your ground. Don’t waver. For as James 1:6-8 8 says, “he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

If your condition is serious, you may also have to resist the temptation to worry. The devil will try to use anxiety over your situation to choke the Word in your heart and make it unfruitful (Mark 4:19), but don’t let him succeed. Just trust God, “casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7) and constantly keep in mind these wonderful words from Hebrews:

He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word.... Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised (Hebrews 10:23, 35-36, The Amplified Bible).

Above all, keep your attention trained on the Word—not on lingering symptoms. Be like Abraham who “considered not his own body” (Romans 4:19). Instead of focusing on your circumstances, focus on what God has said to you. Develop an inner image of yourself with your healing fully manifest. See yourself well. See yourself whole. See yourself healed in every way.

Since what you keep before your eyes and in your ears determines what you will believe in your heart and what you will act on, make the Word your No. 1 priority. Attend to it—and it will attend to you!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

As you put God’s prescription for health to work in your life, don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate results. Although many times healing comes instantly, there are also times when it takes place more gradually.

So don’t let lingering symptoms cause you to doubt. After all, when you go to the doctor, you don’t always feel better right away. The medication he gives you often takes some time before it begins to work. But you don’t allow the delay to discourage you. You follow the doctor’s orders and expect to feel better soon. Release that same kind of confidence in God’s medicine. Realize that the moment you begin to take it, the healing process begins. Keep your expectancy high and make up your mind to continue standing on the Word until you can see and feel the total physical effects of God’s healing power. Really, you are “treating” your spirit which is the source of supernatural life and health for your physical body.

When the devil whispers words of doubt and unbelief to you, when he suggests that the Word is not working, deal with those thoughts immediately. Cast them down (see 2 Corinthians 10:5). Stop right where you are and say out loud, “No. I cast you down, you evil imagination. Devil, I rebuke you. I bind you from my mind. I will not believe your lies. God has sent His Word to heal me, and His Word never fails. That Word went to work in my body the instant I believed it, so as far as I am concerned, my days of sickness are over. I declare that Jesus bore my sickness, weakness and pain and I am forever free.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

“But, Kennteh, it bothers me to say I’m healed when my body still feels sick!”

It shouldn’t. It didn’t bother Abraham. He went around calling himself the Father of Nations for years even though he was as childless as could be. Why did he do it? Because “he believed...God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). He was “fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able also to perform” (verse 21).

You see, Abraham wasn’t “trying” to believe God. He wasn’t just mentally assenting to it. He had immersed himself in God’s Word until that Word was more real to him than the things he could see. It didn’t matter to him that he was 100 years old. It didn’t matter to him that Sarah was far past the age of childbearing and that she had been barren all her life. All that mattered to him was what God said because he knew His Word was true.

If you don’t have that kind of faith for healing right now, then stay in the Word until you get it! After all, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Read, study, meditate, listen to tapes and watch videos of good, faith-filled teaching, watch our Sunday and daily television broadcast every day until God’s Word about healing is more real to you than the symptoms in your body. Keep on keeping on until, like Abraham, you stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief, but grow strong in faith as you give praise and glory to God. (See Romans 4:20, The Amplified Bible.)

Notice that last phrase there doesn’t say you give praise to God because you’re strong in faith. It says you grow strong in faith as you give praise to Him. I like that particular translation because I’ve found it to be true. Praising God for your healing is one of the most powerful things you can do.

In fact, Psalm 103 commands us to do it. It says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (verses 1-3).

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Actually, the Life of God in your heart will not only heal you when you get sick, if that Life abides in you fully, it will continually keep you in divine health. The Proverbs 4 prescription for healing says it this way: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (verse 23).

What are the issues or forces of life that flow out of your heart when you’re feeding on the Word and fellowshiping with God? They are things like “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). The Bible calls theses forces the fruit of the spirit. They are the life of God flowing from your heart in abundance. You’ll find it is as hard for you to get sick as it used to be for you to get healed. The devil might try to bring sickness on you, but he won’t be able to make it stick.

Years ago, the Lord showed me an illustration of that principle I’ll never forget. I was in the Philippines, preparing to preach in a meeting at the time and I’d been studying the fruit of the spirit. As I looked out the window of my hotel room, the Lord brought to my attention a fountain in the courtyard below. He pointed out to me that as long as water was flowing from that fountain, no trash could remain in the mouth of it. Someone might toss some trash in, but the force of the water would just push it right back out again.

I realized then that our hearts are like that fountain. As long as the forces of God’s Spirit are flowing out of it, we’ll be free from the devil’s junk!

How can we make sure those forces keep flowing from our hearts? We must watch over them with all diligence. When we’re tempted to get into bitterness or unforgiveness, we must refuse that temptation and instead yield to the fruit of the spirit: Then we must turn the water of Life up higher by (you guessed it!) turning our attention back to the Word.

Remember this: The forces of life and power coming out of your heart will be in direct proportion to the amount of Word that goes into you.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries