Kenneth Copeland Ministries Prison Ministry » Faith

When You Feel It…and When You Don’t

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:34:39 +0000

by Kenneth Copeland

Wouldn’t it be marvelous to live a completely fear-free life?

God desires for us to do it! And we can do it by purposely developing and exercising our faith in His love.

Notice I said developing faith—not feelings. Far too many Christians have been dominated by their feelings in this area. They’ll say, “You know, I just don’t feel like God loves me right now.” Some people will even tell their children, “Now, baby, Jesus won’t love you anymore if you keep doing bad things.”

That’s the biggest lie that ever came out of hell! God can’t keep from loving you. He is love. He has commanded us to love and He doesn’t violate His own commands. There isn’t anything you or anybody else can do to cause God to stop loving you. You can get into sin and get out of fellowship with Him, but He still loves you. God loves you when you feel it…and when you don’t.

He loves you all the time.

Kenneth Copeland — The Power to Be Forever Free Part 6

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:44:01 +0000

Did you ever notice how easy it is to control your thoughts when you are in a Believers’ Convention or in church? That’s because in a spiritual atmosphere of the Word and praise and worship, your spirit becomes the dominating force. If you will gauge your whole life around spiritual activities, your inner man can be in control all the time. Galatians 5:16 says that if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. You see, you can’t do two things at once. If you’re walking in the spirit, your flesh has to come in line.

You will change what you think as you look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Keep your mind and heart fixed on the Word—on Jesus. He is the only One who can help you overcome. The Word is spirit and it is life. When your mind is totally saturated with the Word of God, your spirit will exercise its authority to overcome every ungodly thought and evil habit.

A few years ago someone said to me, “Boy, Brother Copeland, you sure have lost a lot of weight!” I said, “No, I didn’t. I stopped lasciviousness from operating in my life, and the weight took care of itself.” I took my attention off myself and got it on Jesus.

Your victory will come in the same way. As you live in harmony with Jesus, you’ll turn your back on the lusts of the flesh. So, if sin has got you in a stronghold, break loose by getting your mind off yourself and looking to Jesus! You can’t do two things at the same time. If you turn toward Him, you’ll leave that sin behind you!

But you must be determined to fulfill God’s Word at any price. Don’t compromise. Boldly believe and act on the Word, and your flesh will submit to the control of the Holy Spirit.

Don’t let Satan deceive you into sacrificing the glory of God in your life for a few moments of self-indulgence and sin. Restrain your thought life! Meditate the Word instead of selfish, carnal thoughts! Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. He’s given you the power to be forever free!

Kenneth Copeland — The Power to Be Forever Free Part 2

admin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 06:01:28 +0000

I did my best to look to the Lord the first five years I was born again, but I wanted to see Him with my natural eyes. I thought that if I could just see Jesus in person, I could surely get rid of all the junk in my life. That would have been glorious, but it didn’t happen that way.

Then one day I saw Him in the Word. Oh, praise God! Now I know how to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith, to help me to discipline myself. Actually, I discovered it quite by accident when Jesus delivered me from smoking.

When I was first born again, I was dominated by a horrible smoking habit. I tried to quit every way I could think of. I threw away so many full and nearly full packs of cigarettes while I was driving down the road, it seemed I threw away more than I smoked! But that didn’t work. I’d just turn my car around and go back and get them
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My deliverance came as I was attending some meetings in Hilton Sutton’s church in Houston, Texas. I had more respect for the preachers than to smoke in their presence, so I tucked my cigarettes in the sun visor of the car and left them there.

At that time I had been a Christian for quite awhile, but I didn’t know anything about the Word and had never been exposed to the power of God. When they started preaching under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it held my attention. I was caught up in the living Word. My desires changed. All I wanted was more of God. For the first time in my life, the Scriptures came alive.

Brother Sutton preached on the second coming of Jesus, and I got really “high” on it. Suddenly I could hardly stand all the things that were wrong in my life. What happened? The Word replaced the desire to smoke. When those meetings ended and I started driving back home, I found those old, stale cigarettes tucked up in my sun visor and realized I hadn’t even missed them!

I learned that the living Word of Almighty God is the only power that can cause me to think, look, talk and act like a born-again man. It’s the only thing that can empower me to discipline this flesh of mine. When I saw Jesus in the Word, I was totally set free, not only of the habit, but of the desire!

Question and Answer: What Does Born Again Mean?

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:27:23 +0000

Question: I’ve heard some Christians use the phrase “born again.” Although I’ve been going to church most of my life, I’m not really sure what that means. Can you tell me?

Answer: The Lord Jesus Himself was actually the first to use the phrase “born again.” He was talking to a man named Nicodemus who was probably in a situation very similar to yours. Nicodemus was a good “churchgoing” man. In fact, he was a ruler of the Jews. But he realized that despite his religious background, there were some spiritual matters he didn’t fully understand.

Nicodemus was asking Jesus about these things and Jesus replied, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

To understand more fully what Jesus meant, you can look at II Corinthians 5:17. There, the apostle Paul tells us that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Paul knew firsthand what he was talking about. Years before he wrote those words, he had encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. He had realized that Jesus Christ was indeed the Son of God. And he’d made a once-and-for-all decision to make Him the Lord and Master of his life. At that moment, Paul literally became a new man inside. He was born again by the supernatural power of God into God’s own image. And as the New Testament shows, his life was never the same again.

Unbelievable as it may seem, many good churchgoing people have never had that experience. They have a mental understanding of the Scriptures. They even know that Jesus is the Son of God. Yet their nature has never been changed. They haven’t been born again because they haven’t received Jesus in a personal way – as their very own Savior and as the Lord of their lives.

If you haven’t yet had that experience, today can literally be the beginning of a new life for you. All you have to do is turn to Jesus and say something like this:

Father in heaven, I believe with all my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I believe that You have given Him to me as my personal Savior. And today I receive Him as my gift from You, Father.

I today proclaim that Jesus is my Lord.

Jesus, come into my heart to live forever, I turn my life over to You, and I receive You as Lord and Savior. I believe Your blood has cleansed me of my sins and that I’m a new creature in You. I repent of sin, and I renounce it forever. Amen.

If you’ve never prayed this prayer, I urge you to do it today. You’ll never be the same again.

How To Raise Godly Children, Gloria Copeland

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:19:42 +0000

I have received many letters from parents who ask about raising children according to the Word of God. Gloria and I have searched the Word for scriptural foundation in this area, and I want to share some of these things with you.

First of all, Galatians 3:13-14 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

This is a very familiar scripture to most believers. It is a foundational truth in our lives. We have been redeemed from everything under the curse of the law. We don’t have to put up with it! There has been much teaching about our redemption from sin, from sickness and disease, from poverty, but not much teaching about the part of the curse that has to do with our children. That is what I want to focus attention on here.

The curse of the law, stated in Deuteronomy 28, mentions children in two verses: Verse 32 says, “Thy sons and they daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.” Verse 41 says, “Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.”

This is the testimony of many parents today. They watch helplessly as their children are taken captive by the world—drugs, alcohol, perversion and so forth.

As believers, we can use our authority and stand against these forces. According to Galatians 3:13, Jesus has broken the power of the curse, so we have the right to order Satan out of our children’s lives.

Like most parents, Gloria and I had to deal with the problems of rebellion in our children. We realized that it had to be stopped quickly before it developed into a serious situation. Don’t be guilty of ignoring symptoms of rebellion when your children are small. Don’t simply excuse it as a stage they are going through and think that they will grow out of it. If you ignore it when they are small, you won’t be able to handle it when they get older and the rebellion has had time to develop into a strong force.

When we saw this occurring, we immediately went to the Word. Gloria spent much time searching for scriptures we could use to combat these forces. Then we came together and confessed these scriptures before God. We took authority in the spirit world and refused to give Satan any room to operate. This is our responsibility as Christian parents. A child does not understand the spiritual forces coming against him, so it is up to the parents to fight the spiritual battles and keep Satan out of the child’s life.

This is what we did. We used the Word and exercised our authority over rebellion at work, but we didn’t stop there. We took every opportunity to minister love to the children. Whenever they came around us, we would express our love in some way. It didn’t take long for them to begin responding to that love. Don’t hesitate to show love to your children. They will respond to it.

It wasn’t always easy. There were times when we wanted to break down and cry or lose our temper or do something in the natural, but we would remember Jeremiah 31:16-17, “Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they [your children] shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.”

My own mother cried over me for 15 years. Then one morning she threw her Bible on the kitchen table and said, “Lord, I’ve cried over him for the last time. I’m turning him over to You. If You can do anything with him, do it. I’m through!” In less than a month from that day, I was saved!

Mothers, take God’s Word for it. Receive Jeremiah 31:16-17 for yourself. Stop weeping for your children and start believing the Word. That’s the only thing that will bring them around.

Fathers, I am speaking to you too! It’s time for the fathers to get involved in the spiritual activities of their families. For too long, the women have carried more than their share of family responsibility. Husbands and fathers, get on your knees before God and accept your place as head of your household. You are the prophet from God to your family. This is not a lightweight thing; it takes a commitment on your part to fulfill your responsibilities. Get yourself straight before God, then see to your children. If necessary, go to your kids and ask their forgiveness for neglecting them. I have had to learn these things the hard way, and I know what I am talking about.

II Peter 2:9 says that God knows how to deliver. He knows how to do it, so give Him the opportunity. It doesn’t matter where your children are—in the room or a thousand miles away. You don’t have to be in their presence to take authority over Satan.

Kenneth Copeland Returns To The Big Screen

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:28:28 +0000

This Christmas, watch for the release of the motion picture The Rally, starring Kenneth Copeland, Rick Reyna and T-Bone.

This gritty drama follows several families living in a city riddled with crime and corruption. As the local church works to bring positive change, it is confronted at every turn by those who desire to keep the city and its people in bondage. Only God knows what it will take to unite the city and bring the powers that be to their knees!

One Event…One Church…One God…The Rally.

Directed by Rick Reyna, The Rally represents the fulfillment of a promise. After years of working in Hollywood with names like Michael Mann and Al Pacino, Reyna received the call into full-time ministry. That calling came with one stipulation: “Someday the Lord will have us make Him a movie.” The Rally is that movie.

More than merely an entertaining film, The Rally is the opportunity for believers worldwide to be part of bringing 1 million souls into the kingdom of God. This Christmas, make plans to watch The Rally, and to share it with friends and loved ones. Visit www.therallymovie.com to find out how you can play a vital role in changing lives through this powerful film, and continue to watch kcm.org for updates.