RSS
 

Archive for the ‘Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ Category

Gloria Copeland– Seek First Things First Part 2

04 Oct

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

I remember back before Ken and I knew we could trust God to take care of us financially, I thought it was my job to worry about how we were going to pay our bills. I spent a great deal of my time thinking things like, What are we going to do about this light bill? How will we be able to make our car payment? To me it would have been irresponsible not to worry about such things!

Then I found out it isn’t God’s will for us to worry. It is His will for us to believe Him to care for us. I also learned that as believers, we’re not to seek after material riches. We’re not to pursue money like people who are without God. They have to pursue it. They don’t have a covenant with God, so if they don’t seek material goods, they won’t get them!

But we’re not like those people. We’re not in the world without God and without a covenant (Ephesians 2:12-13). We have God’s promise of provision. He has assured us in His Word that He will not only meet our needs, but give us an abundance.

It’s important for us to remember, however, that a covenant is always between two parties. It has two sides to it. A covenant says, “If you do this, then I’ll do that.”

God’s part of the covenant is to prosper us—spirit, soul and body as well as financially. What is our part of the covenant? It’s not to seek after that prosperity. If we do that, we’ll get sidetracked. Our part of the covenant is to seek first His kingdom, His way of doing and being right!

Our part is to say, “Lord, I’ll do whatever You tell me to do. I’ll obey Your Word and do what is right in Your sight—even if it looks like it will cost me.”

Of course, obeying God’s Word never costs in the long run. It pays! You always put yourself in a position for increase when you seek after God and do things His way.

I’ll be honest with you though, there will be times when you can’t see how that increase is going to come. Ken and I know about those times. We’ve been through them.

When we saw in the Word of God that we were to “keep out of debt and owe no man anything, except to love one another…” (Romans 13:8, The Amplified Bible), we weren’t too excited about it. At that time in our lives, it looked to us like we’d never be able to do anything financially without borrowing money.

We thought, How will we ever get a car? How will we get a home? How will we finance our ministry? We’re doomed!

But we had already decided to obey God no matter what the cost, so we committed to Him to get out of debt and stay out even though we thought it would be to our disadvantage.

Of course, that decision has since turned out to be one of the wisest financial decisions we’ve ever made. That’s the way it always is. Obeying God always works to your advantage in the end!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Share
 
No Comments

Posted in Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries

 

Gloria Copeland– Seek First Things First Part 1

27 Sep

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

In light of that truth, it’s easy to see why God wants us to increase financially at the same rate we increase spiritually. He wants us to outgrow our fleshly foolishness so our prosperity will bring us blessing and not harm.

“But Gloria,” you say, “I need financial help fast!”

Then get busy growing. Get busy building your foundation for prosperity.

How? By finding out what God says in His Word and doing it.

You see, the foundation of prosperity is a continual lifestyle built on the Word of God. It is doing whatever God tells you to do, thinking whatever He tells you to think, and saying whatever He tells you to say.

Godly prosperity is the result of putting God’s Word—all of it, not just the parts about financial prosperity—first place in your life. It comes when you apply His principles on a continual basis—not just because you want money, but because Jesus is your Lord and you want to follow Him. It comes when you start obeying the instructions Jesus gave us in Matthew 6:

I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life? And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear? For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all. But seek (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 (verses 25-33, The Amplified Bible).

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Share
 
No Comments

Posted in Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries

 

Kenneth Copeland — Build Your Financial Foundation

20 Sep

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

Never try to build a house without first laying a foundation.

I don’t care how eager you are to get it finished, how excited you are about filling it with furniture and decorating it all just right—take the time to put down a solid foundation first. If you don’t, that house will be so unstable it will soon come tumbling down.

That’s simple advice, isn’t it? Anyone with any sense at all knows it. Yet in the spiritual realm, people make that mistake all the time. They see a blessing God has promised them in His Word, and they are so eager to have it, they ignore the foundational basics of godly living and pursue just that one thing.

That’s especially true in the area of prosperity. Often, people are so desperate for a quick financial fix, they just pull a few prosperity promises out of the Bible and try to believe them—without allowing God to change anything else in their lives. Of course, it doesn’t work and those people end up disappointed. Sometimes they even come to the conclusion that it wasn’t God’s will for them to prosper
after all.

But I can tell you today, from the Word of God and from personal experience: It is definitely God’s will for all of His children to prosper!

That’s why He inspired the Apostle John to write, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2). The margin says, “I ‘pray’ above all things.”

Notice there, however, that John didn’t just say, “I desire (pray) for you to prosper.” He said, “I desire (pray) for you to prosper as your soul prospers.” He tied financial prosperity to the prosperity of your mind, will and emotions—your soul.

God’s plan is for us to grow financially as we grow spiritually. He knows it is dangerous to put great wealth into the hands of someone who is too spiritually immature to handle it. You can see dramatic evidence of that fact in the lives of people who have acquired financial riches through this world’s system, apart from God. In most cases, such riches just help people to die younger and in more misery
than they would have if they’d been poorer.

That’s because they use their wealth to sin in greater measure. They use it to buy all the cocaine they want and drink all the alcohol they want. They use it to pay for an immoral lifestyle that eventually destroys them.

The wages of sin is death. That is an inescapable fact. So, when people get money and use it to sin, it does them more harm than good. As Proverbs 1:32 says, “…The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Share
 
No Comments

Posted in Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries

 

Kenneth Copeland — Don’t Be Caught by Surprise

13 Sep

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

One way to keep them a priority is by cultivating the expectancy of Jesus’ soon return. The Bible says, “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as [Jesus] is pure” (1 John 3:3).

Do you want to be ready? Then spend time studying and meditating the scriptures about Jesus’ coming. Build your hope to the point where you wake up every morning looking expectantly for Him.

Live every day watching for His return. Don’t let it catch you by surprise. It’s not supposed to, you know. Even though God hasn’t disclosed to us the exact day or the hour, according to the Bible, if we’re alert we will know the season of Jesus’ return. In fact, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24 that His coming would be like the Flood in Noah’s day (verses 32-33, 36-39). Think about that for a moment. That Flood took the world by surprise, didn’t it? They were just going about their natural business, not expecting anything unusual, when suddenly they were swept away. They were completely in the dark about what was happening.

But Noah wasn’t caught by surprise. He’d been working on the ark for years. He’d been expecting that Flood. He didn’t know the day or the hour, but he knew it was coming and he was ready. When it started to rain, Noah wasn’t in the dark, he was in the ark!

That’s how we’re supposed to be concerning Jesus’ return. We’re to be aware of the season (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6). If you’re watching and walking in tune with the Spirit, you won’t be in the dark. You won’t be caught unaware at the time of Jesus’ coming. You’ll know in your spirit He is at the door.

Personally, I believe that on the day He comes, I’ll wake up with the anointing of God flowing through me so strongly, I’ll know something is about to happen. Spiritually speaking, my hair will be standing straight up. And when I hear that trumpet sound, when I hear that joyful shout, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” I’ve already made up my mind, I’ll be ready. Will you?

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Share
 
No Comments

Posted in Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries

 

Gloria Copeland — The Power of Standing on the Word Part 4

21 Jul

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

Here is an example of prayer based on these six steps:

“Father, in the Name of Jesus, we ask you for $_______.

“We have this money in our heavenly account and we
are withdrawing this amount now. We believe we receive
$________. As in Mark 11:23-24, we believe it in our hearts
and confess now that it is ours in the Name of Jesus. We agree
that we have $______ according to Matthew 18:19. From this
day forward, we roll the care of this over on You and thank You
for it. Satan, in the Name of Jesus, we take authority over
you; we bind your operation now and render you helpless.
Ministering spirits, we charge you to go forth and cause this
amount to come to us according to Hebrews 1:14. Father, we
praise Your Name for meeting our needs according to Your
riches in glory by Christ Jesus and for multiplying our seed
for sowing in the Name of Jesus.”

When I entered the ministry and enrolled in Oral Roberts
University, my wife and I lived in an old house in Tulsa, Okla.,
and because of business failures, we owed money in every
direction. Then, as we began to grasp the principle of seed-faith
giving and believing God to supply our needs, we decided to
believe God to pay these debts. One night we sat down and figured
what we owed. I got my checkbook and wrote out the
checks that would pay these debts. We laid hands on them and
prayed according to Romans 13:8. “Owe no man any thing, but
to love one another.” I said, “Father, in the Name of Jesus, I am
putting these checks in this desk drawer and am believing You
to get us out of this mess. I am looking to You for the money to
pay all these debts, in the Name of Jesus.” I was not so foolish
as to mail those checks before the money was in the bank. That
is against the law. God will not bless fraud!

We figured to the last penny how much it would take to
operate our household abundantly, even allowing for unexpected
things. We wrote it down and prayed over it in the Name of
Jesus. I made up my mind to be single-minded from that day
forward, and in less than 12 months from that night, we did
not owe anything and haven’t owed a penny since. God did
some miraculous things during that time, and He is still doing
them today! Praise God!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Share
 
No Comments

Posted in Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »