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Kenneth Copeland — Become a Candidate for Increase Part 1

18 Oct

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

It’s easy to see how following God’s instructions to get out of debt affected our prosperity. But the fact is, our decision to obey other, seemingly unrelated commands we saw in the Word also had an impact on our finances.

That’s because you can’t separate God’s financial principles from the rest of His principles. They all work together. So you have to take the whole Bible to have a good foundation for godly prosperity.

The primary commandment Jesus gave us, for example, is to “love one another” (John 15:12). To the casual observer that commandment may seem to have nothing to do with money, yet to have true prosperity love must be the guiding force of your life. You must be quick to apply scriptural principles for living like these found in 1 Peter 3:

Finally, all [of you] should be of one and the same mind (united in spirit), sympathizing [with one another], loving [each other] as brethren [of one household], compassionate and courteous (tenderhearted
and humble). Never return evil for evil or insult for insult (scolding, tongue-lashing, berating), but on the contrary blessing [praying for their welfare, happiness, and protection, and truly pitying and loving them]. For know that to this you have been called, that you may yourselves inherit a blessing…. For let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days…keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from guile (treachery, deceit). Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right (verses 8-11, The Amplified Bible).

Think of it this way. Every right action you take, every godly decision you make, every time you go love’s way instead of the selfish way, you’re putting another block on your foundation of prosperity.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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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

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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

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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

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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

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