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Posts Tagged ‘Word of God’

Gloria Copeland — Faith: A Violent Force Part 2

15 Dec

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

The faith-filled lifestyle is ordained by God and is the only walk that works. It works by principles and laws that God put into operation.

To live this lifestyle, faith must be in two places—in your heart and in your mouth.

If faith is only in your heart, then it’s not expressing itself and therefore, can’t be applied to the natural realm around you. When you’re in the midst of a struggle, save yourself some time—just look at the opening right under your nose. That’s usually the answer to “What have I been doing wrong?” You’ve been talking the problem instead of the answer. On the other hand, if it’s only in your mouth and not in your heart, then there’s no real force behind it because faith comes from the heart.

Faith is the only force that will change natural things or natural circumstances. It is the only force that can apply itself to the natural realm to change or move a mountain.

But you won’t have that powerful faith if you’re influenced by the world’s goods and feeding on its information. The source you draw from determines what is going to be on the inside of you and what will come out.

You may know God’s promises. But if you don’t take the time to put God’s Word in your heart—even though you might be able to “say” the right things—your words won’t come out in power to move your mountain.

Maybe you are feeding on God’s Word, and yet the situation you face still seems impossible. I know it’s hard to speak words of faith when you’re facing such hard times. But don’t stop feeding on the only thing that can change your situation. Remember, you were born again so that you could accomplish hard things—impossible things!

I think it was a great blessing that Ken and I were in our own impossible situation financially when we first began to hear the word of faith. (I didn’t think it was a blessing then, of course, but I do now!) Our finances were minus zero at that point in our lives. We didn’t have anything but our debts.

We were so desperate we had to believe God. It was the hardest believing we ever did because we didn’t know very much

It was easier for us to believe our way out of the $6 million deficit we faced a few years ago than it was to believe for the little amount we needed back then. But do you know, when it came down to it—when we needed to receive that $6 million—we did exactly the same thing we did the first time we ever believed for grocery money.

We fought the fight of faith. We got aggressive with the Word.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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Kenneth Copeland — Become a Candidate for Increase Part 2

28 Oct

Kenneth And Gloria Copeland

When you pray for your enemies instead of hating them, you become a candidate for increase. When you turn away from immorality, you’re turning toward blessing. When you see things in your life that you know aren’t right and you correct them according to the Word of God, you’re preparing yourself to handle greater financial abundance.

The book of Proverbs is full of God’s wisdom about everyday things and decisions. It will help you learn how to handle your affairs in a way that is pleasing to God. And since it has 31 chapters, by reading a chapter a day along with your other Bible reading, you can finish it in just a month. It will increase you to read Proverbs over and over.

In Proverbs you’ll find out, for example, that the quality of faithfulness and the blessing of prosperity are tied together very closely. Wherever you find one, you’ll find the other. For as Proverbs 28:20 says, “A faithful man shall abound with blessings….” According to Webster’s dictionary, a faithful man is one who “adheres to duty, of true fidelity, loyal, true to allegiance, and constant in the performance of duties or services.”

Luke 16:10 says, “He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest and unjust also in much” (The Amplified Bible). So if you want to be trusted with more and be promoted to a better job, be faithful and honest in the job you have right now.

You may think Christian people don’t need to hear about honesty and faithfulness, but they do. I know personally of cases where Christians have stolen money from their employers.

They may not have intended to “steal” anything. They may have just thought, Well, I’ll borrow this money for a couple of weeks and then I’ll put it back and no harm will be done. The problem is, you can’t borrow something from someone without their permission. That’s stealing and you can’t be blessed and steal.

Taking that money may have seemed all right to those people when they did it. They may have made excuses and justified it in their own minds. But if they’d been studying and obeying the Word of God, they wouldn’t have fallen for those excuses. That’s because the Word discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). It teaches you what is right and what isn’t.

It reveals not man’s way, but God’s way of doing and being right. It enables you to lay a firm foundation for godly prosperity.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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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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