KENNETH: We need to be asking God for more demonstrations of
the Spirit. GLORIA: Yeah. KENNETH: See, things
don't happen in the earth until men ask God for it,
because He has turned this earth over to men.
(Singing) I know my God has made the way for
me. I know my God has made the way for me.
KENNETH: Hello, everybody. We're Kenneth and Gloria Copeland.
Let's have a word of prayer, we'll get right into today's
Bible lesson. Father, we praise You, and we thank You. GLORIA:
Thank You, Father. KENNETH: We worship You. We open our hearts,
and we open our minds. We fully expect the greater One that
lives within us, the Spirit of the living God-- GLORIA: Praise
God. KENNETH: --our teacher, our comforter, our helper, our
intercessor, our guide-- GLORIA: Thank You. KENNETH: --our
counselor, our strengthener, our standby--we fully expect Him to
equip Gloria and me today-- GLORIA: Yes. KENNETH: --with
every ministry gift necessary to teach this Word today with
accuracy and make it plain and clear, and to move throughout
this entire radio and television audience-- GLORIA: Yes. KENNETH:
--on their ears, that all together we will hear and
receive revelation from heaven. GLORIA: Praise God. KENNETH: We
thank You, and we praise You. GLORIA: Praise God. KENNETH: In
Jesus' name. GLORIA: In Jesus' name. KENNETH: Amen. GLORIA:
Amen. KENNETH: Hallelujah. GLORIA: Hallelujah. KENNETH:
Gloria, you look wonderful today. GLORIA: Thank you,
darlin'. KENNETH: Amen. GLORIA: You look good yourself. KENNETH:
I appreciate that. (Both Laugh) Glory to God. I want--let me
tell you something. I've got something to tell you.
Yesterday, Gloria and I were enjoying our time off yesterday,
and it just came to me like a revelation. I've never thought
of this before, how wonderful it is to get up every morning of
the world and not have a gripey wife. GLORIA: (Laughs) Oh,
that's good. KENNETH: Never. "Oh, Brother Copeland--" Don't
"Oh, Brother Copeland" me. I mean, me and this girl have been
together now for 54 1/2 years. GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH:
I'm going to tell you what. Now, I didn't say that for me.
There's been a lot of times I got up griping. She never has.
GLORIA: Praise God. KENNETH: Not that I--if she ever did, I don't
remember it. I mean, she might, you know, have been a little off
somewhere. She never griped at me, never, ever. GLORIA: I love
you. KENNETH: And it was her life--like--her life of love
that--that got the gripe out of me. And for the last many, many,
many, many years, we get up in the morning, we're not gripey at
one another, and how wonderful it is. "Well, I sure wish I
could have--" Well, quit griping yourself and give the Lord an
opportunity to let love work. Amen. GLORIA: It's wonderful--
KENNETH: Isn't it good? GLORIA: --living in peace and harmony.
KENNETH: Amen. Ho-ho, hallelujah. GLORIA: I'm blessed
you figured that out and told me, and now I know. Hallelujah.
KENNETH: Amen. Boy, it's just wonderful. And now, let's open
our Bibles today to I Corinthians 2. The Lord began to
deal with all of us, Pastor and Terri and--Pastor George and
Terri, pastors at EMIC, and with me. And I'm--I've got back and
listened to tapes of Brother Hagin's that were preached back
in the '80s and in through there. And God was dealing with
him over the same thing right there then. And so I want to
share some things with you. Now, let's go to II Corinthians, and
we'll read the 4th and the 5th verses. "And my speech--" This
is the apostle Paul. Now listen. "My speech and my preaching was
not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of
the Spirit--" Talking about the Holy Spirit. "--and of power,"
anointing power, "That your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God," that--that your and my
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but our faith
should stand--or our faith should be in the power of God.
We should have faith for. We should have faith in. We should
fully expect manifestations all the time-- GLORIA: Yes. KENNETH:
--of the power of God. Hallelujah. Now, I want to go
over now to II Timothy 3. And notice this. "This I know
also--" this is also the apostle Paul, of course. And it--writing
his letter to Timothy at--who at the time is a young pastor.
"This I know also, that in the last days--" Well, we are in the
last of the last days. And this is--this--this time right here,
we're seeing this manifested in our presence more than any
generation before. These have always been here because the
devil's still here, and people still yield to it. But we're
seeing things now that, particularly in the United
States, that we've just never seen before in this country.
GLORIA: Praise God. Mm. KENNETH: I know also that in the last
days, perilous times shall come. GLORIA: Perilous. KENNETH: "For
men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, truth--truce breakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are
good, traitors, heady-minded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof." Can you see that? Now, here's what struck me. Oh, my, I
mean, it--Gloria, it hit me almost like somebody had hit me
with a fist. Of course, I didn't feel it physically, but--
GLORIA: Yeah. KENNETH: But it--ooh, it's the-- GLORIA: Felt
it, yeah. KENNETH: Yeah. I'm reading this. Now notice,
"traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God; having a form of godliness." He was not talking
about the world. GLORIA: Hmm-mm. KENNETH: He was talking about
this--this horrible demonic stuff being manifested in
churches. I'm going to let that soak in on you a little bit.
Boy, I mean, that's the way that hit me. "God, really?" Well,
you've always had this with demons, I mean, see, we don't
wrestle with flesh and blood. People--people yield to the
devil. They cooperate with him, this is what you're going to
get. But, hey, churches? Oh, Lord. Well, yeah. We've seen
this for years, having a form of godliness, go through all of the
religious rituals and everything. But when it comes to
anything that has power, well, you know, deny that, deny the
power of it. "Well, that's all passed away," or "God doesn't do
that anymore." Or some fool said, "God's dead," you know,
and other ignoramus things like that. But now, what causes that?
Being religiously brainwashed instead of actually getting into
the New Testament and studying it by the Holy Spirit and
realizing it's God's Word. Well, this is not--now, the denying
the power thereof has been around a long time. But now
we're beginning to see these other things manifest, like
"without natural affection." That's homosexuality. GLORIA:
Yeah, yeah. KENNETH: And so forth. You begin to see it
manifest in the church. GLORIA: "Incontinent" is unrestrained.
KENNETH: Yeah, unrestrained. And you--you begin to see it in
churches and church people and so forth and so on. Well, we're
there. So now, "denying the power." The power. Let's talk
about the power. Let's go back over here now. I want to
read--let's go back over there where we were a moment ago in I
Corinthians 2. Let's read that again and refresh our minds to
that. I turned two pages at once. Here we go. Verse 4, "My
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power." Now, I
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power." Now, I
want to notice here, your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but it should stand--your faith should be in
the power of God. Now, Jesus said-- GLORIA: I see what
they're saying. He's saying, not--you--don't put your
alliance, your confidence, your faith in the wisdom of men.
KENNETH: Yeah. But in the power of God. GLORIA: Put it in the
power of God, yeah. KENNETH: And we should be believing God. And
we should be believing God for demonstrations of power. Isn't
that what He said? Demonstrations of the Spirit and
power. That would be the power gifts of the Spirit. And he went
ahead and talked about it in the 12th chapter here. Of course, it
is. That's where he's going with that. GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH:
Now, I--I--ha-ha. We've not been doing what the Scripture
Now, I--I--ha-ha. We've not been doing what the Scripture
encourages us--well, no, it's more than encourage. GLORIA:
Admonishes. KENNETH: Admonishes. That's a good word. Thank you,
Gloria. Admonishes us to do. We need to be asking God for more
demonstrations of the Spirit. GLORIA: Yeah. KENNETH: See,
things don't happen in the earth until--till men ask God for it
because He--He has turned this over to men. And He doesn't just
come bullying His way in among His people. And a lot of times,
more than--more than I personally believe--I don't give
you my personal opinion very much because I give you what the
Word says. But I do have the Holy Ghost. And I really--I am
really, really impressed that God's ready all the time to do
these things. Nobody's asking Him for it. GLORIA: Mm. That's
an interesting thought. KENNETH: And particularly when people are
going along, I mean, the Lord just really jerked me up over
this some time ago. He said, "You're not--you're not seeking
Me for this." Oh, Lord. See, we're--we expect it all the time
because that's what we do and that's who we are. We expect it.
GLORIA: And we want it. KENNETH: But I wasn't spending any time
interceding. Nothing happens until intercession goes forth,
is the whole key to this thing. Somebody's got to get before
God, and then He moves in the earth. Let's go over here to the
12th chapter. And I want you to notice--let's just begin reading
now at the 1st verse there. "Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were
Gentiles, carried away under these dumb idols, even as you
were led." "Dumb idols," that means those idols couldn't
speak. GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH: They're made out of
wood and whatever then. They couldn't say a thing. "--even as
you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man
speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed: that no
man can say Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are
diversities of gift, but the same Spirit. There are
differences of administrations, but the same Lord. There are
diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh
all in all." Now listen to this. "Manifestation--" or you could
say "demonstration," couldn't you? GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: "A
manifestation of the Spirit--" The Holy Spirit would be a
demonstration. "--of the Spirit is given to every man to profit
withal." These gifts don't belong to individuals. They
belong to the Body of Christ. GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: Now,
someone said, "Brother Copeland, do you have the--you have
the--the--will you have the gift of the word of knowledge?" The
word of knowledge functions in me and through me more than
these other gifts do. But that's about to change. GLORIA: Good.
KENNETH: Because this is my fault that the others weren't
producing. And I'm going to get to that. GLORIA: Oh, good.
KENNETH: But no, I don't have it. I mean, if I had it, I'd use
it all the time. But I'm available and--wait a minute,
and I'll show you what he's saying here. "But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit
withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom;
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another
faith--" Now, that--the Greek text is better translated there
as "special faith." This is not saving faith. This is--this is a
manifestation of God's faith added to yours. And it--whoa,
it's--it's one of the power gifts-- GLORIA: Yeah. KENNETH:
--that we're going to be talking about. Okay. GLORIA: Where are
you? KENNETH: Ha-ha-ha, yeah. Verse 9. "To another special
faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts," plural," of
healings." It is plural. GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: Should have
been--should have been translated plural. "To another
prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another different
kinds of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues: all
these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to
every man severally as he will." Now, He--He's moving as He
wills. Well, you don't just sit and wait till He wills, because
He can be willing to do something, but if you haven't
asked, you haven't exercised any faith, then--then He's very
limited to how much of that He can do. And now, I want to show
you this. Let--those--let's look at those power gifts again.
Verse 9, "To another special faith by the same Spirit; to
another gifts of healings by the same Spirit; to another the
working of miracles." Those are the power gifts. Now, you have
other things going on in those other gifts. You have things
that--gifts that reveal things and so forth. For right now, we
won't get over into that because we're dealing with these power
demonstrations of the Holy Spirit. Now, you go and you
study all the rest of this chapter. Now come down here to
the 31st verse. "Covet earnestly." I thought we weren't
supposed to covet. No. It didn't say, "Don't covet." It said,
"Don't covet stuff that belongs to somebody else." GLORIA:
That's right. KENNETH: This belongs to you. If you're born
again, these things belong to you. See, you don't have to be
in the five-fold ministry for these things to manifest. You
can just be like Jesus said in this 16th chapter of the book of
Mark, last chapter. He said, "These signs will follow them
that believe." It didn't say nothing about the ministry. And
one of the things that you did, "They shall lay hands on the
sick, and they shall recover." That's for every believer. As a
witness, we ought to be out there talking about these things
and asking God to manifest himself in me. GLORIA: Praise
God. KENNETH: Now, these gifts, according--if you are called in
the fivefold ministry; apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor,
teacher, there are certain of these gifts that are ministry
equipment like in the office of the prophet. Well, you expect
the prophet to prophesy. GLORIA: Yeah. KENNETH: And--but
revelation gifts especially. But also in the prophet's ministry
are manifestations of the power gifts. And that--that's where
we're--that's our target right now. Okay. "Covet earnestly
these gifts." Desire them, desire spiritual gifts. Praise
the Lord. Now, let's go over here to the 14th chapter.
"Follow after love and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that
you may prophesy." Now, I wanted to read that for you. Desire
these gifts. Ask God for them. We haven't been doing that, not
nearly like we should have. And like I said, the Lord--the Lord
pulled me up over this. He said, "Now, you're not--you're
not--you said it like this. You said, "We're not making enough
over miracles." GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH: We're not making
enough out of that. We ought to be talking about miracles. We
ought to be asking God for miracles. We ought to be moving
in that direction all the time. Now, let's go over here to the
book of Acts, and let's look here in the 4th chapter of the
book of Acts. And they had--they had called up the--the apostles
and so forth, and, you know, for preaching in the name of Jesus
and, you know, they put them in jail and all that. Now, come
over here to the 29th verse. I want you to notice this prayer.
"For--And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant
unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak the
word--" Now, they're asking for this. "--by stretching forth
your hand to heal; that signs and wonders--" See there,
they're asking for the miracle of the power of gifts. Now, they
could--they didn't know that that's what those were. They
couldn't go to I Corinthians 12. It hadn't been written yet.
"--that signs and wonders may be done by the name of your holy
child Jesus. And when they prayed, the place was shaken
where they were assembled--" It's time for some house-shaking
stuff going on. GLORIA: It is. I agree. Yes, amen. KENNETH:
Praise God. GLORIA: Amen. KENNETH: Amen. GLORIA: Praise
God. KENNETH: Isn't this wonderful? GLORIA: Yes. KENNETH:
Now, in these--I was praying. I want you to listen to me now
because we need to close this right here. But now listen to
me. Back some time ago, right before Southwest Believer's
Convention, I was just out on my deck just praying in the Spirit,
getting ready, just preparing myself. And I heard this come
out of my mouth in this order, and I wondered about it at the
time. I said, "Father, I give myself to gifts of healings,
working of miracles, and special faith." Praise God. And I
thought, "Well, wonder why I didn't start at the top with the
Word of wisdom." And I asked the Lord, and He said, "Well,
that--you know, that's what I want to manifest." I look back
on that now, and I could see that's what I was doing. I was
asking Him. I was giving myself to that. And here, lately, He
said, "I want you to start asking Me for those. You ask Me
for manifestation. You ask Me for manifestations of the glory.
You ask Me for manifestations of Myself in your midst, and you
pray these prayers like we're praying here, and you expect Me
to do the unexpected. And the more you expect it, the more
I'll do it. And the more you talk it, the bigger it'll get."
And we're out of time, and-- GLORIA: Praise God. KENNETH:
--Gloria and I'll be back in just a moment. GLORIA: That's
good. KENNETH: Ha-ha-ha! Hallelujah. GLORIA: Praise God.
KENNETH: Amen! GLORIA: That's awesome. KENNETH: They'll
manifest around you right now! Praise God. They're manifesting
right now. Some of you are taking it. Someone was healed of
a broken knee right then, a broken kneecap on the right
side. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. GLORIA: Glory to God. KENNETH: I
don't--well, yeah. GLORIA: Yes, yes, yes, yes. KENNETH: Praise
God. Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord! Take it! GLORIA: Thank
You, God. KENNETH: Take it! Take it! "That's mine. Glory to God.
Those gifts belong to me--" GLORIA: Yes. KENNETH: "--as much
as they do anybody." GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH: Ha-ha-ha.
Thank You, Jesus. Ha-ha. Thank You, Lord. Praise God. Mm.
GLORIA: Thank You, Lord. KENNETH: Oh, thank You, Jesus.
Thank You, Jesus. Tumors are being removed. Tumors are
disappearing right now, malignant tumors. Some of them
are not malignant. Growths are being--someone has warts all
over your body. You start saying it now, "Warts, you get off of
me. You're--you're a trespasser. Get off my body in the name of
Jesus." GLORIA: Amen. KENNETH: Thank You for it, Father.
GLORIA: Praise God. KENNETH: Whoa. GLORIA: Thank You.
KENNETH: Blessed be the Lord. Mm. GLORIA: Thank You, Jesus.
Glory to God. Listen to this Scripture: "And great power gave
he the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus."
KENNETH: That's what it's all about. GLORIA: "Great power and
great grace was upon them all." KENNETH: That's it right there.
And we're out of time. We'll be back in a minute.
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