Have you ever looked around at your own life or the life of the Church and wondered why it's taking the Lord so long to get things in order?
If so, let me tell you something I learned a few years ago. He's not the One who's slow. We are!
It's not God's fault that the Church still has spots and wrinkles. It's not His fault that we're not living in total victory. He's always ready. He's the great "I AM." We're the ones who fall short.
Christmas is a very important time of year. It's a time of year when the whole world is hearing the message of the birth of Jesus. It's a time when people are tenderhearted...the perfect time to plant seeds of love in the lives of those you meet.
Sometimes those seeds may just take the form of a kind word in the middle of rush-hour shopping. Other times, you may get the opportunity to pray and minister to someone. But whatever the situation, keep a sharp eye out for even the smallest chance to assist people.
Whenever Ken and I talk about living by faith, I know there are some people who think, Oh, that's easy for you. You're preachers. You have it made! And, in some ways, we do. We have it made because our calling demands that we give God our attention, and giving God your attention always brings success.
There's an old Full Gospel tradition that says God gets glory from the wonderful way His children bear pain and agony and that the world is impressed by that. What a lie! That's simply a tool of the devil to keep God's children in bondage.
People of the world already have all the pain and agony they want. They aren't looking for a way into it. They are looking for a way out. They don't care what you preach. It's the religious people who get worried about that. The world, the sinners, are smarter than that. All they care about are the results.
Do you want to know why the Body of Christ has been in such a mess over the past few years? Do you want to know why the devil has been able to make a public display of our weaknesses? Do you want to know why, instead of being unified and strong, we've often been torn apart by division and criticisms that come not from without but within?
It is because, as the Lord said in Hebrews, the people of God have need of milk and not of strong meat. They're babies! The people of God for the most part don't know His ways.
When you're up against the wall, don't start begging God to break through it for you. That's not the way He works. He'll give you the plan. He'll give you the power. And He'll guarantee the victory. But your hand, not His own, is the instrument He's going to use to get the job done. You're going to have to stretch forth your hand by speaking and acting on the Word, even when circumstances are against you.
Do you ever have trouble hearing from God? Do you find yourself caught in confusing circumstances needing guidance, and yet even after praying and reading the Word—you're still not sure what God wants you to do?
I've had that experience. I knew His written Word and acting on it changed my life. But I was uncertain when I had to make decisions about things the Word didn't specifically address. Things like whether to move to one city or another, for example.
Do you know why so many believers are losing the battles in their lives?
They're fighting the wrong enemy!
They've been deceived into believing that just because a person said or did something to hurt them, that person is the one they need to fight. But they're wrong.
You see, the Bible says we don't wrestle with flesh and blood. And since people are definitely flesh and blood, they're never the source of our problem.
"But, Brother Copeland, you just don't know what So-and-so did to me!"
Did you know that the force of faith has the power to rejuvenate your physical body? It's true. You can see that in the life of Sarah. Most people don't understand the full extent of what God did in her life. All they know is that He enabled her to have a child in her old age.
But if you'll look closer, you'll see that there was more to it than that. When Sarah laid hold of the promise of God by faith, it began to restore her physically to such an extent that when King Abimelech saw her, he wanted her for his wife.
I used to wonder why we believers didn't see more of the power of God operating among us than we do. With what we know about faith and the Word, it seemed to me signs and wonders and miracles should be happening all the time.
So, one day I asked, "Lord, why isn't the power of God turned up to a higher volume in the Church?"
Do you know what He said? He told me we weren't walking in enough love yet.
Who do you turn to when you need help, when you need an important answer to an important question? Do you ask God first?
So many believers fail to do that! They'll stand around wringing their hands and talking to each other all day. They'll inquire of their pastor. They'll inquire of their friends. They'll inquire of their husband or wife. But do they inquire of God? No.
Don't make that mistake.
What is God's reason for prospering His people? Is it so we can watch bigger TVs? So we can buy finer houses and more luxurious cars?
Establishing God's covenant on the earth and giving to those in need: Those are God's purposes for prosperity!
When Jesus said those words, He wasn't just giving us a prescription for getting to heaven. He was telling us how to live a superior life right here on earth.
You see, there's a high life that we can live right here, right now. But to get in on it, we have to lay down the way of life that most of us are accustomed to. We may have to let go of the very things we've been trying so hard to latch on to. We have to set our hearts instead on doing what God wants us to do.
We often think of "laying down your life" for someone else in terms of dying. That's what Jesus did. He loved us so much He laid down His life by dying in our place so that we could live.
But now, He's asked us to lay down our lives in a different way. He's asked us to show our love, not by dying for others, but by living for them.
Exactly what does that mean?
Think about that for a moment! God has reserved the right to override the will of a nation's leader, if need be, to see that His people are governed according to His will.
What's more, God will hear the prayer of any government leader. Even if he's the worst reprobate in the whole world. He heard the prayer of old King Nebuchadnezzar. Believe me, that means He'll listen to any leader!
Grace teaches us! The "Spirit of grace" instructs us from the inside. Let the Holy Spirit of God counsel you and teach you how to live in this present world.
Do you know what God wants you to do more than anything else today? He wants you to fellowship with Him.
He wants you to walk with Him and talk with Him. To discuss the things of life with Him. He wants you to draw near to Him and partake of His very nature.
So many of us get so caught up in striving to please God in the things we do that we forget our first and highest calling is just to be in fellowship with Him.
That's right. God longs for us just to want to be with Him.
Satan has had us in a poverty mentality so long that it's tough for us to grasp just how intensely God really does desire to prosper us—even though He's demonstrated that desire again and again.
Take Abraham, for example. God made him an extremely wealthy man. Genesis 13:2 says he was rich in cattle, in silver and in gold.
Then, of course, there was Solomon. The Bible says he surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.
Love never fails. Nothing works without it, and there can be no failure with it. When you live by love, you cannot fail.
It takes faith to believe that love's way will not fail. The natural mind cannot understand that because the natural man and his world are ruled by selfishness.
But when you practice love by faith and refuse to seek your own, you put the Father into action on your behalf. As long as you stay in love, God the Father seeks your own. He sees to it that you succeed. Walking in love is to your great advantage!
There's a subtle strategy Satan uses to take control of our lives. The Bible calls it lasciviousness and it means "to have no restraint."
Lasciviousness has been preached as being extreme immorality, but it doesn't start out that way. It begins with just a few seemingly innocent thoughts. Then those thoughts grow and grow until they begin to produce serious sin.