Years ago I was in Detroit, and I met a woman who was raised in a communist-bloc country. While I was visiting with her, a news broadcast came on. And as we sat there listening to it, suddenly tears came to her eyes.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

Although I hadn't noticed it, the news commentator had said something derogatory about the president. "I don't like to hear anyone talk about this country like that," she said. "I don't care whether it's true or not. I don't want to hear it."

Man was created to be a winner. The Bible tells us so. We read in Genesis, for example, that man was originally put on this earth as a dominating lord. God gave him dominion over the earth and everything that crept, flew, crawled and breathed there.

Man didn't even know what losing was until he separated himself from God through disobedience in the Garden of Eden. When that happened, he ran headlong into defeat. He was forced to accept failure as his lot in life, lowering himself to a subordinate position—a position he was never meant to occupy.

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.

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.

Compassion. That’s the one thing people need more than anything else in this world. They need someone to reach out to them with the compassion of God.

Compassion is a deep yearning that responds to the needs of people. It’s much deeper than sympathy. Sympathy can just sit around feeling sorry for people. Compassion has to do something for them.

When you made Jesus Christ Lord of your life, you became what the Bible calls a “new creature.” Inside, you’re not the same person you were before. You have the nature of God born into you. But it’s not enough for you just to have that new nature on the inside. You have to let it take over the outside as well.

Don’t expect that to happen automatically. You have to make a decision to bring your body into obedience to the new man within you. You must determine to do what Romans 6:12 says and “let not sin...reign in your mortal body….”

Abiding in Jesus isn’t something that comes automatically to any believer. It’s a lifestyle that involves discipline and effort.

We have to choose to give ourselves to our union with Him, to give Him first place where our attention is concerned. If we want to grow spiritually, if we want to walk in power and in fellowship with the Lord, we’ll have to spend the time it takes to know Him.

That’s not something we can do for a while and then forget about either. We must continue in it every day. For the moment we stop moving closer to Jesus, we always start drifting away.

If you’re going to live in divine health, there are going to be times when you’ll have to be downright extreme about the Word of God. Times when you may be facing a sickness so severe that you need more than just a few moments in the Word and a quick prayer to receive your healing.

I want to tell you, in very practical terms, what I would do in a situation like that.

Man is something really special. He is made in the image of God. He is made to have fellowship with God.

Some people get the idea that God made man so He’d have someone to dominate. But God is not a dominator. God is love and love needs to have someone to give to. That’s why God made man. He made him, so He could give him His love.

God could have given His love to the angels, and He did that. But giving to angels didn’t provide total fulfillment. Why? Because angels aren’t made in His image.

Jesus compares the workings of the kingdom of God to planting seeds in the earth. “When the seed is sown,” He said, “it grows up....”

Notice He didn’t say that it would occasionally grow up. Or it grows up if it’s God’s will. He said, “It grows up and becomes greater.” Period.

God’s economy isn’t like ours. It isn’t up one day and down the other. It’s always the same and it always works perfectly. If you have good earth, good seed and good water, you’re going to have growth. It’s inevitable.

So, if you’re facing a need, don’t panic...plant a seed!

We're surrounded by a world which is ruled for the most part by Satan. How can we avoid getting caught up in it? How can we stand apart?

You'll find the answer in John 17:17. There Jesus was speaking to the Father about all those who would believe on Him. "Sanctify them through thy truth," He says. "Thy word is truth." Sanctify means "to separate unto." So Jesus was saying, "Separate them by the Word." The Word separates!

How would you like to be so full of the glory of God that it's unmistakable to those around you? How would you like for people to be able to know just by looking at you that you'd been with Jesus? It's entirely possible if you are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. The same mighty power that changed you inwardly when you were saved can so revolutionize you outwardly that even strangers on the street will be able to see Jesus in you.

The Pharisees had a heart condition that grieved Jesus. Their hearts were hard and insensitive. If you'll look in Mark 3, you'll see what I'm talking about.

God was right there in their midst, and they, of all people, should have realized it. They knew the Scriptures backward and forward, and Jesus fit every messianic prophecy written there. But the insensitivity of their hearts literally blinded them to who He was.

The hearts of the Pharisees were also hardened to the needs of the people around them.

That very same thing is still happening today.

If you really want to get the wisdom of God, you'll have to do more than casually read the Scriptures a few minutes a day. You'll have to feed on them night and day. You'll have to get rid of the rubbish you've been feeding into your consciousness by reprogramming your mind with the Word of God.

"Oh, Brother Copeland," you may say, "that's unreasonable!"

The Word tells us that God shows Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are "perfect" toward Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). That word perfect doesn't mean that we have to do everything just right and live without making a mistake. Thank God, we don't have to do that. It means "devoted"—a heart consecrated, dedicated, loyal and faithful to God.

The mistakes we make will not stop God from working in our lives. Only our lack of faithfulness can do that.

I know from personal experience that when people start to criticize you and persecute you because you live by faith, your natural human response is to want to strike back. You want to start dishing out a little criticism of your own. Maybe if they get a taste of their own medicine, they’ll shut their mouths, you think.

But you know what? They won’t. Your words will just add fuel to their fire and they’ll criticize you harder and louder than they did before.

We often praise God for His faithfulness. We’re thankful that we can always count on Him to be there for us. But we rarely consider the fact that He needs us to be faithful too.

It’s true. God needs people He can count on. He needs faithful and wise stewards He can trust over His household. In this final hour, He needs faithful believers to team up with, so He can manifest Himself in the earth more than ever before.

“Oh Gloria, God doesn’t need me!”

There’s a spiritual flood coming. God has promised it. He’s promised us an outpouring of Holy Spirit power that will bring in the greatest harvest of souls any of us have ever seen.

As believers, we’ve been reading about it in the Word and hearing about it from the pulpit for years. We’ve been staring toward heaven so long, waiting for it to come, that we’ve gotten cricks in our spiritual necks. We’ve had this mental image of God pouring down His Spirit from some sort of big heavenly pitcher above us.

But you know what? We’ve been looking in the wrong direction!

Truly, it’s time for us to stop looking for the living among the dead. It’s time for us to stop wandering around in the cemetery of sin, sickness and failure and to step into resurrection life!

As a resurrected creature, you’re no accident going somewhere to happen. Your life isn’t just a loose web of events and circumstances. God has specific plans for you.

God honors those who honor Him. He’ll never forget the seeds of loyalty you sow. He’ll multiply them and give them back to you in a harvest of blessing. And Malachi 3:17 says when He makes up His jewels, you’ll be forever among them.

Forever. Think about that for a moment. By honoring God with your life and your lips, you’re stepping into a realm of blessing that will literally take an eternity to explore.