Life & Work

As Brother Copeland has studied the words and life of Jesus, he has seen again and again that when Jesus was on earth, hearing and obeying the Father was essential to His success.

It's essential to ours, too. If we want to live the kind of supernatural life that Jesus lived, we must slow down enough to listen for and to our Father's voice.

As Jesus’ disciples, we CAN do it!

There are many reasons people are overweight—physical, psychological, emotional. But the bottom line is people are overweight because they give in to the draws of the flesh, including psychological and emotional draws.

Weight loss is a matter of personal changes. And yes, God can help us make changes in our lives. We need His power that brings change.

We know how to lose weight: Move more, eat less. That’s basic to overall healthy weight loss. But how many actually do the basic things consistently and reach their goals?

To be truly free from the bondage of weight we have to allow the Holy Spirit to change and empower us to go higher—spirit, soul and body.

When we have decisions to make about business relationships that will affect our future and our families, we would be better off to enter into relationships with people who share like faith and values and who have maintained reputations of high integrity and service.

Certainly none of us can go through a day without interacting with non-Christians.

However, when we have decisions to make about contractual work or other types of business where our quality of life will be affected, we will be better off entering into relationships with people and companies with good reputations and high integrity.

Let God guide you. In everything we do in life, if we will simply seek Him for direction and allow Him to unfold His plan for us, we can be happily surprised when we see the outcome.

Your business decisions should always be made after you have heard clearly from the Lord that you are walking in His will for your life. Then you’ll know that each decision that lines up with that vision will be a step in the right direction.

Hear from Him according to His Word. Get involved in those ventures that will glorify Him and bring Him honor. As you consider your business decisions, keep in mind Philippians 4:8—always make sure your decisions are based on honesty, justness, truth, purity, loveliness, virtue, praiseworthiness and a good report.

Are you tired of living the same old way? Jesus didn’t redeem you so that you could be sad, depressed, sick and broke. He came so you could have “life, and...have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been living that reality for more than 45 years, and they’ve taught others how to live it, too. Start enjoying life more at any age, whether you’re 18 or 81.

Continue to Grow

Everyone faces difficult people at some time—the auto mechanic who overcharges you, the doctor who lacks a good bedside manner, even the waiter who can’t seem to get your order right and frankly, doesn’t care. But what happens when those difficult people inhabit your workplace? When your workplace becomes hostile, you need to stand in faith by standing on the Word.

Every day, commitments of honor are required of you in your job and it can be hard. It’s a choice between God’s honor and man’s. One brings true and sure success...and one brings shallow, temporal success that ends in ultimate failure.

To Succeed Honorably in Your Job, Love God First

God is faithful to honor you when you act honorably. That’s because you are acting in something that originated in Him! He is honorable. When you operate in Him and out of love for Him, you operate in honor.

The world today often looks at the Body of Christ with a raised brow—especially in the workplace. They’ve not seen honorable Christians. In fact, they’ve seen too much dishonor, but you can help change that. You can guard the way you live your life and your conversation. You can be a strong witness for Jesus in the workplace. Honor may be hard to find, but it is easily recognized.

Dealing with the death of a loved one, whether you are prepared for it or not, can be very difficult. It’s natural to experience sadness over the separation. But be aware that Satan will try to get you to stay in a place of sadness—a place where sorrow and grief will attempt to press in on you.

Let’s establish something from the beginning—as a Christian, you have the right and authority to be free from depression. God has given you His armor, and you can use it to stand against the strategies of the enemy (Ephesians 6:10-18). If you put on God’s armor and pray, Satan has no chance!

Psalm 91:16 says, “With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation” (NKJV).

The Bible has a lot to say about God’s will concerning our life here on the earth—how we are to live and for how long. God has a good, long life planned for us. But without that revelation, we can’t expect to live out the full number of our days. It takes faith to receive the promises of God!

There are a number of reasons people die young. To live long on the earth, it is important to do the following:

Sin that has become a habit can feel like an impossible mountain to climb. But here’s what you need to remember—when you were born again, you instantly became an overcomer (1 John 5). You are an overcomer. That’s who you are. That’s what you are.

The devil would give anything he’s got to keep you from finding that out. Jesus already overcame him for you and gave you the authority to knock him down anywhere, anytime. All you have to do is pull the sword of the Spirit on him.

Sin is what separates man from God. This chasm between God and man happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and ate the forbidden fruit, thereby giving the authority and dominion they possessed on earth over to Satan. Because of that original sin, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, KJV). 

You can be sure that God will protect your children because He’s specifically said He will. His written Word is absolutely full of promises that, if you will believe them and act upon them, will guarantee the safety of you and your children—regardless of how dangerous the world around you becomes.

One of the most powerful ways to build your faith and to activate promises like these in your life is to incorporate them into your prayers every day. As Jeremiah 1:12 says, “God watches over His Word to perform it,” so it makes solid spiritual sense to pray the Word!

God is not the author of the curse or anything related to the curse, such as sickness, poverty and death (John 10:10). According to Genesis 8:22, God established the law of seedtime and harvest. This law is also referred to as sowing (choosing an action) and reaping (the results of an action). Therefore, when we choose to do wrong, we should expect negative consequences. Galatians 6:7-9 says, “ Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.

The short answer is: Yes! There is hope for anyone lost in addiction. The longer answer is more complex. When we’re believing for someone’s deliverance from an addiction, we must place our faith in God’s promises to us. Truth and hope for the future live in His Word.
 
The Bible is not naïve about the nature of addictions. God recognizes the ways in which sinful choices can enslave us, but while He holds us responsible for our actions, He has provided deliverance through Jesus Christ. Just look at what the Bible says Jesus’ sacrifice did for us in Isaiah 53:4-5:

No matter where you come from or what sins you’ve committed, the good news is that when you are born again and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are a new creation and the old things have passed away as far as God is concerned (2 Corinthians 5:17).

When the Word says we are to be partakers of Christ’s suffering, it simply means we are to enter into the victory that Jesus bore for us on the cross (1 Peter 4:13). As we enter into that victory, we encounter spiritual warfare. That’s where the sufferings come from—standing against the forces of evil. Resisting the pressures of life may bring about some physical discomfort, but the sufferings are mainly spiritual sufferings and not physical sufferings such as sickness or disease.