Kenneth Copeland - Jesus Is God's Gift To You
Father, we thank You and praise You. We bless You today for this broadcast. We open our hearts and we open our minds to You, sir, for revelation that Jesus is Your heavenly gift to us and that everything that He did on that cross, everything that He did while He was on earth, everything that He's doing now at your right hand, sir, is all for us. He did none of this for Himself. He gave Himself a ransom for us all. Oh, and we give You praise and thanksgiving for it. And I'm asking You, sir, for revelation of this today to flow throughout this radio and television audience all over the world, in the sound of my voice. In Jesus' name, amen.
Hallelujah. Let's read, once again, from the 3rd chapter of the book of John, the 16th verse. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved". The world, not just a group of people here, the whole world. Amen.
Now, notice this: "He that believeth in him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already". I mean, it doesn't make any difference what kind of ugly act you did. Jesus has already been given as God's gift to you and me and to the whole world. And He came and He shed His blood and He went to hell and He suffered there. And He suffered for Adam's high treason. It goes all the way back to Adam. And without Jesus, you're condemned. You may be the sweetest thing that ever lived on the face of the earth this side of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I am telling you, sweetheart, it doesn't have anything to do with your daily acts, sin or not. It has to do with what you do with the heavenly gift. It's there. It's got a ribbon around it. It's there sitting on your table all this time, but have you unwrapped it and accepted Him as your Lord and your Savior? Glory be to God. Hallelujah.
Now, let's go over and read what we read earlier from Luke, the 11th chapter. Jesus said, "And I say unto you, Ask, it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Everyone that ask receives; he that seeketh finds; to him that knocks it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that's a father, will he give him a stone? if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent"? Of course not. "Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil," or just natural men, "know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him"?
Oh, praise God. Isn't that good? Hallelujah. So now listen, Jesus, the gift of God to the world; the Holy Spirit, the gift of God to the church. Hallelujah. But, now where does that put healing? Healing belongs to the world. And by virtue of that, both sinners and Christians can receive healing from Jesus. Now, there are people that had the idea that you had to be born again to get healed. But, if you'll... you know, you just need to study a little bit. You can see that that's not true.
Now, we've already spent enough time on that. Let's get over on this. Healing, then, belongs to you and me. Let's go back to where we were yesterday, and let's read this verse again in I Peter 2, talking about Jesus, "Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree," or on the cross, "that we, being dead to sin, should live under righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed". "Were" is past tense. Peter is leading us to look back to the cross. Isaiah 53, "Surely he hath borne our sicknesses, diseases, weakness, pains, griefs, and sorrows". "And the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed". But Peter draws our attention back to that. "He bore our sins, and diseases, weakness, sickness, disease. Whoa! "He bore our sins in his own body on the tree, by whose stripes ye were healed".
All right, so healing belongs to you. Now, if you remember, faith calls things that be not as though they were. So let's take a look then at Romans 4, and talking about what happens when faith comes into the picture. Verse 16, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but that only which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all. (As it is written, I have made thee the father of many nations), before him whom he believed, even God, who makes alive the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were".
Now, how does that come into what we've just been studying here? We closed yesterday with this. Let me bring it back up to you again today. In the mind and in the heart of God, in the mind and in the heart of Jesus, in the mind of the Holy Spirit, everybody, everyone is healed, because He laid all the sickness, and all the disease, all of the curse on Jesus. In His mind, it's a done deal. "Then why do I still have this pain"?
Now you come to the element of faith in the fact that He has already healed you and me, and it's time for us to unwrap the healing gift. Any gift, a present, a gift, something that has no strings attached to it, none, zero, no strings at all, it is lying there on your table, and it's addressed to you, and it's for you, and everything in it belongs to you. I don't care if it's $5 or 5 million, if it's in that package and it's got your name on it, it belongs to you, and you open it up and freely, it's yours. You do with it, I mean, there it is. It belongs to you is what I'm trying to say. Well, glory to God. Amen. Isn't that a beautiful package? Oh, yes. "But how could anything that beautiful actually be mine"? "Oh, durst thou actually intendest thou me to open thine package"?
Come on, brother, get real, all right? I mean, if you want to talk to the Lord, just talk to Him. I mean, can you imagine what that sounds like to God in a Texas accent? "Durst thou really understandest thou that this is thine". Oh, come on, man. Now, don't misunderstand. I started to say I wasn't making fun. Yeah, I really am, because I'm laughing at myself, my stupid self, you understand that, for doing things like becoming so spiritual in God's presence. And all that last three hours that you took telling Him how you can't pay your bills and you didn't inform Him of anything. You could have spent that whole time praying in the Spirit, and then call things that be not as though they were and get somewhere in the realm of faith.
So, "calling those things which be not as though they were". Now, this would be calling things that be not as though they were. Well, according to that, my... glory to God. Whoa! What'd you say? What'd you say to me, Lord? What was it you said there? "By whose stripes ye were healed". If I were, then I am. "Well then, why do I still have this thing in my body"? That's the big question. Do you believe that? "By his stripes ye were healed". "Well, of course, Brother Copeland, it says it right there in the Bible". I mean, but do you believe that? "Yeah".
All right, think about this: "Oh, Lord, thank You. Thank You, Lord. Oh, Jesus, thank You. I just want to worship You and thank You that I'm healed. I want to thank You. Oh, God, I remember in the night waking up with that nasty pain in my body and I couldn't rest. Oh, God, I remember, I remember what it was like. I remember what it was like to be in the bed for days and days at a time. Oh, God, I remember what it was like when I couldn't get up and help my family. Oh, God. Oh, God, I remember those things. But, thank God! Thank God! Thank God I'm healed! I see it! I see it! I've been healed! I'm healed! I take it! I take my healing! It's mine, and I rejoice in it! Oh, thank God, it's so good to be well. It's so good to be healed. It's so good to be able to sleep all night".
And then, you may not have slept a night yet. But, in the mind of Jesus, you have. And if you can come to that place where you meditate on this and meditate on this, there's going to come a moment when you just get up and walk out of that wheelchair. And there have been people that have done it within just, I mean just... well, that's past tense. Glory to God. That's, "Well, if I'm healed what business have I got here"? Just get up and walk off. You can do it right now. Amen.
Now, let's go over to Scriptures that show us and support to this Scripture, that we were healed. If we were healed, I am healed in the name of Jesus. Let's take a look here at John 10:10. Okay. Yeah. The Lord just corrected me. Let's go to Deuteronomy 28. In the 28th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, there's just a treasure trove of revelation. In the 28th chapter, "it shall come to pass, if you will hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all of his commandments which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God".
Now, to whom is He speaking? He is speaking here to... well, people say, "Yeah, but see there, now, Brother Copeland, that was just for the Jews". Well, now wait a minute. Is He talking to the Jews here? What did it say? Well, Verse 27, "And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, Keep all of the commandments which I command you this day". This is written to Israel. "Well, like I said, Brother Copeland, it's written to the Jews". Judah was only one of the 12 tribes.
Well, for lack of a better word, is a nickname for Israel became "the Jew" and I understand that. But what I want you to understand is, Israel is Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. It's talking to the seed of Abraham. Amen? The seed of Abraham. Say it out loud, "to the seed of Abraham". Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then you just come down the line, Joseph and so forth, Moses and Daniel, and then John the Baptist, Jesus, John, James, right down to you and me. Before I read this any further, I'm going to read this from Galatians, the 3rd chapter. And a lot of you have heard this, a lot of you haven't.
Well, you're going to hear it again. Those that haven't, this is a seed. Those that have, it's watering the seed. The 3rd chapter of the book of Galatians, and we're going to come back in here as we go. Where do you want me to start that, Lord? Okay, Verse 5, "He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit, and work of miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith", "they which are of faith", "they which are of faith" "they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham," not just the tribe of Judah, not just the nation of Israel. It goes, this is the blessing of Abraham.
Now, "therefore they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In you shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham". Now then, I wanted to point this out to you very meticulously because it is of vital importance to your and my thinking and to your and my faith. "All these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if you hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God".
Now notice, these are articles of the blessing. It started with Adam in the garden of Eden. And God blessed him and blessed his wife. "Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it: have dominion over it," the blessing of the Lord. Now, God didn't have to just say, "Okay, now you just stand real still there. Bless you"! No, no. The blessing is already there. The blessing had been released in the mind of God. Now listen to me. In the mind of God, everybody, every child, every seed of Abraham was blessed. All you had to do was obey Him and walk with Him. I don't care what happened to you, the blessing was there. Look at the life of Joseph. Glory to God. I mean, he wound up in all different kinds of situations, but the Bible said the Lord was with him. What does he mean, "the Lord was with him"?
The blessing was on him and functioning... and the blessing of the Lord. "The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he adds no sorrow". He adds no painful toiling with it. Amen. Now, notice "these blessings are come on you, and overtake you". They are there all the time if you'll do what God tells you to do. Amen. But now, what happens when you refuse to do it? Now you make a mistake, you repent, and so forth. And all the provisions for repentance were there and everything. God's not figuring on them keeping that thing absolutely perfect, but that's the reason He introduced sacrifices to be given for the sin of the people that they could repent and stay right in that blessing and walk in it. But if you refuse to do it, "it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; all of these curses will come on you, and overtake you".
So God didn't have to put it on him, that the curse was there. It came when Adam sinned, and the laws of sin and death were functioning in the earth. The blessing of the Lord was protection of it. You got off out here and, "wham"! It was there waiting on you. That's where sickness and disease lives. It lives in disobedience. It lives out there in that area where the devil steals and kills and destroys. But what did Jesus say? "I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly".