Does Your Heart Agree With Heaven By Kenneth Copeland / Gloria Copeland

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Time is running out. All you have to do is read your Bible to know it. We've moved into the final days of this age—days so difficult and dangerous that Jesus Himself talked about them during His earthly ministry and told us how to handle them.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass (Matthew 24:3-6).

Let’s look first at the woman with the issue of blood. She was facing some very bad circumstances. She was not only sick, she was sick and broke. She could have easily stayed in her room and felt sorry for herself. She could have sat on her bed, crying and thinking, If God is good, why has He let this happen to me?

He said, "See that ye be not troubled."

Then He went on and warned us in detail of the trouble ahead. He talked about nation rising against nation. He talked about murder and betrayal. He talked about false prophets arising and the love of many waxing cold. In other words, He talked about the very things we are seeing in the world today.

Jesus warned us about these things so they wouldn't take us by surprise— so we would know there would be trouble. But He also commanded us to see to it that we don't let that trouble trouble us!

Upheld by the Word of His Power

How can we possibly obey that command? How can we possibly live in the middle of a world filled with danger and distress without it troubling us?

Those are fair questions and Jesus answered them in that very passage. He said: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (verses 34-35).

Thank God, no matter what is happening around us, the Word of God remains the same. It is the unchangeable force that upholds us in every time of trouble. It is the solid rock, the foundation that, if we build our lives upon it, will bring us safely through every storm (Matthew 7:24-25).

The Word of God is far more real, far more permanent than anything in this natural world. It is, in fact, the very power by which this world and everything in it exists. The Bible tells us that Jesus upholds all things—that's right all things!—"by the word of his power" (Hebrews 1:3).

I used to wonder why God said it that way. Why didn't He say that He upholds all things by the power of His Word? Then it dawned on me. If we were just depending on the power of God's Word to see us through, we might find we needed Him to say something He hadn't said yet. And if He hadn't said it, the power of it wouldn't be available to us yet.

But glory to God, He has already said everything that needs to be said! We're not waiting on Him to say something. He's already spoken and all things are being upheld by His words! Everything in the earth, every natural and spiritual force on this planet, is under the influence of what God has already said.

What Do You Say?

Psalm 119 confirms that fact. It says: "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants" (verses 89-91).

What does that mean to you in these troublesome times? It means a great deal!
It means that in the midst of danger it's already been settled in heaven that "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling" (Psalm 91:10).

It means that in these times of financial failure it's already been settled that you "shall not lack any good thing" (Psalm 34:10). It means that when the rest of the world is failing around you, it is already settled that you will "triumph in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:14).

Those are the words God has spoken about you as His child and they are settled forever in heaven. They are never going to change.

But here's what you have to remember. You're not living in heaven yet. You're living on earth and to activate those words here, you must make sure that your heart agrees with God's Word. Why? Because Jesus said it will be unto you according to your faith! (Matthew 9:29).

Heaven has already spoken. Now the earth is waiting to hear what you say.
Are you going to speak the Word of God? Or talk about the trouble around you? Are you going to agree with the heavenly decree? Or agree with the earthly circumstances?

Don't Push the Envelope

You are living today in what you said yesterday. And tomorrow is waiting to hear what you say today. Your eternal destiny is being shaped and formed by your agreement with the Word of God that is upholding all things.

That's always been true…but now that truth is becoming more crucial than ever before. The reason is simple. We're running out of time. In years past, if we got our hearts and mouths out of line with God's Word we had some time to get ourselves straightened out before we ran into the consequences of that disagreement. God, in His grace, would just keep dealing with us until we repented and got back into a place of faith.

Although God is still as gracious and merciful as He ever was, time is short. We've hit the end of the age and, frankly, many Christians are pushing the envelope. They're letting the world fill their mouths and getting their hearts out of agreement with heaven, thinking one of these days they'll change. One of these days (when circumstances get easier) they'll start confessing the Word again.

But friend, we've hit the end times. Circumstances aren't going to get easier. They're going to get harder and we're running out of days. We're about to step into that time when we are permanently stuck with the consequences of our confession!

This is not the time to ignore Jesus' words by saying things like, "I'm just so sick. I'm so worried." When you say things like that you're not agreeing with heaven, you're agreeing with torment and trouble. You're opening the door for those things to manifest in your life.
Jesus specifically told us not to do that. He said, "See that you are not troubled." That wasn't just some kind of Sunday school suggestion! It was a command from the Son of the living God instructing His disciples who would live in the last days. It was Jesus Himself speaking personally and emphatically to us!

Take Your Heritage

Now more than ever before, we must pay attention to His instructions. We must obey that command, take hold of the Word of God and refuse to let go of it. We must be like the writer of Psalm 119 who said: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart" (verses 105-106, 110-111).

It's not enough for us to just lie back and say, "Well, if it's God's will for me to have victory I guess He'll just give it to me. If it's His will for me to be healed, He'll just heal me."

No! We have to take God's Word as our heritage. We have to aggressively pursue it and get it in our heart and mouth. We have to fight off every unbelieving devil and every troublesome circumstance that comes to steal that Word and say, "Bless God, I have taken God's promise as my heritage. It's my future. It's my life. I refuse to be troubled by the temporary troubles of this world. They'll pass away but God's Word will never pass away. God upholds all things by the Word of His power and that Word will come to pass in my life!"

Then just stay with the Word all the way to the end. No matter what happens around you, don't turn back. Don't change.

Fear not. Only believe. And you will see your way through these troubled times in triumph as the end-time overcomer God destined you to be.

Courtesy of: Kenneth Copeland Ministry(KCM.org)

Put On The Armor Of Light By Kenneth Copeland

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There is a place of protection in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His Anointing where the devil cannot get to you. And I’m not talking about after you go to heaven, but right here on this earth.
The Apostle Paul tells us about this in Romans 13:11-12. He says: “It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”
Notice that Paul thought it was very important for us to put on this protection—he said this in no uncertain terms: “Wake up! Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Just as Paul wrote, it is also high time for our generation to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Armor is something that covers not just one side like a shield, but rather it’s a full suit of protection that covers the front, back, sides and top. When we have on this armor, we are completely covered.

However, in far too many cases believers are finding themselves subject to the works of darkness. They are suffering from the same demonic attacks as unbelievers—they are getting sick, their marriages are being ravaged by divorce, they are being injured in accidents, and they are walking in fear like everyone else. Sad to say, these kinds of things are happening to some Christians even though they are confessing the promises of God’s protection!

How can that be? How is it that the enemy can get through a believer’s line of protection?
It can happen if a person is violating a higher law than the promises he or she is confessing.
And Paul tells us exactly what that violation is in the verses preceding what we just read: “For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:9-10).

Love, when it is exercised and allowed to be perfected in our lives, flushes out fear (1 John 4:18). But if we violate the love commandment, the enemy will quickly run around our confessions of protection. He can even kill us. How? When we violate that commandment, fear enters in and the light withdraws. When the light withdraws, we are without our armor—we are spiritually naked.

To violate the love command is to go against our true reborn nature and authority. That is why 2 Corinthians 4:6 is so thrilling to the believer: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

When the earth was without form and void and filled with chaos, God said: “Light be.” He pulled that command out of His innermost being and instantly caused the image of this universe that was on the inside of Him to be slung at the speed of light into being. Love spoke it. Light Himself said it…and it was so.

And the same God who said: “Light be,” has shined in our hearts. Love Himself has shined in our hearts. The greatest power in the universe has been born in us and is standing ready to be turned loose in our lives.

For us to experience all that God has planned for us, it is absolutely vital we keep the love command before our every thought and action. Only then can we exercise dominion over those things that would pull us back into darkness. John, the apostle of love, said it this way:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us (1 John 1:7-10).

Here we are given the key to the declaration the Apostle Paul made in Romans 6:14: “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” We walk in dominion over sin the same way Jesus did. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10).

Jesus satisfied the whole law and never sinned. He took the hundreds, even thousands of commandments and boiled them down to two: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). Jesus kept all the law by keeping the greatest law, the law of love.

Sloppy love won’t cut it here. This isn’t talking about loving others just when you feel like it. It is not saying you can love God one minute, then turn around and hate your brother: “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 2:9; 4:20-21).

This is talking about loving on purpose—all the time. It is a commandment. And the reason it is a commandment is to keep us in the armor of light where the enemy can’t get to us.
What does darkness have to do in the presence of light? It must flee. Resist the devil, and he must flee—every time.

Walking in the Armor

John walked in this armor, and according to church tradition, the Roman government could not kill the “apostle of love.” They boiled him in oil but he just wouldn't die. He was in the armor of light.

Neither could they kill the Apostle Paul, author of 1 Corinthians 13 the “love chapter.”

Remember he’s also the guy who wrote about the Hebrews who “were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). Clothed in the armor of light, Paul willingly offered up his own life for a better resurrection (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
In that armor, Jesus was taken to the brow of a hill by an angry crowd in His own hometown. They were threatening to push Him over the side of the cliff. The next thing we know, He “passing through the midst of them went his way” (Luke 4:29-30). Can’t you just see that crowd scratching their heads and asking: “Where did he go? Where did he go?”

On another occasion, “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:59).

It’s Still Working Today

David Wilkerson, among other things, is the founder of Teen Challenge. He ministered to drug addicts and gang members in Bedford-Stuyvesant near Brooklyn back in the 1960s when it was one of the meanest places on earth.

One teenage gang member Nicky Cruz took out his switchblade and said, “I am going to kill you now.”

“I'll tell you right now,” Dave said, “if you cut me into a thousand pieces, all the pieces of me laying here on this sidewalk will be crying out to God, ‘I love Nicky. I love you, Nicky. I love you, Nicky. Jesus loves you.’”

Nicky told me he was furious and tried to swing his knife, but as he did, “Something grabbed me by the arm and I couldn't stick him,” he said. “I tried and tried and I tried, but I couldn't touch him.”

David Wilkerson had taken his place in love, in the marvelous light, and he looked death in the face with no fear—the enemy couldn't touch him.

First Peter 2:9 says: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”

Think about what it means to be in His marvelous light. Marvelous means it causes people to marvel. The manifestation of His marvelous light is an obvious and awesome display of God’s glory: “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:23; Mark 12:11). To the unbeliever such an occurrence would be a sign and a wonder. To the believer, it would be a miracle.

No doubt to David Wilkerson what happened was a miracle. And to Nicky, his assailant, it was a wonder that caused him to give his life to Jesus!

The Wicked One Touches Him Not

First John 5:18 gives us key information about staying in the light, in that place of protection. It says: “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”

No, he’s not talking about human perfection. He’s talking about keeping ourselves in the love walk, keeping ourselves in the light.

If you do sin, don’t run from God, run to Him. Confess that sin immediately. Get right back in the light. Nobody can lay hands on you and just pray over you to get this done. You have to keep yourself in the love of God. You have to keep yourself over in the area of repentance. No one else can turn that light on for you. No one else can say for you, “Let there be light.” You have to keep yourself in it.

As you obey the commandment to love your Father and your neighbor, remember also to build yourself up in the fact that you are born of Love, and He loves you. Lay hold of the confession of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:16 that the Holy Spirit will strengthen you in your inner man. Confess that you will be “rooted and grounded in love” and made “able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (verses 17-19).

This is intimate, working knowledge of the very words Love Himself has said. We can put those words into our mouths knowing Jesus as the High Priest over them will see that they come to pass. This is the power that has been restored to the born-again man. And when that power, when that Light, is working in the place and at the level it's supposed to be, when we lay hands on the sick, they'll recover. When we lay hands on the dead, they'll rise up.

The devil cannot stand against believers who walk in the Light like that. He can’t touch us in that armor. He has only one assignment in the presence of that Light—he must flee. The armor of Light drives him out wherever we go.

That’s his destiny.

And clothed in the armor of Light, we are the enforcers.

Courtesy of: Kenneth and Gloria Copeland (KCM.org)