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Come Out in the Open
by Kenneth Copeland
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows (Matthew 24:6-8).
On the evening of September 11, people might have thought that I had lost my mind.
The best way to describe my state of mind that evening is the way I would get in high school on the night of one of our championship football games.
I had played football–the rough-n-tough, West Texas kind–since fourth grade. And on the night of any "big" game, which to me was every game, I couldn't wait to get on the field. I would get so excited and so hyper that I couldn't do anything but pace up and down the sideline and pester the coach.
But I didn't get into that state of mind thinking about how I might get banged up, bruised up and knocked flat on my back once I got in the game. No. I was stirred up because those were the very things I was planning to do to every opponent with whom I came in contact.
So on September 11, I wasn't worried or frightened by what had been unleashed against America–or, really, the whole world. I was stirred up...gunned up...over what I knew God Almighty was about to do.
You see, we have actually moved out of what Jesus called "the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:8). What we're seeing now is the preamble to the time of tribulation. In fact, we're seeing the earmarks of it around the globe right now.
When Jesus described the tribulation to His disciples, it wasn't a very pleasant image. But the bottom line, He said, was this: "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:13-14).
In other words, He was saying, "You will come out just fine through all this. Meanwhile, you have a job to do."
That's where you and I are today.
Each of us is commissioned to do a specific job. And in the process of carrying out that job, we will inflict a lot of pain and misery on our opponent–the devil–and that's worth getting stirred up about.
You Have the Ammunition
Not long before Jesus was crucified, He gave His disciples vital instructions in which He told them, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do..." (John 14:12).
How did Jesus expect His disciples, and even our generation of believers, to carry out such a tall order? By the anointing, the same anointing with which He had carried out His own commission in the earth.
In Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul prayed that the Church would know "the exceeding greatness of his [God's] power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places" (verses 19-20).
Notice that Paul is talking about the very same power that God wrought in Christ.
The word Christ is the Greek translation for the Hebrew word Messiah. Both words literally translate as "the Anointed One and His Anointing." They refer not only to the Anointed One, Jesus, but also to the anointing itself–the manifest presence and power of God that removes burdens and destroys yokes of bondage (Isaiah 10:27).
That anointing is what came on Jesus after He had been baptized in the Jordan River (Luke 3:21-22). But notice where that anointing lies today.
Paul goes on to say, "And [God] hath put all things under his [Jesus'] feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body [you and me], the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:22-23).
We are the Body of Christ. We're the Body of God's Anointing in the earth today.
When the Word talks about God's fullness, it's not talking about little pieces of God scattered here and there. It's talking about one Body–the Body of the Anointed One–in fullness…the fullness of Him.
In another prayer, Paul prays that the Church "might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:19).
And just how did he expect us to be filled with all the fullness of God? Go back to verses 17-19 and he gives us the answer: "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know [to have intimate relationship with] the love of Christ [the Anointed One and His Anointing]."
In other words, unless you and I are rooted and grounded in the love of God, we will never know or demonstrate the fullness of God.
The challenge for most of us, however, is the traditional religious doctrines that came along and actually rooted and grounded us in how harsh God is and how hard it is to receive from Him. Those unscriptural religious ideas never majored on God's immeasurable love for us.
The devil has done a big job of convincing believers that the God we call Father is the One Who causes them to be sick, go broke, lose a loved one and so on. Meanwhile, 1 John 4:16 tells us that "God is love."
But 1 John 4 also tells us that "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment" (verse 18).
There is no fear in love...there is no fear in God...because there is no torment in Him. God is not our tormentor. Satan is.
But the devil has been trying for centuries to get us to point a finger at God. Consequently we've had the wrong image of God and, therefore, the wrong image of ourselves.
Verse 18 goes on to say, "He that feareth is not made perfect in love." And that's the reason we need to understand the love of God-to get rooted and grounded in it.
You Have the Authority...
Again, in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, the Apostle Paul wrote to us, saying, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ [the Anointed One and His Anointing], who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
Jesus is the image of God. That's why He told His disciples, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). That's also why the devil works overtime to try to blind us, distract us and draw us away from the glorious gospel of the Anointed One.
He's trying to keep us from becoming all that we really are. He's trying to keep us short of all the fullness of God.
Notice in that scripture, Paul says Christ is that image. That is, "the Anointed One (Jesus) and His Anointing" is the image of God which is a detail we must understand.
Acts 10:38, in referring to Jesus' earthly ministry, talks about "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."
When it says "for God was with him," it's referring to the anointing. And Hebrews 1:3 refers to the Anointed Jesus as the "brightness of his glory" or, since "his" is in italics–which means the translators added the word–the literal translation is "the brightness of glory," and "the express image of his [God's] person."
So Christ–the "burden remover" and "yoke destroyer"–is the image of God.
Well, what does all that mean to us who are this great Body of anointed ones? Colossians 1:12-15 gives us the key:
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet [able] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
Here's that image again. Jesus, the Anointed One and His Anointing, is the image of God. But it doesn't stop there.
God made us able, He empowered us "to be partakers of the inheritance" and "translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."
Now I've said all that to make this point: It was God Who hung on the cross at Calvary. It was Love Who died for us. It was Love Who purchased the right for us to become sons and daughters of God. And now we've been transformed into that same image. The image of God. The image of Love.
Romans 8:29 says it this way: "For whom [God] did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he [Jesus] might be the firstborn among many brethren."
Conformed to the image of His Son...
We were predestinated to be conformed to the image of Jesus. We were predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Anointed One and His Anointing.
Jesus, the resurrected Lord of glory is the express image of God (Love). He is God (Love) expressed. He is the Anointing explained. God (Love) was with Him. God (Love) was on Him. And God (Love) was in Him.
Now we, in turn, are that expressed image of God (Love). The expressed image of Love (God). Because God (Love) is with us, God (Love) is on us, God (Love) is in us.
Prepare to Attack!
Do you remember what Jesus told the Pharisees, the most religious people of his day? He said, "Ye are of your father, the devil..." (John 8:44). In other words, He said, "You lie like him, and you kill like him." Verse 59 says they even tried to kill Jesus, but they couldn't get their hands on Him.
Keep in mind that these were the most religious of the religious. These people prayed and fasted all the time. But they're also the ones to whom Jesus said, "Thus have ye made the commandment [Word] of God of none effect by your tradition" (Matthew 15:6).
Today, we are still seeing the expressed image of the devil in many ways. We're seeing his expressed images in terrorist attacks. We're seeing his expressed images when Christians are taken as hostages. And we're seeing his expressed images in war.
It's just like the devil to take an airplane and crash it into a building hoping to kill thousands of innocent people. That's Satan, the terrorist. It's his expressed image.
In fact, he did it just as Jesus described in John 10:10: "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy...."
On September 11, terrorists stole airplanes, killed thousands of people and destroyed buildings...and in that order. That's what Satan does. It's the only thing he does. Terror is his stock and trade. Terrorism is his image.
Meanwhile the whole world is watching…waiting...and wondering what the Church will do in this war on terrorism. They've seen what Satan will do. But they're wondering: What can Jesus do?
Now as we–all of the Partners and Friends of Kenneth Copeland Ministries–march into this "War on Fear," our war is about bringing forth the express image in the Body of anointed ones. I'm talking about bringing it forth on television and in every possible media. It's time for the Body to come out in the open.
The whole world is about to see an image of Jesus like they've never seen before–salvations like never before, healings like never before and all of the manifest fullness of God (Love) like never before. Just as on the Day of Pentecost.
For that to happen, however, we must stay in the Word and take our stand against fear.
In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul explains: "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
First, this "glory of the Lord" Paul refers to is actually the written Word of God (Love).
Remember how 2 Corinthians 4:4 spoke of the "glorious gospel of Christ"? Well, when our focus and attention are on the Word–the glorious gospel–we are changed into that same image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of God (Love).
Second, this process of going from glory to glory is not just for preachers. It's not for a handful of "special" believers.
No. It's for "We all!"
We are the express image of God (Love). We are the express image of Jesus. We're designed to contain all the fullness of God–Love–Himself.
And as we become more rooted and grounded in the Word of God–rooted and grounded in the Word of His love–fear will once and for all be uprooted from our lives and give way to faith. As fear leaves, we will see the gifts of the Spirit spring up all around us.
We all–the express image of God (Love)–have been commissioned to war.
We all–the Body of the Anointed One with the manifest presence and power of His Anointing–are the fullness of God (Love) Himself in the earth today.
We're the loved ones. We're the fearless! We are Partners together. And we will win this war!
Courtesy of: KCM.org (About Kenneth Copeland)
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