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Kenneth Copeland Ministry

Kenneth Copeland Ministry is based on the uncompromising, infallible, unchanging Word of God. Kenneth Copeland Ministry have determined to walk by faith, preach the truth of God's Word and His unconditional love. That's why, after 40 years, the only thing that has changed is the way the message—JESUS IS LORD—has traveled across the globe in a variety of more accessible formats. As they fulfill their call to the nations, Kenneth Copeland Ministry continue to preach faith, love, healing, prosperity, redemption, righteousness, the anointing and the principles of victorious Christian living. They are bringing people from the milk to the meat of God's Word—and shaping the course of an entire generation of believers. The message of Kenneth Copeland Ministry is far reaching, touching every nation, whether you are in the United States or a remote part of the world. With the help of their international offices in Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe and the Ukraine, the good news of Jesus Christ has reached millions of people. It continually flows through every available voice, from the daily and Sunday Believer's Voice of Victory television broadcast, conventions and victory campaigns, the Believer's Voice of Victory magazine and the Internet. The purpose of Kenneth Copeland Ministry is for you to live in victory as you mature in faith. As you build on the Word, you will grow spiritually, be equipped to overcome your own adversity and be able to share what you are learning with others. Kenneth Copeland Ministry, through Jesus, have transformed the lives of millions, and their ministry will do the same for you.

Kenneth Copeland Reference Bible

Prosperity, grace, righteousness, honor, faith, covenant. You'll find Kenneth Copeland's personal study notes on all these topics in the Kenneth Copeland Reference Bible! You can choose blue, black or burgundy top-grain leather binding. The Kenneth Copeland Reference Bible comes as the KJV.

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The Power of Resistance

by Kenneth Copeland

For more than 1500 years, the devil has put sickness on precious members of the Body of Christ. He's burdened them with poverty. He's oppressed them at every turn. And they haven't even fought him over it because they thought they were suffering for Jesus.

Over the years, this unscriptural doctrine of suffering for God by submitting to such works of the devil as sickness, lack and oppression has become a veritable sacred cow. But it's time we knocked that cow in the head. It's time we slaughtered her, quartered her and ate her for dinner so the Body of Christ can rise up as more than conquerors and put the devil's junk under our feet, where it belongs.

I realize some people become defensive when it comes to this particular doctrine. They're protective of it because they learned it from their dear, old grandmother, or from the Sunday school teacher who taught them their first Bible stories. But these saints came by the suffering doctrine honestly. It's been passed down from one generation of believers to the next since about 300 A.D.

A Time of Persecution

If you'll look back at that particular point in history, you can see how it all started. At the time, the Body of Christ was suffering persecution far greater than anything Christians today have ever known. Roman emperors, in an attempt to gain political popularity, began striving to outdo one another by slaughtering Christians in increasingly horrible ways. One emperor fed a group of them to the lions. Another tried to put on a more spectacular show by burning them at the stake…and so it went.

You can imagine what happened to the meetings the believers were having at that time. Their sermons, their prayers and their discussions all began to focus on one topic— suffering and persecution.

Unaware, for the most part, of God's power to protect them, those early Christians didn't know how to believe Him for deliverance. Instead, they simply trusted God to get them through the suffering, to give them strength to endure the pain without denying Jesus. They took some of the things different ones had written and armed themselves with the Word of God—and they got good at it! Their faith eventually grew so strong in this area, they looked forward to the opportunity to prove His power in the face of lions or at the edge of a sword.

One of the most famous stories that came out of that day was about a believer who had been sentenced to burn at the stake. He promised the other believers who would be watching his execution that if the power of God was enough, he would hold up one finger for them to see.

When the day of his death came and the flames engulfed him, his fellow believers looked intently to see what his report would be. Sure enough, through the smoke, they saw him lift his hand and hold up not just one, but two fingers. He wanted them to know that the grace of God was more than enough!

For those early Christians, honoring God in the midst of persecution and suffering became the focus of their faith. It was the center point of their Christian walk. Then, suddenly, the persecution ceased. Another emperor took power and put a stop to it.

Suddenly, those believers didn't have anything to talk about or pray about. They were much like my mother was the first three months after I was saved. She told me they were spiritually the driest months she'd ever had! She had focused on believing God for me for so long that she'd lost the focus of her faith. She didn't have anything to believe God for anymore!

It was at that point in history, when the persecution stopped, that the doctrine of glorifying God through suffering, sickness and poverty began. It quickly grew into a major religious dogma. The problem is, it wasn't based on the Bible. It was born out of the misdirected fervor of those early Christians who had so focused on glorifying God through persecution, they didn't know what to do when the persecution stopped. They then replaced the lions and the burning stakes with all kinds of trouble and pain—mostly sickness and disease.

Their intentions were good. They loved God. But the fact is, there is no comparison between burning at the stake because you refuse to deny the Name of Jesus, and suffering from sickness or poverty. Those two kinds of suffering are not the same.

What Is Our Part?

"Brother Copeland, are you saying that Christians today, in countries like the United States where persecution is relatively minor, don't have to do any suffering?"

No. On the contrary, there is a very real, scriptural suffering that every serious believer must face. The Apostle Paul talked about that suffering. He said:

I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ [the Anointed] Jesus my Lord [and His Anointing]: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ [the Anointed One and His Anointing], And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ [the Anointed One and His Anointing], the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death (Philippians 3:8-10).

Paul said he wanted to know the fellowship of Jesus' sufferings. Clearly if Paul had a part in Jesus' sufferings, we do too. So we need to find out what that part is.

As I've said, some people have mistakenly decided sickness and disease are their part of Jesus' suffering. They say, "I guess this is just my cross to bear." But that can't possibly be true. According to Isaiah 53:4, Jesus bore our sicknesses, diseases and pains. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

Jesus, as our Savior, bore our sickness in His body. We're not qualified to do what He did. We aren't the Redeemer. We aren't the spotless, sinless Savior of the world. So sickness can't possibly be our cross to bear.

What then is our part of the suffering Jesus did on the cross? Look at the last part of verse 5 again and you'll see it. "…With his stripes we are healed." Our part of Jesus' physical suffering at Calvary is healing! Our part of the penalty for sin which He suffered, is forgiveness, cleansing and peace! Our part of His death is deliverance from the bondage death brings!

"But where's the suffering in that?" you may ask. "Being healed, peaceful and delivered from bondage hardly qualifies as suffering."

That's true. But once you step out in faith to receive all that Jesus suffered to provide for you, you will run head on into a totally different kind of suffering. The Bible talks about Jesus' experience with this second kind of suffering in Hebrews 2. I will include the whole passage here so you can see the context of it because it all relates to Jesus' suffering, but I want you to pay special attention to the last verse:

For it became him [Jesus], for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren….Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted (Hebrews 2:10-11, 14-18).

Notice the first verse in that passage said Jesus was made perfect through sufferings. Think about that for a moment and ask yourself, "Was Jesus made perfect by His sufferings on the cross?" Certainly not. He was already perfect when He went to the cross.

To what sufferings then is this scripture referring?

The last verse gives us the answer to that question. It is referring to the suffering that came when Jesus was tempted. It's referring to the spiritual resistance required of Him in the Garden of Gethsemane when He was under such pressure to quit and turn away from God's calling that He actually sweat drops of blood.

A Higher Form of Suffering

That's the kind of suffering you and I have to do. We, of course, don't have to endure as much pressure as Jesus did. We'll never have to resist to the point of sweating blood, because He did that for us. But if we are to fulfill the call of God on our lives, if we are to partake of all the divine privileges Jesus purchased for us through His death and resurrection, we will have to resist trials and temptations. We'll have to resist sickness, poverty and every other foul thing the devil tries to pressure us into receiving.

Sometimes it amuses me when people accuse faith preachers of saying the Christian life shouldn't include any suffering, that we should all just float along in a bed of roses healed, prosperous and happy. Actually, there's far more suffering involved in living healed and prosperous than there is in lying down and letting sickness roll over you.

Think about it for a moment and you can see for yourself. Let's say you wake up one morning with all the symptoms of the flu. You have that cold, clammy sweat running down your forehead and you ache from head to toe. The first thing that pops into your head is to grab the cold medicine (you know, the kind that just knocks you out), pull the covers up and tell your wife to call the office for you because you're too sick to go to work. You lie there in your bed, moaning and groaning all day…suffering for Jesus. "I guess I'm just bringing glory to the Lord," you say.

Let me ask you, how does the Lord get any glory out of you having the flu? What is He going to get out of you staying in bed all day shivering and blowing your nose? That's not even a good testimony. It certainly doesn't compare with getting burned at the stake!

But now, let's set up another scene. Say you wake up one morning with all those symptoms we've just described. But instead of cowering in bed, you throw the covers aside and say, "No, devil! I'll not submit to this sickness. Jesus paid a high price for me to be healed, and I intend to walk in that healing!"

You swing your legs over the side of the bed, put your feet on that cold floor and your aching body just recoils. It practically begs you to get back under the covers. The last thing you feel like doing is reading your Bible. But you don't care what your body feels like doing. You reach over to the night stand, open that Bible and start reading out loud, "Bless the Lord, O my soul…He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases." You walk around the room declaring the Word of God, determined to talk in faith, act in faith and resist the devil until he runs from you and takes his filthy flu with him!

Now you tell me, which of those is the higher kind of suffering?

You know the answer as well as I do. There's far more suffering in resistance than there is in submitting to that sickness. What's more, when you suffer by resisting and you defeat the devil, you truly do bring glory to God! You prove once again that His power and His Word are greater than anything Satan has. You prove once again that He is faithful to His covenant. You rub the devil's nose in the fact that greater is He Who is in you than he who is in the world!

Be a Good Soldier

That's the kind of winning attitude every Holy Ghost-baptized believer ought to have all the time. We ought to set our sights on being just like Jesus Who never yielded to the pressure of the devil. We ought to be like the Apostle Paul who said, "…Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ [the Anointed One and His Anointing] may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's [the Anointed One and His Anointing] sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Paul told the devil, "Wait till I'm my weakest, then shoot your best shot and I'll still whip you with the anointing of God!" Paul actually had a good time at it! He had become such a fine soldier in God's army that he wasn't looking for a way to stay out of the battle, he was looking for a way to get in it.

He didn't think he should be the only one with that attitude, either. In 2 Timothy 2:1-4, he wrote:

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

If you and I are going to be soldiers worthy to be in this glorious army of Almighty God, we'll have to endure hardness. There's an element of suffering in that. But remember, a soldier doesn't just endure the assaults of the enemy by running onto the battlefield without any weapons and without any plans, standing there until he gets shot.

No! A good soldier gets the proper training. He learns how to use his weapons and listens to his commander so he knows the battle plan. That soldier may start out thinking like a civilian, but the more he trains, the more his attitude is changed. He no longer thinks about the hardship. It no longer bothers him to fall into a mud hole. It no longer upsets him to have to sleep in the dirt.

His training has made him tough and hard in mind and body. A change has come over him. Instead of focusing on his own discomfort, he focuses on the fact that he believes in and is proud of the army he has joined. He takes joy in the fact that he has become a powerful instrument of war!

Even naturally speaking, I know a little about that kind of transformation. When I was drafted into the Army back in the late 1950s, I was the furthest thing from any kind of soldier. I was overweight and out of shape. Immediately after I arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas, I was confronted with a big, fierce master sergeant who was every inch a soldier. He had his hair cut in short, military style. He was so spit and polish that his pants and his boots squeaked when he walked.

When he saw me, he just grinned, poked me in the belly and said, "Boy, we're going to let the air out of you!"

At that moment, all I could think was, How can I get out of this without going to jail? I don't want to be in this Army. I don't want to wear these dumb clothes that don't fit. And I don't want to be anywhere near this master sergeant!

But eight weeks later, it was a different story. I was a changed man. My boots were shining. My belt was several notches tighter and I was doing everything I could to be exactly like that master sergeant.

Right now, you may be like I was during those first few days in the Army. You may be looking for a way out of the suffering that comes from resisting the devil. But that's okay. Just put yourself in training. Get into the Word and find out about your helmet of salvation and your shield of faith. Find out how to use the sword of the Spirit to cut the devil down to size.

Spend time praying and reading about Jesus so you can find out what your Commander in Chief looks like. I've seen Him, and I can tell you—He is marvelous!

He has a golden girdle around His chest that stands for authority. He radiates with the fiery glory and power of God, and He gave that same glory to you and me (John 17:22). He said, "…All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore…and cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues…lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Matthew 28:18-19, Mark 16:17-18).

Fellowship with Jesus and meditate on His Word until, with your heart, you can see Him looking squarely into your eyes and saying, "Soldier, you're one of the best this army has. You've been trained in the Word. You know how to walk by faith. You have My power and My anointing to put the devil and all his works under your feet. Now go and occupy this territory in My Name until I come again!"

When that happens, you won't be looking for a place to run and hide. You won't be lying in bed whining about suffering for Jesus. You'll be on your feet, enduring hardness like a good soldier, whipping the tar out of the devil, and bringing genuine glory to God!

Courtesy of: KCM.org(Kenneth Copeland Reference Bible)

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