He Did It All For You (7 page)

Folks, if an “open door” is evidence of the will of God, then the Apostle Paul was never in God’s will! He faced obstacles and barriers throughout his ministry, but he took the Word of God and knocked the doors open in order to get the job done! Even when he was thrown in prison, he prayed his way out. He did his job despite the obstacles.

Sin consciousness will look for a way
out
of a situation: “We might not have enough money to go…I might not be able to take off work.” But a righteousness consciousness always finds a way
in.
When I was preaching in Jamaica, there was a man who had quit a good job in order to attend our meetings and hear the Word. He would walk six miles twice each day just to be in the meetings, and when I questioned him about it, he said, “Brother Copeland, I fasted and prayed for a year that God would send someone to teach us the Word, and I’m not going to miss out on any of it! With what I’m learning about faith from the Word, I can get a better job!”

You see, this man was looking for a way in! He wanted more of the things of God. He knew that Jesus had said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

Another area in which many people have been deceived, is in “putting out a fleece.” The person who uses a fleece is depending on a
physical
sign of God’s will in a situation, and if he’s not watchful,
he’ll get fleeced.

Now Gideon used a fleece, but let’s analyze his situation for a moment. In the first place, Gideon was not a reborn man. Consequently, he was forced to rely on physical evidence. He had no knowledge of God whatsoever because his entire family was following Baal. Second, there was no prophet in the land to give him the Word of God, and in those days the prophet was the only source of revelation knowledge. Third, Gideon was dealing with an angel—something completely foreign to him. Therefore, in his position, he had no choice but to put out a fleece—get a physical sign showing him what to do.

As believers, you and I are not in Gideon’s position. We have been born again and are led by the Spirit of God. We have access to the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God to use as a guide in finding God’s will for our lives. If you don’t know what to do in a particular situation, go to the Word of God, spend some time in prayer, meditate in the Word, and the Lord will begin to lead you. He said, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27).

You will know what to do by the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to depend on a sign from the natural, physical world to lead us. We are not blind. We have spiritual eyes, and we are to use them. Also, when you put out a fleece in the natural world, you give Satan a chance to foul up the operation since the physical world is his field of operation.

Here is a three-step formula that will cause success in every area of your life. Nothing can stop it. Every Christian endeavor, no matter what it is, will succeed when it is backed with this kind of prayer and dedication because God is behind it.

1.
Find the will of God in your situation by prayer and meditation in the Word.

2.
Once you have found the will of God, confer no longer with flesh and blood.
Don’t ask other people what to do. I may discuss a situation with my wife or my staff, but once we have prayed and I know the will of God, then it doesn’t matter what they think or say about it.

3.
Get your job done at all costs.
Don’t allow anything or anyone to stand in the way of God’s will.

To live in this kind of successful life, the believer must come to the realization that he has complete access to the ministry of Jesus. Jesus said in John 16:13-15, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come…he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” What a statement! This is almost more than the human mind can comprehend.

The Spirit of God has been sent into an earthly ministry just as legal and real as Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus came
to provide
the way for us, and the Holy Spirit has come
to teach
us the way. Jesus came to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant. The Holy Spirit has come to see that the Christian covenant is fulfilled.

The Spirit of God did not take the place of Jesus—He is God the Holy Spirit, and He is fulfilling His own ministry as God the Father directed Him.

The Word of God and the Name of Jesus have taken Jesus’ place here on earth. He said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5), and “Believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light” (John 12:36). As a new creation in Christ, you have the Name of Jesus, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God to enable you to stand and minister in the place of Jesus.

Benefits of Righteousness

As a believer, you have total access to the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of the Holy Spirit and to all the Father has. To receive from Him, all you have to do is go to His Word! The only reason we have been such easy targets for Satan is because we have not known our rights and privileges in Jesus Christ. Therefore, he could easily usurp authority over us. But the Bible says we have authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

We must find out what the Word has to say about the things of life and walk in line with it. We must renew our minds and put the force of righteousness to work in our lives.

If you are led by what you see or how you feel, you will fail. When you lean on your righteousness in Jesus Christ, you’ll know what belongs to you and you’ll not lie down under sickness or any other attack of Satan. You will go to the Word concerning healing, receive it for yourself, and walk in it because it is the Word of your Father.

Almighty God is your very own Father! You are bone of His bone, spirit of His Spirit, a joint heir with Jesus Christ, and living in the kingdom of God. As you realize these things you become God-inside-minded. You no longer think of God as being a million miles away. He is residing inside you!

Righteousness then becomes a force in the life of a believer that undergirds his faith. The reality of righteousness enables a believer to do the impossible. Jesus approached the tomb of Lazarus and said, “Roll away the stone.” He never wavered in His faith. Actually, throughout His entire ministry, He showed neither a lack of faith nor an abundance of faith. He simply knew who He was and took advantage of the authority that was His. You might say, “Yes, of course He did—He was the Son of God!” Well, who are you? Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” I have heard it argued that we will not receive our rights as sons of God until we get to heaven. However, Philippians 2:15-16 says, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life.” There is no crooked and perverse generation in heaven. The only crooked and perverse generation is here on earth where we are to be the sons of God and hold forth the Word.

We are told, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Jesus never stopped to think whether He had enough faith. He merely acted according to His rights in the kingdom of God. He stepped to the mouth of Lazarus’ tomb with a divine assurance, illustrating His awareness of His right-standing with God—His righteousness consciousness. Jesus revealed what righteousness really is.

Is it reasonable? No. Is it real? Yes, regardless of what the natural mind says, and it will work in the life of a Christian.

Look at the apostles after the Day of Pentecost. They had a right-standing relationship with God, and it was working in their lives. Peter stood and preached the Word, ministering boldly in the Name of Jesus. After all his failures, he realized that God loved him and that his past had been wiped away. He was filled with the Spirit of God and doing the things Joel had prophesied would be done.

The righteousness of God in Jesus Christ is the driving force behind our faith, causing us to triumph in His Name. Jesus triumphed over Satan in three areas. First, during His earthly ministry, He spoke to Satan and said, “It is written…,” and Satan had to obey the Word of God. Second, at the cross and resurrection, Jesus stripped Satan of his power and took the keys of hell and death. However, the third and most important area of Jesus’ triumph over Satan is His victory in the new birth. This is real victory! It was impossible in Satan’s thinking for God to turn a man of sin into righteousness, give him the armor of God and enable him to triumph as Jesus did. This is victory of the highest order! Sin turned into
righteousness! Death
turned into
life!

Righteousness triumphs in the face of Satan and the whole world. No devil in hell is big enough to stop it, and it is available to “whosoever will.” All are the same in the eyes of God. All need the power of God in their lives. When they cry out to God in the Name of Jesus, He receives them with open arms, re-creates them, gives them His righteousness, and makes them virtual powerhouses of faith! It is happening today all over the world to people in all walks of life!

God sees the believer as
righteousness.
In 2 Corinthians 6:14 Paul wrote, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” Here the Word refers to the believer as
righteousness
and
light
and to the unbelievers as
unrighteousness
and
darkness.
We are the light of the world. Praise God!

As believers, we have His righteousness. We are the crowning creation of God! A reborn man is the greatest creation in the universe! Man in his natural, sinful state was headed straight to hell. By all laws, he deserved to be condemned forever, but God intervened and legally changed the laws. He beat Satan at his own game, and life became ruler over death! Jesus became the Lord and the champion of our salvation, the bishop over our souls in the new birth. He gave us His righteousness—the ability to triumph in His Name—and we have peace with God. He who knew no sin, was made to be sin. He was made to be our sinfulness so that we could be made His righteousness. We have been made to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, victorious in Him! This is real victory! You don’t just bow a subservient knee to God—you join your faith with His, giving Him the opportunity to do a miracle in your heart and turn you into the righteousness of Almighty God! You can then approach the throne of grace boldly, without a sense of fear or condemnation, and receive from your Father all that is yours as a new creation in Christ.

Because you are re-created in His righteousness, you are born of His love. God is love. First John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God… for God is love.” God, the Father of love, sent the Son of His love so you could become part of His great love family.

His love nature is in you, so He has commanded you to love others and go into all the world in the power of that love as His ambassador. Love is the answer to every problem because it never fails. God
has
faith, but He
is
love.

As you read the next chapter, remember that as a new creature, re-created in Him, you are a child of His love. Therefore love is the secret to your success!

by Gloria Copeland

Love—The Secret to Your Success

Love. You hear a lot about it. But, the truth is, few people really know what love is.

For most, it’s an emotional phantom that appears—then vanishes—without warning. Illusive. Undefinable. Forever sought but rarely found.

Even believers seem to be confused about it at times: But they don’t need to be. The Word of God reveals clearly what love truly is.

Look at 2 John 6: “And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it]”
(The Amplified Bible).

Quite simply, God says love is keeping His commandments. That brings love out of the indefinite into something explicit. But God has done even more than define love for you. He’s given you instructions so that you can know how to love as He loves. By giving you His Word, God has given you His love manual in black and white! All you have to do is follow it, and you’ll be walking in love.

If you’ve made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, you’ve already taken the first step of obedience. The love of God has been born within you. But unless you take action, that love will remain hidden within you. Love works in much the same way as the force of faith. Faith is born into you when you are begotten of God, but until you begin to act on God’s Word, that powerful force lies dormant. The same thing is true concerning the love of God. You can have the love of God abiding within you and still be unable to allow that love to work through you to reach other people. Like faith, love becomes active through knowledge of the Word.

That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi saying, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment” (Philippians 1:9).

The love of God is released in your life by acting on the knowledge of God’s Word. Without revelation knowledge followed by action, love lies undeveloped and selfishness continues to reign supreme in you—even though you are a new creature.

“But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:5-6).

As you act on God’s Word, the love of God will be perfected in you. That’s when love will begin to flow from you to others.

There is nothing—absolutely nothing—more important than learning to love. In fact, how accurately you perfect the love walk will determine how much of the perfect will of God you accomplish. That’s because every other spiritual force derives its action from love. For example, the Bible teaches us that faith works by love. And answered prayer is almost impossible when a believer steps outside of love and refuses to forgive or is in strife with his brother.

In the beginning of the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, the Word says that tongues is just noise if there is no love. If a person has the gift of prophecy, understands all knowledge, and has enough faith to move mountains, without love he is nothing. If he gives all that he has to the poor and even sacrifices his life, without the love of God he gains nothing.

Without love, your giving will not work. Tongues and prophecy will not work. Faith fails and knowledge is unfruitful. All the truths you have learned from God’s Word work by love. They will profit you little unless you live the love of God.

First Corinthians 13:4-8 paints a perfect picture of how love behaves:

Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]
(The Amplified Bible)
.

That may sound like a tough set of requirements—but you can meet them. You are a love creature. God has re-created your spirit in the image of love. And He has sent His love Spirit to live in you and teach you how to love as He loves. You
can
live the love life!

Become love conscious by confessing and acting on God’s Word concerning this love. As you meditate on these scriptures, see yourself living the love life.

You are the one who must make the decision to perfect the love of God in your life. No one else can do it for you. So, make the decision in faith and commit yourself to obey God’s Word about love.

Let me warn you, though. There will be times when you would rather do anything than allow love to rule. (It will seem as though it is taking off a pound of flesh!) There will be times when it would be much easier to go ahead and get mad, to seek your own and retaliate.

Love is directly opposed to the senses. The senses have been trained to put themselves and their desires above anything else—to selfishly seek their own way. But love, the Word says, does not seek its own rights or its own way. And to walk in love, you must demand that your senses (flesh) be subject to the Word.

Without a definite decision, you will not continue in the love of God. So commit yourself to agape—God’s love—now. And when temptation comes, you’ll remember your decision and obey love.

Once you’ve made the decision, the most powerful thing you can do in perfecting the love walk is to continually confess that you are the love of
God. Base your confession on 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. This God kind of love will begin to influence all you say and do. If someone says something unkind to you, love will say, “That’s OK. I am not touchy, fretful or resentful. I take no account of that.” And you go free!

Learn to believe in love. It is the most powerful force in the universe. Walk in love by faith in the Word. Walking in love is walking in the spirit. It is walking as Jesus walked.

Love never fails. Nothing works without it, and there can be no failure with it. When you live by love, you cannot fail.

It takes faith to believe that love’s way will not fail. The natural mind cannot understand that because the natural man and his world are ruled by selfishness. He believes if you don’t look out for number one (himself), no one else will. And in a sense, he is right. No one else
can
look out for him. His selfishness shuts the door to the love of God, and he winds up on his own.

But when you practice love by faith and refuse to seek your own, you put the Father into action on your behalf. He will allow no man to do you wrong (1 Chronicles 16:22). As long as you stay in love, God the Father seeks your own. He sees to it that love never fails. Walking in love is to your great advantage!

Agape love is a new kind of power. It makes you the master of every situation. As long as you walk in love, you cannot be hurt and you cannot fail. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. No one even has the power to hurt your feelings because you are not ruled by feelings but by God’s love. You are loving as He loves.

E.W. Kenyon accurately tagged this agape love “a new kind of selfishness.” You no longer seek your own success, yet your success is guaranteed!

This love is revolutionary. If we fully understood the great return from living God’s love, we’d probably be competing with each other, each of us trying to love the other more. And without a doubt, everyone would emerge from that competition a winner! For love is truly the only sure secret to our success.