Paul’s Testimony Regarding Healing by Gloria Copeland
Posted by admin | Filed under Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Paul’s own testimony was, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6-7). That is not a description of a man who was sick or weak. Glory to God!
When you are sick, you don’t do very much. You are not strong. You stay right where you are and worry about your own body. When you are sick, you’re not thinking about laying hands on someone else to get them healed. Paul couldn’t have finished the course had he been a sick man. He couldn’t fight a good fight and be sick. The fight of faith is a good fight because it’s a fight you win.
It is my desire to make this same statement when it is time for me to depart. “I have fought a good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.” To me, those are strong, victorious words. Just think
about that. This man was strong in the Lord! In Philippians 4:12-13, The Amplified Bible, Paul said, “I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation…I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me.” Paul learned to rely on the One within him to put him over. He quit trying to do things by himself. He knew he was strong in the Lord, not in his own might.
In Acts 9:16 the Lord said, “I will show him [Paul] how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” Paul knew he would undergo persecutions and afflictions, and he agreed to it. He wanted to do the will of God at any cost.
Paul was a victorious man. He said, “Persecutions, sufferings, such as occurred to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me” (2 Timothy 3:11, The Amplified Bible). Tradition forgets to tell us that! Paul faced trials and tribulations, but the Lord delivered him out of them all!
The thorn in the flesh that we have heard so much about could gain no victory over Paul and the Word of God. The messenger of Satan could only aggravate and harass him. He could not stop the Word from going
forth. There is a big difference in being aggravated and being defeated! In every situation Paul faced, even death by stoning, the power of God was made strong and delivered him.
We hear so much more about the thorn in the flesh than about the outcome. Paul was delivered from every opposition, from every evil work. When human strength ends, the power of God excels. This
is what we should have been taught about the thorn in the flesh. This is teaching that the Church needs to hear: When human strength ends, the power of God excels!
You can see how helpless we have been with traditions planted in our hearts and minds instead of God’s Word. You cannot stand in faith against sickness and disease when you have been taught that sickness is God’s will for you. How can you stand in faith when you think God has put cancer on you to teach you something?
This tradition is an abomination to the nature of God! How can you say that a loving God would put sickness on you to teach you something? If you believe that, then you need to quit taking your medicine. If it is God’s will for you to be sick, then to take medicine would be to fight against the will of God.
Gloria Copeland – Kenneth Copeland Ministries
