Archive for September, 2009
Gloria Copeland — Offer Yourself
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I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
This scripture in Romans 12 is talking about crucifying the flesh, as is Galatians 5:24-25: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” We are admonished to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. We are to lay aside our own natural desires in order to fulfill God’s desires. The Wuest translation of Romans 12:1 says we are to “place [our] bodies at the disposal of God….”
According to the Bible, then, this is only our reasonable service—though it might seem an unreasonable demand to some. Why is it our reasonable service? Because Jesus gave His body as a living sacrifice for us. We have been bought with a price, and we are to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
The Greek word translated Lord means “master” or “owner.” Jesus became your new owner the moment you made Him the Lord of your life. Most Christians want to be born again but will not allow Jesus to be Lord in their lives. They want to continue to walk in the darkness of this world, when they could be walking in the light of God.
“[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13, amp). We have been transferred into the kingdom of God and are to place our bodies and minds under His authority, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us how to live under the dominion of God.
This sacrifice of our bodies is to be a holy and well-pleasing (acceptable) sacrifice. The Greek word thusia, translated sacrifice, denotes “the act of offering.” We are to make an offering of our bodies. We are the offering God desires. He wants to change our bodies from a dedication to worldliness to a dedication to godliness.
How do we do this? We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. W.E. Vine says the word renew means “the adjustment of the moral and spiritual vision and thinking to the mind of God.” We are to adjust our thinking to the mind of God. The Holy Spirit teaches us to think like God thinks and to act like God acts. As we do this, the outward expression of our bodies will begin to match the inward expression of Jesus. We will begin to walk in the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God. Offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God. Lay down your own desires in order to fulfill His desires.
This is not an unreasonable thing for God to ask. It is only your reasonable service, because you have been bought with such a precious price. Jesus purchased you with the crucifying of His own flesh, and shed His own blood to redeem you. He became a living sacrifice for you. The least you can do is give your body to Him, for you are not your own. (See 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.)
There is a decision to be made. Are you going to serve your own interests or the Lord Jesus? I believe you are going to decide to offer yourself as a living sacrifice. And when you do, you’ll find you don’t have to fight the war between your flesh and spirit, but your spirit, controlled by the Holy Spirit, will stop the war! As you obey the Holy Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will make you free from the law of sin and death.
Gloria Copeland
Gloria Copeland — Living After the Spirit
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“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:13-14).
We have studied about suffering. The same suffering Jesus endured when He was crucified, we are to bear in our own bodies. We are to crucify our flesh, to mortify the deeds of the body, to be in command of our flesh as we follow after the Lord. We have the power to overcome sin in the flesh because of what Jesus did on the cross.
For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice] (Romans 8:3, amp).
Verse 18 says, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” This suffering crucifying of the flesh and mortifying its deeds is connected in the Scriptures with the glory of God. Why? Because God cannot manifest Himself in His people if they follow after the flesh instead of after the Spirit of God.
God works in the spirit realm. As we follow after the Spirit, He works in us. We must lay aside natural things in the natural life, and take up the things of the spiritual life. As we walk in the spirit, the glory of God that’s in the face of Jesus Christ will begin to be reflected in us. Crucifying the flesh and the glory of God being revealed in us are connected, scripture after scripture!
God wants us to come to a place where we walk and live in this earth in the glorious liberty that has been prepared for us from the foundation of the world. Romans 8:21 says, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” God made man to live in His glory. He crowned Adam with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5). Adam had the glory of God on him. He looked just like God. He wore a garment of light and had the same power, authority and appearance as God Himself. He was in God’s image His exact likeness.
That’s why he had no realization of being naked until after he sinned. When he sinned against God, spiritual life departed and spiritual death came. The glory that was his covering disappeared. Notice, that all God’s creatures, except man, have their own covering. Birds are covered with feathers that are produced from within. Animals are covered with fur, produced from within.
Adam and Eve’s bodies were covered with an enswathement of glory which was produced from within their beings (Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Volume III). The life of God in Adam radiated the glory of God through Adam’s flesh.
Sin brings man short of the glory of God. When Adam disobeyed God, he lost the power from within to produce and bring forth this glory. He had no life within him to manifest this covering. Spiritual death entered into him and only darkness could emanate. There was no longer any glory in Adam to be revealed.
What a devastating blow to God’s man whom God created in His own image. God told Moses, “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Numbers 14:21). That is still God’s plan today—for His glory to fill the earth. And His glory is revealed in us, the Church of Jesus Christ.
God has glorious liberty for us. This liberty is in walking after the spirit and not after the flesh. It’s in the spirit realm. You and I are spirit beings, though we live in flesh bodies. We are strange and peculiar creatures spirits in natural bodies. God is calling us to be dominated by His Spirit and to bring our bodies of flesh under His control.
The Church will come to a place where we’ll walk with God. We’ll be like Enoch. The Bible says, “Enoch walked with God and he was not….” And Hebrews says Enoch was translated by faith because he had the testimony that he pleased God. One day Enoch just went so far in the spirit, he didn’t come back. The Bible says he didn’t see death.
Isn’t that what is going to happen with the Church that is looking for His appearance? We’re going to be caught up with Him in the air. We’re not going to see death. Paul said, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51).
I believe the day of His appearing is at hand. We read in Ephesians what the Church will look like when Jesus comes to receive us: “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26-27).
A glorious Church! A Church full of the glory of God! A Church with no spots or wrinkles, but a holy Church without blemish. God wants us to learn how to listen to His Spirit so He can lead us into all truth and teach us how to remove the spots and wrinkles. He wants to be able to reveal His glory in us.
The Russian believers (prior to more recent changes in Eastern Europe) had to rely on the Spirit more than we do now, because of adverse circumstances. The underground church met in secret.
Church members met out in the woods and in different places. (It had to be a secret or they would be raided.) Someone who had been ministering in the underground church told me about one instance when it was realized that there was a spy in the camp because everywhere they went the KGB (secret police) would show up.
They decided, “Well, all right, if you’re going to come to the meeting, you’ll have to get the information from the Spirit of God.” They would have to pray and listen to God to know where to meet. At the next meeting, every person in that group showed up except one. They knew who the guilty party was.
Walking in the spirit is real. Listening to the Holy Spirit is a way of life we must develop in order to fulfill what we are called to do in these last days.
We have the same ability to listen to our spirits, but instead we rely on a newsletter we receive every month that tells us where to meet. We have not had to depend on the Holy Spirit’s direction the way our Russian brothers and sisters had to. Nevertheless, it’s just as available to us! Many of them didn’t have Bibles. They had to be led by their spirits.
The people in the New Testament didn’t have Bibles to read, either. They also had to be led by their spirits. Paul told them to pray in the spirit so they would get the mind of the Spirit. Those people in Russia had to have the mind of the Spirit or they couldn’t go to church!
Thank God, we live in a free land. But we must learn to walk in obedience to the Spirit while we live in liberty, not being forced into it, but rather, choosing the things of the spirit over the things of the world.
God is raising up a people called the “Glorious Church,” who can hear the voice of His Spirit and obey Him in whatever we are told to do. How can you know what the mind of the Spirit is? By renewing your mind with the Word of God, praying in the spirit, being sensitive to Him and by yielding your life, thoughts and direction to Him.
If you don’t pull aside and take time to listen to God, you’ll not know the direction of the Holy Spirit. You’ll miss the great things God has for your life. The time for being cold is over. The time for being lukewarm is over. It’s time to rise up and become on fire and stay that way!
Purpose in your heart that you will not be lazy, that you will not draw back, hold back or sit down. But purpose in your heart that you will rise up and march forward and become on fire.
Gloria Copeland
Gloria Copeland — Listen to the Spirit Part 2
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We know the beginning and the end of God’s plan for earth. We have to learn the “how to” from the Spirit of God. We have to learn to walk in the spirit one step at a time, just like we learned to walk in the natural. When we spend time praying in the spirit, we give the Holy Spirit opportunity to pray the perfect will of God for our lives.
We may not have any idea what the perfect will of God is and therefore cannot pray effectively with our understanding. But the Holy Spirit knows exactly what to pray in order to get God’s will done in our lives.
And in like manner also the Spirit lends us a helping hand with reference to our weakness, for the particular thing that we should pray for according to what is necessary in the nature of the case, we do not know with an absolute knowledge (Romans 8:26, wuest).
The Holy Spirit gives us utterance that is founded on absolute knowledge. He goes right to the root of the problem.
And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will (Romans 8:27, amp).
With our limited understanding of spiritual things, often we only know the result of something wrong in our lives. The best way to explain this is with an example: You might be asking God to heal your body.
You think sickness is the problem, when sometimes it is a result of something more serious. The Holy Spirit may be prompting you in your spirit, saying, You should forgive your sister-in-law. But you pay no
attention to that prompting because the sickness in your body is so important, and your sister-in-law is far down on your list of priorities.
The Holy Spirit is going to the root. He is endeavoring to stop the problem at the source of the trouble. If you receive healing but continue in that sin, then another problem will occur. Unforgiveness is sin. To God, the first priority is that we walk in love. To walk in love is God’s commandment to the Church.
The Holy Spirit will continue to lead you to forgive. If you determine to walk in the spirit and spend time praying in the spirit and seeking God’s will for your life, then you’ll pay attention to that leading. You’ll obey, not even realizing your own healing is contingent on your obedience. If you’ll go after God and His will, you’ll learn to make adjustments quickly and cause your will to agree with His.
Every day as you believe God for the healing of your body, you also pray in the Holy Spirit, giving Him place and control in your life. While you have been asking for healing, which is merely a side issue, He has been praying the perfect will of God through you in this matter—that you walk in love with your sister-in-law! With your cooperation, He overcomes your weakness. You hear His voice and obey it. You forgive. Now, you’re back in agreement with God. Sickness loses its foothold. You have victory, and the Holy Spirit has you!
Gloria Copeland
Gloria Copeland — Listen to the Spirit Part 1
Posted by admin | Filed under Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland
You cannot live in sin and expect the blessings of God. As you give your time and attention to spiritual things the Word of God, prayer and fellowship with the Lord you will hear the Holy Spirit. You’ll hear His promptings and He’ll show you how to walk in the spirit. But you have to dedicate yourself to God.
You have to think about Him. You have to sow to the spirit. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
If you have been thinking, I need to spend more time in prayer or watching television all the time isn’t good for me spiritually or I shouldn’t talk about people the way I do, then the promptings of your spirit are being led by the Holy Spirit. He’s trying to pull you aside from the things of the world and lead you to give God control of your life.
Once you begin to respond to and obey those promptings, you’ll notice that direction from the Lord gets stronger and easier to discern. The voice of your flesh will get quieter.
The Holy Spirit in you bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:16-17). This means that as a born again believer, you have the life and nature of God in your spirit right now. Notice, this witness is in your spirit not your mind.
You have the ability to walk in the spirit in glorious liberty on this earth. You don’t have to wait until you get to heaven to live free from evil. Jesus prayed that the Father not take us out of the world, but keep us from the evil in the world (John 17:15).
Romans 8:21 says, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” That “glorious liberty” referred to is walking in the spirit! You must commit to that liberty. You can’t enter into it halfheartedly, but must sell out to God and give Him your whole heart.
Gloria Copeland
Gloria Copeland — Let Your Spirit Speak by the Holy Spirit
Posted by admin | Filed under Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries
For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries (1 Corinthians 14:2).
A mystery is something we can’t know with our intellect something beyond our knowledge. Mysteries are in the realm described in Ephesians 3:20 a realm beyond what we can ask or think. The Bible says we know in part and prophesy in part. We are not nearly as smart as we think we are.
When you pray in the spirit, the Holy Spirit brings the mysteries of the Father into the earth. Praying in the spirit is not “praying in part,” but causing the Father’s perfect will to overwhelm the course of this earth. In this hour it is so critical we pray and intercede in the spirit, because God wants to do things in the earth we’ve never even thought of, much less asked for.
Let your spirit speak by the Holy Spirit to bring into this earth the magnificent era of God’s plan that He desires to manifest in these last days.
God doesn’t do anything in the earth unless man gives Him opportunity. If people don’t pray and ask God for answers, then nothing will happen. The Spirit of God doesn’t move in the natura realm unless people pray and use their authority in the earth. In Exodus 3:7-8 God said, “I…have heard their cry…and I am come down to deliver them.”
First Corinthians 2:6-7 says, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.”
Now read verse 7 in The Amplified Bible: But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God—[that wisdom] which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification [to lift us into the glory of His presence].
Verse 8 continues: “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
God has a plan. He has always had a plan. He began working His plan before the foundation of the world, and has never deviated from it (Ephesians 1:4). He has a way to bring this earth back into fellowship with Him. The Bible says God knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation (2 Peter 2:9).
He has the way for the Church of Jesus Christ to rise up as the glorious Church without spot or wrinkle. He reveals His plan to us as we get in the spirit. There are some things we know about His plan (Ephesians 1-2), but often we lack knowledge of how to fulfill the day-to-day details. The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth and shows us things to come, but only by obeying Him one day at a time, can we accomplish His will in our lives.
The Holy Spirit reveals the wisdom of God to us the “hidden wisdom” which God ordained before the foundation of the world (1 Corinthians 2:7). When we the Church hear and obey that wisdom, it will remove the spots and wrinkles, so that this glorious Church will be holy and without blemish.
Gloria Copeland
