Posts Tagged ‘Word of God’
The Image of Love
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by Gloria Copeland
It’s time to talk about a life of love. Of course, when say “love” here, I’m not talking about the emotional counterfeit the world calls love. That kind of love is dependent on circumstances and feelings.
God’s love isn’t like that. It’s constant. It’s unconditional. The chief ingredient of the God-kind of love is self-sacrifice for the benefit of the one loved. It continues to love people whether or not it receives a response. Divine love is not self-seeking. It is self-giving.
God doesn’t just love the lovely. He loves the unlovely, too. No matter how bad or mean someone might be, if they’ll turn to Him, He’ll cleanse them and forgive them.
That’s the way God loves us! We see the way He loves us in detail in 1 Corinthians 13:
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… (verses 4-8, The Amplified Bible).
Gloria Copeland — Lessons in Obedience – Abraham Part 1
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Faith is believing God’s Word enough to act on it. James 2:26 says, “…faith without works is dead also.” Weymouth says, “For just as a human body without a spirit is lifeless, so also faith is lifeless without obedience.” Faith is acting on God’s Word.
Abraham is a great example of obedience and faith. In Genesis 12:1, God told Abraham to get out of his country and go away from his relatives to a land that He would show him:
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.
Verse 4 of this chapter then says, “So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him….”
When the Lord told Abraham that he would have seed as numerous as the stars, the Bible says, “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Abraham and Sarah had never been able to have children, even in their youth. The same day God promised him seed, He made a covenant with Abraham (whose name at the time was Abram) declaring “unto thy seed have I given this land…” (Genesis 15:18).
Later God changed his name from Abram to Abraham which meant “father of many nations.” Therefore, every time Abraham declared his new name saying, “I am Abraham,” he was declaring, “I am the father of many nations!”
Isaac was the result of Abraham’s believing what God said to him, even though it was a natural impossibility for him to have a son. Romans 4:3 says, “…Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform (Romans 4:13, 16-21).
Gloria Copeland
Gloria Copeland — Old Testament Obedience
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God has always desired a people who would choose to walk with Him—to follow Him and to come into agreement with Himin the earth.
Generation after generation He has desired a people He could elevate to such a place that all the nations of the world would know they were the ones He had blessed.
But there has always been a problem. It existed in the Garden of Eden and was in the children of Israel in the wilderness. To a great extent, it’s in the Church today. The problem? Disobedient people.
Under the old covenant, the people had to be obedient by keeping the Law diligently, with their souls—their minds, wills and emotions.
Under the new covenant, we’re to keep God’s Word not only with our souls, but with our hearts (our spirits). It’s so much easier for us to be obedient to God than it was for them because we have a new heart, born again in the image and nature of God.
More than ever, we should be obedient to Him because now we don’t have to walk according to Old Testament law, but in newness of our born-again spirits. We’ve been reborn to be obedient.
While we’re here on the earth, we must do what we can for God. This includes being obedient and victorious in every area of our lives.
Jesus knew this when He was a man on the earth. He was raised among people who knew they had to obey the voice of God and keep His statutes. He learned what the prophets of God before Him had said, and began a walk of perfect obedience.
Gloria Copeland
Gloria Copeland — Travel Light
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Once you’ve made the decision to finish your race, there’s one other element of spiritual aggressiveness to put into motion. Patience.
Patience doesn’t sound very aggressive, does it? But it is. In Hebrews 12:1-2 Paul says we are to run our race with patience and without encumbrance: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith….”
Think about those Olympic runners. Think of them pushing themselves to the limit, focusing on the goal, training themselves day after day—with what? With patience! In the Greek, that word means “steady continuance.”
Patience means you don’t quit. You keep doing what you know to do. Sometimes you may not see results for a while. But eventually, if you keep pressing, you’ll get there. As Kenneth E. Hagin said, “God doesn’t settle up every Saturday night, but He does settle up.”
Weights and sin are two different things. But both of them must be removed if we’re going to continue running.
Weights are things that pull you down into the natural realm when you ought to be soaring in the Spirit. So let go of whatever holds you back! Press into the Spirit and run.
Sin is revealed by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit’s conviction. You know when you have sinned. Confess
it. Deal with it, so you can run. Lay it aside and get
back on track.
Gloria Copeland
Gloria Copeland — No Sorrow Included
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Now, think again about that question I asked you earlier. How much do you want to succeed in life? Enough to change what you’re saying? Enough to change where your attention is focused? Enough to act on the Word of God even when the rest of the world is telling you it will never work?
If you want it that much, the Word of God guarantees you’ll get your fill of success in life. Good success. Not the kind the world gives, but God’s own brand of success.
Success the world’s way has a price tag of misery attached to it. But Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”
I will warn you of this, though. Satan won’t like it if you choose the way of success. He’ll do whatever he can to stop you, and since he knows God’s success formula, he knows exactly what tactics to use.
He’ll pressure you to say negative things. He’ll try to distract you from the Word and get your attention on anything—it doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it isn’t the Word.
His goal is to stop your faith. He knows it’s the only force that can cause impossible situations to change.
He also knows that it comes from the Word of God. So when he sees that Word going in your heart and hears it coming out your mouth, he doesn’t just sit there. He starts talking. Doubtful thoughts will come into your mind, thoughts that are just the opposite of what God’s Word says.
But those thoughts don’t become yours unless you believe them and speak them. That’s what he wants you to do, of course. If the Word says you’re healed, he’ll tell you you’re sick. If the Word says you’re forgiven, he’ll say you’re still guilty. If the Word says your needs are met, he’ll tell you they’re not.
But if you won’t let go, if you keep the Word in your mouth and in your heart, you can’t lose. There’s no force the devil can bring against you that will overcome the Word of God. It will make you a winner every time.
So if you’ve been wanting good success and it’s been eluding you, quit wondering whether you have what it takes to make it—and remember instead Who is with you. Then turn to the Word of God and put God’s success formula to work in your life. Start talking it. Start thinking it. Start doing it.
Before long, you won’t be chasing success…it will be chasing you!
Gloria Copeland
