Christianity is God and His family–a family made up of people who are saved, made righteous and BLESSED through faith, that live, not by a set of religious rules, but by the love of God and the same kind of faith Abraham had.
The first question that comes to mind once you grasp the awesome magnitude of THE BLESSING is this: How do I get it to operate in my life?
That’s something we all need to know because, as we’ve seen, incorporated in that BLESSING is everything we’ll ever need: health and healing, victory and dominion in every area of life, abundance— spirit, soul and body, and the power to be a BLESSING to all the families of the earth. All those things became ours the moment we were born again because that’s when THE BLESSING of Abraham came on us through Jesus Christ. That’s when we were “BLESSED…with all spiritual BLESSINGS in heavenly places in Christ.” As joint heirs with Jesus, we are—right now— co-possessors of everything in heaven and earth. every promise God ever made to Abraham and his Seed has been fulfiled in Christ Jesus and deposited into our heavenly account. What we must find out is how to exercise our checking privileges and get those promises from heaven to earth. the bible explains it to us with one short phrase in Galatians 3:14: We receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. those two simple words are the key to the BLESSING door. It’s through faith we are born again and become the seed of Abraham.
It’s through faith we become legal heirs of the blessing. It’s through faith we release its operation in our lives. the faith of Abraham is what originally activated the BLESSING of Abraham, and it still does. that’s why God said that “without faith it is impossible to please him.” It’s been his will from the beginning for us to live in THE BLESSING, and because faith is what connects us to it, we can’t please him without it. “Well, I don’t see it that way,” someone might say. “I think being blessed has more to do with keeping God’s rules than with faith. If you keep his rules, you’ll be blessed. If you don’t, you won’t.” thinking that way won’t get you very far because no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to work your way into the blessing. It’s God’s gift to his children, and it can’t be earned. I can understand this to some degree through my relationship with my son, John, and my daughters, Terri and Kellie. They can’t earn my blessing. They already have it. they have it because they’re my children, and nothing can change that. I sat down with John one day when he was about 16 years old and told him that straight out. he’d done some things he wasn’t too proud of and I’d been put out with him about them. he knew I was aggravated and, as a result, he had misgivings about where he stood with me. When the Lord showed me how he was feeling (and corrected me for being hard on him instead of extending love and mercy to him, as I should have) I went to him and cleared things up. I said, “Son, you listen to me and never forget what I’m about to say. If you committed the most heinous crime in the history of mankind and they threw you so deep into prison that you couldn’t see the light of day, you’d still never get rid of me. If you get yourself into trouble, I’ll pray for you and help you in every way I can. I will never leave you nor forsake you even to the end of the world. you’ll never get away from me because I’m yours and you’re mine. We’re not just father and son, we are brothers in Christ.” That kind of relationship isn’t something you can earn. It’s a blood covenant relationship. It has served us well, too. today, John and I are the best of friends, and he is head of all the business affairs of Kenneth Copeland Ministries. he’s a good man. he’s matured in the Lord, works hard and does what’s right in his service for the ministry. but he doesn’t do those things to earn my BLESSING. he does them knowing he already has it. as God’s children, we ought to be the same way. We should do what’s right, do it because it’s right and then do it right—but not in an effort to earn our Father’s BLESSING. We should do it in joy and love, knowing that we’re already blessed
When the Lord showed me how he was feeling (and corrected me for being hard on him instead of extending love and mercy to him, as I should have) I went to him and cleared things up. I said, “Son, you listen to me and never forget what I’m about to say. If you committed the most heinous crime in the history of mankind and they threw you so deep into prison that you couldn’t see the light of day, you’d still never get rid of me. If you get yourself into trouble, I’ll pray for you and help you in every way I can. I will never leave you nor forsake you even to the end of the world. you’ll never get away from me because I’m yours and you’re mine. We’re not just father and son, we are brothers in Christ.” That kind of relationship isn’t something you can earn. It’s a blood covenant relationship. It has served us well, too. today, John and I are the best of friends, and he is head of all the business affairs of Kenneth Copeland Ministries. he’s a good man. he’s matured in the Lord, works hard and does what’s right in his service for the ministry. but he doesn’t do those things to earn my BLESSING. he does them knowing he already has it. as God’s children, we ought to be the same way. We should do what’s right, do it because it’s right and then do it right—but not in an effort to earn our Father’s BLESSING. We should do it in joy and love, knowing that we’re already blessed. That’s the way Abraham lived. he walked in THE BLESSINGg by simple faith, not by keeping a list of religious rules.
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted 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. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect (Romans 4:2-5, 13-14).
Although I’m very much in favour of obeying God’s commands (more about that later), the fact is, if someone just keeps rules without faith, their rule-keeping doesn’t do any good. No one can keep God’s commandments without faith, anyway. they might be able to obey a few of them for a while and be nice when everyone is looking, but if they’re not living by faith, they’ll fail before sundown. that’s why religion doesn’t work. “Why, brother Copeland, how can you say that? Christianity is a religion!” no, a religion has been made out of it, but true Christianity is God and his family—a family made up of people who are saved, made righteous and blessed through faith, that lives, not by a set of religious rules, but by the love of God and the same kind of faith Abraham had. Galatians 3 says it this way: “the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith” (verses 8-9, 11).
Transferring things From heaven to Earth
It’s safe to assume that if God wants us to live by faith as Abraham did, he will tell us exactly how to do it. For him not to do so would be unjust. So, it’s no surprise that the whole bible is filled with revelation about faith. It tells us, for example, that “through faith… the worlds were framed by the WORD of God.” that fact alone reveals just how important and powerful faith actually is. the whole physical universe is made from it. Everything that exists was transferred from the realm of the spirit into the realm of the natural by faith. Everything God created—from the grass to the trees to the cotton in your shirt—is faith turned into a material reality. It’s all a manifestation of the faith of God released through his WORD. In Genesis 1, when God said, “let there be light,” he said it by faith. When he said, “let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,” he said it by faith. When he said, “Man, be created in our image,” he said it by faith. God’s faith-filled WORD is the carrier mechanism that transfers spiritual things from heaven’s storehouse and brings them into the earth where we can use them. His WORD of faith is the conveyance. that’s why, in the Hebrew language, the word for thing and WORD are the same. to God, the WORD is the thing because when he speaks, his WORD becomes the thing that was spoken. as John 1 says:
In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORDwas with God, and the WORD was God. he was in the beginning with God. all things were made through him [the WORD], and without him nothing was made that was made. and The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (verses 1-3, 14, New King James Version).
Look again at the first few words of the last verse. “the WORD became.” that phrase is so vital that I want you to imprint it on your mind by saying it out loud right now: “The WORD became.” If we want to follow in the footsteps of Abraham and operate in faith like he did, we must realise that’s what God’s WORD always does when it is spoken in faith. It becomes…and it does so because it actually contains the power to bring itself to pass. God’s WORD contains the creative energy of God himself. When you speak it by faith, that WORD releases the same force that made the dust of the earth from which Adam’s body was formed. the WORD takes things that exist in heaven that are tangible and real in the realm above the light line, and slows them down to the point where they manifest in this natural realm, below the light line. If you think that sounds too wild and far-out to believe, I have news for you. as a born-again child of God, you’ve already proven it’s true. that’s how you got saved! you confessed God’s WORD about salvation by faith, that WORD became salvation to you, and you were born again. Simply by believing in your heart and speaking with your mouth the lordship of Jesus, you brought heaven’s power to earth and became a whole new creature. Romans 10:6-10 makes that very clear:
The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) but what saith it? the WORD is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the WORDof faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [who is the WORD], and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Or, as 2 Corinthians 5:21 says it: “he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (NKJV). your Christian life began the moment you spoke the WORD of faith. It began when you released the same action, the same miraculous force that created the universe. When you confessed the WORD by faith and said, “I receive Jesus as my Lord and Saviour,” that WORD became righteousness in you. as I said before and will say again: that’s what the WORD of faith always does—it becomes. the WORD becomes healing. The WORDbecomes deliverance. the WORD becomes prosperity. The WORD of BLESSING becomes the BLESSING in our lives. “but, I thought God is the one who blesses us.” he is. and he does it through his WORD! that’s why your bible should be the most precious thing in your life. It’s not just “the Good book.” It is the booK! It is so far above every other book that it can’t even be compared. Some have found the bible to be true even when it is read backward. It contains codes that just stagger the human mind. It doesn’t matter which way you look at it, the bible is alive! It’s not just a book about Someone. It is Someone. It is God manifesting himself through his WORD so we can read it, believe it and speak it.
Your Manufacturer’s handbook: the Final authority
I have such respect and reverence for the WORDof God, and such absolute faith in it, that some people accuse me of putting too much emphasis on it. “now, Brother Copeland,” they say, “what we need is to have faith in God himself. the bible takes second place to his sovereignty.” that may sound like a very spiritual perspective, but it’s totally unscriptural. the bible says that God has magnified his WORD above his name. that means he has chosen, in His sovereignty, to put himself under the authority of his own WORD. What’s more, it’s impossible to have faith in anyone (God included) without knowing what they’ve said. that’s just common sense. If someone decided, for example, they would put faith in me to pay their rent, it wouldn’t matter how many times they confessed, “I have faith that Kenneth is going to pay my rent.” If I never promised it, that person has no right to believe I will do it. he has no basis for true faith. If, on the other hand, I’d drawn up a contract with that person, stating I would pay his rent, his faith would be well-founded.
Had I signed that contract and then, in blood-covenant fashion, cut my arm and let my blood drip down on that piece of paper, he’d have absolute assurance that his rent was as good as paid. He’d have every reason to have faith in me and the promise I had made to him. that’s exactly what God has done for us. he has given us his WORD that he will bless us. he has given us his blood-sworn oath that through our union with Jesus, everything he promised to Abraham is ours in full. he has entered into covenant with us and guaranteed that every promise in the bible (all of which were directed toward Jesus) belongs to us because Jesus is our blood brother. I don’t know if that means as much to you as it does to me, but it absolutely thrills me because I am part American Indian. (I realise the correct term is Native American but I prefer to call myself Indian.) Maybe, because it’s in my background, I’ve always had a great respect for blood covenants. even as a little boy, I wanted a blood brother so badly, I could hardly stand it. When I found out the bible is a blood-covenant book, and the new testament is actually the new Covenant in Jesus’ blood, my faith in God skyrocketed. the more I found out what he had said to me in the book of his blood-sworn oath, the more my ability to believe in him and what he would do for me soared. that’s when I began to experience the truth of Romans 10:17: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the WORD of God.” “I don’t understand that,” you might say. “I’ve read the bible my whole life and it hasn’t inspired that much faith in me.” I had the same experience until I made a quality decision (a decision from which there is no retreat and about which there is no argument) to make the WORD of God final authority in my life. that’s the first step to unlocking its power. you must settle in your heart once and for all that you will believe and act on whatever it says.
You must decide that from this point forward, instead of adjusting the WORD to fit your lifestyle, you will adjust your lifestyle to fit the WORD. If you think a certain way, and then find the WORD says something different, your own preferences and opinions don’t matter. the WORD is right. It is what you live by.
Article by Kenneth Copeland from the BVOV Magazine April 2012
