The Flow of God’s Compassion by Kenneth CopelandPosted by admin on May 13th, 2009

I started to walk away thinking, There are several hundred people here to minister to; I don’t have time to preach to her until I get faith to rise up in her heart. For a moment I just prayed in the spirit. As I prayed, grief and anger rose up on the inside of me.

This response came up from way down in my spirit. The Spirit of God was in control. I grabbed her face with both my hands. In a firm voice I said, “Don’t you say no to me. I am here in the name of Almighty God as His prophet to set you free.” She looked up at me and batted her eyes a few times. It startled me as much as it did her. I began to cry from the very depths of my being. The flow of God’s compassion through me broke the power of that evil spirit and she received from God.

That should give you some indication of what was inside Jesus that day in the synagogue. He was grieved because the hardness of their hearts quenched the Anointing of God. The word translated hardness means “insensitiveness.” It is translated in other scriptures as “blindness.” The Pharisees were insensitive to God.

When we read this, it is easy to imagine a group of hardened people who were angry enough to kill. But it doesn’t take the insensitivity of a hardened criminal to quench the Holy Spirit. He is easily grieved.

We look at these Pharisees and they look bad to us. The situation was openly hard, but not all insensitivity looks that bad. An act of insensitivity can be something that really seems insignificant.

I remember a particular instance when I was ministering in a prayer service and God was moving tremendously. The power of God was so strong that twice it drained the battery in the wireless microphone I was wearing!

When I reached the rear of the congregation, suddenly the anointing stopped. It was just as though the Spirit of God withdrew from the situation. Did you notice that our scriptural example says, “The Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.” Jesus and His disciples withdrew.

Why did Jesus just get up and walk off? Surely the man with the withered hand was not the only one who needed deliverance. Why did Jesus withdraw? Because without the Anointing of God He couldn’t do anything. And if He couldn’t, I certainly can’t.

It’s my nature to try it anyway. I want people healed and delivered so badly that I want to continue praying. However, it is useless when the Spirit is grieved. Without Him nothing can be done. Just like Jesus withdrew that day from the synagogue, He withdrew while I was ministering.

We had grieved the Spirit of God. We find out in the third, fourth and fifth chapters of the book of Ephesians that corrupt communication, strife and stealing grieve the Holy Spirit. I found out that day that insensitivity of heart also grieves Him. I said, “Lord, what has happened here? Whatever it is, I repent now. Tell me what it is.”

I began pleading my case as fast as I could. “Lord, look at all these people in such need. You said without You we can do nothing.” It reminded me of my daughter Kellie. When she would be disobedient and I would start to spank her she turned into a regular “motor mouth”! “Daddy, wait a minute now, Daddy, wait a minute. I don’t want you to do something that you will regret. Can’t we work this out? Daddy, can’t we pray about it first?” She would talk me right out of it before I could spank her! It wouldn’t be long before she had me feeling guilty because I was reprimanding her!

This was the way I was talking to the Lord. He said, Look back there at that book table. This particular auditorium did not have a foyer. My staff had set up the book tables inside the auditorium. I have given absolute, strict orders in our meetings that the book tables be shut down when anyone is ministering or any time the Spirit of God is moving.

The workers had covers pulled over the book tables to indicate that they were closed. Someone had lifted up the covers and picked out some books expecting to be waited on. My employees were not about to wait on them. If they did, they would go home without a job! That is a quick way to become unemployed at Kenneth Copeland Ministries. They know better than to compete with the Spirit of God.

Two of those people were angry because nobody would take their money. How insensitive can a person get? At first, I became angry because their insensitivity grieved the Holy Spirit and arrested the anointing. It departed just like Jesus departed the synagogue. I repented and reprimanded the congregation. In no uncertain terms, they wanted the anointing back and became serious with God in a hurry. The anointing came back but not to the intensity that it was before.

Kenneth Copeland