by Kenneth Copeland

As born-again children of God, you and I ought to be growing up into the image of Jesus. With every day that passes, we should be walking, talking, thinking and acting more like Him. Instead of crying in fear about the storms of life that come against us, we ought to be taking authority over them. We should be speaking to the storm like Jesus did and say, “Peace! Be still!”
Jesus, Himself said, “…He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
The Apostle Paul wrote that we are predestined “…to be conformed to the image of [God’s] Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29) and to “grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).
The Apostle John said it this way, “…as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
God wants to do the same things through us that He did through Jesus!

When a person lives out from under
the curse and is walking uprightly
before God, he has the power of God
in his corner. He has the power of the
Spirit Himself backing him. The Word
of God states very clearly in Hebrews
7:22 that Jesus is the surety, or the
guarantee, of this new covenant. Jesus
Christ of Nazareth will have to fail before
the covenant can fail, and in Him
there is no failure. Why? Because Jesus
is love and love never fails.

Go to the Word. That is what it is
for. That is why it was written. It is
a copy of your contract—your covenant—
with God. It sets out the things
God promised Jesus that He would do.
Hebrews 1 speaks of Jesus’ inauguration
as Lord of the universe. It says
that He is upholding all things by the
Word of His power. If you want to be
upheld, get on the Word.

Once you make Jesus Lord over
your life, you become a covenant man
under the new covenant. Remember
God said, “As for Me, these things
are so.” He said, “As for Me, you are
healed. As for Me, you are redeemed
from the curse of the law. As for Me,
the blessing of Abraham is upon you.”
The only reason these blessings are not
operating in your life is because you
have not stood up and said, “Well, as
for me, it is so, too!”

Make this confession from your
heart before God.

“Father, in the Name of Jesus, I
believe in my heart that Jesus has been
raised from the dead. I make Him Lord
of my life now with the confession of
my mouth. I am His and He is mine!
Jesus has redeemed me from the curse
of the law. Sickness will have to depart.
Disease will have to depart. Poverty
will no longer be in my house, for I am
redeemed from the curse of poverty.
I am a believer and not a doubter. I
have the Name of Jesus and the power
of the Holy Spirit. Thank God, darkness
is over. The storms of life will no
longer be victorious over me. Jesus
is my intercessor. The Spirit of God
strengthens me. You, God, are my very
own Father. I praise Your Name!”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

In the Great Commission (Mark
16:15-18), Jesus did not say, “These
signs shall follow those that believe…
they shall pray for the sick and they
shall recover.” Jesus did not mention
praying for the sick. He said,
“Lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover.” There is nothing wrong with
praying for the sick, but many times
we have our minds so rigid that we
miss the reality of the words. He said,
“Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature.” Jesus was
saying that the gospel would do the
job. When we preach the gospel—the
good news, the Word of God—then
we can expect the sick to be healed
when we lay hands on them. First, we
must preach the truth—“that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them.” And that He who knew
no sin was made to be sin for us “that
we might be made the righteousness of
God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:19-21).
Preach the truth…the signs will follow!

What is a pair of crippled legs that
they would not obey the voice of the
righteousness of God? What are blind
eyes that they would refuse to see after
Jesus said in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me…to preach…recovering
of sight to the blind”? God is the Creator.
He is the Father. Satan has no right to
run roughshod over God’s children.

“Ought not this woman be loosed,
seeing she is a daughter of Abraham?”

You can apply this to yourself
because “if ye be Christ’s, then are ye
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to
the promise.” Ought not this man be
loosed from financial bondage, seeing
he is the seed of Abraham? Ought not
this woman be loosed from arthritis,
seeing she is a seed of Abraham?

Jesus spoke the words, “Woman,
thou art loosed from thine infirmity.”
Then in honor of the Word of God, He
laid His hands on her. The power it
took to enforce God’s Word came into
action and immediately the woman
was set free! Praise the Lord!

I have used this fact of being redeemed
from the curse many, many
times. When Satan would come at me
with some problem, I would open my
Bible to Galatians 3:13-14 and say,
“Praise God! I’ve been redeemed from
that. Satan, you are not going to put
that on me. I’ll not stand for it!”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Let’s look at Luke 13:10-12: “And he
was teaching in one of the synagogues
on the sabbath. And, behold, there was
a woman which had a spirit of infir-
mity eighteen years, and was bowed
together, and could in no wise lift up
herself. And when Jesus saw her, he
called her to him, and said unto her,
Woman, thou art loosed from thine
infirmity.”

Notice that Jesus did not say, “I am
going to loose you” or “Be loosed.” He
said, “Woman, thou art loosed.” Jesus
did not waste words; He used them.
Words had an extremely high priority
in His ministry. “And he laid his hands
on her: and immediately she was made
straight, and glorified God.”

When the ruler of the synagogue
questioned Him about healing on the
Sabbath day, Jesus said, “And ought
not this woman, being a daughter of
Abraham, whom Satan hath bound,
lo, these eighteen years, be loosed
from this bond on the sabbath day?”
(verse 16). That woman was a daughter
of Abraham, and therefore had a
right to be loosed from that infirmity.
You see, she had lived with her infirmity
for eighteen years because she didn’t
know the blessing of Abraham—the
blessing that would set her free!

This same ignorance of God’s covenant
caused Israel to live in bondage
for 400 years.

The Word of God was just as valid
and real when they went into bondage
as it was the day they were set free.
The only problem was, they didn’t
know it. God had to call Moses and
explain the covenant to him so that he
could lead them out of Egypt. Moses
went before Pharaoh in behalf of that
covenant and led the Israelites out of
bondage. It was the same God, and His
Word was just as true 400 years before,
but the people had lost sight of it.

Jesus did not pray for that daughter
of Abraham. He told her that she was
loosed, and then He laid hands on her.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

The promise God gave to Jesus has
now been given to the believer. We
are to receive the blessing of Abraham
written in Deuteronomy 28. As the
seed of Abraham, I intend to receive
everything that is mine by Christ Jesus
as a glory to God. God’s Word tells us
that we have a right to pray and expect
God to answer, not because of what we
have done but because of what Jesus
has done for us! God said, “If ye be
willing and obedient, ye shall eat the
good of the land” (Isaiah 1:19). Obedient
to what? The Word of God, the new
covenant of God. The old covenant
was fulfilled by Jesus on the cross. He
walked perfect and upright before God,
then took the penalty for breaking the
covenant. He went to hell and paid the
price for our sin. But because He was
sinless, because He had not broken the
covenant, hell could not hold Him! He
whipped Satan and took the keys of
death and hell! (Revelation 1:18).

You can expect God to move because
of His Word, because of His
promise to Abraham’s seed. Find out
what the covenant says. Put the Word
first place in your life. Matthew 8:17
says, “Himself took our infirmities,
and bare our sicknesses.” That is God
speaking directly to you, the believer.
Christ has redeemed you from the
curse of the law so that the blessing
of Abraham will come on you through
Jesus Christ, that you might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith.
The blessings of God belong to every
born-again believer. All you have to
do is stand on God’s Word and allow
these blessings to manifest themselves
in your life.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

If Jesus Christ is the Lord of your
life, then you are Abraham’s seed.
Notice the word seed in verse 29 is
singular as it was in verse 16, when it
was referring to Jesus. The promise is
to you and will work in Jesus’ Name
every bit as well as it did for Jesus in
Galilee. You have put on Christ. You
are one with Him. Jesus has passed the
promise to you as His joint heir! You
have the right to function exactly the
same way Jesus functioned in the earth
by using His Name. It is your promise.
He has given it to you.

With this understanding, let’s look
once again at Galatians 3:13-14.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law…that the blessing of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ; that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith.” We have always read
this thinking that “the promise of
the Spirit” referred to receiving the
promised Holy Spirit, but there is more
to it. The Holy Spirit is a part of the
promise, but this verse actually means
that through faith we might receive the
promise that the Spirit made to Jesus.
It is referring to the entire promise of
God given through Abraham.

This promise of God should be so
real to you as an individual believer
that you will receive it and act upon
it the same way Jesus did! However,
you must realize that you have to work
it according to the Word of God, not
according to how you think or feel.
The natural mind does not consider
prayer answered until the answer can
40 Our Covenant With God be seen. But prayer is answered the
moment you receive the answer by
faith from the authority of God’s Word.
Quit dealing with the problem and
begin to deal with the answer from
the Word of God. Start confessing
the answer before you can see the
manifestation. This is what Jesus did!
He spoke the end result. Romans 4:17
says that God speaks of things that are
not as though they were. We should do
the same thing!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

We have read from Galatians 3:13-14
that Jesus Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law so that we might
receive the blessing of Abraham and
the promise of the Spirit. Let’s take
this a little bit further and discuss it in
more depth.

In Galatians 3:16 we read, “Now to
Abraham and his seed were the promises
made. He saith not, And to seeds,
as of many; but as of one, And to thy
seed, which is Christ.” God’s promise
was made through Abraham, but it
was actually meant for one person,
Jesus Christ. We have seen from the
book of Genesis that God approached
Abram with His proposition for a
covenant between them. God’s purpose
was to provide an avenue back into the
earth—to open the way for Jesus to
come forth.

In his lifetime, Abraham operated
only basic parts of God’s covenant. In
the following years, God revealed more
of His Word to the prophets. These
Old Testament prophets handled the
Word and operated under the covenant,
but the promise was made to
Abraham’s seed—Jesus Christ. They
used the covenant as best they could,
but it was too difficult for them to
follow completely. They were just not
strong enough spiritually to handle it,
but Jesus was! The promise was made to
one seed, which is Christ.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

When a man under the Abrahamic
Covenant refused to obey the law
that would bring the blessing, there
was only one alternative—the curse.
When a man steps out from under
the covenant with God, he automatically
steps back over into the hands
of Satan. The curse was already in the
earth from the time that Adam bowed
his knee to Satan in the Garden. It
was only God’s covenant that protected
the people from being completely
destroyed by Satan. Abraham had
plenty of problems before God approached
him. What he did not have
was a way out of the problems. There
is no area where a man can stand in
the middle between the blessings of
God and the problems of the world. If
he doesn’t have the blessings of God,
he has the problems of the world.
There’s no in-between.

When God made His covenant with
Abraham, He didn’t do away with the
curse. He just offered Abraham a way
to live free from its effect by providing
an umbrella of protection. He said,
“If you will walk perfect and upright
before Me, I’ll protect you.” Thus
Abraham and his descendants would
be protected from the curse already
in the world. However, when they
stepped from beneath the protection of
God’s Word, Satan was waiting to come
against them.

Let’s look at the curse beginning in
Deuteronomy 28:15-19:

But it shall come to pass, if thou
wilt not hearken unto the voice
of the Lord thy God, to observe
to do all his commandments and
his statutes which I command
thee this day; that all these curses
shall come upon thee, and overtake
thee: Cursed shalt thou be in
the city, and cursed shalt thou be
in the field. Cursed shall be thy
basket and thy store. Cursed shall
be the fruit of thy body, and the
fruit of thy land, the increase of
thy kine, and of the flocks of thy
sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when
thou comest in, and cursed shalt
thou be when thou goest out.

The next several verses refer to
many different plagues and diseases
that are part of this curse. Verse 29
mentions poverty, “And thou shalt not
prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be
only oppressed and spoiled evermore,
and no man shall save thee.” It goes
on to list marital difficulties, cattle
destruction, sickness in the legs and
knees, sores that cannot be healed,
crop destruction.

Verse 44 refers to being in debt, “He
(the stranger) shall lend to thee, and
thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be
the head, and thou shalt be the tail.”

Verse 61 says, “Also every sickness,
and every plague, which is not written
in the book of this law, them will
the Lord bring upon thee, until thou
be destroyed.” So, all sickness and all
disease—even those not mentioned
here—come under the curse.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

The Lord shall command the blessing
upon thee in thy storehouses, and
in all that thou settest thine hand
unto; and he shall bless thee in the
land which the Lord thy God giveth
thee. The Lord shall establish thee
an holy people unto himself, as he
hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt
keep the commandments of the Lord
thy God, and walk in his ways. And
all the people of the earth shall see
that thou art called by the name of
the Lord; and they shall be afraid
of thee. And the Lord shall make
thee plenteous in goods, in the
fruit of thy body, and in the fruit
of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy
ground, in the land which the Lord
sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
The Lord shall open unto thee his
good treasure, the heaven to give
the rain unto thy land in his season,
and to bless all the work of thine
hand: and thou shalt lend unto
many nations, and thou shalt not
borrow. And the Lord shall make
thee the head, and not the tail; and
thou shalt be above only, and thou
shalt not be beneath; if that thou
hearken unto the commandments
of the Lord thy God, which I
command thee this day, to observe
and to do them: And thou shalt
not go aside from any of the words
which I command thee this day, to
the right hand, or to the left, to go
after other gods to serve them.

Praise the Lord! This is the blessing
of Abraham. I want you to notice that
it covers every area of life—spiritual,
physical, mental, financial, social
and political.

Mighty armies have come against the
people of Israel and failed miserably.
As long as the Israelites were walking
under the covenant of God, as long as
they were doing what God said to do in
His Word, they were not harmed. His
agreement with them said, “If an enemy
comes out at you one way, I will cause
him to flee seven ways.”

Some people have said, “Yes,
Brother Copeland, but that’s what God
promised to do for the Jews.” No, this
promise was given to Abraham and
to all his descendants. That means it
belongs to you through faith in Jesus
Christ, as much as it does to the Israelites.
Galatians 3:29 says, “And if ye
be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed,
and heirs according to the promise.”

As a born-again child of God you
are now Abraham’s seed. These blessings
belong to you, too.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

The book of Exodus provides more
insight into the strength of the covenant
through what took place among
the Israelites in Egypt and then during
their wanderings in the wilderness.
Exodus 2:23-25 says, “And the children
of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage,
and they cried, and their cry came
up unto God by reason of the bondage.
And God heard their groaning, and God
remembered his covenant with Abraham,
with Isaac, and with Jacob. And
God looked upon the children of Israel,
and God had respect unto them.”

God remembered His covenant
with Abraham and in behalf of that
covenant found a man named Moses
herding sheep on the backside of the
desert. God called him to lead the
Israelites out of Egypt.

After the Israelites were set free and
journeyed into the wilderness, we find
another situation so critical that Moses
went on his face before God for forty
days without food or water. This is the
only fast in the entire Bible where a
man goes without drink. It had to be a
supernatural existence because Moses
would have died without liquid. But
he just refused to let go of God. Exodus
32:9-10, “And the Lord said unto
Moses, I have seen this people, and,
behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now
therefore let me alone, that my wrath
may wax hot against them, and that I
may consume them: and I will make
of thee a great nation.” God wanted to
destroy Israel and start a new race with
Moses as He had with Noah after the
Flood. In verses 11-14 it says:

Moses besought the Lord his God,
and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath
wax hot against thy people, which
thou hast brought forth out of the
land of Egypt with great power, and
with a mighty hand?…Turn from thy
fierce wrath, and repent of this evil
against thy people. Remember Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel, thy servants,
to whom thou swarest by thine own
self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply
your seed as the stars of heaven,
and all this land that I have spoken of
will I give unto your seed, and they
shall inherit it for ever. And the Lord
repented of the evil which he thought
to do unto his people.

God repented! Why? Because of the
covenant He had made with Abraham
so many years before.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries