KENNETH: In my private devotion
time, that I'm depending on the Greater One that lives within me
to give me--let me know what I'm praying about. (Singing) I know
my God has made the way for me. I know my God has made the way
for me. ANNOUNCER: Throughout scripture, God has told His
children to stay in communication with Him. Join
Kenneth Copeland today on the Believer's Voice of Victory as
he explains how praying in the Spirit prepares you for your
future. Now here's Kenneth. KENNETH: Hello, everybody. I'm
Kenneth Copeland. Father, we thank You for this broadcast
today. And we are so appreciative of the Holy Spirit,
the Greater One, the guide, the helper, the standby, the
intercessor, the strengthener, the healer--oh, glory to
God--that lives on the inside of us, that you sent to live with
us and to abide with us forever, to live a supernatural life in
this earth that is crying out to know Jesus. It's crying out.
Well, how do you work in this? What do you do in this?
We're--we're receiving from you, and we're receiving direction
from You, and we thank You in Jesus' name. Amen. Glory to God.
My, this has been a big week for me. I just so enjoyed it. And if
you've enjoyed it, I want you to let me know. Praise--those of
you that have--have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit
this week, if you got born again, received the baptism,
received healing, anything, let me know. I want to know about
it, dear Lord. This--this thrills Gloria and me beyond
measure. Hallelujah. Mark 11:23--well, actually Verse 22,
"Have the faith of God. For verily I say unto you, Whosoever
shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into
the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe
that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall
have whatsoever he says. Therefore I say unto you, What
things soever you desire, when you pray, believe you receive
them, and you shall have them." He did not say, "as long as you
understand what you're praying and saying with your mind." Now,
let's go over to I Corinthians 14, "Follow after love, desire
spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy. For he that
speaketh in an unknown tongue speaks not unto men, but unto
God--" "--howbeit in the spirit he speaks mysteries." Now look
at the 4th verse, "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue
edifies," or builds himself up. He builds himself up. Now,
notice again, "Let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue
pray that he may interpret." Now, you remember, he said, "If
I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my
understanding is unfruitful." That's the reason you need to
pray that you interpret, so that your understanding can catch up
with your spirit. Amen. Don't want you to continue to be
unfruitful in your mind. "What is it then? I will pray with the
spirit, I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing
in the spirit, I will sing with the understanding also." Amen.
Now, pray that you interpret. Now, we're not talking about in
the 12th chapter where it's talking about the manifestations
of the Holy Spirit in ministry. Now, notice, he said, "Here
there are diversities of operation, but it's the same God
which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit
is given to every many to profit withal. To one is given by the
Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by
the same Spirit; to another special faith by the same
Spirit; to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit; to
another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another
discerning of spirits; to another different kinds of
tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues." That
is a manifestation of ministry--ministry
manifestations, power gifts, revelation gifts. In the case of
tongues and interpretation of tongues, it is equal to
prophecy. So that's not--that's not the kind of interpretation
he's talking about. Now, let--let's get over--back over
here where we were in the 14th chapter. "Let him that speaks in
an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret." He's not talking
about you being an interpreter. Now, that could happen in a
service somewhere as the Spirit wills. Amen. This is talking
about in your own private devotion. Now, I learned a lot
from my spiritual father, Oral Roberts, in this area. He--he
taught it publicly, and--and he--he walked in it
dramatically. And so he--praying in tongues and then interpreting
back to himself in the Spirit. Now, it does not necessarily
have to come as words back to yourself. Now, listen to me now.
In fact, I heard him say this. He said, "It may come as a verse
of Scripture that comes up while you're praying in tongues,
praying with your spirit. See, your understanding is
unfruitful, but you pray it. And I do it--I do it all the time. I
say, "Father, I pray here in the Spirit. I'm--I'm praying for all
men, kings, all that are in authority, that the church live
in peace and honesty and godliness. And--and I'm--I'm
praying for the president, and I'm praying for the peace of
Jerusalem, and I'm praying this, and I'm going to pray about all
of that in tongues. And I pray also that I interpret. And--and
then I--(Praying in the Spirit) And I pray for my partners. I
start praying for my partners. Glory to God. I pray for my
partners in the Spirit every day. And I'll pray that way. I
pray also that interpret, see. I'm--and walking in the office
of the prophet and teacher, this--this manifests in my life
a lot publicly. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm
talking about in my private devotion times that I'm
depending on the Greater One that lives within me to--to give
me--let me know what I'm praying about, particularly when I need
to know. When I'm praying I, "Oh, God, what is it? Oh, Lord.
I pray, also, here now, Lord, that I interpret." (Praying in
the Spirit) "Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, Lord. What is that, Lord?"
(Praying in the Spirit) "Yeah, I realize that. I'm making
intercession for somebody." (Praying in the Spirit) "Lord,
what is it? What is it?" "Well, pray for a member of your
family." "Okay, yeah, I will." See, that's part of the
interpretation. And He said it will come as a Scripture. It can
come as an inward conviction. "What is that?" "Well, yes, Sir.
Yes, Sir. Yeah, I know it. I know it. I need to do something
about that. Glory to God. Yes, Sir, I repent. I need to do
something about that." I had the Lord say this to me a number of
years ago. I was--I got hold of this, that, "Believe that you
receive while it's still a mystery," "howbeit in the spirit
he speaks mysteries." I believe I receive that while it's still
a mystery. I don't have to wait until I understand something. I
believe I receive it now. Mark 11:24, "Whatsoever you desire,
when you pray, believe you receive." I'm--I'm believing I'm
receiving while it's still a mystery to me. (Praying in the
Spirit) Yes, I believe I receive that, Lord. Thank You, thank
You, thank You, thank You. And I--someone--I was in--I was in a
good friend of mine's church out in California, and I--I--just
with the whole group, we were praying and dedicating the new
building. And, my, we were just having a big time and praying in
the Spirit. And he said, "Brother Copeland, you--you have
something you'd like to say?" I didn't. I--I just--and all of a
sudden, I said, "Now, 'Christ' is not Jesus' last name. And I
began to talk about that. I began to--and, boy, I mean, here
it came. I preached on the--the Jesus, the Anointed One, the
Messiah. I preached on it for--I mean, years, I preached on that.
And it just--the Lord just kind of sprung it on me in that
night. Glory to God. And it came up in me. Well, sometime
later--in fact, oh, I don't remember now. Several years
later, the Lord said to me, "That's what you were praying
out in the Spirit when you got the revelation that to receive
while it's still a mystery." He said, "I--I was--I was building
that revelation in you then. You were praying it out in other
tongues. You were praying it out in the Spirit and then it flowed
up in you, and there it was, see." Amen. Well, I've had
things like that happen before. And I'm just--I'm just praying
in the Spirit and just praying and praying in the Spirit,
praying in the Spirit, praying in the--(Praying in the Spirit)
"Father, I pray that I interpret." (Praying in the
Spirit) Now, you don't need to be doing that, you need to go do
this over here. Years ago, I mean, way back, 1968, I was
preaching up in--in a little town in the panhandle of Texas;
Hereford, Texas. And I had several--I had my--my TV with a
21-day meeting preaching in there once every day, including
a Sunday afternoon, and then twice a day the rest of the
time. And so I had--I had written outlines here that--as
the Lord gave them to me. And I'm--I'm praying in the Spirit,
and I'm--and I'm studying. And I'm in the Word, and I'm going
here to these, and I'm studying the other material that I had,
and I--I--and I'm just walking around my bedroom there, praying
in the Spirit. (Praying in the Spirit) And I heard this come up
in my spirit, "You've got those in the wrong order." And I
stopped. It came out my mouth, "You've got those in the wrong
order." I said, "Okay." (Praying in the Spirit) "Put that one
over here and put that one here." "Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'll
do that." (Praying in the Spirit) Well, and just--and
while I was there in that meeting, I spent a lot of time
praying in the Spirit and listening to the Lord. See, I
pray that I interpret. And I'm standing in--in the bathroom
getting ready--I'm standing there shaving and getting ready
for the evening service. (Praying in the Spirit) And I
heard it. It came up on the inside of me. Huh. "Don't be
concerned about the prophet's ministry. It'll come." "Really?
Okay. Whatever you say." I said, "Lord, now I'm not going to
announce it." Ooh, particularly back there then, bad enough now,
but you go out and just announce somebody, "Well, I'm a prophet."
Ha-ha-ha, are you kidding me? Back in those days, most people
didn't believe there wasn't any prophets left, you know. And so
I said, "You'll have to announce it. I'm not going to." (Praying
in the Spirit) I just went on about what I was praying. I
forgot about it. He said, "Don't even--" That's what He said,
"Don't be concerned about it." And so--and I heard that in my
spirit while I was praying in the Spirit. That was--that was
part of the interpretation of what I was praying. I didn't
realize it back then, but then the Lord showed me that that's
what was going on. That's what I was praying in the Spirit. And
then--that was in 1968. Then in 1977, 30th of July, which was
Saturday night in the last night of the--Brother Hagin's
Campmeeting. And he'd already preached his whole message that
night, and he came up to the place where he was praying for
people. He was about to give an invitation. And--and as he--he
always prayed it this way, "Father, I pray if there--per
adventure there's anyone here, any man, woman, boy, or girl
that don't--oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I understand. Yeah,
Lord. Yeah. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah, I understand that,"
he said, "I understand that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah." Well, while
he's doing that, "Yeah, yeah," he's talking to the Spirit of
God, the Lord said on the inside of me, "Get on your knees." I
said, "Oh, Lord, I'm sitting right behind him. I'm on the
platform here." I said, "Lord, I--no, no, I don't want to do
that. I'll draw attention from him." He said--he said, "Get on
your knees." I said, "Ooh, okay." (Laughs) Just as I got on
my knees, he said, "Yeah, I understand that. I
understand--ha-ha." He said, "Yeah, I understand that. Oh,
yeah, yeah, I'll tell him. Ken Copeland?" And here I am on my
knees just--just a second or two before he said that, I thought,
"Oh, I'm sure glad I obeyed God." Ha-ha-ha. Amen. Now, I
want you--I want you to notice what happened here now. Remember
now, nine years ago, as I was praying in the Spirit, the Lord
said, "Don't be concerned about the prophet ministry. It'll
come." And then I said, "Okay, yeah, yeah." And so I wasn't. I
wasn't even thinking about it. I--didn't cross my mind. If it
did, I said, "No." I just said, "I'm not going to announce it,
you're going to have to announce it." And He said, "You're going
to have to move over there into that healing ministry a little
faster than you thought you would," and so forth and so on.
And then He said, "Whether you want to or not, you're going to
ministry--you're going to minister in the office of the
prophet." There's 9,000 people in that place that night. He
announced it--now, listen to how He put it. This is the Spirit of
God put it this way because Brother Hagin, he was hearing
the voice of the Lord and repeating it to me. He said,
"Whether you want to or not." I wondered for years why He put
that like that. Well, yeah, He was protecting me from people
that--that would have maybe criticized all of this. But the
Lord--of course, I wanted to. Are you kidding me? But I wasn't
out seeking to be a prophet. I just--I'm His to command. I--I
have a desire to follow Him. I'm not following after--after, you
know, any--anything other than to be what He wants me to be.
Glory to God. I'd be just as thrilled--ha-ha--to be anything
that Jesus wants me to be. "Whether you want to or not,"
whoa, that got rid of the gainsayers right there. Glory to
God. If you're going to minister in the office of the prophet. So
He--He did what I asked Him to do. And I realized--oh, many,
many, many years later, I realize I'm praying this out in
tongues all that time. Nine years this was going on, and the
Lord's preparing me. You know what he preached on that night?
He came out there and he said, "Well, I was praying today,
praying for what I'm supposed to minister tonight." And he said,
"All I kept hearing the Lord say was, 'The bones of Elisha. The
bones of Elisha.' What I'm going to say about the bones of
Elisha, I don't have any idea, but here it goes." He preached
the whole night on the office of the prophet! I mean, it went Old
Testament, New Testament, it just--and I--and now as I--now,
as I go back and listen to that message, I realize he's
preaching to me all night! Well, of course he's preaching to
other people, but the Lord was answering me. He's preparing me.
He's getting me ready. I don't know who all else He's getting
ready, sure He was, lots of people He's ministering to. But
I'm just showing you how you keep yourself in line and
position so that you're right on time. If you're a little bit
late, the Lord will goose you up a little bit. If you're fixing
to get out there ahead of God--in fact, Brother Hagin
said, "He said you're going to have to move over there in that
healing ministry." I was in the healing ministry, but he was
talking about more in the--in the gifts of healings and so
forth. And he said, "A little sooner than you thought you
would. There was a time you could wait on some things, but
you're not getting out ahead of God, you're keeping step with
God." See what is happening? The Holy Spirit's egging me--not
egging me, He's leading me, He's nudging me on to get me to go
and move out there instead of holding back like I was. I
didn't want--I didn't want to step out into something here
before I needed to. You understand, this is 40 years
ago. And, of course, over the years, I've learned so much. I
don't know much yet, but I know a whole lot more than I did back
there then. And the more I learn, the more I--I realize--I
find out how much I don't know. Amen. But you understand what
I'm saying? Man, I'm telling you, this is something that is
so huge. No wonder the apostle Paul said, "I thank my God, I
speak with tongues more than you all." Now listen to this. In the
18th verse, I want you to hear it in the Amplified, "I thank
God I speak in tongues more than all--any of you or all of you
put together." And if you talked in tongues more than that
Corinthian bunch talked in tongues--I mean, they talked in
tongues all the time. I mean, that's all they did. And that's
why he was correcting them, he wasn't coming down on tongues,
he was putting it in the right place. And--and some people say,
"He had a dim view of talking in tongues." No. He said, "I talk
in tongues more than all of you put together, but I don't talk
in tongues when I need to be teaching in English." You
understand? That's what he was saying. I'm edifying the church.
I can't stand up there and just preach in tongues all night,
they ain't got an idea what I said. I preach in--I speak in
tongues all--all night in my bed. Like--like Smith
Wigglesworth, one of the most powerful men, ever, in faith,
they ask him, "What is your secret? I mean all these
documented cases of people being raised from the dead." He said,
"It's simple. I go speak in tongues two or three hours,
edify myself. I go out that night and edify the people." Man
never spent a day in school in his life. God taught him how to
read. The Holy Ghost taught the man how to read. Now, you're
going to tell me that tongues are not important? You've come
too late for me, brother. (Laughs) I'll be back in
just a moment.
