(Singing) I know my God has
made the way for me. I know my God has made the way for me.
ANNOUNCER: What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Join Kenneth
Copeland today on the Believer's Voice of Victory as he shares
foundational truths from the Bible that help us to understand
more. Be assured of God's presence and take Jesus
at His Word. KENNETH: Hello, everybody.
Welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast.
Father, thank You today. We give You praise and
we honor You for your presence. "Greater is He that is
in us, than he that is in the world." And we boldly declare
that the Greater One is helping us today, giving us revelation
from heaven. And we thank You and we praise You for it. In
Jesus' name, we pray, and we receive. Amen. Hallelujah. Oh,
welcome to the broadcast today. Let's--let's go back over to
Mark 11:23-24. Jesus said, "For verily--" Well, in the 22nd
verse, remember He said, "Have the faith of God. For verily I
say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain--" So any
whosoever can use faith. Well, how do you get faith? You accept
Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Amen. Now, let me point this out
to you because we're going somewhere with this today. In
the 10th chapter of Romans, "If you shall confess with your
mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation. For the scripture says, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Now then, do you know
that you know? Do you have that inward witness inside you? "Yes,
Brother Copeland, I'm a child of God. I'm born of God." If
something were to happen to you right now, it just--something
happened and you just died right now, do you know in your heart
that you'd go to heaven? "Well, I'm not quite sure." Now, all
right, let's just take care of it. Do you believe--do you
believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? Do you believe
that? "Yes, I do." Well, if you believe that in your heart, and
you just say, "Jesus, come into my heart. I confess You, I
receive You as my Lord and my Savior right now." Amen. Now, do
I have the Holy Spirit? Yes, you do. You haven't been baptized
with the Holy Spirit, but He is in there. The Greater One is
inside you, and He's your teacher. You have the fruit of
the Spirit listed in the 5th chapter of the book of
Galatians; love, joy, peace, goodness, meekness, kindness,
temperance. You have--these are in there. Now, the baptism with
the Holy Spirit is the fullness, being filled with the Spirit of
God, amen, speaking with other tongues. Now, this is important.
Jesus--well, I'll tell you what. Ha-ha. Thank You, Lord.
What--oh, yes, Sir. Let's go over here to the 14th chapter of
the book of John. And I want you to see something here. Verse 16,
"I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you forever." Now, Jesus is
talking--He's talking to the 12 disciples. He's talking to--He's
talking to His people right here. Thank You, Lord. "Even the
Spirit of truth--" listen now "--whom the world cannot
receive, because it seeth him not, neither knows him: but you
know him; for he dwells with you, and he shall be in you."
Now, at this time, they knew--they knew the Spirit of
God because they knew Jesus. And He was dwelling with them
because Jesus is anointed of the Spirit of God. He said, "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to preach
the Gospel to the poor," and so forth. Now, He, Jesus--at that
time, they were with Him. They were ministering under His
anointing, and the Spirit of God was working with them. They knew
Him. They--they--Jesus said, right here, in the 10th verse,
"Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in
me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but
the Father that dwells within me, he does the works." Now,
so--and they watched the Spirit of God do the work. So they knew
Him. He said--now, let's--let's go back here and look at this
again. "Even--" "I will pray the Father, he'll give you another
Comforter--" Jesus was their Comforter. And, "he will give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;
even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot
recieve because it sees him not, neither knows him: you
know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you." Now,
nobody could get born again until after Jesus went to the
cross, until after He was raised from the dead. So--now, notice
this. The World can't receive Him. They don't know Him, and
they can't see Him. So the Holy Spirit is not God's gift to the
world. No, no, no, no, no. Jesus is God's gift to the world. "For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." The
Holy Spirit is God's power, God Himself gift to the Church for
enduement of power to minister supernaturally, to live
supernaturally, and to get and to be by Him, be able to pray in
the Spirit, to go beyond your natural understanding and
believe you receive and pray, the-- "He that speaketh in an
unknown tongue speaks not unto men, but unto God--speaks not
unto men, but unto God, how be it in the spirit he speaks
mysteries." They're--they're mysteries. One translation says,
"Divine secrets known only between you and God." See,
it--and the devil can't even get in there. But we just read, in
Mark 11:24, "Therefore, Whatsoever thing you desire,
when you pray--" When you pray, when you pray. He didn't--He
didn't say just "when you pray and when you understand what
you're saying." Let's go back over there then. Don't lose your
place there. And in the 14th chapter of I Corinthians, "If I
pray in an unknown tongue," 14th verse, "my spirit prays, but my
understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray
with the spirit, I will pray with the understanding also: I
will sing with the spirit, I will sing with the understanding
also." I will. It's an act of my will. It's not some act of
ecstasy or anything. It's by my will. I can--I can pray in my
understanding anytime I want to. Father, I just praise You and
thank You. He said, "I will." "I will pray with my
understanding." My--I will pray with my spirit. When I
pray--when I--let's go back there. "If I pray in an unknown
tongue, my spirit prays." Then he said, "I will pray with the
spirit, I will pray with the understanding: I will sing with
the spirit, I will sing with my understanding." It's an act of
my will. (Praying in the Spirit) So, now, thank You, Lord. Yes,
Sir. Okay. Yeah, we can do that. Let's look--ha-ha. (Praying in
the Spirit) Okay. Let's go to the book of Acts, and let's look
at what Jesus said here in the acts of the apostles in Verse 8
of Chapter 1. "You shall receive power--" The Greek word
"dunamis." "--after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: you
shall be witnesses," supernatural witnesses, "unto to
me both in Jerusalem, Judaea, and Samaria, unto the uttermost
parts of the earth." "Well, Brother Copeland, I heard all
that passed away." Well, you heard something that wasn't
true. So--and is it for all believers? Yeah, all believers
for all time. Let's go back to the last chapter of the book of
Mark. We started off in the 11th chapter. Go to the 16th chapter.
Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved;
he that believes not shall be damned," or condemned. "And
these signs shall follow them that believe," every believer;
"In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with
new tongues; they'll take up serpents; if they drink any
deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they shall lay hands on
the sick, and they shall recover." It is for every
believer. Amen. So here is not only a supernatural way to
communicate with God, but a supernatural way to minister to
other people. This is talking about believers. This is not
talking about the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor,
teacher, no. I mean, all of us are believers. I stand in the
office of the prophet and teacher. Well, I'm a believer
first. Amen. So I--I just--I just work here, you understand?
(Laughs) Amen. But this--this Spirit of God is for every
person. Lord Jesus, come into my heart, just like we talked there
awhile ago. I receive you as my Lord and my Savior. And I--I
know--by faith, I know I'm born again. I know I'm a new creature
in Christ Jesus. Now, I'm a candidate to receive the baptism
with the Holy Spirit. And I take your Word for it." All right.
Let's see what His Word is for it. Let's go over to the book of
Luke in the 11th chapter. And let's look here in--in the 13th
verse, "If you then, being evil," or you just natural men,
"know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him?" Ask and believe you receive. See, that's what
we--that's what Jesus said. "Whatsoever thing you desire." I
desire to be filled with overflowing with the Spirit of
the Living God and receive power. I desire the baptism of
the Holy Spirit. Amen. And I'm asking, and you said it Jesus. I
believe I receive it. "Well, now, Brother Copeland--" You
know, I've heard--and particularly back when Gloria
and I first came into this, we--both of us, we got born
again in 1962. And then in January '63, both of us received
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Well, we were scriptural
illiterates. We--and--and we--God just blessed us, and
people prayed with us and for us and so forth. And thank God, we
received. But now, I heard all the stories. And then I've--I've
heard people say--I've had people say this to me, "Brother
Kenneth, you know, I--I just don't want to be getting
the--I--I don't want to be getting the wrong spirit here.
I--I'm--I'm praying. I'm asking to be baptized in the Holy
Spirit. I--but I don't--I don't want to be getting the wrong
spirit." Let me ask you again, are you a child of God? "Yeah."
You know that? "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know it in my heart."
Okay, let's look at something here. In the 10th chapter of
Luke's Gospel, in the 19th here. In the 10th chapter of
Luke's Gospel, in the 19th verse, "Behold, I give unto you
power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the
power of the enemy." I want you to notice, "serpents and
scorpions." Okay. Now, back to the 11th chapter where we were.
Verse 11, "If a son--" Are you a child of God? Okay. "If a son
shall ask bread of you that is a father, will he give him a
stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give--for a fish give him a
serpent," an evil spirit? "or if he shall ask an egg, will he
offer him a scorpion?" Of course not. But I want you to notice
that he's referring to evil spirits. Amen. So if you're a
child of God and you come to Him and you say, "I'm asking you for
the Holy Spirit," there is no way the devil can cross that
line and get inside you! You just put that out of your heart
and mind and have no fear. Now, it's a very dangerous thing to
take somebody that's not born again and--and start trying to
get them baptized in the Holy Ghost because, listen, I mean,
hey, they can very easily get the wrong thing. It's a very
dangerous thing to do. You don't do that. If you're going to be
ministering somebody to receive the Holy Spirit, you find out
first if they're born again. And ask them just like I ask you,
"Are you sure in your heart that you know Jesus as your Savior?"
"Well, I'm not sure." Well, make sure. "Well, no, you know,
I--no, Brother Copeland, I've never accepted Jesus as my
Lord." Well, let's don't start with the Holy Spirit. Let's
start with God's gift to you, Jesus. Mm. Hallelujah. Can you
see it? Now then, it's not a matter of how you feel about it.
It's a matter of taking Jesus at His word. The feelings will
come. "Well, I--you know, I--I'm just speaking in this language,
but, you know, I don't--I don't feel like it's doing anything."
I mean, you can be just as dry. You don't have to feel something
to be in faith. I believe it because I--I know this. You
remember I told you last week about the experience that I had,
that, you know, I just--all you have to do is just read right
there, Verse 4, 14th chapter of I Corinthians, "He that speaks
in an unknown tongue edifies himself," and so--or builds
himself up. And so I said, "Well, I'm just going to pray in
tongues all the way from--from Lubbock to Tulsa. And, you know,
I'd never done this before. I'm just going to do it. And I'm
just--I'm just praying, driving down the highway. (Praying in
the Spirit) And my mind would kind of drift away and--(Praying
in the Spirit) Well, it will quiet your mind, but you will
continue to pray in tongues, be thinking about something else.
"Well, it didn't do anything." Yeah, oh, yeah. See, it's your
spirit praying, not your head. So I'm just praying. And I got
home after that whole long trip there, and I've forgotten what
it was, a couple hours, whatever it was. And I got home, and I
thought, "Well, if I'm edified, I can't tell it. But, you know,
the Word of God said I'm edified, so I'm edified." Well,
it--it wasn't edifying my body. But then we went to prayer group
that night where Tommy Tyson was speaking in that prayer group.
And he--and he taught on the name of Jesus and--and some
other things. And he got through, he said, "Anyone in
here--" It was quite a large home and a number of people in
there and--if they need healing. And several people raised their
hand. Well, there was a woman right there, right in one row
close to us. And Tommy said, "Kenneth, you and Gloria lay
hands on her." I said, "Sure." And so--and then Gloria and I
prayed for her. Man, when I laid hands on her, here it came, just
came up on the inside of me, the power of God. Hallelujah. And
then's when the edification hit me, ha-ha-ha, hallelujah, when I
prayed for her. And--and now my spirit's in action. It had been
building up. It had been building up all day. It had been
building up. And then the moment I released that by faith
and--and began to minister or begin to get into spiritual
activity, my spirit was--was primed and--and rested and
ready. Praise God. And a great thing happened. I wanted to
point out to you, when you're receiving the Holy Spirit, you
don't have to feel anything, you're going to. You don't
necessarily have to feel it right then, but many of you
will. "Well, I don't feel like I got anything because I didn't
feel like I think I ought to." How would you know if you've
never received? Well, you think you ought to. How would you
know? See, all of that's flesh and all of it's--just get into
the Word. Say, "Yes, Sir, I believe that." "How much more
should your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
him?" All right, just do this, just--just follow me. "Father,
I'm asking you. Jesus is my Lord and Savior, and He said I could
do this. I'm asking you to fill me right now with your precious
Holy Spirit. I receive right now in Jesus' name." Now--now watch
me. (Breathes Deeply) "I am receiving." I am--I am going to
breath just deep as I can. "I am receiving Your Holy Spirit
coming inside of me." (Breathes Deeply) (Praying in the Spirit)
You have to make the noise. It's your voice. "And I believe I
receive." Why? Because Jesus said I would. That's--that's the
bottom line right there: He said I would. Hallelujah. Now,
just--just follow me again. Father, I receive in the name of
Jesus. (Breathes Deeply) (Praying in the Spirit) Yeah,
glory to God! Go home, baby, dance all around the room.
(Praying in the Spirit) "Yeah, but I don't understand anything
I'm saying." You ain't talking to yourself. You're talking to
the Father! I remember when our children were little, and I'd
come in there and--and then-- (Baby Talk) I'd say, "Gloria,
what did she say?" She said--ha-ha-ha. Gloria could
understand her, I couldn't. But see, Gloria spent time with
those children all day, every day. She understood what they
said. Your heavenly Father understands if it's nothing but
"da-da-da-da-da-da-da." But don't you stay at
"da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da." Go ahead. Hallelujah! Move in it.
Move in it. Go ahead. Hallelujah. I'll be
back in a minute.
