A Carefree Christmas

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." (Philippians 4:6)

Can you really have a merry Christmas even when you have a thousand and one pressures bearing down on you? Yes, you can--and you don't have to leave the country to do it. No matter how intense or how trivial the problems are that you're facing right now, you can have the most wonderful, most carefree Christmas season you've ever had in your life; and you can start having it today.

As a believer, you're probably familiar with that scripture that says to be anxious for nothing. But, have you ever taken it seriously enough to put it into action? There's a good chance you haven't because you haven't understood just how dangerous those anxieties are. You probably haven't realized that they're a deadly part of the devil's strategy against you.

That's right. Worry is one of the chief weapons of his warfare. If he can get you to worry about them, he can use the financial pressures and family pressures and scheduling problems that are just a "normal" part of everyday life to weigh you down and drag you into more trouble than you think possible.

Medical science tells us that a high percentage of the people hospitalized in the U.S.A. are there with ailments caused by worry and tension. Yet, a great many believers worry without even thinking about it. They'll worry about being too short or too skinny. They'll stew over this and that and not even realize they've been sinning.

"Sinning, Brother Copeland?"

Yes! For the born-again, Spirit-filled believer who owns a Bible--worrying is a sin. So, even if the Christmas cards are late and 45 people are coming to your house for Christmas dinner, don't worry.

Instead, do what the Bible says to do. Pray, making your request known to God...and praise Him for the answer. Then you'll have peace.

Now, go ahead and have a truly merry Christmas, you carefree thing you!

Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:24-34

SEEK GOD FIRST

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

Whenever Ken and I talk about living by faith, I know there are some people who think, "Oh, that's easy for you. You're preachers. You have it made!" And, in some ways, we do. We have it made because our calling demands that we give God our attention, and giving God your attention always brings success.

But we haven't always lived that way. In fact, the first time I ever saw Kenneth Copeland he was about as far from a preacher as I figured you could get. He flew planes and sang in nightclubs. As for me, I was a college girl who said she would never marry a preacher and who had never even heard about the new birth.

Right after we got married, Ken went into a business enterprise that we thought was going to make us rich. So I quit my job and went to work for this new company. Two weeks later it folded.

We ended up sleeping on a rented roll-away bed that sagged in the middle. We had a wrought-iron coffee table Ken made in high school and a black and white TV. Nothing else. No refrigerator. No stove. I cooked in my coffee pot and an electric skillet and used a cardboard box on the porch to keep our food cold.

We were flat broke. Unemployed. Deeply in debt. I had nowhere to go. No furniture. No nothing.

Then one day I picked up the Bible Ken's mother had given him for his birthday. In the front she'd written this verse, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." I turned and read Matthew 6. It said God cared for the birds. For the first time in my life it got into my heart that God cared where I was and what I was doing. I figured if He cared for birds, He cared for me! I knelt in that bare room and told Jesus that if He could do anything with my life, He could certainly have it. That's all I remember saying.

I had no idea I'd just been born again. Two weeks later Ken found a new job. We moved to a new furnished apartment and bought a better car. In the midst of it all, something else happened--Ken got born again.

Don't worry if you don't "have it made." We certainly didn't when all this started. Just stick with God and let Him make you. He is a good God who is good to all (Ps. 145:9).

Make a decision in your heart to seek HIM first. Then all the other things will be added.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 128

Heaven's Economy

"Giving thanks unto the Father .. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." (Colossians 1:12-13)

If, in spite of all the Bible's promises about prosperity...in spite of all the prayers you've prayed...you are still struggling financially, consider this question: Where do you think God is going to get the resources to meet your needs?

Many believers limit God without even realizing it by training their eyes on the limited resources of this world rather than the unlimited riches of God's kingdom. Their faith fails when they think of the troubled economy on the earth, of the shortages and scarcity that surrounds them. They wonder, "How is God going to bless me in the middle of all this?"

If that's what you've been thinking, here's some news that will turn those thoughts around!

The Bible says God has "delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." To be translated means to be taken out of one place and put into another. In other words, your citizenship is not primarily of this earth. You are not primarily American or Canadian or Australian--you are first and foremost a citizen of the kingdom of God.

That means this planet doesn't have any right to dictate to you whether your needs are met or not. The Bible says God will meet your needs according to His riches in glory! (Philippians 4:19). You can live by heaven's economy, not earth's economy--and in heaven there is always more than enough.

Wake up to the abundance of heaven that's been made yours through Jesus. Wake up to the fact that you've been translated out of a world of poverty into a kingdom of abundance. Rejoice. Heaven's unlimited resources have been made available to you!

Scripture Reading: Psalm 105:37-45

Our Only Hope is Jesus

"Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." (Acts 2:26-27)

Twenty-one years ago, God said something to me that will mark my ministry forever. The only hope that any man has anywhere in the world is faith in Jesus Christ.

In light of what's happening around us today, the truth of the statement is more painfully obvious than ever before. We are a generation with diseases no man can heal, with problems no man can solve. What fleeting successes we have are quickly overshadowed by new and greater crises.

All too often, that's as true for believers as it is for unbelievers. It shouldn't be. But it is. Believers are being killed by the same diseases that are devastating the rest of the world. They're being plagued by the same problems. And many are walking around without hope--just like the rest of the world.

Why? Because the only hope that any man has is faith in Jesus Christ. And the majority of Christians don't know how to live by faith.

Instead of being filled with the Word and with faith, they've been stuffed full of religious tradition and superstition. And they're suffering. When the devil hits them with sickness and disease, with poverty or depression or divorce, they often stand by helplessly as it destroys them. They simply don't know what else to do. The Bible says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hos. 4:6).

But you know. Your hope is in Jesus. Trust Him. And tell the world--their hope is in Him too.

Scripture Reading: Mark 4:35-41

Sunday April 18, 2010

God Has Something to Say

"The sheep listen to [the Shepherd's] voice and heed it, and he calls his own sheep by name and brings (leads) them out." (John 10:3, The Amplified Bible)

Don't ever be so afraid of making a mistake you miss out on the joy of acting on the voice of the Lord. Instead, trust the leadership of the Holy Spirit and let Him show you how. He'll begin by speaking to you about the little things in your life, and as you grow accustomed to hearing and obeying, He'll speak to you about weightier things.

That's how it happened with Gloria and me. When we first accepted Jesus as Lord, we didn't have any idea how to hear God. Our spirits weren't yet trained to distinguish His leading. But since the Bible promised we could do it, we began to approach our prayer time and Bible study time expecting to hear God's direction and He began to give it.

I'll never forget the first time it happened to Gloria. She'd been reading the Bible and she just stopped for a few minutes to see if God would say something to her. Right down on the inside of her, she heard the Lord say, "The light is on in your car."

It didn't occur to her that God would speak to her about something so trivial, so she just brushed that thought aside and went on listening. Pretty soon, He said the same thing again. He kept on repeating it until finally, she got up and walked out to the car. Sure enough, the light was on.

Why would God bother with something as insignificant as a car light? Because He cares! He knew Gloria was home alone that night with two small children, and if that battery had run down, she'd have been stuck there. God was watching out for her, and He told her just exactly what she needed to know right then.

Yet, at the same time, He knew she was a beginner where listening to His voice was concerned, so He gave her an instruction she could follow without much risk. I mean, what if she had gone out there and the light hadn't been on? What if she'd missed it? She would have felt foolish but that wouldn't have hurt anything.

If you'll trust Him, the Holy Spirit will do the same thing for you that He did for Gloria and me. He'll bring you along one step at a time in a way that will help you, not hurt you.

The biggest mistake you can make is to be afraid to follow that inward witness which is the number one way God leads all His children (Rom. 8:14). So don't be afraid. Take time to listen today. Expect to hear in your spirit. God has something to say to you.

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Dear readers,

Thank you for reading my blog. I already include the devotion for 2 days it's because i'm not around Saturday and Sunday. April 18,(Sunday) is my board exam for teachers.I'll go to Baguio Saturday.Thank you.