Granted, it isn’t easy to keep your attention centered on the Word like that. It takes real effort and commitment. It may require getting up a little earlier in the morning or turning off the television at night. But I urge you to do whatever is necessary to take God’s medicine exactly as directed.
It won’t work any other way!
That really shouldn’t be so surprising. After all, we wouldn’t expect natural medication to work for us if we didn’t take it as prescribed. No rational person would set a bottle of pills on the night stand and expect those pills to heal him. No one would call the doctor and say, “Hey, Doc! These pills don’t work. I’ve carried them with me everywhere I go—I keep them in the car with me, I set them on my desk at work. I even have them next to me when I sleep at night—but I don’t feel any better.”
That would be ridiculous. Yet, spiritually speaking, people do it all the time. They cry and pray and beg God to heal them, all the while ignoring the medicine He’s already provided. (They might take a quick dose on Sunday when they go to church, but the rest of the week they don’t take time for the Word at all!)
Why do people who love God and believe the Bible act that way? I think it’s because they don’t understand how putting the Word in their heart can affect their physical bodies. They don’t see how
something spiritual can change something natural.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
What is Jesus’ attitude? A good example is
the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Jesus did
not pray this for Himself or anyone else. It was
simply an example of His attitude of prayer. He
makes some outright confessions of faith.
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be
thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in
earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). This
is a statement of faith. It shows His winning
attitude. He was standing there in the face of
people that wanted to hang Him! He didn’t say,
“Father, if it be Your will.”
He didn’t just say, “Thy will be done.” He
said, “Your will be done in earth as it is in
heaven!” Is there sickness and poverty and
suffering in heaven? No! Then there shouldn’t
be any of that here on earth. Can you see
His attitude in this? God doesn’t have sickness
in heaven, so He doesn’t want any here on
the earth!
Our attitude needs to be the same as His.
Jesus is the Eternal Winner—He is always a
winner! God can tell you what will happen
6,000 years from now. Why? Because the
events taking place in the next 6,000 years or
the next 6,000,000 years will not happen by
chance. They are established. Where? In the
mind of God. He has faith operating in His
own ability. He is a faith being. He can tell you
what will happen in the future because He
intends for it to come out that way! He can
give you His wisdom because it’s going to be
the way He decides.
How does He do it? With His faith. He
doesn’t expect to fail. He doesn’t prepare to
fail. Satan will get in and try to destroy things,
but God doesn’t worry—He knows it will
come out all right. That’s how we are to be.
Roll all your cares over on Him. Don’t be
moved by what you feel or by what you see.
You’re a faith man, so you know how things
are going to come out. You’re going to win!
Praise God!
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
We are to be conformed to the very attitude
of God. We are to take His innermost feelings,
place them in our hearts and cause our wills and
attitudes to conform to His. But the only way we
will get them is by acting on the Word. This is a
much higher calling and a greater form of life
than just submitting ourselves to God. We are to
have our attitudes changed to completely and
absolutely conform to the Son of the Living God.
The Word says we are predestined to be
conformed to His very image. It says we are
one with Him—one spirit with Him. It says we
have the mind of Christ, and we are bone of
His bone. Thank God, we’re connected to
Jesus—spirit, soul and body—through the
Holy Spirit and by His Word. We are completely
and totally ONE with Him, so let’s put ourselves
in God’s position for a moment.
Is there any part of your life God can’t handle?
Certainly not!
Have you ever caught God asleep? No, the
Bible says He never slumbers.
Have you ever gone to Jesus with a problem
He didn’t know how to solve? No.
Have you ever heard Jesus say, “Well, I
thought I had overcome the world, but evidently,
I haven’t.” No, you have not!
Well, we’re one with Him. If that’s His attitude,
then praise God, it should be our attitude.
We are overcomers with Him!
Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, “All things
are possible with God,” everyone would smile
and quickly agree, but the same Bible, the
same Jesus, the same Word of God says, “All
things are possible to him that believes”
(Mark 9:23). If you believe the first statement,
then you have to believe the second.
You and I need to change our perspective
in all of this. We are one with Him, so we need
to set our attitude to match His attitude. If we
are one with Him in the spirit, one with Him
in mind, and one with Him in body, then we
ought to be one with Him in attitude as well!
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
As believers we need to develop that kind
of winning attitude.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God: and every one
that loveth him that begat loveth him
also that is begotten of him. By this we
know that we love the children of God,
when we love God, and keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments: and
his commandments are not grievous.
For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even
our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that
Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5)
Now God is being unusually explanatory
here. He normally does not explain things
written in the Word of God this deeply for a
very good reason: He intends for us to take
what He says by faith, go to Him and allow
the Holy Spirit to reveal it to our hearts. This
way He doesn’t tip the devil to what it means.
God wrote the Bible as a code book. Proverbs
says that God has hidden godly wisdom for
His people. This is the way He wants it. But
here in this portion of Scripture, God goes an
unusual step further and asks the question,
“Who is he that overcometh the world?” In
other words, God is saying, “This is the way I
see this—whatsoever is born of Me overcomes
the world; and who is he that overcomes
the world, but he who believes that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?”
Now this can be read another way: “Nobody
but those who believe that Jesus is the Christ
will ever overcome the world.” This world will
not be overcome by a government, by a political
system, or by a monetary system. Money will
never overcome the world! When the Bible
talks about “the world,” it is speaking of the
dominion of darkness, the god of this world,
the evil spirit—Satan—that operates in the
world. No man or system will ever—in any
way, form or fashion—overcome the world
without Jesus Christ as Lord. You’ll never be
able to do it unless you’re born of Him. But
on the other hand, if you are born
of Him, you have an absolute, perfect,
God-given, blood-bought right to overcome every
aspect of the world—everything it could possibly
send your way!
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
While preaching the gospel across this country,
I have realized one main thing the Lord is saying
to His people: God is a winner—He is not
a failure. Consequently, His people are winners
and not failures. We are to have a victorious
attitude in Christ!
In Ephesians 4:23, the Apostle Paul told
the Church to have the spirit of their minds
renewed. In other words, they should have
their whole attitude renewed. We need to
renew our minds to the Word of God—to the
fact that Jesus has overcome the world.
We’ve all heard it said, “It’s not whether
you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”
That is nonsense! If you play the game right,
you’ll win! There is no substitute for being a
winner. Man was created as a dominating lord.
He was given dominion over the earth and
everything that crept, flew, crawled and
breathed in the earth. Man is a winner—he
does not know how to graciously accept
defeat. When he accepts defeat and failure as
his lot in life, he lowers himself, not only
below other principalities and powers, but he
lowers himself below the devil and even below
the animal kingdom.
I’m reminded here of something George
Patton said as a general in the Army of the
United States. He was a great commander with
a God-given insight into war. (You might ask:
“Does God give men insight into war?” Yes.
Look at David—God showed him how to
fight. There are some men called of God to
handle the garbage jobs—the blood-and-guts
jobs—that have to be done. Many times these
jobs have been glorified by men, but they are
not glorious jobs!) George Patton was one of
these garbage men. He knew how to win a war
and said it this way: “Some of you men have
come with your minds made up to die for
your country. That’s not the way to win a war!
The way to win a war is to make your enemies
die for theirs!” He had his mind made up to
win—and dying wasn’t the way to do it. That
man had a winning attitude.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
