by Kenneth Copeland

Start today practicing the life of love. One way to do that is by practicing God’s presence in your daily life. Develop an awareness that Love is constantly with you by talking to Him all the time.

And when you talk to Him, just get real. First thing in the morning when you open your eyes say, “Good morning, Lord. I love You and praise You today. I’m so glad You never leave me nor forsake me. I receive Your love for me and I want You to know my desire is to be a blessing to You. Help me, teach me and train me—whatever You desire for me to do, I’ll be willing and obedient. I’ll do it with a happy heart.”

When you start to practice God’s presence like that, it will change how you act throughout the day. You’ll start being more loving and kind—even when other people aren’t around to notice—because you’ll know the Lord is there and you have no desire to grieve Him.

The higher life is walking in the spirit, walking with God and walking in victory and power. It is walking and being ruled by our new reborn nature, filled with the Holy Ghost, even though we are still living in a natural body.

In Luke 18 Jesus tried to get the rich young ruler to follow Him into a higher life, but the man was unable to do it. Now Jesus did not tell everyone He met to sell what they had and give it to the poor, but He said that to the rich young ruler for some reason. The reason probably was the rich young ruler was trusting in his riches instead of God. When put to the test, he cared more for the riches.

It was of prime importance to Jesus to obey whatever the Father asked. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, His soul was crying out, knowing He was going to have to endure separation from God. He was so pulled by what was going to happen to Him, He prayed:

Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:42, 44).

God may be telling you what to do. He may be saying, “I want you to spend more time in prayer.” Perhaps you have been hearing that for weeks or months and thinking, I really ought to do that.

He may be prompting you in your spirit and saying, “I want you to spend more time in My Word.” You have thought, I ought to do that. Don’t put it off. Do what God is telling you. Lay down your natural desires and obey the higher calling of God.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

In Matthew 28, Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel:

“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” (verse 20).

In Mark 8, we read one of the most important things that He told them. Read it carefully and receive it in your heart:

And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it (Mark 8:34-35).

In The Amplified Bible Jesus said it this way:

If any one intends to come after Me, let him deny himself—forget, ignore, disown, lose sight of himself and his own interests—and take up his cross, and…follow with Me—continually, [that is,] cleave steadfastly to Me. For whoever wants to save his…life, will lose [the lower, natural, temporal life...]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived (only) on earth], for My sake and the Gospel’s, will save [his higher, spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God].

Now Jesus not only was talking about our going to heaven, although that is included. He also was talking about our living for Him while in the earth. To live for Him, we cannot cling to our natural lives, or the things our souls desire in the natural realm—ambition, money, recognition, or any other desires of the flesh—things that natural man seeks after with his whole heart.

He was saying, “If you will lay down your natural desires, lose sight of yourself and your own interests, you will lose that lower life. Take up your cross. Do what you are told. Follow Me and you will find that higher life.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Think of how Jesus spent time with His Father during His earthly ministry. He would get up a great while before daylight so He could pray. He would spend a whole night in prayer, communicating with His heavenly Father. After Jesus was baptized by John and the Holy Ghost came upon Him and anointed Him, He spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and praying. Then the Scripture says He left that place in the power of the Holy Spirit.

As a result of His time with the Father, He knew what He was to do and He did it! He perfectly pleased God. Afterward when Satan came to tempt Him, Jesus knew exactly what to do to have victory.

We need to let Him teach us. We need to read His words as if we have never heard them before. Picture in your mind Jesus talking to you now, saying to you the same words He spoke to the disciples.

In Christian circles we have been raised in such a sloppy way with an attitude of “just get born again and live anyway you want to,” that it has cost us the blessings God wants to manifest in our midst.

Getting born again is not something you just do so you will miss hell. He tells us to go win the lost, so we do it, but this is not the entire purpose of the Church. Our purpose is to please God—to be His special possession in the earth and do whatever He tells us to do. We should cleave unto Him, live in fellowship with Him, and be vitally united with Him. We should spend enough time with Him that we hear and recognize His voice so we can be pleasing to Him. When we do that, winning the lost will be the result.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

In order for God to be God in the Church like He so desires to be, we’ve got to obey the Word of God and follow after the voice of His Spirit. According to John 10:15-16, that is the key to a unified Body. If we can get into agreement with God, then we can get into agreement with each other: “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”

No matter where we come from or where we are in the earth, we can be united with each other. You can be on one side of the world, praying, walking in the written Word, listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. I can be on the other side, praying, walking in the written Word, listening to the Spirit. Regardless of our location, we can be in agreement. We can be one spirit with the Lord and with each other.

If we do this, then we’ll be walking under the direction of one person—Jesus. He is the Head. Our responsibility is to choose to walk in obedience so He can tell me what to do here, and can give you the same instruction there. We can flow together in the Spirit, even though we may not know one another—if we are walking in obedience to His Word and the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is in us to bring us into this unity of the faith and into the image of the Son of God. We have been predestinated to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29). There shall be one fold and one Shepherd! Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

Oh, we have such adventure ahead of us! We have been living in the low life of this natural realm, when we could be walking in the Spirit. As God gives us revelation, we are able to walk in the spiritual realm with Him. He is revealing things to our generation to bring us to that place. He has made a way to help us be successful.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

God is searching our hearts to see what is inside us. He is searching for a people who will do what He says and be dedicated to Him. Jesus is loyal to God. He lives His life for God. This same Jesus lives in us. We are His Body. He is endeavoring to get us to live totally for God. He does it. We are to do it, too.

Jesus said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). When He was on the earth, He did not live His life for Himself. He lived it loving God with His whole heart, soul and might.

Keeping the Word and obeying God’s voice, Jesus also said, “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). Don’t you know it was a delight to the Father’s heart to see a man in the earth keep His Word, obey His voice and live life totally for Him? Likewise, our Father wants this to be the word of the Church today: “I do always those things that please Him.”

But we need to change. And change starts with individuals—with you and me. We are members of the Body, but members in particular. God wants us to be able to honestly say, “I do always the things that please Him.”

It is important to understand that Jesus laid down His life before He ever went to the cross. During His time on earth He continually laid down His life to please God. Do you think He lived an unhappy life? Did He miss out on very much because He did not seek His own will or His own interests? Did He pay too great a price to walk pleasing to God as far as the rewards of this life are concerned? Of course not!

Did He fail at anything? Yes! He never got around to committing a sin, never experienced sickness, never knew defeat. Just think how much He missed! Would you miss much if you walked the earth as Jesus did with such power, anointing and glory? No, you wouldn’t miss a thing. You would walk in that same high life. God is trying to get blessings to you, and this is the way they will come to you unhindered, and in full measure—by your being obedient to the Lord and by doing what you are told to do.

Jesus walked in total victory. He put Satan down at every turn. Satan could not touch Him because Jesus was allowing God to be God in His life. The Father was an enemy to His enemy, and a friend to His friend.

Because Jesus kept God’s Word and obeyed His voice, God could manifest His power through Him without measure. Jesus did not even speak His own words. Everywhere He went, if they would receive Him, He made the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear. He delivered those who were demon possessed. The wind and the sea obeyed His voice. Every need He had was met by God’s power and action.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

You and I not only have the written Word, but we have the guidance of the Holy Spirit within us. The Word has been given to us to teach us and train us in God’s ways and precepts, but also we need answers in our individual lives: “What am I supposed to do about this problem? What am I supposed to do today? What can I do today, Lord, to please You?”

Jesus knew the written Word of God, and He operated by the voice of God. The two always agree.

In John 5:46 Jesus said, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” If He had been dealing with the people who knew the books of Moses, they would have believed Jesus when He came, because Moses wrote of Jesus. But He said, “If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:47).

Unless we believe the written Word of God, we won’t follow the voice of the Holy Spirit telling us what to do. We won’t believe the Spirit of God as He speaks to us, unless by the written Word we know His ways. God’s ways are so high above our natural ways.

We must have the written Word in our hearts so we can learn to discipline ourselves to make the right choices and live our lives according to the Word of God. Then when the Spirit of God tells us to do something, we will be quick to recognize it as God leading us because we already know how God thinks.

When we walk with God, we must totally learn to rethink our lives because the world’s way—the way we first learned to think—is foolishness to God. The world is in darkness and is backward compared to what God says and knows. The Amplified Bible says that the whole world around us is under the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19).

Because of this, you and I are faced with a decision. We can live in either of the two realms—the natural or the supernatural. We are born again in the spirit, so we can walk in the spirit, or we can walk after our soul (mind, will, emotions—or natural thinking). We can acknowledge God in all our ways and lean not to our own understanding, or we can continue to live like the rest of the world in permanent defeat until we leave this earth. But why choose what the world chooses when we can walk with God?

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19).

Jesus said He could do nothing of Himself. He did not try. He did not even want to do anything of Himself. He did only what He saw the Father do.

In John 5:30 Jesus said it again:

I am able to do nothing from Myself—independently, of My own accord—but as I am taught by God and as I get His orders. [I decide as I am bidden to decide. As the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision.] Even as I hear, I judge and My judgment is right (just, righteous), because I do not seek or consult My own will—I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose—but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me (The Amplified Bible).

Jesus obeyed the Father. He did not make His own decisions, but lived absolutely obedient to the voice of God. He was totally submitted to His Father.

You see, Jesus understood the difference between following after the soul (mind, will, emotions) and following after the spirit. He could have followed after His soul, but He counted that as nothing. Compared to walking after the spirit, that is exactly what walking after the soul is—nothing. You and I just do not know enough to walk after our natural thinking. That is why God gave us His Holy Spirit—to teach us to think like He thinks, to reveal His Word to us (Isaiah 55:7-11; John 14:26).

Jesus knew the written statutes and ordinances of the scriptures, but He also knew and operated by the voice of the Lord. He spent time in prayer with the Father: “What shall I do? What shall I say?” He always obeyed the Father’s direction. “Not my will be done but yours, O Lord.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

If you want to walk in obedience and receive God’s goodness, I have good news for you. God wants to be God to you in a very personal and intimate way. He wants to be God in the Church. He wants to be God in your individual life. But He can only be God to you as far as you will follow Him.

As we have already learned God waited and waited for a people who would be obedient to Him, so that He could be God to them, manifesting His presence and glory. Finally, in the New Testament, one man fulfilled His call. One man was absolutely obedient. His Name is Jesus.

Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world to fulfill the perfect will of God. He stripped Himself of His heavenly privileges and was born of a woman. He took upon Himself flesh. The Holy Spirit hovered over Mary and conceived in her a holy thing. Because God was His Father, and not man, Jesus was born without sin.

The life of God was in Him instead of spiritual death. But Jesus did not just come into this world saying, “Look at Me—I’m the Son of Almighty God,” and then live anyway He wanted. The thing that set Jesus apart and qualified Him to pay the price was His living as a man without sin. Yet when the time came, He was willing to lay down His own life and take sin into Himself for you and me. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Had Jesus lived in the earth after His own will, He would never have gone to the cross. But Jesus did not live in the earth after His own will. When faced with death—separation from God—He changed His will in the Garden of Gethsemane to agree with God’s will. Why? Because He knew the scriptures. He knew the Spirit of God. He knew His Father. He had the knowledge of God Who said, “Keep My statutes and ordinances. Keep My Word and obey My voice.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

God’s Word to you is “I will be with you.” When Moses asked, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh?” God’s answer was, “I will be with you.” After Moses’ death, God told Joshua the same thing: “I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage…” (Joshua 1:5-6).

Even if you get into trouble by your own thinking, God will honor you if you accept correction: “…whoever heeds correction is honored” (Proverbs 13:18, New International Version). Glory to God! If you press into His kingdom, stretching toward your prize, and remain correctable, He will make sure you stay headed in the right direction. He is with you and for you.

Do you wonder where your attention is? Watch your life. Watch what motivates you and what you’re thinking about. Your words will follow your actions. So keep watch and don’t let divine things lose out.

Don’t be dismayed. Don’t lose your courage. Do what you’re called to do.

You have everything it takes to be a winner—everything you need to be part of the glorious, victorious end-time army of God. As Kenneth E. Hagin said in a prophecy God gave him in 1977, “You can be a part of that army if you want to be. Purpose in your heart that you’ll not be lazy, that you’ll not draw back, hold back or sit down. But purpose in your heart that you’ll rise up and march forward and become on fire.”

Get aggressive. Press in. Lay hold of the kingdom of God with every bit of force you can muster. That’s the price you pay to win this race. But one thing is certain—the eternal victory you gain will be worth it all.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries