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.

If you’ll read the Bible, however, you’ll see that spiritual power has been affecting this physical world ever since time began. In fact, it was spiritual power released in the form of God’s Word that brought this natural world into existence in the first place. Just look at Genesis 1 and you can see that for yourself. It says:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light…. And God said, Let there be a firmament…. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together…. And God said, Let the earth bring forth…. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night…. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly…. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind…. And God said, Let us make man in our image….

Now, in the light of those scriptures, can you believe that God’s Word—the force that originally brought into being everything you can see and touch, including your physical body—is still capable of
changing that body today? Of course you can! It makes perfect sense.

John G. Lake says this about divine healing and divine health: “Divine healing is the removal by the power of God of the disease that has come upon the body, but divine health is to live day by day and hour by hour in touch with God so that the life of God flows into the body, just as the life of God flows into the mind or flows into the spirit” (John G. Lake—His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith, p. 9 9-10).

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Now Jesus taught a way to get rid of strife. He said, “If you
have something against your brother, go to him and try to settle
it.” He didn’t say to tell everyone else about it! He said to go
directly to that person. He gives us three opportunities to
bridge the gap: alone, with another brother and then before the
whole church (see Matthew 18:15-17). Jesus ended His teaching
by explaining the power of agreement, “That if two of you
shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it
shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew
18:19). There is a way to live in the Body of Christ in a magnitude
of power which absolutely and totally defeats Satan. You
have to resist him, and your resistance will work through this
power of agreement and the power of the love of God.

Have you ever wondered about someone who gets turned
on to God and then everything around him falls apart? I have
seen men who looked as though they were doing fine until they
got saved and turned on to the Word, and then problems came
from every direction. It seemed that they were better off before
they got saved. I thought, “Why does it seem that Satan has
such an inroad anytime he wants it?” Then I realized it’s
because the least discussed, least taught, least functioned area
in the Body of Christ in any denomination is the revelation of
God’s love and how to operate together without strife. We have
heard some people preach around the fringes, “We’ve got to
love one another,” but everyone waits on the other person to
do it.

The love of God is not a feeling. Somehow we have put
compassion and feelings in one capsule. When the Bible says
Jesus was moved by compassion, we traditionally assume He
was moved by a feeling of compassion. Then we wait for some
kind of feeling to move us before we do anything. So people
pray for a “burden to win souls” or a “burden to pray.” Actually,
they are praying for some sort of feeling. They want God to
kick them in the pants and make them do what they know they
should do. Jesus was not moved by a feeling of compassion; He
was moved by compassion Himself. God is love.

Love commanded, “Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature.” That is enough. I heard one wellknown
evangelist say, “My calling is Mark 16:15-20, the Great
Commission. I didn’t get a great revelation. I just read it, decided
to do it, and God honored it.”

Being led by God is being led by His Word. The feelings are
real and they will come; but if you are waiting for the feeling
first, then you will never get anything from God. You will
always be led by ordinary human impulses until you begin to
act on God’s Word and do it simply because He said it.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Christianity is not just another religion.
It is the life of God abiding within and
flowing out of the believer. Other religions
leave you the same person you were before.
But the wonderful thing about the Christian
life is that it will completely transform you.

When you are born again, your spirit is
instantly transformed into the image of God.
Your spirit is the part of you that takes on
the nature of God. According to the Word,
once that happens you should immediately
start the process of changing your soul. The
Bible calls it “renewing the mind.”

Your soul is your mind, will and emotions.
Spiritual growth is determined by how much
your soul is changed by the Word of God. The
more you know the Word, the more you
conform to the image of Jesus. When you are
born again, nothing is wrong with your spirit—
the life of God is in there—but you are hindered
from living a spiritual life by a soul (mind) that
thinks like the world instead of like God.

After becoming a Christian, the Bible
instructs you to “put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). This means your
soul and body are to take on the same image
that is in your spirit. This happens through the
process of changing your mind, your will and
your emotions to understand and walk in the
ways of God. We are to conform to the image
of God’s Son (Romans 8:29). You and I ought
to act just like Jesus. The only thing that stands
in the way is our soul. Without a renewed mind,
we could not dare to walk and act like Jesus.

That’s why Romans 12:2 tells us, “be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
The word transformed is translated from the
Greek word from which we get the term
metamorphosis. This Greek word is used in
the Scripture in two other places.

One such account is when Jesus was
transfigured on the Mount. The other is in
2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord.” Changed is the same word in the Greek
as transformed and transfigured. Our souls are
changed when we spend time beholding the
Lord in the Word and in prayer. It is a natural
process like metamorphosis.

Renewing our minds causes our outer
being to be transformed in much the same
way as a caterpillar is changed into a butterfly.
As we behold Him, our outer man
changes to match the inner man which is
created in righteousness and true holiness.

The world would have you think that
God is a liar. Yet God tells you that Satan
is the liar, and in between these two adversaries
is your soul. Here is where the spiritual
battle is fought. Therefore, your soul must
be anchored. Anchored to what? To the
Word. To eternal things. If it is moored to
this world, you will never walk in victory or
in the power of God. If your soul is not fixed
on eternal things, it will not hold steady in
the time of crisis.

When you become a Christian, you are
sustained from the inside. Your spirit is
steady in adversity. You are upheld and maintained
by your spirit man and not by your
intellect or reasoning. “For the word of God
is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any
twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

God’s Word divides (distinguishes between)
the soul and the spirit. Nothing else
can cause you to recognize whether you are
being led by your soul and natural thinking
or whether you are following your spirit
which is led by the Holy Spirit.

Every problem, weakness or difficulty you
have could be solved immediately if you could
know the mind of God. But it takes effort,
dedication and faithfulness to renew your mind.
Mind renewal is not like the new birth. It is a
process and doesn’t come overnight. Though
your spirit is renewed and transformed, your
soul must be saved. Saved from what? From the
world’s influence and thinking.

James 1:21 is quite clear concerning this:
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity
of naughtiness, and receive with meekness
the engrafted word, which is able to save your
souls.” You can’t just read the Word. It must
be implanted in your soul (your mind) and
be received with meekness.

Meekness is often misunderstood. It is a
thing of power, not weakness. It is an attitude
in which we accept God’s dealing with us as
good. Therefore, we do not resist His correction
or guidance. Meekness is giving your will to
God and letting Him change it. So, your soul
is saved as you yield your will to God’s will.

The Scripture says that God energizes and
creates in us the power and the desire to will
and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians
2:13). He works from the inside out, not
from the outside in. He takes the image of
the Word in our spirits and grafts it into our
souls as we behold Him. Only then can we
outwardly express the image of Jesus that we
inwardly possess.

But this takes conscious effort. If you are
just going to give God a couple of hours a
week, your mind will not be renewed. The
Word won’t be implanted in you. You might
know it with your head, but it’s the engrafted
Word in your soul that changes you. It’s the
Word of God that controls your thinking and
transforms your life.

So, take the time to get away from the
world and study God’s Word. Meditate on
it, and let it change you from the inside out.
“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to
you” (James 4:8). Make a conscious effort to
allow the Word of God to be engrafted into
you. Only then will you begin to understand
His Word and His will. Only then will you
be on your way to renewing your mind.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Another aspect of our love being perfected
is found in 1 John 2:4-5: “He that saith,
I know him [I know God, I know Jesus,
I know Love], and keepeth not his [God’s]
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is
not in him. But whoso keepeth his [God’s]
word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.”

When you keep God’s Word, you allow the love
of God to run its full course in your life. You
reach that place of allowing God to do on the
inside of you what He had in mind when He
created Adam. It’s what He was in Jesus.
And that’s exactly what He plans to be in you.

But notice that the key to being perfected in
God’s love is tied to keeping His commandments—
His Word. First John 3:23 says: “And this is his
commandment, That we should believe on the
name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one
another, as he gave us commandment.” This
verse refers to the commandment Jesus gave
to His disciples: “A new commandment I give
unto you, That ye love one another; as I have
loved you…” (John 13:34).

Love one another as I have loved you… “We
can’t do that, Jesus!” Of course we can’t.
That’s why 1 John 3:23 precedes the
commandment to love with “Believe on the
name of his Son Jesus Christ….” Then we can
love one another. That changes the
complexion of this thing. It takes love out of
the emotional realm and puts it in the spiritual
realm.

In other words, it’s going to take believing
on the Name of Jesus the Anointed One to
be able to love one another the way He did.
It’s going to take faith. Also realize from
these two passages that we’re talking
about a commandment from Jesus. If He
commanded us to love, then somehow He
must have equipped us to do it.

If Jesus commanded us to love, then
somehow He must have equipped us to do it.
Besides, Jesus doesn’t love us with some
human form of love. He loves us
with the love of God— and that’s not just
any love. Throughout His earthly ministry,
Jesus used a Greek word for love that was
as uncommon as He was.

It’s the word we know as agape. The people
of Jesus’ day didn’t really understand that
word because it was not used in conversation,
but primarily in classic writings and so forth.

We find agape used in the writings of the
Apostle Paul, particularly in that great passage
on love, 1 Corinthians 13. But even the English
translators translated love as “charity,”
which is closer to the true meaning because
charity is more than just love.

Charity is actually a love that has a driving
desire to give. So agape, as used by Jesus,
is more than just loving one another. It is
loving one another to the point that you
are willing to give yourself.