So Jesus teaches His men and then He
prays for them. John 17:1, “These words spake
Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said,
Father.” Let’s look at some of the things He
prayed. Verse 13, “And now come I to thee; and
these things I speak in the world, that they might
have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”
Verse 15, “I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep
them from the evil.” You see, we are to live above
the evil in the world. This ties in with what He said earlier—
that we would have tribulation in the world, but to be of
good cheer, because He has overcome the
world. Then He prays the prayer which is the
basis for the way God causes us to live above
the evil in the world— above the trials and
tests and tribulations.
Verse 17, “Sanctify them through thy truth:
thy word is truth.”
Verse 20, “Neither pray I for these alone, but
for them also which shall believe on me through
their word.” He was praying here for you and
me. He said, “I’m not praying just for these
before Me, but also for everybody that believes
on Me through their word.”
All of us received Jesus as Lord by the word
of one or more of these disciples—either
directly or indirectly. Jesus was praying that
prayer for you. What did He pray? “Separate
them with Your Word.” The Word of God will
separate you from the world. The Word is your
sword. Fight with it. It will fight its own fight.
Notice verse 18, “As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world.”
Verses 20-21:
Neither pray I for these alone, but
for them also which shall believe on me
through their word; That they all may
be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I
in thee, that they also may be one in us:
that the world may believe that thou
hast sent me.
Notice that Jesus said, “We’re all going to be
one.” The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians
6:17, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit.” Another translation says, “But he that is
joined unto the Lord is one spirit with Him.” The
Bible also says we are bone of His bone, and
we just read that anyone who believes Jesus is
the Christ is born of God.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Strife is a lack of love and 1 Corinthians 13 shows what will
happen without this love.
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
Your speaking in tongues will be of no use without love.
You’ll just be a noisemaker!
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I
could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.”
Prophecy will do no good if you don’t operate in love. You can’t
gripe, complain and bad-mouth people, then stand up and say,
“Thus saith the Lord….” Unless you operate in love, your
understanding of God’s wisdom and the mysteries of redemption
will be of no value. Though you have faith to move mountains,
it won’t work without love. Now you can see why strife is
Satan’s number one tool. No matter how strongly you operate
in spiritual things, if he can get you into strife and hamper the
love of God in your life, then he’s got you! He knows where to
strike first!
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though
I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me
nothing.” Without love, your giving will be of no profit at all,
even if you gave your own body.
“Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never faileth.” LOVE NEVER FAILS! When you operate in
love, all these things—giving, faith, spiritual gifts—will work
for you. Praise the Lord!
Although you may not agree with someone over certain issues,
find out on what you can agree with them. Love them and pray for
them; don’t criticize and backbite. You don’t have to associate with
someone to pray for them. You can avoid them, get the strife
out of your life, and still remain in a position to pray for them.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
What is the supreme care of this world? Strife! The right to
be ugly if you want to…the right to talk against your brother if
you want to…the right to be fussy if you want to…the right to
say whatever you want to! The most worldly thing that exists is
strife! Satan is strife itself. It is worldly. It is sin. It is deadly, and
it brings disease on its wings almost 100 percent of the time.
James 3:16 says, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion
and every evil work.” The Apostle Paul in his letter to the
Galatians listed strife along with adultery, fornication, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, murder and drunkenness (see Galatians
5:19-21). You can see that when a man gets in strife, it is easy
for him to commit murder, adultery or these other things. Strife
is the motivating force. When a man is operating in love, he
won’t act that way. If he is operating in the love of God, he
won’t look at another woman to lust after her. It is when you
are thinking of yourself that lust gets in.
Strife is the number one tool of Satan. Jesus said in Mark
11:25-26, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought
against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive
you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your
Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Unforgiveness
and strife are under the law of sin and death, and God’s forgiveness
through Jesus Christ is the only way the power of this law can
be broken in a person’s life. Each time a person operates in
strife and unforgiveness, he submits to the law of sin and death,
and he cannot get God’s forgiveness until he forgives his brother
and gets the strife out of his life. Satan knows how this works,
and he will try to keep you in strife. He will attack your weakest
area first and break you down if he can.
Make up your mind at this point that you will never again
operate in any area of unforgiveness. You can’t afford to play
around with it. Faith works by love. The very instant you get
into strife will be the very instant your faith begins to falter. If
you notice your faith weakening in some area, look at your
household, your family, your friends—strife is involved somewhere.
Find it, repent of it and get it straightened out. It doesn’t
matter what people have done to you. Love them in spite of it!
Give love and you will get love. It may take a day, a week or a
year, but it will come! Love never fails!
“And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as
hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold,
some sixty, and some an hundred.” When you receive the Word
into your heart, it will bring forth fruit, as much as a hundredfold.
Praise the Lord.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
We can’t pretend that money isn’t important. It is
important. Jesus said where our treasure is (which
includes our money), there will our heart be also
(Matthew 6:21). He fully understood that people will
invest in what is close to their heart. So where and
how we spend our money tells a lot about our priorities
and what’s most important to us.
The attitude of our heart and our motives determine
whether our giving pleases God or not. In
Malachi, it says He rejected Israel’s offering because
they brought Him defective animals—blind calves
and injured ones they couldn’t use. God said it offended
Him. But in 2 Corinthians 9:7, The Amplified Bible
says, “God loves (that is, He takes pleasure in, prizes above
other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without)
a cheerful (joyous, prompt-to-do-it) giver—whose heart is in
his giving.”
The entire kingdom of God is governed
by the law of sowing and reaping. But it’s
not enough just to give. What matters most
is how and why we give. That’s why Jesus
emphasized the attitude of heart when He
taught on the importance of giving.
Matthew 6:3-6
KJV—When thou doest alms, let not thy
left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
that thine alms may be in secret: and thy
Father which seeth in secret himself shall
reward thee openly. And when thou
prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites
are: for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and in the corners of the
streets, that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter
into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret;
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall
reward thee openly.
Amp—When you give to charity, do not let
your left hand know what your right hand
is doing, So that your deeds of charity may
be in secret; and your Father Who sees in
secret will reward you openly. Also when
you pray you must not be like the hypocrites,
for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and on the corners of the
streets, that they may be seen by people.
Truly, I tell you, they have their reward—in
full already. But when you pray, go into
your most private room, and closing the
door, pray to your Father Who is in secret;
and your Father Who sees in secret will reward
you in the open.
Moffatt—When you give alms, never let
your left hand know what your right hand
is doing, so as to keep your alms secret;
then your Father who sees what is secret
will reward you openly. Also, when you
pray, you must not be like the hypocrites,
for they like to stand and pray in the synagogues
and at the street-corners, so as to
be seen by men; I tell you truly, they do get
their reward. When you pray, go into your
room and shut the door, pray to your
Father who is in secret, and your Father
who sees what is secret will reward you.
NIV—When you give to the needy, do not
let your left hand know what your right hand
is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.
Then your Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you. And when you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites, for they love
to pray standing in the synagogues and on
the street corners to be seen by men. I tell
you the truth, they have received their reward
in full. But when you pray, go into your
room, close the door and pray to your
Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
You may not feel like you have any joy
to release right now. But I can assure you,
you do. If you’re a born-again child of God,
you have His own joy residing in your spirit.
You just need to prime the pump so it will
start to flow. You need to purposely stir up
the joy of the Lord.
How can you do that?
First, by meditating on the Word of God.
You can understand why the Word is so
important to your joy when you read some
of the last things Jesus told His disciples
before He went to the cross. He said:
If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you…. If ye
keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love; even as I have kept my
Father’s commandments, and abide in
his love. These things have I spoken
unto you, that my joy might remain in
you, and that your joy might be full…
ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy
may be full (John 15:7, 10-11, 16:24).
When you meditate on the Word of God
and revelation begins to rise in your heart, joy
comes! It comes because you begin to have a
deeper and clearer knowledge of the Father. It
comes because you realize you can go boldly
before Him in prayer based on the Word, and
be confident your prayers will be answered.
If you’ve been sorrowing over a wayward
child, for example, you can replace your sad
thoughts with a revelation of God’s promise in
Isaiah 54:13, and joy will come into your heart.
Suddenly, instead of crying over what the devil
is doing to that child, you start shouting about
what God will do. You laugh and say, “You
might as well forget it, Devil. Just pack it up
and go home right now, because as far as I’m
concerned, the victory is won. All my children
shall be taught of the Lord. And great shall be
the peace of my children!”
Then, when the devil comes back at you and
says, “Maybe so, but aren’t you sorry over all
the years that child has wasted?” you can shoot
the Word right back at him. You can say, “No,
I’m not sorry. I don’t have to be sorry because
Jesus bore my griefs and carried my sorrows
(Isaiah 53:4). So I believe I’ll just go ahead and
have myself a grand time rejoicing in Him!”
Proverbs 15:23 says, “A man hath joy by
the answer of his mouth….” When you start
answering the troubles and trials you’re
facing with the Word of God, it will release
joy in you and run the devil off. He can’t
stand the joy of the Lord!
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
