As you put God’s prescription for health to work in your life, don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate results. Although many times healing comes instantly, there are also times when it takes place more gradually.

So don’t let lingering symptoms cause you to doubt. After all, when you go to the doctor, you don’t always feel better right away. The medication he gives you often takes some time before it begins to work. But you don’t allow the delay to discourage you. You follow the doctor’s orders and expect to feel better soon. Release that same kind of confidence in God’s medicine. Realize that the moment you begin to take it, the healing process begins. Keep your expectancy high and make up your mind to continue standing on the Word until you can see and feel the total physical effects of God’s healing power. Really, you are “treating” your spirit which is the source of supernatural life and health for your physical body.

When the devil whispers words of doubt and unbelief to you, when he suggests that the Word is not working, deal with those thoughts immediately. Cast them down (see 2 Corinthians 10:5). Stop right where you are and say out loud, “No. I cast you down, you evil imagination. Devil, I rebuke you. I bind you from my mind. I will not believe your lies. God has sent His Word to heal me, and His Word never fails. That Word went to work in my body the instant I believed it, so as far as I am concerned, my days of sickness are over. I declare that Jesus bore my sickness, weakness and pain and I am forever free.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

“But, Gloria, it bothers me to say I’m healed when my body still feels sick!”

It shouldn’t. It didn’t bother Abraham. He went around calling himself the Father of Nations for years even though he was as childless as could be. Why did he do it? Because “he believed…God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). He was “fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able also to perform” (verse 21).

You see, Abraham wasn’t “trying” to believe God. He wasn’t just mentally assenting to it. He had immersed himself in God’s Word until that Word was more real to him than the things he could see. It didn’t matter to him that he was 100 years old. It didn’t matter to him that Sarah was far past the age of childbearing and that she had been barren all her life. All that mattered to him was what God said because he knew His Word was true.

If you don’t have that kind of faith for healing right now, then stay in the Word until you get it! After all, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Read, study, meditate, listen to tapes and watch videos of good, faith-filled teaching, watch our Sunday and daily television broadcast every day until God’s Word about healing is more real to you than the symptoms in your body. Keep on keeping on until, like Abraham, you stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief, but grow strong in faith as you give praise and glory to God. (See Romans 4:20, The Amplified Bible.)

Notice that last phrase there doesn’t say you give praise to God because you’re strong in faith. It says you grow strong in faith as you give praise to Him. I like that particular translation because I’ve found it to be true. Praising God for your healing is one of the most powerful things you can do.

In fact, Psalm 103 commands us to do it. It says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (verses 1-3).

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

The great thing about your heart account is that, unlike your bank account, there’s no limit to the amount you can put into it. You might run out of money to deposit, but you’ll never run out of Word. You can put in as much as you want.

Of course, it takes time to make those deposits, but you’re the one who decides how much time you’re going to spend in the Word. It’s entirely up to you!

Some people are hesitant to spend great amounts of time putting the Word about healing in their hearts because they think their investment might not pay off. They think they might make sacrifices to attend to the Word and end up sick anyway. But Galatians 6:7-9 puts such concerns to rest:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in welldoing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

This is the unchangeable law of God. Whatever you sow is what you will reap. If you sow cotton, you won’t reap peanuts. If you sow peanuts, you won’t reap doughnuts. If you steadfastly sow the Word of Life into the soil of your heart, you won’t end up with sickness and death. You’ll end up with a harvest of divine health. The New Testament in Modern English by J.B. Phillips says, “A man’s harvest in life will depend entirely on what he sows” (Galatians 6:7).

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

“I’d have no problem at all believing God’s Word would heal me if He’d spoken to me out loud like He spoke out loud in Genesis,” you might say. “But He hasn’t!”

No, and He probably won’t either. God no longer has to thunder His Word down at us from heaven. These days He lives in the hearts of believers, so He speaks to us from the inside instead of the outside. What’s more, when it comes to covenant issues like healing, we don’t even have to wait on Him to speak.

He has already spoken!

He has already said, “By [Jesus’] stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). He has already said, “I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26). He has already said, “the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up” (James 5:15).

God has already done His part. So we must do ours. We must take the Word He has spoken, put it inside us and let it change us from the inside out.

You see, everything (including healing) starts inside you. Your future is literally stored up in your heart. As Jesus said, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35).

That means if you want external conditions to be better tomorrow, you’d better start changing your internal condition today. You’d better start depositing the Word of God in your heart just like you deposit money in the bank. Then you can make withdrawals on it whenever you need it. When sickness attacks your body, you can tap into the healing Word you’ve put inside you and run that sickness off!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

I’ve heard people say, “Well, look what God
did to Job!” What did God do to Job? He built a
hedge around him and blessed him with abundance.
At the end of the book of James, the
Word says that God was full of pity and mercy
in His dealings with Job.

For years now, we’ve read about Job and
have blamed God for Job’s situation, thinking
that God commissioned Satan to attack Job.
That’s not true! In Job 1, Satan came to God
and said, “Put your hand against Job, and he
will curse you.” He tried to get God to do it,
but God would not. He said, “Behold [look and
see], he is in your power.” Job was already in
Satan’s power by letting that hedge fall from
around him. He quit acting in faith, began
operating in fear, and that protective hedge fell.
Then he was vulnerable to Satan’s attack. The
sacrifices he made were not made in faith. The
Word says he made the same ones continually
(Job 1:5). He lost everything he had. Job didn’t
have the written Word of God to act on like you
and I do today. He said, “That which I have so
greatly feared has come upon me” (Job 3:25).

Then he began by trial and error to figure a
way to get back his faith again. He tried crying
about it, he tried cutting and hurting himself,
he sat down in the ashes—none of this did him
any good at all. Satan sent him some very religious
men, and they certainly didn’t help him!
They were the ones that said God had done it.
God Himself told these men, however, that
they had not spoken of Him rightly.

But the very moment Job moved back in
faith by praying for those men, he moved
back on the Word of God and God replaced
double everything he had lost. When Job
began operating in faith once again, his
deliverance was instantaneous.

We need to preach this instead of identifying
with Job’s sickness and failure. People say,
“Well, I’m just like poor old Job.” We’ll, if
you’re going to be like Job, then you will have
to get healed and delivered. Job wasn’t poor
either—he was the richest man in the East
when this began and then God doubled that!
All God has ever done and all He has ever said
has been deliverance, freedom and power for
His people.

I refuse to believe that my heavenly Father
would hurt me, even though I may not know
all the circumstances. It may look as
though He is behind it, but I refuse to fall for
that. I know He sent His Son to die for me, so
I’m not going to hesitate for one moment and
give Satan the opportunity to move in on me.

Trouble-preaching—being trouble-centered
and trouble-minded instead of being victoryminded—
will give Satan just the moment’s hesitation
he needs to defeat you.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

When Peter preached the Word to the Jews
on the Day of Pentecost, it pricked them in
their hearts and they had to get saved. God
does this with spirit-power, His Word. It chastens
unbelief and purifies the human spirit in
such a way that man comes out strong, not
weak and condemned.

Daniel chastened himself before the Lord
and asked the Lord to correct him. How did
God correct him? He sent an angel to him
and gave him His Word. God has done better
than that for us. He hasn’t sent us an angel—
He has sent us the Holy Spirit to lead us into
all the Truth. We need to fully understand the
ministry of the Holy Spirit in the world today.
Let’s not take away from it. In other words,
let’s exercise our faith in this area. We need to
realize that the Holy Spirit was sent here to
teach the Church, to reveal the deep things of
God to the Body of Christ. We need to
develop our faith in the ability of the Holy
Spirit to show us these things so that we
might be filled with the knowledge of God in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

You know, it seems that some people have
an overwhelming desire to believe the worst
from God. They will fight to prove that God is
the one that inflicted them.

If you were to try talking this way about
my earthly daddy, I’d fight you! Don’t try to
tell me that my dad lied to me or that he stole
my property or made my babies sick. My
father is a good man. He has worked hard to
provide for me, and he would never lie to me.
He loves me—he wouldn’t hurt me—so don’t
try to tell me he’s destroying my life!

I’ve heard people say something like this,
“Well, God killed all my cattle and burned all
my crops, but He finally got me down where
He wanted me.” No, God’s not the one that did
that! Your earthly father would never hurt
you, so why do you want to believe that your
heavenly Father would? James 1:13 says, “Let no
man say when he is tempted [tested or tried], I am
tempted of God.”

How long are you going to listen when
someone says, “God put that on you”?

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

“Thou shalt be far from oppression; for
thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it
shall not come near thee.” What does the
Word say about us where fear is concerned? First
John 2:5, “But whoso keepeth his word, in him
verily is the love of God perfected,” and 1 John
4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love
casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.”

“Behold, they shall surely gather together,
but not by me: whosoever shall gather together
against thee shall fall for thy sake.” There is
no question about it—oppression, fear, and
terror will gather together against you. Satan
will still try to fight you even though Jesus
has defeated him through the cross. “Behold,
they shall surely gather together, but not by me.”
The Lord your Redeemer is speaking, and He
says that oppression, fear and terror are not
from Him.

“Behold, I have created the smith that
bloweth the coals in the fire, and that
bringeth forth an instrument for his work;
and I have created the waster to destroy.”
What is the Lord saying here? God created
Satan. Ezekiel told of how Satan was created
perfect, and then iniquity was found in him.
This is where the problem lies. God has given
His Word on certain indisputable points. He
will not break or go back on His Word, even to
Satan. This put God in the position of having
to keep His Word when Satan became involved
and keep His Word where man is involved. Satan is
trying to trap God in a lie—to trap Him into going back
on His Word. God would then be subject to the
“father of liars.” So what God is saying to us
here is, “I created the one who caused your
trouble. I will be responsible for it.”

“No weapon that is formed against thee
shall prosper.” Even though God created
Satan, even though Satan committed treason
before God and led man into treason, God
has provided a way so that no weapon Satan
forms against us will prosper.

“And every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This
is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
and their righteousness is of me, saith the
Lord.” The battle lines are drawn. God is not
your problem. Satan is your problem—he is
your enemy. But the good news is that
God has provided your complete deliverance
through Jesus Christ.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

The following prophecy from Isaiah 54 is
no longer speaking of Jesus on the cross. It is
speaking of the Resurrected Jesus—the
Redeemer. He is no longer speaking to Israel
but to the Church of Jesus Christ.

In a little wrath I hid my face from
thee for a moment; but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee,
saith the Lord thy Redeemer…And all
thy children shall be taught of the Lord;
and great shall be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be
established: thou shalt be far from
oppression; for thou shalt not fear:
and from terror, for it shall not come
near thee.

Behold, they shall surely gather
together, but not by me: whosoever
shall gather together against thee shall
fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created
the smith that bloweth the coals in the
fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument
for his work; and I have created
the waster to destroy.

No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper, and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of
the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness
is of me, saith the Lord.
(Isaiah 54:8, 13-17)

Notice in verse 8, “but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the
Lord thy Redeemer.” The Redeemer is talking
here. When we read this, we are reading from
the mouth of God. This is what God Himself
has said.

“And all thy children shall be taught of
the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy
children.” Who are those children? We are.
The believers—the Body of Christ, the children
of God as a result of the new birth.

“In righteousness shalt thou be established.”
This is for us right now, here on
earth. We have already been established in
righteousness. Romans 5:17 says, “For if by
one man’s offence death reigned by one; much
more they which receive abundance of grace and
of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by
one, Jesus Christ.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

In the world of the spirit, there is a challenger, a
counterfeit, an opponent of God who knows his
business. But there is also the armor of
God, the Word of God and the power to defeat
this opponent. The Bible says to resist Satan,
and he will flee from you (James 4:7). But when
a man hesitates—not opposing, but wondering—
then Satan can easily defeat him. We must
clearly distinguish between what is coming
from Satan and not blame God for something
that is not His doing. This is why it is so
extremely important to rightly divide the Word
concerning this issue.

Whenever God reveals His Word to a man,
Satan comes immediately to steal the Word
from his heart. Jesus said that he would. He
said the sower sows the Word, and Satan
comes immediately to take away the Word
which was sown. (See Mark 4.)
Satan has no defense against the Word
of God. He has no defense against the lordship
of Jesus or the Name of Jesus. He has no defense
against the bornagain believer who is walking in
faith and acting on the Word of God. He has no defense
against these because Jesus said that all power
has been given unto Him both in heaven and
in earth (Matthew 28:18). Satan has been
stripped of his power.

The devil knows he is defenseless, so in
order to stop the revelation of God’s Word in
the believer, his only tool is deception. He
must sow a deception—something that sounds
good and looks good but is really a wolf in
sheep’s clothing, He usually does this most
successfully in the area of religion. He uses
religion to blind and deceive the people. By
sowing the seed of deception through religious
tradition, Satan has robbed the Church of her
power. He has no defense against our real
spiritual weapons, but he can easily defend
himself against our carnal, religious traditions.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Trouble seems to be as much of a part of life as
breathing. Everyone has trouble at some point in
his or her life. And human nature always wants
to place the blame for its trouble on someone
else. That started in the Garden of Eden. As soon
as Adam had to explain his disobedience to God,
he pointed the finger to his wife! When God
said, “Adam, have you eaten from the forbidden
tree?” Adam replied, “The woman that You gave
me, she gave me of the tree and I ate! It wasn’t
my idea!” (The paraphrasing is mine.)

When trouble arises, the most natural thing
to do is to place the blame for it on someone or
something. Sadly, for the most part, many
Christians have been falsely accusing God of
being the cause of their troubles. This is the
number one deception sown in the Church
today—that our problems, our trials and our
temptations are sent by God to teach us. This
lie says that trials and tribulations are God’s
tools of developing and strengthening our character.
The very extreme end of this deception is
that God Himself is the author of our troubles
or that God is the One Who makes us sick in order to
teach us something.

This is absolutely against the Word of God. Why?
Because the very basic principle of the Christian
life is to know that God put our sin,
sickness, disease, sorrow, grief
and poverty on Jesus at Calvary. For God to put
any of this on us now to teach us or to strengthen
our faith would be a miscarriage of justice. To
believe that God has a purpose for your sickness
would mean that Jesus bore your sicknesses
in vain. What an insult to His love and care and
compassion toward you!

In order to place blame where blame is due,
believers need a fresh revelation of who is our
true source of trouble. The only way we will
receive this revelation is by rightly dividing the
Word of Truth. James 1:8 says that a doubleminded
man is unstable in all his ways. Jesus
said in Luke 11:17 that a house divided against
itself will fall. Therefore, if a man thinks, imagines,
assumes or in any way has the idea that
God is behind his trouble—either by permission
or commission—he will never resist it.
And if he does not resist it, then he will certainly
fail, because his hesitation will give Satan
just the edge he needs to defeat him.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries