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