Abraham called himself “father of a
multitude.” That was his new name. He
wouldn’t let anyone call him anything else.
People probably thought he’d flipped out.
But Abraham knew what he knew. He was
the father of a multitude. He’d seen the
blueprint.

Let me give you another example. If I
said to you, “Come over here and see my
dream house. Man, is it something!” You
might say to me, “Where is it?”
I’d answer, “Right here on this piece of
paper!”
Then, you might tell me, “You don’t have
a house.”
“I certainly do,” I’d say. “I just got back
from the architect, and you ought to see it.
Sit down and I’ll show you my house.”

Now, that house is real. It started as an
image in my mind. Then I described it to the
architect and he translated it into symbols
and lines. If it hadn’t been a picture in my
mind and on paper, if I hadn’t called it my
house, then it would never have been built.

Hope works just like that. People of faith
look into the Word of God and begin to see
things. They see things like, “By [his] stripes
ye were healed.”

I remember the first time I ever saw that
particular part of God’s blueprint. My mind
just wouldn’t accept it. If it hadn’t been right
there in the Bible, I never would have believed
it because it was obvious to me I wasn’t
healed. But the Bible said, “Ye were healed.”

And if “ye were,” then I knew I must be.
Once I received that, I started meditating
on it. I started building it up on the inside of
me. Eventually I was able to see myself
healed.

Soon, every time some symptom suggested
to me that I wasn’t healed, I’d begin to resist
it and reject it. You couldn’t tell me healing
didn’t belong to me any more than you could
tell me that blueprint wasn’t my house. I
knew it did. I had a picture of it on the inside
of me.

Now, I realize there’s been some controversy
in Christian circles about the right and wrong
of visualization. But I can put that argument to
rest by assuring you, you are always visualizing
something—whether you want to or not. Our
minds have been divinely programmed to do
that. You have an imagination.

We can either use that programming the
way God designed it to be used and live, or
we can use it the perverted way Satan has
trained us to use it, and die. But we’re going
to use it, one way or the other.

Look at the way we talk. Words are
simply inner-image transferring devices. When
I say, “Dog,” I transfer an image from the
inside of me to you. You don’t sit there thinking,
“D-O-G.” You see an inner image of a
dog. If I say, “Big, black, barking dog,” I can
modify that image. So when we speak, we’re
actually exchanging pictures.

As you speak out those inner images, if
they are based on the Word of God, faith
comes alongside to give them substance.
Hope is the blueprint. Faith is the substance.
It’s a powerful process. How you use it will
literally determine your destiny.

There is, however, one thing you need
to know: Destiny is not built overnight. It’s
not what you thought once or twice that
got you where you are today. It’s what
you’ve thought over and over again. Those
inner images are created by repetition, and
repetition takes time.

I remember how long it took me to start
seeing myself with my needs met according to
God’s riches in glory by Christ Jesus. The outside
of me kept saying I was broke. It said, “You
will live in this shack all your life, boy. There’s
no way you can ever get out of here.”

But I started meditating on the Word of
God. I practiced thinking about myself God’s
way. It wasn’t easy at first. It felt awkward
and unnatural. But that’s how you feel when
you do something new.

That’s how I felt the first time I tried to
fly an airplane. During those first few hours,
that thing was a monster. When I tried to
land it, I hit the nose gear on the ground first
and bounced the thing like it was a basketball.

Then the next time I landed it, I kept the
nose too high and fell several feet, slamming
into the ground. I couldn’t find the ground.
But now, after more than 10,000 hours and
more than 40 years of flying, I don’t feel
awkward anymore.

That’s exactly how you learn to operate in
the things of God. You practice. You get into
the Word and you meditate on it until the Word
begins to change your inner image of yourself
and you begin to see yourself with your needs
met instead of without. You begin to see yourself
in Christ Jesus. You think about it. You talk
about it. You start believing in God’s promises
and acting on them.

“But what if I fail?”
So what if you do? Don’t call it a failure.
Just get up and go after it again. Learn some
more, and learn some more. Work at it.
Determine to develop inside you the hope of
the gospel.

Just remember, this isn’t something that
happens in a day or two. It takes time. Before
I came to Jesus in 1962, I was one of the
most efficient sinners you ever saw. I could
sin without even thinking about it. When I
got into the things of God and started trying
to turn that around, it wasn’t easy to do. It
didn’t take much of anything for Satan to
knock me off course.

But over the last 46 years you might say
I’ve had a lot of Holy Ghost flying lessons.
I’ve done a lot of spiritual bouncing and slamming,
but I’ve learned a lot, too. Some of the
things Satan used years ago to knock me off
balance won’t even get to first base with me
now. So be diligent. Stay with it. It will pay
off if you don’t give up.

The Bible solemnly says, “Where there is
no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).
That’s how important it is for you to get a
grip on God’s blueprint for your life.

It’s not an option. It’s an absolute necessity,
because like it or not, your hope, your vision,
that inner image inside you, is determining
your destiny—for better, for worse...forever.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries