BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

To pray like Jesus taught, you can’t just pull a scripture out of a promise box and pray the first thing that comes to mind without giving it any thought. You must spend some serious time in the Bible and fellowship with your heavenly Father before you make your request. You must determine exactly what you want to receive from Him, prioritize and be specific. That’s the first step to prayer that brings results. If you need a car, don’t just say, “LORD, I need a car.” Think through your priorities: What’s your mission? Would it be best served by an all-terrain vehicle that maneuvers well on rough roads or a compact that fits into tight, downtown parking spaces? What make and model do you want? What color? What upgrades do you want on it? “Well, Brother Copeland, I can’t afford much.” So? God didn’t tell you to pay for it. He told you to pray and believe for it; therefore, affordability isn’t the issue. The issue is what car is right for you, and you find that out by fellowshipping with Jesus. He knows more about cars than the best mechanic who ever lived, and as 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, He “is made unto us wisdom.” If you’ll seek Him, He’ll reveal to you exactly what automobile you need. Then you can ask God for it by faith and receive. Bill Winston tells about a time he and his wife, Veronica, did this back when Bill was just starting seminary at Oral Roberts University. With him going to school, they needed Veronica to get a job, so they sought God’s wisdom and made a list of exactly the job they wanted. They wrote it all down on a card—the kind of work, the salary, the location and the car she needed to get there. Then they prayed for it and believed they received. Afterward, if someone asked Bill, “Has Veronica got her job yet?” he’d say, “Yes.” If they asked where she was working, he’d say, “We don’t know yet. But she has the job.” Sure enough, she got exactly the job they requested. It matched everything they wrote down on the card, and God provided it for them right in the middle of a recession. Be Ready to Go a Different Direction On occasion, as you seek God about your request, He may show you something that surprises you. He may take your prayer in an entirely different direction, the way He did mine years ago, when this ministry was facing a million-dollar deficit. I’d gone to our cabin to fast and pray about it, and though I’d asked God for wisdom according to James 1:5-6, to me what I needed seemed obvious. “God, I need a million dollars!” I said. 'No, you don’t,' He answered. Shocked, I blurted out, “You could have fooled me! What do I need?” 'You have a spiritual problem in your ministry,' He explained. 'I told you to do something several years ago, and you let it slip. If I gave you a million dollars today, the same problem would eat it up and you’d still be a million dollars behind.' I knew the instant He said it exactly what problem He was talking about, and we corrected it. After we did, the money came in, and the deficit disappeared. 6 : BVOV

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