BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

After not showing up for a few days, he came back again to one of the morning services, but he sat on the very back row, right next to the door. Curious, I kept my eye on him as I preached. At one point in the service, I saw his jaw suddenly drop as if he’d seen something shocking. He looked as startled as if someone had slapped him in the face with a wet rag. After the service, he asked me to lunch and told me what had happened. It turned out he had quit coming to the services because I had said something that upended his theology and made him mad. He told The LORD he didn’t want to hear me anymore and intended for that to be the end of the matter. But The LORD kept telling him to give me another hearing, so he finally did. “Brother Kenneth,” he said, “when I walked into the service this morning, I was mad at you and mad at God. But while you were preaching, He opened my eyes to the spirit realm and what I saw astonished me. “The biggest fellow I’ve ever seen in my life was standing right next to you. All dressed in white, he looked like Mr. Clean, on the commercial. He followed you around so closely it looked like the two of you were stuck together. Sometimes while you were preaching, you’d settle down a little bit. Then, he’d lean over and whisper something in your ear, and you’d just take off. “Who in the world do you reckon he is, Brother Copeland?” “He’s my angel!” I said. Something To Work With Recently, The LORD reminded me of this experience and said we, as believers, need to become more aware of our angels. We need to study what the Bible says about how powerful they are, what they can do for us, and how we can open the door for them to do it. One passage of Scripture from which we can learn a lot about these things is 2 Chronicles 20. It speaks of a time the nation of Judah found itself in desperate need of angelic help. Jehoshaphat, Judah’s king, had received word that the nation’s enemies—the Moabites and Ammonites (plus some others)—had joined forces and were poised to attack. Militarily, Judah didn’t stand a chance. Vastly outnumbered, without supernatural help they were sure to be destroyed. "So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and…Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD…and said: 'O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwell in it…saying, ‘"If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save"'’” (verses 4-9, "New King James Version"). Notice first what Jehoshaphat did not do in that situation. He did not start his prayer by bawling and squalling and saying, “Oh God, we’re all going to die!” No, he started his prayer by quoting God’s WORD. He began by bringing to remembrance Judah’s covenant with Him and said, “LORD, You will hear and save.” Those are words of faith. Faith-filled words dominate the laws of sin and death! Fear-filled words, on the other hand, enable the laws of sin and death. So, obviously, Jehoshaphat chose his words wisely. Although he felt feelings of fear (verse 3) he didn’t give voice to them. Instead, he stood on God’s WORD and spoke by faith. If we want God to move supernaturally in our lives—through our angel or some other way—we must do the same! Otherwise, He won’t be able to do much for us. The LORD drove home that point to me years ago when I was struggling with pain in my back. One day as I was walking on the treadmill, really hurting, I hollered, “Jesus, how long am I going to have to put up with this?” 'Until you give Me something to work with!' He replied. I realized then that I’d let the pain get in my mouth. I’d been talking about what the devil was doing rather than declaring The WORD of God. 6 : BVOV

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