BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

B V O V : 5 In a fi t of anger I wised o at my dad, and when he scolded me for it I put up my fi sts as if I were challenging him to a fi ght. My dad was a wonderful, loving, godly man, so it never occurred to me that he'd accept my challenge. But he did…and the next thing I knew I was lying on my back in the closet in the dark. At fi rst, I couldn't fi gure out where I was. The moment before, I'd been standing in the bedroom in front of the closet glaring at my dad. Now, I couldn't see anything. That old man blinded me! I thought. Reaching out my hand, I felt clothes all around me and realized what had happened. My dad had knocked me backward into the closet and shut the door. When I came out, my mother said, "Kenneth, what were you thinking? Didn't you know your dad used to be a prize-winning boxer?" I clearly did not. So, she fi lled me in. She explained that back in the days when little towns across the country used to arrange fi ghts between the town tough guy and anyone who would challenge him. People from all around would pay to come watch, and the winner of the match would get the lion's share of the money. "Your dad and your Uncle Carl once fought in such matches in towns from here to California and back, and paid for the trip with the prize money they won," she said. "Neither of them ever lost a fi ght!" Lesson learned. I never challenged my dad like that again. The opportunity did present itself though. A few years later, after getting home from the Army, I was angrily backtalking my mother early one morning in the kitchen, and my dad overheard me. Coming around the corner, he caught me by the lapels of my bathrobe, picked me up o the fl oor and pinned me against the refrigerator. "Sonny boy," he said, "you and I are going to have a fi ght, and I'm going to win." This time, instead of putting up my fi sts, I showed him the respect he was due. "No sir, put me down," I said. "You've already won!" If we as born-again believers only realized it, the devil is in the same position with us I was in with my dad that day. He knows from experience the kind of power we can wield against him. He made the mistake 2,000 years ago of challenging our LORD Jesus to a fi ght and lost everything. So, when the devil messes with us, we can pin him to the wall with Jesus' Name. We can say, "Devil, you and I are going to by Kenneth Copeland 2 Because Jesus won His Name by conquest, every other name is subject to it. (Phil. 2:10–110) 3 The Name of Jesus is the only Name that stops the devil in his tracks. (Acts 4:12) 4 As a member of God's family you can speak Jesus' Name as if it's your very own. (Eph. 3:14–15) POINTS TO GET YOU THERE: 1 Jesus totally defeated the devil and stripped him of all his authority. (Col. 2:15) 5 The Name of Jesus puts you in a place where you can say to the devil, "Get under my feet!" (Eph. 1:21) O One day, back when I was a teenager, I made a mistake I will never forget.

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