The Essential Core of Your Identity
“Brother Copeland, I’d like to operate in that kind of unchanging faith,” you might say, “but for some reason it’s very difficult for me.”
Maybe that’s because you’ve forgotten who you really are. Maybe, like the world around you, you’re thinking of yourself in natural terms and focusing on your outer man instead of who you are on the inside. When it comes to living by faith that can cause big problems, because faith is a spiritual force. It’s not mental or physical; it comes from your spirit.
Your spirit is the real you. It’s the central, essential core of your identity. It’s what 1 Peter 3:4 refers to as “the hidden man of the heart,” and it’s the most important part of your being. Jesus made this clear in John 6:63 when He said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.”
Have you ever broken a fingernail down to the quick? What happened? You found the part that was alive, didn’t you? That’s how the word quickeneth is used in that verse. Jesus was saying, “It’s the spirit, not the flesh, that makes you alive.”
Proverbs 4:23 puts it this way: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The issues of life are the spiritual forces that flow out of the core of your being. They are forces that, because you can’t live without them, must be protected at all costs.
One of those forces is faith.
“But Brother Copeland, like I already told you, I don’t have any faith.”
Yes, you do. If you’re a born-again believer, your spirit has the very DNA of God in it. Your inner man is exactly like Jesus Christ of Nazareth. You’re not just a little like Him, you’re exactly like Him, which means you have the same faith He has.
The New Testament book of Romans confirms this. There, the Bible says, not to unbelievers but to the Church:
• “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)
• “God hath dealt to every man [or every born-again child of God] the measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)
Think about that. According to those verses, God Himself has deposited in your spirit His own life-producing faith. In Luke 17, Jesus referred to it as your servant. God gave it to you and now you are in command of it. You can use that faith just like God does, to create where creation is needed and to move mountains that stand in your way.
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Kenneth & Gloria Copeland
Bill Winston
Chaplain A.L. Downing
Word Explosion 2014
Columbia, S.C.
Sept. 25-27
Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center
1101 Lincoln St.
Columbia, SC 29201
Admission is Free!
Preregister today & receive a coupon at check-in for $10 off any purchase of $30 or more at the KCM book tables.
kcm.org/events
1-800-600-7395 (U.S. only)
+1-817-852-6000
Schedule is subject to change.
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