BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Someone Powerful Is Backing You Up! The third key to greater boldness is knowing that Someone powerful is backing you up. That’s a lesson I learned from my mother at the ripe old age of 5½. My mother was a 220-pound Cajun woman who’d been eating Louisiana hot sauce since she was born. She was a powerful woman. The kind nobody dared to cross, if you know what I mean. We lived in a poor neighborhood next to a Mississippi River levee. One day, a 6-year-old neighbor boy named Fred stabbed my best friend in the back with a butter knife. Fred was not your average first-grader. Fred smoked cigars. His parents didn’t care. I’d seen them both passed out drunk on their porch many times. When I heard that Fred had stabbed my friend, I got mad. Real mad. So I grabbed my brother. “Wayne,” I said to him, “you and I are gonna whip Fred.” Wayne was agreeable. “OK. But how?” “I’ll lure him into the outhouse. You hit him over the head. Then we’ll both grab him and stuff him down the hole.” I was only 5 years old myself, but I’d had enough of Fred. Sure enough, before long little Fred came along smoking his cigar. Everything went according to plan. Wayne and I were dangling Fred upside down, screaming and wailing and carrying on, over the outhouse hole. But before we could get him through it, we heard a gruff voice behind us. It was Fred’s dad, drunk as could be, carrying a pipe wrench and ready to knock both Wayne and me in the head. “I ought to kill you!” he hollered. When I heard that, I froze. I knew I should run but for some reason my legs just wouldn’t work. Man, I’ve had it now, I thought. Then, another sound interrupted my thoughts. It was the click of a rifle being cocked. Wheeling around, I saw my mother. She was standing there with her .22 rifle pointed right at Fred’s father. “You touch that boy and I’ll kill you,” she said. Fred’s dad dropped the pipe wrench and started backing away. Suddenly boldness came upon me. Boldness of an amazing degree. “You want to fight me?” I yelled with newly found confidence. “You mess with me and I’ll whip your son and you too!” Why my sudden surge of boldness? Because I knew that somebody with firepower was behind me. My powerful mama was backing me up. Right now the devil may be coming toward you with his own brand of pipe wrench, trying to bust you apart. He may be coming at you to kill, steal and destroy. But if you’ll listen, you can hear the click of a Holy Ghost rifle behind you. You can hear the voice of Almighty God saying, “That’s My child. You take one more step and you’ve had it!” When you realize that the Holy Spirit is backing you up 100 percent, you’ll be bold. If God be for you, who can be against you? Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world! Boldness in faith is your key to total victory. So pray for it. Build your faith. And realize that Someone with spiritual firepower is backing you up. Rediscover the forgotten ingredient of boldness. Then get ready for the power of God to flow through you! V Jesse Duplantis is president and founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, with international headquarters in Louisiana and offices in the U.K. and Australia. For ministry materials and information, call 1-985-764-2000 or visit jdm.org. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1992 JESSE DUPLANTIS speaks at his first West Coast Believers' Convention * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tribute from Jesse Duplantis Many years ago, Cathy and I met a wonderful couple named Kenneth and Gloria Copeland. It was a God-meeting because God strategically put these wonderful people in our lives. It is amazing how they have changed our lives and the way we think, what we preach and what we do. We have learned so many things from Kenneth and Gloria over the years, but the key thing is how they’ve helped us to cross the great divide between what is and what can be. You see, it’s not just about faith, it’s about what faith can do NOW! Not tomorrow, not next week, but now! They have stretched us and our thinking, and they continue to do so. What a wonderful couple God called to teach the Body of Christ! Kenneth and Gloria, Cathy and I really love you and appreciate you. We not only consider you great ministers of the gospel and prophets of God, but we consider you close and personal friends. It’s such a blessing that you can have both at the same time. Thank you for being who you are, and thank you for your like precious faith. Congratulations on 50 years in ministry! You have set the example. We Love You, Jesse and Cathy Duplantis Jesse Duplantis Ministries FOR MORE ABOUT JESSE DUPLANTIS, AND TO SEE A VIDEO TRIBUTE TO THE COPELANDS, GO TO: KCM.ORG/JESSE BVOV : 25

• Cover