BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

It’s Already Yours by Gloria Copeland Over the years I’ve learned that, for me to successfully walk by faith, I have to keep my words lined up with the Word of God. Even when I’m standing against contrary symptoms and negative circumstances, I must keep saying what He says. If I want to make sure I receive what I’m believing for, while I’m waiting for it to manifest I have to resist the temptation to say things like: “I wonder why Jesus hasn’t healed me yet?” “I wonder why He hasn’t shown up to meet my need?” “I sure wish He would go ahead and move in this situation!” While such statements might sound quite innocent (and are even considered “spiritual” in some circles), that’s NOT how faith speaks. It doesn’t speak as if we’re waiting on Jesus to do something for us. It doesn’t talk as if He’s way out there someplace and we’re trying to get Him to show up. On the contrary! According to the Scripture in Romans 10:6-8, “The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.” If you were just to go by how a lot of Christians talk, you wouldn’t even know those verses are in the Bible. You’d think that even those of us who are born-again children of God, constantly have to storm the gates of heaven just to get Jesus to move on our behalf. The truth is, He’s already moved! He came to earth 2,000 years ago, paid the price for our complete redemption, and provided everything we could ever need. He shed His own blood and ratified the New Covenant so that we can receive anything any time we’re ready, simply by believing God’s Word and acting on it. As New Testament believers, we’re not waiting for Jesus to come do something else. If we’re attacked by some sickness, we don’t need Him to come lay His hands on us so that we can be healed. If we’re in trouble, we don’t have to talk Him into coming to deliver us. If we’re facing lack, we don’t have to beg Him to meet our financial needs. All we have to do is put the Word in our hearts and in our mouths, and it will do the job! That’s how Ken and I began to prosper back in 1967. After being broke and in debt for years, we found out the Word says that God supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory. We read in the Bible that Jesus was made poor so that we could be made rich. We were just getting started in the faith life and we really didn’t know very much about it, but just by the leading of the Spirit, we put together a list of scriptures about prosperity, read them every day, and spoke them out loud. We put the Word in our hearts and our mouths, and (without really knowing what we were doing) began to operate on the Word of faith. Sure enough, it worked! Within 11 months we were debt free. ******* article continues on p. 28 ******* 26 : BVOV

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