BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

"I will make you a great nation...I will give this land to your seed...I will make your seed as the dust of the earth." God had spoken all that to Abram in the span of 11 years. Still, Abram was having trouble anchoring his faith in God’s WORD. So God gave him a little help. First, God took Abram out into the night and challenged him to count the stars. “So shall thy seed be,” He told him. And Abram believed (Genesis 15:5-6). Then God cut covenant with Abram using animal sacrifices, which was a sign to him that God would keep His promise. This blood covenant was a powerful anchor for Abram’s faith. Yet 13 years later—at the age of 99—Abram still had no child. That’s when God began putting The WORD into Abram’s mouth. New Identity—New Destiny From the moment God first told Abram that He would make him a great nation, Abram could have said, “OK, from now on I’m going to call myself Abraham, because God has said I will be the father of many nations. And if God said it—and I agree with it—then it is!” Abram could have done that and saved himself a lot of trouble. But he didn’t. Remember, Abram was not born again or spiritually alive like us, and there was no written WORD for him to keep before his eyes. Consequently, all he was seeing was, “I am childless and have no seed.” God fixed that too by changing his name. When Abram became Abraham, he literally took on the new identity of “father of many nations”—which was what his new name meant (Romans 4:18). Every time he said his name, he was saying, “Hello, I’m the father of many nations.” What’s more, every time someone called his name, they were saying, “Hey, father of many nations!” What was happening? Abraham, and everyone around him, was calling “those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). In effect, Abraham was speaking the same WORD God had spoken, and he was hearing it spoken as well. Jesus did the same thing with Peter. When Jesus first met Peter, his name was Simon Barjona. Later, however, Jesus changed it to Peter, the Rock. And if there were anyone among the disciples who was not a “rock,” it was Peter. Jesus knew what He was doing. He called Peter—Rock—until he became one. Meanwhile, by receiving his new name and speaking it and responding to it, Peter was actually agreeing with The WORD of God. He was agreeing with The WORD that Jesus had spoken to him. So, we see that the process behind these name changes, and men fulfilling their destinies by agreeing with what God said they would be and do, was actually meditating The WORD—speaking it and hearing it, over and over and over. Meditating The WORD was also the plan for success that God laid out for Joshua when he stepped into the role of leading all of Israel after Moses died. “This book of [my Word] shall not depart out of thy mouth,” God told him, “but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou [may be able to see] to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8). The Hebrew word we translate as meditate actually means “to mutter or to go around talking to yourself.” In short, Joshua was promised good success if he went through life constantly talking God’s WORD—speaking it to himself, speaking to others and speaking it in every situation. Can You Imagine? When Abraham finally received by faith that he was, indeed, the father of many nations, it still wasn’t something he could see with his physical eyes. So how did he see it? In Psalm 2, we find that the word meditate can also mean “to imagine.” The idea is, as we go about like Abraham, Joshua and Peter, constantly speaking God’s WORD—calling those things that be not as though they were—The WORD will spark an inner image within us. That inner image in turn becomes hope, and hope is where Abraham saw himself as “father of many nations.” * * * * article continues on p. 22 * * * * WORDS ON HEALING Don’t believe the lie that healing has passed away. Exodus 15:26; Malachi 3:6 Jesus paid the price for you to be healed. Isaiah 53:5 Don’t submit to the devil when he tries to put sickness on you, stand against him by faith in God’s Word. James 4:7 God doesn’t put sickness on you to teach you something, He teaches you through the Word. 2 Timothy 3:16 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Late last year, the Lord spoke the following words to Brother Copeland concerning the year 2018: '2018 is the Year of the Holy Ghost and Fire. The BIG 18 for 2018: the nine fruit of the Spirit and the nine gifts of the Spirit.' That time is not just coming, says Brother Copeland. “It’s already here.” But, as His sons and daughters, “we’re going to have spiritual explosions going on throughout 2018—particularly in the areas of holiness and cleansing.” Watch video Hear Brother Copeland’s entire comments. kcm.org/2018 BVOV : 21

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