BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Change the Image by Kenneth Copeland “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Romans 8:24-25 According to Romans, hope is actually looking at something you can’t see. How do you do that? You do it by looking at the promises of God in The WORD until with your inner eyes—the eyes of your spirit—a picture is formed. For example, one of the hardest things I ever had to do was face the fact that the inner image I had of myself physically was fat. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to change, it wouldn’t go away. I was always on a diet. I must have lost (and regained) hundreds of pounds over the years. I finally had to admit that as long as my inner image of myself was fat, my outer self was going to match it. Remember, it’s faith that changes things, and without the inner image of hope, faith cannot work. So I decided to fast for seven days. I searched my Bible for every scripture I could find on food and eating, and I found many. I meditated on every one of those scriptures and prayed in the spirit for seven full days. What was I doing? I was laying hold on a different inner image. This is not something you can do overnight. It takes time. Especially if the inner image you’re changing has been there for years. But you can do it. Go to The WORD of God today and begin to change the images inside you. Change them from images of despair to images of hope. Get a blueprint in your heart and your faith will build on it! V * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * article from p. 29 continues * * * * Before he could get his things packed up, however, God appeared to him and changed the plan. He said: “Go not down into Egypt…Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee…and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 26:2-4). Isaac responded to those words of covenant BLESSING the same way Abraham had responded when he first heard them. He believed and acted on what God promised. He canceled his plans to move to Egypt, remained in Canaan, and during the most contrary circumstances imaginable—“Isaac sowed seed in that land and received in the same year a hundred times as much as he had planted, and the Lord favored him with blessings. And the man became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and distinguished; he owned flocks, herds, and a great supply of servants, and the Philistines envied him” (Genesis 26:12-14, "AMPC"). Those are good verses to remember when you find yourself facing hard places in life. When you start wondering, How could God ever BLESS me in this situation? think about Isaac. All around him, people’s crops were failing. All around him, people were running out of water. Yet because of his covenant with God, his land flourished and produced an abundant harvest. Isaac wasn’t the only one of Abraham’s descendants who experienced that kind of thing, either. THE BLESSING of the Lord worked the same way for all of Abraham’s seed. All throughout the Bible, it worked for anyone anywhere who would believe and walk with God! It worked for a prisoner named Joseph and promoted him from the prison to the palace. It worked for an unknown shepherd named David and turned him into Israel’s king. It worked for the Israelites when they were enslaved by Pharaoh and “brought them forth…with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes” (Psalm 105:37). For generations, THE BLESSING has been passed down to Abraham’s seed. It’s an everlasting covenant. It’s still working and it’s still available to us today. So, let’s step up by faith and take what belongs to us. Let’s believe and receive THE BLESSING we’ve inherited in Jesus….and take the limits off God! V 30 : BVOV

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