Under the circumstances…. Have you ever caught yourself using that phrase?
“I suppose I’m doing pretty well under the circumstances.”
If you’ve ever said something like that, I want you to kick those words out of your vocabulary right now. Because you, as a victorious child of God, don’t have any business living your life “under” your circumstances. You don’t have any business letting problems and situations rule over you.
God’s rest. Considering the hectic, busy lives you and I live that sounds like a pretty good thing to have, doesn’t it? But exactly what is that rest? And how do we enter it?
The third and fourth chapters of Hebrews compare God’s rest with the children of Israel taking possession of the Promised Land. That land was to be a place where their every need would be met, a place of freedom from their warring enemies, a place no one would ever drive them from again. All they had to do was go in and possess it. But something kept them from it: unbelief and disobedience.
You can't win a victory as long as the problem is the biggest thing in your life!
The Lord woke me up to that fact a few years ago. At that time I was facing some difficulties in my ministry that seemed so big to me, I thought about them from morning till night. Even though I was standing against them, I was thinking more about those problems than about the scripture promises I was standing on.
Then I saw something in Matthew 6:24-25: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life...."
You shall never fall. When you think about it, that's a startling statement, isn't it? Most of us have been tripped up by the devil so many times we don't like to think about it.
But the Word of God says it doesn't have to be that way. He says there's something that can keep us on our feet. What is it? Diligence.
If you haven't already, you need to realize how important diligence is. You need to face the fact that you simply can't live a life of victory without it.
Thousands of years ago, God told the children of Israel to go up and occupy the land that He had given them. He told them to take it, by force and without fear, from the ungodly ones who were dwelling there.
He's still saying that today. God is still trying to get us, as His people, to take the good land He's given us. He's still trying to get us to use the power He's given us to run the wicked one out.
Have you ever been afraid to give yourself totally to the Lord because you think you might be deprived of some pleasure in this life? Chances are, you have. That's because Satan is working overtime to convince you that he can really make your life worth living. But don't believe him for a minute. The real truth is, yielding completely to the Lord won't cost you anything that's worth having. It will only cause you to live life to its fullest!
Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. Not just enough truth to get by on. Not just an occasional truth to help us teach our Sunday school classes. All truth!
If you're a businessman, that means the Holy Spirit will show you how to increase your profits and reduce your expenses. If you're a mother, it means the Holy Spirit will show you how to settle arguments between your children. If you're a student, it means the Holy Spirit will show you how to excel in your classes.
It's easy to get your spiritual eyes fixed so firmly on the problems in your life, you overlook the blessings completely! As a result, you end up suffering through situations that should have you rejoicing.
Let me show you what I mean. Not long ago, this ministry was facing some great financial pressures. I stood in faith against them. I battled against them with the Word and in prayer.
Words. Use them right and they'll move mountains. Use them wrong and they can cause your entire life to go up in smoke.
"Now, Brother Copeland," you may say, "I find it hard to believe that major catastrophes can be caused by a few simple words. I just can't see the connection."
Look again at the phrase James used. "How great a matter a little fire kindleth!" Have you ever lit a few little pieces of kindling wood and set them in the fireplace beneath a stack of logs?
What happened?
If you really want to get the wisdom of God, you'll have to do more than casually read the Scriptures a few minutes a day. You'll have to feed on them night and day. You'll have to get rid of the rubbish you've been feeding into your consciousness by reprogramming your mind with the Word of God.
"Oh, Brother Copeland," you may say, "that's unreasonable!"
A healthy body. Enough money to pay all your bills and extra to invest in the work of the gospel. A godly marriage and happy, healthy children. Peace of mind. God has prepared a banquet full of blessings for you.
But those blessings are not just going to fall in your lap. You must be willing—as well as obedient—if you’re going to eat the best from God’s table.
So, be willing!
Don’t be willing for Satan to put sickness on your body. Be willing, instead, to be well! In honor of Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary, refuse to accept anything less than divine health.
Did you know that the battleground for the problem you’re facing right now is in your mind and on your lips? If you’ll hit the devil with the Word and cast the care of the situation over on God, you’ll win.
Let me warn you though, hanging on to the Word isn’t always easy. The devil knows that if he doesn’t steal it from you, you’ll use it to enforce his defeat.
When I first learned to cast my cares on the Lord, I was down in south Texas preaching a meeting that no one was coming to. I’m telling you, people were staying away from that meeting by the thousands; and after a service or two with just the preacher, one or two others and me in attendance, I was starting to sweat it. But the Lord said, Cast that care on Me, so I did.
How many blessings are you going to receive from the Word of God? It depends on how many you expect to receive. When God measures them out to you, He’ll be using your measuring stick, not His own. He always works that way.
Two people can hear God’s Word about healing, for example. One will measure it with faith. “Praise God, by His stripes I was healed!” he’ll say. “I believe that with all my heart, and I’m going to keep on believing it until I receive my healing.”
I’ve often heard people say, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” That’s nonsense. If you play the game right, you’ll win!
Any coach will tell you that part of playing the game right is having a winning attitude. That’s what God wants us, as believers, to have. He wants us to have so much faith in Him that we expect to whip any obstacle the devil brings our way. He wants us to expect to win at the game of life.
The devil has used the traditional teaching of Paul’s thorn in the flesh to talk believers out of the blessings of God for years, to try to convince us to settle for everything from sickness to sin—and to do it of our own free will.
It is perhaps the most destructive and the most widely accepted misinterpretation of Scripture that exists in the Body of Christ today. I’ve gone into countries to preach to people who hardly had any knowledge of the Word at all and still I have found that somehow they’d been taught about Paul’s thorn.
And most of them have been taught wrongly.
Years ago Satan started a rumor. He told a few Christians they had to live like the world, sharing all the same misfortune, defeat, poverty and failure as those around them. Well, the word spread. You may have heard the rumor yourself. But I am telling you right now that it is a crafty lie.
The Word of God says in Psalm 91:10, that evil can’t even come near your house if you are abiding in Him.
Very few believers today understand the mystery of the apostleship and priesthood of Jesus. We think that an apostle is some kind of supersaint. But apostle actually means “sent one.” So, Jesus has been sent from God to do something for us.
He’s been sent to serve as our High Priest. Again, many believers don’t have the first idea what a high priest does. They picture a person walking around in strange clothes performing religious rituals.
When you run into an impossible situation, a situation you simply don’t have the strength or the ability to handle, are you often tempted to simply give up and accept defeat? Don’t! Instead shout, “Glory!” because the Word says God’s strength is about to be made perfect in you.
The word translated “strength” in this scripture is dunamis. It means “God’s miracle-working power.” Just think about that. When your human strength ends, God has promised that His miraculous power will bring you through!
As a believer, you actually have residing in you the same new life God gave Jesus when He raised Him from the dead. The old sinner you once were has died. You’ve become a new creation on the inside.
You are full of the resurrection life of God!
But sin, disobedience and living a selfish, carnal life will keep that resurrection life from flowing out. Sin will separate you from the power of God, even though you’re born again. Resurrection life will lay dormant in you if you walk in sin.