He Opened the Way Kenneth Copeland In the beginning [before all time] was the Word [Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.... And the Word [Christ] became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled --fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile--among us.... John 1:1,14 The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is something that can never be brought into question by any born again believer. Our very salvation rests on the fact that Jesus Christ is divine, the second person of the Godhead, God–the Son. The beloved disciple and apostle, John, forever puts to rest any doubt about that in John 1:1,14. Anyone who doubts what those verses say could not possibly have been born of the kingdom of God. For the deity of Jesus forms the very foundation of our faith in Him. Yet, if you’ll search the Gospels, you’ll see that Jesus didn’t go around proclaiming Himself as God during His 33 years on earth. He acknowledged that He was the Son of God, the Messiah. He referred to God as His Father (which enraged the Pharisees), but He never made the assertion that He was the most high God. In fact, He told His disciples that the Father God was greater and mightier than He (John 14:28). The reason is simple. He hadn’t come to earth just as God. He’d come also as man. The Word says He set aside His divine power and took the form of a human being–with all its limitations. Since God was His Father, He was not born with the sin nature that had been passed along to the sons of Adam. But by being born of a woman, in all other respects He became a man and called Himself the Son of Man or, literally, the Son of Adam. How, then, did He do all those mighty works? The same way He expects us to do them today–by the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38). He said, “It’s the Father within Me who does the work.” What does that mean to you? It means that Jesus meant exactly what He said when He said that you, as a believer, would be able to do the works that He did! (John 14:12). It means that you, as a reborn child of God, filled with the same Holy Spirit as Jesus was, have the opportunity to live as He lived when He was on earth. In fact, that is exactly what He intends. He went before you, as a man, and opened the way. Don’t just admire Him for it. Follow Him in it today! Scripture Study: John 14:1-15 (fb)

The Power of Love Kenneth Copeland But faith...worketh by love. Galatians 5:6 I used to wonder why we believers didn’t see more of the power of God operating among us than we do. With what we know about faith and the Word, it seemed to me signs and wonders and miracles should be happening all the time. So, one day I asked, “Lord, why isn’t the power of God turned up to a higher volume in the Church?” Do you know what He said? He told me we weren’t walking in enough love yet. God wants us to have power. But first, He has to be sure we’ll use that power in love. He wants to know that we won’t take it and mix it with judgment and criticism and blast people out of the water. “Kenneth,” He said, “I can’t afford to back your words with supernatural power in a church service on Sunday morning and then have you get on the freeway that night and lash out at someone because he pulled over into your lane. You’d blow him off the highway. I can’t leave the power of Almighty God at a high volume in the mouth of an unmerciful fool.” Then He reminded me of a time I took my son, John, hunting. He was just a little guy at the time, barely big enough to keep his gun from knocking him on his back every time he’d pull the trigger. I was teaching him how to shoot, and he was coming along pretty well. That day we were walking along out at Gloria’s grandparents’ farm and John spotted one of the biggest tarantula spiders I’d ever seen. It was clinging to the wall of the barn. When John saw that spider, he took aim. He was going to blow that bug away. If I hadn’t stopped him, he would have too. And it wouldn’t have dawned on him until it was all over that he was going to blow a hole in the barn at the same time. From my grown-up perspective, I could see that would be foolishness. He couldn’t. He was looking through the eyes of a child. Do you want God to put a shotgun of spiritual power in your hand, so you can blow the works of the devil to kingdom come? Then focus on love. Pursue it. Practice it. Study it. Grow up in it. Then you’ll see the power of God operating through you. Scripture Study: Romans 13:8-14 (fb)