God dealt with the Israelites in two ways: He told them to keep His statutes and ordinances, and He told them to obey His voice. Throughout all generations God never intended for His people to have only the written ordinances. If they would listen and obey the statutes and ordinances, they would also have His voice coming to them telling them what to do.

There were times when God spoke to Israel regarding specific situations. He told them what to do to get victory because He was their God and they were His people.

As long as they obeyed His voice, no enemy could stand before them. There might be many standing against them who were stronger in the natural realm, but that did not matter. As long as they obeyed the voice of the Lord, He moved supernaturally and they walked in victory because God was with them.

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you (Jeremiah 7:23).

The Father was continually telling Israel, “I will be your God. I will take care of you. I will meet all your needs. Just obey My voice and keep My Word.” Isaiah 1:19 says, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.”

In the same way, God can only go as far as we’ll go with Him. God says in 1 Samuel 2:30, “…them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” How much you honor God in your life is how much God can honor you. Whatever area you hold back from Him, in whatever area you are disobedient, that is the area He can’t bless. You’ve closed the door to Him in that area because of your disobedience. As we continue our study of obedience, we’ll see that all through His Word God makes it very clear that if we want things to go well for us in this earth we must choose to obey what He says. God’s way is the only way that liberates us from bondage into victory.

Gloria Copeland

May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in he inner man by the (Holy) Spirit [Himself]—indwelling your innermost being and personality. May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell—settle down, abide, make His permanent home—in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints (God’s devoted people, the experience of that love) what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; that you may really come] to know—practically, through experience for yourselves— the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge (without experience); that you may be filled (through all your being) unto all the fullness of God—[that is] may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself! Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams—To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen—so be it (Ephesians 3:16-21, The Amplified Bible).

I believe with all my heart that His Church is rising up glorious in our day. His Body is coming to the place for which He has waited thousands of years. As we make ourselves available to God and obey Him, He will be able to manifest Himself in the earth as He has yearned to do.

So choose to be in the right group. Join in with those who fear God, who speak of His goodness and mercy, who honor and respect Him. Choose to allow Him in every part of your life…and watch His goodness unfold!

Gloria Copeland

The blessings of God cannot flow to us when we are livingin disobedience, even if we are born-again, Spirit-filled Christians. Because of a low level of obedience and spiritual maturity, the Church has just barely scratched the surface of the blessings of God.

God wants us to live in the earth like we were already in heaven. Jesus taught the disciples to pray “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Deuteronomy 11 talks about the Lord giving days of heaven upon the earth. Wherever we walk, the kingdom of heaven should be manifested and in control. In many ways we are like little children, but we are growing and beginning to hear and to see the hope of our calling, and our inheritance in the saints in light (Ephesians 4:4; Colossians 1:12).

We already are born again. We are created in the image of God. We are citizens of that place called heaven. The kingdom of God is in us. The Spirit of God lives in us. He is here to take dominion now. Yet, if we do not walk with Him, obey Him and get our minds renewed to what He says, we give Him no place to move in our lives. We shut Him out and do not allow Him to take dominion in the earth through us. The dominion Jesus exercises in the earth is through His Body. He is the Head; we are the Body.

God has always desired to do mighty things in the earth, to overwhelm this world with His presence, to dwell in the midst of His people. He has always desired to manifest Himself. He has been waiting generation after generation for a people who would find out what He is like, believe His Word and dare to walk in it—a people who would know Him and comprehend Him, a people who would walk and talk and act like the Father and the Son.

Gloria Copeland

And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not (Malachi 3:15-18).

The Lord hears when we talk to one another. He knows those who have respect and honor for Him. And He knows those who don’t.

You can be in either group. We can be in the first group who has words that are stout against God. Or, we can be in the second group who fears God and speaks often about His goodness and His mercy. God told Israel in Exodus 19:5 if they would obey His voice and keep His covenant, they would be His peculiar treasure, or His special treasure, above all others in the earth. Here He refers to them as jewels. We think of treasure as gold and jewels. God’s treasure is an obedient people. He paves His streets with gold, but He is able to achieve His dream for His family with a people who know and obey Him. You can be that treasure to Him. It is your choice.

You have to be willing and obedient in order to walk in victory (Isaiah 1:19). If you are just talking a good game, but not doing the Word, you are not being willing and obedient. You have to be willing and obedient to walk in the blessing of God.

Isaiah 3 shows us the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. (Remember, God does not condemn the righteous with the wicked. He appeared to the righteous Lot and got him out of Sodom and Gomorrah.)

“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him” (Isaiah 3:10-11).

God makes a difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the obedient and the disobedient. He is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), but He is a respecter of obedience and faith. He makes a difference between those who obey Him and those who do not.

The whole world could be in trouble and without any resources or abilities, while the Church—if we are obedient to God—would have plenty. Psalm 91:7 says, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.”

Gloria Copeland

So what were these people really saying? “That this man was right, and God was wrong.”

In Malachi we see God speaking strong words to Israel regarding this:

Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? (Malachi 3:13-14).

“Your words are stout against Me!” God says.

Well, this really bothered me. I mean, I was new at this and they were telling me that he had done all the right things. They said he was a faith man. And he died! He was acting on the Word. And he died!

Have you ever heard that? Or been faced with that situation in your church, your family?

Well, the Lord taught me a great deal out of that situation. Another man for whom I have great respect said that he had gone to pray for this man. He went every day for a while and interceded for him. And he prayed the presence of Jesus into the man’s room.

When Jesus appeared in that room the man who was dying jumped out of bed (he couldn’t get out of bed by himself before) and knelt at Jesus’ feet. As Jesus reached out to touch the man, he pulled away and dropped back.

He began to say, “I can’t. I can’t. I’m just not worthy.”

Now the man who had been interceding was watching all of this, and he turned his gaze to Jesus. Jesus looked back at him and said, “See there, he won’t let Me heal him.”

Do you see what happened here? No doubt this was a good man. He had loved and served God, but religious tradition held him captive. Those church members were just sure he had done everything right. And maybe he did—except have his mind renewed to the Word of God. It’s so important that we receive Who God really is—a God of mercy and compassion, a God Whose will is to heal and deliver and set free.

You have to trust God. Don’t shut Him off in your mind with traditions of men, unbelief, fear and sin. If you let sin or unbelief condemn you so that you don’t have any faith that God will move on your behalf, God can’t help you. You shut Him off. The man said, “I can’t receive. I’m too unworthy.” Pentecostal, religious tradition kept him from receiving the power of God, even though Jesus was in his room to heal him.

I learned something very valuable from Jesse Winley, a great pastor from Harlem. “Don’t ever put the righteousness of God up against anybody.” That’s good advice. God is never wrong. If things aren’t working, we need to consider our ways, not God’s. If we are disobedient, we need to make adjustments. If not, we need to walk by faith and not by sight until circumstances change.

Gloria Copeland

I want you to see some things that have cost us God’s best. We have had problems in our lives because our minds were not renewed to the goodness of God.

Proverbs 19:3 in The Amplified Bible says, “The foolishness of man subverts his way [ruins his affairs]; then his heart is resentful and frets against the Lord.” This is so true. By going our own way, we get ourselves into trouble. Then we say, “Why did You do this to me, God?”

If we have continual defeat, God is not the one who has failed. We are the ones who have missed it. God’s Word works. But if we walk in darkness, instead of in the light of His Word, God’s blessings will be hindered. The Church as a whole has done this. The Church has known so little about the truth of God. We have been just barely in the spiritual twilight zone when we could have been walking in the light. But God is not at fault.

Long ago when I first began to walk in faith, I learned that no matter what it looks like or what people tell me about their problems and their situations, God is not the one who has failed.

Early in his ministry Ken conducted a meeting in what at that time was the largest church he had ever preached in. This church had a member who had died of an incurable disease.

When Ken preached the Word, the integrity of God’s Word, that you can count on God’s Word, that faith works, the church members said, “Well it didn’t work here!”

Maybe they didn’t say it in those particular words, but that in essence is what they said. They let us know that a man in their congregation had done everything he was supposed to—and he still died. They told us a number of things regarding his spiritual life. They mentioned that his confessions were good and so on. So what were these people really saying? “That this man was right, and God was wrong.”

Gloria Copeland

God has always had to deal with a disobedient people. That has been His reward for His goodness and His mercy. He called out to generation after generation in love and mercy:

…Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice (Jeremiah 11:6-7).

“I earnestly protested and pleaded with the fathers. I rose up early and told them to obey My voice.” That is what God has done through the generations. He has continually tried to get His very best to His people, His special treasure.

He said, “I rose up early. I protested. I pleaded. I proclaimed, ‘Obey My voice.’”

“Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart” (Jeremiah 11:8).

Let’s look at Deuteronomy 5:29. Here the heart of God is saying once again, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!”

This is the heart of God yearning over His special people, yearning over the people He formed for Himself. Although we are not in the same position as Israel was, God is in the same position with us where our obedience to the new covenant is concerned.

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart [of death] out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36:24-28).

He said He would put a new heart in them. You and I have that new heart if we’ve made Jesus Lord of our lives. We not only have a new heart, but we also have God’s Spirit dwelling in us to teach us to walk in His ways and give us individual guidance. When we come before the Lord on that great day for our rewards, we will have no excuse for not fulfilling His will. He has put a new spirit in us. His Spirit within us teaches us, counsels us and manifests the presence of Jesus in us.

Gloria Copeland

As you lay aside weights and sin, resist distractions too. Don’t allow the devil to draw your attention away. Just keep “looking unto Jesus.” That’s how you run this race. You can’t focus on circumstances or your natural abilities. Keep your eyes on Jesus and His ability.

Peter walked on the water as long as he kept his eyes fixed on Jesus. When he began to look at the wind and the waves in the natural realm he began to sink.

Distraction can come from many directions. One of the most common tactics of the enemy is to trip you up with persecution. Don’t let persecution throw you. In 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul wrote, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” It’s just part of the package.

One day I became concerned thinking about the fact that nobody had been picking on us lately. “Ken, are we slipping?” I asked. “Are we not living godly? What is this?”

Just a few days later, we got a letter telling us all the things we did wrong and what heretics we were. I felt better after that.

Persecution is part of the package. Don’t let it stop you. Don’t let it distract you.

Jesus also warned us of the distractions of this age. The deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things can creep in and choke the Word and make it fruitless (Mark 4:19). Right next to that verse in my Bible I’ve written the letters S-C-U-D. They stand for the phrase, “Satan Continuously Uses Distractions.” He’s always firing those SCUD missiles at you to discourage you and draw you off course.

“Hey,” he’ll whisper, “have you noticed you don’t have any money? Have you noticed your body is in pain? Have you heard all the ugly things people are saying about you?”

Gloria Copeland

To be holy is to be “sanctified, and meet for the master’s use” (2 Timothy 2:21). Sanctified means “set apart.” Set apart from what? From the world! God wants us to be so caught up in spiritual things that we lose interest in carnal activities and pursue Him with all our heart.

He doesn’t want us to simply obey a set of rules because it’s the “right thing to do.” That’s law instead of spirit. God wants us to live holy lives because we have a heartfelt desire to please Him. When we spend time with the Lord, we want to do the things that please Him. Our desire is for spiritual things, not the things of the flesh. It shouldn’t be a “head thing” but a “heart thing.” Time with Him separates us to Him. He wants us to love Him so much that we want to be wholly dedicated to Him!

And He doesn’t want us to consider such holiness as something out of the ordinary. He wants us to take the attitude of the Apostle Paul, who said to the believers at Rome: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).

Being wholly dedicated to God is your reasonable service. It’s not something above and beyond the call of duty. It’s not something that is just expected of preachers and ministers. God expects us all to live holy. He says, “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

Certainly such a life will require us to make some sacrifices. It will cause us to suffer in the flesh at times. But it will be worth it. For “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

When you see the power and glory of God start to flow in greater measure through you, you won’t regret you made those sacrifices; you’ll be glad! When you lay hands on a crippled person and see him raised instantly out of a wheelchair, you’ll be glad you turned down that carnal movie your friends were going to see. You’ll be glad that you gave up those hours of sleep so you could spend extra time in the Word and in prayer.

When you speak in the Name of Jesus to someone in bondage and the devil instantly flees and they go free, you won’t be wishing you’d spent more time pleasing yourself; you’ll be thanking God you chose to please Him instead.

You may think I’m being overly dramatic, but I’m not. Those things are going to happen—not just at the hands of famous preachers and full-time ministers, but at the hands of everyday believers. We’ve already started to see it. But we’re just on the edge of what’s coming. We haven’t seen anything yet!

The prophets of God are telling us that we are about to see the greatest outpouring of God’s power this earth has ever known. It’s been said that if we were told all that’s about to happen, we would not be able to believe it because the magnitude of it is so great.

Glory to God, we are about to see multitudes of Christians put aside the distractions of this age and rise up in the strength of God Himself! We are about to see believers conformed to the image of Jesus! We are about to see the Church God has always dreamed of—a Church holy and without blemish!

Determine in your heart to be a part of it all. Make up your mind that you won’t be sidelined by doing petty things that please yourself. Dedicate yourself to live wholly pleasing to the Father and get ready for a life of power!

Gloria Copeland

How do you develop the spiritual strength to do the things that please the Father rather than the things that please yourself? First and foremost by spending time in the Word and in prayer. When the power of God was being displayed through the early apostles in great signs and wonders, that’s what they were doing. They were giving themselves “continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).

Romans 8:5 says it this way: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” That is the matter in a nutshell. If you want to grow physically and build big muscles, you have to spend time lifting weights and doing physical things to build those muscles. If you want to grow spiritually, you will have to spend time doing spiritual things.

As you spend time fellowshiping with God in His Word, by the power of that Word the Holy Spirit will separate you not only from sin, but also from the unnecessary things of life. He will impart to you the spiritual might and grace you need to obey the instructions in Ephesians 4:22-24:

Strip yourselves of your former nature—put off and discard your old unrenewed self—which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion; And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind—having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude; And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God’s image, (Godlike) in true righteousness and holiness (AMP).

That verse tells us that righteousness and holiness are two different things. Righteousness is the right-standing with God you gained when you were born again. The only thing you did to be made righteous was to make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life.

Holiness, however, is another matter. You are not made holy. Holiness is the result of your choices. It’s what you do with your time and your actions. It’s your conduct. It comes when you make a decision of your will to live according to the precepts of the Lord. In short, holiness is doing those things that please the Father.

Gloria Copeland