Posts Tagged ‘suffering’
Gloria Copeland — Living After the Spirit
Posted by admin | Filed under Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:13-14).
We have studied about suffering. The same suffering Jesus endured when He was crucified, we are to bear in our own bodies. We are to crucify our flesh, to mortify the deeds of the body, to be in command of our flesh as we follow after the Lord. We have the power to overcome sin in the flesh because of what Jesus did on the cross.
For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice] (Romans 8:3, amp).
Verse 18 says, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” This suffering crucifying of the flesh and mortifying its deeds is connected in the Scriptures with the glory of God. Why? Because God cannot manifest Himself in His people if they follow after the flesh instead of after the Spirit of God.
God works in the spirit realm. As we follow after the Spirit, He works in us. We must lay aside natural things in the natural life, and take up the things of the spiritual life. As we walk in the spirit, the glory of God that’s in the face of Jesus Christ will begin to be reflected in us. Crucifying the flesh and the glory of God being revealed in us are connected, scripture after scripture!
God wants us to come to a place where we walk and live in this earth in the glorious liberty that has been prepared for us from the foundation of the world. Romans 8:21 says, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” God made man to live in His glory. He crowned Adam with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5). Adam had the glory of God on him. He looked just like God. He wore a garment of light and had the same power, authority and appearance as God Himself. He was in God’s image His exact likeness.
That’s why he had no realization of being naked until after he sinned. When he sinned against God, spiritual life departed and spiritual death came. The glory that was his covering disappeared. Notice, that all God’s creatures, except man, have their own covering. Birds are covered with feathers that are produced from within. Animals are covered with fur, produced from within.
Adam and Eve’s bodies were covered with an enswathement of glory which was produced from within their beings (Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Volume III). The life of God in Adam radiated the glory of God through Adam’s flesh.
Sin brings man short of the glory of God. When Adam disobeyed God, he lost the power from within to produce and bring forth this glory. He had no life within him to manifest this covering. Spiritual death entered into him and only darkness could emanate. There was no longer any glory in Adam to be revealed.
What a devastating blow to God’s man whom God created in His own image. God told Moses, “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Numbers 14:21). That is still God’s plan today—for His glory to fill the earth. And His glory is revealed in us, the Church of Jesus Christ.
God has glorious liberty for us. This liberty is in walking after the spirit and not after the flesh. It’s in the spirit realm. You and I are spirit beings, though we live in flesh bodies. We are strange and peculiar creatures spirits in natural bodies. God is calling us to be dominated by His Spirit and to bring our bodies of flesh under His control.
The Church will come to a place where we’ll walk with God. We’ll be like Enoch. The Bible says, “Enoch walked with God and he was not….” And Hebrews says Enoch was translated by faith because he had the testimony that he pleased God. One day Enoch just went so far in the spirit, he didn’t come back. The Bible says he didn’t see death.
Isn’t that what is going to happen with the Church that is looking for His appearance? We’re going to be caught up with Him in the air. We’re not going to see death. Paul said, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51).
I believe the day of His appearing is at hand. We read in Ephesians what the Church will look like when Jesus comes to receive us: “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26-27).
A glorious Church! A Church full of the glory of God! A Church with no spots or wrinkles, but a holy Church without blemish. God wants us to learn how to listen to His Spirit so He can lead us into all truth and teach us how to remove the spots and wrinkles. He wants to be able to reveal His glory in us.
The Russian believers (prior to more recent changes in Eastern Europe) had to rely on the Spirit more than we do now, because of adverse circumstances. The underground church met in secret.
Church members met out in the woods and in different places. (It had to be a secret or they would be raided.) Someone who had been ministering in the underground church told me about one instance when it was realized that there was a spy in the camp because everywhere they went the KGB (secret police) would show up.
They decided, “Well, all right, if you’re going to come to the meeting, you’ll have to get the information from the Spirit of God.” They would have to pray and listen to God to know where to meet. At the next meeting, every person in that group showed up except one. They knew who the guilty party was.
Walking in the spirit is real. Listening to the Holy Spirit is a way of life we must develop in order to fulfill what we are called to do in these last days.
We have the same ability to listen to our spirits, but instead we rely on a newsletter we receive every month that tells us where to meet. We have not had to depend on the Holy Spirit’s direction the way our Russian brothers and sisters had to. Nevertheless, it’s just as available to us! Many of them didn’t have Bibles. They had to be led by their spirits.
The people in the New Testament didn’t have Bibles to read, either. They also had to be led by their spirits. Paul told them to pray in the spirit so they would get the mind of the Spirit. Those people in Russia had to have the mind of the Spirit or they couldn’t go to church!
Thank God, we live in a free land. But we must learn to walk in obedience to the Spirit while we live in liberty, not being forced into it, but rather, choosing the things of the spirit over the things of the world.
God is raising up a people called the “Glorious Church,” who can hear the voice of His Spirit and obey Him in whatever we are told to do. How can you know what the mind of the Spirit is? By renewing your mind with the Word of God, praying in the spirit, being sensitive to Him and by yielding your life, thoughts and direction to Him.
If you don’t pull aside and take time to listen to God, you’ll not know the direction of the Holy Spirit. You’ll miss the great things God has for your life. The time for being cold is over. The time for being lukewarm is over. It’s time to rise up and become on fire and stay that way!
Purpose in your heart that you will not be lazy, that you will not draw back, hold back or sit down. But purpose in your heart that you will rise up and march forward and become on fire.
