by Kenneth Copeland

Everywhere you turn these days, there is fear in the world. The Bible tells us that men’s hearts will fall them for fear of what’s coming on the earth—it seems we’re right in the middle of those times.

But as a believer, you don’t have to live in fear. You have the power over it through your heavenly Father. When you know and believe in your heart that God loves you—you won’t be afraid of anything.

As 1 John 4:18 tells us, “There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror!” (The Amplified Bible).

Develop faith in God’s love for you and develop a fear-free life!

One of the things He told me to do was to lay hands on every person that had not received the manifestation of healing. I had rarely ever had a healing line and I had never laid hands on that many people after I had been ministering for three hours on healing. When I had finished, I was so tired I could hardly close the meeting. I had to have someone else do it.

After the next healing service, God told me to do the same thing, but at the end He said, Now rejoice before the Lord. Prior to that, I had said, “Lord, I will do anything You want me to do.” I had not planned to rejoice before the Lord in front of all those people.

But I just turned to the musicians and said, “Let’s rejoice before the Lord.”

Then the Lord prompted me: Now worship Me—spirit, soul and body. Don’t just hold up your hands. Begin to dance before Me. I had never done that and had never intended to do it. I could have thought, I don’t believe I’m ready for that yet. But God said it, and I was so committed to obeying Him that I just began to dance before the Lord. And the people joined in with me! We were caught up in rejoicing and had a good time worshiping God.

In the previous meeting I had been absolutely exhausted after ministering. This time I had ministered about four hours when I began to dance before the Lord, and something happened in my physical body. The Holy Spirit quickened my mortal flesh and all the tiredness left me.

The Lord did not say, “If you will dance before Me, you will be rewarded for it. You will be glad you did. It will change many things in your life and your thinking.” He did not say it was that important. He just said, “Do it.” I was so ready to obey Him that I followed through with it. You know, it has been one of the greatest blessings I have ever known.

In previous meetings I would often be so tired that I could hardly make it to the night service. But when I began to rejoice that day, the Spirit of God refreshed me physically. Nehemiah 8:10 says, “…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” That is what rejoicing is all about. All these years have come and gone and I’ve always had the physical strength to finish the healing service. Usually I’m not even tired!

It also did something else for me. It released me in some way from being inhibited to following after God. I became quicker to obey God in other areas that might seem foolish. It broke an inhibition that I did not even realize was there, and somehow I became freer to follow after God.

Do you know what the dictionary says dignity is? “Self-possession or self-respect.” I do not want to be self-possessed; I want to be Holy Spirit-controlled. But I am sure that my idea of dignity had kept me from being as free as I should be with the Lord.

Freedom happens when you follow your spirit. You do not always know what is at the other end of that act of obedience. Your primary action should be to please God. Everything the Spirit of God tells you to do will work for your good. It is always going to be to your advantage.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

Following the Spirit of God is the only way the Church will ever do the job God has called us to do. We cannot do it in our soulish realm. We cannot operate in the supernatural and have our souls (minds, wills, emotions) in command of our lives. We must walk in the Spirit. To walk in the supernatural, we must be willing to go beyond what we can see with our natural eyes and walk after God by faith. We must learn to look through the eye of faith.

I made this commitment: “God, I will do anything You want me to do. Teach me and lead me.”

At this time Ken did not have a daytime service, and by direction of the Lord, I started teaching on Friday mornings. (I was already teaching healing on Saturdays.) I prayed: “Father, we are just giving You this time. We are turning it over to the Holy Spirit. Whatever You want us to do, tell us.”

I told the people to prepare themselves to set aside these days for the Holy Spirit to do whatever He wanted. Those services lasted sometimes for three or four hours. I just endeavored to teach the Word and to follow the Holy Spirit and minister to the people.

I said, “God, I will do anything You tell me to do. I don’t care what I look like to people.” If there was anyone who had cared what they looked like to people, it had been me. (Sister Etter calls this a man-fearing spirit.) I wanted to be dignified and nice. I never wanted to look foolish to anyone. On top of that I was timid, but I reached a place where it was more important what God thought about me than what people thought.

In those services God began to show me things to do and I would do them. Sometimes they would be little things, but I did my best to not hold back. It does not always have to be some big thing. God just needs to know that we will obey Him in little things before He can take us on to bigger things. “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much…” (Luke 16:10).

I so wanted to be led by the Holy Spirit. Here is an example of how a simple act of obedience brought me strength to be able to fulfill an assignment.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

If Jesus and His Word abide in us and we maintain a living communion with Him by the Spirit of God, we’ll be able to walk in continual obedience. When we do that, we put ourselves in position to ask whatever we will and it will be done (John 15:7).

Remember this: Abiding is obeying.

For yourselves, let the teaching which you have heard from the beginning abide within you. If that teaching does abide within you, you also will abide in the Son. And in the Father (1 John 2:24, Weymouth).

The man who obeys His commands abides in God and God in him; and through His spirit which He has given us we can know that He abides in us (1 John 3:24, Weymouth).

God gives us His Word. He gives us His direction. When He tells you to do something, it may seem unimportant to you. You might think it is insignificant, but your future may depend on it. God does not explain Himself. He expects you to walk by faith. He expects you to be mature. He expects you to grow up into Him so you will simply do what you are told, knowing that He is smarter than you. Then He sees whether or not we will do it. If we will not, He knows we are not ready to move on with Him.

If you have had problems in your life and you feel that God is not paying attention to you, think back to the moment you disobeyed Him last, then obey His instructions. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8). He may be waiting for you to set things straight and begin again with Him.

Unless we rise up and begin to obey the anointing—the unction—in our spirits by the Holy Spirit, God will be unable to take us any further along than we are right now. Like Israel, we will stay in the wilderness until God finds another generation that’s obedient. And if they accept Him at His Word and follow His Spirit, then He will take them further than He was able to take us.

We should not want to stay where we are, though it may be such a wonderful place. We must continue on so we can grow in God.

You have to start where you are right now. Obey everything that God tells you today, and then again tomorrow, and the next day. Learn to walk with God one day at a time. He will give you the grace daily for what you’re to do that day. Then you will be able to look back and see a life that has pleased God. In our everyday walk we must be obedient—in the seemingly little things, as well as in the big things.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

God expects you to be sensitive and to listen to the promptings—that unction, that inward witness. According to Hebrews 4:12, the Word of God divides between the soul and the spirit. It will distinguish
within you between your natural mind and your spirit—between what is coming from your mind and what is coming from your spirit. If you want to walk in the spirit, you will have to spend time studying in and meditating on the Word and praying in the spirit.

The more you grow in the Lord, the more your soul will come into agreement with God. The more your soul is renewed to think like God thinks, the easier it will be for you to be led by the Holy Spirit.

We were born again in God’s image on the inside, but the Holy Spirit will begin to change us on the outside as we obey Him. As we walk with Him and obey Him, the Spirit of God within us will manifest the presence of Jesus until Romans 8:29 is fulfilled: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

As we begin to think like He thinks, the things of God will become so great that the things of the world will seem ridiculously insignificant.

Let loose the Spirit of God in your life. Walk in that anointing. Abide in that anointing. The Spirit of God is leading you, counseling you, teaching you, ministering grace to you every day of your life.

When we receive that unction from God, giving us direction, we are to obey. We are not to mentally question it. We are not to talk ourselves out of it. We are not to reason it away. (But, of course, we judge all direction by what God has already said in the written Word concerning His will and the laws of the Spirit. He will never tell us to do something that is crosswise to His Word.) When the Spirit of God rises up within us, we must act. That is what makes God able to manifest Himself in our lives, from one degree of glory to another.

Obedience opens the door that nothing else will open. Being obedient to the Spirit of God opens the door for God to honor us in full measure. God is able to work His perfect will in our lives when we honor Him, reverence Him and abide in Him. Whatever we do toward Him, we open the door for Him to do toward us.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

God is looking for people who will worship Him and serveHim in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). I realized one day that God did not expect me to be able to do what I was called to do by my own mind or ability. He expected to give me His strength and ability supernaturally. He expected to be my portion for whatever I needed. I knew I could only please God by walking in the spirit and not in the flesh. So I prayed, “Lord, teach me to walk in the spirit,” and He began to teach me. I learned things that changed my life.

The Holy Spirit will unveil His blessings to us if we will give Him an opportunity. Remember that Jesus did not become your Savior until you recognized Him as Lord and were born again. When you gave Him that recognition and allowed Him to take over your life, He became your Savior.

The Holy Spirit is the same way. He is not going to take over your life as Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby until you invite Him, until you give Him place, until you recognize Him as the One Who comes to your aid and support. When you begin to listen to Him, lean on Him, rely on Him and trust in Him, He will begin to work in just that way. The more you lean on Him and not your own understanding,the more He is able to fulfill His ministry to you.

God speaks to us by His Spirit. We don’t have to go to a prophet to hear from God in this dispensation of grace. We are born of God. No longer is the Holy Spirit in the holy of holies as He was in the Old Covenant. No longer is He kept in a place that is unapproachable that only the high priest can enter. He is no longer there. He is within you and me.

With the Spirit of God in us, we become mobile temples of God. Satan does not want you to know this, because he doesn’t want you to realize that when you face a problem, the Spirit of God faces it with you. When you know not how to pray as you ought, the Holy Spirit takes hold together with you against that infirmity or weakness in your life and prays the perfect will of God into existence, and gives you direction that will bring victory. Then He gives you the power and ability to do whatever He directs.

Where does the Holy Ghost live? Within your spirit. God wants to talk to you spirit to spirit, and that is how His Spirit communicates with you most of the time. Usually, He does not speak directly to your mind or to your physical ears.

When you hear these promptings come up within you, you may ask, “Was that me, Father, or was it You?”

It will sound like you—and it is—because it is your own spirit that you hear most of the time. Your spirit relays to your soul (mind, will, emotions) what the Spirit of God is saying to you. It is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the two. I cannot tell you how to know the difference. I can only tell you how to get started and that you will begin to know. As you spend time in prayer and in God’s Word, your spirit, which is directly infused and connected with God’s Spirit, is a reliable witness to follow.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him…. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:29, 31-32).

The Spirit of God is the voice of God to us. He proceeds directly from the Father. The way the Holy Spirit leads us most of the time is by the inward witness. We also call it a prompting, guidance, a leading, an unction. It is an instruction in our spirits.

It is important to know that the Holy Spirit is not going to push His way into your life. Yes, He wants to lead you, but He won’t force Himself into your affairs. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord….” He wants to burn His light brightly in our hearts, to illuminate our path.

The Spirit of God is within you to control your life—not by forcing you, but by leading you. He wants control of you because He is the only One on earth who knows what to do to make your life work.

Now you might think, I don’t want anyone controlling me.

Let’s think about that. Suppose there was a human being who could answer every problem you have. You could phone this person at any time, tell him your problem and always receive the solution. You would take his direction gladly, and you would call him whenever a problem arose. That person would have control of your life with your permission. And you would be glad!

Of course, there is no natural person who knows the answer to every problem. But the Holy Spirit does! He knows all of the answers. He is in you to help you, to give you revelation and direction for your life. He wants you to call on Him. He is waiting for you to recognize Him as the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby). He is always available to come to your aid and make the difference between life and death, failure and defeat.

So too the (Holy) Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance (Romans 8:26, The Amplified Bible).

Many people have been filled with the Spirit for years, but never have really listened to Him. They never have learned to obey Him. They have not paid attention to the Word of God to learn how. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher, but to hear Him you will have to give Him your attention.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter (Romans 7:4-6).

We are to serve now in newness of spirit. The Amplified Bible says we serve in “…[obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life]” (verse 6). We are to serve now after this new man who is born of God indwelt and permeated by the Holy Spirit. We no longer serve the old habits and ideas we had or after the flesh that has not yet been changed. We still serve, but we serve from the inside. Now we walk in newness of life and follow the promptings of our newborn spirit as he is taught and directed by the Holy Spirit. We have died to the law that we might be married to Him Who was raised from the dead to bring forth fruit unto God.

“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). We are to function here in the earth, even while we still live in a natural body as one with Jesus the Anointed. We were dead. Now we live to be “married” to Him.

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. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:26-32).

Paul says this is a great mystery. As a man is joined to his wife and they become one flesh so is the Anointed and His Church. We are His body—flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone. We are to live united to Him as the branch to the vine so that His life and His anointing pervades every action and decision. That is the way Jesus Himself lived. He said:

I am able to do nothing from Myself—independently, of My own accord—but as I am taught by God and as I get His orders. [I decide as I am bidden to decide. As the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision.] Even as I hear, I judge and My judgment is right (just, righteous), because I do not seek or consult My own will—I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose—but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me (John 5:30, The Amplified Bible).

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall—will remind you of, bring to your remembrance—everything I have told you…. However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say, it is profitable good, expedient, advantageous—for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you—into close fellowship with you. But if I go away, I will send Him to you—to be in close fellowship with you….But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the truth—the whole, full truth. For He will not speak His own message—on His own authority—but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father, He will give the message that has been given to Him] and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come—that will happen in the future. He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare,
disclose, transmit) it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) them to you (John 14:26, 16:7, 13-15, The Amplified Bible).

In 1 John 2:20 we read: “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.”

The word unction here is the same word as anointing in verse 27: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

This anointing for living is from the Spirit of the God living in us. Jesus said He would lead us into all the truth. He said it was better that He went away because He would send another Comforter (the Holy Spirit) Who would live in us and teach us all things. The anointing of the Spirit of God which we have received abides within us. This unction of the Holy Spirit is in us continually to teach us, lead us, guide us and counsel us. He tells us what the Father and Jesus want us to do. It is just like having a two-way radio linked up to heaven. And He empowers us to do it.

Work out—cultivate, carry out to the goal and fully complete—your own salvation…[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you—energizing and creating in you the
power and desire—both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight (Philippians 2:12-13, The Amplified Bible).

Now here is the catch: “…even as it [the anointing] hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27). What does this mean? That as this anointing teaches us, we obey. We abide in Him. Abiding is obeying. If we do not abide in Him and walk in Him, the Spirit of God is hindered in accomplishing what He has been sent to do. We either walk in obedience to our God, or we pay the price for disobedience.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you (John 15:1-7).

Abiding is living in, settling down, dwelling in. It is not “coming in” and “going out.” The Wuest translates abiding as “a living communion.” Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. If you separate the branch from the vine, you break the union. You can lay the branch right next to the vine, but if it is not one with the vine, the life won’t flow into that branch to make it produce fruit.

Rufus Mosely said, “Fruit appears on branches. God has to have branches of the same texture as Himself, the same sap, the same mind, the same spirit, before He can bring forth in fullness what He wants to bring forth.” God has had to wait for a people who will be branches. James 5:7 says “…Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.”

The Amplified Bible says, “So be patient, brethren, [as you wait] till the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious harvest from the land. [See how] he keeps up his patient [vigil] over it until it receives the early and late rains.”

Many believers don’t bear fruit. They get born again, but do not abide in Him. There is no living communion—no life flow. Their spiritual lives wither and they become subject to the devil, subject to the enemy. Sickness and disease comes upon them. They do not live like spiritual men, but like natural men.

We are not to get born again and then stop. We are not born again just so God’s house will be full, even though that is important to Him. We are born again to be His special possession in the earth—a group of people who will do anything He tells them to do—who will be obedient. Then He will get His plan finished and the earth will be full of His glory.

Rufus Mosely also said, “All you have to do to keep union is to put Him first and keep your mind stayed on Him. In union and love, you will have everything else. Our only responsibility is the responsibility of the union. If we will give ourselves to the union, He will look after everything else.”

How are we to do this? By His Spirit. Jesus did not expect us to do that in our own power. He expected His Spirit to come and live in us and communicate His words to our spirits. The Spirit of God is in us to bring about that continual living communion with Jesus.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland