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

God has established His covenant in the earth. Everything
He does is determined by this covenant. Jesus of Nazareth
was born into this world, died on the cross, went to hell, paid
the sin price, and was raised from the dead because of the covenant
God made with man. God does not show partiality by
choosing certain people to save or to heal; His blessings are for
all the people who meet the conditions of the covenant (see
1 Peter 2:24).

God has established His covenant—for salvation, for healing,
for deliverance, for prosperity—and these provisions of the
covenant are set out in God’s Word. His Word is His covenant,
His bond. When you consider a person’s word, you think of his
integrity: Will he do what he says? Is his word good? Is his name
good? A person’s name is judged as good or bad by whether or
not he keeps his word. Your name doesn’t make your word
good. Your word makes your name good. Herein lies the power
in the Name of Jesus; His Name is good because His Word is
good. God has magnified His Word even above His Name (see
Psalm 138:2).

God’s covenant has been established in the earth. Now man
must establish his heart in God’s covenant. It is the combination
of the established covenant of God and your established heart
in this covenant that produces results. If your heart is not
established in the covenant, then the covenant will never mean
anything to you. Ephesians 2:12 says, “That at that time ye were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without
God in the world.” Being without God is spiritual bankruptcy.
It doesn’t matter what God has done—if you don’t know about
it or can’t get in it, you are spiritually bankrupt. Eventually, you
will become physically bankrupt in one form or another. You
will have nowhere to turn. You can’t depend on your physical
capabilities because your flesh just isn’t enough to get you through.
Certainly, this is true of your mind, your mental capabilities. Men
with the strongest minds in the world are committing suicide at
an alarming rate!

A man without God in the world is a man without a covenant.
He has nothing to believe. He has nothing to rely
on. There are many Christians who actually do not know what
to believe. They say, “How does this work? I’m trying my best
to believe God, but I just can’t seem to do it!” There are many
fine, upstanding people—born again, filled with the Spirit of
God—who are absolutely defeated in every area of their lives
(physically, mentally, socially and financially). Why? Because
they don’t know the covenant. If they don’t know what God has
said, there is no way He can reach them.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland