Sensitivity of Heart

KENNETH COPELAND

1

Sensitivity of Heart

You and I are privileged to be part of the most unique generation in the history of the church. We are at the crossroads of the two most important ages in the history of this planet. We have the privilege and responsibility of being the pioneers of a new age. Because of this, there is more pressure on the body of Christ than ever before. The ministry seems to have been in a ferocious pressure cooker with temptation to sin. Many who have been discouraged have been tempted to throw away their testimony.

The Word and our faith are meeting more resistance than ever before. But let me encourage you. It's not a tragedy to live in this generation. Your birth into the earth was not untimely. You are right on time. You are right where you belong! If you and I did not have what it takes to make it in this generation, God would have had us born at another time.

It would really be a marvel if we were not under this kind of pressure. Satan's time is short and he knows it. He is trying everything he can think of to stop the church from accomplishing its task.

Our generation will see the fulfillment of all things. It will introduce the next age through the signs and wonders of Almighty God and manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

We will be participants in the greatest production by the Holy Spirit of God that the human race has ever seen.

2

Insensitivity to God

The third chapter of Mark speaks of a time when Jesus and His disciples went into the synagogue. There, the Pharisees watched and waited, trying to accuse Him of some violation of their traditions.

Mark 3:1 And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.

And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.

One translation says, Stand in the middle. Jesus brought him right out in the middle to be seen, knowing that everyone there wanted to accuse Him.

And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea.

When Jesus questioned the Pharisees according to the will and purpose of God, they didn't say anything. He looked on them with anger because of their hardness of heart or insensitivity.

They were insensitive to Who was in their midst not realizing that it was God. They, of all people, should have known the scriptures. Jesus fit every Messianic prophecy in the Word of God. But they had made traditions from the Word and worshiped their traditions more than God.

Don't look down on them. We have all done the same thing. We have had a "form of godliness and turned from the power thereof." The reason is insensitivity—not being sensitive to the Spirit of God nor to the depth of the price that God Almighty paid so that we can worship Him. This kind of attitude angered Jesus.

Thank God, His anger is but for a moment. We have preached it as though it was forever and the mercy of God was but for a moment. I have determined that I will preach, "His mercy endureth forever." The Bible says,

"His mercy is new every morning."

Jesus was angry because the Spirit of God was grieved. I have experienced that grief in my own ministry. It has happened a few times while I was ministering in a prayer line as God's Spirit was moving.

Suddenly a grieving of the Holy Spirit that cannot be adequately explained in words comes up inside me. It is the heaviest grief that I have ever sensed.

To minister effectively, one must have the anointing of God. I need the power of God. Therefore, I must yield myself totally to the Holy Spirit. My spirit molds together with the Holy Spirit. When I am a yielded vessel to the Spirit of God, I see through His eyes and hear through His ears. My emotions are one with His. I am moved and directed as He is moved. When He is grieved I am grieved and His anointing lifts. When that happens, I am as helpless as a bird without wings. I cannot minister without the anointing of God.

When God's anointing stops flowing, that grief becomes like fire down on the inside of my innermost being. I want to know what has caused it. A holy anger comes over me. The first few times that happened I felt condemned for feeling that way.

In one of my meetings, I started to lay my hands on a young woman and she began shaking her head. She cried,

"No. No. No!" When I laid my hands on her, nothing happened.

I started to walk away thinking, "There are several hundred people here to minister to; I don't have time to preach to her until I get faith to rise up in her heart." For a moment I just prayed in the spirit. As I prayed, grief and anger rose up on the inside of me.

This response came up from way down in my spirit.

The Spirit of God was in control. I grabbed her face with both my hands. In a firm voice I said, "Don't you say 'no' to me. I am here in the name of Almighty God as His prophet to set you free." She looked up at me and batted her eyes a few times. It startled me as much as it did her. I began to cry from the very depths of my being. The flow of God's compassion through me broke the power of that evil spirit and she received from God.

That should give you some indication of what was inside Jesus that day in the synagogue. He was grieved because the hardness of their hearts quenched the anointing of God. The word translated "hardness" means "insensitiveness." It is translated in other scriptures as "blindness."

The Pharisees were insensitive to God. When we read this it is easy to imagine a group of hardened people who were angry enough to kill. But it doesn't take the insensitivity of a hardened criminal to quench the Holy Spirit. He is easily grieved.

We look at these Pharisees and they look bad to us.

The situation was openly hard, but not all insensitivity looks that bad. An act of insensitivity can be something that really seems insignificant.

I remember a particular instance when I was ministering in a prayer service and God was moving tremendously. The power of God was so strong that twice it drained the battery in the wireless microphone I was wearing!

When I reached the rear of the congregation, suddenly the anointing stopped. It was just as though the Spirit of God withdrew from the situation.

Did you notice that our scriptural example says, "The Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him."? Jesus and His disciples withdrew. Why did Jesus just get up and walk off? Surely the man with the withered hand was not the only one who needed deliverance. Why did Jesus withdraw? Because, without the anointing of God He couldn't do anything. And, if He couldn't, I certainly can't.

It's my nature to try it anyway. I want people healed and delivered so badly that I want to continue praying.

However, it is useless when the Spirit is grieved. Without Him nothing can be done. Just like Jesus withdrew that day from the synagogue, He withdrew while I was ministering.

We had grieved the Spirit of God. We find out in the third, fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Ephesians that corrupt communication, strife and stealing grieve the Holy Spirit. I found out that day that insensitivity of heart also grieves Him. I said, "Lord, what has happened here?

Whatever it is, I repent now. Tell me what it is."

I began pleading my case as fast as I could. Lord, look at all these people in such need. You said without You we can do nothing. It reminded me of my daughter Kellie.

When she would be disobedient and I would start to spank her she turned into a regular "motor mouth"!

"Daddy, wait a minute now, Daddy, wait a minute. I don't want you to do something that you will regret. Can't we work this out? Daddy, can't we pray about it first?" She would talk me right out of it before I could spank her! It wouldn't be long before she had me feeling guilty because I was reprimanding her!

This was the way I was talking to the Lord. He said,

"Look back there at that book table."

This particular auditorium did not have a foyer. My staff had set up the book tables inside the auditorium. I have given absolute strict orders in our meetings that the book tables be shut down when anyone is ministering or any time that the Spirit of God is moving. The workers had covers pulled over the book tables to indicate that they were closed. Someone had lifted up the covers and picked out some books expecting to be waited on. My employees were not about to wait on them. If they did, they would go home without a job! That is a quick way to become unemployed at Kenneth Copeland Ministries.

They know better than to compete with the Spirit of God.

Two of those people were angry because nobody would take their money. How insensitive can a person get?

At first I became angry because their insensitivity grieved the Holy Spirit and arrested the anointing. It departed just like Jesus departed the synagogue. I repented and reprimanded the congregation. In no uncertain terms, they wanted the anointing back and became serious with God in a hurry. The anointing came back but not to the intensity that it was before.

Another situation happened almost exactly the same way. I was ministering the Word of God; the power of God was so heavy you could almost cut it with a knife. I was just about to begin to minister in the gifts of the Spirit. God was ready to pull the cork on the devil and drive him out of there.

Right at that crucial moment, a dear woman sitting second row center got up and walked out of the auditorium. In a few minutes she came back with a carton full of cokes, hot dogs, hamburgers, and popcorn. I did not mind her having a picnic, but she could have brought her food basket with her. The point was that it disrupted the congregation from being brought to a sensitive place in God.

She was not thinking about anyone but herself. She was not sensitive to the people that needed Jesus and salvation. She was not sensitive to the fact that God Almighty was at work in that place.

She was not sensitive to me. A spiritual law was at work. Jesus said, "If you receive the one whom I send, you receive Me. And if you receive Me, you receive the One Who sent Me." Receiving a minister of the gospel as an anointed vessel of God with the same respect and the same honor that you would give Jesus, releases great power and anointing to heal and deliver. Many times God will tell me that I have to tell someone that I was sent and anointed by God. That is not bragging; it is faith. God uses men and women who are operating in faith.

Jesus operated in the power of God because He operated in faith. He said, "I have come not to do My will, but the will of My Father Who sent Me." Jesus was doing the will of God in the synagogue. The Pharisees were so insensitive that they didn't even know it.

First of all, they were insensitive to Who was in their midst. They were insensitive not only to Jesus, but to the fact that the Spirit of the living God was in operation there. They were insensitive to the man who needed healing. As soon as he was healed the Pharisees left. They didn't even wait for the last "amen!" They didn't take the time to congratulate him for receiving a miracle from God.

You will find this attitude all the way through the ministry of Jesus. There was an insensitive crowd around Him almost all of the time. He could do no mighty works in His own home town because they did not believe what He preached. They did not care that He came to bring deliverance to the blind, to bind up the brokenhearted, and to heal.

There was the woman who had been bowed over for 18 years. Healing was her covenant right as a daughter of Abraham. Yet the Pharisees were so insensitive that they never ministered to her. As often as she came to services, they were more interested in their traditions than in her need.

Do you remember the blind man whom the religious leaders brought up before the council and said, "This man is a sinner."? They pestered him about Jesus until he became tired of it. He said, "What if I tell you again, will that make you believe? I was blind and now I can see. Is there some crime in being healed?" You would think so when you are around people who have no sensitivity in their hearts. They may be full of pity, and maybe even a little sympathy, but pity and sympathy are human emotions. I'm talking about having a heart sensitive to God and sensitive enough to other people to meet their needs.

A sensitive heart is one which has the compassion of God moving in it. Jesus was moved by compassion, not just sympathy. What are you moved by?

An insensitive person will leave a church service in the middle of an invitation to the lost or walk out in the middle of the ministry to the sick. They think, "Well, I'm tired. I have to get the children in school in the morning."

It doesn't matter that there are people with serious needs being ministered to by the Spirit of God. Some of them are life and death matters. Insensitive people are moved by their selfish desires.

When two believers come together, their power and strength in the spiritual realm is not doubled. The presence of other believers multiplies our faith to the tenth power. One can put a thousand to flight, two can put ten thousand to flight. That means when someone leaves during the ministry to the oppressed there are at least nine thousand demons that are unhindered because one other believer stops adding his faith. Someone that remained in the service will have to take up that selfish person's part.

3

Sensitivity to God

I am astounded to watch a reserved section of an auditorium full of preachers and VIPs. Many times everybody in the congregation is dancing before the Lord and worshiping God while the ministers and leaders have big frowns on their faces wondering what is going on. In this critical hour in history, we must be more sensitive than that. As shepherds, we have to be sensitive to God and be an example to the sheep.

Most people are not as harsh as the Pharisees but are still insensitive to the Holy Spirit. Even though the Pharisees left immediately, the rest of them were still watching Jesus to accuse Him. No one in the crowd was healed but the man with the withered arm. Nobody. Why do you suppose that entire synagogue full of people was insensitive enough to grieve the Holy Spirit? Because, their ministers were insensitive to God and they followed their shepherds into strife, criticism and insensitiveness.

As ministers of the gospel, it does not matter how long we have been preaching, how closely we walk in the Word or how deep our prayer life is. All that we have done isn't enough. We are not close enough and we have not become sensitive enough. We must reach for more.

We cannot become satisfied with what we have done. We must enlarge our hearts and reach out to God. We must bathe ourselves deeply in the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit. It's time to think about one another instead of just ourselves. When we do, all of that sensitivity of heart will begin to grow in our congregations.

Let's reach higher than our differences in the body of Christ, let's be more sensitive to God and to the needs of others. Reach out to one another. Look for opportunities to help your brother. Look for ways to be of service to others. Seek ways to help. Be willing to give the Word of God to those who do not have as much revelation knowledge as you have been blessed with.

4

Sensitivity of Speech

As believers, we should make a decision to become sensitive to the words we speak. Our words are what bind us to one another. Our ability to speak makes us like God.

God spoke His Word and would not change. He gave authority over the earth to Adam and Adam gave it to the devil. God stuck by His Word even though it cost Him His Son. No other being on earth but man, has the right to choose words and speak them in faith.

It's time that we as Christians remember the covenants we make, even if we have to swear to our own hurt. We have broken too many contracts thinking it was alright because the other party was not honoring it.

When we make a covenant, and say, "I will," "I do," "I shall," "I'll be there on time," we had better be there on time. Until we learn to become sensitive to the integrity of our own word, we will not understand what it means to act on God's Word. His power comes from His keeping His Word, from His keeping it and from our keeping it.

Without knowing this it is almost impossible to grow spiritually and experience the better things of God.

That is what is wrong in so many marriages. People are insensitive to the covenant that they have made. They said, "I do," and forgot it 15 minutes later. Men and women who begin to have trouble in their marriage should know the Bible marriage vows so well that the very moment that strife comes in they run to the communion table. If they would get on their knees and reaffirm the covenant they made before God, reciting their vows to one another again, they would find themselves as tender with one another as they were on their wedding night.

If you say, "...but Brother Copeland, we are too far gone," you just admitted that you are too selfish to even try. Many think that adultery is the major cause of divorce, but Jesus said, "Moses was given the rite of divorcement because of the hardness (or insensitiveness) of your hearts." The body of Christ must act like God and swear to our own hurt where marriage is concerned. It will cause us to be as victorious as God is. He is not a loser.

When you, your wife and your children become sensitive to each other's needs rather than your own, no sin on earth is big enough to stop the love of God from flowing in your household. The love of God never fails.

Your marriage will not fail when it is based on God's love.

God is moving in this hour. His eyes are going to and fro across the earth seeking those of perfect heart, those to whom He may show Himself strong. A perfect heart is a sensitive heart. It is one that has matured in sensitivity to God, to the needs of those around it, and to the Word of God.

5

Sensitivity to Spiritual Warfare

There is a great battle going on in the earth. This war in the spirit will be fought much like the wars that are fought in the natural. Our military works effectively through the chain of command. In God's army, God is the Commander-in-chief and Jesus is the Chief-of-staff. We have to be sensitive to their instructions.

Training for battle takes a long time and millions of dollars. A fighter plane has three or four hours range per mission. You can fight the total capability of that aircraft in three and a half hours. It took 18 months to teach the pilot how to do it. It takes over a year to train a marine infantry soldier. But a real hand-to-hand combat battle is over in minutes. So, the training lasts a lot longer than the actual war.

In the body of Christ we have been in training for the greatest spiritual invasion of this age. We have had skirmishes in the spiritual realm in individual lives, in local churches, and in ministries. But on January 1, 1983

(I don't know what that day had to do with it, but I know from God that that's when it began), God began to rally and marshal all of His forces together. Soon, all of us will go into one massive spiritual invasion of the strongholds of the devil. Many Christians have been fighting a holding action for a long time. But now it is time for an all-out offensive.

Did you realize that for the first time in history God has Satan split on two fronts? He has him facing Israel on one side and the body of Christ on the other. Satan was never powerful enough to handle either one of us alone.

What will he do with both of us facing him?

The Lord said to me in mid-January 1983 in a time of prayer, "I liken this to the invasion of Europe in 1944 and '45." It took a long time to activate that invasion because it was so massive. It had never been attempted before in human history. All of the free countries of the world met together in one location, the British Isles. They gathered together with one goal before them—rid the earth of Adolf Hitler and all he stood for.

The Lord showed it to me this way so that I could understand what His position is. If we understand His position in this final conflict we can understand what our position is.

January 1, 1983 gave birth to a total change of spiritual atmosphere all over this world. It will continue to change.

We will continue to go in this direction and face what no other Christian generation in history has ever faced. No other military organization in the world had ever faced an army like the one that was gathering in England. There were a lot of new things that had to be learned.

Our generation is going into the greatest outpouring of the Spirit of God that has ever occurred in the history of the world. This is not maneuvers, it is not training and it is not going to be battles fought individually by single churches, single families or individual believers. We are coming together as the army of Jesus with one goal before us—to rid the earth of Satan and all he stands for!

It is the final conflict when Satan will be slammed down from his position forever.

We have some fresh troops just coming in off the street who don't know anything about religion. They have not been trained in religious tradition. They've not been told that they can't do what the Word says they can do. I get thrilled at the thought! Watch them, they will raise the dead before we get a chance to tell them that they had better "use wisdom." Be sensitive to them. A good commander can take someone who has some wild fire and teach him and train him. He can be handled with the power and the wisdom of the Holy Ghost. It's the ones who won't take action that you can't do anything with.

We also have a few old "bomber crews" who have a lot of missions under their belt. They will have their part in this invasion force. They are the ones with the experience, but some have developed a few bad habits.

They got away with some things in these little missions that won't work in this big one. Those experienced troops will have to become very sensitive. It is very difficult to take someone who has been successful on 30 missions and tell him that he hasn't been doing it right.

Things are different now. In training they use blanks.

But today this enemy is for real. The devil has his guns loaded. He has launched an attack trying to stop our invasion. He is moving in every area. He is attacking families like never before. Those who thought they would never contemplate divorce have started playing with those kind of thoughts. Those who never thought about adultery are now toying with the idea. They rationalize it because they feel that suddenly nobody understands them anymore.

Some who never thought that they would see the day that they would ever let a glass of alcohol come near their lips have been having a little wine with their meals and looking forward to the second glass. Believers are using foul language, words that they thought would never come out of their mouth again since they made Jesus the Lord of their lives.

Ministers are being bombarded with thoughts of defeat and despair. Pastors of "Word Churches" who stand up for the integrity of the uncompromised Word of God, are finding themselves in situations that men of God don't have any business being in. Sin, sin!

Have you noticed that suddenly Christians have stopped calling sin, sin? They're calling it "their problem." "Well, you see I have this problem that's really just more than I can handle and I know God understands."

God forgives sin but He does not condone it. I don't care what kind of a problem you have, you don't have any business getting involved with other women. I don't care if your wife ran off because you started talking in tongues. Even if she has lived with another man since she left. That doesn't mean that you have such a problem that adultery will cure it. Adultery will not cure it. Adultery will kill you. The wages of sin is death. Sin is not the cure. Sin is sin.

I know I am blunt, but there isn't the time for sweet-talk. The devil is bloodthirsty. He will kill you if you let him. Training camp is over. We have to get honest and open with one another. We are not fighting little skirmishes here and there. We have the lives of men and women all over this world in our hands. I know this is blunt, but there is only a short time remaining. Play time is over. It will all be over soon.

The hour is such that things we got away with one year ago, we will not get away with now and survive. We will find ourselves standing knee-deep in more hell than we know how to deal with.

We have some new crews joining our forces who will have to take some crash courses in faith, love, and power.

It is time to act like soldiers and tighten up and get back on the manual. We have to get back on the Word of God and become sensitive to it.

Check your weapons. Have you been in the Word like you were years ago? Have you been praying like you did several years ago? Have you experienced a little success on the Word of God and then laid the Word down? When the problems start compounding, engines start failing and things come apart, do you suddenly realize that you don't have the kind of Word in your heart like you thought you had? Has your commitment waned? Is your sensitivity to the instructor (the Holy Spirit) what it should be?

Be sensitive to those in your midst who are fresh out of training. Go back over your weapons with them. You may find out that they remember what you might have forgotten.

Be sensitive to the entire body of Christ. We have one goal ahead of us. It is not to prove who is the best

"bomber pilot," the best preacher, or the best wife. But to DO our best and follow close behind the Leader, the Lord Jesus Christ. Be sensitive to His command and meet the need of this dying world. Pull Satan down from his stronghold.

6

Sensitivity to Love

Become sensitive to the Holy Spirit Himself. God has sent His personal Emissary to lead and guide this great spiritual army.

Now is not the time to be so proud that we can't be sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit to walk in love with our own husband or wife, or a member of our own crew.

In World War II, each division had to cooperate with the other. Each service had its role to play. It could not have been won without the joint operation of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all working together. In God's army we are all fighting for the same cause. The Baptist unit, the Catholic unit, the Presbyterian unit, the Full Gospel unit will all have to work together. I am not going to miss the greatest spiritual outpouring that this planet has ever seen over some little minor two-bit fuss that will never last in the light of God's power.

Ephesians 4:16 says, From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Jesus put the body together, but the joints hold it together. If God is going to do anything about our unity, we have to do something about it. We are the ones who fail to stick together. Every part has its role to play.

The old adage which says that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link is true.

When we find a weak link in the body of Christ, we should not cut it off and criticize it. We should rally around that weak one and love them. We will carry them piggy-back and strengthen them if we have to. We shouldn't be selfish.

We play a big part of the coming together in the unity of our faith. God's influence will do it, but we have to agree with Him and become sensitive to His influence.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness (darkness, insensitiveness) of their heart (Eph. 4:17,18).

It is possible to become insensitive, blind and hard, even though you are a born-again, Spirit-filled believer.

Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness (verse 19). If the life of God is not flowing through your reborn spirit, lasciviousness will begin to work. Things you would not have anything to do with in the past don't look so bad anymore. Lasciviousness means

"no restraint from impurity." The more insensitive you become, the less restraint you have to impurity.

Another way to say "impurity" is "weakness of the flesh." You cannot be strong in your flesh without practicing the Word of God and being sensitive enough in your spirit to hear the voice of God. The result will be the grieving of the Holy Spirit. If God is grieved, Jesus withdraws. He will never leave you, nor forsake you to the end of the earth. But if you are not sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you will find that when you want to hear Him, you can't. You think, "Dear God, I used to get all kinds of revelation. What is wrong now?"

Do you remember how sensitive you were right after you were saved? You were in love with everybody but the devil! Then perhaps a few people offended you and you hardened yourself to them. It led you to judge them as hypocrites. Maybe you saw some humanity in ministers of God. You became disappointed in their lack of perfection.

No one has a right to judge any ministry. They are not your servant. They are your gift. They are God's servants.

Pray for them. Leave it up to God. You cannot judge another man's heart. There are two times when you ought to pray for someone. One is when you think he is right, the other one when you think he is wrong!

7

How to Develop Sensitivity

Making a quality decision to live the commandment of love is the beginning of a sensitive heart. A decision of quality is one from which there is no return, about which there is no further debate.

Love is tender. When I made the decision to walk in the commandment of love, I began to order my thinking in that direction and it softened my heart. The decision started the laws of the spirit to work in my heart, causing it to be tender and sensitive.

I had to become sensitive to the commandment to walk in love when God called Gloria to preach. It was not easy to give up my cook! There are still people today who think that "women can pray, but bless God they sure better clean house while they are doing it!"

I am not saying that women ought to neglect their families. Don't neglect your husband or your wife.

Everybody has duties in a household and must be sensitive to those duties. Make it a point to be sensitive as well to the fact that the other members of your family have things to do for God, too.

The hard part for me was dealing with my flesh. God had dealt with Gloria to pray at least an hour every day in other tongues. She gets up early and does it first thing every morning. It is just wonderful for her to pray. But I couldn't cope with why she didn't stop long enough to come cook me some eggs! I was so insensitive that I thought it was more important for me to eat than for her to be in intercession for me, my life, and ministry.

One morning I tore into the kitchen, slamming doors and banging pots around because I was angry. "Why won't she get in here and cook me some eggs?" I made the mistake of asking God. I said, "You called her to preach. Now what am I going to do about some eggs?"

He said, "Go cook them yourself." That is not what I wanted to hear! It finally got to me that I was shameless and insensitive. I know what spiritual values are all about.

She has saved my life more than once because of her tenacity to the Word of God.

I started getting sensitive quickly. I got on my knees and I made a decision before Almighty God, and wrote it down. "I settle this forever before Almighty God. I will not listen to a lying spirit of the devil again. Self-pity, condemnation, self-debasement, unbelief and doubt have no more part of me nor I with them. I know how to receive and what to do to please God and I will do those things."

Then I started getting tender in my heart. I made a decision to walk in love where this is concerned and do what I know to do. It straightened my thinking. Instead of majoring in a minor like making her cook, I began to major in a major thing which is intercessory prayer.

Tenderness rose up on the inside of me. I made the decision to make this commandment of love the commandment of my life. I want to be somebody Jesus can have some fun with and can share His life with. I'm just barely beginning to get there. He's with me all the time, but there is something about being close to Him all the time. I don't want Him to withdraw from me because I'm insensitive.

Make the decision to live by faith. God is your source.

You can't be sensitive to God and to those around you if you are criticizing the government. Inflation and depression are not greater than the laws of God. Act on the laws of God when things get rough. Don't stop your giving; double up on it. Don't violate the laws of God, honor them and God will honor you.

Give the Word first place. Be sensitive to the Word.

Whatever the Word says, do it. If the Word says you are His righteousness, believe it. If the Word says you are healed, believe it. Walk on it. Live it. Eat it. Sleep it.

Study it. Meditate it. Feed it into your heart and become sensitive to every word.

Develop a personal relationship with God. Receive His Word as God speaking to you. Put your name in the promises. Talk to God like you talk to your closest friend.

Be sensitive to enter into praise and worship. It will cause you to be more sensitive to the Spirit of God and more aware of His presence.

Then, get the sin out of your life. I made up my mind some time ago that I had been fighting some things long enough. There were some things in my life that needed purging. I separated myself to fast, pray and fellowship with God.

Fasting won't get the sin out of your life. Repentance will. But I made up my mind, I was not going to do anything else until it was all gone. I did what Joel said in chapter two. "Rend your heart, not your garment." I opened my heart before God and I dug things out that I had been keeping hidden. I made the decision to do what it took to get the sin out of my life. I came out of there changed.

Finally, pray. Enter the life of the Spirit with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your body and with all of your resources.

Walking in the spirit is walking with God, being sensitive and having a sensitive heart to God.

8

Sensitivity to Sacrifice

We are at war. Sacrifices are made during war time that are not made at any other time. Sensitive wives give up husbands for battle. Sensitive parents give up their sons and daughters.

World War II was fought when I was just a boy. I remember paper drives, and rubber drives. We got involved any way that we could. I was disappointed because I was too young to go fight. I wanted to give it everything I had. Everybody did. Wives and mothers and fathers willingly sacrificed kinsfolk in that war. It was a privilege because we had a good cause to defend and a job that had to be done.

There will have to be many sacrifices made in this war.

Some young people will announce to their parents that they won't be going to law school or even to the seminary. For they will have hearts sensitive enough to receive God's call to go to war. They will dedicate their lives to taking the delivering power of the gospel to their buddies who are still on dope. They will give up their own plans and the plans of their parents because we are at war.

Some pastors will have to give up their local respectability to be known as a "holy roller." Some will have to be sensitive enough to go where the sinners are, instead of expecting them to come to church.

Wives will tell their husbands that God has called them to a life of intercession. It will take some sacrifices on everyone's part.

To enter into the spirit life of God, all areas will have to be touched with sensitivity. We will all have to be sensitive to women in the ministry.

The Book of Joel says that in the time of the outpouring, everything that the devil has taken will be replaced. The devil has stolen the ministry of our women away from us. Those ministries will be regenerated. Our sons and our daughters will prophesy. We will sit at the feet of some of the most powerful women of the ages before this outpouring is concluded. I am married to one of them, and I am glad of it.

A woman, handling herself properly, can minister to the body of Christ like no man can. A man cannot preach from the viewpoint of a mother. God is as much a mother, as He is a father. Adam was made in the image of God.

He was as much female as he was male. He was exactly like God. Then God separated him and removed the female part. Woman means "man with the womb." Eve had as much authority as Adam did as long as they stayed together.

There is a dignity in a godly woman that is not in man.

A man fathers a child, but God builds a depth of character into a woman that causes her to nurture and love the child she brings in to this world. A woman has the dignity of God that no other thing created by God can portray.

Woman, because of the fall of man, was made to crawl under a curse; but she has been redeemed from that curse (Gal. 3:13). Jesus has lifted womanhood to a place where the Bible says, "Obey your parents." It didn't say,

"Children obey your father." The position of authority in a home is a man and a woman, together in agreement, being sensitive to one another, not making independent decisions.

There is not space to go into all of the explanation, but there are approximately 300 scriptures in the Bible proving that women have an equal place with men in the ministry of the gospel. Become sensitive to the needs of the women in your life. Become sensitive to your daughter, and your wife, and your mother, and the other women around you.

9

Jesus Will Help You to be Sensitive If you don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, it is impossible to be sensitive in your spirit. An unregenerate spirit is only full of woe and hate. You can't be sensitive and loving with a dead spirit. You could resolve to be loving and kind from now on and it won't last, because it is not the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit. The kind of sensitivity we are talking about is the life of God. The Bible says that those who have blinded minds are alienated from the life of God.

Yet, through the new birth, God has promised to give you a new heart. 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 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 (Ezek. 36:26,27). A deep sensitivity will come and abide inside you. It is the very heart of God.

You will have a heart of flesh that can feel the deep sensations of the heart of God. When He is grieved, you will be grieved. When He is full of joy, you will be full of joy.

The life of God resident in your spirit is essential to your eternal salvation. Jesus said, That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:15). His life in you is also your assurance of victory in this life. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4,5).

You can overcome all of the pressures and problems of the age we live in through Jesus Christ and sensitivity to His Spirit, His life, and His compassion abiding in you.

You do not have to be defeated by inflation, depression, divorce, religious traditions, or sickness and disease. The Greater One indwells you. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

If you do not know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you can receive Him now. I want you to join me now in praying this prayer. Don't just read it; make a conscious effort to speak these words from the very depths of your being. When you finish praying, you will be born again:

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, I present myself to You.

I pray and ask Jesus to be Lord over my life. I believe it in my heart, so I say it with my mouth: Jesus has been raised from the dead. This moment, I make Him the Lord over my life.

Jesus, come into my heart. I believe that I am saved this moment. I believe that I am a child of Almighty God.

I am reborn. I am a Christian. I believe that I have a sensitive heart and that I can know the very heartbeat of God.

I renounce sin, Satan, and all he stands for. I renounce the past and look to Jesus for the future.

Now, I purpose to be sensitive to Your life and nature in my heart. By the help of the Holy Spirit, 1 will outwardly express the image of Jesus that I inwardly possess. Thank You for the power, the ability and the privilege, in Jesus' name. Amen.

10

Prayer for Salvation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Heavenly Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus.

Your Word says, “..whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). I am calling on You. I pray and ask Jesus to come into my heart and be Lord over my life according to Romans 10:9-10. " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. " I do that now. I confess that Jesus is Lord, and I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead.

I am now reborn! I am a Christian—a child of Almighty God! I am saved! You also said in Your Word,

" If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: HOW MUCH MORE shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? " (Luke 11:13). I'm also asking You to fill me with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, rise up within me as I praise God. I fully expect to speak with other tongues as You give me the utterance (Acts 2:4).

(Begin to praise God for filling you with the Holy Spirit. Speak those words and syllables you receive—not in your own language, but the language given to you by the Holy Spirit. You have to use your own voice. God will not force you to speak.)

Now you are a Spirit-filled believer. Continue with the blessing God has given you and pray in tongues each day.

You'll never be the same!

Books by Kenneth Copeland

A Ceremony of Marriage

A Covenant of Blood

Faith and Patience-The Power Twins

Freedom From Fear

From Faith to Faith—A Daily Guide to Victory Giving and Receiving

Honor—Walling in Honesty, Truth & Integrity How to Conquer Strife How to Discipline Your Flesh How to Receive Communion

Love Never Fails

Now Are We in Christ Jesus Our Covenant With God

Prayer—Your Foundation for Success Prosperity Promises Prosperity: The Choice Is Yours

Rumors of War

Sensitivity of Heart

Six Steps to Excellence in Ministry

Sorrow Not!

Winning Over Grief and Sorrow

The Decision Is Yours

The Force of Faith

The Force of Righteousness

The Image of God in You

The Laws of Prosperity

The Mercy of God

The Miraculous Realm of God's Love

The Outpouring of the Spirit—The Result of Prayer The Power of the Tongue

The Power to Be Forever Free

The Troublemaker

The Winning Attitude

Welcome to the Family

You Are Healed

Your Right-Standing With God

Available in Spanish

12 Books by Gloria Copeland

And Jesus Healed Them All

Build Yourself an Ark

From Faith to Faith—A Daily Guide to Victory God's Success Formula

God's Will for You

God's Will for Your Healing

God's Will Is Prosperity

God's Will Is the Holy Spirit

Harvest of Health

Love—The Secret to Your Success

Pressing In—It's Worth It All

The Power to Live a New Life

Walk in the Spirit

Table of Contents

13 World Offices of Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Table of Contents

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13 World Offices of Kenneth Copeland Ministries