Represent the Healer Wherever You Are

What day? Wednesday. Yes, Wed nes day. Okay? We were laughing about where the days of the week came from. I don't know, they just been that way for a long time. Ever since I can remember. Whoever did that, I would've said, "Day three. It's day three. Isn't it wonderful"? Open your Bible. Let's go back where we left off yesterday and we're talking about the ministry of Jesus. Are you in the ministry of Jesus? Yes, we are. Amen. So we follow him. I am a follower of Jesus the Christ. I'm not a follower of just anyone named Jesus. I am a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. That Jesus. Amen. As we follow him, we are what? His disciples. What's the difference between discipline and disciple? Just a couple of letters. They're the same word. A disciple receives discipline from the teacher. Discipline just simply means correction. Now I finally became a wholehearted disciple of A.W. Copeland and became his disciple, but it took some pretty stern correction. It was amazing to me how much he learned and how smart he became between the time I was 16 and 20. Then I not only became his disciple, he became my hero. I talk about him. I miss him. He and I were buddies and I've told you many times before that I was an only child just simply because dangerous for my mother to have anymore children. My dad traveled and first with Jones Business College and then with National Old Line Insurance Company. Then he retired from National Old Line and went to work for KCM. He worked for KCM longer than he did anyone else. Glory to God. Hallelujah.

Now let's go back to Luke chapter 4. Jesus fulfilled all things by being baptized in water. We do not have any record of the disciples or the apostles being baptized in water. But what do you think they were doing down there at the Jordan River that day? I'm just saying. I can't prove it, you can't prove they didn't. But it'd be foolish to say they were not baptized in water at some time in their lives. I'm totally convinced because of the timing between John the Baptizer and Jesus the Christ. In there, do you think there would've been any member of his staff not baptized in water? No. No, that didn't happen because it was written that it should be done. Anyway. Now he was baptized in water and immediately he went out into the desert place for 40 days and nights and there he fasted. Oh. We get to heaven one of the things I'm going to ask, "Lord, what did the Father say to you during that 40 days"? You know what he's going to say? You have it written. We're about to find out. We are about to find out what the Father said to him during that time. 14th verse, "He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee and there went out a fame of him throughout all the region roundabout and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up". I want to take a moment here. Did you remember when the apostle Paul wrote that nature reveals to us that it is a shame for a man to have long hair? You remember that that's written?

Now most pictures show Jesus with long hair. He was called a Nazarene, not because he was under a Nazarite vow like Sampson was that would not shave his head or cut his hair. There are many pictures, artists' renderings of Jesus, I'm thinking about one in particular, where, and you go back and check out the traditions, to show that the hair did not curl up on the ends. But then the apostle Paul said, I'm paraphrasing. "Well, you know, if you're going to fuss about it, forget it". Amen. At any rate, there are pictures or artists' renderings of Jesus with his hair rather short. One of them I'm thinking about right now and it pretty well settles it. Anyway, but I notice this is what he learned in the desert. There was delivered unto him, the book of the prophet, Isaiah, and he opened the book, he found the place where it is written. He opened the book at what you and I know as the 61st chapter of the book of Isaiah and he cut it off in the middle of the verse because the rest of the verse was only fulfilled after he was raised from the dead, seated at the right hand of the Father. This book is so exact. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me". The Spirit of the Lord was always in him because he was born of the Spirit to begin with. God was his father. Joseph was his stepdad. Now, you want to know why that his brothers and sisters had so much... I mean, they didn't like him very much. How many of you come from a family of several children? How many of you were the oldest in your family? How many of you were the youngest? How would you like it if Jesus had been your older brother and never did anything wrong in his life. And your mother said, "Why can't you be like Jesus"? You can't be like him, you can't do it, but you're like him now. You had to be reborn. So you could be like him. Amen. Glory to God. I was this smartest child that my mother had. But I longed, I longed, I always wanted a little brother. Birth of one of my cousins, back then children weren't allowed in the maternity ward. I had to stay out in the car. When Mother came out of the car, I was laying in the backseat crying. She said, "What's the matter with you, Kenneth"? I said, "I want a little brother so bad". Well, Mother and dad ran the risk and tried again, but they stopped it. I have a little brother in heaven. I have no idea what his name is, but he's the best looking of the bunch. That's right. Thank You, Lord, Jesus. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because," now here are the specific anointings of Jesus. "These anointings are available because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal". Oh. You see where healing fell in? "Preach the good news to the poor and heal". Heal. We're talking about the importance of divine healing being taught and practiced in every office of ministry, whether you're in the fivefold ministry or whether you're in the ministry of helps. You are and you represent the healer himself. "To heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and to preach recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty of them that are bruised and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord". What is the acceptable year of the Lord? The great Jubilee. This is a Shmita year. Oo, oh, yes. That means believe for it and receive it now. In Shmita year, your finances ought to go over the top, everything goes over the top when you know how to believe it and receive it. It is a year of release. It is a year from heaven's release, glory to God, everything you need, everything you want. For your personal life, for your ministry. For your marriage, if you're married and if you're not, hey, you looking for him? You're looking for Jesus to come?

"Yeah. But I'm looking for him to come first". I'll tell you what. I was not looking for a wife, but I found one. I just went to a football game and you've heard the story. I didn't have a multi-engine rating yet. I had a private pilot's license, but I was working towards a commercial, and I did not have a multi-engine rating. The man that I had worked for him in the car business as a salesman and then he went into the aircraft business and bought airplanes and training. In fact, I got my private license in a little small Cessna 150 that his company owned. Anyway, they had an extra seat to go to that ballgame, TCU was playing Arkansas in Arkansas for the Southwest Conference Championship in 1961. You know the story, I won't go into all of it. But during the after game party, Gloria's dad, I didn't know who he was then, Babe Niece, Wallace Niece, and a good looking man. But now he had PTSD, we didn't even know what that was back in those days, and I will skip ahead. He later had a triple bypass. During that time, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Nashville, Arkansas stayed right at his side all the way through that and led him to the Lord. He fell in love with Jesus and he got born again, glory to God, and never drank another drop. He went all the way from D-day all the way through the Battle of the Bulge and just a wonderful man. Anyway, he came up to me as you know, and he said, "My daughter's the best looking girl in the state of Arkansas". At the after game party and I was acting a fool. Anyway. This is Kenneth BC, you understand? Then he came up later and said, "You don't believe me, do you"? I said, "I believe you, man". "My daughter's the best looking girl in the state of Arkansas. How are you going to the airport in the morning"? I said, "I don't know, a cab". "No, no, I'm going to pick you". I still didn't know whether he was going to come or not. But he did. Well, my dad was with the National Old Line Insurance Company in Little Rock and so I asked my boss if my dad could go, we had an extra seat, and he and dad were good friends. "Well, sure". He said, "But you can't get a room there". My dad called up there since he had been with the company a long time and asked if he and I could stay in the penthouse up above the fifth floor of that company. They said, "Well, yeah, if you want to. We're going to the ballgame". My dad and I stayed there. Well, I described that. He said, "Yeah, I don't"... I still didn't know whether he'd coming or not. But he did. Next morning, Sunday, October, 1961, I was 24 and that little elevator was on the outside and it opened and there they stood. There was Gloria's mother, Mary, Gloria's dad Wallace, or Babe, Niece, and there was Gloria. And I said, "Man, he wasn't kidding. Look at that". I said, "Gloria, let's go out here on the balcony and look over at the city of Little Rock". She said, "Okay," and we walked out there. She was standing right here to my right and we walked out. I don't remember anything I said. She touched me, patted me on the back. It was like I'd known her all in my life. That did it. It wasn't long after we got back, Mr. Golightly said, "Kenneth, I've taken over the FBO and fixed base operation at the airport in Camden, Arkansas". He said, "I'm sending Mac and his wife over there". He said, "It's a mess to clean it up. Would you like to go"? I said, "Yeah, I'll go". "Don't you want to think about it"? I said, "No, I've thought about it". I thought, "That girl's over there somewhere and I'm going to find her". Well to make a long story short, I found her, and then I went over to pick her up at her dad's house in Blevins. Then there was a restaurant in a hotel in Camden called The Rocket Room. We went to The Rocket Room and I remember they had a Wurlitzer One More Time jukebox. Before World War II they played 78s, after World War II they played 45s, and this time they were made in Germany and they came out with big speakers and 45 records. We were talking about Brenda Lee, she was on there and stuff. All of a sudden Johnny Mathis came on singing "Misty". That was my cue. You know the story. I asked her to dance and I'd always said, "I'll never dance with a woman and sing at the same time. First place I don't know how to dance and second place they just make that look so easy but they practice and practice and practice". But this was my chance. I said, "Gloria, would you like to dance"? She said, "Okay". I don't know what I did to her feet but we began to dance. and it must've worked because we drove back to Blevins, 40 miles, walked up on her dad's porch. I said, this is the first date, "Gloria, will you marry me"? She said, "Okay," and just went in the house. She said after she got in there she said, "What have I done? I don't even know this guy. Oh, well, I'll get out of it later". This April, we will be married 60 years and she's not out of it yet. Glory to God. But I said all that to say this to all of you here and all of you there, the Spirit of the living God that planned your life before the foundation of the world knows so don't get upset and nervous. "Well, I know what I'll do. I'll get rid of the one I have now and just wait". The door is right over there. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord, the Jubilee. So what do we have here? Poor man, you don't have to be poor. Jesus is the Jubilee. "Poor man, you don't have to be poor anymore. Sick man, you don't have to be sick. I'm here. Are you listening? Blind man, you don't have to be blind. I'm here". This is the beginning of his ministry actually. He already had been preaching in other synagogues, but the Lord led him back home and he preached these things, he preached, and right at the very beginning, he preached the acceptable year of the Lord to the poor. Why? So the poor could get saved? No, so they don't have to be poor anymore. God is against sickness, He is against poverty in every form. He's not the God of just barely enough. He's the God of more than enough. Hallelujah. It's the devil that'll steal everything you have and we're out of time. Mm-mm-mm. "'But I want to go through that brokenhearted, you don't have to be brokenhearted anymore. Blind man, you don't have to be blind anymore. Bruised people, there's liberty and salvation and deliverance for you. He closed the book and gave it to the minister and sat down.' The eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fashioned on him. He began to say unto them, 'So this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears,' so he preached". That's what made him mad. That's what made him today. Don't let that affect your life. You can be and you should be healed today. You should be born again today. You should be baptized in the Holy Spirit today. This is the day of salvation. Today is the day of salvation and it needs to be preached as today. Faith is now. We'll talk about that in our class tomorrow. Amen? Hallelujah. Give the Lord a praise and we'll be back in just a moment.