What Is the Laying On of Hands?

Thank You, Jesus. If I had to pick after Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the Book of Acts, then the gospel is preached in the Book of Romans. It is the gospel according to the Apostle Paul. And then you come over to the Book of Hebrews, which is the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews. And then you know there's people who want to fuss about that. You don't be fussing about that. In fact, who else, who else, but this great teacher? I mean, a Pharisee of Pharisees that was persecuting Jesus thinking he was doing right, then Jesus changed his name from Saul of Tarsus to Paul the Apostle indicating that he was in covenant with Him. A great change of names in covenant, which God started, in the 17th chapter of Genesis. In the fifth chapter for your information, the mission statement of Kenneth Copeland Ministries I noticed this back as a student at Oral Roberts University and at the same time, almost immediately as co-pilot on the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association airplane, but all almost immediately I was introduced to the ministry of Kenneth E. Hagin and Oral Roberts, my father in the spirit, my spiritual father and then Kenneth Hagin was my very close mentor. And he fathered the Word of Faith message in Gloria and me.

And right here is our mission statement and the fifth chapter of the Book of Hebrews verse 12. "For when the time you ought to be teachers, you have need of one teach you again". So that's my job, "Which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk, and not strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the Word of righteousness for he is a baby". And that's why it is so important in this college to be taught, to be taught and come from the milk of babies to what? "But strong meat belongs to them that are a full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" To be skillful in the Word of righteousness so that we are no longer spiritual babies, but we go from the milk of the Word. The Bible said, "Desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby". Well, yes. And when all of us... I don't care how old you were when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior, you're a spiritual baby. And it bothers me to see and to know that there are people that born again, born again, born again, healing, breathing, tongue-talking, believers that are still babies. Well, you can't blame the devil for it and you can't blame the pastor for it. People could read the Word and find that out, But what did we read yesterday? How can they hear without a preacher? You're going to have to find a preacher that preaches the Word of Faith, a church that preaches the Word of Faith. Now, I know this is not any of you. Maybe some of you were raised in a church like this, that someone that taught that healing has passed away. Well, what day did it pass away?

Jesus said, "I am the Lord that healeth thee. I am Jehovah-Rapha". I am Jehovah-Rapha. The God that heals. That's one of His redemptive names. We receive Him as the God Shalom, the God of our peace. Well, if I cannot accept He's the God of the healer, then I have no right to accept that He's the God of my peace. But Jesus bore my sicknesses and carried my pains and the chastisement of my peace was upon Him. Yes, yes, yes. I got tickled at Gloria. She said, "Well, some prophet would have to stand up and say, 'Okay, the 32nd of next month, healing is over. You better get your healing today, because after that I'm not healing anybody again ever, ever, ever, ever.'" Well, when did He change His name? No, He is the same. There's no shadow of changing or turning in Him. No variableness in Him ever. He doesn't need to change. He's right the first time and He's always been the healer because the devil is the one that brought sickness and disease. Jesus went about healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Any kind of sickness, disease and pain is satanic oppression. So put him all on the run and receive your healing. Preach healing. Teach it, preach it, expect it to happen in congregations. Expect it to happen on the street. Expect it to happen. You park in a parking garage and you turn to the attendant in a parking garage and you say, "Let me ask you a question. Do you know Jesus as your Lord and savior"? I got on the elevator in a hotel and there's a young woman in there. And I said, "Do you know Jesus as your Lord"? She said, "Brother, I am saved". And she had that look in her eye. She is one of them. "I am saved". I said, "Do you know He is coming soon"? "Yes. Amen". In a hotel freight elevator going to the auditorium. "Yes, I'm saved, brother". I enjoyed testifying to people like that. What if she'd have said, "Well, not really". We'd fix that and then we would've gone one more step now. "Now, sweetheart, let me tell you something. You need to be speaking in tongues". "I was told that passed away". "No, He's still alive. Now, do these things because He's coming soon and you need this to know how to pray. Now, you need healing in your body. Let's get it all while we're doing". Nobody will turn you down. Nobody. Praise God. I can tell you more stories. Now, the thing I want you to see here, come into the sixth chapter. We are going to read something that is very sacred and it has to do with the healing ministry. Are you ready? "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine or the teachings of Christ. Let us go onto perfection not laying again, the foundation or the fundamental teachings of Christ". You could say that, right? In fact, I think it's one translation that says that I don't remember now, but anyway. "Laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptisms".

Now, we talked about that earlier this week. The scripture says, "We are baptized into the body of Christ". I'm going to leave it up to you to look them up. It's easy. It's in the letters upon. We're baptized in water, we're baptized into the body of Christ, then we are baptized by Jesus in the Holy Spirit. If you had a container of water and water baptism, born again, then water baptism. Now, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, you pour some more water in that cup until it runs out. And now the water is on the cup. Jesus said, didn't we read this yesterday? "The spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me to preach". Oh, I'll tell you it just flashes. I remember it. Now, Gloria and I both were scriptural illiterates. T.L. Osborn said, "Copeland, you were born free". He said, "You didn't have any religion to unlearn". Well, we didn't. I was raised in a Southern Baptist home, but I didn't pay any attention. And Gloria was raised in a church that believed everything had passed away. And anyway, I said, "Gloria, isn't it wonderful? Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all tell the same story". She said, "It's wonderful, isn't it"? We were so hungry to read those stories. So then we got married in April of 1962, April 13th, 1962. On Friday evening April the 13th, that day 13 was very important to Gloria and me. And so then about eight o'clock in the evening. And then she got saved then in October and I got saved the first week in November of that year. Then in the first part of 1963, we went to a meeting and my mother and dad went to that meeting. They were sitting right behind us and they gave an invitation to come receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I turned around to my mother and I said, "Is that something you ought to have"? She said, "You need to have that". Well, I just grabbed Gloria by the hand and up we went. And it was old time Pentecost. The men were all praying for me and the women all praying for Gloria. No instructions whatsoever. I mean, literally, "Hang on, brother" and another one shouting, "Let go, brother, let go". I didn't know what they wanted me to do. So I just kind of stood there like that, nothing and they gave up. I was standing here and Dr. Bill Reed was standing there with me. And he had a voice like that. So he said, "Let's go pray for Gloria". Well, when I turned around and looked, she was right there about that far away. And her back was to me and all the women, they were praying and praying and going on and on and on. And Gloria is just standing there as dumbfounded as I was, she just stood there. I'm standing here like that. That's the way my dad stood at church. He was the deacon in the Baptist church. Well, he wasn't anymore because when he got full of the Holy Ghost, like Brother Hagin, he got the left foot of fellowship from among the Baptists. And became a member of Grace Temple Church here in Fort Worth. And Harold Nichols became our pastor, so Gloria and I and John and Kellie were all baptized in water. I'd been baptized in water as a little Baptist boy about nine years old, I went down front. That's what you called getting saved in a Baptist church. Nobody said anything to me about being born again. I filled out a card. Is this the first time you've ever done that? Yes. And the pastor shook my hand. That's it. Anyway. And so Dr. Reed said, "Lay your hand on her". No. My own wife. No. I'm in a strange environment. He said, "Lay your hand on her". I said, "No". He said, "Lay your hand on her". Oh Lord, oh Lord. Now, this was in a hotel meeting room so they had created a little platform that wasn't but one step and some chairs up there. And I stumbled back there and sat down in one of those chairs. And he just said, "No more English. Oh Jesus". Now, I had to fly back to Little Rock. Gloria stayed all night, she received the next morning. That's the first time she had ever heard the word born again. When she accepted Jesus, all she said was "Lord, take my life and do something with it". Well, He did. So I had to fly back. This was on a Sunday and I had to fly back to Little Rock and so I left and it's in the night, a January night and it was cold and clear. I mean, visibility was, I mean, just unlimited. And so I'm sitting up there watching that little airplane run, no autopilot in it. It was a small airplane that was used as a trainer and so forth. And it belonged to the company I worked for. And I was just sitting there. I said it out loud. I said, "Lord". And I really don't know where I got the word anointed. I heard it, I guess, in those meetings we were in. I'm sure I must have. I said, "Lord". Now, see, you can tell I wasn't raised in a Pentecostal church. "Lord". Now, I'm not too sure. I know all that much about what happened to me back there again, but I'm going to say some of those words again. I didn't have any fear of that. Why should I think I'd say the wrong thing? I don't know how I said what I said. So I'm going to say some of those words again and if there's anything to this, anoint it. Oh, and I just thought back and just as close as I could said something that I thought I heard myself say an hour or two before. Because I had to go to the airport, pre-flight the airplane and get everything all established, get in the airplane, take off, climb the altitude and think a little while, but I talked out loud to the Lord. So I said, "I'm going to say it again Lord". And here it came again. I mean, just rolling out of me. And then you know how you can speak in tongues and think at the same time. And I thought, "Oh, Lord, what am I going to do? I'm beginning to see the lights of Little Rock. I'm going to have to call approach control and you're going to have to either give, give... Oh, me, I'm going to have to speak in English or you're going to have to fix their ears or Little Rock approach". I thought, "Yeah, it worked". That's how little I knew. It worked. Got on the ground, got out of that airplane. I danced around that ramp. I blessed that airplane. I spoke in tongues. I blessed my car. I just blessed everything I could find. And I've been doing it ever since. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Now then, let's look here. "The principle doctrines of Christ, faith toward God, baptisms". And look, right in the middle, what do you see as the principle doctrine of Christ right in the middle of His teachings? What? What? Laying on of hands. Why? For healing? Yes. For people to receive the Holy Spirit. Yes. Amen. Now, you preachers, I had the privilege of ordaining someone just a couple of days ago. Oh, what an honor. And the only problem you have is you get to preaching on it and you go through all these scriptures and you don't want to quit. You just want to preach, preach, preach, preach, preach. But then I obeyed God and anointed her with oil in the name of Jesus, I separate you unto the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Now, you go and you heal the sick. I went through all these same scriptures. In reading the biography of Smith Wigglesworth, when he would send an anointed cloth, he would anoint it with oil because he anointed people with oil a lot in ministering to the sick. And he would anoint that handkerchief with oil. And he used oil in his ministry a lot. Amen. And you and I should too. Now, I can carry a little flask of oil in my Bible case all the time. I had a situation in Nigeria. We were leaving. We flew in the helicopter from Bishop Oyedapo's place, which is just a little ways from Lagos. And our airplane was at the airport in Lagos. And I started, I had my foot on the door of the airplane about to get in and, "Brother Copeland". I turned around and here this young man came and he literally slid up in front of me, like on his knees. And there were two more that came up there and did the same thing and just got on their knees like this. So I got my oil bottle. I really didn't know what I was going to say to these young men. But it came out of my mouth, I anointed them with oil, with the oil of gladness into their ministries. And while I was doing that, two more. All these guys worked on the ramp, ran up there and just slid up there and wanted to be anointed with oil. And we're out of time, but there's always next week. Amen. Hallelujah. And for the rest of the story, no, we'll be back in just a moment.