Kenneth Copeland Leads Believers
The Kenneth Copeland Ministries web site (would Paul have named a ministry after himself?) has a page called "A Prayer For Salvation And Baptism In The Holy Spirit". This is a classic study on how NOT to preach the gospel, which I will detail line for line. This page can be accessed at:
http://www.kcm.org/salv_area/bptzmhs.html
or here:
http://www.kcm.org/studycenter/articles/salvation/prayer_salvation.html
I strongly advise non-believers and young believers to avoid visiting the Copeland site because it it full of false teachings and spiritual deception. The link is given above so that those who will inevitably call me a liar saying Copeland never said these things, will have to deal with the truth.
First of all, there is no premise or gospel preached on the web page before telling people to pray this prayer. Without belief in Christ and repentance, there can be no salvation. The gospel must be clearly understood with the mind and heart before one can declare it with their lips. Is this some magical prayer?
"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."
The above is fine, so long as the person is not using this prayer as a magic formula of salvation and clearly believes what he is confessing with his mouth.
"I am now reborn! I am a Christian - a child of Almighty God! I am saved!"
Are we to proclaim this to God? God has promised us salvation if we believe on Jesus Christ and make Him the Lord of our lives, but to pray this to God smacks of Copeland's other doctrines of "declaring" and "proclaiming" things into being by the "force of faith". Only God decides who is saved and who isn't. We can be assured that we are saved when we truly believe, but we cannot command God to save us.
"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."
This Scripture was a lesson to the apostles on having faith. It was spoken to His disciples. It was not meant to be a prayer to summon the Holy Spirit into our beings. There is no place in Scripture that commands us to pray to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwells a believer when that believer believes. That is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit then empowers from WITHIN, giving gifts to the believer. The "fruit of the Spirit" then becomes evident in the believer. This prayer is not needed, in fact it is dangerous. When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are filled with the Spirit. To try to summon the Holy Spirit is to summon a demon, that can call itself by many names.
Eph. 1:13 "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit."
There is no prerequisite for salvation other than "hearing" the gospel, and "believing" the gospel. When that happens God has promised through His Son that we are IMMEDIATELY "marked" and "sealed" with the Holy Spirit. No one is exempt from this promise:
1 Cor. 12:13 "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."
We who believe are ALL baptized by the 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).
This is also false doctrine. We are not expected by God to speak with other tongues, especially the kind that Copeland talks about which will become evident later. It is true that the Apostles spoke in "tongues" at Pentecost:
Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
What Copeland and other Third Wavers ignore, in fact what many charismatics ignore, is that the "tongues" at Pentecost were actual languages.
Acts 2:8-11 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!
This true gift of real "tongues" is very rare. It is also not for every believer.
1Co 12:30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
The rhetorical answer it obviously "NO"! This is a false doctrine that has been around for a long time and has cause untold pain and destruction.
"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."
First of all, tongues were given at Pentecost not just as a witness of the Spirit, but more importantly to preach the gospel. Copeland is not talking about this. What Copeland wants you to do is empty your mind and start babbling, giving a foothold to the enemy to deceive you into thinking you are truly "filled with the Spirit". This can make a believer demonized right at the point when he first believes in Christ. This is one of the most dangerous times for a believer, and Copeland is being led by one who wants you to be exposed to demons.
Second, God says we are to worship Him with our whole minds. We are not advised in Scripture to empty our minds as many cults and eastern religion groups and Copeland tells you to do. Copeland has said before:
"Believers are not to be led by logic," he writes. "We are not even
to be led by good sense" (Kenneth Copeland, The
Force of Faith, 7)
The Bible says:
Rom. 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will."
When we are born again, God gives us a new mind. This mind is to be used to find out what God's will is.
Mt 22:37 Jesus replied: "`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
One thing that God wants us to do with our mind is to love Him with it. We cannot love God by disengaging our minds that He created. We must love Him at all times with our whole being.
Isa 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."
God is not a God of disorder and chaos. He keeps our minds peaceful as we keep our minds steadfastly on Him. We are also to fill our minds with Scripture and the word of Christ.
Col. 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."
Don't pray for the "power to come" so you can get this "anointing" as many of these counterfeit revivalists would have you do. This type of prayer is not biblical. Pray always and pray without ceasing, praying always "Thy will be done"!.
Mt 6:10 "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Continue with the blessing God has given you and pray in tongues each day. You'll never be the same!
We are to witness each day, live a life pleasing to God each day, and pray each day, but the Bible never commands all Christians to pray in tongues each day! This is a lie of the enemy that disengages the mind of the believer and opens him up to demonization.
Kenneth Copeland has demonstrated, well beyond any reasonable doubt, that he is apostate and a wolf in sheep's clothing. If you doubt this, read his quotes at:
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/quotes.html#Copeland
Salvation is not a formula. It is not a mantra. It is not some magical potion. It is not something you declare into existence by the force called "faith". You cannot save yourself, and Jesus did die physically for your sins and saves us by His blood, not as Copeland claims:
"Jesus had to go through that same spiritual death in order to pay the price. Now it wasn't the physical death on the cross that paid the price for sin, because if it had of been any prophet of God that had died for the last couple of thousand years before that could have paid that price. It wasn't physical death anybody could do that." (Kenneth Copeland, "What Satan Saw on the Day of Pentecost" (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, audio tape #020022)
1Pe 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous
for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body
but made alive by the Spirit,
Heb. 10:10 And by that will, we have been made holy through
the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
COl. 1:20-22 and through him to reconcile to himself all
things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through
his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and
were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has
reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy
in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--
Stay away from Kenneth Copeland and all those who have received the "anointing" through him, which include Rodney Howard-Browne and those he laid hands on such as John Arnott and anyone from the Toronto "Blessing" and Steve Hill or anyone from the Brownsville "Outpouring". The "anointing" of Copeland is an evil malignant cancer that needs to be excised from the body of Christ before many more saints are deceived.
For further reading and analysis of this dangerous formula "prayer of salvation", read this article called "The Insufficient Gospel" and "Confession If Not Just Words" by Tricia Tillin, 1998
