Kenneth Copeland - The Decision is Yours

The Decision Is Yours

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

In this book, I am going to share with you one of the basic fundamental principles of the Bible. If you will spend time meditating on these things and then acting on what you learn, you will be able to receive anything you need from God.

Freedom to Choose

In Deuteronomy 30, God gives His people a choice. Verse 19 says, "Therefore, choose...." You is the understood subject, so it is saying, Therefore, you choose....

God has given us the divine privilege and responsibility to make a choice. He has set before us life and death, blessing and cursing. The choice is ours.

Many Christians fall into a trap in this area, wondering why God doesn't heal them, prosper them, etc. However, it is important that we realize that God has sent Jesus to the cross. He raised Him from the dead. He has broken the power of sin, sickness, demons and fear. He has given us His Name, His Word, His Holy Spirit. He has finished His work. God has done all He is going to do.

God is a holy God. He is beyond reproach.

Once He has made a decision and declared a thing, He is unchangeable forever. Whether we like it or not, our emotional involvements will not change Him, neither will our tears.

God is not moved by emotions. He is moved by faith.

He has given us the choice: life or death, blessing or cursing. We can choose God and live the abundant life, or we can choose the world's way and live in lack. God could force His will on us, but He has chosen not to do so. God created man in His class. He made man with the ability to think for himself and choose his own destiny. If it were left up to Satan, we would have no choice at all. He wants to take away our choice if he can. If we allow it, he will run roughshod over us and beat us down spiritually, mentally and physically. He hates us because we represent God, because we are created in the image of God.

I am going to make a statement now that may sound harsh to you: God will let you die. It seems hard, but it is true. Not only that, but God will let you go to hell if you choose. Jesus said that when the Son makes you free, you are free indeed. You are free in every minute particle of your life. When you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, you chose Him. You exercised your freedom of choice, and when you did, all the demons in hell could not stop the new birth from taking place.

In Deuteronomy 30:19 when God set the choice before His people, He was speaking to both heaven and earth. Since Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), God was speaking to him, serving notice that man was given the right to choose. Once you have the right to make a choice, Satan cannot move in unless you allow it.

The freedom to make a choice places an awesome responsibility in the hands of the believer. This is a privilege reserved only for beings in God's class. Angels are not allowed to think and choose for themselves; they do and say as they are told.

Only the human being, created in the likeness of God, has the God-given privilege of choice. From the day a person is born into this world, he is faced with a constant series of choices: Jesus or the world, Jesus or death, Jesus or a sick body, Jesus or a worried mind, Jesus or a foul mouth.

This is why so many religious people have trouble believing God. Religion teaches us that we dare not make a choice. It portrays God as a Supreme Being Who decides our destiny Himselfthat we have no say in the matter. Sinners fight Christianity because they think it will take away their freedom. I thought that myself. I had the idea that if I became a Christian, I would never fly an airplane again, that I would never be free to enjoy life. I thought I would have to fit into the mold that represented Christianity to me.

So many times we have a preconceived idea of how people are supposed to act and how they are supposed to look.

Stop and think about this. Suppose a man gets saved and comes into our church straight off the streets. He doesn't comb his hair the way we do; he doesn't wear the same type of clothes that we do; he doesn't act just like we do. Because he doesn't fit the mold we have in our minds about the way a person is supposed to look and act, we decide that there is something wrong with his experience with God. However, we are not qualified to make that kind of judgment.

We are judging him only by what we see on the outside.

I have seen people who didn't match the mold in my thinking, yet God would bless and use them. Why? Because their hearts were right before God. The Bible says that God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

Some Christians have a polished look on the outside, but on the inside, they are full of dead religion and strife-filled thoughts.

Freedom to Think

God Almighty has made us, in the power of His Son, absolutely free to choose our destiny. We have the power to think for ourselves, to choose our own thoughts.

Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but 11

mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

We have to make the decision ourselves and choose to think on good things. God will not force His thoughts on us. Why?

Because it is not His brain; it is not His mind. He created man in the beginning with a capacity to think for himself and choose his own destiny. He has made available the mind of Christ and the knowledge of His will for our lives, but He will never force or impose them on us.

Someone may say, "Well, I just can't quit worrying. I try to think right. I try to think good thoughts, but it seems as though my head just starts thinking wrong." This is what the alcoholic says about alcohol. He says he just can't give it up. A person who is addicted to tobacco says the same thing about smoking.

The mind that is being dominated by worry and fear and care is not a God-controlled mind. It is not being controlled by the Spirit of God.

The Word says in Luke 21:34, "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life...."

Surfeiting means overindulgence in eating and drinking; disgust caused by intemperate indulgence. Jesus Himself places the cares of this life in the same company with drunkenness and surfeiting (or gluttony).

It is socially acceptable to be a glutton and to be filled with worry and care, but drunkenness is a different matter entirely.

Society makes a distinction between them, but the Word of God considers all three to be wrong.

The authority to think for ourselves brings with it the right to choose what we say.

Thoughts transferred to the mouth and acted upon will bring results either good or bad. Matthew 12:36 says for every idle word that proceeds out of our mouths we will render an account in the Day of Judgment. James 3:8-10 says with the tongue we both bless God and curse men.