Kenneth Copeland - A matter of choice : how to make the right decision every time

A Matter of Choice

How to Make the Right Decision Every Time

A Matter of Choice

"It doesn't matter how hard I try, everything I do turns out wrong!"

Have you ever felt that way? I certainly have.

There was a time in my life when everything I put my hand to fell apart. Back then, I chalked it up to "bad luck."

But I was wrong.

I've found out in the 25 years since then, there's no such thing as luckgood or bad. In fact, I've taken the term completely out of my vocabulary.

It's not luck that determines how things turn out in our livesit's choices. When we make good ones, things go well for us. When we make bad ones, things go wrong.

No doubt, some folks would dispute that.

They'd tell me about times when they did everything right. Times when they gathered all the information, listened to the experts and made a wise choice that, due to circumstances beyond their control, got them in trouble.

But the truth is, not matter how "right" you think you were at the time, a decision that brings trouble is a poor decision.

"Oh, but Brother Copeland, there's no way in the world I could have known in advance what would happen in that situation!"

No, there may not have been any way in this natural world you could have made a better choice.

But, if you're a born-again believer, you aren't restricted to making choices according to this natural world. You have another, far more powerful option.

Don't Just BailBelieve!

Look at Mark 4 and you'll see what I mean.

There, we find Jesus' disciples facing a problem that required them to take some kind of action. But they chose the wrong actionand it landed them in deep water.

Here's the situation. Jesus had been preaching all day at the seaside. At the end of the day, he had 6

instructed the disciples to take him by boat to the other side of the sea.

And when they [the disciples] had sent away the multitude, they took him [Jesus] even as he was in the ship....

And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? (Mark 4:36-41).

Now, think about this situation for a moment.

There were the disciples, facing this fierce storm.

No doubt they were doing everything they knew to do, naturally speaking, to keep their boat afloat.

They were bailing, they were paddling.

But they didn't say a word to Jesus, even though He was right there in the boat with them!

They didn't call on his power until the boat was full of water and they were about to sink.

Why? They'd made the wrong choice. They had chosen to look to natural solutions instead of supernatural ones. Faith never even entered their minds until they were about to drown!

It should have. After all, Jesus had been teaching them the Word all day. He'd told them how the devil comes to choke the Word with pressures and cares of the world. Then he got into the boat and said, "Now we will go to the other side" and went to sleep expecting His Word to be carried out.

If they'd really listened to the Word Jesus had taught, any one of those disciples could haveand should havestood up in the bow of that boat and hollered, "Peace be still! The Son of the living God has told us to go to the other side of this lake and we are going if we have to walk!"

If they'd thought supernaturally, instead of just naturally, any one of them could have drawn by faith on the anointing and the words of Jesus and stopped that storm. But they made the wrong choice.

Many well-meaning believers are making that same mistake today. They have Jesus right there in their boat, but they're depending on natural resources to get them through their lives instead of calling on the supernatural anointing of God.

They're making the wrong choices, so they're going under.

A Supernatural Mind

Actually, it never even occurred to the disciples to take the supernatural way out of that situation. It never entered their minds to stand up and speak to that storm. The reason is simple. They didn't think like Jesus thought.

He thought like Someone Who had access at all times to the power of God Himself, which is superior to all the forces of the natural world.

(That's why it's called supernatural.) The disciples thought like people who are subject to those natural forces.

That's why they "feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Instead of jumping up and saying, "Hey, that's the way I want to be!"they just thought Jesus was strange. People still think that about God.

They say things like, "You never know what God will do. He moves in mysterious ways."

That used to be true until the Holy Spirit came to teach us all things. (See John 16:13.) Now we're not meant to look at God as some strange, mysterious being anymore. We're to know Him and imitate Him as dearly beloved children (Ephesians 5:1).

The truth is, He isn't strange at all. He has just seemed strange to us because instead of living on His level like we were created to do, mankind has slipped down into the natural realm in his thinking.

When you're living at that low level, everything about God baffles you.

Some folks say, "Yes, amen, but you know that's the way the Bible says it will be. After all, God's ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts."

Yes, it does, and if that's all it said, we could never hope to be anything except stupid. But, praise God, the Bible doesn't stop there. If you'll go ahead and read the rest of Isaiah 55, you'll find God also said:

As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (verses 10-11).

In other words, you don't have to stay below God's thoughts. Your thoughts can come up to His level. How? Through His Word. God's thoughts are in His Word, so if you think His Word, you'll think His thoughts.

But wait a minute. To think God's supernatural thoughts, you'd have to have a "supernatural mind" wouldn't you?

Yesand if you're a believer, you already have one. First Corinthians 2:16 says it this way, "...we have the mind of Christ." I read that for years but I didn't really understand it until I translated the word Christ. It means "the Anointed One."

So, to have the mind of Christ is to have a mind that is under the influence of the anointing of God.

A mind that's not under the influence of God is in opposition to Him. It always goes contrary to His ways. And since God's ways are right, then a mind without the anointing will think wrong.

Twisted or Transformed?

That's why Isaiah 55:7 says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." The word wicked there actually means twisted.

Satan takes God's thoughts and twists them.

He takes the truth and turns it into a lie. Thus, people who don't have the anointing of God on their minds have twisted thinking. They are thinking Satan's thoughts.

They don't realize that, of course. They think they're thinking their own thoughts. But in reality, they don't have that option.