Kenneth Copeland - Our covenant with God

Our Covenant With God

CONTENTS

Introduction
1 Abraham's Covenant
2 The Blessing of Abraham
3 The Curse of the Law
4 Our Redemption
5 The Seed of Abraham
6 The Daughter of Abraham
Prayer for Salvation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit
About the Author

Introduction

One of the most embarrassing situations for any businessman is to find out he has lost vast sums of money needlessly or to learn of assets he could have been enjoying for years simply because he did not know the fullness of the contracts he had entered into.

I remember the story of a poor man who scrimped and saved every cent until he could buy a ticket on a great ship to come to America.

He only had enough money left to buy some cheese and a little bread to eat on the trip. He would gaze longingly into the dining rooms and watch the people eat the beautiful food and enjoy themselves so. On the morning of their New York arrival, one of the ship's officers asked the man if they had offended him in any way since he had not eaten his meals with them.

"Oh, no!" the man replied. "I only had enough money to pay for my ticket. I didn't have enough to eat in the dining rooms." The officer looked at the man almost in unbelief and said, "Sir, I'm so sorry. Your meals were included in your fare."

So many Christian people are living on bread and cheese when God's best is theirs all 6

Our Covenant With God

the time. They don't know the terms of their contract, their covenantthe New Testament. I believe this book will help you find out what belongs to you in your Covenant with Jesus.

Abraham's Covenant

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:26-27 says,

And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

From the dust of the earth, God formed a man, named that man Adam, and placed him in the midst of the Garden of Eden. This man Adam was given the awesome authority of lordship over God's creation on earth. God gave him dominion over every living thing on the face of this earth. He was to subdue the earth and replenish it. Adam was given the right to be the father of God's family. He was to sire the human race. What a privilege!

At creation God set into motion a law which I call the law of genesis, or the law of beginnings. According to this law of genesis, every living thing was created by God to 8

Our Covenant With God

produce after its own kind. Man was no exception to this rule. God is a Spirit, and Adam was created in God's own image and likeness, a spirit being. Together they walked in close fellowship and communion, and Adam's descendants were to live in harmony with God, their spiritual Father. But something happened in the Garden that caused a great and terrible change to occur. Satan approached Adam's wife, Eve, and deceived her into disobeying God's command. Then Adam willfully followed her in this rebellion.

According to the law of genesis, man takes on the nature of his spiritual father or lord. God was Adam's spiritual Father; but when Adam disobeyed God and bowed his knee to Satan, he changed spiritual fathers. Satan became the stepfather of mankind. Adam committed high treason; and at that point, all the dominion and authority God had given to him was handed over to Satan. Suddenly, God was on the outside looking in.

Until this time, Satan did not have any authority on earth. All of his authority had been taken away when he led the rebellion against God in heaven (Isaiah 14:12). He came into the picture absolutely void of authority; but by deceiving the woman he manipulated man's authority into his own hands and became the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). In Luke 4:4-7, when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he took Jesus up on a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the earth.

He said, "I will give these to you and the glory of them if you will worship me. They are mine to give for they have been delivered unto me."

Some people think this was just one of Satan's lies; but had it been a lie, it would not have been a temptation and the Bible says that Jesus was sorely tempted. This was real temptation, brother! Satan had it to give. Jesus was tempted, but He used the weapon for which there is no defense. He said, "It is written..." and Satan had to flee from Him!

After Adam's Fall, God found Himself in a peculiar position. He had given Adam unquestionable authority over the earth, but when Adam committed high treason against God and bowed his knee to Satan, spiritual deaththe nature of Satanwas lodged in his heart. Actually Adam was the first person ever to be born again. He was born from life unto death, from spiritual life unto spiritual death.

God had said, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). God said that Adam would die the very day he ate the forbidden fruit, yet he lived several hundred years longer. God was not referring to physical death. He meant that Adam would die spirituallythat he would take on the nature of Satan which is spiritual death.

This process is reversed when you make Jesus the Lord of your life. You are born from death unto life. The law of spiritual lordship is our way back into the hands of God. You take on a new Lord and receive the nature of your new Lord which is eternal life (John 3:16). This is why Jesus went to the cross. First John 3:8

says, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." Jesus turned to the most religious men of His day and said, "Ye are of your father the devil" (John 8:44). By going to the cross as the sinless Son of God, Jesus took away the dominion Satan had over mankind. First Corinthians 2:8 states that had the princes of this world known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. This was a trap that the Father and Jesus had set for Satan. He walked into it, and it cost him his lordship over the earth.

After Adam's Fall in the Garden, God needed an avenue back into the earth. He needed some way to break the union between Satan and mankind. Since man was the key figure in the Fall, man had to be the key figure in the redemption, so God approached a man named Abram. He re-enacted with Abram what Satan had done with Adam, except that God did not sneak in and use deception to get what He wanted as Satan had. God offered Abram a proposition and Abram bought it.

Let's look at Genesis 17 for a moment and examine this agreement God made with Abram: And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked to him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

Notice particularly that God said, "As for me...." You see, Abram did not have to accept God's deal. He was not being forced to do anything; it was his own free choice. God laid out His proposition and Abram accepted it. It gave God access to the earth and gave man access to God. At this time man had no real knowledge of God's nature. The people only knew what their fathers had passed down to them. After Adam died and several generations had passed, no one really knew much about God.