Kenneth Copeland - Sensitivity of heart

Sensitivity of Heart

KENNETH COPELAND

Sensitivity of Heart

You and I are privileged to be part of the most unique generation in the history of the church. We are at the crossroads of the two most important ages in the history of this planet. We have the privilege and responsibility of being the pioneers of a new age. Because of this, there is more pressure on the body of Christ than ever before. The ministry seems to have been in a ferocious pressure cooker with temptation to sin. Many who have been discouraged have been tempted to throw away their testimony.

The Word and our faith are meeting more resistance than ever before. But let me encourage you. It's not a tragedy to live in this generation. Your birth into the earth was not untimely. You are right on time. You are right where you belong! If you and I did not have what it takes to make it in this generation, God would have had us born at another time.

It would really be a marvel if we were not under this kind of pressure. Satan's time is short and he knows it. He is trying everything he can think of to stop the church from accomplishing its task.

Our generation will see the fulfillment of all things. It will introduce the next age through the signs and wonders of Almighty God and manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

We will be participants in the greatest production by the Holy Spirit of God that the human race has ever seen.

Insensitivity to God

The third chapter of Mark speaks of a time when Jesus and His disciples went into the synagogue. There, the Pharisees watched and waited, trying to accuse Him of some violation of their traditions.

Mark 3:1 And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.

And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.

One translation says, Stand in the middle. Jesus brought him right out in the middle to be seen, knowing that everyone there wanted to accuse Him.

And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea.

When Jesus questioned the Pharisees according to the will and purpose of God, they didn't say anything. He looked on them with anger because of their hardness of heart or insensitivity.

They were insensitive to Who was in their midst not realizing that it was God. They, of all people, should have known the scriptures. Jesus fit every Messianic prophecy in the Word of God. But they had made traditions from the Word and worshiped their traditions more than God.

Don't look down on them. We have all done the same thing. We have had a "form of godliness and turned from the power thereof." The reason is insensitivitynot being sensitive to the Spirit of God nor to the depth of the price that God Almighty paid so that we can worship Him. This kind of attitude angered Jesus.

Thank God, His anger is but for a moment. We have preached it as though it was forever and the mercy of God was but for a moment. I have determined that I will preach, "His mercy endureth forever." The Bible says,

"His mercy is new every morning."

Jesus was angry because the Spirit of God was grieved. I have experienced that grief in my own ministry. It has happened a few times while I was ministering in a prayer line as God's Spirit was moving.

Suddenly a grieving of the Holy Spirit that cannot be adequately explained in words comes up inside me. It is the heaviest grief that I have ever sensed.

To minister effectively, one must have the anointing of God. I need the power of God. Therefore, I must yield myself totally to the Holy Spirit. My spirit molds together with the Holy Spirit. When I am a yielded vessel to the Spirit of God, I see through His eyes and hear through His ears. My emotions are one with His. I am moved and directed as He is moved. When He is grieved I am grieved and His anointing lifts. When that happens, I am as helpless as a bird without wings. I cannot minister without the anointing of God.

When God's anointing stops flowing, that grief becomes like fire down on the inside of my innermost being. I want to know what has caused it. A holy anger comes over me. The first few times that happened I felt condemned for feeling that way.

In one of my meetings, I started to lay my hands on a young woman and she began shaking her head. She cried,

"No. No. No!" When I laid my hands on her, nothing happened.

I started to walk away thinking, "There are several hundred people here to minister to; I don't have time to preach to her until I get faith to rise up in her heart." For a moment I just prayed in the spirit. As I prayed, grief and anger rose up on the inside of me.

This response came up from way down in my spirit.

The Spirit of God was in control. I grabbed her face with both my hands. In a firm voice I said, "Don't you say 'no' to me. I am here in the name of Almighty God as His prophet to set you free." She looked up at me and batted her eyes a few times. It startled me as much as it did her. I began to cry from the very depths of my being. The flow of God's compassion through me broke the power of that evil spirit and she received from God.

That should give you some indication of what was inside Jesus that day in the synagogue. He was grieved because the hardness of their hearts quenched the anointing of God. The word translated "hardness" means "insensitiveness." It is translated in other scriptures as "blindness."

The Pharisees were insensitive to God. When we read this it is easy to imagine a group of hardened people who were angry enough to kill. But it doesn't take the insensitivity of a hardened criminal to quench the Holy Spirit. He is easily grieved.

We look at these Pharisees and they look bad to us.

The situation was openly hard, but not all insensitivity looks that bad. An act of insensitivity can be something that really seems insignificant.

I remember a particular instance when I was ministering in a prayer service and God was moving tremendously. The power of God was so strong that twice it drained the battery in the wireless microphone I was wearing!

When I reached the rear of the congregation, suddenly the anointing stopped. It was just as though the Spirit of God withdrew from the situation.

Did you notice that our scriptural example says, "The Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him."? Jesus and His disciples withdrew. Why did Jesus just get up and walk off? Surely the man with the withered hand was not the only one who needed deliverance. Why did Jesus withdraw? Because, without the anointing of God He couldn't do anything. And, if He couldn't, I certainly can't.

It's my nature to try it anyway. I want people healed and delivered so badly that I want to continue praying.

However, it is useless when the Spirit is grieved. Without Him nothing can be done. Just like Jesus withdrew that day from the synagogue, He withdrew while I was ministering.

We had grieved the Spirit of God. We find out in the third, fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Ephesians that corrupt communication, strife and stealing grieve the Holy Spirit. I found out that day that insensitivity of heart also grieves Him. I said, "Lord, what has happened here?