If you're new to the things of God, a beginner just learning about the Word of faith, no doubt you're eager to launch into a lifestyle of living contact with God by spending time each day in prayer and the Word. That's how I was too when I first learned what the Word of God could do.
No one had to urge me to put the Word first place. No one had to tell me to turn off the television and put down the newspaper. I totally lost interest in those things because Ken and I had our lives in such bad shape that we were desperate for God. We were in trouble. We weren't on the bottom of the barrel. We were under the barrel, and it was on top of us.
We knew that the Word of God was the only answer to our desperate situation. So it was easy for us to sell out to it and spend time in the Word and in living contact with God day and night.
You know, desperation sometimes helps. It encourages you to simplify your life. It inspires you to eliminate the unnecessary things and just go for God. But after you've walked with God for a while and things begin to be comfortable, it's easy to lose the desire you once had for the Word.
That's what happened to me. Once Ken and I paid our debts and began enjoying the blessings of God, I began to let too much of my time be taken up by other things. They weren't sinful things; they were just things I enjoyed doing.
Almost without realizing it, my appetite for the things of God began to wane. Instead of hungering more for time with Him than for anything else, I enjoyed other activities and interests more. Those activities would have been fine if I had kept them in the right place, but they occupied too much of my time and attention.
I hardly even noticed it had happened until, one day in 1977, I was attending one of Kenneth E. Hagin's meetings and he began to prophesy. (I still keep the final words of that prophecy in my notebook today.) Part of that prophecy said to purpose in your heart that you will not be lazy, that you will not draw back, hold back or sit down, that you will rise up, march forward and become on fire.
When I heard that, it dawned on me that I had let myself slip spiritually. I realized I'd become lazy about the things of God. I was still spending time in the Word, but not as much as before, and I wasn't as full of zeal either. (That will always be the case. You can't be spiritually on fire without spending a sufficient amount of time with God.)
The Lord began to deal with me about it. I prayed and determined in my heart that I would change things. In order to simplify my life, I asked the Lord to show me what activities I should eliminate and what I should take on.
He led me to drop certain things out of my life that were stealing my time with Him. He also told me to do certain things that would help me get back in the habit of spending time with Him as I should. One specific thing He told me to do was to read one of John G. Lake's sermons each day. Brother Lake had such a spirit and revelation of dominion that each time I read one of those sermons, it opened up my heart to the power of God in a fresh way.
He also led me to get up an hour earlier in the morning so I could spend time with Him before I began my day. When I started, it was wintertime. My alarm clock would go off and my flesh would say, You don't want to get up. It's too dark! It's too cold! My bed would feel so wonderful and warm that there were a few mornings during the first few weeks that I'd agree with my body and go back to sleep.
I didn't let that stop me though. If I became lazy and went back to sleep, I'd repent. Then I just asked God to help me, and the next morning I'd go at it again! Eventually, my body became trained.
Your body can be trained to follow God just as it can be trained to follow the devil. Hebrews 5:14 says that mature believers have their "senses and mental faculties...trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between...good and...evil" (AMP). If you practice the things of God, your body will eventually begin to cooperate with you.
For me, getting up earlier was a challenge for a while. But eventually my body learned it wouldn't receive that extra hour of sleep anymore, and it stopped complaining. It became accustomed to getting up at that hour. I also believe for supernatural rest when I have a short night. It works!
The decision to make time for God every morning has been one of the most important decisions of my life. It made such a difference in my spiritual growth. I'm not the same person I was then. People are always talking about how timid and restrained I used to be. I really was, too, but I got over it!
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
