I’ll never forget when that transformation began in me. I had just begun to learn what the Word of God and faith can do. I was so hungry for it and so desperate to change my life that I completely immersed myself in it.

I kept teaching and preaching tapes going all the time. I’d get up in the morning and put in a tape while I was shaving. I’d carry the recorder to the table and listen while I ate breakfast. Then I’d haul it out to the car (that was back in the days of the big reel-to-reel recorders, so “haul” is a fairly accurate term) and listen to it while I drove to school. When I got back home at night, I listened to the Word again until I fell asleep.

I was 30 years old at that time and I’d pretty much thought the same way all my life—a way that had maneuvered me into more messes than I could find any natural way out of.

But after just a few days of constantly feeding on the Word, I began to notice a change.

My mind started working differently. I found myself comparing everything I heard, whether it came out of my mouth or someone else’s, with the Word of God.

When I’d hear something that was out of line with the Word, it would be glaringly apparent to me. Somebody would ask me how I was feeling. Instead of saying those old things I used to say—“Well, you know this old football injury has really been acting up lately. It’s giving me this shooting pain right up my leg”—I would just explode with the Word of God.

I’d say, “What difference does it make how I feel? I am not moved by what I feel. I am not moved by what I see. I am moved by what I believe and I believe the Word of God!” I just jumped on people like a chicken on a bug. (I didn’t know any better back then. Thank God, He’s mellowed me some over the years.)

What was happening? The anointing, the influence of God and His Word, was on my mind. It was teaching me things.

The Bible says if you’ll meditate on the Word day and night, it will talk to you when you wake up in the morning and visit with you all day long. That’s exactly what it began to do with me all those years ago.

I’d make choices with ease that other people struggled over. The Word made it clear for me which route I should take. I didn’t have to agonize or debate over what I should do; the Word working in me caused me to make the right choice.

Kenneth Copeland

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.

You see, as members of the race of man, you and I are not independent entities. We are spirit and we are created in God’s class, or image, but we are not sovereign. We are not God.

Each one of us has a spiritual Lord. If we choose Jesus, He is our Lord. Those who don’t choose Jesus have the devil as their lord by default, whether they acknowledge it or not.

Since we are not independent entities, we cannot have independent thoughts. We will either be thinking Satan’s thoughts or God’s thoughts. The straight thoughts of God are truth and the twisted thoughts of the devil are lies, and there is nothing in between.

But, let me warn you. Just because you’ve made Jesus your Lord doesn’t mean you’ll automatically think God’s thoughts. You only begin thinking God’s thoughts when you begin to fill your mind and heart with the Word of God and make yourself subject to His Anointing.

Romans 12:2 calls that process “the renewing of your mind.” It also says that process will transform you. Why does it have such a dramatic effect? Because when you change your mind, you change your choices—and that changes everything!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Actually, it never 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 as 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 were 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 was true until the Holy Spirit came to teach us all things. (See John 16:13.) 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 as 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 return-eth 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?

Yes—and 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.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

I must be about my Father’s business (Luke 2:49).

God does not want us to be slothful in conducting
our business. He has honored us by giving it to us. We
have to honor our obligation to Him by running that
business or doing that job to the best of our abilities to
do it in faith.

I’ll give you an example. God has given me this
ministry. He has given me the calling to minister. I
have to honor that call and duty. I made a decision
that I am going to live responsibly and honorably. I
know Jesus wants me to do that, so I am determined
to do it.

I promised God that any time I was called on
to preach or minister, I would be ready; I would be
prepared. That does not mean I want to all the time.

It does not mean I am constantly, consistently prayed
up and ready to go just on a second’s notice. Most
of the time I know in advance when I am going to
preach. I promised the Lord that I would never take
time for myself and my own wants during the periods
I should be preparing to minister to other people.

I am responsible for a prophetic ministry. When
I travel from place to place on behalf of the Lord,
I don’t sightsee. I have been all over the world and
have hardly seen anything but airports, hotels and
convention centers. I don’t go for pleasure or relaxation.
I don’t go to visit or fellowship. I go to do business.

I take seriously Jesus’ instructions to His disciples
as He sent them out to minister. He said, “When
you find a worthy house, stay there” (Matthew 10:11,
author’s paraphrase). I don’t run all over town. I
come prepared, ready to settle down and attend to
business—my Father’s business.

I learned this originally from Oral Roberts; then I
found it in the Word of God. Later, I saw it in Kenneth
E. Hagin and in other anointed men of God.

I have certain time limits that I just won’t violate. I
may be in your presence sometime, look at my watch
and say, “Excuse me, it’s time to go.” I do that because
I am determined to have God’s anointing on me. It is
only with the anointing that I can, in turn, be of help
to you at all. It is only through the anointing that I
can minister effectively to others.

That is the reason all of my children are in the
ministry. That is the reason there is romance in our
family: between Gloria and me, our children and their
mates and our grandchildren. My family and I honor
the business—the ministry—that God has given us. We
honor one another, uplifting one another at all times.
As a result we enjoy the blessing of God upon us.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries