There’s a lot going on in our country, and we have to learn how to view it through the lens of faith. And who better to help us learn that than evangelist Kenneth Copeland? Throughout the years, Copeland has been well-known for his powerful teachings on faith—and those teachings are just as relevant and vital now as they ever have been. One major step of faith Christians nowadays need to take, he says, is simply voting.
“If you don’t vote, you automatically voted against the will of God,” he says. “You have to think about that. You automatically voted against the will of God. That’s a vote for the other side. … That ballot is your seed. Even if you vote for the wrong [person], if you believe you’re following God, then that ballot is your seed, and you did it before Him—whichever side you voted for.”
I was honored to have Copeland on my “Strang Report” podcast recently, where he shed some light on what’s truly going on in our country from a spiritual perspective. (You may remember my last podcast about Copeland, where I shared my opinion on Inside Edition‘s ambush interview with him. You can click here to listen to that episode.)
The first thing we have to remember, Copeland says, is that “this country belongs to Jesus and was formed by people who loved Him with the very purpose of worshipping Him and worshipping our heavenly Father.”
Our nation is on the brink of forgetting this vital truth, he says. God has His hand on the United States for a reason. Copeland calls our nation the “cradle of the gospel,” and because of that, Satan is doing everything he can to destroy it.
“I believe with all my heart that this nation is being reborn,” Copeland says. “All this trouble, this hatred and stuff going on—these are just symptoms. What else would you expect out of the devil?”
But rebirth is not an easy experience. As our country is being reborn, we are experiencing birth pangs in the form of unrest, division and animosity against biblical values.
Another analogy Copeland uses for the state our nation is in is war. God is in charge, and we will win the war—we can stand firm on that promise. But Christians who take that promise as an excuse to sit idly by and watch the culture wars unfold are not walking in obedience to their faith.
“Even though we know we win the war, we have to fight to fight,” he says. “Faith is never just sitting down. Faith without corresponding action is dead. … If there’s a good fight of faith, that means there are enemies to faith. Now, we don’t look at people. We look at the spirit realm. We wrestle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world and the wicked spirits in the heavens.”
Therefore, Copeland says, we have to pray. We have to intercede. We have to cry out to God on behalf of our leaders, especially Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
Copeland recalls praying for Trump a month after he announced he was running for president. He was among the group of pastors who gathered to pray over Trump. He placed his hand on Trump’s back and, without realizing how prophetic that moment was, he began praying for God to fill the future president with wisdom. How could he have known just how crucial that prayer would actually be?
Copeland was also among those who attended a state dinner at the White House. He told me during a prior podcast interview that the event was like a “really anointed church service.”
Our next highest priority in prayer should be our judges: “The politicians make all the noise and they make all the news. … But politicians come and go every four years. Judges are for life. They’re the ones who affect our lives. They’re the ones who say who kills babies and who doesn’t. They’re the ones who say, ‘We’re going to go for sexual perversion’ or ‘We’re going to go toward the Word of God.'”
Don’t expect your prayers to make much of a difference, though, if you refuse to vote. In fact, Christians who don’t vote should just stay silent the next four years, Copeland says: “Pray. Put your money where your mouth is. Support the candidates. Get on the telephone and get people registered to vote.
“Start something in your church where you get people ready. Everybody in your church ought to be registered to vote—every one of them. Pastors, do something about it! Get over this business of not being able to talk politics in church. Thank God that because of Donald Trump, you can get up there and say whatever you want to!”
If Christians take this approach, Copeland believes God will move in the hearts of His people across the U.S. to vote in ways we haven’t seen before.
“He is going to stir up people to vote who have never voted before,” he says. “He stirred up the church [in 2016], He stirred up the cowboys, He stirred up the hillbillies, He stirred up all over the nation. And we better watch out, because they’re going to get stirred up again. And the Democratic Party will see that.”
I encourage you to listen to my full interview with Copeland. You will be so encouraged by what he has to say. And I hope each of you reading this will take his words to heart.
Don’t stop with making sure you vote. Make sure others vote. Share biblical voting advice on your social media pages. Talk about political issues from a biblical perspective wherever you go. Be a good representation of Jesus and how He would approach politics in our day and age.
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