February 2022 Partner Letter

Dear Partner,

This month always has a high place in our family. Eighty years ago, in a very small town in Southwest Arkansas, a baby was born. Her mother’s name was Mary and her dad, Wallace Neece, was gone—shipped out to Europe for training for D-Day, June 6, 1944. [neither does toiling increase it].He then went all the way with the 1st Infantry Division through the Battle of the Bulge and came home a battle-weary war hero. I met Gloria Jean Neece in October 1961 and, as they say, the rest is history. She is now Gloria Jean Copeland. April 13, we will have been married 60 years.

Let’s begin this month by reading 2 Peter 1:1-4:

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our LORD,
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

It’s a bit more clear in the New Living Translation:

This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our LORD.
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

The first thing I want you to see is in the very first verse:

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

Think about that. You have the same precious faith as the Apostle Peter. How could that be? The answer is found in Hebrews 12:2:

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now let’s look at that verse in the NLT:

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Jesus, THE CHAMPION, initiates and perfects our faith. Is this for every believer? Well, yes and no. It belongs to everyone who has made Jesus The LORD of his or her life. But it only works for those of us who keep our eyes on Him in His WORD. Back up now to verse 1:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

The huge crowd of witnesses is listed in Hebrews 11, joined together with all the great men and women of faith who have gone before us. I’m thinking right now of Oral Roberts and Kenneth E. Hagin. Then there’s T.L. Osborn, Reinhard Bonnke and Aimee Semple McPherson. Through Jesus, all these received “like faith” with Peter, James and John, because Jesus said in Mark 11:22, “Have faith in GOD.” In the King James Version, the cross-reference says, “HAVE THE FAITH OF GOD”! Now we can see why it’s called “precious faith.” Anything that comes from God is precious.

Now let’s go back to 2 Peter 1:3-4, and talk about divine power and divine nature. HIS divine power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. But don’t stop there. It is “through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and excellence” (see Amplified Bible, Classic Edition). You, dear Partner, have BEEN CALLED to and by His glory to an EXCELLENT LIFE!

How? Through the exceeding great and precious promises. Remember now, where these promises are found. Where did we just read what the Holy Spirit of God through the Apostle Peter just promised us? THE NEW COVENANT! Every precious word recorded there was BOUGHT AND PAID FOR BY THE PRECIOUS BLOOD of JESUS of NAZARETH, SON of THE LIVING GOD!

Now I’ll close by going back to where it all started. That same living God, the God who is more than enough, appeared to Abram. Genesis 17:1-2 says:

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.

Now let’s read those verses from the NLT:

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, The LORD appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.
I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”

“A COVENANT…by which I will GUARANTEE!” That’s an exceeding great and precious promise!

Is God who He says He is? Absolutely! Can He do what He says He can do? You know He can! Will He do what He says He will do? YES! He put it in the form of a BLOOD COVENANT. On that day, the first-known covenant name change took place. The Almighty God entered covenant with a man and placed HIS NAME in the middle. Abram became AbraH[HASHEM]am. He, GOD, expanded Abram’s name from “father of nations” to the “father of many nations.” How did He do that? The answer is in verse 5: “HAVE I MADE THEE.” Don’t just read the next few words of this verse from this letter. Turn in your Bible to Romans 4, and read verse 1:

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

“Abraham our father.” Now read verses 16-17: “It is of faith, [so] that it might be by grace; to the end that the [covenant] promise might be sure to ALL the seed.” Now go ahead and read through verse 21. How could he be fully persuaded? That covenant was signed in His own blood by circumcision. Now read Galatians 3:8-9 and shout!:

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be BLESSED.
So then they which be of faith are BLESSED with faithful Abraham.

Now the bottom line for us all is in verses 13-14:

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
That THE BLESSING of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

There went spiritual death! There went poverty! There went sickness and disease! All of these things are under the curse of the law. Now look at verses 26-29. YOU, my dear Partner, are Abraham’s SEED and an heir according to the promise. That promise, in a nutshell, is found in Romans 8:15-17. We are joint heirs with THE MASTER Himself! Not subheirs, but JOINT HEIRS. We are one with Him by THE COVENANT IN HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD! You and I are Covenant Partners in His blood.

I pray for you every day. I will continue to do so throughout 2022. By faith, like God, and like our father Abraham, I call 2022 the best year you have ever had. By faith, I pray above all things that you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers.

As you sow your BLESSING seed this month, remember that it’s not enough for me to call things that be not as though they were. You must rise up, being fully persuaded by your BLOOD COVENANT with EL SHADDAI, the GOD who is more than enough. He is the Almighty God!

Gloria and I pray 1 Thessalonians 5:23, that you and your family will be sanctified wholly by the GOD who is more than enough—spirit, soul, body, financially and socially! He not only can, but HE WILL DO IT, in the NAME OF JESUS!

God loves you, we love you, and Jesus is LORD!

Love,