Uncompromising Faith

by Kenneth Copeland

It’s the key to walking in THE BLESSING of God in the midst of an increasingly sin-darkened world.

At the very beginning of this ministry The LORD spoke to me so powerfully that, even today, His words still resound in my spirit. He said, I am coming so soon, I want this uncompromised message of faith on every available voice.

With that one statement He lit a fire in me that’s been burning now for over 50 years. He ignited in me a sense of urgency and identified for me the exact message He wants all His people to hear in these last days before He comes again.

He wants us to hear the uncompromised message of faith!

Why is that message so vital? Because uncompromising faith is the key to living in victory. It’s the key to walking in THE BLESSING of God in the midst of an increasingly sin-darkened world.

“But Brother Copeland,” you might say, “I’m not sure what uncompromising faith really is.”

It’s believing and acting on God’s WORD, no matter what the circumstances. It’s putting absolute confidence in His “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4) and doing what He says, even when it looks in the natural like it’s going to cost you. It’s the kind of faith you can see in action, for instance, in the book of Daniel. Talk about an inspiring picture of uncompromising faith. Daniel and his three friends provided us with one of the most marvelous in the Bible! Time and again, they faced situations where trusting and obeying God could literally put an end to their lives. Yet, they repeatedly stayed true to His WORD. They withstood the world’s pressure and refused to compromise.

You may remember their story: When they were just teenagers they were taken as Jewish captives from Judah to Babylon. Conscripted into the service of Babylon’s king, they were brought to his palace and thrust into the very heart of a brutal heathen culture. Immediately, they began to be confronted with challenges to their faith.

The first one arose when, as Daniel 1 records, “The king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank” (verse 5). Such foods were forbidden by the Old Covenant laws of God. Yet Daniel and his friends were told they had to eat them for three years to qualify to stand before the king.

To refuse would jeopardize their entire future.

“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank” (verse 8). Instead, he asked the man in charge of the king’s servants for healthier foods that would line up with God’s WORD.

“My job is to fatten you up!” the man argued. “If I don’t, I’m going to look bad to the king. It might cost me my head!”

Right here is where Daniel put his first stake of no-compromise in the ground. Holding fast to his covenant with God, he said, “Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king’s delicacies; and as you see fit, so deal with your servants” (verses 12-13, New King James Version).

The man in charge agreed, and by the end of the 10 days, Daniel and his friends had proved that believing and obeying God doesn’t cost—it pays! Even after eating only vegetables and drinking water, “their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies” (verse 15, NKJV).

Delivered From Sugar

It’s no accident that the first pressure Daniel and his friends confronted had to do with food! Food has been a BLESSING and a problem ever since the Garden of Eden. The first sin mankind fell prey to involved eating a forbidden food…and God’s people have been having trouble with food ever since.

“But Brother Copeland, as New Testament believers, we’re not bound by Old Covenant dietary laws like Daniel and his friends were.”

I know. But even so, God put those laws in the Bible for a reason. There’s a lot of sound, scientific wisdom in them. They were designed by God to enable His people to live out the full 120-year lifespan set in Genesis 6:3. So, even though we’re no longer bound to keep them as a religious requirement, it’s still wise to pay close attention to them.

It’s also wise to note that during Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, the first thing the devil tempted Him with was food. He waited until after Jesus had fasted for 40 days, long enough for starvation to set in, then pressured Him to turn stones into bread. Jesus knew He could do it. But to do so at the prompting of the devil would be to disobey God’s WORD, just like Adam and Eve did in the Garden.

So, instead of compromising The WORD, Jesus used it against the devil. He said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4, NKJV).

It took me a long time to learn this lesson. As a very young man, I got into the habit of eating unhealthy food—and eating too much of it—and fought a losing battle with my weight until I was 30 years old. I weigh 165 now, but there was a time many years ago when I weighed 260. It’s dangerous for someone my size to carry that much weight.

In 1966, though, when I was about to become a student at Oral Roberts University, I weighed 235. The LORD gave me an order from heaven. You start today getting that weight off you! He said.

By then, of course, I’d been born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. So, I’d already been set free from a number of things. Yet I couldn’t figure out how He was going to help me in this area. “LORD, You delivered me from smoking,” I said. “You delivered me from alcohol. But how can You deliver me from food?”

His reply was instant. I delivered you from smoking, not from breathing. I didn’t deliver you from drinking, just from drinking alcohol and other stupid stuff.

As I thought about that I began to see it: I didn’t need to be delivered from food. I needed to be delivered from the wrong kinds of food.

I can deliver you from sugar! The LORD said.

For some people, receiving suchdeliverance would be no big deal, but for me it was. Back then, it was a great victory if I could have just a couple of donuts and not the whole box. I used to get a hot loaf of unsliced bread from the bakery, put a stick of butter inside it, and eat the entire loaf! It hurt my health. But still, giving it up was hard.

How did I do it? The big key was making the initial decision and then making it again every time I was presented with an opportunity to compromise. Because by His grace I’ve done that, at 86 years old I’m in better shape than I was at 30. I’m healthy, full of energy and traveling all over, preaching the uncompromised WORD of faith! Glory to God!

Your victory over compromise makes you stronger. It builds your character and makes you harder for the devil to deal with.

A Forgotten Dream and a Golden Statue

The second faith challenge Daniel and his friends faced in Babylon arose as the result of a dream the king had. He awoke from it knowing it had been important but couldn’t remember what it was. Calling on the wise men of Babylon to help, he demanded they tell him both the dream and its interpretation. “We can’t do that!” they said. “You’d better find a way,” the king replied. “Otherwise, I’m going to kill you.”

Daniel and his friends were considered wise men themselves and were facing the same fate as the others. So, they prayed and sought God for help. He revealed to them the dream and its meaning, and Daniel shared it with the king. When he did, Daniel 2:46 says, “King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel.”

Read that again. The king worshipped Daniel!

Receiving that kind of adulation is dangerous. If a person is prone to compromise, he’ll start making up dreams to keep the worship coming. He’ll start lording it over people and getting full of pride— which goes before a fall. But Daniel didn’t take that route. Uncompromising in his faith, he gave all the glory to God, and so did Nebuchadnezzar.

He said to Daniel, “Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king” (verses 47-49).

Most of the time, when you stand up against the devil and refuse to compromise in one area, he’ll come at you with something else he thinks will be more tempting. If you stand up against that, you get promoted. What’s more, something powerful happens inside you. Your victory over compromise makes you stronger. It builds your character and makes you harder for the devil to deal with.

That’s what happened to Daniel and his friends. It’s a good thing it did, too, because they needed that strength of character to deal with what king Nebuchadnezzar did next. He built a 90-foot-high golden idol for all the people in his realm to worship! Apparently having forgotten what he’d said about God being the “God of gods,” he sent out a herald and issued this decree:

“To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace” (Daniel 3:4-6).

The Fourth Man

Think of the pressure Daniel and his friends were under in that situation. The king’s orchestra was playing, and everyone was bowing down to his statue—except Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They refused to violate their covenant with God by worshipping an idol.

When the king heard about it, he was furious. He commanded Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to be brought before him and told them that the next time the orchestra played, if they worshipped the golden image all would be well. “But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” (verse 15).

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn’t even have to think about their answer. They immediately replied, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” (verses 17-18).

Those men had never heard of God delivering anyone from a fiery furnace. They believed and said He was able. But either way, it didn’t make any difference. Their attitude was, “We’d rather burn than dishonor God!”

This further enraged the king, so he ordered that the furnace be made seven times hotter. Then he commanded the three Jews to be thrown into the inferno. When he looked down into the pit however, he jumped up in astonishment and said to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?... I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God” (verses 24-25, NKJV).

Who was the fourth man in the furnace?

Jesus!

He showed up for those three men of uncompromising faith so powerfully that they walked out of the fire totally unharmed. They didn’t even smell of smoke. King Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed, he forbade anyone in Babylon to ever speak a word against God and promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to even higher governmental positions.

The first time I heard a message about the fourth man in the fiery furnace, Oral Roberts preached it. He’s the one who sowed in me the seed of noncompromise. As my father in the faith, he drilled this into me: “If you bow, you burn. Whatever you compromise to keep, you will eventually lose.”

Remember that—and make a quality decision to walk in uncompromising faith in God’s WORD. Find out what it says about your spiritual life, your healing, your finances and everything else. Then believe it and act on it—no matter what.

If you stick to that program, Jesus will show up for you when all the world seems to be against you. He’ll walk you through the fire, protect you and promote you—and victory will be yours!

POINTS TO GET YOU THERE:

1 Put absolute confidence in God’s promises and make His WORD your final authority, even when in the natural it looks like it will cost you. (2 Pet. 1:4)

2 Make a quality decision not to conform to the ungodly pressures of the culture around you. (Dan. 1:8)

3 When God BLESSES you with success and people praise you, give Him the glory and steer clear of pride. (Prov. 16:18)

4 Put your faith in God in every situation and refuse to bow to the fear of man. (Dan. 3:17)

5 Remember, if you stand up against temptation, your character will be strengthened and you will be promoted. (Dan. 3:30)