Charles Capps of - Kenneth Copeland Ministries Australia

Why anyone would choose to spend his life inside anoffice with recirculated air was beyond Charles. He lovedsmelling the rich earth and feeling the breeze on his face.While some people vied for the view from a corner office,Charles enjoyed a sweeping vista of fertile fields and lushgreen trees in his corner of the world.God had created Charles Capps to be a farmer, of thathe was certain.From childhood he’d never wanted another life. Inschool, his eyes had looked with longing out the classroomwindow. He hadn’t wanted to waste his time writingpapers and learning literature—things he’d never use.His classroom was the fields...his desk a tractor...histeacher the Lord.The only thing that tugged his heart away from thefertile delta farmland near England, Ark., had been thesmoky trail of a jet or the lazy loops of a crop-dusteroverhead. As a boy, every time he looked up to the sky andsaw an airplane, he had said, “One day I’m going to fly.”Earth or sky, it didn’t matter. So long as he logged thehours of his life outdoors he was a happy man.Except when he saw sights like this.Stepping into his cotton fields, Charles’ happinessturned to despair as he scanned a failed harvest. He’dplanted his cotton deep and the field stood in water. Thecrop had rotted.“I knew it!” Charles said, kicking the toe of his boot inthe soggy mess. “I knew that crop would rot in the field!”The Power of SeeingFor two years in the late 1960s, the bad and the goodran side by side for Charles Capps, with losses on onehand and gains on the other.“I farmed 800 acres of fertile land and didn’t makeenough money to renew my driver’s license,” he says. “Iwas so poor I couldn’t pay attention! No matter how Iplanted my crop, I lost it.“But I also traveled as a layman for the Assemblies ofGod Church and taught on personal evangelism. In themid 1960s I worked with Loren Cunningham at YouthWith A Mission. One summer I flew Loren to severalislands in the Bahamas chain in my Twin Comanche tovisit those who were witnessing for Christ and prayingfor the sick.”Working to expand the kingdom of God, Charles’spiritual life soared while his crops and his financesspiraled downward. He had no idea what to do aboutit until 1969 when someone gave him a copy of abook written by Kenneth E. Hagin titled Right andWrong Thinking.The book’s straightforward practicality appealed toCharles, so he ordered a tape message by Brother Hagin.Impressed by what he heard, he attended one of Hagin’smeetings in Shreveport, La.Back home, Charles walked out to the hangar behindhis house. His airplane sat tied down in front of it.Exercising, he walked from one end of the airstrip to theother. Then he circled the airplane from one side andwalked around the other.Why did you walk around that side of the plane? Charlesheard the Lord ask.The question stopped him in his tracks. He had noidea why he had walked that direction, but the answermust be important. Pondering the question, he realizedhe had done it that way because, in his mind’s eye, he hadseen himself do it that way.In a flash he understood.We do what we see ourselves doing.The Power of Saying“I’d heard Brother Hagin teachon confessing the Word,” Charlesexplains. “So I got a yellow sheetof paper and wrote my ownconfessions based on Scripture.Every day I walked around myland declaring, ‘The Lord is myShepherd and I shall not want.Christ has redeemed me fromthe curse of the law. For povertyHe has given me wealth. Forsickness He has given me health.It is true unto me according tothe Word of God.’”At first, the confessions seemed not only illogical butdishonest. He wrestled with the seeming contradiction.How could he truthfully confess abundance and no lackwhen he had no money? “Lord, these confessions seemlike a lie,” he said.How can you lie saying what I say? God answered.“That made sense to me so I went right on confessingthe Word,” Charles recalls. “I made those confessions forabout a year before anything changed; and the first thingthat changed wasn’t my finances. It wasn’t my crops. Itwas what I saw in my mind’s eye. I saw myself rich. I wasstill broke, but I felt rich.”Charles always rented the land they farmed. Now, in thelight of his new revelation—and in spite of his finances—Charles knew he needed to rent more. He prayed andreleased his faith, asking God for additional land.SEPTEMBER '11 | BVOV | 9