As I sat next to my husband, John, at the 1991 West Coast Believers’ Convention, my heart was heavy. After many, many months of believing for a child, I still hadn’t conceived. I had been standing for my healing in this area, but the manifestation had not yet come. There I was in the middle of this faith-filled arena, praising God for this child I was believing for and yet overcome with this longing in my heart.

“God, I so want a baby!”

Just then, Kenneth Copeland turned to speak to me—not as my father-in-law, but as a prophet of God. “Because of your faith, the Word has taken root in you and it won’t be much longer,” he said. I was so excited by that word because it confirmed that my faith was working.

Not long after that, John’s grandmother, Mary Neece, called and said, “Marty, I was just thinking about you today as I was reading about Hannah.” She felt there was a word for me in the story of Hannah giving birth to Samuel, and she was right. Of course, I had read Hannah’s story before, but this time there was revelation in those scriptures for me.

 From Precedent to Manifestation

That day as I studied Hannah’s story and prayed her prayer, the Word of God spoke to my heart. I found a new precedent in the Word of God. I saw how much God loved Hannah and how He had opened her womb so she could conceive and give birth to Samuel. The revelation that God is no respecter of persons grew strong on the inside of me, and I repeatedly said aloud, “If God did that for Hannah, He’ll do the same for me.”

I had already been standing on many healing scriptures, but this new revelation of “God is no respecter of persons” helped me to refocus my faith. I no longer focused entirely on healing for my body, but on the reality that God truly is no respecter of persons. More than ever before, I could believe God for a child—the same miracle He had given Hannah. That was exciting to me! It should be exciting to you, too, because this principle works for everything that is promised to you in the Word.

Now I had my biblical precedent in Hannah and I had the Word of God that said, “God is no respecter of persons.” That was all I needed to put me on the road to covenant children. The doctor I was seeing performed two laparoscopic surgeries on me to remove scar tissue from my ovaries. It was God’s promise to Hannah that empowered me both to take action and to stay in faith.  

The Word tells us that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). I had been in need of that substance, and that day as I studied Hannah’s story I found it. The precedent of Hannah becoming pregnant and giving birth to a healthy child, joined with the revelation that God is no respecter of persons, had become substance to me. Then in the difficult times—the times when doubt filled my mind and there was a bad report—I had substance to hold on to.

It was this substance that carried me through the next 12 months, until I finally became pregnant with our first child, Courtney.

Next week, Marty will continue sharing on her experience of receiving the manifestation of God’s promises.