Kenneth E. Hagin

Bible Faith

2012-10-18T01:44:00.001-07:00

Here's a little formula for the faith that pleases God. You can make this Bible faith work for you. It is the same faith that Abraham used and it worked for him because it is faith that is based on what God has said.

1. Have God's Word for what you desire to receive from God.
2. Believe God's Word.
3. Consider not the contradictory circumstances.
4. Give praise to God for the answer.

Follow these four steps and you'll always get the desired result because these are four certain or sure steps to deliverance, healing, answered prayers, or whatever it is that you are seeking from God. Then notice Thomas' faith. Thomas' faith was not based upon what God said: Thomas' faith was based upon what his own physical senses told him. For example, Thomas said he would not believe unless he could see.

So many people say, "When I see it or when I feel it then I'll know I have my petition." But that's not Bible faith. That's natural human faith and any sinner already has that kind of faith. You see, real faith in God is based upon the Word of God. Real faith in the Word says, "If God says it's true, it is." Believing God is believing His Word! I like something Smith Wigglesworth said. He said, "I can't understand God by feelings. I can't understand the Lord Jesus Christ by feelings. I can understand God the Father and Jesus Christ only by what the Word says about them. God is everything the Word says He is." Wigglesworth went on to say, "We need to get acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word."

Too many people try to get acquainted with God through feelings, and when they feel good, they think God has heard them. But if they don't feel good, they think He is not hearing them. Their faith is based on their feelings, but my faith is based upon God's Word. If God's Word says He hears me, then I know He hears me because He said so, and His Word cannot lie. In other words, if my faith is based upon my feelings, then I am just using a natural human faith. I'm trying to get spiritual results with natural human faith, and I cannot do that. I have to use scriptural faith, Bible faith, and believe God's Word. And if my faith is based upon the Word of God, then I believe the Word regardless of evidences which would satisfy my physical senses.

Too many people are trying to get Abraham's blessing with Thomas' faith, and that just won't work. We who are believers have the Abraham kind of faith because Galatians 3:29 says, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." And Galatians 3:7 says, "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." We have the Abraham kind of faith. We're not trying to get it; we have it.

Authority on the Earth

2012-10-17T20:29:00.001-07:00

Jesus added, "Here are your four witnesses. I am the first, James is the second, Peter is the third, and Paul is the fourth. This establishes the fact that the believer has authority on earth, for I have delegated my authority over the devil to you on the earth. If you don't do anything about it, nothing will be done. And that is why many times nothing is done."

Now you can understand why things have happened as they have. We've permitted them to happen! Not knowing our authority—not knowing what we could do—we have done nothing, and we actually have permitted the devil to keep on doing whatever he wanted to do.

We need to realize this. Let's wake up. We may have to change our way of praying and get after the devil. I did. It won't hurt you to change; it's good for you. We have authority to do this. We're sitting at the right hand of the Father, far above principalities and powers. If we're far above them, then we have authority over them.

Ephesians 1:22,23 goes on to say, "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church [The feet are members of the body. Feet aren't members of the head.], Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." As John A. MacMillan pointed out, how wonderful to know that the least members of the Body of Christ—those who are the very soles of the feet, the little toenail, or the little toe—are far above the mighty forces we have been considering.

Remember, Jesus said in Luke 10:19 to the other seventy disciples that He sent out, "Behold, I give unto you power [authority] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." How much authority over the devil does the Church have? Any less than this? No, thank God, no.

Yet if you'd listen to the average Christian talk or hear some preachers preach, you'd get the impression that the devil is bigger than everybody and that he's running everything. Yes, he is the god of this world, so he's running the world system. But we're in this world, not of this world, the Bible says, so he's not running us. The devil has been walking on us too long.

These things are not joking matters. We're foolish to make light jokes about these things. A preacher once said to me at a convention, "Well, Brother Hagin, I've got the devil on the run. The trouble is, I'm running and he's after me!"

Making a statement like that just shows ignorance. In the first place, you haven't any business running from the devil. The Bible says he'll run from you. You need to put him on the run. Unfortunately, I think that is the picture of preachers and churches too much of the time; in fact, most of the time. We see it everywhere.

God's Mightiest Work

2012-10-17T20:16:00.001-07:00

Matthew 28:18 is another verse where the word "authority" should have been used instead of "power." In the King James Version it reads, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ALL POWER is given unto me in heaven and in earth." It should read, "ALL AUTHORITY is given unto me in heaven and in earth."

When Christ ascended, He transferred His authority to the Church. He is the Head of the Church, and believers make up the Body. Christ's authority has to be perpetuated through His Body, which is on the earth. (Throughout Ephesians and elsewhere in the epistles, Paul uses the human body as an illustration of the Body of Christ.)

Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father—the place of authority—and we're seated with Him. If you know anything about history, you know that to sit at the right hand of the king or pope means authority. We died with Christ, and we were raised with Him. This is not something God is going to do in the future; He already has done it!

God's Mightiest Work

EPHESIANS 1:18-23
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Notice especially the nineteenth verse: "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power. " In other words, there was such an overwhelming display of God's power in raising Jesus from the dead that this actually was the mightiest work of God ever recorded!

The Resurrection was opposed by Satan and all his cohorts. However, his forces were confused and defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ, who arose, ascended, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, far above them.

Remember the text in Colossians 2:15? "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he [Christ] made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it [His death, burial, and resurrection]."

These are the same demonic powers we have to deal with, but, thank God, Jesus defeated them. Other translations say He "put them to nought" or "paralyzed them."

In ancient times, victorious kings bringing back captives would have a parade, making a show of them openly. Jesus did this with the devil, putting him on display before three worlds—heaven, hell, and earth—after He defeated him. God gave us this account in the Scriptures so we in this world would know what had happened.

God wants us to know what happened in the death, burial, resurrection, and seating of Jesus Christ. He wants us to know that He has set Christ "Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named...." (Eph. 1:21).

'In Jesus' Name' - Not 'For Jesus' Sake'

2012-10-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

Many people conclude their prayers by saying, "For Jesus' sake." But we are not to pray that way. There is a difference between praying in the Name of Jesus and praying for the sake of Jesus. We are to pray in the Name of Jesus. What's the difference between praying for Jesus' sake and in His Name? There is quite a difference. When you go to God, and you ask Him to do something for Jesus' sake, you're asking that it be done to help Jesus - on your credit. Can't you see how foolish that sounds? In the first place, Jesus doesn't need the help. And in the second place, you don't have any credit to guarantee the answer to your prayer if He did! No, it's the other way around. We need the help and Jesus has the credit.

I don't mean to imply that people do this consciously when they add, "For Jesus' sake" to their prayers. But that is the way it sounds in heaven. Even if Jesus did need our help, you and I don't have any standing in heaven that would guarantee help for Him. We are the ones who need the help. It's for our sake that we are praying. And Jesus has the standing or the credit in heaven that enables us to come to God in His Name and receive those things we need. For example, if you go to the bank with a friend's check and ask the cashier to cash that check, the cashier will ask if you have the money on deposit in your own account to guarantee the amount of the check. If you don't, he'll refuse to cash it. When you pray, "For Jesus' sake," it's like trying to cash a check when there is no money in your account because you don't have the credit in heaven - Jesus does.

But if you go to the bank with a check endorsed by a wealthy man who has an account at that bank, then there will be no questions asked. The cashier will hand over the money.

Jesus is our "credit" in heaven, so to speak: He has all the credit we could ever need to get "our check cashed" - our prayers answered. And when God hears His children pray in faith in the Name of Jesus, He responds to their prayers based on Jesus' credit or Jesus' standing in heaven. In that mighty Name, God gives us the answer to our prayers. If I have a stomachache, for example, and I am praying for healing, I wouldn't ask God to heal me for Jesus' sake - to help Jesus. I don't want to be healed for Him. It's my stomach that needs help, not His! I'm the one who is hurting. It's for my sake, on Jesus' credit.

Similarly, if I need $100, and I ask the Father to help me get this money for Jesus' sake, I would be praying foolishly because Jesus does not need the $100. The money is for my sake, not His. Jesus doesn't need $100; I do. I need the $100 to help me, so it's for my sake, on Jesus' credit. Many an honest prayer fails because of folks ending their prayers, "For Jesus' sake." If you have been doing that, stop it. It makes a lot of difference whether or not our prayers are scripturally based. That's the reason we fail many times in our praying. Our approach is all wrong. Peter and John said when they were at the Gate Beautiful, "... why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?" (Acts 3:12). In other words, it isn't by the believer's own power or holiness that he gets an answer to prayer.

You don't get your prayers answered because you're good either. You get an answer to prayer because of Jesus - and because of your standing in Jesus. Thank God. Jesus has a standing in Heaven. He is the only way to approach the Father. You can't get there any other way. Thank God, in Jesus' Name we can come boldly to the throne of God (Heb. 4:16). Let's use a little sense and go as wise children, using the mighty Name of Jesus which He has given us. Jesus gave us the right and the authority to use His Name.

Raised From the Bed of Sickness

2012-10-17T19:51:00.004-07:00

Kenneth E. Hagin stories - I was born again on April 22, 1933, at twenty minutes to eight o'clock in the south bedroom of 405 North College Street in McKinney, Texas. I was raised up from the bed of sickness on the second Tuesday of August 1934, after spending sixteen long months flat on my back with two terminal organic heart conditions and an incurable blood disease. And my body was almost totally paralyzed.

When I first started reading the Word of God on the bed of sickness, Grandma would prop the Bible up in front of me as I lay there on my bed. I could only read for about ten minutes at a time — after that I could hardly see. Then that was all I could read for the day.

The next day I would read for another ten or fifteen minutes. After a few weeks of reading like that, I got so I could read for an hour at a time; eventually I could read for as long as I liked. As a child, I had been brought up going to Sunday school; I can't remember the first time I went to church. Nor can I remember the first time I ever read the Bible. It seemed I had prayed all of my life, yet I had never been born again until April 22, 1933.

You see, you can be religious and yet not really be a born-again child of God. But when you are born again, the very same Bible that you have been reading looks different. The Bible becomes clear and easy to understand when you are born again. And as I read Grandma's Bible, I found that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).

The doctors had said I could die at any time, so when I began reading the Bible, I began reading in the New Testament. I reasoned, I might not be alive ten minutes from now, so I will utilize this ten minutes, or whatever time I have, and I will start reading in the New Testament.

I began reading in Matthew 1:1. When I got to Mark 11:24,I read, ". . . What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." From the first time I read that verse, I never forgot it. I didn't take time to memorize it; it just branded itself on my mind, so to speak, because Mark 11:24 was my answer for healing.

MARK 11:23,24
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, B e thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

However, immediately after I read Mark 11:23 and 24, the devil hopped on my shoulder and said, "Yes, but divine healing has been done away with, you know."

I said, "Well, thank God, faith hasn't been done away with! This scripture says, '. . . What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe . . .' (Mark 11:24). I have never heard anyone say that believing and faith have been done away with."

"Yes, but healing has. You know all that healing business has been done away with."

I said to the devil, "What about Mark chapter 5? In Mark chapter 5, Jesus said to the woman with the issue of blood, '. . . Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole . . .' [Mark 5:34]. Mr. Devil, if her faith made her whole, my faith will make me whole." And, thank God, it did!

At that time, I didn't know of anyone else in the whole world who believed in divine healing besides me. There was no Full Gospel church in my town at the time, and I had never heard healing preached. There weren't any Christian radio programs such as we have today; at least, if there were, I didn't know about them.

After my healing, I began my ministry just as a young Baptist boy preacher. When I heard that Full Gospel people preached on healing too, I began to fellowship with them because fellowshipping with those of like-precious faith was just like getting a spiritual shot in the arm. It built up my faith.

The Full Gospel folks preached some things I didn't quite understand or altogether agree with at that time, such as the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but I put up with that to have a little fellowship around the doctrine of healing!

Spiritual Gifts Will Exalt Jesus

2012-10-17T19:24:00.002-07:00

Paul also said to the Church at Corinth, "Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led" (1 Cor. 12:2). These folks had previously worshipped idols and in this idol worship, motivated by the wrong spirit, they would say a lot of things that were in error.

For instance, Church history tells us that some of these folks would come into the Christian assembly and when the Spirit of God began to manifest Himself, these people would yield to a wrong spirit and say things under the influence of the wrong spirit.

In fact, some of them would even rise up in the services when the gifts of utterance were in operation and they would say that Jesus was accursed. And the Bible says that no one speaking by the Spirit of God would call Jesus accursed.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:3
3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that NO MAN SPEAKING BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD CALLETH JESUS ACCURSED: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

No, Paul said that when the Holy Spirit is in manifestation, He will make Jesus Lord. If an utterance gift, that is, a vocal gift — prophecy, divers kinds of tongues, or the interpretation of tongues — is in manifestation, then, of course, it will be clear by what is said that Jesus is Lord.

If the other gifts are in manifestation, they will always uplift the Lordship of Jesus, not the lordship of some man. They will not attract attention to some man, but rather to Christ. You can be sure that if someone is operating in what appears to be one of the vocal gifts, and calls Jesus accursed or speaks against Him in any way, then he's not speaking by the Holy Spirit.

Then Paul said in First Corinthians 12:3 that no man can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. In other words, Paul was saying that if someone is speaking by the right spirit — by the Holy Spirit — then what he says will exalt the Name of Jesus.

Once in a meeting while I was praying for folks for healing, I sensed that someone in the prayer line had a wrong spirit. I knew within my own spirit who this person was before she ever stood in front of me to be prayed for.

When she stepped up in front of me for prayer, I asked her, "Are you a Christian?" She replied that she belonged to a particular church.

I said, "Well, you can belong to any church and still not be a Christian. You have to be born again."

"Oh, I am saved and filled with the Holy Ghost," she said. "Do you want to hear me speak in tongues?" Then she started saying something that sounded like tongues.

I said, "Sister, say this prayer after me from your heart." I prayed a prayer to God the Father and she repeated the words after me. Then I said, "I acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as Your Son, and I acknowledge that He is come in the flesh."

But when I said that, she said, "Jesus Christ is not Your Son and He is not come in the flesh." It was immediately apparent that wasn't the right spirit speaking.

Those tongues she was rattling off — some kind of "gibberish" — weren't given by the Spirit of God. I tried two or three times to get her to repeat that prayer after me. Finally, she said, "Something on the inside of me won't let me say what you said."

"I know it," I said. "Do you want to be free from it?"

"I sure do!" she answered. I cast that spirit out of her in the Name of Jesus. Then I had her pray the sinner's prayer and she was born again. She was then filled with the Holy Spirit and went home speaking in tongues.

This woman was saying, "I am saved, I am born again, and I am filled with the Holy Ghost," but she wasn't at all. People can make a lot of statements, but that doesn't necessarily make them true. When the Spirit of God is in manifestation, He will make Jesus Lord. The wrong spirit won't acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and won't say that Jesus is Lord.

Jesus and the Feeding of the Five Thousand

2012-10-17T19:15:00.003-07:00

We see the working of miracles in the New Testament when Jesus took the little boy's lunch and fed five thousand with it (John 6:5-14). I am sometimes amazed at the way some folks — even educated folks — try to explain away the Bible.

For example, I was reading after a fellow once who had all kinds of initials on the end of his name — X, Y, Z, Ph.D., and so on! Please understand that I am not against education. But sometimes people can educate their heads at the expense of educating their hearts.

This particular intellectual I was reading after was trying to explain away the miracles in the Bible. He explained the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand with the little boy's loaves of bread by saying, "The loaves of bread in those days were bigger than they are now"!

If he had really read this account in the Bible, he would have noticed that it was a little boy's lunch (John 6:9). In the first place, it is difficult to imagine that a little boy could have carried enough bread out there to have fed five thousand. In the second place, it is difficult to imagine that he had planned to eat alt of that for lunch himself!

No, it was the working of a miracle that fed five thousand with just a little boy's lunch. The disciples even gathered up twelve remaining basketfuls when they were finished eating (John 6:13)!

Jesus Ministered as a Man Anointed by the Holy Spirit

2012-10-17T19:01:00.001-07:00

Jesus Himself ministered not as the Son of God but as a man anointed by the Holy Ghost. Jesus was just as much the Son of God when He was twenty-five as He was the Son of God when He was thirty years old. Yet at twenty-five years old, He had not healed a single person; not one miracle of healing had been wrought under His ministry prior to His receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit at the age of thirty.

And Jesus was just as much the Son of God when He was twenty-nine years old as He was when He was thirty. Yet at the age of twenty-nine, not one single person was healed in His ministry, nor had He wrought one miracle of healing.

Even when Jesus was thirty years of age, on the day before Jesus was baptized by John in the River Jordan and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him to anoint Him to minister, Jesus was just as much the Son of God as He was after His baptism.

Yet until Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit, He never healed a single person. Before Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit, there was no manifestation of the power of God operating in His ministry. It was only after the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove in order to anoint Him to minister that the gifts of the Spirit began to be manifest in His ministry. In fact, Jesus Himself said, ". . . the Father that dwelleth in me, HE doeth the works" ( John 14:10). He never did claim to do them Himself or on His own. He said, "My Father in Me, He does the works." How did He do them? Through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus stood up and read in His hometown synagogue, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me . . ." (Luke 4:18). Then Peter, preaching to Cornelius and his household, said, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him "(Acts 10:38). Although Jesus had always been the Son of God, He never healed anyone until after He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power.

This should prove conclusively that Jesus didn't heal the sick by some power that was inherent in Him as the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity. Rather, He healed the sick just as anyone else called of God would minister to the sick today — by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, by the manifestation of these gifts of healings, and by the preaching of the Word of God. The Word of God tells us in the Book of John that Christ had the Spirit without measure (John 3:34). Therefore, we would see a full manifestation of spiritual gifts operating in Jesus' ministry that we wouldn't see in anyone else's ministry because, as John 3:34 infers, Jesus had the Spirit without measure. No other person has the Spirit without measure.

However, it seems to me that John 3:34 infers that the entire Body of Christ has the same measure of the Spirit collectively as Jesus had individually. Therefore, just one person would not have the same measure of success in ministering even the gifts of healings that Jesus had in His earth walk because He had the Spirit without measure.

Having the Spirit without measure, Jesus would have the manifestation of all the gifts of the Spirit in His earth walk, except tongues and interpretation, which are exclusive to the dispensation of the church age which Jesus ushered in. Of course, all the gifts of healings would be included in the spiritual gifts which were manifested in Jesus' ministry.

How I Got Faith To Be Health - 4

2012-10-17T01:23:00.003-07:00

PART 4 of "How I Got Faith To Be Healed" post in 4 series, so you must read "How I Got Faith To Be Healed Part 3" first.

ISAIAH 53:4,5
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. The margin reads, "Surely he hath borne our sicknesses and carried our diseases" (Isa.53:4). This couple said that all they needed now was faith. They knew that it was God's will to heal. They said that they knew they were saved; they had gone forward in a church when an invitation was given and had prayed the sinner's prayer. So I knew that they were saved.

I asked them if they had asked the Lord to give them faith to be saved when they had gone down to the altar to be saved. They said no. The man related that the pastor preached that they could be saved. The pastor had read the Word to the people. In other words, they heard the Word concerning salvation. They had faith for salvation because the Bible says, "... faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). So I told them that they had faith for her healing, too, for the same reason they had had faith for salvation. They had heard the Word.

This man said they were going to have to throw their first prayer away because it wasn't any good. I agreed with him. You see, as soon as the light comes, faith is there.

This couple already had faith because they had heard and understood the Word. The woman agreed with us. She said that all she had to do now was to accept Jesus as her Healer. So I laid my hand on her head and prayed. Then I asked her if she was healed.

And she said that she surely was and that she knew it because the Word says so.

Sunday night during the service at that same church, the vestibule doors swung open and there was that same fellow again. He asked the pastor if he could say a word to the congregation. The pastor gave him permission and the man told the congregation what had happened. He said that when he and his wife got home Friday night, she pulled her brace off and threw it into the closet, and said, "Thank God, I'm healed."

The next day when he came home, he found her stooped over the sink washing her hair, something she had been unable to do. The woman had been completely healed!

I also laid hands on the husband and wife, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in tongues. Years later, the wife was still healed. How did she get faith?

From hearing the Word!

This man had also brought his mother to be prayed for, who was in a wheelchair with paralysis. After we prayed for her, she got up out of the chair and walked out of the building that night completely well. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is provision for every need, salvation, deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness.

Whatever need you have, the faith to receive your answer comes from hearing the Word of God. As you determine to feed upon the Word continually, you will see your faith grow to be able to receive the wonderful promises God has provided for His children.

How I Got Faith To Be Health - 3

2012-10-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

PART 3 of "How I Got Faith To Be Healed" post in 4 series, so you must read "How I Got Faith To Be Healed Part 2" first.

MARK 5:27,28,34
27 WHEN SHE HAD HEARD OF JESUS, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole....34 And he [Jesus] said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. Where did this woman get faith to receive healing? She got faith when she ". . . had heard of Jesus. .." (Mark 5:27).

I was preaching in Dallas in 1953 for several weeks in a Full Gospel church. Then I stayed on an additional three months while the pastor took a leave of absence. Besides preaching at different times during the week, I had a daily radio program, and I also conducted some special missionary services on the weekend. One Friday night after the services had been dismissed, one of the ushers came and told me that a man and a woman from Forth Worth had come to see me. The woman was sick and wanted to be healed. I met with them, and the man related that he had been going to work one morning and had heard my radio program. He said that I had taught on the radio that healing was for everyone. He told his wife about that statement I had made, and they began to tune in to the radio program every day.

The man told me that his wife had had two serious major operations, and she was facing the third one. They had been praying that if it was the will of God for her to be healed, God would give them faith to believe that she would be healed.

They had come to me so I could pray for her. I told them that it was unscriptural to pray to God for healing using the words, "If it be Thy will." When you put an "if' in your prayer in praying for anything God has promised you in His Word, you are praying in doubt.

Some people think they are being humble when they pray that way, but they are really being ignorant. In other words, when you pray in faith, you don't use an "if." You will get no answer to the prayer of faith if you put "ifs" in your prayers.

But when you are praying a prayer of consecration, committing your life to the plan of God, then you can use the phrase, "If it be Thy will," because you don't know for sure what the Lord's will is. When you are praying the prayer of consecration, you are not praying to change something. But the prayer of faith is the prayer to change things. "If' is the badge of doubt, and the word "if' shouldn't be used in your prayers if you are
trying to change a situation.

I had given some scriptures on the radio concerning faith, but they hadn't registered on this man whose wife was sick because he still wasn't sure it was God's will to heal his wife. I asked him, "If the New Testament said that Jesus took your wife's infirmities and bare her sicknesses, then wouldn't it be God's will for her to have her healing?" He agreed that it would. So we turned to Matthew 8:17.

MATTHEW 8:17
17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES, and BARE OUR SICKNESSES. This man jumped up and exclaimed that it was the will of God for his wife to be healed. His wife saw it too. Then we turned to First Peter 2:24.

1 PETER 2:24
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: BY WHOSE STRIPES YE WERE HEALED.

Then we turned to the Book of Isaiah.

How I Got Faith To Be Healed - 2

2012-10-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

PART 2 of "How I Got Faith To Be Healed" post in 4 series, so you must read "How I Got Faith To Be Healed Part 1" first.

ACTS 8:5-8
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and PREACHED CHRIST [the gospel] unto them.

6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing THE MIRACLES which he did.

7 For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were HEALED. 8 And there was great joy in that city.

Notice in verse 7 the miracles that followed the preaching of the Word - the gospel. Those healing miracles and deliverances all came about as the result of preaching Christ. The New Testament knows no Christ without Christ the Healer. Physical healing - divine healing - is a part of the gospel. If there is no gospel of healing today, then none of us has a gospel of salvation to preach either because healing is included in the atonement (Isa. 53:4,5).

P. C. Nelson was a great Baptist minister. He said, "Healing is part and parcel of the gospel." During the time Rev. Nelson was pastoring a church in Detroit, Michigan, in 1921, he was run over by an automobile. The doctors said that one of his legs would have to be taken off at the knee. They said that if by some miracle it didn't have to be amputated, at the very least it would be stiff for the rest of his life. But P. C. Nelson related that as he lay there in the hospital, the Lord began to talk with him. The Lord brought to his mind James 5:14 and 15.

JAMES 5:14,15
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Rev. Nelson said that he tried to excuse himself by telling the Lord they didn't practice that in his church. He said that the Lord reminded him of a man and his wife Rev. Nelson knew who believed in the anointing with oil according to this scripture. The Lord told Rev. Nelson that he should call them and have them pray for him. So Rev. Nelson contacted them, and they came to pray for him. They anointed him with oil and prayed, and he was healed. His leg didn't have to be taken off, and his knee wasn't stiff. God's Word is good. The Bible says, .. faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17).

Down in Texas several years ago, a fine denominational minister had a very outstanding ministry. Many of the denominational churches would sponsor him in citywide meetings. In his evangelistic endeavors he became sick. And by his own testimony, within a couple of years, all of his own money was gone. He had had $10,000 in the bank, and that was a lot of money back then. But in two years' time his money was gone. He had to sell his automobile, his home, and most of his books in order to pay his doctor bills. He had been everywhere, including the Mayo Clinic to try to receive help, but was none the better; rather, he grew worse.

Finally he was hospitalized in California. The doctor said that he was going to die. The minister contacted his brother who lived in California to borrow some money so he could go home to Texas where he could die. Their eighty two year old mother lived in Texas and he wanted to see his mother before he died. So his brother sent him the money and he went home. The minister went to live with his mother at the old home place in Texas where he grew up. His mother was so glad to see him. He told his mother that he had come home to die. His dear old mother had a nineteen year old boy who lived there with her who did the chores around the place.

This nineteen year old boy became the sick minister's nurse; the boy had to turn the sick man on his bed and dress him. One day the boy said to him, "Why don't you let the Lord heal you? The Bible says that if there is any sick among you, let them call for the elders of the church, and let them pray for you" (James 5:14,15). Here was a minister who supposedly knew the Bible and yet didn't even know that these scriptures were in the Bible. He had gone to school and studied everything but the Bible! The minister told the boy to get his Bible and find that passage of Scripture, but the boy had never learned how to read.

The man asked him how he knew that passage of Scripture was in the Bible. The boy said that his preacher had told him it was in the Bible. So the denominational minister looked up the scriptures and read them. The boy told the minister that his preacher was having a healing meeting under a brush arbor and invited the minister to come.

Arrangements were made for the minister to come to the meeting; someone brought an old Model T Ford and made a bed in the back of it for the minister. They drove up as close to the brush arbor as they could, and after the service the preacher came out and anointed the sick minister with oil and prayed over him. It was about midnight before the minister and the boy returned home. When the minister got home, he asked his mother to let the boy fire up the wood stove so she could fry him some ham and eggs. He had been eating baby food and soft foods because he couldn't eat any solid food. In fact, he hadn't had anything to eat except baby food in two years. The man told his mother that he was healed. He told her the preacher had anointed him and prayed for him. The mother said later that as her son related this, she thought he had lost his mind. He also wanted his mother to make some old fashioned country biscuits for him to eat too. She thought that since he was going to die anyway, he might as well die happy, so she did what he wanted and made the biscuits and fried ham and eggs. He ate that meal and didn't suffer any ill effects whatsoever; he was completely healed!

This minister then began to write about his healing and send articles in for publication in various magazines. Calls began to come in for him to hold revival meetings. He arranged a citywide meeting for Kansas City. The boy told him that before he went to that meeting, he needed to get filled with the Holy Ghost. The minister said that by that time he was ready to believe anything that nineteen yea old boy told him, so he asked the boy what he should do. The boy explained to him how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and invited him to another brush arbor meeting. When the invitation was given, the minister went to the altar, and he received the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues.

That minister has long since gone on to glory, but his writings have been a blessing to many of us, including the denomination he was a member of. How did that man get faith for healing? He got it by hearing the Word of God. Mark 5:25 tells us that there was a certain woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years. The Word tells us that she had spent all of her living and had gone to many physicians, but was no better. But then she heard about Jesus.

How I Got Faith To Be Healed - 1

2012-10-17T00:59:00.004-07:00

How I Got Faith To Be Healed post in 4 series. - Part 1.

More than fifty five years ago on the bed of sickness as a young denominational boy reading Grandma's Bible, the more I read the Word, the more I learned. I realized that I had never heard the full gospel, just part of it. The fullness of the gospel hadn't been taught in my church. But the more I read the Bible, the more I realized that I didn't have to die. The more I read God's Word, the more I realized that I could be healed. Of course, the devil was right there trying to tell me that healing had been done away with. I had been taught that God would heal if He wanted to. But saying that God could heal, but that He might not want to is an even bigger insult than saying He couldn't heal. Both of them are lies. I read the Word concerning healing. But the devil was right there to try to oppose me. The devil brought to my remembrance all the doubt and unbelief I'd ever heard. He brought to my remembrance all that I'd been taught on the subject of healing. Something that helped me immeasurably was that even though people had told me that healing had been done away with, I couldn't ever remember hearing that faith had been done away with. I'd never heard that.

As I studied the Word of God, I saw that faith had not been done away with. For example, the text in Acts chapter 14 says that the man at Lystra had faith to be healed. And in Mark 5:34, concerning the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus said, "... Daughter, THY FAITH hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." Therefore, the Bible clearly shows that faith has not been done away with. The man at Lystra had faith to be healed, and concerning the woman with the issue of blood, it was her faith that made her whole. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Notice in Mark 5:34 that Jesus didn't say that His power or His faith had made the woman whole. Jesus said to the woman, "... THY FAITH hath made thee whole. .." (Mark 5:34).

When I saw this, I knew that if her faith made her whole, then my faith could make me whole too! And, thank God, it did. My faith tapped into the power of God and I was made whole! My paralysis disappeared and my heart condition was healed. Since then I've been going at a hop, skip, and a jump, and I have been preaching the truth of the gospel, including healing, ever since.

Let's look more closely at the man at Lystra who had faith to be healed. How did he get that faith? From what he heard. What did he hear? He heard the Word of God. Is there something about hearing the gospel that would cause a life-long cripple to be healed? Decidedly, yes. Emphatically, yes! Healing Is a Part of the Gospel Paul preached the gospel of salvation which includes healing. The Bible simply calls it the gospel. How do we know he did? Look at Romans 1:16.

ROMANS 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST: for it is the power of God unto SALVATION to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The footnote in the Scofield Bible says, "The Hebrew and Greek words for salvation imply the ideas of deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness." I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ! It is the power of God unto deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Paul preached the full gospel, not just part of it. We also know that healing was a part of the gospel that was preached because other scriptures indicate it as well.

Five Rules to a Successful Prayer Life

2012-10-17T00:31:00.000-07:00

"Five Rules to a Successful Prayer Life " by Kenneth E. Hagin.

Understanding the Name of Jesus

2012-10-17T00:26:00.002-07:00

"Understanding the Name of Jesus" by Kenneth E. Hagin.

You Can Have What You Say Part 4

2012-10-17T00:23:00.004-07:00

"You Can Have What You Say - Part 4" video course serial from Kenneth E. Hagin.

You Can Have What You Say Part 3

2012-10-17T00:19:00.001-07:00

"You Can Have What You Say - Part 3" video course serial from Kenneth E. Hagin.

You Can Have Wjat You Say Part2

2012-10-17T00:15:00.001-07:00

"You Can Have What You Say - Part 2" video course serial from Kenneth E. Hagin.

You Can Have What You Say

2012-10-17T00:09:00.002-07:00

"You Can Have What You Say" video course serial from Kenneth E. Hagin.

To Do When Faith Seems Weak

2012-10-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

No better way to spend one hour, eight minutes and forty-nine seconds of your life!! This is awesome! This is phenomenal Bible course from an awesome man.

Kenneth E. Hagin Campmeeting

2012-10-16T23:43:00.002-07:00

Faith Comes by Hearing the Word

2012-10-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

Faith Comes by Hearing the Word by Kenneth E. Hagin.

God has told us that without faith it is impossible to please Him, but He has also told us how to get faith. If we don't have faith, God is not to blame. To blame God for our lack of faith is nothing in the world but ignorance. If we lack faith, we are to blame.

This is also true concerning faith for salvation. Faith for salvation also comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Paul said in Ephesians 2:8: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." We know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, but how are we to get faith to get saved? Romans chapter 10 tells us.

ROMANS 10:8-10,13,14

8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, THE WORD OF FAITH, WHICH WE PREACH;

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation ...

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and HOW SHALL THEY BELIEVE IN HIM OF WHOM THEY HAVE NOT HEARD? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Men are saved by hearing God's Word, because the Scripture says, ". . . faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). You cannot believe and have faith without hearing the Word. In Acts 10 and 11 we read about Cornelius, who, although devout, had not yet been saved. He had not heard the gospel yet, so how could he have been saved? No, Cornelius was not saved until he heard Peter preach. An angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius (Acts 10:3).

The angel who spoke to Cornelius couldn't preach the gospel to Cornelius because angels can't preach the gospel; God sent men to preach. Remember Jesus said, ". . .

Go YE into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). But the angel could tell Cornelius where to go to get someone who could preach the gospel to him (Acts 11:13).

The angel instructed Cornelius to call for Peter: "And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do" (Acts 10:5,6). Acts 11:14 reports that the angel said that Peter would preach the gospel to Cornelius: "Who shall tell thee WORDS, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." This verse also shows us that men are saved by hearing words - God's Word: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). You can't believe without hearing. So many are trying to believe without hearing.

How does faith for healing come? The same way - by hearing the Word of God concerning healing. In Acts 14 we are told the story of the impotent man who received his healing because of what he heard.

ACTS 14:7-10
7 And there they [Paul and Barnabas] PREACHED the GOSPEL.
8 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked:
9 The same HEARD Paul SPEAK: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. The casual reader of the Word of God might say, "Isn't it wonderful how Paul healed that man?" You've heard that said, and so have I. But Paul did not heal the man. The man was not healed because Paul was an apostle. The man was not healed by Paul's faith. The man himself had the faith to be healed. But notice what had to take place before this man was healed: "And there they [Paul and Barnabas] PREACHED the GOSPEL" (Acts 14:7).

So Paul did three things:
1. He preached the gospel to the man.
2. He perceived that the man had faith to be healed.
3. He told the man to rise up and walk.

The man also did three things:
1. He heard Paul preach the gospel.
2. He had faith to be healed.
3. He leaped up and walked.

The man was not healed by some special power that Paul had. The man himself had faith to be healed. Where and how did he get faith to be healed? He got it from what he heard! Remember Acts 14:9 says, "The same [man] heard Paul SPEAK. . . ." What did Paul speak? Verse 7 says, "And there they PREACHED the GOSPEL." If Paul preached what we call the gospel of salvation, how did the man get faith to be healed? The man got faith to be healed because Paul preached what the Bible calls the gospel, which also includes healing.

Chapter2: Babyhood-Irritability

2012-10-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

continue from Chapter2: Babyhood-Ignorance - Growing Up Spiritually by Kenneth E. Hagin.

Babies are easily spoiled. And when they become spoiled they become irritable. It's mighty easy to spoil them to a light so that you have to keep a light on. It's mighty easy to spoil them to being handled and held. They are babies.

But the Bible says something about babies growing up. David said, "Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child" (Psalm 131:2). The Bible says concerning Isaac, "And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned" (Genesis 21:8).

That ought to be a great day—that day when Christians grow enough to get off the bottle. But you know, it isn't. It ought to be a feast day; instead it's a cry day. I know, I pastored nearly twelve years. It's no wonder to me at all that we're not doing more in some of our churches than we are. If we do get a newborn babe in we don't have a bottle for it. Every bottle is in use. And the older babies are not going to give up their bottles. Every bed in the spiritual nursery is taken. And the older babies don't want to get up and give up their beds.

In the last church I pastored there were two ladies who lived next door to each other. Bless their hearts. They had been saved I don't know how long, baptized with the Holy Spirit and speaking with tongues. But that doesn't make you a full grown Christian. They were the biggest babies in the world. You'd have to run after them, and run after them, and run after them. They wanted you to come and pet them. They would miss church Sunday for you to come over on Monday and pet them.

So I just quit.

When one of the deacons said something to me about it I said, "Brother, if you want to go over and visit them, you go. But I'm never going over there again. The longest day I live, or the longest day I pastor this church, I will never set foot inside their houses again. I'm tired of wasting my time with them. They are babies who want to stay babies. There are other people who can be helped. There are new people to be visited. And others are getting saved who can be taught."

You couldn't have taught those old babies anything. So I quit visiting them and never set foot inside their houses the eighteen months I continued to pastor that church. But do you know what? When they saw I wasn't coming again I believe they were more faithful to church than they'd ever been.

We ought to grow enough spiritually so that instead of someone's having to come and visit us, and pump us up, and prop us up, and pray with us, and feed us, we are able to be out helping others ourselves. When weaning time comes we ought to thank God for it.

Actually, if a child is weaned properly, when weaning time comes it will turn its face from the bottle. If it isn't, you have a cry on your hands. If you can just keep people on the milk, they will grow. Peter said, "Desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby."

I have actually had pastors say to me, in trying to tell me I was giving their congregation a little too much, "Now Brother Hagin, I know my congregation should be better than they are, but you have to be careful. All they can take is a little milk. All I ever feed them is a little milk."

I said, "No, you haven't even given them milk. You've been pastor here thirty years. If they had been getting milk they would have grown. Peter said that we would grow thereby."

They didn't grow; so they weren't even getting milk. They were just getting bluejohn. Bluejohn is milk with all the cream taken out.

Babies are easily frustrated, easily distracted, easily hurt. The Lord wants to bring us to the place where we're not so easily frustrated. He wants to bring us to the place where we're not so easily distracted. He wants to bring us to the place where we're not so easily hurt.

CHAPTER 1

Chapter2: Babyhood-Ignorance

2012-10-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

continue from Chapter2: Babyhood-Innocence

Chapter2: Babyhood-Ignorance - Growing Up Spiritually by Kenneth E. Hagin.

Our two children are grown now with families of their own. In observing our babies and grand-babies I know this—a baby seems to think everything he can get his hands on is intended for his mouth.

A newborn puts his hands in his mouth. As he grows a little older and learns to crawl across the floor if he finds a screw it goes in his mouth, if he finds a spoon it goes in his mouth, if he finds a spider it goes in his mouth.

Babies are ignorant concerning these things. They don't know what should go in their mouths and what shouldn't. And babies have died as a result of not knowing that. They have gotten hold of something poisonous and it killed them.

In one case I know of, a 14 month old baby, crawling across the floor, picked up some spoiled food left there perhaps by an older child. Before they could get the baby to a doctor, it died. An autopsy revealed the poisonous food. The parents went back home and found some of the food on the floor of a room which was seldom used. That little one didn't know he shouldn't eat it. He was ignorant concerning the effect it would have.

What am I getting to? The same thing is true spiritually speaking. We need to be careful what goes into our spiritual mouths. We need to be as careful about what we read as we are about what we eat physically. Christians many times think nothing at all of gulping down some poisonous doctrine which will poison life spiritually, rob them of their spirituality, and ruin their testimony if they accept it.

A number of years ago a denominational minister was filled with the Holy Spirit and had a marvelous experience with God. I'll guarantee you this much, I know of no greater soul winner in any church than that man. He was outstanding. He would get people saved when no one else could. It seemed to me you could stand up the twelve best preachers in America and let all of them preach and give an altar call—then he could take the same crowd, preach to them, and get more souls saved than any of the others after they'd had first shot at it. That was his ministry; an evangelistic type ministry. But he got to reading after some false stuff, finally accepted some false doctrine, and got off on it. If he has won a soul in more than twenty years I don't know it and no one else does either.

I know of some born-again, Spirit-filled people who were soul winners, getting people saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. But they got taken up with certain doctrines. Some of them told me, "God is doing a different thing nowadays." No. God's not doing a different thing nowadays. They're just off their rockers. He's still concerned about saving people. They just left the fundamental truths of the doctrine of the Word of God and went off on something that doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

Some things are actually poisonous in themselves. And some things it doesn't make a whole lot of difference how you believe on them—they are simply not essential to salvation and it wouldn't make any difference whether you believed it, or you didn't believe it.

But too many times Christian people will feed on everything in the world except the right thing, and will become poisoned. Then they lead disciples off after themselves. If the Spirit of God is in it, He is concerned about there being unity. Did you notice Ephesians 4:13 says, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith"? That which will divide Christians is not of the Spirit of God—it's of the devil. The Spirit of Love never divides.

I went into a Christian home once and saw some books I knew to be poisonous lying on a living room table. They were religious books, but they were poisonous. (We need not only be careful about secular books, but we need to be careful about reading religious books.) I purposely worked the conversation around to these books. I picked one up and said something about it.

This person was a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian but they said "Oh that is the most marvelous book."

"Is it?" I said.

"Yes."

In the early days of my Christian experience I had happened to get hold of some of these books and had detected immediately the poison in them. So I just turned to certain pages and began to read certain things aloud.

"Well now, Brother Hagin, they give chapter and verse in there. I looked some of them up and those verses are in the Bible."

I said, "Certainly. If they didn't give some verses—though they may take them out of their setting—and a little Bible, folks wouldn't read it. If you were going to poison a dog he wouldn't eat just the poison. You have to put the poison on a good piece of meat."

Do you see what I'm talking about? You have to put the poison on a good piece of meat to get a dog to come. The devil will use some good scripture to get you to eat it, but he'll put a little poison on it. Be careful no matter who you read after. Don't read everything you can get your hands on. Unless you are a fully mature Christian and able to rightly divide it, it would be best not to read such things.

Years ago I held a meeting for a Full Gospel minister, a very well educated man, a doctor of divinity. Up to that time I had never seen a larger personal library than his. There's no telling how many hundreds of volumes lined the walls from ceiling to floor. Being a bookworm myself I was interested in looking it over. I read some of his books while I was there in three weeks of meetings.

As we talked one day he said, "Brother Hagin, I'll be perfectly honest with you. There are some things I've read that I wish I'd never read. They bother me. They hinder me yet, though I don't read them anymore..." And he mentioned some of these books. They were religious books. But he said, "I just wish I had never read them. It hinders my faith today. It hinders me in believing God today."

It would have been better for him never to have built that into his inner consciousness. But he had.

When I start reading something that takes faith out of me instead of putting faith in me, I have enough sense to lay it down right then. Be careful what you feed upon. There is a saying used in the area of man's natural diet, "You are what you eat." The same thing is true spiritually, "You are what you read."

CONTINUE

Chapter2: Babyhood-Innocence

2012-10-16T22:17:00.001-07:00

continue from Chapter2: Babyhoo: GROWING UP SPIRITUALLY.

The first thing that attracts you to a baby is its innocence. People say, "You sweet little innocent thing." No one thinks of a baby as having a past. It doesn't have one.

Do you know something? If you are a newborn babe in Christ, you don't have any past. You may have been as mean as the devil. You may have been the worst wretch that ever walked. But no matter how you may have lived, when you were born-again you became a new man in Christ Jesus and you don't have any past. God looks at you as an innocent babe.
II CORINTHIANS 5:17 17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Even though innocence belongs to the babyhood stage of Christianity, it is one characteristic we should never outgrow. We should maintain this state of innocence for the simple reason that if we don't, we will fall under the condemnation of the devil and be defeated in spiritual life.

A new convert is simple, full of faith, ready and willing to learn. We should always maintain that teachable spirit. Yet sometimes when we grow older we sort of come to the place where we have a "know-it-all" attitude; a "You-can't-tell-me-anything" attitude. Those people no one can help, including God Himself.

A group of men gathered in back of the auditorium after service one night in one of the churches I pastored. As I walked up to shake hands with them one of the deacons said, "Brother Hagin, what do you think about..." and he mentioned a certain Bible subject. I found out later he did that purposely to bring me into their discussion.

"Well, I don't know just where your discussion is," I said, "and whether I could fit in or not."

The man the deacon really wanted to help spoke up immediately, "Well, I'll tell you. You or anyone else can't tell me a thing in the world about that Bible subject. I know all there is to be known on it. I know all about it."

I said, "If you do, you've got me beat. And if you do, you have every other preacher beat that I've ever seen or known of, or any other person."

He said, "Well, I know all about it. No one can tell me a thing about it."

But to tell the truth, that fellow was the biggest baby in the entire church. He didn't know all about it at all.

Keep an open spirit and a teachable spirit, as well as an innocent spirit, toward God and man.

CONTINUE

Chapter2 Babyhood: Growing Up Spiritually

2012-10-16T21:56:00.003-07:00

Chapter2: Babyhood - GROWING UP SPIRITUALLY by Kenneth E. Hagin

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:"
—I Peter 2:2

Here in Peter the Bible speaks about Christians being "newborn babes." No one is born a full grown human naturally and physically. They are born babies, and then they grow up. Similarly no one is born a full grown Christian. You are born a spiritual babe, and then you grow up.

There's a whole sermon in just that fact. We are going to be held accountable for the spiritual babies born into the family of God around our altars and in our churches.

I pastured nearly twelve years and really you don't expect too much out of babies because they can't do too much for themselves. Someone else though can do something for them.

Too many times someone is saved on Sunday night and if they make a mistake before Wednesday night everyone in the church knows it, and is already fussing about it. They expect him to be living, by Wednesday night or the next Sunday, just as good a Christian life as they do when it took them years to get where they are.

A number of years ago I held a two-week meeting for a particular minister. We were scheduled to go longer but I cut it off.

Crowds were coming. The auditorium would seat 800 and it was comfortably full every night. People were responding. We weren't really having evangelistic services—I was doing a lot of teaching and praying for the sick—yet on Saturday night when I gave the invitation first for people to be saved, thirty-three adults came for salvation.

They stood across the front as I prayed with them and led them in a prayer. Then I sent them back to the prayer room where others would pray with them while I went on ministering to the sick.

The thing that so impressed me about this service was that of the thirty-three who came for salvation so many were young married couples who looked to be between the ages of twenty-five to thirty-two. I learned later not one or the group had ever been a Christian; not one was a member of any church. I asked the pastor after the service about these young people.

He said, "None of the thirty-three were backsliders. They were all sinners who came to be saved."

That was unusual. I asked him if he knew any of them.

He said, "I don't know a one of them. They've never been to my church before."

I asked him, "Did you get their names and addresses?"

He said, "Oh brother, I just figure if they got anything they'll be back. You don't have to worry about them."

I said, "I'm closing the meeting tomorrow night."

People are born babies. They need to be seen about. They had never been to that church before. They had never heard any Full Gospel preaching before. They needed to be followed up and prayed with, talked to, and dealt with. They were newborn babies.

After a leading healing evangelist held a meeting in a certain city a pastor who had cooperated with it said to me, "I'm never going to cooperate with another one of those city-wide meetings. Never another one."

"Why?" I asked.

"I didn't get a person out of it," he said. "Not a one. Not a member. It didn't do me a bit of good in the world."

"It didn't?"

"No."

I asked him, "Did you get cards on any of the folks who came to the altar?"

"Oh yes," he said, "they gave me some cards. But none of them ever showed up."

I was talking to another pastor in the same town about the same meeting and he said, "We got twenty-nine new members out of that meeting. I wish he would come back."

"How did you get them?" I asked. "How did they happen to come to your church?"

He said, "Oh they didn't know anything about our church. I got the cards on some of them and visited them. I didn't just encourage them to come to our church, but I insisted they get in some good Full Gospel church and go on with God. And some of them came to ours."

We are responsible for babies. Babies don't know. Babies can't do for themselves. A newborn baby in the natural can't do much. He doesn't walk yet. He doesn't dress himself. In fact, he doesn't do anything for himself. About all he does is eat. And about all he eats is milk. Spiritually there are newborn babes. And if they get the sincere milk of the Word, they will grow thereby.

CONTINUE