How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God Bible Study

 

Study On Book Entitled

“HOW YOU CAN BE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD”,

By Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

PREFACE

In February 1959 in El Paso, Texas, Jesus appeared to Kenneth Hagin in person in a vision. He came into his hospital room at 6:30 in the evening, sat down on a chair at his bedside, and talked with Kenneth Hagin for an hour and a half.

 

Jesus talked about the ministry of the prophet (Ephesians 4:11-12). Then He said, “I did not put prophets in the Church to guide the New Testament Church. My Word says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Now if you will listen to Me, I am going to teach you how to follow My Spirit. Then I want you to teach my people how to be led by the Spirit.”

 

 

CHAPTER 1

 

In the first chapter, Kenneth Hagin talks about how the Lord speaks to us and leads us through our spirit (not our mind, intellect, feelings, physical senses or body).

 

We are a spirit being, and have a soul and live in a body.

 

The key Scriptures for Chapter 1 are:

 

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14

 

“The Spirit itself [Himself] beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Romans 8:16

 

“The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27). In Scripture the belly speaks of a person’s innermost being, the gut, the deepest part of man.

 

The primary way the Lord speaks to us is through the Word of God, the still small voice and inward witness. He speaks to our spirit. He enlightens our spirit. He guides us through our spirit (not our mind or body or emotions or feelings). The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord (Proverbs 20:27). God gives wisdom, light and revelation to our spirit man.

 

Everyday for decades, Kenneth Hagin would pray Ephesians 1:17-19 over himself, which says:

 

17 [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,

 

18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),

 

19 And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength … AMP

 

When you seek guidance by any other way than God says, you get yourself into trouble. God does not guide us through our physical senses. We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

 

Too often we look at things through a mental standpoint and try to reason things out. But nowhere in Scripture does God say that He would guide us through our mentality. He guides us through our spirit.

 

Too many times we perceive things based on our emotions or feelings, but God does not speak to our emotions, but to our spirit.

 

To get our spirit man built up and strengthened, so that we can be led of God, we need to feed on the Word of God daily, as well as meditate on the things of God (Psalms 1). The Word is like medicine and health to our spirit, soul and body (Proverbs 4:20-22).

 

Entering into times of worship also helps us to be sensitive to hearing the Voice of the Holy Spirit. When you worship God, His Glory and Presence fills the place and then it is much easier to hear the Holy Spirit speak to you. Sometimes the Lord will give you visions during the worship when His Glory is present.

 

The Lord speaks to us in many ways. Besides the primary way the Lord speaks to us (through the Word of God, the still small voice and inward witness), He often speaks to us through impressions, promptings, nudges, leadings, dreams and visions, prophets, words of knowledge (1 Corinthians 12:8), and things or words quickened to us (something comes alive in our spirit).

 

Quickened things or words could include street signs, book titles, things people say, inspirational quotes, through nature, through songs, through rhema words (where certain Scriptures almost leap off the page and speak to our current situation), etc.

 

You have to be careful with dreams and visions, as not all dreams and visions are from God. The enemy can get territory in that area and deceive people. It takes practice and much prayer to discern the true from the false.

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 2

 

Key Scriptures:

 

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness … So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him” (Genesis 1:26-27).

 

“For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” (Philippians 1:23-24).

 

“But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

 

“But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (1 Peter 3:4).

 

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

Man is a spirit being. He is made in the likeness of God. Jesus said that God is a Spirit (John 4:24). So man must of necessity be a spirit.

 

Man is a spirit being, has a soul and lives in a physical body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

 

When the physical body is dead and in the grave, the spirit lives on forever. The spirit of man is eternal. Spirits can never die. The soul is attached to the spirit, and it never dies, but is always being renewed and conformed into the image of Christ.

 

In Philippians 1:23-24, Paul is speaking of physical death when he says that he is caught between the two (wanting to go to Heaven, yet feeling the need to remain on the earth for the sake of others).

 

Paul is going to live—whether in the body or out of the body. If he abides, or lives in the flesh, he can teach the church at Philippi and be a blessing to them. That would be more needful for them. However, for Paul, it would be far greater to depart and be with Christ.

 

The question may be asked, “Who is going to depart?” Paul was not talking about his body, he was saying “I” am going to depart. The “I” is his spirit being, or the inward man who lives inside of his body.

 

When we die and go to Heaven, we will be clothed with a physical body, wear robes and garments, and be seen and known. However, we will have brand new youthful bodies that will never get sick or old, and will never die again.

 

We will know and recognize one another in Heaven, just as we know people on earth.

 

The Bible does not teach soul sleep, as some cults do, but teaches that when we die, if we are born again, we will live in Heaven.

 

People who are lost and end up in hell also have bodies, plus their five physical senses. They feel so much excruciating pain at all times, and mental and emotional torment. If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, you can be born again right now. Just pray this prayer:

 

Dear Lord Jesus,

 

I invite You to come into my heart. I make You my Lord and Savior. Wash me clean by Your Blood. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Help me to live for you all the days of my life.

 

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

If you prayed this prayer, where is Jesus right now? Do You feel His Presence in your heart? You are now born again and are a child of God. Heaven is your eternal home. I would encourage you to get into a good Bible believing church, and put Jesus as first place in your life. God bless you!

 

The Apostle Paul said that there is an inward man, and there is an outward man. The outward man (physical body) is not the real you. The outward man is only the house in which “you” live. The inward man is the real you. It never gets old, although it matures. It is renewed day by day. The inward man is the spirit man. We are speaking spirits.

 

Romans 8:14 says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Then in verse 16, it says “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”

 

Proverbs 20:27 says that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. In other words, God guides us through our spirit. He gives revelation and illumination to our spirit. He speaks to our spirit. That’s why it is so important to get your spirit man built up strong. This is accomplished through meditating on the Word of God and digging out its treasures.

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The kingdom of God has a two-fold meaning: 1) Heaven 2) The ways in which God operates.

 

Nicodemus misunderstood what Jesus said, and thought that Jesus was saying that the physical body has to be born a second time (which would be impossible). Jesus was referring to the spirit being born again.

 

When a person gets saved, their physical body remains the same, but their spirit and soul is transformed. Actually, the spirit is saved instantly upon conversion, but the soul (mind, will, emotions and traditions) is transformed over a process of time. The Bible talks about going from one plateau of glory to another in 2 Corinthians 3:18.

 

When a person becomes born again, they receive a new nature, the nature of God, plus eternal life.

 

Paul calls man’s spirit “the inward man”, while Peter calls man’s spirit “the hidden man of the heart”.

 

1 Peter 3:4 says, “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”

 

In many places in the Bible, and especially the New Testament, when the Bible speaks of the heart it is referring to the spirit part of man. It depends on the Hebrew or Greek definitions. Some words for “heart” are used to denote emotions, passions, and the heart can be good or evil. There are other words that refer to the heart as the breath or spirit of man.

 

In the New Testament, wherever the word “heart” is used, substitute the word “spirit” and you will get a clearer picture of what the Bible is talking about. It is the spirit of man that is born again.

 

Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

 

This is talking about the inward man becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus. When you are born again, you do not get a new body, nor is your soul (thoughts, emotions, will) changed immediately. Your spirit is the part of you that is transformed.

 

God does not do anything with the outward man (physical body). You have to do something with it if you want to see improvements. You are the caretaker of your body. However, the Lord is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals you. He is able to remove sickness and disease, as well as heal you emotionally and mentally.

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 3

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

“… I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless …” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

 

This chapter is about being spirit-conscious.

 

In this Scriptural passage, Paul begins with the inside, the innermost part of man, the heart of his being, which is his spirit, and then works his way to the outside of man (the physical body).

 

Yet most people misquote this verse. They say “body, soul and spirit”. Why do they put the body first? Because they are more body-conscious than spirit-conscious. Natural things mean more to them than spiritual things. So they put physical things first.

 

Sometimes we are more mental-conscious because we live more in the mental realm.

 

But man is a spirit being. We need to be more spirit-conscious. Spiritual things will become more real to us the more spirit-conscious we become.

 

If we are going to be led by the Spirit of God, we must become more spirit-conscious. God’s Spirit leads us through our spirits.

 

Put spirit first. Become more spirit-conscious, more conscious of the inner man. Realize that you are a spirit being and that you became a new creation created by God in Christ Jesus. It will help you to grow spiritually.

 

Say outloud: “I am a spirit, I have a soul and I live in a physical body.” This will help you to become more spirit-conscious. It will build your faith, because faith is of the spirit, or the heart.

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 4

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

“For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit …” (Hebrews 4:12).

 

The spirit and soul are connected, but they are not the same.

 

The soul is the mind, will and emotions.

 

Kenneth Hagin talks about how in the 1950’s, he began an intensive study on the subject of the difference between the soul and spirit. He got books from leading Bible schools and seminaries, both Pentecostal and Denominational, to see what they taught on the subject of man. None satisfied him. None were actually Scriptural. They were only Scriptural “in part”. He even consulted leading Bible scholars and ministers across the nation. Most of the ministers thought that the spirit and soul were the same.

 

Yet how could the spirit and soul be the same if Paul, by the Spirit of God, said they could be divided (in Hebrews 4:12)? If you can divide them, then they cannot be the same.

 

Only the Word of God can divide the spirit and the soul. The reason we have not been able to distinguish between the two is because we have not dug deep enough into the Word.

 

Years ago, in the western part of the United States, they had what we call the “gold rush”. People rushed out West with the hopes of getting rich in a hurry. Most panned a little bit of gold out of creeks. Some found a few nuggets lying on the ground. But if you really wanted to strike it rich, you had to dig for it.

 

The same is true in spiritual matters. You can skim along the surface of the Bible and pan out a little gold here and there, and even find a nugget occasionally. But if you really want to strike it rich spiritually, you have to dig down deep into the Word of God.

 

For years Kenneth Hagin studied carefully, often burning the midnight oil. If there was anything he desired to know, it was the difference between the spirit and the soul. Eventually he went through a process of elimination. He wrote it like this:

 

With my body I contact the physical realm. With my spirit I contact the spiritual realm. With my soul, I contact the intellectual and emotional realm.

 

A Scripture that helped him was 1 Corinthians 14:14:

 

“For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.”

 

The Amplified translation reads: “For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive …”

 

Our understanding, our natural human mentality, is a part of our soul.

 

Notice what Paul said. “My spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.” He did not say, “When I pray in an unknown tongue my soul prays.” He did not say, “When I pray in tongues, I pray out of my intellect, or out of my mind.” He said in effect, “I am not praying out of my soul when I pray in tongues; I am praying out of my spirit, my heart, my innermost being.”

 

Do you remember what Jesus said? John 7:37-39 says:

 

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

38 He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, OUT OF HIS BELLY shall flow rivers of living water.

39 (BUT THIS SPAKE HE OF THE SPIRIT, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

 

In Scripture, the belly speaks of the innermost being, the gut, the deepest part of man, the spirit of a man.

 

As a result of receiving the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “Out of the belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Another translation reads, “Out of the innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”

 

A Full Gospel pastor’s daughter was six years old when she and some of the children were off by themselves one night at a revival. Some of these youngsters were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues. This little six-year-old, holding her stomach, ran up to her mother, saying, “Momma, Momma, that came right out of my belly.”

 

She was being Scriptural. She was speaking in tongues from her belly—her spirit, her innermost being. That’s where tongues comes from—the Holy Spirit who resides in your spirit gives your spirit the utterance and you speak it out.

 

Consider these Scriptures together now. “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the INWARD PARTS OF THE BELLY … OUT OF HIS BELLY shall flow rivers of living water …”

 

All the leadings that Kenneth Hagin has ever received have come out of his spirit. And most of them came while he was praying in tongues. Your spirit is active when you pray in tongues.

 

For so long the Church world has failed miserably because it has done so much of just one kind of praying—praying with the understanding, or mental praying. Christians have endeavored to fight spiritual battles with mental abilities.

 

In every crisis of life Kenneth Hagin learned to look to his spirit inside of him. He learned to pray in other tongues. While he would be praying in tongues, guidance would come up from inside of him. This was because his spirit was active.

 

It is through our spirit that God is going to guide us and speak to us.

 

Sometimes Kenneth Hagin would interpret what he had prayed in tongues, and through the interpretation he received light and guidance (1 Corinthians 14:13). But most of the time that was not so. Most of the time when he would pray in tongues, he could sense something rising up from inside of him. It would begin to take shape and form. He cannot explain how mentally he would know it, because his understanding had nothing to do with it. He just knew on the inside what to do.

 

Listen to your spirit, because the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 5

 

Key Scriptures:

 

“… Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

 

“And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).

 

“He restoreth my soul …” (Psalms 23:3).

 

The spirit of man is the part of man that is born again. It is the part of man that receives eternal life, which is the nature and life of God. It is the spirit of man that becomes a brand-new creature in Christ Jesus. The soul is attached to the spirit, but it is not the part that is born again. The spirit is saved instantly upon conversion. The soul (mind, will and emotions) is saved (or renewed or restored) over a process of a lifetime.

 

The Epistle of James was not written to sinners, but to the Church. We know that because of James 5:14 where he says, “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church …”

 

Referring back now to the first chapter of James, let’s pick up with verse 18:

 

James 1:18-21

18 Of His own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

21 Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

 

James is talking to born-again believers. Of the Father’s own will, he writes, we were begotten, or born again by the Word of Truth. He calls them “my beloved brethren”, so they were in Christ. Yet he encourages these born-again, Spirit-filled people to receive the engrafted Word with meekness “… which is able to save your souls.” Evidently, their souls were not saved.

 

You see, a man’s spirit, the innermost man, the real man, receives eternal life and is born again. But his intellect and emotions—which comprise his soul—still have to be dealt with. They are not born again. They are to be renewed.

 

Paul speaks about the renewing of the mind, writing to the saints at Rome. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”

 

The Psalmist David spoke of the restoring of the soul:

 

Psalms 23:3 says, “He restoreth my soul.”

 

The Hebrew word translated as restore in the Old Testament, and the Greek word translated as renew in the New Testament mean about the same thing. The soul—the mind—is to be renewed or restored.

 

Kenneth Hagin goes on to talk about an old chair that his mother left him. Once it was re-upholstered and revarnished, it became good as new, restored and renewed.

 

In the Word it is never written that God restores our spirits. Our spirits become brand new creatures in Christ Jesus. Our souls, however, must be restored and renewed.

 

How is the soul restored and renewed?

 

James 1:21 “Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls.”

 

Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”

 

Psalms 23:3 “He restoreth my soul.”

 

Man’s soul is saved, or restored, when his mind becomes renewed with the Word of God. It is the Word of God that saves our souls, that renews our minds, that restores our souls.

 

When our minds become renewed with the Word of God, then we think in line with what God’s Word says. We are able to know and prove the permissive and the perfect will of God—because the Word of God is the will of God. We don’t have so many questions about the will of God once we get our souls saved.

 

The greatest need in the Church today is to have minds renewed with the Word of God.

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 6

 

 

Key Scriptures:

 

“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).

 

“But I keep under my body, and bring it unto subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway [disapproved]” (1 Corinthians 9:27).

 

It is the inward man—not the outward man—that becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. When we get born again, we still have the same body as before we got saved. What we must learn to do is to let that new man on the inside of us dominate. With that new man, we control the flesh and do something with our bodies.

 

Let’s look again at 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” One translation reads, “If any man be in Christ, there is a new self …”

 

Sometimes in churches we hear people talking about “dying out to self”. There is no such statement in the Bible. We don’t have to die out to self if we have become a new self. What we need to do is to crucify the flesh. The Bible does talk about that.

 

Crucifying the flesh is not something that God does for you. It is something you do for yourself. “I beseech you, therefore, brethren,” Paul wrote to the Church, “by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies…” (Romans 12:1).

 

Who presents your body?

 

You do.

 

Who is you?

 

That’s the man on the inside who is born again, and has become a new creature.

 

You do something with your body. If you don’t do something with it, nothing will ever be done with it.

 

1 Corinthians 9:27 says, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway [disapproved].”

 

Here Paul is talking about how he does something with his body. “I keep under my body. I bring it into subjection.”

 

Who is I?

 

That’s the real man—the real Paul—the man on the inside who has become a new creature in Christ Jesus and is filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

What did Paul bring his body into subjection to?

 

To the inward man. Instead of letting the body dominate the inward man, Paul saw to it that the inward man dominated the outward man.

 

Now notice this. Here is this great apostle, this holy man of God, this man who wrote half the New Testament, a man who is a spiritual giant—yet evidently his body wanted to do things that were wrong. If it hadn’t, he would not have had to keep it under. He would not have had to bring it into subjection.

 

Just because your body wants to do wrong, doesn’t mean you are not saved, or that you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. (If that were the case, then Paul was not saved.) You will have to contend with the body, the flesh, as long as you are in this world.

 

“Brother Hagin, I want you to pray for me,” one man said.

 

“What for?”, I asked. I like to know what I am praying for.

 

A look of seriousness, even tears, came to his eyes. “I want you to pray that I will never have anymore trouble with the devil.”

 

I said, “Do you want me to pray you will die?”

 

“No, no. I don’t want to die.”

 

I said, “The only way you won’t have anymore trouble with the devil is to get out of here and go on to Heaven.”

 

You will have problems with the devil as long as you are in this life. You will have problems with the flesh as long as you are in the flesh. But, blessed be God, the means, ability and authority have been given to you through the Word of God to deal with the devil and to deal with the flesh.

 

Paul did not let his body dominate him. The man on the inside that was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit—must dominate the outward man.

 

You can do it. You are the one who must do it. Paul did not say that God would do it for you. He did not say that the Holy Spirit would do it for you. He said, “You present your bodies …” He said, “You be not conformed to this world …” He said, “You be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You present your body. You do it. You get your mind renewed with the Word of God. You do it.

 

The life and nature of God is in your spirit. Let that man on the inside be the dominant one. Listen to him. It is the spirit of man that is the candle of the Lord. It is through your spirit that God will guide you.

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 7

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

The Spirit itself [Himself] beareth witness with our spirit …” (Romans 8:16).

 

Being led by the inward witness is the number one way, or the primary way, that God leads all of His children.

 

Kenneth Hagin goes on to share more about the open vision he had in February 1959 in El Paso, Texas. It was 6:30 in the evening. Kenneth Hagin was sitting up in bed in a hospital room studying. His eyes were wide open.

 

There are three types of visions. The highest type is an open vision, where one’s physical senses are not suspended, and his physical eyes are not closed. He possesses all of his physical capabilities, yet sees into the realm of the Spirit.

 

Kenneth Hagin heard footsteps. The door to his room was ajar twelve to fourteen inches, so he looked to see who was coming in. He expected to see some literal, physical person. But as he looked to see who it was, it was Jesus. He had on a white robe, and Roman sandals.

 

Jesus appeared to Kenneth Hagin on eight different occasions.

 

Jesus came into the room, and pushed a chair close up to the bed, and talked to Kenneth Hagin for an hour and a half about the ministry of the prophet.

 

Jesus started out the conversation with, “I told you in the automobile the other night …”

 

The automobile had been full. His wife and others were driving along, and he heard the Spirit of God speak to him. It was so loud or internal audible, that he thought everyone in the car heard it, but they didn’t hear a thing.

 

In the Old Testament the prophets would say, “And the Word of the Lord came unto me saying …” Did you ever wonder how it came? It could not have been literally audible or else others would have heard God speak too. The Word of the Lord came to the prophet’s spirit from the Spirit of God. It is so real that it seems audible, but it is “internal audible”.

 

As Jesus sat at his bedside, He said, “I spoke to you the night before last in the automobile and told you certain things. I told you, by my Spirit, that later I would talk to you further. So now I have come to talk to you about this …”

 

It was concerning the ministry of the prophet. Jesus said that the prophet of the New Testament is very similar to the prophet of the Old Testament, in that he was called a “Seer” because he saw and knew things supernaturally. The prophet of the New Testament also sees and knows things supernaturally. But the prophet of the New Testament does not have the same status as the prophet of the Old Testament.

 

Jesus said that He did not set prophets into the Church to guide the Church. A Christian under the New Testament need not seek guidance through prophets. He might receive guidance, but should not seek it out. It is unscriptural to do so. The ministry of the New Testament prophet if only to CONFIRM what people already have in their own spirits.

 

Under the Old Covenant, only the priest, the prophet, and the king were anointed by the Holy Spirit to stand in those offices. What you would call the laity did not have the Spirit of God in them or upon them. Therefore, under the Old Covenant, people would seek guidance through the prophet because he had the Spirit of God.

 

Under the New Testament, we not only have the Spirit of God upon us, but in us.

 

Jesus also said to Kenneth Hagin, “Under the New Covenant, it does not say, ‘As many as are led by prophets, they are the sons of God.’ The New Testament says, ‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God’” (Romans 8:14).

 

Then He said, “The number one way, the primary way, that I lead all of My children is by the inward witness. I am going to show you how that works so you won’t make the mistakes you have made in the past.”

 

Jesus explained to Kenneth Hagin that to stand in the office of the prophet, one first of all is a minister of the Gospel separated and called to the ministry with the call of God upon his life. Secondly, he has at least two of the revelation gifts—the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the discerning of spirits—plus the gift of prophecy, operating in his ministry.

 

Then Jesus called Kenneth Hagin’s attention to something that had been happening to him for the previous three days. For the past three days, Kenneth Hagin had sat down to write a letter to a pastor confirming a date to hold a meeting for him. Somehow, the first day he got a half of a page written, then tore it up and threw it in the wastebasket. The next day he did the same thing. The third day he did the same thing.

 

Jesus said, “You see Me sitting here talking to you. This is a manifestation of the Spirit called discerning of spirits. (Discerning of spirits is seeing into the spirit realm.) This is the prophet’s ministry in operation. You are seeing in the realm of the Spirit. You see Me. You hear Me talking. I am bringing you, through the vision, a word of knowledge and also a word of wisdom. I am telling you to not go to that church. The pastor would not accept the way that you would minister when you got there. But I am never going to lead you this way ever again. From now on, I’m going to lead you by the inward witness. You had the inward witness all the time. You had a check in your Spirit. That’s the reason you tore up the letter three times. You had something on the inside, a check, a red light, a stop signal. It wasn’t even a voice that said, “Don’t go.” It was just an inward intuition.

 

Then Jesus reminded him of another speaking invitation. He had preached a convention for one of the Full Gospel denominations the previous year. Nearly every pastor there asked if he would come and hold a meeting. He had hundreds of calls.

 

One fellow came up and said, “Brother Hagin, do you ever go to small churches?” He said, “I go anywhere the Lord says to go.” “Well, we only run seventy to ninety in Sunday School. But if God ever speaks to you, we want you to come.”

 

Kenneth Hagin had dismissed that conversation along with many others. Several months later, however, while praying in the church one day about his services that night, that conversation came back to him. Then everyday it continued to come back to him. Finally, after about thirty or forty days, Kenneth Hagin said, “Lord, do You want me to go to that little church for a meeting?”

 

The more he would pray about it, the better he would feel about it. It wasn’t a physical feeling, but it was a feeling in his spirit.

 

Sitting by his bedside, Jesus referred to this: “The more you thought about it, the better you felt about it. You had a velvety-like feeling in your spirit. That’s the green light. That’s the go-ahead signal. That’s the witness of the Spirit to go. Now you see Me sitting here, you hear Me talking to you, and I am telling you to go to that church. But I am not going to lead you to go anywhere like this ever again. (He never has.) From now on, I am going to lead you like I do every other Christian—by the inward witness.”

 

Then the Lord said this to Kenneth Hagin: “If you will learn to follow that inward witness, I will make you rich. I will guide you in all the affairs of life, financial as well as spiritual.” [Some think God is only interested in their spiritual well-being, and nothing else. But He is interested in everything we are interested in.] Jesus said, “I am not opposed to My children being rich; I am opposed to their being covetous.”

 

Kenneth Hagin followed the inward witness, and the Lord prospered him financially, where his needs were always met and all the bills paid. For Kenneth Hagin, the word “rich” means “a full supply”.

 

Kenneth Hagin knew a man in Texas who had never worn a pair of shoes until age twelve. He had only a fifth grade education. But way back decades ago, he was a millionaire.

 

Two different people, one from California and the other from Minnesota, had been frequent house guests in his home, and told Kenneth Hagin that this man had told both men the same thing.

 

He said to them both, “In all these years and in all of these investments [that’s how he made his money], I have never lost a dime.”

 

“Everything I have ever invested in, has made money.” Then he told them how he did it.

 

“I always do this. When someone comes along with an idea, wanting me to invest in something, my first reaction is mental. Now I know that when Jesus said, ‘When you pray, enter your closet’, that He didn’t necessarily mean you have to get in your closet to pray. I know He meant for us to shut things out. But I have a large closet in my bedroom where I go to pray. I pray about it. I wait long enough until I hear what my spirit says. Sometimes I wait three days. Now I don’t mean that I stay in there 24 hours a day. I might come out and eat one meal. Usually I miss a few. I come out and sleep a little bit. But the majority of the time I am waiting, just by myself, until I know on the inside by an inward witness what I am to do.”

 

“Sometimes my head says, ‘Boy, you would be a fool to put your money in that. You’ll lose your shirt.’ But my heart says, ‘Go ahead and invest in it.’ So I do. And in all these years, I have never lost a dime.”

 

“Then again, someone comes along with a deal and my head says, ‘Boy, you had better get in on that one.’ But I don’t pay any attention to my head. I get in that closet and wait. Sometimes all night long I wait. I’ll pray and read my Bible, but a lot of the time I just wait. I just get quiet until I can hear inside what my heart says. When my heart says, ‘No, don’t do it,’ and my head says, ‘Yes, you’d better get in on it,’ I don’t do it.”

 

What had this man done? He had learned to follow the inward witness and God had guided him in his business.

 

Do you think God loved him more than He loves you? No, but this man took time to listen to God. He took steps and means and measures to wait upon God.

 

Kenneth Hagin was with a group of ministers and were talking personally, and conversing with one another. Someone asked a certain individual who is a very successful minister, “Now we know that God called you and that the anointing of God’s Spirit is upon you. But from your standpoint, is there any one thing you do that you would say has contributed more to your success than any other one thing?”

 

That man said, “I always follow my deepest premonitions.”

 

What was he saying? He was simply saying, “I always listen to my spirit. I do what my spirit tells me to do. I follow that inward witness.”

 

The inward witness is just as supernatural as guidance through visions; it just isn’t as spectacular. Many people are looking for the spectacular and missing the supernatural that is right there all the time.

 

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 8

 

 

Key Scriptures:

 

“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself …” (1 John 5:10).

 

“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love …” (1 John 3:14).

 

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God (Romans 8:14). The sons of God can expect to be led by the Spirit of God. They are not led by someone else telling them what to do. The Holy Spirit is going to lead us. We have Scripture that says so.

 

How does He lead? Verse 16 tells us: “The Spirit itself [Himself] BEARETH WITNESS with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16).

 

In the most important aspect of life, and in the most important thing that can happen to you—becoming a child of God—God lets you know that you are His child by His Spirit bearing witness with your spirit. Then you can understand that the first and foremost way God will lead you is also by that inward witness.

 

You do not know that you are a child of God because someone prophesied that you are. You wouldn’t accept that. You do not know that you are a child of God because someone said, “I feel like you are.” You wouldn’t accept that. You are not a child of God because you had a vision. You might, or you might not have had a vision, but a vision is not what would make you a child of God. That is not what the Bible says. That is not the way you know you are a child of God.

 

How does the Bible say we know we are children of God? His Spirit, God’s Spirit, bears witness with our spirits.

 

Sometimes you can’t really explain how you know you are a child of God, but you just know it, right down on the inside of you. You know it! You know you are by the inward witness.

 

Kenneth Hagin was born again as a teenager on the bed of sickness April 22, 1933. Since that day, the thought never occurred to him that he might not be saved. Yet even as a young Christian he ran into people who said, “You’re not saved because you don’t belong to our church.” Or those who would argue, “You’re not saved because you haven’t been baptized our way.” And many gave him other reasons why they thought he was not saved.

 

But none of those disturbed him. He laughed at it, because he had the witness! And he had the love!

 

1 John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.”

 

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 9

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you …” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

 

In this chapter, Kenneth Hagin talks about putting out fleeces. In 1941 he put out a fleece, and he got “fleeced”.

 

In 1941, he and his wife were pastors of a church in the blackland of North Central Texas. Another church down in the oil field of East Texas wanted him to come and try out as pastor. So he drove down there and preached one Sunday. The church asked if they could vote on him for pastor, and he said yes. Traveling back home after the service, he put out a fleece.

 

Deep down he knew better than to put out a fleece, but at the time it seemed as if it would save him a lot of the trouble of praying and getting alone and waiting on God, and maybe some fasting—just to put out a fleece.

 

In putting out a fleece, one prays something like this: “Lord, if You want me to do this, then You do that.” Or, “God, if You want me to do this, then have that happen.” Or, “Lord, shut that door, and open this door.”

 

Some of those doors the devil might shut, and some of them the devil might open. They are in his territory. The Bible calls him the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4).

 

God has a better way of leading His children than by a hit-and-miss method such as fleeces. The New Testament does not say, “As many as are led by fleeces, they are the children of God.”

 

“Yes”, someone might say, “but Gideon put out a fleece back in the Old Testament.”

 

Why go back under the Old Covenant? We have something better. The Old Covenant is for spiritually dead people. I am not spiritually dead, I am alive! I have the Spirit of God in me.

 

Remember Gideon was not a prophet, priest or king. Only those three offices, under the Old Covenant, were anointed by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God was not personally present with the rest of the people.

 

That’s why every male had to present himself at the temple in Jerusalem once a year. The Shekinah Glory—the tangible manifest Presence of God—was kept shut up in the Holy of Holies. But when Jesus died on Calvary, the curtain that curtained off the Holy of Holies was rent (torn) in two from the top to the bottom, and God moved out. He has never dwelled in earth-made houses since. He dwells in us!

 

It is dangerous for New Testament, Spirit-filled Christians to put out fleeces. Kenneth Hagin said that he knows that from the Word, and by personal experience.

 

Back in 1941, Kenneth Hagin said as he was driving, “Lord, I am going to put out a fleece. I am just going to turn it over to You. (He didn’t realize that he was not actually turning the matter over to the Lord.) Kenneth Hagin went on to say, “If they elect me as pastor one hundred percent, I am going to accept that as being the will of God, and I am going to accept that church.”

 

He got every vote! That was his fleece. They elected him 100 percent. They missed God, and Kenneth Hagin missed God. They got fleeced, and he got fleeced. He got out of the perfect will of God, and God just let him do it.

 

They moved into the parsonage. Many things were more comfortable than what they had before, from the natural standpoint. They had more money. They lived in a better parsonage. They drove a better automobile.

 

But he would study and pray, and get a message to preach. He would be on fire. Then the moment he stepped inside the church door, it was as though someone poured a bucket of cold water on him. In fourteen months, he didn’t preach a decent sermon. There was no inspiration.

 

His wife was reluctant to say anything. She finally did say, Honey, you’ve got to where you can make a pretty good talk.”

 

That’s all he was doing—was making “talks”. He wasn’t preaching. When the agreed-upon time was up, he and his wife left that church. He didn’t wait for some signal to leave, he just left.

 

Later on in pastoring, he always wanted to go back there for a meeting because he wanted those people to know that he could preach. They had never really heard him preach. Finally, in the course of time, he went back and held a revival. Folk’s mouths fell open. “We didn’t know you could preach like that”, they said.

 

He said, “Oh, yes. I preached like that before I came here to pastor, and I preached like that after I left here.”

 

“Well, you didn’t preach like that when you were here.”

 

He said, “No, because we were all out of the will of God. I was here out of the will of God, and you elected me out of the will of God.”

 

He learned about that fleece business. One time ought to cure a fellow. But some folks—even though none of their fleeces have ever worked—still put out fleeces.

 

He never missed it again in going to any other church as pastor. And he didn’t put out anymore fleeces. He prayed and waited on God. He talked to God long enough so that he knew right on the inside what he was to do.

 

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 10

 

Key Scripture:

 

“For Thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness” (Psalms 18:28).

 

This chapter is about following the inward witness. Kenneth Hagin talks about how he and his family had left that church that he had put out a fleece for. He was asked by leaders of a denomination to take another church to fill in temporarily.

 

Later on, while he would be in his study praying, he would get a burden to go back to the church he had left as a result of the fleece. He hadn’t finished what God wanted him to do there.

 

By this time two years had passed by since he had left that church.

 

Usually he would get a burden to return to that church when he was praying about his sermon and the Sunday services in other tongues—because remember, when he prayed in tongues, his spirit prayed, and the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. He would get such a heavy burden for that church that sometimes he would jump up and run out of the room to get away from it.

 

One time he came to himself out in the street beside the church wondering how he got there? To get out there he would have had to run out of the church study, across the auditorium, and out the side door. But he didn’t remember that. He was under such a heavy burden for that former church and was trying to get away from it. He did not want to go back there to pastor.

 

Finally, after about 30 days of that, he said, “Lord, are You talking to me about going back there? Are You trying to give me some guidance?” Then he said, “Talk to my wife. She can listen too.”

 

One morning as he and his wife washed dishes, he said to his wife, “Honey, if the Lord says anything to you, let me know.” He didn’t tell her anything more.

 

Then he waited 30 days. You don’t have to get in a big hurry about some things. The Bible says, “… He that believeth shall not make haste” (Isaiah 28:16). Faith doesn’t get in a hurry. The devil will try to push you. He will say, “Hurry up, hurry up, hurry, hurry, hurry.” He will try to move you out of faith, and move you into doubt, move you into unbelief, and get you away from the leading of God.

 

Thirty days later as he washed dishes and his wife dried them, he said to his wife, “Has the Lord been talking to you?”

 

She replied, “If He has, I don’t know it.”

 

He got a little more pointed to bring her out. He said, “Has the Lord said anything to you about going back to _______?” He called the name of the city where the church was.

 

“Oh,” she said, “I thought that was just me.”

 

He said, “Well, let’s analyze what you mean when you say me.”

 

“If you mean the flesh, then that wouldn’t be right. But if you mean the real “me”, the man on the inside—the real you—then that is right. Remember that the spirit is the candle of the Lord. Then it is not just you, the outward man. It is the Lord lighting the candle for you—the inward man—the man on the inside.

 

“I want to ask you a question”, he said to her, “so we can ascertain just which this is. From the physical, from the mental, just naturally speaking, do you want to go back there?”

 

“Oh, no!”

 

“It couldn’t be you then, could it? It would have been better to say, it couldn’t have been the flesh, the natural man, the outward man. You’re not going to be thinking about doing something you don’t want to do.”

 

He saw she had the inward witness just as he did. Sometimes the inward witness is there, and people don’t recognize it.

 

“I am convinced,” he told her, “that God is leading us that way. It will have to be God to open it up and get us back there. Let’s just let Him do it.”

 

God did. Within a few months, without Kenneth Hagin having to work things out himself, he was invited to preach a week in that church. Afterwards, the board asked if he would be interested in coming back to pastor.

 

He didn’t tell them that he had something from God. He just said, “I might be.”

 

The board said, “We have all been talking and the church wants you back.”

 

Kenneth Hagin said that they would have to vote on him. So he told them to go ahead and vote, and he would tell them afterwards what his decision would be.

 

From the natural standpoint, he and his wife still did not want to go back there. Although they loved the people, they did not want to live in that town, or live in that house. In his heart he wanted to obey God, but everything about his flesh recoiled. In his natural man, his outward man, and in his own human thinking and mind, he did not want to go back there.

 

As he kept praying and fasting while the church board was making all the proper announcements and advertising the election, he was saying to the Lord that he did not want to trust that inward witness he knew both he and his wife had.

 

He was over into the third day of a fast. He wanted the Lord to move in some type of spectacular way. He wanted some kind of word, tongues and interpretation, a prophecy, or God to just write up in the sky, “GO TO THAT PLACE.” He was on his knees bawling and squawling and begging, because he didn’t know any better.

 

God also leads by the inward voice, as well as by an inward witness. That inward voice said, “Get up from there and quit acting like that.”

 

He got up. Then he said, “Lord, if You could just give me some supernatural sign, I would feel better about this.”

 

God said, “You have all I am going to give you. You don’t need any supernatural sign. You don’t need any supernatural writing in the sky. You don’t need any tongues and interpretation. You don’t need any prophecy. You know on the inside of you what to do. Now do it.”

 

He said, “Okay, I will.”

 

Many times we ignore the inward witness. We want something out in the sense realm. We seek the sensational and miss the supernatural.

 

Let’s learn that God leads all of His children, primarily, by the inward witness.

 

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 11

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 9:1).

 

The number one way the Spirit guides us is through the inward witness. Number two is by the inward voice.

 

The inward man, who is a spirit man, has a voice—just as the outward man has a voice. We call this voice of the inward man conscience. We call this voice the still small voice.

 

Your spirit has a voice. Your spirit will speak to you.

 

In 1966, Kenneth Hagin and his family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, from Garland, Texas (a Dallas suburb). They had lived there for 17 years.

 

The move came about like this: He and his wife were in Tulsa on business. Their ministry was growing and he had already figured out in his head what he would do with his office and home in Texas to accommodate the growth. But a friend they were staying with in Tulsa said, “Brother Hagin, you ought to move to Tulsa. Brother T.L. Osborn’s old office building is for sale. His business manager asked me to sell it for them.” Then he quoted their price. It was extremely low. But he was not interested. Finally, the man said, “Let’s go look at it.” He went along just to humor him.

 

The minute he stood inside that building a buzzer went off on the inside of him. Sometimes that inward witness is so real it can almost sound like an inward “buzzer”.) He knew as well as he knew his name, this is it! But he didn’t want to listen to it. He wanted to stay in Garland, Texas.

 

(That’s why we don’t hear a lot of times. We don’t want to hear. We say we do, but we don’t.)

 

Back at their friend’s home, his wife asked him about the building. He said, “Oh, no. I’ve already got it all figured out. We’ll stay where we are. We’ll turn our whole home into an office. And we’ll just stay in Garland.”

 

They went to bed that night, but he couldn’t sleep.

 

Ordinarily, he had no trouble sleeping. The Bible says, “… He giveth His beloved sleep” (Psalms 127:2). I am His beloved, and so are you. “… He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). So he would always claim the promise of God and say, “Lord, I’m Your beloved. So I take You at Your Word. I thank You for sleep.” And he always went to sleep.

 

But this time, he couldn’t. His conscience was hurting. Our conscience is the voice of our spirit. His spirit knew he didn’t listen to it.

 

Lying there quietly in the nighttime, he said, “Lord, if You want me to move to Tulsa, I will. In the natural, I don’t want to move there, but I wouldn’t want to stand in Your way.”

 

Then on the inside of him he heard the still small voice.

 

He’s not talking about the Spirit of God speaking, because when the Holy Spirit speaks it is more authoritative. The still small voice is the voice of our own spirit speaking. But our own spirit picks it up from the Holy Spirit who is in us.

 

That still small voice, that inward voice, not authoritative, just something on the inside of him said, “I am going to give you that building.”

 

He laughed. He knows there is a lot of unbelief about this, but he said, “Okay. When you do, I’ll believe it.”

 

That inward man, picking up on what the Holy Spirit was saying, said, “You watch me.”

 

Without going into all the details, it would surprise you how God gave Kenneth Hagin that building.

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 12

 

Key Scriptures:

 

“And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day” (Acts 23:1).

 

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

 

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

 

It is interesting to go through the epistles that Paul wrote to the Church and see what he said about his conscience. You will notice that he always obeyed it.

 

Is your conscience a safe guide?

 

Yes, if your spirit has become a new man in Christ, it is because your conscience is the voice of your spirit.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

 

These things take place in man’s spirit, in the inward man. He is first a new creature—a brand new man in Christ. Second, old things have passed away—the nature of the devil in his spirit is gone. Third, ALL things have become new in his spirit—not in his body or his mind—now he has the nature of God in his spirit.

 

Therefore, if your spirit is a new man with the life and nature of God in it, it is a safe guide.

 

A person who has not been born again could not follow the voice of his spirit. His spirit is unregenerate. His conscience would permit him to do anything.

 

When you have the life and nature of God in you, your conscience will not permit you to do just anything. And if you are born again, you have the life of God.

 

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have EVERLASTING LIFE.”

 

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is ETERNAL LIFE through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

 

Someone said, “That just means we are going to live forever up in Heaven.”

 

It does mean that, but it also means that we have eternal life right now.

 

Consider this Scripture:

 

1 John 5:13 says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.”

 

Have is present tense. We have eternal life now. If you are a born-again Christian, you have the life of God in your spirit now. You have the nature of God in your spirit now.

 

Oh, if people would learn to follow their spirits! If they would learn to take advantage of the life that is in them!

 

Kenneth Hagin joined the Church and was baptized early in life—but that didn’t make him a Christian. His spirit was still unregenerate when he became totally bedfast with a heart condition at the age of 15. He was truly born again during the 16 months he was bedfast. Then in August 1934, as a Baptist boy reading Grandma’s Methodist Bible, he was healed.

 

He went back to high school. He had missed one school year. Before he was born again, he just barely got by in some classes. Back then, if you made a “D” it was failing. And if you failed one subject you stayed in that grade and took the whole thing over again. Two teachers in two subjects said to him, “We gave you two points or you would have had a “D”.”

 

But after he was born again, he never made anything but straight “A’s” on his report card. And he never took one book home to study.

 

He didn’t know a thing about the baptism of the Holy Spirit back then, but he did know that he had the life of God in him.

 

As he walked down the street to school every morning, he had a conversation with the Lord. Unconsciously, he was being led by the Spirit; his heart told him to do it, and he listened to his heart instead of his head.

 

He said, “Now, Lord, I read in the Old Testament where Daniel and the three Hebrew children were in school in Babylon and You gave them favor with the dean of the school (Daniel 1:9). God, give me favor with every teacher. Thank You for it. I have it now. I also read that when their three years of training were over, the three Hebrew children were ten times smarter than the rest (vv. 18-20). Lord, I have Your life in me. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Light stands for development. Impart to me knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom that I may be ten times better …”

 

Every day as he walked to school he would confess, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men. That life is in me. The life of God is in me. That life is the light—it is the development of me. It is developing my spirit. It is developing my mentality. I have God in me. I have God’s wisdom in me. I have God’s life in me. That life of God in my spirit dominates me. I purpose in my heart to walk in the light of life.”

 

He did not just skip by. In study hall periods at school he studied. He listened intently in class to everything that was said. But by receiving eternal life into his spirit, and getting his mind renewed with the Word, his mentality was increased from 30 to 60 percent.

 

The life of God will do that for anyone.

 

The most amazing miracle he has ever seen of eternal life affecting someone’s mentality occurred in a girl named Mary. Her mentality was increased by at least 90 percent.

 

Mary started school at age 7 and went seven years without getting out of the first grade. In those seven years, she never learned how to write her name. Finally, the school asked her parents to take her out of school.

 

In the church he pastored, Mary was at that time 18 years old, although she behaved like a two-year old. She would get down and crawl around on the floor like a baby. If she happened to not be sitting with her mother, she would slide under the pews, or lift up her skirt and step over them to get to where her mother was. Her clothes were always a sight. Her hair was never combed.

 

Then one night during an evangelistic revival meeting, Mary came to the altar. There she received eternal life—the nature of God. A drastic change occurred instantly. The very next night she sat in the service and behaved like any other 18-year old young lady. She had fixed her hair and dressed up. Her mentality seemed to have increased overnight.

 

Years later, he was back in that city to help with a funeral. “What ever happened to Mary?” I asked the church secretary. She led him out on the front porch.

 

“See all those new houses going up out there.” He said, “Yes.”

 

“That’s an addition to the city. Mary is building that. She’s a widow now. She handles all her own money. She is her own financier. She has three lovely children. They are on the front pew every Sunday. They are the best-dressed, and the most well-mannered children in church. As church secretary, I can tell you that Mary’s tithes and offerings are here every Sunday.”

 

The life of God came into her!

 

He is convinced we have never completely learned what we have received. Most of us have thought that the Lord just forgave us, saying that we’re the same old creature we always were. We’ll just try to hold out faithful till the end. If we get enough people to pray for us, maybe we can make it.

 

No, thank God, the life of God has been imparted into our spirits! The nature of God is in our spirits. The Holy Spirit is living and abiding in our spirits.

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 13

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them … when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women … Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. Acts 8:5,12,14-17

 

Under the New Covenant every child of God has the Spirit of God. If you are born again, the Spirit of God is in your spirit.

 

We do need to differentiate between being born of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. The born again Christian can be filled with the same Spirit he already has in him. And when he is filled with that Spirit, there will be an overflowing. He will speak with other tongues as the Spirit gives him utterance (Acts 2:4).

 

Bible scholars know that water is a type of the Spirit of God. Jesus Himself used water as a type of the Spirit. He used it as a type of the new birth when talking to the woman at the well of Samaria.

 

John 4:10,11,13,14 says:

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink: thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.

11 The woman saith unto Him, Sir, thou has nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then has thou that living water?

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

 

Jesus also used water as a type of the Spirit in the infilling of the Holy Spirit:

 

John 7:37-39

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.

38 He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

39 (But this He spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

 

These are two different experiences. The new birth is a well of water in you, springing up into everlasting life. The infilling of the Spirit is rivers—not just one river. The water is the well for one purpose. The water in the well is for your own benefit. It blesses you. The water in the rivers is for another purpose. The rivers flowing out of you bless someone else.

 

Some people say, “If you are born of the Spirit, you have the Spirit, and that’s all there is.” But, no, just because you have had one drink of water is no sign you’re full of water. There is the experience subsequent to the new birth of being filled with the Spirit—and as a result, out of the belly (the innermost being—the spirit), rivers of living water can flow.

 

Others say that people who are not filled with the Spirit speaking with other tongues do not have the Holy Spirit. That is not true. If you drink a half a glass of water, you may not be full, but at least you have water in you. If one is born of the Spirit of God, he has the Spirit of God abiding in him.

 

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 14

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

“… For ye are the temple of the Living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

 

If you are born again, the Holy Spirit is living and abiding in your spirit.

 

He’s living and abiding where? In your head? No. In your body? In a sense, yes, but not exactly in the way we might think. The only reason your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit is because your body is the temple of your spirit. The Holy Spirit abides in your spirit. And He communicates with you through your spirit.

 

He does not communicate directly with your mind—He’s not in your mind. He is in your spirit—He communicates with you through your spirit. Of course, your spirit does reach and influence your mentality.

 

Even as a newborn babe in Christ, still bedfast, Kenneth Hagin would know things by an inward witness. He knew nothing about being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking with other tongues—but he was born of the Spirit. He had the witness of the Spirit right on the inside of him that he was a child of God.

 

He had been bedfast for four months when his mother came to his bed one day and said, “Son, I hate to bother you, but something is wrong with Dub.”

 

Dub is his oldest brother. He was 17 at the time and he was gone. They didn’t know exactly where he was.

 

His mother sensed something in her spirit that things were not right with Dub. She thought that maybe he had gotten into trouble and was in jail. She said, “I’ve been praying for him for three days, but I need some help.”

 

Kenneth Hagin said, “Momma, I thought you already had enough problems with me being bedfast. I’ve known that myself about Dub for several days. He’s not in jail, though. It’s not that kind of trouble. His physical life is in danger. But I’ve already prayed, and he will make it. His life will be spared. I’ve already got the answer.”

 

He didn’t know how to get the answer on healing right then—it was a year later before he was healed. But he knew some things, and God will meet you as far as your faith goes.

 

Three days later, Dub came home in the nighttime. It was 1933 and there was no work. Men were out on the streets with no jobs in those Great Depression Days.

 

Dub had gone down to the Rio Grande Valley to look for work. He didn’t find any. So he decided to hop a freight train—lots of people were riding the rails in those days—from the back side of the Valley right on through to McKinney.

 

About 50 miles south of Dallas a railway detective knocked him in the head and threw him off that train while it was going 50 or 60 miles an hour. He went sailing down the track. They burned coal in those days and they would put the cinders along the track. He hit those cinders and was scooting on his back. It’s a wonder it hadn’t broken his back. It would have if we hadn’t known about it by the inward witness and prayed.

 

He lay out in a ditch, and then came to after a while. His shirt was completely torn off, and the seat of his britches was torn out. So he could only travel at night. In the daytime, he hid out in the trees in the field. It was the time of year when fruit was on the trees. During the nighttime, he walked up the rail toward McKinney. It was night when he got home. Momma put him to bed and he was all right in a few days.

 

His momma and him were not Spirit-filled Christians, but they were Christians. And they had a witness in their spirits that something was wrong—an inward intuition. This is something every Christian ought to have. It is something that every Christian should develop. We should develop our spirits.

 

In less than ten years’ time a Full Gospel minister friend of his was in three serious automobile accidents. People were killed. His wife was almost killed. He was seriously injured. Cars were demolished. But they were both healed by the mercy of God.

 

He heard Kenneth Hagin teaching along some of these lines and he said to him, “Brother Hagin, every one of those accidents could have been avoided if I had listened to that inward intuition.”

 

Yet in similar instances people will say, “I don’t know why that happened to such a good Christian. He’s a preacher.” (Preachers have to learn to listen to their spirits just like you have to learn to listen to your spirit.) Then they lay it off on God and say that God did it.

 

This preacher said to him, “If I had listened to that inward something—I just had an intuition that something was about to happen—I would have waited a little bit and prayed. Instead I thought, I’m busy. I don’t have time to pray.”

 

Many times, if we would have waited, God would have shown us. We could have avoided many things. But let’s not moan and groan about past failures. Let’s just take advantage of what is ours and see to it that it doesn’t happen again. We can do nothing about what is past anyhow. Let’s begin to develop our spirits, and learn to listen to them.

 

The Holy Spirit is abiding in your spirit. It is your spirit that picks up these things from the Holy Spirit and then passes them on to your mind by an inward intuition, or inward witness.

 

Jesus said, “… If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and we will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him (John 14:23).

 

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit’s coming. Jesus and the Father in the Person of the Holy Spirit come to abide in us. An abode is the place where one lives. Another translation says, “We will come unto Him, and make our home with Him.”

 

The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul said, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). Another translation says, “The Spirit of God is at home in you.” That’s where He lives—in you!

 

The Bible says, “… For ye are the temple of the Living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

 

We have never yet plumbed the depth of what God is really saying: “I will dwell in them. I will live in them. I will walk in them.” If God is dwelling in us—and He is—then that is where He will speak to us.

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 15

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be 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. Therefore, I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:23-24).

 

Your spirit knows things that your head does not know, because the Holy Spirit is in your spirit.

 

When medical science gave Kenneth Hagin up to die when he was a teenager and said they could do nothing further for him, he knew somehow that if there was help for him anywhere, it would be in the Bible.

 

He started with the New Testament because he knew he didn’t have much time. Eventually he came to Mark 11:23-24.

 

When he came to Mark 11:24, something from outside of him somewhere said to his mind, “That doesn’t mean what things soever ye desire physically, or materially, or financially. That just means whatsoever things ye desire spiritually. Healing has been done away with.”

 

He tried to get his pastor to come and tell him what Mark 11:24 did mean. The pastor did not come. One preacher finally did come. He patted Kenneth Hagin’s hand, put on a professional voice, and said, “Just be patient my boy. In a few more days it will all be over.”

 

Kenneth Hagin accepted that verdict and lay there in bed expecting to die. It was two months before he got back into the Bible and back to Mark 11:23-24.

 

Kenneth Hagin said, “Lord, I tried to get someone to help me and I couldn’t. So I am going to tell You what I am going to do. I am just going to take You at Your Word. When You were here on earth, You said it. I am going to believe it. If You didn’t lie about it, I am coming off this bed, because I can believe what You said I can believe.”

 

Then he hit on this idea. (It took him a long time because he had limited use of his hands. They propped the Bible in front of him and he just sort of “scooted” the pages.) He decided to run a reference on faith and healing. He came to 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.

 

Kenneth Hagin thought that all of the rest of the healing Scriptures and prayer promises hinged on that—he thought he HAD to call for the elders of the church. (You don’t have to—you just can if you need to.) So he began to cry, “Dear Lord, if I have to call for the elders of the church to anoint me with oil to be healed, then I can’t be healed. I don’t know any elders of the church that believe in that.”

 

He had been saved for six months, and had never heard an inward voice. He is not talking about the Voice of the Spirit of God, as that is more authoritative. He is talking about that still small voice of his spirit.

 

His spirit said to him, “Did you notice that verse said that the prayer of faith shall save the sick?”

 

He had to look again. He had his mind on the elders and had missed that. “Yes” he said aloud, “that is what it says.” It came as a real shock to him.

 

Then on the inside of him these words were spoken, “You can pray that prayer as well as anyone can.” Hallelujah!

 

But his spiritual education was slow—just like yours. He stayed in that bed for nine more months before he finally saw that he had to believe he received his healing before it would be manifested.

 

It was while he was praying and saying, “I believe that I receive my healing,” that he saw what he must do. He said, “I believe that I receive my healing from the top of my head to the soles of my feet.” Then he began to praise God because he believed that he received his healing.

 

Again, on the inside of him, he heard these words. This was not that authoritative voice, but just a still small voice, so faint he would not have heard it if his mind and body had been very active—“Now you believe that you are well.”

 

He said, “I sure do.”

 

That inward voice said, “Get up then. Well people ought to be up at 10:30 in the morning.”

 

He had been paralyzed. It was a struggle. He pushed himself. Finally, he got up to where he was draped over the bedpost. His knees sagged down not far from the floor. He had no feeling from his waist down. But draped over that bedpost, he said it again: “I want to announce in the Presence of Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the holy angels present in this room, and I want to call the devil to record and all evil spirits that may be present in this room, that according to Mark 11:24, I believe I receive my healing.”

 

When he said that, physically, he felt something. It felt like someone above him was pouring a pitcher of honey on him. He felt it strike him on the top of his head. It seemed to pile up like honey would, and then it began to ooze down over him. It had a warm glow to it. It spread down over his head, down his neck and shoulders, down his arms and out the ends of his fingers, and down his body and out the ends of his toes.

 

All of a sudden he was standing straight! He has been straight ever since.

 

He listened to his spirit. Faith is of the spirit. Your faith will not work to its fullest until you learn some of these things. Learn to depend on Him—the One who is in you. Learn to develop your own spirit. Have faith in the fact that your faith in God works.

 

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 16

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

“For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God” (1 John 3:20-21).

 

Does the Holy Spirit condemn you if you do wrong as a Christian?

 

No, it is your spirit that condemns you.

 

You need to learn that. It’s a hard lesson to learn, however, because we have been taught incorrectly.

 

The Holy Spirit will not condemn you. Why? Because God won’t. Study what the Holy Spirit through Paul wrote in the Epistle to the Romans. He asked: Who is it that condemns? Does God condemn? No, it is God that justifies.

 

Jesus said that the only sin the Holy Spirit will convict the world of is the sin of rejecting Jesus (John 16:7-9).

 

It is your own conscience—the voice of your own spirit—that knows when you have done wrong.

 

I have found that even when I do wrong, though my spirit condemns me, the Holy Spirit is there to comfort me, to help me, to show me the way back. You will never read in the Bible where the Holy Spirit is a condemner. Jesus called Him the Comforter. The seven-fold meaning of that word from the Greek is brought out in The Amplified Bible:

 

John 14:16 Amplified

16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby) that He may remain with you forever.

 

The Holy Spirit is all of those! He will stand by you when no one else will. He will help you. He is a Helper!

 

It is your own spirit that knows the moment you have done wrong. I am glad I learned that early. It has paid off richly for me in life.

 

Kenneth Hagin was barely saved and healed and back in high school when the following incident occurred: he really doesn’t know why it slipped out—no one in his family used profanity. But he had a neighbor who could “cuss up a storm”. You could hear him all over our end of town. Kenneth Hagin supposes that he picked it up from him. Anyway, he simply said to one of the boys, “Hell no … (something or other).

 

The minute he said that he knew on the inside it was wrong. What was it that condemned him? The Holy Spirit? No, it was his own spirit. His spirit, this new creature, this new man who doesn’t talk this way. Now the flesh, the outward man, may want to go on doing some things that he did before, and talking in ways he talked before, but you have to crucify the flesh. A good way to crucify the flesh—the outward man—is to bring your mistakes right out in the open.

 

He did that right then. He didn’t wait until he was moved. In his heart he said, “Dear God, forgive me for saying that.” The young man he had said it to walked away. He located him and asked him to forgive him. He had not noticed what he said: he was used to people talking that way. But Kenneth Hagin had to get it right.

 

It was the voice of his spirit. It was his conscience. His conscience was tender, and he didn’t want to violate it. Unless you keep a tender conscience, spiritual things will be indistinct to you. That’s because your conscience is the voice of your spirit and it is your conscience—the voice of your spirit—that will relate to your mind what the Spirit of God is saying to you down in your heart.

 

The Bible speaks about Christians even having their conscience seared:

 

1 Timothy 4:2 says, “Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”

 

The first church that Kenneth Hagin pastored was a community church out in the country. He usually went out Saturday night, spent Saturday and Sunday nights, and came back into town on Monday. He stayed quite often in the home of a dear Methodist man. This fine spiritual man, a great man really, was 89 years old. This man and Kenneth Hagin did not get up as early as others did on his farm. Others would be doing chores or out working in the field when Kenneth Hagin and this older gentleman would be having breakfast around 8:00 a.m.

 

Kenneth Hagin did not drink coffee, but this older man did. He had one of those old-fashioned coffee pots—this was the mid 30’s—sitting on an old-fashioned wood stove with coffee boiling in it. Kenneth Hagin noticed him take that boiling coffee, pour it into a thick mug—and when it was still so hot that it simmered in the mug—turn up his mouth, and drink the whole cup.

 

The first time he saw him do it, he hollered. He felt like his mouth and throat were burning.

 

How could he do that? Kenneth Hagin couldn’t drink coffee that hot. The tissues of his lips, the inside of his mouth, his throat and esophagus were so tender, just one teaspoonful would have burned all the way down. But this man drank a whole mug without taking it away from his mouth.

 

He couldn’t do that to begin with though. Through years of drinking coffee that hot, his lips and mouth, and throat and esophagus, became seared. Eventually, he could drink it that hot, and it didn’t bother him.

 

Spiritually, the same thing can happen.

 

Learn to keep a tender conscience. Learn the minute you miss it and your conscience condemns you, to correct it right then. Don’t wait until you go to church. Immediately say, “Lord, forgive me, I missed it.” If you have to, if someone else saw or heard you, tell that person right away, “I did wrong. Please forgive me. I shouldn’t have said that.”

 

You will have to keep your spirit tender if you are going to be led by the Spirit.

 

 

 

Study on Book Entitled “How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God”, by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr.

 

CHAPTER 19

 

 

Key Scripture:

 

“While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee” (Acts 10:19).

 

God leads us by what we call the still small voice. But He also leads us by the voice of the Spirit of God speaking to us. This is the third way we are led by the Spirit. Number one is by the inward witness. Number two is by the inward still small voice. Number three is by the more authoritative voice of the Holy Spirit.

 

There is a difference between the inward voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to our spirits, and that still small voice which is the voice of our own spirit speaking to us. When the Holy Spirit within you speaks, it is more authoritative.

 

Sometimes it is so real it almost seems to be an audible voice; you may even look around to see who said it. It may seem so audible sometimes that you think someone behind you said something. But then you realize it was in you.

 

Remember in the Old Testament how the young boy Samuel heard a voice call his name, “Samuel, Samuel?” He thought Eli was calling him. He jumped up and ran to Eli to find out what he wanted. Eli said, “No I didn’t call you.” Samuel went back to bed. Then again he heard, “Samuel, Samuel.” Again he ran to Eli. “No, I didn’t call you.” It happened the third time. Finally, it dawned on Eli what was happening. Eli said, “The next time the Lord calls you, answer Him.” So the next time it happened, Samuel answered that voice, and the Lord spoke further to him (1 Samuel 3).

 

All of God’s leadings are supernatural; some, however, are not so spectacular. But Kenneth Hagin found in more than fifty years of ministry that when God moved in a more spectacular way—when He has spoken to me in what seemed to me to be an audible voice—it meant there was rough sailing ahead. If He had not spoken so spectacularly I would not have stayed steady.

 

Concerning the last church he pastored, for example, he heard the pastorate was open and had made arrangements to preach there one Wednesday night. During the period of time before he was to go there and preach, he held a three-week revival in Houston. During this revival, the pastor, his brother (who was also a preacher), and Kenneth Hagin met at the church every day to pray about the night services. The church with the open pastorate was their home church. Every day the pastor and his brother would ask him, “Have you prayed about that church yet?”

 

Finally, he did pray about it. He just said to the Lord, “I’m going up to that church next Monday and I’m going to preach Wednesday. I don’t know whether You want me to pastor there or not. I don’t know if I even want to pastor it. But whatever You say about it is fine with me.”

 

This is all he said. Then he heard a voice speak so plainly, he jumped. He looked behind him. He really thought that one of the preachers had heard him pray and was joking with him, because he heard this voice, and to him it was audible. The voice said, “You are the next pastor at that church, and that will be the last church you will ever pastor.”

 

(You could interpret that a thousand different ways! You could let the devil tell you that you were going to die, or that you were going to be defeated. But it actually meant that his ministry would change to a field ministry.)

 

About then those two preachers walked down the aisle. As usual, they asked, “Have you prayed about that church yet?” He said, “You two fellows are looking at the next pastor.”

 

“Oooh, if you knew that church like we know it, you wouldn’t say that. It’s split right down the middle. Anything half the church is for, the other half is against. It takes two-thirds of the vote to get elected as pastor, and we’ll just be honest with you, you won’t be able to get elected.”

 

“I don’t know about that. I just know I’m the next pastor.”

 

“Well, you don’t know that church like we do.”

 

He said, “No, but I know Jesus. And I know the Spirit of God. I know what He said to me.”

 

After he preached the first time, he saw why God moved in such a spectacular way. Every word he spoke bounced right back to me like a rubber ball bouncing off the back wall. It was tough.

 

He thought he was only going to preach one night, but they had made arrangements for him to preach several nights. Each night his wife and children and himself had to move to a different place to stay. They were at one deacon’s house one night, and another deacon’s house the next night.

 

One deacon told them, “If you stayed with me all the time, some of the rest of the congregation would probably get jealous and think I’m for you and they would vote against you.”

 

They kept all of their things in their car. Every night they would get out just enough for the next day. And every night when they got off to bed, he would say to his wife, “If God hadn’t spoken so spectacularly to me, I would just get up, get the children, get into the car, and leave without saying a word to anyone.”

 

His flesh wanted to leave so badly. His mind wanted to leave. His spirit held him steady because God had spoken to him in such a spectacular way.

 

They had the election. He got every vote. Everyone said, “It’s the greatest miracle of the century—that anyone could get that kind of vote from this church.”

 

He knew all the time he would get it. The Spirit of God had told him he would.

It is God's will that no one should perish (end up in hell), but that ALL should come to repentance. 

For God so loved this world that He gave His only begotton Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God did not send His Son into this world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him would be saved.

The thief (Satan the devil) comes only for to kill, steal and destroy. But Jesus has come to give us life, and life more abundantly, until it overflows.

I urge you to come to the Cross today and receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord. He will wash away all your sins and make you as clean and white as fresh snow. 

Just pray this prayer and mean it with your heart:

Dear Lord Jesus (if you are not able to call him Lord yet, then just say "Jesus")

I receive You as my Savior and Lord. I give my life over to You. I believe that You died and rose again, and that if I call on the Name of the Lord I shall be saved. 

I accept you into my heart right now, and confess that You are Lord and have risen from the dead and forever live to make intercession for me. 

Thank You for washing my heart pure and clean and making me whole, and for giving me peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 

Thank You that now I am a new creature in Christ Jesus. The old has gone and the new has come. 

And there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh (carnality and sin), but walk after the Spirit.  In Jesus' Name, Amen. 

If you prayed this prayer, I believe you got born again and are now heaven bound and will be with the Lord forever and have eternal life. Your sins are now forgiven. You are accepted in the Beloved.

I would encourage you to find a good Bible based local church to help you grow in your faith, to learn the Word of God, to praise and worship Him, and to have fellowship with the saints. 

Serving Christ is the best decision you will ever make. 

God bless you!!!