Chapter 18 - Help From Within
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Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. —John 16:13

Let's notice some things Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 16:13. "... he will guide you into all truth...." He will lead you. He will guide you.
"... for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak...." The Holy Spirit does speak. Whatever He hears God say, whatever He hears Jesus say, He will speak to your spirit. Where is He to speak? He is in your spirit, and that is where He speaks. He doesn't speak out in the air somewhere. He speaks on the inside. The Holy Spirit passes God's message on to your spirit, either by an inward witness, by the still small voice —the voice of your conscience, or by an inward voice which is the more authoritative voice of the Holy Spirit.

"... he will shew you things to come...." I do not believe this just means that the Holy Spirit will show us about future events as recorded in the Word of God. It also means that the Holy Spirit will show you things to come. In my own individual life, for instance, there has never been a death in our close family that I did not know about in advance. I knew two years ahead of time that my father-in-law was going to die, so I began to prepare my wife for his death. She was his only daughter, the baby of the family, and very close to her father. I knew she would take it hard. So I began to say to her, "Honey, you know Mr. Rooker is getting older. Then over the next two years I dropped a word here and there, just getting her ready.

I was away in a meeting when the telephone call came. After the service one night, I was sitting in the hotel. The phone rang. Something in me said, "That's for you. This is what you have been talking about for two years now." Within twenty-eight days he was in Heaven. You are not unprepared when you know things ahead of time.

JOHN 14:26 -26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
The Holy Spirit shall teach you.
He shall bring all things to your remembrance.

People often ask me how I remember things. At one time I could quote three-fourths of the New Testament.
"How do you memorize scripture?"
I always answer, "I never memorized scripture in my life. I know nothing about memorization. I suppose you could develop your mind if you worked at it. But I just get to talking and it rises up in me. The Holy Spirit brings it to my remembrance. He is inside of me."
The Holy Spirit will show you things to come and bring things to your remembrance if you will learn to cooperate with Him.

Chapter 19 - Number Three: The Voice of the Holy Spirit
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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 may 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 Eh. "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 Sam. Chapter 3).

All of God's leadings are supernatural; some, however, are not so spectacular. But I have 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 I pastored, for example, I heard the pastorate was open and I made arrangements to preach there one Wednesday night. During the period of time before I was to go there to preach, I held a three-week revival in Houston. During this revival, the pastor, his brother (who was also a preacher), and I 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 me, "Have you prayed about that church yet?"

Finally, I did pray about it. I 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."
That is all I said. Then I heard a voice speak so plainly, I jumped. I looked behind me. I really thought that one of the preachers had heard me pray and was joking with me, because I heard this voice, and to me 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 my 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?"
I 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."

I said, "No, but I know Jesus. And I know the Spirit of God. I know what He said to me."
After I preached the first time, I saw why God moved in such a spectacular way. Every word I spoke bounced right back to me like a rubber ball bouncing off the back wall. It was tough.
I thought I was only going to preach one night, but they had made arrangements for me to preach several nights. Each night my wife and children and I had to move to a different place to stay. We were at one deacon's house one night, and another deacon's house the next night.
One deacon told us, "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."
We kept all our things in the car, and every night we would get out just enough for the next day. And every night when we got off to bed, I would say to my 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."

My flesh wanted to leave so badly. My mind wanted to leave. My spirit held me steady because God had spoken to me in such a spectacular way.
They had the election. I got every vote. Everyone said, "It's the greatest miracle of the century—that anyone could get that kind of vote from this church."
I knew all the time I would get it. The Spirit of God had told me I would.

Chapter 20 20Judging By the Word
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Prove all things.... — 1 Thessalonians 5:21

Always remember this: the Bible teaches that the Spirit of God and the Word of God agree. Anytime the Spirit of God speaks to you, it will always be in line with the Word.
People have heard "voices" and have gotten every kind of "revelation" you can imagine. Some people are always claiming to hear a voice.

You can, and you should, judge these things. You can judge whether spiritual experiences are right or wrong simply by judging them by the Word.
Several years ago I was preaching in California. A woman who had invited the pastor, his wife, and me to her home for the noon meal said, "Brother Hagin, I want to tell you what the Lord said to me. I want to give you my revelation."
Before she opened her mouth I sensed by the inward witness in my spirit that something was not right. But she persisted, and I agreed to listen. She had fed us in her lovely home, and now she wanted to give me this "revelation." She began to relate it and she talked for about ten minutes before I stopped her. I just couldn't stand anymore.
"Please," I said, "wait a minute. There's a Bible there on the table by the chair. Pick it up and open it to ____" I gave her a chapter and verse in the New Testament. "Read that."
She read it. Then I gave her another verse of scripture. She read it. I pointed her to several scriptures. Everything she read contradicted what she said.
I said, "See, I cannot accept what you are saying. It is not in line with this Book. Therefore it cannot be the Spirit of God."

"But, Brother Hagin, I was praying at the altar."
I said, "I don't care if you were praying on top of the church. It's still not right. It is not in line with the Word."
"Yes, but I know God gave this to me."
I said, "No, He didn't. This is His Word and what you are saying is in direct opposition to what the Word of God says. Can you give me any scripture to substantiate what you are saying?"
"No. But I know I heard this voice speak to me."
"I just gave you five scriptures, and with a little thought I could have given you twenty, that contradict what you are saying."
"Well, yes," she said, "but Bible or no Bible, I know God spoke to me and I am going to stay with it."

As we left, the pastor said to me, "I didn't want to say anything to you before, but this dear woman was a fine saint of God, on fire for the Lord. She was a blessing to the church. Now she has been put out of every Full Gospel church in the city because she persists in pushing this revelation off on everyone."
We are not to seek voices.
We should not follow voices.
We should follow the Word of God.
I preached a meeting in Oregon in the summer of 1954. At the close of one of the first services, I was laying hands on the people who stood in the long prayer line. I asked each one what they had come forward for before I ministered to them. When I came to one woman, her husband who had her by the arm said, "We have come for my wife's healing." He told me she'd had a mental breakdown.
I did not know this woman was a former Sunday School teacher in that church, nor that her husband was a deacon in the church.

But when I laid hands on her, in a second of time just like it ran off on a television screen, I knew all about this situation. I knew it by the spiritual gift called the word of knowledge (1 Cor. 12:. I saw this woman in a large tent meeting in one of Oregon's largest cities. I saw her sitting in the congregation with thousands of people. She heard the evangelist tell how God spoke to him in an audible voice and called him into the ministry.

I do not doubt that. This woman failed to realize, however, that this evangelist did not ask God to speak to him that way. God just did it on His own. We have no right to seek that God would speak to us in an audible voice. If God told us He would in His Word, then all of us would have a right to claim it. But this evangelist hadn't even particularly expected God to speak in that way—but if God wants to, He can, and He saw fit to do so in that particular case.

At the time this woman heard the evangelist tell that, she was all right mentally. But then she began to seek God to speak to her in an audible voice—and the devil accommodated her. She began to hear voices. They drove her insane. She was now about to be taken to the asylum for the second time.
I also saw this in the spirit: Her husband had taken her to this same evangelist for deliverance. She did not receive deliverance. Now her husband blamed that evangelist. Then her husband had taken her to another leading evangelist. She had failed to be delivered. Now her husband was angry with that other evangelist too. I knew she would not be delivered if I laid hands on her, and then he would be angry with me. So I took my hand off of her.
I said to the man, "Take your wife into the pastor's study. Wait there. When I finish this line, I will talk with you."

After we were finished with the healing line, the pastor and I went into the study together.
"First of all," I said to this couple, "I have never been to Oregon before. I have never seen you folks before. I don't even know if the pastor knows you."
The pastor said, "He's one of our deacons."
"Well," I said, "the pastor will tell you he has not told me anything."
Then I related what I had seen.
The deacon said, "That's exactly right."
"Now," I said, "I will tell you why I didn't minister to your wife. You see, she wants to hear these voices."

Then I said, "She is not that far gone mentally that she doesn't know what I am saying."
She spoke up, "I know exactly what you are saying."
I said, "Sister, you are not going to be delivered until you want to be delivered. As long as you like it the way it is—as long as you want to hear these voices—you are going to hear them."
She said, "I want to hear them."
As long as a sinner wants to live in sin, God will let him live in sin. But if he wants to change, God will meet him and deliver him.
And even though a person is a Christian, that does not mean he loses his free moral agency. He does not become a robot—a machine whereby God pushes a button and he automatically has to do whatever God desires. He is still a free moral agent. As long as he wants things like they are, they will stay that way. But if he wants to cooperate with God, he can be helped.
This woman said, "That's the way I want it." I said, "I knew that the minute I touched you. That's the reason I didn't minister to you. As long as you want it this way, it's going to be this way." DO NOT SEEK VOICES!

1 CORINTHIANS 14:10 - There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
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To Be continue...

Chapter 20 Judging By the Word - Continuation
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Prove all things.... — 1 Thessalonians 5:21
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DO NOT SEEK VOICES!

1 CORINTHIANS 14:10 - There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.

We are not to accept anything without examining it in the light of the Word of God.
I am glad that I learned some of these things early in life. I mentioned I received my healing as a young boy by just acting on Mark 11:23 and 24.
I was born with a deformed heart. I never ran and played as other children did. I became bedfast four months before my sixteenth birthday. My body became practically totally paralyzed. I wasted away until I weighed only 89 pounds.
One day I asked the fifth doctor on the case, "Is something wrong with my eyesight, or with my blood? When Dr. Mathis took blood from my finger, it didn't look red."
This doctor said, "I will tell you the truth, son. And I will explain it to you in layman's terms. The white blood corpuscles eat up the red corpuscles faster than you can build them up, or we, medically, can do anything about it. If you didn't have the heart condition, if you didn't have the paralysis, this incurable blood disease alone would prove fatal."

I knew nothing about divine healing. I didn't know anyone in all the world believed in divine healing. When I found it in the Bible, I thought I had found something no one else knew anything about. And I acted on God's Word and was healed.

The members of my family were what we call nominal Christians. Literally, they were baby Christians. They were saved, but they were not taught beyond that. They were ignorant of the Word of God concerning healing. (Our church taught God could heal, if He would. Others taught not only that He would not heal, but that He could not heal.) So when I began to see certain things in the Bible and began to talk to my family about them, they discouraged me. I had enough sense just to stay with the Bible and keep those things to myself.

No one was in the room when I received my healing. I had been getting up and walking around the room for a couple of days before I said to Momma, "Please bring me a pair of shoes and socks, some underclothes, and a pair of pants and a shirt. (I had worn nothing but bedclothes for 16 months.) I am going to get up and go to the breakfast table in the morning."
"Oh, son, do you know what you're doing?"
It took me 45 minutes to talk her into the notion of laying out those clothes for me.
We made our home with my grandparents on my mother's side, and I asked my mother not to tell the rest of the family.
Now you could just mark it down. Grandpa got up early and sat out on the porch swing. When you heard that porch swing creak as he got up and headed toward the back of the house to the dining room, there was no use in looking at your watch; it was 7:30. Grandpa ran on schedule. If you did look at your watch, and it didn't say 7:30, you had better set it. It was 7:30.
My bedroom was in the front of the house. At 7:30 that August morning I heard that porch swing creak. I heard his footsteps as he walked to the back of the house. I was already fully clothed, sitting in a chair in my room. I gave them time to get seated at the table. Then I walked out of my room, across another bedroom, and into the dining room.
They did not expect that. Grandpa, a man of few words, looked up and said, "Is the dead raised? Is Lazarus raised up?"

I said, "Yes, the Lord has raised me up."
Then he asked me to offer the blessing. I prayed. And we ate. It is amazing how quickly you can eat if you don't talk so much. You didn't talk at Grandpa's table— especially the young folks. Within 15 minutes we were finished.

I went back to my room. It was ten minutes till 8 o'clock. I knew Momma would come in about 8 o'clock to make up the bed. Usually I was in it and she would give me my bath. Just two days before, the day I was healed, she had bathed me. I was that helpless. So this Thursday morning, even though my heart was beating right, I felt weak from exerting so much energy.

So I thought, I'm just going to lie down across the bed and rest till Momma comes to clean the room. Then I'll go out and sit with Grandpa in the swing. I had in mind to walk uptown about 10 o'clock.
I dozed off to sleep and slept ten minutes. At 8 o'clock I suddenly became wide awake. I thought Momma was in the room. Someone was in the room. I didn't see him, but I heard this voice—to me it was audible.
The voice spoke in a slow, deep monotone and even quoted scripture. It said, "AND WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? IT IS EVEN A VAPOR THAT APPEARETH FOR A TIME, AND THEN VANISHETH AWAY."
There was a pause.
Then the voice said, "AND TODAY THOU SHALT SURELY DIE."

Every voice is not God. The first audible voice I ever heard was the devil, but I didn't recognize that then. I thought God was right there in that room.
I sat up in the bed. Thoughts came into my mind faster than machine gun bullets fly. I knew James said, "For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). I knew that was scripture. And I knew the Lord told Isaiah to tell Hezekiah, "Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live" (Isa. 38:1).
Also, for the first six months of being bedfast, before I had known about divine healing, I had prayed the only way I understood. The doctors had said I had to die and I had accepted it, so I had prayed, "Lord, just let me know ahead of time, so I will have time to tell everyone good-bye."
So when I heard this voice speaking to me, I thought God has moved in this supernatural way to let you know you are going to die so you will have time to tell everyone good-bye. Divine healing is right. You have been healed. (The devil couldn't argue that. I already had the Word on that.) Your family knows you have been healed. They can see that. But remember, the Bible said "It is appointed unto men once to die, "and your appointed time has come. You are going to die today."
I got up off the bed and I tiptoed across the room (I thought God was standing right in that room) and I sat down in a chair by the window. There I waited, from about 8:30 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon, to die.

About 2:30, still sitting in that chair, some words came floating up from somewhere down inside me. I didn't know then what I know now. But I was born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was in my spirit. And He is the One who wrote the Bible. Holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit knows what is in that Book. Because He was in me, then my spirit knew some things that the Holy Spirit knows.

So these words came floating up from somewhere inside me into my mind, With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.
I didn't listen to them. I just let them float away from me. I still sat there waiting to die.
The second time, these words came floating up from inside me into my mind, With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.
I picked them up and turned them over a couple of times in my mind. Then I thought, Yes, but God has moved in this supernatural way to let me know I am going to die today. When I got my mind on that, those words disappeared.

The third time, as I sat there and these words came floating up, that inward something said to my mind, With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.
For a moment, I picked them up and repeated them just in my mind. Then I said, in a whisper, "Yes, but God has moved in this supernatural way to let me know that I am going to die." Again, when I got my mind on that, I missed it.

The fourth time, a little more authoritatively, the Spirit of God spoke. I jumped. I thought someone had slipped up behind me. The voice of the Spirit of God said, "With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation."
I said, "Who said that?" I meant, Who is in this room talking to me?
But the voice answered and said, "The 91st Psalm."
My Bible was on the floor under the chair I had been sitting in all day. I hadn't even looked at it. I picked it up now and turned to Psalm 91. When I got down to the end, sure enough, it said, "With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation" (v. 16).
But do you think the devil will give up that quickly? Oh, no. Another voice—it seemed like something sitting on my shoulder—said in my natural ear and mind, "Yes, but that's in the Old Testament. That's just for the Jews. That's not for the Church."
I sat there and thought for a moment. Then I said, "I know what I'll do. I will run my references. If I can find anything in the New Testament like that I will know it belongs to me and to the Church."

I started with Psalm 91. A reference to "with long life" led me into Proverbs. Then the Word began to enlighten me. In Proverbs I began to see that that first audible voice could not have been God.
The voice had quoted Hebrews 9:27, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, " but had misinterpreted it. Because the devil knew I didn't know any better, the voice had said, "Everyone has an appointed time to die." You hear people say that all the time. Even born-again, Spirit-filled Christians say, "When your time comes, you're going to die." That is not true. You do not have an appointed time to die.

I read in the Book of Proverbs again and again that if you do certain things, your days will be shortened. But doing other things will add unto you length of days. I knew God's Word was right. I knew that even though that voice picked a verse out of a chapter and gave it to me, it could not have been God, because it was not in line with the rest of the Word of God.

I continued to run references. This brought me over into the New Testament. I came over to Ephesians 6:1-3. And then into First and Second Peter. And I found that Paul and Peter quoted the Old Testament concerning long life (1 Peter 3:8-12; 2 Peter 1:3).
I jumped up out of that chair with my Bible in one hand. I doubled up my fist, kicked with my foot, and said, "Devil, you get out of here. That was you talking to me. That was you that spoke to me in that supernatural voice. I want you to know that I'm not going to die today! And I'm not going to die tomorrow! And I'm not going to die next week! And I'm not going to die next month! And I'm not going to die next year! And I'm not going to die the next 5 years! And I'm not going to die the next 10 years! And I'm not going to die the next 15 years! And I'm not going to die the next 20 years! And I'm not going to die the next 25 years! And I'm not going to die the next 30 years! And I'm not going to die the next 40 years! And I'm not going to die the next 50 years! And I'm not going to die the next 55 years!
God's Word says, "With long life will I satisfy thee" (Ps. 91:16). And I'm going to go on living until I am satisfied!

I will Take a Break here

I Hope People are reading this stuff, or am just going to discontinue

We shall Continue to day

Chapter 21 - My Spirit? The Flesh? Or The Holy Spirit?
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The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.... —Proverbs 20:27

Someone might ask, "How can I tell whether it is my own spirit, or the Holy Spirit telling me to do something?"
The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.
"But it may just be me wanting to do it."
Define your terms. If by "me" you mean the flesh, of course you cannot always obey the flesh. But if by "me" you mean the inward man, the real you, then it is all right to obey the inward man. Go ahead and do what he wants you to do.
If your spirit is a new creature in Christ Jesus and old things have passed away and all things are become new, and your spirit has the life and nature of God in it and the Holy Spirit in it, and your spirit is in fellowship with God —it is not going to tell you to do something that is not right. If you are a Spirit-filled Christian, your inward man has the Holy Spirit in His fullness—not in a measure, but in His fullness—making His home in you.
It is not the inward man of the Christian that wants to do wrong—it is the outward man. You ought to be able to tell whether it is the flesh wanting to do something, or the spirit. Here is a text that has been a puzzle to many:

1 JOHN 3:9 - Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

This is talking about the inward man. Physically we are born of human parents and we partake of their nature. Spiritually we are born of God and partake of His nature. God's nature is not the nature to do wrong.
I have missed it a lot of times as a Christian. But my inward man did not sin. He didn't even agree with me when I did sin. He tried to get me not to do it. My heart wept because I sinned. I allowed my flesh to dominate and I missed it, but my spirit never did consent to it. God's seed is in my spirit, not in my flesh.

If you continue to allow your flesh to dominate you, you will continue to miss it. If you continue to let your natural mind dominate you, and do not get your mind renewed with the Word, you will continue to miss it.
That's why Paul wrote born-again, Spirit-filled Christians at Rome and told them to do two things: First, they were to present their bodies, and second, they were to renew their minds with the Word (Rom. 12:1,2).
Until your mind is renewed with the Word of God, your flesh and your unrenewed mind will dominate your spirit. That will keep you as a baby Christian—a carnal Christian.

Paul said to the church at Corinth, "I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ" (1 Cor. 3:1).
"For ye are yet carnal...," he said (v. 3). One translation says, "For you are yet body-ruled."
Then he told them, "... and [ye] walk as men" (v. 3). Another translation says, "Ye walk as mere men." What did he mean? He meant they were walking and doing things just like unsaved men do.
When you get your mind renewed with the Word, then your mind will side in with your spirit instead of with your body. And the two of them—your spirit through your mind —will control your body.
My spirit will not tell me something wrong. It has the nature of God in it; it has the life of God in it; it has the love of God in it; and it has the Spirit of God in it.

2 PETER 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature....

We are born of God. Then we feed on the Word of God. By so doing we are partakers of the divine nature, God's nature. If we have the divine nature in us, our spirit will not tell us to do something wrong.
Whatever your spirit tells you will be right.

updates coming