FOLLOW PEACE WITH ALL MEN

One church I pastored had a lot of problems, but somehow or other, God gave me the wisdom to pastor that church, and He solved the problems. When I left that church, the congregation had grown and the church was full and running over. But the fellow who took over the pastorate after me ran into some problems pastoring that church. I was out in the field ministry by then and just happened to be in that area, so I thought I would drop in and visit with this new pastor. I'd heard he was having some troubles in the church, so I'd been praying for him. In fact, many times God would wake me up early in the morning, and I'd pray for him. I had compassion for him. After all, I'd pastored that church, and I knew some of the problems that existed. So when I came into town that particular day, I drove up to the parsonage, and this pastor came out to the car to talk to me. I told him I had some business in town and just wanted to stop by to see how he was doing. I asked him, "How are things going?" He said, "Things aren't right! People aren't paying their tithes."

Then he looked at me and demanded, "Have you been coming around here collecting these people's tithes?" When he asked me that, before I could say a word, he got so mad, he just reached in and grabbed ahold of my necktie. I thought he was going to pull me out of the car! Well, I have the flesh to deal with just like you do. I wanted to knock him in the head, but I knew I couldn't let the flesh dominate me. I could just see the headlines in the local paper, "Full Gospel Minister Knocks Full Gospel Pastor in the Head." But here he was accusing me of stealing the people's tithes! The Bible said not to render evil for evil or railing for railing. The world's way is that when people rail against you, you just retaliate and rail back against them. But the Bible says, "Contrariwise, render blessing, so that you can inherit a blessing." I said to him, "I haven't received a dime from the people in your church! Dear Brother, I've prayed for you more than once. Why, just the day before yesterday at four o'clock in the morning, I was down on my knees on the cold linoleum floor praying for you!" You see, I knew problems existed in that church because I had pastored it. God had told me how to deal with the people in that congregation, but now some of those same problems had surfaced again, and this pastor didn't know how to handle them. When I told this pastor I'd been praying for him, he jumped just like I'd hit him with a whip. Then he started crying, "My God! Brother Hagin, forgive me! I knew what I said wasn't right. I just had to lay off the blame on someone."

Then he admitted, "I've just been such a failure in this church. I haven't handled the situation right, and I've divided the church and run half the people off. You were a success and I wasn't, and I was trying to blame all the trouble off on you. Will you forgive me?" I said, "Sure, I forgive you." And then we hugged one another and fellowshipped awhile. We parted friends instead of enemies. Isn't that better than fighting? However, if I had let my flesh rule me, and I'd returned evil for evil and railing for railing, it wouldn't have turned out that way. But because I didn't allow my flesh to take over, that man is my friend to this day. (Kenneth E Hagin)