//Kenneth E. Hagin
I left my last pastorate in 1949 and went out in field ministry, going from church to church holding revivals. After I’d been out on the field a solid year, from February 1949 to January 1950, my records showed I’d earned $1,200 less than my church had paid me for the previous 12 months.
Plus, the church had furnished our parsonage, which was the best we’d ever lived in. They also paid the utilities and all of my expenses to conventions. And they were always buying clothing and other gifts for my wife and me.
After I went out on my own, I had to pay my own rent, utilities, and convention expenses, as well as my traveling expenses to and from meetings.
| The subject of prosperity is currently so misunderstood in the church world. The Lord Himself taught me about prosperity. I never read a book about it; I got it directly from Heaven. It blessed me and my family so much I want to share it with you. |
During that first year on the field, my clothes and my car had worn out. The car had four bald tires and no spare. In fact, it got so bad I sold it for junk! We lived in a three-room apartment. Ken, our son, didn’t have a bedroom and had to sleep on a little rollaway bed in the kitchen!
I was holding a meeting in East Texas when I went to the Lord about our financial problems. I went on a partial fast, and each afternoon I spent several hours in prayer. On the third day, I had all my statistics laid out in front of me and said to the Lord, “See how much better off I’d be if I stayed in my church? That’s what I
wanted to do anyhow.”
I’d gotten hold of Isaiah 1:19, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land,” and I quoted it to the Lord again. I reminded Him that I had earned $1,200 less than the last church I pastored had paid me. I reminded Him that my clothes had worn out and I was on foot without a car.
I kept saying, “Lord, You said right here in your Word, ‘If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land,’ and I am not eating the good of the land. My children are not adequately fed. We are not adequately housed. I know the problem is not with You because You don’t ever change. Where is the problem?”
The still, small voice of the Lord spoke to my spirit, my innermost being: “The reason you are not eating the good of the land is that you don’t qualify. You are obedient, but you aren’t willing. So you don’t qualify to eat the good of the land.” I made a little adjustment down on the inside of me and got willing in 10 seconds! But then the Lord had to correct my thinking. Wrong thinking defeats us a lot of times. Our minds are filled with what we’ve been taught, whether it’s scriptural or not.
The Lord said to me, “Go back to the Book of Beginnings.” (I knew He was talking about the Book of Genesis.) “You know I made my man Adam?” he continued.
“Yes.”
“Adam originally was the god of this world. He ruled and dominated it. That’s the way I planned it. When Adam sold out to Satan, then Satan became the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). I’m not withholding adequate food and clothing from your little children—that’s not Me! It’s the devil. He’s the god of this world.
“The money you need is on the earth. I’m not going to rain money down from Heaven. I don’t have any money up here. And if I did rain money down, it would be counterfeit, and I’m not a counterfeiter. The silver and gold are down on the earth where you need it.”
“Then what should I do?” I asked.
“In the first place,” He replied, “don’t pray anymore about money the way you have been praying.
“Number one, claim whatever you want or need, because it’s down there on the earth. And Satan has the most control of it.”
“Now, Lord,” I said, “I can believe that You want to meet our needs—but our wants?”
He replied, “You claim to be a stickler for the Word. In the23rd Psalm it says, ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not WANT’ (v. 1). And it says in the 34th Psalm, ‘The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not WANT any good thing’ (v. 10).
“Number two,” the Lord continued, “say, ‘Satan, take your hands off my money.’ It’s Satan who is keeping it from coming to you—not me. And number three, say, ‘Go, ministering spirits, and cause the money to come.’ Ministering spirits are sent to serve you. Did you ever read in the Book of Hebrews where it says that
angels are ‘ministering spirits, sent forth to minister FOR them who shall be heirs of salvation’ (Heb. 1:14)?”
I could see it then: for years, angels had been standing around me doing nothing because I had never told them to do anything.
Before the Lord spoke to me, I would pray, fast, weep, and cry and still barely skim by. But I got right up off my knees and went into the church. (I was staying in the parsonage next door.) With fear and trembling, I stood on the platform in that empty church and said, “I claim $150 this week. Satan, take your hands off my
finances. Go, ministering spirits, and cause the money to come.”
I knew enough about faith to know that that settled it. There was no use repeating it, so I walked out of the church and back to my room.
I received the money that week. I tested this out time and time again, and I got the money I claimed every time. What about your situation? The same thing is true concerning you. If you’ll follow these steps, it will work for you too.
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