Transcription
Now, if you have your Bibles with you today, open them please to the eighth chapter of the book of Romans and the twentieth chapter of the book of Proverbs. Find those two openings, if you will, please. Romans chapter 8 and Proverbs chapter 20.
We will be using more scriptures as we go along, but these two for our text. In fact, these two portions of Scripture will be our text for the series of lessons, or this particular series that we'll be teaching on how to be led by the Spirit.
First of all, in the book of Romans, the eighth chapter, we'll read two verses: verses 14 and then verse 16. Verse 14 reads, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Then the sixteenth verse said, "For the Spirit itself are himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."
Then, turning to Proverbs chapter 20, verse 27: "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly." Reading the King James translation, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." Another translation reads, "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord." The lamp of the Lord. I suppose if you'd put that into modern speech, we could take one of our lightbulbs and say, "The spirit of man is the lightbulb of the Lord." In other words, what he's saying, that means that God will enlighten us, and that God will guide us through our spirits, for the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. They had candles in those days, you know. The Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. Or, using modern vernacular, I suppose if we'd been writing nowadays, we'd have said, "They, the lightbulb, the spirit of man is the light bulb, the light." You see that he uses to guide us.
Let me say it again. That means that God will enlighten us, and that he will guide us through our spirits. However many times we seek guidance every other way except the way that God said that it's going to come, well, I've always found out that you do a lot better if you'll just sign in with God and get in line with His program. Still trying to get God to get in line with your program, or to do it the way you want to do it. You see, a lot of times we judge how God is leading us by our physical senses, for our physical senses tell us. But no word does God say that he will guide us through our physical bodies, or through our physical senses. Nowhere.
Too often, we look at things from a mental standpoint. But God, nowhere in the Bible, does he declare that he'll guide us through our mentality, or through our minds. God said that it's the spirit of man that's the candle of the Lord, which means that he will guide us through our spirits, or he will guide you through your spirit.
Now, man is a spirit, he has a soul, and he lives in a physical body. He is a spirit being because he's made in the likeness of God. And Jesus, you remember, talking to the woman at the well of Samaria in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel, said that God is a spirit. And so, if we are made in the likeness of God, and God is a spirit, then of course, man must have a necessity to be a spirit. When the physical body of man is dead and in the grave, the spirit lives on. That part of man is eternal because spirits can never die. And man is spirit, soul, and body. Praise God.
Now, you see, before we can understand how that God does lead us and guide us through our spirits, we have to understand the nature of man, and we have to understand this fact: that man is a spirit, that he has a soul, and that he lives in a body. And as I said, when the physical part of our being is dead and put into the grave, the man still lives.
Paul is speaking of physical death in Philippians, the first chapter. Notice what he said in the 23rd verse: "For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ; which is far better." Now, to show you that he was talking about physical death, he went on to say, of the 24th verse, "Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you."
Now, notice that Paul is talking about physical death. He said, "I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ." Now, who's going to depart? I am. I'm gonna be with Christ, which he said is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh, that means abide means to live. Nevertheless, to live in the body. The flesh is the body. You could put it this way: nevertheless, to live in the body, the flesh is the body. You could put it this way: nevertheless, to live in the body. See, he's still gonna live where there's in the body, of the body. He's still gonna live. Nevertheless, to abide or live in the flesh, or in the body, is more needful for you. If he's here living in the flesh, living in the body, then of course, he could teach the church at Philippi and could minister to them, could be a blessing. It would be more needful for them that he continued to live in the flesh. But he'd be far better, he said. Even if he'd said it's better, that's been good. But he said, "with the depart and be with Christ, which is far better." For he's concerned.
Now, you see, he was actually saying, "I'm going to depart. I'm going to be with Christ." Now, who was he talking about when he said, "I, I'm going to depart, I'm going to be with Christ"? Well, he wasn't talking about his body, for his body wasn't going to depart. Thank God, we will have a new body one of these days. Glory to God, and that'll be a great day. But Paul here is talking about the inward man, or the spirit man, that lives inside this body. When he said, "I'm going to depart, I'm going to be with Christ."
You'll notice in 2 Corinthians, the fourth chapter, in the sixteenth verse, writing to the church at Corinth. Now, notice we just quoted what he said to the church at Philippi. Notice that he preaches the same truth, teaches the same facts to each one of the churches. He may use different words, but he is teaching the same blessed truth. To the church at Corinth, in 2 Corinthians 4:16, he said, "But though our outward man perish," authorities, the margin said, "is decaying, yet the inward man is renewed day by day."
Now, here again, he's talking about the outward man, which is the flesh, the body, which is decaying, which is growing older. But he's also talking about the inward man, which is a spirit man, that's not growing any older, that'll never be any older, that's being renewed day by day. Glory to God. Did not write there is an outward man, there is an inward man. The outward man is not the real you. The outward man is only the house that you live in. The inward man is the real you.
What is our spirits? Paul, you know, in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, praying for the church at Thessalonica, said, "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Son of man." But now, what is our spirit? You see, the text said that my text that I took to begin with said that, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." And then the sixteenth verse gives us a little insight how the Spirit of God leads us, because the sixteenth verse said, "But the Spirit itself, or Himself, bears witness with our spirit, that we are the sons of God, children of God." Then the other text in Proverbs said, "For as many as are," it said, "the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." The spirit of man.
So here we see that he talks about the Spirit of God and he talks about the spirit of man. There, the Spirit of God bearing witness with the spirit of man, and that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Before we can understand how God will guide us through our spirits, because according to the scriptures that we read, that's the way He guides us, then we must find out what our spirit is. That part of man that is spirit. Because, as we quoted the verse from Thessalonians, he speaks about spirit, soul, and body.
Now, bear in mind that he did not say there in Romans that the Spirit of God bears witness with our bodies that we are the sons of God. He did not say the Spirit of God bears witness with our souls or our minds that we're the children of God. He said the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirits. He said the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. He didn't say the body of man is the candle of the Lord. He didn't say the soul of man, the intellect of man, the mind of man is the candle of the Lord. He didn't say that. He said the spirit of man.
All right, what is our spirits? Well, let's just simply let the Bible tell us. Notice in 1 Peter 3:4. You see, when Paul here in 2 Corinthians, that we just read, four chapters, 16th verse, is talking about the outward man that's decaying and the inward man that's renewed day by day, he's calling our spirits the inward man. Now, here in 1 Peter 3:4, we find another expression about this inward man. Paul calls him inward man. Peter calls him hidden man of the heart. But let it be the hidden man of the heart. I want you to notice that expression in this 1 Peter 3:4: "hidden man of the heart." Man of the heart. Hidden man of the heart.
So this inward man, as Paul called him, or this hidden man of the heart, as Peter called him, is really the spirit of man. This inward man, this hidden man, is a spirit man. He's not a mental man, he's not a physical man, he's a spirit man. When the Bible speaks of the heart, it's speaking of the spirit, or the inward man, or the hidden man. This is the real man. It'll help you in your believing and in your faith to think like that. It did me many, many years ago when I began to examine the Bible on this particular subject, if in the New Testament particularly, to wherever the heart is used, if you'll just substitute the word spirit and think in mind of the human spirit, you'll get a clearer picture of what he's talking about.
Now, this inward man is a spirit man. This inward man is the real you. Now, you can understand this verse in 2 Corinthians, the 5th chapter, in the 17th verse. "Therefore if any man be in Christ," Paul writing again to the church at Corinth, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." Now, Paul is talking about the inward man, the real you, the real man. When he said, "Therefore if any man be in Christ," he couldn't be talking about the outward man, because when you were born again and become a new creature, you do not get a new body. Outward man, just like it was, will get around without with men. The minute you have to do something without your man, God doesn't do anything with outward man. You do that. God does something with the inward man. God does indeed. Or without with man, you have to do that. Find out what God wants you to do with the outward man, find out what God wants you to do with the body, and do what the Bible said to do. God's not going to do it. Don't try to get somebody else to do it for you. You do it.
Now, when he said, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature," he's talking about the man on the inside that has become a new creature. We certainly, when we were born again, didn't get a new body. When you were born again, you did not get a new body. But the real you, the man on the inside, became a new man in Christ Jesus, a new creature.
I know there's a lot of times in our discussing things, our terms are so indistinct in describing things that we make it confusing to people. To me, it's just simple to be better to say things the way the Bible says them, not make the Bible fit our doctrines, but just make what we believe fit the Bible. Say it the way the Bible says it.
Now, you know, for instance, a lot of times we have consecration services. That's fine if we know what we're doing. Dedication services. Christians come to the altar. We hear people say, "Well, dedicate yourself to God. Give yourself to God." Well, you see, this man on the inside, you can't give him to God. If you're a Christian, he already belongs to God. You can't give me something that already belongs to me. You couldn't give me that Bible case, it's already mine. You couldn't give me the Bible that's in the case, it's already mine, ain't that right?
You see, if you would say, when we have our dedication service, their consecration service, if you'd come to do something with your body, that would be a different thing. But we don't make it clear. And so some folks have been doing the same thing. They've been to dedicate and consecrate for 40 years. They're no more dedicated and no more consecrated than they were 40 years ago when they started. Amen. I've seen them having dedication, consecration services for Christians and saying, "Come into my heart." Well, if you're a Christian, He's already in your heart. He's not going to come in, He's already in there. And then to turn around and contradict themselves. I'm talking about consecration. I'm not talking about dealing with sinners. Not talking about an altar service for sinners. I'm talking about a dedication, consecration to everybody that had come forward. We're Christians. And somebody started singing, "Come into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus." Come into the state? He had already come in the state. And then I've seen them come back the next night, and the same, the same song, same people. No wonder they never did get dedicated or consecrated. They did no hot days of doing. Don't shout me down, that just goes and preaching real good. It's so nonetheless.
Well, as I said, our terms, let me rephrase that, or let me repeat it, let me say it again. Our terms are so indistinct in describing things that they are confusing. It would be better for us just to say things like the Bible says. Now, for instance, this verse that I quoted earlier in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where Paul said, "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here Paul is praying for the church at Thessalonica, and he begins with the inside, the very innermost part of man, the heart of his being, which is his spirit, you see. And then comes to the outside, spirit, soul, and body. He starts with the heart of man, spirit, then he comes to the outside, soul and body. And so he begins with the inward man and then comes out to the outward man.
Do you ever notice? Watch this. For many, many years, most people misquote that verse and they put the body first instead of the spirit. Because, you see, they're more body conscious than they are spirit conscious. I've noticed that a lot of times, even in reading sermons that people had preached, there are messages in periodicals. Instead of them correcting the statement with the scripture, whoever edited the sermon, they go ahead and quote it just like whoever was speaking quoted it. And I've noticed, actually, very seldom have I ever heard a speaker that got it correct. And I've been in the ministry for 43 years, and I'm a very close observer. Very seldom, if ever, have I heard a speaker that really got it correct. They'd always say, "Paul said, 'I pray God your whole body, spirit, and soul.'" He didn't say it that way. He didn't say it that way. Put the body first. He never put the body first. Spirit, soul, and body.
Now, like I said, the reason that people say it that way is that they're more body conscious than they are spirit conscious. But we need to become more spirit conscious if we're going to be led by the Spirit of God. And if we know that God's Spirit leads us through our spirits, then we're going to have to become more spirit conscious, or else we're going to miss the whole thing. Now, we need to think of ourselves as spirit beings, beings possessing souls and living in bodies.
Now, what is the difference from our, between spirit and soul? Now, the spirit and the soul are not the same. And yet, I know from experience, here's a hard one. For a good many years, I studied this subject. I didn't have the answer. I'll be honest, I didn't have it. It never has bothered me through these many years of ministry to say to people who have asked me some time, "I know, no, don't let it bother you to say, 'I don't know.'" Because if you know everything, then we ought to start following you because you know. But really, we won't. We'll start praying for you because we know you're lying. They matter. It never bothered me as a young minister when I first started out. Then there's a lot I didn't know. Then there's a lot I don't know yet. Even the great Apostle Paul said himself in 1 Corinthians 13, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part." If you just stop and think what he said, it'd help you and won't hinder. It'll help you. Paul said, "I don't know everything." Even in my prophecy, I'm only prophesying in part. You'll never tell the whole story, even in prophecy. It won't be the whole thing. Everything. That's the reason you can't just follow it. Nothing else. Are you listening to me? Because it's in part. Amen. But thank God, what we do know, praises the Lord.
Now, then, I remember years ago, many years ago, I, in studying this subject and then searching, and I asked different ministers, Full Gospel, yes, leading teachers in the Full Gospel Pentecostal movement, and then other ministers also. All outstanding ministers of the nation. I, I got the teachings, the books that were taught in our leading Bible schools, Pentecostal Bible schools, and some of the leading seminaries of our nation to see what they taught on the subject of man. None of them satisfied me. None of them were actually scriptural. They were like the Bible said, "in part." Most all of them. And then I asked outstanding teachers in the Assemblies of God movement, the leading teachers in the Foursquare movement, the leading teachers and others in the Pentecostal movement. Then I listened closely, very closely, the conversation of ministers were discussing some of these subjects. "What's the difference between soul and spirit?" And sort of a blank look come on his face. He said, "Well, I always thought they're the same." That's exactly whatever outstanding Pentecostal teacher in America said to me. I said, "How could they be the same?" How could they be the same when Paul says by the Spirit of God, and Hebrews 4:12, that the Spirit of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing asunder spirit and soul? If you can divide them, they couldn't be the same, isn't that correct? And I'd be honest with you, I just couldn't, I couldn't find the answer. And I'd been seeking for 15 years and studying carefully and burning the midnight oil. I could tell you some of the teachers that I asked, how not use any of their names, outstanding teachers that I asked in personal conversation, they looked at me, started blank, said, "Well, I thought they're the same." Much a difference between spirit and soul? I said, "Well, I thought there was the same." I said, "Well, I did too, one time." Don't go back and get some of my old sermons. I waited by count of years ago, you'll hear me saying the same thing they said. That's where I got it. It was from them. But I found out I'm them too was wrong. Is he?
Now, notice Hebrews 4:12: "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." Now, we've not been able to divide them as we ought. I'll tell you why we haven't, because we're more soul conscious than spirit conscious. Some are more body conscious. They put the body first, and they're more body conscious. Then others are more soul conscious. I made this discovery nearly thirty years ago as I began to study this. Have been studied for 15 years. I began to make some of these discoveries in the last church I practiced way back 1948 and '49. This I just shut myself up in my church sometimes days at a time with the Bible. If anything I ever decided was was to know the difference between the two. And as I, as I began to examine this, I found out this, that so many times in our Full Gospel circles, and I see the same mistake in charismatic circles today, there are more soul conscious than they are spirit conscious. And what they call spirit, even the realm, if they don't term it that, the realm they're talking about is the soul realm instead of the spirit realm. And the development, a lot of times that they have, is all in the soul realm, very little spiritual development. But it should not be hard. I can't, I'd be honest with you, before I go further with scripture here, that'll help you to see something. I, I just went through a process of elimination to discover because I couldn't find what the Bible was really saying because of my limited vision, spiritual vision at the time. I went through a process of elimination. Just simply wrote it down. First of all, I wrote down, "Now, I know this is a fact with our body, with my body." That's the way I ruled out with my body. I contacted the physical realm. That goes without argument. That's that's it. Then I knew this, with my spirit, I contact the spiritual realm. I wrote that down. Now, here's a scripture that helped me. It was in there all the time. In the Pentecostal person, any charismatic person, any spirit-filled person should know this: 1 Corinthians 14:14. "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." Now, Paul is talking about his spirit, not the Holy Spirit. The amplified translation said, "For if I pray an unknown tongue, my spirit by the Holy Spirit within me prays, my spirit prayer, but my understanding is unfruitful." Our understanding, our mentality, is a part of our soul. I'm not putting out of my soul when I pray in tongues. I'm praying out of my spirit, my heart, my spirit, my innermost being. You remember what Jesus said over in John's Gospel, the seventh chapter, the last day of the feast, he stood and cried and said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly," King James said, "out of his belly." Another trend, he said, "out of his innermost being shall flow rivers, not a river, rivers of living water." "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believeth on him should receive." For as yet the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Now, hold in your mind and read what it says here in 1 Corinthians 14:14: "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth." Then when I speak with tongues, the Holy Ghost, of course, gives me the utterance, but I do the talking. We need to settle that. I do the talking. He gives the utterance. That's where He is. Down here, it comes out of the inside of me. My spirit prayeth, not my soul. My spirit. My understanding is unfruitful. My understandings are part of my soul. My spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
Pastor said to me, his wife said there at the time, they said this to me, that daughters were grown and married, but said when their daughters were small, they just had two girls. One of them, one night in a revival meeting, received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I received the infilling of the Holy Ghost. I was filled with the Spirit. Either way you were saying. And they said, actually, others were praying around the altar, and these little children were off by themselves. There's no adults over there with them. Holy Spirit just seemed to fall on this little girl, six years old. And in that day, they didn't start school. They hadn't even started school till they were seven. So she didn't start school till they were seven. But six years old, she ran up to her mother, holding her hand on her stomach, and said, "Mama, mama, said that come right out of my belly." She was talking about the tongue. See, that little girl was sharper in things of the Spirit than some Full Gospel pastors I know. Even then, that came right out of my belly. That's what the mind was said. Out of your belly, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. See? Amen. How do your innermost being? That's that's the spirit of man.
Now, it's necessary for us to know the difference between soul and spirit, and to locate the spirit. Because, let's go back again now to so you can see that that he is gonna guide us through our spirits. Then the more conscious we are of our spirits, the more we know about our spirits, the more guidance we'll be able to receive. The less we know, the more soul conscious, the more body conscious we are, then we're going to miss the spirit part altogether. That's reading is so hard for people to get some things. They're living so, so in their bodies. They're living so in their, their soul realm.
Now, "For if I pray an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." Our understanding is a part of our soul. Remember I said I went through the process of elimination? I knew that it was with my body, I contacted the physical world. I knew that it was with my spirit, that I contacted the spiritual world. Then that left one only one other part of me that made any other contact, or contacted in the other world. Then I knew that it had to be with my soul. I contact the intellectual world. Then that helped me to see as I wrote that on the piece of paper. Then I could understand. Now, Paul said, "My understanding is unfruitful." I didn't pray when I prayed with with tongues. I didn't pray out of my soul. I didn't pray out of my intellect or my mind. That wasn't my soul praying. "If I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth." Then, in order to be compared to be easy for we who are spirit-filled to locate the spirit, my spirit prayeth. Then that's our spirits. Where those tongues come from? Down there on the inside of us. Praise God. They don't come out of our head. We know that. Amen. We speak them out physically. All right. But they didn't come in at the out of the physical senses. It's because we yielded our tongues to our own spirits, and the Holy Spirit in our spirit gave us utterance.
Now, then, let's go back to this expression, then here in Proverbs 20:27. Let's go back and look at that expression again in the light of all I've said. I think it'll take on new meaning to us now. Notice that the spirit of man, remember now, hold your mind. Paul said, "For if I prayed an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth." "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly."
Now, there's that word "belly" again. There in John's Gospel, the seventh chapter, that we've already quoted, the 37th through the 39th verse. "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because it's Jesus is not yet glorified.
Now, as a result of receiving the Holy Spirit, or being filled with the Holy Spirit, out of the belly shall flow rivers of living water. Another translation reads, "out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." Again, let me remind you, want to go over the ground carefully. 1 Corinthians 14:14. I'm gonna read amplified translation this time. I read the King James. I referred to the amplified momentarily there. But the King James, the amplified translation reads, "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit by the Holy Spirit within me prays." When you pray in tongues, it comes out of your innermost being, out of your belly, or your innermost being, or out of your spirit. That's where it comes from. And because you've received the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who resides in your spirit is giving your spirit the utterance, and you're speaking it out. Therefore, when we read, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly," we see that the spirit of man is our innermost being, or the real man.
Now, you can understand something else and see it more clearly. All the leadings that I've ever gotten have come out of my spirit. And most of them have come when I was praying in other tongues. You could understand why. Because, you see, your spirit's active. Little side thought. One reason that we failed so miserably in the church world as a whole, we've done so much of just one kind of praying, praying with our understandings, mental prayers. We've endeavored to fight spiritual battles with mental abilities instead of praying out of our spirits, instead of praying out of our spirits. I'm found out this through these many, many years. In every crisis of life, in every crisis of life, I've learned to look to my spirit inside me. I've learned to pray in other tongues. And while I'm praying in other tongues, that come to guidance up from the inside of me. Because, see, my spirit's active. My body's not active. My mind is not active. My spirit's active. And it's through my spirit that He's going to guide me. And sometime while I'm praying in tongues, I don't know a word it said in English. Sometimes I'll interpret it, and through the interpretation, I'll get some light and some guidance. But most of the time, not so. Just once in a while. But minute I'm just while I'm praying in tongues, from somewhere way down in here, it'll just come up. It's difficult to explain spiritual things in natural ways. But it is rise up in me. That this is like you can sit something rise in opinion, it begins to take shape and form, and you couldn't tell anybody mentally how you knew it to save your life, because you understand, don't everything to it. But you know exactly on the inside of you. It's, it's such an encouragement because you know, if you do face another crisis, you know where your help come from. You know how to get it. Are you listening to me?
Now, every time in my own life, since I was healed and since I was born again, and since I've become a new creature, and then filled with the Holy Ghost, if sickness came my way, and we are to take these things lightly, friends. If sickness came my way, and and several times, to be exact about it, three different times in these, since I was healed 1934, three different times, deaths actually coming and fast itself upon my body. I won't have time to go into details in all of them. But I remember I left my last church, went out on the field, field ministry, 1949. Well, you set out to obey God. Don't think it's strange that every devil in hell will be turned loose on you. Because if the devil can keep you out of the will and the plan of God, then he's thought to some extent God's will for you and God's plan that would bless others. For that, particularly if you're in the ministry, you see. And I'll be honest with you, in seven month period, or a few months period, a five month period, I thought more devils and more demons and more evil spirits than I had in 15 years of ministry put together, times three, multiplied by three. Did seem like all of them dogged my tracks. And I know one relish is being gone from home, just as a young man, early 30s, 32 years of age, children left at home, my wife have to assume all that responsibility. And I just decided that it was too great a price to pay. And so I, I decided that I'd go back to pastoring. I decided that is he. And so I, I canceled out my meetings at a convention I attended. I knew there were other vendors there. And if it, I said it to the ones where I was supposed to go, if it wouldn't miss put you out of this, like to cancel. What are you gonna do? I said, "I'm going back to pastor." I did hold one meeting after this convention, because that would be too close to pastor. All it had advertised, man. I didn't want this put him. Remember this, if you're Christian, you always want to be ethical. You want to be a gentleman. Realize this, that you want to walk in love where than anybody else does, or not. And love always considers the other person before me. No matter how you're miss put and put out, if I read their walk and divine love, you'll consider the other person, no matter what it cost you. And if every pastor said, "No, you come on, I've gone to every one of them. I've got to do that to keep my word." There's no other to mean. Some of you folks, faith never amounts to anything. Your words no good. You won't keep your word. They'll faith and there will amount to anything if you don't learn to be a man or a person of your word. Because you see, to get faith to work for you, got to believe in your words as well as believing in your heart.
Now, look at me in that tone of voice. I'll tell you the truth. Amen. Mark 11:23 said, "Whosoever shall say and not doubt in his heart, but believe those things which he says have come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith." Those things which you say are words. Well, you're certainly not going to believe your words that come to pass when you're acquainted with your words, and you wouldn't know you're not a man or not a person of your word. I want to say it again. I've said before, I'm going to keep on saying it. The Bible tells us in the book of Psalm that one of the characteristics of the spiritual pilgrim is one who swears to his own hurt and change if not. He won't change. If I tell the person I'll do something, if I tell a pastor I'll do something, if a man has my word for it, if he won't let me out of it, if I tell him how God's leading me this way, and he said, "No, you come on here. I'll belong there. God told me to do that." Are you listening to me? I'm going to keep my word. If I don't keep my word, it'll affect my whole spiritual life. You need to be careful about telling somebody something if you don't believe it. Are you listening to me? Whether you realize it or not, it'll absolutely affect you. I don't tell people the truth every time. I won't tell somebody I'm glad to see him if I'm not glad to see him. I'm not gonna start lying. I won't tell him I'm not glad to see him. I'll find some way to say it without violating the conscience. I'm not gonna tell somebody they're pretty if they're not pretty. Amen. I'm not gonna lie. Say what you want to. It'll affect your faith. Well, let's just be a nice. No, it's not. That's being devilish. Your faith won't work because, after all, you won't believe in your own words yourself because you never kept your word with anybody. Don't shout me down, cause I'm preaching real good. Amen. Sure get quiet. Don't you get out where you live it. It's alright if we're talking about the other fella. But we get talking about you, you don't get to meddle a little bit. That's something else. They see where were we here in our Bible lesson? Anybody remember? Well, I, well, it was, well, it was all right with each pastor, so I canceled out. They got him another evangelist. I went ahead and held this other revival for three weeks after this convention. And then I, I had to set up to go preach on certain Sunday to certain church. Good church. Strongest church. Finances, a Full Gospel church in that part of the state. Only one church ran more people than they did. So person-wise, it was second largest church in that part of the state. But financially, it was the biggest one. They paid their pastor the most. They had the most money. They did the most permissions of anybody else. The board said to me, "Brother Hagin, I don't know you. He'll revive it. Read it. Maybe not be necessary for you to come preach. But some of we've got some new ones in since you was here a couple of years ago. The whole revival, so come and preach for us on Sunday." But the board said to me, "We'll just almost guarantee it. You see, Brother Stone, or one of the former pastors that you prefer, he recommended. Whoever he recommends, well, you know, I mean, if you want it, well, you got it." But I had one Sunday off before I go there to preach. So on this off Sunday, my wife and I went over to visit a neighboring church in the neighboring town. I'm setting in the Sunday School class, and I'm telling you exactly what the lesson was about that Sunday. Pastor had this son's grave. Tried to get me to teach it. I wouldn't teach to other pastor preachers were they ordained ministers, and they wouldn't eat. We said, "Well, we'll help you. You go ahead and teach it. You didn't know was coming anyway. We just slipped in on him." The lesson was about Moses in the children of Israel, about Moses disobeying God and smiting the rock. Christ, you know. We said, "What?" Well, I'm pretty well to authority on disobeying God, you know, because I just got through disobeying it, you know. I decided. So I'm sitting there while the Sunday school teacher, while the pastor's teaching this class, and I'll tell you the truth about it, I, I dropped. My heart stopped beating right in my bosom, and I fell off of the pew right in the floor. Barely was able, one of us really started to get up when I passed out and fell. I, I managed to get my hand up under my nose just to keep mashing it on the floor, and I did temporarily pass out, just blanked out, just went out. I pitched out right there at the pastor's feet. Well, he reached down, picked me up, and these other two preachers sitting there on the front pew, they jumped up and they lift me up on seats, you know, and and set me down. And I said, and everybody started praying. I said, "Take me out." And I began to feel a little better. Fast. And I said, "You know, one of the pastors come go with me, you know, taking after the party's next doing." They've virtually carried him out there. And I lead down the bed there in the parsonage. And I said to this ministers with me, "Feel my heart." Now, it started up again. It's stopped. It just flat stopped. But when they started up again, it wasn't, you couldn't distinguish any beats. It was racing. Evidently, just, I mean, you could, you could actually put your finger in here, and my neck, you couldn't feel a beat. You could feel the pulse. You couldn't feel it beat. If you felt over my heart, you could feel a little something just quivering, that's about all. And I was getting cold all over. And so I, I said to them, "Feeling my heart." When he felt hard, he started crying. He ran out and got these the other preacher and the pastor, and they came. When he said, "Feeling as I may felt in my heart," and and they started crying. They said, "Lady, we just do you with death." Well, I began to pray in other tongues. And on the inside, to be weighed down in my spirit, it just something just rose up in me, enlightenment. It begin to take shape and form. And I, I knew because I knew in a sense already I'd missed God. But I saw how badly I'd missed him, how it gotten disobedience and got on the devil's territory where he could attack me. No, God didn't send it on me. And I said to the Lord, "Lord, all right, I promise you, among other things in my prayer, I said, 'I promise you this, longest day I live, I'll never entertain the idea of pastoring a church again unless you put it into my I won't entertain it in my mind at all unless you put it into me.'" Now, I knew I had my part done. I had my part done. But then they rose up something else in me, and I knew on the inside of me, inward in life. But you see, that my wife had a part to do. I didn't know. She hadn't said a word to me. I said to one of the preachers, "One get my wife quickly." Well, he ran out to the Sunday school building next door, went to the ladies' Bible class, and looked in. Already the Spirit of God had had alerted my wife. She didn't know why, but I'm dumb. I being led to the Spirit on the inside of her. She had this alarm. She knew, didn't know how, you know, but she knew something was wrong with me. And she's already gathering up her Bible and her purse and her Sunday school book and getting ready to leave the room. See, when she saw this gentleman came in, motion to her, well, he told her something to what happened. So she came to the room, fell down on the bed, said, "Dear God," fell down by the side of the bed. Knife and put her hands on me and said, "Ah, I feel like it's my fault." Well, I could see them. The Lord didn't tell me. He just, I just knew I had to get her to come and stand with me. And she said, "I feel like it's my fault." Now, she hadn't grabbed to me, she hadn't fussed to me, she hadn't said one word of discouragement. She hadn't had said one word that would leave the thought that she's not going along with me 100%. But she said, "I feel like it's my fault. I feel like maybe he wouldn't have wanted to pastor and quit the field if it hadn't been for me." Because in my heart, see, God knows what's going on on the inside of you. I can't see that. You can't see that. In my heart, I resented the fact that he was gone, and I'm here with all the burden to raise the children and the family. You see, the two children. And one day the children that got off to school, and I was washing the breakfast dishes, you know, and and only inside of me murmuring like this, and and I heard this voice say, "I couldn't take him where never would come back." And she said, and I didn't know this, you never told me. He came revelation to me. All I knew was just the Spirit said, you know, to get her, have her to come. And she said, "I looked all through the house, look behind the door, see if somebody was in there." See, to her, it was horrible. Looked in the bathroom, looked behind the bathroom door, and I checked the doors and the screens are hooked, so couldn't nobody got in the house. And I passed it off as my imagination playing tricks on me. She said, "Lord, that was you that spoke to me that day in an audible voice and said, 'I couldn't take him where and there would come back.'" Now, I promise you this, Lord, that I'll never complain. I'll never feel bad down the inside of me again. No matter where he goes, if you call him to go to Africa, and no matter how long he's gone, if you'll just bury me." Well, I'd already made my prayed my prayer, made my dedication. Now she had made hers. And the Spirit of God in me called these men, these ministers present, as a witness to our dedication, to my wife's consecration, and the power of God fell on me, and I leapt off of the bed, round my heart till everything. I just danced all through the house. It was perfectly. My wife and I, my wife had to make the same consecration, dedication I did. Her. I'd died. I'd be honest with you. I said, "Did God kill you?" No, God didn't kill me. I got in disobedience, and we both got this means. We got on the devil's territory. He can attack us. But I got back. Nah, I found through the years, every single time I've got there, and I've been there three times when death came fast and Ceph upon me. But every time death came, something to meet the only inside of me rose up in the Spirit of God immediately gave illumination. The spirit of man, the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. God lit that candle, praise God, to just like a light come up on the inside, and I see immediately everything I ought to know and why it was that way and what to do about it, how to get out of it, and I got out of there. And you can. He didn't say the spirit of the preacher is the candle of the Lord. He didn't say the spirit of the prophets, the candle of the Lord. He didn't say the spirit of the Apostle is the candle of the Lord. He didn't say the spirit of the pastor is the candle of the Lord. He said the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. The spirit of man.
That concludes this message. For more information about Kenneth Hagin Ministries, call 1-888-283-2484 or visit our website at www.rhema.org. Homa 741500126. And in Canada, write Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Post Office Box 335, Station D, Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M9A 4X3.
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