Kenneth “Papa” Hagin

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Pray Without Ceasing

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you“.
(John 15:7)

 
You must first have God’s Word in you.
 
And I’m not talking about reading the scriptures. He may lead you to the scriptures to tell you what He wants you to do, but I’m saying you need a relationship with Him where you pray without ceasing, as we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
 

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you“.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

 
How do you pray without ceasing? Do we go to our knees with our heads bowed and hands clasped? No, He’s saying you keep your antenna pointed toward Him and spiritual dial tuned into Him at all times, whether you’re driving, you’re talking or walking; no matter whatever you’re doing. Now it does take time to learn how to do this. Once you spend a lot of time with Him in payer you’ll find out how. You can get to the place where the only times you break down and pray like you used to is when you really need Him bad, like right now. All the other times you know He is with you.
 
You may be a plumber going through Home Depot and, all of a sudden, you stop and wonder “why am I looking at this piece of equipment? I don’t need that.” And you go on your way. You drive back 30 miles to where you came from, where the job is, and all of a sudden you realize you need that part. You should have picked it up! How many times has that happened to you? It’s the Holy Ghost telling you, Spirit to spirit. Get it! Those are the little things that add up to bigger blessings. Pray without ceasing.
 

“For through Him (Jesus) we both have access by one Spirit to the Father“.
(Ephesians 2:18)

 
Prayer is a place of being with God. It’s not a thing we do; it’s a thing that happens to us. Pray to ask God what He wants you to do; don’t pray to tell God what to do. Please! He’ll just mess up your life if He does what you say to do because He knows your needs better than you do. He knows our needs even before we ask (Matthew 6:8), so maybe we need to start asking Him what He wants us to do, and how He wants us to do it.
 
A lot of times we’ll pray, “God, I need something.” Or “God, I need to get healed.” What you need to do is say, “God, how do I get this thing need taken care of?” Then let the revelation come to you. You need to walk under that pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. Then you’re under His protection at all times. The grace of God is a good thing! But you’ve got to be willing to listen to Him. We’re saved by grace through faith, which is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
 
In other words, if you want to get saved from a certain situation today, you’d better have faith by hearing what God has to say. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
 
You won’t believe it unless you experience it yourself. The point is not just to tell you about this, not just to give you my stories and testimonies, but to reveal the knowledge so that you may be activated into this new way of life, God’s way of living the abundant life all the way. So, you receive all that God has for you. I am attempting to fan that spark inside of you that will give you the ability to know of things to come, to be able to look around the corner of tomorrow and be prepared for where you need to be, for what you need to say and what you need to do. It’s important!
 
I used to be a bank president. A lot of times I’d have customers that would come in that wouldn’t want to go to the teller. They’d want to come to me. One time this fellow had come in and started talking to me; he was one of our loyal customers. I kind of read between the lines of what he was wanting as he slid his checkbook across my desk. He said, “I need about $750. My wife wants to go skiing and we have never done that so we’re going to try it. So, we need to buy some skis and stuff.” Then he just started talking. I knew right then he couldn’t read or write, so I took his checkbook and started filling it out. Without saying a word, I just pushed it back and he made his little mark and sent it back to me. I pulled the check out and called the secretary in so she could go and cash it. We were talking and I said, “Now let me ask you a question. How did you get so much money?”
 
He said, “Well my dad just told me I was going to be a ditch-digger, so when I got out of school in the third grade I started digging ditches.”
 
I said, “Yeah, but now you’ve got all this heavy equipment and machinery that costs millions of dollars!”
 
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Well I just got this gut feeling one day that if I’d go out there and start digging trenches and laying some lines down, that could work.” He had built a subdivision. Then that subdivision sold out really quickly, and he went and built another one, and another one, and another one. Then he started contracting for the government.
 
But we missed something real important there: He said, “I just had that gut feeling.” How many times has the Holy Spirit been called a “gut”? Really! “I just had that unction” or, “Oh, I just kind of knew that if I did it nobody would believe me. But when I stepped out and did it, it worked.” That’s not you; it’s the Holy Spirit.
 
We’ve got to be careful not to become rodomontade. “Look how big I am! Look how smart I am! Look what I’ve done!” All you did was obey the Holy Spirit and He commanded His angels to go make it all happen. That’s all you need to do to get ahead in this life, is to pray, hear and obey. He did all the forecasting, He did all the preparation. He did everything to make it fall into place just for you. You need His word working every day of your life and that’s no lie!
 
 

Written by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet

Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947)

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Who’s Way is It?

 
God is about to empower you with something that will give you the ability to not fear anything in this life. Now you can know all things to come, because Jesus Christ is about to reveal Himself on a level that we have never seen before.
 
We are going to begin in an area that could bring about a drastic change in your theology. It will also stretch your faith and direct you to the identity of your roots. We’re going to be talking about the Body, the Soul, and the Spirit, those things that our Lord desires us to know more about in this time especially.
 
We will begin to lay down a foundation that will give you some footing to know how to make it over that mountain. Whenever your faith seems weak, whenever the trials and tribulations seem great, the Lord will give you the ability to find the source and the answers to those things you have need of in order to conquer all that the world throws at you.
 

1 Thessalonians 5:17-23 says,
“Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 
How many of us want to be blameless before the Lord Jesus Christ? He’s talking about three parts of you as a human being. He’s talking about your body, an obvious part of all of us. He’s talking about your soul. Most people get confused when speak about the soul because they think it’s the same thing as your spirit, but it’s not. Your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions. That’s where the battleground is in spiritual warfare, and that’s where most people start making their mistakes. They begin to meditate on sinful things and they think it is okay to think on them as long as they don’t act upon them.
 
Wrong!
 
Jesus taught that if you so much as think upon it you will do it (Matthew 5:28). Premeditated murder doesn’t start with an accident. It starts with a thought. And you nurture that thought until it creates the manifestation of that which is evil. So, don’t think that you are fooling God, and that you’re protected as long as you keep it in your soul – your mind, will, and emotions. If you think on it long enough, it will possess you. It will take over and you will lose total control, and when you finally snap out of it you’ll realize that you don’t even know how you got to where you are.
 
I don’t know if you’ve ever listened to these programs about people who have found themselves in a sinful situation. They did something they wished that they’d never done. They allowed it to start by those things that are forbidden for Christians, such as anger, hate, and vengeance. These things that we may sometimes want to do which we were supposed to have died to in the flesh. Do not think just because you are not acting out your sinful thoughts does not mean you are sin free. For if you continue to think upon doing something sinful you will eventually commit the sin; for it will take hold and possess you.
 
The body profits you nothing! Many people focus all upon the body, especially those who are looking for a mate. Just because they find somebody who looks good and is appealing to them does not mean their marriage will work. We’re supposed to be led by the Spirit in all things. And what the Spirit brings together no man can take apart. Too many people today are married in the flesh, the lust of the flesh, and just because they were married in a church does not sanctify their marriage. Just because they have a piece of paper that says “Marriage License” does not make it official in the eyes of God. What He is looking for is a person who is willing to be led to that person that He has so selected that they may find harmony and peace in life.
 
I could spend a long time talking about marriage counseling and about those who have found the wrong mate and also about those who are looking for a mate. We have a lot of people write in for a prophetic word from God. The very first question is usually regarding a mate; the second one is about finances, and the third one is concerning God’s will. A lot of times, those people get what God says and then they say, “Well I’m going to order another one because I didn’t like that one!” It doesn’t work that way. God does not line up with you. He does not allow you to restore His mind to be equal with yours. It’s the other way around!
 
 

Written by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet

Prince of Preachers: Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

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Speak in Tongues to be Spirit Filled?

 
I, (Wes Arnold) was raised by a preacher of the Gospel in the Deep South of the United States. Under his tutelage I was blessed to receive much great advice. One of his many pearls of wisdom concerned the three keys to good preaching. Key number one was “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em”. Key number two was “Tell ’em. And the third key to successful communication was “Tell ’em what you told ’em” Bearing in mind this parental admonition, suffice it to say that one does not need to speak in tongues to be Spirit filled. I just told you what I intend to tell you. My father would be proud.
 
Many teach that speaking in tongues is the evidence of being filled with The Holy Spirit. To support this view they refer to the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. The writer of Acts never calls tongues “the” outward sign of The baptism of The Spirit but there is no question that he accepts it as “a” confirmation that this spiritual event has taken place. From the words of Peter in Acts 2:17 we understand the prophet Joel to say that the outpouring of the Spirit would be accompanied by daughters prophesying, young men seeing visions and old men dreaming dreams. While admitting that I don’t know how to dream anything other than a dream I feel safe in saying that the case for the things mentioned in verse 17 being evidence of the Holy Spirit is stronger than the case for tongues. Peter goes on to say in verse 18 “And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:” Should we require the gift of prophecy as evidence of the Baptism?
 
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12 not to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts. He then proceeds to teach us that the gifts are diverse and not all Spirit filled people operate in the same gifts. Tongues and the interpretation of tongues are among those the listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and Paul did not take this occasion to mention that any were the prevailing evidence of being filled with the Spirit. Rather, as he taught that all who are filled have at least one supernatural gift, this empowering in any of its expressions could be said to be proof of the baptism. Not all Spirit filled Christians operate in their appointed gift or gifts. While this may convict them in the minds of others this is not evidence that they have not been filled with the Holy Spirit. This action is subject to the dictates of each human soul and not necessarily a reflection of an absence of the baptism.
 
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 :5 “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.” In this verse we hear Paul’s desire but not his requirement to speak in tongues. He does highly recommend it especially in the area of prayer in verses 15-18 writing “What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. Paul places his high stamp of approval on tongues with the words “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:” Yet for all that he makes no mention of evidence for the filling of the Holy Spirit.
 
I believe I stand in agreement with Paul when I say of speaking in tongues “Must we? No.” “Should we? Yes.” But we must keep in mind that the ability of Spirit filled people to pray outside the scope of their understanding is not necessarily operating in the gift of tongues that requires interpretation. One of the most profound reasons to pray with the spirit is that Paul says this is a blessing to the Lord in 1 Corinthians 14:16, writing “Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit,…”. It makes God happy when we pray with the spirit. Praying with the spirit is when the human spirit is directed by either the Holy Spirit or possibly angels what to say in a heavenly language not known by the supplicant. David said “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise will continually be in my mouth. When we pray with the spirit we are praising the Lord with perfectly formed words from heaven.
 
To sum up, our stance at PMT is to forbid not the speaking in tongues while not requiring it for evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
 
 

Written by, Wes Arnold & Kent Simpson