Growing Up, Spiritually by Kenneth E. Hagin

Author:Kenneth E. Hagin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: training, Bible, Christ, Spirituality, Christian Life, Christianity, Jesus, Religion, growth, Spiritually, Church, education, Growing Up, Pentecostal & Charismatic, maturity
ISBN: 9780892765041
Publisher: Faith Library Publications, Incorporated
Published: 1978-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

I don't blame people. I'm not scolding you. I'm thoroughly convinced the ministry is to blame. I believe most people—99.99 out of 100—would rise to the level of the Word of God for them if they knew it.

But just because a man is one of the ministry gifts

—apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher—doesn't mean he's a full grown Christian. It just means he has that calling on his life. He still has to develop and grow himself.

In the last church I pastored, during the winter of 1947 and 1948, I shut myself up in the church, sometimes for days at a time, with the Word. I would kneel and read the Bible on my knees. I read for hours, and for weeks. I had read it for years, of course, but this time I took those two prayers Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus—Ephesians 1:17-19, and 3:14-21.

I would leave one of my Bibles open to that place all week. And every time I came into the building I would get on my knees and say, "Father, I'm praying these prayers for myself." If I had to make a call or something arose, when I'd come back, even though I may have already done it several times that day, I'd pray these prayers for myself. "...That the eyes of my understanding be enlightened, that I may know what is the hope of His calling,...." And so on.

It didn't seem to do a bit of good for a while. But I just kept on praying them. Then—after a while—I began to get revelation from the Word. (He couldn't have revealed the Word to me if I hadn't been feeding on it.) It began to open up to me!

Within a few weeks, 30 days or so, I'd learned more than I'd learned in the previous 13 or 14 years of ministry put together. I said to my wife, "What in the world have I been preaching? My, my, my, that little old stuff I've been putting out wasn't even milk. It was just bluejohn."

This didn't come just because I prayed. That was just a part of it. I spent equal time, if not more, with the Word as I did praying. You can't build a prayer life just praying alone. It has to be built upon God's Word.

So when the Bible speaks about our becoming a perfect man, the terminology "knowledge of the Son of God" is used (Ephesians 4:13). It infers that it is this knowledge which will cause us to become full grown, and cause us to become mature.

The Place of Right Teaching

We have failed to grow because of the lack of right teaching. God put teachers in the church. He set them in there. (Ephesians 4:11, I Corinthians 12:28.)

There are some ways all of us could do some teaching. From the natural standpoint we could tell some people what we know and could teach them to some extent. But on the other hand, there are those who are called of God, and anointed by the Spirit of God, to teach.

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