The Bible and Life

Friday, May 15, 2026

Misuse Of The Gifts

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

MISUSE OF THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

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I never allow the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be misused in my meetings. I was preaching at a certain church, and the pastor's wife remarked to her husband, "Since Brother Hagin's been here, we haven't had a bit of trouble with Sister So-and-so and those others." I said, "Why, no, I haven't had any trouble with them." The pastor's wife said, "You notice they don't manifest whatever it is they claim to have in Brother Hagin's services. They stay quiet."

This pastor and his wife went on to explain that these women tore up some of their services with so-called "prophecies" and interpretations of messages in tongues. These "prophecies" were wrong. They were not in line with the Word of God. They were unedifying, and they led to bondage.

The pastors were marveling at the good behavior of these women in my services. "Why, they're quiet as mice," they exclaimed. I replied, "I wonder why? I didn't say anything to them, but if they had gotten out of line, I would have corrected them in love." The pastor's wife said, "Well, Brother Hagin, you take charge of the service. One thing about it—they know you're in charge, and they're a little fearful of you."

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When things are wrong in a meeting—when someone misuses the gifts—I don't think we should go along with it and just "swallow" it. If we do, people (and especially our young people) think we don't know the difference between the right and wrong operation of the gifts; between the real and the false.

We should teach people in love. If they won't accept correction—and if they persist in their error—we will have to rebuke them in love from the pulpit. I do that in my meetings. I endeavor to do it in love. You may have heard me call people down sometimes. I say, "Now you just wait a minute here..."

It doesn't mean that person is completely out of line; but it does mean that they're misusing the gifts and are out of line in some things. People whose hearts are right want to be taught. People who don't want to be taught are not right to begin with. If I got wrong, I'd want people to line me up. I'd take teaching. I'd line up. I'd admit I was wrong.

Sometimes we have a false pride about us. We don't want to admit it if we've made a mistake. But if you say you've never missed it in life, you'd be lying. So you might as well go ahead and admit that you've made mistakes.

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Let's take correction if we need correction. And let's realize that this anointing and this unction is on the inside of us, praise God. And He said that by this anointing or unction we know all things.

That's what the Bible said. It's either the truth or a lie.

Some people say, "I don't know." If you don't it's because you're not listening to the unction that's inside you, because the Spirit is in you to inform you, instruct you, and tell you things. And you can know immediately when something's out of line.

It's amazing to me how little children will know when things are wrong and grown ups don't know the difference. I remember one time when my son was about 9 years old and was with me in a service, for I was preaching close to where we lived. There were some things that went on with tongues and interpretation that were out of line, but I never said a word, because it didn't happen in my part of the service. It happened while the pastor had the service, so it wasn't my responsibility.

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Driving home that night, Ken spoke up and said, "Daddy, that wasn't God, was it?" I said, "What, son?" "Oh," he said, "those goings on there—that tongues and interpretation. That wasn't God. That wasn't the Spirit. That was just them doing it, wasn't it?" I thought to myself, That poor pastor swallowed it. I could tell by the way he acted. He looked like the cat that swallowed the canary. He thought it was wonderful what God was doing—and God wasn't doing a thing! It was just some people acting in the flesh, putting on a display. And a 9-year-old child knew the difference!

No wonder we lose our young people, friends. They want reality! They believe in reality. When we sit around and swallow everything and act like we don't know the difference between the real and the false, allowing just anything to happen, we lose them.

I've come to the place where I believe it's my responsibility to the young people to deal with the false. One reason why the hippie movement came into being was because the young people were sick and tired of frauds and fakes. They were looking for the genuine, even though they were looking in the wrong place. If we the Church won't give reality to them, who will? We should encourage people to love God, love people, and love other Christians—not separate the flock. Some people spend all their time fighting some other church they don't agree with.

- Kenneth E Hagin ( Judging Prophecy )

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Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Must Wives Always Obey Their Husbands?

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

MUST WIVES ALWAYS OBEY THEIR HUSBAND?

Let's examine some of the husbands and wives as recorded in the law.

Peter cites Sarah as a model wife whose worthy example Christian wives could follow. "Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement''' (1 Peter 3:6).

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It is possible to lift this one verse out and say, "See, the wife is to obey her husband just as Sarah obeyed Abraham." But does it mean the wife doesn't have any right to speak her own mind? Some would leave the impression the wife never has a right to express her thoughts, that she's under the rule — the obedience — the domination — and is nothing much more than a slave. But that isn't what Peter is saying.

Let's see what the law says: GENESIS 16:5,6

5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee:

I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee.

6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.

Here we see Abram letting Sarai have her own way. He isn't dominating her like some warlord.

From the 16th chapter of Genesis through the 21st, there is an account of a disagreement. At its climax, we see that Abraham gave in to his wife's contention, and let her have her own way. And we see that God justified not him, but her.

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GENESIS 21:10-12

10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bond- woman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.

12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bond- woman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

God told Abraham, one time at least, to listen to his wife. According to this, Sarah ruled her husband on this occasion. And God approved of it. As He always does when a wife is right. God always approves of right.

Some ministers, Full Gospel, Spirit filled, I'm ashamed to say, have told me a woman ought to do whatever her husband says, no matter what. They have told me personally that if the husband tells his wife to sleep with another man, she ought to do it, because the Bible says for her to obey him. That is an insult to my intelligence. God will never side in with wrong. And that would be violating one of His Ten Commandments.

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One fellow said to me, "If a husband asks his wife to drink with him, she ought to drink with him. If he wants her to go to the bar, she should go." Another man said, "If an unsaved husband tells his wife not to go to church, she's not to go. If he tells her not to read the Bible, she's not to read it. She is to obey him to the letter."

(These things have been said to me personally — I'm not talking about what somebody comes to me and says somebody said. You can understand that these opinions have created no little confusion.)

I say in reply, "Bosh and tommyrot!"

Peter gave Sarah as an example. Let's take it then. When Sarah was right, God sided in with her. God is not going to side in with the husband when the husband is wrong any more than He will side in with the wife when she is wrong.

Thank God for good wives! They don't need to be put down. Oh, I know there are some bossy wives, but if their husbands don't know how to take care of them, let them go ahead and be henpecked! You see, it is the husband's problem. There's no use in downgrading all wives because of a few exceptions. And it is the responsibility of the husbands to take care of that — not the responsibility of the preachers.

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If a man wants to be henpecked, it's his business and no one else's. I have no more business trying to manage another man's wife than I have managing some other fellow's money. We can lay down principles, of course. But I think there are some men who rather enjoy being henpecked. If they do — let them enjoy it. I don't like it myself.

Yet I respect my wife, and I respect her opinion. Once she had to put her foot down and speak up to me. God had dealt with me back in 1947 and '48 about leaving the pastorate and going out in a field ministry. He had spoken to me about healing and had given me some instructions about ministering to the sick. It was the burden of my heart.

But I made a mistake. I went to the wrong meeting. (You can make a mistake sometimes going to the wrong church, the wrong convention, or the wrong meeting.) It was a midwinter prayer and Bible conference. Almost every person who preached spoke against healing meetings. And at the last, the man who stood at the head ventured to say that just one person shouldn't pray for the sick — just one individual shouldn't lay hands on them — everyone should pray and lay hands on them, and then when God healed them He'd get all the glory.

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Everything I heard downgraded me. I can understand how women must feel at times — they've gone to church, been put down, and wished they hadn't gone. After two or three days, I went back home. My resignation had already been submitted, and my wife had been packing while I was away.

"Just unpack," I said, "We're not going."

"You're not?"

"No, I'm not. The church wants me to stay and I'll stay. And another thing — from this moment on, I'm never going to pray for the sick again. I'll never lay hands on another person the longest day I live. If someone insists on being anointed with oil, I'll get the deacons to come and anoint him."

My wife could see that I was out of sorts. "No!" she said. "We're not going to stay with this church." I was taken aback. She'd never acted like that in her life. And she hasn't acted that way since. But she needed to act that way on this occasion, and God sided in with her.

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"No — I'm not going to unpack," she said. "And yes — we are going to leave this church. And yes — you are going to obey God. That's what you're going to do!"

I stood there speechless. She didn't ordinarily talk like that. But, to tell the truth about it, if she'd let me rule over the situation, we'd have both been in a mess. She was right. And she put a little vigor into me. I went ahead and obeyed God.

Sarah ruled over her husband in the situation we read about — and God approved of it. My wife ruled over me on this occasion — and God approved of it. God always sides in with right. He will never take the part of wrong. If He did, then He would be wrong.

Did you notice, too, that Sarah did not suffer in silence and servile subjection, but spoke her mind as she had a right to do "as also saith the law." It is recorded in the Pentateuch.

The first chapter of First Samuel records that when Hannah, the mother of Samuel, had a little difference with her husband, she spoke her mind and had her way. It proved out to be God's way.

Abigail was a wise woman whose husband was a fool. (There are some cases like that.) The Bible calls him a "son of Belial." By disobeying her husband, she saved a critical situation and won the favor of David. If she'd listened to her husband, there would have been much bloodshed.

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1 SAMUEL 25:32,33

32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:

33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.

Read the whole story from your Bible and notice that God is standing on the side with Abigail — even though she disobeyed her husband.

It is not a sane argument that every wife must always obey her husband in everything.

The Woman Question

by Kenneth E. Hagin

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Tuesday, May 5, 2026

A. B. Simpson

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

ACT LIKE THE WORD IS TRUE!

And I always say to those people, “Have you ever acted like those verses of Scripture were true?” That sometimes startles them.

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But let me share with you the testimony of A. B. Simpson who just acted like the Word is true, and he received his healing. I read his testimony years ago in a Christian magazine. At the age of forty-six, Dr. A. B. Simpson, who was a Presbyterian minister at the time and later founded the Christian Missionary Alliance, was told he was dying of a heart condition and was given only about six months to live.

Dr. Simpson said he had heard many testimonies of healing even in his own church. He took a short leave of absence and went up to his farm where he could spend a lot of time studying the Word of God.

At the end of two weeks, Dr. Simpson took a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote, “After searching the Word of God for two weeks, I am convinced the Bible teaches that divine healing is for us today. And I, this day, accept Jesus Christ as my Healer and declare that I am now healed from heart trouble and that I am well. And I promise God to use this new-found strength and life and energy entirely for His purpose and to further the gospel.

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I promise God I will share this truth of healing with others and will help them.” After that time, Simpson went to a luncheon where he was to be the speaker. All that came to him to speak about was the one word out of Matthew 8:17, “Himself.”

So Dr. Simpson opened his Bible and read the entire verse and told the audience he wanted to focus his attention on that word “Himself.” Then he gave them his testimony about how he had been searching the Bible and had come to the conclusion that Jesus was still the Healer today.

After the luncheon, he was invited to go mountain climbing by the men to whom he had spoken. The thought immediately came to him that he wouldn’t be able to because of his heart condition. But then he remembered he had declared his healing, so he accepted the invitation and went. Up to this point, he had not really seen or felt his healing, but had just accepted it and had declared it by faith.

All the way up the mountain, every time he got his mind off the Word of God, he would begin to feel the symptoms of his heart condition. But he overcame these feelings because as he claimed the Word again for his healing, all the symptoms would go away. He fought this battle all the way up the mountain. But when he got up the mountain, he walked about victorious without any

symptoms!

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Dr. Simpson was seventy years old when I read his testimony in this magazine article, and he said he’d never had any more symptoms whatsoever after that mountain-climbing experience.

P . C. Nelson said that more people lose their healing over a counterattack than anything else.

For an example, an assistant chaplain boy during the Korean War said the United States took one mountain over there in battle fourteen different times and each time lost it. Actually, they lost it thirteen times and the fourteenth time, they kept it.

It’s the same way with faith. Real faith holds on to the blessings of God. Real faith is the child of the knowledge of the Word. Dr. Simpson acted on the Word and got real faith from it. Instead of trying to believe, he just acted upon the Word. He acted like the Word is true.

~ Kenneth E. Hagin || Bible Faith Study Guide

_ Spiritual Notes

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Friday, February 27, 2026

The Devils Territory

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

HOW MUCH AUTHORITY OVER THE DEVIL DO WE HAVE WHEN WE ARE IN HIS TERRITORY?

Answer: The devil has no right to trespass on God's property.

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But if you trespass on the devil's property, he's got a right to jump on you. God can't keep him from it, and you can't keep him from it, because you're on his property.

It's like this: I don't have authority in your house or apartment. I can't go there and say, "We're going to move everything out of this room and sell all of it." In the house of God, if the devil comes around, we've got authority. But if we go to the devil's house and try to exercise authority, he may throw us out.

In the summer of 1954 I was preaching in Oregon and had my family with me. We took a short vacation while traveling to meetings I was holding. On the way home, we stopped in Salt Lake City, Utah, to see the Mormon Temple. (I had studied the history of Mormonism and the Book of Mormon. I didn't agree with it because it's unscriptural. It doesn't agree with Paul's revelation.)

A guide was showing us around, explaining how the temple had been built. I was

listening intently when I heard somebody hit the ground. I didn't turn around because I was listening to the guide. But somebody said, "That man fell." About that time my wife looked around and said, "Daddy, our baby!" (It was Ken, and actually, he was 15 at the time.) He had hit the ground so hard that his shoes flew off.

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He was lying on his back with his knees drawn up to his stomach and his face working in some kind of seizure. If you had any spiritual sense at all, you could sense evil spirits when you stepped on the grounds. These were religious demons. They're the worst kind to get rid of.

They're the most difficult to cast out of a person. You can get rid of an adulterous or a lustful demon a hundred times faster than you can a religious demon.

So there Ken lay. Instantly the devil gave me all kinds of mental pictures of my preaching deliverance and Ken being in some kind of institution. The guide said, "That happens very often when I get to the part in my lecture about Moroni" (the angel who supposedly appeared to Joseph Smith). The guide thought it was a supernatural manifestation to corroborate what he had told about. He said, "Just pull that boy back under a tree. He'll soon come out of it."

I turned around, grabbed hold of Ken's arm and said, "Come out of him in the Name of Jesus Christ!" I literally lifted him by his arms, looked him right in the eye and said again, "Come out of him!" I shouted the third time, "Come out of him!" When I said it the third time, the demon came out. It hadn't been in his spirit, but had attacked his body. Ken straightened up, blinked his eyes and said, "Daddy, Daddy, where am I?"

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I said out loud, "Well, we got on the devil's territory and he jumped on you. But the Name of Jesus delivered you. Now let's get off the devil's territory before he jumps on some of the rest of us." We drove down the highway rejoicing over our victory.

Ken began telling his side of the story. He said the last thing he remembered was the guide talking about Moroni. He explained, "I felt something come out of the ground. It got into my feet and then into my knees. When it got up to about my stomach I don't remember anything else."The power of God does not come up out of the ground.That wasn't the Holy Spirit. And besides, we got rid of it in the Name of Jesus!

Ken said, "Daddy, what if that had happened at school?" I answered, "Don't ever be afraid it will happen again. If you are afraid, you'll open the door to the devil." You've got authority over Satan, but know this: Don't get on his territory.

Literally speaking, if you go to places controlled by Satan, you can get attacked.

Spiritually speaking, if you get into disobedience, you get spiritually over into the devil's territory.

You can claim protection, however, and go wherever you have to go.

- Kenneth E. Hagin

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Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Minister Where Your Anointing Is

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

MINISTER WERE YOUR ANOINTING IS.

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Our RHEMA Bible Training Center students all have read F. F. Bosworth's classic book, Christ the Healer. I knew Bosworth. I've talked to him personally. He was 77 years old the last time I talked to him, but you'd have thought he was 55 just to look at him.

I heard him minister in another man's meeting. Bosworth would teach in the daytime and this other man would minister in the night services. Bosworth would say, "Anybody who's deaf or has any ear trouble, even if you've had an operation and had your eardrum removed, come up here and I'll lay hands on you and you'll be healed." Every single one of the people Bosworth prayed for— without fail—got healed!

Bosworth said, "I can't tell you why—I don't know why— but God uses me along that line. I usually never fail to get a deaf person healed, or one whose hearing is impaired healed, or God will put a new eardrum in there if they've had an operation." Bosworth was endowed by the Spirit to minister in that area.

When Bosworth said he didn't understand it, that started me thinking. If there's something I don't know, I'll stay up day and night and burn the midnight oil until I find the answers. That's just my nature.

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We ministers used to compare notes at Voice of Healing conventions that were held during the great Healing Revival. One preacher had great success in getting "deaf and dumb" (mute) people healed. Another said, "I don't remember of one deaf or dumb person being healed in my ministry, but nearly every blind person I lay hands on gets healed." The first man, who got deaf and dumb persons healed, couldn't remember of a blind person ever being healed under his ministry.

In comparing notes, I discovered that I got more people healed of cancer (usually in tumor form) than all the rest of them put together. I'd seldom fail along that line with a tumor or growth in those days; that's where my gift lay.

Minister where your anointing is—find out where it is.

- Kenneth E Hagin ( Understanding the Anointing )

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Tuesday, January 27, 2026

The Wrong Diet

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

THE WRONG DIET.

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Why haven't we grown?

If we are real children of God, born of God, and we haven't grown, it is because we haven't had the right diet. 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.

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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."

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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.

Kenneth E Hagin ( Growing Up Spiritually )

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Apostolic Church History