THE WORD OF FAITH

PUBLISHED BY KENNETH E. HAGIN EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION, P. O. Box 50126, TULSA, OKLA. 74150
JUNE, 1968
V o l . I No. 3

SIX

HINDRANCES

I Timothy 6:12 - "Fight the

good fight of faith, lay hold on
eternal life, whereunto thou art
also called, and hast professed
a good profession before many
witnesses."
I want you to notice particulary the first clause of this
verse, "Fight the good fight of
faith." "Fight the good fight of
faith." Well, the only fight we
have is the fight of faith. I hear
folk say sometimes that they're
going to fight the devil. I don't
know what for because they
wouldn't be a match for him
anyway. And secondly, Jesus
has already defeated him for
you. He was your substitute.
Then again I hear folk say,
" I ' m going to fight sin." Well,
I'm not. I'm going to preach
the cure for sin. No use fighting
it. I have a cure for it. Jesus
is the cure. No, the only fight
that the believer is called upon
to fight is the good fight of
faith. Well, there is a fight to
faith for this text says, "Fight
the good fight of faith." If there
is a fight, then there must be
enemies or hindrances to faith.
If there weren't any enemies to
faith or hindrances to faith there
wouldn't be any fight to it. So,
we'll talk about the six big
hindrances to faith.
The Bible says in Romans
10:17, "So then faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the
word of God." Many people,
when you talk to them, will
confess their lack of faith, when
actually they are only failing to
release it. Their lack of faith
is really not the problem. The
real reason for lack of faith is
a lack of knowledge of God's
Word. " F o r faith cometh by

TO

hearing and hearing by the word

of God." Someone said to me,
" Y e s , that's my problem. I
don't know much about the Word
but I need faith." You can't get
it any other way except through
the Word. Someone else said,
" I ' m praying God will give it to
m e . " Well, you are wasting your
time. You might as well twiddle
your fingers or thumbs and sing,
" T w i n k l e , T w i n k l e , Little
Star," because it would do just
as much good as if you prayed
for faith. But if you'll take time
to feed upon the Word of God
yourself, and listen to the many
ministry gifts that God has put
into His church, (and teachers
are a ministry gift that He has
put there), then faith will come
to #our spirit and life, for you
can receive knowledge that way.
A lack of knowledge will hinder
us and hold us in bondage, be
cause we do not act upon God's
Word, beyond knowledge. Faith
will grow with an understanding
of the Word and if your faith is
not growing then your under
standing of the Word isnot grow
ing. A lack of knowledge of what
God's Word says, a lack of
knowledge of our redemption,
a lack of knowledge of our re
demptive rights in Christ Jesus
are oftentimes the reasons for
unbelief.
I.
Let me give you these six
big hindrances to faith. The
first is lack of understanding
of what it means to be a new
creature or what the new crea
tion means. In II Cor. 5:17 it
says, "Therefor, if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away,
behold all things are new."
1

FAITH

A lack of understanding of what

the new creature is and what it
means to-be a new creature hin
ders our faith life. Many people
do not know that they are new
creatures. They think God just
forgave them of their sins but
it wouldn't do any good for God
just to forgive the sinner of
his sins. It wouldn't help him
a bit in the world if that was
all the sinner r e c e i v e d . He
would still go to hell for he's
a child of the devil. He has to
be born again. He has to be
come a new creature in Christ
Jesus. No, we are not just
forgiven sinners. No, we are not
poor, s t a g g e r i n g , sinning,
barely-getting-along c h u r c h
members. No, we are not living
down at the end of the block on
b a r e 1 y-getting-a 1 o n g street
next to grumble alley. That's
not for us. We a r e n e w
creatures, created by God in
Christ Jesus with the very life
and the nature of God in our

KENNETH E. HAGIH

spirits. We are children of God,

sons of God, and heirs of God,
joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
Many people do not know they
have eternal life. They think of
themselves as being saved from
sin. But John says in his first
epistle, "These things write I
unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God that ye may
know that ye have eternal l i f e . "
When you know what you have
and who you are in Christ, it
makes all the difference in the
world.
II
The second hindrance is that
so many have a lack of under
standing of our place in Christ
and Christ's place in our life.
I suggest to Christians every
where that we need to do some
d e f i n i t e study along certain
lines. I suggest to folk to go
through t h e New Testament,
particularly the Epistles, and
write down entire phrases. B e
cause what you write down, you
remember better. You'll find
these expressions, "In Christ,"
"In Whom," and "In H i m . "
You'll find that'expressions like
these occur 133 or 134 times in
the New Testament. The reason
I say 133 or 134 is because I
use a couple that don't say these
exact words but infer it. For
instance, I use I John 4:4 that
says, "Greater is he that is in
you than he that is in the world."
The other one I use like this is
Col. 1:13 which says, "Who
hath d e l i v e r e d us from the
power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son." Who refers
to God, the Father. If you'll
go through the New Testament
and confess, " T h i s is who I
am," " T h i s is what I have,"
you'll find life will be different
for you.
Ill
The third hindrance is a lack
of understanding of righteous
ness, what it gives and what
it is. This hold^ more people
in bondage than anything else.
I never shall forget when I lay
on the bed of affliction years
ago, that I began to see the
scriptures on healing and faith.
I came to James 5:16, which

says, " T h e effectual fervent

prayer of a righteous man availeth much." I looked at that verse
of scripture and I thought, "Oh
my, if I were only righteous,
if I could ever get to be right
eous, God would h e a r my
prayers." One day I happened to
be reading that a little more
closely and noticed God said
Elijah was s u b j e c t to like
passions as we are. He gave him
as an example of a righteous
man. Something registered in
me and I thought if this man
could be called a righteous man
I could too because I was like
him. He had his high moments
and his low moments. I thought
to myself, "How could God call
a person like that righteous
when he was so inconsistent."
But I read in Psalm 32 where
it says, "Blessed is the man
whose sin is covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord
imputeth not iniquity." God im
puted righteousness to those
whose sins had been covered
by the blood. Then I found in
II Cor. 5:21 where it says, " F o r
he hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteous
n e s s of God in him." I saw then
that the b l o o d of J e s u s
cleanseth us from all sin and
that by the new birth we become
a righteous new creature. Now
God did not make an unrighteous
new creature. We are created
by God in Christ Jesus. He made
a righteous new creature. We
are sons and daughters of God
as though we never sinned. We
can stand in His - presence
without any kind of feeling of
inferiority, sin-consciousness,
or without any kind of embar
rassment. We don't have to be
tongue-tied because of fear. We
can come into His presence be
cause we belong there. When
we were born again our sins
were remitted because our past
life stopped existing. God said
that he would not remember our
transgressions. lie doesn't r e
member, so why should we
remember?
Someone might say he has
sinned a lot since then and is so
weak but I have news for him.

In I John 1:9 it says, " I f we

confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all un
righteousness." He does two
things for the believer who may
have sinned. When he confesses
his sins the Lord forgives him.
When we have sinned we feel
guilty and have a sense of un
righteousness. We feel embar
rassed and spiritually inferior
to come into His presence. But
he says that He also cleanses
from all unrighteousness. Un
righteousness is just the word,
righteousness with the prefix
"un" on the front of it that
means not or non-righteouness.
If I am cleansed from nonrighteousness then I'm right
eous again. I've found many
times that when I get folk to see
this, t h e y automatically get
healed. They've been under con
demnation and have thought God
was mad at them. They failed
to understand that they are the
righteousness of God, in Christ.
IV
The fourth hindrance is alack
of understanding of our privi
lege or right to use the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This will
hold us in bondage and will give
us a sense of weakness. When
we know what that name will do
then we can defeat Satan and en
joy victory. Everybody believes
that the name of Jesus can be
used in prayer, because Jesus
said, "Whatsoever you shall ask
the Father in my name He will
give it you. Hitherto ye have
asked nothing in my name, ask
that your joy may be full." I
suggest that the name of Jesus
can be used everywhere that the
Word indicates that it can. Jesus
himself said that in the verses
we just quoted in John 16:23, 24.
In the 16th chapter of Mark He
says, "Go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every
creature." He goes on saying,
" H e that believeth and is bap
tized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned.
And these signs shall follow
them that believe." To them that
believe 'the gospel these signs
shall follow them not the
early church, not the apostles,

SOME SUBJECTS DEALT WITH BIBLE CASES

Some h a v e written asking
IN FAITH STUDY COURSE
about the Hand-crafted Bible
1. How to Train the Human cases we used to carry. We
are glad to report that we can
Spirit.
furnish you with these cases.
2. Confession Brings
The large cases" are $15.00.
Possession.
3. How to Turn Your Faith The medium case is $14.00
and the small is $12.00.
Loose.
4. Seven Steps to The Highest
Kind of Faith.
NEW BOOK A V A I L A B L E
5. Doubt, Thief of God's
THE MINISTRY OF
Greatest Blessings.
6. How to Write Your Own THE PROPHET . . .
Our new book, " T h e Minis
Ticket with God.
7. What it Means to Believe try Of The Prophet," just off
the press is one of great inter
with the Heart.
est to people e v e r y w h e r e .
8. Faith Actions that
Correspond with The Word. Brother Hagin tells in these
9. You Can Have What You Say. pages of his visit with the Lord
10. How Faith Comes, etc. etc. Jesus who came to him in per
son while he was in the hospital.
The above list gives you a Jesus talked with him and gave
bird's eye view of some of the him much s o u n d instruction
most interesting and intriguing relative to his own ministry,
subjects d e a l t with here in which is, as most of you know,
Brother Hagin's own inimitable The Ministry Of a Prophet.
manner. They contain not only Read what Jesus told him per
the Word of God, a "thus saith sonally about one of the Minis
the L o r d , " but nuggets of truth, try Gifts as taught in the New
sparkling side lights, stories Testament. Everything taught
and rich illustrations out of here is backed up by the New
twenty-five years of preaching Testament, and experience.
the Go s p e l by Evangelist
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It's u n f o r t u n a t e that some people a r c

like the old m u l e , w h i c h was awfully b a c k
ward about g o i n g f o r w a r d !

SIX HINDRANCES - Cont'd

not the preacher - - but the
believers. They can cast out
devils in His name.
V
The fifth hindrance is a~lack
of understanding about acting
upon the Word. We should stop
trying and start acting. The
Bible says, "Trust in the Lord
and l e a n not unto thine own
understanding."
All that's
necessary for you to ask is
"What has God said?" If we
know that the Word is true and
we act as though it were true
it becomes a reality in our
lives.
VI
The sixth hindrance is a lack
of understanding that we are to
hold fast to our confession of
faith. In Hebrews 4:14 it says,
" L e t us hold fast our confes
sion." Our faith keeps pace with
our confession. In Romans 10:10
*it says, " F o r with the heart
man believeth unto righteous
ness; and with the n.ou" con
fession is made unto salvation."
Jesus said in Mark 11:23, "That
whosoever shall say unto 'his
mountain, Be thou removeu and
be thou cast into the ser; and
shall not doubt in h:'s neart,
but shall believe tha* those
things which he saith shall come
to pass; he shall h a v w h a t s o
ever he saith." When I was
preaching in St. Louis, a young
full gospel minister, who was
serving as youth director of
the church there said, " B r o .
Hagin, I'm 32 and the doctors
have said it is impossible for
us to have any children. Will
you talk and pray with me and
my wife?" I told them I would.
So we talked and his wife said
she would confess that they
would have a child. She said that
she would say now that they
would have one instead of saying
they'd like to have one. After
12 months I received a letter
that said they had a bouncing
baby girl. All they needed was
to act upon the Word. Faith is
measured by our confession.
Our usefulness in the Lord is
measured by our confession.

Bible Faith Study Course

by
KENNETH

HAGIN

P. O . B o x 3 0 1 2 6
TULSA, O K L A H O M A

74150

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