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Keys ToBiblicalProsperityKenneth E. Hagin

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations inthis volume are from the King James Version of the Bible.Second Printing1996 ISBN 0-89276524-0In the U.S. write:Kenneth Hagin MinistriesP.O. Box 50126Tulsa, OK 74150-0126In Canada write:Kenneth Hagin MinistriesP.O. Box 335, Station D,Etobicoke (Toronto), OntarioCanada, M9A 4X3Copyright 1995 RHEMA Bible ChurchAKA Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Inc.All Rights ReservedPrinted in USAThe Faith Shield is a trademark of RHEMA Bible Church, AKA KennethHagin Ministries, Inc., registered with the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice and therefore may not be duplicated.

BOOKS BY KENNETH E. HAGIN*Redeemed From Poverty, Sickness and Spiritual Death*What Faith Is*Seven Vital Steps To Receiving the Holy Spirit*Right and Wrong ThinkingPrayer Secrets*Authority of the Believer (foreign only)*How To Turn Your Faith LooseThe Key to Scriptural HealingPraying To Get ResultsThe Present-Day Ministry of Jesus ChristThe Gift of ProphecyHealing Belongs to UsThe Real FaithHow You Can Know the Will of GodThe Threefold Nature of ManThe Human SpiritTurning Hopeless Situations AroundCasting Your Cares Upon the LordSeven Steps for Judging Prophecy*The Interceding ChristianFaith Food for Autumn*Faith Food for WinterFaith Food for SpringFaith Food for Summer*New Thresholds of Faith*Prevailing Prayer to Peace*Concerning Spiritual GiftsBible Faith Study CourseBible Prayer Study CourseThe Holy Spirit and His Gifts*The Ministry Gifts (Study Guide)Seven Things You Should Know About Divine HealingEl ShaddaiZoe: The God-Kind of LifeA Commonsense Guide to FastingMust Christians Suffer?The Woman QuestionThe Believer's AuthorityMinistering to Your FamilyWhat To Do When Faith Seems Weak and Victory LostGrowing Up, SpirituallyBodily Healing and the Atonement (Dr. T.J. McCrossan)Exceedingly Growing FaithUnderstanding the AnointingI Believe in VisionsUnderstanding How To Fight the Good Fight of FaithPlans, Purposes, and PursuitsHow You Can Be Led by the Spirit of GodA Fresh AnointingClassic SermonsHe Gave Gifts Unto Men:A Biblical Perspective of Apostles, Prophets, and PastorsThe Art of Prayer Following God's Plan For Your Life

The Triumphant Church: Dominion Over All the Powers of DarknessHealing ScripturesMountain-Moving FaithLove: The Way to VictoryBiblical Keys to Financial ProsperityThe Price Is Not Greater Than God's Grace (Mrs. Oretha Hagin)MINIBOOKS (A partial listing)*The New Birth*Why Tongues?*In Him*God's Medicine*You Can Have What You Say*Don't Blame God*WordsPlead Your Case* How To Keep Your HealingThe Bible Way To Receive the Holy SpiritI Went to HellHow To Walk in LoveThe Precious Blood of Jesus* Love Never FailsHow God Taught Me About ProsperityBOOKS BY KENNETH HAGIN JR.* Man's Impossibility — God's PossibilityBecause of JesusHow To Make the Dream God Gave You Come TrueThe Life of ObedienceForget Not!God's Irresistible WordHealing: Forever SettledDon't Quit! Your Faith Will See You ThroughThe Untapped Power in PraiseListen to Your HeartWhat Comes After Faith?Speak to Your Mountain!Come Out of the Valley!It's Your Move!God's Victory PlanAnother Look at FaithMINIBOOKS (A partial listing)*Faith Worketh by Love*Seven Hindrances to Healing*The Past Tense of God's WordFaith Takes Back What the Devil's StolenHow To Be a Success in LifeGet Acquainted With GodUnforgivenessMinistering to the Brokenhearted*These titles are also available in Spanish. Information about other foreign translationsof several of the above titles (i.e., Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Polish, Russian S""*"* *"' *""** *** M i n i s t r i e s - POBBOX 5 0 1 2 6. Tulsa,

Contents1.Poverty: A Blessing or a Curse?.12.Qualifications for Walking in Prosperity.313.Our Authority in the Area of Finances.454.The Bible Way To Release Your Faith.695.Honor Your Pastor and Receive God's Blessings.896.Sowing and Reaping and the School of Obedience.1157.Godliness Is Profitable in All Things.135

Chapter 1Poverty: A BlessingOr a Curse?CHRIST HATH REDEEMED US from thecurse of the law, being made a curse for us: for itis written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on atree.— Galatians 3:13Christ hath redeemed us!If we stop reading right there, we'd know Jesusredeemed us. But what did He redeem us from? Therest of the verse says, ". . . FROM THE CURSE OFTHE LAW, being made a curse for us: for it is written,Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3:13).GALATIANS 3:1414 That the blessing of Abraham might come onthe Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we mightreceive the promise of the Spirit through faith.I couldn't do justice to a study on prosperity withoutexplaining the great Bible truth of redemption. Christhas redeemed us from the curse of the Law! The curseof the Law includes spiritual death, sickness, andpoverty.1

Biblical Keys to Financial ProsperityThe first curse that God said would come upon manfor breaking His Law is found in Genesis 2:17. Godsaid to Adam in Genesis 2:17, ". . . in the day that thoueat-est thereof [of the tree of the knowledge of good andevil] thou shalt surely die."Adam and Eve were permitted to eat fruit from allthe trees in the Garden of Eden except the fruit of thetree of the knowledge of good and evil. The curse ofspiritual death was to come upon them if they dis obeyed God.Genesis 3:22-24 tells us that man did disobey God,was driven from the Garden, and could eat no longer ofthe tree of life. Man became the slave of sin and death.Death has always been a mystery to man. It was nota part of the creation or part of God's original plan. TheBible tells us that physical death is an enemy of Godand man. First Corinthians 15:26 tells us that physicaldeath is the last enemy that shall be put underfoot.When you die physically, your spirit and soul leaveyour body and go to your eternal home (Luke 16:19-24).Although several kinds of death are spoken of in theBible, there are three kinds we should familiarize ourselves with: 1) spiritual death; 2) physical death; and 3)eternal death or the Second Death, which means beingcast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone(Rev. 21:8).Spiritual death is that which lays hold of one's spiritrather than his body. Physical death is a manifestationof spiritual death.

Poverty: A Blessing or a Curse?Eternal death or the Second Death is the ultimatefinality of death or the home of the spiritually dead.Spiritual death came to earth first and then manifested itself in the physical body by destroying it.Physical death is a manifestation of the law that is atwork within. Paul called it "the law of sin and death"(Rom. 8:2).When God said to Adam, ". . . in the day that thoueatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17), He wasnot referring to physical death but to spiritual death. Ifman never had died spiritually, he would not have diedphysically.What is spiritual death? Spiritual death means separation from God.The moment Adam sinned, he was separated fromGod. When God came down in the cool of the day, aswas His custom, to walk and talk with Adam, He called,". . . Adam . . . Where art thou?" (Gen. 3:9). Adamanswered, ". . . I hid myself." He was separated fromGod.When Adam and Eve listened to the devil, it resultedin spiritual death. Spiritual death immediately beganto manifest itself in the human family. Eventually,Adam and Eve's firstborn son murdered the secondborn son (Gen. 4:8).Man had become an outcast, an outlaw, driven fromthe Garden with no legal ground to approach God.Man in his fallen state could not respond to the callof God without a sacrifice. Man was hindered in his

Biblical Keys to Financial Prosperityresponse to God because he was more than a transgressor; he was more than a lawbreaker and sinner.Jesus said to the Pharisees, 'Ye are of your fatherthe devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He wasa murderer from the beginning, and abode not in thetruth, because there is no truth in him. When hespeaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,and the father of it" (John 8:44).The Pharisees were very religious. They did a lot ofgood things. They went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. They prayed. They paid their tithes. They fasted.They did a lot of other fine things. But they lied aboutChrist and murdered Him. They had the characteristicsof the devil.This explains why man cannot be saved by his conduct or good works; he must be born again. If man werenot a child of the devil, he could just act right and he'dbe all right. But since he's a child of the devil, even if hetries to act right, he'll still go to hell when he dies — tothe lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which isthe Second Death.Why? Because man as he is cannot stand in thePresence of God. Man had to be saved by Someone paying the penalty for man's sins and giving man the NewBirth.You might take a flop-eared old mule and try tomake him into a racehorse, but it won't work. Youcould dress that mule up by filing his teeth or polishinghis hooves. You could feed him the finest food, run himaround the track every day, and house him in the finest

Poverty: A Blessing or a Curse?stable. But on the day of the race when the gun sounds,all he'll do is lope off down the track, because he's amule. It's just not in him to be a racehorse. In order forthe old mule to become a racehorse, he'd have to bereborn as a racehorse, which is impossible.Man, however, through the New Birth can bereborn! Through regeneration, he can be changed! Hecan become a new creature in Christ Jesus!It doesn't matter how much money a man has, howwell-educated or religious he is, mere man cannot standin the Presence of God, because his nature is wrong.Man is lost today not because of what he does, butbecause of what he is. (What he does is the result ofwhat he is.)An unregenerate man needs life from God becausehe is spiritually dead. But thanks be to God, Christ hasredeemed us from spiritual death!JOHN 5:2626 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hathhe given to the Son to have life in himself.Jesus Christ had no death in Him. He was not bornas we are born. He didn't have spiritual death in Him(John 14:30). Yet Hebrews 2:9 says he tasted death forevery man. He took upon Himself our condition ofspiritual death. Notice Hebrews 9:26 says He ". . . putaway SIN [not sins] by the sacrifice of himself."How did He do that? Well, I don't know, butbecause the Bible says He did it, I believe it.

Biblical Keys to Financial ProsperityNow why did Jesus take death that we might havelife?I was born and raised Southern Baptist. Afterward,I was filled with the Holy Spirit and came over amongthe Pentecostals. I heard for years among the Baptiststhat Jesus became what we were that we might becomewhat He was.Now that doesn't mean He became a sinner (that'swhat we were — sinners!). It simply means He took ourplace as our Substitute when our sin was laid on Him.That doesn't mean He had in His spirit the personalnature of the devil. It just means that our sin was laidon Him.Remember what Jesus said along this line in John'sGospel.JOHN 10:1010 The thief [He's talking about the devil, not aboutGod; God is not a thief.] cometh not, but for to steal,and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that theymight have life, and that they might have it moreabundantly.JOHN 5:2424 Verily, verily, I [Jesus] say unto you, He thatheareth my word, and believeth on him that sentme, hath everlasting life [or eternal life], and shallnot come into condemnation; but is passed fromDEATH unto LIFE.Now in John 5:24, Jesus is not talking about physical death. He is talking again about spiritual death. In