Redemption from the Curse of Poverty.

Redemption from the Curse of Poverty.

by Pastor Kenneth Hagin
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith... And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
—Galatians 3:13,14,29
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law!
What is the curse of the law? The only way to find out is to go back to the law. The expression "the law" as found in the New Testament usually refers to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. As we go back to these books—or the law—we find that the curse, or punishment, for breaking God's law is threefold: poverty, sickness, and spiritual death.
1 TIMOTHY 4:8
8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Some people would have us believe that we don't have any promise in this life of any blessing, material or otherwise, but this Scripture emphatically declares that we do.
According to Deuteronomy 28:15-17,38-40, the curse of poverty was to come upon God's children if they disobeyed Him. It was a curse that would come upon them because they failed to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes.
Paul said, writing to the church at Philippi, ''But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19). All your needs would include your financial, material, and other needs. In fact, in this chapter, Paul is talking about financial and material things.
Jesus Himself said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). These things that shall be added unto you are material things in life—something to eat, something to wear, and so on.
Some people seem to have the idea that if a person is a Christian, a believer in God, it is a mark of humility—a mark of godliness—for him to live in poverty and not have anything. They think you ought to go through life with the top of your hat out, the soles of your shoes out, and the seat of your pants worn out—just barely able to get along.
But that isn't what Jesus said. He said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Not taken from you; He said they shall be added unto you! Praise God!
LUKE 6:38
38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
First, let's ask this question: Is that the truth? Did Christ speak the truth, or was He lying? I believe it is the truth, don't you? Now notice that He said, "shall men."
Of course God is behind it, but He said, "shall men give into your bosom."
I remember a friend asked me some time ago, "Brother Hagin, do you ever preach from Luke 6:38?"
"Well," I answered, "I have used the Scripture. I don't knowif I ever used it for a text, but I have quoted it in my preaching at various times."
This man replied, "Well, recently we had a minister in our church who preached a two-week meeting, and he referred to that Scripture every night. One night he preached a sermon on it. You know, I'd never thought much about that verse until he emphasized it so much. Then, in the last service of the meeting, after our pastor had received the love offering for him, the evangelist said, 'Folks, I am impressed by the Spirit of God to receive an offering for the church here to put in an air-conditioning system.'"
My friend, who taught the Men's Bible Class, a large class of about 100, continued telling me about the last night's service.
"The evangelist said to the congregation of about 1,800, 'I want to get that $10,000 tonight! It sounds big, I know, and you've given during this meeting, but I want to challenge you.' He read us this text again which he'd mentioned every night, 'Give and it shall be given unto you.'
"Then he said, 'I don't want anybody to give anything they can afford to give. Give what you can't afford. If you feel you can afford to give $50 but not $100, give the $100. If you think you can afford to give $500 but not $1,000, give the $1,000. There's where the blessing is—and that's the truth.'
"Then he added, 'I'm going to lay my Bible here on the altar, and I want you to come and lay your money on this verse of Scripture and say, "Dear Lord, I'm acting on your Word." I'll pray especially for you, but I know God is going to repay you. It will work for you. And if it doesn't, I'll see that you get your money back, and nothing will ever be said about it.'"
The Sunday School teacher said, "Brother Hagin, I had a number of businessmen in my class. Two of them had come to me before this asking me to pray because their businesses were going bankrupt. Unless God did something within 30 days, they said they'd have to close their doorsHe went on, "Brother Hagin, I'm a witness to the fact that one of these men gave $500 in that offering and the other gave $250. It was really borrowed money, but in 30 days both businesses were out of the red! God blessed them immeasurably."
The Lord, in Malachi 3:10, spoke these words, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
Actually, we haven't really given until we've paid our tithes.
One fellow said to me, "Brother Hagin, paying tithes—that's just under the Old Testament. That's just under the Mosaic Law. Didn't you know that?"
I would hate to exhibit my ignorance of the Bible by making such a statement. Abraham paid tithes 500 years before the law was given to Moses. Jacob paid tithes 250 years before then.
"Yes," someone said, "but there isn't any Scripture in the New Testament about paying tithes."
Those folks ought to learn to read. Look at Hebrews 7:8. What about that? That's New Testament, isn't it? "And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth."
That's talking about Christ.
Abraham's Blessing Is Ours
Almost every time you get something good from the Word of God, or the promise of something good and a Scripture to stand on, someone pops up and says, "That's just for the Jews. That's not for us today."
I want you to know that Abraham's blessing belongs to us. It doesn't belong only to the physical descendants of Abraham; it belongs to us!
Remember how our chapter text said, "That the blessing of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ... And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:14,29).
Abraham's blessing is ours! They can't take it away from us anymore. Those doubters, unbelievers, joy killers, and doubt peddlers will not be able to take it away from us. Abraham's blessing is mine—Abraham's blessing is yours—through Jesus Christ! Hallelujah!
Abraham's blessing was a threefold blessing. The first thing God promised Abraham was that He was going to make him rich.
"Do you mean God is going to make us all rich?" Yes, that's what I mean.
"Do you mean He's going to make us all millionaires?" No, I didn't say that.
But He is going to make us rich. You may not understand what the word "rich" means. The dictionary says it means "a full supply," or "abundantly provided for." Praise God, there is a full supply in Christ!
I had a new car once, but it didn't get good gas mileage—only about 13 1/2 mpg on the open road. This particular car had a reputation of getting good gas mileage, so they gave it a motor tune-up, replaced the spark plugs and the condenser, and reworked the carburetor.
As I watched, the mechanic said to me, "Preacher, here's one thing that's wrong. I don't know why they did it, but on this model they changed the carburetor. There's a setting on the inside as well as the outside. It can be set on either rich or lean. In this case it's set on rich. It's set so as to get a full supply."
God did not promise we would have a lean supply, but a rich supply. We're abundantly provided for! Praise God forever more!
I preached a meeting several years ago in a small New Jersey town for Pastor A. A. Swift of the Trinity PentecostalChurch. At that time he was 70 years of age. I wasn't preaching along these lines in those days—I would preach up to it and around it. I knew it was true, but nobody else was preaching that God had redeemed us from the curse of poverty, so I didn't know whether I should come out on it or not.
Knowing Brother Swift was a man of God, an old-timer in Pentecost considered to be one of the most outstanding Full Gospel Bible teachers, I talked to him about some of these Scriptures.
"Brother Hagin, you are absolutely right," he said. "You ought to preach that everywhere you go. God has promised to make every one of us rich."
Then he said, "Let me tell you how I found out. I received the Holy Spirit in 1908, and in 1911 my wife and I went to China as missionaries. (That was 'way back before there was a Full Gospel organization or a Pentecostal circle.)
"I was born and grew up in London, came over to Canada, and then to the United States, so I had some connections in England, and a mission there supported us. They gave us $1,236 a year. That's $103 a month support. And we spent the year 1911, or most of it, in China as missionaries.
"But every time I would go to pray—I had a place where I went for my secret prayers—the Spirit of God would deal with my heart and tell me, 'Send in your resignation. If these people knew you believe in speaking with tongues, they wouldn't support you, because they don't believe speaking with tongues is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You have stayed quiet, which is almost the same as receiving the money under false pretenses. You can't preach what the Bible teaches. On the sly you may get it over to a few people, but if you come right out and preach it, that will be the end. I want you to preach the full truth.'
"Lord, what am I to do?" Brother Swift finally asked the Lord. "If I do that, my wife and I and our children will be cut offwithout any support here in China. It would be rough enough to be in America without support in 1912, much less in China. What am I to do?"
God answered him, "I want you to turn this mission station back to them. It wouldn't be right for you to steal it from them. [And it wouldn't.] You go over to another place and start a new work."
"Lord, start a new work in China in 1912 with no one to support it?"
"That's what I want you to do."
"Lord, we'll never make it."
"Didn't you know I promised to make you rich?"
Brother Swift replied, "If You did, I didn't know it. But I surely would be glad to know it."
Then the Spirit of the Lord asked, "Have you read Galatians 3:13,14 where it says Christ redeemed you from the curse of the law, being made a curse for you, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles; that is, on you? The first thing I promised Abraham was that I would make him rich."
As Brother Swift related this, he said to me, "Then things began to open up to me. I got my Bible and read it—and sure enough, there it was! I sent in my resignation and went over to another place and began a new work. For the first six months, it was difficult."
Don't think there won't be trials. But just because tasks come, trials mount up, and it looks like it isn't working doesn't mean it isn't true. You see, God doesn't always settle up every Saturday night. God doesn't settle up the first of every month. But I want to tell you—God does settle up sooner or later. Sooner or later there comes a payday!
Many people think they have gotten away with sin because they got away with it for one week and judgment didn't fall. They got by two weeks and judgment didn't fall. They went on a month or more and judgment didn't come. They began to feel alittle easier, a little better. They said, "Well, it looks as if I got by with that." But I want to tell you, sooner or later, it is coming.
"For the first six months of that year," Brother Swift told me, "it looked as if my wife and I and our two small children were going to starve to death in China, cut off from the support in England, with nobody from America to support us. What did we do?
"Well, I stayed calm, sweet, and quiet—I didn't do a lot of praying. I simply reminded God of what His Word said. I knew He was going to do something about it.
"When the year was over and I checked up, God had given me $3,750 in American dollars!"
In 1912, $3,750 was like having $15,000 or more today. He had been getting $1,236 a year. This year he got three times as much. God promised He would make him rich. Praise God forever more!
You know, friends, most of us are not poor because we have honored God—but because we have dishonored Him. (I've given you Scriptures to prove it.)
Someone said, "Oh, yes, but Brother Hagin, I'm afraid of money."
"Why?" I asked.
"The Bible says money is the root of all evil...."
The Bible doesn't say that at all. The Bible says, "For the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tim. 6:10). You could be guilty of that sin and not have a dime. It's not wrong to have money; it's wrong for money to have you.
If money becomes a man's master, it is wrong. A man can love money so much that he'll pick it up anywhere he goes, any way he can. If you cut off his hands, he'll get it with his toes. If you cut off his toes, he'll pick it up with his teeth. If you pull his teeth, he'll gum it. If that's in him, he'll get it. It's his master.
The Bible says that the silver and the gold are God's (Hag. 2:8). The bible says that the cattle on a thousand hills are God's(Ps. 50:10). Why did God put all these things here, anyway? He surely didn't put them here for the devil and his gang! If He did, then He loves the devil's children more than He does His own children.
That would be like some man letting his children go hungry and not paying the rent while he goes across the street and pays some other woman's rent and feeds some other woman's children. God doesn't love the devil more than He loves us. Isn't that right?
Somebody said, "Brother, I guess I'm another Job."
What do you mean you're another Job? Praise God, if you're God's Job, you'll get your healing. Job got healed.
Some people think, "Poor old Job—he went through life sick, suffering, and afflicted."
Why, the whole Book of Job happened in nine months' time. If Job was ever sick again, we don't know it. The Bible didn't say so. And if he'd ever had anything else like that, the Bible would have said so.
God healed his body! God gave him 10 more children. God gave him twice as much as he had to begin with: twice as many camels, twice as many sheep, twice as many oxen, and twice as many donkeys. And Job lived 140 more years. He lived to see his children's children until the fourth generation. Glory to God! That's the way God does things. If it's wrong to be prosperous, then God did wrong by doing all that.
PROVERBS 19:17
17 He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.
There are always those in society who are unfortunate. God has blessed and prospered us, and He doesn't want us to be miserly. He wants us to help others, so God said, "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord." If the Lord were to come to you today and say, "I need $100," would you loan it toHim? Or if one of your brothers were to come to you to borrow $100, would you loan it to him if you could?
"Whoever has pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord" is what the Bible says. And God said, "I'll repay him." I believe He will, don't you? I don't believe He lied about it.
Just how is He going to pay it? I don't know, but I think we can have some idea of it from Luke 5:4-7, where Christ borrowed Simon Peter's boat. He repaid Peter by giving him two shiploads of fish. There's one thing about it: There is nothing stingy about the Lord!
I want people to know that I'm on God's side. I'm on the blessing side. I'm going to take advantage of what belongs to me in Christ. And I want you to take your stand. You know now what the blessing is. Hallelujah