Part 7 (1/2)

When you get anointed with fresh oil, praise and thanksgiving will continually flow out of your mouth to G.o.d. If you've had a hard time praising G.o.d because of the tests and trials you're going through at the time, if you begin to praise and thank G.o.d you'll get your joy and your praise back! You'll get your thanksgiving back! Praise and thanksgiving will begin to roll out of your mouth once again. You'll be full of thanksgiving and joy.

When this seminary friend saw that praise and thanksgiving was a lifestyle with Dad Nelson, it changed his thinking. Although he was the pastor of a First Baptist church, he got filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues. Evidently he liked that habit so well, he wanted to have it too!

<btt:accented>Chapter 9 Third Characteristic of Those With a Fresh Anointing

We've already looked at two of the three outstanding characteristics of be being filled with the Spirit as mentioned in Ephesians 5:18-21: Speaking to yourself supernaturally in tongues and in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; and giving thanks continually unto G.o.d.

Submitting to One Another

The third characteristic we will look at in this chapter is submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord. This is where true submission comes in. We are to submit ourselves to one another in love as unto the Lord.

One of the characteristics the Bible lists of being filled with the Holy Spirit is being willing to submit to one another: ”Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of G.o.d” (Eph. 5:21). What does the Bible mean by, ”Submit yourselves to one another”? This is a pa.s.sage of Scripture some folks take out of its context and try to make it say something it isn't saying. Is the Bible referring to this extreme submission teaching we've all heard preached? Emphatically, no!

To submit means to give in to one another. It doesn't mean that you rule over one another, certainly not. But it means that you give in to one another and that you're not hardheaded and stubborn and always demanding your own way. It's the opposite of the att.i.tude, ”I'm going to have my own way no matter what!” or ”I've got my say-so 79 and I'm going to have it!” If you get saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll overcome that att.i.tude. You won't be so interested in having your say-so anymore!

Most Christians believe in submitting one hundred percent as long as it's others who are doing the submitting to them. But when it comes time for them to submit to someone else, that's another story. Then all of a sudden, they don't believe in submission anymore!

Believers who are filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit have a submissive spirit or att.i.tude toward others. That is, they don't find it hard to submit or give in to one another in an att.i.tude of love. They don't always have to be right and to have the last word, so to speak. They are so filled with the Spirit of G.o.d that they don't demand their own rights and their own way. They want what G.o.d wants, and G.o.d's way is always love - putting the other person first.

You see, when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you have a submissive spirit and you don't always need to have your own way. Submitting means giving in to one another in a spirit of love and meekness. There are some times when it might be better if you didn't have your say-so! Sometimes it might be better to just keep your mouth shut and not say anything, even if you do have the right to have something to say in the matter.

Submission indicates a broken and a humble spirit. Christians are to learn to submit to one another in the fear of G.o.d. It's easy when you're filled with the Spirit to submit to the other fellow in the fear of G.o.d. Also, when you're filled with the Spirit and you're maintaining the glow of the Holy Spirit, you're not hard to get along with.

Now notice the next verse.

Third Characteristic of Those With a Fresh Anointing 81 EPHESIANS 5:22 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

Some people take that verse out of its context too, and read it: ”Now wives, you do what you're told to do, or else!” However, the word ”submit” in this verse is the same word that's used in the previous verse telling fellow believers to submit to one another in an att.i.tude of love.

As we said, to submit means to give in to one another and not always needing to have the last word about everything, and it is certainly not ruling over one another. Therefore, when the Bible talks about submission in the marriage relations.h.i.+p, it is not talking about the husband ruling over his wife with an iron fist, so to speak, any more than it's talking about believers ruling over one another. Biblical submission is referring to Christians getting along with one another by submitting to each other in love. We are to maintain a teachable, humble spirit, and walk in love toward one another.

Therefore, we can readily see that a characteristic of being filled with the Spirit is that you are willing to submit or to give in to one another in an att.i.tude of love.

The Danger of a Know-It-All Att.i.tude

Every one of us needs to be teachable and humble, and to submit to one another in love. I've said for years that I wouldn't listen to any teacher who wasn't willing to be taught. All of us need to maintain a teachable spirit. I'm always willing to learn. A know-it-all spirit or att.i.tude is contrary to biblical teaching.

A know-it-all att.i.tude says, ”I'm right and everyone else is wrong. You can't tell me anything because I know it all, and I'll tell you a thing or two!” For a Christian to have an att.i.tude like that is dangerous! With an att.i.tude like that you're liable to wind up dying prematurely because G.o.d may just have something He wants to get across to you through someone else in the Body of Christ.

I recall an experience I had along this line with a certain pastor. The pastor had already invited me to come and hold a meeting in his church, and the Lord told me He wanted me to go.

”But, Lord,” I said, ”I don't want to go to that church.”

The Lord said, ”I want you to go.”

”Why do You want me to go there?”

The Lord replied, ”Because that pastor is going to die unless he judges himself, and he's only 43 years old. He's not old enough to die. But if he'll get in on your morning teaching cla.s.ses, and listen to My Word and put it into practice, he won't die - he'll live.”

So at this pastor's invitation I came to his church to hold a meeting for him. Although I was a guest in his church holding a meeting for him, do you know he didn't come to one meeting! He was too busy! He was busy all the time.

We can be too busy! By the same token, we can also be so busy that we don't have time to listen to others and we become unteachable. This pastor was too busy. He had a daily radio program and he was building a new church. He had invited me to come and hold this meeting for him, but he never came to one of his own services! Not one!

Finally, his wife said to me, ”Brother Hagin, talk to my husband. See if you can get him to come to the day services,” she said. Think about that! A pastor's wife having to ask a traveling teacher to talk to the pastor to try to get him to come to his own meetings! I wasn't there putting on my own meetings. I was a guest speaker, holding meetings for him.

I kept after him to come to the meetings, but he was always too busy. Finally, we got over into the third week of the meetings, and I asked the pastor's wife, ”Why do you want me to get him to come to these services?” I wanted to find out what she knew, because the Lord had already told me he was going to die prematurely if he didn't change. There were some adjustments he needed to make, and if he didn't make them he would die prematurely, although that wasn't G.o.d's will.

The pastor's wife said to me, ”Brother Hagin, I want him to go to the morning services because I know he's going to die if he doesn't change.”

”How do you know he is going to die?” I asked. ”He's only 43 years old. He's not old enough to die.”

”I can't tell you how I know,” she said. ”I just know it on the inside. I just have an inward conviction that he's going to die.”

Then I told her what the Lord had told me.

”That's right!” she said. ”I know that's true, and I know it doesn't have to happen. We're both ordained ministers but through the years, we would never listen to anyone else. We thought we knew just as much as anyone, and we would never listen to anyone else.”

That's not a submissive att.i.tude, is it? That's not submitting one to another or having a teachable spirit. It's impossible to be fervent in spirit and to maintain the glow of the Holy Spirit if you don't have a humble and a teachable spirit.

”Talk to him,” she asked me. ”Ask him to come to the services.”

I did talk to him again, but it didn't do any good. Finally, it was the Wednesday of the third week of the meeting. We only had two more day services and then the meetings would be over. We'd already had thirteen services - thirteen hours of teaching that he'd missed on the subject of faith and healing.

After the morning service we went out to eat - the pastor, his wife, and I. We were sitting in the restaurant eating, and I began to talk to him. I thought, If I can just get him into these last two services, maybe he can get enough of the Word in him so that he'll correct himself. After all, it's not G.o.d's will for a person to die prematurely.

This was Wednesday at noon, and we were going to close the meeting that coming Sunday night. I had already announced to the congregation that I would be leaving after the Sunday night service. I was going to start another meeting Tuesday night in a city a hundred miles away.

Finally, sitting in that restaurant with that pastor and his wife, in desperation I just blurted out, ”Did you know you're going to die? You're only 43 years old. You're not old enough to die!”

”I know it,” he said. ”I know I'm going to die.”