A hindrance to growth in grace is looseness. According to the dictionary, “looseness” means without order or connection, negligent, careless, unchaste, and unrestrained in behavior.
Looseness In Thought
Here is where sin begins: in allowing thoughts that are unprofitable or unseemly to run loose, and to dwell upon those wrong thoughts. You must discipline yourself in these areas.
I can’t do anything about your thinking except instruct you. You’ll have to do something about your own thinking. That’s the trouble with us; we want somebody else to do something for us, but we’ll have to do it for ourselves.
It would be interesting here to see something the Spirit of God said through the Apostle Paul:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
(Phil 4:8)
Notice Paul didn’t say “pray that God will help you to think on these things.” No, you’re responsible for your own thinking. You can think what you want to think. Or, you can not think what you don’t want to think.
Somebody will say, “But, I’m bothered with these thoughts.”
Well, quit thinking them! Now, I realize you can’t keep thoughts from coming—any more than you can help who might knock on your door—but you can help who you invite into the living room and entertain.
You can’t keep carnal thoughts from coming to your mind any more than you can keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair!
Don’t dwell on those thoughts. Every holy saint of God—even the most holy—finds thoughts in his or her mind at times that his heart resents.
And then the devil accuses them, saying, “You’re a petty Christian. You must not even be saved, thinking something like that!” But they really didn’t think it. Satan brought it by.
Just don’t entertain these thoughts. You can think on what you want to think on. Change your thinking. Start thinking about something else.
Something that helps me when the wrong kinds of thoughts come is to start praising God. By praising God, I get my mind off these thoughts. Notice that the Bible says, “think on these things….” That means you can think on them if you want to.
I always believe I can do whatever the Bible tells me to do. I don’t believe God told me to do something I can’t do. He would be unjust if He did.
Some people have surrendered themselves to the wrong thinking until the devil finally got hold of them, but unless you’re completely taken over and have lost your mind, your will is still intact, and you can do what you want.
“Pray for me that I won’t have any more trouble with the devil,” one fellow said to me.
I replied, “Do you want me to pray that you’ll die? Well, the only way you’re not going to have trouble with the devil is to die, leave this world, and go on to heaven,” I told him.
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications
Rev. Hagin served in Christian ministry for nearly 70 years and was known as the "father of the modern faith movement." His teachings and books are filled with vivid stories that show God's power and truth working in his life and the lives of others.
Rev. Hagin was born on Aug. 20, 1917, in McKinney, Texas, a son of the late Lillie Viola Drake Hagin and Jess Hagin.
Rev. Hagin was sickly as a child, suffering from a deformed heart and an incurable blood disease. He was not expected to live and became bedfast at age 15. In April 1933 during a dramatic conversion experience, he reported dying three times in 10 minutes, each time seeing the horrors of hell and then returning to life.
In August of 1934, Rev. Hagin was miraculously healed, raised off a deathbed by the power of God and the revelation of faith in God's Word. Two years later, he preached his first sermon as pastor of a small community church in Roland, Texas.
In 1937, Rev. Hagin was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began ministering in Pentecostal churches. During the next 12 years he pastored five churches in Texas: in the cities of Tom Bean, Farmersville (twice), Talco, Greggton, and Van. In 1949, he began an itinerant ministry as a Bible teacher and evangelist.
During the next 14 years, Jesus appeared to Rev. Hagin eight times in visions that changed the course of his ministry. In 1966, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he opened a ministry office. That same year, he taught for the first time on radio—on KSKY in Dallas. In 1967, he began a regular radio broadcast that continues today as Faith Seminar of the Air. Teaching by his son, Rev. Kenneth W. Hagin, is also heard on the program.
In 1968, Rev. Hagin published the first issues of The Word of Faith magazine, which now has a monthly circulation of more than 250,000. The publishing outreach he founded, Faith Library Publications, has circulated more than 65 million copies of books by Rev. Hagin, Rev. Hagin Jr., and several other authors worldwide. Faith Library Publications also has produced more than 9 million audio teaching tapes and CDs.
Other outreaches of Kenneth Hagin Ministries include RHEMA Praise, a weekly television broadcast hosted by Rev. and Mrs. Kenneth W. Hagin; RHEMA Correspondence Bible School; RHEMA Alumni Association; RHEMA Ministerial Association International; RHEMA Supportive Ministries Association; the RHEMA Prayer and Healing Center; and a prison ministry.
In 1974, Rev. Hagin founded RHEMA Bible Training Center USA and in 1976 moved the school and ministry offices to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where they remain. To date, RHEMA Bible Training Center USA has 23,000 alumni, and RHEMA Bible Training Centers have opened in 13 other nations: Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Samoa, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand. Together, the 14 schools have more than 28,000 graduates worldwide.
RHEMA Bible Church, pastored by Rev. Hagin Jr., began holding services in October of 1985 on the RHEMA campus in Broken Arrow and has since grown to become a thriving congregation with more than 8,000 members.
Rev. Hagin's daughter and son-in-law, Pat Harrison and the late Doyle "Buddy" Harrison, founded Harrison House Publishers in 1975 and Faith Christian Fellowship International Church in 1977. Both organizations are based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Until shortly before his death in September 2003, Rev. Hagin continued to travel and teach throughout the United States and into Canada conducting All Faiths' Crusades and other special meetings.