Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth
(Eph. 6:1-3)
There is another side to this, too. If children have to walk in love toward their parents so they can live long on the earth, parents also have the responsibility to walk in love toward their children.
I don’t know about you, but as our children were growing up, I sometimes had to ask them to forgive me. I would say to them, “I was right in correcting you, but wrong in the way I did it. I want you to forgive me.” It makes all the difference in the world when you raise your children with the love of God in your heart!
If parents will walk in love toward their children and live right before them, it will affect their children spiritually, mentally, and physically. It will even affect their health.
I don’t know whether I get mad myself or whether it’s just my righteous indignation that gets stirred up. But people who leave their families and abandon their children need to know that they are going to pay for all of that one of these days.
Not only that, but if only people knew the effect it has on children when they’re abandoned by a parent!
When I was holding a meeting in California several years ago, I happened to pick up a newspaper and read that researchers had done a survey in the California penitentiaries. They found out that without exception every single person who was in prison for a violent crime had been abused as a child.
Every single one of them!
Discipline In Love
That doesn’t mean parents shouldn’t discipline their children. Of course they have to discipline their children. Even when you’re walking in love toward your children, you still have to reprimand them from time to time, because children are children. And at times you’ve got to spank them.
And sometimes it seems like boys need more discipline than girls!
But, for instance, I never spanked Ken without reading the Word to him first. If you spank your children in anger, you’re wrong because you’re not walking in love toward them.
Before I’d spank Ken, I’d open the Bible to this passage in Ephesians. I’d say, “Son, I’m not spanking you because I want to or because I want to be mean to you. But I want you to stay well; I want you to live a long time on the earth.” Then I’d read him Ephesians 6:1-3.
My wife and I read the Word and prayed with our children every night before they went to bed. And when they started school, we’d read the Word and pray with them before they went to school every morning.
Well, both our children grew up serving God and are now ordained ministers. But we lived right in front of them too. All the faith confessions in the world wouldn’t have done any good if we hadn’t walked in love toward them and lived right in front of them.
As parents, sometimes you have to reprimand your children, because the Bible says that a child left to himself brings a reproach to his parents (Prov. 29:15). But you can still walk in divine love and discipline your children.
I remember when Ken was about six years old, he came into my study one night when I was praying. He said, “Daddy, I want you to forgive me.”
I said, “What for, son?”
“Well,” he said, “you told me to empty that wastebasket this morning, and I didn’t do it. Read that Scripture to me about where it says it will be well with you, and you don’t have to be sick, and you can live a long time on the earth.”
So I read Ephesians 6:1-3 to him. Then I said, “I forgive you, son. Now let’s just kneel down here and ask the Lord to forgive you.”
A Good, Long Life
There is a promise that goes along with honoring your parents and walking in love with them—and it’s a long, good life!
As we all know, you can know about a Bible subject, but if you don’t put into practice what you know, it won’t profit you. It’s the principles of love applied that brings forth fruit.
The God-kind of love is important in every area of your life. Walking in love affects every area of your life, including how long you live on the earth. Begin to put the love of God to practice, and watch God’s love bring forth great fruit.
by Kenneth Hagin.
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.