obedience in finances by Kenneth Hagen chapter 1 obedience in finances my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in Glory by Christ Jesus Philippians 4:19 from my experience of almost 50 years of preaching Faith I've concluded that more people fail when it comes to fate for finances than anything else the reason is because they're trying to exercise fate for finances but they haven't planted any seed they want God to bless their finances even though they haven't planted anything even so it's amazing how he'll have mercy on them and help them the Bible plainly states give and shall be given unto you good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bossom for with the same measure that ye meet or measure with all it shall be measured to You Again Luke 638 the Bible also plainly says he which sth sparingly shall reap also sparingly and he which Seth bountifully shall reap also bountifully 2 Corinthians 996 if you want a bountiful crop you've got to sew bountifully you can't reap a crop without sewing seed you can go out into your backyard and say I'm going to pick some Tomatoes if the ground hasn't been prepared and a seed Zone you can receive finances through two principle methods number one believing and obeying the Bible number two a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit an example of the second method was that Widow in the Old Testament story First Kings 17 her crws of oil kept pouring out oil and her meal Barrel kept giving out Meal which was just as good as money in those days that was a supernatural manifestation Supernatural manifestations often occur for us in the area of finances because we have obeyed God and have sown seed the first step then toward getting your financial needs met is to obey the Bible God said to Israel in Malachi 3:10 bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be me in mine house and prove me now herewith sayeth 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 paid our Tides one fellow said to me brother Hagen paying tides that's just under the Old Testament that's just under the mic 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 Tides those folks ought to learn to read look at Hebrews 78 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 witness that he liveth that's talking about Christ God said we were to bring our tithes into the storehouse and he would open up the windows of Heaven prove me now herewith he said but don't do something just because somebody else did it don't operate on another person's experience operate on what you know the Bible says and operate on what the holy spirit is saying to you once when Kenneth Copeland was here at RMA Bible meaning Center he told about the time back at the beginning of his ministry when he he had an automobile that wasn't too good so he gave it away and God gave him a new one some of the RMA students blessed their hearts thought they would get a new car if they did the same thing so they gave their cars away and walked the rest of the year they said well he did it yes I said but did God tell you to do it well no I just thought I'd get a new car well it doesn't work that way because we've got the Bible to follow I don't need any leading to tell me to pay my tithes and give offerings I know to do that the Bible tells me that so go ahead and pay your tithes and give offerings often the spirit of God will direct you to give beyond that Jesus said give and it shall be given unto you so I don't need any leading to seow the Bible says he which Seth sparingly shall reap also sparingly I just do it it's when we obey the spirit of God that things happen in my 48th year of ministry it wouldn't have done me any good 48 years ago if God had told me to give a house away I didn't have one and there was a time when it wouldn't have done any good for him to tell me to give my car away because I didn't have a car through all these years virtually half a century God never told me to give a car or anything like that away I gave offerings I sowed seed I prospered financially in the fall of 1981 God spoke to both my wife wife and me to give a brand new Cadillac away I already had sold our older Cadillac so when the Lord spoke to us I gave our other car a brand new one away I didn't act apart from my wife she said I got the same leading then at a seminar I was holding at Rema God told me to give away the airplane that Kenneth Copeland had given our ministry it was worth about $160,000 to $170,000 I gave it to brother Jerry svel sometime later a man I didn't even know although I'd heard of him wrote in and said we feel led of the spirit to send you this check for $500,000 that's half a million dollar glory to God I'm well satisfied that if I hadn't obeyed God that wouldn't have happened yet I didn't have that in mind when I obeyed God and gave away the automobile and the airplane I really didn't expect anything in return you may think I wish something like that would happen to me I'll tell you where you've got to start you've got to start with the nickels dimes and quarters chapter two obedience and tithing a Sunday school teacher in one of the Pentecostal churches I pastored in North Central Texas was a widow woman with five children she and all the kids would pick cotton for 40 cents a 100 they lived in a little old house out behind another house yet she'd come by The Parson AG on Saturdays and say brother Hagen we made a few dollars to buy a little food and here's a tithe I don't want to wait until tomorrow because I'll spend it I know I will I need it so desperately I take it and as she left the parsonage I close the door and weep I knew that I had to take it otherwise I would be depriving her a blessing and benefit I've had her come by a dime saying we made a dollar here's a dime here's a tithe her oldest daughter spent seven years in the first grade and never learned to write her name she never got out of the first grade finally the authorities asked her mother not to send her to school anymore here was a 14-year-old playing with seven-year-olds there were no special classes or state schools for children like her in those depression days in Church she acted like a three or four-year-old she had about that mentality if she happened not to be sitting with her mother and wanted to get up where she was she would actually get down and Scoot Along on her stomach under the pews to get up front then she would stretch out on the Pew like a little kid and go to sleep one night during a Revival this girl went up to the altar nobody asked her to go and knelt along with the others she got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues instantly there was a drastic change before she wouldn't bathe if she got neglected her appearance would be pitiful but overnight the very next night she came in sat down and acted as intelligent as any 18-year-old young lady her hair was fixed she was dressed up and she looked nice we could hardly believe what we saw receiving eternal life and the nature of God increased her mentality 90% this was one of the greatest Miracles I have ever seen it happened at the beginning of World War II the girl went away to visit some relatives and while she was was there she acted so nice and looked so nice that a neighboring Farm Boy asked her for a date she had never had a date in her life they began to like each other and when he asked her to marry him she took him up on it after her husband was drafted she lived with her mother-in-law a while and her mother-in-law taught her to read and write I left that church to go into the Evangelistic field in the process of time I went back to help the pastor preach the funeral of one of the elderly people I asked the Church secretary whatever happened to that girl she led me outside and said you knew that her husband was killed in that truck accident I said yes she said well because of their construction business he was Heavenly insured and she received several $100,000 of insurance money she pointed off in the distance and said seated housing addition I could see a number of new houses being added to this small town the secretary continued she is building that addition to the city she is her own contractor her own financier she handles all her own money think of it I stood there and wept again this time a different kind of weeping I was so glad praise God that I had obeyed God and had taken her mother's tithes this girl had learned to pay tithes too the secretary said I'm still Secretary of the church you can count on it she is on the front Pew every Sunday with her two little children they are the best dressed best mannered children in the church her envelope with her tithes and offerings is always there every Sunday I thought back to where she had come from here was a young woman now 30 years old who's building an addition to the city and when she was 14 years old she had been seven years in the first grade without learning to write her name I thought too of that scripture the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor Luke 4:18 Hallelujah God didn't just single her out and say we're going to make an exception out of her no the same gospel belongs to everyone what was the difference eternal life the life of God it was something that came into her that increased her mentality 90% but not only that she had been planting seed she'd been paying her tides and giving Beyond her Tides back when she'd had just a few dollars from her husband's allotment checks now she had many dollars but she still was doing the same thing would she ever have gotten to that place if she hadn't been obedient in her finances