Prior to Camp Meeting 1987, Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin had a vision while praying. The vision lasted for 2 hours and 53 minutes. The vision where Jesus actually appeared to him and they stood side by side over the Tulsa convention center. The convention center seats about 12,000, give or take a few, when will you put the chairs out. I think at one time we had 14,000 people in there. That was packed out wall to wall Holy Ghost.
We used to have to lock our arms as ushers. People were so hungry for the Word of God. I’m talking about literally elbow to elbow because there were stairs that you had to go down, to go down into the floor where they set up for basketball or hockey, whatever they had there. And you had to lock arms because when those doors were opened, those people were like a herd of starving cattle. They would run you over because you could save seats. Some of them were so good they could just sling 4 or 5 Bibles into chairs. And just seemingly hit the chairs. Everybody was trying to rush to get down front and get on the main floor because it was gonna be packed out. And they knew the glory of God was there.
But we would lock elbows and literally have to forcibly hold people back to keep them from trampling one another to death over the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You think that’s a good thing? Hallelujah. People were hungry for God. And I still believe that we’re coming back to those days that people will be hungry for God.
But prior to this Camp Meeting, Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin had this vision. Jesus talked to him about what was hindering the move of the Holy Ghost in the church. In the fall of 2007, I was praying when the Lord spoke to me. I was just setting at my desk praying. I’d been praying and seeking God for several weeks. Just seeking God, praying, and studying the Word of God. And the Lord just said to me one day, He said “I want you to go back and get the book, I Believe In Visions.” He said “I don’t want you to read it.” He said “I want you to study it.” He said, “you know there is a difference between reading something and studying something.”
I said, “there is?”
He said, “Yes. When you study it, you’ll make notes about it.” So this book is filled with notes and little quotes and things that the Lord spoke to me about and there are things highlighted that I was to do. The Lord said, “for 20 years now, I’ve been trying to get my people to embrace and accept this revelation and act upon it so I could move in my church like I wanted to.” He said, “I gave the plan then.”
Well that was 2007, it was given in `87, so that was 20 years later that He’s still dealing with it. So now here we are, as of this writing, it’s 2020. That’s almost 33 years God has been waiting on His church. Can you think of the patience of God? God is so patient with the church. And the things that are said in here, some of it became controversial in the body of Christ because it kind of cut against the grain of some people. It brought correction, it brought reverence. But some people also took the things that Jesus said to Brother Hagin and took them to the extreme and they became error. And when the people out there that had not really understood the concept and did not hear what Brother Hagin said, they took things out of context and said “oh he’s just washed up and don’t know what he’s talking about.” Well Brother Hagin did not say those things that were error. What he said was right in line with the Word of God and it was going help the church. And of course some of us got started in that direction, but now we’ve digressed and we’ve come back to the place almost that we have to start over again.
So I encourage you, if you don’t have the book as part of your library, and I don’t make a profit off of it whatsoever, get the book Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits by Kenneth E Hagin. This is what Jesus said, it’s not what Kenneth E. Hagin said. He made comments, but it’s what Jesus said.
I want to share with you some of the things that the Lord shared with me from what Dad Hagin said at Camp Meeting 1987, what is recorded in the book Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits – what the Lord is waiting on the church to get ahold of and walk in.
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 3:12-14
I have not attained. I’m not perfect. I’m still working on getting there. I’m here to tell you, I’m pressing forward for the prize. You’re pressing forward for the prize.
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
So what God is endeavoring to do is bring us to a place that our speech and our preaching is not with enticing words of man’s wisdom. Instead, it should be what? In demonstration of the Spirit and power of God that people’s faith would not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. So that’s the whole purpose of this.
Don’t Get In The Ditch
During this visitation, Jesus told Dad Hagin that some people pick up on one part of what you say, twist it, and go off into excess and error and create confusion in the body of Christ. So what do we want to do? We don’t want to get into excess and error, we want to get the whole vision. We want to hear everything in context of what Jesus is saying. We don’t want to take a little truth and run off with it, and start expounding on it until we understand the whole revelation of what Jesus is talking about. And of course that did happen. People started getting goofy with what the Lord said at this meeting. But you know what – people will get goofy off of anything. It doesn’t matter what it is. People can get off and into error on the simplest of Bible teaching. That shouldn’t stop us from walking in the truth of what God said.
God’s Plans
During this visitation, the Lord Jesus told Dad Hagin [and the church as a whole] some things that He is wanting to do in the church. He explained His plans, and why He had not been able to do them. The Lord wasn’t able to do His plans. The Lord’s plans were being hindered and prevented because of man. Some people don’t believe that, but it’s true. Some people think that if it’s God’s will, it’s just going to happen. It won’t. We have a part to play too. If the body of Christ will cooperate with God and get in line with His plan, and His purposes, and pursue that, then God will be able to accomplish what He wants to do in this day.
We’re talking about the whole body of Christ and that’s what this revelation was for – for the whole body of Christ. This whole visitation was about how the body of Christ or individuals could actually hinder the plan of God from taking place in the earth. But we don’t want to hinder God’s plan. We want to get with His plan. Isn’t that right?
The things that Jesus explained to the church in this visitation were to help get the body of Christ ready for the next great move of God. He gave principles, truths, to prepare the church to move into the realm of the supernatural in a way that we have never seen here on earth.
So do you think this book would still be important almost 33 years after the vision? Yes. Why? Because we know that this great move of God, even though we see a sprinkling of God moving there’s a magnifical outpouring on the horizons. A magnifical outpouring is in the King James 1611 edition of your Bible. It’s in the Bible – the word magnifical, He is building a spiritual temple that will be so magnificent that the whole world will wonder and they will see it and they will know it and it’ll be a witness to the world and then the end shall come. It will come. But this book – Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits – this revelation from Jesus Christ was to do what? Help prepare the body of Christ for the next great move of God.
So what should we be studying? What should we be praying? What should we be doing? What should we be reading? Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits. It does not replace the Word of God. It does not take place of your Bible study. The Bible and the Word of God comes first and foremost, but at the same time, this is a revelation of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ said these things. Amen.
Is It God’s Plan
In Chapter 2 of Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits, the Lord Jesus said, “I bless all of my people as far as I can. But the reason there is not the move of God and the depth of the flow of the Spirit and fullness of the manifestation of the Holy Ghost today is because men do not take time to hear from me. And they do not take time to follow my plan set forth in the scriptures. The more closely you follow my plan, the more my power will be in demonstration and in manifestation. Many times the reason people fail and the reason ministries fail is because they have the wrong plan, purpose, and motive.” That’s the Lord Jesus Christ talking. It’s not Kenneth E Hagin. It’s not a man. It’s our Lord Jesus saying these things.
Whatever you are doing for God, ask yourself, is this God’s plan? What did He say is the number one reason why the Holy Ghost does not manifest himself more and we don’t have the fullness of the manifestation? “Because men do not take time to hear from me and they do not take time to follow my plan set forth in the scriptures. The more closely you follow my plan the more my power will be in demonstration and in manifestation.”
Now there’s no condemnation here to anybody, you understand? I’m not preaching condemnation. I’m preaching victory and freedom because it belongs to you, and it belongs to me.
The Lord Jesus said that if pastors, and I’ll throw all believers in there, because it’s a truth for all believers, but if all of us will spend time seeking God and waiting on Him, you will find that you’ll become sensitive to the Holy Spirit. For the pastors, they will know what God wants them to do in their services. God is not going to bypass the leader of the meeting, but if you’re not that well acquainted with the Holy Spirit so that you can know what He’s doing, then you’re going to be left out.
I don’t want to be left out. I want to be in. I want to find out God’s plan. I want to find out God’s purposes and I want to go that way with Him. How about you?
The Secret To Success
Do you want to know the secret of success? This is it. I’ve got the secret of success. In the book, Dad Hagin talks about going to an “idea exchange” of various ministers from all different denominations from around the country. During this meeting, one minister asked him what the secret to his success was. This minister said that it seemed over night he went from preaching in small churches to being an international figure.
Dad Hagin answered this minister, “the only secret of success I know is walking in line with the Word of God and praying and listening to the Holy Spirit. I simply listen to what the Spirit of God says to do and then do it. Actually every thing I’m doing today is results of believing the Word, praying in other tongues, and being obedient to what God told me to do.”
Notice that he didn’t go ask anybody. He found out from God, and that doesn’t mean you can’t get good counsel from people because you can. He said thank God for the value of praying in other tongues. But notice here, what is the secret of success? He said, “the only secret of success I know, number one is walking in line with the Word of God.” In other words, you got to know what God’s Word says. So we need to have a steady diet of reading and meditating on God’s Word and then praying. Praying is seeking God, and then listening to the Holy Spirit.
So there’s 3 ingredients and he talks about that is the key of success. He’s walking in line with the Word of God, reading, studying, meditating on the Word of God. Then number two, he spent time praying. He spent time seeking God. But at the same time he was praying and mediating, then number three – he was listening to what the Holy Spirit was endeavoring to get across to his spirit. So those 3 things, he said, is the only secret of success that he knows of. So if he had success, and we know that he did, then we can have success by following the same things that he followed. Isn’t that right? Thank God, we need to find out God’s plans.
The Spirit Of Prayer
One of the other things Dad Hagin talks about in Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits, is a spirit of prayer. He talked about how we don’t see that much anymore, and then he said, in fact, we don’t see it at all. We see it a little nowadays with sprinklings. I’ve stood in the pulpit, got up to speak, and had a message prepared, you know what I mean, I had prepared myself and pretty well knew which direction I was gonna go, and get up and the spirit of prayer would fall on us and we’d all start praying. So we have got into the edge of some of these things, so thank God we’re going in the right way. And no we’re not pinning roses on ourselves and saying give us the trophy or anything like that. But everybody should have these experiences.
What happens, what happens is that the Holy Spirit wants us to pray instead say – instead of saying something He wants us to pray something. If that happens, then we should pray. We’re led by the Holy Ghost. We’re building His house. We’re not laboring in our strength. We’re not going according to our plans. And we have had the spirit of prayer in some of our meetings. And there have been times that we’ve actually prayed our way into a spirit of prayer. We started off in the natural, we were praying along certain lines and all of a sudden the spirit of prayer just come on all of us.
A spirit of prayer is where you are anointed to pray. It just flows out of you like water. You find yourself praying into places, into realms and confessing and believing things and saying things by the Holy Ghost that you never knew in your mind. It’s the spirit of prayer. So you can have a spirit of prayer fall on you, and Dad Hagin said it used to be common. And I believe it’s going to be common again because prayer is the vehicle that’s going to usher in this end time move of God.
Man’s Plans
Jesus said to Kenneth E. Hagin in the early morning visitation of 1987, “Even when men get my plan often times their purposes are wrong. Some people get my plan. I speak to them, but in trying to carry out that plan, their purposes become wrong. So I cannot bless them because man’s purposes and pursuits must be lined up with my plans and purposes for the fullness of my blessing.”
So if you have the wrong motivation – the wrong purpose, it doesn’t matter that you have the right plan, you’re still wrong. Notice also, that Jesus said ‘the fullness of my blessing.’ So God will still bless us because He loves us. But it’s not to the degree that He desires to bless us.
In fact, Jesus said, “When it comes to having church, when it comes to services, when it comes to meetings, men make their own plans and then ask me to bless their plans. I bless them as far as I can. But I cannot put my full approval and blessings upon them because men are pursuing their own plans.”
If the Lord was to fully bless His people while they were pursing their own plans, then He would be telling everyone that man’s plans were His plans. And they aren’t. We need to get God’s plans. We need His purposes. And we need to pursue them.
This is the revelation the Lord has been trying to get the church to walk in for nearly 33 years now. He’s still waiting on us. That’s why the greatest move of God the earth has ever seen has not happened yet. God is still waiting on us. I encourage you to get the book Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits. Read it. Study it. Walk out what the Lord desires us to have. God is with us.
