A financial genius greater than John Rockefeller asks you to invest in His kingdom.  He will give you a thirty, sixty, one hundred fold harvest.  Every offering is an opportunity for you to increase your income.

Money is a great servant, but a terrible master!

In Luke 12:15, Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness.  For a man’s life does not consisteth in the abundance of things which he possesseth.”

Do you own your house, or does your house own you?  Do you own your car, or does your car own you?  Do not let your possessions take control of your life.

If you have not received anything, it is because you have not given anything

Proverbs 22:9, “He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor.”  The Bible says to give and it will be given unto you.  What have you given?

Blessing Israel brings great prosperity

The future of the world will be determined by what happens in Jerusalem.  Jerusalem holds the key to world peace.  ”Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee” (Psalm 122:6).     

How different from the attitude of the Laodicean Christians referred to in the above scripture, who said, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.”

How many Christians today share their point of view!  So much of the church is saturated with the Dr. Feelgood theology.  If it feels good, do it, and when it gets hard, get out.

That is not the message of Christ.  Everywhere He went there were conflict, controversy and conversion.  He was crucified as an insurrectionist considered too dangerous to live.  He was not “gentle Jesus, meek and mild.”  He was a straight shooter.

For major religious groups were represented among the multitude that listened to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:  the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots.

The Pharisees.  When Jesus said, “Happy are the poor in spirit,” I believe He was looking right at the Pharisees, piercing their proud hearts.  The Pharisees believed that happiness was found in legalism.  They were forerunners of the “we don’t smoke, we don’t chew, and we don’t run with those who do” crowd.

The Sadducees.  This group believed that happiness was found in modernism and liberalism.  “Ours is an up-to-date religion,” they would say, “full of the latest philosophy.  There’s no cross to bear.  There are no conflicts because there is no confrontation.  The Scripture?  A delightful, romantic allegory.  Sin?  What on earth is that?”

The Essenes.  They believed that happiness was found in isolation from the world.  Isolation is a state of being cut off from other people.  Its opposite is absorption:  the state of being so saturated with others that you forget who you are.  Your own identity is lost and your goals blurred in the treadmill of trying to please others.

Happiness can never be found in absolute isolation or in absolute absorption.  It lies somewhere in between.  It is not found living alone in the desert as the Essenes believed.  Happiness is knowing who we are and to whom we belong.

The Zealots.  These hotheads thought happiness lay in political revolution.  “Let’s run the Romans out of town,” they said, “and then we can all be happy.”

"I'm sure you recite that every morning at breakfast. This is not a verse you'll find in the promise box. I'm sure that it is not one we teach our children in kindergarten, but it's a verse. There's a problem in Christianity. When God is spanking you for your foolish decisions, we call it warfare. Think about that just a bit.

When you are in a predicament that your foolish choices have caused, it's very spiritual to say, it's warfare. When God, in fact, has you by the nap of the neck and is tanning your hide. When Peter denied Christ and he was off crying his eyes out, he met some member from the church, they would say, 'well you know it's warfare.' It's not warfare. You shot your big mouth off. You denied the Son of God and now you feel guilty. It's not warfare. It's the fruit of your foolish choices. Now what's important about this?

The fact is this; that if you call God's discipline warfare, you live in deception. You never take responsibility for your own actions. You can just religiously live in a land and never come to spiritual maturity because you're always blaming what's going on in your life on the devil. When in reality the devil in your life is the person you're looking at in the mirror." -Pastor John C. Hagee

"The point of this whole story is this; one does not look at the attack from a raging lion as an opportunity, but this was. You do not look at the attack of a bear as an opportunity or as a blessing, but it was. Every difficulty and every challenge is a blessing that is leading you to the ultimate victory of your life. You see that in the life of David. Had he not taken on the lion and had he not taken on the bear, he most assuredly would not have taken on Goliath. Had he not taken on Goliath, he would never have been king of Israel.

That's what brought him to the attention of the people and made him accepted as the king. The road to the throne of Israel began the day that he was attacked by a lion. Adversity is nothing more than preparation for your divine destiny. Embrace it and get on with it. May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of the word." - Pastor John C. Hagee

I SAMUEL 17:34-37

"Sieze your destiny! Make decisions that draw you closer to God, and remember to guard your thoughts. Your every decision is built upon a thought. Saint Paul writes, Bring "every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ!"

Adultery does not begin at motel; it begins when your thoughts turn away from your marriage vow made before God. Murder does not begin when you squeeze the trigger; it begins when your thoughts of anger are not brought into obedience before Christ. Divorce does not begin in the judge's chambers; it begins when you entertain thoughts of how good life would be without your spouse.

Sin does not begin with an action; it begins with a thought!" - Pastor John Hagee

II Corinthians 10:4-6

'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?'

"The background of this story you know, but it bears repeating that Peter had denied the Lord not once, not twice, but three times. He literally cursed and said, 'I don't know that man.' Now if you know nothing about theology, you know that Peter was in danger of losing his soul, because the Bible says: 'If you deny Me before men, I will deny you before my Father and His angels, which are in Heaven.'

He was in great spiritual danger, but Jesus had two options with Peter: a) to let him go; or b) to restore him. He obviously, being the healer, being the physician, chose to restore him, but notice how He did it. He did not humiliate him. He did not say, "Look, you've been following Me three and a half years and you're still a jughead. You still don't get the big picture!" He could have said that. He didn't say, "Every time that I teach a new principle, you run your mouth and say things you don't mean. You said you'd take a sword and fight for Me. You didn't last till daylight."

He didn't criticize him. He didn't ask him to make a new resolution-to turn over a new leaf to be better. He asked him this critical question: "Do you love Me?" Why? Because the Bible says in John 14: 'If you love Me, keep My commandments. They that know God know love. They that know not God, have not love.'

So the question comes down to this: Do you love the Lord enough to do what He asks you to do? Because in every issue of life, your passion will dictate your priorities. What you really want to do, you will do. If you want to be a better golfer, you whack that white ball until the score drops. If you want to lose weight, you lock your jaws and do it. Your passion dictates your priorities.

When you love Jesus, your passion for Him dictates what you do, how much time you do it, how well you do it, how committed you are to it; because of your love for Jesus Christ. Don't ever lose your passion for serving Jesus. You need to love Jesus above all else and want to serve Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and body. Do you love Him? May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of the Word." - Pastor John C. Hagee

John 21:15

"There are several very obvious points in this text. One, that God did not give Abraham his inheritance until He took Lot away from him. The word "lot" means veil, as in a curtain. When God removed the veil from Abraham's life, he saw his inheritance. Sometimes God has to take something from you before you can see what He has for you.

The next point is the vision is north, south, east, and west. It's just as far as he could see in every direction. God gives you no vision without the power to accomplish the vision. God's limitation is not Him. God's limitation is us. We must have the vision of what's possible if God is with us. For nothing is impossible to those that believe. You can look as far as you can see, for there is no limitation to the righteous. The God who puts the instinct in a bird to fly south in the winter is the same God who puts you with a divine inspiration to reach your spiritual destiny.

If God is your Father and He gives you a vision of what's possible, He doesn't give you that vision to torment you. He gives you that vision so that you can reach it. There will be things in your life that you will have to discard. There will be things that you will have to endure, but nonetheless, the vision is there and all you have to do is arise and walk through the land and seize the vision. You have to take action to make it happen! May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of the Word." - Pastor John C. Hagee

Genesis 13:14-17

"The Bible is the only book that you will ever read that reads you. No other book in the world can do that. The Bible was written through the anointing of the spirit of God and is the only book that examines your thoughts, examines your motives, x-rays who you are, and causes the Holy Spirit to whisper to you about the corrections you need to make.

That's the reason why the word of God causes discomfort many times when you read it, because it's reading you. It makes you uneasy, because it says you need to correct your speech patterns. You need to alter your thought patterns. You need to stop doing what you're doing. You need to recognize that the emotions that you have are hateful and full of pride.

The Bible tells you that there are things in your life that have nothing to do with the kingdom of God that are ruling your life. That's why it is so imperative that we read the word of God on a daily basis. It is a compass of the soul. While it reads you, you also read it and become more like the Author. May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of the Word." - Pastor John C. Hagee

Hebrews 4:12

Some people place their trust in money.  Paul wrote, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17).  Why are riches “uncertain”?  Because billionaires are one stock market crash away from being broke.  Money can buy a bed of gold, but only God can give us rest.  Money can buy the best physicians, but only God can give us health.

God is Trustworthy
When life gets tough, we need to trust someone.  “In You, O LORD, I put my trust,” David says (v. 1).  When we are going through one of life’s storms, the Great Physician has a prescription—

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding (Prov. 3:5)

Attack you problem with the word of God.  I believe in counseling, but I don’t believe in eternal counseling.  I believe you should go to look for a solution, not to look for a routine for the rest of your life.

Sin is the root of most problems—and when you’re ready to stop the sin, you will find the peace of God!  When you start living by the word of God, lots of things solve themselves instantly.  A Christian chooses to be depressed when he refuses to live by the principles of God’s word.

Whoever does not have the fruit of the spirit is not living in the spirit.  Quit chattering about being spirit-filled when you’re walking around acting like you were baptized in lemon juice.  If you’ve accepted Christ, you’re a new creature.

Spend time every day meditating on the word of God.

Your mind is like a computer, and as it is with a computer, so it is with your mind:  garbage in, garbage out.  When you read Playboy, that’s garbage in, and all that can come out is garbage.  When all you think about is trash, all that can come out is trash.  If you want to have the happiness of God, have the holiness of God.  “Blessed is the man…[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2).  When you meditate on the word of God day and night, when you think about things that are good, true, honest and of good report your brain will be affected with the hope that is steadfast and sure.

Get rid of grudges everyday.

Ephesians 4:26 says if you’re angry, don’t sin by nursing a grudge.  “Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath.”  Get over it quickly, for when you are angry, you give foothold to the devil.  Do you have a temper problem?  Get is solved before the day is over, or else you’ll kill yourself.

Spend some time every day getting to be more intimate with your spouse, your children your parents your brothers or sisters, because family harmony is essential to your mental and spiritual health.  Unresolved family conflicts will destroy you!

Spend some time each week with committed Christians who are full of the spirit.

Proverbs 13:20 says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise:  but a companion of fools will be destroyed.”  Get with people of like precious faith and fellowship with them.  When you run with a group of lounge lizards, you’ll be a lounge lizard.  When you associate with crooks, you’ll be a crook.  You want to be depressed?  Go in business with a crook.  You don’ have friends?  The Bible says that if you want friends, you must show yourself friendly (Proverbs 18:24).

Go to work on something that brings personal satisfaction to you.

The three faces of happiness are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Do something nice for a special person every week.

“Give and it shall be given unto you”  (Luke 6:38).  What do you want other people to give to you?  Then give that to them.  It can by your time, it can be your love, it can be flowers, it can be a card, or it can be a bowl of red beans, but give something special on a regular basis.  You’ll find that by giving your life away, you’ll find it.

Psalm 16:11— "You shall show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore".

Maybe the professor should reconsider the first of the three possibilities regarding Moses’ mountaintop experience!

Teenage truancy is resulting in a high school drop out rate of one student every 26 seconds.  Dallas Texas truancy courts, alone, address around 20,000 cases in a year.  Due to this alarming number of truant teens, some even going to jail, Dallas has implemented a system to enhance school attendance.  It is based on GPS tracking technology and involves the wearing of a monitoring device by the student.  The student is then tracked so that his or her location can be known at any given time.

Does it work?  One young man who hardly attended school, had failing grades and had become heavily involved in an infamous gang, found himself with the choice of jail or school.  He became a tracking program participant, and because his whereabouts were being monitored, he decided to obey the city’s expectation that he attend school. 

He now is getting ready to graduate with the accomplishment of having become a star athlete.  Could it be that the success of such a program is that the interest reflected by the investment of time and effort, of someone…(even if it is the courts), to make sure a student is where he or she should be, is a reassuring gesture that motivates proper behavior? 

Dads, it is time to take this kind of responsibility off the hands of the courts and put it in yours.

The toughness and self-discipline that David developed as a guerilla fighter disappeared as expensive chariots and horses filled the king’s courtyard.  David could afford luxury and indulged his children, and their luxurious lifestyle destroyed them.  They didn’t have to work for anything.  “After this it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him” (2Sam. 15:1).  Absalom used his wealth to surround himself with silly, empty-headed people constantly singing his praises.  He and his brothers were playboys who were concerned about their inheritance, not what they were working for by the sweat of their brow.  They were corrupted by abundance, by indulgence, by a lack of discipline in their family.
So I ask you is your child safe?  Is your son safe?  Is your daughter safe?  Will you at some future date sob over your child like King David, “O my son Absalom—my son, my son Absalom—if only I had died in your place!”  (2Sam. 18:33).  You can’t die for your son or your daughter.  Jesus did that.  But you can live for them.  And you can give them a godly role model.  You can give them your time.  You can shut the television off and put the newspaper down, and you can go to their soccer game and their football game. And you can go to the parent-teacher conference to find out what your child is being taught and how they are doing.  And you can invest yourself in your child’s life.  You can pray with them.  You can read the Word of God to them.  You can walk with the Spirit of God and express the love and peace and joy found in Him to your kids.  Don’t wait.  Do it today.  If you don’t, who will?

(Life Plan Study Bible, p. 1094)

People pray, “Lord, if it be your will”…  The implication is that they can’t know the will of God, or that the will of God is so mysterious they’ll never understand it.  That’s wrong.  God’s will is consistent with His word.  So we can know the will of God by reading the word of God.  For example, we know that God is light.  That means God is against darkness.  Which means he is against the occult, because “occult” means that which is done in darkness.  So it is not God’s will for you to dabble in the occult.  You know that by the word of God.

We also know that God is life.  Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).  That means God is pro-life, and He’s anti-abortion.  I don’t have to pray, “if it be thy will.” when it comes to knowing whether it’s His will for someone to have an abortion.  I know His will.
God is peace.  That means he opposes fear.  He opposes intimidation…manipulation…domination…torment…anyone trying to control your life.  He wants you to live in the peace that He has for you.  God is love.  That means He opposes hatred, He opposes bitterness and He opposes racial strife.

God is forgiving.  If you bear a grudge…if you harbor resentment…if you rehearse the bitter scenes of the past in your memory…then you’re out of the will of God.  God is merciful.  If you’re as mean as a junkyard dog, you’re out of the will of God.  That’s the word of God.  God is holy.  I don’t have to pray about pornography…if it’s in your home, get it out!  It has no place in the house of the righteous!

God is righteous authority.  All authority comes form God.  If you’re in rebellion against God’s delegated authority, you’re out of the will of God.  A rebellious child fights his father.  A rebellious citizen fights the police.  Everything God does He does through righteous authority.  If you’re not in that divine authority you’re outside the will of God and you’re going to have a difficult life.

God is a giver.  Everything God controls gives.  If you are a tightwad…if you’re greedy…if you’re a selfish Scrooge…if you refuse to tithe…then you’re out of the will of God.  A man asked me once, “Will you pray with me about tithing?”  I said, “no”.  He looked shocked and asked why not.  I said, “Because the word of God says to do it.  You don’t need to pray about it.  You need to obey it.”  He said He never had heard it explained quite that way.

God is a provider.  If I need a job, food or clothes, I can pray and God will provide it.  I don’t have to say, “If it’s our will.”  I know it’s God’s will.  God is a healer.  His word says He heals all of my diseases.

God is a worker.  In the beginning God created the heavens and earth.  Jesus Christ was a carpenter.  The twelve disciples worked.  Work has become a dirty word in America.  The Bible says if you don’t work, you ought not eat.  And that ought to be chiseled over the doorpost of the Health and Human Services Department in Washington D.C.  If you can work and you won’t work, and you’re receiving welfare form the government, you should be ashamed.  You are a moral and financial cancer on the soul of America.

The next condition to answered prayer is to pray in faith believing.  Matthew 21:21 says, “If you have faith, and doubt not…you shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.”  And lastly, pray specifically.  Know what you want and pray for that.  Pray so specifically that when God answers you’ll know God sent it and it wasn’t random chance!

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

Many of you are waiting for God to take action when God has plainly said he’s waiting for you to take action.  You do it in prayer and God will follow suit.  Then Jesus says in the next verse, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:19-20).

Why did God give us this power?  Obviously, because we need it.  Satan is out to rob, to kill and to destroy—and the only way you can control the supernatural powers of darkness is to put on the whole armor of God land to pierce the darkness with prayer.  You and one more person praying in harmony can conquer the powers of darkness…can conquer demon spirits…can conquer Satan himself.  

But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.  When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.  But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils” (Luke 11:20-22).

There are tow applications to this scripture.  First, Satan is the strong man who kept the palace.  He had everything his way until Jesus defeated him at Calvary.  Second, notice that Satan is totally unarmed—Jesus has stripped him of all his armor.  To share in the victory of Christ at Calvary, we must first bind the strong man.  Who is the strong man in this text?  He is Satan’s representative over a nation, over a people, over a state, over a city, over a family or over a person.  The powers and principalities are that well organized.  Your problems are not with people.  Your problems are with supernatural powers that control people.

Let me give you an illustration.  Is someone lying about you?  Has someone falsely accused you? The Bible says Satan is the accuser of the brethren.  The lying person is not your problem; the lying spirit in the person is your problem. Here’s how you attack it.  You say, “Lord Jesus, in the power of your name, by the authority of your word and your shed blood, I bind that lying spirit in John Doe and I command him to be silent.”  And it will happen.  Is your husband a drinker?  Say, “Lord Jesus, in the authority of your name, I bind that alcoholic spirit that drives my husband.  I ask you to make him as sick as a dong the next time he picks up that bottle.”

That’s an illustration of binding.  Here’s an illustration of loosing.  Is your relative sick?  In Luke 13 there was a woman who had been bent double for 18 years.  Jesus said, “Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed form this bond?” (Luke 13:18).  So you attack sickness like this.  “Lord Jesus, in the power of your name, by the shed blood of your cross, I loose my son from this infirmity.  Be healed in Jesus’ name.”  And that disease has to let go in Jesus’ name.”  And that disease has to let go in Jesus’ name. 

If your relatives are bound by alcoholism…by drug addiction…by adultery…by fornication…by bitterness…by resentment…by prejudice…by idolatry…by Satanism…by witchcraft…by the occult…by Eastern philosophies…by mind control…loose them in Jesus’ name.  Agree with another believer.  Put on the whole armor of God and pierce the darkness through prayer.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

The conditions for answered prayer are these.  First, there is the law of asking.  I see bumper stickers that say visualize world peace.  That’s mind control.  Verbalize your request.  That’s faith in God.  Have you ever wondered why God gave us speech?  The only reason God gave you the ability to talk was so you could pray.  Speech is the mirror of the soul. Speech is the inner-self coming out in word form.  God gave you the ability to speak so that you could talk to him.  Why don’t dogs talk?  Why don’t horses talk?  The answer is, they’re not made in the image of God.  God almighty is not a sphinx sitting in the havens.  He speaks.  He talks.  He answers.  He’s alive.  He’s the God who is there when I need him and when I speak to him, he responds.

When you get down on your knees to pray in church, at home, wherever you pray, I’m convinced that God says to the angels, Look, here they come.  They’re going to pray.  Listen, angels.  Get ready.  They’re going to ask for great and mighty things.  Get down there to do it a soon as they ask.”  And then you open your mouth and say, “Oh, God, would you water the grass while I’m gone to Florida?”  God goes, “Aaaaaaagghh.”  He leans back on his throne and says, “I thought they would bind the spirits destroying their marriage.  I thought they would bind the disease that’s destroying their son.  I thought they would pull down the strongholds of abortion and pornography and drugs and pierce the darkness of evil and greed that’s destroying the nation.  No, they want time to water the grass.”

Ask according to his infinite power.  Ask big.  Knock God of His throne by asking things that stagger the human mind.  Attempt to do such great things for God that unless he comes through, you’ll fall flat on you face.  Lie in that dimension.  My mother red me a story as a child that I still remember.  The story was about a mighty king of unlimited wealth.  One day he was riding through his kingdom with his knights.  He met three peasants along the road.  The king said to the first peasant, “What would you like to have?”  The peasant said, “I’d like to have a horse.”  The king said, “Your request is denied.”  And the knights laughed.  They met a second peasant and the king asked, “What would you like to have?”  The peasant said, “I’d like to have a house.”  The knights laughed again as the king again said, “Your request is denied.”  They met a third peasant on the road and the king asked the same question.  “What would you like to have?”  The third peasant said, “I’d like your horse, your castle and half of everything you own.”  The king replied, “it’s yours.”  His noblemen looked at him in amazement.  “Why have you given this peasant such a vast fortune?”  “Because I’m tired of such small thinking when I have such vast resources and power.” The king replied.  “I’m delighted to give it to someone who has great vision.”

Do you need healing and the doctor says you can’t have it?  “Ask and you shall receive.”  Do you need the supernatural powers of heaven to break the yoke that binds your son or your daughter?  “Ask and you shall receive.”  Do you need peace that surpasses understanding?  “Ask and you shall receive.”  Do you need the stain of sin to be removed from your soul?  “Ask and you shall receive.”  Nothing is impossible with God.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

Learn to wait upon the Lord.  Learn to hear the voice of God!

Many people thing that prayer is a kind of divine insurance—a game of chance or a religious lottery.  They think that prayer is somehow heaven’s version of Let’s Make a Deal.  It’s not that at all.  When you meet God’s conditions in prayer, you get an answer every time.  Realize that there are three possible answers:  yes, no and wait.  We don’t want to hear two of those answers:  no and wait.  We don’t want to wait on anything.  America is the land of fast cars and fast food, instant potatoes and instant coffee.

Hearing form God is something you learn to do.  Years ago I had a church member who would phone me and start talking the first rattle out of the box. “Yakkety yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, (breath) yakkety yak, yak, yak.  When they finished, click went the phone.  I never got a chance to get a word in.  One day I gripped that phone in my hand as I hung it up and if body heat could melt it, it would have melted min my hand.  God spoke to my heart, “That’s just how you pray.  You tell me everything you want me to hear and then you shut up and run off.”  From that day on, whenever I go to pray, I take a legal pad.  Ad when I get through telling God what’s on my mind, I listen to see what’s on God’s mind.  What He tells me when I shut up is what gives birth to every sermon I preach and every book I write.  If you wan tot hear form God—listen.  God wants to talk to you.  And if you’d quit wailing about your parakeet’s laryngitis, he could get a word in.

There are some things that will hinder prayer.  Unbelief hinders prayer.  The Bible says, “He that cometh to God must believe that he is” (Hebrews 11:6).  Another thing that hinders prayer is sin in your life.  David recognized that.  He said, “If I behold iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18).  God will hear your prayer of confession, but if there’s sin in your life, he doesn’t answer your prayer.  When there’s discord between a husband and wife, Peter said, your prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7).  Unforgiveness hinders your prayers.  The Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).  It’s very clear.  If you will not forgive another, God cannot forgive you.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

As powerful as God is, he cannot answer prayers until they’re prayed.  Prayer is the only way to get gods power released into your life.  Prayer is the secret to power with God.  Daniel was thrown to the lions because his prayer life terrorized the demonized bureaucrats of Babylon.  He pierced the darkness with prayer.  Elijah prayed and fire fell form heaven.  If that ever starts happening in your prayer life, it won’t be boring, I guarantee you.  In the early days of the church, they prayed until the building shook.
Moses prayed, and as long as his hands were held up, Israel won the war.  The moment his hands came down, Israel lost the war.  The point is this?  What you do on the ground in prayer is what God can do in the heavens.  The moment you stop praying is the moment God’s power stops.  Your prayer is the secret of releasing God’s power in your life.  Jesus had a powerful prayer life; He prayed all night many nights.   And after He had prayed all night, then came the signs and wonders.

When you pray, you tap into the supernatural world.  Through the Holy Spirit, you can pray with supernatural intelligence that goes beyond the knowledge of man.  Romans 8:26 says that when we don’t know how to pray, the “Holy Spirit also helpeth our infirmities:  for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:  but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”  Our “infirmities” include our mental capacity.  Regardless of how brilliant you thing you are, you are playing in a sand box compared to the genius of all-knowing God.

When I was going to seminary, every weekend I would travel somewhere to preach.  On one particular occasion I preached all day Sunday in Oklahoma and was driving back to Dallas late that night.  I had to drive all night in order to get back in time for school.  I went to sleep while driving and woke up when I heard a loud noise.  Evidently I was driving quite fast and I hit one of those old country railroad tracks that has a swayback.  It launched my car up into the air.  I was airborne, if you will, hanging on to the steering wheel.  When my eyes opened, right in front of me was a Texaco tanker coming toward me.  Miraculously, my car landed, in my lane, on all four wheels—and brother, when it did, I was wide- awake all the way back to Dallas.

As I walked into my dorm room, the phone rang.  It was my mother.  She asked me where I was at 3:00 that morning.  I had looked at the clock and knew that was the exact moment my car hit the road safely.  I told her I was driving back form Oklahoma.  That didn’t quite satisfy my mother.  She was like the FBI; she knew what I was doing behind the door when it was locked.  She said, “At 2:30 this morning the Lord woke me up.  I began to pray for you, because I knew your life was handing in the balance.  And at ten minutes after three the burden lifted and everything was all right.  Now I’m asking you again, where were you at 3:00?”  So I told her the story.

You can pray with supernatural knowledge when you have a prayer relationship with God.  Answered prayer is not a miracle; it’s a law.  When you take an ice tray and fill it with water and place it in a freezer, if the temperature is 32 degrees or less, the water turns to ice.  That is not a miracle.  That is a natural law.  It’s the only thing that can happen.  When you meet God’s conditions in prayer, you will get an answer.  It is not a miracle; it is the only thing that can happen.  John 14:14 says, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”  Matthew 7:8 says, “For everyone that asketh receiveth.”  Prayer is not a mystery.  Answered prayer is not a miracle.  It is the law of God.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

Paul said to put on the whole armor of God.  He lists the various pieces of armor—the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of the gospel of peace.

Many Christians have never learned to pray.  The disciples said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”  There is a right way to pray and a wrong way.  When Diana and I first got married, she was so Catholic we couldn’t get fire insurance because there were so many candles in our house.  I finally told her, “When the Bible says ‘ye are the light of the world’ it was not talking about candles.”

Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance.  Prayer is laying hold of God’s will.  Find out what God wants and pray for that.  Prayer is not sending God to run your errands; prayer is submitting to the purposes of God.  Prayer produces boldness.  Paul says in the text, “Pray that I may speak boldly.”  That’s an important prayer of for a preacher.  A preacher of the gospel should speak with the boldness of a lion.  One of the great problems in America today is that our pulpits are full of preachers who have presented such a watered-down, sin-fee gospel that people can’t find redemption.

Prayerlessness is sin.  1 Samuel 12:23 says, “God forbid that I should sin against the lord in ceasing to pray for you.”  Paul went so far as to say we should pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  My point is that prayerlessness is sin.  We should pray because God answers prayer.  The Bible says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not”  (Jeremiah 33:3).  America is waiting for the church that will demonstrate the great and mighty things of God.  When the church of Jesus Christ becomes supernatural again, our young people will stop seeking the occult.  When people walk the aisles of your church to be saved…when their dead marriages come back to life again…when their sons come off drugs and their daughters are set free from alcoholism, then the power of God will be released in your church.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

If you’re thrown in jail like Paul, write the book of Romans.  If you’re beaten and chained in prison, sing in the midnight hour.  If you’re knocked down, get up and get back in the fight.  Quit whining about your circumstances.  Take up your cross.  Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back.  Put on the whole armor of God—and fight.  Arise and do exploits in the name of our God.

Emotions come from the mind; faith comes form the word.  “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).  Satan is the master of mind control.  He is continually throwing his fiery darts at your mind.  If you’re not behind the shield of faith, he’ll nail you and knock you dead.  Satan is the father of lies and a liar form the beginning.  Here are four lies he will try to get you to believe, with which he can destroy you emotionally and spiritually.

Lie # 1.  I must have everyone’s love and approval.  What a joke.  Jesus said, “Beware when all men speak well of you”  (Luke 6:26)).  Jesus Christ, God’s Son was called a liar, a drunkard and a heretic.  He was called illegitimate, an insurrectionist too dangerous to live, and a traitor.  He was finally crucified between two criminals.  “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”  Jesus said (John 15:18).  Church of Jesus Christ, we need to stop worrying about whether we’re approved by CNN, ABC, CBS or NBC and start wondering if we’re approved by God the Father.

Lie # 2.  My unhappiness is somebody else’s fault.   Let me tell you that happiness is a choice.  Abraham Lincoln said, “People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  You should do something everyday to make other people happy!

Lie # 3.  I must be perfect.  No one in the world is as miserable as a perfectionist and they make everyone else around them miserable.  A perfectionist has unrealistically high standards that he or she, or no one else, can possible meet.  They hang on to those standards as though they were an object of worship.  I’m not talking about the pursuit of excellence here.  I’m talking about standards that are beyond reach and beyond reason.  When these people don’t reach their goal they become depressed…they take drugs…they drink…they become wife abusers or child abusers…and they become suicidal.  The solution is found in Paul’s statement, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content (Philippians 4:11).  There is a difference between being the best and being your best.  All God asks you to do is be your best and when you’ve done that, relax and enjoy your life.

Lie # 3.  Life must be fair.  That’s a joke.  Life is not fair.  Life never has been fair.  Life never will be fair.  Does that tear you up?  Get over it.  Some are born brilliant.  Some don’t learn to wave bye-bye until they’re 18.  What’s fair about that?  Some are born beautiful.  And then there are the rest of us. 

It’s not what happens to you.  It’s how you respond to what happens to you.  You can get bitter or you can get better.  You can wallow in your self-pity or you can get off your duff and turn the lemon that life has given you into lemonade.  It is your choice.  You can rise to the highest destiny God has for you or you can wallow in some cesspool of self-made agony.  I’m saying to you in Jesus’ name, whatever your past, get over it.  You can be a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Listen to Paul, “Above all, take the shield of faith.”  Above all…  If you forget everything else, take the shield of faith.  As I said before, there’s a difference between taking it and having it.  All of you have it, but not all of you will take it in the day of battle and get behind it.  You try to use your wit and your wisdom and it’s not enough.  Satan comes at you with a barrage of fiery darts.  If you’ve ever seen a movie of Roman soldiers lighting the tips of their arrows and filling the heavens with thousands of flaming arrows until it looks like the skies are on fire, then you have exactly the picture Paul is painting here.

When the barrage hits, when everything starts going downhill, get behind the shield of faith.  As soon as you’re behind the shield, you are behind the sheltering arms of God and nothing can touch you.  You are untouchable.  You are unreachable.  You become a Teflon Christian with the protection of the living God.  Take the shield of faith and stand!

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

There are some whose faith is not strong enough to bring them to the house of God on, Sunday, but they think it is going to be strong enough to take them up in the rapture of the church.  Fat chance.  It’s not going to happen!

Faith does not demand miracles; faith produces miracles.  Faith is starting out before you know how it’s going to turn out.  Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than the eyes can see.  There are a thousand ways to serve God, but none of them can happen without faith. 

Faith requires action.  Faith without works is dead.  Faith without action is illusion—and that’s where some of you live.  You live in an illusion because you will not act upon faith God has placed in you heart.  He has given every person “a measure of faith” and you must use it.

“By faith,” Hebrews 11:7 says Noah built an ark—without a Black and Decker saw…without OSHA approval…without a government grant—and loaded it down with lions and tigers and rattlesnakes and zebras.  Then he threw on his Samsonite luggage and took a 40-day cruise.  That’s faith.

“By faith,” Hebrews 11:8 says Abraham who was 100 years old, told Sarah, who was 90 years old,  “Honey, turn off the television.  I just heard form God.  He’s going to give us a baby this time next year.”   Sarah laughed to keep from going insane.  When you’re 90 years old, a baby is not number one on your hit parade.  God came down and cranked Abraham’s dead battery and sparks flew all over that tent that night.  Nine months later the ‘son of laughter” was born.  When God says it’s going to happen, get ready.  It’s coming down the pike.

“By faith,” Hebrews 11:24 says Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter so that he might gain the crown that never fades. 

“By faith”, Hebrews 11:33 says the founding fathers of the church subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness.  They stopped the mouths of lions.  They were boiled in oil.  They were beheaded.  They were fed to the lions.  They were burned alive on the stake, “of whom the world was not worthy.”

Our commander in chief, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).  We are to put on the whole armor of God with joy unspeakable—because we are the only army who was ever guaranteed the victory before the first shot was ever fired.  Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.  We are more than conquerors through Christ.  By faith, you can look the demons of hell in the face without far.  By faith, you can defeat the giants that are challenging you.  By faith, you can climb the highest mountain and walk through the darkest valley.  By faith, you can charge the gates of hell with a water pistol and win.  Nothing is impossible to those that believe.  Have faith in God.

St. Paul said, “Take up the shield of faith.”  There’s a difference between having the shield of faith.”  There’s a difference between having the shield and taking the shield.  You can have faith and not use it; that faith is worthless.  There’s also a difference between faith and emotion.  Faith is “substance.”  It is based on the word of God.  Emotion is feeling; it is based on your six senses.  Many people are mastered by their emotions.  Some of you serve God from a sense of emotion.  That is what I all “Crisis Christians.”  You’re wonderful on Sunday but you’re in the sewer on Monday.  One day it’s “whoopee” and the next day it’s “oh, me.”  You’re up and down and up and down...get your feet on the word of God and level out!  Quit serving God from emotion and start serving him from a sense of duty and discipline.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

There were two kinds of shields a Roman soldier carried.  One was a giant Frisbee that he had on his arm when he was fighting hand-to-hand combat with a sword.  The other kind of shield was about four feet high and two feet wide.  A Roman soldier who was ambushed suddenly could survive by getting completely behind this shield.    

Have you ever had a week from hell? You lose your job and on the way home you have a wreck.  When you get to the hospital, you find our your insurance lapsed three days ago.  You call suicide prevention and they put you on hold.  It just goes downhill and doesn’t stop.  “When it rains, it pours” the old saying goes.  That’s the time to get behind the shield of faith.  When you don’t have just one problem, but rather lots of problems, get behind this powerful, supernatural shield God has given you.  Behind the shield of faith you are protected because you’re safe in the arms of God. 

God said to Abraham, “I am you’re shield and your exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1).  David said, “The Lord is my strength and my shield” (Psalm 28:7).  When I am in the arms of God and behind the shield of faith, hell can’t touch me.  I’m unreachable.  I’m unshakeable.  I’m unmovable.  I’m safe behind the shield of faith that God gives me for every adversity of life.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

In the dark days of the Second World War, I watched my uncles stand in the train station and kiss their wives and children goodbye.  I remember looking up at them as they hugged each other and sobbed farewell, tears streaming down their faces.  They were going off to war, not knowing if they would ever return.  Careers were forgotten and the comforts of home were lift behind, because a mad man named Hitler was trying to enslave the world.

That farewell scene was replayed thousands of times across the world.  For the sake of freedom, these brave men left everything they knew and loved.  Thousands of those men died in blood-soaked foxholes.  Thousands more came home crippled, lame, blind or with their lives emotionally unstable form the horror of war.  In the fight for political freedom, this sacrifice was calculated and expected in the name of patriotism.  I bless the men and women in uniform who have defended this nation and its freedom from all the tyrannies we have faced.  From Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal…to the snows of Korea…from the swamps of Vietnam…to the sands of Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan…God bless them all for the sacrifices they have made to keep us free.

But what about sacrifice for the sake of spiritual warfare?  I am amazed that men and women, at the call of the president, will lovingly kiss their families goodbye…will forsake their careers and the comforts of home…and will risk being killed or crippled for life, for the sake of political freedom.  Men and women will shrink back from the call of Christ to battle the supernatural forces of Satan that are trying to destroy their lives, their homes and this nation.

For natural warfare men will leave home for years at a time to fight against the powers tying to destroy our freedom.  But when the powers and principalities of darkness are ripping the soul of America apart, they will not leave their home for three hours on Sunday to come to the house of God.  For natural warfare men will freeze in a foxhole covered with snow.  The will lie face down in the mud and the blood.  Yet they find it difficult to spend one hour in prayer on the Lord’s day—in a warm church that’s carpeted, with a 200-voice choir singing Sweet Hour of Prayer in the background.  For natural warfare men will study the tactics of the enemy around the clock.  Yet for spiritual warfare most of them seldom open the word of God and learn how to engage the enemy.  For natural warfare men will spend fortunes for a superior weapons system.  Yet for spiritual warfare they won’t spend 5 cents to support a gospel-preaching ministry.  They will not tithe and they will not pledge.  All they want to give to God is their advice.

The fight is on.  The battle rages.  If we don’t don something to turn America around in this decade, we will give to our children and our grandchildren a nation that cannot be recovered.  You will look back and say, “I wish we had done something.”  But the righteous wonder why America is going to hell in a hand basket when they sit on their hands in the day of battle.  If you have a song to sing, sing it.  If you have something to do, do it—because the future of America hangs in the balance.   America is on the verge of moral, spiritual, intellectual and economic collapse and we slumber in the house of God saying, all is well.  All is well.”  Wrong!  All is not well.  The hour is late and we must arise and do the works of God.  Put on the whole armor of God and take a stand!

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

Our absolute obedience must be to the word of God—not to a denomination…not to a man…not to the president…not to a government!

The word of God is powerful.  The word of God is true.  If we are to use the sword of the Spirit effectively, we must obey the word.  We respect our government and pray for our leaders; but or first allegiance is to the word of God. 

Let me pose a question:  Is it ever wrong to obey the government?  The answer is yes.  When the government condones what God condemns, your commitment is to abide by the word of God.  Let me give you some Bible illustrations to support that.  Peter and the other apostles were commanded by government officials not to preach the gospel again.  When the apostles were found preaching again, they were brought back to court.  The officials said, “Didn’t we tell you not too teach in this name?”  Peter replied, “we ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).  And they kept on preaching.  Yes, they went to jail. But it is better to be in jail with God’s blessing than to be in a glass-stained cathedral preaching a false doctrine, “another gospel” that is not pleasing to God.

In the Old Testament, Pharaoh had an extermination policy of Jewish male children.  The midwives of Egypt were commanded to kill the children upon birth.  The midwives feared God, so they disobeyed Pharaoh and the Bible says God blessed them for it.  They defied their government and God blessed them for it.  Moses’ parents defied the government of Egypt.  When their son was born, they hid him.  It was an illegal act.

Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch woman who lived in Holland during the Second World War, hid Jews in her home so that Hitler’s Nazis could not find them.  She went to prison for disobeying the government.  She went through the hell of a German concentration camp. But God blessed her for it.  I guarantee you that when you get to heaven, you’ll have to walk a day and a half to get around the mansion god has prepared for her.  The point is, when the government approves what God condemns, we stand with the word of God.
 
The application is this:  If the Department of Education throws God out of the public schools and brings condoms in, we stand with the word of God.  If the Supreme Court decrees that the Ten Commandments are not suitable for the classroom because they might lend moral influence to children, we stand with the word of God, which says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  Mr. President, we want a voucher system for our educational system.  We want freedom of choice in education in America.  We want an end to tax-supported murder, called abortion, in the name of freedom of choice.  We want America’s children released from the educational sewers created by the godless, brain-dead educational policies of national bureaucrats.  Make no mistake, we pray for Congressmen and Congresswomen by Bible mandate.  But when they violate the principles of the word of God, our loyalty is with God.  “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

In the wilderness Satan tempted him, saying, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to turn to bread.”  Jesus said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone.”  Three times Jesus said, “It is written.”  He didn’t say, “I’ve read Psycho cybernetics.”  He didn’t say, “I’m thinking positively about it.”  He said, “It is written…” and He quoted the Word of God. 

I want to point out quickly three things about how Jesus used the sword of the Spirit.  First, when Jesus quoted the word, Satan did not deny that the word was true.  Even the devil knows the Bible is true.  Had it not been true, Satan would have laughed and said, “That’s not true.”  So atheists may not believe the Bible, but the devil does.  Second, when Jesus quoted scripture, Satan quoted scripture, too—except Satan twists the scripture.  Satan will quote scripture to you and twist it to get you to destroy yourself.  If he twisted the scripture with Jesus, he’ll certainly try to twist it with you.  Third, the word drove away Satan—but only for a season.  I can tell you that if you whip the devil today, you’re going to fight him again at a later time.  Jesus did and you will, too.  And when Satan comes again, do not back up, do not cower, do not retreat, don’t wring your hands and worry about how you’ll win the victory, just take the sword of the Spirit and run him through until he looks like Swiss cheese on the hoof.

The word divides light from darkness.  It divides truth from error.  It divides sheep from goats.  It divides the saved form the lost.  The word is the bread of life and it will satisfy you.  It is meat for men and milk for spiritual infants.

The word of God is truth (John 17:17).  The word is the pillow upon which the saints of God have rested their heads throughout the ceaseless ages of time and eternity.  The word makes the sinner forsake his way.  The message of the word is stronger than cocaine.  It’s stronger than pornography…it’s stronger than greed…stronger than the lust for power.  The word breaks the fetters of sin the word takes the pain out of death and dying.

The word of God is a vein of gold leading us to the unsearchable riches of Christ.  The word is a diamond mine of limitless depth.  The word is a star of hope shining in a world where there is no hope.  It is a book of love.  It is a book of mystery.  It is a book of revelation…a book of prophecy…a book of family planning…a book of financial counseling.  It is the owner’s manual for the soul.  Read it, love it, live it, obey it.

Your spiritual, emotional and physical life depends on your swordsmanship.  The sword has two functions.  First of all, it’s a weapon of attack.  It is the only offensive weapon in the armor of God.  Secondly, it’s a weapon of defense for the whole body.  While the helmet only protects the head and the breastplate only protects the chest, the sword can protect you from the ground to over your head.  Every time the enemy comes against you, parry his attack with your sword.  In hand-to-hand combat…when you’re so close you can smell Goliath’s breath…when an ounce of fear or an instant’s procrastination will get you killed…you can defend yourself with confidence with the sword of the Spirit.  David said, “Though a host should encamp against me, my hart shall not fear:  though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident” (Psalm 27:3).  Every time Satan attacks you—high, low, wide—you can defend yourself with the power and the authority of the word of God.

Let me give an illustration of swordsmanship.  Years ago, a massive man broke into he home of a member of Cornerstone church while she was there alone.  She walked into he den and there he was:  no shirt, with long, matted hair, eyes like a wild animal.  She pointed her finger at him and shouted, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get out of this house.  We are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.”  The man, confused and dazed, stumbled out of he house like a lumbering ox.  You say, perhaps he was just drunk looking for his house.  No, he left that house, walked a half-mile down the road and murdered a man with his bare hands.  He was a demonized person with murder on his mind.  But the word of God is a sword that is mightier than the murderers from the bowels of hell.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

You’re not born a fighter.  You have to learn to fight.  When you enter the military, the recruiting officer talks to you like your mother.  Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. “Sure, you can be stationed at Waikiki Beach.  NO problem.”  But as soon as you raise your hand and take the oath, he looks at you like a killer shark looks at a fresh trout.  He cuts your hair off.  He takes your designer jeans and gives you fatigues that drag the ground and a cap that hits you in the nose.  He gives you food you wouldn’t feed to your dog.  He marches you like an animal.  He yells at you like you don’t have brains enough to get in out of the rain.  He wakes you up at five in the morning—not like your mother who would sit on the edge of your bed and say, “Billy Bob, it’s time for you to get up, baby.  Lunch is almost ready.”  No, he strolls through your barracks beating on a garbage can and yelling, “Get up, meathead.”
Why does he do this?  Because he’s turning mama’s fat little biscuit-eater into a lean, mean, fighting machine—so that when you get in combat and the enemy is charging into your foxhole to rip your guts out with a bayonet, you don’t look at him and say, “My, my, such hostility.  Haven’t your heard about the new army?”  At that point it’s too late to pull out the combat manual and hunt for the chapter on hand-to-hand combat.  You’re going to get killed if you haven’t learned to fight.  But because you have gone through boot camp, you’re not a spineless slob; you’re a soldier.  You have been looking for this enemy since the day you got out of boot camp.  You’re prepared to take him on with confidence.

Church, we are soldiers in the army of the living God. We are at war with the powers and principalities of darkness.  Compromise with the world, the flesh and the devil is high treason in the courts of heaven.  You might as well make up your mind that you can’t please everyone all of the time.  If you please God, you will offend the world.  If you please the world, you will offend God.  As for me and my house, we have chosen to serve God and it matters not if we offend the world in every way possible.

The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. And when Satan attacks you, counterattack with the word of God.  When Satan roars against you with fear—fear of the past, fear of the present, fear of the future, fear of the unknown, fear of dying—run him through with the word of God. 

When Satan comes and says you’re defeated, attack with the sword.  The word of God says, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).  The Bible says we are “more than conquerors” through Christ (Romans 8:37).  The Bible says that faith is the victory, which overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).  When Satan slithers into your hospital room and says you’ll never be well again, attack him with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Start quoting the scriptures:  “He sent his word and healed them…I am the Lord that healeth thee…He healeth all my diseases…By his stripes I am healed.”  The Bible says, “Unto you that fear my name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2). 

Mr. Businessman, when Satan comes to you and says you’re financially ruined don’t cower and hide.  Attack with the word of God and say, “My God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory.  Jesus Christ found money in the mouth of a fish for Peter’s taxes; He can find it for me.  The Bible says that all the gold and silver belong to the Lord.  The banks of America may be broke, but God’s not.  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and this is the day He’s running them all into my corral, because I’m standing on his word.”

When Satan comes and says you’re a loser, attack.  Say, “Satan you’re a liar and the father of lies.”  When Satan comes to you and says you have no future and you lack self-confidence, say, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.  I testify now that I am a blood-washed, Bible-believing, spirit-filled, sword-carrying child of God.  I am armed and dangerous.  Back up, buzzard-breath, because I’m on the attack today in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

When Satan comes to you and says you’ve sinned too deeply to be saved, remind him what the word says:  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Know that Jesus Christ is the Savior, and whatever your circumstances, no matter how despicable you may feel, Jesus loves you and will save you by his grace.  Moses and David were murderers.  The apostle Paul was a murderer and a blasphemer.  Rahab was a harlot, and she is in the genealogy of Christ.  God is a forgiving God.  When you confess your sins, he will put his arms around you and forgive you of all your sin.  Your life that’s stained with sin will be whiter than snow.  You’ll have a new beginning.  You’ll have new friends.  You’ll have a new joy.  You’ll have a new peace.  All things will become new when Christ the Lord comes into your heart and life to rule and to reign.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

The Bible says to “resist the devil, and he will flee form you” (James 4:7).  St. Paul instructed us to “fight the good fight of faith”  (1 Timothy 6:12).  Paul was a fighter.  One of the last things he wrote to the church was “I have fought a good fight.” (2 Timothy 4:7).  Another place Paul says he did not fight “as one who beats the air” (1 Corinthians 9:26).  In other words, “I’m not throwing a series of wild punches hoping I hit the devil.  If he gets close enough, it’s lights out.”   Have you ever seen one of hose boxing matches where the fighters are up there swinging over the other guy’s head, like they’re trying to create a draft to give the other guy pneumonia?  Paul said he was not swinging wildly; he was ready for combat.  He was confident that through Jesus Christ he was more than a match for the powers and principalities of darkness.  You can have that kind of confidence too…it is available for every one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ!

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

Psalm 34:15 says, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.”  Job 36:7 says that he does not take his eyes off the righteous.  Do you want God to provide for your children?  David said, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).  Do you want God to answer your prayers?  Then live righteously.  Proverbs 15:29 says that the Lord hears the prayers of the righteous.  But Psalm 66:18 says that if there is iniquity in your heart, God will not hear your.  So I’m telling you plainly, God does not answer all prayer.  When there is iniquity in your heart, God says, “I’m not listening until you put on the whole armor of God.” 

The standard of America is, “If it feels good, do it.”  If there is no absolute right or wrong, then whatever I feel like doing is what I should do.  Ladies and gentlemen of America, there is a standard of absolute right and absolute wrong.  It is the word of God.  Guard your heart with the righteous standard of God’s word.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

Legalists are not concerned about what you are, but what you do.  You can gossip and slander, lie and live a double life, just as long as you keep their rules!

There are three dimensions of righteousness in scripture:  Self-righteousness, imputed righteousness and imparted righteousness.  The Pharisees were self-righteous.  They were legalists who kept manmade rules to obtain righteousness with God.  They fasted, prayed and tithed yet they were smug, arrogant, heady and high-minded.  They were religious, but very lost.

“We don’t smoke and we don’t chew and we don’t go with those that do.  Lips that touch wine will never touch mine.  God bless us four and no more.”  This may shock you, but I’d rather go fishing with a beer-drinking, cigar-smoking, tobacco-chewing, hell-raising redneck than to walk across the street with a pompous, self-righteous goody-two-shoes legalist.

The second kind of righteousness is imputed righteousness.  “Imputed” means “credited to my account,” and it refers to the righteousness we receive at the cross.  Romans 4 says, “And therefore it was imputed to him (Abraham) for righteousness.  Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord form the dead” (verses 22-24).  When I accepted Christ, He gave me a dazzling white robe of righteousness that covers all of my imperfections.  When you were saved, your sins were forgiven; but you were still full of imperfection.  Satan accuses you and me before the throne of God every day.  He is the accuser of the brethren.  Satan says to God, “Look down there at John Hagee.  He’s full of faults and shortcomings.  Did you hear what he said to his wife the other night when supper was late?  God says, “All I see is the robe of righteousness that my Son has thrown over him.  He is perfect and pure because of what Jesus did at the cross; leave him alone!

The third kind of righteousness is imparted righteousness.  “Imparted” means ‘that which is done in me.”  When I got saved, God handed me his book of standards, the Bible, and said, Make your day-to-day choices based on my Word.”  Imparted righteousness is how I put on the breastplate of righteousness.  You put on the breastplate by deciding to live your life by the standards of God’s righteousness, “which is as it ought to be.”  Imparted righteousness is living by the standards of God as specified in the Bible, the owner’s manual for the soul.

How does it work?  Suppose you’re depressed.  Do you go out to the Crystal Pistol and get drunk?  Or do you get into he word of God and find hope for the soul?  If you go to the Crystal Pistol, your armor falls off.  Then you’re naked and defenseless.   Satan sees you walking around without your armor and he unloads his fiery darts at your mind.  You can take Tylenol, but it won’t help.  You can sing, ”Somebody Done Somebody Wrong” songs until three in the morning; it will not help you.  You can call your church counselor; it will not help you.  Only when you confess your sin and start living by the righteousness of God will you have the breastplate of righteousness to guard your heart.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

Our word righteous comes from the Old English word “rightwise,” which described something “which is as it ought to be.”  When you are “rightwise” with God, you’ll have peace.  Therefore if you’re a liar, you’re not living by the righteous standard of God and peace is not possible.  If you’re an adulterer, you won’t have peace because that’s not God’s standard. 

Why does the United States government have a Department of Standard Weights and Measurements?  So that 12 inches in Texas is 12 inches in California and that 16 ounces of bologna here is 16 ounces of bologna wherever you happen to be in the U.S.  The Bible is God’s Bureau of Standard Weights and Measurements.  That means that sin in Texas is sin in New York and sin in California…  I want you to know there is not a different chapter in the Bible for the people in California despite what judges might say.  God’s word is eternal and unchanging.  Time, distance, social mores, changes in public attitude or new presidential administrations do not create a new moral standard. 

My standard of righteousness is the word of God.  “For I am not shamed of the gospel of Christ:  for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Romans 1:16).  How do people hear about righteousness?  From the gospel.  The gospel of Jesus Christ makes men aware of righteousness or ‘the way it ought to be” as God sees it.  You know we’ve got the idea that our opinion matters.  Let me give you some shocking news.  Your opinion doesn’t matter about anything.  Only God’s opinion matters and His opinions are found in the Bible. When you die and face God, He’s not going to judge you by the opinions of the professors of your Ivy League school; He’s going to judge you according to His standards of holiness as expressed in His word.

That’s why the ungodly and liars and whoremongers and homosexuals and witches and murderers and pornographers and abortionists and feminists and secular humanists hate the gospel and hate the people who preach the gospel.  They hate the Bible, because every page of this book screams, “You’re wrong.”  If they were to accept this as truth, they would have to change their lifestyles—and they simply do not want to do that.  Therefore, you can either please the world, the flesh and the devil, or you can please Jesus Christ, who called you to be a soldier in the army of God.  Stand upon the word by the grace of God.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

Where was Jesus when he said that?  Not in an ivory tower of detachment.  Not in the presidential suite of the Hilton Hotel.  Not at he wedding of Cana.  He said that the night before he was to be crucified.  Jesus is saying in this verse that his peace is greater than the storm…greater than the trial…greater than our understanding.  It cannot be stopped by the demons of hell.  It has been battle-tested.  His peace really works.

There is a sloppy, sentimental, spineless notion in the church that the peace of God means tranquility.  There is an idea that the peace of God means total security—absence of risk and a life without tensions.  That is purely unscriptural.  As we say in South Texas, it is flat wrong.  There is a teaching in the church today that if you’re going through a trial, you’re out of the will of God.  But the Bible says, “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you” (1 Peter 4:12).  If you’re out of the will of God when you go through a trial, then Jesus died out of the will of God.  Paul died out of the will of God.  That’s just nonsense.  The Bible says, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).  If you are living a godly life, you can expect to have trouble with the world, the flesh and the devil.  If you’re not having any problems, I doubt the quality of your Christianity.

The Bible is a book about trials to face, giants to whip, battles to fight, mountains to climb, seas to go through; it’s about putting you hand to the plow and not looking back.  It’s a book about enduring to the end…about being faithful unto death.  That’s what this book is about.  So stop running from responsibility.  Stop running from risk.  Face life with your hand in the hand of God.  Have faith in God.

There are times that it is absolutely sinful to pray for peace.  It is a sin to be preoccupied with yourself when the lost are stumbling into the abyss of hell…when America is falling into a moral sewer and dying without God…when our children are being neglected and abused and murdered through abortion…when mothers are attacked by feminists as fools…when the Bible is thrown out of school and condoms are brought in; that is no a time to pray for peace.  It’s a time to put on the whole armor of God.  Get in the fight and give the devil double-barreled hell.  Quit praying for peace and get at it.  When you pray for peace in those circumstances, you’re and escapist.  You’re a moral coward and a spiritual coward.  Get involved.

Christianity is a call to life, not escapism.  It is not designed to keep us peaceful, happy and content the rest of our lives.  We are called to warfare.  Warfare means conflict.  It means conquest.  It means controversy and challenge.  And it may mean suffering and pain.  Take up your cross and follow Jesus.  Take up you task.  Then you will find peace that surpasses understanding.  Then you will have peace in the midst of the storm…peace in the valley…peace when you are facing lions…peace when you’re close enough to Goliath to smell his breath.

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print

All other people are doomed to live in torment and anxiety.  There is no peace for them.  Where is peace found?  Peace is not found in pills…peace is not found in drugs or alcohol…peace is not found in meditation…and peace is not found in your daily horoscope.

Peace is the fruit of reconciliation with God!
You cannot be at war with God and have the peace of God.  The Bible says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee” (Isaiah 26:3).  Thee is no peace to the adulterer…there is no peace t the fornicator…there is no peace to the abortionist…there is no peace to the pornographer…there is no peace to the wife abuser or child abuser…there is no peace to the fearful and unbelieving…there is no peace to the gossip or talebearer…there is no peace to the cold, casual, carnal, compromising Christian.  You are numbered in the word of God with the wicked and God will never give you his peace.

In the heart of every human being, whether he lives on Madison Avenue in New York City or the jungles of the Amazon, a sense of inner wrongness and uneasiness.  The word of God calls it guilt.  It is your conscience.  I went to the same university you went to and I know they taught us that conscience is an unnecessary primitive leftover.  They’re wrong.  Conscience is the watchdog of heaven and it says in the word of God that you cannot dupe it and you cannot drown it out.  Conscience is the voice of God that says,” You are not living according to My standards.”  You cannot drown your conscience on a river of whiskey.  You cannot stop its pulsating pain with cocaine.  You cannot stop your conscience and the pain thereof by explaining it away with new morality.  You cannot silence your conscience by giving new names to old sins.  That’s what America is doing now.  We used to call a man who told a lie, a liar; now he’s an extrovert with a big imagination.  What used to be called fornication is now called an alternative lifestyle.

Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  There can be no peace until you reconcile your life with God.  The Bible says, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  Then the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep (guard) your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.  Peace is the gift of God, and it comes form no other source!

Devotion from Pastor Hagee’s book 12 Sunday Mornings – currently out of print