I've been preaching since I was 18-years-old. I've met many pastors. They're always trying to plan some program; they're always trying to put something together to make their church or Sunday School better—programs, programs, programs!

Pastors, it's not your programs that will put your church over. Forget your programs. Find out what God's program is and use it.

The same holds true for individuals. Find out what God wants. Find out what the will of God is for you. Don't do something just because you want to do it. Find out what God's Word has to say about your situation.

Find out what God's Word has to say about some decisions you're going to make in business too. If businessmen would learn to manage with their heads and their hearts, their businesses would be twice as large.

Learn how to walk with God. Quit trying to put your plan into action. Put His plan into action. Some will protest, "That's contrary to all the laws of nature and business." If you know for sure that God has told you to do something—even though it seems contrary to natural laws—and you do it, there is no way you can fail, because God never fails.

It comes back to the war between the natural and the spiritual. Anytime you face a crisis, there will be this war between the natural and the spiritual. You'd better be smart enough to do it the way the man on the inside (the inner man) wants it done, or you're doomed to failure. You see, it's not what "I" want; it's not what "I" desire; it's what God wants.

Yes, I realize that we're talking all the time about the fact we can have the desires of our heart. The problem with people today is that they are asking for everything and they're not receiving, and it's causing some confusion.

Many saved, Spirit-filled people have heard teaching about the things of faith, but all they know is what the natural man says. They know all the "formulas" and all the faith confessions in their heads, but not in their hearts (or spirits), so it's not doing them any good to make those faith confessions.

One reason they're not receiving is because they're not in line with John 15, where Jesus said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (v. 7). The words are abiding, but they're not abiding in the spirit of man; they're abiding in the natural mind of man.

It's time we realized that we need to forget our desires for cars, money, and success. I believe in prosperity as strongly as anybody. I dress good; I drive good; I eat good; and I will continue to do so, because God's Word says so. (I don't want anybody to think I'm teaching against faith.)

But the point is, we have become selfish with our faith, heaping blessing after blessing upon ourselves when there is a world out there that is lost, dying, and going to hell, bound in chains of sickness, and disease—and we need to set it free.

God has shown us how to use our faith to get clothing on our backs, food on our table, and other good things in life. Let's take that same faith and use it to bring souls into the kingdom. Let's begin to confess souls into the kingdom the way we confess in our finances, clothing, and food.

Do we go another year of enjoying the good life, getting all the blessings and benefits, while the rest of the world slowly sinks into oblivion? I say, "No." Let's take our faith and maintain a balanced Christian life.

Source: Where Do We Go From Here? by Kenneth Hagin, Jr.
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications