By Kenneth E. Hagin
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they MIGHT HAVE LIFE, and that THEY MIGHT HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY….- John 10:10
The enemy will always try to rob God’s children. But Jesus came that believers might enjoy abundant life and victory.
In the phrase “that they might have life more abundantly,” abundantly refers to the quality of life we are to live as Christians.
Television commercials claim that the good life goes along with drinking beer. Often, they picture a man and woman walking along a
beach together, both with a can of beer in their hands. Or they show a group of people playing pool in a bar. They are laughing and joking
while drinking beer – as if to say this is the way to have a good time.
But nothing could be further from the truth! You can’t find abundant living in a can or in a bottle. You can’t find abundant life in a capsule or a pill or in any kind of drug. John 10:10 says that abundant living is only found in Jesus!
Also, John 10:10 says, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…. ” Through the devil’s empty pictures of fame,
money, and drugs, he steals from, kills, and destroys people. But God’s idea is different! Jesus says, “I am come that they might have
abundant life”!
What are some of the keys to living the abundant life? One of the secrets to abundant living is service – service to God and to others. If we serve Christ, we will serve others. In serving others, we learn how to live the abundant life.
For example, a young doctor gave up a thriving practice and went abroad as a medical missionary. His father visited him and watched him perform several operations in a little room with just a few instruments.
After the operations, his father asked him, “How much would you get paid for performing those operations in the United States?”
His son replied, “Probably, a thousand dollars or more apiece. But money isn’t everything – it just doesn’t mean that much to me. Here I
get the satisfaction of knowing that I have really helped someone.”
Abundant living is a total surrender to Jesus Christ. It is a lifetime commitment to serve Him. If a man is in good health, obtains wealth, a
good family, and a fancy home, yet never experiences the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, he isn’t living. He is merely existing.
An eighty-four-year-old man was saved later in his life. When his grandson asked him, “Grandpa, how old are you?” he answered, “I’m only four years old.”
His grandson looked at him and said, “Why, you’re older than that!”
He said, “No, I existed for eighty years, but I’ve only been really alive for four years.”
Abundant living does not begin until we have completely committed ourselves to Jesus Christ. Our commitment must compel us to say “no” to temptation, and “no” to everything that is contrary to the Word of God.
I’m not talking about just paying lip service. You either commit to God or you commit to the things of the world. There is no in-between.
You either make up your mind to live for God and do what God has called you to do, or you will live your life outside of His will.
The church has too many halfhearted Christians in it as it is now. These Christians think they are getting away with their lack of
commitment to God and His Word. But the Bible says that halfhearted Christians are lukewarm and God’s Word has something to say about their lack of commitment.
REVELATION 3:15,16
15 I know thy works, that THOU ART NEITHER COLD NOR HOT: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because THOU ART LUKEWARM, and neither cold nor hot, I WILL SPUE THEE OUT OF MY MOUTH.
Some of you may have had some coffee this morning while you were getting ready for your day. Maybe you let it sit for awhile. Then
when you picked it up and took a drink, you spit it out because it was lukewarm. Your coffee wasn’t cold, and it wasn’t hot. It was lukewarm and it tasted awful!
That is exactly how many people are living today – lukewarm and halfheartedly. They only live for God when it is convenient. The rest
of the time they live for the devil, and they expect God to have mercy on them if something bad happens to them.
Of course, God will have mercy on them if they truly repent and change their minds. But they won’t grow spiritually if they don’t live the
abundant life in wholehearted surrender and commitment to God.
You see, if you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are just beginning to really live. You have eternal life now while you live on this earth. And Heaven, not hell, is your destination! But if you don’t accept Christ, your life lacks the best things that are here on earth – love, joy, peace – and you are headed toward eternal death.
You can either have abundant life and eternal life here with Heaven waiting for you, or you can have the enemy’s so-called good life with eternal death awaiting you just over the hilltop. It is your choice! God gives you the opportunity to choose, and He wants to choose Him.
Abundant living also grows out of local church affiliation. Local church affiliation is more than just having your name on the rollbook. Church affiliation means faithful service to that local church. It means fellowship! It means being involved in the programs the church has to offer. Many people will say they belong to such-and-such church, even though they haven’t been inside that church in years.
Too often, instead of going to church, those people are usually out mowing their lawn or are under the shade tree polishing their car. And
when they have another opportunity to attend church, they say, “Oh, I’m too tired to go to church. I have to get ready for work tomorrow.”
It’s sad to say it, but there are some people who think they are right with God, but they are lukewarm an don’t even know it!
Abundant living also means separating ourselves from the world. The Bible says we are in the world, but we are not of the world (John
17:11,14). You see, when we are born again, there are some things we just don’t do!
When you are full of God and the things of God, you talk differently, you think differently, and you act differently. You also drink
different beverages!
As a Christian, you need to lay aside worldliness. And did you know that it’s possible to do nothing wrong outwardly and yet still be
worldly? Why? Because worldliness is first an attitude. But if you think in line with God’s Word you won’t have a worldly attitude.
You see, according to the Word of God, anything that is not in line with the Word is worldly. We have to live in this world, but we don’t
have to be a part of the sin and rebellion that is in this world.
Abundant living means living your life according to God’s Word. You can’t follow God unless you are going His way. Have you ever tried to follow someone who was going in the opposite direction from where you were going? It isn’t possible.
You must be going in the same direction in order to follow someone. When you are going in the same direction, you are involved in the same things, and you see things in the same way.
So, you see, it is time that believers walking with Mr. Beer, Mr. Liquor, and Mr. Wine Cooler. You can’t walk with those things and walk
with Jesus Christ! The Bible says, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3).
Some people say, “Well, I believe it is all right to have a little wine my meal.” But the Bible says we are to shun the very appearance of
evil(Thess. 5:22).
I know a person who became an alcoholic because he saw some Christians, whom he respected, having some wine with their meal. That individual couldn’t handle it; he became addicted. The Bible says Christians are to be examples, not stumbling blocks!
God wants His children to enjoy life and have fun. And when you have fun in God, you get up the next morning and you feel great – spirit,
soul, and body. In fact, when you get filled to overflowing with God’s joy, you’ll stay on a “high” – a spiritual high and you won’t have to
keep “getting a fix” either. God will take you on a spiritual high from which you need never come down!
Abundant living is having intimate fellowship with God. Intimate fellowship with God is prayer and study. Bible study is not grabbing a
scripture promise as you run out the door of your home in the morning. Bible study is diligently reading and meditating on the Word.
Prayer is talking to God. But some people pray like this: “It’s me again, Lord. Bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife; us four, no more.”
Other people’s prayers are like the one you may have learned when you were a little child: “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.”
That is the extent of some people’s praying. That is the extent of some people’s Bible reading. Some people read a Proverb or a Psalm
because the chapters are short, and when they finish, they don’t even remember what they’ve read. They just read it because they think Bible reading is a service they must do.
You see, when you’re really in communion with God, it’s like the old song says: “….He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells
me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”
When you commune personally and privately with God, there seems to be a joy that you share with Him that no one else knows about.
The only way I know how to describe it is to compare it to my relationship with my son, Craig. I know how thrilled I am when Craig and I have an opportunity to enjoy the close fellowship that we have experienced ever since he was young. Some of you have that kind of relationship with your children. It’s special!
No one else can fully understand the relationship between a father and his children, or a mother and her children, except them.
And it is also the same way with your Heavenly Father. No one else can fully understand your own personal relationship with Him. No one else can enjoy what you have with the Father. Your intimate fellowship with your Father is something special between you and Him.
Abundant living is found in fulfilling God’s ultimate purpose for your life. What is God’s ultimate purpose? The Apostle Paul phrased it in
these words: “Preach the Gospel” (Rom. 10:15; 2 Tim. 4:2)!
Proclaiming the Gospel isn’t necessarily limited to actual preaching. It could be the simple act of doing a deed. For example, God may want you to do something for your next-door neighbor. It may not involve anything but a little bit of your time, but it will do more to preach the Gospel to your neighbor than anything else you could do.
Or God may want you to send the Gospel to the world, and it may take some of your money to do that – to support a missionary work. And for some of you, preaching the Gospel may involve living the rest of your life in another country. But, you see, the abundant life only comes by obeying God – by cooperating with God’s will.
How do we know we are living the abundant life? It’s when we know and act upon the fact that our sins have been forgiven. We should shine as bright lights in this dark world, telling others what God has done for us.
We also know we are living the abundant life when we commune with God and put His Word first in everything. For example, when the world has forsaken us, and we feel alone and desperate, Jesus tells us, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).
When your friends turn their backs on you, you can hear Jesus whisper, “I am a Friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). When the responsibilities of this life come in like a flood and you feel overwhelmed, you can hear Jesus call to you, “You can do all things
through Christ who strengthens you” (Phil. 4:13)!
In a time of need, all your resources may seem to dry up. You may feel you’ve come to the end of your rope, and you are hanging on by a
fingernail! But you can hear Jesus shout to you with the voice of authority, “My God shall supply your every need” (Phil. 4:19)!
Living the abundant life with God means that you look to God and His Word, and He will rescue you in any circumstance. Many of you today have been in those circumstances of life, and you have heard those very words of encouragement come up from inside of you – from your spirit – to lead you forward!
When believers aren’t living the abundant life, they don’t walk in victory. They haven’t taken God at His Word, and the circumstances of
life sometimes overwhelm them.
How else do you know that you are living the abundant life? For one thing, you are not afraid of the future. For example, you are not
afraid of dying. You understand that to quit breathing in the natural means that you start breathing in the supernatural.
When the cessation of life takes the physical body – then like the butterfly, you are released from the cocoon of that body. If you are
born again, you take flight in your spiritual body to Heaven, your home on High. That is why Paul could say, “O death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55).
As you live the abundant life, you will walk in victory no matter what circumstances you may face along the way. You have the joy of knowing that when it is all said and done and life on earth is over, God will be waiting to say to you, “… Well done, thou good and faithful
servant… (Matt. 25:21).
It is up to you whether or not you live the abundant life. You make the choice. You can live the abundant life by totally surrendering to
Jesus, by faithful service to God and others, by separating yourself from the world, by living in close communion with God and His Word, and by fulfilling His will on this earth.
The choice is yours. You can just exist, or you can live the abundant life and enjoy victory – victory in Jesus!
THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED IN THE WORD OF FAITH AND WRITTEN BY KENNETH E. HAGIN. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR RESEARCH AND STUDY PURPOSES ONLY.
