By: Kenneth Hagin Jr.

Have you lost sight of the sun because you’re struggling in the dark valley of defeat? Be of good courage! God has provided a way for you
to climb out of that valley through the power of his Word!

Have you lost sight of the sun because you’re struggling in the dark valley of defeat? Be of good courage! God has provided a way for you
to climb out of that valley through the power of His Word!

It’s always a beautiful sight to stand on a mountain and look down to a valley below. But it’s difficult when we have a “valley experience” or a time of trouble and hardship in our lives.

You have to come out of your valley experiences if you’re going to experience the abundant life God intends for you to have. But that’s
not something God is going to do for you. You have to get yourself out of your valley experiences by coming in line with God’s Word and by making confessions based on what God’s Word has to say about your situation.

The first valley we must come out of so we can get into a position of receiving from God is the valley of sin. That’s the valley where we
all lived until we realized that we had sinned and had come short of the glory of God.

But how did we extract ourselves from the valley of sin? By getting up one morning and deciding we’d make a new start? No, we came out of the valley of sin by realizing our sinful condition and doing something about it according to the Word.

The valley of sin is the place every person will dwell until they fulfill Romans 10:9: “That if thou shalt CONFESS WITH THY MOUTH THE LORD JESUS, and shalt BELIEVE IN THINE HEART that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Many people realize their sinful condition, but they’re not willing to do anything about it. And until they’re willing to do something about
it, no one else can help them – not even God Himself.

Someone may say, “Well, that’s a negative statement to make.” But, you see, God has already delivered every person on the face of the earth. God has already said, “I have sent My Son, Jesus. He has shed His blood so you can be free” But even though God has provided salvation for everyone, a person has to believe in his heart and confess with his mouth that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior before he can get himself out of the valley of sin.

Secondly, we must come out of the valley of sickness. Many people say, “Well, this sickness is God’s way of teaching me a lesson.” But if
sickness is God’s way of teaching His children lessons, I don’t want anything to do with that kind of a Father!

As an earthly father, it hurts me when my children are sick. I’m sure that’s true with most parents. Yet people claim that the Heavenly Father teaches His children lessons by putting cancer or some other disease on them!

It seems strange to me that people can talk about how good and loving God is until they get to the subject of sickness and disease. Then suddenly God changes from a good God to a bad God who puts sickness on people because He wants them to learn something!

But that’s not scriptural. To come out of the valley of sickness, we must realize it is God’s will to heal us (1 Peter 2:24).

God is interested in setting His children free, Not in watching them suffer in the valley of sickness. He wants them to enjoy the mountain
top experience of living a joyous and healthy life.

Sickness and disease robs children of their fathers or mothers. It robs families of much-needed money. Sickness robs, kills, and destroys. And the Bible tells me that anything that robs, kills, and destroys is of the devil- It has nothing to do with God!

God didn’t send His Son, Jesus, to destroy. He sent His Son to seek and to save the lost. He sent Jesus to deliver us and set us free from sickness, despondency, and despair. All we must do is believe and confess what God says. First Peter 2:24 says, ….by whose stripes y
were healed.” That’s simple. Why can’t we just believe that and walk out of the valley of sickness?

In Mark chapter 5, we find the account of the woman with the issue of blood. She discovered the way to come out of her valley of sickness.

MARK 5:25-29 25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had HEARD OF JESUS, CAME in the press behind, and TOUCHED his garment. 28 For she SAID, If I may touch but his clothes, I SHALL BE WHOLE 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that SHE WAS HEALED OF THAT PLAGUE.

This woman was sick with a blood condition. She’d been to many doctors and had spent all of her money. But after all that, she wasn’t any
better than she was when she went to the first doctor.

Then she heard about Jesus, and she said, “I know what I’ll do. I’ve tried everything else to extract myself out of this valley of sickness
I’m living in. I’ll go to Jesus!”

This woman didn’t sit and wait for Jesus to come to her. She got up and went to Jesus.

If you’re going to get out of the valley of sickness, you can’t sit down and wait for your healing either. You’ve got to get up and do
something yourself.

Go to where Jesus is. He’s not living down in that valley. He’s up on the mountaintop of victory, so get up and climb the mountain! Get up into the clouds of glory and enjoy the beauty of the mountaintop. Look back down in the valley and say, “Look what Jesus has delivered me from!”

That’s what this woman did. She said “I’ll go to Jesus. If I can only touch his clothes, I’ll be whole.” She went and touched Jesus, and
something supernatural happened!

Friend, you cannot go to Jesus and touch Him without something wonderful happening. Jesus is ever ready and present to minister to you. But He only ministers to you as you come to Him.

Read the Bible. You’ll find that throughout the Word of God – starting with salvation and including every other blessing you receive from God – it’s as you come to the Lord that He ministers to you. It’s not as you sit down and say, “Well, here I am, Lord. I’m waiting for You to
come and give me what I need.”

Many people want someone else to pray and receive their healing for them. But it doesn’t work that way. God works with each person individually.

So if you want to extract yourself from the valley of sickness, you must come to Jesus yourself. Don’t look for someone else to do it for
you. You must come to Jesus with your faith. Someone else can agree in prayer with you, but he can’t get your answer for you. If you’re going to climb up to the mountaintop and enjoy the sunlight of God’s healing power, you’ll have to do something about your situation yourself.

Before the woman with the issue of blood found Jesus, she was in her darkest hour. For twelve years she had fought this sickness. The Bible says that she spent all she had. She couldn’t go to one more doctor, because she didn’t have any more money. It seemed that she had no hope whatsoever.

But then this woman heard about a Man by the Name of Jesus. She heard that you didn’t need any money to come to this Man. It didn’t matter whether you had a million dollars or no money at all. This Man just said, “All you who are weary and heavy laden, come unto Me. My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28,30).

Friend, Jesus is still the same today as He was yesterday. And He’s still saying, “Come unto Me. You don’t have to buy what you need from Me.”

If we had to buy the answers to our needs, none of us would ever receive anything. None of us has enough money to purchase eternal Life.
But, thank God, all we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, and He freely gives us eternal life!

This woman believed in Jesus’ ability to heal her, so she touched His garment. When she did that, He turned to her and said, “Daughter, thy faith has made thee whole.”

You don’t need money to receive what you need from God. All you need is faith in what God has said. All you have to do is believe God’s Word. It doesn’t cost you anything.

God’s Word tells us that we’ve already received from God a measure of faith (Rom. 12:3). We don’t need to get any more faith. We just need to use the faith we already have!

This woman in Mark 5 had never heard a faith lesson in her life. All she had heard was that a Man by the Name of Jesus went about doing
good, healing all who were sick and oppressed, as He was anointed by the power of God. And when this woman heard Jesus, she said, “I’m going to Jesus. If I can touch His clothes, I’ll be whole.”

She pressed her way through the crowd. With the one last bit of strength in her body, she reached out and touched His garment in faith.
When she did that, she was completely healed!

Jesus turned around and He said, “Who touched me?” Impetuous Peter said, “Who touched You? What are You talking about, Lord? Look at this crowd! They’re all reaching out to touch you, and yet You ask, `Who touched Me?’ ”

Notice that nothing happened when other people just casually bumped against Jesus or touched Him out of curiosity. Those people stayed in the same valley they were in before they touched Him.

But this woman who had faith said, “If I can touch Him, something will happen. I will be made whole.” And when she touched Him, something did happen. Why? Because she spent the only thing she had left – faith in what God said His Son, Jesus, would do for her. That’s the way you come out of the valley of sickness!

Another valley you must come out of is the valley of financial disaster and financial despair. That’s a valley most of us have walked in at
one time or another. Sometimes it can seem like we’re walking knee-deep in the mud of that valley!

But Philippians 4:19 says, ” my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory…” A lot of people sit in their big easy chair, prop their feet up, lean back, and say, “I’m going to live by faith! Thank You for meeting my needs, Lord.” Then they wait for an armored truck full of money to back up to their door!

But an armored truck isn’t coming. God isn’t going to supply people’s needs when they aren’t doing what He’s told them in His Word. You see, God didn’t say that He’d prosper whatever you thought about. He didn’t say He would prosper whatever you desired. He said He would prosper whatever you put your hand to (Deut. 28:8).

Paul, the same man who said that God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory, also said, “If you don’t work, you
don’t eat” (2 Thess. 3:10).

You’ve got to do something. You can’t just sit and say, “God’s going to meet my needs,” when the bills are overdue and there’s no food in the house. The Bible says that if you don’t provide for your own, you’re worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8). That’s pretty bad company to be in!

If you’ll study the Word of God, you’ll find out that the children of Israel had to do whatever God told them to do before they could be blessed. And if they didn’t obey God, they didn’t receive His blessings.

For instance, God told the Israelites that in order for the death angel to pass over their firstborn children, they had to do something. They
had to put the blood of a lamb on the doorposts, and eat the Passover meal just as He instructed.

And when the Israelites were in the wilderness, the Lord said to them, “Gather up manna every day to eat. Don’t try to store any because it will spoil.” Then God told the Israelites how much manna to gather for the Sabbath. They could only gather extra on the day before the Sabbath because manna didn’t fall on the Sabbath.

God took care of the Israelites in fine fashion as long as they did what He told them to do. God will supply your needs, too, as long as
you walk by faith and do what He has told you to do in His Word.

If you’re not getting your needs supplied, check up on yourself and see if you’re slack in obeying God in any area of your life. Make sure you’re doing everything God has told you to do. That’s the way to come out of the valley of financial despair!

you also have to come out of the valley of past mistakes. You have to let go of the past, no matter how tough it seems to be to do that.

For example, look at the Apostle Paul. He had to forget a lot of past mistakes. Paul was one of the principal instigators of Stephen’s stoning. Paul, then known as Saul of Tarsus, put many Christians to death and cast many others into dungeons as he persecuted the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then Paul was born again, and God called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. I’m sure the devil tried to bring memories of Paul’s past to his mind to torment him.

But Paul knew he had to forget his past. He knew he had to get out of the valley of past mistakes through his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
(Phil. 3:13,14).

We can come out of the valley of our past mistakes and past sins. If we’ve asked God to forgive us for past sins, we can be assured that God will never remember those sins against us again (Micah 7:18,19).

Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT.” So ask God to forgive you, and then forget the past! Go on down the road of life. Don’t remain in that valley of past mistakes any longer. And never let the devil pull you back down into that valley of past sins again!

We all face valley experiences. But it’s up to each of us whether we remain in the valley or climb up to the mountaintop experience of God’s victory.

As you face these valleys in your life, remember that God is still with you. The enemy will try to make you think that God has forgotten all
about you. But God never leaves you, nor forsakes you (Heb. 13:5). So turn to the Lord. He’s the One who can help you.

The devil may try to put you in valley experiences. But you can walk through those valleys with the Lord at your side. You can come out on
the other side shouting the victory, just as the Apostle Paul said, “I thank my God I always triumph in Christ Jesus” (2 Cor. 2:14)!

Friend, it’s up to you. You must make your decision to come out of your valley. No one else can make that decision for you – not your friends, your neighbors, or your pastor. No one can extract you out of your valley but you. Of course, you can’t deliver yourself out of your
valley in your own strength. But you can deliver yourself through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(The above material was published by The Word of Faith, 1993)

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