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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"How to be led by the Spirit" = HOW TO HEAR GOD, and Hagin explains it well, November 27, 2007
The title is a bit odd, since "How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God" is just another way of saying "How to Hear From God."
Once I figured out that's what he was trying to say in his book, I took a look (since, after all, I want to hear from God).
As I've said in my other book reviews, I've read all the Bible and studied several theological areas, so I expected to learn nothing new here.
But, the book was a free gift from the wife of a preacher of a local church, here in Lakeland, Florida, and I found the book interesting -and I did learn *some* things, even though *some* of the book was stuff I already knew.
Before reading this book, I understood there to be only seven (7) ways God can speak to you:
(1) Your intelligence and logical reasoning
(2) God speaks through Other People
(3) The Holy Spirit's nudge (gut feeling, still small voice, intuition, you know?)-
(4) Holy Bible
(5) Large miracles (dreams, visions, freaky coincidences, visitations by angels, etc.)
(6) Smaller miracle, that is, coincidences and timing
(7) When #1-6 say the same message at the same time, it must be God.
Hagin seems to cover most of these areas (Chapter 20 title: "Judging by the Word", which is my point (4) above; page 10, 2nd paragraph: "With my soul I contact the intellectual realm," which is my point (1) above).
However, he really goes into good detail in distinguishing several different ways the Holy Spirit can speak to you: "There are three kinds of visions: spiritual visions, trances, and open visions." Page 110.
I never knew there were different types of visions, but in one case, Paul saw Jesus in a vision -with his eyes closed, which we know because Acts 9:8 says Saul OPENED his eyes afterward. (Hagin calls this a "spiritual" vision.)
Then, there are "open" visions, in which your eyes must be opens; Lastly, there are what Hagin calls "trances," which are like dreams (your natural senses are suspended), but you're aware that you're in a dream state WHILE it's happening -unlike a "regular" dream -in which you don't know you're dreaming until you wake up.
THAT distinction is why I'm rating it 5-Stars -something I didn't previously know, but it is real interesting to see "different" types of visions!
Kenneth E. Hagin clearly warns people (bottom of page 116) that they should *not* seek visions -which is very significant: Many so-called "Angel" books ask the person to "seek" their angel -and to try to contact them, but this sort of stuff is forbidden witchcraft.
I've read one other book by Hagin, "TONGUES: Beyond the Upper Room," and I did an Amazon book review of that one too, a very good book; I say this in case you want to see how good of an author he is -or how good of a reviewer I am -important data in these parts for readers like you!
Although some of the material in this book is repetitive from his other book I reviewed, it is VERY IMPORTANT STUFF. For example, in chapter 13, he clearly points out that being saved and being filled with the Holy Ghost are TWO DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES! In other words, you don't get 100% "filled" when you are saved. Observe:
If Christians were really 100% "filled" with the Holy Ghost when they were saved, then how come *these* believers weren't filled: "2He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost...6And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied." (Acts 19:2,6)
So, when he says a person must get saved FIRST and THEN be filled with the Holy Spirit, he is on solid ground with scripture. (In fact, for an unsaved person to seek a "filling" might be dangerous and get them filled with a demon! -And, in his other book, the one on TONGUES, he gives a scary example to show why this scripture should be followed -where some woman was "filled" with the wrong spirit before she was saved. Ooops! THAT'S whatcha get when you don't follow scripture! "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world [e.g., the unsaved] cannot receive..." John 14:17)
Even though one reviewer said something about Hagin relying only on visions -but not on the Bible -I'm sure you can see this is false: Just look at the title to Chapter 20 again: "Judging by the Word"
The book is small (only 133 or so pages of text), but it has 29 Chapters! (I can't possibly cover all them here in my review.)
This means two things: (#1) Much variety in chapter topics; and, (#2) Small chapters, with only 133 pages, making an average of about 4-and-a-Half pages per chapter.
However, he does a good job -and keeps it interesting. (Note: I do not rate all books a top 5-Stars, just some or most of them, so my rating is not a rubber-stamp to help a fellow-Christian.) He sorts the difference between spirit and soul, amongst other things.
Some of the fare is a little boring, and I'm sure I could have added a few things to make the book more complete, but the book was definitively two things:
(#1) VERY INTERESTING in some parts (both in cool stories -and new angles on theology)
(#2) Very sound Biblically.
He comes off as credible, and, although he sometimes sounds too human, he is trustworthy, and for that reason, he reminds me much of Roland Buck, the "Angels on Assignment" author, and a grandson of the Buck Knife inventor. (Rev. Buck didn't even want to write a book or make money off it, but Charles and Frances Hunter came to him an begged him to give them an interview, and, Rev. Buck's daughter and many others tells stories of how Roland was a "real" Christian, long before he met a bunch of Angels. Because of all this, Hagin reminds me of Buck -as a person you can really trust.)
Because of all that, I must rate Hagin's book a top-rating of 5-Stars. (He really worked & researched hard in this and his other book, I think.)
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by Kenneth E. Hagin
by Kenneth E. Hagin
by Kenneth E. Hagin
by Kenneth E. Hagin
by Kenneth E. Hagin
