BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Believing God for a House GLORIA'S SCRIPTURES FOR B V O V : 2 9 During the next fi ve years we moved to Fort Worth and Ken went to work for his father selling insurance. The problem was he didn't like it. And in spite of the fact that he was a natural- born talker, he wasn't a very good insurance salesman. (His dad used to jokingly say, "Ken, according to the Bible, Samson killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. I believe you've killed 10 times that many sales with the same weapon!") We were still facing overwhelming debts. Creditors were threatening to sue us. Financially, we'd had one failure after another and we couldn't even make ends meet. On top of it all, Ken began to sense the Lord leading him to go to Tulsa, Okla., and enroll as a student at Oral Roberts University. To Ken, the idea of becoming a college freshman at 30 years old seemed absurd. "I don't even have a job in Tulsa," he said. "We'd starve." "We're already doing that," I answered. "We might as well go to Tulsa and starve in the will of God as stay here and starve outside His will!" Ken agreed, so we packed up what we had, put our two little children in the car and moved. Naturally speaking, things were worse there than they'd ever been. We lived in a shabby little house with brown walls! I wouldn't unpack for weeks. But God was helping us. The fi rst day Kenneth arrived on the ORU campus, he got a job as Oral Roberts' co-pilot. His salary was $100 a month. As tight as things were fi nancially, we were happier than we'd ever been. We were in the will of God at last! For the fi rst few months, Ken worked at his studies and fl ew with Brother Roberts to his meetings. Once there, Ken's job was to drive him to the meetings and do anything that was needed. Ken loved it. And what an opportunity it was. He got to watch and learn fi rsthand from Brother Roberts, and that was a blessing. Hungry to know exactly what God was calling us to do, Ken decided one day in May 1967, to go down to the river near our house. It was there that God began to speak to Ken about a worldwide ministry. You will preach, sing, pray and minister to the people—My people, by My power. Whole nations will come to Me.... And He gave Ken the dream of ministering to millions for Jesus. Of course that all sounds very grand and he was excited, but you must realize that once he received that great word from God, he had to march right back to that dumpy little house where we lived. He had to reconcile that big dream of preaching all over the world with the fact that it was a challenge to even have enough money to go to Fort Worth to visit his parents! Our First Steps of Faith But, praise God, we were learning what to do. We'd been going to Kenneth Hagin's meetings and learning about the integrity of God's Word. We'd discovered that we could trust the written Word just like we'd trust the word of a doctor or a trusted friend. The fundamentals of living by faith were fi lling our hearts and mouths. We knew the only way we could get out of the mess we were in—and into the plan of God— was by faith in God's Word. So we gave it our total attention. For about a year, we hardly did anything except listen to teaching tapes and study. After a while, Ken was out preaching. I was at home with the children, but we were both in the Word day and night. That year, every time Brother Hagin held a seminar (and he held a number of 10-day seminars that year) we were there. Some winter nights we had to slide over there on the ice—but we did it because we were hungry for the Word. Then we started taking the fi rst faith steps Luke 4:18 1 Corinthians 2:7-10 Amos 9:13-15 Acts 17:26 Deuteronomy 6:10-11 Proverbs 9:1 Proverbs 10:22 Proverbs 12:7 Proverbs 15:6 Proverbs 22:4 Proverbs 24:3-4 Proverbs 24:27 Isaiah 32:17-18 Jeremiah 29:4-7 Jeremiah 31:12-14 Psalm 16:5-6 Psalm 31:19-20 Psalm 66:12 Psalm 68:6, 10, 19 Psalm 107:7-9 Psalm 107:29-32 Psalm 107:35-38 Psalm 107:41-43 Psalm 112 Psalm 118:5, 23 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fi re and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. Psalm 66:12 Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be fi lled with all precious and pleasant riches. Proverbs 24:3-4 By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life. Proverbs 22:4 The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16:5-6

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