Bring Back The King

by Kenneth E. Hagin
2 SAMUEL 19:10-12
And Absalom, whom we anointed
over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why
speak ye not a word of bringing the king
back?
And king David sent to Zadok and
to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak unto
the elders of Judah, saying, Why are ye the
last to bring the king back to his house?
seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the
king, even to his house.
Ye are my brethren, ye are my
bones and my flesh: wherefore then are ye
the last to bring back the king?

10
11

12

We know that the Second Coming

of Jesus is the glorious hope of the
Church, but let us ask ourselves this
question: Can we hasten the event?
One who has just casually read
the Bible will say, "No, God is working
on a timetable, and when the time
comes, Jesus will return but not
until then."
Wrong.
That is not what the Bible teaches
at all. That kind of "religious"
teaching spills over on us from
church teachings we have had in days
gone by. It is unscriptural.
In our text we find that Absalom,
who had led an insurrection against
his father, King David, is dead. King
David sends word to his kinsmen in
the House of Judah, asking, "Why are
ye the last to bring the king back to his
house?" He reminds them that they
are his brothershis bones and his
flesh.
The questions in this text concerning King David also apply to the
greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus
Christ: Why are ye the last to bring
back the king? Ye are my bones and

my flesh. Ephesians 5:30 says concerning Jesus, "For we are members

of his body, of his flesh, and of his
bones."
Our text also asks another
question: "Why speak ye not a word o f
bringing the king back?" (v. 10). My
King James translation reads in the
margin, "Why are you silent about
bringing the king back?"
Other translations make such
statements as: "Why do you keep still
about bringing back the king?" "Why
are you deaf to the need of bringing
back the king?" "Why do you let the
matter drag about bringing back the
king?" "Why do you lag behind in
bringing the king back?" "Why do you
procrastinate about bringing the king
back?"
All of these meanings certainly are
insinuated in the statement "Why do
you remain silent about bringing back
the king?" (as one marginal note
reads).
As we study further, we find yet
another translation reads, "Why do
you hinder the coming back of the
king?" You see, simply by being silent
about it, they hindered the coming
back of the king.
This is talking about King David,
but all of these statements can apply
to bringing back our King, the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Why does He delay? Why doesn't
He come? Why does Jesus tarry?
I am going to prove to you from
Scripture that it is an absolute fact
whether you realize it or notthat
we are largely to blame for the fact
that Jesus has not come yet!
2 PETER 3:9-12

9 The Lord is not slack concerning his

promise, as some men count slackness;
but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat, the
earth also and the works that are therein shall
be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness,
Looking for and hasting unto the
coming of the day of God, wherein the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

10

11
12

Verse 12 says, "looking for and

hasting unto the coming o f the day o f
God." In my King James translation,
there is a numeral by "hasting." What
it actually says in the Greek,
according to the marginal note, is
"hasting the coming."
Well, can we "hasten" the coming
of Jesus? Evidently we can. The Holy
Spirit wouldn't have told us to do
something we couldn't do.
Two other Scriptures pertaining to
this subject are:
REVELATION 19:7
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour
to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come,
and his wife hath made herself ready.
1 JOHN 3:3
3 And every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

The hope John is talking aboutif you

were to examine it closelyis the
return of the Lord Jesus.
What can we do, then, to hasten
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Continued on next page

King/from page 2
Notice, in references to the
That almost sounds like a conThere are at least three things:
marriage supper of the Lamb, the tradiction, because we know man
1. We can see to it that we are Lamb is the Lord Jesus. His wife, the cannot save himself; it takes the Lord
Bride He refers to, is the Church. She to save him. Nevertheless, there are
ready ourselves.
has made herself ready.

"It is an absolute factwhether you realize it or

notthat we are largely to blame for the fact that
Jesus has not come yet!"

things you can do to get ready for this

event. You have a part to play.
Did you notice it does not say the
Lamb made His wife ready? It says,
"his wife hath made herself ready"
(Rev. 19:7). There is a God-ward side
and a man-ward side. The Bible tells

us to fight the good fight of faith.

That's the part we have to play.
Often, people think if God says
something is theirs, it is going to
happen automatically. No, God gives
you His Word so you will know what
is yours. But then you have your part
to play: You must accept what belongs
to you; you must receive what belongs
to you.
That is the reason so many people
judge after the sight of the eye (or
human reasoning) instead of judging
righteous judgment (according to
what God's Word says). And often
people blame God for things He is not
responsible for at all. They question
why someone got saved or received
greater things from God than they
did.
In one of my meetings, a man who
had been backslidden for 12 years
was gloriously reclaimed like the
prodigal son of old. Several nights
later, he was filled with the Holy
Spirit.
One of the church members came
whining to me, "I don't understand it!
I just can't understand it at all!"
"What is it you can't understand?"
I asked.
"Now, God knows I've lived right
all these years," he replied. "I've been
faithful coming to churchand I
know that fellow hasn't been to
church for 12 years! I've been here
every time the doors opened. Here he
comes back, and in just a night or
two God gives him the Holy Spirit.
Why doesn't He give it to me?"
(It would be funny if it weren't so
pathetic, but they are so deadly
serious about it, almost weeping and
asking, "Why doesn't God give me the
Holy Spirit?")
You see, it is not a matter of God's
giving them anything. The Holy Spirit

has been here ever since God sent

Him to this earth on the day of
Pentecost. So it's not a matter of God's
giving the Holy Spirit. He didn't give
the Holy Spirit to this backslider. The
backslider came back home and
received what God had for him.
I taught it to the church member,
but he didn't believe it. He said, "I just
believe when God gets ready, in His
own good time, in His own good way,
He's going to give me the Holy Spirit."
"Well," I said, "He's not."
I saw him years later, and he never
had received. He still was blaming
God.
We have a part to play, and God
has a part to play, but people blame
God for everything.
On another occasion, a backslider
came back to God and then got
healed. Soon three people from the
church asked to have a talk with me.
One of them said, "Well now, God
ought not to have healed himthat's
all there is to it! He has been wrong
all these years!" (They wanted to
blame me because God healed the
backslider.)
It's strange the ideas people have
about God. I know they don't mean to
do it, but unconsciously they are lying
about God.
While holding a meeting in 1954 in
Oregon, I preached one night on
"Laying on of Hands." Then I gave the
invitation, and asked the people to
line up for salvation and to be filled
with the Holy Spirit.
I came to one woman who had
come to be filled with the Spirit, and
the minute I laid hands on her, I knew
all about her. Nobody had told me. I
knew it by revelation. (I never allowed
pastors to talk to me about people in
their churches. I always told them,
"The Lord will tell me everything He
wants me to know.")

I stopped. I knew the woman

would be filled with the Holy Spirit
and would speak with other tongues
right there in front of the whole
crowd. But I also knew this by revelation: When she did, the crowd
would "put the brakes on me" if I
didn't stop and explain it to them.
Did you know a crowd can "put
the brakes" on you? They sure can.
They did on Jesus in His hometown of
Nazareth. They put the brakes of
unbelief on. The Bible said He could
there do no mighty work, and He
marveled at their unbelief.
So I said, "Now, folks, when I lay
hands on this woman and minister to
her, she is going to be filled with the
Holy Spirit and speak with other
tongues."
I wish you could have seen some
of those people when I said that. They
looked at me in disbelief. Some of
their mouths fell open.
I said to them, "Now, I know some of
you think this woman couldn't
possibly be filled with the Holy Spirit.
I don't want to embarrass her,
Continued on page 10

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VOLUME XII........................................................................Numbar 8

MEMBER
ASSOCIATION

EVANGELICAL

PRESS

King/from page 3

but I'm going to say this to you. I

don't know her. I don't know her
name. The pastor here never said
anything to me. I don't know if she's a
member of this church or not, but I'm
sure she attends some.
"I see by the Spirit that she does
not live a consistent Christian life.
She's up and down (more down than
up). She's in and out (more out than
in). She lives such a carnal life that
nobody has much confidence in her
Christian experience."
And the woman said with tears,
"Brother Hagin, you're exactly right.
I'm ashamed of it, but it's the truth."
So I said to the congregation, "You
think because of her past that she
cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit.
"While I was preaching about laying
on of hands and being filled with the
Spirit, I saw this woman in the spirit.
I didn't see her physically, because I
wasn't looking her way. But she
bowed her head on the seat in front of
her and said, 'Dear God, I'm just the
worst person here, I guess, and I've
made such a mess of trying to live the
Christian life, but I repent of every
sin, and I want to be filled with the
Holy Spirit. With the help of God,

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by Kenneth Hagin Jr.
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Hagin Jr. writes in his newest book.
Unity of doctrine, unity of ministries,
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Please send me
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Lamb. Do you recall the Scripture we

noted earlier? It said, "His wife hath
made herself ready."
ADDRESS
Now we know that being born
again
is what makes us right with
CITY
God. But we have to put on the
ZIP
wedding garmentthe "bride" has to
I'm going to live right from this put on the wedding dress. Thank God,
moment on.'"
God furnishes it. We can be robed in
I said, "Sister, did you do that, or the righteousness of Jesus but we
have to put it on.
didn't you?"
How do we put it on? We put it on
She said, "I did. I did."
I said to the crowd, "I want to ask by getting into the Word and finding
NAME

"When is the end coming? When the gospel of the

kingdom has been preached in all the world as a
witness to all nations."
you a question. When she bowed her
head there and said, 'Lord forgive me
and cleanse me,' did He forgive and
cleanse her, or did He tell a lie about it
and say He would, but didn't?"
I made them answer me. "Speak
up. Did He, or did He not?"
Somebody said, "Well, now, if she
was honest and sincere about it. . . "
They still didn't want to accept
that He forgave her.
I said, "Let's just ask her. Sister,
were you mocking God, or did you
really mean it?"
With tears she said, "Oh, Brother
Hagin, God knows I meant it!"
"Well," I said to the congregation, "I
want to ask you something else: Did
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse her
from all sin, or did it not? Did He
cleanse her from all unrighteousness?"
I made them answer me. Some of
them sat there and looked angry
they wouldn't even answer mebut
the majority of the crowd smiled and
said, "Yes, He did. He did."
I said, "All right. Watch this, then."
I laid hands on her and she started
talking in tongues.
The pastor said afterwards, "If you
hadn't explained that to the crowd, I
guarantee you we would have had to
close the meeting."
Do you see the wrong ideas people
have about God? Do you realize that
those things really hinder the Lord
from coming? People like that are not
in a position to make themselves
ready for the marriage supper of the

out what righteousness is, by laying

aside everything that is wrong, and by
putting on everything that is right.
"His wife hath made herself ready."
2. We can hasten the coming of
Jesus by telling the story of Jesus
worldwide.
Jesus Himself said, "And this
gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations; and then shall the
end come" (Matt. 24:14).
When is the end coming? When
the gospel of the kingdom has been
preached in all the world as a witness
to all nations. That's when the end is
going to come.
Well, who's going to preach the
gospel unto all nations? Jesus? God?
The Holy Spirit?
No. We are.
You can readily see by obeying
Him and doing what He said to do
or not doing itwe're either going to
hasten or delay the coming of Jesus.
Every time we send out another
missionary, we are hastening the
coming of Jesus.
Every time we send someone to
another nation to tell them about
Jesus and the kingdom of God, we are
hastening the coming of Jesus.
Every time they go, thank God, we
know we're doing two things: We're
winning the lost, but we're also
hastening the return of Jesus.
We have a number of students who
are going to the Philippines this
summer; some will stay permanently
as missionaries. Others are going to

Africa, Australia, the British Isles,

Japan, and other countries.
Continued on next page

King/from page 10

Remember what Jesus said in The

Great Commission (Mark 16:15): "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to every creature." That's all
nations, isn't it? Are we obeying that
fully, or are we obeying it halfheartedly? If we're not, we're hindering
and delaying the coming of Jesus,
because He said when it's done, the
end will come.
You can readily see that by our
speeding up sending individuals to

It was Judah. In the Hebrew, Judah

means "praise."
Men of praise led the way in bringing
back the king, glory to God!
Men of praise led in the great
battles of the Lord, and won the
greatest victories.
When they began to sing and
praise, the victory was won (see 2
Chron. 20:14-22). A New Testament
example is found in Acts 16, where
Paul and Silas "prayed, and sang
praises" at midnight in the Philip-pian
jail, despite their wounds, and the

"If Paul and Silas had been like most Christians

today, they would still be in jail."

every creature and all nations, we

hasten the coming of the Lord.
Can you also readily see that by
not doing it we delay the coming of the
Lord?
So then we do have something to
do with it. We do have our part to play.
Returning to our text from Second
Samuel 19, we notice David sent word
to Judah because he was of the tribe
of Judah. He said, "wherefore then are
ye the last to bring back the king?" (v.
12).
As Ephesians 5:30 says, talking
about Jesus, we are members of His
Body. Therefore, let us not be the last
to bring back the King. Let us be the
first. Let us be on the firing line.
3. If we allow a spirit of praise to
dominate our lives, we will hasten
the return of Jesus.
Notice who were the first to bring
back and welcome King David. This is
a type for us.
2 SAMUEL 19:14,15
14
And he bowed the heart of all
the men of Judah, even as the heart of
one man; so that they sent this word
unto the king, Return thou, and all thy
servants.
15
So the king returned, and came
to Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to
go to meet the king, to conduct the king
over Jordan.

Who was it? Who were the first to

bring back and welcome King David?

jailer and his household got saved.

You know Paul. This happened in
Philippi. We know he established a
church down there, because he wrote
a letter back to them (we have it in the
Bible). I like to think that that
Philippian jailer was the pastor of the
church. He could have been.
But the thing I want to impress
you with is this: At midnight Paul and
Silas did more than pray. Praying is
importantdon't misunderstand me
but if praying is all you do, you can go
down.
I've often thought if Paul and Silas
had been like most Christians today
even
born-again,
Spirit-filled
Christiansthey would still be in jail.
They never would have gotten out,
because they would have begun to
bemoan their situation.
"Why did this ever happen to me? I
can't understand why God let us get
whipped. Why didn't God do something about it?"
And about midnight, instead of
praying and singing praises to God,
Silas would have nudged Paul and
said, "I'll tell you one thing, Paul. You
sure did miss God, didn't you? Don't
you know that if God leads somebody
to a city in a supernatural way, like
that so-called vision you had in the
middle of the night, by now you'd have
had the whole city converted? Paul,
you just ate too much for supper;

that's what happened to you. That

couldn't have been God."
I've had God supernaturally lead
me places where I never had one
convert, nobody got the Holy Spirit,
and nobody got healed. I didn't understand it at that stage of my
spiritual growth. (I was like some of
the rest of you.)
And as I drove away from one such
place after preaching two weeks, I was
crying, "Lord, You led me here
supernaturally, and nothing has
happened. Not a thing in the world
has happened. Nobody got saved;
nobody got filled with the Holy Ghost;
nobody got healed. One 12-year-old
girl lifted her hand for prayershe
was a backsliderbut she didn't even
come to the altar. Besides that, I've
gone in the hole financially."
The Lord said, "You're in the will of
God. I led you exactly step by step.
That was supernatural guidance. I
knew you weren't going to have any
converts. I didn't tell you that part of
it, because you probably wouldn't
have gone. I knew nobody was going
to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I knew
nobody was going to be healed. But
you see, the pastor's wife is going to
die in just a few months, and she
can't come up here and tell Me, 'I
didn't hear it. If I had known. . . '
because I sent you by to tell her. Now,
don't worry about your finances,
because I'm going to make it up to you
at the next place you're going to." And
He did.
You see, you can't always judge
the results by what is happening at
the moment. If you judge like that,
you will conclude that Paul was out of
the will of God from the beginning to
the end of his ministry!
But Paul and Silas knew the way
of victory in the midst of what seemed
to be defeat. They didn't just pray. The
Bible says, "at midnight they prayed,
and they sang praises unto God."
Who was first in bringing back
King David to Israel? Judah, men of
praise.
And so it is now. If we will let that
spirit of praise dominate our lives,
dominate our services, and dominate
everything about us, we will hasten
the return of Jesus.
6

Praise God for the hope of His

coming! Praise God for the privilege
we have of hastening the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ!