Lessons from God

By Larry Lee Hagen

The author's name is Larry Lee Hagen Jr. For the whole of his life, he has been told that he sees things differently than other people. He supposes that's true now more than ever. He has known many storms in his life, as have many other people. Some of these he brought upon himself, while many others were purely by circumstance. God led him through all of them.

They say life's challenges will either break us or make us stronger. He has learned that sometimes God allows the storms of life because He wants them to break us. They are the tools He uses to bring low the high and mighty and humble the proud. They are the things He uses when we make Him ride in the back of the bus. They turn us back to Him when nothing else will.

This world is broken. The days are growing darker, and the storms are growing worse. As we watch these storm clouds spread, it is crucial that we view them through God's eyes. We can only see clearly when we look at ourselves and the world around us from His perspective. That's when things begin to change.

Read Lessons from God and be better prepared for the storms in your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798892430883

Book preview

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Lessons from God

Larry Lee Hagen Jr.

ISBN 979-8-89243-087-6 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89345-516-8 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-89243-088-3 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Larry Lee Hagen Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Lesson 1

God Never Forgets

Lesson 2

Once He Was Blind but Now He Sees

Lesson 3

Levites Beget Levites

Lesson 4

Would You Look like a Fool for Jesus?

Lesson 5

Where Is Your Faith?

Lesson 6

Some Things You Don't Have to Pray About

Lesson 7

My Tattooed Angel

Lesson 8

The Faithfulness of God

Lesson 9

When God Does Nothing at All

Lesson 10

Understanding Fasting and Prayer

Lesson 11

Worship Is the Key to God's Heart

Lesson 12

My Time in the Garden

Lesson 13

The Thirteenth Floor

Lesson 14

The Value of Stories

Lesson 15

The Loss of My Hero

Lesson 16

Making Things Right

Lesson 17

Revival Requires Personal Sacrifice

Lesson 18

What Is Your Definition of Revival?

Lesson 19

When Life Isn't Fair

Lesson 20

The Fast That Changed My World

Lesson 21

Stay the Course

Lesson 22

Gossips, the Abortionist of the Church

Lesson 23

Pick Up Your Cross

Lesson 24

Abusing God's Grace

Lesson 25

Don't Monkey around with Sin

Lesson 26

Twice the Child of Hell

Lesson 27

The Altar and the Great Physician

Lesson 28

What Kind of Disciple Are You?

Lesson 29

Where Truth and Tradition Collide

Lesson 30

Do We Really Have the Power to Forgive Sins?

Lesson 31

God's Anointing: The Way I See It

Bonus Lesson: Why Does God Allow the Devil to Exist?

Why Does God Allow the Devil to Exist?

Note from Author

About the Author

Introduction

Although God has called me to be a wordsmith, I have only ever been a lyricist, more commonly called a songwriter. This composition will be my first literary endeavor since high school, some forty years ago.

For the last twenty years, due to my health, my family and I have lived knowing each moment may be my last. Because of this, I've lived my life one day at a time, focusing on the simple things. My goals were short term. With this mindset, I saw no need, nor did I have any desire to learn how to use a computer. As a result, I was ill-prepared for the moment God called me to write this book.

The Lord has shown me that many Christians today are in this same position. They know about hell. They've heard the message of salvation. They've taken the trip to the altar. They've asked God to forgive them of their sins. They go to Sunday morning service, most of the time. They believe they've got all of the bases covered. Yet when they or a loved one are in crisis, they call for the pastor or a deacon of the church to come running. The reason they do this is because they feel they need someone closer to God than they are. They're looking for someone who can hear God clearly. Just like me with the computer, they are ill-prepared.

The purpose of Lessons from God, is to help you grow in your relationship with the Lord. As you read, you will find God's love and desires for your life go much deeper than you realize. He wants you to be prepared for any situation. Sometimes there just isn't time to call the preacher.

I have had God do amazing things in my life. He has turned despair into hope, confusion into wisdom, rage into peace, and sorrow into joy. Through these experiences I have learned to view the world from God's perspective instead of my own. By sharing them, I've seen Him help others to do the same. Lessons from God is a testament of victories won through both submission and obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Within these pages, you will find keys to help you unlock God's deepest desires in your relationship with Him. You will find tools to aid you in building better relationships with those in your life and in the lives of those you minister to. Most of all, it will better prepare you for the approaching storms of these last days.

Life isn't only about finding our way to heaven,

by sharing the lessons we've learned, we light the way for others as we go.

Lesson 1

God Never Forgets

This is a lesson of how God may choose to answer the briefest of prayers, from times long forgotten.

As I write this, today's date is March 1, 2023. The event I am about to share with you took place some thirty-three years ago. However, the seed this experience grew from was planted much further back in time.

Before we begin, allow me to give you just a glimpse of the man with whom I shared this tutorial from God, my father.

I will be the first to admit that I am a lesser son from a greater sire. My father is one of the most talented, inspirational, and humble people you could ever hope to meet. He had very little in the way of a formal education. I can recall him joking about dropping out of school. He said he was the only sixteen-year-old student, driving a Harley Davidson motorcycle to school, in the seventh grade. Was he serious? I never pressed him on it.

On the day my dad committed his life to Christ, He made God a vow: whatever the Lord told him to do, he would do.

Of course, the first thing God would tell him to do would be, Read My Word.

My father replied, That's not fair, you know I can't read.

Read My Word, retorted God.

Dad said, That was that, and did as he was told.

God began teaching my father; and he grew in faith, knowledge, and wisdom. As he grew in the Lord, God enlarged his area of influence. As far back as I can remember, there was always some pastor, evangelist, deacon, or teacher that just had to see him. They were not coming to lend him an ear; they were in need of one. They didn't come offering to be a prayer partner; they were looking for one themselves. They didn't come to give good counsel, but were seeking it.

I had stood witness to all of these things and more. Yet it wasn't until I grew into my own mature relationship with God that I fully understood what the Lord had done in my father. He had taken this insecure, uneducated, rebellious kid into His arms, forgave him, and personally trained him. The Lord then called him to be a teacher and counselor to God's ministers. They came because they knew he could be trusted with absolutely anything. It would never be mentioned to anyone, not even my mother. These things would be spoken only to God and prayed only in silence.

He is, and always will be, my hero. Second only to my Savior, and Dad doesn't mind that at all.

Now let's proceed with the lesson.

The year was 1990. I was twenty-four years old, and God had delivered me from my dumb days only two years earlier. For the first time in my life, I was seeking God's will for my life.

One day while spending time with the Lord, He spoke to me as clearly as ever I've heard Him. His instruction was simple. I was to buy a pair of fishing waders for my dad and take him fishing at a very specific location. No problem. I love to fish, and so does Dad. He's the one who taught me to hook a worm and catch a bluegill. That's all my dad really knew about fishing, to be honest with you. You see, my father grew up in the city. Fishing came after I was born. Time passed as it will, and I began to learn how to catch many species of fish. Now I had something to teach my dad, and we cherished these adventures together.

After checking his schedule with my mother, I went to pick him up. When I arrived, Dad was his usual happy-go-lucky self, until I put the waders on the table.

In an instant his demeanor changed. He was anxious about something. The look of apprehension on his face caused me to wonder. Was he concerned about stumbling on a rock and being swept away by the current? I assured him as best I could, the water was shallow where we were going and I would be standing right beside him should he fall in. This did not put him at ease, and I couldn't understand why.

With his eyes fixed firmly on mine to evaluate my answer, he sternly demanded, Son, where are we going?

If I've ever had someone see right through me, with a gaze that pierced my soul, this was it. Yet I felt the Holy Spirit compel me to deny my father the answer he sought. I told him, It's a surprise, and left it at that.

We loaded our gear in the car and hit the road. Little did I know, this would be a surprise for the both of us.

As we reached the halfway point of our journey, I noticed my dad's color was changing. I asked how he was doing. He said he was fine, but I knew better. He was too quiet.

We passed through Ada, where my father had lived with his grandparents for a time as a child. As we did, I wondered if this was the right thing at the wrong time. I only knew that the Lord said to go, so on I went.

Finally, we arrived at our destination. A small town on the Flat River in Michigan named Lowell. A rather unique piece of middle America, featuring a main street located on top of a small dam. This dam provides power to the local mill, which is, in part, built on stilts over the river. A nearby train trestle has allowed the mill to ship products by rail for many years.

After parking the car, we donned our waders, took our fishing poles, and made for the river. We entered the water just downstream of the trestle and passed beneath it. We continued to walk across the river to an island. We then proceeded upstream to the location God had instructed me to take my father to.

At this point in time, I had completed my task. All that the Lord had instructed me to do I had done. Dad should be good now. Right? There still remained one glaring fact: the lesson wasn't over yet.

My father was now openly sobbing, and I was ready to get him out of there. I told him, Dad, you have to tell me what's going on.

He put his hand on my shoulder and pointed to the top left side of the dam. He gathered his composure, and this is the story he told me.

Son, do you see that spot up there? I was only eight years old when I came here with my grandpa, and that's where we stood. We watched two men park where we did, take the same path we took, and stood right here where we're standing now. I tugged on my grandpa's shirttail and asked him, ‘Grandpa, can we do that sometime?' He gruffly said, ‘No.'

My dad told me he let go of his grandfather's shirt, bowed his head, and said, God, I want to do that someday.

Through his tears, he looked back into my eyes and said, Son, that was forty years ago. I forgot all about the prayer of that eight-year-old boy, but God never did. Not only that, He used my twenty-four-year-old son to answer my forty-year-old prayer.

I wonder what people must have thought at the sight of us: two grown men embracing in the middle of the river. Did they judge what they saw?

Careful now, that just might be lesson number 2.

Lesson 2

Once He Was Blind but Now He Sees

This lesson is once again a fishing excursion. I had an opportunity to spend about a week fishing at one of my favorite spots. One day while I was there, the Lord brought to my attention someone I had never seen fishing there before. Day after day, he would come and fish for an hour or so and then leave. On this particular day, the Holy Spirit told me to go fish near him. He also told me to approach this guy slowly.

I began walking in his direction, fishing as I went. Cast by cast, I proceeded forward until I was close enough to greet him without shouting.

He said, I'm not having any luck at all. How about you?

He knew I hadn't; we were within sight of each other for the entire time. But this is traditionally the way one fisherman invites another into a conversation.

Not a thing, I replied.

We shook hands and exchanged names. After a few minutes, I felt led to ask him where he went to church. His reply was that he didn't go himself, but he made sure his kids went.

I then said, You know, if you went with them, I'd bet they would love the extra time with you.

I had no idea this simple suggestion would generate a response that is so furious I've rarely seen anything the likes of it.

He's lucky I let my kids go! he shouted. I don't want anything to do with Him!

Believe me when I say, I was thinking, Lord, what did You get me into? Then the Holy Spirit instructed me to ask him a question, to which I thought, Oh brother, here we go.

I then told him I understood if he didn't want to talk about it, but if he didn't mind me asking, why was he so angry with God?

That was all it took. I had just pulled the cork on a bottle of pain that had been fermenting and tormenting his soul for over a year.

With eyes narrowing and face flushed, he shouted every word of his reply.

"You want to know why? I'll be glad to tell you! My sister had pancreatic cancer. Every night, every day, faithfully I prayed for Him to heal her. I promised Him I would do anything He asked of me if He would just make her better. But did He? No! Day after day, she just withered away until there was nothing left of her! He could have stopped it, but He didn't!"

He was so angry, if it hadn't been for the Holy Spirit leading me, I would have never said another word. But He was, so I did. I could hardly believe what the Lord would have me say next.

I turned my face toward the water and said, Buddy, God must really love your sister. I casually glanced back at him. The expression on his face told me he thought I was out of my mind.

He shouted, You're crazy! You didn't listen to anything I said!

I told him, "I listened to everything you said. Now let me tell you what I heard. I just heard you tell me, God loves your sister so much, He gave her four months to get her affairs in order.