A Sermon Without Words
I remember when our church was in the second of two weeks of meetings with Reverend Kenneth E. Hagin. Every previous meeting had been glorious. We had seen powerful moves of God's Spirit sweep through the place.

In fact, we were seeing many of the manifestations we had come to expect during our Holy Ghost services—dancing, laughing and falling down under the intensely powerful presence of the Lord.

One particular night, however, Brother Hagin was attempting to close the service but literally couldn't. He would try to speak, but words wouldn't come out. So he signaled for one of the other ministers to come and take the microphone and close the service for him.

When this gentleman took the microphone, he lost the ability to speak as well! As a result, he passed the mic on to someone else who also found that he had literally been dumbstruck by the anointing that was manifesting on the person who held that microphone.

The mic was passed around to about a dozen people, some of whom fell out under the power of God as soon as it got near them. No one could seem to close the service.

Now, let me be very transparent with you here. All this time I was praying that the microphone wouldn't come my way saying, "Please, Lord, don't let them hand that microphone to me!" It isn't that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to speak when I touched that microphone. On the contrary, I was afraid that I could!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit to you that my main thought at that point was, "What will people think if I was the only one who held that mic and been able to talk? Would they think I was less spiritual than the others? Would it cast doubts upon the genuineness of what the others were experiencing?"

All these thoughts were racing through my mind as that "hot" microphone made its way down the aisle toward me. My only hope was that someone would be able to close the service before it got to me.

Suddenly, an image flashed through my mind, and I saw myself taking the microphone, jumping up, and preaching a salvation message without any sound coming out of my mouth. It reminded me of a book I had read about the great turn-of-the-century evangelist, Aimee Semple-McPherson, who used to experience a manifestation of God's power in which she would mute preach.

In other words, she would preach an entire sermon, exerting great effort with wild gestures, but not have any sound coming out of her mouth. It was one of the signs and wonders that used to accompany her ministry. And in that instant, I saw myself doing nearly the same thing.

Seconds later, I was handed the mic, so I sprang to my feet and preached the best three-minute salvation message you have ever heard. I preached hard. I preached with passion. Yet the whole time, not a sound came out of my mouth.

As I preached, the power of God moved across the building in a wave. Later, we heard a multitude of testimonies from people who were healed, delivered or blessed in some special way during that outpouring of power.

When the service was over and everyone was leaving, I began to second-guess myself asking, "Was what I had done really the Spirit of God or was it just me? Could I have spoken if I had tried harder? Had God really used this seemingly silly thing I had just done?"

Fortunately for me, I had a precious opportunity to spend some time with Brother Hagin immediately after the service, so I used it to ask him about the thoughts I was having. His first question to me was, "Before you jumped up there, did you see yourself doing that?"

"Yes!" I answered, "How did you know?"

"It is called seeing and knowing, in the Spirit" he told me. Then he went on to explain that this is a method God will use to impart direction and instruction to us and cited several biblical examples.

Brother Hagin strongly encouraged me to continue obeying such promptings of the Spirit, even if the action seemed silly or meaningless. "As you are obedient to the promptings of the Spirit in the relative safety of these meetings, you are training yourself to obey when you are in a critical ministry situation," he told me.

Then he went on to tell me about times in which he had ministered in a healing line and had suddenly seen himself ministering to a particular person in an unusual way, such as giving them a poke in the stomach.

He said that invariably in such situations, when he has obeyed, the power of God has set that person free. In those times that he has failed to obey, he has grieved the Spirit, and the anointing has lifted.

An Anointed Jig
This conversation was fresh in my thinking when we found ourselves in another Holy Ghost meeting the very next night. Late in the service, Brother Hagin had come down from behind that big wooden pulpit that they carry to each meeting he conducts and was walking up and down the aisles ministering to various people.

At one point, he looked in the direction of a particular woman, a pastor's wife, and she jumped up and began to dance to the Lord one of the most unusual dances I've ever seen.

As I was watching her, I got another one of those flashes, a mental image in my mind, just as I had received the previous night. But this time what I saw myself doing was something much more unusual than just dancing or mute preaching.

I had a mental picture of myself jumping up on top of Brother Hagin's wooden pulpit and dancing a jig!

You can imagine the thoughts and emotions that raced through my mind in the first few seconds after this image entered my thinking. The most prominent one of my thoughts was, "Holy Spirit, that can't be You! Can it?"

Of course, Brother Hagin's words about seeing and knowing from the previous night were still ringing in my ears. As I reminded myself of the promise I'd subsequently made to myself and to God that I would do my best to never again grieve the Spirit by failing to respond to such a seeing-and-knowing prompting, I made a deal with God and prayed, "Lord, if You will show me clearly when I'm to do what I've seen myself doing, I'll step out and obey regardless of the consequences or implications."

I had barely finished whispering these words in my heart to God when Brother Hagin walked up behind me, slapped me on the shoulder and said, "Go!" The rest, as they say, is history.

As the videotape later revealed, I covered the distance from my seat to the top of the platform in a single bound. Then, in a four-foot vertical jump, I landed with both feet on top of that big wooden pulpit and danced on the top of the podium for a moment, jumped off then ran to the back of the platform where I fell into the flower bed.

Some time later I was testifying about this incident at a minister's conference at Kenneth Copeland Ministries. When I got to this part, Brother Copeland walked up, interrupted me and related his perspective of the event as he was there that night and later acquired the videotape just so he could verify that his eyes hadn't played a trick on him. Here is what Brother Copeland, in his own words, said about it:

"I watched that tape in slow motion. I ran it through in real-time. I ran it through at half-time. Then, just to be sure, I backed it up and ran it at quarter-time because I just couldn't believe [what I was seeing].

"Mac was sitting on the front row. When Brother Hagin touched him, the power of God hit him and both feet went straight up. When he came down, he shot across the front of that altar area and hit the stage. He hit one step and landed on top of that podium and danced for a moment.

"Then, in practically the same motion, he flew off the top of the podium, hit the platform, jumped into the middle of a bunch of flowers and plants and disappeared. Man, that place just came undone!"

Now, I try to take care of myself physically and work out regularly, so I'm in pretty good shape. But I can assure you that it is beyond my natural physical ability to do what I did that night. Furthermore, you would have to know me to appreciate how out of character an exhibition like that is for me.

Naturally speaking and under normal circumstances, I would be the last person on earth you would predict to do something of that nature.

Brother Copeland and the others who witnessed that event will tell you that when the power of God hit me, it hit most of the room, too. I'm confident that God used the event to change a number of people in that instant, and I can assure you that it changed me.

Jesus: Our Example
Since those glorious days, I've had numerous other opportunities to obey the direction that comes through seeing-and-knowing promptings. Some of these opportunities have been in worship services. Others have presented themselves as I've gone about the business of ministry. No matter where it occurs, I've come to know that if I'll obey, the power of God will make itself available to do something wonderful.

Seeing ahead of time what you are to do and knowing that you are to do it isn't new. In fact, this is precisely the way Jesus operated throughout His ministry. For example, the gospel of John tells us:

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
(John 5:19)

In this verse, Jesus said that He did only what He saw the Father doing. This explains the unusual things He often did when confronted with a person in need. On one occasion He might simply lay hands on a blind person in order to heal them. On another occasion He might spit on the ground to make mud and apply it to the blind person's eyes. Under another circumstance, He might not touch the person at all.

Why did Jesus respond in such different ways on such similar occasions? Because He only did what He saw the Father doing. He operated solely upon the principle of seeing and knowing.

This gives us a key to understanding the unusual manifestations of the Spirit we have seen during this move of God. When we come together in a Holy Ghost meeting, it isn't just to whoop and holler and have a good time. Certainly God wants us to enjoy ourselves, but behind all the joy is a very serious purpose for these meetings.

They are training sessions, and God is teaching us to respond to His Spirit when He shows us what to do. When we step out and obey, God confirms our obedience by releasing His power.

Of course, all of this transfers over into our everyday lives where we receive from Him the same kinds of leadings, and when we do, we will know that we are hearing Him and will be able to act more decisively. So, in reality, there is a very real connection between running around the church in obedience to His promptings and running the race of life to win!

Copyright © Mac Hammond Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.