Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom….
(Col. 3:16)
I knew a Baptist woman who was only thirty-six years old and had cancer. She was bedfast and wasn’t supposed to live very long. A Baptist pastor who had seen the light on divine healing visited her each day and read scriptures to her and prayed. However, she remained bedfast. This pastor would walk to her house because she didn’t live far from the parsonage where he lived.
As he was walking home one day, he said, “Lord, I don’t understand. I mean, we’re believing You for healing. This woman says that she believes the scriptures I’m reading to her.”
As soon as he said that, the Spirit of God spoke to him and said, “No, she doesn’t believe them. She’s just mentally agreeing to them. If she believed them, she would be out of bed and doing her housework.”
The next day he went back to her house and began reading scriptures to her. She said, “Yes, I believe that.” And he said, “No, you don’t. If you believed it, you’d be out of bed doing your housework.”
Well, she looked at him sort of startled, as if he had slapped her! But she got it. She said to him, “You go in the next room, and I’ll get up.” She got up, put her housecoat on, and he left. And when her husband came home, he found her up well, cooking the evening meal.
That Baptist pastor said to me, “Nineteen years have come and gone, and she’s still well and healed. She’s still doing her housework.”
Someone might say, “Well, I believe I’ll try that.” It won’t work by trying it. She didn’t try it; she did it. She got the Word down into her spirit. She didn’t just mentally act on what God said.
There is a difference. Don’t act presumptuously or foolishly. Let the Word get down on the inside of you – then you can act in faith. And when you do, results will be forthcoming.
Confession:
I am not just a hearer of the Word. I am a doer of the Word. I act on what God’s Word says. I let His Word get down on the inside of me, and then I act in faith.
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications
Rev. Hagin served in Christian ministry for nearly 70 years and was known as the "father of the modern faith movement." His teachings and books are filled with vivid stories that show God's power and truth working in his life and the lives of others.
Rev. Hagin was born on Aug. 20, 1917, in McKinney, Texas, a son of the late Lillie Viola Drake Hagin and Jess Hagin.
Rev. Hagin was sickly as a child, suffering from a deformed heart and an incurable blood disease. He was not expected to live and became bedfast at age 15. In April 1933 during a dramatic conversion experience, he reported dying three times in 10 minutes, each time seeing the horrors of hell and then returning to life.
In August of 1934, Rev. Hagin was miraculously healed, raised off a deathbed by the power of God and the revelation of faith in God's Word. Two years later, he preached his first sermon as pastor of a small community church in Roland, Texas.
In 1937, Rev. Hagin was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began ministering in Pentecostal churches. During the next 12 years he pastored five churches in Texas: in the cities of Tom Bean, Farmersville (twice), Talco, Greggton, and Van. In 1949, he began an itinerant ministry as a Bible teacher and evangelist.
During the next 14 years, Jesus appeared to Rev. Hagin eight times in visions that changed the course of his ministry. In 1966, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he opened a ministry office. That same year, he taught for the first time on radio—on KSKY in Dallas. In 1967, he began a regular radio broadcast that continues today as Faith Seminar of the Air. Teaching by his son, Rev. Kenneth W. Hagin, is also heard on the program.
In 1968, Rev. Hagin published the first issues of The Word of Faith magazine, which now has a monthly circulation of more than 250,000. The publishing outreach he founded, Faith Library Publications, has circulated more than 65 million copies of books by Rev. Hagin, Rev. Hagin Jr., and several other authors worldwide. Faith Library Publications also has produced more than 9 million audio teaching tapes and CDs.
Other outreaches of Kenneth Hagin Ministries include RHEMA Praise, a weekly television broadcast hosted by Rev. and Mrs. Kenneth W. Hagin; RHEMA Correspondence Bible School; RHEMA Alumni Association; RHEMA Ministerial Association International; RHEMA Supportive Ministries Association; the RHEMA Prayer and Healing Center; and a prison ministry.
In 1974, Rev. Hagin founded RHEMA Bible Training Center USA and in 1976 moved the school and ministry offices to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where they remain. To date, RHEMA Bible Training Center USA has 23,000 alumni, and RHEMA Bible Training Centers have opened in 13 other nations: Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Samoa, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand. Together, the 14 schools have more than 28,000 graduates worldwide.
RHEMA Bible Church, pastored by Rev. Hagin Jr., began holding services in October of 1985 on the RHEMA campus in Broken Arrow and has since grown to become a thriving congregation with more than 8,000 members.
Rev. Hagin's daughter and son-in-law, Pat Harrison and the late Doyle "Buddy" Harrison, founded Harrison House Publishers in 1975 and Faith Christian Fellowship International Church in 1977. Both organizations are based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Until shortly before his death in September 2003, Rev. Hagin continued to travel and teach throughout the United States and into Canada conducting All Faiths' Crusades and other special meetings.