Dr. Alexander Dowie
I read from the pen of Dr. John Alexander Dowie about how he received light on the subject of healing. Dr. Dowie was pastor of Congregational church in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, when the bubonic plague struck there around 1875. People were dying like flies. Dr. Dowie buried forty members of his congregation in less than a month. Four more died and were yet to be buried, and many more were stricken with the plague. There was not cure.
After visiting the many sick members of his flock on day, Dr. Dowie returned home and sat in his study, his arms folded upon his desk, his head upon his arms, weeping before God. “God, is everybody going to die?” he cried. “Are You going to take everybody? Where did this plague come from? Are You the author of this?” He was heartsick at the thought of the families that would be torn apart by the plague, at the children who would be left orphans.
Dr. Dowie wrote many years later: “Then the words of the Holy Ghost inspired in Acts 10:38 stood before me all radiant with light, revealing Satan as the Defiler, and Christ as the Healer. “My tears were wiped away,” Dr. Dowie said. “My heart was strong. I saw the way of healing, and the door thereto was opened wide, so I said, ‘God, help me now to preach the Word to all the dying around, and tell them how ‘tis Satan that still defiles, and Jesus still delivers, for “He is just the same today.”
He did not have long to wait. Within minutes, two young men burst into his study, pleading breathlessly, “Oh, come at once, Mary is dying!” Dr. Dowie ran down the street after them, not even pausing to take his hat. He was furious that Satan should have attacked this innocent young member of his flock. Dr. Dowie entered Mary’s room and found her in convulsions. Her medical doctor, having given up on her, was preparing to leave. He turned to Dr. Dowie and remarked, “Sir, are not God’s ways mysterious?”
The revelation Dr. Dowie had just received from the Word of God was burning in his heart. “God’s way!” he thundered. “How dare you call that God’s way! No, sir, that is the devil’s work!” He challenged the physician, who was a member of his congregation, “Can you pray the prayer of faith that saves the sick?” The doctor replied, “You are much too excited, sir, ‘tis best to say God’s will be done,” and he left. “Excited!” Dr. Dowie wrote. “The word was quite inadequate, for I was almost frenzied with Divinely imparted anger and hatred of that foul destroyer, Disease, which was doing Satan’s will.
“It is not so,” I exclaimed. ‘No will of God sends such cruelty, and I shall never say “God’s will be done” to Satan’s works, which and this is one of them.’ Oh, how the Word of God was burning in my heart…” Furious at Satan’s attack, Dr. Dowie prayed the prayer of faith for Mary. Years later, he said he prayed something like this:
“Our Father, help! Holy Spirit, teach me how to pray. Plead thou for us, oh, Jesus, Saviour, Healer, Friend, our Advocate with God the Father. Hear and heal, Eternal One! From all disease and death deliver this sweet child of Thine. I rest upon the Word. We claim the promise now. The Word is true, ‘I am the Lord that healeth thee,’ Then heal her now. The Word is true, ‘I am the Lord, I change not.’
Unchanging God, then prove Thyself the Healer now. The Word is true. “These signs shall follow them that believe. In My Name, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’ And I believe, and I lay hands in Jesus’ Name on her, and claim this promise now. Thy Word is true. “The prayer of faith shall save the sick.’
Trusting in Thee alone, I cry, oh, save her now, for Jesus’ sake, Amen!”
The girl’s convulsions ceased immediately, and she fell into such a deep sleep that her mother feared she had died. “She isn’t dead,” the triumphant Dr. Dowie assured them. “I saw that Christ had heard and that once more, as long ago in Peter’s house, ‘He touched her and the fever left her.’”
After several minutes. Dr. Dowie awakened Mary. She turned to her mother and exclaimed, “Mother, I feel so well!” Remembering how Jesus had ministered to the little girl He had raised form the dead in Bible days, Dr. Dowie asked, “And you’re hungry?” “Oh yes,” she agreed. “I’m so hungry.” Dr. Dowie instructed Mary’s nurse to fix her a cup of cocoa and some bread and butter. Quietly thanking God, he went in the next room, where her bother and sister lay sick with the same plague. After prayer, they, too, instantly recovered.
Dr. Dowie recalled, “As I went away form the home where Christ as the Healer had been victorious, I could not but have somewhat in my heart of the triumphant song that rang through Heaven, and yet I was not a little amazed at my own strange doings, and still more at my discovery that HE IS JUST THE SAME TODAY.”
From that day on, Dr. Dowie ministered to his flock on divine healing and prayed for their healing. He never lost another member to the plague. But isn’t it strange that the doctor, who was a member of Dowie’s church, would treat people and give them medicine, but when they got beyond the aid of medical science, he called it the will of God?
It puzzles me that people will take medicines and do everything they can to get well, but if you suggest they have someone pray for their healing, they’ll say, “It may not be God’s will to heal me.” Why didn’t they question the will of God in the first place? If it isn’t God’s will for them to be well, they shouldn’t take any medicine or treatment. They would be out of God’s will trying to get well!
I do not mean to discredit the medical profession. Doctors are fighting the same devil we are. I merely want to point out that this is human reasoning and wrong thinking, and it has robbed many people of the blessing of healing and health.
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.