The benefits of walking in love, which include health and healing, are so good, I want you to get in on them.
The Bible encourages us to make the love of God our great aim and our great quest in life (1 Cor. 13:1 Amp.). There must be a reason God wants walking in the God-kind of love to be a priority in our lives. Actually, there are wonderful benefits and good results that come when we walk in love.
For example, I have walked in divine health for more than fifty-seven years. The last headache I had was in August 1933. Well, it’s too late to start having headaches now! I’m not bragging on me; I’m bragging on Jesus and on His Word.
Now don’t misunderstand me. I’ve passed up some marvelous opportunities. The last headache I can remember that tried to attach itself to me was in 1977. I had just pulled out into the street from our offices at RHEMA.
Suddenly my head started hurting. I said, “No, you don’t, Satan! You have to leave in Jesus’ Name.” By the time I turned the corner, it was gone. That’s the last time I can even remember passing up an opportunity to have a headache.
In all these years, I’ve never been sick unless I’ve missed it somewhere, either in the love walk or in obedience to God. Every step out of love is sin. Every single time I missed it, I repented just as fast as I could and got back into love and obedience.
Normally, the minute I repented, I was healed. I don’t mean I had to wait several days for the symptoms to clear up. I was either immediately healed or well on the way to recovery.
For more than sixty years in the ministry, I have said that if my faith didn’t work and my prayers weren’t answered, unforgiveness is the first place I would look. I’m not saying that all sickness and disease is caused by unforgiveness. I’m just saying that’s the first place I would look.
Now don’t misunderstand me at all. If folks need medicine, they should take medicine — under a doctor’s supervision, of course. In fact, I’ve sent some folks to a doctor when they needed it and even bought them medicine. And if I needed an aspirin, I’d take it if I couldn’t get healed any other way.
But, you see, the benefits of walking in love are so good, I want you to get in on them. The benefits include health and healing. The best time to get in on it is while you’re young, so you can enjoy the blessings and the benefits of walking in the God-kind of love all the rest of your life.
I’m very careful about walking in love. Love is God’s way to prosper – spirit, soul, and body. Walking in the God-kind of love is the way to prosper in every area of life. Love worketh what? Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. That means to anyone. And that should be especially true among Christians.
by Kenneth E. Hagin.
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.