The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
(1 Cor. 15:26)
I remember hearing about a woman who was saved and went to church, but her husband was unsaved. Their four-year-old son was sick. He was the only child they had. The unsaved husband would say to the wife, “You go on to church. I’ll keep the boy.”
The child grew worse until, finally, the doctor said, “I’ll just be honest with you. I don’t know what’s wrong with this child. I can’t find out what’s the matter with him. I don’t know what to do, but he’s going to die if he keeps going the way he is.”
Well, the child surprisingly got better, and the husband told his wife one night, “Go on to church. I’ll stay here with him. He’s doing fine.”
When the service was over, they were praying around the altar and someone came to the pastor and said that the little boy had just died. So the pastor went over to where the wife was kneeling and told her about it. Then the pastor and several of the church members went with her to the home.
When they walked in the door, they saw this dear man sitting on the bed with his only child, dead in his arms. He had such a look of agony on his face. He was sobbing, crying his heart out. He was reaching out for help from somewhere. Because he was unsaved and didn’t know God, he didn’t have the Comforter within him.
Many of the church people tried to help him. Some of them said, “God took your boy so you’d get saved.”
The man suddenly straightened up, laid the little boy down on the bed, wiped his tears, and said, “I want to tell you folks something. If God did that, to hell with Him.” Then he stomped out of the room.
I watched this man over a period of thirty to forty years. No one could reach him. He thought God robbed him of his four-year-old boy. No one had enough sense to sit down on the bed by this man’s side and say, “The devil did this. But your son’s spirit has gone to be with Jesus. He can’t come back to you, but you can go to him some day.”
The man would have gotten saved.
Confession:
God is not the author of death. The Bible says that death is an enemy. It’s the last enemy that will be put under foot. I’m looking forward to that day. Death is an enemy, not a friend. God is a friend.
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.