In a Full Gospel church in one of our western states there was a man who had been born with a deformed foot and a leg that was about four inches shorter than the other. He couldn’t walk without crutches due to his crippled condition.
His deformed leg was not as big as the other one; it had not grown right. But in one of my healing meetings in the church, he got healed.
His crippled leg grew out to the same length as the other, and his deformed foot straightened out. At 37 years of age, this man was able to wear the first matching pair of shoes he had ever worn in his life.
Six weeks after my meeting was over, the pastor was taking prayer requests on a Wednesday night.
A woman got up and said, “Pastor, I was healed during Brother Hagin’s meeting, and for six weeks I’ve been all right. But all my symptoms have come back on my, and I’m worse than ever. I want you all to pray for me.”
Without thinking, the pastor agreed.
Then this fellow who had been healed of the crippled foot and short leg stood up and said, “Pastor, may I say a word? I think it will help this sister.
“You all know me. I was born crippled, and I’ve been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit for several years now. I, too, was healed in Brother Hagin’s meeting. You know I’m perfectly healed.
“Just this past week I was walking on Main Street when suddenly a pain hit me in the ankle, and that foot that had been healed turned in. I almost fell. In fact, I would have fallen if I hadn’t reached my hand out and leaned against a store building. That foot turned in with such pain I could hardly stand it.
“I just slid down the wall and sat on the sidewalk. I don’t know what people thought, because I picked up my ankle and foot in my hands and yelled out loud, ‘No, you don’t, Mr. Devil! You don’t put that back on me! God’s healed me.’ And every symptom left. I’ve been all right ever since.”
He maintained his healing. Although the church prayed, the woman lost hers. Why? Under those conditions prayer won’t work, because she already had denied what God had done.
Many times you lose by praying! You lose by turning in prayer requests! That may startle you, but what you’re doing is confessing, “I don’t have it.”
Some years ago we were down in Greensboro, North Carolina. A woman said to me, “Brother Hagin, when you were here two years ago, I was healed of asthma and related respiratory conditions. I had been under the care of specialists for years and had spent thousands of dollars.
“For 18 solid months I never had a symptom. Then, about six months ago, every symptom of the asthma and respiratory condition came back. I almost played into the hand of the devil by accepting it, but I kept endeavoring to stand against it. I said, ‘No, you can’t put it back on me!’ Thank God I had heard your teaching. I came every day and every night when you were here.
“My husband finally insisted that I go in for an examination. I went and the doctor said, ‘I don’t understand it. You’ve got the symptoms, but you don’t have the asthma. Every test we run is negative.'”
She said, “I just spoke up and told him, “That’s that lying devil, bringing lying symptoms, trying to put it back on me!’ ”
“Well,” the doctor said, “whatever it is, you don’t have it”
She said, “I stood against it, and it disappeared. I wouldn’t have known to do that if I hadn’t heard your teaching.” (If she had accepted it, she’d have had it back.)
I don’t know why Christians don’t stand against the devil and everything that is of the devil. Sickness is not of God. Sickness does not come from heaven. Sickness is not a blessing.
I’m not going to accept anything that doesn’t come from heaven. I know sickness doesn’t come from heaven, because there’s none up there.
Someone said of their sickness, “God put it on me.” Well, He stole it if He did. There’s no sickness in heaven. God would have to steal it from the devil to put sickness on you. Do you see how ridiculous that is?
No, God didn’t put that sickness on you – the devil did! Then he lied to you and told you God did it, and you were gullible enough to accept it.
Repeating the following confession – getting it into your spirit – will help you get and keep your healing:
Confession:
In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I exercise authority over this body of mine. Sickness and disease, I refuse to allow you to stay. This body, this house, belongs to God. It is a temple of God.
Satan, you have no right to trespass on God’s property. Now you get out. You leave my body. I’ve got authority over you. I know it, You know it, And God knows it. I hold fast to what I have. I’m keeping my healing!
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.