Many things happen because we think they ought to happen. Recently I read about a scientist who says that after you reach a certain age, it becomes more difficult for your brain to remember things.
When I got past forty years old, I found I could not remember Scriptures as well as I once did. After awhile, I said to myself, “There is no need for this. After all, the brain is simply a physical organ that the mind operates through. The mind is part of the inward being – and the mind never grows old.”
The moment I started believing, thinking, and talking right, I could quote all the Scriptures I ever quoted. I could remember everything just as easily as ever – and my memory actually got better instead of worse!
We fail many times because we get ready to fail. We prepare for failure. We think it, believe it, and do it. But we as believers should never talk failure, doubt, or unbelief. We should talk faith.
If you are defeated, you are defeated with your own lips. I appreciate and thank God for all the good material in print today on this subject, but years ago I got the secret from the Book of Mark (See Mark 11:23-24).
Believe it in your heart; say it with your mouth. That is the principle of faith. You can have what you say. Jesus said, “What you believe in your heart and say with your mouth will come to pass.”
Once you commit yourself, you are located. When I was very sick and still bedfast, I refused to go back on my confession of faith. The devil kept telling me, “It’s not working!” I told him, “I’m not going to believe you, you are a doubter.” I held fast to my confession. I refused to give it up. I said, “That scripture is what Jesus said when He was here on the earth.”
I kept telling Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, the angels, the devil, and evil spirits, “I’m going to hold fast to it.” I told God, “If it doesn’t work it will be because your Word has failed under me. I’m standing on it. Jesus and I will have to go down together, because I’m not going to turn him loose.”
When I was healed, I pulled the New Testament out of my shirt pocket, opened it to Mark 11:23-24, and read it to the devil. I said, “I told you it would work all those months you told me it wasn’t working, and wouldn’t work, and wasn’t going to work. I told you it was the Word of God. And here it is!”
And don’t know what people thought, seeing a seventeen year old boy standing on the street corner with a New Testament in his hands, tears rolling down his face, talking to somebody. But I did not care. I had begun to hold fast to this Scripture out of my bed of sickness, and I’ve been holding fast to it ever since.
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.