Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
(James 4:7)
Now about a year later, I was at a church for just one service on a Saturday night. As I was sitting on the platform and looking the crowd over, my eyes fastened on this young man who just a year before had been delivered from epilepsy.
The Spirit of God said to me, “After you cast that spirit out of him, he didn’t have one single epileptic seizure for a whole year. But in the last thirty days, he has had three attacks. And they have all come on him in the nighttime while he was asleep. The reason that he woke up in a seizure is that he went to bed afraid. Now cast that thing out of him again and teach him how to stand against the devil.”
Well, I got up to preach and told the young man to come down to the front. He came down, and I said, “When I was here last year, you were healed of epilepsy. That thing left you for a solid year. You did not have one epileptic seizure. But in the last thirty days, you’ve had three attacks. You woke up out of a deep sleep in a seizure.”
He said, “That’s right.”
I said, “I’m going to cast that thing out of you. And I’m going to tell you why it came back on you. You see, you went to bed afraid.”
He said, “Yes, I did. All three times, I did. Before I was able to get rid of that fear, I fell asleep.”
“You went to sleep and left the door open,” I said. “If you were to go to sleep in your house and leave the front door open, there’s no telling what would get in your house. A cat, a dog, or even a thief might get in. The devil is a thief and he is looking for doors. When you fear, you open the door. And when you go to sleep with the door open, that thief, the devil, will come running in.”
I cast the devil out of him the second time. Then I taught him about resisting the devil. I saw the young man years later and he told me, “I’ve never had another attack, Brother Hagin.” He learned how to keep the door shut.
Confession:
I keep the door shut on the devil; I give him no place. I resist fear. God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.
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.