Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
(John 5:8)
A pastor friend of mine asked me to come by his Assembly of God church and preach Sunday through Wednesday night. In that church, there was a man there who was forty-eight years old who had never walked one step in his life. He had been a member of that church most of his life.
Now I knew when I laid hands on him on Monday night that the healing power of God went into him. And I told him it did.
As I went on to others in the healing line, some of the men of the church got him up and tried to get him to walk, but he couldn’t. When they turned him loose, he fell in a heap on the floor. They finally gave up on him, sat him back in his chair, and left him alone. They carried him home.
The next night they carried him to church. The pastor and I drove to the side of the church to park. We were sitting there talking about a particular verse of Scripture. Now his church building was very old. It had high steps leading to the entrance.
The pastor said, “Look! Look!” Well, I looked and saw a man running up the steps into the church. But I quietly turned back to the pastor because I wanted to see what he had to say about this particular verse we were discussing.
He said to me, “That didn’t register on you, did it?”
I said, “What do you mean?”
He said, “That was Brother _____.” I still didn’t know the man’s name. It didn’t mean a thing in the world to me.
I said, “What do you mean, Brother _____?”
“Oh,” he said, “that’s the man who has never walked. He has been in this church for nearly forty years, and he has never walked in his life. That was him running up those steps!”
Then I got excited.
Confession
I know that the healing power of God works. I cooperate with the healing power of God in my own life. And what I couldn’t do before, I can now do!
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.