When I tell people they don’t have to pray to be healed, they look at me in amazement. Many have failed to receive healing because they have based their faith on prayer instead of on God’s Word.
They expected prayer to do for them what God’s Word will do for them. Prayer is successful only when it is based on the promises in God’s Word.
We needn’t pray, “God, heal this man; heal this woman.” In the mind of God, He already has healed them. Sometimes we pray, “God, save this man,” or “God, save my son.” Nowhere does the New Testament say anything about praying that the lost will be saved.
Jesus said, “…pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2). If you want to pray for someone who is lost, say, “Lord, send someone to minister to them.” They can’t be saved without it.
If a man comes to the altar to be saved, you could pray for him for six weeks, but until he acts on what God said, he will get up and go home unsaved.
Turn to God’s Word. Show him what the Bible says. Get him to act upon it and to believe it. As far as God is concerned, the man already is saved. From God’s standpoint, salvation is already bought and paid for. So it is not a matter of God’s saving him; it is a matter of his accepting the salvation God offers!
Just Accept The Gift
Similarly, it is not a matter of God’s baptizing someone with the Holy Spirit; it is a matter of the person’s accepting the gifts of the Holy Spirit that God offers. Likewise, it is not a matter of God’s healing an individual; it is a matter of his accepting the gift God already has provided.
Some say, “Well, I believe God is going to heal me sometime. I believe that in His own good time and in His own way, He will do it.” That kind of thinking is out of line with the Word of God. First Peter 2:24 says, “…by whose stripes ye were healed.”
Notice it says “were,” not “going to be.” If I believe what the Bible says, then I believe that we were healed. Peter is looking back to Calvary. I was healed then. I accept that.
God laid on Him (Jesus) our sicknesses and diseases; He bore them. He was “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” with our diseases. Therefore, Satan has no right to put on us what God put on Jesus.
Someone may say, “It may be the will of God for me to be sick. God may get more glory out of my being sick than if I were well.”
What right, then, would God have to put your sickness on Jesus if He wanted you to keep bearing it? There is no need for both of you to bear it. Because Jesus bore it, you are free!
All of God’s blessings and provisions are conditional. He gave us His Word to let us know what conditions must be met in order for us to receive these blessings. They won’t just fall on us automatically like ripe cherries fall off a tree.
There is a God-ward side and a man-ward side to every battle and to every blessing. God has His part to play, but man also has his part to play.
The Promised Land
Paul said that what happened to Israel happened as an example for us (1 Cor. 10:11). When God led the children of Israel out of Egypt (which is a type of the world), He didn’t abandon them in the wilderness; He had a further blessing for them. He had another land for them: Canaan’s land.
Canaan is a type of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and our rights and privileges in Christ, which include healing. God promised the children of Israel repeatedly that He was going to give them that land.
When they finally crossed over the Jordan River into Canaan, God said, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses” (Josh. 1:3). God had said He would give them the land, but the people had to possess it.
That’s how it is with our rights and privileges in Christ. Healing belongs to us. God has provided it for us. But we have to possess it. Unless we possess the provision, we will not enjoy its benefits.
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.