Sometimes, the healing power of God is ministered to a sick person so that the person is manifestly supercharged with heavenly electricity. Yet no real or final healing takes place until something occurs that releases the faith of the individual.
I want to show you something about mixing faith with the power to receive healing. I was pastor of a Full Gospel Church in north-central Texas. We had just moved into the parsonage and were unloading boxes and straightening things up.
There was a knock on the parsonage door. I went to the door and there stood a little cotton-headed boy. Now someone asked me, “What do you mean, ‘cotton-headed’?” Well, I mean his hair was as white as cotton. He was about nine years old. He said, “Momma wants you to come and pray for her.”
I said, “Who’s momma?” because I didn’t know him – I had only been the pastor for two Sundays. I hadn’t gotten acquainted with everyone yet.
The little boy told me his momma’s name, and I recognized her as being one of the Sunday school teachers. So I said, “Son, stand right there. I’ll put on my tie and coat, and you can show me the way to go because I don’t know where you live.”
I took my little bottle of anointing oil that I had, and we went to the cotton-headed boy’s house. I anointed this boy’s momma with oil, laid hands on her, prayed, and got up to leave.
She said, “Brother B_____ (and she gave the name of the former pastor) always prayed till the power fell.”
I knew that the power of God does “fall” because the Bible says, “while Peter yet spake unto them, the Holy Ghost fell on them” (Acts 10:44). And Acts 8 also refers to the Holy Ghost this way.
Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them…).
(Acts 8:14-16)
That’s the part I want you to get. The Holy Ghost does fall on people – like rain. In fact, latter rain is a type of the Holy Ghost.
Back in 1936, I didn’t know exactly what to do when she said “pray the power down” because I was new in Pentecostal circles. I didn’t know how they did things. But I figured if that was the way the former pastor did it, then that was the way to do it. So I got back down on my knees and prayed till the power fell. It took me an hour and a half, but I prayed the power down! The house shook, the bed shook, and the woman shook.
It was summertime down there in Texas – the sky was blue with just a few white clouds. There wasn’t a leaf stirring on any tree. And yet the windows rattled! Well, I got up off my knees and went home to the parsonage.
That afternoon there was a knock on the parsonage door. I went to the door and there stood that little cotton-headed boy. He said, “Momma wants you to come and pray for her.”
I said, “I thought she got healed this morning.”
He said, “She did, but she’s worse now.”
So I went down there and prayed the power down again – the power fell, she shook, the bed shook, the house shook, and the windows shook. So I went back to the parsonage.
The next day there was another knock on the door. I went to the door, and there stood that little cotton-headed boy. He said, “Momma wants you to come and pray for her.”
I said, “I thought she got healed twice yesterday.”
“Well, she did, but she’s hurting worse today.”
So I went down there again and prayed the power down. By that time, I was becoming an expert at praying the power down, so it didn’t take an hour and a half to pray it down. I did it in an hour, and then I went home.
The next day there was a knock on the door, so I went to the door, and there stood that cotton-headed boy! The same scenario happened again and again until I finally got to where I could pray the power down in thirty minutes. She shook, the bed shook, the windows rattled, and the house shook. And that went on, and on, and on.
If you think I’m exaggerating, we’ll skip over to three years later. This went on for three years! We had been building onto the parsonage, and there was a little work left to finish. I worked a little late on it one night because I didn’t want to have to work the next day.
After I finished, I was getting ready for church because we were having revival that night. As I was quickly getting ready, I heard my wife let someone in the house. I looked up, and there was that cotton-headed boy.
Now he and I had been working together so long that we knew what the other was thinking. So I said before he could say it, “Yeah, I know, momma wants me to come and pray for her.”
When the cotton-headed boy arrived, it was only about ten minutes until the church service was supposed to start. (The parsonage was right next-door, so I still had plenty of time to get to the church.)
I was about to say, “Will it be all right to come after church?” I had just started to speak when he said, “No, she said to come before church. She’s hurting awfully bad!”
I wondered how in the world I was going to get down there and pray the power down and get back and start church in ten minutes. I quickly put my tie and coat on.
I had a car, but I knew I could get there faster by going down the back alley. So I ran out of the parsonage, ran behind the church, down one alley, back up another alley, across the street, down another alley, and knocked on the door.
She told me to come in. I had my bottle of oil out before I even got in the door. I went in and anointed her with oil. I said, “Oh God, heal this woman in the Name of Jesus. You said if we’d ask in Your Name, You’d do it, so You’ve done it. Amen.” That’s exactly what I said, and I said it double time!
I put the top on my bottle of oil and headed for the door – I had to go back and start church! She started to say something, but I said, “I know, Sister, you’re hurting worse now than you did when I came in here a few seconds ago. But you’re healed, and the next time I see you, you’ll tell me it’s so.” And I ran out and slammed the door.
I ran up one alley, across the street, up another alley, behind the church, and went in through a side door. I looked at my watch – it was exactly time to start. We started church, sang, took up an offering for the evangelist, and made the announcements.
Just before the evangelist was going to speak, I said, “Let’s have about three testimonies, one from each section. Someone who has been saved, healed, or baptized with the Holy Ghost during this revival, stand up and give your testimony.”
So one person stood and testified. Then another one from a different section stood and testified. About that time, the double doors in the back of the church opened. And this lady, who’d been having me pray the power down for three years, came in.
I guess she thought we were having a testimony meeting, because she came down the aisle waving her arms and said, “It’s just like you said, Brother Hagin. You hadn’t been gone ten minutes when every pain and every symptom left me.”
Hallelujah! I pastored that woman nearly eighteen more months and never did have to go pray for her again!
Thank God for the power. But remember this, if you don’t believe God – the power can shake the house and everything else, and still nothing will happen to you. This lady received her healing and finally kept it because she believed God herself.
The reason I tell this story is to show that although the healing power may be ministered to a person, and though that person may manifestly be supercharged with the power of God, no real and final healing will take place until something occurs that releases the faith of the individual.
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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.