I remember a dear Methodist woman whose husband was an educator in New York State. The doctors discovered she had a rare incurable disease. Only seven or eight people in the history of medicine had ever had it. Although the disease wouldn’t kill her immediately, there was no cure, and the doctors said she would be dead within ten years.
Somebody told this woman about the great meetings Sister Kathryn Kuhlman was conducting, so she went to one. After Miss Kuhlman preached, she turned and looked right in this woman’s direction. She did it by divine revelation. Miss Kuhlman said, “There’s a woman over here in this section who has and incurable disease. Doctors have told her only seven or eight people in the history of medical science have ever had it.” Miss Kuhlman then named the disease.
The woman said, “I knew that was me. I went down there, she laid hands on me, and I fell under the power. When I returned to my doctors in New York City for my three-month checkup, they couldn’t find a trace of the disease. It had all disappeared.” The woman was healed, but not on her own faith, because she didn’t know how to believe God.
She was like those people waiting for the troubling of the waters at the pool of Bethesda in the fifth chapter of John’s Gospel. (When the angel troubled the water, the first person in got healed.) She went to Miss Kuhlman’s service like that, just waiting for the intervention of divine sovereignty. And God works that way sometimes.
Three years passed. The woman and her husband were baptized in the Holy Spirit. She came to one of my meetings and said to my wife and me, “Brother and Sister Hagin, I haven’t divulged this to my husband, but all the symptoms have come back on me. In fact, I am worse than I ever was before. Can you help me?”
I said, “Yes, I can. Come to the day teaching services if you can.”(I was in Upper New York State for about six weeks, going from place to place.)
So she and some friends followed us from place to place. I remember before the six weeks were up, she came and said, “Brother Hagin, I want you and Sister Hagin to know that all my symptoms have disappeared. And I got it, and I know how to keep it!”
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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.