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Faith Is an Act
By
Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin
Some years ago, a
friend of mine told me about a woman evangelist who preached in the
early days of the Pentecostal Movement.
In one of her
meetings, she ministered to four people in wheelchairs. To all four she
said in a quite voice, "Arise and walk in Jesus' Name!"
And they all got up
and walked—except the fourth one.
"I can't walk," she
said.
"The others couldn't
walk, either," the evangelist pointed out, "but they did."
The woman replied,
"I know they did, but I can't walk. I haven't walked in years. I can't
walk."
And the evangelist
had to walk away and leave her sitting there, still in unbelief.
Results Are
Forthcoming
You see, when those first three people began to act upon what was told
them, results were forthcoming. When you act upon what God's Word says,
or act upon what the Holy Spirit may speak to your heart, results are
forthcoming. That is faith!
A woman in one of
the churches I pastored had arthritis and was in a wheelchair. The
doctor had told her some years before that her body eventually would
become rigid and she wouldn't be able to move. She would become confined
to a wheelchair, her body fixed in a sitting position. And it did come
to pass; her body was stiff as a board.
She and her husband
never missed a service. Now, I could pray for this woman and she would
receive instant healing for such minor ailments as the flu or a cold.
But it bothered me that she never once asked for prayer for healing from
the arthritis.
There were people in
that church who had been healed of very serious ailments, and I knew it
was God's will to heal her too.
Some might argue,
"Well, it may not be God's will," but I know it is God's will to heal
people! (That doesn't mean that Christians who don't get healed aren't
going to heaven. It just means they are robbed of a blessing while on
this earth.)
One afternoon a
small group of us from the church went to this crippled, woman's house
to pray with her determined to see her delivered from that wheelchair.
As we prayed, I saw exactly what God wanted me to do.
I said to everyone,
"Get back away from her." We were in a large room. I went across the
room from her and said, "Everybody watch, but I don't want anyone to
touch her. Stay away from her."
They I pointed a
finger at her and said, "Now, my Sister, arise and walk in the Name of
Jesus Christ!"
My wife and I and the members of that prayer group are witnesses to the
fact that the power of God listed her up out of that chair. She sat
suspended in mid-air above the wheelchair! She could move her arms and
immediately she reached down with those little, crippled hands for the
wheelchair. The moment she did, she fell back down into the chair.
As she did, without
thinking—I know it was the Spirit of God in me—I pointed to her and
said, "Sister, you don't have an ounce of faith, do you? You don't
believe you'll ever be healed of this arthritis, do you?"
She blurted out,
"No, Brother Hagin, I don't. I'll die and go to my grave with it." And
she did.
It's Up To You To
Obey
You cannot receive from God beyond actual faith. Do you know what would
have happened if she had cooperated with God's healing power? She would
have been healed. Every joint in her body would have been loosened. She
would have begun to walk!
Too many people
think that God's power—healing power, Holy Spirit power—is going to move
on them and make them do something whether they want to do it or not.
No! That wouldn't be the Holy Spirit; that would be an evil spirit.
Evil spirits force,
drive, and compel you to do things. But the Holy Spirit urges, prompts,
or gives a gentle push. They it is up to you to respond. It is up to you
to obey.
While I was
conducting a meeting in Texas, a woman in that town wrote a friend in
another city, telling her how many were receiving the baptism in the
Holy Spirit in the services. She invited her friend down for the weekend
services.
The friend drove
down and was in two of our services before coming forward to receive the
Holy Spirit. I laid my hands on her head, prayed and the Holy Spirit
came upon her. The utterance came. But I couldn't get her to respond or
receive.
In the next service,
which was Sunday morning, she came again for prayer. Once again the Holy
Spirit came upon her and gave her utterance, but again she did not yield
and receive.
I knew exactly what
was wrong, but I knew it would take time to instruct her, and it was
getting late. I turned the service over to the pastor.
Then I slipped
through the side door and was walking across the parking lot toward the
parsonage when I saw her sitting in her car. She looked so disappointed
as she sat there a moment before turning the ignition key to begin her
journey home.
I asked the Lord to
let me help her. Instantly the Spirit of God showed me how to quickly
help her. I walked over to her car, opened my Bible to Acts 2:4, and as
I handed it to her through the window, I asked her to read it aloud.
She read, "And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
"Sister," I asked,
"who does the Scripture say did the speaking with tongues?"
She replied, "It
says the Holy Ghost did."
I asked her to read
it again. She read it again. I asked her the same question. She gave the
same reply. So I repeated the question. Finally, on the fourth time
around, she caught on that something must be wrong, so she began to read
slowly, "And - they - were - all - filled - with - the - Holy - Ghost -
and - began - to - speak..."
Looking astonished,
she said, "Why, THEY did!"
She took my Bible out of its case and examined it. She said she thought
perhaps I had a different Bible from hers, but it was the same—a
Scofield reference edition.
"You know," she
said, "I always thought the Holy Spirit did the speaking."
I told her I had
known that. Then I said, "Let's read several other Scriptures. God's
Word ways that out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall a thing
be established."
We read Acts
10:44-46:
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which
heard the word. And they of the circumcision, which believed, were
astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles
also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard THEM
speak with tongues and magnify God….
"Oh," she exclaimed,
"I see it!"
"That's two
witnesses," I said. "Let's get three."
So we read Acts 19:6,
And
when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and
THEY spake with tongues, and prophesied.
The woman
said, "You know, Brother Hagin, if I had been called to testify in a
court and the lawyer had asked me who did the speaking in tongues, I
would have said the Holy Spirit did, and I would have thought I was
telling the truth."
I said, "I
want to ask you something. When I laid my hands on you, did you sense
the Holy Spirit? Did the power of God come upon you?"
"Absolutely," she answered.
"Did your
tongue want to say something that wasn't English?"
"Why," she
said, "it was all I could do to keep it from it."
"You're
not supposed to keep it from it," I told her.
"You're
supposed to cooperate. When the Holy Spirit gives you utterance, you
must have faith to act."
Immediately she began to speak in a most beautiful tongue.
Faith
Is Acting On God's Word
It's time to quit hanging around and to start acting on the Word of God,
because faith is acting.
I was in
one church where there was a man who had been severely burned over the
lower part of his body. He couldn't walk; he just scooted along.
In one of
the services, the Holy Spirit told me to have everyone who had something
wrong with them from their hips down to come into the healing line. This
man was the first in line.
I waited
until they were all in line before I told them what else God had said
for me to tell them to do. I went up to this man and asked, "Can you
run?"
It took
him by surprise. "Oh, my God, no," he said. "I can't even walk, much
less run."
I said,
"That's what the Lord has told me to do—to tell you to run."
The man
didn't even give it a second thought. He turned and started scooting up
the aisle as fast as he could. The third time he came around, the Spirit
of the Lord came upon me and I jumped off that platform, grabbed the man
by the hand, and ran around that building with him. When we got back to
the front, he was walking normally; not scooting. He was perfectly
healed.
However,
if I hadn't been able to get him to cooperate and act on his faith, I
couldn't have helped him. Faith, you see, is acting on God's Word—doing
whatever He says to do in His Word, or whatever He may say to us in the
Spirit.
It's one
thing to believe. It's another to believe and act on that belief!
