Contents

1 When Healing Doesn't Come

2 Our Twofold Redemption

3 The Laying on of Hands

4 Our Healing: An Accomplished Fact

5 Possessing the Promise

Chapter 1

When Healing Doesn't Come

"I have prayed and prayed. I have been in healing meetings all over the country and have been prayed for many times, but still I am not healed. Can you help me?"

This plaintive appeal has been heard many times by ministers. They pray for sick persons, but often the sick leave as they came—not healed.

Why is it that some are healed instantly while others trudge from place to place seeking healing, only to be disappointed time after time?

Why is it that some who are pillars in the church often suffer for years while others who are less devout receive a sudden miracle from God?

Is God a respecter of persons? Or have we failed in our approach to healing, lacking a complete understanding of what God's Word teaches on the subject?

In this book we will look to the Scriptures for the answer.

Much emphasis has been placed on the practice of anointing with oil, laying on of hands, and praying for the sick. But there is more to healing than anointing with oil, just as there is more to salvation than prayer.

The anointing oil, the minister's prayer, and the laying on of hands are simply methods, or points of contact. In themselves they do not heal. They are avenues through which we can release our faith in God's Word.

Much emphasis also has been placed on the gifts of healings (1 Cor. 12:28), which are among the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in First Corinthians 12:8-10: "For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. "

There will be manifestations of these supernatural gifts when people preach them, teach them, believe in them, and yield to the Spirit of God; but these gifts are not always in operation.

Often new Christians are healed by such special manifestations. Then the next time they are sick, instead of believing God's Word, they expect to be healed in this same way, and they are disappointed when they are not.

I have found in my ministry that supernatural manifestations of healing usually are seen either among sinners or among denominational people who have not heard divine healing taught! I have seldom if ever seen them work for Full Gospel people.

Why? Because gifts of healings and supernatural manifestations are given primarily to advertise the Gospel and to gain the attention of those outside the Church. The believer should be healed by releasing his faith in the Word of God.

In one of my meetings I pointed to a man and said, "Sir, you are unsaved, and the Spirit of God shows me that you have a double hernia. If you will come here right this moment, I will lay hands on you and the hernia will disappear instantly." He did and it did.

At the altar call that night he responded to the invitation and was saved. Two nights later I laid hands on him and he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

We need to distinguish between healings obtained through supernatural gifts or manifestations and those obtained by exercising faith in God's Word alone.

It also must be understood that an individual does not operate these supernatural gifts; they are manifested through him. I can't make them operate any time I want to: I can only stay open for the manifestation of the Spirit of God as He wills.

Many of us were taught that the only reason Jesus healed was to prove His deity. If that were the case, He never proved His deity in the city of Nazareth, because He never did the works there that He did elsewhere.

Mark 6:5 tells us, "And he [Jesus] could there [Nazareth] do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. " (Notice that Mark didn't say that Jesus wouldn't do any mighty work there; he said Jesus couldn't!) The Amplified New Testament says, ". .. He laid His hands on a few sickly people." In other words, they were just sickly, not blind, deaf, crippled, or palsied.

Jesus did not heal people merely to prove His deity. He was not ministering as the Son of God. He was ministering as a prophet of God, anointed with the Holy Spirit. He said in Luke 4:24, "Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. " Notice He called Himself a prophet.

In Matthew 13:58 we learn why Jesus could not heal on some occasions: "And he did not many mighty works there BECAUSE OF THEIR UNBELIEF." Their unbelief hindered Him.

Also in the fourth chapter of Luke, Jesus said that there were many widows in Israel when a great famine occurred during Elijah's time, "But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow" (v. 26).

Even though Elijah had God's power in his life, he could not make it work for everybody. But because he was sent to this particular widow's house, there was a continuous miracle: her meal barrel never became empty, even though they kept dipping meal out of it, and her cruse of oil never ceased to flow (1 Kings 17:16).

Jesus went on to say, "And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian" (Luke 4:27). Naaman traveled many miles to reach Samaria, where he had heard the prophet Elisha could rid him of his leprosy.

Elisha had a double portion of Elijah's anointing, and the Bible records that he did twice as many miracles as his predecessor.

To Naaman, a Syrian, he said, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean" (2 Kings 5:10). Why didn't all the lepers in Israel go to Elisha and get healed, too?

The answer lies in the Israelites' covenant of healing with God. In that covenant the Lord said, "I am the Lord that healeth thee" (Exod. 15:26). In Exodus 23:25,26 He said, "... I will take sickness away from the midst of thee ... the number of thy days I will fulfil. " Again in Deuteronomy 7:15 He said, "And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness ...."

You see, they really didn't need any prophet to heal them.

They needed to believe the covenant that God had established with them. Naaman, who wasn't even under that covenant, believed and was cleansed!

After Naaman was healed, he returned to Elisha's house and offered him gold, silver, and many changes of raiment because he was so thrilled to be healed. The prophet wouldn't take any of his gifts because he knew Naaman was trying to pay for his healing. You can't pay for your healing.

Elisha's servant, Gehazi, however, had a covetous heart. He hated to see all that silver and gold and changes of raiment get away. He ran after Naaman and told him a lie: "My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments" (2 Kings 5:22).

Naaman gladly gave him twice as much as he asked for.

Gehazi took the gold, silver, and clothing and hid it for his own use.

When Gehazi returned to Elisha's house, Elisha asked him, "... Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee.... " (vv. 25,26). In his spirit, Elisha had seen Gehazi join Naaman's chariot. He knew exactly what Gehazi had done.

Although Elisha wasn't aware of every lie that had been told in the land that day, he did have a supernatural manifestation concerning his own servant.

Some think that if one is a prophet, he is a seer and knows everything. However, the gifts of the Spirit are not in operation all the time; only as the Spirit wills. Gehazi knew this. He knew Elisha was a man of God who had supernatural manifestations in his life, but he knew the word of knowledge operated only occasionally. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been foolish enough to try to lie to Elisha; he would have known he couldn't get by with it.

We should stay open for manifestations of the Spirit of God, but we do not have to wait for one in order to be healed.

The gifts of healings have been manifested many times in my ministry, but I cannot make them work at will any more than Elisha could make supernatural manifestations work at will. I can't push a button or pull a lever and the gifts start working.

They operate as the Spirit wills, because He is doing it, not I.

Healing belongs to us. It isn't simply a matter of prayer. It isn't simply a matter of some spiritual gift in operation. Healing belongs to us because it has been provided for us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

I endeavor to help sick people understand this. I want to help them get healed one way or another—either by supernatural manifestations of the Spirit of God in my ministry or by getting God's Word into them so that faith will rise in their own hearts.

Then when I do lay hands on them and pray, they will receive their healing through our mutual faith.

I held a tent meeting in August 1951 in Oklahoma. The day services were held in a church and the night services were held in the tent, which had been set up in the city park. I laid hands on the sick each night after I had preached.

This laying on of hands was to be a point of contact where the people would release their faith in God's Word; and by their faith and my faith helping them all I could, they would receive their healing.

Some special manifestations of God's healing power also occurred. For example, one night a mother brought her 4-year-old son for prayer. As she carried the child, his little legs dangled limply from his body. He reminded me of a rag doll.

She told me he had had polio when he was 18 months old and he had never walked another step. Although his legs were crippled, the rest of his body had developed normally.

As I prayed for the child, God's supernatural power came down mightily in our midst, and that little boy started running up and down the platform!

Years later, when my wife and I were holding meetings in Oregon, a man introduced himself to us as that boy's uncle. He said, "I thought you would be interested to know that we have just been on vacation down in Oklahoma. My nephew is now 17 years old and is on the first string football team in high school."

We are thankful for God's power. I didn't heal the boy; God did. I would heal every polio victim if I could. I have ministered to many of them. I have "pushed the same button and pulled the same lever," so to speak, but nothing happened. I wish I could make the gifts work for everyone, just as Elisha no doubt wished he could have cleansed every leper. But supernatural manifestations only come as the Spirit wills, not as we will.

While I was preaching a meeting in Texas, a Pentecostal woman brought her little girl for prayer. This child, who was about 9 years old, also had been stricken with polio. Her left leg dangled. A brace was on her foot, but when her mother removed the brace, the child couldn't walk. The limb was wasted away.

In this instance, I felt no supernatural manifestation. I had preached God's Word and the mother had believed. I laid hands on the child, prayed, and there was no manifestation. The woman took the child home, apparently in the same condition.

When she removed the child's brace to give her a bath, the foot was still turned. The leg still hung out limply from the hip.

The mother placed the child in the bathtub, got on her knees, and started to bathe her.

She recalled, "I began to cry and say, 'Lord, I am sorry. I wanted my baby to be healed.' Then I remembered what Brother Hagin had said, and my faith quickened. I believed the Word of God. I believed that healing virtue flowed into her then. It was just a matter of believing God's Word.

"Suddenly I heard something like dry sticks popping. I looked down, and that leg straightened out right in front of my eyes!"

Both legs became the same size, and the child was able to walk normally.

This miracle came through preaching and teaching the Word of God and through a faithful mother's believing and acting upon God's Word.

I believe in supernatural manifestations. We have them in our meetings. We expect them, and we should expect them. But in the meantime we must preach God's Word, and believers must continue to feed on God's Word concerning divine healing to keep their faith strong. Healing belongs to us!

Chapter 2

Our Twofold Redemption

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

— Isaiah 53:3-5

The 53rd chapter of Isaiah holds the key to both our spiritual and physical redemption. The fourth verse reads in the Hebrew, "Surely he hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains." In the 10th verse, the King James Version reads, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to GRIEF. ..." Again, that is the word for "sick." The Hebrew literally says, "He hath made him sick."

Matthew 8:17 says, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. " Matthew is quoting Isaiah 53:4. Therefore, the correct translation is, "Surely he hath borne our sicknesses and carried our pains," for, as Matthew said, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. "

Dr. Robert Young, an able Hebrew scholar and author of Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible, translated this passage in his Literal Translation of the Bible in this way: "He is despised, and left of men, A man of pains, and acquainted with sickness, And as one hiding the face from us, He is despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains—he hath carried them, And we—we have esteemed him plagued, Smitten of God, and afflicted. And he is pierced for our transgressions, Bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace is on him, And by his bruise there is healing to us.

All of us like sheep have wandered, Each to his own way we have turned, And Jehovah hath caused to meet on him, The punishment of us all.. . And Jehovah hath delighted to bruise him, He hath made him sick . .. with transgressors he was numbered, And he the sin of many hath borne, And for transgressors he intercedeth" (Isa. 53:3-6,10,12).

Dr. Isaac Leeser's translation of the Hebrew Bible—a translation authorized for use by Orthodox Jews—reads, "He was despised and shunned by men: a man of pains, and acquainted with disease . .. But only our diseases did he bare himself, and our pains he carried .. . and through his bruises was healing granted to us ... But the Lord was pleased to crush him through disease. ..." (Isa. 53:4,5,10).

Rotherham's translation, The Emphasized Bible, reads, "He laid on him sickness."

Every church believes that portion of Isaiah 53:6 ("... the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all"). Why can't they believe the rest of that redemptive concept, which we saw in verse 4: "... he hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains"?

If I can believe that God laid my iniquities on Jesus—and because He laid my iniquities on Him there is salvation for me—I can believe it when this same chapter tells me that God also laid my sickness and disease on Jesus. I can believe for my healing.

During one of my meetings, a woman brought her daughter for prayer. The daughter was facing major surgery. A specialist was coming to Oklahoma from Chicago to perform the operation, and it was going to cost about $6,000. The girl's mother was paying for the operation, so she forced her to come for prayer.

People are not always ready to be prayed for. If you go ahead and pray for them, you can push them further away from God. We should give people an opportunity to hear the Word of God taught before we pray for them. Then they, in faith, can receive the impartation of God's power.

After the mother (who did all the talking) finished telling me all about the girl's forthcoming operation, I said, "Let's sit down and talk a little about what the Bible says concerning healing."

"Oh, I'm in a hurry," the mother replied. "I want to get her back home so I can get back here for the night service. I have to drive 240 miles to do that."

I said, "If you are in that big a hurry, you will have to take her back home without her being prayed for. I am not going to pray under those circumstances."

Reluctantly the mother agreed, saying, "We can only stay 10 minutes." Every time I would ask the daughter a question, the mother would answer it. Then she said, "Hurry up and pray for her."

Finally I asked the daughter point-blank, "Do you believe in divine healing?"

She said, "Well, to be honest with you, I don't."

I said, "I knew that the minute you walked in the door, just as if you had told me. That's the reason I wouldn't pray for you."

The Spirit of God had revealed to me that this young woman didn't believe in divine healing, and she really didn't want to be prayed for. She never had had any teaching on the subject.

Could you pray with someone who is lost and get them saved without their believing in salvation or in Jesus?

Could you pray with someone to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit without their believing in it? Certainly not. Then how are you going to pray for someone and get them healed when they don't even believe in healing?

Someone may say, "God will heal some of those people to prove healing is so." Then why doesn't He save some of them to prove salvation is so? Why doesn't He fill some with the Holy Spirit just to prove that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is real?

God doesn't work that way.

God works on the principle of faith. He gives you His Word so you can have faith. He expects you to come according to the Word and believe it. Then He honors that Word. When you don't believe it, when you don't act on it, when you don't honor it, He doesn't have anything to honor in your life.

The daughter said, "I am going to be honest with you. I only came here because Momma wanted me to come. We are borrowing $6,000 from her, and when you are borrowing money from people, you just can't say no. I thought I would humor her and come along, even though I wouldn't get anything."

(You won't get anything from God by humoring someone else. You can't ride Momma's coattail into heaven. And you can't ride Momma's coattail into divine healing, either.) Then I asked her, "If the Bible said that God laid your sickness and your disease on Jesus, would healing be for you?"

"It certainly would," she said.

I said, "Well, there's a Bible over there on that table. Reach over and get it. Open it to Matthew 8:17."

She opened it and read, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. "

Then I said, "Notice the marginal reference says Isaiah 53:4.

Matthew was quoting Isaiah."

She turned to Isaiah 53:4 and read it. As she looked down at the Bible for a minute, I let that Scripture soak in for a while.

She didn't say anything. I didn't rush her. Her head was bowed over the Bible. When she looked up, tears glistened in her eyes.

She said, "Brother Hagin, please lay your hands on my head and pray. I will be healed. We won't have to borrow that money from Momma. I won't have to have the operation. Yes, healing belongs to me."

Then she added, "I am sure my pastor doesn't know that truth, for I believe he is honest and would preach it if he knew it."

"I am sure he would, too," I answered. Then I laid my hands on her head and prayed. She was marvelously healed and didn't have to have the operation. Her healing didn't come about through any supernatural manifestation. I didn't have any special leading or special anointing at this time. I simply acted in faith on the Word. God's Word works.

The following year I was preaching at the Full Gospel church in her town. One night someone rolled a fellow into the meeting in a wheelchair. After we laid hands on him and prayed, he got out of that wheelchair and walked. I sat in the chair then, and he jubilantly pushed me up and down the aisle.

The next night the pastor of that church introduced me to a very distinguished-looking gentleman who was seated on the platform with him. He was the pastor of the denominational church the woman's daughter attended.

He told me, "The man in the wheelchair who was here last night and was healed is a member of my church. We built a ramp especially for him so he could come to church, and he never misses a service.

"This morning I drove downtown, and as I was parking, I saw him walking down the street. I nearly fainted! For years he has been around these streets in his wheelchair. I jumped out of my car and ran to him to find out what had happened.

"He said, 'I was at the Full Gospel church last night, and there was a preacher there praying for the sick. God healed me.' I came over here tonight to express my appreciation to this pastor and church and to you for holding fast to the truth I hadn't seen. I want to thank you all for this man's healing and for the knowledge that it is God's work."

I preached that night on "Salvation and Healing: The Double Cure." Afterwards the denominational pastor said, "Would you loan me your sermon notes? I want to preach that same sermon next Sunday morning, because my church wants to know what happened. After I have preached it, I am going to ask everyone who is sick to come forward, and I will lay my hands on them in the Name of Jesus, just like you did."

All this came about as a result of that one young woman's hearing and accepting the fact that healing belonged to her.

Healing belongs to you, too.

"Surely he hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains...." God laid on Jesus our sicknesses and pains, and He bore them. That means that the sicknesses and pains you may be suffering were laid on Jesus. He actually bore them, just as He bore your sins. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. "

We believe God laid our sins on Jesus; therefore, we don't have to bear them. This passage from Isaiah also says that God laid our sicknesses on Jesus. We can say, "God laid my sickness on Jesus and made Him sick with my disease." The Word declares that: "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21).

Not only did God make Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin, but the literal Hebrew wording of Isaiah 53:10 tells us that God made Jesus, who knew no sickness, to be sickness. He made Him sick with your diseases so you might be perfectly well in Christ.

Thus, we have seen that the Scriptures in Isaiah 53 and Matthew 8 deal with the disease problem that faces the world today. If they don't, how can we preach salvation from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah? What right would we have to say that part of it belongs to us, but the other part doesn't?

Christ provided deliverance from sin and sickness for us when He purchased our twofold redemption at Calvary.

Chapter 3

The Laying on of Hands

God has provided several methods to increase our faith as we seek to receive divine healing. One of the most prominent is the laying on of hands: ".. .They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:18).*

Of course, laying on of hands alone won't heal you. If it would, there would have been no need for God to lay our sicknesses and diseases on Jesus. The laying on of hands merely helps you release your faith in the Word of God.

Laying on of hands is one of the fundamental principles of the doctrine of Christ. Hebrews 6:1,2 says, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of LAYING ON OF HANDS, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. "

There is more to laying on of hands than its role in healing.

Leaders in the New Testament Church laid hands on men to ordain them into the ministry. They laid hands on the seven deacons appointed to serve tables. They also laid hands on believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit: "Then laid they [Peter and John] their hands on them [the Samaritans], and they received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 8:17).

In Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia, he said, "He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Gal. 3:5). Of course, the answer was, "By the hearing of faith." Paul said that the miracles which occurred among them and the manifestations of the Holy Spirit were done by the hearing of faith.

The reason we are less successful in much of our laying on of hands is because we make a practice of it without the accompanying preaching and teaching of God's Word. Too often the laying on of hands becomes simply a form, ritual, or empty formality in our churches. We come, hands are laid upon us, but nothing happens.

We seem to have the idea that Jesus went around laying hands on everyone He met, but He didn't.

If we read the Bible carelessly, we probably think Jesus healed everyone who was sick everywhere, and whoever was within reach of Him anywhere automatically received healing.

This couldn't be true, however, because Peter and John went through the gate called Beautiful just a few days after Jesus had ascended, and a man crippled from birth lay there begging alms.

The Bible says he was carried there every day. It hadn't been too many days since Jesus Himself had walked through that gate.

If Jesus always healed everyone in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside, where did those sick people come from who were brought into the streets so that Peter's shadow might fall upon them? (Acts 5:15,16).

Once Jesus walked up to the pool of Bethesda, which had five porches, or sheds, around it, filled with sick people. Every so often, an angel came down from heaven and "troubled" the water, and the first one into the water got healed.

Jesus said to one man, "... Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked. ..." (John 5:6-9).

Although many sick persons were crowded around that pool, if anyone else got healed, I don't know about it. I am well satisfied that if they had, the Bible would have recorded it.

We have made it a practice in Full Gospel circles to line people up, lay hands on them, and pray for them. Some have gotten healed, and some haven't. Some people have been through every healing line in America.

I have told these chronic seekers for healing and the baptism in the Holy Spirit, "Don't come back anymore for me to lay hands on you, because every time you come, you are getting further away from it. Come here with your Bible and listen to the Word of God being taught. Then when faith comes, I will know it."

We see in Acts 14 that Paul recognized faith. " And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and PERCEIVING THAT HE HAD FAITH TO BE HEALED, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked" (Acts 14:8-10).

When John Alexander Dowie was having considerable success praying for the sick in Australia before the turn of the century, American newspapers published accounts of some of the healings. Therefore, when word got out that he was coming to San Francisco, sick people came from all over California to be prayed for.

Upon Dowie's arrival, June 7, 1888, the manager of the Palace Hotel said to him, "You must do something. Sick people are lined up for two blocks in every direction wanting you to pray for them."

Dowie said, "All right, let them into my room one at a time and I will talk to them." Hundreds of people passed through his room, but he didn't pray for one of them. He knew they weren't ready.

He had given up on the godless curiosity seekers when he noticed an old crippled woman waiting in the corridor. She was so poor she had had to borrow the dollar or more fare to travel to San Francisco from Sacramento. She was in constant pain from a diseased foot and was using a long pine crutch. Her desperate spiritual hunger touched Dowie.

She walked into the room sick and came out perfectly healed, walking normally, because Dowie perceived that she had the faith to be healed. She was the only person he laid hands on and prayed for out of several hundred. He had 100 percent success, because the only person he prayed for got healed!

On many occasions as I have taught, I have perceived that someone had faith, and I have said, "You are ready. Come on and get your healing." When I do it that way, I, too, have a 100 percent success rate. This is so much better than when we try to minister in a wholesale manner and see only a few healed.

I often tell people, "If you will give me the same opportunity you would a doctor, I will get you healed, and it won't cost you a dime."

People go to the doctor, and if he says, "Come back next Tuesday," they go back next Tuesday. If he says, "Come again Friday," they return on Friday. This may go on for months.

However, if I tell them, "Come back," they get angry. They say, "Well, I'm not going back anymore. I thought surely he would pray for me!" But they may not be ready yet.

Often a doctor will tell a patient. "I am going to put you in the hospital for several days to build you up before your operation." But if I tell them, "I want you to stay in the services for several days to get your faith built up to receive healing,"

they get angry. If they will stay under the sound of the Word of God, it will have an effect on them. Then the Spirit of God will show me what to do and how best to help them.

I once laid hands on a man facing major surgery, but he didn't receive heeding. He kept returning to my meetings. One night he told me, "I was in that healing line and didn't receive my healing, but after hearing you teach I can see where I missed it: I didn't try to believe or receive anything. I thought if you had it, it would work. Now I see I have my part to play.

"I am supposed to go to the hospital Friday morning. They want to keep me there several days to build me up for this operation, but I'm not going. I'll be back here Friday night for that special laying-on-of-hands service."

Friday night he was the first one in the line.

I said, "Well, I see you are here."

"Yes," he said. "I am here. I'll receive my healing, too. Just put your hands on me." He was instantly healed, and he never had to have that operation. I heard from his pastor several years later, and he still was healed.

I have seen people filled with the Holy Spirit in the same way. They came to be filled, but they didn't receive when I laid hands on them. Nevertheless, they kept coming back to the services, and as their faith was built up by listening to the Word of God being taught, they received the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Many times I tell people to look at their watch as hands are laid on them and believe they received their healing then, whether there is a physical manifestation or not. I have seen people with terminal cancer and other extreme cases healed that way. There wasn't any manifestation at the moment, but they simply looked at their watch and said, "That's it. Praise God, I accept it now." Then the manifestation came.

Why doesn't the manifestation always come instantly?

There are several reasons. One is that healing is by degree, based on two conditions: (1) the degree of healing virtue ministered; (2) the degree of the individual's faith that gives action to that healing virtue. If there is no faith to give action to it, it will not be manifested at all, even though the healing virtue is actually ministered.

Many people have told me, "When you laid hands on me, I felt the power of God go through me like a bolt of electricity. I felt all right for two or three days, but now every symptom has come back on me."

There was no faith on the part of that individual to give action to that power. They knew it was there—they felt God's healing power go into them—but they didn't act on the Word of God.

Before I received my healing, I was a bedfast teenager with two serious organic heart problems, and my body was partially paralyzed.

As a member of a denominational church, I thought the Bible was true, but I knew nothing about the power of God in operation in healing or miracles. But when I said with my mouth because I believed it in my heart, "I believe I receive my healing.

I believe I receive healing for my heart. I believe I receive healing for my paralyzed body," I felt something like a warm oil come down over my head and spread over my shoulders, down my body, and out the end of my toes. My paralysis left and has never been back.

Many have testified that they felt God's healing power as a warmth. An attorney from a denominational church in Texas said he felt something come over him like a warm glow. He said it was as if his whole body were bathed in warm oil. At first it frightened him. Then he realized this must be God's power, and he began to yield to it. This power lifted him out of his bed and placed him on the floor.

"I stood up, and every symptom of my disease left," he said.

His doctors had given him up to die. He went back to them, and they made X-rays and ran tests, but they couldn't find a thing wrong with him. He had experienced God's healing power. And he was by himself—no one laid hands on him. I, too, was by myself in my bedroom—no one laid hands on me. But that same power was manifested.

Everyone who has been born again of the Holy Spirit has an anointing of the Spirit in him. First John 2:27 says, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you... ." You have the right to lay hands in faith on anyone and expect them to be healed if they release their faith.

Laying on of hands also can be practiced from the standpoint of the law of transmission. By the laying on of hands, you transmit God's healing power to sick persons because you are anointed with that power. Notice this power does not work automatically. You cannot transfer this healing power to whomever you will. Jesus could not (Mark 6:5).

When the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus and He felt this healing anointing or power go out of Him, He said, "... Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?" (Mark 5:30,31).

There was no way of telling how many people had touched Him out of curiosity to see if anything would happen to them.

But no power had flowed into any of them.

"... He looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. ..." (Mark 5:32-34).

Someone said, "I thought it was that healing power that flowed out of Him."

Jesus said it was her faith that did it.

Actually, it was a combination of the two: Her faith activated that healing power. It was there all the time, but the other people who had touched Him received nothing because they didn't mix faith with their action.

We need to realize that this power is passive and inactive until faith is exercised. It will not operate on its own.

As far as we know, that woman with the issue of blood was the only person in the whole crowd—and there was a multitude—who was healed. She reached out in faith and touched the hem of Jesus' garment, and she was made whole.

* For more on this subject, see Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin's minibook Laying on of Hands.

Chapter 4

Our Healing: An Accomplished

Fact

When howling air raid sirens signaled another bombing raid in London during World War II, everyone ran to the nearest air raid shelter. Everyone, that is, except a certain elderly woman.

The people in her neighborhood were busy during the daytime cleaning up the debris and trying to repair the damage inflicted by the bombs. At night they huddled for protection in the air raid shelters.

After several nights, someone commented that this elderly woman was missing. Some speculated that she had been injured and was in the hospital. Other neighbors wondered if she had been killed. Still others thought she had gone away to the country to escape the bombs.

A few days later, one of her neighbors met her on the street during the daytime and said, "Well, we certainly are glad to see you back and to know that you are all right."

"Oh, I haven't been anywhere," she said.

"But you haven't joined us in the air raid shelter every night.

Where have you been?" he asked.

"I was at home sleeping," was her calm reply.

"Sleeping?" he asked, astonished. "How could you sleep through all this? Aren't you frightened?"

"No," she replied. "When I was reading my Bible the other day, I found where it says that God neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4), so I decided there was no need for both of us to stay awake."

Likewise, if Jesus has borne our sickness—and Isaiah 53:4

says He has—there is no need for us to bear it, too. When we look up the word translated "borne" in this text, we find that in the original Hebrew it meant "to lift up, to bear away, to convey, or to remove to a distance."

Therefore, when the Scripture says, "He hath borne our sicknesses," it means that He has borne them away, or removed them to a distance.

This word is a Levitical word. It is applied to the scapegoat that bore the sins of the people. It is the same Hebrew word used in Leviticus 16:22: "... the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities. ..." The high priest laid his hands on this goat and, by faith, transferred to the goat the sins and iniquities of the children of Israel. Then the goat was taken out "unto a land not inhabited: and ...let go the goat in the wilderness."

Just as that goat bore the sins of Israel, the Word of God teaches that Jesus bore my sins and my sickness. Sin and sickness have passed from me to Calvary, and salvation and health have passed from Calvary to me.

In the fourth verse of this redemption chapter, Isaiah 53, we have not only the Hebrew verb for borne, but we also have the Hebrew verb for "carried": "He hath borne our sicknesses, and carried our pains."

These two verbs in the Hebrew are the same as those used in the 11th and 12th verses regarding Jesus' substitutionary bearing of sin: "He shall bear their iniquities ... and he bare the sin of many. ..."

In the Hebrew, the verbs "hath borne" and "carried" signify "to assume as a heavy burden." They denote actual substitution—He actually took on Himself the burden of our sin, or our sin nature.

It is equally true that Jesus has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains. These verbs in the Hebrew mean a complete removal. When Jesus bore our sins, our sicknesses, and our pains, He bore them away. He completely removed them!

Both of these verbs signify substitution. They mean "one bearing another's load." That is what Jesus did for us. As our Substitute, He bore our sins and our sicknesses.

That is the reason divine healing belongs to every child of God. There is no need to question God's will in the matter when you know this.

If Jesus bore our sicknesses and carried our pains, there is no need for both of us to bear them!

This scriptural truth became a reality to a woman who came for prayer in one of my meetings. She had a purplish-looking malignant cancer on her face.

I instructed her to say, "According to the Word of God, I am healed. I believe this cancer is healed."

I told her, "According to the Word, it is healed. Go to bed saying it. Get up saying it. Say it sweeping the floor. Say it washing the dishes. Say it every time you think of it. I feel led of the Lord to tell you to do this for ten days."

On the tenth day the telephone rang in our parsonage. This woman was on the other end of the line, but she was almost too excited to talk. Finally she managed to say, "The cancerous growth just came off my face! It has a lot of roots on it. It all came out, and there is no hole in my face. It is as smooth as a baby's skin."

When was this woman healed? On the tenth day? No, she was healed back there at Calvary, but her healing was manifested when she believed it.

It came about as she said, "According to the Word, I am healed." It came about as she believed that Christ, her Substitute, already had borne her sickness. He had paid the price for her cancer; therefore, she didn't have to bear it any longer.

Chapter 5

Possessing the Promise

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.

When people come to the altar for prayer, find out what their need is. If a man comes 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!

Similarly, it is not a matter of God's baptizing someone with the Holy Spirit; it is a matter of his accepting the gift 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 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.

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.

Many people are waiting for God to do something about their sickness. They say, "If God ever heals me, then I'm going to believe it."

I have talked to sinners who had the same idea about salvation: They want to leave it all up to God. One man said, "If God wants to save me, He will. I'm just waiting on God." But he died without God.

God's Word says that it is God's will to save people. He invites them to come: "... And whosoever will, let him TAKE the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). The responsibility for receiving is on man's side.

The believer sometimes makes the same mistake when it comes to other things God's Word promises. He thinks erroneously, "If God wants me to have this, He will give it to me. If I don't get it, He doesn't want me to have it." We need to get into the Word of God and find out what belongs to us. If something is promised to us, or if it is provided for us in His Word, it is His will. All we have to do then is to possess it!

We need to settle this in our minds, because as long as we waver, we will not receive anything. James 1:6,7 says, "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. " Often we don't receive because we waver.

Healing is a gift, like salvation, already paid for at Calvary.

All we need to do is accept it. All we need to do is to possess the promise that is ours. As children of God, we need to realize that healing belongs to us.

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