Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
FAITH ACTIVATES THE POWER!
Let me give you an illustration along this line. In March 1971, I was preaching in Tyler, Texas, in the grand ballroom of the old Carlton Hotel. After ministering one night and sending folks to the prayer room to be saved, we invited the sick to come forward to be prayed for.
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When I called for folks to get in the healing line, I noticed a lady sitting right in the front, in the first couple of rows. But this woman couldn’t get up. Her husband was trying without much success to help her get up.
Finally, one of the ushers helped, and the two men together got her to her feet. She had a cane in one hand, and with her husband holding her by one arm and the usher holding her by the other arm, she slowly made her way into the healing line.
The people were lined up straight across the room, and I went down the line, laying hands upon them. Well, when I laid hands on her, it was just like I had laid hands on a doorknob — there was no receptivity on her part whatsoever.
I went on down the line, laying hands on folks and praying. I didn’t have time to stop and preach her a sermon. I knew that in her case, it was a matter of her not having faith. You see, faith receives when you pray, you believe you receive! The Bible says that then — after you believe you receive — you shall have whatever it is you were desiring (Mark 11:24).
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Believing is receiving. Receiving is believing. If there is no receiving, then there’s been no believing. If there’s no believing, then there is no receiving. It’s just that simple — so simple, we stumble over the simplicity of it.
I finished the healing line in that meeting in Tyler and went back to the platform to get my Bible, my notebook, and my watch. This crippled woman was still standing there with her husband by her side to hold her up. With great effort and with her husband’s help, she moved a little closer to me and said, “Brother Hagin, I want you to lay hands on me again.”
I remembered when I laid hands on her a few moments before, there was just no response. So I said, “Well, I’ve already laid hands on you,” and then I tried to encourage her to believe. You see, she had a part to play in receiving her healing.
Then she said to me, “This is the very first time I’ve ever been in one of these kinds of meetings. I’m Presbyterian, and I’ve never been to a meeting like this. But I’ll tell you why I came.
“I have arthritis,” she explained. “That’s the reason I couldn’t get up out of my seat. That’s why my body is so stiff.”
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She continued: “But I saw one of my neighbors walking down the street this afternoon. She was just about as bad off with arthritis as I am maybe worse. I knew she couldn’t walk, yet there she was walking down the street perfectly, with nobody helping her!
“I sent my husband to go get her so I could talk to her. I thought she’d gotten hold of some new medicine somewhere or found some doctor who was an expert with arthritis. “I asked her about it, and she said, ‘No, I was just down there at the grand ballroom of the Carlton Hotel last night. And a minister laid his hands on me, and the Lord healed me instantly. I fell on the floor, and when I got up, the arthritis was gone.’
“When she told me that,” this woman continued, “I said to my husband, ‘Well, you just get me down there; we’ll have that minister lay hands on me too.’ “That’s why I came tonight. I came here to try you out to see what you could do.”
I said, “Well, you found out what I could do, didn’t you?” “Yes,” she said, “nothing.” You see, so many times that’s the case. Folks just want to see what the minister can do instead of believing God for themselves and believing in His power.
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Then this woman said to me: “In this meeting, I heard you say that the Lord appeared to you.”
“Well,” I said, “He did appear to me. I’d be lying if I said He didn’t.”
She said, “I heard you say that He laid the finger of His right hand in the palm of each one of your hands.”
I said, “He sure did. A fellow would go to hell for lying just as quick as he would for stealing. And I’d be lying if I said Jesus didn’t lay the finger of His right hand in the palm of each one of my hands.”
She continued: “I heard you say that Jesus told you to tell us that if we’d believe that and receive it, then that same anointing would flow from your hands into our bodies and drive out the sickness and disease.”
I answered, “I said that, all right. Jesus told me to say it. If I said He didn’t, I’d be lying about it.”
“Well,” she said, “I’ll tell you, I’m ready to believe it. Just put your hand on me.”
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I could see that she was ready. I could see her earnestness, so I just reached out toward her, and, really, I barely touched her. I barely brushed her forehead with my hand, and I was conscious of the anointing just rushing into her. You see, she pulled it out of me, and it just rushed into her.
Then she fell backward onto the floor and lay there for a little bit. When she made an effort to get up, her husband and another lady nearby helped her. When she got up, her husband tried to hand her that cane. She pulled away from it and said, “Can’t you see I don’t need that?” Her body was just as limber and free as mine was — all the arthritis had disappeared! Every bit of it was gone, glory to God! Well now, what activated that power or anointing? Faith did. Faith activates the power!
Now I was anointed with that healing power the first time I laid hands on the woman. In fact, although I didn’t tell her, the anointing on me was stronger when I laid hands on her the first time than it was the second time when she finally received.
Well, why didn’t that anointing heal her the first time? Because she came to the meeting to see what I could do — to try me out. But when she put her faith in God and His power, and she acted upon her faith, she received her healing. Why? Because faith activates the power!
Remember Jesus said to the woman with the issue of blood, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.” Her faith in God and His power is what activated the anointing on her behalf to drive out her disease and heal her.
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