Know What Belongs to You!
"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?"
The answer to these plaintive words can be found in Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin's
book Healing Belongs to Us. In this insightful book about the believer's
rights in Christ concerning healing, Rev. Hagin explains that Isaiah 53
tells us Jesus bore our sicknesses and carried our pains. He also reveals
why healing is sometimes blocked.
One chapter of the book is devoted to the ministry of laying on of hands.
Rev. Hagin shows why the manifestation of healing doesn't always come
instantly. He also clearly explains why symptoms sometimes come back.
"Healing," says Rev. Hagin," is an accomplished fact,"
He devotes the final chapter of the book to "Possessing the Promise."
This concise, easy-to-read summary of a believer's rights concerning healing
is a must for every serious student of God's Word.
Chapter titles include:
- Our Twofold Redemption
- Our Healing: An accomplished fact
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 the sick persons, but often the sick leave as they came
- not healed.
Why is it that some are healed instantly while others trudge
for 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
(1Cor. 12:28), which are among the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in First
Corinthians 12:8-10: 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 the gifts of healing 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 alter 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 on 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 Bible 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" (v26).
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 (1Kings 17:16).
....page 15
While I was preaching a meeting in Texas, a Pentacostal
woman brought here little girl for prayer. This child, who was about nine
years old, also had been stricken with polio. Her left leg dangled. A
brace was no here 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 sill hung out limply from the hip. The
mother, got on her knees and started to bather 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 diving healing to keep their faith strong. Healing belongs
to us!
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