BY KENNETH E. HAGIN
When most people think about being doers of the word,” they think about taking action. But an important step to acting on God’s word is to say it!
Acting on God’s Word will always bring results! One way to act on God’s Word is to say it.
MARK 11:23,24
23 For verily I [Jesus] say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
You see, what you say is your faith speaking. Therefore, you will always have in your life what you believe for and say. In other words, you can have what you say. Let me tell you how the Lord taught me this
scriptural truth.
In 1951, I conducted a four-week meeting in Graham, Texas. In those days, it was my custom to fast a couple of days a week. The Lord didn’t tell me to; I just did it on my own. On Tuesdays and Thursdays,
I would fast for twenty-four hours. After a ten o’clock service, when everyone else left to eat lunch, I stayed in the church from about noon until two or three o’clock in the afternoon, praying and seeking the Lord.
One day I decided to read the Book of Mark while kneeling at the altar. Well, there are only sixteen chapters, so it doesn’t take a long time to read it. But I had been on my knees for quite a while praying,
and I got tired. So I just sat down on the floor and finished reading the Book of Mark. Of course, I finished with the Great Commission, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” (Mark 16:15-18).
I was sitting there meditating on that passage of Scripture. Then I laid down on the floor, flat on my back with my hands under my head, and just stared at the ceiling. I came to the place where I wasn’t thinking about anything and my mind got quiet.
That’s when I heard these words on the inside of me, in my spirit: “Did you notice that the word ‘say,’ in some form, is in Mark 11:23 three times, and the word ‘believe’ is in that verse only once?” Now I wasn’t thinking anything in the world about Mark 11:23, but the Holy Spirit in my spirit brought that verse to my remembrance.
I rose up to a seated position and said, “No, I never noticed that.” I had read the New Testament through one hundred and fifty times, and portions of it more than that. But it doesn’t matter how many times you read the Bible, you won’t see certain things until the Holy Ghost calls your attention to them. So I turned to Mark 11:23 and started counting.
MARK 11:23
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall BELIEVE that those things which he
SAITH shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he SAITH.
I counted one “believe” and three “says” in some form or other. I said with surprise, “That’s right! I never noticed that.” The word “say” in relation to the believer is in that verse three times in some form. The word “believe” is in the verse only once.
Then I heard these words in my spirit, “My people primarily are not missing it in their believing, for they have been taught to believe and to have faith. Where they’re missing it is in what they’re saying.
You will have to do three times as much preaching and teaching about the ‘saying’ part as you will the ‘believing’ part in order to get folks to see it.”
Until then, I hadn’t noticed that nearly all the teaching I had heard was on the believing part. I thought about every camp-meeting, Bible seminar, revival meeting, or particular service that I’d ever attended. I never had heard one preacher say anything about the “saying” part, even once!
As far as I knew, I was the only person who ever said anything about it. And when you’re the only one, you stick out like a sore thumb. I would think, Well, maybe I’m overdoing it. But the Lord was telling me: “You’re not overdoing it. You’re going to have to do more along this line.” So I just stayed with it.
I had learned through experience to say what I believed in my heart. That’s how I got healed in August 1934. I’ll not go into detail about it, but, as a teenager, I was bedfast for sixteen months. Some of the best doctors in the land had said I had to die.
But when I found out what Mark 11:23 and 24 meant, I began to say, “I believe I receive healing for the deformed heart. I believe I receive healing for the paralysis. I believe I receive healing for the incurable blood disease.” And in case I had missed something, I said, “I believe I receive healing from the top of my head to the soles of my feet.” That would cover anything else.
Don’t think the devil won’t challenge you, because he’ll challenge you every inch of the way. When I began to say that I received my healing there on the bed of sickness, there was another voice that came against my mind.
To me, it was just as real as if someone had spoken out loud. But it wasn’t out loud; it was a voice coming against my mind that said, “You’re a pretty looking thing, claiming to be a Christian. Now you’ve gone to lying.” I recognized it was the devil. If it’s unbelief and doubt, it’s the devil.
Then the devil said to me, “Don’t you know that the Bible says, ‘All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone’?” The Bible does say that in Revelation 21:8. You see, the devil can quote Scripture. The devil even quoted Scripture to Jesus (Matt. 4:6,7).
So I challenged the devil. I said, “Mr. Devil, I didn’t say I’m healed because I feel like it. That would have been a lie, because I surely don’t feel like it. I didn’t say I’m healed because I look like it. That would have been a lie too. I said I believe I’m healed! In Mark 11:24, Jesus said, ‘When you pray, believe you receive, and you shall have it.’ So if you want to argue about it, go argue with Jesus, because He’s the One who said it!”
Then I went back to saying, “I believe I receive my healing. Praise God, I’m healed!” Within one hour I was out of bed, standing up, and well! My paralysis disappeared like a snowball in the hot August sunshine! (And it can get hot down in Texas in August, you know!)
Well, I’d missed a year of school because I’d been bedfast for sixteen months. So in September 1934, about a month from the time I was healed, I went back to Boyd High School in my hometown of McKinney, Texas. We didn’t have any school buses, so I walked nearly two miles to school every day.
After I was healed, I only weighed eighty-nine pounds–with my clothes and shoes on! They called me a walking skeleton. One of the doctors on my case, Dr. Robason, told my aunt that he’d seen me walking
down the street. He said, “I thought I was seeing a ghost; I started to run. I’ll tell you, that boy has the strongest willpower of anyone I’ve ever seen. He’s up just by willpower. I give him ninety days to live,
at the most.”
You know the devil’s a pretty good mathematician–every night he would tell me how many days I had left! My aunt had told me what the doctor said, and I had to fight that.
Then at school, the lady teachers were afraid that I would just fall dead right in the classroom. So the principal called me in and said, “Son, do you suppose that you ought to come to school?”
I asked, “Why?”
He said, “I called Dr. Robason myself, and he said, ‘Kenneth G. shouldn’t be going to school. He hasn’t got any business climbing steps or walking to school. How he’s up, I don’t know. He has the strongest
willpower of anyone I’ve ever seen in my life. I give him ninety days, at the most, to live.”‘
I told my principal, “I’m not up by willpower. I’m up by faith, and my faith will hold.”
I remember tears came to his eyes as he said, “That’s faith beyond what I have, but if you’ve got that kind of faith, just come right on to school then.”
I said, “I’ve got that kind of faith.”
But in the process of time, I almost lost my healing. The symptoms began to come back, and the heart symptoms were most severe. I couldn’t sleep at night. The devil kept telling me, “You’re going to die. Remember what Dr. Robason said. You’ve only got so many days left now.”
It seemed as though I was getting worse instead of better. One time about four o’clock in the morning, I hadn’t slept a wink because of the alarming heart symptoms in my chest. So I prayed, “Lord, where am I missing it?”
I was thinking about where I had missed it and praying and talking to the Lord about it. Then I said to myself, What did I do when I got healed? I didn’t even realize the Holy Ghost was leading me.
I said, “I see where I’m missing it! I got healed when I began to say, ‘I believe I receive my healing.’ But now when my friends ask, ‘How are you feeling?’ I answer, ‘Well, some of the symptoms have come
back on me.”‘
Many times, after I’d say that, I’d feel worse and if I was out, someone would have to get a car and take me home, because I couldn’t walk home. I would have to go to bed in the daytime. And I was staying
in bed more and more.
I remembered that when I would talk about the symptoms, from my inward man would come the words “I’m well thank you. The Word of God says Jesus took my infirmities and bare my sicknesses.” Or words like these would begin to leap to my lips: “When Jesus was here on earth, He said, ‘What things soever you desire, when you Dray believe you receive them, and you’ll have them’ [Mark 11:24]. Well, I prayed, and I believe I received my healing, so I’m well, thank you.”
But I wouldn’t say those words. Instead, I’d say how I felt in the natural. I know better now, because I’ve learned some things (and you know better, too, if you’ve been taught). As I talked to God about
my symptoms, I realized what had been happening. I said, “I believe that’s where I’m missing it,” and I began to change my confession.
A couple of days later, I was walking down a certain street in uptown McKinney. My friend Eugene Black’s family owned a business on that street. Before I became bedfast, Eugene and I were good friends. Where you saw one of us, you saw the other. So as I walked by their place of business, Mrs. Black motioned to me, and I stopped to speak to her.
We greeted one another, and she said, “Kenneth, how are you doing? Does your heart give you any more trouble? My, you look like you can hardly put one foot in front of the other. [And that’s how I felt.]
I’ll call Eugene to get the car and take you home.”
Now I didn’t say anything because I was waiting to see what would happen in my heart, my spirit. These words came up inside me: ” . . whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou
cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23). You see, with the heart man believes, and with the mouth he says what he believes.
So I said, “Mrs. Black, when Jesus was here on earth, He said, ‘What things soever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them, and you shall have them.’ I prayed, and I believe I receive my healing.
So, according to the Word, I’m healed. Thank you, but I’ll just walk home.”
Mrs. Black said, “Well, it’s awfully warm today. You’d better let me phone upstairs and have Eugene get the car.”
“No, thank you,” I said. “I’ll just walk.” My body wanted to get in the car and ride home. My body kept telling me that I’d never make it. I never felt so bad in my life. And it seemed as though the devil
was saying, “You’re going to fall dead here on the street. You’ll never make it home.”
But the farther I walked, the stronger I got! By the time I got home, I didn’t have to go to bed to rest, and I didn’t have any symptoms!
Well, how did that come about? You can have what you say. I had been saying the wrong thing, and I almost lost my healing. I could very well have died. You see, what you say, good or bad, is your faith
speaking. If you’re saying, “I’ll never make it,” you won’t. Proverbs 6:2 says, “Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.” But, thank God, I changed what I was
saying and reclaimed my healing!
You see, acting on God’s Word brings results! One way to act on God’s Word is to say it (Mark 11:23). That’s what the woman with the issue of blood did in Mark 5.
MARK 5:25-34
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
28 For she SAID, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue [power] had gone out of him,
turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
32 And he [Jesus] looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
In verse 28, the woman with the issue of blood said something. That verse is talking about her faith. That ties in with what Jesus said in Mark 11:23: “. . . whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; HE SHALL NAVE WHATSOEVER HE SAITH.”
Well, what did the woman get? She got what she said: “For she said, If I may but touch His clothes, I shall be whole.” She acted on the Word and was healed (Mark 5:29,34)!
Once in a meeting, I was teaching about the woman with the issue of blood, and there was a professor in the audience who taught Greek at a local seminary. He introduced himself to me after the service. Then
he said, “Brother Hagin, tonight I saw something I’d never seen before. I was following along in my Greek New Testament, and where it says, ‘for she said’ in the King James Version, the Greek word here denotes continuous action.” So in other words, the Greek translation says, “For she continued to say,” or “she kept saying.”
You see, what she said was her faith speaking. And what you say is your faith speaking. The problem with many people is they’re double-minded. But the Bible says that we shouldn’t let anyone who wavers in his faith–a double-minded person–think that he will receive anything of the Lord (James 1:5-8).
For example, a person might pray about his finances one day, get up from his place of prayer, and say, “Praise God! I believe I receive all my financial needs met.” But the very next day, if a friend asks,
“How are you doing?” that person might answer: “Oh, it doesn’t look as though we’re going to make it. They’re going to disconnect the telephone because we can’t pay our bill. We might lose our car because
we’re behind on the payments. I hope we don’t lose the house.” Well, just the day before, that person was talking faith, but the next day he was talking doubt. He’s double-minded.
That’s why we must hold fast to our original confession of faith, right in the face of seeming defeat. I know; I’ve done it. I won’t tell you that it’s easy, because you have to fight your flesh and the devil
to do it. But when you hold your ground and act on the Word, you will see those things which you say come to pass!
THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED BY THE WORD OF FAITH, JUNE 1999, PAGES 4-7. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
