Delightsome Agbabo

The Intimate Love of the Father “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons   and daughters, says the   Lord   Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18 Not too long ago, Lydia, a sister from South Africa, wrote to me. I believe that many of you would be able to identify with what she shared about her struggles in relating to God as her Father: Dear Pastor Prince, I grew up with very low self-esteem, having been labeled the difficult child in my family. I was an unplanned baby, and my parents already had one child—a girl, so they really wanted a boy. They were disappointed when I turned out to be a girl and even considered giving me to a paternal family member who did not have children. My dad comes from a very cold, strict family, and he has a very bad temper, so I grew up naturally fearful of him and always felt like I was walking on eggshells around him. My mom also grew up in a household where she had not received love. Both my parents are extreme perfectionists, very organized, and r

August 30 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.—LUKE 5:5 ‘ At Thy Word, I Will’ In Luke chapter 5, we see an example of a person who acted on the Word and got results. Peter and John had been fishing. They had fished all night and had caught nothing. Then Jesus told Peter, “. . . Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught” (Luke 5:4). Peter said, “. . . Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5). What change would come in our lives if we said, “At Your Word, I will!” What change would come if we would just do it because the Word said so, whether we felt like it or not. You see, we’ve clung to the theories of men and have ignored the living Word of God. Healing and victory belong to you and to me. The Bible tells us so. So adopt as your motto: “At Your Word, I will.” Confession: In

August 29 HEALTH FOOD DEVOTIONAL Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.—JEREMIAH 1:12 God’s Word Is Good I remember another situation in which I had to act on what the banker said. I needed a car that could pull my trailer up mountainous roads. So I bought a 1955 V8 Chevrolet. Well, I didn’t have the money to buy it. I found a salesman who would let me have it at cost. However, instead of letting me have it at cost, it cost him one hundred and fifty dollars to sell it to me. So I called from California to Garland, Texas, to speak to my banker. I said, “Mr. Mitchell, I am buying a three-quarter ton pick-up truck.” Then I told him the price. He said, “Wow! There’s got to be some mistake here.” So the salesman got on the phone with Mr. Mitchell and said, “I’m staying with the figure I gave him. We made a mistake. We figured it wrong. He’s getting the truck at one hundred and fifty dollars less than what we put in it. But I’m a man of my w

August 28 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.—ISAIAH 40:8 You Can Depend on God’s Word Are you ready to act on the Word? What does it mean to “act on the Word”? It means to act like the Word of God is so, because it is. Did you ever borrow money from a bank? Did you ever act on what the banker said? Well, I have. I remember one time I wanted to buy an air conditioner for a travel trailer I had. I was holding a meeting in a certain place, and a man came up to me and said, “I’ll sell you one.” I had already priced them, and I knew I would be saving almost two hundred dollars if I purchased it from this man. Besides that, he said that he would install it. I was only at the meeting a few days, and I didn’t have that much money on me. And I didn’t have that much money in my bank account. So I made a long distance call to Mr. Mitchell, my banker. I said, “Mr. Mitchell, I’m buying an air conditioner for my trailer, and I have to give this man

August 27 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.—JAMES 1:22 Make an Effort Even when God speaks to you, you can choose not to act on it. The bedfast man who was let down through the roof didn’t have to act when Jesus said, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk” (Mark 2:11). He could have refused. But he came for results, so he made an effort to do what Jesus said. When I was bedfast as a seventeen-year-old boy, the doctors said I had to die. My body was almost totally paralyzed. I couldn’t walk. I wasted away until I weighed only eighty-nine pounds. When I began to act upon the Scriptures, I heard these words on the inside of me, “Now you believe you’re well. Get up then.” So I pushed my paralyzed body off the bed. I made an effort, just like the man in the Bible who was bedfast. Well, Jesus still speaks to us today, because He is here in Spirit. He still speaks, just as He spoke to the man and said, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” And when He doe

August 26 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.—DEUTERONOMY 28:2 Obey the Voice of the Lord After the man who had been burned was healed, I took the next one aside and dealt with him individually. I asked him  was wrong with him. Then I said to him, “The Lord said, ‘Run!’” He whirled around and started running. Eleven out of the twelve were instantly healed as they obeyed God. When I got to the twelfth one, I said, “Are you ready to run?” I thought she would be just as thrilled as the rest of them were and take off running. Instead, she said, “Oh, Brother Hagin, I can’t run. I have arthritis.” I said to her, “Didn’t you hear as I talked to the other people? In fact, a woman who couldn’t even walk down to the front by herself was healed. Three men had to hold her up. She had arthritis, too, but as she started to run, her body straightened out and was all right. Did you see her?” She said, “Yes, but I know

August 25 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.—JOHN 5:8 Rise and Walk In 1950, I was preaching at a meeting in Oklahoma, and at the close of my sermon, the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Minister to those who have anything wrong with them from their hips down.” So I just spoke that out. Well, twelve people came. The first man looked like he was sitting down, but he was scooting his feet along because his legs were drawn up. I asked him what was wrong, and he explained that he had been burned. In fact, that was the first day he had been out of bed in a whole year. He had spent six months in the hospital and six months in the bed at home. His legs were burned so deeply that the muscles and ligaments had left his legs drawn up. When the Lord said to minister to these people, I thought He meant to lay hands on them. But as the people were coming down to the front, the word of the Lord came to me again saying, “Don’t touch a single one of them. Don’t pray for them. D

August 24 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.HEB11:6 God Honors Faith A number of years ago during the early days of the Pentecostal movement, I read about an outstanding healing evangelist. At one particular meeting, there were four people in wheelchairs who had been pushed down to the front. After the evangelist preached and gave the invitation, he walked off the platform and spoke to those in the wheelchairs. He said to the first one, “I command you to rise and walk in Jesus’ Name.” He just got up and walked out of that chair. The evangelist said to the second one, “I command you to rise and walk in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He rose up and walked right out of the chair. Then he said to the third one, “I command you to rise and walk in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He got up and walked right out of the chair. The evangelist said to the fourth on

August 23 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.—MARK 2:12 Act on What Jesus Said Was the man who was lowered through the roof healed on the faith of his four friends alone? No, the man had to have faith too. How do we know that he had faith? Well, how many bedfast people would let someone carry them to the roof of a house? Most bedfast people would say, “Wait a minute. Maybe we’ll see Jesus when the service is over. I’m already bedfast, and if you happened to drop me, I’ll surely break some bones. I’d be in a mess then.” But this man who was lowered through the roof permitted himself to be carried up to the roof by four men. He believed that something was going to happen, or he wouldn’t have let them take him up there. Jesus said to the bedfast man, “. . . Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house” (Mark 2:11). I want you to notice somet

August 22 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?— JAMES 2:14 Faith Has Corresponding Actions Real believing is acting on God’s Word. I’ve used that phrase for many, many years, because it’s very simple to understand. So act on the Word. That’s what believing the Bible is. It’s acting on the Word. In Mark chapter 2, a man is brought into the presence of Jesus by four of his friends. Because of the crowd, they couldn’t get into the house where Jesus was teaching. So they let the man down through the roof! This account illustrates some important things about faith that I want you to notice. Mark 2:5 says, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” Well, can you see faith with your physical eyes? No, because it’s of the spirit. You can’t see spiritual things with the physical eye. Think about this in the natural for a moment. For example, can you see the wind? No, but y

AUGUST 21 JOSEPH PRINCE GRACE INSPIRATIONAL Judge God Faithful By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Hebrews 11:11 We often hear about Abraham’s faith, but do you know that his wife, Sarah, had faith too? She received divine strength to conceive Isaac, even though by this time, as a woman who had never conceived, she was doubly barren! How did Sarah find faith? The Bible tells us that she “judged Him faithful who had promised”. She was conscious of  the Lord’s faithfulness , not her own faithfulness! My friend, rest in the faithfulness of Jesus. It’s not your faith but His faithfulness—His faithfulness in always loving you and making good on His promise to heal you. When you find yourself wavering in faith, judge Him faithful and be at rest. He cannot fail you and will do as His Word has promised!

August 20 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.—JAMES 5:14 ‘ I Want You to Pray’ The pastor continued, “When I got there, the boy had lapsed into unconsciousness. The doctor said he would never regain consciousness. He said that he would die. So I asked the mother, ‘What do you want me to do?’ “She said, ‘I want you to pray. I just don’t believe it’s the will of God for us to lose the only child we’ve got. It’s not the will of God that he die at nine years of age. I just can’t accept that. I don’t believe that. I want you to pray.’” So the pastor asked the mother if she had any olive oil. She went into the kitchen and brought some back. He prayed and anointed the child. The boy opened his eyes and said, “Mama, Mama.” And he was all right. Then the pastor said to his listening audience, “I’ve been doing that for some of my church folks. Now don’t get your hopes up, because if it is th

August 19 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.—MATTHEW 8:3 God’s Willingness to Heal Is Unchanging When I was sick as a teenage boy, I believed that God could heal me. I believed that God was able to do anything. But I was taught that He wasn’t willing today. I heard people say, “Now God can do it. He has the power to do anything—if it is His will.” I remember one particular pastor I heard on the radio who said just that. He talked about a nine-year-old boy whose parents were members of his church. This little boy was their only child. He was desperately ill and under the care of a doctor. The parents called this pastor, weeping, and said, “The doctor just left and said, ‘I’ve done everything I know to do. There isn’t anything anyone can do. I’m just going to tell you the truth about it. The child is not going to live. In fact, he’s dying now.’” I heard the pastor say on the radio, “I knew James 5:14 was

HEALTH FOOD DEVOTIONS BY K HAGIN August 18 When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, THOU CANST make me clean.—MATTHEW 8:1–2 God Will Heal You Notice what the leper said: “Thou canst.” We would say today, “You’re able to.” You see, he already believed that Jesus was able to do it. But he wasn’t sure if Jesus was willing to do it. Then Jesus put forth His hand, touched him, and said, “I will” (Matt. 8:3). Jesus never said, “I won’t.” Of all the people who ever came to Jesus for healing, Jesus never said, “It’s not My will to heal you. God’s trying to teach you a lesson. You just be patient in this, and let patience have her perfect work.” Not one single time did Jesus ever say that. And no man has any right to say it to others in His Name, because Jesus Himself never said it. Settle on God’s willingness to heal you. He not only can, but He will! So don’t just believe that He can

August 17 . . . Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. —MATTHEW 9:28–29 The Great Law of Faith Notice that Jesus didn’t say to the two blind men, “Well,because you are sincere and honest, go your way and see.” No, He didn’t say that. You see, although people should be sincere and honest, they must also act in faith. These two blind men who followed Jesus from Jairus’ house, crying, “Thou Son of David, have mercy on us,” were still blind after calling out to Jesus. All your crying and praying is of no avail unless you definitely believe that God does for you what He claims He does. That is so important. Jesus asked these two blind men a question, “Do you believe?” In other words, He asked, “Do you believe that I’m able to heal you?” If you don’t believe God is able to meet your need, you are wasting your time taking any further steps. You see, God operates on

August 16 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.—MATTHEW 9:27 The Presence of God May Not Heal You If you stopped reading this story at verse 27, you could hold up the two blind men as a perfect example of people who prayed but did not receive an answer. And verse 28 says, “And when he [Jesus] was come into the house, the blind men came to him. . . .” Even though the blind men were in the Presence of Jesus, they were still blind. That illustrates this fact: Merely coming into the Presence of God will not save or heal you. Today people seem to think that just going to meetings, or just getting under certain spiritual influence, will bring them their blessings. Well, those are steps in the right direction. But if people just stop there, they haven’t gone far enough. Many even present themselves at the altar for salvation or healing and are still no better; they do not receive from God. When I was a Baptist past

August 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.—JAMES 5:15 Pray in Faith Many people have been praying for years and are in the same boat they were in when they first began praying. Things haven’t changed at all. Some people have been praying for forty years, and it seems they’re no nearer to the answer now than when they first began praying. I am not belittling prayer, because prayer is important. But prayer alone will not save your spirit or heal your body. Some people have been praying all their lives and are still not saved. I prayed for years. I can’t remember the first time I prayed. As far as I know, I’ve been praying all my life. I do not have any conscious moment of not praying. Yet in all those years of praying, I wasn’t saved. Now I know exactly when I did get saved, because it took more than prayer to save me. And it takes more than prayer to save you or heal you. You see, som

August 14 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.—MATTHEW 9:27 Prayer Alone Will Not Heal You Jairus’ little daughter had just been raised up from the dead and healed. Two blind men followed Jesus from Jairus’ house, crying and saying, “Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.” Even though these two men cried and prayed, they were still in the same boat they were in to begin with. They were still blind. One account I read said that these two men were still blind after crying and praying because they addressed Jesus as the Son of David. But Matthew wrote his entire Gospel to prove that Jesus was the Son of David! Jesus was the Son of David; the blind men were addressing Him correctly. And by calling Him the Son of David, they were acknowledging that He was the One who was to come. They were acknowledging that He was the Messiah. But even though the blind men were correct in calling Him the Son of David—even though

August 12 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.—JAMES 1:8 We Will Either Doubt or Have Faith We checked up on Margene’s mother and father several years later when her mother was eighty-nine years old. She still did all her housework. She had a better, clearer mind than even her daughters had! At sixty-seven, she was sitting around, out of her mind, making funny, unintelligible sounds. But at eighty- nine, she had a sharp mind and was able to function just fine. How can you receive the best that God has for you? Well, first, be hungry and thirsty for God and His best. Resist doubt constantly. The only cure for doubt is faith in God’s Word. Act on the Word. Believe it for what it says. Act on the Word of God and receive all of its promises. There is no other way. The Spirit of God said through James, “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 t

August 11 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.—HEBREWS 10:35 Cast Not Away Your Confidence! After I said that to Margene’s mother, my wife would say, “I wonder what happened to Margene’s mother?” I would always answer, “I’ll tell you exactly what happened to her. She was healed. Her mind was restored.” She would say, “Well, we haven’t heard anything.” I would say, “I don’t have to hear anything. I spoke it. That’s it. That’s all I need.” About a month after I spoke with Margene and her mother, my wife received a letter from Margene. It read, “Brother and Sister Hagin, I would like to come down and have you all pray with me about something, if that’s all right with you.” So my wife wrote back and told her to come. Margene didn’t say anything about her mother in the letter. When she drove up in front of the parsonage, we went out there to greet her. My wife and I both said at the same time, “What ever happened to your mother?” She said, “Brother

August 10 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.—HEBREWS 11:1 Don’t Be Moved by What You See Back when we were pastoring, I remember a woman who brought her mother from another county to see us. Margene brought her mother, who was sixty-seven years old and had been in the asylum at Wichita Falls, Texas, because she had lost her mind. Margene explained to us that the state authorities had contacted her and her two sisters to see if one of them would keep their mother. The state said they would pay for the daughter to keep her mother. The mother had not responded to institutional care. Those at the institution told Margene, “We can’t help your mother. Her mind will never be right.” She was unsaved and not expected to live much longer. She was going to die and go to hell. When I looked into the mother’s eyes, I noticed that they didn’t look right. They were dull and listless. Margene shook her mother, put her hand on her shoulder, and said, “Now,

August 9 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.— JOHN 16:7 The Executive of the Godhead The Holy Spirit is the only executive of the Godhead on the earth today. In other words, He’s the One who’s here to carry out the orders of God. You have to cooperate with Him in your prayer life, because the Holy Spirit is the One who helps you. And when it comes to healing, the Holy Spirit is the One who executes the healing in your body that Jesus bought and paid for on your behalf. According to First Peter 2:24, Jesus already purchased your healing: “By whose stripes you were healed.” You’re not going to be healed; you were healed. That means that in the mind of God, you were healed back when the stripes were laid on Jesus’ back. In the mind of God, you’re already healed. In the mind of Jesus, you’re already healed, because He remembers when the stripes were

August 8 If ye shall ask any thing in my [Jesus’] name, I will do it.— JOHN 14:14 Healing and Deliverance Come by Faith When this man with TB of the spine walked back to his seat,  I wondered why what I’d done didn’t work. I walked back behind the pulpit, and, suddenly, Jesus stood right in front of me. I saw Him just as plain as I saw the pulpit. It was an open vision. No one but me saw Him. Jesus put His finger right up under my nose and said, “I said, ‘In My Name, the demon or demons will have to go!’” No one else saw or heard Him (although they did hear what I said in reply), but I saw and heard Him. I said, “Lord, I know You told me to call them out in Your Name and the demon or demons would have to go. I told it to go, but it didn’t leave.” Jesus again put His finger right up under my nose and almost touched it. He said, “I said, ‘In My Name, call them out! In My Name, the demon or demons will have to go!’” I said, “Lord, I know You said that. It hasn’t been thirty days since You

August 7 And he [Jesus] did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.MAT 13:58 Unbelief Is an Enemy! At a meeting in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, years ago, a man stood in the healing line. I asked him, “What did you come for?” He said, “I have TB of the spine. My spine is as stiff as a poker; I don’t have any movement.” This man couldn’t move his back. He could move his neck just a little bit. I laid one hand on his chest and one hand on his back. I felt that fire jump from hand to hand, so I knew his body was oppressed by a demon. I said, “I command you, foul spirit, that oppresses this body to come out of him [I meant out of his body.].” The man had been saved, filled with the Holy Ghost, and was a member of a Full Gospel church. The demon was not in his spirit. It was in his body. His back was as stiff as a board. After I said, “Come out of him in the Name of Jesus,” I missed it. Remember, Peter missed it after he stepped out of the boat onto the water, and unbelief robbed hi

August 6  yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.—JAMES 4:7 Give No Place to the Devil! Now about a year later, I was at a church for just one service on a Saturday night. As I was sitting on the platform and looking the crowd over, my eyes fastened on this young man who just a year before had been delivered from epilepsy. The Spirit of God said to me, “After you cast that spirit out of him, he didn’t have one single epileptic seizure for a whole year. But in the last thirty days, he has had three attacks. And they have all come on him in the nighttime while he was asleep. The reason that he woke up in a seizure is that he went to bed afraid. Now cast that thing out of him again and teach him how to stand against the devil.” Well, I got up to preach and told the young man to come down to the front. He came down, and I said, “When I was here last year, you were healed of epilepsy. That thing left you for a solid year. You did not have one epileptic seiz

August 5 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. —ACTS 10:38 Jesus Heals All Those Oppressed by the Devil There was a twelve-year-old boy in one of the churches my wife and I pastored who virtually grew up in the church. After I left pastoring to go out on the evangelistic field, my wife and I went back to that church to hold a meeting. A young man about eighteen years old came up in line during one of the services for prayer. He had just graduated from high school. I asked him what was wrong with him, because I usually asked people, “What am I praying for?” I wanted to find out whether to pray for healing or the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because I put everyone in the same line and called it a prayer line. He said, “Brother Hagin, when you were the pastor here, I never had any problems. But after I got out of high school, I began to have epileptic seizures

August 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.—1 THESSALONIANS 4:4 Your Body Is the ‘House’ in Which You Live Your body is the house in which you live. Your body hasn’t been redeemed yet. To explain further, let’s say that, in the natural, you live in a house at 405 South Elm Street, and someone says, “That house has termites.” Well, just because that house has termites in it is no sign that you, the resident of that house, have termites in you. You just live in that house. You don’t have termites in you, but you can do something about the termites in your house. You can get someone to help who knows how to get rid of the termites, or you can do something about them yourself. Well, your body is the “house” in which you live. The real you is the spirit man who has been born again. And if you don’t know how to keep the devil out of your “house,” he’ll get in. You see, it’s not a matter of casting the devil out of a person’s spirit. The

August 2 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?—MATTHEW 17:19 Faith Gives Action to the Power In Matthew 17:19, the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast the devil out of the boy. They were troubled because they had been casting devils out and ministering successfully to others. So why couldn’t they do it this time? It wasn’t because they didn’t have the power, because they did. Jesus gave it to them in Matthew 10:1, and they had been ministering to the sick and casting out devils with that power. If they hadn’t been, they wouldn’t have asked, “Why could we not cast this one out?” The disciples had a reputation of ministering to people. Jesus said unto them, “Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt. 17:20). I want you to notice something. This is an a