By Kenneth E Hagin
(From the book I BELIEVE IN VISIONS, pp 60 – 66)
One night in 1952 in the parsonage kitchen, my physical senses were suspended. At that moment I didn’t know I was kneeling beside a kitchen chair. It seemed as if I was kneeling in a white cloud that enveloped me.
Immediately I saw Jesus. He seemed to be standing above me, about as high as the ceiling is from the floor. He began to talk to me. “I am going to teach you concerning the devil, demons, and demon possession,” He began. “From this night forward, what is known in My Word as the gift of discerning of spirits will operate in your life when you are in the Spirit.”
Before I go further in relating this vision, let me explain something which I feel is very significant. Notice that Jesus said, “This will operate when you are in the Spirit.” Many times we seem to think that man operates these gifts of the Spirit. However man doesn’t. They are manifested through him by the Holy Spirit: “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Cor. 12:7). We do not have a thing in the world to do with the operation of the gifts other than the fact that they are manifested through us.
Jesus said to me, “When you are in the Spirit, discerning of spirits will operate.” It won’t operate at any particular time we might want it to operate. In other words, we cannot push a button to turn the gift on and off.
To illustrate, let me tell of two incidents that have happened in my ministry. The first happened the month following this vision. In January 1953, I was conducting a meeting in Tyler, Texas. I had been invited to stay with the pastor during the meeting, and I arrived at the parsonage the day before the meeting was to start.
After helping me with my luggage and showing me to my room, the pastor sat down to talk with me while I unpacked my suitcases. In the course of the conversation he said, “I trust that my niece will receive her healing while you are here.” He went on to explain that she had cancer of the lungs. Because his brother, the girl’s father, was not financially able to pay the girl’s medical bills, the pastor had taken on the responsibility himself.
“I put her through one clinic and wasn’t satisfied with their diagnoses,” he said, “so I put her through another clinic. Both of them confirmed that as far as they could determine from all the tests, she has cancer of the left lung.
“The doctors insisted on operating immediately, saying, ‘Even if we take out one lung, she could live. But she cannot live without any lungs.” When my niece said she would like to wait a week before undergoing surgery so she could fast and pray about it, the doctors said, ‘It may be too late, for in a week’s time it may have spread too far.’
“Nevertheless, she insisted on a week’s time to fast and pray. At the end of the week she decided not to have the operation. She said, ‘I knew two women who had cancer of the lung. One was operated on, and the other wasn’t. both of them died. One lived just a couple year’ longer. What is two years? I will trust God to heal me and if He doesn’t, if I die, I’ll die!'”
Many weeks had now come and gone, and the girl was bedfast. The doctors said it was too late for an operation because the cancer had spread to both lungs. They were feed¬ing her six times a day, but she was still losing weight. “We are planning to bring her to your services for prayer,” the pastor said.
It was my custom then to hold special healing services each Tuesday and Friday night. On the first Tuesday night of the meeting, they got the girl out of bed and brought her to the service. I ministered to her by laying on of hands, but nothing happened. On Friday night they brought her again. I also prayed for her the Tuesday and Friday nights of the fol¬lowing week.
Four times I laid hands on her and nothing happened. I say this to point out that if I were exercising the gifts of the Spirit, I would already have healed her. But remember that Jesus said, “When you are in the Spirit, this gift of discerning of spirits will operate.”
We continued the meeting into the third week, and on that Tuesday they brought her to church again. When she stood before me this time I was suddenly in the Spirit; suddenly the Spirit of God enveloped me like a cloud.
This young girl and I were standing in the midst of the white cloud. As I looked at her, I saw fastened to the outside of her body over her left lung (for this is where the cancer started), an evil spirit or imp. He looked very similar to a small monkey hanging onto her body, as a monkey would hang onto a tree limb.
God permitted me to see into the realm of the spirit to see this evil spirit. I addressed the spirit and said, “You foul spirit that is oppressing this girl’s body, you have to leave.” No one else in the congregation saw or heard anything but me, but they heard what I said.
The evil spirit replied. “I know I have to leave if you tell me to, but I don’t want to.”
“In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to leave this body!” I said. I watched as the evil spirit turned loose of the girl and fell to the floor. Then I said, “Not only must you leave this body, but you must leave this building!” He ran down the aisle of the church and out the door.
The girl immediately lifted her hands and began praising God, saying, “I am free, I am free!” She had been a member of a Full Gospel church for 15 years – since she was a child of 8 – and had been seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but had never received it. In this instant, she received the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit of God gave her utterance.
That same week she went back to her doctors and requested new X rays and tests of her lungs. She still looked no better outwardly. She was frail and run-down. The doctors told her that more tests were not necessary; they had done everything they could for her. She insisted, however, so they began to make new X rays and to run the usual tests.
“Something has happened” The doctors exclaimed. They ran another set of tests and took more X rays. Finally convinced, they said, “We cannot find any trace of cancer. It is all gone. Your lungs are clear. We wouldn’t have believed it possible if we hadn’t had the X rays and tests to prove that you had had cancer. What happened to you?”
She explained exactly what had happened, that it was God’s power that had made her completely whole. They said, “Well, all we can say is that we know the condition you were in and that you are now completely well. And if you like, we will sign an affidavit stating that you had cancer of the lungs, but now it is gone.”
The point I am making is that if I had been the one doing the healing, I would have done so the first time I prayed for her rather than the fifth time. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “This gift of the Spirit will operate when you are in the Spirit.”
A similar incident took place when I was conducting a meeting in 1958 in Pueblo, Colorado. While we were having a special prayer for the sick one night, a man from Colorado Springs came forward. He told me that he was nervous, couldn’t sleep, and was on tranquilizers. His wife later told me that they were about to commit him to a mental institution.
Seeing Demonic Oppression
I laid hands on him and prayed that his nerves would be healed and his body would be healed from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. Then I went on to pray for the next person in the healing line. I continued praying for others for about ten minutes more. This man had gone back to his seat, which was on my right. When I looked over at him, immediately I was in the Spirit. God permitted me to see into the spirit realm, and I saw an evil Spirit sitting on this man’s shoulder. The spirit’s arms were around the man’s head in an armlock. I could see this but no one else in the congregation was aware of what was going on.
I called the man to come to me, and when he stood in front of me, I said, “You foul Spirit that oppresses this man’s mind, I command you to leave his body right now in the Name of Jesus!” When I said that, the spirit turned loose of him and fell to the floor.
The evil spirit said to me, “I don’t want to leave this man, but I know if you tell me to, I have to.”
“Not only are you to leave this body, but you are to leave this building at once!” I commanded, and he ran out the side door.
A broad smile crossed the man’s face. He threw his hands in the air and shouted, “I am free! I am free!” Although I hadn’t mentioned what I had seen in the vision, the man said, “It seemed as if there was an iron band around my head and it was being screwed tighter and tighter. More and more pressure was being put on it. Suddenly it popped off and was gone.”
Do such healings last? Ten years later we heard from this man when he called our office in Tulsa for prayer for one of his children. He was still rejoicing in his freedom from demonic oppression.