Kenneth Hagin was born again on April 22, 1933 at 405 North College Street in McKinney, Texas. About a year later he was healed of a life threatening heart disorder and began to preach the Word of God as a Baptist preacher. Then he became acquainted with Full Gospel folks and heard about the Holy Ghost Baptism. After searching the Scriptures he realized that although the Holy Spirit was dwelling within him because he was a child of God, there was also a work of the Holy Spirit that God desires to perform in the life of every believer subsequent to or following the new birth experience. That subsequent experience is called being filled with the Holy Spirit or being baptized in the Holy Spirit.
He decided he wanted the Holy Ghost Baptism so he walked over to the parsonage of the Full Gospel Church and knocked on the door. The pastor came to the door and Bro. Hagin told him, “I’ve come to receive the Holy Ghost.”
The pastor told him, “Son, you need to wait.” The church was having a revival service that night, and it was then already 6:00 in the evening, so the pastor wanted him to wait and seek for the baptism in the Spirit in the service.
Bro. Hagin knew he would have to wait till 7:00 for the service to begin, then wait for the preliminaries to be finished, then wait for the preaching to be done and by then it would have been about 9:00 o’clock. He believed that the promise of the HGB was a gift and did not think he would have to wait for a while before receiving a gift that was offered. He blurted out, “But it won’t take me long to receive.”
Because of his obvious eagerness, the pastor said, “Well, come on in then.” As he stepped in the door the pastor told him, “I know you can receive the Holy Ghost right away because we read about it in the Acts of the Apostles. But when you have to wait a long time before you receive the Holy Spirit, the experience means so much more to you.” The pastor continued, “Take me, for instance. It took me three years and six months to receive the Holy Ghost. Oh, I waited and waited; I tarried and I sought. Now that I’ve finally received, the Holy Ghost really means something to me.”
Bro. Hagin said, “Well, poor old Paul didn’t know that. I wish you could have gotten to him and told him about waiting. He didn’t know that, because he received the Holy Ghost immediately when Ananias laid hands on him (
Acts 9:17-18). Paul didn’t wait or tarry or seek.” He continued, “But then, all Paul ever did was write about half the New Testament! Of course, he did more single-handedly in the years of his ministry than any denomination has done in five hundred years put together. But, if you could have gotten to him and told him to wait three years and six months to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, then maybe the Holy Spirit would have meant something to him too.”
Bro. Hagin continues his story of how he received the Holy Ghost Baptism. He walked into the living room and knelt at a large chair. This is how he relates his experience:
As I knelt in that Full Gospel parsonage in April 1937, I said to the Lord, “Lord the Holy Ghost is a gift. I received salvation by faith. I received healing for my body three years ago by faith. Now I receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by faith. And I want to thank You now, Heavenly Father, because I receive the Holy Spirit.”
Then I said to the Lord “By faith I have now received the Holy Ghost. Thank God He is in me because Jesus promised that in His Word. And I say it with my mouth because I believe in my heart that I have received the Holy Ghost. Now I expect to speak with tongues because believers spoke with tongues on the Day of Pentecost. And thank God, I will, too as the Holy Ghost gives me utterance.”
After I had prayed that, because I was grateful for the Holy Ghost that I had just received and for the speaking with tongues that God was going to give me, I said, “Hallelujah, hallelujah.” But I had never felt so “dry” in all my life saying that word.
Feelings and faith are far removed from each other; in fact, some times when you feel as if you have the least faith, that is when you have the most faith because you do not base your faith on your feelings. So I said, “Hallelujah” about seven or eight times, even though it seemed as if the word was going to choke me.
About the time I had said “Hallelujah” seven or eight times, way down inside of me, in my spirit, I heard these strange words. It seemed as if they were just going around and around in there. It seemed to me that I would know what they would sound like if they were spoken, so I just started speaking them out!
So about eight minutes from the time I first knocked on that pastor’s door, I was speaking with tongues! The pastor had said, “Wait,” but instead of waiting, I spent that hour and a half before the church service speaking in tongues! it is much better to wait with the Holy Ghost than to wait without the Holy Ghost!