Mark Hankins Ministries

May 2017 - My Momma Runs!

MY MOMMA RUNS

My dad and mom pastored a full gospel church in West Columbia, Texas for more than 50 years. The Christian Center has grown to be the largest church in West Columbia and the largest Full Gospel church in the area.  When my parents first moved to West Columbia, I was only a year old and my older brother, Mike, was four.  Mom was sick and mentally tormented for the first two years in West Columbia. Dad not only pastored the church, but also had the pressure of all the family responsibilities.  Dad began to have heart trouble.  During this same time, while playing outside with Mike, I stuck my thumb into a bicycle chain and cut off my thumb.  I don’t remember ever having two thumbs.  The church was small and struggling, and we were poor.  It was a tough time for us.

However, in the middle of this struggle a man gave my dad some books on the authority of the believer, the integrity of God’s Word, and who you are in Christ.  Dad began to read and study the material and gained a new understanding of God’s Word.

The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.  - Psalm 119:130

Dad began to speak the Word to Mom and had her repeat it after him. She began to say, “I am who God says I am.  I have what God says I have.  I can do what God says I can do!”  As my parents saw who they were in Christ and spoke the Word, faith arose in their hearts.  They knew that victory belonged to them in every area of their life.

IT’S NOT NECESSARY, UNLESS IT’S NECESSARY

As I grew up in church, there were some unusual services. Sometimes while we sang, Mom would begin to praise God rather exuberantly and shout, “Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!” With glory and joy on her countenance, she would shout “Wooooo” and run around the church!  Dad was a little more dignified.  After Mom ran, Dad would say, “Now, some of you don’t think that is necessary.  It’s not necessary, unless it’s necessary.”  While the congregation tried to figure out what Dad had said, Mom and others who had joined her would finish their rejoicing.

He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.  And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God...                                           Psalm 40:2-3

I did not understand the magnitude of my mother’s deliverance, until I was seventeen and running from God.  I had an automobile accident coming home from a party with a backslidden friend that totaled several cars.  We walked away without a scratch.  My backslidden friend said, “If your mom wasn’t praying, we would have been killed.”  I agreed. 

SATAN HATH DESIRED TO HAVE YOU

When I got home, Mom was sitting in a rocking chair.  She spoke the words that Jesus spoke to Peter, “...Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren,” Luke 22:31,32.

Although good changes had begun in my life, not long after the automobile accident, three friends and I ended up in the county jail.  I called Mom from the jail and she said, “Your dad has church tonight (it was a Wednesday night), so just prop your feet up and stay a while.”  Dad and four deacons came to jail after church and put up bond for me so I could go home.  After that incident, I sold my ‘55 Chevrolet and that sobered me up for a while.

ARRESTED BY GOD

One Sunday God had a surprise for me.  I was sitting on the back row cutting up and God “arrested” me.  An unannounced guest speaker, F.E. Ward, came to church that Sunday.  Brother Ward was a big, stocky preacher. You never knew when he was going to show up, and that Sunday I was not prepared for what was about to happen. 

I was sitting on the back row with my backslidden friends when Brother Ward went to the platform and said he felt led to do something.  He pointed to the back and said, “I want the pastor’s son to come to the front.”  I was shocked!  My friends made a comment, “You’re a dead duck now.”  As I got up and headed down the aisle, I began to repent under my breath: “O God, forgive me of my sins.  Please don’t tell that preacher what I’ve been doing.  If You tell him and he tells everybody, my dad will kill me.”

All the blood drained from my face, I was afraid and embarrassed as I stood in front of the whole church.  I was only seventeen, but I thought my life had come to an end.  Instead, I heard the voice of F.E. Ward say, “Sit down on the altar.”  As I sat down, he began to speak to me under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  As he spoke to me about God’s plan and purpose for my life, the presence and love of God overwhelmed me, and I began to cry.  I surrendered my life to Jesus again, and my heart was changed by the love of God.  I AM A LIVING TESTIMONY THAT THE LOVE OF GOD IS THE GREATEST FORCE ON EARTH.

I AM WHO GOD SAYS I AM

Dad’s preaching and Mom’s praying and running around the church began to make sense to me.  I started studying the scriptures that showed me my redemption in Christ. I began to daily meditate on who I was in Christ.  I would say, “I am who God says I am.  I have what God says I have.  I can do what God says I can do.” The power of God’s Word started a work in me, and I began to understand my identification with Christ.

My Mom still ran around the church up until she went to Heaven a few years back.  The church was much bigger in her later years and there were a lot more educated and prosperous people in the congregation.  She didn’t care she would say, “Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!”  She would shout “Woooooo” and run around the church.  The only difference is I would shout and run with her.

TRIUMPHANT PARTNERSHIP

2017 is a year of triumphant expansion for the Church!   Second Corinthians 2:14 in the Conybeare's translation says, “Thanks be to God who leads me on from place to place in the train of his triumph, to celebrate his victory over the enemies of Christ.”   Through the power of partnership, a great impact for the spread of this message is being made.   Your continued prayer and financial partnership is making this message and resources available to more people than ever before.  We will send this power-packed gift to you for only $30:  Faith Laughs at Impossibilities (4CDs), The Good Fight of Faith (4CD’s), The Voice of Faith (3CDs), and The Secret Power of Joy book.  It will supercharge your faith.  We are standing with you, declaring blessing and increase in your life as you celebrate Christ's victory everywhere you go!

In Christ,
Mark and Trina

April 2017 - Faith Is Voice Activated!

Your Faith Is Voice Activated

People are saved by words.  Salvation comes by hearing and speaking words. (Romans 10:9,10)                                   

Your faith is voice activated. (Mark 11:23,24)

You must speak what you believe. Even the devil doesn't care what you believe as long as you are silent about it.  (2 Corinthians 4:13)

Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. (Acts 11:14)

In a recent study, a leading neurosurgeon discovered that the speech center of the brain exercises dominion over the entire central nervous system.  He found that different parts of the body respond with stimuli to corresponding parts of the human brain.  However, when the speech center is stimulated, the entire central nervous system responds. This means when someone says, “I am weak,” the speech center sends out the message to the whole body to prepare to be weak.  This must be the reason God said, “Let the weak say, I am strong,” Joel 3:10. 

For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. James 3:2

Actually, James 3 makes it clear that the tongue controls not only the body, but the destiny and quality of our lives as well: 

If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life. A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything — or destroy it! James 3:2-5 (Message)

This study may seem to be a new discovery in medical science, but the Bible has been teaching this fact for thousands of years.  Medical science is finally finding out that what the Bible has been saying has been true all along. 

For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. 1 Peter 3:10

One of the first things a doctor does when examining you is to look at your tongue.  Much the same, when you go to God with a problem, He says, “I see the problem. It is written all over your tongue.” 

The speech center is the dominion center for our lives.  Our words will make us or break us.  Our words determine the boundaries of our lives.  Our words can limit us or loose us.  God gave Adam dominion in the beginning through the power of the spoken word.  That dominion is still true.  The Lord Jesus, the Last Adam, said, “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned,” Matthew 12:37.

Jesus also gave us a revelation of how speaking by faith works in Mark 11:23 when He said, “Whosoever shall say...he shall have whatsoever he saith.” Few people take this revelation as seriously as the Bible emphasizes.   

GOD TOUCHES YOUR MOUTH TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD

Anytime God wants to change our life, He touches our mouth. God changes lives through “mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”  He puts His Words in our mouth to bring life, salvation, and healing.

When God wants to change a city or nation, He always touches someone’s mouth.  God touched Isaiah’s mouth with a coal of fire and sent him to speak words that changed a nation. Those same words are still changing lives today — thousands of years later.  God touched Jeremiah’s mouth and not only changed his life, but an entire nation. The list of people God has used to change nations is long, but the most important thing is for God to touch your mouth and change your world through your words.

Your voice is your address in the realm of the spirit.  Your words custom design and specifically shape your own future.  Your speech center exercises dominion in your life.

YOU HAVE BEEN FRAMED

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Hebrews 11:3

You often hear these words when working with prison inmates, “I have been framed.” However, the person speaking them does not realize how true those words really are. The truth is this: everyone has been framed. Our words and the words of others have framed our world. 

Faith always consists of the spoken Word of God.  F.F. Bosworth said, “It is impossible to boldly claim by faith a blessing that you are not sure God is offering. You cannot boldly possess things you don’t realize are available to you.  If your confession is wrong, your thinking is wrong, you will do without God’s best blessings. 

As we speak the Word of God, it tears down, roots out, builds, and plants our world (Jeremiah 1:4–12). God wants us to speak His Words and frame the picture He has for us.  He has a custom plan for each of us in Christ Jesus.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

“LEGO” BIBLE BUILDING BLOCKS

Jesus said in Mark 11:23, “Whosoever shall say...shall believe those things which he saith...he shall have whatsoever he saith.”  Notice He said believe once and say, saith, saith a total of three times.  Dad Hagin explained the Lord instructed him that he would have to do three times more teaching on the speaking part of faith than on the believing part or people wouldn’t get it.  The speaking part of faith is vital.  Faith is released or put into action by speaking.  If you are silent, you lose by default. 

In Mark 11:23, Jesus used three different Greek words to explain the speaking part of faith. The first “say” is the Greek word epo, which means command. It shows the authority of the believer. The second reference to speaking is the word “saith.”  This word in the Greek is laleo, which means to speak out, use your own voice, and be bold.  The third reference to speaking is also the word “saith.” However, this Greek word is lego which means a systematic set discourse. 

At toy stores we see Lego sets that contain building blocks for children to construct according to the diagram or picture on the box.  Jesus said, “I am giving you a set of Lego building blocks you can use to frame your world according to the picture and diagram I have given to you in the Word of God.” 

The Bible has given us a set of building blocks for salvation, healing, blessing, prosperity, and victory in life. Take the Word of God and build by putting His Word in your mouth and framing your future.

Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest Who has [already] ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith in Him]. Hebrews 4:14 (AMP)

Your success and usefulness in this world will be measured by your confession and your tenacity to hold fast to that confession. F. F. Bosworth

In other words, do not just speak the confession, but be tenacious about it as well.  God can be no bigger in you than you confess Him to be.  A spiritual law few people recognize is your situations and circumstances are not what determine your future.  Your words and your confessions are what shape and determine who you are and what you will become.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:9-10

FAITH PARTNERSHIP MOVES MOUNTAINS

Trina and I are confident your faith is strengthened and reaching new levels as we partner together in spreading the gospel to the nations.  Joining our faith, stretching together in giving and prayer is causing mountains to move! We want to share fresh revelation from recent meetings in a 4CD offer, "Words That Move Mountains" and the book, "Faith Opens the Door to the Supernatural" for a gift of $25 or more.  Your partnership helps feed the faith of many through television, radio, books and the internet.  Receive this blessing of partnership: "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!”

In Christ,
Mark and Trina Hankins