How Rick Renner Was Healed: My Miracle Testimony from a Kenneth E. Hagin Meeting

A profound spiritual yearning took root within me in 1973 that ignited a quest for something beyond the familiar confines of my Baptist upbringing.

My soul, brimming with curiosity, led me to fervently seek answers. In February 1974 at the age of 15, a transformative awakening unfolded inside me when I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Subsequently, I was introduced to people who really believed in the healing power of God and in the present-day gifts of the Holy Spirit.

With immense gratitude for my Baptist roots, which anchored me in Scripture and a life dedicated to God’s service, my eyes had now been opened that healing and miraculous power was not just a relic of the past but was still at work in the here and now!

Soon I stumbled upon an extraordinary radio program that utterly captivated me. It was a daily broadcast hosted by a remarkable woman named Kathryn Kuhlman, who spoke about miracles and her relationship with the Holy Spirit. Each afternoon, I found myself eagerly tuning in to her radio program. My ears hung on her every word as she painted a vivid picture of an intimate bond with the Holy Spirit.

I had never heard anyone speak about the Holy Spirit the way I heard Kathryn Kuhlman speak. It was a whole realm of God that I had never heard about in such terms. My heart was completely captured by what I was hearing about actually experiencing a relationship with the Holy Spirit, and I wanted to experience that intimacy with Him for myself that Kathryn Kuhlman spoke about.

Every Friday on her radio broadcast, Kathryn Kuhlman played excerpts from miracle services she was holding all over the United States. When she revealed that Tulsa was next on the map for one of these extraordinary services, attending became a must for me.

The event was set to unfold at the Mabee Center auditorium, which stood on the sprawling campus of Oral Roberts University. On the Sunday the meeting was to be held, I excused myself from my church’s Sunday School a little early and drove across Tulsa to ORU to attend that afternoon’s miracle service at the Mabee Center auditorium.

When I arrived, a sea of people surrounded the massive auditorium. The streets and parking areas were congested with buses and carloads of determined souls who had traveled hundreds, some even more than 1,000, miles to attend this gathering. As I made my way into the building, I wondered, Why have all these people come from so far to hear this woman preach? It wouldn’t be long before I understood.

I had volunteered to be a part of the choir, so I was allowed to enter the auditorium earlier than the crowds. I could see that the rear section of the auditorium’s ground level had been transformed into an area for those battling severe and terminal illnesses. A huge crowd was standing outside, but the ushers were only allowing those who were debilitated to enter that special area so they wouldn’t have to compete with the throngs of people.

From my seat, I observed a sea of individuals in wheelchairs, accompanied by oxygen tanks, IV drips, crutches, and doctors and nurses. Some were even lying on stretchers. It looked as if an entire hospital ward had been emptied and brought to the service. Some of the critically ill had been transported by family members. Others were so near to death that they had been brought to the meeting by ambulance.

One hour before the service began, the main doors to the auditorium opened and the crowd rushed in as fast as their feet could carry them. That sea of people poured into the seating area like swelling torrents through an open dam. A multitude cascaded into the seating area and swiftly filled aisles and jostled for the coveted spots nearest to the stage.

I watched as every seat was claimed and those left outside were redirected to another space where they could participate in the service via closed-circuit television. An overwhelming air of excitement and faith filled the auditorium and could be felt in the atmosphere around us.

My eyes were irresistibly drawn to the area designated for wheelchairs and stretchers. The people in that section were so sick, and I realized many had journeyed to this gathering out of deep desperation and were clinging to a glimmer of hope for a miracle. Quietly, I prayed, “Oh, Lord, please don’t let them be disappointed today.”

Just moments before the service began, a spokesperson approached the microphone to deliver astonishing news that miracles had already started happening among those waiting for the service to commence. I could sense my faith and the collective faith of that massive congregation rise in expectation. It was so buoyant that it seemed it could have lifted the building right off its foundation!

Then the choir director emerged, summoned everyone in the auditorium to rise, and soon the entire assembly lifted their voices in unison to sing “How Great Thou Art.”2 As we did, Kathryn Kuhlman came out on the platform to sing with us. It was my first time to see her in person. Draped in an elegant white gown, she glided across the platform with a grace that seemed almost ethereal.

Her rich, contralto voice resonated through the air as she sang, “Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee: How great Thou art, how great Thou art….” As the music and instruments fell into a reverent silence, she greeted the multitude with warmth and encouraged us to sing “Alleluia.” As thousands of people sang in that sacred moment, I kept thinking, “This must be a glimpse of Heaven.”

After worship concluded, Kathryn Kuhlman approached the microphone to speak. One hour passed like seconds. Interrupting her own message at one point, she suddenly paused and locked her eyes onto a distant section high above in the auditorium. With an outstretched finger, she declared, “Someone right up there has just received a miracle. Stand up and claim it!” It felt as if a whirlwind of power rushed through the auditorium and suddenly miracles started taking place throughout the massive congregation.

During that gathering, I witnessed wonders unfolding in every corner as healing miracles took shape before my very eyes. In all directions around me were people experiencing miracles. Soon people were lining up near the platform to testify about what God had done in their bodies. Wheelchairs were emptied, paralyzed people got up from their stretchers and walked, blind eyes were opened, deaf ears were unstopped, and the mute began to speak.

I watched in amazement as the supernatural power of God continued on full display for hours. Everything I’d ever dreamed — everything I’d ever wanted to believe in — was happening right before my eyes. If any lingering question about God’s healing and miracle-working power had tried to hide in my soul, it utterly dissolved as I watched those wheelchairs and stretchers being emptied, and people who had been unable to walk or move now walked and even ran from one end of the platform to the other. Soon the entire front of the auditorium and aisles were jammed with people who came forward to give their lives to Jesus.

That experience with the miracle-working power of God changed me and my theology forever. In truth, there is nothing like a firsthand encounter with the power of God to alter one’s way of thinking and believing. After my time at that Kathryn Kuhlman service, no one could have convinced me to doubt what I had seen and experienced, for I had experienced first-hand the miracle-working power of God.

As that meeting concluded, I remember thinking, “I love my church where I grew up, but I have been told that God no longer did these things — yet I’ve just seen God do the impossible before my eyes!”

My Own Healing in a Kenneth E. Hagin Meeting in 1974

In the spring of 1974, I was hospitalized due to a severe kidney infection. It was caused by a condition I was born with called horseshoe kidney, or renal fusion.

As a baby develops in the womb, the kidneys move into position — one on each side of the body — but sometimes the kidneys fuse together at their base and form a “U” or a horseshoe shape. In essence, they are conjoined much like Siamese twins. This condition can produce chronic kidney obstructions, kidney infections, kidney stones, kidney cancer, and even problems with the heart, blood vessels, nervous system, reproductive system, urinary system, digestive system, and bones. In those days, if the situation was serious, doctors sometimes recommended the kidneys be surgically separated.

Because I had persistent kidney obstructions, my urologist recommended a surgical procedure to separate my kidneys. But in the mid-1970s, this was considered to be a high-risk surgery, so my parents opted to explore whether medication could resolve the obstruction, hoping to sidestep the surgical risks. All of this was taking place the same summer I had become on fire for God and was in fervent pursuit of knowing more about the power of the Holy Spirit.

Through a relative, I heard that Kenneth E. Hagin was going to hold a meeting at the Sheridan Road Assembly in Tulsa. I had listened to him on his daily radio program and found comfort in listening to him because everything he taught was so solid and rooted in the Bible. He was also from a Baptist background, and knowing that he and I had a similar doctrinal foundation gave me a sense of trust when I listened to him on the radio. So I decided to attend those meetings in July 1974.

That was a historic week of services filled with the power of God — with signs and wonders and other supernatural happenings. The packed auditorium was “electric” as the anointing of God moved across the crowd. The power of God erupted, and every night more and more people packed into that space to experience a divine encounter with the supernatural anointing of God. Every evening, I sat close enough to the front of the auditorium to watch as Kenneth E. Hagin laid hands on people, and I saw so many people receiving healings and miracles.

One night during those meetings, Brother Hagin preached a message that was called, “A Man Full of Faith and Power” from the example of Stephen in Acts chapter 8. I still vividly remember that message as he described Stephen asa common man who had surrendered himself to the Lord — and as a result, he became a man of faith and power whose life was marked with mighty signs and wonders. At the end of that message, Brother Hagin asked people to come forward for the laying on of hands if they felt called to surrender to God’s service.

I had always sensed a calling to the ministry, but that evening kindled a deeper yearning in my soul and spirit, and I felt urged to leave my seat to approach the altar for a divine impartation of the anointing for full-time ministry. But this whole atmosphere was unfamiliar to me, so I lingered until Brother Hagin had nearly reached the end of the line as he prayed for those who had come forward. I desperately wanted to go to the altar, but trepidation held me back. But finally, I mustered the courage to break free from my grip on the pew in front of me, and I moved to the altar to receive prayer.

By the time I got into place to receive prayer, Brother Hagin was sitting on the platform to rest before continuing. So along with a few others, I waited… and waited…and waited. Finally, Brother Hagin descended from the platform to finish laying hands on the last of us “stragglers” who had come forward.

When he passed in front of me, he murmured softly in tongues, his voice a whisper, and gently extended a lone finger toward my forehead. The moment of contact was electric as a profound surge of divine energy coursed through my being. Overwhelmed, my legs buckled, and I crumpled, finding myself on the floor — I could literally feel the power of God radiating from one end of my body to the other end.

As I lay there, it seemed like time stood still as minutes passed, or perhaps only seconds, before I rose again to my feet. When I stood, I found that I not only received a special empowerment for service, but I also received an incredible healing. I inwardly knew that God had touched my kidneys, and when I returned to see the doctor to be checked, my physician verified that I had been healed.

Now, decades later, I remain free from the ailment that once plagued me. I was healed permanently by God’s mighty power on that unforgettable summer evening of 1974 in a Kenneth E. Hagin meeting. Indeed, I was supernaturally and permanently healed by the power of God on that eventful evening.