The River of Praise

The following account is from Rev. Kenneth Hagin’s book: “I Believe in Visions”.  I thought it a powerful testimony of the revival river that is flowing and a reminder of the Garden of Shalom (Garden of Shalom) as he visited a garden in his vision.

“The Lord appeared to me in December 1962 while I was conducting a meeting in Houston, Texas…I fell on my knees behind the pulpit. As I knelt there, I fell into a trance.  While I was in this trance, I saw a beautiful flower garden. This sight was so glorious it is absolutely indescribable. There are no words which could tell of its beauty. Such an aroma went up from these flowers that the fragrance seemed to be multiplied a hundredfold, forming a cloud of incense.

I walked up to the garden from the east, and when I reached the gate, Jesus was there to open it for me…He took me down a walkway through the middle of the garden. I saw two white marble seats; Jesus sat down and invited me to sit down. As I looked at Him, I could see to the west of the garden. I asked, ‘What does this mean? What are all these flowers? What do they represent? I have never seen any place like this in all of my life or smelled any fragrance so magnificent!’

To the west I saw flowing into the garden what looked like a river. It narrowed where it came into the garden. Then it seemed to become wider and wider, rising into the sky. It must have been 50 feet wide or more. The river appeared to be pouring tons of water into the garden. Then the water changed and ceased to be water. Instead of a river of water, it was a river of people!

I saw people of all sorts—all of them singing praises as they flowed into the garden. Then the Lord said to me:

‘These people whom you see flowing like a river into this garden are what you call ‘denominational people’ or denominations other than Full Gospel. In this day I am visiting hungry hearts everywhere. Wherever I find hearts that are open to Me, in whatever church they may be, I will visit them in this hour. I also will visit places you never would have thought I would visit—not only what you call ‘denominational churches,’ but I also will visit other religions where hearts are hungry and open to Me. I will bring them into a full salvation and into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This river is all these people who will be called in the last days and who will flow as one and will come together as one. The beautiful aroma of these flowers is the praise of these people ascending into Heaven, even as the incense of old ascended unto Me.’

The Lord continued, ‘You must play a part in this. You will work with these people in the various denominations. You will minister to Full Gospel people to help them be prepared for My coming. I will show you how and what to do.’ Then He took my hand as I stood up and walked with me back to the gate. I went through the gate and then He closed it behind me.

As I stood just outside the gate, the vision disappeared. I came to myself and realized I was on my face behind the pulpit. I arose and told the people what I had seen, and it blessed and inspired all of us. We have seen this vision come to pass to some extent since 1962, but we have not seen the fullness of it yet.

That river is still flowing. There are many who still shall come to this river of God, shall drink of it, and shall walk in the fullness of the Spirit. They shall come from every church and from every country. We are seeing this fulfilled, and we will continue to see it fulfilled in the days that are just before us.

The river keeps flowing to this day sixty years later! May we see its fulfillment in our lifetime. Amen!”