Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Write Your Own Ticket With God
Move from wanting a promise to acting as if it is already granted, in four ordered moves: say it, do it, receive it, tell it.
Four steps, in order: Say it (positive confession), Do it (act as one who already has it), Receive it (take it as yours now, before the evidence), Tell it (testify it is done).
What it is
Kenneth E. Hagin’s best-known formula, drawn from his reading of Mark 11:23-24. Hagin said that in 1953 Jesus appeared to him in a vision in Phoenix, Arizona, and gave him four steps anyone could take to see God’s promises come to pass — so that, in his phrase, you could “write your own ticket with God.” The four steps are ordered and meant to be done in sequence: Say it, Do it, Receive it, Tell it. It is a structured way of moving from merely wanting something to inhabiting it as already settled, then acting and speaking from that settled state.
The Method
Hagin illustrates each step with a scriptural figure (the woman with the issue of blood; David against Goliath):
- Say it. Speak the desired thing as a positive confession, not a complaint about the lack. Of the woman who said “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole,” Hagin notes she “could have made a negative statement or confession instead of a positive one. And that would have been what she would have received.” You frame in words the outcome you intend.
- Do it. Act on what you have said. Faith without corresponding action stays inert; David “put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone” — he moved. You take the step a person who already believed would take.
- Receive it. Take it as yours now, before the evidence. In Hagin’s order the feeling and the result follow the saying and acting — they do not precede them. You accept it inwardly rather than waiting to feel convinced first.
- Tell it. Testify that it is done — acknowledge the outcome to others so it is anchored and so others may be encouraged. (Sourcing note: bracketed scripture phrases and the “negative statement” line are short verbatim quotes from Hagin’s exposition; the 1953-vision framing is Hagin’s own widely-published account.)
Source & Lineage
Kenneth E. Hagin (1917-2003) founded the Word of Faith movement and Rhema Bible Training Center. This formula is the spine of How to Write Your Own Ticket with God (1979) and recurs across his faith lessons.
The underlying “positive confession” mechanism is inherited, often near-verbatim, from E. W. Kenyon, and behind Kenyon from New Thought mental-causation.
Common refinements
Skipping “do it.” Confession without corresponding action is the most common failure point; the acting step is doing much of the real work.
- Confessing the lack. Hagin’s whole emphasis is positive framing; describing the problem reinstalls it.
- Treating it as a vending machine. The strong “obligates God” framing breeds self-blame when results don’t come — hold the outcome loosely.
- Receiving only when you feel it. In Hagin’s order, accepting it precedes the feeling.