Pastor Benny Hinn is a notable Israeli tevangelist, teacher, and the author of best-selling books including Good Morning, Holy Spirit. His TV program, This Is Your Day, is among the world’s most-watched Christian programs, seen daily in over 170 countries. Also, his popular website and ministry app reach millions of people every single day in areas of the world that may not otherwise hear about the Gospel. He is best known for his regular “Miracle Crusades”—revival meeting or faith healing summits that are usually held in stadiums in major cities, which are later broadcast worldwide on his television program, This Is Your Day.
Pastor Benny Hinn’s life and ministry has impacted the world for more than four decades with the life-saving and miracle-working message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastor Toufik Benedictus “Benny” Hinn was born in the port city of Jaffa (part of modern Tel Aviv), Israel, on 3rd December, 1952, in the then newly established state of Israel to parents born in Palestine with Greek-Egyptian, Palestinian and Armenian-Lebanese heritage. At the time, his family lived as immigrants to Palestine from Greece. He was raised within the Eastern Orthodox tradition and baptized by the patriarch of Jerusalem.
Soon after the 1967 Arab–Israeli War (“The Six-Day War”), Hinn’s family emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1968 where he attended Georges Vanier Secondary School. He did not graduate. In his books, Hinn states that his father was the mayor of Jaffa at the time of his birth and that he was socially isolated as a child and had a stutter, but that he was nonetheless a first-class student.
In February 1972, Benny Hinn’s life took on an entirely new meaning when he surrendered his heart and life to Jesus Christ as high school friends prayed with him. Soon afterward, he was called to minister the Gospel. Two years after (April 1974), young Benny received a vision of people falling into a roaring inferno and heard the words: “if you do not preach, every soul that falls will be your responsibility!”
On December 7, 1974, four days after his 22nd birthday, Benny Hinn first stood behind a pulpit to preach the Gospel. This was where his life-long stuttering problem suddenly healed. From that time till now, Pastor Benny has dedicated over 45 Years as Statesman, Author, Telecaster, Bridge Builder, and Evangelist, fearlessly seeking to fulfill the Lord’s Great Commission.
Pastor Benny Hinn has preached the Gospel face to face and through television to more than a billion people. Through Miracle Healing Services, conferences, TV broadcasts, the Internet, printed page, and audio-video recordings, this evangelist’s straightforward, uncompromising message of God’s love has inspired hundreds of millions to a personal relationship and deeper walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Benny’s ministry is also engaged in work with My Father’s House children’s homes in Mexico and Asia, as well as with feeding programs, crisis relief, and hospital care. For years, his ministry has provided food, clothing, shelter, education, and religious training for thousands around the globe (including partnerships with numerous missionary and relief agencies).
Through the years, Pastor Benny has embraced new technologies, citing the apostle Paul’s admonition “that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). He uses the television, internet, print, and other forms of media to build a legacy of the highest standard. Today he reaches millions of people every single day through breakthrough technologies, including 11 different social media outlets and popular apps. He also oversees one of the world’s most popular Christian websites, prays for people live over the phone, and takes people around the world into Miracle Healing Services on Periscope. His online radio station has quickly become one of the most popular features of BennyHinn.org, offering an ever-expanding catalog of educational and inspirational teaching through his NEW Benny Hinn School of Ministry Online. He continues to be faithful in a fervent desire to use every available means to bring the life-saving and miracle-working Gospel of Jesus Christ to people around the globe!
One of Benny Hinn’s greatest ministries has been as mentor and apostle for a growing army of Christian leaders. Just as his life was changed forever by the impartation of anointing and wisdom by pioneers like Kathryn Kuhlman, Maxwell Whyte, Oral Roberts, Rex Humbard, Lester Sumrall, and his father-in-law, Roy Harthern, Pastor Benny is increasingly mindful that God has clearly shown him that what he has experienced in over 40 years of ministry must be passed on to younger believers and Christian leaders.
By conducting Miracle Healing Services wherever he travels, forging a growing network of pastors and laypeople through the World Healing Fellowship, and building a comprehensive collection of training materials through the Benny Hinn School of Ministry, he continues a growing commitment to develop a new generation of anointed, mighty men and women who understand the critical need for God’s wisdom and power in their lives.
Today, Pastor Benny continues to take the message of God’s life-saving and miracle-working power around the globe. Memorable Miracle Healing Services have included audiences of up to 7.3 million (in three services) in India, the largest healing service in recorded history. He has been welcomed in his travels by kings, prime ministers, and heads of state, yet his message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ continues to be fervent, motivating him to “go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
The corporate headquarters for Benny Hinn Ministries/World Healing Center Church is located in Grapevine, Texas. Pastor Benny Hinn remains committed, more than ever, to preaching the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, teaching the unchanging Word of God, and expecting the mighty and miraculous power of the Holy Spirit!
In 1972, he became a born-again Christian. Hinn has written that on 21 December 1973, he traveled by charter bus from Toronto to Pittsburgh to attend a “miracle service” conducted by evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. Although he never met her personally, he often attended her “healing services” and has often cited her as an influence in his life. In 1974 he was invited to speak about his spiritual experience at Trinity Pentecostal Church in Oshawa and claimed to have been cured of his stuttering.
Ministry
On moving to the United States, Hinn traveled to Orlando, Florida, where he founded the Orlando Christian Center in 1983. Eventually, he began claiming that God was using him as a conduit for healings, and began holding healing services in his church. These new “Miracle Crusades” were soon held at large stadiums and auditoriums across the United States and the world, the first nationally televised service being held in Flint, Michigan, in 1989. In 1990, he also launched a new daily talk show called This Is Your Day, which to this day airs clips of supposed miracles from Hinn’s Miracle Crusades. The program premiered on the Trinity Broadcasting Network of Paul Crouch, who would become one of Hinn’s most outspoken defenders and allies. Hinn’s ministry began to rapidly grow from there, winning praise as well as criticism from fellow Christian leaders. In 1999, he stepped down as pastor of the Orlando Christian Center, moving his ministry’s administrative headquarters to Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, while hosting This Is Your Day from a television studio in Orange County, California, where he now lives with his family. His former church was renamed Faith World Church under the leadership of Clint Brown, who merged his Orlando church with Hinn’s.
Benny Hinn is the author of a number of Christian books. His thirty-minute TV program This Is Your Day is among the world’s most-watched Christian programs, seen on various Christian television networks, including Trinity Broadcasting Network, Daystar Television Network, Revelation TV, Grace TV, Vision TV, INSP Networks, and The God Channel.
Hinn conducts regular “Miracle Crusades”—revival meeting / faith healing events held in stadiums in major cities throughout the world. Tens of millions attend his Holy Spirit Miracle Crusades each year. Pastor Benny Hinn has spoken to over one billion people through his crusades, including memorable crusades with attendance of 7.3 million people (in three services) in India, the largest healing service in recorded history. Evander Holyfield, who was diagnosed with a non-compliant left ventricle, was healed by God working through Pastor Benny Hinn. According to his testimony, he was healed as he had “a warm feeling” go through his chest as Hinn touched him.
Pastor Benny Hinn’s teachings are charismatic, accepting the validity of spiritual gifts, and Word of Faith in origin, with a focus on financial prosperity. His ministry supports over 60 mission organizations across the world and several orphanages around the world, and houses and feeds over 100,000 children a year. At the same time, the Benny Hinn ministry supports over 40,000 children daily because of his donors.
Benny Hinn married Suzanne Harthern on 4 August 1979. The couple have four children. Sadly, a storm hit the marriage and Suzanne filed divorce papers in California’s Orange County Superior Court on 1 February 2010, citing “irreconcilable differences.” However, in May 2012, Hinn announced that he and Suzanne had begun reconciliation during the Christmas season of 2011, stating that the split had been caused by her addiction to prescription drugs and antidepressants and citing his busy schedule and lack of time for his wife and children. In October 2012, Hinn announced that he and Suzanne would remarry. Benny Hinn and Suzanne remarried on 3 March 2013, at the Holy Land Experience theme park, in a traditional ceremony lasting over two hours and attended by approximately 1,000 well-wishers, including many visiting Christian leaders.
Pastor Benny Hinn’s published works include
- Kathryn Kuhlman: Her Spiritual Legacy and Its Impact on My Life (1999)
- Good Morning, Holy Spirit (1997)
- He Touched Me an Autobiography (April 2000)
- The Anointing (1997)
- Welcome, Holy Spirit How You Can Experience The Dynamic Work of the Holy Spirit in Your Life (1997)
- This Is Your Day for a Miracle (1996)
- The Biblical Road to Blessing (October 1996)
- Miracle of Healing (1998)
- The Blood (2001)
- Going Deeper with the Holy Spirit
- Lord, I Need a Miracle (1993)
- Total Recovery, Supernatural Restoration and Release (6 July 2005)
- Prayer That Gets Results
- Blood in the Sand
- Lamb of God
