The Power of The Name

Smith Wigglesworth

[emph., punct., and brackets added]

WHILE I WAS UP on that mountain top, I was reminded of the transfiguration scene, and I felt that the Lord's only purpose in taking us into the glory was to fit us for greater usefulness in the valley.

[Speaking in] Tongues and [then the] Interpretation; "The living God has chosen us for His divine inheritance, and He it is who is preparing us for our ministry, that it may be of God and not of man."

As I was on the mountain top that day, the Lord said to me, "I want you to go and raise Lazarus." I told the brother who accompanied me of this, and when we got down to the valley, I wrote a postcard: "When I was up on the mountain praying today, God told me that I was to go and raise Lazarus." I addressed the postcard to the man in the place whose name had been given to me by the two lads. When we arrived at the place, we went to the man to whom I had addressed the card. He looked at me and said, "Did you send this?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Do you think we believe in this? Here, take it." And he threw it at me.

The man called a servant and said, "Take this man and show him Lazarus." Then he said to me, "The moment you see him, you will be ready to go home. Nothing will hold you." Everything he said was true from the natural viewpoint. The man was helpless. He was nothing but a mass of bones with skin stretched over them. There was no life to be seen. Everything in him spoke of decay.

I said to him, "Will you shout? You remember that at Jericho the people shouted while the walls were still up. God has like victory for you if you will only believe." But I could not get him to believe. There was not an atom of faith there. He had made up his mind not to have anything.

It is a blessed thing to learn that God's word can never fail. Never hearken to human plans. God can work mightily when you persist in believing Him in spite of discouragements from the human standpoint. When I got back to the man to whom I had sent the post-card, he asked, "Are you ready to go now?"

...But Not Crushed...

I AM NOT MOVED BY WHAT I SEE. I AM MOVED ONLY BY WHAT I BELIEVE. I know this: no man looks at appearances if he believes. No man considers how he feels if he believes; the man who believes God has it. Every man who comes into the Pentecostal condition can laugh at all things and believe God. There is something in the Pentecostal work that is different from anything else in the world. Somehow, in Pentecost, you know that God is a reality. Wherever the Holy Ghost has right of way, the gifts of the Spirit will be in manifestation; and where these gifts are never in manifestation, I question whether He is present.

Pentecostal people are spoiled for anything else than Pentecostal meetings. We want none of the entertainments that the churches are offering. When God comes in, He entertains us Himself. Entertained by the King of kings and Lord of lords! O, it is wonderful.

There were difficult conditions in that Welsh village, and it seemed impossible to get the people to believe. "Ready to go home?" I was asked. But, a man and a woman there asked us to come and stay with them. I said, "I want to know how many of you people can pray." No one wanted to pray. I asked if I could get seven people to pray with me for the poor man's deliverance. I said to the two people who were going to entertain us, "I will count on you two, and there is my friend and myself, and we need three others." I told the people that I trusted that some of them would awaken to their privilege and come in the morning and join us in prayer for the raising of Lazarus. It will never do to give way to human opinions. If God says a thing, you are to believe it.

Fasting and Prayer

I TOLD THE PEOPLE that I would not eat anything that night. When I got to bed, it seemed as if THE DEVIL TRIED TO PLACE ON ME EVERYTHING THAT HE HAD PLACED ON THAT POOR MAN IN THE BED. When I awoke, I had a cough and all the weakness of a tubercular patient. I rolled out of bed onto the floor, and cried out to God to deliver me from the power of the devil. I shouted loud enough to wake everybody in the house, but nobody was disturbed. God gave victory, and I got back into bed again as free as ever I was in my life. At 5 o'clock, the Lord awakened me and said to me, "Don't break bread until you break it round My table." At 6 o'clock, He gave me these words, "And I will raise him up." I put my elbow into the fellow who was [by] me. He said, "Ugh!" I put my elbow into him again and said, "Do you hear? The Lord says that He will raise him up."

At 8 o'clock they said to me, "Have a little refreshment." But I have found prayer and fasting the greatest joy, and you will always find it so when you are led by God. When we went to the house where Lazarus lived there were eight of us altogether. No one can prove to me that God does not always answer prayer. He always does more than that. He always gives the exceedingly abundant above all we ask or think.

I shall never forget how the power of God fell on us as we went into that sick man's room. O, it was lovely! As we circled round the bed, I got one brother to hold one of the sick man's hands and I held the other; and we each held the hand of the person next to us. I said, "We are not going to pray; we are just going to use the name of Jesus." We all knelt down and whispered that one word, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" The power of God fell and then it lifted. Five times the power of God fell, and then it remained. But the person who was in the bed was unmoved. Two years previous[ly,] someone had come along and had tried to raise him up, and the devil had used his lack of success as a means of discouraging Lazarus. I said, "I don't care what the devil says; if God says he will raise you up, it must be so. Forget everything else except what God says about Jesus."

The sixth time the power fell, and the sick man's lips began moving, and the tears began to fall. I said to him, "The power of God is here; it is yours to accept it." He said, "I have been bitter in my heart, and I know I have grieved the Spirit of God. Here I am helpless. I cannot lift my hands, nor even lift a spoon to my mouth." I said, "Repent, and God will hear you." He repented and cried out, "O God, let this be to Thy glory." As he said this, the virtue of the Lord went right through him.

I have asked the Lord to never let me tell this story except as it was, for I realize that God can not bless exaggerations. As we again said, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!," the bed shook, and the man shook. I said to the people that were with me, "You can all go down stairs right away. This is all God. I'm not going to assist him." I SAT AND WATCHED THAT MAN GET UP AND DRESS HIMSELF. We sang the doxology as he walked down the steps. I said to him, "Now tell what has happened."

It was soon noised abroad that Lazarus had been raised up, and the people came from Llanelly and all the district round to see him and hear his testimony. And God brought salvation to many. This man told right out in the open air what God had done, and as a result, many were convicted and converted. All this came through the name of Jesus, through faith in His name, yea, THE FAITH THAT IS BY HIM GAVE THIS SICK MAN PERFECT SOUNDNESS IN THE PRESENCE OF THEM ALL.

Common, Yet Miraculous

PETER AND JOHN were helpless, were illiterate; they had no college education...[but] they had been with Jesus. To them had come a wonderful revelation of the power of the name of Jesus. They had handed out the bread and fish after Jesus had multiplied them. They had sat at the table with Him and John had often gazed into His face. Peter had often to be rebuked, but Jesus manifested His love to Peter through it all. Yea, He loved Peter, the wayward one. O, He's a wonderful lover! I have been wayward, I have been stubborn, I had an unmanageable temper at one time, but how patient He has been. I am here to tell you that THERE IS POWER IN JESUS and in His wondrous name to transform anyone, to heal anyone.

If you will see Him as God's Lamb, as God's beloved Son—who had laid upon Him the iniquity of us all—if only you will see that Jesus paid the whole price for our redemption that we might be free, you can enter into your purchased inheritance of salvation, of life, and of power.

Poor Peter, and poor John [literally]! They had no money! But, they had faith, they had the power of the Holy Ghost, and they had God. You can have God even though you have nothing else. Even though you have lost your character, you can have God. I have seen the worst men saved by the power of God.

FROM SMITH WIGGLESWORTH’S BOOK:

Ever Increasing Faith

[emph., punct., and brackets added]

TONGUES and Interpretation: "The divine will is that you should be filled with God, for the power of the Spirit to fill you with the mightiness of God. There is nothing God will withhold from a man filled with the Holy Ghost."

I want to impress the importance of this upon you. It is not healing that I am presenting to you; it is the living Christ. It is a glorious fact that the Son of God came down to bring liberty to the captives.

How is it that the moment you are filled with the Holy Ghost, persecution starts? It was so with the Lord Jesus Himself. We do not read of any persecutions before the Holy Spirit came down like a dove upon Him. Shortly after this, we find that, after preaching in His home town, they wanted to throw Him over the brow of a hill.

It was the same with the twelve disciples. They had no persecution before the day of Pentecost; but after they were filled with the Spirit, they were soon in prison. The devil and the priests of religion will always get stirred when a man is filled with the Spirit and does things in the power of the Spirit. And persecution is the greatest blessing to a church. When we have persecution, we will have purity. If you desire to be filled with the Spirit, you can count on one thing, and that is persecution. The Lord came to bring division, and EVEN IN YOUR OWN HOUSEHOLD YOU MAY FIND THREE AGAINST TWO.

The Lord Jesus came to bring peace; and soon after you get peace within, you get persecution without. If you remain stationary, the devil and his agents will not disturb you much. But when you press on and go the whole length with God the enemy has you as a target. But God will vindicate you in the midst of the whole thing.

At a meeting I was holding, the Lord was working, and many were being healed. A man saw what was taking place and remarked, "I'd like to try this thing." He came up for prayer and told me that his body was broken in two places. I laid my hands on him in the name of the Lord, and said to him, "Now, you believe God." The next night he was at meeting, and he got up like a lion. He said, "I want to tell you people that this man here is deceiving you. He laid his hands on me last night for rupture in two places, but I'm not a bit better." I stopped him and said, "You are healed; your trouble is that you won't believe it."

He was at meeting the next night and when there was opportunity for testimony this man arose. He said, "I'm a mason by trade. Today, I was working with a laborer and he had to put a big stone in place. I helped him and did not feel any pain. I said to myself, ‘How have I done it?’ I went away to a place where I could strip, and found that I was healed."

I told the people, "Last night this man was against the Word of God, but now he believes it. It is true that these signs shall follow them that believe: they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. And all through the power that is in the name of Christ." IT IS THE SPIRIT WHO HAS COME TO REVEAL THE WORD OF GOD AND TO MAKE IT SPIRIT AND LIFE TO US.

You people who are seeking the Baptism are entering a place where you will have persecution. Your best friends will leave you, or—those you may esteem your best friends. No good friend will ever leave you. But it is worth while. You enter into a realm of illumination, or revelation, by the power of the Holy Ghost. He reveals the preciousness and the power of the blood of Christ. I find by the revelation of the Spirit that there is not one thing in me that the blood does not cleanse. I find that God sanctifies me by the blood, and reveals that efficacy of the work by the Spirit.

Stephen was just an ordinary man clothed with the divine. He was full of faith and power, and great wonders, and miracles were wrought by him. Oh, this life in the Holy Ghost! This life of deep, inward revelation, of transformation from one state to another, of growing in grace and in all knowledge and in the power of the Spirit, the life and the mind of Christ being renewed in you, and of constant revelations of the might of His power. It is the only kind of thing that will enable us to stand.

The Biblical Evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

THERE IS MUCH CONTROVERSY today [in] regards [to] the genuineness of this Pentecostal work, but there is nothing so convincing as the fact that over fifteen years ago a revival on Holy Ghost lines began and has never ceased. You will find that in every clime throughout the world, God has poured out His Spirit in a remarkable way in a line parallel with the glorious revival that inaugurated the church of the first century. People, who could not understand what God was doing when He kept them concentrated in prayer, wondered as these days were [and are] being brought about by the Holy Ghost, and found themselves in exactly the same place and entering into an identical experience as the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.

Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). God promised through the prophet Joel, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh...Upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit." As there is a widespread misconception concerning this receiving of the Holy Spirit, I believe the Lord would have us examine the Scriptures on this subject.

You know, beloved, it had to be something on the line of solid facts to move me. I was as certain as possible that I had received the Holy Ghost and was absolutely rigid in this conviction. When this Pentecostal outpouring began in England, I went to Sunderland and met with the people who had assembled for the purpose of receiving the Holy Ghost. I was continually in those meetings causing disturbances until the people wished I had never come. They said that I was disturbing the whole conditions. But I was hungry and thirsty for God, and had gone to Sunderland because I heard that God was pouring out His Spirit in a new way. I heard that God had now visited His people, had manifested His power, and that people were speaking in tongues as on the day of Pentecost.

When I got to this place, I said, "I cannot understand this meeting. I have left a meeting in Bradford all on fire for God. The fire fell last night, and we were all laid out under the power of God. I have come here for tongues, and I don't hear them...I don't hear anything."

"Oh!" they said, "when you get baptized with the Holy Ghost, you will speak in tongues." "Oh, is that it?" said I, "When the presence of God came upon me, my tongue was loosened, and really I felt as I went in the open air to preach that I had a new tongue." "Ah no," they said, "that is not it." "What is it, then?" I asked. They said, "When you get baptized in the Holy Ghost..." "I am baptized," I interjected, "and there is no one here who can persuade me that I am not baptized." So I was up against them and they were up against me.

Begging

I REMEMBER A MAN getting up and saying, "You know, brothers and sisters, I was here three weeks and then the Lord baptized me with the Holy Ghost and I began to speak with other tongues." I said: "Let us hear it. That's what I'm here for." But he would not talk in tongues. I was doing what others are doing today—confusing the 12^th [verse] of I Corinthians with the 2^nd [verse] of Acts. These two chapters deal with different things: one with the gifts of the Spirit and the other with the Baptism of the Spirit with the accompanying sign. I did not understand this, and so I said to the man, "Let's hear you speak in tongues." But he could not. He had not received the "gift" of tongues, but [only] the Baptism.

As the days passed, I became more and more hungry. I had opposed the meetings so much, but the Lord was gracious, and I shall ever remember that last day—the day I was to leave. God was with me so much that last night. They were to have a meeting, and I went, but I could not rest. I went to the Vicarage, and there in the library, I said to Mrs. Boddy, "I cannot rest any longer. I must have these tongues." She replied, "Brother Wigglesworth, it is not the tongues you need, but the Baptism. If you will allow God to baptize you, the other will be all right." "My dear sister, I know I am baptized," I said. "You know that I have to leave here at 4 o'clock. Please lay hands on me that I may receive the tongues."

She rose up and laid her hands on me, and the fire fell. I said, "The fire's falling." Then came a persistent knock at the door, and she had to go out. That was the best thing that could have happened, for I was ALONE WITH GOD. Then He gave me a revelation. Oh, it was wonderful! He showed me an empty cross and Jesus glorified.

I do thank God that the cross is empty, that Christ is no more on the cross. It was there that He bore the curse, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and now, there He is in the glory. Then I saw that God had purified me. It seemed that God gave me a new vision, and I saw a perfect being within me with mouth open, saying, "Clean! Clean! Clean!" When I began to repeat it, I found myself speaking in other tongues. The joy was so great that when I came to utter it, my tongue failed, and I began to worship God in other tongues as the Spirit gave me utterance.

It was all as beautiful and peaceful as when Jesus said, "Peace, be still!" and the tranquillity of that moment, and the joy surpassed anything I had ever known up to that moment. But, Hallelujah, these days have grown with greater, mightier, more wonderful divine manifestations, and power. That was but the beginning. There is no end to this kind of beginning. You will never get an end to the Holy Ghost till you are landed in the glory—till you are right in the presence of God forever. And even then, we shall ever be conscious of His presence.

     From SMITH WIGGLESWORTH’S, “THE GIFT OF TONGUES”

Incredible Spiritual Power!

[emph., punct., and brackets added]

ON THIS LINE, I want to tell you about Willie Burton, who is laboring for God in the Belgium Congo. Brother Burton is a mighty man of God and is giving his life for the heathen in Africa. He took fever and went down to death. They said: "He has preached his last; what shall we do?" All their hopes seemed to be blighted, and there they stood, with broken hearts, wondering what was going to take place.

They left him for dead; but, in a moment, without any signal, he stood right in the midst of them; and they could not understand it. The explanation he gave was this, that when he came to himself, he realized a warmth going right through his body, and there wasn't one thing wrong with him.

How did it come about? It was a mystery until he went to London and was telling the people how he was left for dead, and then was raised up. A lady came up and asked for a private conversation with him, and arranged a time. She asked, "Do you keep a diary?" He answered, "Yes." She told him, "It happened on a certain day that I went to pray; and as soon as I knelt, I had you on my mind. The Spirit of the Lord took hold of me and prayed through me in an unknown tongue. A vision came before me in which I saw you laid out helpless; and I cried out in the unknown tongue till I saw you rise up and go out of that room."

She had kept a note of the time, and when he turned to his diary, he found that it was exactly the time when he was raised up. There are great possibilities as we yield to the Spirit and speak unto God in quiet hours in our bedrooms. God wants you to be filled with the Holy Ghost so that everything about you shall be charged with the dynamic of heaven.

From REDEMPTION TIDINGS

Clothed With The Spirit
A Sermon From SMITH WIGGLESWORTH

GOD HAS A PLAN for us in this life of the Spirit—this abundant life. Jesus came that we might have life. Satan comes to steal, and kill, and destroy, but God has for us: abundance, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing [and] abundant [in] measure, God filling us with His own personality and presence, making us salt and light, and giving us revelation of Himself, God with us in all circumstances, afflictions, and persecutions, in every trial, girding us with truth— Christ the initiative, the Triune God in control—our every thought, word, and action must be in line with Him, with no weakness or failure. Our God is a God of might, light, and revelation, preparing us for heaven (Col. 3:3). Our life is hid with Christ in God; when He who is our life shall be manifested, we also shall appear with Him in glory.THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” (2 Co. 5:1-6).

God's Word is a tremendous Word, a productive Word, producing what it is—power-producing God-likeness. We get to heaven through the Word of God; we have peace through the blood of His cross. Redemption is ours through the knowledge of the Word. I am saved because God’s Word says so (Rom. 10:9): “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

If I am baptized with the Holy Spirit, it is because Jesus said that ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you. WE MUST ALL HAVE ONE IDEA—TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, TO BE FILLED WITH GOD.

MESSAGE IN TONGUES

“God hath sent His Word to free us from the law of sin and death. Except we die, we cannot live; except we cease to be, God cannot be.”

The Holy Ghost has a royal plan, a heavenly plan. He came to unveil the King—to show the character of God, to unveil the precious blood. As I have the Holy Spirit within me, I see Jesus clothed for humanity; He was moved by the Spirit, led by the Spirit. We read of some who heard the Word of God but were not profited because faith was lacking in them. WE MUST HAVE A LIVING FAITH IN GOD'S WORD, QUICKENED BY THE SPIRIT. A man may be saved, and [but] still have a human spirit. With many who are spoken to about the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, the human spirit at once arises against the Holy Spirit. The human spirit is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. The disciples at one time, wanted to call down fire from heaven. Jesus said, “Ye know not what spirit ye are of...”

THE PLAN OF THE SPIRIT

MESSAGE IN TONGUES

“This is that which God hath declared, freedom from the law. If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us” (1 Jn. 2:16). “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.”

The Spirit has to breathe in a new tenancy, a new order. He came to give the vision of a life in which Jesus is perfected: “Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Ti. 1:9-10).

Saved, called to be saints, called with a holy calling, holy, pure, Godlike sons with power. It is a long time now since it was settled and death abolished. Death has no more power; mortality is a hindrance; sin has no more dominion; you reign in Christ; you appropriate His finished work. Don't groan and travail for a week if you are in need, ONLY BELIEVE. Don’t fight to get some special thing, ONLY BELIEVE. It is according to your faith. God blesses you with faith. Have faith in God. If you are free in God, believe, and it shall be.

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Stir yourselves up, beloved; where are you? I am risen with Christ, planted. It was a beautiful planting. Seated. God gives me credit, and I believe Him; why should I doubt?

MESSAGE IN TONGUES

“WHEREFORE DO you doubt? Faith reigns. God makes it possible. How many receive the Holy Ghost, and [then] Satan gets a doubt in? Don't doubt; believe. There is power and strength in Him; who dares believe God?”

Quit Doubting Street; live in Faith-Victory Street. Jesus sent seventy away, and they came back in victory. It takes God to make it real. Dare to believe till there is not a sick person, no sickness, everything withered, and the life of Jesus implanted within.

                                                  Deliverance to the Captives

Smith Wigglesworth

Read Luke 4:1-20.

OUR PRECIOUS LORD JESUS has everything for everybody: forgiveness of sin, healing of diseases, and the fullness of the Spirit all come from one source—from the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever as He announces the purpose for which He came: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

Jesus had been baptized by John in Jordan, and the Holy Spirit had descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. Being full of the Holy Ghost, He had been led by the Spirit into the wilderness...there to come off more than conqueror over the arch enemy. Then He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and preached in the synagogues, and at last, He came to His old home town Nazareth, where He announced His mission in the words I have just quoted.

For a brief while, He ministered on the earth, and then gave His life a ransom for all. But God raised Him from the dead. And before He went to the glory, He told His disciples that they too should receive the power of the Holy Ghost upon them. Thus, through them, His gracious ministry would continue. This power of the Holy Ghost was not only for a few apostles, but even for them that are afar off, even as many as our God should call (Act. 2:39), even for us in this twentieth [twenty-first etc.] century. Some ask, "But was not this power just for the privileged few in the first century?" No. Read the Master's great commission as recorded by Mark, and you will see it is for them that believe.

"This is what I baptized you for."

AFTER I HAD RECEIVED the Baptism of the Holy Ghost (and I know that I received, for the Lord gave me the Spirit in just the same way as He gave Him to the disciples at Jerusalem), I sought the mind of the Lord as to why I was baptized. One day, I came home from work and went into the house and my wife asked me, "Which way did you come in?" I told her that I had come in at the back door. She said, "There is a woman upstairs and she has brought an old man of eighty to be prayed for. He is raving up there and a great crowd is outside the front door, ringing the door-bell and wanting to know what is going on in the house." The Lord quietly whispered, "This is what I baptized you for."

I carefully opened the door of the room where the man was, desiring to be obedient to what my Lord would say to me. The man was crying and shouting in distress, "I am lost! I am lost! I have committed the unpardonable sin. I am lost! I am lost!" My wife said, "Dad, what shall we do?" The Spirit of the Lord moved me to cry out, "Come out, thou lying spirit." In a moment, the evil spirit went, and the man was free. DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES! And the Lord said to me, "This is what I baptized you for."

There is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Ghost, reigns supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and prepares us to be more than a match for Satanic forces.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Jesus said to him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus was impressed by the miracles wrought, and Jesus pointed out the necessity of a miracle being wrought with every man who would see the kingdom.

When a man is born of God, [he] is brought from darkness to light; a mighty miracle is wrought. Jesus saw every touch by God as a miracle, and SO WE MAY EXPECT TO SEE MIRACLES WROUGHT TODAY. It is wonderful to have the Spirit of the Lord upon us. I would rather have the Spirit of God on me for five minutes than to receive a million dollars.

Do you see how Jesus mastered the devil in the wilderness? He knew He was the Son of God and Satan came along with an "if." HOW MANY TIMES has Satan come along to YOU this way? He says, "After all, you may be deceived. You know you really are not a child of God." If the devil comes along and says that you are not saved, it is a pretty sure sign that you are. When he comes and tells you that you are not healed, it may be taken as good evidence that the Lord has sent His word and healed you. The devil knows that if he can capture your thought life, he has won a mighty victory over you. His great business is injecting thoughts, but if you are pure and holy, you will instantly shrink from them. God wants us to let the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that pure, holy, humble mind of Christ, be in us.

I come across people everywhere I go who are held-bound by deceptive conditions, and THESE CONDITIONS HAVE COME ABOUT SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALLOWED THE DEVIL TO MAKE THEIR MINDS THE PLACE OF HIS STRONGHOLD.

How are we to guard against this? The Lord has provided us with WEAPONS that are mighty through God to the pulling down of these strongholds of the enemy, and by means of which “every thought shall be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” The blood of Jesus Christ, and His mighty name are an antidote to all the subtle seeds of unbelief that Satan would sow in your minds.

In the first chapter of Acts, we see that Jesus gave commandment to the disciples that they should wait for the promise of the Father, and He told them that not many days hence they would be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Luke tells us that he had written his former treatise concerning all that Jesus began both to do and teach.

The ministry of Christ did not end at the cross, but the Acts and the epistles give us accounts of what He continued to do, and teach through those whom He indwelt. And our blessed Lord Jesus is still alive, and continues His ministry through those who are filled with His Spirit. He is still healing the broken-hearted and delivering the captives—through those on whom He places His Spirit.

Jesus Does Heal By His Spirit!

I WAS TRAVELING one day in a railway train in Sweden. At one station, there boarded the train an old lady with her daughter. The old lady's expression was so troubled that I enquired “what was the matter” with her. I heard that she was going to the hospital to have her leg taken off. She began to weep as she told that the doctors had said there was no hope for her—except through having her leg amputated. She was seventy years old. I said to my interpreter, "Tell her that Jesus can heal her." The instant this was said to her, it was as though a veil was taken off her face; it became so light. We stopped at another station, and the carriage filled up with people. There was a rush of men to board that train and the devil said, "You're done." But I knew I had the best proposition, for hard things are always opportunities to get for the Lord more glory when He manifests His power. Every trial is a blessing. There have been times when I have been pressed through circumstances, and it seemed as if a dozen road engines were going over me, but I have found that the hardest things are just lifting places into the grace of God. We have such a lovely Jesus. He always proves Himself to be such a mighty Deliverer. He never fails to plan the best things for us.

The train began moving,, and I crouched down, and in the name of Jesus commanded the disease to leave. The old lady cried, "I'm healed. I know I'm healed." She stamped her leg and said, "I'm going to prove it." So when we stopped at another station, she marched up and down, and shouted, "I'm not going to the hospital." Once again our wonderful Jesus had proven Himself a Healer of the broken-hearted, a Deliverer of one that was bound.

At one time, I was so bound that no human power could help me. My wife was looking for me to pass away. There was no help. At that time, I had just had a faint glimpse of Jesus as the Healer. For six months, I had been suffering from appendicitis, occasionally getting temporary relief. I went to the mission of which I was pastor, but I was brought to the floor in awful agony, and they brought me home to my bed. All night, I was praying, pleading for deliverance, but none came. My wife was sure it was my home call and sent for a physician. He said that there was no possible chance for me—my body was too weak. Having had the appendicitis for six months, my whole system was drained, and because of that, he thought that it was too late for an operation. He left my wife in a state of broken-heartedness.

After he left, there came to our door a young man and an old lady. I knew that she was a woman of real prayer. They came upstairs to my room. This young man jumped on the bed and commanded the evil spirit to come out of me. He shouted, "Come out, you devil; I command you to come out in the name of Jesus!" There was no chance for an argument, or for me to tell him that I would never believe that there was a devil inside of me. The thing had to go in the name of Jesus, and it went, and I was instantly healed.

I arose and dressed and went downstairs. I was still in the plumbing business, and I asked my wife, "Is there any work in? I am all right now, and I am going to work." I found there was a certain job to be done, and I picked up my tools and went off to do it. Just after I left, the doctor came in, put his plug hat down in the hall, and walked up to the bedroom. But the invalid was not there. "Where is Mr. Wigglesworth?" he asked. "Oh, doctor, he's gone out to work," said my wife. "You'll never see him alive again," said the doctor; "They'll bring him back a corpse." Well, I'm the corpse.

Since that time, in many parts of the world, the Lord has given me the privilege of praying for people with appendicitis, and I have seen a great many people up and dressed within a quarter of an hour from the time I prayed for them. WE HAVE A LIVING CHRIST WHO IS WILLING TO MEET PEOPLE ON EVERY LINE.

Yes, Another Act of His Spirit

A number of years ago, I met Brother D. W. Kerr, and he gave me a letter of introduction to a brother in Zion City named Cook. I took his letter to Brother Cook, and he said, "God has sent you here." He gave me the addresses of six people and asked me to go and pray for them and meet him again at 12 o'clock. I got back at about 12:30, and he told me about a young man who was to be married the following Monday. His sweetheart was in Zion City dying of appendicitis. I went to the house and found that the physician had just been there and had pronounced that there was no hope. The mother was nearly distracted and was pulling her hair and saying, "Is there no deliverance!" I said to her, "Woman, believe God and your daughter will be healed and be up and dressed in fifteen minutes." But the mother went on screaming.

They took me into the bedroom, and I prayed for the girl and commanded the evil spirit to depart in the name of Jesus. She cried, "I am healed." I said to her, "Do you want me to believe that you are healed? If you are healed, get up." She said, "You get out of the room, and I'll get up." In less than ten minutes, the doctor came in. He wanted to know what had happened. She said, "A man came in and prayed for me, and I'm healed." The doctor pressed his finger right in the place that had been so sore, and the girl neither moaned nor cried. He said, "THIS IS GOD." It made no difference whether he acknowledged it or not, I knew that God had worked. Our God is real in saving and healing power today. Our Jesus is just the same, yesterday, and today, and forever. HE SAVES AND HEALS TODAY JUST AS OF OLD, AND HE WANTS TO BE YOUR SAVIOUR AND YOUR HEALER.

Oh, if you would only believe God; what would happen? The greatest things. Some have never tasted the grace of God, have never had the peace of God. Unbelief robs them of these blessings. It is possible to hear, and yet not conceive the truth. It is possible to read the Word, and not share in the life it brings. It is necessary for us to have the Holy Ghost to unfold the Word and bring to us the life that is Christ. WE CAN NEVER FULLY UNDERSTAND THE WONDERS OF THIS REDEMPTION UNTIL WE ARE FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST.

Do You Know Jesus?

I WAS ONCE at an afternoon meeting. The Lord had been graciously with us, and many had been healed by the power of God. Most of the people had gone home, and I was left alone, when I saw a young man who was evidently hanging back to have a word. I asked, "What do you want?" He said, "I wonder if I could ask you to pray for me." I said, "What's the trouble?" He said, "Can't you smell?" The young fellow had gone into sin and was suffering the consequences. He said, "I have been turned out of two hospitals. I am broken out all over. I have abscesses all over me." And I could see that he had a bad breaking out at the nose. He said, "I heard you preach, and could not understand about this healing business, and was wondering if there was any hope for me."

I said to him, "Do you know Jesus?" He did not know the first thing about salvation, but I said to him, "Stand still." I placed my hands on his head and then on his loins and cursed that terrible disease in the name of Jesus. He cried out, "I know I'm healed. I can feel a warmth and a glow all over me." I said, "Who did it?" He said, "Your prayers." I said, "No, it was Jesus!" He said, "Was it He? Oh, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus, save me." And that young man went away healed and saved. Oh, what a merciful God we have! What a wonderful Jesus is ours!

Are you oppressed? Cry out to God. It is always good for people to cry out. You may have to cry out. The Holy Ghost and the Word of God will bring to light every hidden, unclean thing that must be revealed. There is always a place of deliverance when you let God search out that which is spoiling and marring your life. That evil spirit that was in the man in the synagogue cried out, "Let us alone!" It was a singular thing that the evil spirit had never cried out like that until Jesus walked into the place where he was. Jesus rebuked the thing, saying, "HOLD THY PEACE AND COME OUT OF HIM," and the man was delivered. He is just the same Jesus [today as He was back then]—exposing the powers of evil, delivering the captives, and letting the oppressed go free—purifying them and cleansing their hearts. Those evil spirits that inhabited the man who had the legion did not want to be sent to the pit to be tormented before their time, and so they cried out to be sent into the swine. HELL IS SUCH AN AWFUL PLACE THAT EVEN THE DEMONS HATE THE THOUGHT OF GOING THERE. How much more should men seek to be saved from the pit?

God is compassionate and says, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." And He has further stated, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Seek Him now, call on His name right now, and there is forgiveness, healing, redemption, deliverance, and everything you need right here and now, and that which will satisfy you throughout eternity.

BLESSINGS IN AUSTRALIA

SISTER WINNIE ANDREWS, N. Melbourne, Australia, writes: "Our Brother Wigglesworth landed here February 16th, and had a meeting that very night. The dear Lord was present and that to heal. A little girl of six, having never walked, after she had been prayed for, walked out of the front door with her mother, who was full of joy for what the Lord had done for her little one. Another man who had been suffering with bad feet for years, and walked only with the aid of a stick was instantly healed and has been along several times to testify to what the Lord has done for him. Many deaf people have been delivered in answer to the prayer of faith. One night, a dear man and his wife, whom he brought to the meeting in a wheel chair, were both healed. He had been suffering from deafness for 20 years and she had not walked for over 62 years. After prayer she got out of her chair and walked to the station, with her husband pushing the empty chair. He, too, was rejoicing in that he was now able to hear perfectly. O what a wonderful God we have. Blessed be His holy Name!

"At the Sunday afternoon service, a dear young woman who had been suffering with tuberculosis for 13 years, and who was in the last stages, came leaning on the arm of a friend and was prayed for. At once, she received new life and was perfectly delivered. The terrible burning sores which were eating their way into her bones have dried up and are peeling off, and she is looking so well, and happy, and is as strong as can be. Glory to God! Last night, a young man suffering from consumption was prayed for and was instantly made whole. O, our hearts overflow at the glorious things God is doing in our midst!

"Many have been healed of neuritis, heart and lung trouble, and stiff joints. One woman who had not walked for 22 years, and could not as much as turn her head, after prayer, [she] got out of bed and walked, Praise God!" (Pentecostal Evangel, April 15, 1922).

SMITH WIGGLESWORTH (1859 - 1947), was a British religious leader and an important figure in the early history of Pentecostalism. Wigglesworth left his job as a plumber to become a faith healer. He was an early Charismatic theologian and minister, who wrote a number of works on tongues and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. He is considered one of the most influential evangelists in the early history of Pentecostalism.