Nr. 193: Faith That Prevails

Nr. 193:

Faith That
Prevails
By Smith Wigglesworth
Contents
God Given Faith.........................................................................3
Like Precious Faith.....................................................................9
Spiritual Power........................................................................14
Paul's Pentecost ......................................................................21
Ye Shall Receive Power.............................................................30
Keeping the Vision ...................................................................36
Present -Time Blessings.............................................................44
Chapter One
God Given Faith
Read Hebrews 11:1-11
I believe that there is only one way to all the treasures of
God, and that is the way of fa ith. By faith and faith alone do
we enter into a knowledge of the attributes and become
partakers of the beatitudes, and participate in the glories of
our ascended Lord. All His promises are Yea and Amen to
them that believe.
God would have us come to Him by His own way. That
is through the open door of grace. A way has been made. It is
a beautiful way, and all His saints can enter in by this way and
find rest. God has prescribed that the just shall live by faith. I
find that all is failure that has not its base on the rock Christ
Jesus. He is the only way, the truth and the life. The way of
faith is the Christ way, receiving Him in His fullness and
walking in Him; receiving His quickening life that filleth,
moveth and changeth us, bringing us to a place where there is
always an Amen in our hearts to all the will of God.
As I look into the 12th chapter of Acts, I find that the
people were praying all night for Peter to come out of prison.
They had a zeal but seem to have been lacking in faith. They
were to be commended for their zeal in spending their time
in prayer without ceasing, but their faith, evidently, did not
measure up to such a marvelous answer. Rhoda had more
faith than the rest of them. When the knock came to the
door, she ran to it, and the moment she heard Peter's voice,
she ran back again with joy saying that Peter stood before the
gate. And all the people said, "You are mad. It isn't so." But
she constantly affirmed that it was even so.
God Given Faith 4
Zacharias and Elisabeth surely wanted a son, but even
when the angel came and told Zacharias that he should have
a son, he was full of unbelief. And the angel said, "Thou shalt
be dumb, because thou believest not my words."
But look at Mary. When the angel came to her, Mary said,
"Be it unto me according to thy word." It was her Amen to
the will of God. And God wants us with an Amen in our
lives, an inward Amen, a mighty moving Amen, a Godinspired
Amen, which says, "It is, because God has spoken. It
cannot be otherwise. It is impossible to be otherwise."
Let us examine this 5th verse, "By faith Enoch was
translated that he should not see death; and was not found,
because God translated him: for before his translation, he had
this testimony that he pleased God."
When I was in Sweden, the Lord worked mightily. After
one or two addresses the leaders called me and said, "We
have heard very strange things about you, and we would like
to know if they are true. We can see that God is with you,
and that God is moving, and we know that it will be a great
blessing to Sweden." "Well," I said, "what is it?" "Well," they
said, "we have heard from good authority that you preach
that you have the resurrection body." When I was in France I
had an interpreter that believed this thing, and I found out,
after I had preached once or twice through the interpreter,
that she gave out her own ideas. And of course I did not
know. I said to these brethren, "I tell you what my personal
convictions are. I believe that if I had the testimony of Enoch
I should be off. I believe that the moment Enoch had the
testimony that he pleased God, off he went."
I pray that God will so quicken our faith, for translation is
in the mind of God; but remember that translation comes on
the line of holy obedience and a walk that is pleasing to God.
God Given Faith 5
This was true of Enoch. And I believe that we must have a
like walk with God in the Spirit, having communion with
him, living under his divine smile, and I pray that God by His
Spirit may so move us that we will be where Enoch was when
he walked with God.
There are two kinds of faith. There is the natural faith.
But the supernatural faith is the gift of God. In Acts 26:19
Paul is telling Agrippa of what the Lord said to him in
commissioning him. "To open their eyes, and to turn them
from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me."
Is that the faith of Paul? No, it is the faith that the Holy
Ghost is giving. It is the faith that He brings to us as we press
in and on with God. I want to put before you this difference
between our faith and the faith of Jesus. Our faith comes to
an end. Most people in this place have come to where they
have said, "Lord, I can go no further. I have gone so far and I
can go no further. I have used all the faith I have, and I have
just to stop now and wait."
I remember being one day in Lancashire, and going round
to see some sick people. I was taken into a house where there
was a young woman lying on a bed, a very helpless case. The
reason had gone, and many things were manifested there
which were satanic and I knew it. She was only a young
woman, a beautiful child. The husband, quite a young man,
came in with the baby, and he leaned over to kiss the wife.
The moment he did, she threw herself over on the other side,
just as a lunatic would do. That was very heart breaking. Then
he took the baby and pressed the baby's lips to the mother.
Again another wild kind of thing happened. I asked one who
was attending her, "Have you anybody to help?" "Oh," they
God Given Faith 6
said, "We have had everything." "But," I said, "have you no
spiritual help?" Her husband stormed out saying, "Help? You
think that we believe in God, after we have had seven weeks
of no sleep and maniac conditions."
Then a young woman of about eighteen or so just
grinned at me and passed out of the door. That brought me
to a place of compassion for the woman. Something had to
be done, no matter what it was. Then with all my faith I
began to penetrate the heavens, and I was soon out of that
house, I will tell you, for I never saw a man get anything from
God who prayed on the earth. If you get anything from God,
you will have to pray into heaven; for it is all there. If you are
living in the earth realm and expect things from heaven, they
will never come. And as I saw, in the presence of God, the
limitations of my faith, there came another faith, a faith that
could not be denied, a faith that took the promise, a faith that
believed God's Word. And from that presence, I came back
again to earth, but not the same man. God gave a faith that
could shake hell and anything else.
I said, "Come out of her, in the name of Jesus!" And she
rolled over and fell asleep and wakened in fourteen hours
perfectly sane and perfectly whole.
There is a process on this line. Enoch walked with God.
That must have been all those years as he was penetrating,
and going through, and laying hold, and believing and seeing
and getting into such close cooperation and touch with God
that things moved on earth and he began to move toward
heaven. At last it was not possible for him to stop any longer.
Oh, Hallelujah!
In the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians we read of the
body being "sown in weakness," to be raised in power. It
seems to me that, as we are looking for translation, the Lord
God Given Faith 7
would have us know something of that power now, and
would have us kept in that power, so that we shall not be
sown in weakness.
There is one thing that God has given me from my youth
up, a taste and relish for my Bible. I can say before God, I
have never read a book but my Bible, so I know nothing
about books. It seems to me better to get the Book of books
for food for your soul, for the strengthening of your faith,
and the building up of your character in God, so that all the
time you are being changed and made meet to walk with
God.
"Without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that
cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
I can see that it is impossible to please Him on any line
but faith, for everything that is not of faith is sin. God wants
us to see that the plan of faith is the ideal and principle of
God. In this connection I love to keep in my thoughts the
beautiful words in the 2nd verse of the 12th chapter of
Hebrews: "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith." He is the author of faith. God worked through Him
for the forming of the world. "All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made."
And because of the exceedingly abundant joy of providing for
us so great salvation, He became the author of a living faith.
And through this principle of living faith, looking unto Him
who is the author and finisher of our faith, we are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of
the Lord.
God has something better for you than you have ever had
in the past. Come out into all the fullness of faith and power
and life and victory that He is willing to provide, as you
God Given Faith 8
forget the things of the past, and press right on for the prize
of His high calling in Christ Jesus.
Chapter Two
Like Precious Faith
Read 2 Peter 1:1-8.
We are dull of comprehension because we so often let the
cares of this world blind our eyes; but if we can be open to
God, we shall see that He has a greater plan for us in the
future than we have ever seen in the past. It is God's delight
to make possible to us that which seems impossible, and
when we reach a place where He alone has right of way, then
all the things that have been misty and misunderstood are
cleared up.
This like precious faith that Peter is writing about is a gift
that God is willing to give to all of us, and I believe God
wants us to receive it so that we may subdue kingdoms, work
righteousness, and, if the time is come, to stop the mouths of
lions. We should be able under all circumstances to triumph,
because we have no confidence in ourselves, but our
confidence is only in God. It is always those people who are
full of faith that have a good report, that never murmur, that
are in the place of victory, that are not in the place of human
order but of divine order, since God has come to dwell in
them.
This like precious faith is for all; but there may be some
hindrance in your life that God will have to deal with. It
seems to me as if I had had a thousand road engines come
over my life to break me up like a potter's vessel. There is no
other way into the deep things of God but a broken spirit.
There is no other way into the power of God. God will do
the exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think for us
when He can bring us to the place where we can say with
Like Precious Faith 10
Paul, "I live no longer, and Another, even Christ, has taken
the reins and the rule."
I understand God by His Word. I cannot understand
God by impressions or feelings; I cannot get to know God by
sentiments. If I am going to know God, I am going to know
Him by His Word. I know I shall be in heaven, but I could
not build on my feelings that I am going to heaven. I am
going to heaven because God's Word says it, and I believe
God's Word. And "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the Word of God" (Romans 10:17).
In Mark 11:24 we read, "What things soever ye desire,
when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have
them." The previous verse speaks of mountains removed,
difficulties cleared away. Veneering won't do. We must have
reality, the real working of our God. We must know God. We
must be able to go in and hold converse with God. We must
also know the mind of God toward us, so that all our
petitions are always on the line of His will.
As this like precious faith becomes a part of you, it will
make you so that you will dare to do anything. And
remember, God wants daring men, men who will dare all,
men who will be strong in Him and dare to do exploits. How
shall we reach this plane of faith? Let go your own thoughts,
and take the thoughts of God, the Word of God. If you build
yourself on imaginations you will go wrong. You have the
Word of God and it is enough. A man gave this remarkable
testimony concerning the Word: "Never compare this Book
with other books. Comparisons are dangerous. Never think
or never say that this Book contains the Word of God. It is the
Word of God. It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration,
inexpressible in value, infinite in scope, regenerative in power,
infallible in authority, universal in interest, personal in
Like Precious Faith 11
application, inspired in totality. Read it through. Write it
down. Pray it in. Work it out. And then pass it on."
And truly the Word of God changes a man until he
becomes an epistle of God. It transforms his mind, changes
his character, moves him on from grace to grace, makes him
an inheritor of the very nature of God. God comes in, dwells
in, walks in, talks through, and sups with him who opens his
being to the Word of God and receives the Spirit who
inspired it.
When I was going over to New Zealand and Australia, I
had many to see me off. There was an Indian doctor who was
riding in the same car with me to the docks. He was very
quiet and took in all things that were said on the ship. I began
to preach, of course, and the Lord began to work among the
people. In the second-class part of the ship there was a young
man and his wife who were attendants on a lady and
gentleman in the first-class. And as these two young people
heard me talking to them privately and otherwise, they were
very much impressed. Then the lady they were attending got
very sick. In her sickness and her loneliness she could find no
relief. They called in the doctor, and the doctor gave her no
hope.
And then, when in this strange dilemma -- she was a great
Christian Scientist, a preacher of it, and had gone up and
down preaching it -- they thought of me. Knowing the
conditions, and what she lived for, that it was late in the day,
and that in the condition of her mind she could only receive
the simplest words, I said to her, "Now you are very sick, and
I won't talk to you about anything save this; I will pray for
you in the name of Jesus, and the moment I pray you will be
healed."
Like Precious Faith 12
And the moment I prayed she was healed. That was this
like precious faith in operation. Then she was disturbed. Now
I could have poured in oil very soon. But I poured in all the
bitter drugs possible, and for three days I had her on cinders.
I showed her, her terrible state, and pointed out to her all her
folly and the fallacy of her position. I showed her that there
was nothing in Christian Science, that it is a lie from the
beginning, one of the last agencies of hell. At best a lie,
preaching a lie, and producing a lie.
Then she wakened up. She became so penitent and
broken-hearted. But the thing that stirred her first was that
she had to go to preach the simple gospel of Christ where she
had preached Christian Science. She asked me if she had to
give up certain things. I won't mention the things, they are
too vile. I said, "What you have to do is to see Jesus and take
Jesus." When she saw the Lord in His purity, the other things
had to go. At the presence of Jesus all else goes.
This opened the door. I had to preach to all on the boat.
This gave me a great opportunity. As I preached, the power
of God fell, conviction came and sinners were saved. They
followed me into my cabin one after another. God was
working there.
Then this Indian doctor came. He said, "What shall I do?
I cannot use medicine any more." "Why?" "Oh, your
preaching has changed me. But I must have a foundation.
Will you spend some time with me?" "Of course I will." Then
we went alone and God broke the fallow ground. This Indian
doctor was going right back to his Indian conditions under a
new order. he had left a practice there. He told me of the
great practice he had. He was going back to his practice to
preach Jesus.
Like Precious Faith 13
If you have lost your hunger for God, if you do not have
a cry for more of God, you are missing the plan. There must
come up from us a cry that cannot be satisfied with anything
but God. He wants to give us the vision of the prize ahead
that is something higher than we have ever attained. If you
ever stop at any point, pick up at the place where you have
dropped through, and begin again under the refining light and
power of heaven and God will meet you. And while He will
bring you to a consciousness of your own frailty and to a
brokenness of spirit, your faith will lay hold of Him and all
the divine resources, His light and compassion will be
manifested through you, and He will send the rain.
Shall we not dedicate ourselves afresh to God? Some say,
"I dedicated myself last night to God." Every new revelation
brings a new dedication. Let us seek Him.
Chapter Three
Spiritual Power
Read Matthew 16
The Pharisees and Sadducees had been tempting Jesus to
show them a sign from heaven. He showed them that they
could discern the signs that appeared on the face of the sky,
and yet could not discern the signs of the times. He would
give them no sign to satisfy their unbelieving curiosity,
remarking that a wicked and adulterous generation sought
after a sign, and that no sign would be given to them, but the
sign of the prophet Jonah. A wicked and adulterous
generation stumbles over the story of Jonah, but faith can see
in that story a wonderful picture of the death, burial and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
After Jesus had departed from the Pharisees, and had
come to the other side of the lake, He said to His disciples,
"Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of
the Sadducees." The disciples began to reason among
themselves; and all they could think of was that they had
taken no bread. What were they to do? Then Jesus uttered
these words, "O ye of little faith!" He had been so long with
them, and yet they were still a great disappointment to Him,
because of their lack of comprehension and of faith. They
could not grasp the profound spiritual truth He was bringing
to them, and could only think about having brought no
bread. "O ye of little faith! Do ye not yet understand, neither
remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how
many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the
four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?"
Spiritual Power 15
At one time Jesus said to Peter, "What thinkest thou,
Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or
tribute? of their own children or of strangers?" Peter said,
"Of strangers." Then Jesus said, "Then are the children free.
Nevertheless, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea,
and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and
when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of
money; take that, and give unto them, for me and thee." Peter
had been at the fishing business all his life, but he never had
caught a fish with any silver in its mouth. But the Master does
not want us to reason things out--for carnal reasoning will
always land us in a bog of unbelief--but just to obey. "This is
a hard job," Peter may have said, as he put the bait on his
hook, "but since You told me to do it, I'll try;" and he cast his
line into the sea. There were millions of fish in the sea, but
every fish had to stand aside and leave that bait alone, and let
that fish with the piece of money in his mouth come up and
take it.
A woman came to me in Cardiff, Wales, who was filled
with ulceration. She had fallen in the streets twice through
this trouble. She came to the meeting and it seemed as if the
evil power within her purposed to kill her right there, for she
fell, and the power of the devil was rending her sore. She was
helpless, and it seemed as if she had expired. I cried, "O God,
help this woman." Then I rebuked the evil power in the name
of Jesus, and instantly the Lord healed her. She rose up and
made a great to-do. She felt the power of God in her body
and wanted to testify all the time. After three days she went
to another place and began to testify about the Lord's power
to heal. She came to me and said, "I want to tell everyone
about the Lord's healing power. Have you no tracts on this
subject?" I handed her my Bible and said, "Matthew, Mark,
Spiritual Power 16
Luke, John--they are the best tracts on healing. They are full
of incidents about the power of Jesus. They will never fail to
accomplish the work of God if people will believe them."
There is where men lack. All lack of faith is due to not
feeding on God's Word. You need it every day. How can you
enter into a life of faith? Feed on the living Christ of whom
this Word is full. As you get taken up with the glorious fact
and the wondrous presence of the living Christ, the faith of
God will spring up within you. "Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17).
Jesus asked His disciples what men were saying about
Him. They told Him, "Some say that thou art John the
Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the
prophets." Then He put the question, to see what they
thought about it, "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter
answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
And Jesus said to him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father
which is in heaven." It is simple. Who do you say He is? Who
is He? Do you say with Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God"? How can you know this? He is to be
revealed. Flesh and blood does not reveal this. It is an inward
revelation. God wants to reveal His Son within us and make
us conscious of an inward presence. Then you can cry, "I
know He is mine! He is mine! He is mine!" "Neither knoweth
any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the
Son will reveal Him." Seek God until you get from Him a
mighty revelation of the Son, until that inward revelation
moves you on to the place where you are always steadfast,
unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord.
There is a wonderful power in this revelation. "Upon this
rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not
Spiritual Power 17
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth,
shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven." Was Peter the rock? No. A
few minutes later he was so full of the devil that Christ had to
say to him, "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense
unto me." This rock was Christ. He is the Rock and there are
many scriptures to confirm this. And to everyone who knows
that He is the Christ He gives the key of faith, the power to
bind and the power to loose. Establish your hearts with this
fact.
I had been preaching on this line in Toronto, endeavoring
to show that the moment a man believes with all his heart
God puts into him a reality, a substance, a life; yea, God
dwells in him, and with the new birth there comes into us a
mighty force that is mightier than all the power of the enemy. A
man ran out of the meeting, and when I got home that night he was
there with a big, fine, tall man. This man said to me, "Three
years ago my nerves became shattered. I can't sleep. I have
lost my business. I have lost everything. I am not able to
sleep at all and my life is one of misery." I said to him, "Go
home and sleep in the name of Jesus." He turned around and
seemed reluctant to go; but I said to him, "Go!" and shoved
him out of the door.
The next morning he rang up on the telephone. He said
to my host, "Tell him I slept all night. I want to see him at
once." He came and said, "I'm a new man. I feel I have new
life. And now can you get me my money back?" I said,
"Everything!" He said, "Tell me how." I said, "Come to the
meeting tonight and I'll tell you." The power of God was
mightily present in that evening meeting, and he was greatly
under conviction. He made for the altar, but fell before he
Spiritual Power 18
got there. The Lord changed him and everything in him. He
is now a successful businessman. All his past failures had
come through a lack of the knowledge of God. No matter
what troubles you, God can shake the devil out, and
completely transform you. There is none like Him.
One day I was traveling in a railway train where there
were two sick people in the car, a mother and her daughter. I
said to them, "Look, I've something in this bag that will cure
every case in the world. It has never been known to fail."
They became very much interested, and I went on telling
them more about this remedy that has never failed to remove
disease and sickness. At last they summoned up courage to
ask for a dose. So I opened my bag, took out my Bible, and
read them that verse, "I am the Lord that healeth thee." It
never fails. He will heal you if you dare believe Him. Men are
searching everywhere today for things with which they can
heal themselves, and they ignore the fact that the Balm of
Gilead is within easy reach. As I talked about this wonderful
Physician, the faith of both mother and daughter went out
toward Him, and He healed them both, right in the train.
God has made His Word so precious that, if I could not
get another copy, I would not part with my Bible for all the
world. There is life in the Word. There is virtue in it. I find
Christ in it; and He is the One I need for spirit, soul and
body. It tells me of the power of His name and of the power
of His blood for cleansing. The lions may lack and suffer
hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good
thing (Psalm 34:10).
A man came to me at one time, brought by a little
woman. I said, "What's up with him?" She said, "He gets
situations, but he fails every time. He is a slave to alcohol and
nicotine poison. He is a bright, intelligent man in most things,
Spiritual Power 19
but he goes under to those two things." I was reminded of
the words of the Master, giving us power to bind and loose,
and I told him to put out his tongue. In the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ I cast out the evil powers that gave him the taste
for these things. I said to him, "Man, you are free today." He
was unsaved, but when he realized the power of the Lord in
delivering him, he came to the services, publicly
acknowledged that he was a sinner, and the Lord saved and
baptized him. A few days later I asked, "How are things with
you?" He said, "I am delivered." God has given us the power
to bind and the power to loose.
In another place a woman came to me and said, "I have
not been able to smell for twenty years; can you do anything
for me?" I said, "You shall smell tonight." Could I give
anybody that which had been lost for twenty years? Not of
myself, but I remembered the Rock on which God's church is
built, the Rock Christ Jesus, and His promise to give to His
own the power to bind and loose. We can dare to do anything
if we know we have the Word of God behind us. In the name
of the Lord Jesus I loosed this woman. She ran all the way
home. The table was full of good things, but she would not
touch a thing. She said, "I am having a feast of smelling!"
Praise the Lord for the fact that He Himself backs up his own
Word and proves the truth of it in these days of unbelief and
apostasy.
Another person came and said, "What can you do for
me? I have had sixteen operations and have had my ear
drums taken out." I said, "God has not forgotten how to
make ear drums." I anointed her and prayed, asking the Lord
that the eardrums should be replaced. She was so deaf that I
do not think she would have heard had a cannon gone off.
She was as deaf afterwards as it was possible to be. But she
Spiritual Power 20
saw other people getting healed and rejoicing. Has God
forgotten to be gracious? Was His power just the same? She
came the next night and said, "I have come tonight to believe
God." Take care you do not come in any other way. I prayed
for her again and commanded her ears to be loosed in the
name of Jesus. She believed, and the moment she believed
she heard, she ran and jumped upon a chair and began to
preach. Later I let a pin drop and she heard it fall. God can
give drums to ears. All things are possible with God. God can
save the worst.
Discouraged one, cast your burden on the Lord. He will
sustain you. Look unto Him and be lightened. Look unto
Him now.
Chapter Four
Paul's Pentecost
Read Acts 9:1-22.
Saul was probably the greatest persecutor that the early
Christians had. We read that he made havoc of the church,
entering into every house, and haling men and women,
committed them to prison. At this time we find him
breathing out threats and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord. He was on his way to Damascus for the purpose of
destroying the church there. How did God deal with such a
one? We should have dealt with him in judgment. God dealt
with him in mercy. Oh, the wondrous love of God! He loved
the saints at Damascus and the way He preserved them was
through the salvation of the man who purposed to scatter
and destroy them. Our God delights to be merciful and His
grace is vouchsafed daily to both sinner and saint. He shows
mercy to all. If we would but realize it, we are only alive today
through the grace of our God.
More and more I see that it is through the grace of God
that I am preserved every day. It is when we realize the
goodness of God that we are brought to repentance. Here
was Saul, with letters from the high priest, hastening to
Damascus. He was struck down and there came to his vision
a light, a light that was brighter than the sun. As he fell
speechless to the ground he heard a voice saying to him,
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" He answered, "Who
art thou, Lord?" And the answer came back, "I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest." And he cried, "Lord, what wilt
Thou have me to do?" And the men that were with him lost
Paul’s Pentecost 22
their speech -- they were speechless -- but they led him to
Damascus.
There are some people who have an idea that it is only
preachers who can know the will of God. But the Lord has a
disciple in Damascus, a man behind the scenes, who lived in a
place where God could talk to him. His ears were open. He
was one who listened in to the things from heaven. Oh, this is
so much more marvelous than anything you can hear on earth. It was to
this man that the Lord appeared in a vision. He told him to
go down to the street called Straight and inquire for Saul.
And He told him that Saul had seen in a vision a man named
Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might
receive his sight. Ananias protested, "Lord, I have heard by
many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints
in Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests
to bind all that call on Thy name." But the Lord assured
Ananias that Saul was a chosen vessel, and Ananias, nothing
doubting, went on his errand of mercy.
The Lord had told Ananias concerning Saul, "Behold, he
prayeth." Repentant prayer is always heard in heaven. The
Lord never despises a broken and contrite heart. And to Saul
was given this vision that was soon to be a reality, the vision
of Ananias coming to pray for him that he might receive his
sight.
As I was looking through my letters one day while in the
city of Belfast, a man came up to me and said, "Are you
visiting the sick?" He pointed me to go to a certain house and
told me to go to it and there I would see a very sick woman. I
went to the house and I saw a very helpless woman propped
up in bed. I knew that humanly speaking she was beyond all
help. She was breathing with short, sharp breaths as if every
breath would be her last. I cried to the Lord and said, "Lord,
Paul’s Pentecost 23
tell me what to do." The Lord said to me, "Read the fiftythird
chapter of Isaiah." I opened my Bible and did as I was
told. I read down to the fifth verse of this chapter, when all
of a sudden the woman shouted, "I am healed! I am healed!"
I was amazed at this sudden exclamation and asked her to tell
me what had happened. She said, "Two weeks ago I was
cleaning house and I strained my heart very badly. Two
physicians have been to see me, but they both told me there
was no help. But last night the Lord gave me a vision. I saw
you come right into my bedroom. I saw you praying. I saw
you open your Bible at the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. When
you got down to the fifth verse and read the words, 'With His
stripes we are healed,' I saw myself wonderfully healed. That
was a vision, now it is a fact."
I do thank God that visions have not ceased. The Holy
Ghost can give visions, and we may expect them in these last
days. God willeth not the death of any sinner and He will use
all kinds of means for their salvation. Oh, what a gospel of
love!
Ananias went down to the house on Straight Street and
he laid his hands on the one who had before been a
blasphemer and a persecutor and he said to him, "Brother
Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way
as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy
sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." The Lord had not
forgotten his physical condition and there was healing for
him. But there was something beyond this. It was the filling
with the Holy Ghost. Oh, it always seems to me that the
Gospel is robbed of its divine glory when we overlook this
marvelous truth of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. To be
saved is wonderful, to be a new creature, to have passed from
death unto life, to have the witness of the Spirit that you are
Paul’s Pentecost 24
born of God, all this is unspeakably precious. But whereas we
have the well of salvation bubbling up, we need to go on to a
place where from within us shall flow rivers of living water.
God chose Saul. What was he? A blasphemer. A
persecutor. That is grace. Our God is gracious and He loves
to show His mercy to the vilest and worst of men. There was
a notable character in the town in which I lived who was
known as the worst man in the town. He was so vile, and his
language was so horrible, that even wicked men could not
stand it. In England they have what is known as the public
hangman who has to perform all the executions. This man
held that appointment and he told me later that he believed
that when he performed the execution of men who had
committed murder, that the demon power that was in them
would come upon him and that in consequence he was
possessed with a legion of demons. His life was so miserable
that he purposed to make an end of life. He went down to a
certain depot and purchased a ticket. The English trains are
much different from the American. In every coach there are a
number of small compartments and it is easy for anyone who
wants to commit suicide to open the door of his
compartment and throw himself out of the train. This man
purposed to throw himself out of the train in a certain tunnel
just as the train coming from an opposite direction would be
about to dash past and he thought this would be a quick end
to his life.
There was a young man at the depot that night who had
been saved the night before. He was all on fire to get others
saved and purposed in his heart that every day of his life he
would get someone saved. He saw this dejected hangman and
began to speak to him about his soul. He brought him down
to our mission and there he came under a mighty conviction
Paul’s Pentecost 25
of sin. For two and a half hours he was literally sweating
under conviction and you could see a vapor rising up from
him. At the end of two and a half hours he was graciously
saved.
I said, "Lord, tell me what to do." The Lord said, "Don't
leave him, go home with him." I went to his house. When he
saw his wife he said, "God has saved me." The wife broke
down and she too was graciously saved. I tell you there was a
difference in that home. Even the cat knew the difference.
There were two sons in that house and one of them said
to his mother, "Mother, what is up in our house? It was never
like this before. It is so peaceful. What is it?" She told him,
"Father has been saved." The other son was struck with the
same thing.
I took this man to many special services and the power of
God was on him for many days. He would give his testimony
and as he grew in grace he desired to preach the gospel. He
became an evangelist and hundreds and hundreds were
brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ
through his ministry. The grace of God is sufficient for the
vilest and He can take the most wicked of men and make
them monuments of his grace. He did this with Saul of
Tarsus at the very time he was breathing out threats and
slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. He did it with
Berry the hangman. He will do it for hundreds more in
response to our cries.
You will notice that when Ananias came into that house
he called the one-time enemy of the gospel "Brother Saul."
The Lord Jesus has sent Ananias to that house to put his
hands upon this newly saved brother that he might receive his
sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. You say, "But it does
not say that he spoke in tongues." We know that Paul did
Paul’s Pentecost 26
speak in tongues; that he spoke in tongues more than all the
Corinthians. In those early days they were so near the time of
that first Pentecostal outpouring that they would never have
been satisfied with anyone receiving the Baptism unless they
received it according to the original pattern given on the Day
of Pentecost. When Peter was relating what took place in the
house of Cornelius at Caesarea he said, "And as I began to
speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the
beginning." Later, speaking of this incident, he said, "God,
which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the
Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference
between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." And we
know from the account of what took place at Cornelius'
household that when the Holy Ghost fell "they heard them
speak with tongues and magnify God." Many people think
that God does make a difference between us and those at the
beginning. But they have no Scripture for this. When anyone
receives the gift of the Holy Ghost, there will assuredly be no
difference between his experience today and that which was
given on the Day of Pentecost. And I cannot believe that,
when Saul was filled with the Holy Ghost the Lord made any
difference in the experience that He gave him from the
experience that He had given to Peter and the rest a short
while before.
It was about thirty-one years ago that a man came to me
and said, "Wigglesworth, do you know what is happening in
Sunderland? People are being baptized in the Holy Ghost
exactly the same way as the disciples were on the Day of
Pentecost." I said, "I would like to go." I immediately took
train and went to Sunderland. I went to the meetings and
said, "I want to hear these tongues." I was told, "When you
receive the Baptism in the Holy Ghost, you will speak in
Paul’s Pentecost 27
tongues." I said, "I have the Baptism in the Holy Ghost."
One man said, "Brother, when I received the Baptism I spoke
in tongues." I said, "Let's hear you." He could not speak in
tongues to order, he could only speak as the Spirit gave him
utterance and so my curiosity was not satisfied.
I saw these people were very earnest and I became quite
hungry. I was anxious to see this new manifestation of the
Spirit and I would be questioning all the time and spoiling a
lot of the meetings. One man said to me, "I am a missionary
and I have come here to seek the Baptism in the Holy Ghost.
I am waiting on the Lord, but you have come in and are
spoiling everything with your questions." I began to argue
with him and our love became so hot that when we walked
home he walked on one side of the road and I on the other.
That night there was to be a tarrying meeting and I
purposed to go. I changed my clothes and left my key in the
clothes I had taken off. As we came from the meeting in the
middle of the night I found I did not have my key upon me
and this missionary brother said, "You will have to come and
sleep with me." But do you think we went to bed that night?
Oh, no, we spent the night in prayer. We received a precious
shower from above. The breakfast bell rang, but that was
nothing to me. For four days I wanted nothing but God. If
you only knew the unspeakably wonderful blessings of being
filled with the Third Person of the Trinity, you would set
aside everything else to tarry for this infilling.
I was about to leave Sunderland. This revival was taking
place in the vestry of an Episcopal Church. I went to the
Vicarage that day to say goodbye and I said to Sister Boddy,
the vicar's wife, "I am going away, but I have not received the
tongues yet." She said, "It isn't tongues you need, but the
Baptism." I said, "I have the Baptism, Sister, but I would like
Paul’s Pentecost 28
to have you lay hands on me before I leave." She laid her
hands on me and then had to go out of the room. The fire
fell. It was a wonderful time as I was there with God alone. It
seemed as though God bathed me in power. I was given a
wonderful vision. I was conscious of the cleansing of the
precious blood and cried out, "Clean! Clean! Clean!" I was
filled with the joy of the consciousness of the cleansing. I saw
the Lord Jesus Christ. I saw the empty cross and I saw Him
exalted at the right hand of God the Father. As I was
extolling, magnifying, and praising Him I was speaking in
tongues as the Spirit of God gave me utterance. I knew now
that I had received the real Baptism in the Holy Ghost.
I sent a telegram home and when I got there one of our
boys said, "Father, I hear you have been speaking in tongues.
Let's hear you." I could not speak in tongues. I had been
moved to speak in tongues as the Spirit of God gave
utterance at the moment I received the Baptism, but I did not
receive the gift of tongues and could not speak a word. I
never spoke again in tongues until nine months later when I
was praying for someone, and it was then that God gave me
the permanent gift of speaking in tongues.
And so Saul was filled with the Holy Ghost and in the
later chapters of the Acts of the Apostles we see the result of
this infilling. Oh, what a difference it makes. When I got
home my wife said to me, "So you think you have received
the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Why, I am as much baptized
in the Holy Ghost as you are." We had sat on the platform
together for twenty years but that night she said, "Tonight
you will go by yourself." I said, "All right." As I went up to
the platform that night the Lord gave me the first few verses
of the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to
Paul’s Pentecost 29
preach good tidings unto the meek: He hath sent me to bind
up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." My
wife went back to one of the furthermost seats in the hall and
she said to herself, "I will watch it." I preached that night on
the subject the Lord had given me and I told what the Lord
had done for me. I told the people that I was going to have
God in my life and I would gladly suffer a thousand deaths
rather than forfeit this wonderful infilling that had come to
me. My wife was very restless. She was moved in a new way
and said, "That is not my Smith that is preaching. Lord, you
have done something for him." As soon as I had finished, the
secretary of the mission got up and said, "Brethren, I want
what the leader of our mission has got." He tried to sit down
but missed his seat and fell on the floor. There were soon
fourteen of them on the floor, my own wife included. We did
not know what to do, but the Holy Ghost got hold of the
situation and the fire fell. A revival started and the crowds
came. It was only the beginning of the flood-tide of blessing.
We had touched the reservoir of the Lord's life and power.
Since that time the Lord has taken me to many different lands
and I have witnessed many blessed outpourings of God's
Holy Spirit.
The grace of God that was given to the persecuting Saul
is available for you. The same Holy Ghost infilling he
received is likewise available. Do not rest satisfied with any
lesser experience than the Baptism that the disciples received
on the Day of Pentecost, then move on to a life of
continuous receiving of more and more of the blessed Spirit
of God.
Chapter Five
Ye Shall Receive Power
"Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon
you." The disciples had been asking whether the Lord would
at that time restore again the kingdom to Israel. Christ told
them that it was not for them to know the times and seasons
which the Father had put in His own power, but He
promised them that when they received the Holy Ghost they
should receive power to witness for Him in all the world. To
receive the Holy Ghost is to receive power with God, and
power with men.
There is a power of God and there is a power which is of
Satan. When the Holy Spirit fell in the early days, a number of
spiritists came to our meetings. They thought we had received
something like they had and they were coming to have a good
time. They filled the two front rows of our mission. When the
power of God fell, these imitators began their shaking and
muttering under the power of the devil. The Spirit of the
Lord came mightily upon me and I cried. "Now, you devils,
clear out of this!" And out they went. I followed them right
out into the street and then they turned round and cursed me.
There was power from below, but it was no match for the
power of the Holy Ghost, and they soon had to retreat.
The Lord wants all saved people to receive power from
on High--power to witness, power to act, power to live, and
power to show forth the divine manifestation of God within.
The power of God will take you out of your own plans and
put you into the plan of God. You will be unmantled and
divested of that which is purely of yourself and put into a
divine order. The Lord will change you and put His mind
where yours was, and thus enable you to have the mind of
Ye Shall Receive Power 31
Christ. Instead of you laboring according to your own plan, it
will be God working in you and through you to do His own
good pleasure through the power of the Spirit within.
Someone has said that you are no good until you have your
"I" knocked out. Christ must reign within, and the life in the
Holy Ghost means at all times the subjection of your own will
to make way for the working out of the good and acceptable
and perfect will of God within.
I was holding a meeting, once, in London, and at the
close a man came to me and said, "We are now allowed to
hold meetings in this hall after 11 o'clock, and we would like
you to come home with us. I am so hungry for God." The
wife said she, too, was hungry, and so I agreed to go with
them. At about 12:30 we arrived at their house. The man
began stirring up the fire and said, "Now we will have a good
supper." I said to them, "I did not come here for your warm
fire, your supper or your bed. I came here because I thought
you were hungry to get more of God." We got down to pray
and at about 3:30 the Lord baptized the wife, and she spoke
in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. At about 5 o'clock I
spoke to the husband and asked how he was getting on. He
replied, "God has broken my iron, stubborn will." He had not
received the Baptism, but God had wrought a mighty work
within him.
The following day, at his business, everyone could tell
that a great change had come to him. Before he had been a
walking terror. The men who labored for him had looked
upon him as a regular devil because of the way he had acted;
but coming into contact with the power of God that night
completely changed him. Before this he had made a religious
profession, but he had never truly entered into the experience
of the new birth until that night, when the power of God
Ye Shall Receive Power 32
surged so mightily through his home. A short while
afterwards I went to this man's home, and his two sons ran to
me and kissed me, saying, "We have a new father." Previous
to this these boys had often said to their mother, "Mother, we
cannot stand it in the home any longer. We will have to
leave." But the Lord changed the whole situation that night as
we prayed together. On the second visit the Lord baptized
this man in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit will reveal false
positions, pull the mask off any refuge of lies and clean up
and remove all false conditions. When the Holy Spirit came
in, that man's house and business and he himself were
entirely changed.
When the Holy Spirit comes in He comes to empower
you to be an effective witness. At one time we were holding
some special meetings and I was out distributing bills. I went
into a shoemaker's store and there was a man with a green
shade over his eyes and also a cloth. My heart looked up to
the Lord and I had the witness within that He was ready to
change any condition. The man was crying, "Oh! Oh!! Oh!!!"
I asked, "What's the trouble?" He said he was suffering with
great inflammation and burning. I said, "I rebuke this
condition in Jesus' name." Instantly the Lord healed him. He
took off the shade and cloth and said, "Look, it is all gone."
At one time a lady wrote and asked if I could go and help
her. She said that she was blind, having two blood clots
behind her eyes. When I reached the house they brought the
blind woman to me. We were together for some time and
then the power of God fell. Rushing to the window she
exclaimed, "I can see! Oh, I can see! The blood is gone, I can
see." She then inquired about receiving the Holy Spirit and
confessed that for ten years she had been fighting our
position. She said, "I could not bear these tongues, but God
Ye Shall Receive Power 33
has settled the whole thing today. I now want the Baptism in
the Holy Ghost." The Lord graciously baptized her in the
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will come when a man is cleansed. There
must be a purging of the old life. I never saw anyone baptized
who was not clean within.
I remember being in a meeting at one time, where there
was a man seeking the Baptism, and he looked like he was in
trouble. He was very restless, and finally he said to me, "I will
have to go." I said, "What's up?" He said, "God is unveiling
things to me, and I feel so unworthy." I said, "Repent of
everything that is wrong." He continued to tarry and the Lord
continued to search his heart. These times of waiting on God
for the fullness of the Spirit are times when He searches the
heart and tries the reins. Later the man said to me, "I have a
hard thing to do, the hardest thing I have ever had to do." I
said to him, "Tell the Lord you will do it, and never mind the
consequences." He agreed, and the next morning he had to
take a ride of thirty miles and go with a bag of gold to a
certain party with whom he dealt. This man had a hundred of
cattle and he bought all his feed at a certain place. He always
paid his accounts on a certain day, but one day he missed. He
was always so punctual in paying his accounts that when later
the people of his form went over their books, they thought
they must have made a mistake in not crediting the man with
the money and so they sent him a receipt. The man never
intended not to pay the account, but if you defer to do a right
thing the devil will see that you never do it. But when that
man was seeking the Lord that night the Lord dealt with him
on this point, and he had to go and straighten the thing the
next morning. He paid the account and then the Lord
Ye Shall Receive Power 34
baptized him in the Spirit. They that bear the vessels of the
Lord must be clean, must be holy.
When the Holy Spirit comes He always brings a rich
revelation of Christ. Christ becomes so real to you that,
when, under the power of the Spirit, you begin to express
your love and praise to Him, you find yourself speaking in
another tongue. Oh, it is a wonderful thing! At one time I
belonged to a class who believed that they had received the
Baptism in the Spirit without the speaking in tongues. There
are many folks like that today, but if you can go with them to
a prayer meeting you will find them asking the Lord again and
again to baptize them in the Spirit. Why all this asking if they
really have received the Baptism? I have never heard anyone
who has received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost after the
original pattern asking the Lord to give them the Holy Ghost.
They know of a surety that He has come.
I was once traveling from Belgium to England. As I
landed I received a request to stop at a place between
Harwich and Colchester. The people were delighted that God
had sent me, and told me of a special case they wanted me to
pray for. They said, "We have a brother here who believes in
the Lord, and he is paralyzed from his loins downward. He
cannot stand on his legs and he has been twenty years in this
condition." They took me to this man and as I saw him there
in his chair I put the question to him. "What is the greatest
desire in your heart?" He said, "Oh, if I could only receive the
Holy Ghost!" I was somewhat surprised at this answer, and I
laid my hands on his head and said, "Receive ye the Holy
Ghost." Instantly the power of God fell upon him and he
began breathing very heavily. He rolled off the chair and
there he lay like a bag of potatoes, utterly helpless. I like
anything that God does. I like to watch God working. There
Ye Shall Receive Power 35
he was with his great, fat body, and his head was working just
as though it was on a swivel. Then to our joy he began
speaking in tongues. I had my eyes on every bit of him and as
I saw the condition of his legs I said, "Those legs can never
carry that body." Then I looked up and said, "Lord, tell me
what to do." The Holy Ghost is the executive of Jesus Christ
and the Father. If you want to know the mind of God you
must have the Holy Ghost to bring God's latest thought to
you and to tell you what to do. The Lord said to me,
"Command him in My name to walk" But I missed it, of
course. I said to the people there, "Let's see if we can lift him
up." But we could not lift him, he was like a ton weight. I
cried, "Oh Lord, forgive me." I repented of doing the wrong
thing, and then the Lord said to me again, "Command him to
walk." I said to him, "Arise in the name of Jesus." His legs
were immediately strengthened. Did he walk? He ran all
round. A month after this he walked ten miles and back. He
has a Pentecostal work now. When the power of the Holy
Ghost is present, things will happen.
Chapter Six
Keeping the Vision
Read Acts 20:7-36
Humanity is a failure everywhere. But when humanity is filled
with divine power, there is no such thing as failure; and we
know that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a failure.
There are two sides to this Baptism: the first is, that you
possess the Spirit; the second is that the Spirit possesses you.
This is my message at this time--being possessed by the Baptizer,
and not merely possessing the Baptizer. There is no limit to
the possibilities of such a life, because it has God behind it, in
the midst of it, and through it. I see people from time to time
very slack, cold, and indifferent; but after they get filled with
the Holy Spirit they become ablaze for God. I believe that
God's ministers are to be flames of fire; nothing less than
flames; nothing less than mighty instruments with burning
messages, with a heart full of love, with such a depth of
consecration that God has taken full charge of the body and
it exists only that it may manifest the glory of God. Surely,
this is the ideal and the purpose of this great plan of salvation
for man--that we might be filed with all the fullness of God,
and become ministers of life, God working mightily in us and
through us to manifest His grace--the saving power of
humanity.
Now let us turn to this wonderful Word of God. I want
you to see the demonstration of this power in this man Paul--
this man who was "born out of due time:" this Paul, who was
plucked as a brand from the burning; this Paul whom God
chose to be an apostle to the Gentiles. See him first as a
persecutor, mad to destroy those who were bringing glad
Keeping the Vision 37
tidings to the people. See how madly he rushed those people
to prison, striving to make them blaspheme that holy name.
Then see this same man changed by the power of God and
the Gospel of Christ; see him filled with the Holy Ghost,
becoming a builder for God and a revealer of the Son of
God, so that he could say, "It is no longer I that live, but
Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).
In the 9th chapter of Acts, we read that he was called to a
special ministry. The Lord said to Ananias, "I will show him
what great things he must suffer for my name's sake." I don't
want you to think that this means suffering from diseases; for
it means suffering persecution, suffering from slander, from
strife, from bitterness, from revilings and from many other
evil things; but none of these things will hurt you; rather, they
will kindle the fire of the holy ambition, because the scripture
says, "Blessed are they that have been persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"
(Matthew 5:10). To be persecuted for Christ's sake is to be
joined up with a blessed, blessed people; but, better still, it
means to be united with our Lord Jesus in the closest of
fellowship, the fellowship of His suffering. There is a day
coming when we will rejoice greatly that we have been
privileged to suffer for His name's sake.
Beloved, God wants witnesses, witnesses to the truth,
witnesses to the full truth, witnesses to the fullness of
redemption--deliverance from sin and deliverance from
disease--by the eternal power working in them, as they are
filled with life through the Spirit. God wants us to believe
that we may be ministers of that kind--of glorious things
wrought in us by the Holy Spirit.
See in verse seven, how Paul was lost in his zeal for his
ministry, so that he "continued his speech until midnight."
Keeping the Vision 38
Then something happened that threatened to break up the
meeting--a young man, becoming sleepy, fell out of the
window. That was enough to break up any ordinary meeting.
But this man, filled with the Spirit of God, was equal even to
such an emergency even on the moment. He went down,
picked up the young man, brought life back into him by the
Spirit of life that was in him, then returned to the upper room
and continued the meeting until break of day.
In Switzerland the people said to me, "How long can you
preach to us?" I said to them, "When the Holy Ghost is upon
us, we can preach forever!" When I was in San Francisco,
driving down the main street one day, we came across a
crowd in the street. The driver stopped and I jumped out of
the car, and right across from where the tumult was, I found
a boy lying on the ground apparently in the grip of death. I
got down and asked, "What is amiss?" He replied in a
whisper, "tramp." I put my hand underneath his back and
said, "In the name of Jesus, come out." And the boy jumped
up and ran away, not even stopping to say "Thank you."
So you will find out that, with the Baptism of the Holy
Spirit, you will be in a position to act when you have no time
to think. The power and working of the Holy Spirit is of
divine origin. It is the supernatural, God thrilling and moving
one with the authority and power of almightiness, and it
brings things to pass that could not come to pass in any other
way. I had some things of this character happen on the ship
as I was crossing the ocean. I want ever to be in Paul's
position--that at any time, even at midnight, in the face of
anything, even death itself, God may be able to manifest His
power and do what He wants to do through me. This is what
it means to be possessed by the Spirit of God. My heart is
thrilled with the possibility of coming into the place where
Keeping the Vision 39
Paul was. Let us read verse 19 that we may get our mind
perfectly fortified with this blessed truth that God has for us.
"Serving the Lord with all humility of mind." None of us
is going to be able to be a minister of this new covenant of
promise in the unction and power of the Spirit without
humility. It seems to me that the way to get up is to get down.
It is clear to me that in the measure that the dying of the Lord
is in me, the life of the Lord will abound in me. And to me,
truly, a Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not the goal, but it is an
inflow to reach the highest level, the holiest position that it is
possible for human nature to reach by Divine power. The
Baptism of the Holy Spirit is given to reveal and to make real
Him in whom dwells "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily"
(Colossians 2:9). So I see that to be baptized in the Holy
Spirit means to be baptized into death, into life, into power,
into fellowship with the Trinity, where the old life ceases to
be, and the life of God possesses us forever.
No man can live after seeing God; and God wants us all
to see Him in all His glorious, infinite sufficiency, so that we
shall joyfully cease to be--that He may become our life. Thus
it was that Paul could say, "It is no longer I that live, but
Christ liveth in me." I believe that God wants to make real to
us all this ideal of humility where we so recognize human
helplessness and human insufficiency that we shall rest no
more on human plans and human devices and human energy,
but continually look to God for His thought, for His voice,
for His power, for His all-sufficiency in all things.
Now here is another word for us. Let us read it. It is
found in verse 22. "Now, behold, I go bound in spirit." Is
there a possibility of the human coming into oneness with the
divine will? Let me give you two other versions of Scripture.
Jesus was a man of flesh and blood like ourselves; though He
Keeping the Vision 40
was the incarnation of the authority and power and majesty
of heaven, yet He bore about in His body our flesh, our
human weakness, being tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin. Oh, He was so lovely! Such a perfect Savior!
Oh, that I could shout "Jesus!" so that all the world would
hear. There is salvation, life, power, and deliverance through
that name; but, beloved, I read in Mark 1:12, that the body
was driven by the Spirit. In the fourth chapter of Luke it says,
"led" by the Spirit. And now here is Paul "bound" in the
spirit.
Oh, what condescension that God should lay hold of
humanity and so possess it with His holiness, with His
righteousness, with his truth, with His faith, that one can say:
"I am bound in spirit; I have no choice; my only choice is for
God; my only desire, my only ambition is the will of God; I
am bound with God." Is this possible, beloved? If you look
into Galatians, first chapter, you will see how wonderfully
Paul rose into this state of bliss. If you look in the third
chapter of the Ephesians, you will see that he recognized
himself as less than the least of all saints. Then, if you'll look
into the 26th chapter of Acts, you will find him saying, "I
have never lost the vision, King Agrippa, I have never lost it."
Then if you will look again in Galatians, you will see that, in
order to keep the vision, he conferred not with flesh and
blood; God laid hold of him, God bound him, God
preserved him. I ought to say, however, that it is a wonderful
position to be in--to be preserved by Almightiness--and we
ought to see to it that we leave ourselves to God. The
consequences will be all right. "Whosoever shall seek to save
his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my
sake the same shall save it."
Keeping the Vision 41
Now, beloved, I am out for men. It is my business to be
out for men. It is my business to make everybody hungry,
dissatisfied. It is my business to make people either glad or
mad. I have a message from heaven that will not leave people
as I find them. Something must happen after they are filled
with the Holy Spirit. A man filled with the Holy Spirit is no
longer an ordinary man. A man can be swept by the power of
God in the first stage of the revelation of Christ so that from
that moment he will be an extraordinary man. But to be filled
with the Holy Spirit he has to become a free body for God to
dwell in, and to use, and to manifest Himself through. So I
appeal to you, you people who have received the Holy Spirit,
I appeal to you to let God have His way at whatever cost; I
appeal to you to keep moving on with God into an ever
increasing realization of His infinite purpose in Christ Jesus
for His redeemed ones until you are filled unto all the fullness
of God. To remain three days in the same place would
indicate that you have lost the vision. The child of God must
catch the vision anew every day. Every day the child of God
must be moved more and more by the Holy Ghost. The child
of God must come into line with the power of heaven so that
he knows that God has his hand upon him.
It is the same Jesus, the very same Jesus. He went about
doing good. "God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and
with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him."
Beloved, is not that the ministry God would have us see we
are heir to? The mission of the Holy Ghost is to give us a
revelation of Jesus and to make the Word of God life unto us
as it was when spoken by the Son--as new, as fresh, as
effective as if the Lord Himself were speaking. The Bride
loves to hear the Bridegroom's voice! Here it is, the blessed
Keeping the Vision 42
Word of God, the whole Word, not part of it, no, no, no! We
believe in the whole of it. We really have such an
effectiveness worked in us by the Word of life, that day by
day we are finding out that the Word itself giveth life; the
Spirit of the Lord, breathing through, revealing by the Word,
giving it afresh to us, makes the whole Word alive today.
Amen. So I have within my hands, within my heart, within
my mind, this blessed reservoir of promises that is able to do
so many marvelous things. Some of you most likely have
been suffering because you have a limited revelation of Jesus,
of the fullness of life there is in Him.
In Oakland, Calif., we had a meeting in a large theater.
God wrought in filling the place till we had to have overflow
meetings. There was a rising tide of people getting saved in
the meeting by rising voluntarily up and down in the place,
and getting saved. And then we had a riding tide of people
who needed help in their bodies, rising in faith and being
healed. One of these latter was an old man 95 years of age.
He had been suffering for three years, till he got to the place
where for three weeks he had been taking liquids. He was in a
terrible state. I got him to stand while I prayed for him; and
he came back, and with radiant face, told us that new life had
come into his body. He said, "I am 95 years old. When I
came into the meeting, I was full of pain from cancer of the
stomach. I have been so healed that I have been eating
perfectly, and have no pain." Many of the people were healed
in a similar way.
(After the telling of the above incident in the meeting in
Wellington, New Zealand, where this address was given, a
lady arose who had rheumatism in the left leg. After being
prayed for, she ran the full length of the hall several times,
then testified to partial healing. A young man with pain in the
Keeping the Vision 43
head was healed instantly. Another man with pain in the
shoulder was healed instantly also.)
In the second chapter of Acts, you will see that when the
Holy Ghost came there was such a manifestation of the
power of God that it wrought conviction as the Word was
spoken in the Holy Ghost. In the third chapter we read of the
lame man healed at the Beautiful Gate through the power of
the Spirit, as Peter and John went into the Temple. And in
the fourth chapter, we read of such a wonderful
manifestation of miraculous power through the Spirit that
five thousand men besides women and children became
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. God gives manifestation of
His Divine power, beloved, to prove that He is with us. Will
you not, right now, open your heart to this wonderful God,
and let Him come into your life and make of you all that His
infinite love has moved Him to provide in Christ Jesus, and
that His infinite power, through the Holy Ghost, has made
possible to be wrought in sinful man.
Seek this vision from God, and keep it ever before you.
Pray the prayer that the apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians
believers, as recorded in Ephesians 1:17-19, "That the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you
a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know
what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding
greatness of His power to usward who believe."
Chapter Seven
Present-Time Blessings
Read with me the first twelve verses of Matthew 5, these
verses that we generally call the "Beatitudes." Some tell us
that Matthew 5 is a millennial chapter and that we cannot
attain to these blessings at the present time. I believe that
every one who receives the Baptism in the Spirit has a real
foretaste and earnest of millennial blessing, but that here the
Lord Jesus is setting forth present-day blessings that we can
enjoy here and now.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven." This is one of the richest places into which Jesus
brings us. The poor have a right to everything in heaven.
"Theirs is." Dare you believe it? Yes, I dare. I believe, I know,
that I was very poor. When God's Spirit comes in as the
ruling, controlling power of the life, He gives us God's
revelation of our inward poverty, and shows us that God has
come with one purpose, to bring heaven's best to earth, and
that with Jesus He will indeed "freely give us all things."
An old man and an old woman had lived together for
seventy years. Someone said to them, "You must have seen
many clouds during those days." They replied, "Where do the
showers come from? You never get showers without clouds."
It is only the Holy Ghost who can bring us to the place of
realization of our poverty; but, every time He does it, He
opens the windows of heaven and the showers of blessing
fall.
But I must recognize the difference between my own
spirit and the Holy Spirit. My own spirit can do certain things
on natural lines, can even weep and pray and worship, but it
is all on a human plane, and we must not depend on our own
Present Time Blessings 45
human thoughts and activities or on our own personality. If
the Baptism means anything to you, it should bring you to the
death of the ordinary, where you are no longer putting faith
in your own understanding; but, conscious of your own
poverty, you are ever yielded to the Spirit. Then it is that your
body becomes filled with heaven on earth."
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be
comforted." People get a wrong idea of mourning. Over in
Switzerland they have a day set apart to take wreaths to
graves. I laughed at the people's ignorance and said, "Why are
you spending time around the graves? The people you love
are not there. All that taking of flowers to the graves is not
faith at all." Those who died in Christ are gone to be with
Him, "which," Pa ul said, "is far better."
My wife once said to me, "You watch me when I'm
preaching. I get so near to heaven when I'm preaching that
some day I'll be off." One night she was preaching and when
she had finished, off she went. I was going to Glasgow and
had said goodbye to her before she went to meeting. As I was
leaving the house, the doctor and policeman met me at the
door and told me that she had fallen dead at the Mission
door. I knew she had got what she wanted. I could not weep,
but I was in tongues, praising the Lord. On natural lines she
was everything to me; but I could not mourn on natural lines,
but just laughed in the Spirit. The house was soon filled with
people. The doctor said, "She is dead, and we can do no more
for her." I went up to her lifeless corpse and commanded
death to give her up, and she came back to me for a moment.
Then God said to me, "She is Mine; her work is done." I
knew what He meant.
They laid her in the coffin, and I brought my sons and my
daughter into the room and said, "Is she there?" They said,
Present Time Blessings 46
"No, father." I said, "We will cover her up." If you go
mourning the loss of loved ones who have gone to be with
Christ, I say it in love to you, you have never had the
revelation of what Paul spoke of when he showed us that it is
better to go than to stay. We read this in Scripture, but the
trouble is that people will not believe it. When you believe
God, you will say, "Whatever it is, it is all right. If Thou dost
want to take the one I love, it is all right, Lord." Faith
removes all tears of self-pity.
But there is a mourning in the Spirit. God will bring you
to a place where things must be changed, and there is a
mourning, an unutterable groaning until God comes. And the
end of all real faith always is rejoicing. Jesus mourned over
Jerusalem. He saw the conditions, He saw the unbelief, He
saw the end of those who closed their ears to the Gospel. But
God gave a promise that He should see the travail of His soul
and be satisfied, and that He should see His seed. What
happened on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem was an
earnest of what will be the results of His travail, to be
multiplied a billion-fold all down the ages in all the world.
And as we enter in the Spirit into travail over conditions that
are wrong, such mourning will ever bring results for God,
and our joy will be complete in the satisfaction that is brought
to Christ thereby.
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."
Moses was headstrong in his zeal for his own people, and it
resulted in his killing a man. His heart was right in his desire
to correct things, but he was working on natural lines, and
when we work on natural lines we always fail. Moses had a
mighty passion, and that is one of the best things in the world
when God has control and it becomes a passion for souls to
be born again; but apart from God it is one of the worst
Present Time Blessings 47
things. Paul had it to a tremendous extent, and, breathing out
threats, he was hailing men and women to prison. But God
changed it, and later we find him wishing himself accursed
from Christ for the sake of his brethren, his kinsmen
according to the flesh. God took the headstrong Moses and
molded him into the meekest of men. He took the fiery Saul
of Tarsus and made him the foremost exponent of grace. Oh,
brothers, God can transform you in like manner, and plant in
you a divine meekness and every other thing that you lack.
In our Sunday school we had a boy with red hair. His
head was as red as fire and so was his temper. He was such a
trial. He kicked his teachers and the superintendent. He was
simply uncontrollable. The teachers had a meeting in which
they discussed the matter of expelling him. They thought that
God might undertake for that boy and so they decided to give
him another chance. One day he had to be turned out, and he
broke all the windows of the mission. He was worse outside
than in. Some time later we had a ten-days revival meeting.
There was nothing much doing in that meeting and people
thought it a waste of time, but there was one result--the
redheaded lad got saved. After he was saved, the difficulty
was to get rid of him at our house. He would be there until
midnight crying to God to make him pliable and use him for
His glory. God delivered the lad from his temper and made
him one of the meekest, most beautiful boys you ever saw.
For twenty years he has been a mighty missionary in China.
God takes us just as we are and transforms us by His power.
I can remember the time when I used to go white with
rage, and shake all over with temper. I could hardly hold
myself together. I waited on God for ten days. In those ten
days I was being emptied out and the life of the Lord Jesus
was being wrought into me. My wife testified of the
Present Time Blessings 48
transformation that took place in my life, "I never saw such a
change. I have never been able to cook anything since that
time that has not pleased him. Nothing is too hot or too cold,
everything is just right." God must come and reign supreme
in your life. Will you let Him do it? He can do it, and He will
if you will let Him. It is no use trying to tame the "old man."
But God can deal with him. The carnal mind will never be
subjected to God, but God will bring it to the cross where it
belongs, and will put in its place, the pure, the holy, the meek
mind of the Master.
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled." Note that word, "shall
be filled." If you ever see a "shall" in the Bible make it yours.
Meet the conditions and God will fulfil His word to you. The
Spirit of God is crying, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye
to the waters, and he that hath no money: come ye, buy and
eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price." The Spirit of God will take of the things of Christ and
show them to you in order that you may have a longing for
Christ in His fullness, and when there is that longing, God
will not fail to fill you.
See that crowd of worshipers who have come up to the
feast. They are going away utterly unsatisfied, but on the last
day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stands up and cries. "If
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water." Jesus knew that they were
going away without the living water, and so He directs them
to the true source of supply. Are you thirsty today? The living
Christ still invites you to Himself, and I want to testify that
He still satisfies the thirsty soul and still fills the hungry with
good things.
Present Time Blessings 49
In Switzerland, I learned of a man who met with the
assembly of the Plymouth Brethren. He attended their
various meetings, and one morning, at their breaking of bread
service, he arose and said, "Brethren, we have the Word, and
I feel that we are living very much in the letter of it, but there
is a hunger and thirst in my soul for something deeper,
something more real than we have, and I cannot rest until I
enter into it." The next Sunday this brother rose again and
said, "We are all so poor here, there is no life in this assembly,
and my heart is hungry for reality." He did this for several
weeks until it got on the nerves of those people and they
protested. "Sands, you are making us all miserable. You are
spoiling our meetings, and there is only one thing for you to
do, and that is to clear out."
That man went out of the meeting in a very sad
condition. As he stood outside, one of his children asked him
what was the matter, and he said, "To think that they should
turn me out from their midst for being hungry and thirsty for
more of God!" I did not know anything of this until
afterward.
Some days later someone rushed up to Sands and said,
"There is a man over here from England, and he is speaking
about tongues and healing." Sands said, "I'll fix him. I'll go to
the meeting and sit right up in the front and challenge him
with the Scriptures. I'll dare him to preach these things in
Switzerland. I'll publicly denounce him." So he came to the
meetings. There he sat. He was so hungry and thirsty that he
drank in every word that was said. His opposition soon
petered out. The first morning he said to a friend, "This is
what I want." He drank and drank of the Spirit. After three
weeks he said, "God will have to do something now or I'll
burst." He breathed in God and the Lord filled him to such
Present Time Blessings 50
an extent that he spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave
utterance. Sands is now preaching, and is in charge of a new
Pentecostal assembly.
God is making people hungry and thirsty after His best.
And everywhere He is filling the hungry and giving them that
which the disciples received at the very beginning. Are you
hungry? If you are, God promises that you shall be filled.

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