Nr. 194: Ever Increasing Faith

Nr. 194:

Ever Increasing
Faith
By Smith Wigglesworth

Have Faith in God......................................................................3
Deliverance to the Captives .......................................................10
The Power of the Name ............................................................19
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?........................................................28
I Am the Lord That He aleth Thee................................................36
Himself Took Our Infirmities ......................................................46
Our Risen Christ ......................................................................53
Righteousness.........................................................................60
"The Words of This Life"...........................................................68
Life in the Spirit .......................................................................77
What It Means To Be Full of the Spirit ..........................................87
The Bible Evidence of the Baptism of The Holy Spirit ......................95
Concerning Spiritual Gifts........................................................ 102
The Word of Knowledge and Faith............................................ 119
Gifts of Healing and Miracles.................................................... 129
The Gift of Prophecy .............................................................. 137
The Discerning of Spirits ......................................................... 144
The Gift of Tongues............................................................... 150
Chapter One
Have Faith in God
"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto
this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things
soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:23,24).
These are days when we need to have our faith
strengthened, when we need to know God. God has designed
that the just shall live by faith. Any man can be changed by
faith, no matter how he may be fettered. I know that God's
word is sufficient. One word from Him can change a nation.
His word is from everlasting to everlasting. It is through the
entrance of this everlasting Word, this incorruptible seed, that
we are born again, and come into this wonderful salvation.
Man cannot live by bread alone, but must live by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is the food of
faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of
God."
Everywhere men are trying to discredit the Bible and take
from it all the miraculous. One preacher says, "Well, you
know, Jesus arranged beforehand to have that colt tied where
it was, and for the men to say just what they did." I tell you
God can arrange everything without going near. He can plan
for you, and when He plans for you, all is peace. All things
are possible if you will believe.
Another preacher said, "It was an easy thing for Jesus to
feed the people with five loaves. The loaves were so big in
those days that it was a simple matter to cut them into a
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thousand pieces each." But He forgot that one little boy
brought those five loaves all the way in his lunch basket.
There is nothing impossible with god. All the impossibility is
with us when we measure God by the limitations of our
unbelief.
We have a wonderful God, a God whose ways are past
finding out, and whose grace and power are limitless. I was in
Belfast one day and saw one of the brethren of the assembly.
He said to me, "Wigglesworth, I am troubled. I have had a
good deal of sorrow during the past five months. I had a
woman in my assembly who could always pray the blessing of
heaven down on our meetings. She is an old woman, but her
presence is always an inspiration. But five months ago she fell
and broke her thigh. The doctors put her into a plaster cast,
and after five months they broke the cast. But the bones were
not properly set and so she fell and broke the thigh again."
He took me to her house, and there was a woman lying in
a bed on the right hand side of the room. I said to her, "Well,
what about it now?" She said, "They have sent me home
incurable. The doctors say that I am so old that my bones
won't knit. There is no nutriment in my bones and they could
never do anything for me and they say I shall have to lie in
bed for the rest of my life." I said to her, "Can you believe
God?" She replied, "Yes, ever since I heard that you had
come to Belfast my faith has been quickened. If you will pray,
I will believe. I know there is no power on earth that can
make the bones of my thigh knit, but I know there is nothing
impossible with God." I said, "Do you believe He will meet
you now?" She answered, "I do."
It is grand to see people believe God. God knew all about
this leg and that it was broken in two places. I said to the
woman, "When I pray, something will happen." Her husband
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was sitting there; he had been in his chair for four years and
could not walk a step. He called out, "I don't believe. I won't
believe. You will never get me to believe." I said, "All right,"
and laid my hands on his wife in the name of the Lord Jesus.
The moment hands were laid upon her the power of God
went right through her and she cried out, "I'm healed." I said,
"I'm not going to assist you to rise. God will do it all." She
rose and walked up and down the room, praising God.
The old man was amazed, at what had happened to his
wife, and he cried out, "Make me walk, make me walk." I said
to him, "You old sinner, repent." He cried out, "Lord, You
know I never meant what I said. You know I believe." I don't
think he meant what he said; anyhow the Lord was full of
compassion. If He marked our sins, where would any of us
be? If we will meet the conditions, God will always meet us.
If we believe, all things are possible. I laid my hands on him
and the power went right through the old man's body; and
those legs, for the first time in four years, received power to
carry his body, and he walked up and down and in and out.
He said, "O what great things God has done for us tonight!"
"What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that
ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Desire toward God,
and you will have desires from God; and He will meet you on
the line of those desires when you reach out in simple faith.
A man came to me in one of my meetings who had seen
other people healed and wanted to be healed, too. He
explained that his arm had been fixed in a certain position for
many years and he could not move it. "Got any faith?" I
asked. He said he had a lot of faith. After prayer he was able
to swing his arm round and round. But he was not satisfied
and complained, "I feel a little bit of trouble just there,"
pointing to a certain place. "Do you know what is the trouble
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with you?" He answered, "No." I said, "Imperfect faith."
"What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them."
Did you believe before you were saved? So many people
would be saved, but they want to feel saved first. There was
never a man who felt saved before he believed. God's plan is
always this, if you will believe, you shall see the glory of God.
I believe God wants to bring us all to a definite place of
unswerving faith and confidence in Himself.
Jesus here uses the figure of a mountain. Why does He
say a mountain? Because, if faith can remove a mountain, it
can remove anything. The plan of God is so marvelous, that
if you will only believe, all things are possible.
There is one special phrase to which I want to call to your
attention, "And shall not doubt in his heart." The heart is the
mainspring. See that young man and young woman. They
have fallen in love at first sight. In a short while there is a
deep affection, and a strong heart love, the one toward the
other. What is a heart of love? A heart of faith. Faith and love
are kin. In the measure that that young man and that young
woman love one another they are true. One may go to the
North and the other to the South, but because of their love
they will be true to each other.
It is the same when there is a deep love in the heart
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. In this new life into which God
has brought us, Paul tells us that we have become dead to the
law by the body of Christ, that we should be married to another,
even to Him who is raised from the dead. God brings us into
a place of perfect love and perfect faith. A man who is born
of God is brought into an inward affection, a loyalty to the
Lord Jesus that shrinks from anything impure. You see the
purity of a man and woman when there is a deep natural
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affection between them; they distain the very thought of
either of them being untrue. I say that, in the measure that a
man has faith in Jesus, he is pure. He that believes that Jesus
is the Christ overcomes the world. It is a faith that works by
love.
Just as we have heart fellowship with our Lord, our faith
cannot be daunted. We cannot doubt in our hearts. There
comes, as we go on with God, a wonderful association, an
impartation of His very life and nature within. As we read His
Word and believe the promises that He has so graciously
given to us, we are made partakers of His very essence and
life. The Lord is made to us a Bridegroom, and we are His
bride. His words to us are spirit and life, transforming us and
changing us, expelling that which is natural and bringing in
that which is divine.
It is impossible to comprehend the love of God as we
think on natural lines. We must have the revelation from the
Spirit of God. God giveth liberally. He that asketh, receiveth.
God is willing to bestow on us all things that pertain to life
and godliness. Oh, it was the love of God that brought Jesus.
And it is this same love that helps you and me to believe. In
every weakness God will be your strength. You who need His
touch, remember that He loves you. Look, wretched,
helpless, sick one, away to the God of all grace, whose very
essence is love, who delights to give liberally all the
inheritance of life and strength and power that you are in
need of.
When I was in Switzerland the Lord was graciously
working and healing many of the people. I was staying with
Brother Reuss of Goldiwil and two policemen were sent to
arrest me. The charge was that I was healing the people
without a license. Mr. Reuss said to them, "I am sorry that he
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is not here just now. He is holding a meeting about two miles
away, but before you arrest him let me show you something."
Brother Reuss took these two policemen down to one of
the lower parts of that district, to a house with which they
were familiar, for they had often gone to that place to arrest a
certain woman, who was repeatedly put in prison because of
continually being engaged in drunken brawls. He took them
to this woman and said to them, "This is one of the many
cases of blessing that have come through the ministry of the
man you have come to arrest. This woman came to our
meeting in a drunken condition. Her body was broken, for
she was ruptured in two places. While she was drunk, the
evangelist laid his hands on her and asked God to heal her
and deliver her." The woman joined in, "Yes, and God saved
me, and I have not tasted a drop of liquor since." The
policemen had a warrant for my arrest, but they said with
disgust, "Let the doctors do this kind of thing." They turned
and went away and that was the last we heard of them.
We have a Jesus that heals the broken-hearted, who lets
the captives go free, who saves the very worst. Dare you, dare
you, spurn this glorious Gospel of God for spirit, soul and
body? Dare you spurn this grace? I realize that this full
Gospel has in great measure been hid, this Gospel that brings
liberty, this Gospel that brings souls out of bondage, this
Gospel that brings perfect health to the body, this Gospel of
entire salvation. Listen again to this word of Him who left the
glory to bring us this great salvation, "Verily I say unto you,
That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou
removed, . . . he shall have whatsoever he saith." Whatsoever!
I realize that God can never bless us on the lines of being
hard-hearted, critical or unforgiving. This will hinder faith
quicker than anything. I remember being at a meeting where
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there were some people tarrying for the Baptism - seeking for
cleansing, for the moment a person is cleansed the Spirit will
fall. There was one man with eyes red from weeping bitterly.
He said to me, "I shall have to leave. It is no good my staying
without I change things. I have written a letter to my brotherin-
law, and filled it with hard words, and this thing must first
be straightened out." He went home and told his wife, "I'm
going to write a letter to your brother and ask him to forgive
me for writing to him the way I did." "You fool!" she said.
"Never mind," he replied, "this is between God and me, and
it has got to be cleared away." He wrote the letter and came
again, and straightway God filled him with the Spirit.
I believe there are a great many people who would be
healed, but they are harboring things in their hearts that are as
a blight. Let these things go. Forgive, and the Lord will
forgive you. There are many good people, people that mean
well, but they have no power to do anything for God. There
is just some little thing that came in their hearts years ago, and
their faith has been paralyzed ever since. Bring everything to
the light. God will sweep it all away if you will let Him. Let
the precious blood of Christ cleanse from all sin. If you will
but believe, God will meet you and bring into your lies the
sunshine of His love.
Chapter Two
Deliverance to the Captives
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 brokenhearted,
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 (Acts 2:39) even for us in this twentieth
century. Some ask, "But was not this power just for the
privileged few in the first century?" No. Read the Master's
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great commission as recorded by Mark, and you will see it is
for them that believe.
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 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 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
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necessity of a miracle being wrought with every man who
would see the kingdom. When a man is born of God, 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
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
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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 former treatises 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.
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." 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 to 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
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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,
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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. "O, 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.
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
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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 ma n 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 Savior and
your Healer.
Oh, if you would only believe God! What would happen?
The greatest things. Some have never tasted the grace of
God, or 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.
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
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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, 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
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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 for
you right here and now, and that which will satisfy you
throughout eternity."
Chapter Three
The Power of the Name
Read Acts 3:1-16
All things are possible through the name of Jesus. God
hath highly exalted Him, and given Him the name, which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow. There is power to overcome everything in the
world through the name of Jesus. I am looking forward to a
wonderful union through the name of Jesus. There is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved.
I want to instill into you a sense of the power, the virtue
and the glory of that name. Six people went into the house of
a sick man to pray for him. He was an Episcopal vicar, and
lay in bed utterly helpless, without even strength to help
himself. He had read a little tract about healing and had heard
about people praying for the sick, and sent for these friends,
who, he thought, could pray the prayer of faith. He was
anointed according to James 5:14, but, because he had no
immediate manifestation of healing, he wept bitterly. The six
people walked out of the room, somewhat crestfallen to see
the man lying there in an unchanged condition.
When they were outside, one of the six said, "There is one
thing we might have done. I wish you would all go back with
me and try it." They went back and all got together in a
group. This brother said, "Let us whisper the name of Jesus."
At first when they whispered this worthy name nothing
seemed to happen. But as they continued to whisper, "Jesus!
Jesus! Jesus!" the power began to fall. As they saw that God
was beginning to work, their faith and joy increased, and they
whispered the name louder and louder. As they did so the
The Power Of The Name Page 20
man arose from his bed and dressed himself. The secret was
just this, those six people had gotten their eyes off the sick
man, and they were just taken up with the Lord Jesus
Himself, and their faith grasped the power that there is in His
name. O, if people would only appreciate the power that
there is in this name, there is no telling what would happen.
I know that through His name and through the power of
His name we have access to God. The very face of Jesus fills
the whole place with glory. All over the world there are
people magnifying that name, and O, what a joy it is for me
to utter it.
One day I went up into the mountain to pray. I had a
wonderful day. It was one of the high mountains of Wales. I
heard of one man going up this mountain to pray, and the
Spirit of the Lord met him so wonderfully that his face shone
like that of an angel when he returned. Every one in the
village was talking about it. As I went up to this mountain
and spent the day in the presence of the Lord, His wonderful
power seemed to envelop and saturate and fill me.
Two years before this time there had come to our house
two lads from Wales. They were just ordinary lads, but they
became very zealous for God. They came to our mission and
saw some of the works of God. They said to me, "We would
not be surprised if the Lord brings you down to Wales to
raise our Lazarus." They explained that the leader of their
assembly was a man who had spent his days working in a tin
mine and his nights preaching, and the result was that he had
collapsed, gone into consumption, and for four years he had
been a helpless invalid, having to be fed with a spoon.
While I was up on that mountain top I was reminded of
the transfiguration scene, and I felt that the Lord's only
The Power Of The Name Page 21
purpose in taking us into the glory was to fit us for greater
usefulness in the valley.
Tongues and 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 ha ve 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
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back to the man to whom I had sent the postcard, he asked,
"Are you ready to go now?"
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! Oh, 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.
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
The Power Of The Name Page 23
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 on to 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 six o'clock He gave me these
words, "And I will raise him up." I put my elbow into the
fellow who was sleeping with 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 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,
The Power Of The Name Page 24
"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 cannot 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.
Peter and John were helpless, were illiterate, they had no
college education. 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
The Power Of The Name Page 25
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! They had no money! But they
had faith, they had the power of the Holy Ghost, 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.
I was one day preaching about the name of Jesus and
there was a man leaning against a lamppost, listening. It took
a lamppost to enable him to keep on his feet. We had
finished our open-air meeting, and the man was still leaning
against the post. I asked him, "Are you sick?" He showed me
his hand and I saw beneath his coat, he had a silver handled
dagger. He told me that he was on his way to kill his
unfaithful wife, but that he had heard me speaking about the
power of the name of Jesus and could not get away. He said
that he felt just helpless. I said, "Get you down." And there
on the square, with people passing up and down, he got
saved.
I took him to my home and put on him a new suit. I saw
that there was something in that man that God could use. He
The Power Of The Name Page 26
said to me the next morning, "God has revealed Jesus to me;
I see that all has been laid upon Jesus." I lent him some
money, and he soon got together a wonderful little home. His
faithless wife was living with another man, but he invited her
back to the home that he had prepared for her. She came:
and, where enmity and hatred had been before, the whole
situation was transformed by love. God made that man a
minister wherever he went. There is power in the name of
Jesus everywhere. God can save to the uttermost.
There comes before me a meeting we had in Stockholm
that I shall ever bear in mind. There was a home for
incurables there and one of the inmates was brought to the
meeting. He had palsy and was shaking all over. He stood up
before 3,000 people and came to the platform, supported by
two others. The power of God fell on him as I anointed him
in the name of Jesus. The moment I touched him he dropped
his crutch and began to walk in the name of Jesus. He walked
down the steps and round that great building in view of all
the people. There is nothing that our God cannot do. He will
do everything if you will dare to believe.
Someone said to me, "Will you go to this Home for
Incurables?" They took me there on my rest day. They
brought out the sick people into a great corridor and in one
hour the Lord set about twenty of them free.
The name of Jesus is so marvelous. Peter and John had
no conception of all that was in that name; neither had the
man, lame from his mother's womb, who was laid daily at the
gate; but they had faith to say, "In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk." And as Peter took him by the
right hand, and lifted him up, immediately his feet and
anklebones received strength, and he went into the temple
with them, walking and leaping and praising God. How can it
The Power Of The Name Page 27
be done? Through His name, through faith in His name,
through faith which is by Him.
Chapter Four
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?
Read John 5:1-24
I believe the word of God is so powerful that it can
transform any and every life. There is power in God's word
to make that, which does not appear to appear. There is
executive power in the word that proceeds from His lips. The
psalmist tells us, "He sent His word and healed them" (Ps.
107:20); and do you think that word has diminished in its
power? I tell you nay, but God's word can bring things to
pass today as of old.
The psalmist said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray;
but now have I kept Thy word." And again, "It is good for
me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes"
(Ps. 119:67,71). And if our afflictions will bring us to the
place where we see that we cannot live by bread alone, but
must partake of every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God, they will have served a blessed purpose. But I want
you to realize that there is a life of purity, a life made clean
through the word He has spoken, in which, through faith,
you can glorify God with a body that is free from sickness, as
well as with a spirit set free from the bondage of Satan.
Here they lay, a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind,
halt, withered, around the pool, waiting for the moving of the
water. Did Jesus heal everybody? He left many around that
pool unhealed. There were doubtless many who had their
eyes on the pool and who had no eyes for Jesus. There are
many today who have their confidence all the time in things
seen. If they would only get their eyes on God instead of on
natural things, how quickly they would be helped.
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole Page 29
The question arises, is salvation and healing for all? It is
for all who will press right in and get their portion. You
remember the case of that Syrophenician woman who wanted
the devil cast out of her daughter. Jesus said to her, "Let the
children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's
bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." Note, healing, and
deliverance are here spoken of by the Master as "the
children's bread"; so, if you are a child of God, you can surely
press in for your portion.
The Syrophenician woman (Mark 7:24-30) purposed to
get from the Lord what she was after, and she said, "Yes,
Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's
crumbs." Jesus was stirred as He saw the faith of this woman,
and He told her, "For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone
out of thy daughter." Today there are many children of God
refusing their blood-purchased portion of health in Christ
and are throwing it away, while sinners are pressing through
and picking it up from under the table, as it were, and are
finding the cure not only for their bodies, but for their spirits
and souls as well. The Syrophenician woman went home and
found that the devil had indeed gone out of her daughter.
Today there is bread, there is life, and there is health for every
child of God through his all-powerful Word.
The Word can drive every disease away from your body.
It is your portion in Christ, Him who is our bread, our life,
our health, our all in all. And though you may be deep in sin,
you can come to Him in repentance, and he will forgive and
cleanse and will receive them. There is a promise in the last
verse in Joel, "I will cleanse their blood that I have not
cleansed." This is as much as to say He will provide new life
within. The life of Jesus Christ, God's Son, can so purify
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole Page 30
men's hearts and minds that they become entirely
transformed, spirit, soul and body."
There they are round the pool; and this man had been
there a long time. His infirmity was of thirty-eight years
standing. Now and again an opportunity would come, as the
angel stirred the waters, but his heart would be made sick as
he saw another step in and be healed before him. But one day
Jesus was passing that way, and seeing him lying there in that
sad condition, enquired, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Jesus
said it, and His word is from everlasting to everlasting. This is
His word to you, poor, tried and tested one today. You may
say, like this poor impotent man, "I have missed every
opportunity up till now." Never mind about that -- Wilt thou
be made whole?
I visited a woman who had been suffering for many years.
She was all twisted up with rheumatism and had been two
years in bed. I said to her, "What makes you lie here?" She
said, "I've come to the conclusion that I have a thorn in the
flesh." I said, "To what wonderful degree of righteousness
have you attained that you have to have a thorn in the flesh?
Have you had such an abundance of divine revelations that
there is danger of your being exalted above measure?" She
said, "I believe it is the Lord who is causing me to suffer." I
said, "You believe it is the Lord's will for you to suffer, and
you are trying to get out of it as quickly as you can. There are
doctor's bottles all over the place. Get out of your hiding
place and confess that you are a sinner. If you'll get rid of
your self- righteousness, God will do something for you.
Drop the idea that you are so holy that God has got to afflict
you. Sin is the cause of your sickness and not righteousness.
Disease is not caused by righteousness, but by sin."
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole Page 31
There is healing through the blood of Christ and
deliverance for every captive. God never intended His
children to live in misery because of some affliction that
comes directly from the devil. A perfect atonement was made
at Calvary. I believe that Jesus bore my sins, and I am free
from them all. I am justified from all things if I dare believe.
He Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses; and
if I dare believe, I can be healed.
See this poor, helpless man at the pool. "Wilt thou be
made whole?" But there is a difficulty in the way. The man
has one eye on the pool and one eye on Jesus. There are
many people getting cross-eyed this way these days; they have
one eye on the doctor and one on Jesus. If you will only look
to Christ and put both your eyes on Him you can be made
every whit whole, spirit, soul and body. It is the word of the
living God that they that believe should be justified, made
free from all things. And whom the Son sets free is free
indeed.
You say, "Oh, if I only could believe!" He understands.
Jesus knew he had been a long time in that case. He is full of
compassion. He knows that kidney trouble, He knows those
corns, and He knows that neuralgia. There is nothing he does
not know. He only wants a chance to show Himself merciful
and gracious to you. But He wants to encourage you to
believe Him. If thou canst only believe, thou canst be saved
and healed. Dare to believe that Jesus was wounded for your
transgressions, was bruised for your iniquities, was chastised
that you might have peace, and that by His stripes there is
healing for you right here and now. You have failed because
you have not believed Him. Cry out to Him even now, "Lord,
I believe, help Thou mine unbelief."
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole Page 32
I was in Long Beach, California one day, and with a
friend, was passing a hotel. He told me of a doctor there who
had a diseased leg; that he had been suffering from it for six
years, and could not get out. We went up to his room and
found four doctors there. I said, "Well, doctor, I see you have
plenty on, I'll call again another day." I was passing at another
time, and the Holy Spirit said, "Go join thyself to him." Poor
doctor! He surely was in a bad condition. He said, "I have
been like this for six years, and nothing human can help me."
I said, "You need God Almighty." People are trying to patch
up their lives; but you cannot do anything without God. I
talked to him for a while about the Lord, and then prayed for
him. I cried, "Come out of him, in the name of Jesus." The
doctor cried, "It's all gone!"
At that meeting there was an old man helping his son to
the altar. He said, "He has fits--many every day." Then there
was a woman with a cancer. Oh, what sin has done! We read
that, when God brought forth His people from Egypt, "there
was not one feeble person among their tribes" (Ps. 105:37).
No disease! All healed by the power of God! I believe that
God wants a people like that today.
I prayed for the sister who had the cancer and she said, "I
know I'm free and that God has delivered me." Then they
brought the boy with the fits, and I commanded the evil
spirits to leave, in the name of Jesus. Then I prayed for the
doctor. At the next night's meeting the house was full. I called
out, "Now, doctor, what about the diabetes?" He said, "It has
gone." Then I said to the old man, "What about your son?"
He said, "He hasn't had any fits since." We have a God who
answers prayer.
Jesus meant this man at the pool to be a testimony
forever. When he had both eyes on Jesus, He said to him,
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole Page 33
"Do the impossible thing. Rise, take up thy bed, and walk."
Jesus called on the man with the withered hand to do the
impossible--to stretch forth his hand. The man did the
impossible thing--he stretched out his hand, and it was made
every whit whole. And so with this impotent man--he began
to rise, and he found the power of God moving within. He
wrapped up his bed and began to walk off. It was the Sabbath
day, and there were some of those folks around who think
much more of a day than they do of the Lord; and they began
to make a fuss. When the power of God is in manifestation, a
protest will always come from some hypocrites. Jesus knew
all about what the man was going through, and met him
again; and this time He said to him, "Behold, thou art made
whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee."
There is a close relationship between sin and sickness.
How many know that their sickness is a direct result of sin? I
hope that no one will come to be prayed for who is living in
sin. But if you will obey God and repent of your sin and quit
it, God will meet you, and neither your sickness nor your sin
will remain. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the
Lord shall raise Him up; and if he have committed sins, they
shall be forgiven him."
Faith is just the open door through which the Lord
comes. Do not say, "I was healed by faith." Faith does not
save. God saves through that open door. Healing comes the
same way. You believe, and the healing comes the same way.
You believe, and the virtue of Christ comes. Healing is for
the glory of God. I am here because God healed me when I
was dying; and I have been all around the world preaching
this full redemption, doing all I can to bring the glory to the
wonderful name of Jesus, through whom I was healed.
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole Page 34
"Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." The
Lord told us in one place about an evil spirit going out from a
man. The house that he left got all swept and garnished, but it
received no new occupant. And that evil spirit, with seven
other spirits more wicked than himself, went back to that
unoccupied house, and the last stage of the man was worse
than the first. The Lord does not heal you to go to a baseball
game or to a race meet. He heals you for His glory and that
from henceforth your life shall glorify Him. But this man
remained stationary. He did not magnify God. He did not
seek to be filled with the Spirit. And his last state became
worse than the first.
The Lord would so cleanse the motive and desires of our
hearts that we will seek but one thing only, and that is, His
glory. I went to a certain place one day and the Lord said,
"This is for My glory." A young man had been sick for a long
time confined to his bed in an utterly hopeless condition. He
was fed only with a spoon, and was never dressed. The
weather was damp, and so I said to the people of the house,
"I wish you would put the young man's clothes by the fire to
air." At first they would not take any notice of my request,
but because I was persistent, they at last got out his clothes,
and, when they were aired, I took them into his room.
The Lord said to me, "You will have nothing to do with
this;" and I just lay out prostrate on the floor. The Lord
showed me that He was going to shake the place with His
glory. The very bed shook. I laid my hands on the young man
in the name of Jesus, and the power fell in such a way that I
fell on my face to the floor. In about a quarter of an hour the
young man got up and walked up and down praising God. He
dressed himself and then went out to the room where his
father and mother were. He said, "God has healed me." Both
Wilt Thou Be Made Whole Page 35
the father and mother fell prostate to the floor as the power
of God surged through that room. There was a woman in
that house who had been in an asylum for lunacy, and her
condition was so bad that they were about to take her back.
But the power of God healed her, too. The power of God is
just the same today as of old. Men need to be taken back to
the old paths, to the old-time faith, to believe God's Word
and every "Thus saith the Lord" therein. The Spirit of the
Lord is moving in these days. God is coming forth. If you
want to be in the rising tide, you must accept all God has
said.
"Wilt thou be made whole?" It is Jesus who asks it. Give
Him your answer. He will hear and He will answer.
Chapter Five
I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee
"Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the
church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the
sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him" (James 5:14,15).
We have in this precious word a real basis for the truth of
healing. In this scripture God gives very definite instructions
to the sick. If you are sick, your part is to call for the elders of
the church; it is their part to anoint and pray for you in faith,
and then the whole situation rests with the Lord. When you
have been anointed and prayed for, you can rest assured that
the Lord will raise you up. It is the word of God.
I believe that we all can see that the church cannot play
with this business. If any turn away from these clear
instructions they are in a place of tremendous danger. Those
who refuse to obey, do so to their unspeakable loss.
James tells us in connection with this, "If any of you do
err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that
he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways
shall save a soul from death." Many turn away from the Lord,
as did King Asa, who sought the physicians in his sickness
and consequently died; and I take it that this passage means
that if one induces another to turn back to the Lord, he will
save such from death and God will forgive a multitude of sins
that they have committed. This scripture can also have a large
application on the line of salvation. If you turn away from any
part of God's truth, the enemy will certainly get an advantage
over you.
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 37
Does the Lord meet those who look to Him for healing
and obey the instructions set forth in James? Most assuredly.
Let me tell you a story to show how He will undertake for the
most extreme case.
One day I had been visiting the sick, and was with a
friend of mine, an architect, when I saw a young man from
his office coming down the road in a car, and holding in his
hand a telegram. It contained a very urgent request that we go
immediately to pray for a man who was dying. We went off in
an auto as fast as possible and in about an hour and a half
reached a large house in the country where the man who was
dying resided. There were two staircases in that house, and it
was extremely convenient, for the doctors could go up and
down one, and my friend and I could go up and down the
other, and so we had no occasion to meet.
I found on arrival that it was a case of this sort. The man's
body had been broken, he was ruptured, and his bowels had
been punctured in two places. The discharge from the bowels
had formed abscesses, and blood poisoning had set in. The
man's face had turned green. Two doctors were in
attendance, but they saw that the case was beyond their
power. They had telegraphed to London for a great specialist,
and, when we arrived, they were at the railway station
awaiting his arrival.
The man was very near death and could not speak. I said
to his wife, "If you desire, we will anoint and pray for him."
She said, "That is why I sent for you." I anointed him in the
name of the Lord and asked the Lord to raise him up.
Apparently there was no change. (God often hides what He
does. From day to day we find that God is doing wonderful
things, and we receive reports of healings that have taken
place that we heard nothing about at the time of our
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 38
meetings. Only last night a woman came into the meeting
suffering terribly. Her whole arm was filled with poison, and
her blood was so poisoned that it was certain to bring her to
her death. We rebuked the thing, and she was here this
morning and told us that she was without pain and had slept
all night, a thing she had not done for two months. To God
be all the praise. You will find He will do this kind of thing all
along).
As soon as we anointed and prayed for this brother we
went down the back staircase and the three doctors came up
the front staircase. As we arrived downstairs, I said to my
friend who had come with me, "Friend let me have hold of
your hands." We held each other's hands, and I said to him,
"Look into my face and let us agree together, according to
Matthew 18:19, that this man shall be brought out of this
death." We laid the whole matter before God, and said,
"Father, we believe."
Then the conflict began. The wife came down to us and
said, "The doctors have got all their instruments out and they
are about to operate." I cried, "What? Look here, he's your
husband, and I tell you this, if those men operate on him, he
will die. Go back and tell them you cannot allow it." She went
back to the doctors and said, "Give me ten minutes." They
said, "We can't afford to, the man is dying and it is your
husband's only chance." She said, "I want ten minutes, and
you don't touch his body until I have had them."
They went downstairs by one staircase and we went up by
the other. I said to the woman, "This man is your husband,
and he cannot speak for himself. It is now the time for you to
put your whole trust in God and prove Him wholly true. You
can save him from a thousand doctors. You must stand with
God and for God in this critical hour." After that, we came
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 39
down and the doctors went up. The wife faced those three
doctors and said, "You shan't touch this man's body. He is
my husband. I am sure that if you operate on him he will die,
but he will live if you don't touch him."
Suddenly the man in bed spoke. "God has done it," he
said. They rolled back the bedclothes and the doctors
examined him, and the abscesses were cut clear away. The
nurse cleaned the place where they had been. The doctors
could see the bowels still open and they said to the wife, "We
know that you have great faith, and we can see that a miracle
has taken place. But you must let us unite these broken parts
and put in silver tubes, and we know that your husband will
be all right after that, and it need not interfere with your faith
at all." She said to them, "God has done the first thing and
He can do the rest. No man shall touch him now." And God
healed the whole thing. And that man is well and strong
today. I can give his name and address to any who want it.
Do you ask by what power this was done? I would answer
in the words of Peter, "His name, through faith in His name,
made this man strong." The anointing was done in the name of the
Lord. And it is written, "The LORD shall raise him up." And He
provides the double cure; even if sin has been the cause of
the sickness, His Word declares, "If he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven."
You ask, "What is faith?" Faith is the principle of the
Word of God. The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Word, is
called the Spirit of Truth, and, as we receive with meekness
the engrafted Word, faith springs in our heart--faith in the
sacrifice of Calvary; faith in the shed blood of Jesus; faith in
the fact that He took our weakness upon Himself, has borne
our sicknesses and carried our pains, and that He is our life
today.
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 40
God has chosen us to help one another. We dare not be
independent. He brings us to a place where we submit
ourselves to one another. If we refuse to do this, we get away
from the Word of God and out of the place of faith. I have
been in this place once and I trust I shall never be there again.
I went one time to a meeting. I was very, very sick, and I got
worse and worse. I knew the perfect will of God was for me
to humble myself and ask the elders to pray for me. I put it
off and the meeting finished. I went home without being
anointed and prayed with, and everyone in the house caught
the thing I was suffering with.
My boys did not know anything else but to trust the Lord
as the family Physician, and my youngest boy, George, cried
out from the attic, "Dadda, come." I cried, "I cannot come.
The whole thing is from me. I shall have to repent and ask
the Lord to forgive me." I made up my mind to humble
myself before the whole church. Then I rushed to the attic
and laid my hands on my boy in the name of Jesus. I placed
my hands on his head and the pain left and went lower down;
he cried again, "Put your hands still lower." At last the pain
went right down to the feet and as I placed my hand on the
feet he was completely delivered. Some evil power had
evidently gotten hold and as I laid my hands on the different
parts of the body it left. (We have to see the difference
between anointing the sick and casting out demons.") God
will always be gracious when we humble ourselves before
Him and come to a place of brokenness of spirit.
I was at a place one time ministering to a sick woman, and
she said, "I'm very sick. I become all right for an hour, and
then I have another attack." I saw that it was an evil power
that was attacking her, and I learned something in that hour
that I had never learned before. As I moved my hand down
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 41
her body in the name of the Lord that evil power seemed to
move just ahead of my hands and as I moved them down
further and further the evil power went right out of her body
and never returned.
I was in Havre in France and the power of God was being
mightily manifested. A Greek named Felix attended the
meeting and became very zealous for God. He was very
anxious to get all the Catholics he could to the meeting in
order that they should see that God was graciously visiting
France. He found a certain bed-ridden woman who was fixed
in a certain position and could not move, and he told her
about the Lord healing at the meetings and that he would get
me to come if she wished. She said, "My husband is a
Catholic and he would never allow anyone who was not a
Catholic to see me."
She asked her husband to allow me to come and told him
what Felix had told her about the power of God working in
our midst. He said, "I will have no Protestant enter my
house." She said, "You know the doctors cannot help me,
and the priests cannot help, won't you let this man of God
pray for me?" He finally consented and I went to the house.
The simplicity of this woman and her child-like faith were
beautiful to see.
I showed her my oil bottle and said to her, "Here is oil. It
is a symbol of the Holy Ghost. When that comes upon you,
the Holy Ghost will begin to work, and the Lord will raise
you up." And God did something the moment the oil fell
upon her. I looked toward the window and I saw Jesus. (I
have seen Him often. There is no painting that is a bit like
Him: no artist can ever depict the beauty of my lovely Lord.)
The woman felt the power of God in her body and cried,
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 42
"I'm free, my hands are free, my shoulders are free, and oh, I
see Jesus! I'm free! I'm free!
The vision vanished and the woman sat up in bed. Her
legs were still bound, and I said to her, "I'll put my hands
over your legs and you will be free entirely." And as I put my
hands on those legs covered with bedclothes, I looked and
saw the Lord again. She saw Him too and cried, "He's there
again. I'm free! I'm free!" She rose from her bed and walked
round the room praising God, and we were all in tears as we
saw His wonderful works. The Lord shall raise them up when
conditions are met.
When I was a young man I always loved the fellowship of
old men, and was always careful to hear what they had to say.
I had a friend, an old Baptist minister who was a wonderful
preacher. I spent much of my time with him. One day he
came to me and said, "My wife is dying." I said, "Brother
Clark, why don't you believe God? God can raise her up if
you will only believe Him." He asked me to come to his
house, and I looked for someone to go with me.
I went to a certain rich man who was very zealous for
God, and spent much money in opening up rescue missions,
and I asked him to go with me. He said, "Never you mind
me. You go yourself, but I don't take to this kind of
business." Then I thought of a man who could pray by the
hour. When he was on his knees he could go round the world
three times and come out at the same place. I asked him to go
with me and said to him, "You'll have a real chance this time.
Keep at it, and quit when you're through." (Some go on after
they are through.)
Brother Nichols, for that was his name, went with me and
started praying. He asked the Lord to comfort the husband in
his great bereavement and prayed for the orphans and a lot
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 43
more on this line. I cried, "O my God, stop this man." But
there was no stopping him and he went on praying and there
was not a particle of faith in anything he uttered. He did stop
at last, and I said, "Brother Clark, it's now your turn to pray.
He started, "Lord, answer the prayer of my brother and
comfort me in this great bereavement and sorrow. Prepare
me to face this great trial." I cried out, "My God, stop this
man." The whole atmosphere was being charged with
unbelief.
I had a glass bottle full of oil and I went up to the woman
and poured the whole lot on her in the name of Jesus.
Suddenly Jesus appeared, standing at the foot of the bed. He
smiled and vanished. The woman stood up, perfectly healed,
and she is a strong woman today.
We have a big God. We have a wonderful Jesus. We have
a glorious Comforter. God's canopy is over you and will
cover you at all times, preserving you from evil. Under His
wings shalt thou trust. The Word of God is living and
powerful and in its treasures you will find eternal life. If you
dare trust this wonderful Lord, this Lord of life, you will find
in Him everything you need.
So many are tampering with drugs, quacks, pills and
plasters. Clear them all out and believe God. It is sufficient to
believe God. You will find that if you dare trust Him, He will
never fail. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the
LORD shall raise him up." Do you trust Him? He is worthy
to be trusted.
I was one time asked to go to Weston-super-mare, a
seaside resort in the West of England. I learned from a
telegram that a man has lost his reason and had become a
raving maniac, and they wanted me to go to pray for him. I
arrived at the place, and the wife said to me, "Will you sleep
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 44
with my husband?" I agreed, and in the middle of the night
an evil power laid hold of him. It was awful. I put my hand
on his head and his hair was like a lot of sticks. God gave
deliverance--a temporary deliverance. At 6 o'clock the next
morning, I felt that is was necessary that I should get out of
the house for a short time.
The man saw me going and cried out, "If you leave me,
there is no hope." But I felt that I had to go. As I went out I
saw a woman with a Salvation Army bonnet on and I knew
that she was going to their 7 o'clock prayer meeting. I said to
the Captain who was in charge of the meeting, when I saw he
was about to give a hymn, "Captain, don't sing. Let's get to
prayer." He agreed, and I prayed my heart out, and then I
grabbed my hat and rushed out of the hall. They all thought
they had a madman in their prayer meeting that morning.
I saw the man I had spent the night with, rushing down
toward the sea, without a particle of clothing on, about to
drown himself. I cried, "In the name of Jesus, come out of
him!" The man fell full length on the ground and that evil
power went out of him never to return. His wife came
rushing after him, and the husband was restored to her in a
perfect mental condition.
There are evil powers, but Jesus is greater than all evil
powers. There are tremendous diseases, but Jesus is healer.
There is no case too hard for Him. The Lion of Judah shall
break every chain. He came to relieve the oppressed and to
set the captive free. He came to bring redemption, to make us
as perfect as man was before the fall.
People want to know how to be kept by the power of
God. Every position of grace into which you are led--
forgiveness, healing, deliverance of any kind--will be
contested by Satan. He will contend for your body. When you
I Am The Lord That Healeth Thee Page 45
are saved, Satan will come round and say, "See, you are not
saved." The devil is a liar. If he says you are not saved, it is a
sure sign that you are.
You will remember the story of the man who was swept
and garnished. The evil power had been swept out of him.
But the man remained in a stationary position. If the Lord
heals you, you dare not remain in a stationary position. The
evil spirit came back to that man and found the house swept,
and took seven others worse than himself, and the last state
of that man was worse than the first. Be sure to get filled with
God. Get the Occupier. Be filled with the Spirit.
God has a million ways of undertaking for those who go
to Him for help. He has deliverance for every captive. He
loves you so much that He even says, "Before they call, I will
answer." Don't turn Him away.
Chapter Six
Himself Took Our Infirmities
Read Matthew 8:1-17
Here we have a wonderful word. All the Word is
wonderful. This blessed Book brings such life and health and
peace, and such abundance that we should never be poor any
more. This Book is my heavenly bank. I find everything I
want in it. I want to show you how rich you may be, that in
everything you can be enriched in Christ Jesus. He has
abundance of grace for you and the gift of righteousness, and
through His abundant grace all things are possible. I want to
show you that you can be a living branch of the living Vine,
Christ Jesus, and that it is your privilege to be right here in
this world what He is. John tells us, "As He is, so are we in
this world." Not that we are anything in ourselves, but Christ
within us is our all in all.
The Lord Jesus is always wanting to show forth His grace
and love in order to draw us to Himself. God is willing to do
things, to manifest His Word, and let us know in measure the
mind of our God in this day and hour. There are many needy
ones, many afflicted ones, but I do not think any present are
half as bad as this first case that we read of in Matthew 8.
This man was a leper. You may be suffering with
consumption or cancers or other things, but God will show
forth His perfect cleansing, His perfect healing, if you have a
living faith in Christ. He is a wonderful Jesus.
This leper must have been told about Jesus. How much is
missed because people are not constantly telling what Jesus
will do in this our day. Probably someone had come to that
leper and said, "Jesus can heal you." And so he was filled with
expectation as he saw the Lord coming down the
Himself Took Our Infirmities Page 47
mountainside. Lepers were not allowed to come within reach
of people, they were shut out as unclean. And so in the
ordinary way it would have been very difficult for him to get
near because of the crowd that surrounded Jesus. But as He
came down from the mount He met this poor leper. Oh, this
terrible disease! There was no help for him humanly speaking,
but nothing is too hard for Jesus. The man cried, "Lord, if
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Was Jesus willing? You
will never find Jesus missing an opportunity of doing good.
You will find that He is always more willing to work than we
are to give Him an opportunity to work. The trouble is we do
not come to Him, we do not ask Him for what He is more
than willing to give.
And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, "I
will; be thou clean." And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. I like that. If you are definite with Him you will
never go away disappointed. The divine life will flow into you
and instantaneously you will be delivered. This Jesus is just
the same today, and He says to you, "I will; be thou clean."
He has an overflowing cup for thee, a fullness of life. He will
meet you in your absolute helplessness. All things are possible
if you will only believe. God has a real plan. It is so simple.
Just come to Jesus. You will find Him just the same as He
was in days of old.
The next case we have in this chapter is that of the
centurion coming and beseeching Jesus on behalf of his
servant who was sick of the palsy and grievously tormented.
This man was so in earnest that he came seeking for Jesus.
Notice this, that there is one thing certain; there is no such
thing as seeking without finding. He that seeketh findeth.
Listen to the gracious words of Jesus, "I will come and heal
him." Most places that we go to there are so many people
Himself Took Our Infirmities Page 48
that we cannot pray for. In some places there are 200 or 300
who would like us to visit them, but we are not able to do so.
But I am so glad that the Lord Jesus is always willing to come
and heal. He longs to meet the sick ones. He loves to heal
them of their afflictions. The Lord is healing many people
today by means of handkerchiefs as you read that He healed
people in the days of Paul. You can read this in Acts 19:12.
A woman came to me in the city of Liverpool and said, "I
would like you to help me. I wish you would join with me in
prayer. My husband is a drunkard and every night comes into
the home under the influence of drink. Won't you join me in
prayer for him?" I said to the woman, "Have you a
handkerchief?" She took out a handkerchief and I prayed
over it and told her to lay it on the pillow of the drunken
man. He came home that night and laid his head on the
pillow in which this handkerchief was tucked. He laid his
head on more than the pillow that night. He laid his head on
the promise of God. 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 next morning the man got up and called at the first
saloon that he had to pass on his way to work and ordered
some beer. He tasted it and said to the bartender, "You have
put some poison in this beer." He could not drink it, and
went on to the next saloon and ordered some more beer. He
tasted it and said to the man behind the counter, "You put
some poison in this beer, I believe you folks have agreed to
poison me." The bartender was indignant at being thus
charged. The man said, "I will go somewhere else." He went
to another saloon and the same thing happened as in the two
previous saloons. He made such a fuss that they turned him
out. After he came out from work he went to another saloon
Himself Took Our Infirmities Page 49
to get some beer, and again he thought he had been poisoned
and he made so much disturbance that he was thrown out.
He went to his home and told his wife what had happened
and said, "It seems as though all the fellows have agreed to
poison me." His wife said to him, "Can't you see the hand of
the Lord in this, that He is making you dislike the stuff that
has been your ruin?" This word brought conviction to the
man's heart and he came to the meeting and got saved. The
Lord has still power to set the captives free.
When I was in Australia a lady came to me who was much
troubled about her son who was so lazy. I prayed over a
handkerchief, which was placed on the boy's pillow. He slept
that night on the handkerchief and the next morning he got
up and went out and secured a position and went to work.
Oh, praise the Lord, you can't shut God out, but if you will
only believe He will shut the devil out.
Jesus was willing to go and heal the sick one but the
centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest
come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my
servant shall be healed." Jesus was delighted with this
expression and said to the man, "Go thy way; and as thou
hast believed, so be it done unto thee." And his servant was
healed the self-same hour.
When I was in Australia a man came up to me. He was
leaning on a big stick and said, "I would like you to help me.
It will take you half an hour to pray for me." I said, "Believe
God and in one moment you will be whole." His faith was
quickened to receive an immediate healing and he went away
glorifying God for a miraculous healing. The word of the
Lord is sufficient today. If you will dare to believe God's
Word you will see a performance of His Word that will be
truly wonderful. Here we have with the centurion an audacity
Himself Took Our Infirmities Page 50
of faith, a faith that did not limit God. Failures come when
we limit the Holy One of Israel. I want to encourage you to a
living faith to believe God's Word.
The next healing we read of here is the healing of Peter's
wife's mother who was sick of a fever. Luke tells us that Jesus
rebuked the fever. The fever could hear. The moment it
could hear it went. Jesus had a new method. Today there are
a lot of folks who try to sweat out a fever. You can't sweat
the devil out. He can stand all the heat that you can apply to
him. But if thou canst believe, deliverance is as sure and
certain for you as it was for Peter's wife's mother.
I received a telegram once urging me to visit a case about
200 miles from my home. As I went to this place I met the
father and mother and found them broken hearted. They lead
me up a staircase to a room and I saw a young woman on the
floor and five people were holding her down. She was a frail
young woman but the power in her was greater than all those
young men. As I went into the room the evil powers looked
out of her eyes and they used her lips saying, "We are many,
you can't cast us out." I said, "Jesus can." He is equal to every
occasion. He is waiting for an opportunity to bless. He is
ready for every opportunity to deliver souls. When we receive
Jesus it is true of us, "Greater is He that is in you than he that
is in the world." He is greater than all the powers of darkness.
No man can meet the devil in his own strength, but any man
filled with the knowledge of Jesus, filled with His presence,
filled with His power, is more than a match for the powers of
darkness. God has called us to be more than conquerors
through Him that loved us.
The living Word is able to destroy satanic forces. There is
power in the name of Jesus. I would that every window in the
street had the name of Jesus written large upon it. His name,
Himself Took Our Infirmities Page 51
through faith in His name brought deliverance to this poor,
bound soul, and thirty-seven demons came out giving their
names as they came forth. The dear woman was completely
delivered and they were able to give her back her child. That
night there was heaven in that home and the father and
mother and son and his wife were all united in glorifying
Christ for His infinite grace. The next morning we had a
gracious time in the breaking of bread. All things are
wonderful with our wonderful Jesus. If you would dare rest
your all upon Him, things would take place and He would
change the whole situation. In a moment, through the name
of Jesus, a new order of things can be brought in.
In the world they are always having new diseases and the
doctors cannot locate them. A doctor said to me, "The
science of medicine is in its infancy, and really we doctors
have no confidence in our medicine. We are always
experimenting." But the man of God does not experiment.
He knows, or ought to know, redemption in its fullness. He
knows, or ought to know, the mightiness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is not, or should not be, moved by our outward
observation, but should get divine revelation of the
mightiness of the name of Jesus and the power of His blood.
If we exercise our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ He will come
forth and get glory over all the powers of darkness.
At eventide they brought unto Him many that were
possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His
word and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, "Himself
took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." The work is
done if you only believe it. It is done. Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses. If you can only see the
Lamb of God as He went to Calvary! He took our flesh that
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He might take upon Himself the full burden of all our sin and
all the consequences of sin. There on the cross God laid upon
Him the iniquities of us all. There on the cross of Calvary the
results of sin were also dealt with. "As the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the
same; that through death he might destroy him that had the
power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their life time subject to
bondage." Through His death there is deliverance for you
today.
Chapter Seven
Our Risen Christ
Read Acts 4
Today we praise God for the fact that our glorious Jesus
is the risen Christ. Those of us who have tasted the power of
the indwelling Spirit know something of the manner in which
the hearts of those two disciples burned as they walked to
Emmaus with their risen Lord as their companion.
Note the words of verse 30, "And when they had prayed,
the place was shaken." There are many kinds of prayer that
you read of here. A church that does not know how to pray
and to shout will never be shaken. If you live in a place like
that you may as well write, "Ichabod--the glory of the Lord
has departed" --over the threshold. It is only when men have
learned the secret of prayer, of power, and of praise, that God
comes forth. Some people say, "Well, I praise God inwardly,"
but if there is an abundance of praise in your heart, your
mouth cannot help speaking it.
There was a man who had a large business in London
who was a great church-goer. The church he attended was
beautifully decorated, and his pew was delightfully cushioned-
-just about enough to make it easy to sleep through the
sermons. He was a prosperous man in business, but he had
no peace in his heart. But there was a boy at his business that
always looked happy. He was always jumping and whistling.
One day he said to this boy, "I want to see you in my office."
When the boy was in his office he asked him, "How is it that
you can always whistle and be happy?" "I cannot help it,"
answered the boy. "Where did you get it?" asked the master.
"I got it at the Pentecostal mission." "Where is that?" The
boy told him, and the next thing was, that the man was
Our Risen Christ Page 54
attending. The Lord broke him up there, and in a short while
he was entirely changed. One day, shortly after this, he found
that, instead of being distracted by his business as he formerly
had been, he was actually whistling and jumping. His whole
position and his whole life had been changed.
The shout cannot come out unless it is in. There must
first be the inner working of the power of God. It is He who
changes the heart, and transforms the life, and before there is
any real outward evidence there must be the inflow of divine
life. Sometimes I say to people, "You weren't at meeting the
other night." They reply, "Oh yes, I was there in spirit." I say
to them, "Well, come next time with your body also. We
don't want a lot of spirit here and no bodies. We want you to
come and get filled with God." When all the people will come
and pray and praise, as did these early disciples there will be
something doing. People who come will catch fire and they
will want to come again. But they will have no use for a place
where everything has become formal, dry, and dead.
The power of Pentecost as it came at first came to loose
men. God wants us free on every line. Men and women are
tired of imitations; they want reality; they want to see people
who have the living Christ within, and are filled with Holy
Ghost power.
I received several letters and telegrams about a certain
case, but when I arrived I was told I was too late. I said,
"That cannot be. God has never sent me too late anywhere."
God showed me when I went that something different would
happen to anything I had seen previously. The people I went
to were all strangers. I was introduced to a young man who
lay helpless, and for whom there was no hope. The doctor
had been to see him that morning and had declared that he
would not live through the day. He lay with his face to the
Our Risen Christ Page 55
wall, and when I spoke to him he whispered, "I cannot turn
over." His mother said that they had had to lift him out of
bed on sheets for weeks, and that he was so weak and
helpless that he had to stay in one position.
The young man said, "My heart is very weak." I assured
him, "God is the strength of the heart and thy portion
forever. If you will believe God, it shall be so today."
Our Christ is risen. He is a living Christ who indwells us.
We must not have this truth merely as a theory; Christ must
be risen in us by the power of the Spirit. The power that
raised Him from the dead must animate us, and as this
glorious resurrection power surges through your being, you
will be freed from all your weaknesses and you will become
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. There is a
resurrection power that God wants you to have and to have it
today. Why not? Receive your portion here and now.
I said to these people, "I believe your son will rise today."
They only laughed. People do not expect to see signs and
wonders today as the disciples saw them of old. Has God
changed? Or has our faith waned so that we are not expecting
the greater works that Jesus promised? We must not harp on
any minor key. Our message must rise to concert pitch, and
there must be nothing left out of it that is in the Book.
It was wintertime, and I said to the parents, "Will you get
the boy's suit and bring it here?" They would not listen to the
request, for they were expecting the boy to die. But I had
gone to that place believing God. In Romans 4:17, we read of
Abraham, "(I have made thee a father of many nations,)
before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth
the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though
they were." God help us to understand this. It is time people
knew how to shout in faith as they contemplate the eternal
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power of our God to whom it is nothing to quicken and raise
the dead. I come across some who would be giants in the
power of God but they have no shout of faith. I find
everywhere people who go down even when they are praying
simply because they are just breathing sentences without
uttering speech, and you cannot get victory that way. You
must learn to take the victory and shout in the face of the
devil. "It is done!" There is no man who can doubt if he
learns to shout. When we know how to shout properly, things
will be different, and tremendous things will happen. In verse
24 we read, "They lifted up their voice with one accord." It
surely must have been a loud prayer. We must know that God
means us to have life. If there is anything in the world that
has life in it, it is this Pentecostal revival we are in. I believe in
the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the speaking of tongues,
and I believe that every man who is baptized in the Holy
Ghost will speak in other tongues as the Spirit gives him
utterance. I believe in the Holy Ghost. And if you are filled
with the Spirit you will be super abounding in life-- living
waters will flow from you.
At last I persuaded the parents to bring the boy's clothes
and lay them on the bed. From the natural viewpoint, the
young man lay dying. I spoke to the afflicted one, "God has
revealed to me that, as I lay my hands upon you, the place
will be filled with the Holy Ghost, the bed will be shaken, you
will be shaken and thrown out of bed by the power of the
Holy Ghost, you will dress yourself and be strong." I said this
to him in faith. I laid hands on him in the name of Jesus and
instantly the power of God fell and filled the place. I felt
helpless and fell flat on the floor. I knew nothing except that
a short while after the place was shaken; I heard the young
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man walking over me and saying, "For Thy glory, Lord! For
Thy glory, Lord!"
He dressed himself and cried, "God has healed me." The
father fell, the mother fell, and another who was present fell
also. God manifested His power that day in saving the whole
household and healing the young man. It is the power of the
risen Christ we need. That young man is today preaching the
gospel.
For years we have been longing for God to come forth,
and, praise Him, He is coming forth. The tide is rising
everywhere. I was in Switzerland not long ago, preaching in
many places where the Pentecostal message had not been
heard, and today there are nine new Pentecostal assemblies in
different places going on blessedly for God. All over the
world it is the same, this great Pentecostal work is in motion.
You can hardly get to a place now where God is not pouring
out His Spirit on hungry hearts. God has promised to pour
out His Spirit upon all flesh, and His promises never fail. Our
Christ is risen. His salvation was not a thing done in a corner.
Truly He was a man of glory who went to Calvary for us, in
order that He might free us from all that would mar and
hinder, that He might transform us by His grace, and bring us
out from under the power of Satan into the glorious power of
God. One touch of our risen Christ will raise the dead.
Hallelujah!
Oh, this wonderful Jesus of ours! He comes and indwells
us. He comes to abide. He it is who baptizes us with the Holy
Ghost, and makes everything different. We are to be a kind of
first fruits unto God and are to be like Christ who is the first
fruit, walking in His footsteps, living in His power. What a
salvation this is, having this risen Christ in us. I feel that
everything else must go to nothingness, helplessness and ruin.
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Every thought of advantage for ourselves must be on the
decrease in order that Christ may increase, that we may live in
another state, where all things are under the power of the
Spirit.
Dare you take your inheritance from God? Dare you
believe God? Dare you stand on the record of His Word?
What is the record? If thou shalt believe thou shalt see the
glory of God. You will be sifted as wheat. You will be tried as
though some strange thing tried you. You will be put in
places where you will have to put your whole trust in God.
There is no such thing as anyone being tried beyond what
God will allow. There is no temptation that will come, but
that God will be with you right in the temptation to deliver
you, and when you have been tried, He will bring you forth as
gold. Every trial is to bring you to a greater position in God.
The trial that tries your faith will take you on to the place
where you will know that the faith of God will be
forthcoming in the next test. No man is able to win any
victory save through the power of the risen Christ within
him. You will never be able to say, "I did this or that." You
will desire to give God the glory for everything.
If you are sure of your ground, if you are counting on the
presence of the living Christ within, you can laugh when you
see things getting worse. God would have you settled and
grounded in Christ, and it is only as you are filled with the
Holy Ghost that you become steadfast and unmovable in
Him.
The Lord Jesus said, "I have a baptism to be baptized
with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." He
was assuredly straitened in the way, at Gethsemane, at the
judgment hall, and, after that, at the cross, where He, through
the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God. God
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will take us right on in like manner, and the Holy Spirit will
lead every step of the way. God led him right through to the
empty tomb, to the ascension glory, to a place on the throne;
and the Son of God will never be satisfied until He has us
with Himself, sharing His glory and sharing His throne.
Chapter Eight
Righteousness
It is written of our blessed Lord, "Thou hast loved
righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy
God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows." It is the purpose of God that we, as we are indwelt
by the Spirit of His Son, should likewise love righteousness
and hate iniquity. I see that there is a place for us in Christ
Jesus where we are no longer under condemnation but where
the heavens are always open to us. I see that God has a realm
of divine life opening up to us where there are boundless
possibilities, where there is limitless power, where there are
untold resources, where we have victory over all the power of
the devil. I believe that, as we are filled with the desire to
press on into this life of true holiness, desiring only the glory
of God, there is nothing that can hinder our true
advancement.
Peter commences his second epistle with these words,
"Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to
them that have obtained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ." It is
through faith that we realize that we have a blessed and
glorious union with our risen Lord. When He was on earth
Jesus told us, "I am in the Father and the Father in me." "The
Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." And He
prayed to His Father, not only for His disciples but for those
who should believe on Him through their word, "That they
all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that
they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that
Thou hast sent Me." Oh what an inheritance is ours when the
very nature, the very righteousness, the very power of the
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Father and the Son are made real in us. That is God's
purpose, and as we by faith lay hold on the purpose we shall
be ever conscious of the fact that greater is He that is in us
than he that is in the world. The purpose of all Scripture is to
move us on to this wonderful and blessed elevation of faith
where our constant experience is the manifestation of God's
life and power through us.
Peter goes on writing to these who have obtained like
precious faith, saying, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto
you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord."
We can have the multiplication of this grace and peace only
as we live in the realm of faith. Abraham attained to the place
where he became a friend of God, on no other line than that
of believing God. He believed God and God counted that to
him for righteousness. Righteousness was imputed to him on
no other ground than that he believed God. Can this be true
of anybody else? Yes, every person in the whole wide world
who is saved by faith is blessed with faithful Abraham. The
promise, which came to him because he believed God, was
that in Him all the families of the earth should be blessed.
When we believe God there is no knowing where the blessing
of our faith will end.
Some are tied up because, when they are prayed for, the
thing that they are expecting does not come off the same
night. They say they believe, but you can see that they are
really in turmoil of unbelief. Abraham believed God. You can
hear him saying to Sarah, "Sarah, there is no life in you and
there is nothing in me, but God has promised us a son and I
believe God." And that kind of faith is a joy to our Father in
heaven.
One day I was having a meeting in Bury, in Lancashire,
England. A young woman was present who came from a
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place called Ramsbottom, to be healed of goiter. Before she
came, she said, "I am going to be healed of this goiter,
mother." After one meeting she came forward and was
prayed for. The next meeting she got up and testified that she
had been wonderfully healed, and she said, "I shall be so
happy to go and tell mother that I have been wonderfully
healed." She went to her home and testified how wonderfully
she had been healed, and the next year when we were having
the convention she came again. To the natural view it looked
as though the goiter was just as big as ever; but that young
woman was believing God and she was soon on her feet
giving her testimony, and saying, "I was here last year and the
Lord wonderfully healed me. I want to tell you that this has
been the best year of my life." She seemed to be greatly
blessed in that meeting and she went home to testify more
strongly than ever that the Lord had healed her. She believed
God. The third year she was at the meeting again, and some
people who looked at her said, "How big that goiter has
become." But when the time came for testimony she was up
on her feet and testified. "Two years ago the Lord graciously
healed me of goiter. Oh I had a most wonderful healing. It is
grand to be healed by the power of God." That day someone
remonstrated with her and said, "People will think there is
something the matter with you. Why don't you look in the
glass? You will see that your goiter is bigger than ever." That
good woman went to the Lord about it and said, "Lord, you
so wonderfully healed me two years ago. Won't you show all
the people that you healed me”? She went to sleep peacefully
that night still believing God and when she came down the
next day there was not a trace or a mark of that goiter.
God's word is from everlasting to everlasting. His word
cannot fail. God's word is true and when we rest in the fact of
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its truth what mighty results we can get. Faith never looks in
the glass. Faith has a glass into which it can look. It is the
glass of the perfect law of liberty. "Whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a
forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed." To the man who looks into this perfect
law of God all darkness is removed and he sees his
completeness in Christ. There is no darkness in faith. There is
only darkness in nature. Darkness only exists when the
natural is put in the place of the divine.
Not only is grace multiplied to us through knowledge of
God and of Jesus Christ, but peace also. As we really know
our God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, we will have
peace multiplied to us even in the multiplied fires of ten
thousand Nebuchadnezzars. It will be multiplied to us even
though we are put into the den of lions, and we will live with
joy in the midst of the whole thing. What was the difference
between Daniel and the king that night when Daniel was put
into the den of lions? Daniel knew, but the king was
experimenting. The king came around the next morning and
cried, "Oh Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God,
whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the
lions?" Daniel answered, "My God hath sent His angel, and
hath shut the lions' mouths." The thing was done. It was
done when Daniel prayed with his windows open toward
heaven. All our victories are won before we go into the fight.
Prayer links us on to our lovely God, our abounding God,
our multiplying God. Oh I love Him! He is so wonderful!
You will note, as you read these first two verses of the
first chapter of the second epistle of Peter, that this grace and
peace is multiplied through the knowledge of God, but that
first our faith comes through the righteousness of God. Note
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that righteousness comes first and knowledge afterwards. It
cannot be otherwise. If you expect any revelation of God
apart from holiness you will have only a mixture. Holiness
opens the door to all the treasures of God. He must first
bring us to the place where we, like our Lord, love
righteousness and hate iniquity, before He opens up to us
these good treasures. When we regard iniquity in our hearts
the Lord will not hear us, and it is only as we are made
righteous and pure and holy through the precious blood of
God's Son that we can enter into this life of holiness and
righteousness in the Son. It is the righteousness of our Lord
Himself made real in us as our faith is stayed in Him.
After I was baptized with the Holy Ghost the Lord gave
me a blessed revelation. I saw Adam and Eve turned out of
the garden for their disobedience and unable to partake of the
tree of life, for the cherubim with flaming sword kept them
away from this tree. When I was baptized I saw that I had
begun to eat of this tree of life and I saw that the flaming
sword was all round about. It was there to keep the devil
away. Oh, what privileges are ours when we are born of God.
How marvelously He keeps us so that the wicked one
touches us not. I see a place in God where Satan dare not
come. Hidden in God. And He invites us all to come and
share this wonderful hidden place where our lives are hid
with Christ in God, where we dwell in the secret place of the
Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty. God
has this place for you in this blessed realm of grace.
Peter goes on to say, "According as His divine power hath
given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory
and virtue." God is calling us to this realm of glory and virtue
where, as we feed on His exceeding great and precious
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promises, we are made partakers of the divine nature. Faith is
the substance of things hoped for right here in this life. It is
right here that God would have us partake of His divine
nature. It is nothing less than the life of the Lord Himself
imparted and flowing into our whole beings, so that our very
body is quickened, so that every tissue and every drop of
blood and our bones and joints and marrow receive this
divine life. I believe that the Lord wants this divine life to
flow right into our natural bodies, this law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus that makes us free from the law of sin and
death. God wants to establish our faith so that we shall lay
hold on this divine life, this divine nature of the Son of God,
so that our spirit and soul and body will be sanctified wholly
and preserved unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When that woman was healed of the issue of blood, Jesus
perceived that power had gone out of Him. The woman's
faith laid hold and this power was imparted and immediately
the woman's being was surcharged with life and her weakness
departed. The impartation of this power produces everything
you need; but it comes only as our faith moves out for its
impartation. Faith is the victory. If thou canst believe, it is
thine.
I suffered for many years from piles, till my whole body
was thoroughly weak; the blood used to gush from me. One
day I got desperate and I took a bottle of oil and anointed
myself. I said to the Lord, "Do what you want to, quickly." I
was healed at that very moment. God wants us to have an
activity of faith that dares to believe God. There is what
seems like faith, and appearance of faith, but real faith
believes God right to the end.
What was the difference between Zacharias and Mary?
The angel came to Zacharias and told him, "Thy wife
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Elizabeth shall bear thee a son." Zacharias was there in the
holy place, but he began to question this message, saying, "I
am an old man, my wife is well stricken in years." Gabriel
rebuked him for his unbelief and told him, "Thou shalt be
dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things
shall be performed, because thou believest not my words."
But note the contrast when the angel came to Mary. She said,
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according
to thy word." And Elizabeth greeted Mary with the words,
"Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance
of those things which were told her from the Lord." God
would have us to lay hold on His word in like manner. He
would have us to come with boldness of faith declaring, "You
have promised it, Lord. Now do it." God rejoices when we
manifest a faith that holds Him to His word. Can we get
there?
The Lord has called us to this glory and virtue; and, as our
faith lays hold on Him, we shall see this in manifestation. I
remember one day I was holding an open-air meeting. My
uncle came to that meeting and said, "Aunt Mary would like
to see Smith before she dies." I went to see her and she was
assuredly dying. I said, "Lord, can't you do something?" All I
did was this, to stretch out my hands and lay them on her. It
seemed as though there was an immediate impartation of the
glory and virtue of the Lord. Aunt Mary cried, "It is going all
over my body." And that day she was made perfectly whole.
One day I was preaching and a man brought a boy who
was done up in bandages. The boy was in irons and it was
impossible for him to walk and it was difficult for them to get
him to the platform. They passed him over about six seats.
The power of the Lord was present to heal and it entered
right into the child as I placed my hands on him. The child
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cried, "Daddy, it is going all over me." They stripped the boy
and found nothing imperfect in him.
The Lord would have us to be walking epistles of His
word. Jesus is the Word and is the power in us, and it is His
desire to work in and through us His own good pleasure. We
must believe that He is in us. There are boundless
possibilities for us if we dare to act in God and dare to
believe that the wonderful virtue of our living Christ shall be
made manifest through us as we lay our hands on the sick in
His name.
The exceeding great and precious promises of the Word
are given to us that we might be partakers of the divine
nature. I feel the Holy Ghost is grieved with us because,
when we know these things, we do not do greater exploits for
God. Does not the Holy Ghost show us wide-open doors of
opportunity? Shall we not let God take us on to greater
things? Shall we not believe God to take us on to greater
manifestations of His power? His call for us is to forget the
things that are behind, and reach forth unto the things, which
are before and to press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Chapter Nine
"The Words of This Life"
Read Acts 5:1-20
Notice this expression that the Lord gives of the Gospel
message -- "the words of this life." It is the most wonderful
life possible -- the life of faith in the Son of God. This is the
life where God is all the time. He is round about and He is
within. It is the life of many revelations and of many
manifestations of God's Holy Spirit, a life in which the Lord
is continually seen, known, felt and heard. It is a life without
death, for "we have passed from death unto life." The very
life of God has come within us. Where that life is within in its
fullness, disease cannot exist. It would take me a month to tell
out what there is in this wonderful life. Everyone can go in
and possess and be possessed by this life.
It is possible for you to be within the vicinity of this life
and yet miss it. It is possible for you to be in a place where
God is pouring out His Spirit and yet miss the blessing that
God is so willing to bestow. It all comes through shortness of
revelation and through a misunderstanding of the infinite
grace of God, and of the "God of all grace," who is willing to
give to all who will reach out the hand of faith. This life that
He freely bestows is a gift. Some think they have to earn it
and they miss the whole thing. Oh, for a simple faith to
receive all that God so lavishly offers. You can never be
ordinary from the day you receive this life from above. You
become extraordinary, filled with the extraordinary power of
our extraordinary God.
Ananias and Sapphira were in this thing and yet they
missed it. They thought that possibly the thing might fail. So
they wanted to have a reserve for themselves in case it did
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turn out to be a failure. They were in the wonderful revival
that God gave to the early church and yet they missed it.
There are many people like them today who make vows to
God in times of a great crisis in their lives. But they fail to
keep their vows and in the end they become spiritually
bankrupt. Blessed is the man who will swear to his own hurt
and change not; who keeps the vow he has made to God;
who is willing to lay his all at God's feet. The man who does
this never becomes a lean soul. God has promised to "make
fat his bones." There is no dry place for such a man; he is
always fat and flourishing, and he becomes stronger and
stronger. It pays to trust God with all and to make no
reservation.
I wish I could make you see how great a God we have.
Ananias and Sapphira were really doubting God and were
questioning whether this work that He had begun would go
through. They wanted to get some glory for selling their
property, but because of their lack of faith they kept back part
of the price in reserve in case the work of God should fail.
Many are doubting whether this Pentecostal revival will
go through. Do you think this Pentecostal work will stop?
Never. For fifteen years I have been in constant revival and I
am sure that it will never stop. When George Stephenson
made his first engine he took his sister Mary to see it. She
looked at it and said to her brother, "George, it'll never go."
He said to her, "Get in, Mary." She said again, "It'll never go."
He said to her, "We'll see, you get in." Mary at last got in--the
whistle blew, there was a puff and a rattle, and the engine
started off. Then Mary cried out, "George, it'll never stop! It'll
never stop!"
People are looking on at this Pentecostal revival and they
are very critical and they are saying, "It'll never go;" but when
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they are induced to come into the work, they one and all say,
"It'll never stop." This revival of God is sweeping on and on
and there is no stopping the current of life, of love, of
inspiration, and of power (Interpretation; It is the living Word
who has brought this. It is the Lamb in the midst, the same
yesterday, today and forever).
God has brought unlimited resources for everyone. Do
not doubt. Hear with the ear of faith. God is in the midst. See
that it is God who hath set forth that which you see and hear
today.
I want you to see that in the early church, controlled by
the power of the Holy Ghost, it was not possible for a lie to
exist. The moment it came into the church, there was instant
death. And as the power of the Holy Ghost increases in these
days of the Latter Rain, it will be impossible for any man to
remain in our midst with a lying spirit. God will purify the
church; the Word of God will be in such power in healing
and other spiritual manifestations, that great fear will be upon
all those who see the same.
It seems to the natural mind a small thing for Ananias and
Sapphira to want to have a little to fall back on; but I want to
tell you that you can please God, and you can get things from God
only on the line of a living faith. God never fails. God never can
fail.
When I was in Bergen, Norway, there came to the
meeting a young woman who was employed at the hospital as
a nurse. A big cancer had developed on her nose, and the
nose was enlarged and had become black and greatly
inflamed. She came out for prayer and I said to her, "What is
your condition?" She said, "I dare not touch my nose, it gives
me so much pain." I said to all the people, "I want you to
look at this nurse and notice her terrible condition. I believe
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that our God is merciful and that He is faithful, and that He
will bring to naught this condition that the devil has brought
about. I am going to curse this disease in the all-powerful
name of Jesus. The pain will go. I believe God will give us an
exhibition of His grace and I will ask this young woman to
come to the meeting tomorrow night and declare what God
has done for her."
Oh, the awfulness of sin! Oh, the awfulness of the power
of sin! Oh, the awfulness of the consequences of the fall!
When I see a cancer I always know it is an evil spirit. I can
never believe it is otherwise. The same with tumors. Can this
be the work of God? God help me to show you that this is
the work of the devil, and to show you the way out.
I do not condemn people that sin. I don't scold people. I
know what is back of the sin. I know that Satan is always
going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. I
always remember the patience and love of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When they brought to Him a woman that they had
taken in adultery, telling Him that they had caught her in the
very act He simply stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Then He quietly said, "He that is without sin among you, let
him cast the first stone." I have never seen a man without sin.
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." But I
read in this blessed Gospel message that God hath laid upon
Jesus the iniquity of us all. So, when I see an evil condition, I
feel that I must stand in my office and rebuke the condition.
I laid my hands on the nose of that suffering nurse and
cursed the evil power that was causing her so much distress.
The next night the place was packed and the people were
jammed together, so that it seemed that there was not room
for one more to come into that house. How God's rain fell
upon us. How good God is, so full of grace and so full of
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love. I saw the nurse in the audience and I asked her to come
forward. She came and showed everyone what God had
done. He had perfectly healed her. Oh, I tell you He is just
the same Jesus. He is just the same today. All things are
possible if you dare to trust God.
When the power of God came so mightily upon the early
church, even in the death of Ananias and Sapphira, great fear
came upon all the people. And when we are in the presence
of God, when God is working mightily in our midst, there
comes a great fear, a reverence, a holiness of life, a purity that
fears to displease God. We read that no man durst join them,
but God added to the church such as should be saved. I
would rather have God add to our Pentecostal church than
have the entire town join it. God added daily to His own
church.
The next thing that happened was that people became so
assured that God was working that they knew that anything
would be possible, and they brought their sick into the streets
and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow
of Peter passing by might overshadow them. Multitudes of
sick people and those oppressed with evil spirits were
brought to the apostles and God healed them every one. I do
not believe that it was the shadow of Peter that healed, but
the power of God was mightily present and the faith of the
people was so aroused that they joined with one heart to
believe God. God will always meet people on the line of faith.
God's tide is rising all over the earth. I had been
preaching at Stavanger in Norway, and was very tired and
wanted a few hours rest. I went to my next appointment,
arriving at about 9:30 in the morning. My first meeting was to
be at night. I said to my interpreter, "After we have had
something to eat, let us go down to the fjords." We spent
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three or four hours down by the sea and at about 4:30
returned. We found the end of the street, which has a narrow
entrance, just filled with autos, wagons, etc., containing
invalids and sick people of every kind. I went up to the house
and was told that the house was full of sick people. It
reminded me of the scene described in the fifth chapter of
Acts. I began praying for the people in the street and God
began to heal the people. How wonderfully He healed those
people who were in the house. We sat down for a lunch and
the telephone bell rang and someone at the other end was
saying, "What shall we do? The town hall is already full; the
police cannot control things."
In that little Norwegian town the people were coming.
The breath of God shows up every defect, and as it comes
flowing in like a river, everybody will need a fresh anointing, a
fresh cleansing of the blood. You can depend upon it that
that breath is upon us.
At one time I was at a meeting in Ireland. There were
many sick carried to that meeting and helpless ones were
helped there. There were many people in that place who were
seeking for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Some of them
had been seeking for years. There were sinners there who
were under mighty conviction. There came a moment when
the breath of God swept through the meeting. In about ten minutes
every sinner in the place was saved. Everyone who had been
seeking the Holy Spirit was baptized, and every sick one was
healed. God is a reality and His power can never fail. As our
faith reaches out, God will meet us and the same rain will fall.
It is the same blood that cleanseth, the same power, the same
Holy Ghost, and the same Jesus made real through the power
of the Holy Ghost! What would happen if we should believe
God?
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Right now the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is
efficacious to cleanse your heart and bring this life, this
wonderful life of God, within you. The blood will make you
every whit whole if you dare believe. The Bible is full of
entreaty for you to come and partake and receive the grace,
the power, the strength, the righteousness, and the full
redemption of Jesus Christ. He never fails to hear when we
believe.
At one place where I was, a lame man was brought to me
who had been in bed for two years, with no hope of recovery.
He was brought thirty miles to the meeting, and he came up
on crutches to be prayed for. His boy was also afflicted in the
knees and they had four crutches between the two of them.
The man's face was filled with torture. There is healing virtue
in the Lord and He never fails to heal when we believe. In the
name of Jesus -- that name so full of virtue -- I put my hand
down that leg that was so diseased. The man threw down his
crutches and all were astonished as they saw him walking up
and down without aid. The little boy called out to his father,
"Papa, me; papa, me, me, me!" The little boy who was
withered in both knees wanted a like touch. And the same
Jesus was there to bring a real deliverance for the little
captive. He was completely healed.
These were legs that were touched. If God will stretch out
His mighty power to loose afflicted legs, what mercy will He
extend to that soul of yours that must exist forever? Hear the
Lord say, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He
hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach
deliverance to the captive, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." He invites you,
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." God is willing in His great mercy to touch
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thy limbs with His mighty vital power, and if He is willing to
do this, how much more anxious is He to deliver thee from
the power of Satan and to make thee a child of the King.
How much more necessary it is for you to be healed of your
soul sickness than of your bodily ailments. And God is willing
to give the double cure.
I was passing through the city of London one time, and
Mr. Mundell, the secretary of the Pentecostal Missionary
Union, learned that I was there. He arranged for me to meet
him at a certain place at 3:30 p.m. I was to meet a certain boy
whose father and mother lived in the city of Salisbury. They
had sent this young man to London to take care of their
business. He had been a leader in Sunday school work but he
had been betrayed and had fallen. Sin is awful and the wages
of sin is death. But there is another side -- the gift of God is
eternal life.
This young man was in great distress; he had contracted a
horrible disease and feared to tell anyone. There was nothing
but death ahead for him. When the father and mother got to
know of his condition they suffered inexpressible grief.
When we got to the house, Brother Mundell suggested,
that we get down to prayer. I said, "God does not say so, we
are not going to pray yet. I want to quote a scripture, 'Fools,
because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities,
are afflicted: Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and
they draw near unto the gates of death.'" The young man
cried out, "I am that fool." He broke down and told us the
story of his fall. Oh, if men would only repent, and confess
their sins, how God would stretch out His hand to heal and
to save. The moment that young man repented, a great
abscess burst, and God sent virtue into his life, giving him a
mighty deliverance.
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God is gracious and not willing that any should perish.
How many are willing to make a clean breast of their sins? I
tell you that the moment you do this, God will open heaven.
It is an easy thing for Him to save your soul and heal your
disease if you will but come and shelter today in the secret
place of the Most High. He will satisfy you with long life and
show you His salvation. In His presence there is fullness of
joy, at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. There
is full redemption for all through the precious blood of the
Son of God.
Chapter Ten
Life in the Spirit
Read 2 Corinthians 3
We are told that we are to leave the first principles of the
doctrine of Christ and go on to perfection, not laying again
the foundation of repentance from dead works and the
doctrine of baptisms and other first principles (Hebrews 6).
What would you think of a builder who was everlastingly
pulling down his house and putting in fresh foundations?
Never look back if you want the power of God in your life. You will
find out that in the measure you have allowed yourself to
look back you have missed that which God has for you.
The Holy Ghost shows us that we must never look back
to the law of sin and death from which we have been
delivered. God has brought us into a new order of things, a
life of love and liberty in Christ Jesus that is beyond all
human comprehension. Many are brought into this new life
through the power of the Spirit of God, and then, like the
Galatians, who ran well at the beginning, they try to perfect
themselves on the lines of legalism. They go back from the
life in the Spirit to a life on natural lines. God is not pleased
with this, for He has no place for the man who has lost the
vision. The only thing to do is to repent. Don't try to cover
up anything. If you have been tripped up on any line, confess
it out, and then look to God to bring you to a place of
stability of faith where your whole walk will be in the Spirit.
We all ought to have a clear conviction that salvation is of
the Lord. It is more than a human order of things. If the
enemy can move you from a place of faith, he can get you
outside the plan of God. The moment a man falls into sin,
divine life ceases to flow, and his life becomes one of
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helplessness. But this is not God's thought for any of His
children. Read the third chapter of John's first epistle and
take your place as a Son of God. Take the place of knowing
that you are a Son of God, and remember that, as your hope
is set in Christ, it should have a purifying effect on your life.
The Holy Spirit says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God." There is life and power in the
seed of the Word that is implanted within. God is in that
"cannot," and there is more power in that word of His than in
any human objections. God's thought for everyone of us is
that we shall reign in life by Jesus Christ. You must come to
see how wonderful you are in God and how helpless you are
in yourself.
God declared Himself more mighty than every opposing
power when He cast out the powers of darkness from
heaven. I want you to know that the same power that cast
Satan out of heaven dwells in every man that is born of God.
If you would but realize this, you would reign in life. When
you see the powers of evil manifesting themselves, always put
the question, "Did Jesus come in the flesh?" I have never
seen an evil power answer in the affirmative. When you know
you have an evil spirit to deal with you have power to cast it
out. Believe it and act on it, for "greater is He that is in you
than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4). God means you to
be in a place of overcoming, and has put a force within you
whereby you may defeat the devil.
Temptations will come to all. If you are not worth
tempting you are not worth powder and shot. Job said:
"When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." In every
temptation that comes, the Lord lets you be tempted up to
the hilt, but will never allow you to be defeated if you walk in
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obedience; for right in the midst of the temptation He will
always "make a way of escape."
Tongues and Interpretation: "God comes forth and with His
power sweeps away the refuge of lies and all the powers of
darkness, and causes you always to triumph in Christ Jesus.
The Lord loveth His saints and covereth them with His
almighty wings."
May God help us to see it? We cannot be to the praise of
His glory until we are ready for trials, and are able to triumph
in them. We cannot get away from the fact that sin came in
by nature, but God comes into our nature and puts it into the
place of death, that the Spirit of God may come into the
temple in all His power and liberty, that right here in this
present evil world Satan may be dethroned by the believer.
Satan is always endeavoring to bring the saints of God
into disrepute, bringing against them railing accusations, but
the Holy Ghost never comes with condemnation. He always
reveals the blood of Christ. He always brings us help. The
Lord Jesus referred to Him as the Comforter who would
come. He is always on hand to help in the seasons of trial and
test. The Holy Ghost is the lifting power of the church of
Christ. And Paul tells us that we "are manifestly declared to
be the epistle of Christ, . . . written not with ink, but with the
Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly
tables of the heart." The Holy Ghost begins in the heart, right
in the depths of human affections. He brings into the heart
the riches of the revelation of Christ, implanting purity and
holiness there, so that, out of its depths, praises may well up
continually.
The Holy Ghost will make us epistles of Christ, ever
telling out that Jesus our Lord is our Redeemer and God has
never put away that revelation. And because of the perfect
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atonement of that slain Lamb, there is salvation, healing and
deliverance for all. Some people think that they have only to
be cleansed once, but as we walk in the light the blood of
Jesus Christ is ever cleansing.
The very life of Christ has been put within us, and is
moving within us -- a perfect life. May the Lord help us to see
the power of this life? The years of a man's life are threescore
and ten, and so in the natural order of things, my life will be
finished in seven years, but I have begun a new life that will
never end. "From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God."
This is the life I have come into, and there is no end to this
life. In me is working a power stronger than every other
power; Christ, the power of God, formed within me. I can
see why we need to be clothed upon from above, for the life
that is in me is a thousand times bigger than I am outside.
There must be a tremendous expansion. I see, and cannot
help seeing that this thing cannot be understood on natural
lines; no natural reason can comprehend the divine plan.
"We are not sufficient to think anything as of ourselves,
but our sufficiency is of God." If you go back, you miss the
plan. We leave the old order of things. We can never have
confidence in the flesh; we cannot touch that. We are in a
new order, a spiritual order. It is a new life of absolute faith in
the sufficiency of our God in everything that pertains to life
and godliness.
You could never come into this place and be a Seventhday
Adventist. The law has no place in you. You are set free
from everything. At the same time, like Paul, you are "bound
in the Spirit" so that you would not do anything to grieve the
Lord.
Paul further tells us that He has made us "able ministers
of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit: for
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the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." It is one thing to
read this, and another to have the revelation of it and to see
the spiritual force of it. Any man can live in the letter and
become dry and wordy, limited in knowledge of spiritual
verities, and spend his time everlastingly in splitting hairs; but
as soon as he touches the realm of the Spirit, all the dryness
goes, all the spirit of criticism leaves. There can be no
divisions in a life in the Spirit. The Spirit of God brings in
such pliability and such love! There is no love like the love in
the Spirit. It is a pure, a holy, a divine love that is shed in our
hearts by the Spirit. It loves to serve and to honor the Lord.
I can never estimate what the Baptism of the Holy Ghost
has been to me these past fifteen years. It seems that every
year has had three years packed into it, so that I have had
forty-five years of happy service since 1907. And it is getting
better all the time. It is a luxury to be filled with the Spirit,
and at the same time it is a divine command for us, not to be
filled with wine wherein is excess, but to be filled with the
Spirit. No Pentecostal person ought to get out of bed without
being lost in the Spirit and speaking in tongues as the Spirit
gives utterance. No one should come into the door of an
assembly without speaking in tongues or having a psalm, or a
note of praise. We emphasize that at the incoming of the
Spirit He should so fill us that the last member in the body is
yielded to Him, and that no one is baptized in the Spirit
without speaking in tongues as the Spirit giveth utterance; and
I maintain that, with a constant filling, you will speak in tongues
morning, noon and night. As you live in the Spirit, when you
walk down the steps of the house where you live, the devil
will have to go before you. You will be more than a
conqueror over the devil.
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I see everything a failure except that which is done in the
Spirit. But as you live in the Spirit, you move, act, eat, drink,
and do everything to the glory of God. Our message is always
this, "Be filled with the Spirit." This is God's place for you,
and it is as far above the natural life as the heavens are above
the earth. Yield yourselves for God to fill.
Moses had a tremendous trial with the people. They were
always in trouble. But as he went up into the mount, and God
unfolded to him the Ten Commandments, the glory fell. He
rejoiced to bring those two tables of stone down from the
mount, and his very countenance shone with the glory. He
was bringing to Israel that which, if obeyed, would bring life.
I think of my Lord coming from heaven. I think all
heaven was moved by the sight. The law of the letter was
brought by Moses and it was made glorious, but all its glory
was dimmed before the excelling glory, which Jesus brought
to us in the Spirit of life. The glory of Sinai paled before the
glory of Pentecost. Those tables of stone with their "Thou
shalt not, thou shalt not," are done away; for they never
brought life to anyone, and the Lord has brought in a new
covenant, putting His law in our minds and writing it in our
hearts, this new law of the Spirit of life. As the Holy Ghost
comes in, He fills us with such love and liberty that we shout
for joy these words of this 11th verse, "Done away! Done
away!" Henceforth there is a new cry in our hearts, "I delight to
do Thy will, O God." He taketh away the first, the ministration
of death, written and engraven in stones, that He might
establish the second, this ministration of righteousness, this
life in the Spirit.
You ask, "Does a man who is filled with the Spirit cease
to keep the commandments?" I simply repeat what the Spirit
of God has told us here, that this ministration of death,
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written and engraven in stones (and you know that the ten
commandments were written on stones) is "DONE AWAY."
The man who becomes a living epistle of Christ, written with
the Spirit of the living God, has ceased to be an adulterer, or
a murderer or a covetous man; the will of God is his delight. I
love to do the will of God; there is no irksomeness to it; it is
no trial to pray; no trouble to read the Word of God; it is not
a hard thing to go to the place of worship. With the psalmist
you say, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into
the house of the Lord."
How does this new life work out? The thing works out
because God works in you to will and to do of His own good
pleasure (Phil. 2:13). There is a great difference between a
pump and a spring. The law is a pump, the Baptism is a
spring. The old pump gets out of order, the parts perish, and
the well runs dry. The letter killeth. But the spring is ever
bubbling up and there is a ceaseless flow direct from the
throne of God. There is life.
It is written of Christ, "Thou lovest righteousness, and
hatest wickedness." And in this new life in the Spirit, in this
new covenant life, you love the things that are right and pure
and holy, and shudder at all things that are wrong. Jesus was
able to say, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath
nothing in Me," and the moment we are filled with the Spirit
of God we are brought into like wonderful condition, and, as
we continue to be filled with the Spirit, the enemy cannot
have an inch of territory in us.
Do you not believe that you can be so filled with the
Spirit that a man who is not living right can be judged and
convicted by your presence? As we go on in the life of the
Spirit, it will be said of us, "in whose eyes a vile person is
condemned" (Psalm 15:4). Jesus lived there and moved in this
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realm, and His life was a constant reproof to the wickedness
around. But He was the Son of God, you say. God, through
Him, has brought us into the place of sonship, and I believe
that if He has a chance with the material, the Holy Ghost can
make something of us, and bring us to the same place.
I don't want to boast. If I glory in anything, it is only in
the Lord who has been so gracious to me. But I remember
one time stepping out of a railroad carriage to wash my
hands. I had a season of prayer, and the Lord just filled me to
overflowing with His love. I was going to a convention in
Ireland, and I could not get there fast enough. As I returned,
I believe that the Spirit of the Lord was so heavily upon me
that my face must have shone. (No man can tell himself when
the Spirit transforms his very countenance.) There were two
clerical men sitting together, and as I got into the carriage
again, one of them cried out, "You convince me of sin."
Within three minutes every one in the carriage was crying to
God for salvation. This thing has happened many times in my
life. It is this ministration of the Spirit that Paul speaks of,
this filling of the Spirit, that will make your life effective, so
that even the people in the stores where you trade will want
to leave your presence because they are brought under
conviction.
We must move from everything of the letter. All that we
do must be done under the anointing of the Spirit. The trouble has
been that we as Pentecostal people have been living in the
letter. Believe what the Holy Spirit says through Paul -- that
all this ministration of condemnation that has hindered your
liberty in Christ is done away. The law is DONE AWAY! As
far as you are concerned, all that old order of things is forever
done away, and the Spirit of God has brought in a new life of
purity and love. The Holy Ghost takes it for granted that you
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are finished with all the things of the old life when you
become a new creature in Christ. In the life in the Spirit, the
old allurements have lost their power. The devil will meet you
at every turn, but the Spirit of God will always lift up a
standard against him.
O, if God had His way, we should be like torches,
purifying the very atmosphere wherever we go, moving back
the forces of wickedness.
Tongues and Interpretation: "The Lord is that Spirit. He
moves in your heart. He shows you that the power within you
is mightier than all the powers of darkness."
Done away! What do I mean? Will you be disloyal? You
will be more than loyal. Will you grumble when you are
treated badly? No, you will turn the other cheek. This is what
you will always do when God lives in you. Leave yourselves
in God's hands. Enter into rest. "He that is entered into His
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did
from His" (Hebrews 4). O this is a lovely rest! The whole life
is a Sabbath. This is the only life that can glorify God. It is a
life of joy, and every day is a day of heaven on earth.
There is a continued transformation in this life. Beholding
the Lord and His glory we are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord. There is a
continued unveiling, a constant revelation, a repeated clothing
upon from above. I want you to promise God never to look
back, never to go back to that which the Spirit has said is
"done away." I made this promise to the Lord that I would
never allow myself to doubt His Word.
There is one thing about a baby; it takes all that comes to
it. A prudent man lets his reason cheat him out of God's best.
But a baby takes all that its mother brings, and tries to
swallow the bottle and all. The baby can't walk, but the
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mother carries it; the baby cannot dress itself, but the mother
dresses it. The baby can't even talk. So in the life of the Spirit,
God undertakes to do what we cannot do. We are carried
along by Him, He clothes us, and He gives us utterance.
Would that we all had the simplicity of the babes.
Chapter Eleven
What It Means To Be Full of the Spirit
Read Acts 6
In the days when the number of disciples began to be
multiplied there developed a situation, which caused the
twelve to make a definite decision not to occupy themselves
with serving tables, but to give themselves continually to
prayer and to the ministry of the Word. How important it is
for all God's ministers to be continually in prayer, and
constantly feeding on the Scriptures of Truth. I often offer a
reward to anyone who can catch me anywhere without my
Bible or my Testament.
None of you can be strong in God unless you are
diligently and constantly hearkening to what God has to say
to you through His Word. You cannot know the power and
the nature of God unless you partake of his inbreathed Word.
Read it at morn and at night, and at every opportunity you
get. After every meal, instead of indulging in unprofitable
conversation round the table, read a chapter from the Word
and then have a season of prayer. I endeavor to make a point
of doing this no matter where or with whom I am staying.
The Psalmist said that he had hid God's Word in his
heart, that he might not sin against Him; and you will find
that the more of God's Word you hide in your heart, the
easier it is to live a holy life. He also testified that God's Word
had quickened him; and, as you receive God's Word into your
being, your whole physical being will be quickened and you
will be made strong. As you receive with meekness the Word,
you will find faith upspringing within. And you will have life
through the Word.
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The twelve told the rest to look out seven men to look
after the business end of things. They were to be men of
honest report and filled with the Holy Ghost. These were just
ordinary men who were chosen, but they were filled with the
Holy Spirit, and this infilling always lifts a man to a plane
above the ordinary. It does not take a cultured or a learned
man to fill a position in God's church; what God requires is a
yielded, consecrated, holy life, and He can make of such a
flame of fire. Baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire!
The multitude chose out seven men to serve tables. They
were doubtless faithful in their appointed tasks, but we see
that God soon had a better choice for two of them. Philip
was so full of the Holy Ghost that he could have a revival
wherever God put him down. Man chose him to serve tables,
but God chose him to win souls. O, if I could only stir you
up to see that as you are faithful in performing the humblest
office, God can fill you with His Spirit and make you a
chosen vessel for Himself, and promote you to a place of
mighty ministry in the salvation of souls and in the healing of
the sick. There is nothing impossible to a man filled with the
Holy Ghost. It is beyond all human comprehension. When
you are filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, God will
wonderfully work wherever you go.
When you are filled with the Spirit you will know the
voice of God. I want to give you one illustration of this.
When I was going out to Australia recently, our boat stopped
at Aden and at Bombay. In the first place the people came
round the ship selling their wares, beautiful carpets and all
sorts of oriental things. There was one man selling some
ostrich feathers. As I was looking over the side of the ship
watching the trading, a gentleman said to me, "Would you go
shares with me in buying that bunch of feathers?" What did I
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want with feathers? I had no use for such things and no room
for them either. But the gentleman put the question to me
again. "Will you go shares with me in buying that bunch?"
The Spirit of God said to me, "Do it."
The feathers were sold to us for three pounds, and the
gentleman said, "I have no money on me, but if you will pay
the man for them, I will send the cash down to you by the
purser." I paid for the feathers and gave the gentleman his
share. He was traveling first, and I was traveling second class.
I said to him, "No, please don't give that money to the purser,
I want you to bring it to me personally to my cabin." I said to
the Lord, "What about these feathers?" He showed me that
he had a purpose in my purchasing them.
At about 10 o'clock the gentleman came to my cabin and
said, "I've brought the money." I said to him, "It is not your
money that I want, it is your soul that I am seeking for God."
Right there he opened up the whole plan of his life and began
to seek God; and that morning he wept his way through to
God's salvation.
You have no conception what God can do through you
when you are filled with His Spirit. Every day and every hour
you can have the divine leading of God. To be filled with the
Holy Ghost means much in every way. I have seen some who
have been suffering for years, and when they have been filled
with the Holy Ghost everything of their sickness has passed
away. The Spirit of God has made real to them the life of
Jesus and they have been completely liberated of every
sickness and infirmity.
Look at Stephen. He was just an ordinary man chosen to
serve tables. But the Holy Ghost was in him and he was full
of faith and power, and did great wonders and miracles
among the people. There was no resisting the wisdom and
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the spirit by which he spake. How important it is that every
man shall be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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 it is 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 hometown, they wanted to
throw Him over the brow of the 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.
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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 worthwhile. 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
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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 transforming
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.
In this life, the Lord puts you in all sorts of places, and
then reveals His power. I had been preaching in New York,
and sailed one day for England on the Lusitania. As soon as I
got on board I went down to my cabin. Two men were there,
and one of them said, "Well, will I do for company?" He took
out a bottle and poured out a glass of whiskey and drank it,
and then he filled it up for me. "I never touch that stuff," I
said. "How can you live without it?" he asked. "How could I
live with it?" I asked. He admitted, "I have been under the
influence of this stuff for months, and they say my 'inside is
all shriveled up,' and I know that I am dying. I wish I could
be delivered, but I just have to keep on drinking. Oh, if I
could only be delivered! My father died in England and has
given me his fortune, but what will the good of it be to me
except to hasten me to my grave?"
I said to this man, "Say the word, and you will be
delivered." He enquired, "What do you mean?" I said, "Say
the word, show that you are willing to be delivered and God
will deliver you." But it was just as if I was talking to this
platform for all the comprehension he showed. I said to him,
"Stand still," and I laid my hands on his head in the name of
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Jesus and cursed that drink demon that was taking his life. He
cried out, "I'm free! I'm free! I know I'm free!" He took two
bottles of whiskey and threw them overboard, and God
saved, sobered and healed him. I was preaching all the way
across. He sat beside me at the table. Previous to this he had
not been able to eat; but at every meal he went right through
the menu. You only have to have a touch from Jesus to have
a good time. The power of God is just the same today. To
me, He's lovely. To me, He's saving health. To me, He's the
lily of the valley. O this blessed Nazarene, this King of kings!
Hallelujah! Will you let Him have your will? Will you let Him
have you? If you will, all His power is at your disposal.
They were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by
which Stephen spake, and so, full of rage, they brought him
to the council. And God filled his face with a ray of heaven's
light. It is worth being filled with the Spirit, no matter what it
costs. Read the seventh chapter, the mighty prophetic
utterance by this holy man. Without fear he tells them, "Ye
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, ye do always resist
the Holy Ghost." And when they heard these things they
were cut to the heart. There are two ways of being affected at
the heart. Here they gnashed their teeth and cast him out of
the city and stoned him. On the day of Pentecost, when they
were pricked at the heart they cried out, "what shall we do?"
They took the opposite way. The devil, if he can have his
way, will cause you to commit murder. If Jesus has His way,
you will repent.
And Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and the
Son of man standing on the right hand of God. O, this being
full of the Holy Ghost! How much it means. I was riding for
sixty miles one summer day and as I looked up in the heavens
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I had an open vision of Jesus all the way. It takes the Holy
Ghost to give this.
Stephen cried out, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."
As he was full of the Spirit he was full of love, and he
manifested the very same compassion for his enemies that
Jesus did at Calvary. This being filled with the Holy Ghost
means much in every way. It means constant filling,
quickening, and a new life continually. Oh, it's lovely! We
have a wonderful gospel and a great Savior! If you will but be
filled with the Holy Ghost you will have a constant spring
within, yea, as your faith centers in the Lord Jesus, from
within you shall flow rivers of living water.
Chapter Twelve
The Bible Evidence of the Baptism
of The Holy Spirit
There is much controversy today as regards 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 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
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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.
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 12th of 1 Corinthians
with the 2nd 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
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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 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
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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 tranquility 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. 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.
What had I received? I had received the Bible evidence.
This Bible evidence is wonderful to me. I knew I had
received the very evidence of the Spirit's incoming that the
Apostles received on the day of Pentecost. I knew that
everything I had had up to that time was in the nature of an
anointing bringing me in line with God in preparation, but
now I knew I had the Biblical Baptism in the Spirit. It had the
backing of the Scriptures. You are always right when you
have the backing of the Scriptures and you are never right if
you have not a foundation for your testimony in the Word of
God.
For many years I have thrown out a challenge to any
person who can prove to me that he has the Baptism without
speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives utterance -- to prove it
by the Word that he has been baptized in the Holy Ghost
without the Bible evidence, but so far no one has accepted
the challenge. I only say this because so many were as I was;
they have a rigid idea that they have received the Baptism
without the Bible evidence. The Lord Jesus wants those who
preach the Word to have the Word in evidence. Don't be
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mislead by anything else. Have a Bible proof for all you have,
and then you will be in a place where no man can move you.
I was so full of joy that I wired home to say that I had
received the Holy Ghost. As soon as I got home, my boy
came running up to me and said, "Father, have you received
the Holy Ghost?" I said, "Yes, my boy." He said, "Let's hear
you speak in tongues." But I could not. Why? I had received
the Baptism in the Spirit with the speaking in tongues as the
Bible evidence according to Acts 2:4, and had not received
the gift of Tongues according to 1 Corinthians 12. I had
received the Giver of all gifts. At some time later when I was
helping some souls to seek and receive the Baptism of the
Spirit, God gave me the gift of Tongues so that I could speak
at any time. I could speak, but will not -- no never! I must
allow the Holy Ghost to use the gift. It should be so, so that
we shall have divine utterances only by the Spirit. I would be
very sorry to use a gift, but the Giver has all power to use the
whole nine gifts.
I want to take you to the Scriptures to prove my position.
There are business men here, and they know that in cases of
law, where there are two clear witnesses they could win a case
before any judge in Australia. On the clear evidence of two
witnesses any judge will give a verdict. What has God given
us? Three clear witnesses on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit --
more than are necessary in law courts.
The first is in Acts 2:4, "They were all filled with the Holy
Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance." Here we have the original pattern. And
God gave to Peter an eternal word that couples this
experience with the promise that went before. "This is that."
"And God wants you to have that- nothing less than that." He
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wants you to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit according
to this original Pentecostal pattern.
In Acts 10 we have another witness. Peter is in the house
of Cornelius. Cornelius had had a vision of a holy angel and
had sent for Peter. A person said to me one day, "You don't
admit that I am filled and baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Why, I was ten days and ten nights on my back before the
Lord and He was flooding my soul with joy." I said, "Praise
the Lord, sister, that was only the beginning. The disciples
were tarrying that time, and they were still, and the mighty
power of God fell upon them then and the Bible tells what
happened when the power fell. And that is just what
happened in the house of Cornelius. The Holy Ghost fell on
all them, which heard the word. "And they of the
circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as
came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles was poured out
the gift of the Holy Ghost." What convinced these prejudiced
Jews that the Holy Ghost had come? "For they heard them speak
with tongues and magnify God." There was no other way for them
to know. This evidence could not be contradicted. It is the
Bible evidence.
We have heard two witnesses, and that is sufficient to
satisfy the world. But God goes one better. Let us look at
Acts 19:6, "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the
Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues and
prophesied." These Ephesians received the identical Bible
evidence as the Apostles at the beginning and they
prophesied in addition. Three times the Scriptures show us
this evidence of the Baptism in the Spirit. I do not magnify
tongues. No, by God's grace, I magnify the Giver of tongues.
And I magnify above all Him whom the Holy Ghost has
come to reveal to us, the Lord Jesus Christ. He it is who
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sends the Holy Spirit and I magnify Him because he makes
no difference between us and those at the beginning.
But what are tongues for? Look at the 2nd verse of 1
Corinthians 14 and you will see a very blessed truth. Oh,
Hallelujah! Have you been there, beloved? I tell you, God
wants to take you there. "He that speaketh in an unknown
tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man
understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh
mysteries." It goes on to say, "He that speaketh in an
unknown tongue edifieth himself."
Enter into the promises of God. It is your inheritance.
You will do more in one year if you are really filled with the
Holy Ghost than you could do in fifty years apart from Him.
Chapter Thirteen
Concerning Spiritual Gifts
In 1 Corinthians 12:1 we read, "Now concerning spiritual
gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." There is a
great weakness in the church of Christ because of an awful
ignorance concerning the Spirit of God and the gifts He has
come to bring. God would have us powerful on all lines
because of the revelation of the knowledge of His will
concerning the power and manifestation of His Spirit. He
would have us ever hungry to receive more and more of His
Spirit. In times past I have arranged many conventions, and I
have found that it is better to have a man on my platform
who has not received the Baptism but who is hungry for all
that God has for him, than a man who has received the
Baptism and is satisfied and has settled down and become
stationary and stagnant. But of course I would prefer a man
that is baptized with the Holy Ghost and is still hungry for
more of God. A man who is not hungry to receive more of
God is out of order in any convention.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of being
filled with the Spirit. It is impossible for us to meet the
conditions of the day, to walk in the light as He is in the light,
to subdue kingdoms and work righteousness and bind the
power of Satan unless we are filled with the Holy Ghost.
We read that in the early church they continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in
breaking of bread, and in prayers. It is important for us also
to continue steadfastly in these same things. For some years I
was associated with the Plymouth Brethren. They are very
strong on the Word, and are sound on water baptism, and
they do not neglect the breaking of bread service, but have it
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every Lord's Day morning as they had it in the early church.
These people seem to have everything except the match.
They have the wood, but they need the fire and then they
would be all ablaze. Because they lack the fire of the Holy
Spirit there is no life in their meetings. One young man who
attended their meetings received the Baptism with the
speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. The
brethren were very upset about this and came to the father
and said to him, "You must take your son aside and tell him
to cease." They did not want any disturbance. The father told
the son and said, "My boy, I have been attending this church
for twenty years and have never seen anything of this kind.
We are established in the truth and do not want anything
new. We won't have it." The son replied, "If that is God's
plan I will obey, but somehow or other I don't think it is." As
they were going home the horse stood still; the wheels were
in deep ruts. The father pulled at the reins but the horse did
not move. He asked, "What do you think is up?" The son
answered, "It has got established." God save us from
becoming stationary.
God would have us to understand concerning spiritual
gifts and to covet earnestly the best gifts, and also to enter
into the more excellent way of the fruit of the Spirit. We must
beseech God for these gifts. It is a serious thing to have the
Baptism and yet be stationary; to live two days in succession
on the same spiritual plane is a tragedy. We must be willing to
deny ourselves everything to receive the revelation of God's
truth and to receive the fullness of the Spirit. Only that will
satisfy God, and nothing less must satisfy us. A young
Russian received the Holy Spirit and was mightily endued
with power from on High. Some sisters were anxious to
know the secret of his power. The secret of his power was
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continuous waiting upon God. As the Holy Ghost filled him
it seemed as though every breath became a prayer and so all
his ministry was on an increasing line.
I know a man who was full of the Holy Ghost and would
preach only when he knew that he was mightily unctionized
by the power of God. He was asked to preach at a Methodist
church. He was staying at the minister's house and he said,
"You go on to church and I will follow." The place was
packed with people and this man did not turn up and the
Methodist minister, becoming anxious, sent his little girl to
inquire why he did not come. As she came to the bedroom
door she heard him crying out three times, "I will not go."
She went back and reported that she heard the man say three
times that he would not go. The minister was troubled about
it, but almost immediately after this the man came in, and, as
he preached that night, the power of God was tremendously
manifested. The preacher asked him, "Why did you tell my
daughter that you were not coming?" He answered, "I know
when I am filled. I am an ordinary man and I told the Lord
that I dared not go and would not go until He gave me a
fresh filling of the Spirit. The moment the glory filled me and
overflowed I came to the meeting."
Yes, there is a power, a blessing, an assurance, and a rest
in the presence of the Holy Ghost. You can feel His presence
and know that He is with you. You need not spend an hour
without this inner knowledge of His holy presence. With His
power upon you there can be no failure. You are above par
all the time.
"Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these
dumb idols, even as ye were led." This is the Gentile day.
When the Jews refused the blessings of God He scattered
them, and He has grafted the Gentiles into the olive tree
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where the Jews were broken off. There never has been a time
when God has been so favorable to a people who were not a
people. He has brought in the Gentiles to carry out His
purpose of preaching the gospel to all nations and to receive
the power of the Holy Ghost to accomplish this task. It is of
the mercy of God that He has turned to the Gentiles and
made us partakers of all the blessings that belong to the Jews;
and here under this canopy of glory, because we believe, we
get all the blessings of faithful Abraham.
Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man
speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that
no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost." There are many evil, deceiving spirits sent forth in
these last days who endeavor to rob Jesus of his Lordship and
of His rightful place. Many are opening the doors to these
latest devils, such as New Theology and New Thought and
Christian Science. These evil cults deny eternal punishment
and all deny the deity of Jesus Christ. You will never see the
Baptism of the Holy Ghost come upon a man who accepts
these errors. Neither will you see a Romanist receive. They
put Mary in the place of the Holy Ghost. I would like you to
produce a Romanist who knows that he is saved. No man can
know he is saved by works. If you ever speak to a Romanist
you will know that he is not definite on the line of the new
birth. He cannot be. Another thing, you will never find a
Russellite baptized in the Holy Ghost; nor a member of any
other cult that does not put the Lord Jesus Christ preeminent
above all.
The all-important thing is to make Jesus Lord: "If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth JESUS AS LORD, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9). "For TO THIS
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END Christ died and lived again, THAT HE MIGHT BE
LORD of both the dead and the living" (Romans 14:9).
Men can grow lopsided by emphasizing the truth of
divine healing. Man can get wrong by all the time preaching
on water baptism. But we never go wrong in exalting the
Lord Jesus Christ, giving Him the pre-eminent place and
magnifying Him as both Lord and Christ, yes, as very God of
very God. As we are filled with the Holy Ghost our one
desire is to magnify Him. We need to be filled with the Spirit
to get the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's command is for us to be filled with the Spirit. We
are no good if we have only a full cup; we need to have an
overflowing cup all the time. It is a tragedy not to live in the
fullness of overflowing. See that you never live below the
overflowing tide.
"No there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit."
Every manifestation of the Spirit is given that we might
"profit withal." When the Holy Spirit is moving in an
assembly and His gifts are in operation, everyone will receive
profit. I have seen some who have been terribly switched.
They believe in gifts, in prophecy, and they use these gifts
apart from the power of the Holy Ghost. We must look to
the Holy Spirit to show us the use of the gifts, what they are
for, and when to use them, so that we may never use them
without the power of the Holy Ghost. I do not know of
anything, which is so awful today as people using a gift
without the power. Never do it. God save us from doing it.
A man who is filled with the Holy Ghost, while he may
not be conscious of having any gift of the Spirit, can have the
gifts made manifest through him. I have gone to many places
to help and have found that under the unction of the Holy
Spirit many wonderful things have happened in the midst
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when the glory of the Lord was upon the people. Any man
who is filled with God and filled with His Spirit might at any
moment have any of the nine gifts made manifest through
him without knowing that he has a gift. Sometimes I have
wondered whether it was better to be always full of the Holy
Ghost and to see signs and wonders and miracles without any
consciousness of possessing a gift, or whether it was better to
know one has a gift. If you have received the gifts of the
Spirit and they have been blessed, you should never under
any circumstances use them without the power of God upon
you pressing the gift through. Some have used the prophetic
gift without the holy touch, and they have come into the
realm of the natural, and it has brought ruin, caused
dissatisfaction, broken hearts, upset assemblies. Do not seek
the gifts unless you are purposed to abide in the Holy Spirit.
They should be manifested only in the power of the Holy
Spirit.
The Lord will allow you to be very drunk in His presence,
but sober among people. I like to see people so filled with the
Spirit that they are drunk like the 120 on the Day of
Pentecost, but I don't like to see people drunk in the wrong
place. That is what troubles us, somebody being drunk in a
place of worship where a lot of people come in that know
nothing about the Word. If you allow yourself to be drunk
there you send people away; they look at you instead of
seeing God. They condemn the whole thing because you
have not been sober at the right time. Paul writes, "For
whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we
be sober, it is for your cause" (2 Cor. 5:13). You can be
beside yourself. You can go a bit further than being drunk.
You can dance, if you will do it at the right time. So many
things are commendable when all the people are in the Spirit.
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Many things are very foolish if the people round about you
are not in the Spirit. We must be careful not to have a good
time at the expense of somebody else. When you have a good
time you must see that the spiritual conditions in the place
lend themselves to help you and that the people are falling in
line with you. Then you will find it always a blessing.
While it is right to covet earnestly the best gifts, you must
recognize that the all-important thing is to be filled with the
power of the Holy Ghost Himself. You will never have
trouble with people who are filled with the power of the Holy
Ghost, but you will have a lot of trouble with people who
have the gifts and have no power. The Lord wants us to
come behind in no gift, but at the same time He wants us to
be so filled with the Holy Ghost that it will be the Holy Spirit
manifesting Himself through the gifts. Where the glory of
God alone is desired you can look for every needed gift to be
made manifest. To glorify God is better than to idolize gifts.
We prefer the Spirit of God to any gift; but we can look for
the Trinity in manifestation, different gifts by the same Spirit,
different administrations but the same Lord, diversities of
operation but the same God working all in all. Can you
conceive of what it will mean for our Triune God to be
manifesting Himself in His fullness in our assemblies?
Watch that great locomotive boiler as it is filled with
steam. You can see the engine letting off some of the steam,
as it remains stationary. It looks as though the whole thing
might burst. You can see saints like that. They start to scream,
but that is not to edification. But when the locomotive moves
on, it serves the purpose for which it was built, and pulls
along much traffic with it. It is wonderful to be filled with the
power of the Holy Ghost, and for Him to serve His own
purposes through us. Through our lips divine utterances flow,
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our hearts rejoice and our tongue is glad. It is an inward
power within which is manifested in outward expression.
Jesus Christ is glorified. As your faith in Him is quickened,
from within you there will flow rivers of living water. The
Holy Spirit will pour through you like a great river of life and
thousands will be blessed because you are a yielded channel
through whom the Spirit may flow.
The most important thing, the one thing that counts is to
see that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, filled to
overflowing. Anything less than this is displeasing to God.
We are commanded by God to be filled with the Spirit, and in
the measure you fail of this you are that far short of the plan
of God. The Lord would have us moving on from faith to
faith, from glory to glory, from fullness to overflowing. It is
not good for us to be ever thinking in the past tense, but we
should be moving on to the place where we dare believe
God. He has declared that after the Holy Ghost is come
upon us we shall have power. I believe there is an avalanche
of power from God to be apprehended if we will but catch
the vision.
Paul wrote at one time, "I will now come to visions and
revelations." God has put us in a place where He expects us
to have His latest revelation, the revelation of that marvelous
fact, CHRIST IN US, and what this really means. We can
apprehend Christ fully only as we are filled and overflowing
with the Spirit of God. Our only safeguard from dropping
back into our natural mind, from which we can never get
anything, is to be filled and yet filled again with the Spirit of
God and to be taken on to visions and revelations on a new
line. The reason why I emphasize the importance of the
fullness of the Holy Ghost is that I want to get you beyond
all human plans and thoughts into the fullness of vision, into
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the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you want rest?
It is in Jesus. Do you want to be saved from everything the
devil is bringing up in these last times? Receive and continue
in the fullness of the Holy Ghost, and He will be ever
revealing to you that all you need for all times is in Christ
Jesus your Lord.
I desire to emphasize the importance of the Spirit's
ministration and of the manifestation of the Spirit, which is
given to every man to profit withal. As you yield to the Spirit
of the Lord He has power over your intellect, over your heart,
and over your voice. The Holy Spirit has power to unveil
Christ and to project the vision of Christ upon the canvas of
your mind, and then He uses your tongue to glorify and
magnify Him in a way that you could never do apart from the
Spirit's power.
Never say that when you are filled with the Holy Ghost
you are "obliged" to do this or that. When people say that
they are "obliged" to do this or that I know it is not the Spirit
of God, but their own spirit moving them on to do that
which is unseemly and unprofitable. Lots of people spoil
meetings because they scream. If you want to do that kind of
thing you had better get into some cellar. That is not to
edification. I believe that, when the Spirit of God is upon you
and moving you to speak as He gives utterance, it will always
be to edification. But don't spoil the prayer meeting because
when you ought to stop you go on. Who spoils the prayer
meeting? The man who starts in the Spirit and finishes in the
flesh. Nothing is more lovely than prayer, but a prayer
meeting is killed if you will go on and on in your own spirit
when the Spirit of God is through with you. You say as you
come from some meetings, "That was a lovely message if the
preacher only had stopped half an hour before he did." Learn
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to cease immediately when the unction of the Spirit lifts. The
Holy Ghost is jealous. Your body is the temple, the office of
the Holy Ghost, but He does not fill the temple for human
glorification, but only for the glory of God. You have no
license to continue beyond a "Thus saith the Lord."
There is another side to this. God would have the
assembly as free as possible, and you must not put your hand
upon the working of the Spirit or it will surely bring trouble.
You must be prepared to allow a certain amount of
extravagance in young and newly baptized souls. You must
remember that when you were brought into this life of the
Spirit you had as many extravagances as anybody, but you
have now become somewhat sobered down. It is a pity that
some do get sobered down, for they are not where they were
in the early days. We have to look to God for wisdom that we
do not interfere or dampen the Spirit or quench the power of
God when He is manifested in our meetings. If you want to
have an assembly full of life you must have an assembly full
of manifestation. Nobody will come if there is no
manifestation. We need to look to God for special grace that
we do not move back to looking at things from a natural
viewpoint.
The preacher, after he loses his unction, should inwardly
repent and get right with God and get the unction back. We
are no good without the unction of the Spirit of God. If you
are filled with the grace of God you will not be judging
everybody in the assembly, you will rather be trusting
everybody, you will not be frightened at what is being done,
you will have a heart to believe all things, and to believe that
though there may be some extravagances, the Spirit of God
will take control of things and will see that the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself is exalted, glorified, and revealed to hungry
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hearts that desire to know Him. The Lord would have us wise
unto that which is good and simple concerning evil, free from
distrust, entertaining into a divine likeness to Jesus, that dares
believe that God Almighty will surely watch over all.
Hallelujah!
The Holy Ghost is the One who magnifies the Lord Jesus
Christ, the One who gives illumination of Him. If you are
filled with the Holy Ghost, it is impossible to keep your
tongue still. Talk about a dumb baptized soul! It is not to be
found in the Scriptures or outside of the Scriptures. We are
filled with the Spirit in order that we may magnify the Lord,
and there should be no meeting in which the saints do not
glorify, magnify, praise, and worship the Lord in Spirit and in
truth.
I would like to give one word of caution, for failure often
comes through our not recognizing the fact that we are
always in the body. We will need our bodies as long as we
live. But our body is to be used and controlled by the Spirit of
God. We are to present our bodies, holy and acceptable unto
God, which is our reasonable service. Every member in our
body must be so sanctified that it works in harmony with the
Spirit of God. Our very eyes must be sanctified. God hates
the winking of the eye. From the day that I read in the
Proverbs what God had to say about the winking of the eye
(Prov. 6:13 and 10:10) I have never winked. I desire that my
eyes may be so sanctified that they can always be used for the
Lord. The Spirit of God will bring within us a compassion for
souls that will be seen in our very eyes.
God has never changed the order of things that first,
there comes the natural, and then the spiritual. For instance,
when it is on your heart to pray, you begin in the natural and
your second word will probably be under the power of the
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Spirit. You begin and God will end. It is the same in giving
forth utterances under the Spirit's power. You feel the
moving of the Spirit within and you begin to speak and the
Spirit of God will give forth utterance. Thousands have
missed wonderful blessings because they have not had faith
to move out and begin in the natural, in faith that the Lord
would take them into the realm of the supernatural. When
you receive the Holy Ghost you receive God's Gift, in whom
are all the gifts of the Spirit. Paul counsels Timothy to stir up
the gift that was within. You have power to stir up God's
executive within you. The way you stir up the gift within you
is by beginning in faith, and then He gives forth what is
needed for the occasion. You would never begin unless you
were full of God. When we yield to timidity and fear we
simply yield to Satan. Satan whispers, "It is all self." He is a
liar. I have learned this, If the Spirit of God is stirring me up,
I have no hesitation in beginning to speak in tongues, and the
Spirit of God gives me utterance and gives me the
interpretation. I find that every time I yield to the Lord on
this line I get a divine touch, I get a leading thought from the
Spirit of God and the meeting is moved up on the line of
faith.
You attend a meeting in faith, believing that the Lord is
going to meet you there. But perhaps the evangelist is not in
harmony with God. The people in the assembly are not
getting what God wants. The Lord knows it. He knows His
people are hungry. What happens? He will take perhaps the
smallest vessels and put His power upon them. As they yield
to the Spirit they break forth in a tongue. Another yields to
the Spirit and there comes forth the interpretation. The
Lord's church has to be fed, and the Lord will take this means
of speaking to His people. Pentecostal people cannot be
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satisfied with the natural message. They are in touch with
heavenly things and cannot be satisfied with anything less.
They feel when there is something lacking in a meeting, and
they look to God and He supplies that which is lacking.
When a man is filled with the Spirit he has no conception
of what he has. We are so limited in our conception of what
we have received. The only way we can know the power that
has been given is through the ministration and manifestation
of the Spirit of God. Do you think that Peter and John knew
what they had when they went up to the temple to pray? They
were limited in thought, and limited in their expression. The
nearer we get to God the more conscious we are of the
poverty of the human, and we cry with Isaiah, "I am undone,
I am unclean." But the Lord will bring the precious blood and
the flaming coals for cleansing and refining and send us out
to labor for Him empowered by His Spirit.
God has sent forth this outpouring that we may all be
brought into a revelation of our sonship -- that we are sons of
God, men of power, that we are to be like the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we are to have the powers of sonship, the power
to lay hold of that which is weak and to quicken it. The
Baptism of the Spirit is to make us sons of God with power.
We shall be conscious of our human limits, but we shall not
limit the Holy One who has come to dwell within. We must
believe that since the Holy Ghost has come upon us we are
indeed sons of God with power. Never say that you can't. All
things are possible to them that believe. Launch out into the
deep and believe that God has His all for you, and that you
can do all things through Him who strengthens you.
Peter and John knew that they had been in the upper
room, they had felt the glory, and they had been given divine
utterances. They had seen conviction on the people. They
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knew that they had come into a wonderful thing. They know
that what they had would be every increasing and that it
would be ever needful to cry, "Enlarge the vessel that the
Holy Ghost may have more room within." They knew that all
the old things were moved away and they had entered into an
increasing and ever increasing knowledge of God, and that it
was their Master's wish that they should be filled with the
Spirit of God and with power every day and every hour. The
secret of power is the unveiling of Christ, the all-powerful
One within, the revelation of God who comes to abide within
us. As they looked upon the crippled man at the Beautiful
Gate they were filled with compassion. They were prompted
by the Spirit to stop and speak with him. They said to the
lame man, "Look on us." It was God's plan that the man
should open his eyes with expectation. Peter said, "Of silver
and gold we have none. But we have something and we will
give it to you. We don't know what it is, but we give it to you.
It is all in the name of Jesus." And then began the ministry of
God. You begin in faith and you see what will happen. It is
hidden from us at the beginning, but as we have faith in God
He will come forth. The coming forth of the power is not of
us but of God. There is no limit to what He will do. It is all in
a nutshell as you believe God. And so Peter said, "Such as I
have I give to thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
rise up and walk." And the man who had been in that way for
forty years stood up, and began to leap, and entered into the
temple walking and leaping and praising God.
"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom." I
want you to keep in mind the importance of never expecting
the gifts of the Spirit apart from the power of the Spirit. In
coveting the best gifts, covet to be so full of God and His
glory that the gifts in manifestation will always glorify Him.
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We do not know all and we cannot know all that can be
brought forth in the manifestation of the word of wisdom.
One word of wisdom from God, one flash of light on the
Word of God, is sufficient to save us from a thousand
pitfalls. People have built without a word from God, they
have bought things without a word from God, and they have
been ensnared. They have lacked that word of wisdom, which
will bring them into God's plan for their lives. I have been in
many places where I have needed a word of wisdom from
God and this has been vouchsafed.
I will give you one instance. There is one thing I am very
grateful to the Lord for, and that is that He has given me
grace not to have a desire for money. The love of money is a
great hindrance to many; and many a man is crippled in his
ministry because he lets his heart run after financial matters. I
was walking out one day when I met a godly man who lived
opposing me and he said, "My wife and I have been talking
together about selling our house and we feel constrained to
sell it to you." As we talked together he persuaded me to buy
his place, and before we said good-by I told him that I would
take it. We always make big mistakes when we are in a hurry.
I told my wife what I had promised, "How will you manage
it?" I told her that I had managed things so far, but I did not
know how I was going to get through this. I somehow knew
that I was out of divine order. But when a fellow gets out of
divine order it seems that the last person he goes to is God. I
was relying on an architect to help me, but that scheme fell
through. I turned to my relations and I certainly had a wet
shirt, as one after another turned me down. I tried my friends
and managed no better. My wife said to me, "Thou hast never
been to God yet." What could I do?
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I have a certain place in our house where I go to pray. I
have been there very often. As I went I said, "Lord, if You
will get me out of this scrape, I will never trouble Thee on
this line again." As I waited on the Lord He just gave me one
word. It seemed a ridiculous thing, but it was the wisest
counsel. There is divine wisdom in every word He speaks. I
came down to my wife, saying, "What do you think? The
Lord has told me to go to Brother Webster." I said, "It seems
very ridiculous, for he is one of the poorest men I know." He
was the poorest man I knew, but he was also the richest man
I knew, for he knew God. My wife said, "Do what God says,
and it will be right."
I went off at once to see him, and he said as he greeted
me, "Smith, what brings you so early?" I answered, "The
word of God." I said to him, "About three weeks ago I
promised to buy a house of a man, and I am short 100
pounds ($500). I have tried to get this money, but somehow I
seem to have missed God." "How is it," he asked, "that you
have come to me only now?" I answered, "Because I went to
the Lord about it only last night." "Well," he said, "it is a
strange thing; three weeks ago I had 100 pounds. For years I
have been putting money into a cooperative system and three
weeks ago I had to go and draw 100 pounds out. I hid it
under the mattress. Come with me and you shall have it. Take
it. I hope it will bring as great a blessing to you as it has been
a trouble to me." I had had a word from God, and all my
troubles were ended. This has been multiplied in a hundred
ways since that time. If I had been walking along filled with
the Holy Ghost, I would not have bought that house and
would not have had all that strain. I believe the Lord wants to
loose us from things of earth. But I am ever grateful for that
word from God. There have been times in my life when I
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have been in great crises and under great weight of
intercession. I have gone to the meeting without the
knowledge of what I would say, but somehow or other God
would vouchsafe the coming forth under the power of the
Spirit of some word of wisdom, just what some souls in that
meeting needed. As we look to God His mind will be made
known, and His revelation and His word of wisdom will be
forthcoming.
Chapter Fourteen
The Word of Knowledge and Faith
"To another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit;
to another faith, by the same Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:8,9).
We have not passed this way hitherto. I believe that Satan
has many devices and that they are worse today than ever
before; but I also believe that there is to be a full
manifestation on the earth of the power and glory of God to
defeat every device of Satan.
In Ephesians 4 we are told to endeavor to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace, for there is one body, and
one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God
and Father of all. The Baptism of the Spirit is to make us all
one. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that by one Spirit we
are all baptized into one body, and have been all made to
drink into one Spirit. It is God's thought that we speak the
same thing. If we all have the full revelation of the Spirit of
God we shall all see the same thing. Paul asked these
Corinthians, "Is Christ divided?" When the Holy Ghost has
full control, Christ is never divided, His body is not divided,
and there is no division. Schism and division are the products
of the carnal mind.
How important it is that we shall have the manifestation
of "the word of knowledge" in our midst. It is the same Spirit
who brings forth the word of wisdom that brings forth the
word of knowledge. The revelation of the mysteries of God
comes by the Spirit, and we must have a supernatural word of
knowledge in order to convey to others the things, which the
Spirit of God has revealed. The Spirit of God reveals Christ
in all His wonderful fullness, and He shows Him to us from
the beginning to the end of the Scriptures. It is the Scriptures
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that make us wise unto salvation, that open to us the depths
of the kingdom of heaven, which reveal all the divine mind to
us.
There are thousands of people who read and study the
Word of God. But it is not quickened to them. The Bible is a
dead letter except by the Spirit. The Word of God can never
be vital and powerful in us except by the Spirit. The words
that Christ spoke were not just dead words but they were
spirit and life. And so it is the thought of God that a living
word, a word of truth, the word of God, a supernatural word
of knowledge, shall come forth from us through the power of
the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Ghost who will bring forth
utterances from our lips and a divine revelation of all the
mind of God.
The child of God ought to thirst for the Word, and
should know nothing among men save Jesus. "Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out
of the mouth of God." It is as we feed on the Word and
meditate on the message it contains, that the Spirit of God
can vitalize that which we have received, and bring forth
through us the word of knowledge that will be as full of
power and life, as when He, the Spirit of God, moved upon
holy men of old and gave them these inspired Scriptures.
They were all inbreathed of God as they came forth at the
beginning, and through the same Spirit they should come
forth from us vitalized, living, powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword.
With the gifts of the Spirit should come the fruit of the
Spirit. With wisdom we should have love, with knowledge we
should have joy, and with the third gift, faith, we should have
the fruit of peace. Faith always rests. Faith laughs at
impossibilities. Salvation is by faith, through grace, and it is
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the gift of God. We are kept by the power of God through
faith. God gives faith and nothing can take it away. By faith
we have power to enter into the wonderful things of God.
There are three positions of faith; saving faith, which is the
gift of God; the faith of the Lord Jesus; and the gift of faith.
You will remember the word of the Lord Jesus Christ given
to Paul, to which he refers in the 26th of Acts, where the
Lord commissioned him to go to the Gentiles, "to open their
eyes, and to turn them from the darkness unto light, and
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."
Oh, this wonderful faith of the Lord Jesus. Your faith
comes to an end. How many times I have been to the place
where I have had to tell the Lord, "I have used all the faith I
have," and then He has placed His own faith within me.
One of our workers said to me at Christmas time,
"Wigglesworth, I never was so near the end of my purse in
my life." I replied, "Thank God, you are just at the opening of
God's treasures." It is when we are at the end of our own,
that we can enter into the riches of God's resources. It is
when we possess nothing, that we can possess all things.
The Lord will always meet you when you are on the line
of living faith. I was in Ireland at one time and went to a
house and said to the lady who came to the door, "Is Brother
Wallace here?" She replied, "Oh, he has gone to Bangor, but
God has sent you here for me. I need you. Come in." She
told me her husband was a deacon of the Presbyterian
Church. She had herself received the Baptism while she was a
member of the Presbyterian Church, but they did not accept
it as from God. The people of the church said to her
husband, "This thing cannot go on. We don't want you to be
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deacon any longer, and your wife is not wanted in the
church." The man was very enraged and he became incensed
against his wife. It seemed as though an evil spirit possessed
him, and the home that had once been peaceful became very
terrible. At last he left home and left no money behind him,
and the woman asked me what should she do.
We went to prayer and before we had prayed five minutes
the woman was mightily filled with the Holy Ghost. I said to
her, "Sit down and let me talk to you. Are you often in the
Spirit like this?" She said, "Yes, and what could I do without
the Holy Ghost now?" I said to her, "The situation is yours.
The Word of God says that you have the power to sanctify
your husband. Dare to believe the Word of God. Now the
first thing we must do is to pray that your husband come
back tonight." She said, "I know he won't." I said, "If we
agree together, it is done." She said, "I will agree." I said to
her, "When he comes home show him all possible love, lavish
everything upon him. If he won't hear what you have to say,
let him go to bed. The situation is yours. Get down before
God and claim him for the Lord. Get into the glory just as
you have got in today, and as the Spirit of God prays through
you, you will find that God will grant all the desires of your
heart.
A month later I saw this sister at a convention. She told
how her husband came home that night and that he went to
bed, but she prayed right through to victory and then laid her
hands upon him. The moment she laid hands upon him he
cried out for mercy. The Lord saved him and baptized him in
the Holy Spirit. The power of God is beyond all our
conception. The trouble is that we do not have the power of
God in a full manifestation because of our finite thoughts,
but as we go on and let God have His way, there is no limit
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to what our limitless God will do in response to a limitless
faith. But you will never get anywhere except you are in
constant pursuit of all the power of God.
One day when I came home from our open-air meeting at
eleven o'clock I found that my wife was out. I asked, "Where
is she?" I was told that she was down at Mitchell's. I had seen
Mitchell that day and knew that he was at the point of death.
I knew that it was impossible for him to survive the day
unless the Lord undertook.
There are many who let down in sickness and do not take
hold of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that is provided for
them. I was taken to see a woman who was dying and said to
her, "How are things with you?" She answered, "I have faith,
I believe." I said, "You know that you have not faith, you
know that you are dying. It is not faith that you have, it is
language." There is a difference between language and faith. I
saw that she was in the hands of the devil. There was no
possibility of life until he was removed from the premises. I
hate the devil, and I laid hold of the woman and shouted,
"Come out, you devil of death. I command you to come out
in the name of Jesus." In one minute she stood on her feet in
victory.
But to return to the case of Brother Mitchell, I hurried
down to the house, and as I got near I heard terrible screams.
I knew that something had happened. I passed Mrs. Mitchell
on the staircase and asked, "What is up?" She replied, "He is
gone! He is gone!" I just passed her and went into the room
and immediately I saw that Mitchell had gone. I could not
understand it, but I began to pray. My wife was always afraid
that I would go too far, and she laid hold of me and said,
"Don't, Dad! Don't you see that he is dead?" I continued to
pray and my wife continued to cry out to me, "Don't, Dad.
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Don't you see that he is dead?" But I continued praying. I got
as far as I could with my own faith, and then God laid hold
of me. Oh, it was such a laying hold that I could believe for
anything. The faith of the Lord Jesus laid hold of me and a
solid peace came into my heart. I shouted, "He lives! He lives!
He lives!" And he is living today. There is a difference
between our faith and the faith of the Lord Jesus. The faith
of the Lord Jesus is needed. We must change faith from time
to time. Your faith may get to a place where it wavers. The
faith of Christ never wavers. When you have that faith the
thing is finished. When you have that faith you will never
look at things as they are, you will see the things of nature
give way to the things of the Spirit, you will see the temporal
swallowed up in the eternal.
I was at a camp meeting in Cazadero, California, several
years ago, and a remarkable thing happened. A man came
there who was stone deaf. I prayed for him and I knew that
God had healed him. Then came the test. He would always
move his chair up to the platform, and every time I got up to
speak he would get up as close as he could and strain his ears
to catch what I had to say. The devil said, "It isn't done." I
declared, "It is done." This went on for three weeks and then
the manifestation came and he could hear distinctly sixty
yards away. When his ears were opened he thought it was so
great that he had to stop the meeting and tell everybody
about it. I met him in Oakland recently and he was hearing
perfectly. As we remain steadfast and unmovable on the
ground of faith, we shall see what we believe for in perfect
manifestation.
People say to me, "Have you not the gift of faith?" I say
that it is an important gift, but what is still more important is
for us every moment to be making advancement in God.
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Looking at the Word of God today I find that its realities are
greater to me today than they were yesterday. It is the most
sublime, joyful truth that God brings an enlargement. Always
an enlargement. There is nothing dead, dry or barren in this
life of the Spirit; God is always moving us on to something
higher, and as we move on in the Spirit our faith will always
rise to the occasion as different circumstances arise.
This is how the gift of faith is manifested. You see an
object and you know that your own faith is nothing in the
case. The other day I was in San Francisco. I sat on a car and
saw a boy in great agony on the street. I said, "Let me get
out." I rushed to where the boy was. He was in agony
through cramp of the stomach. I put my hands on his
stomach in the name of Jesus. The boy jumped, and stared at
me with astonishment. He found himself instantly free. The
gift of faith dared in the face of everything. It is as we are in
the Spirit that the Spirit of God will operate this gift
anywhere and at any time.
When the Spirit of God is operating this gift within a
man, He causes him to know what God is going to do. When
the man with the withered hand was in the synagogue, Jesus
got all the people to look to see what would happen. The gift
of faith always knows the results. He said to the man,
"Stretch forth thine hand." His word had creative force. He
was not living on the line of speculation. He spoke and
something happened. He spake at the beginning and the
world came into being. He speaks today and these things
have to come to pass. He is the Son of God and came to
bring us into sonship. He was the first fruit of the
resurrection and He calls us to be first fruits, to be the same
kind of fruit like to Himself.
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There is an important point here. You cannot have the
gifts by mere human desire. The Spirit of God distributes
them severally as He will. God cannot trust some with the
gift, but some who have a lowly, broken, contrite heart He
can trust. One day I was in a meeting where there were a lot
of doctors and eminent men, and many ministers. It was at a
convention, and the power of God fell on the meeting. One
humble little girl that waited at table opened her being to the
Lord and was immediately filled with the Holy Ghost and
began to speak in tongues. All these big men stretched their
necks and looked up to see what was happening and were
saying, "Who is it?" Then they learned it was "the servant!"
Nobody received but "the servant!" These things are hidden
and kept back from the wise and prudent, but the little
children, the lowly ones, are the ones that receive. We cannot
have faith if we have honor one of another. A man who is
going on with God won't accept honor from his fellow
beings. God honors the man of a broken, contrite spirit. How
shall I get there? So many people want to do great things, and
to be seen doing them, but the one that God will use is the
one that is willing to be hidden. My Lord Jesus never said He
could do things, but He did them. When the funeral
procession was coming up from Nain with the widow's son
carried upon the bier, He made them lay it down. He spoke
the word, "Arise!" and gave the son back to the widow. He
had compassion for her. And you and I will never do
anything except on the line of compassion. We shall never be
able to remove the cancer until we are immersed so deeply
into the power of the Holy Ghost that the compassion of
Christ is moving through us.
I find that, in all my Lord did, He said that He did not do
it, but that another in Him did the work. What a holy
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submission! He was just an instrument for the glory of God.
Have we reached a place where we dare to be trusted with the
gift? I see in 1 Corinthians 13 that if I have faith to remove
mountains and have not charity, all is a failure. When my love
is so deepened in God that I only move for the glory of God,
that I only seek the glory of God, then the gifts can be made
manifest. God wants to be manifested, and to manifest His
glory to humble spirits.
A faint heart can never have a gift. There are two things
essential; first, love, and second, determination, a boldness of
faith that will cause God to fulfill His word. When I was
baptized I had a wonderful time and had utterance in the
Spirit, but for some time afterwards I did not again speak in
tongues. But one da y as I was helping another, the Lord again
gave me utterances in the Spirit. I was one day going down
the road and speaking in tongues a long while. There were
some gardeners doing their work, and they stuck their heads
out to see what was going on. I said, "Lord, you have
something new for me. You said that when a man speaks in
tongues, he should ask for the interpretation. I ask for the
interpretation, and I'll stay right here till I get it." And from
that hour the Lord gave me interpretation.
At one time I was in Lincolnshire in England and came in
touch with the old pastor of an Episcopalian Church. He
became much interested and asked me into his library. I never
heard anything sweeter than the prayer the old man uttered as
he got down to pray. He began to pray, "Lord, make me holy.
Lord, sanctify me." I called out, "Wake up! Wake up now!
Get up and sit in your chair." He sat up and looked at me. I
said to him, "I thought you were holy." He answered, "Yes."
"Then what makes you ask God to do what He has done for
you?" He began to laugh and then to speak in tongues. Let us
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move into the realm of faith, and live in the realm of faith,
and let God have His way.
Chapter Fifteen
Gifts of Healing and Miracles
God has given us much in these last days, and where
much is given much will be required. The Lord has said to us,
"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor,
wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for
nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of
men." We see a thought on the same line when our Lord
Jesus says, "If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a
branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them
into the fire, and they are burned." On the other hand He
tells us, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye
shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." If we do
not move on with the Lord these days, and do not walk in the
light of revealed truth, we shall become as the savorless salt,
as a withered branch. This one thing we must do, forgetting
those things that are behind, the past failures and the past
blessings, we must reach forth for those things, which are
before, and press toward the mark for the prize of our high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.
For many years the Lord has been moving me on and
keeping me from spiritual stagnation. When I was in the
Wesleyan Methodist Church I was sure I was saved and was
sure I was all right. The Lord said to me, "Come out," and I
came out. When I was with the people known as the Brethren
I was sure I was all right now. But the Lord said, "Come out."
Then I went into the Salvation Army. At that time it was full
of life and there were revivals everywhere. But the Salvation
Army went into natural things and the great revivals that they
had in those early days ceased. The Lord said to me, "Come
out," and I came out. I have had to come out three times
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since. I believe that this Pentecostal revival that we are now in
is the best thing that the Lord has on the earth today, and yet
I believe that God has something out of this that is going to
be still better. God has no use for any man who is not
hungering and thirsting for yet more of Himself and His
righteousness.
The Lord has told us to covet earnestly the best gifts, and
we need to be covetous for those that will bring Him most
glory. We need to see the gifts of healing and the working of
miracles in operation today. Some say that it is necessary for
us to have the gift of discernment in operation with the gifts
of healing, but even apart from this gift I believe the Holy
Ghost will have a divine revelation for us as we deal with the
sick. Most people seem to have discernment, or think they
have, and if they would turn it on themselves for twelve
months they would never want to discern aga in. The gift of
discernment is not criticism. I am satisfied that in Pentecostal
circles today that our paramount need is more perfect love.
Perfect love will never want the preeminence in
everything, it will never want to take the place of another, and
it will always be willing to take the back seat. If you go to a
convention there is always someone who wants to give a
message, who wants to be heard. If you have a desire to go to
a convention you should have three things settled in your
mind. Do I want to be heard? Do I want to be seen? Do I
want anything on the line of finances? If I have these things
in my heart I have no right to be there. The one thing that
must move us must be the constraining love of God to
minister for Him. A preacher always loses out when he gets
his mind on finances. It is well for Pentecostal preachers to
avoid making much of finances except to stir up people to
help our missionaries on financial lines. A preacher who gets
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big collections for the missionaries need never fear the Lord
will take care of his finances. A preacher should not land at a
place and say that God had sent him. I am always fearful
when I hear a man advertising this. If he is sent of God, the
saints will know it. God has His plans for His servants and
we must so live in His plans that He will place us where He
wants us. If you seek nothing but the will of God, he will
always put you in the right place at the right time. I want you
to see that the gifts of healing and the working of miracles are
part of the Spirit's plan and will come forth in operation as
we are working along that plan. I must know the movement
of the Spirit and the voice of God. I must understand the will
of God if I am to see the gifts of the Spirit in operation.
The gifts of healing are so varied. You may go and see ten
people and every case is different. I am never happier in the
Lord than when I am in a bedroom with a sick person. I have
had more revelations of the Lord's presence when I have
ministered to the sick at their bedsides than at any other time.
It is as your heart goes out to the needy ones in deep
compassion that the Lord manifests His presence. You are
able to locate their position. It is then that you know that you
must be filled with the Spirit to deal with the conditions
before you.
Where people are in sickness you find frequently that they
are dense about Scripture. They usually know three scriptures
though. They know about Paul's thorn in the flesh, and that
Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake,
and that Paul left someone sick somewhere; they forget his
name, and don't remember the name of the place, and don't
know where the chapter is. Most people think they have a
thorn in the flesh. The chief thing in dealing with a person
who is sick is to locate their exact position. As you are
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ministering under the Spirit's power the Lord will let you see
just that which will be more helpful and most faith-inspiring
to them.
When I was in the plumbing business I enjoyed praying
for the sick. Urgent calls would come and I would have no
time to wash, and with my hands all black I would preach to
these sick ones, my heart all aglow with love. Ah, you must
have your heart in the thing when you pray for the sick. You
have to get right to the bottom of the cancer with a divine
compassion and then you will see the gifts of the Spirit in
operation.
I was called at 10 o'clock one night to pray for a young
person given up by the doctor who was dying of
consumption. As I looked, I saw that unless God undertook
it was impossible for her to live. I turned to the mother and
said, "Well, mother, you will have to go to bed." She said,
"Oh, I have not had my clothes off for three weeks." I said to
the daughters, "You will have to go to bed," but they did not
want to go. It was the same with the son. I put on my
overcoat and said, "Good-by, I'm off." They said, "Oh, don't
leave us." I said, "I can do nothing here." They said, "Oh, if
you will stop, we will all go to bed." I knew that God would
move nothing in an atmosphere of mere natural sympathy
and unbelief.
They all went to bed and I stayed, and that was surely a
time as I knelt by that bed face to face with death and with
the devil. But God can change the hardest situation and make
you know that He is almighty.
Then the fight came. It seemed as though the heavens
were brass. I prayed from 11 to 3:30 in the morning. I saw
the glimmering light on the face of the sufferer and saw her
pass away. The devil said, "Now you are done for. You have
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come from Bradford and the girl has died on your hands." I
said, "It can't be. God did not send me here for nothing. This
is a time to change strength." I remembered that passage
which said, "Men ought always to pray and not to faint."
Death had taken place but I knew that my God was allpowerful,
and He that had split the Red Sea is just the same
today. It was a time when I would not have "No," and God
said, "Yes." I looked at the window and at that moment the
face of Jesus appeared. It seemed as though a million rays of
light were coming from His face. As He looked at the one
who had just passed away, the color came back to the face.
She rolled over and fell asleep. Then I had a glorious time. In
the morning she woke early, put on a dressing gown and
walked to the piano. She started to play and to sing a
wonderful song. The mother and the sister and the brother
had all come down to listen. The Lord had undertaken. A
miracle had been wrought.
The Lord is calling us along this way. I am thanking God
for difficult cases. The Lord has called us into heart union
with Himself; He wants His bride to have one heart and one
Spirit with Him and to do what He Himself loved to do. That
case had to be a miracle. The lungs were gone, they were just
in shreds, but the Lord restored lungs that were perfectly
sound.
There is a fruit of the Spirit that must accompany the gift
of healing and that is longsuffering. The man who is going
through with God to be used in healing must be a man of
longsuffering. He must be always ready with a word of
comfort. If the sick one is in distress and helpless and does
not see everything eye to eye with you, you must bear with
him. Our Lord Jesus Christ was filled with compassion and
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lived and moved in a place of longsuffering, and we will have
to get into this place if we are to help needy ones.
There are times when you pray for the sick and you are
apparently rough. But you are not dealing with a person; you
are dealing with the satanic forces that are binding the person.
Your heart is full of love and compassion to all, but you are
moved to a holy anger as you see the place the devil has taken
in the body of the sick one, and you deal with his position
with a real forcefulness. One day a pet dog followed a lady
out of her house and ran all round her feet. She said to the
dog, "My dear, I cannot have you with me today." The dog
wagged its tail and made a big fuss. She said, "Go home, my
dear." But the dog did not go. At last she shouted roughly,
"Go home," and off it went. Some people deal with the devil
like that. The devil can stand all the comfort you like to give
him. Cast him out! You are dealing not with the person; you
are dealing with the devil. Demon power must be dislodged
in the name of the Lord. You are always right when you dare
to deal with sickness as with the devil. Much sickness is
caused by some misconduct, there is something wrong, there
is some neglect somewhere, and Satan has had a chance to
get in. It is necessary to repent and confess where you have
given place to the devil, and then he can be dealt with.
When you deal with a cancer case, recognize that it is a
living evil spirit that is destroying the body. I had to pray for a
woman in Los Angeles one time who was suffering with
cancer, and as soon as it was cursed it stopped bleeding. It
was dead. The next thing that happened was that the natural
body pressed it out, because the natural body had no room
for dead matter. It came out like a great big ball with tens of
thousands of fibers. All these fibers had been pressing into
the flesh. These evil powers move to get further hold of the
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system, but the moment they are destroyed their hold is gone.
Jesus said to His disciples that He gave them power to loose
and power to bind. It is our privilege in the power of the
Holy Ghost to loose the prisoners of Satan and to let the
oppressed go free.
Take your position in the first epistle of John and declare,
"Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world."
Then recognize that it is not yourself that has to deal with the
power of the devil, but the Greater One that is in you. Oh,
what it means to be filled with Him. You can do nothing of
yourself, but He that is in you will win the victory. Your being
has become the temple of the Spirit. Your mouth, your mind,
your whole being becomes exercised and worked upon by the
Spirit of God.
I was called to a certain town in Norway. The hall seated
about 1500 people. When I got to the place it was packed,
and hundreds were trying to get in. There were some
policemen there. The first thing I did was to preach to the
people outside the building. Then I said to the policemen, "It
hurts me very much that there are more people outside than
inside and I feel I must preach to the people. I would like you
to get me the market place to preach in." They secured for
me a great park and a big stand was erected and I was able to
preach to thousands. After the preaching we had some
wonderful cases of healing. One man came a hundred miles
bringing his food with him. He had not been passing
anything through his stomach for over a month as he had a
great cancer on his stomach. He was healed at that meeting,
and opening his parcel, he began eating before all the people.
There was a young woman there with a stiff hand. Instead of
the mother making the child use her arm she had allowed the
child to keep the arm dormant until it was stiff, and she had
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grown up to be a young woman and was like the woman that
was bowed down with the spirit of infirmity. As she stood
before me I cursed the spirit of infirmity in the name of Jesus.
It was instantly cast out and the arm was free. Then she
waved it all over. At the close of the meeting the devil laid
out two people with fits. When the devil is manifesting
himself, then is the time to deal with him. Both of these
people were delivered, and when they stood up and thanked
and praised the Lord what a wonderful time we had.
We need to wake up and be on the stretch to believe
God. Before God could bring me to this place He has broken
me a thousand times. I have wept, I have groaned, I have
travailed many a night until God broke me. It seems to me
that until God has mowed you down you never can have this
longsuffering for others. We can never have the gifts of
healing and the working of miracles in operation only as we
stand in the divine power that God gives us and we stand
believing God, and having done all we still stand believing.
We have been seeing wonderful miracles these last days
and they are only a little of what we are going to see. I believe
that we are right on the threshold of wonderful things, but I
want to emphasize that all these things will be through the
power of the Holy Ghost. You must not think that these gifts
will fall upon you like ripe cherries. There is a sense in which
you have to pay the price for everything you get. We must be
covetous for God's best gifts, and say Amen to any
preparation the Lord takes us through, in order that we may
be humble, usable vessels through whom He Himself can
operate by means of the Spirit's power.
Chapter Sixteen
The Gift of Prophecy
In 1 Corinthians 12:10, speaking of the diversities of gifts
by the same Spirit, Paul writes, "To another prophecy." We
see the importance of this gift from 1 Corinthians 14:1, where
we are told to follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts,
but rather that we may prophesy. We see also that he that
prophesieth speaketh unto man to edification, and
exhortation and comfort. How important it is then that we
should have this gift in manifestation in the church in order
that the saints might be built up and made strong and filled
with the comfort of God. But with this as all other gifts we
should see that it is operated by the Spirit's power and
brought forth in the unction of the Spirit; so that everyone
who shall hear prophecy, as it is brought forth by the Spirit of
God, shall know that it is GOD who is bringing forth that
which is for the edification of those who hear. It is the Spirit
of God who takes of the deep things of God and reveals
them, and unctionizes the prophet to give forth, that which is
a revelation of the things of God.
Utterance in prophecy has a real lifting power and gives
real light on the truth to those who hear. Prophecy is never a
mind reflection; it is something far deeper than this. By
means of prophecy we receive that which is the mind of the
Lord; and as we receive these blessed, fresh utterances
through the Spirit of the Lord the whole assembly is lifted
into the realm of the spiritual. Our hearts and minds and
whole bodies receive a quickening through the Spirit-given
word. As the Spirit brings forth prophecy we find there is
healing and salvation and power in every line. For this reason
it is one of the gifts that we ought to covet.
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While we appreciate true prophecy, we must not forget
that the Scriptures warn us in no uncertain manner
concerning that, which is false. In 1 John 4:1 we are told,
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether
they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out
into the world." And John tells us how we can tell the
difference between the true and the false, "Hereby know ye
the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God; but this is that spirit of antichrist whereof ye have heard
that it should come." There are voices which seem like
prophecy and some have got into terrible darkness and
bondage through listening to these counterfeits of the true
gift of prophecy. True prophecy is always Christ exalting,
magnifying the Son of God, exalting the blood of Jesus
Christ, encouraging the saints to praise and worship the true
God. False prophesy deals with things that do not edify and is
designed to puff up its hearers and to lead them into error.
Many picture Satan as a great, ugly monster with great
ears, eyes and a tail; but the Scriptures give us no such picture
of him. He was a being of great beauty whose heart became
lifted up. He is manifesting himself everywhere today as an
angel of light. He is full of pride, and if you don't watch he
will try to make you think you are somebody. This is the
weakness of most preachers and most men -- the idea of
being somebody! There are none of us who are anything, and
the more we know we are nothing, the more God can make
us a channel of His power. May the dear Lord save us from
all these pride sidelines -- they are the devil's traps. True
prophecy will show you that Christ is all in all, and that you
are in yourself less than nothing and vanity. False prophecy
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will not magnify Christ but will make you think that after all
you are going to be some great one. You may be sure that
such is inspired by "the chief of the sons of pride."
I want to warn you against the foolishness of continually
seeking to hear voices. Look in the Bible. Here we have the
voice of God, who at sundry times and in divers manners,
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, and hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. Don't run away
with anything else. If you hear the voice of God it will be on
the line of the Scriptures of truth given in the inspired Word.
In Rev. 22:18, 19 we see the danger of attempting to add to
or take from the prophecy of this Book. True prophecy, as it
comes forth in the power of the Spirit of God, will neither
take from nor add to the Scriptures, but will intensify and
quicken that which already has been given to us of God. The
Holy Ghost will bring to our remembrance all the things that
Jesus said and did. True prophecy will bring forth things new
and old out of the Scriptures of truth and will make them
living and powerful to us.
Some may ask, "If we have the Scriptures, why do we
need prophecy?" The Scriptures themselves answer this
question. God has said that in the last days He will pour out
of His Spirit upon all flesh," and your sons and your
daughters shall prophecy." The Lord knew that in these last
days prophecy would be a real means of blessing to us, and
that is why we can count on Him giving us, by means of the
Spirit, through his servants and his handmaids, true prophetic
messages.
I want to give you a warning concerning listening to
voices. I was at a meeting in Paisley in Scotland and came in
touch with two young women. One of them wore a white
blouse but it was smeared with blood. They were in a great
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state of excitement. These two girls were telegraph operators
and were precious young women, having received the
Baptism in the Spirit. They were both longing to be
missionaries. But whatever our spiritual state is we are subject
to temptations. An evil power came to one of these young
women and said, "If you will obey me, I will make you one of
the most wonderful missionaries that ever went out." This
was just the devil or one of his agents acting as an angel of
light. One of these young women was captured immediately
and she became so excited that her sister saw there was
something wrong and asked the overseer to allow them to be
free for a time.
As she took her into a room, the power of Satan
endeavoring to imitate the Spirit of God, manifested itself in
a voice, and led this young woman to believe that the
missionary enterprise would be unfolded that night if she
would obey. This evil spirit said, "Don't tell anybody but your
sister." I reckon that everything of God can be told
everybody. If you cannot preach what you live, your life is
wrong. If you are afraid of telling what you do in secret, some
day it will be told from the housetop. Don't think you will get
out of it. That which is pure cometh to the light. He that
doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made
manifest, that they are wrought in God.
The evil power went on to say to this girl, "You go to the
railroad station tonight, and there will be a train coming in at
7:32. Buy a ticket for yourself and your sister. Then you will
have six pence left. You will find a woman in a carriage
dressed as a nurse, and opposite her will be a gentleman who
has all the money you need." She bought her ticket and had
just six pence left. The first thing came right. Next, the train
came in at exactly 7:32. But the next thing did not come.
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They ran from the top to the bottom of that railroad train
before it moved out and nothing turned out as they had been
told. As soon as the train moved out the same voice came
and said, "Over on the other platform." All that night until
9:30 these two young women were rushed from platform to
platform. As soon as it was 9:30 this same evil power said,
"Now that I know you will obey me, I will make you the
greatest missionaries." Always something big! They might
have known it was all wrong. The evil power said, "This
gentleman will take you to a certain bank at a certain corner
in Glasgow where he will put all that money in for you."
Banks are not open at that time of night in Glasgow. If she
had gone to the street this evil spirit mentioned, there
probably would not have been a bank there. All they needed
was a little common sense and they would have seen that it
was not the Lord. If you have your heart open for these kinds
of voices you will soon get into a trap. We must ever
remember that there are many evil spirits in the world.
Were these two people delivered? Yes, after terrible travail
with God, they were perfectly delivered. Their eyes were
opened to see that this thing was not of God but of the devil.
These two sisters are now laboring for the Lord in China and
doing a blessed work for Him. If you do get into error on
these lines, praise God there is a way out. I praise God that
He will break us down till all pride leaves us. The worst pride
we can have is the pride of exaltation of self.
Paul wrote at the commandment of the Lord, "Let the
prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge. If
anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first
hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all
may learn, and all may be comforted." If you are not humble
enough to allow your prophecy to be judged, it is as surely
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wrong as you are wrong. Prophecy has to be judged. A
meeting such as this one that Paul suggests would certainly be
the greatest meeting you ever had. Praise God, the tide will
rise to this. It will all come into perfect order when the
church is bathed and lost in the great ideal of only glorifying
Jesus. Then things will come to pass that will be worthwhile.
Coupled with prophecy you will have the fruit of the
Spirit that is goodness. They were holy men who spoke in
prophecy in days of old as the Holy Ghost prompted them,
and so today the prophet who can be trusted is a man that is
full of goodness, that goodness which is the fruit of the Spirit.
But when he gets out of this position, and rests upon his own
individuality, he is in danger of being puffed up and
becoming an instrument for the enemy.
I know some people who had a wonderful farm, very
productive, in a very good neighborhood. They listened to
voices telling them to sell everything and go to Africa. These
voices so unhinged them that they had scarcely had time to
sell out. They sold their property at a ridiculous price. The
same voices told them of a certain ship they were to sail on.
When they got to the port they found there wasn't a ship of
that name. The difficulty was this, to get them not to believe
these false voices. They said perhaps it was the mind of the
Lord to give them another ship, and the voice soon gave
them the name of another ship. When they reached Africa
they knew no language that was spoken there. But the voice
did not let them stop. They had to come back,
brokenhearted, shaken through, and having lost all
confidence in everything. If these people had had sense to go
to some men of God who were filled with the Spirit and seek
their counsel, they would soon have been persuaded that
these voices were not of God. But listening to these voices
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always brings about a spiritual pride that makes a man or
woman think that they a re superior to their brethren, and that
they are above taking counsel of men who they think are not
so filled with the Spirit as they are. If you hear any voices that
make you think that you are superior to those whom God has
put in the church to rule the church, watch out, that is surely
the devil.
We read in the Revelation that the testimony of Jesus is
the spirit of prophecy. You will find that true prophetic
utterance always exalts the Lamb of God.
No prophetic touch is of any good unless there is fire in
it. I never expect to be used of God till the fire burns. I feel
that if I ever speak, it must be by the Spirit. At the same time
remember that the prophet must prophesy according to the
measure of faith. If you rise up in your weakness, but rise up
in love because you want to honor God, and just begin, you
will find the presence of the Lord upon you. Act in faith and
the Lord will meet you.
May God take us on and on into this glorious fact of
faith, that we may be so in the Holy Ghost that God will
work through us on the line of the miraculous and on the
lines of prophecy, where we shall always know that it is no
longer we but He who is working through us, bringing forth
that which is in His own divine good pleasure.
Chapter Seventeen
The Discerning of Spirits
"To another discerning of spirits" (1 Cor. 12:10). There is
a vast difference between natural discernment and spiritual.
When it comes to natural discernment you will find many
people loaded with it, and they can see so many faults in
others. To such the words of Christ in the sixth chapter of
Luke surely apply, "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in
thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine
own eye?" If you want to manifest natural discernment, focus
the same on yourself for at least twelve months and you will
see so many faults in yourself that you will never want to fuss
about the faults of another. In the sixth of Isaiah we read of
the prophet being in the presence of God and he found that
even his lips were unclean and everything was unclean. But
praise God; there is the same live coal for us today, the
baptism of fire, the perfecting of the heart, the purifying of
the mind, the regeneration of the spirit. How important it is
that the fire of God shall touch our tongues.
In 1 John 4:1 we are told, "Beloved, believe not every
spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God." We are
further told, "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit
of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and
even now already it is in the world." From time to time as I
have seen a person under the power of evil, or having a fit, I
have said to the power of evil, or satanic force that is within
the possessed person, "Did Jesus Christ come in the flesh?"
And straightway they have answered "No." They either say
"No," or hold their tongues, refusing altogether to
acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh. It is
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then, remembering that further statement of John's, "Greater
is He that is in you than he that is in the world," that you can
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ deal with the evil powers
and command them to come out. We as Pentecostal people
must know the tactics of the evil one and must be able to
displace and dislodge him from his position.
I was preaching in Doncaster, England, at one time on
the line of faith and a number of people were delivered.
There was a man present who was greatly interested and
moved by what he saw. He was suffering himself with a stiff
knee and had yards and yards of flannel wound around it.
After he got home he said to his wife, "I have taken in
Wigglesworth's message and now I am going to act on it and
get deliverance. Wife, I want you to be the audience." He
took hold of his knee and said, "Come out, you devil, in the
name of Jesus." Then he said, "It is all right, wife." He took
the yards and yards of flannel off and found he was all right
without the bandage. The next night he went to the little
Primitive Methodist Church where he worshiped. There were
a lot of young people who were in bad plight there and Jack
had a tremendous business delivering his friends through the
name of Jesus. He had been given to see that a great many ills
to which flesh is heir are nothing else but the operation of the
enemy, but his faith had risen and he saw that in the name of
Jesus there was a power that was more than a match for the
enemy.
I arrived one night at Gottenberg in Sweden and was
asked to hold a meeting there. In the midst of the meeting a
man fell full length in the doorway. The evil spirit drew him
down, manifesting itself and disturbing the whole meeting. I
rushed to the door and laid hold of this man and cried out to
the evil spirit within him, "Come out, you devil! In the name
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of Jesus we cast you out as an evil spirit." I lifted him up and
said, "Stand on your feet and walk in the name of Jesus." I
don't know whether anybody in the meeting understood me
except the interpreter, but the devils knew what I said. I
talked in English but these devils in Sweden cleared out. A
similar thing happened in Christiania.
The devil will endeavor to fascinate through the eyes and
through the mind. At one time there was brought to me a
beautiful young woman who had been fascinated with some
preacher, and just because he had not given her satisfaction
on the line of courtship and marriage the devil took
advantage and made her fanatical and mad. They brought her
250 miles in that condition. She had previously received the
Baptism in the Spirit. You ask, "Is there any place for the
enemy in one that has been baptized in the Holy Ghost?"
Our only safety is in going on with God and in constantly
being filled with the Holy Ghost. You must not forget
Demas. He must have been baptized with the Holy Ghost for
he appears to have been a right-hand worker with Paul, but
the enemy got him to the place where he loved this present
world and he dropped off. When they brought this young
woman to me the evil power was immediately discerned and
immediately I cast the thing out in the name of Jesus. It was a
great joy to present her before all the people in her right mind
again.
There is a life of perfect deliverance, and this is where
God wants you to be. If I find my peace is disturbed on any
line, I know it is the enemy who is trying to work. How do I
know this? Because the Lord has promised to keep your mind
in perfect peace when it is stayed on Him. Paul tells us to
present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is our reasonable service; the Holy Spirit breathes
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through him, "And be not conformed to this world; but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." He
further tells us in Phil. 4, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of
good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
think on these things." As we think about that which is pure,
we become pure. As we think about that which is holy, we
become holy. And as we think about our Lord Jesus Christ,
we become like Him. We are changed into the likeness of the
object on which our gaze is fixed.
To discern spirits we must dwell with Him who is holy,
and He will give the revelation and unveil the mask of satanic
power on all lines. In Australia I went to one place where
there were disrupted and broken homes. The people were so
deluded by the evil power of Satan that men had left their
wives, and wives had left their husbands, and had gotten into
spiritual affinity with one another. That is the devil! May God
deliver us from such evils in these days. There is no one
better than the companion God has given you. I have seen so
many broken hearts and so many homes that have been
wrecked. We need a real revelation of these evil seducing
spirits, which come in and fascinate by the eye and destroy
lives, and bring the work of God into disrepute. But there is
always flesh behind it. It is never clean; it is unholy, impure,
satanic, devilish, and hell is behind it. If the enemy comes in
to tempt you on any line like this, I beseech you to look
instantly to the Lord Jesus. He can deliver you from any such
satanic power. You must be separated on all lines if you are
going to have faith.
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The Holy Ghost will give us this gift of discerning of
spirits if we desire it so that we may perceive by revelation
this evil power, which comes in to destroy. We can reach out
and get this unction of the Spirit that will reveal these things
unto us.
You will have people come to meetings who are spiritists.
You must be able to deal with spiritist conditions. You can so
deal with them that they will not have any power in the
meetings. If you ever have Theosophists or Christian
Scientist, you must be able to discern them and settle them.
Never play with them; always clear them out. They are better
with their own company always unless they are willing to be
delivered from the delusion they are in. Remember the
warning of the Lord Jesus, "The thief cometh not, but for to
steal, and to kill, and to destroy."
Before Satan can bring his evil spirits there has to be an
open door. Hear what the scriptures say: "That wicked one
toucheth him not: (1 John 5:18). "The Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul" (Psa. 121:7).
How does Satan get an opening? When the saint ceases to
seek after holiness, purity, righteousness, truth; when he
ceases to pray, stops reading the Word and gives way to
carnal appetites, then it is that Satan comes. So often sickness
comes as a result of disobedience. David said, "Before I was
afflicted, I went astray." Seek the Lord and He will sanctify
every thought, every act, till your whole being is ablaze with
holy purity and your one desire will be for Him who has
created you in holiness. Oh, this holiness! Can we be made
pure? We can. Every inbred sin must go. God can cleanse
away every evil thought. Can we have a hatred for sin and a
love for righteousness? Yes, God will create within thee a
pure heart. He will take away the stony heart out of the flesh.
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He will sprinkle thee with clean water and thou shalt be
cleansed from all thy filthiness. When will He do it? When
you seek Him for such inward purity.
Chapter Eighteen
The Gift of Tongues
"Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather
that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown
tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man
understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh
mysteries" (1 Cor. 14:1, 2).
It is necessary that we have a great desire for spiritual
gifts. We must thirst after them and covet them earnestly
because the gifts are necessary and important, that we, by the
grace of God having received the gifts, may be used for
God's glory.
God has ordained this speaking in an unknown tongue
unto Himself as a wonderful, supernatural means of
communication in the Spirit. As we speak to him in the
unknown tongue we speak wonderful mysteries in the Spirit.
In Rom. 8:27 we read, "He that searcheth the hearts knoweth
what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God." Many times as
we speak unto God in an unknown tongue we are in
intercession and as we pray thus in the Spirit we pray
according to the will of God. And there is such a thing as the
Spirit making intercession with groanings, which cannot be
uttered.
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
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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.
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself;
but he that prophesieth edifieth the church" (Verse 4). I want
you to see that he that speaketh in an unknown tongue
edifieth himself or builds himself up. We must be edified
before we can edify the church. I cannot estimate what I,
personally, owe to the Holy Ghost method of spiritual
edification. I am here before you as one of the biggest
conundrums in the world. There never was a weaker man on
the platform. Language? None. Inability -- full of it. All
natural things in my life point exactly opposite to my being
able to stand on the platform and preach the gospel. The
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secret is that the Holy Ghost came and brought this
wonderful edification of the Spirit. I had been reading this
Word continually as well as I could, but the Holy Ghost came
and took hold of it, for the Holy Ghost is the breath of it,
and He illuminated it to me. And He gives me language that I
cannot speak fast enough; it comes too fast; and it is there
because God has given it. When the Comforter is come He
shall teach you ALL things; and He has given me this
supernatural means of speaking in an unknown tongue to
edify myself, so that, after being edified, I can edify the
church.
In 1 John 2:20 we read, "But ye have an unction from the
Holy One, and ye know all things." In verse 27 we read, "But
the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you,
and ye need not that any man should teach you; but as the
same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is
no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
Even, when you are baptized in the Spirit you may say, "I
seem so dry, I don't know where I am." The Word says you
have an unction. Thank God you have received the anointing.
The Holy Ghost here says that He is abiding and that He
teaches you of all things. These are great and definite
positions for you. The Holy Ghost would have you stir up
your faith to believe that this word is true that you have the
unction and that the anointing abideth. As you rise up in the
morning believe this wonderful truth, and as you yield to the
Spirit's presence and power you will find yourself speaking
unto God in the Spirit and you will find that you are
personally being edified by doing this. Let everything about
you be a lie, but let this word of God be true. The devil will
say you are the driest person and that you will never do
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anything, but you believe God's word, that the anointing
which ye have received of Him abideth in you.
"I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye
prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that
speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church
may receive edification." You must understand that God
would always have you to be in the place of prophecy, for
everyone who has received the Holy Ghost has a right to
prophesy. In verse 31 we read, "Ye may all prophesy one by
one." Now prophecy is far in advance of speaking in tongues,
except that you have the interpretation of the speaking in
tongues, and then God gets an equivalent to prophecy. In
verse 13 we read, "Let him that speaketh in an unknown
tongue, pray that he may interpret." This is an important
word.
After receiving the Baptism in the Holy Ghost and
speaking in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance, I did not
speak with tongues again for nine months. I was troubled
about it because I went up and down laying hands upon
people that they might receive the Holy Ghost, and they were
speaking in tongues, but I did not have the joy of speaking
myself. God wanted to show me that the speaking in tongues
as the Spirit gave utterance, which I received when I received
the Baptism, was distinct from the gift of tongues which I
subsequently received. When I laid hands on other people
and they received the Holy Ghost, I used to think, "Oh, Lord
Jesus, it would be nice if You would let me speak." He
withheld the gift from me, for He knew that I would meet
many who would say that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost can
be received without the speaking in tongues, and that people
simply received the gift of tongues when they received the
Baptism. I did not receive the gift of tongues at that time, but
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nine months later I was going out of the door one morning,
speaking to the Lord in my own heart, when there came a
volume of tongues. When the tongues stopped I said to the
Lord, "Now, Lord, I did not do it, and I wasn't seeking it; so
You have done it, and I am not going to move from this
place until you give me the interpretation." And then came an
interpretation which has been fulfilled all the world over. Is it
the Holy Ghost who speaks? Then the Holy Ghost can
interpret. Let him that speaks in a tongue pray that he may
interpret, and God will give it. We must not rush through
without getting a clear understanding of what God has to say
to us.
"What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray
with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I
will sing with the understanding also" (Verse 15). If you pray
in an unknown tongue in the Spirit you do not know what
you are praying; you have no understanding of it. It is
unfruitful to those round about you; but you have the same
power to pray with the understanding under the unction of
the Spirit as you have to pray in an unknown tongue. Some
say, "Oh, I could do that, but it would be myself doing it." If
YOU pray, it is yourself, and everything you do in the
beginning is yourself. I kneel down to pray and the first and
second sentences may be in the natural; but as soon as I have
finished, the Spirit begins to pray through me. The first may
be yourself. Granted. The next will be the Holy Ghost, and
the Holy Ghost will take you through, praise the Lord.
Everything but faith will say, "That isn't right." Faith says, "It
is right." The natural man says, "It isn't right." Faith says, "It
is right." Paul says, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray
with the understanding also;" and he does it in faith. The
devil is against it and your own self-life is against it. May God
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the Holy Ghost bring us into the blessed place where we may
live, walk, pray and sing in the Spirit, and pray and sing with
the understanding also. Faith will do it. Faith has a deaf ear to
the devil and to the working of the natural mind, and a big
ear to God. Faith has a deaf ear to yourself and an open ear
to God. Faith won't take any notice of feelings. Faith says,
"You are complete in Him."
It is a wonderful thing to pray in the Spirit and to sing in
the Spirit, praying in tongues and singing in tongues as the
Spirit of God gives you utterance. I never get out of bed in
the morning without having communion with God in the
Spirit. It is the most wonderful thing on earth. It is most
lovely to be in the Spirit when you are dressing and you come
out to the world and the world has no effect on you. You
begin the day like that and you will be conscious of the
guidance of the Spirit right through the day.
"I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my
understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also,
than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue" (Ver. 18,
19). Many people will come round and say that Paul said he
would rather speak five words with the known tongue than
ten thousand words without understanding. Then will always
leave out that part of the sentence, "I thank my God, I speak
with tongues more than ye all." Paul was here correcting the
excessive speaking in tongues without interpretation, which
was not for the edification of the assembly. If there was no
interpreter present, they were simply to speak to themselves
and to God. Suppose we had someone preaching and we had
twenty or thirty people all up and down in tongues, it would
be very serious. There would be confusion. The people who
attend the meeting would rather have five words of
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edification, consolation and comfort than ten thousand words
without understanding.
Because you feel a touch of the Spirit you are not obliged
to speak in tongues. The Lord will give you a sound mind so
that you will hold your body in perfect order for the
edification of the church. But Paul here says that he spake in
tongues more than they all; and, as it is evident that the
Corinthian church was given to this thing very considerably,
he certainly must have been speaking tremendously in
tongues both day and night. He was so edified by this
wonderful, supernatural means of being built up, that he
could go to the church, and preaching in a manner so that
they could all understand him, he would marvelously edify
the saints.
"In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and
other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will
they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a
sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not"
(Verses 21, 22). There are many who call themselves believers
who are extremely unbelieving. One of the unbelieving
"believers" was a Methodist minister who lived in Sheffield,
England. A man gave him a check and told him to go and
take a rest. This man also gave him my name and address; so,
when he got to Bradford, he began to inquire about me. He
was warned against me as one of the "tongues people," and
was told to be very careful and not to be taken in, for the
whole thing was of the devil. He said, "They will not take ME
in; I know too much for them to take me in."
He was quite run down and needed rest; and when he
came he said, "A friend of yours sent me, is it all right?" I
replied, "Yes, you are welcome." But we could do nothing
with that man. It was impossible. Talk? You never heard
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anyone talk like him. It was talk, talk, talk, talk. I said, "Let
him alone, he will surely finish some day." We had dinner,
and he talked through dinnertime; we had the next meal and
he talked through that.
It was our Friday night meeting for those seeking the
Baptism and the room began to fill with people and still he
talked. No one could get an edge in. He lodged himself in a
place where he could not be disturbed by those coming in. I
said, "Brother, you will have to stop now, we are going to
pray." As a general thing we had some singing before going to
prayer; but this time it was different. It was God's order. We
got straight to prayer and as soon as we began to pray two
young women, one on this side and the other on the other
side began speaking in tongues. And this minister--it was all
so strange to him-- moved from one to the other to hear
what they were saying. In a little while he said, "May I go to
my room?" I said, "Yes, brother, if you wish." So he went to
his room and we had a wonderful time.
We went to bed about eleven o'clock or so and at halfpast
three in the morning this man came to the bedroom
door. Knock, knock, "May I come in?" "Yes, come in." He
opened the door and said, "He is come, He is come" --
holding his mouth, for he could hardly speak in English. I
said, "Go back to bed, tell us tomorrow." Tongues are for the
unbeliever, and this man was an unbeliever, an unbelieving
"believer." Again and again I have seen conviction come
upon people through the speaking in tongues.
The next morning he came down to breakfast and said,
"Oh, was not that a wonderful night?" He said, "I know
Greek and Hebrew, and those two young women were
speaking these languages, one was saying in Greek, 'Get right
with God,' and the other was saying the same thing in
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Hebrew. I knew it was God speaking, and I knew it was not
they. I first had to repent. I came in an unbeliever, but I
found that God was here. In the night God laid me on the
floor for about two hours. I was helpless. Then God broke
through." Here he began again to speak in tongues, right over
the breakfast table.
God will have witnesses of His mighty power that no man
can gainsay. You will have to see that the Holy Ghost will
speak through you in tongues and interpretation, which will
bring conviction to the unbeliever in the open air; and you
will find that God will convict you by this means.
I will explain to you the most perfect way to receive the
gift. Come with me to the second chapter of 2 Kings and I
will show you a man receiving a gift. Elijah had been mightily
used of God in calling down fire and in other miracles; and
Elisha is moved with a great spirit of covetousness to have
this man's gifts. You can be very covetous for the gifts of the
Spirit and God will allow it. When Elijah said to him, "I want
you to stop at Gilgal," Elisha said, "As the Lord liveth and as
thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee."
There was no stopping him. When Elijah wanted Elisha
to stop at Jericho he said in substance, "I am not stopping."
The man that stops gets nothing. O, don't stop at Jericho;
don't stop at Jordan; don't stop anywhere when God would
have you move on into all of His fullness that He has for you.
They came to Jordan and Elijah took his mantle and
smote the waters. They divided; and Elijah and Elisha went
over on dry ground. Elijah turned to Elisha and said in
substance, "Look here, what do you want?" Elisha was
wanting what he was going to have, and you may covet all
that God says that you shall have. Elisha said, "I pray thee, let
a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." This was the
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plowboy, who had washed the hands of his master; but his
spirit got so big that he purposed in his heart that, when
Elijah stepped off the scene, he would be put into his place.
Elijah said, "Thou hast a sked a hard thing: nevertheless, if
thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto
thee." May God help you never to stop persevering till you
get what you want. Let your aspiration be large and your faith
rise until you are wholly on fire for God's best.
Onward they go, and as one steps, the other steps with
him. He purposed to keep his eye on his master until the last.
It took a chariot of fire and horses of fire to part them
asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. I can
fancy I hear Elisha crying out, "Father Elijah, drop that
mantle!" And it came down. Oh, I can see it lowering,
lowering and lowering. Elisha took all of his own clothes and
rent them in two pieces, and then he took up the mantle of
Elijah. I do not believe that, when he put on that other
mantle, he felt any difference in himself; but when he came to
Jordan, he took the mantle of Elijah and smote the waters
and said, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" And the waters
parted and he went over on dry ground. And the sons of the
prophets said, "The spirit of Elijah doth rest upon Elisha."
It is like receiving a gift; you don't know that you have it
till you act in faith. Brothers and sisters, as you ask,
BELIEVE.

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