Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, November 12, 1927.

Bible Reading Acts 19:1-20.

This is a wonderful reading; it has many things in it which indicate to us that there was something more marvelous about it than human power, and when I think about Pentecost I am astonished from day to day because of its mightiness, of its wonderfulness and how the glory overshadows it. I think sometimes about these things and they make me feel we have only just touched it. Truly it is so, but we must thank God that we have touched it. We must not give in because we have only touched. Whatever God has done in the past, His name is still the same. When hearts are burdened and they come face to face with the need of the day, they look into God’s Word and it brings in a propeller of power or an anointing that makes you know He has truly visited. It was a wonderful day when Jesus left the glory. I can imagine all the angels and God the Father and all heaven so wonderfully stirred that day when the angels were sent to tell that wonderful story: “Peace on earth and good will to men.” It was a glorious day when they beheld the Babe for the first time and God was looking on. What happened after that day and until He was 30 years old I suppose it would take a big book to put it all in. It was a working up to a great climax.

I know that Pentecost in my life is a working up to a climax; it is not all done in a day. There are many waters and all kinds of times until we get to the real summit of everything. The power of God is here to prevail. God is with us. The mother of Jesus hid a lot of things in her heart. The time came when it was made manifest at Jordan that Jesus was the Son of God. Oh, how beautifully it was made known! It had to be made known first to one that was full of the vision of God. The vision comes to those who are full. Did it ever strike you we cannot be too full for a vision, we cannot have too much of God? The more of God, then the visions begin. When God has you in His own plan, what a change, how things operate. You wonder, you see things in a new light. And how God is being glorified as you yield from day to day, and the Spirit seems to lay hold of you and bring you on. Yes, it is pressing on, and then He gives us touches of His wonderful power, manifestations of the glory of these things and indications of greater things to follow, and these days which we are living in now speak of better days. How wonderful!

Where should we have been today if we had stopped short, if we had not fulfilled the vision which God gave us? I am thinking about that time when Christ sent the Spirit; and Paul did not know much about that; his heart was stirred, his eyes were dim, he was going to put the whole thing to an end in a short time, and Jesus was looking on. We can scarcely understand the whole process only as God seems to show us, when He gets us into His plan and works with us little by little. We are all amazed that we are amongst the “tongues people;” it is altogether out of order according to the natural. Some of us would have never been in this Pentecostal movement had we not been drawn, but God has a wonderful way of drawing us. Paul never intended to be among the disciples, Paul never intended to have anything to do with this Man called Jesus, but God was working, God has been working with us and has brought us to this place. It is marvelous! Oh! the vision of God, the wonderful manifestation which God has for Israel.

I have one purpose in my heart, and it is surely God’s plan for me, that I want you to see that Jesus Christ is the greatest manifestation in all the world, and His power is unequaled, but there is only one way to minister it. I want you to notice that these people, after they had seen Paul working wonders by this power, began on a natural line. I see it is necessary for me if I want to do anything for God, I must get the knowledge of God, I must get the vision of God, I cannot work on my own. It must be a divine revelation of the Son of God. It must be that. I can see as clearly as anything that Paul in his mad pursuit had to be stopped in the way, and after he was stopped in the way and had the vision from heaven and that light from heaven, instantly he realized that he had been working the wrong way. And as soon as ever the power of the Ho]y Ghost fell upon him, he began in the way in which God wanted him to go. And it was wonderful how he had to suffer to come into the way, It is broken spirits, it is tried lives and it is being driven into a corner as if some strange thing had happened; that is surely the way to get to know the way of God.

Paul had not any power to use the name of Jesus as he did use it; only as he had to go through the privations and the difficulties, and even when all things seemed as though shipwrecked, God stood by him and made him know that there was something behind all the time that was with him, and able to carry him through, and bring out that for which his heart was all the time longing. Unconsciously he seemed to be so filled with the Holy Ghost that all that was needed was just the bringing of the aprons and the handkerchiefs and sending them forth. I can imagine these people looking on and seeing him and saying, “But it is all in the name, don’t you notice that when he sends the handkerchiefs and the aprons he says, ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus I command that evil to come out.’?”

These people had been looking round and watching, and they thought, “It is only the name, that is all that is needed,” and so these men said, “We will do the same.” These vagabond Jews, those seven sons of Sceva, were determined to make this thing answer, and they came to the place where that man had been for years possessed with an evil power, and as they entered in they said, “We adjure thee in the name of Jesus to come out.” The demons said, “Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye?” and this evil power leaped upon them and tore their things off their backs, and they went out naked and wounded. It was the name, only they did not understand it. Oh, that God should help us to understand the name! It is the name, oh! it is still the name, but you must understand there is the ministry of the name, there is something in the name that makes the whole world charmed. It is the Holy Spirit back of the ministry, it is the knowledge of Him, it is the ministry of the knowledge of Him, and I can understand it is only that.

I want to speak about the ministry of the knowledge; it is important. God help us to see. I am satisfied with two things; one is this, I am satisfied it is the knowledge of the Blood of Jesus Christ today, and the knowledge of His perfect holiness. I am perfectly cleansed from an sin and made holy in the knowledge of His holiness. I am satisfied today that as I know Him, and the knowledge of His power, and the Christ that is manifested, and the power that worketh in me to minister as I am ministering only in the knowledge of it, it is effective, so that it brings out the very thing which the word of God says it will do, in the ministry of which, as I know it, it has power over an evil powers by its effectual working in that way. I minister today in the power of the knowledge of the ministry of it, and beyond that there is a certain sense that I overcome the world according to my faith in Him, and I am more than conqueror over everything just in the knowledge that I have of Him being over everything, as crowned by the Father to bring everything into subjection.

Shouting won’t do it, but there is a lubrication about it which is gloriously felt within and brings it into perfect harmony with the will of God, but it is not in the shout, and yet we cannot help but shout, but it is in the ministry of the knowledge that He is Lord over all demons, all powers of wickedness.

[At this point in the service someone (possibly Wigglesworth) spoke in prophetic tongues. The interpretation was: "The Holy One which anointed Jesus is so abiding by the Spirit in the one that is clothed upon to use the Name till the glory is manifested and the demons flee, they cannot stand the glory of the manifestation of the Spirit which is manifest."]

So I am realizing that Paul went about clothed in the Spirit, This was wonderful. His body was full of virtue? No!! He sent forth handkerchiefs from his body and aprons from his body, and when they touched the needy they were healed and demons were cast out. Virtue in his body? No! Virtue in Jesus, by the ministry of faith in the name of Jesus through the power of the unction of the Holy Ghost in Paul.

[Another message in tongues: "The liberty of the Spirit bringeth the office."]

It is an office, it is a position, it is a place of rest, of faith. Sometimes the demon powers are dealt with very differently, not all the same way: but the ministry of the Spirit by which it is ministered by the power of the word “Jesus” never fails to accomplish the purpose for which the one in charge has wisdom or discernment to see, because along with the Spirit of ministry there comes the revelation of the need of the needy one that is bound.

So differently the Spirit ministers the name of Jesus. I see it continually happening. I see those things answer and all the time the Lord is building up a structure of His own power by a living faith in the knowledge of the sovereignty of the name of Jesus. If I turn to John’s Gospel I get the whole thing practically in a nutshell. To know Thee, O God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent, is eternal life. We must have the knowledge and power of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God, to be clothed upon with God, God in human flesh. I see there are those who have come into line, they are possessed with the blessed Christ, and the power of the Baptism which is the revelation of the Christ of God within, and it is so evidently in the person who is baptized and the Christ is so plainly abiding that the moment he is confronted with evil, instantly he is sensitive of the position of this confronting, and he is able to deal accordingly.

The difference between the sons of Sceva and Paul is this: They said “It is only using the word.” How many people only use the word, how many times people are defeated because they think it is just the word, how many people have been brokenhearted because it did not answer when they used the word? If I read into my text this afternoon this: “He that believeth shan speak in tongues, he that believeth shall cast out devils, he that believeth shall lay hands on the sick,” if I read this into my text, on the surface of it it seems exactly easy, but you must understand this, there are volumes to be applied to the word believe. To believe is to believe in the need of the majesty of the glory of the power, which is all power, which brings all other powers into subjection.

And what is belief? Sum it up in a few sentences. To believe is to have the knowledge of Him in whom you believe; it is not to believe in the word Jesus, but to believe in the nature, to believe in the vision, for all power is given unto Him, and greater is He that is within thee in the revelation of faith than he that is in the world, and so I say to you, do not be discouraged if every demon has not gone out. The very moment you have gone, do not think there is an end of it. What we have to do is to see this, that if it had only been using the name those evil powers would have gone out in that name by the sons of Sceva. It is not that. It is the virtue of the power of the Holy Ghost, with the revelation of the Deity of our Christ of glory, where all power is given unto Him, and in the knowledge of Christ, in the faith of what He is, demons must surrender, demons must go out, and I say it reverently, these bodies of ours are so constructed by God that we may be filled with that divine revelation of the Son of God till it is manifest to the devils you go to and they have to go. The Master is in, they see the Master. Jesus I know, and Paul I know. The ministry of the Master! How we need to get to know Him till within us we are fun of the manifestation of the King over all demons.

Brothers and sisters, my heart is full. The depths of my yearnings are for the Pentecostal people. My cry is that we will not miss the opportunity of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, that Christ may be manifested in the human till every power of evil will be subject to the Christ which is manifested in you, The devils know. Two important things are before me: To master the situation of myself. You are not going to meet devils if you cannot master yourself, because you soon find the devil bigger than yourself, and it is only when you are subdued that Christ is enthroned and the embodiment of the Spirit is so gloriously covering the human life that Jesus is glorified to the full. So first it is the losing of ourself and then it is the incoming of Another; it is the glorifying of Him which is to fulfill all things and when He gets lives He can do it. When He gets lives that will so yield themselves to God, God will be delighted to allow the Christ to be so manifested in you, that it will be no difficulty for the devil to know who you are.

I am satisfied that Pentecost is to reestablish God in human flesh. Do I need to say it again? The power of the Holy Ghost has to come to be enthroned in the human life so it does not matter what state we are in. Christ is manifested in the place where devils are, the place where religious devils are, the place where a false religion and unbelief is, the place where a formal religion has taken the place of holiness and righteousness. You have need to have holiness, the righteousness and Spirit of the Master, so that in every walk of life everything that is not like our Lord Jesus will have to depart and that is what is needed today. I ask you in the Holy Ghost to seek the place where He is in power. “Jesus I know, Paul I know but who are ye?” May God stamp it upon us for the devil is not afraid of you. May the Holy Ghost make us today terrors of evil doers, for the Holy Ghost came into us to judge the world of sin, of unbelief, of righteousness, and that is the purpose of the Holy Ghost. The devils will know us, and Jesus will know us.

Labels: 1927, Pentecostal Evangel

Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, May 30, 1925.

Our lesson is in the first Epistle of Peter, chapter 1.

Whenever, in the history of the world, there has been a divine revelation, God coming forth in some manifestation of His Spirit, there have been antagonism and opposition to the same with persecution of those who received such manifestations or revelations. In the old dispensation, as well as in the new, when the Spirit of God has been moving mightily, there has been trouble and difficulty.

Why is this? It is because there are some things very much against revelation of God and the operation of the Spirit of God. First, there is the flesh, the natural man, because, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” The very fact that men throughout the world, as a rule, are opposed to the working of God, is evidence of the truth of this statement of Scripture.

Out of this enmity of the mind of the natural man against God grows the opposition of the world, which is the mass of these antagonistic individuals. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made it unmistakably plain to all His followers for all time that the world is contrary to Him and to His kingdom. He said concerning His disciples, “I have given them thy word; and THE WORLD HATH HATED THEM, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

The devil and all his evil hosts are also arrayed against all manifestations of God. The devil is “the prince of this world;” and he is “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” All these are opposed to God and His working; but they can never defeat the purposes of God.

So far as the human eye can see, God's cause is often in the minority; but viewed by those who have spiritual eyesight. “They that be with us are more than they that be with them.” So, as Elisha said to his servant, “Fear not.” Wickedness may increase and abound; but when the Lord raises His banner over the saint, it is victory, though the saint may seem to be in the minority.

So we read in the first verse that these saints were “scattered abroad,” meaning that they did not have much liberty to meet together, but were driven from place to place. In the days of John Knox of Scotland the people who served God had to be in very close quarters, because the Roman church set out to destroy them. They were in the minority from the human viewpoint, but they swept through to victory, and the Roman power was defeated in Scotland. Cry to God that it may not rise again, for it has always meant bloodshed to the saints of God and opposition to the working of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost wants us to understand our privileges—“elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit.” This work of the sanctification of the Spirit does not refer to cleansing from sin. It refers to a higher order of redemptive work. The blood of Jesus is all-powerful for cleansing; but when sin is gone, when we are clean and when we know we have the Word of God in us, and when the power of the Spirit is bringing everything to a place where we triumph over all evil, then comes a revelation through the Spirit which lifts you on to higher ground and unveils the fulness of the life of Christ within us in such a way that we are led on till we are “FILLED unto all the FULNESS of God.” This is the sanctification of the Spirit. It is the great work for which the Spirit is given. This is the purpose for which God has called you; but whether you haye accepted your election, whether you proved yourself worthy of your election, whether you have allowed this Spirit to thus sanctify you, I do not know; but if you yield yourself to God and let His Holy Spirit have His way in your spirit to lead you into the will of God, as it is revealed in the Word of God, He will not fail to “do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”

This word “elect” is a very precious word to me. It shows me that, before the world was, God planned to bring us into such glorious triumph and victory in Christ that “unto him (shall) be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” Feed upon these words. Let them sink into your heart—God has purposed to do for those in the church something which will redound to the glory of His Name unto the endless ages. This is the most solid ground for faith—that salvation is to be “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” God has predetermined, has planned, has made full provision to accomplish this wondrous work in all who will not “frustrate the grace of God.”

Some people pervert this blessed truth; they say, “Oh, well, you see, we are elected; we are all right.” I know manv who believe in that kind of election. They say they are elected to be saved; and they believe others are elected to be damned. It is not true. Everybody is elected to be saved; whether they come into it or not is another thing. This perverted view of this precious truth makes souls indifferent to its great purpose, the “sanctification of the Spirit.” This is one of the ways in which Satan opposes the work of God in the world—by perverting it, making it to appear to mean something that it does not mean; so that souls are kept from pressing on into the glorious purpose of God for which salvation was planned. That would be a poor salvation which did not deliver man from the thing which causes all the sorrow and trouble in this world—SIN.

Notice again, this sanctification of the Spirit is “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” There is no sanctification if it is not sanctification unto obedience. There would be no trouble with any of us if we would all come definitely to the the place where we understand and accept that Word of our Lord Jesus whcn He said, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” When you come into the election of the sanctification of the Spirit, you will be obedient to everything revealed in that Word; and in the measure that you are not obedIent you have not come into the sanctification of the Spirit. A little thing spoils many good things. People say, “Mrs. So-and-So is very good, but—” “Oh, you know that young man is progressing tremendously, but—” There are no “buts” in the sanctification of the Spirit. “But” and “if” are gone, and it is “shall” and “I will” all the way through. Beloved, if there are any “buts” in your attitude toward the Word of Truth, it indicates that there is something unyielded to the Spirit. I do pray God that we may be willing to yield ourselves to the sanctification of the Spirit, that we may enter into the mind of God regarding this election, in actual possession of it.

Perhaps to encourage you, it wiil be helpful to show you what election is; because there is no difficulty in proving whether you are elected or not. Why are you interested in this book? Is it because you have a desire for more of God? If so, it is God who has given you that desire; and God is drawing you unto Himself. If you have truly received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, it has been because the Father drew you to Him; for He said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” And we may be sure that God will not go back on what He has begun to do; for our Lord Jesus added to the above, “And I will raise him up at the last day.” Also the apostle Paul says, in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

When I think of my own case, I recall that in my childhood I was strangely moved upon by the Spirit. At the age of eight years I was definitely saved; and at nine, I felt the Spirit come upon me just as when I spoke in tongues. You may say, “When I was in sin, I was troubled.” Thank God for it; for it was His Spirit that troubled you.

It is a most blessed thought that we have a God of love, of compassion, and of grace, who willeth not the death of one sinner. God has made it possible for all men to be saved, by causing Jesus, His well beloved Son, to die for the sins of the whole world. It is true that He took our sins; it is true that He paid the price for the whole world; it is true that He gave Himself a ransom for many; it is true, beloved, it is true. And you say, “For whom?” “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” What about the others? It would have to be a refusal of the Blood of Jesus; it would have to be a refusal to have Christ reign over them; that’s it. It is “Whosoever will,” on the one side, and “Whosoever won’t” on the other side; and there are people in the world who “won’t.” What is up with them? “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believed not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Through sanctification of the Spirit, according to this election, you will get to a place where you are not disturbed. There is a peace in the sanctification of the Spirit, because it is a place of revelation—of heavenly places into which you are brought. It is a place where God comes and makes Himself known unto you; and when You are face to face with God you get a peace that passeth all understanding, and which lifts you from state to state of inexpressible wonderment. Oh, it is wonderful!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This sanctification of the Spirit brings us into definite line with this wonderful “lively hope” of the glory of God.

A lively hope is exactly the opposite of something dead. A lively hope means movement. A lively hope means looking into what we hope for. A lively hope means pressing into that which is promised. A lively hope means leaving behind you other things. A lively hope means keeping the vision. A lively hope sees Jesus coming. And you live in this lively hope. You are not trying to make yourself feel that you are believing. But this lively hope keeps you waiting, and ready, and filled with the joy of expectation of the coming of the King. Praise the Lord! If the thought of the coming of the King is not such a lively hope to you, you need to search whether you have ever truly enthroned Him as King over your own life. God has this in mind for you. There is real joy in expectation of His coming; and there will be infinitely greater joy in the realization.

I trust that you will be so reconciled to God that not one thing will interfere with your having this lively hope. If you have any love for the world, this hope cannot be a lively hope to you; for His coming will mean the overthrow of the world. If there is in you the pride of life, this hope cannot be to you a lively hope; for every high thing will be brought low in that day.

Salvation is very much misunderstood. That which comes to you in a moment of time, through believing, is only the beginning, Salvation is so wonderful, so mighty, so tremendous, that it goes on and on from one degree to another until there shall be nothing in us from which we need to be delivered, either in spirit, or soul, or mind, or body, Everything is ready so far as God is concerned, and is waiting for man to get ready to receive it. Sin began in the spirit of man, and salvation must be wrought out there before there can be deliverance from the consequences of sin. In the meantime, if we rest our faith in the power of God, we will be “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

You have no idea what God wants to do for you through trials and temptations. They do two things for us: Where there is anything wrong in us which we are not recognizing, they bring it to the surface, that we may see our need of God’s salvation in this respect. But why are the most faithful also of God’s children tried and tempted? It is that their very faithfulness and loyalty and the purity of their faith may be MADE MANIFEST, and “found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Gold has to he tried with fire, and it is made more precious thereby. Your faith, Peter says, “is MUCH MORE PRECIOUS than gold that perisheth.”

One day I went to a certain place and a gentleman there said to me, “Would you like to see the purification of gold?” I replied, “Yes.” So he got some gold and put it into a crucible, and put a blast of heat under it. First it became blood red, and then changed and changed. Then this man took an instrument and passed it over the gold. It drew off something, which was foreign to the gold. He did this several times, until every bit of that foreign substance was taken away. Then he said to me, “Look!” And there we both saw our faces in the gold! It was wonderful!

My brother, the trial of your faith is much more precious than of gold that perisheth. As you are tested in the fire, the Master is bringing the dross to the surface, that He may take it away, all that hinders His image being seen in you—taking away all the dross from your life, all that is not enduring, all that is not precious in His sight.

It is lovely to know that, in times of misunderstanding, times when you are in the right and yet are treated as though you were in the wrong, God is meeting you, blessing you, accomplishing something which will not only glorify His name, but be to your “praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” So do not chafe or fret; let the fire burn; it will do you good.

“Whom having not seen, ye love.” Oh, how sweet! There is no voice so gentle, so soft, so full of tenderness to me, as His; and no touch. Is it possible to love Him when we have not seen Him? God will make it possible; and, “though now ye see him not, yet believing,” He will enable you to “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,” Rejoice! We have something to rejoice over. Oh, what a salvation God has provided for us in all our worthlessness and nothingness and helplessness! I entreat you from the Lord to be so reconciled to Him that there will be no division between you and Him. Will you give Him preeminence in all things? Shall He not have His rightful place, and decide for you the way and plan of your life? Beloved, when you allow Him to decide for you, when you want nothing but His blessed will, when He is in very deed Lord and Sovereign of all, you will have a foretaste of heaven all the time. The Lord bless you with grace to leave all and say, “I will follow Thee, Lord Jesus.”

Labels: 1925, Pentecostal Evangel

Preached at the Bradford Convention, Easter 1918.
Published in Confidence, April-June 1918.

It is a settled thing in the glory that in the fulness of time the latter rain has to be greater than the former. Some of our hearts have been greatly moved by the former rain, but it is the latter rain we are crying out for. What will it be when the fulness comes and the heart of God is satisfied? Acts 2:4: “And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” What a lovely thought that the Holy Ghost had such partiality that the word was all His! We are having to learn, whether we like it or not, that our end is God’s beginning. Then it is all God, and the Lord Jesus stands forth in the midst with such Divine glory and men are impelled, filled, led so perfectly. Nothing else will meet the need of the world.

There is something beautiful about Peter and John when we read that people took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. There was something so real, so after the order of the Master. Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” May all in the temple glorify Jesus; it can be so.

The one thing marked more than anything else in the life of Jesus was the fact that the people glorified God in Him, and when God is glorified and gets the right of way and thought of His people everyone is as He is, filled with God. Whatever it costs it must be. Let it be so. Filled with God! The only thing to help people is to tell out the latest thing God has given us from the glory. There is nothing outside salvation. We are filled, immersed, clothed upon; there must be nothing felt, seen, spoken about, but the mighty power of the Holy Ghost. We are new creatures in Christ Jesus, baptized into a new nature. John 7:37: “He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” The very life of the risen Christ in everything, moving us to do his will.

There is something not touched yet, but praise God for the thirst to be in this meeting! Praise God, the thirst is of God, the desire is of God, the plan is of God, the purpose is of God. God’s plan, God’s thought, God’s vessel and God’s servant. In the world to meet the need; but not of the world or of its spirit.

God incarnate in humanity. Partakers of the Divine nature to manifest the life of Jesus in the world. Acts 2:13: “Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.” That is what we want, you say? “Never man spake as this Man.” “New wine”: a new order—new inspiration—new manifestation. A power all new of itself, as if you were born, as you are, into a new day, a new creation.

It has a freshness about it! It has a beauty about it! It has a quality about it! To create in others the desire for the same taste. Some saw! But three thousand felt, tasted and enjoyed. Some looked on! others drinking with a new faith never before seen—a new manifestation, a new realization all divine, a new thing—straight from heaven, from the throne of the glorified Lord. It is God’s mind to fill us with that wine, to make us ready to burst forth with new rivers, fresh energy, no tired feeling.

God manifest in the flesh—that is what we want, and it is what God wants, and it satisfies everybody. All the people said, “We have never seen anything like it.” The disciples rejoiced in it being new; others were broken-hearted, crying out “men and brethren, what shall we do?” Acts 2:38-40: “Then Peter said, ‘Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.’ And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this untoward generation.’ ”

What shall we do? Men and brethren, what shall we do? Believe! Stretch out! Press on! Let there be a new entering in, a new passion to have it. We must be beside ourselves; we must drink deeply of the new wine, that multitudes may be satisfied and find satisfaction too.

The new wine is to have a new bottle*—the necessity of a new vessel. If anything of the old is left, not put to death, destroyed, there will be a rending and a breaking. The new wine and the old bottle will not work in harmony. It must be new wine and a new wine-skin, then there will be nothing to drop off when Jesus comes. 1 Thess. 4:16-17: “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we be for ever with the Lord.”

The body being so operated by the Spirit in the process of changing until we are like unto Him. Phil. 3:21: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” I desire you to be all so filled with the Spirit at this Convention; so hungry, so thirsty, that nothing will satisfy us but seeing Jesus. Getting more thirsty every day, more dry every day, until the floods come, and the Master passes by, ministering unto us and through us the same life, the same inspiration, that as He is, so are we in this world.

He was straitened, but it was accomplished. It meant strong crying and tears—the cross manward, but the glory heavenward. Glory descending on a Cross! Verily, great is the mystery of godliness. He cried, “It is finished.” Let the cry never be stopped until the heart of Jesus is satisfied, until His plan for humanity is reached in the sons of God being manifested and the earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Labels: 1918, Confidence

Published in Confidence, April-June 1918.

Our ten days’ Convention is beyond describing by words. The presence of God was upon us all the time. Letters have already come to say it was a thousand times in advance of last year. The deep revelations by the inspired speakers dove-tailed from day to day, and made hearts to burn with the sense of a need. A prayer came forth from all to God for our poor, broken world, in its present chaos of war, and a cry was raised for deliverance for our land. The missionary zeal was also intensified by returned and going-out missionaries. The voluntary offering on the Bible, amounting to over £200, denotes the hopefulness of the future.

One could not pick out special speakers in this Convention. From the first to the last of the ten days, the speakers and listeners were broken before God. The singing in the Spirit at most of the meetings was beyond human expression, as the glory of God covered us as a mantle from time to time with power to sing through falling tears of joy, expressing through the heart that God had got a people in his control.

God cared for us in this Convention and provided butter, cheese, sugar, and tea for upwards of 2,000 meals, and many other good things; there was no lack. The last day of the Feast was better than the first. People were baptized in the Spirit every day, and twenty-seven people passed through the waters of baptism. There were also many notable cases of healing. Two people were healed and saved, and one healed and baptized in the Spirit at the same time.

All the speakers announced came, and we are thankful that God has such treasured vessels in His great work. We labored for weeks in prayer, cleaning and painting inside and out of the Mission, but felt it would all be of no use if God did not fill it with His glory as the temple of Jerusalem. Truly, He made our hearts glad as again and again the glory fell upon us. We now see the Pentecostal future of unlimited success, when the war ceases and railway fares and food are as before. One could say that a month’s Convention is as little as one dare venture to have, after our present experience in these hard times, clearly proving to us that Acts 2 is going on to be fulfilled in a fuller measure.

I now close by saying what a joy it would have been if all the Pentecostal people could have shared with us in this great feast.

*   *   *

The Convention opened on Thursday evening by the convener, Mr. S. Wigglesworth, speaking on Acts 2, “Filled with New Wine.” Other speakers followed with inspiring messages.

On Good Friday morning there was a large attendance at the breaking of bread, God’s presence being very manifest in the midst.

The ten days were indeed days of the Right Hand of the Most High. The subject of the addresses wonderfully fitted in to the stress of the times.

Mr. Tetchner’s message on Ezekiel 22:30—God’s need of a man to stand in the gap—was very stirring, especially when just now so much depends upon the right man being in the right place, both as to military and also spiritual conditions.

Mr. Myerscough gave good Bible readings on the Second Coming of our Lord, clearly opening out before us the Word, that all in Christ would be changed, clearing the doubt of many as to a partial rapture.

Mr. Jays’ Bible readings and addresses were deep and inspiring, and much brokenness of spirit was manifested in all.

Mrs. Crisp had a warm welcome for the first time in our midst, giving helpful messages. Many were blessed by the message on Acts 12, “But Prayer.”

We were glad to have with us, as usual, Mr. and Mrs. Walshaw. Mr. Walshaw gave us a word on John 7:37, “Rivers,” Mrs. Walshaw speaking from 1 Corinthians 12, “The Nine Gifts of the Spirit.”

Mr. Boulton, from Hull, had a broken spirit. We felt God had brought him to be blessed, and thus he was a blessing to others.

The Rev. William Reed was a great inspiration to all with his untiring zeal in seeking the lost and pressing this need on all assembled. His last words to us were, “Devour your Bibles, live on your knees, be wisely mad for the salvation of the perishing.”

Miss Morell was always ready both in ministering the Word and helping those seeking the Baptism.

Mr. Moggs gave a good address on “Seeking the Baptism,” and was also helpful to those seeking.

Mr. Sam Broom gave us a thrilling address on “Divine Healing.”

The Convener impressed the meetings with the truth that nothing wold meet the need of the day like the Baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. The sons of God are to be manifested. As “He is, so are we in this world.”

Labels: 1918, Confidence