Subtitled, “Ministration and operation of the gifts.”
Preached in Bradford, England.
Published in the Latter Rain Evangel, February 1923.

I want to talk from the twelfth chapter of 1st Corinthians.

These are the last days; the days of the falling away. These are days when Satan is having a great deal of power. But we must keep in mind that Satan has no power only as he is allowed. And we must never think that Satan has power over the believer. If I could get only the establishment of that fact in your hearts it would be something living all the time. Satan has no power over the believer. “The wicked one toucheth him not.” So we must understand that all things that fall to our lot are according to the mind and will of God. “All things work together for good to them that love God.” We may be chastised by God but it is only because He wants us to have His holiness. We may have any amount of correction, but it will only be the touch of the Lord to bring us nearer to Him, that we may be at all times more than conquerors.

I want you to clearly see that the day will come when the evil one will have great power. And you can imagine that just as that day draws near the believer is more greatly insulated with divine revelation and more power. You will find the saints will become more holy and will have more liberty and more power. As Satan is having power, the saints will have greater power. And just as the day comes for the saints to be caught away we shall have mighty power on all lines, and the last great power will take us out of the world. Know this fact that God is always revealing Himself on every line and thought to keep the believer at such a standard of victory that he is in the place where he never need be defeated.

There is nothing helping me so much in these days as the fact that God is loosing me. It is a great thing to know that God is loosing you from the world, loosing you from a thousand things. You have to have the mind of God on all things. If you don’t you will stop His working. I had to learn that as I was on the water enroute to Australia. We stopped at a place called Aden, where they were selling all kinds of ware. Amongst other things were some beautiful rugs and feathers, ostrich feathers in great quantities. They were very lovely for those who wanted feathers but I had no room for them at all. However, there was a gentleman in “first class” who wanted feathers and it appears that he had bought one lot and the next lot put up was too big; he did not want so many. He said to me, “Will you join me?” I knew I did not want feathers for I had no room or use for them and wouldn’t know what to do with them if I got them. However, he pleaded with me to join him. I perceived it was the Spirit as clearly as anything and I said, “Yes, I will.” So the feathers were knocked down for three pounds. Then I found the man had no money with him. He had plenty but of course it was on the boat. I perceived it !was the Spirit again so it fell to my lot to pay for the feathers. He said to me, “I will bring the money and give it to one of the stewards.” I replied: “No, that is not business. I am known all over the ship. You seek me out.”

The man came and brought the money. I said, “God wants me to talk to you. Now sit down.” So he sat down and in ten minutes’ time the whole of his life was unhinged, unravelled, broken up, so broken that like a great big baby he wept and cried for sa!vation. It was “feathers” that did it. But you know brothers, it seems to me we will never know the mind of God till we know the voice of God. The striking thing about Moses is that it took him forty years to learn human wisdom, forty years to know his helplessness, and forty years to live in the power of God. One hundred and twenty years it took to teach that man and sometimes it seems to me it will take many years to bring us just where we can tell the voice of God, the leadings of God, and the lines of God and all His will concerning us.

But I am speaking to people this morning who ought to know the mind of the Lord because God wants us thoroughly furnished unto all good works and always ready to give a good account of the hope that is within us. We must always be ready as the man in the counting-house is ready on the order lines, so we must be ready with all the mind of God, for the day is at hand and we must clearly see that nothing shall come against us but that which shall be on the line of profit. Everything we touch shall be definitely for the operation of God’s thought for a world’s need. It will be so.

Beloved, every one of us ought to know the mind of God on the gifts. I notice in particular that the manifestation of the Spirit of God is given “to profit withal.” I want you to know that my addresses from time to time cannot be in any way less than on the Baptism of the Spirit because I see in that all revelation, all illumination, everything that God in Christ was to be brought forth into perfect light that we might be able to see right into that holiness of His which was filled with all the fulness of God, and that we may he able to understand that He was the first fruits on every line in order that we may live the same, produce the same, and be in every activity a son of God with power. It must be so. We must not limit the Holy One. And we must clearly see that God brought us forth on natural lines to make us supernatural that we might be changed all the time on the line of supernatural basis, that we may every day live so in the Spirit, that all of the revelations of God are just like a great big canvas thrown hefore our eyes, and we see clearly step by step into all the divine will of God.

There are three things in particular that we must understand concerning the baptism of the Spirit. Any Assembly, I don’t care what it is, that puts its hand upon the working of the Spirit will surely bring trouble to that Assembly. The Assembly must be as free in the Spirit as possible, and you must allow a certain amount of extravagance when people are getting through to God. I notice that unless we are very wise, we can easily interfere and quench the power of God which is upon us. It is an evident fact that one man in a meeting, filled with unbelief, can make a place for the devil to have a seat. And it is very true to fact, that if we are not careful we may quench the Spirit of some person who is innocent and is incapable on the line of innocence to help himself. “And ye that are strong must bear the infirmities of the weak.” You must be careful in that. If you want an Assembly full of life you must have an Assembly in which the Spirit of God is manifested. And in order to keep at the boiling pitch of molted heat, of that blessed incarnation of the Spirit, you must be as simple as babies; you must be as harmless as doves and as wise as serpents.

In this I always ask God for a Ieading of grace. It takes grace to be in a meeting because it is so easy if you are not careful, to get on the natural side. The man who is a preacher, if he has lost the unction, will be well repaid if he will carefully, inwardly repent and get right with God and get the unction back. It never pays us to be less than always spiritual, and we must have a divine language always on the line, and the language must be of God. Beloved, if you come into real perfect line of the grace of God, one thing will certainly take place in your life. You will change from that old position of the world’s line where you were judging everybody, and where you were not trusting anyone, and come into a place where you will have a heart that will believe all things; where you will have a heart that under no circumstances reviles again when you are reviled.

I know many of you present this morning think many times before you speak once. Here is a great word: “For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf; but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” Innocent. No inward corruption or defilement, that is full of distrusts, but just a holy, divine likeness of Jesus that dares believe that God Almighty will surely watch over all. Hallelujah! “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.” The child of God who is rocked in the bosom of the Father has the sweetest touch of heaven, and the honey of the word is always in it.

Oh if the saints only knew how precious they are in the sight of God they would be scarcely able to sleep for thought of His watchful, loving care. Oh He is a precious Jesus! He is a lovely Savior! He is divine in all His attitude toward us, and makes our hearts to burn. There is nothing like it. “Oh,” they said on the road to Emmaus, “did not our hearts burn within us as He walked with us and talked with us?” Oh beloved, it must be so today.

It will greatly help you to see three things: First, the ministration. The Holy Ghost is full of ministration. Then again, don’t forget about the operation of the Holy Ghost. And always keep in your mind the fact that the Holy Ghost must bring manifestation. Let us take the first thought now which is bearing on this great plan. We must understand that the Holy Ghost is breath, the Holy Ghost is Person, and it is the most marvelous thing to me to know that this Holy Ghost power can be in every part of your body. You can feel it from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. Oh, it is lovely to be burning all over with the Holy Ghost! And when that takes place there is nothing but the operation of the tongue that must give forth the glory and the praise.

You must be in the place of magnifying the Lord. The Holy Ghost is the great Magnifier of Jesus, the great Illuminator of Jesus. And so after the Holy Ghost comes in it is impossible to keep your tongue still. Why, you would burst if you didn’t give Him utterance. Talk about a dumb baptized soul? Such a person is not to be found in the Scriptures. When the Holy Ghost comes He must be a power of ministry. That is His office. The power of ministry through the revelation of the great ideal of Jesus!

When the Holy Ghost becomes a ministry in the life, what will happen? Why, beloved, if we can get lost in God only once in a year, to be divinely imbued with this power, it will be worth a world to us. Talk about preaching! I would like to know how it will be possible for all the people filled with the Holy Ghost to stop preaching. Even the sons and daughters must prophesy. After the Holy Ghost comes in, after that operation by the Spirit, a man is in a new order in God. And you will find it so real that you cannot help it, you will want to sing, talk, laugh and shout. We are in a strange place when the Holy Ghost comes in.

If the incoming of the Spirit is lovely, what must be the onflow? The incoming is only to be an onflow. I am very interested in scenery. When I was in Switzerland I wouldn’t be satisfied till I went to the top of the mountain, though I like the valleys also. On the summit of the mountain the sun beats on the snow and sends the water trickling down the mountains right through to the meadows. Go there and see if you can stop it. Just so in the spiritual. God begins with the divine flow of His eternal power which is the Holy Ghost, and you cannot stop it.

We must always clearly see that the Baptism of the Spirit must make us ministering spirits.

The next thought then is that it must be on the line of operation. You will find that if you really get full of the Holy Ghost, two things must happen: ministry and operation. I want you to notice Peter and John had been baptized only a short time. Did they know what they had? No. I defy you to know what you have. No one knows what he has in the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. He has no conception of it. You cannot measure it by any measuring line of human standards. It is greater than any man has any idea of, and consequently those two disciples had no idea what they had. For the first time after they were baptized in the Holy Ghost with this order of the Spirit, they came down to the Gate Beautiful. There they saw the man sitting who for forty years had been lame. What was the first thing after they saw him? Ministration. What was the second? Operation. What was the third? Manifestation, of course. It could not be otherwise. You will always find that this order in the Scripture will be carried out in everybody. In these meetings we are having you must have one set purpose. I believe that God has me here for this purpose, to make you all actors. There are so few actors; therefore so little is done. I want you to notice that there is a great deal of difference between your acting and the acting upon the stage. On the stage in the theater they tell me that they take fiction and act it so it produces a fact before the people. We have a fact, let us not work as if it were fiction. If we do it will be very serious, but we must work out facts in the name of Jesus.

Here I am on the platform this morning. I had no idea what God had given me till I began to act. As I began to act then God began. You cannot have results, manifestations, operations, the truths of the Spirit, the working of the ministry and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, without you begin to act. I clearly see that we ought to have spiritual giants in the earth, mighty in apprehension, wonderful in activity, always having a wonderful report because of their activity in faith. I find out instead of that there are so many people who have perhaps better discernment than you, better knowledge of the Word than you, but they have failed to put it into practice, so these gifts lie dormant. I am here to help you begin on the sea of life with mighty acts in the power of God through the gifts of the Spirit. You will find that this which I am speaking on is out of knowledge, I can truly say, of a wonderful experience in many lands, having seen so many things that have wakened me up. The man who is filled with the Holy Ghost is always in an acting place. Jesus was always in the act. You read the first verse of the Acts of the Apostles, “Jesus began both to do and teach.” He began to do first, and so must we.

Beloved, we must see that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost is an activity with an outward manifestation. When I was in Norway God was mightily moving there, though I had to talk by interpretation. However, God always worked in a wonderful way. One day as we were going up a hill we met a man coming down who stopped the three men I was with, one being the interpreter. I was walking on but I saw he was in a dilemma so I turned back, and said to the interpreter, “What is up?” “This man.” he said, “is so full of neuralgia that he is almost blind and he is in a terrible state. He is asking us if we know the nearest help.” As soon as ever they finished the conversation I said to the spirit that was afflicting him, “Come out of him in the name of Jesus.” And the man said, “It is all gone! It is all gone! I am free.” Ah, brothers, we have no conception of what God has for us in the world!

I will tell you what happened in Sydney, Australia the other day. A man with a stick passed a friend and me. He had to get down and then twist over, and the tortures of his face made a deep impression on my soul. I asked myself, “Is it right to pass this man?” So I said to my friend, “There is a man in a terrible state, he is in awful distress and I cannot go further, I must speak to him.” I went over to this man and said to him, “You seem to be in great trouble.” “Yes,” he said, “I am no good and never will be.” I said, “You see that hotel. Be in front of that door in five minutes and I will pray for you, and you shall be as straight as any man in this place.” This is on the line of activity in the faith of Jesus. I came back after paving a bill, and he was there. It wasn’t a stick but an umbrella that he had. I will never forget him, wondering if he was going to be trapped, or what was up that a man should stop him in the street and tell him he should be made straight. I had said it, so it must be. If you say anything you must stand with God to make it so. Never say anything for bravado, without you have the right to say it. Always be sure of your ground, and that you are honoring God. If there is anything about it to make you anything, it will bring you sorrow. Your whole ministry will have to be on such a line of grace and blessing it will turn the whole thing. We helped him up the two steps, passed him through to the hoist and took him upstairs. It seemed difficult to get him from the hoist to my bedroom, as though Satan was making the last stroke for his life, but we got him there. Then in five minutes’ time this man walked out of that bedroom as straight as any man in this place. He walked perfectly and declared he hadn’t a pain in his body.

Olh brother, it is ministration, it is operation, it is manifestation! Those are three of the greatest leading principles of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. And we must see to it that God is producing through us these three. Beloved, I want you to notice this, that except you stand with God it is impossible for God to manifest His power.

The Bible is the Word of God, it has the truths and whatever people may say of them they stand stationary, unmoveable. Not one jot or tittle shall fail of all His good promises. His word will come forth. In heaven it is settled, on earth it must be made manifest that He is the God of an everlasting power. God wants manifestation and He wants His glory to be seen. And He wants us all to be filled with that line of thought that He can look upon us and delight in us in the world subduing the world unto Him. And so you are going to miss a great deal if you don’t begin to act. But once you begin to act in the order of God. you will find that God establishes your faith and from that day starts you on the line of the promises. When will you begin? In a place in England I was dealing on the lines of faith and what would take place if we believed God. Many things happened. But when I got away it appeared one man who worked in the colliery had heard me. He was in trouble with a stiff knee. It was the first time he had heard me, I think. He said to his wife, “I cannot help but think every day that that message of Wigglesworth’s was to stir us to do something. I cannot get away from it. All the men in the pit know how I walk with a stiff knee, and you know how you have wrapped it around with yards of flannel. Well, I am going to act. You have to be the congregation.” He got his wife in front of him, “I am going to act and do just like Wigglesworth did.” He got hold of his leg unmercifully saying, “Come out, you devils, come out! In the name of Jesus. Now Jesus help me. Come out you devils, come out.” Then he said, “Wife, they are gone! Wife, they are gone. This to too good. I am going to act now." So he went to his place of worship and all the collier boys were there. It was a prayer meeting. As he told them this story these men became delighted. They said, “Jack, come over here and help me.” And Jack went. As soon as he was through in one home he was invited to another, loosing these people of the pains they had gotten in the colliery.

Ah brothers and sisters, we have no idea what God has for us if we will only begin! But oh, the grace we need! We may make a mishap. If you do it outside of Him, if you do it for yourself, and if you want to be someone, it will be a failure. We shall only be able to do well as we do it in the name of Jesus. Oh the love and expression that God’s Son can put into us if we are only humble enough, weak enough, and helpless enough to know that except He does it, it will not be done! “What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive and ye shall have them.”

The first of the nine gifts which has to be made manifest is the gift of wisdom. I am positive this morning that there isn’t anything that an Assembly needs so much as wisdom, the possession of which will save us from many foolish things. When we are in a straight where two ways meet, and don’t know which way to go, concerning buildings or alterations, or otherwise, a word of wisdom for your Assembly would be such a manifestation of God’s love that you would never forget it. But you will always find that wisdom never comes on any lines but the lines of love. That is the first grace of the Spirit. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And perfect fear is joined up with that divine love. I want you to see clearly that if you are where the love of God is the very nature of your life, you have no place to live as it were, only in God. You can trust God to give you the “word of wisdom” because it is a needed word for us through our Pentecostal order. If we were not balanced by other qualities, we should jump over the traces, the Spirit of the life of Christ is so mighty within us. And so we need wisdom.

The word of wisdom from the Lord would save us from a lot of trouble. We all have to pay a big price for our learning; I have paid some big prices. I remember one time I was in great difficulty and needed help. I was walking on the road one day and met a man who lived opposite me who said, “Smith, I have been thinking about selling my house. I cannot think about anyone buying it but you.” “Strange thing,” I replied, “I have no money. But how much do you want for it?” He mentioned the price. “I will buy that house,” I said, “if you will just turn it over to me for the money without having to bother with the lawyers.“ “All right,” said he, “I will.” I had given my word without thought. That was a mistake. There were a thousand mistakes on this job, the thing I needed at that time was just one word of wisdom from God. It didn’t come because I was so active. You can be too active and if you act outside of God you will aways be in trouble. If we are not well balanced, and deep down in God, we make a thousand mistakes because we are too much in a hurry. I told my wife what I had promised. “How will you manage it?” she asked. “I have always managed it so far,” I said, “but I don’t know how to get through this.” I thought, “Can I take it out of the business?” No, I couldn’t. So I set on a human plan; I wasn’t in the divine plan on this. I was in God’s service but you can be in God’s service and can have a lot of God about you, and still get out of his plan. That is where we make a mistake, getting outside the plan of God.

Well, I had some rich relatives and thought I would tie them up but none of them seemed to have anything to spare; everybody was in difficulties. I had made a foolish go of it so after I had tried them all, I said to my wife, “It is strange, I have tried everybody about this business but it doesn’t seem to come off.” Then she said, “You have not been to God yet. When you go to God you will get it all.” I went to God, saying, “Father, I have been very foolish and I have gotten into a hole. If You will help me out I will never ask You on the same line again.” Here comes the word of wisdom. Oh that word of wisdom! God gave it. In two minutes the whole thing was settled on God’s side but not on mine. How could it be? So I came down to my wife saying, “What do you think He told me! ‘Go to Brother Webster.’ ” Brother Webster was about the poorest man I knew and yet he was about the richest man I knew for he knew God. Off I went early the next morning. “What brings you this morning?” Brother Webster asked. “Why,” I said, “I was talking to the Lord last night and so I came to see you the first chance I had.” “If it is a matter like that,” he said, “we will go down to the house and speak about it.” We went down to the house. “I promised to buy a house of a man,” I began, “three weeks ago and I am short 100 pounds. I have tried to get this money, I believe not in the Lord’s plan, and I have been tried about it.” “How is it,” he asked, “that you have only come to me now?” “Because I only went to the Lord about it last night.” “Well,” he said, “it is a strange thing. Three weeks ago I had a hundred pounds. I put it between the mattresses, I have put it in all sorts of places in the house. I could not have any rest so I took it to the bank. If it will be as great a blessing to you as a trouble to me, you shall have it.” So we went to the bank and he got the money and said, “Take it and be off.”

Oh to know God! Oh to go in the way that God would have us! Oh to cease from our own planning and our own arranging! Oh to have the word of God! The Word of wisdom! Oh to believe the Word and to enter into this treasury and hear Him say, “Do this,” and do it! When we get there God will surely, as divinely as we are human, have a divine plan for us and bring us right into line where there will be no trouble, no trial, and sorrows will be at an end when we get to know God.

Beloved, I pray that as we go forth into these gifts of the Spirit that God will show us there is a way for us, and that it is His way. If we turn to our way we shall surely make great mistakes and shall be filled with trouble. I desire to impress this thought upon you. Live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, walk in the communion of the Spirit, talk with God. Apart from this there is no security for you, but on these lines all else is for you. All leadings of the divine order are for you. I pray that if there are any who have turned to their own way and have made God second as I did in that matter, they will come to repentance on all lines. Separate yourself from every earthly touch and touch ideals. And God will bring you to an end of every order of yourself. Begin with God this moment.

Labels: 1923, Latter Rain Evangel

Subtitled, “An Easter message by Smith Wigglesworth.”
Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, April 24, 1943.

Paul writes: “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.”

This is what the Lord does for us when we come to Him; He takes out the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. The Spirit of God will write in both our hearts and minds the law of Christ. He cleanses us from all iniquity, takes away the old order and brings in the new, and He gives us His blessed Holy Spirit who causes us to walk in a way that is pleasing to Him.

The old life is brought to the cross of Calvary. Our old nature is crucified there and we are brought into the position that Paul speaks of when he says, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

Beloved, God would have us see that no man is perfected on any line only as Christ the living Word abides in him.

In this new life we must have the Word of God dwelling richly in us. This Word is living and powerful and effective. It is the sword of the Spirit that will prove an effective weapon in the hands of the Spirit-filled warrior. By it we get complete victory over all the power of the enemy. But we need the power of the Spirit within to enable us to wield the sword of the Spirit effectively.

When Christ dwells in us, our life will be like that life which is described of Him in the Gospels, a life of constant communion with the Father. Ours will be a life of dependence on the Spirit of God, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. It is only as the Spirit prays through us that things will be accomplished for God. But as we yield ourselves wholly to God and ask for the Spirit, He will graciously give the Spirit so that we can pray in the Holy Ghost. And as we pray in the Holy Ghost we shall see signs and wonders wrought in the name of the holy child Jesus. We can have a ministry of the miraculous even as the early apostles had, if we give ourselves to prayer, for in response to prayer God will send the Pentecostal power as at the beginning. Nothing is so sweet as to have our hearts yearning with compassion, moved with compassion for the poor and needy. As the Lord fills your heart with love and compassion, you will find the inward cry from the depths of your need is met by the depth of God’s love. When God gets into the depths of our hearts He purifies every intention and He fills us with His own joy.

When Moses received the tables of stone and he returned to the people, God made his face to shine. There was a glory in the giving of the law. But there is a more wonderful glory in the giving of the Spirit. Much more wonderful than the shine on Moses’ face is the moving of the Spirit to write His commandments on our hearts, the deep movings of the God of eternity as He writes His law of love and compassion into our inner beings. O beloved, let us let the Holy Spirit have His way in our lives to unfold to us the grandeur of Christ’s glory.

The Lord will bring us into a life of humility where we have no confidence in ourselves, but our whole trust rests upon the authority of the mighty God who has promised to be with us at all times. He has made us able ministers of the New Testament, ministers of the Spirit that giveth life. Rivers of living water will flow from us as our confidence rests in Him. As we constantly partake of the living Christ within, He will give us a message direct from heaven, hot, burning, living. Just as the old prophets said, “Thus saith the Lord,” speaking as the Spirit gave them utterance, so we shall go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, our whole minds illuminated by the blessed Holy Spirit. He will elevate our minds until we have heavenly minds. We will be able to bring the vision of heavenly things to the people until they will want more of God and more of the Spirit, till they long to be filled with Spirit that they may be fruitful on every line.

I have found that the Baptism in the Holy Ghost infuses into us an intensity of zeal. You will remember it is written of Him, “The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up,” and we too, like our Lord, will be eaten up of holy zeal. He will fill us with a passion for the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The Spirit of God will bring us to the place called Calvary, to the place where we are dead unto sin; but alive unto God, and filled with the resurrection life and power of the living Christ. Oh, beloved, we must live in the Spirit. We must grow into the likeness of our Master. We must be continually changed from glory to glory as we behold His face, until we are changed into the same image by the Spirit of God.

Have you failed God? He has mercy for you. Out of the depth of your sins and failures you can cry to God for all unrighteousness to be cast out and for His righteousness to be revealed within. Christ was made sin for you and took your sin, that you might become the righteousness of God in Him, that you might receive His righteousness. But it means a constant going to the cross of Calvary for the bringing to death of the old natural order, that you may come into the supernatural plan of God which He has for you.

God wants each one of us to be indeed an epistle of Christ, an epistle that recommends Christ to men. We can only be this as the Spirit of God writes into our hearts and minds the Word. He will make the Word of God life within. Now out of the abundance of a heart steeped in the Word of God there will come forth that which will bring blessing to all those with whom you come in contact. Let your heart cry go up to Him, “O God, lead me step by step in this divine life, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”

Labels: 1943, Pentecostal Evangel

Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, May 27, 1944.

We have a remarkable word in Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” This was the word of one who was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb, who was so filled with the power of the Spirit of God that they came from east and west and from north and south to the banks of the Jordan to hear him.

You have seen water baptism, and you know what it means. This later baptism taught by this wilderness preacher means that we shall be so immersed, covered and flooded with the blessed Holy Ghost, that He fills our whole body.

Now turn to John 7:37-39: “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)”

Jesus saw that the people who had come to the feast, expecting blessing, were going back dissatisfied. He had come to help the needy, to bring satisfaction to the unsatisfied. He does not want any of us to be thirsty, famished, naked, full of discord, full of disorder, full of evil, full of carnality, full of sensuality. And so He sends out in His own blessed way the old prophetic cry: “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat.”

The Master can give you that which will satisfy. He has in Himself just what you need at this hour. He knows your greatest need. You need the blessed Holy Ghost, not merely to satisfy your thirst, but to satisfy the needs of thirsty ones everywhere; for as the blessed Holy Spirit flows through you like rivers of living water, these floods will break what needs to be broken, they will bring to death that which should be brought to death, but they will bring life and fruitage where there is none.

What do you have? A well of water? That is good as far at it goes. But Christ wants to see a plentiful supply of the river of the Holy Ghost flowing through you. Here, on this last day of the feast, we find Him preparing them for the Pentecostal fullness that was to come, the fullness that He should shed forth from the glory after His ascension.

Note the condition necessary—“He that believeth on Me” This is the root of the matter. Believe on Him. Believing on Him will bring forth this river of blessedness. Abraham believed God, and we are all blessed through faithful Abraham. As we believe God, many will be blessed through our faith. Abraham was an extraordinary man of faith. He believed God in the face of everything. God wants to bring us to the place of believing, where, despite all contradictions around, we are strong in faith, giving God glory. As we fully believe God, He will be glorified, and we will prove a blessing to the whole world as was our father Abraham.

Turn to John 14. Here we see the promise that ignorant and unlearned fishermen were to be clothed with the Spirit, anointed with power from on high, and endued with the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge. As He imparts divine wisdom, you will not act foolishly. The Spirit of God will give you a sound mind, and He will impart to you the divine nature.

How could these weak and helpless fishermen, poor and needy, ignorant and unlearned, do the works of Christ and greater works than He had done? They were incapable. None of us is able. But our emptiness has to be clothed with divine fullness, and our helplessness has to be filled with the power of His helpfulness. Paul knew this when he gloried in all that brought him down in weakness, for flowing into his weakness came a mighty deluge of divine power.

Christ knew that His going away would leave His disciples like a family of orphans. But He told them it was expedient, it was best, for after His return to the Father He would send the Comforter, and He Himself would come to indwell them. “Ye in Me, and I in you.”

Christ said, “And I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth.” What a fitting name for the One who was coming to them at the time they were bereft—Comforter. After Christ had left them there was a great need, but that need was met on the day of Pentecost when the Comforter came.

You will always find that in the moment of need the Holy Spirit is a comforter. When my dear wife was lying dead, the doctors could do nothing. They said to me, “She’s gone; we cannot help you.” My heart was so moved that I said, “O God, I cannot spare her!” I went up to her and said, “Oh, come back, come back, and speak to me! Come back, come back!” The Spirit of the Lord moved, and she came back and smiled again. But then the Holy Ghost said to me, “She’s mine. Her work is done. She is mine.”

Oh, that comforting word! No one else could have spoken it. The Comforter came. From that moment my dear wife passed out. And in this day the Comforter has a word for every bereaved one.

Christ further said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” How true this is. From time to time He takes of the words of Christ and makes them life to us. And, empowered with this blessed Comforter, the words that we spake under the anointing are spirit and life.

There are some who come to our meetings who, when you ask them whether they are seekers, reply, “Oh, I am ready for anything.” I tell them, “You will never get anything.” It’s necessary to have the purpose that the Psalmist had when he said, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after.” When the Lord reveals to you that you must be filled with the Holy Ghost, seek that one thing until God gives you that gift.

I spoke to two young men in a meeting one day. They were preachers. They had received their degrees. I said to them, “Young men, what about it?”

“Oh,” they said, “we do not believe in receiving the Holy Ghost in the same way as you people do.”

I said to them, “You are dressed up like preachers, and it is a pity having to have the dress without the Presence.”

“Well, we do not believe it the way you do,” they said.

“But look,” I said, “the apostles believed it that way. Wouldn’t you like to be like the apostles? You have read how they received at the beginning, haven’t you?”

Always remember this, that the Baptism will always be as at the beginning. It has not changed. If you want a real Baptism, expect it just the same way as they had it at the beginning.

These preachers asked, “What had they at the beginning?”

I quoted from the tenth chapter of Acts where it says, “On the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.” The Jews knew that these Gentiles had the same kind of experience as they themselves had at the beginning on the day of Pentecost. The experience has not changed, it is stiIl the same as at the beginning.

When these two young men realized that Peter and John and the rest of the disciples had received the mighty enduement at the beginning, and that it was for them, they walked up to the front where folk were tarrying. They were finely dressed, but in about half an hour they looked different. They had been prostrated. I had not caused them to do it. But they had been so lost and so controlled by the power of God, and were so filled with the glory of God, that they just rolled over, and their fine clothes were soiled—but their faces wete radiant. What caused the change? They had received what the hundred and twenty received at the beginning.

These young preachers had been ordained by men. Now they received an ordination that was better. The Lord had ordained them that they should go and bring forth much fruit. The person that receives this ordination goes forth with fresh feet—his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; he goes forth with a fresh voice—it speaks as the Spirit gives utterance; he goes forth with a fresh mind—a mind illuminated by the power of God; he goes forth with a fresh vision, and sees all things new.

When I was in Switzerland, a woman came to me and said, “Now that I am healed and have been delivered from that terrible carnal oppression that bound and fettered me, I feel that I have a new mind. I should like to receive the Holy Ghost; but when I hear these people at the altar making so much noise, I feel like running away.”

Shortly after this we were in another place in Switzerland where there was a great hotel joined to the building where we were ministering. At the close of one of the morning services, the power of God fell. That is the only way I can describe it—the power of God fell. This poor, timid creature, who could not bear to hear any noise, screamed so loud that all the waiters in this big hotel came out, with their aprons on and their trays, to see what was up. Nothing especially was “up,” something had come down, and it so altered the situation that this woman could stand anythIng after that.

When you receive the Baptism, remember the words in 1 John 2:20, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One.” God grant that we may not forget that. Many people, instead of standing on the rock of faith to believe that they have received this unction, say, “Oh, if I could only feel the unction!”

Brother, your feeling robs you of your greatest unction. Your feelings are often on the line of discouragement. You have to get away from the walk by sense, for God has said, “The just shall live by his faith.” Believe what God says, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One,” an unction from above. All thoughts of holiness, all thoughts of purity, all thoughts of power are from above.

Frequently I see a condition of emergency. Here is a woman, dying; here is a man who has lost all the powers of his faculties; here is a person apparently in death. God does not want me to be filled with anxiety. What does He want me to do? To believe only. After you have received, only believe. Dare to believe the One who has declared, “I will do it.” Christ says, “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.” God declares, “Ye have an unction.” Believe God, and you will see this happen. What you say will come to pass. Speak the word, and the bound shall be free, the sick shall be healed. “He shall have whatsoever he saith.” “Ye have an unction.” The unction has come, the unction abides, the unction is with us.

But what about it, if you have not lived in the place where the unction can be increased? What is the matter? There is something between you and the Holy One—some uncleanness, some impurity, some desire that is not of Him; something that has come in the way? Then the Spirit is grieved. Has the unction left? No. When He comes in, He comes to abide. Make confession of your sin, of your failure, and once more the precious blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse, and the grieved Spirit will once more manifest Himself.

John further says, “The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you.” We have an anointing, the same anointing which Jesus Christ Himself received. For “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good.” The same anointing is for us.

It means much to have a continuous faith for tho manifestation of the anointing. At the death of Lazarus, when it seemed that Mary and Martha and all around them had lost faith, Jesus turned to the Father and said, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always.” Before that supreme faith that counted on God, that counted on His anointing, death had to give up Lazarus.

Through a constant felIowship with the Father, through bold faith in the Son, through a mighty unction of the blessed Holy Spirit, there will come a right of way for God to be enthroned in our hearts, purifying us so thoroughly that there is no room for anything but the divine Presence within. And through the manifestation of this Presence, the works of Christ and greater works shall be accomplished for the glory of our Triune God.

Labels: 1944, Pentecostal Evangel