by Stanley Howard Frodsham
Apostle of Faith, chapter 6.

We have often heard Smith Wigglesworth say that it did not matter where he went in the scripture for a text, he nearly always ended up preaching that the Lord not only forgives all sin but heals every disease.

His constant message was just “Christ.” He would say of him: “There was never one who came into the world with such loving compassion and who entered into all the needs of the people as did the Lord Jesus. And he declares to us, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my father.’ God wants us all to have an audacity of faith that dares to believe for all that is set forth in the word.”

But we will let him continue his own story:

One day I was in Sweden. While I was walking along I saw a man fall into a doorway. There was immediately a throng around him and they said he was dead. I immediately used the power and authority of the name of Jesus Christ, and instantly that man was delivered. He had been troubled that way for many years. The Lord told me to make him a public example, so I invited him to come to the meeting, and he came and told of his deliverance. He mentioned the most awful things that the devil had been telling him, and then he told us that the devil had gone right out of him.

Continued…

Labels: Apostle of Faith

by Stanley Howard Frodsham
Apostle of Faith, chapter 5.

Wigglesworth continues:

At the time I received the Baptism in the Spirit, a meeting was going on in the large vestry of the All Saints’ Church, and I went straight to it. The vicar of the church, Pastor Boddy, had charge and he was speaking. I knew that as yet he had not received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and I interrupted him by saying, “Oh, please let me speak, Mr. Boddy; I have just received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost.”

The place was full of people. I can’t remember what I said, but I know I made all those people extremely dissatisfied and discontented with their position. They said, “We have been rebuking this man because he was so intensely hungry, but he has come in for a few days and has received the Baptism and some of us have been waiting here for months and have not yet received.” A great hunger came upon them all. From that day God began to pour out his Spirit until in a very short while 50 had received the Baptism.

The first thing I did was to telegraph to my home saying “I have received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost and have spoken in tongues.”

Continued…

Labels: Apostle of Faith

by Stanley Howard Frodsham
Apostle of Faith, chapter 4.

We continue the story in our Greatheart’s own words:

My wife was a great preacher, and although I had no ability to preach, she made up her mind to train me for the ministry. So she would continually make an announcement that I would be the speaker the next Sunday. She said she was sure I could preach if I only tried. When she announced me to speak, this would give me a week of labor and a good deal of sweating. I used to go into the pulpit on Sunday with great boldness, give out my text, say a few words, and then say to the congregation, “If any of you can preach you can have a chance now, for I am finished.”

She would have me try again, but it always ended the same way. She was the preacher and I encouraged her to do it all. But I found out that when you have a burden for lost souls, and the vision of their need is ever before you, the Lord, as you look to him, will give you expression to your heart’s compassion and make a preacher out of you. We held open-air services for 20 years in one part of the city of Bradford. It was as I ministered in the open air week by week that the Lord began to give me more liberty.

Continued…

Labels: Apostle of Faith

by Stanley Howard Frodsham
Apostle of Faith, chapter 3.

“My soul followeth hard after thee” is the intense expression of the man after God’s own heart. This was ever the attitude of Smith Wigglesworth from the early days of his Christian experience. No wonder the enemy of souls sought so hard to cause the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches to choke the word in the two years mentioned in the last chapter.

Bunyan’s pilgrim learned many lessons in the house of the Interpreter. He saw a fire burning against the wall, and one standing by it to cast water on it to quench it, but yet the fire burned fiercer than ever. The interpreter told him the meaning: “This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart. He that casts water upon it to extinguish and put it out is the Devil; but in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt see the reason of that.” So he took Christian to the other side of the wall, and there was Christ continually pouring in the oil of his grace.

So it was with our Greatheart. Though the Devil had succeeded in quenching his zeal for a short while, the Lord’s oil was poured on the nearly quenched flame, in response to his wife’s prayers, so that he came forth from the trial a flame of fire that for the next 60 years became brighter and more intense every day. But we will let him continue his own story:

Continued…

Labels: Apostle of Faith

by Stanley Howard Frodsham
Apostle of Faith, chapter 2.

In the second part of the Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan introduces us to one Mr. Greatheart, who guided and guarded Christiana and her sons on their way to the Celestial City. The one whose story we are telling was a Mr. Greatheart. He surely had a great heart of love and loyalty to his Master, for so often we have heard him say, “Isn’t he a lovely Jesus?” And he also had a great heart of love for all his fellow pilgrims, especially the poor and needy, the sick and the suffering.

He once said to us, “All that I am today I owe, under God, to my precious wife. Oh, she was lovely!”

Mary Jane Featherstone, whom God chose to be “an helpmeet for him,” came from a good Methodist family. Her father was a temperance lecturer. He was heir to a large inheritance that had been made through liquor selling, but he had a conviction that filthy lucre secured through the damnation of souls would do him no good, and so he refused to touch a penny of this tainted money. His daughter followed her father’s principles of righteousness and holiness, and was always fearless in speaking her inner convictions.

When about 17 years of age, Mary Jane, or Polly as she was often called, was placed in a milliner’s store to learn the art of trimming hats and bonnets. This kind of work seemed too petty for her, so after a month of it she decided to run away from her native town and all the restraints of home, to seek fame and fortune in Bradford. But the Lord was watching over this handmaid to preserve her from evil. She secured a place to live in Bradford, but it “hapt” that a traveling man whom she knew was just at the door of this house at the moment she was moving in. He exclaimed, “Oh, Miss Featherstone, you must not live in this house. Let me take you to a place that is beyond reproach.” He then took her in a cab to a very desirable home.

Continued…

Labels: Apostle of Faith