by Winnie Andrews.

	Written in February, 1922. Published in Confidence, April-June, 1922.

To Rev. A.A. Boddy,
All Saints’ Vicarage, Sunderland, England.

Our dear Brother Wigglesworth arrived in Melbourne last Thursday, February 16th, and he had a meeting that night, when many came to hear his blessed message, and—glory to God!—many dear sick ones were delivered in answer to the prayer of faith. Some of those who attended the meeting had come many hundreds of miles for the purpose, and were addressed by the evangelist from the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Ye are my witnesses.” [Is 43.10]

Continued…

Labels: 1922, Confidence

Published in Confidence, July-September 1922.

He writes: “God is doing wonders. We have the meetings in a picture house, and crowds are being saved night by night. This morning a girl 16 years old, who had been stone deaf eight years was instantiy healed, and similar mercies are going on all the time. I spent Easter in Melbourne, and enclose a few testimonies from those helped there.

“I began in Sydney on April 30th. I am well, but need a rest, and (D.V.) I shall have one week on the sea (to New Zealand), and three weeks to America.”

Later at Sydney. “This has been a great week of soul saving. Crowds are being stirred up. Ministers and preachers, many have begun a new life. The presence of God has been mighty.”

May 24th. “God is keeping me on fire. Hundreds are catching the flame. Several young men have left all, and have struck out on new lines. There has been much opposition and controversy, but I have left hundreds saved and healed in Sydney. Australia has been moved. A man and his wife and another brother who have caught the fire are traveling with me to New Zealand. My first mission is at Wellington, then Christchurch, then three weeks on the sea to Beulah Heights, near Oakland (Mr. Montgomery). Then to San Francisco, and on, as the Lord leads.”

 

Some Testimonies from Australians.

107 Rowe Street,
North Fitzroy.

I feel I must express my deep gratitude for blessing received. Only those who have been in the furnace of affliction can reallze the joy of deliverance. It seems too wonderful. After fourteen years of anguish, sleeplessness, and spiritual depression, caused by the bondage of the adversary, these are things of the pasts. As Bro. Wigglesworth says, consumption Is of the devil, and only the Lion of Judah could have delivered me from this dread scourge, which had made my body a mass of corruption. Hallelujah!

KATHLEEN GAY.

Baille Street,
Horsham, Victoria.

I was prayed for in Me!bourne, and the evil spirit was commanded to come out. I had a polypous growth in my nose. It had been there eighteen years. When I came home from Melbourne the growth all broke up and came away, for which I praise God. I had also a pain under my left breast which had troubled me twelve years. I think it was leakage of the heart, as sorrow had caused it in the first place. At times I used to vomit blood. I have deliverance from that also. All praise to our wonder-working Jesus!

MRS. T. SINCOCK.

32, Emerald Street,
Collingwood.

I have had liver complaint all my life. When quite a girl I was treated by the best doctors, but it always returned, and at times I was unable to turn in bed without help. The last twelve months my kidneys were bad, and my legs swollen much with cramp. I had also varicose veins, with lumps larger than an egg. Now, glory to God, all has gone—disappeared—as soon as hands were laid upon me in the name of Jesus. I am hungering and thirsting after the Baptism. Please pray for me!

CATHERINE RUTHERFORD.

Bro. Wigglesworth concludes his letter with an earnest appeal for our prayers. “Pray! pray! pray! that God may be glorified in all.”

Labels: 1922, Confidence

By Anna Lewini, of Stoke Newington, London. Subtitled, “Divine healing in Scandinavia, etc.” Published in Confidence, April-June 1922.

“That, which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you.” 1 John 1:3.

The Writer (whose personal testimony was in the last issue of “Confidence”) had the privilege for three months last year to be in the center of Mr. Smith Wigglesworth’s meetings in both Sweden and Denmark. It was a time of visitation from on high: I dare to say that hundreds of people received Jesus as their Savior, thousands were healed from all kinds of diseases, also thousands of believers awoke to a new life, and many, many received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost as on the day of Pentecost. For all this we give glory to Jesus. Here are a few examples of miracles my eyes have seen.

I will begin with the first meeting I attended. It was in Orebro (Sweden) where at that time there was held a Pentecostal Convention. I came to seek help myself, being worn out with long unbroken service in the Lord’s work. I had not heard of Mr. Wigglesworth before, but I knew that Pastor Barratt, my spiritual father, was there. The next day there was a meeting for healing. After the preaching service I went forward into the other hall and I was surprised to find in a few minutes a crowd following. The hall was full with a queue of hundreds of men and women patiently waiting for a touch of God through His servant, and, glory to God, we we were not disappointed. As hands were laid upon me, the power of God went through me in a mighty way. I was immediately well.

It was wonderful to notice, as the ministry continued, the effect upon the people as the power of the Lord came over them. Some lifted their hands, crying, “I am healed! I am healed!” Some fell on the the platform overpowered by the power of the Spirit, having to be helped down. Others walked away as in a dream; others as drunk with new wine, lost to everything but God; but all had faces as transfigured with the glory of the Lord and magnifying Jesus. A young biind girl, as she was ministered to, cried out, “Oh, how many windows there are in this hall!” ‘During the three weeks the meetings continued the great chapel was crowded daily, multitudes being healed and many saved. The testimony meetings were wonderful. One said, “I was deaf, they prayed, and Jesus heaied me.” Another, “I had consumption, and I am free,” and so on.

At Skofde. In the smaiier hall, set apart for those seeking the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, I shall never forget the sight, how the people with eyes closed and hearts uplifted to God waited. Did the Holy Spirit fall upon them? Of course He did. Here also many were healed. At another place there was a young man whose body was spoiled because of sin, but the Lord is merciful with sinners. He was anointed, and when hands were laid on, the power of God went mightily over him. He said, “I am healed,” but being broken down, he cried as a little child confessing his sin; at the same moment the Lord saved him. Glory to God! He went into the large hall and testified to salvation and healing.

Stockholm. Here long queues waited for hours to get in. The hall held 1,800 people. At nearly every meeting crowds were unable to enter the building, but they waited on often hours and hours for the chance, if any left the building, to step into the place. Here a man with two crutches, his whole body shaking with palsy, is lifted on to the platform. (Behind him five or six hundred more are waiting for help.) This man is anointed and hands laid upon him in the Name of Jesus. He is still shaking. Then he drops one crutch, and after a short time the other one. His body is still shaking, but he takes the first step out in faith! Will it be? He lifts oue foot and then the other, walks round the platform. The onlookers rejoice with him. Now he walks around the auditorium. Hallelujah!

During this meeting a woman began to shout and shout. The preacher told her to be quiet, but instead she jumped up on a chair, flourishing her arms about, and crying, “I am healed! I am healed! I had cancer in my mouth, and I was unsaved; but during the meeting, as I listened to the word of God, the Lord has saved me and healed me of cancer in my mouth.” She shouts again, “I am saved! I am saved! I am healed of cancer!” She was quite beside herself. The people laughed and cried together.

Here was another woman unable to walk, sitting on a chair as she was ministered to. Her experience was the same as hundreds of the others. She rose up, looking around, wondering if after all it was a dream. Suddenly she laughed and said, “My leg is healed.” Afterwards she said, “I am not saved,” and streams of tears ran down her face. They prayed for her, and later she left the meeting healed and saved and full of joy. We have a wonderful Savior; glory to His Holy Name!

Miracles in Norway. Out of many, many, I quote two taken from Pastor Barratt’s paper, “Korsets Seir” (the Victory of the Cross). A man and his son came in a taxi to a meeting. Both had crutches. The father had been in bed two years and was unable to put his leg to the ground. He was ministered to. He dropped both crutches, walking and praising God. When the son saw this he cried out, “Help me too,” and after a little while father and son, without crutches and without taxi, walked away from the hall together. That word again is manifested; the same Jesus, the wonder-working Jesus is just the same today.

Now Copenhagen, my homeland! During three weeks thousands daily attended the meetings. Each morning, two or three hundred were ministered to for healing. Each evening the platform was surrounded. Again and again, as each throng retired another company came forward seeking salvation. Here many were baptized in the Holy Ghost. The testimony meetings were wonderful.

Now I will close with a vision a brother had who attended these meetings. He was lost in intercession for the hundreds of sick waiting to be ministered to for healing. He saw an opening from the platform, where the sick were, right into the glory. He saw wonderful beings in the form of men resting who, with interest, looked on. Again he looked at the platform and saw a heavenly Being clothed in white, who all the time was more active than any other in helping the sick, and when He touched them the effect was wonderful. Bent forms were made straight, their eyes shone, they began to glorify and praise the Lord. A Voice said: “Healings are the smallest of all gifts; it is but a drop in the bucket in view of what God has in store for His children. Ye shall do greater works than these.”

I pray that the Lord may be magnified by this attestation to signs, wonders, and mighty deeds, and that there may be a multiplication in every land that shall redound to the glory of God.

Labels: 1922, Confidence

Published in Confidence, July/September 1920.

The Baptism of the Holy Ghost is a great beginning. I think the best word we can say is, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” The greatest difficulty today with us is to be held in the place where it shall be God only—it is so easy to get our own mind to work. The working of the Holy Ghost is so different. I believe there is a mind of Christ, and we may be so immersed in the Spirit that we are all the day asking, “What wilt Thou have me to do?”

This has been a day in the Holy Ghost. The last three months have been the greatest days of my life. I used to think if I could see such and such things worked I should be satisfied; but I have seen greater things than I ever expected to see, and I am more hungry to see greater things yet. The great thing at conventions is to get us so immersed in God that we may see signs and wonders in the name of the Lord Jesus; a place where death has taken place and we are not, for God has taken us. If God has taken hold of us we will be changed by His power and might. You can depend on it. The Ethiopian will be changed. I find God has a plan to turn the world upside down, when we are not.

When I have been at my wits’ end, and have seen God open the door, I have felt I should never doubt God again. I have been taken to another place that is worse still. There is no p!ace for us, and yet a place where God is, where the Holy Ghost is just showing forth and displaying His graces; a place where we will never come out, where we are always immersed in the Spirit, the glory of God being seen upon us. It is wonderful!

There is a power behind the scenes that moves things. God can work in such a marvelous way. Our Brother Poiman was held up by a strike and couldn’t get to Switzerland. Then they sent to Brother Wigglesworth, and I couldn’t go; and then they sent again, and that time I couldn’t go, but I could say I would go in two months.

I believe we have yet to learn what it would be with a Pentecostal Church in England that understood truly the work of intercession. I believe God the Holy Ghost wants to teach us that it is not only the people on the p!alform who can move things by prayer. You people, the Lord can move things through you. We have to learn the power of the breath of the Holy Ghost. If I am filled with the Holy Ghost, He will formulate the word that will come into your hearts. The sound of my voice is only by the breath that goes through it. When I was in a little room at Bern waiting for my passport, I found a lot of people, but I couldn’t speak to them, so I got hold of three men and pulled them unto me. They stared, but I got them on their knees. Then we prayed, and the revival began. I couldn’t talk to them, but I could show them the way to talk to Someone else.

God will move upon the people to make them see the glory of God just as it was when Jesus walked in this world, and I believe the Holy Ghost will do special wonders and miracles in these last days. I was taken to see a young woman who was very ill. The young man who showed me the way said, “I am afraid we shall not be able to do much here, because of her mother, and the doctors are coming.” I said, “This is what God has brought me here for,” and when I prayed the young woman was instantly healed by the power of God. God the Holy Ghost says in our hearts today that it is only He who can do it. After that we got crowds, and I ministered to the sick among them for two hours.

The secret for the future is living and moving in the power of the Holy Ghost. One thing I rejoice in is that there need not be an hour or a moment when I do not know the Holy Ghost is upon me. Oh, this glorious life in God is beyond expression; it is God manifest in the flesh. Oh, this glorious unction of the Holy Ghost—that we move by the Spirit. He should be our continual life. The Holy Ghost has the last thoughts of anything that God wants to give. Glory to God for the Holy Ghost! We must see that we live in the place where we say, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” and are in the place where He can work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Labels: 1920, Confidence

Notes taken from the Bradford Convention by Florence Vipan.
Presented April 6, 1920.
Published in Confidence, April-June 1920.

Luke 10:19-22.

It is more important our unity with Jesus than anything else. When our hearts are in perfect tune then we can have confidence before God. It is more important than casting out evil spirits, but it brings the casting-out of evil spirits. Greater is He that is in you than the power of Satan. Jesus said, “I will give you power,” etc. That is the fact we have to deal with this afternoon. Only in the authority of the Name of Jesus. The authority of the name of Jesus is in fellowship and co-operation with Him. “If we know that He heareth us,” etc. God would have us in the place continually, where we know He heareth us. “I will give you power to cast out the evil spirits.” I was asked to visit a man in an asylum, a slave to intemperance and nicotine. The evil power would not allow an introduction to this man. God gave authority over the power of evil, a broken spirit was given, and he was crying out for salvation. In three days he was out of that place. In the Name: of Jesus we dealt with the two evil powers—the hardest thing in life was to do without tobacco—the mighty power of God came over him.

Praying Yorkshire folk. We have people in Bradford that can carry you right through into heaven. and it is due to their prayers that before I got to Switzerland the Revival was on the spring. Oh, the preciousness of my Lord and the adaptability the Holy Spirit gives to a child of God. I saw hundreds healed by the power of God, and I give testimony in the face of Jesus. We go away from these meetings to act in the power of the Holy Ghost. A woman in Paris suffered from epileptic fits for 23 years and could not go out alone. She was healed and can now go out alone. The mother, too, was healed because of the testimony of her daughter.

Romans 10:5. We know the Baptism in the Holy Ghost gives all we need. A young man, 27 years of age, was dumb. He came to a meeting sneering and laughing, and got so near to see what was going on. I thought he was seeking, and put my hands on him. The power of God went through him. I said to him, “Shout, shout, shout!” and the people called out to him in his language, “Shout!” and for the first time in his life he began to shout. God gave him his speech.

Police in Switzerland. There were more people night after night seeking healing than there are attending this Convention. We were working until midnight. So many people were healed that two policemen were sent to apprehend me. They said I was doing it without credentials. The police wanted to see a wicked woman who had been healed of a rupture, and was the means of bringing others to be healed. When they heard this they said they wished all preachers did the same.

Scores of awful sinners were healed. A whole family (all wicked) was saved through being healed. Jesus is glorious. Surely He is the most lovely of all. Truly He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. That Name manifests life as truly as ever it did. There was a woman with an awful face (nose). I felt an awful sensation, as I do when I see cancer. I rebuked the disease in the Name of Jesus. The next night I forgot about the woman. She came to the meeting and when I saw her I said, “Oh, God! Oh, God!” The same nose shone like glass, and all the skin was new. Our God is a God of love. Who can describe His majesty and glory. Well might the poet say, “Crown Him with many crowns.” We must do it. We must do it. There was a man with an incurable disease. The moment hands were laid on him he was perfectly healed, after 34 years of suffering from the work of Satan. When Peter’s wife’s mother was sick with the fever, Jesus rebuked the fever. The fever could hear. All fevers are evil spirits. Jesus was manifested to destroy them. Where is Jesus? When we are born again we are born of the Word of God—Christ in you. Resist the devil and he will flee. Rebuke him in the Name of Jesus.

Healed and saved. The presence of God was so manifested there. A man on the railway was healed of a disease of 22 years standing. There was a wicked man healed. He was so broken in spirit that we had to break up the meeting till he got saved. He was going to tell everybody how he was saved. I tell you, there is something in healing. Like the man at the beautiful gate, when the people saw him leaping and praising God 5,000 were saved. God forbid we shouid glory in anything less than putting Him before anyone. I was taken to a place to see a girl whose bowels, the doctor said,. were completely done. No one couid do anything for her. She felt an inward power. Immediately hands were laid upon her.

At one meeting there were 1,000 people so anxious to hear the Word of God and of healing. God only knows how I have longed to see people saved, and God showed me in spirit He would save. People put up their hands all over the place, as they wanted to be saved. Oh, to see how they flocked out. God is the same God. When the love of God came they were neither Swiss nor English. When I toid tbem about the needs of China they asked if they couldn’t give money. At the first collection they gave £100. This is what the German-Swiss did for England to send our missionaries. The work is enlarging. I brought £300 to England for foreign missions—£200 given to the P.M.U., and £100 to the Congo.

A woman came to be healed of a cancer. How it did smell—but God healed. The husband got saved and the whole family. I believe there is a crown, but it will have to be fought for. There was a young woman vomiting blood. God awakened me in the middle of the night, and in the Name of Jesus commanded the demon power to come out, and she was immediately healed. It is the precious name of Jesus.

At Zurich. At Zurich it was just the same. God worked special miracles and wonders. The Holy Ghost is different to everyone else. “The anointing ye have received abideth.” There was a man with a disease you could not look at. I praise God for what Jesus does. In ten minutes he was made whole. The man sat up in bed and said, “I know I am healed.” The doctor was announced. He was amazed, and said to the man’s wife, “Your husband is whole. Whatever has happened? I shall come no more.” He had been attending his patient three times a day.

A little boy four years of age was very ill. The doctor who had been attending him for several days said there was something amiss with his brain. The Lord showed me the mischief was in the stomach, so I laid hands on the child’s stomach. A few hours later a worm, fifteen inches long, came out of his mouth, and the boy was whole. Does God know? Hebrews 4:12-13. The discernment of God goes to every part of you—neither is there any creature not manifest in His sight.

In Ireland a woman had her thigh broken in two places. She lay in bed and could just reach the mantel-piece. When I laid hands on her she said, “It’s going right down.” “What is going right down?” “The power of God.” And in His strength she arose.

Labels: 1920, Confidence

An excerpt published in Confidence, April-June 1921.

Bro. Smith Wigglesworth (70 Victor Road, Bradford, Yorks.) has been ministering on the Continent. He wrote from Switzerland:

A young woman was dying of consumption, and her doctor had given her up. I laid hands on her in the name of Jesus, and she knew that the disease had passed away. This girl went to the doctor, who examined her and said, “Whatever has taken place, you have no consumption now.” She replied, “Doctor, I have been prayed over; can I tell the people I am healed?” And he said, “Yes, and that I could not heal you.” “If I am to tell will you put it in b!ack and white?” And he gave her a certificate, which I saw. God had healed her.

A man was brought into one of the meetings in a wheel chair. He could not walk except by the aid of two sticks, and even then his locomotion was very slow. I saw him in that helpless condition, and told him about Jesus. Oh, that wonderful name! Glory to God! “They shall call His name Jesus.” I placed my hands upon his head and said, “In the name of Jesus thou art made whole.” This helpless man cried out, “It is done, it is done, Glory to God, it is done!” And he walked out of the building perfectly healed. The man who brought him in the wheel chair and the children said that “father so-and-so is walking.” Praise the Lord! He is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.

Herr Th. Plum (St. Annœsplads, Copenhagen, Denmark) wrote to the Editor of “Confidence” to tell him how God was using Bro. Wigglesworth greatly in Sweden, etc.

Since then he has been with Pastor Barratt in Christiania, and he asks for our prayers. “So far, no buildings have been large enough, and hundreds have been turned away.” After ministering in a hall which holds 3,000, a hall holding 5,000 was to be obtained.

Police on horseback had to control the crowds. “Only by a great squeezing could I get into the hall, assisted by the police officers.” Piles of crutches were left behind, the blind saw, epileptic fits dealt with, etc. “I am at the feet of Jesus, and weep through my address, and God breaks up the peopie, and there are rows of people each night seeking salvation.”

Bro. Wigglesworth writes: “A poor lame man in hospital asked the doctor for leave to attend the meetings, but was refused permission. He was told that if he broke the regulations he would not be permitted to return. He replied that he did not expect that he would have to return, and it was so.” When Bro. Wigglesworth laid hands on him (not knowing all this) he was healed, and left his crutches with the others. The people have given largely to the missionaries and their work.

Bro. Wigglesworth is to re-visit Denmark and Sweden, and later he returns to Switzerland.

Labels: 1921, Confidence, Others' testimonies

Notes taken from the Bradford Convention by Florence Vipan.
Presented April 1, 1920.
Published in Confidence, April-June 1920.

Acts 20:16: “Paul... hasted if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.” Acts 2:1: “And witen the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one piace, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.”

If it had not been for Acts 2 we should not be here tonight. I am glad it filled the place, and I am also glad it was a new order, as Jesus said it would be. A new dispensation of power, grace, revelation. It gives us a deeper sense of what it meant for Jesus to die, rise, and ascend to His Father.

What is heaven? Jesus is heaven. In Him are all the rivers of life. Out of Him there is nothing. The Holy Ghost takes the veil from our eyes and shows us Jesus. There is nothing so beautiful as a soul melted and broken, so ready to be filled for all the Master’s mission. When men’s hearts are in perfect tune with God, He comes.

It is divine in its thought, plan, and operations. You can get nothing except by the Breath of the Almighty. We are on the threshold of a greater place than we have ever known.

The Breath of the Almighty—it filled all the place. It was so full of fire that it sent fire over everyone. The Holy Ghost is a fire, moving, burning, destroying, refining, reducing to ashes, and God always comes out of the ashes. They were at an end of themselves, in perfect stillness, and then God came. God always comes when we are brought to an end. God cannot save us until we are done with. Fire falling, then life; destruction, then life. The Holy Ghost manifested His Presence in the persons. They must have an inward moving, an inward working, then they become flames of fire. They were in a bursting condition. You have your boiler all right, you light the fire, the steam rises; but the boiler would burst unless there was an outflow. Flow on, flow on, flow on! May it flow on.

Labels: 1920, Confidence

By Anton Reuss.
Published in Confidence, April-June 1920.

My very dear Mr. and Mrs. Boddy,

It is some little time since I last had the pleasure of writing you. I first wrote Bro. Smith Wigglesworth at your address, for I had forgotten his. Thank you for sending on my letter.

Before I begin to let you know how the Lord blessed our brother here in Bern and Thun, let me thank you for having always encouraged Bro. Smith Wigglesworth to come to us as he told me, for the enemy tried all ways and means to prevent him coming to us. Some one who ought to have known better told Bro. Smith Wigglesworth that “If you go to Switzerland now you will not get enough to eat!” We did our best to feed him up with our best, so that he exclaimed “You are determined that before I leave I shall have to go out of the door sideways in order to be able to get out at all!” Another well-meaning friend said “If you go to Switzerland now you will suffer from cold!” Well, we have not had a cold day since be has been here, and if we had we could have found ways and means to have heated the rooms and halls, etc. The enemy tried and failed to keep our brother in England.

I met Bro. Smith Wigglesworth at Neuchâtel Station on Saturday, the 31st January, and we had a slow but comfortable journey to Bern, where he stayed with me and my wife at the house of a sister, who is one of the mainsprings of our work, Sister Wüthrich.

At Bern. I had taken the hall in the Casino, Bern, for our first Sunday meetings, as I rather expected a crowd of friends, but Ihe crowd did not turn up until Sunday, February 8th, when afternoon and evening the hall was crowded.. The meetings, as you know, began in Bern on the 1st and continued until the 10th February. As fast as our brother became known (and the healings too, for we had many healings) the people began to come in crowds. Every morning from 10 till 12 o’clock we had prayer meetings—entrance only by card, as we wanted to keep the curious and opposers to the speaking in tongues out—and we had many blessed meetings. It was not an uncommon sight to see several people laying full length stretched out on the floor perfectly unconscious to anything and everything around them as our brother continued his preaching, for the Holy Ghost had begun to fall upon them, and they were there, the slain, so to speak, of the Lord. Several definitely received, but there were so many seekers that we had to have special waiting meetings every afternoon, where our friends were packed in like herrings in their anxiety to receive blessing.

Healings continued the whole ten days, and often from 10 o’clock till 11:30 p.m. at night our brother was anointing and dealing with the sick, who had to come up in rotation, having first stated in German the nature of the ailments, which I interpreted to him in English. We had two excellent interpreters, a Bro. Steiner from St. Gallen, and a Sister Kummer from Zürich, whom I think you met in Labilliere’s time. Scores, I can faithfully say, were healed, the unsaved saved, and Christians stirred, sanctified, and several baptized. We had ministers and preachers come both from German and French Switzerland. So many calls came to our brother to come and visit the sick in Bern, which, of course, was impossible, that at last, as these dear people implored me to bring him to them to see a son, a father, etc., I said “Pay my taxi, and I will bring him.” This was the beginning of events, for afrer that, for two whole afternoons, Bro. Smith Wigglesworth and I hurried all over Bern in a taxi visiting the sick, whom he could not possibly have visited o!herwise.

It may interest you to know that dear Mme. Gaullieur, who received her baptism in Sunderland on the same day as I, August 22nd, 1908, but who had only once since spoken in tongues, again spoke and conlinues to speak. Her maid also received the Baptism and spoke in tongues. To God be the glory!

The meetings lasted ten days in Bern, and on the last evening, Tuesday, we had a missionary meeting, the proceeds to go to the P.M.U., London, and the Congo Mission, in which Bro. Smith Wigglesworth’s daughter is interested. Well, the Lord gave our brother the word, and the friends in Bern had been so blessed and interested that they raised the fine sum of frs. 2,100, which amount was subsequently raised to frs. 2,500, more than £100.

If you ask me what the people thought of Bro. Smith Wigglesworth and his methods, I will only say that my friends who are in a position to judge say that Bern has never seen anything like it. It was completely stirred, and the enquiries were so many, also the requests that Bro. Smith Wigglesworth shouid again come to Bern, that I feel sure the biggest hall in Bern will not be too big for him, should the Lord graciously send him to us again in the near future.

A Yorkshireman. But what of Bro. Smith Wigglesworth? Well, we are all agreed that he is one who has been very specially blessed of God. Before he came I told my people that I rather believed Bro. Smith Wigglesworth to be an apostle who had apostolic power, and we can say that what we experienced was in a very marked measure apostolic, in spite of the times in which we are living of indifference and unbelief. Bro. Smith Wigglesworth’s language, which had a delightful Yorkshire touch when he is in the natural, is not always good English, but when he is under the power of the Spirit his tongues are glorious! the interpretation of the same majestic!! and the English perfect!!! We have never seen anything to equal it in Pentecostal circles in Switzerland.

Many of our brethren in Switzerland and Germany are greatly taken up with visions and prophecies, but Bro. Smith Wigglesworth brought us the Word of God, which the Holy Ghost especially emphasised by these powerful utterances in tongues and interpretation. Bro. Smith Wigglesworth is very humble, and the naive way in which he told us that he could not read before he was 23 years old, and that his wife taught him, moved many, and led us to magnify the Lord, who chose fishermen and other working people to be His representatives when He left the earth. When he is in the natural, which is not often, one sees the humble origin, the imperfect education, the man of the people; but when in the Spirit one is conscious of the presence of Someone else who is altogether lovely. Bro. Smith Wigglesworth’s great strength is his humility and his love for Jesus, and longing that He alone should have all the glory.

We began at Thun on Wednesday the 11th, and continued for six days, the meetings being larger every night. We had morning meetings of waiting upon God in my chalet, of which I enclose you a postcard. I need not say how it would delight us to see you and dear Mrs. Boddy out here for your holiday. It would do her a lot of good. Well, the meetings increased so through the many healings, that I was forced to take the largest place in the town in the Hotel Fresenliof. It holds, they tell me, 800 people. Well, we had quite 600 on Sunday afternoon, and again on Monday evening, our last night. Scores and scores were healed, I can faithfully say, and, what is astounding to us and our opposers, so many unsaved were healed.

A preacher came to Sister Wüthrich and said, “Can you help me to understand why in Bro. Smith Wigglesworth’s meetings so many unsaved were healed? I myself brought a very dear young child of God to his meetings in the hope of her being healed. Many unsaved were healed, but not she. How do you explain it?” She quietly replied, “The unbelief of God’s people.”

We had about 30 visitors from Lausanne, French Switzerland, and from all over Switzerland people wrote and came to the meetings. If they had only continued longer in Thun I verily believe we should have had a revival, and this is the feeling of many to whom I have spoken in Thun.

Naturally the enemy was not going to take it lying down, so he set his satellites to work, who accused me of making money out of these healings. It is true that in many cases my wife and I were offered money by the grateful sufferers who had been healed, but we always naturally refused. Some would receive no refusal, and these left us 28 francs all told for the poor, which we shall gratefully distribute. But on the Saturday morning when Bro. Smith Wigglesworth left I wanted to accompany him to Liyem, when we were to meet my brother-in-law, R. Ruff, of Zürich. I had to go before the Police Inspector in Thun to give an account of my doings in respect of taking money from the healed. I went with another brother-in-law, J. Nievergelt, an engineer in Schaffhausen, and after I had denied the charges my brother-in-law gave the inspector to understand in his own vernacular that this was a put-up job. The inspector was very nice as soon as he saw there was no truth in the charge.

Bro. Smith Wigglesworth left here to preach in Zürich, where I went to support him, and also in St. Gallen. He returns via Basel on the 2nd inst., but he tells me he is invited to Chèxbres (Vaud), French Switzerland, for the 16th March, for a week’s convention. He returns from Bradford for this week. If he were to return again I believe the Lord would use him to move Switzerland, for, as I say, we have not seen anything like this in Switzerland since the Latter Rain began to fall in 1906 and 1907.

I feel I have written you a long enough letter to enable you to judge by the details that our Bro. Smith Wigglesworth’s visit to us here has been signally blessed of God. I verily believe that many pastors and preachers, far more highly educated than our brother, have been forced to ask themselves how it is that this dear brother has so much more power and acceptance with the people than they have, for signs and wonders do so naturally follow his ministry.

His coming brought us a little bit of old England and of Sunderland, as I heard Bro. Smith Wigglesworth preach at Sunderland, which has always had a very warm place in my heart, and should the Lord open the way for me to come to England this year, I will certainly take the opportunity of coming to see you and dear Mrs. Boddy, for I never forget it was at Sunderland God began first to really bless me at a time in my life when I needed His blessing. Good-bye, dear Mr. and Mrs. Boddy. By the time you receive this Bro. Smith Wigglesworth will be with you and able to relate more of his experiences to you.

With Christian love.
Yours affectionately in Him.
Anton B. Reuss.
Chalet Ramholz,
Goldiwil, ob. Thun, Switzerland.
28th February, 1920.

Labels: 1920, Confidence, Others' testimonies

By Ada Balderstone.
Published in Confidence, October-December 1920.

Last November, while nursing a dear sister in the Lord, I fell from the top to the bottom of the stairs. When I got to the bottom I banged the top of my head into the wall. I felt a queer sensation in my neck and shoulder, and my arms went quite dead. I thought, “There, I have killed myself and broken my arms.” A deadly faintness was creeping over me, when something impressed me to look at my arms. I lifted my head to look, and suddenly the life came back into them, but the awful prickling sensation was terrible, and I could not bear them touching for weeks. The doctor wanted to take me to the infirmary, but I said “No,” so they made me a bed in the same room as the other sick one.

The doctor gave very little hopes of me, and said if I lived I should have to lie on my back for 18 months at least, and he did not think I should ever be able to move my head about as usual. Twice in a fortnight I was at the very gates of death. The first night I was so ill I thought I was going to live with Jesus, but I had a lovely vision of Him and He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for My glory, and that My name might be glorified throughout all the country.” The second time I nearly passed away my dear husband gave himself to the Lord. The doctor said I had fractured and dislocated the spine, and when I lifted my head up the bone had slipped partly on again and liberated the spinal cord; but I felt it was the Lord doing His own work.

For 15 weeks I lay on my back without being able to move, then the Lord permitted my nurse to leave me. A dear friend took me to her home, a Pentecostal Divine Healing Home, and I was there only a few days when we were at prayer one morning. I was sitting up in a chair, my daughter was sitting at my knee, when all at once it seemed as though someone lifted me up and put me on my feet in the center of the room, and from that day I could walk from one room to the other, but with great pain in my back, and I could only move my head a little. It hurt me very much to try to lift up my head.

Bradford. On Saturday, April 3rd, I said to my husband, “I should like to go to Bradford Convention,” and he said, “I shall not take you; people would think I was mad to take a woman in your condition.” However, I prayed to God to take all opposition out of him, and on Monday morning he seemed as eager as I was, and I said, “I believe that is where I have to go to get healed, so that God may be glorified.” So my husband got a cab to the station, also when we arrived at Bradford to take us to the Presbyterian Church, Infirmary Street.

Bro. Wigglesworth took us into a smail room. My husband then went downstairs to have some refreshment, and Bro. Wigglesworth and two sisters came to me. Bro. Wigglesworth anointed me with oil in the name of the Lord, and in five minutes I could walk about the room and move my head any way. (I felt the bone slip into place.) I climbed to a bedroom four stories high to sleep, and walked over two miles next day, and have not had any pain in my back, neck or arms since. Praise the Lord! Nothing is too hard for Him.

I may say the doctor has often said he could not understand how it was I did not die. He said, “From what you had done to yourself, by all the natural laws of medicine you ought to be a dead woman.” He has repeated many times, “It is marvelous; I cannot understand it.” But God understands. I do not think that I ever murmured at the suffering after He said it would glorify Him. It is glorious to know He is with us in pain helping us to bear it. I do praise Him for keeping me patient through it all.

I sincerely hope this testimony will be the means of helping others to trust the Lord with their bodies, as He bore our sicknesses as well as our sins on Calvary, and is all-sufficient for spirit, soul, and body.

Anyone wishing to write to me may have the names of several people who heard what the doctor said, and saw me throughout all the illness. I may also say I was healed of cancer in the body 4 years last November. I had not very long to live when Bro. Wigglesworth came over to Doncaster and laid hands on me, and I was instantly healed, and have had no more pain nor hemorrhage since. Wonderful Jesus! Five months after I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the Sign of Tongues. And all my desire is that He will use me for His glory, as I am a living testimony of His wonderful power.

Labels: 1920, Confidence, Others' testimonies

Published in Confidence, October-December 1920.

I only returned home on Saturday after a most wonderful time, in French Switzerland this time. There have been great scenes of Pentecost and spiritual revival. Truly hundreds hare been saved and not less than 1,000 healed. Some of the most wonderful miracles were wrought. One had diabetes and was so delivered that his doctor gave him a certificate to say that he was fully healed, without a trace of sugar. One man brought on a stretcher blind and paralyzed now sees and walks. A consumption case was given up by the doctor; the same doctor declared her free and told her to testify to every one, and put down on paper “Healed fully.” I could go on, but must give you more detalis some orher time.

At Geneva now there is a good work, no Pentecost before. At Neuchâtel a good work; they have got the English Church, no Pentecost before. Lausanne now a strong center, only a few before. Vevey, on the Lake of Geneva, now a good work, and Aigle, not before; at Mayers also, and at Shil de Fos, a great place for watch making.

At all these places God worked wonders, and the largest halls were full of people. At my last meetings in Neuchâtel the great theater was full twice, and at a large morning meeting at Bern on August 6th I baptized in the open river 110 new converts. This will give you some idea of God’s workings. The cry is great.

The people in Sweden and Norway had me booked for September, but the cry of French Switzerland was too appealing, so I remained. I am due back in Zurich (German Switzerland) on October 30th, for one month. Then I am to have a Convention for all French Swiss in December with the leaders, so I would like your beloved wife and yourself to keep me in remembrance.

I brought back for our Missionaries over £300 again, and have £200 promised to the P.M.U. and £100 to the Congo.

God bless you.

His servant,
Smith Wigglesworth.
70 Victor Road,
Bradford.
October 5th, 1920.

Labels: 1920, Confidence

Part of an article series called, “Truths re-stated.”
Published in Confidence, October-December 1920.

Christ’s resurrection power is keeping things alive; nothing but resurrection can displace that which is dead. He came forth. He came forth to be life and power that we might be able to loose the things that were bound, that His glory might be evidenced. There was a dear woman, her heart was bad, poor soul, her feet were swelled. When the devil gets your eyes he makes you look at death. I said, “I believe the Lord wants you to have His message.” I saw she saw death. It is a tremendous power Satan has when we haven’t our eyes on Jesus, but He is alive, and He is risen to make everything living, and His glory is alive for evermore. I thought I would show this dear woman that He has the keys and she might take the promise for a new heart (Psalm 91) and “with long life will I satisfy him.” “Oh,” she said, “it is a new word to me.” “Yes,” I said, “all revelation is new.” Three days did wonders. She had risen right into the condition of this life. She said, “It is Amen, I have a new heart, my legs are not swelled.” It is no good without it is the Amen from above. The Amen—what does it mean—“let it be.” It was Jesus who said it—it was He who was Clothed who said it—The One from heaven, the One who had won the victory, and God wants us to do it in His place.

* * *

Oh, I remember one day stepping into a barber’s shop where I heard a man moaning pitifully, with a shade over his eyes. “What is the matter,” I asked. “Doctor says it is inflammation and will always be like this.” “In the Name of Jesus,” I cried, “I command you to go.” The man then said, “It’s done, I am free.” Where is He? I tell you He is risen. It was He that acted. Oh, to be so closely interwoven with His great Heart and it’s done.—Did it finish there? No! The man came and got saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory—it is impossible for it to be told. The Acts of the Apostles will never be finished till we get into the glory.

Labels: 1920, Confidence

Presented at 70 Victor Road, Bradford, UK.
Published in Confidence, October-December 1919.

“Then said they unto Him, ‘What shall we do that we might work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘This is the work of God: that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.’ ” —John 6:28-29.

“This is the work of God, that ye believe.” Nothing in the world glorifies God so much as simple rest of faith in what God’s Word says. Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” He saw the way the Father did the works; it was on the ground work of knowledge, faith based upon knowledge. When I know Him, there are any amount of promises I can lay hold of, then there is no struggle, for he that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Jesus lived to manifest God’s glory in the earth, to show forth what God was like, that many sons might be brought to glory.

John the Baptist came as a forerunner, testifying beforehand to the coming revelation of the Son. The Son came, and in the power of the Holy Ghost revealed faith. The living God has chosen us in the midst of His people. The power is not of us, but of God. Yes, beloved, it is the power of another within us, Jesus the Son of God. Just in the measure we are clothed, and covered, and hidden in Him, is His inner working manifested. Jesus said, “The works that I do shall ye do also, and My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Oh, the joy of the knowledge of it! To know Him. We know if we look back how God has taken us on we love to shout “Hallelujah,” pressed out beyond measure by the Spirit, as He brings us face to face with reality, His blessed Holy Spirit dwelling in us and manifesting the works. I must know the sovereignty of His grace and the manifestation of His power. Where am I? I am in Him; He is in God. The Holy Ghost, the great Revealer of the Son. Three persons dwelling in man. The Holy Spirit is in us for revelation to manifest the Christ of God. “Therefore be it known unto you He that dwelleth in God doeth the works.” “The law of the Spirit of life having made us free from the law of sin and death.”

The Spirit working in righteousness, bringing us to the place where all unbelief is dethroned, and Christ is made the Head of the Corner. “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” It is a glorious fact, we are in God’s presence, possessed by Him; we are not our own, we are clothed with Another. What for? For the deliverance of the people. Many can testify to the day and hour when they were delivered from sickness by a supernatural power. Some would have passed away with influenza if God had not intervened, but God stepped in with a new revelation, showing us we are born from above, born by a new power, God dwelling in us superseding the old. “If ye ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Ask and receive, and your joy shall be full, if ye dare to believe. “What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” God is more anxious to answer than we are to ask. I am speaking of faith based upon knowledge.

A testimony. I was healed of appendicitis, and that because of the knowledge of it; faith based upon the knowledge of the experience of it. Where I have ministered to others God has met and answered according to His will. It is in our trust and our knowledge of the power of God—the knowledge that God will not fail us if we will only believe. “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” Jesus said unto the centurion, “Go thy way; as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee,” and the servant was healed in the self-same hour.

An instance. In one place where I was staying a young man came in telling us his sweetheart was dying; there was no hope. I said, “Only believe.” What was it? Faith based upon knowledge. I knew that what God had done for me He could do for her. We went to the house. Her sufferings were terrible to witness. I said, “In the name of Jesus come out of her.” She cried, “Mother, mother, I am well.” Then I said that the only way to make us believe it was to get up and dress. Presently she came down dressed. The doctor came in and examined her careiully. He said, “This is of God; this is the finger of God.” It was faith based upon knowledge. If I received a check for £1,000, and only knew imperfectly the character of the man that sent it, I should be careful not to reckon on it until it was honored. Jesus did great works because of His knowledge of His Father. Faith begets knowledge, fellowship, communion. If you see imperfect faith, full of doubt, a wavering condition, it always comes of imperfect knowledge. Jesus said, “ ‘Father, I know that Thou hearest Me always, but because of the people that stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou has sent Me.’ He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’ ” “And God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchlefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.” For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior.

Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself? How God has cared for me these twelve years, and blessed me, giving me such a sense of His presence! When we depend upon God how bountiful He is, giving us enough and to spare for others. Lately God has enabled me to take victory on new lines, a living-in-Holy-Ghost attitude in a new way. As we meet, immediately the glory falls. The Holy Ghost has the latest news from the Godhead, and has designed for us the right place at the right time. Events happen in a remarkable way. You drop in where the need is.

There have been several mental cases lately. How difficult they are naturally, but how easy for God to deal with. One lady came, saying, “Just over the way there is a young man terribly afflicted, demented, with no rest day or night.” I went with a very imperfect knowledge as to what I had to do, but in the weak places God helps our infirmities. I rebuked the demon in the name of Jesus, then I said, “I’ll come again tomorrow.” Next day when I went he was with his father in the field and quite well.

Another case. Fifty miies away there was a fine young man, twenty-five years of age. He had lost his reason, could have no communication with his mother, and he was always wandering up and down. I knew God was waiting to bless. I cast out the demon-power, and heard long after he had become quite well. Thus the blessed Holy Spirit takes us on from one place to anoiher. So many things happen, I live in heaven on earth. Just the other day, at Coventry, God relieved the people. Thus He takes us on, and on, and on.

Do not wait for inspiration if you are in need; the Holy Ghost is here, and you can have perfect deliverance as you sit in your seats.

I was taken to three persons, one in care of an attendant. As I entered the room there was a terrible din, quarrelling, such a noise it seemed as if all the powers of hell were stirred. I had to wait God’s time. The Holy Ghost rose in me at the right time, and the three were delivered, and at night were singing praises to God. There had to be activity and testimony. Let it be known unto you this man Christ is the same today. Which man? God’s Man Who has to have the glory, power and dominion. “For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet.” When He reigns in you, you know how to obey, how to work in conjunction with His will, His power, His light, His life, having faith based upon knowledge, we know He has come. “Ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you.” We are in the experience of it.

Sometimes a live word comes unto me, in the presence of a need, a revelation of the Spirit to my mind, “Thou shalt be loosed.” Loosed now? It looks like presumption, but God is with the man who dares to stand upon His word. I remember, for instance, a person who had not been able to smell anything for four years. I said, “You will smell now if you believe.” This stirred another who had not smelled for twenty years. I said, “You will smell tonight.” She went about smelling everything, and was quite excited. Next day she gave her testimony. Another came and asked, “Was it possible for God to heal her ears?” The drums were removed. I said, “OnIy beiieve.” She went down into the audience in great distress; others were healed but she could not hear. The next night she came again. She said, “I am going to believe tonight.” The glory fell. The first time she came feeling; the second time she came believing.

At one place there was a man anointed for rupture. He came the next night, rose in the meeting saying, “This man is an impostor; he is deceiving the people. He told me last night I was healed; I am worse than ever today.” I spoke to the evil power that held the man and rebuked it, telling the man he was indeed healed. He was a mason. Next day he testified to lifting heavy weights, and that God had met him. “By His stripes we are healed.” “He hath made to light on Him the iniquity of us all.” It was the Word of God, not me he was against.

What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus said, “This is the work of God that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent.” Anything else? Yes. He took our infirmities, and healed all our diseases. I myself am a marvel of healing. If I fail to glorify God, the stones would cry out.

Salvation is for all,

Healing is for all.

Baptism of the Holy Ghost is for all.

Reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.

By His grace get the victory every time. It is possible to live holy.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin,

He sets the prisoner free;

His blood can make the foulest clean,

His blood avails for me.

What shall we do that we might work the works of God? “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”

Labels: 1919, Confidence

Published in Confidence, April/June 1919.

Gen 32:24: “And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.”

As we look back over our spiritual career we shall always see there has been a good deal of our own day, and that the end of our day was the beginning of God’s day. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption,” and we cannot enter into the deep things of God until we are free from our own ideas and ways.

Jacob! The name means supplanter, and when Jacob came to the end of his way God had a way. How slow we are to see that there is a better day. Beloved, the glory is never so wonderful as when God has His plan and we are helpless and throw down our sword and give up our authority to another. Jacob was a great worker, and he would go through any hardship if he could have his way. In many ways he had his way, and in ignorance how gloriously God preserved him from calamity. There is a good and there is a better, but God has a best, a higher standard for us than we have yet attaIned. It is a better thing if it is God’s plan and not ours.

Jacob and his mother had a plan to secure the birthright and the blessing, and his father agreed to his going to Padan-aram, but God planned the ladder and the angels. “The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it.” “I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” What a good thing for the lad, in the midst of the changes, God obtained the right place. The planning for the birthright had not been a nice thing, but here at Bethel he found God was with him.

Many things may happen in our lives, but when the veil is lifted and we see the glory of God, His tender compassion over us all the time, to be where God is, how wonderful it is. Bethel was the place where the ladder was set up twenty-one years before. Twenty-one years of wandering and fighting and struggling. Listen to his conversation with his wives: “Your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.” To his father-in-law: “Except the God of my father had been with me, thou hadst sent me away empty. God hath seen my affliction and the labor of my hands.” Jacob had been out in the bitter frost at night watching the flocks. He was a thrifty man, a worker, a planner, a supplanter. We see the whole thing around us in the world today—supplanters. There may be a measure of blessing, but God is not first in their lives. We are out judging them, but there is a better way, better than our best—God’s way. God first! “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

But there is a way that God establisheth, and I want us to keep that way before us this morning—the way that God establisheth. In our own natural planning and way we may have much blessing, of a kind; but oh, beloved, the trials the hardships, the barrenness, the things missed which God could not give us! I realize this morning by the Holy Ghost, I realize by the anointing of the Spirit that there is a freshness, a glow, a planning in God where you can know that God is with you all the time. Can we know that God is with us all the time? Yes! Yes! Yes! I tell you there is a place to reach where all that God has for us can flow through us to a needy world all the time. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Verse 24: “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” Oh, to be left alone! Alone with God! In the context we read that several things had gone on. His wives had gone on, his children had gone on, all had gone on. His sheep and oxen had gone on, his camels and asses had gone on, all had gone on. He was alone. You will often find you are alone. Whether you like it or not, your wives will go on, your children will go on, your cattle will go on. Jacob was left alone. His wife could not make atonement for him, his children could not make atonement for him, his money was useless to help him. “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” What made Jacob come to that place of loneliness, weakness, and knowledge of himself? The memory of the grace with which God had met him twenty-one years before, when he saw the ladder and the angels and heard the voice of God: “Behold I am with thee and will keep thee, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” He remembered God’s mercy and grace.

Here he was returning to meet Esau. His brother had become very rich, he was a chief, he had been blehsed abundantly in the things of this world, he had authority and power to bind all Jacob had and to take vengeance upon him. Jacob knew this. He knew also that there was only one way of deliverance. What was it? The mind of God. “No one can deliver me but God.” God had met him twenty-one years before, when he went out empty. He had come back with wives and children and goods, but he was lean in soul and impoverished in spirit. Jacob said to himself, “If I do not get a blessing from God I can never meet Esau,” and he made up his mind he would not go on until he knew that he had favor with God. Jacob was left alone, and unless we get alone with God, we shall surely perish. “God interposes where strife is at an end; the way of revelation is plain, and the Holy Ghost’s plan is so clear, that we have to say it was God after all.”

Jacob was left alone. He knelt alone. The picture is so real to me. Alone! Alone! Alone! He began to think. He thought about the ladder and the angels. I think as he began to pray his tongue would cleave to the roof of his mouth. Jacob had to get rid of a lot of things. It had all been Jacob! Jacob! Jacob! He got alone with God and he knew it. If you get alone with God, what a place of revelation! Alone with God! Jacob was left alone, alone with God. We stay too long with our relations, our camels and our sheep. Jacob was left alone. It would be afternoon. Hour after hour passed. He began to feel the presence of God. But God was getting disappointed with Jacob. If ever God is disappointed with you when you tarry in his presence, it will be because you are not white-hot. If you do not get hotter, and hotter, and hotter, you disappoint God. If God is with you and you know it, be in earnest. Pray! Pray! Pray! Lay hold! “Hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” If you do not, you disappoint God.

Jacob was that way. God said: you are not real enough; you are not hot enough; you are too ordinary; you are no good to me unless you are filled with zeal—white hot! He said, “Let me go, for the day breaketh. Jacob knew if God went without blessing him, Esau could not be met. If you are left alone—alone with God—and you cannot get to a place of victory, it is a terrible time. You must never let go, whatever you are seeking—fresh revelation, light on the path, some particular need—never let go. Victory is ours if we are in earnest enough. All must pass on, nothing less will please God. “Let me go, the day breaketh!” He was wrestling with equal strength. Nothing is obtained that way. You must always master that which you are wrestling with. If darkness covers you, if it is fresh revelation you need, or your mind to be relieved, always get the victory. God says you are not in earnest enough. “Oh,” you say, “the Word does not say that.” But it was God’s mind. In wrestling the strength is in the neck, chest, and thigh; the thigh is the strength of all. So God touched his thigh. That strength gone, defeat is sure. What did Jacob do? He hung on. “God means to have a people severed by the power of His power, so hold fast; He will never leave go. And if we do leave go we shall fall short.”

Jacob said, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” And God blessed him. Verse 28: “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.” Now a new order is beginning, sons of God. How wonderful the change of Jacob to Israel! Israel! Victory all the time, God building all the time, God enough all the time. Power over Esau, power over the worId, power over the cattle. The cattle are nothing to him now. All is in subjection as he comes out of the great night of trial. The sun rises upon him. Oh, that God may take us on, the sun rising, God supplanting all!

What after that? Read how God blessed and honored him. Esau meets him. No fighting now—what a blessed state of grace! They kissed each other. “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him.” “What about all these cattle, Jacob?” “Oh, it’s a present.” “Oh, I have plenty; I don’t want your cattle. What a joy it is to see your face again!” What a wonderful change! Who wrought it? God.

Verse 25: “When he saw that he prevailed not against Him.” Could he hold God? Can you hold God?—it is irreverent to say so—oh, yes, you can. Sincerity can hold Him, dependence can hold Him, weakness can hold Him. When you are weak, then are you strong. I’ll tell you what cannot hold Him. Self-righteousness cannot hold Him, pride cannot hold Him, assumption cannot hold Him, high-mindedness cannot hold Him; thinking you are something when you are nothing, puffed up in your imagination. Nothing but sincerity! You can hold Him in the closet, in the prayer meeting, everywhere. “If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”

Can you hold Him? There may be a thought, sometimes, that He has left you. Oh, no! He does not leave Jacob, Israel. What changed his name? The wrestling? What changed his name? The holding on, the clinging, the brokenness of spirit? If you do not help me I am no good, no good for the world’s need. I am no longer salt. Jacob obtained the blessing on two lines: the favor of God, and a yieldedness of will. God’s Spirit was working in him to bring him to a place of helplessness; God co-working to bring him to Bethel, the place of victory. Jacob remembered Bethel, and through all the mischievous conditions he had kept his vow.

When we make vows and keep them, how God helps us. We must call upon God and give Him account of the promise. Verse 30: “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” How did he know? Do you know when God blesseth you, when you have victory? But twenty years afterwards the vision of the ladder and the angels! How did he know? We must have a perfect knowledge of what God has for us. He knew that he had the favor of God, and that no man could hurt him. Let us in all our seeking see we have the favor of God, walking day by day beneath an open heaven. Keeping His commandments, walking in the Spirit, tender in our hearts, lovable, appreciated by God; if so, we shall be appreciated by others and our ministry will be a blessing to those who hear. God bless you. God bless you—for Jesus’ sake.

Labels: 1919, Confidence

From Confidence, April/June 1924.

The Lord Jesus came to bring back to us what was forfeited in the Garden. Adam and Eve were there—free from sin and disease—and first sin came, then disease, and then death came after, and people want to say it is not so! But I tell you, “Get the Devil out of you, and you will have a different body. Get disease out, and you will get the Devil out.”

Jesus rebuked sickness, and it went, and so I want to bring you to a place where you will see that you are healed. You must give God your life; you must see that sickness has to go and God has to come in; that your lives have to be clean, and God will keep you holy; that you have to walk before God, and He will make you perfect, for God says, “Without holiness no man shall see Him,” and as we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

I want to say to you believers that there is a very blessed place for you to attain to, and the place where God wants you is a place of victory. When the Spirit of the Lord comes into your life it must be victory. The disciples, before they received the Holy Ghost, were always in bondage. Jesus said to them one day, just before the Crucifixion, “One of you shall betray Me,” and they were so conscious of their inability and their human depravity and helplessness that they said one to another, “Is it I?” And then Peter was ashamed that he had taken that stand, and he rose up and said, “Though all men deny Thee, yet will not I.” And likewise the others rose and declared that neither would they; but they—every one—did leave Him. But, beloved, after they received the power of the enduement of the Holy Ghost upon them, if you remember, they were made like lions to meet any difficulty. They were made to stand any test, and these men that failed before the Crucifixion, when the power of God fell upon them in the upper room, they came out in front of all those people who were gathered together and accused them of crucifying the Lord of Glory. They were bold. What had made them so? I will tell you. Purity is bold. Take, for instance, a little child. It will gaze straight into your eyes for as long as you like, without winking once. The more pure, the more bold; and I tell you God wants to bring us into that Divine purity of heart and life—that holy boldness. Not officiousness; not swelled-headedness; not self-righteousness; but a pure, holy, Divine appointment by One Who will come in and live with you, defying the powers of Satan, and standing you in a place of victory—overcoming the world.

You never inherited that from the flesh. That is a gift of God, by the Spirit, to all who obey. And so, none can say they wish they were overcomers, but that they have failed and failed until they have no hope. Brother, God can make YOU an overcomer. When the Spirit of God comes into your body He will transform you, He will quicken you. Oh, there is a life in the Spirit which makes you free from the law of sin and death, and there is an audacity about it—also there is a personality about it. It is the personality of the Deity. It is God in you.

I tell you that God is able to so transform and change and bring you into order by the Spirit that you can become a new creation after God’s order. There is no such thing as defeat for the believer. Without the Cross, without Christ’s righteousness, without the new birth, without the indwelling Christ, without this Divine incoming of God, I see myself a failure. But God, the Holy Ghost, can come in and take our place till we are renewed in righteousness—made the children of God. Nay, verily, the Sons of God.

Do you think that God would make you to be a failure? God has never made man to be a failure. He made man to be a “Son”; to walk about the earth in power; and so when I look at you I know that there is a capability that can be put into you which has the capacity of controlling and bringing everything into subjection. Yes, there is the capacity of the power of Christ to dwell in you, to bring every evil thing under you till you can put your feet upon it, and be master over the flesh and the devil; till within you there is nothing rises except that which will magnify and glorify the Lord; and God wants me to show you these disciples, who were so frail, like you and me, that we, too, may now be filled with God, and become pioneers of this wonderful truth I am preaching. Here we see Peter, frail, helpless, and, at every turn of the tide, a failure. And God filled that man with the Spirit of His righteousness, till he went up and down, bold as a lion, and when he came to death—even crucifixion—he counted himself unworthy of being crucified like his Lord, and asked that his murderers would put him head downwards on the tree. There was a deep submissiveness, and a power that was greater than all flesh. Peter had changed into the power of God.

The Scriptures do not tell two stories. They tell the truth. I want you to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What is truth? Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” “He that believeth on Me, as the Scriptures have said, out of his innermost being shall flow forth rivers of living water.” This He spake of the Spirit that should be given them after Jesus was glorified. I do not find anything in the Bible but holiness, and nothing in the world but worldliness. Therefore if I live in the world I shall become worldly; but, on the other hand, if I live in the Bible, I shall become holy. This is the truth, and the truth will set you free. The power of God can remodel you. He can make you hate sin and love righteousness. He can take away bitterness and hatred and covetousness and malice, and can so consecrate you by His power, through His blood, that you are made pure—every bit holy. Pure in mind, heart and actions—pure, right through. God has given me the way of life, and I want to give it to you, as though this were the last day I had to live. Jesus is the best there is for you, and you can each take Him away with you. God gave His Son to be the propitiation for your sins, and not only so, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus came to make us free from sin—free from disease and pain. When I see any who are diseased and in pain, I have great compassion for them, and when I lay my hands upon them, I know God means men to be so filled with Him that the power of sin shall have no effect upon them, and they shall go forth, as I am doing, to help the needy, sick, and affiicted. But what is the main thing? To preach the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Jesus came to do this. John came preaching repentance. The disciples began by preaching repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I tell you, beloved, if you have really been changed by God, there is a repentance in your heart never to be repented of.

Through the revelation of the Word of God we find that Divine healing is solely for the glory of God, and salvation is to make you to know that now you have to be inhabited by another, even God, and you have to walk with God in newness of life.

Labels: 1924, Confidence

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

Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, July 14, 1923;
and in Confidence, January-March 1924.
Ever Increasing Faith, chapter 14. (Published 1924.)

“To another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another faith, by the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 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, 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 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. He should know nothing else but 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 is always accompanied by peace. Faith always rests. Faith laughs at impossibilities. Salvation is by faith, through grace, and it is 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 wondedul 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 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 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 power to sanctify your husband. Dare to believe the Word bf 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 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. Don’t you see that he is dead?” But I continued praying. I got as far as I could with mv 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, about eight 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 stedfast and unmoveable 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 an advancement in God. 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 agonies 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 haye to come to pass. He is the Son of God and came to bring us into sonship. He was the firstfruit of the resurrection and He calls us to be first fruits, to be the same kind of fruit like to Himself.

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 hegan 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 that 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 will 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 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 utterances in the Spirit, but for some time afterwards I did not again speak in tongues. But one day 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 very 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 move into the realm of faith, and live in the realm of faith, and let God have His way.

Labels: 1923, 1924, Confidence, Ever Increasing Faith, Pentecostal Evangel