Smith Wigglesworth on

Spiritual Gifts




Smith Wigglesworth





Whitaker House gratefully acknowledges and thanks Glenn
Gohr and the entire staff of the Assemblies of God
Archives in Springfield, Missouri, for graciously assisting us
in compiling Smith Wigglesworths works for publication in
this book.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken
from the New King James Version (NKJV), 1979, 1980,
1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (kjv) are taken from the King
James Version of the Bible.
SMITH WIGGLESWORTH ON SPIRITUAL
GIFTS
ISBN-13: 978-1-60374-463-8
Produced in the United States of America Copyright
1998 by Whitaker House
Whitaker House
1030 Hunt Valley Circle
New Kensington, PA 15068
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wigglesworth, Smith, 18591947.
Smith Wigglesworth on spiritual gifts / by Smith
Wigglesworth.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60374-463-8
1. Gifts, Spiritual. 2. Pentecostal churchesDoctrines. I.
Title.
BT767.3.W5 1998
234.13dc21 98-21710
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
This book has been digitally produced in a standard
specification in order to ensure its availibility.
Introduction
An encounter with Smith Wigglesworth was an
unforgettable experience. This seems to be the universal
reaction of all who knew him or heard him speak. Smith
Wigglesworth was a simple yet remarkable man who was
used in an extraordinary way by our extraordinary God. He
had a contagious and inspiring faith. Under his ministry,
thousands of people came to salvation, committed
themselves to a deeper faith in Christ, received the
baptism in the Holy Spirit, and were miraculously healed.
The power that brought these kinds of results was the
presence of the Holy Spirit, who filled Smith Wigglesworth
and used him in bringing the good news of the Gospel to
people all over the world. Wigglesworth gave glory to God
for everything that was accomplished through his ministry,
and he wanted people to understand his work only in this
context, because his sole desire was that people would
see Jesus and not himself.
Smith Wigglesworth was born in England in 1859.
Immediately after his conversion as a boy, he had a
concern for the salvation of others and won people to
Christ, including his mother. Even so, as a young man, he
could not express himself well enough to give a testimony
in church, much less preach a sermon. Wigglesworth said
that his mother had the same difficulty in expressing
herself that he did. This family trait, coupled with the fact
that he had no formal education because he began
working twelve hours a day at the age of seven to help
support the family, contributed to Wigglesworths awkward
speaking style. He became a plumber by trade, yet he
continued to devote himself to winning many people to
Christ on an individual basis.
In 1882, he married Polly Featherstone, a vivacious
young woman who loved God and had a gift of preaching
and evangelism. It was she who taught him to read and
who became his closest confidant and strongest supporter.
They both had compassion for the poor and needy in their
community, and they opened a mission, at which Polly
preached. Significantly, people were miraculously healed
when Wigglesworth prayed for them.
In 1907, Wigglesworths circumstances changed
dramatically when, at the age of forty-eight, he was
baptized in the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, he had a new power
that enabled him to preach, and even his wife was
amazed at the transformation. This was the beginning of
what became a worldwide evangelistic and healing
ministry that reached thousands. He eventually ministered
in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and all over
Europe. His ministry extended up to the time of his death
in 1947.
Several emphases in Smith Wigglesworths life and
ministry characterize him: a genuine, deep compassion for
the unsaved and sick; an unflinching belief in the Word of
God; a desire that Christ should increase and he should
decrease (John 3:30); a belief that he was called to exhort
people to enlarge their faith and trust in God; an emphasis
on the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the manifestation of
the gifts of the Spirit as in the early church; and a belief in
complete healing for everyone of all sickness.
Smith Wigglesworth was called The Apostle of Faith
because absolute trust in God was a constant theme of
both his life and his messages. In his meetings, he would
quote passages from the Word of God and lead lively
singing to help build peoples faith and encourage them to
act on it. He emphasized belief in the fact that God could
do the impossible. He had great faith in what God could
do, and God did great things through him.
Wigglesworths unorthodox methods were often
questioned. As a person, Wigglesworth was reportedly
courteous, kind, and gentle. However, he became forceful
when dealing with the Devil, whom he believed caused all
sickness. Wigglesworth said the reason he spoke bluntly
and acted forcefully with people was that he knew he
needed to get their attention so they could focus on God.
He also had such anger toward the Devil and sickness that
he acted in a seemingly rough way. When he prayed for
people to be healed, he would often hit or punch them at
the place of their problem or illness. Yet, no one was hurt
by this startling treatment. Instead, they were remarkably
healed. When he was asked why he treated people in this
manner, he said that he was not hitting the people but that
he was hitting the Devil. He believed that Satan should
never be treated gently or allowed to get away with
anything. About twenty people were reportedly raised
from the dead after he prayed for them. Wigglesworth
himself was healed of appendicitis and kidney stones, after
which his personality softened and he was more gentle
with those who came to him for prayer for healing. His
abrupt manner in ministering may be attributed to the fact
that he was very serious about his calling and got down to
business quickly.
Although Wigglesworth believed in complete healing, he
encountered illnesses and deaths that were difficult to
understand. These included the deaths of his wife and
son, his daughters lifelong deafness, and his own battles
with kidney stones and sciatica.
He often seemed paradoxical: compassionate but
forceful, gentle but blunt, a well-dressed gentleman whose
speech was often ungrammatical or confusing. However,
he loved God with everything he had, he was steadfastly
committed to God and to His Word, and he didnt rest until
he saw God move in the lives of those who needed Him.
In 1936, Smith Wigglesworth prophesied about what we
now know as the charismatic movement. He accurately
predicted that the established mainline denominations
would experience revival and the gifts of the Spirit in a
way that would surpass even the Pentecostal movement.
Wigglesworth did not live to see the renewal, but as an
evangelist and prophet with a remarkable healing ministry,
he had a tremendous influence on both the Pentecostal
and charismatic movements, and his example and
influence on believers is felt to this day.
Without the power of God that was so obviously present
in his life and ministry, we might not be reading transcripts
of his sermons, for his spoken messages were often
disjointed and ungrammatical. However, true gems of
spiritual insight shine through them because of the
revelation he received through the Holy Spirit. It was his
life of complete devotion and belief in God and his reliance
on the Holy Spirit that brought the life-changing power of
God into his messages.
As you read this book, it is important to remember that
Wigglesworths works span a period of several decades,
from the early 1900s to the 1940s. They were originally
presented as spoken rather than written messages, and
necessarily retain some of the flavor of a church service or
prayer meeting. Some of the messages were Bible studies
that Wigglesworth led at various conferences. At his
meetings, he would often speak in tongues and give the
interpretation, and these messages have been included as
well. Because of Wigglesworths unique style, the sermons
and Bible studies in this book have been edited for clarity,
and archaic expressions that would be unfamiliar to
modern readers have been updated.
In conclusion, we hope that as you read these words of
Smith Wigglesworth, you will truly sense his complete
trust and unwavering faith in God and take to heart one of
his favorite sayings: Only believe!
1
Concerning Spiritual Gifts
God wants us to enter into the rest of faith. He desires
us to have all confidence in Him. He purposes that His
Word will be established in our hearts; and, as we believe
His Word, we will see that all things are possible (Matt.
19:26).
In 1 Corinthians 12:1 we read, Now concerning
spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.
There is a great weakness in the church of Christ because
of an awful ignorance concerning the Spirit of God and the
gifts He has come to bring. God wants us to be powerful in
every way because of the revelation of the knowledge of
His will concerning the power and manifestation of His
Spirit. He desires us to be continually hungry to receive
more and more of His Spirit.
In the past, I have organized many conferences, and I
have found that it is better to have a man on my platform
who has not received the baptism but who is hungry for all
that God has for him, than a man who has received the
baptism and is satisfied and has settled down and become
stationary and stagnant. But of course I would prefer a
man who is baptized with the Holy Spirit and is still hungry
for more of God. A man who is not hungry to receive more
of God is out of order in any Christian conference.
The Importance of Being Filled
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of being
filled with the Spirit. It is impossible for us to meet the
conditions of the day, to walk in the light as He is in the
light (1 John 1:7), to subdue kingdoms and work
righteousness and bind the power of Satan, unless we are
filled with the Holy Spirit.
We read that, in the early church, they continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, in the
breaking of bread, and in prayers (Acts 2:42). It is
important for us also to continue steadfastly in these same
things.
For some years I was associated with the Plymouth
Brethren. They are very strong on the Word and are sound
on water baptism. They do not neglect the communion
service; rather, they have it on the morning of every Lords
Day, as the early church did. These people seem to have
the wood and the kindling, but not the match. If they had
the fire, then they would be all ablaze.
Because they lack the fire of the Holy Spirit, there is no
life in their meetings. One young man who attended their
meetings received the baptism with the speaking in other
tongues as the Spirit gave utterance (Acts 2:4). The
brethren were very upset about this, and they came to the
young mans father and said to him, You must take your
son aside and tell him to cease. They did not want any
disturbance. The father told the son, My boy, I have been
attending this church for twenty years and have never
seen anything of this kind. We are established in the truth
and do not want anything new. We wont have it. The son
replied, If that is Gods plan, I will obey, but somehow or
other I dont think it is. As they were going home, the
horse stood still; the wheels of their carriage were in deep
ruts. The father pulled at the reins, but the horse did not
move. He asked, What do you think is up? The son
answered, It has gotten established. God save us from
becoming stationary.
God wants us to understand spiritual gifts and to
earnestly desire the best gifts (1 Cor. 12:31). He also
wants us to enter into the more excellent way (v. 31) of
the fruit of the Spirit. We must implore God for these gifts.
It is a serious thing to have the baptism and yet be
stationary. To live two days in succession on the same
spiritual plane is a tragedy. We must be willing to deny
ourselves everything to receive the revelation of Gods
truth and to receive the fullness of the Spirit. Only that will
satisfy God, and nothing less must satisfy us.
A young Russian received the Holy Spirit and was
mightily clothed with power from on high. The secret of
his power was a continuous waiting upon God. As the Holy
Spirit filled him, it seemed as though every breath became
a prayer, and so his entire ministry was continually
increasing.
I knew a man who was full of the Holy Spirit and would
only preach when he knew that he was mightily anointed
by the power of God. He was once asked to preach at a
Methodist church. He was staying at the ministers house
and he said, You go on to church and I will follow. The
place was packed with people, but this man did not show
up. The Methodist minister, becoming anxious, sent his
little girl to inquire why he did not come. As she came to
the bedroom door, she heard him crying out three times,
I will not go. She went back and reported that she had
heard the man say three times that he would not go. The
minister was troubled about it, but almost immediately
afterward the man came in. As he preached that night, the
power of God was tremendously manifested. The preacher
later asked him, Why did you tell my daughter that you
were not coming? He answered, I know when I am filled.
I am an ordinary man, and I told the Lord that I did not
dare to go and would not go until He gave me a fresh
filling of the Spirit. The moment the glory filled me and
overflowed, I came to the meeting.
Yes, there is a power, a blessing, an assurance, a rest
in the presence of the Holy Spirit. You can feel His
presence and know that He is with you. You do not need to
spend an hour without this inner knowledge of His holy
presence. With His power upon you, there can be no
failure. You are above par all the time.
You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to
these dumb idols, however you were led (1 Cor. 12:2).
This is the age of the Gentiles. When the Jews refused the
blessings of God, He scattered them, and He has grafted
the Gentiles into the olive tree where many of the Jews
were broken off. (See Romans 11:1725.) There has
never been a time when God has been so favorable to a
people who were not a people. (See 1 Peter 2:910.) He
has brought in the Gentiles to carry out His purpose of
preaching the Gospel to all nations and receiving the
power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this task. It is
because of the mercy of God that He has turned to the
Gentiles and made us partakers of all the blessings that
belong to the Jews. Here, under this canopy of glory,
because we believe, we get all the blessings of faithful
Abraham.
Guard against Error
Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by
the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say
that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.(1 Cor. 12:3)
Many evil, deceiving spirits have been sent forth in
these last days who endeavor to rob Jesus of His lordship
and of His rightful place. Many people are opening the
doors to these latest devils, such as New Theology and
New Thought and Christian Science. These evil cults deny
the fundamental truths of Gods Word. They all deny
eternal punishment and the deity of Jesus Christ. You will
never see the baptism of the Holy Spirit come upon a man
who accepts these errors. Nor will you see anyone receive
the baptism who puts Mary in the place of the Holy Spirit.
No one can know he is saved by works. If you ever speak
to someone who believes this, you will know that he is not
definite on the matter of the new birth. He cannot be. And
there is another thing: you will never find a Jehovahs
Witness baptized in the Holy Spirit. The same is true for a
member of any other cult who does not believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is preeminent.
The all-important thing is to make Jesus Lord of your
life. Men can become lopsided by emphasizing the truth of
divine healing. Men can get into error by preaching on
water baptism all the time. But we never go wrong in
exalting the Lord Jesus Christ, in giving Him the
preeminent place and glorifying Him as both Lord and
Christ, yes, as very God of very God. As we are filled
with the Holy Spirit, our one desire is to glorify Him. We
need to be filled with the Spirit to get the full revelation of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gods command is for us to be filled with the Spirit
(Eph. 5:18). We are no good if we only have a full cup.
We need to have an overflowing cup all the time. It is a
tragedy not to live in the fullness of overflowing. See that
you never live below the overflowing tide.
Use the Gifts Properly
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit (1
Cor. 12:4). Every manifestation of the Spirit is given for
the profit of all (v. 7). When the Holy Spirit is moving in
an assembly of believers and His gifts are in operation,
everyone will profit.
I have seen some people who have been terribly off
track. They believe in giftsprophecy, in particularand
they use these gifts apart from the power of the Holy
Spirit. We must look to the Holy Spirit to show us how to
use the gifts, what they are for, and when to use them, so
that we may never use them without the power of the Holy
Spirit. I do not know of anything that is so awful today as
people using a gift without the power. Never do it. God
save us from doing it.
While a man who is filled with the Holy Spirit may not
be conscious of having any gift of the Spirit, the gifts can
be made manifest through him. I have gone to many
places to minister, and I have found that, under the
unction, or anointing, of the Holy Spirit, many wonderful
things have happened in the midst of the assembly when
the glory of the Lord was upon the people. Any man who
is filled with God and filled with His Spirit might at any
moment have any of the nine gifts listed in 1 Corinthians
12 made manifest through him, without knowing that he
has a gift.
Sometimes I have wondered whether it is better to be
always full of the Holy Spirit and to see signs and wonders
and miracles without any consciousness of possessing a
gift or whether it is better to know one has a gift. If you
have received the gifts of the Spirit and they have been
blessed, you should never under any circumstances use
them without the power of God upon you pressing the gift
through. Some have used the prophetic gift without the
holy touch, and they have come into the realm of the
natural. It has brought ruin, caused dissatisfaction, broken
hearts, and upset assemblies. Do not seek the gifts unless
you have purposed to abide in the Holy Spirit. They should
be manifested only in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Use the Gifts with Wisdom
The Lord will allow you to be very drunk in the Spirit in
His presence, but sober among people. I like to see people
so filled with the Spirit that they are drunk in the Spirit like
the 120 disciples were on the Day of Pentecost, but I dont
like to see people drunk in the Spirit in the wrong place.
That is what troubles us: somebody being drunk in the
Spirit in a place of worship where a lot of people come in
who know nothing about the Word. If you allow yourself to
be drunk there, you send people away; they look at you
instead of seeing God. They condemn the whole thing
because you have not been sober at the right time.
Paul wrote, For if we are beside ourselves, it is for
God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you (2 Cor.
5:13). You can be beside yourself. You can go a bit further
than being drunk; you can dance, if you will do it at the
right time. So many things are commendable when all the
people are in the Spirit. Many things are very foolish if the
people around you are not in the Spirit. We must be
careful not to have a good time in the Lord at the expense
of somebody else. When you have a good time, you must
see that the spiritual conditions in the place lend
themselves to it and that the people are falling in line with
you. Then you will always find it a blessing.
While it is right to earnestly desire the best gifts, you
must recognize that the all-important thing is to be filled
with the power of the Holy Spirit Himself. You will never
have trouble with people who are filled with the power of
the Holy Spirit, but you will have a lot of trouble with
people who have the gifts but no power. The Lord does
not want us to come short in any gift (1 Cor. 1:7). But at
the same time, He wants us to be so filled with the Holy
Spirit that it will be the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself
through the gifts. Where the glory of God alone is desired,
you can expect that every gift that is needed will be made
manifest. To glorify God is better than to idolize gifts. We
prefer the Spirit of God to any gift; but we can see the
manifestation of the Trinity in the gifts: different gifts but
the same Spirit, different administrations but the same
Lord, diversities of operation but the same God working all
in all (1 Cor. 12:46). Can you conceive of what it will
mean for our triune God to be manifesting Himself in His
fullness in our assemblies?
Imagine a large locomotive boiler that is being filled
with steam. You can see the engine letting off some of the
steam as it remains stationary. It looks as though the
whole thing might burst. You can see believers who are
like that. They start to scream, but that does not edify
anyone. However, when the locomotive moves on, it
serves the purpose for which it was built and pulls along
many cars with goods in them. It is the same way with
believers when they are operating in the gifts of the Spirit
properly.
Inward Power Manifested Outwardly
It is wonderful to be filled with the power of the Holy
Spirit and for Him to serve His own purposes through us.
Through our lips, divine utterances flow, our hearts
rejoice, and our tongues are glad. It is an inward power
that is manifested in outward expression. Jesus Christ is
glorified. As your faith in Him is quickened, from within you
there will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). The
Holy Spirit will pour through you like a great river of life,
and thousands will be blessed because you are a yielded
channel through whom the Spirit may flow.
2
Understanding the Gifts
Let us review the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians. The
first verse reads, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren,
I do not want you to be ignorant. When the Holy Spirit
says that, He expects us to understand what the gifts are,
and He wants us to understand that the church may be
able to profit by them.
First, let us examine the nature of those who are led by
the Spirit. No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the
Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Whenever I have come in
contact with people who have acknowledged the Lord
Jesus, I have known whether they knew anything about
the Spirit of God. For every spirit that is of God testifies of
Jesus, and you will always be able to tell peoples spiritual
condition by that. If they do not confess that Jesus was
manifested in the flesh, you may know that they do not
have the Spirit of God (v. 3). Beloved, on the contrary, we
find that every spirit that confesses that Jesus is Lord does
so by the Holy Spirit.
Great Possibilities
Everyone who has received the Holy Spirit has within
him great possibilities and unlimited power. He also has
great possessions, not only of things that are present but
also of things that are to come (1 Cor. 3:22). The Holy
Spirit has power to equip you for every emergency. The
reason people are not thus equipped is that they do not
receive Him and do not yield to Him. They are timid and
they doubt, and in the measure that they doubt, they go
down. But if you will yield to His leading and not doubt, it
will lead you to success and victory. You will grow in
grace, and you will have not only a controlling power but
also a power that reveals the mind of God and the
purposes He has for you. I see that all things are in the
power of the Holy Spirit, and I must not fail to give you the
same truth.
Manifesting the Glory of God
We must remember that we have entered into the
manifestation of the glory of God, and there is great power
and strength in that. Many believers might be far ahead of
where they are now spiritually, but they have doubted. If
by any means the Enemy can come in and make you
believe a lie, he will do so. We have had to struggle to
maintain our standing in our salvation, for the Enemy
would beat us out of it, if possible. It is in the closeness of
the association and oneness with Christ that there is no
fear, but perfect confidence all the time. The child of God
does not need to go back a day for his experience, for the
presence of the Lord is with him and the Holy Spirit is in
him, in mighty power, if he will believe. I see that we
should stir one another up and provoke one another to
good works (Heb. 10:24).
The Pentecostal people have a know in their
experience. We know that we have the Spirit abiding
within, and if we are not moved upon by the Spirit, we
move the Spirit; that is what we mean by stirring up the
Spirit. And yet it is not we but the living faith within usit
is the Spirit who stirs Himself up.
Faith
We should ask ourselves, Where are we living? I do
not mean in the natural. We are a spiritual people, a
royal priesthood, a holy people (1 Pet. 2:9). If we find
that there is unbelief in us, we must search our hearts to
see why it is there. Where there is a living faith, there is
no unbelief, and we go on from faith to faith until it
becomes as natural to live there as can be. But if you try
to live by faith before you have been justified in Christ, you
will fail, for the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17). When
you are justified, it is a natural consequence for you to live
by faith. It is easy; it is joyful. It is more than that: it is our
life and spiritual inheritance.
If the Spirit can stir you up, you will not come short (1
Cor. 1:7) in any gift. God wants you to see that we do not
need to come short in any gift, and He wants to bring us to
a place where we will be on fire because of what He has
called us to. We should always move the tent every night;
we cannot stay in one place. The land is before us; there
are wonderful possessions to be had. God says, They are
yours; go in and claim them.
Paul prayed that we might be able to comprehend with
all the saints (Eph. 3:18). I see the place where Paul was
in the Holy Spirit, and I believe that God is calling us today
to comprehend as much as Paul comprehended. It is in the
perfect will of God that we should possess the needed
gifts, but there must be unity between God and you. When
the gifts are in evidence, the whole church is built up,
Christ being the Head.
There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God
who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is
given to each one for the profit of all.(1 Cor. 12:67)
The Power of Yielding to God
Jesus said, Behold, I have come to do Your will, O
God! (Heb. 10:9), and as we surrender in that way, God
will be delighted to hand to us the gift that is necessary.
The more we realize that God has furnished us with a gift,
the more completely we will be united with Jesus, so that
people will be conscious of Him rather than of His gift.
Oh, beloved, if everything is not of the Holy Spirit, and if
we are not so lost and controlled in the ministry of the gift
that it is only to be Jesus, it will all be a failure and come
to nothing. There were none so selfconscious as those
who said, In Your name, [we have] cast out demons
(Matt. 7:22). They were so controlled by the natural and
the thought that they had done it all, that God was not in
it. But when He comes forth and does it, it is all right.
There is a place in the Holy Spirit where we will not
allow unbelief to affect us, for God has all power in heaven
and earth. And now that I am in the secret knowledge of
this power, I stand in a place where my faith is not to be
limited because I have the knowledge that He is in me and
I in Him.
Some of you have come from your homes with broken
hearts; you have a longing for something to strengthen
you in the midst of the conditions that exist there, and a
power to make these conditions different. You say you are
unequally yoked together with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14).
You have a mighty power that is greater than all natural
power. You can take victory over your homes and your
spouses and children, and you must do it in the Lords
way. Suppose you do see many things that ought to be
different; if it is your cross, you must take it and win the
victory for God. It can be done, for He who is in you is
greater than all the power of hell (1 John 4:4). I believe
that anyone filled with the Holy Spirit is equal to a legion of
demons any day.
In a meeting in Glasgow, a man got up and said, I have
power to cast out demons. A man full of demons got up
and came to him, and this man did everything he could,
but he could not cast out the demons. Do you want to cast
out demons? You be sure it is the Holy Spirit who does it.
Recall that a slave girl who had a spirit of divination
followed Paul around for many days (Acts 16:1618)
before he cast the demon out.
The Holy Spirit has His dwelling place within me and is
stirring up my heart and life to adore Jesus. Other things
must be left behind; I must adore Him.
What Is Your Motive?
God says, Everyone who asks receives (Matt. 7:8).
What are you asking for? What is your motive? In the
Scriptures we read, You ask and do not receive, because
you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures
(James 4:3). There is a need for the gifts, and God will
reveal to you what you ought to have, and you should
never be satisfied until you receive it.
It is important that we know we can do nothing in
ourselves. However, we may know that we are clothed
with the power of God so that, in a sense, we are not in
the natural man. As we go forth in this power, things will
take place as they took place in the days of the disciples.
When I received the new birth at eight years of age, it
was so precious and lovely. Since that time, I have never
lost the knowledge of my acceptance with God. Then,
brothers and sisters, God did a wonderful work in me
when I waited for the baptism.
I was in a strange position. For sixteen years I had
testified to having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit,
but I had really only received the anointing of the Spirit. In
fact, I could not preach unless I had the anointing. My wife
would come to me and say, They are waiting for you to
come out and speak to the people. I would say, I cannot
and will not come without the anointing of the Spirit.
I can see now that I was calling the anointing the
baptism. But when the Holy Spirit came into my body until
I could not give satisfaction to the glory that was in me,
God took this tongue, and I spoke as the Spirit gave
utterance, which brought perfect satisfaction to me. When
He comes in, He abides. I then began to reach out as the
Holy Spirit showed me.
Ask and You Will Receive
In the call of the prophet Elisha, God saw the young
mans willingness to obey. The twelve yoke of oxen, the
plow, and all soon came to nothing; all bridges had to be
burned behind him (1 Kings 19:1921). Friend, the Lord
has called you, too. Are you separated from the old
things? You cannot go on unless you are.
As Elisha went on with the prophet Elijah, the young
man heard wonderful things about Elijahs ministry, and he
longed for the time when he would take his masters
place. Now the time was getting close. His master said to
him, I am going to Gilgal today. I want you to remain
here. Master, he replied, I must go with you. I see
that other people also knew something about it, for they
said to Elisha, Do you know that your master is going to
be taken away from you today? He said, Hold your
peace; I know it. Later on, Elijah said, I want to go on to
Bethel. You stay here. But Elisha said, No, I will not leave
you. Something had been revealed to Elisha. Perhaps, in
a similar way, God is drawing you to do something; you
feel it.
Then Elijah said, The Lord has sent me to Jordan. You
stay here. It was the spirit of the old man that was
stirring up the young man. If you see zeal in somebody
else, reach out for it; it is for you. I am coming to realize
that God wants all the members of His body joined
together. In these days He is making us feel that when a
person is failing to go on with God, we must restore that
member.
When they came to the Jordan, Elijah struck his cloak
on it and they crossed. No doubt Elisha said, I must follow
his steps. And when they had gone over, the old man
said, You have done well; you would not stay back. What
is the real desire of your heart? I feel I am going to leave
you. Ask what you like now, before I leave you. Master,
he said, I have seen all that you have done. Master, I
want twice as much as you have.
I believe it is the fainthearted who do not get much. As
they went on up the hill, down came the chariot of fire,
nearer and nearer, and when it landed, the old man
jumped in and the young man said, Father, Father,
Father, and down came the cloak.
What have you asked for? Are you satisfied to continue
on in the old way now that the Holy Spirit has come to give
you an unlimited supply of power and says, What will you
have? Why, we see that Peter was so filled with the Holy
Spirit that his shadow falling on sick people healed them
(Acts 5:15).
What do you want? Elisha asked, and he got it. He came
down and said, I dont feel any differently. However, he
had the knowledge that feelings are not to be counted as
anything; some of you are looking at your feelings all the
time. He came to the waters of the Jordan as an ordinary
man. Then, in the knowledge in which he possessed the
cloak (not in any feelings about it), he said, Where is the
God of Elijah? and he struck the water with the cloak. The
waters parted and Elisha put his feet down in the river and
crossed to the other side. When you put your feet down
and say you are going to have a double portion, you will
get it. After he had crossed, there were the young men
again (they always come where there is power), and they
said, The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. (See 2 Kings
2:115.)
You are to have the gifts and to claim them. The Lord
will certainly change your lives, and you will be new men
and women. Are you asking for a double portion? I trust
that no one will come short in any gift (1 Cor. 1:7). You
say, I have asked. Do you think God will be pleased if I
ask again? Yes, do so before Him. Ask again, and we may
go forth in the Spirit of the cloak. Then we will no longer
be working in our own strength but in the Holy Spirits
strength, and we will see and know His power because we
believe.
3
Gods Treasure House
How inexhaustible is the treasure house of the Most
High! How near God is to us when we are willing to draw
near to Him! And how He comes and refreshes us when
our hearts are attuned to Him and desire Him alone, for
the desire of the righteous will be granted (Prov. 10:24).
God has for us today a divine experience that quickens,
a divine life flowing through our beings that will be
sufficient for us in all times of need. When God is for you,
who can be against you (Rom. 8:31)? What a blessed
assurance this is to the hungry heart. How it thrills one to
the very depths of ones soul!
My hearts desire is to bring you again to a banquet,
that wonderful spiritual reserve, that great blessed day of
appointment for us with the King, so that you may believe
that all the precious promises are Yes and Amen (2
Cor. 1:20) to us as we dare to believe.
Oh, to believe God! Oh, to rest upon what He says, for
there is not one jot or tittle of the Word that will fail
until all is fulfilled (Matt. 5:18)! Has He not promised, and
will He not also perform (Rom. 4:21)? Our blessed Lord of
life and glory impressed upon us before He left that He
would send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and that, when
the Spirit came, He would take of the words of Jesus and
declare them to us (John 16:1415). The Holy Spirit would
pray through us, and whatever we would ask, the Lord
would hear us (1 John 5:1415).
So I want you to get in a definite place, daring to ask
God for something that will be the means of stimulating
your life forever.
Are you ready? You say, What for? To have some of
the promises fulfilled.
Are you ready? What for? For God to so clothe you with
the Spirit this day that there will be nothing within you that
will war against the Spirit. Are you ready? Search your
heart diligently.
Are you ready? What for? For you to know the Word of
God. For you to know that they who dwell and live in the
Spirit of God are kept in a perfect state in which there is
no condemnation. (See Romans 8:1.)
I want very much for you to get stirred up with the
prospect of this state and then to come into the experience
of this state, because that is what God wants you to have.
He wants you to get so moved by the power of God that
you believe that the things you are hearing about will be
yours.
So many people miss a great many things because they
are always thinking that they are for someone else. I want
you to know that Gods Word is for you and that you are to
make a personal application of all there is in the
Scriptures.
I do not believe that the Scriptures are only for pastors,
teachers, evangelists, prophets, or apostles. They are for
the whole body of Christ, for it is the body that has to be
the epistle of Christ. So the Word of God has to abound in
you until you are absolutely built and fixed upon the living
Word.
All Gifts Are for Edification
I am going to remind you of 1 Corinthians 14:12,
because I want to make it the keynote of everything I am
presenting to you here on the topic of spiritual gifts:
Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let
it be for the edification of the church that you seek to
excel.
Keep that definitely in mind because, whatever gifts are
manifested in a service, they mean nothing to me unless
they edify or comfort or console.
God wants to make you worthy of His wonderful name.
You must always understand that all the gifts and graces
of the Spirit are most helpful to you when you are a
blessing to others. The Holy Spirit did not come to exalt
you; He came so that you could exalt the Lord.
Before these services are over, I will be able to tell you
definitely how to receive a gift and then how to use a gift
or how to be in a place where the gift can be used. We
should cover much ground because the Spirit is going to
speak. If I were to use my own reasoning, you wouldnt be
edified. There is only one edification that is going to last,
and it is the spiritual, inward revelation of Christ. What is
in the mind is no good unless it is spiritually quickened
through the heart affections. So let us remember that it is
more important that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that
the Spirit has His perfect control and way, than that we be
filled with knowledge to no profit. Knowledge puffs up (1
Cor. 8:1). As the saying goes, A little knowledge is
dangerous. In fact, all knowledge is very dangerous
unless it is balanced in a perfect place where God has the
controlling position.
In the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 12, we find that
the Holy Spirit is speaking through the apostle Paul. Pauls
initial comment is that he does not want you to be ignorant
concerning spiritual gifts. You are not to be ignorant of the
best gift God has arranged for you. You are to come into
possession. It is a will that has been left by Gods Son. He
rose to carry it out, and He is on the throne to carry out
His own will. His will is that you should be filled with all the
fullness of God. What a wonderful will!
The next thought is that, because we are Gentiles, God
has entrusted to us the proclamation of the Gospel in the
power and demonstration of the Spirit, so that we may not
speak with mans wisdom but by the revelation of the
operation of God.
So the Holy Spirit is to make us ready for every perfect
work, ready in such a way that opportunities are taken
advantage of. Just as much as if the Lord Jesus were in
the world, we must be in the world, ready for the glorious,
blessed anointing and equipping for service. In this way,
the powers of hell will not prevail (Matt. 16:18); we will
bind the powers of Satan. We will be in a great position to
engage in spiritual battle.
Interpretation of Tongues
The Spirit Himself brings forth light and truth to edify
and build up the church in the most holy faith, that we
might be ready for all activity in God. For the Spirit of the
Lord is upon us to bring forth what God has declared and
ordained, that we should go forth bearing precious fruit
and come forth rejoicing, singing, and harvesting together.
Oh, to keep in the covenant place where you are hidden
in Christ, where He alone is superseding, controlling,
leading, directing, and causing you to live only for the glory
of God!
The Unchangeable Word of God
Let us move on to 1 Corinthians 12:3: No one speaking
by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. Dont forget that
you are entrusted with the Word of Life, which speaks to
you as the Truth. Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the
Life (John 14:6), and He declared eternal life by the
operation of the Gospel. For we receive immortality and
life by the Gospel. Seeing these things are so, you can
understand that those who receive the life of Christ move
out of condemnation into eternal life.
But what about those who do not? They are still under
condemnation, having no hope and without God in the
world (Eph. 2:12) and in danger of eternal destruction.
God save them!
Dont get away from the fact that Jesus is the
personality of eternal death and eternal life. Hellfire will
never be changed by what men say about it. Hellfire will
be the same forever. You will never change the Word of
God by mens opinions. The Word of God is fixed forever
(Isa. 40:8).
The Lord wants you to be in a significant place in which
the Holy Spirit has such control of your inner eyes that He
may reveal the fullness of the Lord of life until Jesus is
glorified tremendously by the revelation of the Holy Spirit,
until He becomes Lord over all things: your affections, your
will, your purposes, your plans, and your wishes forever.
Let Him be Lord.
Interpretation of Tongues
For when the Lord changes the situation, then you come
out of the hiding of captivity into the fullness of the
revelation of the blaze of His glory, for when He has
molded you, then He can build you and change you until
He is having His way.
Building Your Crown of Glory
God has a great purpose for us in that we can be
changed, and you are in a great place when you are
willing to have this change take place. You are in a greater
place when you are willing to drop everything that has
brought you to where you thought you could not be
changed; and when you have dropped all things that have
hindered you, you have leaped forth and been
tremendously changed.
If you have held anything from a human standpoint, no
matter how it has come, that is not according to the
biblical standard of the Word of God, let it be weeded out.
If you do not get it weeded out, be warned: there is a time
coming in which wood, hay, and stubble will be burned,
but the gold, the silver, and the precious stones will stand
the fire (1 Cor. 3:1213).
Lots of people would like to know what kind of crown
they will have when they get to glory. Well, the Lord will
take everything that could not be burned by the fire and
make your personal crown. So everybody is forming his
own crown. Be careful not to be all wood, hay, and
stubble. Have something left for the crown. There is a
crown of glory that does not fade away (1 Pet. 5:4),
which I am trying to help you build today.
A Gift Specifically for You
God has a special way of meeting the needs of
individual people today. We all vary so much in our
appearances, in how we are made. Yet God has a way of
particularizing a gift so that it fits you perfectly, so that you
will not be lopsided. I am trusting the Lord to help me to
build you up so that you are not lopsided.
Lots of people have good thingsbut. Lots of people
might be very remarkably usedbut. Lots of people might
soar into wonderful places of divine positions with God
but. And it is the but that spoils it.
Some people have very good giftsall the gifts of God
are goodbut because the gifts have been made a
blessing, these people transgress with the same gift and
speak in tongues longer than they ought to. So it is the
but that is in the way and that is spoiling the best.
Some people have prophecy, very wonderful prophecy,
but there is a but. They have prophesied, and the Lord
has been with them in the prophecy, but because the
people have applauded them, they have gone beyond
divine prophecy and used their own human minds. The
but has spoiled them until they do not want the hidden
prophecy.
Mrs. SoandSo has a wonderful testimony, and we all
like to hear her for three minutes, but we are all sick of it
if she goes on for five minutes. Why is this so? There is a
but about it.
Brother SoandSo ignites fire in every prayer meeting
when he begins to speak, but after about five minutes, all
the people say, I wish he would stop. There is a but
there.
It is because of the lopsidedness of people that I want
to advise you so that you do not transgress. Do not use
divine liberty to spoil Gods position; rather, be wise, and
the Lord will cause you to understand what it means. Be
wise.
When you say that you have been baptized with the
Holy Spirit, people look and say, Well, if that is so, there
ought to be something very beautiful about you.
Yes, it is true, and if there is something that is shady,
something that is uncanny, something that does not
express the glory or grace, the meekness or love of Christ,
there is a but about it. The but is that you have not
really gotten your own human spirit under control by the
divine Spirit; the human is mingled with it, and it is
spoiling the divine.
Now, a word to the wise is sufficient, and if you are not
wise after you have heard it, it shows that you are foolish.
Do not be foolish; be wise!
Do not let your good be spoken of as evil (Rom.
14:16). God wants people in these days who are so
fortified, so built in Christ, that they do not need to be
ashamed.
Interpretation of Tongues
For it is God who has called you for His own purpose. It
is Christ who ordained you, and being ordained by Christ
we go forth to bring forth much fruit. God is being glorified
when our anointing or our covenant with Christ is being
reserved for God only, and we live and move for the glory
of the exhibition of Christ. Then that is the place where
Jesus is highly honored, and when you pray, God is
glorified in the Son, and when you preach, the unction
abides, and the Lord brings forth blessing upon the
hearers.
Diversities of Gifts
In 1 Corinthians 12:47, you notice very remarkable
words. In these verses we are dealing with the Spirit, with
the Lord, and with Godeach One of them in cooperation
with this position:
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There
are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there
are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who
works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given
to each one for the profit of all.
(1 Cor. 12:47)
There are diversities, varieties of gifts that truly are to
be in the believer. There are nine gifts listed in 1
Corinthians 12, and I would like you to notice that they
never interfere with the gifts that Jesus gave. If you will
turn to Ephesians 4, you will find that Jesus gave gifts:
But to each one of us grace was given according to the
measure of Christs gift. Therefore He says: When He
ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts
to men.
(vv. 78)
A little later in the chapter, these gifts are listed:
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and
teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. (vv. 1112)
Let us look at the gifts Jesus has. How beautifully He
arranges things. When He ascended on high, He led
captivity captive, and gave gifts to men (Eph. 4:8).
Now, the apostle Paul was in captivity. How do we
know? He described his position as the chief of sinners (1
Tim. 1:15). By the way, as long as we know that the chief
of sinners has been saved, every man that ever lives can
be saved. Paul was the chief of sinners, and he was led
captive when he was enraged with indignation against the
disciples; he was rushing everywhere to apprehend them
and put them in prison and make them blaspheme (Acts
8:3; 9:12; 26:911).
So Paul was in captivity. Yet Jesus took him out of
captivity; then He took him into His captivity and gave him
gifts.
Jesus has already made disciples; He has gone up on
high leading captivity captive; now He is giving gifts. This
is the divine position of our Lord, giving gifts to those He
has in captivity.
Now, who do you think is most likely to be in captivity? It
is the people who are lost in God, who are hidden in Him.
Baptizing in water is an emblem of death, and the
moment a person is immersed in the water, he is lifted
out. But this is not the case with the baptism in the Holy
Spirit. To be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to be in deeper
every day, never lifted out, never coming out; it is to be in
captivity, ready for gifts.
Now, is a person made a prophet or an apostle or a
teacher before the baptism of the Spirit or after? I want to
speak to you very definitely, and I want you to keep in
mind what the Spirit will say to us at this time.
When I went to New Zealand, the power of God was
very present, and God wonderfully worked miracles and
wonders there. The gifts that laid hold of the whole place
were the gifts of tongues and interpretation. That entire
city was moved until the place that held 3,500 was often
overcrowded, and we had 2,000 and 3,000 people who
could not get in.
Now when the Plymouth Brethren, who knew the Word
of God, saw the grace of God upon me, they wanted to
have some conversation with me. So I gave them an
audience, and eighteen of them came.
As soon as they began they said, Well, we know God is
with you; it is evident.
(In ten days we had 2,000 people saved, and we had
1,500 of those young converts sit down to communion;
and it was the Plymouth Brethren who served us the wine
and the bread.)
Now, they said, we want to examine the truth with
you to see where things stand.
I said, All right, brethren.
In a moment or two, they were quoting Ephesians to
me.
But, beloved, I said, you know better than anybody
that the man who climbs up some other way is a thief and
a robber, dont you? How many times have you preached
that? Jesus is the Door, and everyone entering that way
will be saved. What does it mean? Jesus is Truth.
They continued quoting Ephesians to me.
But, brethren, I said, you have no right to Ephesians;
you have no right to the epistles. The epistles are not for
you. You are climbing up some other way.
Without fear of contradiction, on the authority of God, I
say today that there is no person who has a right to the
epistles until he has gone through the Acts of the Apostles
and received the Holy Spirit.
They said I could not prove it. I said, I can prove it very
easily. And I read, For he who speaks in a tongue does
not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him;
however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries (1 Cor. 14:2).
Now, brethren, I said, tell me if you understand that.
They said, No.
That is simply because you have never received the
Holy Spirit. Every person who receives the Holy Spirit
receives thatspeaking unto God by the Spirit. The
Gospels are the Gospel of the kingdom of God. It is in the
Acts of the Apostles that people see water baptism,
sanctification, and also the receiving of the Holy Spirit
fulfilled. So the moment you pass through the Acts of the
Apostles, you are ready for the epistles, for the epistles
were written to baptized believers.
I will prove it another way, I continued, and I read
Romans 8:2627:
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For
we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but
the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts
knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes
intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Here is another distinct condition of a man filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Interpretation of Tongues
For the Lord Himself is the chief director of all truth, for
He is the Way and the Truth; therefore, the Spirit takes
the Word, which is Christ, and reveals it unto us, for He is
the life by the Word. He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. Jesus
is the Way, Jesus is the Truth, Jesus is the Life.
The Holy Spirit is jealous over you. The Holy Spirit has a
godly jealousy over you. Why? Lest you turn to yourself.
He wants you to exhibit the Lord entirely. Therefore, He
girds you. He sees to you in every way so that you will not
be drawn aside by human desires but that, instead, Jesus
will become the Alpha and Omega in all your desires.
Now, to this end the Spirit knows the great hunger of
the heart. Hunger for what? For gifts, graces, beatitudes.
Oh, it is lovely when we are at a point at which we can
only pray in the Holy Spirit!
Praying in the Spirit
I am going to give you a very important word about the
usefulness of praying in the Spirit. Lots of people are still
without an understanding of what it is to pray in the Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 14:15 we read, I will pray with the spirit,
and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with
the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
I am going to tell you a story that will help you to see
how necessary it is that you be so lost in the order of the
Holy Spirit that you will pray in the Holy Spirit.
Our missionary work in the center of Africa was opened
by Brothers Burton and Salter, the latter being my
daughters husband. He is now there in the Congo. When
they went there, there were four of them: Brothers Burton
and Salter, an old man who wanted to go to help them
build, and a young man who believed he was called to go.
The old man died on the road and the young man turned
back, so there were only two left.
They worked and labored. God was with them in a
wonderful way. But Burton took sick, and all hopes were
gone. Fevers are dreadful there; mosquitoes swarm;
great evils are there. There he was, laid out; there was no
hope. They covered him over and went outside very
sorrowfully, because he truly was a pioneer missionary.
They were in great distress and uttered words like this:
He has preached his last sermon.
When they were in that state, without any prompting
whatever, Brother Burton stood right in the midst of them.
He had arisen from his bed and had walked outside, and
he now stood in the midst of them. They were astonished
and asked how and what had happened.
All he could say was that he had been awakened out of
a deep sleep with a warm thrill that went over his head,
right down his body, and out through his toes.
I feel so well, he said. I dont know anything about
my sickness.
It remained a mystery. Later, when he was over in
England visiting, a lady said to him, Brother Burton, do
you keep a diary?
Yes, he said.
Dont open the diary, she said, until I talk with you.
All right.
This is the story she told.
At a certain time on a certain day, the Spirit of the Lord
moved upon me. I was so moved by the power of the
Spirit that I went alone into a place to pray. As I went
there, believing that, just as usual, I was going to open my
mouth and pray, the Spirit laid hold of me and I was
praying in the Spiritnot with understanding, but praying
in the Spirit.
As I prayed, I saw right into Africa; I saw you laid out
helpless and, to all appearances, apparently dead. I
prayed on until the Spirit lifted me, I knew I was in victory,
and I saw you had risen up from that bed.
Look at your diary, will you?
He looked in the diary and found that it was exactly the
same day.
So there are revivals to come; there are wonderful
things to be done, when we can be lost in the Spirit until
the Spirit prays through to victory.
Interpretation of Tongues
It is only He; it is He who rolls away the cloud. He alone
is the One who lifts the fallen, cheers the faint, brings
fresh oil, and changes the countenance. It is the Lord your
God. He has seen your misery, He has known your
brokenheartedness, and He has known how near you
seem to be to despair.
Oh, beloved, God is in the midst of us to help us into
these wonderful divine places of appointment!
Are you ready? You say, What for? To let all
differences cease and to have the same evidence the
disciples had in the Upper Room.
Are you ready? What for? To be so in the place in which
Gods Son will be pleased that He gives you all the desires
of your heart.
Are you ready? What for? So that God can fill you with
new life, stimulate you with new fire. He can inflame you
with great desire. We are in the midst of blessing; I want
you to be blessed.
Faith has the greatest ability to position us. Faith is
what will lift you into every place, if you do not interfere
with it.
Dont forget you are in the presence of God. This day
has to be covered with a greater day. It is not what you
are; it is what you are intending to be.
If you have ever spoken in tongues, believe it is your
right and your privilege to have anything in the Bible. Dont
let your human mind interfere with the great plan of God.
Submit yourself to God.
May the divine likeness of Him who is the express image
of the Father dwell in you richly, abounding through all,
supplying every need, bringing you into a place where you
know the hand of God is leading you from treasure to
treasure, from grace to grace, from victory to victory, from
glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.
4
The Fruit and the Gifts
As a preparation for the study of the gifts of the Spirit,
we should read the twelfth chapter of Romans. All that is
done and said in these meetings is upon the authority of
the Word of God. I am sure it would not please God if we
were to turn aside to any human thing when we have such
a valuable, wonderful display of wisdom and authority in
this living Word.
Partakers of the Divine Nature
We thank You, Lord, that You have made sufficient
atonement for sin, sickness, deficiencies, all our
weakness, and everything.
As we take our minds off human things and are clothed
with the Spirit, we will be natural but also supernatural.
This is a lovely condition. We are still natural, with just the
same physique, just the same expression. We are the
same people, only we are supernatural, inwardly
displaying the revelation of the power of God through the
same body. What a divine state!
Dont be afraid to understand that God intends for you
to be partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), of
divine life in the human frame, of divine thoughts over the
human mind. You are to have your human minds
transformed. The divine mind is to take its place so that
you will always be the children of the Lord and act like
people who are from above (John 3:31). You are from
above; you are born of a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
You were planted with Him (Rom. 6:5 kjv); you were
risen, and you are to be seated with Him in the place of
victory over the power of the Enemy.
Dont forget that God is in all, over all, through all. He is
in you so that He might bring about in your daily ministries
a divine plan as active and as perfect as the apostles had
at the beginning, as Jesus had in His ministry. Jesus
portrayed, showed forth, emphasized to His disciples this
word: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which
is in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48 kjv).
We do not need to regard people according to the flesh
anymore (2 Cor. 5:16). From this day, let us learn that we
only need to know the character of the people according to
the Spirit. Remember that the disciples came to a perfect
place when they said, We wont know Jesus anymore
after the flesh. (See verse 16.)
They wouldnt remember Him in terms of His fleshly
ministry. I dont mean a fleshly power, but His fleshly
body. There were any number of things to remember
about Jesus in terms of His natural human need, such as
when He needed food from the tree and when He sat by
the well and asked for water. We wont know Him that
way anymore; we will know Jesus according to the Spirit.
What is the difference? He no longer has any human
weakness but has perfect power over all weaknesses. May
the Lord grant to us in these days a divine familiarity with
the Master so that we begin from this day to be more and
more spiritual until we live in the Spirit, not fulfilling the
lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:16), but living in Christ.
Interpretation of Tongues
The Lord Himself feed us with the finest of the wheat.
He seeks only to bring us into favor with the Father. He
says, Until now you have asked nothing; ask large things,
for my Father and I are one. And as you ask, it will be
given you, a measure full, pressed down, shaken
together, and running over, that there will be no leanness
in you, but you will be full, overflowing, expressive, God
manifest in you, the glory of the Lord upon you, and He
bringing forth songs in the earth.
Fruits and Gifts United
I want to speak a little about the dovetailing, the uniting
together of the fruits and the gifts of the Spirit. I am just
going to enumerate them so that you will know their
relationship. This will be very profitable to you because
you must be careful that whatever gift is manifested in
you, it has to coincide, have a joint fellowship, with its
corresponding fruit, so that you will never miss the plan of
God in this holy order. Any gift that God may give you will
never go to waste; it will always profit others.
The fruit of the Spirit is listed in Galatians 5:2223: But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Now, let us see how the fruit corresponds to the gifts of
the Spirit.
The first gift of the Spirit Paul mentioned in 1
Corinthians 12 is wisdom (v. 8), which must always be
connected with love. Love is the first fruit; wisdom is the
first gift.
The next gift is knowledge (v. 8). You will find, if you
work this out, that knowledge will always bring joy and will
be accompanied by joy. Knowledge produces joy, and they
coincide.
The third is faith (v. 9). You never find that faith is to
any profit unless there is peace, so the gift of faith
coincides with the fruit of peace.
The next is healings (v. 9). You always find that the
person who is used in healing is longsuffering. If he loses
that, if the person who ministers to the needy does not
enter into their need, well, remember the words in
Philippians: The fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).
It doesnt mean that you have to go to the cross, but you
have to be so in spirit with the needy sufferer that you
enter right into his need.
In this regard, remember that you must be brought into
a place of justification, because it may be that many of you
are judging me and saying, Isnt he rough when he
ministers to people in healing! Now, we must understand
every man in his own way. You cant fill my boat, and I
couldnt fill yours; but we can fill the boat God has made
for us. We cannot turn aside to please humanity, because
we have one Master, who is Christ.
A woman came before me in Australia where thousands
were looking on, and I ministered to her for healing. She
was a very large woman. As she came to me, the Spirit of
the Lord revealed to me that inwardly there was an
adversary destroying her life. Instantly, God helped me to
rise up against the adversary, not against the woman.
In the name of Jesus, I dealt with this evil thing that had
distressed the woman. With the whole crowd looking on,
she cried, Youre killing me! Youre killing me! Oh, youre
killing me!
She fell down on the floor. Bring her back again, I
said. I knew I had not finished the work.
Then I went at it again, destroying the evil that was
there, and I knew I had to do it. The people did not
understand as again she cried, Oh, youre killing me!
Bring her back again, I said.
I laid my hands on her again in the name of Jesus, and
the work was done. She walked five yards in the aisle, and
the big cancer dropped off her.
You who are judging me, please leave your judgment
outside, for I obey God. If you are afraid to be touched,
dont come to me to pray for you. If you are not prepared
to be dealt with as God leads me to deal, keep away. But if
you can believe that God has me for a purpose, come, and
I will help you.
How we need to have the mind of Christ and to live for
Christ. What a serious thing it would be for me at sixty-
eight years of age to try to please people when I have my
Father in heaven to please!
Interpretation of Tongues
It is the way into the treasure house the Lord brings
you. It is not your way of thinking; it is the way in which
He brings you through. Dont forget that Jesus said,
Straight is the gate, narrow the way that brought you in
to the plan and place of redemption with fullness.
Therefore, do not resist the Spirit, do not judge the things,
even prophecy, but lay hold of it that God is in the midst of
you to bring you to the place of your desired health.
1 Corinthians 13: A Balancer
I now want to discuss the thirteenth chapter of 1
Corinthians. This chapter on love falls appropriately
between the twelfth and the fourteenth chapters; it
dovetails or unites the three chapters, bringing us into a
place where we can understand them. The twelfth chapter
deals with the gifts of the Spirit, the fourteenth chapter
deals with the ministry of the gifts, and the thirteenth
chapter deals with balance.
If you know anything about an engine, you know that
right over the main throttle valve that lets the steam into
the cylinder, with the piston driving it backward and
forward, there are two little governor balls running
around. Sometimes they go fast; sometimes they go
slowly. They control the condition of the pistons so that the
engine doesnt run away and so that it maintains an even
motion.
That is exactly the purpose of the thirteenth chapter of
1 Corinthians; it shows believers how to keep the gifts in
perfect harmony until we learn not to run away with them,
not to get out of order. It shows that the wisdom that is
from above (James 3:17) lies in a human vessel; it never
loses its luster or glory or expression or force of character
of divine origin.
So God has a plan for us. He wants to show us that
even though our lives may be wonderfulfor example, we
may have the gift of divine prophecy, which is beautiful, or
we may have all faith to move mountains (1 Cor. 13:2)if
we do not understand the Scriptures, if we lose the main
factor, which will produce the governing principles, we
become nothing. But if we are balanced by the power of
the Spirit, every act will be an act of such divine quality
that people will recognize that fact in a moment; their
judgment will be accurate, as it was that day when the
people saw Peter and John. (See Acts 3:14:4.) Although
these disciples were humble men and had not gone
through college courses, they had something that
expressed a fact to the people: they had been in a place
that had changed their character and their language; they
had been with the Master (Acts 4:13).
While I know that many good things come out of
colleges, you must not forget that you must occasionally
go to night school, as Nicodemus did, and see the Master.
(See John 3:121.)
A personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus, by the
revelation of the Spirit, can so move you that in an instant,
you may have revelation that causes you to see that you
are now encased by an enthronement of wisdom from on
high.
Interpretation of Tongues
The wisdom which is from above is first peaceable,
easily entreated, without partiality, full of goodness and
truth, and the Lord of Hosts has us in His great pavilion of
opening the avenue of our human nature, flowing forth
through the natural life, divine life, quickened from on
high, because we are the children of the King.
Thank you, Lord. We are the children of the King. We
belong to the Lord; therefore, no other power has a right
to us. We belong to Him.
Interpretation of Tongues
From your mothers womb I called you. Though I have
chastened you and put you through the fire, yet it was
necessary to bring out of you and to bring you out into a
land of promise. It is true that you have passed through
deep waters and that the fire has many times seared you,
but this was all to chasten you and to prove you, to see if
you loved the Lord with all your heart. And now the Lord
has brought you to the banquet. Eat, my beloved; eat, and
be satisfied.
5
How to Receive a Spiritual Gift
The gift of the Holy Spirit, which He breathes into you,
will make you wonderfully alive. It will almost seem as
though you had never been born before. The jealousy God
has over us, the interest He has in us, the purpose He has
for us, the grandeur of His glory are so marvelous. God
has called us into this place to receive gifts.
Now I want to tell you how to receive a gift. I will
illustrate this by explaining the nature of a gift and telling
you what happened to me when I received the gift of
tongues.
The difference between speaking in tongues as a gift
and speaking in tongues by receiving the Spirit is this:
everybody who is baptized speaks as the Spirit gives
utterance. The tongues that are manifested when
someone receives the baptism are an evidence of the
baptism. However, this is not the gift of tongues. The gift
is a special manifestation in a persons life that he knows,
and he can speak in tongues as long as he wants to.
Nevertheless, a person should never speak longer than the
Spirit gives the anointing; he should never go beyond the
Spirits leading. Like someone giving a prophecy, he should
never go beyond the spiritual anointing.
The trouble is this: after we have been blessed with
tongues, our human nature often steps in. Everything that
is not the rising tide of the Spirit is either law or letter.
(See Romans 7:67.) What does this mean? When you
are following the law, it means that you have fallen into
your human nature. When you are following the letter, it
means that you are depending upon the Word without the
power. These two things will work against you instead of
working for you.
The letter and the law bring harshness; the Spirit brings
joy and happiness. One is perfect harmony; the other
produces strife. One is the higher tide of the Spirit; the
other is earthly. One gets into the bliss of the presence of
heaven; the other never rises from earthly associations.
Claim your right; claim your position. The person who
asks for a gift twice will never get it under any
circumstances. I am not moved by what you think about it.
I believe this is sovereign from Gods altar. You never get
a gift if you ask for it twice. But God will have mercy upon
you if you stop asking and believe.
There is not a higher order that God puts in motion with
a person who believes than this: Ask, and you will
receive (John 16:24). If you dare to ask for any gift, if you
really believe that it is a necessary gift, if you dare to ask
and will not move from it but begin to act in it, you will find
that the gift is there.
If you want to be in the will of God, you will have to be
stubborn. What do I mean by this? I mean that you will
have to be unchangeable. Do you think that if you get a
gift, you will feel it? It is nothing like that. If you ask for a
gift, do not expect that there will be a feeling with it.
There is something better; there is a fact with it, and the
fact will bring the feeling after the manifestation. People
want feelings for gifts. There is no such thing. You will
make the biggest mistake if you dare to continue praying
about anything until you feel like doing something. As sure
as can be, you have lost your faith. You have to believe
that after you receive, you have the power, and that you
begin to act in the power.
The morning after I received the gift of tongues, I went
out of the house with a box of tools on my back; I was
going down the street to do some work. The power of God
lit me up and I broke out in tonguesloudly. My, they
were loud! The street was filled with people, and there
were some gardeners trimming some hedges and cutting
the grass. When they heard me, they stuck their heads
over the hedges, looking as if they had swan necks.
Whatever is up? Why, it is the plumber.
I said, Lord, I am not responsible for this, and I wont
go from this place until I have the interpretation.
God knows that I wouldnt have moved from that place.
And out came the interpretation:
Over the hills and far away before the brink of day, the
Lord your God will send you forth and prosper all your
way.
This is the point: the gift was there. I did not pray for it.
I did not say, Lord, give me the interpretation. I said, If
you dont give it to me, I wont move. By this I meant that
I was determined to have the gift.
It has been surprising, but at every place where I am,
the Spirit of the Lord moves upon me.
I want to say something about the gift of interpretation
because it is so sublime, it is so divine, it is such a union
with the Christ. It is a pleasing place with the Christ. It is
not the Holy Spirit who is using it so much, but it is the
Christ who is to be glorified in that act, for the Trinity
moves absolutely collectively in the body.
As soon as that incident had taken place, wherever I
went, when anybody spoke in tongues, I did not say,
Lord, give me the interpretation. That would have been
wrong. I lived in a fact. Now, what is a fact? A fact is what
produces. Fact produces; fact has it. Faith is a fact. Faith
moves fear and faction. Faith is audacity. Faith is a
personality. Faith is the living Christ manifested in the
believer.
Now, what is interpretation? Interpretation moves and
brings forth the words of God without the person thinking
about it. If you get words before you have received from
God, that is not interpretation. The person who interprets
does not have the words. The gift breathes forth, and the
person speaks, never stopping until he is through. He does
not know what he is going to say until the words are out.
He does not form them; he does not plan them.
Interpretation is a divine flood, just as tongues are a flood.
So it requires continual faith to produce this thing.
A divine gift has divine comprehension. It is also full of
prophetic utterances. There is no such thing as an end to
the divine vocabulary.
What is faith? Is it a pledge? It is more than that. Is it a
present? It is more than that. It is relationship. Now, is
there something better than relationship? Yes. What is it?
Sonship is relationship, but heirship is closer still; and faith
is God
manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16).
What was Jesus? you ask.
Jesus was the glory manifested in human incarnation.
Was He anything else?
Yes. Jesus was the fullness of the express image of
the Father (Heb. 1:3). Is that fullness ours? Yes. Who are
the chosen ones? They are those who ask and believe and
see it done. God will make you chosen if you believe it.
Let us repent of everything that is hindering us; let us
give place to God. Let us lose ourselves in Him. Let us
have no selfrighteousness, but let us have brokenness,
humbleness, submission. Oh, may there be such
brokenheartedness in us today! May we be dead indeed
and alive indeed with refreshing from the presence of the
Most High God!
Some of you have been saying, Oh, I wish I could know
how to get a gift. Some of you have felt the striving of the
Holy Spirit within you. Oh, beloved, rise to the occasion
this day. Believe God. Ask God for gifts, and it may come
to pass in your life. But do not ask unless you know it is
the desire of your heart. God grant to us gifts and graces!
6
The Word of Wisdom
For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:8
God bless you! When He blesses, no one can curse.
When God is with you, it is impossible for anyone to be
against you (Rom. 8:31). When God has put His hand upon
you, every way will open with blessing to others. The
greatest thing that God has allowed us to come into is the
plan of distributing His blessing to others.
I will bless you andyou shall be a blessing (Gen.
12:2). When we know the power of almighty God, we
never need to be afraid of any weapon that is formed
against us (Isa. 54:17), believing that the Lord of Hosts
will rise up and stand against the enemy. The Lord will
cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated
before your face; they shall come out against you one way
and flee before you seven ways (Deut. 28:7).
Gods power upon us, His wonderful blessing of us, His
providential promise written down for us are to make us
ready, every day and under all circumstances, to know
that He who promised will surely fulfill.
What a wonderful Christ! God has chosen a blessing for
us in the midst of anything we encounter. The power of
the Highest overshadows us, the glory of the Lord is
behind us and before us. Who is able to withstand that
almightiness!
God, breathe upon us so that we may be endued with
power from on high (Luke 24:49), enriched with all the
enrichment of heaven, crowned with blessing.
The Lord will lead us forth from victory to victory as His
people. Oh, what a blessing to know that we are the fruit
of the Lord! His people are the precious fruit of the earth.
I am not afraid to say these things to you because I
know God wants to bless you. Why should you go away
without blessing when God has promised that you will
have a portion that cannot be measured (John 3:34)? Why
should you fear when God wants to remove fear?
Are you ready? You say, What for? Oh, for His
blessing that will fill your life, overflow you, change you.
Are you ready? Ready for what? To get a childlike
simplicity and to look into the face of the Father and
believe that all His promises are Yes and Amen (2 Cor.
1:20) to you.
Are you ready? Ready for what? To be awakened into
that Spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:15) that believes all
things and dares to ask the Father.
Spiritual Gifts
We have carefully gone through a few verses in the
twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians, so I hope you are well
established in the thought that you are not to be ignorant
about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God does not intend for
you to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts: gifts that have
revelation, that have divine knowledge, that have within
them the power to deliver others and the power to pray
through.
The gift of intercession, the gift of laying hands on the
sick, the gift of prophecy, the gift of the word of wisdom,
the gift of the word of knowledge, the gift of discerning
spirits, the gift of tongues, and the gift of interpretation
all these are included in this one verse: Now concerning
spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant
(1 Cor. 12:1).
So I implore you to think seriously in your heart
because you have to be in the world but not of itthat you
need to be a personal manifestation of the living Christ.
Just as Christ walked about the earth, you have to walk
about as a child of God, with power and manifestation.
People do not take time to read the Bible, so you have to
be a walking epistle, known and read by all men (2 Cor.
3:2).
Seeing that this is so and that you have to correctly
comprehend that Jesus is the Word and that you have to
believe the Word of God and not change it because of
people who have other opinions, take the Word of God.
Yes, take the Word of God; it will furnish you as you stand
strong in the Lord. It is there that you will find out that you
do not need anything better; there is nothing better. It is
there that you will find all you need: food for hunger, light
for darkness, largeness of heart, conceptions of thought,
and inspiration.
I like the words of Paul. They are beautiful, and they
come forth so often by the power of the Spirit, such as this
word: Strengthened with might through His Spirit in the
inner man (Eph. 3:16). This might of the Spirit can fill
everybody, and it brings forth the revelation of the Word.
The Giver, Then Gifts
We have clearly seen, I believe, why gifts were
particularized, why there are varieties of gifts and varieties
of positions in which to hold gifts. We must not forget that
the Giver is to be received before the gifts.
Salvation always precedes sanctification, and
sanctification will always precede the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. Sanctification prepares the body for the Holy Spirit,
and when the body is rightly prepared for the Spirit, then it
is the work of Jesus to baptize with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit then makes Jesus King in your life; you
regard Him as Lord and Master over all things, and you
become submissive to Him in all things. You are not afraid
to say, You are mine! I love You!
I love Him. He is so beautiful; He is so sweet; He is so
loving; He is so kind! He never turns a deaf ear; He never
leaves you in distress. He heals brokenheartedness; He
liberates the captive; and for those who are down and out,
He comes right into that place and lifts the burden.
It is truly said of Him, He came to His own and His own
had no room for Him; but to as many as had room for
Him, He gave them power to become the sons of God.
(See John 1:1112.)
Thus I bring you again to the nature of sonship: it is
grace bestowed, poured out, pressed through, or covering
you, preserving you from all evil. It is boundless grace,
grace that brings capability for your lack of ability, until
God has you in His own mind and purpose.
The Gift of the Word of Wisdom
In 1 Corinthians 12:8, the Word of God tells us about
the word of wisdom: For to one is given the word of
wisdom through the Spirit. It does not sayand you must
clearly understand itit does not say the gift of wisdom
but the gift of the word of wisdom. You have to rightly
[handle] the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15) because it will
mean so much to us.
The gift of the word of wisdom is necessary in many
instances. For example, when you want to build another
church building, maybe larger than the one you are in, so
that everybody can speak and be heard without any
trouble, a word of wisdom is needed regarding how to
build the place for Gods service.
A word of wisdom is necessary when you are faced
with a choice and it is difficult for you to know in what
direction to go. That word can come to you in a moment
and prepare you for the right way.
The gift of the word of wisdom is meant for a needy
hour when you are under great stress concerning some
business transaction; provided it is a godly transaction,
you can ask God what to do and you will receive wisdom
along two lines.
It may come through the gift of the word of wisdom, or
it may come forth just because the power of the Holy
Spirit is upon you. I have been trying to show you that if
you are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit can
manifest any gift. At the same time, you are not to forget
that the Word of God urges you to desire earnestly the
best gifts; so while the best gift might be to you the word
of wisdom, or some other gift, you should not be lacking in
any gift.
That is a remarkable statement for me to make, but I
declare to you that Scripture lends itself to me to be
extravagant. When God speaks to me He says, Anything
you ask. (See John 15:7.) When God is speaking of the
worlds salvation He says, Whosoever believes. (See
John 3:16.) So I have an extravagant God with extravagant
language to make me an extravagant personin wisdom.
If you have extravagance without wisdom, you will know
very well that it is going to be of no profit. You have to
learn not to be extravagant in this way so that you will not
waste anything, and you have to learn above all things that
you have to be out and God has to be in. The trouble with
so many people is that they have never gotten out so He
could get in. But if God ever gets in, you will first have
gotten out, never to come in anymore.
To this end, we pray that God will show us now why we
really need the word of wisdom and how we may be in a
place in which we will surely know it is of God. I am going
to give you an example of the word of wisdom through an
experience I had, and it will help you more than anything
else.
A Questionable Word and a Word of Wisdom
One day I went out of my house and saw a friend of
mine named John who lived opposite me. He crossed the
road, came up to me, and said, Now, Smith, how are
you?
Very well, John, I said.
Well, he said, my wife and I have been thinking and
praying and talking together about selling our house, and
every time we think about it in any way, your name is the
only one we think about.
That was a strange thing to me.
Will you buy it? he asked.
Now, if you remember, when David went wrong he only
went wrong because he violated the holy communion and
knowledge of what kept him. What was it? What was the
word that would have saved him? You shall not covet your
neighbors wife (Exod. 20:17). He had to break that law
to commit sin.
I was not dealing with a sin; however, looking back, I
see that there were many questionable things about the
situation, so that if I had thought about it for a moment, I
would have been saved from many weeks of
brokenheartedness and sorrow.
What was the first thing that I should have asked
myself? Can I live in two houses? No. Well, then, one is
sufficient.
The next thing was, Do I have the money to buy the
house? No.
That is sufficient in itself, for God does not want any
person to be in debt, and when you learn that secret, it
will save you from thousands of sleepless nights. But I was
like many people; we are all learning, and none of us is
perfect. However, I do thank God that we are called to
perfection, whether we come into it at once or not. If you
miss the mark of holiness ten times a day, fortify yourself
to believe that God intends for you to be holy, and then
stand again. Do not give in when you miss the mark.
There is a saying that goes something like this: No
man fails to succeed in life because he makes a blunder; it
is when he makes the blunder twice. No person who fails
once loses his high calling (Phil. 3:14 kjv). Therefore, the
Word of God says that when you repent with godly
repentance, you will never do the same thing again. (See
2 Corinthians 7:911.)
It is not for you to give in; you have to fortify yourself.
The day is young; the opportunities are tremendously
large. May God help you not to give in. Believe that God
can make you new and turn you into another person.
Now, what was the trouble with me? It was that I didnt
discuss this transaction with God. Many of you are in the
same place. What do we do afterward? We begin working
our way out. So I began working this thing out.
How much will you take for it? I asked.
He named the price. I thought to myselfthis was a
human thoughtNow, the banking society will give me all
I want. They are well acquainted with me; that will be no
trouble.
So the loan officer came to look over the house.
It is a beautiful house, he said. It is very reasonable.
You will lose nothing on this if you ever sell it. It is well
worth the money. But I cannot give you within five hundred
dollars of what you need.
I did not have five hundred dollars; I couldnt get it out
of the business I had at that time, so I still tried a human
way. I did not go to God. If I had, I could have gotten out
of it. But I tried to work my way out. Why? Because I knew
I was wrong from the beginning.
The first thing I did was to try my relatives. Have you
ever done that? What was wrong? They were all so
pleased to see me, but I was either a bit too soon or a
little bit too late; I absolutely just missed it. They all
wanted to lend me the money, but I was there at the
wrong time. I tell you, every time I saw a relative, I had a
Turkish bath without paying for it.
I had another human plan then: I tried my friends. The
same thing happened.
Then I went to my lovely wife. Oh, she was a darling!
She was holy! I went to her and I said, Oh, Mother, I am
in a hard place.
I know, she said. I will tell you what you have never
done, my dear.
What?
You have never gone to God once about this thing.
That is the secret. When you get out of the will of God,
then you try your own way.
So then I knew she knew, and I knew what I would get
if I went to prayer.
All right, my dear, I will go pray.
It is lovely to have a place to go in which to praythose
places where you open your eyes to see if you can see
Him in reality because He is so near. Ah, to walk with God!
Father, I said, You know all about it. If you will
forgive me this time, I will never trouble you again as long
as I live with anything like this.
And then came the word of wisdom. He has it. And yet
it was the most ridiculous word I ever heard in all my life.
The Lord said, Go see Brother Webster.
I came downstairs. I said, He has spoken.
I knew He would.
Yes, but you see He said such a ridiculous thing.
Believe it, she said. It will be all right. When God
speaks, you know it means it is all right.
But Mother, you could hardly think it could be right. He
has told me to go see Brother Webster.
Go, she said.
Brother Webster was a man who kilned lime. The most
he ever got per week, to my knowledge, was $3.50. He
wore corduroy trousers and a pair of big work boots. But
he was a godly man.
Early in the morning, I jumped onto my bicycle and
went to his house. I got there at eight oclock.
Why, Brother Wigglesworth, what brings you so early?
he asked.
I was speaking to the Lord last night about a little
trouble, I said, and He told me to come and see you.
If that is the case, he said, we will go down to my
house and talk to the Lord.
We went to the house and he locked the door.
Now, tell me, he said.
Well, three weeks ago I arranged to buy a house. I
found out I was short five hundred dollars. I have tried
everything I know and have failed. My wife told me last
night to go to God, and while I was there God said, Go see
Brother Webster, so here I am.
How long have you needed it?
Three weeks.
And you have never come to see me before?
No, God never told me.
I could have been able to know the next day if I had
gone to God, but I tried my way and went to every man
possible without going straight to God. I hope you wont do
that now that you are to have the word of wisdom God is
going to give you.
Brother Webster said to me, For twenty years I have
been putting aside a little more than half a dollar a week
into a cooperative society. Three weeks ago they told me
that I had five hundred dollars and that I must take it out
because I was not doing business with them. I brought it
home. I put it under the mattresses, under the floor
boards, in the ceiling, everywhere. Oh, I have been so
troubled by it! If it will do you any good, you can have it.
He knows it all, He knows it all,
My Father knows it all;
Your bitter tears, how oft they flow,
He knows, my Father knows it all.
I would like to change that verse somewhat. I will sing it
the way God changed it for me:
He knows it all, He knows it all,
My Father knows it all;
The joy that comes and overflows,
He knows, my Father sends it all.
Yes, He knows. Glory to God!
I had so much trouble, Brother Webster said, that I
took it to the bank yesterday to get rid of it. If I can get it
out today, you can have it.
He went to the bank and asked, How much can I
have?
Why, it is your own, they said. You can have it all.
He came out, gave it to me, and said, There it is! If it is
as much blessing to you as it has been trouble to me, you
will have a lot of blessing.
Yes, beloved, He knows just what you need. Dont you
know that if I had gone to the right place right away, I
would never have been in trouble? What I ought to have
known was this: there was no need for the house at all.
I could not rest. I got rid of the house and took the
money back to Brother Webster and said, Take it back;
take the money back. It will be trouble to me if I keep that
money; take it.
Oh, to be in the will of God!
Dont you see, beloved, there is the word, the word of
wisdom. One word is sufficient; you dont need a lot. One
little word from God is all you require. You can count on it;
it will never fail. It will bring forth what God has desired.
May the Lord give wisdom to you so that you may
rightly [handle] the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), walk in
the fear of the Lord (2 Chron. 19:7), and be an example
to other believers (1 Tim. 4:12). Never take advantage of
the Holy Spirit, but allow the Holy Spirit to take advantage
of you.
I have come to a conclusion that is very beautiful, in my
estimation. I once thought I possessed the Holy Spirit, but
I have come to the conclusion that He has to be entirely
the Possessor of me.
God can tame your tongue. God can so reserve you for
Himself that your entire body will be operating in the
Spirit.
Interpretation of Tongues
The Lord of Hosts is in the place, waiting to change the
human race and fit it for a heavenly place.
7
The Word of Knowledge and Gift of
Faith
To another [is given] the word of knowledge through the
same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:89
We have not passed this way before. 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 Spiritone Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all (vv. 36). The baptism of the
Spirit is to make us all one. Paul told us that by one Spirit
we were all baptized into one bodyand have all been
made to drink into one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). It is Gods
intention that we speak the same thing. If we all have the
full revelation of the Spirit of God, we will all see the same
thing. Paul asked the Corinthians, Is Christ divided? (1
Cor. 1:13). When the Holy Spirit has full control, Christ is
never divided. His body is not divided; there is no division.
Schism and division are products of the carnal mind.
The Word of Knowledge
How important it is that we have the manifestation of
the word of knowledge in our midst. The same Spirit
who brings forth the word of wisdom 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
that 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 for salvation (2
Tim. 3:15) and that open to us the depths of the kingdom
of heaven, revealing all of 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 words that Christ
spoke were not just dead words, but they were spirit and
life (John 6:63). And so it is the intention of God that a
living word, a word of truth, the word of God, a
supernatural word of knowledge will come forth from us
through the power of the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Spirit
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 He should know
nothing among men except Jesus (1 Cor. 2:2). Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). It is as we feed on the
Word and meditate on the message it contains that the
Spirit of God can vitalize what we have received and bring
forth through us the word of knowledge. This word will be
as full of power and life as when He, the Spirit of God,
moved upon holy men in ancient times and gave them the
inspired Scriptures. All the Scriptures were inspired by
God (2 Tim. 3:16) as they came forth at the beginning,
and through the same Spirit they should come forth from
us vitalized, living and powerful, and sharper than any
two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12).
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 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 (Eph. 2:8).
The Power of Faith
We are kept by the power of God through faith. God
gives faith, and nothing can take it away. By faith we have
power to enter into the wonderful things of God. There are
three kinds 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 that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to
Paul, to which he referred in Acts 26, where the Lord
commissioned him to go to the Gentiles:
To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they
may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among
those who are sanctified by faith in Me. (Acts 26:18)
Oh, this wonderful faith of the Lord Jesus. Our faith
comes to an end. 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 my fellow workers in ministry said to me at
Christmastime, Wigglesworth, I was never so near the
end of my finances in my life. I replied, Thank God, you
are just at the opening of Gods treasures. It is when we
are at the end of our own resources that we can enter into
the riches of Gods resources. It is when we possess
nothing that we can possess all things. The Lord will
always meet you when you are on the edge of living.
I was in Ireland one time, and I 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 herself had received the baptism of the Spirit 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 dont
want you to be a 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 had
possessed him, and the home that had once been peaceful
became very terrible. Finally, he left home without leaving
behind any money for his wife. The woman asked me
what she should do.
We went to prayer, and before we had prayed five
minutes, the woman was mightily filled with the Holy
Spirit. 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 Spirit now? I said to her, The
situation is yours. The Word of God says that you have
power to sanctify your husband. (See 1 Corinthians 7:14).
Dare to believe the Word of God. Now the first thing we
must do is to pray that your husband comes back tonight.
She said, I know he wont. I replied, If we agree
together, it is done. She said, I will agree. Then I said
to her, When he comes home, show him all possible love;
lavish everything upon him. If he wont 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 gotten into it 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 conference. She told
how her husband came home that night. He went to bed,
but she prayed right through to victory and then put her
hands on him and prayed. 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 unless you are in constant
pursuit of all the power of God.
One day when I came home from our openair meeting
at eleven oclock, I found that my wife was out. I asked,
Where is she? I was told that she was down at
Mitchells. I had seen Mitchell that day and knew that he
was at the point of death. I knew that it would be
impossible for him to survive the day unless the Lord
undertook to heal him.
There are many who let up in sickness and do not take
hold of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that is provided for
them. For example, I was taken to see a woman who was
dying, and I said to her, How are things with you? She
answered, I have faith; I believe. I said, You know that
you do not have 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
demon 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 saw Mrs.
Mitchell on the staircase and asked, What is up? She
replied, He is gone! He is gone! I just passed by her and
went into the room. 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, Dont, Dad! Dont you see that
he is dead? I continued to pray and my wife continued to
cry out to me, Dont, Dad. Dont you see that he is dead?
But I continued praying. I got as far as I could with my
own faith, and then God laid hold of me. Oh, it was such a
laying hold that I could believe for anything. The faith of
the Lord Jesus laid hold of me, and a solid peace came
into my heart. I shouted, He lives! He lives! He lives! And
he is living today.
There is a difference between our faith and the faith of
the Lord Jesus. The faith of the Lord Jesus is needed. We
must change faith from time to time. Your faith may get to
a place where it wavers. The faith of Christ never wavers.
When you have His 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 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 isnt done. I declared, It is done. This went on for
three weeks, and then the manifestation came. He could
hear distinctly from sixty yards away. When his ears were
opened, he thought it was so great that he had to stop the
meeting and tell everybody about it. I met him in Oakland
recently and he was hearing perfectly. As we remain
steadfast and unmovable on the ground of faith, we will
see in perfect manifestation what we are believing for.
The Gift of Faith
People say to me, Do you not have the gift of faith? I
say that it is an important gift, but that what is still more
important is for us to be making an advancement in God
every moment. Looking at the Word of God, 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
something, and you know that your own faith is nothing in
the situation. The other day I was in San Francisco. I was
sitting on a streetcar, and I saw a boy in great agony on
the street. I said, Let me get out. I rushed to where the
boy was. He was in agony because of stomach cramps. I
put my hand on his stomach in the name of Jesus. The boy
jumped and stared at me with astonishment. He found
himself instantly free of pain. 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
person, 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.
Jesus said to the man, Stretch out your hand (Matt.
12:13). His word had creative force. He was not living on
the edge of speculation. He spoke and something
happened. He spoke at the beginning, and the world came
into being. He speaks today, and things such as I have just
described have to come to pass. He is the Son of God, and
He came to bring us into sonship. He was the firstfruits
of the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20), and He calls us to be
firstfruits (James 1:18), to be the same kind of fruit as
Himself.
There is an important point here. You cannot have the
gifts by mere human desire. The Spirit of God distributes
them to each one individually as He wills (1 Cor. 12:11).
God cannot trust some people with a gift, but those who
have a humble, broken, contrite heart He can trust (Isa.
66:2).
One day I was in a meeting where there were a lot of
doctors and eminent men and many ministers. It was at a
conference, and the power of God fell on the meeting. One
humble little girl who served as a waitress opened her
being to the Lord and was immediately filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak in tongues. All these big men
stretched their necks and looked up to see what was
happening. They were saying, Who is it? Then they
learned it was the servant. Nobody received except the
servant! These things are hidden and kept back from the
wise and prudent (Matt. 11:25), but the little children,
the humble ones, are the ones who receive. We cannot
have faith if we show undue deference to one another. A
man who is going on with God wont accept honor from his
fellow beings. God honors the man who has a broken,
contrite spirit. How can I get to that place?
So many people want to do great things and to be seen
doing them, but the one whom God will use is the one who
is willing to be told what to do. My Lord Jesus never said
He could do things, but He did them. When that funeral
procession was coming up from Nain with the widows son
being carried in an open coffin, Jesus made them lay the
coffin down. (See Luke 7:1114.) He spoke the word,
Arise (v. 14), and gave the son back to the widow. He
had compassion for her. And you and I will never do
anything except along the lines of compassion. We will
never be able to remove the cancer until we are immersed
so deeply in the power of the Holy Spirit that the
compassion of Christ is moving through us.
I find that in everything my Lord did, He said that He did
not do it but that Another who was in Him did the work
(John 14:10). 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 move mountains and
do not have love, all is a failure. When my love is so
deepened in God that I only move for the glory of God,
then the gifts can be made manifest. God wants to be
manifested and to manifest His glory to those who are
humble.
A faint heart can never have a gift. Two things are
essential: first, love; and secondly, determinationa
boldness of faith that will cause God to fulfill His Word.
When I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I had a
wonderful time and had utterances in the Spirit, but for
some time afterward, I did not again speak in tongues.
One day, as I was ministering to another, the Lord again
gave me utterances in the Spirit. After this, I was going
down the road one day and speaking in tongues a long
while. There were some gardeners doing their work, and
they stuck their heads out over the hedges 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 Ill stay right here until I get it. And
from that hour, the Lord has given me interpretation.
One time I was in Lincolnshire in England and came in
touch with the old rector of the church there. He became
very interested in what I had to say, and he 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 already 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.
8
Gifts of Healing and the Working of
Miracles
To another [are given] the gifts of healing by the same
Spirit; to another the working of miracles.
1 Corinthians 12:910 (kjv)
God has given us much in these last days, and where
much is given, much will be required (Luke 12:48). The
Lord has said to us:
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its
flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for
nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by
men. (Matt. 5:13)
Our Lord Jesus expressed a similar thought when He
said, If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a
branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw
them into the fire, and they are burned (John 15:6). On
the other hand, He told us, If you abide in Me, and My
words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it
shall be done for you (John 15:7).
If we do not move on with the Lord in these days, if we
do not walk in the light of revealed truth, we will become
as flavorless salt or a withered branch. This one thing we
must do: Forgetting those things which are behindboth
the past failures and the past blessingswe must reach
forth for those things that are before us and press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus (Phil. 3:1314 kjv).
For many years, the Lord has been moving me on and
keeping me from spiritual stagnation. When I was in the
Wesleyan Methodist Church, I was sure I was saved, and I
was sure I was all right. The Lord said to me, Come out,
and I came out. When I was with the people known as the
Brethren, I was sure I was all right then. But the Lord said,
Come out. Then I went into the Salvation Army. At that
time, it was full of life, and there were revivals
everywhere. But the Salvation Army went into natural
things, and the great revivals that they had in those early
days ceased. The Lord said to me, Come out, and I
came out. I have had to come out three times since. I
believe that this Pentecostal revival that we are now in is
the best thing that the Lord has on the earth today; and
yet I believe that God will bring something out of this
revival that is going to be still better. God has no use for
anyone who is not hungering and thirsting for even more
of Himself and His righteousness.
The Lord has told us to earnestly desire the best gifts
(1 Cor. 12:31), and we need to earnestly desire those gifts
that will bring Him the most glory. We need to see the
gifts of healing and the working of miracles in operation
today. Some say that it is necessary for us to have the gift
of discernment in operation with the gifts of healing, but
even apart from this gift, I believe that the Holy Spirit will
have a divine revelation for us as we deal with the sick.
Most people think they have discernment; but if they
would turn their discernment on themselves for twelve
months, they would never want to discern again. The gift
of discernment is not criticism. I am satisfied that in
Pentecostal circles today, our paramount need is more
perfect love.
Perfect love will never want the preeminence in
everything; it will never want to take the place of another;
it will always be willing to take the back seat. If you go to
a Bible conference, there is always someone who wants to
give a message, who wants to be heard. If you have a
desire to go to a conference, you should have three things
settled in your mind: Do I want to be heard? Do I want to
be seen? Do I want anything on the line of finances? If I
have these things in my heart, I have no right to be there.
The one thing that must move us is the constraining
love of God to minister for Him. A preacher always loses
out when he gets his mind on finances. It is advisable for
Pentecostal preachers to avoid making much of finances
except to stir people up to help support our missionaries
financially. A preacher who gets big collections for the
missionaries never needs to fear; the Lord will take care
of his finances.
A preacher should not arrive at a place and say that
God has sent him. I am always fearful when I hear a man
advertising this. If he is sent by God, the believers will
know it. God has His plans for His servants, and we must
live in His plans so completely that He will place us where
He wants us. If you seek nothing but the will of God, He
will always put you in the right place at the right time.
I want you to see that the gifts of healing and the
working of miracles are part of the Spirits plan and will
come forth in operation as we are working along that plan.
I must know the movement of the Spirit and the voice of
God. I must understand the will of God if I am to see the
gifts of the Spirit in operation.
Healing Power
The people of the Holy Spirit have a ministry. Everyone
who has received the Holy Spirit is so filled with the Spirit
that, without having the specific gift of healing, the Holy
Spirit within him may bring forth healing power.
That is the reason I say to you, Never be afraid of
coming near me when I am praying for the sick. I love to
have people help me. Why? Because I know that there are
people who have a very dim conception of what they have.
I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit you have
received has power to bring you into focus in such a way
that you will dare to believe God for healing, apart from
knowing you have a gift.
The Gifts of Healing
Now I will deal with the gift itself. It is actually gifts of
healing, not the gift of healing. There is a difference, and
we must give it the proper name. Gifts of healing can deal
with every case of sickness, every disease that there is.
These gifts are so full that they are beyond human
expression, but you come into the fullness of them as the
light brings revelation to you.
There is something about a divine healing meeting that
may be different in some respects than other meetings. I
have people continually coming to me and saying, When
you are preaching, I see a halo around you, or When you
are preaching, I have seen angels standing around you.
I hear these things from time to time, and I am thankful
that people have such spiritual vision. I do not have that
kind of vision; however, I have the express glory, the glory
of the Lord, covering me, the intense inner working of His
power, until every time I have stood before you, I have
known that I have not had to choose the words I have
spoken. The language has been chosen, the thoughts have
been chosen, and I have been speaking in prophecy more
than in any other way. So I know we have been in the
school of the Holy Spirit in a great way.
The only vision I have had in a divine healing meeting is
this: so often, when I have laid hands upon the people, I
have seen two hands go before my hands. This has
happened many, many times.
The person who has the gifts of healing does not look to
see what is happening. You will notice that after I have
finished ministering, many things are manifested, but they
dont move me. I am not moved by anything I see.
The divine gifts of healing are so profound in the person
who has them that there is no such thing as doubt, and
there could not be; whatever happens could not change
the persons opinion or thought or act. He expects the very
thing that God intends him to have as he lays hands upon
the seeker.
Wherever I go, the manifestation of divine healing is
considerably greater in every way after I leave than when
I am there. Why? It is Gods plan for me. God has great
grace over me. Wonderful things have been accomplished,
and people have told me what happened when I was
there, but these things were hidden from me. God has a
reason why He hides things from me.
When I lay hands upon people for a specific thing, I tell
you, that thing will take place. I believe it will be so, and I
never turn my ears or my eyes from the fact. It has to be
so.
The gift of divine healing is more than audacity; it is
more than an unction. Those are two big things; however,
the gift of healing is the solid fact of a divine nature within
the person pressing forward the very nature and act of the
Lord, as if He were there. We are in this place to glorify
the Father, and the Father will be glorified in the Son since
we are not afraid of taking action in this day.
The gift of healing is a fact. It is a production; it is a
faith; it is an unwavering trust; it is a confidence; it is a
reliability; it knows it will be.
People sometimes come to me very troubled. They say,
I had the gift of healing once, but something has
happened and I do not have it now.
They never had it. The gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable (Rom. 11:29), and they remain under every
circumstance except this: if you fall from grace and use a
gift, it will work against you. If you use tongues out of the
will of God, interpretation will condemn you. If you have
been used and the gift has been exercised and then you
have fallen from your high place, it will work against you.
Ministering Healing
The gifts of healing are so varied. You may go to see
ten people, and every case will be different. I am never
happier in the Lord than when I am in a bedroom with a
sick person. I have had more revelations of the Lords
presence when I have ministered to the sick at their
bedsides than at any other time. It is as your heart goes
out to the needy ones in deep compassion that the Lord
manifests His presence. You are able to discern their
conditions. It is then that you know you must be filled with
the Spirit to deal with the conditions before you.
When people are sick, you frequently find that they are
ignorant about Scripture. They usually know three
Scriptures, though. They know about Pauls thorn in the
flesh (2 Cor. 12:7); they know that Paul told Timothy to
take a little wine for his stomachs sake (1 Tim. 5:23);
and they know that Paul left someone sick somewhere, but
they dont remember his name or the place, and they dont
know in what chapter of the Bible it is found. (See 2
Timothy 4:20.) Most people think they have a thorn in the
flesh. The chief thing in dealing with a person who is sick
is to discern his exact condition. As you are ministering
under the Spirits power, the Lord will let you see just
what will be the most helpful and the most faithinspiring to
him.
When I was in the plumbing business, I enjoyed praying
for the sick. Urgent calls would come, and I would have no
time to wash. With my hands all black, I would preach to
these sick ones, my heart all aglow with love. Ah, your
heart must be in it when you pray for the sick. You have to
get right to the bottom of the cancer with a divine
compassion, and then you will see the gifts of the Spirit in
operation.
I was called at ten oclock one night to pray for a young
person who was dying of consumption and whom the
doctor had given up on. As I looked, I saw that unless God
intervened, it would be impossible for her to live. I turned
to the mother and said, Well, Mother, you will have to go
to bed. She said, Oh, I have not had my clothes off for
three weeks. I said to the daughters, You will have to go
to bed, but they did not want to go. It was the same with
the son. I put on my overcoat and said, Goodbye, Im
leaving. They said, Oh, dont leave us. I said, I can do
nothing here. They said, Oh, if you will stay, we will all
go to bed.
I knew that God would not move in an atmosphere of
mere natural sympathy and unbelief. They all went to bed,
and I stayed, and that was surely a time as I knelt by that
bed face-to-face with death and the Devil. But God can
change the hardest situation and make you know that He
is almighty.
Then the fight came. It seemed as though the heavens
were brass. I prayed from 11:00 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. I saw
the glimmering light on the face of the sufferer and saw
her pass away. The Devil said, Now you are done for. You
have come from Bradford, and the girl has died on your
hands. I said, It cant be. God did not send me here for
nothing. This is a time to change strength. I remembered
the passage that said, Men always ought to pray and not
lose heart (Luke 18:1). Death had taken place, but I knew
that my God was all-powerful and that He who had split
the Red Sea is just the same today. It was a time when I
would not accept No and God said Yes.
I looked at the window, and at that moment, the face of
Jesus appeared. It seemed as though a million rays of light
were coming from His face. As He looked at the one who
had just passed away, the color came back to her face.
She rolled over and fell asleep. Then I had a glorious time.
In the morning she woke early, put on a dressing gown,
and walked to the piano. She started to play and to sing a
wonderful song. The mother and the sister and the
brother all came down to listen. The Lord had intervened.
A miracle had been worked.
The Lord is calling us along this way. I thank God for
difficult cases. The Lord has called us into heart union with
Himself; He wants His bride to have one heart and one
Spirit with Him and to do what He Himself loved to do.
That case had to be a miracle. The lungs were gone; they
were just in shreds. Yet the Lord restored her lungs,
making them perfectly sound.
A fruit of the Spirit that must accompany the gift of
healing is long-suffering. The man who is persevering with
God to be used in healing must be a man of long-suffering.
He must always be ready with a word of comfort. If the
sick one is in distress and helpless and does not see
everything eye to eye with you, you must bear with him.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was filled with compassion and lived
and moved in a place of long-suffering, and we will have
to get into this place if we are to help needy ones.
There are some times when you pray for the sick, and
you seem to be rough with them. But you are not dealing
with a person; you are dealing with satanic forces that are
binding the person. Your heart is full of love and
compassion toward all; however, you are moved to a holy
anger as you see the place the Devil has taken in the body
of the sick one, and you deal with his position with a real
forcefulness.
One day a pet dog followed a lady out of her house and
ran all around her feet. She said to the dog, My dear, I
cannot have you with me today. The dog wagged its tail
and made a big fuss. She said, Go home, my dear. But
the dog did not go. At last she shouted roughly, Go
home, and off it went. Some people deal with the Devil
like that. The Devil can stand all the comfort you like to
give him. Cast him out! You are not dealing with the
person; you are dealing with the Devil. Demon power must
be dislodged in the name of the Lord.
You are always right when you dare to deal with
sickness as with the Devil. Much sickness is caused by
some misconduct; there is something wrong, there is
some neglect somewhere, and Satan has had a chance to
get in. It is necessary to repent and confess where you
have given place to the Devil (Eph. 4:27), and then he can
be dealt with.
When you deal with a cancer case, recognize that a
living evil spirit is destroying the body. I had to pray for a
woman in Los Angeles one time who was suffering with
cancer, and as soon as it was cursed, it stopped bleeding.
It was dead. The next thing that happened was that the
natural body pushed it out, because the natural body had
no room for dead matter. It came out like a great big ball
with tens of thousands of fibers. All these fibers had been
pressing into the flesh. These evil powers move to get
further hold of the bodys system, but the moment they
are destroyed, their hold is gone. Jesus told His disciples
that He gave them power to loose and power to bind
(Matt. 16:19). It is our privilege in the power of the Holy
Spirit to loose the prisoners of Satan and to let the
oppressed go free.
Take your position from the first epistle of John and
declare, He who is in [me] is greater than he who is in
the world (1 John 4:4). Then recognize that it is not you
who has to deal with the power of the Devil, but the
Greater One who is in you. Oh, what it means to be filled
with Him! You can do nothing in yourself, but He who is in
you will win the victory. Your being has become the temple
of the Spirit. Your mouth, your mind, your whole being
may be used and worked upon by the Spirit of God.
I was called to a certain town in Norway. The hall
seated about fifteen hundred people. When I got to the
place, it was packed, and hundreds were trying to get in.
There were some policemen there. The first thing I did
was to preach to the people outside the building. Then I
said to the policemen, It hurts me very much that there
are more people outside than inside, and I feel I must
preach to the people. I would like you to get me the
marketplace to preach in. They secured a large park for
me, and a big stand was erected, and I was able to
preach to thousands.
After the preaching, we had some marvelous cases of
healing. One man came a hundred miles, bringing his food
with him. He had not been passing anything through his
stomach for over a month because he had a large cancer
on his stomach. He was healed at that meeting, and
opening his package, he began eating for all the people to
see.
There was a young woman there with a stiff hand.
When she was a child, her mother, instead of making her
use her arm, had allowed her to keep it dormant until it
was stiff. This young woman was like the woman in the
Bible who was bent over with the spirit of infirmity (Luke
13:11). As she stood before me, I cursed the spirit of
infirmity in the name of Jesus. It was instantly cast out and
the arm was free. Then she waved her hand all around.
At the close of the meeting, the Devil threw two people
to the ground with fits. When the Devil is manifesting
himself, then is the time to deal with him. Both of these
people were delivered, and when they stood up and
thanked and praised the Lord, what a wonderful time we
had.
We need to wake up and strive to believe God. Before
God could bring me to this place, He broke me a thousand
times. I have wept; I have groaned. I have travailed many
a night until God broke me. It seems to me that until God
has mowed you down, you can never have this long-
suffering for others. We will never have the gifts of healing
and the working of miracles in operation unless we stand
in the divine power that God gives us, unless we stand
believing God and having done all (Eph. 6:13), we still
stand believing.
We have been seeing wonderful miracles during these
last days, and they are only a little of what we are going to
see. I believe that we are right on the threshold of
wonderful things, but I want to emphasize that all these
things will be only through the power of the Holy Spirit.
You must not think that these gifts will fall upon you like
ripe cherries. There is a sense in which you have to pay
the price for everything you get. We must earnestly desire
Gods best gifts and say Amen to any preparation the
Lord takes us through. In this way, we will be humble,
useable vessels through whom He Himself can operate by
means of the Spirits power.
9
The Gift of Prophecy
To another [is given] prophecy.
1 Corinthians 12:10
I want you to understand clearly that there are three
kinds of prophecy. Get this in your heart, because Paul
said, I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more
that you prophesied (1 Cor. 14:5).
Testimonial Prophecy
First, there is the prophecy that is the testimony of the
saved person regarding what Jesus has done for him.
Everyone, every newborn soul, has this kind of prophecy.
Through the new birth that results in righteousness, God
has given an anointing of the Spirit, a real unction of the
Spirit of Christ. We felt when we were saved that we
wanted everybody to be saved. That mindset has to be
continuous; the whole world can be regenerated by the
spirit of prophecy as we testify of our salvation in Christ.
This kind of prophecy was described by an inhabitant of
heaven to the apostle John in Revelation 19:10:
And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me,
See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and
of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.
Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of
prophecy.
This is the same prophecy that Paul spoke about in 1
Corinthians 14:1: Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts,
but especially that you may prophesy. This verse
identifies prophecy as being more important than other
gifts. Think about that: prophecy is to be chosen and
desired above all the other gifts; the greatest among all
the gifts is prophecy.
Why prophecy? Because prophecy by the power of the
Spirit is the only power that saves humanity. We are told
in the Word of God that the Gospel that is presented
through prophecy has power to bring immortality and light.
(See 2 Timothy 1:10.) Immortality is what abides forever.
Light is what opens the understanding of your heart. Light
and immortality come by the Gospel.
Prophecy is to be desired above all things, and every
Christian has to have it. Every believer may have gifts,
though there are very few who do; however, every
believer has testimonial prophecy.
Now, from that same reference in Revelation 19:10, let
us see what testimonial prophecy is and how it comes
forth.
I fell at his feet. Who is this inhabitant of heaven? The
one speaking to John is a man who has been on the earth.
Lots of people are foolishly led by the Devil to believe that
after they die, their spirits will be asleep in the grave; this
is absolutely contrary to the Word of God. Dont you know
that even if you live until the Lord comes, the body that
you have must be put off and another must be put on,
because you cannot go into heaven with your present
body? Nothing makes you so foolish as to turn aside from
the Word of God. If you ever want to be a fool, turn aside
from the Word of God, and you will find yourself in a fools
paradise.
This man has been in the earth in the body and is now
in heaven in the spirit, and he wants you to hear what he
has to say: I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren
who have the testimony of Jesus.For the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10).
What is the testimony of Jesus? The testimony is:
Jesus has saved me. What the world wants to know
today is how they can be saved.
Testify that you are saved. Your knees may knock
together, you may be trembling as you do it, but when you
get it out, you enter into the spirit of prophecy. Before you
know where you are, you are saying things that the Spirit
is saying.
There are thousands of Christians who have never
received the baptism of the Holy Spirit but who have this
wonderful spirit of prophecy. People are being saved
everywhere by the testimony of such believers.
John Wesley was moved by the power of God, and he
created revivals all over the world. After the people were
saved, they testified.
If you cease from testifying, you will be sorry when you
give an account of your life before God (Rom. 14:12). As
you testify, you will be a vessel through which the power
of God can bring salvation to people (1:16). Testify
wherever you are.
Interpretation of Tongues
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and
ordained you that you should go forth, your feet shod with
the preparation of the Gospel of peace. What lovely feet!
What lovely desire! A desire in your heart, because you
are saved, to get everybody saved. The spirit of prophecy!
You must all preach from now on. Every one of you
must be a preacher. You have a prophecy that has come
from heaven to change you from vile inward corruption, to
do away with your human, evil nature, and to put within
you a spirit of testimony. You know that where once you
were dead, behold, you are alive! (See Luke 15:24.)
Interpretation of Tongues
Live in the place where the Lord your God moves you,
not to go from house to house nor speak from person to
person, but where the Lord directs you, for He has the
person who is in need of truth waiting for watering with
your watering can.
Oh, how the Lord wants to cheer you today! Do not
forget that you are ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20).
Do not forget that you are now in the place where the
prophets have a chance.
The Lord can bring you into a great place of splendor.
He has His hand upon you. Whatever you do, desire to be
holy, seek to be clean, so that you might always bear
about in your body not only the dying of the Lord but also
the life of the resurrection of the Lord (2 Cor. 4:10).
Interpretation
Lift up your hands and never be feeble, for the Lord has
said, Lift up holy hands. Dont be afraid of coming into
the treasury, of making your hands clean, for they who
bear the vessels of the Lord have to be only unto the Lord.
So the Lord is bringing you to this great place of His
pavilion so that He may clothe you upon with the Spirit,
that your water will not fail. He will give you water and
seed for your ministry, for remember, it is the same water
and it is the same sower. So dont forget, beloved, you are
coworkers together with Him, and your ministry in the Lord
is not to be in vain. See to it that you live so that your seed
is well watered.
Now, that is one kind of prophecy. General Booth, the
founder of the Salvation Army, knew it. He got the vision
as clear as anything from Wesley. The greatest revival
that has ever swept the earth that we remember is the
revival the Salvation Army brought.
God revealed Himself to Booth. Those who were saved
testified. God moved the people who were savedformer
drunkards and prostitutesinto the streets to prophesy in
the Spirit of Jesus. This is the prophecy that you all have
when you are saved. The spirit of prophecy is the
testimony that you are saved by the blood of the Lamb.
Anointed Prophecy
The next type of prophecy is given by the preacher who
lives in anointing, in prophetic utterances. You will find that
I mostly speak in prophecy. Why? Well, it has pleased the
Lord to bring me into this way of ministering so that I do
not come to the platform with thoughtthat is, not with
any thoughts of what I am going to say.
I want you to know another thing: I never say what I
think. It is very much below a prophet of the Lord to begin
to speak what he thinks to the people. The prophet must
always say what he knows, because the people he is
speaking to are the ones who have to think it out; but he is
in the place of knowledge. The Holy Spirit takes the
thoughts of Jesus and fills the prophet with divine life until
he speaks divine utterances, until he knows.
Sometimes I speak quite a bit; I never take any thought
at all concerning what I am speaking, but it flows out like
rivers, prophecy of divine power. My natural makeup is not
full, but my supernatural makeup is an overflowing full. I
depend upon an overflowing full so that you may get
something out of it, so that you also may be full to
overflowing.
It is very important and very essential that the person
who preaches should live in prophetic utterances. Then a
preacher will never be lamentable in his divine position. He
is standing before people as a chosen one of God. He is
not in any way to preach anything unless he knows it is the
Word of God, and there he is to be clothed with holiness
like a garment of salvation.
Oh, this is true! The Spirit of the Lord is upon me now. I
know it; I feel it. It is moving me; it chastens me; it is
bringing me to a place where I know that if you listen, you
will be blessed. The blessing of the Lord is upon you.
Hear, for the Spirit speaks to you.
This is prophecy as the Spirit gives forth. It is the
illumination of truth by the Word of Life. The Holy Spirit
has the chief position in the place, taking words, actions,
and everything else until the prophet stands there
complete, the oracle of God, speaking words absolutely as
if the Lord were here saying them.
These first two kinds of prophecy are divine inspiration,
Holy Spirit utterances. In a very remarkable way by the
Spirit of Jesus, every person can feel burnings and
movings, chastenings and thrillings. It is wonderful. All you
have to do is begin and you cannot stop.
There was something done on the cross that is truly
wonderful. Dont you know you were made every bit
whole? You were made holy; you were made a saint; you
were absolutely cleansed from all unrighteousness. The
new birth is a revelation of God in the soul. You are made
His forever when you are saved by His power. No one can
estimate the new birth; it is beyond all human power to
estimate. The new birth is larger than our human
capacities. And, thank God, we have touches from Him
that make us on fire.
The Gift of Prophecy
We will now look at divine prophecy as a gift. I trust
that many of you will have this gift.
This is the most wonderful of all prophecy and yet the
most dangerous. There is a great deal of trouble in
relation to the gift of prophecy; there always has been. So
I want you to guard this gift. With the gift of prophecy,
what you need to watch is this (it is the same with the gift
of tongues and the gift of healing): even though the gift
has been received and the people have been blessed
through the gift, you are never to use the gift unless the
power of the Spirit brings into you a great thirst and
longing to do it. It would be a serious thing for me to
speak in tongues at any moment just because I had the
gift; without the unction of the Spirit, it would fall to
nothing.
All gifts are of no account at all unless they are brought
forth by the Giver of the gifts, and the Holy Spirit is the
One who gives the nine gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12. He
brings anointing, fire, confirmation, and utterance, until
those who hear are moved. When the Lord speaks, it
changes and moves the natural, because it is
supernatural. Supernatural always changes natural.
Prophecy is lovely because it makes the body very full of
expressions of joy. It is lovely, for people all like to hear it.
It is lovely when it is the Spirit moving.
Be careful when people are very pleased to hear you
prophesy. Prophecy is like tongues; no man who speaks
and speaks and speaks and speaks in tongues is to have
control in a meeting. That is not what it means to have the
advantage in a meeting. Having the advantage means that
when the Spirit is upon you, you will speak in tongues, and
you will close down the moment you know you are at the
end. What spoils it is when people go on and on, and the
hearers get tired of it because they want something that
God can bring in and move quickly.
Dont think you will be heard by your many words
(Matt. 6:7), either by tongues, prayer, or anything else.
You are not heard because of your many words; you are
heard because you are definite. All your spiritual abilities
are going to be acceptable with others as you learn how to
obey the Spirit and never to take advantage just because
you are present in a meeting.
Here is another thing you have to learn: people rush up
and down sometimes, and then they say to you, Oh, I had
to do that! I had to jump up and do that. I had to do that
and thatand that.
Dont believe them; it isnt true. There never was a
person in the world, as long as he was in the body, who
didnt have power over his spirit. And so, when people
rush to you and say they have to do this, that, and the
other, dont believe it. What are you to believe? You are to
believe that when the Spirit is manifested in the order it
should be, it will have three things with it: comfort,
exhortation, and edification (1 Cor. 14:3).
If any of you find that I do not speak by the Spirit of God
and teach the Scriptures only, which is what God desires,
you meet me at the door and tell me. I have declared that
this will be my constant purpose. I have declared that as
long as I live, I will never exaggerate. Exaggeration is
lying. What God wants is a people who are full of truth. I
want God to so have you that your word will be your bond.
Whenever you say anything, the people will be able to
believe it; you have said it, and you will do it.
When the unction is upon you, when the power of God
is manifested through you, one thing that will be
accomplished by prophecy is comfort. The Holy Spirit can
so have you in prophecy that all the people will be
comforted.
But if you get away from that prophecy because you
begin and the people are delighted, and if you go on until
you come out with your own human words, you will lead
people astray. People have been led to buy houses, to do
all sorts of silly things, because of people who did not obey
the Lord but brought in some human prophecy.
If anybody ever comes to you with human prophecy,
say, I know God, and unless God tells me, I wont move.
Dont be deluded by anybody. You can tell what is of the
Lord. The Word of God distinctly says, Do not despise
prophecies (1 Thess. 5:20). So whatever you do, do not
despise them. However, in the next verse you are told to
test all things (v. 21). Therefore, you may say, Well
now, if that is of the Lord, I will see if it corresponds to the
Word of God. And you will have clear revelation as to
whether it is the word of the Lord.
This is the day in which we need comforting, and the
power of the Spirit can comfort you and send you away
from these meetings knowing that you have been in the
presence of God and have heard the Word of God.
There are people who, like Isaiah, have the gift of
prophecy. Isaiah was so filled with this prophecy. He said,
Unto us a Son is given (Isa. 9:6). This was definite,
personal, truth, and knowledge. It took five hundred years
to bring it to pass, but there it was, definitely declared
beforehand:
And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His
name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (v. 6)
Oh, hallelujah! All the way down through the Scriptures
you will find such distinct prophecy. You will see the book
of Isaiah filled with prophetic utterances. Begin with
Genesis and go right through, and you will find the golden
or the scarlet thread right through all the prophecies,
declaring, He is coming, He is coming! He is on the way;
He will surely come!
At the birth of Christ, the angels sang; the Babe was
born. Prophecy was fulfilled!
And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His
people from their sins.
(Matt. 1:21)
And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe
wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.(Luke
2:12)
Prophecy was also fulfilled in Jesus crucifixion and
resurrection:
You know that after two days is the Passover, and the
Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. (Matt.
26:2)
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
(John 3:14)
Ah, beloved, God can give you prophecy that will fulfill
the past to a perfect degree, chapter and verse.
He is coming. Glory to God! The saints will be
awakened; prophecy will appear. People will say, Yes, He
is coming; we know He is coming!
And He will come!
10
The Discerning of Spirits
To another [is given] discerning of spirits.
1 Corinthians 12:10
Discernment is a very necessary gift to understand, and
I want you to keep your mind clearly balanced about this. I
want you to rightly divide this truth (2 Tim. 2:15), to keep
clear in your mind what it is.
Discernment versus Judging
In 1 Corinthians 12:10, it clearly says that there is a gift
of discerning of spirits, but most people seem to think it
is a discerning of human persons. It is amazing to find that
all the people I come acrossor most of themseem to
have a tremendous bent toward discerning others. If you
carefully put this discerning of one another into real
practice upon yourself for twelve months, you will never
presume to try it upon another. You will see so many
faults, so many crooked things about yourself, that you will
say, O God, make me right!
There is a vast difference between natural discernment
and spiritual discernment. This statement of Jesus is
remarkable:
How can you say to your brother, Let me remove the
speck from your eye; and look, a plank is in your own
eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye,
and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from
your brothers eye.(Matt. 7:45)
Remember that if you begin judging, it will lead you to
judgment (vv. 12). If you begin using your discernment to
weigh people by your standards, it will lead you to
judgment. Ever since God showed me a certain passage in
Romans 2, I have been very careful to examine myself
before I begin judging:
Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you
are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you
condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same
things. But we know that the judgment of God is according
to truth against those who practice such things. And do
you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such
things, and doing the same, that you will escape the
judgment of God?(Rom. 2:13)
Balance that in your heart. It will save you from judging.
I have found that there are many notable people in the
world, whom I have known personally, who have gotten to
running another person down and finding fault. They are
always faultfinding and judging people outright. I find that
those people always fall in the mire. If I were to mention
these people by name, you would know that what I am
saying is true.
God save us from criticism! When we are pure in heart,
we only think about pure things. When we are impure in
heart, we speak and act and think as we are in our hearts.
The pure in heart see purity. May God give us that inward
desire for purity so that He can take away judging.
In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, we read of the prophet
being in the presence of God. He found that even his lips
were unclean, that everything was unclean (Isa. 6:5). But
praise God, there is the same live coal for us today (vv. 6
7), the baptism of fire, the perfecting of the heart, the
purifying of the mind, the regeneration of the spirit. How
important it is that the fire of God touches our tongues!
Discerning Spirits
But it is the discerning of spirits that I want to talk
about, as well as what to do when you have no
discernment.
In 1 John 4:1 we are told, Beloved, do not believe
every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.
We are further told:
And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of
the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is
now already in the world.(1 John 4:3)
From time to time, as I have seen a person under a
power of evil or having a fit, I have said to the power of
evil or satanic force that is within the possessed person,
Did Jesus Christ come in the flesh? and right away they
have answered no. They either say no or hold their
tongues, refusing altogether to acknowledge that the Lord
Jesus Christ came in the flesh. It is at a time like this
when, remembering that further statement of Johns, He
who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1
John 4:4), you can, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
deal with the evil powers and command them to come out.
We, as Pentecostal people, must know the tactics of the
Evil One, and we must be able to displace and dislodge
him from his position.
To discern spirits, we must dwell with Him who is holy,
and He will give the revelation and unveil the mask of
satanic power, whatever it is. In Australia, I went to one
place where there were disrupted and broken homes. The
people were so deluded by the evil power of Satan that
men had left their wives and wives had left their husbands
and they had gotten into spiritual affinity with one another.
That is the Devil! May God deliver us from such evils in
these days. There is no one better than the companion
God has given you. I have seen so many broken hearts
and so many homes that have been wrecked. We need a
real revelation of these evil seducing spirits who come in
and fascinate through the eyes, and who destroy lives,
bringing the work of God into disrepute. But there is
always flesh behind it. It is never clean; it is unholy,
impure, satanic, devilish; and hell is behind it. If the
Enemy comes in to tempt you in any way like this, I
implore you to look instantly to the Lord Jesus. He can
deliver you from any such satanic power. You must be
separated in every way if you are going to have faith.
The Holy Spirit will give us this gift of the discerning of
spirits if we desire it so that we may perceive by revelation
this evil power that comes in to destroy. We can reach out
and get this unction of the Spirit that will reveal these
things to us.
People will come to your meetings who are Spiritualists.
You must be able to deal with spiritualistic conditions. You
can deal with them in such a way that they will not have
any power in the meetings. If you ever have mystics or
Christian Scientists in your meetings, you must be able to
discern them and deal with them. Never play with them;
always clear them out. They are always better with their
own company, unless they are willing to be delivered from
the delusion they are in. Remember the warning of the
Lord Jesus: The thief does not come except to steal, and
to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10).
Seek the Lord, and He will sanctify every thought, every
action, until your whole being is ablaze with holy purity
and your one desire is for Him who has created you in
holiness. Oh, this holiness! Can we be made pure? We
can. Every inbred sin must go. God can cleanse away
every evil thought. Can we have a hatred for sin and a
love for righteousness? Yes, God will create within you a
pure heart. He will take away your stony heart and give
you a heart of flesh. He will sprinkle you with clean water,
and you will be cleansed from all your filthiness (Ezek.
36:2526). When will He do it? When you seek Him for
such inward purity.
Deliverance
Let me tell you what may seem to be a horrible story
for you to hear; nevertheless, it is a situation in which
discernment is necessary. This is happening all the time,
and I do thank God for it because it is teaching me how to
minister to people in the Lord.
Messages came to me again and again by telegraph,
letters, and other things, asking that I come to London. I
wired back and wrote, but so many calls came and no hint
was given in any way as to the reason I was to go there.
The only thing they said was that they were in great
distress.
When I got there, the dear father and mother of the
needy one both took me by the hand and broke down and
wept.
Surely this is deep sorrow of heart, I said.
They led me up onto the balcony. Then they pointed to
a door that was open a little, and both of them left me. I
went in that door and I have never seen a sight like it in all
my life. I saw a young woman who was beautiful to look
at, but she had four big men holding her down to the floor,
and her clothing was torn from the struggle.
When I got into the room and looked into her eyes, her
eyes rolled but she could not speak. She was exactly like
the man in the Bible who came out of the tombs and ran
to Jesus when he saw Him. As soon as he got to Jesus, he
couldnt speak, but the demon powers spoke. (See Mark
5:113.) And the demon powers in this young girl spoke
and said: I know you. You cant cast us out; we are
many.
Yes, I said, I know you are many, but my Lord Jesus
will cast you all out.
It was a wonderful moment; it was a moment when it
was only He alone who could do it.
The power of Satan was so great upon this beautiful
girl that she whirled and broke away from these four
strong men.
The Spirit of the Lord was wonderful in me, and I went
right up to her and looked into her face. I saw the evil
powers there; her very eyes flashed with demon power.
In the name of Jesus, I said, I command you to leave.
Though you are many, I command you to leave this
moment, in the name of Jesus.
She instantly became sick and began vomiting. She
vomited out thirty-seven evil spirits and gave their names
as they came out. That day she was made as perfect as
anybody.
The next morning at ten oclock, we all shared a meal
together. Praise the Lord!
With the gift of discernment, you are in pursuit of divine
thought; you are in pursuit of divine character; you are in
pursuit of the deep, holy, inward intuition so that you
might know what to do. The Lord of Hosts is in you, and
the Lord of Hosts is with you; His desire is that you should
know how you will be able to do it.
One time I was preaching in Doncaster, England, on the
topic of faith, and a number of people were delivered.
There was a man named Jack present who was greatly
interested and moved by what he saw. He himself was
suffering with a stiff knee and had yards and yards of
flannel wound around it. After he got home, he said to his
wife, I have taken in Wigglesworths message, and now I
am going to act on it and get deliverance. Wife, I want you
to be the audience. He took hold of his knee and said,
Come out, you devil, in the name of Jesus. Then he said,
It is all right, wife. He took the yards and yards of flannel
off and found he was all right without the bandage.
The next night he went to the little Primitive Methodist
church where he worshipped. There were a lot of young
people there who were in bad situations, and Jack had a
tremendous ministry delivering his friends through the
name of Jesus. He had been given to see that a great
many ills to which flesh is heir are nothing else but the
operation of the Enemy; but his faith had risen also, and
he saw that in the name of Jesus there was a power that
was more than a match for the Enemy.
I arrived one night at Gottenberg in Sweden and was
asked to hold a meeting there. In the midst of the
meeting, a man fell full length in the doorway. The evil
spirit threw him down, manifesting itself and disturbing the
whole meeting. I rushed to the door and laid hold of this
man and cried out to the evil spirit within him, Come out,
you devil! In the name of Jesus, we cast you out as an evil
spirit. I lifted him up and said, Stand on your feet and
walk in the name of Jesus. I dont know whether anybody
in the meeting understood me except the interpreter, but
the devils knew what I said. I spoke in English, but these
demons in Sweden cleared out. A similar thing happened
in Oslo, Norway.
The Devil will endeavor to fascinate people through the
eyes and through the mind. One time a beautiful young
woman was brought to me who had been fascinated with
some preacher; just because he had not given her
satisfaction on the lines of courtship and marriage, the
Devil had taken advantage of the situation and had made
her delirious and insane. They had brought her 250 miles
in that condition. She had previously received the baptism
in the Spirit.
You ask, Is there any place for the Enemy in one who
has been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Our only safety is in
going on with God and in constantly being filled with the
Holy Spirit. You must not forget Demas. He must have
been baptized with the Holy Spirit, for he appears to have
been one of Pauls right-hand workers, but the Enemy got
him to the place where he loved this present world, and
he fell away (2 Tim. 4:10).
When they brought this young woman to me, I
discerned the evil power right away and immediately cast
the thing out in the name of Jesus. It was a great joy to
present her before all the people in her right mind again.
There is a life of perfect deliverance, and this is where
God wants you to be. If I find that my peace is disturbed in
any way, I know it is the Enemy who is trying to work.
How do I know this? Because the Lord has promised to
keep your mind in perfect peace when it is focused on Him
(Isaiah 26:3). Paul told us to present our bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is [our]
reasonable service (Rom. 12:1). The Holy Spirit also
spoke this word through Paul: And do not be conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God (v. 2).
Paul further told us in Philippians 4:8:
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever
things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever
things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever
things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there
is anything praiseworthy; meditate on these things.
(Phil. 4:8)
As we think about what is pure, we become pure. As
we think about what is holy, we become holy. And as we
think about our Lord Jesus Christ, we become like Him. We
are changed into the likeness of the object on which our
gaze is fixed.
How to Know the Mind of God
Now we come to the place of how to know the nature of
the spirit we are dealing with. That is a very important
thing. You are always in a dangerous place if you trust in
your own knowledge. Let me say to you that whatever the
Holy Spirit does in these days, He does in order to give you
a new mind. Our new mind is to have the thoughts of
Christ, the mind of Christ.
To have the thoughts and mind of Christ means that you
will never seek to assert yourself for your own glory; now
Another who is greater than you has to take your place
and lead you to where you are in the place of Jesus. And
in that way, the Lord will give you power to discern evil
spirits.
We have struck one of the most holy chords that could
be struck. I have clear confidence that we are in the will of
God in this meeting, and I know the Lord is helping me to
speak to you.
Hindrances to Discernment
I want you to see clearly that you will never be able to
discern or deal with evil powers as long as there is
anything in you that the Devil can touch. You are only able
to do what God desires for you to do as you have come
into the depths of death to self, so that the supernatural
life of Christ is abounding in you to destroy the powers of
evil.
Before Satan can bring his evil spirits, there has to be
an open door. Hear what the Scriptures say: The wicked
one does not touch him (1 John 5:18), and The Lord
shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your
soul (Ps. 121:7). How does Satan get an opening? When
the believer ceases to seek holiness, purity, righteousness,
truth; when he ceases to pray, stops reading the Word,
and gives way to carnal appetites. Then it is that Satan
comes. So often sickness comes as a result of
disobedience. David said, Before I was afflicted I went
astray (Ps. 119:67).
You will never be able to reach out your hand to destroy
the power of Satan as long as there is the vestige of
human desire or attainment in you. It is in the death of the
death that you are in the life of the life. Dont fool yourself;
dont mislead yourself. Never think that God overlooks sins.
Sins have to be dealt with, and the only way God ever
deals with sin is to absolutely destroy its power. You can
be made so clean that the Devil comes and finds nothing in
you. (See John 14:30.) And then you have power by the
power of God over the powers of Satan.
Discernment is not mind or eye. Discernment is an
intuition. Your heart knows exactly what you are dealing
with, and you are dealing with it because of your heart
purity against evil and uncleanness.
God is purifying me in every meeting. I can safely say
that unless the power of the Spirit purges me through and
through, I cannot help you. First of all, before I can give
any life to you, the life must be in me. And remember that
the Scriptures are very clear: death works in us so that life
may work in you. (See 2 Corinthians 4:12.)
Now, the death that is working is all carnal, evil,
sensual. Dont forget the remarkable thing in the
Scriptures that leads us to this; there are sixtysix evil
things listed in the Bible, such as murder, covetousness,
evil propensities. But I am here to say by the power of God
that one fruit will destroy every evil thing. Seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you (Matt. 6:33).
11
How to Discern Voices
There are many voices in the world. I want you to be
able to understand voices, to understand spiritual voices,
to understand exactly what the Scripture means about
these things.
Now, I know there are a good many people who are big
on the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who, you will find, is
trying to delve into mysteries. There is nothing mystical
about what we are doing, and I want to tell everybody
who comes to this place that you will have no share with
us if you have anything to do with spiritualism. We
denounce it as being of the Devil, and we dont want
fellowship with you. If you want to join up with two things
the Lord and the Devilthe Devil will get you in the end.
Now, what is the difference between the spirit of
disobedience (Eph. 2:2) and the spirit of lawless-ness
(2 Thess. 2:78)? They are one and the same. They are
the spirit of antichrist, and they are right in the midst of
things. Spiritualism, Jehovahs Witnesses, Christian
Sciencethey are all related. They have no room for the
blood of Jesus, and you cannot get near God except by the
blood; it is impossible. The blood is the only power that
can make a clear road into the kingdom for youthe blood
of Jesus.
Testing the Spirits
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,
whether they are of God; because many false prophets
have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit
of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not
confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of
God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have
heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You
are of God, little children, and have overcome them,
because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the
world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of
the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He
who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not
hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of
error.(1 John 4:16)
Beloved, you have to be in a position to try the spirits to
see whether they are of God. Why should believers try the
spirits? You can always try the spirits to see whether they
are of God for this reason: you will be able to tell the true
revelation, and the true revelation that will come to you
will always sanctify the heart; it will never have an if in
it. When the Devil came to Jesus, he had an if. He said,
If You are the Son of God (Matt. 4:3), and If You will fall
down and worship me (v. 9). The Holy Spirit never comes
with an if. The Holy Spirit is the divine Orator of this
wonderful Word, but the position of the mystic Conan
Doyle, and others like him, is satanic.
I have often dealt with people under evil powers, people
in fits and other things, and sometimes I have come
across people so much controlled by evil powers that
every time they want to speak, the evil powers speak. It is
a very dangerous condition; but, it is true, people get
possessed by the Devil.
Do you remember the biblical account of the man in the
tomb who was terribly afflicted with evil powers (Mark
5:215)? Strong cords and chains could not hold him.
Night and day, there he was in the tombs, crying out and
cutting himself with stones (v. 5). Jesus came on the
scene, and these evil powers caused the man to run. Now,
it was all in the power of the Devil, and as soon as the
man got in front of Jesus, the evil spirit said, Have You
come here to torment us before the time? (Matt. 8:29).
This man had no power to get free, but these evil spirits
were so troubled in the presence of Jesus that they cried
out, Have You come here to torment us before the time?
Oh, thank God for Jesus. I want you to notice that Jesus
wants you to be so under His power, so controlled by and
filled with the Holy Spirit, that the power of authority in
you will resent all evil.
This is an important lesson for believers, because there
are so many believers who are not on their guard. I want
to impress you with the fact that every believer should
reach a place in the Holy Spirit where he has no desire
except the desire of God. The Holy Spirit has to possess us
until we are filled, led, yes, divinely led, by the Holy Spirit.
It is a mighty thing to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Interpretation of Tongues
The Lord, He is the mighty power of government, for
the Scripture says, The government shall be upon His
shoulders, and now He has taken us on His shoulders;
therefore, let Him lead you where He will.
Do not desire to lead Jesus; if He leads you, He will lead
you into truth. He will lead you into nothingness, but when
you are in nothingness, you will be in power. He will lead
you into weakness, but when you are in weakness, God
will be with you in might; everything that seems weak
from a human perspective will be under the control of
divine power.
Receiving Impressions
Now I want to deal with a very important thing. I have
people by the hundreds who are continually pressing on
me with their difficulties, with their strange and yet holy
and noble desires, where two ways meet and they do not
know which one to take. Some have received impressions
in their minds and hearts, but I want to show you what
comes of impressions.
A person came to me one day and said, Oh, you know
the Spirit of the Lord was mighty upon me this morning.
I said, Good!
Oh, I want to tell you about it. I want you to tell me if
there is such a place as Ingerow anywhere near here.
I answered, Yes, there is.
Well, that place has been on my mind; I have to go
and preach there.
There was nothing wrong with his desire to go preach,
was there?
But I asked, What is the message?
I dont exactly know.
Now come, what is the message? I asked.
Oh, I have to speak to someone about his soul.
And you dont know that there is such a place? The
place is toward Skipton, I replied.
But I have to go.
Now come, I said, I want you to think. You are
working, are you not? Do you think anybody in the mill will
approve of you going to a place you dont know, to speak
to someone you dont know?
Was it of God? That is the first thing. It was an
impression, coming from a desire to be something special.
Thats the danger. My daughter tried to stop her, but she
went the first chance she got. She got to the station, and
there was nobody there. The result was that she was soon
in an asylum.
What was it? An impression. How will we know when
this is the case?
A lady came to me yesterday and said, Dont you know,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me; I have to preach the
Gospel.
I said, There is nothing wrong in that.
I want to know where I have to go to preach, so I have
come to you to see if the Lord has told you where I am to
go.
Yes, you have to begin at home. Begin at Jerusalem,
and if you are successful, go to Judea; then if you are
successful, God will send you to the uttermost parts of the
world.
God is not going to send you to the uttermost parts of
the world until you have been successful around
Jerusalem. We have a tremendously big job; it is well
worth doing, and I want to do it well. I want to tell you the
difference between the right and the wrong way to discern
voices and thoughts that may come into your minds.
You have the Scriptures, and you have the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has wisdom, and He does not expect you to
be foolish. The Holy Spirit has perfect insight into
knowledge and wisdom, and truth always gives you
balance.
You always need to have one thing removed from you:
being terribly afraid. However, fear leaves, and power and
confidence come in its place. You also need to have
another thing that must remain, and that is love: love in
order to obey God rather than your inclinations to be
something; but if God wants to make you someone, that is
different.
My wife tried her best to make me someone, but she
could not do it. Her heart was right; her love was right;
she did her best to make me a preacher. She used to say,
Now, Father, you could do it if you wanted to, and I want
you to preach next Sunday.
I did everything to get ready; I tried everything. I dont
know what I did not tryit would be best not to tell you
what I did try. I had as many notes as would suit a
clergyman for a week.
My wifes heart, her love, her desires were all right, but
when I got up to preach, I would give out my text and then
say, If anybody can preach, now is your chance, for I
have finished. That did not take place once, but many
times. She was determined, and I was willing. When I
ministered to those who had come forward to repent and
receive Jesus, I could bring them right into the kingdom. I
could nurse the children while my wife preached, and I
was pleased to do it. But, dont you know, when the Holy
Spirit came, then I was ready. Then the preaching abilities
were not mine but the Lords. To be filled with the Holy
Spirit is to be filled with divine equipping. It must all be for
Jesus.
Oh, I tell you, whatever you may think about it, the
whole thing is that there is nothing good without Jesus.
Anyone could jump on this platform and say, I am right.
But when you have no confidence, then Jesus is all the
confidence you require. God must have men and women
on fire for Him. God will mightily send you forth in the
anointing of the Spirit, and sinners will feel convicted, but
it will never be accomplished if you have it in your mind
that you are going to be something. The baptism is a
baptism of death, and you live only unto God.
The Holy Spirit versus Deceptive Voices
A lot of people are very much troubled by voices. Some
people are so troubled that they get very distressed. Some
people take it as a great thing; they think it is very
remarkable, and they go astray. Lots of people go astray
by foolish prophecy, and lots of people are foolish enough
to believe that they have tongues and interpretation and
that they can be told what they should do. This is
altogether outside the plan of God and bordering on
blasphemy.
I do not preach my own ideas. That is, I never come on
this platform and tell you what I think, because everybody
can think. I come on this platform to tell you what I know.
Therefore, what you need to do is to listen to what I know
so that you may learn it. Then you can tell others what you
have learned so that they will learn also.
How can I dislodge the power of Satan? How can I deal
with satanic power? How may I know whether a voice is of
God or not? Are there not voices that come from God? Yes.
I am here believing that I am in the right place to build you
on the authority of the Word of God. I believe I am in the
right place to build you so that you will be able to deal with
the things that I am talking about. I have come with a
knowledge of how to deal with these things, because I
myself have been dealing with them.
By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that
confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of
God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. (1 John 4:23)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2
Cor. 13:14)
The first Scripture tells us how to deal with power that
is not of God but is satanic. The second Scripture reveals
that we have within us a secure position in God so that we
may have the communion of the Holy Spirit, who has all
the latest plans, thoughts, and language from heaven. You
know that a business executive is one who has a right to
declare everything for the board of directors. And the
Chief Executive of the world is the Holy Spirit. He is here
today as a communication to our hearts, to our minds, to
our thoughts, of what God wants us to know. So this Holy
Executive, who is in us, can speak wonderful words. In
fact, you will find that the Holy Executive will speak most of
the words in this sermon.
I am dealing now with what you may know when you
are fully in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will teach you; He will
bring to your remembrance all things (John 14:26). Now
you do not need any man to teach you. But the anointing
remains (1 John 2:27). You do not need teachers, but you
need the Teacher, who is the Holy Spirit, to bring all things
to your remembrance. This is the office of the Holy Spirit.
This is the power of His communication. This is what John
meant when he said, God is love (1 John 4:8). Jesus,
who is grace, is with you. But the Holy Spirit is the
speaker, and He speaks everything concerning Jesus.
There may be people here who have been hearing
voices, and it has put them in a situation in which they
have been moving from place to place. I am referring to
voices that have caused tremendous issues in your lives,
brought a great amount of distress and
brokenheartedness, and led you into confusion and
trouble. Why? You did not know how to judge the voices.
If a voice comes and tells you what to do, if a person
comes and says he has a special prophecy that God has
given him for you, you have as much right to ask God for
that prophecy as they had to give it to you, and you have
as much right to judge that prophecy according to the
Word of God. You need to do this, for there are people
going about pretending to be tremendous people, and they
are sending people nearly off their wits end because they
believe their damnable prophecies, which never are of God
but are of the Devil. I am very severe on this thing. God
wont let me rest; I have to deal with these things because
I find people everywhere in a terrible state because of
these voices. How will we get to know the difference
between the voice of God and the voice of Satan? The
Scripture tells us.
Interpretation of Tongues
God brings liberty and fruit, precious fruit, holy fruit,
inward piety, holiness, entirety, separatedness from the
world, chastened by the Lord, filled with light, admiration
of Jesus, and you see Him above all, full of light and truth,
bringing forth into your hearts perfect peace and joy. This
is tranquillity; this is Gods desire for you, every one of
you, to be filled with the joy of the Lord.
The Spirit Gives Joy and Gladness
The difference between those who are being led by the
Holy Spirit and those who are being deceived by Satan is
joy, gladness, and a good countenance instead of sadness,
sorrow, and depression. When Jesus comes with joy into
the soul and lifts you higher and higher, it is the Spirit who
gives light. When satanic power begins to rule, then there
is weariness, then peoples faces are like a tragedy, then
their eyes glare as though they had passed through a
terrible trial.
You are always right to test the spirits, whether they
are of God (1 John 4:1). If you do not do it, then you will
be sure to be caught napping.
Misled by a Voice
I want to describe some specific cases to further explain
this. Two sisters were saved in our meetings and were
filled with the Holy Spirit. They were very lovely women,
full of purity, truth, and righteousness. Their expressions
were good; no one could look at them without admiring
them.
Both of them worked in a telegraph office, and they
both desired to be missionaries. They were so zealous to
be missionaries that they were laying aside money and
everything they could in order to be prepared to go to the
mission field. They were zealous for God. Their very lives
would reveal this in a meeting or anywhere else. They
were so zealous for God that they would do anything.
One of them was operating a telegraph machine when
she heard a voice in her head, a voice that said something
along these lines: Will you obey me? If you will obey me,
I will make you the most wonderful missionary that ever
lived. Oh, beloved, try the voices, try the spirits. Only the
Devil promises such a thing, but she did not know this; she
did not understand. This was exactly what she wanted; it
was her hearts desire, do you see? And she was so
moved by this. The voice added, And I will find you all the
money you need.
I never knew this kind of leading to come true, and
you never will as long as you live.
For example, a man came to me and said, I have in my
hands a certain food for invalids that can raise millions of
dollars for the missionaries.
I said to him, I will not have anything to do with it.
These things are not a success. God does not work that
way. If God wanted you to have gold, He could make it
rain on your houses while you were away. He has all the
gold, and the cattle on a thousand hills are His (Ps. 50:10).
Beloved, I want you to see that Jesus was the meekest
man in the world. He had power to make bread or gold,
and yet He never made it except for somebody else.
When anybody preaches for the kingdoms sake, God
will provide. Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit for the
peoples sake. Seek only God, and the rain will fall. The
enduement of power will be made manifest in your mortal
bodies if you are really in the Spirit.
Now, this young woman was so excited that her sister
noticed it and went to her.
What is it? she asked.
Oh! God is speaking to me, she said, saying
wonderful things to me.
She became so excited that her sister asked their
supervisor if they could be excused for a while, because
she saw that she would have to protect her. So the
overseer allowed them both to be excused for a time, and
they went into a room. The first sister became so excited
with these messages, so believing that it was of God, that
her white blouse became spotted with blood as she
pricked her flesh with the nails of her hand.
That is never of God. What do I read about the wisdom
of God? I read that it is full of peace and gentleness; it is
willing to submit; it is without partiality; it is full of
goodness and truth. (See James 3:17.) And, remember, if
you ever know anything about God, it will be peace. If you
ever know anything about the world, it will be disorder.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding (Phil.
4:7), comes to the heart after you are saved. We are
justified by faith, and we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). The peace continues
until it makes us full of the hope of the glory of God (v.
2).
God showed me a long time ago, and it has not been
taken out of my mind, that if I was disturbed in my spirit
and was not at rest, I had missed the plan. How can you
miss it? In three ways.
First of all, you can miss it because you have taken on
someone elses burden. All the time you are told to cast
your burden on the Lord (1 Pet. 5:7). Any number of
people are overflowing with sorrow because they are
taking on someone elses burden. That is wrong. You must
teach them and teach yourself that you have to cast your
burdens on the Lord.
Secondly, if you do not have peace, you have gotten out
of the will of God in some way. You may not have sinned.
You can be out of the will of God without sinning. You can
be out of the will of God if you are not making progress. If
you have not made progress since yesterday morning, you
are a backslider. Everybody is a backslider who is not
going on with God. You are a backslider if you do not
increase in the divine character and likeness of Christ. You
have to move from state to state, from glory to glory (2
Cor. 3:18), by the Spirit of the Lord.
Interpretation of Tongues
The Spirit quickens, moves, chastens, builds, builds,
builds, and makes you free.
This is like heaven to me,
This is like heaven to me;
Ive crossed over Jordan to
Canaans fair land
And this is like heaven to me.
You wont be down in the dumps then. Do you know
what Jordan represents? Jordan represents death, and you
have crossed over death. Do not drop into it again.
You can lose your peace by missing some divine plan of
God, and you can lose your peace because you have
gotten your mind on something natural. A natural thing is
a carnal thing. The Word of God says that the carnal
things have to be destroyed because they are not subject
to the law of God and cannot be subject to them (Rom.
8:7). Every carnal thing must be destroyed.
So you can miss the plan. Now, what is the plan? You
will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
You, because he trusts in You (Isa. 26:3). Examine
yourself to see where you are. If you are not in perfect
peace, you are out of the will of God.
Therefore, if these voices take away your peace, you
will know they are not the will of God. But if the Spirit
speaks, He will bring harmony and joy. The Spirit always
brings three things: comfort, exhortation, and edification.
He will make you sing songs in the night (Job 35:10).
You will rise in high places, and you will not be afraid of
declaring the works of the Lord. When the Spirit of the
Lord is upon you and greatly active, you may go from
strength to strength (Ps. 84:7), praising the Lord.
My wife and I were visiting at the home of these two
sisters when they came in from work that day. We saw
the distress. We saw the wild condition. If you are wild,
that is the Devil. If you go breathlessly to the Bible, looking
for confirmation of the voice, that is the Devil. The Word of
God brings light. I must use it as the Word of Light. I must
see it as the Light of Light. I must have it as the Light. I
must not run up and down as if I had been hit with a stick.
I must be wise, because if I say I am baptized with the
Holy Spirit, if I say I am a child of God, I must act so that
people will know that I have been with God. (See Acts
4:13.) If there is anything I would resound through this
meeting like a trumpet, it is this: Do not let your good be
spoken of as evil (Rom. 14:16)!
Who is speaking now? It is the Spirit speaking to us,
saying that He wants us in the world in such a way that we
would not have anythingneither tongues, interpretations,
prophecy, discernment, nor any kind of actionsexcept
what would affirm that we have been with Jesus and that
now the light has come, the truth has fallen upon us, and
we have come into the wisdom of the Most High God. If
you ever find a person who has given a prophecy but who
will not allow that prophecy to be judged, as sure as
anything, that prophecy never was right. Everybody who
has a true prophecy is willing to come to the light so that
everything will be made true according to the Word of
God. So dont receive these things unless you know they
are of God.
Well, what happened to the young woman? The voice
came with such tremendous force that she could not let it
go. Try the spirits. God will never do anything like that. He
will never send you an unreasonable, unmanageable
message.
The moment the girl became obsessed with what the
voice said, what did the Devil say next? You keep this a
secret. Dont tell anybody. If you confide in anybody, let it
be your sister, because she seems to understand you. So
they confided in each other.
Now that is surely as satanic as anything you ever heard
in your life, because every true thing, every holy thing,
does not need to be kept a secret under any
circumstances. Anything that is holy can be told on the
housetops; God wants you to be able to tell all.
My wife and I tried to help them. Oh, God is speaking
to me! the young woman said. And we could not change
her. That night she said that the evil power continued
speaking, saying to her, Tell no one but your sister. Go to
the station tonight and wait for the train. The train will
come in at thirtytwo minutes past seven. Buy two tickets
for Glasgow. After you have bought your tickets, you will
have sixpence left.
This could be confirmed, and no one had to know but
her sister. They went to the station. The train came in
exactly at the right time. And there was just sixpence left
after they had bought the ticket. Marvelous! Wonderful!
This was sure to be right.
See! she said. I have just the amount of money left
after I have bought the tickets that the voice said I would.
The train came in. The voice had said that a gentleman
would be sitting in one of the coaches with all the money
she would ever need. Directly opposite this gentleman, a
woman with a nurses cap would be sitting. The man
would give her all the money, and they were to take it to a
certain bank at a certain street corner in Glasgow.
Here was lack of presentation of thought. There are no
banks open at half past seven, and, after investigation, it
was discovered that there was no such bank in that place.
Then what caused the young woman to obey the voice? It
got her ear, and I will tell you what the danger is. If I had
only five minutes I would say this to you: If you cannot be
reasoned with, you are wrong. If you are right and
everybody else is wrong, I dont care who you are, if you
cannot bear examination, if what you hold cannot bear the
light of the truth, you are wrong. It will save a lot of you if
you will just think.
You may say, Oh, but I know, I know. It is a very
serious thing when nobody else knows but you. May God
deliver us from such a condition. If you think you have
some specialty, it is not unique; it can be repeated.
The train came in. They rushed from one end of the
train to the other. There were no such people on the train.
Then the voice came, On the next platform, the next
train. And they rushed over. Would you believe, those two
young women were kept moving from platform to platform
by those voices until half past nine at night?
Those voices went on. Ah, those evil voices. How will
we know whether they are of God? When God speaks, He
will speak with wisdom. When the Devil came to Jesus he
said, If You are the Son of God (Matt. 4:3). The Devil
knew that He was the Son of God, and Jesus knew and
answered, It is written, You shall worship the Lord your
God, and Him only you shall serve (v. 10).
Now, was there anything wrong with what was
happening with these two young women? The wrong was
that the first young woman ought to have judged the
spirits. If she had asked, Did Jesus come in the flesh? the
voice would have answered no. No satanic voice in the
world and no Spiritualist medium will acknowledge that
Jesus came in the flesh. The Devil never will, and he is the
father of spiritualism mediums.
The same power said to the young woman, Now that I
know you will obey me in everything, I will make you the
greatest missionary in the world.
We tried to console them, but nothing could be done;
she was convinced it was the voice of the Lord.
There are two workings; the workings of the Spirit are
always contrary to the workings of the flesh.
How could the two women have known at that moment
that this was a false voice? Why, they could have known
according to the Word of God. What does it say? Many
false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).
Many, many voices, the Scripture says. Who are these
false prophets after? Perhaps those with sincerity,
earnestness, zeal, and purity. Who knows? These evil
powers know. What is necessary to keep in our minds all
the time? We must keep these things clearly in mind:
What am I living for? What is the hope of my life? Do I
have to be the greatest missionary in the world and a
wonderful Christian worker, or does Jesus need to be
glorified in my life to do as He wills with me for the world?
The ripe grape is never as pure and perfect as it is just
before it decays. The child of God is never as near to God
right at the summitas he is when the Devil can come
and say, You are wonderful!
It is satanic to feel that you are different from anybody
else, that God has a special message for you, and that you
are someone very particular. Every place that God brings
you to in a rising tide of perfection is a place of humility,
brokenness of heart, and fullness of surrender, where only
God can rule in authority. It is not where you are
somebody, but where God is everything and where you
will be living for the exhibition of His glory.
It was three months before these two young women
were delivered from this delusion. It took months and
months of pleading, of crying bitterly. But God did deliver
them, and they have been really wonderful missionaries in
China. Thank God, there is a way out. The Devils plan was
defeated, but it was at tremendous cost, almost of their
lives.
How could they have known that it was a false voice?
How can you know? When a voice comes, no matter how
it seems to you, you must test it. When a voice comes and
it is strange, when it is persistently pressing you to do
something and you are taken to a hard place and you
know the difficulties are such that you can hardly conceive
how this thing is possible, you have a position in the power
of the Word of God to say to this evil power, Did Jesus
come in the flesh? (1 John 4:3). And the satanic power
will say no. There never yet was a Spiritualist or anybody
else who was under satanic power, anybody in a fit,
anybody losing his mind, who has ever said that Jesus
came in the flesh. Satanic forces will not admit it.
But the Spirit of the living God, the Holy Spirit, always
says yes. And so you can get to know the difference. You
have to listen. The Scriptures are clear on these things.
We have to live in the place of knowing so that we are
able to spiritually, divinely discern whether these things
are of God or not.
Did Jesus come in the flesh? Yes, and now the living
Christ is within you. Christ came into you the moment you
believed. There is a manifestation of it. You may live in
such a way that Christ is greater than you. You may live in
such a way that your language, your expressions, your
actions, and everything speak of Christ. They realized that
they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). You can live in such
a way that the personality of Christ is exactly what Paul
said: Not II dont live anymore. Christ lives in me. (See
Galatians 2:20.)
The Christ life, the Christ power, the personality of His
presence may be in you in such a way that you could not
doubt the Word of God. If you prayed, it would always be
in faith, and as you preached, it would always be in faith.
You live by the faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2:20 kjv)
until your whole body is aflame with the faith of God. This
is a divine position of a living attitude in which we live and
reign in this beautiful place with Jesus.
This is an important word, and I am saying everything I
can, by the grace of God and the revelation of the Spirit, to
make you careful and yet careless: careful of satanic
powers and careless when the power of God is upon you
with anointing force, so that He Himself will be manifested,
and not you.
A R uined Life
Lots of people are brought down by the same thing that
ruined the life of a young Christian I want to tell you about.
For many years after I was baptized, the Lord graciously
helped me. I laid hands upon people, and they received
the Holy Spirit. I thank God that that power has not
stopped. I believe in asking God, in lifting up holy hands
and saying, Father, grant that whoever I place my hands
upon will receive the Holy Spirit.
People have called me from various places to come and
help them when they have had people they wanted to
receive the Holy Spirit. Once a group from York, England,
sent word saying that they had fourteen people whom they
wanted to have baptized in the Holy Spirit, and would I
come? They had all been saved since the last time I was
there.
So I went. I have never in all my life met a group of
people who were so intoxicated with a certain thing, which
had happened since I had been there. In the openair
preaching, the power of God had been upon them, and
many people had been gathered from the marketplace.
Right there in the midst of them, they had drawn in a
young man who had developed such a gift of teaching and
such a gift of leading the people forward with God through
the power of the Spirit that they said they did not believe
there was another man like him in all of England. They
were intoxicated beyond anything; they were drunk with it.
Did I rejoice with them? Certainly.
If there is anything that I love, it is the young men and
young women. When Jesus began His ministry, He laid
hands upon eleven who turned out to be the most
marvelous men, and yet they were all younger then He.
When Paul was brought into the knowledge of the truth,
he was a young man. Jesus began the great ministry of
worldwide revival with young life.
World War I showed us that no man over forty years of
age was good enough for that war. They had to have
young blood, young life that could stand the stress of frost,
heat, and all kinds of things.
God wants young people filled with the power of God to
go into the harvest field, because they can stand the
stress. Jesus knew this, and He got all young men around
Him.
Werent the disciples a lovely group? Yes, when He was
in the midst of them. You are a lovely group of people
because Jesus is in the midst of you, and you will be more
lovely as you keep Him in your midst. You will be more
lovely still if you refuse to live unless He is in your midst.
Moses said, If Your Presence does not go with us, do
not bring us up from here (Exod. 33:15). And we have a
right today to live in the presence of the power of the Holy
Spirit.
As soon as I got to York, the people came around me
and said, Oh, weve got him! Weve got him! The only
thing that is needed now is that we want him to receive
the Holy Spirit, and as soon as he receives, we will know
we have got him.
Was anything wrong with that? No, I rejoiced with
them.
Then the power of God fell. You know, we allow
anything in a meeting before people receive the Spirit.
Dont be afraid when people are on the floor. Lots of
people roll around the floor and get their black clothes
made white. Any number of things take place when the
flesh is giving way to the Spirit. But after the Holy Spirit
has come in, then we do not expect you to roll again on
the floor. We only expect you to roll on the floor until the
life of the personality of the Holy Spirit has gotten right in
and turned you out; then you will be able to stand up and
preach instead of rolling on the floor.
The new believers were all lying on the floor. It was a
wonderful sight. The people came to me and said, Oh!
Oh! Weve got him now! Oh, it was so lovely! And when
that young man spoke in tongues, they almost went wild.
They shouted, they wept, they prayed. Oh, they were so
excited!
The leaders came and said they were overjoyed at the
fact. I said, Be still; the Lord will do His own work.
In a short time, he was through in the Spirit, and
everybody was rejoicing and applauding. They fell into
great error there.
Oh, I do pray that God will save you from anything like
this. I hope nobody would say to me, Oh, you did preach
well tonight. Its as surely of the Devil as anything that
ever came to anybody. God has never yet allowed any
human being to be applauded.
This young man was in the power of the Holy Spirit, and
it was lovely. But they came around him, shaking his hand
and saying, Now we have the greatest teacher there is.
Was this wrong? It was perfectly right, and yet it was
the worst thing they could have done; they should have
been thankful in their hearts. I want to tell you that the
Devil never knows your thoughts, and if you wont let your
thoughts out in public, you will be safe. He can suggest a
thought; he can suggest thoughts of evil. But that is not
sin; all these things are from outside of you. The Devil can
suggest evil things for you to receive, but if you are pure,
it is like water off a ducks back.
One woman came up and said, I wouldnt be surprised
if you had another John the Baptist.
And they were all around him, shaking hands and
saying, Oh, now weve got him! Now we know you are
the best teacher that has ever been in Pentecost yet.
Thank God, the young man was able to throw it all off,
and he was in a beautiful place.
Again, before we left, this woman came up and said,
Will you believe? It is a prophecy I have received that you
have to be John the Baptist.
Thank God, he put it off again. But how satantic, how
devilish, how unrighteous, and how untrue it was!
That night, as he was walking home along a country
road, another voice came, louder than the womans, right
in the open air: You are John the Baptist!
Again the young man was able to guard it off. In the
middle of the night, he was awakened out of his sleep,
and this voice came again: Rise, get up. You are John the
Baptist. Declare it!
And the poor man this time was not able to deal with it.
He did not know what I am now telling you. I tell you with
a sorrowful heart that for hours that morning he was
walking around York, shouting, I am John the Baptist!
Nothing could be done. He had to be detained.
Who did it? Why, the people, of course.
You have no right to come around me or anybody else
and say, You are wonderful! That is satanic. I tell you,
we have plenty of the Devil to deal with without your
causing a thousand demons to come and help. We need
common sense.
How could that young man have been delivered? He
could have said, Did Jesus come in the flesh? The demon
power would have said no, and then the Comforter would
have come.
Lord, bring us to a place of humility and
brokenheartedness where we will see the danger of
satanic powers.
Dont think that the Devil is a big ugly monster; he
comes as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). He comes at a
time when you have done well, and he tells you about it.
He comes to make you feel you are somebody. The Devil
is an exalted demon.
Oh, look at the Master. If you could see Him as I see
Him sometimes: He was rich, and yet He became poor (2
Cor. 8:9); He was in the glory, yet He took upon Himself
the form of a servant (Phil. 2:67). Yes, a servant, that is
the Lord. May God give us the mindset of the Beatitudes
(Matt. 5:312) where we will be broken and humble and
in the dust; then God will raise us and place us in a high
place.
These are days when God wants you to build. God does
not want to take away your glory; He wants you to have
the glory, for Jesus came and said, And the glory which
You gave Me I have given them (John 17:22). But what is
the glory for? To place on the Master. Give Him all; let Him
have all: your hearts joy, your very life. Let Him have it.
He is worthy. He is King of Kings. He is Lord of Lords. He is
my Savior. He died to deliver me. He should have the
crown.
12
Testing the Spirits
God has never changed His mind concerning His
promises. They are Yes and Amen (2 Cor. 1:20) to
those who believe. God is the same yesterday and forever
(Heb. 13:8). To doubt Him is sin. All unbelief is sin. So we
have to believe He can heal, save, fill with the Holy Spirit,
and transform us altogether.
Are you ready? What for? To be so chastened by the
Lord, so corrected by Him that, as you pass through the
fire, as you pass through all temptations, you may come
out as Jesus came out of the wilderness, filled with the
Spirit.
Are you ready? What for? To be so brought in touch
with the Fathers will that you may know that whatever
you ask, believing, you will receive (Matt. 21:22). This is
the promise; this is the reality God brings to us.
Are you ready? What for? To no longer know yourself
according to the flesh, to no longer yield to the flesh, but
to be quickened by the Spirit, living in the Spirit without
condemnation, your testimony bright, cheerful, and full of
life. This is the inheritance for you today.
Do Not Believe Every Spirit
The message the Lord wants me to speak to you about
is in the fourth chapter of 1 John. I would like the day to
come in which we would never come to a meeting without
having the Word of God with us. The great need today is
to have more of the Word. There is no foundation apart
from the Word. The Word not only gives you a foundation,
but it also puts you in a place where you can stand and,
after the battle, keep on standing. Nothing else will do it.
When the Word is in your heart, it will preserve you from
desiring sin. The Word is the living presence of that divine
power that overcomes the world. You need the Word of
God in your hearts so that you might be able to overcome
the world.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,
whether they are of God; because many false prophets
have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit
of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not
confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of
God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have
heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
(1 John 4:13)
If this passage were honeycombed right through our
own circumstances, there would be no room for fear. We
are dealing with a subject concerning satanic power so
that we may be able to discern evil spirits.
We can so live in this divine communion with Christ that
we can sense evil in any part of the world. In this present
world, powers of evil are rampant. The man who lives in
God is afraid of nothing. The plan of God is that we might
be so in Him that we will be equal to any occasion.
Beloved (1 John 4:1). That is a good word. It means
that we are now in a place where God has set His love
upon us. He wants us to listen to what He has to say to us
because when His beloved are hearing His voice, then they
understand what He has for them.
The passage continues:
You are of God, little children, and have overcome
them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is
in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak
as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God.
He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does
not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the
spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is
of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows
God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is
love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us,
that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we
also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at
any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and
His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we
abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His
Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has
sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses
that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in
God. And we have known and believed the love that God
has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides
in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among
us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of
judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not
been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first
loved us.
(1 John 4:419)
This is an inexhaustible subject. We should get a great
deal out of this message that will serve us for an evil day
and the day of temptation.
God is dealing with us as sons; He calls us beloved.
We are in the truth, but we want to know the truth in a
way that will keep us free. (See John 8:32.) I want to help
the people who have been so troubled with voices and
with things that have happened that they have felt they
had no control over them. And I want to help those people
who are bound in many ways and have been trying in
every way to get free. I believe the Lord wants me very
definitely to deal with things that will be of an important
nature to you as long as you live.
The fourth chapter of 1 John tells us specifically how to
deal with evil powers, with evil voices. It tells us how we
may be able to dethrone them and be in a place where we
are over them. It shows us how we may live in the world
not subject to fear, not subject to bondage, not subject to
pain, but in a place where we are defeating evil powers,
ruling over them, reigning in the world by this life of
Christ. In this way, we will be from above, and we will
know it. We will not be subject to the world, but we will
reign over the world so that disease, sin, and death will
not have dominion.
A keynote that runs through the entire Scriptures is that
Jesus has vanquished and overcome all of the powers of
the Devil and has destroyed his power, even the power of
death. Whether we are going to believe it or not, this is for
us. God sends out the challenge, and He says, If you
believe it, it will be so.
What will hinder us? Our human nature will. This has a
lot to do with hindering God: when the human will is not
wholly surrendered, when there is some mixture, part
spirit and part flesh, when there is a division in your own
heart.
In a house where there are two children, one may
desire to obey his father and mother, and he is loved and
is very well treated. The other is loved just the same, but
the difficulty is this: the wayward boy who wants his own
way does many things to grieve his parents, and he gets
the whip. They are both children in the house; one is
getting the whip, the other is getting the blessing without
the whip.
There are any number of Gods children who are getting
the whip who know better than they are doing. So I want
you to wake up to do what you know ought to be done,
because there is a whipping for those who wont obey. Sin
is never covered by your appearance, your presence, your
prayers, or your tears. Sin can only be removed by
repentance. When you repent deeply enough, you will find
that the thing goes away forever. Never cover up sin. Sins
must be judged. Sins must be brought to the blood of
Christ. When you have a perfect confidence between you
and God, it is amazing how your prayers rise. You catch
fire, you are filled with zeal, your inspiration is
tremendous, you find out that the Spirit prays through you,
and you live in a place of blessing.
Dealing with Evil Powers
There are many people living today who are called
Spiritualists. I call them Devilists. I never give any
quarter to them. If I see a spiritualism meeting advertised,
I say, There is a Devilpossessed meeting. I never
encounter a Christian Scientist without knowing he is also
working the powers of darkness and that he is on the
Devils side. I never meet a Jehovahs Witness without
knowing that he has changed the Word of God, and I know
that God has removed him from the blessing.
Interpretation of Tongues
On the housetop things will be declared. God will bring
everything to light that has been in darkness. There is not
one thing but what will have to be judged, and in the
present time the believer in Christ is in the position of
judging the Devil. The Prince of this World is judged, and
God is fulfilling His divine power when He is bringing us
into perfect order through the Spirit, so that we voice the
power of the Word of God, so that we deal with satanic
influences, satanic power. In this world we are to
overcome until we deal with every demon power, so that
Christ comes at the top and reigns over us, because He
has given us power and authority over all the power of the
Devil.
So God, by the power of the Spirit, has given us a
revelation of our position in Christ. Whatever happens in
the world, we must see that every demon power must be
dislodged, cast into the pit forever. We must recognize
that Gods Son is placed in power over the power of the
Enemy; we must understand that anybody who deals
falsely with the Word of God nullifies the position of
authority that Christ has given him over Satan.
What did Christ say? In a very definite way, He said:
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for
you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two
hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be
quenched; where their worm does not die, and the fire is
not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it
off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than
having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall
never be quenched; where their worm does not die, and
the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to
sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of
God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast
into hell fire; where their worm does not die, and the fire
is not quenched. (Mark 9:4348)
It is better to go into the presence of God with half your
faculties than to go into hell with all your faculties. Jesus
knew that hell was a reality, and He gave no quarter to it.
And when He was dealing with demons, they were
referred to as unclean spirit[s], (Mark 9:25 kjv),
meaning that there is no clean demon power. All demon
powers are unclean.
God wants a clean people. He is cleansing us from all
the filthiness of the flesh so that when the Devil comes, he
will find nothing in us. (See John 14:30.)
Judge Yourself by Gods Word
There are two ways of being in the place where God
wants you to be. One is to see that you obey. The next is
to examine yourself to see that you are in the faith (2
Cor. 13:5). If you do not judge yourself, you will be judged
(1 Cor. 11:31). But if you judge yourself by the Word of
God, you will not be condemned with the present evil
world (v. 32).
Spiritualists Removed
One day we were having a meeting after the Holy Spirit
came upon us, and the word got around that we had
received the baptism of the Spirit, as we called it, and
were speaking in tongues. Many people said we had
received satanic power and were speaking in tongues
through the power of the Devil. So the whole city was
awakened. At this meeting there were two rows of
Spiritualiststhese demon-possessed people. The power
of the Spirit was upon me, and I began speaking in
tongues, and these demon powers began muttering,
shaking, rolling, and all kinds of things.
I went off the platform, stood at the end of the two
rows, and said, Come out, you demons, in the name of
Jesus! The two rows of people filed out of their seats and
went down the aisle and outside. When they got outside,
they cursed and blasphemed and said all kinds of evil
things. But thank God they were outside!
Mediums Hindered
One day I met a friend of mine in the street, and I said,
Fred, where are you going?
I am going. Oh, I dont feel I ought to tell you, he
said. It is a secret between me and the Lord.
Now, we have prayed together, we have had nights of
communication, we have been living together in the
Spirit, I said. Surely there is no secret that could be
hidden between you and me.
I will tell you, he said. I am going to a spiritualism
meeting.
Dont you think it is dangerous? I dont think it is wise
for believers to go to these places, I said.
I am led to go to test it according to Scripture, he
replied. They are having some special mediums from
London.
He meant that they were having some people from
London who were more filled with the Devil than the
Spiritualists we had in our city of Bradford. They were
special devils.
I am going, he continued, and I am going with the
clear knowledge that I am under the blood of Jesus.
Tell me the results, will you?
Yes, I will.
Now, beloved, I advise none of you to go to these places.
My friend went and sat down in the midst of the sance
meeting, and the medium began to take control. The lights
went low; everything was in a dismal state. My friend did
not speak, but just kept himself under the blood,
whispering the preciousness of the blood of Jesus. These
more possessed devils were on the platform. They tried
every possible thing they could to get under control for
more than an hour, and then the lights went up. The
leader said, We can do nothing tonight; there is
somebody here who believes in the blood of Christ.
Hallelujah! Do you all believe in the blood, beloved?
Interpretation of Tongues
See that you keep your heart in a place where the blood
is covering you, where the wicked one does not touch you,
for has He not given charge over you to keep you in all
your ways? He will send His angels, and they will bear
you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. It is the
Lord your God who overshadows; it is the Lord your God
who protects, for He will not slumber or sleep, but He
keeps you in the perfect place, like the apple of His eye,
in perfection.
Greater Is He Who Is in You
Test the spirits, whether they are of God (1 John 4:1).
Be ready to challenge the Devil. Dont be afraid. You will
be delivered from fear if you believe. You can have ears
to hear (Matt. 11:15) or ears that do not hear. Ears that
hear are the ears of faith, and your ears will be so open to
what is spiritual that they will lay hold of it.
When the Word of God becomes the life and nature of
you, you will find that the minute you open it, it becomes
life to you; you will find that you have to be joined up with
the Word. You are to be the epistles of Christ (2 Cor. 3:3).
This means that Christ is the Word, and He will be known
in us by our fruits. (See Matthew 7:1620.) He is the life
and the nature of you. It is a new nature: a new life, a
new breath, a new spiritual atmosphere. There is no
limitation in this standard, but in everything else you are
limited. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the
world (1 John 4:4). When the Word of Life is lived out in
you because it is your life, then it is enacted, and it brings
forth what God has desired. When we quote something
from the Scriptures, we must be careful that we are living
according to it. The Word of God has to abide in you, for
the Word is life and it brings forth life, and this is the life
that makes you free from the law of sin and death (Rom.
8:2).
How to Test the Spirits
There are evil thoughts, and there are thoughts of evil.
Evil thoughts are suggestive of the Evil One. We must be
able to understand what the evil is and how to deal with it.
The Word of God makes us strong. All evil powers are
weak. There is nothing strong in the Devil; the weakest
believer dethrones the Enemy when he mentions Jesus.
Young men, you are strong because you know the Word.
(See 1 John 2:14.)
There are evil thoughts and thoughts of evil. Where do
thoughts of evil come from? They come from the unclean
believer, the man who is not entirely sanctified.
Remember that the Devil does not know your thoughts;
that is where the Devil is held. But God knows your
thoughts; God knows all things. Satan can only suggest
evil thoughts to try to arouse your carnal nature.
Yet if you are disturbed, if you are weak, if you are
troubled or depressed, then you are in a wonderful place.
If you never tell anybody about your evil thoughts, and you
are not disturbed about them, the carnal powers have
never been destroyed in you. But if you tell anybody, then
it is proof that you are clean; it is because you are clean
that you weep. If you are not disturbed, if you have no
conviction, it is because of your uncleansed heart; you
have let sin come in.
Overcoming Evil Powers
How can the believer believe so that he will not be
tormented? The question is: How can we be master of the
situation? We must know this Scripture: Every spirit that
confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of
God (1 John 4:2). Did Jesus come in the flesh? Mary
produced a Son in the likeness of God. In a similar way,
the eternal seed that came into us when we believed
produces a life, a person, which is Christ in [us] (Col.
1:27) and which rises up in us until the reflection of the
Son of God is in everything we do. Mary produced a Son
for redemption. Gods seed in us produces a son of perfect
redemption, until we live in Him and move by Him, and our
whole nature becomes a perfect Son of God in us (Acts
17:28). In the name of Jesus, cast self out, and you will be
instantly free.
The Holy Spirit has all power and all language. If you
wont tell anybody when these suggestive evil powers
come, it is proof that you are not sanctified. A Spiritualist
will never say that Jesus came in the flesh. The Lord
wants us to understand that spiritualistic evidences, and
the like, are of the Devil.
A Place of Discernment
We must be in a place where we can discern evil things
and evil spirits. There is a place where we can bind these
evil powers and, loosing the people, set them free. Read
the ninth chapter of Mark. There is an exchange of life, of
power, until it is absolutely as the Word says: He who is
in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
God can change you until you will not be afraid of
anything.
Life comes after you have been filled with the Holy
Spirit. Get down and pray for power. You ask, What is the
problem when I come away from prayer and nothing
changes? There are two reasons for this. First, when you
go into your place, lock the door. Should you pray silently?
Nopray loudly. The Devil has never disturbed anybody
who prayed aloud. There the Holy Spirits power is a
proof.
Next, if you will, you can rebuke, you can cast out,
satanic powers. Rebuke Satan. Never cast a demon out
twice, or he will run about and laugh at you. He will know
you did not believe it the first time. Ask, and you will
receive (John 16:24). The moment you ask, believe you
will receive, and you will have it.
Now I am going to pray, Father, in the name of Jesus,
increase my compassion. Thank You, Lord, I have it. I
know I have it.
13
Questions and Answers on Testing
Spirits
Q: Do you claim that there is no shaking of the body
after the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
A: I maintain that after anyone has received the Holy
Spirit, there is no shaking and no falling on the ground.
Shaking and falling on the ground is a very limited
position, instead of an unlimited position. There may be a
manifestation, but it is not edifying, and the manifestation
you are to have is to be for edification. (See 1 Corinthians
14:12.)
If somebody were to stand up now and shake and
shake until her hair came down, no one in the place would
be edified, and no one would want it. If the person knew it
was not edifying, she would seek a place that is better.
What is that better place? To seek a gift.
I declare to you that no one can shake and do all these
things and speak in tongues. The Spirit has a way out. And
no one when giving an interpretation has these
manifestations, because the Holy Spirit has a way out. You
need to seek so that you may excel and not be doing
things that bring discord and discredit to your position.
Q: Is it true that tongues and interpretation are not for
personal guidance at any time?
A: Tongues and interpretation are never for guidance.
There is no such thing in the Scriptures. Tongues and
interpretation are similar to prophecy; they are to edify the
church.
Q: Can satanic influences come to us in thought as well
as audibly, in word?
A: Any number of people are troubled with thoughts.
There are two kinds of thoughts: evil thoughts and
thoughts of evil. Evil thoughts are suggestive powers that
the Devil gives to see if he can arouse your carnal nature.
If he can, it shows you have never been changed from
your corruption and sin. If he cannot, it shows you are
pure; the blood has cleansed you, and carnality is
defeated. This is what Jesus meant when He said that
when the Devil comes, he finds nothing in you. (See John
14:30.)
The Devil does not know your thoughts; he does not
know the desire of your hearts; he does not know your
language. Therefore, the Devil always suggests something
in order to get something from you. If we would only
realize that fact, we could come into meetings and bind
this power so that Satan would have no chance at all.
Jesus said, I give you the authorityover all the power of
the enemy (Luke 10:19). We have a right to bind his
power. If a person is troubled by evil thoughts, he is safe;
if he is not troubled, he is in danger.
If you are troubled by evil thoughts, test them and say,
Did Jesus come in the flesh? That demon will go. You
have a right to know these things because they will keep
you in a place of real victory. If you are not troubled by evil
thoughts, you need to repent and ask God to purify your
hearts.
Until you voice anything, the Devil does not know it. You
have desired to have converts, you have desired to have a
glorious time in your meetings, and you have voiced it, and
then you have had to fight as if for life and death to get it.
Why? Because all the Adversarys power came. Why?
Because you declared it. He would not have known if you
had not declared it.
Q: Should you ask God for inspirations in secret, so that
the Devil cannot know?
A: No. Always pray aloud so the Devil will clear out.
When Jesus said to pray in secret (Matt. 6:6), He did not
mean that you are to pray silently. He meant that you are
to go in your prayer closet and shout aloud. If you do not,
you will find that the Devil will battle you in every way; you
will fall asleep, for example. Pray aloud.
Q: If a person has made the mistake of declaring his
position against the Devil so that the forces of hell are
arrayed against him, what will be effective in destroying
Satans power?
A: It is no mistake to declare yourself against the Devil.
We are talking about two different situations here.
Suppose you declare something such as this: We are
going to have the greatest time on earth. We will have a
revival. We will have a time of fasting, or something
similar. You have guaranteed that those will be difficult
times, because Satan will assail himself against you. He
cannot dethrone you, he cannot hinder you, but he will do
all he can to do it. He will hinder you from having the
blessing sooner. If you are fighting demon powers, there
is not the same liberty as if there were no demon powers
fighting you. Nevertheless, it is a good thing to have them
to fight. Dont be afraid of demon powers; dont be afraid
of being in temptation, because the Scriptures are clear
that if you are not worthy to be tempted, you are no good.
(See 2 Thessalonians 1:45.)
Now, suppose I came into this meeting and I said,
Jesus, in Your name I bind the powers of darkness? It is
finished. Satan wont come here. But if I declare such and
such a thing without guarding myself, I will have to fight to
get it.
14
Tongues and the Interpretation of
Tongues
To another [are given] different kinds of tongues, to
another the interpretation of tongues.
1 Corinthians 12:10
The manifestations of tongues and the interpretation of
tongues are so closely related that it would be very difficult
to deal with one without the other, and I believe that it will
be very profitable for you if I explain the two together.
Why tongues? Why has God brought this gift into
operation? There is a reason. If there were not a reason,
it would not be there.
I love the concept of God over all, through all, in all. I
love the concept that God has all power over all the
powers of the Enemyin the heavenlies, on the earth, and
under the earth. Where can you go where He is not
present (Ps. 139:712)?
Why did God design it all? You must see with me that
the gift of tongues was never in evidence before the Holy
Spirit came.
Interpretation of Tongues
The Spirit leads and will direct every thought, and so
bring into your hearts the fruit, until the fruit in your own
life will be a manifestation that God is truly in you.
May the Lord grant that to us. That is a very important
word.
The old dispensation was very wonderful in prophetic
utterances. Every person, whoever he is, who receives the
Holy Spirit will have prophetic utterances in the Spirit unto
God or in a human language supernaturally coming forth,
so that all the people will know that it is the Spirit.
This is the reason we want all the people filled with the
Holy Spirit: they are to be prophetic. When a prophecy is
given, it means that God has a thought, a word in season,
that has never been in season beforethings both new
and old. The Holy Spirit brings things to pass!
So when God fulfilled the promise, when the time was
appointed (and it is a wonderful appointment), the Holy
Spirit came and filled the apostles. The gift that had never
been in operation before came into operation that
wonderful day in the Upper Room, and for the first time in
all of history, men were speaking in a new order; it was
not an old language, but language that was to be
interpreted.
This is very profound because we recognize that God is
speaking. No man understands it. The Spirit is speaking,
and the Spirit opens the revelation that they will have,
without adulteration; Gods word flows through the whole
place.
Tongues are a wonderful display of this; they are to
revive the people; they are to give new depths of thought.
If you ever want to know why the Holy Spirit was
greatly needed, you will find it in the third chapter of
Ephesians. You will be amazed. The language is
wonderful. Paul said that he was the least of all the
saints (Eph. 3:8), and yet God had called him to be a
minister (v. 7). His language is wonderful, and yet he felt
in his heart and life that there was something greater, that
the Spirit had him, and he bowed his knees unto the
Father (v. 14).
You cannot find in all the Scriptures words with such
profound fruit as those that ring through the verses of
Pauls remarkable prayer in the Holy Spirit. He prayed
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph.
3:19), and that youmay be able to comprehend with all
the saints (vv. 1718). He prayed that you may be able to
ask and think, and think and ask, and that it will not only
be abundantly but that it will also be exceeding
abundantly above all that you can ask or think (v. 20).
There is a man closing down and the Holy Spirit
praying.
Interpretation of Tongues
To this end He brings you together that He might pour
into you the hidden treasure, for it is in you. God has
refined you, first cleansed you, made you just like a vessel
that He might dwell in you and make all His acquaintance
with you, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
should be primary over you, and you should just be
exalted in Him, not in yourself, but He should have the
glory.
The Reason for Tongues
You may have heard that three years ago I was in Los
Angeles. Gods blessing was upon those meetings. Some
of you remember blessings received. But since the time I
left, you have not known what I have done, because you
have not been with me; you do not live with me. I might
have lost anointing or favor with God. I might be like many
people today who have lived holy lives and have received
holy language, but now are living in a backslidden
condition, a life that is not worthy of the language. There
are people today who have lived holy lives, preached
sanctification, and their language has been helpful, but
something has come in the way. They have kept their
language. They have lost their zeal and fire, but they still
hold onto the language. This can take place in anyones
life. So I ask you, you who think you stand, take heed lest
[you] fall (1 Cor. 10:12). You cannot play with this.
I would like you to know that the speaker is no good
unless he judges himself every day. If I do not judge
myself, I will be judged (1 Cor. 11:31). It is not sufficient
for me to have your good word; I must have the Masters
good word. It is no good to me if I look good to you. If
there were one thing between me and God, I would not
dare to come onto this platform unless I knew that God
had made me holy, for they who bear the vessels of the
Lord must be holy unto the Lord (Isa. 52:11). And I praise
God because I know:
His blood can make the vilest clean,
His blood can make the vilest clean,
His blood avails for me,
His blood avails for me.
Holiness! Whiteness! Purity! Zeal!
Interpretation of Tongues
Grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you are saved, but
let everything be done decently and in order so that God
will have preeminence in all things and Christ will reign
over the house, even His house, of which He says, Whose
house you are if you hold fast the profession of your faith
without doubting. So God is bringing us this morning to
this holy place to bring us to see that we must only obey
the Spirit.
When a Prophet Is out of Gods Will
As I said, you do not know what has taken place in my
life since I was here. When the good people of the
Angelus Temple wired to see if I could give them June or
July, they did not know that I was still living in the center
of Gods holy will. Because I am only a man, it is possible
that I may have grieved the Spirit. When I got up to speak
here, what I said might have been only formal language
without unction, nothing that would move the people. In
this type of situation, someone in the placeand this is
what tongues are forsomeone in the place who is
hungry for God and cannot rest because he is not getting
the cream of the truth would begin travailing and groaning
in the Spirit and speaking in tongues. Another person
would travail in the same way, receiving the interpretation
of these tongues, and would arise and give that
interpretation, thus lifting the people where the prophet
could not because he was out of the will of God.
To Know the Mind of God
Then, you ask, what about situations in which you are
preaching and prophesying and we are all getting blessed,
and then we have tongues?
From time to time as I speak, I am so full of the glory
and of the joy that my body is more full than my language
can express. Then, instantly, the Spirit pours forth His
word in tongues, and the power of God just lifts the whole
place into revelation and words of life far beyond where
we were.
Therefore, the church is to come together so that in the
Spirit, the power of God can fall on Mary or John or
William or Henry and move them, until, with the power of
God moving through them, the people get the mind of God.
How to Use Tongues Correctly
In the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we have very
definite instructions about tongues:
If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the
most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there
is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him
speak to himself and to God.(1 Cor. 14:2728)
There are three types of tongues, and the spiritual law
concerning them is laid down in the Scriptures. But before
we come to that, we must understand verse thirtytwo of 1
Corinthians 14, or else there will be no success in this
place: And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the
prophets.
Yield to the Holy Spirit
Unless you adhere to this word, every assembly where
you are will be broken up, and you will cause trouble. Until
you come to a right understanding of the Scriptures, you
will never be pleasing to God. You are not to consider,
under any circumstances, that, because you have a
spiritual gift, it is right for you to use that gift, unless the
unction of the Spirit is upon you.
You have to be very careful that you never use tongues
and interpretation in confusion with prophecy. When
prophecy is going forth and the truth is being heard and all
the people are receiving it with joy and are being built up,
then there is no room for tongues or interpretation. But
just at the time when the language in my heart seems too
big to express, then tongues come forth and God looses
the whole thing, and we get a new purpose in that.
So you who have this wonderful gift of tongues must
see to it that you never break in where the Spirit is having
perfect rightofway. But when the Spirit is working with you
and you know there is a line of truth that the Lord desires
to express, then let the name of God be glorified.
You see, God wants everything to be in perfect order by
the Spirit. That is why Paul said, If anyone speaks in a
tongue, let there be two or at the most three (1 Cor.
14:27). You will never find me speaking if three have
spoken before me. And you will never find me interpreting
any word in tongues if three have spoken already. This is
in order to keep the bonds of peace in the body so that the
people will not be weary, because there are some people
who have known nothing about what is right.
Unless you come to the Word of God, you will be in
confusion and you will be in judgment. God does not want
you to be in confusion or in judgment, but He wants you to
be built up by the Scriptures, for the Scriptures are clear.
If the Lord reveals truth to me, and if I have said
anything previously in relation to this that has not been
absolutely scriptural, I will no longer say it. I allow Gods
Word to be my judge. If I find that anything I have said is
not scriptural, I repent before God. As God is my Judge, I
never say anything unless I believe it is the sincere truth.
But if I find out later that it is not exactly in the most
perfect keeping with the Word of God, I never say it again.
I believe there is a place to come to in which, after we
have repented of a thing, we never have to repent of that
thing anymore. I pray that God will give us that kind of
superabundant revelation of common sense. It is because
there is not a superabundant revelation of common sense
that everybody is using nonsense. May the Lord help us to
be true to God first; then, if we are true to God, we will be
true to ourselves. Let God be first in the choice of our
desires and our plans. Jesus must be glorified.
In 1 Corinthians 14:30 we read: If anything is revealed
to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. I hope that
someday the church will so completely come into its
beauty that if I am preaching and you have a revelation on
that very thing, a deep revelation from God, and if you
stand, I will stop preaching at that moment. Why? Because
the Scripture says that if, when a prophet is speaking,
anything is revealed to someone in the audience, let the
first hold his peace and then let that other one speak.
Then the Scripture says, For you can all prophesy one
by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged (v.
31). This refers to the one who is preaching. He may be
led to hold his peace while one in the midst of the
congregation speaks his line of thought that is divinely
appointed; then, after he finishes, another may have a
prophecy, and he may get up, and so on, until you may
have several who have prophesied and you have such
revelations in this manner that the whole church is ablaze.
I believe that God is going to help us so that we might be
sound in mind, right in thought, holy in judgment,
separated unto God, and one in the Spirit. Imagine all the
people in this place being comforted and edified and going
away from the church feeling that they have been in the
presence of God, just because they have been obedient to
the will of God.
Allow me to say this, and then you judge it afterward.
You are not in the right place if you do not judge what I
say. You are not to swallow everything I say; you are to
judge everything I say by the Scriptures. But you must
always use righteous judgment. Righteous judgment is not
judging through condemnation, but it is judging something
according to the Word of God. Righteous judgment is not
focused on criticism, but righteous judgment judges the
truth of something. In this way, the church may receive
edification so that all the people may be built up according
to the Word of God. That is the right judgment.
Perhaps not everyone will affirm and believe what I
have to say about this. However, I truly affirm and believe,
because God has thus revealed it to me, that the words
Let there be two or at the most three, each in turn (1
Cor. 14:27) mean that very often the speaker will not have
finished his message after giving the first insight. So often
I have seen in an assembly of believers that the first
person has spoken and the Spirit of the Lord has been
mightily upon him, but the anointing is such that he did not
finish his message with his first insight of truth, and he
realizes that he is not through with that message. He
speaks in the Spirit again, and we feel that the tide is
higher. Then he speaks a third time, and the tide is higher
still, and then he stops.
This has led me to believe that each in turn (1 Cor.
14:27) means that one person may be permitted to speak
in tongues three times in one meeting. In our conferences
in England, we very often have nine utterances in tongues,
but there will only be three people speaking. You can have
nine, but it is not necessary unless the Lord is prompting
it. Sometimes I find that the Spirit will take us through in
prophecy in such a way that there will not be more than
one, sometimes two people speaking. If I am correct, and
I believe I am correct when I say this, when we are full of
prophecy, the Spirit has taken our hearts and has moved
them by His power. When this happens to me, I speak as
fast as I can, but I am not expressing my own thoughts.
The Holy Spirit is the thought, the language, and
everything; the power of the Spirit is speaking. And when
the power of the Holy Spirit is speaking like this, there is
no need for tongues or interpretation because you are
getting right from the throne the very language of the
heart and the man. Then when the persons language
gives out, the Spirit will speak and the Lord will give
tongues and interpretation, and that will lift the whole
place.
At the most three. Dont say four or five, but three at
the most. The Holy Spirit says it.
Now, three things are important before we go further.
Three Types of Tongues
There are three types of tongues, and this is where the
confusion comes in; this is where the people judge you,
and this is where people have gone wrong.
I know, and every person who interprets tongues
knows, that there is an intuition of divine appointment at
this time. Every person who has been given the
interpretation of tongues when they have had nothing
before them except the glory of God will agree with this.
Now, the first type of tongues is when people are
receiving the Holy Spirit, and they speak in tongues as an
evidence of their baptism.
There is another approach to tongues when you are in
a prayer meeting. You need to know exactly one thing: if
you are in a prayer meeting when people are praying in
the Spirit, never seek the interpretation. The Scripture
declares it clearly: For he who speaks in a tongue does
not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him;
however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries (1 Cor. 14:2).
You will find that in a prayer meeting people will pray
and speak in the Spirit, but it will be unto God and not for
interpretation. Do not try to seek interpretation, for if you
do you will find it is wrong. Never under any circumstances
expect tongues to be interpreted where it is continually
routinethe same and the same and the same. It is a
spiritual language, but it is not a gift. What is it? You will
find that it is adoration. It happens when the soul has been
in a real definite position with God. Do not seek
interpretation.
The third type of tongues is for interpretation. What
type of tongues is this? Different kinds of tongues (1 Cor.
12:10). What are these different kinds of tongues? They
are languages with perfect syllables. When a person gets
up with a perfect language by the Spirit, you will find it is
decisive, it is instructive, it is lovely to hear, it is divine in
its appointment. It has to have interpretation because God
is speaking to us in words that are not in our native
language.
Tongues are to bring forth revelation and power in the
church, to save it from lack and from being bound.
Tongues and interpretation are for liberty among the
people, to lift the saints and fill the place with the glory.
God will open this to you; you will see what it means to
have people among you full of the Spirit, and you will long
to get the Spirits mind.
The Interpretation of Tongues
Now, what is the interpretation of tongues?
Interpretation is given by the same Spirit who moved the
person with tongues. They are so moved by the power of
the Spirit that they are in a place where they know that
what God was burning within had to come out.
It is a common occurrence for me, after I give an
interpretation, to meet people at the door as I go out who
say, Oh, that interpretation was lovely! I had it, too.
Another will come and say, Oh, that interpretation was
beautiful! I had it, you know.
I have had three in one meeting say that to me. Oh,
the interpretation was lovely! I had it.
Is it true? No. There is no truth in it at all. Why?
No interpreter has the interpretation, not one. I havent
got it myself. Then what do they have? They have the
spirit of it. They knew it was the spirit of it, and they knew
it was according to the mind of God. They got the sense of
the knowledge that God was speaking and that it was the
Spirit, and they knew it was right. The interpreter never
has it. Why? Because he is in the channel where the Spirit
is breathing every word. He does not get the word, the
sentences and everything, ready-made. The Spirit
breathes the whole thing, and the interpreter speaks as
the Spirit gives utterance (Acts 2:4). So it is as divine and
as original as the throne of God.
I want to show you the difference between genuine and
false tongues. There are some people who get up and
speak in tongues who give a little bit of tongues, and then
a little more, and a little more, and they repeat
themselves. Never give interpretation to such foolishness.
There are other people who get up and profess to
interpret it, and they stutter and stammer, giving a word
now and then. Is that interpretation? No. Do you think that
the Holy Spirit is short of language? If you are stammering
and stuttering and giving a word of interpretation now and
then, dont believe it. It is not of God. What is it, then?
People are waiting while some word in their minds comes
forth, and they are giving you their minds. It is not
interpretation.
I say all these things to save you from foolishness, to
save you from people who want to be somebody. The Holy
Spirit has shown me that all the time He is helping me, I
have to be nothing. There is not a place where any man
can ever be anything. It is in the death, union, and likeness
of Christ that He becomes all in all. If we have not gone to
death in the baptism of the Spirit, it shows me that we are
altogether out of order.
The Spirit of the Lord has been speaking to you. I have
felt the unction, I have realized the power, I have been
speaking as fast as I could get it out, and the Spirit has
given everything. For once in our lifetimes, we have been
in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We have been where
there has been the manifestation of the glory, where God
is speaking to our hearts, where He is bringing us to a
place of inhabitation in the Spirit.
We need to cherish this meeting as a holy meeting with
God. See that you are built squarely on the authority of
God. See that your testimony on salvation, sanctification,
the gifts, the baptism, is biblical. Then you cannot be
troubled by the Enemy. You will be above the Enemy; you
will be able to say to the Enemy, Get thee behind me
(Matt. 16:23 kjv), and he will get!
What are you ready for now? Are you ready for
anything? Dont forget you have to go over the top. The
top of what? The top of yourself, the top of your opinions
and fancies and whims and foolish acts. You have to
dethrone them; you have to have a biblical building; you
have to be in the Scriptures. For God has not given us a
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound
mind (2 Tim. 1:7).
When people say to me, Oh, I have nervous
symptoms; I have a nervous weakness, I know
immediately that only one thing is wrong. What is it? It is a
lack of knowing the Word. Perfect love casts out fear.
And there is no torment, no fear, in love (1 John 4:18).
I want you to get the Word of God into your heart until
the demon power has no power over you. You are over
the powers of fear. Then I want you to understand that
the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a love beyond any you
have ever had; you are to have power after the Holy Spirit
comes, and it is power over the Enemy, over yourself, and
over your human mind. Self has to be dethroned, Christ
has to be enthroned, and the Holy Spirit has to enlarge His
position.
Go over the top and never slide down again the back
way. If you go, you go forward, and you go into victory
from victory, triumphing over the Enemy, having liberty in
your captivity (see Ephesians 4:8), rightly rejoicing in the
triumph of God.
Faith is the victory (1 John 5:4). Faith is the operation in
your heart. Faith is the stimulation of the life of the
Master. When you stand in faith, you are in a position in
which God can take you to the place where you are over
all (Luke 10:19) by the power of God.
Believe that no power of the Enemy will have power
over you. Rebuke him. Stand on the authority of the Word
and go forth into victory. I want you to be saved, healed,
and blessed through what Gods Word says.
15
The Purpose of Tongues
I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;
yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my
understanding,
that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a
tongue.
1 Corinthians 14:1819
This Scripture has been greatly misunderstood. Here
the apostle Paul was saying that he spoke in tongues more
than any others. Now, you can understand that he felt he
spoke in tongues more than all of them, meaning that he
lived in the utterances of the Spirit. Very likely, this would
be lovely!
I remember one time in London when I asked for a
meeting to commence at 7:30 p.m. I was not well
acquainted with London, and I knew I had two hours to
spare before the meeting. I was walking in one of the
busiest places in London; all the theaters were just getting
ready for their big Saturday night.
Now, Lord, I said, let me just be enveloped in Your
glory for these two hours in the midst of the world.
And I went up and down Fleet Street and the Strand,
lost in the Spirit, in tongues the whole time. It was lovely.
Yes, the world was filled with the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16), but God
had His child in the midst of these blazing worldly affairs,
lost in the Spirit.
I want you, I implore you, beloved, to desire earnestly
to be in Gods will so that at any time, wherever you are,
you may pray in the Spirit, you may sing in the Spirit, you
may have a good time thinking about the Lord. Remember
that it is at these places and times and seasons when the
Father and the Son come and make themselves known to
you.
Now, a word in season regarding the next point. Paul
knew that if the whole church turned to tongues, and
tongues onlytongues! tongues! tongues!there would be
confusion and much distress, and there would not be that
lift of divine power and fellowship that Paul knew was
needed.
So Pauls great heart as a builder of churches was
moved; he saw that the Lord was breathing through him
this glorious desire to form these churches, and he said to
the Corinthians, in effect, Think seriously, and let your
speaking be with carefulness. The people who have been
filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues should not go on
constantly with that; they should not come to the meeting
and continually have it taken up with speaking in tongues.
You know, the flow of the Spirit through you is very
lovely; yes, it is very lovely, but we must always be
mindful that our brother and sister sitting next to us have
to be helped. There are weak people in the church who
need your careful attention. Then there are people of
different kinds of temperament and makeup. We must
always remember that we have to guard the church, look
after it, keep it with sober mind, until no person coming in
may be taken up with the thought, Why, these people are
mad! There they are, all speaking in tongues. (See 1
Corinthians 14:23.)
Paul said, I would rather speak five words with my
understanding than ten thousand words that they couldnt
understand. (See verse 19.)
Wasnt he right? Wouldnt I prefer the same thing? Is
there anybody who is really in wisdom who would dare to
continue speaking in tongues without interpretation and
without opening the knowledge of God to the people? Who
would dare to do that? It would be foolishness, it would be
madness, and you would lose the opinion of the people.
You need to remember that whatever you do when you
are in the church of God, you must seek to excel to the
edifying of the body of Christ.
Tongues, a Sign to the Unbeliever
There is a word here that says that tongues are a sign
for the unbeliever: Therefore tongues are for a sign, not
to those who believe but to unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22).
We have a wonderful word there, and I know it will
require some explanation. It is important, and I want to
explain it so that it edifies you.
A friend of mine was attending a Wesleyan brotherhood
meeting in England, a large, packed meeting. He saw a
young man there who was full of desire for the salvation
of his people. He looked it, and his body posture and his
face looked it. My friend knew he was laboring there under
great difficulty.
At the close of the service, he wrote him a check. He
said, Take this check and go to Bradford to Brother
Wigglesworth, a friend of mine, and have a rest in his
home. All you have to do is to say that I have sent you.
They will take you in and make you comfortable.
When this young man got the check, he was in need of
a rest, and he said to my friend, Yes, I will go, and I
thank you.
He arranged to go the next Friday. The first thing he did
when he got to Bradford was to go to the Young Mens
Christian Association to inquire if they knew anything about
Wigglesworth.
Oh, yes, we know everything about him. Why?
I have brought a letter of introduction to him and have
been advised to go to his home for a rest.
Now, you be very careful, they said. This man is
among those people who believe in tongues, and we
believe it is of the Devil. So you be careful lest you be
taken in.
Oh! he said. Dont be afraid; they will not take me in.
I am too wise for that.
So he came.
I want you to notice that the Scripture passage we are
dealing with now is about tongues as an evidence to the
unbelievernot to the believer but to the unbeliever.
This man came to my house full of unbelief. He is a
great preacher and a wonderful man with great abilities,
and I tell youI know him wellthat he is a godly man.
But he was full of unbelief.
There are any number of people who are believers
filled with unbelief. I have very little difficulty when I am
dealing with a sinner about being healed. I scarcely ever
see a sinner who knows nothing about Jesus fail to be
healed when I pray for him. But if I pray for a believer, I
very often find that he is not healed. Why? There is
unbelief in the believer. It is a very astounding thing.
God speaks in the old prophetic language nine times as
much to the backslider as He does to the sinner. So I want
you to know there is no place for you except to only
believe what God says. When you come to that place, God
will bless you; you will be amazed at how much He will
bless you.
Interpretation of Tongues
For God has not chosen you that He might make you as
a waster, but He has chosen you to bring you on the hill of
perfection, that you might know that there will not be
weakness in you but strength and character, for God has
chosen you.
This message is for someone in the meeting: God has
chosen you. Do not be afraid. God has chosen you.
To resume my story, when the young man got to my
house, my wife was in the house alone. He went in and he
talked, and talked, and talked, and talked. When I got
home, my wife came out and said to me, We have the
strangest man we ever had in our house. He has been in
there for half an hour, and he has never stopped talking.
You never heard such a talker.
Let him alone, I said. He will come to an end.
I was introduced to him, and he went on talking. He
talked through the dinner hour and right through to
nighttime.
That night we were having a meeting at our house. He
didnt stop talking. He knew that if he stopped, he would
allow something else into his mind, so he was going to talk
and block everyone else who talked. He wasnt willing to
be taken in with this.
The meeting began to fill up; the room was packed.
Brother, I said, you have talked ever since you came.
We are now going to pray. It is our meeting night; you
must cease to speak.
He got down before God. My, it was wonderful! The
power of God fell upon us, and something happened that
never happened before, as far as I can remember. We
always began our meeting with a songalwaysbut this
time we began it in an attitude of prayer.
At one side of the fireplace knelt one young woman and
at the other side of the fireplace knelt another. I have
never known it to happen before or since, but,
deliberately, instead of praying, those two began speaking
in tongues.
As soon as they began speaking in tongues, this man
jumped up, startled. He ran to the one nearest him, his
hands on his ears, and bent down over the girl; then
frantically he ran to the other, then back to the first, then
to the other one.
Finally he came and said to me, Can I go to my room?
Yes, Brother.
He was shown to his room.
We had a wonderful meeting. At about 3:30 the next
morning, he came to my door and knocked.
May I come in? he called.
Yes, I said. Come in.
As soon as he got in, he stammered, Blblbl with
his hand to his mouth. Its come! Its come!
Go back to bed, Brother, I said.
The next morning he came down to breakfast.
Oh, wasnt that a wonderful night! he exclaimed.
Which do you mean? I asked.
We had had a wonderful time. I wanted to know what
he had done.
Oh! he said. When I came here, I heard in Bradford
that you had received the power of the working of evils; I
was warned to keep away, and I was filled with unbelief. I
was determined that nothing of that would affect me. I
made up my mind that I would talk every moment. But
when you told the people to go to prayer, the moment
those people began speaking in tongues, I went to them. I
know Greek and I know Hebrew, and one was saying to
me in Greek, Get right with God, and the other was
saying in Hebrew, Get right with God.
Oh, yes, God has a way to do it, and God can do it.
When we get unbelief out of the way, the baptism of fire,
revelation, the gifts of the Spirit, the harmony, the
comfort, the blessed unction will abound until there will
never be a dry meeting; every meeting will be filled with
life and power and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Continuing his story, this man said, When I heard that,
I knew it was for me. I went upstairs and I repented. I
knew I had been wrongly interpreting what God meant,
and I repented. As I repented, I found myself overcome by
the power of the Spirit. I tried to resist, but God was
dealing with me in such a way that I fell down under the
power of the Spirit over and over, until God sanctified me.
At 3:30 the power of God fell upon me. I found myself
speaking as the Spirit gave utterance, and I came to your
door.
That man is a wonderful man today. God has blessed
him everywhere.
16
A More Excellent Way
Praise the Lord! The Word of God is very clear
regarding this: Let everything that has breath praise the
Lord. Praise the Lord! (Ps. 150:6). If you ever get to the
place where you cannot praise the Lord, it is a calamity in
your life and it is a calamity to the people who are around
you. If you want to take blessing into homes and make all
the people around you know that you have something
more than an ordinary life, you must know that God has
come to supplant you and put within you a perfect praise.
God has a great place for us, so that His will may be
done and we may be subject to His perfect will. When that
comes to pass, no one can tell what may happen, for
Jesus reached the highest place when He said, For I have
come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the
will of Him who sent Me (John 6:38). So there is
something in a place of yielding where God can have us
for His own.
God has a choice for us all so that we might lose
ourselves in God in a way we have never done before. I
want to provoke you to love so that you will come into a
place of blessing, for God wants you to be blessed so that
you will be a blessing.
Beloved, believe today that God has a way for you.
Perhaps you have never come that way before. God has a
way beyond all your ways of thought. He has a choice and
a plan for you.
There is a great need today. People are hungry for
truth. People are thirsting, wanting to know God better.
There are thousands in the valley of decision (Joel 3:14),
wanting someone to take them right into the depths of
God.
Are you ready to pray? You say, What should I ask
for?
You may not know what to ask for, but if you begin, the
Spirit knows the desire of your heart, and He will pray
according to the mind of God. You do not know, but God
knows everything, and He is acquainted with you
altogether and desires to promote you.
So I say, Are you ready? You say, What for? Are you
ready to come promptly into the presence of God so that
you may ask this day as you have never asked before? Ask
in faith, nothing doubting, believing that God is on the
throne waiting to anoint you afresh today.
Are you ready? What for? Are you ready to be brought
into the banquet house of God, even as Esther came in
before King Ahasuerus? God will put out the scepter, and
all that your heart desires He will give to you. (See Esther
57.)
Father, in Jesus name we come before You believing in
Your almightiness, that the power of Your hand does move
us, chasten us. Build us. Let the Word of God sink into our
hearts this day. Make us, O God, worthy of the name we
bear, that we may go about as real, holy saints of God.
Just as if You were on the earth, fill us with Your
anointing, Your power, and Your grace. Amen.
Humility and Compassion
It is very important to minister in the gifts of the Spirit in
the proper way. What a serious thing it would be, after
waiting for the enduement of power for months and
months and months, to fail God because we turned to
some human desire just because we liked it.
I want to say at the beginning that there is no anointing
like the unction that comes out of death, when we are
dead with Christ. It is that position that makes us live with
Him. If we have been conformed to His death, then, in that
same death, like Paul, we will be made like Him in His
resurrection power (Phil. 3:1011).
But do not forget that Jesus was coequal with the
Father and that He made Himself of no reputation when he
became man and came to earth (Phil. 2:67). He did not
come out and say that He was this, that, or the other. No,
that was not His position. Jesus had all the gifts. He could
have stood up and said to Peter and John and James and
the rest of them, when the dead son was being carried
through the gate of the city of Nain (see Luke 7:1115),
Stand to one side, Peter. Clear out of the way, John.
Make room for Me, Thomas. Dont you know who I am? I
am coequal with the Father. I have all power, I have all
gifts, I have all graces. Stand to one side; I will show you
how to raise the dead!
Is that how He did it? No! Never. Then what made it
come to pass?
He was observant. The disciples were there, but they
did not have the same observance. Observance comes
from an inward holy flame kindled by God.
What did He see? He saw the widow and knew that she
was carrying to burial that day all her help, all her life. Her
love was bound up in that son. There she was, broken and
bent over with sorrow, all her hopes blighted.
Jesus had compassion upon her, and the compassion of
Jesus was greater than death. His compassion was so
marvelous that it went beyond the powers of death and all
the powers of demons.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits (Ps. 103:2). Isnt He a lovely Jesus! Isnt He a
precious Savior! Dont you see that if we bear in our body
the marks of Jesus (Gal. 6:17) or the life of the
manifestation of Jesus, if we live only as Jesus is
manifested, if people realize that we have been with
Jesus (Acts 4:13), as they realized it of Peter and John,
then that would pay for everything? Oh, it would surely be
beautiful!
Presumption
These meetings are not ordinary meetings. The Holy
Spirit is among us; Jesus is being glorified. We are not
seeking our own in these meetings, but we are seeking to
provoke one another to holiness and character (Heb.
10:24) so that we may be of the same mind as Jesus. The
same manifestation that was in Him has to be in us.
I must never, under any circumstances, as long as I
live, take advantage of God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. I
have to be subservient to the power of God.
Let me give you a little illustration that will help you in
thinking about this.
One day a young man got very elated because he had
received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and he got into a
place that most people seemed to fail to see was the
wrong place. This young man was on the platform during
a meeting, and he said, I am baptized with the Holy
Spirit. I can cast out devils. Come, I can cast them out!
There was a poor man there who had been bound by
the Devil for many, many years, so bound that he was
helpless. He could not help himself; he was bound in every
way. He had never heard such words before, and when he
heard them he was so moved that he struggled out of his
seat, took hold of the chairs, and went down among the
people in the aisle. He was a poor helpless man who was
seeking relief the first time he heard that he could be
delivered.
He went up and stood before the preacher and cried
out, Cast them out! Please cast them out! Help me;
please cast them out!
The young man did all he could, but he could not do it.
The church was broken, the whole place was brought into
travail. Oh, they wept and they cried because it was not
done.
A Perfect Way
It never will be done that way. That isnt the way to do
it. But there is a way to minister in all the gifts of the
Spirit, and it is the way that is in the Scriptures. Let us
look into this perfect way that is found in 1 Corinthians 13,
starting with the first verse:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal.
Did you ever read a verse like this? It is the state of
being brought into a treasury. Do you know what a
treasury is? A treasury holds or handles priceless things.
God puts you into the treasury to hold or handle the
precious gifts of the Spirit. Therefore, so that you may not
fail to handle them correctly, He gives you a picture of how
you may handle them.
What a high position of authority, of grace, the Lord
speaks about in this verse! Speak with the tongues of
men and of angels. Oh, isnt that wonderful!
There are men who have such wonderful qualifications
for speaking. Their knowledge in the natural realm is so
surpassing that many people go to hear their eloquent
addresses because the language in them is so beautiful.
Yet, through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, God puts you
right in the midst of them and says that He has given you
the capability to speak like men, with power of thought
and language at your disposal, so that you can say
anything.
People are failing God all the time all over the world
because they are taken up with their own eloquence, and
God is not in it. They are lost with the pretentiousness of
their great authority over language, and they use it on
purpose to tickle the ears and the sensations of the
people, and it profits nothing. It is nothing. It will wither
up, and the people who use it will wither up.
Yet God has said there is a way. Now, how would
language of men and of angels (1 Cor. 13:1) come to
prosper?
When you wept through to victory before, you were
able to do anything. You were so undone that unless God
helped you to do it, you couldnt do it. You were so broken
in spirit that your whole body seemed to be at an end
unless God reinstated you. Then the unction came, and
every word was glorifying Jesus. Every sentence lifted the
people, and they felt as they listened, Surely God is in this
place! He has sent His Word and healed us (see Psalm
107:20). They saw no man there except Jesus. Jesus was
so manifested that they all said, Oh, wasnt Jesus
speaking to our hearts this morning!
If you minister in this way, you will never become
nothing. Tongues of men and angels alone will come to
nothing. Yet if you speak with tongues of men and angels
that are bathed in the love of God until it is to Him alone
that you speak, then it will be written down forever in the
history of the glory.
Never think for a moment that the Acts of the Apostles
has been completed. It is an incomplete book. When you
read Revelation, it is complete. You cannot add to nor take
from this wonderful truth of prophecy. It is complete. And
so, when you are used only for and desire only the glory of
God, your acts and life, ministry, and power will be an
endless recording in the glory of heavenfor the Acts of
the Apostles are being recorded in the glory.
So let the Lord help us to know how to act in the Holy
Spirit.
Interpretation of Tongues
Set your house in order, for unless you die, you cannot
live. For God is coming today and taking usothers may
be left, but we are takentaken on with God, taken into
God, moved by the power of God, until we live and move
in God and God has us as His channel, breathing through,
divinely fixing, bringing forth words new and old. And God
is moving in the midst, and His people are being fed with
the finest of the wheat.
We have a great salvation, but some people limit it. I
believe in eternal salvation. The question has been asked
me, Do you believe that after you are saved, you are
forever saved? The Scriptures are very clear on this, and
they are the words of Jesus. What does He say? My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me (John 10:27).
I do not believe that you are a sheep if you do not
follow. But if you follow, you are all right; if you do not
follow, it shows you were never right. So if you are all
right, you will remain right and you will end up right.
Do not forget that it is only those who hear His voice
who belong to the fold. And so, if you are acting
indiscreetly, carelessly, frivolously, and sinfully, you have
never been in it; you are a stranger to it. My sheep hear
My voiceand they follow Me. They will not listen to the
voice of a stranger, and they have not turned aside to
everything else. They liveand, oh, it is a lovely lifethey
live in the will of God.
Prophecy and Goodness
Let us look at the second verse from 1 Corinthians 13:
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all
faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love,
I am nothing.
This second verse is like the first, only the Word of God
is very remarkable. It starts like this, brings you to a place
where there is no condemnation, and then fills you up
where there is no separation. That is Gods plan.
Lots of people desire to have faith; lots of people desire
to have prophecy; lots of people long to know mysteries.
Who knows mysteries? The secret of the Lord is with
those who fear Him (Ps. 25:14). Dont change the
Scriptures. The just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17). Do
not alter the Scriptures. It takes a just man to live by faith.
Do not forget that prophecy is beautiful when you
understand the principle of it. Prophecy is the sixth gift
mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. What fruit or grace do you
think would coincide with prophecy? Why, goodness, of
course.
Why goodness? Because if you are living in holiness,
entire sanctification, perfection, you would never take
advantage of the Holy Spirit and would speak only as the
Spirit gave prophecy. You would never say human things
just because you had the gift of prophecy. You would
speak according to the Spirit, giving prophecy because you
had been holy.
When you speak in the natural after you have received
the gift of prophecy, it is because you have come to be
nothing; you are nothing; you are not counted in the great
plan of the great purpose of God. But if you are hidden in
Christ and your whole heart is perfected in God, and you
will prophesy only when the Spirit of the Lord is upon you,
then it will be something that lasts forever. People will be
blessed forever and God will be glorified forever.
Faith without Love
Suppose that I have all faith so that I could move
mountains. Now, suppose that I also have a big farm, but
that some of my farmland is not very profitable. It is stony;
it has many rocks on it as well as some little mountains
that are absolutely untillable and do no good. But because
I have faith without love, I say, I will use my faith and I
will move this land. I do not care where it goes as long as
my land is clean.
So I use my faith to clear my land. The next day, my
poor next-door neighbor comes and says, I am in great
trouble. All your wasteland and stony, rocky land has been
tipped onto mine, and my good land is ruined.
And I, who have faith without love, say to him, You get
faith and move it back!
That profits nothing. If God brings you into a place of
faith, let it be for the glory of God. Then, when you pray,
God will wonderfully answer you; nothing will hinder your
being used for God, for God delights to use us.
Gifts are not only given; they are also increased to
those who can be used, who can keep in a place of
useableness. God keeps these yielded ones in a place of
being continually supplanteda new place that is deeper,
higher, holier, richer, more heavenly.
In addition, gifts are not only useable, but God is also
glorified in Jesus when you pray the prayer of faith. Jesus
Himself said, When you pray believing, the Father will be
glorified in the Son. (See John 14:1213.)
Sacrifice Nothing without Love
We will move on now to the third verse:
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and
though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it
profits me nothing.
(1 Cor. 13:3)
Though I have such means that I can lay my hands on
millions of dollars, though I can do all kinds of things with
the money, and though, after I have given it all, I show the
people more by giving my body to be burned, saying, I
will show the people what kind of material I am made of!
this is nothing, nothing! Your gifts will perish unless the
gifts are used for the glory of Jesus. Five dollars given in
the name of the Lord is of more value than thousands
without acknowledging Him.
A man came to me, and we had long talks about the
workings of the Lord. He told me, I was in a very difficult
place. I had been working very hard in the church and had
given all my strength.
Oh, I see such godly, holy people doing more than they
ought to, thereby giving themselves away. Dont you know
that your body belongs to God (1 Cor. 6:1920), and that,
if you overtax your body, God says He will judge you for it?
We have to be careful because the body that is given to us
is to exhibit His power and His glory, and we cannot do
this if we give ourselves all the time to work, work, work,
work, work and think that that is the only way. It is not the
way.
The Scriptures teach us that Jesus had to go and renew
His spiritual vision and power in solitude with His Father
(Mark 1:35), and it was also necessary for the disciples to
draw aside and rest awhile (6:3031). Couldnt Jesus give
them all they needed? My dear brother, whatever God
gives you, He will never take away your common sense.
Suppose I unwisely overextended my body and knew
that I had done so? How could I ask anyone to pray for me
unless I repented? We must be careful. Our bodies are the
temples of the Holy Spirit, and He has to dwell in them,
and they have to be for His purpose in the world. We are
not working for ourselves; God is to be glorified in our
bodies. Lots of people today are absolutely withered up,
years before their time, because they went beyond their
knowledge. But dare to believe.
Let me tell you a personal story to illustrate this. In
1914 the Lord moved upon me in England to tell the
people that I was going to America, coming in through
Canada.
Well, Lord, I said, You know You will have to do a
miracle, and You must do it sharp if You mean business,
because I want to be in haste about this if it is Your plan.
The first thing is that, as you know, I have a bad memory.
You will have to work a miracle there. The next thing is
that You will have to find me all the money because I
cannot leave my children without money, and I have no
money to go, so You will have to find a lot.
It was amazing how the Lord began to provide it. It was
coming so fast that I said to the people, Oh, the Lord has
sent so much money that I am sure I am going!
Then He stopped. There was no more money.
Lord! Lord! I said, I know I have grieved You, and I
repent. If You begin again to show me it is Your will, I
wont tell anybody.
And it commenced again, falling as gently as rain.
My boy said to me, Father, Mother has gone to heaven.
If you go on this trip, it will be very lonely for me without
you.
The front doorbell rang. I said to him, George, go
answer the front door, and let the Lord speak to you
through this ring at the door whether I have to go or not.
There was a letter.
Now, George, I said, open that letter, and whatever
is in the letter, read it, and let that suffice you whether I
have to go or not.
George opened the letter. That letter had been traveling
for six weeks; it began coming just about the time I
repented. In it was a check for twentyfive pounds.
What about it, George? I asked.
Oh! he said. Father, I wont say anything else.
I was rushing onto the ship one day not long afterward,
when a poor woman who was dressed very shabbily, and
whom I didnt know, came and gave me a big red sugar
bag. I was packed with things, and I couldnt say a word to
her because there were so many people to see me off and
everything, so I just put the bag on one side. When the
ship began moving, I thought, Well, I will look in the
sugar bag.
And there were twentyfive gold coins! Cant He provide
it!
Beloved, let the Lord do things. He knows how to do
them.
Because I felt that my coming to America and Canada
was all the Lords doing, I said, Lord, I will never let an
opportunity slip. I traveled at night to preach at day, took
advantage of every opportunity, went so far that I got to
the point that I could not eat.
After one meeting, the people said, You have lifted the
meeting, lifted the meeting.
Yes, I said, God is with us.
They went to eat, but I could not. Then they said to me,
Wigglesworth, you do not understand your body. You are
helping everybody in the Spirit, but your body has gotten
so run down that if you do not go home, you may never be
able to come back.
Ah! I had zeal without knowledge (Rom. 10:2); I had a
love for God, but there was no wisdom in it. God showed
me that if I would take care of my body, He could use me
for years and years to come, and I find today that I am
stronger and better and more ready for action than I was
thirty years ago.
Interpretation of Tongues
For it is the Lord your God who opens and no man
shuts. When He blesses, it will surely tend to blessing.
And remember this, God has not called you in to keep your
face down; He has called you in to laden you with the
treasures and then pass you out to scatter the good
things. God is at the right hand of those people who are
seeking diligently only to follow Him, for God has set His
heart upon you. David says, When I was poor and needy,
then the Lord thought about me. It is in the poverty of our
weaknesses that God becomes the refreshing and strength
of our human nature and spiritual quality and keeps us in
the earth, fresh and ready.
Oh, Father, we do thank you for this!
Beloved, make sure that you see to these things. God
will give you faith. God will give you prophecies. God will
give gifts. And remember this, God will enrich you.
Did you ever know a time in your life when you were
poorer after you began to serve the Lord? No. God blesses
in basket and store, and He blesses in the body. It pays to
serve the Lord in holiness, for God has a purpose in it. It is
when you get out of the will of God that you have a hard
time. Let Gods will be done. There is money that leads to
poverty (Prov. 11:24), and there are gifts of God that
bring you into riches. So I implore you to serve God with
all your heart.
I had hoped to go deeper into this thirteenth chapter of
1 Corinthians, but if we had gone deeper, we would not
have come out again. There are many things to say about
this chapter. For instance, how beautiful it would be to
know what this really means: Love suffers long and is
kind (1 Cor. 13:4).
I do not have time for any more, except this: the time is
not past for much more. It is past for any more from me,
but you are on the threshold of much more from God. May
the Lord bless you in such a way that you will be in a place
where God will be at your right hand (Ps. 16:8).
Faith is an act; faith is a leap; faith jumps in; faith
claims. Faith has an author, and faiths author is Jesus. He
is the Author and the Finisher of faith (Heb. 12:2).
Now, how much do you dare to ask for? How much do
you dare to imagine? How much do you dare to expect will
come? How much? May I move you to this banquet, this
place of treasure, this much more, this abundant, this
abounding, this exceeding? (See Ephesians 3:20.)
Jump up into God. Dare to believe. Faith is enough; ask
and believe.
Give me grace, Lordanyhow, any wayonly have Your
way.
17
Love and the Gifts
Thank God for the Word that comes to us afresh! Early
this morning I was thinking and wondering if the Lord
would speak through me, and I was strongly impressed
that I should read to you 1 Corinthians 13.
I am so thankful to God that He has dovetailed this
thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians between the twelfth
and the fourteenth. The twelfth chapter deals expressly
with the gifts of the Spirit, and the fourteenth chapter is on
the lines of the manifestations and the gifts of the Spirit;
the thirteenth chapter functions similarly to the governor
balls that control a steam engine. If you ever see this type
of engine working, you will find that right over the main
valve that lets in the steam, there are two little balls that
go around. Often they go as fast as they can, though
sometimes they go slowly. They open and shut the valve
that sends the steam to the pistons. These are constructed
so that the engine does not get out of control.
I find that God, the Holy Spirit, in His remarkable
wisdom, has placed the thirteenth chapter right between
these wonderful chapters on the gifts that we love to dwell
upon so much. How wonderful, how magnificent they are!
God has given them to us so that we may be useful, not
ornamental, and prove in every case and under every
circumstance that we might be available at the right time
with these gifts. They are enduement for power; they are
expressive of His love; they are for the edification and
comfort of so many weary souls.
We find that God brings these gifts in perfect order so
that the church may receive blessings. Yet how many
people, how many of us, have failed to come to the
summit of perfection because the governor balls were not
working well, because we were more taken up with the
gift than the power that moved the gift, because we were
more frequently delighted in the gift than the Giver of the
gift! Then the gift became fruitless and helpless, and we
were sorry. Sometimes it brought on rebuke, and
sometimes we suffered, suffered more or suffered less.
Interpretation of Tongues
The love that constrains, the grace that adorns, the
power that sustains, the gift that remains may be in
excellence, when He is the Governor, the Controller, the
Worker.
I do thank God for tongues and interpretation, because
they introduce new vision; they open the larger avenue.
Let it please You today, Lord, to show us how to work and
how to walk and not stumble.
The Gifts
Now, beloved, the topic of love and the gifts is a very
large one. However, I will do all I can, by the grace of
God, so that I may say things that will live after I have
gone away. For it is very necessary that we receive the
Holy Spirit in the first place; after receiving the Holy Spirit,
we must earnestly desire the gifts. Then, after receiving
the gifts, we must never forget that the gift is entrusted to
us for bringing the blessings of God to the people.
For instance, divine healing is a gift for ministering to
the needs of the people. The gift of wisdom is a word in
season at the moment of need, to show you just what to
do. The gift of knowledge, or the word of knowledge, is to
inspire you because of the consecutiveness of the Word of
God, to bring you life and joy. This is what God intends.
Then there is the gift of discernment. We are not to
discern one another, but to discern evil powers and deal
with them and command them back to the pit from which
they came. Regarding the gift of miracles, God intends for
us to come to the place where we will see miracles
worked. God also wants us to understand that tongues are
profitable only when they exalt and glorify the Lord. And
oh, that we might really know what it means when
interpretation is given! It is not merely to have beautiful
sensations and think that is interpretation, but it is such
that the man who has it does not know what is coming, for
if he did, it would not be interpretation. Interpretation is
not knowing what you are going to say, but it is being in
the place where you say exactly what God says. So when I
have to interpret a message, I purposely keep my mind
from anything that would hinder, and I sometimes say
Praise the Lord and Hallelujah so that everything will
be a word through the Spirit, and not my word, but the
word of the Lord!
Now I understand that we can have these divine gifts so
perfectly balanced by divine love that they will be a
blessing all the time. However, there is sometimes such a
desire in the flesh to do something attention-getting. How
the people listen and long for divine prophecy, just as
interpretation comes forth. How it thrills! There is nothing
wrong with it; it is beautiful. We thank God for the office
and the purpose that has caused it to come, but let us be
careful to finish when we are through and not continue on
our own. That is how prophecy is spoiled. If you continue
on your own, at the end of the anointing, you are using
false fire; at the end of the message, you will try to
continue. Dont fail, beloved, because the people know the
difference. They know what is full of life, what is the real
thing.
Then again, it is the same with a person praying. We
love people to pray in the Holy Spirit; how we love to hear
them pray even the first sentences because the fire is
there. However, what spoils the most holy person in
prayer is when, after the spirit of prayer has gone forth,
he continues on and people say, I wish he would stop,
and the church becomes silent. They say, I wish that
brother would stop. How beautifully he began; now he is
dry! But he doesnt stop.
A preacher was once having a wonderful time, and the
people enjoyed it, but when he was through, he continued.
A man came and said to someone at the door, Has he
finished? Yes, said the man, long since, but he wont
stop! May God save us from that. People know when you
are praying in the Spirit. Why should you take time and
spoil everything because the natural side has come into it?
God never intended that. God has a supernatural side; that
is the true side, and how beautiful it is! People sometimes
know better than we do, and we would also know if we
were more careful.
May the Lord grant us revelation; we need discernment;
we need intuition. It is the life inside. It is salvation inside,
cleansing, filling; it is all inside. Revelation is inside. It is
for exhibition outside, but always remember that it is
inside. Gods Son said as much when He said, The pure in
heart will see God. (See Matthew 5:8.) There is an
inward sight of God, and it is the pure in heart who see
God.
Lord, keep us pure so that we will never block the way.
Love
Love is always in the place of revelation.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and
though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.
(1 Cor. 13:12)
Now, it is a remarkable fact that God intends us to be
examples of the truth. These are divine truths, and God
intends us to be examples of these truths. Beloved, it is
lovely to be in the will of God. Now then, how may we be
something? By just being nothing, by receiving the Holy
Spirit, by being in the place where you can be operated by
God and filled with the power to operate.
What it must be to have speaking ability, to have a
beautiful language, as so many men have! There are men
who are wonderful in language. I used to like to read
Talmadge when he was alive; how his messages used to
inspire me. But, oh, this divine power! It is wonderful to
have the tongue of an angel so that all the people who
hear you are moved by your use of language. Yet how I
would weep, how my heart would be broken, if I came to
speak before you in beautiful language without the power!
If I had an angels language and the people were all
taken with what I said, but Jesus was not glorified at all, it
would all be hopeless, barren, and unfruitful. I myself
should be nothing. But if I speak and say, Lord, let them
hear Your voice. Lord, let them be compelled to hear Your
truth. Lord, anyhow, any way, hide me today, then He
becomes glorious, and all the people say, We have seen
Jesus!
When I was in California, I spent many days with our
dear Brother Montgomery when I had a chance. During
this time, a man wrote to Brother Montgomery. This man
had been saved but had lost his joy; he had lost all he
had. He wrote, I am through with everything. I am not
going to touch this thing again; I am through. Brother
Montgomery wrote back to him and said, I will never try
to persuade you again if you will hear once. There is a
man from England, and if you will only hear him once, I
will pay all your expenses. So he came. He listened, and
at the end of the time he said to me, This is the truth I
am telling you. I have seen the Lord standing beside you,
and I heard His voice. I never even saw you.
I have a lot of money, he continued, and I have a
valley five hundred miles long. If you speak the word to
me, I will go on your word, and I will open that valley for
the Lord.
I have preached in several of his places, and God has
used him wonderfully to speak throughout that valley.
What I would have missed when he came the first day, if I
had been trying to say something of my own instead of the
Lord being there and speaking His words through me!
Never let us do anything to lose this divine love, this close
affection in our hearts that says, Not I, but Christ; not I,
but Christ!
I want to say, Forget yourself and get lost in Him.
Lose all your identity in the Son of God. Let Him become all
in all. Seek only the Lord, and let Him be glorified. You will
have gifts; you will have grace and wisdom. God is waiting
for the person who will lay all on the altar, fiftytwo weeks
in the year, three hundred and sixtyfive days in the year,
and then continue perpetually in the Holy Spirit.
I would have liked to have gone on with this topic. I
have such joy in this. Beloved, go on for every blessing
from the Lord, so that the Lord will be large in you, so that
the wood and the hay and the stubble will be burned up (1
Cor. 3:1213 kjv), and the Lord will bring you to a great
harvesttime. Now, beloved, shall we not present ourselves
to the Lord so that He may put His hand upon us and say,
My child, my child, be obedient to the message; hear
what the Spirit says to you so that you may go on and
possess the land? The Lord will give you a great
inheritance.
18
A Final Word about the Gifts
Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts,
let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to
excel.
1 Corinthians 14:12
This Scripture is the Word of God, and it is most
important that when we read the Word, we do so with
hearts that have purposed to obey its every precept. We
have no right to open the Word of God carelessly or
indifferently. I have no right to come to you with any
message unless it is absolutely in the perfect order of God.
I believe we are in order to consider further the subject
that we greatly need to be informed about in these days.
So many people are receiving the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, but then they do not know which way to go.
We have a great need today. It is that we may be
supplied with revelation according to the mind of the Lord,
that we may be instructed by the mind of the Spirit, that
we may be able to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Tim.
2:15), and that we may not be novices, considering the
fact that the Spirit of the Lord has come to us in
revelation. We ought to be alert to every touch of divine,
spiritual illumination.
We should carefully consider what the apostle Paul said
to us: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you
were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). The
sealing of the Spirit is very remarkable, and I pray to God
that not one of you may lose the divine inheritance that
God has chosen for you, which is greater than you could
choose if your mind had ten times its normal faculties.
Gods mind is greater than yours. His thoughts are higher
than the heavens over you (Isa. 55:9), so that you do not
need to be afraid.
I have great love for my sons in England, great love for
my daughter here; but it is nothing in comparison to Gods
love toward us. Gods love wants us to walk up and down
the earth as His Son did: clothed, filled, radiant, with fire
beaming forth from our countenances, setting forth the
power of the Spirit so that the people jump into liberty.
But there is deplorable ignorance among those who
have gifts. It is not right for you to think that because you
have a gift, you are to wave it before the people and try to
get their minds upon that, because, if you do, you will be
out of the will of God. Gifts and callings in the body of
Christ may be irrevocable (Rom. 11:29), but remember
that God calls you to account for properly administering
the gift in a spiritual way after you have received it. It is
not given to adorn you, but to sustain, build, edify, and
bless the church. When God ministers through a member
of the body of Christ and the church receives this
edification, then all the members will rejoice together. God
moves upon us as His offspring, as His choice, and as the
fruit of the earth. He wants us to be elegantly clothed in
wonderful raiment, even as our Master is.
His workings upon us may be painful, but the wise saint
will remember that among those whom God chastens, it is
the one who is trained by that chastening to whom it
yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness (Heb. 12:11).
Therefore, let Him do with you what seems good to Him,
for He has His hand upon you; He will not willingly take it
off until He has performed the thing He knows you need.
So if He comes to sift you, be ready for the sifting. If He
comes with chastisement, be ready for chastisement. If He
comes with correction, be ready for correction. Whatever
He wills, let Him do it, and He will bring you to the land of
plenty. Oh, it is worth the world to be under the power of
the Holy Spirit!
If He does not chasten you, if you sail placidly along
without incident, without crosses, without persecutions,
without trials, remember that if you are without
chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you
are illegitimate and not sons (Heb. 12:8). Therefore,
examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith (2
Cor. 13:5). Never forget that Jesus said this word: They
who hear My voice follow Me. (See John 10:27.) Jesus
wants you all to follow; He wants you to have a clear ring
to your testimony.
You are eternally saved by the power of God. Do not be
led astray by anything; do not mistake your feelings for
your salvation; do not take anybodys word for your
salvation. Believe that Gods Word is true. What does it
say? He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and
he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36).
When your will becomes entirely the will of God, then
you are clearly in the place where the Holy Spirit can make
Jesus Lord in your life, Lord over your purchases, Lord
over your selling, Lord over your eating and your drinking,
Lord over your clothing, and Lord over your choice of
companions.
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There
are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there
are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who
works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given
to each one for the profit of all.
(1 Cor. 12:47)
The variation of humanity is tremendous. Faces are
different, so are physiques. Your whole body may be put
together in such a way that one particular gift would not
suit you at all, while it would suit another person.
So the Word of God deals here with varieties of gifts,
meaning that these gifts perfectly meet the condition of
each believer. That is Gods plan. It may be that not one
person would be led to claim all the gifts. Nevertheless, do
not be afraid; the Scriptures are definite. Paul said that
you do not need to come short in any gift (1 Cor. 1:7). God
has wonderful things for you beyond what you have ever
known. The Holy Spirit is so full of prophetic operations of
divine power that it is marvelous what may happen after
the Holy Spirit comes.
How He loosed me! I am no good without the Holy
Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit loosed my language. I
was like my mother. She had no ability to speak. If she
began to tell a story, she couldnt finish it. My father would
say, Mother, you will have to begin again. I was like that.
I couldnt tell a story. I was bound. I had plenty of
thoughts, but no language. But oh, after the Holy Spirit
came!
When He came, I had a great desire for gifts. So the
Lord caused me to see that it is possible for every believer
to live in such holy anointing, such divine communion, such
presseddown measure (Luke 6:38) by the power of the
Spirit, that every gift can be his.
But is there not a vast and appalling unconcern about
possessing the gifts? You may ask a score of believers,
chosen at random from almost any church, Do you have
any of the gifts of the Spirit? The answer from all will be,
No, and it will be given in a tone and with a manner that
conveys the thought that the believer is not surprised that
he does not have the gifts, that he doesnt expect to have
any of them, and that he does not expect to seek them.
Isnt this terrible, when the living Word specifically exhorts
us to earnestly desire the best gifts (1 Cor. 12:31)?
So in order that the gifts might be everything and in
evidence, we have to see that we cease to live without His
glory. He works with us, and we work with Him
cooperating, working together. This is divine. Surely this is
Gods plan.
God has brought you to the banquet, and He wants to
send you away full. We are in a place where God wants to
give us visions. We are in a place where, in His great love,
He is bending over us with kisses. Oh, how lovely is the
kiss of Jesus, the expression of His love!
Oh, come, let us seek Him for the best gifts, and let us
strive to be wise and to rightly divide the Word of Truth (2
Tim. 2:15), giving it forth in power so that the church may
be edified and sinners may be saved.