The Lord Jesus came to bring back to us what was forfeited in the Garden. Adam and Eve were there—free from sin and disease—and first sin came, then disease, and then death came after, and people want to say it is not so! But I tell you, “Get the Devil out of you, and you will have a different body. Get disease out, and you will get the Devil out.”
Jesus rebuked sickness, and it went, and so I want to bring you to a place where you will see that you are healed. You must give God your life; you must see that sickness has to go and God has to come in; that your lives have to be clean, and God will keep you holy; that you have to walk before God, and He will make you perfect, for God says, “Without holiness no man shall see Him,” and as we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
I want to say to you believers that there is a very blessed place for you to attain to, and the place where God wants you is a place of victory. When the Spirit of the Lord comes into your life it must be victory. The disciples, before they received the Holy Ghost, were always in bondage. Jesus said to them one day, just before the Crucifixion, “One of you shall betray Me,” and they were so conscious of their inability and their human depravity and helplessness that they said one to another, “Is it I?” And then Peter was ashamed that he had taken that stand, and he rose up and said, “Though all men deny Thee, yet will not I.” And likewise the others rose and declared that neither would they; but they—every one—did leave Him. But, beloved, after they received the power of the enduement of the Holy Ghost upon them, if you remember, they were made like lions to meet any difficulty. They were made to stand any test, and these men that failed before the Crucifixion, when the power of God fell upon them in the upper room, they came out in front of all those people who were gathered together and accused them of crucifying the Lord of Glory. They were bold. What had made them so? I will tell you. Purity is bold. Take, for instance, a little child. It will gaze straight into your eyes for as long as you like, without winking once. The more pure, the more bold; and I tell you God wants to bring us into that Divine purity of heart and life—that holy boldness. Not officiousness; not swelled-headedness; not self-righteousness; but a pure, holy, Divine appointment by One Who will come in and live with you, defying the powers of Satan, and standing you in a place of victory—overcoming the world.
You never inherited that from the flesh. That is a gift of God, by the Spirit, to all who obey. And so, none can say they wish they were overcomers, but that they have failed and failed until they have no hope. Brother, God can make YOU an overcomer. When the Spirit of God comes into your body He will transform you, He will quicken you. Oh, there is a life in the Spirit which makes you free from the law of sin and death, and there is an audacity about it—also there is a personality about it. It is the personality of the Deity. It is God in you.
I tell you that God is able to so transform and change and bring you into order by the Spirit that you can become a new creation after God’s order. There is no such thing as defeat for the believer. Without the Cross, without Christ’s righteousness, without the new birth, without the indwelling Christ, without this Divine incoming of God, I see myself a failure. But God, the Holy Ghost, can come in and take our place till we are renewed in righteousness—made the children of God. Nay, verily, the Sons of God.
Do you think that God would make you to be a failure? God has never made man to be a failure. He made man to be a “Son”; to walk about the earth in power; and so when I look at you I know that there is a capability that can be put into you which has the capacity of controlling and bringing everything into subjection. Yes, there is the capacity of the power of Christ to dwell in you, to bring every evil thing under you till you can put your feet upon it, and be master over the flesh and the devil; till within you there is nothing rises except that which will magnify and glorify the Lord; and God wants me to show you these disciples, who were so frail, like you and me, that we, too, may now be filled with God, and become pioneers of this wonderful truth I am preaching. Here we see Peter, frail, helpless, and, at every turn of the tide, a failure. And God filled that man with the Spirit of His righteousness, till he went up and down, bold as a lion, and when he came to death—even crucifixion—he counted himself unworthy of being crucified like his Lord, and asked that his murderers would put him head downwards on the tree. There was a deep submissiveness, and a power that was greater than all flesh. Peter had changed into the power of God.
The Scriptures do not tell two stories. They tell the truth. I want you to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What is truth? Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” “He that believeth on Me, as the Scriptures have said, out of his innermost being shall flow forth rivers of living water.” This He spake of the Spirit that should be given them after Jesus was glorified. I do not find anything in the Bible but holiness, and nothing in the world but worldliness. Therefore if I live in the world I shall become worldly; but, on the other hand, if I live in the Bible, I shall become holy. This is the truth, and the truth will set you free. The power of God can remodel you. He can make you hate sin and love righteousness. He can take away bitterness and hatred and covetousness and malice, and can so consecrate you by His power, through His blood, that you are made pure—every bit holy. Pure in mind, heart and actions—pure, right through. God has given me the way of life, and I want to give it to you, as though this were the last day I had to live. Jesus is the best there is for you, and you can each take Him away with you. God gave His Son to be the propitiation for your sins, and not only so, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus came to make us free from sin—free from disease and pain. When I see any who are diseased and in pain, I have great compassion for them, and when I lay my hands upon them, I know God means men to be so filled with Him that the power of sin shall have no effect upon them, and they shall go forth, as I am doing, to help the needy, sick, and affiicted. But what is the main thing? To preach the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Jesus came to do this. John came preaching repentance. The disciples began by preaching repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I tell you, beloved, if you have really been changed by God, there is a repentance in your heart never to be repented of.
Through the revelation of the Word of God we find that Divine healing is solely for the glory of God, and salvation is to make you to know that now you have to be inhabited by another, even God, and you have to walk with God in newness of life.
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Smith Wigglesworth (1859 - 1947)
Smith Wigglesworth, often referred to as ‘the Apostle of Faith,’ was one of the pioneers of the Pentecostal revival that occurred a century ago. Without human refinement and education he was able to tap into the infinite resources of God to bring divine grace to multitudes.Thousands came to Christian faith in his meetings, hundreds were healed of serious illnesses and diseases as supernatural signs followed his ministry. A deep intimacy with his heavenly Father and an unquestioning faith in God’s Word brought spectacular results and provided an example for all true believers of the Gospel.
Smith Wigglesworth is considered one of the most influential evangelists in the early history of Pentecostalism and is also credited with helping give the movement a large religious audience.
Nominally a Methodist, he became a born again Christian at age eight. His grandmother was a devout Methodist; his parents, John and Martha, were not practicing Christians although they took young Smith to Methodist and Anglican churches on regular occasions. He was confirmed by a Bishop in the Church of England, baptized by immersion in the Baptist Church and had the grounding in Bible teaching in the Plymouth Brethren while learning the plumbing trade as an apprentice from a man in the Brethren movement.
Wigglesworth believed that healing came through faith, and he was flexible about the methods he employed. When he was forbidden to lay hands on audience members by the authorities in Sweden, he preached for a "corporate healing", by which people laid hands on themselves. He also practiced anointing with oil, and the distribution of prayer handkerchiefs (one of which was sent to King George V). Wigglesworth sometimes attributed ill-health to demons.
Reportedly, David du Plessis recounted that Wigglesworth prophesied over him that God would pour out his Spirit on the established churches, and that David du Plessis would be greatly involved in it. Later du Plessis was very much involved in the Charismatic movement.
Wigglesworth continued to minister up until the time of his death on March 12, 1947.
Smith Wigglesworth was born to a very poor family. At the age of six he had to go to work. As a consequence, he never learned to read well until he was an adult. Later he claimed he never read anything but the Bible. He became a plumber by trade.
As a minister, Wigglesworth was hardly known outside of his hometown until 1907. In 1907, he received the baptism in the Holy Ghost, which changed his life forever. It was then, at the age of 48, that God moved Wigglesworth from a small relatively unknown ministry to conducting powerful meetings throughout the world, stirring the faith of thousands to receive healing and salvation. Wigglesworth would usually conclude a sermon by praying for the sick; regardless of what text he had ministered.
Smith Wigglesworth's ministry centered on salvation for the unconverted, healing for the sick, and a call to believers to be baptized in the Holy Ghost. He was filled with God - with love, compassion, and faith.
Wigglesworth said, "To hunger and thirst after righteousness is when nothing in the world can fascinate us so much as being near to God."
On March 12, 1947, Smith Wigglesworth, in perfect health, closed his eyes and slipped into eternity, at the age of 87.