An article by Smith Wigglesworth..
"To another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another faith, by the
same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:8, 9).
We have not passed this way hitherto. I believe that Satan has
many devices and that they are worse today than ever before; but I also believe
that there is to be a full manifestation on the earth of the power and glory of
God to defeat every device of Satan.
How important it is that we shall have the manifestation of
“the word of knowledge” in our midst. It is the same Spirit who brings forth the
word of wisdom that brings forth the word of knowledge. The revelation of the
mysteries of God comes by the Spirit, and we must have a supernatural word of
knowledge in order to convey to others the things which the Spirit of God has
revealed. The Spirit of God reveals Christ in all His wonderful fullness, and He
shows Him to us from the beginning to the end of the Scriptures. It is the
Scriptures that make us wise unto salvation, that open to us the depths of the
kingdom of heaven, which reveal all the divine mind to us.
There are thousands of people who read and study the Word of
God. But it is not quickened to them. The Bible is a dead letter except by the
Spirit. The Word of God can never be vital and powerful in us except by the
Spirit. The words that Christ spoke were not just dead words but they were
spirit and life. And so it is the thought of God that a living word, a word of
truth, the word of God, a supernatural word of knowledge, shall come forth from
us through the power of the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Ghost who will bring
forth utterances from our lips and a divine revelation of all the mind of God
With the gifts of the Spirit should come the fruit of the
Spirit. With wisdom we should have love, with knowledge we should have joy, and
with the third gift, faith, we should have the fruit of peace. Faith is always
accompanied by peace. Faith always rests. Faith laughs at impossibilities.
Salvation is by faith, through grace, and it is the gift of God. We are kept by
the power of God through faith. God gives faith and nothing can take it away. By
faith we have power to enter into the wonderful things of God. There are three
positions of faith; saving faith, which is the gift of God; the faith of the
Lord Jesus; and the gift of faith. You will remember the word of the Lord Jesus
Christ given to Paul, to which he refers in the 26th of Acts, where the Lord
commissioned him to go to the Gentiles, “to open their eyes, and to turn them
from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them `’WHICH ARE SANCTIFIED
BY FAITH THAT IS IN. ME.”
Oh, this wonderful faith of the Lord Jesus. Your faith comes to
an end. How many times I have been to the place where I have had to tell the
Lord, “I have used all the faith I have,” and then He has placed His own faith
within me.
One of our workers said to me at Christmas time, “Wigglesworth,
I never was so near the end of my purse in my life.” I replied, “Thank God, you
are just at the opening of God’s treasures.” It is when we are at the end of our
own, that we can enter into the riches of God’s resources. It is when we possess
nothing, that we can possess all things.
The Lord will always meet you when you are on the line of
living faith. I was in Ireland at one time and went to a house and said to the
lady who came to the door, “Is Brother Wallace here?” She replied, “Oh, he has
gone to Bangor, but God has sent you here for me. I need you. Come in.” She told
me her husband was a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. She had herself received
the Baptism while she was a member of the Presbyterian Church, but they did not
accept it as from God. The people of the church said to her husband, “This thing
cannot go on. We don’t want you to be deacon any longer, and your wife is not
wanted in the church.” The man was very enraged and he became incensed against
his wife. It seemed as though an evil spirit possessed him, and the home that
had once been peaceful became very terrible: At last he left home and left no
money behind him, and the woman asked me what should she do.
We went to prayer and before we had prayed five minutes the
woman was mightily filled with the Holy Ghost. I said to her, “Sit down and let
me talk to you. Are you often in the Spirit like this?” She said. “Yes, and what
could I do without the Holy Ghost now?” I said to her, “The situation is yours.
The Word of God says that you have power to sanctify your husband. Dare to
believe the Word of God. Now the first thing we must do is to pray that your
husband come back tonight.” She said, “I know he won’t.” I said, “If we agree
together, it is done.” She said, “I will agree.” I said to her, “When he comes
home show him all possible love, lavish everything upon him. If he won’t hear
what you have to say, let him go to bed. The situation is yours. Get down before
God and claim him for the Lord. Get into the glory just as you have got in
today, and as the Spirit of God prays through you, you will find that God will
grant all the desires of your heart.”
A month later I saw this sister at a convention. She told how
her husband came home that night and that he went to bed, but she prayed right
through to victory and then laid her hands upon him. The moment she laid hands
upon him he cried out for mercy. The Lord saved him and baptized him in the Holy
Spirit. The power of God is beyond all our conception. The trouble is that we do
not have the power of God in a full manifestation because of our finite
thoughts, but as we go on and let God have His way, there is no limit to what
our limitless God will do in response to a limitless faith. But you will never
get anywhere except you are in constant pursuit of all the power of God.
One day when I came home from our open-air meeting at eleven
o’clock I found that my wife was out. I asked, “Where is she?” I was told that
she was down at Mitchell’s. I had seen Mitchell that day and knew that he was at
the point of death. I knew that it was impossible for him to survive the day
unless the Lord undertook.
There are many who let down in sickness and do not take hold of
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that is provided for them. I was taken to see
a woman who was dying and said to her, “How are things with you?” She answered,
“I have faith, I believe.” I said, “You know that you have not faith, you know
that you are dying. It is not faith that you have, it is language.” There is a
difference between language and faith. I saw that she was in the hands of the
devil. There was no possibility of life until he was removed from the premises.
I hate the devil, and I laid hold of the woman and shouted, “Come out, you devil
of death. I command you to come out in the name of Jesus.” In one minute she
stood on her feet in victory.
But to return to the case of Brother Mitchell, I hurried down
to the house, and as I got near I heard terrible screams. I knew that something
had happened. I passed Mrs. Mitchell on the staircase and asked, “What is up?”
She replied, “He is gone! He is gone!” I just passed her and went into the room,
and immediately I saw that Mitchell had gone. I could not understand it, but I
began to pray. My wife was always afraid that I would go too far, and she laid
hold of ma and said, “Don’t, Dad! Don’t you see that he is dead?” I continued to
pray and my wife continued to cry out to me, “Don’t, Dad. Don’t you see that he
is dead?” But I continued praying. I got as far as I could with 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 that faith the thing is finished. When you have that faith you
will never look at things as they are, you will see the things of nature give
way to the things of the Spirit, you will see the temporal swallowed up in the
eternal.
I was at a camp meeting in Cazadero, California, several years
ago, and a remarkable thing happened. A man came there who was stone deaf. I
prayed for him and I knew that God had healed hint. Then came the test. He would
always move his chair up to the platform, and every time I got up to speak he
would get up as close as he could and strain his ears to catch what I had to
say. The devil said, “It isn’t done.” I declared, “It is done.” This went on for
three weeks and then the manifestation came and he could hear distinctly sixty
yards away. When his ears were opened he thought it was so great that he had to
stop the meeting and tell everybody about it. I met him in Oakland recently and
he was hearing perfectly. As we remain steadfast and unmovable on the ground of
faith, we shall see what we believe for in perfect manifestation.
People say to me, “Have you not the gift of faith?” I say that
it is an important gift, but what is still more important is for us every moment
to be making an advancement in God. Looking at the Word of God today I find that
its realities are greater to me today than they were yesterday. It is the most
sublime, joyful truth that God brings an enlargement. Always an enlargement.
There is nothing dead, dry or barren in this life of the Spirit; God is always
moving us on to something higher, and as we move on in the Spirit our faith will
always rise to the occasion as different circumstances arise.
This is how the gift of faith is manifested. You see an object
and you know that your own faith is nothing in the case. The other day I was in
San Francisco. I sat on a car and saw a boy in great agony on the street. I
said, “Let me get out.” I rushed to where the boy was. He was in agony through
cramp of the stomach. I put my hands on his stomach in the name of Jesus. The
boy jumped, and stared at me with astonishment. He found himself instantly free.
The gift of faith dared in the face of everything. It is as we are in the Spirit
that the Spirit of God will operate this gift anywhere and at any time.
When the Spirit of God is operating this gift within a man, He
causes him to know what God is going to do. When the man with the withered hand
was in the synagogue, Jesus got all the people to look to see what would happen.
The gift of faith always knows the results. He said to the man, “Stretch forth
thine hand.” His word had creative force. He was not living on the line of
speculation. He spoke and something happened. He spake at the beginning and the
world came into being. He speaks today and these things have to come to pass. He
is the Son of God and came to bring us into sonship. He was the firstfruit of
the resurrection and He calls us to be firstfruits, to be the same kind of fruit
like to Himself.
There is an important point here. You cannot have the gifts by
mere human desire. The Spirit of God distributes them severally as He will. God
cannot trust some with the gift, but some who have a lowly, broken, contrite
heart He can trust. One day I was in a meeting where there were a lot of doctors
and eminent men, and many ministers. It was at a convention, and the power of
God fell on the meeting. One humble little girl that waited at table opened her
being to the Lord and was immediately filled with the Holy Ghost and began to
speak in tongues. All these ‘big men stretched their necks and looked up to see
what was happening and were saying, “Who is it?” Then they learned it was “the
servant!” Nobody received but “the servant!” These things are hidden and kept
back from the wise and prudent, but the little children, the lowly ones, are the
ones that receive. We cannot have faith if we have honor one of another. A man
who is going on with God won’t accept honor from his fellow beings. God honors
the man of a broken, contrite spirit. How shall I get there? So many people want
to do great things, and to be seen doing them, but the one that God will use is
the one that is willing to be hidden. My Lord Jesus never said He could do
things, but He did them. When that funeral procession was coming up from Nain
with the widow’s son carried upon the bier, He made them lay it down. He spoke
the word, “Arise!” and gave the son back to the widow. He had compassion for
her. And you and I will never do anything except on the line of compassion. We
shall never be able to remove the cancer until we are immersed so deeply into
the power of the Holy Ghost, that the compassion of Christ is moving through
us.
I find that, in all my Lord did, He said that He did not do it,
but that another in Him did the work. What a holy submission! He was just an
instrument for the glory of God. Have we reached a place where we dare to be
trusted with the gift? I see in 1 Corinthians 13 that if I have faith to remove
mountains and have not charity, all is a failure. When my love is so deepened in
God that I only move for the glory of God, that I only seek the glory of God,
then the gifts can be made manifest. God wants to be manifested, and to manifest
His glory to humble spirits.
A faint heart can never have a gift. There are two things
essential; first, love, and second, determination, a boldness of faith that will
cause God to fulfill His word. When I was baptized I had a wonderful time and
had utterance in the Spirit, but for some time afterwards I did not again speak
in tongues. But one day as I was helping another, the Lord again gave me
utterances in the Spirit. I was one day going down the road and speaking in
tongues a long while. There were some gardeners doing their work, and they stuck
their heads out to see what was going on. I said, “Lord, you have something new
for me. You said that when a man speaks in tongues, he should ask for the
interpretation. I ask for the interpretation, and I’ll stay right here till I
get it.” And from that hour the Lord gave me interpretation.
At one time I was in Lincolnshire in England and came in touch
with the old pastor of an Episcopalian Church. He became much interested and
asked me into his library. I never heard anything sweeter than the prayer the
old man uttered as he got down to pray. He began to pray, “Lord, make me holy.
Lord, sanctify me.” I called out, “Wake up! Wake up now! Get up and sit in your
chair.” He sat up and looked at me. I said to him, “I thought you were holy.” He
answered, “Yes.” “Then what makes you ask God to do what He has done for you?”
He began to laugh and then to speak in tongues. Let us move into the realm of
faith, and live in the realm of faith, and let God have His way. " All by Smith Wigglesworth
