Published in Confidence, June 1916.
The thought that has been pressing upon my mind for some time is the thought of “ABIDING” and the joy of being at that Place where I can always count upon being in the Presence of Power, where I know God’s Presence is with me, leading to a place where Victory is assured. Let us get hold of this thought—that if we keep in a certain place with God wonderful things may happen, for we shall then be in a place where we reach such spiritual attainment that marvels may be wrought because we are there. Then God will have His own way through us. The anointed Jesus. In the fourth chapter of Luke, first verse, we read: “And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” Mark speaks about being “driven” by the Spirit. Whatever Mark means or Luke means, there is one thing certain, and that is this—we see a power, a majesty, falling on the Lord Jesus. He is no longer the same man. He has received a mighty anointing power of God, and in this place He realizes that the only thing for Him to do is to submit to God, and as He submits He is more and more covered with power and led by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes Him away into the wilderness, with its darkness and great privations. For forty days He was without food, but because of the Presence and the Power within and on Him He is certain of victory. With this Power He faces the wild beasts of the wilderness and the privations as to every human sustenance, and then at the end of forty days, in that holy attainment, He is forced into such persecution and trial as probably has never attacked man before; and in the place where He is God sustains Him mightily. With what? With this holy—and I want you to think about it—this holy, blessed unction which is upon Jesus, and which so brings prophecy to bear upon Satan that Jesus has a sword with which He can, as it were, defeat and almost slay Satan every time with prophecy by reminding him “It is written.” In the fourteenth verse you will see that “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit, and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about; and He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.” I want you to understand that after the trials, after all the temptations and everything, He comes out more full of God, more clothed in the Spirit, more ready for the fight. The enduement with power had such an effect upon Him that other people saw it and flocked to hear Him, and great blessings came to the land. Take another incident: He is among His kinsfolk and relations, and in the spirit of this kind of holy attainment He goes into the synagogue. There was delivered to Him a book, and He read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.” It is well to keep before us where the “anointing” came in. How was He anointed? How did it come to Him? You know how that was. Now in like manner I see that the Holy Ghost also fell upon the disciples at Pentecost. I see that they were anointed with the same Power, and I see that they went forth and success attended their ministry until the Power of God swept through the whole “inhabitable world.” I want you to see that it was because of this unction, this Power, that when Peter and John spoke to the lame man at the gate of the temple he was able to rise and leap for joy. The Holy Ghost coming upon an individual is capable of changing him and fertilizing his spiritual life and filling him with such power and grace that he may not be able to say what would happen. What can not happen, what is not possible—if we reach this place and if we keep in it, if we abide in it? Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones. I want to turn to a portion of the Old Testament Scriptures, 37th chapter of Ezekiel. I want you to see here particularly how a man was so full of the Spirit, was always so much in the Spirit that he could see that the hand of the Lord was upon him and who was led out in the Spirit. He was in a place of rest, and I want you to keep that before you. He had come to the place where he could rest and where he knew God was with him, and that he could rest there. This is an important point. Some people have an idea that they have to be doing something by way of breaking every rule and every movement. I beseech you, by the power of the Holy Ghost today, that you see that there is one thing only that is going to accomplish the purposes of God, and that is being in the Spirit. I don’t care how dry the land is; I don’t care how thirsty the land is, or how manv vessels or how few there are round about, I beseech you, in the Name of Jesus, that you keep in the Spirit. That’s the secret. Here is a man who was in the right place and at the right time, and God well knows it. “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” Ezekiel said: “The Lord carried me out in the Spirit, and set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of dry bones; and caused me to pass by them round about; and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, Thou knowest.’” The vision is the Lord’s, and you can see the Lord’s vision only by being in the Spirit. When you are in the Spirit and dry bones are round about you and barren conditions all about, and you think everything is exactly opposite to your desires, and you can see no deliverance by human power, then, knowing that your condition is known to God and that God wants men and women who are willing to submit, and SUBMIT, and SUBMIT, and yield, and YIELD, and YIELD to the Holy Spirit until their bodies are saturated and soaked with God, you realize that God your Father has you in such condition that at any moment He can reveal His will to you and communicate whatever He wants to say to you. “Can these bones live?” “Thou knowest, O Lord.” “Yes, I know. What do you think?” “From what I have known of you, Blessed Master, in the past, I believe that these dry bones can live, for You say so.” “Very true, my child, go on and prophesy. Do as I tell you.” Now I want you to understand that there is something more in it. I want you to see that God is everything to us, and I believe that we have to come to a place where we have to submit ourselves to the mighty unctionizing power of God, and where we shall see we are in the will of God, and I pray God the Holy Ghost that He will show us our leanness, our farness from this place. What we want is a great hunger and thirst for God. He said, “O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” I would like you to understand that God speaks first, and He speaks so loud and so clear and so distinct that this man (who was filled with the Spirit) of the Lord heard every word. Still there is not a move in the valley. Until the word of the Lord is uttered the bones are as dry as at the beginning. But what is the matter? God has spoken and the message has gone forth. What is it? Ah, it is only that the word of God has gone forth through His servant the Prophet. The world has to be brought to a knowledge of the truth, but that will! only be brought about through human instrumentality, and that will be when the human instrument is at a place where he will say all that the Holy Spirit directs him to say. The man rose up, and clothed with the Divine Power he began to speak, he began to prophesy; and then as soon as he began to speak there was a rattling among the bones, and if we had been there we should have seen a bigger stir than we had ever seen before. Bone to bone at the voice of the man filled with the Spirit of the Living God. God had given him victory. God in like manner wants to give us victory. What does the word say? “Be still, and know that I am God”—the place of tranquillity where we know that He is controlling and moving me by the mighty power of His Spirit. Beloved, that is a place which we can reach. This prophecy is for us. Truly God wants to begin this in us. We must always remember that it is God who is the Creator, and His creative power is in existence at this moment, and He knows where there is barrenness and where there is thirsty land, and it is He who can bring forth springs of water. There are many dry places. Indeed, nearly every town I go to is said to be the driest of places—“the hardest town in the kingdom,” they will say. What is that to do with you? The Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save. It is man’s extremity that God finds His opportunity, and it is for His word to awaken even you; and so God wants us to cheer up. “All things are possible to them that believe.” But if we are to do the will of God at the right time and place we must yield to the Spirit and obey Him, so as to give God a fair chance. “And I prophesied as was commanded.” He just did what he was told to do. It takes more to live in that place than in any other place that I know of—to live in a place where you hear God’s voice. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that you can do as you are told quickly and without resistance “And as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.” There is something worth you notice in this. It is only the Spirit that can make the crooked straight. Some of you, no doubt, have thought some of your neighbours are a bit crooked, and were in fact some of the most crooked of-the-way bones you ever saw in your life, and it would be impossible for them to get saved. That is nothing to do with you. It is for you to Jive in the Holy Ghost, and He can change the whole circumstance and you will be amazed at the way the crooked bones will be straightened. Nothing can change such circumstances as God can. “Bone to bone,” no crooked places now; but it takes God to do that. Man has been trying to do it all along, but as soon as a man has been truly baptized with the Holy Ghost, God does it. There is power in the Holy Ghost to transform, renew, and change the whole circumstances of life. You have to submit and let God take hold of you. Don’t be troubled because you have not reached the place. You have reached somewhere, but the best is in store. Only yield so that He may have full control of all you are. “And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.” Here’s a condition for them. There was the form, but no breath in it. But you must never give in and think the thing is fairly accomplished if you see the joining of the members and a kind of fellowship. You must never give in with tbat. They are never in the royal place until the breath of God has come into them and upon them. You must always lead people to receive the Holy Ghost and know that the breath of the Almighty is upon them. Justification will not be sufficient to accomplish the purpose of God. They may be justified and sanctified, but can never be satisfied until they are filled with the Holy Ghost. There must be a real travailing of the human heart for God to bring forth. People are never safe until they are baptized with the Holy Ghost, and that is why the Apostles pressed that fact upon believers, and that is why Jesus was always pointing to the time when they should be filled with unction and power of the Spirit which would carry them all on. “Then said He unto me: Prophesy.” “So I prophesied.” Glory to God! It is most wonderful. As soon as he began to prophesy he found there was somethingin it. Are you not wanting to get there? Don’t you think we ought to be there? Do you think we ought to be satisfied until we are there? How can God be pleased with us until we reach that place? We must get to that place where we shall see God and know His voice when He sends us with a message that brings life and power and victory. “And they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.” I know a lot of people who are seeking their baptism in a wonderful way. They see visions, and it is Scriptural that they should see visions. I believe that Paul was so imbued with the Holy Ghost and so filled with the glory of God that he could at times see visions and revelations. John in the Spirit. I want to point out something. John the Divine preached all over the country, and the enemies of Christ gnashed upon him with their teeth, and they tried to the best of their power to destroy him. Tradition says that they even put him in a pot of boiling oil, but, like a cat, he seemed to have nine lives, I tell you there is something in the power of the Holy Spirit. When God wants to keep a. man, nothing can destroy him. My life is in the hands of God. What can separate us from the love of God? Can heights or depths? Is there anything that can separate us? No, praise God! nothing can separate us. No, his enemies said they could not kill him, so they cast him away on the rocky and desolate island of Patmos. They thought that would be an end of him; and there, on that lonely isle, he was “IN THE SPIRIT.” Have you ever been there?" The very place that was not fit for humanity was the place where he was most filled with God, and where he was most ready for the revelation of Jesus. Oh, beloved, I tell you there is something in the baptism in the Holy Ghost worthy of our whole attention, worthy of our whole consideration in every way. The baptism in the Holy Ghost! Yes, the barren wilderness, the rocky and desolate isle, the dry land, and the most unfriendly place, may be filled with God. You read the first chapter of the Revelation, and you will see that in the 9th and 10th verses that John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and behind him a great voice as of a trumpet. Immediately a revelation was made to him, which you cannot read without being blessed. The revelation given to him was a series of holy truths that have yet to be fulfilled, and will be fulfilled to the letter. There are wonderful things there. Blessed be God, we can come to that place which he speaks about. Jesus can reveal His mind to us from time to time. If you only think about it, you will see you are in a thousand times better position than John. In that barren place he was filled with the Spirit. You can have no excuse, for the lines have fallen to you in pleasant places. You will see from the second verse of the 4th chapter of Revelation that John was in so living and blessed a condition of fellowship with God that IMMEDIATELY he was “in the Spirit.” Immediately! What does it mean? It means this: that God wants us to be in a place where the least breath of heaven makes us all on fire, ready for everything. You say, “How can I have that?” Oh, you can have that as easy as anything. “Can I?” Yes, it is as simple as possible. “How?” Let heaven come in; let the Holy Ghost take possession of you, and when He comes into your body you will find out that that is the keynote of the spirit of joy and the spirit of rapture, and if you will allow the Holy Ghost to have full control you will find you are living in the Spirit, and you will find out that the opportunities will be God’s opportunities, and there is a difference between God’s opportunities and ours. You will find you have come to the right place at the right time, and you will speak the right word at the right time and in the right place, and you will not go a warfare at your own charge.The word of knowledge, and faith.
Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, July 14, 1923;
and in Confidence, January-March 1924.
Ever Increasing Faith, chapter 14. (Published 1924.)
“To another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another faith, by the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12.8-9). We have not passed this way hitherto. I believe that Satan has many devices and that they are worse today than ever before; but I also believe that there is to be a full manifestation on the earth of the power and glory of God to defeat every device of Satan. In Ephesians 4 we are told to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, for there is one body, and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. The Baptism of the Spirit is to make us all one. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12.13 that by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. It is God’s thought that we speak the same thing. If we all have the full revelation of the Spirit of God we shall all see the same thing. Paul asked these Corinthians, “Is Christ divided?” When the Holy Ghost has full control, Christ is never divided, His body is not divided, there is no division. Schism and division are the products of the carnal mind. How important it is that we shall have the manifestation of “the word of knowledge” in our midst. It is the same Spirit who brings forth the word of wisdom that brings forth the word of knowledge. The revelation of the mysteries of God comes by the Spirit, and we must have a supernatural word of knowledge in order to convey to others the things which the Spirit of God has revealed. The Spirit of God reveals Christ in all His wonderful fullness, and He shows Him to us from the beginning to the end of the Scriptures. It is the Scriptures that make us wise unto salvation, that open to us the depths of the kingdom of heaven, which reveal all the divine mind to us. There are thousands of people who read and study the Word of God. But it is not quickened to them. The Bible is a dead letter except by the Spirit. The Word of God can never be vital and powerful in us except by the Spirit. The words that Christ spoke were not just dead words but they were spirit and life. And so it is the thought of God that a living word, a word of truth, the word of God, a supernatural word of knowledge, shall come forth from us through the power of the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Ghost who will bring forth utterances from our lips and a divine revelation of all the mind of God. The child of God ought to thirst for the Word. He should know nothing else but the Word, and should know nothing among men save Jesus. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” It is as we feed on the Word and meditate on the message it contains, that the Spirit of God can vitalize that which we have received, and bring forth through us the word of knowledge that will be as full of power and life, as when He, the Spirit of God, moved upon holy men of old and gave them these inspired Scriptures. They were all inbreathed of God as they came forth at the beginning, and through the same Spirit they should come forth from us vitalized, living, powerful and sharper than any two~edged sword. With the gifts of the Spirit should come the fruit of the Spirit. With wisdom we should have love, with knowledge we should have joy, and with the third gift, faith, we should have the fruit of peace. Faith is always accompanied by peace. Faith always rests. Faith laughs at impossibilities. Salvation is by faith, through grace, and it is the gift of God. We are kept by the power of God through faith. God gives faith and nothing can take it away. By faith we have power to enter into the wondedul things of God. There are three positions of faith; saving faith, which is the gift of God; the faith of the Lord Jesus; and the gift of faith. You will remember the word of the Lord Jesus Christ given to Paul, to which he refers in the 26th of Acts, where the Lord commissioned him to go to the Gentiles, “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them WHICH ARE SANCTIFIED BY FAITH THAT IS IN ME.” Oh, this wonderful faith of the Lord Jesus. Your faith comes to an end. How many times I have been to the place where I have had to tell the Lord, “I have used all the faith I have,” and then He has placed His own faith within me. One of our workers said to me at Christmas time, “Wigglesworth, I never was so near the end of my purse in my life.” I replied, “Thank God, you are just at the opening of God’s treasures.” It is when we are at the end of our own, that we can enter into the riches of God's resources. It is when we possess nothing, that we can possess all things. The Lord will always meet you when you are on the line of living faith. I was in Ireland at one time and went to a house and said to the lady who came to the door, “Is Brother Wallace here?” She replied, “Oh, he has gone to Bangor, but God has sent you here for me. I need you. Come in.” She told me her husband was a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. She had herself received the Baptism while she was a member of the Presbyterian Church, but they did not accept it as from God. The people of the church said to her husband, “This thing cannot go on. We don’t want you to be deacon any longer, and your wife is not wanted in the church.” The man was very enraged and he became incensed against his wife. It seemed as though an evil spirit possessed him, and the home that had once been peaceful became very terrible. At last he left home and left no money behind him, and the woman asked me what should she do. We went to prayer and before we had prayed five minutes the woman was mightily filled with the Holy Ghost. I said to her, “Sit down and let me talk to you. Are you often in the Spirit like this?” She said, “Yes, and what could I do without the Holy Ghost now?” I said to her, “The situation is yours. The Word of God says that you have power to sanctify your husband. Dare to believe the Word bf God. Now the first thing we must do is to pray that your husband come back tonight.” She said, “I know he won’t.” I said, “If we agree together, it is done.” She said, “I will agree.” I said to her, “When he comes home show him all possible love, lavish everything upon him. If he won’t hear what you have to say, let him go to bed. The situation is yours. Get down before God and claim him for the Lord. Get into the glory just as you have got in today, and as the Spirit of God prays through you, you will find that God will grant all the desires of your heart.” A month later I saw this sister at a convention. She told how her husband came home that night and that he went to bed, but she prayed right through to victory and then laid her hands upon him. The moment she laid hands upon him he cried out for mercy. The Lord saved him and baptized him in the Holy Spirit. The power of God is beyond all our conception. The trouble is that we do not have the power of God in a full manifestation because of our finite thoughts, but as we go on and let God have His way, there is no limit to what our limitless God will do in response to a limitless faith. But you will never get anywhere except you are in constant pursuit of all the power of God. One day when I came home from our open-air meeting at eleven o’clock I found that my wife was out. I asked, “Where is she?” I was told that she was down at Mitchell’s. I had seen Mitchell that day and knew that he was at the point of death. I knew that it was impossible for him to survive the day unless the Lord undertook. There are many who let down in sickness and do not take hold of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that is provided for them. I was taken to see a woman who was dying and said to her, “How are things with you?” She answered, “I have faith, I believe.” I said, “You know that you have not faith, you know that you are dying. It is not faith that you have, it is language.” There is a difference between language and faith. I saw that she was in the hands of the devil. There was no possibility of life until he was removed from the premises. I hate the devil, and I laid hold of the woman and shouted, “Come out, you devil of death. I command you to come out in the name of Jesus.” In one minute she stood on her feet in victory. But to return to the case of Brother Mitchell, I hurried down to the house, and as I got near I heard terrible screams. I knew that something had happened. I passed Mrs. Mitchell on the staircase and asked, “What is up?” She replied, “He is gone! He is gone!” I just passed her and went into the room, and immediately I saw that Mitchell had gone. I could not understand it, but I began to pray. My wife was always afraid that I would go too far, and she laid hold of me and said, “Don’t, Dad! Don’t you see that he is dead?” I continued to pray and my wife continued to cry out to me, ”Don’t, Dad. Don’t you see that he is dead?” But I continued praying. I got as far as I could with mv own faith, and then God laid hold of me. Oh, it was such a laying hold that I could believe for anything. The faith of the Lord Jesus laid hold of me and a solid peace came into my heart. I shouted. “He lives! He lives! He lives!” And he is living today. There is a difference between our faith and the faith of the Lord Jesus. The faith of the Lord Jesus is needed. We must change faith from time to time. Your faith may get to a place where it wavers. The faith of Christ never wavers. When you have that faith the thing is finished. When you have that faith you will never look at things as they are, you will see the things of nature give way to the things of the Spirit, you will see the temporal swallowed up in the eternal. I was at a camp meeting in Cazadero, California, about eight years ago, and a remarkable thing happened. A man came there who was stone deaf. I prayed for him and I knew that God had healed him. Then came the test. He would always move his chair up to the platform, and every time I got up to speak he would get up as close as he could and strain his ears to catch what I had to say. The devil said, “It isn’t done.” I declared, “It is done.” This went on for three weeks, and then the manifestation came and he could hear distinctly sixty yards away. When his ears were opened he thought it was so great that he had to stop the meeting and tell everybody about it. I met him in Oakland recently and he was hearing perfectly. As we remain stedfast and unmoveable on the ground of faith, we shall see what we believe for in perfect manifestation. People say to me, “Have you not the gift of faith?” I say that it is an important gift, but what is still more important is for us every moment to be making an advancement in God. Looking at the Word of God today I find that its realities are greater to me today than they were yesterday. It is the most sublime, joyful truth that God brings an enlargement. Always an enlargement. There is nothing dead, dry or barren in this life of the Spirit; God is always moving us on to something higher, and as we move on in the Spirit our faith will always rise to the occasion as different circumstances arise. This is how the gift of faith is manifested. You see an object and you know that your own faith is nothing in the case. The other day I was in San Francisco. I sat on a car and saw a boy in great agonies on the street. I said, “Let me get out.” I rushed to where the boy was. He was in agony through cramp of the stomach. I put my hands on his stomach in the name of Jesus. The boy jumped, and stared at me with astonishment. He found himself instantly free. The gift of faith dared in the face of everything. It is as we are in the Spirit that the Spirit of God will operate this gift anywhere and at any time. When the Spirit of God is operating this gift within a man, He causes him to know what God is going to do. When the man with the withered hand was in the synagogue, Jesus got all the people to look to see what would happen. The gift of faith always knows the results. He said to the man, “Stretch forth thine hand.” His word had creative force. He was not living on the line of speculation. He spoke and something happened. He spake at the beginning and the world came into being. He speaks today and these things haye to come to pass. He is the Son of God and came to bring us into sonship. He was the firstfruit of the resurrection and He calls us to be first fruits, to be the same kind of fruit like to Himself. There is an important point here. You cannot have the gifts by mere human desire. The Spirit of God distributes them severally as He will. God cannot trust some with the gift, but some who have a lowly, broken, contrite heart He can trust. One day I was in a meeting where there were a lot of doctors and eminent men, and many ministers. It was at a convention, and the power of God fell on the meeting. One humble little girl that waited at table opened her being to the Lord and was immediately filled with the Holy Ghost and hegan to speak in tongues. All these big men stretched their necks and looked up to see what was happening and were saying, “Who is it?” Then they learned it was “the servant!” Nobody received but “the servant!” These things are hidden and kept back from the wise and prudent, but the little children, the lowly ones, are the ones that receive. We cannot have faith if we have honor one of another. A man who is going on with God won’t accept honor from his fellow beings. God honors the man of a broken, contrite spirit. How shall I get there? So many people want to do great things, and to be seen doing them, but the one that God will use is the one that is willing to be hidden. My Lord Jesus never said He could do things, but He did them. When that funeral procession was coming up from Nain with the widow's son carried upon the bier, He made them lay it down. He spoke the word, “Arise!” and gave the son back to the widow. He had compassion for her. And you and I will never do anything except on the line of compassion. We will never be able to remove the cancer until we are immersed so deeply into the power of the Holy Ghost, that the compassion of Christ is moving through us. I find that, in all my Lord did, He said that He did not do it, but that another in Him did the work. What a holy submission! He was just an instrument for the glory of God. Have we reached a place where we dare to be trusted with the gift? I see in 1 Corinthians 13 that if I have faith to remove mountains and have not charity, all is a failure. When my love is so deepened in God that I only move for the glory of God, that I only seek the glory of God, then the gifts can be made manifest. God wants to be manifested, and to manifest His glory to humble spirits. A faint heart can never have a gift. There are two things essential; first, love, and second, determination, a boldness of faith that will cause God to fulfill His word. When I was baptized I had a wonderful time and had utterances in the Spirit, but for some time afterwards I did not again speak in tongues. But one day as I was helping another, the Lord again gave me utterances in the Spirit. I was one day going down the road and speaking in tongues a long while. There were some gardeners doing their work, and they stuck their heads out to see what was going on. I said, “Lord, You have something new for me. You said that when a man speaks in tongues, he should ask for the interpretation. I ask for the interpretation, and I’ll stay right here till I get it.” And from that hour the Lord gave me interpretation. At one time I was in Lincolnshire in England and came in touch with the old pastor of an Episcopalian Church. He became very interested and asked me into his library. I never heard anything sweeter than the prayer the old man uttered as he got down to pray. He began to pray, “Lord, make me holy. Lord, sanctify me.” I called out, “Wake up! Wake up now! Get up and sit in your chair.” He sat up and looked at me. I said to him, “I thought you were holy.” He answered, “Yes.” “Then what makes you ask God to do what He has done for you?” He began to laugh and then to speak in tongues. Let us move into the realm of faith, and live in the realm of faith, and let God have His way. 
God working in Switzerland.
Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, March 19, 1921.
Everything I have seen in Switzerland has taken me down in brokenness before God. At Bern I have stood in a place which has been packed with people. and I have had to get a cleansing by weepIng as I have seen the people and then God gave us victory. Hundreds have been saved by the power of God. At Neuchatel God worked marvelously and the devil worked in between, but God is greater than all. At my second visit to Neuchatel the largest theater was hired and it was packed, and God moved upon the people, and on an average 100 souls were saved each night, and many healed through God’s touch, yet many would not have Pentecostal teaching, and one man actually had meetings in opposition at places, but who Is the man who dares to put his hand on the child of God? This man also had prayer meetings to try to prevent people from going to the meetings, but they all turned to confusion. People came to be ministered unto. In all places it bas been the same. At one of the places a policeman was sent to ascertain what was going on and it resulted in his coming under the power of God, and he commenced to seek for the healing of his own body. Some of the opposers stated that the oil bottle I used was electrically charged and that I kept putting it into my pocket to get it recharged. The Holy Ghost is preparing us for some wonderful event. I feel a burning in my bones. I preached one night on Eph. 3 for 3½ hours, and so powerful was the Word that the people did not seem inclined to move. I preached and prayed with the sick until 11:30 p.m. Four people brought a man who was paralyzed and blind; the power of God fell upon him and us and he now walks and sees and is praising God. I have not been to one meeting where the power of God has not been upon us. I say this to His glory. In French Switzerland, where Pentecost was not known, seven different meeting places have been opened, and the work Is prospering. At Bern there is a band of praying people. Truly we have seen wonderful things. A girl was brought to me sitting in a chair. I would not minister at first, but told her she must wait and hear the Word of God. Her mother who had come with her was greatly moved as she listened to God’s Word being expounded. I then laid hands on the girl, who had never walked. The power of God worked and she now walks. Another case, where a man had had a cancer taken out of his neck, after which he could no longer eat, not being able to swallow. He told me he could not even swallow the juice of a cherry. He had a pipe inserted in his neck so that food could be poured through it into his stomach. I said to him, “You will eat tonight.” I prayed with him. He came the next day. I saw that the color had come back into his face, and he told me he had been eating, and could swallow comfortably. He had looked for the hole where the pipe had been inserted but could not find It. God had completely healed him. He was well known; he was a tea grower and people said he had come to life again. When the Son of God touches a man he does come to life. God has put His hand upon this work In Switzerland. Every afternoon people were baptized In the Holy Ghost, brought down into the dust for the power of God lays a man low. In Lausanne the power was mighty, also at Yevey and Geneva, and God has raised up Spirit-filled leaders In these towns. A man came to me suffering from diabetes. The power of God was upon me and I realized that God was working upon him. I said God has healed you. His address was taken and the case was followed up. He went to the doctor to be examined because he knew he was healed and asked him to examine him. He did so and stated that he was unable to find any trace of the disease whatever. He asked the doctor to give him a certificate which he did and I saw it. A young woman was dying of consumption, and her doctor had given her up. I laid hands on her in the name of Jesus and she knew that the disease had passed away. This girl went to the doctor, who examined her and said, “Whatever has taken place, you have no consumption now.” She replied, “Doctor I have been prayed over; can I tell the people I am healed?” And he said, “Yes, and that I could not heal you.” “If I am to tell will you put it in black and white?” And he gave her a certificate which I saw. God had healed her. A man was brought into one of the meetings in a wheel chair. He could not walk except by the aid of two sticks, and even then his locomotion was very slow. I saw him in that helpless condition, and told him about Jesus. Oh, that wonderful name! Glory to God! “They shall call His name Jesus.” I placed my hands upon his head and said, “In the name of Jesus thou art made whole.” This helpless man cried out “It is done, it is done, Glory to God, it is done!” And he walked out of the building perfectly healed. The man who brought him in the wheel chair and the children said that father so and so Is walking. Praise the Lord He is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Lord made me a great blessing at Zurie last time, and I have promised to be there again on the 30th of October. Seven new places are glorifying God in tongues. I ministered last Sunday in a great theater which was filled, and there was a crying out to God for healing, and when they were healed they shouted for joy. The faith that comes from God.
Preached at Glad Tidings Assembly, San Francisco, Ca.
Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, September 16, 1922.
Faith that Prevails, chapter 1, “God-given faith.”
Read Hebrews 11.1-11. I believe that there is only one way to all the treasures of God, and that is the way of faith. By faith and faith alone do we enter into a knowledge of the attributes, become partakers of the beatitudes, and participate in the glories of our ascended Lord. All His promises are Yea and Amen to them that believe. God would have us come to Him by His own way. That is through the open door of grace. A way has been made. It is a beautiful way, and all His saints can enter in by this way and find rest. God has prescribed that the just shall live by faith. I find that all is a failure that has not its base on the rock Christ Jesus. He is the only way, the truth and the life. The way of faith is the Christ way, receiving Him in His fullness and walking in Him; receiving His quickening life that filleth, moveth and changeth us, bringing us to a place where there is always an Amen in our hearts to all the will of God. As I look into the 12th chapter of Acts, I find that the people were praying all night for Peter to come out of prison. They had a zeal but no faith. They were to be commended for their zeal in spending their time in prayer without ceasing, but there was one thing missing. It was faith. Rhoda had more faith than the rest of them. When the knock came to the door, she ran to it, and the moment she heard Peter’s voice, she ran back again with joy saying that Peter stood before the gate. And all the people said, “You are mad. It isn’t so.” But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. But they had no faith, and conjectured, “Well, God has sent His angel.” But Peter continued knocking. They had zeal but no faith. And I believe there is quite a difference. Zacharias and Elisabeth surely wanted a son, but even when the angel came and told Zarharias he was full of unbelief. And the angel said, “Thou shalt be dumb because thou believest not my words.” But look at Mary: When the angel came to her, Mary said, “Be it unto me according to thy word.” It was her Amen to the will of God. And God wants us with an Amen in our lives, an inward Amen, a mighty moving Amen, a God-inspired Amen, that which says, “It is, because God has spoken. It can not be otherwise. It is impossible to be otherwise.” Let us examine this 5th verse, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.” When I was in Sweden, the Lord worked mightily. After one or two addresses the leaders called me and said, “We have heard very strange things about you, and we would like to know if they are true. We can see that God is with you, and that God is moving, and we know that it will be a great blessing to Sweden.” “Well,” I said, “what is it?” “Well,” they said, “we have heard from good authority that you preach that you have the resurrection body.” When I was in France I had an interpreter that believed this thing, and I found out after I had preached once or twice through the interpreter that she gave her own expressions. And of course I did not know. I said to these brethren, “I tell you what my personal convictions are. I believe that if I had the testimony of Enoch I should be off. I believe that the moment Enoch had the testimony that he pleased God, off he went.” I pray that God will so quicken our faith, for translation is in the mind of God; but remember that translation comes on the line of holy obedience and a walk that is pleasing to God. This was true of Enoch. And I believe that we must have a like walk with God in the Sririt, having communion with Him, living under His divine smile, and I pray that God by His Spirit may so move us that we will be where Enoch was when he walked with God. There are two kinds of faith. There is the natural faith. But the supernatural faith is the gift of God. In Acts 26.18, Paul is telling Agrippa of what the Lord said to him in commissioning him, “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, 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.” Is that the faith of Paul? No, it is the faith that the Holy Ghost is giving. It is the faith that He brings to us as we press in and on with God. I want to put before you this difference between our faith and the faith of Jesus. Our faith comes to an end. Most people in this place have come to where they have said, “Lord, I can go no further, I have gone so far and I can go no further. I have used all the faith I have, and I have just to stop now and wait.” I remember one day being in Lancashire, and going round to see some sick people. I was taken into, a house where there was a young woman lying on a bed, a very helpless case. The reason had gone; and many things were manifested there which were Satanic and I knew it. She was only a young woman, a beautiful child. The husband, quite a young man, came in with the baby, and he leaned over to kiss the wife. The moment he did, she threw herself over on the other side, just as a lunatic would do: That was very heart-breaking. Then he took the baby and pressed the baby’s lips to the mother. Again another wild kind of thing happened. I asked one who was attending her, “Have you anybody to help?” “Oh,” they said, “we have had everything.” “But,” I said, “have you no spiritual help?” Her husband stormed out and said, “Help? You think that we believe in God after we have had seven weeks or no sleep and maniac conditions? You think that we believe God? You are mistaken. You have come to the wrong house.” Then a young woman of about eighteen or so just grinned at me and passed out of the door, and that finished the whole business. That brought me to a place of compassion for the woman that something had to be done, no matter what it was. Then with my faith I began to penetrate the heavens, and I was soon out of that house I will tell you, for I never saw a man get anything from God who prayed on the earth. If you get anything from God you will have to pray into Heaven for it is all there. If you are living in the earth realm and expect things from heaven, they will never come. And as I saw in the presence of God the limitations of my faith, there came another faith, a faith that could not be denied, a faith that took the promise, a faith that believed God’s Word. And I came from that presence back again to earth, but not the same man under the conditions confronting me. God gave a faith that could shake hell and anything else. I said, “Come out of her in the name of Jesus!” And she rolled over and fell asleep and wakened in fourteen hours perfectly sane and perfectly whole. There is a process on this line. Enoch walked with God. That must have been all those years as he was penetrating, and going through and laying hold, and believing and seeing and getting into such close co-operation and touch with God that things moved on earth and he began to move toward heaven. At last it was not possible for him to stop any longer. Oh Hallelujah! In the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians we read of the body being “sown with dishonor,” to he raised in power. It seems to me, that as we are looking for translation that the Lord would have us know something of that power now, and would have us kept in that power, so that we should not be sown in dishonor. Enoch walked with God. God wants to raise the condition of saints so that they walk with Him and talk with Him. I don’t want to build anything round myself, but it is true that if you find me outside of conversation with man, you will find me in conversation with God. There is one thing that God has given me from my youth up, a taste and relish for my Bible. I can say before God, I have never read a book but my Bible, so I know nothing about books. It seems better to me to get the Book of books for food for your soul, for the strengthening of your faith and the building up of your character in God, so that all the time you are being changed and made meet to walk with God. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” I can see that it is impossible to please Him on any lines but faith, for everything that is not of faith is sin. God wants us to see that the plan of faith is the ideal and principle of God. In this connection I love to keep in my thoughts the beautiful words in the 2nd verse of the 12th chapter of Hebrews: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” He is the author of faith. God worked through Him for the forming of the worlds. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And because of the exceeding abundant joy of providing for us so great salvation, He became the author of a living faith. And through this principle of living faith, looking unto Him who is the author and finisher of our faith, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord. God has something better for you than you have ever had in the past. Come out into all the fullness of faith and power and life and victory that He is willing to provide, as you forget the things of the past, and press right on for the prize of His calling in Christ Jesus.
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