Smith
Wigglesworth was without doubt one of the most anointed men of God that has lived in recent times. He was known as the Apostle of
Faith,
and if anyone deserved to be described as "full of faith and of the Holy
Ghost", it was him. He lived and walked continually in the presence of
God. And the miracles that accompanied his ministry were of the sort that
have seldom been seen since the days of the apostles. People born blind
and deaf, cripples - twisted and deformed by disease, others
on
death's door with cancer or sickness of every kind,- all were healed by
the mighty power of God. Even the dead were raised.
Born
in 1859 into poverty, Smith Wigglesworth was converted by the Methodists
at eight years of age. Even then, he was hungry for God and hungry for
souls. He was in the choir of the local Episcopal church.
"When
most of the boys in the choir were twelve years of age they had to be confirmed
by the bishop. I was not twelve, but between nine and ten, when the bishop
laid his hands on me. I can remember that as he imposed his hands I had
a similar experience to the one I had forty years later when I was baptized
in the Holy Spirit. My whole body was filled with the consciousness of
God's presence, a consciousness that remained with me for days.
After
the confirmation service all the other boys were swearing and quarreling,
and I wondered what had made the difference between them and me." (Stanley
Frodsham, 'Smith Wigglesworth,
Apostle
of Faith', pg 13.
Most
of the following quotes are also taken
from
this excellent book).
Later,
Wigglesworth was fully-immersed in water by the Baptists. But please remember
that all of his early years of ministry and seeking God came well before
the 'Azusa Street' Revival and the early Pentecostal
movement.
Smith had a hunger after God, and he experienced many break-throughs into
new levels of anointing even well before he experienced the Baptism in
the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. He was already
renowned
for his healing ministry, and had seen God move in great power, even well
before the new Pentecostal experience was being talked about.
Unlike
us today, who basically begin with Baptism in the Spirit as our first real
anointing, for Smith this was the culmination of years of seeking and hungering
after God, and so it was much closer to a real New Testament enduement
of "power from on high".
Smith
Wigglesworth: "I had the grounding in Bible teaching among the Plymouth
Brethren. I marched under the blood and fire banner of the Salvation Army,
learning to win souls in the open air. I received the second blessing of
sanctification and a clean heart under the teaching of Reader Harris and
the Pentecostal League. I claimed the gift of the
Holy
Spirit by faith as I waited ten days before the Lord. But in Sunderland,
in 1907, I knelt before God and had an Acts 2:4 experience..."
He
described this experience as follows: "She [Mrs Boddy, a minister's wife]
laid her hands on me and then had to go out of the room. The fire
fell. It was a wonderful time as I was there with God alone. He bathed
me in power. I was conscience of the cleansing of the precious blood, and
I cried out: 'Clean! Clean! Clean!' I was filled with the joy
of
the consciousness of the cleansing. I was given a vision in which I saw
the Lord Jesus Christ. I beheld the empty cross, and I saw Him exalted
at the right hand of God the Father. I could speak no longer in English,
but I began to praise Him in other tongues as the Spirit of God gave me
utterance. I knew then, although I might have received anointings previously,
that now, at last, I had received the real Baptism in the Holy Spirit as
they received on the day of Pentecost." (Pg 44).
After
this experience, there was no stopping Smith Wigglesworth. He was a flame
for God, and the fire fell wherever he went. He said: "I believe God's
ministers are to be flames of fire. Nothing less than flames.
Nothing
less than mighty instruments, with burning messages, with hearts full of
love.
They
must have a DEPTH OF CONSECRATION, that God has taken
full
charge of the body, and it exists only that it may manifest the Glory of
God. A Baptism into death in which the person is purified and
energized..."
He was certainly possessor of an audacity, a daring, a boldness the like
of which has rarely been seen in Christendom in modern times. It was not
uncommon for him to announce in his meetings:
"Every
sermon that Christ preached was prefaced by a model miracle. We are going
to follow His example. The first person in this large audience that stands
up, whatever his or her sickness, I'll pray for that one and God
will
deliver him or her." And the first person to stand, even if they
were the most deformed cripple, would be healed!
On
another typical occasion, a man came forward for prayer for stomach pain,
and, commanding the pain to be gone, Wigglesworth punched the man in the
stomach so hard that he was sent half-way across the room (completely healed)!
This kind of thing happened more than once.
Wigglesworth
believed in COMMANDING the sick to be healed in Jesus' name. His was an
aggressive, holy faith. He was a "violent" man, taking ground from the
devil by force. And yet he was also a man of great com-
passion,
as well as of great authority. The devil certainly felt it when Smith Wigglesworth
hit town!
A
number of people were also raised literally from the dead under Smith's
ministry. Here is his own account of one occasion:
"My
friend said, 'She is dead.' He was scared. I have never seen a man so frightened
in my life. 'What shall I do?' he asked. You may think that what I did
was absurd, but I reached over into the bed and pulled her out. I carried
her across the room, stood her against the wall and held her up, as she
was
absolutely
dead. I looked into her face and said, 'In the name of Jesus I rebuke this
death.' From the crown of her head to the soles of her feet her whole body
began to tremble. 'In the name of Jesus, I command you to walk,' I said.
I repeated, 'In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, walk!' and she
walked." (Pg 59).
Not
only was this woman raised from the dead, but she was instantly healed
from a terrible illness also. She began to testify to people of her death
experience and restoration.
It
has been recorded that Smith Wigglesworth raised 23 people from the dead
in total, over the years of his ministry.
One
time when Smith was waiting at a bus-stop, a woman was having trouble
getting
her small dog, which had followed her, to go home. First she tried sweet-talking
it, and asking it to please go home. But after awhile
of
trying this to no avail, the woman suddenly stamped her foot and said severely:
'Go home at once!' The dog immediately took off home, with it's tail between
it's legs. 'That's how you have to treat the devil', said Wigglesworth,
loudly enough for all those waiting at the bus-stop to hear. And this was
his attitude toward the devil, every moment of every
waking
day. He literally travelled the world in the 1920's and 1930's, and thousands
were saved and healed everywhere he went. Often he would arrive in
a place almost unknown and unheralded, but within days there would be thousands
thronging to hear, the power of God demonstrated in his meetings was so
great. God was truly glorified everywhere he went.
He
was a man who walked and lived in the very presence of God. And yet, in
many ways he was a very natural, down-to-earth man. And neither was he
afraid of issuing the odd stern rebuke. His object was to be in constant,
unbroken communion with the Father. He had spent hours and days fervently
seeking God in his early years, but later,
"Although
his life was a combination of incessant prayer and praise, and every word
and work was an act of worship, he was not given to protracted periods
of fasting and prayer." (Pg 122). Instead, he had learned the secret of
being in continuous, intimate communion with God (sometimes withdrawing
quietly
into himself for this purpose), even when he was in a crowd of people.
He walked by faith, and he was "in the Spirit" at all times. This was one
vital secret to his success.
He
said, "There are two sides to this Baptism: The first is, you possess the
Spirit; The second is that the Spirit possesses you." (See 'The Life of
Smith Wigglesworth' by Jack
Hywel-Davies).
He
had counted the cost, and everything was God's. He was a man who truly
understood GODLY AUTHORITY, and he WALKED in it by faith.
He
said, "'Be filled with the Spirit,' ie., be CRAMMED with the Spirit,
so
filled that there will be no room left for anything else."
That
was the way he lived. Full of audacity, full of daring, "full of faith
and of the Holy Ghost."
On
one occasion, he recalled, "I was travelling to Cardiff in South
Wales. I had been much in prayer on the journey. The carriage was full
of people whom I knew to be unsaved, but as there was so much talking
and
joking I could not get in a word for my Master. As the train was nearing
the station, I thought I would wash my hands... and as I returned to the
carriage, a man jumped up and said, 'Sir, you convince me of sin,' and
fell on his knees there and then. Soon the whole carriage of people were
crying out the same way. They said, 'Who are you? What are
you?
You convince us all of sin'..." (Stanley Frodsham, 'Smith Wiggles-
worth,
Apostle of Faith', pg 80).
This
episode reminds me very much of another bold, forthright and anointed evangelist
- Charles G. Finney, who had found afterr a mighty Baptism of the Holy Spirit
some years before, that even passing comments that he made pierced people
to the heart with
conviction
of sin. He had gone on to become one of the greatest Revivalists of all
time. (He died in 1875).
Smith
Wigglesworth placed great emphasis on purity and holiness, like all true
Revivalists. He said, "You must every day make higher ground. You must
deny yourself to make progress with God. You must refuse every-
thing
that is not pure and holy. God wants you pure in heart. He wants you to
have an intense desire after holiness... Two things will get you
to
leap out of yourselves into the promises of God today. One is purity, and
the other is FAITH, which is kindled more and more BY PURITY." (Pg
125).
This
one statement contains what is probably the key secret to Smith Wigglesworth's
outstanding success in God. And it is obviously a key that is well worth
remembering for us also. Another point to remember is that Smith was very
aware of the dangers of money, and guarded himself carefully against the
possibility of covetousness entering in. He was truly beyond reproach in
this area also.
It
is my belief that Smith Wigglesworth was a kind of direct "forerunner"
of the kind of ministries that are about to arise in our day. I believe
that the coming apostolic ministries, who will be bearers of true Revival
in these last days, will combine the daring, miracle-working faith of a
Smith Wigglesworth with the deeply convicting 'repentance' preaching of
a Charles Finney. And they will move under a mighty anointing that combines
the best of both of these types of ministries. What glorious days these
will be!
Smith
Wigglesworth himself died in 1946 at the ripe old age of 87, a flame of
God to the very end. May he be an example to us all.
