This sermon delves into the life and ministry of Smith Wigglesworth, focusing on his deep relationship with Jesus, his passion for soul-winning, and his belief in the power of God for healing. Wigglesworth's approach to ministry involved abiding in Christ, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and demonstrating compassion and faith in action. His faith in an unchanging Christ led to numerous miraculous healings and a profound impact on those around him.

I'd like you to turn to John's Gospel chapter 15, and I'll read to you the first 16 verses of this wonderful section of the last discourses. John's Gospel chapter 15. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he takes away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father God, and I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father God, and I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Herein is my Father God, and I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. If a man abide not in me, he is and they are burned. Herein is my Father God, and I am the vine, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. When Smith Wigglesworth stayed with us in our home, we were in a delightful spot called Lee-on-Sea. It had some very lovely marine gardens at the top of a hill which they called The Cliff, but was only 150 feet high. There was a little sun trap at the top of the steps that came up the hill from the railway station that was down below. And every day, in our usually beautiful English weather, with lots of sunshine and not so much rain as some of you people imagine, I would take Smith Wigglesworth and he would sit in that little sun trap on a seat that was there, and I'd go away and do my business, though he used to say, young man, you'd be better off sitting with me than going and doing your work. But I had responsibilities I could not ignore, and I'd leave him sitting there, 150 steps up from the station. And he'd sit there and read his testament and pray, and watch people coming up the steps. Some dear old people coming up the steps would be puffing and almost exhausted, and as they got near him, he'd say, ready to die yet? It wasn't exactly textbook approach in personal evangelism, but his heart was burdened for them. And he led several people to Christ, sitting on the seat at the top of the steps. A young couple was coming up the steps, the steps were about 8 feet wide. I nearly said they were, and you'd have thought I meant the young couple. The steps were about 8 feet wide, and the girl was that side as far as she could, and he was that side as far as he could. And as they got near Wigglesworth, he said, what's wrong with you? Quarreled? There was a young man and woman, husband and wife, who'd come to the conclusion their marriage was a failure. They'd had a quarrel, and they decided to split. Wigglesworth said, come and sit by me. The girl sat by him on the bench, that side, the boy sat that side. He put his arm round them both, and led them to Jesus, and sent them off with tears of joy, arm in arm. And close to the net were their arms round each other. Their souls saved and their marriage healed. Because he was then 82, 82 years of age, he was still on fire for God in winning the lost. He started as a boy at school. When he was only 8, he found Christ as Saviour. He didn't have a lot more schooling after that, but he was witnessing daily to the boys and girls at school, because he so loved Jesus. When he started his active life of ministry, it was in the Salvation Army. The lieutenant was named Polly Featherstone, and Wigglesworth worked in that Salvation Army Corps. And he said we used to spend Saturday night, all night, in prayer. We would pray for 50 to 100 souls, and we never saw fewer than 50 souls every Sunday. We prayed through until we got the answer, and we knew that we were getting souls. He couldn't understand the modern day lack of fire in evangelism, the occupation with trivialities, instead of with the essential, vital issue of reaching the lost before they die, before they perish eternally. It's a truth that somehow has been clouded over with all the joys of charismatic meetings and blessings and tongues and worship and all the lovely things. We forget that the gospel is, he that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. And there's a gospel to preach, and it behoves us all to be faithful to God in our responsibility. When Wigglesworth moved for a while right across country from the east, where Bradford, Yorkshire is, to Liverpool, which is on the west coast, he was doing well in his business as a plumber. He wasn't married at the time, and he was using his money to help the poor boys and girls. And he would gather them into a big building, and he used to spend the whole of Saturday and Sunday night, I'm sorry, Saturday night, in prayer and fasting. He said, I never saw fewer than a hundred children come to Jesus. Hundreds were saved week by week in his early life. A friend of mine used to live about nine miles from Smith Wigglesworth, city of Leeds, as I mentioned the other day. And one day he had an American visitor with him, and this visitor said, I'd love to meet Smith Wigglesworth. And so George Miles drove across the nine miles, and when they got to Wigglesworth's door number 70, Victor Road, Manningham, Bradford, when they got to his door, he opened the door, he said, I was expecting you. I asked Father to send someone, because Father's told me I've got to go to Ilkley Moor. Now Ilkley Moor's a beauty spot, a very lovely place, and so they drove Smith Wigglesworth, the American visitor, to Ilkley Moor. There was a seat near the top of the moor, and Wigglesworth said, I'll sit here, you young men just walk on. And they went for a walk, and the American enjoyed the scenery, and after a good long walk they came back, and they saw Wigglesworth kneeling at the bench, with another man kneeling by his side, and they heard this man cry to God. He'd been a backslider, and he'd come along, and Wigglesworth was there, not by arrangement, except by the Holy Spirit's arrangement, and they met together. He led this man back to Jesus, and the man testified happily of the restoration that had taken place, and he went off rejoicing. And Wigglesworth said, well now, we've done what Father told us to do, we can go home, and we can praise God on the way home. He just lived such a natural life, of moving in the Spirit, of discovering what God was doing. Right through to the end of his life he sought the lost. Near his home was a small park, and in that park there was what we call crown green bowling, I don't know whether you have that, beautiful green squares of marvelous turf, so smooth like velvet, and they bowl a big ball with a bias towards a jack, and it's a very, very interesting game for those who like steady games and not too much energy. And Wigglesworth didn't play bowls, but he sat near the bowling green, and there wasn't anyone who played regularly on that green that wasn't witnessed to by Smith Wigglesworth. Right up to the last days of his life, he was on fire for God and souls. The Word of God says this, and I'm reading 2 Timothy, and chapter 4, verse 2 through 5. Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they, having itching ears, heap to themselves teachers. They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. There was an English bishop commenting on the fact that the two pictures Jesus uses are saving people, reaching them for salvation. The two pictures are a fisherman catching fish, and a shepherd finding lost sheep. Said the bishop, that means by hook or by crook, save all you can. And that's not a bad interpretation. By hook or by crook, save all you can. One day Wigglesworth was with his son-in-law and daughter, James and Alice Salter, visiting Rome. And they went through the catacombs. And the young priest who was leading the party seemed especially drawn to Smith Wigglesworth. And he said frequently during the tour of the catacombs, you know, sir, you would make a good Catholic. And again and again he would say, sir, you would make a good Catholic. And when they came to the end of the tour, he said it again. And Wigglesworth turned to the priest, he said, and you young men would make a good Christian. Kneel down, he said, and I'm going to pray that God will save your soul. And he had the Catholic priest kneeling, weeping as Wigglesworth prayed for his soul. A man who was always alert. He believed that we ought to have our eyes open at all times to seek the lost. And I believe that it's so easy in modern life, we have so much that distracts us, so many things to do. We never have to be unoccupied. We've got the internet, we've got the newspaper, we've got the television, we've got cafes where we can go and have a cup of coffee and spend hours talking, talking, talking, not always reaching the lost. If only we would put our priorities in order. Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost. And he said, as the Father sent me, even so send I you. And if he was sent to seek and to save that which is lost, he sends us to seek and save that which is lost. Don't hide behind the fact that you have a teaching ministry. I don't know what your gift is, but I'll give you the order. First a Christian, then a soul winner, then your function in the body. Let me put it more particularly. First a Christian, then a soul winner, then a teacher. First a Christian, then a soul winner, then a pastor. First a Christian, then a soul winner, then a song leader. Fit your job in where you like. But the heart of things is this, that every one of us should be winners of souls. We all should be reaching out to the lost in Jesus' name. Now let me share some of the methods that Wigglesworth used. He, of course, used personal evangelism. I've already illustrated that, but let me add one or two more. He was traveling by train in Sweden, and he got out at one station, walked along the platform to stretch his leg, got back in. He told me, he said, I found two women there, an older woman and a young woman, and they looked miserable. So he said, I said to them, you look miserable, what's wrong? That's a nice greeting from a stranger. And the older lady said she was going to hospital to have her leg amputated. No wonder she looked miserable. Wigglesworth said, do you know Jesus? And they didn't. And he led them both to Jesus for salvation. Then he said, do you believe that Jesus who saves can heal? And they hadn't heard that, but he told them. And then he prayed for her and said, now go to the hospital, let them see your leg and examine it, and you find you won't have to have it amputated. And that's just what took place. He was always reaching out with the fullness of the gospel because his heart was abiding in the love of God. And I believe that we can dwell in that place. He told me that one day he was at home in Bradford and he felt strongly impressed to go to a certain spot on a certain road and wait. And he said, I waited half an hour. I said, Lord, what do you want me to wait here for? And the Lord impressed him to keep on waiting. He waited another half hour. Nothing happened that gave him the impression that he ought to speak to anyone. He waited another half hour. And just that time, a man drove by on a horse. We would call it a horse and drain, a horse pulling a sort of flatbed cart. And the man sitting on a box towards the front of the cart. And the Spirit of God said, that's the man. And Wigglesworth, without hesitation, jumped up on the cart by the side of the man. He said, what are you doing here? He said, God told me to talk to you. He said, get off. He said, I'm not getting off because God told me to talk to you. And he began to share Christ and the man's barriers were dropped. And he led that man to Jesus Christ while the horses found their way home. Four days later, his wife said, Smith, did you witness to a man about Jesus, a man driving a horse and cart? Yes, he said. Why? His wife has just been to see me to tell me that he died quite suddenly. And he left a message, tell the man that led me to Jesus, I know I'm going to heaven. Because someone listened to the Holy Spirit and was willing to make a fool of himself for Jesus. And was willing to step into that place where God appointed him. I was driving by a field one day. In that field was a hut where a gypsy family lived. And the young man, Ken, had found Christ as Savior. And he was a marvelous, marvelous witness for Jesus Christ. I could tell you some interesting stories about Ken Buckley. But I was driving by on the way to hospital to visit someone who was quite ill. And as I drove by, I had an impression to stop and go to the Buckley's hut. But I thought, why should I? I was there yesterday. They don't need me. Ken's really fine. And I drove on, not because I wanted to be disobedient. But I felt I had an urgent task to visit this sick person in hospital. But as I drove by, the impression became so strong. I said, sorry Lord, I wasn't sensitive. And I circled around the road and came back. Got out of my car, opened the gate of the field and started to walk across the grass to the hut. And coming from the hut was the gypsy's brother, Gilbert. And he saw me coming through the gate and saw me walking across the field. His eyes opened in his gypsy way. He said, thank God you've come. I said, why Gilbert? He said, the old man. That was his term for his father. The old man's dying and he's asking for you. And I went into that hut and on the earth floor was some sacking. And on top of the sacking was an old gypsy lying. Old flannel shirt, a navy greatcoat, his only covering. Great hooked nose and high cheekbones and sunken cheeks and eyes like lights. And I knelt on the dirt floor by the side of him. I said, Mr. Buckley, I'm here. You wanted me. Oh, he said, I want to thank God. I want to thank God and I don't know how to. He could preach the gospel like an evangelist. I visited him time and again. And you'd have thought he was not only a soundly saved man, but a man gifted in ministry. He could talk the gospel, but he was dying. And he said, I want to find God and I don't know how to. And kneeling on the dirt there, I led old Buckley to Jesus Christ. And oh, he said, I found him. I found him. I found him. He died about 36 hours later. And his son said, you know, my dad was such a wicked man. I thought he'd have a terrible time when he died. But he died in peace because at the last minute, Jesus had come to him. And I had been helped by the spirit to overcome my reluctance and to obey the Holy Spirit and to reach out and God directed. And he doesn't make favorites of any of us. You can be sensitive to the spirit and God can use you. You might make a mistake. Better make a mistake than do nothing. I read of Dale Moody, how he said he never went to bed without having witnessed to a soul. I thought, that's terrific. I'm going to do that. I didn't ask father about it. I just made up my mind. And I did it for a while. And then one night, 11, 11, 15 at night, just going to bed. Oh, I've not witnessed to anybody. I better go out and do it. So I put my coat on and I walked and I walked and I walked. I walked two miles and saw no one and said, thank God. I'm honest. I didn't want to meet anyone. I was just doing my duty. And I turned around and was coming back and I went by the door of a hotel. It was well after midnight by then. And a man came out. I thought I must do something. I said, excuse me, sir. Are you saved? He said, that's my business. You mind your own. But I said, God made it my business. And moved me to come out tonight. Leave my home before I went to bed. To ask you if you know Jesus Christ as your savior. And he brushed me on one side and went on. But I've never ceased to pray that that man one day will meet me in heaven. Oh, I know I made a fool of myself. But I'd rather make a fool of myself for Jesus than be the devil's fool. And miss the opportunity of reaching someone who really needs to know and love the Lord Jesus. For as many as are led by the spirit of God. They are the sons of God. And you can be led by the spirit of God. As the sons and daughters of God. And God can use you today, this week, every day, every week. He can use you in sharing Jesus Christ. In ways you can't really anticipate. Wigglesworth did open air preaching a long time before. I'm sorry, not a long time before. When open air preaching was much more popular. These days, with the pressure of traffic, we don't get too much opportunity. But he would stand in the open air and preach the gospel. And he would go out where the sinners are. He didn't believe in waiting only for people to come into church. To get them saved. I don't think you'll find anywhere in the Bible where you're supposed to get people into church to get them saved. You go out where the sinners are. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. And we need to get away from the most evangelized acre in the world. And that's God's acre called the church. We've evangelized these chairs thousands of times. We need to go out where men and women are dying without Christ. In this land and overseas. I've had a burden from missions all my life. And when in 1928 I surrendered my life afresh to the Lordship of Christ. I offered my heart and life to God for India. And God directed me to a land, my own land. And said I don't want you in India. But you must always send missionaries out. And in his service I've had the joy of seeing missionaries go out from every church I've pastored. Because I felt the need, the burden of reaching the lost. Going where the sinners are. When he preached Wigglesworth's homiletics were lacking. But his dynamics were wonderful. And if you lack homiletics make sure of your dynamics. Amen? Just be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he'll make up for a lot of mistakes. But if you can get your homiletics as well as your dynamics that's even better. What a groan from the students. Learn how to present the truth the best you can. But never, never, never depend on your ability. Remember the anointing is the thing that makes the difference. It changes things. Wigglesworth did what we used to call enquiry room work. Today it's the counseling room. Doesn't matter what you call it. But he said that Polly used to put out the net. She was the lieutenant in the Salvation Army. Polly put out the net and I landed the fish. And he regarded that as a very, very important ministry. But he said something that stayed with me. The church is concerned about the new birth. It ought also to be concerned about the newborn. And Wigglesworth was concerned to bring people to the new birth. But he was also concerned to see that they were properly in the kingdom of God and going on with God from that time. And if I could share this little personal note I'm sharing about Wigglesworth and some of the effects on my life. In 1931 my pastor came to me. We had a church that had been begun as a result of a crusade when 10,000 people came to Christ in 12 weeks. And we had a foundation membership of 1,200. We had meetings seven nights a week. Packed to the doors every time with 1,200 people. At every service souls were saved. And my pastor said I'd like you to take charge of the enquiry room. And I had to say no. Because I didn't know how to lead a soul to Jesus. And I went home. My dad was a Christian. I said, Dad, can you tell me a good book that will help me? I want to know how to win a soul for Christ. And he gave me a book that was useful in those days. I don't think it has the same value today. How to Bring Men to Christ by R.A. Torrey. And I read that book and I studied that book and I memorized the scriptures. And about a month or six weeks later I went back to my pastor and said, Is that job still open? He said, It is. I said, Can I have it? And I had joy through years of dealing with men and women who'd raised their hand. Saying, I want Jesus as Savior. And I suppose every week we saw 20 to 30 people coming to Jesus. And what a joy. I began my soul-saving ministry in the enquiry room. And some of you could offer as counselors and be willing to share Christ. And somehow I've got this in my heart to say this morning. I don't want to offend anyone, but I want to say this from my heart. Isn't it time we got in our churches to the place where we're desperate for the salvation of the lost? And where we're beginning to pray and move in. You have a prayer meeting in this church on Saturday night. Invade the prayer meeting with tremendous passion. And pray for souls to be saved every Sunday in Philadelphia. And every Sunday in the church that you represent, that you attend. That we might get a new surge of the Spirit of God in power in salvation. Withersworth did house-to-house work before doorbell evangelism was invented. And he would spend quite a long time in prayer before he went out on doorbell work. And he'd ring the bell or knock the door. And he hardly ever was refused. Because in spite of his brusqueness, his roughness, he was a diplomat when it came to approaching people. And he would be invited in. And he never left a home without praying. And he led scores to Christ and ministered healing to scores in their homes in his personal work. And I believe there's tremendous power here. I was preaching in the West Indies. And I was burdened to share this concept. Not this message, but this concept of individual ministers reaching out. And God so blessed, it was a church with about 2,000 members. God so blessed, the pastor wrote to me. He said, a remarkable thing has happened. The people have been besieging me, saying, Pastor, can we do some visitation evangelism? He said, every Saturday night I have a hundred people going out. And they never come back without reporting at least 40 finding Jesus. Hallelujah. If we get the vision, God can bless us. And we can reach out and win the loss. Then Smith Wigglesworth was an evangelistic preacher. He didn't start off by preaching. The lieutenant, Polly Featherstone, fell in love with Wigglesworth. And Wigglesworth fell in love with her. And they married. And it was one of the rules of the Salvation Army that women officers had to give up their officership if they married a soldier. And so she was out of the ministry. So they started a mission called the Bowling Street Mission. And Polly, the experienced Salvation Army lieutenant, was the preacher. And Wigglesworth was the man who landed the net. But he went and got the baptism in the Holy Ghost. And when he came back and told Polly, she wasn't very sympathetic. But she said, and it was right on meeting time, If you've got what they had, you preach tonight. Who knew Polly said, You preach. I'm not ready. I can't preach. She said, If you've got what they've got, you preach. And he said, I never saw Polly more uncomfortable. She sat on at least six different chairs through the service. She was so uncomfortable because the Spirit of God began to convict. And that was the beginning of his ministry. And he preached the gospel. As I told you, he didn't always preach very well. Some of his sermons are quite amazing. But he just loved God, loved Jesus, loved souls, loved people. There's a sentiment you can't save souls, you save people. Souls are not statistics, they're people. This time we got this idea that numbers don't count out of our minds. That's the devil's deception. Numbers do count because numbers are people. Numbers are people. And everyone that you can reach is another soul that is rescued from an everlasting hell. And we need to catch the vision. And Wigglesworth did that. He could preach in a grocery store. I don't know what it would be like in Kmart if you started preaching. But Wigglesworth and one grocery store started to speak to a group of people. And three people kneeled down in a grocery store to accept Jesus as their Savior. He preached on board a ship. He was traveling to Africa for meetings. And there was a ship's concert. And the man who was organizing it said, Would you sing? Would you do something for us? Would you give us an item in our concert? Well, he said, I'll sing for you on one condition. He said, What's that? That I'm the first item. Well, he said, That's fine. So they introduced the Reverend Smith Wigglesworth. He was going to sing to them. And he sang a beautiful gospel song. And then made an appeal. And they never had the concert. People were kneeling down all over the concert room. Crying to God for salvation. He preached in Ceylon and as many as 3,000 people came to Jesus in one service when he preached in Ceylon. In Norway, on one occasion, the town hall was full. And the Spirit of God came down. And God spoke to Wigglesworth. If you will believe me, everyone in this building and people outside will be saved. And the Spirit of God swept through. And scores were brought to Jesus Christ. In New Zealand, he harmed a new soul when he landed. But within a month, they had a communion service. When 2,000 converts under his ministry gathered around the Lord's table with Smith Wigglesworth. God blessed him. In South Africa, so dramatic were the results that Justice Duplessy, David's brother, who Justice is a friend of mine as David is. And Justice told me, he said, the evangelistic results under Smith Wigglesworth in South Africa changed the spiritual life of the whole country. Because he went out and dared to trust God. He reached out through missions. He never went to the mission field. Long to go. But he supported missions. And his heart's desire was in the Congo evangelistic mission. Oh, how he loved that mission. If the people gave him a love offering, he would accept that with gratitude. If they wanted to give him a second love offering the second week, he'd say yes on one condition. That I can give the whole of it to missions. And he always gave the second love offering to missions. The mission that he started, at least that his son-in-law started, today has over 2,000 churches in Central Africa. And many of them with 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 membership. This was the heart of Wigglesworth. And he prayed this through into being. And I believe that God blessed him because he reached out to the last. What was the secret of his soul winning? I think it's quite simple. It wasn't a program he had to carry out. It was the spontaneous result of his relationship to Jesus. I think I ought to repeat that. The secret of Wigglesworth's success in soul winning was that it was not a program he had to carry out. It was the spontaneous result of his relationship to Jesus. You see, Jesus is the savior of the world. And he's dwelling in us. If Christ be not in you, you're not of his. If Christ is in you, it's the Christ who came to save the world. And if his heartbeat is beating in your heart, you're going to have the same vision, the same passion. And this is why Wigglesworth was motivated. He no more tried to win souls than an apple tree tries to grow apples. It grows apples because it's nature to grow apples. And when you abide in Christ, and this is the whole teaching of the chapter that we read from, when you abide in Christ, you bring forth fruit. Now I know there are some who say that fruit is likeness to Jesus. And they quote Galatians 5.22. I know some who even say, as they quote Hebrews 13.15, that the fruit is praise. But fruit is reproduction in kind. The pith of the apple that we so much enjoy when we eat apples is there to protect the seed. And when it rots away in an apple that's fallen to the ground, the seed falls into the ground and produces another apple tree. Fruit is reproduction in kind. And while we all should have the fruit of the Spirit, and we all should offer the fruit of our lips giving thanks, we also all should reproduce in kind spiritually. And when we do that, we catch the vision. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. And Jesus said, I've chosen and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit. The second aspect would be that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said when he promised the Spirit that when he has come, ye shall receive power and ye shall be witnesses. And Wigglesworth once said to me, Alas, he said, today many are not laying themselves out for soul winning, they are laying themselves out for fleshy manifestations. They want the spectacular. And the great purpose of the Holy Ghost is to anoint us for winning the lost. Can I somehow communicate that to you? A. Macpherson who has preached here, British preacher, once said, we have become little groups of Pentecostal specialists feeling each other's pulses. The church has turned inward. And the vision must be outward. We must seek the lost. And that is clarified and purified at Calvary. One day in Jerusalem, Wigglesworth had just come back from a meeting where an Arab had interpreted for him. And he'd been talking to Tom Kemp, a friend of mine, on the way back from the meeting. And Tom Kemp had told him that that Arab who was translating, interpreting for him, had begun to backslide. And Wigglesworth went silent. And as they went up the steps of the mission home, oh, Brother Kemp, he said, it's killing me. It's killing me. It's killing me. What is, Brother Wiggles, what is? He said that anyone should go back from Jesus. Oh, how he loved Jesus. And he had a deep sense of the lostness of people who didn't know Jesus. We had a poet some years ago, a man named F.W.H. Myers, nothing to do with F.B. Meyer, whose books we know. F.W.H. Myers wrote a long poem which he entitled simply, St. Paul. And in it he tried to put himself within Paul's skin and reflect what he felt Paul would say. And here are some lines that I've never forgotten. Oft when the word is on me to deliver, Lifts the illusion, and the truth lies bare. Desert or throng, the city or the river, Melts in a lucid paradise of air. Only like souls I see the folk there under, Slaves who should be kings. I'm serious. Bound who should conquer, slaves who should be kings, Heeding their one hope with an empty wonder, Sadly contented with the show of things. Then with a rush the intolerable craving Shivers throughout me like a trumpet call, Oh, to save these, to perish for their saving, Die for their life, be offered for them all. And I want to leave this thought with you as I turn to the next phase and the final phase. Statistics have been issued by the United Nations that declare there are more people alive on the face of the earth today than have ever died in all of human history. In other words, more than half the total human race of all time is alive today. We as a church have the greatest harvest field the church has ever had. Let's rise up as the men and women of God and say, by God's grace, we're going to reap that harvest. I want to share just a few things about Wigglesworth's ministry of healing. It really began when he learned the truth and discovered the power of God in his own body. He really discovered that because his wife challenged him. And he had hemorrhoids and he was taking some means. She said to a visiting preacher, What do you think of a man who preaches healing and takes means? And he said, I think he wouldn't be wholly trusting God. And Wigglesworth made up his mind that he would wholly trust God. Miracle after miracle took place in his own life. He had stone in the kidney and doctor said it couldn't pass and it couldn't be broken. But he said, My God can break it. God did break it and it passed. And he used to carry a little bottle with about 150 pieces of stone in it that it passed because God had broken this thing up. The last time I saw him was in London at a meeting he'd been speaking. And he called me to the platform at the end of the meeting and told me that he'd nearly died. He said, and I don't know what the doctors would say about this. He said, They even stuck pins in my feet to see if I was still alive. But he said, and he quoted Romans 8.11 with his misquotation, The spirit of him that rose up Jesus from the dead dwells in me and he quickens my mortal body. And the last letter he wrote to me, he wrote again, God is fulfilling his word, Romans 8, verses 11, 12, and 13. The same spirit that rose up Jesus from the grave quickened his mortal body has also quickened mine. You see, he believed that healing was the purpose of God. He believed Exodus 15 and 26. I am the Lord that healeth thee. He recognized that God's Jehovah name was there. Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Rophika, it's a Jehovah title. And every Jehovah title reveals a facet of the eternal nature of God. And Wigglesworth saw that as the abiding nature of God. He would quote Hebrews 13, verse 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. And of course he would take that command of the Lord. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. James 5, 14, and 16. If any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church. And it was this motivation of the love of God, the compassion of Christ, and obedience to the word of God that motivated him in his ministry of healing. And I find that it blesses me and helps me to prepare for ministry if I meditate on these scriptures and seek God to fill me afresh that these scriptures shall be fulfilled in my life, in my ministry, and through all who hear the good word of God. Wigglesworth had a great compassion. I've mentioned that before. One illustration, when he was preaching in the open air, he had a lot of poor people to listen to him. And in the winter, he always wore his thinnest suit and his thinnest shoes because he said, by the time I feel cold, I'll know they're cold and I'll stop. It was just practical compassion. And he had that compassion that reached out, and his faith worked by love. He believed in laying on of hands and anointing with oil. He did invent and patent a little oil bottle that was leak-proof. Most of us Pentecostal pastors in those days carried a bottle of oil in our pockets, and most of us had an oil stain in our suits because the bottles were leaking. So Wigglesworth invented a little bottle that was leak-proof, and it was called Wigglesworth's anointing bottle. He would go around, and it was like an oil can that's used for a cycle. He squirted oil on people's heads, and that was anointing. But it was a blessing that he obeyed God. When he died, there was an American evangelist who shall be unnamed, and one of the family thought it would be rather nice to give him a memento of Wigglesworth, so they gave him the actual bottle that Wigglesworth had been using in his lifetime's ministry. And they were sorry when they got some publicity from America. Can one be anointed with oil from the bottle that Wigglesworth used? Isn't it horrible? It doesn't make any difference what bottle it comes from. And the oil itself is only a symbol. It's the Holy Ghost that counts. Amen? And Wigglesworth healed rather than prayed. It's interesting, you know, that there's no prayer for the sick in Acts of the Apostles. There's no prayer for the sick in Acts of the Apostles until the last chapter. Only one person was prayed for. The others were healed. Heal the sick. A man came out for prayer in his meeting, and this man belonged to my church, and I hadn't met Wigglesworth at the time. He was suffering from diabetes. About 60. And he went out. Wigglesworth looked at him. He says, I'm not praying for you. You're healed. Go home. Well, he thought, that's funny. And he went back and sat in his seat, listened to the rest of the service. They had a break and a meal, and then there was an evening service. Well, he didn't pray for me. I'm going again. And so he went out the second time in the evening service. Wigglesworth said, what are you doing here? I told you you're healed. Go home. And when he got home, his brother-in-law said, you know, if you're healed, you won't need to take your insulin. Now, I would advise you to be very careful about that. But this is what his brother said. And the Spirit of God rose up in this man. He said, you're right. And he received the Word, and he was totally healed. Now, Wigglesworth didn't lay hands on him. He just shared the faith that God had given him. And the consequence was, he was delivered. Some of you know Pastor Lloyd Jacobson. His mother was in a meeting of Wigglesworth, and she had a very painful ingrown toenail. If ever you've had one, you know how painful that really is. Went out for prayer, and Wigglesworth didn't pray for her. He said, woman, stamp your foot. And that was impossible. It was excruciating. He said, woman, stamp your foot. And she dared to do it, and she did it. Instantly, her foot was healed. He believed in prayer, but he would also heal people. He liked to get people to act their faith. We had a woman in our church come out for prayer. And Wigglesworth actually prayed for this woman. And then now, woman, he said, now run around the church. And she started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. He said, woman, stop laughing and run. And ultimately, she did. I said to the service, Mrs. Underwood, why did you laugh? Well, she said, you know, I've been to Wigglesworth's meetings before. And I knew the sort of thing he did. So I made up my mind I wouldn't do any of those silly things. And the first thing he says is, run around the church. But she ran, and she got healed. Sometimes he would do what he called wholesale healing. He said, shall we have a wholesale or retail tonight? And there's something behind that. When he was in Sweden, the authorities forbade him to lay hands on the sick. They were accusing him of healing without a license. And the king of Sweden sent a message, tell that man somehow not to put his hands on the sick. I want that man in my country. What he's preaching is doing my country good. So Wigglesworth was there, and he was not allowed to touch the sick. So he said, Father, what can I do? In power and blessing in the meeting. And the Lord said, tell that woman to stand up in those women in the balcony. So he said, woman, stand up. So she stood up. He said, now put your hand on your body where the pain is. I'm going to pray for you. And she put her hand on her body and prayed, and the power of God came through, and she knew she was healed. Now Wigglesworth says, every one of you stand up who has a healing need, and you place your hand on your body, on your own body, and now pray. And God worked miracle after miracle, scores of miracles right through that congregation. And so he playfully gave that the name wholesale healing. When he did it to a crowd and there wasn't time or space or some limitation, other times he'd pray for them individually. You see, he believed in an unchanging Christ. I can always, I can still hear him. You know, my memory and imagination sometimes work, and I can hear him saying, lovely Jesus, lovely Jesus, lovely Jesus. He just was so close to Jesus that Jesus touched people through him. He just lived in an abiding relationship to the Lord Jesus. He said to me, one day when I smell a cancer, I smell the devil, and I'm coming in the power of my lovely Jesus against all the works of Satan, because it says in 1 John 3 and 8, he was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. And I believe that this is a vision that we need to catch. A man came into the vestry, we call the room where the minister gets ready for the meeting in England, we call that the vestry, comes from the place where a man put on his vestments, though we didn't do that. But we're in the vestry before a meeting, and another minister came in. And he went out again after he'd been introduced, he talked to Wigglesworth a while. And Wigglesworth, what's wrong with that fellow? Well, I said, he lost his wife, she died six months ago. And Wigglesworth began to weep. Oh, my brother, he said, no one knows what that is who's not been through it. And he told me about the death of his own wife. Polly Featherstone married him. They had, I think, three sons and a daughter. And suddenly, she wouldn't be much more than 40, I suppose, if she was smitten down and she died. And Wigglesworth came back, they sent for him. Immediately, he wasn't far away. And he called her back. And she said, Smith, God wants me, you must let me go. And Wigglesworth told me personally, he said, God said to me, Wigglesworth, she's mine, I want her. He said it was the hardest thing in my life to say yes to God, because Polly and I love each other. But I thought when he told me that, it would take a special word from heaven to get me started. It took a special word from heaven to get him to stop. He's so moved in the Spirit's power that he's able to raise the dead. He had discovered this power beyond all our experience. There's a woman who was suffering from the ravages of cancer. And Wigglesworth went to pray for her. This was in 1947. The power of God fell and she arose and they all glorified God. Just a few weeks later, there was a funeral in a city called Halifax, Yorkshire. It was the funeral of a friend of Wigglesworth, a man named Wilfred Richardson. And Wigglesworth travelled from Bradford to Halifax to the funeral. A big church with perhaps 1,200 people in it. Wigglesworth did what he exhorted others to do, even though it was a funeral. He came in the door of the church with his hands in the air, praising the Lord. Wilfred Richardson had been a close friend of his. He loved him dearly. But he was praising God that his friend was in the presence of the Lord. He walked down the aisle praising God and greeting the people. God bless you, brother. God bless you, sister. Praise the Lord, brother. Praise the Lord, sister. In a funeral. Walked through the door into the room where the ministers were gathered before they took the funeral. And he turned to the brethren, greeted them as he did, with a kiss. And then he turned to the man named Hibbert, whose wife it was. No, whose daughter it was who had been so sick with cancer. Said, Brother Hibbert, how is that daughter of yours? And the report wasn't good. And Wigglesworth just sighed and dropped. And he was in the Lord's presence. That was his home call. And right to the end he was full of praise and full of compassion.