In this sermon, Pastor George Stormont discusses the spiritual secrets of the life of Smith Wigglesworth. He emphasizes the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit and walking in the Spirit rather than being focused on worldly matters. He shares a personal experience where he felt the fire of God and had a vision of Jesus and the cross. He emphasizes the power of the blood of Jesus and the joy of being cleansed and filled with the Holy Spirit. The sermon encourages believers to seek a real baptism of the Holy Ghost and to live a life free from condemnation.

This is tape number three on the spiritual secrets of the life of Smith Wigglesworth. This presentation, Life in the Spirit, is one of four fine cassette programs covering the dynamic ministry of this man of God and apostle of faith. Sharing these secrets, Pastor George Stormont. Romans chapter eight. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walked not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the spirit do the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Amen. Amen. In 1936, a small church in South Africa, the pastor, during a week of special meetings when they had an evangelist, was early in the morning in his office when suddenly the office door opened and in walked the evangelist. The evangelist didn't greet the pastor. He began to prophesy and said something along this line. Before Jesus comes again, there'll be an outpouring of the spirit greater than anything in all of history. It will overflow national and denominational boundaries. It will penetrate areas where no one has ever expected it to go. But this movement of the spirit shall be carried to the far ends of the earth. Then pointing to the young pastor, he said, and you young men will be a key person in carrying this message. And you'll be misunderstood, you'll be criticized, you'll be ostracized, but you will carry this message. The evangelist turned around and walked out, came back later, greeted the young pastor. The evangelist, Smith Wigglesworth. The young pastor, David Uglessie. A man at that time unknown out of South Africa. And I met him in 1947 in Zurich, Switzerland, when he came out of South Africa to begin the work that God had called him to through that prophecy. And he came to pass. But in the 1960s, the spirit of God came in what we began to know as the charismatic renewal. And David Uglessie carried this message even to the Vatican and to the World Council of Churches, and was criticized and was ostracized and was excommunicated. Everything that Wigglesworth was told came to pass. And God fulfilled his word. For a man to move in that dimension of prophecy meant that he had to live very close to God. And his life in the spirit is what I want to emphasize this morning, because I believe there's a key here for every one of us. We can live as close to God as Smith Wigglesworth did. And though we shall not be used in the same way because God has a plan, a separate plan, an individual plan for each of us, yet we should be moved, used and moved in our own ministries and our own lives to the fulfillment of God's perfect plan. And so as together we share this, I want to encourage you. I'll start by telling you right at the outset of an instance in Wigglesworth's life when he lost out. It encouraged me to read this, because when you talk about the man and hear talks about the man, you think he was a kind of perfect man. But there was a time before he was in full-time ministry when in his plumbing business he prospered enormously, became quite wealthy. And what were the pressure of business and the attraction of money, he began to lose out spiritually and he stopped going to the mission. He stopped going to church. And his wife, Polly, seemed to get more enthusiastic as he grew less enthusiastic. And she would go to the meeting and come back bubbling over with joy, the blessing, and he didn't want to hear. She came back one night, so full of the blessing of the Lord, he said, I don't want to hear it. And when she continued, he pushed her out of the front door and locked her out, but forgot to lock the back door. And she just went around the house and came in laughing and he had the sense to laugh with her. But it was her steadfastness and her consistency and her joy and her prayer that held him. And maybe some of us here have slipped a little. Maybe there are some here not where they should be spiritually. Let me encourage you. God could restore Wigglesworth from his backsliding. He can lift you from where you are and he can set your feet on the right way. This could be the beginning of days for someone here. You could catch a vision of what God can do with failures. He lifts them. Do you remember when Peter walked on the water? Peter had a foot shaped mouth. And when Jesus walked, he said, if it be thou bid me come. Jesus said, come. And I think Peter might have wished he hadn't spoken. He was committed and he stepped over the side of the boat and he put his foot down on the water. It didn't give way. It congealed into a stepping stone. And he walked, says the scripture, to go to Jesus. He walked to go to Jesus. And then comes the preacher's best point. Peter took his eyes off Jesus and began to sing. He did, but he had more sense than most people. Most of us wait till we're going down the third time. Peter cried instantly, Lord save me. And the Lord put out his hand and saved him. And they walked back to the boat together. Jesus didn't carry Peter. They walked back together. He was not only saved from drowning, but he was brought back to the place of faith. And maybe thinking saints this morning need a word from the Lord. He'll lift you and he'll put his faith in you. And you can begin to walk on the water again. And you can begin to move in the power of the Holy Spirit. After this, Wigglesworth came to a place where he realized he need not have gone away from God. He need not have lost out. To a friend of mine, Tom Kemp, he said, a young man like you should always be on top of things. And he learned the secret of staying on top of things. A man named Gordon, Robert Gordon, wrote this. We like Peter should be capable in the Holy Spirit. First of giving to God in worship what is his due. And second, to men in ministry, what is their need? And that seems to sum up for me, the ministry, spiritual life and ministry of Wigglesworth. He gave to God in worship what was God's due. He gave to men in ministry what was their need. And that should be the pattern for all of us. Giving to God what is his due in worship and giving to others in ministry what is their need. One of his favorite texts, and you'll know it so well, Ephesians 5 18, was be filled with the Spirit. And I love what he said on one occasion. That means he said, be soaked with the Spirit. So soaked that every thread in the fabric of your life will have received the requisite jewel of the Spirit. Then when you're misused and squeezed to the wall, all that will ooze out of you will be the Jesus nature. Be filled with the Spirit. Another occasion he said, be filled with the Spirit. Be crammed with the Spirit. Be so filled with the Spirit there's no room for anything or anyone else. And this is where he sought to live. I knew him for about seven years, the last seven years of his life. And in those seven years, I never once knew him out of touch with God. I mentioned earlier his nephew, rather his grandson, his grandson, Leslie Wigglesworth, a missionary for many years. I said, Leslie, what was grandpa like in the house? Was he ever any different? He said, I knew him for well over 20 years. And he was always in tune with God. He was never moody. He lived in a relationship with God that was constant and harmonious. And you know, that challenges me. And I'm reaching up and day by day, I'm discovering more and more. There's a place where we can live in abiding harmony with the love of God and being filled with the Spirit of God. You see, Wigglesworth used to say, God has no favorites. I remember a friend of my wife, she came from Switzerland to London to the Bible college there, where she met my wife. Her name was Martha Eckhart. And one day she was talking with Ruth and me. And she said, do you know, I was cross with Jesus one day. I said, Martha, what do you mean cross with Jesus? Why were you cross? Well, she said, I thought he had favorites. I said, why would he have favorites? But he asked me that too. Why are you cross with Jesus favorites? He said, why did you say that? Well, Jesus, he said, you let John put his head on your bosom. And you know what Jesus said to me, Martha said, no, Jesus said, Martha, they all could have put their head on my bosom if they wanted to. Only John wanted to. And we all can get where Wigglesworth got if we want to. Let it not be said that only Wigglesworth wanted to. That we want to move in and discover the power of God in our lives and an abiding life in the Spirit that shall not fail. Let me try to be a little orderly this morning. Number one, I believe the first key is this, that Smith Wigglesworth enjoyed a real salvation. He was only a boy of eight. He went with his grandma to an old Westlian Methodist chapel. They had a pot-lid stove as the only means of heat. And if ever you went into a mission hall and found one of those, when you were near it, you were cooked. When you were away from it, you were cold. And in that Westlian Methodist chapel, they were singing in a Methodist chapel choruses, and they were dancing as they sang. And they were dancing around the pot-lid stove, singing, the lamb, the lamb, the bleeding lamb, the lamb of Calvary. And Wigglesworth said, at eight years of age, I suddenly saw that Jesus had died for me. And while we were dancing around the pot-lid stove in the Westlian Methodist chapel, Jesus came into my heart, and I clapped, and I sang, and I danced. He had a real salvation. I preached in a denominational church many long years ago, and was entertained for lunch by the secretary and his wife. And he said to me, I don't like to find fault with the preacher, but I think you're very presumptuous. Oh, I said, why would you say that? Well, he said, you dare to say that you know that you are saved. I said, friend, I don't want to be rude to you either, but I would suggest that it is you that is presumptuous. He said, how do you make that up? Well, I said, God said, these things are written that we may know that we have eternal life. God said, he that hath the Son hath life. And you're telling me that you know better than God? God says, I have life if I have Jesus, and I do have Jesus, so I do have life. And for you to say that presumption seems more presumptuous. Don't you think so? He that hath the Son hath life, and to know that you have a real salvation. Is it possible that here this morning, all listening to me, there's someone who does not yet know. Never forget the shock I had. I was meeting at the time with the Plymouth Brethren, who were pretty strict on admitting people to the Lord's table. And the lady who had been meeting with us and breaking bread with us for five years in a gospel service that she'd never really had, and she got saved. She had been masquerading as a Christian for five years, and discovered she hadn't got reality. Isn't there someone here like that? The starting point of Wigglesworth's amazing ministry was a real salvation. Get your fundamentals right. Amen? Then he had a whole salvation. He wasn't satisfied with what I would call easy decision-ism. I get nervous sometimes. I used to at the prosper. I get nervous sometimes when people raise their hand for salvation the first time they come into the church. Because I've discovered from experience it means they're waving goodbye. So very often they do that and you don't see them again. But Wigglesworth meant business when he came to Christ. He wanted all that God had. And if you've been on the decisionist level, move down deeper and get to the place where you say, oh God, I must have a whole salvation. He heard a godly man speak on holiness, and he heard the holiness teaching of sanctification. And not understanding everything, he grasped all he could. I told you that he was a man with a terrible temper, and he shut himself in with God for 10 days. And God dealt with his temperament in that time. And God changed him. He was determined to have a real salvation and discover the fullness of holiness. I had a young man in my church one day come to me and say, Pastor, could I borrow your song books? I have to sing a solo tonight at another church. I said, of course you can. I'm delighted. So I lent him the books, two hard cover books, and he put one inside the other right there, and was going to close it, and I could see the spine splitting. So I said, Jack, do you mind not carrying them that way? Just put them side by side. And he went white, his eyes blazed, and he flung the book on the desk. He said, keep your books, I don't want them. And stomped out of the church. I often wonder what he sang that night. To be like Jesus, I think. But Wednesday night he came and apologized. Well, I said, what was bugging you, Jack? Well, he said, it's my father. Well, I knew his dad had been dead 16 years. So I said, what do you mean, Jack, it's your father? Well, he said, my father had a temper, and I got one. And I looked deep into his eyes and said, Jack, which father are we talking about? You see, if I'm born again, I have a heavenly father. If I took after my earthly dad because of my natural genes, I'll take after my heavenly father by the new birth. You see, being born again is being regenerated. Amen? And if I have natural genes from my natural father, I've got spiritual genes from my spiritual father. To be like Jesus, this is my song. And I believe that this whole salvation, this full salvation, was one of the keys. He meant business with God. He wouldn't stay on the service. Then I think the third thing is this, that Wigglesworth was not satisfied with less than a full baptism in the Holy Ghost. Too often people say they speak with tongues, but you see no difference in their lives. Wigglesworth wasn't satisfied with that kind of experience. He believed the purpose was power. You must have read of his experience, but let me recount it. He was in Bradford in Yorkshire. A man came to him one day and said, Wigglesworth, up in Sunderland, which is on the northeast coast of England, up in Sunderland, they're speaking with tongues like they did in the Acts of the Apostles. Wigglesworth said, I want to hear this. He was a master plumber. He employed several men. He arranged his business and he took off for Sunderland. He went into the meeting. He said, I want to hear these tongues. They said, you'll hear tongues when you get the baptism. He said, I have the baptism. He was talking about his holiness experience. And he argued, and he argued, and there was one man there and he argued so warmly with him that when they went home, they were staying in the same place, they walked on opposite sides of the street. Their fellowship was so hot. But he spent a night in prayer with that man and he said for four days after that, I wanted nothing but God. The last day came, he had to go back to his business. And he went to see the minister who was in the veil when he spoke to the minister's wife, Mrs. Boddy, B-O-D-D-Y. And he said, Sister, I haven't got tongues. She said, you'll get tongues when you get the baptism. He said, I've got the baptism. Some people die hard, don't they? But he said, before I go, will you just lay hands on me? And he told me, Sister Boddy put her hands on him and prayed. And then she was called out of the room. And this is how he described it. The fire fell. It was a wonderful time as I was there with God alone. It seemed as though God bathed me with power. I was given a wonderful vision. I was conscious of the cleansing of the precious blood and cried out, clean, clean, clean. I was filled with the joy of the consciousness of cleansing. I saw the Lord Jesus Christ. I saw the empty cross. I saw him exalted on the right hand of God the Father. As I was extolling, magnifying and praising him, I was speaking in tongues as the Spirit of God gave me utterance. I know now that I have received a real baptism of the Holy Ghost. And that's God's promise to everybody here. And if there's someone here who's enjoying the overflow of Pentecost by attending Pentecostal meetings, enjoying the joy that comes because the Spirit has come to so many, don't be content with it. Reach out and say, I must have this blessing for myself. Peter said the promise is to you, your children, those that are far off, even as many as the Lord is to you this morning. He wanted to move on from there. But he told me this. He said, you know, if you're going to live in the fullness of the Spirit, you have to watch that you keep clean. You must walk humbly with God and keep clean. He said, I never saw anyone baptized in the Holy Ghost with power who wasn't first clean within. And maybe I have a little gripe here about the tendency these days to tell people they can begin to speak in tongues when they like, without facing up to this issue of cleansing. You see, Romans 6 comes before Romans 8. Romans 8 is the life of the Spirit chapter. Romans 6 is identifying with Jesus and his death and resurrection. And I believe experientially what Peter said is true. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sin. Have sin dealt within your life and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And while there are many who have spoken in tongues, they've lost out in power because their lives have not been clean. You see, the initial evidence of the baptism is tongues. The abiding evidence is power. Tongues assign the evidence power. Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you. He asked the Lord why he had baptized him. What is the purpose of the baptism in my life? He came home from work one day, put his bag of tools down. So I said, which way did you come in, Smith? He said, why I came in the back door. Why, what's wrong? She said, they brought an old man here. Can't you hear him screaming upstairs? And people are knocking at our door saying, what are you doing to that old man? Why is he screaming? And Wigglesworth said, the Spirit of God whispered to me, this is why I baptized you in the Holy Ghost. He said, I went upstairs and found this old man crying. I'm lost, lost, lost. I've committed the unpardonable sin. And he screamed and he screamed and he couldn't be comforted. And Wigglesworth's wife was in distress, not knowing what to do. And the Spirit of God whispered again, this is what I baptized you for. And the anointing came on Wigglesworth. And he said, come out, you lying spirit, come out, you lying spirit. And instantly the spirit of lying left that man. The peace of God came. And as he walked downstairs, God said again to Wigglesworth a third time, this is what I baptized you for, to bring deliverance to the Baptist. And God doesn't baptize you in the Holy Ghost to give you a nice sensation up and down your backbone. He doesn't give you the baptism of the Holy Ghost just to let you talk in tongues. There are tongues beyond that. And I believe that this has been a tragedy. We need to move on from blessing to power. To move on from blessing to power. Let me just list quickly seven things that I think the baptism of the Holy Spirit can do for you. It will bring you a bigger Jesus. John 16, verse 14 and 15. The Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows them unto you. It will magnify your understanding of the person of Christ. It will give a stronger assurance. Romans 8, 16. Many are the lead of the spirit. They are the sons of God. A stronger assurance. It will make the Bible come alive. Jesus said in John 16, verse 13, when he has come, the spirit of truth, he will lead you into all truth. Remember Rose Weyland. Remember Rose Weyland. She came from a group of people that had a very strange title. They called themselves the peculiar people. And she went to the peculiar people's chapel. She came into a Pentecostal meeting. She got hungry for the baptism. And God mightily filled her. She said to me, you know, Pastor, before I was baptized in the spirit, I sometimes read through three chapters and not find anything that spoke to my heart. Now she says I can't read through three verses without something coming alive. The Bible comes alive as you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Your prayer life is enriched. Jude, verses 20 and 21. Praying in the Holy Ghost. There's a dimension of prayer when you're filled with the spirit that you never knew before. Are you not going to say amen sometimes? Praise God, that was a feeble one. Thank you brother. Number five, you enter into an experience of the fullness of the love of God. Romans five and verse five, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by his spirit. Number six, you discover there's joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14 and verse 17. Kingdom of God is not righteousness and not meat and drink, but righteousness of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. And the last thing I mentioned, number seven, because of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, you become effective in your function in the body of Christ. Acts 1.8, you shall be witnesses, you shall receive power, you shall be witnesses. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 4 through 11, the gift of the spirit. You see, we're all members of the body, right? Well, just say if you're a member of the body, but the member of the body needs function. I got two appendages on the side of my head, they're called ears. Thank you for not saying amen. A man said to me, once you know from behind George, he said, you look like the back of a taxi with both doors left open. This isn't pretty. And without the function of hearing, it doesn't even adorn. But the organ of the ear, with the function of hearing, means a significant contribution to the life of the body, right? And if you're in the body, you are a member of the body, you need the baptism of the Holy Ghost so that you function in the body. That your place in the body is a living place, and you have a living contribution to the body of Christ. Then, I want to mention a fourth major thing. Smith Lizardworth enjoyed a real salvation, enjoyed a full salvation, was not satisfied with less than the full baptism of the Holy Spirit. And number four, he nourished his life, his spiritual life, by his communion with God. A man named Moses Copeland once told us that Riddlesworth gave him a little advice in his youth, when the child of God ceases to hunger after righteousness and purity, then Satan gets in. And he wasn't going to allow room for Satan, and so he hungered and thirsted after righteousness. And he caught the vision of a godly minister, and everyone wondered why this minister so radiated Christ, so communicated the sense of the Lord's presence. And after much prayer, the minister shared the secret with Riddlesworth, and this is what he told him. Years ago, the Spirit of God began to speak to me, but I was too busy to heed his voice. He persisted until I commenced to go aside when he spoke, so that I could hear what God the Lord had to say. This became a manner of life. I obeyed his pleading voice, until now, at the slightest breath of the Spirit, I leave everyone and everything to be in his presence, to hear and obey his word. My father-in-law was a very godly man, and I discovered that Smith Riddlesworth had stayed in his home many years before, and had shared the secret with my father-in-law. He had ten children, big house, busy, busy, busy life. Sometimes there would be a family gathering, and so the king's father, he was up in his room, speaking the Lord. He had imbibed the secret so deeply, that the slightest breath of the Spirit, he withdrew and communed with the Lord. And I think we need to be willing, sometimes to break off in the middle of something, and just go aside and talk to God. Develop this sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. David said in Psalm 27 and verse 8, When thou said, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. And I tell you, the more frequently and readily you do it, the more sensitive you become. Has anyone here ever bought a new alarm clock? Do you know the first time it went off? It nearly blew you out of bed. But now, you can almost sleep through it, because you've grown used to it, and used to disregarding it. And so it is with the voice of the Spirit. When he first speaks, we're aware, but as we gradually disregard it, we become less aware. We need to be keeping ourselves very sensitive to the Spirit. For Whittle's work, it doesn't mean long prayers. In his later life, he said, I couldn't pray half an hour on end to save my life. But he said, there's never a waking half that I don't pray sometimes. He just moved in the spirit of prayer, and uttered brief prayers. He would, if he wanted to retire and speak to the Lord a while, he'd go, and he'd lie on his bed, didn't believe him, didn't get uncomfortable. He'd take his Bible and say, I'll just see what Father has to say. And he'd let the Lord speak to him. Then he'd begin to praise the Lord. Then he'd talk to the Lord about some need. And then he'd relax and meditate. And he'd repeat the verses and go on for a while doing this, but always sweetly in communion with God. He told us in one of our services in our church, he said, I go to bed speaking in tongues, and I get up speaking in tongues. And he used to exhort us to do just the same. For him, it was more than a relief. It was somehow, as he talked with God in other tongues, he was brought into a living relationship that gave him a freedom in ministry. Because of his lack of education, he sometimes got into sentences in his preaching that were so involved that no one knew where he was. And he himself would say, well, I'm stuck here. I'd better stop and start again. And so he'd stop, and he'd begin to say, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And the Spirit of God would come upon him in beautiful anointing. He'd utter a few words in tongues and then in the most remarkable English, he would begin to prophesy. The Spirit of God came on him because he lived and he moved in this area. One of his secrets was this, that he had communion every day. I've always found it difficult to adjust myself to the American habit of communion once a month. We had it every week in our churches back in England. And I wonder why we are so infrequent in our observing of what Jesus told us to do. Rutherford said to me, you know, brother, he said, the Lord said as often as he do this, that means I can do it as often as I like, and I like. And so if he was known there, he'd do it on his own. If you called it this house, he said, brother, I was just about to break bread, come and join me. Sometimes two and three times a day, he would break bread remembering Jesus. He loved to keep very, very close to the cross. And because of this, he was always sensitive to God. He used to say, you've got to live ready. If you have to stop to get ready when the opportunity comes, by the time you're ready, the opportunity has gone. You need to live ready. And then the sick man asked me to take Wigglesworth to see him and pray for him. He was a well-to-do builder, had a beautiful home. And when we were ushered into his room, his bedroom by his wife, they saw him in a luxurious bedroom. And Wigglesworth was introduced, and he sat by the bedside, and I sat next to Wigglesworth. And we were talking for about three, four minutes, and Wigglesworth suddenly stopped. He said, God told me not to pray for you, not till you repent of your backsliding, and your pride, and your hardness of heart, and your unbelief. And the man said, I don't know what you're talking about. He said, you do, the Holy Ghost is not a liar. And the man's wife said, darling, it's the Son that you can get right, so that you can be healed. Why don't you do it? And he said, you keep out of this. And Wigglesworth said, there you are. Lord, he said, give this man repentance, and he walked straight out. And I was the pastor. When we got outside, Wigglesworth said to me, why didn't I have to say that to that man? I never said it to a man in that way before. Well, I said, he used to be our church secretary. He went back on Pentecost. He left our church. He joined a liberal church. He'd been publishing pamphlets against the Pentecostal movement, but he'd never stopped boasting of what he did for us when he was our church secretary. He said, then why did you take me to see him? Well, I said, all that was in my mind that was rambling, and I thought I might be hindering his healing. So I thought you could go, and God could talk to you, and that would be the best way. Well, we went home. The next day, that fellow's ready. So I went around to the house, and I knocked at the door. The man's wife came, said, you? I said, yes, me. She said, I don't think you'd better see my husband, the temper he's in. I said, I think I'd rather see your husband, whatever his temper, than go back and tell Wigglesworth I hadn't seen him. So I went in, and he said, you? I said, yes, me. They recognized me, you see. He said, you don't believe what he said. I said, you know it's true. I know it's true. I just didn't have the courage to tell you. He said, you get out. I don't want to see you or that man again. I said, brother, pardon me. If God shows to Wigglesworth your need, do not realize he purposes to use you if you let that need be dealt with. He said, get out and don't come back. And they got out. Very shortly after, he died. But Wigglesworth was so in tune with God that he moved in this realm of understanding. I have another friend, Ralph Mahoney of World Missionary Assistance Program based on Burbank, California. And he was in Mexico. And he said he went to see a sick man. They'd asked him to go with the evangelist to pray for the sick man. And he was totally ignorant of the situation that Spanish was used, and Ralph didn't understand much Spanish. But then the evangelist said, Brother Mahoney, will you pray? And Ralph Mahoney said, before I pray, I think I have a word from the Lord for this man. Interpret for me and say, tell this man that either he repents or he's going to die. And the evangelist interpreted. And the sick man broke. He cried to the Lord for mercy. He had known the Lord, that he'd backslidden into sin, even into robbery and murder. And no one knew this, but God. And he broke. God's judgment struck him down. And in his desperate illness, he was so ill, if he even turns in bed, his heart could stop. And Ralph Mahoney sees him repent, not knowing what the doctor has said. Caught him by the hand, pulled him to his feet. And immediately a man was healed. He could have killed him. But the Spirit of God was moving in that situation. What a contrast with the man who refused to hear the voice of the Lord. If God does speak a word of rebuke, listen to it and obey it. I would be very remiss if I didn't mention to you another great thing. Wigglesworth believed in praising the Lord. He really praised God. A man I know named Hoy, A. L. Hoy, asked Wigglesworth one day, what do you think is the Christian activity that pleases the Lord the most? He said, worship. And he worshipped the Lord. He walked with the Lord in a continuous worship. He knew that such a man who worships God, enjoys more the riches of the grace of God, performs the will of God better than anyone else. And he was quite unusual in his ways of getting congregations to praise the Lord. One occasion, big church, full. He said, how many of you in this service tonight came in here properly? They looked at him. He said, I mean, came in as the scripture tells you to come in. Enter his court with thanksgiving and to his gates with praise. How many of you came in here praising the Lord with your hands in the air? And no one raised their hands. He said, go out the lot of you and come in properly. And they did. And they had a meeting. Only last year, I shared that illustration when I was speaking in Sherbourne, Minnesota, at an Assembly of God church. And a lady came to me after it. She said, I was in that meeting. And she said, I can't tell you. The power of God that's left in. All that we might learn to praise the Lord. And start off praising the Lord. I told you about my father-in-law. He was a preacher. And he was always very prompt in everything. He started exactly on the hour. And we started at 730 on a weeknight and we regularly finished at nine. With him, you started exactly 730. You finished exactly at nine. We had a town councilor who came to our meetings, said to my mother-in-law, why does your husband always stop the meeting just when the spirit begins to move? And my mother-in-law was delightful. She was a, she smiled so sweetly, but she could say some beautiful things. She smiled at him. She said, Brother Cook, why does it always take the Holy Ghost till nine o'clock to move you? If only we would enter his course with grace. We talk about such trivialities before the meeting. And occupy our minds with trivialities. I preached a sermon on revival in a small church. And everybody I thought was moved giftless because God had really anointed me. There'd been people repenting. And I heard one man say to another as he went out of the door, he said, I hear you've got a rabbit hutch for sale. How much do you want for it? And we've been talking about revival. And all he'd been thinking about was rabbit hutches. It's possible to move out of the natural, to be calmly minded, says Romans 8. To be calmly minded. To mind the things of the flesh. To focus on this world, that spiritual death. We need to be spiritually minded. For that is life. And that is peace. I told the folk on Sunday, let me repeat it, that I was visiting a little place called Lummingstone in Kent. It's on the south bank of the river Thames, the south side of the estuary of the river Thames. And they had discovered a Roman villa there. Quite an interesting story how they located that and excavated. And I was really thrilled when I looked at the foundations that had been excavated. And at that time they gave the date. To realize the foundations I was looking at had been laid in the year 90 A.D. And it just, that was before John was on the Isle of Patmos. Or round about the time. That's history. I'm almost tempted to tell you a story about American history, but I won't. And there was unveiled a most marvelous mosaic pavement. A huge thing. With figures, people, animals. But they discovered it was a Christian home. The home of a Christian Roman government official. How did they discover that? All the figures were clothed. If it had been a pagan home they all would have been nude. And they thought, well this must be a Christian home. So they began to excavate further and found a little chapel. And the chapel walls were plaster. And when they excavated the chapel they discovered a plaster painting that had been put up, they estimate, around the year 300. They put an air conditioned tent over it. They treated the painting. And I got there just after it was open for all to see. And I got so excited. It shows two people standing like this side by side. And the archaeologist who wasn't a Christian had had a copy done and put on the wall. And his title was Early Christians at Worship. They had been doing that, praising the Lord. This antedates the liturgy. This antedates all the genuflections of the historic churches. This is scriptural and this is Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. And I believe it wouldn't be at all bad for all of you to go out and come. But we don't have time for that this morning, so we better move on. But let me just share some things about praise that Wigglesworth discovered. Spiritual praise leads to growth. When they were in the temple praising the Lord, Acts 2 and 47, the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. And I was reading in my devotional reading this morning, Psalm 67, and the fifth verse, that all the people praise me, then shall the earth yield her increase. And I got so excited, I began to praise the Lord by my bedside this morning, saying, Lord, I'm praising you so that there should be a great and glorious harvest. All men would praise the Lord for his goodness and praise him in anticipation. Praise, says Psalm 22 and verse 3, means that God comes and dwells in the midst. Now, inhabiteth the praises of thy people. And the word inhabit is literally to take up a seat. And when the king takes up his seat, he occupies his throne, right? So when you praise the Lord, he is enthroned in the midst. And the king on the throne administers his kingdom. We go back to Romans 14, 17. The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And when we praise the Lord, he takes up his throne in the midst and he administers his kingdom from his throne. So we take our eyes off the platform, our eyes off each other, our eyes off the musicians, our eyes off the choir, and we gaze upon him and see him on his throne and worship. He, enthroned, begins to enlarge his kingdom in our hearts and lives. And there's no sickness in his kingdom. And there's no defeat in his kingdom. And there's no purposelessness in his kingdom. Everything allowed in his kingdom functions towards his perfect will. And when we praise the Lord, we allow him to be enthroned in our midst at the congregation. We allow him to be enthroned in our hearts as individuals and his kingdom extends. And then Psalm 50 and verse 23. When you praise the Lord, you make a way for him to reveal himself in power. Whoso offers praise, it says, you hear that? Whoso offers praise glorifies me, and to him that orders his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God. In that context, the only thing you can conclude is that ordering your conversation aright is offering praise. Whoso offers praise, to him that orders his conversation aright, so when I offer praise, I order my conversation aright, and God says he will show me his salvation. And the literal Hebrew is this. Whoso offers praise glorifies me, and prepares thereby a way for me to show him my salvation. So when we praise the Lord, we open channels in our nature for him to reveal himself. I believe that it's a good thing to praise God spontaneously, but I found in my own life, I need sometimes someone to cheer me up and say, come on, start praising the Lord. You can call them cheerleaders if you like, but they have a vital function in the body of Christ, to encourage us to praise the Lord, so that channels in our nature are opened up, so that God can flow into the Spirit. I have one other thing, the fifth thing I'd like to add. Wigglesworth was able to minister the Holy Spirit. I don't know why he said it to me so often, maybe because I'm slow learning, but dropping his H's as he used to, he said, my brother, you've got to learn to minister the Holy Ghost. If you don't minister the Holy Ghost, you minister death. And he believed that every time you preach or pray or speak with tongues or whatever, you must learn to minister the Spirit, so filled with the Spirit that you minister the Spirit. He was traveling by train one day, went out of the compartment for a while. There were two ministers as well as other people in this little compartment. He went out and had a time of prayer in the corridor and came back in. And as he opened the door to walk back in, one of the ministers pointed to him, sir, he said, you convict me of sin. And within three minutes, everyone in that little compartment was on his or her knees crying to God for salvation. He ministered the Spirit. His very handshake communicated something of the Spirit. He took Galatians chapter 3 and verse 5 seriously. He that ministers to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. The only way I can describe what I seem to discern in this ministering the Spirit is that you need to believe into what you're saying, believe into what you're doing, so that as you pray that you are actively joining the Holy Ghost to your ministry by an act of faith. So you can't be conscious of that all the time, but this morning before I came, I laid hold of the Spirit of God in prayer, that he might be joined to this ministry, that what I say would not just be the repetition of stories about Middlesbrough, but would minister through my words to you with the anointing of the Spirit of God. Whether you're speaking personally, whether you're just praying for someone, whether you're just being yourself in family fellowship, you're just anointed with the Spirit, and no one can tell how far your words will go. I've had people tell me, you don't know what happened, but you said something you couldn't believe what it meant to me, and I had no realization. I was visiting the home, a lady had asked me if I'd go and would dedicate her children. I said, what about your husband? She said, he's not interested. I said, may I come and see him before we dedicate the children? I'd like him to join him. I went to see him, and he said, you can do what you like as long as you don't hurt the kid. I said, I promise not to hurt, but I couldn't get him to come. So I said, would you mind if I pray? Oh, you can pray. I don't suppose it'll hurt, he said. So I prayed, and I shook hands with him, and then I shook hands with his wife, and I left. She told me afterwards, or perhaps two or three months afterwards, she said, do you remember shaking hands with me before you left? I said, yes. She said, the power of God came into my body as you touched me, and I was totally healed of hemorrhaging like that woman in the Bible. There's nothing to do with me. It's just being in the Spirit, and allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through you to glorify the Lord. One service Wigglesworth was in, he said, I'm going out, and I'm coming in again. And God has revealed to me that anyone who touches me will be healed. He went out, he came in, and only one woman touched him, but she was instantly healed. And I believe there's a place of power where we move in God, where God can fulfill his will and glorify his holy name. We need to move out of the letter of doctrine into the spirit of reality. When Wigglesworth came into a meeting, he brought the sense of God. One man told me in his church where Wigglesworth ministered, he said, you know, when I was a young fellow, I used to sit there, listen to all the convention speakers, but when Wigglesworth walked onto the platform, if ever there's been anything wrong in my life, I was convicted immediately. There was such a sense of holiness.