In this sermon, Pastor George Stormont shares two secrets of the spiritual life based on the experiences of Smith Whittleburg. The first secret is to always preach the word of God, regardless of the circumstances or the response of the listeners. The second secret is to have a deep and intimate relationship with God through reading and studying His word. Stormont also shares a personal experience of God speaking to him before his open heart surgery, reminding him that he will never sink beneath the everlasting arms of God's love and support. The sermon emphasizes the importance of faith, prayer, and seeking God's guidance in all aspects of life.

Spiritual Secrets of the Life of Smith Widdlesworth. This presentation, Man of One Book, 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. When I was going to hospital for open heart surgery, some of you have heard this, but I feel I should share it tonight. God spoke to my heart from Deuteronomy, underneath are the everlasting arms. And added just this little thought, so simple, you can never sink beneath the everlasting arms. They're always underneath. And maybe someone has been feeling so low, but you've never been so low that the arms of the Lord weren't underneath you. And they're there tonight to bless you and to lift you up. Now we're going to share some secrets of spiritual life in Smith Widdlesworth's experience. I'd like you to turn to 2 Timothy and the fourth chapter, reading some verses, the first eight verses. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1 through 8. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, the instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort of all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their last shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. The order of the language in the Greek would be better perhaps this way. After their own last shall they, having itching ears, heap to themselves teachers, and 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. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I fought a good fight, I finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me at that day, not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Amen. You couldn't belong with Smith Viddlesworth without realizing that he had an overmastering love for the word of God, and an absolute confidence in the God of the word. An overmastering love for the word of God, and an absolute confidence in the God of the word. He was known as the apostle of faith, and one of his favorite texts was one so well known, Romans 10 verse 17, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And I want to talk about his love for the Bible, a man of one book, and then talk a little about the faith that sprang up in his life because of his knowledge of the word, his soaking in the word of God. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, called himself a man of one book. This is what he said, I want to know one thing, the way to heaven, how to lead to land safe on that happy shore, God himself has condescended to teach us the way, for this very end he came down from heaven, he has written it down in a book, oh give me that book, at any price give me the book of God, I have it, here is knowledge enough for me, let me be a man of one book. Now Wesley was a scholar, perhaps the most widely read man of his day, but having read all other writings he came back to the Bible and said this is supreme. Widdlesworth wasn't a scholar and he never read another book, he only read the Bible, and he found that satisfied him, and he lived in the joy and the light of it. In one of his sermons on God-given faith he said there's one thing that God has given me from my youth up, a taste and relish from my Bible, I can say before God I've never read any book but my Bible, so I know nothing about books, it seems to me better to get the book of books for food for your soul, for the strengthening of your faith, and the building up of your character in God, so that all the time you're being changed, being made neat to walk with God. Sometimes he would advise young ministers to burn their libraries, and some of them did. Another friend of mine Donald G. said you know for a long time I was going around trying to comfort broken-hearted ministers who burnt their libraries because Widdlesworth told them to, but later on Widdlesworth changed his views on that, and I remember his saying to me brother he said I didn't have an education, you have had one, use all you have for God, and he appreciated so much more the understanding that could come. Sometimes people criticized him for this inconsistency, they said you don't read any other book but your Bible, but you've got two books out, ever-increasing faith and faith that prevails, you shouldn't write books if you don't want people to read other books, he said I didn't write them, Stanley Frosham had them written, they're just sermons of mine that he has recorded, but he was a delightful man to talk to. It wasn't until his wife taught him that he learned to read, he was 23 years of age, and he said you know having obtained the ability so late in life I want to use it always for the best, and so he soaked himself in the word of God. His grandson is a friend of mine, Leslie Widdlesworth, he was missionary to Congo, he was the international missions director for the England churches in England, and he says to me, grandpa said to me one day, Leslie if I read the newspaper I come out dirtier than I went in, but if I read the Bible I come out cleaner than I went in, and we should take heed to that, we read the newspaper for daily news, but we read a lot of stuff we needn't we, we look at and listen to a lot of things we need not look at and listen to, if only we would cherish to keep our minds pure, lots of things are pure, lovely, good report, think on these things, and that's one reason Widdlesworth walked in such holiness with God. When Widdlesworth stayed in your home you didn't need a book of daily devotions, he used to carry in his pocket a tiny portion of the Psalms or one of the Gospels, very small, and we'd finish our meal, he'd say well we fed our bodies, about time we fed our souls, let's see what father's got to say, so he'd open the New Testament or the Psalms or whatever portion he had, and he'd read just a little bit, and he'd just begin to share experiences of the fulfillment of those words of God in his life, and it suggests to me the need for a continual increase in our love for and time given to the Word of God. I give more time to reading the Bible today than I ever gave, and as God gives me grace I need to give yet more time just to reading the Word of God and letting God's Word speak to me, and I believe that this is an important thing. Widdlesworth's habit of devotional reading could change a home, he went to a missionary home in Jerusalem that was run by a Miss Radford, and she was a disciplinarian, you got up on time, you washed on time, you dressed on time, you went to breakfast on time, you ate on time, you finished on time, and Widdlesworth says hey this won't do, we've got to let father speak to us, and so he stopped the whole procedure and broke up the routine, and one of the friends of mine, Tom Kemp was out there, he said you would be surprised at the change in atmosphere that came when they gave place and time for the Word of God. One day we were sitting in a very lovely garden back in England, and Widdlesworth was in the next chair to me, I said would you like me to read to you? Well he said what do you want to read? I said I thought I'd like to read one of Charles Haddon Sturgeon's sermons. He said you can try, really encouraging. So I began to read a sermon on the cross, and if I read the opening paragraphs, the introduction, then the main point, the first main point, he began to weep as Sturgeon preached about the cross. But then I moved to the second point, and I hadn't got two sentences into the second point, and Widdlesworth said stop it, he's missed it. And when I looked at that more carefully, Sturgeon had been right on beam on the first point, but the other was just padding, and Widdlesworth discerned it straight away. I never tried to read him again. He was sometimes, he told me, he said you know people very often say to me, Widdlesworth, can you recommend a good textbook on divine healing? And I usually say what's wrong with this? And he holds his Bible up. He says this is the best textbook on divine healing, it's the original, and it's inspired. And we get so many books on healing today. In a sermon that he preached on faith, like precious faith, he said I understand God by his word. I cannot understand God by impressions or feelings. I cannot get to know God by sentiments. If I'm going to know God, I'm going to know him by his word. I know I shall be in heaven, but I could not build on my feelings that I'm going to heaven. I'm going to heaven because God's word says it, and I believe God's word. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And he believed what Jesus said, the word that I speak to you, their spirit and their life. Donald Gray Barnhouse was a great Bible teacher in America. Traveling by train one day, and opposite to him was a Bible school student who was reading Time magazine, and Donald Gray Barnhouse was reading Romans. The young fellow recognized Dr. Barnhouse and said, Dr. Barnhouse, excuse me, but could you tell me how I could get your ability in expounding the word of God? And Barnhouse, pointing to the magazine, said, if you spend more time in that than in this, you'll know more about that than you do about this. And I would suggest as a proportion of time, we pay lip service to this as the inspired word of God, and we give more time to reading books about the Bible than we do to reading the Bible. And if we believe, as we say, that this is the inspired word of God, it behoves us to give more time to listening to God through his word, and allowing him to speak. And I believe that this is an important thing. I think today we're so often content with what I call derivative books. You know, God will make a revelation to a man, and he will write it. Someone else will read that and feel that he can add to it, and he will write a diluted version of that. And someone will read the second book, and another book is written, and it seems that some of them would have been lost for words these days. He said, years ago, of making a book, there is no end, much study of the weariness of the flesh. And we get book after book after book, and we get diluted more and more and more. I would suggest to you students that while you handle and master the books that are selected for your study, when you go out into the world of work for God, get some of the great master books on the doctrines, and get hold of those. But principally, get hold of the word of God. Mrs. Charles Cowman was the writer of that delightful devotional book, Screams in the Desert. She wrote other books as well. She was the wife and then the widow of a missionary. And when she died, they found this on the flyleaf of her Bible, if you would know God, you must give yourself wholly to the reading and study of God's word. Who does not believe that we could read the word of God with the help of the Holy Spirit, and that he could teach us? There's a need for teachers, and there's a balanced position that Wigglesworth had regarding the teaching ministry. But it's also wonderfully possible for the simplest saint to read the word of God, and to have illumination. The entrance of thy word giveth light, says Psalm 119, it giveth understanding to the simple also. And in the 97th verse of that same psalm, O how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testaments are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I had a friend I knew 50 years ago, Percy G. Parker, and he told me something interesting. He said, you know, there was an experience in my life when I accepted the Holy Spirit as my teacher as definitely as I accepted Jesus as my savior. And when I accepted him as my teacher, he began to open the word of God. George Muller, the man who cared for 2,000 orphans, was often known for his faith. And this is his comment, I practically preferred, for the first four years of my divine life, the works of uninspired men to the oracles of the living God. The consequence was that I remained obedient. Will it please the Lord in August 1829 to bring me really to the scriptures? My life and my walk became very different. I have been enabled to live much nearer to God. And I'm urging on you what Wigglesworth discovered as a principle, the word of God. It would come into this conversation in all kinds of ways. I think this story could be apocryphal, but it sounds like Wigglesworth, and it was told as being true. One day, he was in an English home, and some homes in the north of England, you get four cooked meals a day. Wigglesworth wouldn't eat bacon or anything off the pig if you asked him, because he said it's unclean meat. But if you didn't ask him, he would do what the scripture says, eat what is set before you. Well, in this English home, they provided Wigglesworth with bacon for breakfast. And they didn't ask him, so he ate it. And then they had, for their main meal at midday, roast leg of pork. And they didn't ask him, so he ate it. And then in England, we had a meal before the meeting we would call high tea. And for high tea, they gave Wigglesworth a ham salad. And they didn't ask him, so he ate it. And then after the meeting, we had, they had what we call supper. And they gave Wigglesworth pork fries, which is jellied pork in a hard, spicy pastry case. It's delicious, my mouth waters, I tell you. And Wigglesworth, they didn't ask him, so he ate it. But before he ate it, they asked him to give thanks. So he stood up, he always stood up for grace. He said, Lord, we had it fried for breakfast, we had it roasted for dinner, we had it boiled for tea. Now, Lord, look, he said, we've got it in its coffin. And then he raised his hand, he said, Lord, if you can bless unto grace what you cursed unto law, do your best with this, amen. Well, it sounds like Wigglesworth to me, because I knew him so well. One of his sayings was this, some people like to read their Bibles in the Hebrew, some like to read their Bibles in the Greek. I like to read my Bible in the Holy Ghost. And while he never despised scholarship, he had an amazing perception of the Word of God. I was talking to him one day, he said, my brother, God wants all his foot in you. I said, what do you mean? He said, you'll find it in James. So I read through the epistle of James, and I couldn't find anything that sounded like that. And I read through it again, and I couldn't find anything that sounded like that. And I got on my knees, I said, Lord, what's Wigglesworth trying to tell me? And I read the epistle of James on my knees. Then, of course, chapter four, verse five, a very difficult verse. Know ye not the spirit that is in us lusteth to envy? That's not an easy verse to preach on. And I looked at it and never would have mastered it. So I thought, that's the only verse that could possibly fit. I wonder what that really says. So I got the help of Greek scholars. I'm not a Greek scholar myself, but I got all the help I could, and I discovered that it means just this. He yearns jealously for his spirit is put within you. And I was delighted to come across the New International Version, which is just this way of that verse. God jealously longs for the spirit he has made to live in us. God wants his spirit in us totally free to respond to heaven. And you know, so often we tie ourselves up. We, I think I teased my Scandinavian friends that, you know, there's a real problem here. We can make a lot of our ethnic background, and it can be a bondage. I knew of a young man, an Italian, who was always making jokes about his Italian extraction and this, and responding to jokes. So the friend said, one day I think you need to be delivered from that spirit that is oppressing you. Get free. You're not Italian only. You're now a child of God, and you can come out of the ethnic bondage that you have been in, liberated for the Holy Spirit to respond heavenward through you, in your total redeemed and released personality. And it was because Wigglesworth was such a man of one book that he allowed God to deal with him. English people are not very expressive, you know, stiff upper lip old boy. You don't show your feelings. You just teach yourself to yourself. But if you saw Wigglesworth released by the Holy Spirit, he was tremendous. He could preach. He was more free than I would be ever. He would take off his jacket when he was preaching. And if he didn't get real livid, he'd roll his sleeves up when he was preaching. He'd walk all over the place right down the aisle when he was preaching. But he always did what he did because he felt it communicated somehow more the life and the spiritual. He never did anything for impression. He did everything to affect people for God. And I want to charge you tonight, every one of you, and particularly the students here and the young people here, to be sure that you master your Bible. 2 Timothy 2.15, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that nears not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Become a man, a woman of one book. And could I put one other thing in that doesn't really fit, but I feel I want to say it. Those of you who read the scripture in public, please learn to read it properly in public. One of the most vital things to do in any service is to read God's word effectively with anointing. I shall never forget a lady coming to me in the very city where Witherbrook lived, in the church where he attended when he had come to later years. I was preaching for Romans 6 and she came to me after the service, a very distinguished and cultured lady. She said, I never understood Romans 6 until you read it tonight. And that meant more to me than if she said anything about my message. It was the reading of the word of God that communicated its meaning. And so as you soak yourself in the word of God till you know what it means, then learn to read it. If you're a Sunday school teacher, if you talk to young people, if you become a preacher or an evangelist or a pastor, learn to read the word of God and make it a joy for people to listen to you read the word of God. I shouldn't have put that in, but I did. Is it all right? Thank you. Well, it's done now, isn't it? But I do challenge you in Jesus' name. Amen. But I want to talk a little about Smith Wigglesworth as the apostle of faith. When Stanley Fotsom, who was at that time editor of the Pentecostal evangel for the Ascendance of God of America, wanted to write a book, he discussed it with James Salter and Alice, Salter's wife. Alice was Wigglesworth's daughter. They traveled a lot with Wigglesworth and they gave all the information that was put into the life story that you read in Smith Wigglesworth, Apostle of Faith. And when it came to a title, that seemed to Fotsom, that's the only title, Apostle of Faith. Right from an early age, he was sensitive to God. But I want to tell you something to encourage you. He didn't start off with big faith. Somehow think that people think that he was a special man. And he did become special. But he used to say, I never jumped into big faith. It grew. It was something that had to develop and I could move on from one degree of faith to another. A friend of mine with three of his friends said to him one day, how can we grow in faith? He said, listen, first the ear, then the full corn in the ear. First the blade, then the ear, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. And this friend said, it seemed so simple at the time. But it opened to us this simple, beautiful thought that faith can grow. And we all have faith. You have it tonight. And the degree of faith you have can be developed and God can show you a way into another faith that your faith might become capable of achieving in the purpose of God that he has for your life, what is achieved in the purpose of God that he had for Wigglesworth's life. You can grow in faith. At first he was hesitant to pray for the sick. And he used to take people across from his city of Bradford to another Yorkshire city, Leeds, a very big city that was just nine miles away. And he would take them across every week to a meeting that was being held for the healing of the sick. One week the leaders of this meeting announced they would not be present the next week. And they said to Wigglesworth, we want you to conduct the service. But he said, I can't. I can't pray for the sick. I don't do this. I don't know anything about it. They said, but you must. You are the only one that we can ask. And Wigglesworth was on the spot. And when he went, the next week he hoped that someone else would turn up. But he said no one else was there. So I had to do it. And he said, I don't remember what I said. But at the end, a dozen or so came forward for healing. He first, he first, he said, was a big Scotsman on sticks. And he said, I didn't know how to pray, but I put my hands on him and prayed, Lord heal him. And instantly the power of God smote him. He dropped his sticks. He began running around the building. He jumped for joy. And every one of the 12 people that came forward for healing was healed. But he started off in fear and trembling. And God honored his humble beginning. I shall never forget the first time I prayed for anyone who was sick. It was in 1930. I had been asked to take some meetings, the outskirts of Birmingham, the Wednesday night and the Sunday night. Wednesday a lady came with a little girl, six or so, whose face was covered with circulating sore. It was a horrible sight. She had been discharged from Birmingham Skin Hospital as incurable. And so she said, would you pray for her? And I'd never prayed for the sick. And for trying to get out of it, I said to the little girl, uh, do you believe that Jesus will heal you? She said, yes, sir. And I had to pray for her. So I put my hands on her and prayed for her, fearfully, tremblingly, and nothing happened. She went out as she came in. On Sunday night, the lady was back with another girl. I thought she was in business. But it wasn't another girl. It was the same girl, and I didn't recognize her. There wasn't a sore left on her face. In four days, God had done what the hospital said couldn't be done. And I'm thrilled at that because, you know, some of us people, we want to have this great faith that we can do it with authority, and we are impressive, and people know that we've got faith. And God hears the faintest cry. And God blesses us, meets us in our need. He said, I'm sure it wasn't my faith, but it was God in his compassion. One day, he was called to pray for a young woman. And when he went into the bedroom, the young woman's husband was there holding a baby in his arms. The young woman's on the bed, being held on the bed by four young men. She was flinging herself around, trying to destroy herself and her baby. And Wigglesworth realized that this was something that wasn't normal. He realized it was demonic power there. And he told me, he said, I fell on my face. I began to cry to God. He said, and I pressed through from earth to heaven. My brother, he said, if you want to get anything from heaven, you've got to get there to get it. And I pressed into heaven. And there he said, God gave me another faith, a faith that could not be denied. And I came back from heaven to that situation, knowing I had the answer. He said, I spoke a word of command to that girl and to the demons afflicting her, come out. And instantly she relect, turned over, went to sleep, slept for 14 hours, and were perfectly healed and totally delivered. But can you see how he didn't begin with big faith? He began with his little faith, and just followed the leading of the Holy Spirit. Storming heaven was one of the great themes of his life. He used to quote Matthew 11, 12, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. And he grew in faith until he was not prepared to accept defeat. He had a holy violence in his faith. Told you this morning that that violence was connected with his fist at times, and he would smite people as he prayed for them. But behind that smiting was the faith that believed God would deliver. He took Mark 11, 22, which you know says in the King James Version, have faith in God. But the margin has it, have the faith of God. And he linked that with Galatians 2, that he, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. And Riddlesworth's interpretation was this, that that means you have to get God's own faith. The God kind of faith. Charles Price, Dr. Charles S. Price, who was so mightily used of God, also followed this line, and he had a sermon on faith based on Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. And Dr. Price used to point out that all the theme of Hebrews is better. We have a better priest, we have a better covenant, we have a better sacrifice, we have a better rest. And so, Price used to teach, we have a better faith. And that's the faith that comes as God's gift. Some people who were superior in their exegesis of scripture said, that's not sound exegesis. But the more you look into it, the more you realize there's some evidence of truth there. But I'll tell you something, sometimes the people who know all the rules don't do anything with them. And Wigglesworth may not have known all the rules, but he did something. They tell me that according to the laws of aerodynamics, bumblebees can't fly. But bumblebees don't know anything about the law of aerodynamics, so they fly. And Wigglesworth knew nothing about hermeneutics, but he knew God. And God met him, sometimes in his stumbling mistakes, God met him, because he believed God. And he believed that this faith was equally available to all. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone in this congregation rose into this degree and quality of faith? What an impact! If faster when we came together, you and your congregation as a whole was moving in this realm, what dynamic things could take place. There would be perception, there would be discernment, there would be anointing, there would be the breaking of bondage, there would be the lifting of the captain, there would be miracles of healing, there would be deliverances and visions beyond all our imagination. And I believe that God wants us to move on to faith. Natural faith, Wigglesworth saw as God's gift, he would quote Romans 12, 3, things soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith, and that natural faith could grow as it was nourished in the Word. But there was a degree of faith that came as you pressed into the presence of God, and God gave it. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. A. S. Ray, an Englishman who translated the Epistles of Paul and included Hebrews in it, translates that, looking unto Jesus who gives the first impulse to our faith, and brings it to final maturity. And this is one reason I'm reading the Word of God more. I read through the whole of the New Testament every month, and I spend time in the Gospels, and I'm looking at Jesus. And I'm looking unto Jesus in the Gospels. And I keep looking to him, and as I look to him, my faith grows. Looking unto Jesus, who gives the first impulse to our faith, and brings it to final maturity. And this is what Wigglesworth did in his own way. Salter, his son-in-law, told me one day of a woman with cancer in an advanced stage, and she sent for Smith Wigglesworth, and he and Salter went, and God completely healed this woman. Soon after, she was emptying her cupboard, and an old Bible came to light, and she was thumbing her way through it. And she noticed that she had underlined a verse, and a date was against it. It was twelve years before. Thine health shall spring forth speedily. Isaiah 58 and verse 8. And God had given it to her twelve years before, and she had never claimed it. And she came down to the point of death before God's servants came and brought her deliverance. And Wigglesworth said she could have enjoyed herself for twelve years, if only she had laid claim to the thing that God had shown her. This is something that Wigglesworth said, and I never tire of repeating it, though I don't memorize it, I want to read it to be exact. There is something about believing God that makes God willing to pass over a million people just to anoint you. God will always turn out to meet you on a special line if you dare to believe Him. Can I read that again? There is something about believing God that makes God willing to pass over a million people just to anoint you. God will always turn out to meet you on a special line if you dare to believe God. He used to say, I'm not moved by what I see, I'm not moved by what I hear, I'm not moved by what I feel. I am moved by the word of God. And when you're moved by the word of God, you're moved in faith. And for Wigglesworth there was no strain about this. Trusting was resting. There's no tension. You don't come to a pinnacle where you have to try to balance, or you don't live on a nice edge where you can't move to the left or right. When God plants your feet in the land of faith, he plants them in a large place. You can move in the and joy of the Lord. I once heard Wigglesworth define faith. I don't know what you'll make of his definition. Brother Stormont, he said, faith is that that's behind that that makes you believe that that's that and you got that. How do you like it? I never did follow Wigglesworth's definition completely. Faith is that that's behind that that makes you believe that that's that and you got that. How do you like it? But leave that definition alone. There's one or two things that I want to share with you to reveal what faith really meant in Wigglesworth's experience. There was an Ascendant of God minister named J.E. Stiles. Maybe some of you know the name. And he was marvelously used of God in leading people into the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And a friend of mine who lives in Nanaimo, Victoria Island, asked Stiles how it was that that ministry began in his life. Well he said, I went to a meeting that Wigglesworth had in California. It was a big tent meeting. And he said Wigglesworth said that he was going to teach the people two lessons in faith. Now he said, it's a big meeting. How many of you have not received the baptism in the Holy Ghost and 200 people raised their hand? How many of you haven't spoken in tongues for two years and some for one year, for six months, for three months? Now he said, come out all of you and come as near to me as you can. Just crowd into the platform. I'm going to pray. And when I say go, you all start to speak in tongues by faith. And Stiles said to his friend, that might work in England, but it won't work in America. Sounds a little superior, doesn't it? And Wigglesworth prayed a short prayer and said, go. And Stiles said he was utterly astonished. It was like the sound of many waters. People were praising God and worshipping God and magnifying God in new tongues. And Stiles said the greatest surprise of it all was this. I was praising God in tongues louder than anyone else. And everyone at the front began to speak in other tongues by faith. And Wigglesworth shouted, hold it! And they stopped and one man started again. He said, I said, hold it brother. Now he said, I'm going to teach you the second lesson in faith. I'm going to teach you to sing in the spirit by faith. And he didn't mean just singing the notes of the chord, which we call singing in the spirit. That is very beautiful, but there's something better than that. Let me interject this. In Wales, there's a little town called Cross Keys. It's in a mining area. Some years ago, the pastor's name was Mercy. Pastor Wilfred Mercy. What a delightful name for a pastor. And it was a weeknight service. And as they were conducting the service, the spirit of God came down and the congregation began to sing in the spirit. And they sang melody and harmony. It was like a great choir. And people began to come in off the street. And they stood in the lobby. Nowadays we have a posh name for it, we called it the foyer. But we used to call it the lobby. And they pressed in and people pressed in behind them, filled up the back of the church, filled up the lobby, overflowed onto the sidewalk, overflowed onto the pavement. And the traffic couldn't get by. There's such a crowd listening to this marvelous singing. And it went on for an hour or more. Fantastic scene. The next day, the Catholic priest came to Wilfred Mercy and said, Pastor Mercy, could you tell me where your choir got that marvelous music from? I'd like it for my choir. And Pastor Mercy said, my brother, you can get it wherever you got it from. It came from heaven, but you'll have to get saved and filled with the Holy Ghost before you can get it. And this is the thing that Wigglesworth thinks there was a degree and quality that were not being touched. So he said, I'm going to pray. And when I say go, you all sing in the spirit. And J. E. Stile said, well, the other might work. It did, but this won't. He's given us no tune. We don't know where to start. Wigglesworth prayed and said, now go in the name of Jesus. And Stile said he never heard anything like it. It was heavenly music. There was beautiful tune and harmony, four-part harmony. And then the whole congregation or group would quieten down and a silver voice would lead out. And then the congregation as a whole would provide harmonious decking. And then without any prearrangement, a fourth act would sing in harmony. The whole thing was fantastic. It was just heavenly music. And Wigglesworth said, you can discover this. You can learn this by faith. And you know, there's a realm here. I find that in some congregations, people are just content. You know, the notes of the major chord, that's about all we sing. And it's beautiful. We sing in tongues. But launch out into faith sometimes. And begin to learn to speak in tongues by faith. And sing in the spirit by faith. Begin to discover God working in you. Singing Jenny was a member of our church back in Birmingham, England in 1930. She had been a harsh, coarse living woman. She had frequented the taverns. She used to sing on the old honky-tonk in the taverns, all the coarse worldly songs. And she'd absolutely ruin her voice. She sang like a crow with a sore throat. Singing Jenny. But God's Spirit came down on our church. We had a congregation of 1,200. And when singing Jenny was anointed by the Holy Ghost, you never knew the human voice could touch such notes. The whole congregation was lifted into worship. And I have a feeling in my spirit that God is going to restore that wonderful music in his church in preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we'll all be able to sing in the Spirit when we get up there, because we've been rehearsing down here. Amen? And we're going to glorify God. Second incident has to deal with healing. About 40 miles from where I was living when we moved over here to England, from England to America, 40 miles from Manchester was a place called Chesterfield. The pastor's name was William Davis. And he had widows work for a crusade there. And one of us asked him, what was the greatest miracle that you saw? Well, he said, I think it would be this. One night, a young man came forward for prayer. He had a bandage around his throat and the tube sticking through the bandage. And Ricklesworth said, what's wrong with you? He said in a voice that was very, hardly a voice at all, I had surgery on my voice box. And I can't speak. And I can't swallow. I have to feed through this tube. Can God do anything for me? Ricklesworth said, of course he can, unless he's forgotten how to make voice boxes. And he prayed for him. And turned him around and said, go home and eat a meal of meat and potatoes. He said, I can't. I have to take food through this tube. He said, don't argue with God. Go and do what God tells you through his servant. And he went. The next night he was back, still with the bandage around his throat. Ricklesworth said, I prayed for you last night. What are you here for? He said, I've come to tell you what God has done for me. He said, you needn't tell me. Turn around and tell them. And the boy said, after the stern rebuke I had from Brother Ricklesworth, I went home last night and said to Mother, Mother, I want you to cook me some meat and potatoes. But my boy, she said, you can't eat. He said, but the preacher said I've got to. Now he said, I'll do what the preacher said. So she cooked him some meat and potatoes. And he said, I took a mouthful, and I chewed, and I chewed, and I chewed, and I chewed, and I chewed. I was too nervous to swallow. But then I had to do something, and I swallowed it. And it went down so easily. And I finished that plateful and said, Mother, have you got some more? He said, I had three platefuls of meat and potatoes. And his mother had a shock when after a third plateful, he said, thank you in a normal voice. Said, what's that bandage doing on around your neck, my boy? He said, I've got to go to the hospital tomorrow to have the tube taken out. Bridlesworth said, God can finish what he started. And he unwrapped the bandage, laid it on one side, put his fingers on each side of the tube, and gently extracted the tube. And then he called William Davis, and the workers come and watch, he said. You're going to see something you've never seen, may never see again. And he just took that hole, put his thumb and finger on each side, and said, Lord, heal that hole. And Davis said, as we watched it, it healed right up, and we couldn't see where it had been. That's faith. That's faith. And Bridlesworth was an ordinary man, a man who began in a very humble way, and a man who stumbled and failed sometimes. A man who didn't always live for God, one time nearly lost out completely. And I'll be telling you that tomorrow morning. But God dealt with an ordinary man, and just began to bless him, and use him. And the thrill I have is, Bridlesworth used to say it to me, I say it now and echo it to you, what God did for him, he can do for you. Bridlesworth said, what God has given me, my boy, God will give you. And I've seen miracles, not only in my ministry, I'm thinking of some young people in our church. I've been teaching them along this line. And they had a prayer meeting in their home, by arrangement, there was no rebellion, it wasn't a separatist thing at all. And Tony and Jane and June were the three who were leading. And a girl came in who had been under spiritualistic influence. And she was under a death curse, because she had offended one of the spiritualistic mediums. And so she asked for prayer. And they cried to God for her. Her name was Christine. And they prayed in the power of the name of Jesus, and in faith. And the spiritualistic medium who put the curse on her died. And Christine lived. And that brought the antagonism of the spiritualistic mediums of the whole area. And a hundred came together to deal with this girl. And she developed cancer, cancer of the mouth. And it became so serious that they eaten a hole in her mouth. She went back to these people, she had not been really gone with God. She went back to Tony and Jane and June, and said, look, this is my situation. And they prayed for her, led her back to the Lord, prayed for her. And the power of God spoke to her, and she fell on her back, falling from their carpet in the living room. And she baptized in the Holy Ghost, speaking with other tongues. And as she opened her mouth to say hallelujah, they could see the hole in the roof of her mouth. As they continued to worship God, they watched that hole heal right up. And Christine was totally healed of cancer. Ordinary young people in the church, because they moved in faith. One thing God has shown me to do with some of the young ministers where I'm preaching these days is to call people forward and let these young men pray for the sick. And this happened quite recently when I was down in Alabama. I felt the burden to call people forward, and a number came forward. And then the Spirit of God said, stand back, that's a prostitute. And I stood right back and said to the pastor, you pray for them. And one after another, miracles of healing. The lady had had her spine out of place, because of whiplash. And we all heard it click back into place. She was instantly delivered. Every person he laid a hand on who had not been filled with the Holy Ghost was filled with the Holy Ghost. And the power of God set through. God is calling us to be men of the book and men of faith. Women of the book and women of faith. To move into a new realm of victory and completeness in Jesus Christ. We can't reproduce Smith Wigglesworth's ministry by imitation. We've got to get down to the secret that he got. And his secret was Jesus. I can remember now, we would walk together. And sometimes when he'd be walking, he used to wear a cap when he was on walks, or had to when he was going to church. But he'd be wearing his cap. And he said, brother, I feel I want to pray. And I said, well, what's stopping you? And so he'd take his cap off and pray. And his face would light up as he talked to the Lord. Lovely, Jesus, he'd say. Lovely, Jesus. Oh, Jesus, I do love you. And it was this intimate relationship with Jesus through his word and by the Spirit that gave him such holy boldness in the presence of sin, in the presence of demons, in the presence of antagonisms of all kinds. And I tell you, the secret is ours. It's wide open to us. We can revel in the book. We can delight in moving into a deeper faith day by day. We can begin to exercise our faith, and it will grow as we exercise it. And most of all, we can be wrapped up in Jesus Christ. And I believe that I can say from my heart, God has something better for you tonight than you've ever experienced. There's no one here too old to improve. God can use everyone here. Can I say something to the older people? One of the most subtle and effective devices of the devil has been to tell us older people that we're past our prime and that we can't be much use to God or man. It's a lie from the pit. Wigglesworth was ministering in his eighties in the power of the Holy Ghost, because he knew God and loved Jesus. And I believe with all my heart that God is calling the mature saints with the young people to come together to a place where Jesus shall be supreme. You know, I tell you, I've told you before, old age is man's invention. God's idea is maturity. And it's a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. And young or old, if you'll move into a place of divine appointment, God can begin to bless you and use you as never before. And I want you to move tonight into a place of real possessing of what God has in store for you. And you can come to a place tonight where if you're not saved, you can find and receive salvation. If you're not healed, you can be healed tonight by the power of God. If you've not been filled with the Holy Spirit, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit tonight. If you've never moved into the realm of gifts, then God can impart gifts to you tonight. If you've been bound up in your spirit, there's relief for you tonight. Are you ready for God? Are you ready to move in the spirit of God? Do you know the course, Only Believe, All Things Are Possible, Only Believe? This was Wigglesworth's favorite course. He had one or two, but this was, I think, the one he liked the best. I quoted one this morning. Yes, filled with God. Pardon and pen and filled with God. Yes, filled with God, emptied of self and filled with God. But how he loved to see the congregation sing, Only Believe. But he used to drop H's and put H's in. And so he would sing, Only Believe, Only Believe, All Things Are Possible, Only Believe. But whether you put an H in or you don't put an H in, Only Believe.