Ever Increasing Faith - 14. The Word of Knowledge and Faith
by Smith
Wigglesworth
"To another the word of
knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another faith, by the same Spirit" (1 Cor.
12:8, 9).
We have not passed this way hitherto. I believe that Satan has many devices
and that they are worse today than ever before; but I also believe that there
is to be a full manifestation on the earth of the power and glory of God to
defeat every device of Satan.
In Ephesians 4 we are told to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace, for there is one body, and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, and one God and Father of all. The Baptism of the Spirit is to make
us all one. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 12:13 that by one Spirit we are all
baptized into one body, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. It is
God's thought that we speak the same thing. If we all have the full revelation
of the Spirit of God we shall all see the same thing. Paul asked these
Corinthians, "Is Christ divided?" When the Holy Ghost has full control, Christ
is never divided, His body is not divided, there is no division. Schism and
division are the products of the carnal mind.
How important it is that we shall have the manifestation of "the word of
knowledge" in our midst. It is the same Spirit who brings forth the word of
wisdom that brings forth the word of knowledge. The revelation of the
mysteries of God comes by the Spirit, and we must have a supernatural word of
knowledge in order to convey to others the things which the Spirit of God has
revealed. The Spirit of God reveals Christ in all His wonderful fullness, and
He shows Him to us from the beginning to the end of the Scriptures. It is the
Scriptures that make us wise unto salvation, that open to us the depths of the
kingdom of heaven, which reveal all the divine mind to us.
There are thousands of people who read and study the Word of God. But it is
not quickened to them. The Bible is a dead letter except by the Spirit. The
Word of God can never be vital and powerful in us except by the Spirit. The
words that Christ spoke were not just dead words but they were spirit and
life. And so it is the thought of God that a living word, a word of truth, the
word of God, a supernatural word of knowledge, shall come forth from us
through the power of the Spirit of God. It is the Holy Ghost who will bring
forth utterances from our lips and a divine revelation of all the mind of God.
The child of God ought to thirst for the Word. He should know nothing else but
the Word, and should know nothing among men save Jesus. "Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God." It
is as we feed on the Word and meditate on the message it contains, that the
Spirit of God can vitalize that which we have received, and bring forth
through us the word of knowledge that will be as full of power and life, as
when He, the Spirit of God, moved upon holy men of old and gave them these
inspired Scriptures. They were all inbreathed of God as they came forth at the
beginning, and through the same Spirit they should come forth from us
vitalized, living, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.
With the gifts of the Spirit should come the fruit of the Spirit. With wisdom
we should have love, with knowledge we should have joy, and with the third
gift, faith, we should have the fruit of peace. Faith is always accompanied by
peace. Faith always rests. Faith laughs at impossibilities. Salvation is by
faith, through grace, and it is the gift of God. We are kept by the power of
God through faith. God gives faith and nothing can take it away. By faith we
have power to enter into the wonderful things of God. There are three
positions of faith; saving faith, which is the gift of God; the faith of the
Lord Jesus; and the gift of faith. You will remember the word of the Lord
Jesus Christ given to .Paul, to which he refers in the 26th of Acts, where the
Lord commissioned him to go to the Gentiles, "to open their eyes, and to turn
them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they
may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them `'WHICH ARE
SANCTIFIED BY FAITH THAT IS IN. ME."
Oh, this wonderful faith of the Lord Jesus. Your faith comes to an end. How
many times I have been to the place where I have had to tell the Lord, "I have
used all the faith I have," and then He has placed His own faith within me.
One of our workers said to me at Christmas time, "Wigglesworth, I never was so
near the end of my purse in my life." I replied, "Thank God, you are just at
the opening of God's treasures." It is when we are at the end of our own, that
we can enter into the riches of God's resources. It is when we possess
nothing, that we can possess all things.
The Lord will always meet you when you are on the line of living faith. I was
in Ireland at one time and went to a house and said to the lady who came to
the door, "Is Brother Wallace here?" She replied, "Oh, he has gone to Bangor,
but God has sent you here for me. I need you. Come in." She told me her
husband was a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. She had herself received the
Baptism while she was a member of the Presbyterian Church, but they did not
accept it as from God. The people of the church said to her husband, "This
thing cannot go on. We don't want you to be deacon any longer, and your wife
is not wanted in the church." The man was very enraged and he became incensed
against his wife. It seemed as though an evil spirit possessed him, and the
home that had once been peaceful became very terrible: At last he left home
and left no money behind him, and the woman asked me what should she do.
We went to prayer and before we had prayed five minutes the woman was mightily
filled with the Holy Ghost. I said to her, "Sit down and let me talk to you.
Are you often in the Spirit like this?" She said. "Yes, and what could I do
without the Holy Ghost now?" I said to her, "The situation is yours. The Word
of God says that you have power to sanctify your husband. Dare to believe the
Word of God. Now the first thing we must do is to pray that your husband come
back tonight." She said, "I know he won't." I said, "If we agree together, it
is done." She said, "I will agree." I said to her, "When he comes home show
him all possible love, lavish everything upon him. If he won't hear what you
have to say, let him go to bed. The situation is yours. Get down before God
and claim him for the Lord. Get into the glory just as you have got in today,
and as the Spirit of God prays through you, you will find that God will grant
all the desires of your heart."
A month later I saw this sister at a convention. She told how her husband came
home that night and that he went to bed, but she prayed right through to
victory and then laid her hands upon him. The moment she laid hands upon him
he cried out for mercy. The Lord saved him and baptized him in the Holy
Spirit. The power of God is beyond all our conception. The trouble is that we
do not have the power of God in a full manifestation because of our finite
thoughts, but as we go on and let God have His way, there is no limit to what
our limitless God will do in response to a limitless faith. But you will never
get anywhere except you are in constant pursuit of all the power of God.
One day when I came home from our open-air meeting at eleven o'clock I found
that my wife was out. I asked, "Where is she?" I was told that she was down at
Mitchell's. I had seen Mitchell that day and knew that he was at the point of
death. I knew that it was impossible for him to survive the day unless the
Lord undertook.
There are many who let down in sickness and do not take hold of the life of
the Lord Jesus Christ that is provided for them. I was taken to see a woman
who was dying and said to her, "How are things with you?" She answered, "I
have faith, I believe." I said, "You know that you have not faith, you know
that you are dying. It is not faith that you have, it is language." There is a
difference between language and faith. I saw that she was in the hands of the
devil. There was no possibility of life until he was removed from the
premises. I hate the devil, and I laid hold of the woman and shouted, "Come
out, you devil of death. I command you to come out in the name of Jesus." In
one minute she stood on her feet in victory.
But to return to the case of Brother Mitchell, I hurried down to the house,
and as I got near I heard terrible screams. I knew that something had
happened. I passed Mrs. Mitchell on the staircase and asked, "What is up?" She
replied, "He is gone! He is gone!" I just passed her and went into the room,
and immediately I saw that Mitchell had gone. I could not understand it, but I
began to pray. My wife was always afraid that I would go too far, and she laid
hold of ma and said, "Don't, Dad! Don't you see that he is dead?" I continued
to pray and my wife continued to cry out to me, "Don't, Dad. Don't you see
that he is dead?" But I continued praying. I got as far as I could with my
o-,vn faith, and then God laid hold of me. Oh, it was such a laying hold that
I could believe for anything. The faith of the Lord Jesus laid hold of me and
a solid peace came into my heart. I shouted, "He lives! He lives! He lives!"
And he is living today. There is a difference between our faith and the faith
of the Lord Jesus. The faith of the Lord Jesus is needed. We must change faith
from time to time. Your faith may get to a place where it wavers. The faith of
Christ never wavers. When you have that faith the thing is finished. When you
have that faith you will never look at things as they are, you will see the
things of nature give way to the things of the Spirit, you will see the
temporal swallowed up in the eternal.
I was at a camp meeting in Cazadero, California, several years ago, and a
remarkable thing happened. A man came there who was stone deaf. I prayed for
him and I knew that God had healed hint. Then came the test. He would always
move his chair up to the platform, and every time I got up to speak he would
get up as close as he could and strain his ears to catch what I had to say.
The devil said, "It isn't done." I declared, "It is done." This went on for
three weeks and then the manifestation came and he could hear distinctly sixty
yards away. When his ears were opened he thought it was so great that he had
to stop the meeting and tell everybody about it. I met him in Oakland recently
and he was hearing perfectly. As we remain steadfast and unmovable on the
ground of faith, we shall see what we believe for in perfect manifestation.
People say to me, "Have you not the gift of faith?" I say that it is an
important gift, but what is still more important is for us every moment to be
making an advancement in God. Looking at the Word of God today I find that its
realities are greater to me today than they were yesterday. It is the most
sublime, joyful truth that God brings an enlargement. Always an enlargement.
There is nothing dead, dry or barren in this life of the Spirit; God is always
moving us on to something higher, and as we move on in the Spirit our faith
will always rise to the occasion as different circumstances arise.
This is how the gift of faith is manifested. You see an object and you know
that your own faith is nothing in the case. The other day I was in San
Francisco. I sat on a car and saw a boy in great agony on the street. I said,
"Let me get out." I rushed to where the boy was. He was in agony through cramp
of the stomach. I put my hands on his stomach in the name of Jesus. The boy
jumped, and stared at me with astonishment. He found himself instantly free.
The gift of faith dared in the face of everything. It is as we are in the
Spirit that the Spirit of God will operate this gift anywhere and at any time.
When the Spirit of God is operating this gift within a man, He causes him to
know what God is going to do. When the man with the withered hand was in the
synagogue, Jesus got all the people to look to see what would happen. The gift
of faith always knows the results. He said to the man, "Stretch forth thine
hand." His word had creative force. He was not living on the line of
speculation. He spoke and something happened. He spake at the beginning and
the world came into being. He speaks today and these things have to come to
pass. He is the Son of God and came to bring us into sonship. He was the
firstfruit of the resurrection and He calls us to be firstfruits, to be the
same kind of fruit like to Himself.
There is an important point here. You cannot have the gifts by mere human
desire. The Spirit of God distributes them severally as He will. God cannot
trust some with the gift, but some who have a lowly, broken, contrite heart He
can trust. One day I was in a meeting where there were a lot of doctors and
eminent men, and many ministers. It was at a convention, and the power of God
fell on the meeting. One humble little girl that waited at table opened her
being to the Lord and was immediately filled with the Holy Ghost and began to
speak in tongues. All these 'big men stretched their necks and looked up to
see what was happening and were saying, "Who is it?" Then they learned it was
"the servant!" Nobody received but "the servant!" These things are hidden and
kept back from the wise and prudent, but the little children, the lowly ones,
are the ones that receive. We cannot have faith if we have honor one of
another. A man who is going on with God won't accept honor from his fellow
beings. God honors the man of a broken, contrite spirit. How shall I get
there? So many people want to do great things, and to be seen doing them, but
the one that God will use is the one that is willing to be hidden. My Lord
Jesus never said He could do things, but He did them. When that funeral
procession was coming up from Nain with the widow's son carried upon the bier,
He made them lay it down. He spoke the word, "Arise!" and gave the son back to
the widow. He had compassion for her. And you and I will never do anything
except on the line of compassion. We shall never be able to remove the cancer
until we are immersed so deeply into the power of the Holy Ghost, that the
compassion of Christ is moving through us.
I find that, in all my Lord did, He said that He did not do it, but that
another in Him did the work. What a holy submission! He was just an instrument
for the glory of God. Have we reached a place where we dare to be trusted with
the gift? I see in 1 Corinthians 13 that if I have faith to remove mountains
and have not charity, all is a failure. When my love is so deepened in God
that I only move for the glory of God, that I only seek the glory of God, then
the gifts can be made manifest. God wants to be manifested, and to manifest
His glory to humble spirits.
A faint heart can never have a gift. There are two things essential; first,
love, and second, determination, a boldness of faith that will cause God to
fulfill His word. When I was baptized I had a wonderful time and had utterance
in the Spirit, but for some time afterwards I did not again speak in tongues.
But one day as I was helping another, the Lord again gave me utterances in the
Spirit. I was one day going down the road and speaking in tongues a long
while. There were some gardeners doing their work, and they stuck their heads
out to see what was going on. I said, "Lord, you have something new for me.
You said that when a man speaks in tongues, he should ask for the
interpretation. I ask for the interpretation, and I'll stay right here till I
get it." And from that hour the Lord gave me interpretation.
At one time I was in Lincolnshire in England and came in touch with the old
pastor of an Episcopalian Church. He became much interested and asked me into
his library. I never heard anything sweeter than the prayer the old man
uttered as he got down to pray. He began to pray, "Lord, make me holy. Lord,
sanctify me." I called out, "Wake up! Wake up now! Get up and sit in your
chair." He sat up and looked at me. I said to him, "I thought you were holy."
He answered, "Yes." "Then what makes you ask God to do what He has done for
you?" He began to laugh and then to speak in tongues. Let us move into the
realm of faith, and live in the realm of faith, and let God have His way.