Ever Increasing Faith - 13. Concerning Spiritual Gifts
by Smith
Wigglesworth
In 1 Cor. 12:1 we read, "Now
concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." There is
a great weakness in the church of Christ because of an awful ignorance
concerning the Spirit of God and the gifts He has come to bring. God would
have us powerful on all lines because of the revelation of the knowledge of
His will concerning the power and manifestation of His Spirit. He would have
us ever hungry to receive more and more of His Spirit. In times past I have
arranged many conventions, and I have found that it is better to have a man on
my platform who has not received the Baptism but who is hungry for all that
God has for him, than a man who has received the Baptism and is satisfied and
has settled down and become stationary and stagnant. But of course I would
prefer a man that is baptized with the Holy Ghost and is still hungry for more
of God. A man who is not hungry to receive more of God is out of order in any
convention.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of being filled with the
Spirit. It is impossible for us to meet the conditions of the day, to walk in
the light as He is in the light, to subdue kingdoms and work righteousness and
bind the power of Satan unless we are filled with the Holy Ghost.
We read that in the early church they continued steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. It is
important for us also to continue steadfastly in these same things. For some
years I was associated with the Plymouth Brethren. They are very strong on the
Word, and are sound on water baptism, and they do not neglect the breaking of
bread service, but have it every Lord's Day morning as they had it in the
early church. These people seem to have everything except the match. They have
the wood, but they need the fire and then they would be all ablaze. Because
they lack the fire of the Holy Spirit there is no life in their meetings. One
young man who attended their meetings received the Baptism with the speaking
in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. The brethren were very upset
about this and came to the father and said to him, "You must take your son
aside and tell him to cease." They did not want any disturbance. The father
told the son and said, "My boy, I have been attending this church for twenty
years and have never seen anything of this kind. We are established in the
truth and do not want anything new. We won't have it." The son replied, "If
that is God's plan I will obey, but somehow or other I don't think it is." As
they were going home the horse stood still; the wheels were in deep ruts. The
father pulled at the reins but the horse did not move. He asked, "What do you
think is up?" The son answered, "It has got established." God save us from
becoming stationary.
God would have us to understand concerning spiritual gifts and to covet
earnestly the best gifts, and also to enter into the more excellent way of the
fruit of the Spirit. We must beseech God for these gifts. It is a serious
thing to have the Baptism and yet be stationary; to live two days in
succession on the same spiritual plane is a tragedy. We must be willing to
deny ourselves everything to receive the revelation of God's truth and to
receive the fullness of the Spirit. Only that will satisfy God, and nothing
less must satisfy us. A young Russian received the Holy Spirit and was
mightily endued with power from on High. Some sisters were anxious to know the
secret of his power. The secret of his power was continuous waiting upon God.
As the Holy Ghost filled him it seemed as though every breath became a prayer
and so all his ministry was on an increasing line.
I know a man who was full of the Holy Ghost and would preach only when he knew
that he was mightily unctionized by the power of God. He was asked to preach
at a Methodist church. He was staying at the minister's house and he said,
"You go on to church and I will follow." The place was packed with people and
this man did not turn up and the Methodist minister, becoming anxious, sent
his little girl to inquire why he did not come. As she came to the bedroom
door she heard him crying out three times, "I will not go." She went bark and
reported that she heard the man say three times that he would not go. The
minister was troubled about it, but almost immediately after this the man came
in, and, as he preached that night, the power of God was tremendously
manifested. The preacher asked him, "Why did you tell my daughter that you
were not coming?" He answered, "I know when I am filled. I am an ordinary man
and I told the Lord that I dared not go and would not go until He gave me a
fresh filling of the Spirit. The moment the glory filled me and overflowed I
came to the meeting."
Yes, there is a power, a blessings. an assurance, a rest in the presence of
the Holy Ghost. You can feel His presence and know that He is with you. You
need not spend an hour without this inner knowledge of His holy presence. With
His power upon you there can be no failure. You are above par all the time.
"Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye
were led." This is the Gentile day. When the Jews refused the blessings of God
He scattered them, and He has grafted the Gentiles into the olive tree where
the Jews were broken off. There never has been a time when God has been so
favorable to a people who were not a people. He. has brought in the Gentiles
to carry out His purpose of preaching the gospel to all nations and to receive
the power of the Holy Ghost to accomplish this task. It is of the mercy of God
that He has turned to the Gentiles and made us partakers of all the blessings
that belong to the Jews; and here under this canopy of glory, because we
believe, we get all the blessings of faithful Abraham.
"Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God
calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by
the Holy Ghost." There are many evil, deceiving spirits sent forth in these
last days who endeavor to rob Jesus of His Lordship and of His rightful place.
Many are opening the doors to these latest devils, such as New Theology and
New Thought and Christian Science. These evil cults deny the fundamental
truths of God's Word. They all deny eternal punishment and all deny the deity
of Jesus Christ. You will never see the Baptism of the Holy Ghost come upon a
man who accepts these errors. Neither will you see a Romanist receive. They
put Mary in the place of the Holy Ghost. I would like you to produce a
Romanist who knows that he is saved. No man can know he is saved by works. If
you ever speak to a Romanist you will know that he is not definite on the line
of the new birth. He cannot be. Another thing, you will never find a
Russellite baptized in the Holy Ghost; nor a member of any other cult that
does not put the Lord Jesus Christ pre-eminent above all.
The all important thing is to make Jesus Lord. Men can grow lopsided by
emphasizing the truth of divine healing. Man can get wrong by all the time
preaching on water baptism. But we never go wrong in exalting the Lord Jesus
Christ, giving Him the preeminent place and magnifying Him as both Lord and
Christ, yes, as very God of very God. As we are filled with the Holy Ghost our
one desire is to magnify Him. We need to be filled with the Spirit to get the
full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's command is for us to be filled with the Spirit. We are no good if we
have only a full cup; we need to have an overflowing cup all the time. It is a
tragedy not to live in the fullness of overflowing. See that you never live
below the overflowing tide.
"Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit." Every manifestation
of the Spirit is given that we might "profit withal." When the Holy Spirit is
moving in an assembly and His gifts are in operation, everyone will receive
profit. I have seen some who have been terribly switched. They believe in
gifts, in prophecy, and they use these gifts apart from the power of the Holy
Ghost. We must look to the Holy Spirit to show us the use of the gifts, what
they are for, and when to use them, so that we may never use them without the
power of the Holy Ghost. I do not know of anything which is so awful today as
people using a gift without the power. Never do it God save us from doing it.
A man who is filled with the Holy Ghost, while he may not be conscious of
having any gift of the Spirit, can have the gifts made manifest through him. I
have gone to many places to help and have found that under the unction of the
Holy Spirit many wonderful things have happened in the midst when the glory of
the Lord was upon the people. Any man who is filled with God and filled with
His Spirit might at any mo- have any of the nine gifts made manifest through
him without knowing that he has a gift. Sometimes I have wondered whether it
was better to be always full of the Holy Ghost and to see signs and wonders
and miracles without any consciousness of possessing a gifts or whether it was
better to know one has a gift. If you have received the gifts of the Spirit
and they have been blessed, you should never under any circumstances use them
without the power of God upon you pressing the gift through. Some have used
the prophetic gift without the holy touch, and they have come into the realm
of the natural, and it has brought ruin, caused dissatisfaction, broken
hearts, upset assemblies. Do not seek the gifts unless you are purposed to
abide in the Holy Spirit. They should be manifested only in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
The Lord will allow you to be very drunk in His presence, but sober among
people. I like to see people so filled with the Spirit that they are drunk
like the 120 on the Day of Pentecost, but I don't like to see people drunk in
the wrong place. That is what troubles us, somebody being drunk in a place of
worship where a lot of people come in that know nothing about the Word. If you
allow yourself to be drunk there you send people away; they look at you
instead of seeing God. They condemn the whole thing because you have not been
sober at the right time. Paul writes, "For whether we be beside ourselves, it
is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause" (2 Cor. 5:13). You
can be beside yourself. You can go a bit further than being drunk. You can
dance, if you will do it at the right time. So many things are commendable
when all the people are in the Spirit. Many things are very foolish if the
people round about you are not in the Spirit. We must be careful not to have a
good time at the expense of somebody else. When you have a good time you must
see that the spiritual conditions in the place lend themselves to help you and
that the people are falling in line with you. Then you will find it always a
blessing.
While it is right to covet earnestly the best gifts, you must recognize that
the all important thing is to be filled with the power of the Holy Ghost
Himself. You will never have trouble with people who are filled with the power
of the Holy Ghost, but you will have alot of trouble with people who have the
gifts and have no power. The Lord wants us to come behind in no gift, but at
the same time He wants us to be so filled with the Holy Ghost that it will be
the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself through the gifts. Where the glory of God
alone is desired you can look for every needed gift to be made manifest. To
glorify God is better than to idolize gifts. We prefer the Spirit of God to
any gift; but we can look for the Trinity in manifestation, different gifts by
the same Spirit, different administrations but the sane Lord, diversities of
operation but the same God working all in all. Can you conceive of what it
will mean for our Triune God to be manifesting Himself in His fullness in our
assemblies?
Watch that great locomotive boiler as it is filled with steam. You can see the
engine letting off some of the steam as it remains stationary. It looks as
though the whole thing might burst. You can see saints like that. They start
to scream, but that is not to edification. But when the locomotive moves on,
it serves the purpose for which it was built, and pulls along much traffic
with it. It is wonderful to be filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, and
for Him to serve His own purposes through us. Through our lips divine
utterances flow, our hearts rejoice and our tongue is glad. It is an inward
power within which is manifested in outward expression. Jesus Christ is
glorified. As your faith in Him is quickened, from within you there will flow
rivers of living water. The Holy Spirit will pour through you like a great
river of life and thousands will be blessed because you are a yielded channel
through whom the Spirit may flow.
The most important thing, the one thing that counts, is to see that we are
filled with the Holy Spirit, filled to overflowing. Anything less than this is
displeasing to God. We are commanded by God to be filled with the Spirit, and
in the measure you fail of this you are that far short of the plan of God. The
Lord would have us moving on from faith to faith, from glory to glory, from
fullness to overflowing. It is not good for us to be ever thinking in the past
tense, but we should be moving on to the place where we dare believe God. He
has declared that after the Holy Ghost is come upon us we shall have power. I
believe there is an avalanche of power from God to be apprehended if we will
but catch the vision.
Paul wrote at one time, "I will now come to visions and revelations." God has
put us in a place where He expects us to have His latest revelation, the
revelation of that marvelous fact, CHRIST IN US, and what this really means.
We can apprehend Christ fully only as we are filled and overflowing with the
Spirit of God. Our only safeguard from dropping back into our natural mind
from which we can never get anything, is to be filled and yet filled again
with the Spirit of God and to be taken on to visions and revelations on a new
line. The reason why I emphasize the importance of the fullness of the Holy
Ghost is that I want to get you beyond all human plans and thoughts into the
fullness of vision, into the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you
want rest? It is in Jesus. Do you want to be saved from everything the devil
is bringing up in these last times? Receive and continue in the fullness of
the Holy Ghost, and He will be ever revealing to you that all you need for all
times is in Christ Jesus your Lord.
I desire to emphasize the importance of the Spirit's ministration and of the
manifestation of the Spirit which is given to every man to profit withal. As
you yield to the Spirit of the Lord He has power over your intellect, over
your heart, and over your voice. The Holy Spirit has power to unveil Christ
and to project the vision of Christ upon the canvas of your mind, and then He
uses your tongue to glorify and magnify Him in a way that you could never do
apart from the Spirit's power.
Never say that when you are filled with the Holy Ghost you are "obliged" to do
this or that. When people say that they are "obliged" to do this or that I
know it is not the Spirit of God, but their own spirit moving them on to do
that which is unseemly and unprofitable. Lots of people spoil meetings because
they scream. If you want to do that kind of thing you had better get into some
cellar. That is not to edification. I believe that, when the Spirit of God is
upon you and moving you to speak as He gives utterance, it will always be to
edification. But don't spoil the prayer meeting because when you ought to stop
you go on. Who spoils the prayer meeting? The man who starts in the Spirit and
finishes in the flesh. Nothing is more lovely than prayer, but a prayer
meeting is killed if you will go on and on in you! own spirit when the Spirit
of God is through with you. You say as you come from some meetings, "That was
a lovely message if the preacher only had stopped half an hour before he did."
Learn to cease immediately the unction of the Spirit lifts. The Holy Ghost is
jealous. Your body is the temple, the office of the Holy Ghost, but He does
not fill the temple for human glorification, but only for the glory of God.
You have no license to continue beyond a "Thus saith the Lord."
There is another side to this. God would have the assembly as free as
possible, and you must not put your hand upon the working of the Spirit or it
will surely bring trouble. You must be prepared to allow a certain amount of
extravagance in young and newly baptized souls. You must remember that when
you were brought into this life of the Spirit you had as many extravagances as
anybody, but you have now become somewhat sobered down. It is a pity that some
do get sobered down, for they are not where they were in the early days. We
have to look to God for wisdom that we do not interfere or dampen the Spirit
or quench the power of God when lie is manifested in our meetings. If you want
to have an assembly full of life you must have an assembly full of
manifestation. Nobody will come if there is no manifestation. We need to look
to God for special grace that we do not move back to looking at things from a
natural viewpoint.
The preacher, after he loses his unction, should inwardly repent and get right
with God and get the unction back. We are no good without the unction of the
Spirit of God. If you are filled with the grace of God you will not be judging
everybody in the assembly, you will rather be trusting everybody, you will not
be frightened at what is being done, you will have a heart to believe all
things, and to believe that though there may be some extravagances, the Spirit
of God will take control of things and will see that the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself is exalted, glorified, and revealed to hungry hearts that desire to
know Him. The Lord would have us wise unto that which is good and simple
concerning evil, free from distrust, entering into a divine likeness to Jesus,
that dares believe that God Almighty will surely watch over all. Hallelujah!
The Holy Ghost is the One who magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who
gives illumination of Him. If you are filled with the Holy Ghost, it is
impossible to keep your tongue still. Talk about a dumb baptized soul! It is
not to be found in the Scriptures or outside of the Scriptures. We are filled
with the Spirit in order that we may magnify the Lord, and there should be no
meeting in which the saints do not glorify, magnify, praise, and worship the
Lord in Spirit and in truth.
I would like to give one word of caution, for failure often comes through our
not recognizing the fact that we are always in the body. We will need our
bodies as long as we live. But our body is to be used and controlled by the
Spirit of God. We are to present our bodies, holy and acceptable unto God,
which is our reasonable service. Every member of our body must be so
sanctified that it works in harmony with the Spirit of God. Our very eyes must
be sanctified. God hates the winking of the eye. Front the day that I read in
the Proverbs what God had to say about the winking of the eye (Prov. 6:13 and
10:10) I have never winked. I desire that my eyes may be so sanctified that
they can always be used for the Lord. The Spirit of God will bring within us a
compassion for souls that will be seen in our very eyes.
God has never changed the order of things that first, there comes the natural,
and then the spiritual. For instance, when it is on your heart to pray, you
begin in the natural and your second word will probably be under the power of
the Spirit. You begin and God will end. It is the same in giving forth
utterances under the Spirit's power. You feel the moving of the Spirit within
and you begin to speak and the Spirit of God will give forth utterance.
Thousands have missed wonderful blessings because they have not had faith to
move out and begin in the natural, in faith that the Lord would take them into
the realm of the supernatural. When you receive the Holy Ghost you receive
God's Gift, in whom are all the gifts of the Spirit. Paul counsels Timothy to
stir up the gift that was within. You have power to stir up God's executive
within you. The way you stir up the gift within you is by beginning in faith,
and then He gives forth what is needed for the occasion. You would never begin
unless you were full of God. When we yield to timidity and fear we simply
yield to Satan. Satan. whispers, "It is all self." He is a liar. I have
learned this, If the Spirit of God is stirring me up, I have no hesitation in
beginning to speak in tongues, and the Spirit of God gives me utterance and
gives me the interpretation. I find that every time I yield to the Lord on
this line I get a divine touch, I get a leading thought from the Spirit of God
and the meeting is moved up on the line of faith.
You attend a meeting in faith, believing that the Lord is going to meet you
there. But perhaps the evangelist is not in harmony with God. The people in
the assembly are not getting what God wants. The Lord knows it. He knows His
people are hungry. What happens? He will take perhaps the smallest vessels and
put His power upon them. As they yield to the Spirit they break forth in a
tongue. Another yields to the Spirit and there comes forth the interpretation.
The Lord's church has to be fed, and the Lord will take this means of speaking
to His peoplePentecostal people cannot be satisfied with the natural message.
They are in touch with heavenly things and cannot be satisfied with anything
less. They feel when there is something lacking in a meeting, and they look to
God and He supplies that which is lacking.
When a man is filled with the Spirit he has no conception of what he has. We
are so limited in our conception of what we have received. The only way we can
know the power that has been given is through the ministration and
manifestation of the Spirit of God. Do you think that Peter and John knew what
they had when they went up to the temple to pray? They were limited in
thought, and limited in their expression. The nearer we get to God the more
conscious we are of the poverty of the hu- and we cry with Isaiah, "I am
undone, I am unclean." But the Lord will bring the precious blood and the
flaming coals for cleansing and refining and send us out to labor for Him
empowered by His Spirit.
God has sent forth this outpouring that we may all be brought into a
revelation of our sonship-tbat we are sons of God, men of power, that we are
to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are to have the powers of sonship,
the power to lay hold of that which is weak and to quicken it. The Baptism of
the Spirit is to make us sons of God with power. We shall be conscious of our
human limits, but we shall not limit the Holy One who has come to dwell
within. We must believe that since the Holy Ghost has come upon us we are
indeed sons of God with power. Never say that you can't. All things are
possible to them that believe. Launch out into the deep and believe that God
has His all for you, and that you can do all things through Him who ,
strengthens you.
Peter and John knew that they had been in the upper room, they had felt the
glory, they had been given divine utterances. They had seen conviction on the
people. They knew that they had come into a wonderful thing. They know that
what they had would be ever increasing and that it would be ever needful to
cry, "Enlarge the vessel that the Holy Ghost may have more room within." They
knew that all the old things were moved away and they had entered into an
increasing and ever increasing knowledge of God, and that it was their
Master's wish that they should be filled with the Spirit of God and with power
every day and every hour. The secret of power is the unveiling of Christ, the
all-powerful One within, the revelation of God who comes to abide within us.
As they looked upon the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate they were filled
with compassion. They were prompted by the Spirit to stop and speak with him.
They said to the lame man, "Look on us." It was God's plan that the man should
open his eyes with expectation. Peter said, "Of silver and gold we have none.
But we have something and we will give it to you. We don't know what it is,
but we give it to you. It is all in the name of Jesus." And then began the
ministry of God. You begin in faith and you see what will happen. It is bidden
from us at the beginning, but as we have faith in God He will come forth. The
coming forth of the power is not of us but of God. There is no limit to what
He will do. It is all in a nutshell as you believe God. And so Peter said,
"Such as I have I give to thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise
up and walk." And the man who had been in that way for forty years stood up,
and began to leap, and entered into the temple walking and leaping and
praising God.
"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom." I want you to keep in
mind the importance of never expecting the gifts of the Spirit apart from the
power of the Spirit. In coveting the best gifts, covet to be so full of God
and His glory that the gifts in manifestation will always glorify Him. We do
not know all and we cannot know all that can be brought forth in the
manifestation of the word of wisdom. One word of wisdom from God, one flash of
light on the Word of God, is sufficient to save us from a thousand pitfalls.
People have built without a word from God, they have bought things without a
word from God, and they have been ensnared. They have lacked that word of
wisdom which will bring them into God's plan for their lives. I have been in
many places where I have needed a word of wisdom from God and this has been
vouchsafed.
I will give you one instance. There is one thing I am very grateful to the
Lord for, and that is that He has given me grace not to have a desire for
money. The love of money is a great hindrance to many; and many a man is
crippled in his ministry because he lets his heart run after financial
matters. I was walking out one day when I met a godly man who lived opposite
me and he said, "My wife and I have been talking together about selling our
house and we feel constrained to sell it to you." As we talked together he
persuaded me to buy his place, and before we said good-by I told him that I
would take it. We always make big mistakes when we are in a hurry. I told my
wife what I had promised, and she said, "How will you manage it?" I told her
that I had managed things so far, but I did not know how I was going to get
through this. I somehow knew that I was out of divine order. But when a fellow
gets out of divine order it seems that the last person he goes to is God. I
was relying on an architect to help me, but that scheme fell through. I turned
to my relations and I certainly had a wet shirt as one after another turned me
down. I tried my friends and managed no better. My wife said to me, "Thou hast
never been to God Yet." What could I do?
I have a certain place in our house where I go to pray. I Have been there very
often. As I went I said, "Lord, iŁ You will get me out of this scrape, I will
never trouble Thee on this line again." As I waited on the Lord He just gave
me one word. It seemed a ridiculous thing, but it was the wisest counsel.
There is divine wisdom in every word He speaks. I came down to my wife,
saying, "What do you think? The Lord has told me to go to Brother Webster." I
said, "It seems very ridiculous, for he is one of the poorest men I know." He
was the poorest man I knew, but he was also the richest man I knew, for he
knew God. My wife said, "Do What God says, and it will be right."
I went off at once to see him, and he said as he greeted me, "Smith, what
brings you so early?" I answered, "The word of God." I said to him, "About
three weeks ago I promised to buy a house of a man, and I am short 100 pounds
($500). I have tried to get this money, but somehow I seem to have missed
God." "How is it," he asked, "that you have come to me only now?" I answered,
"Because I went to the Lord about it only last night." "Well," he said, "it is
a strange thing; three weeks ago I had 100 pounds. For years I have been
putting money into a co-operative system and three weeks ago I had to go and
draw 100 pounds out. I hid it under the mattress. Come with me and you shall
have it. Take it. I hope it will bring as great a blessing to you as it has
been a trouble to me." I had had a word from God, and all my troubles were
ended. This has been multiplied in a hundred ways since that time. If I had
been walking along filled with the Holy Ghost, I would not lave bought that
house and would not have had all that strain. I believe the Lord wants to
loose us from things of earth. But I am ever grateful for that word from God.
There have been times in my life when I have been in great crises and under
great weight of intercession. I have gone to the meeting without the knowledge
of what I would say, but somehow or other God would vouchsafe the coming forth
under the power of the Spirit of some word of wisdom, just what some souls in
that meeting needed. As we look to God His mind will be made known, and His
revelation and His word of wisdom will be forth coming.
"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth JESUS AS LORD, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved"
(Romans 10:9).
"For TO THIS END Christ died and lived again, THAT. HE MIGHT BE LORD of both
the dead and the living" (Romans 14:9).