Text: Acts 5:1-20.
Notice this expression that the Lord gives
of the Gospel message - "the words of this life."
It is the most wonderful life possible - the life of faith
in the Son of God. This is the life where God is all the
time. He is round about and He is within. It is the life
of many revelations and of many manifestations of God’s
Holy Spirit, a life in which the Lord is continually seen,
known, felt and heard. It is a life without death, for “we
have passed from death unto life.” The very life of
God has come within us. Where that life is within in its
fullness, disease cannot exist. It would take me a month
to tell out what there is in this wonderful life. Everyone
can go in and possess and be possessed by this life.
It is possible for you to be within the
vicinity of this life and yet miss it. It is possible for
you to be in a place where God is pouring out His Spirit
and yet miss the blessing that God is so willing to bestow.
It all comes through shortness of revelation and through
a misunderstanding of the infinite grace of God, and of
the “God of all grace,” who is willing to give
to all who will reach out the hand of faith. This life that
He freely bestows is a gift. Some think they have to earn
it and they miss the whole thing. Oh, for a simple faith
to receive all that God so lavishly offers. You can never
be ordinary from the day you receive this life from above.
You become extraordinary, filled with the extraordinary
power of our extraordinary God.
Ananias and Sapphira were in this thing
and yet they missed it. They thought that possibly the thing
might fail. So they wanted to have a reserve for themselves
in case it did turn out to be a failure. They were in the
wonderful revival that God gave to the early church and
yet they missed it. There are many people like them today
who make vows to God in times of a great crisis in their
lives. But they fail to keep their vows and in the end they
become spiritually bankrupt. Blessed is the man who will
swear to his own hurt and change not; who keeps the vow
he has made to God; who is willing to lay his all at God’s
feet. The man who does this never becomes a lean soul. God
has promised to “make fat his bones.” There
is no dry place for such a man; he is always fat and flourishing,
and he becomes stronger and stronger. It pays to trust God
with all and to make no reservation.
I wish I could make you see how great a
God we have. Ananias and Sapphira were really doubting God
and were questioning whether this work that He had begun
would go through. They wanted to get some glory for selling
their property, but because of their lack of faith they
kept back part of the price in reserve in case the work
of God should fail.
Many are doubting whether this Pentecostal
revival will go through. Do you think this Pentecostal work
will stop? Never. For fifteen years (years ago) I have been in constant
revival and I am sure that it will never stop. When George
Stephenson made his first engine he took his sister Mary
to see it. She looked at it and said to her brother, “George,
it’ll never go.” He said to her, “Get
in, Mary.” She said again, “It’ll never
go.” He said to her, “We’ll see, you get
in.” Mary at last got in-the whistle blew, there was
a puff and a rattle, and the engine started off. Then Mary
cried out, “George, it’ll never stop! It’ll
never stop!”
People are looking on at this Pentecostal
revival and they are very critical and they are saying,
“It’ll never go;” but when they are induced
to come into the work, they one and all say, “It’ll
never stop.” This revival of God is sweeping on and
on and there is no stopping the current of life, of love,
of inspiration, and of power. (Interpretation; It is the living Word
who has brought this. It is the Lamb in the midst, the same
yesterday, today and forever.)
God has brought unlimited resources for
everyone. Do not doubt. Hear with the ear of faith. God
is in the midst. See that it is God who bath set forth that
which you see and hear today.
I want you to see that in the early church,
controlled by the power of the Holy Ghost, it was not possible
for a lie to exist. The moment it came into the church,
there was instant death. And as the power of the Holy Ghost
increases in these days of the Latter Rain, it will be impossible
for any man to remain in our midst with a lying spirit.
God will purify the church; the Word of God will be in such
power in healing and other spiritual manifestations, that
great fear will be upon all those who see the same.
It seems to the natural mind a small thing
for Ananias and Sapphira to want to have a little to fail
back on; but I want to tell you that you can please God,
and you can get things from God, only over the line of a
living faith. God never fails. God never can fail.
When I was in Bergen, Norway, there came
to the meeting a young woman who was employed at the hospital
as a nurse. A big cancer had developed on her nose, and
the nose was enlarged and had become black and greatly inflamed.
She came out for prayer and I said to her, “What is
your condition?” She said, “I dare not touch
my nose, it gives me so much pain.” I said to all
the people, “I want you to look at this nurse and
notice her terrible condition. I believe that our God is
merciful and that He is faithful, and that He will bring
to naught this condition that the devil has brought about.
I am going to curse this disease in the all-powerful name
of Jesus. The pain will go. I believe God will give us an
exhibition of His grace and I will ask this young woman
to come to the meeting tomorrow night and declare what God
has done for her.”
Oh, the awfulness of sin! Oh, the awfulness
of the power of sin! Oh, the awfulness of the consequences
of the fall! When I see a cancer I always know it is an
evil spirit. I can never believe it is otherwise. The same
with tumors. Can this be the work of God? God help me to
show you that this is the work of the devil, and to show
you the way out.
I do not condemn people that sin. I don’t
scold people. I know what is back of the sin. I know that
Satan is always going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom
he may devour. I always remember the patience and love of
the Lord Jesus Christ. When they brought to Him a woman
that they had taken in adultery, telling Him that they had
caught her in the very act, He simply stooped down and wrote
on the ground. Then He quietly said, “He that is without
sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” I have
never seen a man without sin. “All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God.” But I read in this
blessed Gospel message that God bath laid upon Jesus the
iniquity of us all; so, when I see an evil condition, I
feel that I must stand in my office and rebuke the condition.
I laid my hands on the nose of that suffering
nurse and cursed the evil power that was causing her so
much distress. The next night the place was packed and the
people were jammed together, so that it seemed that there
was not room for one more to come into that house. How God’s
rain fell upon us. How good God is, so full of grace and
so full of love. I saw the nurse in the audience and I asked
her to come forward. She came and showed everyone what God
had done. He had perfectly healed her. Oh, I tell you He
is just the same Jesus. He is just the same today. All things
are possible if you dare to trust God.
When the power of God came so mightily
upon the early church, even in the death of Ananias and
Sapphira, great fear came upon all the people. And when
we are in the presence of God, when God is working mightily
in our midst, there comes a great fear, a reverence, a holiness
of life, a purity that fears to displease God. We read that
no man durst join them, but God added to the church such
as should be saved. I would rather have God add to our Pentecostal
church than have all the town join it. God added daily to
His own church.
The next thing that happened was that people
became so assured that God was working that they knew that
anything would be possible, and they brought their sick
into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that
at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow
them. Multitudes of sick people and those oppressed with
evil spirits were brought to the apostles and God healed
them every one. I do not believe that it was the shadow
of Peter that healed, but the power of God was mightily
present and the faith of the people was so aroused that
they joined with one heart to believe God. God will always
meet people on the line of faith.
God’s tide is rising all over the
earth. I had been preaching at Stavanger in Norway, and
was very tired and wanted a few hours rest. I went to my
next appointment, arriving at about 9:30 in the morning.
My first meeting was to be at night. I said to my interpreter,
“After we have had something to eat, let us go down
to the fjords.” We spent three or four hours down
by the sea and at about 4:30 returned. We found the end
of the street, which has a narrow entrance, just filled
with autos, wagons, etc., containing invalids and sick people
of every kind. I went up to the house and was told that
the house was full of sick people. It reminded me of the
scene described in the fifth chapter of Acts. I began praying
for the people in the street and God began to heal the people.
How wonderfully He healed those people who were in the house.
We sat down for a lunch and the telephone bell rang and
someone at the other end was saying, “What shall we
do? The town hall is already full; the police cannot control
things.”
In that little Norwegian town the people
were jammed together, and oh, how the power of God fell
upon us. A cry went up from every one, “Isn’t
this the revival?”
Revival is coming. The breath of the Almighty
is coming. The breath of God shows up every defect, and
as it comes flowing in like a river, everybody will need
a fresh anointing, a fresh cleansing of the blood. You can
depend upon it that that breath is upon us.
At one time I was at a meeting in Ireland.
There were many sick carried to that meeting and helpless
ones were helped there. There were many people in that place
who were seeking for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Some
of them had been seeking for years. There were sinners there
who were under mighty conviction. There came a moment when
the breath of God swept through the meeting. In about ten
minutes every sinner in the place was saved. Everyone who
had been seeking the Holy Spirit was baptized, and every
sick one was healed. God is a reality and His power can
never fail. As our faith reaches out, God will meet us and
the same rain will fall. It is the same blood that cleanseth,
the same power, the same Holy Ghost, and the same Jesus
made real through the power of the Holy Ghost! What would
happen if we should believe God?
Right now the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ is efficacious to cleanse your heart and bring
this life, this wonderful life of God, within you. The blood
will make you every whit whole if you dare believe. The
Bible is full of entreaty for you to come and partake and
receive the grace, the power, the strength, the righteousness,
and the full redemption of Jesus Christ. He never fails
to hear when we believe.
At one place where I was, a lame man was
brought to me who had been in bed for two years, with no
hope of recovery. He was brought thirty miles to the meeting,
and he came up on crutches to be prayed for. His boy was
also afflicted in the knees and they had four crutches between
the two of them. The man’s face was filled with torture.
There is healing virtue in the Lord and He never fails to
heal when we believe. In the name of Jesus-that name so
full of virtue-I put my hand down that leg that was so diseased.
The man threw down his crutches and all were astonished
as they saw him walking up and down without aid. The little
boy called out to his father, “Papa, me; papa, me,
me, me!” The little boy who was withered in both knees
wanted a like touch. And the same Jesus was there to bring
a real deliverance for the little captive. He was completely
healed.
These were legs that were touched. If God
will stretch out His mighty power to loose afflicted legs,
what mercy will He extend to that soul of yours that must
exist forever? Hear the Lord say, “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because be hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted,
to preach deliverance to the captive, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
He invites you, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” God is
willing in His great mercy to touch thy limbs with His mighty
vital power, and if He is willing to do this, how much more
anxious is He to deliver thee from the power of Satan and
to make thee a child of the King. How much more necessary
it is for you to be healed of your soul sickness than of
your bodily ailments. And God is willing to give the double
cure.
I was passing through the city of London
one time, and Mr. Mundell, the secretary of the Pentecostal
Missionary Union, learned that I was there. He arranged
for me to meet him at a certain place at 3:30pm. I was
to meet a certain boy whose father and mother lived in the
city of Salisbury. They had sent this young man to London
to take care of their business. He had been a leader in
Sunday school work but he had been betrayed and had fallen.
Sin is awful and the wages of sin is death. But there is
another side-the gift of God is eternal life.
This young man was in great distress; he
had contracted a horrible disease and feared to tell anyone.
There was nothing but death ahead for him. When the father
and mother got to know of his condition they suffered inexpressible
grief.
When we got to the house, Brother Mundell
suggested, that we get down to prayer. I said, “God
does not say so, we are not going to pray yet. I want to
quote a scripture, "Fools, because of their transgression,
and because of their iniquities, are afflicted: their soul
abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the
gates of death." The young man cried out, “I
am that fool.” He broke down and told us the story
of his fall. Oh, if men would only repent, and confess their
sins, how God would stretch out His hand to heal and to
save. The moment that young man repented, a great abscess
burst, and God sent virtue into his life, giving him a mighty
deliverance.
God is gracious and not willing that any
should perish. How many are willing to make a clean breast
of their sins ? I tell you that the moment you do this,
God will open heaven. It is an easy thing for Him to save
your soul and heal your disease if you will but come and
shelter today in the secret place of the Most High. He will
satisfy you with long life and show you His salvation. In
His presence there is fullness of joy, at His right hand
there are pleasures forevermore. There is full redemption
for all through the precious blood of the Son of God.
===Sermon by Smith Wigglesworth ===
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