Healing Consciousness

Written by John G. Lake

Collections - John G. Lake
Chicago, Illinois
July 16, 1920
I am going into the history of the Old Testament. It is surprising how ignorant
people are of the Word of God.
God made a covenant of healing with the children of Israel after they crossed th
e Red Sea, and they lived under that covenant four hundred and fifty years, unbr
oken, and there never was an Israelite for four hundred and fifty years, so far
as the record goes, except Asia, who ever took one dose of medicine. One backsl
ider went back on God and called the physicians like the heathen did, but the pe
ople trusted God, and God alone for four hundred and fifty years, or until Solom
on got into polygamy. He went down into Egypt and married Egyptian wives, who b
rought their heathen physicians with them. Eventually the whole nation had fall
en from grace, and gone back again and were taking pills and medicine and dope,
just like some Pentecostal heathens do.
Do you want to get on Gods territory? Cut it out. It belongs to the devil and t
he heathen, and the great big unbelieving world.
When you can see those holy flashes of heavenly flame, once in a while, in a per
sons life, as we observe in our Sister Etter, when someone is healed, it is becau
se her consciousness and Christs are one. She is fused onto God. I saw a dying,
strangling, woman healed in thirty seconds, as Mrs. Etter cast out the demon.
The flame of God, the fire of His Spirit, ten seconds of connection with the Alm
ighty Christ at the throne of God, that is the secret.
Oh, I would like to get you in touch with the Son of God for five minutes. I wo
uld like to see the streams of Gods lightning come down for ten minutes! I wonde
r what would take place.
A few months ago I was absent from the city of Spokane, and when I returned we d
iscovered Mrs. Lake was not at home. It was just time to leave for my afternoon
service. Just then, someone came in and said, Your secretary, Mrs. Graham, is i
n the throes of death, and your wife is with her. So I hurried down to the place
. When I got there the wife of one of my ministers met me at the door and said
, You are too late, she has gone. And as I stepped in I met the minister coming o
ut of the room. He said, She has not breathed for a long time. But as I looked d
own at that woman, and thought of how God Almighty, three years before, had rais
ed her out of death, after her womb and ovaries and tubes had been removed in op
erations, and God Almighty had given them back to her, after which she had marri
ed and conceived, my heart flamed. I took that woman up off that pillow, and ca
lled on God for the lightnings of heaven to blast the power of death and deliver
her, and I commanded her to come back and stay, and she came back, after not br
eathing for twenty three minutes.
We have not yet learned to keep in touch with the power of God. Once in a while
our soul rises, and we see the flame of God accomplish this wonder, but beloved
, Jesus Christ lived in the presence of God every hour of the day and night. Ne
ver a word proceeded from the mouth of Jesus Christ, but that which was Gods Word
. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
When you and I are lost in the Son of God, and the fires of Jesus burn in our he

arts, like they did in Him, our words will be the words of life and of spirit, a
nd there will be no death in them. But, beloved, we are on the way.
I have read church history because my heart was searching for the truth of God.
I have witnessed with my own eyes the most amazing manifestations of psychologi
cal power. I knew an East Indian Yogi who volunteered to be buried for three da
ys, and he came up out of that grave well and whole. I saw them put a man in a
cataleptic state, and place a stone fifteen inches square on his body, put his f
eet on one chair and his head on another, and strike that stone with a twenty fi
ve pound sledge seven times, until it broke in two. I watched these things, and
I said, These are only on the psychological plane. Beyond that is the Spirit pl
ane and the amazing wonder of the Holy Spirit of God, and if God got hold of my
spirit for ten minutes, He could do something ten thousand times greater than th
at.
Jesus was the triumphant One. Did you ever stop to think of Jesus at the Throne
of God? I like to think of the twentieth century Christ. Not the Jesus that l
ived in the world two thousand years ago. Not the humiliated Jesus. Not Jesus
dying on the cross for my sins, but the glorified, exalted Son of God at the thr
one of God, who stands declaring, I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold,
I am alive forever more; and have the keys of hell and of death. Blessed be God
!
That is the Christ that breathes His power into your soul and mine, and that is
the consciousness that is breathed from heaven in the Holy Ghost when it comes t
o your heart. Amen.
God purposed that the Christian Church should be the embodiment of the living, b
lessed Son of God! Christ is living not in one temple, Jesus, but in multitudes
of temples, the bodies of those yielded to God in holy consecration. Gods real
church, not in name only, but in power. Many members, one in Spirit, one divine
structure of divine faith and substance. Man transformed, transfigured, and tr
ansmuted into the nature, the glory and the substance of God.
Science Of Healing
Written by John G. Lake
Collections - John G. Lake
Chicago 1920
In Him was life, and life was the light of men. (John 1:4)
There is a difference between Christianity and philosophy. (I presume some folks
are inquiring why it is that there is always that key note in my addresses.)
God gave me the privilege of living in the heart of philosophic South Africa, wh
ere we have one million five hundred thousand, who are ministered to by Buddhist
, and Brahman priests. Every imaginable cult has its representatives there. I
was amazed to discover that the whites were gradually assimilating the philosoph
y of the East, just as we Westerners are assimilating the philosophy of the East
, and have been doing so for a long time.
When you take the philosophies, Christian Science, New Thought, and Unity today
and examine them, you discover they are the same old philosophies of India, Egyp
t and China from time immemorial.
The difference between philosophy and religion, particularly the religion of Jes
us Christ, is in the words I have quoted from the Scriptures, In Him was Life, an
d the life was the light of men. Philosophy is light. It is the best light the

individual possessed who framed the philosophy. But it is not a LIFE GIVER.
But from the soul of Jesus there breathed holy, living life of God, that comes i
nto the nature of man, quickens him by its power, and by the grace of God he has
the life of Jesus in him, eternal life. Many of the ancient philosophies have
a marvelous light. One of the Indian philosophies, Bavgad, was written five hund
red years before Isaiah. In it they predicted the coming of a Son of God, a Red
eemer, who was to come and redeem mankind.
Buddha presented his philosophy five hundred years before Jesus. Pathergoris wr
ote four thousand years before Jesus Christ. In each one of them you will find
many of the teachings of Jesus. The teachings of Jesus were not unique in that
they were all new. They were new because they contained something that none of
the rest possessed. It was the divine content in the word of Jesus Christ that
gave His teachings their distinguishing feature from the other philosophies. Th
at content (element) is the LIFE of God. In Him was LIFE, and the LIFE was the l
ight of men.
Beloved, the real Christian, and the real Christian Church, undertakes to bring
to mankind the life of the Lord Jesus, knowing that when the LIFE of Jesus comes
, the light of civilization and Christianity will follow, but the LIFE is the fi
rst thing.
As men traveled from God, and as the world traveled from God, men naturally fell
into their own consciousness and soul states, and proceeded in the common way o
f the world to endeavor to bless the world through LIGHT. But LIGHT never saved
a world. Light will never save the world. There must be a divine content from
on high that comes to the soul to enrich it and to empower it, to illuminate it
, and to glorify it, and more--to deify it! For Gods purpose through Jesus Chris
t is to deify the natures of men, and thus forever make them like unto, not only
in their outward appearance and habits of life, but in nature and substance and
content, in spirit and soul and body, LIKE THE SON OF GOD.
Jesus never intended Christians to be an imitation. They were to be bone of His
bone, and blood of His blood, and flesh of His flesh, and soul of His soul, and
spirit of His Spirit. In this He becomes the Son of God, a and Redeemer foreve
r.
In my youth I took a course in medicine. I never practiced medicine, for I aban
doned the whole subject a few months before the time of my graduation, when it c
ame to the piece where diagnosis became the general subject for examination. It
was then that I discovered that the whole subject of diagnosis was very largely
a matter of guesswork, and it so remains.
Consequently, throughout my life, there has remained in me somewhat of the spiri
t of investigation. It has never been easy to accept things readily, until my s
oul stepped out inch by inch and proved them for myself.
When I approached the matter of baptism, I did so with great care, but I approac
hed it as a hungry soul; my heart was hungry for God, and one day the Spirit of
the Lord came upon me. God flooded my life and baptized me in His Holy Spirit.
Then, began in my heart, a new and powerful working of God, which has gone on f
or fifteen years, until Christ has become to my soul a divine reality.
Having had former acknowledgment as a medical student, it is still my privilege
to attend a medical clinic, which I frequently do. I submitted myself at one ti
me to a series of experiments. It was not sufficient to know that God did thing
s, I had to know HOW God accomplished these things.
So, when I returned from Africa, at one time I visited at the John Hopkins insti

tution, and submitted myself for this series of experiments.

First, they attached to my head an instrument to record the vibrations of the br
ain. This instruments had an indicator that would mark according to the vibrati
ons of the mind. I began by repeating soothing things, like the Twenty-third Ps
alm; then I repeated the Thirty-seventh Psalm and then the thirty-fifth chapter
of Isaiah, the ninety-first Psalm; and Pauls address before Agrippa. Then, I wen
t into secular literature, and I repeated the Charge of the Light Brigade, Poes R
aven, with a prayer in my heart that somehow God would connect my soul in the Ho
ly Ghost. My difficulty was that while this was going on I could not keep the S
pirit from coming upon me, and when I got through with Poes Raven, they said, You
are a phenomenon. You have a wider mental range than any human being we have ev
er seen. But it was this, that the Spirit of God kept coming upon me in degree,
so I could feel the moving of the Spirit within me.
But I prayed in my heart, Lord God, if you will only let the Spirit of God come l
ike the lightnings of God upon my soul for two seconds, I know something is goi
ng to happen that these men never saw before.
So I closed the last lines. All at once the Spirit of God struck me in a burst
of praise and tongues, and the old indicator on the instrument went to the end o
f the rod and I havent the least idea how much further it would have gone if ther
e had been an indicator to record it. The instructors said, We have never seen a
nything like it! I replied, Brethren, it is the Holy Ghost!
Now in order to get the force of what I want to tell you in this next experiment
is something of the processes of digestion. I want to explain the assimilating
power of your nature, your capacity to assimilate God and take the life of God
into your being, and keep it in your being. I am not talking to you about what
I believe. I am talking about what I know.
For twenty-five years God has kept me so that sickness, nor the devil, were able
to touch me, from the day that I saw in the ninety-first Psalm a mans privilege
of entering into God, not only for healing, but HEALTH, and having God and the l
ife of God in every fiber of his being.
Scientists tell us that in a single inch of a mans skin there are one million fiv
e-hundred thousand (1,500,000) cells. They have almost doubled that statement n
ow. But be that as it may, I want you to see that the whole structure of mans li
fe is one wonderful cellular structure. Your body, your brain, your bone is jus
t one great cellular structure.
In the process of digestion it is something like this. The food we eat is reduc
ed to vegetable lynch before it is absorbed by the body. But no scientist in th
e world has ever been able to satisfactorily explain what it is that changes the
lymph and makes it life. Something happens when it is in the body that changes
it to life.
I want to tell you what grew up in my soul, and how I proved the fact. I could
feel sometimes in the attitude of prayer, just as you have felt hundreds of time
s, the impulse of the Spirit moving down through your brain and your person to t
he end of your fingers just little impulses of Gods presence in your life. And I
have said, If there was an instrument powerful enough I believe men could see th
e action of the brain cells, and see what took place.
Here is the secret of digestion. When from the spirit of man, and through the s
pirit of man there is being imparted to every cell of your body waves of light,
waves of life. It is the movement of your spirit. Spirit impulses passing from
the cortex cells of the brain to the very end of your fingers and toes, to ever
y cell of your body. And when they touch that vegetable lymph it is transformed

into life. That is common transmutation.

In the material world you can dissolve zinc and attach a wire, and transmit it t
o the other end of the wire. They dissolve that zinc, and the battery at the on
e end, and transmit the zinc to the other end of the wire, where it is deposited
. How is it done? There is a process of transmutation. That is what it is cal
led. There is change from one form to another.
My brother, you listen to me, if that is not true in the spiritual world, there
is no such thing as divine LIFE. There is no such thing as salvation through th
e Son of God. For that which is soulish must be transformed by the Spirit of Go
d in us, until it becomes spiritual, until it is of God. Jesus sat with His dis
ciples and ate with them, both bread and fish. He went to the mount and ascende
d before them to Glory. What happened to the fish and bread that He ate? I tel
l you there is a transmutation. That which is natural becomes spiritual. That
which was natural is changed by the power of God into the life of God, into the
nature of God, into the substance of God, into the glory of God.
So when I returned to this country this time, I submitted myself for this experi
ment. They attached to my head a powerful instrument that could take some kind
of picture one after another, in order to see, if possible, what the action of t
he brain cells would be. Then I repeated things that were soothing and calculat
ed to reduce the action of the cortex cells to their lowest possible action. Th
en I went on into the scriptures to the better and richer things, until I came t
o the first of John, and as I began to recite that, and the fires of God began t
o burn in my heart, presently once again the Spirit of God came upon me, and the
man who was at my back touched me. It was a signal to keep that poise until on
e after another could look through the instrument. And finally when I let go, a
nd the Spirit subsided, they said, Why man, we cannot understand this thing, but
the cortex cells extended so that we can hardly imagine it possible to a human b
rain.
Oh, Ill tell you, when you pray, something is happening in you. It is not a myth
. It is the action of God. It is scientific that the almighty God comes into t
he soul, takes possession of the brain, lives in the cortex cells, and when you
will or wish, either consciously or unconsciously, the fire of God, the power of
God, that life of God, that nature of God, throbs through your nerves, down thr
ough your person into every cell of your being, into every million five-hundred
thousand cells in every square inch of your skin, and they are alive with God.
Men have treated the Gospel of Jesus Christ as though it were a sentiment and fo
olishness. Men who posed as being wise, have scorned the simple things that wer
e taking place every day. But I want to tell you that no dear old mother ever k
nelt before the Throne of God, and raised her heart to heaven without demonstrat
ing the finest process of the wireless of God that ever was produced.
In these days they are now able to transmit by wireless from six to seven thousa
nd miles -- and even twelve thousand miles recently (1920). Once again they hav
e been able to demonstrate that in one-tenth of a second they can transmit the f
irst section of thought twelve thousand miles. Think of it! There is practical
ly no such thing as time.
Beloved, the very instant your soul moves with your heart cries, that yearning o
f your soul, it registers in the soul of Jesus Christ, and the answer comes back
.
I said to them, Gentlemen, I want you to see one more thing.
r hospital and bring a man who has inflammation in the bone.
a man with inflammation in the bone. I said, You take your
ch it to that fellows leg, but you leave enough space to get

You go down in you

So they brought up
instrument, and atta
my hand on his leg y

ou can have it attached on both sides. So when the thing was all ready, I put my
hand on that mans shin, and I prayed just like Mother Etter prays. No strange p
rayer, but the cry of my heart to God. I said, God, kill this devilish business
by the power of God, let it live in him, let it move in him. Then I said, Gentlem
en, what is taking place? They replied, Every cell responds. All there is to it is
that the life of God comes back into the part that is afflicted, and right away
the blood flows in, and the work is done.
My soul has grown tired long ago of men treating the whole subject of Christiani
ty as though it were childs play. We have our physical sciences, we have our psy
chological sciences, the action of the mind, taught in the great schools of the
land, but there is something greater. One of these days there is going to be a
new chair. It will be the chair of pneumatology--the science of spirit, by whic
h men will undertake to discover the laws of God. And by the grace of God, men s
hall know that God is alive, and the living Spirit of God is no dream.
In my healing rooms at Spokane, there came one day a dear woman whose name is La
mphear. She is the wife of a merchant in the city. She had fallen down a stair
s, causing a prolapses of the bowels and stomach. She had been an invalid for e
leven years. On top of that she had become tubercular. On top of that the poor
thing developed inflammatory rheumatism, until she was terribly deformed. She
was going to die. The doctors said there was nothing they could do for her. Th
ey advised that she be taken to Hot Lake, Oregon, and perhaps that would do her
some good. So they put her in hot baths there and she suffered just as much as
ever. So they thought they would try super-heated baths. They put her in water
hotter than any human being had ever been in before. The results was that inst
ead of having any healing effect, the left leg developed an abnormal growth, and
it became three inches shorter than the other leg. It is a simple condition of
sarcoma. The foot became an inch longer. She came away from the institution w
orse than when she went. She got as far as Portland, Her parents were living in
the Dalles. She wanted to see her parents before she died. Her husband carrie
d her in his arms onto the ship. As he did so, a Pentecostal missionary stepped
up and said, Dear woman, we understand now why God told us to take this boat. T
he Lord told us last night to take the eight oclock boat for The Dalles. He had c
alled up on the telephone and found the fare was $1.80, and as that was all the
money they had, they went without their breakfast so as to be able to take the b
oat.
As she lay crying with her suffering, they said, When we get to The Dalles, we wi
ll pray for you. (They were timid folks.) Eventually they reached The Dalles and
went to a hotel. The two knelt to pray for her. She says as they prayed and p
ut their hands on her knees, their hands became illuminated until they looked li
ke the hands of Jesus, their faces looked like the face of Jesus, and she was af
raid. But something happened. The pain went out of her.
Strangely, she retained the tuberculosis and the struggle for breath. The leg r
emained the same length. When she examined herself, she was surprised that it w
as not shorter. She said, Pray again that the Lord may make it the same length a
s the other, but the poor missionary was staggered. He said, Dear Sister, the pai
n is gone. You be satisfied and give praise to God.

So she went on three and a half years coughing her lungs out and with her leg lo
nger than the other. One day she came to the healing rooms and was ministered t
o by Mr. Westwood, and she felt relieved. She said, Mr. Westwood, I saw breath c
lear down into my stomach. He said, Ill pray for that. But, she said, the man told m
I should be satisfied that the pain was gone. Mr. Westwood said, He had not grow
n up in God yet. Mr. Westwood put his hands on that lump and prayed, and God Alm
ighty dissolved that lump of bone, and that leg shortened at the rate of one inc
h a day, and she wears shoes like anyone else.

There is a difference between healing and miracles. Healing is the restoration

of diseased tissue, but miracle is a creative action of the Spirit of God in a m
ans life. And the salvation of a soul is a divine miracle of God. Every time Ch
rist speaks the word of LIFE to a mans heart there is a divine creative miracle o
f God in him, and he is a new man in Christ Jesus.
One day I sat in Los Angeles talking to old father Seymour. I told him of an in
cident in the life of Elias Letwaba, one of our native preachers, who lived in t
he native country. I came to his home, and his wife said, He is not home. A litt
le baby is hurt, and he is over praying for it. So we went over and got down on
our knees and crawled into the native hut. I saw he was kneeling in a corner by
the dying child. I said, Letwaba, it is me. What is the matter with the child?
He told me that it had hurt its neck. I examined it and saw that the babys neck
is broken, and I said to Letwaba, Why, Letwaba, the babys neck is broken. I did n
ot have faith for a broken neck, but poor old Letwaba did not know the differenc
e, and I saw he did not understand; but he discerned the spirit of doubt in my s
oul. I said to myself, I am not going to interfere with his faith. He will just
feel the doubt and all the old traditional things I ever learned, so I will go
out and I did. I went out and sat in another hut and kept on praying. I went to
bed at one oclock at three oclock Letwaba came in. I said, Well, Letwaba how abou
t the baby? He looked at me lovingly and sweetly and said, Why brother, the baby
is all well. I said, The baby is well! Take me to the baby at once. I went to th
e baby and took the little black thing on my arm, and I came out and prayed, Lord
, take every cursed thing out of my soul that keeps me from believing the Lord J
esus Christ.
In my meeting in Spokane is a dear man who told us he was dying of Pellagra. He
came from Dallas, Texas, to sister Etters meetings. Apparently, he died on the
train and they laid his body at the station house and covered him with some gunn
y sacks, but, discovered in the morning he was still alive. So they carried him
to Mother Etters meetings and she came down off the platform and prayed for him.
That man is living, and has been preaching the gospel for seven years at Spoka
ne.
Why, there is more science in the Son of God in five minutes than the ignorant o
ld world ever knew. In HIM was LIFE, and the LIFE as the light of men. The LIFE
of God is that which the mind of men, and the keenest of them, never knew, and n
ever discovered. The world through wisdom knew not God. They could not discern H
is death nor understand the marvels of His life, until the Lord Jesus came and l
ived and died and entered into Hades and destroyed the powers of darkness and li
berated the souls of men; liberated them from the chains of darkness and came fo
rth into the world to speak Gods word and reveal Gods power and show Gods nature.
And by the grace of God, we have been privileged to enter into the nature of Jes
us, and the fires of God burn in his soul like they burned in the soul of Jesus.
The scientific world has been startled by one of the English scientists who ha
s come forward with a formula for transmuting the grosser metals into gold. It
did not work. Years ago this knowledge was known to the world, but somehow it d
isappeared from the world. Recently men again have attempted to change lead, si
lver and iron, transmuting them into gold.
Beloved, that is the thing that Jesus Christ has been doing all the time. It is
as old as Christianity, and as old as the Son of God. He has been coming to th
e hearts of men, taking the old base conditions of the nature, and in the mighty
action of the Holy Ghost, they have been changed into pure gold of God. If the
re never was another blessing that came to the world through Pentecost but this
one, all the price that men could pay would be as nothing for it. For I want to
tell you there has been more real divine researching by the Holy Ghost into the
nature of God and the nature of men in these last fifteen years that there ever
was in the whole world. When anyone comes to me with the statement that there
is nothing in the Holy Ghost but a psychological manifestation, I say, Brother, s

ister, come with me and see the gems of God and the beautiful gold that has come
out of the dross and the dirty lives, and then you will know.
In my assembly at Spokane is a dear little woman who was totally blind for nine
years. She had little teaching along the line of faith in God. She sat one day
with her group of six children to discover that the dirty brute of a husband ha
d abandoned her. A debased human being is capable of things that no beast will
do, for a beast will care for its own. You can imagine what that little heart w
as like. She was broken and bruised and bleeding. She gathered her children aro
und her and began to pray. They were sitting on their front porch. Presently t
he little one got up and said, Oh, Mama, there is a man coming up the path, and h
e looks like Jesus. Oh, Mama, there is blood on His hands and blood on His feet
! And the children were frightened and ran around the corner of the house. Afte
r a while the biggest one looked around the corner and said, Why, Mama, He is lay
ing His hands on your eyes! And just then her blind eyes opened.
And Beloved, if we could have seen the reason, we would have seen that there wer
e some Christians at Zion City or some other place who were praying the power of
God on a hungry world, and Jesus Christ in His search, rushed into her life and
sent her forth to praise God and teach the Gospel of Jesus.
I would not have missed my life in Africa for anything. It put me up against so
me of the real problems. I sat upon the Mount of Sources one night, and I count
ed eleven hundred native villages within the range of my eyes. I could see the
color of the grass on the mountains sixty miles away. I could see the mountains
one hundred and fifty miles away. Then I began to figure, and I said, Within t
he range of my eyes there lives at least ten million native people. Theyve never
heard the name of Jesus. In the whole land there are at least one hundred mill
ion people, perhaps two hundred million. They are being born every day at a tre
mendous rate. Do you know there are more heathen born every day than are Christ
ianized in fifty years? When are we going to catch up by our present method of
building schools and teaching them to read? Never! I tell you it will never co
me that way. It has got to come from heaven by the power of God, by an out pour
ing of the Holy Ghost.
That is the reason that in my heart I rejoice in the blessed promise. In the las
t days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. And every last one of
the two hundred million poor black people are going to hear and know of the Lor
d Jesus Christ. And beloved, I would rather have a place in the kingdom of God
to pray that thing into existence, and to pray the power of God upon them, than
anything else in the world.
Africa is said to be the first settled country in the world, and we believe it i
s six thousand years old. Africa has been settled for five thousand years. Two
hundred to four hundred million have died every century. Split the difference,
and say that three hundred million have died every year for five thousand years.
I began to pray. I said, Has God no interest in these people, and if He has an in
terest, why is not something done for them? What is the matter with God? My hea
rt was breaking under the burden of it. I said, God, there is an explanation som
ewhere. What is it, Lord? Tell me about this thing.
After a while the Spirit said, The Church which is His Body, and
I knew that was Gods answer. I said, Yes, the church should have sent missionarie
s and built schools and done this and that. The Church, which is His body. And
I sat and listened to that voice repeat that sentence for a half hour. I said,
My God, my soul begins to see. The Church is the generating power of God in the
world; the Church has been negligent in one thing. She has not prayed the pow
er of God out of heaven.

Then I saw that which has become a conviction in my soul from that day. There n
ever was a soul born to God in the whole earth at any time until some soul in th
e world got hold of the living Spirit of God and generated that Spirit in saving
grace and creative virtue, until it took possession of a soul, no difference if
it was a million miles away.
When I try to induce men to forget their little squabbles and little differences
and go praying it is because my soul feels the burden of it. Mother Etter has
been like a marshal for fifty years. The sick have been healed, people have bee
n converted and blessed. But beloved, when I heard of Brother Brooks shutting h
imself up night and day to pray the power of God on a world, I said, That is wher
e she gets her fire; and from where it comes to my soul; that is from where it c
omes to every other soul.
Look how beautifully this hall is lighted. Do you know the world lived in darkn
ess for five thousand years and they had no way of lighting a place except by to
rches. But there was just as much electricity five thousand years ago as there
is today. Somebody found how to handle it, discovered the laws that govern it.
To this day there is not a man who can tell us what electricity is, or what its
substance is. We know we can control it this way and guide it that way, and ma
ke it do this and that, but what it is, nobody call tell us. But down somewhere
on the river there is a thing that is called a dynamo, and its draws the electr
icity out of the air, and transmits it over the wires, and these days they are e
ven sending it wireless.
Do you know what prayer it? It is not begging God for this and that. The first
thing we have to do is to get you beggars to quit begging until a little faith
moves in your souls. PRAYER is Gods divine dynamo. The spirit of man is Gods div
ine dynamo. When you go to pray, that spirit of yours gets into motion--not ten
thousand revolutions or one hundred thousand. The voltage of heaven comes to y
our heart, and it flows from your hands, it burns into the souls of men, and God
Almighty moves on their behalf.
Over in Indiana some years ago was a farmer who used to be a friend of Brother F
ockler and myself. His son had been in South America, had a dreadful case of ty
phoid fever, had no proper nursing and the result was a great fever sore develop
ed until it was seven inches in diameter. The whole abdomen became grown up wit
h proud flesh, one layer on top of another layer, until there were five layers.
The nurse would lift up those layers and wash then with an antiseptic to keep t
he maggots out of it. When he exposed the body for me to pray for him, I had ne
ver seen anything like that before. I was shocked. As I went to pray for him,
I spread my fingers out over that sore. I prayed, God, in the name of Jesus Chri
st, blast this curse of hell and burn it up by the power of God. Then I took the
train and came back. The next day I received a telegram saying, Lake, the most
unusual thing has happened. An hour after you left the whole print of your hand
was burned into that thing a quarter of an inch deep, and it is there yet.
You talk about the voltage of heaven and the power of God. Why, there is lightn
ing in the soul of Jesus. The lightnings of Jesus heal men by its touch, sin di
ssolves, disease flees when the power of God approaches.
And yet, we are quibbling and wondering if Jesus Christ is big enough for our ne
ed. Lets take the bars down. Let God come into your life. And in the name of J
esus your heart will not be satisfied with an empty Pentecost, but the light of
God and the lightnings of Jesus will flood your life. Amen!
The Ministry of Healing and Miracles
Written by John G. Lake
Collections - John G. Lake

Divine Healing is Scientific

Atonement through the grace of God is scientific in its application. Jesus used
many methods of healing the sick. All were scientific. Science is the discove
ry of how God does things.
Jesus laid His hands upon the sick in obedience to the law of contact and transm
ission. Contact of His hands with the sick one, permitted the Spirit of God in
Him to flow into that sick person.
The sick woman who touched His clothes found that the Spirit emanated from His p
erson. She touched the hem of His garment and the Spirit flowed into her. She wa
s made whole. This is a scientific process.
Paul, knowing this law, laid his hands upon handkerchiefs and aprons. The Bible
says that when they were laid upon the sick, they were healed, and the demons w
ent out of those possessed. Materialists have said this was superstition. It i
s, however, entirely scientific.
The Spirit of God emanating from Paul transformed the handkerchiefs into storage
batteries of the Holy Spirit power. When they were laid upon the sick they surch
arged the body, and healing was the result. (Read Acts 19:12)
This demonstrates firstly, that the Spirit of God is a tangible substance, a hea
venly materiality. Secondly, it is capable of being stored in the substance of
cloth, as demonstrated in the garments of Jesus or the handkerchiefs of Paul. T
hirdly, it will transmit power from the handkerchiefs to the sick person. Fourt
hly, its action in the sick man was so powerful, the disease departed. The demo
nized were also delivered. Fifthly, both the sick and the insane were delivered
and healed by this method.
Men received Jesus Christ into their hearts, as one receives a lover. It is an
affectionate relationship. Men obey Him because they have received Him affectio
nately. He has become their souls lover.
His love and power in them redeems them from sin and sickness, and eventually, w
e are promised in His Word, He will redeem us from death also. Redemption from
sin, sickness, and death constitutes mans deliverance from bondage of Satan and h
is kingdom, and establishes the Kingdom of Heaven.
Gods Way 0f Healing
Written by John G. Lake
Collections - John G. Lake
Gods way of healing is a person, not a thing. Jesus said. "I am the way, the t
ruth, and the life." And He has ever been revealed to His people in all the ages
by the Covenant Name, Jehovah Rophi, or, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," (Jo
hn 14:6 and Exodus 15:26)
The Lord Jesus Christ is still the healer. He can not change, for "He is the sam
e yesterday, today, and forever," and He is still with us, for He said, "Lo, I a
m with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Hebrews 13:8 and Matthew 28
:20.) Because He is unchangeable, and because He is present, in Spirit, just as
when in the flesh. He is the healer of His people.
Divine Healing rests on Christs Atonement. It was prophesied of Him, "Surely He
hath borne our grief, (Hebrew, sicknesses) and carried our sorrows, and with Hi
s stripes we are healed," and it is expressly declared that this was fulfilled i
n His ministry of Healing, which still continues. (Isaiah 53:4,5 Matt. 8:17)
Diseases can never be Gods will. It is the Devils work consequent on sin, and
it is impossible for the work of the Devil ever to be the will of God. Christ c
ame to destroy the works of the Devil and when He was on earth He, "healed every
sickness and every disease," and all these diseases are expressly declared to h

ave been the "oppression of the Devil." (1 John 3:8 Matt. 4:23 and Acts 10:38.)
The gifts of Healing are permanent. It is expressly declared that the "gifts and
callings of God are without repentance," and the Gifts of Healing are amongst
the nine Gifts of the Spirit to the Church. (Romans 11:29 and 1 Corinthians 12:8
11)
There are four modes of Divine Healing. The first is the direct prayer of faith
: the second, intercessory prayer of two or more: the third, the anointing of th
e elders with the prayer of faith; and fourth, the laying on of hands by those w
ho believe, and whom God has prepared and called to that ministry. (Matthew 8:513 Matthew 18:19 James 5:14,15 Mark 16:18.)
Multitudes have been healed through faith in Jesus. The writer knows of thousand
s of cases and has personally laid hands on scores of thousands of persons. Ful
l information can be obtained at the meetings and Healing Rooms, 340 Rookery Bld
g. Spokane, Washington. Also at the Masonic Temple meetings each Lords day at
11 A.M. and 3 P.M. and in many pamphlets which give the experience, in their ow
n words, of many who have been healed in this and other countries.
"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. You are heartily invite
d to attend and heat for yourself.
Results of Believing Prayer
Written by John G. Lake
Collections - John G. Lake
February 7, 1923
HEALED OF INSANITY
A woman, holding the infant baby of Mrs. Lloyd McLaughlin, was asked to stand.
Mr. Lake:
This baby is just one month old. When the baby was born the mother was given Tw
ilight Sleep, which resulted in insanity, as it so often does. This church has
been praying for the dear woman. On Monday a group of our people went aside to
particularly pray for this dear mother. I called them on the phone about five oc
lock and asked one of the sisters, What is the answer from heaven? She replied, We
ll, brother, we have the answer. Our hearts have the victory, and we know the w
oman is healed. Yesterday morning the woman awoke, healed! Praise the Lord!
CHILD HELPLESS & DUMB HEALED
There was another case I wanted to present at this time, but the mother is delay
ed. This dear mother comes from Grangerville, Idaho. Her baby was injured in t
he birth, due to the child being delivered by instruments. The principle object
of instruments these days is the $25.00 extra that is charged. God has had bab
ies born for five thousand years without any of their accursed use. This little
one had the usual thing that takes place in such cases; an injury so terrible t
hat the child was never able to walk or speak. Apparently it was a partial deta
chment of the spinal chord from the brain. The mother testifies that the baby h
as begun to walk and talk now!

PARALYSIS IN PROCESS OF HEALING

A dear young business man of the city, who has been paralyzed from the neck down
for six years is walking now.
HEALED WHEN TOTALLY PARALYZED
Some of you will remember Mr. Kelly who was totally paralyzed from the shoulders
down. Himself, his wife, and their new baby, were present in the meeting last
night and he testified to his perfect healing.
THE HEALING OF MRS. RAYMOND
We have inquiries regarding Mrs. Raymond, who was dying of tuberculosis, just da
y before yesterday. She was out for three and a half hours, yesterday, for the
first time! Her mother says she is healed! She was delivered from very death!
ANOTHER DELIVERANCE
We have a dear mother in Worcester, Massachusetts. Four years ago her son broke
down and went out of his mind. We ministered to him, and the Lord healed him.
Recently, almost the same thing has taken place with the daughter. Here is a t
elegram asking us to pray for her. The daughter is greatly recovered since we p
rayed for her, but the mother says she still suffers from bad dreams, fear of fi
re, and fear of death. (Rev. Thompson was asked to present this case to the Lor
d).
SCRIPTURE READING WITH COMMENTS
Numbers 12: And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian wo
man whom he had married, and the Lord heard it.
A great many people lose the blessing that they might have had, by sticking thei
r nose into other peoples affairs. The Lord has been trying, from the very begin
ning, to get folks to learn this truth. This is one of the most severe lessons
in the Word of God on the disadvantage of sticking your nose into other peoples a
ffairs. The Lord somehow succeeds in looking after most people who put their co
nfidence in Him, and regulating them fairly well. You like to be governed by th
e Spirit of the Lord Himself, and so do I, so we must accord the same privilege
to the other party.
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of th
e earth. (verse 3.)
No other man in all history had so many reasons to get puffed up, if he had been
puffable. The little fellow puffs up. The big fellow puffs down. No man ever
listened to such words as the Lord spoke to Moses. No one was ever dignified b
y the same commission that God gave to Moses. When God called Moses to His serv
ice and sent him to Egypt, He spoke these most startling words to him, Thou shalt
be as God. He was endowed with all the authority of God, and was sent with the
commission to deliver His people from the hands of Pharaoh. His word became the

Word of God, his action became the action of God.

Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of th
e earth.
Aaron, was the brother, and Miriam, the sister of Moses. When Moses was called at
the Burning Bush, he began to make excuses because of his slowness of speech, a
nd God gave him his brother Aaron, saying, He will be thy spokesman unto the peop
le.
Behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and,
behold, she was leprous. (Verse 10)
Some time ago I was called to minister to a leper in the State of Montana, forme
r Senator Willets, who had been in confinement several years. It was the first
time since leaving Africa that I had been given a chance to examine a leper with
care. So I went with him to his rooms and had him strip. The leprosy was as w
hite as snow. His fingers were dead and swollen three times the normal size. W
hen he would put wood in the fire he would burn his fingers and would not know i
t. His feet were in the same condition. He wrote me afterward that the first e
vidence of healing he noticed was in his toes. The color and feeling returned!
The cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and behold, Miriam became leprous, wh
ite as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. And Aa
ron said unto Moses, Alas my Lord I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherei
n we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. And Moses cried unto the
Lord, saying, Heal her now, 0 God, I beseech thee.
Moses prayer is characteristic of so many of the prayers in the Bible. It is bri
ef. It contains only eight words: Heal her now, 0 God, I beseech thee. But with
Aarons wholehearted confession, the heart of Moses was moved even as the heart of
God.
LECTURE ON PRAYER
I want to talk to you a little about this subject of prayer. It seems to me tha
t this prayer of Moses is a wonderful example of that remarkable teaching of Jes
us on the subject of faith, in the eleventh chapter of Mark. After the cursing
of the fig tree, Jesus utilized the instance to give voice to His marvelous teac
hing of faith in God. He said, Verily, verily. When an oriental used the words, V
erily, verily, he raised his hand, and it gave it the solemnity of an oath. With
the solemnity, of an oath, I say unto you, What things so ever ye desire, when y
e pray, BELIEVE that ye RECEIVE them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:23-24)
The Revised Version gives greater force to it. When ye pray believe that ye HAVE
received. When? Why, bless your soul, when you pray.
HEALING OF APPENDICITIS
Mrs. Ferguson, will you kindly stand? (Woman stands) A week ago Saturday, Brot
her Wiggens, Brother Doogan, Mrs. Lake and I, were just leaving the Healing Room
s on our way to Forest Grove, Oregon, when a gentleman came in and told us of th

is womans suffering and begged us to come. We went, knelt by her bedside, laid h
ands on the woman, and in one minute the Lord delivered her. I put my fingers i
nto her side, holding the appendix between my fingers, to demonstrate the perfec
tion of the healing.
Observing how the Lord had touched her body, she said, Brother, I want to give my
heart to God. So we called in her sons, and the other man, a cousin, and our si
ster gave herself to the Lord. Last Sunday she became a member of the church, a
nd today is present to give a public thanks to God for her salvation and healing
.
When ye pray, believe that ye receive, and ye shall have, or believe that ye HAVE r
eceived. You have it: that is what it means.
We used to have
the people when
ELIEVE God, and
hat will happen

a little Englishman in our evangelistic party, who would say to

they were praying, Now let us stop praying for five minutes and B
see what happens. It is perfectly amazing the wonderful things t
when people believe God.

THE SOUL CRY OF A BROTHER

There is an attitude of faith, an opening of the soul to God, a divine laying ho
ld in the Spirit. I can imagine the soul cry in the prayer of Moses under these
circumstances. Miriam, His own sister, now smitten and leprous, white as snow!
What were the feelings of his heart? I sometimes have thought that, there is
no other circumstance in my own life, that ever called out so much faith in God
and determination of soul to see Gods will done, as in the healing of a sister.
One of my sisters and I had been chums from our childhood. ,She was a little old
er that I. ,The vision of the Christ as the Healer was just opened to my soul.
She was dying of an issue of blood. My mother called one night and said, John, i
f you want to see your sister alive, you must come at once.
When I arrived my mother said, You are too late, she is gone. I stepped to her be
dside and laid my hand on her forehead; it was cold and dead. I slipped my hand
down over her heart, and the heart had ceased to beat. I picked up a small mir
ror and held it over her mouth, but, there was no discoloration. The breath was
gone. I stood there stunned. Her husband knelt at the foot of the bed weeping
and her baby was asleep in a crib on the opposite side of the room. My old fat
her and mother knelt sobbing at the side of the bed. They had seen eight of the
ir children die; she, apparently, was the ninth. My soul was in a storm.
Just a
before
ars. A
d been

few weeks before, my wife was healed when almost dead. Just a few weeks
my brother had been healed after having been an invalid for twenty-two ye
short time before my older sister with five cancers in the breast, who ha
operated on five times and turned away to die, was healed.

As I looked at my sister I said, God, this not the will of God, and I cannot acc
ept it! It is the will of the devil and darkness. He that hath the power of dea
th, that is the devil.
I discovered this fact, that there are times when your spirit lays hold of the s
pirit of another, and they just cannot get away from you. Somehow, I just felt
my spirit lay hold of the spirit of that woman.
I prayed, Dear Lord, she just cannot go. I walked up and down for some time. My
spirit was crying out for somebody with faith in God that I could call on to hel
p me. That was twenty five years ago when the individual who trusted God for he
aling was almost insane in the mind of the church and the world. Bless God, it
is different now.

That is the advantage of having people who trust God, and walk out on Gods lines,
come together, and carry one anothers loads, and form a nucleus in society which
has some force for God. I have no confidence or faith in these little efforts
that people run after here and there. Most of them go up in a vapor. If you wa
nt something done for God and humanity, put your hearts and your hands together
and your souls together. Organize your effort.
That babys mother, (referring to the baby in the audience), would have not been h
ealed, except that a little nucleus determined to pray until the woman was heale
d! And they stayed in prayer all day! Monday, at five oclock, they had the vict
ory. It took them all day! I wish we had spirituality and faith enough to look
through the mists and see what was taking place all that day long, until the po
wers of darkness were dispelled, and the healing came.
As I walked up and down my sisters room, I could not think of but one man that ha
d faith on this line. That was John Alexander Dowie, six hundred miles away. I
went to the phone and called the Western Union, and told them I wanted to get a
telegram through to Mr. Dowie, and an answer back as quickly as possible.
I sent this wire:
My sister has apparently died, but my spirit will not let her go. I believe if yo
u will pray, God will heal her.
I received this answer back:
Hold on to God. I am praying. She will live.
Oh, God, I have said a thousand times, what would it have meant if instead of th
at telegram of faith I had received one from a weakling preacher who might have
said, I am afraid you are on the wrong track, or Brother, you are excited, or the day
s of miracles are past.
It was the strength of his faith that came over the wire that caused the lightni
ngs of my soul to begin to flash, and while I stood there at the telephone and l
istened, the very lightnings of God began to flash in my spirit. I prayed, this
thing of hell cannot be, and it will not be. In the name of Jesus Christ, I abo
lish death and sickness, and she shall live.
And as I finished praying, I turned my eyes toward the bed, and I saw her eyelid
s blink. But I was so wrought up I said, Maybe I deceived myself. So I stood a li
ttle while at the telephone, and the lightnings of Gods Spirit were still flashin
g from my soul. Presently I observed her husband get up and tip-toe to her head
, and I knew he had seen it. I said, What is it, Peter? He replied, I thought I s
aw her eyelids move. And just then they moved again. Five days later she came t
o Fathers home and the Lake family sat down to Christmas dinner, the first time i
n their life when they were all well.
PERSISTENT PRAYER SOMETIMES NECESSARY
Beloved, it is not our long prayers, but believing God, that gets the answer. H
owever, I want to help somebody who finds persistent prayer a necessity, as we a
ll do sometimes. We have not the least idea, Paul says, of the powers of darknes
s we are praying against.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power
s, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednes
s in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
And sometimes you have to lay hold of God, and stay before God, and stay through
the blackness and through the darkness and through the night of it, until the f
aith of God penetrates, Bless God, and the work is done.
DANIELS EXPERIENCE
Do you remember the experience of Daniel, one of the finest in the Book? He had
to hear from Heaven. He fasted and prayed for twenty one days. On the twentyfirst day an angel came to him right out of heaven, and the angel said, Daniel,
a man greatly beloved, from the first day thy prayer was heard. Not the last tim
e you prayed, but the very first.
0 Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and
stand upright, for unto thee am I now sent. Fear not, Daniel, for from the fir
st day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself bef
ore God, thy words were heard, and I come for thy words. But the prince of the k
ingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but, Michael, one of the chie
f princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now
I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter day
s. (Daniel 10:11-14)
Michael is spoken of again as the warrior Angel. He made war against the devil
and cast him out of heaven. Get the circumstance. Daniel had prayed, and God h
eard his prayer and answered it by sending an angel messenger, but the messenger
himself was held up on the way by some other power of darkness, until reinforce
ments came, and God dispatched Michael one of the chief angels to his help. I won
der what was necessary to be accomplished in the minds of those interested, befo
re God could answer that prayer? You are praying for somebody, you are praying
for your friend, or your brother, or your son, or your daughter who needs your l
ove and faith. Beloved, have you the faith in God to stay and pray until the S
pirit has a chance to work out the problem? That is the issue. Keep right down
to it. Do not let go. It is the will of God, you have a right to an answer.
There is a ministry of intercession that comes from heaven.
Oh, it is prayer by the Spirit of God. It is entering into the prayer spirit of
the Holy Ghost. He prays, for you, He prays for me, with groanings that cannot
be uttered. Our spirit in union with HIS, we enter into oneness of faith, reach
ing out into the ether of God, and the love of His Spirit, and taking that power
into the souls desire.
A lot of folks stop when half through. You hold on to God and pray through.
Then, there are times like the one when my sister was restored, when the faith a
nd power of God comes like the lightning flash, and to Moses when he prayed; Heal
her now, 0 God, I beseech thee, and the healing is instant.
There are times when its only your humanity that prays. You know these times you
rself, when your soul does not enter into prayer, much less your spirit. There
are times when your soul prays. People these days do not even have much concept
ion of the realm of the soul, or psychic. It is a marvelous realm. People pray
in the psychic. Then, there is a prayer in the Spirit, that deeper quality of
your life, deeper than the psychic or soul. Oh, bless God, there is still a pra

yer where the spirit of man and the Spirit of God unite and become one.
Now, one can imagine as Moses prayed that day how his soul must have been stirre
d. Here is his own sister, the woman that had stood by the river side when he w
as a babe, had put him in a basket, hid him in the bulrushes and watched over hi
s welfare. Dont you think she was interested in him? Sometimes I have sympathiz
ed with Miriam. She had a sisterly and motherly affection for Moses. She wante
d to keep him straight. She was afraid he had made a great mistake in his marri
age.
Say beloved, you are a father probably, or you are a mother, or a sister or brot
her, and you have laid hold so tight on the other one, that you are afraid to le
ave them in the hands of God. That is one of the hardest things folks have to l
earn, to just take their hands off the other and let God have them. There is no
record that God had any quarrel with Moses about his wife.
THE EXPERIENCE OF STEPHEN MERRITT
Stephen Merritt was a godly old undertaker in the city of New York. His dear ol
d wife and himself had lived a godly life. They had raised one son, Charley. C
harley would get into some disreputable affair, and the police would come and sa
y, Charley has done so and so. It will take so much money to get him out of the
difficulty. The next week another would come along with something else, and so i
t went on and on. And the two old gray heads were praying and pouring out their
tears for that boys salvation. Stephen Merritt had a habit of receiving people
into his office and helping them. John G. Wooley was one that he helped. He ha
nded Wooley five dollars and said, You meet me at such and such a camp around. Wo
oley was a drunkard. He had not been accustomed to being trusted with money, an
d he met the old man there and found God. One day as he sat in his office he wa
s praying about his son, and the floor was wet with tears, when he heard the voi
ce of God saying, How long have you been trying to save Charley?
So many of us are trying to save Charley, and we have gotten in the way of the Lo
rd. He replied, Lord, a long time.
The Lord said, Now if you are through, I will undertake. The old man considered,
and it worked out in his soul this way.
The police came and said, Charley did so and so. He asked, Who is Charley?
Why he is your son. No, I have no son Charley.
That day as he knelt there he said, Lord, he is not my son any more. I give him o
ver to you until he is saved.
So he told the group, No, I have no son. They looked at him and shook their head
s. Then they sent another officer. But, it was no use to go to him any more.
It looked as if the old man had gone crazy. About nine months passed, and one d
ay an officer came and said, Charley has jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and finis
hed.
He wanted the old man to have the river dragged to obtain the body. But he said
, Oh, no, I have no son, Charley. Drag the river if you want to. So, they dragg
ed the river, but the body they found was not Charleys.
Three months more passed, and one day a clerk said, There is one of your friends
in the office. And when he came in it was Charley. He was beautifully dressed,
clean faced, everything indicating the light of God, and when the old father cam
e in the son fell at his feet, kissed them, and asked his forgiveness. He said

in explanation, Three months ago I was saved in a mission, but I did not want to
come and see you until I came as a man.
THE HUMAN CLUTCH
Not only is it so in your prayers for others, but in your prayers for yourself.
Some of you are holding to your sicknesses or difficulty with such a clutch, an
d are so everlastingly conscious of it that God cannot get it out of your hands.
You are in the very place, spiritually, where old Stephen Merritt was. He was
so determined to save his boy that he was just doing it himself, and God was no
t getting a chance. Open your hands, let go of the old difficulty.
I was praying for a woman who had an appendicitis, and as I prayed I saw she was
holding on to it mentally so hard. I had to do something. So, I told one of t
he craziest stories I ever told, and finally she burst out laughing in spite of
the pain, and when she got through, the pain was gone. She just opened her clut
ch.
Maybe you are holding on to sin with that same clutch. Maybe you are holding on
to disobedience to God with that same clutch. Maybe it is your sickness. If t
here is something that is keeping you from being blessed, let clear go and let y
our hands and heart open.
When I was a boy I used to visit the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, wh
ere my home was. One day a sailor, who was up in the masts, lost his balance an
d shot over the ship into the water. Another sailor stood on the railing of the
ship and watched him. He went down and came up, and went down and came up agai
n, and everything was in foam around him. Still the fellow stood there. Then t
he chap went down the third time, limp, and just as he was disappearing he shot
down into the water and came up with him. A couple of gentlemen were standing b
y and one remarked, That fellow has taken men out of the water before. He just wa
ited until all the kick was out of him. Otherwise both might have drowned. A l
ot of us have to thresh and struggle and fight until the kick is all out of us b
efore we are ready to let God take us.
As a young fellow I was proud as Lucifer. Every Lake I ever knew was. Robert B
urns wrote, with his diamond on the window of a Highland Inn, Theres nothing here
by Highland pride, Highland pride and poverty. It did not make any difference ho
w poor they were. The hardest thing I had to do was to make my surrender to God
.
I heard Riley tell the other night of having been a
of how God saved him. I never knew anything about
uched whiskey in my life, never used tobacco, never
he moral sense, but that proud heart of mine had to
until I was ready to say, Lord, you save me.

dope fiend, and gambler, and

that kind of life. Never to
committed an unholy act in t
struggle like a drowning man

The final consummation came when I knelt behind an old elm tree and poured my he
art out to God, and made my surrender to Him. The light of heaven broke into my
soul, and I arose from my knees a son of God, and I knew it. Let God have you.
Quit sweating, quit wrestling.
About the most difficult class in the world to get healed is Christian Scientist
s. Why? Because they are working at it so hard. They have been reading so man
y lessons and concentrating their mind on healing, until they are almost exhaust
ed. You have to lead them away from it all to that place where, It is not TRY bu
t TRUST.
That is the secret of Christs healing; that is the secret of Christs salvation.

It is trusting Him for it, and believing Him when He says he will do it, and the
mind relaxes and the soul comes to rest. There is a wonderful help in disarmin
g people.
I read a story of Sam Leake. He had become a most notorious drunkard. He bough
t whiskey and buried it until he filled his whole lot with buried whiskey. It w
as a mania. Everybody who tried to help him would say, Leake, just make one prom
ise, that you will not drink any more. Finally, he went to a woman who was wiser
than the others. Before he went out of the room she said, I want you to promise
one thing.
He said, I will promise you anything, except that I will not drink whiskey. Im ne
arly crazy for a drink now.
She said, I want you to promise that every time you feel like taking a drink of w
hiskey you will do so.
Sure I will.
Do you get the secret of that? She disarmed him right away. The thing he was c
lutching all the time was the fear that someone was going to make him promise no
t to drink whiskey.
One morning when he awoke he discovered that the cursed appetite was gone. Say,
dear hearts, let go! Open your clutch! Let God take you. Let God have you, w
hether it is for your spirit, whether it is for your soul, whether it is for you
r body.
No matter what, just let go. It is not TRY but TRUST!
As rowers in a boat turn their backs to the shore, and trust to the man at the h
elm, whose eye is fixed upon it; so should we proceed in duty through life, turn
our back from our anxious cares for the future, and leave the guidance of them
all to God, who guides the helm. -- Bowes
We lie to God in prayer if we do not rely upon Him after prayer. -- Swinnock
The nearer the soul is to God, the less its perturbation; as the point nearest t
he center of a circle is subject to the least motion.
For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as
God did from His. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. -- Hebrew
4:10-11 Have you entered that rest?
God bless you!
My First Year In Spokane
Written by John G. Lake
Collections - John G. Lake
The first door God opened here, strangely, was a door in what is known as the Ch
urch of Truth, a new thought body. Their pastor was formerly a universal preach
er. He had seen Christ through Christian Science teaching. He was a hungry sou
l. He invited me to preach at his church. I said to him, my message is not yo
urs. I preach the Christ and Him crucified.
He replied, "Brother, preach your message, and as much of it as you want to. Yo

u are in the hands of the Spirit of God."

After the first sermon, he invited me to take one of the healing rooms in their
church, and pray for the sick throughout the week. God gave wonderful healings.
The church was mightily moved. It was a new manifestation of the power of God
to them. I was invited to teach their weekday classes on the subject of the "B
aptism in the Holy Ghost," God showed me four persons in the church at that time
who would receive the Baptism. We continued to minister there for about six mo
nths, then started our own work, Feb. 1, 1915
The first person from the Church of Truth to receive the Baptism in the Spirit w
as a lady. She received the Baptism at the first service we conducted in our ow
n hall. At the close of the Sunday morning service the Spirit fell on her, and
she was baptized in the presence of the congregation. She told me that five yea
rs before, while in great agony of soul, she fell on her knees and cried out for
deliverance and light and help, saying "Oh God is there no one anywhere who can
bring me the light my soul needs and show me God as my spirit craves?" And the
Spirit spoke to her and said, "Yes, in Johannesburg, South Africa." On the day o
f her baptism and she was under the power of the Spirit, the Lord reminded her t
hat He had fulfilled His promise to her, and that I had come from Johannesburg,
South Africa in response to her souls call and the soul call from others who ne
eded God. Another lady was likewise Baptized in the Spirit. They have been beau
tiful souls, as also the other two have been.
In connection with our work we maintain the healing rooms, open from 10 A.M. to
4 P.M. every day, where the sick and the otherwise needy come for prayer. We al
so have a hall connected with the healing rooms, where we have our weekday and w
eeknight meetings. Our Sunday services are held in the Masonic Temple. Sunday
school in the morning, preaching at 11 A.M. and the large public service at 3 P.
M.
Our work has been characterized with wonderful healings, and many of them.
When I wrote the stories of the wonders God was performing in Africa to America
the people largely said., "We do not believe it." Satan tried in many ways to ma
ke the world believe it was not fact. But our work here has been under the eye
of such competent witnesses of such high character, and so many of them, that Sa
tan no longer can deny the stories of what God has done. The news has reached a
ll the Pacific coast states. People are coming, not the sick only, but teachers
, particularly among the Truth people of the coast country, to inquire what it i
s, and what is the difference, and what do we mean when we talk about the Baptis
m of the Holy Ghost, and how do you get it?
During the year 1915, 8030 persons were healed. Mr. Westwood ministers with me
in the work, and has the adjoining healing room.- Mr. S. P. Fogwill, formerly a
deacon of Zion City is also with me. He makes calls from home throughout the ci
ty with the Ford car. Usually we minister to one hundred persons per day, somet
imes more, sometimes less.
Among the cases of healing are three of recent occurrence, which I want to give
you. They are out of the usual order of healings, and in my judgment belong to
the class of miracles of creative order.

One is Mrs. Pn., a trained nurse, a graduate of Trinity Hospital, Milwaukee. Sh

e was operated upon the generative organs were removed, womb and ovaries in July
last. In November she was operated on again for gall stones. After the operat
ion the bile broke loose and flowed from her body in quarts to such an extent th
at death became imminent. Indeed, during the time she was being prayed for she
was passed into a state of coma, apparent death, and for about half an hour ther
e was no evidence of life, and no breath passed her lips. Mr. Westwood was with
her. He had been all night. It was about 4 A.M. The Spirit of God took gradua
l control of her being in such power that she was healed entirely of the gall st
one difficulty. Her generative organs re-grew, and last month she became a perf
ectly normal woman. She is now the matron of our divine healing home.
The second case is that of Miss K., a victim of glandular tuberculosis. She was
operated on 26 times, and was treated by 56 different physicians, and finally l
eft to die. One after another abandoned the case. In one of her operations an
incision was made in the lower abdomen. This was done in an endeavor to remove
a great quantity of pus that had formed in the body. On account of the tubercul
ar state of the flesh the wounds could not heal nor hold stitches. Three times
she was opened up and sewed up, but without avail. The consequences was that a
normal movement of the bowels could not take place. This condition lasted for s
ix and one half years. While down in the city she fainted on the street. They
were about to take her to St. Lukes Hospital for an operation when she became c
onscious, and she refused to go. She came to our home and spent the night with
us. We prayed for her. On the next day, Sunday, as she sat in the tabernacle i
n the afternoon service while public prayer was being offered, she said it seeme
d to her as if a hand was placed inside of her abdomen, and another hand on her
head. The voice of the Spirit spoke within her soul and said, "You are healed."
She arose from her chair, and became perfectly normal.
Number three. Mrs. L, the wife of a main street merchant here, fell downstairs
some ten or twelve years ago, which caused a prolapsus of the stomach, bowels, a
nd female organs. She became an invalid. After suffering several years of oper
ations and suffering she was attacked with rheumatics and became a helpless crip
ple. When the doctors had failed, she was recommended to take bath treatments a
t Soap Lake one of the hot lakes in Washington, where the water is very hot and
very much mineralized. The treatment had this strange effect that the disease l
eft her body and centered entirely in the right leg. A formation of bone, as la
rge as a large orange came on the inside of the right leg and the bone of the le
g began to grow until the leg was three inches longer than the other one, and th
e foot became almost an inch longer than the other one. Her lungs had fallen in
through tuberculosis. She was prayed for one day in the healing rooms, and as
soon as she went out to get into her car she was amazed to discover that her lun
gs were raising up, and her chest was filling out. She was perfectly and instan
tly healed of that.
Later while I prayed for her concerning the lump on her leg, the Spirit came upo
n her powerfully and she burst into a great perspiration, which ran down her per
son into her shoes. The leg which was 3 inches longer than the other one at the
time, shortened at the rate of an inch a week and in three weeks were perfectly
natural and the same length as the other. The foot also shortened in length, a
nd now she wears the same sized shoes on both feet, and her legs are of equal le
ngth.
Our work has extended into the country round about. We now have a congregation
in Bovill, Idaho, another in Moscow, Idaho, the seat of the State University, an
d another at Pullman, Wash. where the Washington agricultural schools are locate

d. We have another congregation in the north part of Spokane, aside from the cen
tral work.
Doing Just That
Written by John G. Lake
Collections - John G. Lake
Winchester, Idaho
Winchester Journal of August 24th.
F.J. Hauptman of Winchester is a living example of the power of healing other th
an that of medicine, Three weeks ago lie went to Spokane encased in steel braces
, suffering with an aggravated case of tuberculosis of the spine. He returned T
uesday evening minus the braces, showing an elasticity of step that accorded you
th itself, The Lake system of Divine Healing is responsible for Mr. Hauptmans i
mproved condition.
For the past two years Mr. H. has been a sufferer from tuberculosis of the spine
. For a period of six months he was confined to his bed, and for the past five
months wore braces in order that he might be able to stand on his feet even for
a short time. He bad about given up hope of a cure when he was persuaded to try
the Lake treatment.
After being in Spokane for six days he discarded his braces and the same day wal
ked a distance of 15 blocks, not experiencing the least fatigue. Since then his
recovery has been rapid and he returns home practically a new man.
Mr. Hauptmans recovery may be considered in the light of a miracle. The best m
edical skills available had failed to bring relief, but by the mere laying on of
hands and the expression of faith, in a higher power the ailing man is made str
ong and an unbounded confidence in the creator made everlasting
Like Precious Faith
Written by Smith Wigglesworth
Collections - Smith Wigglesworth
Read 2 Peter 1:1-8. We are dull of comprehension because we so often let the car
es of this world blind our eyes; but if we can be open to God, we shall see that
He has a greater plan for us in the future than we have ever seen in the past.
It is Gods delight to make possible to us that which seems impossible, and when
we reach a place where He alone has right of way, then all the things that have
been misty and misunderstood are cleared up.
This like precious faith that Peter is writing about is a gift that God is willi
ng to give to all of us, and I believe God wants us to receive it so that we may
subdue kingdoms, work righteousness, and, if the time is come, to stop the mout
hs of lions. We should be able under all circumstances to triumph, because we ha
ve no confidence in ourselves, but our confidence is only in God. It is always t
hose people who are full of faith that have a good report, that never murmur, th
at are in the place of victory, that are not in the place of human order but of
divine order, since God has come to dwell in them.
This like precious faith is for all; but there may be some hindrance in your lif
e that God will have to deal with. It seems to me as if I had had a thousand roa
d engines come over my life to break me up like a potters vessel. There is no o
ther way into the deep things of God but a broken spirit. There is no other way
into the power of God. God will do the exceeding abundantly above all we ask or
think for us when He can bring us to the place where we can say with Paul, I live
no longer, and Another, even Christ, has taken the reins and the rule.
I understand God by His Word. I cannot understand God by impressions or feelings

; I cannot get to know God

to know Him by His Word. I
y feelings that I am going
ys it, and I believe Gods
Word of God. Rom. 10;17.

by sentiments. If I am going to know God, I am going

know I shall be in heaven, but I could not build on m
to heaven. I am going to heaven because Gods Word sa
Word. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the

In Mark 11:24 we read, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that y
e receive them, and ye shall have them. The previous verse speaks of mountains re
moved, difficulties cleared away. Veneering wont do. We must have reality, the
real working of our God. We must know God. We must be able to go in and hold con
verse with God. We must also know the mind of God toward us, so that all our pet
itions are always on the line of His will.
As this like precious faith becomes a part of you, it will make you so that you
will dare to do anything. And remember, God wants daring men, men who will dare
all, men who will be strong in Him and dare to do exploits. How shall we reach t
his plane of faith? Let go your own thoughts, and take the thoughts of God, the
Word of God. If you build yourself on imaginations you will go wrong. You have t
he Word of God and it is enough. A man gave this remarkable testimony concerning
the Word: Never compare this Book with other books. Comparisons are dangerous. N
ever think or never say that this Book contains the Word of God. It is the Word
of God. It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in valu
e, infinite in scope, regenerative in power, infallible in authority, universal
in interest, personal in application, inspired in totality. Read it through. Wri
te it down. Pray it in. Work it out. And then pass it on.
And truly the Word of God changes a man until he becomes an epistle of God. It t
ransforms his mind, changes his character, moves him on from grace to grace, mak
es him an inheritor of the very nature of God. God comes in, dwells in, walks in
, talks through, and sups with him who opens his being to the Word of God and re
ceives the Spirit who inspired it.
When I was going over to New Zealand and Australia, I had many to see me off. Th
ere was an Indian doctor who was riding in the same car with me to the docks. He
was very quiet and took in all things that were said on the ship. I began to pr
each, of course, and the Lord began to work among the people. In the second-clas
s part of the ship there was a young man and his wife who were attendants on a l
ady and gentleman in the first-class. And as these two young people heard me tal
king to them privately and otherwise, they were very much impressed. Then the la
dy they were attending got very sick. In her sickness and her loneliness she cou
ld find no relief. They called in the doctor, and the doctor gave her no hope.
And then, when in this strange dilemma -- she was a great Christian Scientist, a
preacher of it, and had gone up and down preaching it -- they thought of me. Kn
owing the conditions, and what she lived for, that it was late in the day, and t
hat in the condition of her mind she could only receive the simplest words, I sa
id to her, Now you are very sick, and I wont talk to you about anything save thi
s; I will pray for you in the name of Jesus, and the moment I pray you will be h
ealed.
And the moment I prayed she was healed. That was this like precious faith in ope
ration. Then she was disturbed. Now I could have poured in oil very soon. But I
poured in all the bitter drugs possible, and for three days I had her on cinders
. I showed her her terrible state, and pointed out to her all her folly and the
fallacy of her position. I showed her that there was nothing in Christian Scienc
e, that it is a lie from the beginning, one of the last agencies of hell. At bes
t a lie, preaching a lie, and producing a lie.
Then she wakened up. She became so penitent and broken-hearted. But the thing th
at stirred her first was that she had to go to preach the simple gospel of Chris

t where she had preached Christian Science. She asked me if she had to give up c
ertain things. I wont mention the things, they are too vile. I said, What you ha
ve to do is to see Jesus and take Jesus. When she saw the Lord in His purity, the
other things had to go. At the presence of Jesus all else goes.
This opened the door. I had to preach to all on the boat. This gave me a great o
pportunity. As I preached, the power of God fell, conviction came and sinners we
re saved. They followed me into my cabin one after another. God was working ther
e.
Then this Indian doctor came. He said, What shall I do? I cannot use medicine any
more. Why? Oh, your preaching has changed me. But I must have a foundation. Will yo
u spend some time with me? Of course I will. Then we went alone and God broke the f
allow ground. This Indian doctor was going right back to his Indian conditions u
nder a new order. He had left a practice there. He told me of the great practice
he had. He was going back to his practice to preach Jesus.
If you have lost your hunger for God, if you do not have a cry for more of God,
you are missing the plan. There must come up from us a cry that cannot be satisf
ied with anything but God. He wants to give us the vision of the prize ahead tha
t is something higher than we have ever attained. If you ever stop at any point,
pick up at the place where you have dropped through, and begin again under the
refining light and power of heaven and God will meet you. And while He will brin
g you to a consciousness of your own frailty and to a brokenness of spirit, your
faith will lay hold of Him and all the divine resources, His light and compassi
on will be manifested through you, and He will send the rain.
Shall we not dedicate ourselves afresh to God? Some say, I dedicated myself last
night to God. Every new revelation brings a new dedication. Let us seek Him.
God-Given Faith
Written by Smith Wigglesworth
Collections - Smith Wigglesworth
Read Hebrews 11:1-11. I believe that there is only
of God, and that is the way of faith. By faith and
a knowledge of the attributes and become partakers
ipate in the glories of our ascended Lord. All His
them that believe.

one way to all the treasures

faith alone do we enter into
of the beatitudes, and partic
promises are Yea and Amen to

God would have us come to Him by His own way. That is through the open door of g
race. A way has been made. It is a beautiful way, and all His saints can enter i
n by this way and find rest. God has prescribed that the just shall live by fait
h. I find that all is failure that has not its base on the rock Christ Jesus. He
is the only way, the truth and the life. The way of faith is the Christ way, re
ceiving Him in His fulness and walking in Him; receiving His quickening life tha
t filleth, moveth and changeth us, bringing us to a place where there is always
an Amen in our hearts to all the will of God.
As I look into the 12th chapter of Acts, I find that the people were praying all
night for Peter to come out of prison. They had a zeal but seem to have been la
cking in faith. They were to be commended for their zeal in spending their time
in prayer without ceasing, but their faith, evidently, did not measure up to suc
h a marvelous answer. Rhoda had more faith than the rest of them. When the knock
came to the door, she ran to it, and the moment she heard Peters voice, she ra
n back again with joy saying that Peter stood before the gate. And all the peopl
e said, You are mad. It isnt so. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so.
Zacharias and Elisabeth surely wanted a son, but even when the angel came and to
ld Zacharias that he should have a son, he was full of unbelief. And the angel s
aid, Thou shalt be dumb, because thou believest not my words.

But look at Mary. When the angel came to her, Mary said, Be it unto me according
to thy word. It was her Amen to the will of God. And God wants us with an Amen in
our lives, an inward Amen, a mighty moving Amen, a God-inspired Amen, which say
s, It is, because God has spoken. It cannot be otherwise. It is impossible to be
otherwise.
Let us examine this 5th verse, By faith Enoch was translated that he should not s
ee death; and was not found, because God translated him: for before his translat
ion, he had this testimony that he pleased God.
When I was in Sweden, the Lord worked mightily. After one or two addresses the l
eaders called me and said, We have heard very strange things about you, and we wo
uld like to know if they are true. We can see that God is with you, and that God
is moving, and we know that it will be a great blessing to Sweden.
Well, I said, what is it?
Well, they said, we have heard from good authority that you preach that you have th
e resurrection body. When I was in France I had an interpreter that believed this
thing, and I found out, after I had preached once or twice through the interpre
ter, that she gave out her own ideas. And of course I did not know. I said to th
ese brethren, I tell you what my personal convictions are. I believe that if I ha
d the testimony of Enoch I should be off. I believe that the moment Enoch had th
e testimony that he pleased God, off he went.
I pray that God will so quicken our faith, for translation is in the mind of God
; but remember that translation comes on the line of holy obedience and a walk t
hat is pleasing to God. This was true of Enoch. And I believe that we must have
a like walk with God in the Spirit, having communion with him, living under his
divine smile, and I pray that God by His Spirit may so move us that we will be w
here Enoch was when he walked with God.
There are two kinds of faith. There is the natural faith. But the supernatural f
aith is the gift of God. In Acts 26:19, Paul is telling Agrippa of what the Lord
said to him in commissioning him. To open their eyes, and to turn them from dark
ness to light, from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgivene
ss of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in
Me.
Is that the faith of Paul? No, it is the faith that the Holy Ghost is giving. It
is the faith that He brings to us as we press in and on with God. I want to put
before you this difference between our faith and the faith of Jesus. Our faith
comes to an end. Most people in this place have come to where they have said, Lor
d, I can go no further. I have gone so far and I can go no further. I have used
all the faith I have, and I have just to stop now and wait.
I remember being one day in Lancashire, and going round to see some sick people.
I was taken into a house where there was a young woman lying on a bed, a very h
elpless case. The reason had gone, and many things were manifested there which w
ere satanic and I knew it. She was only a young woman, a beautiful child. The hu
sband, quite a young man, came in with the baby, and he leaned over to kiss the
wife. The moment he did, she threw herself over on the other side, just as a lun
atic would do. That was very heart-breaking. Then he took the baby and pressed t
he babys lips to the mother. Again another wild kind of thing happened. I asked
one who was attending her, Have you anybody to help? Oh, they said, We have had ever
ything. But, I said, have you no spiritual help? Her husband stormed out, saying, Help
? You think that we believe in God, after we have had seven weeks of no sleep an
d maniac conditions.
Then a young woman of about eighteen or so just grinned at me and passed out of
the door. That brought me to a place of compassion for the woman. Something had

to be done, no matter what it was. Then with all my faith I began to penetrate t
he heavens, and I was soon out of that house, I will tell you, for I never saw a
man get anything from God who prayed on the earth. If you get anything from God
, you will have to pray into heaven; for it is all there. If you are living in t
he earth realm and expect things from heaven, they will never come. And as I saw
, in the presence of God, the limitations of my faith, there came another faith,
a faith that could not be denied, a faith that took the promise, a faith that b
elieved Gods Word. And from that presence, I came back again to earth, but not
the same man. God gave a faith that could shake hell and anything else.
I said, Come out of her, in the name of Jesus! And she rolled over and fell asleep
and wakened in fourteen hours perfectly sane and perfectly whole.
There is a process on this line. Enoch walked with God. That must have been all
those years as he was penetrating, and going through, and laying hold, and belie
ving and seeing and getting into such close cooperation and touch with God that
things moved on earth and he began to move toward heaven. At last it was not pos
sible for him to stop any longer. Oh, Hallelujah!
In the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians we read of the body being sown in weakness
, to be raised in power. It seems to me that, as we are looking for translation,
the Lord would have us know something of that power now, and would have us kept
in that power, so that we shall not be sown in weakness.
There is one thing that God has given me from my youth up, a taste and relish fo
r my Bible. I can say before God, I have never read a book but my Bible, so I kn
ow 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 are being changed and made meet to wa
lk with God.
Without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must beli
eve that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
I can see that it is impossible to please Him on any line but faith, for everyth
ing that is not of faith is sin. God wants us to see that the plan of faith is t
he ideal and principle of God. In this connection I love to keep in my thoughts
the beautiful words in the 2nd verse of the 12th chapter of Hebrews: Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is the author of faith. God work
ed through Him for the forming of the world. All things were made by Him, and wit
hout Him was not anything made that was made. And because of the exceedingly abun
dant joy of providing for us so great salvation, He became the author of a livin
g faith. And through this principle of living faith, looking unto Him who is the
author and finisher of our faith, we are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord.
God has something better for you than you have ever had in the past. Come out in
to all the fulness of faith and power and life and victory that He is willing to
provide, as you forget the things of the past, and press right on for the prize
of His high calling in Christ Jesus.
Spiritual Power
Written by Smith Wigglesworth
Collections - Smith Wigglesworth
Bible Reading--Matthew 16.
The Pharisees and Sadducees had been tempting Jesus to show them a sign from hea
ven. He showed them that they could discern the signs that appeared on the face
of the sky, and yet could not discern the signs of the times. He would give them
no sign to satisfy their unbelieving curiosity, remarking that a wicked and adu

lterous generation sought after a sign, and that no sign would be given to them,
but the sign of the prophet Jonah. A wicked and adulterous generation stumbles
over the story of Jonah, but faith can see in that story a wonderful picture of
the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
After Jesus had departed from the Pharisees, and had come to the other side of t
he lake, He said to His disciples, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pha
risees and of the Sadducees. The disciples began to reason among themselves; and
all they could think of was that they had taken no bread. What were they to do?
Then Jesus uttered these words, O ye of little faith! He had been so long with the
m, and yet they were still a great disappointment to Him, because of their lack
of comprehension and of faith. They could not grasp the profound spiritual truth
He was bringing to them, and could only think about having brought no bread. O y
e of little faith! Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of
the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of
the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
At one time Jesus said to Peter, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings
of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children or of strangers? Peter
said, Of strangers. Then Jesus said, Then are the children free. Nevertheless, les
t we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fi
sh that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a
piece of money; take that, and give unto them, for me and thee. Peter had been at
the fishing business all his life, but he never had caught a fish with any silv
er in its mouth. But the Master does not want us to reason things out--for carna
l reasoning will always land us in a bog of unbelief--but just to obey. This is a
hard job, Peter may have said, as he put the bait on his hook, but since You told
me to do it, Ill try; and he cast his line into the sea. There were millions of
fish in the sea, but every fish had to stand aside and leave that bait alone, a
nd let that fish with the piece of money in his mouth come up and take it.
A woman came to me in Cardiff, Wales, who was filled with ulceration. She had fa
llen in the streets twice through this trouble. She came to the meeting and it s
eemed as if the evil power within her purposed to kill her right there, for she
fell, and the power of the devil was rending her sore. She was helpless, and it
seemed as if she had expired. I cried, O God, help this woman. Then I rebuked the
evil power in the name of Jesus, and instantly the Lord healed her. She rose up
and made a great to-do. She felt the power of God in her body and wanted to test
ify all the time. After three days she went to another place and began to testif
y about the Lords power to heal. She came to me and said, I want to tell everyon
e about the Lords healing power. Have you no tracts on this subject? I handed he
r my Bible and said, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John--they are the best tracts on heali
ng. They are full of incidents about the power of Jesus. They will never fail to
accomplish the work of God if people will believe them.
There is where men lack. All lack of faith is due to not feeding on Gods Word.
You need it every day. How can you enter into a life of faith? Feed on the livin
g Christ of whom this Word is full. As you get taken up with the glorious fact a
nd the wondrous presence of the living Christ, the faith of God will spring up w
ithin you. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Rom. 10:17.
Jesus asked His disciples what men were saying about Him. They told Him, Some say
that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of th
e prophets. Then He put the question, to see what they thought about it, But whom
say ye that I am? Peter answered, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. A
nd Jesus said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. It is simple. Who do
you say He is? Who is He? Do you say with Peter, Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God? How can you know this? He is to be revealed. Flesh and blood doe
s not reveal this. It is an inward revelation. God wants to reveal His Son withi

n us and make us conscious of an inward presence. Then you can cry, I know He is
mine! He is mine! He is mine! Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, an
d he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Seek God until you get from Him a mig
hty revelation of the Son, until that inward revelation moves you on to the plac
e where you are always steadfast, unmoveable, and always abounding in the work o
f the Lord.
There is a wonderful power in this revelation. Upon this rock I will build my chu
rch; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto th
ee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, s
hall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loose
d in heaven. Was Peter the rock? No. A few minutes later he was so full of the de
vil that Christ had to say to him, Get thee behind me, satan; thou art an offense
unto me. This rock was Christ. He is the Rock and there are many scriptures to c
onfirm this. And to everyone who knows that He is the Christ He gives the key of
faith, the power to bind and the power to loose. Stablish your hearts with this
fact.
I had been preaching on this line in Toronto, endeavoring to show that the momen
t a man believes with all his heart God puts into him a reality, a substance, a
life; yea, God dwells in him, and with the new birth there comes into us a might
y force that is mightier than all the power of the enemy. A man ran out of the m
eeting, and when I got home that night he was there with a big, fine, tall man.
This man said to me, Three years ago my nerves became shattered. I cant sleep. I
have lost my business. I have lost everything. I am not able to sleep at all an
d my life is one of misery. I said to him, Go home and sleep in the name of Jesus.
He turned around and seemed reluctant to go; but I said to him, Go! and shoved him
out of the door.
The next morning he rang up on the telephone. He said to my host, Tell him I slep
t all night. I want to see him at once. He came and said, Im a new man. I feel I
have new life. And now can you get me my money back? I said, Everything! He said, Te
ll me how. I said, Come to the meeting tonight and Ill tell you. The power of God
was mightily present in that evening meeting, and he was greatly under convictio
n. He made for the altar, but fell before he got there. The Lord changed him and
everything in him. He is now a successful businessman. All his past failures ha
d come through a lack of the knowledge of God. No matter what troubles you, God
can shake the devil out, and completely transform you. There is none like Him.
One day I was traveling in a railway train where there were two sick people in t
he car, a mother and her daughter. I said to them, Look, Ive something in this b
ag that will cure every case in the world. It has never been known to fail. They
became very much interested, and I went on telling them more about this remedy t
hat has never failed to remove disease and sickness. At last they summoned up co
urage to ask for a dose. So I opened my bag, took out my Bible, and read them th
at verse, I am the Lord that healeth thee. It never fails. He will heal you if you
dare believe Him. Men are searching everywhere today for things with which they
can heal themselves, and they ignore the fact that the Balm of Gilead is within
easy reach. As I talked about this wonderful Physician, the faith of both mothe
r and daughter went out toward Him, and He healed them both, right in the train.
God has made His Word so precious that, if I could not get another copy, I would
not part with my Bible for all the world. There is life in the Word. There is v
irtue in it. I find Christ in it; and He is the One I need for spirit, soul and
body. It tells me of the power of His name and of the power of His blood for cle
ansing. The lions may lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. Psalm 34:10.
A man came to me at one time, brought by a little woman. I said, Whats up with h
im? She said, He gets situations, but he fails every time. He is a slave to alcoho

l and nicotine poison. He is a bright, intelligent man in most things, but he go

es under to those two things. I was reminded of the words of the Master, giving u
s power to bind and loose, and I told him to put out his tongue. In the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ I cast out the evil powers that gave him the taste for the
se things. I said to him, Man, you are free today. He was unsaved, but when he rea
lized the power of the Lord in delivering him, he came to the services, publicly
acknowledged that he was a sinner, and the Lord saved and baptized him. A few d
ays later I asked, How are things with you? He said, I am delivered. God has given u
s the power to bind and the power to loose.
In another place a woman came to me and said, I have not been able to smell for t
wenty years; can you do anything for me? I said, You shall smell tonight. Could I g
ive anybody that which had been lost for twenty years? Not of myself, but I reme
mbered the Rock on which Gods church is built, the Rock Christ Jesus, and His p
romise to give to His own the power to bind and loose. We can dare to do anythin
g if we know we have the Word of God behind us. In the name of the Lord Jesus I
loosed this woman. She ran all the way home. The table was full of good things,
but she would not touch a thing. She said, I am having a feast of smelling! Praise
the Lord for the fact that He Himself backs up his own Word and proves the trut
h of it in these days of unbelief and apostasy.
Another person came and said, What can you do for me? I have had sixteen operatio
ns and have had my ear drums taken out. I said, God has not forgotten how to make
ear drums. I anointed her and prayed, asking the Lord that the ear drums should b
e replaced. She was so deaf that I do not think she would have heard had a canno
n gone off. She was as deaf afterwards as it was possible to be. But she saw oth
er people getting healed and rejoicing. Has God forgotten to be gracious? Was Hi
s power just the same? She came the next night and said, I have come tonight to b
elieve God. Take care you do not come in any other way. I prayed for her again an
d commanded her ears to be loosed in the name of Jesus. She believed, and the mo
ment she believed she heard, she ran and jumped upon a chair and began to preach
. Later I let a pin drop and she heard it fall. God can give drums to ears. All
things are possible with God. God can save the worst.
Discouraged one, cast your burden on the Lord. He will sustain you. Look unto Hi
m and be lightened. Look unto Him now.
Pauls Pentecost
Written by Smith Wigglesworth
Collections - Smith Wigglesworth
Read Acts 9:1-22.
Saul was probably the greatest persecutor that the early Christians had. We read
that he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and
women, committed them to prison. At this time we find him breathing out threate
nings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. He was on his way to Dama
scus for the purpose of destroying the church there. How did God deal with such
a one? We should have dealt with him in judgment. God dealt with him in mercy. O
h, the wondrous love of God! He loved the saints at Damascus and the way He pres
erved them was through the salvation of the man who purposed to scatter and dest
roy them. Our God delights to be merciful and His grace is vouchsafed daily to b
oth sinner and saint. He shows mercy to all. If we would but realize it, we are
only alive today through the grace of our God.
More and more I see that it is through the grace of God that I am preserved ever
y day. It is when we realize the goodness of God that we are brought to repentan
ce. Here was Saul, with letters from the high priest, hastening to Damascus. He
was struck down and there came to his vision a light, a light that was brighter
than the sun. As he fell speechless to the ground he heard a voice saying to him
, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? He answered, Who art thou, Lord? And the answ

er came back, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. And he cried, Lord, what wilt Thou
have me to do? And the men that were with him lost their speech -- they were spee
chless -- but they led him to Damascus.
There are some people who have an idea that it is only preachers who can know th
e will of God. But the Lord has a disciple in Damascus, a man behind the scenes,
who lived in a place where God could talk to him. His ears were open. He was on
e who listened in to the things from heaven. Oh, this is so much more marvelous
than anything you can hear on earth. It was to this man that the Lord appeared i
n a vision. He told him to go down to the street called Straight and inquire for
Saul. And He told him that Saul had seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming
in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. Ananias protest
ed, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy sai
nts in Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all
that call on Thy name. But the Lord assured Ananias that Saul was a chosen vessel
, and Ananias, nothing doubting, went on his errand of mercy.
The Lord had told Ananias concerning Saul, Behold, he prayeth. Repentant prayer is
always heard in heaven. The Lord never despises a broken and contrite heart. An
d to Saul was given this vision that was soon to be a reality, the vision of Ana
nias coming to pray for him that he might receive his sight.
As I was looking through my letters one day while in the city of Belfast, a man
came up to me and said, Are you visiting the sick? He pointed me to go to a certai
n house and told me to go to it and there I would see a very sick woman. I went
to the house and I saw a very helpless woman propped up in bed. I knew that huma
nly speaking she was beyond all help. She was breathing with short, sharp breath
s as if every breath would be her last. I cried to the Lord and said, Lord, tell
me what to do. The Lord said to me, Read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. I opene
d my Bible and did as I was told. I read down to the fifth verse of this chapter
, when all of a sudden the woman shouted, I am healed! I am healed! I was amazed a
t this sudden exclamation and asked her to tell me what had happened. She said, T
wo weeks ago I was cleaning house and I strained my heart very badly. Two physic
ians have been to see me, but they both told me there was no help. But last nigh
t the Lord gave me a vision. I saw you come right into my bedroom. I saw you pra
ying. I saw you open your Bible at the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. When you g
ot down to the fifth verse and read the words, With His stripes we are healed,
I saw myself wonderfully healed. That was a vision, now it is a fact.
I do thank God that visions have not ceased. The Holy Ghost can give visions, an
d we may expect them in these last days. God willeth not the death of any sinner
and He will use all kinds of means for their salvation. Oh, what a gospel of lo
ve!
Ananias went down to the house on Straight Street and he laid his hands on the o
ne who had before been a blasphemer and a persecutor and he said to him, Brother
Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, h
ath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy G
host. The Lord had not forgotten his physical condition and there was healing for
him. But there was something beyond this. It was the filling with the Holy Ghos
t. Oh, it always seems to me that the Gospel is robbed of its divine glory when
we overlook this marvelous truth of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. To be saved i
s wonderful, to be a new creature, to have passed from death unto life, to have
the witness of the Spirit that you are born of God, all this is unspeakably prec
ious. But whereas we have the well of salvation bubbling up, we need to go on to
a place where from within us shall flow rivers of living water.
God chose Saul. What was he? A blasphemer. A persecutor. That is grace. Our God
is gracious and He loves to show His mercy to the vilest and worst of men. There
was a notable character in the town in which I lived who was known as the worst

man in the town. He was so vile, and his language was so horrible, that even wi
cked men could not stand it. In England they have what is known as the public ha
ngman who has to perform all the executions. This man held that appointment and
he told me later that he believed that when he performed the execution of men wh
o had committed murder, that the demon power that was in them would come upon hi
m and that in consequence he was possessed with a legion of demons. His life was
so miserable that he purposed to make an end of life. He went down to a certain
depot and purchased a ticket. The English trains are much different from the Am
erican. In every coach there are a number of small compartments and it is easy f
or anyone who wants to commit suicide to open the door of his compartment and th
row himself out of the train. This man purposed to throw himself out of the trai
n in a certain tunnel just as the train coming from an opposite direction would
be about to dash past and he thought this would be a quick end to his life.
There was a young man at the depot that night who had been saved the night befor
e. He was all on fire to get others saved and purposed in his heart that every d
ay of his life he would get someone saved. He saw this dejected hangman and bega
n to speak to him about his soul. He brought him down to our mission and there h
e came under a mighty conviction of sin. For two and a half hours he was literal
ly sweating under conviction and you could see a vapor rising up from him. At th
e end of two and a half hours he was graciously saved.
I said, Lord, tell me what to do. The Lord said, Dont leave him, go home with him.
I went to his house. When he saw his wife he said, God has saved me. The wife brok
e down and she too was graciously saved. I tell you there was a difference in th
at home. Even the cat knew the difference.
There were two sons in that house and one of them said to his mother, Mother, wha
t is up in our house? It was never like this before. It is so peaceful. What is
it? She told him, Father has been saved. The other son was struck with the same thi
ng.
I took this man to many special services and the power of God was on him for man
y days. He would give his testimony and as he grew in grace he desired to preach
the gospel. He became an evangelist and hundreds and hundreds were brought to a
saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through his ministry. The grace of Go
d is sufficient for the vilest and He can take the most wicked of men and make t
hem monuments of his grace. He did this with Saul of Tarsus at the very time he
was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.
He did it with Berry the hangman. He will do it for hundreds more in response to
our cries.
You will notice that when Ananias came into that house he called the one-time en
emy of the gospel Brother Saul. The Lord Jesus has sent Ananias to that house to p
ut his hands upon this newly saved brother that he might receive his sight and b
e filled with the Holy Ghost. You say, But it does not say that he spoke in tongu
es. We know that Paul did speak in tongues; that he spoke in tongues more than al
l the Corinthians. In those early days they were so near the time of that first
Pentecostal outpouring that they would never have been satisfied with anyone rec
eiving the Baptism unless they received it according to the original pattern giv
en on the Day of Pentecost. When Peter was relating what took place in the house
of Cornelius at Caesarea he said, And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell o
n them, as on us at the beginning. Later, speaking of this incident, he said, God,
which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even a
s He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hea
rts by faith. And we know from the account of what took place at Cornelius house
hold that when the Holy Ghost fell they heard them speak with tongues and magnify
God. Many people think that God does make a difference between us and those at t
he beginning. But they have no Scripture for this. When anyone receives the gift
of the Holy Ghost, there will assuredly be no difference between his experience

today and that which was given on the Day of Pentecost. And I cannot believe th
at, when Saul was filled with the Holy Ghost the Lord made any difference in the
experience that He gave him from the experience that He had given to Peter and
the rest a short while before.
It was about thirty-one years ago that a man came to me and said, Wigglesworth, d
o you know what is happening in Sunderland? People are being baptized in the Hol
y Ghost exactly the same way as the disciples were on the Day of Pentecost. I sai
d, I would like to go. I immediately took train and went to Sunderland. I went to
the meetings and said, I want to hear these tongues. I was told, When you receive t
he Baptism in the Holy Ghost, you will speak in tongues. I said, I have the Baptis
m in the Holy Ghost. One man said, Brother, when I received the Baptism I spoke in
tongues. I said, Lets hear you. He could not speak in tongues to order, he could
only speak as the Spirit gave him utterance and so my curiosity was not satisfie
d.
I saw these people were very earnest and I became quite hungry. I was anxious to
see this new manifestation of the Spirit and I would be questioning all the tim
e and spoiling a lot of the meetings. One man said to me, I am a missionary and I
have come here to seek the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. I am waiting on the Lord,
but you have come in and are spoiling everything with your questions. I began to
argue with him and our love became so hot that when we walked home he walked on
one side of the road and I on the other.
That night there was to be a tarrying meeting and I purposed to go. I changed my
clothes and left my key in the clothes I had taken off. As we came from the mee
ting in the middle of the night I found I did not have my key upon me and this m
issionary brother said, You will have to come and sleep with me. But do you think
we went to bed that night? Oh, no, we spent the night in prayer. We received a p
recious shower from above. The breakfast bell rang, but that was nothing to me.
For four days I wanted nothing but God. If you only knew the unspeakably wonderf
ul blessings of being filled with the Third Person of the Trinity, you would set
aside everything else to tarry for this infilling.
I was about to leave Sunderland. This revival was taking place in the vestry of
an Episcopal Church. I went to the Vicarage that day to say goodbye and I said t
o Sister Boddy, the vicars wife, I am going away, but I have not received the to
ngues yet. She said, It isnt tongues you need, but the Baptism. I said, I have the
Baptism, Sister, but I would like to have you lay hands on me before I leave. She
laid her hands on me and then had to go out of the room. The fire fell. It was
a wonderful time as I was there with God alone. It seemed as though God bathed m
e in power. I was given a wonderful vision. I was conscious of the cleansing of
the precious blood and cried out, Clean! Clean! Clean! I was filled with the joy o
f the consciousness of the cleansing. I saw the Lord Jesus Christ. I saw the emp
ty cross and I saw Him exalted at the right hand of God the Father. As I was ext
olling, magnifying, and praising Him I was speaking in tongues as the Spirit of
God gave me utterance. I knew now that I had received the real Baptism in the Ho
ly Ghost.
I sent a telegram home and when I got there one of our boys said, "Father, I hea
r you have been speaking in tongues. Lets hear you." I could not speak in tongu
es. I had been moved to speak in tongues as the Spirit of God gave utterance at
the moment I received the Baptism, but I did not receive the gift of tongues and
could not speak a word. I never spoke again in tongues until nine months later
when I was praying for someone, and it was then that God gave me the permanent g
ift of speaking in tongues.
And so Saul was filled with the Holy Ghost and in the later chapters of the Acts
of the Apostles we see the result of this infilling. Oh, what a difference it m
akes. When I got home my wife said to me, "So you think you have received the Ba

ptism of the Holy Ghost. Why, I am as much baptized in the Holy Ghost as you are
." We had sat on the platform together for twenty years but that night she said,
"Tonight you will go by yourself." I said, "All right." As I went up to the pla
tform that night the Lord gave me the first few verses of the sixty-first chapte
r of Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anoin
ted me to preach good tidings unto the meek: He hath sent me to bind up the brok
en-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison t
o them that are bound." My wife went back to one of the furthermost seats in the
hall and she said to herself, "I will watch it." I preached that night on the s
ubject the Lord had given me and I told what the Lord had done for me. I told th
e people that I was going to have God in my life and I would gladly suffer a tho
usand deaths rather than forfeit this wonderful infilling that had come to me. M
y wife was very restless. She was moved in a new way and said, "That is not my S
mith that is preaching. Lord, you have done something for him." As soon as I had
finished, the secretary of the mission got up and said, "Brethren, I want what
the leader of our mission has got." He tried to sit down but missed his seat and
fell on the floor. There were soon fourteen of them on the floor, my own wife i
ncluded. We did not know what to do, but the Holy Ghost got hold of the situatio
n and the fire fell. A revival started and the crowds came. It was only the begi
nning of the flood-tide of blessing. We had touched the reservoir of the Lords
life and power. Since that time the Lord has taken me to many different lands an
d I have witnessed many blessed outpourings of Gods Holy Spirit.
The grace of God that was given to the persecuting Saul is available for you. Th
e same Holy Ghost infilling he received is likewise available. Do not rest satis
fied with any lesser experience than the Baptism that the disciples received on
the Day of Pentecost, then move on to a life of continuous receiving of more and
more of the blessed Spirit of God.
Keeping the Vision
Written by Smith Wigglesworth
Collections - Smith Wigglesworth
Read the 20th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, beginning at verse 7. Humanit
y is a failure everywhere. But when humanity is filled with divine power, there
is no such thing as failure; and we know that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is
not a failure.
There are two sides to this Baptism: the first is, that you possess the Spirit;
the second is that the Spirit possesses you. This is my message at this time--be
ing possessed by the Baptizer, and not merely possessing the Baptizer. There is
no limit to the possibilities of such a life, because it has God behind it, in t
he midst of it, and through it. I see people from time to time very slack, cold,
and indifferent; but after they get filled with the Holy Spirit they become abl
aze for God. I believe that Gods ministers are to be flames of fire; nothing le
ss than flames; nothing less than mighty instruments with burning messages, with
a heart full of love, with such a depth of consecration that God has taken full
charge of the body and it exists only that it may manifest the glory of God. Su
rely, this is the ideal and the purpose of this great plan of salvation for man-that we might be filed with all the fulness of God, and become ministers of lif
e, God working mightily in us and through us to manifest His grace--the saving p
ower of humanity.
Now let us turn to this wonderful Word of God. I want you to see the demonstrati
on of this power in this man Paul--this man who was born out of due time: this Pau
l, who was plucked as a brand from the burning; this Paul whom God chose to be a
n apostle to the Gentiles. See him first as a persecutor, mad to destroy those w
ho were bringing glad tidings to the people. See how madly he rushed those peopl
e to prison, striving to make them blaspheme that holy name. Then see this same
man changed by the power of God and the Gospel of Christ; see him filled with th
e Holy Ghost, becoming a builder for God and a revealer of the Son of God, so th

at he could say, It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me. Gal. 2:20.
In the 9th chapter of Acts, we read that he was called to a special ministry. Th
e Lord said to Ananias, I will show him what great things he must suffer for my n
ames sake. I dont want you to think that this means suffering from diseases; fo
r it means suffering persecution, suffering from slander, from strife, from bitt
erness, from revilings and from many other evil things; but none of these things
will hurt you; rather, they will kindle the fire of the holy ambition, because
the scripture says, Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 5:10. To be persecuted for Chri
sts sake is to be joined up with a blessed, blessed people; but, better still,
it means to be united with our Lord Jesus in the closest of fellowship, the fell
owship of His suffering. There is a day coming when we will rejoice greatly that
we have been privileged to suffer for His names sake.
Beloved, God wants witnesses, witnesses to the truth, witnesses to the full trut
h, witnesses to the fulness of redemption--deliverance from sin and deliverance
from disease--by the eternal power working in them, as they are filled with life
through the Spirit. God wants us to believe that we may be ministers of that ki
nd--of glorious things wrought in us by the Holy Spirit.
See in verse 7, how Paul was lost in his zeal for his ministry, so that he contin
ued his speech until midnight. Then something happened that threatened to break u
p the meeting--a young man, becoming sleepy, fell out of the window. That was en
ough to break up any ordinary meeting. But this man, filled with the Spirit of G
od, was equal even to such an emergency even on the moment. He went down, picked
up the young man, brought life back into him by the Spirit of life that was in
him, then returned to the upper room and continued the meeting until break of da
y.
In Switzerland the people said to me, How long can you preach to us? I said to the
m, When the Holy Ghost is upon us, we can preach forever! When I was in San Franci
sco, driving down the main street one day, we came across a crowd in the street.
The driver stopped and I jumped out of the car, and right across from where the
tumult was, I found a boy lying on the ground apparently in the grip of death.
I got down and asked, What is amiss? He replied in a whisper, tramp. I put my hand u
nderneath his back and said, In the name of Jesus, come out. And the boy jumped up
and ran away, not even stopping to say Thank you.
So you will find out that, with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, you will be in a
position to act when you have no time to think. The power and working of the Ho
ly Spirit is of divine origin. It is the supernatural, God thrilling and moving
one with the authority and power of almightiness, and it brings things to pass t
hat could not come to pass in any other way. I had some things of this character
happen on the ship as I was crossing the ocean. I want ever to be in Pauls pos
ition--that at any time, even at midnight, in the face of anything, even death i
tself, God may be able to manifest His power and do what He wants to do through
me. This is what it means to be possessed by the Spirit of God. My heart is thri
lled with the possibility of coming into the place where Paul was. Let us read v
erse 19, that we may get our mind perfectly fortified with this blessed truth th
at God has for us.
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind. None of us is going to be able to be a
minister of this new covenant of promise in the unction and power of the Spirit
without humility. It seems to me that the way to get up is to get down. It is c
lear to me that in the measure that the dying of the Lord is in me, the life of
the Lord will abound in me. And to me, truly, a Baptism of the Holy Spirit is no
t the goal, but it is an inflow to reach the highest level, the holiest position
that it is possible for human nature to reach by Divine power. The Baptism of t
he Holy Spirit is given to reveal and to make real Him in whom dwells all the ful

ness of the Godhead bodily. Col. 2:9. So I see that to be baptized in the Holy Sp
irit means to be baptized into death, into life, into power, into fellowship wit
h the Trinity, where the old life ceases to be, and the life of God possesses us
forever.
No man can live after seeing God; and God wants us all to see Him in all His glo
rious, infinite sufficiency, so that we shall joyfully cease to be--that He may
become our life. Thus it was that Paul could say, It is no longer I that live, bu
t Christ liveth in me. I believe that God wants to make real to us all this ideal
of humility where we so recognize human helplessness and human insufficiency th
at we shall rest no more on human plans and human devices and human energy, but
continually look to God for His thought, for His voice, for His power, for His a
ll-sufficiency in all things.
Now here is another word for us. Let us read it. It is found in verse 22. Now, be
hold, I go bound in spirit. Is there a possibility of the human coming into onene
ss with the divine will? Let me give you two other versions of Scripture. Jesus
was a man of flesh and blood like ourselves; though He was the incarnation of th
e authority and power and majesty of heaven, yet He bore about in His body our f
lesh, our human weakness, being tempted in all points like as we are, yet withou
t sin. Oh, He was so lovely! Such a perfect Saviour! Oh, that I could shout Jesus
! so that all the world would hear. There is salvation, life, power, and delivera
nce through that name; but, beloved, I read in Mark 1:12, that that body was dri
ven by the Spirit. In the fourth chapter of Luke, it says led by the Spirit. And n
ow here is Paul bound in the spirit.
Oh, what condescension that God should lay hold of humanity and so possess it wi
th His holiness, with His righteousness, with his truth, with His faith, that on
e can say: I am bound in spirit; I have no choice; my only choice is for God; my
only desire, my only ambition is the will of God; I am bound with God. Is this po
ssible, beloved? If you look into Galatians, first chapter, you will see how won
derfully Paul rose into this state of bliss. If you look in the third chapter of
the Ephesians, you will see that he recognized himself as less than the least o
f all saints. Then, if youll look into the 26th chapter of Acts, you will find
him saying, I have never lost the vision, King Agrippa, I have never lost it. Then
if you will look again in Galatians, you will see that, in order to keep the vi
sion, he conferred not with flesh and blood; God laid hold of him, God bound him
, God preserved him. I ought to say, however, that it is a wonderful position to
be in--to be preserved by Almightiness--and we ought to see to it that we leave
ourselves to God. The consequences will be all right. Whosoever shall seek to sa
ve his life, shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake the sa
me shall save it.
Now, beloved, I am out for men. It is my business to be out for men. It is my bu
siness to make everybody hungry, dissatisfied. It is my business to make people
either glad or mad. I have a message from heaven that will not leave people as I
find them. Something must happen after they are filled with the Holy Spirit. A
man filled with the Holy Spirit is no longer an ordinary man. A man can be swept
by the power of God in the first stage of the revelation of Christ so that from
that moment he will be an extraordinary man. But to be filled with the Holy Spi
rit he has to become a free body for God to dwell in, and to use, and to manifes
t Himself through. So I appeal to you, you people who have received the Holy Spi
rit, I appeal to you to let God have His way at whatever cost; I appeal to you t
o keep moving on with God into an ever increasing realization of His infinite pu
rpose in Christ Jesus for His redeemed ones until you are filled unto all the fu
lness of God. To remain three days in the same place would indicate that you hav
e lost the vision. The child of God must catch the vision anew every day. Every
day the child of God must be moved more and more by the Holy Ghost. The child of
God must come into line with the power of heaven so that he knows that God has
his hand upon him.

It is the same Jesus, the very same Jesus. He went about doing good. God anointed
Him with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing
all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him. Beloved, is not that
the ministry God would have us see we are heir to? The mission of the Holy Ghost
is to give us a revelation of Jesus and to make the Word of God life unto us as
it was when spoken by the Son--as new, as fresh, as effective as if the Lord Hi
mself were speaking. The Bride loves to hear the Bridegrooms voice! Here it is,
the blessed Word of God, the whole Word, not part of it, no, no, no! We believe
in the whole of it. We really have such an effectiveness worked in us by the Wo
rd of life, that day by day we are finding out that the Word itself giveth life;
the Spirit of the Lord, breathing through, revealing by the Word, giving it afr
esh to us, makes the whole Word alive today. Amen. So I have within my hands, wi
thin my heart, within my mind, this blessed reservoir of promises that is able t
o do so many marvelous things. Some of you most likely have been suffering becau
se you have a limited revelation of Jesus, of the fullness of life there is in H
im.
In Oakland, Calif., we had a meeting in a large theatre. God wrought in filling
the place till we had to have overflow meetings. There was a rising tide of peop
le getting saved in the meeting by rising voluntarily up and down in the place,
and getting saved. And then we had a riding tide of people who needed help in th
eir bodies, rising in faith and being healed. One of these latter was an old man
95 years of age. He had been suffering for three years, till he got to the plac
e where for three weeks he had been taking liquids. He was in a terrible state.
I got him to stand while I prayed for him; and he came back, and with radiant fa
ce, told us that new life had come into his body. He said, I am 95 years old. Whe
n I came into the meeting, I was full of pain from cancer of the stomach. I have
been so healed that I have been eating perfectly, and have no pain. Many of the
people were healed in a similar way.
(After the telling of the above incident in the meeting in Wellington, New Zeala
nd, where this address was given, a lady arose who had rheumatism in the left le
g. After being prayed for, she ran the full length of the hall several times, th
en testified to partial healing. A young man with pain in the head was healed in
stantly. Another man with pain in the shoulder was healed instantly also.)
In the second chapter of Acts, you will see that when the Holy Ghost came there
was such a manifestation of the power of God that it wrought conviction as the W
ord was spoken in the Holy Ghost. In the third chapter we read of the lame man h
ealed at the Beautiful Gate through the power of the Spirit, as Peter and John w
ent into the Temple. And in the fourth chapter, we read of such a wonderful mani
festation of miraculous power through the Spirit that five thousand men besides
women and children became believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. God gives manifest
ation of His Divine power, beloved, to prove that He is with us. Will you not, r
ight now, open your heart to this wonderful God, and let Him come into your life
and make of you all that His infinite love has moved Him to provide in Christ J
esus, and that His infinite power, through the Holy Ghost, has made possible to
be wrought in sinful man.
Seek this vision from God, and keep it ever before you. Pray the prayer that the
apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers, as recorded in Ephesians 1:17,
18, 19, That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes
of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, wha
t the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceedi
ng greatness of His power to usward who believe.
Present-Time Blessings
Written by Smith Wigglesworth

Collections - Smith Wigglesworth

Read with me the first twelve verses of Matthew 5, these verses that we generall
y call the Beatitudes. Some tell us that Matthew 5 is a millennial chapter and tha
t we cannot attain to these blessings at the present time. I believe that every
one who receives the Baptism in the Spirit has a real foretaste and earnest of m
illennial blessing, but that here the Lord Jesus is setting forth present-day bl
essings that we can enjoy here and now.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is one o
f the richest places into which Jesus brings us. The poor have a right to everyt
hing in heaven. Theirs is. Dare you believe it? Yes, I dare. I believe, I know, th
at I was very poor. When Gods Spirit comes in as the ruling, controlling power
of the life, He gives us Gods revelation of our inward poverty, and shows us th
at God has come with one purpose, to bring heavens best to earth, and that with
Jesus He will indeed freely give us all things.
An old man and an old woman had lived together for seventy years. Someone said t
o them, You must have seen many clouds during those days. They replied, Where do th
e showers come from? You never get showers without clouds. It is only the Holy Gh
ost who can bring us to the place of realization of our poverty; but, every time
He does it, He opens the windows of heaven and the showers of blessing fall.
But I must recognize the difference between my own spirit and the Holy Spirit. M
y own spirit can do certain things on natural lines, can even weep and pray and
worship, but it is all on a human plane, and we must not depend on our own human
thoughts and activities or on our own personality. If the Baptism means anythin
g to you, it should bring you to the death of the ordinary, where you are no lon
ger putting faith in your own understanding; but, conscious of your own poverty,
you are ever yielded to the Spirit. Then it is that your body becomes filled wi
th heaven on earth.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. People get a wrong idea
of mourning. Over in Switzerland they have a day set apart to take wreaths to gr
aves. I laughed at the peoples ignorance and said, Why are you spending time aro
und the graves? The people you love are not there. All that taking of flowers to
the graves is not faith at all. Those who died in Christ are gone to be with Him
, which, Paul said, is far better.
My wife once said to me, You watch me when Im preaching. I get so near to heaven
when Im preaching that some day Ill be off. One night she was preaching and wh
en she had finished, off she went. I was going to Glasgow and had said goodbye t
o her before she went to meeting. As I was leaving the house, the doctor and pol
iceman met me at the door and told me that she had fallen dead at the Mission do
or. I knew she had got what she wanted. I could not weep, but I was in tongues,
praising the Lord. On natural lines she was everything to me; but I could not mo
urn on natural lines, but just laughed in the Spirit. The house was soon filled
with people. The doctor said, She is dead, and we can do no more for her. I went u
p to her lifeless corpse and commanded death to give her up, and she came back t
o me for a moment. Then God said to me, She is Mine; her work is done. I knew what
He meant.
They laid her in the coffin, and I brought my sons and my daughter into the room
and said, Is she there? They said, No, father. I said, We will cover her up. If you g
o mourning the loss of loved ones who have gone to be with Christ, I say it in l
ove to you, you have never had the revelation of what Paul spoke of when he show
ed us that it is better to go than to stay. We read this in Scripture, but the t
rouble is that people will not believe it. When you believe God, you will say, Wh
atever it is, it is all right. If Thou dost want to take the one I love, it is a
ll right, Lord. Faith removes all tears of self-pity.

But there is a mourning in the Spirit. God will bring you to a place where thing
s must be changed, and there is a mourning, an unutterable groaning until God co
mes. And the end of all real faith always is rejoicing. Jesus mourned over Jerus
alem. He saw the conditions, He saw the unbelief, He saw the end of those who cl
osed their ears to the Gospel. But God gave a promise that He should see the tra
vail of His soul and be satisfied, and that He should see His seed. What happene
d on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem was an earnest of what will be the result
s of His travail, to be multiplied a billionfold all down the ages in all the wo
rld. And as we enter in the Spirit into travail over conditions that are wrong,
such mourning will ever bring results for God, and our joy will be complete in t
he satisfaction that is brought to Christ thereby.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Moses was headstrong in hi
s zeal for his own people, and it resulted in his killing a man. His heart was r
ight in his desire to correct things, but he was working on natural lines, and w
hen we work on natural lines we always fail. Moses had a mighty passion, and tha
t is one of the best things in the world when God has control and it becomes a p
assion for souls to be born again; but apart from God it is one of the worst thi
ngs. Paul had it to a tremendous extent, and, breathing out threatenings, he was
hailing men and women to prison. But God changed it, and later we find him wish
ing himself accursed from Christ for the sake of his brethren, his kinsmen accor
ding to the flesh. God took the headstrong Moses and moulded him into the meekes
t of men. He took the fiery Saul of Tarsus and made him the foremost exponent of
grace. Oh, brothers, God can transform you in like manner, and plant in you a d
ivine meekness and every other thing that you lack.
In our Sunday school we had a boy with red hair. His head was as red as fire and
so was his temper. He was such a trial. He kicked his teachers and the superint
endent. He was simply uncontrollable. The teachers had a meeting in which they d
iscussed the matter of expelling him. They thought that God might undertake for
that boy and so they decided to give him another chance. One day he had to be tu
rned out, and he broke all the windows of the mission. He was worse outside than
in. Some time later we had a ten-days revival meeting. There was nothing much d
oing in that meeting and people thought it a waste of time, but there was one re
sult--the redheaded lad got saved. After he was saved, the difficulty was to get
rid of him at our house. He would be there until midnight crying to God to make
him pliable and use him for His glory. God delivered the lad from his temper an
d made him one of the meekest, most beautiful boys you ever saw. For twenty year
s he has been a mighty missionary in China. God takes us just as we are and tran
sforms us by His power.
I can remember the time when I used to go white with rage, and shake all over wi
th temper. I could hardly hold myself together. I waited on God for ten days. In
those ten days I was being emptied out and the life of the Lord Jesus was being
wrought into me. My wife testified of the transformation that took place in my
life, I never saw such a change. I have never been able to cook anything since th
at time that has not pleased him. Nothing is too hot or too cold, everything is
just right. God must come and reign supreme in your life. Will you let Him do it?
He can do it, and He will if you will let Him. It is no use trying to tame the o
ld man. But God can deal with him. The carnal mind will never be subjected to God
, but God will bring it to the cross where it belongs, and will put in its place
, the pure, the holy, the meek mind of the Master.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall b
e filled. Note that word, shall be filled. If you ever see a shall in the Bible make
it yours. Meet the conditions and God will fulfil His word to you. The Spirit of
God is crying, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that
hath no money: come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money
and without price. The Spirit of God will take of the things of Christ and show t
hem to you in order that you may have a longing for Christ in His fullness, and

when there is that longing, God will not fail to fill you.
See that crowd of worshipers who have come up to the feast. They are going away
utterly unsatisfied, but on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stan
ds up and cries. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that belie
veth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of li
ving water. Jesus knew that they were going away without the living water, and so
He directs them to the true source of supply. Are you thirsty today? The living
Christ still invites you to Himself, and I want to testify that He still satisf
ies the thirsty soul and still fills the hungry with good things.
In Switzerland, I learned of a man who met with the assembly of the Plymouth Bre
thren. He attended their various meetings, and one morning, at their breaking of
bread service, he arose and said, Brethren, we have the Word, and I feel that we
are living very much in the letter of it, but there is a hunger and thirst in m
y soul for something deeper, something more real than we have, and I cannot rest
until I enter into it. The next Sunday this brother rose again and said, We are a
ll so poor here, there is no life in this assembly, and my heart is hungry for r
eality. He did this for several weeks until it got on the nerves of those people
and they protested. Sands, you are making us all miserable. You are spoiling our
meetings, and there is only one thing for you to do, and that is to clear out.
That man went out of the meeting in a very sad condition. As he stood outside, o
ne of his children asked him what was the matter, and he said, To think that they
should turn me out from their midst for being hungry and thirsty for more of Go
d! I did not know anything of this until afterward.
Some days later someone rushed up to Sands and said, There is a man over here fro
m England, and he is speaking about tongues and healing. Sands said, Ill fix him.
Ill go to the meeting and sit right up in the front and challenge him with the
Scriptures. Ill dare him to preach these things in Switzerland. Ill publicly
denounce him. So he came to the meetings. There he sat. He was so hungry and thir
sty that he drank in every word that was said. His opposition soon petered out.
The first morning he said to a friend, This is what I want. He drank and drank of
the Spirit. After three weeks he said, God will have to do something now or Ill
burst. He breathed in God and the Lord filled him to such an extent that he spoke
in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. Sands is now preaching, and is i
n charge of a new Pentecostal assembly.
God is making people hungry and thirsty after His best. And everywhere He is fil
ling the hungry and giving them that which the disciples received at the very be
ginning. Are you hungry? If you are, God promises that you shall be filled.