Ever Increasing Faith

Smith Wigglesworth

• Publisher: Gospel Publishing House
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781607314325
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

"These are the days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to know God." Prominent 1900s evangelist Smith Wigglesworth penned those words decades ago. He began his career as an unassuming plumber and, over a lifetime spent living in faith, became one of the most renowned evangelists of his time and beyond. Ever Increasing Faith offers eighteen texts on divine healing as well as studies on the spiritual gifts, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, prophecy, and other Pentecostal topics. Let his life inspire you to be bold and embrace the adventure God has called you to.

CHAPTER 1

Have Faith in God

“For verily I say unto you, That whosever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:23–24).

These are the days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to know God. God has designed that the just shall live by faith. Any man can be changed by faith, no matter how he may be fettered. I know that God’s word is sufficient. One word from Him can change a nation. His word is from everlasting to everlasting. It is through the entrance of this everlasting Word, this incorruptible seed, that we are born again and come into this wonderful salvation. Man cannot live by bread alone, but must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is the food of faith. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Everywhere men are trying to discredit the Bible and take from it all the miraculous. One preacher says, “Well, you know, Jesus arranged beforehand to have that colt tied where it was, and for the men to say just what they did.” I tell you God can arrange everything without going near. He can plan for you, and when He plans for you, all is peace. All things are possible if you will believe.

Another preacher said, “It was an easy thing for Jesus to feed the people with five loaves. The loaves were so big in those days that it was a simple matter to cut them into a thousand pieces each.” But he forgot that one little boy brought those five loaves all the way in his lunch basket. There is nothing impossible with God. All the impossibility is with us when we measure God by the limitations of our unbelief.

“We have a wonderful God, a God whose ways are past finding out and whose grace and power are limitless.”

We have a wonderful God, a God whose ways are past finding out and whose grace and power are limitless. I was in Belfast one day and saw one of the brethren of the assembly. He said to me, “Wigglesworth, I am troubled. I have had a good deal of sorrow during the past five months. I had a woman in my assembly who could always pray the blessing of heaven down on our meetings. She is an old woman, but her presence is always an inspiration. But five months ago she fell and broke her thigh. The doctors put her into a plaster cast, and after five months they broke the cast. But the bones were not properly set, and so she fell and broke the thigh again.”

He took me to her house, and there was a women lying in a bed on the right hand side of the room. I said to her, “Well, what about it now?” She said, “They have sent me home incurable. The doctors say that I am so old that my bones won’t knit. There is no nutriment in my bones and they could never do anything for me, and they say I shall have to lie in bed for the rest of my life.” I said to her, “Can you believe God?” She replied, “Yes, ever since I heard that you had come to Belfast my faith has been quickened. If you will pray, I will believe. I know there is no power on earth that can make the bones of my thigh knit, but I know there is nothing impossible with God.” I said, “Do you believe He will meet you now?” She answered, “I do.”

It is grand to see people believe God. God knew all about this leg and that it was broken in two places. I said to the woman, “When I pray, something will happen.” Her husband was sitting there; he had been in his chair for four years and could not walk a step. He called out, “I don’t believe. I won’t believe. You will never get me to believe.” I said, “All right,” and laid my hands on his wife in the name of the Lord Jesus. The moment hands were laid upon her the power of God went right through her and she cried out, “I’m healed.” I said, “I’m not going to assist you to rise. God will do it all.” She rose and walked up and down the room, praising God.

The old man was amazed at what had happened to his wife, and he cried out, “Make me walk, make me walk.” I said to him, “You old sinner, repent.” He cried out, “Lord, You know I never meant what I said. You know I believe.” I don’t think he meant what he said; anyhow the Lord was full of compassion. If He marked our sins, where would any of us be? If we will meet the conditions, God will always meet us. If we believe, all things are possible. I laid my hands on him and the power went right through the old man’s body; and those legs, for the first time in four years, received power to carry his body, and he walked up and down and in and out. He said, “O what great things God has done for us tonight!”

“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Desire toward God, and you will have desires from God; and He will meet you on the line of those desires when you reach out in simple faith.

A man came to me in one of my meetings who had seen other people healed and wanted to be healed, too. He explained that his arm had been fixed in a certain position for many years and he could not move it. “Got any faith?” I asked. He said he had a lot of faith. After prayer he was able to swing his arm round and round. But he was not satisfied and complained, “I feel a little bit of trouble just here,” pointing to a certain place. “Do you know what is the trouble with you?” He answered, “No.” I said, “Imperfect faith.” “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

Did you believe before you were saved? So many people would be saved, but they want to feel saved first. There was never a man who felt saved before he believed. God’s plan is always this: If you will believe, you shall see the glory of God. I believe God wants to bring us all to a definite place of unswerving faith and confidence in himself.

Jesus here uses the figure of a mountain. Why does He say a mountain? Because if faith can remove a mountain, it can remove anything. The plan of God is so marvelous that if you will only believe, all things are possible.

There is one special phrase to which I want to call your attention, “And shall not doubt in his heart.” The heart is the mainspring. See that young man and young woman. They have fallen in love at first sight. In a short while there is a deep affection and a strong heart love, the one toward the other. What is a heart of love? A heart of faith. Faith and love are kin. In the measure that that young man and that young women love one another they are true. One may go to the North and the other to the South, but because of their love they will be true to each other.

It is the same when there is a deep love in the heart toward the Lord Jesus Christ. In this new life into which God has brought us, Paul tells us that we have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that we should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead. God brings us into a place of perfect love and perfect faith. A man who is born of God is brought into an inward affection, a loyalty to the Lord Jesus, that shrinks from anything impure. You see the purity of a man and woman when there is a deep natural affection between them; they disdain the very thought of either of them being untrue. I say that in the measure that a man has faith in Jesus, he is pure. He that believes that Jesus is the Christ overcomes the world. It is a faith that works by love.

Just as we have heart fellowship with our Lord, our faith cannot be daunted. We cannot doubt in our hearts. There comes, as we go on with God, a wonderful association, an impartation of His very life and nature within. As we read His Word and believe the promises that He has so graciously given to us, we are made partakers of His very essence and life. The Lord is made to us a Bridegroom, and we are His bride. His words to us are spirit and life, transforming us and changing us, expelling that which is natural and bringing in that which is divine.

It is impossible to comprehend the love of God as we think on natural lines. We must have the revelation from the Spirit of God. God giveth liberally. He that asketh, receiveth. God is willing to bestow on us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Oh, it was the love of God that brought Jesus. And it is this same love that helps you and me to believe. In every weakness God will be your strength. You who need His touch, remember that He loves you. Look, wretched, helpless, sick one, away to the God of all grace whose very essence is love, who delights to give liberally all the inheritance of life and strength and power that you are in need of.

In Switzerland the Lord was graciously working and healing many of the people. I was staying with Brother Reuss of Goldiwil and two policemen were sent to arrest me. The charge was that I was healing the people without a license. Mr. Reuss said to them, “I am sorry that he is not here just now. He is holding a meeting about two miles away, but before you arrest him let me show you something.”

Brother Reuss took the two policemen down to one of the lower parts of that district to a house with which they were familiar, for they had often gone to that place to arrest a certain woman who was repeatedly put in prison because she was often engaged in drunken brawls. Brother Reuss took them to this woman and said, “This is one of the many cases of blessing that have come through the ministry of the man you have come to arrest. This woman came to our meeting in a drunken condition. Her body was broken, for she was ruptured in two places. While she was drunk, the evangelist laid his hands on her and asked God to heal her and deliver her.” The policemen had a warrant for my arrest, but they said with disgust, “Let the doctors do this kind of thing.” They turned and went away and that was the last we heard of them.

We have a Jesus that heals the brokenhearted, who lets the captives go free, who saves the very worst. Dare you, dare you spurn this glorious Gospel of God for spirit, soul and body? Dare you spurn this grace? I realize that this full gospel has in great measure been hid, this Gospel that brings liberty, this Gospel that brings souls out of bondage, this Gospel that brings perfect health to the body, this Gospel of entire salvation. Listen again to this word of Him who left the glory to bring us this great salvation, “Verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed … he shall have whatsoever he saith.” Whatsoever!

I realize that God can never bless us on the lines of being hardhearted, critical, or unforgiving. This will hinder faith quicker than anything. I remember being at a meeting where there were some people tarrying for the Baptism, seeking for cleansing—for the moment a person is cleansed the Spirit will fall. There was one man with eyes red from weeping bitterly. He said to me, “I shall have to leave. It is no good my staying without I change things. I have written a letter to my brother-in-law and filled it with hard words, and this thing must first be straightened out.” He went home and told his wife, “I’m going to write a letter to your brother and ask him to forgive me for writing to him the way I did.” “You fool!” she said. “Never mind,” he replied, “this is between God and me, and it has got to be cleared away.” He wrote the letter and came again, and immediately God filled him with the Spirit.

“God can never bless us on the lines of being hardhearted, critical, or unforgiving. This will hinder faith quicker than anything.”

I believe there are a great many people who would be healed, but they are harboring things in their hearts that are as a blight. Let these things go. Forgive and the Lord will forgive you. There are many good people, people that mean well, but they have no power to do anything for God. There is just some little thing that came in their hearts years ago, and their faith has been paralyzed since. Bring everything to the light. God will sweep it all away if you will let Him. Let the precious blood of Christ cleanse from all sin. If you will but believe, God will meet you and bring into your lives the sunshine of His love.

Healings in New Zealand

We have received a few testimonies of those healed in the meeting conducted by Brother Smith Wigglesworth at Wellington, New Zealand. Mrs. E. Curtis of Christchurch, New Zealand, was suffering with septic poisoning. She had become only a skeleton and the doctors could do nothing for her. She had agonizing pains all day and all night. She was healed immediately when prayer was made for her. She states that for the past sixteen years she has been a martyr to pain but is now wonderfully well. Another testified to healing of deafness, goiter, adenoids and bad eyesight. Another testified to healing of double curvature of the spine from infancy, hip disease, weak heart, leg lengthened three inches, which grew normal like the other leg. It was also three inches less in circumference. She wore a large boot but now walked on even feet, the large boot having been discarded. Another was healed from goiter.

—The Pentecostal Evangel

CHAPTER 2

Deliverance to the Captives

Scripture Reading: Luke 4:1–20

Our precious Lord Jesus has everything for everybody. Forgiveness of sin, healing of diseases, and the fullness of the Spirit all come from one source—from the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever as He announces the purpose for which He came: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. Being full of the Holy Ghost, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, there to come off more than conqueror over the arch enemy. Then He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and preached in the synagogues, and at last He came to His own home town—Nazareth, where He announced His mission in the words I have quoted above. For a brief while He ministered on the earth, and then gave His life a ransom for all. But God raised Him from the dead. And before He returned to heaven He told His disciples that they too should receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, through them, His gracious ministry would continue. The power of the Holy Spirit was not only for a few apostles, but even for them that are afar off, even as many as our God should call (Acts 2:39), even for us in this twentieth century. Some ask, “But was not this power just for the privileged few in the first century?” No. Read the Master’s great commission as recorded by Mark, and you will see it is for them that believe.

“There is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, reigns supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and prepares us to be more than a match for Satanic forces.”

After I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit (and I know that I received, for the Lord gave me the Spirit in just the same way as He gave Him to the disciples at Jerusalem), I sought the mind of the Lord as to why I was baptized. One day I came home from work and went into the house and my wife asked me, “Which way did you come in?” I told her I came in the back door. She said, “There is a woman upstairs who has brought an old man of eighty to be prayed for. He is raving up there and a great crowd is outside the front door, ringing the doorbell and wanting to know what is going on in the house.” The Lord quietly whispered, “This is what I baptized you for.”

I carefully opened the door of the room where the man was, desiring to be obedient to what my Lord would say to me. The man was crying and shouting in distress, “I am lost! I am lost! I have committed the unpardonable sin. I am lost! I am lost!” My wife said, “Dad, what shall we do?” The Spirit of the Lord moved me to cry out, “Come out, thou lying spirit.” In a moment the evil spirit went, and the man was free. Deliverance to the captives! And the Lord said to me, “This is what I baptized you for.”

There is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, reigns supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and prepares us to be more than a match for Satanic forces.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus he said, “We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” Jesus said to him, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus was impressed by the miracles wrought; and Jesus pointed out the necessity of a miracle being wrought with every man who would see the Kingdom. When a man is born of God, is brought from darkness to light, a mighty miracle is wrought. Jesus saw every touch by God as a miracle, and so we may expect to see miracles wrought today. It is wonderful to have the Spirit of the Lord upon us. I would rather have the Spirit of God upon me for five minutes than to receive a million dollars.

Do you see how Jesus mastered the devil in the wilderness? Jesus knew He was the Son of God and Satan came along with an “if.” How many times has Satan come to you this way? He says, “After all, you may be deceived. You know you really are not a child of God.” If the devil says you are not saved, it is a pretty sure sign that you are. When he tells you that you are not healed, it may be taken as good evidence that the Lord has sent His word and healed you. The devil knows that if he can capture your thought life, he has won a mighty victory over you. His great business is injecting thoughts, but if you are pure and holy you will instantly shrink from them. God wants us to let the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that pure, holy, humble mind of Christ, be in us.

I came across people everywhere I go who are held bound by deceptive conditions, an...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Have Faith in God
• Chapter 2: Deliverance to the Captives
• Chapter 3: The Power of the Name
• Chapter 4: Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?
• Chapter 5: I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee
• Chapter 6: himself Took Our Infirmities
• Chapter 7: Our Risen Christ
• Chapter 8: Righteousness
• Chapter 9: The Words of This Life
• Chapter 10: Life in the Spirit
• Chapter 11: What It Means to Be Full of the Spirit
• Chapter 12: The Bible Evidence of the Baptism in the Spirit
• Chapter 13: Concerning Spiritual Gifts
• Chapter 14: The Word of Knowledge and Faith
• Chapter 15: Gifts of Healings and Miracles
• Chapter 16: The Gift of Prophecy
• Chapter 17: The Discerning of Spirits
• Chapter 18: The Gift of Tongues