Your Will and the Will of God 1/1 Wednesday Wisdom

Wishing all of you a wonderful and God-blessed new year!

 

Taking another holiday break.  My next post will be Friday Faith (posting Thursday afternoon).

Smith Wigglesworth was not a pastor, so he did not preach seasonal sermons.  I couldn't find anything appropriate for the new year.

When your will becomes entirely the will of God, then you are clearly in the place where the Holy Ghost can make Jesus Lord in your life, Lord over your purchases, Lord over your selling, Lord over your eating and your drinking, your clothing and your choice of companionship.

His Operations 12/31 Tuesday Truth

His operations upon us may be painful but the wise saint will remember that among those whom God chastens it is he who is exercised by that chastening to whom "...it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness..."  (Hebrews 12:11).  Therefore let Him do with you what seemeth Him good, for He has His hand upon you and He will not willingly take it off till He has performed the thing He knows you need.  So if He comes with a fan, be ready for the fan.  If He comes with chastisement, be ready for chastisement.  If He comes with correction, be ready for correction.  Whatever He wills to do, let Him do it and He will bring you to the land of plenty.  Oh, it is worth the world to be under the power of the Holy Ghost! 

-- Smith Wigglesworth
 

God's Love Toward Us 12/30 Monday Meditation

I have great love for my boys in England, great love for my daughter here; but it is nothing in comparison to God's love toward us.  God's love is desirous that we should walk up and down the earth as His sons, clothed, filled, radiant, with fire beaming forth from the countenance, setting forth the power of the Spirit.
-- Smith Wigglesworth

Never Too Cold or Hot 12/27 Friday Faith

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.   I'll end the week with a rather humorous anecdote about the power of revival.  According to other accounts, this took place shortly after Wigglesworth was saved, before he began his ministry.  Wigglesworth had always had complaints about his wife's cooking.  Maybe there's a lesson here for all of us.

One day the power of God fell upon me.  I came out to the meeting and fell down before the Lord.  The people began asking, "What sin has Wigglesworth been committing?"  This went on for a fortnight [two weeks].  Every time I came to the altar God used to sweep through me with such a manifestation of my helplessness, that I would go down before God and weep right through.  Then the preacher or the leader was broken up and came alongside of me.  God made a revival begin in that.  God had broken me up and revival began through His revival in me.  Oh, it was lovely!  At last my wife said, "Since my husband had that touch, I have never been able to cook anything that he was not pleased with.  It is never too cold and never too hot."
 

Peace on Earth 12/24 Tuesday Truth

:

This will be my last post until probably Friday.  I wish all of you a blessed, Christ-filled Christmas, and great, memorable times with your loved ones.
 
Hard to believe that I actually was able to find a Christmas-like quote by Wigglesworth.  This is from a Nov. 12, 1927 sermon.

It was a wonderful day when Jesus left the glory.  I can imagine all the angels and God the Father and all heaven so wonderfully stirred that day when the angels were sent to tell that wonderful story:  "Peace on earth and good will to men."  It was a glorious day when they beheld the Babe for the first time and God was looking on.  What happened after that day and until He was thirty years old I suppose it would take a big book to put it all in.  It was working up to a great climax.

Only God 12/23 Monday Meditation

Only God can make people right.  Only melted gold is minted.  Only moistened clay receives the mold.  Only softened wax receives the seal.  Only broken, contrite hearts receive the mark as the Potter turns us on His wheel.  Oh, Lord, give us that blessed state where we are perfectly and wholly made meek.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Was Jesus Born in September? 12/21 Weekend Extra

Was Jesus born in September?

By Shari Abbott, Reasons for Hope

Although December 25^th is the day that we celebrate the birth of our Lord, most Bible students understand that it is not the date on which Jesus was born.  We should not be surprised that the Bible doesn’t tell us the actual date, because nowhere in the Bible are we told to remember His birth.  We are clearly told to remember His death, burial and resurrection, but not His birth.  However, celebrating Jesus’ birth is a good thing, because it brings to remembrance the sacrifice He made when He humbled himself and came to earth; when the Lord of Glory took on human flesh; when the King of kings entered into poverty.

Although the Bible doesn’t specifically tell us when Jesus was born, it does provide some “whispers” of when if might have been.  

1) It was not likely to have occurred after October because the weather in Israel turns very cold — too cold for the flocks to have been in the fields overnight.  

Luke 2:8  Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

 

2) It’s also highly unlikely that the Romans would have issued a decree for a census in December.  It would have required travel to their city of birth and the terrain of Judea would have been difficult, or even impassable, during winter months.

 

Matthew 24:20  And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.

 

3) Jesus came to tabernacle (dwell) with us, so it further supports a September birth (or very early October) having taken place at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles.

John 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

 

Matthew 1:23  Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

For these reasons, and more, most Bible students believe Jesus’ birth to have been in September during the Feast of Tabernacles and at a time when the sheep would have been in the fields overnight and travel in Judea would have been possible.

 

 

John the Baptist’s Birth Provides Insight

Additionally, the birth of John the Baptist lends credence to the belief that Jesus was born in September.  John’s mother, Elizabeth, was a cousin of Mary and the wife of Zacharias, a priest of the course of Abijah (Luke 1:5, 8-13, 23-24). 

Luke 1:36  And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

 

Luke 1:5  There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah.

 

Priests were divided into 24 courses and they served in the Temple for one week, beginning on the Sabbath (1 Chronicles 24:7-19)

 

We know from the Talmud and Josephus that the Temple was destroyed by Titus on August 5th, 70 AD, and the first course of priests had just taken office.  Since the course of Abijah was the eighth course (1 Chronicles 24:10),  it can be determined by counting backward that Zacharias would have ended his duties on July 13th, 3 BC.   He returned to his home and soon after Elizabeth conceived

Luke 1:23-24  And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months.

 

Elizabeth hid herself for five months, uncertain about how her pregnancy would be viewed.  The Bible tells us that in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her…

 

Luke 1:31  behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

 

Soon thereafter, Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and stayed with her until Elizabeth’s ninth month, departing just prior to John’s birth. 

 

If John was born nine months after Zacharias completed his course (July 13, 3 BC), he would have been born in April, 2 BC.  If, perhaps, his birth occurred 280 days from July 13, 3 BC, the date would have been April 19-20, 2 BC, which was Passover that year.

We know that Elizabeth was in her sixth month when Mary conceived and went with haste to visit her.

Luke 1:36  And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

 

Luke 1:39  And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda

 

Because Elizabeth was in her sixth month, John would have been five months older than Jesus, which would place Jesus’ birthdate in September, 2 BC —  perhaps even on the Feast of Tabernacles, since we know that Jesus came to tabernacle with us.

 

Of course, this reasoning is all very interesting, but remember that no one knows for certain the exact date of Jesus’ birth.  The details the Bible does provide makes it highly likely that Jesus was born in late September, but the actual day that we celebrate His birth is not what is important.  What really matters is that we remember and praise God for what He has clearly revealed to us — what we know to be true — that Jesus came to earth to live among us, to be both God and Man, to experience everything we experience and yet never did He sin…. and then to be obedient to the will of the Father in going to the cross and giving His life so that we can have eternal life with Him.  

As we celebrate Christmas, it’s not about the day…

it’s about the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Remember and give thanks.

 

 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: 

for great is your reward in heaven 

Matthew 5:12

- See more at: http://www.rforh.com/blog/jesus-born-september/#sthash.425kWnFk.dpuf

A Pure Atmosphere 12/20 Friday Faith

We must live in such a pure atmosphere that God will shine in and through our souls.  Oh, this uttermost salvation!  I am satisfied that as we get to know the Son of God, we will never be weak anymore, the tide will be so turned.

-- Smith Wigglesworth
 

Never Do Anything 12/19 Thursday Thoughts

Never let us do anything to lose this divine love, this close affection in our hearts that says, "Not I, but Christ, not I, but Christ!"  I want to say forget yourself and get lost in Him.  Lose all your identification in the Son of God, let Him become all in all, seek only the Lord and let Him be glorified...   God is waiting for the man that will lay all on the altar, fifty-two weeks in the year, three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, and then continue perpetually in the Holy Ghost.
-- Smith Wigglesworth 

Be Not Asleep 12/18 Wednesday Wisdom

Be not asleep concerning the deep things of God.  Have a flaming indignation against the power of Satan...  Anything that takes me from an attitude of worship, peace, and joy, of consciousness of God's presence, has a satanic source.  Greater is He that is in you.
-- Smith Wigglesworth

The Best Gifts 12/17 Tuesday Truth

But is there not a vast and appalling unconcern about possessing the gifts?  Ask of a score of saints chosen at random from almost any assembly, "Have you any of the gifts of the Spirit?" and the answer will be, "No," and given in a tone and with a manner that conveys the thought that the saint is not surprised at not having the gifts, that he doesn't expect to have any of them, and does not expect to seek for them.  Isn't this terrible when this living Word exhorts us specifically to "covet earnestly the best gifts"? ...
Oh come, let us seek Him for the best gifts, and let us strive to be wise and rightly divide the Word of truth, giving it forth in power that the church may be edified and sinners may be saved.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

The Kingdom Suffers Violence 12/16 Monday Meditation

The kingdom of heaven is within us, the Christ, the Word of God.  The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence (Matt. 11:12).  How?  Every suffering one, every paralyzed condition, if you feel distress in any way, it means that the kingdom is suffering violence at the hands of the adversary.  Could the kingdom of heaven bring weakness, disease, consumption, cancers, tumors?  The kingdom of God is within you, it is the life of Jesus, the power of the Highest, pure, holy; it has no disease or imperfection.  But Satan cometh to steal and kill and destroy.
-- Smith Wigglesworth

Flames of Fire 12/13 Friday Faith

God wants men flames of fire, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Let us live as those that have seen the King, having a resurrection touch.  We know we are sons of God as we believe His Word and stand in the truth of it.
Tongues and Interpretation:  "The Spirit of the Lord breathes upon the bones and upon the things that are not and changes them in a moment, making the weak strong, quickening that which is dead into life."

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Called to be Saints 12/12 Thursday Thoughts

Saved, called to be saints, called with a holy calling, holy, pure, Godlike, sons with power.  It is a long time now since it was settled and death abolished.  Death has no more power; mortality is a hindrance; sin has no more dominion; you reign in Christ, you appropriate His finished work.  Don't groan and travail for a week if you are in need, only believe.  Don't fight to get some special thing, only believe.  It is according to your faith.  God blesses you with faith.  Have faith in God.  If you are free in God, believe, and it shall be.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Perfect Yieldedness 12/11 Wednesday Wisdom

The Holy Ghost is coming to take out a church and a perfect bride; He must find in us perfect yieldedness, every desire subjected to Him.  He has come to reveal Christ in us, that the glorious flow of the life of God may outflow, rivers of living water to the thirsty land.
"...if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness."  (Romans 8:10)

-- Smith Wigglesworth 

A Tremendous Word 12/10 Tuesday Truth

God's Word is a tremendous Word, a productive Word, producing what it is -- power.  Producing God-likeness.  We get to heaven through the Word of God, we have peace through the blood of His cross.  Redemption is ours through the knowledge of the Word.  I am saved because God's Word says so... If I am baptized with the Holy Spirit it is because Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you."  We must all have one idea -- to be filled with the Holy Ghost, to be filled with God.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Abundant Life 12/9 Monday Meditation

God has a plan for us in this life of the Spirit, this abundant life.  Jesus came that we might have life.  Satan comes to steal and kill and destroy, but God has for us abundance, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, abundant measure.  God filling us with His own personality, presence, making us salt and light and giving us revelation of Himself.  God with us in all circumstances and afflictions, persecutions, in every trial, girding us with truth.  Christ the initiative, the Triune God in control, our every thought, word, action must be in line with Him, with no weakness or failure.  Our God is a God of might, light, revelation, preparing us for heaven.  Our life is hid with Christ in God; when He Who is our life shall be manifested, we also shall appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:3,4).
-- Smith Wigglesworth

Just the Same 12/6 Friday Faith

Satan will make the pain and weakness so distracting that it will always bring down your mind to where the pain is.  Anything that takes me from an attitude of worship is of Satan; if only a finger or a toothache, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and blessed is he who shall not be offended in Me.  Oh, again the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them.Just the same, just the same,
He is just the same today.
Praise the Lord.  Amen.

-- Smith Wigglesworth
 

Kingdom of God is Within You 12/5 Thurs. Thoughts

Beloved, the kingdom of heaven is within you.  The kingdom of heaven is the life of Jesus, the power of the Highest; no disease, no imperfection.  It is as holy as God is.  Satan comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.  Every ailment is of satanic origin; there is no purification in disease...  There may be some here still asleep concerning the deep things of God.  I want God to give you a revelation, an awakening, an audacity, a flowing indignation against he powers of Satan.

  -- Smith Wigglesworth

They might be giants, but ... 12/4 Wednesday Wisdom

I come across men who might be giants in faith, leaders who might subdue kingdoms, but they go down because they allow Satan to dethrone their better knowledge of the power of God...  Jesus answered and said to them, "...Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:  The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel  preached to them"  (Matthew 11:4,5).
  -- Smith Wigglesworth

Called to a Higher Plane 12/3 Tuesday Truth

This ordinary man Stephen became mighty under the Holy Ghost anointing, until he stands supreme, in many ways, among the apostles -- "And Stephen full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people."  As we go deeper in God, He enlarges our conception and places before us a wide-open door; and I am not surprised that this man, chosen to "serve tables," was afterwards called to a higher plane.  "What do you mean?" you may ask.  "Did he 'quit' this service?"  "No! but he was 'lost' in the power of God."  He lost sight of everything in the natural, and steadfastly fixed his gaze upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and he was transformed into a "shining light" in the Kingdom of God."

  -- Smith Wigglesworth 

Cry Aloud! 12/2 Monday Meditation

Beloved, if there is anything in your life that in any way resists the power of the Holy Ghost and the entrance of His Word into your heart and life, drop on your knees and CRY ALOUD for mercy!   When the Spirit of God is "brooding" over your heart's door, do not resist Him, but open your heart to the touch of God.
-- Smith Wigglesworth  

Be Vigilant! 11/27 Wednesday Wisdom

This will be the last devotional for the week. Have a happy, safe, and blessed Thanksgiving and Hanukkah (8 days, starting Wed. night).







A man chosen to "serve tables", (Stephen) having such a revelation of the mind of Christ and of the depth and height of God, that there was no "stop" in his experience, but a going forward with leaps and bounds. Beloved, there is a race to be run, there is a crown to be won; we cannot stand still! I say unto you, be vigilant! Be vigilant! "Let no man take thy crown!"



-- Smith Wigglesworth

From Glory to Glory 11/26 Tuesday Truth

Being filled with the Holy Spirit, we go on "from glory to glory." Let us not forget that possessing the baptism in the Holy Spirit means there must be an "ever-increasing" holiness. How the Church needs divine unction -- God's presence and power so manifest that the world will know it. The people know when the tide is flowing; they also know when it is ebbing.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Power of God Unwelcome 11/25 Monday Meditation

Any amount of people may be found in the "synagogue," who are very proper in a world sense -- always correctly dressed, the "elite" of the land, welcoming everything into the church but the power of God. -- Smith Wigglesworth

Filled With Power 11/22 Friday Faith

"Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" "Are you filled with divine power?"

This is the heritage of the Church, to be so endued with power that God can lay His hand upon any member at any time to do His perfect will. There is no "stop" in the Spirit-filled life."

-- Smith Wigglesworth

God Wants Nothing Less 11/21 Thursday Thoughts

During the time of the inauguration of the Church the disciples were hard pressed on all lines; the things of natural order could not be attended to, and many were complaining concerning the neglect of their widows. The disciples therefore decided upon a plan, which was to choose seven men to do the work -- men who were "full of the Holy Ghost." What a divine thought! No matter what kind of work was to be done, however menial it may have been, the person chosen must be filled with the Holy Ghost. The plan of the Church was that everything, even of natural order, must be sanctified unto God, for the Church has to be a "Holy Ghost" Church. Beloved, God has never ordained anything less!

-- Smith Wigglesworth

God's Grandest Plan 1120 Wednesday Wisdom

He has a plan for every individual life, and if we have any other plan in view, we miss the grandest plan of all! Nothing of the past is equal to the present, and nothing of the present can equal the things of tomorrow, for "tomorrow" should be so filled with holy expectations that we will be "living flames" for Him. God never intended His people to be ordinary, or common-place; His intentions were that they should be on fire for Him, conscious of His divine power, realizing the glory of the cross that foreshadows the crown.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

The People in Whom God Delights 11/19 Tuesday Truth

The people in whom God delights are the ones who rest upon His Word without wavering. God has nothing for the man who wavers, for "let him that wavereth expect nothing from God."

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Need of Holiness 11/18 Monday Meditation

You have need to have holiness, the righteousness and Spirit of the Master, so that in every walk of life everything that is not like our Lord Jesus will have to depart, and that is what is needed today. I ask you in the Holy Ghost to seek the place where He is in power.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

The Word "Believe" 11/15 Friday Faith

If I read into my text this afternoon this, "He that believeth shall speak in tongues, he that believeth shall cast out devils, he that believeth shall lay hands on the sick," if I read this into my text, on the surface of it, it seems exactly easy, but you must understand this, there are volumes to be applied to the word _believe_. To believe is to believe in the need of the majesty of the glory of the power, which is all power, which brings all other powers into subjection.




And what is belief? ... To believe is to have the knowledge of Him in whom you believe, it is not to believe in the word _Jesus_, but to believe in the nature, to believe in the vision, for all power is given unto Him, and greater is He that is within thee in the revelation of faith than he that is in the world.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Too Much of God? 11/14 Thursday Thoughts

Did it ever strike you we cannot be too full for a vision, we cannot have too much of God? The more of God, then the visions begin. When God has you in His own plan, what a change, how things operate. You wonder, you see things in a new light. And how God is being glorified as you yield from day to day, and the Spirit seems to lay hold of you and bring you on. Yes, it is pressing on, and then He gives you touches of His wonderful power, manifestations of the glory of these things and indications of great things to follow, and these days which we are living in now speak of better days. How wonderful!



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Moving Mountains 11/13 Wednesday Wisdom

Beloved, do not stumble if you cannot move mountains; oh no, there may be some molehills need moving first.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Just Keeping Pace 11/12/13 Tuesday Truth

It is a disgrace to God for a person just to keep pace. We must press on; if you are making no headway, you must be a backslider, because you have had such opportunities.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Hot and Hotter 11/11 Monday Meditation

God has no need of a man who is hot today and cold tomorrow; He needs men who are hot today and hotter tomorrow and still hotter the next day -- that is the man who is going to touch the glory.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Confidence in things seen? 11/8 Friday Faith

Here they lay, a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, around that pool, waiting for the moving of the water. Did Jesus heal everybody? He left many around that pool unhealed. There were doubtless many who had their eyes on the pool and who had no eyes for Jesus. There are many today who have their confidence all the time in things seen. If they would only get their eyes on God instead of on natural things, how quickly they would be helped.



--Smith Wigglesworth

Dare to Believe 11/7 Thursday Thoughts

Dare to believe that Jesus was wounded for your transgressions, was bruised for your iniquities, was chastised that you might have peace, and that by His stripes there is healing for you right here and now. . . Cry out to Him even now, "Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief."



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Perfect Atonement 11/6 Wednesday Wisdom

There is healing through the blood of Christ and deliverance for every captive. God never intended His children to live in misery because of some affliction that comes directly from the devil. A perfect atonement was made at Calvary. I believe that Jesus bore my sins, and I am free from them all. I am justified from all things if I dare believe. He Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses; and if I dare believe, I can be healed.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Is any sick? 11/5 Tuesday Truth

Today there is bread, there is life, there is health for every child of God through His all-powerful Word.



Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. -- James 5:14, 15



We have in this precious Word a real basis for the truth of healing. In this scripture God gives very definite instructions to the sick. If you are sick, your part is to call for the elders of the church; it is their part to anoint and pray for you in faith, and then the whole situation rests with the Lord. When you have been anointed and prayed for, you can rest assured that the Lord will raise you up. It is the Word of God.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

The Power of the Word 11/4 Monday Meditation

I believe the Word of God is so powerful that it can transform any and every life. There is power in God's Word to make that which does not appear to appear. There is executive power in the Word that proceeds from His lips. The psalmist tells us, "He sent His word, and healed them..." (Psalm 107:20). And do you think that Word has diminished in its power? I tell you nay, but God's Word can bring things to pass as of old.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Reformation Day & All Saints' Day 11/1 Friday Faith

HAPPY REFORMATION DAY!!!

In America people will be celebrating Halloween. But this is a bigger day for Christians. This is the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Chapel Doors of Wittenburg, Germany. The Reformation began today. What a day to celebrate. The devil lost his hold on Christianity and a new freedom started that we still enjoy to this day. Thanks, God, for Luther's courage.

(Roberts Liardon Official Facebook page)





All Saints' Day, feast of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, and day on which churches glorify God for all God's saints, known and unknown. It is celebrated on Nov. 1 in the West, since Pope Gregory IV ordered its church-wide observance in 837. Its origin lies earlier in the common commemorations of martyrs who died in groups or whose names were unknown, which were held on various days in different parts of the Church; over time these celebrations came to include not only the martyrs but all saints. During the Reformation the Protestant churches understood "saints" in its New Testament usage as including all believers and reinterpreted the feast of All Saints as a celebration of the unity of the entire Church. In medieval England the festival was known as All Hallows, hence the name Halloween [=All Hallows' eve] for the preceding evening. (www.answers.com)

More One-Liners 10/31 Thursday Thoughts

Sin has death in its sting; righteousness has heaven in its illumination.







We are in a lifting place. It is not what we are now: it is what God has designed for us.







-- Smith Wigglesworth

Wigglesworth One-Liners 10/30 Wednesday Wisdom

Remember this: you never lose so much as when you lose your peace.



Only as men become Godlike and holy do they become real men.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Triumphant 10/29 Tuesday Truth

It is the divine plan, and the divine will that we should live in the world triumphant over it, so the lust of the flesh and the pride of life will not control.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Unbelief? 10/28 Monday Meditation

To ask anything for yourself as many as five times is unbelief. Get to the place where you ask and believe, that your joy might be full.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Victory in Temptation 10/25 Friday Faith

There is no person ever able to talk about the victory over temptation without [unless] he goes through it. All the victories are won in battles.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

One Great Plan 10/24 Thursday Thoughts

There is one great plan the Lord is seeking thee for: it is to make thee like Himself that thee might be in the world as He was.




-- Smith Wigglesworth

Victory in Sight 10/23 Wednesday Wisdom

As soon as you reach a standard where you hate sin, victory is right over you.







--Smith Wigglesworth

Higher Ground 10/22 Tuesday Truth

You must every day make higher ground. You must deny yourself to get on with God. You must refuse everything that is not pure and holy and separate. God wants you pure in heart. He wants your intense desire after holiness.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

When We Have Nothing 10/21 Monday Meditation

When we have nothing, we possess all things. It is absolutely at the end of us that God begins. When you come to a place where He alone girds you with strength, then all the promises are yours.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Benediction 10/18 Friday Faith

This is the final paragraph of an article by Smith Wigglesworth entitled "God's Treasure House," published in The Bridal Call Foursquare, August 1927. It's a good thought to take us into the weekend.



May the divine likeness of Him who is the express image of the Father dwell in you richly, abounding through all, supplying every need, bringing you into a place where you know the hand of God is leading you from treasure to treasure, from grace to grace, from victory to victory, from glory unto glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.

Baptized in the Holy Spirit 10/17 Thursday Thoughts

Baptizing in water is an emblem of death, and the moment a person is immersed in the water, he is lifted out. But no so with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. To be baptized in the Holy Ghost is every day to be deeper in, never lifted out, never coming out; in captivity, ready for gifts.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Are You Ready? 10/16 Wednesday Wisdom

It is only He, it is He who rolls away the clouds. He alone is the One who lifts the fallen, cheers the faint, brings fresh oil, and changes the countenance. It is the Lord thy God. He has seen thy misery, He has known thy heart brokenness, and He has known how near you seem to be to despair.



Oh, beloved, God is in the midst of us to help us into these wonderful divine places of appointment!



Are you ready? You say, "What for?" To let all differences cease and to have the same evidence they had in the Upper Room.



Are you ready? "What for?" To so be in the place for God's Son to be pleased that He gives you all the desire of your heart.



Are you ready? "What for?" That God can fill you with new life, stimulate you with new fire. He can inflame you with great desire. We are in the midst of blessing; I want you to be blessed.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

"But" 10/15 Tuesday Truth

Lots of people have good things -- but. Lots of people might be very remarkably used -- but. Lots of people might soar into wonderful places of divine positions with God -- but. And it is the "but" that spoils it... So it is the "but" in the way that is spoiling the best... The "but" is that you have not really got your own human spirit under control by the divine Spirit, the human is mingled and it is spoiling the divine.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

You Can Be Changed 10/13 Monday Meditation

It is a great purpose that God has for us that we can be changed, and you are in a great place when you are willing to have this change take place. You are in a greater place when you are willing to drop everything that has brought you to where you thought you could not be changed, and when you have dropped all things that have hindered you, you have leaped forth and been tremendously changed.







If you have held anything on a human plane, no matter how it has come, if it is not according to the biblical standard of the Word of God let it be weeded out. If you do not get it weeded out, there is a time coming that wood, hay, and stubble will be burned and the gold, the silver, and the precious stones will stand the fire.







-- Smith Wigglesworth

In a Great Place 10/11 Friday Faith

The Lord wants you to be in a great place, the Holy Ghost having such control of your inner eyes to reveal the fulness of the Lord of life, till Jesus is magnified tremendously by the revelation of the Holy Ghost, till He becomes Lord over all things, over your affections, your will, your purposes, your plans, and your wishes forever. Let Him be Lord.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

Are You Ready? 10/10 Thursday Thoughts

Oh, to believe God! Oh, to rest upon what He says, for there is not one jot or tittle of the Word which shall fail till all is fulfilled! Has He not promised and will He not also perform? Our blessed Lord of life and glory impressed upon us before He left that He would send the Comforter and when He came He should take the words of Jesus and He would pray through us and whatsoever we would ask, the Lord would hear us.


So I want you to get in a definite place, daring to ask God for something that shall be the means of stimulating your life forever.

Are you ready? You say, "What for?" To have some of the promises fulfilled.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Divine Life Flow 10/8 Wed. Wisdom

Back from vacation in the Florida panhandle.



God has for us today a stimulation of divine acquaintance, a life divine to flow through our being that shall be sufficient for us in all times of need. When God is for you, who can be against you? What a blessed assurance this is to the hungry heart. How it thrills one to the very depths of their soul.



-- Smith Wigglesworth

You Will Be Changed 10/2 Wednesday Wisdom

Yes, beloved, this is the day of the visitation of the Lord again... Look at Him tonight, you needy ones. As you gaze upon Him you will be changed, a strength will come to you, you will exchange strength. He is the God of Jacob, the God of the helpless and undone... Jacob cried, "Don't go till you have blessed me." God will bless you there. A place of helplessness and brokenness, there God will meet you. Have you been there?

-- Smith Wigglesworth



THIS WILL BE MY LAST POST UNTIL LATE NEXT WEEK AS I WILL BE ON VACATION.

Making Us Overcomers 10/1 Tuesday Truth

He can make us overcomers, destroying the power of sin and indwelling us by His mighty power, transforming us until we love righteousness and hate iniquity, so that we can be holy. We receive sonship because of His obedience... It is a new creation, a birth unto righteousness by faith in the Atonement, transforming and changing you till you are controlled, dominated, and filled with the Spirit of Jesus. Still in the body, governed by the Spirit, with fruit unto holiness and the end, eternal life.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Jesus Never Looked Back 9/30 Monday Meditation

Jesus never looked back, He never withheld. He went through death that His life might be our portion in time and in eternity. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the at-one-ment for the whole world, the Son of God, the sinner's friend. He was wounded for our transgressions. He lived to manifest, to bring forth the glory of God on earth. He gives His disciples the glory He had with the Father before the world was. He said, "I have given them the glory that Thou gavest Me" (John 17:22). So God today is giving grace and glory, no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Health, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, a life in Christ Jesus. In! In! In! Are you in?

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Smith Wigglesworth new quotes 9/27 Friday Faith

Returning to Smith Wigglesworth, one of the greatest healing evangelists of all time. He quit school at age 7 to be a plumber's assistant. His wife taught him to read. He refused to read anything but the Bible. At least nine, and possibly as many as twenty people were raised from the dead in his ministry.



How God fascinates me with His Word. I read and read and read, and there is always something new, and as I get deeper into the knowledge of the Bridegroom, I hear the voice of Jesus saying, "The bride rejoices to hear the Bridegroom's voice." The Word is His voice, and the nearer we are to Jesus, the more we understand the principles of His mission. He came to take for Himself a people for His bride, He came to find a body.

Faith Honors God, God Honors Faith 9/26 Thurs. Thoughts

The importance of faith is seen in that:



1) You cannot be saved without faith (John 3:36).



2) You cannot live victoriously over the world without faith (1 John 5:4).



3) You cannot please God without faith (Heb 11:6).



4) You cannot pray without faith (James 1:6).



5) You cannot have peace with God without faith (Romans 5:1)



6) You cannot have joy without faith (1 Peter 1:8)



7) You are justified by faith and not by works (Gal 2:16)



8) You are to live by faith (Gal 2:20)



9) You are made righteous by faith (Romans 10:1-4)



10) Christ indwells your heart by faith (Eph 3:17)



11) The Holy Spirit is received by faith (Gal 3:2)



12) Whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23)







Faith is important because it honors God, and God always honors faith.

Conclusion of The Four-fold Gospel 9/25 Wed. Wisdom

Be diligent. There is much to do. You can hasten the coming of the day of God. The world is to be forewarned. The Church is to be prepared. Arouse thee, O Christian. Give Him every power, every faculty, every dollar, every moment. Send the Gospel abroad. Go yourself if you can. If you cannot, send your substitute. And may this last decade of the nineteenth century mean for you and for this world, as nothing ever meant before, a time of preparation for the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!







-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Lessons It Leaves 9/24 Tuesday Truth

"I come as a thief; blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." Let us not put off the wedding robe for an hour. Let us remember His words, "When these things begin to come to pass, then lift up your heads and bend yourselves BACK (Dr. Young), for your redemption draweth nigh." Keep your faces turned heavenwards until your whole being shall curve heavenwards, like a dear old saint we know, whose body, when she speaks and prays, describes a circle bending towards the sky.



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Blessings of His Second Coming #7 9/23 Monday Meditation

7. And it will bring such blessings to others, to the race, to the world. It will stop the awful tragedy of sin and suffering; it will sheathe the sword, emancipate the captive, close the prison and the hospital, bind the devil and his henchman death, beautify and glorify the face of the earth, evangelize and convert the perishing nations, and shed light and gladness of this dark scene of woe and wickedness.


There shall be no more crying.

There shall be no more pain.

There shall be no more dying.

There shall be no more stain.

Hearts that by death were riven,

Meet in eternal love:

Lives on the altar given

Rise to their crowns above.

  -- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Blessings of His Second Coming #6 9/20 Friday Faith

some words illegible on ereader



6. It will banish Satan. It will bind and chain the ... fiend, whose hate and power have ... the world in ages of darkness and misery. Oh, to be free from his presence for even a day! to feel that we need no longer watch with ceaseless vigilance against him! to walk upon a world without a devil! Lord, hasten that glorious day.

-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Feast of Tabernacles 9/19 Thursday Thoughts

The final and most joyous festival of the year begins at sundown Wednesday and continues for seven days. It is called Feast of Tabernacles (or Shelters or Booths), Feast of Ingathering, Season of Our Rejoicing, or Sukkot. It celebrates God's care and protection during forty years of wandering in the wilderness and His continuing sustenance. All Jews made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They made and lived in temporary shelters (sukkah booths) recalling their years of wandering. In modern times families or congregations build outdoor shelters filled with harvest decorations. It was during the Feast of Tabernacles' illumination ceremony that Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." It was during the water pouring ceremony that Jesus said, "I am the living water."



There is evidence by comparing time frames in the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles and that He will return during the Feast of Tabernacles.



"Jesus is God tabernacling among men. The word _dwelt_ in Greek implies a temporary dwelling, a sukkah booth. Jesus is God's ultimate sukkah booth. For God, in Jesus Christ, tabernacles among men. As the Temple was a temporary dwelling for the Shekinah (visible Glory of God), so Jesus tabernacling among us manifested the glory of God. He is the source of light and life to all who believe." (The Fall Feasts of Israel, by Mitch and Zhava Glaser)

Blessings of His Second Coming #5 9/18 Wed. Wisdom

Here's a new thought about heaven that I'd never encountered:



5. It will give us the sweetest and highest service. It will be no idle, selfish ecstasy, but will bring a perfect partnership in His kingdom and administration. We shall, perhaps, be permitted to fulfill the ideals of our highest earthly experiences, and finish the work we have longed and tried to do -- with boundless resources, infinite capabilities, unlimited scope and time, and His own presence and omnipotent help. The blessed work will be to serve Him, to bless others, and to raise earth and humanity to happiness, righteousness and Paradise restored.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Blessings of His Second Coming #4 9/17 Tuesday Truth

4. We shall have perfect bodies; we shall possess His perfect resurrection life... The laws of [gravity] will hold us no more. The streets of the New Jerusalem vertically and horizontally, the length and breadth, and the height are equal. Our bodies shall be the perfect instruments of our exalted spirits, the exact reflection of His glorious body.



-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Blessings of His Second Coming #3 9/16 Monday Meditation

3. It will bring us perfect spirits, restored to His image, glorious in His likeness, free from fault, defect, or imperfection, removed above temptation, incapable of falling, and overflowing with unutterable blessedness. We shall wear His perfect image; we shall know as we are known; we shall be as holy as He is holy; we shall possess his ... perfect love.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Yom Kippur 9/13 Friday Faith

As you know, I like to educate Christians on their Hebrew roots. Yom Kippur begins at sunset Friday. It is God's appointed day for atonement of sins. Jesus would have observed Yom Kippur, and He is the fulfillment of it.



On this day there is to be no eating or drinking, no work, no travel, no wearing leather shoes, no bathing or washing, no perfumes, and no sex. It is customary to dress entirely in white.



The high priest made animal sacrifices, and the scapegoat was sent into the wilderness to take away the sins of the people.





from Wikipedia: According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into a book, the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to "seal" the verdict. During the Days of Awe, a Jewish person tries to amend his or her behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other human beings. The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside for public and private petitions and confessions of guilt. At the end of Yom Kippur, one hopes that they have been forgiven by God.



Jesus is the fulfillment of Yom Kippur. By His blood sacrifice He has taken away our sins once and for all so that sacrifices are no longer needed. No longer do we need to "hope" that our sins have been forgiven.



And no, I don't observe the Hebrew customs of Yom Kippur.

Blessings of His Second Coming 9/12 Thursday Thoughts

1. It will bring us Jesus Himself. This is the best of its blessings... Not the robes and royal crowns, not the resurrection [bodies] or ... friends will be the chief joy, but "Thou art coming, we shall see Thee, And be like Thee on that day."



2. It will [bring] us our friends. "Them who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." They shall be alive, they shall be recognized, they shall be gloriously beautiful, they shall be ours forever. Not only the old ones, but such new ones, the good of all the ages, the men and women we have longed to know. What a family! "Ten thousand times ten thousand, In shining garments bright, The armies of the ransomed Throng up the steps of light."



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

More Signs on His Coming 9/11 Wednesday Wisdom

Portions of the text are illegible on my ereader. It misreads the letters in the original text and makes whole passages incomprehensible.







5. The intellectual signs... while human philosophy talks of evolution and declares that all things continue as they were, and nature is ... only material.



6. The moral signs are even more marked than Daniel's picture. "The wicked shall do wickedly," was never more true than today. Portentous forms of wickedness startle the moral sense every day...



7. The religious signs are growing more vivid. Lukewarmness and worldliness in the Church, intense longings after holiness on the part of the few, and a mighty missionary movement are the features of the age, and the signs of prophecy, that point to the day of the Son of Man.



8. And finally, an earnest, a growing and a world-wide expectation of His coming on the part of all those who love His appearing, is as profound today as it was in Judea, and even the Gentile world in the age preceding His advent at Bethlehem. The morning star is in the East. "The children of the day" have seen it. The cry gone forth, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand."



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Signs of His Coming Fulfilled 9/10 Tuesday Truth

Many of the most important signs of the Lord's coming have already been fulfilled. For example:



1. The political developments of Daniel's visions have apparently all occurred...



2. The predicted "falling away" has long ago begun, and the man of sin has sat in God's temple already the full time of the prophetic cycle, and the process has begun to consume and destroy unto the end.



3. The Mohammedan power has waxed and waned, and the waters of this great spiritual Euphrates are being dried up every day to prepare the way of God's kingly people.



4. The Jewish signs have not been less remarkable. Jacob is turning his face again to Bethel, and Jerusalem... Her sons are slowing returning, while jealous nations... fulfilling unconsciously the voice of prophecy. (much of this section is illegible on the ereader).



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Coming of Christ 9/9 Monday Meditation

He will first come for His own waiting ones, and they, with the holy dead, shall be caught up to meet Him in the air. The wicked world shall be left behind; a formal church and a multitude of nations shall live on and scarcely miss the little flock that has just been caught away. Then will begin a series of judgments and warning, ending at last in the descent of Christ in power and glory, the revelation of His righteous judgment against His open enemies, and the beginning of His reign... It is more imminent and certain, and may come at any hour.



-- A.B. Simspon, The Four-fold Gospel

Rosh Hashanah 2 9/6 Friday Faith

I decided to wait until Monday to pick up the A.B. Simpson quotes again. Meanwhile, some more stuff about the Jewish New Year and an uplifting Scripture.



My prayer partner and I went to Sar Shalom Messianic Congregation in Mansfield Wednesday night. We enjoyed a meal of pizza, KFC, and all kinds of sweets, which is customary for wishing a new year of sweetness. Then we all went out on the lawn at sunset where 28 people with shofars blew them in four directions to welcome the new year. Then inside for a service consisting Davidic dancing, flag and banner dance teams, shofar-blowing, tambourines, shouting, dancing the hora through the aisles, traditional prayers, and sermon. About 80 present.



During the ten days from Rosh HaShanah until Yom Kippur, Jews and Messianics read Psalm 27 daily. So I thought I would quote some verses (NKJV) from that psalm for today's meditation.



The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.

One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.



I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Rosh HaShanah: One of God's Appointed Feasts

If you know me very well, you know that I like to keep Christians informed of their Jewish roots and the fulfillment of the High Holy Days, "the festivals of the Lord", by Yeshua/ Jesus.



Rosh HaShanah ("Head of the Year") (also known as Yom Teruah - "Day of the Trumpet") begins at sundown today, Wed., Sept. 4, by tradition the 5774 th anniversary of the Creation of Adam and Eve. It continues through Friday. This is the Jewish New Year.



Traditional foods are apples and honey, or anything sweet (for sweetness in the new year). It is also a time of personal introspection, culminating on Yom Kippur next week.



Here's the application for Christians:





Hebrew for Christians (Facebook group)



... Moreover there is a prophetic aspect to this season, as Yom Teruah (i.e., Rosh Hashanah) represents the "Day of the LORD" (יוֹם יְהוָה) and the imminent apocalyptic judgment of the present world... Just as the spring festivals foretold Messiah's first advent, so the fall festivals foretell his second coming... Moreover, "teruah" (תְּרוּעָה) is the blast of a shofar, the "calling up" signal for those who belong to Messiah; the opening of the gate to the wedding of the Lamb! May God help us be ready to soon see our King!

The Millennium 9/4 Wednesday Wisdom

Although God knew just the moment when His Son should appear, yet He wanted His Church to be always expecting it -- at even, or at midnight, or at cock crowing, or in the morning. The announcement of a fixed previous millennium would have been fatal to this design, and the Church would have gone to work to make her own millennium without Him.



-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel







As we approach the fall festival of The Feast of Trumpets (more about this tomorrow), let's keep waiting and watching and listening for that final trumpet!

What Do We Mean by the Millenium? 9/3 Tuesday Truth

1. The resurrection and re-union of the saints.

2. Their reward and reign.

3. The complete exclusion of Satan from the earth.

4. The personal and continual presence of Jesus with them on earth.

5. The suppression of all enemies and the universal reign of righteousness.

6. The duration of a thousand years.

7. The immediately succeeding revolt of Satan and sinful man, and the final judgment of the wicked.

If there was no other reference in the Bible to this time of blessing, these elements alone would be sufficient to constitute a state and time of exalted glory and happiness.



--A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What It Means by Christ's Coming 9/2 Monday Meditation

[The examples that Simpson cites were all popular attempts to explain away Christ's Second Coming in Simpson's day.]



1. We do not mean His coming to the individual Christian's heart... This is not His second coming... Indeed, the more we know Jesus spiritually, the more will we long for His personal and eternal presence in the fuller and more glorious sense which His personal advent will bring.

2. We do not mean His coming at death. It is doubtful whether He does really come for us at death...

3. We do not mean... the progress of Christianity. This is nowhere recognized... as the personal coming of Christ...

His truth is to prevail; His cause is to triumph, but He is coming personally, and He is infinitely more than even His truth and cause.



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

In a Deep Pit 8/30 Friday Faith

[A.B. Simpson tells of a testimony he heard from a Chinaman]:

"I was down in a deep pit, half sunk in the mire and was crying for someone to help me out."

[The man tells how Confucius and Buddha could not help him, but Jesus could.]

"I cried out to Him: 'Oh, Father, can you help me?' 'My child,' he said, 'what is the matter?' Before I could answer Him, He was down in the mire by my side; He folded his arms about me and lifted me up, and then He fed and rested me. When I was well, He did not say, 'Now, don't do that again,' but He said, 'We will walk on together now'; and we have been walking together until this day."

That's what Jesus Christ will do for you, beloved! He comes down to you where you are. He becomes your trust within you, and then you go on together until the resurrection light and glory of the coming age bursts in upon you. May God help us all to receive Him thus fully for his own name's sake! Amen.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

How Is Jesus Our Healer? 8/29 Thursday Thoughts

1. Because He has brought healing for us with His stripes. It is a part of His purchased redemption on Calvary...



2. Because it is in His risen life in us. We have healing not only from Jesus, but in Jesus...



3. Because He enables us to take it by becoming our power to believe. He gives the faith to trust Him if we will receive it... He comes down to your helplessness and becomes our trust as well as our healing...



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

How Healing Is Received (cont.) 8/28 Wed. Wisdom

8. Divine healing is in accordance with all the facts of Church history... Great multitudes of healed ones proclaim with one voice: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever." All down through the middle ages the pure Church believed this truth and taught it...

9. Divine healing is one of the signs of the age. It is the forerunner of Christ's coming. It is God's answer to the infidelity of today. Man may try to reason it down with the force of his intellect. God meets it with this unanswerable proof of His power.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

How Healing Is Received 8/27 Tuesday Truth

6. Divine healing comes by the grace of God, not through the work of man... We cannot help God out in it. It comes to us as a gift...

7. It comes to us by faith. It is not the faith that heals. God heals, but faith receives it. We believe that God is healing before any evidence is given. It is to be believed as a present reality... We are to act as it it were already true. God wants us to lean on Him, and trust Him, and then rejoice and praise Him for what He has given, with no doubt or fear.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

How Healing Is Received (cont.) 8/26 Monday Meditation

4. Divine healing comes to us through the life of Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead in His own body... This is our Christ, a living physical Christ, and He is able and willing to share His physical life with you, by breathing into you His strength...

5. It is the work of His Holy Spirit, quickening the body. When Christ healed the sick while He was upon earth, it was not by the Deity that dwelt in His humanity... Jesus healed by the Holy Ghost... Especially should we expect to see His working in these days, because they are the days of His own Dispensation, the days in which it has been prophesied that there shall be signs and wonders...

-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Divine Healing in the Redemption 8/23 Friday Faith

I think this is a really thought-provoking passage. Lep



Divine healing is part of the redemption work of Jesus Christ. It is one of the things He came to bring. Its foundation stone is the cross of Calvary. "He redeemeth thy life from destruction." (Psalm 103)... "By His stripes we are healed." That is the redemption work of Christ. You have a right to it, beloved, for His body bore all the liability of your body on the cross. Take it and love Him better, because it came from His stripes. I love to think of that word as being in the singular number, stripe. That is the Greek meaning. His body was so beaten that it was all one stripe. There was not an inch of His flesh but was lacerated for us. There is not a fibre of your body but Christ has suffered there to redeem it.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Walk With God Required 8/22 Thurs. Thoughts

That is the meaning of many of God's chastenings. There is much that He would say to men through His dealings with their bodies, and it is necessary to get their full meaning into the soul before Divine healing can be received, and kept after it has been received. It is not a cast-iron patent that works inexorably in one way always; it requires a walk that is very close with God. When the soul is thus walking in harmony and obedience to Him, the life of God can fully flow into the body. Thank God, we cannot have it and have the devil, too.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Sickness and Discipline 8/21 Wednesday Wisdom

It may be, however, that your sickness has been allowed to come as a discipline. You may have been holding back part of the full testimony or service Christ has called you to. I am afraid, then, you cannot be healed till that difficulty is made right. You may be in some wrong and crooked attitude. He probably will not restore you till that is adjusted.


-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Divine Healing Is 8/20 Tuesday Truth

1. It is the supernatural, Divine power of God, infused into human bodies, renewing their strength and replacing the weakness and suffering human frames by the life and power of God. It is a touch of the Divine omnipotence, and nothing short of it...

2. It is founded, not on the [illegible] of man, or on the testimony of those who have been healed, but on the Word of God alone. All the testimony that could be gathered from the whole universe would not establish the truth of such a doctrine, if it is not to be found in the Scriptures...

3. It ever recognizes the will of God, and bows to that profound submission. A Christian who is looking for Divine healing will wait till he knows the will of God, and having learned that, he will claim it without wavering. If the sufferer is convinced that the work God gave him to do is done, and that now he is called home, then he should acquiesce in that will and lie down in those blessed arms and rest...

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Divine Healing Is Not (pt. 4) 8/19 Monday Meditation

(Items 6 & 8 are garbled on my ereader.)



7. Divine healing is not will power. No person can grapple with his own helplessness and turn it over into strength... If man is down, all the power in his own soul will not avail to lift him up...

9. Neither is it physical immortality, but it is fullness of life until the life-work is done, and then receiving our complete resurrection life at the coming of Christ.

10. Diving healing is not a mercenary medical profession that men adopt as they would adopt a trade or profession in order to make something out of it. If you find the mercenary idea appearing in it for a moment, discountenance and repudiate it. All the gifts of God are as free as the blood of Calvary.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Diving Healing Is Not (pt. 3) 8/16 Friday Faith

5. Divine healing is not prayer power. There are many Christians who greatly desire others to pray for them. If they can secure a certain quantity of prayer there will come a corresponding influence for good upon them, and if all the Christians in the world were to pray for them, they would expect to be healed. There is a general notion that there is a great deal of power in prayer which must have an effect if it can be concentrated. And if enough of it could be obtained, it would move mountains and perhaps be able to break down God' stubborn will. This is practically what this view teaches. There is no power in prayer unless it is the prayer of God Himself. Unless you are in contact with Christ the living Healer, there is no healing. Christ's healing is by His own Divine touch. It is not prayer cure, but Christ-Healing.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Divine Healing Is Not 8/15 Thurs. Thoughts

2. Divine healing is not metaphysical healing. It is not a system of rationalism...

3. Divine healing is not magnetic healing. It is not a mysterious current which flows into one body from another...

4. Divine healing is not spiritualism... If Satan had power to bind a woman in Christ's time, for eighteen years, he had power to unbind her just as quickly. If sickness was his work then, it must surely be the same now. If he can use some persons better if they are strong and well, he will do so. Other instruments he can use better in weakness and pain...

-- A. B Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Divine Healing Is Not 8/14 Wed. Wisdom

1. Divine healing is not medical healing.  It does not come to us through medicines, nor is it God's especial blessing on remedies and means.  It is the direct power of the Almighty hand of God Himself.  "Himself took our infirmities"...  We have nothing to say against the use of remedies so far as those are concerned who are not ready to trust their bodies fully to the Lord...  We cheerfully admit that their remedies have some value as far as they go.  There is some power in man's attempts to stop the tides of evil that sweep over a suffering world.  But there comes a point in all efforts when we have to say, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further."  Yet no one ought rashly to give up these human helps until they have got a better one.  Unless they have been led to trust Christ entirely for something higher and stronger than their nature life, they had better stick to natural remedies.  They need to be sure that God's Word distinctly presents healing for disease, and it does it as definitely as it does forgiveness of sin.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

   

Practical Steps of Sanctification (pt. 2) 8/13 Tuesday Truth

The moment we are consecrated to Jesus Christ we learn the secret that He is to be all-in-all to us.  But when we try to practice this truth, we find that it takes time and patience to learn it thoroughly .  We must learn to lean on Him.  We must learn little by little how to take Him for every need...  Remember the secret of it is, "Without Me ye can do nothing."  "I can do all things in Christ, who strengtheneth me."-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

 

Practical Steps of Sanctification 8/12 Monday Meditation

Practical steps by which this life of sanctification is lived out day by day.
1. We are to live a life of implicit obedience to God, doing always what He bids and being henceforth wholly under His direction.
2. We are to ever listen diligently to His voice.  We will need to listen closely, for Jesus speaks softly.
3. In every time of conflict or temptation or testing, we are to draw near to God and give the matter over to Him.
-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel  

How Sanctification Is Received (pt. 2) 8/9 Friday Faith

2.  We must come to see Jesus as our sanctifier...  We must see in Him that great deliverer, and know that He is able to meet our every need and supply it.
3. We must make an entire surrender to Him in everything.  We must give ourselves to him thoroughly, definitely and unconditionally, and have it graven in the heart, as if it were written on the rocks, or painted on the sky...
4. We must believe that He receives the consecration we make...
Keep these four steps clear...  Jesus is my Sanctifier and my all-in-all.  I surrender everything into His hand for Him to do with as He thinks best... I believe He will be to me all I need in this life or in the world to come.
-- A.B. Simpson

How Sanctification Is Received 8/8 Thurs. Thoughts

1.  We must have a Divine revelation of our own need of sanctification before we will seek to obtain it.  We must see for ourselves that we are not sanctified, and that we must be sanctified if we would be happy.  The first thing God does often to bring us where we will see this, is to make us thoroughly ashamed of ourselves by letting us fall into mistakes and by bringing our frailties to our notice.  In these humiliating self-revealings we are able to see where we are not righteous, and we are made to learn that we cannot keep our resolutions of amendments that we make in our own strength.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

 

Fully Dedicated 8/7 Wed. Wisdom

When the tabernacle was finished the Holy Ghost came down and possessed it, and dwelt in a burning fire upon the ark of the covenant, between the cherubim.  God lived there after it was dedicated to Him.  So when we are dedicated to God, He comes to live in us and transfuses His life though all our being.  -- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel 

The Source of Sanctification (pt. 2) 8/6 Tuesday Truth

3. Sanctification is to be received as one of the free gifts God desires to bestow upon us.  If it is not a gift then it is not a part of redemption.  If it is a part of redemption, then it is as free as the blood of Jesus.
4. It comes through the personal indwelling of Jesus.  He does not put righteousness into the heart simply, but He comes there personally Himself to live.
-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Source of Sanctification 8/5 Monday Meditation

1. He has purchased it for us.  It is part of the fruit of Calvary... 
2. It does not come to us by our efforts, but it is made over to us as the purchase of His death upon the cross.  It is ours by the purchase of Jesus just as much as forgiveness is.  You have as much right to be holy and sanctified as you have to be saved.  You can go to God and claim it as your inheritance as much as you can your pardon for sin.  If you do not have it you are falling short of your redemption privileges.
-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel 

 

What Sanctification Is (pt. 2) 8/2 Friday Faith

3. Sanctification includes conformity to the likeness of God.  We are to be in His image, and stamped with the impress of Jesus Christ.
4. Sanctification means conformity also to the will as well as the likeness of God... He desires the Divine will above everything else in life as kinder and wiser for him than anything else can be.
5. Sanctification means love, supreme love to God and all mankind... We cannot be conformed to the image of God without love, for God is love.
-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Sanctification Is 8/1 Thursday Thoughts

1. It is separation from sin... [God] puts a line of demarcation between the sanctified soul and all that is unholy... He has nowhere promised that He will kill Satan, but He has promised to put a broad, deep Jordan between the Christian and sin...
2. Sanctification means also dedication to God... A sanctified Christian is wholly yielded to God to please Him in every particular; his first thought always is, "Thy will be done"; his one desire that he may please God and do His holy will... God expects something more of us than simply to be separated from sin.  This is only negative goodness.  He expects that we shall be wholly dedicated to Him, having it the supreme wish of our heart to love and honor and please Him.
-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Sanctification Is Not (pt. 5) 7/31 Wed. Wisdom

Sanctification is not a state of emotion.  It is not an ecstasy or a sensation.  It resides in the will and purpose of life.  It is a practical conformity of life and conduct to the will and character of God.  The will must choose God.  The purpose of the heart must be to yield to Him, to please and obey Him. That is the important thing, to love, to choose and to do His holy will.  You cannot have that spirit in you and fail to be happy.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Sanctification Is Not (pt. 4) 7/30 Tuesday Truth

5. Sanctification is not self-perfection.  We shall never become so inherently good that there will be no possibility or temptation to sin.   We shall never reach a place where we shall not need each moment to abide in Him...  The moment you or I become conscious that we are strong or pure, that instant the work of disintegration begins.  It has made us independent of Him, and we have separated ourselves from the life of Christ.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Sanctification Is Not (pt. 3) 7/29 Monday Meditation

2. Sanctification is not morality, nor any attainments of character... A man cannot build up a good human character himself and then call it the work of God. It will not stand the strain that is sure to come upon it...


3. Sanctification is not your own work: it is not a gradual attainment which you can grow into by your own efforts... It is an obtainment, not an attainment. You cannot sanctify yourselves. The only thing to do is to give yourself wholly to God, a voluntary sacrifice... But He must do the work of cleansing and filling.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Sanctification is Not 7/26 Friday Faith

You will find that men and women who do not press on in their Christian experience to gain the fullness of their inheritance in Him, will often become cold and formal...  You have doubtless noticed young Christians who have seemed to be marvelously converted and filled with the love of God, but they have not entered into the deeper life of Christ, and in an evil hour they failed.  They had gained a new heart, but they had neglected to get the deeper teaching and life which Christ has for all His children.
-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Sanctification: What It Is Not 7/25 Thurs. Thoughts

Sanctification is the second step in the Four-fold Gospel.


I. WHAT IT IS NOT

1. It is not regeneration... To be saved eternally is cause for eternal joy; but the soul must also enter into sanctification. They are not the same. Regeneration is the beginning. It is the germ of the seed, but it is not the summer fullness of the plant. The heart has not yet gained entire victory over the old elements of sin... Regeneration is like building a house and having the work done well. Sanctification is having the owner come and dwell in it and fill it with gladness, and life, and beauty.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Considerations Which Should ... (cont.) 7/24 Wed. Wisdom

4. Because the little word "now" is always linked with it. It must be taken now or never...


5. Because its issues are for eternity. The decisions there are not reversible... God's Word holds out no second chance to any human soul.

6. Because if salvation is missed there will be no excuse for it... All has been done that could be done. Salvation has been brought down to man's level. It has been placed where he can reach it.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Considerations Which Should Urge Us... 7/23 Tuesday Truth

Considerations which should urge us to take and give out this salvation


1. Because of the fact that every man's salvation is hinged on his own choice and free will... We are not forced to take it. We must voluntarily choose it or reject it.

2. Because of the tremendous responsibility to which we are held accountable for the salvation of our soul...

3. Because of the guilt which will rest upon us for neglecting and despising the precious blood of Christ, which was shed for our salvation... Jesus suffered intensely to bring it to us, and shall we stumble carelessly over it? Oh, let us be more concerned than we are, both for the salvation of our own souls and for those around us who are not saved.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Why It Is Called the Gospel of Good News (cont.) 7/22 Mon. Meditation

4. Because of its universality. Whosoever will may take it and live.


5. Because of the security of its blessings. They are given forevermore...

6. Because of the eternity of its blessings. The sun will have burnt itself into ashes, the earth will have been destroyed by volcanic heat, the heavens will be changed when salvation has only begun. Ten thousand times ten thousand years shall pass away, and we shall have only begun a little to understand what salvation means. Blessed be God for the Gospel of Christ's salvation.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Why It Is Called the Gospel of Good News 7/19 Friday Faith

Why it is called the gospel of good news:


1. Because of its value. It comes laden with blessings to him who receives it.

2. Because of its freedom. It may be taken without money and without price.

3. Because of its availableness. It is easy of access, being on the level of the worst sinner.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Things the Bible Says About Salvation (cont.) 7/18 Thurs. Thoughts

5. Christ is called the "mighty to save," because no matter how weak or how wicked the sinner may be, He is able to save him to the uttermost.

6. It is called a near salvation... "The Word is nigh thee..."  We can find Him everywhere we are.  Salvation is at our door... No steps were allowed to God's ancient altar, for then some poor sinner might not be able to get up to it.  Jesus is on the very plane where you are this moment.  You can take His salvation here now...-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Things the Bible Says About Salvation 7/17 Wed. Wisdom

Things the Bible says about salvation:
1. It is called God's salvation.  It was not invented by man...
2. It is called "your own salvation," because you yourself must appropriate it.
3. It is called "the common salvation," because it is free to all who will accept it.
4. It is called a "great salvation" because it is full and infinite in its provisions.  It is large enough for all your needs.
-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Steps By Which (Salvatoin) Is Received 7/15 Monday Meditation

The steps by which (salvation) is received:

1. Conviction of sin.  We must first see our need and our danger before we can be saved.  The Holy Ghost brings this to our heart and conscience.  ...
2. There must be next an apprehension of Jesus as our Saviour...  It will not do merely to feel and confess your guilt.  What is needed is to get the eye on Jesus. 
3. Salvation comes by repentance.  There must be a turning from sin...
4. Salvation comes by coming to Jesus... There must be a turning to Jesus as well as a turning from sin.
-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Process by Which These Blessings Come 7/12 Friday Faith

(continued from yesterday)
The process by which these blessings come:
5. Salvation comes through the intercession of Jesus at the right hand of the Father.  He is our Great High Priest there, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us, and thus keeps us in continual acceptance.
6. Salvation comes through the grace of the Holy Ghost... He keeps our feet in the way, and He will never leave His work until He has put us forever into the bosom of Jesus.
7. Salvation comes to us by the Gospel... Our refusal to accept it, or our neglect to do so, fixes irrevocably, by our own act, our eternal condition. ...

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Process by Which These Blessings Come 7/11 Thurs. Thoughts

The process by which these blessings come:
1. They come through the mercy and grace of God. ...
2. Salvation comes to us by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  He perfectly fulfilled for us every requirement of the law. ...
3. Salvation comes to us through the death of Christ.  His obedience is not enough. ...
4. Salvation comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which was God's seal of His accomplished work and the pledge of our pardon.

-- A.B. Simpson,  The Four-fold Gospel

What Salvation Brings Us (part 3) 7/10 Wed. Wisdom

7. It brings to us the care of God's providence, causing all things to work together for our good.  This is never true until we are saved: but when we are the children of God all things in earth and in heaven are on our side.
8. Salvation opens the way for all the blessings that follow it.  It is the stepping stone to sanctification and healing, and the peace that passeth understanding...
9. Salvation brings us to eternal life.  

-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

7. It brings to us the care of God's providence, causing all things to work together for our good. This is never true until we are saved: but when we are the children of God all things in earth and in heaven are on our side.

What Salvation Brings to Us 7/8 Monday Meditation

1. It brings the forgiveness of all our sins and entirely removes them... They can never appear against us again.




2. It brings us justification in the sight of God, so that we stand before Him as righteous beings. We are accepted as though we had done everything He had commanded, and had perfectly kept the law in every particular.



3. It brings us into the favor and love of God, and secures us full acceptance in the person of Jesus. He loves us as He loves His only begotten Son.


-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What Salvation Does for Us 7/5 Friday Faith

4. It delivers us also from our evil conscience. There is always a shadow left on our hearts by sin, and a feeling of remorse... It takes the shadow from the heart and the stinging memory of sin from the soul.




5. It delivers from an evil heart, which is the source of all the sin in the life... Salvation frees us from its power and gives us a new nature.



6. It frees us from the fear of death... The death-bed of God's children is to them the portal of heaven...



7. Salvation delivers us from Satan's power and kingdom...



8. Beyond all else, salvation delivers us from eternal death...

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Salvation Saves and Delivers 7/4 Thursday Thoughts

I. WHAT IT SAVES US FROM (continued)




2. Salvation saves us from the wrath of God. God hates evil and must punish it somehow. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men. But from this salvation delivers us.



3. Salvation delivers us from the curse of the law. . . Salvation delivers us from this curse through Him who was made a curse for us.



-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Intro. to A.B. Simpson's Four-fold Gospel 7/3 Wed. Wisdom

Today we begin a series of quotes by A.B. Simpson (1843-1919), prolific author and songwriter, editor, healer, college founder, and founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. Simpson was the first well-known leader to teach that all of the First Corinthians 12 gifts of the Holy Spirit are available today, including tongues and healing. He taught that healing is in the Atonement. That is, that Christ died for our healing as well as dying for our sins. He taught that we can bring about Christ's soon return by increasing our efforts at world evangelism. The quotes are from The Four-fold Gospel, a book which established both Alliance and Pentecostal theology.




Let us look a little at what it means to be saved. It is not at all a little thing... Christ said that it was greater to have one's name written in heaven than to be able to cast out devils. What does salvation mean?



I. WHAT IT SAVES US FROM



1. It takes away the guilt of sin. It frees us from all liability and punishment for past offences. Sin deserves punishment. Salvation takes this all away. Is it not glorious to be saved? (to be continued)

Know-So Salvation 7/2 Tuesday Truth

To be a successful evangelist or soul-winner, we, too, must have a definite testimony of know-so Salvation -- a definite knowledge of sins forgiven and of the hour when we were born again and all things became new.


--Aimee Semple McPherson

This will be the last of the Aimee Semple McPherson quotes. Starting tomorrow: Quotes from A.B. Simpson, The Fourfold Gospel. We will be covering the topics Christ our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King.

Why Not? 7/1 Monday Meditation

If, as you say, the Lord sends diseases, creates suffering bodies and sorrowing homes to make us better Christians, why not get some vials of germs, diphtheria, TB, infantile paralysis, etc., from the laboratories and scatter them over the congregation to make us all more patient and Christlike? If a little is good, would not more be better?




-- Aimee Semple McPherson

Sickness Sent by God? 6/28 Friday Faith

Q: May it not be that much of our sickness is sent from the hand of the Lord to make us better Christians or to keep us from wandering away?




A: This is an old and oft advanced theory but it is without foundation in the Word of God. The thought of our tender, sympathizing Jesus planting within His children cruel cancers to burn and gnaw and eat their way into the very heart of the sufferer, or paralysis to the limbs of little children that they can run and play no more, or blindness to the eyes of the father that he can no more more earn his daily bread. . .



This is not the work of our Lord but of the archfiend Satan whose work Jesus came to destroy. When the Lord made the world, it was pure, innocent, free from sin and sickness. 'Twas the devil who sowed these seeds but there is deliverance through the triune God for body, soul and Spirit.



-- Aimee Semple McPherson