A More Excellent Way by Smith Wigglesworth

A More Excellent Way

Praise the Lord! The Word of God is very clear regarding this: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” (Ps. 150:6). If you ever get to the place where you cannot praise the Lord, it is a calamity in your life and it is a calamity to the people who are around you. If you want to take blessing into homes and make all the people around you know that you have something more than an ordinary life, you must know that God has come to supplant you and put within you a perfect praise. God has a great place for us, so that His will may be done and we may be subject to His perfect will. When that comes to pass, no one can tell what may happen, for Jesus reached the highest place when He said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). So there is something in a place of yielding where God can have us for His own.

God has a choice for us all so that we might lose ourselves in God in a way we have never done before. I want to provoke you to love so that you will come into a place of blessing, for God wants you to be blessed so that you will be a blessing.

Beloved, believe today that God has a way for you. Perhaps you have never come that way before. God has a way beyond all your ways of thought. He has a choice and a plan for you.

There is a great need today. People are hungry for truth. People are thirsting, wanting to know God better. There are thousands “in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14), wanting someone to take them right into the depths of God.

Are you ready to pray? You say, “What should I ask for?”

You may not know what to ask for, but if you begin, the Spirit knows the desire of your heart, and He will pray according to the mind of God. You do not know, but God knows everything, and He is acquainted with you altogether and desires to promote you.

So I say, “Are you ready?” You say, “What for?” Are you ready to come promptly into the presence of God so that you may ask this day as you have never asked before? Ask in faith, nothing doubting, believing that God is on the throne waiting to anoint you afresh today.

Are you ready? What for? Are you ready to be brought into the banquet house of God, even as Esther came in before King Ahasuerus? God will put out the scepter, and all that your heart desires He will give to you. (See Esther 5–7.)

Father, in Jesus’ name we come before You believing in Your almightiness, that the power of Your hand does move us, chasten us. Build us. Let the Word of God sink into our hearts this day. Make us, O God, worthy of the name we bear, that we may go about as real, holy saints of God. Just as if You were on the earth, fill us with Your anointing, Your power, and Your grace. Amen.

Humility and Compassion

It is very important to minister in the gifts of the Spirit in the proper way. What a serious thing it would be, after waiting for the enduement of power for months and months and months, to fail God because we turned to some human desire just because we liked it.

I want to say at the beginning that there is no anointing like the unction that comes out of death, when we are dead with Christ. It is that position that makes us live with Him. If we have been conformed to His death, then, in that same death, like Paul, we will be made like Him in His resurrection power (Phil. 3:10–11).

But do not forget that Jesus was coequal with the Father and that He made Himself of no reputation when he became man and came to earth (Phil. 2:6–7). He did not come out and say that He was this, that, or the other. No, that was not His position. Jesus had all the gifts. He could have stood up and said to Peter and John and James and the rest of them, when the dead son was being carried through the gate of the city of Nain (see Luke 7:11–15), “Stand to one side, Peter. Clear out of the way, John. Make room for Me, Thomas. Don’t you know who I am? I am coequal with the Father. I have all power, I have all gifts, I have all graces. Stand to one side; I will show you how to raise the dead!”

Is that how He did it? No! Never. Then what made it come to pass?

He was observant. The disciples were there, but they did not have the same observance. Observance comes from an inward holy flame kindled by God.

What did He see? He saw the widow and knew that she was carrying to burial that day all her help, all her life. Her love was bound up in that son. There she was, broken and bent over with sorrow, all her hopes blighted. Jesus had compassion upon her, and the compassion of Jesus was greater than death. His compassion was so marvelous that it went beyond the powers of death and all the powers of demons.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Ps. 103:2). Isn’t He a lovely Jesus! Isn’t He a precious Savior! Don’t you see that if we bear in our body the marks of Jesus (Gal. 6:17) or the life of the manifestation of Jesus, if we live only as Jesus is manifested, if people realize that we have “been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13), as they realized it of Peter and John, then that would pay for everything? Oh, it would surely be beautiful!

Presumption

These meetings are not ordinary meetings. The Holy Spirit is among us; Jesus is being glorified. We are not seeking our own in these meetings, but we are seeking to provoke one another to holiness and character (Heb. 10:24) so that we may be of the same mind as Jesus. The same manifestation that was in Him has to be in us. I must never, under any circumstances, as long as I live, take advantage of God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. I have to be subservient to the power of God. Let me give you a little illustration that will help you in thinking about this.

One day a young man got very elated because he had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and he got into a place that most people seemed to fail to see was the wrong place. This young man was on the platform during a meeting, and he said, “I am baptized with the Holy Spirit. I can cast out devils. Come, I can cast them out!” There was a poor man there who had been bound by the Devil for many, many years, so bound that he was helpless. He could not help himself; he was bound in every way. He had never heard such words before, and when he heard them he was so moved that he struggled out of his seat, took hold of the chairs, and went down among the people in the aisle. He was a poor helpless man who was seeking relief the first time he heard that he could be delivered.

He went up and stood before the preacher and cried out, “Cast them out! Please cast them out! Help me; please cast them out!”

The young man did all he could, but he could not do it. The church was broken, the whole place was brought into travail. Oh, they wept and they cried because it was not done.

A Perfect Way

It never will be done that way. That isn’t the way to do it. But there is a way to minister in all the gifts of the Spirit, and it is the way that is in the Scriptures. Let us look into this perfect way that is found in 1 Corinthians 13, starting with the first verse:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

Did you ever read a verse like this? It is the state of being brought into a treasury. Do you know what a treasury is? A treasury holds or handles priceless things. God puts you into the treasury to hold or handle the precious gifts of the Spirit. Therefore, so that you may not fail to handle them correctly, He gives you a picture of how you may handle them.

What a high position of authority, of grace, the Lord speaks about in this verse! “Speak with the tongues of men and of angels.” Oh, isn’t that wonderful! There are men who have such wonderful qualifications for speaking. Their knowledge in the natural realm is so surpassing that many people go to hear their eloquent addresses because the language in them is so beautiful. Yet, through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, God puts you right in the midst of them and says that He has given you the capability to speak like men, with power of thought and language at your disposal, so that you can say anything.

People are failing God all the time all over the world because they are taken up with their own eloquence, and God is not in it. They are lost with the pretentiousness of their great authority over language, and they use it on purpose to tickle the ears and the sensations of the people, and it profits nothing. It is nothing. It will wither up, and the people who use it will wither up. Yet God has said there is a way. Now, how would language “of men and of angels” (1 Cor. 13:1) come to prosper?

When you wept through to victory before, you were able to do anything. You were so undone that unless God helped you to do it, you couldn’t do it. You were so broken in spirit that your whole body seemed to be at an end unless God reinstated you. Then the unction came, and every word was glorifying Jesus. Every sentence lifted the people, and they felt as they listened, “Surely God is in this place! He has sent His Word and healed us” (see Psalm 107:20). They saw no man there except Jesus. Jesus was so manifested that they all said, “Oh, wasn’t Jesus speaking to our hearts this morning!”

If you minister in this way, you will never become nothing. Tongues of men and angels alone will come to nothing. Yet if you speak with tongues of men and angels that are bathed in the love of God until it is to Him alone that you speak, then it will be written down forever in the history of the glory.

Never think for a moment that the Acts of the Apostles has been completed. It is an incomplete book. When you read Revelation, it is complete. You cannot add to nor take from this wonderful truth of prophecy. It is complete. And so, when you are used only for and desire only the glory of God, your acts and life, ministry, and power will be an endless recording in the glory of heaven—for the Acts of the Apostles are being recorded in the glory. So let the Lord help us to know how to act in the Holy Spirit.

Set your house in order, for unless you die, you cannot live. For God is coming today and taking us—others may be left, but we are taken—taken on with God, taken into God, moved by the power of God, until we live and move in God and God has us as His channel, breathing through, divinely fixing, bringing forth words new and old. And God is moving in the midst, and His people are being fed with the finest of the wheat.

We have a great salvation, but some people limit it. I believe in eternal salvation. The question has been asked me, “Do you believe that after you are saved, you are forever saved?” The Scriptures are very clear on this, and they are the words of Jesus. What does He say? “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

I do not believe that you are a sheep if you do not follow. But if you follow, you are all right; if you do not follow, it shows you were never right. So if you are all right, you will remain right and you will end up right. Do not forget that it is only those who hear His voice who belong to the fold. And so, if you are acting indiscreetly, carelessly, frivolously, and sinfully, you have never been in it; you are a stranger to it. “My sheep hear

My voice…and they follow Me.” They will not listen to the voice of a stranger, and they have not turned aside to everything else. They live—and, oh, it is a lovely life—they live in the will of God.

Prophecy and Goodness

Let us look at the second verse from 1 Corinthians 13: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

This second verse is like the first, only the Word of God is very remarkable. It starts like this, brings you to a place where there is no condemnation, and then fills you up where there is no separation. That is God’s plan. Lots of people desire to have faith; lots of people desire to have prophecy; lots of people long to know mysteries. Who knows mysteries? “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him” (Ps. 25:14). Don’t change the Scriptures. “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). Do not alter the Scriptures. It takes a just man to live by faith. Do not forget that prophecy is beautiful when you understand the principle of it. Prophecy is the sixth gift mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. What fruit or grace do you think would coincide with prophecy? Why, goodness, of course.

Why goodness? Because if you are living in holiness, entire sanctification, perfection, you would never take advantage of the Holy Spirit and would speak only as the Spirit gave prophecy. You would never say human things just because you had the gift of prophecy. You would speak according to the Spirit, giving prophecy because you had been holy.

When you speak in the natural after you have received the gift of prophecy, it is because you have come to be nothing; you are nothing; you are not counted in the great plan of the great purpose of God. But if you are hidden in Christ and your whole heart is perfected in God, and you will prophesy only when the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, then it will be something that lasts forever. People will be blessed forever and God will be glorified forever.

Faith without Love

Suppose that I have all faith so that I could move mountains. Now, suppose that I also have a big farm, but that some of my farmland is not very profitable. It is stony; it has many rocks on it as well as some little mountains that are absolutely untillable and do no good. But because I have faith without love, I say, “I will use my faith and I will move this land. I do not care where it goes as long as my land is clean.”

So I use my faith to clear my land. The next day, my poor next-door neighbor comes and says, “I am in great trouble. All your wasteland and stony, rocky land has been tipped onto mine, and my good land is ruined.” And I, who have faith without love, say to him, “You get faith and move it back!”

That profits nothing. If God brings you into a place of faith, let it be for the glory of God. Then, when you pray, God will wonderfully answer you; nothing will hinder your being used for God, for God delights to use us. Gifts are not only given; they are also increased to those who can be used, who can keep in a place of useableness. God keeps these yielded ones in a place of being continually supplanted—a new place that is deeper, higher, holier, richer, more heavenly.

In addition, gifts are not only useable, but God is also glorified in Jesus when you pray the prayer of faith. Jesus Himself said, “When you pray believing, the Father will be glorified in the Son.” (See John 14:12–13.) Sacrifice Nothing without Love

We will move on now to the third verse: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. (1 Cor. 13:3)

Though I have such means that I can lay my hands on millions of dollars, though I can do all kinds of things with the money, and though, after I have given it all, I show the people more by giving my body to be burned, saying, “I will show the people what kind of material I am made of!”

this is nothing, nothing! Your gifts will perish unless the gifts are used for the glory of Jesus. Five dollars given in the name of the Lord is of more value than thousands without acknowledging Him.

A man came to me, and we had long talks about the workings of the Lord. He told me, “I was in a very difficult place. I had been working very hard in the church and had given all my strength….”

Oh, I see such godly, holy people doing more than they ought to, thereby giving themselves away. Don’t you know that your body belongs to God (1 Cor. 6:19–20), and that, if you overtax your body, God says He will judge you for it? We have to be careful because the body that is given to us is to exhibit His power and His glory, and we cannot do this if we give ourselves all the time to work, work, work, work, work and think that that is the only way. It is not the way.

The Scriptures teach us that Jesus had to go and renew His spiritual vision and power in solitude with His Father (Mark 1:35), and it was also necessary for the disciples to draw aside and rest awhile (6:30–31). Couldn’t Jesus give them all they needed? My dear brother, whatever God gives you, He will never take away your common sense. Suppose I unwisely overextended my body and knew that I had done so? How could I ask anyone to pray for me unless I repented? We must be careful. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and He has to dwell in them, and they have to be for His purpose in the world. We are not working for ourselves; God is to be glorified in our bodies. Lots of people today are absolutely withered up, years before their time, because they went beyond their knowledge. But dare to believe.

Let me tell you a personal story to illustrate this. In 1914 the Lord moved upon me in England to tell the people that I was going to America, coming in through Canada.

“Well, Lord,” I said, “You know You will have to do a miracle, and You must do it sharp if You mean business, because I want to be in haste about this if it is Your plan. The first thing is that, as you know, I have a bad memory. You will have to work a miracle there. The next thing is

that You will have to find me all the money because I cannot leave my children without money, and I have no money to go, so You will have to find a lot.”

It was amazing how the Lord began to provide it. It was coming so fast that I said to the people, “Oh, the Lord has sent so much money that I am sure I am going!”

Then He stopped. There was no more money. “Lord! Lord!” I said, “I know I have grieved You, and I repent. If You begin again to show me it is Your will, I won’t tell anybody.”

And it commenced again, falling as gently as rain. My boy said to me, “Father, Mother has gone to heaven. If you go on this trip, it will be very lonely for me without you.”

The front doorbell rang. I said to him, “George, go answer the front door, and let the Lord speak to you through this ring at the door whether I have to go or not.”

There was a letter. “Now, George,” I said, “open that letter, and whatever is in the letter, read it, and let that suffice you whether I have to go or not.”

George opened the letter. That letter had been traveling for six weeks; it began coming just about the time I repented. In it was a check for twentyfive pounds.

“What about it, George?” I asked.

“Oh!” he said. “Father, I won’t say anything else.”

I was rushing onto the ship one day not long afterward, when a poor woman who was dressed very shabbily, and whom I didn’t know, came and gave me a big red sugar bag. I was packed with things, and I couldn’t say a word to her because there were so many people to see me off and everything, so I just put the bag on one side. When the ship began moving, I thought, “Well, I will look in the sugar bag.”

And there were twentyfive gold coins! Can’t He provide it!

Beloved, let the Lord do things. He knows how to do them.

Because I felt that my coming to America and Canada was all the Lord’s doing, I said, “Lord, I will never let an opportunity slip.” I traveled at night to preach at day, took advantage of every opportunity, went so far that I got to the point that I could not eat.

After one meeting, the people said, “You have lifted the meeting, lifted the meeting.”

“Yes,” I said, “God is with us.”

They went to eat, but I could not. Then they said to me, “Wigglesworth, you do not understand your body. You are helping everybody in the Spirit, but your body has gotten so run down that if you do not go home, you may never be able to come back.”

Ah! I had zeal without knowledge (Rom. 10:2); I had a love for God, but there was no wisdom in it. God showed me that if I would take care of my body, He could use me for years and years to come, and I find today that I am stronger and better and more ready for action than I was thirty years ago.

For it is the Lord your God “who opens and no man shuts.” When He blesses, it will surely tend to blessing. And remember this, God has not called you in to keep your face down; He has called you in to laden you with the treasures and then pass you out to scatter the good things. God is at the right hand of those people who are seeking diligently only to follow Him, for God has set His heart upon you. David says, “When I was poor and needy, then the Lord thought about me.” It is in the poverty of our weaknesses that God becomes the refreshing and strength of our human nature and spiritual quality and keeps us in the earth, fresh and ready.

Oh, Father, we do thank you for this! Beloved, make sure that you see to these things. God will give you faith. God will give you prophecies. God will give gifts. And remember this, God will enrich you. Did you ever know a time in your life when you were poorer after you began to serve the Lord? No. God blesses in basket and store, and He blesses in the body. It pays to serve the Lord in holiness, for God has a purpose in it. It is when you get out of the will of God that you have a hard time. Let God’s will be done. There is money that “leads to poverty” (Prov. 11:24), and there are gifts of God that bring you into riches. So I implore you to serve God with all your heart.

I had hoped to go deeper into this thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, but if we had gone deeper, we would not have come out again. There are many things to say about this chapter. For instance, how beautiful it would be to know what this really means: “Love suffers long and is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4).

I do not have time for any more, except this: the time is not past for much more. It is past for any more from me, but you are on the threshold of much more from God. May the Lord bless you in such a way that you will be in a place where God will be at your right hand (Ps. 16:8). Faith is an act; faith is a leap; faith jumps in; faith claims. Faith has an author, and faith’s author is Jesus. He is the Author and the Finisher of faith (Heb. 12:2). Now, how much do you dare to ask for? How much do you dare to imagine? How much do you dare to expect will come? How much? May I move you to this banquet, this place of treasure, this “much more,” this “abundant,” this “abounding,” this “exceeding”? (See Ephesians 3:20.) Jump up into God. Dare to believe. Faith is enough; ask and believe. Give me grace, Lord—anyhow, any way—only have Your way.