Read
Luke 4:1-20 Our precious Lord Jesus has everything for everybody.
Forgiveness of sin, healing of diseases and the fullness of the
Spirit all come from one source - from the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear
Him who is the same yesterday, today and forever as He announces the
purpose for which He came: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
Jesus
had been baptized by John in Jordan, and the Holy Spirit had
descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. Being full of the
Holy Ghost, He had been led by the Spirit into the wilderness, there
to come off more than conqueror over the arch enemy. Then He returned
in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and preached in the synagogues,
and at last He came to His old home town - Nazareth, where He
announced His mission in the words I have just quoted. For a brief
while He ministered on the earth, and then gave His life a ransom for
all. But God raised Him from the dead. And before He went to the
glory He told His disciples that they too should receive the power of
the Holy Ghost upon them. Thus, through them, His gracious ministry
would continue. This power of the Holy Ghost was not only for a few
apostles, but even for them that are afar off, even as many as our
God should call (Acts 2:39) even for us in this twentieth century.
Some ask, "But was not this power just for the privileged few in
the first century?" No. Read the Master's great commission as
recorded by Mark, and you will see it is for them that believe.
After
I had received the Baptism of the Holy ghost (and I know that I
received; for the Lord gave me the Spirit in just the same way as He
gave Him to the disciples at Jerusalem), I sought the mind of the
Lord as to why I was baptized. One day I came home from work and went
into the house and my wife asked me, 'Which way did you come in?"
I told her that I had come in at the back door. She said, "There
is a woman upstairs and she has brought an old man of eighty to be
prayed for. He is raving up there and a great crowd is outside the
front door, ringing the door-bell and wanting to know what is going
on in the house." The Lord quietly whispered, "This is what
I baptized you for."
I
carefully opened the door of the room where the man was, desiring to
be obedient to what my Lord would say to me. The man was crying and
shouting in distress, "I am lost! I am lost! I have committed
the unpardonable sin. I am lost! I am lost!" My wife said, "Dad,
what shall we do?" The Spirit of the Lord moved me to cry out,
"Come out, thou lying spirit." In a moment the evil spirit
went, and the Lord said to me, "This is what I baptized you
for."
There
is a place where God, through the power of the Holy Ghost, reigns
supreme in our lives. The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes the things
of Christ and shows them to us, and prepares us to be more than a
match for satanic forces. When Nicodemus came to Jesus he said, "We
know that
thou
art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that
thou doest, except God be with him." Jesus said to him,
"Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus was impressed by the
miracles wrought; and Jesus pointed out the necessity of a miracle
being wrought with every man who would see the kingdom. When a man is
born of God, is brought from darkness to light, a mighty miracle is
wrought. Jesus saw every touch by God as a miracle, and so we may
expect to see miracles wrought today. It is wonderful to have the
Spirit of the Lord upon us. I would rather have the Spirit of God on
me for five minutes than to receive a million dollars.
Do
you see how Jesus mastered the devil in the wilderness? He knew He
was the Son of God and satan came along with an "if." How
many times has satan come along to you this way? He says, "After
all, you may be deceived. You know you really are not a child of
God." If the devil comes
along
and says that you are not saved, it is a pretty sure sign that you
are. When he comes and tells you that you are not healed, it may be
taken as good evidence that the Lord has sent His word and healed
you. The devil knows that if he can capture your thought life, he has
won a mighty victory over you. His great business is injecting
thoughts, but if you are pure and holy you will instantly shrink from
them. God wants us to let the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that
pure, holy, humble mind of Christ, be in us.
I
come across people everywhere I go who are held bound by deceptive
conditions, and these conditions have come about simply because they
have allowed the devil to make their minds the place of his
stronghold. How are we to guard against this? The Lord has provided
us with weapons that are mighty through God to the pulling down of
strongholds of the enemy, and by means of which every thought shall
be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The blood of
Jesus Christ and His mighty name are an antidote to all the subtle
seeds of unbelief that satan would sow in your minds.
In
the first chapter of Acts, we see that Jesus gave commandment to the
disciples that they should wait for the promise of the Father, and He
told them that not many days hence they would be baptized with the
Holy Ghost. Luke tells us that he had written his former treatise
concerning all that Jesus began both former treatises concerning all
that Jesus began both to do and teach. The ministry of Christ did not
end at the cross, but the Acts and the epistles give us accounts of
what He continued to do and teach through those whom He indwelt. And
our blessed Lord Jesus is still alive, and continues His ministry
through those who are filled with His Spirit. He is still healing the
broken-hearted and delivering the captives through those on whom He
places His Spirit.
I
was traveling one day in a railway train in Sweden. At one station
there boarded the train an old lady with her daughter. The old lady's
expression was so troubled that I enquired what was the matter with
her. I heard that she was going to the hospital to have her leg taken
off. She began to weep as she told that the doctors had said there
was no hope for her except through having her leg amputated. She was
seventy years old. I said to my interpreter, "Tell her that
Jesus can heal her." We stopped at another station and the
carriage filled up with people. There was a rush of men to board that
train and the devil said, "You're done." But I knew I had
the best proposition, for hard things are always opportunities to get
to the Lord more glory when He manifests His power. Every trial is a
blessing. There have been times when I have been pressed through
circumstances and it seemed as if a dozen road engines were going
over me, but I have found that the hardest things are just lifting
places into the grace of God. We have such a lovely Jesus. He always
proves Himself to be such a mighty Deliverer. He never fails to plan
the best things for us.
The
train began moving and I crouched down, and in the name of Jesus
commanded the disease to leave. The old lady cried, "I'm healed.
I know I'm healed." She stamped her leg and said, "I'm
going to prove it." So when we stopped at another station she
marched up and down and shouted, "I'm not going to the
hospital." Once again our wonderful Jesus had proven Himself a
Healer of the broken-hearted, a Deliverer of one that was bound.
At
one time I was so bound that no human power could help me. My wife
was looking for me to pass away. There was no help. At that time I
had just had a faint glimpse of Jesus as the Healer. For six months I
had been suffering from appendicitis, occasionally getting temporary
relief. I went to the mission of which I was pastor, but I was
brought to the floor in awful agony, and they brought me home to my
bed. All night I was praying, pleading for deliverance, but none
came. My wife was sure it was my home call and sent for a physician.
He said that there was no possible chance for me -- my body was too
weak. Having had the appendicitis for six months, my whole system was
drained, and, because of that, he thought that it was too late for an
operation. He left my wife in a state of broken-heartedness.
After
he left, there came to our door a young man and an old lady. I knew
that she was a woman of real prayer. They came upstairs to my room.
This young man jumped on the bed and commanded the evil spirit to
come out of me. He shouted, "Come out, you devil; I command you
to come out in the name of Jesus!" There was no chance for an
argument, or for me to tell him that I would never believe that there
was a devil inside of me. The thing had to go in the name of Jesus,
and it went, and I was instantly healed.
I
arose and dressed and went downstairs. I was still in the plumbing
business, and I asked my wife, "Is there any work in? I am all
right now, and I am going to work." I found there was a certain
job to be done and I picked up my tools and went off to do it. Just
after I left, the doctor came in, put his plug hat down in the hall,
and walked up to the bedroom. But the invalid was not there. "Where
is Mr. Wigglesworth?" he asked. "O, doctor, he's gone out
to work," said my wife. "You'll never see him alive again,"
said the doctor; "they'll bring him back a corpse." Well,
I'm the corpse.
Since
that time, in many parts of the world, the Lord has given me the
privilege of praying for people with appendicitis; and I have seen a
great many people up and dressed within a quarter of an hour from the
time I prayed for them. We have a living Christ who is willing to
meet people on every line. A number of years ago I met Brother D. W.
Kerr and he gave me a letter of introduction to a brother in Zion
City named Cook. I took his letter to Brother Cook, and he said, "God
has sent you here." He gave me the addresses of six people and
asked me to go and pray for them and meet him again at 12 o'clock. I
got back at about 12:30 and he told me about a young man who was to
be married the following
Monday.
His sweetheart was in Zion City dying of appendicitis. I went to the
house and found that the physician had just been there and had
pronounced that there was no hope. The mother was nearly distracted
and was pulling her hair, and saying, "Is there no deliverance!"
I said to her, "Woman, believe God and your daughter will be
healed and be up and dressed in fifteen minutes." But the mother
went on screaming.
They
took me into the bedroom, and I prayed for the girl and commanded the
evil spirit to depart in the name of Jesus. She cried, "I am
healed." I said to her, "Do you want me to believe that you
are healed? If you are healed, get up." She said, "You get
out of the room and I'll get up." In less than ten minutes the
doctor came in. He wanted to know what had happened. She said, "A
ma n came in and prayed for me, and I'm healed." The doctor
pressed his finger right in the place that had been so sore, and the
girl neither moaned nor cried. He said, "This is God." It
made no difference whether he acknowledged it or not, I knew that God
had worked. Our God is real in saving and healing power today. Our
Jesus is just the same, yesterday, and today, and forever. He saves
and heals today just as of old, and He wants to be your Savior and
your Healer.
Oh,
if you would only believe God! What would happen? The greatest
things. Some have never tasted the grace of God, or have never had
the peace of God. Unbelief robs them of these blessings. It is
possible to hear and yet not conceive the truth. It is possible to
read the Word and not share in the life it brings. It is necessary
for us to have the Holy Ghost to unfold the Word and bring to us the
life that is Christ. We can never fully understand the wonders of
this redemption until we are full of the Holy Ghost.
I
was once at an afternoon meeting. The Lord had been graciously with
us and many had been healed by the power of God. Most of the people
had gone home and I was left alone, when I saw a young man who was
evidently hanging back to have a word. I asked, "What do you
want?" He said, "I wonder if I could ask you to pray for
me." I said, "What's the trouble?" He said, "Can't
you smell?" The young fellow had gone into sin and was suffering
the consequences. He said, "I have been turned out of two
hospitals. I am broken out all over. I have abscesses all over me."
And I could see that he had a bad breaking out at the nose. He said,
"I heard you preach, and could not understand about this healing
business, and was wondering if there was any hope for me."
I
said to him, "Do you know Jesus?" He did not know the first
thing about salvation, but I said to him, "Stand still." I
placed my hands on his head and then on his loins and cursed that
terrible disease in the name of Jesus. He cried out, "I know I'm
healed. I can feel a warmth and a glow all over me." I said,
"Who did it?" He said, "Your prayers." I said,
"No, it was Jesus!" He said, "Was it He? Oh, Jesus!
Jesus! Jesus, save me." And that young man went away healed and
saved. Oh, what a merciful God we have! What a wonderful Jesus is
ours!
Are
you oppressed? Cry out to God. It is always good for people to cry
out. You may have to cry out. The Holy Ghost and the Word of God will
bring to light every hidden, unclean thing that must be revealed.
There is always a place of deliverance when you let God search out
that, which is spoiling and marring your life. That evil spirit that
was in the man in the synagogue cried out "Let us alone!"
It was a singular thing that the evil spirit had never cried out like
that until Jesus walked into the place where he was. Jesus rebuked
the thing, saying, "Hold thy peace and come out of him,"
and the man was delivered. He is just the same Jesus, exposing the
powers of evil, delivering the captives and letting the oppressed go
free, purifying them and cleansing their hearts. Those evil spirits
that inhabited the man who had the legion did not want to be sent to
the pit to be tormented before their time, and so they cried out to
be sent into the swine. Hell is such an awful place that even the
demons hate the thought of going there. How much more should men seek
to be saved from the pit?
God
is compassionate and says, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be
found." And He has further stated, "Whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved." Seek Him now, call on His
name right now, and there is forgiveness, healing, redemption,
deliverance, and everything you need for you right here and now, and
that which will satisfy you throughout eternity."
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