How to Discern Voices by Smith Wigglesworth

How to Discern Voices

There are many voices in the world. I want you to be able to understand voices, to understand spiritual voices, to understand exactly what the Scripture means about these things.

Now, I know there are a good many people who are big on the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who, you will find, is trying to delve into mysteries. There is nothing mystical about what we are doing, and I want to tell everybody who comes to this place that you will have no share with us if you have anything to do with spiritualism. We denounce it as being of the Devil, and we don’t want fellowship with you. If you want to join up with two things —the Lord and the Devil—the Devil will get you in the end. Now, what is the difference between the spirit of “disobedience” (Eph. 2:2) and the spirit of “lawless-ness” (2 Thess. 2:7–8)? They are one and the same. They are the spirit of antichrist, and they are right in the midst of things. Spiritualism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science—they are all related. They have no room for the blood of Jesus, and you cannot get near God except by the blood; it is impossible. The blood is the only power that can make a clear road into the kingdom for you—the blood of Jesus.

Testing the Spirits

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.(1 John 4:1–6)

Beloved, you have to be in a position to try the spirits to see whether they are of God. Why should believers try the spirits? You can always try the spirits to see whether they are of God for this reason: you will be able to tell the true revelation, and the true revelation that will come to you will always sanctify the heart; it will never have an “if” in it. When the Devil came to Jesus, he had an “if.” He said, “If You are the Son of God” (Matt. 4:3), and “If You will fall down and worship me” (v. 9). The Holy Spirit never comes with an “if.” The Holy Spirit is the divine Orator of this wonderful Word, but the position of the mystic Conan Doyle, and others like him, is satanic.

I have often dealt with people under evil powers, people in fits and other things, and sometimes I have come across people so much controlled by evil powers that every time they want to speak, the evil powers speak. It is a very dangerous condition; but, it is true, people get possessed by the Devil.

Do you remember the biblical account of the man in the tomb who was terribly afflicted with evil powers (Mark 5:2–15)? Strong cords and chains could not hold him. Night and day, there he was in the tombs, “crying out and cutting himself with stones” (v. 5). Jesus came on the

scene, and these evil powers caused the man to run. Now, it was all in the power of the Devil, and as soon as the man got in front of Jesus, the evil spirit said, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matt. 8:29). This man had no power to get free, but these evil spirits were so troubled in the presence of Jesus that they cried out, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” Oh, thank God for Jesus. I want you to notice that Jesus wants you to be so under His power, so controlled by and filled with the Holy Spirit, that the power of authority in you will resent all evil.

This is an important lesson for believers, because there are so many believers who are not on their guard. I want to impress you with the fact that every believer should reach a place in the Holy Spirit where he has no desire except the desire of God. The Holy Spirit has to possess us until we are filled, led, yes, divinely led, by the Holy Spirit. It is a mighty thing to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Lord, He is the mighty power of government, for the Scripture says, “The government shall be upon His shoulders,” and now He has taken us on His shoulders; therefore, let Him lead you where He will.

Do not desire to lead Jesus; if He leads you, He will lead you into truth. He will lead you into nothingness, but when you are in nothingness, you will be in power. He will lead you into weakness, but when you are in weakness, God will be with you in might; everything that seems weak from a human perspective will be under the control of divine power.

Receiving Impressions

Now I want to deal with a very important thing. I have people by the hundreds who are continually pressing on me with their difficulties, with their strange and yet holy and noble desires, where two ways meet and they do not know which one to take. Some have received impressions in their minds and hearts, but I want to show you what comes of impressions.

A person came to me one day and said, “Oh, you know the Spirit of the Lord was mighty upon me this morning.” I said, “Good!”

“Oh, I want to tell you about it. I want you to tell me if there is such a place as Ingerow anywhere near here.” I answered, “Yes, there is.”

“Well, that place has been on my mind; I have to go and preach there.”

There was nothing wrong with his desire to go preach, was there?

But I asked, “What is the message?”

“I don’t exactly know.”

“Now come, what is the message?” I asked.

“Oh, I have to speak to someone about his soul.”

“And you don’t know that there is such a place? The place is toward Skipton,” I replied.

“But I have to go.”

“Now come,” I said, “I want you to think. You are working, are you not? Do you think anybody in the mill will approve of you going to a place you don’t know, to speak to someone you don’t know?”

Was it of God? That is the first thing. It was an impression, coming from a desire to be something special. That’s the danger. My daughter tried to stop her, but she went the first chance she got. She got to the station, and there was nobody there. The result was that she was soon in an asylum.

What was it? An impression. How will we know when this is the case?

A lady came to me yesterday and said, “Don’t you know, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me; I have to preach the Gospel.”

I said, “There is nothing wrong in that.”

“I want to know where I have to go to preach, so I have come to you to see if the Lord has told you where I am to go.”

“Yes, you have to begin at home. Begin at Jerusalem, and if you are successful, go to Judea; then if you are successful, God will send you to the uttermost parts of the world.”

God is not going to send you to the uttermost parts of the world until you have been successful around Jerusalem. We have a tremendously big job; it is well worth doing, and I want to do it well. I want to tell you the difference between the right and the wrong way to discern voices and thoughts that may come into your minds. You have the Scriptures, and you have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has wisdom, and He does not expect you to be foolish. The Holy Spirit has perfect insight into knowledge and wisdom, and truth always gives you balance.

You always need to have one thing removed from you: being terribly afraid. However, fear leaves, and power and confidence come in its place. You also need to have another thing that must remain, and that is love: love in order to obey God rather than your inclinations to be something; but if God wants to make you someone, that is different.

My wife tried her best to make me someone, but she could not do it. Her heart was right; her love was right; she did her best to make me a preacher. She used to say, “Now, Father, you could do it if you wanted to, and I want you to preach next Sunday.”

I did everything to get ready; I tried everything. I don’t know what I did not try—it would be best not to tell you what I did try. I had as many notes as would suit a clergyman for a week.

My wife’s heart, her love, her desires were all right, but when I got up to preach, I would give out my text and then say, “If anybody can preach, now is your chance, for I have finished.” That did not take place once, but many times. She was determined, and I was willing. When I ministered to those who had come forward to repent and receive Jesus, I could bring them right into the kingdom. I could nurse the children while my wife preached, and I was pleased to do it. But, don’t you know, when the Holy Spirit came, then I was ready. Then the preaching abilities were not mine but the Lord’s. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with divine equipping. It must all be for Jesus.

Oh, I tell you, whatever you may think about it, the whole thing is that there is nothing good without Jesus. Anyone could jump on this platform and say, “I am right.” But when you have no confidence, then Jesus is all the confidence you require. God must have men and women on fire for Him. God will mightily send you forth in the anointing of the Spirit, and sinners will feel convicted, but it will never be accomplished if you have it in your mind that you are going to be something. The baptism is a baptism of death, and you live only unto God.

The Holy Spirit versus Deceptive Voices

A lot of people are very much troubled by voices. Some people are so troubled that they get very distressed. Some people take it as a great thing; they think it is very remarkable, and they go astray. Lots of people go astray by foolish prophecy, and lots of people are foolish enough to believe that they have tongues and interpretation and that they can be told what they should do. This is altogether outside the plan of God and bordering on blasphemy.

I do not preach my own ideas. That is, I never come on this platform and tell you what I think, because everybody can think. I come on this platform to tell you what I know. Therefore, what you need to do is to listen to what I know so that you may learn it. Then you can tell others what you have learned so that they will learn also. How can I dislodge the power of Satan? How can I deal with satanic power? How may I know whether a voice is of God or not? Are there not voices that come from God? Yes. I am here believing that I am in the right place to build you on the authority of the Word of God. I believe I am in the right place to build you so that you will be able to deal with the things that I am talking about. I have come with a knowledge of how to deal with these things, because I myself have been dealing with them.

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. (1 John 4:2–3) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor. 13:14)

The first Scripture tells us how to deal with power that is not of God but is satanic. The second Scripture reveals that we have within us a secure position in God so that we may have the communion of the Holy Spirit, who has all the latest plans, thoughts, and language from heaven. You know that a business executive is one who has a right to declare everything for the board of directors. And the Chief Executive of the world is the Holy Spirit. He is here today as a communication to our hearts, to our minds, to our thoughts, of what God wants us to know. So this Holy Executive, who is in us, can speak wonderful words. In fact, you will find that the Holy Executive will speak most of the words in this sermon.

I am dealing now with what you may know when you are fully in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will teach you; He will “bring to your remembrance all things” (John 14:26). Now you do not need any man to teach you. But the anointing remains (1 John 2:27). You do not need teachers, but you need the Teacher, who is the Holy Spirit, to bring all things to your remembrance. This is the office of the Holy Spirit. This is the power of His communication. This is what John meant when he said, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Jesus, who is grace, is with you. But the Holy Spirit is the speaker, and He speaks everything concerning Jesus. There may be people here who have been hearing voices, and it has put them in a situation in which they have been moving from place to place. I am referring to voices that have caused tremendous issues in your lives, brought a great amount of distress and brokenheartedness, and led you into confusion and trouble. Why? You did not know how to judge the voices. If a voice comes and tells you what to do, if a person comes and says he has a special prophecy that God has given him for you, you have as much right to ask God for that prophecy as they had to give it to you, and you have as much right to judge that prophecy according to the Word of God. You need to do this, for there are people going about pretending to be tremendous people, and they are sending people nearly off their wits’ end because they believe their damnable prophecies, which never are of God but are of the Devil. I am very severe on this thing. God won’t let me rest; I have to deal with these things because I find people everywhere in a terrible state because of these voices. How will we get to know the difference between the voice of God and the voice of Satan?

The Scripture tells us. God brings liberty and fruit, precious fruit, holy fruit, inward piety, holiness, entirety, separatedness from the world, chastened by the Lord, filled with light, admiration of Jesus, and you see Him above all, full of light and truth, bringing forth into your hearts perfect peace and joy. This is tranquillity; this is God’s desire for you, every one of you, to be filled with the joy of the Lord.

The Spirit Gives Joy and Gladness

The difference between those who are being led by the Holy Spirit and those who are being deceived by Satan is joy, gladness, and a good countenance instead of sadness, sorrow, and depression. When Jesus comes with joy into the soul and lifts you higher and higher, it is the Spirit who gives light. When satanic power begins to rule, then there is weariness, then people’s faces are like a tragedy, then their eyes glare as though they had passed through a terrible trial.

You are always right to “test the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). If you do not do it, then you will be sure to be caught napping. Misled by a “Voice”

I want to describe some specific cases to further explain this. Two sisters were saved in our meetings and were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were very lovely women, full of purity, truth, and righteousness. Their expressions were good; no one could look at them without admiring them.

Both of them worked in a telegraph office, and they both desired to be missionaries. They were so zealous to be missionaries that they were laying aside money and everything they could in order to be prepared to go to the mission field. They were zealous for God. Their very lives would reveal this in a meeting or anywhere else. They were so zealous for God that they would do anything. One of them was operating a telegraph machine when she heard a voice in her head, a voice that said something along these lines: “Will you obey me? If you will obey me, I will make you the most wonderful missionary that ever lived.” Oh, beloved, try the voices, try the spirits. Only the Devil promises such a thing, but she did not know this; she did not understand. This was exactly what she wanted; it was her heart’s desire, do you see? And she was so moved by this. The voice added, “And I will find you all the money you need.”

I never knew this kind of “leading” to come true, and you never will as long as you live. For example, a man came to me and said, “I have in my hands a certain food for invalids that can raise millions of dollars for the missionaries.”

I said to him, “I will not have anything to do with it.” These things are not a success. God does not work that way. If God wanted you to have gold, He could make it rain on your houses while you were away. He has all the gold, and the cattle on a thousand hills are His (Ps. 50:10). Beloved, I want you to see that Jesus was the meekest man in the world. He had power to make bread or gold, and yet He never made it except for somebody else. When anybody preaches for the kingdom’s sake, God will provide. Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit for the people’s sake. Seek only God, and the rain will fall. The enduement of power will be made manifest in your mortal bodies if you are really in the Spirit.

Now, this young woman was so excited that her sister noticed it and went to her.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Oh! God is speaking to me,” she said, “saying wonderful things to me.”

She became so excited that her sister asked their supervisor if they could be excused for a while, because she saw that she would have to protect her. So the overseer allowed them both to be excused for a time, and they went into a room. The first sister became so excited with these messages, so believing that it was of God, that her white blouse became spotted with blood as she pricked her flesh with the nails of her hand.

That is never of God. What do I read about the wisdom of God? I read that it is full of peace and gentleness; it is willing to submit; it is without partiality; it is full of goodness and truth. (See James 3:17.) And, remember, if you ever know anything about God, it will be peace. If you ever know anything about the world, it will be disorder. The peace of God, which passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7), comes to the heart after you are saved. We are “justified by faith,” and “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). The peace continues until it makes us full of the “hope of the glory of God” (v. 2).

God showed me a long time ago, and it has not been taken out of my mind, that if I was disturbed in my spirit and was not at rest, I had missed the plan. How can you miss it? In three ways.

First of all, you can miss it because you have taken on someone else’s burden. All the time you are told to cast your burden on the Lord (1 Pet. 5:7). Any number of people are overflowing with sorrow because they are taking on someone else’s burden. That is wrong. You must teach them and teach yourself that you have to cast your burdens on the Lord.

Secondly, if you do not have peace, you have gotten out of the will of God in some way. You may not have sinned. You can be out of the will of God without sinning. You can be out of the will of God if you are not making progress. If you have not made progress since yesterday morning, you are a backslider. Everybody is a backslider who is not going on with God. You are a backslider if you do not increase in the divine character and likeness of Christ. You have to move from state to state, “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18), by the Spirit of the Lord.

The Spirit quickens, moves, chastens, builds, builds,

builds, and makes you free.

This is like heaven to me,

This is like heaven to me;

I’ve crossed over Jordan to

Canaan’s fair land

And this is like heaven to me.

You won’t be down in the dumps then. Do you know what Jordan represents? Jordan represents death, and you have crossed over death. Do not drop into it again. You can lose your peace by missing some divine plan of God, and you can lose your peace because you have gotten your mind on something natural. A natural thing is a carnal thing. The Word of God says that the carnal things have to be destroyed because they are not subject to the law of God and cannot be subject to them (Rom. 8:7). Every carnal thing must be destroyed. So you can miss the plan. Now, what is the plan? “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isa. 26:3). Examine yourself to see where you are. If you are not in perfect peace, you are out of the will of God.

Therefore, if these voices take away your peace, you will know they are not the will of God. But if the Spirit speaks, He will bring harmony and joy. The Spirit always brings three things: comfort, exhortation, and edification. He will make you sing “songs in the night” (Job 35:10). You will rise in high places, and you will not be afraid of declaring the works of the Lord. When the Spirit of the Lord is upon you and greatly active, you may “go from strength to strength” (Ps. 84:7), praising the Lord. My wife and I were visiting at the home of these two sisters when they came in from work that day. We saw the distress. We saw the wild condition. If you are wild, that is the Devil. If you go breathlessly to the Bible, looking for confirmation of the voice, that is the Devil. The Word of God brings light. I must use it as the Word of Light. I must see it as the Light of Light. I must have it as the Light. I must not run up and down as if I had been hit with a stick. I must be wise, because if I say I am baptized with the Holy Spirit, if I say I am a child of God, I must act so that people will know that I have been with God. (See Acts 4:13.) If there is anything I would resound through this meeting like a trumpet, it is this: “Do not let your good be spoken of as evil” (Rom. 14:16)!

Who is speaking now? It is the Spirit speaking to us, saying that He wants us in the world in such a way that we would not have anything—neither tongues, interpretations, prophecy, discernment, nor any kind of actions—except what would affirm that we have been with Jesus and that now the light has come, the truth has fallen upon us, and we have come into the wisdom of the Most High God. If you ever find a person who has given a prophecy but who will not allow that prophecy to be judged, as sure as anything, that prophecy never was right. Everybody who has a true prophecy is willing to come to the light so that everything will be made true according to the Word of God. So don’t receive these things unless you know they are of God.

Well, what happened to the young woman? The voice came with such tremendous force that she could not let it go. Try the spirits. God will never do anything like that. He will never send you an unreasonable, unmanageable message.

The moment the girl became obsessed with what the voice said, what did the Devil say next? “You keep this a secret. Don’t tell anybody. If you confide in anybody, let it be your sister, because she seems to understand you.” So they confided in each other.

Now that is surely as satanic as anything you ever heard in your life, because every true thing, every holy thing, does not need to be kept a secret under any circumstances. Anything that is holy can be told on the housetops; God wants you to be able to tell all. My wife and I tried to help them. “Oh, God is speaking to me!” the young woman said. And we could not change her. That night she said that the evil power continued speaking, saying to her, “Tell no one but your sister. Go to the station tonight and wait for the train. The train will come in at thirtytwo minutes past seven. Buy two tickets for Glasgow. After you have bought your tickets, you will have sixpence left.”

This could be confirmed, and no one had to know but her sister. They went to the station. The train came in exactly at the right time. And there was just sixpence left after they had bought the ticket. Marvelous! Wonderful! This was sure to be right.

“See!” she said. “I have just the amount of money left after I have bought the tickets that the voice said I would.” The train came in. The voice had said that a gentleman would be sitting in one of the coaches with all the money she would ever need. Directly opposite this gentleman, a woman with a nurse’s cap would be sitting. The man would give her all the money, and they were to take it to a certain bank at a certain street corner in Glasgow. Here was lack of presentation of thought. There are no banks open at half past seven, and, after investigation, it was discovered that there was no such bank in that place. Then what caused the young woman to obey the voice? It got her ear, and I will tell you what the danger is. If I had only five minutes I would say this to you: If you cannot be reasoned with, you are wrong. If you are right and everybody else is wrong, I don’t care who you are, if you cannot bear examination, if what you hold cannot bear the light of the truth, you are wrong. It will save a lot of you if you will just think.

You may say, “Oh, but I know, I know.” It is a very serious thing when nobody else knows but you. May God deliver us from such a condition. If you think you have some specialty, it is not unique; it can be repeated. The train came in. They rushed from one end of the train to the other. There were no such people on the train. Then the voice came, “On the next platform, the next train.” And they rushed over. Would you believe, those two young women were kept moving from platform to platform by those voices until half past nine at night? Those voices went on. Ah, those evil voices. How will we know whether they are of God? When God speaks, He will speak with wisdom. When the Devil came to Jesus he said, “If You are the Son of God” (Matt. 4:3). The Devil knew that He was the Son of God, and Jesus knew and answered, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve’” (v. 10). Now, was there anything wrong with what was happening with these two young women? The wrong was that the first young woman ought to have judged the spirits. If she had asked, “Did Jesus come in the flesh?” the voice would have answered no. No satanic voice in the world and no Spiritualist medium will acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh. The Devil never will, and he is the father of spiritualism mediums.

The same power said to the young woman, “Now that I know you will obey me in everything, I will make you the greatest missionary in the world.”

We tried to console them, but nothing could be done; she was convinced it was the voice of the Lord. There are two workings; the workings of the Spirit are always contrary to the workings of the flesh. How could the two women have known at that moment that this was a false voice? Why, they could have known according to the Word of God. What does it say? “Many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Many, many voices, the Scripture says. Who are these false prophets after? Perhaps those with sincerity, earnestness, zeal, and purity. Who knows? These evil powers know. What is necessary to keep in our minds all the time? We must keep these things clearly in mind: What am I living for? What is the hope of my life? Do I have to be the greatest missionary in the world and a wonderful Christian worker, or does Jesus need to be glorified in my life to do as He wills with me for the world? The ripe grape is never as pure and perfect as it is just before it decays. The child of God is never as near to God —right at the summit—as he is when the Devil can come and say, “You are wonderful!”

It is satanic to feel that you are different from anybody else, that God has a special message for you, and that you are someone very particular. Every place that God brings you to in a rising tide of perfection is a place of humility, brokenness of heart, and fullness of surrender, where only God can rule in authority. It is not where you are somebody, but where God is everything and where you will be living for the exhibition of His glory. It was three months before these two young women were delivered from this delusion. It took months and months of pleading, of crying bitterly. But God did deliver them, and they have been really wonderful missionaries in China. Thank God, there is a way out. The Devil’s plan was defeated, but it was at tremendous cost, almost of their lives.

How could they have known that it was a false voice? How can you know? When a voice comes, no matter how it seems to you, you must test it. When a voice comes and it is strange, when it is persistently pressing you to do something and you are taken to a hard place and you know the difficulties are such that you can hardly conceive how this thing is possible, you have a position in the power of the Word of God to say to this evil power, “Did Jesus come in the flesh?” (1 John 4:3). And the satanic power will say no. There never yet was a Spiritualist or anybody else who was under satanic power, anybody in a fit, anybody losing his mind, who has ever said that Jesus came in the flesh. Satanic forces will not admit it. But the Spirit of the living God, the Holy Spirit, always says yes. And so you can get to know the difference. You have to listen. The Scriptures are clear on these things. We have to live in the place of knowing so that we are able to spiritually, divinely discern whether these things are of God or not.

Did Jesus come in the flesh? Yes, and now the living Christ is within you. Christ came into you the moment you believed. There is a manifestation of it. You may live in such a way that Christ is greater than you. You may live in such a way that your language, your expressions, your actions, and everything speak of Christ. “They realized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). You can live in such a way that the personality of Christ is exactly what Paul said: “Not I—I don’t live anymore. Christ lives in me.” (See Galatians 2:20.)

The Christ life, the Christ power, the personality of His presence may be in you in such a way that you could not doubt the Word of God. If you prayed, it would always be in faith, and as you preached, it would always be in faith. You “live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20 kjv)

until your whole body is aflame with the faith of God. This is a divine position of a living attitude in which we live and reign in this beautiful place with Jesus. This is an important word, and I am saying everything I can, by the grace of God and the revelation of the Spirit, to make you careful and yet careless: careful of satanic powers and careless when the power of God is upon you with anointing force, so that He Himself will be manifested, and not you.

A Ruined Life

Lots of people are brought down by the same thing that ruined the life of a young Christian I want to tell you about. For many years after I was baptized, the Lord graciously helped me. I laid hands upon people, and they received the Holy Spirit. I thank God that that power has not stopped. I believe in asking God, in lifting up holy hands and saying, “Father, grant that whoever I place my hands upon will receive the Holy Spirit.” People have called me from various places to come and help them when they have had people they wanted to receive the Holy Spirit. Once a group from York, England, sent word saying that they had fourteen people whom they wanted to have baptized in the Holy Spirit, and would I come? They had all been saved since the last time I was there.

So I went. I have never in all my life met a group of people who were so intoxicated with a certain thing, which had happened since I had been there. In the openair preaching, the power of God had been upon them, and many people had been gathered from the marketplace. Right there in the midst of them, they had drawn in a young man who had developed such a gift of teaching and such a gift of leading the people forward with God through the power of the Spirit that they said they did not believe there was another man like him in all of England. They were intoxicated beyond anything; they were drunk with it. Did I rejoice with them? Certainly. If there is anything that I love, it is the young men and young women. When Jesus began His ministry, He laid hands upon eleven who turned out to be the most marvelous men, and yet they were all younger then He. When Paul was brought into the knowledge of the truth, he was a young man. Jesus began the great ministry of worldwide revival with young life. World War I showed us that no man over forty years of age was good enough for that war. They had to have young blood, young life that could stand the stress of frost, heat, and all kinds of things. God wants young people filled with the power of God to go into the harvest field, because they can stand the stress. Jesus knew this, and He got all young men around Him. Weren’t the disciples a lovely group? Yes, when He was in the midst of them. You are a lovely group of people because Jesus is in the midst of you, and you will be more lovely as you keep Him in your midst. You will be more lovely still if you refuse to live unless He is in your midst. Moses said, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (Exod. 33:15). And we have a right today to live in the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit.

As soon as I got to York, the people came around me and said, “Oh, we’ve got him! We’ve got him! The only thing that is needed now is that we want him to receive the Holy Spirit, and as soon as he receives, we will know we have got him.”

Was anything wrong with that? No, I rejoiced with them.

Then the power of God fell. You know, we allow anything in a meeting before people receive the Spirit. Don’t be afraid when people are on the floor. Lots of people roll around the floor and get their black clothes made white. Any number of things take place when the flesh is giving way to the Spirit. But after the Holy Spirit has come in, then we do not expect you to roll again on the floor. We only expect you to roll on the floor until the life of the personality of the Holy Spirit has gotten right in and turned you out; then you will be able to stand up and preach instead of rolling on the floor.

The new believers were all lying on the floor. It was a wonderful sight. The people came to me and said, “Oh! Oh! We’ve got him now!” Oh, it was so lovely! And when that young man spoke in tongues, they almost went wild. They shouted, they wept, they prayed. Oh, they were so excited!

The leaders came and said they were overjoyed at the fact. I said, “Be still; the Lord will do His own work.” In a short time, he was through in the Spirit, and everybody was rejoicing and applauding. They fell into great error there.

Oh, I do pray that God will save you from anything like this. I hope nobody would say to me, “Oh, you did preach well tonight.” It’s as surely of the Devil as anything that ever came to anybody. God has never yet allowed any human being to be applauded.

This young man was in the power of the Holy Spirit, and it was lovely. But they came around him, shaking his hand and saying, “Now we have the greatest teacher there is.” Was this wrong? It was perfectly right, and yet it was the worst thing they could have done; they should have been thankful in their hearts. I want to tell you that the Devil never knows your thoughts, and if you won’t let your thoughts out in public, you will be safe. He can suggest a thought; he can suggest thoughts of evil. But that is not sin; all these things are from outside of you. The Devil can suggest evil things for you to receive, but if you are pure, it is like water off a duck’s back.

One woman came up and said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you had another John the Baptist.” And they were all around him, shaking hands and saying, “Oh, now we’ve got him! Now we know you are the best teacher that has ever been in Pentecost yet.” Thank God, the young man was able to throw it all off, and he was in a beautiful place.

Again, before we left, this woman came up and said, “Will you believe? It is a prophecy I have received that you have to be John the Baptist.” Thank God, he put it off again. But how satantic, how devilish, how unrighteous, and how untrue it was! That night, as he was walking home along a country road, another voice came, louder than the woman’s, right in the open air: “You are John the Baptist!”

Again the young man was able to guard it off. In the middle of the night, he was awakened out of his sleep, and this voice came again: “Rise, get up. You are John the Baptist. Declare it!”

And the poor man this time was not able to deal with it. He did not know what I am now telling you. I tell you with a sorrowful heart that for hours that morning he was walking around York, shouting, “I am John the Baptist!” Nothing could be done. He had to be detained. Who did it? Why, the people, of course. You have no right to come around me or anybody else and say, “You are wonderful!” That is satanic. I tell you, we have plenty of the Devil to deal with without your causing a thousand demons to come and help. We need common sense.

How could that young man have been delivered? He could have said, “Did Jesus come in the flesh?” The demon power would have said no, and then the Comforter would have come.

Lord, bring us to a place of humility and brokenheartedness where we will see the danger of satanic powers.

Don’t think that the Devil is a big ugly monster; he comes as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). He comes at a time when you have done well, and he tells you about it. He comes to make you feel you are somebody. The Devil is an exalted demon.

Oh, look at the Master. If you could see Him as I see Him sometimes: He was rich, and yet He became poor (2 Cor. 8:9); He was in the glory, yet He took upon Himself the form of a servant (Phil. 2:6–7). Yes, a servant, that is the Lord. May God give us the mindset of the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3–12) where we will be broken and humble and in the dust; then God will raise us and place us in a high place.

These are days when God wants you to build. God does not want to take away your glory; He wants you to have the glory, for Jesus came and said, “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them” (John 17:22). But what is the glory for? To place on the Master. Give Him all; let Him have all: your heart’s joy, your very life. Let Him have it. He is worthy. He is King of Kings. He is Lord of Lords. He is my Savior. He died to deliver me. He should have the crown.