The Fruit and the Gifts By Smith Wigglesworth

The Fruit and the Gifts By Smith Wigglesworth

As a preparation for the study of the gifts of the Spirit, we should read the twelfth chapter of Romans. All that is done and said in these meetings is upon the authority of the Word of God. I am sure it would not please God if we were to turn aside to any human thing when we have such a valuable, wonderful display of wisdom and authority in this living Word.

Partakers of the Divine Nature

We thank You, Lord, that You have made sufficient atonement for sin, sickness, deficiencies, all our weakness, and everything.

As we take our minds off human things and are clothed with the Spirit, we will be natural but also supernatural. This is a lovely condition. We are still natural, with just the same physique, just the same expression. We are the same people, only we are supernatural, inwardly displaying the revelation of the power of God through the same body. What a divine state!

Don’t be afraid to understand that God intends for you to be “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4), of divine life in the human frame, of divine thoughts over the human mind. You are to have your human minds transformed. The divine mind is to take its place so that you will always be the children of the Lord and act like people who are “from above” (John 3:31). You are “from above”; you are born of a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). You were planted with Him (Rom. 6:5 kjv); you were risen, and you are to be seated with Him in the place of victory over the power of the Enemy.

Don’t forget that God is in all, over all, through all. He is in you so that He might bring about in your daily ministries a divine plan as active and as perfect as the apostles had at the beginning, as Jesus had in His ministry. Jesus portrayed, showed forth, emphasized to His disciples this word: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48 kjv).

We do not need to regard people according to the flesh anymore (2 Cor. 5:16). From this day, let us learn that we only need to know the character of the people according to the Spirit. Remember that the disciples came to a perfect place when they said, “We won’t know Jesus anymore after the flesh.” (See verse 16.)

They wouldn’t remember Him in terms of His fleshly ministry. I don’t mean a fleshly power, but His fleshly body. There were any number of things to remember about Jesus in terms of His natural human need, such as when He needed food from the tree and when He sat by the well and asked for water. We won’t know Him that way anymore; we will know Jesus according to the Spirit. What is the difference? He no longer has any human weakness but has perfect power over all weaknesses. May the Lord grant to us in these days a divine familiarity with the Master so that we begin from this day to be more and more spiritual until we live in the Spirit, not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:16), but living in Christ.

The Lord Himself feed us with the finest of the wheat. He seeks only to bring us into favor with the Father. He says, “Until now you have asked nothing”; ask large things, for my Father and I are one. And as you ask, it will be given you, a measure full, “pressed down, shaken together, and running over,” that there will be no leanness in you, but you will be full, overflowing, expressive, God manifest in you, the glory of the Lord upon you, and He bringing forth songs in the earth.

Fruits and Gifts United

I want to speak a little about the dovetailing, the uniting together of the fruits and the gifts of the Spirit. I am just going to enumerate them so that you will know their relationship. This will be very profitable to you because you must be careful that whatever gift is manifested in you, it has to coincide, have a joint fellowship, with its corresponding fruit, so that you will never miss the plan of God in this holy order. Any gift that God may give you will never go to waste; it will always profit others. The fruit of the Spirit is listed in Galatians 5:22–23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Now, let us see how the fruit corresponds to the gifts of the Spirit.

The first gift of the Spirit Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 is “wisdom” (v. 8), which must always be connected with love. Love is the first fruit; wisdom is the first gift.

The next gift is “knowledge” (v. 8). You will find, if you work this out, that knowledge will always bring joy and will be accompanied by joy. Knowledge produces joy, and they coincide.

The third is “faith” (v. 9). You never find that faith is to any profit unless there is peace, so the gift of faith coincides with the fruit of peace.

The next is “healings” (v. 9). You always find that the person who is used in healing is longsuffering. If he loses that, if the person who ministers to the needy does not enter into their need, well, remember the words in Philippians: “The fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10). It doesn’t mean that you have to go to the cross, but you have to be so in spirit with the needy sufferer that you enter right into his need.

In this regard, remember that you must be brought into a place of justification, because it may be that many of you are judging me and saying, “Isn’t he rough when he ministers to people in healing!” Now, we must understand every man in his own way. You can’t fill my boat, and I couldn’t fill yours; but we can fill the boat God has made for us. We cannot turn aside to please humanity, because we have one Master, who is Christ.

A woman came before me in Australia where thousands were looking on, and I ministered to her for healing. She was a very large woman. As she came to me, the Spirit of the Lord revealed to me that inwardly there was an adversary destroying her life. Instantly, God helped me to rise up against the adversary, not against the woman. In the name of Jesus, I dealt with this evil thing that had distressed the woman. With the whole crowd looking on, she cried, “You’re killing me! You’re killing me! Oh, you’re killing me!”

She fell down on the floor. “Bring her back again,” I said. I knew I had not finished the work. Then I went at it again, destroying the evil that was there, and I knew I had to do it. The people did not understand as again she cried, “Oh, you’re killing me!”

“Bring her back again,” I said.

I laid my hands on her again in the name of Jesus, and the work was done. She walked five yards in the aisle, and the big cancer dropped off her. You who are judging me, please leave your judgment outside, for I obey God. If you are afraid to be touched, don’t come to me to pray for you. If you are not prepared to be dealt with as God leads me to deal, keep away. But if you can believe that God has me for a purpose, come, and I will help you.

How we need to have the mind of Christ and to live for Christ. What a serious thing it would be for me at sixtyeight years of age to try to please people when I have my Father in heaven to please!

It is the way into the treasure house the Lord brings you. It is not your way of thinking; it is the way in which He brings you through. Don’t forget that Jesus said, “Straight is the gate, narrow the way” that brought you in to the plan and place of redemption with fullness. Therefore, do not resist the Spirit, do not judge the things, even prophecy, but lay hold of it that God is in the midst of you to bring you to the place of your desired health.

1 Corinthians 13: A Balancer

I now want to discuss the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. This chapter on love falls appropriately between the twelfth and the fourteenth chapters; it dovetails or unites the three chapters, bringing us into a place where we can understand them. The twelfth chapter deals with the gifts of the Spirit, the fourteenth chapter deals with the ministry of the gifts, and the thirteenth chapter deals with balance.

If you know anything about an engine, you know that right over the main throttle valve that lets the steam into the cylinder, with the piston driving it backward and forward, there are two little governor balls running around. Sometimes they go fast; sometimes they go slowly. They control the condition of the pistons so that the engine doesn’t run away and so that it maintains an even motion.

That is exactly the purpose of the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians; it shows believers how to keep the gifts in perfect harmony until we learn not to run away with them, not to get out of order. It shows that “the wisdom that is from above” (James 3:17) lies in a human vessel; it never loses its luster or glory or expression or force of character of divine origin.

So God has a plan for us. He wants to show us that even though our lives may be wonderful—for example, we may have the gift of divine prophecy, which is beautiful, or we may have all faith to move mountains (1 Cor. 13:2)—if we do not understand the Scriptures, if we lose the main factor, which will produce the governing principles, we become nothing. But if we are balanced by the power of the Spirit, every act will be an act of such divine quality that people will recognize that fact in a moment; their judgment will be accurate, as it was that day when the people saw Peter and John. (See Acts 3:1–4:4.) Although these disciples were humble men and had not gone through college courses, they had something that expressed a fact to the people: they had been in a place that had changed their character and their language; they had been with the Master (Acts 4:13).

While I know that many good things come out of colleges, you must not forget that you must occasionally go to night school, as Nicodemus did, and see the Master. (See John 3:1–21.)

A personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus, by the revelation of the Spirit, can so move you that in an instant, you may have revelation that causes you to see that you are now encased by an enthronement of wisdom from on high.

“The wisdom which is from above is first peaceable, easily entreated, without partiality, full of goodness and truth,” and the Lord of Hosts has us in His great pavilion of opening the avenue of our human nature, flowing forth through the natural life, divine life, quickened from on high, because we are the children of the King. Thank you, Lord. We are the children of the King. We belong to the Lord; therefore, no other power has a right to us. We belong to Him.

From your mother’s womb I called you. Though I have chastened you and put you through the fire, yet it was necessary to bring out of you and to bring you out into a land of promise. It is true that you have passed through deep waters and that the fire has many times seared you, but this was all to chasten you and to prove you, to see if you loved the Lord with all your heart. And now the Lord has brought you to the banquet. Eat, my beloved; eat, and be satisfied.

How to Receive a Spiritual Gift

The gift of the Holy Spirit, which He breathes into you, will make you wonderfully alive. It will almost seem as though you had never been born before. The jealousy God has over us, the interest He has in us, the purpose He has for us, the grandeur of His glory are so marvelous. God has called us into this place to receive gifts. Now I want to tell you how to receive a gift. I will illustrate this by explaining the nature of a gift and telling you what happened to me when I received the gift of tongues.

The difference between speaking in tongues as a gift and speaking in tongues by receiving the Spirit is this: everybody who is baptized speaks as the Spirit gives utterance. The tongues that are manifested when someone receives the baptism are an evidence of the baptism. However, this is not the gift of tongues. The gift is a special manifestation in a person’s life that he knows, and he can speak in tongues as long as he wants to. Nevertheless, a person should never speak longer than the Spirit gives the anointing; he should never go beyond the Spirit’s leading. Like someone giving a prophecy, he should never go beyond the spiritual anointing.

The trouble is this: after we have been blessed with tongues, our human nature often steps in. Everything that is not the rising tide of the Spirit is either law or letter. (See Romans 7:6–7.) What does this mean? When you are following the law, it means that you have fallen into your human nature. When you are following the letter, it means that you are depending upon the Word without the power. These two things will work against you instead of

working for you.

The letter and the law bring harshness; the Spirit brings joy and happiness. One is perfect harmony; the other produces strife. One is the higher tide of the Spirit; the other is earthly. One gets into the bliss of the presence of heaven; the other never rises from earthly associations. Claim your right; claim your position. The person who asks for a gift twice will never get it under any circumstances. I am not moved by what you think about it. I believe this is sovereign from God’s altar. You never get a gift if you ask for it twice. But God will have mercy upon you if you stop asking and believe.

There is not a higher order that God puts in motion with a person who believes than this: “Ask, and you will receive” (John 16:24). If you dare to ask for any gift, if you really believe that it is a necessary gift, if you dare to ask and will not move from it but begin to act in it, you will find that the gift is there.

If you want to be in the will of God, you will have to be stubborn. What do I mean by this? I mean that you will have to be unchangeable. Do you think that if you get a gift, you will feel it? It is nothing like that. If you ask for a gift, do not expect that there will be a feeling with it. There is something better; there is a fact with it, and the fact will bring the feeling after the manifestation. People want feelings for gifts. There is no such thing. You will make the biggest mistake if you dare to continue praying about anything until you feel like doing something. As sure as can be, you have lost your faith. You have to believe that after you receive, you have the power, and that you begin to act in the power.

The morning after I received the gift of tongues, I went out of the house with a box of tools on my back; I was going down the street to do some work. The power of God lit me up and I broke out in tongues—loudly. My, they were loud! The street was filled with people, and there were some gardeners trimming some hedges and cutting the grass. When they heard me, they stuck their heads over the hedges, looking as if they had swan necks. “Whatever is up? Why, it is the plumber.”

I said, “Lord, I am not responsible for this, and I won’t go from this place until I have the interpretation.” God knows that I wouldn’t have moved from that place. And out came the interpretation: Over the hills and far away before the brink of day, the Lord your God will send you forth and prosper all your way.

This is the point: the gift was there. I did not pray for it. I did not say, “Lord, give me the interpretation.” I said, “If you don’t give it to me, I won’t move.” By this I meant that I was determined to have the gift.

It has been surprising, but at every place where I am, the Spirit of the Lord moves upon me.

I want to say something about the gift of interpretation because it is so sublime, it is so divine, it is such a union with the Christ. It is a pleasing place with the Christ. It is not the Holy Spirit who is using it so much, but it is the Christ who is to be glorified in that act, for the Trinity moves absolutely collectively in the body.

As soon as that incident had taken place, wherever I went, when anybody spoke in tongues, I did not say, “Lord, give me the interpretation.” That would have been wrong. I lived in a fact. Now, what is a fact? A fact is what produces. Fact produces; fact has it. Faith is a fact. Faith moves fear and faction. Faith is audacity. Faith is a personality. Faith is the living Christ manifested in the believer.

Now, what is interpretation? Interpretation moves and brings forth the words of God without the person thinking about it. If you get words before you have received from God, that is not interpretation. The person who interprets

does not have the words. The gift breathes forth, and the person speaks, never stopping until he is through. He does not know what he is going to say until the words are out. He does not form them; he does not plan them.

Interpretation is a divine flood, just as tongues are a flood. So it requires continual faith to produce this thing. A divine gift has divine comprehension. It is also full of prophetic utterances. There is no such thing as an end to the divine vocabulary.

What is faith? Is it a pledge? It is more than that. Is it a present? It is more than that. It is relationship. Now, is there something better than relationship? Yes. What is it? Sonship is relationship, but heirship is closer still; and faith

is “God… manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16).

“What was Jesus?” you ask.

Jesus was the glory manifested in human incarnation. “Was He anything else?”

Yes. Jesus was the fullness of the “express image” of the Father (Heb. 1:3). Is that fullness ours? Yes. Who are the chosen ones? They are those who ask and believe and see it done. God will make you chosen if you believe it. Let us repent of everything that is hindering us; let us give place to God. Let us lose ourselves in Him. Let us have no selfrighteousness, but let us have brokenness, humbleness, submission. Oh, may there be such brokenheartedness in us today! May we be dead indeed and alive indeed with refreshing from the presence of the Most High God!

Some of you have been saying, “Oh, I wish I could know how to get a gift.” Some of you have felt the striving of the Holy Spirit within you. Oh, beloved, rise to the occasion this day. Believe God. Ask God for gifts, and it may come to pass in your life. But do not ask unless you know it is the desire of your heart. God grant to us gifts and graces!