The Gift of Prophecy by Smith Wigglesworth

The Gift of Prophecy by Smith Wigglesworth

To another [is given] prophecy. —1 Corinthians 12:10

I want you to understand clearly that there are three kinds of prophecy. Get this in your heart, because Paul said, “I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied” (1 Cor. 14:5).

Testimonial Prophecy

First, there is the prophecy that is the testimony of the saved person regarding what Jesus has done for him. Everyone, every newborn soul, has this kind of prophecy. Through the new birth that results in righteousness, God has given an anointing of the Spirit, a real unction of the Spirit of Christ. We felt when we were saved that we wanted everybody to be saved. That mindset has to be continuous; the whole world can be regenerated by the spirit of prophecy as we testify of our salvation in Christ. This kind of prophecy was described by an inhabitant of heaven to the apostle John in Revelation 19:10: And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

This is the same prophecy that Paul spoke about in 1 Corinthians 14:1: “Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” This verse identifies prophecy as being more important than other gifts. Think about that: prophecy is to be chosen and desired above all the other gifts; the greatest among all the gifts is prophecy.

Why prophecy? Because prophecy by the power of the Spirit is the only power that saves humanity. We are told in the Word of God that the Gospel that is presented through prophecy has power to bring immortality and light. (See 2 Timothy 1:10.) Immortality is what abides forever. Light is what opens the understanding of your heart. Light and immortality come by the Gospel.

Prophecy is to be desired above all things, and every Christian has to have it. Every believer may have gifts, though there are very few who do; however, every believer has testimonial prophecy. Now, from that same reference in Revelation 19:10, let us see what testimonial prophecy is and how it comes forth.

“I fell at his feet.” Who is this inhabitant of heaven? The one speaking to John is a man who has been on the earth. Lots of people are foolishly led by the Devil to believe that after they die, their spirits will be asleep in the grave; this is absolutely contrary to the Word of God. Don’t you know that even if you live until the Lord comes, the body that you have must be put off and another must be put on, because you cannot go into heaven with your present body? Nothing makes you so foolish as to turn aside from the Word of God. If you ever want to be a fool, turn aside from the Word of God, and you will find yourself in a fool’s paradise.

This man has been in the earth in the body and is now in heaven in the spirit, and he wants you to hear what he has to say: “I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus….For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10).

What is the testimony of Jesus? The testimony is: “Jesus has saved me.” What the world wants to know today is how they can be saved.

Testify that you are saved. Your knees may knock together, you may be trembling as you do it, but when you get it out, you enter into the spirit of prophecy. Before you know where you are, you are saying things that the Spirit is saying.

There are thousands of Christians who have never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit but who have this wonderful spirit of prophecy. People are being saved everywhere by the testimony of such believers. John Wesley was moved by the power of God, and he created revivals all over the world. After the people were saved, they testified.

If you cease from testifying, you will be sorry when you give an account of your life before God (Rom. 14:12). As you testify, you will be a vessel through which the power of God can bring salvation to people (1:16). Testify wherever you are.

“You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth, your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.” What lovely feet! What lovely desire! A desire in your heart, because you are saved, to get everybody saved. The spirit of prophecy! You must all preach from now on. Every one of you must be a preacher. You have a prophecy that has come from heaven to change you from vile inward corruption, to do away with your human, evil nature, and to put within you a spirit of testimony. You know that where once you were dead, behold, you are alive! (See Luke 15:24.)

Live in the place where the Lord your God moves you, not to go from house to house nor speak from person to person, but where the Lord directs you, for He has the person who is in need of truth waiting for watering with your watering can.

Oh, how the Lord wants to cheer you today! Do not forget that you are ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). Do not forget that you are now in the place where the prophets have a chance.

The Lord can bring you into a great place of splendor. He has His hand upon you. Whatever you do, desire to be holy, seek to be clean, so that you might always bear about in your body not only the dying of the Lord but also the life of the resurrection of the Lord (2 Cor. 4:10).

Lift up your hands and never be feeble, for the Lord has said, “Lift up holy hands.” Don’t be afraid of coming into the treasury, of making your hands clean, for they who bear the vessels of the Lord have to be only unto the Lord. So the Lord is bringing you to this great place of His pavilion so that He may clothe you upon with the Spirit, that your water will not fail. He will give you water and seed for your ministry, for remember, it is the same water and it is the same sower. So don’t forget, beloved, you are coworkers together with Him, and your ministry in the Lord is not to be in vain. See to it that you live so that your seed is well watered.

Now, that is one kind of prophecy. General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, knew it. He got the vision as clear as anything from Wesley. The greatest revival that has ever swept the earth that we remember is the revival the Salvation Army brought.

God revealed Himself to Booth. Those who were saved testified. God moved the people who were saved—former drunkards and prostitutes—into the streets to prophesy in the Spirit of Jesus. This is the prophecy that you all have when you are saved. The spirit of prophecy is the testimony that you are saved by the blood of the Lamb.

Anointed Prophecy

The next type of prophecy is given by the preacher who lives in anointing, in prophetic utterances. You will find that I mostly speak in prophecy. Why? Well, it has pleased the Lord to bring me into this way of ministering so that I do not come to the platform with thought—that is, not with any thoughts of what I am going to say.

I want you to know another thing: I never say what I think. It is very much below a prophet of the Lord to begin to speak what he thinks to the people. The prophet must always say what he knows, because the people he is speaking to are the ones who have to think it out; but he is in the place of knowledge. The Holy Spirit takes the thoughts of Jesus and fills the prophet with divine life until he speaks divine utterances, until he knows. Sometimes I speak quite a bit; I never take any thought at all concerning what I am speaking, but it flows out like rivers, prophecy of divine power. My natural makeup is not full, but my supernatural makeup is an overflowing full. I depend upon an overflowing full so that you may get something out of it, so that you also may be full to overflowing.

It is very important and very essential that the person who preaches should live in prophetic utterances. Then a preacher will never be lamentable in his divine position. He is standing before people as a chosen one of God. He is not in any way to preach anything unless he knows it is the Word of God, and there he is to be clothed with holiness like a garment of salvation.

Oh, this is true! The Spirit of the Lord is upon me now. I know it; I feel it. It is moving me; it chastens me; it is bringing me to a place where I know that if you listen, you will be blessed. The blessing of the Lord is upon you. Hear, for the Spirit speaks to you.

This is prophecy as the Spirit gives forth. It is the illumination of truth by the Word of Life. The Holy Spirit has the chief position in the place, taking words, actions, and everything else until the prophet stands there complete, the oracle of God, speaking words absolutely as if the Lord were here saying them.

These first two kinds of prophecy are divine inspiration, Holy Spirit utterances. In a very remarkable way by the Spirit of Jesus, every person can feel burnings and movings, chastenings and thrillings. It is wonderful. All you have to do is begin and you cannot stop.

There was something done on the cross that is truly wonderful. Don’t you know you were made every bit whole? You were made holy; you were made a saint; you were absolutely cleansed from all unrighteousness. The new birth is a revelation of God in the soul. You are made His forever when you are saved by His power. No one can estimate the new birth; it is beyond all human power to estimate. The new birth is larger than our human capacities. And, thank God, we have touches from Him that make us on fire.

We will now look at divine prophecy as a gift. I trust that many of you will have this gift. This is the most wonderful of all prophecy and yet the most dangerous. There is a great deal of trouble in relation to the gift of prophecy; there always has been. So I want you to guard this gift. With the gift of prophecy, what you need to watch is this (it is the same with the gift of tongues and the gift of healing): even though the gift has been received and the people have been blessed through the gift, you are never to use the gift unless the power of the Spirit brings into you a great thirst and longing to do it. It would be a serious thing for me to speak in tongues at any moment just because I had the gift; without the unction of the Spirit, it would fall to nothing.

All gifts are of no account at all unless they are brought forth by the Giver of the gifts, and the Holy Spirit is the One who gives the nine gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12. He brings anointing, fire, confirmation, and utterance, until those who hear are moved. When the Lord speaks, it changes and moves the natural, because it is supernatural. Supernatural always changes natural. Prophecy is lovely because it makes the body very full of expressions of joy. It is lovely, for people all like to hear it. It is lovely when it is the Spirit moving.

Be careful when people are very pleased to hear you prophesy. Prophecy is like tongues; no man who speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks in tongues is to have control in a meeting. That is not what it means to have the advantage in a meeting. Having the advantage means that when the Spirit is upon you, you will speak in tongues, and you will close down the moment you know you are at the end. What spoils it is when people go on and on, and the hearers get tired of it because they want something that God can bring in and move quickly.

Don’t think you will be heard by your “many words” (Matt. 6:7), either by tongues, prayer, or anything else. You are not heard because of your many words; you are heard because you are definite. All your spiritual abilities are going to be acceptable with others as you learn how to obey the Spirit and never to take advantage just because you are present in a meeting.

Here is another thing you have to learn: people rush up and down sometimes, and then they say to you, “Oh, I had to do that! I had to jump up and do that. I had to do that— and that—and that.”

Don’t believe them; it isn’t true. There never was a person in the world, as long as he was in the body, who didn’t have power over his spirit. And so, when people rush to you and say they have to do this, that, and the other, don’t believe it. What are you to believe? You are to believe that when the Spirit is manifested in the order it should be, it will have three things with it: comfort, exhortation, and edification (1 Cor. 14:3).

If any of you find that I do not speak by the Spirit of God and teach the Scriptures only, which is what God desires, you meet me at the door and tell me. I have declared that this will be my constant purpose. I have declared that as long as I live, I will never exaggerate. Exaggeration is lying. What God wants is a people who are full of truth. I want God to so have you that your word will be your bond. Whenever you say anything, the people will be able to believe it; you have said it, and you will do it. When the unction is upon you, when the power of God is manifested through you, one thing that will be accomplished by prophecy is comfort. The Holy Spirit can so have you in prophecy that all the people will be comforted.

But if you get away from that prophecy because you begin and the people are delighted, and if you go on until you come out with your own human words, you will lead people astray. People have been led to buy houses, to do all sorts of silly things, because of people who did not obey the Lord but brought in some human prophecy. If anybody ever comes to you with human prophecy, say, “I know God, and unless God tells me, I won’t move.” Don’t be deluded by anybody. You can tell what is of the Lord. The Word of God distinctly says, “Do not despise prophecies” (1 Thess. 5:20). So whatever you do, do not despise them. However, in the next verse you are told to “test all things” (v. 21). Therefore, you may say, “Well now, if that is of the Lord, I will see if it corresponds to the Word of God.” And you will have clear revelation as to whether it is the word of the Lord.

This is the day in which we need comforting, and the power of the Spirit can comfort you and send you away from these meetings knowing that you have been in the presence of God and have heard the Word of God. There are people who, like Isaiah, have the gift of prophecy. Isaiah was so filled with this prophecy. He said, “Unto us a Son is given” (Isa. 9:6). This was definite, personal, truth, and knowledge. It took five hundred years to bring it to pass, but there it was, definitely declared beforehand:

And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (v. 6) Oh, hallelujah! All the way down through the Scriptures you will find such distinct prophecy. You will see the book of Isaiah filled with prophetic utterances. Begin with Genesis and go right through, and you will find the golden or the scarlet thread right through all the prophecies, declaring, “He is coming, He is coming! He is on the way; He will surely come!”

At the birth of Christ, the angels sang; the Babe was born. Prophecy was fulfilled!

And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. (Matt. 1:21)

And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.(Luke 2:12)

Prophecy was also fulfilled in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection:

You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. (Matt. 26:2)

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. (John 3:14)

Ah, beloved, God can give you prophecy that will fulfill the past to a perfect degree, chapter and verse. He is coming. Glory to God! The saints will be awakened; prophecy will appear. People will say, “Yes, He is coming; we know He is coming!” And He will come!