THE MIGHTY HOLY SPIRIT

You will always find that in the moment of need the Holy Spirit is a comforter. When my dear wife was lying dead, the doctors could do nothing. They said to me, “She’s gone; we cannot help you.” My heart was so moved that I said, “Oh God, I cannot spare her!” I went up to her and said, “Oh, come back, come back, and speak to me! Come back, come back!” The Spirit of the Lord moved, and she came back and smiled again. But then the Holy Ghost said to me, “She’s mine. Her work is done. She is mine.”

Oh, that comforting word! No one else could have spoken it. The Comforter came. From that moment my dear wife passed out. And in this day the Comforter has a word for every bereaved one. Christ further said, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26

I spoke to two young men in a meeting one day. They were preachers. They had received their degrees. I said to them, “Young men, what about it?”
“Oh,” they said, “we do not believe in receiving the Holy Ghost in the same way as you people do.”
I said to them, “You are dressed up like preachers, and it is a pity having to have the dress without the presence.”
“Well, we do not believe it the way you do,” they said.
“But look,” I said, “the apostles believed it that way. Wouldn’t you
like to be like the apostles? You have read how they received at the beginning, haven’t you?”
Always remember this, that the baptism will always be as at the beginning. It has not changed. If you want a real baptism, expect it just the same way as they had it at the beginning.

These preachers asked, “What had they at the beginning?”
I quoted from the tenth chapter of Acts where it says, ...on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God....
Acts 10:45,46
The Jews knew that these Gentiles had the same kind of experience as they themselves had at the beginning on the day of Pentecost. The experience has not changed, it is still the same as at the beginning. When these two young men realized that Peter and John and the rest of the disciples had received the mighty enduement at the beginning, and that it was for them, they walked up to the front where folk were tarrying. They were finely dressed, but in about half an hour they looked different. They had been prostrated. I had not caused them to do it. But they had been so lost and so controlled by the power of God, and were so filled with the glory of God, they just rolled over, and their fine clothes were soiled—but their faces were radiant. What caused the change? They had received what the 124 received at the beginning.

These young preachers had been ordained by men. Now they received an ordination that was better. The Lord had ordained them that they should go and bring forth much fruit. The person who receives this ordination goes forth with fresh feet—his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; he goes forth with a fresh voice—it speaks as the Spirit gives utterance; he goes forth with a fresh mind—a mind illuminated by the power of God; he goes forth with a fresh vision, and sees all things new. (Smith Wigglesworth)