All Scripture quotations are taken from the King James

Version of the Holy Bible.

The Smith Wigglesworth Prophecy
and the Greatest Revival of All Time
ISBN: 978-1-60374-183-5
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60374-
676-2
2005, 2013 by Roberts Liardon
Roberts Liardon Ministries P.O. Box 2989
Sarasota, FL 34230
E-mail: [email protected]
www.RobertsLiardon.com
Whitaker House
1030 Hunt Valley Circle New Kensington, PA 15068
www.whitakerhouse.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
(Pending)
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval systemwithout permission in
writing from the publisher. Please direct your inquiries to
[email protected].
This book has been digitally produced in a standard
specification in order to ensure its availability.
Introduction
God is not through with us yet. The Pentecostal
movement that began in the Azusa Street Mission in Los
Angeles in 1906 and the charismatic renewal that followed
in the middle of the twentieth century are still rocking our
world. The final revivals of our age will be, as all other
revivals, works of the Holy Spirit. God is still working
through His universal church around the world, regardless
of denominational labels and personal prejudices.
The truth of the matter is, regardless of what we call
ourselves as Christians, Jesus is coming back, and every
day that passes brings us closer to that return. What
should we be doing, and how should we be preparing, to
be ready for Him?
God has never left His people without warning. While it
is true that the first and best source of prophecy is Gods
revealed Word to us, the Bible, God has also chosen to
speak to each generation of the earth through dreams and
visions. This is what Peter spoke of on the day of
Pentecost:
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will
pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on
my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in
those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.And it
shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved.
(Acts 2:1618, 21)
With this in mind, and because of the great interest in
the Smith Wigglesworth prophecy that was given to David
du Plessis, I decided to put together this book. Why has
this prophecy so caught the attention of believers
worldwide? After all, this was not a prophecy given to the
universal church, or even a simple body of believers, such
as is recorded in the first few chapters of Revelation; it
was a vision given to one minister who was then told to go
and describe it to another. It was really a personal
prophecy given to one man, David du Plessis. So, why all
the interest?
There are a number of reasons, the foremost of which
is the revival this vision foretold and its significance to the
expansion of Christianity in the second half of the
twentieth century. What Smith Wigglesworth saw in that
vision was the charismatic renewala revival in the
traditional denominations that had formerly rejected the
Pentecostals and their experience to turn to and
embrace that same experience, as thousands among them
received the baptism of the Holy Spirit for themselves. The
prophecy also spoke of the place of David du Plessiswho
became known as Mr. Pentecostin helping that revival
to happen. In this light, it is easy to see that this prophecy
is actually one of the most important events of church
history in the last century, as it both foretold and catalyzed
what could easily be seen as the greatest move of the Holy
Spirit to date.
Echoing this is the vision given to Rev. Tommy Hicks.
This vision was not to be given to only one person, as the
Wigglesworth prophecy was, but it was for the body of
Christ at large. It was first shared at a meeting of the Full
Gospel Business Mens Fellowship, one of the prime
movers of the charismatic renewal. By looking at and
learning from Rev. Wigglesworths prophecy to David du
Plessis and how Rev. du Plessis walked it out, there is a
good deal we can learn from looking at Rev. Hicks vision
about the end-times church and walking it out in our
lifetimes.
The next great move of God does not rely on receiving
new words of prophecy but taking the ones we already
have and living them out. As it has often been said,
whether we are the last generation on the earth or not, it
is our last generation to influence our world for Jesus, and
we need to be in the flow of the Holy Spirit to do so. It is
not time for Him to bless our plans but for us to hook up
with His plansplans that have already been blessed from
the time of creation.
As we said before, God is not through with us yetand
there is still a lot He wants us to do. Do you want to be
part of that plan? Then, as you read this book, be open to
what He wants to teach you, and be ready to apply these
truths and live just as David du Plessis, Smith
Wigglesworth, and Tommy Hicks didexceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the
power that worketh in us (Ephesians 3:20).



Part I

The Smith Wigglesworth Prophecy
1
Smith Wigglesworth and the
Pentecostal Movement
When Smith Wigglesworth was born, on June 8, 1859,
in the small village of Menston, Yorkshire, England, Gods
plans for the twentieth and twenty-first centuries were
already afoot. Although the United States was on the
verge of the Civil War, the Third Great Awakening was
sweeping the country, renewing hunger for God and
setting the stage for the Holiness Movement. At the same
time in England, the changing climate of the Industrial
Revolution gave way to a growing population of
unemployed, homeless families. The churches of the
traditional denominations chose to try to keep the destitute
out of their churches, but William and Catherine Booths
Salvation Army brought revival to the streets as they
preached the gospel wherever they could. In addition to
this, in Wales, prayers were being raised for a new
awakening of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and for Gods
presence to again engulf the churches. Through these
movements, barriers were being removed between people
hungry for Gods presence in their lives, and foundations
were laid for a new revelation of living by the power of
God. It was time, after centuries of taking a backseat to
the doctrines of men, for the Holy Spirit to fill Gods people
with all of His gifts in manifestation.
Smith Wigglesworths younger years were marked by
this very hunger for God, even though his parents were
not yet Christians. His grandmother, however, was an old-
time Wesleyan, and she always made sure, when she
could, that Smith attended meetings with her. When he
was eight, he joined in with the singing at one of these
meetings, and as he began, a clear knowledge of the new
birth came to him. He realized in that moment just what
the death and resurrection of Jesus meant for him, and he
embraced it with his whole heart. From that day forth, he
never doubted his own salvation.
Soon, he began operating as an evangelist, which
would be his lifes primary focus. His first convert was his
own mother. When his father realized what was
happening, he started taking the family to an Episcopal
church. Although his father was never born again, he
enjoyed the parson, who just happened to frequent the
same pub as he did, and he remained a faithful
churchgoer through Smiths youth.
The Wigglesworth family was poor. At the age of six,
rather than starting school, Smith got a job pulling turnips
in a local field. A year later, he and one of his brothers
were working in a wool mill twelve hours a day. Smiths
father also worked long and hard to support his wife and
three sons. Because of this, Smith did not learn to read or
write until much later in his life. His desire to read the
Bible was so great that he finally overcame this obstacle
with the guidance of his wife and the revelation of the Holy
Spirit.
Smith Gets Involved with the Salvation Army
When Smith was thirteen, his family moved from
Menston to Bradford, where he became deeply involved
with the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Even though he
couldnt read, Smith cultivated the habit of always having a
copy of the New Testament with him wherever he went.
Then, in 1875, when Smith was about sixteen, the
Salvation Army opened a mission in Bradford, and Smith
found a powerful ally in his desire to see people come to a
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In the meetings he
attended with the Salvationists, he soon learned there was
great power behind prayer and fasting.
At this juncture, it is important to point out that the
Salvation Army of that day was much different from the
one we know today. While their work was mainly among
the poor, as it is today, at that time, they saw the best
thing they had to offer anyone to bring them out of poverty
was Jesus Himself. Additionally, in those early years,
General Booth refused to harm anyones dignity by giving a
handout, instead insisting that people either pay a small
price or work for their food and lodging. The main activity
of the Salvationists at that time was not opening soup
kitchens and collecting clothing but holding open-air
meetings, where new converts shared their testimonies
and experienced believers played instruments, sang, and
preached the good news of salvation. They would even
form parades led by their marching bands to usher them
to meeting halls.
It was not uncommon for people to come to the
platform, throw themselves down on the floor, and ask
God to save them, while those on stage sang praises to
God. Behind all of these efforts were long hours of prayer.
All-night prayer meetings were common, as was fasting.
They would claim fifty or a hundred souls for the next
week, and then God would bring those souls to hear the
Word of God and receive salvation. Scores of people were
saved through these efforts in Bradford.
At the age of seventeen, Smith met a godly man at a
mill who took him in as an apprentice and taught him the
plumbing trade. He also told Smith about what the Bible
taught on water baptism, and soon afterwards Smith
gladly obeyed and was baptized in water. During this time,
he also learned more about the second coming of Christ
and strongly believed that Jesus would come at the turn of
the century. This made him ever more vigilant to change
the course of everyone he met.
In 1877, at the age of nearly eighteen, Smith decided it
was time to set out on his own. He went to the home of a
plumber and asked for a job. When the plumber told him
he had no need for any help, Smith thanked him,
apologized for using his time, and turned to walk away.
Immediately, the man called him back. He said, There
is something about you that is different. I just cannot let
you go.1 At that, the man hired him on the spot.
Smith Meets Polly
Around this time, Smith also watched with great
interest as a young, socially affluent woman came forward
in one of the Salvation Army meetings and fell to her
knees. She refused to pray with any of the workers until
the speaker known as Gypsy Tillie Smith came and
prayed with her. When they were done, the young woman
jumped to her feet, threw her gloves in the air, and
shouted, Hallelujah! It is done!
The next night, as she gave her testimony, Smith felt as
if she belonged to him. As Smith later said, It seemed as
if the inspiration of God was upon her from the very
first.2 The young womans name was Mary Jane
Featherstone, but everyone called her Polly. She
eventually received a commission as an officer in the
Salvation Army from General William Booth. Smith did
what he could to work near her, and in the coming years,
a romance bloomed between them.
By the time Smith was twenty, the man he worked for
could not keep him busy anymorehe just worked too
efficiently! So, Smith moved to Liverpool to find more
work. There he began to minister to the children of the
city. Ragged and hungry children came to the dock shed,
where he preached the gospel to them and did his best to
feed and clothe them from the money he made as a
plumber in the area. He also visited the hospitals and
ships, praying and fasting all day on Sunday, asking God
for converts. As a result, he never saw fewer than fifty
people saved each time he ministered. He was also
frequently invited by the Salvation Army to speak at their
meetings. Though he saw great results, he was never
eloquent. He often broke down and cried before the
people because of his burden for souls, and it was this
brokenness that brought people to the altar by the
hundreds.
As Smith and Polly grew closer, Polly eventually faced
the difficult choice between continuing with the Salvation
Army and pursuing her love for Smith. There were strict
regulations against officers and lower ranks having
romantic relationships, and even though Smith never
officially joined the Salvation Army, he was considered a
private in their ranks, and Polly was an officer. So, while
they would always remain true friends of the Salvationists,
Polly retired from their ranks and took up mission work
with the Blue Ribbon Army. Those in her Methodist Church
also recognized her calling and asked her to help
evangelize their churches. Hundreds were converted as a
result. From the beginning, Polly had the eloquence Smith
longed for but couldnt learn. Then in 1882, Smith
returned to Bradford, and he and Polly wed. Polly was
twenty-two years old and Smith was twenty-three.
The Bradford Street Mission Opened
Smith and Polly had a burden for a part of Bradford that
had no church, so they soon opened the Bradford Street
Mission and began ministering together. Polly did most of
the speaking, because she was the stronger and more
accomplished of the two as an orator, and Smith oversaw
the needs of the rest of the work. While she preached, he
was at the altar praying for more to come to Christ. Of this
relationship, Smith later said, Her work was to put down
the net; mine was to land the fish. This latter is just as
important as the former.3
In their thirty years of marriage, the Wigglesworths had
five children: Alice, Seth, Harold, Ernest, and George.
Before each child was born, Smith and Polly prayed over
him or her, that he or she would faithfully serve God
throughout life.
The winter of 1884 was very severe in Bradford, and
plumbers were in high demand. As a result, a time of
intense work began for Smith that would last for the next
two years, and he become literally consumed by his
natural occupation. His church attendance declined, and,
slowly but surely, his fire for God began to grow cold. In
the light of Pollys increasing faithfulness, Smiths
backsliding seemed all the more pronounced, to the point
that her diligence began to wear on him. Then, one night,
this came to a head, when she returned home from
church a little later than usual. Smith confronted her,
saying, I am master of this house, and I am not going to
have you coming home at so late an hour as this! Polly
quietly replied, I know that you are my husband, but
Christ is my Master.4 At this, Smith forced her out the
back door, then closed and locked it. However, in his
annoyance, he had forgotten to lock the front door, so
Polly simply walked around the house and came in through
the main entrance, laughing. When Smith finally saw what
he had done, he caught her laughter and realized how silly
he had been. Together they laughed about the matter, but
to Smith it was also a revelation of how cold he had grown
in the things of God. Shortly afterward, he spent ten days
praying and fasting in repentance, and God gloriously
restored him.
The Ground Is Laid for the Return of Pentecost
About this same time, the National Camp Meeting
Association was finding great success in the United States.
American Christians were experiencing a strong knee-jerk
reaction to the watering down of Scripture among
academics in what was known as higher criticism, which
used human reasoning and the scientific method to throw
the supernatural out of the Bible and doubted the integrity
and authenticity of what was written in the Old and New
testaments. The backlash came in the form of the Holiness
Movement, which urged Christians to accept the Word of
God as it was written and cried out for a more genuine
relationship and experience with God. Within its doctrines
was the belief that there was more available to Christians
than just salvationbelievers should not only be born
again but also go on to experience sanctification, a more
holy and complete dedication and cleansing of ones life to
live in the ways of God. Although this movement started
largely among the Methodist churches, the call to holiness
and sanctification soon separated traditional Methodists
and other denominationalists from those seeking a deeper
and fuller experience of God, and between 1893 and 1900,
no fewer than twenty-three different Holiness
denominations were formed. Roughly 100,000 believers
left the Methodist church to join these new churches.5
Soon the scriptural phrase baptism with the Holy Spirit
became commonly associated with this second work of
grace, called consecration, although it was not precisely
defined.
A similar renewal of the gifts of the Spirit was beginning
in England. On a trip to Leeds for plumbing supplies, Smith
heard of a meeting where divine healing was to be
ministered. He attended and was amazed at what he
witnessed. What others saw as fanaticism, Smith
recognized as sincere and of God. On his return to
Bradford, he would search out the sick and pay for their
way to attend the Leeds healing meetings. When his wife
grew ill, he told her about the meetings, somewhat afraid
that she would think he had finally gone off the deep end.
Instead, she agreed to go to the meetings with him. When
the prayer of faith was offered for her in Leeds, she
received an instant manifestation of healing. They both
became passionate about the message of divine healing,
and their meetings began to grow, causing them to
require a larger mission space. Soon they obtained a
building on Bowland Street and opened the Bowland Street
Mission. Across the wall behind the pulpit, they hung a
large scroll that read: I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee.6
Not many years after this, in the early 1900s, Smith
received prayer for healing of a hemorrhoid condition he
had battled since childhood. After the prayer, Smith was
fully persuaded that his healing was the will of God, and
he stopped taking the salts he had taken for the problem
for many years. He soon was fully healed and never had
another problem with this condition for the rest of his life.
Pentecost Returns
As the twentieth century dawned, a connection of
similar incidents gave way to the return of Pentecost to
earth in its fullnessa movement of which Smith would
eventually become somewhat of a patriarch. In December
of 1900, at the close of the first term in a Bible school in
Topeka, Kansas, a young preacher named Charles Parham
was leading a class in studying the book of Acts. As he
was about to go to Kansas City to preach, Parham asked
his students to study the Bible for evidence of the baptism
of the Holy Spirit and report their findings when he
returned in three days. There were forty students in the
class, and on the day he returned to hear their findings, he
sat and quietly listened to what they had found. He was
astonished at what he heard. While the accounts differed
somewhat, all of the students seemed to agree that in
every case, the best and most common evidence of the
baptism of the Holy Spirit was speaking in other tongues.
That evening, the group of seventy-five people was
abuzz with discussion of the book of Acts as the school
held its evening Watch Night Service. The meeting seemed
blanketed with a spiritual freshness. Then, one of the
students, a young woman named Agnes Ozman, came to
Parham and asked him to lay hands on her, that she might
receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of
speaking in tongues. Parham hesitated, since he himself
did not speak in tongues, but the young woman persisted.
Obedient to her faith, Parham laid hands on her and
prayed. As he did, Parham said, I had scarcely repeated
three dozen sentences when a glory fell on her and a halo
seemed to surround her head and face, and she began
speaking in the Chinese language, and was unable to
speak English for three days.7 Soon others, including
Parham, received the baptism with the evidence of
speaking in tongues, and the next month, he preached his
first sermon on the topic so that others would know about
what God was doing.
When the school building was sold unexpectedly by its
owners just before the next school year, in the fall of
1901, Parham and his family moved to Kansas City. In the
next few years, he would move several times. He
eventually wound up in Houston, Texas, where he again
ran a school in 1905. A young African-American man
attended the school there, in violation of the segregation
laws of Texas at the time. The young mans humility and
hunger for the Word of God so moved Parham that he let
the young man sit outside of the classrooms and listen to
the lessons. What the young man learned of Pentecost
must have had an effect, as it was he, William Seymour,
who would move to Los Angeles, California, and open a
mission on Azusa Street that would usher Pentecost back
into the body of Christ throughout the next hundred years.
The Welsh Revival
Before Azusa Street, there was one more piece God
placed on the earth to prepare for the Pentecostal
movement to take root. It was not enough just for men
and women to again be baptized with the Holy Spirit; God
also wanted to see His Spirit have free reign to minister in
services as He saw fit. This began in Wales. For decades,
people in Wales had been calling out for revival, and in
1904, it began. That February, a young woman named
Florrie Evans stood up in a meeting and declared that she
loved Jesus with all of her heart. With those words, the
Holy Spirit fell on the meeting, and a fresh hunger for God
spread throughout the young people in the Cardiganshire
area. On September 29 of that year, Reverend Seth
Joshuawho had been praying for some time that God
would raise up another Elisha from an ordinary person and
mantle him with powerled a meeting where he urged
the audience to call out to God, Bend me! Bend me! in
submission to His will. In the audience was Evan Roberts,
a twenty-six-year-old hungry for God and stubborn to do
nothing in ministry unless the Spirit first moved him. Evan
cried this out with all of his heart, and the Holy Spirit fell
on him with a deep revelation of the love of God. At least
one witness said that Evan fell to the ground under this
power. Evan felt impressed to return to his home in
Loughor and begin a series of meetings.
Those meetings began on October 31. The goal of the
first meeting was to dedicate and train intercessors for the
coming revival. This was successful, and soon the
meetings grew to a fervor. Evan had to contact the local
Bible schools to recruit more workers. The services were
filled with laughing, crying, dancing, joy, and brokenness
before the Lord. It was not uncommon for members of the
congregation to fall to their knees in the midst of a
meeting and begin praying aloud. In all things, the Holy
Spirit was put first, and Evan wouldnt even rise to speak
unless he felt prompted by the Spirit to do so.
In the next two years, Wales would be transformed,
and more than 100,000 people would come to the Lord.
Political meetings were canceled. Theatres closed for lack
of attendance, as did gambling facilities and places serving
alcohol. Doctrinal differences dissolved in the pursuit of
God Himself, and all came together to worship and sing
praises to God. Former prostitutes organized Bible studies.
People began paying back long-term debts they had
previously tried to ignore. Believers came from all over the
world to experience what God was doing in Wales, and, as
a result, the fire spread. There was no organization, set
order of services, or specific location that held the revival
together. Instead, it spread like wildfire based on four
simple principles: 1) Confess all known sin; 2) Search out
all secret and doubtful things, being sure you hold no
unforgiveness in your heart; 3) Obey whatever the Holy
Spirit prompts you to do; and 4) Confess the Lord Jesus
openly. This hunger for God, and the presence that came
with it, soon seemed to circle the globe.
The Mission at 312 Azusa Street
Hunger for God found a new home in Los Angeles when
William Seymour traveled there to become an associate
minister in a Nazarene Holiness church. Armed with what
he had learned in Parhams school in Houston, Seymour
spoke in one of his first sermons on speaking in tongues
as the evidence of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. It
was also his last sermon for that Nazarene congregation.
He was promptly dismissed by the group as a heretic, but
he found sympathetic ears elsewhere and preached in
whatever home would welcome him. Black and white
Americans alike gathered to hear Seymour preach, and on
April 9, 1906, seven of Seymours Baptist listeners
received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in
tongues. Seymour received this gift three days later, just
as Parham had with his students in Kansas. In a later
meeting, Jennie Moore, who later married Seymour, spoke
in tongues and then walked to the piano and started
playing and singing in an unknown tongue, even though
she had never taken a piano lesson. Soon the numbers
grew too large for any home to accommodate, and they
rented a partly burned-out building in an industrial part of
town. After they cleaned up the space a bit, they found
that the main roomwhich still had sawdust on the floor
from when it had been used as a stablecould hold
roughly 600 people. Now they could sing and praise as
loudly as they would like! The Holy Spirit fell on 312 Azusa
Street like He had been unable to do in centuries, and the
Pentecostal movement was born.
The Azusa Street revival would continue for the next
three years in an atmosphere that must have looked much
like a service in Corinthwith many of the blessings and
some of the excesses that were corrected in 1 Corinthians
14with all of the gifts of the Spirit manifesting as the
Spirit willed. Conversions, baptisms, healings, and
exorcisms were common. Another aspect of these
meetings was that racial and denominational boundaries
were ignoredall worshipped together as one in Christ.
Although there were many who questioned what was
happening in these services, including Parham himself, the
results of these meetings were felt around the world and
are still being felt today.
Smith Meets Pentecost
Meanwhile, in England, Smiths healing ministry was
growing, as was his faith. Those in the Leeds Healing
Home recognized Smiths faith and asked him to speak
while they were away at a convention. Smith accepted
only because he felt he could get someone else to do it
once he was in charge of the meeting, but all others
refused, insisting they felt God wanted him to speak. Smith
ministered his sermon hesitantly, but, at the close of the
service, fifteen people came forward for prayer, and all of
them were healed! One of them had hobbled forward on
crutches and began dancing around the room without
them after Smith prayed for him. He had been instantly
healed! No one was more surprised by the results of his
prayers than Smith himself.
Another time, the wife of a devoted friend was facing
death, and the doctors did not think she would make it
through the night. Smith sought ministers to come and
pray for her, but he could not find anyone willing and
available, so he took a friend whom he felt offered
eloquent prayers, and together they went to his friends
home. However, when he asked his eloquent friend to
pray, he did not pray for her healing but for the family
members who would be left behind after her passing!
Smith cried out for him to stop. Then he asked the
husband to pray, but his prayers were no more filled with
faith than the first mans. This time, Smith cried out loudly
enough to be heard in the streets: Lord, stop him! At
that, the husband stopped, and the room fell silent. Smith
then took a bottle of oil from his pocket and poured the
contents over the body of the woman. At this, Smith
experienced his first vision. He later described: Suddenly
the Lord Jesus appeared. I had my eyes open gazing at
Him. He gave me one of those gentle smiles.I have
never lost that vision, the vision of that beautiful, soft
smile.8 A few moments after the vision vanished, the
woman sat up in bed, completely healed and filled with
new life. She lived on to raise a number of children and
even outlive her husband.
In 1907, Pentecost had reached Sunderland, and Smith
heard that people there were being baptized in the Holy
Spirit and speaking in other tongues. Smith felt he had to
see this for himself. He was among those who believed
that sanctification and the baptism in the Holy Spirit were
the same, so he felt he already had this baptism. Others
warned him that the people in Sunderland were not
receiving the Holy Spirit but demons instead. Other friends
with whom he prayed urged him to follow his own
leadings.
When Smith arrived at the meeting in Sunderland,
which was being led by Vicar Alexander Boddy (who had
attended some of Evan Roberts meetings in Wales during
the Welsh Revival), he was surprised at the dryness of it in
contrast to the moves of the Spirit he had experienced
elsewhere, especially among the Salvationists. In fact, he
grew so frustrated that he interrupted the meeting, saying,
I have come from Bradford, and I want this experience of
speaking in tongues like they had on the day of Pentecost.
But I do not understand why our meetings seem to be on
fire, but yours do not seem to be so.9 Smith was so
disruptive that they removed him from the building and
disciplined him outside.
Something about the entire issue must have stuck with
him, as he went to a local Salvation Army building to pray
and seek this baptism for himself. Three times while he
was praying, the power of God struck him to the floor. The
Salvationists there warned him against speaking in
tongues, but he was determined that if it was from God,
he wanted it. However, for four days he prevailed and
received nothing more.
He soon decided he needed to return to Bradford, but,
before doing so, he wanted to go to Vicars home and say
good-bye. There he met Mrs. Boddy and told her he was
returning home without speaking in tongues. She told him,
It is not tongues you need, but the baptism.10 Smith
asked her to lay hands on him before he left. She agreed,
prayed a simple but powerful prayer, and then walked out
of the room. It was then that the fire fell, and Smith had a
vision of the empty cross with Jesus exalted at the right
hand of the Father. Smith opened his mouth to praise God
and instantly began speaking in tongues. He knew
immediately that what he had received of God now was
much fuller than what he had received when praying and
fasting and asking God to sanctify him.
Instead of going home, Smith went to the church where
Vicar Boddy was conducting the service and asked to
speak. Vicar Boddy agreed. Smith then spoke as never
before, and at the end of his sermon, fifty people were
baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues.
Even the local paper, the Sunderland Daily Echo, picked up
the story and headlined the meeting and what Smith had
experienced. Smith telegraphed home about what had
happened.
Thats Not My Smith!
Upon arriving home in Bradford, Smith found a new
challenge to what he had experienced. Polly met him at
the door and firmly stated, I want you to know that I am
just as baptized in the Holy Spirit as you are, and I dont
speak in tongues.Sunday, you will preach for yourself,
and I will see what there is in it.11 When Sunday came,
Polly did see what there was in it, as Smith preached with
a power and assurance she had never heard in him
before. She squirmed in her seat, thinking, Thats not my
Smith, Lord. Thats not my Smith!12 At the end of the
sermon, a worker stood and said he wanted the same
experience Smith had received, and when he sat back
down, he missed his chair and fell to the floor! Smiths
eldest son had the same experience. In a very short while,
there were eleven people on the floor, laughing in the
Spirit. Then, the entire congregation was absorbed in holy
laughter, as God poured even more of His Spirit out upon
them. In the coming weeks, hundreds in Bradford would
receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speak with other
tonguesone of whom was Polly. The couple soon began
traveling throughout the country, answering calls to speak
and minister.
This experience also caused Smith to pursue God more
than ever through prayer and fasting. He answered every
request he could of those asking for divine healing.
Sometimes he took a train to the nearest city and then
borrowed a bicycle to ride another ten miles to reach the
person. Soon he had no more time for his plumbing work,
so he vowed before the Lord that if he were ever again in
severe need, he would return to plumbing; otherwise, he
would serve as a minister for the rest of his days. The
Lord made sure Smith never returned to plumbing.
Polly Goes Home to Be with the Lord
Not long after this, while waiting at a train station to
leave for Scotland, Smith received word that his beloved
wife, Polly, had collapsed at the Bowland Street Mission
from a heart attack. He rushed to her bedside, only to
discover her spirit had already departed. But Smith
rebuked death, and she came back. Smith had just a short
time to visit with his wife, and then he was impressed that
it was time for her to go home to be with her Lord and
Savior, so he released her again. Polly passed away on
January 1, 1913, and it was as if her dedication and
spiritual power went with her husband after that and
multiplied the effects of his ministry.
Immediately, Smith started to minister again throughout
the country, traveling with his daughter, Alice, and her
husband, James Jimmy Salter. Smith continued to
preach a simple gospel of only believe. In a time when
other ministers seemed frail and failing, despite the
enormous revivals that had come through their ministries,
Smith soon rose to prominence in Pentecostal circles
because of the undeniable power in his ministry and the
uncompromising stability with which he operated. It was
as if Smith had no motive other than seeing Jesus glorified
wherever he went, and seeing that glory kept the devil
constantly on the run. He was a man moved continually by
compassion from the heart of God. These convictions
would never change in the next four decades, and Smith
remained a growing force for God and Pentecostalism
right up until his death, in 1947.
The Apostle of Faith
and His Worldwide Ministry
In the months following Pollys passing, Smiths fame in
England grew. In 1914, he began traveling abroad to
minister. By the 1920s and 1930s, no speaker in
Pentecostalism was more sought after. Although he never
accepted the cloak, his acknowledgment as the Apostle of
Faith caused the Pentecostal world to look to him as one
of its greatest patriarchs, even though he had never been
involved in any of the revivals that started the movement.
Miracles, healings, the dead being raised, and other signs
and wonders followed his ministry as he continued in the
uncompromising and blunt style that no one could ever
emulate. Truth be told, Smith just never seemed to feel
the need to be polite when chasing out sickness, disease,
and other works of the devil. His sentiment was that if the
Spirit were not moving, then he would move the Spirit.
This was not arrogance but confidence and faith in the
work God wanted done on the earth, and this attitude
always marked his ministry. Smith would simply create an
atmosphere of uncompromising faith in the Word of God,
and the Holy Spirit would come as if He had received a
personal invitation.
In 1922, Smith traveled to New Zealand and Australia,
among other places, and in a few short months, he saw
thousands saved and several Pentecostal churches birthed
in the greatest spiritual renewals either nation had ever
seen. In 1936, he traveled to South Africa and delivered
the famous prophecy to David du Plessis that is the subject
of this book. By this time, Smith was in his seventies and
was probably the best-known Pentecostal in the world.
With the weight of his ministry and faithfulness behind
everything he said, Smiths words of prophecy would not
only change Davids life but also pave the way for his work
and the greatest revival the world would ever see in the
charismatic renewal.
At the funeral of a fellow minister, Smith bowed his
head in the midst of a conversation and went home to be
with the Lord without any pain or struggle. The date was
March 12, 1947, and he was eighty-seven. While Smith
never formed his own denomination or wrote a book, let
alone a systematic set of doctrines and theology, his
simple faith still impacts believers today. Perhaps one of
the greatest examples of this is the effect of a few words
and his friendship in the life and ministry of David du
Plessis, which we will look at in the next chapters. Yet this
was not because of any special abilities that Smith had but
because of his uncompromising pursuit of Jesus Christ. His
relationship with God produced power that had not been
seen on the earth for many centuries. For this reason, God
also showed him things that others only dreamed of
seeing. He never wanted to be put on a pedestal and
worshipped but instead wanted to be an example of what
every Christian can experience if he would only believe.

1. Frodsham, Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith, 15.
2. Ibid., 1819.
3. Frodsham, Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith, 22.
4. Frodsham, Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith, 22.
5. Durasoff, Bright Wind of the Spirit: Pentecostalism
Today, 4041.
6. Exodus 15:26.
7. Mrs. Charles Parham, The Life of Charles Parham, 52
53.
8. Frodsham, Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith, 35
36.
9. Frodsham, Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith, 42.
10. Frodsham, Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith, 44.
11. Ibid., 4647.
12. Ibid.
2
David du Plessis and the Charismatic
Renewal
Before World War II, Pentecostalism was still regarded
as a fringe movement or sect, at bestwhile some
mainline Christian denominations ignored it, others
pronounced that it was based upon false doctrine or even
outright heresy. However, the movement refused to go
away, and, by the latter 1940s, it began to be more widely
acknowledged and tolerated. Pentecostals started to
organize, looking more like mainline denominations, and
they held their first World Conference in 1948. By this
time, Pentecostalism was slowly passing from being
considered extremism to a curiosity. Had things stayed like
that, the overall body of Christ would look very different
today; however, God had other plans. Events of the late
1940s and early 1950s would thrust the Pentecostal
experience onto the center stage of twentieth-century
Christianity for the next several decades.
One of the most noticeable of these events was the
healing revival that took place in those years, involving
such notable figures as A. A. Allen, William Branham, Jack
Coe, Tommy Hicks, Kathryn Kuhlman, T. L. Osborn, and
Oral Roberts, just to name a few. These meetings, which
often took the form of large tent revivals, welcomed all
attendees and created tremendous crossovers of
denominational lines. Many people went away healed, but
even more went away baptized in the Holy Spirit. Although
the end of this healing revival was in the early 1950s,
many ministries started around this time and continued
strong into the 1970s and 1980s. Para-church
organizations, such as the Full Gospel Business Mens
Fellowship, provided both a further stage for this spread of
the Holy Spirit among denominations and financial support
for ministers in this movement. From these events, the
charismatic renewal began and impacted all of the old
denominational churches worldwide, including the Catholic
Church and many churches involved in the World Council
of Churches (WCC).
Into the midst of this came a relatively unknown South
African minister named David du Plessis, who not only
became integral to this renewal but had been forewarned
of it in a prophecy by Smith Wigglesworth in 1936.
Because of Davids work among the mainstream
denominational churches in the 1950s, he was given the
nickname Mr. Pentecost. While others spread the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, David went straight to world
church leaders and explained Pentecost to them in such a
way thatat least for a whilethey did not try to stop the
renewal. While this brought him rejection from many of
the Pentecostal denominations (which we will discuss in
more detail later in this chapter), it did more to throw
open the floodgates of the Holy Spirit to all Christians in all
denominations than the work of anyone else.
To understand the impact of his life and ministry,
however, as well as the significance of Smith
Wigglesworths prophecy, it is best to go back to the
beginning. Davids life, upbringing, and ministry all worked
together to make him the right man at the right time for
the job.
Davids Early Years
David Johannes du Plessis was born in a small town
called Twenty-Four Rivers near Cape Town, South Africa,
on February 7, 1905just over a year before William
Seymour opened the mission on Azusa Street in Los
Angeles that would spark the Pentecostal revival. Like
Esther of old, it seems that he was born for such a time as
this.
Twenty-Four Rivers was a commune of believers that
had grown out of a revival started by a Norwegian
evangelist. Davids father and grandfather (whose names
were also David Johannes du Plessis) and their families
were all members of the commune. David was the eldest
of twelve children, although two of his sisters and one
brother died in their youth, so he grew up as the oldest of
nine brothers. His family was descended from French
Huguenotsa heritage that had known persecution at the
hands of the Catholic Church. The Huguenots were French
Protestants who joined the Reformed Church of John
Calvin in the 1500s. However, they were never accepted
by the powers of Francewhich was strongly Catholic
and were repeatedly persecuted for their faith. The worst
persecution erupted on the night of August 23, 1572, in
Paris, when many of the Huguenots gathered for the
wedding of Henry de Navarre, who was a Huguenot, and
Marguerite de Valois, the daughter of the queen,
Catherine de Medici. At the order of Catherine, French
troops murdered the Huguenots wherever they were
found, killing some 8,000 in what history remembers as
the St. Bartholomews Day Massacre. In the following
centuries, while many of these reformers remained to
stand for their faith, others fled for the hope of religious
freedom in areas of the world as far-reaching as the
United States and South Africajust the type of heritage
from which God would call someone to later minister to
Catholics with love and forgiveness.
Ever hungry for all that God had for them, Davids
parents came into Pentecost in 1914 through the ministries
of John G. Lake and Thomas Hezmalhalch, who had come
out of the ministry of John Alexander Dowie in Zion,
Illinois.13 Davids father was a simple man of self-
discipline, holding as meticulously to the Scriptures and his
conscience as he could. In Davids autobiography, A Man
Called Mr. Pentecost, he said that the phrase that best
described his father was that of Tennyson from The
Charge of the Light BrigadeTheirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die. David Sr. held his sons to the
same standards to which he held himself in everything
they did. This built into David a conviction of will that
would keep him humble and obedient before God for the
rest of his life. David described it this way: It instilled in
me a sense of respect for my parents.If that had not
been built into my character, I would not have done what
the Lord commandedand in a hurry, too. With God, a
command is a command. I learned to obey immediately,
exactly as I was told.14
One example of this conviction occurred when David
was in high school. His father was a carpenter by trade,
and David was helping him work on the interior of a
house. David was building a door all by himself when he
came across a piece of knotty wood. Rather than throwing
it out, he used it with the knot against the wall so that no
one could see it. As he was finishing, his father came up
to inspect his work. What happened to the piece with the
knot in it? he asked.
David responded, I put it behind, where no one can see
it.
No one can see it? he exploded. The Lord can see it!
David ended up doing the entire door over again.15
Soon after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, his
father was invited to be a minister under Lake and
Hezmalhalchs ministry. He applied the same rigor to living
and applying the Word of God that he did to his carpentry.
Soon after that, the Dutch Reformed Church told Davids
father and mother they had come into false teaching, and
they were expelled. David saw this as one more reason
the mainline denominations were not open to the truth of
the gospel. Later he would describe the attitude with
which he spoke against the Dutch Reformed Church as
blind leaders of the blind.I thought it was my duty to
contend for the faith.16
In 1916, Davids family moved to Basutoland (which was
renamed Lesotho in 1966) as missionaries. The area was
often called the Switzerland of South Africa because of
the beautiful, rugged, and often snow-covered peaks.
Their mission station was halfway up one of these
mountains. It was here David felt he first learned about
simple and sincere faith. He knew that the Africans were
illiterate, yet, at the same time, much to his ten-year-olds
consternation, he also realized they knew Jesus in a much
more real way than he did. When Europeans were saved,
noticeable change took some time to detect, yet among
the Africans, changes seemed to manifest overnight. He
saw that to them, if the Bible said it one way, then that
was the way it was, no questions asked. He had been
getting up and praying and reading his Bible every morning
for as long as he could remember, but he realized he did
not know Jesus as these people did. A new cry came from
his heart to know Jesus as sincerely as the Africans did.
Davids Conversion and Baptism
in the Holy Spirit
Later that same year, this cry of Davids began to be
answered. While riding from the missionary compound to
the distant post office and back again on a fellow
missionarys horse, David saw a thunderstorm behind him
in the distance that put great fear into his heart. He
decided to try to outrun the storm, but this proved futile.
Soon he found himself in the midst of a downpour. Storms
in Africa are often like monsoonsit doesnt just rain;
water seems to fall out of the sky in solid sheets. He was
about a third of the way homean eleven-mile journey
when a lightning bolt struck the ground no more than
twenty feet in front of him. Instantly, his horse stopped.
Then came the deafening thunderclap. Half thrown from
his horse already, he slid off the rest of the way and called
out, Jesus! Save me! Save me!
Although no such appeal had changed him before, this
call to Jesus did not go unanswered. Immediately upon his
request, nothing around him had changed, but it was as if
everything within had. The fear was gone, and he knew in
his heart that he was saved. He looked into the sky,
wondering if it would be in such clouds that Jesus would
return to the earth. He wanted so strongly to meet Him
face-to-face! He mounted his horse again and continued
his journey. When the mail was delivered and the horse
was rubbed down and dried in the barn, David returned
home, where his mother asked how he had gotten through
the rainstorm. His answer was simple and to the point:
Well, Jesus saved me.17
The following year, after the family had moved from
Basutoland to Ladybrand and Davids parents saw that his
salvation was sincere, he was baptized in a creek by
church elders. David expected that what he had read in
the Bible about Jesus and also seen among the Africans in
Basutoland would happen to himthat when he was
immersed, he would come up out of the water speaking in
tongues. He expected to be baptized both in the water and
in the Spirit at the same time. Although water baptism
forever changed the way he read Scripturehaving been
buried and raised up again in Christ, as was spoken about
in Romans 6:4, he now knew that the Bible spoke directly
to him as a joint-heir with Christhe was not immediately
baptized in the Spirit, as he had hoped.
A few years later, in 1918, around the age of thirteen,
David decided it was time he set himself to receive the
infilling of the Holy Spirit with all of his heart. While it
seemed a strange request, he asked his high school
principal for a day off from school so that he could spend
the day in prayer. His request was granted. Because the
Pentecostals were still regarded with great suspicion in the
area, the only place they could rent to meet was the
storehouse of a coffin maker. So, David, his father, and a
half dozen others interested in helping in his quest
gathered in the warehouse to fast and pray until he
received this baptism. They assembled on a Thursday
evening, before his day off from school, and prayed
through the night, taking only a few hours for sleep. It was
a creepy place in the quiet of the night, in a room with
coffins stacked against the walls, but the people refused to
let this deter them. They prayed all day Friday, through
Friday night, and into Saturday. By this time, they were
worn out, and Davids nerves were fraying with frustration.
At this point, a quieter youth who had gathered with them,
a farm girl about a year older than David, came and gave
him a message she felt she had received from the Lord:
If you will confess the thing that is on your conscience, He
will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
Searching his conscience, David recalled a lie he had
told his parents seven years prior that still troubled him. It
was the first sin he had ever been aware of making. He
promptly confessed this to his parents, who just as
promptly forgave him. With his conscience now cleared,
David returned to prayer feeling anything but worthy of
being filled with Gods Spirit. Yet, at this moment, he
received his first vision. He saw a book, being held by two
hands, whose pages were totally white and clean. Then,
he heard a voice say, There is nothing recorded against
you. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has
cleansed you from all unrighteousness.18 His heart was
filled with joy at this, and he burst out in holy laughter,
which soon gave way to a flow of speaking in tongues.
David eventually developed his skills and anointing as a
street preacher in the weekly outdoor evangelism
sponsored by his church in Ladybrand and elsewhere. In
an increasingly strong and persuasive voice, he told his
testimony again and again and received strong responses
from all of his audiences.
David the Donkey
The last formative experience of Davids youth came at
a missionary conference in 1920, when he was fifteen
years old. By this time, David was convinced that God was
calling him into the ministry, and he asked his father if he
could find an apprenticeship in one of the larger South-
African cities. They decided to travel to Johannesburg,
where they would first attend a missionary conference. As
the conference progressed, a missionary for the northern
region stood and said that he would not ask for money,
because God was providing all the food and other items he
needed through his farming. What he did need was a
donkey or two. The region where he lived was too hilly
and rugged for bicycles, and horses tended to fall ill, but
donkeys would be a great help in spreading the gospel in
the region. After two men stood and offered him animals
they could do without, Davids father got to his feet, went
to the front of the room, and began to speak, saying,
Well, now, it seems that we are in a very happy, giving
mood. And so I would like to share with you that I also
have a donkey I want to give to the Lord, but since Im
afraid he wont pull with those others, I cant send him to
the missionary. But I am proud of my donkey.
Davids first thought was that he didnt know of any
donkey his father had. He couldnt figure out what he was
talking about. He and his brothers had always wanted a
donkey, but they had never owned one.
Then, his father looked back at him and said, David,
come up here. David had no idea what was going on, but
he simply obeyed, as he had been taught to do. His father
took him by the right ear and turned to the audience. This
is the only donkey I can give. This is my oldest son. His
name is David, and he feels called to work for the Lord.
He went on to explain how he and his wife had asked for a
boy as their firstborn and had said they would dedicate
him to the Lord. Yes, this is the only donkey I have to
give. And Im proud to give him to Jesus.19
At the conclusion of the meeting, there wasnt a dry eye
in the house; everyone was so moved by this act of
devotion and dedication. David would later say this was
the day he received his D.D. titlenot his Doctorate of
Divinity but David the Donkey. It was a title he would
carry with him for the rest of his life and grow to cherish,
because it also symbolized his own devotion and
dedication to serving the Lord.
David grew in his independence from his family (and, he
suggests in his autobiography, in his stubbornness as
David the Donkey). The only two major disagreements in
his life would be between him and his father. The first
came through a series of steps he took professionally. His
first job in Johannesburg was as an apprentice in a print
shop at the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) headquarters,20
but Davids aspiration went beyond the simple work as a
printer toward the editorial department of the publishing
shop that created and organized the text he would lay in
the presses. However, the simple matter was that David
did not have enough education to be an editor, which
shocked him because he had always been considered a
bright and capable young man. One of the brothers there
approached him and suggested he get more schooling.
When he went to the Lord about this, not wanting it to set
back his calling to the ministry, he felt the Lord clearly tell
him that though He had called him, He had not yet sent
him, meaning there was still time to grow and prepare. As
a result, David completed two years of basic liberal arts
training at Ladybird School. It was after this that his first
confrontation with his father occurred.
Davids plan was to go on and attend Grey University in
Bloemfontein, but his father had seen many students lose
their simple faith because of too much education, and he
forbade David to go. David, however, felt that this
additional schooling was essential to pave the way for his
ministry, and he decided to go anyway. As a result, for a
time, his fatherstanding firmly on 1 Timothy 3:4, which
states a church leader must rule his house wellturned in
his lay preachers certificate because he could not get his
eldest son to obey. The rift was healed two years later,
when David was working for the railroad in South Africas
capitol, Pretoria. Because of his position, he was able to
send his father a railway ticket from Ladybrand to
Johannesburg so that he could attend the AFM conference
there. His father accepted. There they met privately, and
when his father realized that the extra education would
benefit his ministry and had not tainted his son, they again
became close friends.
Davids Early Years as a Minister
David had moved to Pretoria when a lack of funds
prevented him from continuing school at Grey University,
which he had been attending largely on student loans.
When he reached his limit for borrowing on these loans,
he dropped out of university and went to work for the
South African Railways engineering department in order to
pay them off. While there, he became a regular minister in
the Upper Room, a series of rooms and a meeting hall
situated above a chemists shop just a block from the
largest Dutch Reformed church in Pretoria. Since
Pentecostals were still looked upon as false prophets, it
was always interesting on Sundays to see the two
churches emptying into the streets where the city and
nations highest officials and business leaders mingled with
the poor, outrageous apostolics.
One of the members of the congregation asked David to
speak to his backslidden niece. When he met Miss Anna
Cornelia Jacobs, he found out that she had had spoken a
word from the Lord to one of the more distinguished
women in her congregation and had been rebuked for it by
the pastor. Because of this incident, she had decided not
to return to church. David asked about the genuineness of
her conversion, and as she told him about it, she melted
and began weeping. While there had been no question
about her offense, there was also no question about her
love for Jesus. Before the evening was over, she was
restored to the faith, and David had had a very special
word from the Lord about her. The Lord simply told him,
Thats your wife. Shocked, he didnt know what to make
of it, but he was grateful that she was so pretty. Two days
later, they went on their first date. After a courtship of
eighteen months, they were married on August 13, 1927.
They had seven children: Anna Cornelia21 Corrie
(1928), Eunice Elizabeth (MarchDecember 1932), David
Johannes (19331985), Philip Richelieu (1940), Peter
Louis le Roux (1944), Matthew Kriel (1947), and Basel
Somerset (1949). Their marriage would last just short of
sixty years.
It was his marriage that prompted Davids second
difference of opinion with his father, who felt that, at
twenty-two, his son was too young to get married. David
again stiffened and stuck to his own conviction. This time,
reconciliation would not occur until David and Anna
returned home with their first child. Davids father melted
when he met his first granddaughter. He took David aside
and told him, If you make such wise choices in everything
in life as you did in the choice of a wife, you will have
great success.22 Again, their relationship was fully
restored.
David and Annas earliest years of marriage and
ministry were years of learning to walk in the Spirit and to
avoid temptations that could have permanently derailed
their ministry. In avoiding these temptations, it was a
matter of choosing best over good enough. The first came
on a hot summer night in Pretoria as David was preaching.
He had the crowds full attention, and someone from the
National Party of South Africa, the ruling party at the time,
noticed him. Later that week, this man approached David
with an invitation to get into politics, as he was certainly a
capable orator and a passionate speaker. David was
flattered, of course, and saw it as an opportunity to serve
both God and country. However, after discussing the
option with some of the other members of the Upper
Room, most notably Mrs. J. B. M. Hertzog, the prime
ministers wife, he recognized it for the distraction that it
was and returned his focus to his ministry duties.
The second major temptation grew out of a
commitment he had made in 1930, after he and Anna had
been called out of Pretoria to the town of Bethlehem in the
Orange Free State. David took over the mission
newspaper he had started working for in 1920, Comforter
and Messenger of Hope, which was failing. Through a
special agreement, he moved the headquarters of the
paper from Johannesburg to Bethlehem so that he could
oversee it. David loved this work, and under his careful
hand, the paper prospered.
However, it was the 1930s, and South Africa felt the
Great Depression as severely as many other parts of the
world. The press that printed the Comforter was owned
and operated by the Bethlehem Express, and it looked as if
it would soon go into bankruptcy because of poor
management, not to mention the financial hard times
everyone was experiencing. David ended up raising the
capital necessary to purchase the paper by selling shares,
and he made it profitable again through his shrewd
management. This career seemed like another great
opportunity for him to serve God and his community.
However, he recognized that it was a distraction, as well,
when his shareholders wanted to expand the paper and
employ David full-time in its management, a position that
would require him to give up his ministry work and devote
all of his efforts to the paper. His decision boiled down to
taking the job or resigning and leaving town, because of
the many community leaders who would be angered if he
declined their offer. With his wifes counsel, he did the
latter, although he continued to serve as editor of the
Comforter.
The same year that he took over the Bethlehem
Express, David was ordained, at the age of twenty-five. In
1932, he finished second in the elections of the general
secretary of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) and won the
post in 1936, a position he held until he resigned in 1947.
As general secretary of the AFM, David was in charge of
organizing the tour and scheduling speaking arrangements
for Smith Wigglesworth, who came to the country the
same year David was elected general secretary. At the
time, David was still a young man of thirty.
Smith Wigglesworth Visits South Africa
Although David goes more deeply in his sermon into the
events around this visit and how it led to Smith
Wigglesworths prophecy, which we will discuss in the next
chapter, it bears mentioning briefly here. It is also worth
discussing Davids mind-set and future vision for his own
ministry at the time. That God came to him roughly a
decade and a half before this prophecy was to be fulfilled
is also a sign of how much David needed to change before
he could be the man God need him to be to help
accomplish it.
When Smith Wigglesworth came to him, David no fan of
the mainline denominational churches. His run-ins with the
Dutch Reformed Church, which considered Pentecostals
little better than heretics, greatly colored his opinions of
traditional churches. His visionlike that of most, if not all,
Pentecostals at the timewas that the baptism of the Holy
Spirit would sweep true believers out of the denominations
and into Pentecostal churches. Yet the essence of Smith
Wigglesworths prophecy to him was that he would take
Pentecost to them, rather than the other way around. That
this young man from South Africa would be chosen by God
to come to the United States and be a major catalyst of
the charismatic renewal in the traditional denominations is
no less astounding. Yet this was just the case, and so it
was that Smith Wigglesworth pinned this young man to
the wall of his AFM office in 1936 and told him where God
would lead him in the second half of the twentieth century.
In 1937, David was invited to address the General
Counsel of the Assemblies of God in Memphis, Tennessee.
This was not only his first trip to the United States; it was
also his first trip outside of South Africa. This would be the
first of many incremental steps that would push David into
a position of world leadership among Pentecostals. It
seemed that God wanted to teach him how to unify one
group of believers before He sent him to address the
larger issues of worldwide church reunification. One of the
major issues he faced in getting the Pentecostals of South
Africa to talk with one another was that of baptism. Some
believed in baptizing by submersion three timesonce in
the name of the Father, again in the name of the Son, and
a third time in the name of the Holy Spirit. However,
others believed only one dunk was necessary. This was
perhaps why David would later soar above such issues on
the world stage as he emphasized Christ, the baptizer in
the Holy Spirit in his teachings, to avoid issues that had
traditionally divided other groups. Because his message
was so different from anything they had heard before, it
was a matter of accepting or rejecting it rather than
splitting over different interpretations. While the war raged
in Europe, David managed to promote the cause of
Pentecostalism in South Africa, and while he was general
secretary of the AFM, he helped start camp meetings and
purchase a campground, established an orphanage, and
oversaw the construction of new offices for the AFM. He
also helped to start a Bible school and to reorganize the
AFM constitution.
At the wars end, David was also key to the organization
of the first Pentecostal World Conference, which was held
in Zurich, Switzerland, in May 1947. David ended up giving
the keynote address for the conference, a message
entitled, Gather the WheatBurn the Chaff,23 about
coming into the maturity Christ has for all of us.
Davids Worldwide Ministry Begins
God led David to minister around Europe for a while and
then brought him to the United States. Then, at 4 am in
Los Angeles one day, God told him to resign as general
secretary of the AFM and follow Him for the next steps of
his ministry. In short order, David cabled his resignation.
The next morning, at exactly 4 am, the Lord woke him and
told him to cable Anna and tell her to sell everything and
follow himto Switzerland! He was unsure how she would
react; she had always said that he could travel as much as
he wanted, but she would stay in South Africa. Just one
week after sending the cable, he received a thick letter
from Anna, which said that the Lord had spoken to her and
told her she was to go wherever the He sent him. Because
of the speed of the post from South Africa to the United
States at the time, David knew that she had written and
mailed this letter before receiving his telegram. Again, the
Lord had prepared everything ahead of time.
They moved to Basel, Switzerland, where David
continued to assist the leadership with the upcoming
Pentecostal World Conference. While David was in
Switzerland, he and his family received the news that
Smith Wigglesworth had passed on. Yet, right to the end,
the Apostle of Faith had held his conviction that David
would do just as he had seen in the Lords vision. In his
last discussion with David, Smith had said, My brother
David, Ive had no further word from the Lord. But I am
absolutely sure that what He revealed in South Africa is
coming and that you are the man for it.24 Once Smith
had passed, it was time for David to start watching for the
prophecy to take place. David and his family didnt know
what else to do except continue following the Lord as
closely as they could, which turned out to be exactly the
right course of action.
Disaster Leads to Revelation
The following year, while David traveled and ministered
in the United States, he was involved in a major accident.
He was traveling with Pastor Paul Walker in a 1958
Packard on a foggy West Virginia mountain road when
their vehicle struck a train. David found himself
hospitalized for a recovery that would last several months.
Meanwhile, American Pentecostals gathered in Des
Moines, Iowa, and formed the Pentecostal Fellowship of
North America. The first course of action the group took
was to gather an offering for David and his family that
amounted to $400 and to promise to support them with
$250 a month until he had fully recovered. With this
money and some other offerings, David was able to send a
thousand dollars to Anna with his request that she move
their family to the United States. They were reunited in
time to gather around Davids hospital bed for
Thanksgiving dinner.
While he was recovering, David had significant blocks of
time to pray and seek the Lord. During this period, the
Lord again spoke to him about Smith Wigglesworths
prophecy. He recorded the Lords message in his
autobiography as follows:
The time for the fulfillment of the prophecy Smith
Wigglesworth gave you has arrived. It is time to begin. I
want you to go to the leaders of the churches.
I argued back, Lord, what can I say to those dead
churches?
I can raise the dead. As simple as that.
But, Lord, they are enemies, I almost whined.
Yes, but I have told you to love your enemy.
Ignoring the truth of Scripture in my frustration, I
continued to argue. How can I love people like this? I can
agree with neither their doctrines nor their practices.
Well, the Lord said firmly, deep inside of me, you will
have to forgive them!
Dear Lordit was just a whine by thenhow can I
forgive them if I cant justify them?
I never gave you authority to justify anybody. I only
gave you authority to forgive. And if you forgive, you will
love them. And if you love, you will want to forgive. Now
you choose.25
When the conversation was over, David had seen his
error.26 Hed expected the Lord to bring him in like a
prophet to pound the people with the truth, yet God was
asking him to go to them in meekness and humility and to
simply share. The revival would come through forgiveness
offered without its being asked for. While David wanted to
come in like Jonah and prophesy doom over them unless
they repented, he was to come in as a servant and offer
the truth. It would be a revival birthed from forgiveness,
not fight. It took some time for David to get his mind
around this fact, and he spent a lot of time meditating on 1
Corinthians 13 during the remainder of his hospital stay.
The rest of his recovery would involve both physical and
spiritual healing, and David would be taught about loving
others and forgiving them in several different ways. God
was changing him from a prosecutor and a perfectionist
into a defender and an intercessor. It was not his place to
go in and convict but to ride in on forgiveness and mercy
and present the truth of the gospel and the baptism of the
Holy Spirit as lovingly as he could.
David also continued to work on the details of the 1949
Pentecostal World Conference (PWC) from his hospital
room and later attended the meeting in Paris on his
crutches. Here, armed with his more profound
understanding of love and forgiveness, David was very
effective in stopping the arguments so that the conference
could go on in peace and growing unity. David pulled all
the key leaders of opposing factions into what was to be
an overnight meeting, and he quickly reconciled them.
Because of this, the first order of the next day was
approving their report and then agreeing that the
Pentecostal World Conferences would continue regularly
every third year. The next conference would be in London
in 1952, and David would be the secretary. God was
increasing Davids grace to be a reconciler, first among the
Pentecostals and then, eventually, with more traditional
denominations.
In the meantime, David was offered a teaching position
at Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee, which gave the
family a reason to stay in the United States, as well as
provided support for them as they prepared for the London
PWC. In 1952, David resigned his post at Lee College and
moved his family to Stamford, Connecticut, where he
served as interim pastor at an Assemblies of God church.
He also felt it was important to be away from Pentecostal
centers of powerSpringfield for the Assemblies,
Cleveland for the Church of God, and so onand closer to
centers of the traditional denominations, namely, New
York. Throughout this time, David continued to stay open
to what he had been told through Smith Wigglesworths
vision, but, as of yet, he had not seen an open door to
pursue it.
The Lord Opens the Door to the Ecumenicals
One day, as he was reading the newspaper, David
came across a statement by Dr. John A. MacKay, president
of Princeton Theological Seminary and a major
Presbyterian leader. Previously, David had read that Dr.
MacKay had called the Pentecostal missionaries in Latin
and South America the fly in the ointment of
Protestantism. He had seen them as a hindrance to
everything that the Protestants were trying to accomplish
in these areas. Yet, in this article, Dr. MacKay said that the
Pentecostal movement was the greatest blessing to the
church in the twentieth century. David was curious about
this apparent change of heart. Could this be his open
door? He telephoned Dr. MacKay at Princeton and asked
him about his quote. He found that Dr. MacKay had indeed
experienced a change of heart regarding what the
Pentecostals were doing, and he invited David to lunch.
When David went to Princeton and met Dr. MacKay, It
was one of those rare and precious relationships in which
both parties fully perceive the truth about the other
differences and alland are in a twinkling of an eye united
forever in the Spirit.27 Their friendship would last for the
rest of their lives.
A few days after this meeting, David felt prompted by
the Spirit to visit the headquarters of the World Council of
Churches in Manhattan. With little more than a nudge, he
went and fumbled while introducing himself to Dr. Roswell
Barnes because he couldnt explain why he had come.
However, Dr. Barnes and his staff were fascinated to have
a Pentecostal in their midst, and David ended up spending
the entire day with them, answering their questions and
explaining Pentecostalism and the baptism in the Holy
Spirit. It was just the divine introduction that David needed
to reintroduce the traditional denominations to the Holy
Spirit.
God was indeed at work, although it was not long
before David felt the wrath of dogmatic Pentecostals for
his decision to break boundaries that others wanted to
remain intact. However, for those listening to the Spirit
instead of trying to please others, Gods work was being
done, just as Smith Wigglesworth had seen in his 1936
vision in South Africa. Not long after Davids visit to the
World Council, he received a call from Bill Wilson, the
missions secretary for a group of smaller New England
Pentecostal churches. He told David that the Lord had
spoken to him about coming to David, because David
would be able to help him with the problems their
missions outreaches were having in Kenya and East Africa.
The operations of their missions groups were extremely
hindered by the government and traditional denominations
in the area. David told him the only people he knew to
contact were those he had met at the World Council, and
David asked Bill if he could approach them on his behalf.
Bill replied that all he knew was that God had told him
David would have the answer, so he had come to him.
Through his connections with Dr. MacKay and the World
Council of Churches and the writing of a couple of letters,
the matter was solved in the course of two months. God
was working wonders, and David must have felt that he
was just along for the ride.
When he contacted Dr. MacKay to thank him for his
help, David was invited to attend the world conference for
the International Missionary Council (IMC) in Germany,
right on the heels of the 1952 PWC in London. David
accepted, knowing he could easily extend his time for the
PWC to attend the second event, but now he knew he was
in the thick of it. The leading figures of the mainline
denominations would be there, and he would be walking
like Daniel into the mouth of a potential lions den.
It just happened that Dr. MacKay was still president of
the IMC, and when David walked in, Dr. MacKay greeted
him quite warmly and introduced him to everyone there.
David had planned on staying three days, but he ended up
attending all eleven days of the conference and had 110
interviews among the 210 delegates. Their main question?
Okay, now, they would usually say, start at the
beginning and explain Pentecostalism to me.28 From this
meeting, people began to refer to David as Mr.
Pentecost.
As a result of his time at the IMC convention in 1952,
David also received an invitation to attend the second
assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which
was to take place in 1954 in Evanston, Illinois. In order for
him to attend, he was asked to serve on the staff for the
WCC and as a correspondent for the Far East Broadcasting
Company, a company for which he had also worked during
these years. It was here that Davids message changed,
from centering on Pentecost and the baptism in the Holy
Spirit to Christ as the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. This shift
seemed to make his message resonate with all who heard
it, and he would retain this emphasis for the rest of his
ecumenical ministry. As David said in his autobiography:
Right this present day, I hardly ever minister
without first giving a brief resume of my life,
emphasizing the experience of forgiving aught
against any. This is the message of Jesus
forgiving the Cross, imparting the Spirit, and
directing us to continue that ministry of forgiveness.
Then comes the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Then
come the miracles.29
In 1956, David was invited to a retreat of ecumenical
leaders in Connecticut. He was invited to speak candidly on
the issues surrounding the Holy Spirit, the Pentecostal
movement, and the growing charismatic renewal. David
poured out his heart to those in attendance, and they still
wanted more. David later remembered this as one of the
greatest meetings of his life.30 Soon after, David began to
do what would have been unthinkable to him before
hearing Smith Wigglesworths prophecyhe began
advising ministers who had received the baptism of the
Holy Spirit to remain in their denominations rather than
flee to the safety of Pentecostal churches. The charismatic
renewal was in full swing!
At the same time, David was getting mixed reviews
from his Pentecostal brethren. They were unsure of what
he was doing, and in the absence of communications from
him, many assumed the worstthat he was compromising
the message and had backslidden. In 1955, he did not
receive an invitation to the PWC in Stockholmnot that he
had money to go, anywaybut when he offered his
services to them again in a letter, he was asked to be
secretary for the 1958 conference, which was slated to be
in Toronto. Even so, a strange coolness toward him grew.
Not knowing what to think, and not having the courage or
maturity to simply ask, others began to avoid him rather
than deal openly with their reservations about him. Official
discussions went on without Davids knowledge. When he
confronted one of the board members about it, he was
told that he was seen as being too interested inobsessed
with, evenliberal, traditional denominations and
independent Pentecostal churches. He just didnt fit like
they wanted him to, so they systematically excluded him.
The stronger, more established organizations seemed to
be pushing out those that were smaller or peripheral.
David was on a road for unity among the brethren and in
the Spirit, but it seemed more and more like he was on it
alone.
While doors seemed to be shutting on David within
Pentecostalism, they were being swung wide open in the
traditional denominations. In 1959, he spoke in places as
varied as Princeton Seminary; the eighteenth council of
the Presbyterian World Alliance in Sao Paulo, Brazil; the
Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches at
Chateau de Bossey in Switzerland; and the Evangelical
Congregational School of Theology in Myerstown,
Pennsylvania; among others. He presented every audience
with the straight facts of Pentecostalism and Jesus Christ,
the baptizer in the Holy Spirit.
The Door Opens to the Catholic Church
A new breakthrough came when David spoke at a
gathering in St. Andrews, Scotland, by invitation of the
Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of
Churches. This was in preparation for the third assembly
of the World Council of Churches, which was to meet in
New Delhi in 1961.31 The topic was Jesus Christ, the
Light of the World. David had his first encounter here with
a Roman Catholic priest, Father Bernard Leeming, who
just happened to be a personal friend of Pope John XXIII.
Through this relationship, God would eventually open the
door for David to minister in Rome and at the Vatican.
David ministered there on the way back from the WCC
New Delhi assembly, where his message was well
received overall.
Despite this growing flow of the Spirit, in 1962, David
received a letter saying that his papers as a minister with
the Assemblies of Godcredentials he had obtained
shortly after moving to the United Stateswere being
pulled. No reason was given, just notice that he was no
longer ordained by their body.
David took this as a minor setback, however, and
continued the work God had called him to and shown him
through the vision given to Smith Wigglesworth. David had
too much of the Lords work to do to worry about who was
ordaining him or not. While the mainline Pentecostals
were no longer calling him to speak at their meetings, the
rest of the Christian world was.
While the 1950s seemed to be the crucial years of
breakthrough for David, the 1960s and 1970s would be
major years of spreading the gospel wherever doors were
opened. He would average over 100,000 miles of travel
each year, ministering to the broadest group of people
imaginable. The du Plessis family changed homes a couple
of times over these decades. When it appeared that Anna
was suffering from the cold winters, they moved to Dallas,
Texas, where David ended up working and traveling
frequently with Gordon Lindsey of The Voice of Healing.
Six years later, they moved to Oakland, California. These
decades proved to be incredibly busy times. By then,
Davids work had been validated again in the eyes of most
Pentecostals, although his credentials as a minister were
not reinstated until 1979.
In 1972, as a result of the Vaticans desire to
understand the growing Charismatic Renewal going on
around the world in Catholic churches, David was crucial in
initiating a series of dialogues between the Roman
Catholic Church and a team of Pentecostals led first by
himself and then, eventually, by his youngest brother,
Justus. Because he did not belong to any of the formal
Pentecostal denominations, he became the perfect man
for the job, as there were strained relationships between
mainline Pentecostal denominational churches and Catholic
churches around the world, especially in South America.
These dialogues spanned four-or five-year periods,
continuing into the 1990s, but David served as the
chairman of the Pentecostal side in the initial two, which
spanned 19721976 and 19771982. It is easy to say that
these dialogues would never have happened except for the
constant efforts of David and his counterpart on the
Catholic side, Father Kilian McDonnell. Martin Robinson
described David as the chief architect32 of these talks
and said he was instrumental to the tone and camaraderie
of the discussions. At the end of the second set of
dialogues, both David and Father McDonnell resigned and
offered to serve as chairmen emeritus in order to make
room for others to take part in the meetings. Another note
about this incredible opening was that David himself
ministered in St. Peters Basilica as part of the 1975
Congress on Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church.
The one frustration was that, despite the impact this had
on the Catholic Church in paving the way for the
Charismatic Catholic Movement, none of the Pentecostals
in either the first world (such as executives from the
Assemblies of God in the U.S.) or the third world (such as
Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho of South Korea, who was also
invited to attend) would be involved officially, despite the
best efforts of both sides.
Years of Faithful Service Are Finally Recognized
David was recognized time and again for his work,
having been the only significant leader to be part of the
three most noteworthy Christian movements of the
twentieth century: the Pentecostal movement, the
charismatic renewal, and the ecumenical movement. In
the September 9, 1974, issue of Time magazine, David
was mentioned alongside such people as Billy Graham,
Hans Kng, Jrgen Moltmann, and Rosemary Ruether, as
one of the eleven greatest shapers and shakers of
Christianity in the twentieth century. On May 23, 1976, St.
Johns University in Collegeville, Minnesota, presented him
with the Pax Christi award. In May 1978, he finally
received a D.D. that honestly gave him the title of Dr. du
Plessis when Bethany Bible College in Santa Cruz,
California, awarded him an honorary doctorate. As a result
of these things and a growing acknowledgment that David
had been following God throughout his ecumenical
involvement, his Assemblies of God ordination papers
were reissued in 1979. Then, on November 9, 1983, David
was honored with the Benemerenti Medal by Pope John
Paul II, an award for outstanding service to all of
Christianity. It was the first time this award had been
given by the Roman Catholic Church to someone who was
not a Catholic.
At the invitation of Fuller Theological Seminary in
Pasadena, California, David formally donated his personal
papers and library to what would become the David du
Plessis Archive, which still exists today. Then, from 1985
until his death, David also served at the seminary as their
Resident Consultant for Ecumenical Affairs, with part of his
duties being to organize this archive.
It is also worth noting here that one of the marks of
Davids integrity was that, while he could have profited
greatly by this incredible outreach to the churches of the
world, he never did. Time and again, David gave up what
looked to be finally a financially stable situation and home
for his family in order to uproot, relocate, and again face
financial uncertainty as he followed the voice of God. From
time to time, he would receive offers to join certain groups
for large sums of money. He easily could have started his
own denomination, from those who flocked to him for
advice, but he never did. He encouraged the ministers who
came to him to remain in their denominations, and he
refused to ever market or exploit his message for his own
popularity or wealth.
Davids final days came when, during a routine gall
bladder operation in August 1986, the doctors discovered
David had inoperable abdominal cancer. David passed
away within a few months, on February 2, 1987, just five
days short of his eighty-second birthday.

13. John Alexander Dowie (18471907) purchased 6,800
acres of farmland in Lake County, Illinois, and founded the
City of Zion in 1890 as a community of faith and divine
healing. For more information on the life and ministry of
John Alexander Dowie, see Roberts Liardon, Gods
Generals: Why They Succeeded and Why Some Failed
(Whitaker House, 1996).
14. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 9.
15. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 910.
16. Du Plessis, The Spirit Bade Me Go, 11.
17. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 2124.
18. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 33.
19. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 4142.
20. The AFM was the continuation of the ministry begun by
John G. Lake and Tom Hezmalhalch in South Africa.
21. In an interesting side note, Davids mother, wife, and
first daughter all had the same name, Anna Cornelia; and
Davids eldest son was the fourth in four generations to
have the name David Johannes du Plessis.
22. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 53.
23. See chapter 11 for the complete text of this address.
24. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 157.
25. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 158.
26. See chapter 13Davids sermon entitled Seventy
Times Sevenfor more on his revelation of the
importance of forgiveness.
27. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 172.
28. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 177.
29. Du Plessis, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost, 180.
30. David discussed this retreat in detail in the address
that constitutes chapter 12 of this book.
31. David attended every WCC conference from 1956 until
the end of his ministry, even though, after 1962, he had no
official ties to or sponsorship of any denomination or
church body.
32. Robinson, To the Ends of the Earth: The Pilgrimage of
an Ecumenical Pentecostal, David J. du Plessis (1905
1987), 233.
3
The Wigglesworth Prophecy: A
Sermon by David du Plessis
(Note: Rev. David du Plessis gave this sermon in 1970. It is
the only remaining recording of Dr. du Plessis speaking on
the prophecy given to him by Smith Wigglesworth.)33
In 1936, I was still a young manonly thirty yearsand
secretary of the largest Pentecostal organization in South
Africa. It was started when two Americans cameJohn
Lake and Tom Hezmalhalchin 1908. They began their
meetings in Johannesburg, with the old Zion people
Doweyites,34 some used to call them.
Zion had healings, divine healing. Dowie was very
wonderful, but he saw the baptism of the Holy Spirit quite
differently than we did. Yet the elders in this early
movement were men and women from Zion who had
received the baptism, and other Zion people followed
them. They came together in that old Presbyterian church
that could seat about six hundred and had eighteen
months of revival that went on every night of the year.
During that time, there never was a night without a
meeting. Weekend services usually began Friday night,
went all through the night, all through Saturday, all
through Saturday night, all through Sunday until midnight,
and then everyone would go and get some sleep before
they went to work on Monday morning. Every weekend,
there were miracles and more miracles.
This movement grew among both the white and black
throughout the country. In 1932, I became the general
secretary of what was known as the Apostolic Faith
Mission (the AFM). It was during my time as secretary of
the AFM that Reverend Smith Wigglesworth came to visit
us and speak throughout South Africa. It was wonderful to
hear all the wonderful things God did through him, even
though he was not a greatly educated, learned theologian
but was just a simple believer. In fact, Reverend
Wigglesworth never wrote a line in his whole life; he could
only sign his name. His wife had taught him how to do
that.
He had never learned to read, he had never been to
school, and he started working as a plumber when he was
a young boy. When he came to the Lord, he wanted to
read the New Testament, so he sat and tried to read it
with the help of his wife, and then one day, all of a
sudden, it made sense to himhe could read the New
Testament. He said that God had taught him how.
Now, I have met others who have experienced similar
thingsI knew a Russian woman here in America who
couldnt read English, and the Lord taught her how to read
English. She could read Russian before, but Brother
Wigglesworth had never read before.
And so, when I met him, he told me that he never, ever
reads anything but the Word of Godno pamphlets,
nothing but the New Testament. And he said, I think I
know the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation, and
I can quote it and wouldnt even make a mistake in the
punctuation. He had memorized the entire New
Testament. If you asked him to, he could quote chapter
after chapter of it to you.
When he came to South Africa, he had wonderful
meetings. Because I arranged all of his meetings
throughout the country as General Secretary and attended
all of them, we became very close friends. Then, when he
came to Johannesburg to work in that areathe area we
call the Rand, where roughly three million people live
around and between, from Johannesburg center to
Pretoria center, in an area of about fifty square mileswe
decided he should stay with us in our home. We had a
reasonably large home, not because we had such a large
family, but my wife found it convenient to always keep
some help with us so we had time and energy to keep the
faith fight going. We didnt have boarders, and we had lots
of room.
When he came, my wife was a little worried about this
strange old gentleman, because if you ever saw him in
action, he was a sight to behold. I have seen people try to
imitate other ministers in their style, but I have never seen
anyone ever try to imitate Brother Wigglesworth. The truth
is, there is really no way anyone ever could! Whats more,
if he couldnt find a word, he made one up, but somehow
everyone understood what he meant. What he liked about
me was that I always understood him, and so I made a
good interpreter for him. He would preach English, and Id
interpret into Afrikaans.
He stayed with us, and we found him to be the finest
old gentleman to entertain. He didnt eat very much, and
he always told me just what he wanted to eat. He was
very nice about it. He always finished quickly, and then
hed say, Well, you cant only feed your body. Now it is
time to also feed our souls. Then he would start quoting
Scripture right at the table, before youd even finished
your meal or served the dessert. He was really splendid
that way, the way he emphasized Gods Word in
everything.
One day he said to me, Brother, if anybody can ever
catch me without a New Testament on my body, Ill give
him five pounds sterling.
I said, You always have a New Testament on your
body?
He said, Yes.
I said, How about when you take a shower?
He said, Then I lock the door. In other words, I would
never catch him without a Bible in his pocket.
He carried a proper New Testament that was nice and
flat. I liked it so much that I decided someday Id get one
like itnow I think Ive got a half a dozen of them. He
always had a New Testament like that, he always spoke
from it, and he believed every word of it that he spoke. He
was really an apostle of faiththe same very simple faith
he always preached. There is a book of his sermons called
Ever Increasing Faith that I think everyone should read
because it will increase your faith. If you ever find a copy,
buy it and read it cover to cover.
Brother Wigglesworth was a wonderful evangelist with
a mighty healing ministry. I must say, Ive been with
healers since thenI have seen Brother Branham in action
and even traveled with him for a while, Ive seen the
Jeffreyses in England in action among others, and I have
also seen Tommy Osborn and Tommy Hicks, as well as
many others. For a while, I worked with the Voice of
Healing, and, through that experience, I met some seventy
healing evangelistsgood, bad, and indifferent, all kinds. I
know all about it, but not one have I ever seen that had
the ministry that Smith Wigglesworth had. Everybody in
South Africa was interested in this strange old gentleman
who knew so much, even though he had learned so little
from the world. His gospel was unadulterated. He never
quoted what anybody else saidbecause he never read
what anybody said. He only quoted what God said in His
Word. Its a temptation to quote these other things, you
knowwe need to keep the Word of God first place in
such things.
Early one morning around six oclock, he walked into
our kitchen unannounced while my wife, Anna, was busy
cooking breakfast. He stepped in and asked, Wheres
David? She replied, Brother Wigglesworth, hes gone to
the office already. You see, I used to get up at five, and
then get ready, and by six oclock Id be in my office. Then,
from six to nine, I would dictate all of my letters so that
when the girls came in at nine oclock, theyd have
everything recorded, and they could go on with their work,
and I could start my counseling sessions and consultations
and other appointments. Thats the way Ive pretty much
always regulated my life.
So, I was at the office. When Brother Wigglesworth
heard this, he turned around and shouted down the
passage to his son-in-law, Jimmy Salter, Jimmy! and
Jimmy woke up and came out and said, Yes, Dad? Whats
wrong?
Wheres Compton? Compton, one of our workers, was
driving for them.
Jimmy said, Oh, hes still asleep.
He said, Wake him upI must see David at once.
Jimmy did, and in a little while the car left. It was twelve
miles from our home to my office.
All I remember of it was that I was sitting quietly,
working at my desk, when suddenly the door flew open. I
hadnt even heard any footsteps! All I knew was that, all of
a sudden, that door flew open almost with a bang, and
there stood Brother Wigglesworth. He walked forward,
stood up straight, and commanded me, Get up from
there! Come out here!
I stood up and immediately came over to him. He put
his hands on my shoulders and pushed me up against the
wall, looked straight in my eyes, and began to prophesy.
Ill never forget the first words of what he said: The Lord
says, You have been in your Jerusalem long enough. You
have to go to the uttermost parts of the earth, and He is
going to send you.
There are a lot of things the Lord will say to you now,
as if it has already happened or already exists, but, from
our time frame, it is only that He intends to make it so.
Brother Wigglesworth began to prophesy to me some
things I knew, some that I didnt believe, some that I didnt
want, and some I didnt expect to get or thought were
completely out of my reach and out of my fieldthings
that were outside of my own personal vision for my future.
I had a vision that the Pentecostal movement would sweep
the earth, but I thought it would pull people out of the old
mainline churches, or at least that it would be a movement
separate from those churches, forming a new church. But
that is not what Brother Smith was telling me. He began to
prophesy that I would travel more than most men traveled
in their lives. He said, And you will have the privilege to
see and to participate in the most glorious and mightiest
sweeping revival that has ever been known in Christian
history. It will come through the old-line denominations
thats what he called them. We call them now the
traditional denominations or historic churches; they call us
classic Pentecostals. We are classic already, were so old.
We need renewal as well.
He continued to prophesy, It is coming in a remarkable
way. Ministers will accept the truth and accept the
baptism, and the churches will begin to accept this
glorious enduement [or gift]. As he prophesied, he made
no distinctions between any of the churches, and I
thought, Well, we havent got anything like what he is
talking about, even among the Pentecostals. This is a
totally new level of revival. Weve been praying for
something like this, but we want it for ourselves to show
everyone else how special we arewe dont really want it
for everyone as he is describing now.
In fact, he actually said that it would come through the
other groups, not our own, and that I would have a part in
it. He went on describing it until he finally said, Its no
use. I cant tell you any more, because there are some
things that even I dont understand, and I dont know how
to explain them to you. I am telling you these. Later I
learned that he had seen visions of this revival that God
was sending between two oclock and four that morning.
After he had prophesied and unburdened his heart, he
just bowed his head and said, Lord, bless him. Then he
turned, walked out, and closed the door.
I stood there for a moment, wondering why he hadnt
discussed the vision with me, but finally I returned to my
desk and sat back down, leaned my head on my hands,
and began to pray, Lord, I accept the warning about the
revival to come, but if this is going to happen, I will need
to be guided by You very, very clearly. No matter who the
messenger is, I cannot go by what others say. Woe be to
anyone who lets their life be directed by some prophet or
prophetess without confirming that word with the Spirit
that lives within them as well.
The Guidethe Holy Spiritlives within us, and because
He dwells in us, New Testament prophecy is not like Old
Testament prophecy. In the Old Testament, the Spirit
moved upon the prophet to speak to the people, but there
was no Spirit in the people, so they just had to listen to
the words of the prophet and obey. But today, the church
is a body born of the Spirit, and the Spirit is in each of us.
You cant talk to us as if we were people who dont know
the Spirit. Thats why every one of us has to know how to
be led by the Lord for ourselves. It is our responsibility.
We have to know when it is the Spirit of God speaking to
us and when it is an imposter.
In the end, I dont know how long I sat there at my
desk, puzzling over what had just happened, but a gentle
knock at the door woke me out of my thoughts. Come in,
I said. When the door opened, there stood Smith
Wigglesworth again.
Good morning, Brother David, he greeted me, as if it
was the first time hed seen me that morning. The first
time hed entered, he didnt greet me at all, just ordered
me, Come out of there! He didnt ask how I was or
anything like thatin fact, he wasnt even gentle. Yet this
time, he was very gentle. After he greeted me, he asked,
How are you?
I answered, Well, Brother Wigglesworth, greatly
puzzled.
He said, Why?
I said, Because you have been in here, you talked to
me, you prophesied, you told me visions, and now you
come in and greet me as if you never saw me.
He said, The Bible says, The Lord said to the prophet,
Greet no man on the way.
Yes, I said.
Well, I didnt greet your wife, I didnt greet Salter, I
didnt greet Compton, I didnt greet you, until I delivered
the message. But now the prophet has delivered the
message, and thats why Ive come back to discuss it with
you. What do you think of it?
I said, Brother Wigglesworth, I am really amazed, and
I just want to ask you, have you got Scripture for such a
thing? I always like to ask for Scripture, because when I
can say it is written, then I can have faith.
He said, Yes, I have Scripture. The Lord told me what
Scripture to give you: Acts 6 and 7. The Word of God
increased and the number of disciples multiplied in
Jerusalem greatly. Thats the description of the first
Pentecostal church at the beginning of the church. And
then afterwards, after the church had so flourished, a
great company of priests were obedient to the faith. And
he said, This is what the Lord wants me to explain to you.
First, its a laymans movementa fishermans
movement. But the second wave that comes becomes a
clergy/priesthood movement. And after the work had been
thoroughly established by the Holy Spirit in the laity and
God had proved Himself, then some priests will come in,
and there will be a great, tremendous move because of
the priests.
After he had explained this further, he said to me, I
wish I was younger, for according to what the Lord said to
me, you will see this great change. This great move of the
Spirit will come round about the middle of the century
that would be about fifteen years after we were speaking
that morning in 1936then you will see it.
Well, the Lord warned me plenty of time in advance,
didnt He? Fifteen yearsand I have never forgotten. He
said then, Also remember this: you dont have to worry
about doing anything at all, or seeing much of it, until I
have gone home. For the Lord made it very clear to me
that I must not preach this, and I must not attempt to stop
anything. I must leave it alone. He will work it out, but it
will not even begin while Im alive, so I wont even see the
beginnings of it. Thats why I wish I was twenty years
younger, so that I could see these beginnings, but you will
see them.
Then he said, Now a word of warning: God says all the
things that I have told you will come to pass, and you will
see them, and you will have a part in them, with only
these conditions: that you remain humble and faithful. If
you can remember those two thingsremain humble and
faithfulthen God will use you in a way that no one else is
used, an unusual way. It will not be the trendit will be
you and Godbut you must stay humble and remain
faithful.
I can see today, if youre blessed and succeed, then
there is the danger of getting puffed up and being proud of
your achievements. Even if you have been faithful for a
long time, there is still the danger that you may
compromise. However, I am happy to say that I havent
yet found a Pentecostal brother that came to hear what I
have taught at any ecumenical meeting that did not admit
that I was not compromising. I have never apologized for
Pentecostthats why they call me Mr. Pentecost. I
refuse to be anything but Pentecostal. Im not Protestant,
Im not evangelical, Im not a fundamentalistIm all that
plus Pentecost. Dont ever stop at being a fundamentalist.
Dont ever stop being an evangelical. But there is more,
always more.
I learned this from a man that some might not think
was even such a dedicated Christian, but I knew him as a
very dedicated Christian. Karl Barth35 said to me, The
biggest mistake you could ever make was to think youve
arrived, and stop going on. He said, Jesus said, I am the
way, I am the truth, and I am the life. He is a way without
a terminal. There is no end. Youll never arrive at the end
until youre in glory, and thats not even the end yet. He
went on to say, And as you move on in the way, the truth
will dawn on you. You cant see the truth now that you will
see as you move further on along the way, any more than
you can see whats beyond the hills. As the truth dawns on
you, the light grows brighter and brighter. You will think
that you can stop, but youve got to keep going.
As I was still pondering what Brother Wigglesworth had
prophesied, he said to me, Have you ever been airsick?
I said, Sir, Ive never been in the air.
He says, Do you get seasick?
I said, Ive never been on the sea. Ive never traveled
outside of South Africa. I had been up and down,
crisscross that country, and I knew every town and city in
my country. I knew every Pentecostal work, movement,
mission, and so on, but Id never been out on the sea and
Id never been in the air. In those days, flying wasnt so
common.
He said, Well, youre going to fly a lot, and you will
travelmore than most men, and you must not get sick.
Come here! Out I came again. He pushed me up against
the wall, and now I think he finished his jobhe prayed
that I would never get sick when I traveled for the Lord.
He told the Lord, he said, Lord, You know its awful to be
sick at home, but its ten times worse to be sick away from
home, so dont let him ever get sick when hes working or
traveling for You.
And, thank the Lord, I am not sickIm always well
when I travel. If Im tired at all, I get traveling again so
that I can feel better. And I work hard at home. When Im
traveling, I dont have to work so hard, because I get a
little more time to relax, but when Im home, I work
against time writing correspondence. In addition to that, I
have lately turned my hand back to doing carpentry, which
I havent done for years, but its good exercise. My Lord
was a carpenter, you know. At the carpenters bench
down in my office, my wife put a little picture of Jesus
working in the carpenter shop, and when I work around
there, Im still working for Him. It all reminds me of Him
wonderful Jesus.
After this, I didnt see Brother Wigglesworth again but a
small handful of times. When he left the Rand area, he
went down to Cape Town for meetings. I eventually
followed him to Cape Town to help some big meetings,
and right before I left for Cape Town, I got a letter from J.
Roswell Flower, the General Secretary of the Assemblies
of God, who passed on to be with the Lord July 23, just a
few days ago.36 He was 82. I received a lovely letter from
him, inviting me to come to the United States in 1937 to be
one of the speakers at the General Council of the
Assemblies of God in Memphis, Tennessee.
So I came over in 1937 and then returned by way of
England in 1938. There I met Brother Wigglesworth again,
and I stayed with him at 70 Victor Road in Bradford. He
had lived in 70 Victor Road from the day he got married.
His wife passed away in that house; his daughter, Mrs.
Salter, passed away in that house; and if Jimmy is still
alive, hell pass away in that house. Seventy Victor Road
thats where I met him.
Things were beginning to happen in Europe at that
time. It looked like war, and, sure enough, I found soldiers
everywhere in Europe, so I soon made for home. I didnt
want to be in Europe when trouble hitit was Hitlers
days, and everybody was saying, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini,
thats the great triumvirate37thats the devils crowd
and Pope Pius. Oh brother, you should have heard them
preachwhy, according to them, the Lord was coming in a
few years time.
So I went home and waited. The Second World War
came. The Second World War carried on and then finally
ended, and in 1947, we had our first Pentecostal World
Conference. Sometime shortly after that, I stopped in
again to see Brother Wigglesworth. It must have been late
1947 or in 1948. I had some meetings with him in England
then, and again we discussed what he had told me in
1936, and again he told me some of the miracles he had
seen in the vision, but I still could not really get enthused
about it.
You see, the whole thing was not according to my own
plans. To me, the Pentecostal World Conference seemed
to be Gods answer. Now that the Pentecostals were finally
getting together, something was really going to happen,
and wed bury the dead old mainline churches. That was
how I saw it at the time. Brother Wigglesworth said, No,
thats not it, the revival will come through the old line
denominations. I dont know how youll get in to reach
them, but youll get there. The Lord knows how. He
wasnt worried.
In 1947, he died. In 1950, I made my first contacts with
the historic churches. It was probably just the Lord leading
me. Dr. John MacKay, who was president of the
International Missionary Council, president of the United
Presbyterian Church, and president of Princeton Seminary,
said in a speech in New York, The greatest blessing that
has come to Christianity in this century is the Pentecostal
movement.
I thought, Thats something for MacKay to say, because
when he worked in South America, he had said, The
Protestant work in South America is going on fine, except
for the fly in the ointmentand the fly was the
Pentecostals. And you know what a fly does to the
druggists ointment? It makes it stink! This was the term
he had used for the Pentecostals. Then he had said that
the Pentecostals in South America were a fly in the
ointment; now he was saying it was the greatest blessing
that had come to the church in this century. So I called
him to ask about this change of opinion. By this time, I was
Secretary of the Pentecostal World Conference and busy
working on the London conference that would be held in
1952. I asked, Dr. MacKay, could I meet you
somewhere? He said, Come to Princeton and have lunch
with me. When I told him who I was, he said, Yes, Ive
heard of youand Id like to talk to you. You come along.
So I went to Princeton and had lunch with him and then
spent the afternoon with him. That was the beginning of
my coming into what we now call the ecumenical
movement. He told me that when he had gone back to
South America and seen what the Holy Spirit had done
there and the Latin American countries, he concluded that
if he had to make a choice between the uncouth life of the
Pentecostals there and the certain death of the old formal
churches, he would rather have the uncouth life of the
Pentecostals.
I said, Thats wonderful.
He said, Dont ever compromise or minimize your
Pentecostal life and experience. God has established this
movement. And we became fast friends.
At the time, I thought that was all there was to it, so I
waited for God to make the next move. One day, Bill
Wilson, whom some of you might know as the Mission
Secretary for the Eastern Churches, came to my home and
said, David, the Lord has sent me through a word of
prophecy that came last night in East Providence, Rhode
Island. We have trouble with missionaries out on the
African East Coast. The mainline denominational missions
are blocking and hindering our work out there. When I
prayed for a solution last night, the Lord said you can find
the way to solve this problem.
I couldnt understand the Lord sending him to me. I
said, Why dont you try your evangelical contacts?
Try them! They rejected us. The Lord says youve got
the solution.
I said, Bill, the only solution I can think of is to talk with
Dr. MacKayhes the president of the International
Missionary Counciland then perhaps he can help us in
some way, and we can do something.
He said, David, I dont know what the Lord knows that
you can do, but the Lord knows youve got something you
can do.
I said, All right. Do you mind if I call on the World
Council of Churches?
No.
I told my wife, I am going to New York. I have
contacted Dr. MacKay, and he has made an appointment
for me in New York, and Im going to New York to talk to
the World Council people.
She said, What are you going to say to them?
I said, I dont know; Ill see when I get there.
She said, Well, I listened to you! All my life youve
preached against these councils. Now what are you going
to say?
I said, I might have to apologizeI might have to
apologize. Oh, I was as faithful as you could find a man,
but if I could, how I enjoyed reading stuff that makes
these other groups and traditional denominations look bad,
because I wanted them to be bad. We were the good
guys; they were the bad guys. I only read the worst stuff
about the Catholics, because I wanted to have an excuse
to have nothing to do with them. It is easy to find an
excuse to believe that the old crowds too bad to associate
with, that God is calling us to come out from among
them. Yet, if they were really as bad as we think, then we
ought to go in and save them, not sit back and condemn
them. Shouldnt we save bad people? Or are we only
looking for good people to save? If you are looking for
good people, youre looking for the other fellows sheep,
and I guarantee youll end up with his goats. We are not
called to sheep stealing; we are called to seek and save
the lost.
After I decided to go, I remember praying, Lord, Youve
told me to go to these people, and now this issue with
Brother Wilson and the Pentecostal Missions is really giving
me a good reason. So I went to New York.
When I arrived and was with them, I began to tell them
about our Pentecostal missions. Of course, I had to talk
about missions, since I had this situation in Kenya. Our
brethren there were having difficulty because they couldnt
get recognition from the Council of Churches, and the
government therefore was cool on them. However, when I
finished talking about the missions, the chief in the office
there asked me to keep on telling him about Pentecost.
When lunch came, there was finally a lull of silence. I said,
Its twelve oclock and its lunchtime. Im sorry I took so
much of your time.
He said, No, you didnt take my time. I took yours,
because Im asking the questions. He asked, You eat
lunch?
I said, Yes.
He said, Ill pay for it if you keep talking.
So we went to lunch, and I kept talking. When we came
back, he called the office staff together, and he made me
repeat to them all those things that I thought they didnt
want to hear. I was sure hed tell me to get out, but
instead he kept me there. In the end, he asked me,
Where have you been all this time?
I said, Sir, Ive only lived in America for a while. Im a
South African.
Well, where are your Pentecostal leaders? None of
them have ever come and talked to us. We cant get
anyone from any Pentecostal group, anywhere, to come
talk with us. How are we supposed to get ahold of these
people when they always run away from us?
I said, Well, you call us Pentecostals crazy fanatics
who wants to talk to a man that calls you a crazy
fanatic?
Yes, he said, it may be true, but you call us
unbelieving devils.
Now I said, Thats true, too, but I didnt come here to
call you names.
He said, Thats why Im not calling you names. I love to
hear what you have to say. Weve been waiting for a man
like you.
In the end, I stayed there until four oclock in the
afternoon. When we finally finished, they asked me to
write a letter to them recommending and endorsing the
Pentecostal missions groups in East Africaif I remember
correctly, it was the Eagle Missionary Assemblies and
some other group in Pennsylvania, and then Mrs. Gibsons
people from the East Coast Zion Bible Institute. There
were three groups, and I recommended and endorsed all
of them. I said, These are my brethren, and I know them
to be honest, trustworthy men, and I would recommend
that they get some protection or some help.
The office in New York wrote to the London office of the
International Missionary Councillater on, I got acquainted
with those secretariesand they wrote to the British
Colonial office in Kenya. In those days, Kenya and those
eastern countries were still under British control. Not long
afterwards, I learned that the British Colonial office had
ordered their heads in the colonies to let these Pentecostal
missions groups operate freely. Thank God for whats
happened in East Africa since then.
That was the beginning of my cooperation with the
ecumenical groups. They saw themselves as service
groups. They said, We are not here to control; we are
here to serve. I wish every service agency that was ever
established would remain a service agency, but God have
mercy when service agencies become controlling
agencies. Thats where the trouble startswhen such
groups begin to strive to control instead of serve.
I think for the rest, you know the story. In England,
Brother Wigglesworth only told a few brethren that he
knew there was a great revival coming. Something I left
out was that, when I came here in 1937, I met Dr. Charles
Price38 in Pasadena, and we spent an afternoon together.
He wanted to know all about Brother Wigglesworth. They
had met, and they knew each other, but Dr. Price was a
highly educated man, and Wigglesworth was an
uneducated man. When they had met, Brother
Wigglesworth would say, I wish I could be like Charles
Price, and Charles Price said to me, I wish I had no
education, and I was like Wigglesworth. Then Id be more
spiritual.
I told him then, Brother Wigglesworth predicts that
there is a tremendous revival that is going to sweep the
world. The worldnot some countriesbut the world! And
all the churches.
Dear old Charles Price just burst out in tears. Oh, he
said, thank God, thank God. Theres someone else who
got the vision.
I said, You got it, too?
He said, Yes, but I dare not talk about it. The brethren
all say to me, in the last days the love of many shall wax
cold. They believe that there will be no greater revival
that we Pentecostals are the last wave.
The last wave. No wonder I once heard a Pentecostal
pastor say, God has made us the holders of the Holy
Spiritif people want Him, let them come to us.
How sad. You know, when I think of this, I think the
Catholic Church must have been Pentecostal at some
point, because when Pentecostals begin to think they are
the church, theyre just like Catholics. Now we are the
church.
I remember the battle we had in the Church of God in
Cleveland, Tennessee. You know, they used to be the
Church of God, and nobody else but they were right. There
are still some of them that believe that way. Well, thank
God for shaking us upand shaking us out of the old ruts
that weve gotten ourselves into.
But my point is that Dr. Price confirmed all that Brother
Wigglesworth had said to me, and these two old pioneers
blessed me and encouraged me so much. So, friends,
gradually Ive come to move easily within different church
circles. It began with missions work and at the World
Council of Churches headquarters, and then, in 1952, they
invited me to the International Missionary Council in
Germany. It was there that Dr. MacKay did something very
unusual. At such conferences, they never asked visitors to
speak. They usually already have a program lined up well
in advance. However, one day, a Methodist missionary
was telling how our mainline Christian institutions were
ruining Christianity in India. Years ago, revival had hit
there, and the Methodist church established a school, but
today that school has only 10 percent Christian students
and only 5 percent Christian teachers, even though its still
a Methodist school. He said, The best thing that could
happen to us there is that someone set fire to the place
and burn it down.
At that, Dr. MacKay got up, and he said, All right, while
you fellows are burning down your institutions, I want a
gentleman thats with us here to come and tell us how the
Pentecostals, without institutions, have been sweeping
around the world with a missionary message that is
shaking the earth. In those daysthats 1952
Pentecostals werent as strong on education as we are
today. Today, you can find a doctor on every Pentecostal
platform. I dont know where they get these degrees, but
some of them have no more warmth than the number of
degrees they have. But, back in 1952, we Pentecostals
didnt think too much of such degrees. However, the same
was not true among ecumenicals, so when Dr. MacKay
introduced me, he called me Dr. du Plessis. Somehow,
after that, it stuck. After that, people kept asking me,
Where did you get your doctorate? To that, I would
always answer, I dont have one. It was just that Dr.
MacKay called me Doctor at a conference once and it
stuck.
I see, theyd say. So, you havent got a D.D.?
Oh, yes, I have a D.D., a small d.d.it stands for
David the Donkey.39 That is what I had thought in 1920
when I began to work for the Lord: Im the Lords
Donkey. You see, David the Donkey was my title in South
Africa. People still know me by that name if youre ever in
South Africa.
Well, at that missionary conference, I saw where the
churches were going. They asked me, How did the
Pentecostals do it? I said, By everyone being a witness.
Each one teach one, witnessing, being Christians, living
the life. Today, were not about just being Christians but
all about degrees. When churches call to find pastors, they
want to know the mans educational qualifications.
Missionaries have to have certain qualifications or they
cant pass certain board requirements. They even make
them take psychological tests. Good Lord, have mercy
upon us if an ungodly psychiatrist has to make the
judgment of the fitness of a Spirit-filled man and woman
for the missions fieldfor how could he understand?
Where does he get his information? Is he getting it from
ungodly psychiatrists in other countries? None of us can fit
into that kind of man-devised frame, because the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit.40 They are
forever foolishness to him, and they dont want to send
fools out to these foreign countries. They want clever
people, but its the foolishness of the gospel that has
changed these countries, not the wisdom of men.
So today, the Lord has changed things to the point that I
can hardly believe it sometimes. I am so at easeand so
happyin all kinds of meetings, but thank God for the men
and brethren that have been willing to help me in this.
Once, I was supposed to go to an institute in New York
and I couldnt go, so I asked Brother Spencer to go for me.
Here and there, I have found brethren who are willing to
go. In some cases, Ive recommended Pentecostal leaders
willing to go and speak at certain conferences. Yet, when
they received the invitation, they absolutely refused to go.
But I never refused. Ive gone if I can, even though
sometimes I cant for financial reasons. Believe me, there
isnt money in this kind of an outreach. If I wanted to make
money, I should try to be an evangelist or something like
thatyou know, spend an hour raising an offering and
then preach for half an hour. But I didnt go that way.
However, I do believe the Lord still honors faith and
obedience, and so He takes care of me.
Recently this year, I had to go to Indonesia, and I
wasnt sure if God wanted me to go. Then a brother
knocked at my door, came in, sat down, and shared a few
wonderful Scriptures with me. When he finished, I said,
This is just what I needed to encourage me on my way to
Indonesia.
Oh yes, he said, but the Lord also told me to give you
this, and he handed me a thousand dollars. So, that takes
care of it. Not only the promises, but also the blessing with
it.
When I had to go to Chile, just last May, I had only two
days to speak at a conference of four hundred ministers. I
prayed, Lord, I havent got time to stay longer.
He said, Go.
I said, Lord, the fare is $770. You want me to spend
that much for only two days?
Ill pay your fare.
I had a meeting in Glendale at Faith Center that Sunday
morning. They had already taken up all of the offerings for
the day when the pastor said, I feel we ought to help
Brother David. Hes got a call to Santiago, Chile. So they
took up another offering. That evening he came and gave
me a check for $600my, that was great. He said, Thats
not all, and he gave me another check for $170. Together
they were $770! Exactly the fare I needed for the trip.
I said, All right, Lord. If You pay that easily, Ill travel
easy, and I went. Oh, what a time I had those three days
in Chilehow the Lord blessed that trip! Thats the way He
takes care of things. Thats the way He supplies.
Tomorrow, I will preach in the Episcopal church in
Selma. On Monday, I will meet the ministers, and then we
will go for a few days to a camp meeting in the mountains.
Then we fly to Europe. When I was in London, England,
last November, the Catholics invited Brother Ray Bringham
and me to a conference in Spain. The cardinal said, Will
both of you come to a Pentecostal Charismatic Catholic
conference at the university in Salamanca in Spain? The
invitation is with the approval of the bishop! So were
going to have a Pentecostal conference in Spain at a
Catholic university.
From there, I will be making my first renewal visit with
the Vatican in Romenot with the pope, though. I will
meet with the cardinal who is president of the Secretariat
for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Willebrands, and
they have agreed they would now like to have dialogue
with Pentecostals on September 2 and 3. So Im going to
Rome to meet with them.
Now, I know a Catholic priest who has said, David is
going to talk to the pope. I can only say, Then that must
be prophetic, because I havent made such
arrangements. However, if it happens when I get there,
that would be all right. Will you pray that the Lord will help
me? I have been in the Pentecostal movement now for the
last fifty-two yearsI received the baptism in 1918and,
my brethren, nowhere has this revival of the Holy Spirit
sparked and moved as fast as its now moving in Catholic
churches. Not even in the original Pentecostal movements
nor in the Protestant churches has the baptism of the Holy
Spirit been received so quickly by so many.
The Spirit is moving throughout the world, and
everywhere I go, I find people telling me how the Catholic
priests and nuns and professors are embracing it. It really
is a movement among the learned and the priestsamong
their educated and cultured people. Throw away those
with other prophecies and all the naysayersthis revival,
birthed by the Holy Spirit, is coming through, and the best
of it still hasnt happened yet.

33. The transcription of this sermon has been edited to
improve the clarity.
34. Doweyites: Those following the ministry of John
Alexander Dowie.
35. Karl Barth (18861968) was a Swiss Reformed
theologian who taught in Germany and opposed Adolf
Hitler before World War II. He was a founder of the
Confessing Church and was best known for his move back
to Scripture as the basis of religion rather than culture,
science, psychology, or anything else. This concept was
called neo-orthodoxy.
36. This was in 1970.
37. A group of three men jointly governing a realm.
(William Morris, (ed.) The American Heritage Dictionary of
the English Language [Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
1980], s.v., triumvirate.)
38. Dr. Charles S. Price (18871947) was a great
Pentecostal leader in the United States during the first half
of the twentieth century who moved greatly in the gifts of
healings and miracles.
39. David did, however, earn his own D.D. in 1978 from
Bethany Bible College in Santa Cruz, California, as
recognition of his lifes work and teachings.
40. 1 Corinthians 2:14.
4
The Wigglesworth ProphecyOther
Sources and Information
One of the problems in researching the Smith
Wigglesworth prophecy to David du Plessis is finding the
exact wording of what was said on that morning in
December 1936. One of the main reasons for this is, of
course, that it was never recorded or written down until
sometime in the early 1950s. The earliest reference to it in
the writings of David du Plessis is an article that was
published in 1951:
How well I remember the increased desire for
fellowship when the late Smith Wigglesworth
visited South Africa in 1936. One morning early he
came into my office and without a word of greeting
said: Young man, you have been in Jerusalem long
enough and the Lord says that you have to go to
the uttermost parts of the earth. I was
dumbfounded. He has much work for you and you
will be going soon. Then he prayed: Lord, let him
always enjoy Your blessings and never get sick on
his many travels ahead. Later he spoke to me and
warned me that absolute obedience at all cost will
be the price for having a share in the greatest
wave of revival that ever has been known in
history.41
What is most significant about this account is that it is
truly before David was involved in this revivalor any of
the traditional churches were involvedas this did not
happen until after his first meeting with Dr. MacKay and
the World Council of Churches headquarters, which, as
you will remember, took place in 1952.
Another likely reason that David had a hard time
remembering the prophecy word for word was because of
the nature of Brother Wigglesworths delivery of what he
had seen in his vision. David must have been somewhat in
a state of shock while hearing it, as he was pinned to the
wall by Smiths strong hands. Through the research of
Father Peter Hocken, who has made the best attempt to
date to document the original prophecy, it has been
discovered that at least four different versions of this
prophecy exist, all which differ slightly because of the time
between the event and the writing and Davids inadvertent
addition of other things God had shown him through his
meditations upon and walking out of the vision. According
to Father Hockens work, the four versions are found in
Davids autobiography, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost (1977),
the souvenir brochure from the Third World Pentecostal
Conference (1952), As at the Beginning (1965), and an
article in A Voice of Faith (1964). The version in Davids
autobiography is the most official of these and is very
similar to the one presented in his 1970 address (which
appeared in the previous chapter), though it does have
some additional details of what was spoken. From putting
these four versions together using a somewhat unscientific
and educated guess system, Father Hocken came up
with the following approximation of what was said to David
du Plessis as he stood pinned to the wall by Smith
Wigglesworth:
There is a revival coming that at present the world
knows nothing about. It will come through the
churches. It will come in a fresh way. When you
see what God does in this revival, you will then
have to admit that all you have seen previously is a
mere nothing in comparison with what is to come.
It will eclipse anything that has been known in
history. Empty churches, empty cathedrals will be
packed again with worshippers. Buildings will not
be able to accommodate the multitudes. Then you
will see fields of people worshipping and praising
together. The Lord intends to use you in this
revival. For you have been in Jerusalem long
enough. The Lord will send you to the uttermost
parts of the earth. If you are faithful and humble,
the Lord will use you, and if you remain faithful and
humble, you will see the greatest events in church
history.42
While this lag in time might lead some to doubt the
validity of this prophecy, there is some good evidence to
corroborate it. The first is a conversation that was had
with Smith Wigglesworth in New Zealand:
In the book New Zealands Greatest Revivala
brother remarked to Smith Wigglesworth: One is
tempted to envy you when you have had such great
success.
He received the following reply: Young man, it is
the other way around. I feel like envying you. I
have had three visions in my lifethree only. The
first two have already come to pass, but the third is
yet to be fulfilled. I will most likely pass on to my
reward, but you are a young man and will most
likely be in what I saw. He burst out, Oh, it was
amazing. Oh, he said, I cannot tell Gods secrets.
But you remember what I saythis revival we have
had is nothing to what God is yet going to do.
The one to whom Brother Wigglesworth addressed
these words commented: It was quite evident that
the evangelist had a special vision granted him of
the coming outpouring of the Spirit in an
unprecedented effusion in the days just before our
Lord comes to snatch away the church.43
The second is the change that was brought to the life of
David du Plessis. David would have been among the last to
seek ecumenical ties because he grew up fighting them
throughout his early ministry. It is somewhat similar to the
change that was seen in Peter on the day of Pentecost.
While Peter had been a coward and denied Christ three
times on the night before Jesus crucifixion, on the day of
Pentecost he stepped up before the crowd and proclaimed
that Jesus was the Messiah, to such effect that three
thousand were saved that day. In the words of many who
have looked at this situation, Something definitely
happened to inspire that change, and this is one of the
evidences given time and again for the resurrection of
Jesus. Something tremendous happened to make that
change, and it couldnt have been the disciples stealing
away Jesus body in the dead of night, because Peter
never could have come up with such conviction if he had
known it was all a fraud. In the same way, we know
something must have happened to David du Plessis to
change his attitude toward the mainline denominations
from being the enemies of Christ to being the main focus
to whom Christ wanted him to reach out with love and
forgiveness.
Because of these things, among others, researchers
into the work of David du Plessis have not only come to the
conclusion that the prophecy was genuine, but also that
this prophecy was one of the most significant events of the
twentieth century. It was the conception of the charismatic
renewal that would bring the Pentecostal reawakening
from fringe groups into the mainstream churches. While
organizations, such as the Full Gospel Business Mens
Fellowship, and ministries, such as Kathryn Kuhlmans,
welcomed people of all denominations into their meetings
and introduced them to the baptism in the Holy Spirit,
David du Plessis was the one who gave doctrinal support
albeit not of a scholarly natureto what they were doing
(as to a somewhat lesser extent did Donald Gee and his
writings) and was the voice to church leaders around the
world that this was a move of the Spirit aligned with sound
biblical interpretation. For this reason, the move was
accepted rather than shut down in some of the most
unexpected places, not the least of which was the Catholic
Church. And, as a result, churches have filled to
overflowing, and Pentecostalism has been one of the
strongest missionary outreaches in the last several
hundred years, including the mass revivals that began in
Argentina in 1954 with Tommy Hicks and continue today in
Africa in the ministry of Reinhard Bonnke.
More than this historical significance, though, is the fact
that there is much to learn about prophecyand fulfilling
the prophecy of this word from Smith Wigglesworth, as
well as the effect it had on the life of David du Plessis. For
that reason, before going on to look at the vision given to
Tommy Hicks and its implications for us todaythe revival
that is to comeit is worth taking the time to look further
into the gift of prophecy and how we are to apply it in our
own lives when we hear a prophetic word.

41. David du Plessis, By One Spirit into One Body, 1,
quoted in Robinson, To the Ends of the Earth, 87.
42. Peter Hocken, Baptised in the Spirit: The Origins and
Early Development of the Charismatic Movement in Great
Britain (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Birmingham, 1984), 2,
in Martin, To the Ends of the Earth, 87.
43. Gordon Lindsay, Are the Gifts of the Spirit for the
Church Today? Voice of Healing (1963), 5, in Martin, To
the Ends of the Earth, 100.
5
Fulfilling Prophecy
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words
of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written
therein: for the time is at hand.For the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation 1:3; 19:10
The ultimate purpose of all prophecy is to lift up Jesus
for the salvation of all who hear. The simple test of the
soundness of prophecy is this: false prophecy will puff up
the person or people hearing it, feeding their egos; true
prophecy will lift up Christ. Thus, Smith Wigglesworths
conditions on his prophecy to David du Plessis ring true:
God says all the things that I have told you already
will come to pass, and you will see them, and you
will have part in them, with only this condition, that
you remain humble and faithful. If you can
remember those two thingsremain humble and
faithfulthen God will use you in a way that no one
else is used, unusual, it will not be the trend, it will
be you and God, and you must keep humble and
remain faithful.44
The true purpose of this prophecy was not that David
would have a huge international ministryeven though
that is what it turned out to bebut that he would have a
new way to testify of Jesus Christ among traditional
churches that had all but forgotten about His true nature
and the ministry of His Holy Spirit.
Echoing this, in his teachings on prophecy (which are
included as chapters 8 and 9 of this book45), Smith
Wigglesworth establishes that there are three classes of
prophecy and three purposes for it (subservient to the
ultimate purpose of testifying of Jesus). In 1927, in a
teaching presented to a group of Bible students at Angelus
Temple in Los Angeles, Smith Wigglesworth identified the
types of prophecy as being either 1) the testimony of a
person who has been saved, 2) the words of a minister in
a message spoken under the anointing of God, or 3)
someone speaking out of the gift of prophecy through a
vision or by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Considering
these options, we see that Smiths prophecy to David falls
into the third category. He also stated that, according to 1
Corinthians 14:3, prophecy is for the 1) edification, 2)
exhortation, and 3) consolation of the hearers. When it is
used for edification, it strengthens the believers as they
humble themselves before Christ and enables them to do
what God has called them to do. Exhortation directs and
motivates them to actthere is something they need to
do, whether that is responding to the message of salvation
or acting upon something God has put in their hearts to
do. Under prophecy that exhorts, it is also important to
recognize that prophecy also instructs and informs.
Sometimes prophecy instructs us in directions we should
go, giving conditional directions in a sort of If, then
format. A good deal of scriptural instruction falls into this
category. One example is James 4:78:
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will
draw nigh to you.
Would you like the devil to flee from you? Then you
must a) submit yourself to God and b) resist the devil.
These two conditions are necessary before you can collect
the promise of Satan fleeing from you. Do you want God to
draw close to you? Then you must first draw close or seek
after Him. As Jeremiah 29:13 says, Ye shall seek me, and
find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Other prophecy is unconditional and informs us of what is
going to happen no matter how we act. The book of
Revelation is this type of prophecy. In this light, Smith
Wigglesworths prophecy to David du Plessis was a bit of
both. It was unconditional in that the revival he saw in the
vision was coming no matter what people did. However, it
was also conditional: if David wanted to be part of that
revival, then he needed to stay humble and faithful. Thank
God for all of us that he did. But, had he not, God would
have found someone else to fill that role in the charismatic
renewal.
Lastly, prophecy is for consolationhelping believers
recover from setbacks or loss by reemphasizing Gods love
for them and His power to redeem them from whatever
they may be facing and to bring comfort to the situation.
Again, in this context, Smith Wigglesworths prophecy to
David du Plessis includes at least two of these three:
edification to know that God had called him to a specific
task and exhortation to act on it and stay humble and
faithful so that he could accomplish it. There may also
have been a note of consolation in that David would also
be healed of the pains inflicted previously by the mainline
denominationsspecifically the Dutch Reformed ministers
and that he would be reconciled with these
congregations that had initially opposed the Pentecostal
movement. Of course, this was much easier to see in
retrospect than in 1936, or even in 1950, when David was
just embarking on what would become his part in the
charismatic renewal of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It is
one thing to look back and see how prophecy worked, but
it is quite another to hear it and know how to act upon it.
How are we to judge prophecy so that we may discern
how to act upon it?
Judging Prophecy
The first rule of judging prophecy is still the best: Does
the word puff up the hearer or lift up Christ? As John said
in his first epistle:
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God: because many false prophets
are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and
this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that
it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1
John 4:13)
Any spirit that denies either Jesus full physical
incarnation in coming to earth or His full deity as part of
the Godhead is not from God. Any spirit that speaks of the
greatness of the hearer to touch his ego rather than touch
his spirit is not lifting up Christ and is not from God. Such
are spirits that seek to deceive rather than edify, exhort,
or console with the goal of bringing hearers to kneel at the
foot of the cross.
A second test is whether or not the word of prophecy
aligns with specific Scriptures or principles of the Bible.
What was Davids first question to Smith Wigglesworth
when he came back after delivering this prophecy?
Brother Wigglesworth, I am really amazed, and I just
want to ask you, have you got Scripture for such a
thing?46 When he posed this question, Smith
Wigglesworth gave him the scriptural examples of what he
had seen in his vision.
Just as with following Jesus, the Pentecostal movement
would first be a fishermansor laypersonsmovement
among those hungriest for all that God had to give, and
then it would be a priestly movement among those who
had long professed God but rejected Him when they met
Him face-to-face. Just as the Pharisees and Sadducees
rejected Jesus because they clung to their false
interpretations of the Scriptures rather than seeing the
truth in His, the mainline denominations missed the Holy
Spirit when He came for a renewal of Pentecost through
Azusa Street and similar places. And, just as many of the
priests came to Christ after His resurrection, many in the
mainline denominations would accept the baptism of the
Holy Spirit once they saw the fruit it had produced in the
lives of other believers. No spoken prophecy that is from
God will contradict the teachings of the Bible. To
emphasize this further, we need to look at what Peter said
in his second epistle to the churches:
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,
when we made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and
glory, when there came such a voice to him from the
excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we
heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do
well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a
dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in
your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the
scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But
there were false prophets also among the people, even as
there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of
whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And
through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time
lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
(2 Peter 1:162:3, emphasis added)
Peter pointed out a couple of very interesting facts
about prophecy in this passage. The first is that no
prophecy is of private interpretation, meaning that all
prophecy will agree with all other prophecy, and New
Testament prophecy will be understood by the believer
through his or her relationship with Christ. New Testament
prophecy differs from what was given in the Old
Testament because, under the new covenant, prophecy is
spoken to believers who have the Holy Spirit dwelling
inside of them; under the old covenant, prophets spoke by
the unction of the Holy Spirit to people who did not have
the Spirit of God dwelling within them. Old Testament
believers had the law dictated to them, not written on their
hearts; New Testament believers have Gods law inscribed
in their hearts and have been given the Holy Spirit within
them to confirm it and guide them.
Any prophecy given to an individual under the new
covenant must bear witness with the Spirit dwelling in
him. What has been said will be confirmed by the Spirit in
his heart. Prophecy will be realized not by the person
seeking to make it happen but simply through the believer
continuing to follow God with all his heart, mind, soul, and
strength. We should never pursue prophecy; we must
always pursue Christ.
Many mistakes were made regarding prophecy in what
has come to be known as the shepherding movement,
where believers were encouraged to follow the
prophecies and counsel of their leaders as if they were
still under the old covenant.47 These prophecies spoke
of whom one should marry, business deals one should
make, ministries one should embark upon, and other
similar details, often with quite disastrous results. The
mistake was that people pursued the prophecies instead
of God. When a prophecy turned out to be false,
regardless of the sincerity of the person who delivered it,
the hearer was led away from Christ instead of toward
Him.
An example occurred in the life of David du Plessis
when he first met Anna and the Lord told him she would
one day be his wife. Although this was a specific word
from the Lord, David did not act upon it by asking her to
marry him the next day. Rather, he let things run their
normal course and courted her for eighteen months before
they married. He allowed the word of the Lord to be
confirmed in him by following the wisdom of Scripture and
not rushing things but instead practicing patience and
preferring Anna above himself. As a result, their marriage
lasted nearly sixty years.
Biblical Examples of Specific Prophecy
To cultivate an even deeper understanding of this, it is
worth looking at three New Testament examples of
prophecy given to individuals or groups. The first is
Agabus prophecy to Paul in Acts:
And as we tarried there [in Caesarea] many days, there
came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named
Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Pauls
girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus
saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind
the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into
the hands of the Gentiles.
(Acts 21:1011)
God sent Agabus to confirm what was already in Pauls
heart: that he was to go to Jerusalem to be arrested,
imprisoned, and eventually taken to Rome to bear witness
of Jesus. It is interesting to note that those who heard the
message with Paul interpreted it as a warning that Paul
was not to go to Jerusalem, while Paul alone knew that it
was the course God was planning for him and that Agabus
words were not only confirmation of what lay ahead of
him but also assurance that it was Gods will and that He
would be with Paul through it all. We see this later
confirmed after Paul is imprisoned in Jerusalem and the
Lord comes to speak to him:
And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said,
Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in
Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. (Acts
23:11)
A second example of specific prophecy is the words
Christ spoke through John to the seven churches of Asia in
the first few chapters of the book of Revelation. When you
read these, you very much see these prophecies edifying,
exhorting, or consoling. In each, the Lord speaks of the
churchs strengths and then gives correction and
exhortation to return to first principles or correct course
back to what He has called it to do. We also see
consolation in each, ending with Christ virtually throwing
His arms open to welcome them back in, or, as He so aptly
put it to the Laodiceans:
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous
therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and
knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with
my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
(Revelation 3:1922)
The third prophecy I would like to offer as an example
is not actually included in the Scriptures, but it is referred
to in Pauls letters to Timothy:
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according
to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by
them mightest war a good warfare; holding faith, and a
good conscience; which some having put away concerning
faith have made shipwreck.Neglect not the gift that is in
thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying
on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these
things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may
appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the
doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both
save thyself, and them that hear thee.
(1 Timothy 1:1819; 4:1416)
And Paul echoed again in his second letter to him:
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up
the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my
hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of
power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me
his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the
gospel according to the power of God; who hath saved us,
and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace.(2
Timothy 1:69)
In these passages, we see that Pauls advice to Timothy
is to meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to
them.Take heed to thyself, and unto doctrine, continue
in them. Thus, he asked him to meditate upon the
prophecies spoken over him, aligning them with doctrine
(for Timothy had no New Testament to refer to at this
time), giving himself to these good things, while also
taking heed to himself, or measuring them by the Holy
Spirit inside of him. If he did these things, then, according
to Paul, he would save both himself and those who heard
him. In the second letter, Paul also told him to stir up
these gifts, finding courage from the spirit of power, love,
and common sense within himself. Why? Because he had
been called with a holy calling and enabled by God to bring
it to pass. Was he to force these things to happen? No, he
was to mediate on them, ponder them, and be ready to
follow God into them as they were confirmed in his own
heart through the Holy Spirit within him.
It is perhaps this last example that best parallels what
David du Plessis experienced in Smith Wiggleworths
prophecy to him. First of all, it was given far in advance of
its fulfillment so that David had plenty of time to think
about it and ponder what it meant. Over the course of his
meditation, God began to change attitudes in Davids heart
that needed to be changed before he became the man
who could fulfill Gods calling on his life. David also waited
on God to open the doors and lead him before he began
walking out the vision of what Smith had told him he
would be doing with the majority of his life as a minister.
He found himself taking gradual steps toward being the
reconciler God had called him to be, first among the
Pentecostals and then among all of the churches, even
those so liberal they had become apostate. This leads to
another major point about prophecy that David learned as
God spoke to him and as he prayed and recovered in the
hospital after his car accident: that prophecy is
meaningless if it is not applied with love and forgiveness.
Prophecy Is Nothing Without Love
In the heart of his letter to the Corinthians in which he
taught about spiritual gifts, Paul interjects the greatest
discourse on the love of God found in the Bible. Of these
Scriptures in 1 Corinthians 13, we tend to focus on verses
48, but look for a moment at what is written on either
side of that famous passage:
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand
all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all
faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not
charity [love], I am nothing.Charity [love] never faileth:
but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether
there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and
we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is
come, then that which is in part shall be done away.(1
Corinthians 13:2, 810, emphasis added)
Too often we are so fascinated by what is revealed in
prophecyin the power and wonder of truth uncovered
that we forget that if the truth is not applied in love, it is
nothing. Davids earliest instincts in hearing this Scripture
were that he would march into ecumenical circles with the
truth of Gods Word and correct them as Jonah corrected
the people of Nineveh. He was right, and they were
wrong. He would go in and preach the truth, and they
would fall to their knees, repenting in sackcloth and ashes,
or be destroyed by the hand of the Lord. But, because of
the cross, God no longer operates that way. The truth was
to be offered in love, and in order to bring repentance,
David first had to learn to offer forgiveness by forgiving
those from the traditional denominations who had hurt him
as a young Pentecostal.
Without love, prophecy will fail and come to an end,
because we dont know it allwe see only in part and
must walk out the rest by following the God of love who is
love.48 Again, prophecy that creates pride is either false
or misused; it is only prophecy that brings people closer to
Christ and His love that is true.
In the Final Analysis
By considering these things, there is a great deal to be
learned from the prophecy God gave through Smith
Wigglesworth to David du Plessis and what God was
hoping to see come of the Pentecostal/charismatic
movements. God was not looking to create a new
denomination but to reunify all believers in the bond of the
Spirit. In many senses, it is easy to call this a failure,
because, in the end, denominations divided further,
creating a greater number; however, in a more important
sense, it was a tremendous success. Through what has
been sifted and separated into different movements
notably, what has been called the Pentecostal movement,
the ecumenical movement, neo-Pentecostalism, and the
charismatic renewal, the work has been done all by the
same Spirit, and there is now a body of that Spirit within
literally all the Christian denominations and
paradenominations of the earth, which, according to the
World Christian Encyclopedia, number nearly 34,000.49
The key to true unity is not becoming more like each other
but each of us becoming more like Jesus, which is the
primary work that the Holy Spirit does in anyones life.
While The Smith Wigglesworth Prophecy, as it has
come to be known over time, has raised incredible interest
because of the man who gave it and the revival it foretold,
it is important to remember that it was not a prophecy for
all of us. It was a prophetic word given specifically to
David du Plessis so that he could ponder it, be changed by
it, and, in the end, give himself wholly to it when it looked
as if all of the rest of his brethren had forsaken him
because of it. It is also important that the rest of us allow
such men as David du Plessis to follow God when they are
called to do so. It is an unfortunate mistake that his
ordination papers were pulled by the Assemblies of God
just as his ministry was peaking. And it is also unfortunate
that Rev. du Plessis is not the only minister to whom this
happened when he broke away from the mainstream to
follow the voice of God.
Ordination is the recognition of Gods call upon a life,
not a means of trying to control someone and prevent any
actions we may not fully support. It is good that the
Assemblies of God later reinstated him, as has also
happened with many others in similar circumstances, but it
is nevertheless unfortunate that they were cast aside in
the first place.
For a time, especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s,
when Davids ordination papers had been revoked, it was
only David, God, and what God had spoken to him through
Smith Wigglesworth. Of course, out of this, the important
thing was that it was David and God, not David and the
prophecy, for had he not continued to pursue God through
it allhad he pursued the prophecy insteadit very well
could have been the others who were right in pulling his
papers, and not David.
However, the fact remains that this prophecy was
specifically for David du Plessisand it was fulfilled. Other
prophecies, howeversuch as the one given to Tommy
Hicks, which we will discuss in the next sectionwere
given more generally to the church and are still waiting for
us to rise up and take part in their fulfillment. It is for this
reason that we include the Tommy Hicks prophecyit is
one of the best capsulations existing, in our estimation, of
prophecies about the final worldwide revival that will take
place before Jesus returns to the earth. By taking what we
have discussed in this first section and applying it to
ourselves and to the prophecy given through Tommy
Hicks, it is clear that we still have a lot to do as we
approach what will truly be the greatest revival of all time.

44. The italics have been added to emphasize the point
here.
45. It may be best to turn to these chapters and read them
before continuing.
46. The italics have been added for emphasis.
47. It is worth noting here that David du Plessis was asked
to take part in the initial 1975 meetings that helped right
this discipleship movement and get its followers back
onto a more correct course.
48. See 1 John 4:8; 16.
49. Barrett et al., ed., World Christian Encyclopedia, 10.



Part II

The Vision of the Awakening Giant
Given to Tommy Hicks
6
Tommy Hicks and the Great Argentine
Revival
It is not necessary for us to examine the life of Tommy
Hicks as closely as we did that of David du Plessis in order
to understand the vision God gave to him. However, it is
important to understand why God gave this message to
Tommy Hicks and not anyone else. It is equally important
to understand that the magnitude of what Tommy
experienced in 1954 in Buenos Aireswhich appeared to
be the greatest single set of revival meetings in the history
of the world to date (and was later surpassed in the 1990s
by Reinhard Bonnkes meetings in Africa, where he saw
millions saved)made him the perfect man to speak this
vision through. What he had witnessed in South America
gave him only the smallest glimmer of what God intends to
do on the earth before Jesus returns.
Another important factor is the state of Argentina in
1954. Unaffected by the destruction of World War II,
Argentina was among the ten most prosperous nations of
the world at the time, even exceeding some European
countries. President Juan Domingo Pern, who was a
central figure in Argentine politics from 1944 until his
death in 1974, was at the peak of his careerthe
following year, he would be ousted in a military coup and
exiledand Argentina was confident about its future. This
was no backward, third-world country; Argentina was
alive and prospering, and was as arrogant as any Western
nation claiming similar success. Not only that, but up until
the meetings organized by Tommy Hicks, the nation had
proven one of the most resistant to the gospel. Yet, for
two months, beginning the week before Easter 1954 and
running through June 13, God showed the Argentines that
they still had great needs only He could meet.
Believers in Argentina had begun praying and believing
for these meetings in 1951. In the succeeding years,
roughly thirty churches in Buenos Aires pulled together to
back and promote the event, which would begin April 14,
1954. At the same time, God had put the nation of
Argentina on the heart of Rev. Tommy Hicks, who arrived
at the Los Angeles airport for a flight bound for Buenos
Aires with his airline ticket, luggage, and $47. However,
before he even got on the plane, he was blessed by others
who had gathered to send him off, and he left the United
States full of purpose.
The coalition of churches had hoped to have Rev. T. L.
Osborn speak at the gathering, but he was unavailable,
and so they asked Tommy to speak. Pastor Paul Sorensen,
a native of Argentina, was asked to interpret. In
preparation, they printed 80,000 flyers, 1,000 large
posters, and 20,000 church guides; placed a large ad in a
local paper with distribution to 300,000 people; traveled
among the churches to promote the event; and rented the
stadium of the Atlanta Football (Soccer) Club, which
seated 45,000. When close to 8,000 people showed up for
the first nights meeting, they were quite pleased. It was
the largest evangelical gathering in the history of the
nation. Tommy spoke with authority and anointing, and
there were some wonderful healings. Everyone was
pleased with the outcome. But God was just getting
started.
The next night, there were close to 9,000 attendees at
the meeting, and many were surprised. Even those who
had initially opposed the meetings started to take notice.
Rev. Hicks preached on the healing of the Syrophenician
womans daughter,50 and we could almost see that
happy little lady running down the dusty road to meet her
delivered daughter.51 Again, there were remarkable
healings.
The number of attendees remained steady through
Friday, when they started allowing those who had been
healed to step up to the microphone and testify. The
following night, attendance was at least 10,000, and at the
Easter Sunday afternoon meeting, it exceeded 12,000.
Photographers from the local papers were present,
worship was growing stronger, and many deaf and dumb
were healed, among other ailments. On Monday of that
week, the numbers did not dwindle at allagain, more
than 12,000 were in attendance. Rev. Hicks spoke on faith
and healing, and hundreds openly accepted Jesus as Lord
and Savior. There were more healings, including those of
several paralytics who praised God loudly before the
crowd. Another man was delivered from a demon and was
so changed that when he returned the next night, even
Rev. Hicks and his family couldnt recognize him. That
night, T. L. and Daisy Osborn were able to join them, and
Rev. Osborn spoke for about twenty minutes. Healings and
testimonies continued to flow. The numbers were growing
so much that other ministers were asked to join in helping
to pray for people. One young Argentine pastor was
surprised when a paralytic began to walk after he had
prayed for him.
More ads and flyers were printed and distributed, and
the meetings continued to grow. This was now by far the
greatest spiritual movement Argentina had ever seen. So
many healings were taking place that it was impossible to
record them all. A new chorus was sung in Spanish and
adopted as the theme chorus for the meetings:
Argentina, a redeemed country,/ Thats the theme of our
faithful churches./ Lets raise up the banner of Christ!/
Then transformed Argentines will be seen.52
On Saturday afternoon, April 24, attendance had grown
to about 13,000, and Rev. Hicks spoke on John 11, I am
the Resurrection and the Life. At least 3,000 had publicly
professed Christ so far in the campaign. The stadium was
closing in on being about one-third full. Other churches
began joining the coalition that sponsored the event, and
Rev. Hicks was even asked to speak at a Bible school in
town. Despite the cold and rainy weather, the crowds
stayed faithful, although they dwindled back to about
10,000 again. God was not through, however.
On May 1, which was Labor Day in Argentina, no public
meetings were allowed, so Rev. Hicks spoke to a gathering
of pastors in the Assembly of God Hall about organizing a
Full Gospel Business Mens group in Buenos Aires. The
message was well received.
Then, on Sunday, May 2, the rain ceased, and the
floodgates began to open. Over 20,000 people came to the
meeting, and God continued to save and heal. Tommy
preached a message entitled God Has Always Delivered
His People. Over a thousand people signed cards saying
they had been born again. These cards began to be
distributed to the local churches so that the leaders could
follow up with them and get them connected to faithful
churches in the area. Again, there were more sick people
present than could be prayed for at the platform, so
prayer was offered for them wherever they sat, and many
more healings took place. By Wednesday of that week, the
crowd numbered more than 30,000. Now, news of the
meetings was spreading all over the country simply by
word of mouth. By May 7, the audience was nearing
40,000. Churches were gathering together to offer prayer
and counseling.
By Sunday, it was evident that they were outgrowing
the capacity of the stadium. By Tuesday of that week, May
11, attendance was between 60,000 and 70,000, with
people standing in the aisles and out in the streets
surrounding the stadium. The next night, an estimated
80,000 to 100,000 flocked to the meeting. Newspapers ran
lengthy articles about the event, and a Time-Life reporter
was even present. But God still was not through. Soon,
there were more people outside the stadium, listening in,
than present inside. For ten consecutive nights, attendance
was estimated to exceed 100,000. Publishing houses were
being cleared of their stocks of Bibles and Christian
literature, such that these materials had to be flown in to
meet the urgent demand for them.
On Saturday, May 22, the meetings were moved to the
stadium of the Huracn soccer team, which could seat
110,000. This place filled, as well, and thousands still
stood outside. On May 24, the local papers reported that
attendance had surpassed 200,000. Such incredible
crowds continued until the meetings closed on June 13.
Local churches were filled beyond capacity, and the
Buenos Aires Assembly of God had been forced to
schedule five services on Sundays just to accommodate
the increase in attendance. They were forced to rent a
larger hall nearer the center of town to hold services. New
churches were being opened everywhere, and the demand
for Bibles and Christian literature had never been higher.
Among those healed was the nephew of the vice
president, who was healed of asthma, and a local
publisher, Jose Luis Navarro, who was healed of
rheumatism.
In the end, conservative estimates suggested that
roughly three million people attended the meetings, some
50,000 Bibles and New Testaments had been printed and
distributed, and about 300,000 salvation cards had been
signed and distributed to the local churches. Innumerable
people had heard the word of salvation for the first time,
and countless people had been healed or delivered. The
world had never seen such a revival before.
In the following years, the Full Gospel Business Mens
Fellowship supported Tommys return to Argentina in
1955, as well as funded several other revival meetings he
led around the world, in Switzerland, Germany, New
Zealand, Finland, and Russia. However, while miracles,
healings, and salvations continued to manifest in his
meetings as he preached, the results he saw never came
close to matching what had happened in 1954 in
Argentina. Between 1956 and 1958, Tommy also published
three books that were largely made up of testimonies from
his meetings and his teachings. Tommy passed away in
1973.
Tommy, perhaps more than anyone else, must have
realized that something special had happened in Argentina
the first time he went there, and that it had been a
glimpse into what God had planned for latera larger
glimpse of which he would see in the vision given to him in
1961, which is recorded in the next chapter. It was an
answer to the prayers of the churches of Argentina, but it
was also something much more than thata glimpse of
God acting sovereignly to unleash heaven on earth. The
Buenos Aires revival of which Tommy Hicks was privileged
to be a major part was, in many ways, the beginning of
Gods last great revival on the earth.

50. See Mark 7:2530.
51. Stokes, The Great Revival in Buenos Aires, 7.
52. Ibid., 12.
7
The Awakening Giant Vision Given to
Tommy Hicks
(Note: Rev. Tommy Hicks ministered this vision at a Full
Gospel Business Mens Meeting in Los Angeles, California.
It was later transcribed and printed into a booklet, entitled
Vision Given to Tommy Hicks, Evangelist, July 25, 1961.
The material in this chapter is adapted from that booklet.)
The message that I bring to you this morning is perhaps
the most important thingor one of the most important
thingsthat ever happened to me in my life. I have had
many tremendous experiences with GodGod has been
good to me. He has led me in paths that few of us have
ever had the privilege of walking in.
My message begins July 25, 1961, about two thirty in
the morning. I was in Winnipeg, Canada. I had hardly
fallen asleep when the vision and the revelation that God
gave to me came before me. The vision came three times,
exact in detail, the morning of July 25, 1961. I was so
stirred and so moved by the revelation that I tell you this
morning, it has changed my complete outlook upon the
body of Christ and upon the end-time ministry. I feel this
morning that the greatest thing of the church lies straight
ahead. It is so hard this morning to help men and women
to realize and understand the thing that God is trying to
give His people in the end time.
I received a letter several weeks ago from one of our
native evangelists down in Africain Nairobi. This man
and his wife were on their way up to Tanganyika. They
could neither read, nor could they write, but we have been
supporting them for over two years. And as they entered
into the territory of Tanganyika, they came across a small
village. The entire village was evacuating and leaving
because of a plague that had hit that village. This man
came across natives who were weeping and crying, and
he asked them what was wrong. They told him their
mother and father had suddenly died. They had been dead
for three days, and they had to leave. They were afraid to
go insidethey were leaving them in the cottage. He
turned and asked them where they were. They pointed to
the hut, and he asked them to go with him, but they
refused. They were afraid to go. This native and his wife
went to this little cottagethey entered into this cottage
where the man and woman had been dead for three days.
The evangelist simply stretched forth his hand in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and spoke that mans name and
that womans name, and said, In the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, I command life to come back to your bodies.
Instantaneously, these two heathen people who had never
known Jesus Christ as their Savior sat up and immediately
began to praise God. The Spirit and the power of God
came into the life of these people. To us, that may seem
strange and may seem a phenomenon. But that is a
beginning of this end-time ministry.
God is going to take the do-nothings, the nobodies,
the unheard-ofs, the no-accountsHe is going to take
every man and every womanand He is going to give to
them this outpouring of the Spirit of God. In the book of
Acts, we read, In the last days, saith God, I will pour out
of my Spirit upon all flesh.53 Do you believe that this
morning?
I wonder this morning if we realize what God meant
when He said, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. I
do not think I fully realize, nor could I understand, the
fullness of it. And then I read from the book of Joel: Be
glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your
God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately,
and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the
former rain, and the latter rain.54 It is not only going to
be the rain, the former and the latter rain, but He is going
to give to His peopleand I believe with all my heartin
these last days, we are going to receive a double portion
of the power of God. And, I say again, it is hard for us to
realize, because we living, as it were, in that lethargy and
in that sleepiness.
We do not realize what God is trying to do. And yet, all
over the world, men and womenlike the native workers
who went into Tanganyikathey could not even read or
write and had to have someone else to read their Bible for
them, but they knew the Lord Jesus Christ. People do not
always understand what you say, but they can feel what
you have. Peter turned to the lame man at the Gate
Beautiful, and he said, That which I have, I give unto
thee. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, stand up and
walk.55 We are going to see such demonstrations as the
world has never seen. I believe it, and I know it with all of
my heart.
As the vision appeared to me, after I was asleep, I
suddenly found myself in a great high distance. Where I
was, I do not know. But, as I was looking down upon the
earth, suddenly, the whole world came into viewevery
nation, every kindred, and every tongue came before my
sight, from the east and from the west, from the north and
the south; and I recognized every country, and many cities
that I had been inand I was almost in fear and trembling
as I stood beholding the great sight before me. And at that
moment, when the world came into view, it began to
lightning and thunder. And as the lightning flashed over
the face of the earth, my eyes went downwardI was
facing the north. And suddenly I beheld what looked like a
great giant, and I stared and looked at it. I was almost
bewildered by the sight. It was so gigantic and so great in
stature; its feet seemed to reach to the North Pole, and its
head to the south; its arms were stretched from sea to
sea. I could not even begin to understand whether this
was a mountain or whether this was a giant. But, as I
watched it, I suddenly beheld this great giant; I could see
it was struggling for life, to even live. But its body was
covered with debris from head to foot; and, at times, this
great giant would move its body and act as though it
would rise up.
And when it did, thousands of little creatures seemed to
run awayhideous-looking creatures would run away
from this giantand when it would become calm, they
would come back.
All of a sudden, this giant lifted its hand towards the
heavens, and then it lifted its other hand. And when it did,
these creatures by the thousands seemed to flee away
from this giant and go out into the darkness and into the
night. Slowly this great giant began to rise, and as it did,
its head and hands went into the clouds. As it rose to its
feet, it seemed to have cleansed itself from the debris and
filth that were upon it, and it began to raise its hands into
the heavens, as though praising the Lord. And as it raised
its hands, it was even unto the clouds.
Suddenly, every cloud became silverthe most
beautiful silver that I have ever known. As I watched the
phenomenonit was so greatI could not even begin to
understand what it all meant. I was so stirred as I
watched it. And I cried to the Lord, and I said, Oh Lord,
what is the meaning of this? And it felt as if I was actually
in the Spirit, and I could feel the presence of the Lord
even as I was asleep.
And from those clouds, suddenly, great drops of liquid
light began to rain down upon this mighty giant. And
slowly, this giant began to meltbegan to sink, as it were,
into the very earth itself. And as it melted, its whole form
seemed to have melted upon the face of the earth. And
this great rain began to come down; liquid drops of light,
as it were, began to flood the very earth itself. And as I
watched, this giant that seemed to meltsuddenly it
became millions of people over the face of the earth. As I
beheld the sight before me, people stood up all over the
world; they were lifting their hands, and they were
praising the Lord.
At that very moment, there came a great thunder that
seemed to roar from the heavens: a voice like that of a
lion that roared. I turned my eyes toward the heavens,
and suddenly I saw a figure in white, in glistening white
the most glorious thing that I have ever seen in all my life.
I did not see the face, but somehow I knew that it was the
Lord Jesus Christ. Somehow I knew it was Jesus Himself.
And He stretched forth His hand. As He did so, He would
stretch it forth to one, and to another, and to another; He
stretched forth His hand upon the peoples and the nations
of the world, men and women. As He pointed towards
them, this liquid light seemed to flow from His hand into
this person, and a mighty anointing of God came upon him
or her. And those people began to go forth in the name of
the Lord.
I do not know how long I watched it. It seemed it went
into days and weeks and months. And I beheld this Christ;
He continued to stretch forth His hand. But there was a
tragedy. There were many people, as He stretched forth
His hand, who refused the anointing of God and the call of
God. I saw many women I knew, people whom I felt
certainly would receive the call of God, but, as He
stretched forth His hand toward this one, and toward that
one, they simply bowed their heads and began to back
away. And to each of those who seemed to bow down and
back away, he or she seemed to go into darkness.
Blackness seemed to swallow them everywhere.
I was bewildered as I watched it. But these people He
had anointedhundreds and thousands of people all over
the world, in Africa, Asia, Russia, China, America, all over
the worldthe anointing of God was upon these peoples
as they went forth in the name of the Lord. I saw these
men and women as they went forththey were ditch
diggers, they were washermen, they were rich men, they
were poor men; I saw people who were bound with
paralysis, and sickness, and blindness; as the Lord
stretched forth His hand to give them this anointing, they
became well, they became healed, and they went forth.
And this is the miracle of itthis is the glorious miracle
of it: those people would stretch forth their hand exactly
as the Lord did. And it seemed that there was this liquid
fire that seemed to be in their hand. As they stretched
forth their hand, they said, According to my word, be thou
made whole.
I saw people go into insane institutions. This is all in the
revelation that God gave meit was so mighty and so
majestic. I saw a little woman in a little gingham dress go
stand in an insane institution. And as I saw her go into an
insane institution, my mind went back to more than thirty
years ago, in a little town in Illinois, when I had gone into
an institution of some 500 inmates. In this insane
institution, I remembered going from ward to ward, and
as I looked at those people, tears streamed down my face,
and I asked, Oh Lord, why is it that Your people do not
have power? Why is it that I do not have power that I
could go in this institution and say: Be thou made whole?
But I had hardly uttered those words when, somehow,
something within me seemed to say; The hour is coming,
the day is coming, and you will see itwhen you will
stretch forth your handwhen My people will stretch forth
their hands and these people shall be made whole.
As these people continued in this mighty end-time
ministry, I did not fully realize what it was. And I looked to
the Lord and said, What is the meaning of this? And He
said, This is that which I will do in the last days. I will
restore all that the cankerworm, the palmerworm, the
caterpillarI will restore all that they have destroyed. This
is My people. In the end time, they shall go forth. As a
mighty army shall they sweep over the face of the
earth.56
As I was at this great heightwhere I was, I do not
know; whether I was a witness suspended in the air, I
know notI only know that I could behold the whole
world. I watched these people as they were going to and
fro over the face of the earth. Suddenly, here was a man
in Africa, and in a moment he was transported in the Spirit
of God, and perhaps he was in Russia, or in China, or in
America, or in some other place, and vice versaall over
the worldthese people went. And they came through
fire, and through pestilence, and through famine. Neither
fire nor persecutionnothing seemed to stop them.
Angry mobs came to them with swords and with guns,
and, like Jesus, they passed through the multitude, and
they could not find them. But they went forth in the name
of the Lord.And everywhere they stretched forth their
hands, the sick were healed, the blind eyes were opened.
There was not a long prayer. And one of the things that
occurred to meafter I had reviewed the vision so many
times in my mind and thought about it so many timesI
never saw a church, and I never saw or heard of a
denomination; but these people were going in the name of
the Lord of Hosts. Hallelujah!
As they marched forward, everything they did as the
ministry of Christ in the end time. These people were
ministering to the multitudes over the face of the earth.
Tens of thousands, even millions, seemed to come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. These people stood forth and gave the
message of the kingdomof the coming kingdomin this
last hour. It was so glorious.
It seemed there are those who rebelled; they would
become angry. And they tried to attack those workers who
were giving the message in this end time. But nothing
could hinder it. God is going to have a people. God is going
to give to the world a demonstration in this last hour such
as the world has never known before. Those men and
women are of all walks of life. Degrees will mean nothing.
I saw these workers as they were going over the face
of the earth. When one would seem to stumble and fall,
another would come and pick him up. There were no big
I and little you. But every mountain was brought low
and every valley was exalted, and they seemed to have
one thing in common: there was a divine lovea divine
love that seemed to flow forth from these people as they
went together, as they worked together, as they lived
together; it was the most glorious thing that I have ever
known. Jesus Christ was the theme of their life. Is Jesus
the theme of your life today? Does He mean everything to
you?
They continued, and it seemed the days went byas I
stood and beheld his sight, I could only cry, and
sometimes I laughedit was so wonderful. These people
went throughout the face of the whole earth bringing forth
in this last end time.
And as I watched from the very heaven itself, there
were times when great deluges of this liquid light seemed
to fall upon great congregations. And that congregation
would lift up their hands and seemingly praise God for
hours and even days, as the Spirit of God came upon
them. God said, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.
And that is exactly the thing that God was doing. And to
every man and to every woman who received this power
and the anointing of God (the miracles of God), there was
no ending to it.
We have talked about miracles; we have talked about
signs and wonders; but I could not help but weep as I
read again this morningat four oclock this morningI
read again the letter from our native worker, from the
superintendent of the church of God, who wrote the letter
and told of this native worker. That is only the evidence of
the beginning for one man. A do-nothing, a nobody, an
unheard-of, who would go and stretch forth his hand and
say, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command life
to come into your body. I dropped to my knees and began
to pray again, and I said, Lord, I know that this thing is
coming to pass, and I believe it is coming soon.
And then again, as these people were going about the
face of the earth, a great persecution seemed to come
from every end of the earth.
Suddenly, there was another great loud clap of thunder
that seemed to resound around the world. And I heard
again the voicethe voice that seemed to speak, Now,
this is My people; this is My beloved bride.
And when the voice spoke, I looked upon the earth, and
I could see the lakes and mountains. The graves were
opened, and people from all over the worldthe saints of
all agesseemed to be rising. As they arose from the
graves, suddenly all these people came from every
directionfrom the east and the west, from the north and
the southand they seemed to be forming again this
gigantic body. As the dead in Christ seemed to be rising
first, I could hardly comprehend it. It was so marvelous, so
far beyond anything I could ever dream or think of. But, as
this body suddenly began to form and take shape again, it
took shape again in the form of this mighty giant. But this
time, it was different: it was arrayed in the most beautiful,
gorgeous whiteits garments were without spot or
wrinkle as this body began to form. And the people of all
ages seemed to be gathering into this body. And slowly,
slowly, as it began to form up into the very heavens,
suddenly, from the heavens above, the Lord Jesus came
became the Head. And I heard another clap of thunder,
which said, This is My beloved bride for whom I have
waited. She will come forth, even tried by fire; this is she
that I have loved from the beginning of time.
As I watched, my eyes suddenly turned to the far north,
and I saw seeming destruction. Men and women in
anguish and crying out, and buildings in destruction. Then
I heard again the fourth voice, which said, Now is My
wrath being poured out upon the face of the earth. From
the ends of the whole world, the wrath of God seemed to
be poured out, and it seemed that there were great vials
of Gods wrath being poured out upon the face of the
earth. I can remember it as though it happened a moment
ago. I shook and trembled as I beheld the awful sight of
seeing the cities and whole nations going down into
destruction. I could hear the weeping and the wailing. I
could hear the people crying. They seemed to cry as they
went into caves, but the caves and the mountains opened
up. They leaped into water, but the water would not
drown them. There was nothing that seemingly could
destroy them. They were wanting to take their life, but
they could not take it.
Then again I turned my eyes unto this glorious sight
this body arrayed in the beautiful, white shining garment.
Slowly, slowly, it began to lift from the earth. And as it did,
I awoke.
The sight that I had beheldI had seen the end-time
ministry, the last hour.
Again on July 27, at two thirty in the morning, the same
revelationthe same visioncame again exactly as it had
before.
My life has been changed. I realize that we are living in
that end time, for all over the world, God is anointing men
and women with this ministry. It will not be doctrine. It will
not be churchianity; but it is going to be Jesus Christ. They
will give forth the Word of the Lord and are going to sayI
heard it so many times in the visionAccording to my
word, it shall be done.
Oh people, listen to me. According to my word. It shall
be done. We are going to be clothed with power and
anointing from God. We wont have to preach sermons.
We wont have to have persons heckle you in public. We
wont have to depend on man, nor will we be
denominational echoes; but we will have the power of the
living God. We will fear no man but will go in the name of
the Lord of Hosts.

53. Acts 2:17.
54. Joel 2:23.
55. See Acts 3:6.
56. See Joel 2.
8
From Here to Eternity
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the
Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious
fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he
receive the early and latter rain.
James 5:7
Many people believe that we are in the lull before the
storm. While some expect that the coming of the Lord will
be preceded by a great falling awayBecause iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold57most
Pentecostals are looking instead for a great last-days
revival that will sweep the gospel to every nook and
cranny of the earth, just as it is described as doing in the
vision given to Tommy Hicks. We will probably see both: a
great divide forming between believers and nonbelievers,
so that differences are evident, and the final choice
making a clear, conscious decision to either accept or
reject the gospel. Everyone of accountable age will have a
chance to hear and decide for himself whether Jesus
Christ is Lord and Savior, raised from the dead by the
Father. This is the work of our day and our time. As we
said in the beginning, God is not through with us yet.
Unfortunately, the talk of end-times prophecy has had
many people looking for what you might call the spiritual
ejection button. It is as if we are flying around in the most
powerfully equipped aircraft, doing incredible stunts and
acrobatics every Sunday morning, but when an old WWI
biplane of the devil flies onto our radar, we are not ready
for attack. Instead, we are shouting, Lord, rapture us!
We see world events and look for deliverance from the
earth rather than letting it inspire us to offer deliverance to
the earth. We are looking for our own escape instead of
making sure that when that escape finally becomes
accessible, we save as many people with us as possible.
It doesnt take great spiritual discernment to see that
the great giant in Tommy Hicks vision that turns into
thousands of people who spread throughout the earth is
the churchnot a church, not a denomination, and not a
nation, but the entire body of Christ spread throughout the
earth. Christ, the Head of that giant, enters the picture to
stretch forth His hands to save and to endue believers with
power, yet many pull back from Him rather than embrace
His gift. This prophecy is for all of us in our time. Will we
be among those who embrace the call of God on our lives
and accept His power to fulfill it? Or will we be among
those who pull back from Christs hands reaching out to
us?
We must follow the same steps as David du Plessis to
fulfill the prophecy given to him of we desire to see
Tommy Hickss vision fulfilled in our own lives. We must
meditate upon, pray over, and ponder the vision. We must
see how the vision aligns with Scripture and then follow
that pattern, taking heed how we behave and what we
teach. We must follow God with all of our hearts and obey
immediately when He tells us to do something. We must
lift up Christ in all that we say and do. We must stir up the
gifts within us for the profit of all. We must walk in
faithfulness and humility, as well as love and forgiveness.
And we must give ourselves wholly to that vision and
calling so that we may accomplish all that God has for us
to accomplishfighting the good fight, finishing the race,
keeping the faith. Then, when God finally does hit the
rapture button to bring us home, we will go with many,
many new friends who will remember for eternity what we
shared with them.
It is our hope that, through this book, you have learned
a few important things, one of which is the significance
that prophecy can have and how we should follow it to
fulfill the will of God. Another is the necessity of judging
prophecy to make sure you are following the truth and not
being deceived. Last, and perhaps most important, is that
we all have a part in prophecy, and, while God will
supernaturally and sovereignly open doors for us to fulfill
His will, it is up to us to go through those doors. Clearly,
the rewards are for those who will go through, and the
regret will be for those who pull back and do not.
All indications are that God is in the process of
gathering His body on the earth for a final assault, and the
greatest revival of all time is in the very near future. It is
our prayer that you will take your place in it, as God
directs you. We hope that this book helps you to find the
position God has prepared for you for such a time as this.
Gods best!

57. Matthew 24:12.



Part III

Collected Sermons of Smith
Wigglesworth,
David du Plessis, and Tommy Hicks
9
The Gift of ProphecySmith
Wigglesworth
(Note: This sermon by Smith Wigglesworth
is the only one recorded in which he spoke specifically
on the gift of prophecy.)58
In 1 Corinthians 12:10, speaking of the diversities of
gifts by the same Spirit, Paul wrote, To another
prophecy. We see the importance of this gift from 1
Corinthians 14:1, where we are told to follow after
charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may
prophesy. We see also that he that prophesieth speaketh
unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.59
How important it is, then, that we should have this gift in
manifestation in the church in order that the saints might
be built up and made strong and receive the comfort of
God. But with this, as with all other gifts, we should see
that it is operated by the Spirits power and brought forth
in the unction of the Spirit so that everyone who hears
prophecy, as it is brought forth by the Spirit of God, will
know that it is God who is bringing forth the message that
is for the edification of those who hear. It is the Spirit of
God who takes the deep things of God and reveals them,
and it is He who unctionizes the prophet to give forth the
revelation of the things of God.
Utterance in prophecy has a real lifting power and gives
real light on the truth to those who hear. Prophecy is
never a mind reflection; it is something far deeper than
this. By means of prophecy, we receive the mind of the
Lord; and as we receive these blessed, fresh utterances
through the Spirit of the Lord, the whole assembly is lifted
into the realm of the spiritual. Our hearts and minds and
whole bodies receive a quickening through the Spirit-given
word. As the Spirit brings forth prophecy, we find there is
healing and salvation and power. For this reason, it is one
of the gifts that we ought to covet.
While we appreciate true prophecy, we must not forget
that the Scriptures warn us in no uncertain manner
concerning what is false. In 1 John 4:1, we are told,
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God: because many false prophets
are gone out into the world.
And John tells us that we can tell the difference
between the true and the false:
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: but this is
that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that
it should come.60
There are voices that seem like prophecy. Some people
have fallen into terrible darkness and bondage through
listening to these counterfeits of the true gift of prophecy.
True prophecy is always Christ-exalting, magnifying the
Son of God, exalting the blood of Jesus Christ, encouraging
the saints to praise and worship the true God. False
prophecy deals with things that do not edify and is
designed to puff up its hearers and to lead them into
error.
Many picture Satan as a great, ugly monster with great
ears, eyes, and a tail, but the Scriptures give us no such
picture of him. He was a being of great beauty whose
heart became lifted up. He manifests himself everywhere
today as an angel of light. He is full of pride; and if you
dont watch, he will try to make you think you are
somebody. This is the weakness of most preachers and
most menthe idea of being somebody!
There are none of us who are anything; and the more
we know we are nothing, the more God can make us a
channel of His power. May the dear Lord save us from the
things that cause us to be proudthey are the devils
traps. True prophecy will show you that Christ is all in all
and that you are in yourself less than nothing and vanity.
False prophecy will not magnify Christ but will make you
think that, after all, you are going to be some great one.
You may be sure that such is inspired by the chief of the
sons of pride.
I want to warn you against the foolishness of listening
for voices. Look in the Bible. Here we have the voices of
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in
times past to the fathers through the prophets and has in
these last days spoken to us by His Son.61 Dont run away
with anything else. If you hear the voice of God, it will be
in line with the Scriptures of truth given in the inspired
Word. In Revelation 22:1819, we see the danger of
attempting to add or take from the prophecy of this Book.
True prophecy, as it comes forth in the power of the Spirit
of God, will neither take from nor add to the Scriptures but
will intensify and quicken what has already been given to
us of God. The Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance
all the things that Jesus said and did. True prophecy will
bring forth both new and old things out of the Scriptures of
truth and will make them living and powerful to us.
Some may ask, If we have the Scriptures, why do we
need prophecy? The Scriptures themselves answer this
question. God has said that in the last days He will pour
out His Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy.62 The Lord knew that in these
last days, prophecy would be a real means of blessing in
us, and that is why we can count on Him giving us, by
means of the Spirit, through His servants and His
handmaids, true prophetic messages.
I was at a meeting in Scotland and came in touch with
two young women who were in a great state of
excitement. These two girls were telegraph operators who
were precious young women, having received the baptism
of the Spirit. They both longed to be missionaries. But,
whatever our spiritual state is, we are subject to
temptations. An evil power came to one to these young
women and said, If you will obey me, I will make you one
of the most wonderful missionaries that ever went out.
This was just the devil or one of his agents acting as an
angel of light. One of these young women was captured
immediately, and she became so excited that her sister
saw there was something wrong and asked the
superintendent to allow them to be free for a time.
As she went into a room, Satan, endeavoring to imitate
the Spirit of God, manifested himself in a voice and led this
young woman to believe that the missionary enterprise
would be unfolded that night if she would obey. This evil
spirit said, Dont tell anybody but your sister. I reckon
that everything of God can be told to everybody. If you
cannot preach what you live, your life is wrong. Someday
it will be told from the housetops. Dont think you will get
out of it. What is pure comes to the light; he who does
what is true comes to the light, that his deeds may be
made manifest, that they are wrought in God.63
The evil power went on to say to this girl, You go to
the railroad station tonight, and there will be a train
coming at 7:32. Buy a ticket for yourself and your sister.
Then you will have six pence left. You will find a woman in
a carriage dressed as a nurse, and opposite her will be a
gentleman who has all the money you need. She bought
her ticket and had just six pence left. The first thing came
right. Next, the train came in at exactly 7:32. But the next
thing did not come. They ran from the top to the bottom of
that railroad train before it moved out, and nothing turned
out as they had been told. As soon as the train moved out,
the same voice came and said, Over on the other
platform. All that night, until 9:30, these two young
women were rushed from platform to platform. As soon
as it was 9:30, this same evil power said, Now that I
know you will obey me, I will make you the greatest
missionaries. Always something big! They might have
known it was all wrong. This evil power said, This
gentleman will take you to a certain bank at a certain
corner in Glasgow, where he will put all that money in for
you. Banks are not open at that time of night in Glasgow.
If she had gone to the street this evil spirit mentioned,
there probably would not have been a bank there. All they
needed was a little common sense, and they would have
seen that it was not the Lord. If you have your heart open
for these kinds of voices, you will soon get into a trap. We
must always remember that there are many evil spirits in
the world.
Were these two people delivered? Yes, after much
travail with God, they were completely delivered. Their
eyes were opened to see that this thing was not from God
but from the devil. Those two sisters are now laboring for
the Lord in China and doing a blessed work for Him. If you
do get into error on these lines, praise God, there is a way
out. I praise God that He will break us down until all pride
leaves us.
Paul wrote at the command of the Lord,
Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others
judge. If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by,
let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by
one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.(1
Corinthians 14:2931)
If you are not humble enough to allow your prophecy to
be judged, it is as surely wrong as you are wrong.
Prophecy has to be judged. A meeting such as this one
that Paul suggested would certainly be the greatest
meeting you ever had. Praise God, the tide will rise to this.
It will all come into perfect order when the church is
bathed and lost in the great ideal of only glorifying Jesus.
Then things will come to pass that will be worthwhile.
Coupled with prophecy, you will have goodness, the
fruit of the Spirit. They are holy men who spoke in
prophecy in days of old as the Holy Spirit prompted them,
and so today the prophet who can be trusted is a man that
is full of goodnessthat goodness that is the fruit of the
Spirit. But when he gets out of this position and depends
on his own personality, he is in danger of being puffed up
and becoming an instrument for the enemy.
I knew some people who had a wonderful farm, very
productive, in a very good neighborhood. They listened to
voices telling them to sell everything and go to Africa.
These voices so unhinged them that they scarcely had
time to sell out. They sold their property at a ridiculous
price. The same voices told them of a certain ship they
were to sail on, but when they got to the port, they found
there wasnt a ship by that name. The difficulty was to get
them not to believe these false voices. They said perhaps
it was the mind of the Lord to give them another ship, and
the voice soon gave them the name of another ship. When
they reached Africa, they knew no language that was
spoken there. But the voice did not let them stop. They
had to come back, brokenhearted, shaken through, and
having lost all confidence in everything. If these people
had had sense to go to some men of God who were filled
with the Spirit and seek their counsel, they would soon
have been persuaded that these voices were not from
God. But listening to these voices always brings about a
spiritual pride that makes a man or woman think that they
are superior to their brethren and that they are above
taking the counsel of men whom they think are not so
filled with the Spirit as they are. If you hear any voices
that make you think that you are superior to those God has
put in the church to rule the church, watch out; that is
surely the devil.
We read in the Revelation that the testimony of Jesus is
the spirit of prophecy.64 You will find that true prophetic
utterance always exalts the Lamb of God.
No prophetic touch is any good unless there is fire in it.
I never expect to be used by God until the fire burns. I feel
that if I ever speak, it must be by the Spirit. At the same
time, remember that the prophet must prophesy according
to the measure of faith. If you rise up in your weakness
but rise up in love because you want to honor Godand
just begin, you will find the presence of the Lord upon you.
Act in faith, and the Lord will meet you.
May God take us on and on into this glorious fact of
faith, that we may be so directed by the Holy Spirit that
God will work through us on the line of the miraculous and
on the lines of prophecy, where we will always know that
it is no longer we but He who is working through us,
bringing forth that which is in His own divine good
pleasure.

58. This sermon is taken from Smith Wigglesworth, Ever
Increasing Faith (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing
House, 1924, 1971), 153159. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.
59. 1 Corinthians 14:3.
60. This is a slight paraphrase of 1 John 4:23.
61. See Hebrews 1:12.
62. Acts 2:17.
63. See John 3:21.
64. See Revelation 19:10.
10
The Three Types of ProphecySmith
Wigglesworth
(Note: The following transcription is from teaching
sessions by Rev. Smith Wigglesworth during the summer
of 1927 to Bible students at Aimee Semple McPhersons
Angelus Temple. The material included here was from two
sessions when Rev. Wigglesworth was discussing spiritual
gifts sometime that July. Excerpted here are his lectures
specifically discussing prophecy.)65
I want you to understand clearly that there are three
classes of prophecy. Get it in your heart, because Paul
desired that we all prophesy.66
1. The prophecy that is the testimony of the saved
person. We find this prophecy described in Revelation
19:10:
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto
me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy
brethren that 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:
Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather
that ye may prophesy.
Here prophecy is chosen as more important than charity
or other gifts. Think about that: Prophecy is to be chosen
and desired above faith, hope, charityabove all other the
gifts. The greatest among them all 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 brought through
in prophecy has power to bring immortality and light.
Immortality is that which abides forever. Light is that
which opens the understanding of your heart. Light,
immortality, is by the gospel.
Prophecy is to be coveted above all things, and every
person has to have it. Now, every person may have gifts,
but there are very few that do. But everybody has
prophecy.
Now, from that same reference in Revelation, let us see
what prophecy is and how it comes forth. I fell at his
feet. I? Who is it? I would like all the people who have
been so foolishI call it foolishness because there is
nothing that makes you so foolish as to turn aside from the
Word of God. If ever you want to be a fool, turn aside
from the Word of God, and you will find yourself in a fools
paradise.
The one speaking here is a man who has been in the
earth. Lots of people are foolishly led by the devil to
believe that they are asleep in the grave, absolutely
contrary to the Word of God. Dont you know that even the
body that you have, if you live to the Lord, comes itself to
be put off and another put on, because you cannot go into
heaven with your body? 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 thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have
the testimony of Jesusfor the testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy.
What is the testimony of Jesus? I am saved. 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. And
before you know where you are, you are saying things that
the Spirit is saying.
Now you come to a point where you say, Is it the Holy
Spirit?
No, indeed.
What is it, then?
It is the Spirit of Jesus that you got when you were
saved. There are thousands of people who never have
received the Holy Spirit that have this wonderful spirit of
prophecy. People are being saved all over by the testimony
of people who have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit,
but they have the spirit of prophecy.
John Wesley was moved by the power of God and
created revivals all over the world. After the people were
saved, they testified.
If you cease from testifying, you will be sorry when the
accounts are made. You are the power of salvation to
people. Testify wherever you are.
Message Through Tongues and Interpretation
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 this morning. Every one of you
must be a preacher. You have a prophecy that has come
from heaven to change you from vile inward corruption,
transport your human, evil nature, put within you a spirit
of testimony, because you know, where once you were
dead, behold, you are alive!
Message Through Tongues and Interpretation
Live in the place where the Lord thy God moveth
thee, not to go from house to house nor to speak
from person to person, but where the Lord
directeth thee, for He has the person which is in
need of truth waiting for watering with your water
can.
Oh, how the Lord wants to cheer you today! Do not
forget that you are ambassadors for Christ. Dont forget
you are in the place now 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, covet 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 the
life of the resurrection of the Lord.
Message Through Tongues and Interpretation
Lift up your hands and never be feeble, for the Lord
has said, Lift thy holy hands. Dont be afraid of
coming into the treasury, of making thine hands
clean, for they that bear the vessels of the Lord
have to be only unto the Lord. So that Lord is
bringing thee to this great place of His pavilion, that
He may clothe thee upon with the Spirit, that thy
water shall not fail. He shall give thee water and
seed for thy ministry, for remember, it is the same
water and it is the same Sower. So dont 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 class of prophecy. General Booth knew
it. He got the vision as clear as anything from Wesley. The
greatest revival that has ever swept the earth yet that we
remember is the revival the Salvation Army brought. I
know they have lost the glory, the power, and the unction
because they turned to philanthropic positions. But that
does not mean we have to lose it.
God revealed Himself to Booth, every person was saved
that would testify, and He moved the people that were
saved, drunkards and harlots, 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.
2. Every preacher that lives in unction has the second
class of prophecy. You will find that I mostly speak in
prophecy. Why? Well, it has pleased the Lord to bring me
into this order so that I do not come to the platform with
thought, not thoughts of what I am saying.
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 to the people what he thinks. The prophet must
always say what he knows, because the people he is
speaking to are the ones that have to think it out. But he is
in the place of knowledge. The Holy Spirit takes the
thoughts of Jesus and fills him with life divine until he
speaks divine utterances, until he knows.
Sometimes I speak ever so much, never take any
thought at all concerning what I am speaking, but it flows
out like riversprophecy of divine power.
It is very important and very essential that the person
who preaches should live in prophetic utterance. Then, a
preacher should never be lamentable in his divine position.
He is standing before the people as a chosen one of God.
He does not have in any way to bring his position in
anything less than it is the Word of God that is speaking,
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, if you listen, you will
be blessed. The blessing of the Lord is upon you. Hear, for
the Spirit speaks to you.
This prophecy as the Spirit gives forth, the illumination
of truth by the Word of Life, the Holy Spirit having the chief
position in the place, taking words, acts, everything, until
He stands there complete, He is the oracle of God,
speaking words absolutely according as if the Lord were
here saying them.
3. The gift of prophecy. There is another prophecy that
I trust many of you people will have because it is the gift
of prophecy.
What are the other two? The other two prophecies are
divine inspiration, Holy Spirit utterances.
Every person, in a very remarkable way by the Spirit of
Jesus, can feel burnings and movings, chastening 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. Dont you know you were made every whit
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 that make us
on fire.
Now, the next, divine prophecy is a gift. There are
people who, like Isaiah, have this prophecy. Isaiah was so
filled with this prophecyBehold, a Son is given.67
Definite, personal truth knowledge. It took five hundred
years to bring it to pass, but there it was, definitely
declared: And the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father.68
Oh, hallelujah! All the way down, you will find you get
the prophecy, so distinct. You will see 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, He is coming. He is
coming! He is on the way. He will surely come!
The angels sang, the Babe was born, And they called
his name Jesus, for He saves His people from sinning.
Prophecy fulfilled! He shall in a manger lay; He should die
on the cross; as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness; so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Ah, beloved, God can give you prophecy that will fulfill
the past to a perfect degree, chapter, verse.
He is coming, glory to God! The saints shall be
awakened, the prophecy will appear. People will say, Yes,
He is coming. We all know He is coming!
And He will come!
(Continued in the next session partway through.)
We didnt exactly finish the word of prophecy yesterday
morning, because I wanted you to see that there is a great
deal of trouble through prophecy. There always has been.
So I want you to guard this gift.
There are three classes of prophecy. The first position
of prophecy everyone has, every newborn soul. Through
the new birth unto righteousness, God has given an
unction of the Spirit, a real unction of the Spirit of Christ.
When we were saved, we felt we wanted everybody to be
saved. That has to be continuous. The whole world can be
regenerated by the spirit of prophecy as we testify to our
saving position in Christ.
The next type of prophecy is the preacher who delivers
in prophetic utterances. My natural makeup is not full, but
my supernatural makeup is an overflowing full. I depend
upon an overflowing full, that you may get something out
of it, that you may overflow full.
I now turn to the prophecy that is the most wonderful of
all prophecy, and yet the most dangerous. What you have
to watch is thisthe same in the gift of tongues, just the
same in the gift of healings, just the same in prophecy
you have to watch this: Because the gift has been received
and the people [have] been blessed through the gift, you
are never to use this gift without the power of the Spirit
bringing 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 of the gift, without the unction of the
Spirit, and 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. And He has unction, fire,
zeal, and expression until those who hear are moved,
because 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.
You be careful now when the people are very pleased
to hear you prophesy. Prophecy is like tongues; no man is
to have advantage in a meeting that speaks and speaks
and speaks and speaks in tongues. This is not an
advantage. Advantage is that, when the Spirit is upon you,
you will speak in tongues, and you will close down the
moment when you know you are at the end. What spoils it
is people going on and on, and the hearers are tired of it
because they want something that God can bring in and
move quickly.
Dont you think you will be heard by your much
speaking, either by tongues or by praying or anything. You
are not heard because of your much speaking. 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 take advantage because you are
in the place.
Another thing you have to learn: People rush up and
down sometimes and say to you, Oh, I was obliged to do
that! I was obliged to jump up and to do that. I was
obliged to do that, and that, and that.
Dont believe them. It isnt true. There never was a man
in the world, as long as he was in the body, that didnt
have power over the Spirit. And so when people rush to
you and say they are obliged to do this, that, and the
other, dont you believe it. What should you believe? You
have to believe that when the Spirit is manifested in the
order it should be, it will have three things with it:
comfort, consolation, and edification.69
If any of you find I do not speak by the Spirit of God and
bring the Scriptures only, that which God desires, you
meet me at the door and tell me. I have declared that this
shall be my constant purpose. I have declared that as long
as I live I shall never exaggerate. Exaggeration is lying.
What God wants is a people that is full of truth. I want God
to so have you that your word will be the bond. If ever you
say a thing, the people will be able to believe. 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, go on until you come
out with your 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 without God gives me, I wont
move.70
Dont you be deluded by anybody. You can tell what is
from the Lord. The Word of God distinctly says, Do not
despise prophecy.71 Whatever you do, do not despise it.
But in the next words, you are told to judge all things.72
Say, Well now, if that is from the Lord, I will see if it is of
the Word of God. And you will have clear revelation as to
whether it is the word of the Lord.
This is the day that 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 heard the Word of God.

65. These lectures are taken from Smith Wigglesworth,
Smith Wigglesworth Speaks to Students of the Bible,
complied by Roberts Liardon (Tulsa, OK: Albury Publishing,
1998), 5157, 6366.
66. See 1 Corinthians 14:5.
67. See Isaiah 9:6.
68. Ibid.
69. See 1 Corinthians 14:3.
70. Meaning, Unless I know God is the one giving this
word to me, I wont act upon it.
71. See 1 Thessalonians 5:20.
72. See 1 Thessalonians 5:21.
11
Gather the WheatBurn the Chaff
David du Plessis
(Note: This message was preached 1947 at the opening of
the First World Pentecostal Conference in Zurich,
Switzerland, and subsequently in many churches, Bible
schools, and conventions throughout Europe and North
America.)73
In the beginning of this century, when the Holy Spirit
was being poured upon Holiness groups almost
simultaneously everywhere in the world, the first reaction
from the established churches was a strong objection to
the noise and seeming disorder in the prayer meetings.
This was so entirely different from the quiet, almost
overregulated, church services, that many religious
leaders declared the revival was a wildfire movement. The
Pentecostal preachers, on the other hand, declared boldly
that they had received a baptism of the Holy Spirit and
fire.
Now, after fifty years, this phenomenal revival has
spread to all nations in all countries of the world, and
Pentecostal churches have been established. It is nothing
unusual, in these days, to hear preachers declare from
Pentecostal platforms that many manifestations in some
meetings are due to fanaticism, if not wildfire. In the
beginning, we were very fond of considering enthusiastic
young converts just filled with the Holy Spirit and full of
shout and song as being on fire. Such on-fire believers
of today look upon the older and experienced Pentecostals
as having become lukewarm and cold because they do not
demonstrate reactions such as they had when they first
came into the Pentecostal experience.
Was the exuberance of the new convert wrong? Has the
experienced believer cooled off or backslidden during
recent years? Let us look into these questions. First, let us
study the grass roots of what is known as the Pentecostal
experience.
Just before the birth of Christ, the people sat in
darkness. For generations, there had been no prophet.
There remained only a ceremonial religion. Malachi, the
last of the prophets, had said:
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare
the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his
coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is
like a refiners fire, and like fullers soap: and he shall sit
as a refiner and purifier of silver.(Malachi 3:13)
The land of Judea is stirred once again. A prophet
appears on the scene. He ignores the temple and the
synagogues and preaches on the banks of Jordan. He calls
everyone to repentance and pronounces judgment upon
the self-righteous. To the latter, he says:
Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to
our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these
stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also
the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every
tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and
cast into the fire.
(Matthew 3:910)
Note here the fire of judgment.
Suddenly, the great prophet turns to the repentant
sinners and says:
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am
not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with fire [note that this is not judgment fire
but rather the refiners fire]: whose fan is in his hand,
and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his
wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:1112)
From the words of the prophet, it seems clear that a
baptism of fire would be needed to burn up the chaff when
the wheat had been separated from it. The fan is in the
hand of the Baptizer. He will purge His floor; He will burn
up the chaff. It is also clear that both the Baptizer and the
baptism in the Holy Spirit would be as real as John and his
baptism in water were. He declares that the kingdom of
heaven is at hand and then tells of the mighty King and the
glorious blessings to be expected from His hand.
When Jesus came upon the scene, He said:
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.But the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, he shall teach you all thingshe shall
testify of me.
(John 14:16, 26; 15:26)
In confirming the prophecy of John about the coming of
the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus emphasized the fact that He
will be a Comforter. Small wonder, then, that those who
receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit become so
exuberant with joy. Such persons are not on fire, as was
often said, but they are filled with the Holy Ghost. The
consequence is that they produce the same manifestations
as the first disciples did on the day of Pentecost. It was on
that very day that the religious world began to register
objections and accuse the Spirit-filled believers of being
filled with new wine. It is no different today. We have the
same Holy Spirit, the same baptism, the same
manifestationstongues and apparent drunkennessand
the same objections and accusations.
What was Peters defense? This is that!74 What? The
fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel: In the last days, saith
God, I will pour out of my Spirityour sons and your
daughters shall prophesy.75 But the prophet says nothing
about speaking in tongues and acting like drunken people.
Yes, this is the beginning of that. From now on, He will
lead into all truth. Prophecy will follow.
Now, pardon a little of my personal testimony. Some
years ago, I passed through one of those spiritual crises
that come into the experience of every growing Christian. I
was hungry for a deeper experience with God. I was tired
of the repetition of spiritual manifestations that did not
seem to bring edification to anyone but myself. I wanted to
see the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in operation in my
life. One night, in desperation, I decided I would not go to
sleep until the Lord had given me some very definite
guidance. My prayer was, Lord, where must I go from
here? This is not the end of the road, for I have always
declared that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was only the
beginning and not the end of a closer walk with God.
After midnight, He spoke to me clearly and said that I
needed a baptism of fire. Immediately, I concluded that
because I was no longer as demonstrative as before and
did not shout and speak in tongues as loud and long as I
did twenty-five years before, I must have lost the fire. I
prayed with all my heart that He would baptize me with
fire, whatever that might mean. The yielding of that night
brought profound things into my life, and my ministry did
change. I was a happy man, but I had no desire to shout
and sing and leap before the Lord as I did in my younger
days. I was ready to do so, but it seemed the Lord did not
require that from me.
After enjoying the wonderful, deeper life for a few
weeks, I discovered that some very cherished things in my
life were dropping off. Some of my brethren seemed to
misunderstand me. My best friends seemed most
unsympathetic. I felt so lonely at times that life became a
burden. Again I sought guidance and light from the Lord,
for I feared to trust in man.
One Sunday morning, very early, I made my way into a
wilderness and lay myself in the dust before the Lord. I felt
as if twenty-five years of Christian life and years of
ministry were all in vain. Nothing remained, and I was just
an utter failure. As I wept before the Lord and humbled
myself, a peace that passes understanding suddenly came
over my soul. I lay almost as dead. Then it seemed
someone was speaking to me in very gentle tones. He
said, I am answering your prayer. It is the baptism of
fire. I complained that I did not feel on fire at all.
Then, He said, But the fire does not bring joy. It burns,
it devours, it reduces, it purges. The Holy Spirit gives
comfort and joy, but the fire cleanses and sanctifies. I am
removing the chaff from your life. Once again, I began to
weep and asked the Lord to show me what sin there was
still in my life. Very gently I heard Him say, Chaff is not
sin. I am not removing tares but chaff. Chaff is good, and
indeed it is essential in order to obtain wheat. When the
chaff is removed, you will see the wheat.
I shall never forget those wonderful moments in His
presence. It seemed that He brought me to a green field. I
recognized it as growing wheat. Then I found myself in a
barn and saw bags of wheat. It seemed as if I were
listening to a conversation between two people. As the
one passed his hands through the wheat in the bag, he
told the other that this was clean rich wheat. We left the
barn and looked on the field again. Beautiful green
grass, said the one. No! Beautiful growing wheat, said
the other. How can that be? This does not look nearly like
the things in the bag. Yet it is truethis is that, and that
is this. If you will leave this to develop, it will produce
wheat such as in the bag, but when you plant what is in
the bag, it dies and lives again to produce what you see
here.
Again I saw a wheat field. Now it had grown higher,
and in the gentle breezes, the heads of ripening wheat
waved to and fro. I heard one say, Soon it will be ripe,
and then it must be gathered to the floor, where the chaff
can be separated from the wheat. The chaff has served its
purpose, and if it is not removed soon, it will destroy the
wheat crop. If, however, you remove the chaff before the
wheat is ripe, you will have no crop either. Just one more
rain, and there will be enough moisture to ripen this
wonderful field. I stood amazed. There I saw tall stalks of
straw, and the ears of wheat were only six inches long.
Why, even the wheat kernels were surrounded and
covered with chaff. What a process the gathering and
threshing is. A threshing floor looks anything but orderly.
In the end, however, the winnowing fan separates wheat
and chaff, and order is restored.
After this revelation, I was left alone with my thoughts.
What could it all mean? Then I remembered my earliest
Pentecostal experience. How often I had wondered
whether all the noise and manifestation in a prayer
meeting was produced by the power of the Holy Spirit. But
why should people want to act so strangely and get great
blessing out of it? At such times, I heard a still small voice
say to me, This is that. I was satisfied, because that was
the answer Peter gave on the day of Pentecost. Later on, I
saw and heard and personally experienced very clear
manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Instead of
tongues only, there followed the interpretation of tongues.
Instead of only tongues and interpretation, there followed
prophecy. In the sermons of my brethren and in my own
messages, I began to discern moments when preaching
was prophecy, moments when there was the word of
wisdom, and moments when there was a word of
knowledge.
How did all this come about? Where did it begin? This is
how I see it now. First stammering lips, then new tongues,
then interpretation of tongues, then prophecy, then words
of wisdom and knowledge, all by the same Spirit.
So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed
into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day,
and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not
how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But
when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in
the sickle, because the harvest is come.(Mark 4:2629)
Just as the growing wheat on the field responds to
every little breeze, so young Christians filled with the Holy
Spirit will respond to the breezes of heaven. Just sing a
chorus over again, and they begin to rejoice and wave
their hands. I have noticed that the converts of very sedate
and calm preachers are just as emotional as the converts
of the shouting and running evangelist. Some of these
sedate old preachers were, in fact, very demonstrative in
their early Christian experience. The precious brother or
sister who now brings such wonderful messages in
tongues and interpretation or in prophecy was once as
noisy as some of the worst shouters among the young
converts. Most mature Christians have found that it took
years before they learned to yield to the Holy Spirit so that
He might use their lips to prophesy rather than to speak in
tongues. Paul thought that five words that are understood
are worth more than ten thousand words in a tongue that
cannot be understood. But then, there are usually several
feet of chaff before the ear of grain comes. There might
be years of seemingly useless manifestations before we
ripen into faith that will produce prophecy.76
In our Pentecostal churches today, there seem to be
two extremes. The apostle had a word of warning for
both. To those who object so fervently against noise and
disorder, he said, Quench not the Spirit.77 To those who
want nothing but these disorderly manifestations, he said,
Despise not prophesyings.78 If you refuse to have
seemingly needless manifestationschaff, as you may
thinkyou will never have the gifts of prophecy. If you
refuse to let the Lord fan the needless demonstrations
from your life and you cling to the initial reactions only,
you will never have the ripened fruit of the gifts of the
Spirit. The apostle was quite aware of this, and so he
wrote that wonderful chapter 14 in the first epistle to the
Corinthians. This chapter will never quench the Spirit, but
it will regulate the growth of the saints in the church.
Have you ever watched a modern threshing machine
that has taken the place of the old-fashioned threshing
floor? There is a lot of shaking and trembling and noise.
On the one side, there is a mountain of chaff, and on the
other just a few bags of wheat. What a lot of chaff to
produce so little wheat. Put a match in the chaff, and what
remains will be nothing, compared to the wheat in the
bags.
Let us get the correct perspective of spiritual things. Be
tolerant and thank God for the growing wheat. Be in no
hurry to separate the chaff. Remember, the fan is in His
hand. On the other hand, we must not be satisfied with a
good old shouting camp meeting. Let us honor the Holy
Spirit and give Him opportunities to speak to us, for He
came not only to comfort us but to lead us into all truth. If
we only make noise in our meetings, we will not hear His
voice. Let us have the waving grain when the breezes
blow, and thank God for it, but do not judge those who
have no part in such demonstration, for not even a
hurricane will make a bag of wheat wave. We need wheat
for new fields, and we need growing fields for more
wheat.
There is nothing that can ever take the place of the Holy
Spirit in the church. Let us pray for a greater outpouring
than ever; and remember, when the floods come, it will
not keep to our well-prepared channels, but it will
overflow and most probably cause chaos in our regular
programs.
In recent years, I have become more and more
burdened because I find a strong tendency among older
pastors to take the fan in their hands. I am told by some
that they no longer allow tongues in prayer in public
meetings. They will not have the camp-meeting style of
singing and shouting and clapping of hands in their
churches. I find many churches where there is never any
sign of a truly Pentecostal manifestation. They are afraid
of manifestations in the flesh, and so they conduct the
whole meeting in the flesh, but decently and in order. In
such meetings, I feel as I do in a home where there are
no children, no babies that cry. Everybody behaves
perfectly, but it is so dull and so monotonous. Babies and
children always do the unexpected. What are we doing
with our spiritual babies? Where do we train them? In the
basement? Will they ever learn that they belong to the
familythe church?
Then again, I have come to other churches that give me
concern. There is no recognition of wheat, and there is a
premium of chaffloud talking, shouting, and singing for
an hour. Everybody is speaking in tongues, but there is
never any interpretation. It is Pentecostal indeed, but still
in the chaff stagebabies crying, children tumbling. It
looks bad when adults act like children. Some must come
to maturity. There must be tongues with interpretation of
tongues, and there must be prophecy and other
manifestations. In such churches, I plead that they invite
the Baptizer to bring in His fan and then give them a
baptism of fire. I have seen too many shouting Christians
go to sleep when the Word is preached. They live on
milk and choke on the meat of the Word.
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have
need that one teach you again which be the first principles
of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need
of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth
milk unskilled in the word of righteousness: for he is a
babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full
age, even those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil.
(Hebrews 5:1214)

73. This sermon is taken from David J. du Plessis, The
Spirit Bade Me Go (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International,
1970), 99106. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
74. Acts 2:16.
75. Acts 2:17.
76. See Romans 12:6.
77. 1 Thessalonians 5:19.
78. 1 Thessalonians 5:20.
12
A Pentecostal in Ecumenical Circles
David du Plessis
(Note: This lecture was given at Highleigh, Hoddesdon,
Herts, England.)79
What is a Pentecostalist? It is someone who can
testify to having enjoyed the very same experience as that
which the apostles of our Lord had on the day of
Pentecost, according to Acts 2. I hear the term
Pentecostal more frequently than Pentecostalist, so I
shall make use of the former term in this message.
What is the Pentecostal movement? On the whole, this
term includes all those societies and movements or
missions that teach and preach that all Christians should
receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit as they did on the
day of Pentecost, according to Acts 2:4, with the evidence
of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives
utterance. This seemed to be the proof of the baptism in
the Spirit that the apostles recognized.
In Acts 10:4546, Luke said, On the Gentiles also was
poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them
speak with tongues, and magnify God.80 The
phenomenon of tongues appeared again in Bible schools
and in missions and prayer groups at the turn of the
century. Today there are scores of societies, often
referred to as sects, that have tens of thousands of
churches in every part of the world, with millions of
members who have actually received the baptism in the
Holy Spirit and have spoken with tongues. The entire
Pentecostal movement has about ten million adherents
and is one of the fastest-growing fundamentally Christian
movements in the world.
In 1900, when this new revival began, there was a
battle against it at once. The opposition was not so much
against the teaching of the baptism in the Spirit as against
the speaking with tongues. All the historic churches
rejected this vehemently. It was considered rank heresy to
claim to speak with tongues by the Spirit. But now, after
fifty years, the climate has changed. Today, the same
phenomenon of tongues is being witnessed in many of the
historic churches: Last year, American papers carried
headlines like these: Strange ManifestationsSpeaking
with Tongues Amazing Churches Again and Staid
Episcopal Clergyman Speaking with Tongues. This partly
gives you the reason why a radical Pentecostal like myself
has become involved in ecumenical activities.
I was born in South Africa and came from French
Huguenot stock. Then I was born again in 1916. Actually, I
was a little white heathen saved by the life and ministry of
black Christians. My father was building a home for
missionaries in Basotuland, and that was when and where
it happened.
The impact upon my young life was not from the
preaching of the gospel but rather the miracle of the
change that I saw in the lives of illiterate pagans around
me. What Christ did for them and what the Holy Spirit did
through them deeply impressed me. I knew that I had
nothing of that. I realized that it was not literacy that
changed them, for they had none. I knew their testimonies
were not intellectual, for there was too much evidence of
the supernatural. I knew it was divine, for many of these
people had been steeped in witchcraft and demonism, and
now they were completely delivered and changed into
saints who loved Jesus so much that they would die for
Him.
In 1918, when we had moved back to the Union of
South Africa, I was in high school. Then I began to seek
the same blessing, and the Lord graciously met me and
baptized me as He had baptized the saints in New
Testament churches, according to the book of Acts. So, I
am an old-timer in Pentecost, and I havent seen great
miracles during the past forty-three years.
I now realize that what the churches need today is this
blessing. Recently, Dr. Carl Henry, editor of Christianity
Today, wrote, In twentieth-century Christianity, the Holy
Spirit is still a displaced person. Liberal theology exiled this
divine person from the life of the church in favor of simply
divine function. Recently a distinguished theologian told
me: When Christianity lost the Holy Spirit as the divine
person who leads into all truth, the Spirit was soon
misunderstood (by idealistic philosophy) only as Mind,
indeed as human mind. The ability of distinguishing spirits
was lost. How right he was. Whenever the church makes
the Spirit of God a refugee, the churchnot the Spirit
becomes the vagabond.
Almost everywhere I go, I hear of the lack of the Holy
Spirit and His life in the churches. People have lost interest
in church services because there is so little relevancy to
their spiritual problems to be found there. Mans spirit
hungers after God. Only the Holy Spirit is the water of life
that will quench the thirst of the human soul.
Then I think of what Dr. John A. MacKay, immediate
past president of both Princeton Theological Seminary and
the Presbyterian Alliance, recently told a Presbyterian
convention: A crudely emotional approach to religion is
preferable to religious formalism that is purely aesthetic
and orderly and lacking dynamic power. He said further:
One of our serious troubles in the church today is that it
has become legitimate to be emotional in anything but
religion. The need is for something that will summon ones
whole enthusiasm. The moment the church becomes
completely programized and depersonalized, it becomes a
monument to Gods memory and not an instrument of His
living power.
Statements like these from ecclesiastical leaders and
theologians disturb me, because these are confessions
that they realize something is wrong with the church.
Something is lacking, but confession is not enough; there
must be an acceptance of Gods remedya Pentecostal
revival in the churches.
I began preaching at a very youthful age. In those days,
there was much preaching against the Pentecostals. I used
to listen to Dutch Reformed ministers preach against us
and call us false prophets standing on street corners. Then
I would promptly go back to the street corner and preach
against these blind leaders of the blind. How we attacked
one another. But I thought it was my duty to contend for
the faith.
My parents had been turned out of the Dutch Reformed
Church, and I had great bitterness in my heart for this
injustice to people who lived like saints. Yes, I could quote
Scripture that would sometimes seem to cool off the heat
of my bitterness. I remember one day I was challenged to
speak with tongues. I said, I certainly will not. But why
not? Quick on the trigger, I said, Because the Bible says:
Cast not your pearls before swine. How good I felt that I
could call them swine. Later I discovered this was not in
the Spirit but very much in the flesh. I was still so carnal.
Do I hear you say, But the Spirit should make you
perfect? Yes, He does. But He does it by manifesting
Himself through imperfect people. The church at Corinth
was one of the most carnal churches, yet they had more
manifestations than others. If you ask me why, I would
say, Because the Holy Spirit sought so desperately to
wake them up. He is as faithful to plead with us to repent
as to convict us of our faults.
In 1947, the first World Conference of Pentecostal
churches was called in Zurich, Switzerland. They gathered
from many countries, and I came from South Africa. The
conference took no real decision for further conferences,
so in 1948, the leading brethren asked me to convene the
next conference in 1949 in Paris, France. Thus, up to
1958, I served most of the time in what some now call the
capacity of ecumenical secretary of the movement.
I have just returned from the sixth Pentecostal World
Conference in Jerusalem. How good it was to be there
without administrative responsibilities. The Israeli
government had loaned their great new convention hall to
us for the weekend of May 1921. I shall never forget that
great Communion service on Sunday morning, when about
3,000 delegates and visitors from forty countries sat down
at the table of the Lord.
Let me explain. Even though we have a world
conference now, the Pentecostal movement had never
been developed or propagated from one center, unless
that center is heaven. I do not think there will ever be one
central world headquarters. This revival just happened in
most countries and has become indigenous almost
everywhere. There is no man who can claim to have been
the founder of this movement. It is the work of the Holy
Spirit. When we first met, in 1947, there developed better
understanding, more recognition, and more appreciation
of one another as leaders. We were all happy to recognize
that the Lord was bringing His people together. My
personal ambition was to see the entire movement united
on the basis of recognition rather than by organization. We
do have a lot of division on issues of doctrine and church
government, just like many other great Protestant
movements.
When the Protestants came together in 1948 to form
the World Council of Churches at the first Assembly in
Amsterdam, I heard it said, This is the work of the devil.
This is an attempt to form a super-church. I was greatly
puzzled, for I could not believe that God would allow the
Protestant world to become an instrument of the devil.
Why should Pentecostal unity be of the Lord and Protestant
unity be of the devil? Was it not the Lord who was moving
us to unity in both movements? These questions kept
troubling me until I began to pray earnestly about His
purposes.
In 1951, the Lord spoke to me and clearly told me to go
and witness to the leaders of the World Council of
Churches. In my prayers, I said, Lord, I have preached so
much against them. What do I say to them now? They will
not listen to me. Their churches have put our people out of
their fellowship. That is why we have now a separate
Pentecostal movement. The churches were not willing to
listen to the testimony of those who speak with tongues.
But the Lord kept telling me to go and witness to them.
Besides speaking with tongues, there was another very
important doctrine and practice that the churches had
rejectednamely, divine healing. In my estimation, Mr.
James Moor Hickson was the man God used to really set
the churches right on this matter. Pentecostals could not
do it, although they were preaching the message and
praying for the sick in almost every meeting in those days.
Until this day, I consider Mr. Hickson as Gods great
apostle to restore to the world the reality of divine healing.
Finally I decided to obey the Lord. I asked my wife to
prepare an early breakfast because I was going to New
York that day. She asked me what I was going to do. I
explained that the Lord had commissioned me to go and
witness to the leaders of the World Council of Churches. I
can still hear her saying, What will you try next? I
replied, I am not trying anything. I am just obeying the
Lord. But I will be back by lunch. I expected to be
dismissed so quickly that I would not want to stay in New
York very long. At that time, I lived close by, in
Connecticut.
When the offices on Fifth Avenue opened, I was there. I
announced myself and made sure there was no mistake
about who and what I wasa Pentecostal, and one of the
worst, actually the world secretary. In the train on my way
in, I had decided to make things so hot that those I spoke
to would have no trouble in knowing what I had to say,
and I expected them to object and reject. But the hotter I
made it, the better my friends seemed to like it. This one
friend kept saying, Go on, tell us some more. We have
been waiting for a fellow like you to come and talk to us.
This continued until lunchtime. I apologized for taking so
much of their time. He said, Do you eat lunch? When I
said I did, he invited me to go with him. He would pay for
the lunch if I would keep on talking. He took me back to
the office and invited others in and made me repeat a
whole lot of these things that I thought they did not want
to hear. I was kept busy until closing time that afternoon.
That was my first encounter with the WCC.
In 1952, I was invited to come to the International
Missionary Council, extended Assembly, at Willingen,
Germany. This was my first experience as a Pentecostal in
an ecumenical convention. I checked in for three days,
thinking I could not live on cold shoulder for more than
that. But when I arrived on the conference floor during
coffee break, Dr. John A. MacKay, who was president of
the IMC, took me by my arm and went down the line,
introducing me as his great Pentecostal friend. There was
no mistake. I was not evangelical or fundamental but
distinctly Pentecostal.
The next day, a speaker complained that Christianity
had become so institutionalized that it would be a blessing
if some of these institutions burned down. Dr. MacKay then
informed them that while they were worrying about their
institutions, he would like to call on a friend who came
from a movement that had encircled the world with
missions in less than half a century, and that without
institutions. He said to me: Come and tell us in two five-
minute periods why and how the Pentecostals
accomplished so much in so short a time.
I assured the gathering that I did not come to boast
about any achievements of the Pentecostals, but in answer
to the questions, I could only say, The reason why
Pentecostals have been so successful in missions is
because they are Pentecostal. Then I noticed a few
frowns, and I continued, Gentlemen, I did not say it is
because we speak with tongues, for if that was all we had
from the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we
would have been a forgotten issue long ago. However,
Jesus said: Ye shall receive power, and that is the secret
of our success. Untrained and sometimes illiterate people
went forth without boards or institutions to help them,
simply guided by the Holy Spirit, who confirmed their
preaching with signs following. They established
beachheads for Christianity in the most unlikely and
difficult places, where others had even failed.
Now for the questions: How did you do it? I would say,
In the old-fashioned apostolic way of witnessingeach
one tell one. It was when the church in Jerusalem was
scattered abroad (all except the apostles) that they went
everywhere preaching the Word. Today we scatter the
apostles, and the church members have nothing to say.
The Pentecostal movement started out as a witnessing
community. However, you cannot teach people to be
witnesses; they become witnesses when they have an
experience of something. The courts of our day will not
accept a prompted witness. A good Pentecostal witness is
one who can tell how he got saved and healed and
baptized in the Holy Spirit. Such a testimony is more
powerful than a sermon on salvation and healing and the
Holy Spirit.
I stayed at Willingen for the full period of eleven days. I
had interviews, by their request, with 110 of the 210
delegates. This then placed me in touch with many of the
ecumenical leaders and officers of the World Council of
Churches.
In 1954, I was invited by Dr. Visser t Hooft, the WCC
secretary, to go to the Second Assembly of Evanston.
When I asked him what he wanted me to do, he told me
that I should do exactly what I did at Willingenjust
witness and talk to as many as possible about my
Pentecostal experiences. When I suggested that I might be
mistaken for a schismatic, trying to cause division among
brethren, he assured me that he had been convinced that I
had no such intentions, for he had not found anyone in my
contacts to whom I had suggested that they should leave
their church. I agreed to go, and it was arranged that I
could serve on the staff, in the press section. This gave
me just the opportunities I needed to talk to archbishops,
bishops, professors, and principals and presidents of
institutions. Sometimes I kept going until after midnight.
I thought this would be the end of my ecumenical
outreach. But in 1956, I was invited to a retreat in
Connecticut to speak to a group of ecumenical leaders on
the American front. That was one of my greatest
experiences in this ministry.
Twenty-four ecumenical leaders were comfortably
seated around me. They had invited me to bring them the
truth about the Pentecostal experience and the Pentecostal
movement. I was asked to be devastatingly frank. This
very request caused me to seek the face of the Lord, to be
sure that I would meet these friends just as Jesus would
have done if He had been there in person. I could
remember days when I had wished I could have set my
eyes upon such men to denounce their theology and pray
the judgment of God upon them for what I considered
their heresies and false doctrines. Here was such an
opportunity, and they said, Be devastatingly frank. I
prayed, Lord, what would You have me to do?
That morning something happened to me. After a few
introductory words, I suddenly felt a warm glow come
over me. I knew this was the Holy Spirit taking over, but
what was He doing to me? Instead of the old harsh spirit
of criticism and condemnation in my heart, I now felt such
love and compassion for these ecclesiastical leaders that I
would rather have died for them than pass sentence upon
them. All at once, I knew that the Holy Spirit was in
control, and I was beside myself and yet sober as a
judge.81 Thank God, from that day on, I knew what it
meant to minister along the more excellent way.82 This
indeed is the technique of the Holy Spirit.
For seventy-five minutes, I poured from my heart all
that the Spirit gave me. Never have I known a more
attentive audience. If things were happening to me, I
realized the same Spirit was doing things to my listeners.
This was very evident when the time came for questions
and answers. There was an unaffected desire to know all
about the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit. The
promise of Jesus was made so real to me: But when they
shall lead you,take no thought beforehand what ye shall
speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be
given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that
speak, but the Holy Ghost.83
Then there came a question that presented an
opportunity to be devastatingly frank, but I had no desire
to belittle or criticize or hurt anyone. Silently I prayed. The
question was: Please tell us what is the difference
between you and us. We quote the same Scriptures as
you do, and yet, when you say those words, they sound so
different. We say the same things that you do, but there
seems to be a deeper implication in what you say. You
have said nothing with which we want to differ, and yet
there seems to be a distinct difference somewhere. What
was I to say? What was the truth? The Spirit came to my
rescue, and I said, Gentlemen, comparisons are odious,
and I do not wish to injure anyones feelings or hurt your
pride. But the truth as I see it is this: You have the truth on
ice, and I have it on fire.
That is too deep for me; please explain, said one.
Gentlemen, we have been dealing with the meat of the
Word, I answered, so please allow me to illustrate what
I mean. I live in Dallas, Texas, where it can become very
hot. We have a deep freeze to preserve food in bulk.
When meat is at a reasonable price level, we buy half a
steer. Thus, I know there is the very best grade of Texas
steer T-bone steak in that freezer. If any of you were to
visit my home, I would like to serve you such a steak.
Suppose I take it out of the freezer and place it on a plate
before you; could you eat it? Of course not. It is just a
frozen chunk of iced meat. But we could discuss it. We
could even record the facts. It weighs about twelve
ounces. It contains so many calories. There are several
vitamins in it. We know the butcher who sold it. We may
know the ranch that raised the steer. We may know the
pedigree of the steer and its age, and so forth. Then we
could go the other way and decide, if you eat it, it will
satisfy your hunger. It will add to your weight, and so
forth. But after half an hour of good beef discussion, it is
still there, and we are still hungry. Our minds have been
fed with information but the beef was not enjoyed.
Now what shall we do? Something needs to be done to
that meat to make it edible, and make our facts real. I give
it to my wife. Without inquiring about our collected facts
and information about the steak, she places it on fire.
Within a few minutes the atmosphere in the house
changes, and everyone knows something is cooking. My
little boy comes in and shouts, Mom, something smells
good, and I am starving. We are all served a nice hot
steak off the fire, and we say, That just hits the spot. Is
my little boy going to get sick because he does not know
all the facts about the beef?
You know, gentlemen, I continued, here we have the
elements of a good Pentecostal meeting. There is an
atmosphere. Everyone knows something is happening. The
old alcoholic that sits there does not have to listen to the
theology of saving grace; he is not told the theology or
doctrine of regeneration. He gets the hot gospel stated in
factsGod loves you. God will save you. Ask and it shall be
given you. Seek and ye shall find. Do it now. Jesus is here
to meet you. He will give you the water of life, and you will
never thirst againand the sinner accepts the invitation. In
a few minutes, he rises from his knees and knows
something has happened to him. In his life, something has
hit the spot. He is now a changed man. There will be
plenty of time to teach him the doctrine and theology of his
experience later on. After all, I submit there was a
Pentecostal experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit in
the lives of the apostles before they ever developed or
framed the doctrine and the theology. They had
experience and no doctrine. Today most people have
doctrine and no experience.
My friends, I said, if you will take the great truths of
the gospel out of your theological deep freezers and get
them on the fire of the Holy Spirit, your churches will yet
turn the world upside down. The church does not need
better theologies, but rather men full of faith and of the
Holy Spirit84men who will say, Our sufficiency is of God;
who also hath made us able ministers of the new
testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life.85
After this, one of those dear men said, Why did I not
meet someone like you many years ago? I realized my
ministry was not a success, but I could not find the reason
for my failure. Now I discover my spiritual temperature
was not right. I lacked the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Scripture is a key to itself. Besides, we have
the Holy Spirit to open it to us.God is His own
interpreter. We fail to understand the Scriptures,
because we seldom accept His help. This, I feel
assured, is the reason why we are so often in
ignorance. It is not that the truth sought for is not
in the Word, but that through lack of communion
with Him who gave the Word, we have not enough
of His mind to apprehend His meaning, even where
He has fully expressed it.
Andrew Jukes, in The Law of Offerings
My next thrilling experience was the 18th Council of the
Presbyterian World Alliance in Sao Paulo, Brazil, during
1959. I attended as a Pentecostal Fraternal delegate with
some 600 other delegates from 56 countries representing
46 million Calvinists. When the president of the Council,
Dr. John A. MacKay, introduced me, he remarked,
Whatever else history may have to say about our friend,
this fact will surely be recorded. This is the first
confessional body that has extended recognition to the
Pentecostal movement as a sound Christian body. The
records will also show that Princeton Seminary was the
first institution to recognize this by inviting our friend as
missions lecturer.
In my heart, I thought: How wonderful. Calvinist
churches were the first to disfellowship members with a
Pentecostal experience at the turn of the century. Now fifty
years later, they recognize this as the work of the Holy
Spirit. I find this is what is happening all over the world.
The climate in the churches is changing rapidly.
During the last three years, I have had the privilege of
lecturing at many institutions besides Princeton Seminary.
I have been to Yale Divinity, Union Theological Seminary in
New York, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Colgate
Rochester School of Divinity, Fuller Seminary in Pasadena,
British Columbia University in Vancouver, the Ecumenical
Institutes in Switzerland and America, and other centers.
After this visit to England and Holland, I went to the
Second Latin American Evangelical Conference in Lima,
Peru, in August.
In the past, I have not given much publicity to these
activities because I fear that publicity often kills good
things. Besides, I did not want to embarrass my friends
who were so kind to me, and I certainly did not want to
exploit my privileges to any personal advantage. Recently,
a group of Episcopal ministers in America asked me who
sponsored me in this work and what my position was now
in the Pentecostal movement. I had to explain that this
was a faith venture. No one hired me, and no one can fire
me. I have resigned from every position I held, and so I
have become just a great has been insofar as positions
are concerned. I am a goodwill ambassador for Christ. I
travel as the Lord provides through His people, and He
takes care of my family, too.
Now in conclusion, let me say what a great honor and
privilege it was to be one of the speakers at the recent
meeting of the Commission of Faith and Order at St.
Andrews, Scotland. There I made contact with some of
the Roman Catholic observers. So, I have actually had an
opportunity to learn all about the ecumenical movement,
which is greater than the World Council of Churches or the
Roman Catholic Church and all the orthodox churches
together. From Pentecostalism to Catholicism there are
winds of change blowing. I pray that these may become
again the mighty rushing winds of the day of Pentecost.

79. This sermon is taken from David J. du Plessis, The
Spirit Bade Me Go (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International,
1970), 920. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
80. Emphasis added.
81. See 2 Corinthians 5:13.
82. 1 Corinthians 12:31.
83. Mark 13:11 (emphasis added).
84. See Acts 6:5.
85. 2 Corinthians 3:56.
13
Seventy Times SevenDavid du
Plessis
(Authors note from Simple and Profound by David du
Plessis: If the author had but one message to bring, it
would be on the importance of forgiveness. Early in life, he
learned how it could change everything, and he has been
a living example of its power ever since.)86
Where Did Forgiveness Begin for You?
In the beginning, I was not a forgiving person. I knew
firsthand about the fights between the Pentecostals and
the Protestants, because I was in the thick of them. For
instance, when I went to a Dutch Reformed church and
heard the minister attack our movement and call it false
and an evil thing because it was causing disturbances in
the Protestant churches, I sat there and thought, Why is
he a Christian? Jesus caused disturbances in the
synagogue and the temple.
I was concerned about the prayer that Jesus taught His
disciplesForgive us as we forgive othersbut I
assumed it applied only to the body of believers that I
happened to be in. We were born again, and others were
not, and so I considered them a mission field and not a
Christian body. I had lost sight of the truth: that churches
were still churches, and they still had Christ. I had taken
the Pentecostal attitude of Come ye out from among
them, because they had been pushing us out. They had
been expelling us, and to us it was more respectable to
come out than to be pushed out.
As I grew older, I stopped fighting, but I still had not
forgiven the churches. And then I came to realize that my
word of wisdom, my word of knowledge, and all my
preaching were not helping anyone, because I was not
preaching in love to the people. I had not learned to
forgive and love. If you forgive, then you have to substitute
love for old feeling.
Then one day, the Lord said to me: What Smith
Wigglesworth told you is soon to come about.
But, Lord, he told me to go to the old-line
denominations, and theyre dead.
I never arranged for funerals. You had better raise the
dead.
Lord, theyre enemies.
Then love them.
How can I love people that I dont agree with?
Forgive them.
I cant justify them.
I never gave any child of Mine authority to justify
anyone. I gave you full authority to forgive them. Thats all
you have.
So I forgave the Protestants for all they had done to the
poor Pentecostals, and I forgave the Catholics for all they
had done to the poor Protestants. Then the Pentecostals
wanted to know who had given me the authority to do
that, and so I had to forgive the Pentecostals!
I live by forgiveness. And I love by forgiveness, because
they can do anything they want to; I just forgive them.
Is Forgiveness Only for Christians,
or Can It Work in the World?
I once asked a judge who was a Christian and had been
on the bench for forty years: Were you usually able to
settle a case, when you had the necessary witnesses and
evidence?
He thought for a moment before answering. You know,
when I look back, I realize I almost never really settled a
case. I only helped them to come to an agreement to stop
litigation, and to stop spending money.
But, you know, I replied, God Himself abandoned the
law and on Calvary introduced forgiveness. That is Gods
new way. The Lawno lawcould save anybody, or help
anybody. But forgiveness is always successful.
He shook his head sadly. I dare not speak of
forgiveness in court. Im a judge, and on the bench Ive
got to judge. And then he smiled. But I can invite the
disputing parties into my chambers, and there is where I
can really settle cases by forgiveness.
I nodded. Thank you! You have helped me to see it in
relation to our own situation. What a pity that the church,
instead of preaching forgiveness, became judges or
prosecutors. I sighed. In fact, that was my own job for
years. I thought it was my duty to prosecute everybody, to
get them straightened out, according to the law. Why, I
made even the Sermon on the Mount a law: Youve got to
live according to the Sermon on the Mountthats what
Jesus taught! But I had forgotten that Jesus did not teach
that in order to make it a law; He taught that it was the
consequences of a new birth. And I thanked the judge
again for further clarifying my perspective.
Must We Forgive Everyone? For Everything?
Yes, even the Nazis for the Holocaust. I said this once, a
long time ago, and Loren Cunningham heard me. He was
just a boy then, twelve years old, but he took it and
decided that he would follow my example. (He never
dreamed that he would have to follow me through
expulsion and all the rest.) Accompanied by teams of
young people with his Youth With a Mission, Loren had
made a specialty of evangelizing at Olympics, and in 1972,
he acquired a beautiful castle in Germany for his
headquarters at the Munich Olympics. He had some of his
best YWAM people with him, strong teams with a lot of
field experience and good preparationbut they were
making no headway; they could not win a single convert.
In despair, they called a prayer meeting and wept
before the Lord. And Loren, sensing that the Lord held him
personally responsible, cried out, Lord, speak to me:
what is wrong? We had success in Mexico, at the Olympics
there; weve had success everywhere. You have blessed
us; You have provided the facilities and all the equipment
we need. And yet here we cannot move. Why?
And then he heard the Lord: You have not forgiven
Hitler.
But Lord, Hitler is dead.
Not in your mind. You still hold all Germans responsible
for the Holocaust. All Germans did not agree with Hitler,
but you do not know that. Unless you forgive them, you
will never help them to recover.
Loren told the others what the Lord had revealed to
him, and together they forgave Hitler, and everyone else
involved. Immediately things changed. God blessed their
ministry mightily, opening doors that had previously been
closed to them and enabling them to win many converts.
Loren told me that the lesson changed the Youth With a
Mission approach from then on. You can be sure that,
now, before any mission, we ask God to search our hearts
for anything, known or unknown, we might be holding
against those we seek to help.
Must Forgiveness, Then,
Be Always Unconditional?
Walk in love, the apostle wroteI am not crippled; I
must walk. And the walk must be in love. This is where
the Lord helped me, when He said, You cannot love people
if you have not first completely, unconditionally, forgiven
them. You have too many conditions.
That unconditional forgiveness did not come in the
beginning. (Thank God, He didnt tell me everything at
once; I would have given up!) It was revealed step-by-
step, and the latest was when He said: On Calvary, Jesus
made no conditions. He simply said, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. Your forgiveness is still:
If they do this, if they do that. You still expect some sign
of repentance, and then youll forgive. You must forgive
people, no matter how they behave, no matter whether
you think they are worthy. You just forgive. And if you
forgive them, you can love them. And if you love them, you
can beat any enemy; but you will never win your enemies
if you dont love them.
How do we make enemies? By finding fault with each
other. By hurting each other in speech and in our thoughts.
So, I had to learn to walk in love, as Christ loved us and
gave Himself for us, a sacrifice unto God.87 That is why I
like the verse: Hereby perceive we the love of God,
because he has laid down his life for us: and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren.88 That kind of love is
unconditional.
When I began to see this, things began to happen that
Id never seen before. I had no way of knowing what the
effect would be, but I could see that Jesus on the cross
had granted unconditional forgiveness to the Jews who
shouted, Crucify Him! and to the Romans, Jews, and
Gentilesthat means all humanity. He had forgiven once
and for all, and that was sealed with His blood.
He was doing this, even as His blood poured out, and
that is why we now say He cleanses us. True, but the
cleansing comes when we accept His unconditional
forgiveness. Our own forgiveness must be unconditional,
too; we must not forgive people just because they do
something that pleases us. We must forgive our enemies.
An example: Here comes a man called Saul of Tarsus,
wreaking havoc with the church, which he found not in the
temple but from house to house. Stephen, who had been
chosen a deacon, had become a powerful evangelist, and
Saul said that if this young fellow carries on like this, hell
convert all Israel. We must put him out of the way. So he
gathered a mob and stoned him, and when Stephen saw
the end was coming, he fell to his knees. He saw heaven
open, and he saw Christ standing. Christ stood up to
welcome him home, but before he went, he said, Father,
lay not this sin to their charge. That was unconditional
forgiveness.
And what happened? Jesus had taught that what you
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what you
liberate on earth shall be liberated in heaven. Here,
Stephen liberated Saul of Tarsus, the leader of the mob,
from judgment. Lay not this sin to their chargethat
caused the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of
Glory, the Mighty Savior, to come from His throne all the
way down to the road to Damascus, to arrest Saul of
Tarsus. He made him His prisoner, and Paul always spoke
of himself as a prisoner of Christ.
This example, of the most dangerous enemy of the
church who became its champion, gave me the grace and
courage to forgive. I dont care how much they fight the
charismatic movement or what they do to the
Pentecostals, I forgive them. And I have seen some of the
greatest fighters of the opposition, even those who said
we are of the devil, become champions of the movement.
The Lord can change people! In fact, He said to me: You
can turn all your enemies into champions, if you will
forgive them so unconditionally that they cannot escape it.
Does That Explain Your Lapel Pin, 70 7?
Yes, and it helps remind me that forgiveness is a
continuing affair. Because the temptation to stop forgiving
is always present.
(The message concluded in a note that he would make
these pins available free of charge to anyone who wrote to
him and asked for one.)

86. This sermon is taken from David du Plessis, Simple
and Profound (Orleans, MA: Paraclete, 1986), 119126.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
87. See Ephesians 5:2.
88. 1 John 3:16.
14
The Message of DeliveranceTommy
Hicks
(Note: This sermon was preached in 1955 in Argentina.)89
It is a great pleasure to see so many people here and to
bring a message of deliverance from the Word of God.
Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 2:14Now thanks be
unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Jesus
Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by
us in every place. God tells us in this verse that He always
causes us to triumph by the knowledge that God gives us
in Christ.
In another verse, the apostle Paul says, I can do all
through Christ who lives in me. The first part of the verse
we read was, Thanks be unto God, which always causeth
us to triumph in Jesus Christ. For the Christian, there is
no defeat. We can overcome every defeat. We can
overcome all fear, because Christ lives in our souls.
Repeat please: Christ in me, Christ in me, Christ in me.
Now friend, think that Christ lives in you. How can you be
defeated? There is no defeat for men and women who
walk with the Lord. And God wants you to know that if
Christ is in you, you have power to rise up over every
defeat. God wants you to know that sickness and disease
do not belong to you. The sickness and disease could have
overcome and defeated you, but when you remember that
the living Christ lives in your soul, you can rise up against
every defeat. There is no defeat for men and women who
remember that Christ lives in them. The sickness and
disease cannot have dominion over their bodies; the living
Christ lives in them.
The Scripture says, Thanks be unto God, which always
causeth us to triumph in Jesus Christ. How can we be
victorious? There is only one way to be victorious, and that
is when we possess the knowledge of Christ, when we
have the knowledge of the living Christ in us.
The Bible teaches us that we are like a piece of soil.
When the soil is worked, one can sow seed in it, and that
seed sprouts and grows and gives fruit. We are like a
piece of soil. In 1 Corinthians 3:69, God says that we are
gardens, planted with the Word of God. The word
husbandry should be translated to field or garden.
This is wonderful. If you allow the Word of God to be sown
in your body, it will grow and give fruit. It will produce 60,
70, or 100 percent. It will produce as much as you will
allow it to. Your body will produce results of the Word of
God. I want to repeat to you again that the Word of God
must be received in your body and you must let it grow.
Then it will flow from youthe glory of the Word that has
been planted in you.
The reason why some of you are not triumphant, the
reason why sickness and disease always defeated you, is
because you do not have the Word of God sown in you. If
you allow the Word of God to be sown in you, when
sickness and disease come against you, you have
something to go against the power of sickness and
disease. Take the Word, read it, put it into your heart.
Say, It is mine. I proclaim it as mine and allow it to be
mine. Continue reading and praying until it is yours. When
the Word of God is in your soul, it will answer when
sickness and disease come. The triumph of Christ will
follow. Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to
triumph in Jesus Christ.
When you get to know how powerful the Word of God is
oh! David knew something about that. He said in Psalm
119:11, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might
not sin against thee. Take the Word of God and memorize
it. Allow it to be a part of you. The more you read, the
more you sow. You will find the Word of God will be blood
for your body and power for your bones. Friends, the
Word of God is the most powerful thing in the world! We
dont notice how powerful the Word of God is! There is a
Scripture in Hebrews 4:12 that says, The word of God is
quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged
sword. When you use the Word of God, what does it do?
It breaks everything.
The Word of God Is a Sword
When Satan comes against you, answer him not with
your knowledge but with the sweet savor of the Word of
God. When you do that, the devil has to go away. The
Word of God is a sword. It is something that God has given
you to defeat the devil. When you have the Word in your
soul, you can use it like a machine gun. You can know so
much of the Word of God that you will be like a man with a
machine gun who is firing at the enemy. Dont tell the devil
what you know, but say what God has said. You can give
so much of the Word of God and give it so quickly that the
devil must flee away, and yet you can give so little that the
devil comes and defeats you. Learn what God has said,
and when the devil comes, you will defeat him.
Not Your Knowledge
The reason why some of us fail is because we give our
own knowledge in the great sermons we preach. Your
knowledge is not the knowledge of God. Use the
knowledge of the Word of God, and you will find that the
knowledge of the Word of God will cause you to triumph.
Those old, dry sermons are so dry that a puff of wind will
blow the dust. You must use the Word of God against the
devil and you will make him flee. The Bible says, Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you.90 When the devil comes, you will defeat
him. The Word of God will do what God has said it would
do. The Bible says that one will chase a thousand, and two
put ten thousand to flight.91 When you use the Word of
God against the devil with all your strength, going against
him, not in your own strength and power but in the
knowledge of Christ, you will be triumphant, and you will
find that God is with you.
The Gifts of the Spirit Defined
Someone asked, Can I use the knowledge of God?
Yes! God has made it possible that every believer in Christ,
full of the Holy Spirit, can speak, think, and act like God.
But you can only do this when you have the baptism of the
Holy Spirit and the nine spiritual gifts that are at the
disposition of every man and woman. God has given us
nine spiritual gifts. Each one represents the supernatural
power of the Word of God. ListenI am going to name
them: a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, discerning
of spirits, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, tongues,
interpretation of tongues.
The nine spiritual gifts are divided into three divisions.
The first division is:
The Gifts of Revelation
They are a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, and
discerning of spirits. These gifts only manifest themselves
in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Notice it does
not say knowledge or wisdom but a word of
knowledge and a word of wisdom. Some are going
about, saying, That man has the gift of knowledge for the
great things he is doing. That is not what God means
when He says a word of knowledge. The word of
knowledge is given while you are under the anointing of
the Holy Spirit. God reveals to you a word, or two, or ten,
and you speak the words under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. The same happens with a word of wisdom, which
God gives you to do something. Through the word of
wisdom, Solomon could take a child, and ask for a knife,
and by that wisdom find out who the mother of the child
was. These two gifts are given in a wink of an eye.
Listenthe most ignorant man in the world can be filled
with the Holy Spirit, and God can make him speak a word
of wisdom or a word of knowledge, that could put Einstein,
the most highly intellectual man in the world, to confusion.
I am so happy that the Word of God says that God takes
the most humble and fills him with the Holy Spirit, for the
wisdom of the world is foolishness with God. I am so
happy that you and I can obtain the wisdom of the Holy
Spirit.
The third gift in this section is discerning of spirits.
Some people want to know something about another
person and say, I can discern you did this or that. That is
suspiciousness. The gift of discerning of spirits is to know
what spirits are in the human body. For example, if a
person comes before a man of liberation who has the gift
of discerning spirits, the Holy Spirit falls and reveals to him
the name of the spirit in that person. He can call him by
name and in the name of Jesus tell him to go out, and the
spirit will obey his voice.
God wants you to know you can have the gifts of the
Holy Spirit if you walk with Him and the Word of God is
sown in your soul.
The second division is called:
The Gifts of Power
There are three gifts of power: faith, healing, and
miracles. The greatest is faith. A man whose faith is
manifested in his life in its fullness can expect healing and
miracles to take place. Now, God does not confine this
power to preachers. If you will notice again and again,
These signs shall follow them that believe. When faith is
manifested in your life, then the gifts of healing and
miracles take place automatically. As the gift of
discernment controls the first two gifts of revelation, so
does the gift of faith control the other two gifts of power.
We could go on and on with this tremendous revelation of
the power gifts, but let us come to the next division.
The Gifts of Inspiration
Now, how are the gifts of inspiration manifested?
Exactly as the word inspiration [implies]. They operate
only as you are inspired by God or the Holy Spirit. As you
yield yourself to God in the spirit, the gift of inspiration
automatically begins to operate in your life. They are
known as prophesying, speaking in tongues, and
interpretation. There is no other way in which these gifts
can operate except as you are inspired by the Holy Spirit.
These gifts are found in 1 Corinthians 12:711, but listen
to this quotation: But all these worketh that one and the
selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he
will.92 Now, that means that it is up to you. Power is a
matter of choice. You can have as much power with God
as you want.
I want you to know the difference in these gifts. The
first is the gift of revelation. How do these gifts come?
Through revelation!
The second division is the gift of power. As one
exercises faith, the gifts of healings and miracles come
forth automatically.
The third division is the gifts of inspiration. The first gift,
prophecy, controls speaking in tongues and interpretation.
To sum it all up: If a man has the gift of discernment,
he can be assured that the other two gifts will operate in
his life. Faith controls the gifts of power, and prophecy
controls the gifts of inspiration.
I want to read to you 2 Corinthians 2:15: For we are
unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved,
and in them that perish. What are we? Sweet savor of
Christ. Are you a sweet savor for God? Are you sure? Are
you sure that you are a sweet savor of God? God says that
we are a sweet savor of Christ. Now, I dont know; you
say that you are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. There
is only one way I can know if you are unto God a sweet
savor of Christ, and that is if the Word of God has been
sown into youif the Word of God is living in you. If so,
you are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. But I wonder
how we smell before God if the Word of God is not sown
in us.
God wants you to know that when the Word of God is
sown in you, you have the knowledge of God living in you.
Here is what happens: I possess the knowledge of God. Do
you see why the devil has defeated us? Because we didnt
possess the Word living in us. If the Word of God is in you,
you will be like a soldier that wins one battle after another.
You can use the sword in your hand and say, Christ
guides me to victory! There is only one way to be
triumphant, and that is that the knowledge of God lives in
your soul.
Dont you love the Lord tonight? I love Him more than
ever before. I will tell you something. If you continue
praising the Lord as you do tonight, oh! I want you to
shout and praise the Lord! There is nothing as dead as a
meeting where not one says Amen and does not praise
the Lord. Everybody is sitting with a long face. I dont
criticize them for it. They dont praise the Lord, because
they do not have the Word of God in them. But if you have
it in you, when the preacher is preaching, you have a right
to shout.
I am happy that the Word of God has life in itself. Read
Shakespeare and you will see that it is a dead book, but
read the Word of God and you will see that it has life in it.
Make up your mind that you will be filled with the Word
of God. Some of us are spiritually so thin that we are only
skin and bones. God wants you to be full of His Word;
then, you will be sweet savor before God. Do you want to
be sweet savor before God? If so, get full of the Word of
God and you will have the knowledge of God. And when
you have it, He will give you wisdom to use the power that
has been given to you.

89. This sermon is taken from Tommy Hicks, Its Closing
Time, Gentlemen (Los Angeles: Manifest Deliverance and
Worldwide Evangelism, Inc., 1958), 2735. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
90. James 4:7.
91. See Deuteronomy 32:30.
92. 1 Corinthians 12:11.
15
The Burning BushTommy Hicks
(Note: This sermon was also delivered
in 1955 in Argentina.)93
I want to encourage your hearts tonight, so that when
you feel the power and the presence of God, it is a sign
that you are in touch with God; you can ask Him anything,
and He will give you the desire of your heart; it is the
moment to release your faith. Do not fear to call unto God
in that moment of time; for when you feel the presence of
God, that means that you must ask in that same moment,
and He will touch your body and soul.
Tonight, I want to read to you [from] the third chapter
of Exodus, verses 3 and 4:
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this
great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord
saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out
of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he
said, Here am I.
I want you to notice something in what we have read.
First, that God was speaking to Moses, and Moses was
alone in the desert. While Moses was looking after his
cattle, suddenly his eyes caught sight of a burning bush.
Why did it seem so strange to him? For there were so few
of those bushes in that place. I have seen the same place
where Moses saw the burning bush, and for many miles,
one cant see a single bush. Therefore, it was not
surprising that when Moses saw it, he went aside to see it
and said: I will now turn aside, and see this great sight,
why the bush is not burnt. For how long Moses watched
this bush, we dont know, but he must have observed it for
some time, because finally he said, I will now turn aside,
and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And
when he turned, there was something different in it from
any other bush that had ever existed on the face of the
earth; for God had done something strange with this bush:
He had changed the very nature of this bush, so that this
bush could hold God and His presence. Think of thatthat
God had changed the very nature of that bush so that that
bush could hold the presence and power of God, for from
that bush God began to speak. It must have been very
astonishing, for while Moses was watching, he became
quite excited, and when he got near the bush, God began
to speak to him.
A Seeking God
God had come to the place where He was looking for a
man. He had His reasons to seek him, and He found Moses
and said to him, Moses, go and free My people. First,
God had people to deliver; second, the time had come for
their deliverance. Now God had found the man, and He
said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground.94 Moses was observing the burning bush, and
his desires were becoming each time greater, for God was
in the bush, and His power and His presence could be felt.
God wants you to feel His presence! God wants you to feel
His power!
What a wonderful story! God descended and entered
that bush, and suddenly that bush began to speak. Moses
heard the bush, and this is what he thought: I wish to
have what that bush has.
Friends, listen to me: that is what God wants you to
knowthat you can have the fire of God; God can speak
through you, the same way He can speak through the
bush, the same way He can speak through you and me
and will cause His fire to come into you.
I can imagine Moses saying, I want that fire, I want
that fire, I want that fire! I want that voice to speak
through me. I am meek. I have no power in myself. I want
the power that that bush has! God said to Moses, I will
make you a burning bush. Moses was to become an
instrument for God, an instrument in the hands of God to
deliver the people that were in slavery. He said to Moses,
My people are in slavery. Notice the commandment that
He gave him; He said, Go and deliver My people. Moses
said he could not speak, but God made him know that He
would give him power, and he would become a burning
bush.
What God Wants You to Know
That is what God wants you to know. In Acts 2:4, we
read about the hundred and twenty disciples that were
assembled together in the Upper Room. Suddenly there
came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind,
and it filled all the house where they were sitting; and
there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with
the Holy Spirit. These one hundred twenty disciples were
filled with the fire of God and became one hundred twenty
messengers of deliverance. God wants you to be filled with
the power and presence of God; He wants you to be filled
with His fire so you can become a burning bush. God
wants you and me to be filled with the fire of God so that
you and I become messengers of deliverance.
Moses was the man God had chosen. God never
chooses an organization; He finds a man through all the
ages. God always has found a man. God will use you, and
you, and you; God will use whosoever wants to be used by
Him. The reason why God chooses a man or a woman is
because He can get his heart and mind; but in a great
organization, there are many minds and problems. God
can take you and me to bring deliverance and to be
obedient to His call.
First, God had the instrument; then the fire; in the third
place, the time had come that was the hour of God to
deliver His people. The time had come; there were people
to be delivered; God had found the man. God said to
Moses, Go and deliver My people; go and give them
liberty. The same is true today; millions of people in the
whole world are in slavery. Two billion and seventy-five
million people are in slavery because they dont know
Christ as their Savior; and God says to you and me, Go
and deliver My people; go and put them in freedom. He
says to us, I will give you power and authority. I will send
My Spirit upon you. I will cause My power to flow through
you. I will enter and live in your soul. Think of thatGod
descending and making His home in our souls, living in you
and me. Listen, friends: if God could enter a bush and
speak through it, God can speak through you and me.
Moses made up his mind that he would be a burning
bush, that he would have the power and the presence of
God. Friends, make up your mind that you want the power
of God, make up your mind what you want from God, and
if you make up your mind, He will put His power, glory,
dominion, and authority in your soul; for with a people
who do things half, and dont do it really, God cannot do
anything with them. His Word says that obedience is better
than sacrifice.
My desire is to have greater powerto be a burning
bush. What greater things could a man do than to put his
hands on suffering humanity and see the sick healed, the
blind eyes opened, the deaf ears opened? That is my
desire, to be a burning bush like Moses. When Moses
turned aside, God said to him, I will give you power, I will
give you authority, I will send My blessing upon you.
Because you stood to listen to the message of the gospel,
God will bless you. He will pour in your soul the power of
His blessing.
Time Now for the Greatest Revival in History
The time has come for the greatest revival the world
has ever known in every nation, tongue, and tribe. God is
waiting for you and me to become a burning bush, to have
the power of God to deliver the nation and to bring peace
to a troubled world. All the peace treaties, cannons, and
arms have taken us far away from peace, and there is
only One who can bring peace to the world, and that is
Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! The Son of God, only the Prince of
Peaceonly He can bring peace and joy to the troubled
soul.
Sin has been the terrible enemy of man. When God
made man, He made him a spiritual being; he was
crowned with spiritual life, but when sin came into the
worldlisten to this, please! When sin came into the
world, it took away the Spirit from the throne and crowned
man with the intellectuality. When sin came into the world,
it dethroned the Spirit of God in that mans soul and
crowned him with intellectuality. I dont want you to
misunderstand me. I am not against intellectuality. Thank
God for the intellectuality and the education. I am studying
constantly, and we all ought to study, but the Bible says
that we must study to be approved by God.95
The Pentecostal power converts the man into a spiritual
being. He can then act like God, perform miracles like God,
and think like God, and that is why God sent the
Pentecostal power.
Some of you do not understand the Pentecostal power;
there are some that do not believe in the Pentecostal
experience. Why did God send it? When God made man in
the beginning, He gave him power and authority; he could
do the things he wanted. He could act and think like God.
Then, sin came and robbed the man of all the virtues. On
the day of Pentecost, God restored to the man what he
had lost at the beginning. You ask me, how did He do it? I
tell you how God did it: with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
How can one think like God? How can one act like God?
Now, I dont want you to misunderstand my words: I am
speaking of the spiritual man. The reason why God gives
you spiritual things is so that you can act spirituallynot
with the flesh but with the Spirit of God.
God gave to the man nine spiritual gifts: a word of
knowledge, a word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, faith,
healings, miracles, prophecy, tongues, interpretation of
tongues. God has given us nine spiritual gifts; I can think
like God, I can act like God, and I can speak like God.
You ask, how can I do it? The first three gifts are a
word of knowledge, a word of wisdomit does not say
knowledge and wisdomand the discerning of spirits; if
you have these three, you can act like God. They are given
by the Spirit! It is not anything you can learn; you cant get
it out of books, but it comes suddenly, in the twinkle of an
eye. God gives it, and I can think like God.
How can I act like God? I can do it when I have the gifts
of miracles, faith, and healings; for this is how Jesus
worked when He was on the earth. He healed all who
came to Him.
So, we have discovered we can think and act like God.
How can I speak like God? If I have the Holy Spirit, I can
not only speak in other tongues but interpret. I have
something greaterI can speak in prophecy; it goes from
my soul, it flows under the anointing of the Holy Spiritthe
word of prophecy. I can speak like God. That is why we
need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Do you believe it?
We need to stop playing at church. We need to do the
things really, not only pray but be obedient to the Word of
God and say to God, I will go wherever You will send me.
I will do what You want me to do. I will be what You want
me to be.
There are people that are afraid of receiving too much.
God will never overpower your will. He will give you what
you want. If you want the power and the presence of God,
if you want the baptism of the Holy Spirit, He will give it to
you.

93. This sermon is taken from Tommy Hicks, Its Closing
Time, Gentlemen (Los Angeles: Manifest Deliverance and
Worldwide Evangelism, Inc., 1958), 102107.
94. Exodus 3:5.
95. See 2 Timothy 2:15.
Bibliography
Barrett, David B., ed. World Christian Encyclopedia: A
Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the
Modern World, 2nd ed., vol. 1. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2001.
Burgess, Stanley M., and McGee, Gary B. ed. Dictionary of
Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988.
But What about Hicks? The Christian Century (July 7,
1954): 814815.
Durasoff, Steve. Bright Wind of the Spirit: Pentecostalism
Today. Tulsa, OK: Rhema Bible Church, 1972.
Du Plessis, David (as told to Bob Slosser). A Man Called
Mr. Pentecost. Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1977.
. Simple and Profound. Orleans, MA: Paraclete
Press, Inc., 1986.
. The Spirit Bade Me Go, rev. ed. Plainfield, NJ:
Logos International, 1970.
Frodsham, Stanley Howard. Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle
of Faith. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1948.
Gibson, Houston. Tommy Hicks Speaks at Denver
Chapter, Full Gospel Business Mens Voice (November
1955): 2729.
Hicks, Tommy (as recorded by Gerald Derstine). Vision
Given to Tommy Hicks, Evangelist, July 25, 1961.
Reprinted from Harvest Time magazine, n.d.
. Its Closing Time, Gentlemen. Los Angeles:
Manifest Deliverance and Worldwide Evangelism, Inc.,
1958.
. Millions Found Christ: Historys Greatest Recorded
Revival. Los Angeles: Manifest Deliverance and Worldwide
Evangelism, Inc., 1956.
. My Second World-Wide Mission Tour, Full Gospel
Business Mens Voice, vol. 3, no. 7 (October 1955): 318.
Liardon, Roberts. Gods Generals: Why They Succeeded
and Why Some Failed. New Kensington, PA: Whitaker
House, 1996.
Nickel, Thomas R. A Subsequent Report of the Hicks
Mission, Full Gospel Business Mens Voice (January 1956):
1016.
Parham, Mrs. Charles. The Life of Charles Parham.
Birmingham, AL: Commercial Printing Company, 1930.
Robinson, Martin. To the Ends of the Earth: The
Pilgrimage of an Ecumenical Pentecostal, David J. du
Plessis (19051987). Ph.D. dissertation: University of
Birmingham, England, 1987.
Sandidge, Jerry L. Roman Catholic/Pentecostal Dialogue:
A Contribution to Christian Unity, Pneuma 7 (1985): 41
61.
Stokes, Louie W. The Great Revival in Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires, Argentina: 1954.
Wigglesworth, Smith. Ever Increasing Faith. Springfield,
MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1924, 1971.
. Smith Wigglesworth Speaks to Students of the
Bible. Compiled by Roberts Liardon. Tulsa, OK: Albury
Publishing, 1998.
. Smith Wigglesworth: The Complete Collection of
His Life Teachings. Compiled by Roberts Liardon. Tulsa,
OK: Albury Publishing, 1996.
About the Compiler
Dr. Roberts Liardon, author, public speaker, spiritual
leader, church historian, and humanitarian was born in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, the first male child born at Oral Roberts
University. For this distinction, he was named in honor of
the university founder.
Roberts career in ministry began at a young age, when
in 1979, he gave his first public address at the age of
thirteen. Then, at seventeen, he published his first book, I
Saw Heaven, which catapulted him into the public eye.
The book sold over 1.5 million copies and by the following
year, Roberts had become one of the leading public
speakers in the Christian community all over the world.
Shortly after the publication of I Saw Heaven, God
inspired Roberts to write and produce a book and video
series entitled Gods Generals, which chronicled the lives
of some of our leading Pentecostal and charismatic
leaders. These books included Gods Generals: Why They
Succeeded and Why Some Failed; Gods Generals: The
Roaring Reformers; Gods Generals: The Revivalists; and
Gods Generals: The Healing Evangelists. The series was
an immediate success, establishing Roberts as a leading
Protestant church historian.
Since the beginning of the millennium, Roberts has
continued to fulfill a demanding speaking schedule along
with writing new books and mentoring a new generation
of world leaders to effect change for the church and
society. He continues to manage and expand his
international headquarters in Sarasota, Florida, and has
an extension office in London, England.
Roberts Liardon Ministries
US Office:
P.O. Box 2989 Sarasota, FL 34230
UK and Europe Office:
22 Notting Hill Gate, Suite 125 London W11 3JE, UK
E-mail: [email protected]
www.RobertsLiardon.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RobertsLiardon
Twitter: @RobertsLiardon