THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD
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In December 1936 Smith Wigglesworth the famous healing evangelist was preaching in South Africa. His tour was organised by an outstanding young man by the name of David Duplessis who at thirty years old, was the General Secretary of the Apostolic Faith Mission.
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One morning very early, Smith Wigglesworth walked into David’s office – and in typical style, pinned him against the wall and prophesied that a revival would come through the old-time denominations that would be greater than anything previously known. Many of the leaders of these traditional churches would change from strong opposition to accept the message and the blessing of the Pentecostal experience. David too would have a very prominent part in this movement if he remained humble and faithful.
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David went on to organise the 1949 and 1952 Pentecostal World Conferences and in 1954 he attended a meeting of the World Council of Churches which was the beginning of his connections with other denominations, including Roman Catholics. David du Plessis was nicknamed “Mr Pentecost” and through him many barriers were broken down between Pentecostals and church leaders of all denominations, but he never compromised the message of Pentecost.
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Smith Wigglesworth’s prophecy was fully fulfilled when the Charismatic Movement began in 1960 and spread worldwide involving millions of people who received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, and mostly stayed within their own churches. It completely changed attitudes with most church leaders accepting the reality of it to this day, even if they do not want to participate.
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There is another prophecy that has been attributed to Smith Wigglesworth just before he died early in 1947:
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"During the next few decades there will be two distinct moves of the Holy Spirit across the church in Great Britain. The first move will affect every church that is open to receive it and will be characterised by a restoration of the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit. (Charismatic Movement)
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"The second move of the Holy Spirit will result in people leaving historic churches and planting new churches. (Restoration Movement)
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"In the duration of each of these moves, the people who are involved will say, 'This is a great revival.' But the Lord says, 'No, neither is this the great revival but both are steps towards it.'
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"When the new church phase is on the wane, there will be evidence in the churches of something that has not been seen before: a coming together of those with an emphasis on the Word and those with an emphasis on the Spirit. When the Word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest move of the Holy Spirit that the nation, and indeed, the world has ever seen. It will mark the beginning of a revival that will eclipse anything that has been witnessed within these shores, even the Wesleyan and Welsh revivals of former years. The outpouring of God’s Spirit will flow over from the United Kingdom to mainland Europe, and from there, will begin a missionary move to the ends of the earth."
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The first two moves which Wigglesworth foretold most certainly have been fulfilled but up to now I cannot see the Spirit and the Word coming together in a significant way - YET - but I long to see it fulfilled.
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I personally know a number of vicars in the Church of England and ministers in other denominations who faithfully and accurately preach God’s Word every Sunday. My longing for them is that they will receive the baptism or the fulness of the Holy Spirit in their lives which would bring a new dimension and effectiveness in their ministries to bring conviction, to see conversions and bring REVIVAL.
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Equally for those of us in the Pentecostal/Charismatic streams maybe we too, need to see a greater coming together of the Spirit and the Word. We need to preach the Word – not our opinions. We don’t need to massage people’s egos and make them feel good – we need to “rightly divide the word of truth.” And equally at the same time, we need to depend upon the Holy Spirit to bring the Word to life.
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One of the things that I teach my students is to claim the anointing. 1 John 2:27 declares that “the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you,” And that anointing “teaches us all things.” Every time I stand up to preach or even if I am just teaching Church history (and I have done this for many years), I claim that anointing - in other words, I consciously activate it, apply it and depend upon it - and if I ever forget to do it, I can see the difference! It’s amazing the light that is shone on the Word even as it is expounded – things I had not planned to say come out - and the Spirit is teaching me at the same time!
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So we ALL need it. We ALL need the Word and we ALL need the Spirit.
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When the Spirit and the Word come together things happen.
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So let’s pray and believe for these words to come to pass:
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"When the Word and the Spirit come together,
there will be the biggest move of the Holy Spirit
that the nation, and indeed, the world has ever seen.”
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