© 19 Colin Melbourne, Transcribed and annotated from The Pentecostal Evangel 1923
Shortly after this we find that after preaching in His home town they wanted to throw Him over the brow of a hill.
It was the same with the Twelve disciples
They had no persecution before the day of Pentecost, but after they were filled with the Spirit, they were soon in prison.
The Devil and priests of religion will always get stirred when a man is filled with the Spirit, and does things in the power of the Spirit.
And persecution is the greatest blessing to a church.
When we have persecution, we will have purity.
If you can desire to be filled with the Spirit, you can count on one thing, and that is persecution.
Division and Persecution
The Lord came to bring division, and even in your own household you may find three against two.
Peace and Persecution
The Lord Jesus came to bring peace; and soon after you get peace within, you get persecution without.
If you remain stationary, the Devil and his agents will not disturb you much. But when you press on, and go the whole length with God: The Enemy has you as a target.
But God will vindicate you in the midst of the whole thing.
Not A Deceiver
At a meeting I was holding, the Lord was working and many were being healed. A man saw what was taking place and remarked, “I’d like to try this thing.”
He came up for prayer, and told me that his body was broken in two places. [ie. abdominal inguinal rupture. Ed.] I laid my hands on him in the Name of the Lord, and said to him, “Now, you believe God.”
The next night he was at the meeting, and he got up like a lion. He said, “I want to tell you people that this man here is deceiving you. He laid his hands on me last night for rupture in two places, but I’m not a bit better.”
I stopped him and said, “You are healed; your trouble is that you won’t believe it!”
He was at the meeting the next night, and when there was opportunity for testimony, this man arose.
Vindicated by His False-Acuser
He said, “I’m a mason by trade [ie. a qualified stone-mason. Ed.] Today I was working with a labourer, and he had to put a big stone in place. I helped him, and did not feel any pain. I said to myself, ‘How have I done it?’ I went away to a place where I could strip, and I found that I was healed.”
I told the people, “Last night this man was against the word of God, but now he believes it.”
They Shall Recover
“It is true that these signs shall follow them that believe, they shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover. And all through the power that is in the Name of Christ.”
It is the Spirit who has come to reveal the word of God, and to make it spirit and life to us.
You people who are seeking the Baptism are entering a place where you will have persecution.
Your best friends will leave you: Or those you esteem your best friends. No good friend will ever leave you. But it is worthwhile. You enter into a realm of illumination, of revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost. He reveals the preciousness and the power of the Blood of Christ.
I find by the revelation of the Spirit that there is not one thing in me that the Blood does not cleanse.
I find that God sanctifies me by the Blood, and reveals the efficacy of the work by the Spirit.
Robe of Righteousness
Stephen was just an ordinary man clothed with the divine.
He was full of faith and power, and great wonders and miracles were wrought by him.
Oh, this life in the Holy Ghost!
This life of deep, inward revelation, of transformation from one state to another, of growing in grace, and in the knowledge, and in the power of the Spirit, the life and the mind of Christ being renewed in you, and of constant revelations of the might of His power.
Continue reading… Smith Wigglesworth on: What it Means to be Full of The Holy Ghost
© 19 Colin Melbourne, Transcribed and annotated from The Pentecostal Evangel 1923
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