Category: Daily Devotionals – Smith Wigglesworth

October 15

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. — 2 Corinthians 10:4

Scripture reading: 2 Corinthians 10

People ask, “Do all speak with tongues?” Certainly not. But all people may speak as the Spirit gives utterance—as in the Upper Room and at the house of Cornelius and at Ephesus when Jesus‘ followers were filled with the Holy Spirit.

There is quite a difference between having a gift and speaking as the Spirit gives utterance. If I had been given the gift of tongues when I was filled with the Holy Spirit, then I could have spoken in tongues at any time, because gifts and calling remain (Romana 11:29). But I couldn‘t speak in tongues after I was baptized. Why? It was because I had received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, but I hadn‘t received the gift of tongues.

However, I received the Holy Spirit, who is the Giver of all gifts. And nine months afterward, God gave me the gift of tongues so that I could speak in tongues at any time. But do I? God forbid! Why? Because no man ought to use a gift; the Holy Spirit uses the gift.

I have a reason for talking like this. People come up to me all the time and say, “I have been prayed for, and I am just the same.” It is enough to make you kick them. I don‘t mean that literally. I would be the last man to kick anybody in this place. God forbid. But if I can get you enraged against the powers of darkness and the powers of disease, if I can wake you up, you won‘t go to bed unless you prove that there is a Master in you who is greater than the power that is hanging around you.

Many times I have gone to a house in which an insane person lived and have been shut in with him in order to deliver him. I have gone in determined that he would be delivered. In the middle of the night chiefly, sometimes in the middle of the day, the demon powers would come and bite me and handle me terribly roughly. But I never gave in. It would dethrone a higher principle if I had to give in.

May the God of grace and mercy strengthen us. In the measure that we destroy these evil powers, we make it easier for weak believers. For every time Satan overcomes a saint, it gives him ferocity for another attack; but when he is subdued, he will come to the place where defeat is written against him.

In your home, with your spouse and children, you will have audacity of determination, along with a righteous indignation, against the power of disease to cast it out. That is worth more to you than anything you could buy.

Thought for today: No one can have a knowledge of an inward Christ without having a longing that there will be an increase of souls saved.

October 14

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. — Romans 15:2

Scripture reading: Romans 14:12–15:2

If it is only a finger or a tooth that aches, if it is only a corn on your foot that pinches you or anything in the body that detracts from the highest spiritual attainment, the kingdom of heaven is dethroned to a degree; “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence” (Matthew 11:12).

By the Word of God, I am proving to you that the kingdom of heaven is within you. “Greater is he that is in you” (1 John 4:4 KJV) — the Son of God, the kingdom of heaven within you — “than he that is in the world” (v. 4 KJV) — the power of Satan outside you.

Disease or weakness, or any distraction in you, is a power of violence that can take the kingdom of heaven in you by force. The same spiritual power that will reveal this to you, will relieve you.

On the authority of the Word of God, I maintain that “greater is he that is in you” (1 John 4:4 KJV) than any power of Satan that is around you (v. 4). How much more would be done if you would inwardly claim your rights and deliver yourselves!

I believe the Bible from front to back. If, by the power of God, I put in you an audacity, a determination, so that you won‘t let Satan rest, you will be victorious. Praise the Lord!

Why do I take this attitude? Because for every step of my life since my baptism, I have had to pay the price of everything for others. God has to take me through to the place so that I may be able to show the people how to do it. Some people come up to me and say, “I have been waiting for the baptism, and I am having such a struggle. I am having to fight for every inch of it. Isn‘t it strange?” No. A thousand to one, God is preparing you to help somebody else who is desiring to receive it.

The reason I am so firm about the necessity of getting the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and about the significance of the Spirit‘s making a manifestation when He comes in, is this: I fought it. I went to a meeting because I had heard people were speaking in tongues there. I forced myself on the attention of those in the
meeting almost like a man who was mad. I told the people there, “This meeting of yours is nothing. I have left better conditions at home. I am hungry and thirsty for something.”

“What do you want?” they asked.

“I want tongues.”

“You want the baptism?” they asked.

“Not I,” I said. “I have the baptism. I want tongues.”

I could have had a fight with anybody. The whole situation was this: God was training me for something else. The power of God fell upon my body with such ecstasy of joy that I could not satisfy the joy within with my natural tongue; then I found the Spirit speaking through me in other tongues.

What did it mean? I knew that I had had anointings of joy before this, and expressions of the blessed attitude of the Spirit of life, and joy in the Holy Spirit; I had felt it all the way through my life. But when the fullness came with a high tide, with an overflowing life, I knew that was different from anything else. And I knew that was the baptism, but God had to show me.

Thought for today: The Bible won‘t have an atom of power in you if you don‘t put it into practice in yourself.

October 13

For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. — Psalm 91:11

Scripture reading: Psalm 91

I have looked through my Bible, and I cannot find where God brings disease and sickness. I know it is the power of God that brings the glory. Yet it is the Devil and not God at all who brings sickness and disease. Why does he? I know this: Satan is God‘s whip, and if you don‘t obey God, God will stand to one side and Satan will devour you. But God will only allow him to devour so much, as was the case with Job. The Lord told Satan, “You may go only so far, and no further. Don‘t touch his life.” (See Job 2:6.)

Why is Satan allowed to bring sickness? It is because we know better than we act. If we would be true to our convictions and walk according to the light we have been given, God would verify His presence in the midst of us, and we would know that sickness cannot “come near [our] dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over [us], to keep [us] in all [our] ways” (Psalm 91:10–11).

When Satan can get to your body, he will, if possible, make the pain or the weakness so distracting that it will affect your mind and always bring your mind down to where the pain is. When that takes place, you do not have the same freedom in your spirit to lift up your heart and shout and praise the Lord. The distraction of the pain brings the foundational power, which ought to be full of praise to God, down into the body. And through that—concerning everybody who is afflicted—“the kingdom of heaven suffers violence” (Matthew 11:12).

Thought for today: Anything that takes me from a position where I am in an attitude of worship, peace, and joy; where I have a consciousness of the presence of God; where there is an inward moving of the powers of God that makes me able to lift myself up and live in the world as though I were not of it (because I am not of it); anything that dethrones me from that attitude is evil, is satanic.

October 12

Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. — Psalm 107:6

Scripture reading: Psalm 50

Does God know all about you? Is He acquainted with you altogether? Why should you, under any circumstances, believe that you will be better off by being diseased? When disease is impurity, why should you ever believe that you will be sanctified by having a great deal of sickness?

Some people talk about God being pleased to put disease on His children. “Here is a person I love,” says God. “I will break his arm. Then, so that he will love Me more, I will break his leg. So that he will love Me even more, I will give him a weak heart.”

The whole thing won‘t stand daylight. Yet people are always talking this way, and they never think to read the Word of God, which says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray” (Psalm 19:67). They have never read the following words into their lives:

Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. (Psalm 107:17–19)

Is it right to say, “You know, my brother, I have suffered so much in this affliction that it has made me know God better?” Well, now, before you agree, ask God for a lot more affliction so that you will get to know Him still better. If you won‘t ask for more affliction to make you still purer, I won‘t believe that the first affliction made you purer, because if it had, you would have more faith in it. It appears that you do not have faith in your afflictions. It is only talk, but talk doesn‘t count unless it is backed up by fact. However, if people can see that your words are backed up by fact, then they have some grounds for believing in them.

Thought for today: Why not trust God who knows all about you, instead of trusting in people who know only what you have told them?

October 11

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. — Ephesians 6:10–11

Scripture reading: Ephesians 6:10–20

There is a power in you that is greater than any other power. By the help of the Spirit, may you come into a place of deliverance, a place of holy sanctification, where you dare to stand against the Devil‘s‘ schemings, drive them back, and cast them out. May the Lord help us!

I want God to give you an inward awakening, a revelation of truth within you, an audacity, a flaming indignation against the powers of Satan.

Lot had a righteous indignation—temporarily—but it came too late. He ought to have had it when he went into Sodom, not when he was coming out. But I don‘t want any one of you to be dejected because you didn‘t take a step in the right direction sooner. Always be thankful that you are alive to hear and to change the situation.

You must gain an inward knowledge that God is Lord over all the power of Satan. I don‘t doubt your sincerity about being saved, about having been justified in Christ. It is not for me to question a man‘s sincerity regarding his righteousness. Yet I feel I have a right to say that there is a deeper sincerity to reach for; there is a greater audacity of faith and fact to attain. There is something that you have to wake up to where you will never allow disease to have you or sin to have you or a weak heart or a pain in your back to have you. You will never allow anything that isn‘t perfect life to have anything to do with you. Those who try to serve two masters always lose (Matthew 6:24). If you try to join up with two things—the Lord and the Devil—the Devil will get you in the end. Allow Christ to be the Lord of your life today.

Thought for today: You are not going to oppose devils if you cannot master yourself, because you will soon find the devils to be bigger than yourself.

October 10

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. — Matthew 11:12

Scripture reading: Matthew 11:25–30

This is a message to every believer. Every believer has the life of the Lord in him. And if Jesus, “who is our life” (Colossians 3:4), were to come, instantly our life would go out to meet His life because we exist by and consist of the life of the Son of God. (See verse 4.) “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (v. 3).

If all believers understood this wonderful passage that is in the twenty-second chapter of Luke‘s gospel, there would be great joy in their hearts:

Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15–16)

Everyone who is in Christ Jesus will be there when He sits down the first time to break bread in the kingdom of heaven. It is not possible for any child of God to remain on earth when Jesus comes. May the Lord help us to believe it.

I know there is a great deal of speculation on the Rapture and on the coming of the Lord. But let me tell you to hope for edification and comfort, for the Scripture by the Holy Spirit won‘t let me focus on anything except the edification, consolation, and comfort of the Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 14:3.)

I don‘t mean that we are to cover up sin. God won‘t let us do that. But we must unveil truth. And what is truth? The Word of God is the truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39).

What does the truth say? It says that when Christ appears, all who are His at His coming will be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52). We will be presented at the same moment as all those who have fallen asleep in Him, and we will all go together.

We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep….And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15–18)

For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. (Luke 22:18)

Two thousand years will soon have passed since the Lord broke bread around the table with His disciples. I am longing, the saints are longing, for the grand union when millions, billions, trillions will unite with Him in that great fellowship Supper. Praise the Lord! But now, what stimulation, what power must be working every day until that Day appears!

Thought for today: Every believer belongs to the kingdom of heaven.

October 9

Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another? — Matthew 11:3

Scripture reading: Matthew 11:12–24

I want you to see how satanic power can work in the mind. Satan came to John when he was in prison. I find that Satan can come to any of us.

But I want to prove that we have a greater power than Satan‘s—in imagination, in thought, in everything. Satan came to John the Baptist in prison and said to him, “Don‘t you think you have made a mistake? Here you are in prison. Isn‘t there something wrong with the whole business? After all, you may be greatly deceived about being a forerunner of the Christ.”

I find men who might be giants of faith, who might be leaders of society, who might rise to subdue kingdoms (Hebrews 11:33), who might be noble among princes, but they are defeated because they allow the suggestions of Satan to dethrone their better knowledge of the power of God. May God help us.

John sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Messiah?” How could Jesus send those men back with a stimulating truth, with a personal, effective power that would stir their hearts to know that they had met Him about whom all the prophets had spoken? What would declare it? How would they know? How could they tell it?

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Matthew 11:4–5)

And when they saw the miracles and wonders and heard the gracious words He spoke as the power of God rested upon Him, they were ready to believe.

Thought for today: Unless we are filled, or divinely insulated, with the power of God, we may be defeated by the power of Satan.

October 8

There has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. — Matthew 11:11

Scripture reading: Matthew 11:1–11

God wants to bring to us a living realization of what the Word of God is, what the Lord God means by what He says, and what we may expect if we believe it. I am certain that the Lord wishes to put before us a living fact that will, by our faith, bring into action a principle that is within our own hearts so that Christ can dethrone every power of Satan.

Only this truth revealed to our hearts can make us so much greater than we ever had any idea we could be. There is only the need of revelation and of stirring ourselves up to understand the mightiness that God has within us. We may prove what He has accomplished in us if we will only be willing to carry through what He has already accomplished in us.

For God has not accomplished something in us that should lie dormant, but He has brought within us a power, a revelation, a life that is so great that I believe God wants to reveal the greatness of it. There isn‘t anything you can imagine that is greater than what man may accomplish through Him.

But everything on a human basis is very limited compared with what God has for us on a spiritual basis. If man can accomplish much in a short time, what may we accomplish if we will believe the revealed Word and take it as truth that God has given us and that He wants to bring out in revelation and force?

Notice that John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus. Within his own short history, John the Baptist had the power of God revealed to him as probably no man in the old dispensation had. He had a wonderful revelation. He had a mighty anointing.

See how he moved Israel. See how the power of God rested upon him. See how he had the vision of Jesus and went forth with power and turned the hearts of Israel to Him. You, too, can do great things for God if you are a part of His kingdom!

Thought for today: Oh, the possibilities of man in the hands of God!

October 7

And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” — Acts 19:15

Scripture reading: Acts 19:11–20

What is belief? Let me sum it up in a few sentences. To believe is to have the knowledge of Him in whom you believe. It is not to believe in the word Jesus, but to believe in the nature of Christ, to believe in the vision of Christ, for all power has been given unto Him, and greater is He who is within you in the revelation of faith than he who is in the world. (See 1 John 4:4.) And so I say to you, do not be discouraged if every demon has not gone out. The very moment they have gone, do not think that is the end of it. What we have to see is that if all it takes is using the name of Jesus, those evil powers would have gone out in that name by the sons of Sceva. It is not that. It is the power of the Holy Spirit with the revelation of the deity of our Christ of glory; it is knowing that all power is given unto Him. Through the knowledge of Christ, and through faith in who He is, demons must surrender, demons must go out.

I say this reverently: these bodies of ours are so constructed by God that we may be filled with the divine revelation of the Son of God until it is manifest to the devils we confront, and they will have to go. The Master is in; they see the Master. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know.” The ministry of the Master! How we need to get to know Him until within us we are full of the manifestation of the King over all demons.

Brothers and sisters, my heart is full. The depths of my yearnings are for the Pentecostal people. My cry is that we will not miss the opportunity of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that Christ may be manifested in our human frames (2 Corinthians 4:10) until every power of evil will be subject to the Christ who is manifested in us. The devils know Jesus.

Two important things are before us. First, we must surrender the mastery of ourselves to God. Then the embodiment of the Spirit gloriously covers our lives so that Jesus is glorified to the full. So first it is the losing of ourselves, and then it is the incoming of Another; it is the glorifying of Him that will fulfill all things, and when He gets hold of our lives, He can do it. When God gets hold of your life because you have yielded yourself to Him in this way, He will be delighted to allow Christ to be so manifested in you that it will be no difficulty for the Devil to know who you are.

I am satisfied that the purpose of Pentecost is to reestablish God in human flesh. Do I need to say it again? The power of the Holy Spirit has to come to be enthroned in the human life so that it does not matter where we find ourselves. Christ is manifested in the place where devils are, the place where religious devils are, the place where false religion and unbelief are, the place where formal religion has taken the place of holiness and righteousness. You need to have holiness—the righteousness and Spirit of the Master—so that in every walk of life, everything that is not like our Lord Jesus will have to depart. That is what is needed today.

I ask you in the Holy Spirit to seek the place where He is in power. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” May God stamp this sobering question upon us, for the Devil is not afraid of us. May the Holy Spirit make us terrors of evildoers today, for the Holy Spirit came into us to judge the world of sin, of unbelief, and of righteousness; that is the purpose of the Holy Spirit. (See John 16:7–11.) Then Jesus will know us, and the devils will know us.

Thought for today: It is only when you are conquered by Christ that He is enthroned.

October 6

In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;…they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. — Mark 16:17–18

Scripture reading: Mark 16:9–19

May God help us to understand the ministry of knowing Christ. I am satisfied, first of all, that the power is in the knowledge of His blood and of His perfect holiness. I am perfectly cleansed from all sin and made holy in the knowledge of His holiness. Second, as I know Him; and as I know His power, the same power that works in me as I minister only through the knowledge of Him; and as I know the Christ who is manifested by it; such knowledge will be effective to accomplish the very thing that the Word of God says it will: it will have power over all evil. I minister today in the power of the knowledge of Him. Beyond that, there is a certain sense in which I overcome the world according to my faith in Him. I am more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37) over everything through the knowledge that I have that He is over everything. He has been crowned by the Father to bring everything into subjection (Ephesians 1:22).

Shouting won‘t cast out an evil spirit, but there is an anointing that is gloriously felt within and brings the act of casting out the demon into perfect harmony with the will of God. We cannot help shouting, though shouting won‘t do it. The power over evil spirits is in the ministry of the knowledge that He is Lord over all demons, over all powers of wickedness.

Paul went about clothed in the Spirit. This was wonderful. Was his body full of power? No! He sent forth handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him, and when they touched the needy, they were healed and demons were cast out. Was there power in his body? No! There was power in Jesus. Paul ministered through the power of the anointing of the Holy Spirit and through faith in the name of Jesus.

Sometimes demon powers are dealt with in very different ways. But the ministry of the Spirit is administered by the power of the word Jesus, and His name never fails to accomplish the purpose that the one in charge has wisdom or discernment to see. This is because, along with the Spirit of ministry, there comes the revelation of the need of the one who is bound.

The Spirit ministers the name of Jesus in many ways. I see it continually happening. I see it working, and all the time the Lord is building up a structure of His own power by a living faith in the sovereignty of Jesus‘ name. If I turn to John‘s gospel, I get the whole thing practically in a nutshell: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). We must have the knowledge and power of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God, in order to be clothed with God.

There are those who have come into line: they have the blessed Christ within and the power of the baptism, which is the revelation of the Christ of God within. This is so evidenced in the person who is baptized in the Spirit, and Christ is so plainly abiding, that the moment the person is confronted with evil, he is instantly sensitive to the nature of this confrontation, and he is able to deal with it accordingly.

The difference between the sons of Sceva and Paul was this: they said, “It is only the use of the name that is important.” How many people only use the name; how many times are people defeated because they think it is just the name; how many people have been brokenhearted because it did not work when they used
the name? If I read this into my text, “He who believes will speak in tongues; he who believes will cast out devils; he who believes will lay hands on the sick and they will recover” (see Mark 16:17–18), it seems perfectly easy on the surface of it. But you must understand this: there are volumes to be applied to the word believe.

Thought for today: To believe is to believe in the need of the majesty of the glory of the power of God. Believing in Christ is all power, and it brings all other powers into subjection.