Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
I WENT TO THAT VILLAGE UNNOTICED BUT…
I had many telegrams to go to a place near Grantham, to a young man who was very dangerously ill. After I arrived at Grantham I had nine miles to go by bicycle. When I came to that farm house that afternoon a woman at the door asked, “Are you Wigglesworth?” I replied, “Yes.” She said, “I am sorry to say that you are too late. My son is beyond anything being done for him now.” I answered, “God has never sent me anywhere too late.”
I asked if I could see the young man. He lay in his bed with his face toward the wall and whispered that if he was turned over he would die, for his heart was so weak. “Well,” I said, “I’ll pray for the Lord to strengthen you.” In most of my work in those early days I used to pray much and fast. I knew that this case was beyond all human hopes, and so I lay awake most of the night praying. I got up very early the next morning and went out to an adjoining field to pray, for I was very much burdened about this case. There in that field God gave me a revelation that this had to be something new in my life.
I went into the house and asked them to put their son’s clothes to air because the Lord would raise him up. In that part of England the climate is very damp, so I knew it would be necessary for them to put his clothes before a fire before he could wear them. But they did not believe and so did not do anything about his clothes.
That was Sunday morning and I knew that there was a service at the Primitive Methodist Chapel. I went to the service and was invited to take charge. Through the word of the Lord, faith was planted in the hearts of all those people, and then something happened! They all knew that young man by name, and they all said, “Matthew will be raised up!”
That led me to see that faith could be created in others just as it had been created in me, and I went back to that house and said, “Have you put his clothes to air?” I think they were a little ashamed that they had done nothing, so they got out his clothes and put them before the fire.
Then I went into the room and told the young man the vision I had, and said that something would happen different from anything that I had experienced before. I said, “When I place my hands on you the glory of the Lord will fill the place till I shall not be able to stand. I shall be helpless on the floor.” I went out and got his clothes, and said to one of the household, “All I want you to do is put his stockings on him.”
Why I had asked them to put his stockings on is a mystery. His legs were like those of a skeleton and I saw his helplessness, and knew that a miracle would have to be performed. After this member of the household had put the stockings on the young man I said, “Now you can leave the room.”
They shut the door. I think it is a very important thing to have the door shut, when you have a case like this to deal with, for then you know that you are just shut in with God. I prayed for the vision to be made good, and instantly, the moment I touched the young man, the power of God filled the room and was so powerful that I fell to the floor. My nose and my mouth were touching the floor and I lay there in the glory for a quarter of an hour. All that while Matthew in the bed was shouting, “Lord, this is for thy glory! This is for Thy glory!” the bed simply shook, as did everything in the room, by the power of God.
Matthew’s strength, his life, and his heart (which was considered the weakest thing about him) were all renewed. I was still on the floor in the glory when he arose from his bed and began to dress. After he was dressed he began to walk up and down the room shouting, “I’m raised up for Thy glory! I’m raised up for Thy glory!” Opening the door he shouted, “Dad, God has healed me. I’m healed!” The same glory filled the kitchen; the father and mother fell down; and the daughter who had been brought from the asylum and whose mind was still affected was made perfectly whole that day.
That whole village was moved and a revival began that day. I went into that village unnoticed and unknown, but when I left all the village turned out and shouted, “Please come back, please come back, and stop with us longer next time.”
- Smith Wigglesworth ( 📕 Apostle of Faith )