THE GREAT REVIVAL
Prophetic Word from Smith Wigglesworth
“During the next few decades there will be three distinct moves of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ.”
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. The 1st move of the Spirit ushered in the Charismatic movement – restoring the gifts and the baptism in the Spirit.
The second move of the Holy Spirit will result in people leaving historic churches and planting new churches. The 2nd move saw the emergence of the world wide House church movement – with nearly half the church splitting away from the traditional ‘historic’ churches to plant new ones.
In the duration of each of these moves, the people who are involved will say, ‘This is the great revival.’ But the Lord says, ‘No, neither is this the great revival, but both are steps towards it.’
The third movement of the Holy Ghost will happen when the new church phase is almost dead. There will be evidenced in churches something that has not been seen since the book of acts: a coming together of those with an emphasis on the WORD of God and those with an emphasis on the moving of the Holy Ghost.
When the WORD and the Spirit come together, there will be the greatest movement of the Holy Spirit that any nation, and indeed, the world, has ever seen. This emphasis on the WORD will prepare any saint wanting to become a last days ‘bride of Christ’.
When the WORD and the Spirit (successfully) come together then the last days revival ( and outpouring of God’s Spirit) will begin. It will mark the beginning of a revival that will eclipse anything that has been witnessed even the Wesleyan and the Welsh revivals of former years. The outpouring of God’s Spirit will flow over from the United Kingdom to the mainland of Europe, and from there, will begin a missionary move to the ends of the earth.”
Smith Wigglesworth, 1947
According to Revival Prophecies for the British Isles, more insight on the above was to come later from one of his disciples, American evangelist Lester Sumrall (known as ‘Father of Christian TV’, who died 1996). Gary Carpenter’s website reports Sumrall’s meeting as taking place in 1939, the essence of which he reports as follows:
‘Wigglesworth cried saying, “I probably won’t see you again now. My job is almost finished.” As he continued to pray, he cried “I see it, I see it!”
‘Brother Sumrall asked, “What do you see, what do you see? He said, “I see a healing revival coming right after World War II. It’ll be so easy to get people healed. I see it! I see it! I won’t be here for it, but you will be.” And there was a healing revival right after the war.
‘He continued to prophesy, “I see another one. I see people of all different denominations being filled with the Holy Ghost.” That was the Charismatic Revival. God raised up people during that era, like the Full Gospel Businessmen.
‘Then Brother Wigglesworth continued, “I see another move of God. I see auditoriums full of people, coming with notebooks. There will be a wave of teaching on faith and healing.” We did experience that wave he saw, and we call it the WORD of Faith movement.
‘Then he prophesied, “After that, after the third wave,” he started sobbing. “I see the last day revival that’s going to usher in the precious fruit of the earth. It will be the greatest revival this world has ever seen! It’s going to be a wave of the gifts of the Spirit. The ministry gifts will be flowing on this planet earth. I see hospitals being emptied out, and they will bring the sick to the churches where they allow the Holy Ghost to move”.’
Man & Miracles
Timeless Teachings By Kenneth E. Hagin
Man was created by a supernatural God and was designed to live in God's supernatural realm on this earth.
If you are a believer, your spirit was made a new creation supernaturally in the new birth. If you are Spirit-filled, you were supernaturally filled with the Holy Spirit and were given supernatural utterance in other tongues by that same Holy Ghost.
You can live a supernatural life in Christ by maintaining a supernatural prayer life.
One way to develop your spirit is by praying much in other tongues.
Not only will praying in tongues develop your spirit, it will also help bring the supernatural power of God into manifestation.
Yearning for the Miraculous
People have a deep-seated desire for the miraculous demonstration of God's power and glory. That's because mankind was created in the image of a supernatural, miracle-working God. And God has provided an entrance into the supernatural through the baptism in the Holy Spirit and by His Word.
Mankind yearns to see the miracle-working power of God in demonstration. But sin has blinded many and has kept them imprisoned in the natural realm. Thank God, though, that the hunger for the supernatural is within our hearts. If we seek after God, we can learn to live in the supernatural realm by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
Many churches have backed off from the supernatural workings of God. This is true even of churches that used to believe and operate regularly in the supernatural. As a result, the supernatural has waned in those churches, and the miraculous is no longer in manifestation.
When churches keep the Holy Spirit from having His way in their services, they eventually become cold and dead spiritually. When any body of believers denies the supernatural, they begin following a dead religion of ethics instead of experiencing a supernatural relationship with a miracle-working God.
In Jesus' day people were drawn to Him because He was a miracle worker. If ministers today would preach the anointed Word and allow Jesus to work miracles in their midst, people would be drawn to come and witness the supernatural power of God!
Ring the Dinner Bell
As a young preacher, I heard Raymond T. Richey preach at the Texas District Council meetings of the Assemblies of God. He often said, "Divine healing is the dinner bell. Keep ringing that bell and people will come."
I went back to my church, which had a congregation of less than 100, and began ringing the dinner bell every Saturday night. I preached what the Word of God said about the power of the Gospel to save, deliver, and heal.
For six months nothing happened. But then we hit a gusher! The insane were delivered! The paralyzed were healed! People were raised up from deathbeds! And people from several neighboring counties came and filled the building every Saturday night.
I kept ringing the dinner bell, and God was faithful to manifest His supernatural delivering power.
Miracles Are for Today
Jesus is as much a miracle worker today as He ever was. He has not changed. And man needs the miraculous power of God today just as much as he ever did.
Some people say, "We don't need miracles anymore." But we do! Thank God we can act upon God's Word, and God's power will manifest just as it did in the days when Jesus walked the earth.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). He has not changed. If He healed people when He walked upon this earth, He heals today. If He worked miracles then, He works miracles today.
We need to find out how to scripturally put a demand on Jesus' miracle-working power. Then we can work with Him and see His miraculous power manifested in our lives.
Preach the Word
What causes Jesus to demonstrate His power with signs and miracles? The answer is in Mark 16:20: "And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." How did the Lord work? He worked with the disciples by confirming the Word they preached with signs following.
Jesus works with us today just as He worked with the Early Church. If we want to increase the manifestation of God's miraculous power in our midst, we must do what those in the Early Church did—preach the Word!
God confirms His Word! He won't confirm a particular preacher. He won't confirm a personality. He will confirm the Word with signs following!
I was reading this passage in Mark chapter 16 one day when I was pastoring my last church, and I got stirred up about it. I began to fast and pray and wait on God.
"Lord," I said, "things are comfortable in our church. The church is growing. It's financially sound. A few people are getting saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost, and a few are being healed. But as I read Mark chapter 16, it seems to me that we ought to be experiencing more supernatural signs and demonstrations of Your power than we are."
On the third day of my fast, the Lord spoke to my spirit, "I said I would confirm My Word with signs following."
"I know that," I said. "That's what I'm praying and fasting about. I want to see You do it."
The Lord said, "Do you think I'm a liar?"
"Oh, no. You're not a liar."
"You don't have to pray that I will do it," He said. "You don't even have to fast to get Me to do it. If you will put the Word out, I will confirm My Word."
I checked up on what I was preaching and I found out that 60 percent was Word, 35 percent was unbelief, and 5 percent was tradition! When I stopped preaching unbelief and religious tradition, we immediately began to see results. Signs followed the Word and the miraculous power of God began manifesting in our church.
The early Christians didn't heal the sick and cast out devils without putting out any Word. First they preached the Word. Then the Lord confirmed the Word they preached with signs following.
The supernatural is man's realm. It's up to us whether we live our lives supernaturally in the power of the Holy Spirit. If we will educate our spirits by diligently studying the Word of God and praying in the Holy Ghost, the supernatural realm of God will become as natural to us as water is to fish.
This article was adapted from Kenneth E. Hagin's book Classic Sermons.
Footnote:
Kenneth E Hagin was one of the most influential American Pentecostal preachers who was often referred to as 'the Grand Daddy of the Word of Faith Movement.'
Diagnosed with "a deformed heart and an incurable blood disease" from birth, Hagin was partially paralyzed by age 15, confined to bed, and was told he had little time to live.
In April 1933, his heart stopped beating, and his other vital signs failed three times. In each of these instances, Hagin said he felt himself being dragged to hell. In the third instance, he prayed for Christ's help and forgiveness—and came back to life. He died at the age of 86 in 2003.
Kenneth Hagin's Testimony:
Suddenly my heart stopped beating and I fell from my chair to the floor! I became as cold as ice all over my body. I had been dead twice when I suffered with heart trouble at the age of sixteen, so I knew when death came over me this time.
They carried me to the parsonage and summoned my wife from the woman's Sunday school class. As soon as she came into the room she knelt beside my bed and wept, Ï feel this is all my fault.
Then she told me she had been complaining to the Lord about my long absence from home. She never had mentioned a word of it to me. However, she said that one day as she was washing dishes, she had heard a voice saying, I could take him away where he could never come back. 'She was startled, but dismissed it as her imagination playing tricks on her. Kneeling beside his bed she prayed this prayer of submission: 'Lord, if You will just spare my husband, I don't care how long he is gone or where he goes in Your will. I will not complain about it again.’
Then the Lord showed me where I had missed it too. When we had made a new consecration to the Lord to do His will, whatever it might be, we too can be instantly healed and made completely well.
How did I get into that predicament? Instead of listening to God and putting His Word first, I had sought the advice of various pastors. All they could give me was natural counsel. They had said, 'Your first obligation is to your family. You have small children and you should be home with them. You shouldn't be out in the field.' One preacher after another told me that; so I took their advice. I tried to do what they had suggested: to do what I wanted to do in the natural - and I nearly died.
I finally learned that a man can fulfill his obligations to his family and still obey God."
