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TOPIC: Wigglesworth, Smith - The Ministry of the Flaming Sword (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: The Ministry of the Flaming Sword
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A Sermon
By Smith Wigglesworth
From "Redemption Tidings" - Volume VIII, Number 3
This glorious inworking of Holy Ghost power is preparing us for rapture. Our greatest theme, the glory of the splendor of our Lord. His face! His tenderness! His sweetness! Making our hearts long to be forever with the Lord. Amen! So let it be!
Rom_8:35-39. "What shall we say to these things. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord."
Oh the joy of the thought of it! What shall separate us from the love of Christ? A place of confidence, assurance, and rest, where God has perfect control over all human weakness. You stand as on the mount of transfiguration manifested and glorified as in the presence of God, able to say, I know all things are working together for good within me, silently destroying all that can be destroyed that He might have preeminence in the body. If God be for us who can be against us?
God is bringing forth a new creation; the Sons of God are to be manifested, and we must see our inheritance in the Holy Ghost. Nothing can separate us! What is it God wants us to know? Right in our earthly temple God has brought forth a Son with power, with manifestation, with grace, crowned already in the earth, crowned with glory. (Joh_17:22). "The glory which Thou has given me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are." The Spirit of the Lord is showing me that God must get a people who can see that from before the foundation of the world He has had them in His mind.
God has been delivering us through all of our difficulties. Where sin abounded He has brought in His grace. Where disease came in to steal our lives, God's raised up a standard, and we are here, having come through our tribulation. God has been purifying us, strengthening us, and equipping us with Divine audacity by the power of Almightiness--till we can say, "What shall we say then to these things? Shall we dethrone what we know up to the present time has equipped us and brought us through? Shall we allow our hearts to fail us in the day of adversity?" No! That which God has already strengthened and perfected… Weakness made strong! Corruption changed to purity! Knowing that the tribulation and the fire of God have purified us, what shall we say to these things? These light afflictions are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
The New Creation People have been in meetings where the glory of God has fallen and the expression of God has been upon everything; fortifications have been made in the body. The next morning the power of Satan has assailed, but the spiritual life…the Son manifested the glory of the New Creation…is already in our mortal body. But, the flesh is a battleground for the enemy and is tested. That which God is forming is greater than the mortal body. The spirit, which is awakening into the glorious liberty of a Son of God, is greater. From perfection to perfection, it is this knowledge of what He has done--what shall we say? How shall we compare this with that which is to come? "The flesh profiteth nothing but the Spirit of the living God. Though worms destroy this body, I have another life greater than this life which shall look upon God-which shall see Him in His perfection--which shall behold Him in His glory--which shall be changed like unto Him and be formed into Him."
By the presence of God, a new creation, a glorious celestial shall so clothe us that we shall be there in the presence of His likeness. Knowing this, shall I give place to the devil? Shall I fear? Shall I let my feelings change the experience of the Word of God? Shall I trust in my fears? No! A million times, no! There has never been any good thing in the flesh, but God has quickened the spirit till we live a new life divine over all time, and we are eternally shaped for God.
What shall we say? Are you going to let the past where God has wrought for you bring you to a place of distress, or are you standing to your testing--"Now are we the Sons of God." Are we remembering how God has answered our prayers, brought light into our home, delivered us from carnality and touched us when no power in the world could avail? What shall we say? Can anything be brought against the elect of God? I know in Whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He, Who purposed us for God, will surely bring us to the place where we shall receive the Crown of Life through the faith that God has given us. God is in you mightily, forming within you a new creation by the Spirit, to make you ready for the glory that shall be revealed in Him.
One said to me the other day, "I am in terrible trouble; a man is cursing me all the time." If God be for us, who can be against us. God is never small in any of His blessings. He takes you into all He has, v. 33. "He that spared not His own Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things." God has given us Jesus, the bosom of His love, the image of His Person, so perfect in brilliance, purity, righteousness and glory. I have seen Him many times and it always changes me. Your struggle is one of the all things. Many needs have broken my heart, but I could say to the troubled one, God is greater than your heart, greater than your circumstances, and greater than the thing that holds you. God will deliver you if you dare to believe Him, but we have to press it in and in and in before we can get the people to believe God.
A dear woman was marvelously delivered and saved, but she said I am so addicted to smoking, what shall I do? "Oh," I said, "Smoke night and day." She said, "In our circumstances we take a glass of wine and it has a hold on me." "Oh," I said, "Drink all you can." It brought some solace to her, but she was in misery. She said, "We play cards." I said, "Play on!" But after being saved she called her maid and said, "Wire to London and stop the shipment of those cigarettes." The new life does not want it. It has no desire. The old is dethroned.
A clergyman came to me. He said, "I have a terrible craving for tobacco." I said, "Is it the Old Man or the New?" He broke down. "I know it's the Old," he said. Put off the Old Man with his deeds. One said, "I have an unlawful affection for another." I said, "You want revelation." Seeing God has given you Jesus. He will give you all things. He will give you power over the thing, and it will be broken, and God broke it. "Allow God to touch thy flesh." Now He has quickened thy spirit. Allow Him to reign, for He shall reign until all is subdued. He is pre-eminently King in thy life over thy affection, thy will, thy desire, and thy plans. He rules as Lord of Hosts over thee, in thee, through thee, to chasten thee and bring thee to the perfection of thy desired haven. It is Christ in thee. It is the glory. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Once things could separate us, but they no more can. We have a vision. What is the vision?…those days when we have eaten of the hidden manna.
The Sword
When I was baptized in the Holy Ghost, God showed me that when Adam and Eve transgressed and were turned out of the garden, at the gate was put a flaming sword, a sword of death, if they entered in. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost put the Tree of Life right in me and a flaming sword outside of me, to keep the devil from me, that I might eat all the time of eternal bread. I am eating of this wonderful bread of life. It is the life in the body, which has come to a perfect place to this life from which nothing can separate us. It is increasing tremendously, perpetually; rapture has something to do with it. In a moment this will clear out and leave the body. What is it? What shall separate us? Tribulations come, but they only press us in, press us nearer persecution, the finest thing that can come. There among the persecuted, you get the ripest, the holiest, the purest, the most intent. Filled with divine order, all things work for us. Nothing comes but what is helpful. Trials lift you, distresses give you a heave and sigh, but God causes us to triumph. Greater is He that is in you than all the powers of darkness.
Whatever befalls you, as you abide in Him, is the good hand of God upon you, so that you won't lose your inheritance. Every trial is a lift, every burden a place of exchanging strength. God will work. "Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" People do it, but it makes no difference. God is for us. "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what God has laid up for those that love Him." But unto us, it hath been revealed by the Spirit. Not a weapon that is formed against you can prosper. Know the wisdom and purpose of the great Hand that is upon you. Glorify God in distresses and persecutions, for the Spirit of God is there made manifest. Be chastened! Be perfected! Press on to heights, lengths, breadths, and depths. Faith is the victory, the hope is within you, the joy set before you. The peace which passeth all understanding. The knowledge that the flesh has withered in the presence of the purifying of the Word. He, who has brought you hitherto, will take you to the end. I have wept bitterly and mourned when I needed revelation of God, but I need not have done.
The Lord lifteth up and changeth and operateth, and makes body and soul <http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=body%20and%20soul> till He can say, "There is no spot in thee." Yes, it was persecution, tribulation, and distress that drew us near. Lifting places, changing places, the operation of God by the Spirit. Do not let us pass this way but let God have His way
.
God stretched out His Hand, covered us with the mantle of His love, and brought us nearer and nearer into the channel of His grace until our hearts have moved and yielded, and so turned to the Lord that every moment has seen a divine place where God has met us. He stretched out his arms and said, "Seek ye My face--look unto Me." Behold and see what great love the Master has for thee, to lead thee to the fountain of living water. Yield! Be led! And let God be glorified! Amen.