The Presents of God by Stibbe Mark;

Author:Stibbe, Mark;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Authentic Media
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

7. WE WILL NEED TO KEEP ON PERSEVERING

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth he reminded them that when he had visited them before he had revealed the true marks of an apostle by doing signs, wonders and miracles among them ‘with all perseverance’.

Looking at this verse, many of us are apt to focus more on the language of power than the language of perseverance. Yet the truth is no one is going to excel in the gift of miraculous works until they learn to persevere in prayer.

One of the heroes of the faith who illustrated this consistently was the healing evangelist, Smith Wigglesworth. If ever there was a person who prayed with unfailing endurance, it was Smith. He would go well past the point where most of us would have given up in order to see a sick person healed or a dead person raised.

Let’s take an example.

Smith was once called to pray for a young girl who was dying of consumption. It was ten o’clock at night. He told the girl’s mother, sisters and brother to go to bed so that he could pray for the girl without distraction.

Reluctantly they went and Smith got praying. He seemed to be face to face with both death and the devil. He continued to believe that ‘God can change the hardest situation and make you know that he is Almighty’.

Smith prayed and prayed but it seemed like the heavens were brass. Then he saw the girl actually die before his eyes. Smith decided that it was time to increase the strength of his prayers and began to fight. Later he wrote:

I looked at the window and at that moment the face of Jesus appeared. It seemed as though a million rays of light were coming from his face. As I looked at one who had just passed away, the colour came back to the face. She rolled over and fell asleep. In the morning she woke early, put on a dressing gown and walked to the piano. She started to play and to sing a wonderful song. The mother and the sister and the brother had all come down to listen. The Lord had undertaken. A miracle had been wrought.

Smith had prayed for more than five hours (till 3.30 a.m.) before the breakthrough came. He had been tempted to give up but decided instead to intensify his prayer effort. He truly persevered. Later he was to reflect on the gifts of healing and miraculous works:

You must not think that these gifts will fall upon you like ripe cherries. There is a sense in which you have to pay the price for everything you get.

‘You have to pay the price.’ How many of us, I wonder, want to hear that. We love the idea of ministering in power. But paying the price? We love the idea as sons and daughters of sharing in Christ’s glory. But sharing in his sufferings?

Once, during some powerful meetings in New Zealand (where thousands

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