Brothers and sisters, let me tell you about a time when I was absolutely, completely, 100% wrong. And I was convinced I was right.
There I was in Sunderland, England, disrupting prayer meetings, arguing with everyone, causing such a commotion that people wished I had never shown up. Why?
Because I heard God was pouring out His Spirit in a new way, that people were speaking in tongues, like on the day of Pentecost, and I wanted it.
But here’s the thing. I was so certain I already had everything God had for me that I nearly missed the greatest spiritual experience of my life.
I left a revival meeting in Bradford, where the fire had fallen the night before, where we were all laid out under God’s power.
And I thought, I’ve already got the Holy Ghost. No one can tell me I don’t.
But what I didn’t know was that there’s a biblical pattern, a specific evidence that separates those who have received an anointing from those who have received the full Pentecostal baptism.
Jesus declares in Luke 24:49, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high.
Here’s the incredible story of how God had to break through my stubbornness to give me what he had promised.
When I arrived in Sunderland, I walked into those meetings with a chip on my shoulder the size of Yorkshire.
I had come because I heard something remarkable was happening, that God had visited his people, manifested his power, and people were speaking in tongues as on the day of Pentecost.
But what I found confused me. I couldn’t understand these meetings at all.
I have left a meeting in Bradford all on fire for God, I told them. The fire fell last night, and we were all laid out under the power of God.
I have come here for tongues, and I don’t hear them. I don’t hear anything.
Oh, they said patiently, when you get baptized with the Holy Ghost, you will speak in tongues. Is that it? I shot back.
When the presence of God came upon me, my tongue was loosened, and really I felt as I went in the open air to preach that I had a new tongue.
Ah, no. They said, that is not it.
What is it then? I demanded. When you get baptized in the Holy Ghost, I am baptized, I interjected before they could finish. And there is no one here who can persuade me that I am not baptized. So, there we were.
I was up against them, and they were up against me. For days this went on.
I was doing what so many believers do today, confusing different scriptural passages about spiritual experiences.
I was mixing up 1 Corinthians 12, which deals with the gifts of the Spirit, with Acts 2, which deals with the baptism of the Spirit with its accompanying sign.
I remember one man standing up in the meeting and saying, you know, brothers and sisters, I was here three weeks, and then the Lord baptized me with the Holy Ghost and I began to speak with other tongues.
I jumped up immediately. Let’s hear it. That’s what I’m here for. But he would not talk in tongues. Why?
Because he had not received the gift of tongues. He had received the baptism with tongues as the initial evidence.
I did not understand this distinction, and it frustrated me to no end. Days passed. My opposition to the meetings grew stronger. But underneath all that resistance, something else was growing: hunger. Deep, gnawing, spiritual hunger.
I could not deny what I was seeing, even though I did not understand it. These people had something. There was a reality in these meetings that went beyond what I had experienced, as genuine as my previous encounters with God had been.
The Lord was gracious with me, even in my stubbornness. That last day, the day I was scheduled to leave, I shall ever remember. God was with me so much that last night. They were having another meeting and I went, but I could not rest. I could not sit still. I could not settle my spirit.
I left the meeting and went to the vicarage. There in the library, I found Mrs. Body, and the words burst out of me, I cannot rest any longer. I must have these tongues.
She looked at me with such gentle wisdom and said, Brother, it is not the tongues you need but the baptism.
If you will allow God to baptize you, the other will be all right.
Listen, I was still convinced. My dear sister, I know I am baptized, I insisted. You know that I have to leave here at four o’clock.
Please lay hands on me that I may receive the tongues. She rose up and laid her hands on me, and the fire fell.
The fire’s falling, I said. Then came a persistent knock at the door, and she had to leave. At the time, I thought it was an interruption. But that was the best thing that could have happened, because now I was alone with God. Completely alone. Just me and the Almighty.
What happened next will change how you understand everything about Pentecost. God gave me a revelation. Oh, beloved, it was wonderful. He showed me an empty cross, and Jesus glorified.
I thank God that the cross is empty, that Christ is no more on the cross. It was there that he bore the curse, for as Paul writes in Galatians 3:13, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, and now there he is in the glory.
Then I saw that God had purified me. It seemed that God gave me a new vision, and I saw a perfect being within me, with mouth open, saying, Clean, clean, clean.
When I began to repeat it, I found myself speaking in other tongues. The joy was so great that, when I came to utter it, my tongue failed in English, and I began to worship God in other tongues, as the Spirit gave me utterance, just as Peter describes in Acts 2:4, They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
It was all as beautiful and peaceful as when Jesus said, Peace, be still. The tranquility of that moment and the joy surpassed anything I had ever known up to that moment.
But hallelujah! These days have grown with greater, mightier, more wonderful divine manifestations and power.
Now, that was but the beginning. There is no end to this kind of beginning. You will never get an end to the Holy Ghost, till you are landed in the glory, till you are right in the presence of God forever.
What had I received? I had received the Bible evidence. This Bible evidence is wonderful to me. I knew I had received the very evidence of the Spirit’s incoming that the apostles received on the day of Pentecost.
I knew that everything I had had up to that time was in the nature of an anointing, bringing me in line with God in preparation.
But now I knew I had the biblical baptism in the Spirit. It had the backing of the Scriptures. You are always right when you have the backing of the Scriptures, and you are never right if you do not have a foundation for your testimony in the Word of God.
When I got home, I was so full of joy that I had wired ahead to say I had received the Holy Ghost.
As soon as I arrived, my boy came running up to me and said, Father, have you received the Holy Ghost?
Yes, my boy, I answered. Let’s hear you speak in tongues, he said eagerly. But I could not. Why?
Because I had received the baptism in the Spirit with the speaking in tongues as the Bible evidence according to Acts 2:4. But I had not received the gift of tongues according to 1 Corinthians 12.
I had received the Giver of all gifts. Later, when I was helping souls seek and receive the baptism of the Spirit, God gave me the gift of tongues so that I could speak at any time.
But I must allow the Holy Ghost to use the gift. It should be so, so that we shall have divine utterances only by the Spirit.
Let me take you to the Scriptures to prove this position. There are business people here, and you know that in cases of law, where there are two clear witnesses, you could win a case before any judge. On the clear evidence of two witnesses, any judge will give a verdict. What has God-given us?
Three clear witnesses on the baptism in the Holy Spirit, more than are necessary in law courts.
Peter declares in Acts 2:4, They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Here we have the original pattern. And God gave to Peter an eternal word that couples this experience with the promise that went before. This is that.
God wants you to have that, nothing less than that. He wants you to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit according to this original Pentecostal pattern.
In Acts 10, we have another witness. Peter is in the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion who had a vision of a holy angel and sent for Peter. The Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Acts 10: 45-46 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
What convinced these prejudiced Jews that the Holy Ghost had come? They heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
There was no other way for them to know. This evidence could not be contradicted. It is the Bible evidence, identical to what happened at Pentecost.
We have heard two witnesses, and that is sufficient to satisfy the world. But God goes one better.
Acts 19: 6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied.
These Ephesians received the identical Bible evidence as the apostles at the beginning, and they prophesied in addition.
Three times the Scriptures show us this evidence of the baptism in the Spirit, I do not magnify tongues.
No, by God’s grace, I magnify the giver of tongues, and I magnify above all him whom the Holy Ghost has come to reveal to us, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He it is who sends the Holy Spirit, and I magnify him because he makes no difference between us and those at the beginning. But what are tongues for?
Look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:2, and you will see a very blessed truth. Oh, hallelujah! Have you been there, beloved? God wants to take you there. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth him: howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
It goes on to say in verse 4, He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself.
This is your direct line to God. When you speak in tongues, you are speaking divine mysteries directly to the Father.
You are building yourself up in your most holy faith. You are praying in perfect alignment with God’s will, because the Spirit Himself is giving you the utterance.
Now, beloved, here is where I must speak plainly. For many years I have thrown out a challenge to any person who can prove to me that he has the baptism without speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives utterance, to prove it by the word that he has been baptized in the Holy Ghost without the Bible evidence.
So far, no one has accepted the challenge. I only say this because so many are as I was. They have a rigid idea that they have received the baptism without the Bible evidence.
But the Lord Jesus wants those who preach the word to have the word in evidence. Don’t be misled by anything else. Have a Bible proof for all you have, and then you will be in a place where no man can move you.
The challenge I am issuing today is this: stop settling for less than what God has promised you.
Most Christians will never push past their comfort zone to receive the fullness of the Spirit.
Most believers will argue, resist, and defend their incomplete experience rather than humble themselves and seek God for the biblical pattern.
Most will say I have enough when God is saying I have more.
This is not about pride this is not about being better than anyone else this is about receiving everything Jesus died to give you as Jesus promises in Luke 11: 13
Luke 11: 13 if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
Are you going to argue with God’s Word? Are you going to defend your experience against the clear pattern of Scripture?
Or are you going to humble yourself and say, Lord, if there is more, I want it. If this is your biblical pattern, I will not rest until I receive it. Enter into the promises of God. It is your inheritance. As God promised through the prophet Joel, and as Peter declared in Acts 2:17.
Acts 2:17 I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.
This promise is for you, not just for the apostles, not just for special people, for you.
You will do more in one year if you are really filled with the Holy Ghost, than you could do in 50 years apart from him. This is not exaggeration. This is reality.
The same power that raised Christ from the dead will work in you. The same spirit that empowered the early church will empower you.
There is a widespread misconception today concerning this receiving of the Holy Spirit.
People confuse an anointing with the baptism. They confuse feeling God’s presence with receiving the biblical evidence.
But God is not a God of confusion. He has given us a clear pattern, a clear promise, and clear evidence.
Over fifteen years ago, a revival on Holy Ghost lines began and has never ceased. You will find that in every climb throughout the world, God has poured out His Spirit in a remarkable way, in a line parallel with the glorious revival that inaugurated the church of the first century.
People who could not understand what God was doing found themselves in exactly the same place and entering into an identical experience as the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Will you be one of them?
Or will you be like I was in Sunderland, so convinced you have it all that you miss what God is actually offering?
Father God, I pray right now for every person reading these words, Lord, you know the hunger in hearts that are seeking more of you. You know those who have been anointed but have not yet received the full baptism with the Bible evidence.
I pray that you would break through every religious argument, every stubborn defense, every prideful resistance.
Let them see the empty cross and Jesus glorified. Let them understand that they can be clean through the blood of Jesus.
Baptize them now with the Holy Ghost and fire.
Let the same experience that fell on the 120 in the upper room fall on them today. Give them the biblical evidence. Let them speak with other tongues as the Spirit gives them utterance.
We claim this promise by faith, believing that what you did for me in Sunderland, you will do for every hungry heart who asks. In Jesus’ name.
I believe with all my heart that as you have learned about the biblical evidence of the Spirit’s baptism today, you have been activated to hunger for the fullness of God’s promise.
The understanding you have gained about the difference between anointing and the full Pentecostal baptism is already working in your spirit, creating a holy dissatisfaction with anything less than God’s best.
I will not settle for less in Jesus’ name and share one area where you have been settling for less than God’s biblical pattern, your declaration might inspire someone else to press in for the fullness today.
Here is your practical application.
Every day this week, spend time reading Acts 2, Acts 10, and Acts 19. Ask God to give you hunger for the biblical pattern.
Find believers who have received this experience and ask them to pray with you.
Don’t argue, don’t defend your current experience. Just hunger and seek.
God promises that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled, but receiving the baptism is just the beginning of walking in the supernatural power.
What happens when you discover that being filled once is not enough?
That God demands you move from fullness to overflowing every single day?
How do you avoid becoming like those who have the wood but lack the fire, who possess gifts but operate without power?
What does it look like when the Holy Spirit takes control of your very words and works miracles through you that you never planned or orchestrated yourself?
And how do you maintain that desperate hunger that refuses to live two days in a row on the same spiritual plane?
Discover the shocking difference between having spiritual gifts and having spiritual power, the dangerous mistake that causes believers to shipwreck their ministries by using gifts in the flesh, and the secret to living in continuous manifestation where signs, wonders, and divine wisdom flow through you naturally because you have learned to yield completely to the Spirit’s control.
By Smith Wigglesworth