Brethren, I need to tell you something that most preachers won’t say from the pulpit. The vast majority of Christians are living far beneath their spiritual inheritance. They’ve settled into a comfortable place with God, and they’ve pitched their tent there permanently.
They’re saved, they’re going to heaven, and they think that’s the finish line. But beloved, salvation is not the destination. It’s the starting line.
James, the Lord’s brother, understood something profound when he wrote in James 1:4 Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Perfect, complete, lacking nothing. Not just saved, not just sanctified, but continuously advancing into all the fullness of God, what I call the best with improvement.
And I’m about to show you why refusing to settle for anything less is the difference between spiritual survival and spiritual dominance.
Church, there are three distinct levels in the Christian life, and I’ve discovered that most believers get stuck at one of these levels and never move forward.
Listen carefully, because where you are right now will determine whether you experience the fullness of what God has for you or spend your life in spiritual mediocrity.
The first level is good, that’s salvation. And salvation is good, it’s wonderful. When you’re born again, when you’re justified by faith, when you pass from death unto life, that’s glorious.
But if you stop there, you’re living on the ground floor of a skyscraper and never taking the elevator up.
The second level is better, that’s sanctification. This is where you’re purified, separated unto God, living in holiness.
Many Christians reach this level and think they’ve arrived. They’re living cleaner than they used to, they’ve been delivered from some bondages, and they settle in comfortably.
The third level is best. That’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit with power from on high. This is where you’re filled with God’s presence, where you operate in spiritual gifts. Where the supernatural becomes normal in your life. Some believers reach even this level and then plateau.
But beloved I am not satisfied with any of these three levels I am only satisfied with what I call the best with improvement. A life of continual advancement of never-ending growth of always pressing into new realms of god’s glory and power.
Now you might ask Brother Wigglesworth why isn’t best enough Why do we need improvement beyond that? Let me show you from the Word of God.
James 1:15, When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
What does this mean?
Any desire that pulls you away from advancing in God, even the desire for spiritual comfort, will eventually bring death to that area of your life. When you stop growing, you start dying. There is no neutral ground in the kingdom of God. You’re either advancing or retreating. You’re either going forward or sliding backward.
Paul understood this. He wrote that we should be transformed by the renewing of our mind and set in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Not just saved and waiting for heaven. But actively being transformed, continuously renewed, constantly elevated into higher realms of spiritual understanding and power.
Look at Abraham God didn’t put him through 25 years of testing just to get him saved, he was already a believer but God was advancing him, refining him, building his faith from level to level until he could offer Isaac without wavering as Paul declares in Romans 4 9-16.
Abraham became the father of the faithful, not because he got saved, but because he refused to stop advancing for twenty-five years.
Now let me tell you about a woman who understood this principle so deeply that she stood firm for twelve months, while everyone, including her own family, told her she had lost her mind.
She came to one of my meetings with a goiter on her neck so massive I could hardly see anything else. Before she even arrived, she had made bold declarations to her entire family. I’m going to be healed because Wigglesworth is going to pray for me.
After I prayed for her, we had a testimony meeting. Her declaration was powerful. I thank God because he has perfectly healed me. She went home, radiating confidence. When I was prayed for, she told her family exultantly, I was perfectly healed. Here’s what you need to understand. This woman had decided she would not settle for doubt. She would not settle for unbelief.
She would not settle for the mediocrity that says, well, maybe God will heal me, maybe he won’t.
She had moved into a level of faith that refused to retreat. For twelve months, twelve full months, she went everywhere among the assemblies, testifying with unwavering conviction. I was marvelously healed. She never wavered, never doubted, never checked the mirror to see if the manifestation had come.
While others were settling for whatever they could see in the natural, she was advancing in faith. After those twelve months, I returned to hold meetings in the same place. She came again, still filled with joy. But when she walked through the doors, people whispered and stared. The goiter was still visibly there. Some pitied her. Some judged her. Many thought she had lost her mind.
The testimony meeting came, and she stood up, unshaken by the stares, and declared, twelve months ago, I was prayed for here, and I was marvelously healed. I have had twelve months of the most wonderful time on earth because God so wonderfully healed me.
You see, beloved, this woman understood something most Christians never grasp, faith that refuses to settle will outlast any circumstance.
She wasn’t living by what she saw, what she felt, or what people said. She was living in continuous advancement, refusing to retreat from what God had spoken.
When she went home that night, her mother confronted her with words designed to make her settle back into doubt. Look, you don’t know. You don’t seem to know. But the people are believing there is something wrong with your mind, and they believe the entire family is affected by it. You’re bringing disgrace upon the whole family. It’s shameful. Why don’t you go look in the mirror, and you will see that the thing has not moved at all?
Do you understand the pressure she was under? Twelve months of standing, twelve months of mockery, twelve months of being told she was deceived. And now, her own family was telling her to check the evidence, to face reality, to settle back down into what everyone else could see.
But here’s what separates those who live in best with improvement from those who settle. She went to her room and prayed, Lord, I do not want to look in the mirror. I believe you have done it but let all the people know that you have done it. Let them all know that you have done it just the same as you have let me know it. Glory be to God. The next morning, she came downstairs completely healed. The family knew that the Lord had done it. Now let me show you the biblical principle behind this.
James 1:2-4 declares, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. You see, trials aren’t designed to destroy you. They’re designed to advance you. Every test is an opportunity to move from your current level to a higher level. But most Christians don’t count it all joy. They count it as an interruption, as something to endure until they can get back to their comfortable spiritual routine.
Romans 5:3-4, We glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience. Experience? You want a big story to tell? You want to know God in a deeper way? Then don’t waste your trials by just trying to survive them. Use them as launching pads into new dimensions of faith.
That woman with the goiter could have settled at any point during those twelve months. She could have said, well, I tried faith, but it’s not working. She could have retreated to doubt, to acceptance of the condition, to blaming God. But she understood that the trial was making her perfect and complete, lacking nothing. She was being advanced. Here’s where most Christians fail in their pursuit of advancement.
James 1:5-6 instructs us, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting.
Listen carefully. If you ask six times for anything, just for the sake of asking, it shows you are an unbelieving person.
If you really believe, you will ask God once and know that he has abundance for your every need.
But if you keep asking because you’re not sure he heard you, because you’re checking if he’s going to do it, because you want to give him another chance, you’re settling for unbelief.
God gives liberally and without reproach. He never judges you for asking, but he requires that you ask in faith.
That woman asked once to be healed, and then she spent 12 months standing on that prayer, refusing to ask again because she knew God had already answered. If you would ask God once for your healing and begin praising him because he never breaks his word, you would see the manifestation.
If you would ask once for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and believe you’ve received it, you would walk out filled. As Jesus declared in Mark 5:36, Only believe.
But most Christians ask, then doubt, then ask again, then check the circumstances, then ask again, then worry, then ask again.
And they wonder why nothing happens. They’re settling for a cycle of unbelief instead of advancing into confident faith. Now I need to be honest with you about what it costs to live in best with improvement. That woman paid a price for twelve months. She endured mockery. She faced pressure from her family. She stood alone while everyone thought she was deceived. She had to resist the temptation to check the mirror, to bow to natural evidence, to retreat into the safety of doubt.
James 1:12 declares, Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.
People don’t know what they’re getting when they’re in a great place of temptation. Temptation endured brings the crown of life. You see, when Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 16:21 that the Son of Man will be put into the hands of sinners and crucified, Peter rebuked him.
But Jesus said in verse 23, Get behind me, Satan. You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.
Anything that hinders you from advancing, even well-meaning advice from people who love you, is of the devil if it causes you to settle.
Anything that makes you retreat from what God has spoken is carnal, and it brings death to that area of your life.
James 1:4 gives us the goal: That you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
To be complete means you are not moved by anything, that you are living only in the divine position of God. It means you are not changed by what people say, by what circumstances look like, by how long the process takes.
When I was in New Zealand, someone asked what I wanted for a Christmas present. I said, I haven’t a desire in the world. I cannot tell you anything I would like. I have no desire for anything except God. One day, walking with a millionaire, I said, Brother, I haven’t a care in the world. I am as happy as a bird.
He stopped and said, oh, say it again. When I repeated it, he exclaimed, I would give all my money. I would give everything I have to have that, to be lacking nothing. Hallelujah. This is what continuous advancement produces. Not just salvation, not just sanctification, not just spirit baptism, but a life where you are complete in God, where you have no anxiety because you’re fully surrendered, where you reign in life through Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:5 declares, we were planted with him and raised with him.
Colossians 3:1-3 reminds us we are from above. We don’t belong to what is below.
Romans 5:17 tells us we reign in life by another.
This is the life of God’s Son, manifested in this human body.
Church, I’m going to issue you a challenge that is not optional for serious believers.
Most Christians will never do what I’m about to tell you to do, but the ones who do will see the glory of God manifested in ways that shake heaven and earth.
Identify where you’ve been settling spiritually and make a quality decision today that you will not stay there.
Are you settling at salvation without pursuing sanctification?
Are you settling at sanctification without pressing into the fullness of the Spirit?
Are you settling at Spirit baptism without continuously advancing into new levels of faith, power, and intimacy with God?
Stop asking God multiple times for the same thing, because you don’t really believe he heard you the first time.
Ask once with faith, then stand on his word, whether the manifestation takes a day, a month, or twelve months like that woman with the goiter.
Stop replacing the word of God. with your feelings. When you don’t feel healed, don’t feel delivered, don’t feel filled you’re in a critical moment. Will you settle back into doubt, or will you advance into a faith that says, I believe God, regardless of what I feel?
Stop murmuring during trials.
As James 1:19-21 instructs, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
A great number of ministers don’t receive support anymore because they didn’t thank God for the last blessing.
Many people receive nothing new because they’re not grateful for what they already have. A thankful heart is a receiving heart.
God wants to keep you in the place of constant believing, constant advancement, constant improvement. You’re at a crossroads right now. You can continue being satisfied with good, or you can press into best with improvement.
You can continue the cycle of asking, doubting, asking again. Or you can ask once and stand firm until the manifestation comes.
That woman faced the same choice every single day for twelve months. Every morning, she could have looked in the mirror and settled for what she saw. Every time someone stared at her, she could have retreated into embarrassment. Every time her family pressured her, she could have given up. But she refused to settle.
And, beloved, when patience had its perfect work, when the trial had accomplished what God intended, when she had been advanced to the level of faith God was building in her, the next morning she came downstairs, completely healed. God wants to promote you today.
He wants you to get away from your own thoughts, your own doubts, your own settling, and get to a definite place where you believe that he exists, and that Hebrews 11:6 declares, He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Most Christians will never move beyond spiritual mediocrity. Most will plateau at one level and live there for decades. Most will settle for far less than what God has available.
But not you. Not today. Today, you’re going to make a decision that you will not be satisfied with where you are. You’re going to press into the best with improvement, a life of continuous advancement, never-ending growth, always pushing into new realms of His glory and power. Glory be to God.
The Spirit of the Lord is moving mightily to show you that this is resurrection power available to you right now. You can be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. You can live in the place where you have no care in the world because you’re fully surrendered to the God who never fails.
Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, we refuse to settle for spiritual mediocrity. We refuse to be satisfied with good or even better. We want the best with improvement, continually advancing into your glory.
Lord, give us the courage of that woman who stood for twelve months while everyone doubted. Give us faith that refuses to retreat, that counts all trials as joy. that asks once and believes without wavering.
Destroy every desire in us to settle for comfort over advancement, for acceptance over excellence, for spiritual survival over spiritual dominance.
We declare that we will be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Transform us into vessels that continuously press forward, that never plateau, that always hunger for more of you. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.
I believe with all my heart that as you’ve learned about refusing spiritual mediocrity today, you’ve been activated into a new dimension of continuous advancement.
The understanding you’ve gained about moving beyond good and better into best with improvement is already breaking the spirit of settling in your life.
This week, identify one area where you’ve been spiritually stagnant. Then ask God once, just once, for breakthrough in that area, and spend the rest of the week praising him for the answer, instead of asking again.
Refuse to check the natural evidence. Stand on his word alone. This discipline will break the cycle of doubt and position you for advancement.
But refusing to settle is only half the battle. What if I told you that most Christians are missing the one thing that actually releases Pentecostal power?
What did Peter have on the day of Pentecost that we’re lacking today? Why did 3,000 souls get saved when he preached, while our altars remain empty?
What’s the difference between talking about love and walking in the supernatural power that transforms nations?
And what did Jesus mean when he wept over Jerusalem? A compassion we’ve never experienced.
The unconditional surrender that demolishes your whole life but releases heaven’s floodgates, and how one prayer of deep repentance can do more than a thousand sermons without it.
By Smith Wigglesworth