What to do in the years of intense personal struggle

[rockytopva]

I m convinced during the years of intense personal struggle the thing to do is to visit anything good going on, and to take a back seat until you see better days ahead... In which Smith Wigglesworth was a great example....

An Introduction to the Bradford Plumber Smith Wigglesworth

Those who knew him in his earlier years couldn't have imagined that one day he would see thousands converted, have piles of discarded crutches and braces in his meetings, and have a foreign government take action against him. Wigglesworth was born in 1859 and converted at age 8 in a Wesleyan Methodist revival, and an Anglican bishop confirmed him 2 years later. In his late teens in Bradford, England, while preparing to become a master plumber, Wigglesworth became attracted to the Salvation Army because they seemed to have more spiritual power than any other group. And through this association, he met Polly Featherstone. Subsequent to their marriage in 1882, they shared in ministry by opening Bowland Street Mission in Bradford.

In spite of Wigglesworth's physical strength, he lacked self-confidence. He couldn't speak from the pulpit for more than 2 or 3 minutes before breaking down in tears and asking someone else to finish for him. Polly was the preacher in the family. For Smith, these were years of intense personal struggle, which unfortunately resulted in a time of spiritual coldness. Nevertheless, his family grew (he and Polly had five children), and his prospering business was flooded with calls.

 

[Pathfinder789]

during the years of intense personal struggle the thing to do is to visit anything good going on, and to take a back seat until you see better days ahead...

Good point..
----
Often, people who are involved in ministries/missions..
go through intense personal struggle.

 

[rockytopva]

So here we have an uneducated plumber working in what I can imagine unimaginable nasty circumstances who will take time to go to conferences from time to time. Such a meek spirit that even his wife doubted any ministerial calling his way...

The Home Life

An experience in the history of the Wigglesworth home was an event when Smith was in the market for a home. Having coming up $500 short, he consulted his friends and relatives without any avail. So then he consulted his lovely wife and said, “Oh, mother I am in a hard place.” “I know,” she said. “I will tell you what you have never done, my dear.”

“What?”

“You have never gone to God once about this thing.”

“All right my dear, I will go pray.”

Upon praying the Lord gave Smith the word of wisdom, “Go see Brother Webster.” Smith then went to Brother Webster who then gave him what he had need of. These type experiences were common in the Wigglesworth home “before the fire fell.”

When the Fire Fell
Two stirring spiritual experiences changed him and his ministry forever: (1) In 1893 while attending one of the famous "higher life" conferences at the resort town of Keswick, the equivalent of an American camp meeting, he testified to being sanctified or baptized in the Spirit, as taught by the Keswick preachers. (2) A greater turning point in his life occurred in 1907. He heard that people were receiving the Holy Spirit at Sunderland and decided to go and see for himself. Convinced that he had already gotten the Pentecostal Baptism, he grew discouraged while attending the services. Though "slain in the Spirit" several times, his spiritual hunger became even more intense.

Finally, after 4 days of seeking to speak in tongues, he decided to head home but first stopped by the vicarage to say good-bye. Mary Boddy, the vicar's wife, said, "Brother Wigglesworth, it is not the tongues you need but the Baptism. If you will allow God to baptize you, the other will be all right." Although protesting that he had previously been baptized, he asked her to lay hands on him and pray that he would receive. After she did so and unexpectedly left the room, "the fire fell," he recalled. "The joy was so great that when I came to utter it my tongue failed, and I began to worship God in other tongues as the Spirit gave me utterance." After arriving home, he found that Polly doubted his new experience. She claimed she was as much Spirit baptized as him without speaking in tongues. "I have been preaching for 20 years," she asserted, "and you have sat beside me on the platform. But on Sunday you will preach yourself, and I'll see what there is in it."

The next Sunday he entered the pulpit and, prompted by the Spirit, preached from Isaiah 61:1-3: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings...." The bold and fluent preaching that came forth startled his wife as she sat in the back of the mission. Speaking in a voice loud enough that everyone around her heard, Polly sputtered, "That's not my Smith, Lord; that's not my Smith!" Polly was filled with the Spirit soon after, and the Bowland Street Mission changed dramatically. They continued in ministry until Polly's death 6 years later in 1913. Unknown to Wigglesworth, that humble beginning had ignited a preaching ministry that would eventually take him around the world.

Wigglesworth Described
“The preaching was mainly on divine healing; and while it was evident that the preacher was an illiterate man, yet an indescribable power filled him. And his preaching was not in the wisdom of man, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. A heavily built man, he walked on the platform with the stately tread like a patriarch of old; one who knew God and feared not man. He held his audiences spellbound as he poured out his heart, reciting stories of great victories; and these divinely inspired utterances he capped with some appropriate scripture. In every case he gave glory to his Lord and as one Christian said; “The way he said Jesus and exalted that name thrilled me through and through.” –HV Roberts