We Are Just Going to Use the Name of Jesus

Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947) fanned the flames of revival in countries throughout the world through his audacious faith and spectacular healing ministry. Thousands came to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour, received divine healing and were delivered from demonic oppression and possession...

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"Sitting on the summit of the mountain praying, Wigglesworth heard the silent voice of God speaking to his inner man, 'I want you to go and raise Lazarus.' He descended the mountain and sent a message to the village that he was coming to pray for Lazarus. But when he arrived, the man to whom he had addressed the card informed him gloomily, 'The moment you see him, you will be ready to go home. Nothing will keep you here.' [Formerly a lay preacher, Lazarus had been crippled by tuberculosis and, for the last four years, had been bedridden and spoon-fed.]

When Wigglesworth at last saw Lazarus, he realised that what he was told was not an exaggeration. 'The man [Lazarus] was helpless. He was nothing but a mass of bones with skin stretched over them. There was no life to be seen. Everything in him spoke of decay.' Wigglesworth tried to instil some faith into him, but someone had prayed for his healing two years before and had failed to raise him up and now he refused to believe. 'There was not an atom of faith there,' recalled Wigglesworth. Neither could he find much faith in the village. When he asked who would be willing to join him in prayer for the man, none responded. Eventually he was able to persuade the couple who had given he and his companion lodging to join them the next day. Refusing to eat dinner, Wigglesworth fasted and prayed and then went to bed. That night the battle commenced:

When I got to bed, it seemed as if the devil tried to place on me everything that he had placed on that poor man. When I awoke, I had a cough and all the weakness of a tubercular patient. I rolled out of bed and ... cried out to God to deliver me from the power of the devil. I shouted loud enough to wake everybody in the house, but nobody was disturbed. God gave victory and I got back in bed as free as ever. At five o'clock the Lord awakened me and said, 'Don't break bread until you break it around my table.' At six o'clock, he gave me these words, 'And I will raise him up.' I put my elbow into the fellow who was sleeping with me and said, 'Do you hear? The Lord says that he will raise him up.'

The next morning at eight o'clock, Wigglesworth, his companion, the couple they were staying with, and four others who had had a change of heart and decided to accompany them, arrived at Lazarus' house. They stood around the bed and formed a chain by linking hands, including Lazarus himself. 'We are just going to use the name of Jesus,' Wigglesworth told them.

We knelt down and whispered that one word, 'Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!' The power of God fell and then it lifted. Five times the power of God fell and then it lifted. Five times the power of God fell and then it remained. But the man in the bed was unmoved. Two years previously, someone had come along and had tried to raise him up and the devil had used his lack of success as a means of discouraging Lazarus. I said, 'I don't care what the devil says. If God says he will raise him up, it must be so. Forget everything else except what God says about Jesus.' The sixth time the power fell and the sick man's lips began moving and the tears began to fall. I said, 'The power of God is here. It is yours to accept.' Then he made a confession: 'I have been bitter in my heart and I know I have grieved the spirit of God.' As we again said, 'Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!' the bed shook and the man shook. I told the people who were with me that they could go downstairs. 'This is all God. I'm not going to help him.' I sat and watched that man get up and dress himself, and then we sang the doxology as he walked down the steps.

The epilogue to the story was that the news of Lazarus' healing spread beyond the confines of the village to the whole district, and as he testified to what happened, many were converted."

From: Wilson, J. (2011) Wigglesworth: The Complete Story, Milton Keynes: Authentic Media Ltd, pgs. 51-53.