I want to say to you believers that there is a very blessed place for you to attain to, and the place where God wants you is a place of victory. When the Spirit of the Lord comes into your life it must be victory.

The disciples, before they received the Holy Ghost, were always in bondage. Jesus said to them one day, just before the crucifixion, “One of you shall betray Me,” and they were so conscious of their inability and their human depravity and helplessness that they said one to another, “Is it I?” And then Peter was ashamed that he had taken that stand, and he rose up and said, “Though all men deny Thee, yet will not I.” And likewise the others rose and declared that neither would they; but they —every one —did leave Him. But, beloved, after they received the power of the inducement of the Holy Ghost upon them, if you remember, they were made like lions to meet any difficulty.
They were made to stand any test, and these men that failed before the crucifixion, when the power of God fell upon them in the upper room, they came out in front of all those people who were gathered together and accused them of crucifying the Lord of glory. They were bold. What had made them so? I will tell you. Purity is bold. Take, for instance, a little child. It will gaze straight into your eyes for as long as you like, without winking once. The more pure, the more bold; and I tell you, God wants to bring us into that divine purity of heart and life —that holy boldness. Not officiousness; not swelled-headiness; not self-righteousness; but a pure, holy, divine appointment by One Who will come in and live with you, defying the powers of Satan, and standing you in a place of victory —overcoming the world.

You never inherited that from the flesh. That is a gift of God, by the Spirit, to all who obey. And so, none can say they wish they were overcomers, but that they have failed and failed until they have no hope. Brother, God can make you an overcomer. When the Spirit of God comes into your body He will transform you, He will quicken you. Oh, there is a life in the Spirit which makes you free from the law of sin and death, and there is an audacity about it —also, there is a personality about it. It is the personality of the Deity. It is God in you.

I tell you this morning that God is able to so transform and change and bring you into order by the Spirit that you can become a new creation after God’s order. There is no such thing as defeat for the believer. Without the cross, without Christ’s righteousness, without the new birth, without the indwelling Christ, without this divine incoming of God, I see myself a failure. But God, the Holy Ghost, can come in and take our place till we are renewed in righteousness —made the children of God. Nay, verily, the sons of God.

Do you think that God would make you to be a failure? God has never made man to be a failure. He made man to be a “son”; to walk about the earth in power; and so when I look at you I know that there is a capability that can be put into you which has the capacity of controlling and bringing everything into subjection. Yes, there is the capacity of the power of Christ to dwell in you, to bring every evil thing under you till you can put your feet upon it, and be master over the flesh and the devil; till within you there is nothing rises except that which will magnify and glorify the Lord; and this morning God wants me to show you these disciples, who were so frail, like you and me, that we, too, may now be filled with God, and become pioneers of this wonderful truth I am preaching. Here we see Peter frail, helpless, and, at every turn of the tide, a failure. And God filled that man with the Spirit of His righteousness, till he went up and down, bold as a lion, and when he came to death —even crucifixion —he counted himself unworthy of being crucified like his Lord, and asked that his murderers would put him head downwards on the tree. There was a deep submissiveness, and a power that was greater than all flesh. Peter had changed into the power of God.

The Scriptures do not tell two stories. They tell the truth. I want you to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What is truth? Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. ”He that believeth on me, as the Scriptures have said, out of his innermost being shall flow forth rivers of living water. “This He spake of the Spirit that should be given them after Jesus was glorified. I do not find anything in the Bible but holiness, and nothing in the world but worldliness. Therefore, if I live in the world I shall become worldly; but, on the other hand, if I live in the Bible, I shall become holy. This is the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The power of God can remodel you. He can make you hate sin and love righteousness. He can take away bitterness and hatred and covetousness and malice, and can so consecrate you by His power, through His blood, that you are made pure —every bit holy. Pure in mind, heart and actions —pure right through. God has given me the way of life, and I want to give it to you, as though this were the last day I had to live. Jesus is the best there is for you, and you can each take Him away with you this morning. God gave His Son to be the propitiation for your sins, and not only so, but also for the sins of the whole world. Jesus came to make us free from sin —free from disease and pain.

When I see a person diseased and in pain I have great compassion for them, and when I lay my hands upon them, I know God means men to be so filled with Him that the power of sin shall have no effect upon them, and they shall go forth, as I am doing, to help the needy, sick, and afflicted. But what is the main thing? To preach the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Jesus came to do this. John came preaching repentance. The disciples began by preaching repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I tell you, beloved, if you have really been changed by God, there is a repentance in your heart never to be repented of. Through the revelation of the Word of God we find that divine healing is solely for the glory of God, and salvation is to make you to know that now you have to be inhabited by another, even God, and you have to walk with God in newness of life.

Smith Wigglesworth – Originally published by Victory Press North Melbourne, Australia