Our Calling

Our Calling (Excerpts)

By Smith Wigglesworth 

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Ephesians 4:5

I must touch the thought of baptism this morning. 

We must get away from the thought of water baptism when we are in the epistles. 

If water baptism is at all mentioned in any way, it is always mentioned as a past tense. 

We must always remember this, beloved, that while water baptism, in my opinion, is essential, 

“He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved.” 

I wouldn’t say for a moment a man could not be saved without he was baptized in water, because it would be contrary to Scripture. 

Yet I see there is a blending. 

If we turn to the third chapter of John’s gospel we find:

...Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

John 3:5

I believe God would have us to know that we never ought to put aside water baptism, but believe it is in perfect conjunction and in operation with the working of the Spirit that we may be buried with Him.

But oh, the baptism in the Holy Ghost! 

The baptism of fire! 

The baptism of power! 

The baptism of oneness! 

The baptism of association! 

The baptism of communion! 

The baptism of the Spirit of life which takes the man, 

shakes him through, 

builds him up, 

and makes him know he is a new creature in the Spirit, 

worshipping God in the Spirit.

If my preaching and the preaching of those who come on this platform emphasizes the facts of being baptized with the Holy Ghost, and you only have touches of it, if you stop at that, you will be almost as though you were missing the calling. 

John said by the Spirit:

...He that cometh after me is preferred before me.... 

John 1:15

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I... he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. 

Matthew 3:11

By all means if you can tarry, you ought to tarry. 

If you have the Spirit’s power upon you, go into that room or somewhere else and never cease till God finishes the work. 

Outside the Pentecostal church where there isn’t a revival spirit, and where people are not born again, you will find the church becomes dead, dry, and barren, and helpless. 

They enter into entertainments and all kinds of teas. 

They live on a natural association and lose their grand, glorious hope.

I come to the Pentecostal church. 

Without the Pentecostal church is having an increase on the lines of salvation, without it is having continuous baptisms in the Holy Ghost, and a continuous pressure into the Kingdom, that church will become dry, lukewarm, helpless, and you will wonder what church it is.

But every night if somebody rises up in testimony saying they received the Holy Ghost, and others say, “Oh, last night I was saved,” that church is ripening. 

She will not flounder. 

She is ripening for greater things, for God will take that church.

Beloved, you are responsible for this, the platform is not responsible. 

The whole Church is responsible to keep this place on fire. 

If you have come into this meeting, if you are baptized with the Holy Ghost,

without an unction upon you and ready so that you feel like bursting into tongues, or having a psalm, hymn, or some spiritual song, 

without you have a tongue or interpretation, 

without something is taking place on these lines you have fallen from the grace of the Pentecostal position