"Only believe!" Two simple words - the favourite saying of Smith Wigglesworth, a well-known Pentecostal evangelist. Who was he, and what can we learn from him? Well, this simple, uneducated man had a contagious and inspiring faith, which allowed God to use him in extraordinary ways from the early 1900s to the 1940s. Born in Yorkshire in 1859, he was converted to Christ as a boy, but it was not until he was baptised in the Holy Spirit at the age of forty-eight that he received a new power that changed his life. From then on he preached with authority, brought thousands to faith in Christ and to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and saw hundreds miraculously healed. He was a remarkable man whose only desire was that people should see Jesus, and not Smith Wigglesworth. As we learn from the Book of Acts, the same was true of the first disciples - it had been the same power from on high, the presence and fullness of the Holy Spirit, that transformed them on the day of Pentecost just as it transformed Smith Wigglesworth in 1907. So what else did the Yorkshire plumber and the Galilean fishermen have in common? Quite simply, their unshakeable faith in the power of God at work in them and through them. The words "only believe!" could just as well have come from the lips of Peter or Andrew, James or John.

Your faith has restored you to health…(Matt.9:20)

One of the most important things determining the effectiveness of the witness and actions of any Christian is the level of faith at work in his or her life. The Gospels are full of men and women who did things. Peter, who walked on the water - but had to get out of the boat first; the woman with the haemorrhage - who had to reach out and touch Jesus before she received healing; the centurion with the sick servant; the epileptic demoniac brought to Jesus by his father, but who the disciples could not cure - in these and many other cases it's noticeable that Jesus either commends their faith, or rebukes their lack of faith. Faith is an essential part of our walk with God - it makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to work through us. Active faith will release new life and power today - just as it did for the first disciples and for Smith Wigglesworth. One of the sad things about contemporary society is that many people have become spectators rather than contributors. Participation is not fashionable in today's world, and active, expectant faith is not often encouraged in the Church. Watching television is our number one national pastime - we like to be entertained but not involved. Through soaps and so-called reality television we can be part of other people's lives without any commitment or demands. This is not just a secular problem - some approach their Christian lives the same way, wanting to be entertained and to receive all the time without giving or getting involved. It's all part of the same malaise, but is there an answer?

A catalyst of new faith

All over the world people have grown in faith through the Charismatic Renewal with its emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It's been described as a catalyst of new faith - for some it was the way they first encountered the person of Jesus Christ, and for others a way of renewing and revitalising a weak or ineffective faith. So this is certainly one answer. God wants us to know his presence, power, and love, and he wants others to see that he is at work in our lives through the Holy Spirit. But he can only work through us according to the faith we place in him. A lack of faith limits God and makes us passive, ineffective Christians, whereas a dynamic, living faith makes almost anything possible. Paul knew this from personal experience when he wrote to the Ephesians:

"Glory be to him whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine" (Eph. 3:20).

If we are to be effective Christians, we need the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us just as the first disciples and Smith Wigglesworth needed it.

Have faith in God

In the last issue of GOODNEWS I wrote about the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now I'm saying that we also need to be men and women of faith - expectant, confident, and available. Filling and Faith are conjoined and inseparable. In his great chapter on faith, the writer to the Hebrews tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb.11:6), and that only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen (Heb.11:1). Paul puts it very challengingly in Galatians 2:20:

"The life I now live in this body I live in faith; faith in the Son of God who loved me and who sacrificed himself for my sake".

But it is Jesus, explaining it to Peter, who uses four simple words that no-one can fail to understand: "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22). So often we put our faith in everything else - in ourselves, in our doubts and fears, even in the problems we face, when we should be putting our faith in God. Sadly, it seems to me that much contemporary spirituality is wrongly centred. The clear Gospel call to repent, to turn from sin and self and to focus on Jesus, seems to have been replaced with an excessive interest in our own ideas, in self-understanding and a desire for self-fulfilment. It's easy to become more concerned with our own growth than with the growth of Christ within us. This is not merely a wrong emphasis - it is really unbelief. Jesus said that the world's sin was unbelief in him (John 16:9). As St. Augustine puts it, faith opens the door to understanding - unbelief closes it. Our faith must be anchored in God's love for us, in the work of Jesus on the cross, and in the on-going activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives (Gal.2:20).

Stand firm and take action

So we are not to put our faith in techniques, methods, and programmes, but in God. Nothing can be clearer than Paul's warning against "….some second-hand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ" (Col.2:8). We need to be rooted in Christ, built on him, and held firm by our faith in him (Col.2:6-7). So often it comes down to who we know rather than what we know. Our minds may be full of good information, but do we really know Jesus? The prophet Daniel reminds us that "the people who know their God will stand firm and take action" (11:32). If we really believe in Jesus and have been filled with the Holy Spirit, we'll put our faith to work and take some risks. As Paul tells Timothy (2 Tim.1:5-7), God's gift was a Spirit of power and not of timidity, but it's Timothy's responsibility to fan that gift into a flame. It's the same for us - the Spirit alive in us will produce a living, expectant faith, but we must keep the fire burning (Eph.5:18). Then when we pray with faith and act in faith, we'll start believing the incredible, seeing the invisible, and even doing the impossible - by faith. How do we get started? Perhaps we need to pray the prayer of the epileptic boy's father, "I do have faith. Help the little faith I have!" (Mark 9:24). Or perhaps our friend Smith Wigglesworth has the answer - only belive!

© Charles Whitehead