- [Narrator] Before Jesus
ascended into Heaven, he told his disciples
to wait in Jerusalem, where they would receive and
be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter one, verse eight, tells us: After Jesus had ascended into Heaven, the disciples returned to Jerusalem, and waited for the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter two, verse
one to four, tells us: Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one set upon each of them, and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Because the time of Pentecost, when the Jews from all nations
were gathered in Jerusalem. Hearing the disciples declaring
the wondrous works of God, in their own languages, where they were from, marveled at what was taking place, and Peter preached to them with power, declaring Jesus Christ as
their resurrected Savior. That day, multitudes believed, and were added to the church, and as the church grew, the Spirit of God moved with power, through the believers. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a vital part in the
growth and establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ. Nearly 2000 years later, we pick up our story in
Sunderland, the United Kingdom, where in 1907, at the All
Saints Monkwearmouth Hall, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that impacted the church, and
started a new move of God, all around the world. - There's no doubt that the beginning of the 20th century was a
really significant time, of spiritual awakening, and renewal. You have the Welsh revival, you have renewals happening in India, in America, and then Pentecostalism
will flow out of that. It's really not just about something happening in the 1900's though, it goes back to the later
part of the 19th century, where a number of things are going on socially and culturally. People were uncertain,
they felt under pressure, they talked about the speed of change that was happening around them. And for a number of people at that time, a number of the western
population, certainly, there was a nervousness about
what was going on in society. - Just think of 1859,
Darwinism, he wrote his book, skepticism was coming in. The German hard criticism was coming in, ripping apart the scriptures, denying the supernatural, denying the power of God. The church was under great
danger across the world. It was gonna kill the missionary spirit. It was gonna kill that spirit of holiness, of reality, of the miraculous
element of Christianity. And Christianity is supernatural, you can't make it natural. - Out of that, one of the
things that was happening, was there was a prayer movement. Again, where people would come together to pray for revival, to pray
for spiritual experiences, to pray that they would grow in God. And I think when you put
the two things together, the changes that were
happening in society, and the hunger, the spiritual
hunger that was there, in the last 25 years of the 19th century, that you start to see the green shoots of spiritual renewal around the world. - So what did God do? God stepped down into the nations. He shook nations. Wales, he brought Wales to its knees. All these revivals was God's answer to an atheistic age. And you know I believe
God delivered the church, and he raised up a great
missionary revival, that went out across this world. - When we commenced our meetings here, we were well aware of
the history of the hall. So I felt very privileged
and very humbled also, at the fact that we were now in the birthplace of
Pentecostalism, in Great Britain. This was the only other place, besides Azusa Street in Los Angeles, where there had been such a mighty outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. - Alexander Boddy, was the father of British Pentecostalism. From him, and through his influence, he directly ministered to
some of the leaders who would, in a sense, take over the baton of Pentecostalism in Britain, and would be the Pentecostal leaders, for the next 30 years, up till the Second World War. - He was really seeking
something from God. He realized that his Christianity, his Christian experience,
lacked something. He heard of a man called, TB Barratt. TB Barratt is a Cornishman, but he was living in Norway. - He was born originally in England. He moved as a young man to Norway. He was in the Methodist movement, his grandfather was a great
Methodist preacher, and leader. At a young stage, he was
a young man, 17 years old. He began to preach, felt the call of God to preach the gospel. Eventually he went to New York City, and was at AB Simpson's, Bible College, when he read the first
magazine from Azusa Street, talking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Azusa Street. When he heard that, such a hunger came for that which the early
disciples and apostles experienced in the Upper Room. He began to tarry and pray, for this Pentecostal revival. The Holy Ghost fell on
him, and he got Pentecost. He started to pray for Europe, pray for Norway, pray that a revival would
sweep these nations. When he came back from New York, went back to Oslo in December,
of 1906, a revival began. AA Boddy in Sunderland,
he heard of that revival. - Here is an insert of a letter from Thomas Barratt in Norway, to the Azusa Street Revival in America. It says: - AA Boddy, he went there to Norway, and pleaded with Barratt, he
preached in the revival there. He watched that move of God. AA Boddy got such a hunger, he said, we need this in Britain. We need a revival in our
churches and our movements. He wanted to bring it to the
Anglican Church in Britain. He pleaded with Barratt
to come to Sunderland, and to preach a convention. TB Barratt arrived in England. When he arrived there, all
he had was a tongue of fire. He was ablaze with the spirit of God. Nobody knew him in Great Britain, but here came a man with a
real baptism in the Holy Ghost. - He was not able to preach
in the Anglican Church, because was not an
ordained Anglican minister, so they held some prayer
meetings, in the choir vestry. - They started their meetings
the first of September, just tarrying, seeking
God in the small vestry, of that church. They prayed, they looked to Christ, they looked for a move of God. AA Boddy's wife, she got the baptism, his daughters, got filled
with the Holy Ghost, in such a beautiful way. - People began to receive
baptism in the Holy Spirit, with signs following, speaking in tongues, and so to get over canon law, they moved from the Anglican Church to hold public meetings
here at All Saints Hall, this is the parish hall, in Monkwearmouth. And so people began to
hear of the experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and they came, and they were
baptized in the Holy Spirit. - This was the beginning of a revival that was gonna sweep these nations, and raise up many great missionaries. And later, TB Barratt began
to preach in those meetings, and newspaper reporters came. So they knew something significant is happening here in these meetings. TB Barratt knew it, he said,
all the eyes across Britain are upon this place called, Sunderland. Newspapers carried reports of these people speaking in a strange language. And reports went across the country. - You have to remember that Pentecost, as a denomination, was not yet formed, and it was people coming
from Anglican churches, from Methodist churches, from Baptist churches, people who were hungry for God, He came, and their lives
were tremendously impacted. Some went back to their churches, and were ostracized because the people didn't accept speaking in tongues, as a modern-day experience, they wanted to confine it
to the New Testament times. Alexander Boddy really was a gatherer of people, and a gatherer of what
God was already doing, rather than a commissioner, and so it wasn't so much that he had, that Alexander Boddy had
this idea that he would take over the country
in a Pentecostal manner, by planting out. He became a rallying point for them, and delighted in the fact that Sunderland was the place where people would come from across the denominations. It was the Anglican Church, and Alexander Boddy was an Anglican, remained so throughout
all of his ministry. - The first person that
come to Smith Wigglesworth, and tell him about this
Pentecostal revival, and come to Sunderland, was a man who was actually
healed through his ministry. When Smith Wigglesworth told friends that he's going to Sunderland to these tongue-speakers, well everybody warned him against it. He said, if I go there,
and Christ isn't glorified, I won't stay there. So he sat in those meetings, he got to the end of his few days there. Before he left to go home, he went around to AA Boddy,
and Sister Boddy was there, and he started telling her,
well I'm going home now, but I don't have the Holy Ghost, haven't spoken in
tongues, haven't received. And she says, well come in, can I lay hands on you and pray for you? And he said, sure, I'll let anyone pray
for me for this baptism. She laid hands on him, and then she was called out of the room, and as he sat in that room, the Spirit of God fell on him. He had an open vision of
Jesus Christ, exalted. He was baptized in the Holy Ghost in fire. Do you know, he sent a message
back to his wife, to Polly, and he said, I've got it, I've
got a Pentecostal baptism. I've been baptized in the Holy Ghost. She didn't like that. She's at home, received that message, and she says, I do have the Holy Ghost. He thinks he's got it, I've got it. Well we'll see when he gets home, says, when he gets home he can preach. I've watched you, I know you. I know your weakness and your inability. Well he got up that morning, and began to preach under
the power of the Holy Ghost. She moved up and down that pew, and she said, this is not my Smith. This is not the Smith I know. What has happened to him? She soon got the baptism as well. You see, when he received
the power of the Holy Ghost, his tongue was loose. From that day he was able
to preach the gospel, with power and anointing. Men got saved, bodies got healed. - They began to hold yearly conventions, which was always around the Whitsuntides, which celebrates the
coming of the Holy Spirit. They had yearly meetings, where people came from all over the world. - There were significant leaders there in those gatherings, men like Cecil Polhill, who was gonna be the future leader of the Pentecostal missionary movement. Others, Thomas Myerscough, he led the first Pentecostal Bible school there in Preston, gathered young men, and he got the baptism in the Holy
Ghost at Sunderland. WFP Burton, he was a great missionary, raised up a thousand churches in Congo. He was sitting there in those meetings. You couldn't even name all the ones that were touched and deeply affected, sitting in those meetings that were scattered to
the ends of the Earth. - The significance of Sunderland, was it became a European center. So before the First World War broke, you have people from France,
Holland, and Germany, in particular, who are all
experiencing similar things, coming together with the British, to actually start to debate and discuss what's going on in amongst them. And Boddy was really keen that not only would people experience
more of the Holy Spirit, but then they would think
through what's going on, and make sure they're not
going off on a tangent. - One of the great
things is that believers first heard of this baptism in
the Holy Ghost, a real work, that what happened at
Pentecost was still alive, still real, and still for
the Church of Jesus Christ. You know each of those conventions, it began a pattern, that spread out across this land. Other similar conventions
spread to London, up into Scotland, Northern Ireland. It was a pattern and example, of what a Pentecostal convention
ought to be, and should be, and the life and the power, they give, so the Holy Ghost operated in those meetings beautifully, tongues, interpretation, prophesy, the worship of God, where there was a
breaking forth of singing. People could come together. And many came to watch and look and query, is this real, is this good? Is what happened in the
Book of Acts for today, and they found the answer
to that, at Sunderland. - The magazine that came from Sunderland, was fueled by the conferences
and conventions that happened, and became a brilliant
source of the stories of what God was doing in localities. Alexander Boddy gave the
opportunity for this, a brilliant coming together, of what God was doing around the country. People found confidence in that. - His pastoral heart was unique. He was a very meek man, very gracious. Often we think of a strong
character leading a revival, but he had such a beautiful graciousness, wasn't noted for his dynamic preaching, but he was a leader, he was a Godly man. He was able to bring all
these leaders together, hold them together, for the first seven years of that revival. And there's no doubt God gifted him with that pastoral heart, to bring these people together, such a diversity. A man like Wigglesworth, it takes grace to work with such a strong character, as well as others that
were very quiet and timid, men like Donald Gee, and others. So he was able to bring all this together, and he was able to keep
this movement on track, until other leaders were raised up, and movements and
denominations came out of that. He was able to take a
backseat in many ways. His own magazine that
went out across the world, Confidence Magazine, he wrote
it to call them together for the first Whitsuntide convention. His magazine carried
testimonies, messages, by a host of those leaders
that were raised up. - One of the things Alexander
Boddy was brilliant at, was unearthing stories of what God was doing around the place. One of the people who caught
Alexander Boddy's eye, was George Jeffreys, and his
brother, Stephen Jeffreys. They were involved in some
revival meetings in South Wales. - News spread widely. AA Boddy up in Sunderland heard about it, came all the way down to Wales, said I must speak to these brothers, I must speak to them. Stephen and George sat
with AA Boddy at that time, and they began to share their burden. The key burden they had was, that in the Pentecostal revival, the great need was for
Pentecostal evangelists. Through Confidence, Boddy's magazine, he would carry preached messages, some mighty messages by Stephen Jeffreys, you can read them today. - And then, 1912, 1913, George was invited up
to Sunderland to preach during the convention weeks. And from that, that gave him a platform for a much wider audience than he might have had
in South Wales, alone. And in those meetings, were people from Ireland,
who heard George speak, and invited him across to Ireland, to talk to them about evangelism. The first meetings seem to
have happened around 1914. - Now George Jeffreys, he went to a small place called Monaghan, just over the border. He met with some believers, they were meant to hold a campaign, but once it was heard that
they were Pentecostals, tongue speakers, miracle workers, well those Methodists who owned
that building shut the door. He was praying, seeking God, saying, oh God what should I do? Many doors were opening up across Britain, but as he tarried and
sought the will of God. God said, Ireland, and in
an Upper Room in Monaghan, the Elim movement was birthed, and the motto that they
birthed in that Upper Room, was Ireland for Christ. That they would have a
band of young evangelists, who would go out across the land, pioneering, evangelizing,
starting new churches, and Northern Ireland was phenomenal, even during those war years, it was greatly restricted,
yet they raised up churches in Lurgan, Portadown, Belfast, Ballymena, all the main centers. And again, a revival came
to those communities. My great-grandmother
was caught up in that. She used to get George
Jeffreys' magazines, hide them under her seat. She was a Presbyterian, but she knew there was a reality in this Pentecostal revival. That was the beginning of
the work there in Ireland. - They began through the relationships that had been formed by Alexander Boddy, with the brothers directly, and then the opportunities
that Alexander Boddy gave, to George Jeffreys to be heard by a much wider group of people then he otherwise might
have had at that time. - Born out of this hall, were the Pentecostal
denominations that we know today, that's the Assemblies of God, Elim Pentecostal, the Apostolic Church, and then there were also missionaries, the Pentecostal missionary union began here in Sunderland. - So one of the early
Sunderland conventions, one of the visitors to the convention, was a man called Cecil Polhill, but he had been one of
the Cambridge Seven. Now in the 19th century,
the late 19th century, the Cambridge Seven included
people like CT Studd, and the Polhill brothers. There were seven Cambridge graduates, some of whom were sports people, but all of them well-known, who went to China and
Tibet as missionaries. The impact they had would be like if David Beckham became a Christian, and then became a missionary
to some country in Africa. It would be front-page news. - Cecil Polhill came to Sunderland, because he had encountered
Pentecostalism in America, and had been received the baptism there. And spoke with Alexander Boddy and said, it's absolutely crucial that we equip people
to become missionaries throughout the world. So together they established
this training school, called the Pentecostal Missionary Union. They actually established two, they established one for men, in Preston, and one for women in London. People like George Jeffreys went. People like Willy Burton, who became a great African missionary. A significant leader, James
Salter, also was there. These schools had an ongoing impact, out of all proportion to their size. And Boddy and Polhill wanted to take this idea of missionary training
for more seriously. So they establish this
Pentecostal Missionary Union, that would train people, and that would become an overseeing body for the missionary activity. - The revival began at Sunderland. It was the center of all
these great men we knew, Smith Wigglesworth, all
these men being raised up suddenly of God, to go out in dynamic ministries of healing, of salvation, of effecting
towns and cities, but each one of them could mark a significant meeting with God, at the Sunderland revival. So it was a real gathering of key vessels that God was gonna use,
down over the years to come. - And it seems to have
been from that period, that Smith Wigglesworth was beginning to be invited elsewhere, to preach. He was also a keen supporter
of the Sunderland conventions, and would be a regular speaker there, and a regular contributor to the magazine, so his name was becoming fairly well-known within that circle. Smith Wigglesworth's visit to Sunderland, when he received the
baptism in the Holy Ghost, revolutionized ministry. Now think about it, he couldn't stand the
pulpit, and preach before. This was the beginning of
his preaching ministry, his pulpit ministry, just straight after this experience. A local factory owner, who
was a Christian believer, heard he'd received the baptism, heard about the Pentecostal revival. He said you must come to
my factory and preach. He went to that factory. The factory owner closed it down, hundreds of workers, he brought
them into those meetings, three times a day. Wigglesworth stood and preached, there was a revival in that factory. - Smith Wigglesworth was
one of the best-traveled Pentecostals in that period. He was relentlessly restless, going to the States on numerous occasions, to Australia, to New Zealand, to Europe. He was a remarkable maverick. He was in many senses, a little strange. - They would have an illness
of cancer in the stomach, he would punch them in the stomach, now no evangelist up to that
point had ever done that. The American audience
looked on as this evangelist punched someone with
cancer in the stomach. One incident said, a
lady slapped him back, was offended with him, said, how dare a preacher
punch me in the stomach? Well you know, he was
angry at that cancer. He could see that the devil
was afflicting bodies, and he was gonna fight back. That same lady come to the
meeting the next evening, with tears rolling down her face, said, I must testify. She stood up and said, God
healed me of my cancer. I asked forgiveness of the man of God. I hit him, I didn't
realize what he was doing. See, there was a bold faith, he assaulted illness. He wasn't playing games, he wasn't hoping, he demanded that those
bodies were made well. I believe that Smith Wigglesworth
probably affected America in a greater way as far as
the Pentecostal revival, than any other single man, maybe apart from Seymour at Azusa Street. He was asked to preach at camp meetings all across that nation, and in each one of those great campaigns, there was mighty miracles. - We start to look at the lives
of these other Pentecostals. We easily can fast-forward
to the glory days. In the case of Smith Wigglesworth, there were many years of
being a plumber in Bradford. There were years of working
with kids in Liverpool, which nobody would have
said was glamorous. There were the years in a
mission church in Bradford, where life was not always easy, and he had other strong
characters in his church, who in time, would ask him to leave. There was the fact that his
daughter was profoundly deaf, and never healed, the fact that he suffered
from kidney stones, and would be preaching in acute pain, and because of his point of view, would not take medicine, and so would pass the kidney stones, with absolute agony. All of this is the hinterlander,
Smith Wigglesworth. There are churches in Australia, that were birthed because of his ministry, and they're still operating now in Brisbane and in Melbourne. There are churches in New Zealand, who would look back to his
ministry in the 1920's and 30's, as being the key moment
where Pentecostalism really took off in their own country. - Smith Wigglesworth, as
he began to travel out, went to the great nation of
Australia, he went there. In those days, they traveled by boat. It was a long journey. Often, he would win men to the Lord, he would preach on those boats. He was a soul-winner on that boat. He wasn't just going to hold a campaign. When he got to our continent, he was the main influence
really in many ways. All the witnesses said to bring the Pentecostal
revival to Australia. There was a great hardness
against the message of Pentecost, in the evangelical movements of that day. Very resistant about it. They heard about these
Pentecostals who spoke in tongues, and done great miracles. They actually got a dumb
man, a deaf and dumb man, and they said, we're gonna have fun here. We know this deaf and dumb man, we've known him for many years. We're gonna send him
into that healing line, and they thought this was funny. They thought this was a great laugh. We're gonna make a fool of him. Well they all went into that meeting, and when altar call was come, they pushed him down there
and they're all laughing, nudging each other. They pushed him down
into that healing line. Well do you know that deaf and
dumb man was totally healed. The power of God come on
him, and he was healed. Those young men were
dumbfounded, and they repented. A revival broke out in that continent. - These guys had given
themselves to the work of God. They'd given themselves to
the Pentecostal move of God, and it was almost like
they have their moment, and they do what God asks of them, and then they retreat into the shadows, and everybody forgets them. And they certainly weren't
in it to become superstars, or to have plaques put on houses,
or on churches about them. They were simply doing what they felt God would want of them, at any one time. - [Narrator] When a group
of believers seek God, they will find Him,
because he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. When we encounter God, we are always richer for the experience. We cannot stand in the presence of God without being changed for good. As we heard about the experiences of those who sought God in this place, and were changed for good, so we should continue to seek God, no matter where we are,
because he's always with us, wanting to reveal himself to us, so that we might know him and be changed. Joel two, verse 28 and 29 tells us: - [Narrator] Jesus encourages
us in the Gospel of Mark, chapter nine, in verse 23. He says: This scripture came alive in
the life of an evangelist, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. That man was Smith Wigglesworth. Only believe, would be his life's motto. Smith Wigglesworth was born in 1859, the year of the great Ulster
revival in Northern Ireland, where 100,000 people come to Christ. I always connect that, because it was a
significant year of revival. - Smith Wigglesworth was born into a really poor situation in Bradford. In the early years, his
father really struggled. And it just seemed as a family, they were just living below subsistence for most of the time. His grandmother had
quite an impact on him, and took him to a Methodist church, a Wesleyan Methodist church, in Bradford. - His grandmother was a firebrand, they called them primitive Methodists. They went back to that
early Methodist revival, led by John Wesley. They believed in the
real fiery Holy Ghost, a real moving of the
Holy Ghost and meetings. As a young boy, he sat in those meetings. They used to dance around that fire in the middle of the room. They would praise God. You know, he was raised
in that environment. He was there, and as they danced, and his grandmother danced, and just praising and worshiping God, he looked to the Lamb of God. You see, from the very beginning, that statement, only believe, that had become his whole life's motto. It was birthed in that room. And a vision that Jesus
Christ died for him, and he believed on Him, he
was born again that night, saved in an old primitive meeting. See, where there's life, things do happen. A young life can be transformed. - Smith Wigglesworth, in time moved from working in the mill, he left school very early. Effectively, his education finished, his full-time education finished when he was eight years old. So he actually was operating
in a semi-literate state. He'd become a plumber. - At his workplace he worked
with an old Plymouth brethren believer who'd go out in the streets, was a man of the word of God and prayer, and as they worked together, and he was teaching young
Wigglesworth his trade, he'd told him about the
soon coming of Jesus Christ, that Christ was coming, coming soon, that he needed to be ready. And that message, he picked it up and it burdened his life, that he must make ready the church for the coming of Jesus again. - The family as they improved themselves in social status, seems to have moved across to the Anglican Church, and when Smith Wigglesworth
was 12 years old, he was confirmed into the Anglican Church, and the Bishop came
down and prayed for him. And in later years he would say, that at that moment, he
was filled with the spirit, that he had an experience
of the spirit then, that would be matched by, that would in a sense remind him about what happened in
Sunderland 40 years later. But when he was 12, that experience of being
filled with the spirit, as the Bishop laid his hands on him, and in time, working with some of his colleagues, associates
in the plumbing trade, he got into the Salvation Army. - There in Bradford, his hometown, the Salvation Army come. This was a whole new realm to him, took him to a whole new phase. When they come, they evangelize with fire and brimstone in the streets. They preach the gospel of
the blood of redemption that can save men. And he joined himself to them. They were evangelists, they
were a movement on fire. He would pray through the night with them. They would lie on their faces, the power of God would descend, and they would go out and evangelize under great persecution. He caught that fire for
evangelism, for soul-winning. - And again, the Salvation
Army, in that period, were really quite the
charismatics of their age. They were very expressive
in their worship, very joyous, very outgoing exuberant, and of course, very mission-minded. And this seems to have
suited Smith Wigglesworth to the ground. He moved from Bradford to Liverpool, when he was in his early 20's. And whilst he was there, got engaged in working with young people and children, particularly of the poorest of the poor. - He labored there in Liverpool, just laborin' with souls,
winning hundreds to Christ, but he did have a passion,
and a burden for souls. He would speak to people
on street corners. He'd go sit by their beds in the hospital. He would tell them of Christ,
share the gospel with them. That's where he really dealt with souls, learned how to plead with
someone, turn them to Christ. Hands were laid upon him once. He would always break into
tears when he testified, but some of those old holy men of God, come and laid hands on
him, and prayed for him. Ever after that, he could
stand in a meeting and testify. He would plead with men, he was like Jeremiah the weeping prophet, he was a man of real passion, but he still couldn't preach, still had love for souls, could testify. So that was how God prepared him. - When he was 23, he
moves back to Bradford, and it's at that time that
he meets his wife, Polly, a Salvation Army officer, in the local corps. And that relationship was gonna be the crucial relationship
for Smith Wigglesworth, for the next period of time. - You know, if you were a
helper with the Salvation Army, you couldn't have a
relationship with an officer, so that caused a problem. But she was a firebrand,
she was a soul-winner, very able, went off
preaching across the country. He couldn't do that. He could evangelize one-to-one. He won her heart, asked her to marry him, called her Polly, always called her Polly, and he did marry her. And they settled there in Bradford. Now he started his own plumbing business. He was very good at his job,
very successful, very able. But you know a bad winter came. Whenever there were lots of burst pipes, he'd become very busy, with that business. Little time to read, little time to pray, little time to get alone with God. He was just constant around the clock. The demands of that
workplace become greater, than the demands to be alone with God. We're told that his heart began to harden, really against God, didn't
have time for meetings, didn't have time to be
with the people of God. And you know, there was a clash between him and his wife, Polly. The colder he got, the brighter she burnt. She just began to blaze. She didn't get on his back, she just kept praying, believe in God, and burned with testimony. God melted his heart. He repented, he broke, he
asked God to forgive him. And from that day, every work job he was on,
he's fixing those pipes, he's witnessing, he's evangelizing, winning men, and women to God. Again, working with his hands, but called to win men to Jesus Christ. - From the early days, Smith Wigglesworth was actually convinced that Jesus was still in the healing business. He'd experienced it himself when he was healed of appendicitis. He'd experienced it when
he'd been praying for people in local church contacts, this is long before the
Pentecostal message, as such, that people were aware of. It was just Smith Wigglesworth
was almost a logical outflow of the fact that if Jesus
has risen from the dead, then he's still doing the same works that he was involved with, during his days on Earth. - It was meetings held in
Leeds in the north of England, and he went along to those meetings, and just simple gatherings of believers, but they were bold in
faith, and as he watched, he was astounded that the
sick bodies were healed. He watched them beheld, just like what he read of in the ministry of Jesus Christ, the sick being healed. He beheld this, this had a deep impact, that would revolutionize his
ministry down over the years, and would be a significant part of it. And as he was in those
meetings, he would get involved. He would go home, he would
fill a truck with people, with sick bodies, who
would say, come here, concerning a man who heals sick bodies. You bring them in there,
they would get healed, saved, changed, so he
filled those meetings, he brought lots of people there. - He was invited to look after this group, while the leaders were away. He did it with much fear and trepidation. - But of course he couldn't
preach at that stage. He said, well I'm no preacher. They said, well, just
read some of the scripture and pray for the sick. And he's well out of his depths. Do you know into that
meeting came real people, with real sicknesses. As he looked upon them, that
compassion of Jesus Christ, rose up in his heart. He went, these people haven't
come to be prayed for, they've come to be healed by the master. He made an altar call for the
sick, and they'd come out. He went to the first man which
was a Scotsman, who was lame. He laid hands on him, that Scotsman got to
shouting, got to dancing, totally healed by the power of God. That single miracle
revolutionized his ministry. Him and his wife started
meetings in Bradford. They not only made a stand for holiness, but they made a stand for healing. Christ is a healer, still heals the sick today. They start having their own
healing meetings in Bradford. They brought many in, many sick bodies would be healed in that small building. It was miraculous what God done there. But God started to prepare them, in that small building, for a miraculous ministry
that would carry him, across this world, but it all started with the compassion of Jesus Christ. His heart was moved for the sick, and God through him right
onto that miraculous ministry, because he is faithful, to even get sick people to a meeting. He had many experiences with
God, with the Holy Ghost, but what he seen in the Book
of Acts, he did not have. He just longed for more. He wanted a real Pentecostal experience, but he knew that he didn't have that. He knew he had a touch of God in his life, he knew God was using him, but he didn't have that baptism, that Peter had, that
Paul had, that John had, and he did want it. - One of the things that
was different of course with the Pentecostal movement, was that people spoke in tongues. And that was the defining
difference between the Pentecostalism and the
holiness movement for example. They completely agreed on
much of everything else, but tongues was the difference. The first person to come
to Smith Wigglesworth and tell him about this
Pentecostal revival that had come to Sunderland, was a man who was actually
healed through his ministry. When Smith Wigglesworth told friends that he's going to Sunderland,
to these tongue-speakers, well everybody warned him against it. He said, if go there, and
Christ isn't glorified, I won't stay there. So he sat in those meetings, he got to the end of his few days there. Before he left to go home, he went around to AA Boddy,
and Sister Boddy was there, and he starts telling her, will I'm going home now, but
I don't have the Holy Ghost. Haven't spoken in tongues,
haven't been saved. And she says, well come in. Can I lay hands on you, and pray for yo? And he said, sure, I'll let anyone pray
for me for this baptism. She laid hands on him, and then she was called out of the room, and as he sat in that room, the Spirit of God fell on him. He had an open vision
of Jesus Christ exalted. He was baptized in the Holy Ghost in fire. You know he sent a message
back to his wife, to Polly, and he said I've got it, I've
got a Pentecostal baptism. I've been baptized in the Holy Ghost. She didn't like that. Now she's at home, received that message, and she says, I do have the Holy Ghost. He thinks he's got it, I've got it. Well we'll see when he gets home. She says, when he gets
home, he can preach. You know I've watched you, I know you, I know your weakness and your inability. Well he got up that morning, and he began to preach under
the power of the Holy Ghost. She moved up and down, that pew. And she said, this is not my Smith. This is not the Smith I know. What has happened to him? She soon got the baptism as well. You see, when he received
the power of the Holy Ghost, his tongue was loosed. From that day, he was
able to preach the gospel, with power and anointing. Men got saved, bodies got healed. - And from that day, there was a shift in a sense
in the ministry that happens. It now wasn't Polly who was the full-time minister as it were. But now it was much more a partnership, and of course in time it
would become the other way, where Polly would become
supportive of Smith's ministry. - Smith Wigglesworth's
visit to Sunderland, when he received the
baptism in the Holy Ghost, revolutionized ministry. Now think about it, he
couldn't stand the pulpit and preach before. This was the beginning of
his preaching ministry, his pulpit ministry, just straight after this experience. A local factory owner, who
was a Christian believer, heard he'd received the baptism, heard about the Pentecostal revival. He said, you must come
to my factory and preach. He went to that factory, the factory owner closed it down. Hundreds of workers, he brought
them into those meetings, three times a day. Wigglesworth stood and preached, there was a revival in that factory. - The first things that Smith Wigglesworth was involved with, after his experience in Sunderland, was establishing a church in Bradford. And as with many of the
churches at that time, they would do Easter conventions where other ministers
would be invited to preach. And that had kind of a dual effect, it meant that there was a
cross-fertilization of ideas, but it also meant that you
were able to hear people that you hadn't heard before, and so invitations would be extended. And it seems to have
been from that period, that Smith Wigglesworth was beginning to be invited elsewhere, to preach. - Now from this time, him and his wife, they traveled out across Britain. They spread the message of Pentecost, that they first heard in Sunderland, north into Scotland, out across the north of England, down into the south of England. Him and his wife traveled
together for a few short years. 1913, his wife died. When she died, that was a
heart-breaking time for him. He wasn't a callous man,
it says that he wept, he almost felt like he
wanted to die, when she died. He was a man of faith, but he was a man of real
feelings and thoughts, and you know, just after that, he prayed. He said, oh God, open up a door for me that I'm not distracted by that. I want to serve You. And it was just then, 1914, he received the first
invitation to go to America, this just the months, the six months leading into the world war. So he got that invitation
at the beginning of 1914. - Smith Wigglesworth was one of the best-traveled
Pentecostals, in that period. He was relentlessly restless, going to the states on numerous occasions, to Australia, to New Zealand, to Europe. He was a remarkable maverick. He was in many senses, a little strange. - They would have an illness
of cancer in the stomach, he would punch them in the stomach. No evangelist up to that
point had ever done that. The American audience
looked on as this evangelist punched someone with
cancer in the stomach. One incident said a lady slapped him back, was offended with him, said, how dare a preacher
punch me in the stomach? But you know, he was angry at that cancer. He could see that the devil
was afflicting bodies, and he was gonna fight back. That same lady come to the
meeting the next evening, with tears rolling down her face, said I must testify. She stood up and said, God
healed me of my cancer. I asked forgiveness of the man of God. I hit him, I didn't
realize what he was doing. See, there was a bold faith. He assaulted illness. He wasn't playing games, he wasn't hoping. He demanded that those
bodies were made well. People would come and stand there, literally with blind eyes. This wasn't behind a curtain,
this was in public meetings, and he would say, I know
when I lay hands on you, you will see. He would lay hands on them, and
those blind eyes would open. That happened many times. There was many witnesses
that blind eyes were opened. Just one incident that I can remember reading from his writings, was that there was one child brought without even eye sockets,
there in the head, and miraculously God moved
and created eyes within it. That's not possible humanly. You know, he would stand
there laying hands on them, legs would be straightened, healed. I believe that Smith Wigglesworth
probably affected America, in a greater way, as far
as the Pentecostal revival, than any other single man, maybe apart from Seymour at Azusa Street. He was asked to preach at camp meetings, all across that nation. And that was the beginning of
a very significant influence from the whole church
movement there in America. Many were encouraged to step out in faith. - We start to look at the lives
of these early Pentecostals. We easily can fast-forward
to the glory days, in the case of Smith Wigglesworth. There were many years of
being a plumber in Bradford. There were years of working
with kids in Liverpool, which nobody would have
said was glamorous. There were the years in a
mission church in Bradford, where life was not always easy, and he had other strong
characters in his church, who in time, would ask him to leave. There was the fact that his
daughter was profoundly deaf, and never healed. The fact that he suffered
from kidney stones, and would be preaching in acute pain, and because of his point of
view, would not take medicine, and so would pass the kidney stones with absolute agony. All of this is the hinterlander,
Smith Wigglesworth. There are churches in Australia, that were birthed
because of this ministry, and they're still operating now in Brisbane and in Melbourne. There are churches in New Zealand, who would look back to his
ministry in the 1920's and 30's, as being the key moment
where Pentecostalism really took off in their own country. - Smith Wigglesworth, as
he began to travel out, went to the great nation of Australia. He went there, in those
days they traveled by boat. It was a long journey. Often he would win men to the Lord. He would preach on those boats. He was a soul-winner on that boat. He wasn't just going to hold a campaign. When he got to our continent, he was the main influence
really, in many ways, all the witnesses said, to bring the Pentecostal
revival to Australia. There was a great hardness against the message of Pentecost, in the evangelical movements of that day, very resistant about it. They heard about this
Pentecostals who spoke in tongues, and done great miracles. They actually got a dumb
man, a deaf and dumb man, and they said, we're gonna have fun here. We know this deaf and dumb man, we've known him for many years. We're gonna send him
into that healing line. They thought this was funny. They thought this was a great laugh. We're gonna make a fool of him. They all went into that meeting, and when the altar call was come, they pushed him down there, they're all laughing, nudging each other. They push him down into that healing line. Well do you know that deaf and
dumb man was totally healed? The power of God come on
him, and he was healed. Those young men were
dumbfounded, and they repented. A revival broke out in that continent. He was asked to come to New Zealand. Moody had been there. RA Torrey had been there, held great evangelistic campaigns, but when Smith Wigglesworth went there, it was a greater revival than
Moody or Torrey had seen. The souls that got saved, more souls, see he wasn't just a miracle-worker. Souls came in, he worked
miracles all right, but there was a supernatural
power in those meetings, that convinced souls. That's why he won more
souls than Moody and Torrey, as he went out across these continents. And there in New Zealand,
it was the greatest revival New Zealand had ever had. These nations, New Zealand and Australia, were deeply impacted. South Africa, other nations,
were deeply impacted. Nations, not just a town, not even just a city, but nations, and he left a harvest of souls behind him, who became the leaders
of the future generation. - One of the stories
about Smith Wigglesworth that lives with me, is the story that Lester
Sumrall talks about, himself. Now Lester Sumrall, he was an
American Pentecostal leader, quite a figure in the
American postwar scene, just around the war period. He was in Britain, working in Britain, and he tells a story about how he made his way to Bradford, and Smith Wigglesworth was quite elderly. But Lester Sumrall used to
go and visit him regularly, and Smith Wigglesworth
would simply, each time, say, let's read the scriptures together, and then let's pray. But the way the story
is told is just the idea that here's an old Christian leader, who's wanting to introduce
a young Christian, who in time, will be a
leader, but not at that time, but who just wants to disciple someone, and does it the best way he knows, which is actually read
the scripture, and pray. And Smith Wigglesworth
talks about the idea that one day he turned up to his door, with a bolo hat and his umbrella, and a newspaper under his arm. And Smith Wigglesworth took the newspaper from under his arm, threw it in the bush, and said, you won't be needing that. And invited him in, and
starts to train him. Now he does it in his
own inimitable style, but those stories are the stories, that are the unseen stories. They're not about preaching to thousands, it's about the investment
of time in one person. I think one of the lessons you can take from Smith Wigglesworth's life, is that God uses eccentric people, that he doesn't use just
people who are nicely polished, and socially acceptable, but he takes working class people from West Yorkshire, with a strong accent that will never leave him, with methodologies that are very strange, but he does use them for his glory. I think it's safe to say, that he was in many ways a
man with a single message, about the significance and the necessity of having faith in Jesus, who would meet you directly, and make a real difference
in your own life. That was his key message
wherever he preached. And secondly, his methodology,
which was not copied, was not transferred to anybody else. But with that came a colorful nature of the Pentecostal evangelist. - I think there's more than one lesson that we can learn from
Smith Wigglesworth's life. I think everybody would
consider the miraculous element, the supernatural element, not just a preachin'
or a teachin' ministry, but a miraculous element. I think we're all very conscious of that, you can't read his life
without knowing that. But also, to learn
concerning that bold faith. There was a real bold faith
that overcome opposition, the natural thinking of man, beyond belief, the lies of the devil. He triumphed over that in a very real way. He overcome, and as a result of that, multitudes of lives,
nations were affected, through his life. But you know, I'd still go further. I don't even believe those
are the greatest lessons. He was a man of the Word of God. You don't often hear that. He was a man of holiness, he wouldn't let newspapers in his door. He said, don't be
bringing that information from the world in here. He was a man who would sit at a table, if you spoke about natural things, he said, I don't want to hear that, I want to talk about the Lord. So, he was a man, he was a holy man, he was a separated man. He didn't have time for other things. These are all things we must learn, but he had a miraculous ministry
because he was a holy man, he was a man of prayer. He was an evangelist, a soul-winner. And I believe the greatest thing that we can learn from his life, is that he was a soul-winner. He cared more about the soul of men, then he did about the bodies of men. Of course, we know he cared
about the bodies of men. He had a tremendous heal ministry, but he cared about the soul of man. To heal a body, and then still go to hell, it was void, it was pointless. But he believed in being a soul-winner. He witnessed to men and
minds under the ground. He witnessed to them on
hilltops, and factories, everywhere he went,
onboard boats and trains. He was a witness, he was an evangelist, he was a man hired to take men to heaven. And personally I believe, that that is the greatest mark of Smith Wigglesworth's ministry, and I believe the healings, the miracles, the signs, the wonders, were just confirmation
to the gospel message, to bring sinners to Jesus Christ. - His ministry was
profound on a global scale. He was gruff, he was direct, he was in some ways quite straightforward, and almost simplistic. But the effects of that ministry, had an impact much wider than anybody might have
guessed in Bradford, when he was establishing
his own mission hall. And I think it's for those sort of reasons we ought to honor some
of Wigglesworth's legacy, as we look back on his life and work. - [Narrator] Jesus tells his disciples in the Gospel of John,
chapter four, in verse 35: Two brothers from a mining family would emerge from a mining
town in South Wales, who brought in a harvest of souls, and helped establish the
British Pentecostal movement in the 20th century. Stephen Jeffreys and George Jeffreys opened their eyes and saw that the fields were ripe for harvest. - George Jeffreys came from
a very working-class family, in South Wales in Maesteg. His brothers, his father, were all miners. But as a young boy, he was actually quite a good deal frailer
than his siblings, so he got a job in time, working for the coop, as an errand boy, rather
than going down in the mines. He became a Christian in the 1904 revival. The church he was attending, the minister had been affected by the preaching of the revival, and was clearly leading
his own church in a way that was spiritually expectant, and was believing that God would want to do this work of revival, in a very local church. And George Jeffreys, as a young boy, was listening to this preacher preaching, and gave his life to the
Lord in November, 1904. The same day has his
brother, much older brother, Stephen Jeffreys. And these two brothers
in time would become key British Pentecostal leaders. But it began in a very poor background, in a very ordinary church, with a minister who dared to believe that what he'd seen happening
through the revivalists, and the work of people like Evan Roberts, could actually happen
in his own local church. - When you go back and
see Stephen Jeffreys before he was born again, you see him down in those mines, those Welsh mines were a rough place, if you ever see a picture of him, he's a stocky build. He had a tremendous humor, and you know his brother George was quite a mild, calmer, quieter guy, but Stephen Jeffreys wasn't like that. He was quite a bold humorist. He was the center of every gathering, but as an unsaved man, he
worked down in those mines. It was a rough, violent, and a wild place, but you know again, he had his meeting with
God, in that 1904 revival. - Continuing to be a miner for
the next eight or nine years, Stephen began to preach in chapels, and holiness halls, and
little evangelistic missions up and down the Welsh valleys. - He would stand on a street corner. He would actually take a seat out and stand in his community. People would gather out their homes. Time after time he would preach, it would grow dark while he
preached on the street corner. Men and women out of
those mines would stand, weeping and crying their way to Christ. This is where God trained him. - George in later days would
talk about being a 15-year-old, and preaching in the open air. The minister being beside
him and coaching him, and mentoring him. So from that young age, he's growing in both his calling, and his sense of wanting to be able to proclaim the good news of
Jesus, in a public setting. George Jeffreys and Stephen Jeffreys had both become Christians
on the same day, in 1904, and both, from those days, were absolutely convinced that this talk of tongue-speaking, and the experience of the spirit, were not appropriate or relevant, or even, accurate, you
know, they weren't truthful. But what seems to have
happened is that Stephen's son went away on a kind of a special Bible weekend, in South Wales, away from home. And during that time, he came across a bunch of early Pentecostals,
who prayed for him, and he spoke in tongues. Now the story goes that
Edward was only a young boy, sort of 10, 12 years
old, that sort of age, he wasn't at all. But when he came back
he talked to his father, and to his uncle, George,
about what had happened, and they began to be
impressed by what they saw, and persuaded by what they heard. And they in turn, were
filled with the spirit. That led to both George and Stephen identifying themselves with Pentecostals who were around the region, and their experiences
continued to grow and develop, but it's actually through the work of that young child, Edward, the son, that they actually came into the experience of prophecy and spirit. - George Jeffreys wanted to
preach, wanted to serve God, had a great desire even to
go to the mission field. He went to a Bible school in the north of England in Preston, that was run by Thomas Myerscough. He sat under the man
of God, heard the word. George Jeffreys, in
there he met key leaders that he was gonna work
with for the next 30 years, that only two months into his training, a revival broke out, and down here in Wales, through his brother's ministry,
that was so astounding, that he had to leave Bible school and come back here to Wales. Stephen Jeffreys felt the call of God, to step out, to go forth, into other communities and towns. A call came to him, to go preach in a small town community, near the city of Swansea. He come to that first church,
and he began to preach, in that short mission of two weeks, he seen over 150 souls born again. The spirit of God began to fall. I'm told there was a wave of revival. Do you know the local newspapers began to call him a second Evan Roberts? They said this must be another wave of the Welsh revival. Many sat in that meeting and said, this is the beginning of
another Welsh revival. So great was that ministry, that's when George Jeffreys got called out of Bible college to come and help him. He was preaching day and night, laboring, and he began to pray for the sick in those meetings for the first time. He'd heard that Christ was a healer, but him and George went to a home, they prayed for a lady, who
was miraculously healed. She come and played the
piano in all those meetings, and testified in the evening meetings, and this is the beginning of him beginning to see that Christ is not only a savior, but he's a healer. News spread widely. AA Boddy up in Sunderland heard about it, come all the way down to Wales, said I must speak to these brothers, I must speak to them. Stephen and George sat
with AA Boddy at that time, and they began to share their burden, the key burden they had was, that in the Pentecostal
revival the great need was for Pentecostal evangelists. - And then 1912, 1913, George was invited up
to Sunderland to preach during the convention weeks. And from that, that gave him a platform for a much wider audience then he might have had
in South Wales, alone. And in those meetings
were people from Ireland, who heard George speak, and invited him across to Ireland, to talk to them about evangelism. The first meetings seemed to
have happened around 1914. - Now George Jeffreys, he went to a small place called Monaghan, just over the border. He met with some believers, they were meant to hold a campaign, but once it was heard that
they were Pentecostals, tongue-speakers, miracle-workers, well those Methodists
who owned that building shut the door. He was praying, seeking God, saying, oh God what should I do? Many doors were opened up across Britain, but as he carried and
sought the will of God, God said, Ireland, and in
an Upper Room in Monaghan, the Elim movement was birthed, and the motto that they
birthed in that Upper Room, was, Ireland for Christ, that they would have a
band of young evangelists, who would go out across the land, pioneering, evangelizing,
starting new churches, and Northern Ireland was phenomenal. Even during those war years,
it was greatly restricted, yet they raised up churches in Lurgan, Portadown, Belfast, Ballymena, all the main centers, and again a revival came
to those communities. My great-grandmother
was caught up in that. She used to get George
Jeffreys' magazines, hide them under a seat,
she was a Presbyterian, but she knew there was a reality in this Pentecostal revival. That was the beginning of
the work there in Ireland. - Stephen experienced far
more signs and wonders, probably than any of
the Pentecostal leaders. It's just that they were
often in obscure places, or they weren't written up so well, or they weren't preserved for posterity. One of the key events
that happened around him, which is kind of a fascinating and, strange phenomenon, was
when he was preaching in a church in South
Wales called Island Place. And as he's preaching, people get a vision of a
lamb on the wall behind him, and as they are looking
at this vision of a lamb, it transforms into the face of Jesus. Now the people at the time said, that image on the wall,
lasted for six hours. Suddenly it was reported in
the newspapers of the day, and Stephen would explain it as being the picture of a suffering servant. The image happened one month before the outbreak of the First World War, and in light of everything that happened, in that horrendous conflict, Stephen believed that what
the vision referred to was the suffering that
Jesus was engaged with. This didn't happen again
and again by any means. But it's an interesting
example of one phenomena that surrounded his ministry, and the way he interprets it here, in terms of the bigger global issues that were going on around this time. - Stephen Jeffreys was dynamic. He would preach like one
of those old prophets. He would preach and deal with sin, and many would get saved, and God would confirm
with miracles and signs and wonders following. One testimony of a little
girl was standing in the line, going into one of his meetings. She did not have eyeballs in her head. She just had empty sockets. There was a traditional local minister standing in the line with her. He looked at her, and he
actually asked himself, I wonder why she's going to the meeting? What is she gonna get prayer for? Never thought that a
little girl like that, would go in and get
prayer to be able to see. You know at the end of that meeting, an altar call was called, and she went up on that altar. That minister, that
denominational minister, sat on the platform
and was looking at her, as Stephen Jeffreys
laid his hands upon her. When he finished praying for her, she had two brand new eyes. She could see, she could look around her. Now this minister was shocked
and astounded with that. He would go into hard places, but he would see one miracle, and from there people would
come from all across that city. You know out of that small
beginning, in Northern Ireland, George Jeffreys planted the
first church in Belfast, on Hunter Street, and this grew beyond all
bounds of imagination. By the end of the war, calls were coming from all across Britain, to come plant churches. This whole group of young evangelists, to bring this fire,
this soul-winning fire, and to raise up real
New Testament churches. That was the real cry. That burden cried from across Britain, Scotland, England, and Wales, got so strong, that he
moved his headquarters, in the 20's, over into London. He started a Bible school there, made that his headquarters, and began to move by across Britain. Over the next decade, it grew beyond all bounds of imagination. He started an annual
convention there in London. Great crowds would gather and
many souls would be saved, and at the end of that convention, they would have the Lord's Supper. There were other conventions recorded up in Glasgow in Scotland, and in the various cities of Birmingham and London in England, even here in Wales and Northern Ireland, where 10,000 people would
gather in these places, many of these people were
saved through his ministry, and the fruit of the preachers that he'd sent out across the nation. He would often go into an area, begin with 60 people in a meeting, and end up packing the biggest halls. - George Jeffreys was the most successful, the most prolific in that sense, the greatest British
evangelist of the 20th century, and is almost completely unknown. At the height of his
evangelistic ministry, which was probably between
the years 1924 and 1934, so particularly we think of
one of those years in 1930. He did a series of meetings, every night, over a six week period in Birmingham, and those meetings concluded with him preaching to 10,000 people, every night. And over that period, about
30 churches were birthed. The meetings that he held, were often huge meetings. He filled the Albert
Hall every Easter Monday, time and time again. He was on the front pages
of national newspapers. And these reporters would
syndicate their stories, and so they would go around the world, and George was very aware of how, in a sense, that if you start with a city, do you start with the big towns, then you might actually be
able to affect a whole nation. The centrality of George Jeffreys' message was made up of what he would
call, The Four Square Gospel, and use that imagery of
the four foundation stones around which anyone's life would be built, and certainly churches would be. And the Four Square Gospel
was that Jesus was the Savior, who came to bring new creation to people. He was the Baptizer in water but also in particularly what he was talking about was the baptism in the Holy Spirit, this empowering for mission
and for living well. He was a healer of one's body, and much of his ministry was engaged with the work of healing. And he was the coming King. So whenever he was preaching, he would want to direct people to a saving faith in Jesus,
but also a faith in Jesus, that Jesus would still work
the miracles of his day. And he took real care about how he was engaged in this ministry. Many people were attracted by the ministry for obvious reasons. It was pre-National Health Service days. Unless you could afford
to pay for medical health, things would be fairly grim. And so it attracted poorer people, it attracted desperate people, but every meeting that
he was involved with, would close with him
offering prayer for the sick. One of the things he would do though, is that when people were healed, he would have a team of people who would take the address of someone, and often would take
photographs of people. And over the years,
George Jeffreys published a number of books and
pamphlets, but books as well, where in effect, he had
before and after pictures, along with the name and
the address of the person. And I think one of the things that he was trying to do at that time, was engage himself in
authentic spiritual ministry. In other words, anybody could
go and contact that person, and say, is it true? These were specific miracles, that were easily able
to be validated, or not, and I think I admire that in him, that he wasn't merely saying 500 people were healed of cancer, but he was telling the name of someone who was healed of cancer, taking pictures of them, so that their testimony would continue in the local communities. But it would also give a
validation to the gospel message, and so the meetings and the crusades
that he was involved with, would be long-term affairs, so that the meetings were large, they were well-known,
they were well-publicized, and the healing played a significant part in terms of waving the flag for the validation of the gospel. - Stephen Jeffreys had a very early impact on the Elim
movement within Britain. He actually pastored the first
Elim church ever in Wales, after Northern Ireland, the
Elim movement being there. The first Elim church was
in a place called Dowlais, just above Merther Temple in Wales. And he went there, he
left his first church, and he went there to do campaigns, and then was called as their pastor. I've actually seen pictures of him in that church with his elders, and with crutches, everything
hanging on the walls. All manners of things to aid the sick, but people who had been healed, and they left all their
instruments of illness in that building, seeing those pictures, you see it all over the walls. See it was a real New Testament
ministry of an evangelist. He went there to Dowlais and he raised up the first Elim church. It was the first in the British Isles. From there, he worked
with the Elim movement. His brother asked him to join him, and to join with them. Often they worked together in campaigns. They had preached
side-by-side, labored together, to break in towns and communities. But not too long into the 20's, he left Elim, and he actually
went as the main evangelist for the Assemblies of
God in the British Isles. I would actually say he
was the great influence in establishing the
Assemblies of God churches across the British Isles. It was a small work, it was
an initial beginning work, it was various ministries,
but he was the evangelist, who went into hard areas,
pioneered, seen souls saved, and left those churches
for other men to pastor. He was the evangelist about maybe any of those ministries,
dynamic like a whirlwind. - The meetings we know
most about with Stephen were in the 20's and 30's. There are one or two
books that were written about him during that time, and they point to the miracles
that were just kind of, if I say, commonplace, it's not that they weren't valued, but it was just sort of expected as part of his ongoing ministry. And of course, in the same way as the other leaders, once people had been healed, and that attracted bigger crowds. And so particularly in places like London and East Barclay and that sort of place, he was an out and out evangelist. His Welshness was very pronounced. People talked about how he
would sometimes go off into, what some people would
call speaking in tongues, other people would call the Welsh Hwyl, this idea of just this outburst
of exuberant praise, to God. And so, kind of never fitted into the mold of an organized revival campaign. It was much more freewheeling than that. It was much more emotional
than that in many ways, in comparison to his brother George, George was very measured. George was not wild, he wasn't extreme. There are recordings of George, and actually if you listen to him, people say, he sounds
a bit boring didn't he? Whereas Stephen was much
more expressive, much more, sort of full of the passion,
than perhaps George was. And, where he went,
and what he ministered, he often ministered very powerfully. Because of his passion, because of his, for want of a better word, his Welshness, coming from this very
South Wales valley culture. When he came out of that environment, I think people were a
little in awe of him, and there had been the
miracles around him, the sense that the raw,
untamed power of God, and this wasn't packaged neatly. You certainly couldn't tame Stephen, nobody could. And he was his own man, and would continue to be
so throughout his life. One of the things about George Jeffreys, which is really interesting, is that, he actually probably
never knew any situation except one of revival. He was born, spiritually born again in revival. He lived through the Welsh revival. His early experience of
church post-Welsh revival was in small groups of what they call the children's revival, home groups, that sort of thing. And then quickly went
into a revival ministry. Wherever he went, he only saw growth, and revival happening around him. The brilliant thing about this, was that he was actually convinced that this is how God wanted to use him. The difficult thing about that was, he found it very difficult to understand, what it was like for other people, perhaps ordinary church leaders, who were embedded in the
church for seven, eight years, who didn't live in continual revival. And I think in one sense it explains why some of the tensions happened
between George Jeffreys, and the rest of his church leaders, because his life really
was quite different. He was also single, all his life. And therefore was able
to be quite focused, and single-minded. I think another thing
about George Jeffreys is that he was in many ways similar to many other
Pentecostals, he was a maverick. He could be absolutely
brilliantly used by God, and then sometimes remarkably irrational, and knee-jerk reacting
to situations around him. I think at times he was
quite difficult to work with, because he was high-octane energy, and yeah, when he was in
a relationship with people who could provide the
administrative support around him, and provide the consolidation, God sought to use him so well. Probably George Jeffreys'
greatest contribution to the Pentecostal movement, was to remind Pentecostal believers that evangelism is at the
heart of the baptism in spirit, that it wasn't just so that people would have this kind of
exotic spiritual experience, that actually the spirit
is the spirit of mission, and it's the spirit who compels us to love our neighbor, so that we might proclaim the
good news of Jesus to them. I think in his ministry and the way he set his churches up, he placed that absolutely at the center of their self-understanding. You still see the traces of the DNA, that actually Pentecostalism
is linked to mission. And I think for Elim, and for the wider British
Pentecostal movement, that's one of the gifts that
George Jeffreys gave us, and enabled us to live with. - George Jeffreys was
a dynamic evangelist. They called him The Principal, because of raising up a Bible college. It was an Apostolic ministry, he didn't see just souls saved, he gathered those lives
together like John Wesley, John Wesley was his great example, he gathered those flocks together, after a campaign, leave New Testament
churches with new leaders. It was a dynamic revival ministry. He brought revival to communities. He was able to break in upon cities, and even upon these nations. Today we still see the fruit
of Pentecostal churches in all of these lands. I can't hardly go to a town where there isn't the fruit
of George Jeffreys' ministry. In Wales, in Scotland, in
England, in Northern Ireland, every town I go to, almost, has something of the
fruit of George Jeffreys. That is phenomenal when you
think, all these years later, that still the churches are there, people preaching the gospel, people who remember that ministry. It still has remained, the whole movement that
still exists to this day. (ambient music)
