Rise Up!

“Tabitha, rise up.” She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. Acts 9:40

St. Peter raised Tabitha, one of the women disciples in Joppa,  from the dead. Can this happen today? 

Smith Wigglesworth was a simple man, a plumber, who became an influential preacher in the early history of Pentecostalism. He was a very boring preacher but he converted thousands to Jesus Christ and healed many people who came to his rallies. His secret was prayer and reading the Word of God. The Bible was all he read. When Lester Sumrall, an American preacher, visited him several times as a young man, he said that all they did was read the Word for 30 minutes, then pray for 30 minutes, then repeat that until it was time for a meal. 

Sometimes we do not have anything but faith, but all the time, faith is more than enough. The problem is we have little faith. Even the apostles had little faith! Jesus got frustrated with them many a time, saying, “Oh ye of little faith!” (Matthew 8:26) Sometimes we grow up with a lot of religion, but too little Word of God. We only hear it in mass or service on Sundays. The thing is “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) So the more we hear, the more faith we will have. 

If we take the time to do that, I am confident our faith will never run out and miracles will follow us. One day, Smith Wigglesworth was talking and praying with a man with two stumps for feet. Smith insisted that he get fitted for shoes. So the man went to a shoe store and asked for a size 8 pair of black shoes. The clerk got a pair and handed it to him after saying he won’t be able to wear it. When the man put one of the stumps into the right shoe, a foot filled the shoe. When he put his left stump, a left foot filled the shoe. 

Now many of us are going to think, “I don’t believe it!” We need to feed our spirits with the Word of God so we will be like Smith Wigglesworth who after a half day of praying, was said to have raised a dead woman to life! Faith comes by hearing the Word of God!