Following in the footsteps of Smith Wigglesworth

Scandinavia, November 2010

‘Did you know Smith Wigglesworth used to come to Norway and preach here?’ they asked me in Bergen, Norway.‘No, I didn’t,’ I said.‘You are following in his footsteps by coming here.’Those words deeply impacted my spirit. My grandfather listened to Smith Wigglesworth when he came to Johannesburg. I’ve read his books of faith and the accounts of miracles, but never thought of ‘walking in his footsteps’ in place he had been to.

The message God gave me for the Ethiopian refugees in Bergen, was simply, ‘The church is the city of refuge’. I explained to them that they should plant a church and not only hold prayer meetings and bible studies. I explained some of the blessings of being a body of believers to them. They understood it clearly.‘Your message is what Norway needs now. You have the word of God for us.’ They confessed afterwards.

During the meeting a supernatural sign was given. They testified that they saw a light around my head when I preached and it told them that God’s presence was with me.This is only the second time something like this ever happened to me. The first time was in Kiev, the Ukraine, when a man saw a blue light around my head and got up and told everyone: ‘God showed me this man in a vision, two weeks ago. He told me he is going to send someone by the name of Brother Andre to us and that he would teach us more about the truths we should know. This is the man God showed me because I see a blue light around his head. We must listen to what he has to say!’

Sister Senait prayed a wonderful, powerful prayer over me at the end: ‘God bless his family and his church, prosper them and protect them because of his willingness to go to other nations. Spare this man’s life for a long time, because he is willing to go to other lands. When the Spirit asked, ‘who will go for us, he replied, ‘here am I, send me!’It touched me very deeply. It is interesting how the kick back of my effort to go to other nations can produce blessings for those I leave behind for the Gospel’s sake!

The church in Scandinavia is government controlled. The government pays the pastor’s salary, so tithes and offerings is a foreign concept to believers. We can pray for a church plant there in Bergen and ask God to give us wisdom how to go about it.Pastor Lemma Asfaw in Addis Ababa arranged these meetings for me in Norway and Sweden.

In Sweden they only gave me five minutes to speak. There was someone from the church HQ who came to preach. And yet my visit was arranged a long time ago. I even phoned them from Holland to remind them that I will be there to preach on that particular Sunday.A scripture verse came to me afterwards: ‘He came to His own, and they knew Him not…’ How often have I experienced this: I go across the world, from the Southern tip to the Northern top, at my own expense, I give up what I am doing to be with them, and they give me five minutes to ‘say something’. I spoke about ‘being a sent one!’ Hopefully some young man or woman heard what I said and will one day become a ‘sent one’.Sweden is the most unmarried country in the world. It is also one of the most liberal countries as well.

We can pray for a revival in Scandinavia.