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Thursday 29 October 2009

Heroes of the Faith - Christian Heroes - Wigglesworth, Bill Johnson, Andrew Wommack

We've all got people we look up to. Often they're people we haven't known in person and other times they're people we've personally come into contact with. For example your heroes of the faith might be characters from the Bible or people you've read about in christian biographies. Or maybe your local pastor is one of your heroes.

I want to highlight three people who I would consider among my heroes of the faith. You may have heard of some of them before or perhaps you've never come across them. Either way I encourage you to look into their biographies and ministries and see why they've had such a big impact on my life.


1) Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947)


Wigglesworth's life is an inspiration to me. There are loads of books about Smith Wigglesworth but one small biography that really impacted me is called: "Smith Wigglesworth: Apostle of Faith". In many ways Wigglesworth was very down to earth but at the same time he had a closeness with God and could hear Him so clearly that God used him to bring about many healings. His healing ministry was incredible and touched many. He made it clear that he would rather see one sinner saved than ten thousand people healed of bodily ailments, yet he still invited any who were in pain to come forward for prayer. According to Wikipedia Wigglesworth made a commitment to God that he would not sleep at night before he had won a soul for Christ every day. He claimed that on one occasion he could not sleep because he had not met this commitment, and that he went out into the night and met an alcoholic to whom he spoke and persuaded to become a believer.


2) Andrew Wommack 


I've been following Andrew's ministry for almost 10 years now. He is a great teacher - very easy to listen to and easy to understand. Back then I used to order teaching tapes from his ministry that he gave away for free. This was an attractive aspect of His ministry as most people were charging for their teaching tapes. Nowadays you can still order free materials and you can also listen to all his teaching on MP3 and in written form for free on his website. I don't agree with 100% of what He teaches (but then that's the same for everyone I listen to!) but most of it is Biblically sound in my opinion. Like Wigglesworth, Andrew sees real fruit in His ministry, often in the form of healings. He has seen blind eyes opened, the deaf made to hear and has even seen people raised from the dead, including his own son. I particularly like His teaching on "A Better Way To Pray" "Spirit, Soul & Body", "The True Nature of God", "God Wants You Well" and "The Sovereignty Of God". One testimony that I found really powerful is the Niki Ochenski healing. You can watch the video of her tesimony here.


3) Bill Johnson


I've only started following Bill Johnson in the last 2 years but in that short amount of time i've been very impressed with what i've read and seen of him. I haven't heard anywhere near as much teaching from Bill Johnson as I have of Andrew Wommack but everything I have heard has always struck a chord with me. I'm still yet to read his well known book called 'When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide To A Life Of Miracles' but I have read the follow up book which is called 'The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind: Access to a Life of Miracles' - this is a great read. I've also read a few others by Bill Johnson, namely Strengthen Yourself in the Lord: How to Release the Hidden Power of God in Your Life' and 'Dreaming with God'. I often find myself disagreeing with what people teach on the sovereignty of God but I really like what Bill Johnson teaches on the subject.

You can listen to the weekly Podcast from Bethel church (which is often by Bill Johnson) and there are some good videos on YouTube to which show Bill Johnson teaching. This guy is seeing signs and wonders and lots of supernatural healings following his preaching and teaching. If you're looking for Holy Spirit excitement you need to start listening to Bill Johnson!

I've included a couple of videos below that will give you a flavour of Bill Johnson's teaching.

Bringing Heaven To Earth Part 1:



7 comments:

  1. Video was removed.

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  2. Did you change your mind about Bill Johnson? I'm asking this because you removed the video.

    I also am a big fan of Andrew Wommack and Smith Wigglesworth. Also John G Lake, Curry Blake, Charles Finney, David Brainerd, Rees Howles, Moravian church 1400-mid 1800's; Austin Sparks.

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  3. Sadly the video is missing. Disappointing.

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  4. Joseph Prince is really good too!

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  5. You can still find those videos from youtube!! Good stuff!!!

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  6. Videos updated - should now be working :-)

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