Smith Wigglesworth praying for a sick woman.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

In 1888, Wigglesworth established the Bowland Street Mission in Bradford, England. It was there he and his wife Polly fed the poor and ministered the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to all who would come. He was a chief forerunner of what came to be known as the Pentecostal Latter Rain Revival. In 1913, he left the Bowland Street Mission with a call to the nations of the world, including the United States. In 1947, Wigglesworth met with his friend Lester Sumrall (another mighty man of God), and essentially prophesied the last four great moves of God in the earth. He saw the healing revival of the 1950’s in the US. He also saw the Charismatic Renewal of all the denominations in the 1960’s – 1970’s. Then he saw people going to church with a Bible in one hand and a notepad in the other, this was the Word and Faith movement of the 1980’s into the 90’s. Finally, Smith saw hospitals being emptied out, and hospitals working with the Church that knows how to move with the Holy Spirit. On a separate occasion he said churches would wane [gradual reduction] in attendance and then take a steep decline. It would cause a great hunger to rise in many of the unchurched people who would see a marriage between the Spirit and the Word. He said that from that spiritual place the greatest harvest the earth had ever seen would spread to the nations.

We are right now in a prophetic timeline of fulfillment of these words from Wigglesworth. I know of a hospital setting in Haiti filled with Cholera patients that was emptied out by Dr. Chauncey Crandall and his tax accountant. Chauncey said, “It was the best of God, and the best of medicine.” A significant number of hospitals are now partnering with those of us who know how to flow in the Holy Spirit. Amazing healing is happening in a beautiful partnership. Christ Healing Center and other affiliates here in the San Antonio area are in relationship to 7 hospitals. A number of these partnerships are popping up in Houston, TX with our dear friend Jan de Chambrier.

Recently, Lil de Fin, great granddaughter to Wigglesworth, was invited by Pastor Vincent Mann to reopen the Bowland Street Mission in Bradford. It had been closed for 97 years. The British Broadcasting Company Radio group covered this very significant event. What happened there was very powerful in terms of prophetic impact and an impartation of the Wigglesworth anointing.

Someone asked me what it was like to reopen Smith Wigglesworth’s Bowland Street Mission in Bradford England. It was a packed house with fabulous worship with the Spirit and Word fused together like Wigglesworth said would launch us to the nations! It was like a war zone. People were lying all over the floors during ministry time, having been overwhelmed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Healing and more healings broke out spontaneously with fresh Baptisms in the Spirit as well. Several people had prophetic utterances that rang true and authentic, reinforcing the impact of the moment. There was raucous dancing, high praises, and singing in the Spirit. Holy laughter broke out!! There was also weeping, brokenness and fire from heaven burning up diseases! It was wild. When the smoke cleared, the consensus in the sanctuary was this: We all want these manifestations and empowerments for the United Kingdom for a launch into Europe.

I believe a prophetic door is opening now for Great Britain, Europe, and even the United States for the Harvest of the Ages. In essence, The Bride of Christ is waking up. It is a door of destiny. Many are saying this is the Year of the Door in the Hebrew calendar. We must, for Jesus’ sake, go through that door.

The Rev. Dr. Jack Sheffield with the Rev. Anna Marie Sheffield
November 4, 2017
San Antonio, Texas

Jack and Anna Marie Sheffield

Jack Sheffield: In 1973, I was converted to Christianity out from a pagan background, and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in the same moment I was saved. I spoke in a heavenly language not even knowing what was happening to me. It was quite overwhelming! My rage, fear, trauma and rebellion was turned to radiant joy and peaceful love with an extreme desire to please my Jesus in every way. One night, not too long after my conversion, I broke past remnants of fear into a powerful anointing to preach and minister to people in a Methodist Church. It’s like I became “another man.” My fiancé asked a friend, “Who is that guy?” Shortly thereafter, because of this baptism in the Spirit, I had an encounter where Jesus drove me from a nap into a cotton field behind my house. I tried to hide away because I was weeping profusely with groaning and travailing! After a while, I crawled out into the grass, and I heard these words out loud, “You are going to carry my gospel to the nations.” My baptism in the Holy Spirit was a complete immersion in love for Jesus, and eventually led my wife and I to many nations on six continents.

PneumaReview.com: Did you receive a specific call to the healing ministry?

Jack Sheffield: Healing was a very real experience for me from the beginning of my walk with Jesus. It began with me. I was healed in spirit, soul, and physically on numerous occasions. Fear, guilt, shame and anger were washed away in wave after wave of His mercy. My spirit soared in ecstatic encounters of weeping only to be followed by bouts of laughing in glorious joy! My scared little spirit was married to the Holy Spirit and was learning all about freedom in Christ. Heart disease ran rampant in my family, and through a very stressful business attempt, I developed a bad heart. God used this to bring me to utter surrender to that cotton patch call. Jesus completely baffled my doctor when she examined me for my physical and discovered my heart was totally normal. I still have the two disparate EKG readouts.

It was then I realized I had a very distinct call to the healing ministry in the United Methodist Church.

This happened in the Summer of 1978. Healing began to manifest immediately in my ministry.

PneumaReview.com: In your book, God’s Healing River, you mention that “presence” is very important in healing. Please tell our readers what you are referring to.

Jack Sheffield: In the Fall of Adam and Eve, what was lost to humanity was the “presence” of the Lord. Adam hid from His presence in fear and, I believe shame. Jesus could not wait to get it back for us. Moses basically told God he was not going anywhere unless God’s presence went with Him. He said it was the only thing that distinguished his people from all the other peoples of the world. Presence is everything when it comes to healing. Without it, very little happens. My criteria for discerning the true presence of God is this when He “shows up”: 1) There is clarity in the atmosphere – Words preached or taught become very clear. People perk up attentively. 2) Brightness irradiates everyone present. There is a glow in the room and on people’s faces 3) There is a cleanness that is felt and experienced as real and tangible, and 4) Great joy breaks out which is “unspeakable and full of glory.” How do we get into that atmosphere? Ruth Ward Heflin used to say in the 1990’s, “You praise your way into worship, and you worship your way into the glory.” When the glory shows up in worship, healing and miracles can abound. We have seen it over and over again. Therefore, we worship Jesus all the time, even in our cars. The greater the worship, the greater the operations of healing gifts.