Lilian de Fin, great-granddaughter of Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947), speaks with PneumaReview.com about Smith Wigglesworth’s ministry and legacy, the re-opening of Bowland Street Mission, her own ministry, and the coming revival. Are you ready for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

PneumaReview.com: Your great-grandfather, Smith Wigglesworth, was a well-known Pentecostal minister. From a family perspective, what can you tell us about him?

Lilian de Fin: Smith and Polly Wigglesworth were blessed with five beautiful children. The eldest son, Seth, was my grandfather. My mother was Seth’s eldest daughter; she was named Alice after my auntie Alice, who was the only daughter of Smith and Polly Wigglesworth. In our home, Smith Wigglesworth was always referred to as “Grandpa” because he was my mother’s grandfather. So we all call him Grandpa.

My mother, Alice, went to Africa as a missionary. She married my dad, Joseph Harold Berry, who was also a missionary in the Congo, Central Africa. That makes me a fourth-generation preacher’s kid. I was born and brought up in Africa. Grandpa was promoted to heaven just three months after I was born, so I never met him. I like to believe that he prayed for me when he heard that another great granddaughter was born on the mission field in Congo. All the stories that I can tell you are stories that I heard from my parents.

Smith Wigglesworth

Smith Wigglesworth was a faithful father, fruitful, fascinating, and full of the Spirit of God. He was bold and courageous, yet full of compassion, a man who shared his faith wherever he went. He loved nature and would go for walks on the Yorkshire moors for recreation. I am told that when the pond iced over in Bradford, he and grandma Polly would skate on the ice together and the crowds would gather around to watch them.

My mother told me how Grandpa would love to take young ministers shopping. She related seeing him standing in a store with tears of joy streaming down his face as he watched some young men choosing a new suit and shoes. He himself had made a deal with God when he entered the ministry fulltime. He told the Lord that he expected to always have a good suit and good shoes otherwise he would return to his plumbing business.

When mom was growing up, she would attend a Bible study on a Wednesday night at Grandpa’s house. It was a time when Grandpa would meet with his family and teach them the word of God and recount some of his experiences concerning his healing ministry abroad. Mom tells how she would take the quiet road home through the park in order to have time alone and enjoy the presence of God that was upon her after spending time with Grandpa.

My dad would tell us how he would go to visit Grandpa Wigglesworth.

I always felt that I belonged to a very generous family.

My Grandpa Seth bought a house just around the corner from the plumber’s shop where he and Grandma lived. It was made available for us and other missionaries to live in while they were on furlough. It was such a blessing to have a provision like that. My auntie Alice together with her husband Jim Salter would come out to Africa to visit the missionaries. They would go out of their way to visit us at the boarding school that we attended. When they said goodbye, auntie Alice would always slip a little bit of money into our hands. It meant the world to us just to have some family around.

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