Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

A Profile of the Ancient Hebrew Prophet

all circumstances. If you remain humble and faithful, you will live to see the whole fulfilled." 26

Wigglesworth's message was contrary to everything the Pentecostals of the time taught and believed. Because they had been ostracized from the mainline churches, the idea that they, too, would receive the Spirit's outpouring was startling, to say the least! The old prophet made a quick exit and the younger man slumped into his chair, overcome by the awesome message. About ten minutes passed, and he heard a gentle knock at his door. A friendly, very subdued Wigglesworth now came into his office. He explained that he had burst in before because he had to deliver the mes sage without interruption and had not greeted even David's wife. Now,,, on his second visit, he explained that the message had come to him in visions and that he himself had questioned it. He also informed his younger colleague that David would play a prominent role in the coming renewal. "It.will not begin during my lifetime," Wigglesworth added. "The day I pass away, then you can begin to think about it." Then he asked the star tled du Plessis if he ever got airsick or seasick. David replied that he had never been in the air or on the sea. Smith told him, just before laying his hands on David, that he would "travel more than most men." He closed with prayer for David's health and safety.27 As Wigglesworth foretold, there were no dramatic events overnight. However, one thing came "out of the blue". Within three weeks of Wig glesworth's prophecy an airmail letter arrived from America, asking du Plessis if he would be one of the preachers at the Assemblies of God Gen eral Council for the following year (a prestigious event for an unknown South African minister). David's own "pilgrimage of faith" was to follow, and it was no rose petal pathway: financial hardships, a nomadic way of life, sacrifices galore, and finally rejection by his Pentecostal colleagues. But had not Smith described his message from God as a "warning"? He also said that there were to be two essential elements, humility and faithfulness. In 1947 Wig glesworth died. David thought that was the end of the prophecy, forgetting that it signalled the beginning. 28 The 1936 prophecy of Wigglesworth found dramatic fulfillment in the unbelievable adventure that followed in the life of David Johannes du Plessis. Some idea is gained by reading the more than three and a half pages assigned to his life story in Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charis matic Movements. John Mackay, president of Princeton Seminary, became the door for du Plessis to enter organized ecumenism. Du Plessis spoke at the 1952 meet- ■ 50