Smith Wigglesworth (June 8, 1859 – March 12, 1947) was a British evangelist who was influential in the early days of Pentecostalism.

Smith Wigglesworth was born on June 8, 1859 in Menston, Yorkshire, England, into a poor family. As a small child, he worked in the fields pulling turnips alongside his mother; he also worked in factories to help support his family. He was illiterate as a child, not attending school because of his work.

Nominally a Methodist, he became a new Christian at the age of eight. His grandmother was a devout Methodist; his parents, John and Martha, regularly took young Smith to Methodist and Anglican churches. He was confirmed by a Church of England bishop, baptized by immersion in the Baptist Church, and received basic Bible instruction from the Plymouth Brethren while learning the plumbing trade as an apprentice to a Brethren man.

Wigglesworth married Polly Featherstone on December 4, 1882 at St. Peter’s Church in Bradford. At the time of their marriage, she was a preacher in the Salvation Army and had attracted the attention of General William Booth. They had a daughter, Alice, and four sons, Seth, Harold, Ernest and George. Polly passed away in 1913. Her grandson, Leslie Wigglesworth, after serving as a missionary for more than 20 years in the Congo, was president of Elim Pentecostal Church.

Wigglesworth learned to read after he married Polly; she taught him to read the Bible. He often said it was the only book he ever read, and did not allow newspapers in his home, preferring the Bible as his only reading material.

Wigglesworth worked as a plumber, but gave up that trade because he was too busy for it after he began preaching. In 1907, Wigglesworth visited Alexander Boddy during the Sunderland revival, and after a laying on of hands by Alexander’s wife, Mary Boddy, he experienced speaking in tongues. He spoke at some Assemblies of God events in Britain. He also received ministerial credentials with the Assemblies of God in the United States, where he evangelized from 1924 to 1929.

Ministry
Wigglesworth believed that healing came through faith, and he was flexible in his approach. When the Swedish authorities forbade him to lay hands on members of the public, he preached for “collective healing,” whereby people laid hands on themselves. He also practiced anointing with oil and distributing “prayer handkerchiefs” (one of which was sent to King George V). Wigglesworth sometimes attributed ill health to demons.

Wigglesworth widely believed that his ministerial success was due to his speaking in tongues. He said:

“I want you to see that he who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself or herself. We must be edified before we can edify the church. I cannot estimate what I personally owe to the Holy Spirit’s method of spiritual edification. I stand before you as one of the world’s greatest enigmas. There never was a weaker man on the platform. Tongue? None. Inability, I am full of it. All natural things in my life point to the exact opposite of my ability to stand on the platform and preach the gospel. The secret is that the Holy Spirit came and brought this wonderful edification of the Spirit. I had been reading this Word continually and as best as I could, but the Holy Spirit came and took it in, for the Holy Spirit is the breath of it, and He illuminated it for me.

Ministering in many Yorkshire churches, often at Bethesda Church in Swallownest (on the outskirts of Sheffield), Wigglesworth claimed to have made many prophecies. He also had an international ministry. He ministered in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the Pacific Islands, India, Ceylon, and several European countries. 9] Some of his sermons have been transcribed for Pentecostal magazines, and they have been collected in two books: Ever Increasing Faith and Faith that Prevails.

He continued to minister until his death on March 12, 1947.

Healing
Many divine healings were claimed during Wigglesworth’s ministry. There were many testimonies of divine healing during Wigglesworth’s ministry, including a woman healed of a tumor, a woman healed of tuberculosis, a woman in a wheelchair who walked, and many others.

Many people reported being healed of cancer by Jesus Christ through him. Wigglesworth described cancer as “a living evil spirit,” and insisted that many diseases were “Satanic in origin.” His methods often involved hitting, slapping or punching the affected body part. On several occasions, his approach to people with stomach ailments was to punch them in the stomach, sometimes with such force that he would propel them across the room. When asked about this, he would reply, “I don’t punch them, I punch the devil. Responding to criticism of his method of praying for the sick, Wigglesworth said, “You might think, by the way I prayed for the sick, that I was sometimes unloving and rude, but oh, my friends, you have no idea what I see behind the sickness and the afflicted. I do not deal with the person, I deal with the satanic forces that bind the afflicted.” On one occasion, Wigglesworth told the sick man, “I will only pray for you once, to pray twice is unbelief.” On the second night, a man approached the altar to receive prayer again and Wigglesworth, recognizing him, said, “Did I not pray for you last night? You are full of unbelief, get off that platform! This last statement must be considered in light of Smith Wigglesworth often praying for/with a person for hours until he was healed. The aforementioned man would have been provocative for example, so he told him what he needed to hear. On other occasions, Wigglesworth mentions a change of heart in a person who did not experience healing, which led to healing the second time. One of his principles was “if someone promises healing, stay and pray until it is done.