Smith Wigglesworth’s Insight Into Delivered of Regret
One of the most difficult things for people to overcome is regret. It involves mourning over the loss, the failure, the death, or the destruction caused by our actions. David was a mighty man of God; the Lord declared him a man after His own heart. Yet, he committed a series of terrible sins and caused many problems.
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindess; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”
Psalm 51: 1-3
As we read these verses, we see that David knew he needed mercy, and despite his acknowledging his sin and cry for mercy, he remains broken and guilty. Many believers come to the same place where their sin is ever before them, and no matter what they do, it is never enough. They can never get free. Smith Wigglesworth said:
Human weaknesses can spoil the effectiveness of faith. Victories become uncertain, prayers lose the anointing, and the power to take hold is hindered. But when God breathes His life into us, “we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. “
Many believers have become spiritually shipwrecked because of a mistake made in the past that they are never able to overcome. The enemy loves to play the regret card in those whose hearts are quick to crumble when it is brought up.
Peter wrote:
“To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
2 Peter 1: 1, 2
The enemy wants to multiply our regret, while the Lord wants to bring us to the place where we know the multiplication of His grace and peace. Smith explained:
Peter called it a “precious faith” (2 Pet. 1:1). It has passed through Abraham, Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. We have access, we have a right into, we have an open door to all that the Father has, all that Jesus has, and all that the Holy Spirit has. Nothing can keep us out of it. Jesus Christ is the “Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 1:8). Through Him, we may know grace, favor, and mercy, which will lift us and take us through into grace and peace: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Pet.1:2). Do you want grace and peace to be multiplied? You have it if you dare to believe. We have the right to the promises and the right to all the inheritance of which Christ has made us heirs.
Walking in regret will keep you out of what God has for you so that you never reign in this life through His righteousness. With regret, we lose sight of His peace, and instead of His peace, we know a storm inside. Oh, how desperately we long for peace and need peace, but it always evades us.
Jesus said:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16: 33
Peter soon learned of the need to be found in Him. He would make a mistake that almost crippled him when he denied the Lord three times. You can only imagine how it caused him to want to hide when Jesus rose and appeared to the disciples. The Lord knew that Peter was broken with regret, and only He could set Peter free. Peter would never forget that day. For that day, he got a revelation of the depth of the Master’s mercy that was greater than his sin.
Smith explained:
You are justified. You are being brought into a place of peace. And remember, the peace of God is different from any other peace. It “surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:7); it helps you to keep your composure. You are not shaken by earthly things. It is a deep peace, created by the knowledge of a living faith, which is the living principle of the foundation of all truth. Christ is in us, the hope and the evidence of glory (Col. 1:27).
Smith was referencing what Paul wrote:
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Romans 5: 1, 2
We are saved and justified by His grace through faith. It is always an act of His grace or His merciful provision based on His love and not by our earning it. He reaches out to us, provides His grace, and simply asks us to receive it by faith.
Peter discovered a powerful truth that day. For our words to truly touch and our lives to impact, we must come to the brokenness of His love and the security of His mercy. For His love must reveal our sin that it might set us free. Love must show that it is righteous, holy, rich in mercy, and founded on truth.
Smith explained:
Is it possible, after we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, to be satisfied with what we see? What made Jesus weep over Jerusalem? He had a heart of compassion. There are sin-sick souls everywhere. We need a baptism of love that goes to the bottom of the disease. We need to cry to God until He brings us up to the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
We must be baptized into His love until we know that no matter the greatness of our sin, His love is greater. The proof is that we no longer live focused on ourselves but others. Matthew’s conversion is seen in the Gospel, but Matthew adds:
“But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous but sinners, to repentance.”
Matthew 9: 13
Like you, no one can tell you the story of your encounter with His mercy. For He will meet you right where you are, and He will touch the heart as only He can do. If you give Him the time and place, you will be amazed at what He can do. He can lift the brokenness of regret and bring us into something greater, where we live for His glory and we are blessed to be a blessing.
Smith explained:
The power of God is beyond all our conception. The trouble is that we do not have the power of God in a full manifestation because of our finite thoughts. But you will never get anywhere unless you are in constant pursuit of all the power of God.
Never limit God by your thoughts, opinions, or feelings. He is able to do above and beyond, for He desires to make of us pillars declaring His glory. But we must come hungry and ready to receive all He has for us. Smith said:
Because He is risen as a faithful High Priest, He is here to help us understand His divine principles. May God provide us with a clear knowledge of what He means for us in these days. He has called us to great banquets and wants us to bring good appetites to His table.
Paul explained:
“knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.”
1 Corinthians 8: 1
Many walk abounding in a knowledge of the truth but that truth has never broken them. They have never recognized their real need for mercy and have been so changed by it that no and forever how they walk and talk is different.
Smith explained:
You are only able to do what God desires for you to do as you have come into the depths of death to self, so that the supernatural life of Christ is abounding in you to destroy the powers of evil.
If we will humble ourselves in His Presence and give Him our whole heart in faith, trusting in the power of the blood, He can bring us into true liberty. He calls us to come into the Secret Place that we might meet with Him, and He would heal all that is broken and bring all things into subjection to Himself. Smith said:
Under His touch, even stony-hearted Thomas believed. Oh, my God, how You have had to manage some of us! Have we not been strange and very peculiar? But when God’s hand comes upon us, He can speak to us in such a way; He can give us a word or a look, and we are broken. Has He spoken to you?
There is such a place where His Word carries such weight in our lives, such authority that everything must bow in us. Here His Word reverberates and echoes throughout every fiber of our being, always multiplying and always bearing fruit.
Smith said:
I thank God for His speaking. Behind all of His dealings, we see the love of God for us. He sees our bitter tears and our weeping night after night. There is none like Him. He knows; He forgives. We cannot forgive ourselves; selves; we oftentimes would give the world to forget, but we cannot. not. The Devil won’t let us forget. But God has forgiven and forgotten. Do you believe self or the Devil or God? Which are you going to believe? Believe God. I know the past is under the blood of Christ and that God has forgiven and forgotten, for when He forgives, gives, He forgets. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! We are baptized to believe and to receive.
It is time to forgive ourselves and allow His mercy to wash us. It is now the hour to worship Him and lift Him higher in our lives. For too long, we have enthroned and worshipped our offense. Let’s repent, turn to Him, and allow Him to do what He can do! Let Him forgive us and purify us so that we might come out of all that was old and into all that was new. Now, may we go forth not just with a knowledge of the truth but a heart broken by the truth. So, that our words drip with the reality of His great mercy and so are able to touch, heal, and restore.
