Wall Of Flame
GOD'S GENERALS
Maria Woodworth-Etter
"Grandmother of the Pentecostal Movement"
June 22, 1844- September 16,1924
“If you from sin are longing to be free,
Look to the Lamb of God
He, to redeem you, died on Calvary,
Look to the Lamb of God.”
Woodworth-Etter Was Born In Lisbon Columbiana County, Ohio As Mariah Buelah Underwood. At 67 After A Life Of Ministry And Family, She Was Feeling Herself Close To Death But God Gave Her A Vision Of Himself As The Conqueror Of Death And Disease. He Showed Her She Wasn't Done Yet. It Didn't Take Long To See That Evangelism And Healing Went Hand In Hand As Thousands Were Won To Christ As A Result Of Seeing Others Healed
she Began To Pray For The Sick In 1885, Believing That Those With Sufficient Faith Would Be Healed. Her Meetings Also Became Known For People Falling To The Floor In Trance-Like States. These People Would Later Report Profound Spiritual Experiences While In Such A States. As She Preached Throughout The Nation, Her Reputation Grew, Leading Her To Purchase An 8,000- Seat Tent In Which To Conduct Her Services.
1890-1900 Were Tough Years For Maria. The Dramatic Occurrences In Her Meetings And Life Made Her Ministry Highly Controversial. She Had Resistance From Both The Religious And Secular Community. She Was Arrested In Framingham, Massachusetts For Clamining To Heal People, But Was Released When Many Came Forward With Their Testimonies. In St.Louis, Missouri She Had Some Of Her Most Dramatic Meetings In 1890 And 1891, But Local Psychiatrists Filed Charges Of Insanity Against Her For Claiming That She Saw Visions Of God.
In That Day, Ordinance By A Known Group Was Mandatory To Be In Minsitry. She Pushed So Hard To Be Ordained That They "Ordained" Her To Shut Up And Assigned Her To A Region Nicknamed "The Devil's Den" Where No One Had Ever Been Succesfull In Revival. It Turned From Ability To Revival Quickly.
People In Those Days Accused Her Meetings Of Spreading Mental Illness And Disease So Much That They Would Send People From Her Meetings To The Mental Ward And They Would Remove The Children From "Catching It" (Being The Holy Ghost).
The Lame,Halt And Blind Come In From All Quarters And Have Experienced Miraculous Curses. A Little Girl In The City Who Had Been On Crutches For 5 Years Was Perfectly Cured In Minutes. Another Elderly Man Was Perfectly Healed From Cancer In The Nose.
She Gave A Prophecy That There Would Come Judgement On The City In The Form Of An Earthquake Which Came To Pass In 1906 As Maybe One Of The Worst In Modern History In San Fransico
One Journalist Wrote " By Some Supernatural Power She Just Knocks Them Silly When They Are Not Looking For It, And While They Are Not looking For It, And While They Are Down She Applies The Hydraulic Pressure And Pumps The Grace Of God Into Them By The Bucketfuls."
William Seymour
"Started The Azusa Street Revival"
May 1870- September 1922
"Any man that is saved and sanctified can feel the fire burning in his heart, when he calls on the name of Jesus."
William Was A Holiness Preacher Who Initiated The Azusa Street Revival, An Influential Event In The Rise Of The Pentecostal & Charismatic Movements. He Was The Second Of Eight ChildrenBorn To Emancipated Slaves And Was Raised In Extreme Poverty In Louisiana.
The Revival Grew Large Crowds Of Believers As Well As Media Coverage That Focused On The Controversial Religious Practices As Well As The Racially Integrated Worship Services , Which Violated The Racial Norms Of The Time. White Pastors Attempted To Take Credit From What The holy Spirit Did Through This Man.
Crowds Of Up To 1,500 Packed Into The Small Mission For The Better Part Of Three Years. Millions Of People Walked For Miles, Got On Trains, Cars and Did Whatever It Took To Be In Every Service. During The Peak Of Revival, Meetings Ran From Mid-Morning To Midnight, Seven Days A Week.
Seymour Claimed That The Holy Spirit Was Bringing People Together Across All Social Lines And Boundaries To The Revival. He Not Only Rejected The Existing Racial Barriers In Favor Of " Unity In Christ", But He Also Rejected The Then Almost-Universal Barriers To Women In Any Form Of Church Leadership.
Latinos Soon Began attending As Well, After A Mexican Worker Received The Holy Spirit Baptism On April 13, 1906.
He Also Began Publishing A Newspaper, The Apostolic Faith, In September 1906. Within One Year , The Circulation Of Seymour's Paper Reached 40,000 Issues.
From The Beginning, They Had To Withstand Attacks By Rival Religious Groups, The Local Press, And Those Against Racial Integration. Newspapers Published Such Titles As, " Religious Fanaticism Creates Wild Scene", " Holy Kickers Carry On Mad Orgies", "All Night Meetings In Azusa Street Church, Negroes And Whites Give Themselves Over To Strange Outbursts Of Zeal",
"Whites and Blacks Mix In Religious Frenzy", "Wives Say They Left Husband To Follow Preacher", "Disgusting Scenes At Azusa Street Church ", And "Crazed Girls In Arms Of Black Men".William Was One Of The Greatest Civil Rights leaders In American History. He Strarted The First Movement That Every Race And Class Would Come To - Revival. Simply To Explore The Love Of God And Holy Spirit, The Revival Reached The Entire World In The 1900s
People Came From All Around The World To Hear A Black Man Preach And Teach .Under The Fire Of The Holy Spirit, When He Preached People Would Fall Under The Power Of God. When He Laid Hands On People, They Would Speak In Other Tongues. They Would Have Dreams And Visions. He Would Impart The Supernatural Power Of God To Many People Of Every Race. Many Were Healed From All Kinds Of Deceases, Deafness And More. It Was Unprecedented Considering There Was The Jim Crow Laws Which Were Racist Discriminatory Laws Against Black People.
People Attended Who Spoke Only Chinese And Japanese. When The Gospel Was Preached They Still Understood Because The Spirit Of God Filled Them. Because Of This Many Were Saved.
Wheelchairs And The Crutches Of The Crippled Were Nailed To The Room Wall Of The Old Livery Stable In Azusa Street Where The Meetings Were Held As A Testimony Of God's Healing And God's Grace.
Smith Wigglesworth
"Apostle Of Faith"
1859 - 1947
Smith Wigglesworth Was Born On June 10, 1859 In Mention, Yorkshire, England, To An Impoverished Family, During The Great Awakening. As A Small Child, At The Age Of 6, He Worked In The Fields Pulling Turnips Alongside His Mother. He Also Worked In Factories To Help Provide For His Family. He Was Illiterate As A Child Because Of His Labors. At The Age Of 8 He Went To A Church With His Grandma And Got Saved.
After Receiving Salvation, His Mother Was The First Person He Led To The Lord.
At The Age Of 17 Smith Wigglesworth Becomes A Plumber. He Took All Of His Earnings And Use Them To Minister To Young People.
Although There Was A Certain Roughness About Him, He Was Driven By A Great Compassion For People To Be Free.
Later In His Healing Ministry He Would Walk Up And Punch Somebody In The Stomach. He Explained That "I'm Not Punching The Person I'm Punching The Devil And I Can't Help It If The Person Gets In The Way".
In 1882, Smith And Polly Pool Were married. In Those Times, It Was Forbidden Of Someone In A Higher Rank To Marry Someone In A Lower Rank. Polly Was Of A Higher Rank Than Smith. So People Tried To Separate Them But Were Unsuccessful.
Polly Was Very Educated And Would Preach Since Smith Was Uneducated . She Taught Smith How To Read And The Only Book He Read Was the Bible. He Didn't Even Allow Any Newspapers In His House.
Smith Wigglesworth Started Preaching In 1907.
Smith Operated In The Discerning Of Spirits
Strongly.When He Was Praying For The Sick He Would See The Demonic Behind The Sickness And That Is What He Would Punch Or Hit.
Miracles Such As A Woman Healed Of A Tumor , A Woman Healed Of Tuberculosis, A Wheelchair-Confined Woman Walking Are Just A Few OF The Many Miracles That Occurred.
There Are Reports That People Were Raised From The Dead, Including his Wife Polly.
Many People Said They Were Cured By Cancer By Him. Wigglesworth, Whose Only Training Was As A Plumber, 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 Afflicted Part Of The Body. On A Number Of Occasions His Approach To Persons Suffering From Stomach Complaints Was To Punch Them In The Stomach, Sometimes With Such Force That It Propelled Them Across The Room.
On One Occasion Wigglesworth Declared To The Sick " I'll only Pray For You Once, To Pray Twice iS Unbelief".
“Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.”
Aimee Semple Mcpherson
"Sister Aimee or Sister"
Oct 9,1890-Sept 27,1944
McPherson Has Been Noted As A Pioneer In The Use Of Modern Media, Because She Used Radio To Draw On The Growing Appeal Of Popular Entertainment In North America And Incorporated Other Forms Into Her Weekly Sermons At Angelus Temple, One Of The First Mega Churches. In Her Time She Was The Most Publicized Protestant Evangelist Surpassing Billy Sunday And Her Other Predecessors. She Conducted Public Faith Healing Demonstrations Before Large Crowds; Testimonies Conveyed Tens Of Thousands Of People Healed. Mcpherson's Articulation Of The United States As A Nation Founded And Sustained By Divine Inspiration Continues To Be Echoed By Many Pastors In Church Today.
After Struggling With Emotional Distress And Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, She Would Fall To Weep And Pray. She Felt The Call To Preach Tug At Her Even More Strongly After The Birth Of Her Child, Rolf. Then In, 1914, She Fell Seriously Ill, And McPherson States She Again Heard The Persistent Voice, Asking Her To Go Preach While In The Holding Room After A Failed Operation. Mcpherson Accepted The Voice's Challenge, And She Suddenly Opened Her Eyes And Was Able To Turn Over In Bed Without Pain. In 1913, McPherson Began Evangelizing And Holding Tent Revivals Across The United States And Canada. In 1916, McPherson Embarked On A Tour Of The Southern United States In Her "Gospel Car" ,And Again Later, In 1918.
By 1917, She Had Started Her Own Magazine, Bridal Call,For Which She Wrote Many Articles About Women's Roles In Religion; She Portrayed The Link Between Christians And Jesus As A Marriage Bond.
Minnie Kennedy,Her Mother, Rented The Largest Hall They Could Find, The 3,500-Seat Philharmonic Auditorium( Known Then As Temple Auditorium). People Waited For Hours To Get In, And McPherson Could Hardly Reach The Pulpit Without Stepping On Someone. Drawing Audiences From A Population Which Had Soared From 100,000 In 1900 To 575,000 People In 1920.
Discarded Medical Fitting From Persons Faith-Healed During Her Services, Which Included Crutches, Wheelchairs, And Other Paraphernalia; Were Gathered For Display In A Museum Area.
McPherson Gave Up To 22 Sermons A Week And The Lavish Sunday Night Service Attracted The Largest Crowds. She Became The First Woman Evangelist To Adopt The Whole Technique Of The Moving Picture Star And Became The "First Modern Celebrity Preacher".
During A 1916 Revival Meeting In Corona, Long Island, New York, A Young Woman In The Advanced Stages Of Rheumatoid Arthritis Was Brought To The Altar By Friends. McPherson Would Have Preferred To Pray With Her Privately.However, The Woman Insisted Upon Immediate Prayer. McPherson Laid Hands On Her And Prayed. Before The Gathered Parishioners , The Woman Walked Out Of The Church Without Crutches. McPherson's Reputation As A Faith Healer Rapidly Became Known And The Sick And Injured People Came To Her By The Tens Of Thousands.
She Began Broadcasting On Radio In The Early 1920s. On A Sunday Morning In April 1922, The Rockridge Radio Station In Oakland CA; Offered Her Some Radio Time And She Became The First Woman To Preach A Sermon Over The " Wireless Telephone". With The Opening Of Foursquare Gospel-Owned KFSG On February 6, 1924, She Became The Second Woman Granted A Broadcast License By The Department Of Commerce.
McPherson Stated She Had Experienced Several Of Her Own Personal Faith Healing Incidents, Among Them One In 1909, When Her Broken Foot Was Mended, An Event Which First Served To Introduce Her To The Possibilities Of The Healing Power. Another Was An Unexpected Recovery From An Operation In 1914. Where Hospital Staff Expected Her To Die, And In 1916, Before A Gathered Revival Tent Crowd, Swift Rejuvenation Of Blistered Skin From A Serious Flash Burn Caused By A Lamp Exploding In Her Face.