SIGNS and WONDERS God Wrought in the Ministry for Forty Years
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REVIVAL LIBRARY SIGNS AND WONDERS God Wrought in the Ministry for Forty Years INCLUDING PROPHESIES, VISIONS, HEALINGS, AND SERMONS (Abridged edition) Maria B. Woodworth-Etter The Revival Library, King’s Christian Centre, High Street, Bishop’s Waltham, Hants, SO32 1AA, UK Telephone: 01489 894734 Email: [email protected] ABOUT THIS BOOK Signs and Wonders by Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924) Maria Woodworth-Etter was a lady born out of due time. Her powerful Pentecostal ministry pre-dates the beginning of the Pentecostal Movement which started over 20 years after her ministry began in 1876. She was then a member of the United Brethren Church. Later, she joined the Methodist Holiness Church and ministered as an itinerant evangelist, with an emphasis on what would later to be called ‘the four-square Gospel.’ Jesus was Saviour, Healer, Baptiser (in the Holy Spirit) and Coming King. Her meetings were filled with supernatural phenomena. Prostrations, speaking and singing in tongues, falling under the power of the Spirit, trances and visions and, of course, abundant miracles of healing, were commonplace. Tens of thousands were converted as a result of her tireless service. Wherever she went she laid hands on the ministers, believing that the anointing could be passed from one to another. It is astounding, that in the late 19th century the perceptions and practices of the most significant movement of history - Pentecostalism at the end of the 20th century - would be so eloquently and effectively proclaimed. She laboured in this ministry for over 40 years, until the early 1920’s. There is a complete record of her ministry available today, reproduced by Harrison House publishers. The copy reproduced here is an abridged edition published in 1918. It is a great book and will inspire you to expect great things from God. The copy we used had been in a theological library for many years and was marked in red, ‘Dangerous! Keep for evidence only. 1923!’ May the reader be inspired to seek the same evidence! AN APPRECIATION A WORD FROM A WELL-KNOWN MISSIONARY Rev. Stanley Smith was for many years a worker with “The China Inland Mission.” About thirty years since a band of seven young men (called “The Cambridge Seven”) stirred England by giving up excellent worldly prospects and sailing for China on mission work. One of these was Stanley Smith (a stroke oar of The Cambridge University Eight) and another C. T. Studd, the great cricketer. Rev. Stanley Smith writes: - “I cannot let this opportunity go by without again bringing to the notice of my readers, ‘Acts of the Holy Ghost,’ or ‘Life and Experiences of Mrs. M. B. Woodworth-Etter.’ It is a book I value next to the Bible. In special seasons of waiting on God I have found it helpful to have the New Testament on one side of me and Mrs. Etter’s book on the other, this latter is a present-day record of ‘the Acts’ multiplied. Mrs. Etter is a woman who has had a ministry of healing since 1885, her call as an evangelist being some years previous to this. I venture to think that this ministry is unparalleled in the history of the Church, for which I give all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, as Mrs. Etter would, I know, wish me to do. This ministry should be made known, for the glory of the Triune God and the good of believers. “My old friend Mr. George B. Studd, a man whose word is his bond, writes me:-’ I know Mrs. Etter and her work first-hand. She was at our Los Angeles camp meeting last year, and there were many wonderful healings. She is sound in the faith and mightily used of God, and has been so for years. I know many other spiritual and reliable saints who have known her and her work for years.’” COPYRIGHT Although the original text is in the public domain, this etext is the property of the Revival Library. We would be grateful if its use was restricted to private reading and research. PREFACE TO ABRIDGED EDITION The Lord Jesus said to the people of His day, “If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you” (Matt. 12. 28). Paul said “my preaching is not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God,” for “the kingdom of God is not in word but in power” (1 Cor. 2. 4, 5, and 4. 20). These and many similar passages speak of reality, and evidently the Lord intends the kingdom of God to be actually entered and possessed by the believer while he is in the body. How? The Scriptures alone can answer such a question. Perhaps one of the best examples was on the Mount of Transfiguration, when the Lord, taking Peter and James and John with Him, fulfilled the promise He had made six days before, that they should not taste of death until they had seen the kingdom of God come with power (Mark 9. 1-8). They caught a glimpse of an entirely different world, which was so beautiful and entrancing that apparently Peter wanted to abide there for ever! Their experience was real: it was not merely words: it was a mighty demonstration of the Spirit and of Power; it was the Kingdom of God. Other powerful examples of the reality if the kingdom of God, to those privileged to see or enter it (John 3), are found in (A) Moses’ experience on Mount Sinai when God taught him; (B) the glory of the Lord filling Solomon’s Temple so that no man was able to stand ; (C) the catching away of Elijah into Heaven ; (D) the voice of God the Father from Heaven, and the visible descent of the Holy Ghost on the Lord Jesus at His baptism; (E) the conversion of Paul by the manifestation of the risen Lord in blinding glory ; (F) the release of Peter from prison by the angel of the Lord at night ; (G) the catching away of Paul into Heaven while still alive ; and (H) the similar experience of John, whereby he was given the Revelation. Again, one cannot but be struck with the short summary of the Gospel as Paul understood it. Of nine points enumerated in 1 Cor. 15. 1-8, six of them are statements that different people had seen the Lord Jesus after He rose from the dead. “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that - (1) “Christ died for our sins . ; and that (2) “He was buried, and that (3) “He rose again. ; and that (4) “He was seen of Cephas, then (5) (He was seen) “of the twelve; after that (6) “He was seen of above 500 brethren at once after that (7) “He was seen of James; then (8) (He was seen) “of all the Apostles, and last of all (9) “He was seen of me also.” As Paul preached what to his hearers must have been extraordinary doctrine, the Lord Jesus would be there (Matt. 28. 20), invisible, except perhaps to a few (John 14. 19), manifesting the truth of what Paul taught by stretching out his hand to perform wonderful acts of grace to those who accepted that truth (Acts 4. 30). The present work bears abundant witness to the fact that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, and for ever” (Heb. 13. 8). It must never be forgotten, however, that the object of preaching the gospel and God’s object in confirming it with signs and wonders following is (1) The salvation of perishing souls. (2) To endue those saved with power from on high to enable them, by their witness, to bring others to Christ, Who is the only way of salvation (Acts 4. 12). God will manifest His presence and power more and more, and will give His witnesses the nine spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12. 8-10) more and more, if they are faithful in carrying out His purposes. But when Christian workers get their minds off God and His purposes on to man and his opinions, praise or criticism, God will begin to withdraw, fewer souls will be saved and saints will begin to get dissatisfied. All over the world God’s people in every denomination are praying and longing for revival. But revival is only possible where God Himself confirms the word preached by manifesting His presence and His power to save. If through ignorance of, or unbelief in, a part of God’s written word, any leader of religious thought follows the example of many in our Lord ‘s day and rejects His “strange acts,” revival, even if it begins, will not continue under his or her leadership. Let us therefore remember God’s warning in Acts 13. 41 “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you,” and let us rather sing with the psalmist “I hate thoughts (i.e.opinions); but Thy law (i.e.-written word) do I love” (Ps.