One can never talk about the modern Pentecostalism movement without talking about three great women who alongside many men pioneered the Pentecostal movement. The women are Maria Woodworth Etter, Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman. But this week we would focus on Maria and the following weeks for the remaining two.

"There hasn't been a greater demonstrator of God's Spirit since the book of Acts in Pentecostal history than Maria Woodworth-Etter" Robert Liardon

"When the instrument was ready, I put my hand on the man's shin and prayed like Mother Etter prays: no strange prayer, but the cry of my heart to God. I said, 'God, kill the devilish disease by Your power. Let the Spirit move in him; let it live in him.' "Then I asked, 'Gentlemen, what is taking place?'
"They replied, 'Every cell is responding.' - John G Lake

"She goes at it like a foot pad tackles his prey. By some supernatural power she just knocks 'em silly when 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 bucketful." - Newspaper Reporter



MARIA WOODWORTH - ETTER

Maria was born in 1844 on a Lisbon, Ohio, farm. She was born again at the beginning of the Third Great Awakening at the age of thirteen. The preacher who led her to the Lord prayed that her life "might be a shining
light." But little did he realize that this little girl he had just prayed for would become the grandmother of the Pentecostal Movement that would spread throughout the world.

Maria immediately heard the call of God and dedicated her life to the Lord. Of her calling she would later write, "I heard the voice of Jesus calling me to go out in the highways and hedges and gather in the lost sheep." But one thing stopped her—she was a woman—and at that time, women were not allowed to preach. In the mid-nineteenth century, women couldn't even vote in a national election, so to be a woman preacher was definitely frowned upon. And to be a single woman in the ministry was out of the question. Therefore, Maria pondered the things the Lord toldher, and decided she would have to marry a missionary to fulfill her call.

MARIA MARRIES P.H WOODWORTH: During the Civil War, Maria met P. H. Woodworth, who had returned home from the conflict after being discharged with a head injury. She had a whirlwind courtship with the former soldier and soon married him. They took up farming, but nothing ever came of their labors. It seemed as if everything was failing.
Over the years, Maria became the mother of six children. So she tried to settle into a normal family home life while the Lord continued to call her. But Maria, exasperated in her role as a wife and mother, couldn't answer the call. She was married to a man with no
desire for ministry, she had six children to raise, and she was sickly herself.

MARIA LOOSES FIVE OUT OF SIX CHILDREN: Then real tragedy struck their home. The Woodworths lost five of their six children to disease. Maria was able to pull herself together after this horrible episode, but her husband never recovered from the loss. She did her best to help him while raising their only surviving daughter. Through all these situations she never grew bitter against God, nor did she harden her heart as a result of the loss.

ANGELS VISIT MARIA: Trying to find answers to the calamity that befell her she began to search scriptures And as she read, she saw how women were repeatedly used by God throughout the Bible. She read Joel's prophecy predicting that the Spirit of God would be poured out upon men AND women. But Maria would look to heaven and say, "Lord, I can't preach. I don't know what to say and I don't have any education."
She would later write, "The more I investigated, the more I found to condemn me."

Then Maria had a great vision. Angels came into her room. They took her to the West, over prairies, lakes, forests, and rivers where she saw a long, wide field of waving golden grain. As the view unfolded she began to preach and saw the grains begin to fall like
sheaves. Then Jesus told her that, "just as the grain fell, so people would fall" as she preached. Finally Maria realized that she would never be happy until she yielded to the call. In response to this great vision from God, she humbly answered "yes" to His call upon her life and asked Him to anoint her with great power.

MARIA BEGAN CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: She began ministry in her own community. She had no idea of what she would say, but God told her to go and that He would put the words in her mouth.

And God fulfilled His Word. As Maria stood before her first crowd, most of them relatives, she opened her mouth, and the crowd began to weep and fall to the floor. Some got up and ran out in tears. After this Maria was highly sought throughout her community. Several
churches asked her to come and revive their congregations.

SURPRISE AS PEOPLE BEGIN TO FALL INTO TRANCES[/b]Sister Etter pioneered the way for the Pentecostal manifestations that are so common
in the movement today. It was at a church in western Ohio that had lost God's power, that the meaning of her vision about the sheaves of wheat became clear. It was at this church where the people fell into "trances." This was the one spiritual manifestation that marked her ministry highly, but brought fierce persecution. Up to this point, this manifestation had not been known in the Church the way it is known today. In her own account she wrote:
"Fifteen came to the altar screaming for mercy. Men and women fell and lay like dead. I had never seen anything like this. I felt it was the work of God, but did not know how to explain it, or what to say."


FIFTEEN DOCTORS VISIT MARIA'S CHURCH TO INVESTIGATE TRANCE CLAIMS: The trances became the talk of the day. Hundreds flocked to taste of this outpouring,
while others went to observe or ridicule. At one meeting, fifteen doctors came from different cities to investigate the trances. One of the doctors was a world-class leader in his field. Sister Etter "He did not want to admit the power was of God. He would have been glad if they could prove it was something else. He came to investigate...but was called to another part of the house. He went, expecting to find
something new. To his surprise he found his son at the altar and wanted his father to pray for him. He could not pray. God showed him what he was, and what he was doing. He began to pray for himself. While praying he fell
into a trance, and saw the horrors of hell. He was falling in. After a terrible struggle God saved him. He went to work to win souls for Christ."
Sister Etter also wrote of a party that several young women attended at which they thought they would have fun and act out a trance. But they were immediately gripped by the power of God, and their mocking turned into loud cries to God for mercy.

MARIA BECOMES NATIONAL PHENOMENON: By the time Sister Etter reached age forty she was a national phenomena. Various denominations recognized her ability to stir dead churches, bring in the unconverted, and cheer on a deeper spiritual walk with God. Doctors, lawyers, drunkards, and adulterers—people from all walks of life—were gloriously saved and filled with the Holy Spirit in her meetings. Because of one of her meetings in 1885, the police said they had never seen such a change in their city. The city had been so cleaned up that they had nothing to do.

In another meeting, over twenty-five thousand people crowded in to hear Sister Etter. And remember, in those days, there were no public address systems! Maria wrote that before she even finished preaching, the power of God fell on the multitude and took control of about five hundred as they fell to the ground

MARIA'S MARRIAGE BREAKS APART: Of course, Sister Etter's life was marked with great persecution. There were problems around every corner, not to mention the pressures that came from leading such huge masses of people who were experiencing their first manifestations of the Spirit. In addition to all of this, she was a woman in ministry who was married to an unfaithful man.
While ministering in her controversial crusade in Oakland, California, P. H. Woodworth's infidelity was revealed. Sister Etter stayed in separate quarters, choosing to leave him. Finally, after twenty-six stormy years of marriage, in January of 1891, they were
divorced. Then, in less than a year and a half, P. H. Woodworth remarried and publicly slandered Maria's character and ministry. He died not long after on June 21, 1892, of typhoid fever.

PERSECUTIONS INTENSIFIES AGAINST MARIA: Heavy persecution also visited Maria on the West Coast. Hoodlums, or gangs as we call them today, started harassing her meetings. Several times these men hid explosives in the wood stoves—and miraculously—no one was ever injured.

Lalasticlala

Death threats were sent to her weekly, newspapers slandered her relentlessly, and ministers divided against her. Mischievous people would bring the mentally disturbed to her meetings, knowing they would cause a great emotional scene. This was done so many times, that many naive people thought it was Maria's meetings that drove these people to insanity! And because many misunderstood her theology, the citizens called for the authorities daily to shut her meetings down. Nevertheless, Maria refused to leave Oakland until she felt God was finished.

When it seemed the gangs began to get the upper hand in her meetings, the Oakland Police Department deputized "bouncers" to protect the services. But this got out of hand because the bouncers were inexperienced both in character and common sense.

Maria once said "I have been in great dangers; many times not knowing when I would be shot down, either in the pulpit, or going to and from meetings...But I said I would never run, nor compromise. The Lord would always put His mighty power on me, so that He took all fear away, and made me like a giant...If in any way they had tried to shoot, or kill me, He would have struck them dead, and I sometimes told them so."


MARIA'S PROPHECY OF DOOM FOR WEST COAST CAUSES CONTROVERSY:

Then there was the wild prophecy that came from Maria saying disaster would hit the coast and destroy it. After she spoke this, the newspapers terrorized Sister Etter and made her out to be a common criminal. They misquoted and hyped up the prophecy to such a
degree that it was not accurately known what was actually said. Then as could be expected, other men and women operating in the counterfeits to the gifts of the Spirit jumped on the prophecy bandwagon. Deceived by the enemy, these people prophesied more doom and gloom for the West Coast, causing great controversy.


MARIA MARRIES SAMUEL ETTER: 10 years after her divorce, Maria met a wonderful man from Hot
Springs, Arkansas, named Samuel Etter. God sent her the perfect mate. The two were married in 1902. Sister Etter had great respect for this gentleman and often referred to him as her "gift from God." Later she would write of him: "He stood bravely with me in the hottest battle, and since the day we were married has never shrank. He will defend the Word and all the gifts,
and operations of the Holy Ghost, but does not want any fanaticism, or foolishness. It makes no difference what I call on him to do. He will pray, and preach, and sing, and is very good around the altar. The Lord knew what I needed, and it was all brought about by the Lord, through His love and care for me and the work."

MARIA ARRESTED FOR PRACTICING "UNLICENSED MEDICINE" AND HYPNOTISM BY TRANCES: Maria was arrested four times during her ministry, but three of the citations never made it to court. New England was the only place where she was arrested and actually taken to court. Her trial in Framingham, Massachusetts, was based on charges that she practiced medicine without a license and hypnotized people with trances. It was a grand spectacle for the cause of Christ. Many people testified on her behalf, retelling their personal testimonies that could be likened to stories in the book of Acts. The great author and founder of Bethel Bible School, E. W. Kenyon, was among those who testified on her behalf.

TESTIMONIES OF HEALINGS AT MARIA's MEETINGS There are many documented and verified testimonies of healings at Maria's Meetings including a boy with tuberculosis being healed instantly after Maria hit the Boy with the Bible calling out Tuberculosis. A woman was also brought by relatives on a wheelchair but returned home walking! She also partook in the Azuza revival where many great miracles where wrought.

MARIA'S PROPHECY FULFILLED
In 1906, San Francisco did experience the most devastating earthquake in American history, and Sister Etter's prophecy came forth in 1890. Gladys Hansen and Emmet Condon, after extensive research, estimated that over 3000 deaths were caused directly or indirectly by the catastrophe.

MARIA'S LAST CHILD DIES: The summer of 1924 was difficult for Maria. At the age of eighty, with failing health from gastritis and dropsy, she received heart-breaking news. Her only daughter, Lizzie, age sixty, was killed in a streetcar accident. Now all of Maria's immediate family had gone to be with the Lord. And though her health was frail, she was still able to summon enough strength to stand in the pulpit to conduct the funeral. When she did, she exhorted the
people to have faith in God and look to the heavens—not into the grave. During that year, there were times when Sister Etter was so weak she could not walk.
But it didn't stop her from preaching. If she couldn't walk, she appointed someone to carry her in and place her behind the pulpit. Eventually, the Tabernacle presented a large wooden chair as a gift to Maria. Then when she seemed too weak to walk, a few strong
men would carry the wooden chair from the church to her house, place her in it, and carry her back. The minute her feet hit the platform, the Spirit of God would quicken her and she would walk up and down the platform, preaching and ministering in the supernatural power of God. Hundreds witnessed how weak she seemed, then how incredibly strong she became. At the end of the service, the men would put her back in the chair and carry her home.

MARIA GOES HOME TO BE WITH THE LORD:
Three weeks before she died, the Lord revealed to Maria that, "It was only a matter of days before she would leave" to go to her reward. During this time, a lady brought her flowers to which Sister Etter replied, "I will soon be where the flowers will bloom forever. Maria Woodworth-Etter's end came without a struggle as she sank away slowly into a deep sleep:

Before Sister Etter went home to be with the Lord at age eighty, she had buried all six of her children and two husbands; preached thousands of sermons from coast to coast; remained the victor over hoodlums and vicious ministers; blazed the trail for women in ministry; and unflinchingly displayed the power of the Holy Spirit with mighty signs and wonders following. She wasn't well educated. She didn't care about seminary classes and didn't take the time to explain how God worked. She preached a very simple Gospel, offered herself
completely to Him, and believed for signs and wonders. Maria's one passion was for the Gospel to come alive and for people to be led by the Spirit. She preached many times with tears streaming down her face, begging those who heard to come to Christ. Her meetings and teachings paved the way for the founding of many Pentecostal denominations, including the Assemblies of God, Foursquare, and other similar denominations.

Pictures: Some slanderous publications against ETTER printed during her time.

Roberts Liardon... God's Generals

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