Heroines of the faith: Maria Woodworth-Etter

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 Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924)

Maria was born again at the age of 13, and immediately dedicated her life to “going out in the highways and hedges and gathering in the lost sheep.” Her first plan was to marry a missionary but her father died suddenly and she was faced with the task of supporting her family. She had six children by her first husband, P.H. Woodworth who was a farmer. Five of her children died young, leaving her with a daughter.

As Maria studied the Bible diligently, she concluded that God had used women as ministers, prophets and leaders and that Joel’s prophecy that God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh specifically applied to women. Then she had a vision. Angels took her over a long field of waving grain. In the vision, she began to preach and the grain began to fall like sheaves.

Soon after this vision, she began ministering to small groups in her community. Everywhere she went, people would fall to the floor, weeping, under a deep conviction of sin. She began traveling and wherever she went there was a demonstration of the Holy Spirit with hundreds miraculously healed and hundreds finding Christ.

By the time she was in her early 40s, she was preaching to crowds of over 25,000 without a public address system in crusades around the country. Hundreds fell to the ground under the power of God and the secular world was amazed at the demonstrations of God’s power as people were healed and set free. Thousands found Christ during these meetings.

Eventually, Maria divorced her husband for infidelity. She later became Maria Woodworth-Etter when she married Samuel Etter, who became a partner in her work for the remaining 12 years of his life.

Maria Woodworth-Etter has been called the grandmother of the Pentecostal movement. She had a profound influence on people such as Smith Wigglesworth, Aimee Semple-McPherson, John Alexander Dowie, John G. Lake and Kathryn Kuhlman.

For the last years of her life, she ministered from one of the churches she had started in Indianapolis. As she became weaker, she would be carried to the pulpit and finally ministered from her bed. She died at the age of 80.

Photo credit: http://www.icwhp.org

Information for this post obtained from here and here