Maria Woodworth-Etter: Under the Power

Before the healing ministries of Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathyrn Kuhlman, there was Maria Woodworth-Etter.  Born in 1844 in New Lisbon, Ohio, a population of 800, she was an unlikely healing pioneer with little to no church exposure. Her abusive alcoholic dad bankrupted the family, before he died of sunstroke, leaving them destitute: “…when (my father) took one drink, he was a crazy man for more, and thought he was rich, and gave his last penny away. Then when he had no money to buy drink with, he would pawn his clothes and come home to his large family and broken-hearted wife without a penny to buy food, and all in rages. And we little children would run and hide. Our young lives were full of terror and hardships.” Maria’s mom sent her children out to do house-cleaning to make ends meet. There was no time to go to church until age 13 when in 1857 Maria was powerfully converted to Jesus Christ and immersed in water.

With her husband Philo Woodworth, she had six children, five of whom would die in the 1870s.  Even though it was not socially acceptable for women in that culture. she felt a powerful call in the 1880s to minister: “I will not see my generation lost.” Her husband and one remaining daughter opposed her preaching, thinking that she was insane. Inspired by the examples of Phoebe Palmer and Catherine Booth, she saw herself like a Deborah, a mother in Israel. Because she was absolutely opposed to slavery and segregation, she became controversial, preaching in black churches.

 When she preached, people started crying. Many people started falling under the power or rushing to the altar to get saved. Maria observed: “Sometimes the Holy Spirit gives a spirit of laughter, and sometimes of weeping, and everyone in the place will be affected by the Spirit. I have stood before thousands of people and couldn’t speak, just weeping…I’ve stood an hour with my hand raised, held by the mighty power of God. When I came to myself and saw the people, their faces were shining.

She first joined the United Brethren, then the Church of God, Anderson, and would set up churches wherever she went, particularly in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, and Missouri. Maria taught that ‘the hardest place God sends you is just the place where He is going to give the greatest victory.’ In St. Louis, she put up her tent at the Devil’s Den, a very dangerous area known as the graveyard of pastors. The rough people were outside throwing rocks at the people in the tent. They had guns, knives, clubs and fireworks. She stood up to them and commanded them to listen to her. She said that if they touched her, God would strike them dead. Even the rough people fell under the power of God. This went on for five months. Mockers were struck down and came up as believers who never mocked again. Thousands were saved and healed of blindness, lameness, and other ailments. Maria commented: “I lay on hands in the name of Jesus. ‘Tis Jesus makes you whole. Sometimes the power is so great they are healed instantly, leaping and jumping and praising God.” They had to remove the pews and seats from her 1885 St. Louis, Missouri meetings so that more people could crowd in to go to the altar twenty-four hours a day.

She was initially reluctant to pray for the sick in case it distracted from the work of evangelism, getting people saved. Jesus, rather than healing, was her focus: “Don’t get puffed up by the miracles, don’t get your eyes on them, but keep your eyes on Jesus. You are not saved by miracles.” Countless miracles however followed her: “The cook was cooking in the cook room one day, and terribly burned his arm and face, the result of pouring oil on the fire. He was prayed for and was healed so that the pain was taken right away and he was able to go right into the kitchen and work over the hot stove.”

In 1913, Maria said that she used to preach hellfire, so hot that you could see the fire. She noticed that people had become hardened to the ‘hot gospel’, but when they saw people being healed, the formerly cynical responded with enthusiasm: “People who are healed are full of joy and sometimes jump and dance when the healing power comes into them; the Holy Ghost takes all the deadness and stiffness out of them; sometimes God slays them and lays them down so he can talk to them.”

She knew that she was called to go west. Her husband strongly opposed this. After moving to California, she had a tent made that seated 8,000 people. As well as attracting crowds, she attracted violent enemies, including some police officers. The drunk police decided to attack her meeting. As she preached boldly, the police could see that she was not afraid of them, so they became frightened as they could tell that the presence of God was there. They left in a hurry. 

Some Californians sent her death threats, warning Maria to get out of town or they would tear down her tents and kill them all: “California is a great place for wickedness, and for men and women to hide from the law. In the great crowds that attended our meetings, they told me there were murderers there, and all kinds of other outlaws; they mixed through the crowds with concealed weapons, ready to kill, or fight at the least thing that did not suit them. The brothers built a high board fence around the back of the pulpit, where I stood; they did not tell me why, but they were afraid I would be shot while preaching.

One night, about two a.m., a wild Californian mob surrounded her tents, ready to kill them all.  But before they could tear down the tents, the police had them surrounded.

On August 18, 1913, Maria and her team were arrested in Framington, Mass., for obtaining money under false pretenses. A trial lasted for four days, during which about thirty-five witnesses clearly testified about their remarkable healings. In the trial, Maria was asked: Have you ever said you had any special power?  A. NO, I have not.  Q.  Do you believe any one has been healed by you?  Q.  No, nor saved.  Maria wanted them to know that it was Jesus who saved and healed people.

Maria won over many doctors and nurses who began to defend her.  One of Atlanta’s leading surgeons, Dr. Bowen, received a seemingly terminal injury to his head and heart. He commented that when Maria prayed for him, it felt like a gigantic hand took hold of the heart, and pressed it back into its normal condition and made it beat naturally.

Maria had no patience for petty church politics: “The Lord has given me a special mission to bring about a spirit of unity and love, and God is raising up people in every land who are reaching out after more of God and saying ‘Come and help us.’” She never criticized other churches, but rather lifted up Jesus: “His ambassadors must stop all of the arguing and infighting. We have to drop all the hair-splitting theories, this idea and that with continual bickering about the finished work or sanctification – all of this antagonizes the saints and it has to end.”

May God use the example of Maria Woodworth-Etter to bring a fresh appreciation for unity as we seek to preach the gospel and heal the sick.