Church History with Nancy Dufresne | Maria Woodworth-Etter | Part 2

[Music] I'm so glad you've joined us for today's episode of the de frame faith journal in the previous episode we started talking about Maria Woodworth editor she was certainly a pioneer faith that the that the body of Christ has to point out as someone who made great strides in in ministry but also they set an example for us to follow you know brother Hagin who was my spiritual father and the spiritual father to my husband brother Hagin made the statement that God raises up a woman every generation it is a sign in a wonder and of course there are many women that God uses in the ministry but he pointed out that there would be a special grace that would come upon one woman out of every generation so that people would know that God uses women in in ministry and so I would certainly have to look back in church history and say Maria would worth it or it was a woman of her generation that God raised up as a sign and a wonder you know as a woman in the ministry i pastored for 25 years and the thing that I saw that would lead you to have the great success as a woman in ministry is forget that you're a woman in ministry that's not something that I focused on it's not something that I've referenced all the time it's not something that I brought up or something that I thought I had to defend because it's not about being a woman in the pulpit it's about carrying the anointing in the pulpit and being a blessing to people and so I've learned that that don't let something that might be a stumbling about for someone else become a stumbling block for you and so Maria where theater was certainly she had much great opposition dad Hagin made this statement that this woman that God would raise up in every generation would face much opposition and certainly Maria Buber that her faced a lot of opposition there were six children born to her and her husband but but because she was not moving forward in the call of God on her life and in the ministry that God had for her the door was open to the devil and he was able to attack her family and you know obedience keeps you in a safe place but this medians opens the door for them for the enemy to get in and start working destruction and the enemy took out five of her six children before they even reached adulthood she ended up burying five of those children so it's certainly something that we see that marked the earlier years of her married life and so she moved forward though at around the age of 45 end of the full-time ministry and she now had her oldest daughter that was the only one that was her surviving children and this oldest daughter was really not that supportive of her mother in the ministry because it made her mother a point of mockery you know in society they didn't welcome a woman going out into the full-time ministry and so her daughter certainly did not encourage her that and her husband was not a huge encouragement in that either then so Maria Woodworth at her face a lot of opposition her husband did go with her in her travels she would minister of course an open-air meeting she would she would minister in tent Crusades and he was there with her but not necessarily that supportive of her and God would minister to him through others other people would minister to him by the spirit they would prophesy to him and that God had a plan for him to work alongside with his wife and ministry and trying to keep him on board but still it made it there were a lot of difficulties that were created for her because of her husband's if I could say this he wasn't completely spiritual and so in not being completely spiritual there were some things that that the enemy was able to use to hinder her ministry he was if I could say this not not only was he not supportive but he wasn't living the lifestyle that depicted a Christian and so her husband's behavior did cause some difficulty and some opposition to her because people would mock her because of her husband's lack of spirituality so after 28 years of ministry he ended up finally divorcing Maria Zuber theater and it wasn't long but shortly after that he ended up dying after he divorced her and so when you're married to someone who is moving ahead spiritually you know married couples need to move ahead together you know one may have a call to fivefold ministry and one may not have a call to fivefold ministry but there still has to be the support there still has to be the Hungerford for God and for spiritual things and so because he did not keep pace with that spiritually he became a weak place for her ministry and you know if you're married to someone who is progressing spiritually you're not going to get attacked at your level of spirituality you're going to get attacked at the level of the spirituality of the one who's most spiritual in the marriage so when he got attacked at her level of spirituality he could not pass the test because he did not keep pace with his spiritual life and so that created a difficulty for her create a difficulty for him but she did end up remarrying at the age of 58 and she married mr. Eder then and so they served together in the ministry for 12 years after that so from the time of 58 to 70 years 70 years old she was married to mr. editor and they moved together beautifully in ministry but he ended up dying when she was 70 years old and so she had quite some difficulties that in opposition there through her married life but she persisted and you know you have to realize that the plan of God is greater than relationships you know you have to if you'll pursue the plan of God and let God deal with and God work with those loved ones in those relatives you cannot ever hold together relationships with loved ones by disobeying the plan of God the way you are able to move ahead in your relationships and in your marriages stay true to the plan of God because that's where the blessing is and so she she did not only just face difficulty with her children but of course there with her first marriage she of course had a strong healing ministry had a strong miracle ministry and she was arrested for healing the sick without a medical so you can imagine that she not only faced the difficulties of her private life but she faced difficulties through opposition to her healing ministry and her ministry was not only marked by miracles by healings but there was another earmark of her ministry that stood out and that is that trances begin to happen to her and through those that were attending her Crusades this is something that we see in the book of Acts that people would fall into trances and in those times they would really happen as signs and wonders God would speak to these people who would fall into trances and she would talk about it you know she would preach on it because it was certainly scriptural for it to happen but because that was something that the body of Christ was not accustomed to she received great opposition in fact there were times that they would try to commit her to insane asylums because she would fall into a trance and so they would try to mark that as a point of insanity on her part and so she faced the opposition of that and so they would file charges of insanity and take her before a judge to try to get her committed to an insane asylum so you can imagine when you were going to move ahead spiritually you were going to be a constant in a pose by those who didn't understand those spiritual things and those who live carnal because they weren't accustomed to seeing these kinds of manifestations of the Spirit of God there was one man that worked with her on her team because Maria would worth it or would travel in teams she wasn't out there alone she would train other ministers to work with her and there was a man that was on her team and he prophesied that a great earthquake was coming in California which it did come to California the only thing is is that he prophesied that it would happen within a certain amount of time and when it did not happen within the timeframe that he predicted he was committed to an insane asylum so you understand people who were launching forward in in endeavoring to follow the Spirit of God they not only they not only had to deal with natural things but sometimes they had to do with legal matters and so he was committed to an insane asylum so you can understand that this opposition that we don't hear about or or have happen the body of Christ today they had to deal with those kinds of things in her book that she wrote which was an autobiography on her life it's called a sign a diary of signs and wonders she I want to read to you a portion of what she wrote in that book she said I had been in great dangers many times not knowing when I would be shot down because of course people would threaten to shoot her when she would do these open-air meetings they would threaten her physically and she said I would not know if I would be shot down either in the pulpit or going to and from meetings but I said I would never run and I would never compromise the Lord would always put his mighty power upon me so that he took all fear away from me and he made me like a giant so she's talking about that the the grace would come upon her so that she could face the opposition she could face the death threats that were coming against her life she said if in any way someone would have tried to shoot or kill me God would have struck them dead and I sometimes told them so so she was quite bold to tell the people because she would be of course she would receive these threats on her life and she would let people know you try to touch my life and God will deal with you and she never backed down she never stepped down because it was a very aggressive time and today the body of Christ doesn't know as much about that kind of opposition but physically their lives were threatened she was a leader in the Pentecostal movement so she was a leader in teaching on speaking in tongues well this was not quite accepted in society back then and so there was much physical harm threatening to these leaders in the body of Christ she was preaching this being filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues she was preaching this 15 years before the Azusa Street revival happened so she was on the very beginnings so you can imagine the great opposition that she faced but she kept at it and she did not let opposition back her down from fulfilling the plan of God you know if you're gonna be bold in faith and you're gonna move forward with God you can't let the threats of others and people who don't have to have the same amount of light that you have you can't let them back you down you can't let fear stop you you just have to know that you're moving forward in the plan of God and the the denomination that she was ordained through they pressured her out of the denomination because these things were not accepted the things that she was bringing forward into the under the forefront of the body of Christ and so she received much opposition as we said her ministry was marked by the moving of the spirit and in the next episode we're going to talk a little bit about that but you have to see that these pioneers of faith they did not only have great fruit in their ministry but they overcame great opposition personal opposition public opposition opposition from their brethren who did not have the same amount of revelation or the light that they walked in and so the important thing in life is to fulfill the plan of God no matter what opposition comes you're gonna have opposition whether you disobey God or whether you obey God so you might as well obey God and bear the fruit of that obedience and so we invite you don't miss the upcoming episodes because we're gonna get to talk some more about this wonderful pioneer of faith and we're so glad we've gotten to spend the time with you today but we look forward to next time god bless you thank you for watching today's show be sure to check out all the latest episodes on our YouTube page for more information follow us on facebook or visit our website at Dufresne ministries org [Music] I want to invite you to join us for our annual prayer conference this year it's going to be April the 18th through the 20th that's a Tuesday through Thursday a Tuesday night Wednesday night Thursday night and then Wednesday and Thursday morning so five services you don't want to miss it join us we'd love to have you here and I tell you we're going to be praying about several things that God has on our hearts but one of the things is about we're going to be moving forward into this era so we invite you to come join with us and we look forward to seeing you there god bless you [Music] you

Channel: Dufresne Ministries

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Length: 14min 4sec (844 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 01 2017