God's Generals Series - Aimee Semple McPherson "A Woman of Destiny"

she had the largest crowds of anybody of her day thousands would come asking her to pray for them to be healed when she moved to LA to build her church a tithe the population of Los Angeles was a member of her church she'd be kidnapped twice married three times she's a first lady of Pentecost Amy simul McPherson I'm Robert Slayton and this is God's General's [Music] [Applause] I've always enjoyed still in the life of Amy symbol McPherson she stands out above all the other Pentecostals because of her personality because their entrepreneurship because she was the first in so many she was the first Christian radio station in American history the third one in Los Angeles her life began in Canada her mother was a Salvation Army preacher her father was 50 years old her mother was 15 when she was born so I would guess she was born in the controversy of her parents being such age differences when they got married and had their first child throughout her life her mother to be her standby and her support through ups and downs and even in their own struggle in their own fight with each other trying to run the great ministry Amy McPherson and the beginning of her life did not really know if God was real didn't know of God was alive because when she went to school they told her one thing when she wouldn't in church they told her something else and you know what to believe but one night as a young girl she asked God if you're out there whoever you are reveal yourself to me and God did and she found salvation in a little while she met her husband in Roberts simple Roberts symbol was a Salvation Army preacher who had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke with tongues so he had the fire of the Salvation Army for Souls and the fire of the Holy Ghost for all the other aspects of Christian ministry what a great combination they got married and Roberts simple was Amy's Bible School he would teach her the word they would read the Bible together and align the different scriptures with different colored pencils see we teach her what this verse minute what that chapter is about that's how she learned the Bible that's how she began her ministerial training then they felt called as a couple to go to Macau so they begin to tell all their friends and the revival meetings they were going to be a missionary pray for them support them she goes over to the Artic kingdom she pretty the first public sermon in Ireland and she's recorded saying it's like praying in tongues that comes out English she was so thrilled the first time she preached then they finally got to Macau and while they were there there were so many cultural differences there were so many things that were not prepared for and eventually the saddest thing happened while they were there her husband Robert simple died he died because Amy did not know how to take care and prepare the food right so and not preparing the food right he got malaria and he died she was pregnant the first child which would be a daughter named Roberta her mother in Canada would have to raise the money to buy them the boat tickets to come back from China to the Canadian homeland and then she got home she decided well since I'm not married a little child I'll just become a nice little woman have mother and stay here with my mom on the farm in Canada but she got sick and on her deathbed she said I cried out to God for healing and she repented and said I'll preach if you want me to preached cause remember in those days women didn't preach it was a man's job so to be a woman preacher was meant you're breaking through a lot of cultural barriers but she got up after being healed by praying that prayer and accepted her call God zaptor healed her shut up and begin to preach now in the beginning days her crowds weren't very big so what she would do she'd go into town and she would do different stunts like one time I was told she went to a town and found the center part of the city where most of the traffic would be going at lunchtime and she stood on the street corner and beginning to look up at the sky like she was looking at something and folks would walk by and look up and producing a crowd were together and the crowd got big enough so she thought could fill up the auditorium this year to rent it or the tips she'd set up she'd run down the street saying follow me I'll tell you what I'm looking for then she'd jump on the platform grab her tambourine and start sitting as she was looking for the king and then you start preaching this is a part of Amy's personality that made people love her and something she was absolutely crazy but at the end we all loved her so eventually her meetings begin to grow and then she decided well now that she has got a little child and that home feeding begin to grab her she decided to get married again and she married a man named Harold McPherson and she had a second child named Roth so she has two children she has a family and mr. McPherson wanted a nice little home nice little wife little children come home from work with the meal a white picket fence but I must ask if you ever saw Amy couldn't you compute that this woman that you're looking at it's not gonna be your nice little American wife she is bigger than that her dreams are bigger her person I don't his bigger long story short that marriage ended when an inlet instead of being said and feel like her life was over and she messed up she put her babies in her big car and she began to drive across America to preach the gospel she delayed heartache stop she kept going forward she was the first woman to drive in a car for one side of America to the other side that was her first big event in her life a first woman in America to drive a car across the country and this is the beginning of many firsts for her so as we go through this story and the person took her gospel car and her babies and begin to drive across the country preaching in big towns and small towns and out on the field she'd stop and she'd see the cotton pickers in the south to get stopped her car run out there and talking about Jesus and give them a gospel tract and pray for them in those days the gospel evangelistic field was open to anybody who would go after it kind of like it is today if you've got the desire you got the passion you can create anything you want to create in this world that we live in today so Amy McPherson took her car their babies and begin to preach I asked her son one time in all those early days of ministry on the in the gospel car and those tent meetings and those small convention centers what was the greatest miracle you saw I thought he would say it would be like a blind eye opening or a crippled child being healed but he told a story that I want to tell you because it illustrates her faith and her wildness of believing God for the unusual and it would get it he said we were driving across in the gospel car and we had a flat tire and we had no spare and in those days they didn't have cell phones and the homes are far apart and they were dirt roads and the night was coming on very soon and she got concerned because she was a mama with two kids in the middle of nowhere so she jumped out walked around the car a couple of times Rob said then he then she told us get out the car we're gonna pray for the tire so my mother my sister died he said laid hands on the tire and asked God to heal the tire and I felt that I under my hands reinf late and become normal we got back in the car and drove across the country and finished our trip that day in that night so to me they got to the healings of the bodies but I guess God didn't fix tires - and you need them get fixed this is a Macpherson's type of faith it is not your traditional so you don't fit in this box where everybody wants you to fit if you're a preacher you fit like this you talk like this you act like this and you believe like this hopefully you'll be outside the box - because that's what our world needs today is somebody outside of the religious box that were in now to create a signpost in the middle of the nation for Jesus Christ she went to Los Angeles and she had a meeting about 3,500 people and at this time her children get a little bit older and was time them to start school and the heart of a mother was kicking in she wanted a place where children could go to school and come home and she wanted a place where she'd have to always be in tents or be driving or going through some of the hardships of the traveling advantages that she was for most of their little their little life and the Lord told her that Los Angeles was going to be her home base while she was out there in Los Angeles she begin to pray one night in an all-night prayer meeting and when God spoke that word to her she begin to do what we call him penny calls a shopping spell they said she shouted so much that her bobby pins fell out of her hair and her heroin every place because God spoke that had given her the city of Los Angeles you know a lot of people think well that's kind of an egotistical thing well it's not egotistical if God told it to you she began to preach in that city in a long story short she built her church of over 5,000 people she had a tithe of the Los Angeles population that time of 25,000 people as the member of Angeles temple the bosom of her church so she built that church she got those limors in there and when she opened it she began preaching 21 times a week just herself well you know only do that so long before you're physically and emotionally exhausted but in the beginning Amy did all of the services she preached morning noon and night they came in from everywhere and as the church begin to grow and other pastors begin to come to help her she became famous for her Sunday evening service called her illustrated sermons Hollywood would come over to see what she was doing in her illustrated sermons to put them back in the new industry called movies the golden era movies had begin to take place in in Los Angeles she became good friends with one of the great movie stars the time called Charlie Chaplin and Charlie jumping to help her do certain things in the inner in her illustrated sermons and she would help him do certain things in his movie so they had this secret friendship because in those days Hollywood and the church were enemies they didn't think each other liked each other and they didn't in those days they fought so Amy and Charlie would we're in a restaurant late at night and bring their families together so they could talk and keep this friendship they had to keep it a secret because if Hollywood knew that charters with the famous preacher and if if the were Church world knew that Amy there was a Charlie Chaplin there'd be a problem but you know God does not always obey these kind of traditions the Holy Spirit those places that tradition won't let you and you must have decide if you want to follow tradition or the Holy Spirit I'm so glad that Amy thought of the Holy Spirit and did what she did in her day she was the first Christian radio station in America she saw the advent of radios reaching people who could not come to church or who would actively turn her on and so she was the third Christian the third station in Los Angeles the first one in America and there's a big show that they put on years there because when she turned on a radio station in California the other two stations begin to have probably because her signal was so powerful and they kept writing Washington DC about turn her down give her less wattage and falling at the end of the trial the end of the fuss Amy statement1 you can't make God's voice to be second he's always gonna be first and a radio station States and they're still going today in Los Angeles Scizor McPherson had lots of things that she did right there was controversies - mainly McPherson when you're that famous you know you cannot have people go I love you I love you they're gonna something I hate you William Randolph Hearst the founder of many of the newspapers around the country and the founder of yellow journalism told us newspaper men kill Amy which meant all these fine things to come against her or miss misrepresent her and make it look like a fool so we could go through the LA Times you'll be able to see your name in the LA paper so much and most of it was negative and she asked the papers mr. Berg reporters one time why he writes only mean things that aren't true about me he goes will they sell papers and her boss wants us to always find things to make fun of you so she didn't learn how to live with a negative press when I come back in a few minutes we're gonna talk about her kidnapping the most famous part of her controversy in her life Scizor McPherson is a class act before we go to the break I want to introduce you one little clip I found some clips of her speaking in the newsreels back in those time period before they used to play on the movies so here's one of a McPherson on her way to Broadway kind of the Broadway the mecca of Finland the Citadel of worldliness oh I feel in answering this invitation as though I should like to stand in the midst of the Broadway's of America and lift up my hands and cry stop you're drifting away from the faith of your father's you're drifting away from prayer drifting away from the Bible reading drifting away from the family altar and only a ruin and a heartbreak and the home break lay in the direction of backsliding I'm coming out to help bring you back if I can to the foulest give me a burden for Souls Lord give me a love for the loss letting my heart bleed as I the Lord give me a burden for soul living Los Angeles for New York and the boats upon which we sail immediately I was met in routes by altitudes of our friends among them ever was a liberal sprinkling of newspaper men and in each city they asked the same question mr. McPherson what do you think of prohibition rather difficult to answer the question in such a few words as one must use them but I told them that the case of our prohibition here in the United States reminds me of the story of the lecturer who gave a marvelous address on prohibition and he wound up in a blaze of glory that brought everyone to their feet enthusiastically why that my friends if I had my way do you know what I do I'd take every barrel of liquor every bottle of booze every crate and I'd empty it in the river yes sir mammy said shall we now close our meeting by rising and singing together shall we gather at the river he spoiled it all and that's the way perhaps with us over here in America we teach it but so often those who profess to make the laws you're not quite live up to them and back them themselves I wish that you could all have the joy of going with us if Easter tied to the holy land where we shall visit on Easter day the tomb of our rhythm Florida my trip has convinced me that all the world is looking to America for guidance the sudden dramatic fall of the blue eagle proves the impossibility of flying on one wing namely material recovery what America needs us have gone the other wing and rise in spiritual recovery it is to be hoped that out of all this suffering may come at people understanding and return to old-fashioned Christian American principles which you've heard on today's show is only a small fraction of the incredible stories of another one of God's generals for the complete story pick up a copy of God's generals vol 1 today this historical classic contains the compelling spiritual biographies of 12 extraordinary years of faith men and women who are dynamically empowered by the Holy Spirit to ignite the fires of revival worldwide you will discover how they achieved their amazing successes now you can become a victorious leader for God in this volume you will be captivated by the lives of John Alexander Dowie Maria Woodworth etter Evan Roberts Charles F Parham and William J Seymour John G Leigh Smith Wigglesworth Aimee Semple McPherson Catherine Coleman William Branham Jack Coe and a a allen order a copy today or other life-changing books by visiting Robert slurred and calm that's Robert slurred in calm or by calling 187 788 1504 us residents or one nine four one seven four eight three eight eight three four viewers outside the US Robert slurred an accurately depicts without bias the good bad and the ugly so you can learn from the lives of God's generals order your copy today I want to tell you a few more stories about the sister McPherson before I do I want to highly suggest and encourage you to call the number on your screen or go to my website and order the book where I talk about her life because I can't tell you everything about her in 30 minutes so order the Gods generals book and the other books that go with it you'll enjoy it you'll love to see what God did through a woman who kept saying yes when the world kept saying no behind me here on this set we have a scripture here I hope you can see it really good in the in the picture here and it reminds me of a store that she'd have to have stretcher Dame in her Crusades there were people who could not come and wait in the prayer lines and the normal service is the morning at night so in all of our Crusades you'd have stretch a day I'm showing you a picture right now of Amy in Denver Colorado and you look at the pictures she's there in the white dress looking out over the bottom of the audit one of all the people in the stretchers there and she takes the whole afternoon there'd be no preaching just singing and she'd be out there praying for them one by one and her philosophy was this she would not take our hands off of you and she felt the anointing of God leave her hands once it came out of her hands then her job was done is between you and God her success rate was phenomenal in getting people healed at Angela's temple though there was another thing that she would do cause there's folks who could not come and sit in the service because of their physical challenges and their illnesses she'd have ambulance day in Los Angeles and it's a fact in LA that when Amy would announce on the radio that this month on this Saturday or this Thursday is ambulance daim the sick people would start booking up all the illnesses in LA in LA County in the surrounding cities and the hospitals that have to reserve certain ones for true emergencies because everybody would book up all the images and head for Angeles temple and they've been lined up around the front of the church down the blocks around and those days her home was right next to Angeles temple and there was a little road and they'd bring the emmalin's down to her back door and she was standing on the back doorstep and get in out of the Amazon praying for the sick that way I love these kind of stories about sister McPherson I wish I had a 3-4 hours just to take her life and walk slowly through what she did how she did it how she overcame they asked at one time why are you a success why does your church live why does your meetings have so many miracles and people coming down from everywhere she goes it's because I preached the great I am NOT the great I was this is one of eight means I think some perfect simple answers of success she believed that I am was still that I am of today she'd not preached that I was he didn't do things he still does it today meeting some 18,000 people God's do that some early morning and the latest night that buildings of the Denver Municipal Auditorium will environmentalist would have to stay in a place after my meeting was over and heard the way up in the attic where the electric wires are dragged them in down out of there and get the women from out of the restroom the downstairs was barricaded the resolves in the basement to be there for the next day's meeting prepare they couldn't get inland God brought people to the altar for the thousand people converted at one service we would have to have the members and then the women are vice versa a preacher why don't every one of you folks get converted and give you a husband God sister McPherson as she was in the height of her career had one of the most controversial things happen to her this was a kidnapping now she's been kidnapped twice in her life early in her ministry a newspaper reporter was interviewing her and the Klu Klux Klan had taken her and the reporter out for a private meeting when she got done preaching to the Ku Klux Klan sort of burning the cross they were burning their hoods and getting saved so but the second time was more dramatic now she was famous all over the world she'd gone to Europe gone2asia she is at the height of her ministry the LA Church is at the pinnacle of its prestige and popularity and in the middle of this she's kidnapped and here's what happened she'd just come back from Israel and she was gonna tell the church family what she saw in the Holy Land she'd only have one service I did that there were so many people trying to get into the auditorium or a church she was gonna have to have five with those services just to tell people what she saw why she was there and they were doing some construction on the church where she couldn't get her nose together with her secretaries so they decided to go down to the beach finish her outline of what she was gonna tell that night and take a swim in the ocean now that right there's also a big deal to in Amy's life Amy was the first Pentecostal to cut her hair to wear makeup and to look fabulous you can use that word because in those days the Pentecostals have this lingering holiness mindset which had come into the flesh where it's how you look they couldn't cut the hair they look real ugly but Amy look beautiful and they ask me one time why do you wear makeup if she goes well any old bar needs some paint and I'm gonna put something on and look my best for Jesus and that's what she did so all the ladies and Pentecost around the world Oh sister McPherson a big thank you for breaking that religious stupid tradition that you can't wear makeup and be a preacher or go to church so she's out of the beach and her secretary wanting to get her some orange juice drinka she was going to a swim in the ocean and a man walked up to her and said are you sister McPherson she goes yes she goes he goes the temple sent me down here to ask you to come and pray for our child that is sick my wife is in the car up there any point of the car holding the child and would you just pray for because our child is gonna die unless God heals the child so Amy being as kind of she was said sure she grabbed the towel and put her around herself and walked up to the car talking to the man and when she bent over to greet the woman the men pushed her in and the lady in the car put her form over a nose and knocked her out and they drove her off eventually it took her to Old Mexico well the secretary comes back and thinks Amy is still swimming but then time passes and so concern sets in and all of a sudden she calls the church thinking maybe somebody picked her up and and then pretty soon they realized that Amy is gone and in a few more hours goodbye Amy is dead she drowned in the ocean so the noise went everywhere Amy McPherson has drowned the body's not been found it's a lost it scene so after little few days goes by and they can't find the body they go ahead and have the funeral the funeral her mother produces it and her mother takes the helm of the church and everybody's crying but Amy is in Old Mexico and the kidnappers keep sending kidnapping notes and they keep throwing the kidnapping notes in the trash and you go why well when you're that popular sometimes people don't realize of all the weird things that happened to you from strange people most of the people are good people but there's a small percent of folks who are always trying to do something to you that you kind of build a callousness around them because they're just simply weird or they're sent mother devil to irritate you so her mother kept throwing the kidnapping notes in the trash can but she escapes Amy does from Old Mexico walks across into Douglas Arizona while in Douglas Arizona she knocked on the first door and the guy didn't answer the door and told her to go away goes to the next house knocks on the door and collapse so the ambulance comes take her to the hospital she police comes and long story short of the survivor they asked who are you because I'm anemic first him and he goes no she's dead she goes no I am a Mesa month person so he calls the church in LA long story short she tells the secret mother only the family knows and the news of the Nelms that Amy is alive when she comes back to LA over 50,000 people meet her at the train station to welcome Amy home and then all of a sudden the Attorney General decides that she did this for money or publicity and all these things so a trial or hearing starts and they accused her of having an affair they accuse her running often doing this all kinds of things when the long story short she wins and every night after the trial she'd get up and tell on the radio what her song the story was and the interesting effect about the church the church didn't dwindle during this it stayed strong in numbers strong and money strong and support would you stay a member of the church if your pastor was on trial for a kidnapping with all the news in the newspaper being negative about him or her I don't know if today's generation has that kind of stamina but I hope we'll get back to that sister McPherson has so many more things she sold more war bonds then all the movie stars put together during the time of World War two she'd also win the awards in the Rose Bowl parade for having the best float in the Rose Bowl parade she have her own parades in Los Angeles she travel around the country she begin to build a denomination because out of her Bible School begin to come to her students and they build churches she wanted to put all those churches among this summons of God denomination but because she was divorced they wouldn't accept her so she had to build the 4-square denomination now let me make one comment here it doesn't matter what you go through if the matter of you keep on going so much of the time we people we have mistakes in their life we make mistakes we sin we do things that we later think we shouldn't have done but no matter what you do get up and go on the righteous may fall but they come back and Amy kept bouncing back over a kidnapping over her third marriage is about to happen in a divorce it's going to occur and I got a beautiful bride I'm very very happy I feel that I am most happy person in all the world every one of our members and fans have been so beautiful and sending in thousands of letters of telegrams and phone calls I think this is the beginning room it's very happy nice together [Music] my trip was primarily one for health and recuperation following my nervous breakdown some three years ago I'm very grateful for this beautiful rest I'm happy to be back in America back to our church into the evangelistic work and trouble our shadows cross our sky it's a marvelous thing to be able to turn to the Rock of Ages and the Lord's own work what are your plans I would have been so happy to have had him continue in the Lord's work but his life of course is in the hands of the Lord and that's something I'll be unable to decide for I have formed no plans all this news which is come to me have come very suddenly and without warning and I feel I'm equate flight get my almond know that email so Amy with you all the negatives what's the story for us God is the god of a second chance of third chance and a fourth chance and God doesn't obey public opinion if you stay committed with God you can win I hope you will enjoy the last clip I have a sister McPherson she's a class act she's one of a kind I wish I had a chance to see her as a child but I did not my grandmother tried to see her wanted to go to her Bible school but she couldn't make it from North Carolina to LA but I'm glad we had this film clip so you can least get to hear a personality she dies in Oakland California of an accidental overdose of her medication they found her not breathing well she died early that morning and even her death was a controversy her denomination because they need to grow after her death because her son Ralph knew his place he goes I'm not a preacher I'm an administrator let me administrate and you do the preaching and with those who are left behind they knew how to work together and continue the ministry that God gave the Foursquare Gospel in California and the churches of the forest where gospel I pray that I'm in as many years to serve God and my country I thank you and God bless you [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 29min 1sec (1741 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 31 2020