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Maria Woodworth-Etter

Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter (1844–1924). Born on July 22, 1844, in New Lisbon, Ohio, to Samuel and Matilda Underwood, Maria Woodworth-Etter was a pioneering Pentecostal evangelist known as the “grandmother of the Pentecostal movement.” One of eight children in a poor family, she received little education after her father’s death in 1857, working to support her siblings. Converted at 13 in 1857 at a Disciples of Christ revival, she felt called to preach but faced gender barriers. In 1863, she married Philo Harris Woodworth, a farmer, and had six children, five dying young. After a vision in 1879, she began preaching at 35, holding revivals across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, marked by reported healings and trances, earning her the nickname “trance evangelist.” Divorced from Philo in 1891 for infidelity, she married Samuel Etter in 1902. From 1885, her tent meetings drew thousands, with signs like falling under the Spirit’s power, notably at the 1890 St. Louis revival. Joining the Pentecostal movement in 1912, she founded the Woodworth-Etter Tabernacle in Indianapolis in 1918. She authored eight books, including Signs and Wonders (1916) and Marvels and Miracles (1922), documenting her ministry. Etter died on September 16, 1924, in Indianapolis, saying, “God’s power is for today, healing and saving all who believe.”
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Maria Woodworth-Etter shares her powerful experiences of being anointed by God for service, receiving the Holy Ghost and Fire, and feeling the presence of angels. Despite her timidity and fears, she is called to work for Jesus and to save souls from perishing, relying on God's strength and wisdom. Through visions and divine encounters, she is prepared for the spiritual battle against the enemy of souls, longing to win souls for Jesus and experiencing moments of deep connection with the Savior.
Maria Woodworth-Etter Quotes
“I want the reader to understand, that at this time I had a good experience, a pure heart, was full of the love of God, but was not qualified for God's work. I knew that I was but a worm. God would have to take a worm to thresh a mountain. Then I asked God to give me the power he gave the Galilean fishermen - to anoint me for service. I came like a child asking for bread. I looked for it... God did not disappoint me. The power of the Holy ghost came down like a cloud. It was brighter than the sun. I was covered and, wrapped in it. I was baptized with the Holy Ghost, and Fire, and power, which has never left me. There was liquid fire, and the angels were all around me in fire and glory.” “Still I made one excuse after another, and Jesus would answer, 'Go, and I will be with you'... Then Jesus said again, 'Go, and I will be with you.' I cried, 'Lord, I will go. Where shall I go?' And Jesus said, 'Go here, go there, wherever souls are perishing.' Praise the Lord for his wonderful goodness in revealing his word and will in such a wonderful way, to such a poor weak worm of the dust. I saw more in that vision than I could have learned in years of hard study. Praise His Holy Name. I saw that I must not depend on anything that I could do, but to look to Him for strength and wisdom.” “I was very timid, and bound as with chains in a man-fearing spirit. When I arose to testify I trembled like a leaf, and began to make excuses - O God, send someone else! Then the Lord in a vision caused me to see the bottomless pit open in all its horror and woe. There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It was surrounded by a great multitude of people who seemed unconscious of their danger, and without a moments warning they would tumble into this awful place. I was above the people on a narrow plank-walk, which wound up toward heaven; and I was exhorting and pleading with the people to come upon the plank and escape that awful place. Several started. There was a beautiful bright light above me, and I was encouraging them to follow that light and they would go straight to heaven. "In all these trials God was preparing me and opening the way for the great battle against the enemy of souls and now the great desire of my heart was to work for Jesus. I longed to win a star for the Savior's crown.” “Sometimes when the Spirit of God was striving and calling so plainly, I would yield and say, 'Yes, Lord; I will go.' The glory of God came upon me like a cloud, and I seemed to be carried away hundreds of miles and set down in a field of wheat, where the sheaves were falling all around me. I was filled with zeal and power, and felt as if I could stand before the whole world and plead with dying sinners. It seemed to me that I must leave all and go at once. Then Satan would come in like a flood and say, 'You would look nice preaching, being a gazing-stock for the people to make sport of. You know you could not do it.' Then I would think of my weakness and say, 'No; of course I cannot do it.' Then I would be in darkness and despair. I wanted to run away from God, or I wished I could die; but when I began to look at the matter in this way, that God knew all about me, and was able and willing to qualify me for the work, I asked Him to qualify me for the work. I ASKED HIM TO QUALIFY ME.” “At one time I was praying for the salvation of sinners, and the Saviour appeared on the cross by me, and talked with me; I laid my hand on his mangled body, and looked up in his smiling face. Another time I was meditating upon the love of God in giving his only Son to die for sinners, and of the beautiful home he was preparing for those who love him, and I seemed to float away, and was set down in the Beautiful City. Oh, the glorious sight that met my view can never be expressed by mortal tongue” “If you from sin are longing to be free, Look to the Lamb of God He, to redeem you, died on Calvary, Look to the Lamb of God.” “He said the angels and his little child who had passed over, were in the room. He shouted and praised God until the last breath was gone. His triumphant death convinced some of the hardest sinners of the reality of religion. “Oh, let me die the death of the righteous, that my last end be like his.” Our loving Father is calling his children home one by one. Some of us have more loved ones over on the golden shore than we have here. They are watching and waiting for us. Shall they watch in vain?”
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Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter (1844–1924). Born on July 22, 1844, in New Lisbon, Ohio, to Samuel and Matilda Underwood, Maria Woodworth-Etter was a pioneering Pentecostal evangelist known as the “grandmother of the Pentecostal movement.” One of eight children in a poor family, she received little education after her father’s death in 1857, working to support her siblings. Converted at 13 in 1857 at a Disciples of Christ revival, she felt called to preach but faced gender barriers. In 1863, she married Philo Harris Woodworth, a farmer, and had six children, five dying young. After a vision in 1879, she began preaching at 35, holding revivals across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, marked by reported healings and trances, earning her the nickname “trance evangelist.” Divorced from Philo in 1891 for infidelity, she married Samuel Etter in 1902. From 1885, her tent meetings drew thousands, with signs like falling under the Spirit’s power, notably at the 1890 St. Louis revival. Joining the Pentecostal movement in 1912, she founded the Woodworth-Etter Tabernacle in Indianapolis in 1918. She authored eight books, including Signs and Wonders (1916) and Marvels and Miracles (1922), documenting her ministry. Etter died on September 16, 1924, in Indianapolis, saying, “God’s power is for today, healing and saving all who believe.”