Book Description

Maria Woodworth-Etter “Demonstrator of the Spirit” “The Lord has given me a special mission to bring about a spirit of unity and love…. God is raising up people in every land who are reaching out after more of God and saying, ‘Come and help us. We want the spirit of love. We want signs and wonders.”1 There hasn’t been a greater demonstrator of God’s Spirit since the book of Acts in Pentecostal history than Maria Woodworth-Etter. She was an incredible woman of vision and spiritual strength who stood in the face of fierce opposition, lifted her tiny hand, and allowed the Holy Spirit to spread His fire. Sister Etter lived in the realm of the spirit as a powerful vessel of God’s divine leading and His supernatural manifestations. She was a faithful friend of heaven, choosing to lose her earthly reputation to gain a spiritual one. Maria (pronounced “Ma-rye-ah,” not “Ma-ree-ah”) was born in 1844 on a Lisbon, Ohio, farm. She was born again at the beginning of the Third Great Awakening at the age of thirteen. The preacher who led her to the Lord prayed that her life “might be a shining light.”2 But little did he realize that this little girl he had just prayed for would become the grandmother of the Pentecostal movement that would spread throughout the world. Maria immediately heard the call of God and dedicated her life to the Lord. Of her calling she would later write, “I heard the voice of Jesus calling me to go out in the highways and hedges and gather in the lost sheep.”3 But one thing stopped her—she was a woman, and at that time, women were not allowed to preach. In the mid-nineteenth century, women couldn’t even vote in a national election, so to be a woman preacher was definitely frowned upon. And to be a single woman in the ministry was out of the question. Therefore, Maria pondered the things the Lord told her, and decided she would have to marry a missionary to fulfill her call. So she planned to continue her education, then enter a formal college to make herself ready. But tragedy struck her close-knit family. Her father was killed while working in the fields of their farm, and she immediately returned home to help support her family. Now, her hopes of a formal education were shattered, so she settled .

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