A little more than a century ago, a woman was born just outside Concordia, Missouri. In 1921 when she was only 14 years old, this same girl attended a revival, was overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and entered into the saving knowledge of the Jesus Christ.
She went on to work as an aid in her brother-in-law’s traveling ministry before establishing a similar ministry for herself, and finally settled in Denver in 1933 where she began the Denver Revival Tabernacle; a refuge of hope for those lost in misery during the Great Depression.
This woman was Kathryn Kuhlman and when she was only 26 years old she had already influenced hundreds if not thousands of people for the Lord through her preaching, her prayers, and her anointing.
There are many people today who are going to look at that story and smile. Yes, it’s all very good. Praise the Lord and thank God for preachers like her. But those of you who do should consider first this passage from the same Bible that Kathryn taught from.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. (1 Timothy 2; 12)
And here we have our problem. As Christians we must accept that the Bible is the word of God. That it is perfect in truth and perfect in harmony with itself. If it is not, then our faith is a lie for its foundation is Jesus Christ and without the Holy Scriptures how can any man say ‘Thus said Jesus’ for the Bible is our record of what Jesus taught.
Some will say, we know him by the Holy Spirit, but without the Bible how can we know the Spirit of God, for that which we know of him comes from the word of God which is the Bible.
The Bible MUST agree with itself and with our faith if our faith is real and if it is not, then we who are Christians are nothing but those who pretend. Therefore, let us examine what we know!
A woman named Kathryn Kuhlman preached the word of God and many people were saved. A shallow Christian will think nothing of this, but to a mature Christian one baptized in the Holy Spirit and knowledgeable of the things of God and the ways of our enemy the Devil, this presents a very serious problem.
There is nothing, and I repeated NOTHING, so hard in the world as getting a sinner to accept Jesus Christ. Satan will fight with everything he has in him to halt, distract, dissuade, discourage, or disenchant anyone and everyone from accepting Jesus Christ because once that step has been taken, he loses his power over that person and over their life. Satan does not want that. Every thought in his head, every passion in his heart is bent towards finding a way to keep people from reaching salvation.
No one can preach the gospel affectively unless God’s hand is on their ministry. It is the power of Jesus Christ unto salvation acting through those who are faithful and steadfastly surrendered to him that will appeal to the lost and broken soul. Man is a stubborn creature. He will not surrender to your testimonies until you have surrendered to God’s will.
A further confirmation of her ability would arise in 1947, when she began to teach a study on the Holy Spirit. Kathryn had received His Baptism upon her conversion, but the new understanding she gained from teaching on him unlocked a flow of miraculous healings.
This period in her life is perhaps the most famous, and the cases too many and varied to cover in any kind of depth. But, to substantiate my argument that she did in fact possess a miraculous healing ability, I will call your attention to a single case, that of Mrs. Dolores Winders.
Mrs. Winders suffered from a condition known as pseudo arthritis. At the age of 31 her bones were condition of a woman in her 70s. She was forced to wear a full body cast and had no hope of living much longer. She was a Christian and she had a revelation from God that if she attended one of Ms. Kuhlman’s meetings, he would tell her what preparations he would make for her 14 year old son after her death and what a preparation it was! Nothing short of a miraculous healing that restored Dolores health and restored her son’s mother to him!
You can hear Delores’ personal testimony at this link:
http://www.deloreswinder.com/about_delores.html
Our faith, our very scriptures, are testimonies of such things and Mrs. Winders, who did not like or trust Kathryn Kuhlman when she reluctantly attended her meeting is now one of her strongest advocates.
So far we have established two things.
1. Kathryn Kuhlman was called by God and operated in his will and power. We have established this based on the anointing that God gave her which has been confirmed by witnesses.
2. Timothy, a Book of the Holy Bible, forbids women to preach the gospel, for as Paul wrote: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
This appears to be a conflict between these two thoughts, but there is a solution and I will be happy to present it, but not before we further examine Kathryn’s life at a time when she followed Paul’s commandment.
In 1937 a minister named Burroughs Waltrip came to preach at the Denver Revival Tabernacle. Burroughs was married and had children, but he had abandoned them and was seeking a divorce. During his two month stay at the Tabernacle he and Kathryn fell in love and as soon as his divorce was final, she married him.
Kathryn left her ministry in Denver where many hundreds were added to The Kingdom of God, to follow Burroughs to Iowa. She worked with him but always did so in perfect subjection. She never usurped his authority and often remained silent while he preached.
Burroughs Waltrip failed in Iowa. He and Kathryn then traveled throughout the Midwest. Occasionally she spoke with him, but often did not. There were some who were saved through their ministry, but compared to the power and success that Kathryn had attained on her own it was nothing but a trickle in the face of what had been a great flowing river of salvation and blessing.
Eventually Kathryn realized that she had turned her back on her ministry in order to be an obedient wife. She had ceased to serve God so that she could instead serve her husband. After many years of marriage, she and Burroughs parted on good terms and went their separate ways. She still loved him and he her, but God had to come first.
It took her two years of struggling, of harsh rejection and skepticism before she finally recovered what had been lost to her. She was given a chance to speak at the Gospel Tabernacle in Franklin, Pennsylvania and remained there preaching for some time. She began speaking on the radio during that time and finally made her way to Pittsburgh where she would build her ministry anew and it was at this time in her life that the miraculous healings that accompanied her came into full bloom.
So what have we learned? That when she acted contrary to word of God her ministry bloomed and when she obeyed it, it withered? If the word is to stand, how can she?
I will not lie to you, I struggled with this question for many years, and on my own I could not solve it. It was not until I began to seek the Lord’s counsel on the matter that an answer was laid bare.
This same Apostle called Paul who wrote in 1 Timothy 2; 12: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” also wrote in Romans 9; 15-16:
To add context to this passage, the Book of Romans is called Romans because it was written by Paul to the Church at Rome. Paul greatly desired to go to the church at Rome and minister to them, but every time he tried he was waylaid. Finally he wrote this book to lay out all Christian teaching that they might prosper. Romans is the most comprehensive of Paul’s writings and is so thorough that is had been called the Constitution of the Christian Church.
In Chapter 9 Paul specifically deals with a question that had been vexing him. The Jewish Law said that salvation was of the Jews. They were forbidden to mingle with Gentiles (non Jews) and many believed that Gentiles would never be accepted by God and were fit only to serve as fuel for the fires of Hell.
And yet when Messiah finally came, the doctrine of Gentile salvation was given to his Apostles. The Jewish people by and large had rejected the teachings of Jesus, but the Gentiles accepted it wholeheartedly. In many areas the Gentile converts vastly outnumbered the Jewish Christians, and it was a weight on the soul of every Jew. To accept that Gentiles had an equal place in salvation through Jesus Christ ran contrary to everything they had been taught.
To reconcile this, Paul looked for an answer in the scriptures he had been raised on, the cannon of the Old Testament, even as we look back to the New Testament today. The bulk of verse 15 is a direct quote from Exodus 33; 19 which I have reprinted below.
In Exodus 33, Moses came into the Tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and he talked with God as one man talks with another. God asked many hard things of Moses. Moses pleaded with God that if he and the nation of Israel with him, were to accomplish these tasks they could only do so if the presence of God went with them. God agreed to Moses request in verse 17 of chapter 33, adding immediately after:
Following that, Moses pleaded with God to show him his face for he longed to look upon the Lord. This led God to respond to him with verse 19 which I have already listed. No man could look on the face of God and live, for so great was his glory, majesty, and power that a mortal man would die if he did. So God passed before Moses but only allowed his servant to only see him from behind. Even for Moses to see God from the back however was a compromise on the Lord’s part.
Moses loved God and was his friend, yet to look on the face of the Lord meant death. The Jews had been promised salvation if they obeyed and no such provision was allowed for the Gentiles, yet because the Gentiles were willing and the Jews were not they were chosen of the Lord unto salvation. Moses was already chosen by God before he asked to see his face and God allowed him to see his person in part because Moses was his friend.
God has laws, but he is still King! Though no man could be saved before Christ spilt his blood at Calvary, God translated both Elijah and Enoch while they were still alive and brought them alive into Heaven to be with him. Was this not in itself a compromise of his law?
You see dear Christians, God’s laws are not valid because they are laws but because they are God’s. So God’s will is also just as sacred and valid as they are and it is well established in scripture that God’s will is an exception to his law. Were God a tyrant, this would be bad news indeed but consider all the exceptions I have just named.
A group of people (the Gentiles) who were not to receive Salvation, received it because God had mercy on them. Enoch and Elijah, prophets though they were and holy men of God, were still men and subject to sin. According to the law, they could not pass into Heaven, so God made an exception and brought them up early for they pleased him above all men. And Moses, who was a sinful man, was allowed to look upon the glory of Almighty God because the Lord loved him and wanted to do him a kindness.
All the exceptions God has ever made were not on his whims, but for our good! Just as his law and his scriptures are for our good. To deny there are exceptions to God’s word is to deny what is in his word nevertheless we must accept that God alone can make exceptions and he does so when and where he sees fit. Such is the right of a King!
Consider again the words of Romans in this light:
In light of reconciling this difficult new doctrine of Gentile salvation, Paul looks to God’s kindness to Moses and sees in his present condition that God is likewise showing a kindness to Gentiles, that they who are not of Abraham’s earthly seed may yet become his Spiritual seed in light of the Salvation through Jesus Christ.
He then adds in verse 16 that it is not given to him who willeth (or him who desires very hard to be used for good) or him who runneth (or him who tries very hard under his own power to accomplish good) to have victory in the matters of Heaven and Hell, but rather it is given to those upon whom God showeth mercy.
If you are expecting me to proclaim that the passage in 1 Timothy is incorrect, then you are in for a bad shock. 1 Timothy is the word of God, spoken by Paul and recorded by his secretary and it is absolutely correct. It is not the office of a woman to teach a man within the framework of the church. The reasons for this are listed in 1 Timothy 2; 13-14. HOWEVER there are exceptions to the rule when God decides to show mercy on those whom he will show mercy.
Consider now Kathryn Kulhman. God showed her his mercy in that she was called to an office that was not her natural place. Why did he do this? You might as well ask why he chose the pagan King Cyrus to deliver Judah from the captivity of Babylon, or why he chose for our New Life in Christ Jesus to come from the death of his Son. God’s ways are his own and his reasons are his own and he is a King and he does not have to answer to anyone.
The Calling is evident in every aspect of Ms. Kuhlman’s life and ministry. To ignore it is to ignore the power of God. I did not write this article for Ms. Kuhlman’s benefit or her justification, neither of which would have been necessary. I did write it because she is not alone. God and has and continues to call a number of gifted female teachers to minister to his flock and there are those (some out of ignorance, others out of spite) who rail against these servants based on the testament of 1 Timothy.
Let God be true and every man a liar the word declares, and by this I stand. If a woman is called by God will she be condemned by the One who issued her commission? God forbid it to be so! There are some women who stand in places they should not be and if they do, they must be called down by the edict of 1 Timothy, but if a woman witnesses to man and he is saved, where is the evil? If a woman teach the word and a congregation receives healing, where is the sin? If a woman stands and proclaims the gospel effectively are we to believe that Satan is selling out his own purposes to disprove one verse of scripture?
God does call women sometimes.
Some of you are now asking, how can you tell if a woman is called of God? When you see the sick healed, the mysteries of scripture made plain, prophesies given, the poor and dying cared for, when you see the works of Jesus Christ administered with such success that only God can provide, then you will know! In light of the all this, consider again your question. How can I tell if a woman is called of God? Dear Christians, I would pose the question, how can you not?
God Bless You All. Amen.
To learn more about Kathryn Kuhlman, her life and ministry you can visit this website:
http://kathrynkuhlman.com/
To learn more about Delores Winders, you can visit her website: http://www.deloreswinder.com/
She went on to work as an aid in her brother-in-law’s traveling ministry before establishing a similar ministry for herself, and finally settled in Denver in 1933 where she began the Denver Revival Tabernacle; a refuge of hope for those lost in misery during the Great Depression.
This woman was Kathryn Kuhlman and when she was only 26 years old she had already influenced hundreds if not thousands of people for the Lord through her preaching, her prayers, and her anointing.
There are many people today who are going to look at that story and smile. Yes, it’s all very good. Praise the Lord and thank God for preachers like her. But those of you who do should consider first this passage from the same Bible that Kathryn taught from.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. (1 Timothy 2; 12)
And here we have our problem. As Christians we must accept that the Bible is the word of God. That it is perfect in truth and perfect in harmony with itself. If it is not, then our faith is a lie for its foundation is Jesus Christ and without the Holy Scriptures how can any man say ‘Thus said Jesus’ for the Bible is our record of what Jesus taught.
Some will say, we know him by the Holy Spirit, but without the Bible how can we know the Spirit of God, for that which we know of him comes from the word of God which is the Bible.
The Bible MUST agree with itself and with our faith if our faith is real and if it is not, then we who are Christians are nothing but those who pretend. Therefore, let us examine what we know!
A woman named Kathryn Kuhlman preached the word of God and many people were saved. A shallow Christian will think nothing of this, but to a mature Christian one baptized in the Holy Spirit and knowledgeable of the things of God and the ways of our enemy the Devil, this presents a very serious problem.
There is nothing, and I repeated NOTHING, so hard in the world as getting a sinner to accept Jesus Christ. Satan will fight with everything he has in him to halt, distract, dissuade, discourage, or disenchant anyone and everyone from accepting Jesus Christ because once that step has been taken, he loses his power over that person and over their life. Satan does not want that. Every thought in his head, every passion in his heart is bent towards finding a way to keep people from reaching salvation.
No one can preach the gospel affectively unless God’s hand is on their ministry. It is the power of Jesus Christ unto salvation acting through those who are faithful and steadfastly surrendered to him that will appeal to the lost and broken soul. Man is a stubborn creature. He will not surrender to your testimonies until you have surrendered to God’s will.
A further confirmation of her ability would arise in 1947, when she began to teach a study on the Holy Spirit. Kathryn had received His Baptism upon her conversion, but the new understanding she gained from teaching on him unlocked a flow of miraculous healings.
This period in her life is perhaps the most famous, and the cases too many and varied to cover in any kind of depth. But, to substantiate my argument that she did in fact possess a miraculous healing ability, I will call your attention to a single case, that of Mrs. Dolores Winders.
Mrs. Winders suffered from a condition known as pseudo arthritis. At the age of 31 her bones were condition of a woman in her 70s. She was forced to wear a full body cast and had no hope of living much longer. She was a Christian and she had a revelation from God that if she attended one of Ms. Kuhlman’s meetings, he would tell her what preparations he would make for her 14 year old son after her death and what a preparation it was! Nothing short of a miraculous healing that restored Dolores health and restored her son’s mother to him!
You can hear Delores’ personal testimony at this link:
http://www.deloreswinder.com/about_delores.html
Our faith, our very scriptures, are testimonies of such things and Mrs. Winders, who did not like or trust Kathryn Kuhlman when she reluctantly attended her meeting is now one of her strongest advocates.
So far we have established two things.
1. Kathryn Kuhlman was called by God and operated in his will and power. We have established this based on the anointing that God gave her which has been confirmed by witnesses.
2. Timothy, a Book of the Holy Bible, forbids women to preach the gospel, for as Paul wrote: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
This appears to be a conflict between these two thoughts, but there is a solution and I will be happy to present it, but not before we further examine Kathryn’s life at a time when she followed Paul’s commandment.
In 1937 a minister named Burroughs Waltrip came to preach at the Denver Revival Tabernacle. Burroughs was married and had children, but he had abandoned them and was seeking a divorce. During his two month stay at the Tabernacle he and Kathryn fell in love and as soon as his divorce was final, she married him.
Kathryn left her ministry in Denver where many hundreds were added to The Kingdom of God, to follow Burroughs to Iowa. She worked with him but always did so in perfect subjection. She never usurped his authority and often remained silent while he preached.
Burroughs Waltrip failed in Iowa. He and Kathryn then traveled throughout the Midwest. Occasionally she spoke with him, but often did not. There were some who were saved through their ministry, but compared to the power and success that Kathryn had attained on her own it was nothing but a trickle in the face of what had been a great flowing river of salvation and blessing.
Eventually Kathryn realized that she had turned her back on her ministry in order to be an obedient wife. She had ceased to serve God so that she could instead serve her husband. After many years of marriage, she and Burroughs parted on good terms and went their separate ways. She still loved him and he her, but God had to come first.
It took her two years of struggling, of harsh rejection and skepticism before she finally recovered what had been lost to her. She was given a chance to speak at the Gospel Tabernacle in Franklin, Pennsylvania and remained there preaching for some time. She began speaking on the radio during that time and finally made her way to Pittsburgh where she would build her ministry anew and it was at this time in her life that the miraculous healings that accompanied her came into full bloom.
So what have we learned? That when she acted contrary to word of God her ministry bloomed and when she obeyed it, it withered? If the word is to stand, how can she?
I will not lie to you, I struggled with this question for many years, and on my own I could not solve it. It was not until I began to seek the Lord’s counsel on the matter that an answer was laid bare.
This same Apostle called Paul who wrote in 1 Timothy 2; 12: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” also wrote in Romans 9; 15-16:
For he (God) saith to Moses, I will Have Mercy On Whom I Will Have Mercy, And I Will Have Compassion On Whom I Will Have Compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
To add context to this passage, the Book of Romans is called Romans because it was written by Paul to the Church at Rome. Paul greatly desired to go to the church at Rome and minister to them, but every time he tried he was waylaid. Finally he wrote this book to lay out all Christian teaching that they might prosper. Romans is the most comprehensive of Paul’s writings and is so thorough that is had been called the Constitution of the Christian Church.
In Chapter 9 Paul specifically deals with a question that had been vexing him. The Jewish Law said that salvation was of the Jews. They were forbidden to mingle with Gentiles (non Jews) and many believed that Gentiles would never be accepted by God and were fit only to serve as fuel for the fires of Hell.
And yet when Messiah finally came, the doctrine of Gentile salvation was given to his Apostles. The Jewish people by and large had rejected the teachings of Jesus, but the Gentiles accepted it wholeheartedly. In many areas the Gentile converts vastly outnumbered the Jewish Christians, and it was a weight on the soul of every Jew. To accept that Gentiles had an equal place in salvation through Jesus Christ ran contrary to everything they had been taught.
To reconcile this, Paul looked for an answer in the scriptures he had been raised on, the cannon of the Old Testament, even as we look back to the New Testament today. The bulk of verse 15 is a direct quote from Exodus 33; 19 which I have reprinted below.
And he (God) said, I will make all my goodness to pass before thee (Moses), and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
In Exodus 33, Moses came into the Tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and he talked with God as one man talks with another. God asked many hard things of Moses. Moses pleaded with God that if he and the nation of Israel with him, were to accomplish these tasks they could only do so if the presence of God went with them. God agreed to Moses request in verse 17 of chapter 33, adding immediately after:
For thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
Following that, Moses pleaded with God to show him his face for he longed to look upon the Lord. This led God to respond to him with verse 19 which I have already listed. No man could look on the face of God and live, for so great was his glory, majesty, and power that a mortal man would die if he did. So God passed before Moses but only allowed his servant to only see him from behind. Even for Moses to see God from the back however was a compromise on the Lord’s part.
Moses loved God and was his friend, yet to look on the face of the Lord meant death. The Jews had been promised salvation if they obeyed and no such provision was allowed for the Gentiles, yet because the Gentiles were willing and the Jews were not they were chosen of the Lord unto salvation. Moses was already chosen by God before he asked to see his face and God allowed him to see his person in part because Moses was his friend.
God has laws, but he is still King! Though no man could be saved before Christ spilt his blood at Calvary, God translated both Elijah and Enoch while they were still alive and brought them alive into Heaven to be with him. Was this not in itself a compromise of his law?
You see dear Christians, God’s laws are not valid because they are laws but because they are God’s. So God’s will is also just as sacred and valid as they are and it is well established in scripture that God’s will is an exception to his law. Were God a tyrant, this would be bad news indeed but consider all the exceptions I have just named.
A group of people (the Gentiles) who were not to receive Salvation, received it because God had mercy on them. Enoch and Elijah, prophets though they were and holy men of God, were still men and subject to sin. According to the law, they could not pass into Heaven, so God made an exception and brought them up early for they pleased him above all men. And Moses, who was a sinful man, was allowed to look upon the glory of Almighty God because the Lord loved him and wanted to do him a kindness.
All the exceptions God has ever made were not on his whims, but for our good! Just as his law and his scriptures are for our good. To deny there are exceptions to God’s word is to deny what is in his word nevertheless we must accept that God alone can make exceptions and he does so when and where he sees fit. Such is the right of a King!
Consider again the words of Romans in this light:
For he saith to Moses, I will Have Mercy On Whom I Will Have Mercy, And I Will Have Compassion On Whom I Will Have Compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
In light of reconciling this difficult new doctrine of Gentile salvation, Paul looks to God’s kindness to Moses and sees in his present condition that God is likewise showing a kindness to Gentiles, that they who are not of Abraham’s earthly seed may yet become his Spiritual seed in light of the Salvation through Jesus Christ.
He then adds in verse 16 that it is not given to him who willeth (or him who desires very hard to be used for good) or him who runneth (or him who tries very hard under his own power to accomplish good) to have victory in the matters of Heaven and Hell, but rather it is given to those upon whom God showeth mercy.
If you are expecting me to proclaim that the passage in 1 Timothy is incorrect, then you are in for a bad shock. 1 Timothy is the word of God, spoken by Paul and recorded by his secretary and it is absolutely correct. It is not the office of a woman to teach a man within the framework of the church. The reasons for this are listed in 1 Timothy 2; 13-14. HOWEVER there are exceptions to the rule when God decides to show mercy on those whom he will show mercy.
Consider now Kathryn Kulhman. God showed her his mercy in that she was called to an office that was not her natural place. Why did he do this? You might as well ask why he chose the pagan King Cyrus to deliver Judah from the captivity of Babylon, or why he chose for our New Life in Christ Jesus to come from the death of his Son. God’s ways are his own and his reasons are his own and he is a King and he does not have to answer to anyone.
The Calling is evident in every aspect of Ms. Kuhlman’s life and ministry. To ignore it is to ignore the power of God. I did not write this article for Ms. Kuhlman’s benefit or her justification, neither of which would have been necessary. I did write it because she is not alone. God and has and continues to call a number of gifted female teachers to minister to his flock and there are those (some out of ignorance, others out of spite) who rail against these servants based on the testament of 1 Timothy.
Let God be true and every man a liar the word declares, and by this I stand. If a woman is called by God will she be condemned by the One who issued her commission? God forbid it to be so! There are some women who stand in places they should not be and if they do, they must be called down by the edict of 1 Timothy, but if a woman witnesses to man and he is saved, where is the evil? If a woman teach the word and a congregation receives healing, where is the sin? If a woman stands and proclaims the gospel effectively are we to believe that Satan is selling out his own purposes to disprove one verse of scripture?
God does call women sometimes.
Some of you are now asking, how can you tell if a woman is called of God? When you see the sick healed, the mysteries of scripture made plain, prophesies given, the poor and dying cared for, when you see the works of Jesus Christ administered with such success that only God can provide, then you will know! In light of the all this, consider again your question. How can I tell if a woman is called of God? Dear Christians, I would pose the question, how can you not?
God Bless You All. Amen.
To learn more about Kathryn Kuhlman, her life and ministry you can visit this website:
http://kathrynkuhlman.com/
To learn more about Delores Winders, you can visit her website: http://www.deloreswinder.com/
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