The greatest power in the world
Katherine Kuhlman
Foreword
Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
Chapter first
Holy Spirit, ever living
Chapter Two
One Spirit, One Purpose
Chapter Three
Secret of strength
Chapter Four
Holy Spirit in the life of Saul and David
Chapter Five
Holy Spirit: Same Yesterday and Today
Holy Spirit in the New Testament
Chapter Six
Holy Spirit Reveals Jesus
Chapter Seven
Reality of the Holy Spirit
Chapter Eight
Three Persons of the Trinity
Chapter Nine
How to be filled with the Holy Spirit
Chapter Ten
Evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit
Chapter Eleven
Holy Spirit within us
Chapter Twelve
Limitless Power
Chapter Thirteen
Holy Spirit intercedes
Chapter Fourteen
Spirit-filled life
Chapter fifteen
Our strength and protection
Chapter Sixteen
Victory through the Holy Spirit
Seal of the Holy Spirit
Chapter Seventeen
born again
Chapter Eighteen
Called by God
Chapter Nineteen
Our inheritance in Christ
Chapter Twenty
The Holy Spirit can be grieved
Chapter twenty one
Our will is under the control of the Holy Spirit
My prayer for you
Questions about the Holy Spirit
For those who need miracles
Message to the reader
Foreword
Kathryn Kuhlman's sermons and radio broadcasts, which have been a blessing to literally thousands of people, are as necessary today as they were when she stood in front of her ward or in front of a radio studio microphone sharing God's precious Word.
She often said: “All the achievements of my life do not belong to Kathryn Kuhlman. This is the Holy Spirit, this is what He does through a vessel completely yielded to Him.” And another: "The Holy Spirit exalts and glorifies only one essence and only one person, this is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God."
Beloved, if you are a Christian, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, then the glorious experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit is for you. This is part of your heritage.
We pray that as you read these messages, you will not only be blessed, but that you will understand that there is so much more in Jesus Christ, so much more of the power of God that you and I find it hard to comprehend. He will take everything that we have submitted to Him and bring it into line with the Holy Spirit. If you haven't fully submitted yourself to Jesus, do it now! God bless you!
Catherine Kuhlman Foundation
Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
Holy Spirit, ever living
I am sure you will agree that thousands of people from all denominations of the Christian faith every Sunday pay their respects to the Holy Spirit during worship. Catholics and Protestants who fill churches sing praises or call the name of the Holy Spirit. However, very few people know about Him or believe in Him as a person. We think we know God the Father, glorifying Him as the great Creator. We understand Jesus, the Son of the living God, who came to earth and died on the cross. He is no mystery to thousands of people, but when it comes to the Holy Spirit, people know little or nothing about Him. So as a basis for this series of messages about the Holy Spirit, I want to say that when I talk about the day of Pentecost, I'm talking about the time when the Word was fulfilled exactly as Jesus promised before His ascension (see John 16:7). He
said that He must go, because He was destined to take the place of the great High Priest, who sits at the right hand of God the Father. He could not stay on earth, but He said He would not leave us inconsolable or powerless. He promised us strength for life, and He also promised that He would give strength to the Church through the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that this mighty third person would come to us after He had gone to the Father. After the ascension, Jesus was to assume His new position as the great High Priest. The Holy Spirit will also take up a new position that He has never occupied before.
I'm talking about the day of Pentecost, and I don't mean just one event that happened in the upper room when the Holy Spirit appeared there. We are still living on the day of Pentecost, which will last until the moment when the Holy Spirit leaves the earth just as Jesus once left it. And when He leaves, He will take with Him the Church, which is made up of believers born into the Body of Christ.
I will never understand how one can study the Word of God or read the Bible without recognizing the identity of the Holy Spirit. Published on the web portal
Someone asked me the other day, "What kind of controversy and misunderstanding can there be about the Holy Spirit?" To such a question, I have only one very simple answer: it may be due to a lack of guidance. It is impossible to come to God with an open heart and an open mind, to seek the reality and truth about the third person of the Trinity, without immediately recognizing the concrete, strong, glorious person of the Holy Spirit. - This recognition is extremely important for each of God's children.
There is a place in the Word of God that opens the eyes to the truth that is characteristic of the third person of the Trinity. There Jesus says, "And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever" (John 14:16). In essence, Jesus is saying that He is leaving and that the disciples saw Him in the flesh with their own eyes. Jesus was with them and taught them many things. But it will be better for them if Jesus leaves, because He has to take another position, the position of the High Priest. He cannot stay with the disciples on earth. He needs to leave. But the disciples should not be afraid, for Jesus will ask the Father to send to the disciples another Comforter, another Advocate. Jesus, during His ministry on earth, strengthened and taught His followers, but now He will ask the Father to send another to the disciples, who will not only teach, but also reveal to them Jesus Himself and will communicate with them. He will dwell in them and guide them. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit.
I would like to ask you to pay special attention to the use of personal pronouns throughout the entire fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. You will see that every time Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit, every time He speaks of the Spirit, He refers to Him as a person and uses phrases and pronouns in relation to Him that confirm His personal character.
Jesus then says that the Holy Spirit "will be with you forever." I will never forget the day I read those words and understood them as I never understood them before. These words implied the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must realize the importance of a person who abides with us not for a day or a year, but FOREVER and forever. When we realize this fact, we will understand, as never before, that this person of the Holy Spirit is One who is vital to each of us. You and I cannot ignore the One who, according to Jesus Christ, will be with us forever.
You see, since I got to know the Holy Spirit better, He has become so important in my life that I don't even know who I would be without Him. I say this from the bottom of my heart and very seriously. We are so close that I don't know what would happen to me if suddenly God said to me: "The Holy Spirit will only be with you for a short time." I wouldn't want to spend eternity without Him. Here on earth we have had so much fellowship and conversation. There were times of anointing and times when He led me. He gave me the wisdom of the Father. I'm so glad that God promised that the Holy Spirit would never leave me.
Katherine Kuhlman
Katherine Joanna Kuhlman was born on May 9, 1907 in Concordia, Missouri, to German parents Joseph Adolf and Emma Walkenhorst Kuhlman. She was one of four children: Myrtle, Earl, Katherine and Geneva. Katherine received the Lord in 1921 at a revival meeting at a Methodist church: “I was standing next to my mother; the church clock showed that it was five minutes to twelve. happened to me. It's just as real to me now. It's the most real thing that has happened in my life. As I was standing, I suddenly began to shake. It was so strong that I could no longer hold the hymnal. So I put it down. on the bench ... and sobbed. I felt heavy (of conviction) and realized that I was a sinner. I felt like the worst, lowest person in the world. Although at that time I was a fourteen-year-old girl."
By 1923, she had finished school, which was the limit of Conordia's educational opportunities. Her sister Myrtle married Moody Institute itinerant evangelist Everett Parrott. The young couple so urgently asked their parents to let Katherine go for the summer with them, that in the end, though reluctantly, they agreed. They stopped in Oregon, where Katherine assisted in the service, giving her testimony. Around this time, the entire company came under the influence of Dr. Price, a Canadian evangelist, through whom they received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Then they began to hold healing services together. Later pianist Helen Gulliford joined their team. And then Catherine and Helen persuaded the pastor of a small church in the town of Boise to let them work on their own. Kuhlman preached and Helen played the piano. Over the next five years, they traveled to Idaho and other cities in the country.
In 1933 Kuhlman and Gallyford moved to Pueblo, Colorado, where they preached in Montgomery's warehouse for about six months. Then, at the urging of the owner, they moved to Denver and began holding meetings in another Montgomery warehouse in the heart of the city. Soon, their team had to relocate again, this time to the Monitor Paper Company's warehouse, which was soon named the Kuhlman Wake Tabernacle. Three Anderson sisters: Mildred, Lucy and Bini, who made up the "Anderson Trio" conducted the musical part of the service. In 1935 they all moved into an abandoned garage called the Denver Revival Tabernacle. The program expanded to include Sunday school and sorority. Katherine also began making a fifteen-minute radio broadcast on the KVOD station.
Kuhlman shared the Denver pulpit with many evangelists. There she met Borous Waltrip, whom she called Mister, and they formed a professional alliance that soon led to their marriage. This had a deplorable effect on Katherine's ministry. The fact is that Waltrip left his wife and children in Texas and soon divorced her. Despite strong warnings from friends and the entire community, Kuhlman and Waltrip were married in 1939. They traveled across the country, trying to get away from information about Walthorip's previous marriage that literally followed them on their heels. After six years of marriage, Katherine left Waltrip in 1944, and in 1948 he divorced her. She often recalled how she left Mister and returned to the one who loved her most in the world: "Today you and I can go to the same street in the same city and I will show you the place where I gave all of myself to Jesus - the body, soul and spirit. As I walked there with tears streaming down my cheeks, for the first time in my life, there was nothing of my own, but all of His. When I completed my complete surrender to Jesus, the Holy Spirit took an empty vessel. That's all He needs. In that day dawned the greatest dawn of my life! I had no real service until I, walking on that endless road, gave everything to Him. But be careful: the greater the humility, the greater the temptation." This was the beginning of the ministry of miracles.
The first place Katherine went to after her divorce was Franklin, Pennsylvania, where she held a series of meetings. Rumors of her association with Waltrip continued to haunt Kuhlman, and this greatly hindered her ministry. But she still tried to restore her collections. The turning point finally came in 1946, when Matthew Maloney, owner of the Gospel Tabernacle in Franklin, invited her to his place. At the same time, Katherine began to preach on the radio in Pennsylvania. A few weeks later, her program began to appear regularly on the Pittsburgh station, and in 1948 Kuhlman began holding meetings in neighboring cities, including Pittsburgh.
Previously, Katherine was a true evangelist and limited her sermons to the transmission of the Good News of salvation. In Franklin, she once spoke about healing and invited people to come forward, not only those who want to be reconciled to Christ, but those who need healing. From that day on, she began to explore how God's power works in this direction more carefully. In 1947 Katherine began to preach about the Holy Spirit. During the first meeting, a woman was healed of a tumor just by listening to her preach. In another meeting, another man was healed. These events marked the beginning of Kathryn Kuhlman's healing ministries.
Soon she had to leave the Evangelical Tabernacle due to contract disputes, and the ministry temporarily moved to the building of the old ice rink, which then became known as the Temple of Faith. Katherine wanted to stay in Franklin and ignored all offers to move the services to Pittsburgh. She continued to hold meetings in the Temple of Faith until one day the roof collapsed there. Then Kuhlman moved its headquarters to Pittsburgh. In 1943, one first came here with a series of sermons and then, in 1948, decided to hold meetings in Pittsburgh at Cornegy Hall. They were very successful, and upon her return to Franklin, she expanded her ministry even further. Her radio programs were now broadcast to other areas, and she began to hold meetings in the surrounding cities, as well as in Youngstown, Ohio. In the late 1950s, Katherine moved to Pittsburgh entirely after the roof of the Temple of Faith failed to withstand the weight of a snowdrift. Her office was at Carlton House and meetings were held at Cornegy Hall until 1971.
Kathryn Kuhlman was strongly urged to move to Pittsburgh, she was praised in the newspapers, and her ministry was very successful, but it should be noted that in the city, although not maliciously, they were still not liked. The local pastors did not like that Katherine was taking away their parishioners. She always managed to hush up all the stories, and not without the help of the mayor of the city. Other conflicts also arose. She was invited by Rex Humbard to attend their meetings in Akron, Ohio. She went and unknowingly stepped into the territory of the fundamentalist preacher Dallas Billington, who dragged Katherine into a long argument, questioning the healings in her ministries, and arguing that a woman should not be a minister. (Kulman was ordained in 1968 by the Evangelical Alliance of Churches.) In the heat of the struggle, there was an episode of a $5,000 prize for anyone who could prove that healing could be done through his prayer, and the story of Catherine's marriage to a divorced evangelist resurfaced.
In 1965 Kuhlman began ministry in California and Pasadena. Meetings were soon held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, which continued until 1975.
In Kuhlman's services, the choir and the whole congregation sang, there was a call to be born again, the Holy Spirit acted, healings took place, there was a special time when people could come forward and talk about how they received healing, or ask Katherine to pray for them. When she began to pray and laid hands, people were "dying" of the Holy Spirit or "coming into" power; it is something like what the apostle Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. One of Katherine's helpers caught people before they fell to the floor, and the service continued. Kuhlman emphatically did not claim that she healed, all the glory was given to God. Her healing ministry and association with leading charismatic ministers has made her the leader of the entire charismatic movement. Katherine's activities also included speaking regularly at Full Gospel Business Men's meetings and running the Melodiland Charismatic Clinic, a charismatic center in California. She always urged people to seek the blessings of the Holy Spirit and the gift of speaking in tongues.
Kathryn Kuhlman's fame grew with her ministry, both because of the healings that accompanied her meetings and because of the media attention she received. To expand her ministry, she began making a television program in 1965 on CBS with Dick Ross as her producer. she was regularly mentioned in the press, there were articles in People, Christianity Today, Time; television did not pass her by: she appeared on the Johnny Carson show, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, Dinah Shore. Katherine dated many celebrities, showmen and religious leaders, such as Pope Paul VI in 1972. As in the past, press coverage of her has not always been positive. In 1974, for example, William Nollen, a physician, wrote a book in which he questioned the reality of healings at her meetings and described Kuhlman as completely ignorant of medicine. She was not left without support in her dispute with this man. Richard Cusdodrf, another doctor, took Kuhlman's side and met with Nolen on The Michael Douglas Show to refute his accusations. Katherine has always enjoyed using the live broadcast, but hesitated to tape her services. On only four occasions did she allow this: at the Melodiland Charismatic Convention, at the World Conferences with the Holy Spirit in 1974 and 1975, and at one service in Las Vegas.
Kuhlman was extremely popular for her healing ministries. She was honored on the 25th anniversary of her work in Pittsburgh, on which occasion a memorial medal was issued by Evangelos Frudakis. Katherine was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Oral Roberts University in 1972, she was given the token key to the cities of Pittsburgh and St. Louis, she was an honorary member of the New York Full Gospel Business Men's Society, the city of Los Angeles conferred her an award, she was included in "Who's who" of the state of California and "Who's who" of America.
Kuhlman suffered from an enlarged heart, which was diagnosed in 1955. The disease became especially acute in the last few years of her life. It only added fuel to the fire with the tension associated with her tight schedule, especially in the 70s, when she had to travel around the country. She also continued her television ministry and visited organizations supported by her foundation. Kathryn Kuhlman died on February 20, 1976 in Tulsa, right after heart surgery.
To this day, people continue to wonder at the Kathryn Kuhlman phenomenon, often wondering what is the secret of her ministry? She herself often repeated this: "Neither silver vessels nor golden vessels. He needs obedient vessels. The whole secret is in obedience to the Lord. I am completely dependent on the Holy Spirit. There is a place in Him where I can only come when I die. But remember : Kathryn Kuhlman has nothing God wouldn't give you if you paid the price... it's expensive, but worth it. It'll take everything from you, absolutely everything."
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“Hundreds have been healed just by sitting quietly in the auditorium without any demonstration or anything like that. Without anything. Very often there was not even a sermon. Sometimes not even a single song was sung.
No loud demonstrations, no loud calls to God as if He were deaf. Not a cry, not an exclamation, in the stillness of His presence. Hundreds of times the presence of the Holy Spirit was so real that one could almost hear the beating of thousands of hearts as one.”
In this complete silence, a voice says: "I believe in miracles." Suddenly there is deafening applause, and thousands of people see a tall, slender figure emerging from the shadows in a white flowing dress. She slides to the center of the stage, and another service of miracles by Kathryn Kuhlman begins.
In her international ministry, Miss Kuhlman has laid the foundation for the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of untold thousands around the world. Her unique ministry shifted the focus of the body of Christ from the outward manifestation of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit back to the GIVER of the gifts, the Holy Spirit.
The prophetic tone of her ministry anticipated what the Church would be like in the times to come. Her ministry was literally the forerunner of the Church of the future.
Although she called herself an "ordinary person", Katherine was unique. Many tried to imitate her voice and her theatrical manner, but to no avail. Others have tried to turn her special anointing into techniques and methods, but have failed.
Red hair and freckles
The city of Concordia in Missouri was founded by German immigrants who began to come here in the late 30s of the last century. Catherine's mother Emma Walkenhorst married Joseph Kuhlmann in 1891. According to her high school record, Katherine Joanna Kuhlman was born on May 9, 1907, on the family farm about five miles from Concordia. Katherine got her name in honor of her two grandmothers. She never had a birth certificate because Missouri law did not require one until 1910.
When Katherine was two years old, her father sold the one hundred and sixty acre farm and built a large house in the city. It was the house that Katherine had always called "hers."
A school friend described Katherine this way: “…Long wavy red hair and freckles. It cannot be said of Katherine that she was beautiful. She was not graceful or feminine in the fullest sense of the word, she was taller than the others "in our company" (five feet six inches), angular and boyish in build, and she walked with such long strides that we could hardly keep up. from her".
As a little girl, Katherine was distinguished by "independence, self-confidence and the desire to do things her own way." She circled "daddy" around her little finger, getting almost everything she wanted from him. According to Katherine, she only received punishment from her mother, a tough woman who never praised Katherine or paid any attention to her. But Katherine didn't feel unloved or unwanted. Her father gave her all the love and affection she needed. She adored her dad so much that even thirty years after his death, tears welled up in her eyes when she talked about him.
One day, when Katherine was about nine years old, she wanted to do something nice for her mother's birthday. She decided that she would give her a holiday party.
But Katherine didn't think that her mother's birthday was on a Monday. She went around to all the neighbors and asked them to come on Monday with cakes.
Monday at the Kuhlmans' house was laundry day. Every other day of the week, Emma dressed head to toe in her finest clothes. You never know when unexpected guests might arrive, and she was horrified at the thought of anyone seeing her in her work attire.
Monday came and Emma Kuhlman got dressed for the laundry. She toiled barefoot over a hot tub with disheveled, sweaty hair in wet, dirty clothes. There was a knock on the door, she went to open it and saw the neighbors dressed in their best outfits. And in front of them stood Emma, drooping and tired from washing. Emma was humiliated and promised Katherine through gritted teeth that she would deal with her later.
And she broke up with her! Emma Kuhlman made it so that Katherine had to eat standing up (she could not sit down) all the cakes that the neighbors brought for her birthday!
Katherine's father taught her the principles of business. He owned a stable. She liked to go with him when he collected the bills, and later said that she owed all her business knowledge to him.
"Dad! Jesus entered my heart!”
Katherine was fourteen years old when she was born again. She told the story many times in her life about how she responded to what seemed to come directly from the Holy Spirit Himself, and not from any person. She came from a "religious" rather than a spiritual background, and the church she attended never called to the altar to receive salvation.
Katherine later wrote of this:
“I was standing next to my mother, and the church clock showed five minutes to twelve. I don't remember the minister's name or even the words of his sermon, but something happened to me. It's as real to me now as it was then - it's the most real thing that's ever happened to me.
Standing there, I shook so that I could no longer hold the hymnal. I laid him on the bench... and sobbed. I felt the heaviness (of condemnation) and realized that I was a sinner. I felt like the most insignificant person in the world. However, I was only fourteen years old.
I realized that there was only one thing I had to do: I slipped from where I was standing, went to the front row, sat down on a bench and cried. Oh, how I cried!
I was the happiest person in the world. The burden was lifted from me. I experienced something that never left me again. I was born again and the Holy Spirit did exactly what Jesus said about Him in John 16:8″4.
According to her, she rushed to him and said: "Daddy ... Jesus just entered my heart."
Without any emotion, he simply said, "I'm glad."
Katherine recalls that she was never quite sure whether her father understood or not what she meant. Logically, she should have joined her father's Baptist church, not her mother's Methodist church. But even then, she made her own decisions.
Katherine says she was never sure if her father was born again. Sometimes she expressed confidence in this, but in private she sometimes expressed doubts.
Katherine, however, was well aware of her father's strong dislike of preachers. In fact, she said, he even despised preachers. If Joseph Kuhlman saw a preacher walking down the street, he would cross to the other side so as not to speak to him. He thought that all preachers "preach for the money." He attended church only on holidays or on special occasions when Katherine recited there. As far as she knew, he never prayed or read the Bible.
Their first hug
Going to church was just as important as going to work, Katherine said. She attended the Methodist Church with her mother. It was there that in 1921 she was born again, but since 1922 the whole family was listed as members of the Baptist church. Although she came from a certain denominational background, her ministry in later years became ecumenical, and she was at ease in all churches, from Pentecostal to Catholic. Confessional barriers did not constrain the ministry of Kathryn Kuhlman. She refused to be part of any denomination and did not associate her ministry with any organization. She connected herself only with God.
When Katherine was a teenager, her mother taught young people at the Methodist church. A neighbor said that Mrs. Kuhlman was "an excellent Bible teacher, and Katherine and her sister and brother must have received a very good upbringing at home." The neighbor also said that he heard how in the family of Katherine someone sang in the evenings and someone else played the piano.
Although her mother was an excellent church teacher, she was not actually born again until 1935 during one of Katherine's Denver meetings.
Katherine invited her mother to one of her services. After the first meeting, Katherine entered the prayer room behind the pulpit to pray for those who had responded to the invitation to be saved. Then the mother came into the prayer room, saying that she wanted to know Jesus the way Katherine knows Him.
“Catherine, moved to tears, reached out her hand and laid it on the back of her mother's head. The moment her fingers touched her mother, she trembled and began to cry. It was the same trembling and crying that Katherine remembered standing behind her mother in the small Methodist church in Concordia. But this time there was something new. The mother raised her head and began to speak, slowly at first and then faster. But the words weren't English, they were clear, ringing words in an unknown language.
Katherine fell to her knees beside her, laughing and crying at the same time. Opening her eyes, Emma reached out to Katherine and hugged her tightly. For the first time in Catherine's memory, her mother hugged her.
After that, the mother did not sleep for three days and two nights. She became a new person, and for the rest of her life in Concordia, Emma Kuhlman had a beautiful, loving relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Evangelist servant
Those who are powerfully used by God are distinguished by their willingness to leave everything behind and follow His leading. In 1913, older sister Katherine Myrtle married a young, handsome evangelist who had just completed a course at the Moody Bible Institute. Myrtle and her husband, Everett Parrot, began an evangelistic tent ministry. About ten years later, in 1924, Catherine and Myrtle convinced their parents that it was God's will for Catherine to go with them.
During this time, the Parrot family, who lived in Oregon, met Dr. Charles S. Price, who was leading a healing service. He introduced them to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Although the experience itself was wonderful, the Parrot family's marriage was not a happy one, and now financial difficulties have been added to their problems.
Because of all these circumstances, Katherine could begin to feel sorry for herself. Instead, she tried to keep herself occupied with the Parrot household, taking over all the laundry on Mondays and ironing all the laundry on Tuesdays.
Part of her character
At this time, Catherine learned not only to endure in adverse conditions, but also not to give place to self-pity. Later, many of her sermons came from her personal spiritual growth in these areas. For Katherine, self-pity and self-absorption were one and the same. It is clear that as a teenager she decided not to allow any of these qualities to have a place in her life, no matter what happens to her.
“Be careful of people, be it your family members, or co-workers, or your employees, be careful of people who can't say 'I'm sorry'. Such people are very egocentric.
That's why I repeat thousands of times that the only person Jesus cannot help, the only person who has no forgiveness of sins, is the one who doesn't say, "I'm sorry for my sins." ... Such a self-centered person usually attracts diseases to himself like a magnet.
Katherine realized early on that self-centeredness, together with all the sins associated with the "ego", such as self-pity, self-indulgence, or even self-hatred, cause a person to judge or condemn himself. And this prevents the Holy Spirit from working in a person's life.
Katherine has always said that anyone can experience the Holy Spirit in their lives if they are willing to pay the price.
“Paying the price” is not a one-time experience. It starts with a genuine commitment, a decision to follow God every day of your life.
There were many times when Katherine might decide not to acknowledge the corrections made by the Holy Spirit. But, fortunately for the body of Christ today, she made the right choice and thus left us an example that we can follow.
Nothing more to preach
Katherine spent five years with her sister and her husband preparing the foundation for her own ministry. She worked around the house so that her presence was not burdensome and spent much of her time reading and studying the Word.
In 1928, the Parrot family arrived in Bois, Idaho. By this time they had purchased a tent and had a pianist named Helen Gulliford. But their family problems continued to escalate. So they decided that Everett would go to South Dakota and Katherine, Myrtle, and Helen would stay in Boise and hold services there.
After two weeks, the donation was enough to pay the rent of the building, their modest housing, and food. They lived poorly on bread and fish.
Myrtle soon felt she must join her husband. But Katherine and Helen saw no hope for their future in continuing to travel with the Parrot family. So, like Paul and Barnabas in New Testament times, they decided to split up. A local pastor in Boise invited them to preach in a small swimming pool turned into a mission—and that was the start of Kathryn Kuhlman's ministry.
After the "little pool" they moved to Pocatello, Idaho, where Katherine preached in an old opera house. The building was dirty and needed to be cleaned up first. You can guess who was doing the washing - the evangelist, of course. From there, at the end of the winter, they drove to Twin Falls, Idaho, where Katherine slipped on the ice and broke her leg. Although the doctor warned her not to walk for two weeks, she immediately continued preaching with her leg in a cast. She never allowed her flesh to force her to compromise doing the will of God.
Once Katherine said:
“From that first sermon in Idaho—Zacchaeus in the tree, and God knows if anyone else was in the tree, but I'm sure I was there—I know for a fact that I'm totally committed to God. Jesus became a reality for me. And my heart is in the right position."
After four or five sermons, she said humorously:
“… I thought: “What else can I preach about?” There is nothing else in the Bible. I have absolutely exhausted my supply of sermons. In all my life, I cannot think of anything else to preach about…”
Strong and strong in the turkey house
Many times in those early years they had to live in extremely miserable conditions, to say the least. Once in the house where they agreed to stay, there was no place. Then they cleaned out the turkey house. Katherine often said that she would have loved to sleep on a haystack, so strong was her need to preach. Later, she often laughed and told how she closed the doors and did not allow anyone to go out until she was sure that everyone had been saved. It was a joke, however, she really could stand at the altar until the morning, praying with anyone who did not succeed.
The other places where Katherine stayed might not be as dirty as the turkey house, but they lacked heat. In those days, guest rooms were not heated. Later, she told how she curled up under a pile of blankets to somehow warm the place where she lay. Then she would turn on her stomach and read the Word of God sometimes for hours on end.
Her heart was "sold" to the Lord. This was the secret of her ministry. Her heart was set on Jesus. She decided to be faithful to Him and not grieve the Holy Spirit.
In her early years in the ministry, Katherine developed two other character traits—dedication to the cause and loyalty to God and His people. Based on her inherent character, Katherine expanded and developed her spiritual understanding.
Loyalty Katherine
What does dedication to one's calling preserve in a person? Katherine's answer is "loyalty."
“The word fidelity doesn’t make much sense these days because it’s rare… Loyalty is something incomprehensible… It’s like love. It can only be understood when it manifests... Love is an action, the same applies to loyalty. This is honesty. This is devotion. This is a dedication.
... My heart is constant. I will be loyal to him no matter the cost. Loyalty is much more than a casual interest in someone or something. This is a personal dedication. Ultimately, it means, “Here I am. You can count on me I will not fail you".
In other words, for those who are called to the ministry, true faithfulness is expressed in the determination never to depart from God's call. Don't add to it or subtract from it - just do it. According to Katherine, when people start doing their own thing, their loyalty shifts from God to themselves.
I want it to be big
After preaching in Idaho, Katherine and Helen moved to Colorado. After spending six months in Pueblo, they arrived in Denver. Businessman Earl F. Hevit joined her in Pueblo, becoming her manager. In 1933, the Depression was in full swing. Businesses closed, millions lost their jobs, and churches struggled to survive.
Katherine was a traveling evangelist without any financial backing from any denomination, yet she believed in a great God whose resources are limitless. She believed that if you serve a God with limited financial means, then it means that you serve the wrong god. She lived by the principles of faith and trust in God.
She told Hevit to go to Denver and act like they had a million dollars. When he reminded her that they actually only had $5, she replied:
“He (God) is not limited to what we have or who we are. He can use our five dollars and multiply it just as easily as He multiplied five loaves and two fish... Go to Denver. Find the biggest building. Get the best piano for Helen. Fill the room with chairs. Put a big ad in the Denver Post and advertise on all the radio stations. This is God's work, and we will do it God's way - big!"
Hevit took her at her word and followed her instructions. The building he rented was a large warehouse for the Montgomery Ward Company. The services continued for five months, and they rented another storage room. One hundred and twenty-five people attended on the first evening, and over four hundred on the second evening. Then the room was filled to capacity every evening. Five months later Katherine announced that the services were over, but the people didn't want to hear it. One of them offered to pay for a permanent building and place a large neon sign over it: "Prayer makes a difference."
People yearned for the Word of God. However, its main message in those years was about salvation. From time to time pastors were born at her invitation to accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Katherine's ministry was a ministry of hope and faith. During this time, Helen organized a hundred-member choir and composed most of the music they sang.
With such a great response to her ministry, Katherine agreed to stay in Denver. Everything seemed to be going great, so they decided to find a permanent place. Then, suddenly, tragedy came from an unexpected quarter.
Papa is gone
Catherine experienced her first major trauma in late December 1934, when her beloved father died. She later learned that during a heavy snowstorm, he fell on an icy street and was hit by a car that skidded while she tried to go around him.
Due to this blizzard, several hours passed before friends were able to contact Katherine in Colorado. After learning that her father was close to death, she drove home, driving at full speed from Denver through Kansas towards Missouri. She said that only God knew how fast she was driving on icy roads in almost zero visibility.
On December 30, Katherine arrived in Kansas City. From there she called home to tell her father that she was almost home, only to learn that he had died that morning.
She arrived home and saw that her father was lying in the living room in a coffin, near which mourners were sitting. The injury was almost unbearable for Katherine. Hatred arose in her for the young man who was driving the car that hit his father.
“I have always been a happy person, and my dad helped me to be happy. Now he was gone, I was fighting a strange feeling of fear and hatred I didn't know. I had the most perfect father a girl can have. In my eyes, dad could do nothing wrong. He was my ideal."
Katherine left home more than nine years ago and has visited her family only occasionally over the years. Now the father will never be able to hear her sermon. Later, she said that hatred for the young man who knocked her father boiled in her, and she spewed this poison on everyone - right up to the day of the funeral.
“Sitting there in the front row of this little Baptist church, I still refused to accept my father's death. This could not be… One by one, my relatives got up from their seats and approached the coffin. My two sisters, my brother. Only I remained on the bench.
“Sitting there in the front row of this little Baptist church, I still refused to accept my father's death. It couldn't be…”
The funeral director came up to me and said, "Catherine, don't you want to see your father before I close the casket?"
Suddenly I realized that I was standing and looking down - my eyes were riveted not to the face of the pope, but to his shoulder, to the shoulder that I so often clung to ... I leaned over and gently put my hand on his shoulder in the coffin. And when I did that, something happened. My fingers stroked only the suit… in this drawer lay just something unnecessary, once loved, but now put aside. Dad wasn't there.
For the first time, the power of the resurrected Christ really passed through me. I no longer feared death... when my fear disappeared, so did my hatred. Dad wasn't dead. He was alive."
Updated and smiling
Katherine returned to Denver with renewed understanding and compassion. After her return, they found the right building, and in February 1935, its renovation began. On May 30 of that year, the Denver Revival Tabernacle opened with a huge neon sign over it, as promised, "PRAYER MADE THE POINT." The hall held two thousand seats, and the name of the Tabernacle was visible from a great distance. Over the next four years, Kathryn's meetings were attended by thousands of people from nearby areas. Services were held in the evenings, except Mondays.
The revival center soon became an organized church. She didn't belong to any denomination. Then a Sunday school was opened, a bus service was organized to bring people to the service. Services began in prisons and orphanages. A little later, Katherine began to host a radio program called Always Smile.
In 1936, many musicians and preachers ministered at the Denver Revival Tabernacle. One of them was Raymond T. Ritchie, an eminent evangelist who spent three weeks at the church. Ritchie was a pioneer in the American early healing revival.
Catherine called the trauma of her father's death her "deepest" valley experience, but she had another valley experience that was no less profound.
What is Waltrip?
In 1935, an Austin, Texas evangelist named Burrow A. Waltrip was invited to preach at the Tabernacle. He was a very handsome man eight years older than Katherine. They soon began to feel mutual attraction.
The only problem was that he was married and had two sons, Katherine seemed to be ignoring the warnings of the Holy Spirit telling her that this relationship was a mistake. Shortly after his first visit to Denver, Waltrip divorced his wife and told everyone that his wife had left him. However, his wife Jessie said that Waltrip believed that if a man did not love his spouse at the time of marriage, then there was no covenant, and this makes him free to divorce and remarry. Leaving his wife, Waltrip never returned to her, and his two sons never saw their father again.
Mister "mistake"
Leaving his family, Waltrip moved to Mason City, Iowa, where, posing as a bachelor, he began work on establishing a revival center called Bethesda Radio. He was a preacher with a showy and impressive manner, and started daily programs on Bethesda Radio. Katherine and Helen came to town to help raise funds for the ministry.
Soon the romantic connection between Katherine and Waltrip, whom she nicknamed "Mr.", became known to everyone. Helen and other Denver friends wholeheartedly advised Katherine not to marry the handsome evangelist, but she reasoned that since his wife had left him, he was free to marry.
It should be noted that the details of Waltrip's departure from his wife and his relationship with Kuhlman are not clear. Those who loved and appreciated her ministry kept it all a secret. Obviously, they felt that God forgave Katherine for all the mistakes in this relationship, so the details were not important.
On October 16, 1938, Katherine announced to her Denver congregation that she was going to join "Mr." in Mason City, Iowa. Two days later, on October 18, almost sixteen months after Waltrip's divorce, Katherine and Burrow were secretly married in Mason City.
What was the matter?
Let me stop here for a moment. It wasn't about the divorce. Of course, for religious people and for their hypocritically righteous denominations, this is of great importance, but for God this is not a question. He looks at it very simply. According to the New Testament, there are two reasons for divorce. The first is the immoral behavior of one of the spouses. The second is when one of the spouses leaves the marriage. In such cases, a person is free before God and has a blessing for remarriage. If you have made a divorce decision that is not contrary to the Word of God, then forgiveness, restoration, and a new and clean beginning await you. Hypocritically righteous people and some denominations cannot give you a new start, but God can help you if you seek Him.
Catherine was in a situation where a deceitful spirit of seduction was at work, Waltrip left his wife in Texas and divorced her, which was his first mistake. He then tried to justify her with a false doctrine and deceived those around her. Kuhlman and Waltrip's marriage was completely wrong from the start.
She almost did it...
Katherine believed the man's story that his wife had left him. However, her heart was restless about all their wedding plans. She could not find rest for her spirit. Most believe that "Mr" didn't like Katherine at all. He simply loved her ability to attract people and raise money. He was known for his greed and extravagance. When he married Katherine, he was harassed for debt by people from eight states.
Even "Mr."'s mother asked Katherine not to marry her son. She hoped that he would come to his senses and return to his former wife and children. Why, you may ask, did Katherine marry him?
Before getting married in Mason City, Katherine discussed the matter with her friends Lottie Anthony and Helen. Lottie remembers Katherine saying, "I just don't seem to see the will of God in this matter." The women tried to persuade Katherine to wait and follow the peace of God. But she didn't listen to them.
When the three women stopped in Des Moines on their way to Mayoon City, Helen announced to Katherine that she would not go any further. She stayed at the hotel. Lottie agreed with Helen and also refused to go to the wedding.
But Katherine found another witness for the marriage between her and Waltrip. During the ceremony, Katherine fainted. Waltrip helped her come to her senses so that she could finish the ceremony. The conscious decision to depart from the will of God hung on her like a heavy burden. As the newlyweds drove back to Des Moines after the ceremony, Katherine did an unusual thing. Katherine refused to stay in a hotel room with her new husband. Her close friend Lottie Anthony claims that Katherine jumped in the car and drove to her and Helen's hotel.
Katherine sat in their room, crying and confessing that she had made a mistake and wanted to annul the marriage. Lottie called Waltrip, informing him of Katherine's plans. When Waltrip complained that he had lost his wife, Lottie blurted out: "First of all, she was never yours!"
Three women drove out of Des Moines, hoping to explain the situation to the congregation in Denver. But the meeting didn't give her that chance. People were angry with her for her frivolous behavior and secret marriage. Lottie said that the Denver meeting "had given her back into Waltrip's hands."
Scattered dreams
All the work Katherine had been diligently building for the past five years quickly collapsed. Hevit bought out Katherine's share, and Helen went to work at another small church in Denver. The sheep scattered. Because of this blunder, Katherine lost her church, her close friends, and her ministry. Even her relationship with God suffered because Katherine put "Mr." and his desires ahead of her desire for God.
Katherine Kuhlman, worshiped by some as the "perfect Madonna", was actually a human being subject to human temptations. She was a great woman of God, but what made her great was her choice and her actions to right the wrong. In the midst of sidelong glances, gossip, and rejection, restoring Katherine's ministry required great faith and determination. It is said that her own mistakes produced powerful revelations that filled her sermons on temptation, forgiveness, and victory.
But this action and revelation did not come overnight. In terms of ministry, Katherine spent the next eight years in oblivion. She spent six years married and the next two years trying to find her way back into the full-time ministry. Friends who visited Mason City during the years Catherine lived there said that she used to sit on the stage behind her husband and cry when he preached.
When Mason City learned that Waltrip had lied about his first marriage, they stopped visiting him, and Bethesda Radio soon closed. On several occasions, Waltrip allowed Katherine to serve alone in places where no one knew she was married. On at least one occasion, a series of services was canceled at the last minute when the pastor who had invited her learned from a congregation that Katherine was married to a divorced man.
Pain of dying
In 1944, while they were living in Los Angeles, Katherine left Waltrip, but he did not grant her a divorce until 1947.
On one of the rare occasions when she spoke about those years and what happened then, she said: “I had to make a choice, will I serve the person I love or the God I love? I knew I couldn't serve God and live with "Mr." No one will ever know the pain of dying as I knew it, because I loved it more than life itself. And for a while I loved him even more than God. In the end, I told him that I had to leave him because God never released me from my original calling. I lived not only with him, I had to live with my conscience, and the condemnation of the Holy Spirit was almost unbearable. I'm tired of trying to justify myself."
At one of her last performances, at a question and answer meeting, a young man asked her how "she met her death." He heard that she spoke more than once about this death.
She answered:
“It came through disappointment, great disappointment, and I felt like my whole world had come to an end. It's not what happens to you, it's what you do after it happens. And it goes back to the will of the Lord.
At the time, I felt that what was happening to me was the greatest tragedy of my life. I thought I'd never get up again, never, never. No one will ever know - if you never died - what I'm talking about ... Today I feel that it was part of the perfect will of God in my life.
Katherine has repeatedly said how she suffered for the sake of the ministry. But in fact, other people also suffered. There was a wife left behind in Texas with two little boys in need of an explanation as to why they would never see their dad again. This ordeal brought pain to everyone who knew and loved this couple.
Two sides of a coin
But from the moment she made her decision, Kathryn Kuhlman never again hesitated to answer her life's calling, never backed down from God's path He had set for her, and never saw "Mr." again. She bought a one-way ticket to Franklin, Pennsylvania and never returned.
Katherine was fully restored to her life with God. It was a difficult time for Katherine, but the blessing of God soon came to her. Waltrip's fate remains unclear. He simply vanished from view without even trying to contact his family. According to his ex-wife Jessie, many years later his brother James Waltrip found out that Burrow had met his death in a California prison, convicted of stealing money from a woman.
Exit from the cave
No one knew why Katherine chose Franklin in Pennsylvania to start her "comeback". Franklin was a coal-mining town settled by emigrants from Germany. Perhaps she felt at home there. Maybe because it was accepted there. Whatever the reason, it worked.
From Pennsylvania, through the middle states, she moved south to West Virginia and the Carolinas. In some places she was well received, in others her past quickly came to the surface and services were closed. In Georgia, a newspaper printed the story of her marriage to a divorced man. Katherine had to take the bus back to Franklin.
In 1946, Katherine emerged from the "wilderness" and moved into the "Promised Land" of her true ministry. After a failed trip to the South, she was invited to lead a series of meetings at the 1,500-seat Gospel Tabernacle located in Franklin, Pennsylvania. The Tabernacle was famous because Billy Sunday preached in it. And Katherine's meetings in this building were so glorious, it was as if the last eight years simply didn't exist.
many voices
Shortly after her first service at the Tabernacle, she began broadcasting daily in Oil City, Pennsylvania. The response was so overwhelming that she opened another station in Pittsburgh a few months later.
She was no longer avoided, on the contrary, she was bombarded with mail. The Oil City radio station was eventually forced to keep visitors out of the studio because they interfered with the work of the staff.
World War II had just ended, and much was still missing. Once, during a transmission, Katherine accidentally let slip that she didn't have another pair of stockings, and shortly after that, the station was littered with bags of nylon stockings.
In those days, immediately after the end of the war, the Holy Spirit moved to restore the body of Christ through the gifts of healing. The healing revival was in full swing, and great healings were coming through the ministries of people like Eagle Roberts, William Branham, and Jack Coe. Gordon Lindsay, founder of Voice of Healing magazine and Christ for the Nations Bible School, published messages from these great revivals in Voice of Healing magazine.
During this time, Katherine prayed mainly for the salvation of people. But she began to pray for the sick, laying hands on those who came for healing. Although she despised the term "faith healer," she attended the meetings of these ministers hoping to learn more about this divine phenomenon. Katherine had no idea that "healing ministry" would bring her international fame.
Visiting various tent meetings, Katherine left them with even greater understanding. Although she did not have answers to some questions regarding divine healing, she developed standards for her ministry:
“In my early ministry, I was very disturbed by many of the things I saw in the field of divine healing. I was confused by many of the methods that I saw. I resented the imprudent acts I witnessed, none of which could be traced back to the work of the Holy Spirit or to the nature of God.
... Until today, there is nothing more disgusting for me than a lack of wisdom ... There is one thing that I cannot tolerate, this is fanaticism - a manifestation of the flesh that discredits what is so amazing and what is so holy.
Katherine continued to talk about the pain in her heart at the sight of such gatherings. Until the end of her life, she exhorted people to focus and concentrate on Jesus and nothing else. After attending a tent meeting in Ira, Pennsylvania, she said:
“I started crying. I couldn't stop. Those looks of despair and disappointment on the faces of those I saw, when they were told that their lack of faith kept them from God, haunted me for weeks. Was this God all-merciful and compassionate? I left the tent, and with hot tears streaming down my face, I looked up and shouted, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they have put Him."
It is interesting to note that Katherine Kuhlman chose not to associate her ministry with Gordon Lindsay's The Voice of Healing. It was the mouthpiece of the healing evangelists of the time, and Kuhlman decided not to take part in it. Many of these evangelists were sincere and honest, but others were sensationalist and used dubious methods in their meetings.
Here come the miracles!
When Katherine saw in the Word of God that healing is given to the believer as well as salvation, she began to understand the relationship of Christians and the Holy Spirit. In 1947 she began a series of lectures on the Holy Spirit. Some of the things she said in her first meeting were a revelation even to her. She later said that she stayed up all that night, praying and reading the Word.
On the second evening something amazing happened. An extraordinary testimony of healing was given in the ministry of Kathryn Kuhlman. One woman stood up and said she was healed while Katherine was preaching last night. No one laid hands on her, and even Katherine did not know what was happening, yet the woman was healed of the tumor. Before going to the evening service, she received confirmation of her healing from the doctors.
The next Sunday the second miracle happened. A veteran of the First World War, who was declared completely blind due to a work injury, recovered 85 percent of his vision in the damaged eye, and 100 percent in the other.
Shark, Sheriff and Glory
When healings and miracles began to happen, there were even more people in the Tabernacle than under Billy Sunday. God gave Kathryn Kuhlman's ministry a great success, but diabolical adversaries appeared who sought to nullify the operation and flow of the Holy Spirit in Kathryn's meetings.
The blow came through M. D. Maloney and the Trustees of the Tabernacle. Maloney began to demand a certain percentage of all ministry income, including that from radio broadcasts and mail. Katherine refused, and Maloney threatened to sue her.
This "controversy" was accompanied by the fact that Maloney locked the doors of the building and did not let her inside. A fight between Katherine's coal mine supporters and Maloney's people ended with Katherine's supporters breaking down the doors and services resumed. They continued there until Katherine's followers raised $10,000 and purchased the old inline skating hall. They called it the Temple of Faith. It was twice the size of the Maloney building and filled to capacity from the first service.
Ironically, it was during this turbulent and critical period in 1947 that another amazing thing happened. One evening, at her home, Katherine heard a knock on the door. When she opened the door, the sheriff was standing in front of her, dressed in uniform. He had come to tell her that "Mr." had filed for divorce in Nevada, that the papers had arrived at his office that morning, and that she was now the defendant.
Katherine looked down and saw the papers in his hand. She stood without lifting her face. Seeing her shame and disappointment, the sheriff took her hand. He attended the meetings of Catherine Kuhlman and understood that she was sent to them by God. Knowing that the names of popular people from divorce papers often end up in the press, the sheriff decided to keep them confidential by putting them directly into her hands.
He also assured her that no one but the two of them would ever know about it. Katherine told the sheriff that she would be grateful to him for the rest of her life.
His kindness saved Katherine from a great heartache. Seven years after that, reporters did unearth the story, but by that time Katherine's ministry had become so broad that the old cases were not reflected in it.
Great healing services continued in the new hall and began to spread to neighboring cities, reaching as far as Youngstown, Ohio. The Holy Spirit found a ministry that did not try to take credit for His works or the glory of the results of His actions.
The former secretary recalls:
“Miss Kuhlman was so tender to God. I was at the Tabernacle after the service and stopped by the radio studio. Miss Kuhlman, not knowing anyone was seeing her, was on her knees praising God for her service."
As the ministry grew, she began to emphasize not faith but the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. There were no prayer cards in her meetings, no tents for the disabled, no lines of the sick waiting for her to lay hands on them. She never blamed people for failing to receive healing because of their weak faith. It seemed that the healings could take place anywhere in the auditorium as the people sat in their seats, looking up at the sky and focusing on Jesus.
The roof has collapsed
Before her first service at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh, the caretaker told her that even opera stars did not fill the hall, but she ordered that enough chairs be installed to fill the entire hall. She acted prudently - there were no empty seats.
At the first afternoon service, the hall was filled to capacity. In order to receive all comers, the second service was held that evening. The music ministry was led by Jimmy Miller and Charles Beebe, who stayed with Katherine until the very end.
The radio ministry continued to expand, and in November 1950 Catherine was asked to move to Pittsburgh permanently. Even Maggie Hartner, the woman who became her right hand, agreed that they should move. Katherine lingered, feeling devoted to the people in Franklin who stayed with her and supported and loved her when no one else did.
But signs from heaven prompted Katherine to move to Pittsburgh. In response to requests that she move in, Katherine announced:
"No! The roof of the Temple of Faith would have to literally collapse for me to believe that God wants me to move to Pittsburgh.”
On the Thanksgiving holiday in 1950, the roof of the temple collapsed under the weight of snow after the worst snowfall in the history of the area.
Three weeks later, Katherine moved to Pittsburgh, a suburb of Fox Chapel, where she lived until her death.
"I want to be like Amy"
In 1950, a worldwide ministry began to unfold. At the end of her life, Katherine said that God did not call her to build a church. She argued that her ministry should not be limited to any building. Someone may be called to build buildings, but she is not one of them.
The fact that she actually built churches is greatly obscured by the fame of her miraculous ministries. The Pittsburgh-based Kathryn Kuhlman Foundation has funded more than twenty churches with local pastors in foreign mission fields.
Many called her "pastor" out of love and respect, but after Denver, she never pastored a church again. Katherine was saying that she was not called to the fivefold ministry of Ephesians 4:11. She walked in simplicity to be a "handmaid" of the Lord.
Those close to her said that early in her ministry, Katherine announced that she would be next after Amy Semple McPherson, founder of the Foursquare Gospel denomination. Amy was definitely a model for Katherine. When the brilliant "sister" built the Angelic Temple in Los Angeles, Katherine was there at the height of her popularity. It is said that Katherine attended Amy's Bible School and sat on the balcony of her church, soaking up every touch of the "sister's" anointed sermons and stage techniques. Unlike other students at this Bible School, Katherine chose not to stay with the Foursquare Gospel denomination. She chose an independent path. It is interesting to note that Rolf, the son of Amy Semple MacPherson, does not remember Katherine being a student at the school.
Although she never met Amy in person, her ministry had an undeniable impact on Katherine. But there was a significant difference between the two: Amy taught people to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, while Katherine taught that “seeking” it was an invented practice. Katherine was a Pentecostal, but she didn't put an end to it. People have always compared Katherine to Amy, but it was six years after Amy's death before Katherine's name started making national headlines.
Church on air
Her sermons were heard throughout the United States and in various places abroad through shortwave broadcasts. It seemed that all of America was looking forward to this warm, pleasant voice that asked listeners at the beginning of the program: “Hi, were you waiting for me?”
Her radio programs were not religious or boring. On the contrary, the listeners felt as if Kathryn Kuhlman had just dropped in for a cup of coffee. She ministered to the needs of the people, their concerns and concerns, and her encouragement changed the lives of those who listened. She often joked, as if making it clear that the conversation was heart-to-heart. If she wanted to scream, she screamed; if she wanted to sing, she sang. Kathryn knew how to serve on the radio as well as she served in the public. Few could do it the way Katherine did. The Kuhlman Foundation has been receiving requests for recordings of old radio performances for six years after her death!
For more than eight years before her death, her telecasts were broadcast throughout the country. In those years, her serial half-hour programs were the longest among those recorded on CBS, although they were transmitted on a different channel.
Everything must be done as Katherine wants
Her meetings moved from Carnegie Hall to the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, and for many years these meetings were attended by the most famous and respected Bible teachers in Pittsburgh. For the last ten years of her life, she held monthly meetings in Los Angeles, where she ministered to countless thousands and where hundreds of people were healed. She has also spoken in large churches, at conferences and international meetings. She particularly enjoyed serving at meetings of the Full Gospel International Business Fellowship founded by Demos Shakarian in Los Angeles.
Several years passed before Katherine agreed to lead miracle meetings at conferences. She felt that the conference schedule, with schedules and time limits, could limit the freedom of the Spirit, which was central to her ministries.
If someone wanted Katherine to perform with him, he had to adapt to her. She knew that God had called her to serve in a certain way and that there should be no change. If it seemed to her that her freedom was being restricted, or if there were questionable individuals who could spoil her ministry, she canceled it. It was even said that "the chiefs were no longer chiefs" when Katherine was present.
She died a thousand times
Katherine has never preached against smoking or drinking. She did not defend their use, but did not want to alienate people. She also did not like the manner in which some of the healing evangelists ministered. Katherine considered her "rude" and did not support this type of ministry.
She never taught that sickness is from the devil. She avoided the subject, preferring to point out how great God is. She felt that if she could turn people's eyes to God, then everything would fall into place. In her early ministry, she encouraged people to leave their denominations. In her later years, she encouraged them to come back and be there as a shining light and healing power.
It is said that prayer was her life. She was constantly on the move and had no fixed time or place for her, so she learned to make her prayer room wherever she was. Before the services, Katherine could be seen "walking back and forth, now raising and lowering her head, now raising her hands up, then folding them behind her back." Her face was covered with tears. She seemed to be pleading with the Lord, saying, "Good Jesus, don't take your Holy Spirit from me."
Such a deep prayer, it would seem, should be purely personal, but with Katherine it was not so. Many times she was interrupted by some question to which she answered, and then plunged into the same depth of prayer from which she was brought out. Eagle Roberts described her relationship with the Holy Spirit in this way:
“It was like they were talking to each other, and you couldn't tell where Katherine started and where the Holy Spirit continued. It was unity."
People from all walks of life and denominations came to her meetings. Catholics, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Baptists, drunkards, the sick, the dying, the deeply spiritual and the unconverted, and Katherine knew she was the vessel to point them to God. She knew how to cross boundaries and bring everyone to the same level of understanding. How did she do it? I think that this happened due to complete surrender to the Holy Spirit. She always said: I die a thousand times before every service.
As an ecumenical evangelist, Katherine never allowed the gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation, or prophecy to operate in her services. If someone continued to speak loudly in tongues, disturbing others, she imperceptibly removed the person from the hall. Katherine believed in all the gifts of the Spirit, but did not want to do anything that would interfere with her approach to simple faith in God.
However, it allowed people to be "laid down in the Spirit." Many have begun to believe in the awesome power of God after witnessing just this one manifestation.
“I believe that our human being cannot bear the fullness of the power of God, and when we plug into that power, we simply cannot bear it. We feed on low voltage, and God is high voltage through the Spirit.”
She never left the stage, even when musicians or soloists were serving. She usually stopped at the side of the stage, but always remained in full view of the audience, smiling and raising her hands to God.
Katherine always knew that one day she would stand before God and give Him an account of her ministry. She never believed that she was God's first choice for this ministry, She believed that other people were called to do it, but they were not willing to pay the price, She never had enough confidence that she was even a second or third choice, but she knew she had answered yes to the Lord. Her ministry appears to be one of the leading ministries, if not just the leading ministry of the charismatic movement.
Impossible to list everything
What amazing miracles were performed? Although performed by the thousands, Katherine's biggest miracle was being born again. On one occasion, a five-year-old boy, crippled from birth, walked up to Catherine's stage unaided. In another case, a disabled woman, chained to a wheelchair for twelve years, entered the stage without even leaning on her husband's arm. A man in Philadelphia, who had been fitted with a pacemaker eight months ago, felt intense pain in his chest when Katherine laid her hands on him. When he returned home, he found that the scar on his chest where the stimulator had been placed had disappeared, and he could not tell if it was working. Later, when the doctor took an x-ray, he found that the stimulator was not there and that the man's heart was healed .
It was common for tumors and cancer to disappear, for the blind to see and the deaf to hear. The headaches stopped immediately. Even bad teeth were restored in a divine way. It is simply impossible to list all the miracles that happened in the meetings of Kathryn Kuhlman. Only God knows everything.
Katherine wept for joy as she saw thousands healed by the power of God. People even remember how her tears fell on their hands.
It is also said that Katherine wept when she saw people leaving unhealed or in wheelchairs. She never tried to explain why some get healed and others don't. She believed it was God's work. She often spoke of herself as a performer rather than an author. Whatever course of action came, she had to obey, but she also said that this would be one of the first questions she would ask God when she got to heaven!
northern explosion
In August 1952, Katherine preached in Akron, Ohio, in Rex Humbard's tent, which could seat more than 1,500 people. Just as dawn broke before Katherine's first Sunday service, the Humbard family was awakened by a loud knock on their RV door. There was a policeman standing there, He said, "Reverend Humbard, we've got to do something. There's about eighteen thousand people gathered outside the tent." The time was four in the morning. The service was not supposed to start until eleven.
Kathryn, who was used to the fact that everyone could not be accommodated under the same roof or in the same tent, told Humbard that the only thing left to do was to start the service at eight in the morning. They did just that. Maud Amy, Rex's wife, recalled that Katherine served until half past three that day.
After these meetings, the Humbard family laid up their mobile home in Akron and subsequently organized one of the largest churches and one of the largest television ministries of the time, i.e., 60s - 70s. After working together in Akron, Catherine became a lifelong friend of the Humbard family.
At this time, Katherine was found to have a dilated heart and a malfunction of the mitral valve. However, she continued to go forward, remaining completely dependent on the Holy Spirit.
Glitter and shooting stars
Now Katherine has become a bright figure, both among Christians and in the world. Screen stars came to her services. Famous actress Phyllis Diller even recommended one of Katherine's books to her dying fan. The Pope granted Katherine a personal audience at the Vatican and presented her with a pendant engraved with a dove. The largest cities in America met her with the "keys" to their city. Even Vietnam gave her a medal of honor for helping the sick.
But at the zenith of glory there were also attacks. Some of them she simply ignored. But there were also those who deeply hurt her. These include the betrayal of her workers Dino Kartsonakis and his son-in-law Paul Bartholomew. In short, Dino and his son-in-law demanded a huge pay raise when they found out that the Kuhlman Foundation had signed a lucrative contract.
Katherine really liked the way Dino performs. There is no doubt that many who attended her meetings remember how warmly she introduced him, opening her arms wide: "And now Dino!" Katherine lifted Kartsonakis out of poverty and brought him into the international ministry. She is said to have dressed him in the finest of outfits and constantly extolled his name to the press.
But Dino fell under the influence of his son-in-law Paul Bartholomew. Bartholomew was the highest paid employee, but he wanted more and filed a lawsuit demanding an outrageous amount of money. In addition, Catherine did not approve of Dino's exposed relationship with a worldly singer, he was offended and also demanded an increase in pay. As a result, Katherine fired both. But before that, they managed to put forward many public accusations against her regarding her character, which the whole world knew about.
In the last years of her life, Catherine did not particularly analyze the nature of her employees. She simply chose people who inspired her sympathy, but often this sympathy did not last long and turned into heartache. Perhaps the errors in the selection of people were due to her emotional and physical fatigue. Her schedule was extremely tight. She was warned that Bartholomew and Kartsonakis should not be involved in the work, but Katherine accepted them anyway, ultimately failing.
Many judgmental mistakes were made, errors of lack of understanding, and people around her made mistakes, but she never allowed the flesh to participate in the movement of the Holy Spirit, and she never took His actions personally. Katherine has always given glory to God.
When the ministry was in full swing, many denominations felt that Katherine was holding the purest ministry of the Holy Spirit of her time. Katherine had no ulterior motives or any obscure actions. People saw what they got. She never pretended to have answers to things she didn't know, and she always worried that she might upset the Holy Spirit in some way. She remained faithful, obedient, honest and sincere until the end of her days.
How can you stay homeless
In 1968, Katherine ministered for Pat Robertson and his assistant Jim Becker in front of over 3,000 people. Shortly after the service began, several rows of the podium collapsed. Many fell to the floor or hung in the air. An ambulance arrived and some were carried away on stretchers. The podium seats were replaced with folding chairs and the service continued, but Miss Kuhlman paid no attention to all this, she was already halfway through her sermon.
In 1968 Catherine went to Israel, Finland and Sweden. She has been a guest at performances by Johnny Carson, Dinah Shore and many others. Katherine was very diplomatic and received in all sorts of circles, yet in all these promotional programs she demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit. It is said that CBS studio workers always knew when Katherine entered the building, at that moment the whole atmosphere changed.
In 1975, although she was in her late seventies and in poor health, Katherine traveled to Jerusalem to speak at the Second World Conference of the Holy Spirit. Despite her age and physical ailment, she looked cheerful when she came to the service.
Katherine learned that Bob Mumford would be one of the keynote speakers and so threatened to withdraw from the conference. She said that his teaching about discipleship was complete heresy and that she would not participate in it. However, Katherine eventually went to Israel and helped many in the Middle East experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
All is well with my soul
Kathryn Kuhlman held her last miracle service in Los Angeles, California on November 16, 1975. After him, a Hollywood office worker, Miss Kuhlman, saw something she would never forget.
When everyone left the hall, Katherine quietly walked to the edge of the stage. She lifted her head and slowly looked around the balcony, as if examining every seat. This went on for what seemed like an eternity. Then Katherine turned her gaze to the second balcony, examining every row and every seat. Then she looked up to the stalls, examining each seat.
We can only imagine what went through Katherine's mind: memories, victories, healings, laughter and tears. Could Katherine know that she would never return to the stage again? Is it possible that at that moment she was saying goodbye to her earthly ministry?
Just three weeks later, Katherine was dying at Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after open-heart surgery.
By this time Katherine had given full control of her ministry to a man named Tink Wilkerson, formerly in the automobile business in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Wilkerson was the son of the late Jeannie Wilkerson, who was a true prophetess of the Lord.
Wilkerson was with Katherine for only ten short months. She trusted Wilkerson. It was he who chose the place where she underwent heart surgery. After her death, she left him the bulk of her fortune. When Kuhlman's former staff began to doubt him, a division occurred. Some thought that Wilkerson deceived Katherine, others believed that he was sent by God for her final hour. However, the media began to fuss about why Wilkerson received so much of her fortune, while Maggie Hartner, her assistant for many years, received so little.
In 1992, Wilkerson was convicted in two district courts in Oklahoma for an old auto fraud. He was due to be released from prison in the summer of 1993, at which time he planned to write a book about his and his wife's friendship with Catherine Kuhlman. All these years, Wilkerson remained silent, perhaps out of respect. I think he has a story to tell.
"I want to go home"
Eagle and Evelyn Roberts were among the few visitors who were allowed to see Katherine at Hillcrest Medical Center. Eagle recalls that when they entered her room and knelt beside her bed to pray for her healing, a momentous thing happened. “When Katherine realized that we had come to pray for her recovery, she put up her hands like a barrier and then pointed to the sky.” Evelyn Roberts looked at her husband and said, “She doesn't want our prayer. She wants to go home."
Sister Katherine Myrtle received the same message from Katherine. She told Wilkerson, "Catherine wants to go home."
The beautiful red-haired woman who introduced the ministry of the Holy Spirit to our generation and stirred the hearts of millions of people finally got her heart's desire. It is said that the Holy Spirit descended upon her once again, and her face shone. A nurse in her room noticed a glow that surrounded her bed and created an incredible peace38. At half past eight, on the evening of Friday, February 20, 1976, Kathryn Kuhlman went home to be with Jesus. She was sixty eight years old.
Eagle Roberts presided over her funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Katherine was buried in the same cemetery, just half a mile from Amy Semple McPherson's grave. After Catherine's death, Orel received a vision that God would raise up and spread ministers like her throughout the world, making the splendor of God's power even greater than He did through Catherine's life.
Catherine Kuhlman was a special treasure. Her ministry paved the way for us to know the Holy Spirit in our generation. She tried to show us how to have fellowship with Him and how to love Him. She really knew how to reveal the Holy Spirit to us as our Friend. Therefore, no one can complete this chapter better than she herself:
“The world called me stupid for giving my life to Someone I had never seen. I know exactly what I will say when I stand in His presence. Looking into the beautiful face of Jesus, I can only say one thing: "I tried." I gave my all as best I could. My redemption will be complete when I stand up and see the One who made this possible.”
