Carrie Judd Montgomery (1858-1946) was one of the most influential people in the Divine Healing Movement who greatly influenced early Pentecostalism. She taught divine healing early on and initiated the 1st healing home on the West Coast, coming 20 years before John G. Lake's. She acted as a catalyst to spread revival fires and passionately pursued the fullness of the Spirit throughout her life. This site exists to recover her forgotten voice in hopes of inspiring a new generation.
This excerpt comes directly from Carrie's autobiography Under His Wings (1936) from a chapter entitled “Ocean Depths of Blessing, and Further Service."
This account happened sometime in the later 1800s when Carrie was likely in her 20s.
“As I went on with the Lord I felt an unspeakable hunger springing up within me for more of God. I hardly knew how to pray, but would sometimes turn to my Heavenly Father and say to Him, ‘What dost Thou want?” ; because it seemed to me it was more His desire to obtain full possession of me than my desire for Himself. Previously I have spoken of the great blessing I received when I was healed, and my consciousness that the Holy Spirit had come to abide with me. Now, it seemed that He was longing to get full control of me and to fill the temple although I scarcely knew how to put this into words.
While still feeling this great hunger after more of God, I heard of Christian people farther East who had had a great anointing from the Lord and my heart cried out for fellowship with these dear people. I heard much about one sister who lived a very victorious life, and who was much used of God in His work. The Christian woman [this was likely Mary H. Mossman] had a Home in New Jersey, where she entertained those who were waiting on the Lord for a deeper spiritual life and for healing of the body. I got in touch with her and made arrangements to go to her for a little stay. I well remember how my hunger seemed to deepen more and more even while I was on the train journeying from Buffalo to this sister’s place of residence.
When I arrived at the Home I was met in the most affectionate and motherly way by this dear saint, who informed me, after she had given me her welcome, that the evening meal was just about ready. My reply to her was as follows:
‘Oh, I do not want anything to eat; I want God.’
She had herself, been led into depths and heights of spiritual blessing, so she thoroughly sympathized with me in the desire which I thus expressed. She left me alone in the upper room waiting on God, while she looked after some household duties, and then she returned to me. We knelt quietly together and I do not remember that there was much, if any, audible prayer by either of us, but the presence of the Lord became more and more manifest as we continued our worship together.
All at once I experienced a blessing that is difficult to put into words. It seemed as though God manifested Himself in a cloud of Heavenly dew which descended gently upon my head and entered into my being, taking full possession of me. At the same time a sweet, restful feeling almost overpowered me so that my own strength somewhat left me and I leaned over and rested my head upon this sister’s shoulder. No words were given me, but the dear one by my side seemed to be so one with me that she fully understood the cloud of glory into which I was entering, for His presence seemed to surround me, and at the same time to fill me.
After a little while something called my friend away from my side, and I lay down upon a bed in the room, still feeling the wonderful presence of the Lord and silently adoring Him. While waiting on the Lord a few more days in this hallowed Home, the manifestation of the Lord’s presence about me, and within me, became still more glorious until my whole being seemed to be filled with ‘rivers of living water’ and Jesus Himself revealed as the One among ten thousand, the Lily of the Valley.
I was so conscious that my body, as well as my soul, became so hallowed with the Lord’s presence that I was made to realize as never before that I was indeed a temple of the Holy Ghost. The Life of God came even into my tongue; not that my tongue moved, but I could feel the moving of God’s life distinctly through that member of my body. I was held silent in adoration of the glorious Being who was thus revealed to me, conscious of great joy in his immediate presence, and especially delighting in the thought of entire yieldedness to His perfect will…
On my way home on the train I had occasion to speak to a lady about her soul and great anointing was upon me as I talked to her, such as I had never experienced before. When I reached my home I quietly confided to my dear mother my joyful experience, and she praised God with me. The power of God continued to rest upon me in my meetings so that it was told me by one of my friends that it was quite noticeable to others who attended the meetings that I had received an anointing which they had never discerned in me before. The Word of God became more and more precious and it was opened to me increasingly as I expounded it to others.”
This account of Carrie hungering after more of God and getting overwhelmed in His glory happened early on in her life. To see another one of her God encounters that happened in 1908 where she also spoke in tongues, see Spirit Flood book, her “Life on Wings: The Possibilities of Pentecost”, or listen to a recording of the article here.
This is a talk in relation to the themes in Spirit Flood given August 18, 2010 at Anaheim Vineyard homegroup in California. You can also download it here. Special thanks to Dave McNutt for the invitation. Azusa Street Revival History. Healing account of Carrie Judd Montgomery. John Wimber. Anaheim Vineyard. Bethel, Redding. Healing of leg at Kris Valloton's house while in line to go to the bathroom! Healing at an academic conference. Healing on the Streets, Birmingham, UK. Spirit Baptism, gift of tongues, Spirit Flood!
Carrie Judd Montgomery and also John Wimber's experience with the Holy Spirit are mentioned. Quotes from John Wimber are taken from his Power Evangelism and the other quote is taken from Spirit Flood by me where Carrie Judd is also quoted from her 1912 article entitled "The Possibilities of Pentecost." Her full article can be found here if interested. Be blessed and be flooded and baptized afresh with the Spirit this day!
This conversation about re-discovering what Spirit baptism looks like for today will cause you to cry out for more than just “fillings” of the Spirit. As Carrie Judd Montgomery once recalled, before her Spirit baptism she had “tiny streams,” but not “rivers of living water.”
The time of breaking the dam has now come.
Even if you have already once experienced the flooding of the Spirit, the rivers of living water are freely available today in new measures to all who ask.
SPIRIT FLOOD is a fusion of PhD research on revivals, a short biography on the most influential woman in the Divine Healing Movement, Carrie Judd Montgomery, and reflections from present day active ministers from around the globe who are hungry to see more of the Spirit’s outpouring for this generation. The essay included here looks at the significance that Spirit baptism played in early Pentecostal history during the Azusa Street Revival and how that emphasis may have declined. By looking at Carrie Judd Montgomery’s experience of Spirit baptism, possible ways that Spirit baptism can re-emerge and be translated into the 21st Century are presented.
SPECS:
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Silver to Gold
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0984237011
ISBN-13: 978-0984237012
Product Dimensions: 6x9 inches
Retail Price: $9.99/ £7.00
Author: Jennifer A. Miskov with Bonnie Inkster and Rosie. McNeil
You can order directly on the right hand-side of this page under the Spirit Flood's cover icon.
I just added some links on the right hand side for anyone interested in reading some of Carrie Judd Montgomery's actual writings. I have found them rich in spiritual insights and very inspiring, they are filled with the Holy Spirit and can speak to us today. I also one of my favorite articles written by CJM following this post. Hope you enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts or discussion.
Blessings,Jen
"If there seems to be even the slightest shadow between my blessed Saviour and myself, I stop everything until it is removed and the fulness of joy is restored, and the brightness of His face shines upon me again. The joy of the Lord is my strength, and if I have not this fulness of joy, which comes from perfect communion through obedience, I have nothing with which I can help other souls.
It is better to tarry day after day if need be, waiting upon Him rather than to try to do the Master's work while His joy is somewhat dimmed."
Excerpt from Triumphs of Faith 36:11 November 1916
The following is one of my all time favorite articles by Carrie Judd Montgomery. She talks about her healing encounter and her Spirit baptism experience then moves on by highlighting that being in His presence is the most important thing of all. Stopping, being still and simply knowing that He is God. She shares her secret of how to walk in His inheritance for our lives.
Carrie Judd Montgomery, “Life on Wings. The Possibilities of Pentecost,” Triumphs of Faith 32:8 (August 1912), article was taken from an address delivered at the Stone Church in Chicago in 1910 and revised by the author (CJM). Transcribed by Jen Miskov.
I want to talk to you about “The Life on Wings.” Read with me Deuteronomy xxxii :9-14. That the Lord’s people are the Lord’s portion is a precious thought, for He left everything in order that He might have this portion. So, I believe the Lord means for us to realize how very, very precious we are to Him. We remember how in our own experience He found us in a “desert land” and in the “waste howling wilderness,” and led us about and instructed us and kept us as the apple of His eye.
Then in this scripture there follows the picture of the eagle stirring up her nest. Many of you have probably read the description as has actually been witnessed by some who have climbed to the dizzy height of rocks and watched the mother eagle break up the nest of her young. The time had come when the mother-bird saw that the eaglets must learn to fly, and in order that they might learn to do this, she took her strong beak and made havoc of the nest; pulled it to pieces in order that the eaglets might no longer have a resting place there. Then she throws the young eaglets out of the nest down over the dizzy precipice, and of course, the little things think they will be dashed to pieces on the great rocks beneath, but with one great swoop the mother-bird sweeps down under them, and the little eaglets, instead of falling down to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below, fall upon the safe, strong wings of the mother.
This is the picture that God gives us as the actual way in which He deals with you and me. We can all of us think as we look back, how He stirred up our nests. We had such nice ones; all fixed up for ourselves. They were softly lined, and cozy and warm, and we expected to stay but God came, spoiled all our plans, broke in pieces the nest and tumbled us out. Why? In order that we might learn to fly; in order that we might find the wings which He had already caused to spring forth within our very hearts, but which we had not learned to use, the wings of faith. I look back and remember how He tore my nest to pieces. I had it all arranged. I had my aspirations and ambitions as a young girl. I knew just what I wanted and what would make me happy, and what, in a vague way, I trusted would make me useful, but God permitted the nest to be pulled to pieces. That awful sickness that followed after I had fallen and injured my spine, those days and nights of suffering, of anguish, of helplessness ; those days when the very room had to be darkened on account of the suffering in my head, were but a mere shadow of the darkness that had come into my life and into my very soul. Through this awful trial it seemed as though everything was lost; I could not see that there ever would be any brightness in life. I was a confirmed helpless invalid. For two years and two months I lay there, being taken down at the age of eighteen, at a time when a girl’s .life usually looks the brightest. Oh, how hard it was! Nobody knows how hard, and I was so hungry after God. My soul was utterly unsatisfied, but God was breaking up the nest of human ambitions, human hopes and aspirations. He knew what He was doing, although I did not.
Job said, “He knoweth the way that I take; when He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold.” He knew the way for Job and He knew it for me also. Now, after all the years of blessing that have been mine since I was so wondrously healed by the Lord, I realize more and more it was because the snug nest in which I thought I was so secure, was broken up. Now I am able to encourage other hearts that are going through the shadow and through the valley. So take heart, dear friends; it is better farther on, for as some one has said, there are two openings to the tunnel. We go in at one end, but there is another end to come out. We may he in the tunnel today, beloved, but the other end is there, and you will go through if you go on with God.
What would my life have been without that stirring up? God only knows, but I know it would not have been what it has been. After the long period of suffering and anguish and the coming down to the very jaws of death, the Lord swept His great eagle wings under the poor little frightened eaglet and I found His great wings to rest upon.
He says in Exodus xix:4, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.” Oh, what a blessed goal! Unto Himself! On the strong eagle wings God bears us unto His very heart of love. Oh what a wonderful day that was when He answered prayer for me! The time had been set for prayer by that dear colored woman, Mrs. Mix. How wonderful it was that we heard about her at all! The Lord knew what the result would be when He let that little account of her healing of consumption in answer to prayer, be published in a Buffalo paper, and let it catch my father’s eye. In those days very little was known, especially in this country, about Divine Healing. Do not think, beloved, we ever had such meetings as these we now enjoy. I would that yet might realize your privileges!
When this dear colored sister in Connecticut wrote and said “The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up,” I didn’t know that was in the Bible. She said, “This promise is for you as though you were the only person living. That was a wonderful thought, and the Lord gave me a mighty inspiration of divine faith I never had before. He revealed Himself to me, raised me up, caused all the diseases to depart in one instant of time, and gave me my first introduction to the Holy Spirit. Oh how wonderful it all was! No words can describe it.
Those days were days of praise when it seemed as though I should call upon everything around to help me praise the Lord. I found the eagle’s wings. At first it seemed as though I only knew the dove wings; they were not very strong; the little attempted flights of faith, in certain directions had to be increased. You remember the Psalmist said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest.” But the dove wings would not take us very far; we need the eagle wings. So through different teachings and especially through many testings and trials of faith, the Lord changed the dove wings into the eagle wings.
But some are saying, “How are we to get this faith?” The only way God can develop our faith is through trial. You ask the Lord to give you a stronger faith, and what does He do? He puts a trial upon the faith you already have. He will take your faith and test it and try it, and you think all is lost, but that very testing and trying of your faith is what brings out the pure gold and causes you to have a stronger faith than ever you had before.
In California we have many gold mines even yet, although they are not so plentiful as they used to be. There are two kinds of mines: one is the placer mine which contains the loose gold mingled with the sand and which therefore can easily be separated; the other is a quartz mine, where the gold is in the rock. When it is free gold it can very easily be separated from the rock, but in many of the mines there is what the miners call rebellious ore; they also call it refractory ore, and when I first heard my husband call the ore rebellious and say it was a technical term they used, I said, “That is just like some people, rebellious ore, refractory ore; the gold is there but very hard to get out.” This gold is so united with baser metals that they must have a different process to get the gold free from the baser ore; they do not care anything about the baser ores, they can be burned up or volatilized, but the miners are after the gold.
Now God is after the gold in us. “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich.” They have different processes now, but one process which is used a good deal is a row of furnaces through which it is put one after the other and each one is hotter than the preceding. We ask to be delivered from one of God’s furnaces and we may get into a hotter one. I visited a mine and I saw the whole process. First, they broke the rock in pieces and then pulverized it, then there were large canvas sheets spread out, slightly on an incline, and the pulverized rock and ore was put on there and a stream of water was run over it, and some one stood at the top and swept it down carefully. The pulverized rock which was light went off with the water, but the metal, which was heavier, stayed on the canvas and it was swept off in little piles. It didn’t look’ at all like gold, and you know, beloved, it is only God that can see the gold in us sometimes; I am sorry we haven’t more spiritual perception to enable us to see the gold in each other. May God help us to see the gold in each other’s souls!
Those sulphurets, as they call them, look something like mortar; you couldn’t see any gold at all, but it was there. We went into the furnace room, and saw where they were putting it into one furnace after another; my husband is a mining man and he took me to visit this large mine that I might see all the processes.
The superintendent stood by me and we saw a lot of little sparks flying in every direction, and he explained that that was the baser metals being burned or volatilized, and then, not knowing he was uttering a great spiritual truth, he said, “When the sparks stop flying we take it out of the fire. It is finished.” That was so good I looked up at my husband and said: “Why, that is the way it is with us; the Lord takes us out of the furnace when the sparks stop flying, the sparks of doubt, the sparks of fear, the sparks of impatience and of lack of love; when they stop flying then God the Great Refiner knows it is time to take US out of the furnace.” Let us ask God to do His work quickly that the sparks may stop flying, but when we do see the sparks flying in ourselves or in each other shall we not be more patient now that we know what the sparks are? that they are only flying because God is working with us or working with some other soul? May God help us to be patient with each other when the sparks fly! Sparks are not always agreeable especially when they fly upon us, but the Lord can make us patient.
Oh, I often think that if in stead of getting impatient with the dear tried ones when perhaps their love fails, or their patience fails, or their faith fails, if we could only stand in love and tenderness and resist the enemy for them, claim the victory of the blood for their poor, tried souls how much better it would be and how much faster the Lord could work with our own souls. The Lord help us! He is trying to teach us to love one another with a pure heart fervently. I understand “fervently” here, in the Greek, means to be “boiling hot” in our love. You never can have the love that keeps up to the boiling heat all the time unless you first have a pure heart. “Love one another with a pure heart fervently.”
We want to look again at the thought of the winged life. We get it in that well-known passage in Isa. xl:28-31. “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.” I wonder if there are any faint ones here tonight. He says He will give you power. The fainting are the very ones to whom He promises power, but to them that have no might at all He increaseth strength.
All that we have must be surrendered to Him to use as He wills. The one thing I found hardest to consecrate to the Lord when I was a girl and He was seeking to lead me to Himself, was a little talent I was born with, and that was a little gift of writing verses and also prose and when the Lord sought to lead me to Himself during that awful suffering, I gave God all but that one thing, and about that I said, “No, it is good and I do not have to give it up.” He pressed it upon me that I had to surrender it to Him, and finally I told Him I would hold on to it as tightly as I could and that He would have to pull it away from me. That wasn’t very pleasant for the Lord, nor for me, but He was faithful; He saw I had to take the hard way. So when I got to the place of full surrender, just before I was healed, I said “Lord, I am willing to have Thee make me willing,” and He took me at that. When I got there I gave it all up to Him as best I could, and I never expected Him to let me write another thing.
I had written from a child and had a volume of poems printed, written before I had finished my eighteenth year, but I never expected to be able to write again, and so after my healing it was a wonderful joy to find that that which had gone to Calvary with Him was given back in resurrection power. There only was this difference: Instead of using it myself, the Holy Spirit uses it. God seems to keep it, as it were, locked up in a cupboard, and whenever He wants me to use it for Him, He enables me to use it in the power of His endless life, and then takes it back again for safe keeping. That is why the Lord is pleased to use the little book, “The Prayer of Faith,” so greatly, because He wrote it through me. This is a little illustration to show you that everything you have, has got to go down into death, all your natural ability, all your natural talent, all your natural knowledge and wisdom. Everything! If He chooses to give you back anything in resurrection life, all right, and if He doesn’t it is better not to get it back. It is an empty life, wherein you feel absolutely nothing; perfect weakness, emptied out for Jesus; you feel nothing but blankness and God causes you to stand before Him. It is just a question of trusting Him; letting Him take possession of your mind, and “when our weakness leans upon His might, then all is right.”
People know very little about the mind being cleansed by the blood and being emptied of all its human thoughts. I cannot begin to tell you what God has done in my mind since I have had this fuller baptism of the Holy Ghost. He shows me that people are having their minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. He shows me that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. He shows me I cannot reason in the old way. Oh the wonderful realization that God has emptied my own mind out, and that I have the mind of Christ. This is so restful; it feels as though my brain was having a holiday, and all the busy, wearisome thoughts are gone.
This is a part of the life on wings. In all the many years of blessedness before this fuller baptism, I did not know what I am talking about now, this freedom of the mind from all care; of course, I had a great deal of blessing and a great deal of freedom from care, and felt that God had guided me and blessed me wonderfully, but I didn’t know what I am talking about now. Now I feel that the Holy Spirit holds my brain just as He does the rest of my being, but it is just as loving and tender as it is strong.
Now He tells us He exchanges our strength. We shall mount up with wings as eagles, and this is wonderfully true not only in the spiritual and the mental, but true in the physical, and since this mighty baptism in the Holy Ghost which I received over two years ago, I know what that mounting up with wings is in my physical being. I feel oftentimes when I walk along the streets as though I could hardly walk properly, I am so full of something which seems as though it was lifting me up on wings; wings on my feet, wings on my limbs, wings all over. I realize it as I run up and down the stairs. It is Romans viii:11, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
Early this morning as the power of God was upon me, and I was recognizing, as I so often love to do, the presence of the indwelling indwelling Comforter, and worshipping Him in His temple, with the Father and the Son, was led out in prayer for different things, but all at once He said to me, “I want you to recognize definitely that I am filling the temple.” Of course, I know He always fills it, but this was something a little different and He wanted the recognition that every part of spirit, soul and body was pervaded with His presence, and that meant, as He revealed to me His meaning, that I should drop even prayer for the time and be occupied with the presence of His glory, and I said, “Oh, God, the Holy Ghost, Thou art filling Thy temple,” and immediately, just as though a little vial of attar of roses had been broken in this room and every part of it would soon be filled with the perfume, so the presence of His glory, sensibly pervaded every part of my being and even love and prayer were lost in worship. Then I thought of the time in the Old Testament when the temple was so filled with God’s glory that the priest could not even stand to minister.
There is, therefore, an experience beyond service and beyond prayer, and that is a revelation of His own personality to such an extent that there is nothing but adoring worship filling our being. Usually it is a blessed experience to be able to speak in tongues, to let the heavenly song flow out, but there are times when even tongues cease, when His presence is so all-pervading and the atmosphere so heavenly that I cannot talk at all in any language, but the power of His blessed Spirit upon me is so marvelous that it seems as though I were almost dwelling in heaven.
I hope this testimony will make some one press on for the fulness. The Word tells us, “That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” Philemon 6. Through our faithful testimony somebody else’s torch may be lighted in the love and providence of God, and suppose we should hesitate for fear of persecution, should stop acknowledging every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus and somebody’s torch should fail to be lit. We have a great responsibility, and if we fail in testimony our own light will grow dim.
If you acknowledge everything that is in you in Christ Jesus He will be ready to give you more good things, and just so far as you have gone on with Him you will be able to help somebody else. I find a great many witnesses who have failed God. It means a great deal to be a witness for God in these deeper and higher things, because doing it means reproach; it means going outside the camp, and I have found some people that do not like reproach and draw back and try to compromise; but I pray that we may always be kept true. Beloved, keep true and testify faithfully to Him. He tells us in Revelation that because we have a little strength and because we have kept His Word and have not denied His Name, He has set before us an open door. I could go back and tell you of one door after another that God opened in my own life. When the little doors were opened He could open larger ones, until now the doors are so large and so many I never know which to enter, only as God makes it clear. So, beloved,
be faithful and do not deny His Name.
In Ps. ciii :5, we read, “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Here is a reference to the eagle again, the youth renewed like the eagle’s. Beloved, I do not believe in growing old, do you? I believe God means just what He says. Isn’t it beautiful? I never expect to grow old. The years may slip over my head, but what of that? That has nothing to do with it. He who has eternal youth is my youth and my strength.
GROWING UP
During the same year and in the same state as the revival of 1857-1858, Carrie Frances Judd entered the world. Carrie, the fourth of eight children, was born on April 8, 1858, and spent her early days in Buffalo, New York. During her childhood years, she lost two of her siblings to severe illnesses. Because of her own deteriorating health, at fifteen years old, her brother invited her to live with him in another area of New York which had a better climate.
During her time there, she worked for an editor of a health magazine. After a return home to help care for several sick in her family, she moved to another part of New York with the same brother. During her year stay, she started up a Sunday school with the neighborhood children. When she returned home, she was healthy enough to return to her own schooling.
THE FALL
One cold winter day in 1876 as she was walking to school, she slipped and fell hard on the icy ground. She continued to school that day but shortly after her health began to rapidly deteriorate. Soon after the accident, on January 6, 1877, Carrie found out that she had spinal fever. What “seemed to be tuberculosis of the spine” developed into “tuberculosis of the blood” which forced Carrie to give up school and her aspirations of becoming a school teacher.
Being “prostrated with spinal complaint…the trouble extended to all the large joints. Her hips, knees, and ankles could not be touched, even by herself without great suffering.” For over eleven months she could not even sit up on her own. She could not even handle light or much time with people. A small pillow under her head felt “like a block of stone.” Her days in bed grew into months and then years. At a time when those around her were expecting her death at any moment, even her mother allowing friends into her room to say their last goodbyes, her father came across a unique article in the local newspaper.
The article told of the account of Mrs. Edward Mix, a “colored woman” from Connecticut, being healed of tuberculosis through the prayers of Mr. Ethan Allan. Upon hearing this, Carrie asked her sister Eva to send Mrs. Mix a letter requesting healing prayer from her. To their surprise, the Judd family received a quick response from Mrs. Mix. The prayer found in James 5:15 was central to the letter as well as an encouragement to act in faith regardless of how she felt. In the letter was also a specific set apart time where both sides would pray at the same time for Carrie’s healing.
THE RISING
Even though no one showed up to Mrs. Mix’s regular prayer meeting that day due to poor weather, she and her husband prayed for Carrie nonetheless. During their set apart time of prayer, on February 26, 1879, Carrie engaged in a spiritual battle. Finally, she felt it was time to act in faith and get up out of bed. Unassisted, she walked over to the nearby chair. Her healing process was ignited from that day forward. By April of that same year, she was well enough to use the stairs and go outside to visit the neighbors. In the years that followed, she corresponded with Mrs. Mix. At one point Mrs. Mix even came to visit and they went out into the city to pray for healing of those who were sick.
HEALING HOMES
News of Carrie’s healing spread and she soon became the talk of the town. People heard of her story in newspapers and wrote letters to her asking if she was really healed. Many people came to her to hear of her story and to receive prayer. Her compassion was stirred and she opened up a room in her parent’s home to receive such people. Soon after, she decided to open up a healing home in Buffalo, New York in April, 1882. This was one of the first healing homes in New York and was used as a model for many future healing homes in the country.
WRITER
Carrie was also a prolific writer. Based on the prayer found in James 5 and her own healing experience, she wrote The Prayer of Faith (1880) to encourage others to embrace and take hold of their healing. This book was significant because it was among some of first prominent books written on the subject of divine healing in her time. In 1881, she also initiated a magazine called Triumphs of Faith which emphasized holiness and divine healing. She continued to write and edit this journal for over 60 years.
PREACHER
Carrie became an itinerant preacher and teacher and traveled internationally throughout her life to share her story of healing and encourage people in their faith. Her zeal to spread the somewhat unpopular message of divine healing at that time put her in the category of a radical evangelical. Through her close friendship with A.B. Simpson, she eventually became a part of the forming of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA). Simpson continually encouraged and created space for her to step out and share her story.
Carrie transcended denominational barriers as she shared her story, speaking at Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Salvation Army, Alliance, and other gatherings. Not too long after the Civil War and in a time before Martin Luther King Jr. came to the scene, she also preached to African Americans. In 1889 Carrie experienced some persecution and even some churches shutting their doors to her, first because she was a woman preacher and second because she spoke to African Americans.
WEDDING BELLS AND CALIFORNIA
In 1890, Carrie married a successful business man named George S. Montgomery who was previously healed of diabetes and afterward had “consecrated himself to the Lord’s service.” He brought her from Buffalo, New York to Oakland, California. With her husband’s constant support and great provision of resources, she opened up an orphanage and a training center there.
The Montgomery’s also built The Home of Peace which is still there to this day. This was the first healing home on the West Coast and through Carrie’s move to California, she was one of the first early advocates of divine healing on the west side of the nation. In several histories of the Divine Healing Movement, Carrie is the only woman listed among the other key shapers in the movement of Charles Cullis, A.B. Simpson, A.J. Gordon, William E. Boardman, Andrew Murray, and other men. She and her husband also became honorary officers in the Salvation Army before the turn of the century.
THE PENTECOSTAL STAMP
When birth of American Pentecostalism arose through the Azusa Street Revival in California in 1906, Carrie, although hesitantly at first, eventually received her Spirit baptism experience (in 1908). Even at age 50 and having already been a successful minister, she was open to all that the Spirit had to offer. This experience deeply impacted her life and spirituality and the theme of Spirit baptism became integrated into her magazine and her teaching.
Because of her great reputation, she was used as a bridge between Evangelicals and Pentecostals. To the Evangelicals, she had a voice to introduce Spirit baptism to them without all the fanaticism and to the Pentecostals, she remained balanced and didn’t overemphasize the gift of tongues. By 1914, she was part of what would later be called the Assemblies of God.
Throughout her life, Carrie became personal friends with Charles Cullis, A.B. Simpson, William Booth, Minnie Abrams, Pandita Ramabai, Elizabeth Baxter, Maria Woodworth-Etter, William J. Seymour and was connected to Smith Wigglesworth, Aimee Semple McPherson, John G. Lake, and many other prominent Christian leaders in her time. She continued her ministry until her death on July 26, 1946 and was succeeded by her only child, Faith Berry.
INSPIRATION
Carrie continually gave away whatever she received from God. After her own healing, she taught others about healing and prayed for them to be made well. She later lived through the Pentecostal revival of the early 1900’s and was open what the Spirit wanted to do while remaining balanced in the midst of some fanaticism. After her Spirit baptism experience, she encouraged others towards the same fullness. Whenever she experienced something from God, she eagerly sought to help others receive the same.
Carrie remained faithful to her husband and to the Lord all the days of her life. She lived a full life based on total surrender to the Holy Spirit, discipline, unity in love, service, prayer, and faith. While Carrie made mistakes in her life like all people do, she serves as an inspiration not only for young people and for women to step out in faith against all odds, but for all people to live lives fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit, to be unified in love above all controversies, and to freely give away what has been freely received.
Is there even more freely available to us in this moment if we just ask? See what one woman of God wrote over 100 years ago in relation to this...
“There is no joy that in any way compares with the joy of the fullness of the Holy Ghost. Reader, do you know the joy of the Lord? Have you received that peace that passeth understanding? Are you able to bear ridicule for Jesus’ sake, with sweetness and forbearance? Are you able to give witness day by day in your daily life, and by your words, of Jesus’ power to save? If not, then you need to be empowered by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire to live a victorious life, and to obey the command to Jesus to make disciples. Matt. 28:19,20. Let me urge you to seek this great blessing which was promised to us by the Father. ‘How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.’ ‘Ask and it shall be given you.’ Luke 11:13,9.” Written by Minnie Abrams in 1906 and taken from her booklet The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire. She was a missionary with Pandita Ramabai in the Mukti Revival in India.
Have we experienced this full measure of God’s presence and Spirit in our lives today? It was at the heart of the Azusa Street revival and other global centers during the birth of the Pentecostal movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. People hungry to experience the Holy Spirit completely through Spirit baptism is at the heart of early Pentecostal history.
I do think it is important to not become too obsessed in seeking out an experience. But at the same time, what if we are missing out on something because God has such a wonderful gift He wants to give us, yet we are not seeking it out, not taking hold of the already promised gift. This already promised gift that people in the early twentieth century took hold of affected their lives greatly. From 1906-1910, more than 50 countries were visited by missionaries that came out of the Azusa Street revival. That is a pretty amazing statistic coming from a movement that at its core was made up of people hungry to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The gift of tongues following that experience was also of great importance for the people back then. Many people experienced greater anointing, increased satisfaction in Christ, more conviction to evangelize, and deeper love than they had before.
So what if this CHRISTmas time, God wants to give us a new gift, a new present that we haven’t experienced thus far. This gift won’t save us, for we have already received His Son. But this new present coming in the form of the Holy Spirit rather than a baby wrapped up in swaddling cloths may have a significant and profound effect on our lives as it did others a century before us. This CHRISTmas time, maybe it is time to specifically ask God for a new gift. It doesn’t hurt to ask and the results may be astonishing, as they were in the early 1900s. And even if we have already experience this Spirit baptism, why not ask to be baptized again in the floods of His immense love? Holy Spirit flood us afresh today I pray!
To hear my honest introduction to Spirit Baptism that came just a few years ago go here.
One of the things I have come across in my studies of the Azusa Street Revival is the emphasis that they placed on Baptism of the Holy Spirit. For those of you who haven't heard much about Azusa Street, it was a revival in Los Angeles in 1906 that was started by an African American named William J. Seymour (some scholars believe that Charles Parham, who was white, started it). Although also still controversial, many people believe that Azusa Street was the start of Pentecostalism, or at least it played a very big role in the roots of the American movement. For a time, even in the midst of Jim Crow laws, blacks and whites worshiped the Lord together, people were radically baptized in the Holy Spirit and empowered.
Many people, after they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, within days or even hours of their experience, left for the mission field. Missionaries went to all parts of the world from Los Angeles in those few years and people from all around the world were drawn to Los Angeles to be a part of this "Pentecost" experience there. One of the key things God used to stir people up then was putting a deep desire and hunger to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to speak in tongues. Spirit baptism was one of the main focuses of the revival itself.
What I personally have been pondering lately is, where is Spirit baptism today? I don't know when the last time was that I heard, in any church, the pastor have an altar call for people who wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I can't remember the last conversation I had on that subject before I got to school here. It seems to have faded away and maybe a reason is because it has become a bit more normal in our era than it was 100 years ago. And I am sure it is still alive and well in some circles. Either way, it makes me wonder. And I know that God likes to do new things with different people. But I still can't get out of my mind the whole importance and drive that Spirit baptism was for the people back then. They were so hungry, not just for a little of the Spirit, but to be totally immersed in His presence, empowered and anointed even more to spread the Gospel.
If hungering for the baptism of the Holy Spirit was key in causing a revival that spanned the globe and birthed the Pentecostal movement and then later contributed to the Charismatic movement, might there be something there for us to reconsider and look at again in our own day? What if more and more people were not just "touched" by the Spirit or "filled" by the Spirit today, but instead were fully immersed in and covered from head to toe in the Spirit? I think it might be something to prayerfully consider.
Just my random processing thoughts which might totally change in a month or so but I am open to dialogue and hear others thoughts on this subject. I would also be VERY interested in hearing your story of your baptism of the Holy Spirit if you are willing to share. Thanks for listening,
Jen
