By Jamie Buckingham
(From the book DAUGHTER OF DESTINY, pp 108 – )
Years later Kathryn wrote, “I could not see the hand of God in man’s superfluity of zeal, and I saw the harm that was being done in attributing everything to lack of faith on the part of the individual who had not received his healing. Inside myself, I was crushed. My heart told me that God could do anything; my mind told me that through ignorance and lack of spiritual knowledge, there were those who were bringing a reproach on something that was sacred and wonderful and accessible to all. no preacher had to tell me that the power of God was real … I was assured of these facts as I read the Word of God. The Word was there, the promise had been given. There was surely no changing of God’s mind, and certainly no cancelling of the promises. I think no one has ever wanted truth more avidly than I—nor sought it harder.”
Yet she had not found the truth she sought for in the healing tent. It had to be found elsewhere.
Fortunately Kathryn had learned a valuable lesson in her earlier days. She had learned that the only way to find truth was to come in sincerity and let the Lord give her the revelations from His Word. So, once again she turned to the Bible for her answers.
“When Jesus died on the cross and cried out, ‘It is finished,’ He not only died for our sins, but for our diseases, too,” she told me. “It took several months for me to realize that, for I had not been taught there was healing for the body in the redemption of Christ. But then I read in Isaiah where ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes we are healed.’ I had no choice but to accept that Jesus did not just die to open the way to heaven, but to provide healing as well.
“I knew that if I lived and died and never saw a single healing miracle like the apostles experienced in the Book of Acts, it would not change God’s Word,” Kathryn said. “God said it. He made provision for it in our redemption at Calvary. And whether I ever saw it with my earthly eyes did not change the fact that it was so.”
Fortified with this new kind of faith—not a faith in healings, but a faith in God—Kathryn began preaching with a new kind of zeal, centering in on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Somehow, she realized, it was the Holy Spirit who was carrying on the Work of Jesus.
On Sunday, April 27, 1947, Kathryn began her series on the Holy Spirit. She had tapped into a truth from which she would draw for the rest of her life.
“I see in my mind the three persons of the Trinity sitting down at a great conference table before the formation of the earth took place. God, the Holy Father, gave the others the news that even though He would create men to have fellowship with Him, that man would sin—and break that fellowship. The only way fellowship could be restored would be for someone to pay the price for that sin. For if another did not pay it, then man himself would have to continue to pay the price in unhappiness, disease, death, and eventual hell.
“After the Holy Father finished sharing, his Son Jesus spoke up and said, ‘I’ll go. I’ll take the form of a man and go down to earth to pay that price. I’ll be willing to die on a cross so that man can be restored to perfect fellowship with us.’
“Then Jesus turned to the Holy Spirit and said, ‘But I cannot go unless you go with me—for you are the one with the power.’
“The Holy Spirit responded and said, ‘You go ahead. And when the time is right, i shall join you on earth.”
“So Jesus came to earth, born in a manger, and grew to manhood. But even though He was the very Son of God, He was powerless. Then came that magnificent moment at the River Jordan when Jesus, coming out of the baptismal waters, looked up and saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Him in the form of a dove. It must have been one of the greatest thrills Jesus received as He walked in the flesh on this earth. And I can almost hear the Holy Spirit whisper in His ear. ‘I’m here now. We’re running right on schedule. Now things will really happen.’
“And they did happen. Filled with the Spirit, He was suddenly empowered to heal the sick, cause the blind to see, even raise the dead. it was the time for miracles. For three years they continued, and then, at the end, the Bible says He gave up the ghost,’ and the Spirit returned to the Holy Father.
“After Jesus was in the grave for three days, that mighty third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, returned. Jesus came out of the grave in a glorified body. He performed no more miracles during the short time He was here, but He gave His followers a great promise—the greatest promise of all the Bible. He said the same Holy Spirit who had lived in Him would return to live in all those who opened their lives to His power. The same things that He, Jesus, had done, his followers would do, also. In fact, even greater things would be done because now the Holy Spirit would not be limited to one body, but would be free to enter those everywhere who would receive Him.”
Kathryn paused. She had never preached like that before. It was a new revelation. A new truth. Yet it came straight from the Bible. She was shaking as she continued, “The last words He said He went away were, ‘And ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.’ God the Father had given Him the gift. Now He was passing it on to the Church. Every church should be seeing the healings of the Book of Acts. The gift is for all of us.”
Dumbfounded over what she had said, Kathryn left as soon as the service was over, leaving the ministry at the altar to a group of men who came forward to help. She was up all night, in the little attic room on the third floor of the Business Women’s Club where she lived, pacing the floor, praying, and reading her Bible. It was as though she stood with Simon Peter when Jesus had said to him, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.