A Life-Changing Conversion at Age 13
In 1886, at the age of 13, Parham was converted when he stood up at a revival meeting and committed his life to God. But it was on his way home the real conversion took place. Feeling a deep sense of conviction on the ride home, he started singing a Gospel hymn in order to assuage his sense of guilt. Reaching the third verse, his experience reached a pinnacle as he continued to sing with his face lifted up to Heaven. Then it happened, as described in his own words: ‘There flashed from Heaven, a light above the brightness of the sun; like a stroke of lightning it penetrated, thrilling every tissue and fibre of our being; knowing by experimental knowledge what Peter knew of old that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God’.
From Sunday School Teacher to Young Evangelist
Parham became a Sunday school teacher in the local Methodist Church and by the age of 15 had held his own evangelistic meetings. At 16 he entered Southwestern Kansas College, a Methodist college in Winfield, Kansas, but because of the negative attitude of the scholarly folk around him toward preachers, Parham lost a bit of his passion for the ministry. He had suffered from so many diseases as a child; consequently, he decided to pursue a medical career.
Battling Illness and Renewing a Vow to Preach
While at school, he faced another physical battle. A physician who visited him, as his body was burning up with a severe fever and under an overdose of morphine, predicted his imminent death. For months he suffered, yet the suffering seemed to resurrect within him a new spiritual passion. So he cried out to God, “If you will let me go somewhere, someplace, where I wouldn’t have to take collections or beg for a living, I will preach.” Not knowing how else to pray, he started reciting the Lord’s Prayer; and when he came to “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” he cried out, “If Thy will be done in me, I shall be made whole.”
Miraculous Healing Beneath the Oak Tree
Under an old oak tree on the college lawn, he renewed his vow to preach the Gospel and promised to quit college if God would heal him. Crawling under a tree, Parham began to pray, and God immediately sent a ‘mighty electric current’ through his ankles making them whole.” He was healed, and he kept his promise to God. During May 1892, he held evangelistic meetings at the Pleasant-Valley School House near Tonganoxie, Kansas. While there, he was befriended by the Thistle Thwaite, a Quaker family. Then at the annual meeting of the Southwest Kansas Conference in March 1893, he was licensed by the Methodist to preach.
Licensed to Preach and Pastoral Ministry Begins
The following June he became pastor of the Methodist church in Eudora, Kansas, just outside of Lawrence. He entered the pastorate with great enthusiasm, continuing his thrust for evangelism and fulfilling his pastoral roles. Parham was always thinking outside the religious box of his time, and it was inevitable that this freedom would eventually get him in trouble. By 1894, Parham’s theology had become controversial within the Methodist conference. He embraced a form of “annihilation of the wicked” – a belief that the wicked would not have eternal life but would be annihilated and only the righteous would live forever.
Challenging Traditions: Holiness Doctrine and Evangelistic Freedom
He also embraced the Holiness doctrine. And in an attempt to deemphasize denominational affiliation, he actively preached in non-Methodist circles, and he encouraged listeners to join other churches-or none at all. Parham obeyed the call to enter the evangelistic fields and preached in Holiness churches wherever a door would open. He kept his friendship with the Thistle Waites and on New Year’s Eve, 1896 was married to Sarah, one of their daughters. After the traditional Quaker wedding, they did not go on a traditional honeymoon; they commenced an evangelistic tour through Kansas and Missouri.
Date: 25th October 2022
Title: Charles F. Parham -A Flash From Heaven
Source: The Azusa Street Revival
Author: Roberts Lairdon
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