0:00 [music] >> Today we'll listen to the story of lady named Jessie Penn-Lewis. I remember uh hearing about her. I I hadn't read 0:18 any of her books when I was young, but uh I know my dad had, and I we had a uh a set of pictures on our wall of different godly men and women, and she was one of them. And um and later on I I got to read some of her books. 0:37 So, I'm I'm excited to hear this story with you. I'll show you a picture of Jessie Penn-Lewis. So, here's Jessie Penn-Lewis. So, Jessie Jones, as she was born, was born on February 28th, 1863 in 0:56 Neath, South Wales in the UK. Her father was a civil and mining engineer and the son of a preacher of the Calvinistic Methodist Connection, which is a denomination in the UK. >> [snorts] >> Her mother was a daughter of a 1:09 businessman who had married a woman of noble birth. Jessie was the second of six children born into this happy home. Jessie had tremendously a tremendously active brain in a very small and weak body. When she was only 9 months old, she got 1:26 up and started walking very quickly and continued from that day to be very active on her feet. The family doctor warned her parents not to teach this child anything too early because her overactive mind would be her greatest enemy, they said. 1:45 But Jessie taught herself to read, learning the alphabet from papers and books she found lying around her the home. By the time she was 4 years old, she could read the Bible easily. That's pretty amazing. She could not have a normal school life 2:01 because of her poor health. It was only when she was 8 years old that she was permitted to go away to boarding school, and even then only for 3 months. She spent the rest of the year wandering around outdoors on the farm or mountain. 2:16 And I bet some of you children wish you could have had that life instead of having to do school all day long. Her parents tried extending her schooling period, but her health couldn't take it even though her parents lovingly and 2:29 carefully watched over her. It was then that Jessie realized that her health would be a great handicap handicap for the rest of her life. When she was 9 years old, her father moved his family into an old museum that he had already been using for his 2:44 offices. The attic in the old tower became a happy playroom where there were books, books, and more books everywhere. As uh it's interesting that Jessie looked at a book a room full of books as her playroom. She loved reading so much. 3:02 Many well-known preachers even visited their home. At the age of 12, Jessie helped her mother organize activities in town to help free people from addiction to alcohol. When she was 16, her father died suddenly. 3:20 Even though he was a very successful consulting engineer to many of the coal mining companies of South Wales, he had not been a good businessman. As a result, the family wasn't left with a lot of money, and Jessie's mother had 3:33 to go into business herself after her husband died to provide for the family. When Jessie was 19 years old, a genuine love match resulted in her getting married to a young man. Before the wedding, however, one of her brothers felt that he should warn her 3:50 fiance that he was marrying a sick woman whom he would have to take care of her life her entire life. This didn't stop the young man, and after the wedding, the young couple settled in Brighton. Her husband, Mr. Penn-Lewis, became an 4:06 auditor's clerk for the County of Sussex. This is all in the UK. They had only been married for 18 months when Jessie became very deeply preoccupied with the subject of Christ's return. She sought God and on her own 4:24 and was converted to Christ on New Year's Day, 1882. The Holy Spirit applied two specific verses to her heart. The first is, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." The Lord has laid on him, that is 4:44 talking about Jesus, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." That's from Isaiah 53, verse 6. And the other verse was, "He that believeth hath everlasting life." That's John 6, verse 47. She testified later, this and here's what she wrote, "The 5:03 spirit of God instantly bore witness with my spirit that I was a child of God, and deep peace filled my soul. The new life bore fruit." Her husband got a new job as a borough accountant, so they had to move to 5:21 Richmond in Surrey. Here they had good spiritual fellowship at a church named Holy Trinity Church, where a man named Reverend Evan H. Hopkins was the pastor. The very first sermon of his that Jessie heard was like the opening of heaven, as 5:37 she put it. His spiritual teachings, especially that of victory over besetting sins, had a deep impact on both the newlyweds. One day, the pastor's wife asked Jessie directly, "Do you have victory over sin?" 5:56 Jessie admitted that she did not, and that she had never heard that such a life was even possible. On her 23rd birthday, Jessie Penn-Lewis wrote these powerful lines dedicating her life to God. "All that I have, all that I am, 6:13 all that I may be is thine, wholly, absolutely, and unreservedly. And I do believe that thou dost take me, and thou wilt work in me to will and to do thy good pleasure. Day by day, draw me nearer." 6:33 These Those are powerful words, aren't they? These strong heart longings after God characterized Mrs. Penn-Lewis's entire walk with him. God took her at her word and through various circumstances answered her prayer by faithfully leading her on. 6:50 No wonder she seemed to enter more deeply into the mysteries of the Lord than many others. There were spiritual crises in her life, but her constant desire to know God better and better continually led her on into the deeper meaning of the cross. 7:08 On New Year's Day, 1886, so this is what about 4 years after she was born again, uh New Year's Day, 1886, she wrote in her diary, "Thank God I start the year right with him. 7:27 But I long intensely to have a more single eye for his glory, and my will to be more lost in his." On another occasion, she wrote, "Had a day of constant temptation and battle against a discontented, grumbling spirit. 7:45 Was able to hold on through all was able to hold on all through in spite of darkness. Gave in once or twice to speaking hastily." On another day, she wrote, "Felt ruffled again this morning. When shall I learn peace and the love 8:03 that endures all things and is not easily provoked?" I was really challenged by her honesty in not being satisfied with even a moment of haste or discontentment or grumbling. And she longed for this peace and love 8:21 that can endure all things and is not easily provoked. A few days later, she wrote again, "Happy day, no cloud, but conscious presence and smile of the Lord. Oh, why do I not trust him more fully in times of temptation?" 8:39 Around this time, as a result of her many prayers, her husband also committed his life to Christ and united with her in witnessing for the Lord to others. On October 14th, 1886, Mrs. Evan Hopkins was opened a new branch of the YWCA 8:56 at Richmond. YW YWCA stands for Young Women's Christian Association, and that was a an organization that organized activities and other things for women, and there was an equivalent YMCA for men. And through that, tried to give them 9:14 give young people the gospel, young men and young women. And a lady named Mrs. Evan Hopkins, that was the wife of the pastor of that church, opened a new branch of the YWCA at Richmond, where Jessie ended up finding the little corner that God had 9:28 ordained for her for the next few years. In the year 1889, she suffered through much illness, including pleurisy and lung trouble, which dropped her weight to around 98 lb. She did not allow this to weaken or lessen her labors, 9:47 however, except on days when the bitter east wind would force her to stay home. Otherwise, she loved going out and meeting people to tell them about Christ. Through it all, she was learning how incapable she was. She wrote, "I must 10:02 spend more time in prayer. I don't pray half as much as I should. I feel there are depths and heights that I know nothing of, but I know that my face is set like a flint to press on to fullest blessing." When she read Andrew Murray's book, The 10:18 Spirit of Christ, it brought her a clearer vision about the work of the Holy Spirit, as well as the utter hopelessness of her own efforts. She wrote this about the effect that that book had on her. "I saw that I should know the Holy 10:34 Spirit as a person. So, I took him as a gift of Christ as simply as I took the Lord Jesus as my savior." That's a common misconception a lot of people have, not knowing that the Holy Spirit is simply the third person of the Trinity, 10:50 and not some confusing being. He's as much a person as Jesus is. And as really and truly as the disciples could know Jesus when he was here on this earth, we can know the Holy Spirit in the same way. So, I love that sentence that she 11:05 writes, "I took him as a gift of Christ as simply as I took the Lord Jesus as my savior." "I well remember the deep peace, the fellowship with God, the communion of the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy, and peace, which 11:22 followed. But I could not understand why it made so little difference in my service. It did not seem to deliver me from the inability to speak boldly for Christ, nor did it give me power for diligent service." It was 3 years later that Mrs. 11:39 Penn-Lewis discovered that when God baptizes us in the Holy Spirit for service, he crucifies us and delivers us from the fear of man. In her increasing physical weakness, she realized that she could actually exchange her weakness 11:56 for God's strength. And that's the secret to God's power. It's giving him our weakness, not giving him our strength. It's giving him our weakness, our inability. And that's why God allowed her to suffer with such physical 12:09 ailments throughout her life. It She writes here, it She realized that she could actually exchange her weakness when she gave it up to the Lord for God's strength. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead could also 12:24 strengthen her weak body. In March 1890, she was appointed honorary secretary of the Richmond branch of the YWCA and was forced to have to speak publicly often, which was quite an uncomfortable trial for her. Although many others would have been 12:42 satisfied with the spiritual results that were seen, Mrs. Penn-Lewis was dissatisfied when she compared the fruits of her life with the fruit that the apostles received on the day of Pentecost. Here's what she wrote. "Self-consciousness almost paralyzed me 13:00 when I had to speak, and it didn't seem to get easier the more I did it. I asked anyone I heard of who knew anything about the Holy Spirit to come and speak to the women. My Bible was full of notes as I prepared and I prepared many spiritual teachings 13:15 for the women, but it was all food that I had gotten second-hand from other books, and it did not bring much change in their lives. I thought it was the fault of those young girls until the Lord spoke to me and said, "The fault is with you, 13:30 Jessie." "But Lord, I am consecrated. What can it be in me? I give time every morning to read and pray. I've put everything right in my life as far as I know." And the Lord replied, "It is you." And then he began to break me, 13:48 and I had the terrible revelation that every bit of my activity, my energy, my strong perseverance that I was so proud of was myself after all, hidden under the name of consecration." Under that guise of consecration, 14:07 she thought she was such a consecrated, devoted, serving person, but it was still herself underneath that had not been crucified. Early in 1892, Mrs. Penn-Lewis asked her workers to spend expend extended time in prayer. 14:22 The result was that they saw that God had to do something in themselves before his spirit could reach the others they were serving. It's a really powerful line. I want us to I want you to I want you to listen again. The 14:35 result was that they saw that God God had to do something in themselves before his spirit could reach the others they were serving. God has to do something in us first before he can use us to serve others. And there's a lot of 14:48 people trying to serve God and do something for him when inside their self-life is still on the throne, and all their activity will never be useful to him. And Jessie Penn-Lewis realized that. During this time, Jessie read every book 15:03 on the Holy Spirit she could find. Unfortunately, she only became more confused by all the differing views about the Holy Spirit. And that's also sadly what's happening in Christendom today. There's so much that's spoken about and written 15:20 about and talked about with regard to the Holy Spirit that very few people understand his work. Amidst this disappointment and confusion, she went back to the Bible. Again, a wonderful secret. When you go back to the Bible and you reject all the 15:36 other ideas of men and all the other explanations that come from human source, and you find what God himself has had to say about the Holy Spirit, we find the answer. As she searched the word, she had an increasing hunger which 15:49 made her increasingly willing for God to take her through anything if only she might have the deliverance of the Holy Spirit which Peter experienced at Pentecost. I want to explain that sentence here really quickly. What she found when she studied 16:05 God's word was a thirst and a willingness to say, "Lord, you can take me through anything. I'm not asking you I'm not trying to dictate to you what my life should look like here on this earth. I want you to fill me with the 16:18 Holy Spirit with the same power that you gave Peter on the day of Pentecost that you can take me through anything in order to experience that." And that was the secret. She writes, "I received a deep rest that God would 16:31 do what I had asked, and I could wait for his way and his time. Then I went on with my usual work, not carelessly, but holding on steadily in faith that he would fill me with his power at some point. But I was sorely tested. My experience 16:50 after that was deeper, but the sense of failure was also deeper and deeper. Everything seemed to be worse and worse instead of better and better as I had thought it would be after such a tremendous encounter with God. See, God allowed her sense of failure 17:07 and weakness to only increase because he was breaking her. In February 1892, Jessie invited Miss Henrietta Soltau, who was in charge of the China Inland Mission, home for training women missionaries to speak at a 10-day 17:24 conference at the YWCA. We've heard of the China Inland Mission through many of the biographies we've already heard, and here was a lady named Miss Soltau who was in charge of the local chapter of the China Inland Mission for training 17:36 women missionaries. And so, Mrs. Penn-Lewis invited this lady to come and speak at a conference. After the first evening, Miss Soltau shocked Jessie by saying this, "I need to ask someone from London to come in here to pray because this place 17:54 is like a wall." Mrs. Penn-Lewis had been so proud of her consecrated young women. As she watched this broken messenger, Miss Soltau, ministering, she saw proud hearts humbled and liberated in each meeting. So, what was 18:10 happening here was that God was showing Jessie Penn-Lewis that what was hindering him from being able to use her, to fill her and use her, was the pride that she had in the work she had already done and the number of souls she 18:24 had already touched and all these consecrated young women in the YWCA there. God had to break that pride. The Holy Spirit began to deal with the motives of Jessie's own heart. She writes, "As a little child, I received 18:41 the word preached, and then it pleased God to reveal his son in me that I might show him to others. I knew the risen Lord finally." The revelation of the risen Lord were the first drops of the showers which would later become a river of waters to 19:01 swim in. It came suddenly and unexpectedly, not in a time of waiting upon God, nor in a meeting with others, but at the breakfast table in her own home one morning. She said, "Calvary precedes Pentecost." I remember reading this line in one of 19:19 her books years ago, and it really hit home to me. Calvary precedes Pentecost. Precedes means comes before. Calvary comes before Pentecost. That was true in the in the life of Jesus and the and the work of the church. And it's the same in 19:34 our lives as well that God cannot give us that experience of being filled with his power until he's been able to put us to death with Christ, until we've gone through that Calvary experience ourselves. Calvary goes must come before Pentecost. 19:49 Death with Christ precedes the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Power, yes, God's children need power, but God does not give power to the old creation or to the un-crucified soul. Satan will give power to the old Adam, but God will not. 20:08 Oh, may we always remember this, God does not give power to the old creation. If my old self is somebody I still love, if my old way of doing things the If my old soul is not completely crucified, not crucified, then God can't give us 20:27 his power. That same evening, while on her way home from a meeting, it seemed like her spirit broke through into the spiritual world. The next day at the prayer meeting and the Bible study, a divine power was in her which had a tremendous effect on 20:41 those listening to her speak. She wrote, "I had been intensely seeking for months for just what the Holy Spirit did for Peter, and God answered definitely what I had specifically asked for." She was asking for freedom to be able to 20:57 speak boldly because like we heard already, she whenever she got up to speak, it seemed like she was afraid and self-conscious and didn't have the right words and was very shy. And she was praying, "Lord, how you allowed shy 21:10 Peter to get up in front of those thousands and speak boldly on the day of Pentecost. I want you to do the same for me." And because she was specific in that, God answered her specifically. And gave, she goes on to write, "God gave me 21:24 freedom of utterance and liberty in the spirit." For 3 months, it was almost like she was living in another world of daily joy, light, and gladness. Now, listen carefully. This experience slowly subsided. Subsided means it it grew dim. 21:42 That it it weakened. There was less of that excitement. Now, the question was whether she would revert to her former low plane or rest by faith upon God alone. Again, very important for us to remember because a lot of people 21:58 experience those moments of encounter with God. The tears are flowing in you. Feel very close to God, and God intentionally allows those feelings to subside to see if we're living for the experience and the excitement and the 22:11 emotion or if we're willing to simply rest by faith upon him. She could either seek after those feelings of joy or have naked faith in God's holy word. And this is the This is the option that you and I face as well, dear brothers 22:30 and sisters and children. Feelings of joy and excitement, they they'll come and go. Nothing wrong with them, but they will come and go. But what we live for is I like the phrase here, naked faith in God's holy word. Simply trusting his holy word. 22:49 Around this time, she read the story of Madame Guyon's life, from which she realized that God is more pleased with a life lived by naked faith than by conscious feelings of joy. And isn't it interesting that God allowed 23:01 her to come across this book right at that time when she needed it the most and needed that reminder? At first, because Madame Guyon was talking about this very thing, um Jessie Penn-Lewis threw the book down in disgust. No, she didn't not want to part 23:17 with her special experience. She loved that experience and those those moments, those days of communion with God so much that she didn't want to think that she had to give those up. But she picked up the book again and saw 23:30 that she could choose either the emotional joys of life in the spirit or choose death to them, which would result in fruit for God, full of the Holy Spirit. Her Christian service now became more active. She and the other YWCA workers would go 23:48 out on Sunday evenings fishing for other young women in the streets of Richmond, many of whom went on to become mightily used by God. Her views on finance were changed radically. She could no longer ask for subscription 24:02 payments from people for the work. So, she used to write letters asking for money to support her work. But now she was assured that if God himself had initiated a program, he would finance it. And he would provide the means. For 24:16 the remaining years of her work, she proved that God is true to his word in supplying every need. >> [clears throat] >> She worked in Richmond for four more blessed years, and she writes, "I have proved the presence of God to be 24:29 more attractive to our young women than the old attempt at attracting them through entertainment." I want us to think about that line again. This is where a lot of churches, a lot of people in in ministry, and even we could easily 24:43 fall prey to think that the way that we will draw the world is to attract them through entertainment, Christian entertainment. Uh songs and and experiences that look just like the world. Music that sounds just like the world worldly music. And a 25:00 lot of people think, "Well, that's how we will draw people to Christ." And here's the secret Jessie Penn-Lewis discovered. "I have proved that the presence of God is more attractive, the actual presence of God. When we draw people, young or 25:13 old, to that, that's far more attractive than the cheap entertainment that the world can offer." Attendance at our meetings went from 6,900 to 11,447. I love how exact she is. In less than 2 years, she writes, "After the mighty 25:30 breath of God swept upon us." See, this is what we need, church family, the mighty breath of God to sweep over us. It's not more Bible studies and more prayer meetings. Yes, we have all of those. And this new theology or that new explanation. 25:46 There is we we preach doctrine. Yes, that's important. We have meetings where we emphasize right teaching and have times of prayer and singing praise and all of that. But there's nothing None of that is a replacement for the mighty 25:59 breath of God sweeping upon us. The truth is that we cannot compete with the world. We must win by the force of something far above competition. The book of Jessie Penn-Lewis the most recently that I read is a book called War with the 26:13 Saints, and that's She talks a little bit more about this. And if you're interested, you can read that. But this this is what she mentions here even in this little extract. We must win by the force of something far above the competition. What's the 26:28 competition? It's the world. It's the world's way of making great movies and great music and uh the latest fashion and and this program and that program program and great organization. And the church will never win the war 26:41 against Satan by copying those tactics and bringing them into the church. We must win by the force of something far above competition. And that is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. In March 1896, Mr. and Mrs. Penn-Lewis 26:57 moved to Leicester where he was appointed as corporation treasurer. He They had to move because of his job. At first, she could not understand why God had removed her from the place where she had been such a blessing. Within a month, however, she received an 27:11 invitation to speak at a conference of the YWCA in Stockholm in Sweden. People came there from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. There was a great blessing in that conference through her messages on identification with the cross. 27:27 Although she had been healed from chronic lung disease when she was baptized in the Holy Spirit years before, her busy program of speaking over the next few years after that put a heavy strain on her weak body. God used the times of weakness as halt 27:44 signs, calling her to rest for a while to recover her strength in quietness and study of the word. These breaks also gave her enough time to pray for others in intercession, which she considered equally as important as teaching the women. 28:01 When she returned to health, she wrote little booklets of the many messages that God had given her. She started to realize more and more the power of printed material and did fewer speaking engagements so that she could 28:15 focus on preparing books for printing. She wrote for two magazines, one called The Christian and the other called The Life of Faith, giving weekly reports on the Welsh Revival, which we've also heard about, which was happening around that time. 28:30 Eventually, the Lord led her to publish her own magazine in which she emphasized being crucified with Christ and the fruitfulness that comes from such a life. In the autumn of 1896, the Lord led her to St. Petersburg in Russia. 28:45 She was amazed at the hunger for the word of God there as she spoke every day in larger meetings and in private home gatherings. For the next few years, God took Mrs. Penn-Lewis to Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Canada, the United States, 28:59 India, and again to Russia. The conventions in Mildmay, in Keswick, and uh Llandrindod Llandrindod Llandrindod. That's a good Welsh name. There you go. Llandrindod. Llandrindod Wells gave her more opportunity to proclaim the message 29:16 of death and resurrection life. Evan Roberts, whom you've probably heard of, God used mightily. He was the young man who had been mightily used by God in the Welsh Revival. Um after only 8 months of intense labor in crowded halls, his body had broken 29:34 under the strain. And so, Mr. and Mrs. Penn-Lewis invited him to stay in their home for some time while he recovered. And while he was there, God opened Evan's mind to how the devil had tried to counterfeit much that was genuine in 29:50 the Welsh revival. Mr. and Mrs. Penn-Lewis had seen things in the revival which alarmed them, but they were hesitant to speak out against what seemed to be clearly of God. But when Mr. Mr. Roberts came and stayed in their home, they were able to talk 30:04 more freely about that with that with him. And during this time, Evan Roberts and Jessie Penn-Lewis together wrote the book War on the Saints that I mentioned earlier. And when it was completed, Mr. Roberts summed it up as follows, 30:18 "What the key is to the lock, this book is to the Christian." God used them both to preserve the secrets that Evan Roberts had learned together with Mrs. Penn-Lewis's experience in written form. Jessie was now 65 years old. It was 30:34 nothing short of a miracle that this delicate child could have grown to womanhood and been sustained throughout such an unusually active ministry. It was clear that it was it was only faith alone in the strength of God. 30:49 In July 1927, she was a speaker at the Keswick Convention, but it was clear that she was growing very weak. She spoke at one last conference, the Llandrindod Convention, for around 10 10 messages. This exhausted her so much that she 31:06 needed to be carry on carried off after her last message. Her final message on the blood of Jesus was never forgotten by those listening. What a What a good final message to to preach. She was rushed to her home in London 31:22 where she became increasingly weaker. On her deathbed, she asked for Revelation 12 verse 11 to be read. I think we all know what that is. And they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony 31:38 and they did not love their life even when faced with death. They overcame him, that is the the devil. He overcame the devil by the because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony and they did not love their life even 31:57 when faced with death. She asked that on her deathbed they read that verse. She also asked them to sing the hymn, "There is a fountain filled with blood." Jessie Penn-Lewis, an overcomer, had fought her last battle on earth when she 32:09 passed from death to life on August 15th, 1927. An extract from her writings is a good conclusion to her story. Listen to this. "There is a course," she writes. "There is a like a class or There is a course prepared for each believer from the 32:27 moment of his new birth which allows for the new life within him to mature fully and make himself useful to God to the highest degree. There is a class. There is a a subject like a class in school, that's what she's talking about. There is a course 32:43 that's prepared for every every believer from the moment of their new birth which allows for the new life within them to mature fully and make them useful to God to the highest degree. Oh, that you will remember that. Every one of us who's 32:59 born again, we're in a class. We're in a course. Every one of us has the opportunity to finish that course and for God to be able to you us to use us to the highest degree. To discover that course and fulfill it is the only duty of every soul. 33:16 Others cannot judge what that course is. God alone knows it. He can make it known and guide the believer into it as certainly today as he did Jeremiah and other prophets and men like Paul and Philip, the apostles and the other apostles. 33:32 The Holy Spirit is not limited and are bound and will lead souls along this road in a thousand different ways. The Holy Spirit is not bound or limited, but will lead souls along this road in a thousand different ways. 33:52 The story of Jessie Penn-Lewis. Amen. >> [music]
