“YOU CAN NEVER know anything and you can never be anything, but you can know Me and you can be for Me.” These words were given by Mrs. Robinson to a young minister, Hans R. Waldvogel, when he called on her the first time for a personal interview.
A native of Switzerland and the son of a godly Baptist minister, Mr. Waldvogel had been strongly opposed to Pentecost as a young man. By various means the Lord had sought to give him light. A designer of platinum jewelry with one of the leading houses for making custom-made jewelry in the city of Chicago, he was exceedingly zealous to serve the Lord after business hours. On week-ends he went to be with his parents in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There he became acquainted with the Finnerns of the Peniel Mission and asked to join them in their street meetings on Saturday nights. After much earnest consideration of the subject, Mr. Waldvogel at long last became convinced of the scripturalness of Pentecost and received a mighty baptism in the Holy Spirit.
A week after this glorious experience Mr. Waldvogel attended a service (June 21, 1919) in Chicago conducted by a world-famous, Pentecostal evangelist. Seated on the platform were a number of ministers who had been invited there and given the privilege of participating in the meeting according to the leading of the Spirit.
Early in the service a little woman at the end of the front row of ministers quietly arose and gave a brief message in tongues and interpretation, calling the attention of the people to the presence of Jesus in the midst. Simple as it was, Mr. Waldvogel observed that the effect on that large audience was phenomenal. A crowd which had been bustling and not very worshipful in its attitude was instantly subdued by this message and the power of God which accompanied it. Noticing this change, Mr. Waldvogel could not help but be impressed with this “little woman” whom he learned was a Mrs. Robinson from Zion, Illinois.ⁿ
Note: It is Mr. Waldvogel who is responsible for the following anecdote which he was told by Mrs. R. herself. On one of her visits to Chicago—the date and occasion are unknown—Mrs. R. was riding on the rear platform of a streetcar on Wabash Avenue when suddenly it lurched and she was hurled through the air, landing on the sidewalk some feet away. Naturally the conductor and other passengers were greatly concerned, certain that she must have been seriously injured, probably some of her bones broken. Upon being questioned, however, Mrs. R. assured the incredulous conductor that she was perfectly all right. The fact is that as she was being thrown from the streetcar, she had just time to call, “Lord, help me,” and when she fell on the concrete, she said she did so as easily as if she were being prostrated under the power of God at an altar service! She felt no harm whatever at the time and had no aftereffects from what could easily have proved a fatal accident.
Five months later, on Thanksgiving night, he attended his first service in the Faith Homes and for the first time heard Mrs. R. preach. She spoke on the subject of “Dumps.” It was a long sermon, but Mr. Waldvogel remembered only the one word—”dumps”—a word he did not like because, as he said in telling about it, “I was in one.” Unmistakably the Lord was after him.
Having gone once, his interest and curiosity were aroused so that he soon returned. One visit then quickly followed another, for he found that here was a place where the bread and water of life were served, satisfying his inner man. Often God spoke to his own heart so strongly when he attended the services in the Homes that he would take off from his work the next day, naturally with the loss of the day’s wages, so that he could pray over the things he had heard—lest they slip from him.
In June of 1920, he finally quit his job and went to live and to minister with the Finnerns in Kenosha. Now, as often as possible Mr. Waldvogel took the opportunity to go to the Faith Homes where his hunger for God was increased by hearing Mrs. R. and her associates teach that “the main occupation of our lives ought to be seeking Jesus until we found Him in His fullness.” Often Mr. Waldvogel was conscious of the fact that although he was not mentioned by name, God was speaking to him, personally, directly out of high heaven through Mrs. R.
For example, in the course of his caring for the mission in Kenosha, Mr. Waldvogel incurred an injury which resulted in great discomfort and pain and, if it grew worse, threatened to incapacitate him unless he received some natural help or was healed by the power of God. Coming into Pentecost, he found he had to take divine healing in the bargain. First, he went to the Bible and studied the subject thoroughly from beginning to end. As he did so, he became certain that it is God’s will to heal His people in answer to the prayer of faith. Then he requested prayer and was definitely helped. After a time, however, his trouble returned. Again he asked for prayer, received help, but again the trouble returned. This happened repeatedly. Help followed prayer, every time, but the victory was not established and his trouble returned.
In this condition, perplexed and tempted to discouragement, Mr. Waldvogel was led to go to Zion for a meeting. Mrs. R. was not there, but during the course of the service, she came in and forthwith began to speak. The substance of her talk was this:
“The Lord has brought me into this meeting to deliver a message, and when I have given it, I will leave. When God lays a prayer upon your heart, you must not lay the prayer down until you have prayed it through.”
In this connection Mrs. R. spoke especially about divine healing and the need to pray until one knew he had the answer from God and then to stand for this victory no matter how he felt. “Faith, not feeling, is the victory,” she explained, “and many people lose their healing because, after they have taken the healing, they look at the symptoms.” Then she added, “Here is a young man, for example, who has been asking God to heal him. God has enabled him to see that by His stripes he is healed, and he has taken that stand of faith. Now God asks him to walk with his trouble for a little distance, and presently he thinks he is not healed.”
Mrs. R. then left, as she said she would. Mr. Waldvogel had heard from the Lord, for he knew that Mrs. R. knew nothing of his condition, so that she was not prophesying out of her own heart (Ezekiel 13:2), but that it was truly from the Lord. More important than this in itself was that it was another corroboration to him of the authenticity of her ministry. Going from the meeting he acted upon the instruction, and ere long his physical victory was established.
Again, he received another interesting corroboration of Mrs. R’s prophetic ministry. One Saturday evening, during a season of prayer with one of the Faith Home ministers, the Lord spoke to Mr. Waldvogel to this effect: “Son, you have a great need. You need to get acquainted with the commands of God in the Psalms and in Proverbs. Study these things. They will lead you to the Fountain of Life.”
The next day Mr. Waldvogel attended the morning meeting when Mrs. R. preached. She knew nothing about the message which he had received the previous night. Imagine his surprise, then, when in the middle of her sermon, she stopped and interjected the following:
“Now here is a message for an individual in this meeting. It is not known whom it is for, but it is necessary for this individual to keep the commands. What you need is to study the commands of Jesus and to obey them. You mustn’t think that your shouting and your speaking in tongues are going to make you acceptable in the day of judgment. No, in the day of the Lord Jesus the question will not be how much you shouted in meeting but how much you kept the commands.” Then Mrs. R. resumed her sermon.
When Mr. Waldvogel had received his baptism in the Holy Spirit, he had a number of rather violent manifestations which continued as he sought the Lord. Sometimes he would pray with groanings and would weep bitterly. At other times, he would laugh uproariously and his whole body would shake. One minister advised him, “Brother, you had better ask God to cause that to stop.”
Perplexed and certainly not wanting to have any fleshly manifestations, Mr. Waldvogel met Mrs. Robinson in the hall of the Meeting House one day and, stopping her, told her of his quandary. “Every time I touch the Lord, I have such violent manifestations and I have been told to pray that they would stop. What should I do?”
Quietly she smiled and answered, “Well, I certainly wouldn’t.”
Then she went on to give her own experience in this respect and what the Lord had taught her. “In the beginning of the Pentecostal Movement there was a great deal of shaking and violent manifestations that people didn’t understand. I didn’t understand it either, but I said, ‘It’s either of God or not. If it is of God, it must be wonderful. It must have a very real purpose.’” So she went to God about the matter and received an explanation.
“When I and others in this work arise to preach,” she continued, “we do that with the power of the Holy Ghost upon our bodies. In other words, He moves our bodies. Our bodies are His instruments. That is what God had in mind when He launched the Pentecostal Movement — to get hold of the bodies of His people. But in coming to them, the Lord often finds bondages in the bodies that have to be released before the Lord can have full control.
“With some people the change goes on very quietly and silently. But in others wherever God finds these bondages, there are often violent demonstrations until the body becomes perfectly yielded. Perhaps there is something like that in you unless you have ‘pushed.’ There are some people that enjoy these manifestations and they ‘push,’ and, of course, that’s wrong. I’ll ask the Lord if you have ‘pushed.’”
Here she stopped and enquired of the Lord. Presently she got the answer. “No, but the Lord wants to give you some help.” Then she closed her eyes and said, “I’ll give it in wisdom.”
“I certainly wouldn’t pray for these things to stop, but rather abandon myself to God so that He can have His full way and trust the Lord that He will not allow me to have violent manifestations in a place where it might stumble people. You can have that faith in God. After all, He controls, and if at some time something happens in a meeting, people will understand it isn’t Mr. Waldvogel but it is God.”
Relieved and instructed, Mr. Waldvogel went his way, and this teaching became a guiding light to him not only for himself but in his ministry. “I went on seeking the Lord, never trying to interfere with His operations either in myself or in others,” Mr. Waldvogel comments. “I found out that God’s plan and God’s way is always the best way. Today, I don’t shake even though the power of God is upon my body. And I found out, too, that if God is going to have a church without spot or wrinkle, wholly under His control, we must let the Holy Ghost really and truly have His way.”
It was some little time after this that Mr. Waldvogel had the visit referred to at the beginning of the chapter. Then, knowing that sometimes the Lord used Mrs. R. to give personal help to people, he went to her residenceⁿ and asked if he might see her.
Note: At the time of his call on her, Mrs. R. was living in a little cottage about a half a block from the Meeting House. Following her illness, the Lord had indicated to her that He desired her to move to other quarters where she could carry on her ministry of prayer and teaching more effectively. A two-week vacation in Chicago in the latter part of July was followed by three weeks in the home of friends in Waukegan. Then Mrs. R. took this little cottage together with her companions, Stella Leggett and Hilda Nilsson.
When Mrs. R. learned who had come to see her, she asked the Lord, first of all, if He desired her to see the caller, for she had a bargain with the Lord to see only those He proposed for her to see. Assured that it was His will, Mr. Waldvogel was admitted and had what was the first of many mutually pleasurable and profitable visits.
Mr. Waldvogel proceeded directly to the purpose of his call: he wondered if the Lord might have some help for him through His vessel. Laughing, Mrs. R. replied, “Oh, that is what you came for! Here I was fooled. I thought you came to see me.” But then she asked the Lord if He had anything He wanted her to do or to say to this young man.
Presently the Lord began to speak over her lips: “Son, I have not been able to make you see how greatly you need to come down, and I have not been able to make you see how greatly you need to hide.” Then the Lord continued with the words already quoted: “You can never know anything, and you can never be anything, but you can know Me and you can be for Me.”
Truly a knock-out blow right at the beginning of her talk for an exemplary young minister who had been praying for hours daily for several months for humility and poverty of spirit, and who was eager to know about the things of God and to do something for Him!
“You want to know the Truth?
“You want to know the Way? I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Life.”
“Lord, what shall I do?” Mrs. R. asked as though Hans Waldvogel were asking the question, which he really was in his own soul.
Forthwith the Lord answered it by saying: —“Son, get alone with Me. Get alone with Me. GET ALONE WITH ME. GET ALONE WITH ME. I can speak to you much better when you are alone with Me than by Elder Brooks or Mrs. Judd or Mrs. Robinson.”
By this word Mr. Waldvogel’s entire life was changed. That day his sails were set for the entire course of his ministry. The word of that day did something more for him, as he himself stated thirty years after this visit:
“Thus Mrs. R. proved to me the soundness of her ministry by not drawing disciples after herself but by commending them to God and to the word of His grace . . . in pointing men to the Fountain of Living Waters, to Jesus ‘Who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
After a period of intensive training, the Lord led Mr. Waldvogel to engage in extensive evangelistic work. Between campaigns he often returned to Zion where he was given additional help for himself and his ministry. In this way his spiritual batteries were continually recharged. At length, in the spring of 1925, Mr. Waldvogel was invited to hold meetings for two weeks in a small, struggling German mission in Brooklyn, N. Y. At the end of the special meetings evangelist and congregation were assured that the Lord would have them continue their association, for a time at least. So quickly did the Lord add to the assembly that seven months later the congregation had to move into larger quarters when the name, Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, was adopted.
Often when a minister finds himself in the midst of a rapidly expanding work, he becomes almost crushed by his duties—the weekly program of meetings, plus the pastoral duties incident to helping people with their personal problems, physical and spiritual, for “every kind of disaster can happen in the work for God.” And when such an one has not learned the lesson of casting all his care upon the Lord and of entering into the rest of God, he may be threatened with a breakdown.
This was what happened to young Pastor Waldvogel. When Mrs. R. was informed of his need, she recommended that he read prayerfully Christ the Healer by F. F. Bosworth. “If you read that book, you’ll get the light you need about divine healing.” Before he had a chance to read this book, however, he met a friend who related some wisdom she and her husband had received from the Lord through Mrs. R. when they found themselves in a similar need: “The thing the Lord wants you to do is to take divine health, and walk out in it. I am divine health.”
Acting upon that word and light—that the indwelling Christ Himself was his health—the sick minister did in faith walk out in it and was completely restored. Greater than that, however, was the victory given him whereby he could leave everything in God’s hands.
Dedicated to the proposition that the Lord was to be allowed to have complete charge of the meetings, the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church soon became plagued with numerous fanatics from the metropolitan area of New York City. Having heard that there was “liberty” in Ridgewood, they came and attempted to “take over,” thereby creating a serious problem for the young pastor and his flock. The consecration to have Holy Ghost meetings was put to the test. The temptation naturally was very strong to do “something” about it.
Mrs. R. and the Faith Home ministers had faced similar tests. When one of the ministers there once expressed herself as not liking it that so many fanatics were attending “our meetings,” the Lord said to her, “So you don’t like them in your meeting? I thought it was My meeting.” Such a sight of the Lord makes the difference between faith and fear and wins the victory over such attempts of the enemy to discredit and defeat the work of God. Thus Pastor Waldvogel was taught to fight—by standing still and letting the Lord take care of these opposers—with the result that the cloud of God’s presence was so manifested that it controlled them and did not permit them to operate as they would.
But the problem of fanatics was only one of several for the young minister who desired the Holy Spirit to lead the meeting. “To understand just the order of the meeting, just to give it over to Him so we will sing at the time He tells us, go to prayer when He directs, have testimonies or praise as He directs” were lessons Mrs. R. herself had had to learn in the early days of her Pentecostal ministry. She knew from her own experience that it was not easy to walk this way, and she was therefore able to instruct those who were treading—sometimes falteringly and with grave questionings—the same path.
“You are doing right in just following Jesus, being led of Him,” Mrs. R. encouraged her young brother minister. “Ministers who go ahead not being led will have great loss. Better let the meeting be a little awkward, but wait for the leading of the Spirit. Do not work to please others. Do not conform to others’ ways. Discussions [about these matters] are unfruitful.
“When Christ called you, He called you only after Himself—Christ for you, no man between. God sees you reaching out after Christ instead of being anxious about meetings.”
“Reaching out after Christ instead of being anxious about meetings!” That’s the secret of successful, Holy Ghost meetings—just wanting Jesus and having faith that He will get His will done, manifesting Himself exactly as He chooses to do.
And ever the Lord used Mrs. R. to keep before this energetic worker “the great call of the King:” “Let Christ be you and you be crucified!”
“What is it to be crucified? Is it to have trials?
“No. It is to be dead [to self]. It is a daily cross-bearing—your own life also. Watch the little things of your daily life to see if you have any choice of your own. The people on this earth don’t know how they waste time in not bearing the cross.
To the same end Mrs. R. taught the young pastor on another occasion: “It isn’t the big events in your life that determine your victory. It’s the little things of your daily life—being faithful in the little things.”
At this point the teacher stopped and asked her pupil:
“What do you do if God wants you to wait upon Him a whole day, and there are five people clamoring to be visited? What do you do in a case like that?”
Thus Mrs. R. continually exhorted Pastor Waldvogel to remain at the feet of Jesus and to make seeking Him the main occupation of his life, letting his service be subordinate to that and engaged in according to the leading of the Holy Ghost.
From time to time Hans Waldvogel received calls to hold special meetings in various places which the Lord made him to know he should accept. During his absence from Ridgewood his pulpit was often filled by one or another of Mrs. R.’s associate ministers and later by his brother, Gottfried.
At one time a very pressing and attractive call came to Pastor Waldvogel, but as he waited upon the Lord to know His will, it became clear to him that He would prefer him not to go, at least not at that time, though he was not given the reason. Suffice it, however, that inasmuch as the Lord had given him a check, he would obey, even though he did not understand the reason for his leading.
Some months later Mrs. R. explained to him the reason for the Lord’s leading him as He did. Inasmuch as it contains teaching fundamental for all ministers, it is included here:
“The Lord wanted you to know you were ‘stretching’ a little at that time, not visible to yourself; but there were calls and you were liable to get a little unsettled, not out of God’s will exactly, but misled and not so inwardly and deeply guided.
“Your work needed you to settle a little now—to center more in Brooklyn. Not that your people were complaining, but there was a time of such blessed opportunities of service, and really seeming to be God’s calls, while you in your own experience were leaning a little toward accepting these as open doors, that God might be pressing you into.
“God, on the other hand, saw for you the need of being less pressed to go; a deepening and quieting in soul in your own work, and a centering your heart in Him, rather than being drawn away into active, extra service. Some things went better for Brooklyn and for yourself; God’s will was done, in and for you, by your staying.
“If you had gone away and got occupied with other work, it would have been loss to you. To tell the truth, you would have ‘spread’ in your work. He says, ‘You have not quite comprehended God’s purpose in it. God was eager to have your soul have the repose of being in God’s will without being overdone at that time. You yourself were stretching so much it was going to show on you if you had kept on overdoing. You would have lost power. If you had erred at that time, “spread,” instead of going deeper, taking on more service instead of hiding in Him, it would have cost you.
“ ‘A great many calls were going to open to you, seemingly a more pressing need than you could have filled in the best way. Only by stopping at the time and withdrawing, could you have done God’s best. Not that you were ill. You, however, were stretching, and when you get stretched and busy and pressed, you go down in power, lose power in your spiritual as well [as your physical].
“ ‘At such a time it is difficult for you to grasp what is going on in your experience. Oh, it is so much better to just go on with Jesus in a deeper and more hidden, a closer walk with God, and not spread, carrying too many loads. You are more in God’s will to look within and to have only His will than to do a great deal of work with less inward results. You might get outward results, but the Lord would not have His great way. God is not satisfied for a man to enlarge because he has the opportunity, but let it be done because Jesus has appointed this to be done.
“‘Now if . . . it had been God’s appointment to do so, He would have provided what you needed. But to go because you were needed and not because God wanted you to go, you might find those losses that come so often to ministers because they become too useful to escape the inevitable pressure. So few ministers understand what to do under these circumstances.’
“He undertook by His word and you took it wisely and simply so that . . it saved you from ‘spreading’ both in spiritual experience and your physical.”
The effects of the great Depression were reflected in a sharp drop in the gifts received by Mrs. R. and the Faith Homes. As Mr. Waldvogel was led he sent Mrs. R. offerings. In acknowledging one such offering Mrs. R. wrote:
“I may as well confess to you we were very thankful. Truly, God always looks ahead. I wish you could sometimes have the experience of watching where the offerings travel. What a wonderful arrangement that there should be such pleasures in the faith life. Something new, something surprising in every direction. Not only to the one receiving but if it could all be followed up, to the giver as well.”
And in the same letter she says, “Kindly thank the dear Italian sister for the ten dollars. I certainly do consider it very kind of this sister to remember me when she does not even know who I am and I suppose has never known any of the Zion folks even. That, too, is another sample of His goodness and another proof of His provision by unknown ways.
Again, a month later, Mrs. R. wrote: “You know, it is quite wonderful how the Lord undertakes sometimes. For quite a time you were not led to send any offerings, and God provided otherwise. Presently there was a shortage, and just at that period you sent offerings. Often we have witnessed similar experiences of His leading you just at the needy time, as He must have led you that time. . . . But please do not let yourself do more than you should. We have to just leave [it] to God, and His love, but we do thank you.”
A remarkable testimony is included in incidental fashion in one of these letters when she apologizes for her inability to write when she wanted to: “A most unusual thing happened. Stella fell sick, apparently some kind of grippe, and then to help matters along, I followed several days later. This came unexpectedly to me. It was right upon me before I thought to look to the Lord to avoid it: Have never had a cold since 1907.” Twenty-four years without a cold! Then Mrs. R. added, “Stella and I, thank God, are healed.”
When Mrs. R. received the news of the death of Thomas A. Edison, Oct. 18, 1931, Mr. Waldvogel happened to be visiting her. “Isn’t it too bad,” she commented, “that The Light never dawned inside of him?” And once, referring to an invention which the research of Edison did much to develop, the motion picture projector, she observed, “It’s too bad the devil has confiscated these wonderful inventions.”
Unlike many “deep life” people Mrs. R. maintained a keen interest in political affairs and the leaders of the country. Throughout the years she made numerous observations and statements that, to say the least, were very illuminating and, in some cases, prophetic. After Calvin Coolidge left the presidency of the United States, she remarked to Mr. Waldvogel, “It would be so nice if he could find a place of usefulness in the kingdom of God. And if not, he might as well go to heaven, for there’s no use of staying on earth.”
When a little later Coolidge’s sudden and unexpected death shocked the entire nation, Mr. Waldvogel remembered the words Mrs. R. had spoken.
Throughout the summers of 1932 and 1933 a number of the young people from Pastor Waldvogel’s congregation held weekly street meetings in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the heart of the slums. These efforts resulted in the opening of the East Side Pentecostal Church, the first of eight out-stations or branch churches which have been established in the metropolitan area of New York City in fellowship with the Ridgewood Church. In this evangelistic outreach Mrs. R. showed great interest, and by her the Lord declared that pastor and people were doing right to branch out into this needy harvest field.
Some little time before Hans Waldvogel came to Brooklyn in 1925, the Lord said to him through Mrs. R.: “The world’s big. There’s work to be done even across the ocean.” At that time he had never thought of going to Europe, but after this word the conviction deepened in his soul that God had a ministry for him in his native Switzerland and among the neighboring German-speaking peoples. In fact, when he came to Brooklyn, he felt that after his campaign there, perhaps God’s next move would be Europe.
In reality it was—but not for eight years. In the meanwhile, repeated invitations came to him—pressing, attractive calls from large European assemblies—to hold campaigns there. Each time, however, the Lord made him to know he was not to go, until in 1933 when he knew that the time had come for him to do so.
Knowing of Mrs. R’s interest in this step and desiring her faith in his behalf, Mr. Waldvogel kept her informed of his movements and ministry there. “I have followed with greater interest than I can tell you, your travels and your every step for Jesus,” Mrs. R. wrote him at one time. Then she added. “It was Christ who took you. Grant He fulfill in you and for you.” This word reached Mr. Waldvogel at a most opportune time, for just then he sorely needed encouragement.
This first trip to Europe was comparatively brief, but its importance lay in the fact that it was a preparation for a second period of ministry there four years later. Then after World War II the Lord opened the door for a larger ministry in Switzerland, Austria, Yugoslavia, and Germany resulting in the conversion of multitudes of souls and the establishment of various assemblies, the main one being at Kirchheim, Germany, with a much larger congregation than its mother church.
Thus the Lord’s suggestion by His vessel—”There’s work to be done even across the ocean”—has been carried out and fulfilled beyond what anyone conceived as possible when first uttered.
Early in the course of Mr. Waldvogel’s New York ministry, Mrs. R. realized that he needed a strong, able associate to help bear the ever-increasing burdens of the work there. And when the congregation extended a call to their pastor’s brother, Gottfried, to join him in the ministry, in 1934, Mrs. R. rejoiced, for she had known for some time from the Lord that this was God’s will.
For about five years he had been pastor of the Waukegan church, an assembly whose members had especially suffered from the Depression, so that his circumstances had been very strained at times. He had lived a life of absolute trust, however, for the supply of the needs of himself, his wife, and eight sons. Now he was going to New York where admittedly things would be easier financially. While visiting Mrs. R. before he left for his new charge, the Lord gave him a word of counsel which all ministers could well apply to themselves when their material circumstances better: “Never lose your interest in heaven.”
For over eighteen years the two brothers labored together until Gottfried was called to his eternal reward. Then his son, Edwin, took his father’s place and became his uncle’s associate. About twenty years before this, during the course of a visit Mrs. R., the Lord had said to Edwin, then a boy in his teens, that He wanted him to help his uncle in the work of the Lord. Through the intervening period the paths of uncle and nephew had diverged for a time, but all the while God had been preparing him for his place. Then, after so long a time, was the word of the Lord by His servant, Mrs. Robinson, fulfilled—seventeen years after she herself had answered the call to higher service.
One day early in 1936, the Lord said to Mr. Waldvogel by Mrs. R., “I am going to give you a call over your own lips.” Presently, as they continued to wait upon the Lord, the Spirit of God came upon him and spoke through him a simple word like this: “I have set before you a new, open door and will help you to go through it.
Upon his return to New York, Mr. Waldvogel said to one of his associates, “I believe God is going to get us on the air.” Within a week two businessmen, unknown to him and to each other, approached a radio station in New York and asked that he be given time for a broadcast. As a result, for several years Pastor Waldvogel was able to spread the gospel by radio, free of charge. Throughout the subsequent years this “door” opened ever more widely until the Lord made it possible for Pastor Waldvogel to broadcast over Radio Luxemburg which is heard by short wave around the world!
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Martha Wing Robinson (1874 - 1936)
Martha held meetings which touched people to return to the work of the service of God. The Robinsons opened a "Faith Home" where people would come for teaching and prayer. Like George Muller they depended on God to provide what was needed for expenses. Thousands came through her home and healings were a regular occurrence. Her husband died in April of 1916, but Martha continued in her ministry. She had a very sharp gift of discernment and regularly told people the secrets of their hearts. She often had directive prophetic words for those under her care. Many young people came to the home for training and went into the mission fields and evangelistic endeavours.Martha Wing Robinson died June 26, 1936. Shortly before she died she stated her life's message "Nothing matters but Christ Jesus." Her whole life was spent in the service of God and for the Glory of His Son Jesus. She had seen many healed, saved, delivered, empowered and sent out. She was truly a mother in Israel. In 1962 Gordon P. Gardiner wrote a book about her life called "Radiant Glory" because that is how she lived her life.