Tag Archives: AB Simpson

The God of the Broken

14 Sunday Dec 2025

Posted by in The Elisha Code

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 And He said,
“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel;
for you have struggled with God and with men,
and have prevailed.”
(Genesis 32:28, NKJV)

The people whom God uses to change the world have first been radically changed by the Spirit of God. Often, these world changers have experienced major setbacks. We might even say they have been broken by God, but they have come through those experiences transformed and empowered by the Spirit.

There is a pattern that emerges as we look back at the lives of the three revival leaders we have examined thus far. Each of them reached a breaking point.

A. B. Simpson was a successful minister, who through much hard work, built a large church but he experienced burnout and a physical breakdown. From this low point, God healed him and raised him up to bring healing and salvation to thousands.

Similarly, Aimee Semple McPherson experienced a complete physical breakdown that left her hospitalized and at the point of death. She had returned from the mission field as a widow and a broken woman. She transitioned to a new life but steadfastly resisted God’s call. But God broke her resistance, miraculously restored her health, and catapulted her into a healing ministry that changed the trajectory of the church in America and the world.

Andrew Murray had what many would consider a successful ministry. But he too reached a breaking point. He lost his voice for two years. From this low point, God healed, transformed, and restored Murray to a far more effective and far-reaching ministry.

The common thread running through these life stories is that all three leaders encountered a breaking point. God broke them. Why would God do such a thing? Do we need to be broken to become effective ministers of the gospel of Christ?

There are several stories in the Bible that illustrate this need for God to break us.

The life story of the patriarch Jacob serves as the primary example of God taking a man to a breaking point. Jacob was a grasper. He grabbed for power. This is graphically illustrated by the way he came into this world. He arrived grasping his twin brother’s heel.[i] From the moment of birth, we see Jacob attempting to supplant Esau, his older brother, through cunning and deception.

Jacob succeeds first by trading a pot of lentil stew for Esau’s birthright (Genesis 25:29-35), and later by conspiring with his mother to rob Esau of his father’s blessing (Genesis 27:1-41). When Esau threatens to kill him, Jacob flees to the distant home of his uncle Laban.

Repeatedly, Jacob bargains with God, and God answers his prayers. Perhaps this is the most remarkable feature of Jacob’s life story. The LORD sticks with this deceiver and blesses him despite his devious ways. His life is a portrait of God’s unmerited favor in the face of constant opposition.

Jacob met his cunning, devious double in the person of Uncle Laban. First, Laban deceived Jacob by swapping Leah for her sister Rachel on his wedding night. There is more than a little divine justice at play in Laban’s clever deception. Jacob who cheated his blind father is cheated blind in his own marriage bed. The irony in this outcome is striking. Jacob is required to work seven years for Leah and then seven more years for Rachel, his true love.[ii]

Then, over the years, Laban changed Jacob’s wages ten times. But despite Laban’s constant readjustments, Jacob’s flocks and herds grew and prospered. God’s blessing bestowed by Isaac remained on Jacob.[iii]

But eventually, God brought Jacob to a breaking point. It happened on Jacob’s return to his homeland.
Jacob gets word that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men. Why would Esau come with 400 men unless he intended to carry out the threat, he uttered twenty years earlier? Suddenly, Jacob’s life is on the line, and not only his life, but also the lives of his two wives and his twelve sons. His family and all the wealth he accumulated over years of hard labor is about to be wiped out. He finds himself in a truly desperate situation with no way out.

In exchange for his life, he offers to bargain away all his livestock, his wives, and his children. But will this desperate ploy satisfy the angry brother he has cheated? Jacob sends all he has ahead of him. To his servants he says:

“When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?’ then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us’” (Genesis 32:17-18, NIV).

But Jacob stays back on the opposite side of the Jabok River. There alone in the dark for the whole night, Jacob wrestled with a man. But in truth, he wrestled with God.

Jacob’s Ladder — Genesis 28:12

Many Bible scholars view this man as a Christophany—a preincarnate appearance of Christ. Christ came down from heaven to break this obstinate cheater—break him and change him into a vessel he could use for his glory and his eternal purpose.

When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” (Genesis 32:25-30).

There can be no doubt who the stronger man was at Peniel. With a simple touch Jacob’s

hip was wrenched. With a simple touch Christ healed the sick, raised the crippled, and restored sight to the blind. But here with a simple touch, Christ wrenched Jacob’s hip and left him limping for the rest of his days.

Why this stark contrast? We can easily understand why Christ would heal a crippled beggar, but why would he break a man? Why break Jacob?

The simple answer is because Jacob needed to be broken. The wild horse serves no one. The wild stallion serves only himself. Only the broken horse is fit for the master’s service. All of Jacob’s service was self-serving, and that includes his service to Laban. From Peniel onward Jacob—broken Jacob—was serving the LORD.

Galloping Horses – Image courtesy of Tina Phillips at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

David, the man after God’s own heart, needed to be broken too. David was true to the LORD in the wilderness with jealous King Saul in hot pursuit, but after he assumed the throne of Israel his fleshly desires led him astray. After his sin with Bathsheba, God needed to break him. The events that followed this sordid affair brought the humility so essential to effective service to God. Psalm 51 reflects the heart cry of a broken man.

This need for the servant of God to be broken by God appears in the New Testament as well. Peter needed to be broken by Jesus. Peter was a natural leader—sure of himself in all situations—ready to step out of a boat and even walk on water. That takes more than a little courage. But that confident self-assurance needed to be broken, and Jesus knew how to do it.

It only took the third crowing of a rooster to break Peter and reduce him to a blubbering, sobbing mess. Jesus knows how to break the strongest men. But he also knows how to restore them.

Three times Jesus asked, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”[iv] Three times Peter affirmed his love for the Lord, and three times Jesus affirmed Peter’s calling:

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15).
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep” (John 21:16).
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17).

Photo by kailash kumar on Pexels.com

The broken Peter was now ready for service. He would fulfill the prophetic words Jesus had spoken over him before his fall and now in his restoration.

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32, NIV).

The broken Peter had been humbled. Now Jesus ruled Peter. Now the Master was truly the Master and Lord of all.

Have you been broken by Jesus? Most Christians are eager to serve the Lord, but only in an advisory capacity. Peter was quick to give Jesus advice on how he should avoid the cross. See Matthew 16:21-27.

The Lord is not looking for our advice. He is looking for our obedience.

Jesus himself needed to be broken. His Heavenly Father broke him on the cross where he cried out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (Which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:46, NIV).

When Jesus broke, he broke the stranglehold of sin over humanity. His breaking was essential for the salvation of our souls.

As disciples of our Lord Jesus, we can expect to be broken as well. We need to become like our Master in every way.

Saul of Tarsus was zealous to serve the God of his fathers, so zealous he persecuted the church. Jesus himself intervened in Saul’s life in order to break him. On the road to Damascus, Saul was confronted by Jesus—arrested by Jesus—blinded and broken by him.

Out of his brokenness Paul ministered the gospel to the Gentile world of his day. Through his writing he continues to speak to millions today.

Have we been confronted by Jesus? Has he opposed you at any point in your life? Have you been broken by him? In the power of our own flesh, we can do many good and noble things in the name of our Lord. Many fine churches have been built through clever marketing and ingenuity. Human effort and talent can carry us a long way.

In the eyes of many, A. B. Simpson had a successful ministry before Christ broke him. Andrew Murray was powerfully used by God before God broke him and set him aside for two years. But both these men came out of their time of brokenness refined and empowered by the Spirit of God. In their hearts there had been a regime change. The risen Christ was fully in charge now and the Spirit of God was directing them forward.

Are you and I ready to be broken and poured out at the feet of Jesus?

Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil (John 12:3, NIV).

[i] Genesis 25:21-26

[ii] Genesis 29:14-30

[iii] Genesis 31:38-42

[iv] John 21:15-19

This is the fourteenth weekly excerpt from the award-winning book 
The Elisha Code & the Coming Revival 

A soul-gripping read.
Is a return-to-Jesus revival possible in our time?
This book points the way forward.
For details click here.

A Call for the Miraculous

02 Sunday Nov 2025

Posted by in The Elisha Code

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“And these signs will accompany those who believe:
In my name they will drive out demons; 
they will speak in new tongues; 
they will pick up snakes with their hands;
and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all;
they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
(Mark 16:17-18, NIV)

More Autumn glory — photo by David Kitz

What will it take to turn this nation and the world to faith in Jesus Christ? That question should set us on a Holy Spirit driven quest to see a world-changing, Book-of-Acts revival take place in our time.

There are those within the church who argue the age of miracles ended with the death of the original apostles. But those who hold such a view are not being true to the Scriptures, or the historical record of the church down through the ages.

Have you noticed that most revivals in the last hundred years involved a renewed emphasis on the healing ministry? Many denominations have functionally delegated the healing ministry to the wastebin of New Testament history. Sorry, they might say, this is the wrong dispensation to get healed. Jesus does not do that anymore. Spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, and healing have all ceased since the publishing of the New Testament. If you are sick, all that is left is to go to your medical doctor and hope for the best. “If it be your will” prayers have become the dominant way of praying for the sick. Perhaps God nowadays wants us sick rather than whole.

Aimee Semple McPherson and AB Simpson were two Ontario-raised Canadians who challenged that assumption. Both asserted that spiritual gifts are still available today, including the gifts of healing. While both valued the role of medical doctors, they helped many discover that Jesus Christ our healer is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Both asserted that this is not the wrong dispensation to get healed by Jesus. He is still willing and able to heal the sick in body, mind, and spirit.

Both Semple McPherson and AB Simpson helped people rediscover the prayer of faith in James 5:15 where we read that if anyone is sick, they are to call the elders who will lay hands on them, anoint them with oil, and exercising the prayer of faith will heal the sick. They will be restored to health. By confessing their sins one to another and praying for each other (sins like rage, unforgiveness, bitterness, self-hatred), many were healed. In the healing revival, it was noticed that people were often healed first spiritually and emotionally. The outer physical healings often naturally followed the inner healings.

Albert Benjamin Simpson was born on Prince Edward Island on December 15th, 1843, of Scottish Covenanter heritage.  His family had emigrated from Morayshire, Scotland to Bayview, P.E.I. After the collapse of his father’s shipbuilding business in the 1840’s depression, his family moved from P.E.I. to a farm in western Ontario.

Fresh out of seminary in 1865, Simpson had accepted the call to pastor Knox Church in Hamilton, a congregation with the second largest Presbyterian church building in Canada. Over the next eight years, 750 new people joined the congregation.

But AB Simpson had been such a workaholic that he destroyed his health.  In 1881, his medical doctor gave him just three months to live.  But upon meeting an Episcopalian (Anglican) physician, Dr. Charles Cullis, at Old Orchard Camp in Maine, he experienced a remarkable healing of his near-fatal heart condition. His restoration to health was so complete that the next day, Simpson was able to climb a 3,000-foot mountain, and then successfully pray for his daughter Margaret’s healing from diphtheria. This was the very disease which had earlier killed his son Melville.

Simpson believed that Jesus Christ is still healing people today (Hebrew 13:8). His first of many books was fittingly called The Gospel of Healing.

Word spread fast regarding these healings. He was inundated by many with pleas for help. By others, he was vilified and ridiculed as another quack miracle worker. Simpson started Friday afternoon healing & holiness meetings, which quickly became New York City’s largest attended spiritual weekday meeting, with 500 to 1,000 in attendance. He even turned his own house into a healing home where people could come for prayer ministry.

Simpson, as founder of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, brought together four separate movements into one alliance (1) missions and evangelism (2) healing (3) holiness, and (4) Jesus’ Second Coming. His four-fold gospel emphasized “Christ our Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King.”  Simpson saw that the healing ministry as vital in the fulfillment of the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations.

Few people nowadays realize that Aimee Semple McPherson[i] was the most famous North American woman in the1920s. How is it a Canadian farm girl came to have a lasting impact on the lives of millions around the world?

Aimee Semple McPherson

Growing up on a farm near Salford, Ontario, Aimee was raised in the Salvation Army by her mother.

At age 17, Aimee said, “Lord, I’ll never eat or sleep again until you fill me with the Spirit of power.”

Having been touched by the Spirit, she married the visiting evangelist, Robert Semple. They promptly went to China as missionaries. But within months of their arrival in Hong Kong, her husband died after they both contracted malaria. Aimee came back to North America in 1912 as a broken woman, a widow, and a single mother of a daughter from her brief marriage.

She wrote: “I had come home from China like a wounded little bird, and my bleeding heart was constantly pierced with curious questions from well-meaning people.”[ii]

Remarrying on the rebound to the practical Harold McPherson, she tried unsuccessfully to be the traditional stay-at-home housewife her new husband wanted. It almost killed her. After ending up in hospital, and near death, God told her to go back preaching. She said yes to her calling and was instantly healed.

Leaving that night with her two children, she began preaching in Canada. At her first meetings, only two men and a boy turned up for the first four days. Then, after miraculous healings broke out, the curious crowds appeared.

“My healings?” said Aimee, “I do nothing. If the eyes of the people are on me, nothing will happen. I pray and believe with others, who pray and believe, and the power of Christ works the miracle.”

The next step was travel to the West Coast. Aimee and her mom, Minnie Kennedy, became the first women to drive alone across North America on uncharted roads. After relocating to Los Angeles, Aimee became as well-known as Charlie Chaplain, Harry Houdini, and even President Teddy Roosevelt.

In the 1920s, the sheer numbers of medically verified healings at her services was astounding. This included the wheelchair-bound being able to walk, the blind able to see, the deaf hearing, and tumors disappearing.

Angeles Temple

On January 1st, 1923, Aimee Semple McPherson opened her headquarters church in Los Angeles, the 5,300 seat Angeles Temple. A typical Sunday would see Aimee preaching three services to a full house, while tens of thousands more listened on radio. Her influence on the culture of southern California was so profound that linguists attribute the present-day southern California accent to the impact she had on the language. In those formative years, so many heard her voice in person and via radio that she shaped the pronunciation and syntax of daily speech of that region.

One month after opening Angeles Temple, Aimee started L.I.F.E Bible College which soon attracted 1,000 students. Many of those students became Foursquare pastors and missionaries who spread the Foursquare Gospel around the globe.

Like AB Simpson, Aimee proclaimed a fourfold gospel message centered on Jesus—Jesus as Savior, Healer, Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, and coming King. She called this the Foursquare Gospel and founded the denomination by that name.

Her legacy remains and flourishes. Today, there are 44,000 Foursquare Gospel churches in 143 countries around the world, and through the ministry of those churches, a million new believers committed their lives to Christ in the last calendar year.

But as we know, each new generation needs to discover the scope and power of the gospel for themselves. We cannot live on our parents’ faith. We must experience God’s grace firsthand. Undoubtedly, it was for this reason that Jude begins his epistle with these words:

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people (Jude 1:3, NIV).

Are we contending for the faith that was entrusted to us by the apostles? It is a faith that moved mountains of doubt, fear, and disability and cast them into the sea. It is a faith that healed the sick, restored the crippled, and raised the widow Tabatha from her deathbed.[iii] Are we contending for that kind of world-shaking, bondage-breaking faith?

Photo by Jill Wellington on Pexels.com

The following testimony from evangelist R. W. Shambach illustrates the power of supernatural healing in bringing the lost to faith in Christ. Shambach made his first trip to India in 1956. He was gripped by the poverty and misery he saw in the marketplaces, and by the many he saw who were sick, crippled, and blind.

On that opening day, I preached for two hours, and my interpreter translated for two hours—for a total of four hours. They wanted me to go on. When I gave the altar call, I was so disappointed. I had preached to 50,000 people, and not one soul had come to accept Jesus.

Although no one came forward to accept Christ, and the crowd was obviously ready for the benediction, I said, “I am not done now. God says that signs follow His Word. I did what God called me to do. Now I am going to let God do what He said He was going to do.”

I invited three people from the audience to come forward—they were beggars. I knew who they were. One was blind, one was deaf and dumb, and the other was a crippled woman who had never walked upright.

Fifty thousand people were watching.

They were all healed.

Do you know what happened? The people in that crowd started jumping out of trees, and a mob came running towards me… I never saw such an onslaught of people. They were yelling something at the top of their voice. I asked my interpreter, “What are they saying?”

He said, “They are hollering, ‘Jesus is alive. Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is God.’ They are coming to get saved.”
What a thrill! Not one of them came when I preached, but when they saw the demonstration of the Gospel, they came.

God has called the Church to demonstrate His power. Aren’t you glad He is alive today?[iv]

What will it take to turn this nation and the world to faith in Jesus Christ? Many are blind and hostile to God and the message of the gospel. The only thing that will open their eyes to the reality of Christ’s love is a demonstration of the Lord’s supernatural healing power.

Paul knew the importance of the miraculous in his ministry to the lost of his time.

 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power (1 Corinthians 2:3-5, NIV).

Is the gospel message we are presenting just wise and persuasive words? To be truly biblical our message needs to be rooted in a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.

Healing and the miraculous are an integral part of the Elisha Code. Let’s not miss out on this key to future revivals.

[i] For a complete picture of the life and ministry of Aimee Semple McPherson see Sister Aimee by Daniel Mark Epstein, Harcourt Brace & Company.

[ii] “The Story of My Life”, Aimee Semple McPherson, Foursquare Crusader, September 7, 1927, Page 6.

[iii] Acts 28:8-9, Acts 3:1-10, Acts 9:32-43

[iv] Excerpt From “Miracles: Eyewitness to the Miraculous” by R. W. Schambach, 1969.

This is the eighth weekly excerpt from the award-winning book 
The Elisha Code & the Coming Revival 

A soul-gripping read.
Is a return-to-Jesus revival possible in our time?
This book points the way forward.
For details click here.