Super Heart Living - E. W. Kenyon

His love for God's Word and his profound understanding of

the Scriptures have inspired and transformed generations of believers. Here is Kenyon's life story...

Born to Serve

In 1867 Essek William Kenyon was born in Hadley, New York. As a young man he desired to become an actor.

When he was 17 years old Kenyon committed his life to Jesus Christ and began studying the new Testament.

But for several years Kenyon wandered around in spiritual darkness. He knew his own sins were forgiven, but no one taught him about the new birth and his privileges in Christ. His lack of Biblical understanding left him discouraged.

At the age of 21 Kenyon began selling pianos. His success at selling led him to pursue a career as an actor. To learn effective public speaking he enrolled at the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston.

But in 1893 when Kenyon married Evva Spurling, the young couple soon heard A. J. Gordon speak. And during the church meeting Kenyon committed himself to Christian service. He began pastoring a small church in Elmira, New York.

Those Powerful Healing Scriptures

Kenyon was ordained in the Free Will Baptist Church, where he learned how to anoint people with oil for healing.

America's healing movement was flourishing, having been established by A B. Simpson, Charles Cullis, and John Alexander Dowie. Kenyon loved Dowie's dominating faith and powerful healing ministry and realized divine healing could be used greatly to win others to Christ.

So Kenyon and his wife began studying the healing scriptures and ministering healing. Miracles became a daily occurrence.

Renewing His Mind to God's Word

Kenyon learned much from the great preacher D. L. Moody and his Northfield conferences. One of Moody's associates, R. A. Torrey, preached that Christ's work on the cross was complete and included healing. No "second work of grace" is necessary.

Kenyon also learned from A. T. Pearson that the believer is made righteous and has total victory in Christ.

So Kenyon gradually rejected the theories about the second work of grace and the believer's duel natures. The old sin nature has passed away and the believer is a brand new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Now the Christian must simply renew his mind to all that is his in Christ! (Romans 12:2)

Called to Teach Christ's Finished Work

Kenyon felt God had called him to teach the finished work of Christ. Protestant Reformers had taught our justification, the Holiness people our sanctification, and the Faith Cure Movement taught about healing in the Atonement.

But E. W. Kenyon saw that all of these blessings were ours because of CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK ON THE CROSS.

Christ was made sin for us, bore our sicknesses and tasted death for every man. Redemption is complete.

(2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:4; Hebrews 2:9).

We are the sons of God, with Christ in us! God now indwells the believer, just as he did Jesus of Nazareth.

Learning To Speak God's Word

Kenyon learned much about the meaning of life from a group called the Plymouth Brethren, which began meeting in homes for Bible study. Kenyon also learned from outstanding individuals including G. Campbell Morgan, A. J. Gordon, and Jesse Penn-Lewis.

The Holiness, Keswick and Faith Cure movements also greatly influenced Kenyon's understanding of God's Word. They realized that Satan is behind all sickness and disease and he has no right to afflict a believer.

Kenyon learned the power of “confessing” God’s Word from many of the Holiness and Higher life ministers, including Phoebe Palmer, Hannah Whitall Smith, Carrie Judd Montgomery and Andrew Murray.

Kenyon began encouraging people to believe God's Word, act on it and confess it boldly. This was the way Jesus himself ministered he taught us to do the same (Matthew 17:20, Mark 11:23, and Luke 17:6).

Some people today call this "sensory denial." The Bible calls it believing God and his Word! We are to hold fast to the confession of God’s Word, which is based upon God's character, the finished work of Christ, and the scriptural promises.

Training God's Soldiers

In 1900 Kenyon established Bethel Bible School as a spiritual West Point to train soldiers for Jesus Christ.

Students learned how to use a Bible concordance and rejoiced in scriptural truths most of the church had long forgotten.

Students also learned how to walk by faith. They worked on the farm to help support the Bible Institute. Their teachers received no salaries. They prayed the money in.

Once the school ran out of coal during the snowy winter. The students got together and prayed. They later discovered the coal bin had been filled...and there were no footprints in the snow!

Kenyon taught God's Word with great conviction and won people to Christ. One man said he never heard a man with a more profound knowledge of the Scriptures than E. W. Kenyon.

Since Kenyon broke denominational ties, won many people to Christ and taught the Word, some pastors and churches became jealous. They slandered and persecuted Kenyon. But God provided for his needs and confirmed his Word with miraculous signs and wonders. Many people were healed of incurable diseases.

Kenyon's teachings on the finished work of Christ spread like wildfire throughout the Pentecostal movement...

Connecting with The Pentecostals

After the Civil War there had been an increased interest in the Holy Spirit and by 1900 there were more than 20 books written on the subject. People began anticipating that God was going to pour out his spirit as he had Pentecost.

In 1907 Kenyon was in Chicago hosting a series of meetings, and while there he met many who had spoken in tongues. Kenyon shared many beliefs with the Holiness people but he realized that many of them didn't understand the great realities of redemption.

Kenyon believed in speaking in tongues and was eager to fellowship with the Pentecostals. But he did not like their bragging and the overemphasis on experience. He began down-playing the importance of tongues and emphasizing living by faith in God's Word.

Confronting The Cults

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, set up her headquarters in Boston, the home of the Faith Cure Movement. Many Christians began defecting to her new movement and the churches became alarmed.

So in 1910 Kenyon published a tract about the dangerous heresy of Christian Science. This and other cults were teaching "another Jesus," not the Jesus of the Bible. Their philosophical God was not the Father of the Bible.

The President of Moody Bible Institute, James M. Gray, said the growing influence of Christian Science could have been halted had the Church taught divine healing.

In 1914 Kenyon's wife Evva died. Later that year he married Alice M. Whitney.

Fellowshipping with The Father

Kenyon once heard God tell him that He loved him more than Kenyon loved himself. This stunned Kenyon, and from that point forward he pursued intimate fellowship with his heavenly Father.

So in 1916 E. W. Kenyon published his very first book,

The Father and His Family. He wrote this "systematic theology for laymen" to reveal God's "Father heart." Intimate fellowship with the Father was the secret of Jesus' powerful ministry. And it would enable us to maintain that same, wonderful fellowship with God.

Eager readers discovered that their birth into God's family has given them certain rights and privileges. The greatest privilege is to know our wonderful Father God!

Kenyon's readers learned that Christianity is not a religion, but The Father and His Family. We are God's sons!

Intellectual Fireball with a Vision

Kenyon constantly studied God's Word, meditated upon the Scriptures and wrote books and articles.

Kenyon also read poetry, classical literature, Confucius, the stoic philosophers, history and the great atheistic writers of his day. Men called him a "brilliant teacher" and a "genius." Young people in Kenyon's church affectionately called him "the Doctor.”

But this well-educated man was also a dramatic speaker who preached intensely and held his audiences spellbound.

Kenyon spoke out boldly against the liberals who wanted a "moral Jesus" stripped of the supernatural. He began teaching about God's "superman" who would walk in his full privileges in Christ and carry the supernatural gospel to the world.

Correcting The Pentecostals

In 1923 Kenyon moved from the East Coast to Southern California, where the Pentecostal Movement was in full swing. He saw firsthand the ministries of Maria Woodworth Etter, F. F. Bosworth, and Aimee Semple McPherson. And he may have met Smith Wigglesworth.

Kenyon spoke out against the weaknesses of the Pentecostal Movement. He himself spoke in tongues but realized that believers were having problems because they didn't know what they have in Christ.

When Kenyon met John G. Lake they discussed their desire to demonstrate the power of healing and deliverance. Both men wanted to give the world a true picture of "ideal" Christianity.

Kenyon and his family moved to Los Angeles and founded a non-denominational church. His goal was to win people to Christ, get them established in the Word and train them to become soul winners.

Revealing Our Power and Authority

In 1927 Kenyon published another exciting book,

The Wonderful Name of Jesus.

Christian readers discovered that the use of Jesus' name gives them the power of attorney. All of God's authority is invested in Jesus' name!

Some people misunderstood and rejected Kenyon's teaching on authority. But Kenyon realized that a Christian acting upon his authority is simply imitating the ministry of Jesus Christ, demanding the devil remove his afflictions (John 14:12; Mark 16:17-18).

Kenyon himself used his authority in Christ. He won people to the Lord, got them healed, filled with the spirit, and delivered from evil spirits. And when Bethel Bible Institute developed a rodent and insect problem, Kenyon and his students commanded the pest to leave. The house was instantly rid of them.

Once during a teaching, Kenyon rebuked the howling snow storm outside. It immediately ceased. The amazed audience realized he had simply used the wonderful name of Jesus.

Kenyon said once believers understood their authority in Christ they would have "the secret which shook the world through the apostles."

In 1930 Kenyon began his radio ministry in Los Angeles, and his messages were rebroadcast throughout the nation.

Kenyon later moved to the state of Washington, where he had...

Super Success in Seattle

His new radio ministry, Kenyon's Church of The Air, won many people to the Lord and began offering his listeners Bible study courses. The basic course, an advanced course and one on personal evangelism.

Kenyon established the Seattle Bible Institute in 1935. He also started another international newsletter, Kenyon's Herald of Life. He would later compile many of these newsletter articles into books.

He established a new fellowship with Christians which he later called New Covenant Baptist Church. Seattle was now E. W. Kenyon's home, and his headquarters for his writing his famous books...

Writing It All Down for You

Kenyon's last decade on Earth was his most productive. He had already written two books, The Father and His Family and The Wonderful Name of Jesus. And now he began publishing an avalanche of books...

The Two Kinds of Knowledge was Kenyon's next book. Then he wrote Sign Posts on the Road to Success. These were followed a couple of years later by one of his most popular writings, Jesus The Healer.

During the next five years Kenyon published other volumes. Identification, The New Kind of Love, The Two Kinds of Faith, The Two Kinds of Righteousness, The Two Kinds of Life and In His Presence. He also wrote New Creation Realities and What Happened From The Cross to The Throne.

Kenyon traveled and ministered right up to the end of his life. In 1948 he died at the age of 81, having just finished writing his last book.

After his death, Kenyon's daughter Ruth published The Blood Covenant and then later published his last book,

The Hidden Man of The Heart.

Several of Kenyon's books were translated into foreign languages and distributed throughout India, Italy, South America, and other foreign nations.

Corrie ten Boom, the famous Holocaust survivor, translated Kenyon's works into Dutch.

Most importantly, Kenyon's teachings were "translated" into world-wide ministries. Men and women read, learned and absorbed God's Word for themselves.

The devil didn't like this one bit...

Controversy and Defense

In 1979 a book was published accusing Kenyon of deriving his teachings from the metaphysical cults.

Later in 1998 a Word of Faith pastor rebutted this accusation with his book E. W. Kenyon: The True Story. The author, Joe McIntyre, is now head of the Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society.

E. W. Kenyon's Impact on Christianity

Kenyon's numerous books have made an enormous impact on the Deeper Life, Charismatic and Word of Faith movements. Kenyon influenced F. F. Bosworth, Don Gossett, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps and many others.

Kenyon inspires you to search God's Word for yourself and reexamine all your man-made traditions. Christ's redemption for you is complete. Nothing needs to be added! You and I are the sons of God. This understanding of our victory in Christ is the basis for our Super Heart Living DVD series.

In 1975 world-famous evangelist T. L. Osborn wrote a letter of gratitude to Kenyon's daughter. He said…

"The seeds and roots of this fresh faith that has swept the world, projecting men into vast ministries, can be distinctly traced to the influence of the writings and revolutionary publications which have flown out from the anointed and skilled pen of Dr. E. W. Kenyon."

Those are fitting words of tribute to...

E. W. Kenyon, one of God's Christian Heroes!

His influence lives on! You can hear an inspiring teaching on "How to Become a Secure and Self-Confident Success" on our Audio page...

And if you really love God's Word, check out our revolutionary new television series, Super Heart Living. You can purchase episode one of the DVDs, The Self-Esteem of Sonship, by clicking here...