The Ministry of Jessie Penn-Lewis

Jessie Penn-Lewis had a great deal of realization and experience concerning the death of Christ.

Jessie Penn-Lewis had a great deal of realization and experience concerning the death of Christ. In the messages of her later years, however, she gave more weight to spiritual warfare. In those years she gave the greatest stress to exposing the works of demons, the potentials of the soul, etc. The book that she wrote with Evan Roberts, War on the Saints, was recognized as a textbook on how the lying spirits work on the children of God and how to be saved from their work. This book discusses Satanic deception, demon possession, the way to be freed from this kind of captivity, how to overcome in spiritual conflict, etc. Besides this, during the 1920s in The Overcomer magazine, she published articles concerning many supernatural phenomena caused by Satan’s warfare utilizing the human soul. Because of this she veered from the central line of the recovery of life.

T. Austin-Sparks continued, after Mrs. Penn-Lewis, the recovery of the realization and revelation of the cross. He both expounded and promoted (among Christians) the matter of “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

The cross is the center as the hub is the center of a wheel.

One of his earliest messages was The Centrality and Universality of the Cross (1948). He wrote the foreword for this book clearly emphasizing the matter of the fullness of Christ and God’s eternal purpose concerning His Son. “This is inclusive….[T]he Cross remains basic and operative to keep the way clear of all that spells death.” He taught that for all things, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, the cross is the center as the hub is the center of a wheel. “

The cross is the explanation of all things.

The hub of everything is the Cross of the Lord Jesus” (p. 10). “The Cross becomes…the universal purpose of God from eternity to eternity” (p. 9). The cross is the explanation of all things. From the cross as the hub, four “spokes” move out and come back, which four are firstly the person of Christ, secondly the Holy Spirit, thirdly the “so great salvation,” and fourthly the Lord’s coming. These four are all related to the cross as their basis, issue, and explanation.

Mrs. Penn-Lewis also emphasized the heavenly reality and gave up all outward forms or practices. As a result, in her meetings the Lord’s Table and baptism were not practiced. In place of baptism, a flag would be waved over the new convert’s head. Brother Sparks could not agree with this. He saw that in the New Testament there are still symbols and marks of piety toward the Lord. Hence, baptism, the Lord’s Table, and the laying on of hands are still needed.

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