Mary Elizabeth Judd
Mary Elizabeth Judd was born on August 29, 1907 in Zion, IL. She was the first and only child of Hirarn Worthington and Loretta Mae Shockey Judd. Mary Elizabeth's mother was the second wife of her father. Her father's first wife had died many years earlier in childbirth with their third child, and the youngest of her father's three children by that marriage was twenty years older than she was, so Mary Elizabeth was raised, in effect, as an only child.
Mary
Elizabeth's father was a real estate and insurance man who was
a follower of the divine healing evangelist, John Alexander Dowie.
When Mr. Judd first aligned himself with Dr. Dowie, Dowie was
headquartered in Chicago. However, at the turn of the twentieth
century, Dr. Dowie desired to establish a "City of God"
called Zion. So he asked Mr. Judd, along with some of the other
men in his fellowship, to look for land north of Chicago. They
did, and Mr. Judd was instrumental in purchasing the land that
became the City of Zion. Thus, Dr. Dowie's ministry moved to Zion,
as did Mr. Judd. A few years later Mr. Judd desired to get remarried
to Miss Loretta Mae Shockey. On September 14, 1905 Dr. Dowie performed
the wedding ceremony that united them in holy matrimony.
As Dr. Dowie's ministry and life were ending (he died March 9, 1907), the Pentecostal movement was beginning (1906-07), and one of the places where the Spirit was especially outpoured, besides Azusa Street in Los Angeles, was in Zion City, IL. Some of those associated with Dr. Dowie received the message of Pentecost and, consequently, became part of this new movement of the Spirit. One of those in particular was Mrs. Martha Wing Robinson who, along with a few other ministers, founded the Zion Faith Homes ministry in 1911. Mrs. Robinson was already a deeply sanctified saint when the Spirit was outpoured in 1906-07. In a short period of time, she came into God in a way that few Christians ever do. She experienced a total death to the self -life, so that the life of Christ alone was manifested through and throughout her mortal body. She called this experience (Christ living out His own life from within) the Inward Life.
Mr. and Mrs. Judd associated themselves with this new ministry, and the Lord used Mrs. Robinson to lead Mrs. Judd to saving faith in Christ (up to this point in her life Mrs. Judd was a Christian in name only). Mrs. Judd's conversion was so thorough, and her consecration to God was so complete that within a couple of years the Lord directed Mrs. Robinson to make her one of the ministers of the Zion Faith Homes. Thus, Mary Elizabeth Judd grew up in one of the "deepest in God" ministries in the history of the church. This fact alone, of course, did not guarantee that Mary Elizabeth, or anyone else, would automatically become "deep in God," but it did afford Mary Elizabeth the opportunity to receive spiritual instruction of the highest degree.
For example, all of the ministers of the Zion Faith Homes were expected to get up early for personal prayer. As a result, from about the age of three or four, Mary Elizabeth was awakened by her mother at 4:00 A.M. for prayer (specifically, Mrs. Judd taught her daughter to pray for a clean heart). Mrs. Judd was a business-like woman who had operated two secretarial schools that specialized in teaching the Gregg method of shorthand. In fact she was considered by Mr. Gregg himself to be the best in the world (along with one other woman) at teaching his method of shorthand. Thus. Mrs. Judd was determined that Mary Elizabeth would be the best Christian possible, which meant early rising for prayer among other things. Mary Elizabeth was so used to getting up at 4:00 A.M. for prayer that she continued the practice for her whole life.
Yet in spite of such an upbringing in such a special home and ministry, Mary Elizabeth had her struggles spiritually just like the rest of us. As a seventeen year old, she befriended a young lady from Waukegan, IL, who was a student at the University of Chicago, and who was decidedly unspiritual. This friend invited Mary Elizabeth to attend a lecture on socialism. Mary Elizabeth's own spiritual condition at that time was tepid, so she gladly accepted. On the way in Zion to catch the bus to Waukegan, she was hit by a vehicle and thrown into a ditch. Her pelvis was broken, and she was not expected to walk again. Suffice to say, urgent, faithful prayer was made on her behalf, and seven weeks later she began walking. The Lord got her attention through this incident, and her mother directed her to write a note to her friend in Waukegan ending the relationship. Mary Elizabeth gladly obeyed.
Still, Mary Elizabeth was having her struggles. Even though she
had renewed her relationship with the Lord after the accident,
she didn't see how she could attain to the life in God that the
ministers in the Zion Faith Homes had. Everything for her was
such a strain. This struggle came to the attention of Mrs. Robinson
who asked to see Mary Elizabeth. Mrs. Robinson saw right away
that Mary Elizabeth was trying to do everything out of duty to
God and Christ instead of out of a heart of love. She instructed
Mary Elizabeth to do everything in her life out of a heart of
great love for Jesus and to please Him and Him alone. Mary Elizabeth
obeyed, and what came to be known as "The Love Way"
was born in Mary Elizabeth's heart and life. It was this "Love
Way" that was the quickest way to "lose her life and
find it in Jesus," so that Jesus could live out His own life
from within her.
On January 28, 1928 Mary Elizabeth's father died. It was Mary Elizabeth's mother's custom to have prayer every day with Mrs. Robinson, and as soon as she did after the death of her husband, the Lord said through Mrs. Robinson that, "the Judd residence is no longer to be called the Judd residence, but My Faith Home for the teaching of the Inward Life." Furthermore, the Lord said that "if the light on the Inward Life was kept burning bright that He would keep His hand upon the work." Mrs. Judd was appointed the first pastor and served in that capacity until she died on May 31, 1959, whereupon Mary Elizabeth succeeded her mother as pastor.
However, there was no guarantee that Mary Elizabeth would even live long enough to succeed her mother as pastor of the Judd Faith Home. As a result of the accident that broke her pelvis at seventeen, she developed uterine cancer later on in life. She battled the cancer the last ten years of her mother's life through prayer, faith, and the drinking of a blend of freshly squeezed juices. She was at death's door several times, and she was reduced to skin and bones. She was so weak that she barely made it to her mother's funeral. But, at the cemetery, the Lord performed the miracle of healing that she needed to carry on the ministry of the Judd Faith Home. As Mary Elizabeth was burying her mother, the Lord healed her of the cancer.
This miracle of healing enabled Mary Elizabeth to fulfill her own call to the ministry for, at some point, the Lord had said through Mrs. Robinson that Mary Elizabeth was to be "His wee vessel of love," ( Mary Elizabeth was 4' 8/34") and that if she fulfilled in this call that people would "beat a path to her door." Well, Mary Elizabeth did fulfill, and the people wore out the welcome mat.
On March 26,1991 Mary Elizabeth finished her course and took her flight into the heavenly realms. Her earthly body is buried next to her mother in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Zion, IL.