Lillian B. Yeomans

Lillian Barbara Yeomans was born in 1861, in Canada, in a family of Baptist background. Her father was a minister, and she grew up in a devout home. She was a bright and ambitious girl who wanted to be a doctor, which was unusual for a woman of her time. She studied medicine at the University of Michigan and graduated in 1896 as a physician. She began to practice in Minnesota and Illinois, and she was a skilled doctor. She was a woman of strong will and she took part in the affairs of the local medical community.

She fell into a terrible trap. While in practice, she suffered from chronic pain, and she began to take morphine to relieve it. She became addicted. Her habit grew until she was taking large doses each day. She was a physician who could not help herself. She tried to stop and failed again and again. She was ashamed and wretched. She was trapped in her addiction for about nine years and was reduced to a state of despair. Her career was in ruins, and she was alone.

In 1898, she was in a bad condition, and a friend told her about the healing home of John Alexander Dowie, in Zion City, Illinois. She traveled there with great doubt. In Dowie's community, she met Christians who prayed for the sick. They prayed for her and told her that God could set her free. She said that, through prayer, she was delivered from the drug, and she did not suffer the usual agonies of withdrawal. She was a transformed woman. She was completely healed. She gave her life to Christ and to the cause of divine healing. She joined the movement and began to tell her story.

She became a Pentecostal in 1909, when she received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. She was a leading woman in the movement. She served as a physician and evangelist and traveled across the United States and Canada. She worked in the Pentecostal movement, in the Assemblies of God, and she was one of its early credentialed ministers. She preached and wrote about the healing of the sick. She taught a course on healing at the Glad Tidings Bible Institute, in San Francisco, and she was a lecturer at a number of churches. Her medical training gave her a unique perspective.

Her major work is a series of books on divine healing, including Healing from Heaven, published in 1926, and Diamonds in the Dust. She was a clear and forceful writer. She took the view that healing was a part of the atonement and that sickness was an enemy of God. She spoke strongly about the need for faith and about the work of the Spirit. She was also careful to encourage people to use their common sense and to take medical advice when needed. She did not forbid the use of medicine, though she held that God was the final healer.

Her teaching and her approach had weaknesses. She sometimes made sweeping statements about the cause of sickness, and she placed responsibility on the sick for lack of faith. She was a woman of strong opinions, and she could be stern. Her emphasis on healing led her to give little attention to other aspects of the faith. She was also a person who lived in the shadow of her own past, and she often spoke of her failures.

She died on January 10, 1942, at the age of eighty. She had given her second life to the care of those who were suffering. Her life shows how a doctor who was herself enslaved was set free, and how that freedom turned her into a witness.