Agnes Ozman

Others

Agnes Ozman Others

       

Thank you for sharing with your friend

Agnes Ozman (1870-1937) was a female student at Charles Fox Parham's Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas. Ozman was considered by many as “the first to speak in tongues,” and her experience which sparked the modern Pentecostal-Holiness movement, which began in the early 20th century. Her parents were farmers, and since childhood, Agnes and her six siblings attended the Methodist Episcopal Church in Nebraska, Wisconsin. As a young woman, Ozman participated in Bible institutions and eventually attended the Bethel Bible School in Kansas. Parham taught his students with regard to the Holiness movement from which he introduced the concepts of Divine healing and Sanctification. Parham pondered over what the Bible verse \"receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Baptism of the Holy Spirit)\" (Acts 2:38) might mean and whether any evidence specifically related to this gift could be found. Parham gave his students three days, while he was absent, to ponder over this issue. By the time he returned his students collectively agreed that if the Holy Spirit had descended upon an individual, then speaking in other tongues would be present and constitute sufficient proof of that. The students pointed out that this type of event was mentioned four times in the Acts of the Apostles. Therefore on a New Year's Eve Parham and his students planned to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit. So it was that in 1901, after midnight of the first day, Ozman asked her mentor to pray specifically so that she could be filled with the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands so that she might speak in other tongues. According to Stanley Frodsham's book entitled, \"With Signs Following--The Latter Day Pentecostal Revival,\" \"At 11:00 p.m. On January 1, 1901, Agnes N.O. Ozman La Berge, who began attending Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas (Stone’s Folly or Mansion) requested that hands, most likely those of Charles Parham, be laid upon her so that she would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost while typically praying the benediction of Hebrews 13:20-21 [1]:\" “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.“ [2] Frodsham’s book also states that Agnes Ozman-La Berge said, “It was common for me to pray the verses while praying, and it was as hands were laid upon my head that the Holy Spirit fell upon me and I began to speak in tongues, glorifying God. I talked several languages, and it was clearly manifest when a new dialect was spoken. I had the added joy and glory my heart longed for, and a depth of the presence of the Lord within that I had never known before. It was as if rivers of living water were proceeding from my innermost being.” [3] According to her fellow students, their prayers were heard, and her colleagues reported that a halo had surrounded both her face and head and that she started speaking in the Chinese language. Not long afterward Parham and thirty-four other students also began speaking in unknown languages. As Quoted:[4] \"It is said that Ozman could not speak English for three days and was only able to write in Chinese characters.\" and \"Many that day experienced other gifts of the Spirit, and soon the little group went off from Kansas City to share the good news\"..[5] Out of this experience, the Administrator of the Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, Charles Parham and nine others received the experience of speaking with tongues. Parham then spawned Bible colleges in Houston, Texas, which led to Lucy Farrow speaking in tongues in 1906, and an estimated 13,000 others speaking in tongues on 214-216 Bonnie Brae Street in the city of Los Angeles, California. By 1909, at the Los Angeles Azusa Street Mission under the Pastorate of William J. Seymour and with the aid of Lucy Farrow, an estimated 50,000 people had received this experience of speaking in tongues. Many owe the Pentecostal church movement to the events that happened in Topeka, Kansas and Agnes H.O. Ozman LaBerge in 1901. Later in her life Agnes changed her views and admitted that she had been wrong to believe that all people would speak in tongues when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. This view is one held by many in the charismatic movement. In 1937, Ozman died from heart failure.