John Alexander Dowie: An Apostolic Ministry Case Study
By Jeremy Groves
I want to take some time to examine John Alexander Dowie’s life and ministry as a case study of the operations of the apostolic ministry among historical church leaders.
Why him?
Early in my pursuit of revival and the call of God on my life, I began to study those who have gone before me to learn from their successes and failures.
I do this so that I do not make the same mistakes they did and can have a healthy honor for those who have pioneered what I am freely experiencing in God.
Seeing our call in the broader context of all God has done and is doing is essential.
Studying those who have gone before us also stirs my faith to believe more in my generation.
I was introduced early on to John Alexander Dowie and his dynamic ministry.
I want to honor a man of God who did extraordinary things for the kingdom despite falling in the end.
I had the privilege of visiting the Shiloh House, Dowie’s residence, in Zion City, several years ago, where the Lord led our team to prophetically intercede for the restoration of an apostolic DNA in the Church of Chicago.
Over the following paragraphs, I will summarize key points of John Alexander Dowie’s life and ministry and highlight the strengths and weaknesses revealed throughout his life.
After that, we will look at his life to identify the apostolic anointing I believe was operating throughout his ministry.
The Life and Ministry of John Alexander Dowie
The Early Years
John Alexander Dowie was born in 1847 to Christian parents in Edinburgh, Scotland.
His family was devout, even though they struggled in deep poverty.
They would take him along to Bible studies, prayer meetings, and anything else they attended because they believed their child had a call from God on his life.
They were right. Dowie gave his life to the Lord at a young age, receiving an inward call to ministry at age seven.
However, as is the case with many initially called into ministry, he had yet to learn how to respond to the call.
At around age thirteen, Dowie’s family moved from Scotland to Australia, where Dowie entered the business world by linking in with his uncle and his shoe business.
Dowie showed great promise as a businessman.
He was brilliant and recognized as such among his peers.
As Dowie grew in his relationship with God over the coming years and in stature within the business world, he enjoyed a measure of success but could not shake God's call to ministry.
A defining moment for Dowie’s life came when he discovered through the Word that God still heals today, and in seeking the Lord on this matter, he was healed of a stomach condition that had plagued his teen years.
This encounter marked a significant shift in Dowie’s life.
Launched into the Healing Ministry
When Dowie was twenty-one, he decided to give himself totally to the call of God into ministry.
He went back to Scotland to study theology and political science.
Dowie’s passion for the ministry of healing began to form out of a strong dislike for the medical field because of what he witnessed as an honorary chaplain for the Edinburgh Infirmary.
He saw that the doctors openly admitted their incompetence to heal and witnessed significant sums of money spent, with many lives lost, as they “practiced” medicine.
Dowie left Scotland after receiving a message from his father.
Shortly after attending to some family matters, Dowie was invited to serve as pastor of the Congregational Church in Alma, Australia.
His acceptance of the offer to serve as pastor of their congregation would mark the beginning of his ministry.
However, in any pastorate he received, he would become dissatisfied with his flock’s seeming lack of commitment and passion.
Dowie was an apostolic visionary in his day, and while this is a strength, one significant weakness of this spiritual DNA, when it is not tempered by God’s love, is the frustration it can cause when others do not “catch the vision” or see the same way you do, especially when they do not share your passion.
During one of his pastorates, a deadly plague swept through his region, killing many.
Within a few weeks, Dowie had presided over forty funerals.
During this season, Dowie grasped God’s promise of healing in a more significant way, and this revelation would mark the rest of his ministry.
He began to see an outbreak of healing in his ministry, and this is when the persecution and controversy began.
Persecution, Politics, and Chicago
As healing began to break out in Dowie’s ministry, he aggressively pursued this truth and consistently preached God’s healing power, much to the consternation of his denominational leaders.
He did not back down, nor did his personality allow him to.
He fought for the truth he believed in.
Something we, as leaders, could do better at emulating in our day.
He eventually decided to break with his denomination after becoming frustrated with church politics and started his own independent ministry.
Around this time, Dowie also decided to focus on the unchurched because, in his eyes, the churched lacked passion.
The result of this decision was that many came to know Jesus, the Messiah, as Lord and Savior.
Dowie had many enemies and held nothing back in telling them what he thought.
This was a strength of his, but as I said earlier, when it is not tempered with grace, the sword of truth can be very destructive when wielded improperly.
It becomes a sword to wound instead of a sword to heal.
Dowie’s passion for truth began to backfire on him when he used it to cut others down rather than build them up.
As I have observed Dowie’s life, it seems he also had a pattern of trying to fulfill his divine apostolic call in natural ways.
The first of these was when he ran for Parliament, believing it would be a better way to reach others, but in the end, he utterly lost, and his reputation never recovered.
I do not mean that Christians should not run for public office as God leads, but doing anything outside the grace and calling of God on our lives will lead to dismal eternal results, even if the endeavor seems successful for a season.
He had forsaken his divine commission to preach about the God who heals, but he eventually repented and got back into alignment.
Once he did, his ministry flourished again, resulting in numerous salvations and healings.
Intense persecution rose as well.
Later, Dowie moved to America, achieved great success, and eventually settled in Evanston, Illinois.
From here, Dowie faced significant resistance to his ministry by the city of Chicago, but after confirmation from the Lord, he believed that Chicago was to be his international base.
After much persecution, he broke through and began enjoying favor with the city officials, and the Gospel spread throughout the city.
Dowie planted a church called “Zion Tabernacle” and enjoyed a fruitful season.
I believe this was the high point of his ministry.
Dowie had a clear apostolic mandate to Chicago, and he was fulfilling it.
A Tragic End
The beginning of the end came when he substituted his spiritual authority for a natural one.
Dowie had revealed plans for a Christian utopia called Zion City on New Year's Eve, 1900.
Dowie was called to build God’s kingdom in Chicago, but abandoned his mandate to instead build a natural kingdom.
This marked the beginning of his downfall.
He eventually fell into deep deception because he had removed himself from God’s protection.
I had released a prophetic word last year to an apostolic leader operating in Chicago concerning Dowie’s apostolic calling to Chicago, telling him that Dowie had abandoned his post and that the call God had on Dowie is still waiting to be fulfilled.
God wants to restore the apostolic ministry in a significant way to Chicago.
As apostolic visionaries, in the tension of wanting to see our vision come to pass, we can be tempted to use natural means to fulfill a spiritual call, but this will always end in disaster.
Dowie even went so far as to claim to be the Elijah who was to come.
This perpetuated an evident growing desire for control and power.
It is dangerous when someone called to the apostolic does not cultivate the humility required to operate in such a high measure of spiritual authority.
Eventually, his decisions caught up to him.
His health was failing, his marriage was broken, and very few people around him had a genuine relationship with him.
His ministry legacy was tattered; yet many great men and women of God emerged from it, such as John G. Lake and F.F. Bosworth.
Some who were with him before his death said he had changed entirely, becoming like the Dowie they had known before the missteps.
Roberts Liardon writes of this time in his book “God’s Generals: Why They Succeeded and Why Some Failed,” saying:
“Dowie did go in peace to be with the Lord. Those who were with him at the end said he had returned to his faith of the early years. Many even testified that he had become a gentle, loving man who acted as if a tremendous burden had been lifted. And the city of Zion, Illinois, remains today, but the leadership is divided among many brethren, ‘...as no single person could completely fill Dr. Dowie’s shoes’” (Liardon, 2000, p. 42).
John Alexander Dowie: An Apostolic Ministry Case Study
As I studied Dowie’s life and ministry, I concluded that he undoubtedly emulates the characteristics of the apostolic office.
He was a visionary who was distraught at the present state of the Body of Christ, longing for them to step into greater destiny, frustrated when they did not align with God’s will.
He demonstrated great spiritual authority through signs and wonders and his influence in transforming the city of Chicago.
He apostolically pioneered in the ministry of healing.
He not only demonstrated a powerful healing ministry but also raised up others in the healing ministry.
Many future fathers of the healing movement had sat under his ministry and learned from it.
However, his downfall also reveals the apostolic anointing to me from the angle of when it is not correctly stewarded.
When we do not cultivate our character and tend to our relationship with God, it will be easy to fall into manipulation, control, and a lust for power that ultimately destroys us.
I believe some of this could have been avoided if he had emphasized raising others up and releasing them to help him lead, rather than needing to be in control, even to the point of donning high priest robes.
Mark Tubbs echoes this important fact in his book “The Five Fingers of God: Discovering Your Destiny Through The Five-Fold Gifts” when he writes, “...apostles are like spiritual parents and teachers, constantly equipping and releasing others to move in their anointings. A true apostle gives real responsibility to people and entrusts them with it” (Tubbs, 2008, p. 106).
Roberts Liardon identifies Dowie as an apostle (little a, not to be confused with the original twelve) when he titles his chapter on Dowie in the book I mentioned before as “the healing apostle.”
He said of Dowie: “His apostolic ministry was world-changing. From coast to coast it single-handedly challenged and triumphed over the great apostasy and lethargy of his time, demonstrating soundly that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Liardon, 2000, p. 21).
I believe Dowie’s apostolic anointing was territorial, given the measure of influence he had in Chicago, and that when deception entered, he gave birth to Zion City, where he was the sole leader.
Dr. Che Ahn talks about territorial apostles in his book “Modern-Day Apostles: Operating in your Apostolic Office and Anointing,” saying, “Next, there are territorial apostles. This is where God has given authority over a certain geographic area such as a city, state, or nation” (Ahn, 2019, p. 104).
Understand, when we speak of authority in the apostolic, we are referring to a spiritual authority, and kingdom authority is given by God to rule by service through love and humility.
Not to Lord over others and take the position only God deserves to have.
Another factor I attribute to his apostolic office is the persecution he endured, which is characteristic of the apostolic anointing.
Paul defends his apostleship to the Corinthian Church in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 by “boasting” in his persecutions, saying, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (NIV, 1973/2011).
While Dowie did not handle it the best, the persecution he endured was intense, even being arrested over one hundred times in Chicago for ministering divine healing.
The apostolic anointing is the primary anointing I observe in his life, without a doubt.
However, I also noticed a secondary evangelistic anointing operating in his life.
I draw this conclusion from the frustration he experienced as a pastor and the shift that followed, to focusing on the unchurched.
Many people came to Christ over the remainder of his ministry.
A Summary Conclusion: John Alexander Dowie
In summary, I am honored to study this man of God, even though many would say his life ended in failure.
It was enlightening to view his life through the lens of the apostolic ministry, learning from his successes and failures.
His life gave me insight into the fruit of the apostolic anointing and the possible pitfalls.
Dowie was an apostolic leader of his day with evangelistic leanings and a powerful call to ministry in the City of Chicago.
He eventually fell into deception, but the fruit of his ministry remains because God originally birthed it, not Dowie.
Everyone, man or woman, is worthy of honor, regardless of their actions.
It gives us even more grace to learn from others' mistakes when we view them in honor.
I am encouraged to pursue maturity and growth in my own ministry, having learned from Dowie’s life and how he stewarded his call.
I believe he could have made fewer mistakes if there had been greater awareness of the five-fold ministry in his day and of how to operate healthily within it.
That fact alone has emboldened me to continue studying and teaching about the five-fold ministry so that as many as possible can step into their divine call with wisdom and maturity.
I pray that each and every one of you reading this is touched by God’s divine design for your life and that you would prioritize fellowship and obedience to Him above all else.
Knowing and obeying God is the key to a life of increasing and sustained fruit in life and ministry.
To God be the Glory!
References
Ahn, C. (2019). Modern-day apostles: Operating in your apostolic office and anointing [e-book]. Destiny Image.
Liardon, R. (2000). God's generals why they succeeded and why some fail (volume 1) (Reprint ed.). Whitaker House.
Tubbs, M. D. (2008). The five fingers of god. Ascribe Publishing.