Healing and Revival

"Communicating That God Heals"

Enoch Edwin Byrum was born on October 13, 1861. He grew up on the family farm in Jackson Township near Union City, in Randolph County, Indiana. At fifteen he was converted and joined the United Brethren church. Within two weeks after his conversion his father died, leaving the farm and family responsibilities in his young hands. He had his mother along with two brothers, Fletcher and Noah, and two sisters to support in his family. He worked hard to support them but wanted something more than farming for his career. He decided to attend school. The first place he tried was Ridgeville College, approximately nine miles from the farm. He stayed for a twelve week course. The next year he went to Ridgeville again for another ten weeks. There was a break of three years and he decided to attend the Eastern Indiana Normal School but was forced to leave due to ill health. He tried yet again and went to Valparaiso University for a year and a half focusing on oratory and elocution. The following he went to Otterbein University and received a diploma for the completion of a course in Sunday-school work and Bible study.

While Byrum was at Otterbein his mother and brother attended a Church of God meeting being held at a local chapel near his home. They liked what they heard and joined the group, however due to their strict teaching on holiness and sanctification the family was no longer accepted by the Brethren church. When Byrum returned for Christmas break, he was initially resistant but eventually joined the church and adhered to their teachings. When the school year was completed, in June of 1887, he and a friend went to a Church of God meeting led by D.S. Warner. Warner had been publishing the Gospel Trumpet magazine. He had recently broken with his partner. Upon meeting Byrum he asked him to join the organization as a publisher. He didn't know anything about it, but agreed to come and help. About a week later Warner left for evangelization work and the bookkeeper stayed another couple of weeks and then Byrum was on his own. While working on the paper Byrum met and married Rhoda B. Keagy and they eventually had six children together. Byrum continued working on the paper for eight years until D.S. Warner died in 1895. He had a businessman's acumen and the paper did well.

Once Warner died Byrum shifted gears. He took on the evangelistic role Warner had been performing and traveled all over the United States and the world preaching the gospel. He would often travel 40,000 miles a year holding evangelistic and healing meetings. His devoted wife died on September 14, 1907. In 1908 he met and married Lucena Beardslee, a woman 20 years his junior. Everywhere Byrum went he taught on healing and prayed for the sick. He often saw miracles and healings at his meetings. He reports raising someone from the dead twice. Byrum wrote in 1928 that he did not believe that it was a sin to see a doctor or take medicine. He simply believed that having faith in God was a better choice for himself. He said over his lifetime he saw thousands of healings. Byrum was amazingly faithful in praying for the sick. He would often respond to a telegram or a letter and travel for hundreds of miles to pray for a desperate person. He never took up a collection and was never paid a salary. He lived "along faith lines" depending on God to provide for him and his family, which God often did in amazingly supernatural ways.

Byrum wrote several books focusing on God's power to heal which included "Divine Healing of Soul and Body: Also How God Heals the Sick", "Miracles and Healing", "Startling Incidents and Experiences in a Christian Life", and "The Great Physician and His Power to Heal". In 1904 he spent a year traveling the world going to Europe, Palestine, Egypt, India, and China. He was the managing editor of the Gospel Trumpet until 1916 when he decided that it was time to retire. Byrum continued to pray for the sick, write, and hold evangelistic events until the end of his life in 1942. He wrote several other books including: "The Secret of Salvation and How to Keep It", "Life Experiences", "The Man of Galilee", "Riches of Grace", "Thoughts on the Life of Faith", "The Secret of Prayer", "The Christian's Treasure", "Behind the Prison Bars", "A Boy's Companion", "How We got Our Bible", and "What Shall I Do to be Saved?" Byrum's entire life was based on communicating the reality of God's healing and living presence through writing and speaking.

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