UPON HER RETURN to Detroit, Mrs. Robinson gave full reports, both of the conditions in the church and city and of the Pentecostal revival. Not a man to be easily or quickly persuaded of new light or experience, Mr. Robinson continued with the Zion Church, ministering to the flocks which had been entrusted to his care.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Robinson continued to seek the Lord with ever-increasing intensity, determined to have all that God had for her. Still her cry seemed to go unanswered. Of course, God was answering and doing a mighty work of preparation in her soul for subsequent blessings, but she was not getting what she was expecting. She would not, however, be discouraged nor denied.
Now Mrs. Robinson well knew that “the very first step toward getting anywhere into the deep things of God is an absolute surrender, consecration, abandonment to God,” and that “we may pray until doomsday for a perfect work in us, but it will never be done until we let go of ourselves — give ourselves over to Him.” To the best of her knowledge, she had done this; but when she did not receive the victory she was so earnestly striving for, she decided to make “a thorough canvass” of her life, “to know if everything were wholly God’s, spirit, soul, and body.”
Diligently Mrs. Robinson searched her heart. Harry and her home, her friends and their approval, her position, her ambitions and plans, her religious work and her future work, life itself — all went on the altar. These items she evidently added to the contract she had made with the Lord the year before. Certainly her consecration was now complete.
At this point she left her room to go downstairs, but at the top of the stairs the Spirit of God stopped her and spoke in her soul, “There’s one thing you haven’t given.” What could it be? She pondered. She had given everything she could think of. She retraced her steps, entered her room, took out her written consecration, re-read it, and tried her hardest to think of what it was she had not given. She could not possibly think of one thing she had reserved.
At length the Lord Himself told her: “It’s your reputation you haven’t given.” So she added to the list, “my good reputation.”
(Reflecting on this later, Mrs. Robinson said, “It was a very good thing I did, for it was not long before it was ruined.”)
About ten days or so after this, “in the midst of a time of deep prayer”, the Lord gave His seeking child a vision of her heart, “absolutely empty and clean.”
“Why, it’s nothing but a hollow shell!” Mrs. Robinson exclaimed. Then she continued her relation of this precious experience: “And Jesus spoke and said, ‘I will come in and make it a well of praises.’
“But He didn’t then. And the experience that followed was just that sense of emptiness and cleanliness. I went around for days feeling as if my heart were empty and terribly clean, but not a feeling of any other kind. No joy, no change of any kind, no increase of love. I never heard of any other person having this experience.”
It was at or near this same time, in December, 1906, that the Holy Spirit spoke over her lips the one word, “Baptized.” From that moment on she claimed her baptism in the Holy Spirit as an accomplished fact, though it was not until two months later, February 11, 1907, that she spoke in tongues for the first time. In the meanwhile, she “just held on believing” for the complete fulfillment and manifestation of the word spoken to her.
During this waiting period her faith was sustained and strengthened by Exodus 33:21 and 22, the same verses that God had used to lead her “into a firmer, less wavering hold on God’s promises when she was seeking her healing eight years before.
“These words were spoken by the Lord to Moses at a time in his experience when he was crying out for God,” Mrs. Robinson commented in writing of her baptism. “The people had sinned; God had said He would not go with them to the land of Canaan, but in answer to Moses’ prayer the promise was given, ‘My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.’ And Moses answered, ‘If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.’
“And then Moses began to plead with a great hunger for more, ‘I beseech thee, show me thy glory.’ And as a result of that prayer, the Lord made the promise, ‘Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by.’
“After a period of deep seeking for God’s work in me, which corresponded in my experience to that of Moses crying after God, I came into that place of confidence that the work would be done and that I should be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Then God permitted my patience and faith to be severely tested by a long waiting time, in which there was no apparent change or progress.
“‘Let patience have her perfect work.’ How glibly we say it to others when they enter upon their testing times. How difficult it is to let it be worked out in our own experience.
“I found all I could do was ‘to stand.’ Ah, I was on the Rock, Christ Jesus, and had the invincible ‘promise of the Father’, and all I could do was to wait for the ‘glory to pass by.’ Over and over I would say to myself when God seemed to delay, and Satan would tempt me to doubt or anxiety, ‘I am getting off the Rock, and I must patiently wait until the glory passes by.’
“I learned some new lessons. There are more ways than one of hindering the glory passing by. I found that in this patient waiting time one must watch as well.
“I imagine Moses thought of nothing else until the glory passed by. We can’t imagine him settling down to read, or write, or study out some problem, ‘in the meanwhile.’ Neither can we imagine him slumbering — ‘taking a little nap’ — until the blessing came. If he had done any of these things, surely the glory never would have passed by. I think he was watching, expectant, earnest, undoubting, ‘watching for the glory,’ the sign God had given that He Himself Would pass by.
“While all seeking the Baptism of the Holy Ghost are not so situated that they can drop everything, literally, and tarry in one place, yet [it] is possible for a man to so earnestly accept the blessing that he will get upon the Rock and stay there and continuously, unremittingly, expect Jesus to pour out the Holy Spirit.
“Moses took no one with him to the secret place God showed him. We have to come into our deep experiences alone in the Spirit. It may be in a meeting, or with companions, in our closet, or in a crowded office, store — but whatever comes to one in the Spirit must come direct from God, and no one else can partake of our own especial experience. Words, as we testify, fail to convey one-half of the reality. And we stand alone. We must be shut in with God so that waking and sleeping, working or praying, the running current of thought is Jesus.
“Many seek for a time, and then, because there is delay, let their minds wander to other things, or get into a lethargic, indifferent spirit, which I have called ‘taking a nap.’ We are apt to deceive ourselves, under both these conditions, that we are really ‘waiting.’ Alas, no, God sees differently and we may ‘wait’ indefinitely in this way. One may ‘tarry’ indefinitely, that is, drop all other duties, and yet not truly tarry in spirit. And again one may be busy, but yet have a tarrying spirit — that is, a waiting, expectant, prayerful spirit, and unbroken communion with God.
“I learned these lessons largely through my experience, but praise His name, I stayed upon the Rock and waited until — the glory passed by, and He put me in the cleft of the Rock and ‘covered me there with His Hand.’
“Jesus baptized me with the Holy Ghost, amid truly I find myself in the cleft of the Rock.”
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Martha Wing Robinson (1874 - 1936)
Martha held meetings which touched people to return to the work of the service of God. The Robinsons opened a "Faith Home" where people would come for teaching and prayer. Like George Muller they depended on God to provide what was needed for expenses. Thousands came through her home and healings were a regular occurrence. Her husband died in April of 1916, but Martha continued in her ministry. She had a very sharp gift of discernment and regularly told people the secrets of their hearts. She often had directive prophetic words for those under her care. Many young people came to the home for training and went into the mission fields and evangelistic endeavours.Martha Wing Robinson died June 26, 1936. Shortly before she died she stated her life's message "Nothing matters but Christ Jesus." Her whole life was spent in the service of God and for the Glory of His Son Jesus. She had seen many healed, saved, delivered, empowered and sent out. She was truly a mother in Israel. In 1962 Gordon P. Gardiner wrote a book about her life called "Radiant Glory" because that is how she lived her life.