John Alexander Dowie was called to an Apostolic ministry with a strong leaning in the area of divine healing and repentance. Dowie was born May 25, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland to Christian parents who had much hope that their son would grow to be "a great man of God". At the age of seven, Dowie received his call to the ministry and at age 21 he made an absolute decision to answer the call God had on his life.

After being totally healed of "chronic dyspepsia" and reading the will of God concerning healing, he would develop a strong antipathy to surgery and medicine. This bold minister of God spent much of his early life pastoring several churches as he grew in the Word.

When God calls a person, He equips that person with the desire and the gifts to accomplish their calling. This is certainly the case with John. There was a great deal of desire for healing people that were physically ill. Yet he did not realize yet that his calling would be in this direction.

While pastoring in Newton Australia, a death-wreaking plague swept through the region, people were dying at such a high rate that they were totally paralyzed with fear and dread. In a short time, Dowie had presided over forty funerals. He knew the answer was in God’s Word and he stated " this is the devil’s work and it is time we called on Him Who came to destroy the work of the devil". He spent time searching the Word of God for answers with a heavy heart. His compassion for the sick was driving him to find a solution to the problem. Having worked in the medical field, he knew that there were no answers to this plague there, so his only hope was God. With bitter tears he prayed for a message from God.

Then the Holy Spirit inspired him to read Acts 10:38

Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Having great faith, he began healing his people, and not another member of his flock died of the epidemic. As a result of this revelation, the great ministry of John Alexander Dowie was launched.

"Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." God took this man who had such compassion for afflicted people and gave him the faith to believe for the healing power that is available to us as God’s children. After reading that verse, Dowie realized that it was the devil that was responsible for sickness, and he knew that we have authority over the works of the devil. From this point on Dowie did not doubt the availability of God’s power to heal the sick.

When God sees that you are ready for Him to launch your ministry, He will launch it in a way that advertisement is not even necessary. When signs and wonders begin to follow a ministry, it will never suffer for a lack of people to minister too.

Dowie of course is just as human as the next person and subject to weaknesses as well. At one point in his life, Dowie was moved by the political scene thinking he could influence more out of the political arena then the church groups, so he decided to enter the race. After his defeat, Dowie wounded his church and disgraced his ministry but continued in his fleshly desires to push himself in this area neglecting his healing ministry.

Once he repented and returned to the message of divine healing, great physical and spiritual blessings came to him. The gifts of the Spirit began to manifest in his life. Because of his spiritual obedience, thousands were healed under his ministry.

Dowie traveled the regions of America and eventually chose to settle in Evanston Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Despite the attacks of those not wanting him in this area, he continued to minister where God led him. Dowie had opened the doors to the city of Chicago by way of divine healing. He demonstrated God’s Word in power, and by doing so the medical field and the religious churches suffered financially.

Dowie suffered much persecution from those that opposed him, from newspaper reporters, other ministers, the medical field and police officers. This is something that seems to happen when a person dares to believe the word of God. All sorts of opposition comes from every angle. The worst of which usually comes from organized religion. This is certainly a tragedy as thousands of people see what they view as "Christendom" as a bunch of people that are hypocrites and are not worth messing with.

Through his apostolic mantle, John Alexander Dowie literally ruled the city of Chicago for Jesus Christ and was finally able to pursue his dream of organizing a church built on apostolic principles. "Christian Catholic Church" was built on the foundations and teachings of the early church found in the book of Acts.

Any time a ministry is doing the work of God, the enemy always tries to sow seeds of distraction. Especially if he cannot get the minister to fall in other ways. This seemed to be Dowie’s weakness. So again, Dowie endeavored on another project. This one was to build a city for Christians with a seat of government that was friendly toward Christians.

Dowie bought sixty six hundred acres forty miles north of Chicago. He then began to build the city of Zion. Doing so took so much of his time that he again had no time for ministering to the sick.

So many times great ministers get outside of their anointing. If we will only follow what the Spirit calls us to do, we can be successful in what we do. Never allow the devil to sidetrack you to other projects that are outside the calling God called you to. Faith is something given by God and He gives faith for what it is He is calling you to do.

Proclaiming himself as overseer of the city of Zion, it was obvious that something was amiss. Soon after some ministers came to Dowie and proclaimed that he was Elijah foretold to come in the bible. At first Dowie denounced them, but the words kept ringing in his ears and sadly he embraced it and called himself Elijah.

He had now come to the point where he had brought reproach on God’s work. The devil had succeeded in distracting Dowie, and this distraction weakened Dowie’s spiritual condition to the point where now people were looking at his whole ministry as something that was not legitimate. Dowie continued his life with much controversy till his death on March 9, 1907.

We must never forget that we are servants to one another. That even though God may do great things through our ministries, we are no better then the newly born again person in our midst. We are all part of the body and have different responsibilities, but we are all equal in our value.