This last week during one of my classes I heard the story of a young woman named Helen Ewan.
Helen was 14 when she surrendered her life to Jesus. By 16 she intimately knew and loved the Word of God. At age 22, she died suddenly, but in those short 8 years she had impacted many people around the world.
I was struck by the impact such a young lady could have. But even more, by the intimacy of her relationship with Jesus at such a young age.
Today I’d like to share her story with you, and as you read I want you to ponder a question.
What is the status of your relationship with Jesus?
Helen had a vibrant, real relationship with Him. Do you? Or are you wearing the title “Christian” without really knowing and loving Christ?
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Helen Ewan was just a slip of a girl but at the very threshold of her new life in Christ, she crowned Him as absolute Lord and was thus filled with the Holy Spirit. She had accepted the invitation of her Lord to “drink abundantly” (Song 5:1).
“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me as the scripture has said, out of his innermost most being shall flow rivers of living water (But this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive.” (John7:37-39a). The torrents of living water simply began to flow from Helen’s life.
… After her conversion at the age of fourteen, Helen’s whole personality was radiant with the glory of the Lord. … As she studied the Word of God, under the illuminating guidance of the Holy Spirit, He took of the treasures of the Lord Jesus and revealed them unto her (John 16:13-15). This made her heart dance for joy.
Many times she would stop Christians on the street and, with radiant face, tell of some choice portion of Scripture where she had found some new picture of her blessed Redeemer. These friends often left her presence weeping. They said, “We have seen Jesus; we have looked into His glorious face.” The awe of God remained upon their souls throughout the rest of the day.
It was at such times she stood out as a solitary figure, so far removed from the rest of us. She knew the Lord in such a deep, intimate way. Many testified that just her passing smile, or her cheery, “Good day, God bless you,” was an uplifting tonic to them.
Her Prayer Life
Helen arose each morning around five o’clock to commune with her Lord. She would not put on the heat in her cold little apartment or seek to make herself comfortable in any way, feeling she could be more alert in the cold. And besides, those for whom she was praying in foreign lands were not sitting in comfort.
She would begin her communion with praise and worship. She then read the Word of God to warm her heart. She remembered the words of her fellow-Scot R. Murray M’Cheyne, “It is the look that saves, but it is the gaze that sanctifies.” Helen gazed with rapture into the face of her Lord.
Then would follow her ministry of intercession for her friends and family, for her assembly, for hundreds of missionaries on the foreign fields, and her prayer ministry for the unsaved. She had a list of unsaved persons to whom she had testified and for whom she prayed daily until they were born again.
Her yearnings after the salvation on of the lost were awful to behold. The reason God gave her so many souls among rich and poor, young and old, illiterate and intelligent was that she agonized for them in earnest intersession inside the veil (Isaiah 66:8). There was nothing vague or general about her pleas.
… All through the day Helen sought the Lord’s guidance in matters small and great. It was no small thing for her to shop for some personal piece of clothing and she might be seen to pause in front of a store to seek His guidance before going in for a piece of ribbon. She must please the Lord Jesus in all things and she would not be led by the traditions of men. That no doubt explains the remark of her friends that “Helen was always dressed right.”
Seeking After Lost Souls
… I have been out on the streets of Glasgow near midnight with my tracts on many occasions when I would see Helen busy in her own method of personal soul winning. I have seen her on a cold Scottish winter’s evening with her arms around a poor prostitute, telling her of Jesus and His love. On other occasions she would be dealing with drunken men seeking to lead them to her Savior.
… When she entered the University of Glasgow, she used to walk several miles from her home to the campus each day so that she could distribute tracts along the way. At the same time, she could save streetcar fare and give it to the missionary cause. Needless to say, she had the joy of leading many students to Christ on the campus.
… Wherever she went on campus … the fragrance of Christ followed her. For example, a group of unconverted students would be jesting and telling dirty stories when someone would suddenly say, “Shhh! Here she comes! Quiet!” and this young lady would walk by, unconsciously leaving the power and the awe of the presence of God behind her.
Her Zest for God’s Word
… Another attribute of Helen’s life was her deep appetite for the Word of God and a deep spiritual penetration into divine truth. She did not just leaf through her Bible for palatable portions which suited her fancy at the moment; she studied the whole Book from Genesis to Revelation. Thus she became a deeply intelligent child of God, even at the age of sixteen and seventeen.
Her feet were firmly placed on the solid rock of the Holy Scriptures. Even when she was a hard-working student in her secular studies in the university, seeking to make good grades for His glory, she still gave time to Bible study and meditation.
… Though there was no time or place her life for idle gossip or foolish talk she bubbled over with clean humor and a zest for life. And yet because Christ filled the whole of her horizon, she sought to magnify Him through a holy life and sacrificial service.
Her Home-going
… At the university Helen was preparing herself for missionary service among the Russian people of Eastern Europe … But God, in His wisdom and love, called her home at the age of twenty-two. … She was taken ill suddenly and was as suddenly called Home. It was so unexpected that it shocked us all.
… Thousands wept throughout Scotland and Great Britain. … On far off mission stations, British missionaries grieved at the news, Alas, who would bear them up so faithfully at the Throne of Grace now? Who would step into this gap and take her place? O God, raise up others like Helen Ewan!
The Secret of Such a Life
Now, dear reader, what is the explanation of such a life? How could a young lady, still pursuing her studies, never having preached a sermon or sung a solo, never having traveled more than two hundred miles away from her home – how could her life so affect people in all parts of the world that they felt a mighty general had fallen? … The story of her life, translated into many different languages, has continued to bless many today. What, I say, is the explanation? There is only one explanation: she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Helen, who was an ordinary young woman, became extraordinary simply because she surrendered all to Christ and appropriated for herself all that was hers in Him.
(taken from “She Was Only 22” by James A. Stewart)
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Seek Him while you are young
Helen was 14 when she surrendered her life to Jesus. By 16 she intimately knew and loved the Word of God. When she died at age 22 she had impacted many people around the world.
Often we don’t seek Jesus seriously when we are young because we don’t think young people can actually have this kind of relationship with Jesus.
Do you remember what the secret of Helen’s life was? She was filled with the Holy Spirit (which is the Spirit of Jesus).
In other words, she surrendered her life to Christ and so it was no longer Helen who lived, but the Spirit of Christ who now lived in her. And the life that she lived on this earth, she lived by faith in Jesus Christ.
But Helen’s life is proof that if you simply surrender your whole life to Jesus, He will fill you with His life. He is inviting you into an intimate relationship where you share in His life. And even from a very young age, Jesus wants to use your life to minister to those around you.
It’s about the Relationship
Helen prayed fervently. She studied her Bible diligently. She evangelized intentionally. She sought the Lord in what she should wear. She didn’t engage in frivolous conversation.
But notice that none of these things were the focus of her life. They were simply the outflow of a life that drank deeply from the fountain of living waters – Jesus.
It doesn’t matter how long we pray, what we wear, how well we know our Bible. If we don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ it will amount to nothing.
These things should simply be the outflow of a heart that loves Jesus deeply. We read the Bible because it is His very word to us, and we long to know His voice.
We pray because He is our best friend, our lover, our Father and we long to talk with Him.
We seek His guidance on what we wear because we truly long to please Him.
If you want a life that radiates with heaven’s beauty don’t simply do what Helen did.
Your prayers will not be heard only if your room is cold when you pray them. Not everyone is called to go into the streets and talk to prostitutes.
God may lead you to do those things. But I hope that as you read Helen’s story you didn’t just long for her “works” but that your heart longs for her intimacy with Jesus.
True Surrender
So many of us are trying to be Christians without truly giving up our whole selves to Jesus, and without receiving anything but “forgiveness” from Him.
True surrender is our giving up all to Jesus (holding nothing back), and also receiving all from Jesus. That’s what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit – to receive the very life of Jesus Christ. It’s a trade, His life for yours. But the trade is ridiculously unequal. He asks for your pebbles, He gives you Heaven’s riches.
Let us go after Jesus the same way Helen did.
Helen was not special. She was simply a 14 year old girl who surrendered all to Jesus, received all of Jesus life, and sought Him with her whole heart.
God does not offer a special version of Himself to some of us while withholding it from others. He has promised that if we seek Him we will find Him when we search for Him with all of our hearts.
Let us freshly surrender, claim that promise, and seek the Lord anew today.
- Have you believed the lie that intimacy with Jesus is impossible until you’re older?
- Do you have a relationship with Jesus, or just a bunch of Christian works?