Kathryn Khulman - Daughter of Destiny

Kathryn Khulman – Daughter of Destiny

A reflection on “The Only Authorized Biography of Kathryn Khulman”

By Jamie Buckingham

Kathryn Khulman was a great woman of God who preached the Word of God, healed the masses and led many to Christ from a young age, yet the greatest mistake in her life became a work of conviction in my heart several years ago – what led me to repent and return to God’s plan for my life.

It was in the year 2011 that God spoke clearly to me of the spouse He has provided for me. During that time, I was on a spiritual high and quickly accepted the man God has placed in my life. It was when I found out that God had also shown him about me that we hastily jumped into a relationship – "in God’s name". However, we did not seek God on His timing for us and that only resulted in dissension and hatred between us. I often said, “The only thing that’s keeping us together is God.” I began to abhor God’s plan for me simply because I obeyed blindly. I did not seek God.

About a year later, we separated. I flew to Khon Kaen, Thailand, for studies and for mission work. Though I went there hoping to start afresh, I ended up making the biggest mistake of my life. I disregarded God’s plan for my life. I fell in love with a guy who was seemingly devoted to the faith and anointed by God. I quickly convinced myself that if it was God’s plan for me to marry the first guy, then we wouldn’t have broken up. So I plunged into a new relationship with the Thai guy. The initial stages were bitter-sweet, yet as Kathryn experienced herself, the conviction of the Holy Spirit was more than I could bear. That was about the time I had begun to read this book while I was still in Khon Kaen.

“But for a while……for once in her life she was determined to do things her own way, regardless of what God – or His people thought about it.

Kathryn’s marriage to Burroughs Waltrip, who left his wife and children for her love, was more than a horrible mistake. It was sin – rebellion against God. At the same time, it became the crucible – as Moses’ slaying of the Egyptian guard earned him exile in the wilderness of Midian – which would bring her to the place of total surrender to God’s perfect plan for her life.

……God has a way of taking our rebellion, our sins, our flagrant disobedience, and moulding them into our future tensile strength. So while Kathryn later realized she had sinned, she also realized that because of what she had walked through her dark valley, she could better comprehend the cross, and the meaning of her own redemption. For through it all, even when she was ‘killing the Egyptian’ and wandering in the cruel wilderness created by her disobedience, God’s hand was upon her.” (Buckingham, J., 1999, pg81)

Just like Kathryn, people around me kept dissuading me from being together with the Thai guy. Yet like Kathryn, I refused their advice. Submission, to both Kathryn and I, was bondage and I would reply to them, “Let God speak to me directly.” This was also a great weakness Kathryn and I both had – refusal to submit to godly people around us. Had I been submissive to these people, I would not have delayed God’s plan for me for a year and a half and to some extent would not have destroyed my ministry. Most of my friends in Thailand began to distant themselves from me after they found out I was in a relationship with the Thai. The people I served with rejected me because of the displeasing relationship I was in. Yet, as how Buckingham writes:

“Often God’s best plan can be thwarted by man’s disobedience, meaning a second plan has to be devised, which in the skilful hands of an Almighty God, turns out to be even better than the original design. It took many years for the mills of God to grind the grist of Kathryn’s rebellion into exactness, but when the work was done, when the great fish returned her to the shore, when the bush burned and the voice of God was once again heard directing her to return to the original commission, she was ready to move.

In the meantime, however, was the wilderness, the depths of the sea, the darkness of the separation from God. Yet she deliberately ate the forbidden fruit.” (Buckingham, J., 1999, pg86-87)

Kathryn’s ministry crumbled. When church pastors found out that she was married to a divorced man who left his wife and children for her, they stopped her from preaching in their churches. Kathryn knew she had to make a radical decision to leave the man. At the same time, the guilt in her was piling up, unbearable. What struck me at that time was what Kathryn said,

 “God had never released me from that original call……and the conviction of the Holy Spirit was almost unbearable. I was tired of trying to justify myself. Tired.

……I said it out loud, ‘Dear Jesus, I surrender all. I give it all to you. Take my body. Take my heart. All I am is yours. I place it in your wonderful hands.” (Buckingham, J., 1999, pg94-95)

Yes, God had never released me from that original plan – to marry the partner He has prepared for me. I had a sudden realization about my spiritual condition when I read the following paragraph:

“Kathryn had known for almost six years that she had been fooling herself – seeking God’s blessing without being willing to live under God’s precepts. All those times, she and Burroughs had stood together behind a pulpit, preaching repentance, yet knowing, deep inside, they were living in unrepentant disobedience. They had been vessel through which others had drunk of the Water of Life, but their own mouths had been sealed, and they were unable to quench their thirst from that very water they carried to others. Many had been brought into a new relationship with Jesus Christ. Some had even been healed, for God had promised that, ‘My Word shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.’ But with infinite sadness, Kathryn realized that she had become like those great stone lions she had seen pictures of in Europe, with the water pouring out of their mouths. They were able to give water to all those who were thirsty, but unable to drink of it themselves, for they were made of stone. Her heart had become like that.” (Buckingham, J., 1999, pg95)

Kathryn saw how some couples she knew do exactly what she did – in praying and asking God to be merciful and forgive them – and God forgave and allowed them to remain together. Just like Kathryn, I forged examples of people with the same experiences as mine, hoping that God would treat me in a similar way. But I was wrong. I took reference to the examples of others instead of seeking God’s perfect plan for my life. As the author puts it “For unto whom much is given, much is required.” (Buckingham, J., 1999, p96)

Kathryn knew that her relationship with Burroughs was not only displeasing to God, but was also hindering her from achieving God’s plans for her. And to follow suit with great conviction in my heart, I turned around. I was willing to be buried. I was willing to sacrifice my Isaac and to again accept God’s plan for me. No one will ever know what Kathryn’s ministry had cost her, only Jesus. Similarly, no one will ever know what my ministry has cost me, only Jesus.

In Kathryn’s biography, when she chose to repent and return to God’s plan for her life, God didn’t just restore her ministry. God expanded her territories. And so did God do for me when I chose to repent, deny myself and humbly seek and accept God’s plan for me.

“Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.”

(Proverbs 25:28)

“Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel.”

(Proverbs 20:17)

“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

(Proverbs 28:13)

Got it? Or, rather, done it?






Source: Buckingham, J., 1999. "Daughter of Destiny - The Authorized Biography of Kathryn Khulman", Bridge-Logos Foundation, United States of America, pg 81 - 96)