The name of Howad Carter is a highly-honored one in Pentecostal history, even though it is largely forgotten today.  Howard Carter was an Englishman, a friend and contemporary of Smith Wigglesworth, and his is a truly interesting story.

     Howard Carter was born to wealth in England. He came to know the Lord and was filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues. Thrilled with his newfound faith, he pioneered one of the first Pentecostal bible schools in England.  When World War I broke out, Brother Carter–like many of the early Pentecostals–felt that as a man of God and as a Christian, he could not take up arms against his fellow man.  He was a contientious objector and was thrown in prison for it.

     While in prison, God began a marvellous work in him by giving Howard Carter supernatural revelation on the subject of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

     Although the Gifts of the Spirit began to be rediscovered first at the outpouring in Topeka in 1900, then later at the Azusa Street Revival in L.A., there was little clear teaching available on the subject.  Many teachers had various definitions, explanations, and theories concerning the nine gifts and their functions and operations. There was no consensus or commonly accepted teaching on the Gifts.

     As Brother Carter languished in prison, God gave him revelation on the Gifts definitions, functions, and operations.  For instance, the idea of separating the nine gifts into the three categories of Revelation, Utterance, and Power, originated with Carter.  It was also revealed to him by the Lord that the nine gifts are all SUPERNATURAL gifts.  Prior to Carter, it was commonly taught for instance that the Gift of the Word of Knowledge was the educational abilities of Colleges and Universities.

     When Carter was released from prison and began sharing the principles God had shown him, his teachings swept the Pentecostal world, and are largely accepted and remain unchanged to this day.

     Carter was a very remarkable prophet.  His book, “Questions and Answers on Spiritual Gifts,” is still in print today and is an excellent work. Not only did he teach on the Gifts of the Spirit, he was also used in many.

     In the early years of their ministry, the Goodwins did not know Carter and had not read his books.  So when God began using Mom and Dad in the different gifts of the Spirit, they did not immediately know how to categorize various experiences.  But as the were used by God, Dad Goodwin continued studying the Bible to understand the different Gifts of the Spirit, and to a large extent the Goodwins originated their own teachings on the subject.  After a few years, they met Howard Carter and compared spiritual notes, so to speak, with him concerning spiritual gifts. Their teaching proved to be very similar to Carter’s, but he filled in some of the missing gaps in the Goodwins’ understanding.

     Mom Goodwin told me that she and Dad became good friends with Carter and his wife. Howard Carter came and ministered for the Goodwins on several occasions, especially in his later years.

    Carter said some interesting things about the Goodwins’ ministry.  He traveled the world for many years and said that in all his travels all over the world he had seen only two churches that had all nine gifts of the Spirit in full manifestation:  one was a church in Hong Kong, and the other was the Goodwin’s church.  He also said of the move of God in the Goodwins’ church, “It is the greatest move of God I’ve seen world-wide, with the greatest order.”