Jeremiah spoke of engaging the heart to seek the Lord (see Jeremiah 30:21). Jeremiah also set his heart to seek the Lord, and the Word of God came to him. Over and over we read of the prophet, “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.”
Many commentators call Jeremiah the weeping prophet, and that’s certainly true of him. But this man also brought us the happiest, most praiseworthy gospel in the Old Testament. After all, he foretold the coming glory (see Jeremiah 32:40).
Now, that’s good news. The prophecy Jeremiah gives is full of mercy, grace, joy, peace and goodness. But, you see, there is a personal history behind each of Jeremiah’s words here. And that history includes a brokenness far beyond the capacity of a human being.
Jeremiah wrote, “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war” (4:19). “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (9:1).
Jeremiah was weeping with holy tears that weren’t his own. Indeed, this prophet actually heard God speak of his own weeping, broken heart. First, the Lord warned Jeremiah that he was going to send judgment on Israel. Then he told the prophet, “For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation” (9:10). The Hebrew word for lamentation here means “weeping.” God himself was weeping over the judgment to come upon his people.
When Jeremiah heard this he shared the burden of God’s weeping over his people. So, what happens when we share God’s burden of weeping? The Lord shares with us in turn his very mind and thoughts. Jeremiah testified of this. He was given a discerning knowledge of his times that enabled him to see what was coming. “The Lord of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee…and the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings” (Jeremiah 11:17–18). Any broken, Word-saturated saint will be given a discerning sense of the times.
I believe God has a human heart and that heart is Christ, who is the very essence of the Father. He is the human heart of God who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He wept! He sang! He rejoiced.
Precious men of God are privileged to share in the feelings, the joy and pains of this eternal human heart of God.
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David Wilkerson (1931 – 2011)
Founder of Times Square Church in New York City with over 100 different languages spoken in the congregation. Wilkerson wrote many powerful books such as: The Vision and Cross and the Switchblade. His ministry was prophetic as God called him to be a watchman to the Church in North America. He gave clear messages on repentance to the Church.Wilkerson also founded Teen Challenge where there are hundreds of centres for Christ-centered drug recovery and addiction recovery. He also organized and spoke at pastors gatherings in many countries where he gave prophetic strong messages to encourage pastors and leaders.
Recommends these books by David Wilkerson:
The Vision and Beyond, Prophecies Fulfilled and Still to Come by David Wilkerson
Knowing God by Name: Names of God That Bring Hope and Healing by David Wilkerson
God's Plan to Protect His People in the Coming Depression by David Wilkerson
David Wilkerson is an American Christian evangelist, most well-known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He is also the founder of Times Square Church in New York, an interdenominational church.
Wilkerson is well-known for these early years of his ministry to young drug addicts and gang members in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. He co-authored a book about his work with the New York drug addicts, The Cross and the Switchblade, which became a best-seller, selling over 50 million copies in over thirty languages since it was published in 1963. The book was included among the 100 most important Christian books of the 20th century.
For over four decades, Wilkerson's ministry has included preaching, teaching and writing. He has authored over 30 books.
David Wilkerson is the founder and president of World Challenge, Inc., a nonprofit organization incorporated on September 22, 1971. Reverend Wilkerson, the author of over thirty inspirational books, is perhaps best known for his early days of ministry to young drug addicts and gang members in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. His story is told in The Cross and the Switchblade, a book he co-authored which became a best-seller. (The story has been read by over 50 million people in some thirty languages and 150 countries since 1963. In 1969, a motion picture of the same title was released.)
For over four decades, Reverend Wilkerson's evangelistic ministry has included preaching, teaching and writing. Throughout that time a distinctive characteristic of his work has been his direct efforts to reach the neediest members of the population with help for both body and soul. Even now, the almost 70 year-old minister often goes out alone or sometimes with an assistant to walk through the streets of New York City, along Broadway and Eighth Avenue or down 42nd Street and nearby "Crack Alley" on 41st Street. His mission is always to seek out the lost, the disoriented, and the addicted , to tell them of the power of the risen Christ to set them free.
David Wilkerson, born in Hammond, Indiana on May 19, 1931, was married in 1953 to Gwen Carosso. The Wilkersons' two sons are ministers, and their two daughters are married to ministers. They have 11 grandchildren. The Wilkersons served small pastorates in Scottsdale and Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, until Reverend Wilkerson saw a photograph in Life magazine of several New York City teenagers charged with murder. Moved with compassion he was drawn to the city in February 1959. It was at that time he began his street ministry to what one writer called "desperate, bewildered, addicted, often violent youth.