There seems to be a counterfeit for just about everything today. It used to be that as you walked down the streets of New York City, you encountered street vendors hawking “authentic” Rolex watches, designer purses, jewelry and other desirable wares. They looked great but they were cheap imitations of the real things.
One thing that cannot be duplicated is true spirituality. Once in a while, certain Christians become convinced, “To truly honor God, we need to go back and adopt the customs and observances of the early church.” So they institute all the known programs of the apostolic church from the disciples’ day. They install elders, deacons and bishops and then set in “divine order” the ordinances of baptism and communion precisely as the early church did — but it is all just a copy, a dead religion without the Holy Spirit.
Much of modern religion thinks that if they impart knowledge of the scriptures and biblical principles to people, they will become spiritual. People attend Bible school or seminary, where they learn the scriptures and are taught to preach, baptize and administrate. They are shaped into theologians, pastors, and missionaries, but the fact remains that no person or institution has the power to produce spirituality in someone. Only the Holy Spirit does that.
The spirituality produced by the Holy Spirit is a deep, unseen work within the heart. Paul says, “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (2 Corinthians 4:18). In the context of this passage, Paul is speaking of sufferings, saying, in essence, “Only the Holy Spirit knows all the things we face. And this is where true spirituality is manifested — in the crucible of suffering.”
Not everyone who suffers becomes spiritual; many end up bitter and hard, mad at God and the world. But those who submit to the leading of God’s Spirit, facing afflictions with confidence that the Lord is producing something in them, emerge from their crucible with strong faith.
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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.