God has always wanted a people who would walk totally reliant on him before the eyes of the world. That’s why he took the insignificant little nation of Israel and isolated them in a wilderness. He was placing them in a school of testing, to produce a people who would trust in him no matter what their circumstance. He wanted Israel to testify, “I can go through any test, any difficulty, even those beyond my abilities. How? I know my God is with me in every trial. He will always bring me through.”
Consider Moses’ statement to Israel: “[God] suffered thee to hunger” (Deuteronomy 8:3). The Lord was telling them, “I orchestrated your trial. It wasn’t the devil. I possessed all the bread and meat you needed the whole time. And I was ready to drop it out of the sky at any minute. It was all stored up, waiting for you to receive it. But I withheld it for a while. And I did this for a season. I was waiting for you to come to the end of all your self-reliance. I wanted to bring you to a point of crisis, where only I could deliver you. I allowed you to experience your ‘wit’s end,’ a place of human helplessness. And it required a miracle of deliverance from me.”
Today, the Lord is still looking for a people who’ll rely totally on him. He wants a church that will testify both in words and actions that God is all-powerful on their behalf. He wants an unsaved world to see that he works mightily for those who love him.
Job declared, “He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Here is an incredible statement, especially considering the context in which Job spoke it.
Job suffered one of the worst trials any human could undergo. He lost all of his children in a tragic accident, and then he lost his wealth and possessions. Finally, he lost his physical health. And all these things happened in such a short time, they were utterly overwhelming.
Yet, God had put Job on this path. And the Lord alone knew where it eventually would lead. It was a plan so divinely orchestrated that God even allowed Satan to do the afflicting of Job. That’s why Job couldn’t see God in any of it: “I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: but he knoweth the way that I take” (Job 23:8–10).
Job was saying, “I know that God knows everything I’m enduring. And he knows the way through it all. My Lord is trying me right now. And I’m confident he’ll bring me through with a stronger faith. I’ll come out purged and cleansed, with a faith more precious than gold.”
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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.