“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you” (Psalm 32:8-9).
In these two brief verses God gives us one of the greatest lessons concerning guidance in all of Scripture. First there is a precious promise to us, a foundation upon which we can build a great faith. This foundation is his willingness to lead and guide us in everything! In the beginning of the chapter, you discover that this promise is offered to a special people — those whose sin is covered and in whom there is no deceit; who have the Lord’s hand heavy upon them; who are godly and pray in a time when they may be heard; who are hidden and preserved from trouble; and who sing songs of deliverance.
Yet the Word of God says a person may be a believer who enjoys all the spiritual benefits of being a child of God and still be like a stubborn mule when it comes to submitting to his guidance. God said of Israel, “For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways’” (Psalm 95:10).
God was essentially saying, “After all those long years of receiving my tender guidance and miraculous deliverances, they still don’t have the slightest idea of the way I work! And they never even try to understand my principles of guidance.”
God wants a people who know him well enough to move at his slightest urging, but most believers do not spend enough time in his presence to know him in this way. The Israelites were mule-headed children, too self-centered to trust God with their future. They wanted a quick, easy way out of the hard places and they learned nothing from the supernatural leadings that took them from slavery to the very edge of the Promised Land.
Beloved, God would much rather lead us with his eye than with a bit and bridle. He wants us to have a settled knowledge of his ways and a constant assurance of his hand of guidance upon us.
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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.