Feeding Christ (Time for Renewal Conference) — David Wilkerson

We've been honored to have you with us. We trust that if you've had any dealings with Times Square Church over on 51st Street, they've been pleasant and heartwarming to you. Service at 1 .30 and then the closing service tonight at 7 .30, 7 .30 tonight, all right.

I sent a message out to our letting list weeks ago. It was one of the greatest responses we've ever had in all the years that we've been sending messages out. It's one thing to read. It's another thing to hear it.

Much prayer about what I should bring to you this morning. God spoke so clearly in my heart that I had to bring this message. I'm speaking and you have read this and I hope it may have had some impact on you.

Feeding Christ Through Fellowship With God

It's called Feeding Christ, Feeding Christ. Heavenly Father, I pray for an open heart in my own delivery and I pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I've never judged the anointing by how loud I could preach or how many tears I could shed, but Lord, by the strength of the word itself and bringing forth through a vessel that has been totally cleansed by the blood and Lord, I know that there's nothing standing between me and thee and I know that the channel is cleaned by the blood and I pray, Lord, you give us clear channels to hear.

Let us hear what the Spirit has to say and Lord, I believe that what we hear this morning will change our prayer life. For ministers, it will change how they prepare messages and how they receive their messages and Lord, I believe it will relieve the struggle of trying so hard to find a word, Lord, because it will begin to come from your heart and from your throne.

We thank you for these who have taken time, Lord, some who pastor very large churches, medium-sized churches, those who are in pioneer works, those, O Lord, who are doing street work, Lord, people from all walks of life, Teen Challenge and other ministries, O God, to hurting people and we pray, Lord, that you quicken and encourage and let this be a life-giving word, we pray in your name, amen.

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob's Well

Feeding Christ, ladies and gentlemen, this word that God gave me has truly changed the way I pray and changed the way I seek the Lord for his word. Jesus had to go through Samaria and on his way, he stopped at Jacob's well.

You remember the story, well, Samaritan woman comes to draw water and he says to her, give me a drink and in the process of Jesus sitting there waiting, the disciples had gone into nearby village to purchase some food and I don't know how long they were gone, but it must have been quite a while.

Jesus held an extended conversation with this woman and he began to talk to her about worship, talk to her about her sins, and he really dealt with this woman in a wonderful and loving way. The scripture says, Jesus saith unto her, give me a drink.

It's been a most interesting dialogue that Jesus had by the remarks he made to his disciples when they came back. By the way, she said, I know that the Messiah is coming, which is called Christ. When he's come, he will tell us all things.

Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee, am he. He gave a revelation of who he was. She received a revelation of Jesus Christ there at Jacob's well. He revealed his divinity. The disciples come back and they prepare the lunch of the meal and they offer it to Jesus and they say, Master, please eat, and he said, I've eaten, I'm full.

And they're wondering, well, who brought his food to him? There's no evidence of anyone being around but this Samaritan woman and they were very shocked and surprised that their Jewish Messiah was talking to this Samaritan Gentile woman.

The very fact that she was Gentile and the very fact that she was a woman. He's saying to disciples, there's something about me that you don't know. You don't know what it is that feeds me. You don't know where I get my food, but I'm telling you, I have been fed.

I have been wonderfully fed. He said, my will is to do the Father and to finish his work. And we know that that's reaping, sowing and reaping. We know that that is soul winning. And God's plan from the very beginning was to raise up a body of believers who would be fellowship, who would offer fellowship and would be really the food of God, the food of Christ in that relationship, in that give and that take, in conversation and revelation.

Jesus said this woman was converted because the scripture said, she went out and said, is this not the Christ? I am full, I have been fed. God created man for fellowship, the scripture said. All things were made by him and for him.

His Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.

Christ, remember, was in God, so he was in fellowship with Adam. And that fellowship was broken because of sin. And soon after the story of Adam, you come to Genesis 5 and you read the story of Enoch, who was taken up into heaven after fellowshipping with the Lord for over 300 of his 365 years.

And the scripture said, Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. And I was praying about that one day and the Holy Spirit says, do you know why I took him in what would be midlife? Because all of his peers were living to be six, seven, eight and nine hundred years of age.

Why would I take him in the prime of his life? You see, the Bible says he walked with God, he fellowshiped with God. Christ was in God the Father. And it was this fellowship, it was this man giving the food of God and this man evidently had been in such fellowship with the Lord, he became so close in this fellowship that the Lord says, I'm going to translate you into my kingdom where there's no day, there's no night and I can have endless fellowship with you.

I want you closer to my heart. You have won your way into my heart. You have been such food to me. I want you near me. He brought him in because of the power and the depth and the intensity of his fellowship with the Lord.

The Lord says, why did I call Moses to me when he was full health and strength? It was because of his face-to-face encounters and meetings and fellowship with the Lord. You see, he comes down out of the mountain after 40 days and 40 nights and there's a shine on his face.

Now, the law can't put a shine on anybody's face. It was fellowship. It was that time alone with God. He was feeding the Lord. And I believe Christ was on that mountain. I believe with everything in me, Christ in God, Jesus in the Father was there with his Father and there was sweet fellowship.

And the Lord takes him in the prime of his life because of the same thing. He said, I want with you, Moses, not just because you have sinned against me and not honor me before the people, but I need you.

I need you. Please don't get scared. If you get to the throne and mount, God's just going to zap you home. Now, folks, to me, that's a great idea because Paul said, I'd rather be with the Lord because of you, I have to stay here.

To me, that's a wonderful thing. The Lord just takes us home to glory and we can be in sweet fellowship for eternity. You see, we come then to Elijah and God sends a chariot for this man. This immediately after he's had this great revelation, there's still a small voice on the mountain.

He's come out of his depression and God has reinvigorated his ministry in telling him to, he's got an associate now and he's got kings to work with that really were under his spiritual authority and yet in the middle of that great activity that God was leading him into, the Lord sends a chariot and brings him home and that brings to life that scripture where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I.

These are the three that he gathers for this fellowship. He brings them to himself. You go to the Mount of Transfiguration and there are three human beings, there are three men, Peter, James and John and suddenly Jesus is transfigured and the glory of the Lord comes upon our Savior and the scripture said his face did shine as the sun and his raiment white as light and behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him.

Talking, the word in Greek is sun and what that means, union and fellowship. Moses and Elijah are a fellowship. Now this is a condemned man, he's about to be condemned to cross and a condemned man gets his last meal and this was something of a gift from the Heavenly Father.

He brings these godly men and they have a time on that mountain of fellowship. Now this is not for the disciples, it has nothing to do with trying to impress them with the glory of God or who Jesus is because they were told, go tell no man what you see.

This has nothing to do with you, it has to do with me, I want my last meal. I don't know what they talked about, he knew the cost, he knew the covenant plan of the Father from the foundation of the world but this is a gift of his Heavenly Father, he's being fed that he has the strength to go through what he's had and he draws his strength, he draws his food from men resurrected who come and minister to him on the Mount of Transfiguration.

The Servant's Duty to Feed the Master

We go then to Luke, I'd ask you to turn your Bibles but the lights are down, I don't even know if you can see or read but let me read it to you, Luke 17, 7 -10, there's a wonderful touching story that really is the heart of my message.

Which of you having a servant, this is Jesus speaking, which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he's come from the field, go and sit down to meet and will not rather say unto him, make ready wherein I may sup, wherewith I may sup, gird thyself, serve me till I've eaten and drunken and afterward thou shall eat and drink.

Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow or I think not. So likewise ye when ye have done all the things that are commanded you say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which is our duty to do.

And if we understand what Jesus is saying here, I know what he's done in my life, absolutely revolutionized my prayer life. I thought I had a plan, I thought I had something worked out in my prayer life before the Lord but when I saw this and the Holy Ghost began to open it to me, it changed everything.

The way I approach him, the way I speak to him, the way I pray. You see this is all about feeding Christ. He himself places this as our highest calling. It's not just soul winning, it's not just ministry to people, it's ministry to him, it is feeding him.

He puts this, our high calling in Christ Jesus, not for Christ Jesus but our high calling in Christ Jesus. And I couldn't understand what Jesus was saying until I put myself in the picture. You and I, this servant, we've been out laboring for him.

We've been working hard and we're hungry and we're thirsty and we come into his presence. We come into his banquet table, we come into the banquet hall where we're to be fed, where all the servants are fed.

It's meal time. Walk into this great banquet hall and the food is on the table and we wait for him to say sit down. And I come in and I'm tired and I'm weary and I need help and I need strength and I need food and I need drink.

And I look famished and I just look at the Master's face to have him nod and say sit down. I know you've worked hard, I know how weary you are, I know how tired you are and I know what you need. But I want you to feed me first.

I want you to gird yourself up. And I just came in from the field sweating and tired and weary and the Lord said gird yourself up and serve me first. And then you eat. And I stand there waiting, expecting him all along to say sit down.

And my eyes are pleading, I'm in need. And instead he says make ready, prepare my will, my meal first. Now you know that Christ is the Master in this story. But here is proof positive that we ought to feed Jesus Christ first.

Remember what Elijah said to the woman, make me a cake first then you may eat. In other words, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things shall be added unto you. But folks, if you understand this parable, it will melt your heart.

It will change everything in your spiritual life. If you see it in the Holy Spirit, ask God to give you eyes to see it nearest to hear what the Spirit is saying. In another place Jesus had said you're my friends.

If you do what shall I command you. You're my friends. Henceforth I call you not servants but I've called you friends. And you see when I come in off the field now and I'm hungry and thirsty and I want God, I want food, I want God to feed me.

I want to hear the word and I want to be encouraged and I want to be lifted up and I need the food to go back to the field and work. But he's saying now I stand there and I'm not his servant. I'm his friend.

And when he says gird yourself, don't get a picture please of a man putting on his apron. Gird yourself. He's not putting on an apron and he's not running into the kitchen in the refrigerator and finding what the cook has and bringing it out.

He's got a napkin over his hands and says here Jesus, here's your plate. That's not the picture at all. The picture is of a father whose servant is his son, his sons and his daughters and they're his friends.

I have two sons and two daughters and they're my friends. In Ezekiel 44 he talks about his priesthood. He said these are my holy priests. These are my friends. These are those who have never gone astray.

These are those who have a heart for me. And he said they will sit at my table and they will minister to me. And all they're doing is sitting there. And what this picture is all about is the master looks at you.

You're tired and weary. And here I am. I'm famished. I want to eat. And he is saying to you, come and sit at my table. Just come. I have missed you. I have so many things while you've been out on the field to tell you that will give you strength.

And I just want you to come and sit at my feet. Sit at my table and let me talk to you. Let me minister to you. Gird yourself with patience. Gird yourself. Just put aside all your own desires. Put away all your hungers and all your thirst and all your problems.

And just come because I have something on my heart I want to say to you. Jesus said I will come in. Remember Revelation 3 .20. And sup with you. And you with me. Luke 20. Luke 17 verses 9 and 10. And it says that he thanked the servant because he did the things commanded him.

I think not. So likewise ye, when ye have done all these things which are commanded you, say we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which is our duty to do. Now think of that. God's saying, Lord say gird yourself.

Come and feed me. There's no thanks. He's commanded. It's his duty. He said call yourself an unprofitable servant. Sounds to me very uncharitable of the Master. But when you understand what God is saying here and you understand the Greek meaning of the words, the Greek word unprofitable here means unmeritorious.

In other words, there's no merit in what I've done. And the Greek word for duty is benefit. And you put it together. This is what it says. After you have come and patiently fed me because my food is giving my heart to you.

Someone who takes the time and the patience just to be shut in at my table and listening to what is on my heart. Not just working for me. Not just winning souls. But you're feeding me. And this was what they were commanded to do.

This is their duty. But the Lord says there's no merit in that. Don't think you have merited something. That I have to do something for you because you've done this. Because the word duty there means benefit.

You put it together. Then say we are unmeritorious servants. We've done only that which benefits us. We have done only what is for our benefit. There is no merit in Bible reading. There is no merit in prayer.

But there are promises. Every time I go to God I say Lord I know that no matter how much time I spend with you. No matter what the intensity of my prayer is. And how close I draw to you. There is no merit.

I have earned nothing. It's for my benefit. I haven't merited anything. But oh God I hold you to your promise. You said if I seek you with all my heart I'd find you. There are promises in that. And I lay hold of those promises and hold God to his word.

Waiting on the Lord in Prayer

Hallelujah. Now this message was born out of an awesome experience I had in prayer. Probably this is the way we all go to him. We go into his courts with praise and thanksgiving first as commanded. And then we make our petitions known to him.

I pray for Times Square Church first. And that the glory of the Lord in his presence always be there. And that God protect his people. And pray for my friends and associates. And those we're a team and we pray for one another.

And I pray for the widows and the fatherless. I pray for the elderly. I pray for the poor. I pray for all the prayer requests that people come. I pray to the Lord of hosts that he would send his host out.

And I pray diligently for those when we say to people send in your prayer request. We meet and we pray over it. Our church prays. Our office staff prays. And I pray privately over all of that. And I spend my time in that.

And on this particular day after I had made all my petitions. Naming my children and grandchildren. My prayer every day is Lord keep my sons and my daughters from the wicked one. That's the scriptural prayer.

Make my sons as oaks beside the waters of God. And make my daughters and my grandsons and granddaughters pillars and jewels in your palace. And I pray those prayers and I intercede. And sometimes quietly, sometimes so loud you can hear the blocker away.

I don't know if you scream at God but I scream at God sometimes. Not in anger but sometimes just screaming with delight. And after I was done I took about 15 minutes just in his presence. And it was sweet.

Wonderful time. And I got up to walk out of my prayer room. And I put my hand in the door. And as clear as anything I've ever heard in my life. Jesus whispered to my heart. David, please don't go. Don't go yet.

There are so few stay with me. To truly hear my heart. Don't go. I need you. Feed me. Why would he want to share it with us? Think of the majesty. Think of the power and the glory of that. God would say to you, don't leave me.

I turned around and walked and I sat down. And I said, Lord, I don't know what this is all about but I'm here now for you. I'm not here for any other man. I'm not here for myself. I'm here for you. I put my watch in my pocket and I said, Lord, unlimited time.

I don't care how long you want. I'm here for you. Just you. Because I knew God had something on his heart. You see, just sitting there in his presence, just worshipping and praising. I said, Lord, I'm just going to wait.

If you have a word, I'm going to believe you. I'm going to love you. I'm going to meditate on your majesty and your glory. You told me you want to speak to me. So I come to your table now. And I gird myself with patience.

And I'm here. I don't want anything but you. I'm here to hear from you. Tell me what's on your heart. Speak to me. An hour or so later, when time is no longer a matter, everything waits. Because you're there, just God began to speak some glorious things to my heart.

Things that were on his heart. Things he wanted me to say. I've got so much in my heart. Lord, if you will come here every day, make your petitions known. That gladdens my heart. Pray and seek me with all that is in you.

For if you seek him with all your heart, your mind, soul, and strength, you'll find him. Do all of that. That's to my glory and my honor and for your blessing. But please don't leave until you feed me.

Because you see, his food is that... You know, we go into his presence and we talk, talk, talk, talk. We... We're unburdening our hearts and we're getting everything out of our spirit. And we're speaking to him.

And folks, we're being fed. That's food. You come out of that encouraged and life-giving. But he says, I want to sup with you. And he says, I want to talk to you. This is two ways. This is called waiting.

Christ Fed by the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus

Waiting on the Lord. There's another very touching story in the Bible. In Luke 24. Jesus is now in his resurrected body. He's still man, but now he's glorified. Think of this now. Where does Jesus go for his first manifestation of who he is in his resurrected body?

Where does he go? Who's he going to talk to? Well, if I had my way, he'd wake up campus. Tap him on the shoulder and say, look at these nail-scarred hands. You crucified God. I'd like that satisfaction.

I'd like him to go into the temple. Where all of these who said crucify him and cried. And now they're there trying to find God in their blindness. And I'd like him to stand up once again and show his wounded side in his nail-scarred hands.

And says, I am the Christ. I have great joy in that. In this flesh. Where does he go? The two disciples, downcast disciples on the way to Emmaus. He's hungry. He's hungry. And what is his food? The give and take of a patient man.

A woman. Who lets him unburden his heart. So he falls in line with these two disciples on the way to Emmaus. And the scripture said, Jesus drew near and went with them. It's about six and a half miles from Jerusalem.

But their eyes were holding, they're blinded that they should not know him. In other words, in the Greek it says they were seized with grief. Their eyes were seized with grief. And Jesus stops by and says, what are you two talking about?

They said, you've just come from Jerusalem and you don't know what's happened? They've crucified the man that we thought was the Messiah. And Jesus said to them all, slow of heart to believe. Then beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all scriptures the things concerning himself.

What Jesus is doing? He's hungry. He's glorifying. But he's still man. Folks, I want you to know that he's in glory and he's still man in glory. He kept his manhood. That's how he's so touched with the feelings of our infirmities.

There's a man in glory. Beginning of Moses and all the prophets, Jesus did all the talking. They were feeding Christ because they patiently with hunger and with thirst, they said, didn't our hearts burn as he spoke?

Folks, when you get alone and he talks to you, your heart will burn. Oh yes, it'll burn. And it's not toward evening. And they're stopping at an inn at Emmaus. And the scripture says, he made as though he's going further.

He made it out as though he's going on. In other words, he didn't want to go. Because you see, they hadn't had a full revelation yet there was so much more the Lord wanted to show them. Please don't ever let Jesus make out as though he's going on.

When you get his ear and you get his heart, stay with him. Don't let him go. He made as though they were going on. And folks, he would have gone on if they hadn't stopped him. If there hadn't been something in their heart that said, oh God, this is just the beginning.

There's so much more. They didn't know yet who he is. They didn't know who he was. They didn't know that they were in fellowship with him. Folks, they could have gone to sleep that night. Jesus would have passed them by.

He would have gone on somewhere else to find someone else to feed his hungry soul. They could have gone back to Jerusalem with a full head knowledge of who Jesus is. Because it had been revealed to them from Genesis all through the Old Testament.

To the disciples in the upper room and said, oh, we have learned so much about Jesus. Well, did you see him? Did you touch him? Is he alive? Well, we don't know, but I'll tell you, we know what Moses said about him.

We know what the Old Testament says about him. We know everything about Jesus. They would have had a head knowledge. And that's all you're going to get unless you learn to feed Christ. You're going to be able to explain who Jesus is.

You can preach powerful message. An agnostic preacher from New York City years and years ago wrote a book. I won't name his name. One of the most powerful books about the man Jesus. But he didn't believe in the virgin birth.

He didn't believe in the divinity of Christ, but he could tell you everything about the man. He was an agnostic. They could have gone back and had this great Bible knowledge. You can go to churches and you can be in a Bible church evening and you can hear some wonderful messages about Jesus.

But sometimes the revelation of who he is is not there. The scripture says that they constrained him saying, abide with us. And in the Greek it means they would not let him go. You must stay with us. In fact, the Greek word suggests they forced him to stay.

This is what the Lord was waiting for because he had so much for them. And the Bible said, and he went in to tarry with them. Oh God, help us. Jesus to the table. And suddenly their eyes are open. You're Jesus.

The resurrected God. It is though he would go on. And many people are satisfied with that. They have just the Bible knowledge and they're not going to spend any more time. They're going to go back and deliver the word and focus on their preaching.

Thank God for preaching. Thank God for all that. But folks, when they got to Jerusalem this time, they weren't talking about head knowledge. They said, we saw him. We touched him. We ate with him. We know him.

He's alive. Think of what they would have missed. And it came to pass as he said it, meet with them. He took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they knew him.

He vanished out of their sight. There's going to come a falling away in the last days. And the Lord wants to know how precious he is to you and to me. When I came to the place where I said, Lord, you're so precious to me now.

Go into that where I pray. Go into the face of the earth. Never interrupt it. Crisis. No telephone calls. Nothing. And when I said in my heart, said in my heart, Lord, this is your time. I'm not here for anything but you.

That's when he began to say, all right. If you want my word, read faithfully. Dig diligently into this word. Don't read it to get a message. You read the word and pray over it. If there's anything that sticks out, fine, bring it to me and I'll explain it to you.

I'll open it to you. But I'll give you your messages from my heart. I'll speak to you. I'll give you direction. I'll talk about your family. I'll talk about everything you need to hear. If you'll just commune with me, if you'll just give me that time, that quality time, and you feed me, I'll feed you.

Receiving a Message From the Heart of God

I'll feed you the word. I'll feed you the message that I want spoken. And I'll give you an example. And with that, I'm going to close. Two weeks ago, I had, it had been a busy week and I hadn't had the kind of quality time.

And this is a struggle. It's a battle. You have to keep at it. Because there's so many things. There's a conspiracy of interruptions out of hell. He'll conspire to interrupt you. Have you heard of that conspiracy?

Have you ever had that conspiracy at work in your life? Right for the prayer closet, full determination, and then something comes up. Conspiracy right out of hell. You head for your prayer closet, you determine, devil will throw everything at you.

But I got a message on suffering. And I was going to preach the church and then bring it here and preach it to you. And I got my message. I didn't hear it from heaven. I got it from the book. Just reading it and I just worked it out.

Commentaries. I looked at it and said, Lord, that's a sermon. That's not a message from your heart. And I tore it up. I got another one. My first one was awful sinfulness of unbelief. Or of discouragement.

The awful sinfulness of discouragement. That didn't work. And my next message was the blessedness of discouragement. That doesn't sound right. I tore that message up. I got a third one. In between. And I went to church Sunday.

And I was to speak Sunday night. And an hour before the service. So uncomfortable because I knew in my heart I hadn't heard from the heart of God. And it was this time I got into Elijah. And how after his great sacrifice on the hill and the mountain.

And he comes down and outruns Ahab. And Jezebel faces him and he ends up wanting to die. Discouraged. And that was my message. Elijah's example. Had it all worked out. That was a pretty good sermon. An hour before the service.

My heart sinking. And I opened it up between services. I said, God. That's another sermon. I can't preach it. I've got nothing to say. I'm going to walk out there and I don't have anything to say. But if I have to go out there and just make a fool of myself.

And tell the people I don't have a word. I'm going to do it. And the Holy Spirit said, read it again. Read about Elijah. Go to the mountain again. Just read it. And I started reading. And I came to these four little words.

That so shook me. When he told the false prophets. You build your altar. And you put your fire on it. And you call fire down. And then I'll build mine. And the God who answers by fire is the God. Universe.

And you know the story. They danced and they beat themselves until the blood was gushing. And I read these four words. And Elijah mocked them. And I started weeping. Walking around. Because the Lord said, that's you David.

You've been mocking ministries for years. He should have looked at their blindness. He should have seen how horrible their condition was. And how foolish and how awful this is to be so blinded. And he should have been weeping.

Before he went to his altar. I still believe that the prosperity gospel is unscriptural. With everything in me. But folks, there are times I have railed and named names. And then God reminded me that about 25 years ago when all this started.

I heard a radio interview with one of the top leaders of this movement. One of the two leaders. And the wife was asked, why are you teaching something that seems so unscriptural. It appears to us unscriptural.

And almost with tears she said, it's because nobody's been to us to tell us anything. It's all we know. It's all we've been taught. And I didn't go in love and say, here's what I see. And here's what I think you need to consider.

I've made fun of the seekers. What do they call them? Seeker friendly churches call them sinner friendly. I went to Italy last month for crusades. And a leader of one of the denominations forbid the whole Pentecost organization.

They couldn't come to my meetings. And I called him the Pope. And I went all through. I said, what's the Pope have to say today? I was mocking the man. You see, I didn't get it from. If I had really gotten that word from the Lord, he would have.