Audio Sermon: Not Every Trial Is a Test — David Wilkerson

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws.

This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch .org. Other recordings are available by calling 1 -800 -488 -0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New York, 10019.

Isaiah's Vision of Joy and the New Creation

Turn to Isaiah 65, please, Isaiah 65. My message, not every trial is a test. Not every trial. How many are going through a trial? I mean, now, right now. And in the annex, I can't see your hand, but put it up.

Jesus sees it. All right. You think you're being tested? Not every trial is a test. Isaiah 65, verses 17 and 18. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. The former shall not be remembered nor come into mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.

For behold, I create Jerusalem rejoicing and her people a joy. In the original Hebrew, it should be, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for joy. God says, I create a people for the purpose of joy and rejoicing.

Now, Heavenly Father, we come to your word humbly, thanking you for your heart revealed to us, your mind open to us. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that you quicken me as I preach and quicken us as we hear.

Let the Lord be glorified in the service. Let the Lord be glorified in the word that comes forth, we pray. Lord, I need your touch. I need your touch now so that this will flow, not just from my heart, but from your mind.

God's Compassion in the Midst of Affliction

In Christ's name I pray, amen. God gets no delight in our afflictions and in our trials. And the Bible said he sympathizes, he agrees with us, he's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. And there are many afflictions, the scripture says, that come to God's people.

The Lord Jesus said to one of the churches in the book of Revelation, I know your tribulation and I know your poverty. God is saying, I know what you're going through. You don't understand it, but I know.

And I'm glad that he said that because sometimes we think that he we know theologically that he knows. But specifically to our own case, sometimes we doubt whether or not God is moving on time. The scripture says thou has tried us as silver is tried.

The Bible said our faith is tested and tried as by fire. The Bible said the Lord tries the righteous. Yes, the Christian life is full of trials and afflictions. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, the scripture says.

Much affliction, anguish of heart, many tears. This is the language of Paul, the apostle. He said, this is what I experience. He said, in my life, there are many afflictions, anguish of heart and many tears.

In Hebrews, we read of the saints of God of old time who were tempted, destitute, afflicted and tormented. In Hebrews, we read of Christians who fight a great fight of affliction. Now, hearing me now in the annex and here on the main floor in the main auditorium are people that I know in the spirit are going through this very thing.

Many and great afflictions, a fight of afflictions, drinking from the cup of trembling, the scriptures call it. My soul, the psalmist said, is full of troubles. My life draws near to the grave. Paul or the David said, I have endured sore and great troubles.

I don't know a single Christian in my circle of friends. I don't know a single Christian anywhere in the face of this earth that hasn't gone through these things, afflictions, suffering, trial and testing.

I don't know one. And if you happen to be one of those, I'd sure like to get your autograph because you're some kind of a super saint that is unusual. You probably should be moved on to heaven. I can say with David, I've known sore afflictions in my lifetime.

Divine Purpose in Trials and the School of Testing

Now, this is a very, very simple word that God has given to me. But it's been born out of the fires of my own trials. Recent trials, even. And I'm relating now by the spirit to those that came this morning.

And you're on the very brink of despair and even thoughts of saying, I can't live like this. This is too much. God has placed too much upon me. I don't know why for the last few weeks I have been pushing this and dealing with these kind of issues of the suffering.

Because, you see, there's a theology in America now that if you're walking in faith, you don't suffer. But, you know, suffering comes to all those people who preach that and then they're not ready for it when it comes.

But I've known sore afflictions. Now, certainly the Lord has a purpose in mind. You can't believe you couldn't even comprehend that God would let you endure sore trials without a divine purpose. God doesn't just promiscuously go around saying, oh, this brother, I've just got to take him through some more fire.

And I've got to send another flood to this brother or this sister. He doesn't do it without a purpose. The time your trial of your faith, the scripture says, is more precious than gold, though it be tried with fire.

Brother Peter says in that trial is a fiery trial. What about those who have already been tested and they pass the test? Like Paul, the apostle, he said, I've finished the course. In other words, I was in school.

I was in the school of testing. I had trial after trial and he enumerates these. It's incredible. It's mind boggling. The suffering and the pain and the affliction and the rejection and all that Paul, the apostle, went through.

And he said, I fought a good fight and I finished my course. He said, I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. You see, he it's not that he will never be tested again. But God trust this man now because he is.

He said, I know now whom I have believed. I know how now when the enemy comes against me like a flood, I know how to with God's glory raise up that standard. I know how to resist the devil. Then he flees from me.

I've learned these lessons in the furnace of affliction. Then he said, now I have kept a faith. I can say that honestly, I know that I'm going to be tested on my faith till Jesus comes. But I know that not every trial in my life is a test of faith.

Because I know in recent years, especially from the death of our granddaughter, 12 year old Tiffany, and the strength and the faith that he gave me in that ordeal. And I never once doubted in that moment.

And I came out of that saying, thank God, I know whom I have believed. And I know God has a plan. God would not hurt me. He would not hurt the family. He is a God of love and mercy. He has a plan. I give this over to you by faith.

And I've gone through serious trials since then. And I have seen God allow that faith to mature. I fought a good fight. Think about the present trial that you're going through right now. Let's talk about the ordeal, the affliction and the suffering that God has allowed into your life.

Talk to you just as a father. Have you accused God at this time of needlessly taking you through something? You said, I've been tested so much, but this is too much. Have you questioned God? Have you been having doubts or fears?

Have you just felt like giving up? You know, I don't need to go to church anymore. I don't need to pursue the Bible. It doesn't seem to be working. We don't say it in those kind of words, but those thoughts rage through our mind.

And is that how you are reacting to your difficult time, your hour of trial? Or and this is what I believe. This is where I believe most and many, many and most of you are here. If you know the Lord, if you're a lover of Christ, you're able to sit here this service this morning while I preach this message and say, Pastor Dave, I know whom I believed.

I know that God has given me a confidence in him. I love my Lord and I'm going to fight this. I'm going to come through this victorious. I don't doubt it. I know God has a purpose in it. You see, your faith is mature.

And God doesn't have to take you through that. How many tests do you go to before you pass? You know, many of you have not failed that test. I'm not saying that there won't be tests, but there comes a time when God is going after more than faith.

Trials as Training for the Bride of Christ

It's not just faith he's trying to get from us. You see, God is preparing a bride for his son. He's preparing. And many of you don't know, but the test, what you're going through now is not a test. It's more than that.

God is looking for more than that. This bride that he's preparing for his son is getting a new home. And Jesus is the founder and the maker. But the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. And I just read to you the scripture.

Isaiah saw a picture of a new world. He said, God is creating a new world and a new heaven. This world that we are in now is going to vanish. The scripture says it's going to pass away and God is going to bring new galaxies into.

He's creating it now. The word create in Hebrew is to bring into being. He said, I'm creating a new heaven and a new earth. And you see, what you're going through now is not testing, but training. Because in this new world where there will be no pain, no devil, no trial, no testing.

In this new world where there will be no sun and the moon or stars because he will be the son of our life. This new world will be populated with brand new bodies. That body that goes down into the grave is not the body that's coming out of the grave.

It's a new body with a new DNA of the Holy Spirit. It's the DNA of Christ himself. You can't tell me God's going to populate that new world with lazy saints who are covetous and living nothing but for materialism.

Israel's Exodus as a Pattern of Spiritual Preparation

How did God get Egypt or the children of Israel out of Egypt? See, there's a promised land that represents where we're going into this new world. This was a new world for them. And God had to allow affliction.

They had to be taken into a furnace. Everything had to become hard pressed so that they could be winged out of Egypt. They would have never accepted this call to go. They would have settled down with their leeks and onions and garlics and all of their fancy salads and saying, We have bread to eat.

This is heaven. Because, you see, we have a whole generation now like eat this or what's at that time. We have a generation that doesn't want a heaven. They don't talk about it. Do you hear anybody in the new generation, this modern generation talking about going to heaven?

See, they don't want to have me because that's an interruption. That interrupts my good life. Rich man said recently, you know, they call them toys. The Mercedes and a few Mercedes. God bless you. I hope God give you Rolls Royce.

That's that's not what I'm talking about. But you see, those are toys. They call them toys. And one rich man wrote this. And I think it's a travesty. He said he who dies with the most toys wins. And this is the attitude of so many in this modern age.

They don't want heaven. There's a preacher that preach here in the northeast. And I heard heard him say, I don't want heaven by and by in this week, by and by. I want my mansion now. You see, they don't want heaven.

They don't want to talk about a new world. We hear the secularist in America and around the world talking about the new world order. They have no idea what they're talking about. The new world order is the new creation that Isaiah is talking about, a new heaven and a new earth.

And Isaiah said the old will not come into mind. The old world, folks, went one minute into glory, one minute into eternity. Your trials that you're going through now, you will not even remember. Oh, everything of this old world will pass away.

Only the love, the love of God, the love of family is going to be able to pierce that new world and enter that new world. But this is all passing away. And God had to go into Egypt and cause trial after trial to wean them away until they were ready to go, until they cried enough of this.

I don't want this world. I don't want this environment. I don't want to be in Egypt anymore. And when the Lord said, go, they were ready to go. Many of us do not realize that we needed to be winged. Sometimes God sees us going into materialistic way.

Sometimes things in our life getting out of control by our own foolishness. Sometimes other times that there are people that Satan enrages. He enrages them to come against you. And the Bible says that's the dregs of the cup.

And the Bible says God chooses out of the fiery furnace. He chooses those that are in the fiery furnace because he has eternal purpose. God is after something. Because you see, you can have faith and still not want to have, you don't have a longing for Christ to be with him.

Longing for Christ and the Heavenly City

You can have faith and you can move mountains. But if you don't have love, you have nothing, the scripture says. You see, you can be tested and you can come out with a glowing faith. But the Lord wants more than that.

He wants to get you out of the camp. The Bible said Jesus suffered outside the camp. He said, therefore, let us go with him outside the camp. And until God gets you outside of camp. That's the world. That's the spirit of this age.

That's this lust and covetousness for materialism. God blesses his people. God, anything that you have, you give him thanks. I live in a nice home. I drive a nice car. But you see, we have a Christianity and millions of Christians.

These things are getting a hold of their heart that they don't have that longing, that yearning to go and be with Christ. Paul said, I am caught between two dilemmas. He said, I have a dilemma caught between two forces.

He said, there's something in me that yearns and longs. I want to go and be with the Lord. That was not a morbid fixation on death. He was a well-used man. He was a man who did everything with his power to live out his days in fullness.

But Paul said, I have in me a longing, a yearning to be with the Lord face to face. And if that is not in us, if we don't have that constant yearning, if we don't have the New Jerusalem state of mind, if we are lingering here, you see, Jesus suffered outside the camp, outside the ecclesiastical system, outside the political system, outside of society, rejected, outside the gate, outside the camp.

They pushed him out. And God has a wonderful way of pushing us out the gate, away from the things of the world and the attractions. This bride of Christ that God is preparing for his son, God has to see that yearning.

He said, if I'm going to give my son to you and I give you my son, I want to know that there's no other attraction in your life. I want to know there's no other longing. I want to know that he's everything.

And I want to know that you want to be with him bodily, face to face, and that that's your dream and that's your pool in your heart, that you want to be with the Lord. Paul said, to die is gain. He was not in this world.

Abraham said, I'm a sojourner, I'm an alien, I'm a foreigner. In the promised land. The Bible said he was looking for something. There was a constant yearning every time he got up every day, this searching, this longing of heart.

He said, I'm looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. The same city that Isaiah is talking about and prophesying about. A new Jerusalem, the home of Christ and his beloved for eternity. Sitting here this morning.

How about yesterday and this past week or this past month? Has there ever been thoughts of going home? Have you ever had thoughts of saying, Jesus? I just want to be with you. I want to be with you in that new world.

Now we know his presence is with us. We talk about seeing Christ face to face in the spirit. But you see, these spirits of ours have to be trained. This body, I'm going to get a new body like unto his, the scripture says.

He said, that which goes into the ground is not that which comes out. But you see, the spirit that I have this morning, the Bible said, worship him in spirit and in truth. So the worship that I have, what I'm learning in the way of worship, what I'm learning in the way of praise is training for that day.

Praise and Worship as Spiritual Training

How would you and I expect that suddenly Christians who just live in constant anxiousness live as though God were dead? Those that don't know how to praise their way through their trial. And that's the only way you're going to come out of your trial is to praise your way out, to worship your way out.

You can come here and praise God in the flesh. You can come here and praise him in your body with your bodily mouth and bodily lips. But you see, you can do all of that without praising in the spirit.

Your spirit could be somewhere else. Your spirit could be in the worry world. It could be there fretting outside of your body. Your spirit, God says, I'm after your spirit. I want to change your spirit so that you worship me in spirit and truth.

And when you come home and when you see me and you embrace me, you will have already been a praiser. You have learned in your spirit to worship and your spirit will be one with my spirit. Brother, sister, what you're going through is a training process.

You're in school, the school of praise, the spiritual school of true worship of heart and soul, mind and body. Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into your mind.

Be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for joy. Now, listen to that. God saying, behold, I am creating a new world order. But for that world order, that new world, it's a world of rejoicing.

He said, I've created it as a house, as a place of rejoicing. He said, but I'm doing something else. Now, remember the word create here in Hebrew is bringing something into being. And God said, I am creating people.

I'm putting together a body. I'm putting together the bride hood for my son. I'm doing that. I'm creating that. And the scripture says these prophets were looking the future, speaking to our age. The Bible says they were speaking to those of the last days.

And he saw that city and he saw God preparing and creating this new city. He was bringing it into being. And even now, that world is under construction. You know, our God is so big. You could take this entire cosmic, entire all the planets and all of the galaxies that even man can't see.

And the Lord is so great. God is so big and so mighty. He can have a whole new system, whole new galaxies, even populated where his saints are kings and priests and rulers. That's beyond my comprehension.

I don't want to go there because when I get Jesus is going to be big and broad enough in him or the world's unlimited and unknown. But you see, he said, I'm preparing the people for that prepared place.

And there is no way in to conceptualize how that can happen, except by through the furnace and through the suffering, through the tribulation. And for the most part, I would say that many of you that are going through it, because you see, the closer you get to Jesus, the longer you walk with him and the more you trust him, the more severe your trial is going to be.

It's going to be very, very severe sometimes because he said, I am making something. I am creating something here. And he's sculpturing and he's working. It's so far beyond me, but I do know that it's very important how we react to our trials in our trials.

Responding to Trials with Faith

How are you reacting now? What you're going through, how are you reacting to the difficulty that you're even now enduring? Now, you can you can just give up. And many are giving up all over the country and around the world.

We see them. They're just quitting. They said, well, I'm not mad at God. I'm just going to go my way. I can't live under that intensity. I can't go that way because when I get close to the Lord, more I suffer.

Yes, you do. But then you have something that others often do not have. And that's the glory and power and the understanding of the ways of the comforter. You know how now to face the devil and all the powers of hell and be unshaken.

And God has to have a people who cannot waver, who will not be shaken in the dark, dark times that are coming. Where does he find these men? Where does he find these women? He finds them in the furnace.

Go to Hebrews. Well, no, I've been there. I don't want to go to Hebrews. Abraham said, for here we do not have a lasting city, that we're seeking the city which is to come. Let us go forth unto them outside the camp bearing his reproach.

The Bible says if we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together. Paul's apostle said, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that's going to be revealed in us.

Paul said in your trial, stop a minute and get your eyes on eternity. Get your eyes on what is to come. Bible said Jesus endured the suffering for the joy that was set before him all through his ministry and time on earth.

He had his mind fixed on the joy of that new world. Please understand that as a believer established in the Word of God, there's hardly any believer that loves Jesus hearing me right now who is not established in the Word.

You have the Word hidden in your heart. You have promises that can be brought to attention at any moment. You've been well supplied. God has said that nothing befalls us but what he will make a way for us to endure.

Shaking Off Despair and Standing in Faith

And how you react is so important because there's a danger if we don't immediately do what Isaiah told the children of Israel to do. He came to Jerusalem and Jerusalem had gone through some severe testing, severe trials and afflictions, incredible.

They were staggered, so stupefied. They were sitting in the dust. And Isaiah came on the scene. He was shocked. He said, these are God's people with all the promises. Look at him. There's Zion is sitting in the dust with a chain around her neck.

Go to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52 verses 1 through 3. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

Shake thyself from the dust. Arise and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the Lord, you have sold yourself for nothing. You shall be redeemed without money.

Lord, help me now to speak what you're putting in my mind. Help me to see it. And I want you, congregation, to pray. God, give you insight and give you ears to hear and eyes to see what the prophet Isaiah is saying.

Because, you see, we are spiritual Zion. And those of us that are sitting here now, going through the time of our life, are going through the most difficult time and affliction. You see, this Zion of Jerusalem, historical Jerusalem, the people, this is speaking metaphorically, but these people were so stupefied, so overcome by their sufferings.

They just sat down, feeling weak, no strength. And they had cast off their robes. They cast off their outer garments. And they're sitting there saying, I have no strength. I am so weak. I am so undone.

There's no good thing in me. And Isaiah comes on the scene, and he said to those in the dust, shake yourself from the dust. Rise and sit down. Put on your strength. Put on your beautiful garments. Who is our strength but Jesus Christ?

What is our garment but the garment of righteousness, the robe of righteousness? And the Bible says, the prophet said, shake thyself from the dust. Now, you can sit in your problem and ask for some kind of great miracle, and God is a miracle-working God, but there's something He expects of us.

He said, I want you to loose yourself from this chain that's on you, this chain of despair, this chain of worry about the future, worrying about family, worrying about health, worrying about all these things.

He said, you are bound by fetters of weariness, fetters of discouragement and anguish. He said, shake yourself. Give yourself a lecture. Do whatever you have to say. I don't have to be in despair. I don't have to feel this way.

You have the power in you. You have the authority in you to stand up and take your place, seated with Christ in a heavenly place, and say, this is a lie. God is not against me. I'm not going through this because I'm a wicked, evil person.

I'm going through this because I'm being trained to preach or to praise God and to worship. A few weeks ago, a wave of despair, a wave of something out here in the prophets talking about the uncircumcised and the unclean coming against us.

Those are the powers of hell, the uncircumcised devils. Evil powers of iniquity come. And I just sat down in the den in our house and Gwen said, what's wrong with you? I said, I don't know. Have you ever had that?

You don't know? I don't know where this came from, but I just don't feel very righteous. I don't feel like doing anything. You know how you go on and on and you're down and you've lost your strength and you cast off your faith on that holy garment God's put on your back?

And I was walking up the stairs. In the middle of the stairs, the Holy Spirit stopped me and said, David, stop it. Stop it right here. That's flesh. You have power over the flesh through the Spirit that abides in you.

The Fiery Furnace and the Presence of the Fourth Man

And I got orders. David, be glad in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. That was no test of faith. My faith wasn't wounded. I'm going to close in just a minute. But remember the three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

And they're thrown into this furnace heated seven times hotter. That was no test of faith. It was faith that put them there. Did you get it? Well, say, well, what is it? God was training three Hebrew children for glory because when the king looked in, he bends over and he looks in that fire, and I'll tell you, he sees four men.

He turns to his assistant and says, didn't we put three men in here? And they were all bound. Look at them dancing. And that fourth one looks like a god. It looks like a son of God. And I know what Jesus said as soon as he manifested himself.

Gentlemen, get up. You're not bound anymore. Get up. Folks, we get bound by our own thoughts by allowing these things to overpower us. And the word from the Lord right now is saying, God could have stopped that.

But you see, the king and that political system didn't listen to their holy lives, didn't listen to their preaching, didn't listen to their testimony. God said, I'm going to give them an object lesson.

I'll give them a lesson. I'm going to give them something they're going to hear and see. And what was it? Three saints of God in the worst trial that could ever behold mankind. And there they are, seeing Christ in His reality.

There they are. And the king is saying, their God is going to be my God. Folks, look around. You don't have to look far. The fourth man is right in your furnace. The fourth man is right there. Let's stand.

Hallelujah. I want to say it again, and I want you to listen closely. There are many, many of you here, godly saints, lovers of Christ. You've never heard it before, probably, and you may not want to believe it.

But often, it's been your faith that puts you in this situation. It's your faith. God says, now I'm going to take that faith and I'm going to put it in divine order. I'm going to make it pure gold. This is coming out of this fire, divine purpose, a yearning heart, weaned from the spirit of this age, weaned so that there's a growing desire to be with the Lord.

Yes, I'm going to work while it's yet day. I'm going to do everything that God empowers me to do. But in it all and through it all, I'm going to have my eyes on the new Jerusalem. Heavenly Father, You spoke to my heart that there would be a number of people here this morning, some that make their church home and others that walk into this building, in the annex and here in the Mayoral Auditorium, who are really, truly up against something they can't get over, they can't understand, it's beyond them.

And Lord, You have to do something for us this morning so that this is not just a pep talk, but there's something of truth that pierces the heart and lays hold of it, and new hope and new faith rises, that God has a purpose, that the Lord is training me, the Lord is working, weaning me, and creating me a longing to leave this world for His world and not be tied, not be distracted.

The Altar Call: Surrender, Restoration, and Praise

In Jesus' name. Now, if the message this morning was something that is yours, in other words, you stand here right now saying, Pastor Dave, that you're talking about me. I am truly going through it. I want you to come down if you say, Pastor Dave, I've been on the brink, I've been pretty close to saying I can't go anymore.

I can't live like this. I invite you to step out of your seat and come here in the annex, here in the Mayoral Auditorium, upstairs, go to the stairs on either side, and say, well, Pastor Dave, I have got to touch God.

I don't want to leave this house the way I came in. Now, if you don't know Christ, if you're not walking with Jesus, if you have known Him, if you've slipped away from your love for Him, you've grown cold or indifferent, I invite you, if the Holy Spirit is talking to you, come and join these that are coming.

Now, if you don't know the Lord, the Savior, all you have to do is right now say, Jesus, I surrender. Jesus, I give it all to you. Jesus, I trust you. I trust you with my life. I don't have to lead you into prayer.

You say that right now where you stand. And the Lord said He's more willing to give than you are to receive. He's more willing to forgive than you are to be forgiven. So right now say, Jesus, at this moment, in this place, I surrender my life to you.

Just say it right now. You can whisper it. If He can read your mind, He can hear your whisper. Just say, Lord, here I am. If you've been backslidden, Lord, I'm coming home. I'm coming back to your arms.

Lord Jesus, draw me now, and I'll run after you. Do that right now. And the rest of you that are in the aisles in here, folks, the whole church are now in the annex, all of us in the annex. The Lord Spirit is moving there as well as in this auditorium.

And the Bible said God inhabits the praises of His people. And I want you to pray. I want you to praise the Lord as though you were heading home right now. I'll tell you what, if God somehow could just manifest Himself, and we saw manifestation, and the Lord said, let's go.

Follow me. And He took you right through that tissue that separates time and eternity, and you break through. I'm going to tell you, you would not be standing there like you're standing now. You would not be standing.

I would not be here. I would be leaping. I would be dancing. I would be praising God. And the truth is, He said He could come at any moment. The truth is, I may be prophesying right now. I don't know.

But we are. This is not your citizenship. You have papers, yes. Thank God for America. I love America. But this is not my home. We are sojourning. We're passing on. We're passing through. We're going to go home.