The Famine Has Begun — David Wilkerson

The Famine of Hearing the Word of the Lord

A petty word this morning I want to deliver to you. The famine has begun. The famine has begun. I want you to go to Amos, the 8th chapter, please. Amos, the 8th chapter. And folks, please keep in mind, many of the messages that are preached here from this pulpit are not only for this congregation, but they go out all over the world.

This message is for this church and for all who will hear it, wherever it is going to go. It goes far beyond the doors of this church. This is a message that many, many will hear around the world. Not because it's special, but because we send them out in our mailing list.

Start verse 11, Amos, 8th chapter. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

They shall seek the word of the Lord, they shall not find it. A famine for the hearing of the words of the Lord. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, You put this on my heart. You put it in my heart when I was shut in with You.

And I pray, Lord, You deliver it the way You want it to be delivered, and I pray for the unction, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we are in a famine in this land. A famine of hearing the word of the Lord, and it's going to get worse.

It's going to rage, and many are going to starve spiritually, and fall by the wayside on the right and on the left. Oh, God, open our eyes and our hearts and our understanding this morning. Let us hear the living word of God.

Sanctify me. Let the word go forth in power, unction, anointing of the Holy Spirit, I pray in Jesus' name. I take authority over every demon spirit, every principality and power of darkness. There shall be nothing, nothing hinder the word of the Lord this morning.

Give us hearing ears to hear. Lord, anoint me. Give me the power, the fire of the Holy Ghost this morning to speak Your mind. You put Your mind in my heart. Now deliver it through me. I yield my body as a vessel to the Holy Ghost.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amos was sent by God to deliver these very frightful words in this prophecy. Behold, the days are coming when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

Beloved, that day has come. The famine of the hearing of the word of God is upon us right now. Now, there have been spiritual famines since the day that Amos gave this prophecy. There have been a number of them, but there have never been any, as far as I'm concerned, that have any resemblance to what is upon us now and what we are about to face.

We are facing the utter fulfillment of this prophecy of Amos. Now, let me say before I go any further, God's plan for either shaking a nation, redeeming a nation, or warning a nation has always been the preaching of the word of God.

It's always been God sending a preacher. Surely the Lord will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants, the prophets. God said to Jeremiah, Behold, thou camest not, before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

And then later, Jeremiah could say, The Lord touched my mouth, and He put His words in my mouth. When God wanted to reach Jeremiah's generation, He touched his lips, He put a word in his mouth, and God delivered the word through the prophet.

God’s Pattern of Sending Prophets

Now, in every generation, God has raised up and set aside chosen vessels. These have been touched with the burning coals from the fire in the altar of God. God has put His word into their mouth, and He has sent them out, and He has used this principle ever since the beginning.

Remember, God has no other plan. God has no other alternative. He has no other plan to save or ward a nation or a people or a society other than sending a preacher. He sends men of God anointed to preach His word.

Now, in Genesis 6 and 7, don't turn there, but we hear God saying, Of that generation, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Now, here's an entire society about to be annihilated. Here's an entire society that's going to be wiped out. Men and women, children, cattle, the whole society is going to be annihilated. The end of all things has come.

What is God's plan? How does God send mercy? How does God deal with this last generation? He sent a man, sent a preacher. The scripture says, Noah, a preacher of righteousness, 2 Peter 2 .5. He didn't send a politician to try to legislate some false piety to bring the people back to God.

He didn't send a poet or an orator to try to play on their emotions. He didn't send a strong-armed general to try to raise an army and try to force some kind of morality on the people, dictate morality.

He raised up a preacher of holiness, a preacher of righteousness, and for 120 years, this man went from city to village to town. He went everywhere preaching, not just judgment. The Bible said he was a preacher of righteousness.

Yes, he warned. He built an ark. This man was moved by the fear of God, the scripture says. And a preacher who is moved by the fear of God is not much a motivator of success. He's not much interested in self-esteem.

He doesn't preach hype. He doesn't preach politics. He's moved by the fear of God. He knows his generation is dying and going to hell. So this man stands and he preaches righteousness. That generation had no other call, had no other effort from the hand of God other than God sending a man with a message.

I want you to get that principle in your mind. We're going to see it further as we go. This is the way God's been working from the beginning. When the wickedness of Nineveh came up before the Lord, He determined to destroy that entire population within a set time, 40 days after the time that His servants should arrive on the streets of Nineveh.

And what does God do? This generation is doomed. This generation is about to fall under judgment. What is God going to do? Is He going to work through a politician? Does He work through legislators? Does He work through poets?

Does He work through attorneys? Does He work through any other form? No. He sent a preacher by the name of Jonah, a Jewish preacher. The Word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, Go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for the wickedness has come up before me.

You know the story. Jonah flees to Tarsus, ends up in the belly of the whale. But God has no alternative plan. God has no other plan. He says, You're going to go. You're my only plan. Spits him out of the belly of the whale, sends him back.

The Scripture said, The Word of the Lord came the second time unto Jonah, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, and preach it, the preaching that I tell you. Nothing else but a man walking the streets. Crowds gather.

This man is not preaching hype. He's not trying to win their favor. He doesn't care what they think of his preaching. They're about to die and go to hell. This man says, You've got 40 days and you're dead.

40 days and it's over. You talk about hard preaching. You talk about tiptoeing around sin. No, this man did not tiptoe around sin. He said it bluntly, frankly, and put it to the point. You're going to die.

Judgment is coming. You have 40 days. That was God's only plan. There was no famine of the Word of God in Noah's day. There was no famine. The Word of God was heard daily. The Word of God was heard and witnessed by the ark that was being built.

There was no famine of the Word of God in Nineveh. This man preached the uncompromising Word of God and the Word of God was so piercing, so under unction, so anointing, the whole society, king and all, repented.

Absolutely repented of the preaching of Noah. In fact, Matthew 12, 21, they repented at the preaching of Noah. What brought repentance? Holy Ghost anointed preaching. John the Baptist comes out of the wilderness to face another generation going to hell, a generation under judgment, a generation of religious vipers, proud Pharisees, hypocrites.

This is the generation that's going to be visited by the incarnate Son of God. But first, God sends a preacher to prepare the way of the Lord, to make His path straight. John came preaching repentance.

Listen to his message. All of you who don't like hard preaching, all of you who want to go to church where there's candy-cotton preaching, all generation of vipers, bring forth fruit suitable to repentance.

He's laid the axe to the root. Every tree that brings not fruit is going to be cast down and thrown into fire. He's got a fan in His hand and He's going to purge you. He's going to burn up all the chaff with unquenchable fire.

This is the preaching that God sent. This is the kind of preaching that God sent to make the path straight for the Master. It's not a message conducive to self-esteem. It's not a how-to message. It's not a success message.

John didn't tiptoe around sin either. Every one of these men that God sent were under unction anointing and they were told to warn people, to free from the wrath of God. And the Bible says, and they confessed their sins.

They heard preaching from John the Baptist and so convicting, so powerful, so anointed, they fell on their faces and repented, the Bible says. Jesus Himself came preaching. Scripture said Jesus went about all the cities and villages preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

Then He sent forth His twelve. The Bible said to preach the gospel to every creature. Scripture says He ordained twelve, sending them forth to preach. They were to preach from the housetops. Then Paul is raised up and Paul says, It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

And Paul makes it very clear, unmistakably clear, that when God is about to judge a nation, when God's either about to bless with the revival or He's about to send judgment, He uses preachers. He raises up men of God that have been shut in with Him.

He gives them the message. He anoints them. They come forth fearlessly from the presence of God and the Scripture according to Paul says, God hath in this time manifested or revealed His word through preaching.

The Present Generation’s Need for Convicting Preaching

That's Titus 1 .3. Now let's talk about our time. Let's talk about this present generation. As I see it, if there was ever a generation that needed straight, Holy Ghost, warning, convicting, soul-stirring preaching, it's this generation.

It is our time. We are far more perverted than Sodom. We are far more violent than Noah's day. We are far more wicked than none of us could have ever conceived to be. So if ever a generation needed the word of the living God, it's today.

We need powerful preaching more than any past society. We need a smite in conviction that smites the heart. Instead, sad to say, what we most need, we're not getting in the United States. Instead, we're witnessing a famine of hearing Holy Ghost preaching.

I say it again. God's only plan is through the preaching of His gospel. That was the plan for Christ's generation, for the apostles' generation. That's the plan for this last hour. Folks, it's not through politics.

And everyone running around the country who tells me we're going to organize and we're going to legislate holiness, you don't know your Bible. God raises up anointed, fearless prophets and preachers of His word to bring a nation and generation to their knees or to harden their hearts before judgment comes.

The Decline of Television Ministries

For example, I'm telling you now that I believe that there's a famine in the land and it's already begun. For example, we're told that television ministry has reached the most people in the United States.

Now I'm going to tell you straight off that 20 years ago I could name four or five. I know Billy Graham is one who stayed true all through these years. But I could name three or four. These were friends of mine, acquaintances of mine that were on television and they had a Jeremiah-type message.

They thundered against sin. They spoke against leaders who were living in adultery and fornication. Those evangelists I've watched over the years. I've preached in some of their meetings. And you know where they are now?

They have now opted for talk shows. And men who used to fire, the fire of God, shuddered with the Lord and people were smitten and fallen on their knees. Now they're hosting talk shows about beauty tips, dieting, exercise.

And you look at these men and I look at them and say, God has stripped them from the word. There's a famine. One of my dear friends is an evangelist. I just got a newspaper clipping. He wants to be the Christian David Letterman.

He wants a talk show now that God bless his heart that could be sponsored by businessmen, by secular business. I'm sure that scares the daylights out of the devil. I'm not trying to be facetious, but folks, I remember the day that I was in the pub with that man and he would point a finger at an audience and preach against sin with such power there was smiting conviction all over the house.

People would fall on their faces. And what a shame now to hear him talk about how to lose weight and ten easy lessons. Folks, it's sad. Name me one Jeremiah-type preacher on television. Name me one man who stands unashamedly not afraid of his income, not afraid of anything.

Name one in the media now that's standing up like Jeremiah or John the Baptist. Where are they? Where are the voices? You've got mamby-pamby talk shows, half politics, and a little bit of gospel that doesn't shake anybody.

It doesn't even shake a leaf, let alone a soul. There's a famine of the convicting word of God in the media. Now, I'm not saying there are no more prophetic voices in the land. Thank God for a small remnant of Holy Ghost-filled preachers on fire and still proclaiming the Word, but most of them are in little churches.

They're unknown, and they're persecuted, and they're disheartened because people don't want to hear it. One pastor of another writes to me. We get two or three letters every week now from pastors of churches, 100, 200, 300, and they say, I can't preach it anymore because down the road somebody's got a sinner-friendly church.

They've got one of those outsider-friendly churches, and they've only been in town for a year, and they've got 1 ,500, 2 ,000 people, and here I am preaching the gospel. Nobody wants to hear it. My people are flocking down for skits and little 15-minute sermonettes for Christianettes, and these pastors are brokenhearted, and they say there's a tremendous pressure to compromise.

The Pulpit as a Holy Ghost Hospital

Folks, the pulpit was meant to be a burning bush where a fire was never to go out, and the man who stood in that sacred pulpit is supposed to be a man shut in with God, a man who waits on God in God's presence till he hears the word of the Lord and till he hears from the throne of God, and he comes out and stands before the people with the mind of God, and he's to preach with plainness the Scripture set of speech, not in the wisdom of man.

He's to preach with spiritual authority. He's to be absolutely fearless. He's to name sin. He's to be the voice of the living God in these last days. This is a burning bush, but nowadays the pulpit is more of a stage, and the preacher's more of an actor.

Modern preachers today have in their right hand a computerized printout of a survey that's just been taken in their community, and they've discovered what the people want, who are sinners, and they say, we do this because we want to reach the unchurched.

I don't buy that. That's never been the program of God. The program of God is to raise up men to preach the gospel in spite of whether the crowds receive it or not. And you know what the crowd wants? They want one-hour meetings at the most.

They want no hard preaching. They want nothing said about sin or their lifestyle. Now, you may not like what I say, and you might think it's unkind, but I'm telling you there are thousands of preachers in the pulpits today that are giving the people nothing but husks, and the people are starving.

They're emaciated. They don't have anything with which to stand in these days that are coming. And I tell you, when judgment falls and when the economy begins to collapse and when things get very, very hard, can you imagine what they're going to do to these pastors and these shepherds who have blinded them and comforted them in their sins, told them they could smoke and blow smoke in Jesus' face and smoke and carry on and go to nightclubs and never have their lifestyle changed and only spend one hour Sunday morning in God's house?

I say the church is to be a Holy Ghost hospital and the pastor is supposed to be a surgeon. Listen, can you imagine a hospital with no beds, no surgeon, no operating room, no x-ray or scanning equipment, and all the nurses do is run around in the rooms.

They've got overstuffed chairs and people. The whole motto of this hospital is we're here to make you comfortable. We love you. And so they've got smiling nurses running around and all they're doing is sedating the people and giving them painkillers.

And they're going around saying, I'm okay, you're okay, you're going to make it. People are dying left and right, but when they're hurting, if the cancer's there, they're just going to cover the pain with some pain medicine.

Everybody is sedated. You go in many churches today, the whole congregation is sedated. Many are going to hell, but they've got a painkiller, a little message that kills the pain. Folks, let me tell you, Times Square Church is a Holy Ghost hospital.

Pastor Carter and I are surgeons with a knife sharper than any two-edged blade. This building is an operating room. And the Holy Ghost is the x-ray technician. And we've got many, many nurses in this church, wonderful people who are walking with Jesus, and they're not going to give you a painkiller.

They're not going to tell you you're okay if you've got a cancer, the x-ray says, and you've got a brain tumor messing up your head, and you need a blood transfusion, you need a new heart. We're going to tell you, no, you're not all right.

You need a blood transfusion, you need an operation, you need that cancer taken out. And if we come out of the presence of God and we have his mind, we know right where the cancer is, we know where the tumor is.

The Holy Ghost knows right where he's pinpointed it. And that's why when you come to a church where there's Holy Ghost preaching, you say, who told him about me? You know why? Because the Holy Ghost knows how to diagnose.

There's diagnosis in this hospital. I am diagnosing the body right now through the Holy Ghost. The surest sign of a famine in the land is the sight of multitudes running to and fro looking for a word or experience.

And they shall wander from sea to sea, from the north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. And we are seeing that prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes today.

Spiritual Starvation and the Search for Revival

Thousands are jetting from sea to sea, from city to city, land to land looking for some kind of blessing or a word. Charted planes and charted buses filled with starving pastors and starving lay people hungering, thirsting for a satisfying word or experience.

Beloved, when Christians are well fed, they don't run. They don't go to and fro. They don't go from sea to sea. When everybody's saying, come on, you've got to come with us. They say, well, I am satisfied.

I am full. I don't have to go to a restaurant. Pastors and preachers who are shut in with God travel no further than their secret closet. No further. Nobody's hand has touched them but the hand of Jesus.

Listen, I believe there is a minister laying on of hands. I'm not against that at all. I believe in that. But folks, there is something that some pastors need to know. I've enjoyed it. I know Pastor Carter's enjoyed it.

And that is to get shut in with the Lord and have, you talk about laughing. I have laughed in his presence. I've been slain in his presence. I've had Jesus touch his, put his hand on my forehead, lay me down.

Get up, he lay me down again. Get up, he lay me down again. I've had his hand on me. Why would I want to go to Timbuktu? Why would I want to go anywhere? I've got a place to go. I get shut in with the Lord.

I get all I want. I get my food. If you come to Times Square Church, you're dishonest if you think you have to run somewhere and get a blessing. If you can't stand the Word of God here, it's because you don't want to receive it.

You don't want to hear it. I hear preachers say, I hear people say, isn't it wonderful there's a great revival down in Tennessee or Cincinnati or Cleveland or wherever. Isn't it wonderful that people are coming from all over the world?

No, it's the saddest thing I can see. It's proof positive that we are in a famine of the Word. They say people are coming. Why are they coming? Why aren't they standing faithful in their church? Why aren't they right there witnessing where they are?

Why aren't they full? Why do preachers have to go somewhere to get a blessing? Why? Because they don't know the heart of Jesus. They've got to go somewhere and get something from somebody. The Bible said they will run to and fro, seeking the Word and not find it.

Because you can go to a big healing crusade, you can go to stadium meeting, you can go to any kind of meeting, and I tell you, it will leave you empty and dry. It will not satisfy the inner longing of your heart unless there is a preacher in that meeting that is preaching under the anointing, exposing sin.

Conviction as the Mark of True Revival

Here's what the Bible says. Listen very, very closely. This is 1 Corinthians 14, 25. This is about a meeting where people are falling out before the Lord, falling on their faces. But let me tell you why they're falling on their faces.

Because there is a preaching of the Word of God that is convicting them of sin. The Bible said if there's such preaching, thus are the secrets of the heart revealed so that falling down on their faces, they will worship God and report God is in you of a truth.

And if you follow the Greek through, it says those who are speaking under inspiration, if they are speaking under the inspiration. Folks, many of these so-called revivals, there is hardly any preaching whatsoever.

The revivals of the past where people fell on their faces before the Lord is because there was such convicting preaching. Phineas stood in this very city down on Chamber Street and they had a great revival in this city.

But you ought to listen, you ought to read those sermons of Phineas. No man exposed sin like Phineas did. Now, I'm not a Phineite, but folks, those sermons that he preached, he preached an hour until people couldn't sit in their seats, couldn't even wait for the altar call, would run down to the crying room down the basement, run to God and fall on their faces convicted of their sins.

God’s Judgment on Rejected Reproof

Now, who or what is responsible for this famine in the land of the Word? Is it the devil? We know the devil is out to destroy every true man of God. He's trying to ruin and bring reproach on anyone who's preaching the gospel.

Of course, the devil is out to try to destroy honest Holy Ghost preaching. But I'm telling you now that there's no devil in the universe. There is no power in the universe that can hinder God's anointed ministry when he's appointed it to be preached.

No demon, no devil, nothing can hinder when God appoints a man or ministers to stand and preach His Word. It's going to be preached. No devil can stop it. He may try to hinder it, he may try to persecute, but the Word of God will go forth.

No, it's not the devil. It's not the devil alone. In fact, here's what the Scripture says. God's doing it. The Lord God saith, this is 812, I will send a famine in the land, a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord.

Listen to me, please. A famine of the Word of God is the judgment of God upon churches and societies that reject reproof, reject the warnings and the woes of the Holy Ghost. That's exactly what happened in Amos Day.

That's why God had him stand and prophesy. He prophesied to the king, Jehoiada. He prophesied to the people. He said, you are going into captivity because of your abomination and your sins. He went up and down through Bethel preaching it.

His home base was Bethel at this time. The high priest Amaziah came to him and he says, Enough of this. Let me read to you his very words. First of all, the Scripture says God came and set a plumb line in Amos Day.

He set a plumb line. You know what that plumb line was? It was a holy preacher, a holy prophet named Amos. He was the plumb line. He was measuring people by the Word of the Lord, by the honest holiness preaching that came forth from his lips.

O thou prophet, this is Amaziah the priest saying, O thou prophet Amos, flee away from the land of Judah. Go preach to the land of Judah. Preach there, but preach no more again in Bethel. You know what he's saying?

And that's why God was going to send a famine. God says, I care about Judah. I care about Bethel. He sent a man to preach the gospel, to preach his Word, to reveal his mind, to send him to be a plumb line among the people.

And the people turned away. The king said, shut him up. The church, represented by Amaziah, said, enough of this preaching. We don't want to hear any more of it. Folks, listen to me. I get, about four years ago, four and a half years ago, I was prophesying so strong, even from this pulpit.

The Demand for Smooth Messages

And I got so many letters from all over the United States. People saying, Brother Dave, we get enough doomsday in the news. We hear nothing but bad news on television and radio and our newspapers and magazines.

Please, we've had enough. And I would hear it from preachers. I heard it everywhere I went. And it just came on me from all sides. We need to be encouraged. We're hurting. Folks, the Word is encouraging.

The Word is life-giving. There is a message of hope and mercy and grace. But folks, we have a generation dying, and we have a generation going to hell. We have a generation standing on the brink of judgment.

And God, I told the Lord, Lord, I'm tired of prophesying. I'm really weary of hearing all of this. We don't want to hear any more doomsday preaching. And I said, Lord, I'm tired. And the Lord took me at my word, and for almost three years He wouldn't let me prophesy.

But I repented of that. And I said, Oh God, You speak to me, because I don't hear the voices in the land today. I don't hear many people crying out anymore. I don't claim to be a prophet. I claim to be one of His watchmen.

But folks, I see now what God's about to do. He's beginning to silence so many prophets. Twenty years ago, when I was prophesying, there were prophets all over the land warning about the economic collapse coming to America.

Everywhere you went, there were newsletters and warnings. We had about ten years, late 70s, and the first five years of the 80s, there were messages and warnings and crying, and people got weary of it, didn't want to hear it anymore.

Put out of our churches, Pentecostal churches, Baptist churches, they don't want to hear it anymore. In fact, I got so tired of hearing it, I said, Lord, I'm tired of hearing all the bad news. And so this is what happened in Amos today.

We don't want to hear it anymore. That's what they said in Amos day. They said to Amos, God said, This is a rebellious people, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to their prophets, See not, prophesy not unto us right things.

Speak to us smooth things. Even prophesy deceit. Give us a smooth message. Comfort us. Folks, I love to comfort. I love to preach life-building messages, and that's the message of grace. We preach mercy.

We preach justification by faith. We preach all of these encouraging things. But folks, God helped this church. God helped you as a Christian. If you ever come to the place where you no longer want to be reproved by the Word of God, where you no longer want to listen to judgment, you don't want to hear anymore doomsday preaching, and then you say, Preaching here at Times Square is getting too hard, and you want to go somewhere else and hear a smooth message.

Many are doing that right now. But I'm telling you, I tell you now, that more and more, you're going to hear from this pulpit the warnings of the Lord. Because God said, I won't do anything until I tell my servants the prophets.

I'll tell my pastors that are shut in with me. It's impossible to be shut in with God without hearing His voice, without knowing His mind. We didn't come here to build a big church. We didn't come just to pack out the pews.

We came to warn this city of coming judgment. We came to find a remnant that wanted to walk in holiness and righteousness before the Lord. We weren't looking for anything else. We found hundreds that want to be a part of the remnant in the last days.

But if you're going to be a part of this remnant, you're going to reach out to the Lord and say, Oh God, help me. Help me to receive reproof. Help me not to be afraid of judgment preaching. Awaken my soul.

The Promise of Teachers for a Hungry Remnant

I want just two more minutes. I want you to go to Isaiah 30. I'm going to give you the good news. There are going to be a people in these days of famine. The famine is going to get worse. Oh, the famine is going to get worse.

I wish you could read the letters we received from all over the United States and around the world. The number one complaint all over, even though there are pastors in small churches preaching, they're far and few and in between preaching holiness and being pushed out of their churches.

On the other hand, hundreds of thousands are writing and saying, we go from church to church and you can't find a message that stirs your heart. You can't find anything that moves you to God. You can't find anything that brings conviction and smites your heart anymore.

You leave the church empty, empty and hungry and thirsty. But I'm telling you, God says there's going to be a holy remnant. They're going to have good teaching right till the last day. They're going to be fed when others are starving.

Oh, yes, they are. God says He's going to bring their teachers out into the open. Isaiah 30, verse 18, beginning to read verse 18,. And therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you. And therefore will He be exalted that He may have mercy upon you.

For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are they that wait for Him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shall weep no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry.

When He shall hear it, He will answer it. Now, folks, remember, here are people waiting on the Lord. Here are people who are crying out to God. This is a hungry people. And those people crying to God and hungry and waiting on the Lord, verse 20,.

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, in other words, society may be crumbling, trouble on every hand, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more.

But thine eyes shall see thy teachers. Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left. God will lead you in the last day.

If you want it, God will give you teachers after His own heart. If you seek Him and cry out to God, God will keep you in churches. He'll keep you under ministers and under pastors that will provoke you to righteousness and show you the way on the right hand and on the left.

Where there's confusion all around, you'll know your way. Well, I've said all I have in my heart. Will you stand, please? One thing I can say on the authority of this book and the witness of the Holy Spirit in my heart, there's no famine in this church.

The Church’s Call to Watchfulness and Holiness

There's no famine of the word in this church. We say that humbly before God. If God can keep His pastors broken, humble, and shut in with Him, there never will be a famine in this church. And thank God for other churches where there's no famine of the word.