(Belarus) Crisis Praying — David Wilkerson

In the service this evening, I want to share with you a prophecy. Something I believe God has already started to do. It's begun around the world and it's beginning here in your country. That'll be in the evening service tonight.

Christ's Praying and the Coming Work of the Holy Spirit

I want to talk to you about Christ's praying. I'm telling it even now before I give you this prophecy tonight. What God is about to do is the most amazing thing God has ever done in the history of creation.

Other than the birth of His own Son. Something very, very exciting is coming. As I was praying about the service this afternoon, in fact, last evening and all of this day, I have been struggling with the Holy Spirit about what I was to speak today.

I hear this incredible praying while we're gathered here. And I know that the majority of you are praying men and women. And this was my argument with the Lord. I'm going to have to bring a hard message.

And I don't think these people need it. Because I think there's a lot of praying. There's a cry for growth. There's a cry that God will expand your borders. But the more I prayed, the more I realized that I have to do what He's called me to do.

I've never claimed to be a prophet. But I am a watchman. Just one of many. And God spoke clearly to me that what is coming in the future, this glorious work of the Holy Spirit, your churches are not ready.

You are not ready. We're not ready in the United States. But I'm speaking particularly to those that are in this, I don't care whether you're Pentecostal or what denomination you may be from. God's about to do a new thing in this nation beyond anything you could conceive.

But many are not going to be ready. Many churches and pastors are not going to be ready. Now, I want to talk to all of you. I didn't come here to spank anybody. I'm really not here to try to correct people.

But you see, I'm 72 years old now. And I've got nothing left to prove. If you don't like me here, I have a church I can go to and preach. And I don't try to please anybody anymore. The hour is late, and Jesus is coming.

It's time for truth. It's time for the Holy Ghost to dig deep into our hearts. And I can tell you what I share with you is something He's done deep in my own soul. Some of you are in women's ministries.

There may be some elders here, youth pastors, and those who work in parachurch ministries. But I want to speak to all of you. Heavenly Father, I pray now for a special anointing of the Holy Spirit. God, you're trying to say something to us today.

Thank you for the precious word this morning. You want to put joy in our hearts and remove the sorrow and the depression from all of our hearts. But, oh God, dig deep now and set forth a foundation upon which all these things are built.

Lord, let it flow out of my inner being, I pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. Daniel testified, you hold a hand, touch me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. That's in Daniel 10 .10. And here's what he said.

God touched my life and this touch from God brought me to my knees and He gave me an urgency to pray. And this touch from God made me seek the Lord as I've never sought Him before. Why does God use certain men and certain women?

Daniel's Touch and the Call to Seek God

Why does God pick out one here, one here, and over here? He picks out certain men, certain women that become seekers after God. Did the initiation of it start in heaven or did it start in the heart of these individuals?

Why did God touch Daniel in such a special way? I spoke just shortly, a little bit about Daniel last night. But there were other godly men in Babylon at the time seeking God. We know of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And probably at the time Ezra and Nehemiah were young men. And there were at least 50 ,000 that were prepared to go back and rebuild the temple. But why does God touch this particular man? Even out of those thousands who had a heart for God, that would give up Babylon and go back through the hardships to rebuild Jerusalem.

I want you to go to Daniel, if you will, please. Go to the 10th chapter. And I want you to see it in your own Bible, please. Chapter 10, 10. And behold, a hand touched me. It set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hand.

He said, something supernatural happened to me. God touched my life in a new and special way. And when I got this touch from God, it put me on my face. It caused me to become a man of prayer. You know he prayed three times a day as it was.

But God was asking more. He was bringing this man to a crisis. Because you see, when God wants to restore and God wants to do a new thing, where there's been ruin and the house of God has been threatened, all through the history of this book, God doesn't use angels.

He uses men. Godly men and godly women. They were not destined from eternity. They made a conscious decision to seek the face of God and to be men and women of prayer. And God appears to them. He sees this urgency to pray.

You see, God calls every minister to pray. I don't know why you'd be in the ministry if you didn't get a call to pray. And almost every young preacher has this call. And all they pray, not just in church, but they have hourly time that they pray daily with the Lord.

But as they get older and minister longer, they lose that urgency. They don't feel the urgency and they get so busy that they don't pray. I remember an old prophet coming to me. A great man of prayer.

He's written a number of books. His name was Leonard Ravenhill. He wrote Rye Revival Terry's. Sodom had no Bible was one of his books. He traveled the whole world. And I remember what he said. David, preachers don't pray.

He said, I see that all over the world. They meditate. Oh, they give God a certain time, moments a day. They pray to get a sermon. And they count their study time as prayer time. But as a rule, preachers do not pray.

I couldn't believe that when I heard it until I traveled the world. I had a pastor and his wife asked me to have lunch with them. He pastored a church of 1 ,000. And we're sitting at the table in a restaurant.

And she turned to her husband, she said, please tell him or I'm going to tell him. I said, oh boy, another adultery story. I don't think I want to hear this. But that's not what it was. His wife was concerned.

And he told me, he said, Pastor David, I'm a good pastor, 1 ,000 people. I love my people. But I have not prayed in one year. I've not prayed in a year. I don't know how to pray anymore. And his wife was heartbroken.

She said, my husband is so good at this that he can pastor a church without prayer. And I was shocked. And I hear it everywhere I go. Now I know that most of you do pray probably. But God has put this on my heart for this afternoon.

Daniel's Fasting and the Restoration of God's People

I want you to look at verse 2 in chapter 10. And I'll read all the way down through verse 9. Go ahead. Verse 9. Verse 10. In the context of this, Daniel had been reading the prophecy of Jeremiah. Seventy years would be fulfilled, and then Israel would go back to the Promised Land.

And he discovered that this was the very year. But nobody was talking about it. God was going to bring a restoration. God wanted to take his people back. God wanted to restore his church. And no one was seeking God.

And the Bible says, he said, I began to fast. For three weeks, I went into a crisis. I didn't eat any pleasant bread. Nor wine. I didn't anoint myself. Twenty-one days, shut in with God. Now, he was not shut in for 24 hours a day.

Because the Bible said he did his king's business. He did the business of the king. He was the third leader in Babylon. A very busy man. But the word of God had awakened him. And he knew God was trying to do something for the house of God.

He's not talking about some great thing for himself. And after 21 days of fasting, 21 days of seeking God, he got the same vision John got on the isle of Patmos. And here stands before him a certain man clothed in linen.

The same flaming eyes that John saw. This was a vision of Christ himself. His voice was like thunder. His appearance was like lightning. And Daniel said, I alone saw the vision. The men that were with me didn't see the vision.

But a great fear fell upon them, and they fled and hid themselves. Now, get the picture, if you will, please. These were good men. You remember that Daniel started in Babylon by a separation from all that was unclean.

He would have not associated with an unclean or ungodly person. These had to be men that knew God, and they were with Daniel. And this vision comes forth, and it's as bright as lightning, and a voice like thunder.

And Daniel says, I alone saw and heard. Why was he the only one that heard it? Why did those others that were with him? Why did they see nothing? Why did they hear nothing? Why did they run and hide? The only reason I can imagine anyone hiding from God's presence is sin.

And I see this. And he sees this vision of Christ. He said, and I fell on my face, and a hand came on me. And really, it means it pushed me to my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And God said, in essence, here's what God said.

I've been trying to speak to this nation. I've been waiting to find a man who would understand the crises and understand the times and would give themselves, who would make a decision to fast and pray that I could make them a voice, that they could become an oracle for me, and I would give them my words.

I would speak through them and cause them to stand up. I would speak my words unto them. And here's what the Scripture says. The voice came to Daniel. Fear not, because from the first day you set your heart to understand and chasten yourself before God, your words were heard, and I've come for thy words.

God said, I remember the very day and the hour. You were into my word, and my word challenged you. You saw the promise that was made, and you began to mourn and weep. You made a conscious decision to shut everything down.

Only do that which is absolutely vital. And give me all your waking hours. Get on your face and begin to fast and pray. And I saw that day you made up your mind. Don't care what anyone else says or does.

I don't care if I'm the only one fasting and praying. Someone has to touch God. God wants to speak, and I want to hear. I'm not satisfied. I want to see God do something in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is in ruins.

The temple is broken down. The walls are in ruin. And God said and promised He would do something. And this is the time. And I want to see God fulfill His word. And I promise you now God knows the day and He knows the very hour that you got fed up with just playing church and going through the motions and just trying to get a sermon.

And one day you read the Bible and you saw that God said I'll pour out My Spirit on all flesh. You begin to read the signs of the times and the Holy Spirit began to tell you I want to use you. I want to restore.

I want to build up what is fallen down. And God said I'll remember the day that you I don't care who you are you can be an unknown woman in the church an elder a pastor of a little church but a day came when you said I'm going to seek God and you begin to chasten yourself as Daniel did you would not eat food you would go into a fast and you would seek My face and God knows the very day you start and that's why we're not ready because God has to have a praying, fasting people.

A Pastor's Crisis and the Failure of Comfortable Pentecostalism

I know what I'm talking about. I pastored a little church in just a little town of 1800 people. I was 26 years old and one day after five years in that little town with that little flock something snapped inside of me.

I looked at the same people for five years people were not getting saved. There were some but there was no great moving of the Holy Spirit in our midst. People were satisfied they wanted a pastor who would marry and bury them and it was very comfortable.

I could go hunting or fishing anytime I wanted to. I was a faithful pastor but we call ourselves the Holy Ghost Church. We call ourselves Pentecostal. We call ourselves Full Gospel anointed to the Holy Ghost in a way thinking we were greater than others in town and the very fact that you call yourself Full Gospel is an inference that others only have half the Gospel.

And so I looked at my own heart and I started digging into the Word through the Book of Acts and I began to see how we didn't measure up. And I would go into my pulpit and I would look at that same group of people just wanting another sermon something new.

Nobody's witnessing. But we're all praying. Oh God bring them in. Bring in new people run to heavens and come down. And what we're trying to say. I won't go. I'm not going to do it. Holy Ghost you do it.

He's not going to run to heavens and come down while you're sitting in front of a television set. And then you're praying oh God. Send a fire. Bring in our neighbors. Bring in the sinners. No you're going to sit there another five years and you're going to preach to the same people.

And after a while it will become a job. It will become a paycheck just a way of living. And eventually it will die. And I got tired of it. I said this is not Pentecost. At Pentecost they were added to the church at Pentecost.

The fire of God came down with conviction. And I said oh God. I don't care what it takes. I don't care what anyone else says or does. I'm going to pray. I'm going to dig into the Bible. I'm going to learn your heart.

I'm tired of preaching sermons. I want a voice from heaven. I want to know when I stand up. I have come from the throne of God. How do you talk about expanding the church in this country. Why should the Holy Ghost come when we have not been willing to change.

How is it that mothers come to me and say pray for my son. He is backslidden. One mother said my boy is in prison. I want you to pray pastor that the Lord will convict him and save him. My heart is broken.

I said I'll ask you a question in the past 30 days. How many hours have you prayed for him. How many tears have you shed for him. And she bows her head and she says well really I'm so busy with two jobs.

I have not had time to pray for him. And very lovingly I said to her and I have no time to pray for him. Because I know you watch television and you want me to pray for your son. If you are here today and you've got unsaved children or grandchildren and you tell me you want to see them saved.

And you are telling me that you don't have time. You have not shed a tear in weeks. I don't care if you are a preacher or a preacher's wife. I don't care who you are. If you tell me you want them saved and you have not been weeping for them.

You have not been praying for them. You are just lying to yourself. I don't want to hear it. I hear people saying we want revival. I hear pastors praying for revival. I hear whole churches praying for revival.

I don't want to hear it anymore. It's hypocrisy. It's empty rhetoric. If we meant it we would be seeking God in a crisis situation. We would be fasting. We would be weeping. We wouldn't be spending hours in front of a television laughing and joking.

Removing Television for Prayer and Spiritual Renewal

You talk about your family is in trouble. How much time have you been watching television compared to the time you've been shut in with God. And I got tired of that because I would come home Sunday night after preaching turn on the television and fall asleep watching programs.

And in the evening after doing my pastoral work go to the television and sit and watch violent programs where people were being murdered even the cowboy pictures people being shot up and God spoke to my heart.

I destroyed the earth once for violence. And here you are sitting watching it. God made me a promise if you get rid of your TV set and spend that time praying I'll answer your prayer and I'll change you.

I told my wife I said I want to sell the television set because I'm wasting too much time. It takes me away from prayer. She said it's up to you. I said I'll tell you what we'll do. I'll advertise it in the newspaper.

If it's God speaking to me I'll give him a half hour. If it doesn't sell in a half hour we'll keep it. Five minutes after the paper came telephone call it was sold came and took it away. Holy Ghost said now go pray.

All those hours you wasted you give them to me now this was the beginning of summer and I know what God was saying to this man Daniel. I hadn't fasted and I began to fast. And I would take my car up on a hill where my wife could look out the window and see my car parked on the top of the hill.

And I took an old Bible and went into the woods. And I said to my wife if anyone from our church needs me tell them to blow the horn and I'll come out of the woods. And for weeks sometimes whole days with this book not this one you couldn't even buy for any amount of money the original one because every page is marked.

And I began to weep began to seek the face of God. I wasn't preaching sermons. Now my wife knew I was a different man. My church knew I was a different man. I was going out now in the evenings hanging out with young people inviting them to church and getting them saved.

Set an example for my church. Why would your church go out and witness if you don't? Why would your people pray if you don't? It's hypocrisy. And God began to speak to me for months. When it got cold I stayed inside and went into my little prayer room.

Obeying God's Call to New York City

And one day in church I just fell slain weeping. I couldn't stop weeping. My wife and some of the church thought it was a nervous breakdown. But it's the same thing. A hand touched me and set me on my face.

They had to escort me to my parsonage. I went into my study didn't know what it was about and I opened a magazine. It was called Life Magazine and I saw the faces of seven young men in New York City who had stabbed and killed a polio victim in a wheelchair and the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart.

I want to change your life ever since you started seeking me. I was waiting to speak. Now I speak to you go to New York City and try to talk to those boys. I told the church I said I don't have any money.

Come and put it on the community table if you want to help me just enough money to get to New York. I'd never been there scared me to death. I went to the trial and I didn't know how to get to the judge.

I saw those seven boys teenagers scared to death. Judge was about to dismiss the Friday. I had my Bible. I got up out of my seat right in the courtroom started marching down toward the courts toward the judge's bench and they held up my Bible.

I said I'm a pastor. Can I have a moment with you please. Suddenly police were all over me and dragged me out and in all the papers there's the picture Bible waving. Preacher interrupts murder trial. Judge feared for his life.

He thought I was a gangster had a gun inside my Bible. His life had been threatened. I went home in shame. My father said what did you do this time. I said I don't know. All I could do was weep because you see when I came out of that courtroom went around the corner.

I saw police wagons and the doors would open and 10 -15 teenagers all handcuffed together were being led into the prison gang leaders and gang members and I began to weep. I went home. I said God after all these months of praying I see a city one of the largest cities in the world and young people going to hell.

Lord why did you send me. You said you'd never put me to shame. I'm being mocked everywhere. It's a crazy preacher. The Lord said go back. I went back the next week get into the city park my car and I stand by my car.

I said well here I am. What do I do. He said stand still. And suddenly here comes some young men up to me. Egyptian Lord gang. They said aren't you that preacher in the paper. I said yes. He said well the cops messed you up.

We don't like what the cops did to you. The cops mess us up too. You're one of us. They said why are you here to preach Jesus. He said well why don't you go to preach down on 54th street one of the worst gangs in New York.

One of the rival gangs. I suppose they thought if they got converted they wouldn't have a problem with them. They took me down knocked on the door in a basement and I preached my first message down in a hideout.

And that was the beginning of a ministry 40 years ago that spread around the world. Because a country preacher I was nothing but skin and bone. My wife used to joke about it. She said don't drink red juice.

They'll think you're a thermometer. But see I wasn't a threat to anybody. I want to tell you something. God is no respecter of persons. I went to New York for a reason. I wanted to see that the Holy Ghost was more than just talking in tongues and worshiping with a little group all my life.

I wanted to prove that the Holy Ghost could save the worst kind of sinners. And now there are over 300 drug centers all over the world. Nikki Cruz is now one of the great evangelists around the world today.

Former Mao Mao gang leader on the street. First time I met him on the street he slapped me and said go to hell. I said Jesus loves you. He remembered that and saved him. See the hand of God. The scripture said came on Daniel after time of fasting and prayer.

Crisis Praying and the Presence of Christ

You may be pastoring in a small church. And I've been there and I know what it's like and there's nothing wrong with that. That's a high calling. That's a wonderful calling. I have a message I preach the church of I John one member, John and he had a church and he said I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.

And out of that one man church came a message that affected the whole world. And I'm asking you no matter what size church you have or what ministry you're in when God lays hold of a man's heart things are going to change.

I'm asking God that God will get a hold of somebody here and say to yourself there's more to it than this. Now folks I pastor a church of 8 ,000 people. But I still have times that I have to go in crisis praying because if I see the first sign that the presence of Jesus has lifted somehow if I see that things are just beginning to everybody just getting happy and satisfied.

No burden for lost souls. People satisfied just to see the church fall. See God doesn't care about how big or small your church is. He's concerned about where your heart is. Are you wanting the presence of Jesus in your midst.

And the heart cry every time I sit in the seat where my brother is sitting. I sit on the first seat and my pastors lined up and I have cry in my heart. And in every service I wait for that moment when I know and everybody knows the Spirit of God has come.

The presence of Jesus has come and the Lord is there and He's anointing people and He's opening ears and He's convicting people of their sins. And I've stood in my pulpit and I said the very day that the Spirit leaves or the Holy Ghost lifts and we no longer sense the presence of Christ because we become so comfortable.

And if God bypasses and goes to another group because we're no longer fasting and praying.

And seeking His face we shut the door.

We have no church without the presence of Christ. You have no church. And it begins with the pastor. If I am not seeking God if I am wasting time or if I allow my business my business in the church to take me away from His presence I tell our people and all our main pastors God didn't call me just fellowship with you.

God didn't call me to socialize with you. He called me to give myself to prayer and fasting in the Word to come into this pulpit and preach your kids under conviction and keep you and your family from going to hell.

That's my job. That's my call. And when my wife knows and everyone in my family knows when I go into my prayer closet and I shut the door I will not allow the devil to interrupt me. Because when you set your heart to pray the devil will come with a conspiracy of interruptions.

He will interrupt your life as you've never seen. And you have to make a decision. Nobody not my wife, not my children. No crisis, nothing. I will not open the door. No one calls in. No one knocks on the door because I have an appointment.

I am there to seek the face of God. I am there to get a message from God. I am there to hear from God. And if the President of the United States calls me he would be told this. My husband's talking to God.

He'll take your number and call you back when he's done. I've done that with senators and I've done it over and over again. I'm not boasting. I'm telling you God wants your best time. There's a cost. You study the life of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Local Churches, Hidden Prayer, and Spiritual Awakening

You find the same thing. I set my heart to seek his word and get his face. You hear it from the prophets every one of them. I set my face. I've prepared my heart. I've made a decision to seek the face of God and folks until that happens.

And it's not just prayer in the church. It's that secret closet prayer. It's that burden of the Lord. God is wanting to bring forth a word and not from an American pastor or an evangelist. What God's going to do in your country is going to be done through pastors and evangelists right out of your own midst.

You don't need anybody from Finland or Sweden or the United States or Africa. You don't need anybody to come in here and fire up your soul and bring you revival. It's going to come to your own churches.

And your own pastors.

And those who hear a word like this and say, oh God I am not satisfied. I will not live like this anymore. Either you move in my life or take me home. I would rather die than live in death. I would rather die than not hear from God.

That's what it takes life or death. I'm going to close in just a minute. I listen to all of these stories on how to build a church. I only know one way. I didn't bring any books or tapes. I have nothing to sell you.

I've got no instructions for you other than this simple message. 15 years ago I was walking the streets of New York. I was an evangelist but I was still working in New York City in the summer time. It was late at night and I was on 42nd Street and Broadway.

A Church in Times Square Through Fasting and Prayer

They call it the crossroads of the world. And the drug pushers were selling their drugs. And that very week a famous basketball player died of an overdose of cocaine. It shocked the whole nation. One of the best basketball players in the state.

And the drug pushers were saying hey I've got good stuff. I've got the best heroin. I've got the best cocaine. I've got the kind that killed the basketball player. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Death had become the ultimate high. I said oh God they're buying the stuff now to die. It's not enough to get high. To get so high you die. And I broke down and wept right on the street. I said oh God.

That means our country is headed for chaos. Thousands are going to be dying. They're going to hell. I said oh God please raise up a church right in the middle of Times Square. Find a young man somewhere I'll help him.

I'll raise money. I'll come and preach for him. But raise up a church right in the middle of this confront this tide of evil right in Times Square. The Holy Spirit said you do it. You love this city you know this city.

And God made me a promise if you begin to seek my face again you go into crisis praying and you weep over this city. I'll give you a theater that will take your breath away and I'll fill it with hungry people and you'll never lack for money.

My wife was waiting in the hotel room. We lived in Texas beautiful home. I told Luke how am I going to tell my wife we're moving back to New York to start a church. But when I got in the room she had a smile on her face.

She said you don't have to tell me. The Lord told me we're back in New York aren't we. I said yes. I left everything but it took months and all I could do was go every week to New York and walk the street and weep just cry.

Oh God. I don't know where to go. I don't know how to do this. But I know you sent me. I don't have the money. It would cost millions of dollars and one day I'll never forget. I was in Broadway and 51st street and it was right there.

God's Spirit came on me and I just broke down right in the middle of the street. Oh God I believe in miracles but what do I do. This is Times Square and you said you'd raise up a church and I didn't know that Lord was sending me to 51st street and Broadway praying and weeping right in front of the theater.

He was going to give me didn't know it. We started in the junkiest old dilapidated theater way downtown. It was just a piece of junk. I said Lord you promised me a theater would take my breath away and this doesn't take my breath away.

He said just wait. And He filled that place with hungry people drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes people from Broadway theaters. And the day came that I had to go back to the owner of the theater and he owned 15 theaters in Broadway and I had a man from my church who was a businessman and I asked him to go with me to see this owner of the theaters and I said sir the theater you gave me isn't big enough.

I need to rent another theater a bigger theater. He said well my largest theater is Mark Hellinger on 51st and Broadway. He said but we're just about to open a new movie. I mean a new show. We're just about to put 10 million dollars into it.

He said I'll make a deal with you. I'm expecting this to run 8 to 10 years. It's going to be the biggest hit on Broadway and as soon as it's finished the day it's done. I'll rent you the theater. He was just putting me off.

So we started to pray. Kill the show Lord Kill it. Destroy it. I would watch as they were coming out the people who were fixing up all of the equipment for the show. I'd hang around the stage door and I was listening to these people.

They said the curtains are falling the sound's not working. Everything's going wrong. This thing seems to be cursed and my heart began to leap because this is one of the greatest theaters on Broadway.

They opened the show they caught the preview and the night it opened I was outside the door watched them come up in their big stretch limousines people in their big fur coats and my heart just sank. So God this is opening night and we need a theater that's bigger.

We need something Lord to house the people. You made me a promise. 15 minutes later a lady came out in a big fur coat she was about to get in her limousine and I ran over to her. I said, what do you think of the show?

She said, it stinks, it's going to die in a week. It died in three days. Worst reviews in the history of Broadway. Not one good review out of all the newspapers. Amazing. You see, this is the theater where they mocked Jesus.

That's where Jesus Christ Superstar played. And the star of the show was a drug addict. And I remembered years before when that theater opened with this show. I was an evangelist and I preached against it.

I said, what a horrible sin mocking Jesus on Broadway. I got so angry. God must have a sense of humor because he said, if you're going to mock me here I'm going to turn it into a church. And that's where I preach where they mock Jesus Christ Superstar.

Not only that the star who played Jesus got saved and came and dedicated the church. When he walked in He said, this is beautiful. I said, well, you were here for years. He said, but I was so high, I didn't ever see it.