Predicazione Del Pastore David Wilkerson Del 16 Maggio 2002 — David Wilkerson

Before I give the floor to Pastor David and to Brother Silvano, who will lead him, I want to tell you this little thing to introduce you. I remember when I was a little boy, I went to church. My mother, because she had 11 children, could not always come.

And when I came back, I remember, she said to me, Who has preached tonight at the cult? And when I said a certain name, she regretted more than usual because she could not be present at the cult. I did not understand this, I was a little boy.

It took me many years to understand why she regretted. Thank God for every man and servant of the Lord. But there are some special things sometimes that give us the sense of regret for not having listened.

Having read many books of Pastor David, I have many books, I read many things, I understood his message. I think I understood the line a little before listening to him directly. These days have confirmed some things regarding the ministerial line, the doctrine that I share.

I say perfectly, but a good part, a majority. How to present it to the world? You know, one day Philip met Jesus and then he said to Nathanael, We have met the Messiah. Nathanael argued some things and said, Come and see.

When he introduced himself, Jesus said to him, Here is an Israelite in whom no one is afraid. This struck Nathanael. Jesus, you know, reading the Gospels, was not very prudent in greeting people. He did not do it to Peter, nor to John, nor to James, nor to Paul.

Yet Nathanael did not do much. But he had this strong, wonderful appreciation from Jesus. Here is a man in whom there is no fraud. A man whose heart is pure. Well, if I have to present it, I am doing it.

Here is a man in whose words, in his writings, in his messages, in what he has heard, there is no trick. There is no fraud. God bless you, Philip.

I think that around four o 'clock, we will go to Sicily, Catania,.

To minister the Word of the Lord there. They did not tell me when I came that I would also speak here.

They said we are going to this church to eat.

Daniel’s Vision and the Touch of God

But you know, this is eating. Hallelujah. There is one verse in Daniel. It is in the 10th chapter. The 10th chapter.

And I will read only one verse. Actually, two. Verses 15 and 16.

I will read it first in English and then in Italian. And behold, one likeness of the Son of Man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. In English, verse 16 says, one like, the likeness of the Sons of Man, which is Christ, touched my lips.

Then I opened my mouth and spoke.

In English, verse 16 says, behold, one like, the likeness of the Sons of Man, touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. Look also at verse 10. As soon as, behold, a hand touched me and made me stand on my knees.

Does that say in Italian, a hand touched me? Yes. I went on my knees.

If God has touched you, you're going to end up on your knees. And Daniel said, and Daniel said, that while he was on his knees, he received the vision of Christ.

And he didn't speak until he had the vision. The Lord touched me first, and then I spoke. Why? I've been very interested this past year why God touches certain men. Out of many pious, righteous men, God seems to just.

Lay his hand on certain minds. You see it all through the word.

Here's Daniel, who is companions with some of the most righteous men in the Bible. There's Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. They're all these righteous men who were going to soon return to rebuild Jerusalem.

Why did God touch this man? And when I was praying, I felt if I could understand why God touched this man, if I could understand how Daniel was chosen for a special touch from the hand of God, perhaps I could pursue God in that way.

In verses 4 and 6,.

I'll just give you a synopsis. I'll just give you an overview of what happens here. He's walking beside a river. He said he lifted up his eyes and looked. A man clothed in linen. He was clothed in fine gold.

His face the appearance of lightning. His eyes like lamps of fire. Arms like polished brass. His voice like a multitude. The same image of Christ given to John in Revelation, the first chapter.

Word for word. A vision of Christ.

And Daniel alone saw and heard the vision. The Bible says that there were those traveling with him. Now Daniel would not be traveling with ungodly men. His companions were all righteous men. And this great vision comes.

Christ reveals himself in all of his glory. Very few men have seen Christ in his glory. None of the other men saw the vision. And a voice came. A thundering voice. It sounded like a multitude. The Bible said the voice was roaring.

A loud voice. In verses 8 and 9, It says, I, Daniel, alone saw the vision. The men that were with me didn't see the vision. But they began to quake. And they ran and hid themselves.

And I was left all alone. And I alone saw this great vision.

These are pious, good men. Why did one man get the vision? Why did one man hear the voice like no other man heard it?

God loved them all. They were not living in sin.

If you can discover the secret of why God spoke to one man, You're going to find the secret to going further in God than you have ever gone in your life. I've met men like that. They go places in God that no other man goes.

When I say men, this includes women. I'm talking about mankind.

And I keep asking myself the question,.

Why did these other men who knew God run and hide? And why does Daniel stand amazed? He looks around and he sees them running.

And he looks around and he sees the others disappearing. And he's left completely alone. He's the only one who saw the vision. He's the only one who heard the voice. And he's amazed. He can't understand it.

I was left alone. These could not have been Babylonians. They would have never walked with such men.

It's an awesome thing to watch God lay hold of a man.

When God begins to draw him, I believe God calls all his servants.

He calls them to a place that they have never been. There's never been a time that we needed to hear the voice of God more than now. There are very few hearing God in the measure that God wants to speak.

I have a mailing list almost one million people and I receive letters, 50 ,000 letters sometimes a month. And the number one complaint from all over the United States my church is dead and when I go to church it doesn't seem worthwhile.

The majority on my mailing list are Pentecostals.

The majority on my mailing list are Pentecostals.

And thousands from all over the United States from churches large and small.

We're not hearing a word from heaven.

You see, here and here scattered all over the nation people write to us and they're of a different spirit. Let's say our church is on fire.

God is moving people are being saved.

And every time our pastor gets in the pulpit.

You hear a sound from heaven. You hear a sound from heaven. God is touching our pastor.

You can't wait to get to church. But it's one man in a city. One man in another city. All around him are good men. They're not living in sin. But they don't seem to have this touch of God. Let me share with you why I believe God touched this man.

Daniel’s Prayer, Fasting, and Revelation

How does a man become an oracle of God? The Bible says that Daniel gave himself to prayer.

The Bible says that Daniel gave himself completely to prayer.

In Daniel chapter 9.

Verses 20 and 21.

While I was speaking and praying I was confessing my sin and the sin of my people.

I was confessing my sin and the sin of my people I was offering supplications to the Lord.

While I was speaking in prayer the man Gabriel whom I had seen in a vision at the beginning he came swiftly to me and he touched me in the evening prayer.

And he touched me in the evening prayer. This is what the verse says While I was praying.

God touched me.

Where did he get such skill and understanding in the word of God? He was trained in the highest courts in Babylon.

But this ability to reveal the word of God He didn't get it from the higher learning institutions of Babylon. Listen to this. While I was speaking in prayer I was being informed or taught Oh Daniel I have come now to bring you skill and understanding.

This whole thing happened when I was on my knees. What kind of praying does it take to bring God down in our lives for revelation?

To bring God down in our lives for revelation? This is Gabriel speaking.

He said to me.

Don't be afraid Daniel.

Because from the first day you set your heart to understand from the first day you chastened yourself before the Lord.

That is fasting.

That is why I have come in answer to your words or your prayers. In those days I Daniel was mourning for three full weeks.

I Daniel was mourning for three full weeks. I ate no fancy food no wine came to my mouth.

For three whole weeks. Now here is a man we are told prayed three times a day. He was a man of prayer to start with.

He was a man of prayer to start with but when he got a vision of Christ.

And God began to open the word to him. You remember he came across the words of Jeremiah that after 70 years Israel would be restored and he calculated that that time had come. And he calculated that that time had come and today we would say that is the word.

Let's just take it by faith. God has promised it. Let's just receive it by faith. I hear people say.

If you ask God for something that he has promised two or three or four times it means you don't have faith. I don't find that in my Bible. I find that when the promise is given like the woman who wouldn't let the judge alone you keep coming and coming and coming.

Now here is a man that has been praying three times a day but he has seen something fresh in Christ and he knows that times are changing and God comes to this man.

He says I am going to demand more from you.

I am demanding more from every man of God. There was an urgency there was a call to prayer and what the Lord is saying what you have been doing and how you have been praying. That's very commendable but these times are going to demand more.

It can't be just the way it's been. Everything has to change. This man now hears from God and for 21 days he gives himself to prayer and fasting eating only enough to sustain him. When I fast I take a little juice and one or two pieces of whole wheat bread for one day.

And for 21 days he is shut in with the Lord. Now you ask why did God pick this man out of a wonderful holy gathering of men.

We are in the midst of men of God.

God knew that he would respond to the call in my life. I pastored a little church in the country about 1500 people in the town and I was teaching a Sunday school class and I said Lord there has to be more to it than this.

I love these people. People are not getting saved.

I was so skinny I was about half what I am now. I was not educated small congregation but I was a praying man. My father taught me there are 24 hours in every day the same amount of hours Elijah had. You can pray as diligently and as long as Elijah prayed and he said God always makes a way for a praying man.

My father taught me to pray and I was praying but I didn't see what I wanted to see. And one day I was watching a program. If you read my book the Lord told me to sell it he said if you spend the time praying that you spend watching television.

If you will give yourself to prayer not just that hour not just going into the Bible to look for a sermon. And there was a call the Lord said get along with me and I will change you. You will see things you have never seen.

I sold the television and I got my car and I drove up on a hill where my wife could see my car. I rolled down the window and I went out in the woods with my Bible and sit under a tree and pray and read my Bible for hours.

If anyone wanted to see the pastor there is his car up there blow the horn he will come out. I spent one year seeking God and I was a busy man. I found out when I gave myself to prayer I could do more business in less time.

Daniel was a very busy man. He was one of three presidents the scripture says and I, Daniel, fainted and I was sick for many days. Then I rose up. Then I did the king's business and I kept being astonished by the vision he said I did my business but I gave myself to prayer and it's been that for a number of years.

Wilkerson’s Testimony of Neglecting Prayer

There came a time after I established a drug center in New York City. They wanted to go to Chicago. I had to go to Chicago, Los Angeles all over the United States. I had to start raising money and when the Cross and Switchblade book was published I became very much in demand nationwide, radio and television.

So they wanted me to have youth crusades all over the United States and I got very busy no time to pray. Just that one hour meditation but not that fire not that desperation for God and I wound up preaching to up to 50 ,000 people and drying up inside.

I would get up and preach. It was empty words because I had not been on my face I was near total despair because a man who doesn't pray becomes full of despair. I traveled in a special made 40 foot bus half a million dollar bus.

Special made another bus for my band and my singing group well known thousands of people and growing colder and colder. I hated to get on that bus and go. I had about 5 sermons preach them over and over and over again not a fresh word from heaven.

One day I was leaving to go to a big crusade and a prophet came to me Leonard Ravenhill.

Great man of God. He was my neighbor in fact he was on my staff.

To organize everything. And he saw something in me and we were close. We loved one another. And he gave me a big book he said when you are traveling for the next crusade please read this book he said God is going to change your life.

I looked at that book 1200 pages. Christian in complete armor I said to myself who has time to read 1200 pages from a man who has been dead for 300 years. And I just threw it in the back of my bus 50 miles down the road.

The Holy Spirit said go back and read that book. I went to the back of the bus opened the book. I had only read 25 pages and I fell on my face because I said oh God I don't know. You like this man who has long been dead.

I failed to pray.

I know how to do it I have the ability I can move a crowd and I am sincere faithful to my wife. I am not living in sin but I am dead inside.

I went to that crusade and cancelled everything for a whole year. I released many of my staff.

I cancelled everything all over the world God said get back to prayer. I began to seek him again.

And I remember a certain day when God would come down on me with such power I would just wail the agony in my soul and the awful sin of neglecting him just going through the motions. We had invited some friends and I had been praying for weeks.

Of course I still had to do. I had business. I had to do.

But I spent hours with the Lord fasting and praying in the Bible getting a fresh word a new vision of Jesus. What I believe is that all ministry has to be born out of communion if it is not born out of communion with Christ.

It is of the flesh it cannot last.

Everything we do has to be born out of intimacy with Christ. God revived my soul. That's when he called me to New York City. He called me about 17 years ago and for the past 15 years in New York City I've seen a miracle.

You see when I was up in the hill praying I was 27 years old. And after seeking God he told me go to New York City never been there. And that was the beginning of a worldwide ministry to drug addicts.

And I want to tell you something. It was not that in eternity God said I want to use this man working with drug addicts but he knew that. When he called me to pray I would respond when I read a book that convicted me.

When a prophet spoke to me God knew I would respond. I would do what he said. Out of the first moving came Teen Challenge and out of my second call to prayer years later Times Square Church came out of that.

And now that I'm 71 the Lord has given me one more call to travel around the world and minister to pastors. If while I'm speaking there's a fire burning in you it's most likely God's calling you.

You see God calls us many times.

Mourning Over Sin and Spiritual Decline

And he said will you seek me with all your heart.

And he said will you seek me with all your heart will you put everything aside for a while to seek me. And we say yes Lord I'll do it. And then we go so far and then we become busy and we forget it.

God touched Daniel also because he grieved and he was troubled and he mourned about the conditions in the church and in society. Daniel said in those days I was mourning and Daniel said in those days.

I was lamenting I was saddened. No wine or meat came into my mouth. Now there's prayer today. I met here wonderful men of prayer.

And I would say the majority here are praying men and women sincerely praying men and women righteous. I have sensed that when I come in when I have been embraced I've had the witness that this man is holy but of all the men in Daniel's time he's the only one I hear saying this.

I was grieved in my spirit I was grieving in my body and these visions troubled me. There are many righteous people but I don't see them grieving for the sin of their churches or their own lives or for the nation.

These visions troubled me. I met men of God when I was younger. They were such men of prayer and God had touched their lives. I meet them years later.

They're like dead men.

They're still doing things for God a preacher said. I used to preach like that. I used to preach with revelation. I had a pastor and his wife invite me out for dinner.

They said it's urgent we talk to you. This man had a thousand people in his congregation and while we were eating his wife said are you going to tell him or must I tell him.

I thought it was adultery. He bowed his head he said I have a confession to preach about prayer and I'm convicted he said. I'm a pastor of a large church and it's growing and I'm being used and I know how to be a pastor but I have not prayed one time for a whole year but I have not prayed one time.

For a whole year I don't pray I don't seek God and I'm convicted. Amos 6 says this.

They are not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph. The last reason I believe God chose Daniel. God touches a man who refuses to hide any sin in his heart. Daniel said I set my face to seek the Lord with prayer and supplication.

Confession, Repentance, and Identifying with the Church

And fasting and I dressed myself in sackcloth and ashes and I prayed to the Lord my God and I made my confession.

And I said oh Lord God who keeps covenant. We have sinned we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly we have rebelled we have departed from your precepts. You see I don't like to hear a preacher say you have sinned you have sinned we have sinned.

Please don't ever use the word you Daniel, a righteous man identified with the sins of the people and the nation. I prayed and while I prayed I made my confession. I had no idea what I would speak to you today but I believe something stirring deep in my heart.

The greatest need in Italy. Not a program not another evangelist. It's a call to prayer seeking the face of God. And dear brothers and sisters there are no shortcuts in New York City. When the people started gathering I said how am I going to get these people to pray.

First of all God said you set the example.

First of all God said you set the example.

And I began to seek him with all my heart. And one night the church was full and I said we are going to teach you to pray. You know if you call a prayer meeting everybody just comes. And most prayer meetings are song services.

They just sing now.

When there is a prayer meeting many times people sing it's a song meeting.

So I took my watch and I said all right. I want everybody to stand for the next two minutes. We are going to pray for Israel.

So they prayed for Israel and then they sat down. And then I said the Bible says we have to pray for each other. So get together three or four people and pray together and you tell the others your name and the name of your relatives.

And this will take five minutes. And so I started clocking them and soon an hour has gone by but I went prepared. I had the issues to pray for and for about a month I timed them three minutes for this issue five minutes for this issue and they knew what they were praying about and they were learning to talk to one another.

To God then I come in one night.

I took my watch off my arm stuck it in my pocket and I said now we are just going to open up heaven and from then on God opened up the windows of heaven to pray. Now I don't know how you are going to do it but the Brooklyn Tabernacle is a great church in New York City.

The pastor is a dear friend of mine. It's probably one of the greatest churches in New York City. It's probably the strongest church in New York City. That prayer meeting is packed you can hardly get a seat and that's why that church is moving into a new theater that seats 4 ,500 people in thousands of places.

Corporate Prayer as the Source of Revival

And if you ask me why the Lord is blessing our church or this other church the reason is prayer confession of sins. I'm going to pray that God. When I go home I'm going to have our people pray that God will raise up.

A great ministry of prayer. How many times we've heard that. How many times we've heard those words.

But how few times we've finished we've called this prayer revival. Come to church every night on one occasion for three whole weeks no speakers.

Just a prayer revival. All night prayer meetings on Friday night. Brooklyn Tabernacle has prayer meetings all night every night every day of the year.

It's the only thing that's going to break the hold of Catholicism all the bonds of Catholicism. I think I've opened my heart but please understand I'm not here to say that we are better used than some who are here or that we know God better than you.

But this feeling.

That remains in my heart since I arrived in Italy. It's as if God had been held back. It's like this huge wave.

And God's saying if you just humble yourself and pray we pray, we pray. I'm talking about this kind where a man sets his heart where a man decides.

He sets himself when I go to my prayer room. My wife knows even if the president of the United States calls me he should wait until I'm done. There are no emergencies nothing. Because when I go to pray God knows I'm here for him this is your time and he knows that until we come to that place where we get away now.

This is so simple this is so simple. But I firmly believe that God wants to do something really powerful.

And some of those that God is going to use are here right now.

Responding to God’s Call and Returning to the Secret Place

I told you I'm not a prophet but surely God sent a prophet to me.

And I'm going to say a prophetic word to some few here in this room. While I've been speaking God's been reminding you of the call he gave you and how far you've drifted away from it.

If you respond tonight, today.

God will take you places you've never been show you things you've never seen and it's not that you want people to see it or know it. I tell you who I want to impress more than anybody else and I want to tell you this is not to impress.

I want my wife to know that your wife knows the person who lives with you and the greatest compliment my wife has ever given me is what she told me David. I know that you are a man of prayer a man of God because I've seen your life I don't care what the world says.

This is what my children.

I have four children in the ministry and eleven grandchildren.

And the Lord uses each one of them and never a day goes by.

That I don't intercede.

And I name them one by one so that the Lord can keep the devil's power away from them. If you're a pastor your wife knows how you spend your time. I pray to God.

That she will see in you a broken hearted man that comes out of the secret closet with the word from the throne of God.

And comes out with the word from the throne and I close with this verse while I was praying a hand touched me and put me on my face and then I spoke.

Then I gave the word I promised God I will never go to the pulpit. I will never speak his word unless I come from his presence shut in with him and get the word from him. Father I thank you for the wonderful privilege to speak to such a righteous group.

This church is an example of your blessing. Lord. I thank you for praying men. But what I believe you're saying.

To us today. Don't be satisfied. Where you are. I have so much more I want to do so much more.

And I need you to come to my presence and set your heart so that everybody will see.

And everybody will know that this man has been with Jesus.

God bless you. It's been a marvelous privilege to share with you here today. Pastors. Thank you for the invitation. I am a little sensitive about our music style we didn't want anyone.

To be offended by the gospel music but that's the American. We told him you have to be what you are. I hope you understand. God bless. Thank you.

Pastor I know why the flies are here they smell all this good food. I'm ready to eat Thank you.

I don't remember the title but it was about him touching me. I feel the touch something like that Touch my heart Touch my heart. We want to stand up. We sing this chorus for the moon. We are at lunch so after we have the opportunity to say goodbye to those who are leaving to those who are staying we will go down to the moon and we will have lunch together.

We will have communion together.