(Costa Rica) Shiloh Church vs. Samuel Church — David Wilkerson

I was in your country about 13, 14 years ago. And ever since that time, I asked the Lord to let me come back under these circumstances. And God has answered my prayer. And I come at a special time. It's not because we are here.

It's because this country has been praying and seeking God. Now, let me tell you something very quickly. That was not by accident that God put it on somebody's heart to call for prayer. Before God is ready to do something, He always wakens people to pray.

Before He sent Pentecost, He shut the people in to pray. And all through the Bible, just before God was to do something new, He always raised up prayer. I am not a prophet. I've never claimed to be a prophet.

I'm just one of God's many watchmen. And there is going to be something happening in these meetings. They told me before the meeting, that for the first time, many evangelicals are all together. And this country is at a crossroads.

Two Choices Facing the Church

Especially in the ministry. Gary and I have traveled in over 50 countries in recent years. And we see the choices that are being made by pastors. And by denominations. We see two different streams. Two choices that are being made.

And I'm going to talk about those two choices tonight. And if you plan to stay for these meetings, before I'm finished tonight, you'll either be mad at me, or you'll be very angry with me. I've seen people walk out.

I've never preached this message the way I'm going to preach it tonight. I will either anger you, you'll just say I'm an old-fashioned preacher, I'm out of touch. Or you will feel something in the Spirit.

You will feel a moving in the Spirit. And you will know where you stand. You're going to make a choice. Some of you young pastors, and young workers, someday you're going to be in the leadership of the church.

And you're going to make a decision in these meetings. It's going to affect the direction of the church in the days to come. The church, the evangelical church in Costa Rica, has not been poisoned like we see in so many countries.

It is beginning to creep in. And God's going to do this. Listen to me closely, please. The Holy Ghost is going to put a firewall around the true church of Jesus Christ. A firewall. And Jesus is going to be the glory inside that firewall.

Seeking the Glory of God

This will never happen unless we really seek the face of God. I'm going to ask in a moment for you to stand. This is not just another conference. You will not find a single book for sale. We are not taking offerings.

We didn't come for your money. We come on a life and death mission. But you have to pray. This is your country. This is your church. I'm going to ask you to stand in a moment and ask the Holy Ghost ask the Holy Spirit to bring His glory to bring honor to His Word.

I don't know about you. I'm not looking for a program. I'm looking for a revelation of Jesus. I'm hungry to know Him more. Will you stand right now? And will you raise your hands? And will you ask the Holy Spirit to come?

Lift up your voices now. Say, Come Holy Spirit. Come to these meetings. Come tonight. Through praise. Through worship. Through the revelation of the Word. Cleanse your church. Sanctify your church. Oh Jesus.

Open our eyes. Open our ears. Let's pray. Come on, let's take some time. Call on His name right now. Lord, come now. Oh God, come. Holy Spirit, come. You may be seated. God has drawn a line in the sand.

The Shiloh Church and the Departure of Glory

He's divided the church. On one side the church is called Shiloh. The glory of the Lord has departed. In the Bible they call it Ichabod. And God says of this Ichabod church this is not mine. It started right.

That's where I once met my people. But they've turned from my ways. They have grown fat in feeding themselves. They have turned to idolatry. They have turned to sin. And they have moved away from what I called it to be.

It is no longer my church. On the other side of the line I call it the Samuel Company, the Samuel Church. The Bible says everything written in the Old Testament is written for our learning and for our edification.

And when you get to the Old Testament you see an incredible picture. One of the biggest funerals in the history of the world. Up to that time Israel had just been defeated by the Philistines. 30 ,000 Israelites died.

They took the Ark. And now Israel is in mourning. They're having a mass funeral. And there is a widow. The Bible doesn't give us her name. And she's standing in front of three caskets. And all around her they're screaming and wailing.

There are soldiers with legs cut off. There are mothers that are screaming for their children. There are sons who have just died. Wives are screaming in mourning over their husbands that are lost. All around this widow is the most incredible scene of mourning.

And many are gathered around this one casket. Because their pastor is there. 92 years old. His name is Eli. And when he found out they lost the battle the Ark was taken. He falls over dead and breaks his neck.

The Bible said he was a fat man. And in the other two caskets his two sons Hophni and Phinehas she just looks in the one casket and she moves to the next. And that's her husband. Phinehas. She's pregnant.

About to give birth. And she has such grief. Because it seems that this woman had a heart forgotten. And she lived to see a church backslide. Shiloh what was the glory once came. The prophetic word went everywhere.

But she saw the shepherds backslide. She lived in terror. Her husband was an adulterer. His brother was an adulterer. They were priests. Pastors of the church of Shiloh. Associated with Father Eli. A high priest.

Who when he was younger ministered the truth. Now she just shakes her head. And she remembers the prophecies that once came. One time an unknown prophet came and said Eli because of your compromise your sons are both going to die in one day.

She heard that. That's her. That's her husband. And the prophet saying because of your sin in one day you're going to die. She lived under that. See Shiloh according to the word was the church. This was where God moved.

Corruption in the Shiloh Church

And now a compromised high priest who lived on prime stake they would take the offerings right at the door of the tabernacle and take the finest of the meats for themselves. The pastors were committing adultery.

You picture a modern day church with the spirit of Shiloh. And today it would be internet. It would be pastors who are delving into pornography. They would go through all the motions. Go into the sacrifice.

With a heart and a mind full of adultery. May I say that this is the battle among pastors. Many pastors. In a recent survey in the United States among pastors they took a survey. No one signed their name.

20 of the pastors acknowledged they were hooked on pornography. Can you imagine standing in the pulpit and trying to feed the hearts of hungry people? Standing before a holy God. Talking about the Holy Ghost.

Trying to reach young people before the devil gets to them. And he's just come from his study. He's just come from his computer. And he's fed his mind with these images. He's a part of the Shiloh church.

And soon God answers. Ichabod. The glory of the Lord has departed. And I get letters from pastors' wives who say I don't understand. My husband's message has lost its power. He's lost the fire. And he no longer shows Christ to me.

He's changing. And I don't recognize him anymore. You see this modern day church that we are in now is becoming the Shiloh church. Thousands of people gather in great churches where pastors are afraid to offend anybody.

Sin is never mentioned. The cross of Jesus Christ is never mentioned. Hell is never mentioned. And it's peace. And it's prosperity. Listen to me closely. And this is where it all ends. And this is the Shiloh church by one of the most famous preachers in America who preaches only prosperity.

He said this. And millions love his preaching. He said Jesus can't come till you have a new house and a new car. Now that's a lie from the devil. That's from the pits of hell. Preached that in Mozambique.

Preached it where they're being killed left and right. Go ahead and tell them when they've had their uncles and their aunts and their fathers' heads cut off. Jesus wants you rich. This was the church of Shiloh.

She stands at her husband's casket. You see the Shiloh church doesn't want to hear prophets. Eli has a prophet come to his house. And he knew God had sent him. He knew God sent him. He said because of compromise God's going to judge.

Your sons are going to die in battle. Nobody pays attention. And may I tell you if you know your Bible and if you study it with an open heart you will find that just before God judges nations prophets are hated.

Ahab, Micaiah, and the Rejection of Prophetic Warning

They don't want to hear the prophetic word. It's just like when Jehoshaphat joined Ahab and to go up to battle against the Assyrians. Jehoshaphat said would you call a prophet? He was still a man of God.

Ahab called 400 prophets. All who said the same thing. You are going to prosper. They preached a borrowed message. 400 all said the same thing. Jehoshaphat said isn't there a man of God? Where are the prophets?

Where are those who are not afraid to preach the gospel? Are we going to be pastors who preach the same thing? Someone gets a program? Somebody gets a method? And you are going to take a shortcut? You don't want to hear a prophet.

They said where is the prophet? Ahab said there is one man Micaiah but I don't like him because he doesn't preach what I want to hear. He always preaches something that gets me. Jehoshaphat said go get him.

He comes. The ambassador says I want you to preach what everybody else is preaching. They are all telling Ahab that he is going to prosper. Go preach the same thing. I don't want to preach the message the world is preaching.

I don't want to preach a borrowed message. And if you are afraid to get on your knees and seek the face of God and hear from heaven for yourself you have nothing to say to the church. Micaiah said I will preach what God tells me.

I almost got discouraged in the United States. I was on television recently with a pastor. He said brother Dave what is going to happen? What is the word of the Lord? I said I don't have a word. Americans don't want to hear it.

They don't want to hear it. Micaiah said I see Israel scattered over the hills with no shepherd. And the leader of the false prophets I am not naming any name. I am not saying that if a preacher said God wants to bless you I am not calling that a false prophet.

I am saying that a false prophet refuses to preach judgment refuses to name sin and tells you you are all right no matter how you live. The leader of the false prophets the leader of the false prophets said send him in jail.

Put him in jail. The spirit of the Lord is on me and it is not on this man. They threw him in jail. But he made a prophecy. He said the sheep are going to be scattered and you are going to hide from the people you have been preaching to.

Judgment, Mercy, and the State of the American Church

I want you to hear this. The Lord put this in my heart this afternoon. The spirit of God came on me. I want to say it lovingly. I am not going to shout it. The Shiloh church God said Ichabod in other words that is not my church anymore.

I have nothing to do with it. But the day is coming a calamity in the United States that there is a calamity coming just as in the Old Testament God had to send a calamity. 30 ,000 dead the nation in defeat the economy crashed everybody is weeping because you see God was doing something.

God is a patient God. He is a merciful God. We should not even be alive today if we got what we deserved but we serve a loving God and He said that the goodness of God would lead you to repentance. He has blessed America.

He has blessed Costa Rica hoping that the goodness of God would lead to repentance. Then we look upon the church and we see nothing but entertainment. We see much foolishness coming into the house of God all across America.

I see big screens and now they illustrate their sermons with clips out of the movies and some of those movies are the most filthy movies ever made in the United States. They have now what they call wrestling churches.

They took away the pulpit and they put a wrestling ring in it. They have wrestling matches with fake blood. They beat each other with chairs just like the world. And then a 15 minute sermon Ichabod Ichabod the glory of the Lord has departed.

God said that is not my church. That is not my church. See this wife of Phinehas. She died of a broken heart when she gave birth to her son. Her handmaidens tried to cheer her up but she lost heart. See there are two things that can happen.

You can look at the condition of the church now folks I want you to know there are places where God is moving in just a minute. I am going to tell you the good part. But if you are a man of God if you are a woman of God and you have been close to Jesus you have an intimate walk with Christ and you are living in the power of the Holy Spirit.

You look at the church and there has to be a grief in your heart. There has to be something in your heart that says oh God what is happening to our nation. What is happening with homosexuals taking over control.

What is happening with so many foolish things coming into the house of God. So much sin. In the United States the divorce rate among evangelicals is greater than the secular world. Something is wrong.

Grief Over Church Compromise and Spiritual Hunger

There has to be grief in your heart. I told you when I started preaching you were going to get angry at me. I didn't come to impress anybody with my preaching. God showed me something and I have to preach it and I am trying to do it in love.

Do you feel God's grief for his church. Do you feel God's grief for his people. How many people go to church on Sunday and they are so hungry and not being fed until they run off for some program and they get into something new.

Then they forget to pray. They forget to shut in with the word of God and pastors. They don't know which way to turn anymore. So many new things. Churches grow to thousands overnight and then they come home to their little church.

What is happening. And people don't want to go to the big churches anymore. They like the big screens. They like all this good stuff. I have thousands of pastors on my mailing list and from all over the world and many are quitting the ministry.

Pastors' wives say honey we can't take this anymore. Incredible stress beyond anything I have ever known in my 50 years of preaching and I feel that pressure and I feel God's grief. And see the problem is almost every month there is another church growth program another way to build a quick church and get a crowd.

If you are a pastor and all you want is a crowd rather than getting to know Jesus whether anybody comes or not until you quit worrying about what people say. If you can't say all I need to do is to be in the word of God and get the revelation and preach that revelation.

I don't need somebody else's revelation. I want my own revelation. Then you are going to get caught and you are going to get in somebody's program and for a while you are going to wear everybody out. They are not going to be able to read your bible.

They have no more time to pray because they are busy fulfilling your vision. I am not looking for a hand clap. I am not trying to work on your emotions. But folks, something is wrong. I have about 700 ,000 people on my mailing list.

And the number one question the number one problem from thousands. I am hungry. I want to see God move. I want to see the Holy Ghost in our church. My teenagers are tired of entertainment. I don't want this stuff anymore.

I am hungry for the word. I am starving for the word of God. I am praying for our pastor that the Lord will help him just set himself in with God and just come to the pulpit with the word from the Lord.

That is what the people want more than anything else. They are not looking for some program. They want to feel Jesus in the meeting. They want to be under the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

The Samuel Company and a New Work of God

So what is God going to do? Just what he did at Shiloh. You see, while all this was happening and there are people like this widow they have given up. They say God has given up on the church. Things are too bad.

God has departed. Well that may be true in some places but God had a plan. There is a Samuel living in her house and he has the word of God. He is a praying man. He has the anointing and he hears from God.

And she missed it. She should have been excited because while Ichabod is being born Samuel is over here in the midst of all the mourning in the midst of the death of the Shiloh church a new church is being born.

The Samuel church the Samuel company. And they are coming to Samuel. And he has the word he says God has promised to show himself again. God is still with us. God has a people. And here in Costa Rica God has a hidden people.

He has hidden pastors. You may pastor a small church but if you are in the Samuel company you watch what is going to happen. A calamity is coming that overnight is going to bankrupt that whole system.

I'm going to tell you something. Don't be afraid because God said he is going to take care of his people. He said you have a heavenly father who clothes the grass. He feeds the birds. He said your heavenly father knows what you have need and your heavenly father will feed you and clothe you.

He said don't worry. But I'm telling you it's going to collapse and it's coming soon. It's going to affect the whole world. The collapse of the towers in New York the first six months the churches were crowded.

Six months later fewer people going to church than when it started. People are hardened by calamities. But there is a calamity coming. It's going to shake every nation in the world. The United States is heading for a collapse of its housing an incredible realistic collapse.

Folks we've had tsunamis we've had hurricanes we've had terrorism. And people are getting used to what I'm talking about is God saying no. I have tried love mercy prosperity. And he said in my mercy I have to do what I have done from the beginning of time.

There was a flood there was a Sodom and all through the Bible. And so what happened at Shiloh 30 ,000 in a day. And God began to move and up came the Samson of Samuel church. God is going to bankrupt every church and every false doctrine.

God told Jeremiah he said tell them I'm going to spoil their green pastures. I'm going to spoil it. I'm going to take it away. And he said it's going to happen speedily. It happened under Jeremiah it happened under Samuel's time.

It happened in the New Testament and it's going to happen again. When the towers fell in New York people crowded the churches all over the United States people were weeping. They were getting up in the middle of the pastors preaching because the pastor wasn't saying what it was about.

There weren't a handful of preachers who knew what God was doing. And they were standing up people who had never been in church sitting on the edge of their seat and they said pastor preacher we don't want to hear what you're saying.

What about these the towers falling. Was that God. Was it the devil. Was it just an accident. And when they didn't know the people walked out. You see the Samuel company the generation of Samuel those who have been seeking God you're going to hear the same thing I'm hearing.

And others are going to hear. You see the prophetic word now is rejected except by a remnant except by a praying people. And God is saying the same thing. He's a just God and he's a merciful God. He's justo he's a holy God.

And there comes a time when God says if I don't move now if I don't deal with the Shiloh church. I cannot have the Samuel church. And there are hundreds of you near not in the ministry. And many of you are in the ministry.

And your voice is not being heard. And even if you try to say what's in your heart even Christians will think you're crazy. We don't want to hear doom. We don't want to hear any more gloom. I hear that everywhere I go.

I've had reports our pastor was at your church at your meeting. He got up and said he's a good man but he's 75 years old. God has bypassed that. We don't want to hear that anymore. I may be 75 but I came to you from the throne of God in Costa Rica.

And God's the same today as he's always been. He's the same God yesterday today and forever. You're going to be heard from. People are going to come to you. People are going to come to you. And they're going to ask you what is God saying help me.

And there are going to be some preachers like the preacher who said you have to have a car and a new house before Jesus comes. The prophet said you're going to run and hide. The congregations are going to come.

I'm looking for you. You said there's no judgment. You said it's all peace and prosperity. You lied to me. You told lies from the pulpit. They're going to run and hide. Am I preaching too hard for you folks.

A Personal Call to Faithfulness

In my feeble way. I'm trying to say something. What do you really want pastor. What are you looking for. Why did you come. I believe this with all my heart. There are thousands of young preachers. I've met a couple of them already since I'm here.

They're not looking for something great. They're not looking for some big mailing list. They're not wanting to be pastors of great churches. There's nothing wrong with great churches. I've pastored a church of over 8 ,000.

That's not it. That's not what the drive is. They want to know Jesus. They want to be able to preach something that touches people. They don't want to entertain people. They don't want to get somebody's book and say I'm going to get his message.

God is so big he has so much truth. He's got something for you. God has something for you. It's not my message. You can't borrow my message. You get your own message. God's waiting to give it to you. I am so excited.

I don't want to see a calamity. But I'm in touch with men of God all over the world. These are godly men godly women. And they all say the same thing. It's right at the door. Everything that God said can be shaken is going to be shaken.

Something is going to happen that's going to shake the church. And that's where the generation of Samuel comes. Those who get alone and they hear the voice of God. God is speaking to them in the face of calamity.

You can shout God is still working. Thousands will be saved because God's going to open their ears. He's going to open their eyes because all the other stuff has made them sick. They're not happy. They're all stressed out.

The Invitation to Pastors and Their Wives

And now they don't need an evangelist. They don't need a big name evangelist. Because you came through it and you know what you're talking about. Stand up. Please just hold everything. Please. If what I preached was of the Holy Spirit if this is truth that God wanted you to hear you'll honor it right now.

He won't honor me but he'll honor his word. Did God speak to you? Now there are some pastors here and their wives. And the enemy has come against you. And you're in the battle for your life. It's never been like this before.

It's gotten so heavy and your battle is so strong. You have thought of quitting the ministry. You've come to the point I'm going to have to change. I can't take it anymore. And many of your wives say I can't take it anymore.

God's speaking to you. You see God's not wanting you to do some great thing for him. You don't have to write a book. You don't have to do something special. And I'm going to tell you what the problem is.

You've got your eyes on what others think. So much pressure that you don't need to carry. And tonight he wants you to lay it down and say Lord. Only one thing now just to be faithful to you. Just to be faithful no matter what happens.

I'm just going to be faithful to you. I'm going back to prayer. I'm going back to the word. And you won't care. What man thinks about you. You're not going to try to keep up with the crowd. I'm going back to loving Jesus.

If you'll be honest then I want you to leave your seat husbands and wives or husbands alone. Only those that I'm talking about.