This week, I have been thinking about the life and passing (or "promotion") of Brother David Wilkerson. Today, Times Square Church focused on this:
https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=38805&forum=35&0
It was interesting to me that Brother David passed away in the light of other major events.
On the day of his death, a series of storms ripped through the southeastern United States. I saw an amateur video of the storm taken by a man who was terrified of death. I thought about how God has taken the sting out of death...because men like David Wilkerson face it with an eternal hope (I Corinthians 15:55).
During Friday's royal wedding, Catherine Middleton was wearing a beautiful veil as she walked up to wed her prince. While watching the ceremony, I was thinking of the "mystery revealed" as brother Dave is finally able to take off the veil of humanity and see the face of his Eternal Bridegroom (I Corinthians 13:12).
Today, the Roman cult was preparing to beatify Pope John Paul II in preparation of making him a "saint." I thought about how true believers like David Wilkerson are already saints...and that his death was precious in the sight of God (Psalm 116:15).
I am thankful that I heard an old message by David Wilkerson (entitled HOLY GROUND) while I was young teenager and a newborn believer. That message had the passion for God's holiness and a hunger to know more of Jesus that I had felt was missing from most preachers that I had heard. Shortly after I heard it, I read the book, "HUNGRY FOR MORE OF JESUS." I think that this was a fraternal bond that we shared with men like Dave Wilkerson, Leonard Ravenhill, A.W.Tozer, and others.
However, I am praying that God will raise up many more men like these. Brother Ravenhill wrote and preached several times about "Where are the Elijahs of God?" In this day and age, they are greatly needed.
At the beginning of HOLY GROUND (and before he began his message to YWAMers), Brother David spoke about Brother Leonard Ravenhill. He said that he had told all of his sons and all of his daughters to get to know Brother Ravenhill -- because he was "one of the last." But, after this, Brother Wilkerson reminded the young people, "But God always has His special people in every generation."
We need more of these people.
We need more Leonard Ravenhills, David Wilkersons, Charles Spurgeons, Keith Greens, and, of course, John the Baptists. We need men who are moved with the compassion of God and see this world as "sheep having no Shepherd." We need men who are so burdened for the honor of God that they would proclaim and convey, in love, a hunger for God that is so deep that the world would take note.
I was moved by God as a teenager. I was quite agnostic, and had seen quite a few "fakes" in the Church that nearly cemented my agnosticism. I saw selfish, self-serving preachers who didn't even realize how prideful they were. I saw false prophets who uttered nonsense "in the name of Jesus" (and didn't even realize that they were LYING for God). However, I also saw some examples of individuals who were...different. I remember thinking of one such man and thinking, "I don't know if there is a God, but if there is, that man knows him."
I pray that God will raise up more men who can prepare the way of the Lord. And how does God raise them up? Those men are struck to the heart by the unction of God's Spirit. They are full of the Holy Spirit and devoid of self. They are so impassioned for the honor of God that they will give up their lives for His honor and so that others might know Him as we want to.
David Wilkerson was one such man. He saw a void in the lives of drug addicts, the destitute, and the hurting. He saw a wayward church that had been going through sectarian and denominational motions. Yet, Brother David sacrificed of himself to confront those needs.
May God raise up others.
