========================================================================
  (AUDIO) LEARNING THROUGH AFFLICTIONS
  by David Wilkerson
========================================================================

Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of learning through
afflictions, highlighting how afflictions drive us to the Lord, teach us
to pray, and refine us like precious jewels. It discusses how
afflictions can worsen before deliverance comes, signifying the enemy's
rage as God's deliverance draws near. The message encourages
surrendering to God in times of deep emotional pain and trusting in His
deliverance and refining work.

Duration: 53:28 Topics: "Learning through Afflictions", "Trusting God's Deliverance"
Scripture References: Isaiah 48:10, Psalms 77:2, Isaiah 54:11, Revelation 21:18, Psalms 34:17, Hebrews 12:2, James 1:2, 1 Peter 5:8

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sermon emphasizes the importance of learning through afflictions,
highlighting how afflictions drive us to the Lord, teach us to pray, and
refine us like precious jewels. It discusses how afflictions can worsen
before deliverance comes, signifying the enemy's rage as God's
deliverance draws near. The message encourages surrendering to God in
times of deep emotional pain and trusting in His deliverance and
refining work.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learning through afflictions. Hallelujah. Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, you are here. Hallelujah. Holy Spirit, I said you are here,
and I thank you.

You have come. Lord, there's no service, there's no meeting, there's no
purpose without you. And we thank you for your manifest presence.

And now I pray for the anointing of the Holy Ghost to come upon me from
the top of my head to the soles of my feet. Lord, I know you gave me
this message. I know this came from the throne.

And I know you're going to help a lot of people this morning. Hearts are
going to be changed and encouraged, and people are going to see things
they've not seen before. Oh, God, open our eyes and our understanding.

Sanctify me and sanctify our ears to hear. Oh, God, we're not worthy.
You are our worthiness.

You are our righteousness. We take your authority over every
principality and power of darkness. We command every evil spirit, every
spirit of darkness to depart this church and the minds and the hearts of
believers.

And we pray, Lord, that no evil shall come to us. In Jesus' name, amen.
Let's go to Psalm 119, please.

Psalm 119, verse 71. Psalm 119, verse 71. Just going to read one verse
to begin.

Unbelievable verse. Now, wait till the leaves start, stop rustling.
Psalm 119, verse 71.

It is good for me that I've been afflicted. How many believe that's in
your Bible? Is that in your Bible or do I have a special edition? Read
it right out loud with me. It is good for me that I have been afflicted
that I might learn thy statutes.

There's my message. Learning through afflictions. Now, what kind of
theology is this? It's good for me to be afflicted.

Because the Hebrew word here used by the psalmist is very descriptive.
It means browbeaten, troubled, abased, chastened, defiled, hurt,
humiliated, weakened, depressed. Put it all together and you know how it
reads? Incredible.

It's good for me that I've been browbeaten, troubled, and abased, and
chastened, and defiled, and hurt, and humbled, and weakened, and
depressed. It's all been good for me so that I can learn the Lord's
statutes. And the word statutes here means an engraved law.

And what the psalmist is saying is good for me that I'm going through
all the trouble I'm going through because in the process he's engraving
his laws in my heart. It's been engraven. Not just written, but
engraven.

Like in indelible writing. Now, it's true that we are tested, and tried,
and afflicted to be tested. Yes, there are tests, but that's not the
primary reason of the afflictions among Christians.

Now, I know that there are many of you hearing me now that are being
afflicted. You are going through trouble. You sit here right now and
say, Brother, that's me.

I'm in trouble. It could be financial. It could be family problems.

It can be affliction. The enemy coming against you at home and on the
job or wherever it may be. You may be going through slander.

I don't know what it may be, but there's affliction among God's people
because the Bible said many are the afflictions of the righteous, and if
you say you're righteous, you're afflicted. If you're not afflicted, I'd
get worried. The righteous, many are the afflictions of the righteous.

Let me give you an example of learning through afflictions. This past
week, I was preparing a message. Boy, was I going to thunder it this
morning.

It was entitled The Pettiness of American Religion. The word petty means
trivial. It also means small-minded.

While I was thinking of this message, I was really going to pour it out.
I was all fired up for the whole week I'd been working on this, The
Pettiness of American Religion. While I was preparing this message, I
picked up a newsletter from our missionaries that we support Roland and
Heidi Baker, and they're going into Mozambique as missionaries very
shortly.

In their newsletter, they told of the situation in Mozambique.
Mozambique has been called by the United Nations the poorest nation on
earth now. The situation there has become so bad because they've been
embroiled in a long civil war.

The infrastructure has been destroyed with all the roads, the bridges,
the villages, the schools and hospitals, most all have been blown up.
There's been all kinds of torture and killing. Millions have fled as
refugees, and perhaps two or three million have died in the war.

Over one million landmines had been planted, and it resulted in the
world's highest percentage of maimed and disabled people, children
running around with one leg or one arm, totally maimed by these mines
that are being tripped up and blowing them apart. The children are dying
of malaria. Children and adults are still wandering around in black and
burned out villages, naked and starving to death.

Many pastors have been imprisoned and killed as the government has tried
to do away with democracy or with Christianity. And Roland tells about
recently of going by highway up in South Africa into Mozambique, and
they were driving a pickup truck that was loaded at a camper top on,
loaded with supplies to go into Mozambique, and they had to hit the
border by five o'clock because the border closes into Mozambique, and
they were about five hours away, so they tried to speed it up, and the
closer they got, there was a car in front of them going further and
further, and they didn't know who was in the front car, but the car
started slowing down, and they floored the gas pedal, and it still
slowed down, and it slowed down, and they were right near the border,
and the car almost died. In fact, it got right up to the customs office
about two minutes to five, and it died.

The motor just died, and they got out and couldn't understand because
they had a meeting that night. Couldn't understand why they'd prayed.
They wanted to make that meeting so badly, but the car, the pickup truck
just died.

About five minutes later, they just, they decided they were going to
stay on this side in South Africa and go to Mozambique in the morning,
and all of a sudden, people running around, officers running around,
very excited, and a helicopter came in, landed, officer got up, and
Roland asked what's the matter. He said, well, there was an explosion, a
warfare group, one of the warring factions blew up the car ahead, and
they were flying in the people by helicopter across into South Africa.
If they had not, if the Holy Ghost had not slowed that car down, they
would have been there, and they too would have been bombed, and the next
day, they turned the key, started up, everything's fine.

The car just moved right on, and I was reading all of these reports of
the suffering and the main bodies, and I thought, how can we compare our
afflictions and our troubles to theirs? How can we compare our hurt and
our feelings and our financial woes and our infirmities to those in
Mozambique because they seem so petty, they seem so trivial, you know,
somebody slanders you on the job, bad hair day, my credit card bills are
piling up, I'm working harder than ever, and I'm still falling behind
financially, we can't seem to make it on what we're being paid, and
these are the kind of talk that we hear, and there's another kind of
thing that I was going to deal with this morning, but in a different
way, because we hear so much today in the church about depression, so
many people are depressed and downcast and blue, and I thought, how do
you compare depression and the blues or loneliness with what is
happening in Mozambique and in most suffering, war-torn, ravaged
countries around the world, where people are just trying to survive,
something to eat, a roof over their head, pastors in prison, now of
course there is no comparison, you can't compare those kind of things
with what is going on, and there are some things that we face as
Christians that could be called trivial and small-minded, and I really,
I tell you, I had a message, the pettiness of Christians focused on
depression and their emotional, mental problems and the hurts caused by
people talking about them and so forth, and I was going to get up and
really lambast it today, except for one thing, on Friday, I got up, and
something happened to me, very seldom happens, I was depressed, I mean
depressed, I've never had patients with people who've been depressed
because I've never been depressed, but I was depressed, I walked around
the apartment, I said, what's going on, I had no reason, all kinds of
emotions, grief and sorrow and self-pity and fear, everything all
wrapped up in one deep dark blue funk, you know what the dictionary
calls a funk, a deep dark dejection, so bad you don't want to do
anything or go anywhere or make any decisions or face anybody, have you
ever had that? I thought I'll walk it off, that's what I'll do, I'll
walk it off, I walked 35 blocks, and it got worse, I said, well it
doesn't make sense, I'm going to preach about this on Sunday, I'm going
to preach how petty, how trivial this is, and I got to thinking, people
are dying in Mozambique, and here I am focused on what I'm going
through, but it was so bad, I went to the hospital, I sat down and
cried, I don't know why I was crying, I can't begin to know what
depression must be for those of what they call clinical depression, it's
not just a day, but they have it for days and weeks and sometimes
months, they're down, they are down, they can't seem to get out, they
try everything, even medication doesn't help some people, they go to
psychologists and psychiatrists, it doesn't seem to help, and folks, I
had something on me that was not trivial, it was not small-minded, this
was life and death, I started taking authority over demons and
everything else, everything I've learned, it wouldn't go away, folks, I
learned something through that affliction, I learned, first of all, I
couldn't get up here and lambast you about it, that's a big lesson, and
I knew that I couldn't counsel anybody else and treat depression as
something trivial and small, I also learned that in the eyes of God, it
doesn't matter whether it's homelessness, it doesn't matter whether it's
a maimed arm or anything else, if it's depression, whatever it is, he's
touched with the feelings of our infirmities, and he's a compassionate
Lord, and I began to see, it doesn't matter whether it's Mozambique or
right here, walking the streets of this city, God's concerned about his
children, and he's involved with you in your hurt, you can't compare it
to anybody else or what you're going through, it may be you're in
business, and you can't see the future, and you work harder and harder,
and you fall further and further behind, but I want you to know, God's
just as concerned about that as he is of starving children in
Mozambique, he is concerned, he's a loving, compassionate father, we're
not to compare ourselves with anybody else, because when I sat there,
all I could do is say, oh God help, I cried out to God, well by five
o'clock it was gone, I mean just disappeared, and so I wish I had that
kind of a work in my heart, but God showed me some things, and I want to
share with you this morning, what I believe we can learn through our
afflictions, lesson number one, you can't deliver yourself out of any
affliction, that's God's work, you cannot deliver yourself out of any
affliction, I don't care what kind of trouble you're in this morning,
you can't extricate yourself from it on your own human power, no matter
what kind of bondage, I'm going to tell you something else, I don't care
what kind of habit you have, what kind of sin that has a grip on you,
you cannot break that by yourself, you don't have the power, the devil's
too big for you, you say well he's been defeated, oh he's been defeated
as far as the ultimate victory is concerned, but he's still God of this
earth, he's still God of this world, and he's going about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he can devour, and you are no match, now the secret to
understanding how you can get victory or learn in your affliction, you
have to go to the children of Israel and see how God delivered them out
of their afflictions, because they were patterns, the scripture said,
the bible says, now all these things happened under them, Israel, for
examples, and they're written for our admonition, or our instruction,
upon whom the ends of the world would come, 1st Corinthians 10, 6, all
of these things happened under them, and they are our examples,
everything that happened to Israel, their bondage, their deliverance out
of Egypt, all the ways that God worked with them, are testimonies, they
are patterns, they're examples for us, he did in the natural for them
what he does for us in the spiritual, he delivered their physical
bodies, he delivers our spiritual bodies, he delivers us from the power
of the darkness in our minds and our bodies, the physical deliverance of
Israel represents the spiritual deliverance we're to see, and all these
steps and the ways of God are clearly outlined in the Old Testament, do
you ever wonder why Israel, when Pharaoh got so angry, he took away
their straw, and he said, taskmasters began to beat them, and they had
no sleep, they had to run all over the nation looking for straw,
wouldn't you think that Israel would have risen up and taken matters
into their own hands, said that's enough, I don't have to, we don't have
to take this bondage anymore, because let me tell you, even Pharaoh said
of them, behold the people, the children of Israel are more and mightier
than we, that was the testimony of Egypt, these people have outgrown us,
they're stronger than us, let's deal with them, Israel knew that, they
knew they were stronger, why didn't they rise up in rebellion, why
didn't they say that's enough, we're going to do something about it now,
why wasn't there a revolution after the ten plagues, Egypt was
devastated, by the time the firstborn had died, in every home, every
soldier had somebody, he had to go home and mourn and bury somebody,
they were so busy in funeral parlors, they were so busy burying the
dead, they couldn't fight, why didn't Israel rise up and say that's
enough and take matters in their own hand, because they couldn't have
done it, because God said, I'm coming down, I'm going to deliver you, I
will deliver you, this is the work of God, the scripture says, and the
Lord said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, this
is God speaking, and I've heard their cry by reason of their
taskmasters, for I know their sorrows, and I've come down to deliver
them, I know their sorrows, now folks, if that doesn't give you comfort
right now, nothing will, I know your sorrows, and I have come down to
deliver you, whatever you're going through this morning, whatever kind
of test, whatever kind of suffering that you face right now, God says, I
know your sorrow, you can't do it by yourself, you can scheme, you can
dream, you can manipulate, you can do anything you you try, but this is
my work, this is my work, hallelujah, are you burdened down this morning
with a besetting sin, or a habit that won't let you go, or trouble that
seems to linger on, I want you to go to Exodus with me, the sixth
chapter, please, Exodus six, I want you to begin reading with me verse
six, now folks, these two verses ought to be underlined in every Bible,
you have your pen or pencil, underline or mark these two verses, Exodus
six, verse six and seven, therefore say unto the children of Israel, I
am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem
you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments, and I will take
you to me for people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall know that
I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you up from under the burdens of
the Egyptians, and I will bring you in, read it again, and I will take
you, verse seven, for me a people, and I will be to you a God, ye shall
know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians, and I will bring you in, who's going to do it?
I will, folks underline, I will, I will, I will, God says through all of
that, I will see you through, I will bring you to deliverance, I'm
reading to you from Jeremiah 10 23, the way of man is not in himself, it
is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps, it's not in man to
direct his own steps. David came against the giant, look at me please,
he came against the giant, and you know what he quoted? Here's what
David said when he faced that big giant, and the assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is who?
The Lord's, and he will give you into our hands, and 1st Samuel 17 50
says, and there was no sword in David's hand, there was no sword in
David's hand, David didn't take matters in his own hand, he didn't say
I'm going to bite the bullet, I'm going to fight this through, I'm going
to do it on my own strength, folks you're bound for failure, you can't
beat any giant in your life unless you believe that it's the Lord's
battle, it is the Lord's battle, hallelujah, now folks that takes the
pressure off, that takes all of the the pressure off, this does this
mean that I have no part in my deliverance? No, you see your part and my
part is to believe what he said is true, that he will deliver you if you
will trust him, seek him with all your heart, hate your sin, and then
turn and say oh God, you are my deliverer, you are greater than all my
enemies, the sword is in your hand Lord, you deal with the enemy, you
deal with him, hallelujah, now here's the key, I will save you out of
bondage, so that I will be to you a God, and you shall know that I am
the Lord your God, what he's saying, you have read in the Old Testament
how I delivered Israel, you read how I delivered David and Samson,
you've seen the whole testimony, but God says now I want you to let me
be a God to you, so that you experience miraculous deliverances, so that
you can testify just like these in the word of God, I want to be God to
you, I want to deliver you, I want you to see miracles, hallelujah,
that's the purpose of afflictions, God says I want to show you that I
will deliver you, and I want you to have the testimony that these you
read about have, hallelujah, folks, I don't know if you saw the headline
in yesterday's paper, tough love, a dad shoots his firstborn to save his
younger son from drug abuse, and this Costantinos Papadopoulos, 39 year
old father, had a 20 year old son that was on drugs, and he was taking
his 16 year old brother out evidently to smoke pot, I don't know what
the doesn't give the whole story, but the father saw, he felt he'd lost
his oldest son, and so he took a gun and shot his oldest son in the
chest and in the mouth, and then he locked himself in his room, was
going to commit suicide, the boy even though he was bleeding profusely,
and his younger brother broke the door down, went in, saved the dad from
committing suicide, and the boy in the hospital apologized, said it took
this to wake me up, and the father's so stricken, he said I lost one,
and he'd been under such depression, such horrible, horrible depression,
because he'd lost one son, and he said now I'm going to lose my other,
and this 39 year old father says I can't take it anymore, his depression
brought him to the point of trying to kill his own son, so that he could
save his others, the other folks, that's not trivia, that's life and
death, and what you're going through this morning, I'm going to talk
just plainly to you right now, I'm not trying to impress you with
preaching some powerful sermon, God's trying to get through to you, that
you cannot bring yourself out of your depression, you can't bring it up,
go to any doctor, go to any psychologist, take any kind of medication,
it's not going to last, there is deliverance, there is a way, and I'm
going to talk about it now, this is lesson number two, afflictions come
to drive us to the Lord, to bend our knees, to teach us to learn to
pray, and cry out to God in all of our problems. Psalm 77 2 says, in the
day of my trouble, David said, I sought the Lord, when I got in trouble,
it drove me to the Lord, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now
I have kept thy word, he said, I was lazy, I was spiritually dying, I
was losing my first love, but since I've been afflicted, now I've been
seeking the Lord, when he was in affliction, speaking of Manasseh, when
he was in affliction, then he sought the Lord, and humbled himself
greatly before God, David said, I know God, that thou in faithfulness
has afflicted me, you've been faithful, the affliction that I'm going
through is a part of your faithfulness, because God is, David is saying,
God, I know why you afflicted me, you saw that I was just drifting, you
saw that I was not seeking you, you saw that I was not really diligent
in my ways, so you allowed affliction in my life to wake me up, and that
is your act of faithfulness, folks, whatever you're going through, stop
and think about it for a minute, God, you're faithfully afflicting me,
because you're waking me up, driving me to my knees, hallelujah, he
wants you to seek his face, Exodus 2, turn left to Exodus 2, verse 23 to
25, and it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died,
and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they,
what did they do, they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason
of the bondage, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his
covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and God looked upon
the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them, and that word
respect means he took action, and God took action, folks, look at me,
please, there's something about the heart of God, you and I must
understand when we look at our afflictions, there's something about his
heart, he hurts when you hurt, when you're afflicted, he's afflicted,
the Bible says, whatever you're going through right now, he is going
through it with you, now folks, how can you understand a God so mighty,
is to say this, listen to it closely, Isaiah 63 9, in all the
afflictions, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them,
in his love, and in his pity, he redeemed them, and he buried them, and
carried them all the days of old, every time they were afflicted, God
hurt with them, in fact, when Israel sinned, and they brought misery
down upon them, and they're suffering for their sin, and there's some of
you might be in misery, in affliction, now because of sin, that happens,
even then though God said, and his soul was grieved for the misery of
Israel, in the context of that, they had been in idolatry, and now they
were coming to the Lord, and they were in terrible grief, the sin had
brought them misery and grief, and yet even that misery caused by their
own sin, God said, his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

I talked to a man, a brother who'd been delivering alcohol, he said,
brother, when I walk the streets, he said, I go past the bar, and I can
smell it, the taste is still in my mouth, I love the Lord, the taste,
and it's misery to me. I've known people who eat, drug addicts,
alcoholics, all who've had habits, and cigarettes, some of you fighting
a cigarette habit, you're doing pretty well for a week or two, and then
you get the smell of it, and something comes up in your flesh, the taste
is still there, and the battle rages on, and you're in misery, and I'm
gonna tell you something, folks, God shares, He knows the misery you go
through, and you can make yourself a million promises, I'll quit
smoking, I'll quit drinking, I'll quit this, folks, how many promises
have you already made and broken? Thousands and thousands of promises
are made, and they are broken, because we do not lean on the Lord as our
only source of hope, He alone has the power, and these things should
drive us to the cross, should drive us to our knees, so we learn to cry
out, and folks, that's how my deliverance came on Friday, I stayed on my
knees, crying out to God until the victory came, I got into His Word,
and I began to build myself up into faith, and I began to realize that
all I could do is stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, that
this was His battle, His battle, and I'm His child, and He loves me, and
He'll come and bring deliverance, but you have got to understand, no
matter what you go through, no matter what your trouble, He hurts with
you, He feels with you, He grieves to see you broken, and He wants more
than anything else to deliver you, I don't serve a God who hangs around,
said you're miserable because of what you did, you failed me, and now
you're paying the price, and I'll just sit and wait until you have hurt
long enough, and then I'll come to your rescue, we don't serve a God
like that, we serve a loving Father, the moment you feel grief, He feels
your grief, hallelujah, you may not know it, you may not see it now, but
God started your deliverance the first moment you cried, the first time
you got on your knees and cried out, oh God deliver me, God went in
motion, God, you may not see it, there may be no evidence to you in
front of your face, but God heard you, now I just read to you the
scripture here in Exodus, this sixth chapter, they had just cried, God
says He heard their cry, look at chapter three, the next thing you read,
immediately God falls on the bush, you fall on your knees, God falls on
the bush, immediately, the first time they cried in their misery, God
said I heard you, and He goes out to Mount Horeb, and He lays His hands,
let me read it to you, and Moses kept a flock of Jethro, his father-in-
law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back side of the
desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb, and the angel of
the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a
bush, and he looked, and behold the bush burned with fire, and bush was
not consumed, now folks, he just, Israel has just cried out to the Lord,
they don't know it, they don't see it, but God has already taken charge,
God's already set in motion their deliverance, they weren't going to see
it for a while, they're not going to see it, they're going to complain,
and they're going to wonder if God's ever heard their cry, but the whole
time they're wondering why hasn't God heard me, God's already working,
He's there on Mount Horeb, He's fallen on the bush, He's calling a man,
He's trained him, and folks, within a few days, Moses is going to be
making his journey toward them, the deliverer was on the way, first time
you prayed about what you're going through, first time you prayed, God
heard you, God started acting, you don't see it, you may be totally
blind to it, you say I don't see any evidence of God doing anything for
me, He's already put the bush on fire, He's already set to deliver,
hallelujah, the answer is being shipped to you, hallelujah, the
righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their
troubles, none of the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
delivers them out of them all, hallelujah, I know sometimes God would
love, I think He'd love to pull the curtains back of divine providence
and show you and me His whole plan, you know why He doesn't do it?
Because the moment you saw it, you'd get lazy, you wouldn't have any
faith, you didn't need it, you said I saw what I'm getting, I saw what
He's going to do for me, you'd go around boasting to everybody, I saw
it, you don't know what, I've got a secret, and you'd be so proud nobody
could live with you, God said no, the only way I'm going to teach you to
believe, I'm working, but I'm not going to show it to you so that by the
time it comes, you'll be living in faith, well I'd sure like to know
what He's got for me, He may give you some hints, lesson number three,
afflictions get much worse just before the deliverance comes, oh you
better believe this, look at chapter three, verse 14, verse 14, and God
said unto Moses, I am that I am, and he said, thus shalt thou say unto
the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you, and God said
moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob hath
sent me unto you, this is my name forever, this is my memorial unto all
generations, go together, all the elders of Israel together, say unto
them, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob has
appeared unto me and said, I have surely visited you, and seen that
which is done to you in Egypt, and I have said, I will bring you out of
the affliction of Egypt into the land of Canaanites, Hittites, and so
forth, they shall hearken to their voice, and shall calm down the elders
of Israel to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, the Lord God
of the Hebrews hath met us, and now let us go, we beseech thee, free
day's journey to the wilderness, that we may sacrifice the Lord our God,
and I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a
mighty hand, but folks, get the picture, here's Moses now, he's appeared
on the scene, and he's got this good news, God sent me to deliver you,
you are going out of bondage, you're going into the promised land, the
land of the Hittites, and Jebusites, and God's going to drive them out,
you're going into land of milk and honey, the promise is given to them,
isn't the world wonderful, aren't these promises glorious, and boy will
they test you, until his time came, the word of the Lord tried Joseph,
he was tried by every promise, and now they've got the promise, they're
going around oh hallelujah, we're going to be free, my bondage is all
over, hallelujah, what a shock that was in Israel, in Egypt, among the
Israelites, the deliverer is here, we are finally free, boy, a lot of
times I thought, boy, I'm out of the tunnel, didn't tell me there was
another one, look at chapter four, verse 29, this is just after they've
been told, oh here it is, and Moses and Aaron went and gathered together
all the elders and children of Israel, and Aaron spake all the words
which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs on the side of
the people, the people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had
visited the children of Israel, that he had looked upon their
affliction, then they bowed their heads and they worshipped, isn't that
wonderful, deliverance, wonderful, I'm free, go to chapter five, see how
free, start with verse 19, and the officers of the children of Israel
did see that they were in evil case after it was said you shall not
minish out from your bricks of your daily task, see they've just come
out from meeting Pharaoh, now up to this time they had straw for bricks,
and now after they were told they're going to be delivered, they get no
straw, and things get worse, and they have taskmasters now beating them,
and Pharaoh said get out of my sight, go to work, and now Moses is
waiting for them after they came out from meeting Pharaoh, and when they
met Moses and Aaron who stood in the way as they came forth from
Pharaoh, and they said unto them, the Lord look upon you and judge,
because you have made our savior to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh,
in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slay us, and
Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Lord wherefore hast thou so evil
and treated this people, why is it thou has sent me, for since I came to
Pharaoh to speak in thy name, ye have done evil to this people, neither
hast thou delivered thy people at all, wow, Lord everything you said did
not happen, Lord it's worse than it's ever been, Moses is incredulous,
he can't believe God, why did you send me, why did I go out on a limb
like that, why did I tell the people they're going to be delivered,
they're not delivered, they're being beaten, they have no straw now, you
have not kept your word, let me tell you something about this, look at
me, you think for a moment the devil is going to sit by, he knows that
they're going to go, he knows deliverance is coming, the devil knows it,
he said I've got just a little time left, and the time I got left, I'm
going to throw everything in hell at him, I'm going to empty hell, and
I'm going to come against them, I'm going to harden Pharaoh, and I'm
going to make him so hateful, and I'm going to put a whip in the hands
of those testaments, I'm going to beat these Israelites down to a pulp,
I'm going to work on them because he knows he has a short time, you know
when God gives you these promises, and God comes to you with the living
word, and you know it in your heart, and the devil knows it, he knows
every promise, and this book is true, and he sees what you're driven to
your knees, he hears when you pray, you better believe the devil watches
you when you pray, he trembles every time you go into the secret closet,
he hears your cry, he knows that every tear you shed is being bottled by
the Lord, he puts your tears in a bottle, he knows when the Holy Ghost
gives you the promise, he knows all about it, you think for a minute
he's going to stand still, the sure sign that deliverance is at the door
is that things get worse, that's a sure sign, you know the devil's mad
because he knows, he knows you're coming out, he knows that weeping
endures for a night, but your joy is coming and it's morning, he knows
it, so folks if you've been praying and praying and it's getting worse,
start rejoicing, start rejoicing, your deliverance is right at the door,
you've heard me say it over and over, the hardest part of faith, the
last half hour, because that last half hour gets so bad, so I'm going
down, I can't make it, oh God, just keep crying, just keep trusting,
just keep praying, seek his faith, don't let go, get a hold of the feet
of Jesus, I'm not letting go, I can't do it myself, you have to do it,
folks it's on the way, the devil heard you crying out, he knows you're
going to be set free, he's going to inflame every situation around you,
he's going to inflame people around you, he's going to get mad at you,
he's going to get people mad at you, he's going to lie to you and about
you, he will do everything now because he knows this great and glorious
thing that God has planned, hallelujah, like Moses in Israel, we forget
that an enraged devil that's gone beserk against us is clear evidence
that God is on the scene, hallelujah, you got a mad enraged devil at
you, enraged, angry at you, trying to do everything to pull you down,
destroy you, I want to be around the next few weeks to watch the glory
of the Lord come, deliver you by his power, hallelujah, Moses didn't
know that God had already determined the next day he's going to take
matters into his own hands, the very next day, then the Lord said unto
Moses, now shall thou see what I will do to Pharaoh, with a strong hand
shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of
his land, and God said unto Moses, and God spake unto Moses, I am the
Lord, he said, Moses, I have not let you down, remember who I am, I am
the Lord, folks, don't forget it, but Israel was so down, and Moses
spake unto the children of Israel, but they hearken not unto Moses for
anguish of spirit, for cruel bondage, they were dead inside, they said,
I've suffered too much, I can't even hear a message of deliverance,
folks, I've met Christians like that, they're so beaten down, they've
gone through so much, they come to church and they sit there, the
message goes in one ear and out the other, they're too crushed, they're
too broken because of their problems, their troubles, I'll tell you
what, God understood that, God didn't condemn them, a gracious Heavenly
Father who was hurting with them understood what they're going through,
and some of you at that place now, I preached it just recently, a place
called Wit's End, where you are so down, you're so crushed and so
depressed and so blue and so troubled, that nobody can encourage you,
you're beyond encouragement, that's where these people were, he spoke to
them, but they hearken not, they didn't listen because of anguish of
spirit and for cruel bondage, they couldn't understand it, but folks,
let me tell you something, and here's one thing you've got to learn
about affliction more than anything else, you are being afflicted
because God is working on a jewel, he's working on a jewel, there's a
prophecy from Isaiah, I want you to go to this before I close, Isaiah
54, I want to show you this, why God's taking you through this, you know
what a piece of coal is, it becomes a jewel through friction, a diamond
used to be a piece of coal, in fact, every time I go to Lord and pray, I
said, Lord, I'm dealing with just a piece of coal, and God looks down
and says, no, he's a jewel, because he's working on me, and I want you
to see this, Isaiah 54, start with verse 11, oh thou afflicted, tossed
with tempest, you toss and turn at night, you're not comforted, no man,
nobody can seem to comfort you beyond comfort, beyond encouragement,
behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations
with sapphires, I will make thy windows of agates, you know what the
windows of agates mean, agate is crystal clear, it's purified by fire,
it's been through the fire, becomes crystal clear, that means, and the
windows have to do with your eyes, Lord said, this affliction, if you'll
just embrace it, in the name of the Lord, don't fight it, just say,
Lord, bring me through, and turn to Lord with all your heart, God said,
in the process, in this fire you're going through, I'm going to give you
clear, transparent eyes, your heart will be transparent, your eyes will
see into the unseen, you have clear vision, I'll give you discernment
through this, I will teach you things you could have taught any other
way, folks, some of the afflictions I've been through lately, I've been
thanking God for lately, because I have learned things, God's been
telling me that in the next few years, I'm going to be going out a few
weeks of the year to ministers, to teach ministers, and to minister to
ministers, in fact, like Australia, they've invited me to come bring the
whole, all the evangelical ministers together in Australia, and in South
Africa, and other countries, and there'll be hundreds and thousands of
ministers, and folks, if I had not been through, you know, ministers out
there, they don't relate to a multi-million dollar theater, on Broadway,
they don't relate to that kind of thing, what they relate to is the
suffering and the hardship, and I was not ready, because I would have, I
would have been hard, I would have been very difficult, I wouldn't have
had the patience, I wouldn't have had the compassion, but oh, I do now,
oh, I've learned some things, I have learned some things to be
compassionate with these pastors, and loving because of the hurt that
they're going through, and the abuse all over the place, and folks,
that's what God's saying, I'm working on you to produce a jewel, the
fair colors have to do with a bed of jewels, and he said, your windows,
your eyes are going to be crystal clear through affliction, you're going
to see things you've never seen, I see better now than I've ever seen
through affliction, and so do you, then he goes on, the gates of
carbuncles, and most scholars believe that should read gates of pearl,
and you know what pearl, how a pearl is created, to a piece of sand in
the belly of an oyster, irritates and irritates, and it ejects a fluid,
and works on that piece of sand until it becomes a pearl, you know, have
you been through irritation lately, what's God doing, he's working on a
pearl, I mean, he's working on a jewel, you understand this, and all the
children, all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall
be the peace, he said, I'm going to give you peace through this, in
righteousness shall thou be established, he said, you'll be more
righteous when you come through this, thou shall be far from oppression,
thou shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near thee,
hallelujah, God is working on a jewel, he's working on you, hallelujah,
in closing, one last verse, go to Revelation 21, Revelation 21, remember
the picture of the city coming down out of Jerusalem, look at verse 18,
and the building of the wall was jasper, the city was pure gold, like
clear glass, foundation wall garnished with all manner of precious
stones, jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, he
names all of these precious jewels, you know who those jewels are,
doesn't the scripture say that he is the foundation, he's a tried stone,
tried by fire is what the original says, he is a stone that's been tried
by fire, and nobody builds on this foundation except stones that have
been tried by the fire, they, folks, you can't build, you can't have,
this is speaking of the character of Christ, all of these bright things
that shine out of us have to do with all the rays, the character of
Jesus, I don't know of any Christian I've ever met in my life that shows
the character of Jesus except those who've suffered, I've seen men that
were proud, I've seen women that were cocky, I've seen women and men,
even ministers of the gospel you couldn't talk to, and God allows
suffering in their life and they come through it, they are mellowed,
they have a peace, there's something about them, they've gone through it
in suffering, and I've known of all my children, four children in the
ministry, and I've seen it in my children, I've seen it in my family,
it's the suffering, now suffering can make you bitter, it can make you
hard, if you don't see Jesus in it, if you don't yield to it and say,
Lord, I surrender to this, I'm going to trust you through it, you can
get hard, you can get cold, you can get bitter, you get mad at God,
it'll destroy you, but God's purpose is to refine us, to make us jewels,
and that's that city that's coming down out of heaven, precious jewels,
hallelujah, clear-eyed people, transparent in their living, no part
dark, trusting in the Lord, no confidence in the flesh, hallelujah, it
was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn his statutes,
will you stand please? I must tell you, saints, that now I'm going to
give an invitation in the manner the Holy Spirit directed me, I was
allowed to taste, just for a few hours, this terrible down, terrible
depression, I'm always spoke to my heart, there'd be a number of you
here today, and you're standing in front of me now, you say, Pastor
Dave, that is me, I can't seem to come out of this deep, dark pit, I
don't know what the emotional pain may be, but it's in your mind, and
it's a heavy heart, please don't get on the phone and try to get
somebody to talk you out of it, you can't be talked out of it, you say,
well, I need some Valium, I need some Percodan, no, because you see, as
soon as the Valium wears off, it's twice as bad as it was before you
took your Valium, medicines won't do it, psychologists, psychiatrists,
sometimes it can get worse, because they just show you more of your own
sinful human nature, if you keep looking inside, you're not going to see
anything good, you got to keep looking out of yourself, looking unto
Jesus, the author, the finisher of our faith, what you can do is what
I've told you, is to cry out to God, oh God, your word says you're my
deliverer, this is beyond me, I'm coming to surrender to you, live or
die, I'm going to trust you, hallelujah, and don't be afraid when it
gets bad, just hold on, the joy is coming, I want you in the balcony,
here on the main floor, if the message has touched you this morning,
this is you, I want you to get out of your seat and come here, I'm going
to pray for deliverance for you at this point, I want God to deliver
you, set you free, up in the balcony, down here, if you're backslidden,
if you've lost your love for Jesus, if you're not right with God, if you
don't know Jesus, if you come with these that are coming, you get right
into the aisle, come, the Lord, this could be a miracle day for you, God
can change your heart, you can be set free right now, this is the
conclusion of the message.

========================================================================
Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/MLQJ5_sLA4k.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/david-wilkerson/audio-learning-through-afflictions/
========================================================================