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Devotions

Our Hope in the Coming Storm

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

Nobody wants to hear bad news and the church today is no exception; the American church seems to be preoccupied with a “feel-good” message. This attitude is prevalent in many of the books and magazines we find in Christian bookstores. It is almost as if our leaders are saying, “Relax! God is our Daddy and we’re all his kids and we’re meant to have a good time.”

A storm is coming and God wants his people to be prepared. It will come like a thief in the night, bringing sudden panic and disbelief. You may be thinking, “If calamity strikes, let it come! I’m in God’s hands, so Jesus will see me through.”

Just before his death and resurrection, Jesus stared into the face of a horrible coming storm. He saw that just ahead, Jerusalem would be surrounded by powerful armies, the temple would be destroyed, the city would be burned to the ground, and their entire society would collapse!

Now, Jesus was the very embodiment of God’s love and he wept over his society because he saw what was coming. “Then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved” (Matthew 24:21-22).

If we think about it, we see that Jesus’ day was very similar to ours: peaceful, calm and prosperous. Even as Jesus warned that a storm was coming, he continually sought out secret places to be shut in with his Father. Fully persuaded that God was with him, Jesus knew that he was in complete control!

Beloved, if we are going to face the coming storm, we need to be prepared so that nothing disturbs our spirit. We can do that only by spending time in the Father’s presence — shut in with him until we are thoroughly persuaded that he is at our right hand.

In the presence of Jesus we find joy, hope and rest — all that we will ever need!

Are You at the End of Yourself?

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

The spirit of discouragement is Satan’s most potent weapon against God’s elect. Most often, he uses it to convince us we have brought God’s wrath upon ourselves by not measuring up to his holy standards. But the apostle Paul urges us not to fall prey to the devil’s snare: “Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11).

Paul is saying, “You must see your discouragement for what it really is — a demonic weapon — an arrow that Satan shoots at you to get you to doubt yourself. He knows he cannot tempt you to turn away from Jesus, so he swamps you with vicious lies to make you think you will never be good enough to serve Christ.”

King David’s spirit was brought low by feebleness, brokenness, mourning, a sense of disquietude. He felt dry and empty, without direction: “My heart pants, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me” (Psalm 38:10). David is saying, “My vision and revelation of the Lord have left me and I cannot reach God as I once did.”

I personally know how David felt. I have received many rich blessings through my ministry but many times, within days of great events, I have become overwhelmed with discouragement. We are targets for the powers of hell within moments of our greatest spiritual victory.

There are many biographies of devout men and women whom the Lord used mightily, and every one of them struggled through crippling discouragement. For instance, the great British preacher C. H. Spurgeon led multitudes to Christ through his powerful sermons but he suffered awful bouts of melancholy.

The first thing the Holy Spirit does in such times is to bring to your remembrance all the precious promises of Jesus. He will flood your soul with those promises and your spirit will soar within you. The work of the Holy Spirit is to undo the lies of the enemy and bring encouragement from on high! Be assured that all who wait on the Lord will receive his glorious promises!

Testimony to the Nations!

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

Many in the church today try to determine the nearness of Christ’s return by reading the signs of the times. Yet one of the clearest statements Jesus makes about his second coming is contained in the verse above: The end will come only after the gospel has been preached to all nations — as a testimony.

The word Jesus uses for “witness” in this verse is the same Greek word used for “testimony,” which literally means proof of fact. Christ is speaking here of not just preaching the gospel, but of presenting it as a testimony. In short, the gospel we preach is effective only if it is backed up by a life that testifies to its reality.

You would think that in America, a nation filled with thousands of evangelical churches, there would be a strong gospel witness. But many churches have compromised the true gospel of Christ and there is very little testimony of his lordship in the lives of the people. They are not true witnesses and the churches are not thriving.

Too many ministers, young and old, run all over the world looking for strategies to produce growth in their churches. They attend seminars, conventions and “think tanks” searching for the key to building a larger church. Still others flock to “revivals” in the hope that they will learn new methods of how to have the Holy Spirit fall on their congregation. But it takes more than new ideas or strategies to touch nations for Christ.

I am thankful there are exceptions, however, and God is moving mightily in churches where pastors catch a vision and spend time on their faces before the Lord. And they are leading their congregations into a deeper walk with the Lord. All our plans are in vain if Jesus is not enthroned in every area of our lives!

God’s Glory is Revealed in Difficult Seasons

Gary Wilkerson

God’s favor follows you! This is not just a phrase to encourage you, it’s a fact based on passage after passage of Scripture. Yet very few in the church live as if this is true.

You may have marital struggles and wonder if the tension with your spouse will ever turn around. Or you may suffer from depression and wonder if it will ever lift so that you can feel the favor of God again. Perhaps you have a prodigal child and wonder if he will ever return to faith. Or maybe you have a sibling who is an addict and wonder if she will ever be free from her bondage after years of indulging her habit.

I can guarantee you no Christian ever pictured himself being in seasons like these. No one ever imagined enduring hardships that outweigh the comfort they feel from God. Yet Peter tells us we are not to think that such trials are unusual: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:12-13).

If you are in the midst of an excruciating season of life, I have a sure word for you: Hold on! The Lord is not finished with you. You may think you are alone in your predicament, but all along God has been storing up blessings for you that you never dreamed of. As Peter states, his glory is going to be revealed through your trial.

The Power to Thwart the Devil’s Tactics

Nicky Cruz

It is important that we try to understand Satan and his ways as we follow our Lord’s leading. We need to know how the enemy tries to thwart God’s efforts among us. 

Satan’s hatred toward followers of Christ is very real. He despises everything God stands for, and he’ll do all he can to keep people away from the truth. I have witnessed his anger since I was a small child in Puerto Rico. My parents were known throughout the region for their practice of the occult, so I grew up seeing the powerful hold Satan has on those who are under his influence. When my mother became a Christian, it was a fatal blow to the work Satan had built within my family. She was once one of his greatest allies, and now she had become his fierce enemy.

After my mother had given her life to Jesus, my wife, Gloria, and I were visiting at her home. Every night while we were there, at exactly three o’clock in the morning, Gloria would be awakened by a frightening sound outside her window. When she told us about it, my mother laughed and said, “Don’t let that bother you. Ever since I became a Christian the demons have been angry with me. Tell them to shut up, then go back to sleep.”

Gloria wasn’t sure what to think of her advice since she hadn’t grown up seeing the things my family had experienced. But that’s how I’ve always tried to deal with Satan and his wily demons. In spite of their attacks, as frightening as they may seem, the best approach is to simply focus on the person and power of Jesus. All Satan is trying to do is create a diversion in our lives to keep us from telling people about Jesus.

The apostle Paul reminded us that Jesus “disarmed the powers and authorities” and “made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). Through this act, Jesus gave each of his followers the ability to defuse evil whenever it arises in our presence.

Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run.