David Wilkerson Devotions

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:1-2).

“The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). The Holy Spirit has come to lead us into a life of prayer.

Satan loves to lie to the children of God. He targets those who are determined to enter God’s promised rest. “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:9-11).

Jesus called the Holy Spirit “the Comforter.” “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26, KJV, my italics). It is one thing to know the Holy Spirit as our Comforter, but we must also know how he comforts us so that we can distinguish what comfort is of flesh and what is from the Spirit.

Jesus had just been crucified and buried when Peter and the other disciples decided to meet together. They were assembled behind a locked door, fearing for their lives, when they heard these exciting words: “He’s alive!”

Suddenly, Jesus walked through the locked door in his resurrected body and said to them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19). He was saying, “Fear not! It is I, your Lord.” Now, tell me, if you had been in that room, wouldn’t you say this was the most incredible sight you could ever witness? Wouldn’t you be convinced that you could never doubt again?

Jesus said, “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). And also, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Paul also declared, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

The book of Revelation tells us that in the last days, Satan will rise up in anger and make war “with the remnant.” This remnant, of course, is the Body of Christ, comprised of all “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

We in the church of Christ talk often about spiritual warfare; the war that is described in Revelation is a worldwide attack Satan has launched against the Body of Christ: “It was granted to him to make war with the saints” (13:7).

Job asks, “What is man, that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart on him, that You should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?” (Job 7:17-18, my italics).

Hebrews 12:1 tells us that the world is encircled by a cloud of witnesses who are with Christ in glory. What does this great cloud bear witness to — and who is their witness meant for? They speak to our generation, by their lives and their words as recorded in Scripture. I believe they say three things to us:

God is doing a new thing in his church today. This great work of the Spirit cannot be found in a single location. It is happening worldwide, yet you do not have to travel far to behold it. Indeed, God’s “new thing” may be as close as a nearby church.

“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night [suddenly]” (2 Peter 3:10). God uses faithful servants — sometimes those with national pulpits and at other times humble, unknown, hidden watchmen — to deliver his words of warning. Only those who are not in love with this world and yearn for the coming of the Lord will have the message ring true in their hearts.