David Wilkerson Devotions

Have you ever wondered what your purpose in life is? Do you ever get discouraged because you cannot figure out your true calling?

Jesus sums up our core purpose in John 15:16: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.” Our purpose is simply to bear fruit. Many sincere Christians think bearing fruit means simply to bring souls to Christ, but bearing fruit means something much larger than soul-winning. The fruit Jesus is talking about is reflecting the likeness of Christ.

Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, was on his way to Damascus with a small army to take Christians captive, bring them back to Jerusalem, and imprison and torture them. But Jesus appeared to Saul on the Damascus road, blinding him. “And [Saul] was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (Acts 9:9).

In those three days’ time, Saul’s mind was being renewed. He spent the entire time in intense prayer, considering his past life, and he began to despise what he had been. That is when Saul became Paul.

“[Jesus] said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’” (Matthew 9:37-38).

Jesus declared, “The fields are ripe and the harvest plentiful and it’s time to begin reaping.” At that moment, the great, final spiritual harvest began and this same harvest is going to last until Christ returns.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

“But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

These exhortations from the apostle Paul are telling the people of God, “Let the mind that is in Christ — the very thinking of Jesus — be your thinking, also. His mindset is the one we all are to seek.”

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). The apostle Paul gives us this very simple instruction in plain terms, “If the Holy Spirit is living in you, let him have full control of your life.”

We are all to be led by the Spirit. He was sent to be our constant, infallible guide, and he abides in all who confess Christ as Lord and Savior. Most Christians have no trouble accepting that the Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus, and we have no problem believing that the Spirit is continually at work in us at every moment.

Forgiveness is not just a one-time act but a way of life, meant to bring us into every blessing in Christ. “I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45).

The one great concern of our heavenly Father is that no “other gospel” will take us away from the cross of Jesus Christ. Many Christians have had their faith shipwrecked because they were given a flattering word years ago, perhaps something like this: “You’re going to have a great ministry and win thousands of souls to the Lord,” and not one word of it came to pass. Now those sheep are totally discouraged, their faith on the ash heap.

We can often possess something valuable without fully appreciating its worth or significance. The story is told of a farmer who worked his small farm his entire life, tilling the rocky soil year after year. At his death, the farm was passed down to his son who continued plowing the ground — but the son found a gold-streaked nugget in the soil. The land was full of gold and he instantly became a wealthy man. Yet that wealth was lost on his father, even though it was on the land his whole life.

God still speaks to his people today. And he speaks as clearly as he did in the Old Testament, or to the apostles, or to the early church. Yet we must realize one thing: God chooses to speak only to those who have ears to hear.

Mark tells us Christ “taught them many things by parables” (Mark 4:2). In this passage, Jesus tells the parable of the man who sows seed in a field. Yet when he finished the story, the crowds were baffled and wondered, “Who is this sower he is describing? And what does the seed represent?”

The prophet Isaiah prophesies what happens when the Holy Spirit falls upon a people. “The Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest” (Isaiah 32:15). He is saying, “When the Holy Spirit comes, what was once a barren wilderness becomes a harvest field. A dead patch of ground suddenly overflows with fruit and that field of fruit will grow into a forest; you will be able to take cuttings from this forest year after year and build on your fruitfulness continually.”