Getting Ready for the End of All Things: David Wilkerson (Transcript)

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And so, he comes to the people now as a dying man. He comes as if to say, “I’m soon going to be with my heavenly Father. I’m soon going to be with Christ.” So, I’m going to give you my final word. He said, “I want you to know the end of all things is at hand. It’s right at hand.” Well, that was written 2,000 years or so ago. But folks, if it were true then, it’s all the more true now: it’s the end of the very last of the last days.

And he said, “I’m going to tell you what God expects and what He wants of you. I’m going to tell you how to become secure. I’m going to tell you how to prepare for the end times.” And you see, he says nothing about the economy. He says nothing about the loss of houses and lands. He says nothing about where to put your money. Nothing about safe heavens. And he comes with this, and I got a letter from somebody, read one of my prophetic books about how God’s going to keep His people in the coming depression.

And he said, “I wrote to you, Pastor Dave, in good faith, and I believe that you’re an honest, righteous man. And I asked you where I should put my money, some safe place to put my money. Because he said, really, if God’s warning us, He wouldn’t be a very good God if He didn’t tell us how to survive.” And he was trying to put me on the spot, and he said, “I want to know. I don’t want any theological cop-out.” He said, “That’s what you preachers do. You cop out and just say, go pray.” Because everybody told him, “Pray and get the mind of the Holy Ghost for yourself.” And he said, “I feel cheated.” He said, “I wanted to hear certainly God would have a word. He would not warn us unless He gave us a way to survive.”

The True Preparation for End Times

And I get letters like that. And already, since I mentioned my topic, “how to prepare for the end of all things,” some of you feel like, well, Brother Dave, as soon as I announce this subject, Pastor Dave is going to give us some good advice on where to put our money and help us get fixed for the hard times that have already started. That’s a good, honest question. We all ask those questions.

But folks, this is not going to make sense to you until we get to the last half of the message. And you’ll see why Peter goes with this message. He says, first of all, “be sober.” In other words, don’t panic. That’s his first advice. No matter what happens. And there are many Christians right now who are in panic, who have believed and testified all their lifetime that the Lord was their keeper. We sing Jehovah-Jireh. We sing all these wonderful songs about how good God is and how He’s going to keep us in the hard times.

And there is a human nature in us that responds, and we have to bring it under the word. We have to bring it under the control of faith. But he’s saying, “be sober, first of all, be sober.”

And the second, he says, “go to prayer.” He said, “You wonder why you’re confused. You wonder why you’re in turmoil. You wonder why you’re in panic and you’re not sober in these times.” And he’s saying the worse it gets, the blacker the night, the more you should be walking in soberness and the peace and the rest of the Holy Ghost. That’s what he says. As hard as that sounds, that’s what I’m telling you. God told me before He takes me home.

A Prophetic Vision for Difficult Times

I’m telling the church of Jesus Christ in my day and in the days to come, there are going to be hard and difficult times. And Peter describes those time mockers and the scoffers are going to come. They’re going to be those preaching deception in our churches. They’re going to be preachers of covetousness and materialism. He goes on to describe all of those things that are coming in. He says, “don’t panic. Be at peace about it.” And then he says, “go to prayer.”

And folks, that there, that’s where I go every time fear tries to rise in my spirit. Every time there’s another news report that seems to just be overwhelming, I go to the Lord. I go to my knees. And that’s the answer to all the stress problems. I just saw in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that all over Wall Street now they have a whole hour and many of the corporate leaders are into yoga and into Chinese mantras. And they’re trying to calm their stress. And in some offices now, it’s mandatory that you go and take yoga so that you can calm yourself. Well, folks, we have a Savior.

A Higher Calling Amidst Worldly Solutions

We have a promise. And we are going to be a testimony that we know how to handle stress. We’ve got a little room we go into. It’s called the secret closet. Tell that to the world. Here’s your world looking at crystals, hoping beans will come out of those crystals. And there are people doing yoga and quoting Chinese mantras that they don’t know what it means.

Then you tell them you’ve got a secret closet where you go and you come out strong. And they’re going to say, “You’re crazy, stupid. What do you mean a secret closet?” “Well, what do you know about yoga? I’ve got somebody that takes all my stress away. King of Kings. I meet Him right in that room.” “You mean you meet God?” Yes, we meet God in the secret closet of prayer.

And then he goes on. He said in verse 8, “and above all things, above all things, above all preparations, above everything you think about how to survive in the end times,” he said, “I’m going to give you a word that this is the issue. And you have to deal with this. And this is mind-boggling at first.”

The Power of Unconditional Love

He says, “above all things, have fervent, on fire, mercy, and love for your brothers and sisters.” He said, what he’s saying, you know, if you want to really know what survival is about, if you know where God is taking His people, you have to have this unconditional love for your brothers and sisters, where race has no — there’s no barrier in race, no, until this church has over a hundred nationalities of all colors and all nations. And I want you to know this church is under attack for that very reason. Many times it would not be under attack if it were just all white or all black or all Hispanic.

There are churches like that and thank God for them. But this is a special thing that God is doing here in New York City and has done. A hundred or more nationalities loving one another without racial prejudice. And this is what the Apostle says, Peter says, “this is the issue now, that there is a love.” There’s a, out in the front, it says Times Square Church, the church that love is building. It doesn’t say the church that loves its building, it says the church that love is building. Hallelujah. He says, “the reason for this is because this kind of love covers a multitude of sins.”

The Key to Overcoming in End Times

It covers a multitude of sins. Now here’s the issue, and I want you to listen very, very closely. Paul said, “if you want to be ready for what God is going to do, because I’m going to show you just a minute that in the end times, I’ve already told you, I gave away my secret before I started to preach. There’s coming a latter rain of the Holy Spirit.” We’re going to go into that and this is where Paul, this is where Peter’s going. This is where he’s going with this message. What he’s saying, what God’s about to do cannot happen. It will be hindered unless these things are dealt with in the body of Jesus Christ.

Anything of prejudice, any member of the body of Christ, now we can’t forgive those who sin against God. We can’t forgive those sins. We can’t cover those sins. But he said, “I can’t move.” The Holy Spirit is going to come in a great rain upon this earth. He said, “it can’t happen in a church. It can’t happen among a people where there are those that are holding grudges, when there are those who say they love one another, but they can come and they can worship, they say I’m a part of the body of Jesus Christ here, and yet they come week after week, week after week, and they have not forgiven, they’ve not forgiven somebody who hurt or wounded them. They’ve not resolved this issue.”

It just stays there, day after day and week after week, and the Bible says we’re not only to forgive, but we’re to cover the sins of those who sinned against us. Now, it may have been a wife or husband, a divorce situation. It could have been a church, a whole group that wounded you and hurt you. It could be an individual or a group of individuals. It could be a husband, a wife, it could be family. And there are those sitting in this church now, and I say it with love and compassion, I’m telling you this will hinder what God is going to do in the church. It’s going to hinder what He wants to do in your life and in your home. This has to be dealt with.

Is there anyone that you have a difficult time forgiving? You say, well, I’ve forgiven, but I can’t forget. Well, then you haven’t forgiven. The Bible says, and this love that God expects of us is so vast and so all-encompassing. He said, now, you not only forgive, but you do everything you can to cover their sin. Don’t broadcast. And this is what happens: Somebody grieves us, someone wounds us, someone rejects us, and we tell it everywhere. We get on the phone. “I just have to get this off my heart. You’ll never know what they did to me.” And we name names, and we name places, and we go down deep into this pit, and then we say, “I’m only telling you this so you can pray with me.”

“I’m only telling you this because I’m concerned about them, and they may lose the touch of God for what they did to me.” You should be more concerned about whether you lose the touch of God because you didn’t cover the sin. “I can cover anyone who sins against me. I have that authority. I have, in fact, I’m commanded to do just that,” and that’s what the Apostle Peter is saying. This love, you want to be ready for all things. You’ll be ready for the coming of the Lord. You want to be ready when the bottom drops out of everything. You want to be ready. Make sure that you have nothing hindering the flow of the Holy Spirit. There’s something wonderful coming. “I don’t want to be left out.”

Forgiveness and Spiritual Readiness

If you have wounded me, and I don’t know about it, if you talked about me behind my back, and you wounded me, I’m glad I don’t know, but I forgive you. “I can’t name a grudge I have against anybody because I know what happens. I know I lose the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and I know that I have roadblocks. I’ve got stumbling blocks in my life.” You should be able to sit in this church today and go over in your memory of that thing that is in your heart, and some of you are visiting here. God’s speaking to you, too. “Who is it? Who is it that you have such a hard time getting that out of your system?” You, I guess, can’t.

I talked to a pastor recently. A group of ministers really hurt him, and I was aware of the situation, hurt him deeply, and I talked to him. He said, “You know, Brother Dave, I’ve been preaching for years, but I just can’t forgive them. I can’t do it,” and he said, “my wife will never forgive, and she was in deep bitterness.” He said, “You want to be ready? There’s a context here in which, a wide context that Peter’s talking about. He’s seeing something coming, and he wants the church to be ready.”

Physical Needs vs. Spiritual Preparedness

Now, if all you want is for God to give you food and shelter. Now, as a father, I want that for my children and grandchildren, and I want Him to provide all my physical needs. He’s promised to do that. You see, Peter didn’t go there. He didn’t go there about advice on physical preparations.

He didn’t go there because, you see, he knew poverty. He knew what it’s like to not have a cent, a shekel, in his pocket, because the only money he had at times came out of a fish’s mouth. This man had one change of clothes. He had one pair of sandals. This man had proven God’s faithfulness, so that wasn’t an issue with him. He can’t even imagine Christians not believing that the Lord would provide. “I’ve been down that way.”

He said, “This is the preparation I want you to talk about. I want you to focus on. There’s an issue here. I want you to look into your heart, and you’re going to love even your enemies,” the Scripture says. You know, Jesus didn’t give advice on how to prepare physically, other than in Jerusalem. He said, when you see the armies coming, flee from Jerusalem. You don’t find Him that. He says, “Don’t give any thought about tomorrow, because it’s going to take care of itself. I’m going to take care of you. Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat, what you’re going to drink, or how you’re going to be clothed. Don’t give it any thought.” You won’t find Jesus going there. You won’t find Peter going there.

The Apostle Paul doesn’t go there. They had proven God, and you have proven God already. You have proven God faithful up to this hour. He’s never failed you yet. He’s brought you out of every situation. He’s taking care of you financially. You are not in poverty. You have a roof over your head. You have food on your table, and He’s going to see you through.

The Promise of the Latter Rain

All right, I want to go into this matter of the Spirit coming down, and this is the context in which Peter is speaking now. He said there’s a great rain coming. You’ll find that all through this New Testament, you find it in the prophets especially. There’s a prophecy in the Old Testament that there’s coming, there’s been a former rain, and there’s a latter rain.

The Bible talks about two rains, and Moses told Israel, he said there can be no harvest unless there’s a latter rain. The first rain, the early rain, came in the spring, and it watered the seed, and the blade, and the grass, or the forming of it. But he said that it comes before the harvest, before the full grain of corn, there has to be another rain.” It’s called the latter rain.

Now, years ago, there was a Pentecostal movement called themselves the latter rain. Now, some say they got in, I don’t know all the circumstances of the history of that movement, and they said it went into error. But they had a truth, they had something from the heart of God, and I believe He’s going to restore this truth to the church of Jesus Christ.

Moses said there’s an early rain, but there can be no harvest until there’s a latter rain. Here’s the scripture: “He will give you the rain in your land in due season, the first and the latter rain, so you may gather in the corn, the wine, and the oil.” He said, “You’re going to have a rain that ripens the harvest.” And beloved, the early rain came at Pentecost in the upper room.

The Early and Latter Rain

That was the rain that watered the seed of the Word, that watered the message of Jesus Christ, and it began to grow and spread. But now, folks, in the last days when the world is trembling and gross darkness covers the world, there is no way Jesus would come without. Now, He can come at any moment, but He promises there will be a latter rain. And he says, “Ask rain in the time of the latter rain. We’re to ask rain,” the prophet said. “You’re to believe God and ask Him, and believe that this latter rain is promised in the scripture, and that is to come.”

The prophet Zechariah saw the outpouring of the Spirit in the last days. “He said, ask ye the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, and the Lord shall make bright clouds, and He will give you showers of rain, and everyone shall have grass in their field.” Everyone shall have grass. There’s going to be a harvest. He said the field is going to be ripe. Jesus said, “They’re white unto harvest.”

Now, Satan knows this. He knows what is written in the scripture. He knows that there’s a tremendous, incredible outpouring of the Holy Spirit before the harvest, and he’s going to come against the church of Jesus Christ, knowing what is coming. He saw what happened in the early rain. He saw the growth of the church around the world, every kindred, and every tongue, and every nation, and he saw the power of the Holy Spirit.

He saw what happens when the Holy Spirit comes down, and so, the latter rain, Satan knows what is about to happen. Folks, there’s no way that the Lord is going to take His church out of this world limping, and broken, and fearful, and just broken in spirit, and mind, and soul. No, no, no, no. He’s not coming and allow Islam to take over the harvest. He’s not going to let anybody. The harvest is His. The harvest, the Bible said, is the end of the world, and we’ve come to the end of things. We’ve come to the beginning of the end.

A Future Filled with Hope

Now, I don’t know how many years. I’m not going to go to the prophetic times. I don’t know that much about what happens after Jesus comes. I’ve not been a scholar of that at all, but I know from what I’m reading in the Scriptures, and the more I read, the more my faith rises. There is a coming, outpouring of the Holy Spirit beyond Pentecost, beyond what happened in the upper room. But you see, Peter knew what had to happen.

In early day Pentecost, they had what they call waiting on the Lord. In the upper room, they waited on the Lord. Now, they weren’t waiting just for a calendar day. Pentecost was fully come, but God was doing something. He’s doing just what Peter’s talking about. There had to be forgiveness. Peter had to be forgiven because he wounded the body of Christ. He wounded every one of them, and there had to be an outflow of love in that upper room, and God’s dealing with things.

Peter could not stand up there and be anointed by the Holy Ghost. He can’t stand there if people later, some of the Apostles, and there’s James and John, who had boasted they were better than the other disciples, and had this pride, and they’re sitting there. They have to be cleansed. They have to be forgiven by the body of Jesus Christ, and their sins have to be covered.

They have to be able, those men have to be able to look at Peter later when the Holy Spirit gives him the authority, and he preaches what the Pentecost is all about, and there can’t be something in their heart with a, “Who made you the leader? Who made you the pastor? Who gave you this special anointing?” No, they sat back. They didn’t care who got the honor. They knew the Holy Ghost was there, and they were covering. Nobody dared speak against Peter because Peter is safe now in the house of God.

The Upper Room: A Model for Today

He’s among people who don’t blab what Peter did. Nobody’s talking about it in this upper room. They’re talking about the Holy Ghost, and they’re getting free, because they’re loving, they’re forgiving, and they’re covering. Do you understand where Peter’s going? He said there’s an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and He comes only to those who are prepared. They were prepared in the upper room.

Oh, folks, I still believe in waiting on the Lord. Yes, the Holy Ghost was given, but there’s something about waiting in the presence of the Lord, where He’s allowed to deal with these issues in our heart, and so we can have this forgiveness, and we can have the strength and power.

It takes power to forgive. It takes even more power and grace to cover somebody’s sin after they’ve wounded, or rejected, or hurt you. And God wants to pour out His Spirit in this church, as we have never known or seen. He wants to save multitudes, and He’s going to do that, but first, he’s coming to purge His body. He’s coming to cleanse, and He’s not doing it with a rod or whip in His hand. He’s doing it through brokenness, and a humble word, a compassionate call. Don’t let anything hinder the glory of the Lord that’s coming. Don’t let anything hinder the moving of the Holy Spirit in your family.

Don’t let anything, don’t be a hindrance to the work of God, and what He wants to do. Oh, if you belong, if you worship here at Times Square Church, and you feel this is your church home, God help us all. Help me, help every pastor, help everyone in the choir and orchestra, and everybody in this body, to be able to walk through these doors, and sit here, and raise your hands, and worship Him, and you know there’s nothing there between you and the Lord. There’s no hindrance that your heart is open, and if you’ve been sinning, if you failed God, you come to the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Unchanging Power of the Blood of Jesus

Folks, the blood has never lost its power, and I have to believe that He will give us through the power of His blood. The cross is not in vain. It’s not been in vain. If there is not an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in these last days, why was there an early Pentecost? Why was there an early rain? Look at all of these many years since the first outpouring, the early rain. Do you mean to tell me that the Lord, when we need the Holy Ghost the most, when we need the Holy Ghost to survive daily, when we need the power of the Holy Ghost to be His witness, when everything is shaking, and the darkness is here, we have got to have an anchor.

The Holy Spirit comes to reveal Christ. He comes to dig deep into our spirits to make us vessels made worthy to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. And what Zacharias said is, “Wake up, church. The Holy Spirit and the glory is going to fall upon nations.” So many people feel helpless. But folks, this can’t be worked up. This is a prophetic word, and you have to allow and ask the Holy Spirit to increase your faith to believe and stand on His word.

The Message of Hope from Haggai

Haggai stands before the discouraged people. They’re remembering the glory of the old temple. The old tabernacle is gone. And now, God is doing a new work. And they’re building a temple now that seems so insignificant to what God did in the past. And they’re standing there weeping, and the prophet Haggai, I think is in the chapter, he says, “I see you looking at what God is doing here now.” He said, “Some of you lived then, who is 60 to 70 years apart, and some of them are still living.” And when they were young, they saw the glory of that first work of God. What a great work God did back then.

You hear that a lot about the revivals of the past, what God did back then, and all the glory we had, and all the wonderful meetings we had, and people got saved, and we carried half the night. And that’s wonderful, thank God, thank God. I have those wonderful memories hidden in my heart. And the prophet looked at these people downcast, and looking at that, and he says, “Who’s left among you that saw the house in its first glory?” And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes, in comparison, as if it’s nothing? You understand what this is saying? Some of us who’ve walked with God for years, we remember the movements of the Holy Spirit, we remember the great things God did.

But the prophet Haggai says, now look at that, you’re discouraged, and you think that this is nothing, and that we’re just waning in zeal, that there’s no glory left. And we’ve been overwhelmed, overwhelmed with the darkness. We’ve been so overwhelmed with what is happening. We get overwhelmed at the fury of the devil. We get overwhelmed by the homosexual militancy, and our courts making laws that we don’t agree with, and never asked for, never voted for.

And we get overwhelmed with the fury of Satan among us. We get overwhelmed with the darkness, overwhelmed with the thought we’ve sent away our day of grace, overwhelmed with fears and doubts, and that’s what happened. They’re saying, in their minds, they’re saying, “Well, this is nothing. We have nothing to rejoice about. God’s not doing anything. This is so insignificant.” So Haggai says, “Fear not.”

God’s Assurance through Haggai

God said this in Haggai 2:5, “My Spirit remains among you. My Spirit is still at work.” And then he turns to the people and says, “I’m telling you, the glory of this house is going to be greater than the first house. The rain that’s coming is greater than the early rain.” There’s a latter rain, so take away that frown. Lift up holy hands, because the rain is coming, and God’s Spirit is moving, and I’m not going to let the devil let me be downcast. I don’t want my eyes on what God is doing to say it’s so insignificant. America has not sent away its day of grace. The world has not sent away its day of grace. The revival has just begun. The rain is beginning to fall. Hallelujah.

I got so excited last night, because I was reading in the book of Revelation. He said, “First the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn of the ear. See, everything’s ripening now.” And the scripture says in Revelation 14:15, “Thrust in the sickle and begin to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”

Revelation of the Harvest

And then I went on, and I read this in Revelation 14:14, the verse prior to what I’ve just read to you, and I got so excited. I went into the bedroom. Gwen was retiring. I’d been in my study last night, and I said, “Gwen, I am shouting inside.” And I walked back and forth in our apartment down the street. “Behold, He comes in a cloud, a crown on His head, and a sickle in His hand.” What’s a sickle? It’s that long harvesting thing, got a big sharp blade on it, where you just mow down the harvest.

And the Bible says of our Christ, “Hallelujah.” He’s not there just hoping the Saints will hold on. He’s not there surprised at the darkness. “Behold, He comes in a white cloud,” say it with me, “a crown on His head, and a sickle in His hand.” That makes me want to jump. “A crown on His head,” say it, “a crown on His head, and a sickle in His hand.” Folks, it’s harvest time on Wall Street, in the Bowery, Uptown, Downtown, New Jersey, and all over this nation and around the world.

Glory to God. It’s harvest time. It’s beginning to rain. Hallelujah. Do you believe it? Will you stand? Do you see what Peter’s saying now, folks? Remove everything that hinders, because the glory is coming. Like you’ve never seen or know or experienced the glory of the Lord. And you know what that glory is? The manifest presence of Jesus Christ. We will know His presence as we’ve never known it.

We will know Him as we’ve never known Him. And people are going to be open to the gospel. He’s going to melt hard hearts. And many others He’s going to bring through calamity, where they have no place to turn but to God. And we will be ready with a message of hope and not despair.

Now, in prayer I asked the Holy Spirit how I was to close this service. And it’s simply this. The Holy Spirit made known to me, I don’t know how many, but in the overflow balcony here in the main auditorium, there’s some of you here that have a hindrance. This thing has become, has a stranglehold on you. It’s a root of bitterness, a root. And that root has to come out. And it’s dug in and you don’t want it anymore. You want to be free of this. You’ve carried it long enough. And I believe God hears when we pray, if we agree together, two or three agree together concerning anything on earth, it shall be done by the Father in heaven. And I want to pray with you.

I want God to remove that hindrance, but you have to want it. You have to humble yourself. That’s right. Humble yourself. Not caring what anybody says or thinking. There has to be something rising up in your heart that says, “I want to walk out of this church today free. I want to walk out of this church without this chain on me, without this burden.” You have felt and seen the agony. And if you don’t forgive, it’s going to come around. And whatever you did comes back in like manner, in another way. And you face it again and again. Face it now and let the Holy Spirit bring you to a place of victory and free you.

And you’ll know a freedom and a joy like you haven’t experienced in a long time. Greg ministered to us for a moment in song, and I want you to step out. If you don’t know Christ, you can come now and He’ll come and reveal Himself to your heart and change your life. If you’ve been drifting away from Christ, if you’ve backslidden in your heart, follow these that are coming. And the balcony up there, just go down the stairs on either side and come down these aisles and come. Just humble yourself and say, “Pastor Dave, I want you to pray for me. I want freedom. I don’t want to carry this burden any longer.”

I know that takes a lot of grace, but it’s that important. It’s life and death. That’s it. Just follow these that are coming. “Help me to know that You are near.” Do you know that He’s near you right now? Do you know? He said, “My Spirit is with you.” The Holy Spirit hasn’t left you. The Holy Spirit brought you down to the aisle, to the front of this church for prayer. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. You begin there thanking the Lord for that.

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