How To Prosper In Hard Times: David Wilkerson (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of David Wilkerson’s sermon titled “How To Prosper In Hard Times.”

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TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to our visitors, delighted to have you here tonight. I trust you have experienced the presence of the Lord already. And now we open our hearts to receive the word of the Lord. This church knows, and perhaps some of you visiting may know, that the Lord put it on our hearts to warn Christians in America about a coming economic holocaust.

The book is entitled “America’s Last Call.” And in the first 40 days, over 200,000 books were ordered, going toward a quarter million. And we’re getting back letters now from all over the United States, from businessmen, from common people, from people everywhere. And I think my wife reads hundreds and hundreds of these letters.

I think we’ve only received one negative. Most of them, all of the people that write say we sense the same thing coming. And my wife pulled out some of these letters to give me a sense of what people are saying. And I’m probably more excited about the book I’m writing now. I think this is my 38th book or so. I don’t know the number, but this particular book has me very excited. It’s entitled “The Preservation of Zion.” The subtitle is “God’s Plan to Keep His People During the Coming Depression.”

And I’m very excited about it because the Lord is showing me some wonderful things about what He has in store for His church and for His people. That all that He’s doing, all that He’s going to do in this world in the way of judgment and all that He’s doing to the United States in the way of judgment has to do with purging His church, getting His church and His bride ready.

Because we are the holy Zion, the new Jerusalem, the city coming down out of God, out of heaven. And everything God does, He does in regards to His church.

He has a controversy concerning Zion. We preach that. And this is about the fourth or fifth message along that line. And this evening I want to talk to you about how to prosper in hard times.

How to Prosper in Hard Times

Now, if you’re part of Times Square Church, you know already where I’m going with this. So, I’m not backslidden on the prosperity gospel, believe me. But folks, this is not a trick. This is not a trick statement. There will be a people in the hardest of times. It doesn’t matter if there’s a total collapse of the economy. It doesn’t matter if there’s going to be the worst depression in the history of the nation or the world.

God is going to have a people who survive. Not only survive, but prosper in a way that represents true prosperity, very real prosperity. I told Pastor Carter before I came out, I said, boy, this church has to, you’re kind of testing proving ground. I told Brother Carter I’d never acknowledged until this past year because the Lord had me acknowledged.

I’m not a prophet, but He has made me one of His watchmen, His many watchmen. And I’ve had to acknowledge that before the Lord. He’s called me to speak to the evangelical church world about what is coming because very few pastors are warning their people. I was in Dallas, Texas a few weeks ago. By the way, my son, Gary, Greg’s here. Gary was this morning. Greg, God bless you. Nice to have you and your family with us here.

And I preach this message to hundreds of pastors. We’ve had four letters now, and one this past week from pastors who were in that meeting. And they said, “Brother Dave, we accepted it, but the majority of the ministers did not accept it. In fact, they overheard, pastors overheard saying, we hope the pastors here have better sense than the priest, that foolishness in their pulpit.”

And they totaled it. Many, many, not all, but many rejected it outright. So that tells me that it’s not being preached from pulpits, that many people, when this happens, are going to rise up against their pastors and say, “Where were you? Were you not in prayer? Did you not hear from God?”

Folks, there’ll be nobody in this church to be able to say that because Pastor Carter and I and other pastors that have been hearing from God have been standing in this pulpit. And we have been warning lovingly. Now, let’s talk about how to prosper in hard times.

Father, I pray that You give me Your mind. I’m just going to talk from my heart tonight. Lord, it’s something You put in my heart. You put a weeping spirit in me over Your church that is not prepared. It’s not ready. They’re going to be shocked. They’re going to be surprised. Many are going to be angry and say, “God, how can You do it?

Just like the young man, the homosexual gay boy, that young man is dying of AIDS. He’s saying, ‘God, how could You do this to me? How could You not prepare me for this? How could You have allowed this in my life?'” And yet, he has to acknowledge he had warning after warning after warning. There are going to be people, Lord, that are going to be shocked and surprised, rise up and even curse their pastors because they did not hear from God. Lord, I pray that You cause us to hear Your mind tonight. Speak clearly to us, I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let me give you the heartbeat of many Christians. These are all Christians from my mailing list. “Dear Pastor Dave, I’m writing you because I’m perplexed about your recent messages about America’s upcoming financial collapse. All our lives, my wife and I have been good stewards of the blessings God’s bestowed upon us. We’ve supported many ministries, including yours, and, of course, our local congregation. My question to you, Brother Dave, is this: Our investments have been good to us and now support us quite comfortably. If the economy is about to collapse, as you say, where do you suggest we put our finances? Are we to trust mutual funds, the stock market, the local bank, or our bedroom mattress?”

Now, this man is very serious. He says, “These are a few of the questions we Christians in America need to answer. It seems that everyone knows there’s gloom ahead, but no one has any recommendations for us how to prepare. We’re out of debt. We pay our tithes. Where do you suggest we put our share of the money? I know you’re not a financial advisor, but you’ve got us all concerned about the economy, and we’d love to hear from you and from the Almighty God.” You want to put me first before…?

Letter from the Midwest. “Pastor Dave, thank you for your warning. We’re praying for instructions now. We are hearing so many voices and prophetic words that leave us in confusion, and we know God’s not the author of confusion. We have a local Christian radio station that features prophecy, and we are hearing some strange things and strange reactions to these prophecies all over our area. One man, a friend of ours, determined to sell his house and move his family into an apartment.

He said because things are not going to last much longer anyhow. His wife is in distress. His family is disturbed. His children are upset. He said a local church is absolutely shut down because people are following the instructions of a certain prophet here, and everything is being misinterpreted prophetically. So a few of us as intercessors got together, and we’ve come to the following conclusions. Number one, we will pray that we will not be deceived by any prophecy. Number two, that we will clearly hear and obey God’s voice. Number three, that we will use these hard times to become more intimate with the Lord. And number four, and these folks have no pastor, nobody. They’re just intercessors. This is what God’s saying.

And number four, that our property, our homes, be available for the use of others. We are ready to harbor other Christians who need help.” And from the West Coast, a brother wrote, he said, “Pastor Wilkerson, you warn about the collapse of the stock market, but our pension funds are invested there. The pensions constitute the major source of income for millions of Christians.

Most of us have no choice over those investments of our funds. There’s Social Security, of which I have no control. There’s a broad range of investments that are all dependent on the stock market. Where are these institutions going to invest their funds, their endowments, their annuities?

Christians’ Concerns About the Coming Economic Collapse

We as individuals, we don’t have any choice. If the market crashes, so do all our union pensions, the teachers’ pensions, ministers’ pensions. I have a missionary call. I’m going to need those funds to support me on the mission field. And if an economic collapse is coming, we need more than a warning. We need solutions and answers.”

Now, folks, let me tell you something right here. Now, these are samples of letters that are coming from all over the United States. The majority of Christians say, “Thank you, Jesus, for being so merciful to warn us. But if You’re merciful enough to warn us, would You not be merciful enough to show us how to prepare?” Now, most of these Christians that are writing to us are not greedy Christians trying to hoard money. These are tithers.

These are praying people who love God, and they say, “We don’t have any place to turn. We don’t have any answers. Please, Brother Wilkerson, give us something from it.” I’ve been on my face before the Lord. You say, “Well, Brother Wilkerson, I live from paycheck to paycheck. I don’t have any stock bonds. Those things don’t mean anything to me.” There is a pension. There’s Social Security. And there is your weekly check, your rent check, your food check, and all these other things. And you can’t tell me you’re not human, and you’re wondering about it yourself. How do we survive?

How are we going to make it, Pastor Dave? Now, folks, as a pastor, I feel this burden of the Lord. I can’t just stand and warn people that hard times are coming. If you use me as a voice to do that, then you’d better use me as a voice to give people some kind of instruction, not just on investments, but how are we going to survive so that we’re not facing the future focused on the hard times?

It bothers me very much that the focus now, there’s so much gallows humor. There’s so much talk about everything blowing up and everything falling down and the end of all things that even some of the most pious Christians, that’s all they talk about. They’re not even focused on the Lord anymore. They’re not focused on the Word of God, and they have no peace of mind.

God Doesn’t Hide the Truth from His People

There’s a troubling all over the nation. God never hides anything from His people. He doesn’t hide the truth. If He’s going to warn us, He’s not going to just leave us hanged there under that Damocles’ sword and live in constant dread and fear. That’s not the way of our heavenly Father. You wouldn’t treat your children that way, and God will not treat us that way.

The problem is, we don’t want Biblical answers to these problems. We want secular answers. We want man-centered answers. Because when I come now and tell you that I’m going to talk about how Christians can prosper in hard times, there’s going to be some who have a mindset saying, “Well, wait, this is trickery. I don’t want any nebulous talk about God being my broker. I don’t want something impractical where you just say pray and hear a voice from God, and He’s going to direct you.

No, I want to know where I put my money. Do I go to T-bills? Do I take my retirement funds out of control of these and try, because you can do that, can I put the little bit of money I have in retirement and put it in government T-bills or whatever?” You know, people tell me, “If you’re going to put your money, put it in treasury bills, government T-bills, because if the government goes down, it’s all over anyhow. That’s the last thing that stands.”

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It’s sad to see multitudes of Christians have so neglected the word of God. They have had so little of the word of God revealed to them from their pulpits and their churches, that they no longer have confidence in this book. They no longer believe that this is the real answer. So what they’re doing now, even Christians that should know better, they have lost confidence in this book. They have no ability to get alone with God in a secret closet and wait to get directions from God. And I’m going to tell you, you may laugh at this, but God is my broker.

God should be our broker. What do you mean by that? Brother Dave, how much money have you got? I’m responsible for the monies that come into this church to support all the charities and everything else. And what God has supplied, we have to get together as pastors and we pray and we meditate before the Lord, and God gives direction. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I’ll bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent,” if God not made foolish the wisdom of the world. You see, people all over the United States, Christians, they want me to give them something from my head, something I’ve read, expect me to be an economist.

I’m the most stupid economist on the face of the earth. I don’t know anything. I know judgment is coming, but I know the book. Do I trust any economist in America or in the world? No. Do I trust any secular newsletter, financial newsletter? No. Do I trust Social Security? No. Do I trust that the government is going to survive? Even that can fail. You mean you don’t trust the pension funds? You don’t trust any of these? Who do you trust?

Everywhere I go, I’m looking for a safe place for my money. I have a feeling, I’m going to tell you something, I’m going to tell you this in truth. In the next six months, I could be a multimillionaire. Are you listening? If all I did, I could do it easy. I would go to the library here and pick up every New York Times and Times Magazine all day, and I would piece together every little bit of information from all of these stupid economists that don’t know what they’re doing, because God’s blinded them judicially because of sin.

The wisdom of the world, He said, I’m going to make it foolishness. And I could write a book, “How to Survive the Coming Depression.” Nothing spiritual about it, and I could just send it out to Christians, and I’ll tell you what, I could sell a million of those books at $8 apiece and have $8 million in the next six months. Because people don’t want Bible answers. That’s too nebulous, that’s spiritual.

What does spirituality have to do with investment? What does spirituality have to do with learning how to make it in hard times? Folks, that’s everything. That is the basis of it, if you’re a Christian. You know, if God says He’s going to shake everything that can be shaken, the only thing left is going to be those things that can’t be shaken, doesn’t it sound reasonable then to find out what can’t be shaken and go get on that bell? And God’s clearly shown us what can’t be shaken.

Now, there’s a kind of believer the Scripture says, go to Psalm 1, the first Psalm. There’s a kind of believer the Bible says is going to prosper in any kind of situation, no matter what the economy is. Verse 3, I’m going to show you the man who’s going to prosper in hard times, then we’ll go back and explain it. And he, this man who’s going to prosper in hard times, this woman, “he should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.” Verse 3, “that bringeth forth fruit in his season, his leaves also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall,” what? Prosper.

The Man Who Prospers in Hard Times

Now, that word in Hebrew means to overcome any adversity. It means to rise above and overcome any kind of adversity, economic, physical, spiritual, any adversity, this man is going to prosper. Now, the Bible said there’s that kind of man. I won’t be that man. Or that woman, you won’t be that woman. There it is. God hangs this out in front of us, and God is not a tease. God is not a mocker.

He said there’s a man here. Anything in this book, Pastor Carter made it clear, I want it. He wants all the good stuff, the spiritual stuff that makes a man or woman of God. This is part of it right here. Thank God it’s there. To prosper is to overcome adversity. David said the ungodly are not so.

Verse 4, “the ungodly are not so, but they’re like the chaff which the wind drives away.” Now, look at me, please. There’s a storm coming, and it’s going to be a windy storm. There’s going to be spiritual lightning and thunder like we’ve never known. And in this hard time, there are going to be many Christians blown away. The ungodly are going to be blown away. They’re going to be blown away with this adversity. We’ve got people now that are multimillionaires driving $200,000 automobiles and living in $5-10 million homes.

They’re going to be poverty stricken without a dollar. It is going to be awesome. They’re going to be driven away by the wind of adversity that’s coming. Jesus said their hearts will fail them for fear, beholding those things that are coming on the earth.

But then he says there are the godly ones who will not be driven to despair. They’ll face the same violent storm, the same calamities, and they are going to survive it. They’re going to prosper in those times. Now, let me tell you the kind of prosperity I’m talking about.

It’s not a prosperity as expressed and known by the world, riches, goods, silver, estates, all kinds of material wealth. We’re talking about everything in the Scripture talks about prosperity being the fulfilled life in Jesus Christ where whether you’re bound or whether you’re based makes no difference to you. That the real wealth is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and your security in Him that come what may, nothing is going to blow you away. What comfort, what peace is it if you’re what they call one of the lucky ones and you saw the storm coming like many people?

New York Times says that many wealthy people in New York City and many in Wall Street have already got their golden parachute. They have a place out in the country stocked with food. They’ve got their guns. They’ve got everything to protect their stockpile. And they’re out there now just waiting. And they’ve got their chauffeurs waiting. They’ve got a little shack, a little cottage for their chauffeur. And he’s ready to scoot them out of this city for a sign of any kind of riot or violence.

But what comfort is it if you’re one of those so-called lucky ones and you were able to keep your money and everything around you is crashing? What kind of comfort is it when God said, “I’m going to shake terribly the earth. I’m going to shake it.” And everything, you turn on the news and everything is shaking around you. And you’re sitting there nervously trying to protect what you have. And every time there’s somebody out in the yard, somebody’s got the gun and there’s nervousness and everything else, and living like this.

There are books written now by Christian writers telling people how to prepare for the coming storm. One of them that I have in my library, it says “you buy 25 cans, one-pound cans of chewing tobacco so that you can trade it with the sheriff when he comes to help protect you when your food is under attack.”

This Christian book suggests that you buy four cases of booze, big bottles, so that anybody comes against you and they’re criminal type, don’t let them have the whiskey, give them the whiskey. And I’m reading this stuff. And they list five kinds of guns that you have to have. And how much ammunition you have to have. These are Christians!

I wonder how many guns they had in the wilderness to protect their manna. You see, Isaiah prophesied in a time similar to this. In his early days, the land was full, the Scripture says, of silver and gold. Neither was there any end of their treasures. Their land was full of horses, neither any end of their chariots. Chariots, horses, cars in our time. There was no end to the wealth.

Gold was their idol, an idolatry of hoarding gold and silver. Purchasing expensive chariots. Gold had become their idol. And they said their desire was to live the rest of their life in ease, above the reach of danger, beyond the reach of danger. But a day came, similar to the day I believe that we’re talking about, when God arose to shake that society. And that gold and that silver, all that materialism that had been hoarded was of no value in the terror of the storm.

With all the materialism, wealth, and their gold and silver. Here’s what happened, the Scripture says, “in that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold to the moles and to the bats. To go to the crest of the rocks for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty when He arises to shake terribly the earth.” Folks, when this shaking comes, gold and silver is not going to buy you a cow. It won’t buy you a McDonald’s hamburger. You don’t believe that.

But that’s what the Bible said, things can get so bad when the nation is under the judgment and chastening of the Lord that gold and silver, because evidently money can lose its value. Now the Christian who is prosperous in hard times is the one who has given up on the counsel of the ungodly and has cast himself completely on the counsel of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God.

Now listen to it again. Do you want to prosper in hard times? Then you turn your ears away from the counsel of the ungodly and you cast yourself completely, becoming wholly dependent on the voice of the Holy Spirit who abides in you. David said of this man in verse 1, the prosperous man, look at verse 1, chapter 1 of Psalm. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Now folks, listen to me, please.

He’s talking about counsel. He’s talking about where you get your advice, whether it be for investments and how to live, whatever it may be. Now when it says “Blessed is this man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,” he’s not talking about going to X-rated movies with your friends, ungodly friends. He’s not talking about all the abominable things we talk about.

The whole thing is this. Blessed is the believer who refuses to make any decision or to be influenced by the advice and counsel of ungodly scoffers who hold God’s word in derision. It’s so far beyond just sex and gambling and standing in the way of sinners, sitting in a movie theater with wicked people around. That’s an abominable thing to God, but that’s not what He’s talking about.

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He said if you want to be prosperous, He said you’re going to have to make sure that you do not make any decision because you’re My bride, and I will not have My bride, I’ll not have My church depending on the secular mind. You will have the mind of Christ, you will seek Me, God says, with all your heart, your mind, soul, and strength, you will turn to Me.

“His delight is in the law of the Lord, in His law he does meditate day and night.” He’s not getting his direction from somebody else. He’s not making his decisions based on what he reads in the newspaper or what any economist says. He bases every decision on what he gets on his knees. And he’s meditating in the law of the Lord, in the law of the Lord he meditates day and night. Don’t, please don’t come to me and say, “Pastor, I’m concerned, I want to know what to do.”

Don’t expect God to give you direction if you won’t even go to Him and ask for it. You’re not even praying, you’re not seeking God. You say, “How am I going to survive in these last days, what am I going to do?” And some of you that are retired say, “I don’t have any problem,” I’m not trying to scare anybody, but none of these things are safe because He said He is going to shake everything, everything’s going to be shaken.

You had better be on your knees. You better be seeking His face. You should do that anyhow, not just to know how to survive, but because you love Him. But the byproduct of doing that out of love is to be in close communion where you hear, you know, He said, “My sheep know My voice.”

You know His voice? God’s not vague on this in showing His hatred and His dislike, this process of going to somebody else than to Him for direction and counsel. “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and trust in horses and chariots, in horsemen because there are many and strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither do they seek the Lord.” He said, you’re running everywhere else looking for direction.

You want advice, you want counsel, but you won’t come to Me. I mean, these people that are writing to me are on their face. How many are in the secret closet? Because I have a suspicion, I have a knowledge, I believe is a better word in me, that if they had been seeking God with all of their heart, God would have put their mind at ease.

God would have always told, “I’m going to take care of you. I’m going to tell you every step to take. I’m going to see you through this.” He would bring comfort to the heart. The Holy Spirit is here, and He’s the comforter. If you’re spending time with the Holy Ghost, He’s got to be comforting you.

Isaiah warned all that put their confidence in ungodly help, they’re going to fall, the Scripture says. Isaiah 30, verse 3, “they shall all fall together.” That means the counselor and those who listen to their counsel. Jeremiah 17, verse 5, “Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and make his flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord.” Then the prophet said, “But blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord, he shall never cease from bearing fruit.” Never. He will always have an answer.

All right, secondly, those who fully trust the Lord Jesus Christ need never be moved or terrorized about the coming storm. No one on earth, nobody knows the full extent of what’s going to happen. Nobody knows that. I don’t. There’s nobody that knows the full extent of what it is. But Paul made a statement, and I was reading it this past week, and it blessed me.

Remember, Paul was going up to Jerusalem, and he said, “I go bound in the spirit up to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.” He had no idea that when he got there, he was going to turn the city upside down. He had no idea that he was going to be stoned. He had no idea that the temple would go wild and a mob would take him prisoner into the high priest, that he would be bound with chains, threatened with death. He’d brought before rulers and tried and examined and finally end up in a Roman prison.

He didn’t know any of that. He said, “I’m looking into the future, and I don’t know what’s coming.” There were hard times coming for him. In fact, Paul said, “I’m not knowing those things that befall me, but none of these things move me. Neither count I my life dear unto myself.” He said the Holy Ghost, he made it very clear that the Holy Ghost had told him that hard times await him, persecution, afflictions.

He said, “It’s all I know that persecutions are going to befall me. I don’t know what the future holds. All I know is that the Holy Ghost has warned me hard times and afflictions are accounted to me.” That’s Acts 20:23. Now, folks, we don’t know what’s coming, but we do know God says hard times are coming. Just like He told Paul, the Holy Ghost warned him, and Paul said he was grateful the Holy Ghost warned him.

But he said, “I want to tell you something. I don’t know what’s coming. I don’t know how hard.” In fact, if the Holy Ghost had told him how hard, it may have been a little difficult for him. But I don’t think so with Paul, because he said, “Really, I know how to abound, and I know how to be abased.” He said, “upon all things, I’m contented because I have Christ. And nobody can take that from me. They can take a paycheck. They can take everything else away from me, but they can’t take what I have in my heart. And I fully trust in Him who is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.” That’s any day.

Paul the Apostle said, “But you see, none of those things move me.” He was not moved by the potential of facing hard times because he coveted no man’s silver or gold. He said, “I have coveted no man’s silver or gold or apparel.” He said, “I don’t want anybody’s bank account. You can have all those things, gold, silver, all of that. I’m not even looking.” Paul probably only had one tunic, one piece of clothing, one suit, so to speak, of his day.

He said, “I’m not after any of those things. I have showed you all things how that laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ‘it is more blessing to give than to receive.'” Now, this man’s facing hard times. He’s thinking about giving, not hoarding. Go ahead and show me a beautiful little lady in the Midwest.

I think she mentioned she was a grandmother. She said, “Pastor David, I know hard times are coming. I’m a praying woman. If God’s revealed to me, it’s going to be worse than anybody knows.” She said, “they’re not even going to be able to buy little things.” So the Lord told her, she said, to go collect little things that people are not going to be able to get. Like she’s saving up hairpins, needles, thread, and she’s got rooms full of all of this stuff she’s got. Not for herself.

She says, “I’m going to be, in the hardest times, I’m going to be giving everybody things that they can’t get. Toothpaste and all these things.” I can’t argue with that because she’s got a giving heart. She’s got a room full of hairpins and bobby pins and safety pins and needles and everything else. But she’s got a giving heart. Glory to God.

I’m not against storing food. But you better have a gun around. If you’re going to store food, it’s because you want to give to your neighbors. You want to give to others and to friends. You know, you contrast that spirit of this little lady because she just wants to give. Contrast that with the spirit grabbing everything you can get.

And if I’m the only one that survives, I’m going to survive. If I have to shoot everybody else to do it. God help us. Now let me tell you why none of these coming calamities ought to move you or me as Christians. Hear it well now. Because man’s hour of darkness is always Christ’s hour of power. Let me tell you what I’m talking about before I close here very quickly. God’s hour of power is always revealed or always brought into action at the point of man’s greatest despair.

Remember Jesus being invited to a wedding with His disciples? His mother was there, evidently a friend of Mary’s who’s getting married. But Jesus and His disciples were invited. And Jesus’ mother came to Him and said, “They have run out of wine.”

And remember what Jesus said? “Woman, what have I to do with thee? My hour’s not yet come, my hour’s not yet come.” I’ve often wondered about that. I looked this up, when He said “Woman,” that expression was an oriental expression that was of the highest order of respect of that time. “Woman” was not an address of disrespect. The oriental mind at that time, “woman” was a very respectful address. He said, “You want Me to turn water into wine, but My hour’s not yet come.” That hour came shortly after.

That hour came for His demonstration of power. But Jesus, I always pictured Jesus at the wedding, everybody’s out here and He’s way back here somewhere in the corner just watching. Because my mind could never conceive how Jesus could be happy and laugh and hug somebody and say, “congratulations bride, you’re getting married. God bless you.”

I’ve always pictured Jesus over here, “What am I doing here, man?” Because that’s like me. I put myself in the picture. Weddings, I’m always back here, “When is this thing going to be over?” No, not when I’m up here doing it at the reception. I should have never said that. I should have never said that. Almost lost my place.

Jesus said, “My hour hasn’t come.” You know why Jesus said that? They hadn’t come to the end. The bottles were empty because she told them to go to the bottles and do what He says. But Jesus is looking out over it and they still have wine in their glasses. Now when Jesus turned water into wine, I could almost prove to you it’s not alcoholic. And the reason for that is because wine causes, if a woman is expecting a child, alcoholic beverages can kill that child. And Jesus would never offer that kind of beverage to put a baby at risk.

There was a wine at that time. I wrote a book on it. And I’ll maybe have to reproduce it. But Jesus is standing there. He said, “My hour has not come” because they have not run out of their resources. They’re still, I’m going to wait. He’s waiting now until there’s not a drop of wine left anywhere. Not a drop. In other words, He’s looking at these people and He’s saying, “My hour is not yet come. My hour comes when there’s no other hope. When there’s no other way. Where there’s not a drop left. Where there’s not one bit of resource to depend on in the flesh. Not anything man-made left. Nothing of the flesh left. Where there’s total dependence on Me.”

Now He was not going to perform this miracle for anybody there except His disciples around Him. This miracle was for His disciples. Now remember, Jesus said He didn’t do anything unless He was led by the Father. So His Father led Him to that. And He’s doing what the Heavenly Father is teaching Him to do. And there’s a lesson in this.

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The Lord is saying, “Look, My hour comes when you’re at the end of your resources. You look around, I don’t know when my paycheck comes. I don’t know what’s going to happen. When there’s no wine left. That, when there is not a drop left. Where there is, you can’t look to the right or left or anywhere and find any source of comfort. You have nothing to depend on. Then the Lord said, My hour has come. Then happens the miraculous.

Then the miraculous provisions begin. And folks, I honestly believe that we are going to see miracles as real as anything that children of Israel saw in the wilderness. We’re going to live on miracle power from the Holy Spirit. Because America’s darkest hour is Christ’s brightest hour of power to provide for His people. Now folks, this is strictly human provision.

This wasn’t some spiritual revival. He’s trying to show us His first miracle. My first love is My people. I care about how you eat. I care about your house over your head. I care about you. And when everything collapses around you, it’s My hour. John 13:1 says “Jesus knew that His hour had come. That He should depart out of this world unto the Father.” But in Luke 22 it says, when they came after Him and Judas kissed Him and they came at Him with swords and knives. He said, “This is your hour of darkness.” It was the hour of darkness.

And actually, when you see this picture, this is man’s hour of darkness. But it was actually Christ’s hour of power to the human eye. Christ is being carried away by human power. He’s going to be crucified. And Satan was boasting, “this light is going out. I am going to extinguish this light. My darkness will prevail.” Jesus said, “this is your hour of darkness.”

What He’s saying, the devil is boasting. You’re boasting, you’re going to extinguish the light. You’re going to wipe out the hope of mankind. And all of hell rejoiced at this. But the prophet Isaiah said, “Arise, shine, for the light has come.” Jesus came out of the gray, a blazing light. It was not the power of darkness. It was the hour of darkness, but it was really the hour of Christ’s greatest triumph, His greatest power.

You see it? It wasn’t because the prophet said, “the light is going to come bursting forth, the glory of the Lord is going to rise. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall arise upon the wind in gross darkness, covering the whole earth.”

Folks, the earth is going, the whole globe is going into gross darkness. Thank God, the light in that darkest hour is going to rise in your heart, and mine is going to shine brighter than ever. What makes the light shine brighter? The darker it gets, the brighter the light. Hallelujah.

“The Lord shall arise upon thee, His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, the kings to the brightness of thy rising.” You say, “Well, Brother Wilkerson, there’s going to be a depression, a stock market crash, unemployment. We’re going to have food exhausted. There’s going to be darkness everywhere, uncertainty.”

Yes, gross darkness will cover the earth. But in that dark hour will be His finest, greatest hour of power. Folks, I’m starting to get excited as I study the Word. You know, when I was a young preacher, I wanted to see miracles. I really fasted and prayed, “Lord, give me power to go into any hospital and raise anybody up. I’m going to lay hands. Lord, You did it in the Old Testament, You did it in the New Testament. God, I want that power.”

And I was sincere about it. And many young preachers have prayed that. “God, where’s Your power?” We’re going to see incredible miracles. Folks, there are going to be meetings in this church one day should the Lord tarry, where we can spend just a whole Saturday encouraging one another and shouting, listening to the miraculous things that God’s doing in everybody’s life. All who trust Him. Miracle after miracle after miracle of provision, of God doing supernatural things.

I heard of a pastor’s wife, poor, poor pastor’s wife. You maybe heard the testimony. He invited about 12 hungry pastors, hadn’t eaten at the house. His wife went into the kitchen and there was a little bit of spaghetti, just enough for two, three people. And the Lord said, “Put the water on and put it in.” She put it in. She just kept coming out of that pot and fed 14 people out of that one bit of spaghetti. These are honest people.

I know them. They don’t lie. It was a miracle. And even to this day, that was 12, 15 years ago, they still, their faith is so strong because they saw what God could do to keep them. They don’t worry anymore about anything because they said God can do. Where did Jesus get His tax money? Where did the food fall in the desert? Right out of heaven.

You’re going to eat angels’ food. We’re going to eat angels’ food. Hallelujah. The Lord’s going to say, “My hour has come. My hour has come.” Will you stand? Glory to God.

Balcony, make four by your heads, please. Folks, hold steady for just a moment. Before the service, if you notice, I didn’t come out for 15, 20 minutes because I was talking to the Lord. It just broke me before I said, “God, what do You want me to say at the end of this message? What is the invitation?” Let me tell you what it is. Listen to me closely, please.

I saw how many hands were raised visiting here tonight for the first time. It may be you. It may be others that have been coming to this church. But God, the Holy Ghost, told me to give a naked, outright invitation straight out for people that God, by His Spirit, brought into this church tonight. You’re not here by accident.

God arranged this night. And God puts you right where you’re standing, right where God wants you to stand right now. You’re hearing exactly what He wants you to hear. I’m asking for those to step out of their seat who have to acknowledge before the Holy Ghost, “Brother Dave, I have sin in my life. I am not walking righteously before Jesus. I’ve allowed something in my life that’s just eating away at me like a cancer in my soul. And I’m asking God to deliver me tonight from my sin.” Now, no clapping, please.

I’m speaking clearly because God told me to do this. God, the Holy Ghost told me. I’m not going to ask. At first, I thought, “well, I’m just going to ask for everyone that’s got doubts about the future to come. Well, that could include hundreds of people. We could have a big altar call and make me feel real nice.” But that’s not the point tonight. There are some of you that have been coming to this church for quite a while.

And Brother Carter put it so strong in the Holy Ghost this afternoon, the possibility of getting hard. God, dealing with your sin time and time again, and you hold on to it and play with it until finally you’re just comfortable with it. God says, “no.” God says, “I’m speaking clearly to you tonight.

You hear the Holy Ghost. God is putting His finger on it right now and saying, you can’t go on anymore with this in your life. I don’t know what it is. If it’s some kind of a relationship, I don’t know what it is, something you see with your eyes, something you’re doing with your body, whatever it may be. The Lord is saying, tonight, I want to deliver you. In your darkest hour, I can have My finest hour. If you’ll just come and surrender right now. The Lord says, I’ll break this.

If you want it broken, bring it to Me in humility. You can’t do it yourself, but the Holy Ghost is here to give you strength.” And the balcony, walk to the stairs on either end and come down any aisle and meet me here now. A lot of people are coming. Nobody’s going to ask you what it is. Nobody needs to know. But we’re going to have it settled tonight in the name of the Lord. Amen.

God’s Spirit Convicts of Sin

God’s dealing by His Spirit. The Lord told me if I preached what He told me to preach, He’d convict people of their sins, and God would break the chains that bind and set you free. You see, you’ve got a lot of company here tonight. A lot of people being honest before God. The Holy Ghost put His finger. Now, some of you that are here for the first night, God’s telling you, “don’t walk out the door. I sent you here for this night.” God said, “don’t walk out the way you came in.

Are you hearing what the Holy Spirit says?” He said, “Pastor, look, you’re awful strong. It’s life or death for some of you. It’s life or death.” That’s how strong it is. Move in close, please. Make room for those that are coming. The Lord just spoke this morning. If you had stood at your seat there, and there’s sin in your life, and I jumped off this stage, and I went back to you, and I pointed a finger right in your face, and I said, “you’re the man. You’re the one. You’ve got sin.” You walked down this aisle with me. That would be the greatest act of love God could ever do for you. It would not be belligerence on my part. It would not be hardness on my part. It would be the love of God that He would single you out and send somebody to you.

And you see, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost came and fingered you because He loves you. God loves you, and He says, “I want you to live in freedom. I don’t want you to live another day in the bondage that’s been on you. I don’t want you to go another day with this fear. I don’t want you to wake up with this cloud hanging over your head anymore. I want you to be free. I want you to feel the pureness of God.

I want you to feel the clean, the power of cleanliness, the power of being clean before God.” How many want that? “I want to be clean. I want to be clean.” Raise your hand. Keep it up now and pray this with me right now. “Jesus, I confess my sin. Help me, Lord Jesus, to stop excusing it and flirting with it and to face the truth. I cannot hold my sin and go to heaven. I cannot hold to my sin and have freedom. Lord Jesus, I want to be free. I want to be pure, and I want to be righteous. I want Your holiness and your righteousness, but I want Your power right now to deal with my sin. I admit it’s sin. It can never be right. It is wrong.

It’s an abomination, and I confess it. And by faith, I lay it down, and I tramp on it and say, God, it’s Yours. Now, Jesus, give me Your power, Your strength, and Your assurance that You’ll walk with me. Help me to hate my sin and to trust You to cleanse me, take it away, and fill my heart with Your peace.”