The Healing of the Troubled Mind: David Wilkerson Sermon (Transcript)

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Quicken my body and quicken my mind to speak this directly into the hearts of those gathered, I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A troubled mind, that’s the mind that’s worried, it has no peace, it has no calm, it has no rest, disturbed, fretting about the future, worried about the past. It’s a troubled mind. And folks, the world today is a troubled world.

The world is absolutely perplexed as it has never been before. And tragically, as I look out over the body of Christ and the mail that we receive from our very large mailing list all over the world, I hear the cry of troubled minds and hearts everywhere. And amazingly and tragically, Christians seem to be as troubled as the masses of the unconverted. Many, many thousands of Christians who go to bed at night troubled in mind, wake up with the cloud over their head, have no peace whatsoever.

They go to church, they worship and for a few hours they get a release and they go right back to the troubled mind. I’ve asked the Lord to explain to me — in fact, when I prayed about this message this morning, the Holy Spirit said “I want to show you from My viewpoint, from My aspect, why My people are so troubled and why the world is so troubled today.”

Folks, you can hardly find anybody, even at this Christmas season, where multitudes are shopping. Jingle bells all over the place. Santa Claus is, and in spite of all of the spending and the hoopla, there’s a sadness. If you, at 11 o’clock tonight or any night on Broadway and you go outside these shows and you watch the people coming out, you won’t find a smile. They’ve just paid $50 to $75 to see a play to find some kind of release and they come out more burdened than when they went in.

Look at the shoppers coming out of Saks Fifth Avenue a few blocks down here. Look at them at Rockefeller Plaza looking at the Christmas tree and the ice skating and see if you can find but a few smiles and most of those smiles are from Iowa or the Midwest. You find very few New Yorkers, I can assure you, that are smiling. They’re looking saying, “What are all those people gawking at, you know?” One of the primary causes of this state of mind is the pressures of the times.

The Pressures of Modern Life

The pressures. You know, we were told by the specialists and by the experts that if people had a good job, if people had enough money, if people had a good education, if people had money in the bank, if they just had enough of the American pie or the American dream, they would be happy. They would be satisfied and bring peace of mind.

We were told that the drug addict, the alcoholic, the homeless drug addict that’s out on the street, and we’ve been working with these for 40 years now, so don’t tell me I don’t know something about it. We were told, I’ve been told for 40 years, the reason he’s an alcoholic, the reason he’s on the street, the reason he’s drunk is because he’s had a poor education. Society has robbed him of his opportunities. And if you would just take that man and give him a good paying job and put him in a nice apartment with some decent furniture and you give him a little bit of spending money, he’s going to be fine.

You know, it’s amazing when Nicky Cruz, Mau Maus gang leader got saved years ago under our ministry, they thought he was incorrigible, so a psychiatrist took him up to Bear Mountain for a whole day to psychoanalyze him. And after a whole day, and Nicky was a fighter. He was full of the devil. There’s no question about it, but after a whole day, at the end of the day, the psychiatrist told Nicky, he said, “You’re incorrigibly crazy.”

He said, “And the reason you’re crazy is because you came from Puerto Rico and in a poverty stricken area and in a poor atmosphere, you didn’t have a proper education, you missed out.” He said, “Society created you. Because you didn’t have the opportunities, you didn’t have the money, you didn’t have the opportunities everybody else had.”

Nicky Cruz said, “You’re crazy, man. I just like to jitterbug.” And he said, “By the way, how’d your mother treat you?” He wound up psychoanalyzing the psychiatrist. Nicky just loved to fight. The Lord saved him and he’s an evangelist now and he’ll tell you all about it.

Addressing the Root of Discontent

How do you explain a growing drug problem among the rich teenagers in America that have everything? How do you explain the broker who’s making a quarter million dollars a year and he’s got a vacation home in Vermont or a place in the Hamptons? He drives a Porsche. He smokes $50 cigars. He drinks $300 of wine and he’s miserable. And he has to get stoned to numb his conscience.

I’ve been at Wall Street when the brokerage closes at four o’clock. Go down there sometime and watch what happens. You talk about a bull market, those brokers come out like wild bulls on a stampede to the nearest watering hole.

The Struggle for Peace of Mind in Modern Times

They go and try to drink away the day. Go down there and see for yourself, just two blocks away, up and down, all the little bars and see them pouring in there, out into the streets, trying to numb their feelings. It was supposed to bring happiness. It was supposed to bring peace of mind, but they’re troubled, absolutely troubled in mind because they’re afraid that the good life that they have accumulated and worked so hard to achieve, they’re going to lose it somehow.

There’s going to be a crash. It’s all going to be gone and they have no moment of peace. Trouble of mind because of the pressures of this present time. My secretary received a call this week from a professional man somewhere in the United States. I wasn’t in my office, I wasn’t available. He said, “He’s got to be available now. I read his book, ‘America’s Last Call‘, and he said, ‘I want him to go to God. He’s got to go to God, get some inside information.” He said, “and I’m going to give you my number and I am demanding that he calls me back. I’ve got to know where to put my money before I lose it. It’s my retirement.” He was angry, as if his life was in my hands.

Afraid of losing it. Can’t sleep. Troubled. Trying to hold on to something that took a lifetime to accumulate.

Seeking Spiritual Guidance in Times of Turmoil

After he said that, I was reading Psalms and here’s what I read. Oh God, this is David speaking. “Give me help from my trouble because all the help of man is in vain.” My help is in vain. I’m not an investor. I don’t know beans about the stock market. I just pray and God talks to me. He says, get out.

I’ve never been in a stock market, so I want you to go to Luke 21… Luke 21. You know, “Jesus warned us that the time would come when men would just look at what’s happening in their society and to be so frightened, they would be dying of heart attacks.” They may have heart failure. Just looking at things coming to pass and the bad news pressing in on all sides.

And I want you to listen to what Jesus said in verse 25 through 28, chapter 21 of Luke. ‘There should be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars and upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity troubled minds.” In other words, troubling of the mind, perplexity, “the sea and the waves, roaring men’s hearts, failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, the powers of heaven shall be shaken. Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

“When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh.” As God’s people have said, you’re not to have a troubled mind, you’re to have peace. “All of these things have been told you so that when you see them begin to happen, look up and rejoice, not at the things, but rejoice because your redemption is drawing nigh.”

Folks, just the news of this past week is enough to upset anybody’s troubled mind, anybody’s mind.

Global Economic Uncertainty and Its Impact

If you’ve been listening to the news, if you’ve been reading your papers this past week, Japan, the second largest bank in Japan. Now remember, Japan is sinking into a great depression. They were trying to hold their banking system together this past week. The second largest bank went bankrupt. They couldn’t hold it. $30 billion in bad debts. The bank is being taken over by the federal government.

Alan Greenspan this past week made a statement that shocked me. He said that “The stock market right now is acting just as it did before the great depression of 1929.” That’s from Alan Greenspan. He said it brought on the great depression, the wild speculation as we’re seeing it today. The president of the United States is in danger of being impeached and driven out of office.

And you know, the saddest part of it all is that the majority of American people are sitting back and say, “Who cares? Who cares?” I’m going to tell you something, folks. I’m going to stop for just a moment and tell you: “If the president of the United States is driven out of office, it will not be because of adultery.”

Moral Concerns and Political Turmoil

If you read this book, the only reason God drove men out of their kingdoms all through this is because of bloodshed. It’s because of abortion. I had lunch last week with a brother who is going to run for president again. And he was Bush’s vice presidential candidate last time around. And we had lunch with a few ministers and he said, “There are 5,000 abortions a day in the United States right now, 5,000 a day, a million and a quarter.”

But what bothers us more than anything else is the abortion in the trimester just prior to being born. And folks, if there’s any judgment, it’s going to come because of bloodshed. Nothing else, nothing short of that.

Here in New York City this past week, one of the finest teachers in our public school system in New York City was fired for bringing a Bible and laying it on his desk and making it available, not preaching it, not pushing it. “Say, if you’d like to read it, it’s available.”

Now, if he’d laid Playboy there, nothing would have been done. If he had laid condoms there and said, “Help yourself, here they are, come and get them,” he would have been applauded. But because he took a Bible, he brought a Bible to class, laid it on the desk and students, his class was above all the others. They were doing well. He was one of the finest teachers in the school system, and they fired him for bringing a Bible.

Now, that troubles my mind. That troubles any godly person who sees the deplorable moral landslide that’s happening here in the United States. You know what a Republican congressman said on Friday? I was listening to radio and I was so shocked. And he’s going to be voting on this impeachment situation. And he said, “Forget impeachment, forget the moral issue.” In so many words, he said, if we impeach him, we’re going to lose our prosperity and we’re going to have a depression. No moral concern, no moral values. Money. It’s always been money. “It’s always been the pocketbook. It’s always been the economy, stupid.”

Well, that was the motto that brought Clinton into office. “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Predictions of Economic Downfall and Moral Decay

Folks, I’ve always believed that. I’ve always known that. I believe that we’re on the brink of a major depression. I believe it’s right at the door and it’s going to be worse than the Great Depression. It’s going to be a long-lasting depression and God’s going to judge America. There’s no question about it. And just as soon as that happens, you let the stock market go down 2,000 points, I believe it’s going to go down 6,000 to 7,000 words all over.

But if it goes down 2,000 points, the whole nation will turn on Clinton. They’ll turn on him. He’ll be a reprobate in their eyes because it’s all money and prosperity. Nobody wants to be disturbed. “Let him alone because he’s done a good job in keeping us prosperous.”

The Moral Landslide and Its Impact on the Faithful

Now, on the other side of the coin, we get letters from all over the United States from people who are troubled because of the moral landslide itself. These are Christians, godly Christians, especially the letters that we get from those who are in their 90s. I got a letter yesterday or Friday from a 97-year-old preacher, still preaching, at 97.

This man has lived through two wars. He’s lived through a depression. He lived through the dust bowl in Oklahoma and Texas in the 1930s. This man has gone from horse-drawn carriages to jet airplanes. This man was there before radio was invented. Now there’s the internet. This man has seen it all. He wrote me a letter. He said, “Brother Dave, what I see now is trash.”

He said, “In all my years, all my combined years, there’s more wickedness now than there was in all the years prior.” “In one year, he said, I’ve seen more.” He said, “I am shocked, in so many words, absolutely shocked at the technology that the devil has taken control of.”

Take the internet. Pornography is now one of the major sellers on the internet, pornography, and in the movies and everywhere else. Oh yes, folks, it troubles the mind, the pressures of the day. I don’t know what troubles your mind. I don’t know whether it’s fear of losing your job, how you’re going to keep up your payments, the debts that you have. Could it be illness? It could be something that has happened in your life that you can’t understand, and it’s troubled you.

I want you to go to turn left to Matthew, please, for just a moment. Matthew 24.

The Spiritual Guidance of Matthew 24

I want you to start at verse 6 with me, if you will, please. Matthew 24, beginning of verse 6, “You should hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled.” Now, folks, look at me, please. That’s a commandment from the Lord. He said, see to it, make sure that you don’t allow all these things you see and hear to trouble your mind. Don’t let it trouble your mind.

He said, “There’s going to be wars, rumors of wars, nations are going to rise against nations, kingdoms against kingdoms. There’s going to be famines, there’ll be pestilence, earthquakes in various places. These are the beginning of sorrows.” He goes on to enumerate these things. He said, “in spite of what I’m telling you now, when you see it happen, don’t let it trouble your mind.”

Now, I’m going to tell you something. Just saying it is not going to make it work. Just like, just say no to drugs. Jesus said, “let not your heart be troubled.” Now, you can read that, but that’s not going to work. Just the word itself, I’m going to show you how you can arrive at that place in the Lord in just a moment.

I want to move on to the second cause of the troubling of minds today. Now, I’m speaking now only to Christians, only to those who love Jesus.

The Inner Struggle of Christians

You have given your heart completely to the Lord. You’re sold out to Christ. He’s your source of life. You’re trusting Him completely. I want to speak to you. Many Christians who love Jesus are troubled because they’re perplexed by their own sinfulness, their failures, and their weaknesses. They are troubled because they cannot find the place of victory over the dominion of sin.

Now, I want to tell you something. Listen very, very closely. The man who really loves Jesus or woman who really loves Jesus, the thing that troubles the mind is not going to be the economy. It’s not going to be material things. It’s not even going to be a part of the material world at all. It’s going to be spiritual. It’s going to be in the spirit realm.

Now, follow me if you will, please. We hear all the experts tell us why people, and even Christians, you go to a Christian bookstore here, you can find literally hundreds of books on how to deal with your perplexities, how to deal with loneliness, and all of that. And folks, it’s just a babble of confusion. Very little of it, most of it’s pop psychology with a little bit of Jesus added to it to make it sound Christian.

But I believe what the Holy Ghost says to my heart. And let me tell you what I heard from the Holy Spirit, and I didn’t get it out of a book.

The Struggle with Sin as Described in Romans 7

I heard it from the Holy Spirit. The real cause is found in Romans 7. You don’t have to turn there, but in Romans 7, you read this, “for that which I am doing, I don’t understand. I don’t understand what I’m doing.” No, this is Paul speaking as one who truly loves Jesus, “for I am not doing that that I would like to do, but I’m doing the very thing I hate.”

In verse 19, Romans 7, 19, ‘for the good that I wish to do, I do not. But I end up doing the very evil thing that I hate.’ The thing that I don’t want to do is what I end up doing. The thing that I would love to do in obedience to God, I can’t find it in myself to accomplish. He said, “I can’t do it.” This ends up in a wretched cry, “Oh wretched man that I am.” Paul was voicing the cry of many troubled Christians, troubled in their spirit and troubled in their mind because they hate their sin.

They hate that habit. They hate that lust. They hate that one thing that they know disturbs communion with the Lord. But they can’t seem to find the power to break it. They seem to get victory for a while, and this is the moment they feel that they have total victory. “Thank God it’s all over.” They find the sin is still at the door. They trip up and go back, and then they’re down in despair, crying, “Oh wretched man that I am.” The thing that I hate is what I’m doing. The thing that I want to do to please God, I find out I can’t do.

And the heart cries out, “I’m miserable. I’m perplexed. Why can’t I do what is right, especially when I want to do it so much? I want to please God. I want to walk in righteousness. I don’t want this thing anymore in my life.” And that’s the cry of multiplied millions of Christians all over the world.

This is troubling the minds of many. They don’t sit in church thinking about the economy. They come to church thinking about the failure of the past week, the sin they thought they’d conquered, and it came back with power, and it was there, and now they sit in church feeling downcast, miserable, and wretched, and troubled in their minds because “I thought I had victory and I didn’t. How long does this last? Do I go all through my life crying a river of tears, confessing and repenting, and going back to my sins?”

“Oh, wretched man that I am,” Paul cries out. “Why am I so weak?”

The Struggle with Sin and Seeking Redemption

Why do I fail so much when all I want to do is love and please my Lord? If you ask any lover of Christ what troubles him more than anything else, and it’s the failure in his life, and not just the big sins that we totem pole, such as adultery, and fornication, and gambling, and drugs, and alcohol. These are the big things that most Christians talk about. But you see, there’s a measure for holiness and righteousness.

There’s a way to measure your holiness. There’s a way to measure. There’s a true measure of true righteousness, and it’s simply this. It’s how you feel after you sin what people call the little sins. How grieved are you? What kind of regret do you have when, no, it’s not adultery, perhaps. It may not be alcoholism. It may not be drug addiction.

But you see, we overlook sometimes the sins of the mouth, and the mind, and the imagination. The sin of speaking an evil word against your brother or sister, gossip, dirty jokes, hearing and telling of them, filthy conversation coming out of filthy thoughts because we have been feeding on the wrong kind of trash. How do you feel? What kind of regret?

How troubled are you by even the so-called little things in life and inside of God? They’re not little. Sometimes they are greater than all because they come out of the heart. You can measure your righteousness by the grief that is in you, and your unwillingness to accept anything that would grieve your blessed Savior. Anything that would grieve Him.

I’ll give you an illustration. This past week, I said something very crude to my wife. Something unchristlike. And she’s here this morning. She said, “You won’t tell that, David.” It was just, it was uncalled for. It was crude. It was mean. And I stomped up to my room and I was so mad at myself. I said, “Where’d that come from?”

I have never prayed more than I have prayed in this past year. I’ve never loved Jesus more than I love Him now. How could I be so crude and unchristlike to say that to her? And I was grieved. I was mad at myself. “I’m saying, God, where is the victory?” What? How did I go back to something? I could have done that years ago, but not now. After all that I’ve known, I preach against that. A grief. I couldn’t even sit down.

I was just walking around my study. I said, God. I went downstairs and I put my arms around her and I said, “Hey, I am so sorry. I don’t know where that came from. I am so angry at myself. I’m so peeved.” And I went up to myself on the floor in the prayer room and I cried and I wept before God because I was feeling grief in my heart. I was feeling grief over it.

And then the enemy whispers, well, that was no big deal. That was no big thing. But then the Holy Spirit spoke something in my heart. “The very fact that you’re grieving over sin is proof that the Holy Ghost is at work in you.” The Holy Ghost is at work. If you can commit the smallest sin, what you think is the smallest sin and just wake it off, no big deal, no great thing. Then I doubt the Holy Ghost is at work in your heart. You’re the closest to victory, the more grieved you are over the littlest things by which you transgress the love of Jesus.

And I thank God for that moment, the cleansing that came to my heart. Because He put that grief in my heart. You can’t work that up. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.

But I want to tell you something. Listen closely to me now, please. The righteous person, those who really love God’s Word, that very Word of the Lord that you love can really frighten you. It puts the fear of God in you.

I read, you were servants of sin, but now you’ve obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that’s been delivered to you. And being now made free from sin, you become servants of righteousness. In Romans 6, “but now being made free from sin, you become servants to God.” You have your fruit unto holiness.

I keep reading, you’re dead to sin. You’re free from sin. Now you’re bearing the fruit of righteousness. And then sometimes you look at yourself, who, me? I read that, but Lord, I am not really free from sin. This is the troubling of the church of Jesus Christ, of millions and millions of Christians. I cannot live up to that Word. This is just a notation from some of the letters I get.

The Plight of Struggling Christians

This young man says, “I’m so tempted by sex sin and I give in. I love Jesus with all my heart, but I feel God’s presence slipping out of my life because even though I love Him, I keep going back to my sins. Yet I hate it. I cry like a baby while I’m participating in it, asking God to help me not to do it. Yet I keep doing it. I trust God to deliver me, like Paul says in Romans 7, and I love God with all my heart.” Yet I feel like I’m wrong and I’m helpless. Sometimes I feel good and I feel like I’m being sifted like wheat.

Other times I feel like Judas, who’s betrayed the Lord. Sometimes I think that suicide is the only way out. Here’s a woman’s in adultery with a married man. She said, “I pray for deliverance, salvation, repentance, and strength. And I vow to be strong next time. But then when I see him, I fall right back into the same old thing. I’ve lived a clean moral life for years. Never thought I would be capable of something like this, but how to stop it, I don’t know. I’ve fallen into hell. I read your newsletters and they convict me. I’ve prayed and I’ve tried to cast out my demons that have caused my sexual sin, but I feel so doomed. All those scriptures racing through my mind. I feel like a reprobate. I’ve brought this on myself, Pastor Dave. I’m so full of guilt, fear and panic and disgust. I feel doomed. I feel so alone. I feel so detached. What you fear really does come upon you. I am alone. I feel cut off from God.”

And we get all kinds of mail like that. There’s this terrible troubling of the mind because sin has attached itself and I can’t seem to get the victory. I seem to be a victim.

The Promise of Victory Over Sin

Let me tell you, God has provided an antidote. God has provided a cure. There is power and victory over sin. Hallelujah. There is victory over all of these things that trouble our minds. I want you to… I’m going to try to make it as simple as I believe the Lord has made it to me.

Many, many years ago, you know, we’ve been talking about the covenants. Many years ago, centuries ago, God made an agreement, a sworn oath to a man named Abraham. “One of our fathers.” He said, “I’m going to swear to you and to your children. I have made an oath.”

And folks, let every man be called a liar, but let God be true. It’s impossible for God to lie. He made incredible ironclad promises for Abraham and his seed. And those are not the natural Jews.

Understanding the Promise to Abraham’s Seed

The seed, those who are of faith, who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve said this before, but just to lay the foundation for those who have not heard me speak it, the scripture says in Romans 9, 8, ‘they which are the children of flesh, they are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.’ The descendants of Abraham, according to this, are those who believe in Christ by faith. And here’s a scripture that nails it down, makes it very conclusive.

This is Galatians 3, 7. “Know you, therefore, that they which are of faith, they are the seed and children of Abraham.” They which are of faith are the children of Abraham. Now, God made Abraham a promise that is yours and it’s mine.

I want you to go to Luke 1, and I’ll show it to you, please. Luke, the first chapter. Are you still with me, I presume? Luke, the first chapter. Starting verse 69, please. Luke 1, beginning verse. Let’s start verse 66, 68, rather 68. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people. He’s raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant, David.” And as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began. That here’s the promise that was made to Abraham and his seed, that he should be saved from our enemy — that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father, Abraham.” Now, look at me, please.

God says, “I’m going to isolate these promises. I’m going to make it so clear you can’t miss it.” This has to do with a promise I made to your father, Abraham, and to you, his seed. Now, folks, before you read this, you’ve got to deal with this. God cannot lie. God made me a promise. God made an ironclad promise. And if God broke it, He could not be God. “This is for you. If you’ll take it, you’ve got to absolutely risk your life on it.”

Listen to what it says, the oath which He swore to our father, Abraham. Now, here’s the covenant promises that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. And thou, child, shall be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways.

Look at it again, that verse 74, that “He would grant unto us that we be delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear in holiness, righteousness before Him all the days of our life.” How many of you have lived all your days without fear, without a troubled mind?

The Challenge of Living a Life Without Fear

Oh, folks, most Christians don’t live only a fraction of their time. They just go in and out of moments of peace and rest. They come into the rest of the Lord. How do we enter into this? How do we claim this promise and move into the new covenant? How is that possible? Abraham asked the Lord, he said, “What are You going to give to me, seeing that I have no child?” You know what God said to him, Abraham? “I’m giving you Myself. I’m giving Me to you.” That’s all. “I’m going to be your great reward. And because I am who I am, I am your shield.” You need never fear an enemy. I’m going to be against your enemies as long as you live. I will be a God to you.

The New Covenant and Trusting in God’s Promises

And you read Hebrews 8, 10 is the new covenant. And God says, I will be a God to you. You will be a servant to Me. You’ll be a child, a son, a daughter to Me. I’m going to be God to you. Folks, you look at the old covenant, you look at the new covenant, and you hear God pleading with mankind. He’s been pleading since man was created. “I want to be God to you.”

Folks, stop and think what that means. God says, I am omnipotent, all powerful. Where is an enemy that can stand against Me? The enemies of the Old Testament were the Philistines, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Canaanites. Our enemies today are spiritual enemies. They are our lust of the flesh. They are demonic powers. They are the temptations that Satan throws at us from all sides.

And you read the Old Testament, God says, you shall not fear any God. Fear no other power. Don’t fear the power of the devil. Don’t fear the power of evil. David said, I’ll fear no evil. Don’t sit around saying, “I can’t make it.” Don’t sit around saying, “I’m going down again.” “I’ll never be free.” No, no, no, no. God says, I will be God to you. And I tell you that every promise is made in all the covenants in the Old Testament.

The covenant He made with Adam, the covenant He made with Abraham, the covenant He made with David, the covenant with Israel, all the covenants. God said the same thing. I’m looking for a people who will trust My promises that I will deliver you from all your enemies. God says, I don’t have to tell you I’m going to do it. You just trust My word. You take Me at My word.

Saints, God has made you a promise that if you will trust His word and you will let God be God in you, you will not trust in your own power, your own strength, your own ability. You’ll not try to do it in your own strength.

Relying on God’s Promises and the Role of the Holy Spirit

You’ll stop making foolish promises to Him. I won’t do it anymore because you know you will.” No, you go to the covenant. You go to the promises and you say, “God, Your word is true. You said You want to be my God. I’m going to let You be God in my life. God said, you’re going to be My son. You’re going to be My daughter. And that’s a promise. He’s not going to let you go. You’re going to be a son now. You’re going to be a son at the judgment. You’re going to be a son all through eternity.

All through the Old Testament, it says, remember the covenant I’ve made with you. You shall not forget it. You shall not fear any God, but you shall fear only the Lord your God. He shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies, all your enemies. Glory to God.

Do you know why we don’t have victory? We don’t fully trust God’s word. The moment you give up the struggle and say, “Lord, I resign. I’m going now to commit my life and my future, my sins, my happiness. I’m trusting it now into Your power, into Your hands. I put it in the power of the new covenant promises of God.”

And you know how He does it? He sends the Holy Ghost, His sheriff, His lawyer. And this Holy Ghost sent by God to abide in His children. The moment you commit all to Him and the moment you lose all confidence in your flesh and you turn it over to the Holy Spirit by faith. How do you receive the Holy Spirit?

Receiving the Holy Spirit by Faith

How do you receive the Holy Spirit? By faith. Say, ‘Holy Spirit, come, I believe what God says that You will send the Holy Ghost to give me the power.’ I have no power whatsoever, but the Holy Ghost has all the power. And folks, the moment you do that, the Holy Ghost moves in and He sets up His headquarters right here in your heart.

And He gives notice to the devil. “Devil, you’re not fighting David Wilkerson anymore. Your battle’s with Me.” My Bible says the spirit lusts against the flesh. That means fights against the flesh. You think for one moment your flesh is strong enough to fight the Holy Ghost? Who’s going to fight the Holy Ghost? If you will trust Him, He comes, He says to the devil, ‘I’m going to hunt you down in every crevice of the heart, every dark place I’m going to throw in the light.” And he said, ‘I’m going to set up My banners here. This temple is now the temple of the Holy Ghost.’ Folks, this is not your battle.

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives

This is the battle of the Holy Ghost. My part is to entertain Him, love Him, and trust Him. I stand by and worship and everything He whispers to me, I’ll do it. “But I say, ‘Lord, I can’t do it unless You do it in me.'” It’s called the empowering of the Holy Ghost. Glory to God.

The Bible says walk in the spirit. You’re not fulfilled the deeds of the lust of the flesh. And we complicate that. You know what walking in the spirit is? It’s simply believing what God said, that He’s here. I walk in that knowledge. God said the Holy Ghost is here. “And greater is He that’s in me than he that’s in the world.” And I’m not going to ignore Him. “The Holy Ghost wants to be recognized.”

Recognizing and Trusting the Holy Spirit

I recognize Him as soon as I get up in the morning. “I say, ‘Thank You, Holy Spirit, for abiding in me.'” And, folks, He’s come as a permanent guest to live and abide in our hearts. I don’t believe that He flips in and out. I don’t believe He just walks away. He’s not going to walk away when you need Him the most. Then that throws you back under the old covenant. It’s impossible.

The Holy Ghost will not leave you. He’ll be there, or He’ll discipline you. But I want to tell you something about God right now.

The Father’s Love and Discipline

My heavenly Father and your heavenly Father. He’s not mad at you. He’s not wanting to discipline you. He said it’s hard for Him. Discipline is the hardest thing on God. I know as a father. How many times did my father tell me? And I’ve told my kids and my kids are telling their kids. When they spank him, this hurts me worse than it hurts you. I never understood until I became a father.

My dad used to spank me good. He’d say that and I’m sitting there yelling and squawking and hurting. And I used to think that’s a lie. It’s not a lie. Heavenly Father grieves when He has to discipline. But He does it only out of love. He’s not wanting. He does not have to get you. He’s pleading.

The Simple Power of Faith in God

“I want to be God to you.” I want to be all the power you need over the enemy. Folks, the whole thing boils down to the simple word faith. Will you trust your problems? Will you trust your future? Will you trust your job? Will you trust your life, your sins, and everything into the hands of almighty God? Will you do it?

I’d better quit. I’m getting excited and yelling at you. Let’s stand. Hallelujah.

What does God want for you? He wants you to live your days without fear. Trusting in Him to bring His righteousness and His holiness into your life. Will you quit fighting God and yield to Him and say, ‘Lord, take my life?’

Folks, that’s when I come into such peace and such rest with the Lord. That’s what He wants for you. Now, I happen to know in the spirit this morning that there are a number of you in the annex watching on screen. Yes, you. And balcony here in the main floor, wherever my voice is heard. I noticed many visitors stood here today. God seems to impress on my heart that many of you came today needed a word. Just like this.

You came with a troubled mind. Even though you may be on vacation, you may be traveling somewhere deep inside. You’re dealing with a problem. God wants you to be healed. He wants to heal you. He wants to be God to you. He didn’t appear today to chastise you. He didn’t come to berate you. He came to plead with you. “Why won’t you let Me be God in you?” Why won’t you let Me release my power? If you trust Me, I’ll release all the power that you need.

Why won’t you let Me give you the fullness of the Holy Spirit? So that you can cast all of your problems and all of your fears and worries on Him. Let Him fight your battle for you. Folks, it’s going to get you down. You can’t win. You can’t defeat this thing in your life. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.

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