The crowd was a little slimmer tonight but the hearts of the people were eager to meet with the Lord. God called us to follow Him from [Acts 20:22-24]. The message simply dealt with Paul being bound to go in the Spirit to Jerusalem, which meant following Jesus into harm and danger.
Paul’s response? I do not count my life as dear. The word “dear” means valuable or precious. Paul was saying I don’t care if following Jesus means chains and afflictions. God has a course laid out for me and I must finish.
How few finishers we have in the church today. We have many who start well but fall away and the zeal fades. God is looking for disciples who will stay the course all the way to the end. At times that may mean finishing alone. Family and friends may forsake you along the way.
We are all called to be ministers. We are all called to follow Jesus to our own Jerusalem to do something for Him. That may look different for all of us. To be a minister for Jesus does not necessarily entail being on staff at a church. It means being a servant to the King. Where is He calling you to serve?
When the invitation was extended people were lined up two deep all across the front of the church surrendering their lives to follow Jesus. There were men, women, and students. Tomorrow the students will begin D’Now. I have never seen a group of students more primed to meet with God than these students going into this weekend. Our services will continue through Sunday at least but I will pass the baton to Mike Satterfield to preach through Sunday morning. We will meet Friday and Saturday night with close to 150 students. Revival continues.
David Wilkerson the founder of Times Square Church and Teen Challenge died yesterday in a car accident in East Texas near Athens. In 1958 Wilkerson sensed God wanted him to forego watching late night television and spend that time in prayer. Wilkerson learned of some gang members going on trial in New York City a couple of weeks later. The Spirit nudged him to go to the trial even though it was 350 miles away and he had never been to New York.
Bound in the Spirit he obeyed. That led to him relocating his ministry and family to New York where he began a ministry to gang members. He wrote a book about it titled: The Cross and the Switchblade.
Nearly twenty years later the Lord bound him in Spirit again to start a church in a dark part of the city. When he asked God to raise a witness in that area God surprised Him by telling Wilkerson to do it. Once again he followed obediently not knowing how it would turn out. Today the church has 8,000 members. He went on to write 30 books. God used this man to touch millions. He died unexpectedly at 79 years of age but He followed God. He went to New York bound in the Spirit not knowing what awaited him. Who is the next David Wilkerson to hear God nudge and bind in the Spirit to go for Him?
It all started with the Spirit calling and binding Him to go minister to troubled gang members. The challenge for us is to be willing to follow wherever the Spirit binds us to go. It might mean going to a hard place and taking a huge step of faith. If our life is really His it does not matter. Our heart should simply be, “May the will of the Lord be done.” Where He leads I will follow. Where He goes we go. Where He stays we will stay. We must follow.
On to day six and the start of D’Now. More Lord.
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