October 04, 1999
Related Sermon

Dearly Beloved:

GOD BE PRAISED!

A friend of mine was at his wit's end, despairing, wondering if God had forgotten him in his personal nightmare. He became so desperate one morning this past week that he cried out to God, "Unless you send somebody to give me a word of hope, I cannot make it through the day. I simply cannot go on one more day." A few hours later, at the point of giving up on life, he went to his mailbox and found a printed message a friend had mailed him a few days before. It was a message I released in 1992 entitled, "The Making of a Man of God." It spoke hope and restoration to his sick soul, and he marveled at the timing of the Holy Ghost. God was right on time with a special word of hope.

Today I am led by God's Spirit to send out just a few words of encouragement to a certain few who will be receiving their own word of hope -- just at the right time. See if one of the following mini-messages is meant for you.

1. To someone going through a dark night of the soul, feeling God has failed you: Voices have confused you. Your Christian friends have deserted you. You feel too defeated to pray, you feel betrayed and even forsaken by God. Your sense of being abandoned is frightening. There is a deep sorrow in you. A thought has lingered in your mind that you may have offended God. You have lost the sense of God's love for you. Here is what God has to say to you:

"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (Isaiah 49:15).

2. To someone in a marriage crisis: You have been deeply hurt. You want your marriage to be healed, restored, but it looks hopeless. You are miserable. You have prayed diligently. You do not want to disobey the Lord, but you see no hope for restoration. I say to you: Do not give up on your marriage, no matter how bad things appear.

"And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you" (Joel 2:25).

"I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners" (Isaiah 57:18).

3. To somebody who is grieving: Something happened to bring down on you a grief, a sadness, a heaviness you can't shake. You love the Lord, but the grief is there night and day. You get up with grief; you carry it all day; you can't shake it at night. Yet God knows. Here is a word of hope for you:

"I know, 0 Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Let I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant. Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight" (Psalm 119:75-77).

Finally, to all our readers who pray for our ministry to the millions of souls in New York City -- and who are prompted by the Holy Ghost to support us with your missions gifts -- may I thank you. It is truly a miracle how God supplies our needs on time and keeps us debt free.

His bondservant,
David Wilkerson

DW:bbm:10.4.99