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                   Don't Be Carried Away With The Flood!

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By David Wilkerson
September 28,1992
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          "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and
          doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which
          built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended,
          and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon
          that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a
          rock.

          "And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and
          doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man,
          which built his house upon the sand: And the rain
          descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
          beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the
          fall of it" (Matthew 7:24-27).

          Jesus warned of a coming flood in the last days,
          bursting against the people of God! He said we can
          expect hurricane winds of testing, torrential rains of
          troubles, and an ever-rising flood of demonic attacks.

          Revelation 12 says that in those days persecution,
          wrath and trouble will pour out of the devil's foul
          mouth against the church of Jesus Christ:

          "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For
          the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath,
          because he knoweth that he hath but a short time... he
          persecuted the woman which brought forth the man
          child... and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as
          a flood after the woman [the church], that he might
          cause her to he carried away of the flood" Revelation
          12:12-15).

          Isaiah warned prophetically that Satan would "come in
          like a flood" (Isaiah 59:19). And David likened his
          increasing problems to a rising flood from hell: "O
          Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods
          lift up their waves" (Psalm 93:3). David was saying,
          "Help me, Lord - I'm being swamped by a rising tide of
          devilish harassment! The waves are getting bigger -
          they're roaring, telling me I'm going to be
          overwhelmed!"

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                     The Storm That Jesus Told Us About
                            Is Upon Us Right Now
                       - in All Its Fury and Power!

                  ---------------------------------------

          That storm is hitting right now, nationwide and
          worldwide. it's going to keep getting worse! Why?
          Because the more you love Jesus and set your heart on
          following Him, the more fiercely Satan will hurl a
          storm of trouble against you. He'll come against your
          home, your work, your marriage and children, your
          relationships, and especially your walk with the Lord.

          I believe there isn't a single godly home today that
          hasn't experienced hurricane-force testing in one way
          or another. In fact, during one particular week not
          long ago, three of my married children told me
          separately that they each had experienced severe
          testing in their homes. A terrible flood had arisen in
          each of their families: unexplainable anger, foolish
          misunderstandings, raised voices - things that didn't
          normally occur.

          They didn't know that in the same week, Gwen and I had
          experienced one of the greatest testing periods of our
          marriage! An oppression had fallen over us, and we took
          it out on each other. For two days we argued over
          things so insignificant it was laughable!

          One young pastor recently told me a minister friend had
          called him in tears, crying, "I've got to talk to
          somebody - my wife and I are going through a literal
          hell! We love each other dearly, but we're always
          screaming at each other. We try to patch things up, but
          it only makes a fragile peace - and soon another
          outbreak comes. I just can't handle it - I feel like
          running away. I hang on only because I love the Lord!"

          The listening pastor was silent - then he too broke
          down. He cried, "You're telling my story! My wife and I
          are going through the same thing. We hate what's
          happening, but we can't seem to live in peace. It's
          getting worse, and I don't know what to do. It's over
          my head!"

          Many Christian couples are growing alarmed about their
          relationship. They think perhaps they don't love each
          other anymore, or that they've compromised their
          marriage somehow and it's falling apart. Yet they don't
          realize that the flood of problems they're having is
          beyond them - over their heads - and beyond any power
          they have to stop it!

          You see, the storm that is taking place in Christian
          homes and relationships - the unexplained, unexpected
          hurt and trouble - is not natural. It is a supernatural
          flood from hell! Your battle is not between you and
          your spouse; it's between heaven and hell - between God
          and the devil, who wants to bring down your home!

          You have to realize you did not conjure up this
          terrible storm yourself. It didn't happen because of
          some great failure on your part. It's not because of
          some character flaw or a downward spiral in your faith.
          No - you are the target of a mad devil who is
          determined to make your house fall!

          Certainly we can't blame all our problems on the devil.
          We all add to our problems by foolish, sinful outbursts
          of flesh. But Jesus warned us we would be beaten upon
          by a flood and a storm from hell - and that describes
          what is happening in God's house right now!

          You are no match for the supernatural attack you're
          under. You need help beyond anything that's within
          yourself or any other person to give.

          You've got to run to Jesus! Once you recognize that,
          you and your spouse can fall on your knees together and
          fight the battle arm-in-arm - in prayer!

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                     Multitudes Are Hurting Because of
                    Unemployment And Financial Terror!

                      -------------------------------

          Americans are growing more and more fearful about the
          future. Financial ruin looms ahead for many - and there
          is a widespread fear of losing it all!

          New York City recently lost 350,000 jobs. One out of
          seven people is on welfare, and unemployment is up to
          10 percent. Even young men in our church have told me,
          trembling, "For the first time in my life, I have no
          money whatsoever - sometimes not even a dollar. I'm
          terrified at not having resources for anything!"

          There are "death zones" in New York City - areas where
          despair has caused homicides and suicides to rage out
          of control. These are mostly black neighborhoods where
          male unemployment is higher than fifty percent. Men
          feel lost, unneeded and unwanted - and they take out
          their frustration on their families, killing themselves
          or others out of abject hopelessness.

          Beloved, the entire nation is under judgment! God is
          allowing the devil to be His rod of justice and
          judgment against a sinful people. And because Satan is
          free to pour out his venom, he'll bankrupt the nation
          and bring down the economy just to bring fear and
          despair on God's people! He cares nothing about the
          children of darkness - and he'll bring horrible ruin on
          them in order to see God's people brought down!

          Even pastors are not immune to financial fears -
          they're human like everyone else. A minister recently
          told me, "I don't preach about certain things because I
          honestly fear for my job. I dread not being able to
          feed my family. This is the only work I've ever known -
          and I can't afford to lose it!"

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                           There Are Other Hurts
                           Too Numerous to Name!

                      -------------------------------

          Recently, while in prayer, I cried out to God, "Father,
          I've got to be honest with You - I'm hurting!" My hurt
          was not for myself, but for loved ones who are going
          through a flood of troubles. The Lord spoke this to my
          spirit: "David, you're not alone in your prayers.
          Everybody is hurting in one way or another!"

          I don't know what your trial is. But hearing about the
          following has troubled me deeply:

             * In Wisconsin, a minister's wife hurts so badly she
               doesn't want to live, She has been battling an
               obsession for years, and it returns again and
               again: She steals!

               Her last attack was overwhelming. While counting a
               church offering, she stole $2,500. She didn't need
               the money; in fact, she put it in an envelope and
               hid it on a supermarket shelf.

               She confessed, and the money was recovered - but
               she feels dirty. She doesn't see how the Lord
               could forgive her, because she's repented so many
               times before, only to return to her sin. She
               believes her compulsion is God's judgment on her
               for sinning repeatedly!

               Her husband forgives her and loves her dearly -
               but he doesn't know how to help. They're both
               being flooded!

             * A pastor in the Midwest carries a double hurt. He
               and his wife took in a young female graduate from
               a Teen Challenge Center. As it turned out, the
               girl was a lesbian - and over the course of a
               year, she became involved with the pastor's wife.
               Eventually they ran off together, taking the two
               children with them.

               The pastor was crushed! He went to court and got
               his children back - but then the church asked for
               his resignation! They said he had set a bad
               example because he was not master of his home.

               This man has been doubly rejected! He carries the
               terrible pain of being left by a woman he deeply
               loves - and the hurt of being cast aside by his
               church, instead of receiving help from them to
               bear his burden.

             * In New York City, an elderly woman killed her own
               daughter - because she couldn't stand to see her
               ruined anymore by drugs! The Daily News described
               the scene at the funeral:

               "Daisy Hutson bowed her head yesterday and said a
               final good-bye to the crack-addicted daughter she
               has confessed to fatally shooting... The
               68-year-old widow pulled herself away from the
               steel blue casket... (and) said, "That's my kid.
               Nobody will ever hurt her again... Now it's up to
               God to judge me."

               "Hutson has told police that she shot her only
               child, Renee, 48, once in the chest on Tuesday
               night because she could no longer take the lies,
               theft and irrational violence that ravaged the
               woman...

               "(Hutson)... and her daughter had enjoyed a close
               relationship until Renee became addicted to crack
               when it first hit the city in 1986... Renee was
               hooked and immediately began withdrawing money
               from cash machines to support her habit... She
               lived in a crack house and slowly the drug
               consumed her. After years of violent arguments and
               failed tries at rehabilitation, Hutson resorted to
               a court order of protection against Renee.

               "When Renee came to her elderly grandmother's home
               last week and demanded money to pay drug debts,
               Daisy Hutson snapped. She said she asked police to
               enforce the order of protection. When they didn't,
               she shot her daughter."

               How do you describe that mother's hurt? The
               headline in the Daily News said it this way: "Only
               God Can Judge Me Now!"

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                  You Can Know Whether Your Troubles
                   and Hurts Are of Your Own Doing
                   - Or of the Devil and His Flood!

                  ---------------------------------------

          There is a way to tell if your flood is caused by your
          own rebellion. For example, God told Moses that the
          Israelites would go "a-whoring" after strange gods,
          forsaking Jehovah:

          "Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that
          day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face
          from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils
          and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say
          in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because
          our God is not among us?" Deuteronomy 31:17).

          If you're living in outright sin, you can expect God to
          move in and slap your wrist - and He'll do it out of
          mercy! Troubles and hurts have befallen many children
          of God because they love their idols and won't give
          them up.

          But a flood pours out on other believers simply because
          they seek after Him! One word has occurred repeatedly
          in my studies of godly men and women throughout
          history: suffering!

          Indeed, Jesus said the rain falls on the just and the
          unjust alike. But He also said that if you're on the
          Rock, your house will stand - you won't be swept away!

                    ------------------------------------

                  The Greatest Tragedy of These Last Days
                Is the Forfeited Peace and the Needless Pain
                   That God's People Are Going to Bear!

                    ------------------------------------

          When I was a boy we sang an old song: "Oh, what peace
          we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, All
          because we do not carry everything to God in prayer..."

          In prayer recently, God whispered into my soul: "No
          other generation has been given such abundant provision
          for every need and potential crisis. And yet no other
          generation has so blatantly rejected My help!"

          How God must grieve when His people are being flooded
          and yet refuse to do the one thing that's necessary:
          They won't run to Him! They don't hurry into God's
          presence, because they haven't developed the habit of
          fellowship with Him. They don't go to Him in prayer to
          find the resources and power they need to withstand the
          flood. They haven't built upon the rock of a
          relationship with Jesus!

          For forty years the children of Israel needlessly lived
          in turmoil, despair, confusion and terrible pain. They
          tempted God's faithfulness ten times. But they could
          have lived in the greatest rest and peace possible. God
          said it was theirs to enter into - and yet they
          refused!

          Instead, an entire generation of lives was wasted in
          bitterness, fighting, complaining, health and family
          problems. They never awoke a single day with peace.
          Instead, they had only heaviness - and they never
          entered into the rest that was theirs.

          I find that absolutely incredible! God promised them,
          "I'll carry you in My arms, like a father carries a
          child. I'll go before you!" Israel had a cloud by day
          and a fire by night to lead them. They had the clearest
          word of any generation yet: manna failing from heaven,
          water coming out of a rock - and yet for forty years
          they continually turned away from their Source! Yet for
          all of Israel's stubbornness, we today have sinned in a
          far greater measure! You see, God has provided us with
          something even better - something that never even
          entered the Israelites' minds. He has given us in these
          last days abundant glorious promises meant to give us
          constant peace and joy!

          Old Testament believers had only a limited vision of
          God's resources: "For since the beginning of the world
          men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither
          hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath
          prepared for him that waiteth for him" (Isaiah 64:4).

          The apostle Paul quotes this verse in his letter to the
          Corinthians. And in the next verse he reveals that the
          greater resources belong to us: "But God hath revealed
          them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth
          all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians
          2:9-10). "Now we have received... the spirit which is
          of God; that we might know the things that are freely
          given to us of God" (verse 12).

          The apostle Peter also said that everything we need has
          been made available to us: "According as his divine
          power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
          life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that
          hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3).

          Here is what God is saying: "Yes, you hurt. You suffer
          pain, and you are troubled. You are being swamped with
          things that are over your head and you don't
          understand. But I have made abundant provision for you
          to escape. I have made a way to total victory!"

          Beloved, that victory comes not when your situation
          changes. Rather, it comes when God makes a great change
          in you and me - to make us rise above the flood. The
          flood remains - but it can't hurt us, because He has
          done something in us that will deliver us!

          That way of escape is very clear and simple. God says:
          "You have a place to go for relief - you have Someone
          to talk to!"

          A famous evangelist who was involved in deep sexual sin
          said after he was exposed, "In all my hurt and
          struggles with my problems, I had no one to talk to."
          Beloved, that simply is not true! I'm not putting that
          brother down - I love him as a servant of God. But
          there is no such thing as a Christian who has no one to
          talk to!

          Millions of hurting Christians run around looking for a
          friend or counselor who might have all the answers they
          need. But how does that make the Lord feel? He stands
          by the whole time, saying, "Come unto me, all ye that
          labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
          Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
          and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
          souls" (Matthew 11:28-29).

          Christians have said to me, "You're just like so many
          other preachers. You're going to tell me, "Go pray
          about it - go talk to Jesus!" They say this mockingly,
          as if it's a joke - as if it were something for kids to
          do! What they're really saying is, "I need something
          more than prayer - something more than what Scripture
          can give me!"

          Beloved, the natural man cannot comprehend the things
          of God - only the Holy Ghost knows the mind of the
          Father. And only the Father knows the root of your
          problem! If you sit and try to think it through, you'll
          never get over it.

          The only help that even the godliest counselor can give
          you is to teach you to go to your knees, get into the
          Lord's presence, seek God with all your heart - and
          wait on His Spirit to direct you!

          Do you have a place where you can go everyday and pour
          out your heart to the Lord? If you do, then don't
          neglect to pour out your hurts to Him daily - and leave
          your problems in the closet with Jesus.

          Many who are reading this message right now have never
          developed a habit of taking everything to Jesus. They
          just go on hurting - and for every additional hour they
          spend carrying their grief and pain, they're saying to
          God: "You have no power! You don't care - You can't
          help me!" Eventually they will be carried away by the
          flood - because their faith is not built on the Rock!

          There are many such Christians who once attended Times
          Square Church. At one time they learned about God's
          dealings and were beginning to grow. But now they don't
          come anymore - they've grown bitter and angry, and they
          gossip about the church and its pastors. What has
          happened to them?

          They had a problem - and rather than pour it out to the
          Lord, they took it to a friend! They unburdened their
          heart to someone of a wrong spirit - someone with a
          gossiping or critical spirit - and they got trapped in
          a web of spiteful spiders!

          They found somebody to sympathize with them - to "side"
          with them - and instead of learning how to take
          everything to Jesus and get their minds and spirits
          healed, they became embittered and hardened. Now they
          are miserable; their days are spent focused on hurts
          and problems. They've grown sour and mean, only
          pretending to be happy - because they never learned to
          shut themselves in with God daily, and unload every
          hurt and problem on Him in faith.

          "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth
          in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart
          departeth from the Lord" (Jeremiah 17:5). "Blessed is
          the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the
          Lord is" (verse 7). The person whose house is built on
          sand is the one who confides all to man, He does not
          lean wholly on the Lord for strength and help!

                      -------------------------------

                   God's Greatest Testimony To the World
                       In These Final Days of Unrest
                       Will Be Deep-Rooted Believers
                       Who Are a Calm in the Storm!

                      -------------------------------

          "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof
          are still" (Psalm 107:29).

          Every wind and wave that comes into your life is
          subject to our Lord! The disciples were on a ship with
          Jesus, who was asleep in the stern when a storm arose:

          "There came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they
          were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. And they
          came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we
          perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the
          raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a
          calm" (Luke 8:23-24).

          Beloved, that is the very heart of this message: A
          storm came upon them, they were in great trouble, and
          they ran to the Master. They cried out to Him, He shut
          down their storm - and there was a great calm!

          "O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto
          thee? Or to thy faithfulness round about thee? Thou
          rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof
          arise, thou stillest them" (Psalm 89:8-9).

          Yes, many will fall! They will be carried away with the
          flood. But God is going to have a people in these last
          days with fixed hearts - not tossed about by every wind
          and wave of doctrine, not troubled in the storm; but
          always leaning On Him. Pouring out their hearts to Him.
          And going about with a great calm!

          You see, a calm soul is a "poured out" soul - one who
          has cried everything out, emptying all in God's
          presence! David said: "I poured out my complaint before
          him; I shewed before him my trouble" (Psalm 142:2).

          I thank God for street-preachers, for those who pass
          out tracts, and for every witness of the Lord. But the
          greatest witness in these last days is the man or woman
          who has been in the presence of Jesus and has come out
          to face the world with a deep-rooted peace. That person
          has the face of a settled, trusting soul - steadfast
          and unmovable!

          Are you hurting right now? Go to Jesus, unburden your
          heart - and keep doing it until you've got it all out.
          The day will come when the wind dies, the rain stops,
          the flood vanishes, and the sun begins to shine. And
          you'll see that your house built on the Lord will be
          standing! It will not have fallen!

          The king who sits Lord of the flood is already on His
          way. Just a little while longer, and a bright new day
          will come!

          ---
          Used with permission granted by World Challenge, P. O.
          Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771 USA.

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