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A Burning Coal in His Hand
David Wilkerson

David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011). American Pentecostal pastor, evangelist, and author born in Hammond, Indiana. Raised in a family of preachers, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at eight and began preaching at 14. Ordained in 1952 after studying at Central Bible College, he pastored small churches in Pennsylvania. In 1958, moved by a Life Magazine article about New York gang violence, he started a street ministry, founding Teen Challenge to help addicts and troubled youth. His book "The Cross and the Switchblade," co-authored in 1962, became a bestseller, chronicling his work with gang members like Nicky Cruz. In 1987, he founded Times Square Church in New York City, serving a diverse congregation until his death. Wilkerson wrote over 30 books, including "The Vision," and was known for bold prophecies and a focus on holiness. Married to Gwen since 1953, they had four children. He died in a car accident in Texas. His ministry emphasized compassion for the lost and reliance on God. Wilkerson’s work transformed countless lives globally. His legacy endures through Teen Challenge and Times Square Church.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher shares personal experiences and encounters with God that have deeply impacted his life. He talks about a meeting with another minister named Bob, who showed him a chapter in the Bible that brought him to tears. The preacher also mentions a story of a fellow preacher who went on a media fast and experienced a powerful encounter with God afterwards. The sermon emphasizes the importance of letting go of idols and seeking God wholeheartedly, as well as the need for pastors and evangelists to receive a breakthrough from God in their ministries. The preacher concludes by proclaiming that God is looking for hot coals to use for His purposes.
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Sermon Transcription
Anger comes wrapped in the tenderness of God in his tears, and I felt the tenderness of God in that. I went back to my room, and the Lord just told me to go to this chapter and begin to speak to my heart to give you a short prophecy. And some of you that have been through this whole gathering, you've said at other meetings you've not yet felt that the Lord has broken through to you, Glenn Timmons is the young man that came up. Glenn, I want you to listen to me, what I'm saying, this is for you, and it's for pastors, evangelists, I want Sister Penny Lee to hear it, because this has to do with her and her ministry, it has to do with other ministries, there's a young brother here who has been preaching holiness in his church and the people are not receiving it, he doesn't know how long he can hold out, in fact there are a few here that if they're not already out of their church, they're about to be booted out of their church because of the Saul people, the Saul ministry there, I want you to just listen, and I'm going to take you through a few scriptures, now I don't know where the Lord is going to take us from there, but we're going to just follow him in this meeting. Now, you've learned to trust that already, haven't you? You've seen God work, you've heard the word of the Lord, you've trusted that, now turn with me to Isaiah, the 5th chapter, put a marker there, put something there, a piece of paper, put anything that you want, do you have it marked? Now turn to Revelation, leave it there because I'm going to go right back to that, so just leave it marked and go to Revelation, Revelation the 1st chapter please, Revelation 1, do you have it? Just follow me please. Chapter 1, verse 12, And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, now you know that represents the seven churches, that represents the church, the church of Jesus Christ, and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet and girded across his breast with a golden girdle, who is that? It's Jesus Christ, and his head and his hair were white like wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters, and in his right hand he had seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in his strength, and when I saw him I fell at his feet as a dead man. Is that what it says? Now look at me please, do you know who's saying that? That's the same man, that's the same John who used to lay his head on his bosom, he laid his head on his bosom, and when Peter wanted to ask Jesus a question he asked John, because this was, he was a beloved, John the beloved, and he leans his head on Jesus, on his breast, in his humanity, when he saw him in his humanity he had that, as close as he could lay his head right on his breast, he could speak and commune with him in this way, and this is the same Christ, but John doesn't recognize him in his holiness, he doesn't recognize, he's not about to lean his head on his bosom now, he sees the same Master, and you know what is there that Jesus sees in the church? What is there that makes his eyes flame as fire? What is it that makes him come in this appearance? He's standing now in the middle of the house of God with this fire in his feet like burnished bronze, and John, who knew him well, John who laid his head on his bosom, now falls on his face. You know it's one thing to know Jesus as his humanity, it's another thing to know him in his holiness, and that's what these meetings have been about, that we would know him in his holiness. Daniel, there's not a man in this book, there's not a prophet, there's not a man who wasn't touched by a vision of the holiness of God who was ever the same. Daniel, you don't have to turn there, but I'll just read it to you, on the 24th day of the first month when I was by the bank of the great river that is the Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked and behold there's a certain man dressed in linen, there he is again, dressed in linen, whose waist is girded with the belt of pure gold, that's the girdle of righteousness, and that's his girdle of holiness, he stands on this girdle of holiness and he appears before John, and there he is before Daniel, his body also was like gold, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and his feet like the gleam of polished bronze, the very same vision, the sound of his words like the sound of thunder, and I Daniel alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision, nevertheless a great dread fell on them and they ran away to hide themselves, and I'll tell you what, that's what happens when Jesus appears among his people, his holiness, those who are not living for him are going to have a dreadfall on them, and we're going to have the holiness of God so appear in our churches, where there are hungry people, because God's going to have certain people, he's going to have lots of prophets, so full of Jesus, so full of that open face beholding his glory that we've been hearing about, that's going to strike fear, there's going to be a holy dreadfall in the house of God, and sin's going to be exposed by the very countenance of men, I've been getting letters from people who've had a revelation of Jesus that used to be backslidden, they were living in adultery, they got saved and filled with God's spirit and began to see a vision of his holiness, they go into Pentecostal and Assembly of God churches and just sit there and weep, and the pastor can't even preach, and the people sit around and move away, they don't even want to be in the same pew, because of the reproach, of the dread of the holiness of Almighty Jesus. And you see, even Daniel says, I was left alone and I see this vision and no strength was left in me, all my natural color turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength, all my strength was drained out of me, all my human forces, everything was gone, there was nothing left of me. You heard that from our sister today, the draining of all human strength when you see the holiness of Jesus. Now go back to Isaiah 5, and you're going to see it again, the 5th chapter of Isaiah. I'm sorry, 6th chapter, Isaiah 6. 6th chapter of Isaiah. Now, I don't have any notes, I've never, this is just something the Lord put in my heart, just this past hour and a half, two hours, and the Lord just made it very clear before I went any further in His service, I had to prophesy it to you, and listen, I don't consider myself a prophet, but we all prophesy at times, and I feel a prophetic stream upon me, and I want you to listen closely. In the year that King Uzziah died, you see, up to this time, Isaiah, if you read the first 5 chapters, you find Isaiah, even though he's a very righteous man, had been putting his faith in a political kingdom. King Uzziah was to bring about a kingdom of righteousness. And right in the middle of all this hope, he dies. He said, then when I got this political thing out of my system, then I saw God, then I saw Jesus. And you know the whole story of this chapter right here, see God and die. No man has seen Him and lived. If you see God, you're going to die. If you see Him in your holiness, you're going to die. You will die, your flesh will die. In the year King Uzziah died, then I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, loft and exalted, with the training of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings. With two He covered His face, and with two He covered His feet, and with two He flew. Look at those six wings. Two of them. The Seraphim can't even look at the holiness. They've got to cover their eyes. It's so bright. It's so awesome. They cover it. They cover their feet as if they covered their shame. Their feet are covered. They're just trying to shield themselves from this awesome holiness. And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. God's been impressing about this matter, and God told me to prophesy it again tonight, that He's trying to get His glory into us. And that glory is the vision of His holiness. His awesome holiness. In a day of declension, in a day of backsliding, a day of hypocrisy, a day of soft preaching, God says, I'll have a holy people. I'm going to reveal my holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. The foundation of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, woe is me, for I am ruined. And you read the fifth chapter, that great prophecy of Isaiah. Nobody could prophesy like He does in the fifth chapter of Isaiah if He wasn't a man of God. He had a heart that was after God. He was crying out against the darkness. You look at it, you read verse 21, of those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. He knew sin. He marked sin in the nation. He saw the sin in the land. But now He sees the vision of the holiness of Jesus, and look what He's seeing. He's not saying to the people, you're calling black white and white black. He's not pointing to anybody else now. He's seeing the vision of the holiness of Jesus, and listen to what He says, woe is me. For I am ruined. You just heard it. I'm devastated. Because I'm a man of unclean lips. And I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me. And here's the prophecy. Four words. With a burning coal. Now I want you to think of that. Put that in your mind, because this is the prophecy. A burning coal. In His hand. A burning coal in His hand. Now that word in Hebrew is a hot stone. A burning arrow. And you're going to see what that means prophetically in just a minute. In His hand which He had taken from where? From the altar with tongs. And He touched my mouth with it and said behold this has touched your lips. And your iniquity is taken away. And your sin is forgiven. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then I said here am I send me. Now look at me please. I'm telling you that I feel prophetically that God is saying right now that Isaiah when he had this cleansing. And when God knew who He wanted to send but He had to hear it from this man. I believe that Isaiah became the burning coal from the fire on the altar of God. He became the flaming arrow. In the hand of God. He said go and tell this people. Keep on listening but do not perceive. Keep on looking but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive. And their ears dull. And their eyes dim. Lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Understand with their hearts and return to be healed. Then I said Lord how long? And He answered until cities are devastated and without inhabitants. Houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate. He didn't promise him any fruit. He didn't promise him a revival. He said I want you to go out and you're going to be a hot arrow. You're going to be a hot coal and you're going to burn their lips. You're going to burn their ears. You're going to burn everything around you. You are going to be a hot coal from the fire on the altar of God. You're going to render so many people insensitive to the word. And that's what we've been hearing. The same word that breaks you will turn you to stone. And God's trying to get some coals. He's trying to ignite a flame in hearts here tonight. He wants to take a hold of this backslidden boy. Put him on the altar of holiness. Burn out everything unclean in him that he becomes a fiery arrow in the hand of God. Who can go forth proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. For dear sister Penny Lee, I tell you now publicly and I'm going to tell any one of you who preach righteousness and holiness. God doesn't promise that he's going to get you a hearing. He doesn't promise you that people are going to fall in their face. He doesn't promise us that they're going to hear. He said you go out and tell there is not a person living. You come and preach until judgment falls, until everything is devastated. And one of the major things that will happen in your ministry is that you're going to render ears insensitive. They're going to turn on you and they will turn a deaf ear and walk away and expect it. When I got stirred up and began to feel God's holy wrath against our idolatry like television and see thousands of Christians. You can't even get a crowd for a Sunday night service because everybody, all the best programs are on television Sunday night. You can't get a handful even in the best Pentecostal churches anymore. I remember holding a meeting in a very large Pentecostal church when a program called Thorn Birds was on. And I came out and the night before we were packed this night, it was the first night of Thorn Birds and by the third night of that, I think it was a three night thing, it just fell away. People who were there on a Thursday night, I think it started on a Friday night, on Thursday night, singing and shouting and talking in tongues were not there. They were watching Thorn Birds. Render their hearts insensitive. Their ears dull, their eyes dim. Turn them into blind, deaf, dumb, hard, insensitive people. Because that's what's in their hearts. I hear this preaching every day. I hear this unity, unity, unity. You can't come forth from the holy altar of God. You can't come forth as a hot stone. You can't come forth as a flaming arrow and hug apostate. I will not hug apostates. That is not love. That is not love. Love is that which weeps. Love is that is so devastated by the sin and corruption around. It goes to the altar of God. It becomes a fiery flame. It becomes a burning arrow. Listen, you cannot have a hot stone touch you without being burned. You can't have the holy hot arrow of God pierce your soul without being wounded. Go to Leviticus. It says, 16. I had somebody say, Brother Wilkinson, you sound like you're mad when you preach. Oh, you bet I'm mad at the devil. I'm not mad at people. I love people. But anybody has to stand up and say, I love you. Sounds to me almost like an excuse. He's trying to prove it. You tell a man who loves you if he's going to tell you the truth. All right, verse 16, chapter 16, verse 12. He shall take a firepan full of what? Full of coals of fire. From where? From the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense and bring it inside the veil. Where does it go? Inside the veil. What do you call this place inside the veil? The holy of holies. He said, you take that hot coal before the altar before the Lord and then you take this finely ground sweet incense and what is incense? Prayer. Incense, which according to John the Revelator, incense which are the prayers of the saints. Incense, the prayers of the saints. You bring it inside the veil and he shall put the incense on the fire. In other words, on the coals before the Lord that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony lest he die. Hey, listen to me. The only shield of judgment, the only hope of averting judgment are these live coals that God sends out casting. And I'm going to show you in just a minute a prophecy God said he's going to bring forth the cherubim and in the middle of these cherubim that's the mercy seat and the fire. He said, I'm going to ask the angel to cast fire out on the earth. Listen, it's the watchman. It's those who get the burden of the Lord. It's those who can't keep quiet anymore. It's those who say a fire burns in my bones. This is that in his holy presence that lest he die. Lest he die. The only thing keeping judgment from America right now from total destruction. Listen, what hope is there left if God doesn't raise up servants and handmaidens of the Lord that are lively coals from the altar? I mean hot stones. You feel the heat of doing this incense. It's in the heart. It's in the heart. The holy place goes up. It covered the cherubim. It covered the mercy seat and shielded from judgment to shield of judgment. Shield against judgment. And while you're in the Old Testament go right to 2 Samuel. I'll give you just a few pictures of these live coals. You'll get the picture in just a minute as you see the word unfolded. 2 Samuel 22. Would you start with me in verse 7. 2 Samuel 22 verse 7. In my distress I called upon the Lord. Yes I cried to my God and from his temple. We're about in the temple. The holy of holies. In his temple he heard my voice and my cry for help came into his ears. Then the earth shook and quaked. Didn't he say he's going to shake everything and be shaken? How many believe he's going to do that? How many believe he's already doing that? He's going to shake everything and be shaken. The foundations of heaven were trembling and all were what? Shaken because he was angry. Smoke went up out of his nostrils and fire from his mouth devoured. And what happened? Coals were kindled by it. Do you understand that's what God the Holy Ghost is trying to do right now? Here comes a young backslidden preacher and a fire is ignited here. We're standing in the holy of holies before a holy God. He's revealing his holiness and his righteousness and suddenly the fire of God falls upon him and the coals were kindled. Have you been kindled by the Holy Ghost in the last few services? Has your heart been kindled? Coals were kindled by it. Who are the coals? We are these coals. Go to Psalms 140. Psalm 140. Let's start with verse 10. Psalm 140 verse 9. As for the head of those who surround me, may the mischief of their lips cover them. May burning coals fall upon them. May they be cast into the fire, into deep pits from which they cannot rise. Look at me now. Do you realize that that's what was happening this morning? Do you realize that was happening when Don was speaking and when Sister Penny was speaking? That this is exactly what was happening. Burning coals were falling from heaven from the holy altar of God and we were being cast into the fire. Holy Ghost fire. He is a consuming fire and into a deep pit of conviction from which you cannot rise. God said, I will never let you out of this. I'm letting you go through an experience that you will never get out of. And I feel this so strong and I say it prophetically. Burning coals have been falling upon us. We have been cast into a Holy Ghost fire. Not into a pit of sin, but into a pit of conviction and I don't want out of that pit. Ezekiel. Ezekiel 10. Chapter 10. Ezekiel. This should make it much clearer. Then I looked and behold in the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim, something like a sapphire stone in appearance resembling a throne appeared unto them. Who is this precious tried stone? Jesus. In appearance resembling a throne appeared. He spoke to the man clothed in linen. There he is again, clothed in linen. And said, enter between the whirling wheels under the cherubim and fill your hands with what? Coals of fire from between the cherubim. Do you know where that is? That's the mercy seat. This isn't the Holy of Holies. These are people. Folks, all of these prophets, when he talked about trees, they were talking about people. They were talking in metaphors. They were talking in examples and pictures and shadows. But he sees between the cherubim, he sees this fire and he says, fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city. And he entered into my sight. Look at verse 6. It came about when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, take fire from between the whirling wheels from between the cherubim. He entered and stood beside the wheel. Alright, look at me for just a minute. You begin to see the picture there. Judgment is about to happen and before judgment falls, the glory of God is about to depart from the tabernacle. The glory right after this departs. But first, the command comes forth, reach in to that Holy of Holies, that mercy seat where the fire is burning and take a handful of those coals and cast them out on the earth. Cast them out on this thing. Cast these coals out. And before Holy God, I believe that's what he's doing. You're going to see more and more young men, more and more young women. It's going to be on our, the Bible said, your young men shall see visions. He said on our handmaidens, on our servants, old men dream dreams. But he says he's going to pour out this thing and what he's going to do, he's going to send forth these holy coals, these who are so ignited by the holiness of Christ. And that's why the first time in probably the last five years that I've heard abortion, I heard it for the first time today as a holy coal from the fire and the oil of God. And that's what moved my soul. And some of you can't understand what you've been sitting under for the last few nights. It's not because any of us here are better preachers than anybody else. There is not one ounce of animosity here on this stage against any other ministry. And for you who think that we're against prosperity preachers, we're not. In fact, we're in touch. I got a letter from one of them just last week with a thousand dollar check in it saying, we're with you in prayer. I am hearing now from preachers who preached, you know, that if you really walked in total faith that you would not be sick and they've just been in the hospital some with open heart surgery. And now they say, Brother Wilkinson, there is another side, isn't there? God has ways of teaching us, of teaching everybody. I sat down and God told me to sit and listen and learn. I sat and listened and learned. God said, shut your mouth, David. You're preaching up. Just sit and learn. Do you have that kind of spirit on you? If you've got that kind of spirit on you, God will send a hot coal. He'll send a flaming fire arrow at you in your heart and you'll never be the same. Hallelujah. Go back to Psalm 64. Now, I'll tell you what, let's start at verse 5, talking about a very evil situation here. They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose. They talk of laying snares secretly. They say, who's going to save them? These are people hiding their sins. They devise injustices saying, we are ready with the well-conceived plot for the inward thought and the heart of man are very deep. But God will shoot at them with an arrow. Suddenly, they will be wounded. Who's going to wound them? Who are these arrows? These hot flaming arrows in the hand of God. These are the hot coals from the fire of the altar of God. Look at the next verse, verse 8. So they will make him stumble. Their tongue is against them. All who see them will shake the head. Then all men will fear and will declare the work of God and will consider what He has done. The righteous man will be glad in the Lord and will take refuge in Him. And all the upright in heart will glory. Listen, when you hear a hot coal, when you're being burned and singed by a hot coal that's been cast down from the altar of God, a hot coal that's come from His holy place, you'll rejoice. You'll rejoice if you hear the sound of the Lord. If your heart is ready to receive the truth, you'll rejoice. I want you to go to one last scripture. One last scripture. Zechariah. The prophet Zechariah. I'm just about finished with this prophecy. Zechariah 9, 11. Beginning at verse 11. Folks, look this way please. This is the heart of it right here. This is where if he's never spoken to me, he spoke to me today. And I want you to prepare your heart to receive it from his hand. In love. Let's start reading verse 11. Zechariah 9. As for you also because of the blood of my covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit, returned to the stronghold of prisoners who have had to hope. This very day I'm declaring that I will restore double to you. Glenn, are you listening? Are you reading? Do you see it? Mark it. Underline it. You and your dear wife. Son, God delivering you from that music thing. Mark this. You that have been bound, mark it. This very day I will restore double to you. I will bend Judah as my bow. I will fill the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your son's old Zion against your son's old Greece. And I will make you like a warrior's sword. I'll make you like a warrior's sword. Then the Lord will appear over them. And His arrow will go forth like lightning. And the Lord God will blow the trumpet and will march in the storm winds of the south. Look at me. God says, if you're going to walk with me in holiness, you'll go to my altar. And what's off the altar, that's where the fire is. That fire never went out, did it? That fire was never... To the altar, that's where the fire is. That's the secret closet. That's the secret closet. You're not going to get it here. We don't have a praying people in the land. And that's what's frightening. You're not going to be able to make it unless you go out of this place and I'm going to be a man of prayer. I'm going to be a man in the secret closet. I'm going to seek the face of God. I'm going to leave this place not just listening to the tapes, trying to keep... In other words, two weeks from now, if I get a little cold, I'll just turn on the tapes and maybe the fire will come back. That's what some people do. They've got to have a tape all the time. Some of you can build a house with all the tapes you've got. And it's something to always keep the fire burning. You've always got to have a poker. Stirring up the flame. No, you go into the secret closet and God said, I'll give you double. I'll make you a sword. You'll be a sword in my hand. And God says, I'm going to send forth my arrow. Then the Lord will appear over them. Over who? Over a land of judgment, over a land of supporting their babies that we heard, over a land living in sin, under a land already under divine judgment where literally millions of people are headed for AIDS, chlamydia, herpes, diseases we've never heard of. And His arrow will go forth like lightning. Hallelujah. Poor lightning strike. It struck today. It hit me. Charred me. And the Lord God will blow what? What's it say He's going to blow? Glory be to God. God's looking for hot coals. I'm going back. Don't turn. Just listen to it. With burning coal in His hand, which He took from the altar with tongs. And everything that that coal touches is cleansed. The coals are cleansing. The burning, the searing from that hot coal, that hot stone. Brother, if it gets hot enough, you can't touch it. That's when you don't touch God's anointed. You can go up to any dead stone you want and touch it, but you don't go and touch a hot stone without getting burned. A flaming sword in His hand. I felt that's what God would do for me. I was saying for some of you here tonight, God called you to this meeting to put you on the altar again. I'm going to, yes, one more. Ezekiel 44. Don, I didn't expect to preach tonight. I was just going to stand up for five minutes and give a little prophecy, but I just feel God on me right now. Just bear with me, okay? Don said we're not going anywhere. Well, I think we are. We're going into something here right now. Man, Lord took us to the cave, to the pit of conviction, to the glory at the altar. Look at me for just a minute. Leave that open on your lap there just a minute on your table. Brother Bob, first time I met him, another minister introduced me to him, and I'd heard just a little bit of his ministry. So we rented a room in a motel, three preachers, just a conference room. We're sitting around a table, and Bob said, Brother Dave, I want to show you something. And he took this chapter and began to open it to me. And I've got a verse here I'll show you. I put my head on the table, and I cried like a baby. Then I got up and walked around and wept, because I'd been there, and I knew the terror. Jimmy Schwab had asked me one day, he said, David, why does God allow some of these ministers to continue that are so chronal and fleshly? Why does God let them continue? Why do the people flock to them? Why do they raise so much money? Why do they go on? Why doesn't God bring them down? Now this has to do with what God's saying, and just what I gave you. And if you can't weep over what I'm about to share with you, I don't think you've been to the altar. I don't think yet you're ready for the hot coal. But I want God to break your heart for just a minute. Some of you have been one of all the confidants, you know this has already been opened to you. But maybe He'll open it afresh to you. Bob, you'll never know the impact this has had on my life. Ezekiel 44, do you have it? Look at verse 5. And the Lord said to me, Son of man, mark well, see with your ears, and hear with your ears, your eyes, and hear with your ears, all that I say to you concerning all the statues of the house of the Lord, and concerning all its laws. And look at this, I mark well the entrance of the house, and all the exits of the sanctuary. Mark them well. Look at me now. Have you marked well the entrances and the exits? Do you know, do you understand that the entrances are being hidden, and the exits are perverted in the house of God? That we have a ministry today in many churches that are hiding the entrances to the house of God, and they're perverting the entrances and hiding the exits. They don't know how to bring people into the fullness of God. And when people get out into seduction, they get out into false doctrine, they don't know how to bring them back. They don't know how to deliver the people from the bondage. And He said, I want a people who know how to get people into fullness, and I want a discerning people who know when they're out of the will of God, and they're not walking in the Spirit, and I want to have a people who have the spiritual authority to bring them back. He said, Son of Man, you mark well the entrances and exits of my house. You mark them. Mark them well. Look at the next verse, and you shall say to the rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, and you know, Sister Penny Lee was bringing this out, this thing that we call unity and love. You know, I saw this in a, it wasn't a vision, it was just in my room praying one day. God showed me a fortress that was being built. A fortress was being built by ministers. And you know what was inside that fortress? It was, we will not be reproved. And they were building this huge fortress, and they were inviting others, come into this fortress. And what they were doing says, I will not rebuke you if you don't rebuke me. I will stand for you if you'll stand for me. And they were not standing for the holiness of God, they were standing up for each other. And a fortress was being built, and it was a high wall, a mighty fortress that they were building, and some of the best non-ministers in the world were in that fortress. The whole page written out up to now, I haven't fully understood it, and one of these days he's going to give me the grace to preach it. I've got too much anger to preach it right now. For what I've seen, the vision of it, this fortress of no reproof, no correction, let's just have love and unity. There'll be no unity that God is pleased with until there's a cleansing, until there's a purging, and the holy stones of God come forth to cleanse His house. So every lip is clean, every heart is pure. You shall say to the rebellious ones of the house of Israel, come into my fortress? No. Thus says the Lord God, what? Enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel. I've had enough. I think that's what I was hearing God say about the holocaust of abortion. God says enough. You brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh. My dear, blind can we be, we've got punk rockers now. What's going to go beyond punk rock now? You know what? It's called slammer rock, and it's in England right now, and it's in the church in England, it's in Sweden, it's called slammer rock. You know what it is? It's violence. They play and beat each other in the back, they slam each other, even on the ground, slamming bodies. And the day's coming, the church is so blind, we're going to have slammer rock and we're going to have preachers say, well it attracts people and people are going to get saved. Who has become so blind? They've been bashing the code. You know what that means? Smash all the rules. Bashing the code. They were here in Palm Springs a couple weeks ago, sponsored by a Christian group. Bashing the code? You brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh to be in my sanctuary to profane it, even my house, and you offered my food and fat and blood. You know what the prophet said? My table is full of vomit. That's exactly what the prophet said. My table, the table Lord's been full of vomit. They made my covenant void. Have you ever heard preachers say you can't break the covenant? Have you? What's it say? They made my covenant, what? Of no use. It says they broke my covenant. This in addition to all your other abominations. You have not kept charge of my holy things yourselves, but you sent foreigners to keep charge of my sanctuary. Thus says the Lord God, no foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel shall enter my sanctuary. But the Levites, verse 10, but the Levites, who are the Levites? Does this represent ministry? Look at verse 10. But the Levites, they went far from me. They just didn't drift away. They went far from me. Here's a ministry that's far from God. Is that what it says? When Israel went astray, who went astray from me after the what? After their idols? They shall bear the punishment for their iniquity and you know what that punishment is? The anointing is taken away. And they minister death rather than life. If a man isn't preaching and living in holiness and righteous before the Lord, I don't care how sweet it sounds, how good it sounds, it's death that's being ministered from the pulpit. It's death. Look at the next verse. They shall bear the punishment for their sin, yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house. They're going to slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people. They shall stand before them to minister to them. Get that picture. Say, look at me, please. Get the picture. The people don't even know the difference. Here's a man that has idols in his house. He's a preacher of the gospel and he's standing there offering the burnt offering and they don't know the difference. He's going through the motions and they don't know it. God says, yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates. Remember he said, Mark, well, the gates, the entrances and the exits. These are the men who are keeping the church gates because, verse 12, because they ministered to them before their idols and they became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel. Oh, can you believe what you're reading? Nephites ministers who are stumbling blocks to the people of God? I've always said a church deserves its pastor. Think of it. Chew it a little bit. If you've got all you need is a handful of praying people in your church that have got together and seek the face of God, you don't have to condemn him, you don't have to chase him. You begin to fast and pray and that living will spread through that and if the people will not repent, God will get you in with the Holy Ghost body who gets you in the cave like Dom said and he'll send you separate after his own heart. But the reason we have so many preachers in the pulpit who are stumbling blocks, if you've got a congregation with idolatry in their hearts, God will give you an idolatrous preacher who will minister to the idols in your heart and he'll confirm you in your idolatry and he'll make you twice the devil of hell you were when you started. I've sworn against them declares the Lord God that they shall bear the punishment. Look at verse 13. They shall not come near to me to serve as a priest to me. Where will they come to any of my holy things, to the things that are most holy, but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they've committed. Now look at me. God says, I'm going to let them minister in the house to the people. They can go ahead. They can go ahead, go through the motions. They can minister in the house, but they can't touch anything that's holy. There's not a bit of holiness to it. There are no, this is not the hot coal from the fire of God. This is not the sharp lightning arrows from his throne. Not at all. These are not the hot coal spread out on the earth before the day of judgment. He said, no, let them go through their motions. Let them play their games. Let them play church. Let them gather themselves. Let them build their fortresses. Let them say, we will not take reproof. We'll not take correction. I will have a people. You'll see it in just a moment. They shall not come near to me to serve as a priest to me. They'll serve the people. They'll be a priest to the people, but they'll never be a priest to me. I don't want to be a servant just to the people. I want to be a servant to Jesus. I don't want to minister to people. First, I want to minister to Christ. Look at, here's what made me weep. When Brother Bob quoted this, my head hit the table because I always thought if a preacher had a daughter in his heart, God would expose him right away. I always thought that if a man built a great church and he was cheating and there was sin in his life, it would all come down. And I kept thinking all of these ministries that are in the flesh, oh God, go bring them all down. Oh, there was a day when there were enough holy people walking in the spirit that could have pulled down strongholds. And that day's coming again. But look. You say, well, did God just allow this to go on? No, he appoints it to go on. Look at the next verse. And if you don't weep over this, something's wrong. Look, it says, and they shall not come near to me to serve as a priest to me, nor come in near my holy things or the things most holy, yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the house, of all of its services, and of all that is done in it, I'll appoint them. You see it? Look at me. God says, I'm going to set up these men before all these idolaters, and I'm going to let them alone. I'm going to let them minister in the house. And now I know that you can build great churches. I know now that you can do great things, because the Lord said there'll be many, many come and said, Lord, we've cast out devils, we've healed the sick. They not only said, Lord, they said, Lord, Lord, over and again. They said, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. He says, I didn't even know you. You're a work of iniquity. They were casting out devils, they were healing the sick, they were doing all these great things, building great buildings, doing great things, and the Lord says, I'm not going to let them alone. I appointed them to keep charge of that kind of house, and all that's done in it. Doesn't that make you tremble? To know that right now while we're sitting here, that there's been an appointment made of bachelors and Levites who have idolatry in their heart, and they've been set there in their place, and God says, I'm going to let the minister, I'll appoint them as ministers to keep charge of my house, this backstanding thing, this carnal thing, this harlot church. God, that's, this backing off and backing off. I'll appoint them to keep charge of the house, and if all of it serves and all of it shall be done in it. So I'm not surprised anymore when I see great success. Now, that's not about to say everybody's got a great church. Is one of these appointed kind with idolatry? Not at all, because there's something about a godly man. I know some very godly pastors. I know one in Indiana who's got about 3,000. That man's at his altar day by day, and that growth in his church has taken about 20 years. You see, when you preach righteousness, you grow, but it's awful slow. It's almost one at a time. It's stone upon stone. You don't get the multitudes. Who wants to eat spinach when you can go down here and have ice cream every day? My goodness. But oh, he's a praying man. He's a weeping man. He's so tender, and yet God's given him a vision. He watches over those people. He's got such a love in his heart for those people. He preaches the truth of God in righteousness, and there's a tremendous growth taking place, but it's over a broken heart. I think every convert swam into his church on his tears. But look at this verse 15. Here's a good part. There's another kind. These are the hot stones. These are the coals. These are the fiery arrows of God. But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, hallelujah, who kept charge of my sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from me. See, when everybody else is backsliding, going with the crowd and going with the fun. Hey, look at me just a minute. Bob, it's true. You can go a lot of churches today, and it's just a pleasant experience. It's a lot of fun. Man, you mark down the outline. You go home and say, you know, I enjoyed that. Going to church most places now is a celebration of fun. But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of my sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from me, what's going to happen? They shall come near to me to minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood declares the Lord, and they shall enter my sanctuary. They shall come near to me, my table, to minister to me and keep my charge. Glory to God. You know what they're going to do? You know how they're going to preach? You know what the mark of a Zadok priest is? Look, verse 23. What kind of preaching are they going to preach? Not going to be candy cotton. Moreover, they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. Amen! Glory to God. Devil, the Lord rebuke you. We cast no railing accusation against him. That's the work of the Holy Ghost. But he's bound in those whose hearts are burning in the flame of fire. We're supposed to take an offering, but I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to... I want you to stand up. Hallelujah. I want you to stand up. I want you to stand up. I feel good. Because I've got the fire burning in my soul. I feel his heat. You feel his wrath against sin in your own life first, and then you look around and you see it, and you feel his wrath against sin. But oh, there's a priesthood he's raising up. Going to go forth out of this place and show the people their iniquities? Ah, but they're going to do it with brokenness of heart. They're going to do it through tears. Hallelujah. God wants to put you on the fire tonight, set you white hot, so that you can go forth and fulfill his commission. You know, that's I think what we've been missing. You know, it's not, you know, going to all the world and preach the gospel, but that same gospel that you preach is going to win drug addicts. I've got Ben over here, one of our drug addict converts. Ben, how long you been saved now? Twenty years. Twenty years off the streets. Man, he's one of our Holy Ghost grandfathers already. He's got all kinds of children in the Lord. I was in a pulpit once with Nicky Cruz, and he had about 15 young men around him that had been a part of a program he was involved in. He called me up on stage, he said, brother, what's up? He said, meet your grandchildren. He said, some of our grandchildren, 20 years, and the fire gets hotter and hotter. You know, the older you get, the more fervent it should be, the hotter it should be. You should be praying more than you've ever prayed in your life. You shouldn't be parked in front of a television set backsliding, losing your fire. If you'd quit laughing with Bill Cosby and go ahead and weep with the Holy Ghost a little bit, maybe the fire would come back. Get rid of that Babylonian idiot box. You know, people laugh at us, but at our ministry, when God began to deal with us, I said, I quoted all the scriptures, told my staff what was happening. I said, we're going to, see I had three of them in my house. Bathroom, kitchen, front room, so I wouldn't have very far to get to my idol. Favorite program, A-Team. Outright bloodshed, violence, murder. And the Holy Ghost said, get your Bible, go to Deuteronomy 7.27, thou shalt bring no abomination into thy house. Thou shalt hate it and detest it, lest you become accursed just like it. Almost passed out. Lord said, you're sitting there giving silent assent to the very thing I destroyed the earth about. I set judgment for violence and you're sitting there giving assent to it by just watching it. We took them out and we had over, I would estimate eight to ten thousand dollars worth of TV sets. Took them out in the woods, we shot guns and shot them. Somebody said, why don't you sell them, give them to the poor. We don't sell idols. Then we got a bulldozer and bulldozed them underground. Well, it may sound silly to some people, but two weeks later, I was walking through the living room and looking at that hole in the wall and I started weeping over all the wasted hours, the wasted time and how it had broken my spirit before God. I know a preacher who went on a media fast. He fasted record players, he fasted television, radio, everything. He shut himself in a room for a week, no food, nothing. No radio, television, nothing. He came out after a week, shut in with God. He was just walking through the living room and he looked at the TV and he was slain in the spirit. He fell under the terror and fear of God. And you're not going to be a hot coal. You will never be the sword of the Lord. You will never touch your people. You will never be used of God the way he wants to use you. If you're going to hang on to your idols, no way. And I say that in love. The day is coming when God's going to take his spirit away from those who reject his word and his truth about idolatry. I don't care what it is, God says lay it down. And there's been a prophetic word gone forth tonight. God says, here it is, I want to make you a white hot coal. I want to make you a hot stone that will send you forth and everything that falls on that stone will be melted or broken. That's Christ in us. Everything you touch, every ear you touch will either be open or sealed shut. Every eye that sees will either be opened or sealed shut. Every heart that's touched will either melt or turn to flint. Be rendered insensitive. You know the worst thing that could happen in a meeting like this is the judgment of God could fall on you and you could be hardened, not by the Holy Ghost, but by your own rejection of truth. Hallelujah. Lord Jesus, we bow humbly before you. We want to see more and more of your majesty and holiness. We're going to bow our knees before you and say, Lord Jesus, heal us of our backslidings. Heal us, O Lord, of our lethargy. You've been calling us, Lord, to lament. You've been calling us to wake up. You've been calling us to kick the burden of the Lord. But none of that can happen until we see your holiness. Until we see you, Jesus, with that girdle of righteousness on you. Hallelujah. Now, folks, look at me for just a moment. We're going to have, Don has felt this all day. The Lord's pressed it on his heart, and then he pressed it on Brother Bob, and he's pressed it on my heart. Pressed it on my heart very strong, and I believe Brother Paul has felt the same thing. That we needed to minister before this convention meeting is over, we needed to minister every pastor, every pastor's wife. We felt the hurt. God seems to have put that there. We've been feeling the hurt. Almost every speaker that's been up here has sensed that, also, the hurt. There are a lot of hurting people. Bob said something that made such a mark on me. He said we're too quick to offer comfort to people before they've laid their sins down. We come rushing in with comfort before God's completed His work, and that's counseling rebellion. God spoke to Bob one day, and He said, tell the people I'm not hiding. God's not hiding. God's not hiding. He can be found. You can be delivered.
A Burning Coal in His Hand
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David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011). American Pentecostal pastor, evangelist, and author born in Hammond, Indiana. Raised in a family of preachers, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at eight and began preaching at 14. Ordained in 1952 after studying at Central Bible College, he pastored small churches in Pennsylvania. In 1958, moved by a Life Magazine article about New York gang violence, he started a street ministry, founding Teen Challenge to help addicts and troubled youth. His book "The Cross and the Switchblade," co-authored in 1962, became a bestseller, chronicling his work with gang members like Nicky Cruz. In 1987, he founded Times Square Church in New York City, serving a diverse congregation until his death. Wilkerson wrote over 30 books, including "The Vision," and was known for bold prophecies and a focus on holiness. Married to Gwen since 1953, they had four children. He died in a car accident in Texas. His ministry emphasized compassion for the lost and reliance on God. Wilkerson’s work transformed countless lives globally. His legacy endures through Teen Challenge and Times Square Church.