In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of preaching the word of God with spiritual authority. He shares a personal experience of a young man who came seeking wisdom but criticized the preacher for not truly listening. The speaker reflects on his own preaching journey and recalls moments when he felt a powerful spiritual authority in his messages. He then discusses the need to preach Christ with authority and highlights the example of a humble leader who took the lowest seat in the house despite being a respected bishop in six nations.

This recording is provided by World Challenge Incorporated. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of existing copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the World Challenge and or David Wilkerson homepages may be requested by emailing info at davidwilkerson.org. Other recordings are available by calling 903-963-8626 or by writing to World Challenge Incorporated, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771. I want to speak to you about preaching Christ with authority. Now, I'll be going through a lot of scriptures, so just hold your Bibles handy. If there was ever a message I needed in my life, it's now. This is not a self-serving statement. This is not some kind of a characteristic that serves me. Lord, You're speaking to this people. And You're speaking to this man in this pulpit. You're going to show us the cost of proclaiming Christ with authority. Lord, I have not arrived, but You've shown me the cost. And there's no other message that will pierce the veil, whether it's the veil over Islam, over Israel, over materialism. There's no other message that will work in this last hour unless it is with spiritual authority. My God, give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. Help me. Amen. I've never held a conference on how to preach. I don't remember preaching a message on how to preach. I've had so much trouble with my own preaching. But I remember now, over 50 years of preaching, at times when the word would come out of my heart, like thunder from heaven, with such spiritual authority. I remember youth rallies where God would just slay the congregation with conviction. The hardest drug addicts would melt. I knew when I preached, there was some kind of authority. There was something coming out of the heart of God. That was just a vessel. I knew it. And everyone in the building knew it. There was not a wall that was not broken. Even at that time, I remember atheists coming. And there are times I remember, seasons I remember, where I lacked that spiritual authority. I was preaching sermons, informational. God never took my pulpit away from me. But I knew that there was no life and there was an emptiness. I had the Word of God. I preached scriptural. But I knew, deep in my heart, that God had a controversy with me. And no man, no woman, no servant of God, no Sunday school teacher can preach with spiritual authority. You cannot proclaim Christ if God has a controversy. You see, I could see the problems in others and I could vividly illustrate their need to get right. There were hard issues. It had to do with motives. You see, we live in a time now that preaching sermons will never change nations, churches, or the kind of people we minister to now. We live in a time where the waves of messages will never be able to change the people or the people we are with now. On our mailing list, thousands of letters. I hate to go to church. There is no life. Just sermons. It doesn't move you. Kids don't want to go to church. There's no life. There's no authority. And that's the heart cry of the church of Jesus Christ today. Where is the spiritual authority? Where is that that penetrates? Now, I can't, in my own knowledge, define spiritual authority. But Paul gives us a hint. In fact, I believe this is his concept of spiritual authority. Spiritual authority in preaching is a manifestation of truth that confronts the conscience in the sight of God. Every man, every woman, who sits under this preaching, the conscience is confronted. And those motives that are not according to the Word of God and the nature of Christ, they are brought before the eyes and they have to be dealt with. It's preaching that goes beyond the emotions. Of course, this man or this woman has denounced all dishonesty. Paul said he's not walking in craftiness. He doesn't handle the Word of God deceitfully. And it should be taken for granted by all of us that this man, this woman, who has preached this morning, is shut in with God and willing that the Holy Spirit should open up the heart to every motive that's contrary to Christ. And there's a price. Now, I'm not talking about eternal salvation. I've never doubted my salvation once I fully gave my life to Christ. But the Lord can come to a man as he has come to me. Sure, you are blood washed. You walk under covenant. You're redeemed. You have an anointing. But you've got to let me deal with certain issues in your life that has nothing to do with merit. We're not talking about our salvation. We're talking about effectiveness. We're talking about penetrating walls. We're talking about being in a time and place in history where we have to hear the heart of God and it has to be delivered through vessels with which God has no controversy. Let me tell you how God's been dealing with me. And it's sad to say at 75 years of age... Let me take it back. I thank God that at 75 years of age He loves me enough to deal with my issues. If He's dealing with you, and if you hear it in the Spirit, you thank God that your heart has not been hardened. I have a place that I walk. It's a mile long isolated road. The first day I walked on that road, I called it the Emmaus Road. That's where Jesus talked to His disciples. I said, Lord, take me from Genesis to Revelation. No, that probably won't take me another 10 years if He ever gives me that kind of life. But I was praying about what I should preach to you. And I said, I'm not ready to tell you what to preach. I didn't want to tell you what I want to do with you. And if you get it, then you share it. First thing He asked me, are you ready to take the lowest seat in the house? He said, Jesus was invited to a feast. And you can find it, don't turn, in Luke 14. And you know they were U-shaped tables where they reclined. And at the top or the bottom of the U as you would have it, there was the head table, so to speak. And the Bible said, Jesus watched or marked how they chose out the chief rooms, the chief seats in the house. He was amused and saddened, I'm sure. Because when the host said, be seated, there was a wild scramble for the top seats, the head table. And God said, my heart, if you want to preach my word with authority, you have to be at the lowest seat in the house. He said to them later, he mildly and lovingly rebuked them. When you're invited to a feast, don't sit in the highest seat. Let someone more honorable replace you. And you're humbled to take a lower seat. But when you're a bidden, go sit down at the lowest seat. Whosoever exalts himself shall be abased. He that humbles himself shall be exalted. These are the same people he was talking to who loved the marketplace. They loved to be recognized in the marketplaces, the Bible says. Jesus said they wanted the highest seats in the synagogue or in the church. And the chief rooms at feasts. He said they blow trumpets in front of them. They blow trumpets before themselves. Wherever Gary and I have traveled, we have seen the blaring of the trumpets. We'll be in back rooms, for example, or where the pastors gather. And in comes the gentleman, God's great man of the hour, he has an entourage. He comes right face to face with you. He said, I have a church of 20,000. We're on national television. He said, and we're planting churches all around the world. We anticipate 40,000-50,000 people in the next few years. And he didn't give us his name. Gary stood up and said, does he have a name? He tells us everything he's done. Loving the chief seats in the house. At the same time, there's a man that we meet. He's been sitting in the back. He comes to us. In fact, a few friends invite him. We ask him, are you a pastor? He said, I have various responsibilities. That's all he says. He doesn't want to talk about his ministry. No statistics. He doesn't want to talk about anything. He just wants to know how we're doing. And you see Jesus in his face and his countenance. And he said, I'm so happy to meet you. God be with you, dear brother. God bless you, Gary. God bless you, Pastor Dave. And he walks away. And somebody said, do you know who he is? He's the leader in six nations of over six million Christians. One of the most respected bishops in this nation. And nobody would know because this man took the lowest seat in the house. And for weeks now, for weeks, I couldn't put this out of my mind. But what do you mean, take the lowest seat? I take this very seriously. Because he said, when you take the lowest seat, then the host may call you to a higher place. And in my mind, if we take this place of humility, we don't care whether anyone ever hears our name. We have no interest in our work coming up in every conversation. The Lord told me, he said, listen to yourself. This next week. Listen. He said it lovingly. It was not a rebuke. He's trying to teach me how to preach a spiritual authority. He said, listen to yourself when you're introduced, when people recognize you. And I forgot about it until a week later, and it was too late. I didn't realize I threw around statistics. And I always came in high. I couldn't imagine what was creeping into my conversation that subtle need in all human flesh to be recognized, to be acknowledged, to be loved by people. I remember a number of years ago when God first gave us the church in New York City. A group of so-called pastors of large churches had a meeting. It was a luncheon. The only reason I mention it is the Holy Spirit reminded me of it last week. And there was a pastor of a large church in New York. He was talking about a very famous millionaire that attended the church. There's something in me that jumped in the conversation and said, yeah, he comes to our church frequently. I went home so embarrassed. And the Holy Spirit said, just listen to yourself. You see, I thought I was one of the most humble preachers in America. I would walk into auditoriums filled with people. I forbid anyone to applaud me. My staff makes sure everybody knows no applause, which was a form of pride. I am so humble you don't applaud for me. Jesus said, go low. And then there's a meeting with His disciples. Now, He said it was a prepared place where they met. A prepared place means the basin of water was there and the towel was there as it was on every feast occasion. And they're sitting at the table. And Jesus, I know though He's teaching His men, He's looking at the corner. He's looking at that basin and that towel and He's thinking to Himself, I feel confident He's thinking, which of my beloved men is going to be first to the towel? Who's going to go to the basin? Because He says, not only does He say, take the lower seat, He says, go lower. Get to the basin. And you have a mindset. I'm a servant. I'm not God's man. I'm not a big shot. But in loneliness of mind, let each one esteem others better than himself. Look not every man to his own things, but every man to the things of others. You see, one of the most difficult things in the ministry is to rejoice and acknowledge the blessing on somebody else. This loneliness of mind that esteems others better than themselves He doesn't look out to his own things, but every man to the things of others. He said, consider. Think. Let this be your mindset. Your brother is more honorable than yourself. Now, that's difficult. If you have been successful, might have used of God, and you've done great things for the Lord, you did it in mercy and grace, and then you come to a brother who has not been as diligent, has not worked as hard, and to you this may not make sense, but it makes sense in this manner. You just think and remember the mercy of God and what He's forgiven you and what He brought you out of. And it should not be difficult to esteem another higher than yourself. We are to acknowledge every seed of envy and jealousy. One of my favorite Puritan writers is Thomas Manton. He was talking about envy and jealousy. He said, we're born with this Adamic sin. We drink it in with our mother's milk. You see, the Bible says, if we have bitter envy and strife in our hearts, do not glory and do not lie against the truth. It brought me to the story of David and I think it's in 1 Samuel 18. Now folks, I'm not railing at anybody. I'm telling how God's dealing with me. David and Saul come home from the great battle. And you remember the story. They sang praises. David and Saul are slain as thousands. David is slain as tens of thousands. Paul or Saul is deeply wounded. They ascribe to David ten thousands, to me only thousands. What more can he have but my kingdom? And the Bible says Saul envied David. And that night he couldn't sleep. This entered into his spirit. It got hold of his life. And the Scripture says this, Saul became David's enemy continually. You see, the problem is, if Saul would have just humbled himself before the Lord, if he had looked at this in reality, David would have helped establish him to become one of the greatest kings of Israel because he was loyal, he was faithful. And God still had his hand on Saul. God still had made him great promises. And God could have blessed him. If you are here now and you have bitterness toward any other brother or any other sister, it's difficult if you've labored in a community and you have worked so hard and you have a small congregation, some young man comes into the area and almost overnight he has a mega church. He is so effective. And you have done everything right. It's difficult to watch it. It happened to me when I was a young pastor. I was a man of prayer. I worked hard. I had about 125 people just a few miles away and crowds were going. My people were going and wondering what was happening in my church. And I remember the envy. I remember the jealousy. You see, this matter of taking the lowest seat has to do also with your nationality. It's being able to come into a meeting forgetting your nationality. Now, I'm not saying you do away with that. But you don't come into a meeting thinking that you are higher or esteemed higher than someone else. Not even if you are Jewish. In esteeming yourself higher than some other. You may be Arab. But you say there is something that happened. Folks, if we allow this in the church of Jesus Christ we have destroyed the witness. There can be no preaching with authority because we have not taken the lowest seat. Clapping doesn't bother me anymore. But here is what puts the fear of God in my heart. It came to pass on the next day an evil spirit from God came on Saul and he prophesied in the house. And Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul. Saul lost all spiritual authority. He lost the authority of his kingdom. But this is what concerns me. This is what puts me on my face. If I hold envy or jealousy or bitterness I open myself to demonic activity. I have met ministers who have held on to some kind of bitterness I got a letter last week from a man who told me he said last week 90% of my people walked out on me. And I don't know why. And he was confessing to some root of bitterness in his heart. Having worked so hard and seen so little then they walk out on him. I don't know why I'm saying this. I do know that I have a sense in my heart that there are a number of you if you're a wife and you've seen your husband abused you've seen him labor so hard do everything right and yet seem to have labored in vain and there's bitterness you may have been hurt it may be of finances I don't know what it might be but it has to be dealt with today. Or you can never have authority over your children you cannot live in spiritual authority and then you're a victim of circumstances. Let me take it a little further. Paul makes it very, very clear that spiritual authority is the only weapon the only true weapon in the arsenal of the church that can penetrate any veil or any wall. There can be no unity except through humility. One humbling himself before his brother, before his sister You know there's a sad when I think about it it's very, very sad when I thought about coming here to Israel You know the Bible says John Calvin rather said selfishness and vanity are the two most dangerous pests in the church. This is the man who's an isolated island He's so wrapped up in his own thing his own agenda that he has no time to listen to a younger preacher You know preachers, there's a dangerous habit I've been as guilty as anyone else Preachers will get together No one really listens to the other They're just waiting for a break in a conversation to tell what God was doing and is doing through them Please don't look at me that way because well, I'm not going down there Calvin said ambition fans all strife in the church Ambition That's a fan Just fan strife An envy Paul said because of the times we live in No man can be an island There has to be a connection A young man came to see me a number of years ago Quite a few young men would come And this young man came He sat in front of me in my office And I thought he wanted my wisdom So I started Told him how to do it I've been down the road Here's what you have to do And after an hour He looked at me He said, you're like all the other preachers You don't hear a word You don't listen You're all wrapped up in what you're doing He said, you may not believe it But God sent me to you