"Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant!"

The 4/29 verse for the day is Acts 4:29, "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness." (NLT)

This verse is so timely to me.  Yesterday, the world heard the news that we had lost a faithful servant of God and men.  David Wilkerson, founding pastor of Times Square Church and Teen Challenge, was killed in a car crash in Texas on April 27, 2011.  I felt sadness at our loss, but joy that he was finally in the presence of the God he served with great boldness and conviction.

In Acts Chapter 4, Peter and John had been arrested and interrogated by the religious leaders for teaching about the salvation and power of Jesus Christ.  Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter boldly told them that the same Jesus they had crucified had been raised from the dead by God.  The leaders recognised them as men who had been with Jesus.  They released them because they did not know how to punish them further without starting a riot.  Too many people had witnessed the miraculous power of Jesus and believed what Peter and John were preaching.  Peter and John united with other believers in prayer and asked God to enable them to speak his word with great boldness.

Pastor David Wilkerson embodied this type of boldness as well as any modern day teacher, preacher, saint or servant I can think of.  There have been many naysayers over the years protesting the validity and power of what he has said, taught or written.  But, just as this verse demonstrates, God knew there would be scoffers against Peter and John.  He also knew there would be those that scoffed at what David Wilkerson had to say.  And He knows some will scoff at what you and I have to say about our Savior.  Some of us will cower or compromise under that pressure.  David Wilkerson never did.

My husband and I have had the opportunity to see and hear Pastor Wilkerson preach at Times Square Church many times.  However, one special Sunday will always stand out in my heart and mind above all other times we visited the church.  Right before the 9/11 tragedy, we were in the service at TSC.  We soon found out they had been praying for many weeks, 7 nights a week.  Pastor Wilkerson had been impressed to have the church cancel all meetings and speaking engagements and to pray in unity about a calamity he sensed was coming to NYC.  He got up behind the podium himself that morning, and, amidst much prayer and crying, he humbly spoke of this.  I remember him saying his knees were shaking as he stood there.  I will never forget how closely I felt the presence of God in that service that day. 

A little over a week later, too many of us witnessed the horrendous calamity and events of the tragedy of 9/ll, right before our very eyes on national television.  I was stunned that someone had actually been listening closely enough to God to tell others to pray.  He must have known it would sound a bit preposterous; he was asking people to join him in prayer for a calamity he could not even describe.  Yet there were believers who joined him in prayer.  He must have felt a little like Noah when God told him to build the Ark.  With no rain in sight and years of construction, I'm sure many people thought he was out of his mind.  But his family believed him and joined him in the building project.  No doubt, a few heads were shaking and a few eyes rolling at Pastor Wilkerson.  It did not deter his boldness and obedience to God.

Peter and John were recognised as men who had been with Jesus.  My heart tells me that is also true of Pastor Wilkerson.  He must have spent a lot of time in prayer with Jesus to know Him and recognise His voice so well.  He is no doubt with Jesus now and I am convinced he has heard, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"  Yes, I recognise him as a man who has been, and forever will be, with Jesus. 

Pastor Wilkerson's death did not take God by surprise. I've attached a link which includes a blog he wrote the same day of his death. It's very telling about this man of God and his unfailing faith. In the 4th Chapter of Acts it mentions that everything that happened did so according to God's eternal will and plan. The same can be said today. Thank you, Pastor David Wilkerson. You will be greatly missed.


 http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/