It was nearly midnight when David rose to turned off the television. His wife and children were already in bed. Pastor Wilkerson always stayed up later than the rest of his family, he found he needed a couple of hours alone to wind down from the day. Time when the house was quiet and he could stop thinking about other people’s problems. Stop thinking about everything – that’s where the TV came in.
He didn’t feel like going to bed yet, so he went to his office and sat down in the chair.
“How many hours do I spend in front of that television every night?” He wondered aloud. It’s a couple of hours at least. Two hours a day, seven days, that’s fourteen hours a week! His eyebrows rose at the realisation. What would happen if I spent that time praying? His thoughts instantly filled with objections: I watch TV because I’m tired. I can’t be a pastor all the time, can I?
David Wilkerson was prayed over all his problems -big or small. So once again, he knelt to place “a fleece” before the Lord. Gideon laid an actual fleece out on the ground and prayed God would confirm what he wanted him to do with a sign. The fleece he left out was dry in the morning though the ground was wet with dew – God answered Gideon’s prayer. Pastor Wilkerson wasn’t laying out a literal fleece but he too asked for a sign of confirmation.
“Lord Jesus, help me to know if this idea is from You. I’ll post an add for the television set in the paper tomorrow and if it’s your will for me to sell it have a buyer call for it within the first hour, no, the first half hour, after the paper gets out on the streets.”
“Half an hour! David Wilkerson, I don’t think you actually want to spend that time praying!” His wife, Gwen, said the next morning when he told her his plan. She was right. The truth was, he didn’t really want to get rid of the set and if God didn’t send someone in the first thirty minutes, he would have an excuse to keep it. Perhaps his motives weren’t the best but he posted the add anyhow.
Gwen and the children, all greatly amused by the experiment, watched with him as the minutes ticked by. David’s eyes moved back and forth between the television set and the clock on the wall. When twenty- nine minutes had passed he was preparing to breath a sigh of relief. It was just then that the phone rang.
“Well, aren’t you going to pick it up?” Gwen asked. It had only rung twice but she doubted his resolve. Without replying, he reached for the phone.
A man’s voice came over the line. “Hi, you had an add in the paper for a TV set.”
“That’s right.” Dave watched Gwen’s face as he gave the man the details about the set.
“And how much do you want for it?”
He hadn’t even thought about a cost. “A hundred dollars.”
“I’ll take it.”
“Don’t you want to come look at it first?”
“No. If you can have it ready in fifteen minutes, I’ll be there with the money.” David felt like laughing as he hung up the phone. Clearly God wanted him to pray instead of watch TV!
Beginning that night, David Wilkerson went to his office, closed the door, and knelt to pray. The two hours a night which had previously been wasted became working hours. He knew it was a glorious opportunity, but it felt more like a dull and tedious chore.
For the first several nights, he ran out of things to pray for within the first half hour. Then, slowly, he began to learn how to pray. He prayed praise as well as petition. He started reading through his bible as he prayed – he read it from cover to cover. In this time of prayer, David Wilkerson gained a new perspective, a perspective which changed the other hours of his day as well.
Waring Passions
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.” (1 Corinthians x.23, ESV)
In Fully Surrendered, my friend, Katie Stone, explained that we should remove anything from our lives which hinders our pursuit of Christ. Sin is not the only obstacle which can stand between us and a life fully given to God. Katie used the illustration of a marathon to demonstrate how things which may not be “against the rules” can still hinder our ability to preform well. Many Christians are “trying to run a marathon in high heels”. In David Wilkerson’s case, he was watching TV in the time God had given him for prayer.
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter ii.1, ESV)
What are these passions that Peter is urging, or begging (as the NKJV says), us to abstain from? I recently looked up the definition of the word passions and found that Miriam Webster’s Dictionary gives four, separate definitions for the word:
1. The state or capacity of being acted on by an external agent or force.
2. Emotion as distinguished from reason.
3. Intense, driving, or overmastering feelings.
4. A strong liking, desire for, or devotion to an activity, object, or concept.
In the terms of the fourth definition, the passions spoken of in 1 Peter ii.11 are things we have a strong liking, desire for, or devotion to. The first three definitions reveal that we do not have control over these passions – they are “acting on”, “driving”, and even “overmastering” us. This is generally not how we think of our passions. We see them as things or activities we choose to enjoy. They serve us. Is that actually true?
The first time I tried to give up a “passion of the flesh” I found, as David Wilkerson did, that it was not an easy task. My desire for that thing was often stronger than my own will. Even after I realized it was not beneficial to my relationship with Christ, I found myself desiring it and often giving in to it. I had to acknowledge that I was actually enslaved to my own passions!
“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey…” (Romans vi.16, NKJV)
Many Christians are controlled by things which are not meant to be their masters. We have a master and that is Jesus Christ. He has purchased us with His own blood. He has made us His own possession (1 Peter ii.9 & 19).
Luke xvi.13 says, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (ESV) We can not serve God while clinging to fleshly passions. We cannot be fully surrendered to Him and simultaneously excuse distractions because they are not “technically” wrong. We must hear Him when He asks us to set our passions aside, so we can fully pursue Him.
David Livingstone prayed, “God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours.”
Ready for Battle?
Peter said, “the passions of the flesh…wage war against your soul.”
The Bible makes numerous references to warfare, teaching the Christian that he or she is in a very real battle. In this battle we must behave as soldiers. Imagine standing on the front lines of a battle. Every time the general begins to give orders to his troops they are distracted by a maneuver of the enemy and do not hear him. The enemy would quickly gain the upper hand because the troops have not heard either the instruction or the encouragement of their leader. These troops would fall into disorder and fail to accomplish any purpose. If the enemy could keep them thus distracted for long enough they might even forget the reason why they were fighting in the first place.
As crazy as it may sound, this is a very real tactic. Our enemy, Satan, is wielding it against us. Distracted by other things, we regularly miss the conviction and prompting of the Holy Spirit.
The truth is this: God still speaks but we aren’t listening. God’s instruction usually comes in a still, small voice (1 Kings xix.11 – 13) and if we are distracted by entertainment or other worldly passions what our Lord is telling us will easily be missed.
“How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don’t even have the strength to turn off your TV?” – Leonard Ravenhill
In Christ
Quiana
*This story was adapted from David Wilkerson’s own account recorded in his book, The Cross and the Switchblade.
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