Don’t Judge Your Spiritual Condition by Your Feelings: David Wilkerson (Transcript)

Full text of David Wilkerson’s sermon titled ‘Don’t Judge Your Spiritual Condition by Your Feelings.’

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TRANSCRIPT:

David Wilkerson – American evangelist

But I want to speak to you this morning about — my subject this morning, don’t judge your spiritual condition by your feelings. Don’t judge your spiritual condition by feelings.

Now folks, if you get a hold of this this morning, the devil can’t lie to you anymore about your position in Christ. If we could only learn who we are in Christ, our position, not our condition, but our position. If we can understand that, the devil can’t sway you by feelings anymore.

Go to 1 Thessalonians, please, 1 Thessalonians, the fourth chapter. Fourth chapter, verse 1.

You’ll read just one verse, 1 Thessalonians 4:1: Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.

Read it again.

Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.

Now, Father, take this word and multiply it, increase it, and cause us, Lord, to lay hold by the help of the Holy Ghost this morning, to choose that will deliver us from this everlasting terror of our feelings, being up and down, hot and cold. Oh, God, we want to understand by the word of the Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit, the steadfastness that You want us to have in Christ and in the Word, so that in the days ahead when the world is spinning out of control and everything is out of kilter, we will be steadfast, immovable, and we will not be listening to the lies of the devil, we will not be swayed and tossed by winds and waves of doctrine, but we will be steadfast, immovable, and ever increasing in the grace of God. Anoint me to preach this word, I pray. Amen.

Now, Paul in this verse is saying to the Thessalonians, you can’t say you haven’t been well taught. He said, I and others have taught you well, we’ve shown you how to walk and how to please God, and therefore we’re asking that you abound in that. Now, the word abound means to increase.

Paul is saying, and I would say this to everyone in this congregation, if you’ve been sitting under pure gospel, if you’ve been hearing the Word being taught from consecrated vessels, and the Word is strong, it’s pure, it’s life-changing, you should be increasing in faith, in the knowledge of God, you should be increasing in the love of the truth, in love of the brother, in the knowledge of God, in the love of God. You should be increasing, there should be an abounding.

He said, you’ve been well taught, so we’re saying you need to abound, you need to increase in the knowledge. You have a foundation, we taught you, now there should be an increase in you.

Paul spoke of abounding or increasing in utterance, in knowledge, in love, for the ministry, in prayer, in the ministry to the saints, and in giving. He said, you should be giving more of yourself, of your money, of your time, your talents, there should be changes happening in you. You should be growing in grace and in the knowledge of God.

Now, Christians who have been fed the Word of God are, according to Scripture, expected to grow. Would you turn with me to Ephesians? Turn left, please, to Ephesians, the fourth chapter.

Ephesians, the fourth chapter, and begin with me in verse 11. Now, wait till the rustling of the leaves stop. By the way, if you’re new in Times Square Church, you notice that everybody brings their Bible. I noticed at ministers’ conferences, there were very few Bibles. I said, you need to come to Times Square Church in order to bring your Bible. Bring your Bible, if you’re just starting here at Times Square Church, so you will be able to follow us.

Ephesians 4:11-13: beginning to read, ‘He gave some, apostles; some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.’

In other words, do you understand what he’s saying? All of these preachers and pastors and prophets, evangelists and teachers, all of this word that you’ve been receiving, it’s that you come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to be a mature person, measuring up to the stature of the fullness of Christ, not a baby anymore, but growing.

Verse 14-15, ‘That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, you may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.’

That you may grow up in Christ in all of your ways. Jesus said, didn’t He? I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. In other words, an increase, a constant increase in your life of all these things we’re talking about.

Jesus commended the church at Thyatira, remember? He said, you’re increasing, and here’s how He stated it. I know thy works and thy charity, and the last to be more than the first. He said, you are more intense now, you are growing more than when you first started. God, Jesus Himself, commends them. He compliments them. He said, I see something in you. You have more of love of God. You have more of the things of God in you. You are more intense, more on fire for God than you were at the first.

How are you growing? What is happening in your own life? That is my question.

Proverbs 4:18 says, the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more until that perfect day. It’s shining more and more. Is the Word opening to you more and more? Do you have the love of God growing in you, the knowledge of God? Is there an ever-increasing walk with God of faith, of giving and serving?

We see there is no place in the Scripture allowed for sloth, for laziness, for stunted growth. Job said, the righteous shall hold on to his way, and he that hath clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger. He that is clean before the Lord will grow stronger and stronger.

Now, I ask this question again of the congregation, all of you hearing me. Are you growing in the Lord? Has your growth been stunted so that there has been no growth this past year or this past month?

My question again is, how do you know? How do you measure your growth? How do you know that you are further along the road than you were last year? How do you compare now to the time when you first came to Christ?

Tragically, many, many Christians judge their spiritual growth by how they feel. They judge it completely on feelings, and this is where Satan can totally deceive and seduce you. This has been a life-changing word that God has been speaking to my heart for a number of months, but I’m just now laying hold of it, and I want you to see it. And I pray God help me to show it to you this morning.