Concerned or Anguished?

David Wilkerson asks a humbling question.  Even we in the Biblical and zealous church can fall into a state where we are more concerned than agonized over the fate of those around us.  We are not here to live through life and then go to be with the Lord.  Neither are we here to be “concerned” about those around us.  That’s not good enough.  We must follow after the footsteps of our Lord and after the example of those whom He sent into the world.  They, we’re told, cried real tears of anguish over the lost and spent long hours in prayer and fasting over the lost and over those whom they, otherwise, would have no connection with.  Hear brother Wilkerson’s words – he says it far better than I:

The Call To Anguish – David Wilkerson

What a challenge…what a rebuke.  How humbling and how needed.  The question is, what will I do in response?  How will my life be different because of this truth? 

I don’t mean because you saw this video or read this blog your life will be changed, nothing that trite.  But truths, on the other hand, are meant to change lives.  There comes a time when an understanding of God’s truth, a particular aspect of God’s Word springs upon us, as a flash of lightning from the east as it were.  The light goes on and we grasp something that we have never before seen.  That process ought never cease.  God intends and has designed that it never cease.  We should be growing and bearing fruit from the time that we are redeemed until the time that the ground closes over us.

What I mean then is that this idea, this truth ought make a profound difference to us in the way in which we live.  That difference ought to be both noticeable and permanent.  This is the kind of thing tht Jesus meant when He said those familiar words:

^18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ^19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ^20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (Matthew 7:18-20)

He meant that fruit would come forth, it would be good fruit and not bad fruit, and that this fruit would not be alone (note the use of the plural).  He enlarges on this idea in John 15:16 by telling us that not only are we command (appointed) to go and bear fruit, but that it is to ongoing; remaining, persistent fruit.  Be that fruit the fruits of evangelism or character, that fruit is not to fruit that shows up and then disappears after a season.

All of this to say that we have His assurance that He has done a work in us and His provision is sure and His enablement is present.  What He has charged us to do we can surely do.  Freedom is a precious thing, but that freedom can become a cursed thing, a slur and not a blessing if we fail to use that freedom to serve God and uphold His purposes for His Church and for the world.