As In The Days Of Noah - The Righteous Methuselah of Our Time

The righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Isa 57:1

There is a strange phenomenon in the pursuit of God. God has always wanted us to be His friends and children, but we have wanted a business encounter called religion. He desires to take us into high adventure and share with us great and mighty things that we know not. His heart seeks our heart. He is not a mediocre God, but a God of extremes. He loves us with everything that He is. That is why He unapologetically requires us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It would be to our infinite advantage and joy. But most of us want just enough of Him to have our fire insurance. Instead of extremes, we want “just enough”. In other words, we don’t want relationship, but religion. That was the error of the Hebrew children at the foot of Mt. Sinai when God would have spoken to them face-to-face, but they wouldn’t have it. They told Moses, “YOU talk to Him, and be a go-between.” They were afraid they might have to get rid of their fleshly and worldly desires and be holy in their living.

It's the same today. We prefer rule-keeping to relationship. Many churches are simply religious club houses with rules like “be faithful” in church attendance, give tithes, participate here and there in church activities, and in general agree with whatever the leader tells us. After all, he is the “go-between” for us to God. And whatever you do, do not associate with other religious clubs. And OF COURSE, the most successful membership drive is teaching the "prosperity gospel". So, we don’t attract the world to Jesus because they see that we are not in relationship with Him but observing religious ritual. The world says, “you can keep that junk--give us the real thing!” Enter David Wilkerson. He was willing to get his hands dirty in the streets of New York. He started ministries to follow through with those rescued from bad situations. He sought the Lord’s pure and holy face, not just His giving hand.

The Lord rewarded him with revelation about the future which caused him to weep and grieve. When Mr. Wilkerson shared this in love with the church world, the response was mockery—I heard it and read it. But a few of us were thrilled. We who had hungered and thirsted for the “real thing” were hearing truth. We were hearing through Mr. Wilkerson and a few others the basic message of the gospel of righteousness once again. I will never forget the summer of 1987 when I asked the Lord who was right, David Wilkerson or a preacher who had published a brochure against him and others calling them “gloom and doomers”. After 3 weeks of seeking the Lord about this, He woke me at 3:10 am and spoke a word to me that had me weeping and trembling for hours. God confirmed the message to me that He gave to David Wilkerson and He gave that same message to anyone who came seeking Him with their whole heart. But it seems that there are only a few who want a whole-heart relationship in any given church. Because we keep ourselves at arm’s length from Jesus, we fail to understand the desires of His heart. I think salvation depends on how well we carry out on earth the desires of His heart. Matthew 25: 31-46 is a very sobering example of this. David Wilkerson prophesied of the times we are in and of infinitely more difficult times coming. He was acknowledged to be the "last word" in prophecy concerning America. Because of him, I finally got serious about knowing the Lord after I graduated seminary. I incorrectly thought that most pastors and church members truly wanted the same thing. To me, David Wilkerson’s death signals foreboding for our nation and the world. Michael Boldea and others have been telling us, “the warnings have ended.” I am reminded that the name Methuselah means "when he is dead, it will come."

The same year that righteous Methuselah died is when the flood came upon the

earth. So that is one example of how God removes special servants before a great change in world events. Update: God's faithful servant Billy Graham left this world seven years after David Wilkerson.