Man’s Hour of Darkness is God’s Hour of Power
By David Wilkerson
November 9, 2009 Dearly Beloved:

I WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT “PRAYING THROUGH.”
When I was a boy, the Pentecostals spoke much about “praying
through.” This meant you prayed
until God answered. At prayer meetings, people were encouraged,
“Storm the gates of heaven. Give
God no rest until you get the victory.”
Jesus speaks of this when he tells the parable of a widow who would not
let go until her petition was
heard and answered. This widow came to a judge continually and over
time she wore out his
patience. The judge reasoned, “Because this widow troubleth me, I
will avenge her, lest by her
continual coming she weary me” (Luke 18:5).
This parable was given to encourage us to pray always and not faint.
Jesus said, “Shall not God
avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? I tell you
that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man
cometh, shall he find faith on
the earth?” (verses 7–8, my italics).
The last part of this verse used to bother me. I thought, “How is it
possible there might be no faith left
when the Lord comes? Surely in that day there will be an innumerable
host who yearn for his coming.
He will have an overcoming bride, some whose faith cost them their
lives.”
Yet I now believe that Jesus was speaking about this particular kind of
faith. I’m talking about
PERSEVERING FAITH — a faith that does not give up “until.” This
is prayer that doesn’t quit, even if
the answer does not come quickly or even for a long time; even if
things get worse instead of better;
even if an answer seems more and more impossible.
Will the Lord find a people who have not fainted? A people who have not
given up on their petition?
Ask yourself: How many prayers have you given up on? Have you grown
weary of praying for a
wayward child? If you’ve given up, you’re implying, “God
doesn’t answer prayer.”
Has the Holy Spirit whispered a promise in your heart? Has he heard
your cry since then? Has he seen
your many tears and assured you that in his time a miracle will happen?
If so, that is the time to pray
more often and more patiently. His promise is intended to excite you to
pray the promise to come to
pass.
If all believers simply “took it by faith” — praying once and
then sitting on it — few would pray “until.”
Everybody would be “in waiting” for their miracle. I’ve heard it
said, “God said it, I believe it, that
settles it.” Yet God expects more than that. I find I am led by the
Spirit to pray more specifically. For
example, I know that the only way to reach some people is to know that
the Holy Spirit has to do the
work. When young people are passive about Christ — when they have
heard so many sermons, so
many warnings, yet nothing gets through to them — only the Holy
Spirit can reach them. There has to
be a supernatural answer. And so consistent, specific praying must
accompany our faith.
In such cases, I pray, “Holy Spirit, even while I pray this very
hour, wake this person up. Open their
eyes. Lord, I beseech you, pour your conviction on my loved one.” And
so I urge you: Get more
specific with God in prayer.

Thank you for remembering our missions to the poor, the needy, the
hungry and the fatherless
throughout the world. For information on these outreaches visit our
website at
www.worldchallenge.org/missions . God bless you.
In Christ,
DAVID WILKERSON
DW:bbm 11.9.09

Newsletter: Man’s Hour of Darkness is God’s Hour of Power
November 9, 2009 In John 2, Jesus and his disciples were invited to a
marriage supper in Cana.
Evidently, the Lord’s family received the invitation, too, because
Jesus’ mother was there. Mary came
up to him with a request: “The hosts have run out of wine.”
Jesus’ response to his mother seems a bit strange. He told her, “My
hour is not yet come.”
What was this “hour” Jesus was referring to? He wasn’t talking
about the moment of darkness he
would face three years later, before his crucifixion. At that time
Jesus did say, “My hour has come.”
But here at Cana he was speaking of a different hour. The fact is,
Christ’s ministry was just beginning.
This is what he was referring to when he told his mother his hour
hadn’t yet come. Indeed, soon after
he performed a miracle; he miraculously turned six large pots of water
into wine.
Let me ask you: Have you ever wondered why Jesus waited to do this
miracle? He waited until every
bottle was dry, every glass was empty, even as the worried host wrung
his hands.
I tell you, Jesus waited purposely at that wedding for all human
resources to fail. He waited until
nothing could solve the problem short of a miracle. That was when
God’s hour came.
Here is an important truth for every believer: The hour of Christ’s
power is manifested at the very
point of our helplessness.I believe Jesus was giving his disciples —
and his church to come — an
illustrated sermon. Our Lord never did anything or spoke any word that
wasn’t eternally significant.
Everything that Scripture records about him points to the unshifting
nature and workings of God. And
there is a divine principle meant for us in this scene at Cana.
Jesus’ “hour” had to do with something that was happening at the
feast. That is, his hour of power
comes when there is no wine left in our bottles — when we’re empty
of solutions, when all our human
efforts are in vain — and only a miracle can answer our problem.
We find this principle at work throughout the Bible: In man’s darkest
hour, the Lord has a history of
manifesting his power. When we come to our wit’s end, God has already
prepared a great work of
deliverance on our behalf.
Scripture gives us abundant examples of this principle. We find two
such examples in Judges, a book
that contains some of the darkest periods in ancient Israel’s
history.
In a dark hour, God had a marvelous deliverance prepared for his people
through lowly Gideon.Judges
6 finds Israel in a period of awful impoverishment. Year after year
God’s people were rendered
helpless by a marauding enemy that kept them in poverty. When the
vicious Midianites arrived, God’s
people fled to the hills for safety, hiding in caves. Meanwhile their
enemy stole their crops and herds
and destroyed everything they’d built. They left Israel completely
“without sustenance.”

What an hour of darkness. And Israel’s impoverished condition
continued year after year. This speaks
of spiritual death. Their cry was, “Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with
us, why then is all this befallen us?
And where be all his miracles…?” (Judges 6:13).
Yet it was in this dark hour that God manifested his power on behalf of
his people. Indeed, the Lord
performed his deliverance by choosing the poorest man from the poorest
family in the poorest tribe in
Israel: Gideon.
You’re probably familiar with the rest of the story. God sent an
angel to Gideon. Along with three
hundred other men, using only trumpets and torches, they broke the
power of the Midianites. Israel
was miraculously delivered!
Their hour of darkness became God’s hour of power.
We find the same principle at work in the story of Deborah.Judges 4
tells us, “The Lord sold (Israel)
into the hands of (the) king of Canaan” (Judges 4:2). Because of
rampant sin, Israel fell into deep
darkness for twenty years. During that time God’s people were
oppressed mightily. Yet that same
dark hour for them became God’s hour of manifested power.
When Israel had come to the end of all hope, God stirred a prophetess
named Deborah. This woman
saw clearly through the darkness of the hour. Everyone in Israel moaned
in fear except this godly
woman. Scripture says she “dwelt under the palm tree…in Mount
Ephraim” (4:5), where she held
open-air meetings to encourage the people.
Deborah proclaimed, “Up; for this is the day in which the Lord hath
delivered [the enemy] Sisera into
thine hand: is not the Lord gone out before thee?… And the hand of
the children of Israel prospered
and prevailed” (4:14, 24).
Deborah refused to let the darkness overwhelm her. She knew that God is
never surprised by the
darkness of the times. So she spoke faith to God’s people, calling
that dark hour in history the very
hour of God’s deliverance.
Another example occurs with King Jehoshaphat when God’s people were
under severe attack.In
Second Chronicles we read that Jehoshaphat received a frightening
message: “There cometh a great
multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria… And
Jehoshaphat feared, and set
himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast” (2 Chronicles
20:2–3).
Terrified, Israel’s king called together a great prayer meeting:
“Judah gathered themselves together,
to ask help of the Lord” (20:4). As the people came together to seek
God, Jehoshaphat prayed, “Lord,
we don’t know what to do. But our eyes are on you!”
Here was perhaps the darkest hour for Israel. They were facing
annihilation with no way to stop the

invading enemy. What was God’s answer to his people in that hour?
“Be not afraid nor dismayed by
reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but
God’s” (20:15).
When the people heard this, something stirred inside them. They had
heard a word from the Lord.
Now, during their darkest hour, faith rose up in their hearts — and
they began to praise.
The Spirit of the Lord appeared in the midst of the congregation. And
as the people’s praises
ascended to heaven, the Lord sent a powerful angel to ambush the
approaching enemy. One angel of
God slew that entire army!
In a single, swift moment, victory was theirs. What seemed to God’s
people a dark hour became for
them God’s hour of deliverance.
Isaiah brings this principle closer to home when he prophesies Jesus’
appearance on the earth in the
last days.Isaiah prophesied, “Behold, the darkness shall cover the
earth, and gross darkness the
people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen
upon thee. And the Gentiles
shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising”
(Isaiah 60:2–3).
This prophecy speaks of the last days, a time that began when light —
Jesus Christ the Lord — came
into the gross darkness. Isaiah was speaking of a great, widespread
outshining of the glory of Christ
into the darkness. Multitudes throughout the whole Gentile world would
come into his light.
Think of it: There was no darker time in history than at Jesus’
birth. The great Roman Empire had
become a materialistic, covetous, greedy society. Sexual perversions
abounded, and drunkenness and
gluttony were the norm. Books have been written about the gross sins
that brought down the Roman
Empire. Indeed, the whole known world at the time was shrouded in
darkness.
Also during this time, a horrible darkness had fallen over Israel.
Hypocrisy ruled the day. Priests
robbed widows of their houses, and the lowly and uneducated despised
their so-called spiritual
leaders. Simply put, the blind were leading the blind.
It was into this gross darkness that Jesus came forth as a shining
light. And we know that since that
glorious day, multitudes have come into his light.
You may say, “But look around today. Gross darkness still covers the
earth.” Yes — and in my
opinion, this present hour is the worst in human history. The darkness
hovering over all nations and
peoples can actually be felt. Nuclear threat, genocide, wide-spread sex
trafficking — it all wreaks
havoc on the heart. Could there be any darker cloud than the one
covering the earth right now?
Yet Jesus is still the light of the world. And the grosser the
darkness, the brighter is his light! As Isaiah
saw down to the darkness of our day, he cried out like Deborah:
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:1).

Once again, in the world’s darkest hour, the Lord is going to
manifest his power. And I believe he will
accomplish this by drawing in a significant ingathering of lost souls
in the days ahead. Let me give
you three reasons why I see this happening.
First, there is a growing witness of the Holy Spirit.“The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit, that
we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16). “God also bearing them
witness, both with signs and
wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost”
(Hebrews 2:4). “Where-of the Holy
Ghost also is a witness to us” (Hebrews 10:15).
You may ask, “What is the Holy Spirit bearing witness to?” The next
verse tells us: “This is the
covenant I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will
put my laws into their hearts,
and in their minds will I write them” (Hebrews 10:16). Simply put,
the Holy Spirit is witness to an
outpouring of mercy upon this last-days generation.
“It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is
truth…. He that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself” (1 John 5:6, 10). The Holy Spirit bears
witness to all of God’s workings and
moving, to prepare us for what he is about to do. Right now his church
is being stirred again, showing
us that a sovereign move of the Holy Ghost must come. Out of this gross
darkness, the Spirit is going
to lift up Christ and draw multitudes to him.
We are also experiencing a time of darkness in the church. Some
denominations are affirming
same-sex marriages and an entire generation of youth is turning away
from God. Yet in this darkest
of hours, the Holy Spirit is awakening all who seek him. If you are
walking in the Spirit, you hear the
same witness from the Spirit that I do. That is: The hour of man’s
darkness is the Holy Spirit’s hour of
outpouring. It has always been that way, and so it will be now.
In this hour of bad news, the Spirit is witnessing good news: “I have
saved the best wine for last!”
Second, a spirit of prayer is taking hold of God’s people.Right now
prayer meetings are being
resurrected in churches throughout New York City. Who could have
believed this would happen in “Sin
City”? Last month over 50,000 believers gathered in Times Square to
pray. And Christian conferences
worldwide are becoming impromptu prayer meetings.
When the Spirit stirs — when sinners are coming to Christ, when the
Spirit bears witness that now is
the time to pray, when God makes a promise and begins to move — you
can’t just sit back and say,
“God promised it. I’m just going to ‘take it by faith.’ I’ll
sit back and watch him fulfill everything he
says.” No! When the Spirit moves, it is a time for pressing in with
fervency and faith.
When Daniel read Jeremiah’s prophecy, he calculated that Israel’s
seventy years of bondage had
come to an end. He realized Israel was about to be delivered from
Babylon. God’s people were about
to be set free!

So what did Daniel do? Did he wait for God to move, “taking it all by
faith”? No! Daniel declared, “I
set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications,
with fasting, and sackcloth, and
ashes” (Daniel 9:3). Of course he prayed with abounding faith.
This is what the Holy Spirit does prior to every great move of the
Lord: He calls us to fervent prayer.
And every great move of the Spirit that follows is sustained by prayer.
In Jude’s epistle, we read of a last-days generation given over to
fornication and sensuality. It was a
time when God’s people murmured and complained. Jude prophesied of it
all, “Behold, the Lord
cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment” (Jude
14–15).
Yet how were God’s people to prepare for this? According to Jude,
“But ye, beloved, building up
yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” (20).
In the darkest hour, God’s people
are always to watch and pray.
Third, this generation has run out of wine and needs a miracle.Wine in
the Bible represents joy and
gladness. “Wine, that maketh glad the heart of man” (Psalm 104:15).
In the New Testament, “new
wine” is a type of the Holy Spirit.
Yet as I look at the church today, I see wine jars that are empty. Why?
As almost every biblical
prophet has said, “Sin takes away mirth and gladness.”
Now I have a word for every mother, father and grandparent who has
prayed so long for their lost
young one: Hold on. Jesus is watching and waiting. His hour on your
child’s behalf is about to come.
The fact is, your boy or girl may still be drinking of the old wine of
this world. They can’t give up their
old friends. They still harbor hurts from the church, holding grudges
and having lingering doubts. But
the vessels holding that old wine are about to run dry. Their friends
will fail them and they’ll be
overcome with emptiness.
When that moment comes — when all their efforts have failed — you
will see God’s hour of power.
Only a miracle of his grace can bring true deliverance. So, keep on
praying. God will keep his word to
you!
In light of all this, what are we to do?Mary, Jesus’ mother, gives us
the answer. At Cana, she told the
disciples, “Just do what he tells you.” Beloved, the Lord is going
to tell you what to do. He is the new
wine, the source of all joy and gladness. And he will speak to you what
he would have you do. Read
his Word — and then just do it!
Jesus told us to work while it is still day. Why? Because the “night
cometh, when no man can work”
(John 9:4).

In Revelation 7, John describes a multitude standing before God’s
throne, a crowd so massive nobody
could number it. This crowd is representative of people from all
tongues and nations, dressed in white
robes and all praising the Lord. When John asks, “Who are these
people? Where did they come from?”
he is told, “These are the ones who have come out of great
tribulation.”
Dear saint, I believe we are the generation referred to in Revelation
7. We are living in the darkest of
hours and all around us are great tribulations. But the light is still
shining brightly. Indeed, the darker
the night, how much greater is his light!
As you labor in prayer for your loved ones, and for a world covered in
darkness, I want to remind you
of your own story. Remember, in your tribulation time somebody was
winning souls. Somebody was
praying the lost into the light. Somebody was rising above the dark and
proclaiming Christ. Somebody
believed Jesus would break out new wine. And it happened. You came into
the light! Surely many
others will come out of the darkness and into the light.
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