Expect Great Things from God

One of my closest friends grew up in poverty in Puerto Rico. His parents were deeply immersed in the occult. His mother abused, beat, and neglected him, locking him in a dark closet without food or water. She would tell him she wished he was never born. Unloved and unwanted, one day this young boy climbed a tree, put a noose around his neck, and was ready to leap to his death, until his older brother saw him and yelled, “No, don’t jump!”

In his early teens, he lived on the streets of New York City. There, with all the pain, anger, and hatred boiling up in his heart, he joined a gang. His violence soon made him the leader. Filled with rage, poverty, and a future that was sure to end in death or lifelong imprisonment, his life would soon take a miraculous turn. 

Meanwhile, the pastor of a small church prayed. He knew that God’s kingdom is one of miracles, signs, wonders, and life-changing power. He read an article about the gangs, drugs, and hopelessness of young people in New York, and he decided to go and preach to them. It was his unwavering faith that set in motion a series of events that would change countless lives.

He went to New York, where young Nicky Cruz, the leader of the notorious Mau Mau gang, came to know the love of Jesus through the love of one relentless, faith-filled believer in the God of the impossible. Because of one man’s faith, hundreds of hopeless gang members came to Christ. Drug addicts who were left to die in their addiction found healing, hope, and a home through Teen Challenge, which now has over 1,400 centers globally, ministering to over 20,000 recovering addicts. This remarkable, faith-motivated success was rooted in one man, my father, David Wilkerson, who prayed, was moved by the Spirit, and took action. 

The small-town pastor also went on to found Times Square Church in New York and World Challenge, which exists to preach the gospel and to practice pure religion by caring for thousands of orphans and widows, as well as plant churches among the most unreached.

An Environment of Faith

David Wilkerson was a man of faith, and he created an environment of faith that continues. One of the great lessons I’ve learned from him is that faith is not limited to Christian heroes or super saints. He was a normal man in many ways, yet his faith brought him into the supernatural realm. He taught me what I want to pass on to you: 

• You can believe God for what seems impossible.

• You can participate in the supernatural.

• You can see miracles.

• Your family can be healed.

• Your dream can be achieved.

• Your vision can become reality.

• Your problem can be solved.

• Your hopes can become realized. 

You can walk in an environment of faith and see the mighty hand of God move in ways that seem unattainable. Simply walk in mustard seed faith and God can use you to release his mighty works. God longs to move and transform, but he uses people to do his will. You have a role to play. Your words of encouragement may touch one life deeply, or a whole city may see the power of God.

Increased Faith, Increased Ministry

Be encouraged! I know you are hungry. You want to see your faith increase, your ministry advance, and your Christ-driven influence grow. I want to help you believe in what you feel is too far gone, for miracles you’ve been waiting for, to trust God to move mightily in situations that require him to do what seems impossible. How do we get this kind of faith?

1. Believing God when others don’t

Faith doesn’t start with you having some innate ability to believe more than most; faith starts and grows according to our knowledge of God. Faith begins by understanding God’s heart. What delights him? What breaks his heart? The more we know him deeply, the more we will know that he is trustworthy, always faithful. Knowing his faithfulness is what leads us to have faith.

Years ago, I received a late-night call. My two sons were caught with drugs and were in prison; it was the darkest night of my life. I’ve had cancer and broke my back in a car wreck, but none of that compared with the angst I felt lying in bed that night, feeling brokenhearted. All I could think of was what they were going through and what I could do. But God broke through, telling me he would use this for good. Not long after, both returned to Jesus and now serve him faithfully.

Every day, I give thanks. I know God is faithful; no matter how dark the night, joy will come in the morning. He has never let me down. I know him, who he is, and his character, and my faith has increased. Now, I have the same desire to help children worldwide who are in need. I want God’s heart; I want urgent faith, not “someday” faith. I want “God to move now” faith!

2. Acting when others won’t

It’s one thing to have a desire, a passion, and a vision; it’s another to do it. You can only truly know you have faith if you step out in faith. It is called a step of faith, not a thought or feeling of faith. It requires action. It might be calling someone you felt you could never forgive. It might be finding resources instead of requiring it all yourself. These are steps of faith. Many talk and preach about faith, but without action, it is not genuine faith. This is evident in James’s admonition to live out your faith in action, to become one who practices pure religion (James 1:27). How? Not by reading, thinking, or praying about it but by caring for orphans and widows. Faith doesn’t hope orphans find a home; faith acts and gives.

Many come to me, hoping to raise funds for a project. I ask them what they are doing right now. “I’m just planning and praying, but I haven’t started yet.” Most often, I will tell them to come back after they have taken their first step of faith. After they have gone beyond their first thoughts of faith and taken their first step of faith, I’d be glad to join them in their mission. Having a vision is easy, but taking action toward that mission is harder. Faith is activated upon our motion. When we act in faith, it is the revealing factor that we have faith. 

3. Staying faithful when others falter

Every faith-filled vision and mission will face hardship, setbacks, hindrances, and even defeats. We may lose some battles but must stay on the field to win the war. Many don’t accomplish an environment of faith because they quit when it’s tough and often quit right before victory. If they held on, they would have seen the breakthrough, but they gave up. Now they are bitter, unbelieving, and unwilling to return to battle. Completing a vision requires endurance.

The Apostle Paul speaks of a co-minister whose faith faltered when things got hard: “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10, NKJV). I think Demas returned to a less challenging, more comfortable life that required less fighting in faith for what seemed impossible. Don’t give up just before the breakthrough is about to come. Stay in faith.

4. Seeing what others don’t see 

The first step to obtaining visionary, transformative faith is seeing the conflict that must be addressed. Many of us never need faith because we never care about the battles that must be fought and are unwilling to risk what it costs to see the battle through to victory.

Gideon saw the plight and the suffering of his people. They were defeated, downcast, and overwhelmed by the Midianites stealing anything the Hebrews were obtaining (see Judges 6-7). It’s just like Satan stealing from us, from our family, from our church, from our vision and mission. Often, we are so stuck in the small world of our little kingdom that we don’t see the world’s crying need. We don’t need faith when we are not moved by the needs around us. Faith is not required for those who have shut their eyes to the pressing needs around them.

It’s been said that the world’s greatest needs, mixed with your greatest passion, equals your highest calling. We must awaken both our passion and our eyes to the need God is calling us to engage. I see the needs of 150 million orphans, the cry of abandoned widows who lost their young husbands in Ukraine, or an elderly woman in a distant village who lacks water, eats a piece of bread a day, has no family, and has rain pouring through her roof.

What is the problem you want to fix? Today, there is much talk about mission and vision. When I first began ministry, it was always about, “What burden has God put on your heart?” I like this. It’s more about what God is doing in your heart than what you want to do, more about the right starting place with what breaks your heart, what burdens you, and what moves you to compassion. Vision is often borrowed, but burden is born in tears.

If you face a little problem, you only need a little solution. If you are facing a big problem, you need a big solution or many small solutions that add up to big changes. To tackle something big, you need immense faith. You may say, “This sounds like an ambitious American message.” No, this is God’s big message. We have too long settled for far less than God would long to see accomplished. God told Isaiah that he would be used to raise up the tribe of Jacob, but that was too small; God had more: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6, ESV).

God often uses smaller victories to build faith and confidence for the larger battles he wants you to fight. Don’t limit God or how he will choose to use you. People who see a great need, believe in a great vision and undertake a great mission with goals that seem impossible. They make skeptics mad, lazy believers ashamed, and doubtful leaders will accuse them of being unrealistic. You will know you are walking in great vision and faith when you constantly hear, “That’s impossible.” I have a vision, rooted in faith, of caring for one million orphans and one million widows over the next 20 years.

Start with little, end with large. Gideon started with fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and self-limiting beliefs. But he finished with 300 men trampling the enemy. God loves to use the small, so that he will receive all the glory. Don’t let your lack of resources, manpower, charisma, or leadership skills stop you or dictate your hope. God uses the despised things of the world to shame the wise. If you are little, you are in the right place with God. Are you ready to act on your faith and believe a great big God has great big plans for your life? You are not a second-class Christian with a second-class calling.

Teresa of Ávila said, “You pay God a compliment by asking great things of him,” while English missionary William Carey remarked, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”