Wednesday, September 6, 2010

The Beggars Are a Sign

Let me share with you what I believe God has shown me about His judgments on America -- judgments that have already begun. Recently, while deep in prayer, these words rang over and over in my spirit: "The beggars are a sign! The beggars are a sign!"

I thought of the more than 60,000 homeless people, many of them beggars, roaming the streets. If you stop your car at an intersection in New York City, beggars swarm around the car, blocking the road with signs, wiping your windshield with filthy rags and begging for small change. Many are becoming increasingly belligerent, menacing and violent.

Thousands of these beggars are just kids -- teenagers who sleep in abandoned cars and trucks and dilapidated, rat-infested buildings. They are lost in a drug-crazed world of crack and AIDS. Many sell their bodies for a fix, offering sexual favors for as little as 25 cents!

When you look into their eyes and sunken faces, you see a picture of hell. Some long for death, in order to escape their prison of drugs. Others are dying already, consumed with AIDS, chlamydia, tuberculosis, pneumonia and all kinds of cancer.

Poverty alone hasn't driven them to the streets -- it has also been the work of a demonic spirit! 

This city and all its agencies are dumbfounded. "What is going on?" they're asking. "Why this sudden appearance of an army of hopeless beggars in the last two years?"

During this judgment brought upon Israel, Isaiah cried, "Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets [intersections], as a wild bull in a net; they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God" (Isaiah 51:20).

This is a divine rebuke -- a witness of the full fury of God. The young are lying in the streets as a visible sign that cannot be ignored! During the most prosperous time in American history -- a period of our lowest unemployment  -- an army of homeless beggars has arisen. How true it is that "righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34).

Before I go any further about the fact that these beggars are a sign of judgment, let me show you from Scripture how anxious God is to get His warnings across to us.

To be continued...

About David Wilkerson
David Wilkerson is the Founding Pastor of Times Square Church in New York City. He was called to New York in 1958 to minister to gang members and drug addicts, as told in the best-selling book, The Cross and the Switchblade.
In 1987, David Wilkerson returned to "the crossroads of the world" to establish Times Square Church. Since then, he has faithfully led this congregation, delivering powerful biblical messages that encourage righteous living and complete reliance on God.
David Wilkerson has a strong burden to encourage and strengthen pastors throughout the world. Since 1999, he has been travelling around the globe holding conferences for Christian ministers.

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David Wilkerson