David Wilkerson: A Grain of Wheat

By Nina Medrano –

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives” (John 12:24, NLT).

Rev. David Wilkerson, founding pastor of the Times Square Church in
New York City, was killed Wednesday in a car crash in Texas, according
to a source close to CBN News.  He was 79.  Rev. Wilkerson’s wife Gwen
was also involved in the crash and rushed to the hospital.  Details of
the crash are still developing. Stay with CBNNews.com for an update.

The day that I heard this news broadcast my breathing paused for a long while. Almost immediately, I began to receive multiple internet news on Pastor Dave’s passing. Still too shocked to believe my ears and eyes, my mind raced back to the day Keith Green died a tragic death in an airplane crash in 1982.

It was July 28, 1982 and I was visiting dear friends who lived on an Air Force base in Victorville, California, when we heard the news of Keith Green.

I still remember how compelling the power of God moved upon me and my friends as we gathered together trying to grasp the news of the death of this mighty man of God, of our ‘then’ generation.

There was such a surge of anointing running through our hearts that we could not continue with the tasks at-hand. We HAD to share the gospel—we were compelled to tell someone about Jesus Christ!

We turned off the television. We turned off the stove—dinner will have to wait.  We grabbed our Bibles and we took off walking—we didn’t know where we were going—we just knew we had to tell someone that Jesus Christ loves them and died for them on a cross and desires to have relationship with them.

As if on some spiritual frequency, we all stopped and looked at each other and sensed that we should go to the women’s dorm building.

With our spiritual sword in hand, we knocked on the first door in the woman’s dorm.  A young woman came to the door. She was crying and alone. She let us in her room. We asked her why she was crying. She told us that this was her first time away from home. We opened up the Word of God and shared the Good News that Jesus loves her and will always be with her!

We led this young woman and several others to Christ that evening.

I find it amazing that whenever the death of a mighty man of God takes place, that God has a divine plan for this. It is His pattern for life, which leads to multiplication.

“…unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.”

May the power of God so compel us to pursue and capture this generation as it was in the life of David Wilkerson.