Others like the force of freedom Features >>
The Burden Of Freedom
The Power Of Forgiveness
The Race, Cross And Christian Bloodlines
The True Nature Of God
The Blood Of Jesus: Blood Power
The Force Of Righteousness
The Grace Of Yielding
The Power Of The Communion Table
The Work Of The Holy Spirit In Regeneration
The Life Of Repentance And Purity
About the Book
"The Force of Freedom" by David Oyedepo is a book that explores the power of freedom in all areas of life, including spiritual, financial, and personal freedom. The author emphasizes the importance of breaking free from limitations and realizing one's full potential in order to live a fulfilling and purpose-driven life. Through biblical principles and practical insights, Oyedepo guides readers on how to tap into the force of freedom to achieve success and happiness.
David Wilkerson
BEGINNINGS
Christian evangelist, David Ray Wilkerson was born May 19 1931 in Hammond, Indiana. He was born into a family of Pentecostal Christian preachers; both his father and paternal grandfather were ministers.
David was baptized with the Holy Spirit at the age of thirteen and began to preach when he was fourteen. After high school he entered the Central Bible College (affiliated with the Assemblies of God) in Springfield, Missouri. In 1952 he was ordained as a minister.
CALLED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, MOVED WITH COMPASSION
Wilkerson married his wife, Gwen in 1953 and served as a pastor in small churches in Scottdale and Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, during the early years of their marriage.
But his life changed drastically in 1958 when he was brought to tears after looking at a pen drawing of seven New York City teenagers in Life Magazine. The article detailed the court trial of these young boys, charged with murder.
Cross and the Switchblade
The boys were members of a teenage gang called the Dragons who were accused of brutally attacking and killing Michael Farmer, a fifteen-year-old who had polio.
Two days later, after hearing a clear call from the Holy Spirit telling him “Go to New York City and help those boys”, Wilkerson arrived at the courthouse in New York City. His plan was to ask the judge for permission to talk to the boys to share God’s love with them.
The judge refused his request and Wilkerson was removed from the courtroom. He returned home, but his quiet country life was about to change – forever.
NICKY CRUZ: “JESUS LOVES YOU, NICKY”
Wilkerson returned to New York one day each week, driving over 350 miles from his home in Pennsylvania. He sought God’s direction while walking the streets, preaching, and meeting with gang members and drug addicts.
David soon met Nicky Cruz, warlord of Brooklyn gang – the Mau Maus – the most violent teenage gang in New York. Nicky threatened to kill Wilkerson the first day the two met. David responded to Nicky’s threats by telling him, “God has the power to change your life.” Nicky cursed, hit Wilkerson, spit in his face, and told him, “I don’t believe in what you say and you get out of here.”
Wilkerson replied, “You could cut me up into a 1000 pieces and lay them in the street. Every piece will still love you.” For two weeks Nicky couldn’t stop thinking about David Wilkerson’s words of love – “I love you, Nicky.”
THE POWER OF JESUS’ LOVE
In July 1958, soon after Wilkerson’s confrontation with Nicky Cruz, Wilkerson scheduled an evangelistic rally for New York gangs, at the St. Nicholas Boxing Arena. Nearly every member of Nicky’s gang, as well as their rival gangs, attended the rally.
The atmosphere was tense until Wilkerson prayed and the power of the Holy Spirit fell. When he gave an altar call, Nicky and most of his gang surrendered their lives to Jesus.
“David Wilkerson came with a message of hope and love,” Cruz said. “I felt the power of Jesus like a rushing wind that took my breath away. I fell on my knees and confessed Christ.”
After his conversion, Nicky went to a Bible College in La Puente, CA, where he met his future wife, Gloria. After graduation he became an evangelist, returned to Brooklyn, NY, and led more of the Mau Maus to Christ. He founded Nicky Cruz Outreach and began traveling around the world ministering to hundreds of thousands each year.
In a 1998 article, the Wall Street Journal proclaimed Nicky as the “Billy Graham of the streets.”
A MINISTRY IS BORN: TEEN CHALLENGE
Although David Wilkerson never met with the seven teenage gang members that first drew him to New York City, he founded Teen-Age Evangelism (later called Adult & Teen Challenge) from his heart cry to reach gang members with God’s love. The first Center in Brooklyn, NY, opened in 1960.
Adult & Teen Challenge is a faith-based, addiction recovery program that teaches Biblical principles as part of a daily program that ministers healing to teenagers, adults, and families. It is affiliated with the Assemblies of God.
Teen Challenge offers a wide range of programs: one to two-year residential recovery programs, re-entry programs to help graduates transition back into independent living, non-residential Community Groups run by seasoned leaders, and prevention programs to educate school-aged students about the destructive consequences of substance abuse.
Teen Challenge students are taught to reject old identities such as, “addict”, “failure”, “hopeless”, and see themselves as new creations in Christ – changed from the inside out.
Teen Challenge stands alone as the most effective substance abuse recovery program to date. The success of this ministry is attributed to its foundation in Biblical principles, prayer for conversion, and baptism with the Holy Spirit.
THE PROVEN CURE FOR THE DRUG EPIDEMIC
David Wilkerson’s life’s work still stands as a testament to the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to bring miraculous healing and new life in Christ, to all. Even to drug-addicted, violent young gang members full of hate and sin.
Compared to Short-Term Inpatient (STI) drug treatment programs and Narcotics/Alcoholics Anonymous, Teen Challenge graduates have higher abstinence rates, less frequent relapses, significantly higher full-time employment rates, and are much less likely to return to treatment.
“Once an addict, always an addict” is not taught, nor proclaimed at Teen Challenge. Transformed graduates of the program do not need on-going, daily meetings such as Narcotics Anonymous (NA) or Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER…
Wilkerson attributed Teen Challenge’s unequaled success rate to the power of the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit is in charge. As long as He remains in charge, the program will thrive. The minute we try to do things by our own power we will fail.”
No matter how many years addicted, again and again, the testimony of Teen Challenge students remains the same. They are introduced to the love of God when they are born again, but complete victory/deliverance from addiction doesn’t come until baptism in the Holy Spirit.
One student said, “I wasn’t lonely anymore. I didn’t want any more drugs. I loved everybody. For the first time in my life, I felt clean.”
Many graduates of Teen Challenge are so completely transformed they decide to go to seminary, then into ministry. Many return to Teen Challenge as staff members to help others overcome their addictions and find new life.
TESTIMONIES OF TEEN CHALLENGE
Harry Davis – “I discovered Teen Challenge in 1989 at age 63. I did every drug in the world for 50 years. I’m 71 now and I work in the kitchen at the Brooklyn Center.”
Canzada Edmonds – “Love is what made the difference for me. When I was ready to give up, they showed me, love. They showed me compassion. They showed me through Christ I could live a victorious life. Then they taught me how to be a lady.”
Steve Hill – “Its greatest impact was in the area of discipline and structure. If it wasn’t for Teen Challenge, I would either be dead or in the penitentiary.”
EXPANDING GOD’S KINGDOM
Wilkerson went on to found Youth Crusades (1967), CURE Corps, and World Challenge (1971) to propel the Gospel worldwide.
In 1986, Wilkerson’s heart was again broken for the lost. As he walked down 42nd Street, he saw prostitutes, young children (under the age of 12) high on crack cocaine, runaways, and drug addicts. He cried and prayed, “God You’ve got to do something.” Wilkerson’s answer came quickly. In the next hour, the Holy Spirit spoke – “Well, you know the city. You’ve been here. You do it.’”
Wilkerson was obedient and Times Square Church opened its doors in October 1987.
For nine years, from 1999 to 2008, Wilkerson traveled around the world preaching at conferences encouraging Christian ministers and their families, to “renew their passion for Christ.” He challenged them to ask, “What would happen, Lord, if I …?”
A LEGACY OF FAITH
For over forty years, David Wilkerson’s evangelical ministry included preaching, teaching, and writing. He authored over 30 books including, The Cross and the Switchblade (which became a Hollywood film in 1970), Revival on Broadway, It Is Finished, Hungry for More of Jesus, Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?, and The Vision.
Wilkerson always challenged his church to commit to obey Jesus’ teachings. He preached Christian beliefs of God’s holiness, righteousness, and love, and delivered powerful messages to encourage righteous living and total dependence on God.
He would say, “holiness may seem to be an antiquated term by our standards, but not by God’s. Followers of Christ are still called to be holy, as God is holy” (1 Pet. 1:16).
Wilkerson never lost his heartache over the devastating effects rampant sin wreaks on a life, home, and family. He preached many fiery sermons about sin; having seen and experienced firsthand, countless lives ravaged by the evils of violence and addiction.
ABSENT FROM THE BODY, PRESENT WITH THE LORD
On April 27, 2011, while driving in Texas, Wilkerson collided head-on with a tractor-trailer. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife Gwen was injured but survived.
Wilkerson and his wife had four children (two sons who are ministers, and two daughters who are married to ministers) and eleven grandchildren.
FINAL WORDS FROM NICKY CRUZ
“He can take a bullet, he can be killed, but he stood because [he was] obedient to Jesus. Jesus sent him there to bring the message to the gangs. I almost killed him then because I really was totally full of hate. That was when he told me that Jesus loved me. Wilkerson never lost his heart for the world’s needy people.”
“David reminded me of Jesus,” Cruz said. “Two precious things that fascinate me about Christ – He had active eyes, and always was there looking at the needs of the people. Dave had this heart of compassion just like Jesus.”
if you could see the end - the story god writes in suffering
A strange grief crept upon me as the final Lord of the Rings  movie came to an end. An unliterary man at the time, I watched the doors to Middle Earth close. The story would not continue. A sense of silliness accompanied the sadness. Why should a boy, let alone a young man, lament saying goodbye to an imaginary friend whom he knew all along to be imaginary? This is exactly what great stories do to us. Whether captured on screen or between covers of a book, to finally arrive at the end can seem as though palace doors were closing to us. The adventure concludes — with all its dangers, losses, courage, companionship, thrill, and great loves worth living and dying for. They leave us again, to our world. As credits roll, we are made to feel like we are leaving the momentous, the beautiful, the good, and returning to, well, the ordinary. But what if the ache one feels at the conclusion of these tales, the bitter loss in the happily ever after, is not unreality mocking, but Reality inviting? Keep Your Hobbitry What if epic stories cast a spell, not because they are fictional, but because they stir suppressed longings that we just might, in fact, live in such a Story? Perhaps we all hunger to be characters in a grand Story, a heroic tale, a high Romance, a story without end. “He has,” after all, “put eternity into man’s heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The lines between our favorite stories and our own story in this life may be thinner than we have yet dreamed. J.R.R. Tolkien himself captures this in a letter to his son, Christopher, who was serving in the Air Force during World War II: Well, there you are: a hobbit amongst the Urukhai [a deadly enemy]. Keep your hobbitry in heart, and think that all stories  feel like that when you are in  them. You are inside a very great story! (183) Do you know yourself to be in a very great story? Do the elves and kings, the lovers and heroes, the characters of your favorite tales have a right to envy you? Until we smile at and embrace the story we find ourselves in, we will not have the hope, the joy, the strength to live to the fullest in this life — and then everlastingly in the next. Designed for Story We are a people of story — delighted by them, taught by them, shaped by them. We starve for meaning. We long for dots to connect. For a golden Thread to run through. Otherwise, we are left in bitter realms of nothingness. “We are a people of story — delighted by them, taught by them, shaped by them.” To reckon with life among us, we search for the Story beyond us. From the beginning, many claimed to do just that. Different prophets from different peoples brought down different explanations from tall mountains to interpret the joys and horrors, hills and valleys, sunrays and shadows of this life. Ancient myths rode to meet ancient desires not so easily filled in hearts hungering for forever. Shared stories made up culture. Shared stories made up religion. Men lived from story and died for story — stories designed to provide answers to life’s biggest questions. And hope needs answers that Story provides. The marketplace is full of stories, of worldviews trying to answer those great questions for us. Andrew Delbanco, in his meditation on hope, identifies that the general narrative that united Americans has shifted from a story about God, to that of nation, to that of self. We have moved from the cross, to the flag, and now landed on the narrow and perilous path of me . Of all people at all times, none has been more driven by story than followers of Christ. Even if an angel came down from heaven with a new story, we would refuse it with disdain (Galatians 1:8). And yet, while we often remain orthodox, despair still emerges when we focus solely on the real sadness in our single sentence called life, and our hearts forget the tale beyond. Hope, however, considers that sentence in the whole Story, a Story written by one who did not spare his own Son. Hope reaches past the groans, for that part of the Story with no more sin, no more suffering, no more separation. Joseph: A Case Study Hope stays attuned to God’s Story, because it withers with forgetting. Take as a test case of someone who didn’t sink in the swamp of self, an Old Testament man of God, Joseph. His life is full of many valleys. Betrayed, assaulted, and sold into slavery, Joseph found himself in Potiphar’s house. After being exalted to Potiphar’s right hand, Joseph is sexually harassed, falsely accused, and sent to prison. After correctly interpreting one of Pharaoh’s servant’s dreams, he is betrayed and forgotten. And then after two more long years in prison, he is exalted to become “a father to Pharaoh” (Genesis 45:8). His human story — full of abuse, betrayal, accusation, and lies — fell purposefully within God’s bigger story, and he knew it . When he reveals his identity to his brothers who sold him, he says to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me  before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me  before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God . He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 45:4–8) He and his brothers knew his story. Twice he acknowledges what was obvious to them all: “ You  sold me here.” Joseph had not forgotten the nights — the years — in prison away from friends and family, the horror of their closing ears to his pleading as they cast him in the pit, their cruelty to sell him to those who would mistreat and perhaps murder him. The darkness, though past, was still dark. Memories remained. But when he calls them near, he remembers more than just his story as seen from ground level — and this gives power to forgive and love his guilty brothers. He tells them not to be distressed or angry with themselves. Why? “ For God sent me  before you to preserve life.” In their selling, God was sending. In their evil, God intended good. In the darkest scene of the play, God was still writing. That Story smothered bitterness and revenge. That Story and its Author allowed him to forgive, bless, and love where a different story would have had him calculate the wrongs, grip firmly the treachery, and use his power to exact revenge. And the Story gave him hope for the future promises of his God, recorded as the radiant triumph of his life in Hebrews 11: “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones” (Hebrews 11:22). He knew, as those of us who fall asleep in the Lord do as well, that we shall wake in the Promised Land. When Elves Envy Men Although it may not feel  like it, we live in a very great story. Have we forgotten? “We, in America, have moved from the cross, to the flag, and now landed on the narrow and perilous path of me.” Our hearts grow accustomed to the extraordinary as it becomes familiar. We lose a sense of where we live when we can drive home without a map. Life no longer invigorates. God’s epic plays out all around us, and he draws us in to play our part, and yet we halfheartedly read our lines or escape into other people’s lives. We are bored. But awake, we  live in a great Story. Wild and throbbing with adventure, trying and terrible at parts. Eternity hanging in the balance. A fierce Dragon threatens. Demons surround. Hell gapes. The Light still shines in the darkness. Angels assemble. The Spirit animates. Christians stand clad in armor. The church marches on hades. Judgment hastens. Salvation is ready to be revealed. The True King — whose sandals no other character is worthy to unlatch — has died for sinners and lives forevermore. He is coming. This tale plays out on earth in what we blaspheme and call “ordinary.” With all its details and drudgery, its paying bills and crying babies, its baseball games and rush-hour traffic, an eternal drama plays. One that draws heaven’s attention. Angels  ache to leave the theater. You are on the inside of a very great Story — a story to be remembered, cherished, and clung to during the most difficult scenes. Is there any other tale you would rather find was true?