DAVID WILKERSON
Author Gary Wilkerson with R.S.B. SAWYER
Publisher ZONDERVAN
ISBN 978 0 310 32627 4
Someone, not a Christian, after the subject of this book had been killed in a car accident, wrote that in his passing “America had lost a saint,” a true statement indeed. Gary Wilkerson is one of the four children born to David and Gwen Wilkerson and with the help of R.S.B Sawyer takes us through the life of this small town preacher who reached forward to respond to all that God showed him. Perhaps it was around 1963 with the publishing of the book “The Cross and the Switchblade” that David Wilkerson caught the attention, not only of the church in USA but of the secular authorities just waking up to the drug epidemic that was beginning to afflict the young. However, this was but the second of third of a whole number of steps that David Wilkerson was to take as he faithfully endeavoured to follow through on what he believed God was showing him to do. Youth Crusades, property in Texas for a kind of Bible academy, mission to the poor, international travels and then the call back to New York to begin Times Square Church, indeed several serious and pivotal steps. One of them, writing a book called “The Vision” in which he prophetically detailed what he saw was coming in the world. This book estranged some because of its claims and predictions. But, history has proved much of what he wrote. All along the way, seasons of prayer, willingness to read the writings of those outside his comfort zone, tensions with people, even fellow workers, a severe lack of sensitivity in certain regards, willingness to learn, to repent, to listen to God and others increased. A shift from a legal kind of critical spirit that perhaps defiled something of his prophetic ministry as he witnessed what was happening in the churches of USA. Not much is hidden in this book, failures and faults, but that Wilkerson was a man after God’s own heart all the while, this becomes obvious as you follow through the story. It may be that some might tire a bit of the fact that a son is writing of his father with constant references to “Dad” but I think that the positive side of that is that there is an honesty and intimacy conveyed by the sheer nearness of son to father and all that implies. Tensions in family relationships, failures to understand and not only one sided, but the triumph of a life willing to be humbled and go before God again and again and respond to His calling. Praise God for David Wilkerson! This should be our response.
