SUMMARY

David Wilkerson, a seasoned preacher at 75, delivers a sermon on Revelation 3, urging pastors and believers to rely on secret prayer for God to open ministry doors, warning against prayerless drift and false teachings.

STATEMENTS

• Every true ministry and revival is born in the secret closet of prayer, approved only by God if sustained by it.
• God, holding the key of David, opens doors no one can shut and closes doors no one can open, as described in Revelation to the Philadelphia church.
• Pastors often begin ministries in prayer but drift to relying on personal abilities, leading to closed doors and spiritual disappointment.
• Churches emphasizing talent and human effort without the Holy Spirit's movement will shake and fall, regardless of size or beauty.
• The Holy Spirit provides essential discernment against false prophets and fleshly teachings in the last days, requiring believers to pray for a firm foundation.
• Wilkerson's early ministry stagnated without prayer, but intense seeking of God in isolation revived his passion and led to a divine call to New York gangs.
• God uses men and women in secret prayer to accomplish His purposes, revealing specific needs and messages as they prepare for service.
• Compromising pastors preaching a soft gospel to avoid offense risk God closing their church doors, even if they proclaim the cross nominally.
• True preaching that changes lives comes from a heart anointed by the Holy Spirit through prayer, not human methods or conferences.
• Ministers must renew their prayer life to combat satanic distractions and burnout, ensuring their hearts remain sensitive to God's voice.

IDEAS

• Prayer transforms a cold, tired heart into one passionately seeking God's heart, making divine calling the only priority.
• Preaching to trees in isolation can prepare the spirit, but true anointing descends in communal worship, revealing deeper burdens.
• A single magazine photo, prompted by the Holy Spirit, can launch a groundbreaking ministry to urban gangs from a rural background.
• Large, talented churches without prayer foundations mimic success but harbor spiritual emptiness, inviting eventual collapse.
• Satan's strategy targets busy pastors with cares, diverting them from prayer closets where real power and anointing reside.
• Financial impossibilities, like funding a Times Square church, dissolve when one obeys God's door-opening word over human logic.
• Discernment via the Holy Spirit separates divine opportunities from fleshly pursuits, protecting against last-days deceptions.
• Revival isn't about bigger crowds or programs but hearts broken for souls, leading to spontaneous altar calls and salvations.
• Even successful evangelists feel spiritual drought internally, highlighting the ongoing battle to maintain prayer discipline.
• God's protection, like a fiery wall around nations and churches, manifests through unified intercession against satanic forces.
• Cocaine's rise on Times Square symbolized a generation's loss, spurring cries for a local church beacon amid moral decay.
• Personal testimonies of prayer revival outperform conference methods, restoring panicked pastors to foundational seeking.

INSIGHTS

• Authentic spiritual authority emerges solely from sustained secret prayer, rendering human talents insufficient for enduring ministry.
• Divine timing in opening doors demands patient trust, as forced efforts lead to frustration and abandonment of calling.
• The Holy Spirit's discernment is indispensable in end times, filtering true revelation from seductive false doctrines.
• Churches risk divine closure when prioritizing comfort over convicting gospel, prioritizing attendance over transformation.
• Personal renewal through disciplined prayer combats ministerial burnout, reigniting passion for souls over superficial success.
• God's global purposes unfold through ordinary individuals' prayer closets, bypassing institutional barriers with supernatural provision.

QUOTES

• "Единственное служение, одобренное Богом - это служение, рождённое в тайной молитвенной комнате."
• "Я открываю пред тобою дверь, и никто не может затворить её."
• "Проповедники не молятся. В самом начале своего служения они молятся, но потом они просто плывут по течению."
• "Если ты будешь молиться, вместо того, чтобы сидеть перед телевизором, я возьму тебя в удел и изменю тебя."
• "Бог открывает двери, и я закрываю их."

HABITS

• Dedicate extended solitary time in nature, like forests, to read Scripture voraciously and cry out to God without seeking sermon topics.
• Maintain daily discipline in the prayer closet to foster a heart that knows God's desires, transitioning from petition to pure communion.
• Avoid distractions like television or modern equivalents, replacing them with intentional seeking of the Holy Spirit's presence.
• Regularly intercede for national protection and church foundations, uniting with other believers in fervent, corporate prayer.
• Prepare sermons not from stored notes but by waiting on the Holy Spirit for fresh, context-specific revelation just before delivery.

FACTS

• David Wilkerson began pastoring at age 21 in a small church of 75 members, which later experienced revival before declining to the same size.
• His ministry to New York gangs started in 1958 after a Holy Spirit-prompted vision from a Life magazine photo of seven teens accused of murder.
• Times Square in the 1980s saw cocaine dealers openly advertising their product as something that "will kill you" to lure users to instant highs and death.
• Wilkerson has preached for 50 years, including early television appearances alongside Oral Roberts, reaching global audiences.
• Over 500 Teen Challenge recovery centers worldwide originated from individual prayer visions sparked by Wilkerson's example.

REFERENCES

• Book of Revelation, chapter 3, verses 7-14 (message to the Philadelphia church).
• Leonard Ravenhill's conversation with Wilkerson on preachers' prayer habits.
• Life magazine photo of seven teens accused of murdering a polio victim.
• Oral Roberts as an early televangelist alongside Wilkerson.

HOW TO APPLY

• Identify closed doors in your life or ministry and pause efforts to force them, instead entering a secret prayer closet to seek God's timing and will.
• Spend at least one month in intensive, isolated prayer, devouring Scripture not for preparation but to intimately know Christ's heart and revive personal passion.
• When facing stagnation or decline, reject reliance on human methods or conferences; return to foundational prayer with your spouse or team for collective renewal.
• Discern opportunities through Holy Spirit prompting, like responding to a divine whisper from media or daily life, even if it seems illogical or impossible.
• Intercede specifically for protection against satanic forces and false teachings, uniting in prayer for firm foundations in your church or community.
• Prepare for service by surrendering preconceived messages, waiting hours before delivery for the Holy Spirit to reveal targeted spiritual needs.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Embrace secret prayer to let God sovereignly open ministry doors, avoiding drift into talent-driven failure.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Prioritize daily prayer closets over busyness to sustain anointing and discern divine paths amid end-times deceptions.
• Reject soft gospels that compromise truth; preach the full cross boldly, trusting God to handle outcomes.
• Unite with fellow believers in fervent intercession for national spiritual walls against evil, fostering revival.
• When doors close, view it as God's redirection, responding with intensified seeking rather than panic or quitting.
• Model prayer revival personally, sharing testimonies to inspire panicked leaders back to foundational dependence on the Holy Spirit.

MEMO

In the dim glow of a prayer room, David Wilkerson, now 75 and weathered by decades of preaching, pauses to reflect on a lifetime of divine interventions. Drawing from Revelation 3's promise to the faithful Philadelphia church—that God opens doors no man can shut—he warns that true ministry isn't forged in spotlights or strategies, but in hidden closets of supplication. "Preachers don't pray," he recalls Leonard Ravenhill once confiding, a stark truth that echoes through his own journey from a stagnant rural pulpit to the gritty streets of New York.

Wilkerson's voice trembles with urgency as he recounts his early disillusionment: a church of 75 souls, revived briefly by television fame alongside Oral Roberts, only to wither when prayer waned. "I was dead inside," he admits, confessing hours wasted on Westerns instead of wrestling with God. A breakthrough came in solitary forest vigils, where Scripture consumed him not for sermons, but for intimacy with the divine. This discipline birthed an improbable calling—a Life magazine image of murderous teens igniting a Holy Spirit nudge to evangelize gangs in 1950s Brooklyn. Doors slammed shut everywhere else, yet God pried open urban fortresses, launching Teen Challenge's global network from one man's cries.

Yet Wilkerson sees shadows lengthening over modern pulpits. Pastors, dazzled by megachurch spectacles and faith-movement formulas, chase methods at conferences while their foundations crumble. He shares a European minister's tearful epiphany after touring America's "successful" congregations: no Holy Spirit fire, just human polish. "You started on prayer," Wilkerson urged the couple, "return there." In an era of cocaine-fueled despair on Times Square—dealers hawking death as escape—Wilkerson himself pled for a church beacon amid the moral rot. God answered, transforming a Broadway theater into a salvation hub where repentant souls still flock to altars weekly.

The sermon's core indictment targets compromise: soft gospels that soothe rather than convict, swelling attendance but sealing divine closure. Churches shutter across denominations—Episcopal rifts in America, Anglican declines in Britain— not from external foes, but internal drift. "God closes doors," Wilkerson insists, not in anger, but to redirect the prayerless. For him, the battle rages inwardly: doubts assail even veterans, demanding fresh Holy Spirit descents to thaw frozen hearts. In end times rife with false prophets, discernment demands prayer's fire wall around nations and souls.

As pleas rise for renewal—"Come, Holy Spirit, touch us again"—Wilkerson's message pierces beyond clergy to all believers. It's a call to abandon distractions, embrace disciplined seeking, and trust God's key. In a world of closing opportunities, he envisions not defeat, but doors flung wide for the fervent, proving that revival ignites not in crowds, but in closets where God whispers eternal purpose.