David Wilkerson's Rapture Dream
1998 dream, as related in a sermon entitled "Be Ye Ready Is No Joking
Matter"
Matthew 24:42-44: "Watch ye therefore for you do not
know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the
house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not
allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son
of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
(Praying) Lord you spoke so clearly to me this past
week in a dream. You told me to preach this afternoon, and I obey you...
I don't get many dreams, and I don't preach on my
dreams because I'm a bible preacher, and anything that does not conform to the
Word of God is to be rejected outright. I'm just telling you how God awakened
my soul, how I should preach this more often...I want you to know this is not
doctrine, it's not some new revelation, it's simply the Holy Spirit prompting
me, and speaking to me about His Coming, I don't know want to build any
doctrine about it, remember that. I don't have much confidence in dreams, any
dream vision or revelation has to absolutely be framed in Scripture.
Now having said that, let me share with you without
trying to talk to you about doctrine or anything else, just the Holy Ghost
talking to me. In my dream I was suddenly awakened by the knowledge that I had
been snatched, I had been caught up, and I was in some kind of conveyance, I
don't know if it was a chariot, I didn't see the conveyance, but I knew that
there were others in it and that there was an angel of the Lord... there was a
sense of just racing swiftly through the streets and into houses, this
conveyance knew no barriers and I had a sense that I was on my way home, I'm
saved, the Lord has come.
I am being gathered by the angel of the Lord, the
chariots of the Lord, there are thousands upon thousands, the coming of the
Lord is as lightening is from the east to the west...there was a sense of
swiftness, but it was almost as I was seeing it in slow motion, this lightning
coming, I was seeing it in slow motion, I didn't see a driver, I didn't see an
angel, I didn't see the conveyance, I just had a sense, I knew I was being
carried and taken and it was moving swiftly, and people were being snatched
from homes and from the streets.
And I remembered specifically going into a
particular home and there were 3 people that I recognized, 2 were friends and 1
was a family member, and we went right by, and there was a sense, a sudden
sense, oh God, they were being left behind, and the Lord allowed me to, for a
few fleeting moments, to sense the terror of what it would be like to be left
behind when the angels of the Lord come and gather His elect from the 4 winds.
I was made to know at that time that even those who
call themselves Christians, and were not really Christians, who despised the
Grace of God went out and sinned and said I can easily confess, never did
forsaking their sin, there was a sense that even though they were sleeping they
were aware, there was an awareness that the Lord is coming and there is a
sudden moment because I saw hands being raised, people reaching out and waving.
In fact as we kept moving on there were people that
were moving and trying to get the attention of this driver, this conveyance,
and I was screaming and yelling get out in the open, as if I thought if they
were out in the open they could be seen and get caught up but it went swiftly
on, but there was a sense that I have never experienced in my life, even though
all my life my father taught on the Coming of the Lord, my grandfather taught
on the Coming of the Lord, taught about it.
The Bible says “we shall all be changed, in the
twinkling of an eye, suddenly we're going to be changed”, the bible says, this
corrupt body shall put on an incorrupt body just like His. And the Bible says
that we are to be prepared and ready, expecting; the Bible says He is coming
for those who look for His appearing. And those who are expecting, even though
they sleep, are going to be caught up, even if it's in the middle of the night.
Now, I'm not going to get into the doctrine of the
Rapture, when this happens, before the tribulation, middle of the tribulation
or after the tribulation, I am just telling you I had a sense of the horror it's
going to be for those who knew the Gospel, who had one appeal after another,
who knew the Grace and the Mercy of God and they were not ready. They were not
taken, they were not gathered in this, and I remember the swiftness of moving,
and seeing the people left behind, the conveyance just passing by, and this
terrible sense. Lord I know I'm saved, I know I'm redeemed, I'm going home, but
those 2 friends and that member of my family... and there was a terror. “Two
shall be sleeping in a bed, one shall be taken the other left...” watch
therefore He's coming as a thief in the night. He's Coming folks!
There was no sense of speed , there was no sense of
traveling, but suddenly I was stepping with everyone around me, we were
stepping as out of a cloud, out of a fog, out of time, into eternity, suddenly.
There was no sense of being carried out into a cosmos or anywhere else,
suddenly we were...Home. We were in eternity and I remember this sense of
absolute serenity, as we stepped out into eternity through this cloud, there
was a sense of peace, and all I could see around me people were feeling their
bodies, they were feeling their hands, they were caressing their faces, there
was no shouting. I didn't see Jesus anywhere, it was just a sense, it happened
so quickly, it seemed to be a gathering place, the Bible says He's going to
gather His elect from the 4 winds, and suddenly I looked and there were my 2
friends, and my loved one coming through the cloud and into eternity.
Nobody was looking at each other, nobody, there was
no embracing, there was just a peace, an incredible peace, and I experienced it
for a moment, I am home, that earth that I was on is gone, I am beyond the
reach of satan, there is no sin, there is no possibility of ever being lost, I
am eternally His, He did what He said He would do, He said He would come with
His angels, He came with His angels, he did everything I preached, everything I
said, It's true! He's all sufficient; He's everything that we need!
There was a peace and a serenity beyond anything I
could imagine... and people were just awed, in silence, there was an awe, there
was a peace that was absolutely indescribable, and the sense... it was a sense,
it's all over, it's all over, it was all... it was all true. That sense of
reality and truth - that was not the real world, this is the real world, this
is eternity, that's all passed away, it was just a dream, it was just grass,
that's what the Bible says, the flesh is just grass, it comes up, it withers
and it's gone. Time is just a little piece, eternity is a great big realm, God
cut a little piece and He gave it to man, with His grace and mercy, saying,
here is My Grace, My Mercy, My Glory. He gives you space and time to repent and
trust in Him...
But, God wait a minute, all of these who didn't
come, all of those who were left behind, who thought they were prepared and
thought they were ready, they are not here, what about them Lord... they're
lost, there was a sense in me, now folks that will not be there but I believe
God was letting me feel the sense of those who were gone, and suddenly as I was
thinking about all those who had not been gathered, I woke up, I sat right up,
and these words were like silent thunder in my head- "David, be ye ready
is no joking matter." And I lay back in my pillow and God said, "My
people are not taking it seriously, they talk about it but they are not taking
it seriously, and many, many are going to be left behind- they are not ready...
the age of Grace is about to end."