David Wilkerson’s last post: “it was no accident”.

WHEN ALL MEANS FAIL by David Wilkerson | April 27, 2011 (the same day he died in a tragic head-on collision)

To believe when all means fail is exceedingly pleasing to God and is most acceptable. Jesus said to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen, but blessed are those that do believe and have not seen” (John 20:29).

Blessed are those who believe when there is no evidence of an answer to prayer—who trust beyond hope when all means have failed. Someone has come to the place of hopelessness—the end of hope—the end of all means.

A loved one is facing death and doctors give no hope. Death seems inevitable. Hope is gone. The miracle prayed for is not happening. That is when Satan’s hordes come to attack your mind with fear, anger, overwhelming questions: “Where is your God now? You prayed until you had no tears left. You fasted. You stood on promises. You trusted.”

Blasphemous thoughts will be injected into your mind: “Prayer failed. Faith failed. Don’t quit on God—just do not trust him anymore. It doesn’t pay!” Even questioning God’s existence will be injected into your mind. These have been the devices of Satan for centuries.

Some of the godliest men and women who ever lived were under such demonic attacks.

To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain.”

Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail—his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word. There is no other hope in this world.

DAVID WILKERSON OBITUARY

Rev. David Wilkerson, founding pastor of New York City’s Times Square Church and author of the 1963 best-seller The Cross and the Switchblade, died Wednesday afternoon in a head-on traffic collision with an 18-wheeler in East Texas. He was 79.

Also injured in the crash on the Neches River bridge was Wilkerson’s wife, Gwendolyn Wilkerson, and another woman. A Texas Department of Public Safety representative said Wilkinson was not wearing a seatbelt.

The pastor’s death was confirmed by his family in a statement appearing on the Wilkerson’s World Challenge http://www.worldchallenge.org/ Web site. “We appreciate your prayers and our hearts are sorrowful, yet we rejoice at the joy of knowing David Wilkerson spent his life well,” the statement said.

The Cross and the Switchblade chronicled Wilkerson’s early years in New York City tending to drug addicts and gang members. It sold 15 million copies in 30 languages and was made into a 1970 movie starring Pat Boone (as Wilkinson) and Erik Estrada.

The second of four children born in Hammond, Ind., to Rev. Kenneth and Ann Wilkerson, the future minister was raised in Barnesboro, Pa., in a home “full of Bibles” and began preaching at 14. He was not allowed to go to movies, and only Christian music filtered through the family’s clapboard house.

“They called me Screechin’ Deacon,” Wilkinson told PEOPLE in 1989. He added that other children hassled him because he was skinny. “Later that did something for me in feeling for the oppressed.”

After high school, Wilkerson tried Bible college but dropped out because “it was boring. None of the other students were serious about the ministry.” In 1953 he married Gwen and took Pentecostal pastorates in Scottdale and Philipsburg, Pa. Then a 1957 LIFE story about a polio-stricken boy who was killed by gang members in New York changed his life. “I heard an inner voice say, ‘Go and try to reach those boys.’ ”

Moving to New York, Wilkerson started Teen Challenge, a drug, alcohol and evangelism outreach program that he ran for 14 years and expanded to 110 centers nationwide. In search of a wider ministry, he moved to Tyler, Texas, and founded a similar organization, called World Challenge (he was still its president at the time of his death), doing street ministries in New York in the summers. The sudden explosion of crack use brought him back to Manhattan full-time in 1987.

In addition to his wife, Wilkerson is survived by four children.