Carter Conlon | A Call to the Nation

The Lord is now leading us into a specific place. That's what this message is all about. It has an unusual title: "Be Sure. Be Very, Very Sure." I believe that God is doing the same thing now that He was doing at the time when the nation of Israel first went into the promised land.

Keep in mind, when they went into the promised land, it was after 40 years in the wilderness — 400 years of captivity followed by 40 years in the wilderness because of an evil report brought to them by 10 spies sent in by Moses, who said, "No, we can't do it. There are giants there. There are walled cities. We don't have the weaponry. We just can't do it." Because of that report, an entire generation — literally, except for the children — died in the wilderness.

The part of the story I'm going to start in today is at the end of that 40-year period, where they are about to go into the promised land. We are about three to four months from Moses' death and Joshua taking the people of Israel into the promised land.

Father, I thank you, Lord, that you're going to give me the ability to convey the thought you put in my heart. We are indeed living in the last days. I ask you, God, that as the last-days church, we would truly bring honor and glory to your name by simply obeying you and doing what you've asked us to do — by being the people you've called us to be. Deliver us, Lord, from self-will. Deliver us, God, from trying to do things our own way. Deliver us, God, from marginalizing our callings, from minimizing your word. Give us an obedient heart, Lord, each one of us today. Give us an obedient heart, for it's in your heart to bless us as your people. It's in your heart to lead us into places where your name is brought to glory because of what you do through our lives.

And it's always involving human need. Always, always, always, without fail, it involves your people reaching out to somebody else who has no helper if we don't go. So give us the grace not to succumb to just the desire for comfort. Give us the grace, my God. Give me the ability to speak this.

Lord, I'm asking again that you would stretch out your hand in this sanctuary and through the internet and do miracles. Let absolute, undebatable miracles happen — prison doors opening, blind eyes seeing, deaf ears hearing. God Almighty, the prisoners being set free. Lord, the poor having the treasure of heaven open to them. Everything you said you came to do, we simply ask you to do that. We don't have to beg you to do what you came to do. We agree with you. We ask for the glory of your name that you would do something so far beyond us that all we can do is stand back and lift our hands and say, "God, only you could have done this." And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Be sure. Be very, very sure.

Numbers 32, beginning at verse 20. Then Moses said to them — now, this is two tribes we're talking about. Two tribes that basically said, "We've been 40 years in the wilderness, Moses." They're in a desert the whole time. And they finally conquered what I call the east side of the Jordan. They're not over the Jordan yet into what was designated to be the promised land. But two of the tribes finally landed in a place where there was grass. Can you imagine? It's like living in New York and finally going to Pennsylvania one day — and there's just suddenly grass. They've got cattle, they want to plant things, grow things, raise their families. It's been 40 years in the desert, 40 years of attending funerals literally every day until a whole generation had died off. And suddenly they just don't want to fight anymore.

I get it. You get it. We all understand that. Some of you have come to Christ and you say, "God, I know you have a call on my life — can we just put that on hold for a little while? I just want to enjoy life. I want to build something here. I want to smell the flowers." I get that. God gets that. But God is speaking to these people and saying, "No, there's more for you than this. I have a journey for you, and the journey I have for you involves other people. I came and I died for all of humanity, for whosoever will."

The scripture says in Romans, they can't hear without a preacher. And there will be no preacher that goes to them unless they are sent. The Holy Spirit is moving on us as His church in this last hour to go into places we've not gone before and to embrace a calling that we may not have fully embraced.

In other words: okay, you've asked for permission to stay on this side of the Jordan — the east side. The west side is supposed to be where the promised land is, but you've found what you want. But if you will go over and fight with your brothers and sisters until they have obtained their inheritance — if you will live beyond just living for yourself — if you will give yourself for them so that they can conquer what needs to be conquered and have their inheritance, then you can come back and enjoy this place.

Be sure.

Now, when we talk about that verse — "be sure your sin will find you out" — we generally have a connotation that somebody has a hidden sin. Whether you've stolen something from the workplace, you've been in an illicit relationship you shouldn't be in — and when that verse is quoted, we somehow think it means there's going to be an exposure one day. That very well might be the case for some, but that's not the context of this passage.

This sin wasn't hidden. If the people didn't go with their brothers and sisters across into the promised land to conquer the giants and the armies occupying it, it would be a known thing — not a hidden thing. So being a known thing, what does it mean that your sin will find you out?

Here's the way I see it. This kind of sin — the sin of selfishness, self-focus, the sin of knowing what to do and not doing it — it can be hidden by activity. It can be hidden by even coming to church on a regular basis. It can be hidden by a lot of things. But ultimately, it will find its way out in your character. As a man thinks in his heart, the scripture says, that's what he is. You can hide it for years, but eventually it's going to come out.

Galatians 6:7 says, don't be deceived — whatever a man sows, that's what he's going to reap. Whatever seed you put in the ground, if you plant corn, you're not going to grow watermelons. Whatever you sow, you're going to reap.

Matthew 7:2 — Jesus said, whatever measure you use, it will be measured back to you. In the measure you give out to others now, in the measure you are yielded for the sake of others, there's a day coming where you're going to need somebody to come to you. And trust me, it's going to happen. You're going to be — as the saying goes down in the South — lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut. You're going to be as low as you can go, and you can say, "God, send somebody to me." But the question is: where were you when somebody was calling that out? When somebody in New York City was saying, "God, send somebody to help me," and you didn't go. You stayed on the east side of Jordan and said, "I'm not interested in going over there. I've lived in a dry place, and I just want to enjoy life."

Now, God doesn't resent that. Don't misunderstand. The point is that the calling is farther th...

When a covenant was made in the Old Testament, a sacrifice was made. And generally the sacrifice was divided into two parts, and the two people making the covenant would walk through those parts.

This man in John 5 — when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been there in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"

Don't stop when tears start, because tears, sorrow, disappointments, and difficulties are part of the Christian life and part of the Christian journey. A lot of people start into this journey thinking that the presence of God means the absence of trouble, and that isn't true. Jesus Christ himself said, In this world you will have tribulation. You'll have difficulty, there will be trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome this world. In other words, I have overcome this world's power to overcome you.

When you opened your heart to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God took up residence inside your physical body, and the Christ who won that victory on the cross — defeated the power of hell and darkness — lives inside of you now and will carry you to the finish line in this journey. You will be opposed, there will be difficulties along the way. For those who are in the middle of the journey, I remember those days so clearly in my life. I told my wife Teresa one time, I said, "I feel like if I wasn't sighing, I wouldn't be breathing." There was a season — a long season — where it was difficult. There are individual moments, but then there's a long season where long-suffering has got to come into your life, and God gives you the power.

Psalm 126, we're going to start there, verses 1 to 3: When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.

I remember those first days of salvation. I remember when I sat in church the first time and the person who led me to Christ shared the verse of Scripture that if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. I remember sitting and wondering, is that reality, or is that just a pipe dream? Can it actually happen? God, can you come and give me a future that I could never find in my own strength? No matter how much I would try, it would always escape me because I wasn't capable of fulfilling it.

And then one day you begin to realize that you've been forgiven your sin, and the Holy Spirit has come and indwelt your human body. It's like a dream. Life begins to change line upon line, precept upon precept. From place to place, God begins to work a work that only the Holy Spirit can do, and you become aware of it.

I remember the first time I ever went to a Christian police officer's conference in Speculator, upstate New York. For the first time ever in my life, I saw grown men weep before God for joy — Texas Rangers, people from all over the country, tough guys too, a lot of them, tenderized by the presence of God. I cried for three days. I couldn't stop crying. I don't know how many boxes of tissue I went through. I actually felt foolish at one point because I simply couldn't stop crying — it was like a dream.

I know many of you remember those days, especially if you're in the middle of your journey now. Your mouth is filled with laughter. Your tongue is filled with singing. When I first started going to church, I'd open a hymn book — I wasn't raised on the hymns, so they were brand new to me. "It Is Well with My Soul." "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine." I would stand there and the tears would come down my face. I remember one time my wife said to me, "You have to stop laughing when the preacher is preaching. He's going to think that you're mocking him." I said, "I'm not. I can't stop." I was just so filled with joy that I had this new life that God had promised. I had a hope. I had a future. I had now laid hold of the possibility of becoming the person that God intended my life to be. It would bubble out of me like a river.

And then people among the nations — as Psalm 126 says — began to say, "The Lord has done great things for them." People around you started to say, "Wow, you are changing."

Now, some things change quickly, don't they? Some things, the very day you come to Christ — maybe your vocabulary changes. You stop using the words you used to use, or if one slips, you're quick to apologize for it. And then there are certain things that change, and other things don't change quite as fast. I speak from experience. There were some things I was able to put away almost day one, and other things that took forever.

Have you ever watched one of those old Western movies on television? They get in a gunfight in a saloon, and one guy gets shot and falls over the table. Then he climbs the stairway, falls over the balcony, stumbles behind the bar, gets up, falls over the bar, stumbles out through the swinging doors, and falls over the hitching post — and you're watching the movie saying, "Is this guy ever going to die?" Well, I don't know about you, but some things in my life went that way. They were shot, in a sense, by the blood of Jesus Christ. They lost their power, but they took time. Don't get discouraged when things in your life take time. They are dead. They might be still standing like the fig tree when Jesus and the disciples went back into Jerusalem, but they've lost their power to dictate your future. Praise be to God.

Now the psalmist goes on and he says, Bring back our captivity, O Lord, as streams in the south. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy, and he who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

So this psalm starts out with such victory, and then it has a transitional point where the psalmist is saying, "God, do it again for me. Do it again for us. Bring back that joy that I once knew of my captivity being released. God, I'm in a season of sorrow now. I'm in a season where tears are taking over for what used to be joy. Would you help us in this?"

To understand this, I want to go back to the actual journey that most agree this psalm speaks about. It began with the people of Israel being taken into captivity into a land called Babylon. They were taken there because they played fast and loose with the things of God. We go into captivity when we don't acknowledge the presence of God or the reason for which we were created — when we choose, as Adam and Eve once did, to follow our own reasoning and go our own way. Because of it, they lost the protection of God and were taken captive. For 70 years they were in captivity — more than a generation. Many, if not most, of these people were actually born in captivity. They knew the story of what God had done in the past, but they themselves had been the victims of captivity, and their lives were short of what they should have been.

Now, the interesting thing is that in the book of Ezra, it gives us the history. In Ezra 1:1 it says, In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia. This is where it really gets interesting, because about 150 years before Cyrus became king, it was prophesied that a king would be born whose name would be Cyrus. He is actually called "my servant" in the Word of God, and he would issue a decree letting the people go home to rebuild. It's phenomenal. God knows everything. There's nothing that happens that he doesn't know. Everything is in his control. He knows where you are today. He knows where you'll be tomorrow. As a matter of fact, he's already in your tomorrow before you even get there.

He foretold through Jeremiah that his own people would go into captivity for 70 years. But through Isaiah, he declared that a king called Cyrus would be born who would issue a decree and let the people go back home to rebuild again. That's the context, really, of Psalm 126.

Can you imagine being there? All you've ever kno...

I am going to be sharing the word of God with you, and I do believe that you are going to experience a miracle. People are going to get set free, you're going to get delivered, you're going to see and begin to experience the miracle power of God that is available for you because of Jesus Christ, who died on a cross 2,000 years ago and paid the price for your sin. And because of his sacrifice, you can be reconnected to God. And being reconnected to God, there is a newness of life that is given to you.

Jesus Christ himself said, "I came to give you life eternally, but I came also to give you life abundantly. I came to give you a reason to live. I came to give you a story of what I'm going to do in your life that only God can accomplish." And once the word of God is spoken and you've had an opportunity to respond, then you can celebrate that with us.

Father God Almighty, I thank you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Lord, you told us years ago, cast the internet on the right side of the boat and I will bring in a harvest. And we obeyed you. And this prayer meeting is now in over 200 countries and dependencies around the world, and Lord, you're going to bring in a harvest. God, I thank you for the numbers of people who are going to come out of darkness and into light, out of captivity and into freedom, out of weakness and into strength, out of confusion into clarity of thought. God, you're going to send healing into homes, families, marriages, minds. God, you're going to deliver.

Lord, we boast about you, we talk about you, but the work is all yours, and we acknowledge that. You have the power, and you proved your heart when you went to a cross. It wasn't just a vain display of your affection. Lord, there was power released when you were raised from the dead, and because of that, God, we have hope in this generation.

Lord Jesus Christ, we ask you that the work that you came to do, you would do today. God, you would set free the oppressed, give sight to the blind. Let the poor have the treasure of heaven open to them, the strength of God revealed to them. Heal those that have been wounded so deeply they think they'll never recover. Bring healing into their lives. Lift up the weak. Set free, God, those that are captivated. And Lord, we ask you to do this for the glory of your name.

Lord, it's time for you to work. God, the world is dark, the day is late, you're coming soon. We ask you, God, to move in miraculous power again in this generation. As you have done — we sing about it — do what you are famous for. Do what you have done, what you have displayed, what you've shown us, God. Clearly in the scriptures, we see your heart. You healed all who came to you. You never turned somebody away and said, come back some other time. You healed every person. We are here to declare your victory, your power, your heart, your cross, your work. And we do it in Jesus' name. Amen.

My message is called "Will You Be Made Whole?" John 5, beginning at verse 2:

I think of the numbers of people who are exactly like this — sick, blind. You don't see a way forward. You don't have the strength to get up and move into what God has. You're paralyzed by fear, perhaps, and you're waiting for your divine moment. The moving of the water symbolizes a divine moment. It was the stirring of God, and whoever got up and got into the stirring of this water first was healed of whatever disease or circumstance they had.

I want you to picture that. Can you imagine what this man felt like? Thirty-eight years lying there, unable to move, can't see a way forward. The only way forward is if he can make it into a divine moment in his life. He somehow knows that only God can make a difference. Thirty-eight years of hopelessness.

In other words, maybe there were people there at one point saying, "Hey, we're going to do this together. We're going to get you through this. We're going to fight through this together." But after thirty-eight years, everybody gave up. There's nobody left. Nobody there to help him. All of the words of encouragement that would be spoken into this man's life are gone. There's just nobody there. It's only him.

Don't you love it that when everybody's gone, Jesus Christ is still there? He is the one who sticks closer than a brother. He does not walk away from us in our struggle, in our time of difficulty.

Several years ago, this prayer meeting used to be on a Tuesday night in New York City at Times Square Church. And requests were coming in from all over the world, but some were repetitive. There was this one that kept coming in from a place called Newfoundland in Canada, from a lady called Heather. She kept saying, "Pray for my husband Gary. My husband Gary is a drug addict. Everyone has given up on my husband Gary."

As a matter of fact, in line with this passage, Gary had been a drug addict for 38 years. Gary had gone to every conceivable program known to humanity and nobody had been able to help him. He would always get out, maybe experience momentary victory, and then go back again into his old habits. He had a chair in the house and used to sit in that chair and do drugs — whatever kind, some of them were pretty hard drugs.

Heather was watching this prayer meeting, this worldwide prayer meeting. And one night the Spirit of God came upon her and she went downstairs, got an axe, and chopped his chair to pieces in the living room. I told her she should write a pamphlet and call it the Book of Acts, according to Heather. She chopped Gary's chair to pieces in the living room and she said, "Satan, no more in this house. No more drugs in this house. No more debauchery in this house. No more captivity in this house — because I'm hearing something online. I'm hearing a message that I can be free. My marriage can be restored. My husband can be delivered."

She kept giving those prayer requests week after week. Pray for my husband Gary and my son Liam, if I remember correctly.

So one Tuesday night I got up and I saw that Heather had submitted another prayer request: pray for my husband Gary. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit came upon me.

Now you and I need to learn this — especially the students here in this Bible school. We need to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit because we live a supernatural life. The Spirit of God is within us. And if we learn to cooperate with God, when God is moving and God is speaking, miracles start happening.

I looked into the screen that night and I pointed my finger at the screen. I said, "Gary, listen to me. You are not a drug addict. God has called you to be an evangelist. You are an evangelist. You're not a drug addict."

He'd been 38 years on drugs...

Psalm 91:

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In Him I will trust. Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler — that means the secret traps that you don't see coming your way — and from the perilous pestilence.

In the original translation, the way that reads is: from the perversion that comes into a society when the restraining hand of God is lifted off of it. He will deliver you from secret traps and from the perversions that are going to be prevalent in this and other societies in the last days.

Whether there are acts of terrorism in various countries throughout the world, or threats even of nuclear war, the Bible says you will not be afraid. There will be a confidence that God puts in your heart that is born of the Spirit of God. It is born of a trust in the keeping power of God. No matter what happens, no matter what difficulty comes our way, you will not be afraid.

This psalm — Psalm 91 — contains a truth about God that Satan himself fears. He fears that if it's believed, it would instill a barrier of promise in the hearts of those who believe in it that no power of hell can get through and breach. That's why he is afraid of Psalm 91.

It was this psalm that Satan quoted when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4. Actually, in the temptation of Christ — after he was baptized in the Jordan and went into the wilderness, led of the Spirit to be tempted by Satan — this was the only scripture that Satan did not fully quote. He quoted a part of it, but not the whole scripture.

He came to the Son of God. Now, he knew who he was fighting with. He was contesting with the Son of God. I don't know how he knew it, but Satan knew who Jesus Christ was, and he had a sense of what his mission was on the earth.

The first temptation he brought to him was essentially this: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. In other words, if you are the Son of God, why are you not being fed? Why are you hungry? If you are the Son of God, there must be a resident power within you — use it for yourself, use it for your own benefit. Turn these stones to bread.

Of course, that's what the devil did — that's why he fell from heaven. He was not content with the ways, the will, and the word of God. He wanted something higher than he was assigned by God. He was tempting Christ to change his situation by his own power and his own influence.

Then he took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said again: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, He will give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Here's the more insidious temptation as I see this. In effect, what I think the devil was saying — and this is my opinion, my conjecture — he was basically saying: I'm going to throw you down. And what makes you think that when your feet hit the stone that somehow there are going to be angels there to help you? What makes you think that God will preserve you? What makes you think that God will protect you? What makes you think that God will raise you up? What makes you think he will send angels to be part of the process of bringing you to the conclusion of what your life is supposed to be? If you do believe this, throw yourself down.

But I want to remind you — that is not the whole scripture. He left a line out. Psalm 91 says: He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

It didn't say it's just for one specific event. God is going to assign angels to you to keep you in all of the journey of your life — the good times, the bad times, the easy times, the hard times, the times you understand, the times you don't, the times when it looks prosperous and the times when it looks hopeless. God is not going to fail you. God is going to keep you. And there will be a heavenly presence to assist you this whole time, lest you should be overthrown or overcome by the temptations or the testings that are all around you.

And lastly, seeing he could not turn Jesus from the truth of the word of God, he said to him: All the kingdoms of the world and all their glory belong to me. If you will fall down and worship me, you don't have to go to the cross. Basically, that's what he was saying. Then you don't have to die. You can have it all if you'll just bow down and worship me.

And Jesus said, Away with you, Satan. It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

Matthew 4:11 says: Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

Praise be to God. That's exactly what the scripture says. He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Now, what was the devil so afraid of in Psalm 91 — that if you and I laid hold of it, his power over us would be broken?

His power causes us to think that somehow God won't provide for us in the midst of our hunger or our hardship or whatever it is that you and I have to face in the days ahead. The promise of God is that we will have provision. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

First of all, he was afraid that we would find this hidden place of God where our confidence in his keeping power can no longer be broken. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High — Psalm 91:1 — shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In him I will trust.

I will trust on the good days. I will trust on the bad days. I will trust when I hit the notes in the song. I will trust when my voice cracks and I can't hit them. I will trust when there's money in the bank, and I will trust when I have to trust God to pay my bills. I will trust in God.

This has to be our prayer in this generation: God, take me to this place. Take me to this place of trust in you. Oh, Jesus Christ, Son of God, don't let me trust in my own reasonings, my own resources, my own thinking, my own abilities, my own strength. God Almighty, give me the ability to trust in your word — that the things you say to me are true. They cannot be contravened. They cannot be thrown away.

God Almighty, you cannot be tested. Satan said to Jesus, throw yourself...