Carter Conlon | Daily Devotionals

I want to challenge you today to rise up, Church of God. Rise up, Body of Christ. Take up your bed and walk. No matter what your problem has been, you can get out today of your addiction, your depression, your weakness, and your poverty. Start walking and become a living testimony of the reality of God's presence in you.

The miracle at Bethesda never meant to end with just a healed man. It was meant to become a testimony, and the same is true for you and I. God doesn't set us free so we can simply enjoy our freedom. He sets us free so that our lives can point others to Him. Take what once held you captive and let it become part of your testimony today of God's faithfulness.

Join with us every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Time at itstimetopray.org. People from all over the world are saying, God, do a miracle in my life so that I can tell somebody else about your power, your grace, and your glory.

It's time to pray.

I was once speaking at a conference and I felt sick, sitting in my seat, feeling the effects of what was trying to get a hold of me. Brain fog, blurred vision, headaches, and dizziness. Hundreds of young people were gathered, and everything in me could have focused on how I was feeling. Instead, I thought, no, I'm here to fight. I'm not here to worry about how I'm feeling. I just don't care. I'm going to get up and kick the sides out of hell tonight. I got up with a word from God and I preached, and when the altar call was given, young people filled the front of that tent facility on their knees, crying out before God.

Sometimes the greatest victories happen when you and I stop focusing on our present struggles, and we start focusing on God's purpose for my life today. I know you have difficulties, but don't let your difficulties keep you today from obeying what God has called you to do. Somebody else's life depends on you presenting Christ to them.

It's time to pray.

The book of Acts 12:15-16: But they said to her, "You are beside yourself." Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, "It is his angel." Now Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

Now here is a great prayer meeting asking for a good thing, but no one actually believing that they will receive what they're asking for. Many, many people are like that today, praying the right prayers, sounding good as they pray, but deep down in the heart, there's no real expectation that the answer will be at the door.

But see the mercy of God, however. The prayer meeting isn't ripe with faith, but in that moment, God is working out the answer to their prayer. Oh God, that we would be standing at the door of faith, waiting for the answers as we pray. Let it be in your prayer today.

It's time to pray.

Rise, take up your bed and walk. John 5:8.

You know, something had to stir in that man. He'd been lying there for 38 years. For 38 years, he couldn't walk. But the living water coming from the mouth of Jesus Christ stirred something within him. I don't know how he got up. I don't know if he leapt to his feet or slowly rose up, but I know that he got up. He took his bed under his arm and started walking.

The same God who stirred that man is still able to stir hearts today. He's still able to awaken faith where hopelessness has lived for years. When God begins to stir your heart, don't ignore His voice. Respond in faith and take the step He's asking you to take. Whatever place of hopelessness you've been lying in can't keep you anymore. Take up your bed and walk.

It's time to pray.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

We learn to stand. It doesn't matter what our education is or is not. It doesn't matter what our abilities are or are not. We have living water within these earthen vessels. When we get up and speak what God gives us to speak, miracles start to happen. Lives start to be transformed. Situations start to change. Captivity is taken captive.

So today, don't live beneath your inheritance. God has placed His Holy Spirit within you for a purpose. Trust Him today to use your voice to bring hope, to bring freedom, to bring truth to those who are looking for it around you.

It's time to pray.

When I read about millions contemplating suicide, millions in this nation battling depression, and young people struggling to find a reason to live, something rises up inside of me. I thank God for people who carry a burden to reach this generation. I thank God for those who refuse to stand by while young people are losing hope.

There has to be a voice that says "no" to this darkness. There has to be a church that believes God can still save, heal, restore, and still deliver. Ask God today to give you a burden for the people around you. Refuse to become indifferent to the struggles of this generation. Let your life today become part of God's answer for somebody who needs hope.

Join with us every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Time at itstimetopray.org, where many of us worldwide are believing God for an end-time awakening before Christ returns. Talk to God about it now.

It's time to pray.

You know, there's a danger in believing what you feel more than what God has said. You can begin to trust your fears, your doubts, and your circumstances more than His word. That is how unbelief takes root. You may say that you have faith, but if your confidence is in what you see and feel, you are actually placing faith in unbelief.

God has not changed. The same God who created the universe, who calmed the storms, who raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, is still at work today. How can we say that He's not able today to move in our lives?

Refuse today to give more authority to your thoughts than to the word of God. Choose to believe. Choose it now. Believe what He has declared, even when your situation wants to tell you otherwise. God has a wonderful plan for your life.

Talk to Him about it now, because it's time to pray.

Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark, but Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Acts 15:37. Verses 39 and 40 say, they parted from one another. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas.

It's a mistake to write off people that God hasn't written off. Paul felt as though Mark wouldn't be useful because of a seeming failure, maybe a fear, whatever, to help in the work of God at an early point in Mark's life. But God hadn't written off Mark, and he ultimately became the author of the Gospel of Mark.

If we sow judgment, we will reap no mercy. God is not finished with us yet. Let's you and I choose today to be kind to others who are still with us on this journey.

It's time to pray.

You know, there's a danger in believing what you feel more than what God has said. You can begin to trust your fears, your doubts, and your circumstances more than His word. That is how unbelief takes root. You may say that you have faith, but if your confidence is in what you see and feel, you are actually placing faith in unbelief.

God has not changed. The same God who created the universe, who calmed the storms, who raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, is still at work today. How can we say that He's not able today to move in our lives?

Refuse today to give more authority to your thoughts than to the word of God. Choose to believe. Choose it now. Believe what He has declared. Even when your situation wants to tell you otherwise, God has a wonderful plan for your life.

Talk to Him about it now, because it's time to pray.

There are those who believe that their past disqualifies them, that because of what they have done, God cannot use their lives. But that is not true. Rahab was not known for a righteous life, yet she was brought into the people of God and became part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. God is not limited by your past. He's able to redeem it, transform it, and use your life for His glory.

The enemy of your soul will try to convince you that you're disqualified, but God says otherwise. Refuse to believe the lie that your story is over. Your past does not cancel your future in God. Turn your heart today fully towards Him and allow His mercy to rewrite what you thought could never be changed. You have a wonderful future ahead of you.

Talk to God about all of this because it's time to pray.