Spiritual Awakening — Carter Conlon

Praise God. If you turn to your Bibles, please, to the book of Exodus chapter one. I want to speak to you this morning about spiritual awakening. And Father, I thank you, God, with all of my heart, that you will anoint this word today and that you'll give us a spiritual understanding.

Lord God, we thank you that you never leave us without hope or strength as your people. But Father, that you will take us into a dimension of the victory that is ours in Christ that perhaps many of us have never known.

Lord God, we offer our lives to you today and we ask you to speak to us and glorify your name through us. Give life to this word, quicken it, and let it find a lodging place in our hearts. And Father, I thank you for this in Jesus' name.

Spiritual awakening. Now, first of all, I just want to welcome Pastor Mark Lecomte to our platform. He works with Pastor Claude Hood in Montreal, Canada, and he'll be here with us this afternoon at three o 'clock speaking.

I think if you make the effort to come out, you'll be greatly blessed. Delightful to have you here with us. Now, in this church, you've heard it said, and I've said it clearly, that I believe that we're a generation that's going to know a spiritual awakening.

The Meaning and Promise of Spiritual Awakening

I believe it's already begun. You feel it in your heart. Something sovereign of God is underfoot. But what is it? What is my part in this? What does a spiritual awakening really mean? How does it happen?

When does it happen? Now, in order to understand these things, we can go back into Exodus and just study one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in all of history, in the Old Testament. Of course, right in the beginning, when God's own people were brought into an understanding of something that they had lost over the 400 years that they had been essentially intermingled with the people of Egypt.

Exodus chapter one, beginning at verse seven. And the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty. And the land was filled with them. Now there rose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

In other words, a new king that had really no regard for spiritual things or for the testimony or heritage of God's people. And he said to his people, behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come on, let us deal wisely with them unless they multiply. And it comes to pass when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get them out of the land. Therefore, they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.

And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Python and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. Verse 22, and Pharaoh charged all his people saying, every son that is born, you shall cast into the river.

And every daughter you shall save alive. It's always been a well used tactic of darkness to rob the people of God of spiritual vision and to convince us that we are much less than we really are. I'm personally somewhat stunned when you read the statistics and realize how many people, for example, in this country actually believe in God.

Actually believe that the Bible, whether or not they fully embrace all of scripture, they at least do believe that the principles of godly living are contained here. Over 70%, as I have been told, of this nation believes in God.

It's stunning how much of a voice the 70 are not in this generation. In all of the directions we're taking and what is happening all around us. Verse nine tells us that those who contained the people of God knew something that the children of promise didn't know themselves.

He said to his people, behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we are. You see, they really did have greater numbers and more might, they just simply didn't know it. And that seems to be something that throughout history has a tendency to repeat itself over and over again.

Verse 11 tells us then to contain the people, the government of that day set over them a series of overseers and rule makers to contain them, to control them, to intimidate them and to punish them. If they dared to believe that their purpose on earth was any greater than what they were told it was.

Pharaoh and all of those under his authority were telling the children of Israel, you see, we have an agenda, we are building something and your use and your purpose is to join with us and to build with us what we are building.

Don't think independently of us. And if you attempt to do so, we will intimidate you. We will punish you and you will suffer for any form of independent thinking apart from building what we are attempting to build.

And while they were doing this, while the people of God were contained, their strategy was to throw their sons into the river to drown. In other words, we will take away their future, we will take away their strength, we will take away their ability to be the people of God for the devil himself knew that the children of Abraham were called of God to represent God on the earth and to be a blessing to all nations.

James says in the New Testament, you believe there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe and tremble. You might say it's a type of a proven satanic strategy to contain the people of God. While they are dutifully obeying the rules, while they're standing up when they're told, while they're sitting down when they're told, while they're being quiet when they're told, while they're being marginalized when they're told to stand on the sidelines, while God's people are being quiet and obeying all the rules that have been placed over them, it's a proven strategy of darkness to take their children and drown them in the polluted streams of godless thinking.

Take the next generation and indoctrinate their minds and pollute their minds and take away their sense of identity in Christ or in the things of God and literally drown them in the theories and philosophies and value systems of a godless world.

God's People Multiply Under Affliction

But I wanna remind you of something. In verse 12, it says, the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. God's people are a supernatural people. No matter how many mistakes we made and even when we forget who we are, I believe that in this generation, many of God's people have forgotten who we are, have forgotten that the Holy Spirit of the living God abides in us.

The same spirit that moved upon the face of the waters, the same spirit that moved in conjunction with the word of God and created everything that exists around us, lives inside of us. Paul, the apostle said, we bear this treasure in earthen vessels.

We don't have a concept about God, we don't have theories about God, we have the actual presence of God living inside these earthen vessels. We get inwardly focused. We cower down under the voices that challenge the authenticity of God and God's people in our generation.

We make all kinds of mistakes. We forget who we are. But Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You might forget who you are. You might go down into the dust for a season. You might find yourself looking down at your feet, looking for straw and making bricks for a godless agenda, but I have not forgotten you.

Isaiah 49, 15 tells us that though a nursing mother could forget her child, yet God says, I cannot forget my own people because I engraved you on the palms of my hands. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. When God's people begin to recognize their error and cry out to him again, the supernatural hand of God is raised in power one more time.

When we begin to realize that we can't do this in our own strength. When we begin to realize that we've not been what we should have been. When as Daniel, we open the windows of our prayer room and face towards the place where God once made exceeding great promises to us.

And we say, Lord, we are confused of face this day and we deserve to be because we handled casually and lightly the holy things that you gave to us. We assume that your presence was just simply going to be with us forever.

In spite of how we treated you, in spite of how we handled what you put into our hands. But Daniel said, Oh God, remember the promises you made to us. Remember that you told us if we begin to pray in the place of our captivity, though we be a far off, yet from there, you will begin to gather us again.

And out of the ashes, we will rise one more time. The church of the living Christ, sovereignly empowered by a holy God, doing the earth what we've been called to do. From the beginning of time, that we might be a people who give honor and glory to God by letting God give honor and glory to himself through us.

We might be yielded to the will of God and to the ways of God and walk the pathway that God has set before us. And that he might glorify his name one more time. In Exodus chapter three and verse seven, he said, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt.

And I've heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I'm come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and large to a land flowing with milk and honey, to a place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hittites and the Jebusites.

In other words, God said, I've seen this affliction and I'm going to do something in this generation that's going to make your heart glad. It's going to give you a song that doesn't come from anywhere else but from this inward working of God in your life.

I'm going to deliver you. Listen to what he says in Psalm 78. I'm just going to read it to you. It says, he delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy's hand. This happens throughout history.

This testimony that God has in the people because we so casually have treated it is allowed to be overpowered by our enemies. It says, he gave his people over to the sword and was wroth with his inheritance.

Talks about seasons where God's own people don't have the power to fight back. Seemingly helpless, seemingly hopeless, seemingly moved about by every whim of those that place over them all types of obstruction.

The fire consumed their young men and the maidens were not given to marriage. Speaks about the breakdown. Young men who should be standing with the anointing of God are being given over to the passions of this fallen generation.

And even in God's house, marriage is beginning to break down. Their priests fell by the sword and their widows made no lamentation. Most people in the church don't expect their pastors to stand for very long anymore.

And when they fail or fall or quit or give up, the people don't even mourn anymore. It's just like next. Just bring the next one in and we don't expect you to stand for very long either. No sense of integrity, no sense of staying any longer, no sense of honor.

So much of it is lost in our generation. It says, then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep. Suddenly, God awakens. Suddenly, God says, enough. This is my bride. This is my testimony in the earth. These are my people.

Yes, they have deserved their confusion of face in this generation. But lest the devil exalt himself too far. One more time, the Lord says, I'm gonna show you that I am still God and these are still my people.

It says, he woke out of sleep like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts and put them to a perpetual reproach. In other words, he came at them so quickly, they didn't know what had happened to them.

He said, enough of this, enough of my glory being in the hands of the enemies of God. He built a sanctuary like high palaces and the earth which he had established forever. He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds from following the O's great with young.

He brought him to feed Jacob, his people and Israel, his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. And this is exactly how he does it.

He chooses one more time, messengers who will not touch the glory of God. And he gives them a message that could only bring glory to God. He takes again the weak and he takes again the nobodies, the nothings, those who know in their heart, they know deep down that without God, they have nothing and they are nothing.

And he sets them one more time. That's what he says in Psalm 78. He sets them one more time before his people. One more time, he brings a David into the camp, a skinny teenager who doesn't have the weaponry that the Saul's army has.

One more time brings an old man and his brother with a stick into the camp of Israel with a simple message. I've heard from God and God said, let my people go. It's no deeper than that. One more time, God's people begin to realize it's not by might, it's not by power, it's by my spirit, says the Lord.

One more time, we step out of the natural and into the supernatural. One more time, men and women rise up and say, I believe that in myself, it's not possible. But deeper down than that, I believe that with God, all things are possible.

I believe that whatever door God sets before us, he will give us the power to go through it. I believe one more time, we are not the tail, we are the head. I believe one more time that God has given us power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power, all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt us.

I believe, I believe that God will give us the courage to stand. I believe that God will give us the victory. I believe that we'll not be relegated to reading stories about those who won victories in times past.

I believe we can go into the fire and we will not be burned. We can go through the flood and we will not drown. You see your calling brethren, not many mighty, not many noble, not many of royal birth, but God has chosen the fullest things of this world to bring to nothing those things, in a sense that think that by their own reasonings, they stand in a place of superiority.

And he brings in the weak to bring down those things that stand in their own strength and the nothings and the nobodies. And those things of this world that society that's held bent on its own destruction looks at and despises and says, this can't add anything to my agenda other than I can keep this segment of society suppressed and use it for my own gain and use it for my own glory.

But God says, no, sir, not anymore. I'm not leaving my glory in the enemy's hand any longer. God sends his own people a moment in history, which you and I would call an awakening. It's a time when people suddenly become open again to the word of God and the ways of God.

They become open after a long season of walking by what we can figure out and how we can do it and human strength intermixed with a small measure of the word of God, only to find that we are perilously close to a total defeat.

At this point, something of the supernatural begins to stir. You can't really explain it and I can't explain it either, but something happens in your heart. And I know that you know what I'm talking about this morning.

Something stirs in the heart. You feel like a dead man, like Lazarus in the tomb. One more time, hearing the voice of God calling you to something that you can't do in your own strength and you know you can't do it in your own strength.

But nevertheless, you can't deny that voice that is calling you. You can't deny that stirring of faith. You can't deny the inner sense that I'm called of God for much more than I presently am. There's a moment where God is calling and he's not calling to the strong.

He's not calling to the wise. He's not calling to the boardroom. He's calling to the upper room one more time. He's looking for those who know they have failed, those who know they have no strength. He's opened a door that no man can close.

And suddenly there's a stirring in your heart. Like Ezekiel in chapter six when he stands at the virtual throne of God and he sees his own incompetence and he understands that there's nothing in him that can advance the kingdom of God.

And when he's come to a place of total nothingness in himself, suddenly he hears a voice. Who will go for us and who will we send? And in a moment of time, Isaiah says, here am I, send me. Because I now understand the message is not about me, it's all about you.

It's not about what man can do, it's about what God can do for men. You touched me when I realized there was nothing and that's going to be my message to this generation. When we finally realize that we are nothing, suddenly heaven opens and we begin to realize that yes, we may be nothing in the social scheme, we may be nothing to people around us, but we are everything to the heart of God, everything.

Everything in the kingdom of heaven centers around you and centers around me and we finally realize that in our nothingness that God is willing to touch us and make us much more than we could ever hope to be in our own strength.

Awakening Through Faith in God's Ridiculous Plan

In Exodus chapter four and verse 31, it said, and the people believed when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he looked upon their affliction and they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Now these people are dominated by one of the largest armies in the world at that time. They have been marginalized and made to feel powerless. Yes, they are more in number and mightier, but they're not even aware of it.

So what does God use to bring them to an awareness of their might, of who they really are? You know, if you and I were God, we would probably send an army of 100 ,000 soldiers in with golden shields and white stallion horses pulling incredibly platinum decorated chariots.

To say, we've come to tell you that we are more and mightier than we realize and God is going to set us free. And you and I would say, well, that would be easy to believe but a spiritual awakening is that when God approaches us with what is naturally ridiculous and we begin to believe it.

An 80 year old man and his 83 year old brother come walking into town with a stick and a one line sermon. That's all I've got. Moses is so afraid in a sense of moving forward, he can't even deliver the sermon on his own.

He needs his brother to speak it for him. And it's really just one line, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. That's all he was given to say and he needed help to give it. Now in the natural, this is an absolutely ridiculous plan but that's the way God is, that's what he does.

That's why you can go home today, look in the mirror and say, Lord, you using me is absolutely ridiculous but God, that's what you have done throughout history. You've taken people like me and you have put your Holy Spirit upon us.

That's what you've always done. That's always been the plan of God that no flesh can glory in the presence of God. Something stirred, that's what an awakening is. There's a stirring in the heart. I wonder how many times throughout history there has been that stirring and the people have not been able to respond to it.

I wonder how many times in how many countries and how many towns and cities the Lord Jesus Christ has technically passed by and the people have felt that stirring but chose unbelief over faith. Stood at the edge of an incredible victory but looked at the giants and calculated all the reasons why it couldn't be.

Looked at their own resources, went back in their dens and looked at their certificates on the wall one more time. Checked on the internet to see what they had in the bank. Looked around to see how many friends they had on Facebook trying to figure out how this thing is going to happen and just missed it because it's not about us, it's about what God desires to do in us and through us.

It's about the willing heart. The one in the crowd standing at the back that says, here am I, Lord use me. When the Lord takes the talent away from that person who chose not to use it, gives it to his servants and says, give it to somebody who'll make use of it.

It's the guy at the back that says, God, give it to me. Lord, I will go where you call me to go and I will do what you call me to do and I will be what you asked me to be but not in my own strength. For Lord, I know that I don't have the strength to do this but God Almighty, I know that you do have the strength for me.

Spiritual Authority and the Rod in Moses's Hand

Now, here's how an awakening begins. In chapter four of Exodus, he said to Moses, the Lord said to him, what is in your hand? And he said, a rod. And he said, cast it on the ground and he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses fled from before it.

Now, the serpent was the symbol of Egypt and God's people had been fleeing before this spirit that was dominating this nation, the spirit of the serpent as it was. And the Lord said to Moses, put forth your hand and take it by the tail.

And he put forth his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand. An awakening brings God's people back again to an understanding of spiritual authority. We have authority in the prayer closet.

We can go to the throne of God, not in our strength but in our weakness to find grace to help in time of need. We can pray and when we pray in faith, prayer moves the hand of God. Folks, there has to be a renewed understanding of spiritual authority in our generation.

Something is stirring in my heart and something needs to stir in your heart. We can stand and believe God to release New York City from the grip of godlessness and to begin to fill the churches of this city again with people seeking God, finding a living relationship with Christ, going in weak as they did in the cave in the days of David but coming out mighty and doing the exploits that only God can do through his people.

Now you can sit on your hands if you want but I believe this with all my heart. I believe there's authority when we pray. Glory to the name of Jesus. Secondly, it says the Lord in verse six, said furthermore to him, put now your hand in your bosom.

And he put his hand in his bosom and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, put your hand into your bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

And it shall come to pass, verse eight, if they will not believe you, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. Number one, God in a renewal gives us an understanding of spiritual authority.

Number two, he gives us a testimony of incredible inward change and victory. He takes the rot out of us. May I say it that way? Things that we know inside, we put our hand inside as Moses did in a sense and we know in our heart that I am rotten to the core in this area of my life and it will never change.

No matter how many times I've put my hand to my own heart and the issues of my own heart, I am powerless to change. But God says, now you do it according to my word. You believe me. And it says, he put his hand in again and when he took it out, he was completely healed.

And God is going to give a testimony to his people in this generation of a healing that can't come from anything but the hand of God, of a change, an inner change, a nature change, of being taken out of weakness and captivity and brought into freedom and strength, of being given clear vision in a day of confusion, being given courage in an hour of cowardice.

God is going to put a testimony inside of you. If you will let him speak to your heart, he will put a testimony inside of you that nobody can stand against. And they may not believe that you have spiritual authority but he said to Moses, they will believe the second sign when you stand in front of your family, you stand in front of your neighborhood, you stand in front of those in your workplace and you say, I just want to tell you what Jesus did in my life.

I want to give a testimony of what only God could have done. I had after a prayer meeting one time in the annex, a Muslim man who had attended our prayer meeting that evening come up to me and he was infuriated.

And he said to me, how dare you say that Jesus Christ is the only God and the only way to eternal life? What gives you the authority to say this? And I said, would you give me five minutes to tell you what Jesus has done in my life?

He said, all right, I will. So I stared him in the eye and for five minutes, I told him what Jesus had done in my life. Then I looked at him, I said, no, I want you to tell me what your God has done for you.

He looked at me, his eyes filled with tears and he just said, thank you and he walked away. There's a testimony and we've got to get it back. If we've lost it, we've got to get it back. This testimony of Christ working inside of us, doing what only God can do.

The Cross, the Blood, and Victory Over Deception

Verse nine, it says, and it shall come to pass that they'll not believe these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice. Thou shalt take the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land. And the water that thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

This is an absolute type of the cross of Jesus Christ. I don't know any other blood that touched dry land that had the power to give this kind of victory. And technically what I believe that God's speaking as a type through this is that he will give us victory over that which would destroy our children.

The cross guarantees a future and cancels the power of deception. There is power in the cross of Jesus Christ. There is power to stand against the deception of this time, the indoctrination of our children in godless colleges and schools, the mockery of everything that stands up and is holy and is God and is good.

There is power in the blood of Jesus Christ that touched this land. There is power to believe God for our sons and daughters. There's power to go to the throne of God and call our children home. And sovereignly God begins to speak to their hearts.

And sovereignly they start knowing what is true and what is false. I happen to believe there is power in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe there's power in the blood of Jesus Christ. And I believe with all my heart that you and I, no matter where our sons and daughters might be, we can go into that prayer closet and we can take authority over that which has tried to drown them in confusion and drown them in sin and drown them in powerlessness.

To young people that are listening to this message today and in the future, I wanna issue a challenge. I want you to listen to this old man standing in this pulpit. You use the social media and you call your friends together and you meet on a street corner.

I don't care where you meet. You find a room to meet. You meet in somebody's apartment. You start to pray and the Holy Spirit is gonna come on you and you're gonna know that God is real. I wanna challenge this young generation to take this challenge, take it to heart.

Meet together and prove whether or not what I'm telling you is the truth. I believe that as you begin to pray, you're going to know that God is alive. You're gonna know you've been lied to. You're gonna know there is a God.

You're gonna know he has a name. You're gonna know his name is Jesus. You're gonna know he died on a cross. You're gonna know he gives the Holy Spirit to those who call out to him. You're gonna know a reason for your life.

You're gonna see a purpose for the future. You're going to live in victory in the days ahead. You're gonna know it because you've taken a moment out of all of the busy schedule of your life to get together with your friends and say, God, if you're real, show us.

The Supernatural Ability to Obey God's Call

And lastly, in verse 10, and Moses said to the Lord, oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent. Neither before nor since you've spoken to your servant, but I'm slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said to him, who has made man's mouth or who makes the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind?

Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. Lastly, he gives each one of us the supernatural ability to do what we're called to do. We either believe that or we don't.

We're not called to walk this walk in our own strength. We're not called to reason with our own reasonings. We are called to hear from God. And when he speaks, we're called to move forward in what he tells us to do.

And he promises that in our weakness, that he will be our strength. In our confusion, he'll be our wisdom. In our fear, he'll be the love that casts out all fear. And he will give each of us the supernatural ability to do what we're called to do.

I know this is true because that's the only reason I can stand here today. I don't have the natural ability to do what I do. I never have had it. It's only the Holy Spirit of God. And something in my heart as a young man said, Lord, whatever door you open, I'm going to go through it.

Whatever you ask me to do, I will do it. And I will trust you and I will believe you. That as you lead me, that you will glorify your name through my life. I believe with all my heart, I'm not the exception.

This is the rule in the kingdom of God. When the 120 came out of that upper room, the whole 120 were empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into their generation and bring about change. Yes, they had to go head on into the storm.

Yes, it was not popular. Yes, they did run into hostile forces. But might I remind you that the supernaturally empowered, spiritually awakened people changed the whole world of their generation. I'm believing God for New York City.

The Lord has taken me from where I used to live, gave me the power to stand where I do stand today. I've been in countries and I've seen God turn back civil war, break the spirit of poverty. I've watched him do the impossible.

The other day I was sitting and reading and it dawned on me that all of these things God has done in my life for this moment in New York City. To encourage me and to give us who've been part of this faith to believe that what I've seen him do, what we've seen him do around the world, he will do here as well.

This is a sovereign moment for New York City that we're living in. And might I remind you that what happens in New York generally touches the rest of the world. A few off-centered people, some believing, I suppose, that they had a just cause occupied Wall Street and it spread around the world.

How much more when people begin to occupy the church of Jesus Christ? How much more when God begins to awaken his church? Hallelujah. Father, I thank you that we are standing at the threshold of something incredible in our generation.

Prayer for Awakening, Courage, and the Return of Children

Your scripture tells us that they believed and I see it all through the scripture. David walks into the camp and even the king believes. Something stirs in him that this young man does have something of God that could defeat the giant.

A cup bearer shows up. A man who just simply delivers food to the king shows up in Israel saying, God sent me to rebuild the wall. And the princes and nobles, the scripture says, believed him and started to work.

All through history, we see the patterns of how you work in scripture. You don't send the mighty. You don't send those that are strong in themselves. You give them a word and then suddenly there's a stirring in the heart that says this is God and this is God's time.

I ask you, Lord God, to help us to get out of mediocrity, small thinking. I ask you to give us the courage to stand up and be what you've called us to be. Ask you, Father, for the grace, oh God, to believe that whatever door you set before us, we're well able to go through it and that you will give us the victory.

I ask you, Lord God, for the courage to speak, to be given to your house and to your people again. From those who live in the top parts of the nation to those who live in the bottom, that we would all have the courage to speak what we know is right.

Ask you, Lord, that you would do something in us that we can't do for ourselves, that you would change us so radically and so powerfully there would be an undeniable testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ.