A Last Day Return to Power — Carter Conlon

I want to speak to you a message that I shared in Jordan at this conference. It was the first night and it was a message called The Last Day Return to Power. Acts chapter two, please, if you turn there.

The Promise of Pentecost

Acts chapter two, The Last Day Return to Power. Father, I thank you, Lord, for the presence of your Holy Spirit. I thank you, God, that you're speaking the same thing to believers all over the world, Lord.

The message here is not exclusive, Lord. You're speaking it everywhere, where people's hearts are open, where they're hungry. Truly, you're speaking to your church. You're crying out again, saying, whoever has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.

I thank you for fellowship with soldiers of the cross this week. God Almighty, men and women who are staying in places that is almost a death sentence and they won't leave because they are called there.

I pray that you would give us that kind of determination to serve you, Lord, the integrity of character and of heart. Lord Jesus Christ, would you overshadow my frailty? Would you speak to us as a congregation?

Would you speak to all of us who are gathered here today? Those that are with us online, would you speak to us? Help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior that we will need to get through the days just ahead.

Thank you for this. Thank you for this church. Thank you for the love and the zeal for you that is here. Thank you for the fellowship of over 100 nations in one place. God, thank you for the prayer meeting that's in 195 countries now.

Thank you, Lord, for the faces now that I see from around the Arabic world that I know are online with us on Tuesday night. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for the congregation, the Jewish congregation in Israel, Mount Carmel.

Thank you, Lord, for the fellowship there. Thank you, God. Your people are everywhere serving you, loving you. Help us to do our part, Lord, in these last days and to fill the role you've given us to the fullest.

Lord Jesus, we bless you. Thank you for your word in your precious name. Acts chapter two, verses 38 and 39. This is the day of Pentecost, the day shortly after the resurrection of Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune God came down and indwelt people.

It was something that was seen in the Old Testament by some of the Old Testament prophets that was almost like too good to be true. I'm sure when people would read it, they would say, well, maybe from time to time he would find a special vessel like Elijah.

Maybe God would indwell King David, but not me, just the big people, the important people, or the elector, the selected people. But thank God on the day of Pentecost, the Lord said that may have been what it was for a season, but now it's every person everywhere, young, old, rich, poor, male, female, Jew, Gentile.

I will come when I find a hungry heart and I will take up residency inside that human vessel and you will become the temple of the Holy Spirit. You will become that temple that was foreshadowed by Solomon's temple.

It was a physical place built by God, adorned by God, then indwelt by God, a place of prayer that was supposed to be a testimony in the earth where people could have their questions about God and about his power answered.

Now we know that historically that was lightly dealt with and because of it, it was thrown down and taken into captivity. Just as happens with believers today who have this inner dwelling of God, the power of God inside their lives, but they take it very casually, don't fully understand what the purpose of God inside of my body is supposed to be.

I'm a demonstration, supposed to be a demonstration of who God is on the earth, of his mercy, in my failings, of his power to change me, of prayer that God himself will answer. I'm supposed to be that visible demonstration that Solomon's temple was called to be in his time.

The Last Days and the Promise of the Holy Spirit

On the day of Pentecost, it was fulfilled. The last days actually began on the day of Pentecost and they will culminate with cosmic signs. Peter says, Peter the apostle said, the heavens will be on fire.

I don't know if that's a release of nuclear weaponry, I'm not sure, but the heavens will be on fire. I do know from studying that a nuclear explosion has the possibility of setting the virtual atmosphere around the earth on fire.

And the scientists who developed the first atomic bomb knew this and was terrified even to test it, knowing it had the ability to start a chain reaction that could actually set the oxygen around the earth on fire.

Peter said the heavens are going to be on fire. The scripture bears witness to this. And when we read in the scriptures today, we begin to understand that we're entering into potentially a time of not only social upheaval in the earth, which the scriptures clearly speaks about, a lawlessness breaking out among humanity, which we're seeing in our time.

There's a lawlessness, you can't deny that. There's something that is rising up in the earth that people want no boundaries, they want no rules, they want no right, they want no wrong. There's a violence behind it.

It presents itself as tolerant, but in fact, it's extremely violent at its core. It's really a battle against the lordship of Jesus Christ. It's no deeper than that. That's what it is. We will not have this man to reign over us.

He will not be our king. Verse 38, Acts chapter two, then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now this is the day of Pentecost for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off. That means New York city in the year 2017. And as many as the Lord, our God will call. So the promise of God's Holy Spirit and the promise of his power is to who it's to you.

It's to your children. It's to all who are far off. That means people may be not in the proximity yet historically or time-wise of where this event was happening, but who would be found in later places and later dates and later times.

That promise was still true for them. And as many as the Lord, our God will call. So that makes it, there's no debating this now. This is what the power of God's Holy Spirit is for. And this is who it is for.

Now the church of Jesus Christ began with the promise of a divine enablement to those who would turn from their sin and recognize Jesus Christ as savior and Lord onlookers had just witnessed ordinary people speaking in a manner, which they'd never learned about present and future events, which only God himself would be able to perform.

They, there was an evidence of the divine in them. Now the Bible says they were speaking in other tongues, but those languages they were speaking in were known by people. They were, they were, in other words, they were, they were breaking out.

You have to understand these people at this particular time were all Jews, but they were breaking out of, of, of the confinement of culture, breaking out of the limitations of what they had been taught and believed.

And there was a sudden witness of God as they began to speak in languages to other cultures, to other peoples with the divine enablement of God and the people there would have known. These are all Jews.

They they've not learned these languages. This is not their focus. This is something that only God could do. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you and me, we are in effect taken in the same direction. We're given the power, the heart, and the ability to start speaking to people with which we have nothing in common.

We're taken outside of the confines of our own culture, our own language, our own comfort zone. And this sudden power combined with passion for the work of God takes us to places that we could never go.

Never. Not in a million years could we go there, but by the power of God, we can. That's why people get filled with the Holy Spirit and become missionaries. And many of them, there was not in their heart to go to a foreign nation or to go and live in hardship until the spirit of God came on them.

And the call of God came into their hearts. Now the word of the Lord was revealed and it spoke of this ability being given to all people and even carrying us through a witness until the end of this world as comes as it is known.

Verse 17, it shall come to pass. Acts chapter two in the last day says, God, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Now remember the last days began on the day of Pentecost and will end with the coming of Christ.

That's why, of course, the early disciples felt it could happen any moment. That's why they lived with this expectancy of his soon return. And if they did, might I suggest we should at this time, we should be expecting his return at any moment.

In the last days, I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. That means they'll understand scripture and speak it with authority. They will speak as God speaks the things that God has revealed to them.

Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men servants and on my maid servants, I'll pour out my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy. Now, does that leave anybody out?

Does anybody here today feel you're not included in that? You're not a son. You're not a daughter. You're not young. You're not old. You're not a person who's a men servant or a maid servant. He just leveled the playing field basically and said, whoever calls out on me, I'll fill you with my Holy spirit.

Now here's the second half of the last days, which we have not seen yet, but will, I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

That's the return, the physical return of Jesus Christ. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The promise is to you, to your children, to all who are far off.

And as many as the Lord, our God shall call. I just want to labor that point because I want to make sure there's nobody here. There's nobody online that says, well, it's for somebody else and not for me.

The promise is to you. You shall receive power when the Holy spirit comes upon you. And I believe with all my heart in the last days, which we are now living in, that promise is going to be rediscovered again.

It never left. We left it. It didn't leave us. The promise is still here. And I'm believing God for a spiritual awakening in his church, a spiritual touch of heaven to visit New York city. I'm believing God with all my heart for a shout of glory among the people of God on this earth.

Power to Witness in Every Place

Acts one 80 said, you shall receive power when the Holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses. He didn't say you're going to be an argument about me. No, you're going to be a demonstration of my power.

You're going to be a demonstration of who I am. The fact that Jesus Christ on the cross destroyed the power of evil, destroyed the penalty of sin, allowed God's Holy spirit to dwell inside of us and make us into new creations by his mercy and by his power and gave us abilities that we don't naturally possess to take us places.

We could never go to say things. We were not capable of saying with a heart that we didn't have. He promises a new heart, a new mind and a new spirit. You will receive power when the Holy spirit comes upon you.

And you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, everywhere in all places that includes your neighborhood, your apartment building, your office, your streets, everywhere you travel, you are to be a witness of who God is not an argument, not attract in somebody's hand, but a living witness of who God is praise God.

And so that's the promise. That's the promise I've always preached in this church. And you know, that's true that I believe we will rediscover our identity in the last days. It's almost like the, the hidden arc it's buried somewhere.

Nobody knows where it is, but somebody probably one day might discover it. And when they rebuilt the temple in one season, during the days of King Josiah, they discovered the word of God that had been lost in all of their religious activity.

They lost their instructions. They lost their origin. They lost their identity. They lost the source of their life and their power. And we too, in great measure have done the same thing. First second, Timothy chapter three, I want you to turn there with me in your Bible so you can read along and just see this.

Religion Without Power in the Last Days

We're going to now fast forward to Paul's description of the church, the same church we just read about in Acts chapter two. Now we fast forward to the last days and Paul describes a form, a type of religion that has developed in the earth.

And I believe that perhaps America is a prime example of this in our time, having a form of godliness. It says in chapter three of second Timothy in verse five, having a form of godliness and denying its power.

It would seem that in the last days, Paul saw that many had settled for an appearance of godliness, an appearance of belonging to Jesus Christ and have all but abandoned God's intended purpose for them on the earth.

They've settled into just being churched as if going to church is enough. It's a good thing. Thank God for people going to church. But when you look at X chapter two, how far it falls from the purpose of the church of Jesus Christ on the earth, what he has designed our lives to be, what he's desired us to be.

And we ask ourselves the question, if this is the peril of the last days, what brought this about? Now, if you start in second Timothy chapter three, and you read down from verse one to nine, you're going to see the entire story of this kind of last day religiousness without power that Paul speaks about.

He calls it a perilous time, a perilous time, not only physically, not only because we have madmen getting nuclear weapons in the earth and governments rising up that are against Christ and such like, that's perilous enough.

But the perilousness he's talking about is essentially that there's going to be a testimony that is so utterly deficient of who God is. That's the peril because ultimately men and women dying and ending up in hell forever.

That's the ultimate peril that people in society are facing, deeper than any of the things that might come and go in the days ahead. Men will, you see in verses two to four, here's what's happened. People have been misled in the last days into a salvation, which requires no repentance.

Remember when Peter opened his mouth in Acts chapter two, the very first word out of his mouth was repent. And repentance implies turning away from what is wrong and turning to what is right, turning away from an old way of living and turning to that which God has prescribed for us.

Turning away from the love of self to the love of others, turning away from just all of the loving money to loving to give what God gives to us, turning away from these things. But they've been misled, brought into the house of God by clever speakers, brought in by strategists, brought in by another means than the doorway into eternal life.

Now you've got to hear me on this. This is important. This is life or death for some people. It's important that you can sit here today and say, I'm not among those that have just a form of godliness without power.

I have decided to follow Jesus. I've decided to give him my life and give him my heart. I've decided to put my future in his hands. I've decided to seek his will for my life, whether it offers pleasure or pain, it makes no difference.

I'm going to seek the will of God. I'm not just going to let pastor Jules in Baghdad, stay in a place where he may lose his life while I seek comfort and ease in mind, thinking somehow we're part of the same church.

No, I'm going to seek the will of God for my life. I'm going to walk in the will of God. I'm going to walk in the power of God. I'm going to ask God for more, more power. When you see the parable of the talents, the man who would not use the gifting of God that was given to him, the Lord said, take it from him and give it to the man who has 10.

I used to wonder about that. Why not give it to the one who has two and would give him three talents? Let me put it that way. No, the man who has 10 is up in the back saying, give it to me. I want more of God.

I want more of what God has for me. I want a deeper relationship with Christ. I want a deeper influence over my society. I want more wisdom in my words. I want more power in my prayer. I want more determination in my character.

I want more gentleness. I want more holiness in my life. Give it to me, God. Give it to me, Lord. You look, Paul is describing this religion without power. Remember, we only put the verses in here. These are not disjointed thoughts.

This is one continuous thought from verse one to verse nine. Men will be lovers of themselves. Now this is part of this godliness without power, lovers of themselves. That's why we have so much teaching in the church in America, focusing on self.

It's part of the perilous times of the last days. When you are saved and your name is now as mine is written in the Lamb's book of life. When I know I'm going to the other side, my focus has to be on others.

I have to be living a life that says, God, this is not about me getting to the other side with no ruffles in the water and no sun beating down on me. It's about the other people are not going to make it if they don't know what I know.

They will be lovers of money. Why do you think there's so much teaching on money in the American church today? It's all about money. Give a dollar, you get a hundred back. Give a hundred, you get 10 ,000 back.

Hogwash to all of that stuff. It's part of the perilous times in the last days. It's a form. And I'm telling you folks, you better shut it off if you're listening to it. You get back into the word of God, get back into biblical Christianity.

Boasters, all the boasters in the house of God, all the bragging about all the stuff they're doing. Boasters. If we stood in the presence of a Holy God, I'll tell you right now, there would not be a space on this floor.

Our faces would be in the carpet all over this sanctuary. Just like Isaiah would say, Oh God, I've spoken about you, but now I've seen you. Now I've seen your holiness. Now I recognize we're all unclean.

All our righteousness are like filthy rags. Touch my lips with your mercy, Oh God, and let my message be about you and your mercy and your redemption, your power, your humility, your willingness. It's amazing when you look at it, you go down and you can, I could characterize a lot of these things in what I've seen to be some of our modern day theology, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, headstrong, which means ramming through my will, not God's, not being in the prayer closet, not seeking God, forming our direction around a committee table, headstrong, not smart enough to know that unless the Lord builds a house, we labor in vain.

Oh yeah, fill the thing, get 60 ,000 people to attend it. It doesn't mean that God is even in it. And lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, lovers of pleasure. I feel sad. I feel hope for America, but I feel sad for America.

In the constitution of this country, it says, and they're wonderful words that everyone has the undeniable right in a sense to life and Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's the constitution of the secular nation may I put it that way.

But unfortunately that got adopted by the church and you come into the much of the house of God today. And it's all about my life, my Liberty and my pursuit of my happiness. Let the rest of the world be damned.

Let them all perish. As long as I'm happy, as long as I've got money in the bank and verse eight, it says they follow ministers who actually resist the true work of God as Janice and Jambres resisted Moses.

So do these also resist the truth. Men have corrupt minds and disapprove concerning the faith. When Moses came in the ministry of Moses and Aaron at that particular point was to set the oppressed free.

Was it not was to break the chains of bondage was to bring them out even into what would be to them a wilderness so that they may worship God and be set apart for God. That was the ministry of Moses. It was about others.

It was not about himself. It was about others, bringing them to freedom. And now these ministers resist Paul says in the last days, there will be a ministry very similar to this, who actually resist the true work of God.

They make the work of God all about self, not about others, but there will progress no further verse nine for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was. God says there's a point where their influence and ministry will be brought to an end.

Repentance, Hardship, and Returning to God

Unfortunately, though, it might be in hardship. Those who were here during nine 11, when the towers were hit and came down, you remember a lot of the voices that profess to speak for God, who only talk about endless good times and every day is going to be better than the last.

And they just disappeared. They just hid under the desk and in their closets for about three months. They were gone because they had no word for hardship. They had no word for calamity for the people of God in these difficult times.

And that brought the folly of their approach into public view. Sad to say, when they reappeared, their crowds reappeared with them and they kept on in their journey that they take together. I had the misfortune of being in a service where there were families of people who were killed in the towers, 3 ,500 people, raw, hungry, wanting an answer.

They brought in this big name speaker and the poor man, he stood up there and says, I don't know where God is in all of this. Can you imagine if he'd read his Bible, he would have known he's sitting at the right hand of the father.

His arms are wide open to receive, to comfort, to help, to strengthen, to forgive, to redeem, to fill with the spirit. If he had been reading his Bible instead of popular psychology, he would have known where God is.

It was a heartache to be in those kinds of services. Now Paul says, from such turn away. Verse five says, having a form of godliness, but denying its power and from such people turn away. May I put it this way, turn away from being that kind of a person.

Turn away from being somebody who just seeks a form of godliness, but with no power in it, no heart, no willingness to obey God, no desire to live a truthful life, no desire to say, Lord, change me, search me, oh God.

If there'd be in me something that's displeasing to you that will dishonor your kingdom, would you give me the power to turn away from it? Would you recreate me with the character of my savior? Would you take me farther than I could ever hope to go and to give me more than I could ever possess?

I'm personally hungrier for the power of God than I've ever been in my lifetime. No, I'll correct that. Maybe there was one time before where I prayed a prayer and I said, Lord, if you will touch my life, I will serve you for the rest of my days.

If you will set me free and if you will empower me. And it was when I prayed that prayer that I had an actual visitation of the spirit of God come into the room where I was praying. Perhaps one of the more fearful things I've ever experienced in my life.

There's an earthly fear and then there's a heavenly fear. I felt like I was going to die if God didn't take his hand off me, but yet at the same time felt strangely at peace. There's nothing in our experience to compare it with.

And beware, Paul says of always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Always learning, but being unwilling to be led to the place and the purpose that truth always leads. Always learning, just somehow covering it up by learning.

Wait, Lord, don't call me out. I'm still learning. It's like the lawyer that came to Jesus. Jesus is trying to teach him and he says, be good to your neighbor. And he just comes out with this ridiculous question.

And who is my neighbor? I'm studying it. I'm studying it. And when I figure out who my neighbor is, I'm in, count me in. Studying can be a smoke screen for not obeying, for not doing. Always learning, a new seminar, a new tape, a new program, a new ministry, but never being led to where truth always leads.

Truth will always lead to a life that is surrendered to the purposes of God, the plan of God, which is always about people. It all leads back to where it began. That's where we started today. 120 people went into an upper room and met with God.

The 120 and the Church's Inheritance

120. Doesn't take an army. Doesn't take a city. Doesn't take a conference center to be filled from top to bottom. It was just 120 ordinary people went into an upper room. 120 people who desired to be a witness for God.

120 people who knew that they couldn't do what they're called to do without the power of God being on them. 120 people who had failed in their first attempt to be loyal to Jesus Christ, followers of the message that they had received and knew was the truth.

120 people, one who had denied Christ and cursed himself with an oath, saying, I don't know the man. Another had leaned on his breast at the last supper, but ran from the garden when Jesus needed it most.

120 people who knew that without God, they would never be what God had called them to be in the earth. But 120 people who knew they had a promise of God, that the power of God would come upon them and God himself would make them witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Where will the church end up? I believe she will end up right where she began. In the prayer room, 120 people who simply know that without God, nothing's going to happen. Without God, New York won't be saved.

Without God, no matter what we do, nothing of eternal value will ever be produced. 120 people who know once again that with God, all things are possible. 120 people who understand we have an inheritance.

Our inheritance is our salvation. With our salvation comes an incredible power of God into our physical temples, that we might become a demonstration in this hour of darkness as to who God is. 120 people who will have light in their lamps in this last hour.

120 people who can point the way to Christ and say to a generation living in darkness, here he is. It is the one we have been waiting for. This is your savior. This is your redeemer. This is the one that you've always longed for.

This is the one who fills every longing and empty heart, opens every prison door, heals every wound, gives sight to the blind. This is the one who calls us out of obscurity and gives us a divine purpose, which is to glorify his name on the earth and to see the passion of his heart, which is the saving of the lost, brought once again to fruition, that we don't stand before him as a foolish people with empty baskets when this is all over.

120 people coming now into public view, unashamed. For too long in the church of Jesus Christ, we have wanted this fallen society to appreciate us. We've wanted to be praised. We wanted to be considered relevant.

We've wanted to be the best argument at the table. We've wanted to drown all opposition by having superior intellectual facts. As good as all that is, their church began with 120 people who had nothing of that.

They stepped into public view, speaking with an authority that only God could give them. Taken out of the confines of the restrictions of their upbringing, the restrictions of their home lineages, the restrictions of their parenthoods, the restrictions of every word that's ever been spoken and brought into a whole new place.

120 people that stepped into the marketplace and were willing to meet the markers and being called drunk. 120 people who cared more for the praise of God than the praise of man. And they came into view.

And when they came into view, there were thousands making their way to what the worship of their time. I won't call it the church. It wasn't the church then for them, but thousands of people making their pilgrimage, going in and going into a temple and having a service and learning things about God.

Facts about God, which were true folks. You understand they were true facts. They would be talking about the deliverance from Egypt. They would be talking about the feast of booths and tabernacles and they would be doing all kinds of religious things.

And actually the facts in this case were probably mostly true. They were just learning things about God, but suddenly on the way home, they met 120 people who had met with God. There's a huge difference between the two.

And we have in our nation been learning about God for years. We've been people meet in places talk about the character of God, the father heart of God, this about God, that about God we're learning. And it is true.

We've done everything, but meet with God. When you meet with God, you are transformed by the power of God. That is our inheritance. And so you have this initial meeting. You got to picture this with me.

120 people come out of a place of prayer. They don't have diplomas on the wall. They don't have a history of faithfulness. Even they don't, they don't have anything. As a matter of fact, later on the book of acts, it says the Pharisees perceiving they were ignorant and unlearned man were astounded at the power and wisdom with which they spoke.

And the only thing they could say about them is they have been with Jesus. They knew they hadn't learned in their best colleges, their best universities. They knew they, they didn't have doctorate degrees.

They weren't there as an argument, but there was an irrefutable argument inside of the manifesting itself through their lives, which was the power of God's Holy spirit. And suddenly 3000, minimally 3000 people who have met with God or met about God rather now encounter 120 have met with God.

And when they saw them, they said, my goodness, our study of him has not produced this. What must we do? What must we do? What must we do to have this kind of a life with God? Oh, I pray with all my heart that in America, that cry would start coming into people in places.

That's just so dry that the mice have to carry canteens in the church. I pray with all my heart that people would finally just say, what must we do to have what we're reading about, which is still our inheritance.

What must we do? And then people, not people, Peter responds and says, repent and everyone who'd be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. In other words, put off your old way of living, put off all your attempts to be Holy in your own strength, put off the facade of being a Christian and put on Christ.

And you will receive the gift of the Holy spirit for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off. And as many as the Lord, our God would call. And the scripture says that day, 3000 souls were added to them.

3000, 3000 religious people, 3000 who were doing the best they could to be Godly in their own strength, 3000. Maybe we're just tired of learning about God and his former power. 3000. I was just said, there's a people who have this power.

Now, what do we have to do to get this power to confront our day in the days just ahead of us, we must return to our full purpose and find the power of God. Again, that requires two things, purpose, willingness, and humility, because you're going to be laughed at.

That's why Jesus said, woe to the man. The world speaks well of for soda, their fathers are the false prophets. If they've called the master of the house, Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household?

There's no escaping it. This world's not going to love you because you finally step into, into the public with the power of God in your life. They may not love you, but they can get saved through you.