God Has Chosen You — Carter Conlon

Wow, wow, thank God, what an awesome song. And to think that that was written here on this campus. And for those that are not aware of that, we have an incredible music program here at Summit International School of Ministry.

If you're interested in that, you have giftings and you're interested in songwriting, this would be a good place for you to be and to give the next season of your life to being trained and taught about these things.

I'm going to speak today, tonight, and then after this message this evening, then we're gonna go to communion. So if you have an opportunity to get some bread and some juice at your home or crackers, whatever you have, and then we're gonna partake at the communion table together.

God Has Chosen the Struggling and the Broken

I'm going to speak prophetically to you tonight. Now let me define that. When I say I speak prophetically, it's something I've come to know over the years when I feel that God is speaking to my heart about something he's about to do, usually concerning his people and concerning his kingdom.

And tonight, I want to share with you a message simply called God has chosen you. God has chosen you. Now let me tell you who I'm speaking to, not just specific people, but people who fall into the same category as those that are listed in these prayer requests.

From Utah, pray for me. I want to be saved so badly, but I can't get saved no matter how I pray and pray. Please pray for my salvation. From India, pray that God puts love in my husband's heart for me so he doesn't divorce me and tell me to leave for another woman.

Pray for healing and wholeness in our marriage. From Mexico City, Mexico, pray for Jesus to teach me how to start weekly fasting and corporate prayer, to hear from Jesus and to be available in my church.

From New York, pray for my niece Rebecca who struggles with alcohol, depression, and anxiety. She feels that God has forgotten her and doesn't hear her prayers. From Sweden, please pray. I should be happy.

I've surrendered to God after an unholy relationship, but I'm still so hurt. I'm forgiven, but I'm not free. From New Jersey, pray for me. I'm caught in homosexuality. I want God to free me, but every time I ask for forgiveness, I keep doing it.

I feel as if I can't be saved. From Sweden, pray for me. I'm going through an extremely difficult time. In all areas, there's only war, severe pressure, and I am almost alone in it. From Toronto, Canada, please pray that God would forgive my sin and set me free from a spirit of fear, that every chain be broken, and that I will feel the presence of God.

From Trinidad and Tobago, pray against witchcraft and slander and wickedness on my job. Unethical supervisors that request illegal acts. I am standing like Daniel in Babylon. From California, I need prayer so that I won't give up in life.

I'm struggling financially and emotionally with anxiety and depression. From Alaska, I'm bitter from an ugly divorce and I'm angry every day. I don't know how to forgive, and I'm in my 60s, and I would like a church that prays together.

From Turks and Caicos, pray that God would grant a miracle in my nerves and sinews. I've suffered for 40 years, and I desperately need to be healed. From the U .S., pray for me. I'm so very much alone, and it hurts.

From New York, pray for Anthony. He needs a heart transplant. Pray for Joseph, he's suicidal, and pray for my walk with God, that the call on my life is lived out. From Kenya, pray for my family's reconciliation.

My husband abandoned the family, and my children are in so much pain and hurt. New Jersey, I have no motivation to read the Bible. I pray, but I know it's not enough. I want more of Jesus, but I have no desire to read.

Pray for me, I hate myself. From the U .S., pray for me. I'm a failure inside, but outwardly, folks think I'm doing good. I feel like I've failed God and my family, and I don't know what to do. So, my message to you, and to everybody who finds themselves in any one of these categories, and maybe others outside of what I've read tonight, God, in this last day, has chosen you.

God has chosen you. You may not be able to find him, you may not even understand what your life is gonna look like in the future, but I want you to turn to the book of Acts, chapter 22, and I wanna show you what is about to happen in your life, and the lives of maybe a lot of people that you're associated with, because there is going to be a last day awakening before Jesus Christ comes for his church.

And just as he has in the beginning, he's going to do the same thing again, he's going to go out, and he's going to reach, listen, let me just read to you, 1 Corinthians, before we go there. Chapter one, beginning at verse 26.

Paul the apostle says, you see your calling, brethren. Not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen. You see, God has chosen. The foolish things of the world are put to shame the wise, and God has chosen.

The weak things of the world are put to shame things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.

So the point that Paul is making in 1 Corinthians, chapter one, verse 26 to 29, is that God has chosen. God has chosen to reveal himself to you, as he has chosen to reveal himself to others throughout history, he's going to raise you up in this last hour of time, and your life is going to become a testimony of his glory.

The Spirit Gives Life to Dry Bones

So Father, I thank you tonight, God. I thank you with all my heart, for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I thank you, Lord, that you do speak to our hearts about things that you have determined to do, and we see the pattern of it in your word.

We're not grasping in the dark. We see who you are, what is your heart, how you operate, and who it is that you choose to bring glory to your name in this and every other generation. Oh God, I pray tonight that the sound of my voice would go beyond just the speakers on cell phones and laptops and iPads, and whatever other device people are using this evening.

I pray, God, with all my heart, that these words would go beyond these electronic devices and into the mind and the hearts of the hearers, that you would cause there to be a raising up as you once did and you showed to the prophet Ezekiel when he spoke your words to bones that had died in a dry place, and because of your word, these bones came together and they stood upon their feet, and strength was given them, and the breath of God entered them, and they became an exceeding great army.

I'm asking you, Lord, God, to raise up an exceeding army for your glory in this last hour of time. God, an army that knows that without you, we have no strength, we have no life, we have no future, we can't go forward, but an army that also knows it is God, through his son Jesus Christ, and by the power of his Holy Spirit, who has raised me from the dead and made me sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

It is God who opened my prison door and gave sight to my blinded eyes. It is God who strengthened my weary body and gave clarity to my confused mind. It is God who raised me up out of the dust and gave me a new song that many shall see and fear and turn to him.

Father, thank you, God, for what you're about to do in this last hour. We give you the glory in advance, and we wanna just say thank you, Lord, for being who you are. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you, Lord, you come to us when we least deserve it.

And God, sometimes throughout history, we know better condition than the man on the side of the road or the leper who just called out to you in their condition and said, oh, God, have mercy on us. Not only did you have mercy, you gave them a future, you gave them a vision, and you wrote their story in everlasting testimony in your word.

God Almighty, we ask you again to write a story in this generation of your grace and glory, not that you need another one, but oh, God, put another chapter, Lord, in the history of your church and write another story of this great spiritual awakening that touched this planet called Earth.

God, how you reached down into India and China, you reached into Europe, you reached into the lowest of the low places throughout the world, my God, and you raised up an army, an army, oh, God, of people who knew they had nothing without you, but they also knew in you they had everything.

Oh, Jesus, we thank you for it, and we give you praise, and we give you glory tonight in your precious name, amen. Acts chapter 22, beginning at verse 12. Then a certain Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, came to me, this is the Apostle Paul now sharing his own testimony, and he stood and said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight, and at that same hour I looked upon him.

Then he said, the God of our fathers has chosen you. I want to read that again. The God of our fathers has chosen you, that you should know his will, and see the just one, and hear the voice of his mouth, for you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.

And why now are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord. The Apostle Paul, if we were in charge of the kingdom of God, and we were looking for somebody to be a witness, probably the last person we would select in the natural is the Apostle Paul, who before he was the Apostle Paul was a man called Saul.

Saul’s Encounter with the Living Christ

He was an enraged man, a man standing against the word and the ways of God, a man so enraged at a certain people group that claimed to know God in a different way than he did, or claimed that life had a different purpose than what he had found, that he began to resist it vehemently with all his might and all his passion.

As a matter of fact, he was willing to hurt people so that they would turn from their testimony of having had a living relationship with God and begin to agree with his viewpoint on religion and on life.

And on his journey, when he was heading to a certain place to bring more people into captivity, suddenly a light from heaven shone round about him. Suddenly, the presence of God encountered him. This is my prayer, this is what I'm believing that God is going to do in this last generation.

It's not gonna be by any might of our own or power, it's not gonna be by pedigree, it's not gonna be by anything we have done, but suddenly the presence of God is about to come once one more time to a people who least expect it, a people chosen by God, a people who because of his mercy are going to understand that they stand by mercy.

Remember the Apostle Paul said he considered himself the chiefest of all sinners, the greatest of all sinners, and it gave him a gratitude towards the mercy of God that caused him to believe that all things work together for good because he loved him and was called according to his purpose.

And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? So I answered and said, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I'm Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecuted. You have been resisting me, Saul.

Now there's a lot of people gonna be listening to my voice tonight and in the future, and you have been resisting God. You know, some of the resistance is just a deep sense of unworthiness. It's not so much that you hate God, it's not so much that you hate God's people the way Saul did, you hate yourself.

As somebody in one of the prayer quests said, I hate who I am. And you just don't believe that God would ever use you. You don't see yourself as usable in the kingdom of God. When you look in the mirror, you see a drug addict, you see somebody who's depressed and hopeless, you see failure.

When you think about words, it's the words that were spoken over your life since you were a child just keep coming back to you, wanting to swallow you, and you've actually embraced a viewpoint of yourself that God doesn't share.

It's an incredible dilemma. May I say it simply, you believe that you are something that God does not agree with you that you are because he sees you as the person that you will be when you have a living encounter with him and you let him, by the power of his Holy Spirit and through the strength of his word and his redemption, begin to change your life.

It requires the will to stop resisting God. Isn't that amazing? We are the only thing in creation that have the capability of resisting God. The geese don't resist him, they fly south in the winter. The birds don't resist him, they sing their songs in the morning.

The clouds don't resist him, they go wherever they're directed to go. Even darkness couldn't resist him and when he spoke, light had to come. The only thing ever created by the hand of God and the heart of God that has the power to resist him is you.

I want you to think about that. But when you stop resisting God, when you allow the presence of God, when you just call out to him and say, Lord, I live in darkness and I don't know where I'm going and I don't understand the purpose in my life and I'm blinded to my future.

I don't even see myself the way this preacher tonight is telling me that you see me. But when you begin to call out to God, then suddenly darkness gives way to light and confusion gives way to order and weakness gives way to strength and purposelessness gives way to a divine purpose that God has established for your life.

Yes, God has chosen you. God chose you. God is about to reveal himself to you in a way that you've never known him before. In Acts, again, chapter 22 and verse 13, there was a man, a man who was in prayer and in his time of prayer, the Lord spoke to him to go and lay hands on this man who was a lunatic, really.

A man who had done great violence to the church of Jesus Christ. A man who was known for his cruelty. Could you imagine being in a prayer meeting like that? You go in to pray and the Lord says, I want you to go to this violent man and I want you to lay your hands on him because I have chosen him for a divine purpose.

Talk about a commission from God. Talk about a stepping out of a prayer meeting in faith. And I believe that God's calling us as the church of Jesus Christ in this last hour to actually do what Ananias did, to step out of our places of prayer or seeking God and believe that one more time, he's going to choose the nothings, the nobodies, the vile, the violent, the people that nobody else wants.

As a matter of fact, it says in Corinthians, those that are despised by the world. God says, I want you to go and pray for them because I have chosen them to glorify my name in this last hour of time.

I'm going to raise them out of death. I'm going to raise them out of darkness. I'm going to open their prison doors. I'm going to give sight to their blinded eyes and they're going to become my end time army of witnesses of who I am and what I am able to do.

Ananias and the Call to Lay Hands on Saul

Listen to the words of Ananias when he came to Saul, who was to become the apostle Paul, a radically transformed man from one way of living, one way of going to a completely opposite course, to be willing to take away others' freedom and others' health and others' safety to the place where he was willing to give up his own freedom, his own health, and his own safety for the sake of others.

Only God can do that. It was a completely different turn in this man's life. Ananias said to Saul, the God of our fathers has chosen you. In other words, first of all, he comes in and he says, I'm putting my hands on you so that you might receive your sight.

And actually, when you go back in Acts chapter nine, let me just read the original story about it. In Acts chapter nine, verses 17 and 18, it says, then Ananias went his way, entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Two things, he sent me that you might see the purpose, the divine purpose for your life, you might see your way forward, why you were created, who you're called to be, and be filled with the Spirit of God.

Immediately, it says, there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. So there are people listening to me tonight, may I say it kindly, the scales have to fall off of your eyes.

You don't see what God sees. You don't understand yet what God can do. At some point in Saul's life, there had to be a yielding. He had to, he was formerly captivating people and imprisoning them and torturing them.

He was so enraged against them, now he had to yield his life to this man Ananias coming in who just said, let me put my hands on you. When I do, you're going to see something you've never seen before, and in a way, you've never seen it.

And you're going to be filled with the Spirit of God. This is what the end time spiritual awakening is going to look like. People that you least expect are suddenly going to see things that the religious don't see.

They're going to see God's plan, they're going to see his power, they're going to see his purpose. They're going to see the reason why God has chosen them. And then he said in verse 14, the God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will.

This is the first thing, that you should know his will. You've lived all your life according to your own will and you've done the things that you've done that have brought you to where you are. So it's time for your will, that means your desires, to live your life your own way, it's time for this to come to an end.

It's time for these things to die that you may live. It's time for you to find the will of God for your life. And he said, God has chosen you, Saul, that you should know his will. You don't have to guess at his will.

When the spirit of God comes upon you, you will know his will. It will be engraved deeply within your heart, your character, you will hear, the Bible promises you will hear an inner voice that says this is the way, walk in it.

You will know what his will is for your life. And to see the just one, to understand, in a sense, the incredible love of God for you. That love of God that caused him to send his son into the world to go to a cross to pay the penalty and the price for your sin that you can be brought back into relationship with God.

That you might see this incredible victory, that you might understand the depth of the destruction that came to Satan and his kingdom when Jesus Christ died on that cross and was raised again back to life on the third day.

That you might fully understand the giftings that God has for you. Incredible, these are gifts. You don't have it right now. So don't try to figure it out because you don't have it. You don't have a gift until you get it.

Do you understand? It's a gift. It's not in you at the moment if you don't know Christ this way. But the moment you open your heart to him, there are, the Bible says when he went to the cross and was raised from the dead, he took your captivity captive and gave gifts unto you.

But until you're in relationship with him, you're not gonna know what these gifts are. So don't try to figure it out. There are abilities of God that will come into your life to do things that you can't do right now.

You'll be able to speak in place, speaking words that you don't have the power to speak. There'll be thoughts in your mind that you can't think without the presence of God. There'll be courage that you don't naturally have.

There'll be humility that maybe is not yours. There'll be giftings given to you that you need to do the work that God has called you to do. And it will all become yours through Jesus Christ, the son of God, when you yield your life to him.

Hearing God’s Voice and Becoming His Witness

And to hear the voice of his mouth, hallelujah. To hear the, there's so many voices today, aren't there? Voices in politics and voices on the radio and religious voices, just yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak.

All day. Just the world is just filled with verbiage, just foolish words. But there's one voice that has the power to raise the dead. There's one voice that has the power to give life. There's one voice that says, that has the power to say, you leave your children to me, I'll bring them home.

You just ask me and I'll do what you can't do. There's one voice, one voice, above every other voice in the universe that has the power to give life. It has the power to set free. It has the power to create things that aren't even in existence.

One voice. God has chosen you. And Ananias said to Saul that you should know his will and see the just one and hear the voice of his mouth. There's nothing better than hearing the voice of God. He speaks through his word.

He speaks through strong leanings, I guess, leanings in the heart of things that he would have you and I to do. And he says in verse 15, for you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.

You will be his witness. You, not just a story, a living witness. Your life will be so touched by God that your life itself will become a witness of who God is. And the fact that he does forgive, he brings people back into right relationship with him.

And as the Bible says, if the spirit of God be in you, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead will quicken or give life to your physical body. You'll find shackles will be broken. Chains will come off your hands.

Your old way of thinking will change. The promise in the Old Testament is you'll be given a new heart, a new mind, and a new spirit. Oh, thank God. And you won't be able to contain telling other people this simple story that what God has done for you, he can do for them.

And then, the interesting thing in verse 16 is, Ananias says to Saul, and now why are you waiting? So that's my question to you tonight. Look it up, Acts 22, 16. Why are you waiting? What is your hesitation?

I'm telling you that God has chosen you. I'm telling you that God wants to raise you up. I'm telling you that God wants to use your life for his glory. I'm telling you that there's a supernatural life that you can live in God.

There are giftings of God that he'll give you that only God can give you. You can't procure it by any amount of your own strength or your own reasoning. So why are you waiting? What is your hesitation?

Then he said to Saul, arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. It's really that simple. Arise, stand up. Stand up in your heart. Stand up in your mind. Whichever way you can arise, just arise and say, God, if this is true, that's what I did in 1978.

A Personal Testimony of New Birth

May 12th, I pulled over my car on the side of the road after being witnessed to about these things by another believer in Christ. I pulled over my car on the side of the road and this was my prayer. Lord Jesus, if this is true, if the man who was witnessing to me, his name was Irv, and my exact prayer was, Lord Jesus, if what Irv is telling me is the truth, I rose up in that sense.

Even though I was seated in my car, I said, if it's the truth, I open my heart to you and I invite you to come in to be my Lord and my Savior. If you would have seen my life back then, I was a mess. I had a really, really selfish nature, a really bad temper.

I was drinking a lot. It was just a lot of stuff really going on in my life that wasn't good and it was getting progressively worse. That's what happens. When sin has dominion over your life, you try to get better, but you can't.

But that very day, that very day, something happened in my heart and I became a new person. It wasn't by any measure of me trying to do better. Something changed in my very nature. Can I tell you that?

My nature changed. Something came inside of me that wasn't there before and I know it today to be the Spirit of God. He received me. When in my heart, I basically said, Jesus, if you died for my sin, if it is true that I can be forgiven, if it is true that your Holy Spirit will come and take up residence inside my life, and if it's true that I'll be a new creation, the old things in my life, as I was told, will pass away and everything in my life will become new.

If it's true, why would I wait? Why would I close my heart? Why would I put it off till tomorrow? And so I opened my heart that day. And as I've told hundreds of times, I worked my regular shift as a police officer.

I didn't really feel a thing. I didn't feel any different. I went home, went to bed, woke up the next morning and I remember it like it was an hour ago. I rolled over on the right side of the bed, put my feet on the floor, and I knew that I was a different man.

I don't know how I knew. I just knew something had changed. Something in the inner core of my being had been transformed. I'd had a living encounter with the living God. And throughout my life since then, in the 40 plus years that I've walked with him, I've known his will.

I've seen his victory. I've been able to touch and taste of the victory of God. And I've heard the voice of his mouth. And that's what I'm doing for you tonight. I'm speaking to you on God's behalf because I see something that God is about to do in your life.

He's about to raise up a church in this last hour. People just like me, confused and angry and whatever your addiction might be, whatever your distress is in life, wherever it is that you're going, he's simply willing to meet you if you're willing to meet him.

Brother Saul, why are you waiting? Arise, be baptized, wash away your sins, and call upon the name of the Lord. Why are you waiting? For those that are at home and you're listening to me this evening, don't wait any longer.

Receiving Christ and the Holy Spirit

If you know in your heart that you need a savior, just pray this simple prayer. Lord Jesus, I give you my life. I thank you for dying for me. I thank you for taking my place and you suffer the punishment that I deserve for the things that I have done.

I thank you for receiving me and forgiving me. I thank you for the promise that you will actually come in the form of your Holy Spirit and you will take up residence inside this body of mine. And I will be changed from the inside out.

The Bible says as I behold the victory of Christ, I'll be continuously changed by this indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and I will become a witness to others of what you have done for me. You see, that's the whole story of my life is just telling you tonight, God will do for you what he did for me.

He didn't love me any more than he loves you. And I had my struggles just like you have yours. I had my problems. I had things that were spoken over my life that had me in captivity. I had a lot of fear in my heart as well, just like you do.

But I heard and I rose up and I said, God, if this is true, I'm gonna go with you. I'm gonna ask you to do something tonight to pray with me in just a moment. But I'm gonna ask you to do something else.

Everyone who's listening all around the world, I want you to open your home, wherever your home is, even if it's on a park bench, shift over to one side and make the other side available and start inviting everybody you know that needs Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Invite the struggling, invite the addicted, invite the depressed, invite those who don't have a good self image. Just invite them all to come in, become part of this prayer meeting. And when we're done praying on Tuesday night, I want you to just simply lead a prayer meeting and call out to the Holy Spirit.

Lay hands on one another and pray that you be filled with the Spirit of God. I'm serious about what I'm saying. In the simplicity of faith, simply start crawling out to God. This is where spiritual awakening starts.

It's just ordinary people coming together and saying, God, we need you. And you really know you need him. And you begin to pray and say, God, give me your Holy Spirit. Give me, God, everything that I'm told is mine because of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

And have the courage. You don't have to have a theological degree to lay hands on people. Put your hands on somebody's shoulders and just pray, God, fill my brother with your Holy Spirit. Fill this room with your Holy Spirit.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Raise us up and let our voices and our lives become a testimony of the reality of who you are. I am so serious about this tonight. This is going to be the end time army of God.

God’s Mercy Chooses the Unworthy

Well, have courage, my brother, my sister. You don't have to have it all together to do this. And you don't need a degree. You need faith in God. Why wait, Saul? Why wait, Saul? Ananias could have said, Saul, I know how deep your sin has been.

I know how much harm you've done to other people. But you see, God has chosen you. God has chosen you. Might have been so hard for him to believe at that moment. This God that I have fought against and I've hurt other people has chosen me.

God has chosen you. Oh, the love and oh, the mercy of God. The goodness of God, the otherness of God. God has chosen you. And you have the right to bring whoever you want to in your house, people you know from the streets.

And you say, I want to tell you something. God has chosen you. And you don't have to apologize for that. And you can open the scriptures and show it to them. God has chosen you. And God's going to use your life for his glory.

I'm going to ask you to pray this simple prayer with me. And everyone here in the sanctuary at our Bible school is going to pray along with me. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for wanting me when I don't even want myself.

I'm amazed at your mercy and your love. And so I get up and I open my heart. I open it wide and I invite you to come into my life and be my Lord and my Savior and my God. I want to live for you. I want to love you.

I want to see you. I want to hear your voice. And I want to be a witness of the greatness of your love and your power. Tonight, I receive you. And from this day forward, if you want me, I'm yours. And you are my God.

I love you, Jesus. And starting this week, I want you to invite everybody you know to come to this prayer meeting next week. And the week after and the week after. And if you prayed that tonight, I want you to text the word decided to the number 5700057000.

Text the word decided. You can become a home connect group. Times Square Church has a lot of really good biblical teaching to help you get started in your walk with God. Text the word decided. The videos will start coming to you.

You can listen if you want. You can turn them off if you don't want to. But it will help you get started. And we would love to have you bring all your friends and all your family and become a connect group with Times Square Church.

We're gonna have communion together in just a moment. God bless you. You are so loved of God. You are just so loved of God. We'll be back in just a minute.