Hear His Voice and Live — Carter Conlon

Father, I just want to thank you for this evening. Your presence is here so powerfully, and it speaks to me of the desire in your heart to answer our prayers, Lord. We don't come to you with a mountain of faith.

We come to you with what we have. We believe tonight that you are willing to take it and multiply it and feed thousands with it, God. We thank you, Lord, for the people all over the world that come in to be part of this prayer meeting.

What a great privilege it is, Lord, to be praying with brothers and sisters all around the world, God, who are even translating in their own homes for their friends as we pray. God, thank you for just letting us once in a while just go out and just see what really is happening.

Thank you, Lord, for the great fruit that's being born. Thank you for those who come out to pray in the middle of their busy week, God, because there's a calling that's higher than just entertaining ourselves and living for the benefit of ourselves.

Father, thank you, Lord. This is the hour, God, where your church is now needed. We praise you and bless you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. God bless you online, those that are with us this evening.

Spiritual Hunger and Revival in Ukraine

Pastor Teresa and I just returned, as she said earlier, from the Ukraine. We're still a little bit underwater. It was a long and a very grueling trip, but I don't know if I've ever seen more spiritual hunger anywhere in the world at any time.

In Odessa, a city that was targeted just actually a few days ago, again, by missiles, we had a special service just for the refugees. Not for the Christian church, but for people who are not believers in Christ, particularly for the older, the very young, and the widows and their children.

The church held, it looked to be about 1 ,000 to maybe 1 ,200, 1 ,300 people. It was packed out. We were able to speak to them and tell them, we're not here to take advantage of you in your sorrow. We're here to tell you, to comfort you, and we're here to tell you where strength can still be found in this world.

There was hundreds of people who gave their lives to Christ publicly. It was just absolutely amazing to see that. We thank God for it. Then after the service was over, the 1 ,000 or 1 ,100 people filtered out, and then there were gates.

There was a courtyard that was closed just for the sake of the people there. There was at least another 1 ,000 waiting to get in for another service. It was just absolutely amazing. We saw the church packed out again, and such gratitude, such thankfulness to those who would comfort them, including us tonight in this prayer meeting.

Many are receiving comfort from our prayers, and we just thank God for that. We saw that all over the country where we were. As Pastor Teresa said, a gathering of about 1 ,000 teenagers, and to see hundreds of them crying out to God like I've rarely seen.

I have seen it, but rarely seen it. Filled with the Holy Spirit, just absolutely called of God, touched of God. It was absolutely amazing, and to see the same thing with the pastors, the hundreds of pastors that came out, and to see God touch them in the same way.

It's a crisis moment for the country, and I'm so thankful for the Christian people there. They really are rising to the occasion. It's admirable. These pastors have stayed, and the Christian people have stayed, and they're giving.

Of the little they have, they're giving most of what they do have, including their homes, their food, their clothing, their time, their comfort. It is truly amazing and challenging to see what the believers in Christ in this part of the world are doing.

The Church Must Rise to Meet the Crisis

It's time for you and I to rise up to the challenge that we're facing. We might not be facing the similar situation that they are, but there's no guarantee that that won't be our portion tomorrow. They have

There's a man, there's one man who's just insanely trying to take over the whole area, and doesn't seem to mind to do harm to people. We have a devil that's over this world that is of the same spirit, may I put it that way, that is trying to take over society, is trying to redefine everything, trying to eradicate everything godly out of society, and trying to destroy families, children, lives, people, churches, everything.

It's time now. It's time for the church to rise. It's time for I'm speaking to somebody online tonight. It's your time now. It's your time to rise. It's your time to give God glory. It's your time to let God glorify his name through your life.

This is your time. At the end of this service tonight, we're going to be anointing some people with oil in this sanctuary. We're going to respond to the message that they're about to hear, because there is a moment in everybody's life.

There's a moment where we get up, and we go forward to the call of God. We don't go forward with any great We don't have pedigrees. We don't have degrees. We don't have even a history of faithfulness, but we hear the voice of God calling us.

That's all that matters. It's his voice that matters. We move towards the sound of the voice of God. When we do, the touch of God comes on our lives, and we are changed from the inside out. We are transformed by the power of God.

We become born again by We might already be born again, but we become We move into that calling that God has for each one of our lives. Without any hesitation, I'd say to you tonight, that calling is to bring glory to his name by giving you and I the ability to do things that we can't do in our own strength, giving us a heart that we don't have for other people, giving us strength that is not our own, giving us a direction and a plan that we never thought we would ever be walking on.

That's who God is. That's what God does. But there is a moment where we respond. There's a moment, and every one of us can point to that moment where we just in our heart say, God, I'm in. I'm in. David, before he was ever king, Samuel came to his house and said, God has appointed someone to do something that only can be done by the Spirit of God.

All that David had to do was yield himself to that horn of oil that Samuel brought into Jesse's house and let him pour that anointing on his head. The rest is up to God. Of course, we know the story of David, the mighty battles that were won, the forgiveness that was his when he made mistakes, the strength of God that kept him on the right path even when his path took a little bit of a deviation to the left or to the right.

God was faithful to him, and we remember him as a conqueror today. We remember him as the king of Israel, the sweet psalmist of God. And so I want to challenge you tonight, don't resist the call of God.

Revival as a Wholehearted Yes to God

The hour is very late, and the need is very great, and we are in need of a strength that is not our own. The time to put away strategies and plans of man has now arrived. Thank God. Thank God. This is what revival is all about.

Revival is about people saying yes, Lord. It's no deeper than that, and don't try to make it deeper than that. It's just people like you and I that say, God, I'm in. I don't know what you want to do with my life, but I know you are God.

I know you created the heavens and the earth by the words of your mouth, and God, I am yielding my life to your purpose, wherever it takes me, whatever it makes me into, whatever you give me to say, that is what my life is going to be all about.

And I'm believing that I'm going to put a significant debt into the ranks of hell during the time that I live. I'm believing that with all my heart. I don't come to a prayer meeting to waste my time or God's time.

When I begin to pray, I should be growing in grace. There should be a deepening of faith in my heart. I should be moving more and more towards the call of God on my life, and I should have this increasing desire in my heart that says, God, glorify your name.

When Jesus Christ went into the waters of baptism, he had one request, Father, glorify your name, and the scripture says a voice came from heaven, and God the Father said, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.

And I believe that's the word to this generation now. I have sent revival to America in the past. I have raised people up out of the dust and ashes of nothing. I have given strength to the poor and those who knew they had no resource to do anything for the kingdom of God, and I will do it again, and my name will be glorified one more time.

One more time. One more time before he comes to take us all home by the grace of Almighty God. That's what this message is about tonight, and that's what the call of God is for somebody. Somebody is going to say yes this evening.

The Voice of the Lord in Psalm 29

Psalm 29, a psalm of King David that I started speaking about or talking about just in the earlier parts of this sharing tonight. Psalm 29, give to the Lord, O you mighty ones. Verse one, give to the Lord glory and strength.

Give to the Lord the glory due to his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Now David's not talking about something that we have to necessarily bring to God. We bring to him a heart that says God, I want to glorify you.

I want my life to make a difference. See this is what we're called to give to God. He does the rest to us. He brings glory to his own name. In other words, give him the opportunity to show his glory one more time.

May I put it that way if I can paraphrase verse one. David goes on to say in verse three, the voice of the Lord is over the waters. That means every trial, every other voice, every voice that's trying to tell you you can't, you won't, you never will be.

The voice of the Lord is above these voices. God has the final say. God has the final word. It's his voice that matters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. That means royalty. That means of capability, of the ability to do things that only can be done by God himself. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars and the cedars represent those entrenched, long standing places in our lives.

The voice of the Lord breaks addiction. The voice of the Lord breaks depression. The voice of the Lord brings us out of weakness and into strength. The voice of the Lord opens prison doors and sets the prisoner free.

The voice of the Lord heals us of wounds that might be so deep that only God himself can heal them. The voice of the Lord gives sight when we can't see a way forward. The voice of the Lord gives strength to believe that all things are possible through Jesus Christ.

Yea, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon, all of these obstacles that are in the way. He makes them skip like a calf, Lebanon and Syria, like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire.

That means trials, impossible places that we have to go through, things that we think we'll never be able to get through in our own strength. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness, hallelujah to the Lamb of God.

Those dry places, those seasons and times when we wonder what life is even all about and when we just don't seem to see the reason for where we are, then God's voice comes and just shakes the power of that place to bring us into despair.

The voice of the Lord, verse 9, makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare and in His temple, everyone says glory, hallelujah. You know when you don't know what to say, just say glory, glory, glory, glory to God.

Glory! Everyone in His temple says glory, glory, glory. In other words, only God could have done this in my life. Only God could have made me into what I am. Only God could be giving me the song I'm singing.

Only God could be taking me where I'm going. Glory to the name of Jesus. All glory, all honor, all power, all praise and dominion belongs to Him. The Lord sits enthroned at the flood. The Lord sits as King forever and we're seeing today the enemy coming in like a flood.

The Bible says when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God will raise up a standard against it. There's a point where God says enough, enough of the confusion, enough of the immorality, enough of the evil prospering in this generation, enough of the taking away the dignity of institutions like marriage, enough of confusing our children in their schools, enough.

There's a point where God says enough. The Lord will give strength to His people and the Lord will bless His people with peace. This is who God is. This is what God does. I have lived it. So I'm not bringing to you a theory.

I've walked this. I know what it's like to be in the wilderness. I know what it's like to have the cedars before you. I know what it's like to be wondering what the future's going to hold. I know what it's like to live in despair.

Lazarus and the Power of Christ's Voice

I know what it's like to be wounded and hard. It's not a theory with me. I have lived this and it is an incredible way to live in Christ. In John chapter 11, I'm going to finish with this. It was an impossible situation.

The man was dead. They don't get any more impossible than dead, right? I mean, when you're dead, it's an impossible place. I mean, not only are you dead, everyone around you is dead. Like, you're not going anywhere in this place.

And there are other voices in John chapter 11, just like we read about in Psalm 29. Remember, the Lord's voice is above the other voices. And the other voices are saying, so sad, too bad, wish God had been here.

It's all over. It's not going to happen. Four days in the grave. Stinks by now. And all these other things. If Lazarus could hear them, that would be an awful thing to be hearing about yourself. So there are other voices, but the voice of the Lord is stronger than this.

Lazarus is in an entrenched place. Not only is he dead, everyone around him is dead. Nobody is going anywhere in the cemetery. I'll tell you that right now. You go visit the local cemetery, and you go 10 years from now, go visit again, and everybody is still in the same spot.

Nobody has moved. Their names are still written on a piece of stone, and they're still there. And so this is an entrenched place. This is the cedars that David talks about in Psalm 29. This is the impossible forest that nothing can be moved.

It's an impossible place that Lazarus is in. There is nothing humanly possible that can be done for him in this place. He is there. He is without life. And there are many obstacles, including a stone that probably weighed about 10 tons blocking his way out.

And I don't know how somebody is feeling online tonight. Maybe that's you. Maybe your voices all around you are telling you there's no hope for you. Maybe voices that are family members or former friends, and maybe it's just voices inside your own head that's telling you it's all over.

You're in an entrenched place. Not only are you dead, all your friends are dead. It's an impossible place. There's no life there. And there are so many obstacles, so many reasons that you've been told why you will never live again, that you'll never have a future, you'll never have a hope.

And people are even so bold to suggest that maybe you stink in one way or another, that you're never going to amount to anything. But suddenly, Jesus appears on the scene, and he says to one of the persons that is saying, he's been dead for four days, and he stinks by now.

And he said, did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? What does everybody say in this temple? Glory. You would see God do what only God can do. Did I not tell you if you would believe, you would see the glory?

Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory? If Jesus Christ himself were standing in this pulpit tonight, he would be saying the same thing. Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory?

You would see God do what only God can do. There would be something of God come into your life that would become a testimony to everyone around you of the reality that he lives. He lives. He moves. He's willing to take us in our weakness and become our strength.

Then they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you've heard me. And I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by us said this, that they may believe that you have sent me.

And when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And I believe this is what God's doing in this generation. He's calling people by name now, by name. And he's saying, I don't know what your name is tonight, Jack.

I don't know what your name is. He's calling your name and saying, come forth. Come out of the place where you are. Come out of the place where people have put you. Come out of the place of death. Come out of the place of listening to other voices.

Come out of this place of impossibility. I have something I need to do through you. I'm going to raise you from this place of death. I'm going to give you life. And you are going to become a wonder to many.

And you're going to shout glory in the temple of God. Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Now it's interesting, and I've said it probably 100 times over the course of my preaching, that only a dead man could hear his voice.

Nobody else is listening. Nobody else believes that anything could be done. But suddenly the dead man hears him. Isn't that amazing? You know, if you're dead tonight, you're actually ahead of those that are still alive, standing in the graveyard.

You know, when you're in a place where you know only God could do this. And you're suddenly hearing his voice. Now he can't add much to the picture. You understand? He's all wrapped up. When they buried somebody back then, they kind of wound them up with these cloths and stuck all kinds of spices on them.

So he's not in a position to really add much to this equation. I think just his feet are out. He probably had to come out something like this. But he did. That was his part. Then the next thing Jesus says is, loose him and let him go.

And let him go. It's not just loose him. Let him go. In other words, he's going somewhere. So get the bandages off. Get the grave clothes off of this guy and let him go. Hallelujah. Let him go. Let him go.

The next time we see Lazarus, he's sitting at the table with Jesus. And the scripture says people are coming to that table, not because of Jesus, but because of Lazarus. It's amazing. Jesus is there, but it's this man who was raised from the dead that is drawing them to the place where Jesus is.

That's your part. God will raise you up and draw others to where Jesus is because of what he has done in your life. Hallelujah. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Pastor Teresa quite often says, the gospel we preach is about dead men living.

A Testimony of Resurrection and Revival

Thank God. Thank God. And tonight, God is calling somebody by name because you're needed. There's a testimony that's needed of God's glory again. We've had enough theories about God. I'm done with the theories.

I don't know about you, but I'm done with the theories. We need to know that he really does live, that he does have power, that he can raise people out of the grave, that he does have a plan and a purpose for every life, that he can break the chains of addiction, that he can open the prison doors, that he can heal the bruised in heart, that he can give us sight and strength that is not our own, it's God's, that he can give us giftings of the Holy Spirit and abilities to do things that we can never do in our own strength.

But in order for this to happen in your life, you've got to get up and get out of the grave. That's your part. Get up and get out. Just get up and get out. I don't know, maybe you're laying on your bed and listening to this tonight online.

Get up and get out. Maybe you're in your car. Just symbolically get up and get out of your car. Do something. Move towards the voice of God. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah. It's too late for just religion.

It's too late for just games. There are people out there that need the testimony of God in your life. They need to hear you shouting glory in the house of God. They need to hear you giving praise to God for what he has done in your life.

It's time. It's time to hear his voice and live. Hallelujah. It's time. It's time. Folks, listen to me. America's in trouble. We're in huge trouble. I don't know if we have another 10 years. I don't know as a nation how much time we have.

We're in deep, deep trouble. We are offending a holy God now. We've moved into the fields of the fatherless. And he himself said, don't do that because if you do, I will rise up and contend for them. And one of the ways that God will contend by his grace before his judgment is that he will raise up a people that will display his glory once again.

There'll be no more argument about the reality of God. Who's gonna argue with Lazarus? Hallelujah. When Lazarus says, hey man, I was dead. Man, I was dead. Hallelujah. How do you argue theology with a man like that?

I was D-E-A-D, dead, in the grave. And here I am by the grace of almighty God. Who's gonna argue with that? Come on now. Come on now. That's what we need again in this generation. We need dead people to live.

We need weak people to stand in the strength of God. The foolish to be speaking with the wisdom that God only can give. That's revival, folks. That's what revival is. Revival is the people of God respond one more time.

And I'm so happy to see so many people here tonight. This is awesome. Do you realize you're in the middle of nowhere? Yeah. Yeah. Like, you have to be lost to find Grantville, but you found it somehow.

And here you are. Here you are, the church of tomorrow. The people of God in a prayer meeting that is gone worldwide. People are listening tonight in Ukraine, and God bless you and slava bohu for all of the people.

A little girl in church gave me a bracelet she made in one of the churches, so I wouldn't forget them. So I'm gonna keep it on. I could never forget. I think I'm gonna go again. I just could never forget.

You can't walk away from human need like that. Can't walk away from those kids. And I've got a story because I was dead, you see? And God raised me in his mercy. I was a man full of selfishness and hate and told I would never amount to anything.

Hearing God's Call and Responding in Faith

And one day I heard his voice. It's that simple. No resume, no history of faithfulness, nothing to give him, but I heard him. I heard him call me. And it was in my heart. It was deeper than an audible voice.

It was deeper. It was, because I remember standing in the back of the church, and when the altar call was given, and I remember thinking, oh God, you can't mean me. That was the first thing that came to my mind.

You gotta be kidding. You must be desperate in your kingdom to be calling me. Because I remember thinking, I have nothing. I have nothing to give. And now I shout glory. Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God.

Oh God. Lord, would you help the men and women that you're calling tonight? Would you help us to say yes? The men and women who are listening online tonight, the addicted, the depressed, the lady in Ottawa that wrote in says, I don't even want to pray.

I don't want to live. Would you help her tonight? Would you help us to say yes? The pastors that are listening tonight, would you help them to say yes and begin to preach from heaven? God, the children, the teenagers.

Lord, it's time for the church to rise now. It's time for you to do the work that only you can do. Father, glorify your name. This is our cry tonight. I'm gonna ask you to do something unusual online tonight, something we're gonna do here in the sanctuary.

The Anointing and the Call to Consecration

Do we have oil pastor problem? We do. For anybody that God has spoken to tonight. Now, he's not looking for the strong and he's not looking for the wise or the noble or the mighty. When you look in the Bible, he starts with the foolish and goes down to nothing.

I'm looking for the foolish. I'm looking for the weak. I'm looking for the despised. I'm looking for those that are nothing. That I may bring glory to my name again. So if you're in that category, you qualify.

That was me. To bring glory to his name one more time. And you can feel it in your heart if God is calling you. And we want to do tonight, pastor Pavel and I, and we're gonna ask maybe the elders of this church to come as well from the Summit Campus Church.

And we're just gonna touch your forehead with oil, symbolically like Samuel did on David. And he was just a boy. He had no strength to fight. He had no military background. He wasn't a king or a ruler, but God gave him all that he needed.

We'll just touch you by faith. And the rest is up to God. You don't have to shake and shimmy or shout or do anything. You could be still or you could run the aisles. You do whatever you want to do. However you want to respond, it doesn't matter.

Fact is you respond. God touches you. You say, Lord, I'm yours now. Loose me and let me go. Loose me and let me go. I remember the day that I prayed in my kitchen. I said, God, if you will deliver me from all that afflicts me, I will serve you the rest of my life.

And he did, and he loosed me and he let me go. And that's the cry of God tonight. I'm gonna ask people online to just go to your kitchen, get some cooking oil. Worst case scenario, get the dipstick out of your car and get some oil off it and just anoint yourself with oil, okay?

It doesn't have to be olive oil from Israel, okay? Just oil, just any kind of, whatever kind of oil you can get a hold of. And just take it and just put a touch of it on your forehead and say, God, I'm yours.

God, I hear you calling me and I'm yours tonight. That's the important thing. Let's stand together in the sanctuary and we're gonna be anointing people here before we go to communion tonight. And then Isaac is gonna sing a song.

You're gonna sing a nice song behind us and we're just gonna anoint here in the sanctuary. I want you to do the same thing at home. Just anoint yourself and say, God, I hear you calling me. I hear this word and your voice is rising above all the voices in my life that are trying to destroy me.

And so I'm yielding to you tonight. I'm asking you to set me free and let me go on the path that you have for my life. Give me the courage to always say yes and never say no. And I believe that you'll use my life for your glory.

So Father, thank you for this evening and thank you for the numbers of people online that will be anointing themselves tonight. But really it's not themselves, it's you touching them. God, if there's more than one listening in a room tonight, let them anoint each other with oil and begin to pray that prayer of faith over every life.

Because your church is needed now, Lord. Your church is needed. It is time for your people to rise. It's time for us to be the people of God again in this generation. We ask it in Jesus' name. I'm gonna ask the pastor if you'd come and the elders, and if you feel God calling you tonight, would you just step out wherever you are and just come and do the same thing at home and just let the pastors and elders touch your forehead.

They're not gonna pray a five-minute prayer over you. They're gonna touch you with oil. We're going to believe God for you tonight. And don't wait till you're strong. Come when God calls you.