Coming Out of the Wilderness With Power — Carter Conlon

Now this morning, I'd like you to turn to Luke chapter 4 in your Bibles, and then that's where we're going to begin. And I'll put a marker in the book of Hosea. Now Hosea is 9 books to the right, or 8 books, 8 or 9 books to the right of Proverbs.

And, or if you find Ezekiel, then the next book is Daniel, the next one is Hosea. So find Hosea, chapter 2, and Luke chapter 4. And I'm going to be speaking a message this morning called, Coming Out of the Wilderness with Power.

The Prophetic Call to Enter the Wilderness

Coming Out of the Wilderness with Power. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I couldn't even hope to speak this kind of a word unless you were upon me. Unless I could stand here and say the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

God, I thank you, Lord, that when you do come, you quicken the natural mind and you quicken the frailty of the natural heart. You give a supernatural vision and boldness and love. I pray, God, that I may deliver this word in the same spirit as if you were standing in this pulpit yourself, Lord.

God, don't let this physical vessel get in the way of this word. I ask you, God, to put the weight of heaven on this word. You have to bear witness, Lord, to truth. You are the truth and you bear witness to that which is truth.

And so I'm calling on you, Lord, to bear witness. Where there's truth, bear witness, God. I thank you, Lord, that you will cause our hearts to be gladdened. You'll give us understanding and we will be able to praise you with understanding.

I thank you for this with all my heart. In Jesus' name. Luke, chapter 4. Now, before we go there, I want to make a statement. Now, this is a prophetic message. That means that I have been seeking God.

He has spoken into my heart something that is soon to come. And I do believe it's coming very soon. And I don't mean years. It's perhaps just months away from us. Many who are listening today and who will be listening on tape in the future, you are soon going to be led into the wilderness.

Now, before you get up and run out of the sanctuary, I want you to know something today. You and I are going to meet there. Probably better that you understand why. Probably better that you don't try to close your ears and run away from what really is something that is good, and it's from the hand of God.

When we talk about wilderness, there's very few people that want to even entertain the idea. Don't want to go there. Don't want to hear it. It's like the children who put their finger in the ears in the playground and start to sing.

Don't want to hear it. Don't talk to me. Tell me something positive. Tell me something good. Well, in reality, this is positive, and it's actually very good. If you'll open your heart to it today, let the Holy Spirit speak to you, because there's great safety in this.

You're going to have understanding. When others are running around in the days ahead, confused and terrified, and throwing their hands in the air and wrenching their hearts as it is, you're going to know why.

God will never do anything without telling His church what He's about to do. Do you remember in 2001, how He came to this sanctuary and warned us that a difficult, very, very difficult time was coming to this city?

Do you remember the solemnity that came into this sanctuary, those who were here? Now, there were those among us who said, oh, this is ridiculous. We came here to be encouraged. We came here for a positive word of hope, and yet all we're hearing is that a calamity is coming to this city.

And that was about maybe 30 or so days before the calamity actually came. The Lord was preparing us for that moment. And for those who ran out and never took the time to be prepared, we're not partakers of the incredible strength of God that comes to those who understand the times.

I remember coming to this church right after the towers were aflame and finding people coming in from this congregation from all over the city, not terrified, not wringing their hands, not saying, oh, woe is us, what shall we do?

But their sleeves were rolled up, and I remember some specific people, and they said, tell us what to do now. We're here to work. We're here to bring comfort to the city. We're here to gather in those that are going to be terrified and help them, to feed them, to give them water, to be a help wherever we can.

Now, this came to the people who were here and listened to what the Holy Spirit was speaking. So it's in that context that I'm pleading with you today to open your heart and listen. Now, by definition, the wilderness is a remote place.

It's seemingly devoid or empty of all outward appeal, stimulation, hope, and comfort. In other words, without God being there, it's a most unattractive place where few, if any, would want to go. Luke chapter 4 and verse 1 says this,.

And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Amazing thought. Christ is freshly separated and empowered for the work of God. You would think, after having gone into the Jordan, which is a type of being separated to the purposes of his father, he had humbled himself, in a sense, before John the Baptist, because really he was God in the flesh and John was an ordinary man.

He was baptized of John in the Jordan. When he rose up, the voice of heaven, how many people being baptized at that time had God speaking audibly to the multitude, saying, This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove upon him. So we see the perfect work of the triune God. We would think now that we would go straight from there into ministry as it is, into healing and into preaching and into the crowds and all of the things that come with ministry and anointing as we see it.

But yet, Luke 4 -1 tells us he was led, freshly separated and empowered for the work of God, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Now, this wilderness is a place that the Scripture teaches us that Jesus Christ embraced in his heart as being a positive place, not a negative place.

In Luke 4, verses 40 -42, the Scripture tells us,. When healing began to flow, he seemingly of his own accord returned to a desert place. It says,. Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.

And devils also came out of many crying and saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, and he rebuked them. Rebuking them suffered them not to speak, for they knew he was the Christ. And when it was day, he departed and went, where?

Into a desert place. He went back into that wilderness place again. In Luke chapter 5, and verses 15 and 16, the Scripture tells us that when fame began to come his way, one more time he withdrew himself into the wilderness.

But so much the more, verse 15 of Luke 5, went there a fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And so what did he do? And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed.

And you see, the testimony of Christ teaches us that the wilderness is not a place to be avoided, but rather a place to be understood. If you and I understood what this is about, why did Jesus Christ keep going back to that place?

That place that the Scripture tells us in Luke 4, where he was tempted, where he was tested, where he fasted, where he was hungry, where he went through some personal deprivation, where the enemy threw everything that the illogical mind of hell had against him, and he won the victory.

You and I would think that once I'm out of here, I'm out of here. It's like, think about one of the most difficult places you've ever been in your life, and how you and I kind of more or less lived to never go back there, to never have to experience that again.

But something of God was in this place. Something of strength was found here. And Jesus kept resorting back to it again. In spite of what was going on in his life, whether it was virtue and healing or fame, he would go back into the wilderness.

And I'm laying a foundation of an understanding of why the wilderness is not a place to be avoided. Exodus chapter 3, verse 18. You don't have to turn to any of these scriptures, I'm about to quote. It teaches us the deliverance of God's people from captivity.

Remember when they were in Egypt, what was the deliverance? It involved a three-day journey into the wilderness, with a time of sacrifice and worship there. God said to Moses, and Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, and they said, let my people go a three-day journey into the wilderness.

A distance away from everything that had captivated them, everything that offered any comfort, into a desert place. And in this place, there's going to be sacrifice and there's going to be a time of true worship.

Exodus chapter 14, verse 3, tells us that natural men, Pharaoh of course and his army and military commanders, falsely assumed that those in the wilderness were directionless, captivated and powerless.

Do you remember? He said, gather together the chariots. Gather together the weapons. We're going after them. The wilderness has shut them in. And natural men don't see any value in the wilderness. Of course, they can't see God in it.

They don't understand that God's ways are not our ways. His paths are not our paths. The way he does things are not the way we think that they should be done. And remember, it was in the wilderness that the miraculous power of God began to be shown.

And supernatural men began to walk on a path that natural men cannot follow. Folks, I want to tell you something. If you avoid the wilderness, you'll never know the supernatural pathways of God. You'll never fully understand that he can open up before you pathways of impossibility, where spiritual people can walk through, but natural people can't.

Those that have to figure it out can't. Those that have to know everything can't. Those who rely on their own strength can't go there. Can't walk through these paths. Leviticus chapter 16, verse 22, teaches us that sin is dealt with in the wilderness.

That's another purpose of the wilderness. You remember the sacrifice in the Old Testament. The priest would put his hands on the head of a goat, and the goat would bear the sins. It was called a scapegoat of the people.

And by a strong man would be taken into the wilderness and released there. And it's in the wilderness that God begins to deal with things that perhaps we're not willing to hear. Things that we've not considered.

Things that maybe the entrappings around us and all of the diversions of this life have shut our ears to. And God, in his mercy, will take us into the wilderness. God, in his mercy, will take away the towers.

He will take away the skyscrapers. He will take away the flashing lights of Times Square. He'll take it all away. And he'll bring his own people into this seemingly inhospitable place where he begins to deal with sin.

Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 16 tells us that supernatural provision was discovered in the wilderness. It was in the wilderness that manna first appeared. It was in the wilderness. It was in a place far away from everyone who's trusting in their own arm of strength that suddenly this food that is not visible nor available to those who are in any other place becomes available.

Praise God. And if you and I ever needed to lay hold of supernatural provision, folks, it's now. If we ever needed to get to a place of trusting God, it is absolutely right now. We need to trust God with everything that is in us.

The Lord has promised to provide, but folks, we've got to be taken to a place where it appears and God makes it appear and our hearts trust and believe in it. First Samuel chapter 17 verse 28. It was here that David's brother, one of his older brothers, accused him of pride and weakness because he'd been living in the wilderness with only a few sheep.

He said, who have you left those few sheep in the wilderness with? In other words, you haven't been to the schools we've been to. You don't have the armor we have. You don't have the training we have.

We've not seen you at one of our latest success seminars. You've not been there. Where have you been? You've been in the wilderness. You think God was there? Do you think you found strength there? And you can imagine David looking at him and saying, I wonder why they don't see what I see.

I wonder why they're letting this giant rail in the armies of God every day. I found something in the wilderness. I found supernatural strength in the wilderness. I found that when I'm fighting for the glory of God, not even a lion or a bear could stand against the supernatural strength that God put into my hand in the wilderness.

First Samuel 23, 24 tells us that David and his men lived in the wilderness. God said, listen, I'm taking one branch of what's supposed to have been my testimony in the earth. It has failed of faith, so I'm putting that away, and I'm bringing in another now.

And there are seasons, there are generations where God will do that, even with his entire testimony of his church. He'll put one perspective away and bring the church back in line with truth again. And in order for these men to become mighty, they had to be taken into the wilderness.

And they had to dwell where there is no resource but the resource of God around them. And you and I don't have to be reminded how mighty those men became in the wilderness. How mighty those warriors who were discontented and in distress initially came out, and how they could fight against the powers of darkness.

Psalm 74, verse 14 tells us that the spoils of victory, that is the crushing of the head of Leviathan, will be given to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. That's what the Word of God says.

Satan's head was crushed when Christ defeated him on Calvary. And the Word of God says the triumph of that victory will be given to those who dwell in the wilderness, who live in that place. Matthew chapter 3 and verse 1 tells us that the voice of John the Baptist was first heard in the wilderness of Judea.

It was in the wilderness that this man was schooled. It was in the wilderness that the Word of God came into his heart. It was in the wilderness that the power of God came upon him to confront an entire backslidden religious system.

It was in the wilderness that John heard the Word of God. Song of Solomon chapter 8 and verse 5 tells us that in this story there's a bride, and this bride comes out of the wilderness leaning on her beloved.

Praise be to God. There's a bride in this generation who's going to come out of the wilderness, and she will be leaning upon her beloved. Hallelujah. Praise be to God. Now go to Hosea chapter 2 please with me, if you put a marker in Hosea.

Hosea’s Pattern of Restoration Through the Wilderness

And we're going to be talking about the pattern of how God deals with his own people when they have strayed away from his truth and from his purposes for them. This is what the Lord says. Now this is about Israel, but you're going to find in it the principle of how God deals with the testimony of his own name and his own people when it's gone astray.

Hosea chapter 2 and verse 6. Well, let's go to verse 5. In other words, this bride was diverted from her husband, and she began to seek material things. She began to seek oil and water and clothing. And things that came from other sources than from God.

And he said in verse 6, The Lord said, I'm going to stop this procession. I'm going to stop this pathway. I'm going to turn her around. She's going to look to these things that she once looked to for provision.

But God said, I'm going to take all that provision away in a moment of time. She did not know, verse 8, that I gave her corn, wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

In other words, Baalism is really the God of provision. I don't have time to really delve into all of that. But Baal represents the God of the cupboard, the God of provision. And she forgot that everything she had had come from my hand.

And she began to worship the provision. She began to theologically focus on the provision. Everything began to turn. And I fear for this country in particular, that we have allowed to be developed in those places that we call the Church of Jesus Christ.

Theological focus is all about ourselves. We've lost our way, folks, as a church age. I'm not talking about this church in particular, or there's other good churches across the nation. Please don't misunderstand me.

But generally speaking, the testimony has lost its way. And there's a focus now. Everyone and so many people now are in this for themselves and gravitating to whatever message says, how can I use God for a better image, for a more sure destiny, for more power over people, for a better sense of self-esteem and self-worth and self-everything else.

And she has moved to this and forgot that I was the one who gave her everything she had. Therefore, he says in verse 9, Basically, bottom line, the Lord says, I'm going to take away all of the things that she believes that I have given her, but I've not given to her.

Everything that has gripped her heart, I'm going to, in a moment of time, take it all away. Folks, we're about to be taken into the wilderness. We're about to have the carpet of false prosperity ripped out from under our feet as a church age.

I foresee a time shortly when people sitting in a house where the gospel has all focused on themselves and how they can use Christ to better themselves. I see houses lost, I see jobs lost, I see poverty coming.

Folks, and there's no delight in the heart of God to do this, but sometimes it's the only way that God can get the attention of his people. It's the only way he can get the attention of his church. And he said, now listen, verse 14,.

Therefore, I will allure her, and bring her where? Into the wilderness. To condemn her? No. He said, and speak comfortably to her. I'm going to bring her, my bride, into the wilderness, and I'm going to speak to her there.

I'm going to talk to her comfortably. And I'll give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. Now remember the valley of Achor is where Achan was judged by the camp of Joshua.

Achan was a covetous man. And they went in and began to win. They won a preliminary victory in the promised land. Achan went in, and his heart was gripped by the love of silver and gold and brass and clothing.

And he took these things and hid them under his tent, and it brought weakness into the entire camp of Israel. It brought defeat into the army of God. And this was the valley of Achor. And it was there that God came to Joshua.

And Joshua began to speak to the Lord. And the Lord said, Joshua, there is something forbidden in the camp, and it's taken away your strength. And it was in this valley of Achor that the people rose up as one.

And they said, no more. They stoned this family. And they said, no more of this. No more of this greed. No more of this covetousness. You think it's severe. Do you ever wonder why in Acts chapter 5, the Holy Spirit killed Ananias and Sapphira right at the inception of the New Testament church?

It was exactly the same as happened in the day of Joshua with Achan. Ananias and Sapphira coveted money. And that same Spirit, God knew, would bring weakness into this early church and stop it dead in its tracks and cause it to lose strength, folks.

And so He took it away from among the people. And God in His mercy, God in His mercy, God in His mercy, will take us to a place where these things are dealt with once and for all. If we won't deal with it, He will deal with it.

If we won't put it away, He will take it away. He will bring us into a wilderness and say, these things gripped your heart and these things took away the power of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of God from flowing in your life.

And God will deal with it. And He says in verse 15, I'll give her vineyards there and the valley of Achor, in other words, will open to a door of hope. And there she will sing as in the days of her youth, in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

In other words, God says, I'm not doing this to harm my people. I'm doing it for the glory of my church. I'm doing it for the honor and glory of my name among my people. I'm doing it to bring my church back to strength again and to take away her weakness, to give her a right focus.

I'm doing it, God says, so the two of us can be agreed and walk together again and the power of God can begin to flow again and the virtue of Christ can begin to flow again. There can be authority in her mouth again and direction in her eyes and gladness in her heart.

God says, I'm not doing this to give you sorrow. I'm doing this to take away that which has weakened you. And it shall be at that day, says the Lord, verse 16, that thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt call me no more Bailey.

In other words, you'll no longer call me master, but you will know me in intimacy. You'll call me husband. It will be a different relationship. I'll no longer just be somebody there that is calling you to do things so that you can be prospered by me.

No, no, no. Much deeper than that. You will know my heart. There'll be an intimacy between us. We will walk together as the bride of Christ and Jesus Christ the Lord, God himself of all the universe. Praise God.

We're about to meet in the wilderness, folks. You're going there and I'm going there. We're about to meet there. The whole church is going there into the wilderness. And it's going to be happening very, very soon.

The Temptation to Live for Self

Now, there are going to be temptations there. You're going to have to face deep temptations. There will be theological, illogical theological arguments presented to your mind there. Satan will do everything in his power to divert the church from her mission in the earth.

The scripture says in Luke chapter 4 again, if you want to go back there, verses 3 and 4,. And the devil said to him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Satan was saying to Christ, You say that you have the power of the word with you. Well, so if you do, look after yourself. Seek ways to make provision for yourself. Command the hard places to go away and make them soft.

Command difficulty to become ease. Look after yourself, Jesus. You say you have the word of God, you say you're God. Then why are you hungry? Why are you suffering? Why are you struggling in this place?

Look after yourself, Jesus. If he could have succeeded in sowing that seed in the heart of the Son of God, I dare say Christ would not have gone nor stayed on the cross of Calvary, if that had gotten into his heart.

Jesus said, No, man will not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. In other words, Satan, I've been sent into this world not to look after myself. I've been sent into this world to redeem the people who were lost to God, my Father.

His heart passionately longs for them. There is only one way they can be brought home. They have to see and be partakers of a sacrifice for their sin that is other than anything they could ever do for themselves.

Luke chapter 4 verse 16 tells us, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And was delivered to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he'd opened the book, he found the place where it was written.

Now, you see, if Satan had succeeded, this next part of this chapter would not have happened. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to set at freedom or liberty them that are bruised and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he closed the book and gave it to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

In other words, Christ is saying, I did not come for myself. And the Spirit of God is not upon me to make hard places easy and to give me ease through this life. And the Spirit of God is not upon me. The word is not in my mouth to satisfy my own desires.

No, I've come for something much higher than that. Remember that Jesus said, As my Father has sent me, so now I send you. We're not called to live for ourselves. If we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, God has promised that all things that we need will be given to us along the journey.

Christ always had food to eat. He always had clothing on his body. He always had a place on some measure, whether or not it's even under the heavens. He had a place to lay his head. Praise be to God. Because in his heart, he said, My meat is to do the will of the one who has sent me and to finish his work.

Folks, the power of God comes back into the church when we again understand that we're not called to be the church of Jesus Christ to focus on ourselves. There's so many people, there's so much theology now that falls into this category.

But I'm hoping you can see from this temptation in the wilderness what the source of this theology is, where it's come from. This commanding stones to be made bread, commanding every hard place to go away, commanding every difficulty to be gone, commanding every obstacle to be removed, commanding, commanding, commanding, using the Word of God for an easy path, laying in a hammock, as one of the prophets said, and chanting psalms and anointing ourselves with the chiefest of ointments, but there's no grief in the heart for our brothers that are still in captivity.

I'm not called to live for myself. You're not called to live for yourself. And I praise God for the wilderness. I praise God that He's always been faithful. Every time I've started to stray from this understanding, God, by His mercy, has taken me into a dry place, taken me into a barren place, taken me into a place where in desperation, I've said, Oh, God, what are you trying to tell me?

And every time I've gone there, I've found it to be the mercy of God, the goodness of God, the power of God. Every time I've come out of this place, I've come out changed. I've come out deeper. I've come out with a greater understanding of God.

Rejecting Power, Prestige, and Self-Preservation

Luke chapter 4, verse 5, says, The devil took him up into a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said, All this power will I give you in the glory of them.

For it's delivered unto me, and to whosoever I will, I give it. If therefore thou wilt worship me, all shall be thine. Now, the concept of worship, I think, is just simply, Satan says, If you will agree with me, it's all yours.

If you'll agree that my ways are right. Jesus answered and said, Get behind me, Satan. For it's written, You will worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. It's as if Satan said to Christ, Okay then, if you insist on being focused on others, then don't serve them.

Rule over them. Just acknowledge that my ways are right. If it's all about ruling and reigning, do it now. Why be given to these people? You know what they're like. If you have this authority, and you are here, and you say that it's all about them, then rule them.

Rule them. Rule them now. Satan knew the incredible tragedy that would happen to his own kingdom if Christ proceeded on this path of being given for fallen men. And I'm thinking about the scripture where, after stating the intent of God in Luke chapter 4, in verse 23 he says, You will surely say to me, this proverb, physician, Heal yourself.

Whatsoever we've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. In other words, Christ was saying to the crowd that day, I will be given for you, I've made the choice.

I will go the distance for you. Although, many, not all, but many of you will never appreciate it. You'll never lay hold of it. You'll never appropriate it. You'll look upon the greatest expression of God's mercy that could ever be given to a fallen society, and you will just cry out to me, heal yourself.

You said you could heal us, heal yourself. You said you could forgive us, forgive yourself. You said that we would have provision and protection, we'll protect yourself and provide for yourself. No, Jesus said, Satan, get behind me.

It's written, you will worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. He knew he was sent to be given. And you and I are left to be given. Now, we obviously cannot forgive, we can't shed our blood and forgive people's sins.

That was done in Calvary. But we can be an expression of a God who came and bent his knee at the Last Supper. When everybody at that table really was going to fail him. And one was going to betray him.

And he could wash their feet. And he could be an expression of the very, very, very heart of God for this fallen world. Tell me, how does a church age that focuses on itself portray this Christ to a dying generation?

And how does God get us back again to right perspective and right thinking in his body? Again, in verse 9, it says in Luke 4, He brought him to Jerusalem and set him on a pinnacle of the temple. And he said to him, If you be the Son of God, cast yourself down from hence.

For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering him said to him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

So I see Satan saying to Christ, Do you really believe that God will sustain you on this pathway that you seem so intent on following? Do you really believe there's a purpose to this? Do you really believe the power of God is found there?

Folks, the argument was much deeper than just the few lines that we have recorded. Do you really believe that this is where the power of God is found? He was rejecting turning stone to bread. He was rejecting ruling over the people immediately.

He was intent on being given for fallen humanity. He was intent on going to a cross, being poured out that others might be grafted in to the lineage and mercy of Almighty God. And Satan comes to him and says, Do you really believe that's where the power of God is?

And I suppose that's the theological question that must be asked to this generation. Do you really believe? Have you really even considered that that's where the power of God is? He said, If you believe it then, take yourself to the pinnacle of the temple and throw yourself off.

It is written that he'll give his angels charge over you and they'll bury you up in their hands lest you fall and hurt yourself against the stone. Do you really believe there's a point to this? Do you really believe there's a purpose to being given for fallen humanity?

I cry out from my heart on the behalf of God in this generation. Where are we at theologically? Where are we? Do we really believe that the power of God is found and being given for other people? Do we really believe that everything unlocks and opens when we're willing to walk this way?