Reconnecting with the Spirit of God

Carter Conlin from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You'd be amazed what God will do through your life if you will just let Him, if you let Him take you where He wants to and give you what He He desires to, and make you into what He can. We're glad you've joined us for a call to the nation with Carter Conlin. We live in a generation that often feels small, limited, and boxed in by our past, our failures, and our own sense of weakness. But in today's message, Carter Conlin reminds us that there are no parameters with God, and that you'd be amazed what He will do through your life if you will just let Him take you where He wants you to go and make you into what only He can.

As we surrender our plans and simply say yes to His leading, God's power. Is released in and through us in ways we never imagined. Let's join Carter now with the message titled "Reconnecting with the Spirit of God." Reconnecting with the Spirit of God. I'm going to start in Acts chapter 16 and verse 5.

So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily.

Now, when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Do you see that? You see that. That's from the text of Scripture.

Somebody got a good idea. Let's go to Asia. Like there's so many people who need the gospel there, and it's it. No doubt was a good idea. No doubt, great good could be done.

But there was a dependency on the Holy Spirit. In in these early believers in Christ, Paul and his associates and others, right from the day of the book of Acts, chapter two, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Macedonia, they tried to go into Bithynia.

Now, so first of all, they're praying, and they're forbidden. Secondly, they they actually decided to do something and tried to do it. But the spirit did not permit them. Thank God, I thank God with all my heart that when I try to do something and it's not from God, He'll bring a stop to it. He'll slam the door, and you can't.

You can push all you want, you can't open a door that God has closed. And thank God, He doesn't let us go through the doors that we're not supposed to go through, even though the door might be a good idea. What's wrong with with going to Bithynia? Obviously, there was a reason. There might have been some report of the, I don't know, the the need that was there.

And but you see, folks, we're not supposed to be driven by need. We're we're supposed to be led by the Spirit. As the Church of Jesus Christ, but the Spirit did not permit them. Everything that is not born of the Spirit or birthed in the Spirit, I always ask God, please, please, please, please, God, please don't let me embark on anything that is not of You. I did that in the early years of my life and ministry.

I got the T-shirt. I never want to go there again. I never want to do it again. I just want to do what God wants me to do. Nothing more.

Nothing less.

So, passing by Mysia, we came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Now, after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

So, forbidden by the Spirit, stopped by the Spirit, and then suddenly Paul is praying, and there's a vision, and there's somebody in Macedonia saying, "Please come and help us." So, whatever God initiates, He empowers. What He doesn't initiate, He doesn't empower. Do you understand? Like all the plans of man, I often liken it to a dead horse in a parade. You can, you have to carry it.

You have to point it. You have to talk about how great it is and how majestic and how strong and how noble and etc. etc. But the thing is dead. You have to carry it.

Everything coming out of the minds of man, trying to promote the kingdom of God, is like a dead horse in a parade. It has no power. It can go nowhere. It's not empowered by the Spirit of God. You and I know the story.

That Paul and his companions go into the area of Macedonia, they see a church founded in in the home of a woman called Lydia. They see a girl who was had a spirit of divination and her delivered, and then the Paul and Silas are thrust into prison in this particular journey that God sends them on. Remember, what God initiates, God empowers. Don't forget that what God initiates. God empowers.

If I'm being led by the Spirit, the power of God is going with me because the Holy Spirit within me is guiding me to do something that He wants to do through my life. That's the reality. That's why the power of God goes with it. In the Book of Romans, Paul the Apostle said, "The Spirit of God intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." And he intercedes for us according to the will of God. That's in Romans chapter eight.

According to God's will, the Holy Spirit within you right now is interceding for you, with groanings that cannot be uttered. It's not that the Holy Spirit can't utter these groanings. It's we have a hard time bringing ourselves in line with what the Spirit of God within us wants to do. The Holy Spirit is the third person of God. The third person of the Godhead lives inside our physical bodies.

He has a plan. It's not our plans. We're not called to promote the kingdom of God. We're called to allow God from within us to promote Himself. May I put it that way?

To do what only God can do. To lead us, to guide us to where He wants us to go and to what He wants us to do. I was leaving the Bible school in a year, a little over a year ago. I was leaving the Bible school after the students had all gone home. It was in May, and I came to the gates of the school.

I just, I still remember it today. The gates are starting to slowly open, and I just, I uttered a prayer out loud. I said, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" And as clearly as I'm speaking to you right now, the Holy Spirit said, "Stop traveling." I had been doing a lot of traveling that year. Stop traveling. That's that's all he said.

Stop traveling. Remember Paul on the Damascus Road. What would you have me to do? And the and the Holy Spirit said, "Go into the city." That's all he said. Just didn't give me the reasons why.

He just said, "Stop traveling." The irony of it all is that week after he said that to me, I got an invitation to go to India to speak to six thousand pastors in the daytime and four hundred thousand people at night. Pastor Tim said, "I need to see that invitation." So I send it to him, and he said, "Wow, it's true. It's and those are the numbers they gave you: six thousand pastors in the daytime, four hundred thousand people at night. If I had gone, most likely I would be dead today. I didn't know my heart was failing." I didn't know that there were two valves in my heart that were no longer working, and the the bottom part of my heart was completely blocked.

I was on the edge of a massive heart attack. And if I had gone to India and preached probably twelve times in a hundred degree heat, I most likely wouldn't be here today. You see, it's it can be life and death to obey the Holy Spirit. And the week after that, I got an invitation to go to Israel with another organization and do a kind of like a documentary thing there. And I had to say, you know, people don't understand that the Lord has told me not to travel.

And people look at you like you've got three eyes in your forehead when you say that. Why? Why is that odd? Why is that considered odd today? That God still leads His people, that the Holy Spirit still speaks.

Why? Where? Where are we that that's considered almost like a foreign or an odd thing? Like, in other words, people look and say, "Well, why would God tell you that?" And I have to say, "Well, I have no idea. I just know He told me to stop traveling." Now it was two months later I found out that I was on the edge of, of eternity.

Put it that way.

Now, in the book of Acts, Paul and his companions Silas were thrust into prison, and it was at midnight that they sang in that prison. And the scripture says, when they sang, remember what God initiates empowers. You remember that? I think if they had gone to Asia, they would just they would be preaching and teaching, and probably some good would be done. If they went to Bithynia, no doubt there would be some good done.

But God came with them. Into Macedonia, God went with them into the prison. And when Paul and Silas sang at midnight, the presence and power of God came down and shook that prison. The doors were opened; everyone's bands were loosed. The old jailer got saved.

His family were baptized that night. You see, the miracles of God start to accompany us when we're walking according to the plan and leading of God's Holy Spirit.

Now, hearing the voice of God is not a spooky thing. I've met people that they they they get weird. Do you understand? Hearing the voice of God is not a weird thing. It just means that I am yielding my body.

I recognize that God, the third person of God, lives inside this this earthly body. That's not a conjecture. That's a fact. The third person of the Godhead resides in you. He has a plan, so he doesn't want my plan.

You remember, whenever he would meet somebody and want to do something significant, he would tell them to take their shoes off. In the Old Testament, take off your shoes, Moses. You're standing on holy ground. Take off your shoes, Joshua. In other words, I don't need your strength.

I don't want your plans. I don't need your ideas. I just want you to obey me because I'm going to do something that only God can do. And hearing the voice of God is not a strange thing. It doesn't come as an audible voice necessarily, but it's a deep inner prompting.

Because I have laid down my own agenda, and laying down my own agenda, my only desire is the agenda of God.

So I'm now open to what God wants to speak to my heart. In John chapter three, Jesus said to the leader Nicodemus. In verses six to eight, he said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes; you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. And so is every one who is born of the spirit.

In other words, there's no five year plan. I was preaching in Texas at a pastors' conference, and during the break, a whole bunch of young pastors came. God help these young guys. That's all I can say. They're being so misled in this generation.

So they're all around me with their iPads, and their their. One guy's asking the questions. Everybody's wanting to take notes, and they looked at me and they said, "What's your What's your five year plan?" I said, my five-year plan is to get through tomorrow, and I said, if. The five-year plan concept is nonsense. It came out of the hearts of men.

You understand, it came out of the hearts of natural men trying to promote a supernatural kingdom. It came out of the hearts of people who are not led by the Spirit of God. They're led by their diplomas. They're led by their degrees. They're led by ideas, and they're bringing the church into spiritual bankruptcy.

I told these young pastors, "Get rid of this concept of five-year plan and get on your knees and ask God what He wants you to do." They stood there with their mouths hanging open, as if this is some kind of a foreign concept—the concept of seeking God and asking Him, "What would You have me to do?" Every plan is different. Every life is going to be different. Can you imagine if if young pastors today began praying again, began saying, "God lead me, God guide me, God, I'm I'm done going to the internet to get a whole year's worth of messages all laid out for me. I want your word. I want what you have for me.

I want what you want to say to the people. I want living bread for your congregation. The churches would start to grow. People would start to get saved." It would be phenomenal what would happen if God would just get a hold of this young generation and take them out of the grip of carnal men that have led so much of the church for so, so long. The power of God accompanies the leading of the Spirit.

Now Romans chapter eight, Paul said it this way. In verse thirteen, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. You see, there's a death when when the natural mind is leading.

In the Church of Jesus Christ, when we're governed by what we think and what we feel and our ideas, and how can we promote the Kingdom of God, we we end up with strobe lights and smoke machines in the house. You understand what I'm saying? We end up with the the most stupid plans. You can even imagine thinking somehow this is promoting the Kingdom of God. It's not.

It's the power of God. It's the presence of God. It's the transforming power of God that makes a difference in this church and others like it. It's when God is here and meeting with Him. My prison doors shake.

My life gets set free as the praises of God are being sung. The transforming power of God begins to be made manifest among the people. When the flesh is leading in the church, just look around you. Folks, the nation is dying. Morality is dying.

Common sense is dying. Civility is dying. Hope is dying. We look around and everything seems to be dying all around us, because for decades, much of the church in this nation has been governed by the flesh. Natural strategies, predictable paths, and human effort have governed much.

Thank God. That you have a pastor in this church that's seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit. I hope you don't take that for granted. Thank God. Thank God.

Thank God. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. In the Book of Revelation, chapter two, there was a church called Ephesus, and this is what Jesus said to them. To the angel of the church of Ephesus, write these things, says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.

You have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. And you preserved and have patience and have labored for my name'sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

What were the first works? What what are the first works of every new believer that comes to Christ? I I can I can see in my heart the first works of this church in Ephesus is, is God is speaking to us. They they'd never heard His voice before. God is leading us.

God is guiding us. God is strengthening us. God is giving us His plan. You know, quite often when when we just start out. You know, I don't know how many of you ever been part of a new, a new work, a new church when you have no resources, you've got no money, you don't even know if anybody's going to show up next week.

And you pray because you don't know what else to do, and you see God beginning to lead, and you see the presence of God coming into the church, and then later on it starts to grow, and it's it's a shame because quite often what started out as a dependency on the Spirit of God turns into a dependency on human reasoning, experience, intellect. What is somebody else doing? Trying to pattern ourselves after somebody else and not after what God is leading us to do, and I believe that's what happened to Ephesus. Ephesus was like a group of sailors who got weary with sailing on the open ocean, never never knowing where the winds were going to lead them or take them, and so they pulled into a safe harbor where everything became predictable. And that's what happens when we stop depending on the Holy Spirit; everything becomes predictable, even in the Church of Jesus Christ.

It was easier to test and prove doctrine, so they became all about doctrine and doing good works. I'm and no. No doubt, he says, you are doing good works, and you've not become weary, and you are even doing more than you did in the beginning. But you've left something, and it's so important that you get back because if you don't get back, you are going to lose your lampstand, and the lampstand is God's presence among His people. Yes, you are going to be talking about me, but I won't be there.

Do you remember Moses? I don't know about you, but Moses, when the people were murmuring and complaining. The Lord said to Moses, "I'm going to send an angel with you. Another word is messenger, but I'm not going to go with you." And Moses says, "No way! If you don't go with us, I'm not going.

Because the only thing that makes us any different from the people and the nations around us is your presence with us. I don't want just thoughts about you. I want your presence to be with us." I don't know about you, but that's the cry of my heart. I don't want just thoughts about God. I want the presence of God.

I'm 73 this month, and I said to God, "I'll go anywhere you send me, but I won't go if you don't go with me." I'm not interested in just bringing facts and thoughts about you or talking about the past. Your presence has got to be there, and when your presence is there, prison doors start shaking, blinded eyes start seeing, wounded hearts are healed. Miracles begin to happen that can only come from the presence and power of God. Because what God initiates, God empowers. I am not interested in being just another voice out there.

I want Jesus Christ to be glorified in this generation again. I want to live to see the church revived. I want to live to see you so on fire for God that every morning you are saying, "God, lead me through my day. Show me what you want me to do. Take me where you want me to go.

Cause me to speak what you want." To say, give me the boldness to lay hands on somebody who's sick in my workplace, that they might recover. Oh God, begin to do miracles through my life. I don't want just to dispel facts about you, as good as that may be. I want your power. I want your presence.

I want you, Jesus Christ, to be glorified again in this generation. I am sick and tired of the name of Jesus Christ being used as a curse word, even in G-rated movies coming out of Hollywood. I am tired of that. It's time for the name of Christ to be glorified in our nation again. I don't want to be predictable.

Hallelujah! Oh, thank God for Pastor Tim. That's all I can say. Thank God for a man who comes in this sanctuary and prays. Thank God for the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that he has.

That's been the hallmark of this church for um forty years now. The presence of God has been here. David Wilkerson once told me, "He said, Carter, if the Holy Spirit leaves us, just shut the door and sell the building." If God's Spirit is not here, it's not worth gathering. It doesn't matter that the building is full. The Holy Spirit must be here, and we must follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

For America to know spiritual awakening, we must repent and return to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It's really that simple. We must repent. Pastors that might listen to this in the future, stop. Leading the church with your own ideas and schemes and plans, and copying other other churches, other movements in other places, and just go to the prayer closet and start asking God what He would have you to do.

You'd be amazed what'll happen to your preaching. You'd be amazed at the lives that'll be transformed. Just stand in that pulpit and bring a word from God, bring a living word from God, not somebody else's thoughts. Or not just thoughts, as true as they might be. That was the difference between the temple in the book of Acts, chapter two, and 120 people who had an encounter with God and through whom God was speaking and through whom the power of God was being made known.

Thousands of people coming home or wherever they were staying from the temple, and they had been hearing truth. There's no doubt the scriptures were opened, the scriptures were read. There's no doubt everything they heard was true. On the way home, they ran into one hundred and twenty people that weren't speaking just about God, but God was speaking through them and giving. And because they're going into the marketplace, was initiated by the Holy Spirit.

The power of God was with them. This is where we need to go as a church age, and not just the pulpits. You, every one of us, God. God speak to me again. God speak to me again, or God speak to me that for the first time, if you've never heard His voice, and don't let it get weird.

You're just reading His His Word, and suddenly something just just highlights. It pops off the page. The Holy Spirit. This is a living Word, and He and He starts speaking it to your heart. It can be about something He wants to do in your life, or something He wants to do through your life.

Don't get. Don't let it become a strange thing. It's not. It should be as as natural as breathing. In two thousand and one, I was coming back from Rochester with another one of the pastors from this church and another congregant in the car, and we were driving back from Rochester and coming to the city.

So I decided. I said, "Well." Rather than just listen to the radio or whatever, let's let's let's read a book of a book of the the Bible and comment on it. And they said, Yeah, okay, let's do that.

So I'm in the passenger seat. I open the book of Hebrews and I start to read from the book of Hebrews. And then at a certain point, I got to the place where it says, "Come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in time of need." And as surely as I was sitting there, and the Holy Spirit said. This is May, 2001. There's going to be a major crisis in New York City.

There's going to be a calamity. People are going to be running in the streets, and you need to prepare the church for this. You need to you need to help them to be ready for this crisis that's coming into the city. And we're going to, of course, be celebrate not celebrating, but remembering that tragedy in just a couple of days. This is the 25th anniversary of of 9/11.

I came back and I went to see Pastor David Wilkerson. I said, "God has spoken to me that there's going to be a crisis in the city, and we need to prepare the church for it. We should gather. We should pray." And he looked at me and he said, "Did the Holy Spirit tell you that?" And I said, "Yes, He did." He said, "Are you sure?" I said, "Yes, I'm absolutely sure." He said, "Okay, then.

So we canceled the missions conference. We canceled the women's conference that was coming up. We canceled all of our guest speakers, and we began to meet and pray.

Some of you were here probably back then, and the presence of God came down in the sanctuary like an oil. It's no other way to describe it.

Some services the choir couldn't sing.

Some services we couldn't preach." We would just sit still in the presence of God, and and all all you could do was feel the presence of God in the sanctuary. It was an amazing time.

Now we had some people leave at that time as well, and they came and they said, "No, we we come here to be blessed, and if we're going to come here and just sit in silence, what's the point?" Or we didn't come here to hear that there's going to be a crisis in the city. I told them, I said, "Well, you've been listening to Carter Conlin from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk with Christ, log on to tsc.dot.nyc." That's T S C dot N Y C, and be sure to be with us next week for a call to the nation with Carter Conlin.