Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. We don't need new jackets. We don't need to change the carpet. We don't need anything but the presence and power of God bringing people back into his house again. And these things will happen when you and I begin to pray.
Welcome to the weekly A Call to the Nation program with Carter Conlon. We're glad you've joined us. An amazing prayer meeting took place in Acts chapter 12, verse 5. The people met and prayed earnestly for Peter to be released from his bondage in prison. The prayers that were said were not for themselves.
As Carter explains, it's prayer for others that's the key. Let's join Carter to discover more. What is fervent prayer? How do we get to that place of fervent prayer? And should we be expecting God to do something supernatural when we do pray fervently?
I do believe we're living in the last days now. I do believe we're going to see miracles once again. I can honestly hear the footsteps of thousands of people heading back to the house of God. Maybe some for the first time, and some who once were part of the kingdom of God. and the Lord is going to set them free.
From places of captivity that they're in right now, whether it's a mental place, a physical place. Whatever it is that has taken them captive, I believe we're going to see freedom. I believe that prayer is going to be fervent in the house of God again. I think we're going to see a spiritual awakening in our lifetime where we're going to see the house of God and places of worship filled with people praying.
Now, you and I have a part in this, and I want to talk about prison opening prayer. Prison opening prayer. Opening prayer.
So, Father God Almighty, Lord, I'm hearing something in my spirit. I'm seeing it with a spiritual eye, God. I know that you're about to do something. You're actually doing it now. You are opening prison doors, you are setting people free.
God, you are breaking the bondages of darkness. You are giving people a way, a clear highway back into the heart of God. Father, you're doing all these things because of the sacrifice of your Son, Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago on a cross. Lord, thank you, God. Thank you that your mercy endures forever.
Thank you, God, that when we make a mess of things, you still show mercy, God. You still come and get us. Even when we're lethargic, if we've backslidden, God, if we've fallen, if we've fallen into just repetitious religious experience with no real power, you still come and get us because you're a merciful God. Lord, we're asking you for faith far beyond anything we've ever known. God, God give us eyes to see, Lord, in this generation.
Give us hearts to believe. Lord, thank you, God. You took us five years ago to Plymouth, Massachusetts, to pray and ask for forgiveness in the very foundation of the first house ever built in America, to ask for forgiveness for what we've done with 400 years of freedom. And I was standing here, Lord, and I was thinking, you don't play, you don't toy with your people, you don't tease your people. If you asked us to ask for forgiveness for eight specific sins that this nation has committed, It was because you intended to show us mercy.
One more time. Father, thank you, God. Help me, help me, help me, Lord. Jesus Christ, help me. I want to speak on prison.
Opening prayer.
And I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Acts chapter 12 and verse 5. One verse. Peter was therefore kept in prison.
But constant prayer. was offered To God for him by the church. Another translation says fervent prayer. Another thing says, another one says, earnest prayer.
So it was constant. It was. Fervent. And it was earnest. It was sincere prayer.
It was a season where darkness was being emboldened to the point of violence. It's similar to what we're witnessing today against the Jewish people. Not only in this country, but in places throughout the world. There is a violence, folks, that is erupting again in this generation. as it did in the season we're reading about.
In the scriptures. Acts chapter 12, verse 1, it says, About that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass.
Some from the church. Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also.
Now it was The days of unlavened bread. And when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending him to bring him before. the people after Passover. And so it's a season of harassment. It's a season of murder.
It's a season of violence against the truth and the testimony of Almighty God through Jesus Christ and through His Church. It's a season of bloodlust. where it's pleasing the people. Can you imagine a society getting to the point where a man is killed, a good man is killed, and it pleases the people? And because it pleases the people, the the then.
Leadership of that particular time. proceeds to take another righteous man, putting him in prison, intending to parade him before the crowd. Probably. intended to take his life too. as well.
And as the ungodly were reaching for their weaponry, as we're seeing in our generation today, the ungodly are reaching for their weaponry, whether it's Molotov cocktails, flamethrowers, bullets. Or violence, or boards, whatever it is that people are using to cause violence, as they are reaching for their weaponry, so too the church reached out to that which God. Had provided for these moments. God has given weaponry to His church. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, beginning at verse 4.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They have nothing to do with anything of this world. We're not of the same spirit, and we don't fight. The way that those without God do fight. They're not carnal, but they are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.
Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And being ready to punish all disobedience. when your obedience is fulfilled.
So we have incredible power in prayer. Incredible power. To pull down strongholds. That means things that have gotten into the fabric of society that are ungodly, thinking that is ungodly. Entrapments that are ungodly, strongholds that are trying to take a whole generation captive.
and confuse them on every conceivable level. We have power in prayer. And it's time as the church of Jesus Christ that we came back, we returned to fervent prayer in the house of God one more time. We have power in prayer. We're not sitting on the sidelines idle.
We're not sitting there powerless. We have access to the throne of heaven. We have access to the God of the universe. And God says, if you ask, You will receive. If you seek, you will find.
And if you knock, It shall be open to you. We have the power to cast down arguments, things that have gotten into the fabric of our society in this generation. Perverse things, crooked things, dark things that are trying to parade themselves as truth and take a whole generation into captivity. We have the power in prayer to cast these arguments down. And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
And bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Now, that's an interesting. Finish in a sense to this statement of the power that we have in prayer. that we can be ready to punish this disobedience. In this society that we're living in today, but when our obedience is fulfilled.
Now, this kind of power in prayer is linked to a certain obedience.
Now, one level of this obedience is found. And our opening text In the book of Acts chapter 12 and verse 5.
Now the people were In this particular prayer meeting at this time, it says Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. The people with good reason were undoubtedly afraid for their own safety. I mean this is a violent time. James has just been run through with the sword. He's one of the leaders in the church.
They've just killed him for the pleasure of killing him. Peter has been taken captive and put into prison, and the people are realizing: wow, the society around us is lusting for our blood because they hate God. They hate the. all the things of God. They they want to cast this the cords that are on their behavior away from from their society.
And Yet, in spite of being afraid of their own safety, that's not what their prayer was about. Their prayer was for someone else. This fervent, constant, earnest prayer was for someone else. And just as we're not only called out of bondage, But we're called into the fight for the freedom of others who are being held. Captive.
You see, that's the key. That's the obedience. It's not just God save me, God help me, God keep me, God preserve me, which we can pray, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it has to go beyond that. We're not called just to get out of Egypt, we're called to go into a place of promise. We're not called just to come out of captivity.
We're called to. in a sense, through prayer, go back in there and not leave behind. The people created in the image of God who are behind bars and taken captive, whether by whatever it is, wicked ideologies or their circumstances in life. And I believe that prayer will return with fervency. With fervency in the house of God.
When The focus of God once again becomes the focus of the church as well. When we're here and our prayers are, and we're sensing it, we're not focused on ourselves. We're focused on people texting in from all over the country or all over the world saying, Help me, I'm dying, help me, somebody else, my son or daughter are away from God. Help me, my marriage is broken. And our prayers are not here just for me, myself, and I, but it's for them.
There's incredible power in a prayer meeting. There's incredible power. In a prayer meeting, when we begin to pray for others who are captive, it sets off a supernatural chain reaction. We invite God into the fight. I think for too long in the Christian world we've thought we had to fight this ourselves.
By our own reasonings and our own arguments and our own strategies. And we've done everything that we thought to do in the Christian church in America. We brought smoke into the house of God. We try new lights if nothing else is working. We change the color of our greeters' jackets.
We do all this stuff. The one thing we don't do is what we see in Scripture brings the power of God into the battle. We come together and we pray, and we pray fervently, and we say, God, I'm not letting go until the devil has to let them go. I'm not going to cease praying. I'm not going to stop until our children are free from the grip of darkness that's trying to pervert their lives and their minds and destroy their futures.
I'm not going to stop until these iron gates have to open. To the truth of God, I'm not going to stop praying. I'm not going to give up praying. I'm not going to back off. I'm not going to try to preserve myself.
But you're God, you're going to hear my voice at your throne. Because I believe that when I ask, I receive. I believe that when I seek, I find. I believe that when I knock, for the sake of somebody else. The door will be opened.
I want to pray the type of prayer that brings the power of heaven. Back into the fight again. And I love This chapter, it says, Peter was therefore kept in prison. But constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers, and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.
Now, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison. That's the very first thing that happens. The word of God comes to those who are in captivity. And the light of God comes into that darkened place. And he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise quickly.
And his chains fell off his hands. You see, I'm speaking to somebody that's online, and you're in a darkened place. In your life, you're in a darkened place in your mind, and let me be the messenger of God in this gathering here in this church to strike you on the side and say, get up quickly. And as you rise up, get up in faith. Stand up from your place of discouragement, despair, self-focus, whatever it is.
Just stand up and watch the chains fall off of your hands now. The things that we're telling you, you'll never, your situation will never change, you'll never amount to anything, those chains will fall off your hands by the word of God because we are praying for you and we are believing that God's going to bring you out from where you are and into where you need to be. In the kingdom of God. And the angel said, Gird yourself. In other words, get dressed and tie on your sandals.
Get dressed, put on your shoes. You're going somewhere. And so he did, and then he said, Put on your garment and follow me. I love the instructions were really simple, and they are at the beginning. The angel didn't say, Now you're going to be a mighty evangelist, you're going to go to Africa and you're going to do this, you're going to do that.
No, just get up, put on your shoes, brush your teeth. And follow me. Hallelujah. Keep it simple. Don't make it complicated.
So he went out and followed him, and he did not know what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. And that's going to happen to somebody listening to these prayers and to this message. It's almost like it's too good to be true. It's almost like it's a mirage. That's what he thought.
This is just a mirage. This is just a dream. This can't really be happening to me. But it was happening to him, and it was happening because a group of people were gathered together in a house, and they were constantly and fervently praying for him. And when they were past the first and second guard posts, you see, I love the fact that when this little group are praying in the house.
for an impossible situation over here. This man has been taken captive by the governing authority of that time. There's all kinds of soldiers around him. He's locked deep, deep inside of a prison. But God, when God comes into the battle, he puts everybody to sleep.
Don't you just love it? And they just walk by. They just walk by. The guards are there. I mean, maybe they were awake, but they're just staring and they don't see anything.
It's like they're in a hypnotic trance. I don't know how he did it. But they don't see a single thing. And they passed the first and second guardposts. They came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord.
In other words, the gates. They tried to keep Peter away from where he was needing to go. opened all by themselves. Jesus Christ said When I open the door, No one can close it. And when I close the door, no one can open it.
I remember a few years ago in our first prayer meeting at Yale University. The authorities there. locked the iron gates and put police officers in front of it. We had to go across the street in front of the church that was used to found that university many, many years ago. And we prayed that night.
And said, God, those gates can't keep us out. And of course, last year we were inside on campus in the chapel, the gates opened. Just as they did for Peter. And you know where he led him to? A prayer meeting.
That's where the whole journey was taking him to.
Now, after that, he's going to leave the prayer meeting. He's going to go on and be one of the greatest leaders the Christian church has ever known. But up to that point, that night, being set free. He took him to a prayer meeting. And thank you for those that are online, you've come into a prayer meeting.
Thank you for allowing us the privilege. A praying for you. But would you also Allow us the privilege of believing with you for your victory. Would you allow us the privilege of maybe at some point you could text in and tell us what happened to you? You heard these words, you heard these songs, you saw this testimony that was here, and you just got up.
And the moment you got up, your chains fell off. And then you started to realize I'm being taken somewhere by God, and it was very practical. And He told you to get dressed and comb your hair and put on your shoes and follow me. And the very first thing that, the very first place that Peter was led to was a prayer meeting. And that's what I'm hearing in my heart.
When churches begin to pray again, the people are going to start to come. They're going to come from the north, the south, the east, the west, the rich, the poor, the influential, the non-influential, the learned, the unlearned. They're just going to come from every quarter. And it's going to happen in our generation just the way it happened. Them that he shows up at the prayer meeting and nobody really believes he's there.
They have a hard time believing he's there, but God brought him out of prison and brought him to a prayer meeting. When fervent prayer Starts coming back to the church, people are going to start showing up at our doors that we never expected to be in the house of God. They're going to come, they're going to come because they've been drawn by the spirit of God, they're going to come. Because there's been something, someone speaking to them, telling them that they need to come here and they need to pray. Whether it's here, whether it's another church in your town, your community, you're just going to get up and you're going to go to a prayer meeting.
If you don't know where a prayer meeting is, start one. Find a buddy. Go down in the corner and say, hey, Ralphie, I want you to pray with me. Come to my house. Whether he's saved or not doesn't matter.
Bring him home, start a prayer meeting. You watch what God will begin to do. Start calling out to God. Start praying for freedom. Among your friends and in your families and in your community, and you watch what God will do.
Hallelujah, hallelujah. When fervent prayer comes back to the church, prison doors begin to open, captors begin to set free, the blind can see. And people find not only redemption in Christ, but a purpose for life. This is the hour we are now living in. We are living in that kind of a season right now.
You mark these words. We are going to live to see a harvest that's going to stagger us before Jesus Christ returns to take us home. Hallelujah. And God is going to do it his way. All he asks you and I to do is believe.
Walk with me in faith. Call out for those that don't have a voice to call out for themselves. Believe that I'm able. To open their prison door and give sight to their blinded eyes and bring them to a place in life that I had destined them always to be in. Just believe that I'm able to do this and don't be shocked when they show up.
That's it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We don't need any gimmicks. We don't need new jackets.
We don't need to change the carpet. We don't need anything but the presence and power of God bringing people back into his house again. And these things will happen when you and I begin to pray. And begin to pray like we cannot be denied. One great revival I read about one time that happened.
I don't remember the exact details, but I do remember what preceded it. There was a prayer meeting in this church in a town before the presence of God just came down. And people started streaming to the house of God. Looking fine. to find forgiveness and relief.
From the burden of their sin. And it all started in a prayer meeting. And they said in this prayer meeting, an elderly man. Got up. And he prayed this prayer, and they said it was an audacious prayer.
It was a prayer like they had never heard. Everybody generally was kind of timid. Lord, if it be thy will. If it be Maybe. Save somebody.
This man got up. And here's what he said. I want you to know, I put heaven on notice tonight, Almighty God, that the honor of your name is at stake. He said, I am praying. For a spiritual awakening in this town.
And you said that whatever I ask for, I will receive. I'm putting heaven on notice. He said, God, that the honor of your name is at stake tonight. You talk about an audacious prayer. You talk about a fervent prayer.
And they said, the author of this said, as soon as he sat down, the presence of God came down with him. It was amazing. Bars started emptying out. Kids couldn't work in the schools. Churches started filling up in town as the presence of God had come to town because one man got up and said, God, the honor of your name is at stake.
Because I'm praying according to your word and I believe you. I believe you. I believe you, God. I believe you, God. You know, I tell you.
I'd rather die on the side of faith than live on the side of unbelief. Anybody can live in the side of unbelief. It takes no character, it takes no faith, it takes no nothing. To live on the side of unbelief. But it takes courage to live on the side of faith.
It takes audacity, it takes boldness, it takes fervency. To say, God, I will not be denied. I do thank God with all my heart. That at Times Square Church, Pastor Tim Delina is believing for a billion souls to be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ in his lifetime. I thank God.
Listen, I don't appreciate a golf clap for something like that. This is a time to really give God thanks and praise. I'm all in. I'm all in. I'm going up the mountain with Pastor Tim.
I'm all in. I'm all in. I don't care what anybody says. I don't care what anybody thinks. I don't care what all the negative.
Nannies want to say, I'm all in. It might look like a big number to us. It's not a big number to God. Not at all. Heaven is his throne.
The earth is his footstool. He can do whatever he wants to do. And when we pray, oh. God, prison doors start to open. They open in India, they open in Africa, they open in Asia, they open in Europe, they open in North America, they open in Central America.
and in South America, And the people start coming out and coming home to God. I believe that we're going to live to see one of the greatest harvests in the history of this world in our lifetime. And then the Lord will come. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
What a wonderful thing to be part of something. that God is determined to do. And so I challenge you to let faith and fervent prayer arise in your heart. Become one of those people who cannot be denied. One of those people who says, God, I see it here.
And you spoke it and you promised it. And I'm standing in belief and I'm standing in faith. I'm not willing to go alone and are not willing that Peter should die in prison. But I believe that as we pray, you'll bring him out. There's going to be all kinds of people who are captive.
Today are going to be coming to prayer meetings in the future. And they're going to come in from every walk of life. Let's not be surprised when it happens. Let's be rejoicing. Let's be glad.
Let's embrace them. Let's thank God for His mercy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk in Christ, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. And be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
