Carter Conlan from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. I have a special word today for people. It's called the calling of last-day leaders. It's a prophetic message. I am just going to be speaking in line with something that God is already saying, and I'm hoping that through what I share today it will bring you to an agreement with what God is saying about your life. It's Carter Conlan with an insight for this week's A Call to the Nation program.
We're glad you're with us. In the book of Judges in chapter 6, we read about a man named Gideon, a young man who feels like he's the least of the least. He's not popular, not thought highly of, just another everyday normal person. But as the story unfolds, we find that God uses him in a mighty way. And that's the lesson Carter has for you today. In these last days, God will be calling on people who don't feel they're important enough to be used. But as we'll learn, all it takes is to say, here I am, Lord, send me.
Let's join Carter now. The people that God calls in a season of crisis are not usually people who feel they are called. It's not people who feel that they have a particular skill set to offer the kingdom of God. Quite often, just as in the book of 1 Corinthians, it's the people who feel like they are foolish. Nothing. Nobody. Marginalized.
They're not even sure anybody else should ever want to be like they feel that they are. But yet God looks down and he says, no, I'm looking for somebody who will not touch the glory. I'm looking for people that will keep it simple, will keep it real, will stand, will let my Holy Spirit empower them to become everything that you and I are called to be. Now, there's a scriptural precedent for this, for what I'm about to share today. For example, in the season where God's people were held captive for 400 years in a foreign nation, where they were being oppressed and repressed, they began to cry out to God. Just the same way as I believe that many people in our generation are crying out to God now. We don't necessarily hear it, but God hears it. God hears the prayers every night of the single mothers that don't know how they're going to feed their children. God hears the prayers of the husbands, the wives whose marriages are falling apart, whose children are going astray. God hears the prayers of the fearful who just don't know how they're going to get through another day, who don't see a future. God hears the prayers of numerous college students around the country right now that we are aware are dealing with such significant issues of depression that even in our Ivy League schools, the counseling ministries are beginning to be overwhelmed.
He hears them. Now, in the day when he heard his people cry out, who did he select to send to bring them out of captivity and into freedom? He chose an old man who was beyond his years in the sense of as he saw his usability. He chose a man who felt like he had been given an opportunity for ministry many years previous and he had failed in his opportunity. But you see, what we consider a failing when we come to the end of ourselves, that's just where God's beginning comes into each one of our lives. God says, I need somebody that I can use that won't touch the glory.
And so he looks and he finds a man who considers himself too old, considers himself a failure, and he's also developed a speech impediment over the years, probably in some measure due to his lack of self-worth that he had come into because of his struggles. Another time there were laws that were being written against the people of God and laws to the point where people were allowed to rise up, do God's people physical harm to the point of death and seize all of their property. And God's people of that particular time had no real hope for the future. God looked down and said, I need a deliverer and found a young lady that he had moved into a strategic position in the palace of the leader of that time. And at the time that he chose her, she felt unlovely. She felt unloved, unwanted, undesired. When the call came to her, she said, well, the king hasn't been calling for me.
He and I haven't even spoken for over 30 days. And it's a type of a young lady, for example, says, well, look, my prayer life is not what it used to be. There was a time when I had a real passionate, in a sense, relationship with God, but it's kind of drifted off and I'm not even sure that he wants me. And it was this young lady that God chose to bring about a miraculous deliverance in a season of incredible hardship and difficulty for his people. Now, the stories go on and on of all the times that God has chosen people that we would never choose. If we were God, we would look for somebody mighty.
We'd look for somebody noble, somebody with a lot of resources, natural ability, natural strength. But I personally believe the last day spiritual awakening, there's going to be leaders called into that last day. Now, leaders that can lead your family out of captivity and into freedom can lead your children out, can lead your friends out, your communities out.
And in some people's lives, the scope will be smaller and others it will be bigger, but it doesn't matter. In every circumstance, God is going to be calling leaders in these last days and he's going to be calling people like you and me that never thought that God would ever call us. For a long time in this society, we have, we relegated the leadership of the church to those who have natural speaking abilities. They have natural intelligence, natural leadership, giftings, and such like, and I suppose a lot of good did come from that, but I think that day is coming rapidly to an end. Have you noticed that there's a large wholesale clear out of leadership happening in the church today for a very valid reason?
Because in this last day, God's going to do what he does his way. And that's where you come in. If I'm successful in this message today, if I fulfill what God's given me to do, there will be a transaction happen in your heart and you will move to a place of simply agreeing with God. Now, you don't have to make it happen. You don't have to go to college.
You don't have to get another degree. You don't have to go on the leadership course all of, some of that may happen in some lives, but all that's really required is that these words, here am I Lord, send me. Here am I. God, I feel like the least qualified. I feel like the least worthy.
I feel like the biggest failure in life. But if you're calling me, if you're calling me to be a leader in some measure in these last days, then God, I'm willing to go. I'm willing to be taken beyond my natural borders. I'm willing to be made into someone different than what I've considered myself to be.
I'm willing to walk outside of the borders that others and I have placed upon my own life. God, you're a supernatural God. And you don't call us because we have it all together.
And you don't call us because you really don't need our natural abilities. You simply need a heart that says, God, if you're calling me, I'll go. If you're setting a door before me, I'll walk through that door. That is what is going to be happening in these last days. I want to start with the book of Acts chapter two, very, very familiar passage of scripture beginning at verse 17. Now these scriptures speak about the last days. Now the last days began with the death and the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. But that was the beginning of a period called the last days that will culminate or finish with the second coming of Jesus Christ. The return of Christ will be the end of the last days. It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, all flesh, not some people, not a few people, not the elite, all people. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. In other words, your children, your young people will begin to agree with God.
That's what it means. Prophesying means seeing what God is saying and agreeing with what God is saying. All throughout history, those that God called could have easily said, no, not me and walked away. Isaiah chapter six, when he said, who will go, who will we send and who will go for us? Isaiah could have just said, not me. And that would be the end of the story. We wouldn't really have the book of Isaiah in the scriptures.
We wouldn't have that profound revelation that God gave him plus the influence that God gave in his generation through his life. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. If you can just even get to the point of saying today, I agree that I'm going to be what God says I'm going to be.
That's a major victory. If we can just bring ourselves to the point of just moving out of where we are, moving out of our lousy self image, moving out of the limitations, the words that were spoken over us, what classmates or supposed friends or enemies have said into our lives, what parents told us, what others said, if we can just move beyond that and say, God, that's, I'm not those things. I am what you say I am. I will go where you say I'm going. I will become what you tell me I'm going to become.
I'm speaking to people online as well today. You're not destined to be in that place for the rest of your life. God has a calling on you. He's raising up last day leaders. Now you may not have ever considered yourself a leader, but you just watch what God can do in your life. Your young men shall see visions and your old men dream dreams. And on my men servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out of my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy.
Again, they shall speak in agreement with what God is speaking. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood, fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. So in other words, what began on the day of Pentecost as the beginning of the last days will culminate or finish with actual signs in the heavens. And Paul also said there will be perilous times. There will be a degeneracy that will come upon the people of this world that have pushed away the Lordship of Jesus Christ that's really been probably unforeseen. It's going to get so bad that it'll make Sodom and Gomorrah look like something better than it actually was in the Scriptures. There's going to be cosmic darkness. There's going to be a shaking in the heavens. There's going to be a violent turning, may I call it that, against the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
But at the same time, there's going to be a raising up of a new generation of leaders. God never leaves Himself without a testimony of who He is. And He doesn't come to us because we are strong. He comes to us when we're weak. He doesn't come to us when we have it all together. He comes to us when we have nothing together. He doesn't come to us because we think we can do this. He comes to us when we know we can't without His strength or without His power. We know what we are without God. That's a great way that a preacher or those years of God can keep from becoming proud is never forget who you are without God.
If He ever lifted His hand off of any of us, we'd be reprobates like the worst of the worst of this nation in our generation. And at shelter come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So in other words, there will be in the last of the last days, there will be a significant turning to God.
I happen to believe that with all my heart. In Acts 27, the people weren't interested in what the Apostle Paul had to say until the ship was going down. Then suddenly everybody is interested in what the Apostle Paul has to say. And if that's what it takes in this generation, if it takes a pulling out of the economic carpet, if it takes a pulling away of false feelings of safety, then so be it, whatever it takes. But God will already have prepared a leadership.
You understand? He will already have prepared a people that have a word of comfort. They have a word of direction. They have been called into leadership by the Holy Spirit Himself for a last day harvest. That's where you come in.
That's where I come in. This is a great day to be alive. I hope you realize, I hope you realize that online as well today. This is an incredible day to be alive because we are being handed a message of eternity. We have been handed the words of eternal life and we are promised in the scripture an anointing of God that will take us out of our own weaknesses and into the strength that only God is able to give us. Now I want to look at a passage in the Old Testament from the book of Judges about a young man called Gideon that God calls to lead the people at a time when everything around them is being devoured. There's an enemy too numerous for them. Everything is against them.
All they can do is scrape and save and try to keep a little bit of comfort. That's what this young man was doing when the Lord appeared to him. And I want to suggest that if God's calling is on you that whatever happened to Gideon will also happen to you. It would be very, very similar.
So I want you to pay, give me your best year today because this is about you. Now in this season where this enemy army is coming into the nation and beginning to steal, they're stealing everything that the people hold dear at that particular time. This pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ comes to this young man called Gideon, a young man who feels like he's the least of the least. His house is compromised. His father's house is small.
He doesn't have political influence. He doesn't have much in the way of resources, but God appears to him the same way that God is coming to you today. And in chapter 6 verse 12, it says, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. So now here is point number one. When God comes to you or me in a season like this, he doesn't call us what we are, but he calls us what we will be. You are Peter. You will be a rock. You're siftable right now. You're unstable even though you think you are stable.
You're weak even though you think you're strong. But I'm going to change your name because I'm going to change your nature. Remember when Jesus said to Peter, when you're converted, strengthen the brethren. I'm going to change you. And that's the first thing that God does when his Holy Spirit comes upon you or me.
He changes our name because he changes our nature. You have been known as failure. You will be known as successful. You have been weak. I will make you strong.
You have been unstable. I will make you stable like a pillar in the temple of God. I'm not going to call you what you are.
I'm going to call you what you will be. Praise be to God. Isn't that a marvel of the kingdom of God? God doesn't appear to you and say, hey, loser.
Can you imagine if he did? No, he comes to us. He says to Gideon, it was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.
Most everyone who studies that believes this. The Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor, mighty man of resources, mighty man of strength, mighty man of character, mighty man of confidence. The Lord is with you. And you can just imagine Gideon, just like you and I.
God, you sir, you landed at the right address. I mean, I'm full of doubt and unbelief. If you're with us, why has all this happened? If you're with us, where are your miracles which our fathers told us about? If you're with us, why have we been forsaken and delivered into the hands of the Midianites? He was just an ordinary person, just like you and I with a lot of ordinary questions, but God was not offended by his questions. The evidence that God was still with the people is the fact that he came to Gideon, not in his strength, but in his need.
And the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours, because I have sent you. That's all you need. All you need is the call.
I will supply everything else you need. Could you imagine the battle plan? How would you like to be Gideon? What a battle plan that was. Bring your forces down from 30 something thousand, bring them down to 300, divide them into three armies, stand in a visible place, take a torch in a jar, smash the jar, lift the torch up, make yourself visible to 135,000 soldiers, there's only 300 of you, and say the sword of the Lord and the sword of Gideon. Can you imagine the soldiers that were with him saying, and then what? And Gideon would say, well, I'm not sure, that's as much as God has told me. So it's a do or die mission, isn't it?
But you and I know the story. You and I understand that there was a great routing of that army that day. The power of the Midianites was destroyed not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord, in vessels that I chose for the crisis of that day. That's what last day leadership is about.
That's what puts such joy in my heart. I've known this for a while, that God is going to raise up leaders in the last days. God's going to give strength to people. God is going to give his Holy Spirit to those who want his Holy Spirit, those who want his Holy Spirit for the right reason, not just to speak in tongues, but I want his Holy Spirit to make a difference in my generation. I want to be taken out of where I am and brought in to where God wants me to be. I want to be the type of person that God wants me to be. I want to have an effect on my family. I want to have an effect on my friends. I want to have an effect on my enemies.
I want to have an effect on my community. I want to be given giftings and abilities, as the Bible promises I will have, to become a person that God says I will be. I want to bust out of the boundaries of dwelling in my own strength and my own thinking and my own failures and my own successes, whatever they are. God, I want what you have for my life. And as such, as God's Holy Spirit begins to lay hold of us, then we become a testimony of who God is to this generation who are living in darkness, who are struggling with who they are, who do need a pathway forward, who need to see a city set upon a hill that cannot be hidden.
As you and I begin to embrace, as I once did years ago. Now also in Judges chapter 6, the second thing that happens to Gideon, I love this, there's a little bit of humor in this. So it tells us that Gideon said in verse 18, don't depart until I come and bring my offering before you. Now you have to understand, this is a pre-incarnate Christ. This is the third person of the Godhead that's talking to him. This is one of the three parts of the Godhead.
It's amazing. Jesus, who has created all things by the word of his mouth. Jesus Christ who owns, I mean, a hundred million, billion, trillion planets out there and everything in the cosmos and everything in space and everything that lives and moves and breathes has been established and is sustained by his hand. But Gideon feels as we do that we have to bring something to him. So he says, don't depart until I come and bring you my offering and set it before you. So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and a leavened bread from a nifah of flour. Put it in a basket and then in a pot and he brought them out to him under the terebin three and presented them. Now it's amazing that, and I find it humorous, the one who created the universe, we bring to him a goat and a little bit of bread and said, I hope this is good. I hope you're pleased with this. You know, I mean, I mean, it's just, it's like, it's like a, sometimes our little, our little children or grandchildren do that. You know, like we, we have, we have a job, we have a car, we have a house and they bring us a button. Look what I found.
Look what I found. Would you be excited? You know, they find something on the sidewalk and they're so, or a bug that they found that's dead and they bring it.
Isn't this exciting? You know, it's like Gideon bringing a dead bug to the son of God and saying, wow, here's my offering to you. And it's a type of our lives.
We don't have much. And I think God, he endures it. He endures us thinking we have to bring something to him. Let's just put it that way.
When in reality we don't. Gideon didn't have to go and prepare a goat. He didn't have to make bread. He could've just stayed where he was and said, God, what do you want me to do? We always feel like we have to present something to God.
And as soon as he put it on, on the rock, as he laid it out on a rock and the angel of the Lord put out the end of his staff, touched the meat and the unleavened bread and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened bread and the angel of the Lord departed under, out of his sight. The interesting thing is whatever we bring to him, God will touch it and supernaturally empower it. He will receive it and empower it.
Hallelujah. To do what it could never do on its own, to become what it could never be. So we bring him our little offering of our life. We bring him our goat and we bring him our little bit of bread and he touches it with the cross and the power of God's resurrection through Jesus Christ.
And we become something that we could never hope to be in our own strength. The next thing that happens with Gideon as he's beginning to be plagued with a little bit of doubt was we all do when God's calling us to do the impossible. And he said, if you'll save Israel by my hand, as you've said, I'll put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. And if there's dew on the fleece only and it's dry on all the ground, then I will know that you'll save Israel by my hand. What he did is he took a lamb's fleece, he put it on the ground.
In the morning, the ground was dry the first time and the fleece was so, had so much water he could wring it out and almost put a bucket of water out of the fleece. The point being that God is able to make us different than the environment around us. That's one of the first signs that the hand of God has come upon you. The whole of society is thinking one way, you're starting to think another way. Your old friends lose their ability to influence your life. You're not driven by what's on the news anymore.
It's interesting to see the continual unraveling of our society, but you're not driven by that. Your mind is not there anymore. Everyone around you is wet, but you're dry. Everyone around you is dry, but you're wet.
You understand? The point being that God's able to make you different than the environment all around you. And the last thing that happened to Gideon is in chapter 7, verses 12 to 14. And the Lord sent him down into the enemy's camp and it says, When Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, I've had a dream. And to my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian.
It came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned and the tent collapsed. Then his companion answered and said, This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.
Here's the other point. When the hand of God comes on you, you don't have to prove it to anybody. They will know it. They will know it. They will start to ask you for a reason for the hope that is in you. People will start saying, What happened to you?
I knew you one way, but you're now another way. And even the enemies of God, the report of this young man that was called of God, who was impoverished, who was just trying to make a living, who didn't consider himself very much, suddenly the enemies in the camp that stood against Israel are starting to speak among themselves of this young man that found the calling of God and said, Yes. Every one of us, there are no exceptions to this.
Do you understand? If it was just about us being strong in ourselves, where would the testimony of God's mercy be? Where would the testimony of His grace be? If it was all just people who were naturally skilled and qualified and eloquent and all these other things, then the rank and file people sitting out there would just draw the natural conclusion that I could never be like that.
Oh, no, no, no. But it's when somebody like me, who is a nothing and a nobody, going nowhere, doing nothing, with no future, no help and no hope, is transformed by the Spirit of God, then people sitting out there saying, I can do that. We are called to be a living witness of the reality of God. Hallelujah. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Time 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.
