Devotions

The Lord has a people in these confusing times who are not confused. They are so given to Jesus, so in love with him and separated from the wickedness of this age, that they know the ways and workings of the Holy Spirit. They know what is pure and holy and what is fleshly and foolish.

“Then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering” (Isaiah 4:5, NKJV). This means, in essence, “Over each of these remnant people will be a blanket, a canopy, a hiding place, the covering of the glory of God.”

Remember that a cloud of glory covered the tabernacle in the wilderness. “Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). 

In Isaiah 4, we are promised that in the last days the Lord will create a glory that covers his remnant church. The glory of God will fill every heart and cover every house, and we will worship under the canopy of God’s glory, which is the manifest presence of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. “His Son …being the brightness of his glory” (Hebrews 1:2-3).

The glory cannot get any brighter than Christ manifesting himself to you. The word manifest means “to lay hold of by the hand.” In other words, when Jesus’s presence fills a place, it is so real and evident that your spiritual hands can touch it and your spiritual eyes can see it. It is as real as the air you breathe.

I want to see a revival where the presence of Jesus is so powerful and glorious that the “fruit” (conversions) will be excellent (see Isaiah 4:2). I want to see a revival where people stream toward the front of the church, weeping, broken before the Lord; and they will know that they have truly been covered by the glory of God.

My wife and I were at our favorite restaurant, and we started talking to one of the waitresses there. We always start with “Is there something we can pray for you about?” 

She said, “Yes, actually. I’m in school, but I’m being forced to move out of my apartment, and I need somewhere else to live real fast.”

So we prayed for her, and the next time we went back to that restaurant, she came over to tell us, “After you prayed for me, a friend of mine called me and asked if I wanted to move in with them!” She was so happy, and my wife and I told her, “Jesus did that for you.” She didn’t know who Jesus was, so we explained the gospel, and she got saved. 

Some time later, we were back at that restaurant, and this waitress came over. “Hello again! Would you pray for one of my friends?” She had this young lady with her, so we bowed our heads and prayed for her. While we were doing that, a man asked, “What are you all doing?” We told him, and he said, “I’m an atheist.” 

We offered to pray for him anyway, but he protested, “No, I don’t want any prayer.”

The next time we were there, the waitress and her friend spotted us and came right over. They explained that their chef had been in a bad car accident and could barely walk, and they wanted to know if we’d pray for Jesus to heal his back. He came out, walking really slowly, and we were praying for him when the atheist came up and said, “You might as well pray for me too.” It got to the point where, when my wife and I went to that restaurant, there would be a line of people wanting prayer. 

Jesus loves his people, and he wants to touch our lives. When we ask Jesus “will you…?”, that question often turns into “Who is Jesus?” That’s Jesus’s favorite question; he will always answer those who honestly ask it.  

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’” (John 14:6-7, ESV).

I know what it’s like to feel poor. I know what it’s like to grow up with very little hope. I know what it’s like to look into the future and see emptiness. I know what it’s like to be completely bound by fear. I too was beaten up by the enemy, and I was deeply wounded in my heart.

In my former angry, sullen, drunken adolescent state, I recall often walking past a particular church in my hometown. I only found out later that it was a born-again Baptist congregation. They once had outdoor meetings and exciting worship, but the city shut them down and even threw the pastor in jail. The church went to court to fight the prohibition against their outdoor meetings and won; but for some reason, even though they’d won the legal right to worship outdoors, they never did it again, that I saw. 

That church never knew that there was a depressed, drunk kid walking past its doors on a regular basis; that kid didn’t know that there was eternal life and joy inside those doors. 

It wasn’t until that kid was eventually converted by a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman named Irv that he knew the freedom of God. Someone opened their doors and took me inside and began to speak words of life into my heart. Irv poured the love of God into me. Because of that, I found Jesus Christ as my Savior. God, by his mercy, called me into ministry, but I’ve never forgotten where I came from, and I’ve never forgotten what the gospel is all about. 

The scriptures show us that the congregation that followed Jesus wasn’t made up of the most religious or the wealthiest people. In fact, the religious could not understand him. The poor, the blind, the prostitutes, the lame, the lepers, and those whom society didn’t want — they became Christ’s congregation. He went out and found them in the streets; he loved them, and he poured his life into them. Most importantly, they knew that he loved them.

Have you experienced the freedom that only Jesus Christ can give? Has the Lord poured his life into yours? 

^{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020, he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.}

Isaiah chapter four opens with a concise and tragic description of what I call the church of forgiveness only.

“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, ‘We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.’” (Isaiah 4:1, NKJV).

I believe we are living in the last days, and this chapter in Isaiah is one of the clearest prophecies about how the church will look just prior to the coming of the Lord. The seven would-be brides that Isaiah mentions are clearly a type of many in the last-days church. They are seeking to lay hold of one man, whom I take to be Christ; yet these brides are not interested in loving him. On the contrary, they have only one thing on their minds: the removal of reproach. They even say, “We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name.” 

The number seven is used in regard to these brides to remind us that in every church there are such people. They attempt to “take hold of one man”—Christ—only to get relief from the guilt and condemnation of their sin. They do not want intimacy with him. They want nothing more than to have the reproach of sin removed. This type of church only wants forgiveness, not repenting or relationship.

These self-centered, would-be brides have no desire to submit to the authority of a husband. They do not want to know God’s heart, and they do not care about his concerns.

Out of intimacy with Jesus, we receive discernment, direction, a knowing of what is right and wrong, and a surety of what is holy and pure. Intimacy with Christ gives us a firmness wherein we are not tossed around by every wind of doctrine. Stay close to him so that you will have discernment about the foolishness going on around us.